EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
A Sobering Encounter
I
sraeli journalist Elli Wohlgelernter and his two young
sion, it has a different effect."
daughters were on vacation in Manhattan last Passover
I've witnessed the horror of death scenes in 30 years as a
when the 9-year-old turned to him and said, "Abba, I
journalist but, thank God, terror attacks aren't the norm in
want to take a bus."
America.
Wohlgelernter said he would hail a cab, a faster way to get
"The first time I covered one," Wohlgelernter said, "I had
around.
to hold it together. That was hard. I almost lost it. Then I
"No," she said. "I want to take a bus. We don't get to take
said, 'You've got to do your job, gruesome as it is to see a
a bus ride at home."
terrorist's head blown off and a victim's arm lying up the
So Wohlgelernter, a New York City native, relented and
street.'"
they rode the Broadway bus.
I can relate, however, to Wohlgelernter's civilian take on
His daughter Dards insistence moved Wohlgelernter,
life in Jerusalem, a favorite target of the terror that has taken
toughened mentally and emotionally from
nearly 1,000 lives of Israeli residents and visitors under
13 years of covering Israel, including the last
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's incitement.
48 months of Palestinian terror.
"You scope everything out, all the time," he said. "It's
At home, Dara is too scared to take a bus
instinctive, second nature. On the street, you're in a public
anywhere.
space that can be violated. You take a bus and you can get
"So for a 9-year-old child to have a bus
blown up."
ride out of the frame of her reality," her
When I was in Israel in April with Federation's Michigan
father said, "that's a very strong thing."
Miracle Mission 4, I took part in early morning jogs from
Indeed.
the David Citadel Hotel. And each time those oversized
ROBERT A.
It's a reality check for us in America. We
buses drove past, I moved away from the curb as if that
SKLAR
think we know what it's like to live like
somehow would make me safer if disaster struck.
Israelis amid terror, but in reality we
Editor
Similarly, Wohlgelernter said he instinctive-
don't have a clue.
ly turns his head when in a Jerusalem cafe
Wohlgelernter, 50, made aliyah in 1991 after the
working on his laptop and a bus goes by.
first Iraqi scuds hit Israel in the Gulf War while he
"The glass shouldn't break into my face in
was sitting in the New York offices of the Jewish
an explosion and, if I'm still alive, scar me for
Telegraphic Agency, where he was the editor.
life," he said.
Surprisingly, he said, he started to cry and felt a
That was a powerful reminder as we sat in
yearning to be in our ancestral homeland.
the comfort of Franklin, half a world away
In Israel, he worked as a staff writer and editor at
from cafes blown to bits because Islamic
the Jerusalem Post, rising to diaspora affairs editor
madman hate Jews and want to destroy the
before leaving in 2002 to become Jerusalem corre-
Jewish state. Ironically, Wohlgelernter
spondent for the New York-based Forward. In May,
roomed at his high school yeshivah in Skokie
he became editor of Ha'Aretz, another Jerusalem-
.
with
2003 terror victim Dr. David
Elli Who hlgelernter
based newspaper.
Appelbaum, the emergency room head at
Shaare Zedek Hospital and a one-time
Detroiter.
Dr.
Appelbaum, 51, died with his 20-year-old
Terror's Imprint
daughter,
Nova,
and five others the night before her wed-
We talked late in the afternoon on Oct. 13 at the Franklin
ding
when
a
Hamas
terrorist blew himself up in Café Hillel
Grill, after Wohlgelernter had discussed the Middle East at a
in Jerusalem.
lunch of local journalists hosted by the Jewish Community
Wohlgelernter is quick to correct his daughters when they
Council of Metropolitan Detroit and by Michael Traison
repeat
general disparagements of Arabs. "I tell them we can-
and his Detroit law firm, Miller, Canfield, Paddock and
not
allow
ourselves to think and generalize and say that
Stone. It was near dinnertime but all Wohlgelernter ordered
they're
all
bad," he said.
was a cup of hot water to soothe a raspy throat. A diehard
He's
divorced
from their British-born mother but I sensed
Yankees fan, he was eager to get to his hotel near Detroit
that
he
wants
the
girls to understand and respect reality.
Metropolitan Airport so he could watch the team in pin-
stripes play the Boston Red Sox.
Earlier in the week, he addressed students at the
Gloomy Outlook
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Michigan State
As a yellow cab pulled up to the Franklin Grill, I expected
University in East Lansing. He looked tired sitting at the
Wohlgelernter to end with a bead on what would jumpstart
Franklin Grill, waiting for a cab with his overnight bag
the Mideast peace process. I didn't expect him to say that
beside him.
only the death of Arafat, now 74, could spur change.
I listened intently as the former radio and TV editor and
He describes Arafat as "the 600-pound gorilla in the mid-
New York Post writer told what it's like to cover terror on the
dle of the room that no one can get rid of."
Ben Yehuda walkway or at the Shuk Mahane Yehuda. In
"He's incapable of changing and doing anything to create
February, he covered a bus bombing near Independence Park
a Palestinian state," Wohlgelernter said, "because he's locked
that drew the attention of a Conference of Presidents of
in the mentality of what he would call a guerrilla fighter and
Major American Jewish Organizations assembly in a nearby
we would call a terrorist. He will not allow anybody around
hotel.
him to move anything forward; he still has that power."
"I arrived about 45 minutes after the attack,"
As we bid farewell, I asked Elli Wohlgelernter if all the
Wohlgelernter said, "and I remember seeing the bodies lined
uncertainty might compel him to move back to America.
up in white sheets along the street. Police and fire reporters
His reply reinforced my pride in Israelis toughing it out.
cover crimes and fires, and people being killed in those, but
"I wouldn't live any place else," he said, without flinch-
when you see the carnage of a street scene terrorist explo-
ing. Cl
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