Growing Up with the State: Prominent Israel is Under 40
REBIBO, JOEL
GROWING UP WITH THE STATE PROMINENT ISRAELIS UNDER 40 JOEL REBIBO On June 8, 1948, less than a month after Israel was proclaimed a state, The New York Times predicted, "The tiny nation created...
...L Growing up we had a very strong connection to nature...
...And that is worth celebrating...
...Her nomination was blocked by Israel's ministry of religious affairs on the grounds that it was against halacha for a woman to serve on such a body...
...All of those interviewed were born after the State was established, and most were born in Israel (those who were born elsewhere came to Israel as children...
...Archaeology was the medium which could supply the bridge to the roots and it did so in excavations like Masada and Hazor...
...66 The fact that I wasn't among the founders of this country, but that I was absorbed by those who had the good fortune to be here when statehood was proclaimed, has always given me the feeling that I and my community from Morocco had something to prove...
...I know the country...
...I was a soldier during the Six-Day War—it was terrible...
...MOMENT«JUNE 1988 that nourished your work and gave it meaning...
...When there is a common background it makes it much easier to get things done...
...The answer to the question—"What was there about growing up in Israel that nourished your work and gave it meaning?'.'— drew responses as varied as the individuals...
...Those things are also part of my writing...
...There is nothing like it anywhere in the world...
...And that makes you feel that there is nothing that is unattainable, you just have to find a way...
...which manufactures electronic and telecommunication cable...
...Here, if you are a scientist, professor, poet or writer, you are admired...
...Israeli ^^^P children grow up outdoors...
...She was bom on Kibbutz Cabri in the western Galilee in 1951...
...I spoke with a small sample of Israel's most promising young leaders, in fields ranging from agriculture to high technology to tennis, to learn what it is about growing up in Israel that nourishes talent...
...Forty years later, it is clear that Israel not only attracted talented, dedicated people, but, more importantly, it created an environment that produced its own "productive, modern minds...
...Amos Mansdorf Tennis Pro At 23, Amos Mansdorf is the 20lh-ranked male tennis player in the world...
...Although bom in 1950 in London, Harel moved to Israel with his family at the age of 7 and settled in Petach Tikva...
...I also work with Jewish Israeli women on this, and I am publishing the Naamal newpaper in Arabic...
...At home we fought a lot about politics and religion—my father was virulently anti-religious and I couldn't agree with him—and the fights sometimes ended in tears...
...Gootwine was bom in Haifa in 1950...
...We have to work toward personal fulfillment...
...ft I was in Jerusalem, praying mincha on Yom Kippur, when I got called up to join my tank unit in the Golan Heights (at the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War...
...This is the country where they intend to use these talents...
...There is a feeling here of being the first to make things happen, after 2,000 years...
...In the U.S., theyiddishe mamas want their sons to be doctors, lawyers, or at the very least, businessmen...
...You have to persevere and make it happen...
...L There is a striking difference between the U.S...
...There is peace with Egypt, relative economic stability, a narrowed social gap between Sephardim and Ashkenazim and the continued ability to successfully absorb immigrants from Ethiopia and the Soviet Union...
...What would happen to the Jewish people if we didn't stop the Syrians...
...Soon after, she married an Israeli Arab, moving to his home in Nazareth...
...Here in Israel, it is only lately that Arab women are beginning to go to university and get better jobs...
...If you are in a science like genetic engineering or computer science, the environment is supportive and you can make a contribution...
...This is the driving force behind my research team,-and it is unique in Israel...
...I feel very strongly the hurt of both sides: the Arab woman who has no homeland and who feels she has nothing to lose, and the soldier who pleads with her to return to her camp and in the end fires at her because he has an order from his commanding officer and he is only a soldier...
...It's not that we have an "old boys' network" here, but wherever you go—government ministries or large corporate offices—you find out after about 15 minutes of discussion that the guy you need to do business with is someone you know from the army or school or the neighborhood or family...
...My fight to get on the religious council is only a small part of the struggle...
...She studied political science and history at Tel Aviv University...
...What was there about growing up in Israel Amira Dothan Vice President, Ben-Gurion University and Retired Brigadier General, Israel Defense Forces Amira Dothan went into the army at age 18 and served for 22 years, achieving the rank of brigadier general in 1986...
...In the ideal, I would like to see a Palestinian state beside the state of Israel...
...As an Israeli, I'm going to use every possible opportunity to cry out for people who are victims of religious or racial discrimination...
...L^^ Growing up here, I had an opportunity to learn tennis at the ^^^P Israel Tennis Centre...
...Any child in Israel can walk in and play tennis for a token fee of five dollars a month, which includes lessons...
...I know people practically in every area of business here, whether it is from elementary school, high school, the Technion, the army...
...I'm looking at how my research can help agricultural settlements and kibbutzim to succeed...
...GROWING UP WITH THE STATE PROMINENT ISRAELIS UNDER 40 JOEL REBIBO On June 8, 1948, less than a month after Israel was proclaimed a state, The New York Times predicted, "The tiny nation created on the shores of the Mediterranean will attract productive, modern minds...
...Almost everybody felt a personal connection to the country and to the people...
...in computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he holds the record for the quickest Ph.D.—I year and 8 months...
...Not that we couldn't hold on to the cultures of exile, but they had to be put into Jewish context...
...I tried early in my career, but it wasn't me...
...In Israel there is a tradition of scholarship...
...I am an Israeli who was raised in a special way and it is reflected in my songs, ^^f^ Rafi Bukaee Film Director Rafi Bukaee directed Avanti Popolo, Israel's entry for best foreign film at the 1987 Academy Awards...
...I have worked very hard through the media to speak about the rights of women, and I have interviewed many Arab women in Israel...
...degree in Beirut...
...My parents had rebelled against their haredi (ultra-Orthodox) family in Poland and moved here in 1934...
...I decided there and then to establish ayeshiva...
...I had always believed that we needed to bring back authentic Jewish culture...
...But that isn't enough for me...
...He was born in Pelach Tikva in 1962...
...I grew up in a very Zionist home...
...Mashour began her career in the media working for Israeli television in Arabic...
...In The Jerusalem Syndrome, I play a soldier who shoots an Arab woman...
...That night we were fighting to hold back the Syrians...
...I've hiked the entire country, either on my own, in school or in scouts...
...I still had the prayers of Yom Kippur in my head...
...He is described by a colleague as a "charismatic educator who knows how to kindle enthusiasm in the minds of young people . . . not blind worship, but the love of learning and discovering...
...When I do well it is good for the country...
...The fact that I belong to a group that for many years lived under the shadow of the pioneers developed in me a heightened awareness of social justice...
...Bom in Bethlehem, Mashour earned her B.A...
...Tallie Selinger Defense Correspondent Tallie Selinger is Israel's only female defense correspondent...
...Even though I would continue to live in Israel, I would know that my people had their own home...
...This is the advantage of a small country: everyone knows everyone...
...The impact on the young generation was overwhelming...
...So has the country...
...Doron Tamir Industrialist Doron Tamir is the director of HMM (Conducting Wires, Ltd...
...He now heads the city of 10,500 and is widely seen as a rising star in the Labor party...
...It's a social program, not a competitive, professionally oriented one...
...Both are being manipulated by the politicians who remain behind the scenes...
...But the immigrants and survivors who built the country left us the solution to these problems in their children...
...What was there about growing up in Israel Elisha Gootwine Agricultural Researcher As director of the sheep department at Volcani Institute, Elisha Gootwine heads a project that he predicts will double the prolificacy of sheep in Israel, a breakthrough that could make meat more available...
...and Israel in the ^P^P general atmosphere towards scholarship...
...The politicians are the ones who have tried to ban the play, maybe because they see it as a mirror reflecting their image...
...They are about Israel and life here...
...Serious problems remain: the Israeli-Arab conflict (with its special problems of how to resolve the Palestinian question), Orthodox-secular tensions and an economy that scares off potential olim (new immigrants) because it is so difficult to earn a living...
...The company has annual sales of $20 million, much of that from exports, making Tamir one of Israel's most successful young industrialists...
...I also write a lot about the children of Holocaust survivors...
...I think I do a lot of good for Israel's image when I compete abroad...
...But I had complete faith that we would win because of our commitment to the country...
...They paid a price for this privilege...
...Therefore, in every decision I make, be it political or social, I consider the social ramifications...
...Our work could contribute to increased aliyah, settlement of the land, and a stronger ecomony, and that's what's important...
...It is central to our lives and that is why I cover it...
...There was an urgent need for a nation in the making, emerging from the ashes, to look for roots and connections to its glorious past...
...In 1982, he returned to his home town in the Megev, Sderot, and entered politics...
...I grew up with the message that the only hope for the Jewish people is Zionism, as it is lived here...
...David Harel Mathematician David Harel is a professor of applied mathematics at the Weizmann Institute and founder and chief scientist of Ad-cad, a research and development center established in Reho-vot in 1984...
...My grandparents arrived here from Russia at the turn of the century, and they were socialists who read Davar every morning...
...Peretz was born in Morocco in 1952, moved to Israel with his family in 1956 and settled in Sderot...
...this is the country that has nurtured their considerable talents...
...66 My stories deal with our reality...
...It leaves its mark on family, friends and neighbors...
...I still feel like I'm the minority, but I'm not the minority— I'm a majority and someone else is the minority...
...Yet many expressed the sentiment that, after 40 years of statehood, the Zionist dream has not yet been realized...
...Over the years you get to know people and it makes a difference...
...They lost family in the wars...
...Money is more important and status is a new-model car...
...He then did post-doctoral research at IBM...
...But there is a difference...
...My parents thought that any Jew who didn't come here to live was crazy, but 40 years after the State was established I realize that many Jews will continue to want to make their homes elsewhere...
...I am discriminated against in two ways: as an Arab in a Jewish state, and as a woman...
...I served during the '67 war myself...
...In the past 15 years, small high-tech companies have flourished here...
...Shakdiel, a modern Orthodox woman, took on the rabbinical establishment in a battle that has made headlines in Israel...
...But suddenly I find myself in a situation where morally I'm no longer the victim, I'm causing someone else to be a victim...
...But with time, my worldview changed, and today I see both sides of the coin...
...L One of the basic elements of life in Israel is the army...
...Creative people create out of conflict...
...it took a long time to return to movie-making until finally I was able to make a film from both the Arab and Jewish perspective on the problem...
...On the positive side, it is clear to everyone that we have contributed to settling the development towns in the Negev and the Galilee...
...Harel earned a bachelor's degree in life science and computer science at Bar-Ilan University, a master's degree at Tel Aviv University, and a Ph.D...
...It's a ^^^P part of you from the time you are born, and stays with you throughout your life...
...Finkelstein earned his Ph.D...
...These are regions that are of the utmost importance to Israel's future...
...I feel a need to do something to advance this country, to help it become more attractive to Jews in exile, economically and socially...
...He is a winner of the Riklis Israel Tennis Centre Classic Grand Prix, the Auckland Grand Prix and the South African Open...
...In other countries in the Mideast Arab women hold high positions...
...they wanted to do their share to contribute...
...L I grew up in a Zionist family deeply rooted in Israel—my great-^P^P grandfather immigrated from Europe to Palestine in the middle of the 19th century—so that I always felt the sense of history here...
...A researcher in another country might be content with discovering scientific truth...
...Yardena Arazi Singer Tardena Arazi is Israel's leading popular singer...
...I could see the Syrians, in huge numbers, and I could see our boys outside their battered tanks...
...Here we are independent, and my independence is mine and I must maintain it...
...But they not only survived the difficult birth of a country, they somehow thrived and have made enormous strides in these 40 years...
...The soldier is just a plaything and, maybe, so is the woman...
...Born in Cairo in 1952, he moved with his family to Israel in 1957 and studied in yeshivot in Jerusalem...
...For seven years she had her own television show...
...This work has implications for the welfare of the country...
...For me, Israel was a place of good guys and bad guys, and we understandably were the good guys fighting those who threatened our existence...
...Bom in Tel Aviv in 1957, Bukaee studied film at Tel Aviv University...
...That is why my work has always been in the Arab sector...
...I just know that they're up there now getting a lot of joy out of my working for that paper...
...Perhaps the most significant message that came through was this: Israel, with all of its problems, is the only home they have ever known...
...A graduate of the Technion with a degree in industrial and management engineering, he was born in Tel Aviv in 1948...
...66 When I got married in 1972 and became a new citizen, I understood that if I really wanted this society to improve, to treat everyone fairly, I would have to fight...
...The Israel that people see on the news is soldiers beating Arabs or bomb-squad members dismantling bombs...
...L^C First of all, having grown up here continues to nourish me, in ^^^^ two respects...
...As an Arab I have to face it that the only way I can get a good job is to be able to do something a Jewish Israeli can't do...
...by Monday morning most of the tanks in my unit had been hit...
...99 Haim Sabata Yeshiva Founder, Poet Haim Sabata is the founder of the Ma'ale Adumim Hesder Yeshiva, and a poet...
...We have to be strong so that we don't have another Holocaust, but we must not permit our strength to destroy our moral sensitivities, j^^^^ that nourished your work and gave it meaning...
...Most of my work is in theoretical mathematics, which is easier than other fields in Israel because you don't need expensive equipment in the laboratory for research...
...One of the ones who opened the road to Jerusalem in the war of independence was my uncle...
...One way or another, the search for the past was part of what you call growing up in Israel...
...He was bom in Tel Aviv in 1949...
...She was in charge of all of the female soldiers in the army, navy and air force, and was the first woman in Israel to attain this high rank...
...After serving in the army for three years, he studied applied genetics at Hebrew University, and earned a Ph.D...
...The film is about two Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai who meet up with an Israeli patrol white trying to get back home during the Six-Day War...
...In me, they see an Israeli who is a tennis pro, someone who acts like a normal human being...
...Amir Peretz Mayor of Sderot Amir Peretz was a career army officerfor eighlyears, but was seriously wounded in 1974 and spent two years recuperating in a hospital...
...The play is being staged by the Haifa Theatre as part of Israel's 40th-anniversary celebrations...
...you feel you belong to this place...
...Vida Mashour Journalist, Television Personality Vida Mashour edits and publishes a weekly Arab newspaper called Asinara...
...But some common themes were voiced...
...There is something in the atmosphere that encourages people to become scholars, and that helps...
...But ultimately, it is about making Israel a more just and equal society and therefore more attractive for "•^'¦^^^^ Israel Finkelstein Archaeologist Israel Finkelstein has directed the excavation of the site of biblical Shiloh, and has just published a book on the Israelite settlement of Canaan after the Exodus...
...It is, you might say, my most important issue...
...What was there about growing up in Israel that nourished your work and gave it meaning...
...In its fifth year, it is the only independent Arab newspaper in Israel and has a circulation of 60,000...
...I stopped filming and went home...
...Mow retiredfrom the army, she is vice president of Ben-Gurion University, where she is also working toward a master's degree in organizational psychology...
...at Tel Aviv University, andjoined Bar-llan University in 1976, where he is now a senior lecturer...
...My parents are survivors and I think that personally I'm still haunted by the horrors of the Holocaust...
...It isn't taken for granted that everything you want will happen...
...Naamat is the largest women's organization in Israel that works for equal rights for all women...
...We had to find ways to help the country grow so that we could feel equal to those who were here originally...
...It's a part of me and that's reflected in my songs...
...From being a baby, to breathe was to know that I belonged ^^^9 to a people who fought and died and did their best for us to have a country of our own...
...For me, these are the conflicts that have fueled my work...
...L^^ I was in West Beirut on a filming assignment when the first bombs ^P^P fell at the start of the Lebanon war, and it was hard for me as a Jew to watch it...
...I was eight years old during the Sinai campaign...
...I wanted to give students a vision to believe in, faith, but without euphoria, without a sense that we can depend on miracles...
...There are two sides to this coin...
...L^^ I suppose that on one level the genetic research we do here isn't ^P^» that different from the work being done in the U.S...
...I love rock and roll but I can't sing it...
...their careers were delayed by army service and then reserve duty, and they were stymied by a cumbersome bureaucracy that grinds down initiative...
...Last year, he was a visiting professor of archaeology at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago...
...Although born in Germany in 1948, she moved to Israel a few months later and grew up in Bat Tarn...
...On the tragic side, the fact that we weren't here at the beginning made us feel alienated from society, a feeling that we are still coming to terms with...
...I feel that I'm part of the luckiest generation in the history of the Jewish people...
...I also grew up with a very keen awareness of political and social issues...
...Then my tank was hit...
...But the Zionist revolution isn't over yet, and I need to contribute my share...
...Later, as a scholar, I also learned the limitations of the medium, even its dangers—politically speaking...
...The conflict between Orthodox and secular, Jew and Arab...
...After serving in the army during the Six-Day War, Liebrecht studied philosophy and English literature at Tel Aviv University...
...My parents came from Russia where Jews were a minority...
...We're the guys who can sit in the garages or backyards and come up with something clever, but we don't know how to market these solutions as well as the Americans...
...Bom in Tel Aviv, Mansdorf attended high school in Ramal Hasharon...
...I was born into journalism...
...Israel 'is' the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), though that isn't always good...
...I'm 32 and I've lived through five wars...
...Morin studied acting at the Nissan Nativ studio in Tel Aviv and acted in the Israeli army's theatrical troupe...
...She works for Davar, one of Israel's leading newspapers...
...Bom in Tel Aviv in 1956, Selinger attended school there except for the two years when her father served as press attache in the Israeli consulate in New Tork...
...Secondly, I take it for granted that I live here and even if there are difficult periods I don't ever consider leaving...
...I Leah Shakdiel Town Council Member, Activist Leah Shakdiel, a town council member in Tero-ham, a development town in the Megev, was nominated in 1986 to serve on the local religious council...
...My father (Azarya Rappaport) covered the 1948 Independence War for Ha'aretz, and so it was natural for me to go into journalism...
...These are the children of survivors and immigrants and they lived through war, severe food rationing and the squalor of immigrant transit camps to become the first generation of Jewish Israelis in almost 2,000 years...
...We have a problem of strength as a nation, as a humane nation, ^fe^h ' 'fi...
...in embryonic development at the Weizmann Institute...
...99 Savion Liebrecht Short Story Writer The two volumes of Savion Liebrecht's short stories, Apples from the Desert and Horses on the Highway, published by Sifriat Hapoalim, have won her critical acclaim...
...I have nowhere to go back to—this is my country...
...I also draw on my past...
...Michael Morin Actor Michael Morin is currently starring in Tehoshua Sobol's The Jerusalem Syndrome, a controversial play about the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 70 C.E.—with obvious parallels to today's military and political situation...
...The company makes a sophisticated computer graphics tool which it has sold to McDonnell Douglas, GTE and other companies...
...66 When I grew up, peace was something you sang about...
...It is as if I fought in all the earlier wars as a child because my father, brothers and uncles were all serving for their whole lives in the reserves, in the wars...
Vol. 13 • June 1988 • No. 4
