Haifa — Newspaper editors must decide each day what news stories deserve the biggest headlines on the front page. Then comes the choice of headlines for stories of lesser interest, on the inner pages.
What is left over are considered fillers, little odds and ends to fill up the small empty spaces, usually at the bottom of the page.
Want to get a new perspective on what is going on? Begin with the fillers. We applied that principle to the Israeli press, and came up with the following:
• Need a Doctor? There are 469 physicians to every 100,000 of population in Israel, putting this country in third place in the world, preceded only by Italy and Norway, with slightly more doctors per 100,000.
• The Eyes Have It. Young Rafael Halprin of Israel was a world wrestling champion in 1949. Retiring from the wrestling mat, he got religion and devoted himself to spiritual studies.
In 1988, bearded and Orthodox, he decided to open a store for optical supplies, then another, and another. Today, at the age of 78, he reigns over fifty stores and sells eyeglasses to thousands of Israelis.
• Distorted English. The Hebrew press frequently inserts English names or phrases in the Hebrew text, but because one language runs from right to left, and the other from left to right, the insertion sometimes gets distorted. Thus a recent American TV show about an undertaker was listed as “Feet Under Six.”
• Smoke Signals. All cigarette advertising here must be accompanied by a notice warning that smoking is injurious to health. A law has now been proposed to ban all advertising of tobacco products.
If enacted, the law will cause the newspapers to lose an estimated 30 million shekels a year in advertising income. The papers are up in arms.
• A Matter of Priority. The news that another Israeli woman had successfully passed all courses and exams and had been qualified as an air force fighter pilot, was widely publicized.
The Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, had a different perspective. What the country needs, he said, is not more fighter pilots, but more mothers. There is no substitute for the latter.
• Employment Problems. Bituach Leumi, Israel’s Social Security, found that its headquarters in Tiberias needed major renovations and engaged a contractor to do the job.
The agency, which pays millions of shekels each month in unemployment compensation, found to its consternation that the contractor had hired imported Chinese laborers exclusively to do the work.
• Out of the Past. The rash of bombings of buses has recalled the story of the massacre of 11 Israelis aboard a bus at the Scorpion Pass in the Negev in 1954. How the murderers’ trail was followed by a Bedouin tracker, is told in a new book, “The Scout” (Gefen Pub. House) by Prof. Steven Plaut. The author discovers that the patient lying next to him in a hospital bed is none other than the Bedouin scout. A fascinating and highly informative book.
• Everyone Wants to Learn. The desire to learn English is so widespread in Israel that schools have sprung up like mushrooms to meet the need.
One school advertises: “In 12 hours you will be able to speak 250 English words.” We assume they really mean words like radio television, OK, scandal, telephone, professor, dynamics, student, university, dollar, model, mathematics, physics, festival, million, liberal, music, taxi, bus, campus, cafeteria and hundreds of others which have been adopted by Hebrew.
• Time for Refreshments. In many Israeli movie houses it is still common procedure to interrupt the feature film at about half way through, turn on the lights, and proclaim a short intermission, affording opportunity to the patrons to get out into the lobby and purchase drinks or replenish their supply of popcorn.
• Your Kingdom for a ….. Mitzpeh Ha-Agam, a new village in the Galilee, in a country atmosphere, has put new houses up for sale and is offering a bonus gift to each purchaser — a horse.
• A Real Bargain. The Israel Institute for Democracy offers four new books for sale at 50 shekels each. And as a special inducement, customers can purchase all four for only 200 shekels.
• Gone but Not Forgotten. Most friends of Israel overseas still make reference to Kupat Cholim (Sick Fund), the health insurance fund sponsored by the Histadrut, which at one time insured the vast majority of Israelis. It still exists, but its name has been changed to “Briyut Clalit” which could be translated as “Over-all Health.” The difference in emphasis is obvious.
Former Bostonian Carl Alpert made aliyah in 1952 with his wife and three children. A former editor of the Jewish Advocate, he is a freelance writer and columnist.
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