SOMETIMES A SNIPER RIFLE IS JUST A SNIPER RIFLE

Dr. Ruth: Sex Sage and Ex-Sniper on Global Sexuality (Tom Foreman, June 11, 2003, National Geographic News)

Tom Foreman: You were trained as a sniper?

Dr. Ruth: We were all trained in the forerunner of the Israeli Defense Force, and for some reason that I can't explain I'm a very good sniper. I can put five bullets into this little red circle (makes circle with her fingers). I know how to throw hand grenades. I've never killed anybody. I was badly wounded.

Tom Foreman: There was a bomb that went off in the barracks.

Dr. Ruth: Yes.

Tom Foreman: Many of your friends were wounded as well?

Dr. Ruth: Yes and died. Boy you did your homework.

Tom Foreman: Do you think that some of those experiences of your life made you bolder? Many people comment that the thing that strikes them about you is that you so fiercely walk into any culture and you ask very intimate questions.

Dr. Ruth: I am what you call bold because the one thing that I've learned coming out of Nazi Germany is that I have to stand up and be counted for what I believe. And that's how people are listening to me, because they know it's not a put-on.

Just finished Amitai Etzioni's memoir, My Brother's Keeper, in which we discover that he too was a refugee from Nazi Germany who went to Palestine and joined the Palmach as a young man. Not exactly the first two people who would have sprung to mind, are they? Posted by Orrin Judd at June 11, 2003 8:41 PM