Wednesday, June 23, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 7
Nation/World
Looking at heritage in Israel
KU student searches for cultural insights
Editor's note: Stephanie Brewer is studying abroad in Israel this summer.
I'm finally in Israel. As a Jew, this is my homeland, and I've waited nearly my entire life to come here.
I'd like to say that I experienced a spiritual awakening the second my plane touched down at Ben-Gurion International Airport, but, really, I didn't. I felt nervous, confused, tired and, most of all, foreign.
In other countries, I can usually use my knowledge of English and French to figure out some words. Here, the Hebrew characters on the signs combined to form nothing. The conversation around me meant nothing. Someone could walk up to me and say, "Go home, you American slut," and I'd probably smile and say, "Shalom."
So I spent my first days in Israel waiting for my life-changing experience to take place, waiting to blend right into Israeli culture. I've traveled and studied abroad before, and I am generally not so naive to expect to blend into a culture so quickly. But I expected Israel to be different because it is my ancestral homeland.
Far from feeling like I had come home, I felt out of place. The fact that I wasn't filled with a sense of joy at being in Israel made me feel like a bad Jew.
My group of 15 people spent the first week touring the country. I tried to absorb the historical and religious significance of sites while driving our tour guide crazy with incessant questions. But no matter how much information I crammed into my brain, I still didn't feel any special attachment to Israel.
Commentary
Through the bus window, I stared at barren desert interrupted by occasional areas of green and wondered where the beauty of this land was. I saw soldiers all around me, machine guns slung casually over their shoulders, and wondered if I could ever love a country that lived under constant threat of war.
I walked through the marketplace trying to look quietly at the stores and realized that "just looking" was impossible. The merchants' in-your-face tactics seemed like harassment to me and gave me the urge to clap my hands over my ears and scream at the top of my lungs. "Leave me the hell alone!"
Lucky for my tour group, I refrained. I also had to get used to dragging around an old sarong, which I affectionately called my shroud, in case I needed modest dress. One day I shed my shroud in relief, eager to be bareshouldered in the afternoon heat, but the guide informed me that to the men in the restaurant, I was dressed like a whore.
This knowledge of my status, of course, endeared me even more to Israel. (For the record, I was wearing an unprovocative hippy dress bought on Massachusetts Street.)
When I got to Tel Aviv, I wondered what had happened to the concept of modest dress as I watched 13-year-old
girls parade around in shorts that hardly qualified as clothing.
The distinct personalities of each area bundled together in such a small country are what has made Israel seem so confusing and foreign to me. I guess this is what is known as culture shock.
Despite all its quirks, Israel is start
ing to grow on me. The feeling of Israel being my homeland finally kind of hit me near the end of the first week.
Praying at the Wailing, or Western. Wall in Jerusalem provided me with a bit of what I was looking for. The Wall is part of the Jews' second temple that was
Stephanie Brewer
opinion @ kansan.com
destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. It is one of the holiest sites in Judaism.
At the Wall, I felt some sort of spiritual connection. I realized how important Israel was to my culture and why I was there.
I can't say this event changed my life or suddenly made me feel at home, but it has sparked a change in my perception of Israel.
The desert seems strangely beautiful, the soldiers are not so threatening and the marketplace is colorful rather than exasperating.
I'm still on the outside looking in, but at least now I like what I see.
Brewer is a Killingworth, Conn., senior in journalism
Widow brings libel suit for unproven accusation
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — When a 3M Co. executive was found shot to death in his bed, Detective Tom Johnson believed the evidence pointed to the man's widow. In a TV interview, he called her the "one and only suspect."
Six years later, no one has been arrested in the slaying of Dennis Stokes, and the widow, Terri Stokes, is suing for libel in federal court.
This is a civil case, but it is likely to resemble a murder trial.
To collect the unspecified damages she seeks, Stokes must convince a jury of her innocence. The other side will be working to prove that all signs indicate she most likely killed her husband.
The trial started Monday.
In 1993, Dennis Stokes was killed by shotgun blasts to the head while asleep at his home in suburban Forest Lake. His wife said that she spent the night at her brother's house because her husband planned to wake up before dawn and go hunting.
Stokes, 40, is suing over reports aired in 1994 by WCCO-TV, which showed Johnson saying she was the only suspect in the killing. She is suing Johnson, his employer, Anoka County; and CBS, which owns WCCO-TV.
Stokes reached a settlement over the weekend with New York-based King World Productions, producer of the
show American Journal, which also aired Johnson's comments. Terms of that settlement weren't disclosed.
Stokes' lawyer, Joe Friedberg, has painted her as a loving wife who put flowers on the table with dinner and who had finally found stability in her third marriage after having "a couple of two-night stairs."
"The title of this case is "Terri Stokes Fights Back,"" Friedberg told the jury in his opening statement. "Before being falsely accused of murder, she didn't have a reputation as a killer."
Johnson's lawyer, Anthony Palumbo,
said the detective had good reason to
suspect Stokes was her husband's killer.
"As he sits there today, he still believes it," Palumbo said.
Palumbo said Stokes was evasive throughout the investigation, wasn't forthcoming about extramarital affairs and was unhappy in her marriage. The lawyer also said the couple were having financial troubles.
Johnson and CBS are defending themselves by arguing that the accusations against Stokes are true, which means the case turns on whether the jury believes she did it or not.
A criminal trial requires proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. For the defendants to win in this case, the jury would only need to believe she most likely killed her husband.
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