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- It’s commonly noted in many bios of her that Dr Ruth Westheimer returned to Israel when she was 16 to serve in the local version of the army to fight for Israeli independence. I have also heard it noted that she was trained as a common footsoldier/sniper, but that she now refuses to say what exactly she did in that service. Did she kill anybody?
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- It’s commonly noted in many bios of her that Dr Ruth Westheimer returned to Israel when she was 16 to serve in the local version of the army to fight for Israeli independence. I have also heard it noted that she was trained as a common footsoldier/sniper, but that she now refuses to say what exactly she did in that service. Did she kill anybody?
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“the local version of the army” ?
Ah, those cwazy Israelis, just trying to copy the good ol’ U.S. of A. They even have a local version of Friends. They call it Boychicks.
Consription is a fact of life for young Israeli Jewish citizens, and if Westheimer doesn’t want to talk about it (she may view it as an annoying, uncomfortable and completely forgetable waste of part of her teen years) that hardly suggests she was a secret commando with dozens of kills to her credit.
“You should treasure your memories of goot zex, because they vill be your last!”
Tomb Raider! Lara Westheimer! Yes!! 
dr. ruth bungee-jumping back and forth across her foyer
oh yes
No, I have been Googling, really.
http://www.wic.org/bio/westheim.htm
Haganah.
http://www.haganah.com/
None of the “biography” hits say exactly what she did there. It would have been 1934–what sort of “freedom fighting” would have been called for, back then?
Oops, typo–1944.
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- It would seem to be at odds with the personality we now know her as. Similar to the story about John Denver or Mr Rogers being a decorated army sniper, except that they never were anything of the sort, and she was, and may very well have been.
!
Have you heard? There’s this new thing out called irony…
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- It would seem to be at odds with the personality we now know her as. Similar to the story about John Denver or Mr Rogers being a decorated army sniper, except that they never were anything of the sort, and she was, and may very well have been.
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She’s reticent to talk about it because it was sort of embarrasing. She was actually an junior agent for the Mossad. (The Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks
[ha-Mossad le-Modiin ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim] )Because of her very diminutive size they would dress her in a chimpanzee suit and she would pretend to be a street corner trick monkey. This allowed her to roam freely through the casbahs while listening for any useful information. She had to quit as she developed an nasty allergic reaction to the materials used in the suit and her constant scratching and sneezing make people move away from her for fear she was a diseased animal, which nullified her information gathering opportunities.
My best friend’s dad was Bil Nye’s sarge in 'Nam. 'strue.
1944 . 
That gives us several possibilities.
In '44, there was no independent Israel. There was only the British Mandate of Palestine. Old Empire stuff. And there were various Zionist groups doing various things.
[ul]
[li] Secret Immigration. The Brits closed off Jewish immigration into the Mandate in an attempt to prevent independence, & retain control of the region. Unfortunately, the Jewish refugees escaping from Hitler’s conquered Europe couldn’t wait. So secret immigration took place. Armed guards were used to fend off colonial forces, so there may have been snipers used in these ops.[/li][li]Fending off Arab raiders. Arabs would come into kibbutzim and kill, kill, kill. The Brits did zip to stop this, due to the Foreign Ministry’s policy of not offending Arab groups. So a secret force was organized, I berlieve it was called the Hagganah, to fight off the raiders. Definitely had snipers.[/li][li]Then there were the bad boys. The Irgun. Flat-out terrorists. Anti-Brirt, anti-arab, shot anything that moved, & blew up what didn’t. Reprisals a daily ceremony. Bombing an art form. Idiot glee. Lot’s 'o snipers.[/li][/ul]
Remember–all of these groups were forbidden by G.Britain. There was no official force, so any outfit she hooked up with would have had official disapproval.
Take yer pick, as to which group she’d be ashamed to be linked with.
For more data on the early days of modern Israel, see The Siege by O’Brien. It is a throughgoing history on the subject, & quite readable. He is friendly towards Israel, without being a cheerleader or propagandist. As am I, I like to think.
I get to use the smilely!
;j
I produced a brief television video about the founding of Isreal. One of our interview subjects was Dr. Ruth who was, in fact, in or near the thick of the fighting.
Unfortunately I did not conduct the interview myself, nor do I remember all the exact details she gave when I viewed the interview tape. One thing I do remember was that she was nearly killed when a nearby bomb exploded. (I always remember her telling that story because she – and a lot of Isrealis I’ve noticed – pronouced the silent “b” in “bomb.”)
Now I need to know what is commonly known abuot Dr. Ruth Westheimer in 1944.
As far as I know the state of Isreal was founded in 1948, so it would have been hard for her to be part of “the local version of an army”.
Does anyone have any good info on what she was doing then. Hey, the image of the dimunitive sex doctor gunning down loads of people tickles my funny bone, but I’ve seen no proof of such so far.
Did she learn how to weild a rocket launcher while in the Haganah? That would be really cool if she did.
And very very symbolic. Yes.
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- Well nuts, what year is it again? If she was 10 years old in 1928, and returned to Israel when she was 16, that would have been 1934, not 1944, no?
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- Well nuts, what year is it again? If she was 10 years old in 1928, and returned to Israel when she was 16, that would have been 1934, not 1944, no?
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Biggirl: Probably no rocket launchers for Dr.Ruth. In fact until an illegal shipment of arms arrived (courtest of the Poles I think I recall) most of the militia, or what was to be come the Israeli army had weaker arms than most Palestenians do today. Rocks, molotav cocktails and an occasional zip gun were the common tools of warfare and the Brits seemed to want to keep it that way. There were some snipers using Mauser M-98’s and the like, but very few.
Now if Ruth remained in service after the struggle then there is a good chance she was a sniper or trained as one. Like the Russians, the Israelis learned that in many combat tasks women had abilities surpassing those of men. Sniper is an excellent job for women soldiers. Too bad we don’t use them.
Sheesh, one typo…
She was born in 1928, so when she was 16 and moved to Israel, it would have been 1944.
All of the biographical websites that mention her Army service also say that she was, quote, “trained as a sniper”. But none of them elaborate on that, although most of them do mention the bomb explosion, as it’s apparently the reason she got out of the Army. I’m assuming that she has simply never talked about any of her actual Army experiences to an interviewer and so the information just ain’t out there. Sorry, Doug.
zen101:
I’m almost certain it was the Czechs.
cmkeller: By George you are correct. I always get nations overrun by Soviets in Europe confused. 