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Premier housewife Aliza is calm at heart of the storm by William Wolff Jewish Chronicle The policeman at the iron gate checked my pass, turned the key of the front door, walked across the hall and called out “Aliza.” From the kitchen rushed the trim figure of Mrs. Aliza Begin, wife of the most controversial premier Israel has had in its 30 years' history. She takes me to a little table and over a vase of wallflowers talks to me of her life as the calm center at the heart of the storm that rages round Menachem Begin. Without a bow or apology to Women’s Lib she describes her role as a supportive one. “In life every man needs support. No one is strong enough to be alone,” she says. Aliza Begin learned that lesson within a year of marriage. She was only 20 when one morning she walked through the front door to see him off. A car was waiting outside from the Russian secret police. The two men who came to escort him were from the same exclusive terror club. As they were about to maneuver Begin into the car for the start of a trip from which millions have never returned, Aliza said to him, “Don’t worry. Everything will be all right.” “I am a born optimist,” she says. It is an optimism born neither of good fortune nor of good health. “I just have a positive disposition. With that you can fight both. And you don’t wallow in self pity. You are rather detached from private suffering.” Her stoic outlook was tested as severely four years later when Menachem, released by the Russians, arrived in a Palestine ruled by the British and went underground with a price on his head. “Of course that was a strain,” she says, “but at least we were together. That made it so much easier. I don’t know that I would have been able to stand it if we had been far apart.” The indelible mark those years have left on her character is seen in one of her deepest—and saddest— attitudes. “I don’t plan ahead,” she says. “I still think it is best not to do so. I like to enjoy every day as it comes. It is horrible when you plan ahead and then it does not come true.” As well as owing her philosophy of life to those early years as a prison widow and underground wife, two of her children, Leah and Chassiah, also date back to that harrowing time underground. “Illegal,” she sums them up, “but not illegitimate.” After the underground years, came the opposition years. Menachem Begin fought nine elections and lost eight. So how much support has he needed from her throughout their 39 storm-tossed years of marriage? “My husband is a very equable man,” she says. “He is never depressed.” She also describes him i t . : . ■*: fs#rn p'; r 17 ; *" ' ' . ,; l Aliza Begin: “In life, every man needs support.” as a “gentleman.” And with that she refuses to say any more on the subject of Israel’s premier. Except for a year at university while her husband was in a Soviet prison, Aliza Begin, 58 this year, has always been at home. “I have never worked outside,” she says. “I think the so-called Liberation Movement for women does everything to make the role of the housewife much less attractive than it actually is. Much more emphasis should be put on the fact that being a housewife and raising a generation is a profession in itself. It requires much more ability than going to an office to be a so- called career-woman.” “Women should be well educated and have a profession— they can always exercise it in the latter part of their lives. But there are some years when a woman should be at home because nobody can replace her there.' Immediately she softens the dogmatism of her statements. “On the other hand you do have this problem of women who just do not suit the role of housewife, it just is not enough for them. And there is nothing wrong with placing the children in professional care. But on the whole we do not make the role of housewife sufficiently attractive.” Today her role as one of the world’s premier housewives, meeting everyone from Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter to James and Audrey Callaghan, is not only attractive but enviable. Her recipe for being the perfect hostess to them: “Don’t try too hard, just let the guests enjoy it. And that applies whether you have 500 or 1,000, or merely a score. If you like people, it again makes things so much easier.” Aliza does like people. “1 am interested in every aspect of life,” she says. “I am always learning.” And one of the lessons she has learned—apart from fluent and idiomatic English and French— never to diet. “Dieters are cheaters,” she insists. “I stick to the old wives’ recipe to eat well and be well. How do I control my weight? By spending energy.” That inexhaustible energy is spent on much more than dinner parties for Very Important and Very Stuffy People. Aliza Begin is realistic enough to know that while she has no power, the premier’s wife can wield a great deal of influence. A friendly phone call from her to an official, in or out of government, can get results which a social welfare officer would regard as a miracle. At her meetings she has only one rule— discussion yes, speeches no. To pack it all in, she gets up at 6:30 in the morning and does not go to bed before midnight. The late evening she reserves for her principle hobby—voracious reading, anything from English women’s weeklies, through American works on sociology, to children’s books. Determinedly, she does not allow unhappiness into her life. She insists: “I am content with my lot. It is my happy disposition. Otherwise,” she adds, “it would have been very hard for me these past 40 years." At Last, New York Chinatown Is Here! COM KE£ Restaurant Lum Kee Restaurant 2050 N. Decatur Road 634-7044 11-4 Lunch 4-10 Dinner Sunday 3-10 We are proud to announce . . . 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N.V. a AHonta Georgia 30327 a 404/331-7623 MAZELTOV! to the students and faculty of the Epstein - Solomon Schechter School Your 1978 school - wide national achievement scores are once again two years above the national average. We are proud of the results of your dedication and hard work. Limited Openings In Most Grades for 1978-79 With our Special Ulpan Program, your child may enter at any grade level. Prior Hebraic Knowledge not required. Contact: Rabbi Zvi Shapiro-Headmaster ^ Friends of the Epstein - Solomon Schechter School A age 9 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE July 21, 1978