San Diego (special) -- When historians profile the Gur family of Israel, they of course will remember that Mordechai Gur was the general who liberated the Old City of Jerusalem from the Arabs during the 1967 Six Day War. They also will recall that Gur went on to become the chief of staff of the much vaunted Israel Defense Forces.

But those who dig deeper into the Gur family history will find that his wife, Rita, also was an important influence on Israel's development--not in the military arena, but in the area of social work. As a ranking board member of Na'amat (Pioneer Women) of Israel, she has addressed the problems of every age group from infants to senior citizens.

Last week, Rita Gur reviewed some of the organization's work in Israel during a meeting of Na'amat's Shoshana chapter at the 54th Street Community Center. At the same meeting, Dora & Judah Bernstein also were given an official send-off to Israel, to which the couple is making aliyah. Abused children are a major concern for Na'amat , Gur said during her portion of the meeting. Sometimes, she said, "the best solution for abused children, or neglected children, is not to take them away from the family but to help to strengthen the family.." "It is not always possible--sometimes the problems are so severe it is impossible," she said. "But if it is possible, it is very important to do it because for children of very early childhood, their development depends on their contact with their

Rita Gur

parents."

"For a child, it is not enough that he have a good environment; it is very important that he has a mother and a father," Gur said. "That is the age when his identity as a human being develops."

The program is based on a compromise: Abused children are given the healthy environment of a day care center from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but then are returned to their homes. 

"They have had all the education that they can have; they have had a relaxed atmosphere; they've had all their meals and they really only have to have a half hour or an hour with the parents to play and then they go to sleep," Gur said. 

"This is a wonderful solution, what we say in Hebrew is 'holding the rope at both ends.' We keep the child with the family, and keep him in a day care center."

For older children--teenagers--Na'amat has helped to develop "special vocational schools where the ratio of children per teacher is better than at regular schools, and where kids are taught other normal things of life like behavior and hygiene," Gur said.

"These schools are very successful, and it has become more prestigious to go to a school like that because whatever profession they study for- beautician, dressmaker--they learn it on a little bit higher technological level," she said. 

"For instance there are now machines for coloring the hair, computerized color. In the sewing business, computers also are introduced....so when they learn these professions they learn it on a more sophisticated level and that not only helps them in their professions, but we must also speak about their better self-image."

For young parents, especially those of the abused children, Na'amat has started counseling services and discussion groups in which the parents "talk about themselves and start building up their self-image." Graduates of these courses are referred to vocational programs, where they learn to interview for a job, fill out an application and to create a resume.

The program has ignited such enthusiasm that it recently expanded into "a theatre group for women from the neighborhood and mothers from the day care center and they are performing short plays in which they tell their stories," Gur said. 

A fourth age group on which Na'amat focuses is senior citizens, particularly those who live alone.

"Na'amat found volunteers who went through a course and each volunteer family adopted one single senior citizen and helps with everything possible," she said. 

"First they are there on a social basis -- to visit, to listen, to guide, to have the senior over for dinner, to bring flowers for the holidays; to give those people the feeling that they are not forgotten, that there is somebody who thinks about them, who remembers them, and who cares."

A second aspect of the program "is to take them to the hospital; to listen to their problems; to make contact (on their behalf) with Social Services," Gur said. 

If the seniors need a health service, they deserve to have it, Gur said. "But it is difficult for them to make the contact, or to persuade the person on the other side that they really need what they need, so this is what those volunteer families do."