Guess What!

It's all Talk; Voice of Israel, Channel 2

They are doing it everywhere - on the street, in cars or at home.
Israelis cannot stop telephoning a morning radio program that poses a
riddle, offers clues and invites listeners to call with the answer.

Dan Chamizer, 46, a former air force pilot, invents the mind twister for
It's all Talk, and Razi Barkai, 44, the program's editor, delivers them
on the air in two time slots. The bafflers are nothing short of a national
obsession.

"People are fed up with politics, the tensions and the intifadeh"
explains Barkai. "Our riddles give people opportunity to think." Each
time a puzzler remains unanswered, the prize increases; last week it hit
a record $18,500. Up to 10,000 Israelis try at any one time to reach
the station, and many use ingenious ploys to get on the air, phoning at
3 a.m., dialing Barkai at home or calling program employees to seek
sympathetic favor. The questions are tricky. A recent example: "Zvi
above her, and Nachum is below her." The answer, which was worth
$ 7,500: Golda Meir, the future Prime Minister, whose signature on
Israel's 1948 Declaration of Independence appears between that of
Zvi Luria and Nachum Nir. Barkai is taking a well-earned break, and
will announce his next stumper on Jan. 1. Happy New Riddle!

(TIME MAGAZINE, DECEMBER 28, 1992)

Radio Riddle Drives Israelis to distraction

Forget issues such as war and peace in the Middle East. Israelis have
a more pressing question on their minds these days: "Who is the crazy
star who started with Frenchwoman before she was bought, before
the wars, and it all came out at 238?"

The riddle, broadcast twice daily on Israel radio, will earn its solver
thousands of dollars, plus his or her picture in the newspapers, and
perhaps even an appearance on television.

For 12 weeks, tens of thousands of Israelis have been burning up the
telephone lines of "It's all Talk", the morning radio show that features
the riddle.

Only 600 have gotten on the air. The rest are left with little choice but
to keep dialing. Some call the program workers at home offering
shady deals. Others resort to emotional blackmail, claiming to be
crippled, blind or at death's door - "anything to arouse sympathy and
get on the air", producer Yehudit Zivyon said.

The latest riddle has broken all records since the game was introduced
three years ago on Razi Barkai's phone-in show.

The prize money, donated by the bank that sponsors the show, starts
at $2,000 and rises by $40 each time a wrong answer is broadcast.
Wednesday it reached $17,000.

It's not the money - bigger prizes are offered by state lotteries and
bingo-style newspaper games. "The real attraction is the challenge,"
said Moshe Can'an, who has won twice.

A psychiatrist interviewed on Israel TV calls it "pure mental illness."
Dan Chamizer, who complies the puzzle, said, "This madness has
gone beyond all proportions."

The riddlemania reflects a society hungry for distractions from war and
political crisis. It also reveals the evolution of the Israeli from rugged
outdoors type to couch potato.

Organized riddles were always popular, but in the past the meant
hiking into the desert in search of clues. Today, the fun is available at
the touch of a push-button telephone.

Can'an, 48, takes Chamizer's riddles very seriously. He lies awake at
night thinking and immerses himself in reference books. "To solve
these riddles you have to get inside Chamizer's head," he said.

Chamizer, 46, a former air force pilot, builds his riddles on his
encyclopedic knowledge and fondness for quirks of Hebrew. The
puzzles are littered with red herrings. They demand wild leaps of
imagination and outlandish word associations.

(THE HARTFORD COURANT, DECEMBER 3, 1992)

More than question of right answer

All over Israel they are discussing him in shops and cafes; tuning to
him at work. Yesterday again, thousands tried to telephone Dan
Chamizer, star of radio quiz show, to answer his "crazy star riddle"
and claim the jackpot.

Callers are using blackmail, and pretending to be at death's door to
get to the program. Yesterday Avi Goldstar drove all the way from
the Golan Heights to present his solution at the Tel Aviv radio studio.

But he, too, was wrong, and the prize money rose again to a record of
$17,000.

But this national obsession is not about money. Mr Chamizer believes
he had tapped a goldmine of intellectual energy and competitive spirit.
"Every Israeli thinks he can solve every problem. He is not looking for
buried treasure… He is doing it because he always thinks he knows
the answer better than anyone else."

This time, for 12 long weeks, they have all been wrong. "Who is the
crazy star who started with the Frenchwoman before she was bought,
before the wars, and it all adds up to 238?" Callers have tried
everyone from Napoleon to Mr. Chamizer.

Psychologists have been hauled out to ponder Israel's "Riddlemania"
.One called it "pure mental illness". Another said people liked the
distraction from war and politics. Mr. Israel Shahak, a leading radical,
puts it all down to British influence.

"Riddles have always been an Israeli pastim, ever since British
broughth in the mandate d."

Mr. Chamizer says riddles simply appeal to the Jewish character - it is
in their history. "It is about tackling every kind of situation and seeing
how they can get of it best."

(SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, MAY 14, 1992)