ONE ON ONE | Bonnie Deutsch Burdman Jewish community rep hails the Valley's people

Who has most influenced your life?
Certainly, my parents. ... My mother always worked, and so that was a vision that I had. There was always a great emphasis on education in my house.
Also, there was an emphasis in my household on being aware of the news and keeping current on issues of concern and politics and elections and being engaged in these kinds of things, and I think that always stuck with me, which is probably what brought me here today.
What's the best thing about the Youngstown area?
One of the best things about the Mahoning Valley in general is its people. ... The people here are terrific. ... People are friendly; they're good; they're engaged in things. And because we're in a smaller community ... with open-door policies for the most part with public officials, ... it's easy to go and see your county commissioner or to go and see a state representative who might be your next-door neighbor.
What are the TV shows that you watch?
At this point, I don't miss "The West Wing." I really enjoy that. I've been watching the show "24" this particular season. ... It's been very interesting. ... I enjoy comedies as well. I like a silly laugh as much as anybody else. I always liked science fiction things. I was a huge fan of "Star Trek."
Do you have a favorite vacation spot?
I'm very fortunate that I do get to travel, in part because we have family that's all over the place ... South Florida ... Phoenix, Arizona, ... California and Seattle. I think one of the favorite vacations I ever took was ... an Alaskan cruise, and it was phenomenal. It was 11 at night when we went ... and it was still bright sunshine, the land of the midnight sun. ... It never got dark, and that was really kind of fun. ... I took a cruise around the Greek islands ... and I've of course been to Israel, which is a beautiful country.
What do you do to have fun?
We try and do as much with our kids as we can. We're big sports fans. We go to Cleveland Cavaliers games, Cleveland Indians games.
Locally, we try and go to as much theater as we can, musical theater in particular. We have the Broadway series for the shows that are here in Youngstown for the Youngstown Symphony Society. We also subscribe to the series up in Cleveland.
What kind of music do you listen to?
I get a lot of ribbing for that. This is my real effort to try to stay young. ... I'm a child of the '80s, and I was around on the day MTV was born. ... I used to love Depeche Mode, and I still really love U2 ... and I like a lot of modern music as well. ... One of the performers I really fell in love with in the last year is Alicia Keys.
Do you have a favorite book?
I have a few authors I probably go back to a lot. I read most of [John] Grisham's things. I like David Baldacci. I like James Patterson. All the fun fiction writers. ... I spend half my day reading newspapers.
What is your pet peeve?
I guess my pet peeve, in general, is when people tend to pontificate about things that they really don't know about or when they will try and present something in a way that just really isn't correct without making an effort to learn about the issues.
If you could meet anyone who ever lived, who would you meet and why?
On the pop culture side, I've always been such a huge fan of Will Smith. He's just, I think, a very talented, intelligent performer.
My other answer: Probably someone like Golda Meir. ... She had to present herself in ways that women weren't doing. And I look up to women in public life who seem to do it right and, somehow, I think she seemed to do it right.
What do you think can be done to help turn around the turmoil in the Middle East?
There's no easy answer, unfortunately. The premise that we talk about a lot now ... is that the Arab world, unfortunately, does not want to make peace with Israel. The Arab world wants a world free from Israel. ... Things will change, hopefully, ... when the Arab world will accept that Israel is there to stay. ... The suicide bombings would stop if Chairman [Yasser] Arafat would very simply get on the airwaves, in Arabic, and not only call for a cease-fire but demand a cease-fire, not only call for the cessation of violence and the cessation of anti-Semitic rhetoric and teachings but demand it.