BAYAMON, Puerto Rico — Most of the young women competing for the Miss Universe title had nice plans when they left Puerto Rico last weekend: modeling contracts, university studies, jobs or vacations with their boyfriends.
Miss Israel, Ilanit Levi, however, faced something a bit more grueling: basic training.
Like most Israeli women, Levi, 19, will have to do a stint in the army, a tour of duty she postponed for six months to prepare for the May 11 beauty pageant in Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum in this industrial suburb of San Juan.
Yet she didn’t seem at all bothered by the prospect, clowning around with her fellow contestants in the days before the pageant as if she hadn’t a care in the world.
Levi was all business when necessary, however, impressing the judges enough in the weeks of interviews, photo shoots and dance rehearsals leading up to the pageant to earn a spot as a semifinalist on pageant night.
After an initial pass by all 77 contestants in representative national costumes — and no, Levi didn’t wear her famous bulletproof dress — the field was narrowed to the 10 semifinalists who dominated the rest of the show.
Levi didn’t make it to the group of five finalists, however, hampered perhaps by the fact that she was significantly shorter than her competitors — a mere 5 feet 7 inches, next to amazons measuring close to 6 feet. In addition, her simple black dress seemed rather plain next to the elaborate evening gowns chosen by the other semifinalists.
Still, Levi’s achievement marked the best finish by an Israeli since 1978, the end of a remarkable stretch beginning in 1958 when Miss Israel placed among the Miss Universe semifinalists or finalists in all but four years.
Israel has won the Miss Universe title only once, when Rina Messinger took the crown in 1976. The Jewish state won the slightly less prestigious Miss World pageant in 1999.
Unlike pageant powerhouses Venezuela and India, which invest years of training and thousands of plastic surgery dollars in promising beauty queens, pageants are not a big business in Israel. Perhaps as a result, the Israeli contestants often lack the polish and poise that make the difference among outstanding candidates.
For example, many of this year’s 77 contestants used an interview question about the most interesting event in their lives to mention prizes they had won or volunteer work in humanitarian causes.
Levi, with typical Israeli bluntness, said she couldn’t recall anything very interesting.
While it may not have helped her with the judges, her naturalness made Levi one of the more popular girls among the group at last Friday’s pageant, won by hometown hero Denise Quinones of Puerto Rico.
And Levi’s family said they felt the judges had other considerations when choosing the next Miss Universe.
“It doesn’t just come down to beauty here,” said her sister, Nitza Levi. “There are a lot of other factors, like politics and language.”
Detractors, however, said politics had worked in Levi’s favor.
Jase Choenni, manager for Miss Netherlands, Reshma Roopram, sketched an elaborate conspiracy theory to explain why his beautiful charge — and fiancée — wasn’t a semifinalist. Levi was chosen, he said, by judges who wanted to help Israel’s international image at a time when most news from the region paints Israel as bloodthirsty and violent.
The national manager for Trinidad and Tobago noted ominously the preponderance of Jewish names among the judges who picked the semifinalists.
Yet few men who laid eyes on Levi wouldn’t do a double take. Her exotic features — she has olive skin and piercing eyes — reflects her international heritage: Her father made aliyah from Morocco, her mother from Libya.
There even was enough of a Latin look about Levi to make her a favorite with Puerto Ricans, who compared her to Puerto Rican-American Jennifer Lopez.
Not all the images of Levi that made the local press were flattering, however. One paper used a huge picture of Levi looking angry and bored to depict the contestants’ frustration with the preparations for the event.
The picture scandalized the groupies circulating about the pageant, who feared it would hurt Levi’s chances.
Levi laughed it off as a chance and candid moment.
“Look, it’s really hard work,” said Nitza Levi. “They keep them going from morning to evening.”
Still, it wasn’t quite as challenging as, say, basic training. After the army, Levi hopes to study psychology and work as a children’s therapist.
Given the recent months of Mideast violence, it was inevitable that Levi would be asked frequently about politics. As Israel’s representative at the forum, she felt obligated to defend the country’s image.
The other contestants “want to know how I live, what it’s like,” she said. “I want to make sure they know that what they read about in the paper, the war and the violence — it exists, but it doesn’t dominate our lives.”
Still, politics intrudes even into the world of beauty pageants. As in the 2000 pageant, which took place while Israel still occupied its security zone in southern Lebanon, Miss Israel 2001 got the cold shoulder from Miss Lebanon, who was under orders from her government to ignore Levi.
“Our countries are not at war, but” she and Levi “are not going to be friends, either,” said Miss Lebanon Sandra Rizk. “We just try to be businesslike.”
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