israeli politics

We have not done a good job in keeping Christmas alive in the Holy Land, especially this year.  Covid kept the pilgrims out, and we don’t emphasize the many holy places and trails there are here.  Moslem places are don’t really seem to exist as much here, but everywhere you go here there are Jewish and Christian remains.  In fact most of my Moslem friends go to Mecca now for Umrah.  I’m not sure if there are many holy places here .

But anyway I can’t go now.  I want to take my grandson on his birthday to some place associated with the Palmach – which is his present obsession.  He’s booked up for parties today but we’ll get him neext week.

december 25, 2021 – christmas in the ho Read Post »

israeli politics

since we have many birthdays to celebrate among grandchildren and children, the children decided to make reservations at the childrens’ favorite restaurants.  But 1. it’s christmas eve, and it seems that since Judaism is becoming more and more extreme around here, Christianity is becoming the happy alternate.  We’ve seen Santas putting on tfillim.  2. It’s shabbat, so everyone is meeting up for dinner somewhere.  So we’re doing a delivery at home.

Why am I not cooking?  I do dream of chopped liver, chicken soup, tsimmes, chicken, and lemon meringue pie for dessert, just like Friday nights at home.  But at least half my family doesn’t eat anything I cook.  Half my family loves it.

december 24, 2021 – reservations Read Post »

israeli politics

Dear Michael was buried today.  Somehow a burial makes death so real.  Just hearing about it means nothing.  But today they shoved him into a wall and when they tried to pull the tallit off, it got stuck, so they sealed the hole with stone and putty and covered it with a block.  

I was the only one to speak over the body before the ‘burial,’ and although I spoke directly to him, I couldn’t look at him.  It was no longer raining but the steel gurney seemed so cold, and I kept thinking of how he always bundled up and how cold he must have been.  So when I saw where he was placed finally I shuddered and couldn’t stop.

At my father’s shiva, my mother chased the chattering women out of the house, because, she said, they had no right to mourn him.  So when Debby said she wanted to be alone, I left her.  But I was so relieved that Oren and Ezi went to lunch with me, and that we could talk about stupid things like gifts for children and dim sum.  

I will miss him.  So many people I was closer to passed this year, but his death is so ….

december 23, 2021 – Michael cohen z”l Read Post »

israeli politics

For weeks we’ve been urged to abandon our qualms about omicron and hasten to see the retrospective of Yayoi Kusama at the Tel Aviv Museum.   Linda even bought tickets for us.  So we took our granddaughter and went.  

Now part of my response was definitely related to the difficulties involved in getting a partially vaccinated child to the museum.  We picked her up after school – I walked over to the unreachable-by- automobile gate and waited, in the rain, for a good ten minutes and brought her to the testing place.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the entrance and no one around the Habima seemed to know where it was.  Suddenly, a door opened, and a beautiful woman stood at the entrance.  Her understanding of the forms to be filled online, however, was as clear as my understanding and that of the little girl, so the process extended a much longer period.  

So we went on to the museum and arrived just in time for our time-specific tickets.  

And hungry.  

A quick trip to the cafeteria didn’t revive me – too much was going on.  Friends I hadn’t seen for years with much to tell me, food I was too distracted to choose properly, too many people.  And I forgot my pills.  

So by the time we got to Kusama I had little patience for infinity.  Even Van Gogh was too much for me.  But my art-hating granddaughter found great pleasure in innumerable selfies together with the mirrors and self-reflective exhibits and I found great pleasure in photographing her.  

After, we compensated her with McDonald’s at Dizengoff Center, and I found great pleasure in visiting the new toilets there. 

Seriously.  The solution to trans toilets, for example, was easily available with ‘unisex’ toilets between the ‘men’s’ and ‘ladies.’  The problems of finding out-of-the-way bathrooms were solved by numerous artistic signs on the floors “this way to the new toilets.” 

December 22, 2021 – kusama Read Post »

israeli politics

Because this is the shortest day of the year, this is a day when many people are at their lowest as far as mood is concerned.  Me too. 

But then I think that if John Donne was affected by the calendar, I can overcome it and do something productive.  You too.  

And from here on, it can only get better.  That’s what Donne says:

Since she enjoys her long night’s festival,
Let me prepare towards her, and let me call
This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this
Both the year’s, and the day’s deep midnight is.

  

 

december 21, 2021 – St. lucy’s day Read Post »

israeli politics

As the rain diminishes, for the time being, we begin to cancel our plans for lining up the neighborhood animals two by two.  Although the subway digging has been pretty much sabotaged, with holes big enough to trap a car or two a few blocks away, there doesn’t appear to be as much flooding as last year.  

There is a drive to collect coats for the homeless – and it will be a pleasure to warm some hearts as soon as I can find the address… 

Anyone?

Are there many homeless in Tel Aviv?  More than you can imagine – and many of those people have homes but they are inhabitable.

 

 

december 21, 2021 – carmel storm 2 Read Post »

israeli politics

Since the numbers are going up for Omicron and the weather is forbidding, we’re staying home.  I’m also light-headed and wiped out from these beta-blockers so I’m happy for the excuse.  And there’s a reading tonight about war poetry – I’m not hosting, but I’ll read a poem or two.  here’s the link:

We sat in the living room watching the window and waiting for the storm – our guest worried that he might get stuck in the violent weather, and indeed, although we worried about it for 2 hours, it was only when he left that the rain began…

 

 

december 20, 2021 – carmel storm 1 Read Post »