israeli politics

Last month Rafi asked me to read some poems of Dickinson in a panel.  I of course agreed because I will grab at any chance to read any kind of English poetry.  But weeks later I realized I had written a very tentative date, and when I asked Rafi the exact date, it turned out to be impossible.  So make a video and we’ll screen that, he said.  And I set to work. Now that it’s done, I was informed by the organizers in Jerusalem, that they wouldn’t have time to show it.  So I’m translating it back into English and putting it online.  It’s here.

emily dickinson z’l – sept 24, Read Post »

israeli politics

We missed Yair Lapid’s UN speech yesterday because we attended a wedding, and by the time we came back I was too tired to look it up and react to it.  But after I heard some of the reactions I had to look it up in toto. 

And now I’m hearing the local political reactions to his speech – and I can see how much work he has to do.  Even though he said what many many people here think, he has to work through so much political opposition – primarily concerned with self-interest, I somehow wonder if he’s going to succeed. 

Of course, I’m prejudiced.  I recall his father, who was much more emotional and less measured.  We met a few times at the American cultural attaches home – each time there were long conversations and each time he didn’t remember me from before.  Ezi doesn’t remember any of the conversations either.  But I recall very well the sense I had that he didn’t pull punches and didn’t disguise his emotions or opinions.  Lapid is very much in charge of his actions.  And he’s a good guy.  I’m almost trusting him…

 

 

wedding trumps -sept 23, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

What am I, a Jewish chef?  

All right, I promised you a recipe or two for Rosh Hashana, but when I started thinking about what I will make, the very thought of gefilte fish turned my stomach.  Chopped liver, on the other hand, is one of my favorite foods.  The problem is shmaltz – I always forget to get to a butcher who carries shmaltz, and who has the patience to cut up the chicken skin and fat and fry it in onions.  It takes hours to render the fat into the liquid which cools down as shmaltz.  All right, I’ll give it one more try tomorrow morning, and if I don’t find it, I’ll use 1/4 oil to half a kilo of chicken liver and 3 hardboiled eggs.  that’s basically it – salt, pepper.  I fry the chopped onions – usually wind up adding a third onion because there is room. Then as a gesture to kashrut, I broil the liver first but then cut them in half and fry them with the onions, mix it with the remaining fat, chop it by h  and, add the chopped eggs, chop it some more, add salt and pepper, tasting it all the way…. 

Maybe I’ll add the chopped boiled yolk of another egg on top and maybe I’ll remember to garnish it with parsley from my window.   

But it’s the shmaltz that will make it or break it.

chopped Liver – sept 21, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

Tel Aviv residents have been patiently watching their streets being torn up for years, but now it is becoming more than we can take.  Many main avenues are barely passible and with the wild delivery motorcycles on the passible streets,  motorists who have become pedestrians are in as much danger as they were before.  The date for the promised subway and light train system has been postponed again.   And lately, the digging has reached our neighborhood as well.  One example: A few weeks ago a random tractor cut all the phone lines of the university, and since then I can’t reach any office and can’t get anything official done.   Just before the holidays! Just before the new semester has to begin!  Let’s hope the new year brings new roads…

digging – Sept 21, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

An 84-year-old woman was murdered today by a terrorist.  He must have been really desperate to find a victim if all he found was a helpless old lady.  But it seems these are the new laws in the world.  Citizens of Nablus attacked Palestinian police and a son killed his mother in the country today.  It’s becoming like Yeats described Ireland in 1919 “

Now days are dragon-ridden, the nightmare
Rides upon sleep:  a drunken soldiery
Can leave the mother, murdered at her door,
To crawl in her own blood, and go scot-free;
The night can sweat with terror as before
We pieced our thoughts into philosophy,
And planned to bring the world under a rule,
Who are but weasels fighting in a hole.

We are so in need of the cleansing of a new year.  

And to begin the year with the most foolish of things, we have chosen to travel across the world to Japan.  Via Dubai.  

I would have backed out many times, but for the shame of deserting my friends who are traveling with us.  I would so prefer to go on our own, lazily wandering in and out of local culture.  And we’re going with a group where the rigid rules of sticking together will protect us and divide us to the point of madness.  

At a time when we should just be staying home, getting over our fourth vaccine in peace, building a sukkah in a well-lighted, well-guarded place, and expressing our gratitude at having a homeland….

terror – Sept 20, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

I guess I’m recklessly trying to clear off my poetry desk this year.  I’ve agreed to a ‘selected poems’ with keshev and a dual-language version of “hanging around the house” with ekked.  This is going to give me something to do in the winter months.  For the rest of the time I’m going to do a reading series with IAWE. 

pobiz- sept 19, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

For years I have been searching for the story of my mother’s youngest sister and her fate in the partisans.  I write about her everywhere, but there is so much I don’t know.  This new film: FOUR WINTERS – by New Moon Films has made the trailer available here: https://youtu.be/hZNmISQZKY0

and I can’t wait to see it.  The interviews and photographs alone are worth seeing.  What excited me the most, though, was the promise of describing the network of partisans all through the forest during the 4 years of war.  I’ll be looking for dates and times with great anticipation.

partisans on Film – Sept 19, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

This entire area has worlds beneath our worlds.  Today’s Post has a piece about a giant burial cave from the time of Ramses II underneath the park in Palmahim.  Here. Ezi’s father told me about discovering all kinds of things when he was putting in a sewage system underneath Tel Aviv.  The Times of Israel also talks about the cave in Palmachim but also covers a giant mosaic discovered in Gaza.  Who knows what else is down there?  I miss having stopped hiking on the Israel trail if only because of the amazing discoveries like these.  But I don’t miss the dehydration and the footsores.  

 

holes – Sept 18, 2022 Read Post »