israeli politics

As my cousin Howard reminded me, my parents also learned English.  They came to England in 1939 and the records note that they knew no English.  But by the time I came around, they were pretty fluent, and even figured out the different between British English and American English.

And before that, my grandmother learned languages.  One of my first books had this poem:

A Lithuanian Legacy

The soldiers would come
into my grandmother’s yard
pull the head off a chicken
and thrust it into her hand

Cook it    woman

The Russian soldier the German
then
the Russian again

 

 

language Graveyard – Jan 11, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

I’m slowly backing down. More important than protests, education, reorganization, and preparation are critical.  First off, I don’t see any possibility of alteration through public protests – What we seem to be getting is a dangerous further division that leads nowhere.  Secondly, I myself caught a cold even before the protests began on Saturday evening.  It was a reminder that I am a little too vulnerable to protest the way I did during the Vietnam war.    

I am not, however, deterred by BenGvir’s threats to take action against the protesters.  The more authoritative the government behaves, the greater the imperative to protest.

 

backing down – jan 10, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

At a crowded conference today on language, which encouraged me to keep writing funny poems in Yiddish, the lectures after mine were concerned with the way the intentional demise of Yiddish in Israel led to a great depression among Yiddish speakers and the Hebrew imperative destroyed many other languages at the same time.   Not just Ladino and many other Jewish dialects as in Jewish Moroccan, Iraqi, etc.  Thinking about it in retrospect, we Jews who lived in other countries always created some kind of way to communicate secretly, even while using the lingua franca of our neighborhood. 

Multilingualism has always been attractive to me – a comment coming from another direction always gives a perspective to the situation.  

I have a feeling it makes you smarter.  My parents spoke Russian, German, Polish, Ukrainian, Yiddish, Hebrew, Esperanto, Lithuanian, and who knows what else…

language graveyard Read Post »

israeli politics

tomorrow morning I’m speaking (in easy Hebrew and Yiddish) at the Tao Center in Herzlia-Pituach about Jewish Humor.  The details are here:  פוסטר סופי-סופי 9.1.2023.

Until I wrote the talk I didn’t know what a great subject it is and how I go at it from a completely different angle.  The museum ANU, for example, has a big exhibit on Jewish humor – that’s pretty much American and Israeli pop culture.  Humor around the world, humor in the ghetto, humor for Jews, humor of Jews to entertain non-jews … it’s such a complicated issue.  

My talk is at 10 – come and keep me company.

 

 

 

humor – jan 8, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

If you know Tel Aviv, you know we’ve been digging up the city for the new metro system that will eliminate some of the congestion in the city.  The new transportation minister, however, wants to eliminate the funding.  So since we’ve already got the tunnels, I propose we return to a very old plan – The Blaumilch Canal.  A crazy guy starts digging in the middle of Allenby Street, and the transformation to a canal gets approved by the municipality.  The film, from 1969, is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EokiJqr8xvo

Come on, we’re getting crazy enough, desperate enough….

 

 

tel Aviv transportation – Jan 7, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

This is a conversation I heard on tv.

“Why did Bibi insist on Deri?”

“Because he needs him.”

“Why does he need him?”

“For his experience.”

“But he’s a crook, an ex-con!”

“That’s exactly the experience he needs!”

 

politics – jan 7, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

When my grocery order didn’t turn up yesterday and we had waited until the last egg, the last bread, etc.  I started making alternative plans.  Then a message arrived saying that something or other broke down and our delivery would be on Sunday.  And now another message just came saying it would arrive an hour ago. 

All this was very inconvenient, but in a way, I was relieved that I am not the only one getting all discombobulated in these times of political confusion.  

In the past few days, I keep getting dates, times, and names, wrong.  When we know what’s happening with the high court, I really believe we’ll start remembering again.  

confusion – jan 6, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

It’s been months since the elections, and nothing is in place in the government.  They’re still working at it, and the absence of order is felt in every aspect of our lives.  Ask me to pinpoint the mess – it is impossible.  No one is sure of what the rules are or how to follow them.  Try to watch the news on television and there are five people on a panel talking at the same time.  We have 47 thousand Ukrainian refugees and no government organization in charge of ordering their acclimatization.  A rocket was fired at us last night, and there was no response.  A soldier was left behind in an army operation to arrest stone throwers in a Palestinian village, and the villagers were kind enough to take care of her for the few moments she was stranded there.  We were going to meet family in the city today, but two water mains broke and created flooding, so everyone’s stuck. 

It all seems one piece to me.

disorder – jan 4, 2023 Read Post »