Next week I’m having an event at the Writers’ House. Oct 9, 2023. Why is this night different from other events I’ve had? 1. It’s celebrating a new book – one that I have learned to respect more and more. 2. It’s in a building that I fell in love with when I first came to Israel – a home for writers. I used to appear there every few months for years, celebrated weddings of friends, and spent every friday afternoon in the cafe. That was all before it lost its status and its money. In the past few years it has been rescued by group of writers who are also businessmen and now the building will be torn down and rebuilt. So I will be saying farewell to a major part of my love of this country – the part that was literary, socialist, corrupt and yet idealistic. 3. I’m going to be surrounded by good friends – what can go wrong?
This is one of those days when I’m staying home and catching up. And boy is there a lot to do. There are journals of the IAWE to send out, forms to fill out I never got to that are catching up with me, floors to wash, an evening to plan, a zoom to plan, and lots of medical papers to organize. Which doctor on what day and with which papers.
And poor Kurt Gerron is getting neglected. I’m trying to get all his 97 films and watch them, to get the sense of his touch of the situation in Germany in 1933. That’s the thing that’s most important. Why didn’t he leave like all his friends? How did he lose touch with reality?
Even though our friend spent almost an hour explaining some of the damage being done by the government, the view was so spectacular it made me forget for a moment the imminent danger.
Everything she said was right, and she even enlightened me on underhanded manipulations I hadn’t conceived of, but the sunset, the sunset was so beautiful…