blog, my life in tel aviv

No one could hope for a more fun vaccination than we had.  At the entrance to the site we got asked – very quickly – if we had fever, have been abroad, had a sense of taste, and as we were getting used to saying no, switched to positive questions like “do you have an appointment?  are you here for the vaccine? …Ha! fooled you! Just checking to see if you were paying attention…”   Then they brought us together to a very cheery nurse – a heavy-set, braided, black man, who picked up on my strange sense of humor and realized that humor relaxes the muscles.  We joked about our respective ages, our health, our reactions… and …we were out… cut our waiting time short and off to bed.  To watch the departure of Trump from the white house.

what a delight – to keep switching channels and hearing the antithetical takes of CNN and FOX on the political games people play….  

 

january 20, 2021 – vaccine and inauguration Read Post »

blog, my life in tel aviv

one of the few things I argue with my husband about is the fact that he doesn’t record his family history, especially the stories of his grandfather, Arpad Gut.  Many of the buildings and bridges and water towers he built in Israel and Hungary are well known, but nothing has ever been written about the Kazinczy Street Synagogue in Budapest.    Arpad built this synagogue in 1913 – before the war – and it was one of the last things he built in the city before he was sent to the Front as an engineer, wound up in a Prisoner of War camp in Kajkstan and walked home after the war.  Once home in Budapest he was uninvited (as a Jew) to the opening of a building he built just before the war, and decided to move to Israel.  The synagogue, to my mind, has great symbolic value to the history of the Jews in Europe in the story I want Ezi to write.

of course he doesn’t read my blog, so he won’t be influenced by my plea…

january 19, 2021 – The Kazinczy Street Synagogue Read Post »

blog, poetry

Here in Israel we have no idea what the political parties will be running in the coming, untimely, election.  As a member of the Labor party (I know, it sounds ridiculous but I’ve been a member since I was 10) I keep getting polls about who i would chose for the head of the party.  And the possibilities keep changing.  What if Ehud Barak decides to come back?  So many enemies, so many supporters.   

And of course, what difference will it make?  Will the government alter in any way?  At the moment even our medical decisions are so strongly influenced by blocks in the government, is it possible to create a government that treats the plague objectively, practically?  At the moment – after two weeks of ‘lockdown’ the numbers continue to remain steady – because no one believes the government – and do their best to get around the laws.  We need faith, trust, honesty, and we can’t pull together to beat this virus until we get it. 

The same is true for the US of course.    

So will Biden change the atmosphere?  I think so.  There is such a mess that any order will improve the outlook.

january 18, 2021 – politics: everything up in the air Read Post »

blog, poetry

in this country you either Shvitz or Kvetch.  We’ve had a year of kvetches and now we’re shvitzing like crazy.  A quarter of  our population will be vaccinated by the end of next week and we’re bragging all over the place.  A small country with a great health care network and a prime minister willing to pay any amount to look good – what else can you expect?

january 16, 2021 – kvetch or shvitz Read Post »

blog, poetry

i was just reminded that I was the translator of Ehud Manor’s poem “I Have No Other Homeland” that Nancy Pelosi quoted the other day.  It’s here.

When Ehud died I was at a total loss.  His warmth, his openness, his lack of ego, always shocked and warmed my heart.  Me?  He’s coming My way?  He’s embracing Me?  Such a great man and he has time and warmth for Me???

This was a man who truly deserved all the love he generated in his music and words.  Here’s the poem: 

I Have No Other Home Land
Ehud Manor
Translated by: Karen Alkalay-Gut
I have no other homeland
though my earth is aflame
a word in Hebrew alone
pierces through my veins to my soul –
with aching body, with hungry heart,
Here is my home.
I will not stay silent
that the face of my land has changed
I won’t give up but keep reminding her —
singing in her ears
until she opens her eyes
I have no other country
though my land is burning
only a word in Hebrew
pierces my veins my soul –
with aching body, hungering in my heart,
this is my home.
I will not remain quiet
though the face of my land has changed
I won’t stop reminding her —
singing in her ears
until she opens her eyes
I have no other country
until she renews her days of old
until she opens her eyes
I have no other country
though my land is burning
only a word in Hebrew
pierces my veins my soul –
with aching body, hungering in my heart,
this is my home.

i’ve written many times about him in my old diary, for example here.  and i still hope when i turn a corner, I will run into him again.

january 15, 2021 – I have no other country – Ehud manor and me Read Post »

blog, poetry

I haven’t been telling you about readings.  Some of them are big readings but I have a small part, some of them are in institutions that don’t open their events to public, but there are a few coming up where it would be great to see you there.  On the 19th of January I’m sitting in on a translation class using my poems – Arabic and Hebrew.  I doubt whether I’ll be able to contribute much to it.  i’ll let you know details if you’re interested.  Lately i haven’t heard much from you guys.  Also on February 1, I’ll be talking about the poetry boom on zoom.  But I don’t have the exact time or link yet.  

The big ones are on January 14 and then on the 16.  To find out more about the 16th at the University of Michigan, click here.

 

january 14, 2021 – Events in the near future Read Post »