israeli politics

The prize ceremony at the President’s house was particularly weird for me.  I didn’t know the prizewinners personally but the fact that it was yiddish was enough to make me want to go.  And although the President himself stumbled over the few words he was prepped to say in Yiddish, he acknowledged his limitations with a smile and won the crowd over by admitting them.  

But I couldn’t help thinking about my earlier visits to the residence, about Peres’ knowledge of literature and his intimacy.  There was an enormous crowd and I didn’t even get to shake Herzog’s hand.

Because we were early and the crowd was a bit elderly, we went out to see the busts of all the presidents of this country, and I got Gilad Zuckerman to stand in line with me along with the other presidents.  Maybe I should try to actually get the job… After all, I know more Yiddish than he does…

yiddish – Dec 14, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

While all the dirty bargaining is going on in the government, I take comfort in my friends. The other night it was the wonderful book club I’m part of, which changed my mood from black (politics) to white (wisdom and warmth).

Today too we were bathed in warmth and hope, having gone up to Nazareth to visit a sick friend I was worried about. Against the background of the Christmas tree, the nativity scene, the amazing landscape, and the incredibly beautiful home, we shared a beautiful morning as the recovering patient kept displacing his elegant Persian cat to serve dish after dish of sweets, fruits, liquours, tea, and coffee. When we arrived home, the alley cat who has adopted us greeted us in the parking lot and accompanied us to our apartment, which looked incredibly messy and dingy to me, with our genuinely vintage furniture and our view of other buildings. The cat ate our leftover chopped liver and went to sleep on the bathroom rug as I counted my blessings. But why didn’t I take pictures?

friends – dec 13, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

It’s not only flowers.  Everywhere I go, everything I do that is connected with money – I screw up.  But today’s flowers reminded me.  

Today I wanted to buy poinsettia for a sick friend in Nazareth I’m going to visit in the morning.  At first, I went online to have them delivered tomorrow and the price was 89 shekel.  But somehow I was worried that it would arrive on time, and I decided to go pick them up myself.  Time is money so even though I was charged 150 shekel, I decided it was safer.  And because the container was ugly I bought a straw one for another 50 shekalim.  

On the way back, I thought – what a businesswoman I am.  Just like yesterday, when I signed a contract to publish a book that would cost me an inordinate amount of money because I thought that the ms. has been laying around a long time, I was too tired to look for a publisher, and considered that all things considered, publishing it with them would cover all my problems and leave me free to write a new book.  And then I transferred the major portion of the sum.  

That’s when I began worrying about the exact definition of words in the contract and realized that certain things were not included.  It was like the plant I bought for too much.  And I remembered the first rule of opticians – They put the glasses on the customer and say, “That is 1$100. ”  If the customer doesn’t blink, he says, “That will be for the frames.  The lenses are another $100.”  And if the customer still doesn’t blink, he says “each.”

This is the way our politics has been working on Bibi,  So I’m not the only sucker in the world.

But if you want to pre-order a book in Hebrew that my publisher said was incredibly innovative and exciting (before I paid her), it’s 60 shekalim.

 

 

 

flowers – dec 12, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

A few days ago at an IAWE board meeting, someone suggested we have an evening on Leonard Cohen, so while we were babysitting a hyperactive dog today, we watched the movie of Hallelujah.  The religious Jewish element seems so strong to me – and each word of the prayers is taken seriously, as a way to understand the self in the universe. .  So unlike the new religious government we’re about to have  here, which is about imposing behavior and not understanding.

 

halleluya Read Post »

israeli politics

This world cup is broadcast live on the main channel here – And with every game, I see how much politics is not only in the players but also the viewers.  I judge the game not on the playing but on the nationality.  I don’t condemn the dirty players, but the policies of their leaders.  I don’t seem to be the only one.  I know this is wrong, but it is on one hand a channeling, a displacement from actual battles, but on the other hand a reminder of our own disagreements.  A friend of mine relates every game to the way Jews were/are treated in the countries of the teams.  The Holocaust and the Middle East are major factors.

football unites – Read Post »

israeli politics

Churchill is dead.  When Ezi told me I said “he is released”  The last times I saw him, he had something in his brain and he was weak and barely communicative, but He was still a musician to watch.  I’m so sorry we;re going   to miss him.

Churchill – Dec 8, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

 it’s an incredibly crowded place, with graves of many streets in Tel Aviv – or at least the people they were named after.  And after an amazing lunch at Moon Sushi Bar, Ezi wanted to visit his grandparents and relatives in the nearby cemetery.  

It was getting dark, and I was afraid we would be locked in, but we went first to the grave of Ezi’s aunt, who died at the age of 18 from meningitis, then to his father’s parents, and finally to his mother’s parents.  We visited the great heroes of this country, from H.N. Bialik to Dvora Baron to Arik Einstein, and left before the sunset.  

It is not only Ezi’s history that is buried here but also the history of Jews all over the world.  The memorials to towns destroyed in the Holocaust, the suicides of those who survived, and only as we were leaving did I see the memorials to all those who died as a result of the exile of Jews from Tel Aviv in the early years of the city.  

Somewhere I have a recording of a radio program I did with Ziv Yonatan long ago where he interviewed me in this cemetery.  It was fascinating to me then, and it remains a fascinating place.

trumpeldor cemetery – dec 7, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

As we raced to finalize our arrangements for our granddaughter’s birthday, we passed the study center surrounded by black-hatted men who looked away as I passed, and then made our purchases at the bakery and the pharmacy where the salesmen and pharmacists spoke Arabic to each other.  And as we were leaving, I whispered to Ezi, “you realize we’re a minority wherever we go…”

I had just left the hairdresser where the guy replacing my hairdresser who needed a vacation spoke mostly German and English.  And now I too look a bit German. 

So, since someone asked me the point of this discussion, it is that Hebrew speakers are becoming a minority.  That whole big fight for Hebrew from the beginning of the twentieth century that killed Yiddish seems to be in danger of being lost.  And the worst part is that the Yiddish spoken is dirty and limited and garbled.  It’s the Yiddish you learn on duolingo.  If it were the complex and intellectual Yiddish like Lithuanian Yiddish it wouldn’t be so bad.  The Arabic spoken here, on the other hand, is something we can learn from.

minority – Dec 6, 2022 Read Post »