israeli politics,

it’s pretty clear at this moment that Joe Biden has won the election. I should be happy – i have been repulsed by Donald for well over four years. i don’t even trust the peace deals he made with our Arab neighbors – despite the fact that peace is warmly welcomed when and wherever it comes. I suspect dirty deals behind every enterprise in which Trump is involved. I think it is pathetic that he was ever elected.

Nevertheless I can’t rejoice in the fact that so much damage has to be undone, that so many people have died needlessly, that we have such a long way to go to bring all the people together again so that we can make peace, beat this virus, and repair the economy of the world. I’m sorry that some of my friends are angry with me because they believe i didn’t vote for what they think is good for Israel, but what I believe is good for the US. I really think that my right to vote in the US demands my considerations first on what is right for America. Enough. i don’t think i have a right to talk this much about the elections in the US.

november 6, 2020 – rejoicing in elections Read Post »

israeli politics

My late father-in-law Bandi always talked about his father with great love, and he always aroused my curiousity.  “You have no idea how great he was,” he told me all the time.  But he never gave me any details.  But one day, long after Bandi had died, I was standing in Jaffa Port, and looking at an old wooden boat.  i asked the two Arab men sitting next to the boat why this boat is displayed on the shore, and the older one said, “My grandfather built this boat.”  He was so proud and i was impressed.  And then I heard Ezi just behind me saying, “My grandfather built this hangar.”  It was the first I’d heard of it, but soon after I began to discover dozens of monuments Arpad Gut (Api) had built – the water towers in Tel Aviv and Jaffa, the dome of the big synagogue on Allenby, the famed historical Casino, the Nesher factory near Nahariya…We went to Hungary with the kids and stayed in the Gellert Hotel, where Api had built the famed dome over the spa, other hotels, department stores, many other places.  In Siofok there is a gorgeous water tower that he built. Then there was the famous bridge in Raqqa during World War II, about which i wrote a series of poems.  The list went on and on.  I thought we had found everything. 

Yesterday I was translating a poem and there was a reference to the prophecy of Ezekiel.  Ezi decided to look it up in English and took the Bible from the shelf above my computer, with the words “Api’s Bible” on the cover,

When he had finished comparing the English with the original, he turned to the frontspiece and saw that it was stamped with the name of a bookshop in Aleppo.  How had Api come to buy a book in Aleppo?

Ezi looked again and noticed that the first two pages seemed stuck together – and there it was – a dedication in Hungarian, with a translation into English glued into the opposite page.

while Ezi read the dedication I recognized the dot matrix printer of Bandi that we had worked on together.  But it was the dedication that stunned us both – a love letter by Api to his wife, explaining that he was busy building an Aerodrome in Aleppo.  It was June, 1941.  What was he doing there? then?  

but that’s for another day.  

it’s time to return to biting my fingernails over the election.

 

november 5, 2020 – Arpad gut Read Post »

israeli politics

if you think we can rest while the US is glued to their screens waiting to see who the next president will be, you’re wrong.  i don’t know anyone who slept well last night.  and i am already half in mourning.

yesterday an old friend from Britain called me about something else and at the end of the conversation asked me, “Did you vote?”  I did.  That’s when he began to remind me of how pale and uninteresting one of the candidates is and how i couldn’t have voted for him.  Not only did I vote for him, but i’ve been waiting for four years to vote.  Tired, yes.  questionable – i don’t think so.  but i’m used to mourning the lost morality of the world and the loss of hope.  After all, this is the month Kennedy was killed.  this is the month Rabin was murdered…

november 4, 2020 – elections Read Post »

israeli politics

I’ve been on zooms all day – from all over the world, and everyone is scared.  Not only is our health protection wobbly, but we can’t hang on to anything solid – not our leaders, not our government, not the old systems of justice.  

so we’ve really got nothing to hang on to in a world where everything is fluid and probably hiding some kind of danger.  it’s more than scary in itself.

i am short with friends, and insensitive with family.  but strangely enough, i’m also the funniest i’ve ever been.  i think it’s the absurdity of the whole situation.

 

elections and corona – another reason or two we’re nervous Read Post »

israeli politics

Just put it in your calendars. November 11 at 7:30 p.m. An evening called “Found in Translation.” the IAWE is hosting four fascinating poets from around the world to read in their own language, with translations to English, so that we can hear the music of Hungarian, Persian, Slovak and Hebrew.  Milan Richter, Payam Feili, Judit Frigeysi and Hamutal Bar Yosef.  I  am proud to host it.  This means more to me than all the evenings I’ve hosted in the past few months because I’m beginning to understand the potential of the benefits of international communications.  Are you interested?  Let me know and I’ll send you the link in a few days.

what else have i doing on zoom?  some of the things are esoteric, some banal.  i taught a class on Yeats at the university of Haifa two days, and yesterday i participated in a zoom memorial.  Tomorrow I sit in on my brother’s Mishna lesson.  All very interesting but not more than you would expect. On Sunday, however, I’ve initiated a high school reunion – 55 years ago I graduated from Monroe High School in Rochester New York, and on Sunday we’re getting together – face to face – with all our wrinkles – on zoom.  

when the world returns, we’ll have lots of new and old connections to develop in real time.

october 30, 2020 – translation evening Read Post »

israeli politics

I would never have believed it – somehow Halloween has caught on in the middle of plague, in the middle of Tel Aviv, and i’ve got grandchildren out trick-and-treating. Maybe it’s precisely Because of Corona – the fear and the death and the ghosts of generations past – that the kids are attracted to this holiday that my parents objected to in the States because of its paganism. It’s creepier than Purim, and we’re masking masks in any case, so why not?

october 29, 2020 – Halloween in tel aviv Read Post »

israeli politics

this year i can only participate on zoom, and i got the notice about the ceremony just a bit too late to get in. but there was a little post-ceremony, a talk about democracy and violence which focussed on the Rabin heritage, the historical events which became violent, and those that were determined in a democratic manner. and i was reminded that we are, indeed, an unruly people, with many opinions and demands, and each group has a sense that they are the chosen ones. Since i don’t belong to a group I know that I am the only chosen one – right? But although I may be living in my own world, I don’t think about violating anyone else.

And although we’ve never talked about it, I’m pretty sure that every one of my friends that could be called ‘left’ (since we have no center any more), even those lefties who would have been considered ‘right’ in a previous decade, would spurn the use of violence. and we were too dumb then to realize that it could possibly be in someone’s mind. Now we know it’s going to happen. but when? who?

since we have no heroes left it will probably be some guy like Emil Grinsweig.

Rabin was the last true hero.

october 29, 2020 – Rabin’s memorial Read Post »