Tel Aviv Diary - August 4-8, 2019 - Karen Alkalay-Gut
August 4, 2019
iFrom our bed n a quiet country house where all we can see are trees, we read the details of the shooting in El Paso and now some other news is coming in from Ohio. As we walked through an enormous city fair in little Venice in Livorno last night I kept thinking about El Paso and how these young people are being manipulated to hate. The puppets of Livorno with their gypsy and cabaret dancing with their black piano player made it all so clear with the right puppet master we can all dance together.
But we're having a problem with our puppet masters. EVery time i think this disaster will be the one that will engineer a change, i'm wrong.
August 6, 2019
A heat wave abroad is not like a heat wave at home. not only is Europe no ready for global warming and all that, but what can a tourist do when it is time to see things? so it's the pool for us, the shade, the late-night events. no news here because we don't understand where all the violence around the world that is being shown on tv is connected to us in the country and that part is divine.. we catch glimpses passing by a pizzeria, and that is all. and here we are in the area that invented the pistol
.So we go to Lucca and walk along the glorious wall, and walk through the city, and feel the pride the artists and artisans have in their work. it is too hot to really enjoy anything except the tunnel under the wall leading into the city, but everything there is gorgeous. the emphasis on beauty and craftsmanship makes me wonder how we Jews don't have beauty and craftsmanship as a real aesthetic value. but you can see it everywhere in Italy, especially in Lucca - the beauty and care that was attached to the glorification of the Lord is being translated into the glorification of something else without the lord. i'm not making clear sense, but i will. August 7, 2019 yes, where do the streets go if they don't lead to the cathedral? The empty shrines, the vacant churches, unnerve me and when we return to Tel Aviv i will see the unused synagogues differently.,that something is gone that gave purpose to life. In Tel Aviv I see the other purpose - bringing together the Jews to safety, living in peace and mutual benefit with others. But that too is as yet unfulfilled and in danger at present.
