Tel Aviv Diary - January 17-21, 2014 - Karen Alkalay-Gut
January 17, 2014 "Why have I been ostracized?" my crazy friend Tamar texts me at 7 in the morning. I get tired of talking. Not that there's nothing to talk about. The latest of my articles about poets and their graves came out today in Ha'aretz. This one is about Oscar Wilde. Here it is: Wilde's grave. Unfortunately the articles is only in Hebrew and the link is only for members. And even though i'm a member i can't get in. It's a great piece and i hope you can get to it. The ones before on Yeats, Whitman, and Ginsberg are good too if i do say so myself. Zoe says the genre is called "Death kitsch" - a great escape from rockets and political corruption. There is a great restaurant on the way to Ramat Hasharon, just before the cemetery of Kiryat Shaul. It is called 206. DO NOT GO THERE ON A FRIDAY NIGHT. We walked into a large room full of noisy families. We could have borne that but the kid behind us kept screaming and no one stopped him or his absolutely wild family. Even though they left as we were finishing our main course we had to get out of that chaos, and brought everyone home for dessert. There were two lessons to be remembered here: (1) that some Israeli families still behave as if they own the place, and(2) that some Israeli waiters really care if you enjoyed yourselves or not. Our waiter tried everything to convince us to stay, understood exactly why we were leaving, and knew he would get a big tip anyway,but was visibly upset when we walked out.
January 18, 2014 In the midst of all that noise in the restaurant we were discussing who will take Shimon Peres' place next year when he steps down. There seem to be no choices that I could be comfortable with. Then today I got sent a petition to sign - to consider one of our most vocal Nobel Prize winners, Dan Schectman. I did a quick google-translate of the petition so you know what you are signing:
Professor Dan Shechtman, research professor at the Faculty of Science and Engineering - of Materials Engineering, an Israeli engineer and researcher of material structure, discovered and brought to the definition of a new crystal structure of cyclical-like crystals. And for this discovery Shechtman won the Israel Prize in Physics in 1998, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011. He announced his candidacy for President of Israel in place of Shimon Peres who will leave in May . (I know there are a few more mistakes here - only fixed a few of the googlegaffes but you get the idea).
January 19, 2014 When you watch "A Wolf of Wall Street," about a guy who talks people out of their money - just note that you have contributed just a little bit to the man's wealth just by watching the film. The guy gets profit from every ticket, and we buy into it. I was so depressed as I filed out of the movie with the enthusiastic crowd - Everyone but me loved the film - it was a continuation of the blind worship of a corrupt capitalism that created the plot for the film in the first place. Boy were we bilked.
January 21, 2014 To make up for that horrible film, we got to go to a fund-raising evening for Itach-Maaki
a group of women lawyers working for legal rights of women. Chakim Araidi spoke about the aid she received in her search for a Druze divorce, and I know of at least 9 other causes this group has worked to solve, especially in the area of rights for Haraidi women and Arab women. Anyway, we were treated there to a concert by Rona Kenan and many feminist celebs.
We are citizens of Israel and call for members of the Knesset, the body that selects the President, to rise above political considerations and support the candidacy of Prof. Shechtman .
A President who is a Nobel laureate in chemistry will bring tremendous honor to Israel in the world and become the focus of the President's Education, education and excellence. The candidacy of Prof. Shechtman is a refreshing change . This man deserved the Academy Award in Quality Award. We are fed up with politicians who pursue respect and followers, those with dubious reputations who competed for the job and manned it. We are all still under the influence of that hard tenure of Moshe Katsav, a convicted sex offender .
It is time to return honor to the President's role. No more politicians outset , middle or end of their career path. Let us respond to the President's role. Let us raise the prestige of the State of Israel and the world. Let all of us will support the candidacy of Prof. Shechtman
To win a nomination he needs the support of at least 10 Knesset members . All that we raise here MK thousand votes, 10,000 votes total target of this petition.
Lend a hand to change the face of the president. Lend your hand to glorify the name of Israel and the nations. Lend your hand for the candidacy of Prof. Shechtman, sign the petition and distribute it !