Oren sent me a piece of a poem by Amichai today and it sticks so much in my mind I had to translate it for you:
“Where was he injured” you don’t know
if the intention is a part of his body
or a place in the country.
Sometimes a bullet passes through
a person’s body and injures
the land as well.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
amichai – a piece of poem Read Post »
Because of an article Ezi pointed me to in Haaretz in English about Unrwa, I started poking around on the web. You can find the article here: but if you’re not subscribed or you don’t believe in believing a source from Israel about Gaza, just look at their site:
https://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/unrwa_in_action_2023_eng.pdf
You don’t have to do the math to observe the arcs on the circles. Gaza is getting the greatest percentage of the help – food, supplies, education, etc. So where is it going?
The article in Haaretz by Ronny Linder that explodes UNRWA almost made me lose faith in the possibility of peace. I’ve known this before – and so have you.
“ooshkut
Emily
This is a day of enormous joy and relief for Emily Hand and her family. An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned, and we breathe a massive sigh of relief. Our prayers have been answered.
“Ooshkut,” she whispers. “Silence.”
The only word she has learned
In the long weeks of captivity.
A tiny child, the kind
that fairies would lure
with stolen berries in the woods
to dance all night
in their magic ring.
But she was wakened in her cot
and dragged to places
she dare not tell,
redeemed by chance
from a world more full of weeping
Than she can understand
to her father’s trembling arms
and whispers still
“Ooshkut.”
ooshkut – december 12, 2023 Read Post »
All right, I don’t gossip with the neighbors, and I barely look at the neighborhood websight. So maybe I was the last to know. But when I went into the neighborhood drugstore today and most of the medications weren’t there, I was shocked. The pharmacist explained that they were tearing down the building on thursday so they were getting rid of stuff and I suddenly realized that since this place was next to the dorms and most of the people who live in the dorms were Arab students, the entire staff is Arab. Now what will they do?
So many memories of this drugstore: The night after Ezi’s second chemo when we went to buy condoms for the first time in our lives, and we spent hours trying to figure out what the difference is and what could be done with each. And when we took the craziest selection to the counter, the voice of the pharmacist rang out. “Brofessor!”
the pharmacy – dec 12, 2023 Read Post »
It’s Hannukah, so the kids are on vacations and doing their usual thing. One of my granddaughters was using her time today to do a film for school and needed a grandmother for a short scene. So I found myself in the morning at an empty room in an old age home playing the role of grandmother alive and dead. When my little role was finished, I went to do some chores in the mall, and – not surprisingly – was captured by the Lancome team in the pharmacy. Turns out I have been their customer for 15 years and it is now sale time. But in the middle of the makeover, the sirens began, accompanied by warnings for customers to make their way to the underground garage. I was brought into the safe room of the pharmacy and found myself facing the pharmacists. “Who’s watching the store?” the manager was asked. “Nobody steals during a siren,” she answered, but we didn’t wait the required ten minutes to leave. Of course, after the shock of the numerous sirens, I was ready to buy out the whole shelf of make-up. Luckily Ezi came to help me carry my loot, and was happy to take me out to lunch. But the restaurant was so crowded, there was no chance in the mall, and I suggested a place that was open to the air, where, I assumed, people might be reluctant to go after an attack of seven rockets on Tel Aviv. There we managed to find a table for two, and were given discounts on the beer.
Now I’m ready to get to work.
simple days – dec 11, 2023 Read Post »
For some reason it has taken me forever to actually write this little book in Hebrew about Kurt Gerron, and as it went to press I could see how much is missing – how much I need to actually go to Germany and find all the films that aren’t available. But it will be there on the 17th at the museum and I hope that in these hard times the money will go to the museum.
the little book – the big exhibit – dec 10, 2023 Read Post »
Okay, we’re big gamblers around here. Especially now. When we leave the house, we’re gambling there will be a place to hide if there’s a rocket. We’re gambling with the lives of our soldiers that we’ll find the hostages. We’re gambling on this holiday with our dreydls that we spin and hope the right letter will fall and we’ll win the kitty. And I’m gambling on this site that I’m still learning how to program.
If it doesn’t work right, know I’m still looking for someone who will teach me what to do.
Not what to say. I may be wrong most of the time but I take full responsibility for my mistakes.
Let’s see. If I disappear for a day or two – it’s my fault and I’ll be back.
I ‘m gambling on my luck.
Now I will share a memory of dreydls: My mother always gave us Hannukah gelt – money for Hannukah. It’s a beautiful custom – the gold coins to remind us of the festival of light, the rebuilding of the temple, the miracles. And, as part of the miracles, we gambled.
And my mother seemed always to win back her money.
dreydl – dec 9, 2023 Read Post »
One thing I learn from Hannukah is how quickly everything can change, can flip from day to day. Look at this picture, for instance:
These are German-Jewish soldiers from World War I celebrating the holiday. There were about 100,000 Jewish soldiers serving in Germany then. 12,000 died for their country.
The guy I’m researching whose portrait will be in this exhibit of the work of Shalom Sebba was one of them.
Kurt Gerron.
He was wounded twice in WWI and returned to serve, finishing his medical degree in between. But right after the war he decided he could cure more people through entertainment and comedy than medicine. After 94 odd movies he was involved in, and countless plays and caberets, the Nazis caught up with him and he ended up in Auschwitz after having been forced to make a propaganda film about Thereisenstadt.
When I first started looking him up, there were a number of films, photographs and recordings of his on youtube, but recently as I tried to put together a little monograph in Hebrew to fit in with the exhibit, I couldn’t find usable works. Everything that was left was copyrighted, and I had to use material I had from previous lectures and articles. The monograph is out but I now wonder whether i should have done it in English for a wider audience.
hannukah – angles – Dec 8, 2023 Read Post »
