If you’re going to Hebrew Book Week, save the 19th at 8 for the signing of the hebrew version of my book. (Booth 99 in Sarona)
The English version (and they’re different) came out a few years ago during covid and I never celebrated it, so it’s about time I do it now. If you’d prefer the English version ( only some of the poems are completely different), let me know and I’ll bring along “Hanging Around the House.” I love them both, but differently.
save the Date: June 9, 2023 Read Post »
what a choice! Gay pride parade or World Cup – Israel against Uruguay!
And we chose World Cup and Israel lost. I was sure that with three religions on our side, we would have an amazing chance. But it looked to me like we didn’t know how to play on grass.
Never mind, we didn’t play at our best, but we made it to the finals and maybe we’ll make it to third place. What brings me to the game is the fact that our players are Jewish, Arab, and Bedouin and all worked together.
what a night! june 8, 2023 Read Post »
The shortage of doctors in Israel is well-known as a recent phenomena – self-created. Hours, salaries, working conditions – all coalesce to make this place unpopular for doctors. So our doctor in the health clinic usually saves time by asking me as I open the door, “so what can I do for you?” i ask him for tests, he types it up, says “its in the computer” and I barely have time to sit down. No point in taking my blood pressure or checking my heart, since he’s sent me to a specialist (who also has never touched me). That’s why we go to a private doctor (who used to be our doctor in the health clinic) and she diagnoses, suggests tests, diet changes, and even alterations in our medications. It works – but it shows that the system isn’t working.
doctors – june 8, 2023 Read Post »
Here are 2 new publications of mine you’ll want to know about
These are some poems and stuff about my family in the Holocaust in the new Journal of Jewish Identities
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/898135/?fbclid=IwAR0zA6DhMca2wKgW7SUvXZm-h3mJ1tXKMOSAbfYEI3ptTPivHwIEAwtmQxc
And here is the cover of my latest madness – coming out next week during book week in Tel Aviv:
start spreading the news – june 6, 2023 Read Post »
Finally. we reopened our beach season this afternoon. An Aperol Shpritz, a brilliant sunset, good friends – what more could we want?
If there is anything I recommend in Tel Aviv, it begins with the beach and not all the fake elaborate places.
beach season – june 6, 2023 Read Post »
For Ezi’s birthday we went down to the Jaffa port to see which of the buildings Ezi’s grandfather have been razed. It has always been surprising to me what parts of history are important to us, what should be preserved and what can be erased. So the customs house buildings through which so much of the Zionist past entered Palestine have been destroyed, and I wonder what that means about us. It isn’t as if Jonah went through customs, I know, although he did go through Jaffa port. And the customs house was built by British decree so it has nothing to do with the Arabs. So just the fact that it was built in the 20’s and a lot of merchandise that built the state went through there doesn’t mean anything, does it?
But I digress. Since we were advised that “the old man and the sea” was the best place to eat, we went there, and I want you to know – it isn’t the best place in Jaffa. Even though it’s on the port with a view of the sea, I found the impersonality of the place a factor in my appetite. In fact, I had the feeling that most of the waiters didn’t speak Hebrew and didn’t dare speak anything else because they were not from this country. Maybe that was a factor in my dizzy spell there – or maybe I misread the entire restaurant because I was dizzy. Lucky Lisa was with us because she brought a sense of humanity to me, and our conversation about politics was based on the same starting points. That made it easier to discuss specific events and people, and forget about the food.
From there we plowed through debilitating traffic jams to get to a doctor’s appointment and made it home just in time for the birthday party to begin. Our high expectations for the birthday cake did not materialize, as the cake was all show and had little taste, but again, maybe I was off balance.
Anyway, I feel I have more work to do to make the birthday a happy one and more investigation to do to understand who is really in charge of the port. It doesn’t feel good right now, but there is much more building going on, and maybe a plan will emerge. It is a place with great potential for the future and a past worth remembering.
birthday day – june 5, 2023 Read Post »
I didn’t want to watch the news – so soon to get into the funerals of three young people who died senselessly because of a lone fanatic terrorist. I didn’t think I was ready, but as soon as the news began I was weeping. Fascinated by the humiliation of Simcha Rotman in New York and the other right wingers around the world. And at the end of the hour I was rejoicing with the soccer team’s win over Brazil. Somehow throughout it all, I am a patriot.
In honor of Ezi’s birthday tomorrow, I recommended we take a walk to the pretentious bakery of Otmazgin. Otmazgin/Optalgin we kept saying as we walked over – and enjoyed both the pretension of the cake and our mockery of the our pretension. It’s part of being Israeli. Tomorrow the kids will admire the unusual beauty of the cake, marvel at the price, and wrinkle their noses at the taste.
unity – June 4, 2023 Read Post »
We were planning to go to the demonstration tonight, but at four in the afternoon, I started coughing and couldn’t stop. So together with the jet lag it wasn’t a good idea.
I kept thinking that in New York I watched the news every evening, just as I do here. But here it hurts so much more. Today the three soldiers killed on the Egyptian border tore my heart. I don’t even know why an Egyptian policeman should cross the border and murder soldiers in their guardposts – whether it is drug-related or political – and I suspect it was drug-related because there are millions of dollars worth of drugs crossing the border daily. We’ll know soon, but those teenagers won’t be coming back.
home again – june 3, 2023 Read Post »
