israeli politics

I am not one for malls.  It has been a long time since I’ve been in a shop, and I must confess that I was intimidated by the Tel Aviv Mall.  Of course I’ve got all the brand names here and there in my closet somewhere – the dkny, calvin klein, zara etc.  But I don’t even remember how I got them. Or why.

It was not terribly surprising to me, then, that the shops were relatively empty.  Life seems to go on, but our wardrobes remain plain and dull.  Except that all the news reporters on tv wear different colored silk shirts.  Shiny silk.  

I saw them in the mall.

Even my granddaughter couldn’t find a pair of jeans she likes.

Tel Aviv Mall – Sept 28, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

“Why do you want to learn Arabic?”  someone asked me when I presented some of the translations of my poems to Arabic in a reading.  “Because people speak Arabic around me.  I have to understand.”  

Well, I’ve been trying to learn for years, and today, as Jereis and Maison were translating a poem of mine, I began to feel that it is beginning to work.  That I can understand here and there, that I can read the letters.  Wow.  It is hard! But my Hebrew has improved in the past few years as well.  And at my age, that’s amazing!

Unfortunately, even though Marek has been busy translating some poems into Polish, my Polish has almost totally disappeared.  And only occasionally does a word come to the surface, even though I was surrounded by Polish and Russian in my youth, with all the refugees.  Last night, as we were admiring the round challot our friend had baked, the conversation turned to the little black spots garnishing the challah.  Ketsach (nigella) the specialists around the table told me, is a new addition to the Israeli cuisine in the past twenty years.  And I said suddenly, tschernishkes, the Russian word for little black things.  That meant, I realized, that the “novel” ingredient had been known to me as a child.  Then I remember that tscherni is black and that my mother always sang the song “Black Eyes” ochi tschornya to me as a child.  “As much as I love them, so I am afraid of them.”  Kak lliblov yavas…

My eyes are now green.

arabic – sept 27, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

One of my favorite first courses for the holidays in my Sephardic days was Agristada.  I never learned to make it, because the main ingredient was brains and it was impossible to find.  But suddenly I remembered it could be made with fish and my taste buds filled with longing.  I finally found a recipe in ladino and translated it.  I will make it when we’ve finished some of the leftovers.  Here it is:  

agristada
Author: Myriam Dueñas

Edition: Recetasjudias.com
Ingredients
• 3 cups of broth or water
• 1 very juicy lemon (if not 2 lemons)
• 1 egg
• 1 crushed garlic (with mortar)
• 1 to 2 level tablespoons of flour
Process
1. Beat the egg, add the lemon juice and very slowly add the sifted flour.
2. You must mix with a wooden spoon.
3. Add the broth and garlic
4. Take it over low heat until it thickens slightly
Grades
AGRISTADA is a sauce that is used to accompany fish or meat
It has the appearance of a mayonnaise.
Much appreciated in Sephardic Jewish cuisine!!!!

agristada -Sept 26, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

Everything on my mother’s table had another meaning. For Rosh Hashana,  of course, everything was sweet.  

Except, of course, the fish.  The gefilte fish was served always with the head – so that you will be the head and not the tail of your endeavors.  The tsimmes was sweet, but the real meaning in that dish was the carrots – meren – in Yiddish.  Mer is more, so the year will bring more for you.  The chicken wings were served so that you will fly throughout the year.  And the teiglach – the little balls of dough cooked in honey and piled into a cone – a reminder that sweetness unites individuals and creates a powerful structure.

The thing that hit me most powerfully is the fact that we ingest our symbols.  They become a part of us.  The shofar always moved me, but it was a call from without… 

eating symbols -New Year Eve 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

This is all I have to show from August 25th in Beit Ariela. Almost everything is blurred or twisted. And so ends a year of wonderful mishaps. Let’s make the next one work.

me me me Read Post »

israeli politics

Last month Rafi asked me to read some poems of Dickinson in a panel.  I of course agreed because I will grab at any chance to read any kind of English poetry.  But weeks later I realized I had written a very tentative date, and when I asked Rafi the exact date, it turned out to be impossible.  So make a video and we’ll screen that, he said.  And I set to work. Now that it’s done, I was informed by the organizers in Jerusalem, that they wouldn’t have time to show it.  So I’m translating it back into English and putting it online.  It’s here.

emily dickinson z’l – sept 24, Read Post »

israeli politics

We missed Yair Lapid’s UN speech yesterday because we attended a wedding, and by the time we came back I was too tired to look it up and react to it.  But after I heard some of the reactions I had to look it up in toto. 

And now I’m hearing the local political reactions to his speech – and I can see how much work he has to do.  Even though he said what many many people here think, he has to work through so much political opposition – primarily concerned with self-interest, I somehow wonder if he’s going to succeed. 

Of course, I’m prejudiced.  I recall his father, who was much more emotional and less measured.  We met a few times at the American cultural attaches home – each time there were long conversations and each time he didn’t remember me from before.  Ezi doesn’t remember any of the conversations either.  But I recall very well the sense I had that he didn’t pull punches and didn’t disguise his emotions or opinions.  Lapid is very much in charge of his actions.  And he’s a good guy.  I’m almost trusting him…

 

 

wedding trumps -sept 23, 2022 Read Post »