israeli politics

I don’t know if it was because of the sabbath, or because of the unpopularity of the site, but I got my vaccine in less than 5 minutes flat.  Then we went for cholent at friends and then a shiva call and I still haven’t started feeling any effects.  Ezi, on the other hand, is a mess since last Sunday.  I hope he feels better soon and I don’t get sick before my launch.  

The thing is, we know we won’t be totally protected – and we’re total guinea pigs – but I hope we’ll be able to keep ourselves safe.

january 8, 2022 – my 4th vaccine Read Post »

israeli politics

it is very hard for me to read poems that I think need repairs.  Today there was a poem that appeared on poem-a-day.  I couldn’t read it without tinkering.

Yone Noguchi

The faint shadow of the morning moon?
Nay, the snow falling on the earth.
The mist of blossoming flowers?
Nay, poetry smiling up the sky.

 

so I love it, but I’d rather have it 

Yone Noguchi

n

The faint shadow of the morning moon –
No, the snow falling on the ground.
The mist of blossoming flowers –
No, poems smile up to the sky.

 

january 8, 2022 – haiku Read Post »

israeli politics

With great trepidation I’m going for my own fourth vaccine today.  I’m one of the last of my friends, but Ezi says I handled the app awkwardly, and that’s why I have to go to a tent in Hadar Yosef.  

I don’t know why my fear is aftereffects – everyone else but Ezi seems to have no symptoms after.  I guess it’s because I have a launch on Monday, a class on Tuesday, and an event in Tiberias on Wednesday.

And a lunch right after the shot.

I am muchmore passive than my friends in Tel Aviv.

 

january 8, 2022 – vaccine 4 Read Post »

israeli politics

Remember this invitation? 

i must have sent this to a thousand people after I was told to organize the whole thing.  Then I discovered that the publisher had set it up for 6 and not 7.  I have never worked with such unreliable people before and I will do everything to make this right, but all my plans to use this event to put the Yiddish writers on the map have stalled for the moment.

 

january 6, 2022 – my book launch in Yiddish Read Post »

israeli politics

Well, the government is giving up telling us what to do and we have to test ourselves.  And we don’t trust ourselves to follow any kind of rule.  After all, we’ve founded this country on the fact that we’re free – our desire has always been to be a free people in a free land.  So we have no way of knowing if people have checked themselves for infection, which means that now that Ezi is probably becoming immune, we have to stay home.  I fear the herd will have to leave us behind.  I get a vaccine on Saturday and maybe we won’t have the strength to back out of cholent with friends after that.

 

january 6, 2022 – backing out of society Read Post »

israeli politics

Here are some translations of a single poem that probably mean different things to different languages:

birds of tel aviv university

 

The crow drops pecans

on the little piece of sidewalk

outside my office,

picks the meat

from the mess of shells

and flies to a tall pole

for his feast.

 

He bears the genes of crows

who released their food

in the same, strange way

many years before

on the courtyard of mukhtars.

 

This is the only land he depends upon.

That is why he

survives.

 

 

january 5, 2022 – Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

I usually find myself turning the page or changing the channel when the topic is sexual harassment.  Not because I’m not interested, but because it makes me remember.  Not one incident, but innumerable incidents I really don’t want to recall.  Most were involved with bosses or people with power over my situation, doctors, editors, drivers, etc.  Most were not overwhelming in their use of physical force.  All of them were refused, but all of them creep into my nightmares.  

But although I do not find it possible to join demonstrations and only once signed a declaration disapproving the rights of arts to total sexual freedom (which got me cut off my column in Ha’aretz ) I sympathize wherever possible with victims of sexual pressure, and I’ve interviewed about it in the past, but I’ve never been totally active against it.  And in those days you did not complain. 

january 5, 2022 – Harassment Read Post »