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i was so surprised to see this poem on this site I had to copy it. Emma Lazarus’ translation of Solomon Ivn Gvirol’s declaration of the power of the human heart to transcend even the imperatives of nature – seems to important to me right now in the face of the chaos that academia and poetry has become. Two of my heroes remind me of how important is the spirit.
ibn Gvirol emma lazarus – 5.18.24 Read Post »
i’m doing this evening on home and objects on June 6 in honor of my new book in Hebrew “Hanging Poems,” and today as a friend asked me if I had thought of leaving Israel, and I said no, it was a moment of truth for me. I thought of a poem of Yehuda Amichai that I translated but never published – a poem that stayed in my heart.
A person leaves home
And home doesn’t leave the person
who remains
on the walls and on
whatever hangs on them
and on the carefully closed
rooms and doors.
Or it is that the house
expands and goes on
to become the roads
where the person goes
who leaves that home.
Here we are, moving from place to place in the US, but Ezi keeps the app on that alerts us about rocket attacks in Israel. It’s not a loud sound, and the people around us don’t hear it, but we do. Last night, when I couldn’t sleep because my feet were aching terribly from sitting scrunched up in the car all day, the alarm kept going off. And I kept thinking about the joy I felt when I first discovered that Israel was not a theoretical concept but a real homeland. I even understand the longing of the Palestinians for a homeland even though they themselves never lived there. It stays in your bones, that home.
The rocket warnings are sounding now. someone doesn’t want me to have a home.
Amichai – home – 5.17.24 Read Post »
Yesterday I think I wrote about the differences in the news we get – how sometimes we see ourselves differently because we get different news in Israel and abroad. But today it was there in USA Today, that the nymber of children and women estimated killed in Gaza has been cut in half.
To us it has always seemed strange that we would accept the statistics of a people who have never been known for their accuracy. Now let’s see what else comes out
how we see ourselves – 5.15.24 Read Post »
Israel is celebrating 76 years of independence, but we don’t dare talk about it. We don’t talk about the amazing gains Israel has achieved, the millions of people who have been saved from Arab and African countries, the millions of Arabs given an education and a career, the millions of Russians provided with the means to achieve a life and provide education and culture to so many others. …
Wandering the streets of NY I see names of students – Arab Filmakers, Russian Painters, Moroccan Restauranteurs, all former Israelis who were given their first opportunities in Israel. The numbers are overwhelming – the effects and influences. are overwhelming.
Me, I like to kvetch that my salary has always been 1/5 of what I would have received in the United States and my publications would have been five times the number of what it is. But I would never have given it up. Ever.
My father was always scared of getting into trouble. He was right – he was living during the McCarthy period and there was big trouble for him if he go caught up in those inquisitions. Now I’m seeing lots of students keeping their mouths shut, folding up their virtual tents (no those they got from Quatar) and stealing off into the night. Most are leaving because their lease is up and it’s the end of the semester, but many are leaving because they’re literally scared. And justifiably. The demonstrators are violent and whether they are demonstrating at the gates of the university or the Hilton, they mean business.
What exactly is their business? I can’t believe the queers for palestine don’t realize that in Gaza they would be thrown off roofs. I can’t believe they don’t know what horrors await those who actually lived under Hamas await them. I can believe they enjoy making a statement of independence.
Years ago when BDS first started making noise, I mentioned the necessity to avoid allowing this on campus to a colleague. She responded that they have a point and maybe it would wake us up. I stopped talking to her – not intentionally – but it was more like avoiding a flame after I’d been burnt. She is now one of those in charge of solving the problem of Tel Aviv University being cut off from the world.
getting into trouble – 5.13.24 Read Post »
amazing how different the same news is from the US and from Israel. The order of events, the details, the meaning. The news here begins with the condemnation of the widespread killing of civilians in Rafa. We are shown stubs of limbs (stubs with wounds long healed) along with the repeated excoriation of violence. In Israel, the same report on Rafa says we are focussing on the outskirts of Rafa, very aware of avoiding civilians. The point made is that Sinuar is not in Rafa and it is important to look elsewhere. Rafa is not what we care about, but the renewed bombing from Rafa on our villages and Ashkelon.
That’s just one example. The news here is full of pain – Biden is willing to sacrifice his reelection for Israel. Bibi is hoping for that.
I want to put all the information together and shake it up and then sort out the pieces and put it all together again.
I want to make sure all the Israelis who have left Israel because they can’t stand the politics go back to vote so they can help fix what’s wrong with it. They don’t have to stay there – but they now realize that their lives are altered by what is going on there. It’s time.
getting the News – 5.13.24 Read Post »
There’s an old story about judgement that Tevye quotes in “Fiddler on the Roof.” A judgement was asked to be made of the rabbi in a complex case. One contestant gives his case, and the rabbi agrees, “You’re right.” Then the other presents his arguments, and the rabbi pronounces, “You are right.” “But. Rabbi,” says his assistant, “They can’t both be right!” And the rabbi answers, “You’re right too.”
To me this has always meant that despite absoluite truths, absolute justice doesn’t exist, and compromises must be achieved. How? Only through direct discussion. In some disputes, no judge can say who is right or wrong. It takes direct and open-minded dialogue between two leaders who are of open-heart and mind and wish to solve the problem.
That we don’t have.
at least sixty years ago, a teacher of mine, R.J. Kaufman, leaned with his elbows on the table and clapped his hands hard. “This,” he said, “is the definition of pain – two objects trying to occupy the same space.”
He paused, and clapped again “It is also the definition of love.”
actually, he twined his fingers together and twisted his hands. it was incredibly moving.
So since I picked up a copy of Nathan Thrall’s book which won the Pulitzer yesterday, and I wasn’t in the mood to read, I found what seems to be a more important audible book by Nathan Thrall, The Only Language they Understand
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=The+Only+Language+They+Understand%3A+Forcing+Compromise+in+Israel+and+Palestine&crid=16R4PA0OSPWHS&sprefix=the+only+language+they+understand+forcing+compromise+in+israel+and+palestine+%2Caps%2C609&ref=nb_sb_noss
who’s right? – 5.10.24 Read Post »
