Tel Aviv Diary: Karen Alkalay-Gut

Our initial response to the amazing event of the visit of the Pope has been so strange, so critical of his every word or lack of word. We were expecting, it seems, an apology for his past and the crimes of the German people. But his visit is in itself a statement that we somehow underestimate, perhaps because we always place ourselves in the middle of every event. This is such a gesture towards universal peace that it absolutely has to be acknowledged.
For months I’ve been wanting to writing about the pictures at The Aman Gallery that illustrate soccer in Thereisenstat. The stills from Kurt Gerron’s indentured direction of the film “Hitler Builds a City for the Jews” break your heart in their beauty and hope, especially when you know that all the players were killed as soon as the film was finished, along with the director. Site of the Gallery
We’ve been asking our friends to contribute to the fund that would allow Eshchar to get the treatment for brain cancer he needs in Belgium. It is worth reading his site and worth contributing. When we contributed we felt we couldn’t do enough for such a deserving person.
I guess the point of all these seemingly antithetical topics is that the necessity for humanity is universal and enters into every aspect of our lives.