Tel Aviv Diary - November 23-27, 2013 - Karen Alkalay-Gut
November 23, 2013
"Don't you feel how small it is?" my neighbor says when we've finished lugging our suitcases into the apartment. On the contrary - there is a place for everything here - i just have to find it. It will take a week. Most of my friends have built bigger houses. But I like the smaller concept. Do you think I'm straining for a national metaphor? Wait until I wake up - jet lag is very bad for solving problems. Nevertheless it feels very good to be home.
November 24, 2013 So Iran is now the most powerful country in the Middle East. The Sunis must be shivering. who knows - maybe this is good for all the world. maybe not. This has been a busy time for reality programs here - one of the biggest stars of reality tv has been under investigation for a while for tax evasion and the whole time i was reveling in the US was being accused of remunerative sex with minors. His father is still in jail pending trial. And the guy has been continuing to appear on tv. If this doesn't say something about the moral problems of the media and the media stars i don't know what does. No wonder people turn to religion - at least there are SOME values left there.
Two nights in Tel Aviv and we only now got to Papa's. There have been restaurants, not many, but places in New York - like Fetch - where i absolutely couldn't eat the food. Others that had been praised that I liked. Only Boulud was magnificent. But Pappa's is almost always just right. There was a new chicken dish I devoured tonight, followed by a decaf affugato, that set me just right. I think i like the beginning of the week best there - when it isn't full and you get that great music with great food uninterrupted by noise. November 25, 2013 The weather remains amazing in Israel, but soon it will be cold and rainy. And just in time the closet we order was put in yesterday and we can give away our extra clothes and coats. There are people who sleep in the park - the electric park - and it is important to help as much as possible. Unfortunately the clothes i most want to give away are those i wore for fifty years of teaching. What I would like to be able to wear are very simple and very elegant night club performance clothes. But i haven't been asked. Yet. And Chanukah is coming up so i wouldn't fit into the dresses anyway. I'm going to make doughnuts like
Joan Nathan does: Actually this video was filmed in our friend Rafi and Liz Magnes' home and we talked about them ourselves last night at Pappa's. November 27, 2013 Arik Einstein was my first musical love in Israel. And he will be my last. May he rest in peace.
See him here
His coffin is resting now in the city square - hundreds of thousands filling the memorial service. I am not. following his own song - "i love to be home, with my own stuff." Of course he wrote many more important songs to me: "You and I will change the world./ You and I and everyone else will come too./ It's been said before, before me/ It doesn't matter./ You and I will change the world." His dirge on Rabin, his attack on gossip mongers in the papers, his praise of sport, his song on chocolate. There is no end to his wonderful repertoire. Especially from great poets like Avraham Halfi, Bialik, and others. If only our stars today could be just a little bit like him. What a man he was! Is there any way we can begin to rate his achievements, and his humanity.