Tel Aviv Diary - September 22-26, 2011 - Karen Alkalay-Gut


September 22, 2011

POETS FOR CHANGE - THIS SATURDAY!

Attention Family: It is possible that my unending quest for information about the fate of my family is going to have some direction. This Russian tv program called Wait for Me may help find the missing relatives - maybe someone is still alive!

I know, I have no reason to look for new relatives. Compared to a lot of people, I have enough, more than enough. But I was born into my mother's weeping about her sisters and brothers, and the loss she felt throughout her life. It's just something I have to do.

September 23, 2011

The wonderful yoreh, the first rain, came today and washed away all the dirt and smells in the air. Why can't it wash away our old slogans and hatred?

September 26, 2011

The rain brought the flu for me - or some kind of aching muscles and head and it just seems to get worse and worse. But tonight I have made sure to dose heavily on aspirin and am staying abed because it has to be gone by tomorrow. We've got a holiday to celebrate after all, and there is cooking involved.

Maybe I'm just immobilized because we are still waiting for the final evaluation of Ezi's biopsy. The specialist is on vacation until after new years. So we continue not making plans for the future.

But so much has happened since I first got sick (on Saturday). Not only was the Poets for Change a great success (with some of the more famous poets getting insulted at the equality an endeavor like this demands), not only has the Labor Party transformed itself overnight, not only has the Turkish government started publishing the photographs of all the Israeli soldiers participating in the Marmara operation, not only has the weather improved incredibly and the sea is a wonderful place to be...I've lost the grammar here. But then again, I'm woozy and unable to catch up.

Joe Rosenstein, my brother, is going to be talking on the radio about his siddur and machzor tonight here. Make sure you listen.

To Karen Alkalay-Gut Diary

To Karen Alkalay-Gut home