Image of the Day: I saw this picture of two women bathing at the beach at a Tel Aviv University art exhibit. Standing next to me were two female Arab students dressed in traditional garb pointing and laughing at the picture. I wish I could have also gotten them in the camera range, but I think I scared them off. If you can't figure it out, the woman on the left is Moslem and dumping the shower water all over her clothes, the woman on the right is self-explanatory. Those Israeli girls have no shame. :-)
Let me start out with my recurring apology and once again let everyone know that I am aware that Tel Aviv lives in a bubble. There seems to be no recognition of anything beyond this town and if it wasn’t for the BBC and Fox News, I don’t think I would have known that Lebanon has just had a coup. I might add that I am no stranger to “bubble towns” since San Francisco and Berkeley both qualify. I’ll deal with this topic latter when I venture outside of the bubble, but just so you realize, I do know that on the other side of the “wall” there is human misery.
Today, I took a very prideful trip and although I am usually a critical person I can’t think of anything negative to say. First I visited the huge Weizman Medical Complex which has about 5 enormous hospital buildings and is not only state of the art, but at the cutting edge of the art. The place was a bee hive of patients, doctors, nurses, technicians and huge (did I already say that.) Of course everywhere you look there is a sign that says “Zal and Ethel Goodman Memorial Patio”, there was even sign on the outside of one of the restrooms. Personally, I think the government should fund all of this stuff, but if that isn’t going to happen and it doesn’t really seem like its ever going to happen, the idea that thousands of Jews all over the world have taken their wealth (both earned and unearned, honest and dishonest) and decided to fund a hospital with it, seems impressive.
Next it was up to Tel Aviv University and once again a very prideful experience. The place felt a lot like Westwood and UCLA (without Asians and black athletes, if that’s possible to imagine); built away from the city, a bubble inside another bubble. Again, name after name of contributors and a bookstore and library to die for. I went into the library, just walked randomly into the shelves, grabbed the first book I saw, and sat down on the big soft chairs to read for an hour. It was an analysis of why the Allies refused to bomb the railroad tracks leading to the concentration camps. It was fascinating and I was so impressed that within seconds of entering the building I could become engrossed in a subject which I knew little about, but wanted to learn so much more.
And of course there were all the other perks that go with any big university, young beautiful people sitting outside talking matters of consequence and flirting their heads off. My advice to my kids and young people everywhere: STAY IN SCHOOL! Stay as long as you can, because it never gets any better than this. I am reminded of a professor I had (deGrazia) who wrote a book Time, Work and Leisure whose thesis was that we bring our kids up as socialists, (each according to his needs from each according to his ability) or basically parents give their kids everything they have and then as soon as they get to be 18, we suddenly expect them to be capitalists, dog eat dog, hording the surplus, etc. I’ve often said to Eli as we sat for the "all you can eat buffet" at the student dorms, “this has nothing to do with how the world runs, don’t get used to it.” Even my mother in the nursing home (another socialist based institution) used to steal bread rolls at dinner and she would have bags of them in her room. I would say, “Mom there is no shortage of rolls, that’s why we pay $4500/month.” But she never got it and I’m sure nobody else in that nursing home ever got it either, which is probably the real reason we paid $4500/month.
I tried to by a t-shirt that said UTA, but they had nothing like that anywhere on campus and when I asked, they couldn’t understand why someone would want a t-shirt that said that. (Is it idol worship?) Curious. I also picked up a glossy magazine with a gorgeous Israeli man on the cover which I was going to try and scan for my female readers who complain that I am obsessed with Israeli cleavages. So I sat on a crowded bus reading the magazine (which was all in Hebrew) and something didn’t seem right. I don’t think my “gay-dar” is quite calibrated yet but there sure seemed like a lot of cute men getting massages from other cute men. The person sitting next to me, gave me a funny look as did one of the people standing in the aisle. Then I turned the page and there was a full page ad for male thongs, with a single strap going up the butt crack and a tiny, tiny pouch in the front. I think it dawned on me at that point what was going on, but when I turned the page again it was nothing but personal ads all in Hebrew. I guess I now have one more reason to learn the language.
A quick word about Hebrew. I think I want to revisit my earlier trashing of the language. I think it’s obvious that Jews want or need to dramatically distinguish themselves from other people and historically this has meant circumcision. I believe that Hebrew serves that function in Israel, kind of a circumcision of the mind, to mix a metaphor. This is one tough language that everyone who comes to live in Israel learns to speak and which nobody else in the world would ever speak except Jews. Then to look at the books in the bookstore is really staggering. It almost seems that every single book of any importance has been translated into Hebrew and the prices seem incredibly low. Rather than being a really dumb idea, Hebrew is actually part of the miracle of Israel. In less than 100 years, 7 million people (6,999,999 if you count me) learned a foreign language from scratch, filled whole libraries with books in that language and expect everyone who steps on Israel soil for the first time to speak it. Hebrew (Ulpan) lessons are generally free for everyone who decides to stay. But the interesting part is that everyone will effortless speak English if you ask them to, but it is almost a matter of national pride that they prefer Hebrew. In the spirit of the moment, I do go around saying “schlicha” (excuse me) a lot, since I’m always either bumping into people, getting in the wrong line, suddenly wanted to get off the bus and always miscounting my shekels.
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