Tel Aviv Art Museum

Photo Captions: Metal sculpture in front of the museum, more tall buildings, my favorite painting in the museum, a cute young Jewish girl (Olga) thinking deep thoughts, be still my heart.

I set aside the full day for the Tel Aviv Art Museum and was not disappointed. Admission was reasonable ($11) and soldiers in uniform are free. I’ve started noticing that a lot, there are the standard, seniors, adults, students, and children fares and then a “soldiers in uniform” price. I couldn’t think of an equivalent situation in the U.S. unless you count PX’s, which of course is significant. Also the museum had quite a few soldiers and I also couldn’t think of an American equivalent of that, maybe a NASCAR race.

The collection was really enjoyable. The nicest part is that there were lots of paintings of pretty Jewish women and very few paintings (1) of Madonna’s with Child. You know that wing of every Western museum that has a thousand Jesus Going to the Cross, On the Cross, and Coming Down from the Cross, well the TA Museum doesn’t have that wing. It does have a large collection of paintings with Bible story themes, but really that was fun. There were Judith with Someone’s Head, Abraham, Isaac and an Angel, actually there were lots of Somebody, Somebody and an Angel paintings. The theme was mainly upbeat or as we used to call it, “bourgeois art” and mercifully no Holocaust paintings. One noteworthy sculpture was of a man about 8 feet high who was bent over forward with his head between his legs and his face very nearly up his butt and clumps of brown paint splattered all over. It was some kind of metaphor about the human condition and was a great visual imagery. I wanted to take a picture, but the guard stopped me. I guess I should have pulled out my ATM card and said it was official bank business.

Downstairs was a movie theater and they were showing The Counterfeiters which is the fascinating, true (?) story of the German project to reproduce the British pound and the American dollar using Jewish concentration camp prisoners. There were about 50 patrons in the theater and I’ve got to tell you that watching a concentration camp movie in Israel is a trip, there is nothing overtly different from any other movie theater, but the vibrations in the air were really heavy. What is an especially interesting insight for me is that no matter what the subject, I always find the philosophical issues and moral dilemmas of Holocaust movies so incredibly thought-provoking. I recently saw another such movie, Grey Zone, where a little girl was found alive at the bottom of the gas chamber and the entire movie was devoted to the question of saving one life in the midst of the killing of thousands of others. I have a good friend who argues against the obsession with the Holocaust to the exclusion of the other genocides of history and I don’t disagree with that point. But for me personally, I really understand and wrestle with the issues raised by the German Holocaust. Honestly, I don’t “get” Darfur, Kosovo, Kurds, Pol Pot, Rwanda, Armenia, etc.; I grieve for them and share the world’s indignation, but frankly I just don’t understand their causes, solutions, or implications. But a Holocaust movie, I’m right there, as Heinlein would say, I “grok” it. Maybe it’s easier for me to see myself hearing the knock on the door at 3 a.m. or being forced to make a Sophie’s Choice, but the deep intellectual issues raised in that genre of movies is never lost on me. My friend accuses me of “ranking” genocides in order of importance, but I don’t think I’m ranking; I know this sounds racist and even shallow, but some genocides I get and some I don’t. (Sorry)

One Line liners: I got my ATM card yesterday and as I walk around the street I find myself no longer looking at people, but instead memorizing the most convenient bank machines. I was stopped by a tough guard at the Haganah Museum and asked for my passport, which I didn’t have. He then asked if I had any official ID and all I had was my new ATM card without a picture. As soon as I produced it, his demeanor changed, he smiled and immediately waved me through the barrier. Sounds like a great Mastercard commercial. Didn't the 9/11 hijackers get their money from ATM machines, maybe Bush should have outlawed those.

Cable TV: I get over 200 channels. The good news is that there are very few commercials. The movies, sporting events and news programs have almost no commercials. It’s a very interesting feeling, there’s a continuity of watching TV that is never broken up with junk interruptions. On the other hand, you have to plan bathroom and snack breaks much more carefully. There are 6 English movie channels, last night for example the Truman Show, Little Miss Sunshine, A Beautiful Mind, and Hotel New Hampshire were all on within a couple of hours of each other. The bad news is the only American news channel is Fox. I just don’t get that, it is so dreadful and I miss Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart desperately. There is the British Sky News and BBC which does take up the slack. Fox has a dilemma they can’t decide if they hate Obama or Hillary more, but they feel like that have to choose and are terribly conflicted over it.

Internet: A very curious development. My pop-ads and the little advertising video windows that I get in my news websites are starting to appear in Hebrew. Also my Google search window is starting to come up in Hebrew. How do they know I'm here?