December 13, 2023

Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2023-12-12

Hi. I'm Joseph Zitt. I moved from the US to Israel in 2017. This is my newsletter about more-or-less daily life in my city in the shadow of war. You can select these links to subscribe or unsubscribe. There are more links at the bottom. Here we go...

---

"Who will light the candles?" the boss bellows as we walk to the front of the office. The candles have already been set up, with plates of cookies beside them.

I timidly raise my hand. Others notice and call out my name.

The boss reaches the front and turns around. "Joe will do it!"

Another worker brings the matches. He keeps them at his desk. I don't know why.

The boss launches into a florid introduction. I can't follow what he is saying, but I catch the word "haKhazan," "the cantor." They sometimes call me that.

I light the service candle (whatever it's called) and the shamash. I take a breath and begin the first blessing. My voice cracks a few notes in. I'm embarrassed, but there's nothing to do but continue.

I sing the rest of the blessing, then the second one, then light the rest of the candles. Following tradition, I start with the sixth candle, which we added most recently, then work my way down to the first.

I realize that I have forgotten the melody we use for the hymn that follows. (Writing this, I try to find it on YouTube. I find so many others that I have forgotten the melody that I'm looking for again.) I stay silent while lighting the rest of the candles until the boss starts to sing it. The rest of us join in with it, and the other hymn that follows. I think that one only has one melody.¹

The boss launches into another brief speech. I think he is talking about my artistry, or something like that. He hasn't done anything like that for the other people lighting the candles.

He turns directly to me and says, in English, "Extraordinary. Extraordinary." An interesting choice of a word, since we had just removed it from a contract document that had been converted from Spanish to English.

I get several messages, in email, WhatsApp, and the news sites, about art events related to the war.

The organizers of the rave at which so many people were massacred have put together an exhibition at the nearby Expo Center.² It recreates the site of the rave, both as it started, and after it was destroyed.

One area of the exhibition, the "Corner of Loss and Reality," contains items that were lost or abandoned at the site, each with a story attached. The organizers and a police group have invited the families of victims and of those kidnapped to identify and reclaim what had belonged to them.

In late November, DJs returned to the site of the rave and performed for a small group, along with people who had survived the rave and photos on placards of those who were lost.³

The large public library⁴ at which the hostage families have set up camp is holding a week of activities, "In the Spirit of the Times: The Written Word in the Shadow of War".⁵ Most of the events are free. They're livestreaming them on YouTube.⁶

At a scenic port in the next town, 75 artists are exhibiting work, either made in response to the attacks or resonating with them.⁷ Some of the art was rescued from a kibbutz that was ravaged. It's being displayed with the tears from shrapnel and bullet holes from that day.

At the Eretz Yisrael museum, an exhibit of photography, "Local Evidence," is featuring images taken during and after the start of the war, as well as work by photographers who were lost in the attacks and the fighting.⁸

In the town north of us, an exhibit will have a corner devoted to artwork in memory of the victims of the attack.⁹

Several songs related to the war have been posted and become popular. I have linked to some of them before. The song, "The Wheat Grows Once More,"¹⁰ was written in the wake of the Yom Kippur War. Fifty years later, the group that originally recorded it have reunited with a large group of singers to perform it again.

And the internationally-known writer Etgar Keret has published a short story written in the aftermath of the attack.¹¹

This article looks at sound-art created out of the grief and anxiety experienced on all sides, and collects links and playlists of a lot of relevant sound and music.¹²

I've also been seeing and hearing other striking art and technology from across the border (though I haven't been collecting links). Some famous artists, such as Banksy and Brian Eno, have been doing what they can to bring it into view. I hope that, once this is all over, the artistry and ingenuity that hasn't been destroyed can blossom and become known.

I had been planning to go to the Cinematheque this evening. They're showing an Israeli film noir rap opera. The trailer, shown before the Beyoncé movie, looks great.¹³

Just before I leave the office, I get a message from the local news site. We're expecting heavy rain, with flooding in this and other cities along the coast.¹⁴

I head home instead. The Cinematheque is only about a half-hour walk to my house, but it's probably too far to swim.

---

Feel free to forward the newsletter to other people who might be interested.

Here’s an archive of past newsletters.

You can find me via email, Bluesky, Mastodon, Facebook, and, just out of inertia, X/Twitter. There's more about me and my books, music, and films at josephzitt.com.

The newsletter’s official mailing address is 304 S. Jones Blvd #3567, Las Vegas NV 89107. (I’m in Israel, but if physical mail comes to me there, it’ll get scanned and emailed. I don’t expect that to happen much. If you want to send me physical mail, ask me for a real address.)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

L'hitraot.