March 17, 2024

Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2024-03-16

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. You can also read this email online here. Here we go...

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"Are you a good man?"

A little boy, blocking the gate to a playground in the park, challenges me.

It takes me a moment to recognize that he is speaking to me and to process what he has said. He repeats the question. "Are you a good man?"

I point to myself. "A good man? Yes."

He steps aside. "Then you are permitted to enter."

"Thank you!" I'm not headed into the playground, though. He looks a bit confused as I walk past him.

A woman on a bench nearby calls out, "Very good!" I look over and smile at her. She smiles back.

On another bench, up a few steps, a man wearing a yarmulke and a woman wearing a scarf discuss the degree requirements at the local university. They're speaking American-accented English, but it's too complicated for me to follow in my eavesdropping.

At the House of a Hundred Grandmothers, I tell my family about things that I had heard on the Daily Briefing podcast during lunch.¹

It turns out that the New Contract party, who won the bulk of the council seats here in town and supported the winning mayoral candidate, are, in effect, the political wing of Brothers in Arms.²

They're the group of military veterans who were at the center of the demonstrations that roiled the country last year. On October 7th, before the sun had even set on the devastating attack on our country, they snapped into other, needed action. They formed the core of many of the non-governmental activities helping with recovery and the war effort.

They recently realized that actually getting elected to government positions would help them become even more effective. The government has been stumbling though its supposed work, both before and during the war. They could try to counteract the way that. As my family points out, it's easier to have an effect at a more local level. They focused on getting seats in the recent municipal elections.

As the podcast mentions, they now see that in their early political action, starting in January of last year, they had driven a wedge between parts of our society, in ways that they didn't expect. They're trying to heal that now. Thus, for example, the representatives of that party, who do tend toward the more liberal, secular side of things, reached out in our town to the more conservative and religious parties and included them in their coalition.

That seems easier in our city than it might in other towns. We're close to unique in not having particular neighborhoods that have become specifically religious. There have been attempts over the years to create them, but they never quite worked. The various groups live together well.

One thing that makes that easier here than in the States is that putting together a religious Jewish community is more difficult there. You need an area with access to, for example, kosher butchers, a synagogue within walking distance, and a mikvah.³ Here, you really have to dig to find a butcher that isn't kosher. (The only one that I know of is a big place, "Kingdom of Pork," in the larger city nearby.) And the city owns and allocates land for synagogues and, I think, mikvahs. So, while the Haredim (ultra-orthodox) still tend to cluster in some towns, it doesn't happen in ours.

I admit that I don't know to what degree the government supports other religions. I understand that labor laws insist that all people get their own set of religious holidays off work. The major mosque in our city is a historical site that has been active since the eleventh century.⁴ The one devout Christian whom I know here attends church in the massive bus station in the next city.

The usual political demonstrations are still happening every Saturday night. Once again, protests demanding elections and those demanding the return of the hostages have been colliding. The police are using horses and water cannons once again, now that protesters have gone back to blocking the highway.⁵ I haven't seen any WhatsApp messages about arrests yet, but they'll probably appear.

The Identity Crisis podcast has a good conversation on how previous wars and the current one have affected popular music here.⁶ The guest is the author of a recent article in Kveller, which goes into more depth and includes complete videos for many of the songs.⁷

or those who enjoy cooking, Al Jazeera has a recipe for a simple vegan dish, maqali, using fried vegetables and spice.⁸ The article describes a displaced family making it for the Ramadan iftar meal.

On what may be the far end of the food spectrum, YNET shows how to make your own version of Ferrero Rocher balls.⁹ They are chocolates wrapped around hazelnuts, rather like a heavenly version of the Lindor balls we had to keep ourselves from devouring while working register shifts at the bookstore.

They're supposed to be good for Purim mishloach manot gifts. Enjoy, in moderation. They're small (though the recipe makes 30-35 of them).

Another article (which I ran across in my research after having somehow forgotten what Lindor balls were called) gives a local recipe for simpler chocolate balls.¹⁰ It starts with crushing up tea biscuits, such as these.[^bahl-bis]

On the way home, after the Havdalah ceremony to end the Sabbath, I try to kick the large fallen branch out of where it's blocking the path. I can't budge it. I put my hands higher on the branch and push. Nope.

At least the streetlights are working in the park now, so it's easy to step around it. City workers will probably come by in the next couple of days and deal with it. They're good about that.

Heading out of the park, I spot some clean cardboard boxes by the official trash heap that will be good for some organizing that I have to do. I take them with me. The trash heap is good for that. People often place things there carefully, for others to reuse.

I put the boxes down when I get inside, and look at what tasks await me tonight. Now that I've put off completing these posts until the mornings (though I still write and organize much of the materials at night), my evenings have become less crowded. But I still have a lot to do.

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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 at that Las Vegas address, 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.)

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L'hitraot.