Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2024-04-20
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...
The Havdalah ceremony ushering out Shabbat is a bit more ad-hoc tonight. My family has converted their apartment at the House of the Hundred Grandmothers to Passover mode a few days early. They want to stay in sync with the House's kitchen and dining hall.
The usual set of items used in the ritual have been locked away. We use acceptable replacements: a different cup and saucer for the wine; a couple of old, small flashlights instead of the usual electric candle; a jar of cinnamon instead of the usual blend of aromatic spices. It works.
I notice that the spacing of the text on the saucer looks odd, with arbitrary spacing between the letters. They point out that it was made in China, where the workers probably didn't speak Hebrew. Each letter had been pasted on individually.
Before supper, we look through a book of historical maps of our city. The town originally consisted of two very different areas, with a swamp between them. The Romans had built an aqueduct to drain the swamp into the sea. When the new residents came here about a century ago, they had to clear out centuries of gunk from the aqueduct so that it could drain again.
The two zones are still somewhat different. People have made proposals to legally split the town up, but it's never happened.
The west side, near the beach, was originally residential. The area nearest the beach has some of the country's most expensive real estate, plus fancy hotels like the one that I worked in.
The Industrial Zone formed closer to the swamp. In recent times, it has become a tech center, with corresponding retail and fancy restaurants.
The east side, where we live, was originally farmland. Housing replaced it, with the central business district at its center.
The newest construction is filling in where the swamp was. The railroad station is at one edge. Expensive apartment buildings are going up there, as well as more offices.
The roads between the two areas are inadequate. There are continual traffic jams and too few buses. The city is working on better transportation. The region is trying to put in new Metro and light rail systems to connect things. Residents, of course, think that would be wonderful, as long as it wouldn't mean construction, noise, or increased parking near where they live. Odds on it ever happening don't look great.
The new mayor visited the House last week. Word has it that he got to see what works wonderfully there and what could be improved. His predecessor had a strong commitment to the House and its residents. The new guy had focused more of his campaign on the younger, richer residents, mostly on the west side. We hope that, as a leader, he will work to represent the rest of us, too.
More relatives drop by while we're looking at the maps. They've just moved back to our city and are living in a house by the beach. They're setting up a music room: keyboards, a drum kit, simple recording facilities, and places to sit. An array of acoustic instruments rest against one wall or hang from pegs on it.
The photos look nice. A new bus route that I've never taken stops right outside. It's a ten-minute walk from a historical park that I want to return to for more filming. I'll have to get up there sometime.
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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.