Parting Shots
Does anyone still read this page? If so, I appreciate your loyalty, despite long vacations in posting.

I will have some more images of Elana's work up soon. But first: a word.

Our time in Israel is now drawing to a close. In less than a month, we will be on our way back to the States and the beginning of the next stage of our educations and our life (collective). Now that we are leaving, Israel is taking pains to remind us of just how frustrating it can be.

Three nights ago, I finished editing my paper Shifting Sand: Myth, Romance, Propaganda, and Interpretation in Modern Scholarship of Early Islam. It's 102 pages, all told, and I'm very pleased because I managed to work in a quote from The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis, thus making me the first student of Islamic history to quote a children's book by a Christian moralist in an academic paper. But, this is beside the point. After finishing my final edits, I pressed the print button...and the black cartridge was out of ink. It was around midnight, and I had told my Professor that I would turn it in the next day (Sunday). So, I thought, no problem; I planned to drive Elana to Tel Aviv in the morning to see the studio of a friend and painter whom she admires, Aram Gershuni, and then head back together to turn in my paper. I figured, I had to print it out and get it bound first, so I wrote the file onto a CD and we drove to Office Depot at the Malcha Mall. After waiting twenty minutes for it to open, we were first in line. "Oh, ani mitzta'er," sputtered the pizza-face behind the counter, "I'm sorry. The printer and the computer aren't working." I resisted the urge to point to the large selection of computers and printers in the store, and asked if he knew where I might go to get it printed. He suggested a store called Graphos on the upper level of the mall. At Graphos the girl not only couldn't print the file, she had no idea where one might possibly go to do so. "Lo b'kanyon," she said, "Nowhere in this mall!" I decided I didn't have time to point out that there was an Office Depot downstairs who ordinarily did do such printing. We left the mall and headed to Jerusalem's second and final Office Depot, at the Beit Hadar Mall across the street from Elana's school. They, alas, did not print either. Any suggestions on where I can go to get this file printed? "Ulay Malcha?" she replied, shrugging. "Maybe Malcha?" I gritted, "We were already there. Their printer is broken." A blank stare. My lovely wife: "Where do Israelis go when they need to get something printed?" Answer: "Lo yoda'at. I don't know." But don't you work in an OFFICE SUPPLY STORE??? We just left for Tel Aviv, having wasted an hour trying to get a document printed.

By the time we got to Aram's studio it was already 11. I was due back in Jerusalem, with a finished, printed and bound paper, by 1. This meant that I only got to enjoy Aram's company and his paintings for twenty minutes. I left Elana with him and drove straight to the University by myself, where I made a beeline for the printing center. Here, at last, thought I, shall I succeed in getting my paper printed. I handed the guy the CD, and waited, and watched while the printer spit out 700 pages of

&%*%&^*&^*^(*()(&*&^&*%^%&^$&^)(*^%^$#!%$^&%(*(&^$&%^(&*^%*&^(*&%*&^%*&(%$&%$*^why(*&%$^%#$&^%are$*^&%*&^$*%you&$%(^&%$#%^#%^$reading(*&$%^$&*(%*&^this%)^%(^$&^%*&$*silly%(&*%)*^)(&{:there's""][];][;][;..]nothing[[][{{}{}__)_*)(*here&*%^$$&^$%^#$but&^*(*^(^*&%($&gibberish!%$$&^%(()()&(&(&*^)(&$&*:{{

"That's not what I wrote," I protested. "Of course not," he replied. "I can try again, but if it doesn't work I'll have to charge you for the paper it uses." Meanwhile, the door had shut behind me; the printing office was closed. I gave him the version I had saved on my USB thumb drive, and asked him to print that one. Fortunately, this time it was a success. Unfortunately, the Professor never showed up for his office hours, so it was all for nothing anyway.

Then, yesterday, Elana was painting in the landscape at Emek Hamatzelvah ("Valley of the Cross") yesterday with two of her students. A creepy long-haired guy came by leering and asking all sorts of questions, and walked by three times. Elana later found that one of her paintings, a favorite from the marathon which she had intended to finish that evening, and another painting of her student's had mysteriously disappeared. That's right; their paintings were stolen. How low is that?

After being bummed out for a while, Elana put a brighter spin on things; after all, he must have really liked her painting to steal it.
- posted by @ 3:26 PM

 
Some Recent Paintings
I know this is a long time in the coming. Here are some images of Elana's recent artwork, including her latest from the Jerusalem Landscape Painting Marathon, which is well underway. The portrait of her grandfather does not depict a final version, as it is currently hanging in a show and we have not had a chance to photograph it:



Encounter at Sataf



Grisha's Ashtray (a better image than the one previously posted)



Untitled



Standing Guy



Mermaid



Dyeda
- posted by @ 11:35 AM

 
Their End, My Beginning
Today is the last studio day at JSS for Elana; it is the last day with a model. Tomorrow is the final critique, and on Sunday begins the Jerusalem Landscape Painting Marathon. This was my last chance to get in there, paint from the model, and understand what Elana does each and every day. She has come to a number of lectures at Hebrew University. I have never, never painted in my life. Finger painting doesn't count.

On the left, we have the results of my efforts. We asked permission from the administrator, and then the model, for me to paint; that received, I took one of Elana's canvasses, borrowed paints and a palette from our generous friend Nathalie, had Elana set me up in the big studio, and away I went. Elana painted in front of me, so I could ask her for help when I needed to. I always imagined painting was difficult. But the sheer amount of patience and frustration that goes into even a 3.5 hour painting is absolutely mind-boggling. First, you have to get the drawing right; this means not only the proper angles, but the proper measurements, as well; the distance from the shoulder to the elbow must make sense in the context of the distance knee to the hip, the toe to the knee, and any and every other combination you can think of. This measurement must take into account perspectives as well as anatomy. Wanting to get to the color already, I sort of skipped this part, and freehanded an outline drawing in about fifteen minutes.

Then I began to try to mix colors. I was way out of my league. The first skin tone I set down was way too red; Elana, at the first break, helped me sort it out. After that, I was on my own. I found laying down the paint to be incredibly difficult; for one thing, I found I was painting very thick, and the paints, naturally, mixed all over the place. I had what I consider to be a very important experience, and more than once: I scraped off all of the paint I had put down to start again. Elana is always saying that you cannot paint and be precious about your work; you have to be willing to scrape off and start again. So, yes, I did. By the end, my head was spinning from looking, mixing, laying down tone, color...My last touch was to write the Arabic word Istishrāq, meaning "Middle Eastern Studies," in the upper left-hand corner, reaffirming my choice of career. Even so, I'm actually pretty pleased with the result of my first foray into painting. I'm told that my painting is very impasto, or textured--I honestly wouldn't know (I laid paint on very thickly in order to cover up previous unnatural color choices). People told me they could see Elana's influence, which I took to be a great compliment. I come away with a new appreciation for what these painters do, and the knowledge that while it is possible for anyone to paint, to do so well takes patience, stamina, skill, and great concentration.

Painting been a huge part of Elana's Israel experience which, before today, I could only connect with intellectually. The main goal of this little experiment was to have a better appreciation for what she has done every day this year and will continue to do throughout her life. In that respect, my morning was an unbridled success. I didn't create a masterpiece, but I didn't need to.

In my next entry, I'll post some images from Elana's latest work.
- posted by @ 1:34 PM

 
Where's the Beef?
Here are some photos from Ashdod.

First, we have Shemesh, the mini-Golden Retriever. Not really, but we don't know exactly what kind of mix he is, so that's the closest we can come up with. Nick called him our "Golden Hot-Dog," and that's the best we've heard yet.











And here are some photos from the family reunion picnic which we attended yesterday in Ashdod:













There were a number of barbecue gatherings at the park. Some crazy, chutzpah-infused woman went around from barbecue to barbecue, sampling the meat at each--and criticizing!--before moving on to the next barbecue. Israel...
- posted by @ 10:23 AM

 
Hypocrite Brits
The British AUT (Association of University Teachers) has decided to suspend relations with the Universities of Haifa and Bar Ilan, and is considering a similar boycott of the Hebrew University.
The objection to Haifa University utterly baffles me. It is perhaps the most left-leaning University in the country, the Israeli answer to circa-1960 Berkeley. I have even heard some of the right-leaning graduate students here refer to it as "PLO University," for its large Arab student and faculty population and tendency to help Palestinian causes. So why the boycott? Teddy Katz, a graduate student, wrote a thesis in which he accused Israeli forces of a massacre during the 1948 War. The veterans who were accused are still living, and sued him for libel; the court determined that a large portion of his scholarship was fraudulent. He then recanted, and then reversed his recantation; Haifa, agreeing with the court on the bad scholarship, decided to strip him of his degree and invited him to resubmit his thesis. Ilan Pappe, a professor at Haifa, accused the school of restricting academic freedoms and called for a boycott. When Katz resubmitted his thesis, he made no significant changes, and the University rejected it. As a result, the AUT has decided that the University of Haifa is trying to silence anti-governmental scholarship (this is the one case that's ever been alleged).

Bar Ilan is perhaps slightly more understandable. It has an affiliated college in Ariel, a city-sized settlement in the northern West Bank, open to and widely populated by Arab students. I can understand boycotting a University that implicitly supports what one views as colonialism. That's bad news for Muir Central College at Allahabad University, I guess. Besides which, for the British--who, last time I checked, are even today occupying an area much larger than the West Bank--to boycott on these grounds is almost laughable.

They are also considering boycotting Hebrew University for the construction of dorms on Palestinian land (the University, of course, acquired the land perfectly legally). This refers to French Hill, a few blocks from the University, a mixed neighborhood. Again, Hebrew U. has a large Arab population.

Similar calls came out of Britain after the Jenin massacre-that-wasn't. There were no calls to boycott American universities after the Fallujah massacre-that-was. This is the height of hypocrisy and is just unimaginable from educated people. The comparison was made to South Africa, and a boycott that was effective against Universities there; there are several key differences, not least of which was the fact that the Universities in South Africa helped perpetuate Apartheid; Universities in Israel are liberal and often oppose the governmental policy. Especially places like the University of Haifa.

Furthermore, the Universities have no say in what the government does. I don't understand the decision to boycott Israeli computer programmers or mathematicians. Even Sari Nusseibeh, head of al-Quds University, one of the top Palestinian institutions of higher learning, criticized the boycott:

"We are informed by the principle that we should seek to win Israelis over to
our side, not to win against them. Therefore...we believe it is in our
interest to build bridges, not walls; to reach out to the Israeli academic
institutions, not to impose another restriction or dialogue-block on
ourselves."

So, way to go, Britain. At a time when things are finally optimistic here--the pullout from Gaza pending, cities being returned to Palestinian control--you've managed to pull an anti-Israeli tactic that even the Palestinians find objectionable. Many, including the American Association of University Professors and many within the AUT, as well as other British and global institutions, have condemned the boycott. But the fact that this passed at all, even by a slim margin, is troubling.

Futile, too. Here, read this.

Also, I urge everyone to check out the ENGAGE site. At least there are some people with academic integrity left in the world.

And sign the petition.
- posted by @ 2:17 PM

 
Remember
At 10 AM today, the sirens wailed all over Israel in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.

I was alone, doing some work for my class which is at 10:15. There was not a soul around me to be seen.

Elana was crossing Derech Hebron, one of Jerusalem's busiest streets. The cars stopped and the drivers stepped out, stood like statues. Life was a frozen image. Elana said that even the cats seemed motionless.

Twice a year (on Holocaust Day and Memorial Day, one week from now) the state of Israel cries out for one minute and its people pause. I'm not religiously observant, but I can't imagine that a howl like that does not reach the very highest ears.
- posted by @ 10:05 AM

 
I Know, I Know
I had hoped not to get lazy with this blog. All I can say in my defense is that I haven't been lazy in general; I have written 94 pages of my thesis, with one (approximately) seven page section and the conclusion to go. Getting that done always just seemed more important, but now I am at a stopping point because I have to wait for the book Mahomet and His Successors by Washington Irving (yes, the guy who wrote Sleepy Hollow and The Alhambra) to arrive. I have found it fascinating the way the scholars I am studying have interpreted the early history of Islam differently. Emil Cioran once said that history proves nothing because it contains everything. Thomas Cahill replied that the flipside is also true: because history contains everything, we can make it say whatever we want. I have found this to be especially true in the case of what I am studying: seeing the same history of Muhammad and his first four successors presented from an Arab Nationalist point of view, or from a Communist point of view, or from a Romantic point of view has been remarkable. I have also, meanwhile, made progress on my other papers this semester. My goal is to finish all of my work by the end of May.

Elana, meanwhile, has been painting some absolutely spectacular things (he said objectively). I'm not going to waste words trying to describe a piece of visual art: soon I will get some digital images and let the paintings speak for themselves.

We've been very busy; with Elana's grandparents in the country, we've been driving back and forth between here and Ashdod quite a bit, seeing the Family (note the capital letter). That has been fun; it's really helped remind us of the size and warmth of our community here. Oh, and soon I will also post images of the newest edition to our Israel family, a little half-year-old puppy named Shemesh ("Sun"), who looks like a mini-Golden Retriever. We don't know what kind of mix he is, but we do know that he's terribly friendly and quite beautiful.

I will try to update more frequently; it's ridiculous that this blog missed Passover. With only two months left and lots of adventures in Jerusalem to go, things are reaching their endgame and are bound to be more interesting than updates which include naught but page counts.
- posted by @ 8:16 AM