Is this a dvar? No. It is a response to the many texts, whatsapps and messages of concern.
Getting this written earlier in the day... it is only one P.M! Yoni Bloch (Israeli rocker) blaring in my ears just now (how do you screen out a zoom a few feet away?).
Beats the Radiohead I was listening to earlier. Between albums at the omelette factory this morning, the chief chef mentioned a need for Radiohead. I like Radiohead. Put it on.
Then Paranoid Android came along.
Not the track for this week.
(His subconscious?)
The morning shift was sent home at noon. By eleven we had made 400+ sandwiches. They are sent to hospitals, women's shelters and soldiers. Because the cafe is laid out such that the omelette makers face the sidewalk, we get a lot of attention. (Pepper with questions a guy pouring eggs into three blazing skillets? Please! ... NOT.) Strangers keep photographing me, because I face the street. Have to figure I'm a social media sensation at this point. (Yeah me! Though I ain’t on social media. #NoBigDealToMe)
Proof Case?
Social media proof case: Today a guy walking the sidewalk came over to my station, took the skillet from my hand, his friend snapped a shot of him "making" an omelet, and they walked off.
So yeah. It's real. (Social media! So “real!”)
The elderly woman shuttling omelets to the sandwich makers gets into a conversation with the omelet chef to my left. The shuttler is a tourist. Happens to be here this week. The omelet chef is fourth generation Israeli. They are speaking in Hebrew. The Israeli is shocked a tourist is still in the country. The tourist is grateful to the Israeli for making it safe to be Jewish outside Israel.
Not sure I track either thread.
Observations
Jerusalem continues to be quiet. Yesterday my phone barked twice about red alerts in Tel Aviv. A couple of parcels were left at my door in Tel Aviv, but my stay-at-home-neighbor left town for Modiin. So I am a little up a creek. No, wait, another neighbor got home from work and took them in. (Thank you WhatsApp.) Yesterday afternoon there was a line at the falafel stand on Bet Lechem. Discovery: Medjool dates are amazing eaten frozen. Amazing. (I thought date freezing was storage. Silly me.) Bad television is great in good company. Show of the week: Broad City. (Disclosure: Only watching stuff every second or third day. Too busy for TV.)
Here is a picture and a video overlooking the Old City today at sunset (look to the right of my left ear and you see the Dome of the Rock):
A Conversation
Speaking with one of my kids, I commented on the massive volunteerism and how such events bring out rarely seen collaboration. She responded "I imagine that is also the case in Palestinian neighborhoods."
Today, as the sandwich production line sang Israeli folk songs, I thought: So much poetry is being recited just now.
Also in Gaza? (Thank you A.M.Z.)
Hearings
Among the victims of the music festival massacre: A childhood camp-mate of my sons. (Noah is also cognizant that his father has gone to a couple of music festivals in the desert, most recently last Thursday night near the Dead Sea.) The music festival was a peace themed festival. I am told two Palestinian 20-somethings are among the hostages taken to Gaza from that event. Reservists working abroad flew back for duty. Fast growing number of friends going to funerals and/or close relations in towns where massacres occurred.
Relief Area
(European/Ashkenazi food has a bland reputation in Israel. Non-Ashkenazi food [from Morocco, Iran, Yemen, Ethiopia, etc.] is craved by all.)
For Hebrew speakers:
(Soldiers making humorous requests for things like warm food, pizza, foccacia, Airpods, better musical instruments—not just guitars, send cellos! A harp! etc.)
That’s it for the day. I’m off to make pesto.