In London last month, my first stop was to visit the British Museum. Going there seemed an urgent priority. My thinking was that in such turbulent contemporary times, it is reassuring to see the classics of antiquity, those fundaments of Western Civilization that remain. At the same time, given our shifting ethical rationales concerning antiquities, I wanted to see again those British Museum treasures which may, sooner or later, be returned to their countries of origin and explore my feelings about that.

Arriving at the Museum, I made a beeline for the Rosetta Stone. To read more click here

Right of the main entryway and the Norman Foster-designed enclosure for the reading room sits the Rosetta Stone. It is a very dark slab of granodiorite whose top left corner has been sheared off, and whose front is covered in ancient script. More to the point, it is covered in three ancient scripts, Greek, Demotic (script of an Egyptian spoken language) and Egyptian hieroglyphic text.

One of the things I most enjoy about benefit concerts (beyond the whole save-the-world ethos), and music award shows (beyond the awards themselves) is seeing a wide spectrum of artists, each doing 3-5 songs. It’s sort the musical equivalent of a smorgasbord – enough to hear a favorite artist or song and discover someone worth exploring more and short enough to move from those who hold no appeal .

Which is why I so enjoyed ‘Across the Great Divide,” a recent benefit concert for both the Americana Music Association and The Blues Foundations that took place recently at the Theater at the Ace Hotel and featured John Prine, Lucinda Williams, Lee-Ann Womack and Bob Weir (whose trio had played the night before at the same theater, and which I also posted about) along with Joe Louis Walker, Slash, Shemekia Copeland, and Tal Wikenfeld. To Read more click here

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomteicholz/2018/11/23/luciana-souzas-new-recording-the-book-of-longing-translates-poetry-into-jazz/#30ef91717901

On her new recording, “The Book of Longing,” Luciana Souza marries poetry and Jazz in an idiom all her own with spare accompaniment and her uniquely atmospheric vocals to haunting effect. Souza will be performing her lyrical new songs along with some of her more Brazilian-inflected tunes at UCLA’s Royce Hall on December 1 and at New York City’s Jazz Standard, December 14-16.

Recently I sat down with Souza to talk about the new recording and the path she has carved as a vocalist and an interpreter of culture generally and poetry in particular – the lyrics on the record are poems by Leonard Cohen, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Christina Rossetti (as well as a few of her own). And how this new recording represents her maturation not just as an artist but as a person. “I’m not making apologies anymore –which is a good thing,” Souza told me.
Souza was born in Brazil. Her parents were both musicians, songwriters who also wrote commercial jingles and had their own studio. She grew up around and among many of Brazil’s great jazz artists and is the god daughter of legendarily creative Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal.

At 18, Souza traveled to the US to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston. And although Souza has now lived in the United States for more years than she lived in Brazil, she still thinks of herself as Brazilian. “I’m still Brazilian when I speak, when I cook, the way I look. Everything about me is rice and beans and nothing else,” She said. “I feel like I celebrate Brazil more and I love Brazil more from being far from it than I would if I were there. Especially now a days when things are so turbulent there, politically and otherwise.”

Souza recalled that when she was in Boston, her mother would send her books. Among them were two books set in Brazil, one in Portuguese, called “My life as a child,” and the other in English called, “The Diary of Helena Morley” and after reading both she discovered they were the same book by American poet Elizabeth Bishop (who lived for a decade in Brazil). After that she began to read Bishop’s poetry. “She was the one really who, beyond any Brazilian poet, she showed me that the poet sees the world differently “

Souza is no stranger, as an artist, to seeing things differently. Her last album 2015’s “Speaking in Tongues” was an artistically ambitious effort. Souza had developed her own vocalizations that pushed beyond mere scat-singing to present as its own language. Having seen some of the songs performed live, it was avant-garde and breath-taking. Souza seemed to be forging a path to the future. However, it may have been a bridge too far for some audiences or rather just one language among many they wanted to hear from her. The late fashion designer Sonia Rykiel said it this way, “the problem is that they want you to be different – just not too.”

We discussed how sometimes being a foreigner gives one a greater appreciation of language and its musicality. “I have a reverence for the language and I have a reverence for any language, but I love English,” Souza told me. “I love singing in English.”

When it came time to make this album what spoke loudest to Souza was poetry. Over the years, Souza had set several poets’ works to music, including poems by Elizabeth Bishop, e.e. cummings and Gary Snyder. After “Speaking in Tongues” she’d been particularly (almost obsessively) interested in adapting several of Leonard Cohen’s poems. She had approached him but he told her that “someone else was working on those poems.” She waited three months and tried again. He said “No” again. She waited and asked again. This time he said, she could do a demo of one poem. Souza sent him the recording. “He listened, “ Souza recalled, and said, ‘Beautiful, go ahead.”

Cohen died in 2016. Souza remained fixated on the Cohen poems that she wanted to adapt. She approached Adam, Leonard’s son who, after listening to demos, granted his approval. She adapted four poems, which appear on the album Night Song, Paris, The Book, A Life, The accompaniment is spare: Each instrument follows its own clear path. The poems, by contrast, do not remain poems. Instead they become songs sent out into the world (perhaps they are “the thing with feathers”).

That was the start of “The Book of Longing.” Initially, Souza thought she would build the album like a performance, with songs of different tempos and put the Cohen songs among them. ”I’m old fashioned,” she said. “I still think that like a book the whole story needs to be told in chapters.” However, her husband, producer/musician Larry Klein, kept suggesting she find more poems. She did, writing music for poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay (Alms), Emily Dickinson (We grow accustomed to the Dark), and Christina Rosetti (Remember). And then Klein said, “I think you need to be on this record.”

The album opens with her song, “These things,” that sets the tone for the album. There is a rich timber to her voice that Souza uses in her phrasing as she intones the cantatory phrase repeated in the song, “these are the books we read.” And, in effect, Souza has made a record of the poems she reads.

Poetry being sung may call to mind Jack Kerouac riffing while a jazz combo plays, or Allen Ginsberg on his concertina, or an evening of Blake’s Song of Innocence. However, what they all have in common is these were performances by poets seeking to express or extend the meaning of their works with musical accompaniment. Here, we have a musician interpreting the poems in song and music. The result is, in some ways, even more poetic. There is a precision to Souza’s work that belies her jazz setting.

Beyond that, it is no surprise that Leonard Cohen’s poems would make brilliant song lyrics but Souza makes the listener feel as if they were already songs. (Not unlike the famous saying attributed to Michelangelo’s that “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.’). That is what listening to the album is like – the poems transport us as songs and the original songs feel like they must have once been poems. This alchemy occurs because Souza’s voice so colors the work, at times languidly laying impossibly far back on the beat, and at other times lifting the spirit and taking you to those places the poems hoped to reach. There is a clarity in her phrasing and in the crystalline recording that makes the poems’ words stand out – such as when she sings in “Night Song” Cohen’s deeply atmospheric words from his poem ‘Nightingale’: I built my house beside the wood so I could hear you singing. And it was sweet, and it was good and love was all beginning” or Cohen’s more ironic lines such as “I’m living on pills, for which I thank God.”
There is a wistful quality to her singing on this album – the sound of time passing. On songs like “Daybreak,” which is one of her own compositions or “Alms,” a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, there is a seeming simplicity in her singing that draws us in, even as the music surrounding it becomes more textured. When Souza breaks into her abstract vocalizations it seems to lift the whole song, and take us away, as if on a flying carpet.

As for the music, Souza’s notion was to keep it simple. “I’ve written a lot of very complex music in the past, but with this music, my focus was to make the music as simple as possible and repetitive and poem-like. I really wanted songs, [and] real melodies….”
Souza enlisted Brazilian guitarist Chico Pinheiro and bassist Scott Colley, who both have experience in playing in Jazz duets and trios. Souza and Colley have played together many times; Pinheiro was a more recent collaborator. They tried out the material at a New York City performance and receiving a positive response, Souza decided to go into the studio to record.

Larry Klein, the Grammy Award winning producer and musician was there at every step of the record’s conception and production. Beyond the fact that they are married, Klein is the right producer for an artist making jazz vocal records, just as Souza is the right artist for Klein to produce, given that he has great success producing singer-songwriters.

As Souza explained, as a producer Klein brings a great subtlety to what he does. He recommends, he suggests, it all seems very casual. However, he has such knowledge from having produced records with everyone from Herbie Hancock, to Madeline Peyroux to Joni Mitchell, that he knows exactly what he is doing. This is all the more true when he starts mixing the music. It is a conversation – As Souza explained, Klein makes suggestions but doesn’t hold you to them if you disagree. And, in the end, their collaboration works, much as their marriage does, because it comes from a place of respect. They met when they were already adults, already artists, already professionals. They knew each other’s work. They waited two years after being married to work on a project together (Souza’s 2004 “The New Bossa Nova”). Their collaboration continues to this day. And for this album, Souza recorded the songs live, but Klein would make suggestions as to what to add, how to mix, yielding a very personal intimate recording.

“This is the book,” Souza sings on one of the songs, and on a profound level, Souza is a translator. An interpreter of Jazz and of poetry. She has reached a place, and an age, she said where she no longer feels a need as an artist, or a as a woman, to make apologies. “I’m no Leonard Cohen and I have no illusion that I am or ever will be,” Souza said. But her adaptations – translations if you will – , in her words, “Pair up nicely.” In making this record, Souza was resolved to make the songs and music that best represent her.
Souza’s performances in Los Angeles and New York, she says, are “Invitations to my whole world.” Celebrations of poetry as well as the Brazilian rhythms, narration, instrumentals that reflect the words and music she worships and the transcendental interpretations she has now created in song on “The Book of Longing.”

Luciana Souza’s new album is, “The Book of Longing.” She will be performing on December 1rst at UCLA’s Royce Hall. For tickets, go to Caps.UCLA.edu. And in New York on December 16 and 17 at the Jazz Standard. For tickets go to Ticketweb.com.

Copyright © 2018 Tom Teicholz

Alison Saar’s new paintings and sculptures at LA Louver in Venice, CA, (on view through May 12, 2018) speak of a strength derived from a bitter harvest.

The exhibition is called “Topsy Turvy,” and the figures reference Topsy, a character in Harriett Beecher Stowe’s great abolitionist novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” TO READ MORE: https://bit.ly/2Itf8VU

You never know where you might find a new museum these days. I was recently down in Orange, California visiting Chapman University when I came upon The Hilbert Museum of California Art which bills itself as “California’s newest Art Museum.”

Take that with a grain of salt as new Art museums seem to be opening every week in LA. Still, the Hilbert is a newcomer and also smart enough that what they exhibit is distinctive. The Hilbert houses the collection of Mark and Janet Hilbert who began collecting ‘California Scene’ paintings in 1992. Currently located in a warehouse building on Atchinson Street near the Orange Metrolink Station, the Museum is slated to move to an 18,000 square foot building a few blocks away in 2019. TO READ MORE https://bit.ly/2Iv2npr

Steve Leder knows things. As the senior Rabbi at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, the 155-year-old Los Angeles congregation that is home to some 2400 families (including mine), where Leder has served for 30 years, when his phone rings, it is often not good news. He has had to comfort, support, minister to and officiate at hundreds of funerals, make thousands of hospital visits and counsel individuals and families as their lives and families fall apart.

When cancer is diagnosed, when adultery is uncovered, when families are torn apart, and when a loved one of longstanding is gone, Rabbi Leder is often who they call. The issues he helps his congregants face are neither abstract nor are they removed from his personal experience in working through his and his own family’s instances of grief, loss, depression or drug-related problems.

In “More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us,” (Hay House), Leder distills what he’s learned into a short volume of less than 200 pages. The book is divided into three sections: Surviving, Healing and Growing. Each of these sections carries several chapters, each with its own pithy headline (often a nugget of advice in its own right), such as “When you must, you can” (which is Leder’s way of explaining how people go on after heartbreak or loss); “Stoop Low” (which is all about learning and practicing humility); and “You Matter” (which is an invitation to live like you matter).

Leder threads the book with his own personal struggles, most notably with his father, a very tough Midwestern scrap metal dealer. That Leder can both be honest about his father’s faults and yet find ways to be grateful to him and wrest from his father lessons that enrich his life, is the sort of miraculous alchemy Leder proposes we can all achieve.

Although Leder certainly sees right and wrong, in many of his examples there are no right answers – in some cases a spouse’s unfaithfulness can cause the couple to address issues they’ve avoided for years; other times it is the last straw, a betrayal that can’t be overcome. Leder does not adjudge one reaction as better than the other. The lessons Leder teaches in “More Beautiful” remain the same: acknowledge what is occurring, confront it honestly and own it, and then move on. Survive, heal, grow. And if you can do that, Leder says, you will emerge from the experience transformed. Not necessarily happier, wiser or wealthier, but certainly more at peace. That is the gift “More Beautiful Than Before” offers us.

As Leder writes, “…I know that a broken marriage, a broken heart, a ruined reputation – none of those things grow stronger. But we can heal enough, we can somehow find our true selves again – or for the first time – and what we find really is often gentler and wiser and more beautiful than before. A second love. A second chance. Another way to move forward.”

Leder is the author of two previous books, “The Extraordinary Nature of Ordinary Things” and “More Money Than God: Living a Rich Life without Losing Your Soul.” Like “More Beautiful” they are secular works, for the layman, regardless of religion or religious observance (or lack thereof). Although written by a Rabbi. they are not religious books, nor are they meant as scholarly commentary on sacred texts. They are each, in their own way, books to live by – manuals for living as it were.

Despite all this (or because of all this) there is no question that “More Beautiful” like Leder’s prior books, is also a deeply spiritual work informed by Leder’s chaplaincy that seek to add a fourth dimension to our lives, making them richer, more satisfying – and yes – more beautiful than before.

To listen to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) conducted by Zubin Mehta playing Tchaikovsky in a newly constructed 1000-person open-air auditorium at a country estate on a summer’s night is heavenly and it is hard to imagine a classical music experience more intimate and emotional. Even more remarkable, this concert was taking place on the grounds of the Tsinandali Estate in the Republic of Georgia’s Kakheti region, some two and a half hours from Tbilisi, the capital, to launch a new classical music festival that will debut in 2019.

What was it that brought 1000 guests, a full orchestra and Maestro Mehta to Georgia? It was, simply, the power of an idea and people with the vision and resources to make it happen.

First, a little background: Tsinandali was the Georgian village that was home to Alexander Chavchavadze (1786–1846), a Georgian poet and aristocrat, who was a God-son of Catherine The Great. After inheriting the property from his father Prince Garsevan, Chavchavadze built an Italianate villa there in 1818 as well as extensive European decorative gardens on the estate which the elder Alexander Dumas dubbed “The Garden of Eden.” FOr more please read….https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomteicholz/2017/10/09/tsinandali-zubin-mehta-leads-the-ipo-in-an-enchanted-evening-of-music-in-georgias-kakheti-region/#36899fac3cfd

Tom Teicholz , CONTRIBUTOR
I write about culture and the cult of luxury
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Tom Teicholz
The Temple Mount
Nir Hasson covers Jerusalem for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz with particular attention to the residents of East Jerusalem. Hasson approaches Jerusalem very much as a city beat reporter, although the municipal issues in Jerusalem concerning real estate, zoning, water, power are, more often than not, political and at times even existential. Hasson’s reporting reflects the ongoing conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians and as to Jerusalem itself. Last summer Nir Hasson published his first book “Urshalim: Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem 1967–2017,” which will be published in English in 2018. We spoke first two years ago about his perspective on Jerusalem (Nir Hasson: Mr. Jerusalem, Forbes.com) and met again recently to continue the conversation in light of his new book and recent events.

Tom Teicholz: When we spoke two years ago, you told me how the residents of East Jerusalem were increasingly working, shopping, becoming educated and sending their children to be educated in West Jerusalem while maintaining an “Anti-Normalization” campaign against Israel [a refusal to participate in any activities that validate Israel or the status quo in Jerusalem or in the West Bank]. Is that still the case?

Nir Hasson: Yes. There is more non-cooperation. It’s more pervasive. But at the same time, in daily life there are even more Palestinians who move between the two sides of the city. These two developments are happening at the same time, like they go together. It’s very interesting.

Tom Teicholz: But at the same time, I feel like the Jewish residents of West Jerusalem go even less to East Jerusalem.

Nir Hasson: Of course. When we met last time, it was during the Gaza War of 2015. Or was it after?

Tom Teicholz: It was after.

Nir Hasson: Since then it’s actually never ended [the resistance of East Jerusalemites in the Anti-Normalization campaign]. It’s continued in waves-

Tom Teicholz: But do you see the recent Temple Mount protests in East Jerusalem as a turning point?

Nir Hasson: I think it’s a turning point in the sense of the Palestinian society of East Jerusalem. The way they act. The way they got this victory over Israel. This is something no one expected.

Tom Teicholz: What they seem to have realized, for the first time, is the power of nonviolence.

Nir Hasson: Right.

Tom Teicholz: To have people protesting by praying in the streets was powerful … and effective.

Nir Hasson: Yes, but it worked because it’s Jerusalem, and because it concerned Al-Aqsa [the mosque that is the third holiest site to Muslims]. The Palestinians tried to do a non-violent protest in the West Bank in Bethlehem and it didn’t work because there was no media there. It worked this time because Israel was really afraid of violence at the Temple Mount – and not only there. During the protest in Jerusalem there was a bloody terror attack in the Halamish settlement in Samaria. But the big question is, will it work for other protests in Jerusalem, like when there are house demolitions, or can it work only when it concerns Al-Aqsa?

Tom Teicholz: Two years ago, I went to the Temple Mount and it was very unpleasant. From the moment we were on the Temple Mount, there were groups of women and children screaming “Alu Akbar” at us – there was nothing solemn, spiritual or meditative about the experience. By contrast, I went again the other day, coincidentally, on the same day as the Members of Knesset (MK)’s [members of the Israeli Parliament] went, and it was completely calm and quiet.

Nir Hasson: Since the agreement between Netanyahu and King Abdullah of Jordan at the end of 2015, the situation on the Temple Mount is pretty quiet. The police hold back the Jewish religious activists. And they didn’t let the MKs go there for almost three years. What happens on the Temple Mount affects East Jerusalem and it affects the West Bank. Even though the Mount is quiet, what happened two months ago was amazing, because so many people went out in the streets to pray – And the people were nonreligious. These were young people who have never been … I believe the Al-Aqsa protests have made a very strong impression in the hearts and mind of the Palestinian Jerusalemite. But the question is: Can they take this new-found power to other areas?

Tom Teicholz: And there is also the question of the Palestinian leadership. Palestinian Authority President Abbas is in his 80s.

Nir Hasson: You have to understand that the situation in Jerusalem is different than in the West Bank. More and more lately, you hear people in East Jerusalem saying that the Palestinian authority does not represent us.

Tom Teicholz: Really?

Nir Hasson: Yes. In East Jerusalem I hear people saying that: We are part of the Palestinian people, of course, but the Palestinian leadership is not our leadership. We need our own Jerusalem leadership.

I wrote an article during the Al-Aqsa events that said: “As of this writing it’s hard to know how the crisis over the Temple Mount will end. But recent days have shown that the real sovereign on the Temple Mount is not Israel, Jordan or the Waqf, the site’s Muslim custodial trust. The real bosses are the Palestinians of Jerusalem.” [ https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.802402 ]

The article was translated into Arabic just hours after it was published, and so many people came up to me on the street to say it’s a great article, it makes us feel so much pride. And so, it’s not the Palestinians’ fight, it’s the Jerusalemites fight.

Tom Teicholz: The present Israeli government seems to get more provocative each day – and, at least in the U.S., one gets the sense that there is nothing that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu or his ministers could do that President Trump and his administration would object to. And I think we’ve seen, since the moment of Trump’s election, Netanyahu is more and more unrestrained to do as he pleases. The U.S. won’t object.

Nir Hasson: Right. You can see it in Jerusalem. You can see it in what’s happened – since the night of the U. S. election — as regards homes of East Jerusalemites (Over 80 % of the houses in East Jerusalem don’t have permits). Even though Obama was still in the office, they started to demolish those houses. Trump’s election has had a dramatic effect on the way the Israeli authorities behave, on their sense of freedom to build wherever they want, to demolish what they want, to do whatever they like in Jerusalem. Absolutely. This is absolutely true.

You know, Hillary Clinton was in Jerusalem, I think it was in 2009 [when Clinton was Secretary of State] and she had a very short meeting with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. And after that meeting, house demolitions dropped dramatically, from about more than 100 per year to less than 10. And it stayed that way until the end of the Obama Administration. And since the election we’ve already seen the numbers rise again.

Tom Teicholz: And last week Netanyahu declared that “the settlements will stay in the West Bank forever.”

Nir Hasson: Exactly. Just now there’s a demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah, because the Shamasneh family are being evicted [they have lived in the house for 53 years – but Israeli authorities and right-wing activists say the house was never properly registered as owned by them]. We haven’t seen anything like this in years.

Tom Teicholz: When we spoke two years ago you told me that when you covered the opening of a new movie theater in East Jerusalem, none of the East Jerusalemites wanted to be quoted by name in an Israeli newspaper – even one like Haaretz which is very left. Which is a long way of me asking if, as a journalist, you’re able to develop good sources in East Jerusalem?

Nir Hasson: Some will not go on the record. However, they will if you are writing about their daily life, or the problem of house demolitions; violence against them, and all the ways that the police act in their neighborhood or their problems with the settlers. What they are not willing to do is to cooperate with you if you are writing about culture.

The thing about the anti-normalization movement is that it’s not black and white. This principle that ‘You have to have no connections with Israelis’ – is the same obligation for Palestinians whether you live in the West Bank or in Jerusalem. But it’s very difficult for someone to live in Jerusalem and have no connection with Israelis. So, the more aware among the East Jerusalem residents make certain distinctions regarding daily life. They try to hold the line between daily life and other non-necessary activities. They say: I have to work in West Jerusalem, I have to get my Israeli visa to deal with the authorities, but I will never go to a movie in West Jerusalem. I will never go to an evening discussion event or a conference in West Jerusalem. This is a privilege, I don’t have to do it.

Tom Teicholz: Right.

Nir Hasson: But it changes. It changes very quickly. For example, a few years ago it was taboo to ask for Israeli citizenship. Today, there are thousands of Palestinians and East Jerusalemites who ask for Israeli citizenship, a full Israeli citizenship, and an Israeli passport. Today it’s okay. If you’re a businessman, or if you are a student who has to go abroad for studies, it’s okay if you ask for the passport. That’s no longer considered a normalization of the occupation.

So, the question is: what’s going to happen in the next election? Will they break the taboo of voting in the municipal election? Because voting is a recognition of the occupation. But there is a lot of debate around this topic, saying that maybe it’s about time for the Palestinians in Jerusalem to step into the Israeli political field.

Tom Teicholz: But didn’t they get greater representation in the last election?

Nir Hasson: No. Less than 1% of the voters from East Jerusalem- went to vote. Less than 1%. It’s the lowest percentage since ’67. This taboo is still very strong.

However, a young teacher from the Al-Tur neighborhood, announced a new party about four months ago, the East Jerusalem party, a Palestinian party and that he would run for election, and that he would try to promote this new party. However, he was asked not to talk about politics – he can talk about social services, street cleaning (garbage pickup), that’s all.

But since the Al-Aqsa event, this movement seems to have gone under; no one knows anything about it. I believe there will be a very strong debate around voting in the Jerusalem Municipal election next year. They have a lot to lose by voting because then the Israelis will say, “Here you go, even the Palestinians recognize the Israeli sovereignty of East Jerusalem. So, what do you want from us?”

They have a lot to lose — so they will only vote if they can make a very strong showing. If they get two seats on the city council, that’s nothing. It will make no change. But if they get real political power on the city council then…. Still, I think we’re still very far from that happening.

Tom Teicholz: At the same time, those Israelis on the Left who are the most sympathetic to the concerns of the people in East Jerusalem, have seen their power shrink. Right?

Nir Hasson: Today, so few Israelis want to know about what’s going on, or even understand what’s going on, or want to change anything. The only thing the Israeli mainstream media speak about is the terror, and the violence. The day I decided to write this book was the eve of the general election in 2015, when a very well-known prestigious journalist in Israel called me and asked, “Can the Palestinian Jerusalemites even vote tomorrow?”

And I said to myself, if he doesn’t know the simple fact that the Palestinians who live in Jerusalem are not Israeli citizens and that they have no right to vote in the general election for the members of the Israeli Parliament, what’s the point? I decided right then that either I’m going to quit my job or I’m going to write a book.

Tom Teicholz: Both in the United States and Israel, we’re in this crazy period where governments speak in half truths. So, for example. the Israeli tourist office advertises Rainbow Tel Aviv as this place where gay life thrives – which is true. And yet in Israel gay couples can’t get married. Those facts don’t make it into the popular perception or discussion.

Nir Hasson: Right. The Israeli government covers up those facts. Do you know what the name of the book, Urshalim means?

Tom Teicholz: No.

Nir Hasson: In September ’67, three months after the Six Day War, the Israeli government had a meeting where one Minister said, ‘It’s impossible that on Israeli radio, we use the name Al-Quds. Al-Quds is the name of the city in Arabic. It’s connected to the city’s Islamic heritage. it’s not connected to its Jewish heritage. We have to find another name for the city.’ And they found the name Urshalim, a name that had been used in translations of the Christian Holy Bible… They didn’t want to use the name Al-Quds, so they used the name Urshalim – Jerusalem.

Tom Teicholz: Really?

Nir Hasson: I write in my book that: “On your way from Tel Aviv, or Ben Gurion Airport, to Jerusalem you could notice the point where the landscape changes from the lowland to the Jerusalem hills. This is Shaar Hagay, the Gate of the Valley, about 30 kms before Jerusalem. However, not only the landscape changes at that point of the road, the names on the road signs change too. Till Shaar Hagay, the name of Jerusalem is Jerusalem in English, Yerusalaim in Hebrew and Urshalim Al Kuds in Arabic. After Shaar Hagay, the names in English and Hebrew stay the same, but the Arabic name becomes only Urshalim.” In the last years a new road has been built and new signs were posted – and the name Al-Quds was deleted.

The strange thing is that no place called Urshalim exists. It doesn’t exist in the Hebrew Bible. No Arabic-speaker uses that name. For him, it is considered to be an artificial and even insulting name whose sole purpose is to delete the Islamic and Arabic heritage of the city. In the ears of the Palestinian residents of the city it is also a daily reminder of the occupation

This is exactly the kind-of Israeli Government cover-up of facts which the Israeli population should know about, but doesn’t. Israelis think they know about Jerusalem, but they don’t know anything. Where else can you find a capital with two names, one used by the people, the other by the government?

This is exactly what I wanted to describe in my book: There’s a huge gap between the daily life, the reality of Jerusalem, and the cliché image of Jerusalem in the mind of Israelis. It’s two different places. The Israelis really believe that Jerusalem is just like other cities. They don’t know that 40% of the people who live here are not Israeli citizens.

This is the simple fact that every Israeli has to know. What Israel did in ’67, is that it annexed the territory. But it didn’t annex the people who live on the territory. And until today, it’s the same situation. What I tried to do in ‘Urshalim’ is to explain the real Jerusalem.

Tom Teicholz: It’s an existential problem.

Nir Hasson: Exactly. I mean the way the Palestinians in Jerusalem see it, they will always use the verb, the word, occupation. That is the point. The Israelis will never use the name Al-Quds. And if they do, it’s to make fun of it.

For the Palestinians, the occupation is the air that they breathe. That is their reality. They live under a regime that they have no part in it. It affects them in many ways. And this, too, is the occupation.

And if you say occupation to Nir Barkat, he will make fun of you. ‘What do you mean? There’s no occupation here’. It’s like when Netanyahu said that Jerusalem will never be divided again, and there is nine meters of concrete wall that divides Jerusalem today. The Israeli politicians of Jerusalem are not connected to reality.

Tom Teicholz: Are there any reasons for hope?

Nir Hasson: The last chapter of the book is about this question, is there a place for hope? I don’t have a clear answer. But, my conclusion is that even though the city today is more united than it was ever before, the situation in Jerusalem is not stable.

The fact that 40% of the residents of Jerusalem are not Israeli citizens cannot last. I analyzed a few solutions. The solution will be, I hope sooner than later, some kind of sharing of sovereignty without a fence, with no border line.

Sometimes I think that the only good thing that Netanyahu did for the State of Israel is that he withheld finding a solution for so many years that maybe there will be a technological solution.

Have you heard about the organization, “Two States One Homeland”? (http://2states1homeland.org/en) It’s a very interesting, intellectual idea of how to solve the problem. It was established by two guys, an Israeli Journalist Meron Rapoport and Palestinian activist Awni Almsni who say we can solve the problem without having to move anyone and without a border between Israel and Palestine.

Tom Teicholz: Virtual Nations? That’s interesting. Like the way my phone knows where I am. The minute I’m in the West Bank it says, “Welcome to Palestine.”

Nir Hasson: Right. Exactly. It knows where you are. And when you are driving on Road Number Six that cuts across Israel from North to South, there’s no checkpoints, no tolls but at the end of the month, you get an invoice to pay – the road knows where you are.

And what they say is that if you have 400,000 settlers, then you have to take 400,000 Palestinian refugees into Israel. They will become citizens of Palestine, but residents of Israel. In the same way that some of the settlers would become residents of Palestine but remain citizens of Israel. In addition, they would create both property compensation panels and a reconciliation process. It’s very interesting. They don’t solve all the problems but it’s gone on for a few years now.

But the main obstacle we must overcome is the mind of the Israelis — to have them trust the Palestinians to maintain their own security in their territory. Because, 35,000 plus Palestinians work in West Jerusalem, and they go into work every morning, — they don’t want to cross a fence or go through a checkpoint. But the Israelis fear that if there are no borders then all the Palestinians will come through Jerusalem to live in Tel Aviv.

The last negotiation was in 2008. It’s been 10 years now, and many things have changed. It’s even more complicated to solve the issues in Jerusalem. But at the same time… Let me tell you what I wrote on almost the last page of the book. I tell a story about Nelson Mandela.

On Christmas in 1986, he was in jail, when one of his prison guards asked him, “Would you like to see the city?” He’d been in jail for more than 20 years. Mandela agreed and the prison official drove him around Cape Town. Mandela saw people walking in the street, and the officers bought him some juice. They brought him back to jail, and it was as is nothing had happened. No one knew about this trip. But it was about only three years later that he was released, and only four years later that there was free elections in South Africa. And what I say is that things started to change in South Africa when the white people started to understand the situation is not stable and cannot last.

No one can say when this change started to happen. And the last words I write are: I don’t know if Nelson Mandela has traveled around Jerusalem yet but I I can’t say it hasn’t happened.

Maybe, in the mind of the Israelis, a solution has begun. When the Israelis will understand that their occupation cannot last, and they have to find a solution, and it can happen, then maybe … maybe that has already started.

All we can say is that Nelson Mandela was traveling in the streets with one of the officers.

Tom Teicholz: It’s a beautiful image. It reminds me of a breakfast with Shimon Peres that I attended about 15 years ago around the time of the second intifada, at the end of which someone asked: Is there any reason for hope? Peres answered “There’s always reason for hope. Imagine if you were a Jew in Europe in 1944, and someone said to you, “In four years, Hitler will be dead, Germany will be defeated, and there will be a state of Israel.” You would’ve said he’s crazy.

Nir Hasson: Right.

Tom Teicholz: Things can change and they usually do, fast, when you least think they can.

Jerusalem is as much idea as physical entity, existing in history and in the present, in literature and in prayers, in hearts and minds, as the soul, the dream (and even at times the nightmare) of diverse peoples, as a place fraught with politics and nationalism, convictions and resentments that can be as transcendental as they are oppressive, as spiritual as they are mundane – which is a way of saying Jerusalem is eternal and ever changing.

Michal Fattal
Jerusalem Season of Culture audience for Kulna performance
Mekudeshet (which means belonging — as in each partner in a couple once married belongs to the other) the Jerusalem site-specific experiential arts festival that ran from August 23-September 15 is dedicated to exploring the complexity of Jerusalem. Their mission is, as per their press materials, “to seek out the source of common good and openness in Jerusalem that is at the heart of everything Mekudeshet does.” They know all too well that Jerusalem remains special to many and worth fighting for but they recognize that in the end, “Our Jerusalem is not really ours. We are hers.”

This is the seventh season of what began as the Jerusalem Season of Culture and is now a three- week end-of-summer event. Mekudeshet is supported by a host of Israeli, American and International foundations such as the Schusterman Foundation Israel, as well as individual donors. They collaborate, when relevant and appropriate, with a variety of cultural and Jerusalem-based organizations such as this year with the Israel Museum, Hansen House and the Van Leer Institute.

Naomi Bloch Fortis, Mekudeshet’s General Manager explained that they are searching for “What is sacred in our lives? What is a sacred moment?” Their answer is: “Sacred is when go out of your automated programmed response…. To break out of your shell.” Doing so, Fortis believes, can lead to a change in the mindset; and, in turn, she says, “a change in the mindset may lead to other changes.”

Among this year’s themes were ‘Above and Beyond’ and ‘Dissolving Barriers’ as well as a wide variety of experiences and musical events including a whole night of experiences and performances in the Tower of David and a 5K group sunset run to programmed content. The curators for “Above and Beyond” include Yehudit Schlossberg, Matan Israeli, and Mekudeshet Artistic Director Itay Mautner; the producers were David Kosher and Hadas Vanunu.

“Above and Beyond” took place over seven days on seven rooftops in Jerusalem and was a collaborative project with Muslala Group which founded a New Rooftop for Urbanism at the Clal Center, (Muslala is a nonprofit to create public art founded by artists, residents, and community acitivists in the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem in 2009).

Although I did not visit all seven roofs, I had several unique and memorable experiences So, for example, one evening in the old city, not far from the Jaffa Gate and from the main drag of the souk, I proceeded up a set of metal stairs to the Galizia roofs, called “the roof of roofs,” There I found another world where pathways existed from roof to roof across the old city, that in all my years of visiting Jerusalem, I had no idea existed. People on bicycles pedal by (did they carry their bikes up to the roof? I don’t know); East Jerusalem teenagers do parkour there; Religious men hurry by deep in conversation while women with their afternoon food shopping also make haste across the roofs. At night lights come on and as students rush by and couples stroll, the roofs take on a whole new character, a terrace with an unobstructed view of the golden Dome of the Rock.

And it was on this “roof of roofs,” that artist Gili Avissar created a ceremony where each night for seven days between 6:00PM and 7:30 PM as the sun set, a solemn ceremony took place. A handful of men and women enacted a ritual of raising a series of flags, each an abstract design of Avissar’s. Then once all the flags were raised and fluttering in the evening breeze, they were just as ceremoniously taken down, folded and put away. This simple act in a place where many flags have flown over contested land for so many centuries was powerful, at once an act of respect for the sanctity of an everyday Jerusalem one takes for granted and still filled with the promise of a Jerusalem reborn flying flags of vibrant colors.

Youval Hai
Volcano – Above and Beyond
I went next to a designated roof on a building off Jaffa Street. There the artist Rafram Chaddad had turned the roof into a huge field of barley. We were invited, in small groups, to don slippers and walk over to a small circle beside a pool where Chaddad was sitting. As we joined him, he began to talk: about himself, his life, his work, about Tunisia where he lives part-time, and about drying food on the roof. As he spoke, his hands were busy serving us each a plate with black couscous and lettuce leaves from which to improvise a snack. And as we ate and talked, sharing something of ourselves, we communed with Chaddad in this unnatural natural world he had created on a rooftop in Jerusalem.

An adjacent rooftop held a number of other installations. Standing on top of the Clal Center (one of Jerusalem’s first attempts at an indoor shopping mall, it is now largely deserted) , I looked out at the ancient walls of the Old City and the teeming traffic of Jaffa Street. As I surveyed the panorama, I noticed on a nearby rooftop a mound, a mountain really, simulating a volcanic eruption. The sight of it makes one laugh awkwardly, because it is so incongruous there, yet speaks to the simmering tensions in Jerusalem that threaten to erupt at a moment’s notice. What’s all the more striking is that people on the street below either didn’t seem to notice it or did not think it strange that there’s a volcano on the roof.

Youval Hai
Sharon Glazberg “Neshama” Above and Beyond
On another side roof I found a strange-looking installation by Sharon Glazberg called “Neshama” (Soul). It is a mound of earth surrounded by seven persons who seem to be blowing into tubes that appear to make the earth itself heave up and down and who each assume a variety of positions as if enacting some ceremony.

To me, the sight of these silent tube-connected people and the living earth called to mind some “Alien”-type science fiction horror movie where humans have been tethered to an alien whose belly is rising as if to give birth to some new creature. However, Glazberg, who was present at the site explained that “Neshama” is a very personal work in which she wanted to create “an alternative ceremony for my grandmother who passed away five months ago.” Glazberg explained that her grandmother was in the hospital following surgery and had been put on a breathing machine. Glazberg was with her when she died. But even after she died her chest continued to heave because of the breathing machine. “This image stayed with me,” she said. “Of trying to bring something to life that no longer exists”

Glazberg decided for this project to create a Shiva-like mourning ritual in which she had seven people assume seven positions for seven days. At the same, Glazberg noticed that “In Jerusalem they are digging everywhere. It’s like an open wound.” So she arranged to have 2.5 cubic meters of earth that were dug up from under the Temple Mount archeological dig placed on the roof. She explained: “This is a counter-intuitive act—to raise earth, with such a rich historical past, up to a roof—a futuristic urban space. At a time when Jerusalem’s earth is being relentlessly dug up in an attempt to prove the different historical narratives, the earth undergoes a ceremony that breathes new life into it.” And so the earth of Glazberg’s ‘Neshama’ heaved up and down as the ritual was enacted.

Mekudeshet events occurred both during the day as well as at night. There was a sound installation in the Valley of the Cross (a park just below the Israel Museum) that I attended at night that was strange yet strangely affecting. Another event I wanted to attend but ran out of time was an all night group sleepover to music curated by Jerusalem’s Gilly the Kid (Gilly Levy), with music from midnight to 7AM decreasing in volume – then an hour break – after which there was more music as breakfast was served.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that when you are on a press tour hosted by Mekudeshet you are well cared for. And you are plugged in: Mekudeshet’s staff Motti Wolf and Kim Weiss seem to know everyone in Jerusalem and have great access among Jerusalem’s creative class. We were given a private performance by Sofi Tsedaka who sings haunting Samaritan prayers that are thousands of years old. We attended a rehearsal of the East-West Orchestra conducted by Tom Cohen with soloists from across the Levant. The folks at Mekudeshet are also foodies and know and are known at all the best restaurants in Jerusalem. Some of the highlights included a Lilach Rubin foodie tour of the Old City in search of the best hummus (many contenders); dinner at Anna, the new Nimrod Norman restaurant at the Anna Ticho House; Assaf Granit’s Yudale restaurant; lunch at the Offaim Café at the Hansen House. One meal was better than the next and each one was excellent.

Another of Mekudeshet’s centerpieces this season was “Dissolving Barriers” which involved committing to a five-hour magical mystery tour of Jerusalem by minivan. We were each given headphones and music players, on which Jean Marc Liling (who by day is an immigration attorney) spoke in a rich and engaging voice about his passion for Jerusalem, and what it means to be a Jerusalemite while we were taken to a series of stops to meet actual Jerusalem residents who explode our pre-conceived expectations. There was Pesach, who for thirty years has been in drug rehab – as a doctor, that is – but whose treatment center aims to erase the difference and the stigma between patient and doctor; on another stop we met Pina, a Haredi woman of the Litvak sect, who lives in Jerusalem’s Nahalot neighborhood and is determined to run for Jerusalem City Council. We also paid a visit to JEST, an East Jerusalem startup technology incubator for the residents of East Jerusalem (and East Jerusalem women in particular) that offers training and courses and co-working space as well as an accelerator to help ideas become businesses.

“Dissolving Barriers” was not an art work, but it was an experience, and one that will stay with me, as I recalibrate in my own mind, how among the more than 900,000 people of Jerusalem who are a third East Jerusalemite, and a third Haredi, they can all, individually and collectively be “mekudeshet” to Jerusalem. Or, more to the point, how Jerusalem is what makes them mekudeshet. And it is that connection, and that lingering impact that makes Mekedushet: Jerusalem Season of Culture, which re-invents itself every year, worth attending and coming back to again. And again.

In the end I would say that if you are an Israeli who takes Jerusalem for granted and never avails him or herself of seeing the city with different eyes, Mekudeshet is the festival for you. Similarly, for American (and other) tourists looking for an alternative way to experience Jerusalem and feel a deeper connection to the diverse voices of Jerusalem, take in the Jerusalem Season of Culture and become Mekudeshet. For more information go to http://en.mekudeshet.com/

So there I was on a Saturday night, July 15th to be exact, at the StubHub Center, which is the name of the stadium in Carson which is itself a small city of 100,000, located 13 miles south of Downtown LA and about a half hour from Santa Monica. It’s a very nice stadium. It was opened in 2003 and was called the Home Depot Center for its first decade. It seats 27,000 and is both the second venue developed specifically for Major League Soccer (MLS) and the second largest MLS soccer stadium. It is home to the LA Galaxy, and the LA Chargers are playing there until their new stadium at Hollywood Park, in Inglewood near LAX, opens.

I was there for a match between the Galaxy and Manchester United of the English Premier League (MU). Although most often I write about high culture and cultural events, sitting with some 25,000 other people at an event was, at least to me, a worthy pop cultural event.

LA Galaxy
LA Galaxy vs Manchester United
Now, there’s also a little bit of backstory here: My father, once upon a time, played soccer – as legend has it that he played on the second string of the Polish National team. This is before World War Two in his native city of Lvov (now called Lviv), in a part of Poland which is now Ukraine. For my part, I played soccer on my high school team (I was a co-captain) and briefly my freshman year in college.

Once upon a time, playing soccer was counter-cultural. At my high school, soccer attracted neither the crowds, nor the support that the football team did. Our team was filled with guys with long hair and red eyes. It was a collegial sport – back then playing the sport didn’t improve your chances for any college. This was the era of the North American Soccer League and the Cosmos – a brave experiment that despite the soccer great Pele and hitmaker Ahmet Ertegun met with baffled reactions and little attention from American sports fans.

My daughter played soccer in high school and is herself a Manchester United fan. She has grown up in the era of World Cup winning U.S. Women’s Soccer Teams. For her playing soccer was an almost year-round event with club teams dragging the season out until April or May. To her, Beckham, Ronaldo and Messi were household names. She often watches MU games on her laptop or cellphone.

I had reached out to Galaxy management with the pitch that I wanted to write about a father-daughter night watching the Galaxy play Manchester United. I explained that I was more than willing to pay for tickets. I just wanted good seats without paying a scalper. Let me disclose that instead the Galaxy organization comped me for two tickets, up a bunch of rows from the South-East corner. I was all set to write about the evening.

That was the plan. That saying about best laid plans certainly applies to plans with my 19 year-old daughter who, in age-appropriate fashion — is prone to last minute crises, late arrivals and change of plans. Or in other words, she flaked on me.

Which is why I arrived by myself to the StubHub Center where the parking was reasonable — that is for stadium parking ($20) — and reasonably close to the actual stadium. And although I came alone, I found the stadium full (I had to dislodge squatters in my seat – who did not leave, just moved over) and very much a sea of Red– MU Fans.

The last time MU played the Galaxy the score was 7-0. This time, it was apparent MU was treating their games in the US as a sort of pre-season training vacation. They were well rested and had been winning most of their games.

By contrast, the Galaxy had been playing game after game in their season and had been on a losing streak. Curt Onalfo, the Galaxy’s coach, was skating on thin ice. Expectations were not great for the Galaxy, but MU defused disappointment by promising a “friendly game.” Also adding a little spice to the evening MU teased that the Galaxy game could feature the first appearance by Romelu Lukaku who joined MU on July 10th.

And so, the game began. From the first MU came off as more polished, with crisper passes and better ball control. Two minutes into the game MU’s Marcus Rashford scored his first goal. 19 minutes in Rashford was given a beautiful pass and pretty much ran the ball into the goal, scoring again. Then at 25 minutes, Marouane Fellaini, the Belgian player of Morrocan heritage whose been with MU since 2013 was passed the ball and off his left foot placed the ball deep into corner of the goal,. At Half-Time the score was 3-0. Brian Rowe, the Galaxy’s goalie, didn’t look very happy.

It’s funny, all the reasons why Americans wouldn’t watch professional soccer in its first American outing several decades ago – the game’s too slow, there’s not enough action, the scores are too low, games can end in shoot-outs – those are the very reasons watching the game is now enjoyable. The short pass game that has come to dominate soccer makes for what we now call “the beautiful game.’ And the internationalism of the sport (Belgians and French players on English teams; British ones on American teams) makes the game of interest to all. Soccer has become a common denominator among people of different cultures in the American melting pot – a bright spot at a time and in a country where the rhetoric leads in the opposite direction.

The second half didn’t start better. At 66 minutes, Henrikh Mkhitaryan (who is also captain of the Armenian National Team) found himself alone in front of the gall and was able to send the ball past the goalie. At 72 minutes, Anthony Martial got a great pass and with a strong right foot scored MU’s fifth goal. 5-0 was a disheartening turn of events for all. Just like a superhero movie is only as good as its villain, a soccer match needs two teams going at it full bore to create the tension and anticipation that each goal releases.

LA Galaxy
Giovanni Dos Santos courtesy of LA Galaxy
Finally, 78 minutes in, the Galaxy’s Gio Dos Santos took a shot and with his right foot sent the ball into the net. A great touch. The crowd was ecstatic – a little dignity regained. Then shortly thereafter at the 87th minute, the Galaxy got a corner shot. The kick floated above the goal. David Romney headed it in, bouncing off Santos into the goal for 5-2. “Makes the score look a lot better,” was one Brit’s comment. And then the game was over.

When you watch soccer on TV, the advances in image resolution and camera work, allow one to see the play and the strategy in the game up close. However, nothing can compare to the experience of sitting in a stadium with thousands of other fans, cheering (and on occasion screaming) at the players and the referees. That communal feeling is also in short supply in these United States these days.

The Galaxy fans were troopers. The MU fans were for the most part fun and revved up – save for the occasional Hooligan wannabe – whose volcanic screams and incitements to violence I could have done without (or found at a poltical rally). That being said, I was happy to be outside on a warm beautiful night in a comfortable stadium at a friendly soccer game in Carson. Which makes me think that in the words of the immortal Johnny Carson, “We’ll be right back.”