How I discovered the sinagogue of coria
L’Odissea en ladino (traducció de Moshe ‘Ha-Elion)
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L’Odissea en ladino (traducció de Moshe ‘Ha-Elion)Kante IXEn respondiendo estonses, le disho el astuto Odises: “Rey Alkinoos, el mas renomado entre todos los ombres, es, en verdad, una koza muy buena d’oyir un poeta komo es este, k’a la de los diozes su boz asemeja. I non existe, yo digo, un mas grande alkanso de gozo, ke kuando la alegría aferra a los sivdadinos. I los ke pransan adientro la kaza oyen al poeta, stando asentados en orden, i mezas delantre de eyos, yenas de karne i pan, i kon vino, un moso un djarro inche, i va, i a todos, al torno, les inche los kopos. Esta, de todas las kozas, es la mas mijor, me parese; ma el korason te pusho, sovre mis dolorozos apretos, de preguntarme, afin ke yo, stando yorando, sospire. Ke te dire en primero, i ke vo kontarte al kavo? Muchas dolores me dieron los diozes ke biven al sielo. Antes de todo, afin ke sepash, vo dizirvos mi nombre, i vo después, kuando me salvare del dia sentensiado, ser vuestro amigo, aunke yo moro en tierra leshana. ……Yo se Odises, fijo de Laertes, ke se konosido por mi astusia por todos, i arriva al sielo mi fama. Es en Itaka ke moro, ke se ve de leshos; i tiene una montanya, Neriton, ke ruiyen sus sharas del aire; i muchas izlas a su derredor, una serka la otra, Sami, Dulihion, i Zakintos k’esta kon sharas kuvrida. Ama Itaka es yana i sta en la mar al Oeste, londje de todas – ke stan de la parte del sol i del Este – tierra penyoza, ma bravos mansevos grandese, i dulse mas de mi tierra no puedo yo ver en el mundo entero. ……Ma me detuvo ayi Kalipso, la linda de las diozas, dientro de su grota gueka, su espozo kijendo ke sea; Kirke, la grande ramaya, de mizmo me detenia en su palasio, en Eea, kijendo ke sea su espozo. Ma el korason no pudieron las dos konvenser en mi pecho. Porke mas dulse non ay de la tierra natala d’un ombre, i sus parientes, i mizmo si mora en kaza muy rika, en tierra ajena aleshada, i de sus parientes muy londje. Ma, ven, i vo a kontarte de mi dolorozo retorno, ke Zeus me lo takso desde el dia ke me hue de Troya. ……D’Ilios, tomándome el aire, me trusho ende los Kikonos, a Ismaros; la sivdad estruyi, i mati a los ombres. De la sivdad, las mujeres i muchos trezoros tomando, los despartimos en partes iguales, ayi, entre todos. I stuve a todos pushando d’ayi de fuyirmos prestozos, ma eyos – ke kriaturas! – del todo no me eskucharon. Vino bevian sin kuento, i ovejas muchas degoyavan a la oriya, i bueyes k’arrastan los pies en sus yida. Ma los Kikonos, en mientres, yamaron a otros Kikonos, k’al interior de la izla moravan, i eran sus vizinos, i d’eyos mas numerozos i bravos, i eran kapaches de gerrear kon karrosas, i a pie, menester si avia. la madrugada vinieron muchos, komo flores i fojas en primavera; i a nos, desgrasiados, mos vino estonses la mala suerte ke Zeus takso, para muy apenarmos. Serka las naves lijeras para gerrear se pararon, i estos a estos rojavan las lansas kon puntas de bronzo. En tanto k’era la alba i k’el santo dia kresia, nos rezistimos, malgrado ke eran akeyos mas muchos. Ma a l’abashada del sol, kuando el yugo kitan de los bueyes, los Kikonos prevalieron, i a los Ahayos empusharon. De kada nave, sesh de mis kompanyos kon las guadra-piernas, muertos kayeron, i el resto salvimos de muerte i de suerte. ……Kon korasones muy tristes partimos d’ayi, ma alegres ke mos salvimos de muerte, aunke piedrimos kompanyos muy muy keridos. I yo no deshi ke s’alondjen las naves kurvas asta ke nombrimos tres vezes a kada kompanyo povre, ke por los Kikonos batido, murió en la yanura. I trusho Zeus, k’akoje las nuves, estonses la bora kontra las naves, tempesta terrivle, i tapo kon las nuves tierra i mar, i del sielo, prestoza abasho la nochada. I kon las proas abasho, eyas navigavan, i del huerte aire, en tres i en kuatro se despedasaron sus velas. Las abashimos anestas, d’espanto de topar la muerte, i en remando, bushkimos enverso la tierra de yirmos. Mientres dos noches i dias areo, ayi mos kedimos, i mos komiamos el korason de kanseria i fuga. Ma al treser, kuando vino Eos, de los bukles ermozos, nos, los mástiles alsimos, i en eyos spandimos las velas blankas; i el aire i los timoneros giavan las naves. I sano iya yegar yo agora a mi tierra natala; ma arrodeando a Malia, el korriente i la onda i la bora me desviaron, i londje de Kitera m’arrempusharon. …..Aires danyozos d’ayi me yevaron por mueve djornadas en la mar yena de peshes, i al dia de diez arrivimos ende los Lotofagos, ke kon flores solo se mantienen. We bring here the lyrics of 3 famous romances in Ladino – Adio Kerida – Goodbye My Beloved Adio, Goodbye, Adio kerida, goodbye beloved, No kero la vida, I don't want to live, Me l'amargates tu you made my life miserable. Tu madre kuando te pario When your mother delivered you Y te kito al mundo and brought you to the world Korason eya no te dio she did not give you a heart Para amar segundo to love another one. Adio, Goodbye, Adio kerida, goodbye beloved, No kero la vida, I don't want to live, Me l'amargates tu you made my life miserable. Va, bushkate otro amor, Go, look for another love, Aharva otras puertas, knock on other ports Aspera otro ardor, in hope to find another passion, Ke para mi sos muerta because for me you are dead. The second romance is – Los Bilbilikos Kantan – The Nightingales Sing
From the third romances, Arvoles Yoran – Trees are weeping – one strophe
Most of the Sephardim were zionists, settled in Palestine, mainly in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, Tiberias, and even tried to found a Jewish entity in Palestine. In the middle of the 16th century Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi and her nephew Joseph Nasi, with the support of the Ottoman Empire, tried to gather the Portuguese Jews, first to Cyprus, then owned by the Republic of Venice, and later to Tiberias. This was the only practical attempt to establish some sort of Jewish political center in Palestine between the fourth and 19th centuries. In the 17th century Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) announced himself as the Messiah and gained over many Jews to his side, forming a base in Salonica. He first tried to establish a settlement in Gaza, but moved later to Smyrna. After deposing the old rabbi Aaron Lapapa even the Jewish community of Avignon prepared to emigrate to the new kingdom in the spring of 1666. The readiness of the Jews of the time to believe the messianic claims of Sabbatai Zevi may be largely explained by the desperate state of European Jewry in the mid-17th century. The bloody pogroms of Bohdan Khmelnytsky had wiped out one-third of the Jewish population and destroyed many centers of Jewish learning and communal life. Finally, Joseph Nasi was forced by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV to visit him and, to the surprise of his followers, in the presence of the Sultan he converted to Islam. Sir Moses Montefiore, famous for his intervention in favor of Jews around the world, including the attempt to rescue Edgardo Mortara, established a colony for Jews in Palestine. In 1854, his friend Judah Touro bequeathed money to fund Jewish residential settlement in Palestine. Montefiore was appointed executor of his will, and used the funds for a variety of projects, including building in 1860 the first Jewish residential settlement and almshouse outside of the old walled city of Jerusalem—today known as Mishkenot Sha'ananim. Laurence Oliphant failed in a like attempt to bring to Palestine the Jewish proletariat of Poland, Lithuania, Romania, and the Turkish Empire (1879 and 1882). In the 1890s, Theodor Herzl infused Zionism with a new ideology and practical urgency, leading to the First Zionist Congress at Basel in 1897, which created the World Zionist Organization (WZO). Herzl's aim was to initiate necessary preparatory steps for the attainment of a Jewish state. Herzl's attempts to reach a political agreement with the Ottoman rulers of Palestine were unsuccessful and other governmental support was sought. The WZO supported small-scale settlement in Palestine and focused on strengthening Jewish feeling and consciousness and on building a worldwide federation. We can find in the Jewish Virtual Library a short biography of Herzl. As Herzl wrote extensively on social and economic justice issues, mainly in Altneuland, I introduced this book in my courses on this subject, and I view Herzl as the precursor not only of Israel but also of the Third Way between capitalism and socialism, that today is very popular among some scholars as Joseph Stiglitz. Theodor (Binyamin Ze'ev) Herzl was the visionary behind modern Zionism and the reinstitution of a Jewish homeland. Herzl (born May 2, 1860; died July 3, 1904) was born in Budapest in 1860. He was educated in the spirit of the German-Jewish Enlightenment, and learned to appreciate secular culture. In 1878 the family moved to Vienna, and in 1884 Herzl was awarded a doctorate of law from the University of Vienna. He became a writer, playwright and journalist. The Paris correspondent of the influential liberal Vienna newspaper Neue Freie Presse was none other than Theodor Herzl. Herzl first encountered the anti-Semitism that would shape his life and the fate of the Jews in the twentieth century while studying at the University of Vienna (1882). Later, during his stay in Paris as a journalist, he was brought face-to-face with the problem. At the time, he regarded the Jewish problem as a social issue and wrote a drama, The Ghetto (1894), in which assimilation and conversion are rejected as solutions. He hoped that The Ghetto would lead to debate and ultimately to a solution, based on mutual tolerance and respect between Christians and Jews. In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was unjustly accused of treason, mainly because of the prevailing anti-Semitic atmosphere. Herzl witnessed mobs shouting “Death to the Jews” in France, the home of the French Revolution, and resolved that there was only one solution: the mass immigration of Jews to a land of their own. Thus, the Dreyfus Case became one of the determinants in the genesis of Political Zionism. So, as the Chinese say – every crisis can lead to new opportunities. Herzl concluded that anti-Semitism was a stable and immutable factor in human society, which assimilation did not solve. He mulled over the idea of Jewish sovereignty, and, despite ridicule from Jewish leaders, published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State, 1896). Herzl argued that the essence of the Jewish problem was not individual but national. He declared that the Jews could gain acceptance in the world only if they ceased being a national anomaly. The Jews are one people, he said, and their plight could be transformed into a positive force by the establishment of a Jewish state with the consent of the great powers. He saw the Jewish question as an international political question to be dealt with in the arena of international politics. Herzl proposed a practical program for collecting funds from Jews around the world by a company to be owned by stockholders, which would work toward the practical realization of this goal. (This organization, when it was eventually formed, was called the Zionist Organization.) He saw the future state as a model social state, basing his ideas on the European model of the time, of a modern enlightened society. It would be neutral and peace-seeking, and of a secular nature. In his Zionist novel, Altneuland (Old New Land, 1902), Herzl pictured the future Jewish state as a socialist utopia. He envisioned a new society that was to rise in the Land of Israel on a cooperative basis utilizing science and technology in the development of the Land. He included detailed ideas about how he saw the future state’s political structure, immigration, fund raising, diplomatic relations, social laws and relations between religion and the state. In Altneuland, the Jewish state was foreseen as a pluralist, advanced society, a “light unto the nations.” This book had a great impact on the Jews of the time and became a symbol of the Zionist vision in the Land of Israel. Herzl's ideas were met with enthusiasm by the Jewish masses in Eastern Europe, although Jewish leaders were less ardent. Herzl appealed to wealthy Jews such as Baron Hirsch and Baron Rothschild, to join the national Zionist movement, but in vain. He then appealed to the people, and the result was the convening of the First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, on August 29 31, 1897. What is less known is that the Zionist movement was received warmly also among Sephardic Jews, and Altneuland was translated very soon into Ladino. The Congress was the first interterritorial gathering of Jews on a national and secular basis. Here the delegates adopted the Basle Program, the program of the Zionist movement, and declared, “Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law.” At the Congress the World Zionist Organization was established as the political arm of the Jewish people, and Herzl was elected its first president Herzl convened six Zionist Congresses between 1897 and 1902. It was here that the tools for Zionist activism were forged: Otzar Hityashvut Hayehudim, the Jewish National Fund and the movement’s newspaper Die Welt. After the First Zionist Congress, the movement met yearly at an international Zionist Congress. In 1936, the center of the Zionist movement was transferred to Jerusalem. Herzl saw the need for encouragement by the great powers of the aims of the Jewish people in the Land. Thus, he traveled to the Land of Israel and Istanbul in 1898 to meet with Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The meeting with Wilhelm was a failure - the monarch dismissed Herzl’s political entreaties with snide anti-Semitic remarks. When these efforts proved fruitless, he turned to Great Britain, and met with Joseph Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary and others. The only concrete offer he received from the British was the proposal of a Jewish autonomous region in east Africa, in Uganda. In 1899, in an essay entitled “The Family Affliction” written for The American Hebrew, Herzl wrote, “Anyone who wants to work in behalf of the Jews needs - to use a popular phrase - a strong stomach.” The 1903 Kishinev pogrom and the difficult state of Russian Jewry, witnessed firsthand by Herzl during a visit to Russia, had a profound effect on him. He requested that the Russian government assist the Zionist Movement to transfer Jews from Russia to Eretz Yisrael. At the Sixth Zionist Congress (1903), Herzl proposed the British Uganda Program as a temporary refuge for Jews in Russia in immediate danger. While Herzl made it clear that this program would not affect the ultimate aim of Zionism, a Jewish entity in the Land of Israel, the proposal aroused a storm at the Congress and nearly led to a split in the Zionist movement. The Uganda Program was finally rejected by the Zionist movement at the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905. Herzl died in Vienna in 1904, of pneumonia and a weak heart overworked by his incessant efforts on behalf of Zionism. By then the movement had found its place on the world political map. In 1949, Herzl’s remains were brought to Israel and reinterred on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Herzl’s books Der Judenstaat (“The Jewish State”) and Altneuland (“Old New Land”), his plays and articles have been published frequently and translated into many languages. His name has been commemorated in the Herzl Forests at Ben Shemen and Hulda, the world's first Hebrew gymnasium — “Herzliya” — which was established in Tel Aviv, the town of Herzliya in the Sharon and neighborhoods and streets in many Israeli towns and cities. Herzl coined the phrase “If you will, it is no fairytale,” which became the motto of the Zionist movement. Although at the time no one could have imagined it, Zionism led, only fifty years later, to the establishment of the independent State of Israel. Herzl was 44-years-old when he died in the summer of 1904, on the 20th of Tammuz in the Jewish calendar. I wanted to read once again Altneuland (The Old New Land) by Theodor Herzl, the book that our founding father wrote with his vision about the old new land of the Jews. I have read several times Der Judenstaat – the Jewish State, but I wanted to enjoy once more the Utopia of Altneuland. I could read it in German as it was written initially in this language, in Hebrew as it has become a classic in Israel, in English, French, Spanish or in many of the other languages of the Jewish diaspora. But I chose to read it in Ladino from a rare book written a hundred years ago in Rashi letters in Saloniki, Greece. My father Albert and many of the Sephardic Jews read Herzl's books and were converted to Zionism, settling in Palestine and since 1948 in Israel. Herzl's last literary work, Altneuland (in English: The Old New Land, 1902), is a novel (full text in English translation) devoted to Zionism. Herzl occupied his free time for three years in writing what he believed might be accomplished by 1923. Though the form is that of a romance, It is less a novel than a serious forecast of what could be done within one generation. The keynotes of the story are love of Zion and insistence upon the fact that the suggested changes in life are not utopian but to be brought about simply by grouping all the best efforts and ideals of every race and nation. Each such effort is quoted and referred to in such a manner as to show that Altneuland, though blossoming through the skill of the Jew, will in reality be the product of the benevolent efforts of all the members of the human family. Herzl envisioned a Jewish state that combined modern Jewish culture with the best of the European heritage. Thus a "Palace of Peace" would be built in Jerusalem to arbitrate international disputes, and at the same time the Temple would be rebuilt on modern principles. Herzl did not envision the Jewish inhabitants of the state as being religious, but there was respect for religion in the public sphere. He also assumed that many languages would be spoken, and that Hebrew would not be the main tongue. Proponents of a Jewish cultural rebirth, such as Ahad Ha'am, were critical of Altneuland. In Altneuland, Herzl did not foresee any conflict between Jews and Arabs. One of the main characters in Altneuland is a Haifa engineer, Reshid Bey, who is one of the leaders of the "New Society". He is very grateful to his Jewish neighbors for improving the economic condition of Israel and sees no cause for conflict. All non-Jews have equal rights, and an attempt by a fanatical rabbi to disenfranchise the non-Jewish citizens of their rights fails in the election which is the center of the main political plot of the novel. Herzl saw clearly what the Palestinians and Arabs fail to see until now, that the Jews contributed to the welfare of Israel much more than any other Arab state contributed to their welfare. The Israeli Arabs/Palestinians thrive in Israel in spite of all the problems much more than in any other Arab state, economically and politically. Herzl also envisioned the future Jewish state to be a "third way" between capitalism and socialism, with a developed welfare program and public ownership of the main natural resources. Industry, agriculture and trade were organized on a cooperative basis. Along with many other progressive Jews of the day, such as Emma Lazarus, Louis Brandeis, Albert Einstein, and Franz Oppenheimer, Herzl desired to enact the land reforms proposed by the American political economist Henry George. Specifically, they called for a land value tax. He called his mixed economic model "Mutualism", a term derived from French utopian socialist thinking. Women would have equal voting rights—as they had in the Zionist movement from the Second Zionist Congress onwards. In fact Israel adopted many mutualist precepts – the Kibbutz, cooperatives… In Altneuland, Herzl outlined his vision for a new Jewish state in the Land of Israel. He summed up his vision of an open society: "It is founded on the ideas which are a common product of all civilized nations. ... It would be immoral if we would exclude anyone, whatever his origin, his descent, or his religion, from participating in our achievements. For we stand on the shoulders of other civilized peoples. ... What we own we owe to the preparatory work of other peoples. Therefore, we have to repay our debt. There is only one way to do it, the highest tolerance. Our motto must therefore be, now and ever: 'Man, you are my brother.'" In his novel, Herzl wrote about an electoral campaign in the new state. He directed his wrath against the nationalist party, which wished to make the Jews a privileged class in Israel. Herzl regarded that as a betrayal of Zion, for Zion was identical to him with humanitarianism and tolerance—and that this was true in politics as well as religion. Herzl wrote: "Matters of faith were once and for all excluded from public influence. ... Whether anyone sought religious devotion in the synagogue, in the church, in the mosque, in the art museum, or in a philharmonic concert, did not concern society. That was his [own] private affair." Altneuland was written both for Jews and non-Jews: Herzl wanted to win over non-Jewish opinion for Zionism. When he was still thinking of Argentina as a possible venue for massive Jewish immigration, he wrote in his diary: "When we occupy the land, we shall bring immediate benefits to the state that receives us. We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly ... It goes without saying that we shall respectfully tolerate persons of other faiths and protect their property, their honor, and their freedom with the harshest means of coercion. This is another area in which we shall set the entire world a wonderful example ... Should there be many such immovable owners in individual areas [who would not sell their property to us], we shall simply leave them there and develop our commerce in the direction of other areas which belong to us". Do we have in Israel a "third way society"or a neoliberal capitalistic regime? Are we a wonderful example to the entire world or a society that is boycotted by more and more states and peoples? Are we a country with the highest tolerance to others or a quasi-theocratic state ruled by ultra-orthodox and ultra-right parties? Where have the mutualists precepts vanished, the welfare state disappeared, most of Herzl's vision sunk into oblivion? I leave to the reader to answer those questions by himself, as sic transit gloria mundi? Altneuland tells the story of Friedrich Löwenberg, a young Jewish Viennese intellectual, who, tired with European decadence, joins an Americanized Prussian aristocrat named Kingscourt as they retire to a remote Pacific island (it is specifically mentioned as being part of the Cook Islands, near Raratonga, which may explain why this country and other Pacific tiny states support vehemently Israel…). Stopping in Jaffa on their way to the Pacific, they find Palestine a backward, destitute and sparsely populated land, as it appeared to Herzl on his visit in 1898. Löwenberg and Kingscourt spend the following twenty years on the island, cut off from civilization. As they pass through Palestine on their way back to Europe, they discover a land drastically transformed, showcasing a free, open and cosmopolitan modern society, and boasting a thriving cooperative industry based on state-of-the-art technology. In the two decades that have passed, European Jews have rediscovered and re-inhabited their Altneuland, reclaiming their own destiny in the Land of Israel. Herzl's novel depicts his blueprint for the realization of Jewish national emancipation, as put forward in his book Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) published in 1896. Both ideological and utopian, it presents a model society which was to adopt a liberal and egalitarian social model, resembling a modern welfare state. Herzl called his model "Mutualism" and it is based on a mixed economy, with public ownership of the land and natural resources, agricultural cooperatives, state welfare, while at the same time encouraging private entrepreneurship. A true modernist, Herzl rejected the European class system, yet remained loyal to Europe's cultural heritage. Rather than imagining the Jews in Altneuland speaking exclusively Hebrew, the society is multi-lingual – with German, Hebrew and Yiddish being the main languages and reproducing European customs, going to the opera and enjoying the theatre. I share of course Herzl's vision, as I think that Israel has to be a cosmpolitan multi-lingual very cultural 'third way' society, quite opposite to the present situation. While Jerusalem is the capital, with the seat of parliament ("Congress") and the Jewish Academy, the country's industrial center is the modern city of Haifa. In the actual Israel, this role was to be taken by Tel Aviv, a city which did not yet exist at the time of writing and whose name was inspired by the book itself. Herzl saw the potential of Haifa Bay for constructing a modern deep-water port. However, in reality it would be the British Empire rather than the Zionists which would realise that potential and make considerable strategic use of it during the Second World War. Though Israel would eventually inherit the Haifa port and city, by 1948 the central role of Tel Aviv (Altneuland in Hebew) was established, with Haifa – though a major Israeli city – relegated to a secondary position. As envisioned by Herzl, "All the way from Acco to Mount Carmel stretched what seemed to be one great park". In the actual Israel the very same area became a giant industrial zone, reckoned the most heavily polluted part of the country, and Haifa where I live has the highest rate of cancers in Israel. The final sentences of Altneuland emphasize what was the basis of this old new state, according to the main protagonists of the novel. We bring it here in English and in Ladino in Hebrew/Rashi letters as it was written about a hundred years ago in the Feuilleton El Tiempo of Saloniki, Greece, and translated into Ladino (from which language?) by Jean Florian. My humble contribution was in transcribing the Rashi writing into Latin writing: At last Friedrich put a question, and every man answered it after his fashion. אין איסטי איסטאדו די אלמה, פרידיריק ליב'ינבירג סוליב'אנטו אונה קיסטייון אלה קואלה טודוס לוס אסיסטיינטיס ריספונדיירון אונו דיספואיס די אוטרו קאדה אונו אסו מאנירה. לה קואסטייון אדריסאדה אירה לה סיגואינטי: En este estado de alma, Friedrich Loewenberg solevanto una kuestion ala kuela todos los asistientes respondieron uno despues de otro kada uno asu manera. La kuestion adresada era la siguiente:
- נוזוטרוס ב'ימוס אקי אונה פ'ורמה נואיב'ה, מאס ב'ינטורוזה, די לה ב'ידה אין קומון די לוס אומבריס, קיין קריאו איסטו? - Nosotros vimos aki una forma nueva, mas venturosa, de la vida en komun de los ombres, ken kreo esto?
איל ב'ייז'ו ליטב'אק ריספונדייו: איל אפריטו. El viejo Littwak respondio: El apreto.
איל ארשיטיקטה שטאייניק ריספונדייו: איל פואיב'לו אאונאדו! El arshitekta Steineck respondio: El puevlo aunado!
קינגסקורט דישו: לוס נואיב'וס מיזוס די קומוניקאסייון! Kingscourt disho: Los nuevos mezos de komunikasion!
איל דוקטור מארקוס דישו: איל סאב'יר! El doktor Marcus disho: El saver!
יוסף לוי דישו: לה ב'ולונטאד! Joseph Levy disho: La voluntad!
איל פרופ'סור שאטייניק דישו: לאס פ'ואירסאס די לה נאטורה. El Profesor Steineck disho: Las fuersas de la natura.
איל פרידיקאדור אינגלס אופ'קינס דישו: לה טולירנסייה מוטואלה! El Predikador ingles disho: La toleransia mutuala!
ראשיד ביי דישו: לה קונפ'יאינסה אין סי! Reshid Bey disho: La konfiensa en si!
דוד ליטב'אק דישו: איל אמור אי לה סופ'ריאינסה! David Littwak disho: El amor i la sufriensa!
מה איל ב'ייז'ו רבי שמואל סי ליב'אנטו סולאנילמינטי אי דישו: איל דייו! Ma el viejo Rabbi Shmuel se levanto solanelmente i disho: El Dio!
When Harry was almost ninety he had a stroke and he was brought to his apartment in the Rally Museum of Caesarea, where nurses took care of him day and night. The manager of the Museum, a remarkable and very talented woman, told me that Harry cannot communicate and does not understand what is told to him. I told her that nevertheless I want to visit him with my wife (he also met before my son Yossi who is an architect, as he was very interested in architecture). We came one morning, and noticed that indeed he could not communicate with any of the persons who were there, nurses, the manager and friends. I started to talk to him in Ladino, like we used to before. I told him: "Kerido Harry, saves ke otrun poko avemos Pesah i vamos a meldar la Agada kon toda nuestra familia. Te akodras komo kantavas en Ladino kuando estavas chiko kon tu papa i tu mama i toda tu familia? Es pekado ke no puedes estar kon nosotros, ma vamos a pensar a ti kuando vamos a kantar (i kanti): "Este es el pan de la afriision ke komieron muestros padres en tierra de Ayifto. Todo el ken tiene ambre venga i koma. Todo el ken tiene de menester venga i paskue. Este anyo aki, a el anyo ke viene en tierra de Yisrael. Este anyo aki, siervos, a el anyo ke viene en tierra de Yisrael ijos fo-o-o-ros…" When Harry heard me singing the famous Pesah song "ha lahma anyaa" in Ladino, as he used to sing when he was a kid, he burst out crying and large drops of tears came down his cheeks… In English: "Dear Harry, you know that in a short while we'll have Pesah/Passover and we'll read the Agada with all our family. You remember how you used to sing in Ladino when you were a kid with your father and your mother and all your family? It is unfortunate that you'll not be able to be with us but we'll think about you when we'll sing (and I sang): This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat of it; all in need come and celebrate Passover. This year we observe it here; next year may we be in the Land of Israel. This year we are slaves in exile; next year may we be free men in the Land of Israel." In Aramaic: "A lakhma anya di ahalu avatana beara demitsrayim, kol dikhfin yeteh veyehol, kol ditsrikh yeteh veyifsakh, ashata aha leshana abaa beara deyisrael, ashata avdeh, leshana abaa beara deyisrael beneh horin." Written in Aramaic alphabet and translated into Hebrew: ARAMAIC - "הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִּי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְּאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִּכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכוֹל. כָּל דִּצְרִיךְ יֵיתֵי וְיִפְסַח. הָשַׁתָּא הָכָא. לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּאַרְעָא דְיִשְׂרָאֵל. הָשַׁתָּא עַבְדֵּי לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּנֵי חוֹרִין". HEBREW - "זהו לחם העוני שאכלו אבותינו בארץ מצרים. כל הרעב יבוא ויאכל, כל הצריך יבוא וייפסח (מלשון קורבן פסח). השנה (אנו) כאן, לשנה הבאה בארץ ישראל, השנה (אנו) עבדים, לשנה הבאה בני חורין." 5. THE ODYSSEY OF THE PLAY/NOVEL BEWARE OF GREEKS' PRESENTS/NELLY DORON/NELLY'S CHOICE In this final chapter on plays I present extracts and an analysis of other plays and opera, as well as extracts of my play/novel Beware of Greeks' Presents/Nelly Doron/Nelly's Choice, a synopsis and a table of contents. My play was "born" in a day of extreme frustration by my impossibility to punish the wrongdoers who have conned me and thousands of minority shareholders. As nobody was willing to join me in a legal suit, I read Homer's Odyssey in order to overcome my negative feelings, when all at once I had an illumination to write a play, a modern Odyssey, with Israelis protagonists – Ully/Ulysses/Odysseus, Nelly/Penelope, Arieh/Poseidon, Eli/Dionysus..., about an honest businessman who cannot fight the corruption prevailing in the business world in a long Odyssey. I wrote a synopsis of 60 pages on the sixth of July 1997, while every protagonist dictated to me what he wanted to be, I had the exhilarating experience of a muse assisting me to write the play, the birth of the play was very easy, during the following 18 days I wrote the play on my computer, and I achieved to write a very long play of five acts, a classical play – Nelly Doron. I gave it to read to my wife and children, and my wife vetoed the publication of the play as people would think that it is a personal play with Ruthy and me as Nelly and Ully, although the starting point was perhaps autobiographical – the surprise party of Nelly/Ruthy who took place a few years ago, but the plot was completely different, Nelly's Choice how to solve the impass, and of course the end of the play. In the meantime others read and liked the play. A few years later a friend of mine who had a small publishing house was very moved by the play and advised me to adapt it to a novel – Beware of Greeks' Presents. That I did and he published my novel in 2001, that was sold only in a few hundreds copies. Since 2004, when I started to teach my courses in business ethics at Israeli's universities, I introduced my novel and play which I donated in several copies to the libraries in my curriculum, as it was the unique Israeli novel which dealt on business ethics issues, especially towards minority shareholders. Thousands of students read it, presented the ethical issues of the main protagonists, and the most famous Israeli playwright Joshua Sobol gave an excellent review on the play. The play was not staged in Israel and in France, in spite of it being translated by a French playwright and published in France. It was not published in Israel, but I donated copies to my universities of the adaptation of the play Nelly's Choice into a much shorter play which I wrote with Amalia Eyal, and I published on my website the original version of the play Nelly Doron, as well as extracts of my novel and Nelly's Choice. It was almost staged twice in Israel, once at the Haifa Theater where everything was settled, there was a draft agreement and I even hired an agent, but the theater got bankrupt on the day that we were supposed to sign the contract… The play was almost staged in another famous Israeli theater but did not get the final approval. However, the play was read to the public on July 30, 2008 by the students of the Theater Department of the University of Jerusalem, where I got my BA, is one of the leading universities in the world, and its publisher Magnes published my business ethics book in the same month. I even was asked to prepare a disc of the music accompanying the play, which I did and I present it here in text and in a link. 6. SYNOPSIS OF THE NOVEL "BEWARE OF GREEKS' PRESENTS" BY J. CORY The novel “Beware of Greeks’ Presents” describes in a trenchant way the corruption in the business world, as only a businessman who knows the reality from personal knowledge can describe. The author, Jacques Cory, is a businessman who decided to write this book during a period in which the moral and ethical norms in the western world are deteriorating. The topic of corruption in business, as described by authentic novels written by businessmen, has not yet received adequate exposure in literature. Cory, with his large experience as a top level high tech executive and M&A specialist, has written a very original and convincing book which conveys a message about the future of society in the new millennium – a message of despair mixed with hope. “Beware of Greeks’ Presents” depicts current issues affecting the business world: corruption, racism and women’s liberation. But it is also a universal book about love and betrayal, and how love can surmount all hardships. The protagonists of the book are Ully and Nelly Doron, an Israeli couple who are not ready to succumb to the new norms and, as a consequence, pay the full price, followed by the betrayal of their best friends. Their ordeal is related as a modern Odyssey, as the heroes are of Greek origin and are compared to those of Homer. The plot commences at a surprise party that Ully throws in his Tel Aviv home for his wife, in which all their friends participate. During the party a scheme is conceived by two of their friends, Arieh and Eli, to take over at a manipulated price a company that Ully assisted its founder, Hadas, to make public and invested heavily in, thus making him lose all his money as well as the investment of the minority shareholders. The idyll of the party stands in sharp contrast to the Kafkaesque nightmare that will ensue unveiling the masks of hypocrisy. Ully, a modern Ullysses, is a shrewd and tough businessman who tries to fight the corruption while maintaining elementary ethical norms. However, he is not able to cope with the ruthless businessmen who act without any inhibitions and are backed by almost all of society. On the other hand, Nelly, a modern Penelope, develops out of the crisis from an innocent teacher to a fearless warrior. She ceases to be a submissive woman who weaves all day and is completely faithful to her husband, and transforms herself into a modern woman who takes fate into her own hands in order to save her husband, herself and their marriage. Sima Calipha, a modern Calypso, is a beautiful young ambitious and feminist woman. She works as a lawyer at Eli's company. After having succeeded to tempt Ully, she tries unsuccessfully to break his marriage, but hopes that by disclosing to him her bosses' schemes she will win back his heart. However, Ully remains this time faithful to his wife who stands by him remarkably, even after learning from Eli of Ully's affair with Sima. Hadas, the honest and innocent scientist, is soon corrupted by Arieh and Eli and merges his company with them behind Ully's back to the detriment of his minority shareholders. He accuses Ully of double-crossing, being under the influence of Arieh's calumnies on Ully. But after discovering that he was conned too and suffering from heavy remorse of his betrayal he commits suicide with the tacit assistance of Arieh and Eli. Arieh, the ruthless entrepreneur and Chairman of the Board, has no scruples and believes that everything is permitted in order to grow and maximize profitability, including conning his stakeholders - his partners, shareholders, employees, and the government. Everybody is intimated by him, cooperates or at least doesn't blow the whistle, as the law of Omerta prevails in this mafia-like business environment. Only Ully dares to oppose Arieh's schemes, but all his friends who rally Arieh soon ostracize him.
7. ON THE ORIGINS OF THE PHRASE "BEWARE OF GREEKS' PRESENTS" – TIMEO DANAOS ET DONA FERENTES IN LATIN AND IN GREEK – Φοβάμαι Έλληνες και δώρα φέροντες - Fovámai Éllines kai dóra férontes Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes is a Latin phrase from Aeneid (II, 49), written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC. It has been paraphrased in English as the proverb "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts". Its literal meaning is "I fear the Danaans [Greeks], even those bearing gifts" or "even when they bear gifts". Most printed versions of the text have the variant ferentis instead of ferentes. As related in the Aeneid, after a nine-year war on the beaches of Troy between the Danaans (Greeks from the mainland) and the Trojans, the Greek seer Calchas induces the leaders of the Greek army to win the war by means of subterfuge: build a huge wooden horse and sail away from Troy as if in defeat - leaving the horse behind as a votive offering for a safe journey home. The Trojan Horse actually contains a hand-picked team of crack Greek warriors hidden in its wooden belly. The Trojan priest Laocoön suspects that some menace is hidden in the horse, and he warns the Trojans not to accept the gift, crying, Equō nē crēdite, Teucrī! Quidquid id est, timeō Danaōs et dōna ferentes. ("Do not trust the horse, Trojans! Whatever it is, I fear the Danaans, even when bringing gifts.") Immediately after Laocoön proclaims his warning, he throws a spear at the horse, which pierces its side; Virgil writes that the groan from the Greek warriors hidden within would surely have alerted the Trojans to the trick if the gods had not already ordained Troy's destruction. Soon after he casts his spear, enormous twin serpents slither out of the sea and attack Laocoön's sons. When Laocoön tries to help them, he too is viciously slain. The Trojans assume the horse has been offered at Minerva's (Athena's) prompting and interpret Laocoön's death as a sign of her displeasure. The Trojans agree unanimously to place the horse atop wheels and roll it through their impenetrable walls as a trophy of their victory. Festivities follow, celebrating the end of the war. That night, the Greeks hidden inside the horse creep out and open the city gates to the entire Greek army, which has sailed back to Troy under cover of darkness. The Greek sack the city and Troy is destroyed. In the modern era, the phrase was translated to Katharevousa Greek as Φοβοῦ τοὺς Δαναοὺς καὶ δῶρα φέροντας ("fear the Danaans, even if bearing gifts!") and has become a common Greek proverb. The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the subterfuge that the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and win the war. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war. Metaphorically a "Trojan Horse" has come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or place. A malicious computer program which tricks users into willingly running it is also called a "Trojan horse". The main ancient source for the story is the Aeneid of Virgil, a Latin epic poem from the time of Augustus. The event is referred to in Homer's Odyssey. In the Greek tradition, the horse is called the "Wooden Horse" (Δούρειος Ἵππος, Doúreios Híppos, in the Homeric Ionic dialect). According to Quintus Smyrnaeus, Odysseus thought of building a great wooden horse (the horse being the emblem of Troy), hiding an elite force inside, and fooling the Trojans into wheeling the horse into the city as a trophy. Under the leadership of Epeios, the Greeks built the wooden horse in three days. Odysseus' plan called for one man to remain outside the horse; he would act as though the Greeks had abandoned him, leaving the horse as a gift for the Trojans. An inscription was engraved on the horse reading: "For their return home, the Greeks dedicate this offering to Athena". Then they burned their tents and left to Tenedos by night. Greek soldier Sinon was "abandoned", and was to signal to the Greeks by lighting a beacon. In Virgil's poem, Sinon, the only volunteer for the role, successfully convinces the Trojans that he has been left behind and that the Greeks are gone. Sinon tells the Trojans that the Horse is an offering to the goddess Athena, meant to atone for the previous desecration of her temple at Troy by the Greeks, and ensure a safe journey home for the Greek fleet. Sinon tells the Trojans that the Horse was built to be too large for them to take it into their city and gain the favor of Athena for themselves. While questioning Sinon, the Trojan priest Laocoön guesses the plot and warns the Trojans, in Virgil's famous line Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes ("I fear Greeks, even those bearing gifts"), Danai (acc Danaos) or Danaans (Homer's name for the Greeks) being the ones who had built the Trojan Horse. However, the god Poseidon sends two sea serpents to strangle him and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus before any Trojan heeds his warning. According to Apollodorus the two serpents were sent by Apollo, whom Laocoon had insulted by sleeping with his wife in front of the "divine image". In the Odyssey, Homer says that Helen of Troy also guesses the plot and tries to trick and uncover the Greek soldiers inside the horse by imitating the voices of their wives, and Anticlus attempts to answer, but Odysseus shuts his mouth with his hand. King Priam's daughter Cassandra, the soothsayer of Troy, insists that the horse will be the downfall of the city and its royal family. She too is ignored, hence their doom and loss of the war. This incident is mentioned in the Odyssey: What a thing was this, too, which that mighty man wrought and endured in the carven horse, wherein all we chiefs of the Argives were sitting, bearing to the Trojans death and fate! 4.271 ff But come now, change thy theme, and sing of the building of the horse of wood, which Epeius made with Athena's help, the horse which once Odysseus led up into the citadel as a thing of guile, when he had filled it with the men who sacked Ilion . 8.487 ff (trans. Samuel Butler) The most detailed and most familiar version is in Virgil's Aeneid, Book II (trans. A. S. Kline). After many years have slipped by, the leaders of the Greeks, opposed by the Fates, and damaged by the war, build a horse of mountainous size, through Pallas's divine art, and weave planks of fir over its ribs: they pretend it's a votive offering: this rumour spreads. They secretly hide a picked body of men, chosen by lot, there, in the dark body, filling the belly and the huge cavernous insides with armed warriors. [...] Then Laocoön rushes down eagerly from the heights of the citadel, to confront them all, a large crowd with him, and shouts from far off: "O unhappy citizens, what madness? Do you think the enemy's sailed away? Or do you think any Greek gift's free of treachery? Is that Ulysses's reputation? Either there are Greeks in hiding, concealed by the wood, or it's been built as a machine to use against our walls, or spy on our homes, or fall on the city from above, or it hides some other trick: Trojans, don't trust this horse. Whatever it is, I'm afraid of Greeks even those bearing gifts." Book II includes Laocoön saying: "Equo ne credite, Teucri. Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes." ("Do not trust the horse, Trojans! Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks, even bringing gifts.") Well before Virgil, the story is also alluded to in Greek classical literature. In Euripides' play Trojan Women, written in 415 BC, the god Poseidon proclaims: "For, from his home beneath Parnassus, Phocian Epeus, aided by the craft of Pallas, framed a horse to bear within its womb an armed host, and sent it within the battlements, fraught with death; whence in days to come men shall tell of 'the wooden horse,' with its hidden load of warriors." 8. TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE NOVEL "BEWARE OF GREEKS' PRESENTS" Chapter 1 - The surprise party of Nelly with all their friends. The idyllic background. Chapter 2 - The scheme of Arieh and Eli to takeover Hadas and Ully's company. Chapter 3 - The disclosure of the scheme to Ully by Sima, who offers her assistance. Chapter 4 - The confrontation between Hadas and Ully, who is accused of double-crossing. Chapter 5 - Ully quarrels with Arieh and Eli and threatens to blow the whistle. Chapter 6 - Ully's Odyssey, trying to convince his friends to rally his struggle. Chapter 7 - Ully is abandoned by most of his friends and colleagues. Only Nelly stands by him. Chapter 8 - Arieh and Eli stall Ully's campaign by a false promise of compromise. Chapter 9 - Sima discloses to Ully that he was once more conned. Chapter 10 - Nelly and Ully's row, after Eli discloses to Nelly of Sima and Ully's affair. Chapter 11 - Nelly and Sima's confrontation. Chapter 12 - Ully's traumatic birthday party, ending with Ully's stroke. Chapter 13 - The Trojan Horse, the Greek's present, Nelly and Eli's orgy. Nelly offers to rally Eli and be his schemes' partner. Eli discloses to Nelly all his schemes, without knowing that he is being taped. Chapter 14 - Nelly discloses to the astonished Ully the outcome of her plot. Chapter 15 - Sima and Nelly's meeting with Hadas. Hadas discovers that he was conned by Arieh and Eli and commits in their presence suicide. Chapter 16 - Nelly and Eli's confrontation after he discovers the sting where his 'confession' was given as 'smoking gun' evidence of his crimes to the police. Chapter 17 - Nelly convinces Arieh to give up the management of the company and half of its shares to Ully and Nelly in return to their collaboration in exonerating him from Eli's crimes. Chapter 18 - Ully, the new CEO, praises reluctantly but skillfully in a shareholders' meeting Arieh's heritage, but is consoled by his belief that he with Nelly will succeed to manage the company ethically. 9. Music for the play "Nelly's Choice" by Jacques Cory & Amalia Eyal – 1'30" (in 10 languages, from first to last scene) 1. Greek song – DROMOS 2. Greek song - TOU VOTANIKOU O MAGAS 3. Greek song by Theodorakis - VARKA STO GIALO 4. Greek song Rembetiko, sung by Dallaras - TA PEDIA TIS ANINAS 5. Italian song, sung by Domenico Modunio - DIO COME TI AMO 6. Wedding March by Mendelssohn 7. Yiddish song TUMBALALAIKA, sung by Mike Burshtein 8. Hebrew song "AL HADVASH VEAL HAOKETZ" by Naomi Shemer sung by Yossi Banai 9. Spanish song GRACIAS A LA VIDA by Violeta Parra, sung by Nana Muskuri 10. Greek song DIGA SE MAGISES, sung by Glikeria 11. Instrumental music of SIRTAKI by Theodorakis from "Zorba the Greek" 12. Duet from Rigoletto (Rigoletto & Gilda) by Verdi PIANGI FANCIULLA PIANGI 13. American song YOU ARE THE TOP from Cole Porter's musical ANYTHING GOES 14. Greek song by Mikis Theodorakis THA SIMANOUN I KABANES 15. Greek song KALIMERA ILIE 16. American spiritual by Louis Armstrong NOBODY KNOWS THE TROUBLE I'VE SEEN 17. German ballad from the Threepenny Opera by Brecht & Kurt Weill MACK THE KNIFE 18. Ladino romance sung by Yehoram Gaon DURME DURME MI ANGELICO 19. Hebrew song sung by Hava Alberstein "SHIR HAKIRKAS" 20. French Aria/Ballet: Gounod's Faust: LE VEAU D'OR, ET SATAN COUNDUIT LE BAL 21. Aria in Italian MISERERE from Verdi's opera Il Trovatore 22. Prayers in Latin from the REQUIEM by Verdi 23. Rembetiko song in Hebrew "SHIR HASHAIARA", sung by Arik Einstein 24. Greek song DIRLADA 25. Greek song NIKOLI NIKOLI Nelly's Choice, a Play in Hebrew by Jacques Cory and Amalia Eyal – Summary, Review by Joshua Sobol and List of Musical Numbers,Audio of Music Part 1,Part 2 – direct links.
I have read with pleasure your play "Nelly's Choice", and I found it very interesting. The protagonists, the relationships and the subjects that arise in your play are of extremely importance for the understanding of the values prevailing in the business world in the first decade of the 21st century. The moral nihilism of the characters explains, on the one hand, the human nature of the savage capitalism's heroes of modern time, and on the other hand, precisely this nihilism turns the heroes of the play into captivating and dramatically effective protagonists. On top of that, I was surprised and glad to discover that we have indeed a common interest in ethics or in the lack of ethics that characterizes the wild beasts of the brave new-old world in which we live today. There is a renaissance spirit in your attitude and a blessed initiative to take out the theater from the bubble of entertainment into which it is inclined to deteriorate, and force it to renew its vital links with the most significant reality of our time, which is the reality of the business world, the capital market and the stock exchange manipulations. I loved in your play the tremendous sexual appetite of Elie which stems from the same libidinal energy that motivates also his predatory and ruthless nature in the business world. Finally, in the same way that he actually rapes Nelly in machismo savagery, and doesn't make exactly love with her, he f… in the same way everybody who has confidence in him in the business world. Elie is a creature who can only grab more and more without giving anything in return, except void promises, which he himself doesn't intend and cannot fulfill. And yet in human relationships between mature people there are allways transactions which are based on give and take, if those are honest transactions that are made in good faith and integrity. An honest transaction in relationships is a transaction in which every partner declares sincerely what he wants to get and informs honestly what he can give in return, and from now on the other party has to decide if there is or there is not a transaction. A dishonest transaction is of course a transaction in which the rogue declares that he wants one thing while he really covets something else (declares for example that he is looking for love while he actually wants casual sex and nothing more), and in parallel he declares what he is willing and able to give in return, while he cannot give anything of what he has promised, and naturally he doesn't intend to give anything. Those insights are ancient as humanity itself in the domain of feelings, but nowadays they have received increased validity and weight in the domain from which originates all the simile of give and take, which is – the business world. The drama deals from the earliest times in breaking promises or in giving promises that it will be impossible to fulfill or that there was no intention initially to fulfill from the moment they were given. Yüklə 0,57 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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