28.6.20
25.6.20
Cruel Summer
Digging through some old photos. This is from 2006 or 2007, one of many that appeared in the wake of the Second Lebanon War.
Tel Aviv Dream Reality
22.6.20
King of Warsaw
Where do I start? I ordered this novel on a whim and it did not disappoint. Szczepan Twardoch's The King of Warsaw is simply a tour de force. I didn't know what I was getting into when I first began reading it nearly a week or so ago. The novel is as hard-boiled and noir as it gets. It absolutely delivered.
I realized after only reading a few pages that the interrelated subjects of the book such as Polish Jewry, Israel, boxing, socialism, crime, corruption, and the overall Warsaw cityscape in the prelude to the Second World War would make for a captivating read. These are topics that are right up my personal interests and up until now I hadn't encountered them connected all within one novel. I'm grateful that this book was translated and published in English. The in-depth angles that Twardoch explores through characters like Jakub Szapiro, Mojzesz Bernsztajn, Kaplica, Emilia, Pantaleon, Anna, and others are both chilling and heart wrenching. All portrayals are haunting and vividly brought to life. The various narrative voices throughout the book are very powerful and the story telling techniques applied by Twardoch make for a cracking and riveting read. The book is not necessarily easy to get through. Its emotional weight and graphic descriptions of violence can leave the reader ill at ease, but it is groundbreaking among recent noir titles and one that I highly recommend.
21.6.20
Elena Rzhevskaya, 1942
Elena Rzhevskaya is among the many names that have been mostly forgotten and relegated to historical footnotes within archives. In May 1945 she was a twenty five year old Jewish translator for the Red Army and was assigned to a secret unit in the search for Hitler within the ruins of the Reich Chancellery after the conquest of Berlin. Her assignments had previously taken her across the front lines through Belarus, Poland, and into Germany as a translator for a Red Army reconnaissance unit. She was tasked with this role due to her knowledge of German and later wrote a memoir about her experiences, a book which was originally suppressed by Soviet authorities.
After settling in Moscow in her post-war life, Rzhevskaya (nee: Kagan), became a writer. Her most well known book, Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle of Moscow to Hitler's Bunker, was released for the first time in English in 2018.
Courtesy: Elena Rzhevskaya (Yad Vashem)
20.6.20
Appeal of 18 June - RAF and La Patrouille de France Flyover
RAF Red Arrows and La Patrouille de France fly jointly over Buckingham Palace in London to commemorate General Charles De Gaulle's famous 18th of June speech after arriving in the British capital in June 1940.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Broadway Market
Broadway Market, Hackney
Saturday afternoon. Looks and feels like a long time ago.
Alex Segre. Alamy.
17.6.20
Yishuv Paratroopers 1943
British-trained paratroopers from the Haganah pose for a group photo before one of their missions to Europe in 1943. Almost all parachutists were recent Jewish immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe, intimately familiar with the culture and fluent in the languages of the countries they were tasked to operate in. Hannah Szenes exists as the most famous name among the participants, but thirty six other soldiers also dropped behind enemy lines to provide military reconnaissance, rescue allied personnel, and aid local Jewish communities. The majority of these volunteers did not return home.
The story of the British Army's Jewish Brigade is more well known, yet within Israel the exploits and heroics of the thirty seven paratroopers are a large part of the collective memory and national ethos pertaining to the Yishuv's contribution during the Second World War.
Haganah Archive
13.6.20
11.6.20
7.6.20
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Rex Whistler self-portrait in Welsh Guards uniform.
May 1940
Rex Whistler. National Army Museum.
5.6.20
27 Nahalat Binyamin
I'm in love with these new illustrations of different iconic Eclectic style buildings in Tel Aviv. So many of these dot the area around Rothschild, Herzl, Ahad Ha'Am, and represent the represent the links between Lev HaIr and the beginning portions of South Tel Aviv.
Courtesy of Avner Gicelter.
Avner Gicelter
2.6.20
America 2020
The scene outside the north lawn of the White House from Lafeyette Square.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
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