Haganah '48

 Haganah fighters in Jerusalem

1948

Haganah archived

In the Cafe of Lost Youth

Recently finished. Vintage Modiano from start to finish. As evocative and haunting as any of his earlier titles. The city of Paris once again serves as the main canvas, and through its dark corners, nocturnal cafes, and psychogeographical trek through quiet side streets, reading this slim but powerful book transported me to a former time and also brought back a similar sense of my own nostalgia. 

Miami Beach 3/20/21

Street scenes along Ocean Drive in Miami Beach this weekend. SWAT teams were called in and an 8 pm curfew was enacted by the city to deal with public disorder. Throngs of spring break revelers (and others) have descended on Miami within the past week. They clearly have not been keen to observe any COVID precautions to say the least. Not that there were many to begin with in Florida right now, but I guess that says a lot.

EPA

EPA

The Light of Days

I'm in love with this accompanying illustration in this weekend's New York Times op-ed section. It's from a piece written by Judy Batalion's about her newly released book, The Light of Days, which covers the mostly untold stories of female Jewish resistance fighters during the Second World War. Very much looking forward to reading it.

Cristiana Couceiro/Getty Images. Ghetto Fighters' House

IDF in the West Bank

 IDF soldiers during night operations deep within the Palestinian territories.

IDF Spokesperson

Sali Ariel, Tel Aviv

Classic Tel Aviv street scene as depicted by artist Sari Ariel.

Monit sherut kav 5, likely passing through Rehov Dizengoff.

 

Sali Ariel. Bauhaus Center

חוזרים לחיים

Following a successful vaccination drive and a drop in COVID cases, restaurants and bars in Israel have now largely opened up again after months of lockdown restrictions. Despite some of the controversy surrounding Israel's green passport initiative, nearly all Israelis, even those still waiting to be inoculated, are clearly happy to be coming back to life.

Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda. Olivier Fitoussi/Flash 90

Derek Raymond

It's been almost five years since I spent an afternoon along Charing Cross Road and later Piccadilly, in and out of several bookshops, which is still a continued habit on nearly each visit to London. I didn't realize that one of the conversations I'd have with a particular bookseller that day would be so transformative. We were discussing neo-noir authors and books, among them those from Jean-Claude Izzo, and others in translation that were recently being republished by Europa Editions. I asked for specific recommendations for something dark, hard boiled, and unquestionably British. I was looking for something outside contemporary fare and separate in tone and theme from the quintessential cozy English mysteries, which I do happen to love. I was in search of something different and fitting. The first name I was given was Derek Raymond. Among the books I left with that day were the initial two Factory novels. I haven't been the same since. 

I recently found myself going back through some older biographical information about other lost London writers such as Alexander Baron and Emanuel Litvinoff, two former Jewish East London authors who are still the subjects of somewhat of an obsessive goose hunt of mine. I came across Iain Sinclair's co-produced short documentary from 1992 called The Cardinal and the Corpse. It features rare, and perhaps the first and last on-screen interviews, with Alexander Baron and Derek Raymond, among others from the underbelly of literary London. My next mission is to somehow find a copy or stream of On ne meurt que deux fois, the 1985 French neo-noir film that is a remake of Raymond's legendary first Factory novel He Died with His Eyes Open.

Jewish Brigade, Eindhoven, Holland 1946

Jewish Brigade Soldiers in Eindhoven, Holland 1946.

On the left is Zrubavel Horowitz, who later fought and died in Israel's War of Independence and was awarded with the highest Military honors in Israel. One of only 12 soldiers to receive this. And on the right is Hersh Zvi Makowski, who also fought in the War of Independence with the Alexandroni and later the Golani Brigade. He survived and lived until 2015. - Jewish Brigade Facebook Page

Jewish Brigade FB 

ZOB Resistance, Cyganeria Cafe - Dec 22nd, 1942

On December 22nd 1942, during the height of the Second World War in Poland, Jewish resistance fighters from the ZOB underground attacked the Cyganeria cafe and assassinated eleven Nazi officers. The cafe was a well known hangout for Gestapo and Wehrmacht officers during the occupation and was targeted for this purpose. 

If you walk through Krakow's Old Town today and reach Szpitalna 38 you will no longer find the cafe, but the building that housed it still stands and just out front is a prominent plaque commemorating this heroic act.

Cyganeria Cafe 1978. Ghetto Fighters House.

Square Maurice-Gardette

Square Maurice-Gardette in Paris's 11th arrondissement. 

January 2017

Guilhem Vellut. Wikicommons