Call It Sleep?

First Edition of Call It Sleep

Manhattan is an enormous Jewish ghetto that many don’t want to escape. French anti-Semitism has deep roots, going back to the Dreyfus case, that could be awakened by the Jihadist violence. While the French don’t like being under siege, one wonders if there isn’t a certain part of the electorate that believes the Jews are only making matters worse, in terms of increasing the level of violence on French soil. First comes the outrage against the killers and then comes the second stage, which mirrors in some ways the response that cancer victims sometimes get when the initial sympathy for their condition has passed: did they bring this upon themselves? It’s always nice to let the blame fall on the victim. An etiology is better than bald-faced tragedy. But Manhattan is a little like Israel. It’s where the Diaspora ended a long time ago for some Jews. Jews may not outnumber other ethnic groups but they're a significant force politically, economically and culturally. Those who talk about Manhattan seceding from the United States, which is really an extended joke at mid-America’s expense, are really talking about the other Promised Land. Indeed Tel Aviv and New York, as two of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, have many things in common. There have been reports that as many as 15,000 French Jews, who no longer feel safe, are contemplating moving to Israel (“15,000 Jews to leave France for Israel, Jewish Agency says,”The Telegraph, 1/13/15). In the meanwhile New York’s Jews aren’t going anywhere. They've already arrived, a journey whose birth pangs were documented in Henry Roth’s novel about turn of the century immigrants, Call It Sleep.

Israeli Journal I: Tel Aviv

The cards advertising escort services litter the sidewalk in front of the Intercontinental David on the Rehov Kaufman. Across the street from the hotel is the Al-Aqsa mosque which faces the Mediterranean. Tel Aviv like Paris and New York is now wired for bikes and facing the mosque is a rack where you can rent bikes to ride along the pathway of high rises that face the sea. The path is crowded with runners and the lines of luxury condominiums and hotels facing the beaches crowded with umbrellas and hawkers is reminiscent of Miami Beach. The modern day pilgrim to the Holy Land who might be bewildered by his exact spiritual whereabouts in this modern megalopolis may find his bearings as he wanders the warren of streets leading along Rehov Shabazi whose structures begin to resonate the waves of history that lie under the carapace of thriving modern mercantile society. Gelaterias compete with centuries old structures which resonate the waves of occupiers from the Romans to the Turks (Jaffa had been the original port city during the days of the Ottoman empire and the Second Aliyah). The historical chorus of partition, Haganah, Palmach, Balfour, Meir and the eponymous, David Ben Gurion, after whom the airport is named, are all drowned out by the words,

“two state solution, which hang like a mirage over the city.