I’ve got that (May 1) feeling

 

May 1 was a fine day for barbequing. This year, while some workers of the world celebrated International Workers’ Day, Israeli marked its 77^th Independence Day. With the long weekend, Thursday to Sunday, one would think that joy dominated both occasions but many felt the exact opposite. As in most impressions, each person viewed the event through personal lenses, pessimistic, fatalistic or even optimistic.

The negative thinkers among us noted that beyond the Potemkin village celebrations and fronts of joy , the situation is rather depressing. At this moment, Trump is doing his best imitation of Atilla the Hun and ruining the US economy and wiping the savings, not to mention the financial and  job security, of workers in the United States. Of course, when the United States sneezes, the whole world economy, including its workers, gets a cold and starts to worry. Israeli’s celebration was physically darkened by a serious fire in the Jerusalem area as well as other areas, which required a callup of all firefighters, meaning that all local events were cancelled due to lack of fire protection. Symbolically, many Israelis  feel that that the national situation is just as dark with the continued war with Hamas and never-ending captivity of the hostages. For many anti-Bibi voters, the political situation does not provide much hope. Thus for many, neither event was “an ode to joy”, as Beethoven would say.

Those fatalists that view local events as mere parts of larger systems shrugged off the holidays and the circumstances. A holiday is an arbitrary date determined by pollical organizations. Thus, there is no correlation with the date and any events that occur before, during or after it. The world seems in a mood for certain extreme solutions, back to the future if you will. Trump is merely an oversized example of this type of populism. Employment levels ebb and flow to one degree or another over time. Wars usually end long after they have lose any reason to continue just because of personal and national pride but they do eventually run out of gas. Unfortunately, this superfluous period merely creates more tragedy. As is written in Book of Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun and, therefore, no reason to get overly emotional.

However, it must be noted that many people, possibly the silent near majority, do count their blessings on these holidays. Marx would have been shocked if not entirely overjoyed that so many workers in the West actually own shares of those capitalist companies. In the West, the vast majority of the populations enjoys some kind of safety net when facing unemployment and even profits from two days off a week. Quite a few can even send their children to college so they can have better jobs. In Israel, despite the challenges of the last two years, and more importantly the last 77 years, Israel stands strong in terms of having an army, a democracy and a strong identity. Admittedly, the war and the period before it have challenged those elements but they have stood up to the test. The world may not be pink but it is not black either and will improve, hopefully soon. Optimists follow Kate’s (of Kiss Me Kate) advice and “accentuate the positive”.

So, as I was cooking my steak on the barbecue in the garden of my house talking to my friend and drinking a beer, I thought to myself, or at least choose to, “life isn’t bad at all”. In Hebrew, the expression is  יהיה בסדר [yehiye besder], everything will work out. May 1 can be a happy day.

The koshering of Israeli restaurants – the challenge of finding a “bite” on Friday night

 

In the last few months, I discovered a major change in the status of restaurants in northern Israel: almost all of them are closed on Shabbat, Friday night through Saturday night. In the past, all the great fish restaurants in Tiberia on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (“the Kinneret” to Israelis) were open 7 days a week as were the many eateries in my not-very-religious hometown of Karmiel, in the Galilee. To understand this change, it is vital to understand the complexity of religious observance in Israel, the matter of Kashrut and the effects of the events of the last 5 years on the restaurant sector in northern Israel. In terms of my emotional reaction to this change, my thoughts are also far from black and white.

To state that Israel is a Jewish country is as meaningful as saying that the United States is a Christian country, i.e., “yes but”. 73% of the citizens of the country are Jewish, meaning that the remaining percentage is Muslim, Christian, Druze and other religions. Even among the Jewish population, 45% identify themselves as secular; 33% are “masorti” traditional, 10% consider themselves religious, referred to as national religious or “kippa sruga”, the knitted kippa; and 10% are ultra-religious, Haredim, of various kinds. The significance of this spectrum is that there is a wide variance in the attitude of various populations in Israel to the keeping of dietary laws, to be explained in the next paragraph, and religious rules in general. Of course, in traditionally religious cities, including Jerusalem and Tzfat, as well as Bnei Brak in Tel Aviv and Beit Shemesh, homogenous religious communities, Jewish rules of life and behavior are strictly followed, as compared to Tel Aviv, which is essentially secular and western in thought and deed. Thus, the daily reality of Jewishness in Israel is all over the spectrum.

One of the essential pillars of the traditional Jewish way of life is kashrut, whose specific details are an extremely complicated subject way beyond my knowledge. However, in simple terms, “kosher” refers to the nature of the ingredients of the food, how it is prepared and, most importantly for restaurants, when it is served. Kashrut laws specifically forbid the use of certain foods, most noticeably pork and shellfish, possibly originally due to health issues involved in storing and preparing them. It also specifies the characteristics of animals that can be eaten, whether meat or fish. Kashrut also relates to the preparation of food in terms of how animals are slaughtered and the strict separation of milk and meat. Yeah, no butter on steak in kosher restaurants. Thus, kosher homes and restaurants most have separate dishes, silverware, sinks and even dishwashers for milk and meat. Finally, as it is forbidden to light a fire on Shabbat, people keeping full kosher do not cook food on Saturday but may keep food that is prepared beforehand warm on a hot plate. Therein lies the dilemma for restaurants: if they are open from sundown on Friday night to sundown on Saturday, they are not kosher.

The events of the last five years have changed the equation in restaurants’ decision on whether to be kosher or not. Before Covid and the Gaza war, foreign tourists flooded Israel, including the northern part of the country. In 2018, 4.12 millioin foreign tourists visited in Israel and needed to find a restaurant on Shabbat. In 2024, only some 800,000 came. They certainly did not visit the north because rockets and drones were firing off alarms several times a day, not to mention the fact that most of the nature sites were closed due to the war. Yet, tourism did not completely die as Israelis, finding it ridiculously expensive to fly abroad as the foreign airlines suspended their flights to and from Israel, chose to visit relatively safe places, such as Tiberias on the Sea of the Galilee. A very high percentage of these people were religious at least in terms of keeping kosher, meaning that they would not eat a non-kosher restaurant. The few open restaurants, struggling to survive in this difficult situation, apparently had to become kosher and close on Shabbat. Thus, today, for secular people looking to “go out for dinner” on a Friday night, the best option is an Arab restaurant, which generally offers excellent food and service at a reasonable price.

I personally have very mixed reaction to this situation. On the one hand, having had to work weekends in my younger days and knowing how hard restaurant work is, it may be a blessing for all those in the industry  to spend Saturday together with their families. On the other hand, these restaurants lose an important part of their income in a traditionally difficult industry to survive. Furthermore, as a secular person, I find it disturbing that Israel is becoming more religious. By the way, far more Muslims fast during Ramadan than they did 25 years ago. For those that desire an Israel that is more faithful to the religious laws, I imagine that this change is good news. On the longer term, it will be interesting to see what happens when the pre-corona tourism levels return and more restaurants reopen.

In the meantime, it is interesting to watch what kind of new Israel will arise from the ashes of Covid and war years. It is certain the food, which is already  excellent, will improve even more. For those that don’t want to cook Saturday lunch, it make take more effort to find an open restaurant. May that be the least of our problems.

The art of becoming an Israeli

 

[Jaffa beads: luck, love, life]

Visiting and living in a country are two different matters as so many have discovered. For example, it is next to impossible to find any visitor to Israel, regardless of home country or religion, that did not feel that this place was special. On the other hand, historically, a majority of immigrants coming from North America (Canada, US and Mexico) do not make Israel their permanent home, ultimately returning to their previous place of residence within a few years. The reasons for the difficulty in adjusting sometimes involves economics but more often involve culture. Specifically, while it is possible to learn how to find a job and housing as well as function in Hebrew within a short time, it takes far longer to come to terms with Israels or, more accurately, the many different “Israels” that make up this country. To demonstrate, North Americans struggle with the directness of Jewish Israelis, the understanding of the unspoken messages in standard phrases and the adjustment to the different communication patterns of the various communities that comprise Israel. However, as an immigrant that has lived here some 35 years, I can attest that it is both possible and beneficial to go partially native.

As wrote in a previous post, most Israelis do not significantly filter their speech or emotions at least compared to more formal countries such as the US and UK. To be fair, Arabs living in villages can be as polite and formally non-critical are Anglo-Saxons as they live in a closed society where the price of speaking the truth can be very high. This may explain the love affair that some Brits have had with Arabs. However, in the cities, people are direct and honest, sometimes brutal, and respect others that are the same. Consumers do not mince words when criticizing products or complaining about poor service. I personally have left a one cent tip for a waitress that ghosted us. In Hebrew, there is a concept called a “kit pack question”, which means that if you ask someone’s opinion, you will  receive it, uncensored. Unmarried men and women past a certain age have to put up with a never-ending series of questions from both family, friends and even strangers regarding why and openness to blind dates.  On the other hand, people are generally sincerely warm and friendly, do not hesitate to help a person in need, from an infant to a senior citizen, and are willing to lend an ear to a sad story if they cannot directly help. People are friendly to you because they like you, not because they are supposed to be. Thus, Israeli speech is direct for better or worse.

While immigrants quickly grow thicker skin, it takes longer to understand the subtext. For example, if a neighbor asks how much you paid for a given purchase, the comment is not intended to invade your privacy but to check whether s/he paid more or less, a matter of personal shame or pride as applicable. When a salesperson at a store states that a given item does not exist, it means that the store does not have the item and you should look elsewhere. When a service person makes the comment “trust me” or “don’t worry”, the person should be on alert that it will be necessary to inspect the final product extremely carefully. On a humorous note, maybe, a young’s man invitation to a female for coffee at his flat may or may not involve  a cup of joe. On the other hand, if the vendor manages to satisfies the picky customer in terms of price and/or quality, that customer will recommend that person freely. This list of actual meanings of everyday phrases is infinite (and reminds of an old Mad Magazine feature). Over time, the immigrant leans to read between the lines.

Finally, Israel is a family-oriented place, as is the whole Middle East, but is comprised of countless different subcultures, each with its own rules of behavior. Even within the same religious group, ethnic and religious background is an important factor in the Middle East as intermarriage, however defined, is sometimes frowned on, depending on the generation and sector. Thus, joining a family in marriage or friendship can be a learning experience. Many Sephardic Jews are warm but loud, with food serving a key role in social relations, i.e., the more, the merrier. Tunisian and Moroccan Jews tend to love and argue with the same style, ie., openly and in quantity. Ashkanazi groups tend to be more formal and eat less and different foods. They tend to be more moderate and “colder” (everything is relative of course). Russians have their own culture and way of doing things, including a higher intake of alcohol and "culture". Persian and Yemenite Jews are known to value being money-wise. Whereas most people do the personal accounting of the wedding gifts in private after the event, one ethnic group traditionally announces the amount of each gift and the name of the giver during the wedding. Of course, the level of religiosity of the family affects the topics and nature of conversation, not to mention the way of life. Certain subjects and words are taboo in polite conversation in religious families. Even Arabs of the same religion have varying rules of behavior. The Druze, a minority group in Israel, of Isifiya, which is located near Haifa, are far less traditional than those in Horfesh, an isolated village father north near Lebanon. Any immigrant marrying into an Israel family should regularly consult their partner or friend to try to navigate this path. In any case, this variety enriches people and helps them to communicate with everybody.

Thus, my tips for learning to love not only Israel but also Israelis is to emphasize learning and flexibility. First, when, (not if) you misunderstood or were misunderstood, try to analyze the conversation and be aware of the words, applying the lessons for the next time or the one after that. Secondly, develop a thick skin. Most of the apparent sharpness is not intended to be sharp at all or not directed at the listener. It may seem shocking that a cab driver would yell at a passenger, the issue may be that the tone of voice is not actually yelling (for that person) or that the cab driver had a fight with his wife in the morning. Third, it helps to learn to act like the natives. If something is wrong, say it directly, not “okay”, which listeners actually think means “okay”. British understatement is not effective here. Keep in mind that politeness is relative. Even if you are rude by Ango-Saxon standards, the listener may actually consider you restrained and appreciate it. That has happened to me many times. Ultimately, it is vital to remember that every place, every group of people and every social situation have their own code. It is impractical and even harmful to insist that others act as you did in your childhood. If you keep that in mind, Israel is an amazing, entertaining, amusing and wonderful place to live, not just to visit.

Taxing properties

 

[house*]

As the old joke goes, the only certainties are death and taxes. Regarding the first, none of us, as far as I know, have any personal experience to speak of but most adults are quite familiar with the second. For example, property owners and sometimes renters have to pay a property tax to their local authority to finance its services. This tax exists almost worldwide but how this tax is calculated varies from country to country. In theory the tax is the product of the base amount and the tax rate. Each country defines the first variable differently and has distinct mechanisms for setting the second as I will show in by comparing the property tax calculation methods in the United States, France and Israel.

In the United States, the base amount is highly variable while the rate is relatively stable. The local authority, usually the city, establishes the rate by vote with the increase in any given year limited by state law, thus protecting the taxpayer from sudden jumps. The city can apply discounts and exemptions for certain areas, building types and income levels at its discretion, On the other hand, the value of a property is based on its current assessed value, i.e., if former neighbors made a killing in selling their houses during a given year, everybody still living in the neighborhood must pay higher taxes as the value has risen according to the latest assessment. The constant increase in property value in California forced people to sell their houses because they could no longer afford the property taxes even if they had paid a modest price for it several decades previously. As a reaction to that, California voters in 1978 passed Proposition 13, which rolled back property taxes, which predictably significantly reduced local services. Thus, US property taxes vary greatly from place to place primarily due to property values.

By contrast, the French taxe fonciére is based on the rental value multiplied by a value local authority. The base amount is 50% of the annual rental value, an amount changing on a yearly basis. The tax rate increase is set by the government but a city can vote a supplementary amount as Paris did this year, raising the tax to 50%, yes fifty percent. Thus, not only do French landowners have to keep on eye on rental values but they also must watch their local councils.

Israel has the arnona, which, typically in Israel, is named after a special tax from centuries ago. The base value for this property tax is the size of the property with the  tax rate set by square meter. One would think that the base amount would remain constant but the local authorities have a nasty tendency to periodically remeasure houses and flats and discover previously unknown meters, such as outside walls and covered garages, thus adding sometimes 10% to the previous measurement. The local authority set the rate with the government determining the minimum and maximum amount. As usual, there is a catch in that a local authority may make an application to the Interior Minister for an exception to these limits. As elsewhere, the local authority can apply this rate uniformly or create partial or complete exemptions, an important matter in a country with a large number of religious institutions of various kinds. Israel property tax bills are relatively stable aside from those re-assessments.

It is almost certain that, if you are a property owner, you complain about property tax bills regardless of which country you live. To be fair, most people are not happy about the level of local services either but that is human, right? Curiously, each country has chosen its particular manner of calculating its pound (or dollar, shekel or euro) of flesh. Is one fairer than the other? That issue taxes my understanding of property.

* Picture captions help the blind fully access the Internet.

Picture credit

People gathering – similar but different

 

[herd of zebras*]

One of the most interesting aspects of visiting a zoo is the observation of how apparently similar species behave so differently. For example, the closest genetic relatives of homo sapiens are chimpanzees and bonobo apes. Regardless of their common heritage, their means of social communication are opposite with chimpanzees often using pseudo and real violence to resolve conflicts while bonobo apes generally having sex to defuse tensions. Likewise, when visiting and especially living in a different culture, it is fascinating to see how others handle social situations. Some examples are the use of alcohol as a social lubricant, family get-togethers and weddings.

[grapes on the vine]

Alcohol is the starter fluid for conversation in many cultures. In the United States, the host greeting guests at the door sometimes even asks “do you want a beer” before saying hello. In many northern Europe countries, no party is complete without beer, vodka or the local liver poison. In France, the wine is the local version of English weather in terms of conversation. Picking a bad wine is almost as serious a faux pas as wearing mismatched colors. Curiously, in Israel, at least until recently, alcohol was not only marginal for social contact but even unnecessary. The younger generation clearly drinks more but still does not require alcohol to have fun, at least if the revelers were born in the country. In Muslim countries, alcohol is even forbidden. So, fermentation and distillation are clearly linked with sociability in some but not all societies.

[family of elephants]

The concept of family encapsules many forms. In some places, notably much of the United States, the family is the nuclear group, with the children leaving home and often even the same city forever once they become adults. Thus, many families only see each other on holidays. In other places, families including multiple generations live with or near each other and share each other’s tables on a regular basis. In Israel, a small country, in many Jewish homes, the extended family dines together every Friday or Saturday. In Arab houses, the children may actually live in the same house on a different floor with household expenses shared by all residents. I suppose this closeness is a blessing for older people but can be a curse for the daughters-in-law, who have to tolerate the domination of the mother-in-law. Clearly, the importance of family togetherness varies from culture to culture.

[wedding table]

Weddings are the ultimate social gathering, combining multiple and occasionally contradictory purposes. Weddings are to celebrate a marriage, balance accounts and make social statements. As such, the size of a wedding and choice of guests is a complex matter. In England or the United States, a wedding with 200 guests is a large affair, appropriate for major public and financial families. By contrast, 200 guests in Israel is sign of a low budget or corona as it would require limiting the list to absolutely closest family and a few friends, not a diplomatic act. In at least one culture, the hosts actually open the envelopes in front of the guests and announce the amount of the gift, a sort of financial transparency.  On a personal note, as it was the 2^nd round for my wife and I, we had no social debts and chose to celebrate with an “intimate” dinner with 20 people at a restaurant. Each culture has its own “correct” way to celebrate a marriage, with small changes are fashions come and go.

[stars in the sky]

We are all human beings but somehow there are so many different ways of social expression. From a distance, they may appear similar, like the stars in the sky, but each culture is unique. Vive la difference.

* Picture captions help the blind fully access the Internet.

Pictures credits: pixabay

Christmas in the Holy Land – Not what you imagine

 

[Santa at the beach*]

The Middle East has this sometimes-nasty tendency of rendering clear terms complex . Nothing is simple, even holidays. For example, in Europe and North America (Canada, Mexico AND the United States), South America and many countries in Asia, people and business are in the Christmas cycle of purchasing gifts and food for the holiday, finishing projects before the office closes and making final preparations for the seasonal trip or family visit. Outside, in the Canada, the United States and Northern Europe, it is quite cold, even snowing, adding to the seasonal feeling and complicating all driving. Those cheery pictures from Christmas movies have an element of reality.

Alas, in the birthplace of Christianity, the reality is rather different in terms of weather and holiday feeling. First of all, Israel is “enjoying” a rather balmy December, around 22C (in the 70’s in Fahrenheit, with nary a rain cloud, not to even mention snow flake, to be seen. It is true that December can be cold in some years but “cold” is far above zero here. As for Christmas, aside from in the Christian villages of Israel, a traveler in Israel could be forgiven for not realizing that Christmas is in a few days as there the TV channels are not broadcasting any ads urging you to purchase this or that annd Christmas music  is as common as Artie Shaw clarinet solos. Admittedly, the Russian retail chains do have various Christmas decorations on sale, including chocolate Santas, but that touch is far from omnipresent. On the other hand, Jews, Christians and Muslims all enjoy the star of Hannukah, the suvgoniot, fried jelly donuts, and enthusiastically discuss the price of commercial ones and the recipes of home ones. I personally feel that latkes, potato pancakes, are a more justified calorie intake but as they say in French, chacun son gout, to each his own. In short, Christmas in the Holy Land is quite different than elsewhere.

That said, Christmas in Israel is an opportunity for tourists. The warm weather allows comfortable touring throughout the country and even getting a tan on the beach. Try that in Germany or the UK. If you want to purchase anything, stores are open as usual. The tourist can get a few minutes of “Christmas” atmosphere by going to the German Colony in Haifa (recommended) or Abu Gush or Nazareth in the Galilee. This year Hannukah and Christmas are basically at the same time, allowing visitors to enjoy the Jewish candle countdown during the eight days of the festival of light. Children can experience Festivigal, an Israeli long-running children’s music show that runs during the holiday. For those scrooges seeking a non-holiday atmosphere, Israel is perfect, how ironic.

Businesses trying to function during the December dead day may find Israel is a source of relief. Except for Christians on December 24-25 and those going on vacation, all service providers are on a “business as usual” mode, meaning it is possible and even convenient to find any service you want. Sunday is even a standard working day in Israel, rendering the weekend much less catastrophic. You can say that one person’s holiday is another person’s opportunity.

For those with a historical, spiritual or religious bent, a trip to Israel can provide fascinating perspective on the past and present in terms of the complex relationship between ethnicity and faith. In the Middle East your tribe is your religion. While people enjoy cross-cultural friendships and some people are of mixed religions, when matters get tense, as does happen from time to time, you trust “one of our own”. It is possible to see this dynamic in any mixed village or city, including Jaffa (Yafo), Haifa and Rami. Faith in the Middle East is not merely matter of religion but also and possibly more importantly of personal identity. On the bright side, msot of the time Israel shows what happens when people respect each other’s faith and do not impose their own. All religions, including Christianity, are thriving. That message is relevant for the whole world. Thus, Israel provides a unique view of the world some 2000 years ago as even now at least in terms of social interaction.

So, a trip to Israel in December can be shocking, entertaining and/or educational, depending on the person’s expectations. The atmosphere of the holiday season in the Holy Land is certainly completely different that of Europe and North America. On a positive note, it is less kitschy and much warmer, temperature-wise at least. Those seeking professional services at a non-holiday rate during the last week of September should definitely consider a provider from this region. Finally, those seeking understanding of the origins of Christianity and tensions of the modern-day Middle East should definitely see it with their own eyes. Israel is not what you imagine. If you cannot make this year, have a happy holiday however you celebrate it.

* Picture captions help the blind fully benefit from the Internet.

Picture credit

The real oases of Israel

 

[Desert oasis*]

Israel traditionally is a magnet for tourists. They come to touch the portkeys, as Harry Potter would say, to their spiritual past, whether Jewish, Christian, Muslim or Bajai. Whether it involves the Wailing Wall, church at Capernaum, Dome of the Rock or Bahai Gardens, the touch with these old stones creates a magic connection for many visitors.

For those open to and seeking the modern Israel, the magic is its omnipresent oases, not those in the desert but in the surprises hidden in its people. What makes physical oases so special is neither their greenness nor the sandy color around them. It is the sudden wealth that appears from nowhere, from deep under the ground. Likewise, Israel is an extremely heterogenous country with people from all countries of the world and all backgrounds. Even the tourists in their air-conditioned buses cruising the country from one old rock to another notice how excited and energetic people are. The constant babble of Hebrew and Arabic, among the many languages, creates an almost monotonous background. However, even a monotonous short conversation reveals unexpected wealth.

Unlike many countries, outside appearance simply does not reflect the person. For example, as part of the introduction to the course I teach, I ask my engineering students, in the early to mid 20’s, to tell me about something special they have done (in their short lives). In response, I have met national swimming champions, winners of international karate championships and professional divers, to name just a few surprises. Just recently, the head of the Israeli Translators Association, Uri Bruck, gave a fascinating and detailed Zoom lecture on the history of the English translation of the Bible. I have known him for many years but had no idea that he was so knowledgeable in the subject and had delved into it out of curiosity, not as part of any religious studies.  In fact, it is quite common in Israel to discover the person next to you in line in the supermarket wearing old jeans and a faded sweatshirt is the head of a hospital department or institute of academic learning. Appearances can truly be deceiving.

Granted, like the slug jelly beans in Harry Potter (again), the surprise  is occasionally less than pleasant. A seemingly innocent comment can trigger a wild tirade from a taxi driver. However, far more often, the modern Israel is filled with omnipresent oases, the unexpected fruit riches of its people. These discoveries are, in my mind, more interesting and palpable than its famous old rocks and clearly render any trip to Israel unforgettable, as Nat King Cole would say.

* Always add caption to pictures to allow access to the blind. 

Picture credit:Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/papafox-7788876/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=3281084">Peter Fischer</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=3281084">Pixabay</a>

Game of thrones – Special political traditions in France, Israel and the United States

 

[Throne*]

The art of translating goes beyond knowledge of language and encompasses comprehension of culture. A professional translator must know how the societies of the source language handle a given situation and translate the whole concept in such a way that the speaker of the target language can understand. For example, while the United States uses the common law system of law, France uses Droit publique, thus requiring the legal translator to understand the function of each court level in both systems in order to properly translate court documents. Similarly, while many democracies exist, fortunately, each has its own peculiarities. Thus, translators of political and journalistic materials must be familiar with the electoral processes in order to transmit them from one language to another. As an example, I will present a special, sometimes unique, aspect of the French, Israeli and American democratic processes.

[Bed]

2^nd tour or strange bedfellows - France has multiple political parties, with ever changing names. As a result, all French elections, from municipal to the presidential, are conducted into two rounds. To clarify, in the first round, any person, with or without party identification, may run for a public position but only the top two finishers appear in the ballot for the deuxieme tour. So, the deuxieme tour does not refer to the 1904 running of the Tour de France but instead to the second round of voting. This reduction to two candidates requires the losing local representatives and national parties to choose whether to remain neutral or recommend a vote for one of the two remaining candidates. Given the fluidity of modern French political alignment and the interaction between personal dislike and future ambition, the result is rather comical to an outside observer as personal and/or ideological enemies suddenly unite because they both despise or fear the challenger even more. The recently completed round of municipal elections in France provides numerous examples with a potpourri of local ideological alliances. Thus, the 2^nd tour exemplifies that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, at least for the moment.

[Bread and crumbs]

Remainders or waste not, want not – Israel also has a multiparty parliamentary system. In fact, Israel has never had a non-coalition government. Thus, the distribution of seats in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, is of vital national interest. To determine the final result, the national election committee calculates the total number of actual, not only registered, voters and remove all votes for parties that did not meet the legal minimum for a seat, currently 3.25% of the total vote. The resulting number is divided by 120, the number of seats in the Knesset. For example, in the latest national election in March of 2020, each seat was equal to 37,943 voters. The interesting issue is what to do with the votes from 37,944 to 75,885. To avoid throwing them away, each party signs a heskem odefim, an agreement on how to distribute the remaining, unused votes, right before the election. The goal is to help the party closest to gaining one more seat, which may be the difference between being the government or opposition. The how and why of these agreements are for the politicians but the result is that the official results take up to three days so that some ballots can be checked and the heskem odefim can be applied. Every little vote counts.

[Jigsaw puzzle]

Gerrymandering or scribbly lines – The United States is a federal government and has effectively two parties. Individual elections are much simpler, i.e. the winner of hte one and only election is the person getting the most votes. However, the U.S. Constitution, written with its typical ambiguity, creates a unique process for defining the voting district for a member of the House of Representatives, which is legislatively limited to 435 members. Article 1 of the Constitution merely states that a representative must be elected every two years by a district with no more than 30,000 registered voters. Having observed the dead borough phenomenon in the UK, i.e., districts where most of the voters has long died, the Congress allows the redistricting every change of decade after the census. Now the fun begins. Whichever party controls the legislative branch in a state gets to redraw the map, guided only by the Constitutional limit of equal districts of no more than 30,000 voters. The considerations are not administrative but electoral. To clarify, as a rule, most minorities tend to vote Democrat while many white suburban voters tend to vote Republican, depending on the local politics. So, if a party wishes to diminish the impact of a concentrated voting bloc, it divides up its voters among several districts while the opposite is true if the goal is to maximize electoral impact. The district lines do not have to resemble any known geometric shape. In recent years, the courts have started to reject extreme gerrymandering but it is clear that one of the strengths of the Republican Party has been its control of many of the state legislatures for several decades. The devil is in the details, even in politics.

Seen from the outside, these traditions are curious, even amusing, a bit like reading or viewing the Game of Thrones.  However, from the inside, they have a huge impact on the residents of the country. A customer requiring translation of an economic or political text must make sure that the translator understands the concept and can transmit it to the target audience. Unlike the series, this game is real.

*Caption pictures to allow full access to the blind. All images via Pixabay.

Cultural variety

                                          (Japanese picture of man in boiling water*)

As a continuation to two previous posts about words and cultures, culture is relative to a specific society not only in form but also in connotation. Formally speaking culture includes the artistic achievements of a group but also the mechanisms of daily interaction. So, the type of music loved by people is an example of culture but so is the manner of saying hello, whether that is by shaking hands, bowing, kissing cheeks, or using words alone. Thus, it is clear that all human languages must include some way to express culture.

For a linguist, an additional distinction is the attached connotation. For example, the word “culture” when applied in the United States, France, Israel and Russia can imply very different purposes. Modern America was settled by immigrants that were poor and quite often uneducated, even illiterate... Thus, a reference to culture is a way of distinguishing one person from another, generally negatively. Describing a lover of opera as cultured can either be praise or derogatory, i.e., elitist, depending on the point of few. Not only that, its multiethnic society has espoused a vision of blending as compared to maintaining traditions. Thus, the expression “they come from another culture” is an alternative phrase for “they don’t behave like Americans”. The American ethea of anti-intellectualism and melting pot, notwithstanding the existence of exceptions to these tendencies, adds a connotation of different to the term culture.

By contrast, France glories in its Culture. French people are proud of its artistic icons, whether in literature or the visual arts.  The country even has a special institution for them, the Pantheon. The average French person mentions Victor Hugo, Marcel Proust, Claude Monet and Edith Piaf with pride. Even those that would never read any of their books beyond what is required for the Bac or go to a museum would think twice before stating so. France is the cultural leader of Europe, at minimum, in terms of literature, art and food. Unlike the United States, culture in France, or at least its appreciation, is a unifying factor.

Israel too was founded by immigrants but they came from many communities, each with its own Culture and culture. The dogma of wiping out the diaspora and imposing the new Israeli stamp on all of its citizens, applied for its first 25 or so years, is slowly but surely disappearing. Today, Israelis talk about culture to explain differences in food, music and wedding arrangements. In practice, most couples reflect mixed ethnic background except for the ultra-orthodox. This requires negotiation of cultural issues such as which foods to eat on holidays, the level of spiciness and frequency of family visits, to name just a few matters. Culture in Israel is of part of the dialogue of everyday life.

The Russian use refers to both the high-brow and, more commonly, the communal aspect of culture. As the French, Russians are proud of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky, to name a few. However, the most common use of the word culture is the negative term некультурный человек  [nekulturni cheleovek], meaning an uncultured person, better translated by the term barbarian. To clarify, this expression does not refer to the lack of familiarity with Shostakovich’s music. Instead, it describes crude (by Russian standards) behavior, a lack of social savior faire and open greed. It is hard for a foreigner to decode this term as it encompasses so many unspoken rules.  For example, to the best of my knowledge, Ivan the Terrible was a некультурный человек but Stalin and Putin are okay.  It is possible to be unbelievable cruel but remain cultured. So, when a Russian accuses you of being uncultured, you have apparently crossed some (ultraviolet) red line.

Dictionaries may agree upon the definition of culture but people stamp their own opinions and perspectives on the term. There is a wonderful scene in Shogun in which several Japanese calmly discuss how they are so much civilized than the shipwrecked English sailors, which are being boiled alive at the time. One person’s culture is another person’s primitivism.

*Insert captions under pictures to allow access to the blind. Picture from wikipedia.

Ode to the Israeli shitat mazliach or nothing ventured, nothing gained

                                                                     [A davidka mortar*]

I will begin with two anecdotes. Scene 1:  Yanetz Levi, the writer of Uncle Leo’s Adventures ((הרפתקאות דוד אריה was invited to South Korea to launch the Korean version of one of his books and welcome by no less than a senior Korean government Minister, who asked him seriously if this book would help Korean children to be more creative and inventive. Scene 2: A middle aged person walks into the post office, sees a mass of people waiting for their turn, many of them of the third age, quietly approaches clerk and is then verbally assaulted by cries in at least three different languages of “there’s a line”. Seeing that the response “I just have a question” is not going to work, that person quickly retreats and sits down.

These two incidents illustrate, albeit in different ways, the Israeli technique of “Mazliach, imperfectly translated into English as nothing ventured, nothing gained. Its name is derived from the verb לחצליח [lahazliach], meaning to succeed.  The term came from a joke about a diner that asks the waiter why an unordered dish appearing on a restaurant bill is called “mazliach”. The answer of the waiter is “if the diner pays for it, it is successful.”  In practice, it means that any and all obstacles, written or understood, must be tested and should not be taken for granted. Its origins are deep as in the diaspora both the official and informal laws were stacked against Jews in almost all societies while its existence was reinforced with the founding of modern Israel because the country was materially poor and lacking basic material resources for some 25 years. Israelis were required to be inventive and think outside the box, whether it was in agriculture with drip immigration or the military with the Davidka, an improvised mortar in the War of Independence in 1948. Even today, overobedient children are ridiculed by their peers. Accepting the status quo has never been the key to success.

Of course, Israelis are both famous and infamous for using this technique. Israel is known as the leading startup company in the world and a leader in many technologies, including agriculture, desalination, IT and medicine. It is quite possible that many future breakthroughs in identifying and combatting the corona virus will come from this small country. On the other hand, people from more formal, rule-bound cultures frown upon the behavior of Israeli tourists and business people and view them as brazen. The ugly Israeli is as notorious as ugly American even if not all Israelis behave in this manner. However, to be fair, it should be noted that most Israelis do retreat and accept reality as occurs in the Post Office. For good or bad, the approach is often  if it succeeds, it succeeds; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

Back to the question posed by the South Korean Minister, the answer is positive but in a different way. The stories were made up by a desperate baby-sitting uncle trying to keep four children of different ages entertained. He then compiled his amusing tales and published six books in the series, which have been translated into numerous languages. The fact is that the unwitting writer improvised a solution, tested it and then created a worldwide success is a testament to the unbounded ambition of Israelis even if that does have a price. For foreigners, it is unsure how much this approach can be copied or reproduced but understanding it does help them to succeed in dealing with Israelis.

* To allow the blind to enjoy your posts, put captions below pictures.

Supreme difficulty

One of the main pleasures of legal translation is the story. Specifically, because there is a dispute, each side argues its point of view. This discussion is often fascinating and illuminating. Of course, the peak of such argumentation involves decisions of the Supreme Court.  Since I translate from Hebrew into English, I have learned the discretion can be better part of valor when it comes to taking on translation of Israeli Supreme Court decisions.

As compared to the structure of the American legal system, the Israeli Supreme Court is much more active and controversial. The reason is that a petitioner can access the high court in two manners. The court serves a court of last appeal, as in the United States. In addition, any citizen whose rights may be in danger of being breached may directly petition the Israeli Supreme Court to request a court order, which must hear the case, unlike in the United States. This is someone similar to the American process of filing a request for a restraining order in a state or federal district court. However, the Supreme Court has more freedom and thus can issue new interpretations of the law. Since these “emergency” situations generally involve complicated situations, such as immigration or destruction of property, the results of these appeals are of interest to both the legal and general community.  To give an example, if Benjamin Netanyahu succeeds in forming a government after the March elections, the Supreme Court undoubtedly will undoubtedly have to decide whether a prime minister, as compared to a minister, under indictment can legally serve, an issue regarding which current Israeli law is silent. Therefore, decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court are almost always relevant and controversial.

The justices must be extremely erudite. As a crossroads of multiple cultures and regimes, Israeli law is strange mélange of legal principles. In the United States in the states of Louisiana and Hawaii, certain matters actually follow the principles of Napoleonic and native law, respectively. In Israel, the situation is much more complex. Modern Israeli law, enacted since 1948, governs many but not all matters and is often vague or incomplete, whether intentionally or unintentionally. The regulations applying these laws sometimes take years to enter the books, complicating the issues even more.  The British ruled the territory from 1918 to 1948 and established many basic laws, some of which have not been replaced. The Ottomans ruled the region from 1517 to 1917 and had a complete set of laws. Unfortunately, the Turkish rules still have a strong influence on the procedures of land ownership. Even more relevant, religious laws still regulate marriage and divorce (but not custody) to the point of the existence of a separate special religious court system for Jews, Christians and Muslims, all applying ancient law. If none of these sources are clear, judges can refer to either modern American law, which does have a strong influence on legal reasoning, or, paradoxically, ancient Jewish law. To explain, the Halacha and Talmud, to name just the main sources, are interpretations of the Bible, similar to the body of interpretations on the Universal Commercial Code (UCC) in the United States.  Any decision supported by reasoning from these deeply respected sources has great weight. So, Israeli judges must have broad knowledge, way beyond current Israel laws and regulations.

Adding to the fun of reading and translating the decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court is the sheer number of languages that must be taken into account. Israeli law is in Hebrew. The application of the British colonial laws requires solid knowledge of English. Furthermore, many terms in Turkish law still are used in Israeli law, such as tabu, meaning registered ownership of land. Applying Islamic law requires knowledge of Arabic while Talmudic law requires understanding of Aramaic, an ancient language related to Hebrew. As American and British law traditionally use Latin terms to render the language fancier, judges must also be thoroughly familiar with that language. So, the learned judges of the Israeli Supreme Court must have thorough knowledge of Hebrew, English, Turkish, Aramaic, Latin and even sometime Arabic legal language.  It should be noted that many do not hesitate to demonstrate this mastery in their decisions.

Thus, the intrepid translator, facing some 200 pages or more of legal arguments from this huge corpus of sources, has to understand and transmit their meaning into English. For this reason, I have the greatest respect for those that successfully and artfully translate Israeli Supreme Court decisions into English.  I personally will only translate decisions up to the appeals court level and leave the Supreme Court decisions to the supremely talented and knowledgeable few who can properly handle them.

West and [Middle] East – Academic meeting

Although it was quite a few years ago, I still remember my feelings as an 18-year-old freshman at UC Santa Cruz on the first day of college, physically registering for classes (pre-Internet days). I felt fear and great uncertainty as I circulated among my fellow new students, all mostly entirely white and 18 years old and having just completed high school.  Our accumulated non-academic life experience and self-confidence was rather close to absolute zero even if we tried to hide this lack. In terms of religion, most were Christian with a small sprinkling of Jews and Muslims.  The largest minorities were Afro-Americans (to use the current term) and Asians, whose cultural norms were not that different from the other students. In other words, our lecturers looked on a rather homogenous group of students in terms of age and cultural background.

I have been teaching English at the Braude College of Engineering in Karmiel in the Galilee in Israel, for over 25 years now. The college, currently with some 5,500 students enrolled in its various programs, is a second-tier engineering college, behind the Technion, which is the MIT or Cal Tech of Israel, and offers first and second degrees in various disciplines, including mechanical and electronic engineering as well as biotechnology, programming and industrial management. The contrast with my undergraduate experience as I observe and communicate with my students is quite striking in all aspects.

First of all, the ages of my students range from 18 to 28. The youngest are Arabs from the surrounding villages, who are not required to serve in the army or do national service and, in many cases, are encouraged to get a degree before starting to work. The oldest are those that served in the army, often both the mandatory period and sometimes an additional period as “regular army, often followed by a trip to a distant land to clean their heads and preparatory studies of a year or more to improve their grades to be accepted at the college. Moreover, most have had significant life experiences, including combat service, officer training, setting up businesses and enriching trips abroad. They are far from innocent and, in many ways, much more knowledgeable than me.

In terms of religion, since the college is in the Galilee, students may be Jewish, Muslim, Druze, Catholic, Greek orthodox, Russian Orthodox or none of the above, as in the case of many Russians and their children. This means that the holiday calendar, as reflected by dates on which quizzes may not be given, is rather complicated.  Of course, during Ramadan, which lasts a month, many of my students have a hard time concentrating, especially if the holiday falls during hot weather, since many of the Muslim students neither eat nor drink during the day.

Beyond that, the behavior norms of Arabs, both Muslim and Christian, are quite different from the Jews. While latter tend to be direct and clear in expressing their understanding, agreement or lack thereof, Arab mentality, especially among the female students, is much more understated. They tend to avoid expressing their true state of comprehension or unhappiness. The true situation is often only discovered during testing as reflected by the actual results.

Given the age of most of the students and their understandable desire to gain economic independence, they are very directed in their studies.  Engineering studies are quite demanding and difficult, often involving more than 20-30 hours a week just of class time, not to mention homework. Since their goal is clear, most of my students accept the heavy burden of study in good cheer.

This heterogeneity has a strong effect on the whole style of teaching. Israeli college lecturers can be subject experts and even mentors but not parental figures. To be effective, it is necessary to be sensitive and flexible in approaching students. Some need direct challenges and questions while others have to be handled more indirectly in a more non-threatening manner. In terms of authority, given the self-confidence and experience of the students, teachers must show respect but clearly exercise authority to maintain “possession” of the class. Otherwise, they simply lose the students, who do not hesitate to complain about any improper aspect to the course coordinator or department head. By the nature of group dynamics, this fine line between authority and respect differs for each group of students, often depending on the ethnic mix of students. Thus, Israeli college lecturers, to an even larger degree than for most teachers in the country, not only have to be experts in their subject matter but also strong personalities to successfully lead a class.

Kipling wrote that East and West will never meet. It is clear that college teaching in this nook of the Middle East and in the United States, I imagine even today, are extremely different despite the similarities in the subject matter taught. I can say that, after many years of teaching, the aspect I most enjoy of this profession is my interaction with my students, who not only give me hope for the future but also personally enrich me with their insights and understanding.

Media hyperopia or regional blindness

Many years ago, New York Magazine published its famous map of the world as seen by New Yorkers, with New York and California occupying 3/4 of the map.  This visual distortion may have been caused by cultural prejudices and airplane connections.  In any case, the residents of the east coast knew and still know much more about Los Angeles than Portland, Maine or Raleigh, North Carolina despite the latter’s closer proximity. Recently, I started following the posts of a professional colleague that lives in Lebanon. Keep in mind that I live in Karmiel, some 17 kilometers (10 miles) from the Lebanese border and 48 kilometers (30 miles) from the Syrian border. Reading his posts, I realized that I knew close to nothing about what is going on either country, not mention Jordan, also not far away, about which no I have no idea what is happening.  Yet, I easily follow events in Washington, London, Paris and even Ankara, which are much farther away, through daily reports in Israeli media.

One cause of this news blackout is simply lack of air time.  We in Israel have more than enough to talk about with our multiple elections, clashes with the Palestinians and tension with the Syrians, not to mention Bibi’s legal troubles. Trump, Putin, Nasrallah, and Erdogan. There is no problem filling any empty moment in the news. As a result, there is no media oxygen for Lebanon’s financial problems and Syria’s rebuilding as well as anything about Jordan. Egypt is in another continent for that matter. Yet, events in these countries have a direct influence on stability in the area. The only way to find out is to access the foreign media in Arabic, which most Jews in Israel cannot do even when they speak some Arabic. In terms of media, our neighbors are invisible.

To be fair, part of the problem is the lack of available information.  Israel is the only country in the Middle East with freedom of the press. In other words, official announcements from these countries are less than reliable.  Objective reporting comes from underground sources, who do not have a complete picture. For example, it is impossible to know how many Syrians have been killed in the last year or what the state of the health system is. Any objective fact that does come to light from an official news source may be accurate but partial as these governments tend to censure negative news. So, sometimes the media reports nothing because there is nothing to report.

Still, some would say that the Israeli media has an unspoken policy of neglecting the region.  I strongly doubt it as freedom of the press is still strong enough to prevent government-inspired news blackout over the long term. I don’t buy this conspiracy theory.

To be fair, many countries tend to ignore their closest neighbors. The American press has extremely little to say about Canada and Mexico.  The French hear more about Israel than Belgium, with whom they share a common language, mostly. I wonder how much news Londoners receive on Wales and Scotland, not to mention Northern Ireland. The BBC even ignores the weather in the Republic of Ireland, as a policy in my opinion, even it reports it in Northern Ireland. I don’t know if this regional blindness applies to Asia or South or central America but would be interested in finding out.

So, t New Yorkers are not alone in having their vision affected by culture and media. Physical distance and economic impact have less influence on our media than one would think.  The media worldwide is farsighted, i.e., hyperopic.