Oct 17, 2013

Walking, writing in Tel Aviv: Cerberus and other dogs

Friday, five o’clock. After work, we go home through King George street. The city gradually slows down. We arrive at the Ozen HaShlishit, the Third Ear, a cultural icon of Tel Aviv which first opened on Sheinkin street in 1987. You can rent DVDs and buy music. Outside the shop, a young girl is playing the piano. A Brutalist style building is overlooking the square. I see the red knitted hearts of the artist Maya Gelfman. Charles focuses on the reading of the victims’ names on a memorial. Victims of a terrorist attack? No, these are one hundred and thirty three victims of two Italian bombings of Tel Aviv on September 9, 1940 and on June 12, 1941. I note two names: Esther Kramer and Assa Mandel.

We cross the Ben- Zion boulevard. Another square. A sculpture by Yaacov Dorchin with four dogs, unless they are wolves. In any case, every time I pass by, the song of Serge Reggiani echoes in my head, the song about « les loooups qui entrent dans Paris », the wolves, a metaphor for the German army entering Paris. This is a collection of pieces of scrap. A sort of barrel or well, enthroned by four Cerberusses, all placed on rails. Undoubtedly, the gates of hell.

We check the name of the square. This is the Solomon Mikhoels square, שלמה מיכאָעלס , unforgettable in his portrayal of King Lear in Yiddish. Member of the Anti-Fascist committee, he participated in the writing of the Black Book. Murdered on Stalin’s orders. I wonder if the memorial to the victims of the Italian bombing, the sculpture of Dorchin , all on one square that bears the name of a Yiddish actor eliminated in the USSR is a coincidence. Such a gap between this violence and the serenity of the hour before Shabbat.

We pass Pollak, the old maps and antique book store. Founded in 1899 in Bucharest. A family business of valuable maps and over 50,000 books.

A little further and near the Gan Meir, associations for the protection of animals offer dogs for adoption. I know a dog called Rosie, who was adopted here and who now lives happily in Jerusalem. She is charming and has nothing to do with wolves, or with Cerberus.

We walk a little bit faster. It is time to prepare the Shabbat meal.