Israel in Translation

In May 2000, the IDF withdrew from Southern Lebanon and Beaufort Castle, which Israel had held since 1982. Host Marcela Sulak reads from Ron Leshem's novel called "Beaufort" in the English translation (the Hebrew title translates as "If there is a Heaven"). It is written as the diary of Liraz Liberti, the twenty-one-year-old head of a thirteen-man commando team stationed at Beaufort during the last winter of Israeli occupation.

"...We carried out a comprehensive search, circled the place to determine whether terrorists had beaten a path in through the undergrowth, and which route they’d chosen to booby-trap the target. We unrolled white marking tape wherever we walked in order to know where we’d already been. It was hot and sticky out. The sun had come up too fast. It took us half an hour to complete the first half-circle..."

Leshem's novel was made into a film in 2007, directed by Josef Cedar and co-written by Cedar and Leshem. The film won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and was a nominee for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Beaufort was Ron Leshem’s first novel, and it won the prestigious Sapir Prize.

Texts:Beaufort by Ron Leshem. Translated by Evan Fallenberg. The Delacorte Press, 2008.

Music:Ishai Adar - "Beaufort" Original SoundtrackEviatar Banai - Avot Ubanim

In May 2000, the IDF withdrew from Southern Lebanon and Beaufort Castle, which Israel had held since 1982. Host Marcela Sulak reads from Ron Leshem's novel called "Beaufort" in the English translation (the Hebrew title translates as "If there is a Heaven"). It is written as the diary of Liraz Liberti, the twenty-one-year-old head of a thirteen-man commando team stationed at Beaufort during the last winter of Israeli occupation.

"...We carried out a comprehensive search, circled the place to determine whether terrorists had beaten a path in through the undergrowth, and which route they’d chosen to booby-trap the target. We unrolled white marking tape wherever we walked in order to know where we’d already been. It was hot and sticky out. The sun had come up too fast. It took us half an hour to complete the first half-circle..."

Leshem's novel was made into a film in 2007, directed by Josef Cedar and co-written by Cedar and Leshem. The film won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and was a nominee for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Beaufort was Ron Leshem’s first novel, and it won the prestigious Sapir Prize.

Texts:
Beaufort by Ron Leshem. Translated by Evan Fallenberg. The Delacorte Press, 2008.

Music:
Ishai Adar - "Beaufort" Original Soundtrack
Eviatar Banai - Avot Ubanim

The novelist Ronit Matalon has a new novel published just months ago in English translation, The Sound of Our Steps. Host Marcela Sulak reads an extract from the novel, in which the narrator recalls the nightly ritual of hearing her mother's steps leading up to her dramatic entrance to the house:

"What did she put on her feet back then, which shoes, or to be more precise, how did she prepare for battle, how, with what? That sense of purpose she had, to the last detail, the sacred air of purpose, how she loved what was useful, necessary."

To find out more about Matalon, born in Israel in 1959 to a family of Egyptian-Jewish descent, listen to The One Facing Us: Ronit Matalon’s family album, recorded in November 2015.

Texts:Ronit Matalon, The Sound of Our Steps. Translated by Dalya Bilu. Henry Holt & Co., 2015.

Music:Rivka Zohar - HaBayit Leyad HaMesilaSchubert - String Quintet in C (Adagio)Chava Alberstein - Pgisha LeEin Kets

The novelist Ronit Matalon has a new novel published just months ago in English translation, The Sound of Our Steps. Host Marcela Sulak reads an extract from the novel, in which the narrator recalls the nightly ritual of hearing her mother's steps leading up to her dramatic entrance to the house:

"What did she put on her feet back then, which shoes, or to be more precise, how did she prepare for battle, how, with what? That sense of purpose she had, to the last detail, the sacred air of purpose, how she loved what was useful, necessary."

To find out more about Matalon, born in Israel in 1959 to a family of Egyptian-Jewish descent, listen to The One Facing Us: Ronit Matalon’s family album, recorded in November 2015.

Texts:
Ronit Matalon, The Sound of Our Steps. Translated by Dalya Bilu. Henry Holt & Co., 2015.

Music:
Rivka Zohar - HaBayit Leyad HaMesila
Schubert - String Quintet in C (Adagio)
Chava Alberstein - Pgisha LeEin Kets

Today host Marcela Sulak reads the poetry of Ahron Almog, a poet, playwright, and novelist who was born in Tel Aviv in 1931 to a Yemenite family. His grandfather, who immigrated to Palestine with the "Ahaleh BeTamar" operation (1881-1882), was among those who established the Yemenite Quarter ("Kerem HaTemanim") in Tel Aviv, where Almog was born.

"Yemenites from the transit camp came to my grandfather’s housesat and kept silentwhile one sang the other waitedso I was raised between howlingand silence..."

Almog graduated from the Mikve Yisrael Agricultural School and Tel Aviv University, and taught Hebrew literature at a Tel Aviv high school. He is married to the novelist Ruth Almog, and they have two daughters. One of them, Eliana, suggests we consider her father as a poet of quiet protest.

Texts:By Ahron Almog: "On the Silence of the Yemenites"; "About My Mother"; "I Have a Longing"; "The Donkeys Have Disappeared"; "Not Coconut"By Eliana Almog: "My father, the protest poet"

Music:Aharon Amram - Ayin VelevAhuva Ozeri - Shanim ShanimAhuva Ozeri - Mahar Azil Dim'aAharon Amram - Ya TayriShai Tsabari - Me'alai Dmama

Today host Marcela Sulak reads the poetry of Ahron Almog, a poet, playwright, and novelist who was born in Tel Aviv in 1931 to a Yemenite family. His grandfather, who immigrated to Palestine with the "Ahaleh BeTamar" operation (1881-1882), was among those who established the Yemenite Quarter ("Kerem HaTemanim") in Tel Aviv, where Almog was born.

"Yemenites from the transit camp came to my grandfather’s house
sat and kept silent
while one sang the other waited
so I was raised between howling
and silence..."

Almog graduated from the Mikve Yisrael Agricultural School and Tel Aviv University, and taught Hebrew literature at a Tel Aviv high school. He is married to the novelist Ruth Almog, and they have two daughters. One of them, Eliana, suggests we consider her father as a poet of quiet protest.

Texts:
By Ahron Almog: "On the Silence of the Yemenites"; "About My Mother"; "I Have a Longing"; "The Donkeys Have Disappeared"; "Not Coconut"
By Eliana Almog: "My father, the protest poet"

Music:
Aharon Amram - Ayin Velev
Ahuva Ozeri - Shanim Shanim
Ahuva Ozeri - Mahar Azil Dim'a
Aharon Amram - Ya Tayri
Shai Tsabari - Me'alai Dmama

Yesterday was the last day in the Hebrew month of Shvat, in which the holiday of Tu B'Shvat - the Jewish new year for trees - is celebrated. So today, host Marcela Sulak reads an excerpt from Ruth Almog’s story, “After Arbor Day,” which is set during Tu B'Shvat.

"I saw boys and girls all over the mountainside with spades in their hands, planting saplings in basins of loose soil. When I planted my own little sapling and tightened the soil around it, black earth stuck to my fingers. “Will my sapling live?” I asked myself. An inexplicable dread suddenly took hold of me."

Ruth Almog was born in 1936 in Petah Tikva, Mandate Palestine, to parents who immigrated from Hamburg in 1933. She has been deputy editor of the literary section of the daily Haaretz, and writer-in-residence at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is married to the poet Aaron Almog, who will be featured on next week’s podcast.

Texts:Ruth Almog, “After Arbor Day,” translated by Dalya Bilu. 50 Stories from Israel: An Anthology. Ed. Zisi Stavi.

Music:Chava Alberstein - Etz HaKochavimShir HaIlan - Music by Mordechai Ze'ira, lyrics by Raphael SaportaHaAchayot Shemer - BeGani Neta'aticha

Yesterday was the last day in the Hebrew month of Shvat, in which the holiday of Tu B'Shvat - the Jewish new year for trees - is celebrated. So today, host Marcela Sulak reads an excerpt from Ruth Almog’s story, “After Arbor Day,” which is set during Tu B'Shvat.

"I saw boys and girls all over the mountainside with spades in their hands, planting saplings in basins of loose soil. When I planted my own little sapling and tightened the soil around it, black earth stuck to my fingers. “Will my sapling live?” I asked myself. An inexplicable dread suddenly took hold of me."

Ruth Almog was born in 1936 in Petah Tikva, Mandate Palestine, to parents who immigrated from Hamburg in 1933. She has been deputy editor of the literary section of the daily Haaretz, and writer-in-residence at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is married to the poet Aaron Almog, who will be featured on next week’s podcast.

Texts:
Ruth Almog, “After Arbor Day,” translated by Dalya Bilu. 50 Stories from Israel: An Anthology. Ed. Zisi Stavi.

Music:
Chava Alberstein - Etz HaKochavim
Shir HaIlan - Music by Mordechai Ze'ira, lyrics by Raphael Saporta
HaAchayot Shemer - BeGani Neta'aticha

Today, host Marcela Sulak reads the poetry of Anat Levin, who was born in Israel to a mother of Russian descent from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and a father from Kornitz, Belarus. Her debut book of poems, Revolving Anna, was published in 2008, and won the Ministry of Culture Award for Poetry that year. Here is an excerpt from the poem "Oh Mother":

"And it was said:honour thy father and thy motherand they will honour you with twice as much spankingand with two good blows on the backsideso that thy days will be longand pleasant upon the earthand aching under the blankets..."

A graduate of the film and television department at Hunter College in New York, Levin worked for many years as a commercial writer for a large law firm in Israel. She now lives in Givatayim with her husband, the poet Adi Assis. Marcela ends by reading Levin's poetry from the 2011 social justice protests.

Texts:"Birthday Poem 2005"; "Oh Mother""The Reasons or: Invitation to the demonstration"

Music:Gustavo Santaolalla - Babel OSTIoann Rutenin - Russian Orthodox Lent SongLoco Hot - Nadlan

Today, host Marcela Sulak reads the poetry of Anat Levin, who was born in Israel to a mother of Russian descent from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and a father from Kornitz, Belarus. Her debut book of poems, Revolving Anna, was published in 2008, and won the Ministry of Culture Award for Poetry that year. Here is an excerpt from the poem "Oh Mother":

"And it was said:
honour thy father and thy mother
and they will honour you with twice as much spanking
and with two good blows on the backside
so that thy days will be long
and pleasant upon the earth
and aching under the blankets..."

A graduate of the film and television department at Hunter College in New York, Levin worked for many years as a commercial writer for a large law firm in Israel. She now lives in Givatayim with her husband, the poet Adi Assis. Marcela ends by reading Levin's poetry from the 2011 social justice protests.

Texts:
"Birthday Poem 2005"; "Oh Mother"
"The Reasons or: Invitation to the demonstration"

Music:
Gustavo Santaolalla - Babel OST
Ioann Rutenin - Russian Orthodox Lent Song
Loco Hot - Nadlan