My mom recently got me an album that I asked for, it is the songs behind the scandalous play Shampoo Queen, by Hanoch Levin, that premiered in 1970 in the Cameri theater. The play lasted 19 showings, and was taken down amid public outcry. Levin, a sharp and critical satirist, managed to slaughter every holy cow in the Israel of 1970. Israel at the time was at the hight of euphoria after a sweeping victory in the Six Day War of 1967. Levin questioned the principles that Israeli society’s solidarity and pride were based upon, with a play composed of short skits, dialogs and songs that ridiculed Israel’s leaders and public opinion. After the play’s cast was subjected to different kinds of abuse and threats during the performance, the Cameri decided to stop the play, ultimately because the government threatened to stop funding the theater. Levin gave a cynical public apology in Haaretz (loosely translated):
Public Criticism
The honorable defense minister, mayors, public figures, journalists, radio and television, teachers, and masters.
Embarassed and ashamed, and also overwhelmed with gratitude I stand here before you today. Your sincere and inexhaustible efforts to take down “The Shampoo Queen” opened my eyes and made me contemplate again on what I have written. Now, with the play taken off the stage of the “Cameri Theater”, I could admit with a bowed head: I was wrong. I took advantage of the principles of democracy and freedom to undermine the morale of the public, to abuse and ridicule Israel’s struggles, and to disseminate confusion and loathing in a united nation; and all this using banal words, evidence of my psychosis.
I repeal every word and punctuation that I wrote. I ask of you all, in a humble voice, to attribute my mistakes with my young age, and the substandard education I received from my parents
And with this request for forgiveness, I hope I will get another chance to prove myself with productive work as a beneficial citizen – for the glory of the state and nation.
There are two songs from the play that I would like to translate for y’all. The first one is called “Promise”. I really should have posted it after Olmert gave his Churchillian speech this summer about the “blood sweat and tears” that we were to expect from his war (“..one of the most justified wars in Israel”). The scene that this is sung in has to do with a government meeting, the singer is the defense minister. I can’t say more than that, since I haven’t actually seen the play, I am too young.
Promise
I promise you all blood and tears
– and my word is a real promise –
And if I promise you blood and tears,
everybody knows that it’s blood and tears,
not to speak of sweat.
Soon it will be very bad for you all
– and my word is a real promise –
And if I say that it will be very bad,
you could be assured that it will be very bad,
and maybe even worse than bad.
With no glimmer of hope, you all will continue to live
– and my word is a real promise –
and if I say that you all will continue to live,
then a few of you really will continue to live,
don’t ask for what.
I was first introduced to these lyrics by Dudy Levy, he is a rock musician who came out with an tribute album with Hanoch Levin material. So below I included links to both the original, and the Dudy Levi rendition of this song.
I’ll introduce another song in the near future. Check back in soon.
When I hear family and friends express frustration with the U.N.’s actions I wonder when will we, as a Jewish nation, notice that we have been shooting ourselves in the foot repeatedly, by helping destroy the entity that was founded to protect people exactly like us.
On June 26th, 1945 the United Nations Charter was signed by 50 nations in San Francisco, immediately following WWII. It’s main goal was to prevent the tragadies of global war and genocide. It was founded as a protector of minorities and disenfranchised people world wide, and a conduit to avoid armed conflict by diplomatic means.
The prevalent example at the time for a disenfranchised minority were the Jewish survivors of the mechanized Nazi killing machine, and the U.N. was quick to provide a long lasting solution for the Jewish people: a state of their own. This happened with Resolution 181 that was voted in on November 29, 1947.
In 1955, Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister (but then only defense minister), suggested forcefully expelling all Fedayeen fighters outside of the Gaza strip. Prime minister Moshe Sharet objected, saying the U.N. would not allow such an action, and that it must be respected, since without the U.N. Israel would not have been founded, to which Ben Gurion replied “Um Shmum” (Um is U.N. in Hebrew, “Shmum” is a dismissive).
Since that day the U.N.’s general assembly and security council have passed over 100 resolutions regarding Israel, the majority of which condemn Israel for various actions, from military aggression, to down right war crimes and human right abuses.
Today, Israel’s government and it’s “friends” see the U.N. as a weak, antisemitic, and useless organization. And reject it’s resolutions again and again. For 50 years the U.N. has been hindering Israel with such petty issues as human rights, and unchecked aggression. But luckily for Israel, it has a super power as it’s ally, so it does not need to conform to the same international laws that were inspired by tragedies in the likes of the Holocaust.
The latest outrage is Israel’s success in undermining the U.N.’s fact finding mission headed by Desmond Tutu.
I am in the middle of a book called The Ecology of Commerce. As the name suggests it is about how a free market could become environmentally restorative. Besides the main theme there are more than a few gems of social justice in there. Here is my favorite:
In reality, we have not one but two welfare systems. The first is meager, consisting of aid to the unemployed, dependent children, the poor and helpless. It is seen as a charity, a hand-out, a grudging acceptance of social responsibility, but it is almost always accompanied by judgement, admonishments of failure, and a high moral tone. The second welfare system is large, expensive, and expansive. It comes in the form of large government grants and programs for building highways, subsidies to the rich in the form of interest payment deductions on their houses, giveaways of timber and mining rights on government lands, government-financed research in universities, revolving door policies between the defense industry and government resulting in expensive, poorly planned procurement policies, and so on.
Hawkins goes on and writes that the top fifth of the population receives three times more housing subsidy then the bottom fifth.
השיר העילאי שלפנינו, המשלב מינונים מדודים אך חריפים של סאטירה, פטאליזם חסר-אונים ומלנכוליה קיומית, אינו פרי עטו של ברכט; הוא לא נלקח מתוך מחזה של יונסקו או של חנוך לוין, אף שהאבסורד והייאוש – המעורבים ביותר מקורט של קומדיה – זועקים או מגחכים כאן בכל שורה. גם אין זה עיבוד או תרגום חופשי לשיר פציפיסטי של וו.ה. אודן.שורות אלו הושמעו בערוץ 1 של הטלוויזיה מפי הכתב הצבאי יואב לימור
לכתבה בהארץ