Friday, May 9th Tel Avi

Friday, May 9^th.

Not a good start to the day.  Walking back last night from Shayna’s hotel, I wasn’t feeling so good.

Let’s just say that Shayna’s food poisoning was probably not food poisoning.  I’m thinking it was a virus…because viruses can be passed from person to person…explaining how, about 24 hours after Shayna displayed symptoms, her dad suffered the exact same ones…up all night…dehydrating…ugh.

And, following Shayna’s pattern, I was feeling a whole lot better by late morning.  

I took a short walk to the Joseph Bau House.  Bao was an Israeli artist, animator, and PR artist who is most widely known as the husband of the couple that were married in a concentration camp.  It was made famous by Spielberg in Schlindler’s List. 

During our eastern Europe trip two years ago, we attended a museum exhibit of Bau’s at the Schindler Museum in Krakow.  There, we met Bao’s two daughters, who have devoted their lives to their father’s

legacy. For our 18^th anniversary, Marci and I purchased one of Bao’s pieces, which we put in our bedroom. 

The two daughters are very very energetic and excited, generally, and more so about their late father. We had a great conversation with them in Krakow and I was excited to see them again.

When I just showed up at their dad’s house (now a museum), they were giving a lecture to a group of Israelis.  They invited me to sit and listen.  After the talk, I reminded them that we had met in Krakow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Not only did they remember, but they recalled that the day after our museum visit, we had seen them walking in Krakow and yelled out to them. Then, one of the sisters told me that she remembered I was a Jewish history professor and that she had tried, unsuccessfully, to contact me about scheduling a visit to the Bay Area.  Another great Israeli moment for me.

I got a picture with them.

Exhausted and not at full strength (at all), I returned to the hotel and slept 3 or 4 hours.  A nice late afternoon walk along the beach to Neve Tzedek and dinner at Susanna Restaurant.  

Now, an early night and lots of sleep.

Oh, yah, it’s also Shabbat.  But in Tel Aviv, who knew?

Just read on Facebook that Ken Marcus, who directed the U.S. government's civil rights office and now created and runs the Louis Brandeis Center to fight anti-Semitism on college campuses, will be in Tel Aviv tomorrow.  We've got dinner planned!