Dear Shimmelstoy
I was moved by what you mentioned about Joel
His is a private commemoration
Which for some reason reminds me of Yankev Glatshteyn
(If you haven’t read him yet, get’s Fein’s translation
In my twenties I read many of Glatshteyn’s books in the original Yiddish)
You and I both know the Holocaust
Has been used as a weapon in Israel
Begin used it against Ben-Gurion
Ben-Gurion used it against Nasser
Politicians today use it to justify their crimes
Even as they insist Palestinians cease talking about the Nakba
To this day I still read books that come out of the 1930s and 40s
I’ve never had a “Holocaust phase”
It’s obviously been a steady part of my inner life
And my outer commitments too
Unwittingly through you
Joel gave me an idea
I recently went on-line
(Just like he does)
And I found a list of the Palestinians killed
In Israel’s most recent “operation”
Translated: “weeks of atrocities by the IDF”
I found myself whispering the names of the victims
One after another
For several minutes
Then I had to stop…
I was feeling so tight
For a few minutes
I was overwhelmed
So I had to breathe in deeply
And breathe out deeply
There’s so much to do Shimmelstoy
You remind me of this …
Sending you one of my immense hugs
Bella Levenshteyn
–from novel-in-progress, Our Heroic and Ceaseless 24/7 Struggle against Tsuris
