Sprinter

Weather is not a topic that I thought would make an interesting blog post, because, although I grew up learning to love changes in weather, cloud formations, thunder storms and blizzards (my father had been a meteorologist), weather in Ferney-Voltaire has been what one expects it to be for the seasons.  But these past few weeks have been way too rainy, and the past few days have seemed more like January than late April, with unrelenting rain, cold wind, and clouds hiding the Jura Mountains to the north and the Alps to the south.  This morning, though, the clouds disappeared and the rain had vanished.  The mountains emerged covered with snow, and they tower over fields flowering with yellow rapeseed blossoms that are ready for the late spring harvest.  That’s why I’m writing about weather.  There’s a new season here: Sprinter.

Fields of springtime rapeseed flowers and snow on the Jura

The snow-covered Jura seen from a street in Ferney-Voltaire 

The Romans and the Jews

View of the Colosseum (left) and Arch of Titus (right)

One major advantage of being a CERN Wife is travel, because CERN physicists, who come from over 80 countries, have international meetings to discuss their work, and some fortunate spouses tag along as tourists, which I did last week when the ALICE collaboration held a meeting in Frascati, Italy – a half-hour train ride from Rome.  

The Arch of Titus

When I toured Rome years ago, the Arch of Titus had impressed me, and I wanted to examine it once more.  I was discussing the remarkable bas-reliefs on the inside of the arch with my friend Susan, who was with me in Rome last week.  Both of us remembered bas-relief figures of the triumphant Roman soldiers and of enchained Jewish slaves carrying the Temple’s gold Menorah, which the Romans took while sacking Jerusalem in 70 CE.  But before heading to see the arch, which is in the Roman Forum, we spent several hours in the Colosseum, and were most surprised by one placard where it was written that the Colosseum was financed by “booty” from the “Jewish Revolt” against Rome.  WHAT?  Don’t the Colosseum historians know that the Jewish Revolt, led by Simon Bar Kochba, started in 132 CE, whereas construction of the Colosseum began in 72 CE and was completed in 80 CE?  Susan and I were puzzled: why such a blatant anachronism?

Bas-reliefs on one side of the Arch of Titus

Then we walked through the Roman Forum, passing majestic columns, stone paths, remnants of buildings, and current archeological digs and headed straight to the Arch of Titus.  But instead of bas-reliefs of enchained Jewish slaves holding the Menorah, we saw laurel-bedecked proud Roman soldiers parading with the Temple’s treasures.  How could our memories have been so wrong?

Roman soldiers carrying Menorah and other treasures

Victorious Roman soldiers with their horses

The following day we strolled through the old Jewish ghetto, where we sat outside at a kosher restaurant and consumed one of Rome’s most famous dishes – carciofi alla giudia – Jewish style artichokes, which are deep fried in olive oil and transformed into a golden-green crispy flower.  We also visited the outstanding Jewish Museum and took a guided tour of Rome’s Great Synagogue, which was built between 1901 and 1904.  The synagogue tour turned out to be a history lesson about Italian Jews.  Although Jews were brought to Rome as slaves after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, they had actually been in Rome since the second century BCE, a time when the Maccabees sought the help of Rome to fight the Assyrian Greek Seleucid Empire, which controlled ancient Judea.  Thus, Jews lived in Rome almost 500 years before the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity.  

Rome's Great Synagogue

During the Counter-Reformation of the mid-16^th century, which was a Catholic revival in response to the Protestant Reformation, the Jews of Rome were forced to live in the ghetto (starting in 1555).  By 1882, twelve years after the unification of Italy, Jews were permitted to reside outside the ghetto.  Although its walls were demolished in 1888, the ghetto remains a center of Rome’s Jewish identity, with the Great Synagogue, Jewish school, bakeries and restaurants, and plaques commemorating the round-up of Jews during the Holocaust.

Medieval house in the ghetto

Lining up in front of a Jewish bakery

Police guarding Jewish school (right); restaurant (left)

Ghetto building with Holocaust memorial plaque

So what’s with the story about the booty from the Jewish Revolt financing the construction of the Colosseum?  Since our memories about the bas-reliefs on the Arch of Titus were inaccurate, perhaps Susan and I harbored flawed memories about history.  That, indeed, was the case.  There were two Jewish revolts against the Romans, and we remembered the latter one.  We forgot about the first Jewish revolt against Rome between 66-70 CE, which had triggered a major civil war between Jews, resulted in the destruction of the Temple by the Romans, and culminated in the construction of the Colosseum and the Arch of Titus.  These two tourist attractions are reminders not only of ancient Rome’s power and ingenuity, but also of the intertwining history of the Romans and the Jews.

Self-Promotion and Politics

Sign for Berlitz at Versailles train station

Here is a poster in the Versailles train station, promoting English lessons at Berlitz.  The translation: “Nicolas, Francois, Eva, Jean-Luc, Marine meeting with Barack in 8 weeks…In English, is everything OK?”  Why those names – Nicolas, Francois, Eva, Jean-Luc, Marine?  These are the five top contenders for the presidential race in France.

Actually, 10 hopefuls are running in France, from the extreme left, Eva Joly, to the extreme right, Marine Le Pen, with the center-right current president, Nicolas Sarkozy, battling the Socialist, Francois Hollande, as the top two contenders. 

In Ferney-Voltaire: Posters of the 10 presidential candidates

The French election season, unlike the expensive and long American one, lasts 4 months.  Next Sunday, April 22, is the election, and there might be a run-off election as well.  And because of the concept of laicite – secularism – which is the French political religion, no mention of God is permitted in politics.  French politicians don’t brag about going to church, nor do they mention religious beliefs in their speeches.  Unlike in the United States, religion and politics are separate in France.  No French politician would ever end a speech with something like, “God bless you, and God bless France,” in the way American politicians are obliged to end their speeches as if they are responding to an orchestrated public sneeze (“God bless you, and God bless America”).

The one thing that the presidential candidates of both France and the United States have in common is the personality of self-promotion, because that’s what’s needed to succeed in politics (aside from money and ideas that appeal to a segment of the population).  Just think about Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and Newt Gingrich: with their bizarre ideologies, how were they able to get such a following?  They have the talent of self-promotion - a flair that facilitated their obtaining financial backing, but in the long run, they didn’t make it as the Republican presidential candidate this go-around. 

Self-promotion is not just for politicians.  In our world of the world-wide web, writers such as Charlotte Bronte and Emily Dickinson would never have been published, because these were shy and introverted women who sat at home and wrote.  They wouldn’t have been able to create a “platform” – the concept so necessary in today’s publishing milieu -   meaning that you are already well-known and have a following, have many people reading what you write, are often quoted, are invited to lecture in front of audiences. In other words, before you can get an agent, let alone a book deal, you have to exist in a Catch-22 world.  Just think of how many contemporary Brontes and Dickinsons are uncomfortable with self-promotion, and as such, we will never read their works. 

I am uncomfortable with self-promotion and the concept of platform development, which writers are told they need to do.  One agent who had agreed to represent my memoir about living in Iran during the revolution rescinded his offer, telling me it’s because I have no platform.  So modest me has to put on the mask of a politician and start self-promotion.  But how?  Just the concept of platform development makes me feel like a phony politician, but without the financial support.  Rather than self-promotion, I’d rather eat ice cream, read, write, paint, drink wine, travel, talk to friends, anything, really, rather than beg people to follow my blog, friend me on Facebook, tweet me with Twitter, or link to me on LinkedIn.  But I do need a platform so I can get an agent so I can get a book published.  In that regard, I need to self-promote, and ask you to follow my blog, friend me on Facebook, and connect with me on LinkedIn.  I (with reluctance) signed up for Twitter – something I thought I’d never do (my Twitter contact, or whatever it’s called, is @KarenLeePliskin).  Why am I doing all this?  Because I’m participating in something called the “April Platform Challenge” by Robert Lee Brewer, from his blog, My Name Is Not Bob.  Platform development is a real challenge for me as both a writer and an artist, and just think, I used to want to be a politician. 

Easter Sweets

Versailles: Bunny and Duck Couples, Hen, and Eggs

Easter sweets appear in patisserie shop windows less than a month before Easter.  Chocolate animals (milk, dark, white, even pink) populate the shelves.

Versailles: Chocolate Cows and Pigs

Versailles: Squirrel

Versailles: Melting Bunny in the Window

Versailles: Melted Bunny in the Window

In Alsace, kugelhopf (sweet yeast cake), cakes made in lamb-shaped or fish-shaped molds, and chocolate storks – the bird of the region – join the chocolate eggs and animals as Easter specialties.

Colmar: Lamb Cakes and Kugelhopf

Colmar: Kugelhopf and Fish Cakes (but not fish)

Colmar: Easter Gingerbread

Colmar: Easter Stork

Colmar: Littler Easter Chocolates

Strasbourg: Cartoony Chocolates

Strasbourg: Gourmet Easter Menagerie

American kids don't know what they're missing.......

Joyeuses Paques and Happy Easter.

Alsace Matzot

Alsace Matsot (r) made in the town of Wasselonne

We spent last weekend, from Friday, March 30 until Sunday, April 1, in Alsace, where French citizens speak French and a dialect similar to Swiss-Deutsch, where the food has a German influence, and where, once-upon-a-time, Jews resided in the cities and villages until the Holocaust.

We toured Colmar, Strasbourg, and Ribeauville, drove through villages and vineyards (Alsace produces mostly white wines: Sylvaner and Reisling the best known), and wondered how is it that in France people still live in houses that were built in the 14^th century.  On Sunday, before heading back to Ferney-Voltaire, we went to a kosher grocery in Strasbourg, which has a large (and religious) Jewish population.  We bought all kinds of kosher for Pesach food and wine that doesn’t exist at all in Ferney, and in Geneva the same things (if they have them) are twice the price.

The big box of matzoh made in Wasselone, a village we drove to but didn’t know they had a matzoh factory, towers over Manischewitz matzos.

One piece of Wasselone matzoh

And the size and shape of the Alsace matzoh is different from anything I’ve had in the U.S. or Israel – it’s not only much larger, but each piece can be split in the middle.  Manischewitz here is the midget matzoh.

Alsace matzoh with a midget Manischewitz one

Have a Happy and Healthy Pesach.