"רק בצפת" (Only In Tzfat)

B"H

On 20.05.05 "Chadash HaGalil's" correspondent, Me'ir Yanko, published an article entitled "רק בצפת" (Only In Tzfat), in which he lists a number of absurdities that can only happen in Tzfat. He then called for the public to add some absurdities of their own. So, here's mine:

Only in Tzfat can a man who is barely literate be fired from his former job for the reasons that were published in the local press and, through a personal favor of a friend, who was a fine journalist in Tzfat, who took pity on him, get a job as a correspondent for the local paper where that man used to work. Only in Tzfat, could the fine journalist be ousted from the journalistic community, precisely because he is an incisive thinker and fine journalist, while Yanko remained in his stead. Only in Tzfat could Yanko have the chutzpah after all that had transpired to write denigration after denigration about every sector of Tzfat society: the residents of the South, in toto, (from whence Yanko himself hails); the "Anglosaxim" who, Yanko claims, have "taken over" the Old City, the Ethiopians; actually, just about any sector you can think of. Finally, only in Tzfat could this same Yanko write an article about the absurdities that transpire in Tzfat in his usual barely literate, um, "style".

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B"H

Yanko responded to the letter that I sent him. The version that I sent him is in Hebrew and he responded in Hebrew.

I won't post his response here for a few reasons:

1) It's in Hebrew and not everyone will understand it.

2) I do not publish private mail that I receive unless I get express permission to even if "Personal and Confidential" isn't written on it.

From what I write you'll be able to get the gist of what he wrote to me.

For years I suffered this man's humiliations silently. I've had it with him!

Here's the English version of my response to him:

Let's go point-by-point, Yanko:

It is simply impossible that you and the journalist to whom I refer were of equal stature. You never had the respect as a journalist that he had in this town. I, for one, considered him a true intellectual and a person who genuinely cared about people as individuals and residents of Tzfat. In fact, if he wasn't the person he is, he'd still be here working in Tzfat

So, you're still in touch with said journalist? Am I to believe that that makes you equals? Your powers of reasoning are weak. Mine are not. You'll have to do better with me.

You use the term "democracy". I see you applied yourself with the same assiduousness when learning the principles of democracy that you did when learning the rudiments of spelling, grammar and syntax. Your understanding of democracy is shallow and primitive indeed if you think that democracy means denigrating people and misrepresenting them just because you can without being thrown in jail for it.

How *dare* you represent everyone in the South of Tzfat as unemployed, uneducated, unwashed miskeinim just because we don't have a lot of money?

Just in my building alone, there is my husband who is an expert in the Hebrew language, world history, machshevet Yisra'el, a published author, translator and librarian.

I accomplished an MA in Jewish Philosophy at age 20 and my field of expertise is mathematical linguistics. I have been published in every English-speaking country in the world, most recently two comedy pieces that I wrote were published in "The Journal of Irreproducible Results", a prestigious journal that is distributed to academics all over the world. (You might consider writing comedy too, Yanko. You're missing your true calling.)

Some of the other residents in the 214 building of Ofer, wherein we reside, include: a composer/conductor; a published poet; at least two specialist physicians that I know of (They are a couple. Their son, a neurologist, used to live in the building too.); an engineer whose husband practices alternative medicine; a sofer Sta"m; and a certified English teacher from the former SSSR - that I know of. I am not acquainted with everyone in the building.

You can't hold a candle to many of the residents of Ofer intellectually or experientially. How dare you denigrate us? How dare you make us all out to be of one (threadbare) cloth?

How *dare* you cast aspersions upon us - in Hebrew that a grade school child should be ashamed of no less?! My husband has stopped reading your articles altogether. He couldn't stand the level of Hebrew and got tired of getting annoyed. If I try to read some of your "stuff" to him for a laugh he tells me to spare him.

Thoroughly disgusted by the level of Hebrew of the paper, my husband once offered his services to "Chadash B'Galil" as an editor and proofreader some years ago. They were more than willing to accept him - on a volunteer basis. Chadash B'Galil wasn't willing to pay for a part-time proofreader? The paper isn't embarrassed to appear as it does? The level of Hebrew in "Chadash B'Galil" has deteriorated since the time my husband called to offer his help. We would not have believed that possible. Doesn't anyone proofread there? Doesn't anyone who works at the paper know Hebrew above grade school level?

The "Anglo-Saxim" have not "taken over" the Old City. First of all, the English-speakers in this town are effectively powerless. Second, what do you care if most of the English-speakers who come to this town resonate with the vibration of the Old City?

Your critique of City Hall is the same old same old. You merely parrot that which you've heard your intellectual betters say about the City and regurgitate it onto paper, looking like a wannanbe, pseudo-intellectual in the process.

You have the audacity to take personal credit for the Mamlakhti Gimmel grade school not being closed? Any journalist who would be working in your stead would have covered the story. It was the hottest item in Tzfat. How could that story not have been covered? What did you do that was above the minimum expected of a local journalist? Not only would any journalist have covered the story, any journalist covering the story would have written exactly what you wrote. What you wrote was the expected thing to write.

There are some very interesting, intelligent and productive people in the Southern neighborhoods of Tzfat, Yanko. Find them, first for your own edification. You might consider doing and expose on the topic of interesting people in the South as a public service to the city and to make amends for the hurt you've caused to our image.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Ofer Neighborhood, Tzfat