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LGBTQ Israelis fear setbacks as homophobic parties win a place in Netanyahu’s coalition
TEL AVIV and JERUSALEM (JTA) — It was the day before Israel’s Nov. 1 election. In a classroom in downtown Jerusalem, Avi Rose was teaching about Jewish identity through art to a group of Jewish students from abroad spending a gap year in Israel. Suddenly, movement outside caught his eye.
Rose stopped his lecture and approached the second-story window. He was unprepared for what he saw. Dozens of religious Jewish youth from the homophobic Noam party were marching down Jerusalem’s Jaffa Street, chanting and carrying large anti-LGBTQ signs.
The sight was distressing for Rose, a gay Israeli artist who emigrated from Canada 20 years ago. In 2007, he and his husband, Ben, became the first Israeli citizens to have their same-sex marriage certificate from abroad recognized in Israel.
“I’m teaching this wonderful group of young people that have come from all over the world to have their moment in Israel, to finally be free in their Jewish homeland, to be in this democratic Jewish safe space. And they have to see their own teacher going, ‘Oh my God. There are these people out there who their sole purpose is to hate me.’ And it was a dissonance,” recalled Rose, who lives in Jerusalem with his husband and their 10-year-old twins.
“I mean, what the hell am I doing here if that’s the way we are as a Jewish people?” he continued. “And I was scared. I won’t lie to you. I was scared…. I had flashbacks about what my grandparents went through in Europe. And I had to remind myself we aren’t quite there yet. I’m not at the point [where I am going to] pack my bags and protect my children and get out of here.”
By the end of the next day, 14 members of the union of three far-right parties — Noam, Otzma Yehudit (or Jewish Power) and National Union — became the third-largest slate in the Knesset and the second largest in the governing coalition that Benjamin Netanyahu is now assembling. Netanyahu’s other coalition partners are two haredi Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism. It will be the most right-wing conservative, religious government in Israel’s history, and its leaders are already vowing to roll back rights that LGBTQ Israelis have only recently won.
Israel does not permit same-sex marriage. But its Supreme Court has strengthened protections for Israelis who enter same-sex marriages abroad, requiring that the marriages be recognized by the state and ensuring that same-sex couples be permitted to adopt children and pursue surrogacy. Now, a Shas lawmaker could be appointed to head the ministry in charge of granting marriage licenses, and a self-proclaimed “proud homophobe” is poised for a leadership position as well.
“I don’t think they’ll criminalize my marriage or take my children away,” said Rose. “But there is a general sense of fear seizing the LGBTQ community.”
Noam, the smallest of three factions making up the joint Religious Zionism list, has focused on advancing policies that prevent the creation of non-traditional families, such as same-gender parents or children created through surrogacy, which it calls “the destruction of the family.” The party’s election slogan was a call to make Israel “a normal” nation.
A man sits outside Shpagat, a gay bar in Tel Aviv, in November 2022. (Orly Halpern)
In a 2019 tweet, the party outlined its vision for what “normal” means. “A father and a father is not normal,” the list began. It ended by alluding to the party’s opposition to Pride flags: “Asking to remove a flag that represents all this madness — that’s actually quite normal.”
One afternoon last week, two male cooks wearing tight black T-shirts exposing prodigious biceps were preparing for opening hour at Shpagat, Tel Aviv’s first gay bar. “Ohad,” who asked not to use his real name out of fear of being harmed, told JTA that there was great concern among his peers about how the new government would shift budgets, change laws and policies and deny LGBTQ Israelis their rights.
“I’m concerned that we will lose all the rights we gained with the recent government and over the last few years,” said Ohad. The outgoing government, a centrist interlude after more than a decade of right-wing leadership, was the most progressive in Israel’s history in terms of the gay community. “We’re talking about the most basic things, like being allowed to donate blood, being allowed to parent children through surrogacy, cancelling the prohibition of LGBTQ+ ‘conversion therapy.’ It’s both to cancel things and to go backwards.”
Yair Lapid speaks at the Tel Aviv Pride Parade on June 10, 2022, weeks before becoming Israeli prime minister. His government was Israel’s most progressive on LGBTQ issues.(Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Indeed, one of the memes that worried Israelis have shared widely since election results came out reads, “Don’t forget that tonight, we are moving the clock back 2,000 years.”
Another issue is the distribution of government funding. Israel’s Ministry for Social Equality, for example, allocated 90 million shekels ($26.7 million) this year to benefit the LGBTQ community, which included funding for LGBTQ centers in some 70 cities. The education ministry and local municipalities also provide budgets to the Israel Gay Youth organization, and for teaching in schools about LGBTQ inclusion. Avi Maoz, the head of the Noam party, said he wants to cancel “progressive study programs” about gender.
A spokesperson for the Noam party was unable to make Maoz available and declined to otherwise offer comment.
Transgender Israelis could face the most stark changes. About 40% of transgender people have attempted suicide at least once in their life, according to the health ministry, and more than half avoid receiving medical care. Last year, the outgoing government’s health minister, Nitzan Horowitz, who is gay, set new policies to make healthcare more accessible to the transgender community.
Now the fear is that these policies will be canceled, as will be subsidies for sex reassignment surgeries and drugs. “For all the boys and girls who are in the process of defining their gender identity physically and emotionally, it will make their treatments very expensive or unaffordable,” said Ohad. “That can jeopardize their lives.”
It’s clear that the right-wing party leaders are not sympathetic to the plight of LGBTQ Israelis. Bezalel Smotrich, the head of the Religious Zionist party, identifies himself as a “proud homophobe.” In August, his party protested the enrollment of a third-grader at a religious boys’ school who had transitioned from his gender assigned at birth.
“There is no place in the national religious school system for such confusion of opinions and views that seriously harm the values, natural health and identity of its students,” Smotrich wrote to the education ministry.
The right-wing parties have trained their sights on Israel’s Supreme Court, which has delivered crucial victories to LGBTQ advocates and other minorities. The parties say the court is out of step with Israeli values.
One of the first legislative measures the next government intends to pass is the High Court Bypass Law, which would allow a simple majority of the Knesset’s 120 lawmakers to override Supreme Court rulings on laws that the court struck down, thereby undermining the court’s ability to protect human and civil rights.
“It will leave us as a defenseless minority,” said Liad Ortar, the head of an environmental, social and corporate governance firm, who spoke to JTA from the Climate Change Conference in Egypt. Ortar and his husband have 8-year-old twins through a surrogate from Thailand.
Liad Ortar, right, is concerned that Israel’s incoming government could enact policies that hurt families like his where both parents are of the same sex. (Courtesy Ortar)
Many LGBTQ Israelis fear that lack of tolerance from government ministers could translate into incitement, harassment and physical attacks in the public sphere, and that the religious right-wing extremists who have directed violence towards Palestinians will now target them as well.
“In recent months there has been a very extreme escalation in what’s happening with the settlers and their violence, including the army, that doesn’t really provide protection,” said Ohad. “Not long ago there was an attack on a left-wing woman activist.… Those people are now going to become the ministers of education and culture. So aside from the Arabs and what the settlers do to them there, the next easy target is the gay community.”
In 2015, a religious Jewish man stabbed and killed Shira Banki, a 16-year-old girl marching with her family in Jerusalem’s gay pride parade — weeks after he completed a 10-year sentence for a similar attack in 2005. Now, members of the Religious Zionism slate have called to abolish gay pride parades.
“It’s not only that we are really afraid and worried about our own future. But it’s also our kids’ future. How will it look? And not just the kids of a gay couple, but gay children,” Ortar said. “We’re going to go back to the time where homosexuality can’t be shown publicly, whether at school or in the public sphere. Where they might beat the hell out of a gay couple because they walked hand in hand. Or cursing children in schools because their parents are gay.”
Not all LGBTQ Israelis are alarmed by the incoming government. Gilad Halahmi, a gay man who lives in Tel Aviv, has been active in promoting the Otzma Yehudit and has developed a personal rapport with its leader, Itamar Ben-Gvir. “The fact that he and Smotrich have an anti-LGBTQ agenda doesn’t mean they hate [us],” he said.
Halahmi said he believes his involvement has mitigated Religious Zionist stances on LGBTQ issues, and he also said Amir Ohana, a Knesset member from Netanyahu’s Likud party who is gay, had helped shift right-wing politicians’ views on those issues. But even without that, he said, the tradeoff to get the policies he wants on other issues is worth it.
“I give up LGBTQ rights, but I get something that is much more important to me in return, which is the economic issue, the security issue, the migration issue, governance,” Halahmi said. “It’s things that are 10 times more important to me than public transportation on Shabbat or whether I’ll get married in Israel or abroad.”
But for those who value religious pluralism and LGBTQ rights — and polls have shown that a majority of Israelis do — the current moment is alarming. On Sunday, Ben-Gvir vowed to revoke government recognition of non-Orthodox conversions to Judaism, in the latest sign that a far-right coalition would seek to create practical changes quickly.
For Rabbi Mikie Goldstein, the new government’s threatened assault on pluralism and LGBTQ rights offers a one-two punch that has him questioning whether he should continue living in Israel. Goldstein, an immigrant from England, was the first out gay pulpit rabbi in Israel when he took the reins of a congregation in Rehovot in 2014. Now, he leads the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly in Israel, working to support rabbis and their congregations who belong to the movement, known as Masorti in Israel.
“If I can’t do my work properly, if I’m not accepted — how much can you take?” Goldstein said. “I’m not prepared to give up yet [on Israel] but it’s certainly crossed my mind.”
LGBTQ activists say they won’t give up rights without a fight — and that they are prepared to mount one.
“We are very much united,” said Ortar. “We have a very strong civil infrastructure. The LGBTQ community is very well established in social and demographic groups. A lot of us are in the media, industry, high tech. After the statement about abolishing the parade, you could hear the drums beating. There will be demonstrations if that happens.”
In 2018, some 100,000 people demonstrated — outraged after then-prime minister Netanyahu voted against a bill to allow gay couples to use surrogacy.
Members of the LGBTQ community and supporters participate in a demonstration against a Knesset bill amendment denying surrogacy for same-sex couples, in Tel Aviv, July 22, 2018. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Last week, Netanyahu tried to assuage fears and ordered officials in his close circle to tell the press that his government would not allow any change to the status quo regarding LGBT rights. But he did not come out saying it himself.
“This is the time to be angry, not scared,” said Rose. “We can’t be complacent anymore. The privilege of complacency has come to an end. That has to be the message of this election. You have to fight for what you want.”
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The post LGBTQ Israelis fear setbacks as homophobic parties win a place in Netanyahu’s coalition appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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The PA Just Made More ‘Pay-for-Slay’ Payments; Here’s How the US and EU Could Stop It
The opening of a hall that the Palestinian Authority named for a terrorist who killed 125 people. Photo: Palestinian Media Watch.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported yesterday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is continuing its Pay-for-Slay payments outside the PA areas, beyond US and EU donor oversight.
Families in Jordan and Syria confirmed the salaries were paid earlier this week. Yesterday, families in Lebanon also reported receiving their Pay-for-Slay payments. Families in Egypt were told to expect the payments, “Thursday or the beginning of next week.”
So, how is the PA keeping these monthly terror salaries flowing without triggering EU and US scrutiny?
The PA’s own budget exposed the foreign Pay-for-Slay payments
The PA’s 2017 budget book included a breakdown of how many “Martyrs and wounded” families receive monthly allowances — both inside and outside PA-controlled areas. (The PA has not published the figures about the number of Martyr family recipients since 2017.)
Although the file is no longer available online, PMW downloaded it at the time.
The relevant section on page 622 states:
13,500 families of Martyrs and wounded received monthly allowances. The Institution [for Care of the Families of the Martyrs and the Wounded] pays monthly allowances to the families of the Martyrs and the wounded through the institution’s branches abroad.
The budget continues:
21,500 families of martyrs and wounded inside the homeland (the PA areas and Israel) received allowances. Providing financial allowances to the families of the Martyrs and the wounded inside the homeland through the institution’s branches.
This was the PA admitting — in its budget — that it maintained an organized foreign-branch system to pay 13,500 terror “allowances” outside the “homeland.”
The minimum foreign Pay-for-Slay total: NIS 18.9 million per month
Under PA regulations, the minimum monthly payment to “Martyrs’ families” is 1,400 shekels.
The 2017 figure for overseas recipients:
- 13,500 families × 1,400 shekels = 18,900,000 shekels per month
This figure of 18.9 million is clearly a minimum for 2026:
- Payments rise based on family status (+400 shekels for a wife and +60 shekels for each child). For simplicity, PMW has ignored the extras.
- The number of eligible “Martyrs” families has certainly increased since 2017.
- PMW did not calculate the exiled Palestinian released terrorist prisoners who have continued to receive monthly payments.
The method: The PA hides foreign payments under the PLO heading
This money avoids EU and US donor scrutiny because the PA does not pay terrorists’ families outside the country through the PA’s local Commission of Prisoners. Instead, the PA routes payments through the PLO, where donors are not demanding transparency.
Donors scrutinize PA payments; donors do not scrutinize PLO payments. The PA exploits that gap.
Looking at the PA transfers to the PLO in 2025 confirms PMW’s analysis.
In 2025, the PA reported transferring to the PLO 269,434,600 shekels, averaging 22.5 million shekels per month, listed as “transfer expenses” — the budget category used to describe the terrorist payments.
That number aligns cleanly with what the PA already documented in 2017:
- Foreign terror payments in 2017 were NIS 18.9 million/month (minimum)
- A 2025 monthly transfer average of NIS 22.5 million/month to cover these “transfer expenses” reflects an expected increase over eight years
Case study: Ahlam Tamimi — paid in Jordan, protected from scrutiny
This month, Ahlam Tamimi should have received 6,000 shekels, bringing her total PA salary since arrest to 1,158,800 shekels.
Tamimi is one of the most notorious freed terrorists. She orchestrated the Sbarro restaurant bombing, in which 15 people — including 8 children — were murdered. Two victims were US citizens. After being released in the Gilad Shalit deal, Tamimi was exiled to Jordan.
According to PA law, released prisoners continue receiving monthly salaries. Tamimi has therefore continued receiving her PA salary while living outside PA areas. As a celebrated PA figure, there is no reason her payment would have stopped, meaning she certainly would have received her salary this week with the thousands of other Jordanian Pay-for-Slay recipients.
If the US and EU want to seriously eliminate Pay-for-Slay, they must stop ignoring PA transfers to the PLO.
PMW recommends that the US and EU demand full disclosure of the recipients of “transfer expenses” in the PLO’s budget, including the names and countries of where the PA is paying terrorists and their families beyond donor oversight.
As long as the donors turn the other way and ignore the foreign payments, even the PA “reform” of Pay-for-Slay will remain a sham, and Pay-for-Slay will continue, on schedule, every month.
The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
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Chabad attack suspect had previously sought ‘spiritual guidance’ from rabbi
The 36-year-old man arrested after repeatedly crashing into the entrance of the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn on Wednesday night has a history of engaging with Chabad.
Rabbi Levi Azimov, who leads Chabad of South Brunswick in New Jersey, said the suspect, who has not yet been identified by police, attended a Purim service at Chabad in March of last year. He visited there twice more, seeking spiritual guidance, Azimov told the Forward.
“I was able to talk to him for a few minutes and see that he’s not exactly stable,” Azimov said.
Video confirmed by eyewitnesses shows the suspect repeatedly ramming his grey Honda sedan into the doors at 770 Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights neighborhood, the main headquarters of the Chabad movement and one of the most recognized Jewish buildings in the world.
The video shows the driver yelling at bystanders to move out of the way before he drove down a ramp leading to the doors.
Video from Daniel David Yeroshalmi via Storyful:
Police arrived at the scene around 8:45 p.m. and arrested the individual. There were no reported injuries. A bomb squad conducted a sweep of the vehicle and found no explosive devices, police said.
According to Chabad spokesperson Yaacov Behrman, the suspect had arrived at 770 Eastern Parkway earlier in the night and removed two metal bollards that block cars from going down the driveway toward the building.
The incident took place on the 75th anniversary of the date that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson became the leader of the Lubavitch movement. Thousands were gathered Wednesday night at the movement’s headquarters — Schneerson’s former home.
Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for the movement, said on X that the ramming “seems intentional, but the motivations are unclear.” The evening’s festivities would carry on elsewhere undeterred, he said. Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, Chabad’s social media director, said in a post on X that the attack did not appear to be antisemitic.
The attack follows a rash of antisemitic incidents across the city. On Tuesday, a rabbi was punched in Forest Hills, Queens, and last week, a playground frequented by Orthodox families in the Borough Park neighborhood in Brooklyn was graffitied with swastikas two days in a row. In both incidents, the suspects have been arrested. Antisemitic incidents accounted for 57% of reported hate crimes in New York City in 2025.
The incident is being investigated as a hate crime, said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Additional reporting by Jacob Kornbluh and Louis Keene.
The post Chabad attack suspect had previously sought ‘spiritual guidance’ from rabbi appeared first on The Forward.
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Shiri Shapira’s Yiddish stories reflect the anxieties of millennials
שירי שאַפּיראַס ליטעראַרישע שאַפֿונג איז שױן באַקאַנט די לײענערס פֿון „פֿאָרװערטס“. די העלדן פֿון אירע דערצײלונגען, װאָס זײַנען אַרײַן אינעם בוך „די צוקונפֿט“, זײַנען ישׂראלדיקע מענער און פֿרױען פֿון אַ גאַנץ יאָר, די מחברטע בתוכם. זײערע דאגות זײַנען װעגן פּרנסה, משפּחה, געזונט און וכּדומה. אָבער הינטער אָט דעם טאָג־טעגלעכן שטײגער שטעקט אַ נײַע פּערזענלעכע דערפֿאַרונג, װאָס אַנטפּלעקט זיך אין אַ קריטישן מאָמענט און עפֿנט אָפֿט מאָל אַ נײַע תּקופֿה אין זײער לעבן.
בײַם 13־יאָריקן מײדל אין דער דערצײלונג „די צוקונפֿט“, װאָס עפֿנט דאָס בוך, האָט זיך די נײַע תּקופֿה אָנגעהױבן אין 2001. די טעראָר־אַטאַקע אױף ניו־יאָרק האָט זיך צונױפֿגעפֿאַלן מיט אַ טעראָר־אָנפֿאַל אין איר שטאָט:
„אין יאָר 2001 איז געקומען דער ערשטער טעראָר־אָנפֿאַל אין אונדזער שטאָט. די השפּעות אויפֿן טאָג־טעגלעכן לעבן זענען געווען גרויס. מע האָט אָנגעפֿירט אָנסופֿיקע שמועסקרײַזן צום אָנדענק פֿון איין קרבן פֿון אונדזער שול, וועמען איך האָב ניט געקענט; יעדן פֿרימאָרגן האָב איך געדאַרפֿט קוקן אויף זײַן שמייכלענדיק, פּרישטשעוואַטע פּנים אויפֿן בילד, וואָס מע האָט געהאַט פֿאַרגרעסערט און אויפֿגעהאָנגען לעבן דעם שולטויער.“
אַזױ האָט דאָס יאָר 2001 אַרײַנגעבראַכט די „טעראָר־אָנפֿאַלן פֿון דער צוקונפֿט […] הױך ביז אין הימל אַרײַן, גלאַנציקע, זילבערנע“, װאָס זײַנען געװאָרן אַ באַשטאַנדטײל פֿון דער נײַער טאָג־טעגלעכקײט אי פֿאַר שאַפּיראַ אי פֿאַר מדינת־ישׂראל אי פֿאַר דער גאַנצער װעלט.
דאָס װאָרט „צוקונפֿט“ איז סײַ דער טיטל פֿונעם גאַנצן בוך און סײַ דאָס קעפּל פֿון דער ערשטער און דער לעצטער דערצײלונג. דער דאָזיקער באַגריף דינט װי אַ שליסל צו שאַפּיראַס שאַפֿונג. בײַ דער מחברטע און אירע העלדן איז די צוקונפֿט געפֿערלעך און אומזיכער. אַזאַ מין געפֿיל שפּיגלט אָפּ די אַלגעמײנע שטימונג פֿונעם „מילעניאַל“ דור (געבױרן צװישן די 1980ער און 1990ער יאָרן), צו װעלכן זי געהערט.
„די צוקונפֿט“ איז אױך דער נאָמען פֿון אײנער פֿון די װיכטיקסטע ייִדישע צײַטשריפֿטן, װאָס איז פּובליקירט געװאָרן אין ניו־יאָרק צװישן די יאָרן 1892 און 2010. אין אַ קאַפּיטל זכרונות דערצײלט שאַפּיראַ װעגן דעם, װי זי האָט קאַטאַלאָגירט אַרטיקלען פֿונעם דאָזיקן זשורנאַל פֿאַרן ייִדישן ביבליאָגראַפֿישן פּראָיעקט אינעם העברעיִשן אוניװערסיטעט אין ירושלים. אַזױ בױט זי אַ טעמאַטישע בריק צו ייִדיש, װאָס פֿאַרנעמט אַ חשובֿן טײל פֿון איר לעבן.
לכתּחילה האָט זי געהאָפֿט, אַז זי װעט קענען לײענען די צײַטשריפֿט און „זיך לערנען אָן אַ שיעור וועגן ייִדישער געשיכטע.“ אָבער אַנשטאָט דעם האָט זי געלײענט די טאָגלעכע נײַעס װעגן טעראָריסטישע אָנפֿאַלן אין ישׂראל בעת דער אַזױ־גערופֿענער „יחידים־אינטיפֿאַדע“. די ישׂראלדיקע הײַנטצײַטיקײט מאַכט בטל דעם שײנעם צוקונפֿט־חלום פֿון די אַמאָליקע ייִדישע סאָציאַליסטן: „ווער רעדט נאָך וועגן עפּעס אַ צוקונפֿט? די צוקונפֿט איז שוין אַ געוועזענע זאַך.“
שירי שאַפּיראַ פֿאַרמאָגט אַ שאַרפֿן חוש פֿאַר צײַט און הײַנטצײַטיקײט. די צײַט אין אירע מעשׂיות פֿליסט כּסדר מאָנאָטאָן אָבער צומאָל ברענגט זי אַרײַן בײַטן אינעם לעבן פֿון יחידים און פֿונעם כּלל. די סתּירה צװישן דעם גלײַכמעסיקן צײַטגאַנג און דעם פּלוצעמדיקן צײַטבראָך פֿילט מען ספּעציעל שאַרף אין ישׂראל. יעדער טאָג טראָגט אין זיך אַ פּאָטענציעלע סכּנה.
װי אַזױ קען אַ פּשוטער בשׂר־ודם זיך געבן אַן עצה אין דעם הײַנטיקן פּאָליטישן װירװאַר? װאָס איז טאַקע די נאַטור פֿון דער צײַט?
שאַפּיראַ דערמאָנט זיך: „מיידלווײַז האָב איך געהאַט אַ רושם, אַז פֿאַר דער פֿאַרגאַנגענהייט בין איך אָנגעקומען צו שפּעט, און אַז פֿאַר דער צוקונפֿט טויג ניט קיין מענטש, וועמענס פֿאַרגאַנגענהייט איז אים פֿאַרווערט.“ אַ סבֿרא, אַזאַ מין קשיות האָבן זי געשטױסן צו שטודירן פֿילאָסאָפֿיע אינעם אוניװערסיטעט.
דער פֿילאָסאָפֿישער יסוד איז װיכטיק פֿאַרן פֿאַרשטײן שאַפּיראַס ליטעראַרישער שאַפֿונג. אָבער װי אַ געניטע שרײַבערין קען זי קונציק אַרײַנפֿלעכטן די פֿילאָסאָפֿישע חקירות אינעם נאַראַטיװן לײַװנט פֿון אירע דערצײלונגען.
שאַפּיראַס העלדן לעבן אין ישׂראל און רעדן העברעיִש. לרובֿ קענען זײ ניט קײן ייִדיש. זי אַלײן איז אַ העברעיִשע שרײַבערין װאָס האָט איבערגעזעצט אַ היפּשע צאָל ליטעראַרישע װערק פֿון דײַטשיש אױף העברעיִש. איז אױף װאָס דאַרף מען ייִדיש? אַן ענטפֿער אױף אַזאַ פֿראַגע לאָזט זיך געפֿינען אין אירע דערצײלונגען.
דאָס עלטערע פּאָרפֿאָלק בני און דליה, אין דער דערצײלונג „ערדציטערניש“, האָט איבערגעלעבט אַן ערדציטערניש אין ירושלים. זײער מאָדערנע דירה איז ניט געשעדיקט געװאָרן, אָבער אַ סך געבײַדעס אינעם פּאַלעסטינער פּליטים־לאַגער שואַפֿאַט אינעם מזרחדיקן טײל פֿון דער שטאָט זײַנען יאָ חרובֿ געװאָרן און אַרום 700 מענטשן זײַנען אומגעקומען. זײער אַראַבישע אױפֿראַמערין איז פֿאַרפֿאַלן געװאָרן און קײנער װײסט ניט, װאָס עס איז מיט איר געשען.
בײַ דעם פּאָרפֿאָלק גייט דאָס לעבן װײַטער װי פֿריִער. זײ האָבן אין גיכן פֿאַרגעסן אָן דער אױפֿראַמערין, בפֿרט אַז זײ האָבן אַפֿילו ניט געװוּסט, װי אַזױ מען זאָל אַרױסרעדן איר נאָמען. ייִדן און אַראַבער זײַנען תּושבֿים פֿון דער אײגענער שטאָט אָבער באַװױנען פֿאַרשײדענע װעלטן.
יעדן אָװנט עסן בני און דליה װעטשערע, קוקן אַ טעלעװיזיע־פּראָגראַם און כאַפּן בעת־מעשׂה אַ דרעמל. אָבער עפּעס נײַס קומט טאַקע פֿאָר אין זײער לעבן. זײ פֿאַרשרײַבן זיך אױף ייִדיש־קורסן. כאָטש זײ געדענקען כּמעט גאָרנישט פֿון ייִדיש, װאָס זײערע עלטערן האָבן אַ מאָל גערעדט האָפֿן, אַז „זיי וועלן זיך לערנען כאָטש עפּעס, איידער סע קומט דאָס קומעדיקע ערדציטערניש.“
דאָס ערדציטערניש דינט װי אַ מעטאַפֿאָר פֿאַר דראַמאַטישע און טראַגישע געשעענישן, װאָס טרעפֿן זיך אין ישׂראל. אַזוינע אומגליקן רײַסן איבער דעם מאָנאָטאָנעם צײַטגאַנג אָבער אין גיכן גײט דאָס לעבן װײַטער װי פֿריִער. און אין די דאָזיקע מאָמענטן קומט ייִדיש אַרײַן װי אַ מין געשפּענסט פֿון דער ייִדישער געשיכטע, בײַ װעמען מען קען אָנלערנען „כאָטש עפּעס“ פֿאַרן קומעדיקן איבערבראָך.
שאַפּיראַ דערמאָנט זיך װעגן אַ געפֿיל, װאָס האָט זי מײדלװײַז באַאומרויִקט: „איך בין געווען גאָר יונג און האָב געמיינט, אַז אַלע מענטשן אַחוץ מיר געבן זיך אַן עצה אין אַלע פֿאַלן, אַז אַלע זענען גוט פֿאַרוואָרצלט אין זייער לעבן, און נאָר איך שוועב אין דער לופֿטן, ניט וויסנדיק וווּ זיך אַהינצוטאָן.“ און דװקא ייִדיש שאַפֿט אַ מין גײַסטיקן מקום־מלקט װוּ מען קען „זיך אַהינטאָן“ און געפֿינען היסטאָרישע װאָרצלען.
צומאָל װערט שאַפּיראָס טאָן ביטער־איראָניש, בפֿרט װען ס׳גײט װעגן דעם לײדיקן גורל פֿונעם שרײַבער אין דער הײַנטיקער געזעלשאַפֿט. די העלדין פֿון דער דערציילונג „זעלבסטפּאָרטרעט װי אַ העברעיִשע שרײַבערין“ חלומט װעגן אַן אידעאַלן לײענער:
„ער קומט צום אָוונט לכּבֿוד מײַן ערשט בוך, מײַן דעביוט. […] דאָ זיצט אַ מאַן, שיין ווי די וועלט, און הערט זיך צו צו מײַן פּלאַפּלערײַ וועגן דער שווערער,
אויסגעצויגענער אַרבעט אויפֿן טעקסט, אַפּלאָדירט ענערגיש, ווען די מוזיקערס ענדיקן זייער טייל.“
דער מאַן האָט צװײ מאָל איבערגעלײענעט איר בוך און האָט טיף פֿאַרשטאַנען איר נשמה. זײער באַגעגעניש ענדיקט זיך אין בעט: „דערגרייכנדיק צום שפּיץ, לאָזט ער אַרויס אַ זיסן זיפֿץ, אַ זאַטן געזאַנג, ווי אַן ענטוזיאַסטישע, שאַרפֿזיניקע רעצענזיע.“
שאַפּיראַס דערצײלונגען זײַנען פֿײַנע מוסטערן פֿון דער עכטער ערנסטער ליטעראַטור, װאָס זוכט ענטפֿערס אױף די הײסע פֿראַגן פֿונעם מענטשלעכן קיום. זײ שפּיגלען אָפּ די איצטיקע צײַט װי אַ פֿליסיקער מאָמענט פֿונעם גרױסן היסטאָרישן איבערבראָך.
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