what is burning The diary of a Tel Avivian in Haifa • The telephone song ◄ Haim Capon – Live here

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Dedicated to my beloved friend, the late Shalom Zamirin, one of the pillars of the local press in Haifa. Since his passing, nine cabins of wisdom and wit have been taken from the world.


The telephone song: Where else do you hear words like circus?

At the end of the first column I published in this respectable hostel, my phone number appeared. At the time, I did not imagine that this act was likened to a plump sheep grazing grass in the territory of a pack of hungry wolves. In other words, this is an express invitation to anyone: call me please, any day, any hour and on any subject. and so it was.

Municipality of Kiryat Ata Rahav

Saturday, it’s 7:30 and the cell phone is ringing persistently. I ignore it and the ringing stops.
At 7:33 the cell phone rings again. An unknown number appears on the screen. I made a mistake and answered.

Hello? I filter through an unkind tone hoping the ringer will let me go quickly.
The ringer: Is it you who writes bad things about Haifa?
I am: And this is what is important for you to know on Saturday at seven thirty in the morning?
The ringer: Ah, Mr. Aristocrat from Tel Aviv, is it early for you? Did you dance all night in a club? What do you think you will come here and make a circus out of the second largest city in Israel?
I am: The third (again a mistake, I should have agreed and the conversation would have been shortened)
The ringer: the second. Jerusalem is a fiction. They decided to also count the inhabitants of a hundred Arab villages and call them Jerusalem. It’s bullshit.
I am: (in Noel’s attempt to bring the conversation to an end) Ahh… Shabbos Shalom.
The ringer: I understand that you are not interested in hearing what I have to say. So just so you know it’s not nice to write like that. Do you have a name for the Golden Dome in Tel Aviv? And Carmelite? And a view? And when is there silence?
I am: (on the verge of running out of patience) No, sir, there is no Golden Dome in Tel Aviv. Not Carmelite either.
The ringer: (with triumphant cheers) Or, do you see, Mr. Primadonna, that I am right? So the next time you write, think carefully before you criticize Haifa. There is no rush here and that’s how we like it.

The ringer finished his words and you could feel how much he enjoyed the act. I ran to write the conversation while it was fresh in my mind.


Yitzhak Kronzon: In memory of a Haifa veteran

Since I often heard the saying “You can take the man out of Haifa, but you can’t take Haifa out of the man” and since I passed several times on Geula Street, I remembered the late Yitzhak Kronzon, who was born at 21 Geula Street and lived there as a child.

The short stories of Yitzhak Kronzon (1939-2021) began to be published in the newspapers “Davar” (yes, there used to be such a thing…) and “Yediot Ahronot” somewhere in the eighties and captured my heart the first time I read it.

Kronzon was amazing at describing in detail the life in Haifa before and after the War of Independence, short stories laced with subdued humor, where between the lines there is always some basic sadness embedded in the background, every event is described with precision, without the writer interpreting or explaining it. He leaves the work of interpretation to his readers.

Kronzon lived most of his life, over fifty years, in New York, where he made a name for himself and became one of the greatest cardiologists in the world, yet he remained an Israeli, a Haifai through and through, as Dan Miron wrote about him in the obituary published in “time” on May 28 21:
“…the Israel of his childhood and youth, which he remembered with incredible vitality, was not so good and comfortable, and Cronzon is careful not to praise it too much, yet he cannot detach himself from it, and this despite the fact that his entire enterprise as a highly accomplished physician was established outside of Israel.”

After all, you have a clear example of the enormous power of Haifa that remained deeply embedded in Yitzhak Kronzon and did not let go of him until his last day.

Additional articles in Haifa – Haifa News:

Bnei Zion - Rahab

his books “Mother Sun and Homeland”who gets belgium“F“Because on the other hand you will see” Every Haifai deserves to look for them even though they are hard to reach, read them eagerly and feel a pinch in the heart at the same time as the broad smile.

In my early years in Tel Aviv, I would recognize Haifa people by the fact that they were the only pedestrians who did not dare to cross the road on red, even when there was not a single car in sight. Because as mentioned, it’s hard to get Haifa out of the person and in Haifa you don’t cross a red road.

Mother Shemesh and Motherland – the cover of the book (photo: Haim Kapon)

The hoax of the news channels

One of the most famous is the fact that anyone who cares about their health, physical strength, and peace of mind should not watch the news broadcasts on television, those whose studios are bustling with commentators and experts on a variety of topics, who sit around some table and scream at each other without ever happening that Screamer A was able to convince Screamer with his words B’. There is no more democratic right than the right to scream – it was given to everyone, and it turns out that those who come to a news studio use it with full vigor.

If I already have screen time, muses the screamer, let’s spread it as much as possible and what can be explained in two sentences, I’ll explain in twenty, so that the viewers can continue to see Zio Penny for a few more minutes. Your faithful servant Naa demands, but not Naa fulfills and from time to time watches the news broadcasts and rants to the bone, if only because of the terrible, horrible, shocking spelling errors, which make every Hebrew lover want to bang his head against the wall and cry for help.

Who do they employ there in the subtitling department? Foreign workers from the Philippines? New immigrants from Novosibirsk whose snowflakes have not yet melted from their coats? Dance teachers on sabbatical? Ephraim the redhead from the maintenance department?

Otherwise, how can one explain the fact that in almost every caption that appears in the news release, there is at least one spelling error?

As you will see in the screenshot, my words cannot be contradicted. Pleasant viewing.

The Ministry of Housing Tirat Carmel Rahav
Stro Stro?  Screenshot - news broadcast (photo: Haim Capon)
Stro Stro? Screenshot – news broadcast (photo: Haim Capon)

A request from the audience

I am preparing to dedicate one of the next columns to words and phrases that were born in Haifa and exist only in Haifa. I would be very happy if you would send me such words and expressions together with a short explanation, to the email at the bottom of the article.

A few examples: “Kiavic“, a word that is a corruption of Hyatt Beach, later Carmel Beach, and means cemetery. “Do you want to send me to Kievitch?”

in Haifa “balloons” In other districts marbles. And what is called Rogatka, was called in Haifa “Maklet”. Throughout the country this was a central station, in Haifa it was always “Egged” (Driver, are you coming to Egged?)

thanks in advance for your cooperation.

Camps - wide

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