Phyllis Meras
Israel in recent years has become a travel destination of choice for a number of Vineyarders, Jewish and Christian alike. I am among them and am recently back from Jerusalem. As Passover and Easter arrive, I have been recalling that ancient city’s holy sites. In any season Old Jerusalem on its hilltop is a city of spirituality and beauty, but at this holiday time it is especially so.
This past week in West Tisbury has been marked with much sadness — with events that have marred town tranquility. But spring has arrived, of course, and, brought its beauty and solace with it.
If one sits on the Allen M. Look memorial bench by the Mill Pond, the mallards will quack and the male swan spread his wings and show off elegantly. On weekends and after school, young trout fishermen are out casting their rods into this West Tisbury centerpiece. But even more tranquility is to be found on Tisbury Great Pond.
A friend told me the other day that she had just enjoyed a sauna in a local health club.
Nowadays, of course, Finnish-style saunas are commonplace in health clubs and spas all over the world, but there are many other national baths that are not. One of those is a hammam, the Moroccan equivalent of a Finnish sauna. Recently, I spent an evening in a hammam in Marrakesh. It turned out to be an experience I won’t soon forget.
I am just back from troubled Israel. There, an ultra-Orthodox Jew of the Haredi sect spat on an eight-year-old girl he deemed immodestly dressed and other ultra-orthodox members of that sect were insisting that women sit at the back of public buses. A settlement illegally built by ultra-orthodox Zionists on the Palestinian West Bank was demolished by Israeli Army soldiers. And the Israeli government, fearful of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, was hinting at making a pre-emptive strike against that country.
Editor's Note: Each year, editor Phyllis Meras creates a Christmas poem for the Vineyard.
PIANIST, A Biography of Eugene Istomin. By James Gollin. Ex Libris. Illustrated. 474 pages. $23.99 paperback, $35 hardcover from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
In 1946, noted pianist Eugene Istomin summered in Menemsha. He shared a house with Rae Gabis (who later made Chilmark her year-round home and was a founder of the Thrift Shop) and her daughter, Shirley. A year later, Istomin made another summer visit, in which he and Shirley played Mendelssohn’s Allegro Brilliante together in the auditorium on the second floor of the Chilmark town hall.