hehe, best friend and evil-looking Noa 

Borat film critique

This weekend Noa went with some friends to see the film 'Borat' in the cinema. Surely not worth the money, as many qualities of his shows were conspicuously absent. Sascha Cohen's performance in the film is more than disappointing. Although it is great how he exposes racism, sexism and anti-semitism in "the average" American, most jokes are no more than uber-crude and disgusting. In addition to these deficiencies, Sascha Cohen's acting ability can be more than questioned. The attempted imitation of the 'Kazakh-language' is improvised by word games which are often plain Modern Hebrew sentences or Hebrew words. Interestingly, this is a linguistic phenomen, which my friend the linguist may want to investigate further. But using languages he knows to imitate a "Kazakh- language" is surely not enough for a satisfying performance. Also: Poor undeserving Kazakhstan, a country, which is probably a model for religious tolerance.

Noa and Khalil Gibran

It is now 11 years that Noa read The Prophet by Khalil Gibran for the very first time. The Prophet was the first Gibran she read, and in the following 2 years copies of all of Gibran's books were to be found on a big bookshelf in the Mittelgebirge- between Teddy bears, barbies, arcs, Bravo and kites..... Yes, and it is correct- between barbies and kites-

Although this sounds like as if Noa had been wise from a very young age this is actually not so. -

Noa started reading Khalil Gibran for a very mundane reason: because her favourite Take That Star Jason Orange was mentioned in some Bravo magazine as being into Khalil Gibran. Ridiculous! So in her naivity of a pre-adolencent chick, Noa felt that she would gain proximity to her Idol by reading what the Idol reads.... and she actually liked it.... Jason Orange was soon forgotten, and the Gibran and his great books took the stage.

So, when she reached the age of 15 Noa decided that it was necessary to learn Arabic to be truely able to feel the beauty of what she was reading.... here it starts.... (although she has not reached an acceptable level of fluency to this day)

The quest of Arabic brought her to Egypt in 2002 and then again in 2006, and there at the Cairene Diwan bookshop Rony suggested that Noa should finally have an Arabic copy of the prophet! ...There we go. Noa's love for the Middle East started with her childish adoration of the boy band Take That.

Reading it again the book says different things today and it may actually be true that Noa has discovered a Michael Ende-like neverending story. Noa especially quotes the following:

فلشد ما أحبناك حبا صامتا مصونا وراء قناع
Much have we loved you. But speechless was our love, and with veils has it been veiled.
ولكنه يهتف بك الآن عاليا, يتمنى لو يقف سافرا بين يديك
Yet now it cries aloud unto you, and would stand revealed before you.
وهكذا الحب أبدا لا يعرف ماله من غور إلاساعة الفراق
And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

A Poem for Dresden

A poem for Dresden and its shul

Tragisches Dresden
geglaubt verloren
doch schwerlich wiedergeboren
gekuenstelt oder echt
stehst Du wie zu Recht
60 Jahre spaeter
mit nem Funken Hoffnung
und ohne Gezeter

Genauso wie Ihre Stadt
hat sich auch die Dresdner Gemeinde
trotzig wieder breitgemacht
Genauso kuenstlich erfunden,
obwohl der Vergangenheit nicht entschwunden
zusammengepuzzled und trotz Neider
gehts trotz Schneckentempo ohne Zores weiter.

Schanah Tova 5767!

I wish you all a happy, sweet, fun and thought-provoking new year 5767 filled with chocolate.

I am off to Dresden this weekend...

Love

Noa

my view from my balcony... 

my table.... and sink