shabbat shalom 10/09/09

Hi everyone, This is a short message from Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic.  I am on holiday here for the last week, and heading home again on Monday.  It has been a nice break from routine, with concerts, spa, and hiking in the forests around the town, but I will be ready to turn back to Israel by then.  A week of vacation is enough. Karlovy Vary is the most famous spa town in the Czech Republic, and maybe in Central Europe.  Since the Velevet Revolution twenty years ago, the Czechs have been working hard to restore it to the former glory it had when people like Goethe, Wagner, Mozart, Dvorak, Beethovan and Brahms all came here to compose literature and conduct music.  It was really beautiful then and is well on its way to the same splendor.  This time it is the Germans and Russians flocking here to drink the waters, but I am hearing a lot of Hebrew too, and a bit of English.  I even hear Czech from time to time.... The spas are booming, even the big ugly Russian one at the end of town, a blocky Stalinist monstrosity among the graceful Baroque and Napoleon era buildings.  I have a zimmer, actually a small apartment, in a building where Tsar Frederick the Great stayed more than two centuries ago.  It is impressive, with gilt chairs and moulded ceiling, and a balcony right on the promenade.....not bad for thirty five euros per night, and the landlady is nice too. The only jarring note is the old classic Central European antisemitism.....odd to find it when there are not even any Jews left in this part of the world.  There were once.  I found the synagogue.  The Jewish community center has some life left in it, and was beautifully restored....but no Jews except on shabbat.  Mostly it is let out to shops.  But there is a synagogue.  Once Bohemia was full of Jews, and they probably did very well here in Karlovy Vary with all the jewelry and shops that served the rich clientelle over the centuries.  I always have a sense that something is missing in these places, like a ghost in the music..... But music has been everywhere here.  I have been to a concert most nights and tomorrow is the grand concert opening the Dvorak season, over at Hotel Pupp.  I went over yesterday to see where it is located, and a manager left his desk to unlock the concert hall for me.  He even sent me up to the stage to sing and test the acoustics....probably the worst singing that stage heard in years....... Guess that is about all for now.  Not much to mention about beautiful weather, walks in the forest in fall colors, pampering at the spas and concerts in the evening.  Tough job, but somebody has to do it. shabbat shalom, Linda