The famed Israeli humorist/satirist Ephraim Kishon is no longer with us. (Obituary in Haaretz; in the Jerusalem Post; Kishon himself on the role of humorists in changing times.
Kishon's satire was (and is) wildly popular in Germany and the Netherlands: the first name of an Israeli author I heard as a young boy was his (in an announcement of a local theater production). Within Israel itself, he is best known as the screenwriter/producer of three movies, of which especially Sallah Shabbati became a national icon. Shaister nicely summarizes that aspect of his career: my favorite paragraph is this plot summary:
Kishon's other great movie is Ta'alat Blaumilch [FB: literally "The Blaumilch Canal"; brought out abroad as "The Big Dig"] from 1970. [...]Blaumilch is a mental patient who escapes from the insane asylum and decides to turn Tel Aviv into Venice. He gets a hold of some roadwo[rk] equipment and starts digging a canal down Allenby Street, one of the city's main thoroughfares. Instead of anyone stopping him, Blaumilch becomes the center of a battle between groups of rival bureaucrats at the government and municipality. Each one thinks the other initiated the canal project. They all hate the idea, but none of them wants to find himself on the wrong side of Progress. So they try to outdo each other in providing Blaumilch with support and financing.
One bureaucrat investigates a bit deeper and finds out the truth behind the canal. He, of course, is declared insane.
Kishon never quite reached the fame he hoped for in his own country. Possibly because his tales of bureaucratic anocephaly [sic] were, well, just too painfully realistic...
Rest in peace, Fraike. Ulai nipagesh ba-sof le-ma`ala...
UPDATE: Shaister translates one of Kishon's most hilarious stories, "Ze ma sheyesh" ("That's what there is"), in which he savagely lampoons an unfortunately all too real Israeli phenomenon: partatch (freely translated: doing things half-arsed/vrij vertaald: de Franse slag). Go read it here.
UPDATE 2: Some German toy manufacturer actually produced a board game based on "The Blaumilch Canal".
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