Sightseeing in the Mindfields
Current Events 50: Approaching the Iron Gates
March 09, 2022
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Next on our itinerary was a full day of sailing, which had given me pause before we booked the cruise. I had thought that I might become anxious while restricted to the ship as it went more than 130 kilometers down The Danube. The ship's cruising speed was rather too leisurely to suit me. And we would have to pass through a series of locks, slowing...
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Current Events 49: The Talija Troupe
March 02, 2022
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On our last night docked in Belgrade, we were treated to a performance by the Talija Folklore Dance Ensemble. I am giving the full name of the company because the dancers deserve recognition. They presented dances from several regions of Serbia, with corresponding changes of costume. I am fond of folk dance in general, and this group danced with an...
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Current Events 48: Emanuela
February 24, 2022
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That night, there were two programs on the ship. The first was a presentation by Emanuela, a young Roma woman. The Roma, more familiar to speakers of English as Gypsies, form an impoverished underclass throughout The Balkans. Theirs is the perennial story of a dark-skinned minority with its own language and customs. For centuries, the Roma have ins...
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Current Events 47: In the White City, Part 2
February 17, 2022
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The middle of the promenade was practically paved with café tables, Belgradians were sitting with friends, drinking, eating, and, of course, smoking. It was the middle of the afternoon, and the citizenry was not at all averse to indulging in alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and flirtation. Almost everyone was well dressed and engaged in conversation, ei...
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Current Events 46: In the White City, Part 1
February 10, 2022
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After having breathed the elegaic atmosphere of the synagogue, we were ready to stroll along Knez Mihailov, or Prince Michael, Street, Belgrade's main pedestrian thoroughfare. A handsome bronze equestrian statue of the eponymous prince dominated Republic Square, the center of the city. Prince Michael had been the ruler when the Turks finally decamp...
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Current Events 45: The Belgrade Synagogue, Part 2/ Sukkat Shalom
February 02, 2022
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The synagogue was grey and three stories high, with a facade that was bland at first glance, but then resolved itself into a decent example of 1920's Neoclassical design. It was nowhere near as grand as the synagogue in Novi Sad and almost as deserted. There was a swing set in the untended courtyard, as well as some weathered stone slabs incised wi...
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Current Events 44: The Belgrade Synagogue, Part 1/ Sukkat Shalom
January 27, 2022
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I was doubly an outsider, a tourist who was also a Jew. Serbia had been declared Judenfrei by the Nazis and their collaborators after the extermination of over two-thirds of the country's Jews. Those who escaped the genocide had not fared too badly under Tito, though there were too few of them to revitalize their decimated communities. The Zionist...
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Current Events 43: The Cathedral of Saint Sava/ Hram Svetog Save, Part 2
June 11, 2021
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The secular creed of Communism had not eradicated Serbian Orthodoxy; rather, it was Communism that had been a temporary imposition. There were large icons with heavily gilded backgrounds set on tables around the circumference of the ground floor, and there were people: business as usual during alterations. Some of the icons were centuries old. The...
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Current Events 42: The Cathedral of Saint Sava/ Hram Svetog Save, Part 1
June 04, 2021
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One might have thought that Tito's memorial would be Belgrade's premier tourist attraction. That distinction, however, belonged to the Temple of Saint Saba, the grandest Serbian Orthodox church in The Balkans. Saint Sava, a medieval prince, had been the first Serbian archbishop. After canonization, he became the national saint. His importance incre...
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Current Events 41: The Veterans
May 27, 2021
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Radi, our guide, was determined that her tour group should have contact with natives wherever we went. She had arranged for us to hear a local Serb express his feelings about Tito and “The Communism”. He met us outside Tito’s mausoleum. He was a grey-haired man in his seventies named Vasilije Kirkovič. He had spoken to groups led by Radi in the pas...
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