Nehardea Magazine

Journal of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center
No.13, Summer 2001

EVENTS AT THE CENTER

CARRYING THE LADDER SIDEWAYS
Scenes from "FRAGRANCE OF IRAQ"
an evening for the Ongoing Generation
Ayala Shashoua-Miron

A Jewish-Iraqi proverb relates to someone who concerns himself with unnecessary worries such as "Carrying the Ladder Sideways" ("Shayilu El-Sellam Belardh"). In the process of producing the evening "Fragrance of Iraq" we, The Ongoing Generation Committee members, experienced this feeling of working against all odds or precisely, trying to fit a ladder sideways into a too narrow door.

Participants in the evening

Something I heard on the day of the event brought this proverb to mind.
It was early in the afternoon. The last group of visitors had just left and we started to prepare the museum for the evening. We had to remove things from the lobby to make room for the expected crowd of over 200 people, and then put together the special scenery inside the museum.
We were also trying to make use of the foyer, which usually serves only as a passageway. Idit, the museum curator, asked one of the museum's senior staff, to move a ladder standing in one of the far corners.
As he was taking the ladder to the back, I heard him muttering to himself:"God knows what they are going to ask for next. This ladder has been standing there for the last eight years and has never bothered anybody."
That's exactly what we were striving for: to do things that had not been done before.
That meant that we had to address an audience that had not been before; we had to create an elegant and lively atmosphere for that audience and put together an unconventional program.
This is how we came to feel at one point or other, like someone carrying the ladder sideways. One of these points occurred less than three weeks before the designated date: by then we had only sold thirty tickets out of the desired one hundred and eighty. The general situation in Israel was not showing any signs of improvement. The Iraqi dictator added his nasty fuel to the burning fire. "Just give me the passageway", he declared, "and I will put an end to the Zionist problem, once and for all."
In a situation like that, we pondered, who would want to come to an evening entitled "Fragrance of Iraq"?
And in the light of what was going on, were people in the mood to go out at all?

"Actors" N. Spector and Z. Zingi

At that point, however, we made a decision to move on with our plan, with an option to reconsider this decision a day or two before the event.
To our amazement, a week before October 26th the evening was sold out, and we were still getting phone calls asking for more tickets.
I think this response proves, above all, the deep thirst that exists in the younger generation of Iraqi origin to re-connect with their parents' heritage in a new way.
And this is what we tried to address. >>>

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EVENTS AT THE CENTER
CARRYING THE LADDER SIDEWAYS Scenes from "FRAGRANCE OF IRAQ" an evening for the Ongoing Generation Ayala Shashoua-Miron
A Jewish-Iraqi proverb relates to someone who concerns himself with unnecessary worries such as "Carrying the Ladder Sideways" ("Shayilu El-Sellam Belardh"). In the process of producing the evening "Fragrance of Iraq" we, The Ongoing Generation Committee members, experienced this feeling of working against all odds or precisely, trying to fit a ladder sideways into a too narrow door. Participants in the evening Something I heard on the day of the event brought this proverb to mind. It was early in the afternoon. The last group of visitors had just left and we started to prepare the museum for the evening. We had to remove things from the lobby to make room for the expected crowd of over 200 people, and then put together the special scenery inside the museum. We were also trying to make use of the foyer, which usually serves only as a passageway. Idit, the museum curator, asked one of the museum's senior staff, to move a ladder standing in one of the far corners. As he was taking the ladder to the back, I heard him muttering to himself:"God knows what they are going to ask for next. This ladder has been standing there for the last eight years and has never bothered anybody." That's exactly what we were striving for: to do things that had not been done before. That meant that we had to address an audience that had not been before; we had to create an elegant and lively atmosphere for that audience and put together an unconventional program. This is how we came to feel at one point or other, like someone carrying the ladder sideways. One of these points occurred less than three weeks before the designated date: by then we had only sold thirty tickets out of the desired one hundred and eighty. The general situation in Israel was not showing any signs of improvement. The Iraqi dictator added his nasty fuel to the burning fire. "Just give me the passageway", he declared, "and I will put an end to the Zionist problem, once and for all." In a situation like that, we pondered, who would want to come to an evening entitled "Fragrance of Iraq"? And in the light of what was going on, were people in the mood to go out at all? "Actors" N. Spector and Z. Zingi At that point, however, we made a decision to move on with our plan, with an option to reconsider this decision a day or two before the event. To our amazement, a week before October 26th the evening was sold out, and we were still getting phone calls asking for more tickets. I think this response proves, above all, the deep thirst that exists in the younger generation of Iraqi origin to re-connect with their parents' heritage in a new way. And this is what we tried to address. >>>
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