Reading #1: "What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?"
Israeli author, Etgar Keret, sets his story "What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?" in the city of Tel Aviv, a major city in Israel. Watch the video to learn background information about the Israel-Palestine conflict in order to better understand the main character's motivations in the story.
Jerusalem, a Middle Eastern city west of the Dead Sea, has been a place of pilgrimage and worship for Jews, Christians and Muslims since the biblical era. Its Old City has significant religious sites around the Temple Mount compound, including the Western Wall (sacred to Judaism), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (a Christian pilgrimage site) and the Dome of the Rock (a 7th-century Islamic shrine with a gold dome). https://www.google.com/maps/place/Jerusalem
Key Facts to Aid in Understanding of "What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?"
Israel - a country in the Middle East, people are called "Israeli", and it is a culturally and religiously diverse country (majority Jewish, minority groups include Christian, Muslim, Druze, and other) (Wikipedia).
Palestine - a state/territory in the Middle East, people are called "Palestinian", and the majority of people are Muslim, while the minority is Jewish or Christian (Wikipedia).
Arab - a diverse group, people who live in Arab states, majority are Muslim, while the minority is Christian. There are currently 22 Arab states, but as stated on Wikipedia, "Israel is not an Arab state despite 20% of its population being Palestinian Arab, nearly half of the Jewish population being descended from Jews from Arab countries and Arabic being an official language" (Wikipedia).
Languages of Israel: The Israeli population is a linguistically and culturally diverse community. The 19th edition of Ethnologue lists 35 languages and dialects spoken in local communities. Hebrew, which is one of the country's two official languages, is the primary language of Israel, and almost the entire population speaks it either as native speakers or proficiently as a second language. Its standard form, known as Modern Hebrew, is the main language used for communication. Arabic, used mainly by Israel's Arab minority, which comprises about one-fifth of the population, is the country's second official language. English, spoken as a second language by the majority of the Israeli population, is used widely in official logos, road signs and product labels. Russian, spoken by the large immigrant population from the former Soviet Union, is also heavily used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Israel
MAIN CHARACTERS: Yonatan (Yoni) - Israeli Sergei - Israeli who emigrated from Russia, lives in the city of Jaffa, speaks better Russian than he does Hebrew