Mirror, Mirror

Author: Maysoon Zayid
January-February 2012
Volume 45 , Issue 1
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Deheishe, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, is a refugee camp. The children here, as elsewhere on the West Bank, grow up under the longest military occupation in modern-day history.

Maysoon Zayid knows these children. And through her nonprofit organization, Maysoon’s Kids, she knows how to help them.

The best medicine, it seems, is still laughter. In a 2009 interview with the Guardian of London, she noted: “These children are so strangled here. With comedy they can take the pain and channel it, get it off their chests.”

In that same interview, Maysoon recalled asking one particularly troubled teenager, who had just gotten out of an Israeli jail, to tell the class about the worst memories of his time inside. Soon the boy was talking about the bad prison food, the awful smells, even the worst cellmates. Then something happened. Through a combination of comic timing and skillful storytelling his routine came together, and an evolution occurred. This “prison-skinny” boy went from fear, to bonding with the audience, to getting more open.

“That’s what standup is,” says the comedienne from Cliffside, N.J. “It humanizes you.”

Somewhere in the pages that follow, Maysoon Zayid will tell us that she hates kids.

Don’t believe her.

* * * * * * * *

One of Geoff Simons’s most prized possessions was his library of over 5,000 volumes, representing just about every literary genre there is. When he was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago, he decided to write a book about his “intimate friends” which, aptly, he called “Book.” Only a few copies were printed, and the one he sent me from his home in England now occupies a proud spot in my home’s far from imposing bookshelf.

More than 50 of the 5,000 books were ones Geoff himself had authored. Several of these have been adopted for university and college courses, and several have been translated into a dozen or so languages. He also penned hundreds of articles and reviews for the general and technical press, including three feature articles for The Link .

We talked often on the phone, although we never met. Next time you’re in London, he’d say, we’ll go to the pub and down a pint or two. It never happened.

So, when I received the news from his wife that my friend had died, I went to my bookshelf, took down “Book,” proceeded to the fridge for a bottle of beer, and for the best part of the afternoon, I reacquainted myself with his cherished assemblage of friends.

* * * * * * * *

Due to AMEU’s own limited shelf space, we are offering, on page 14, at substantially reduced prices, a number of books from our own research library.

* * * * * * * *

Finally, we invite our readers to visit our recently redesigned website: www. ameu.org. Our initial website 15 years ago was an amateur creation of Bob Norberg. The professional redesign was done by another Norberg volunteer, Bob’s son Jeff, who has assumed all site maintenance responsibilities. Among the features you will find on the site, in an easy-to-download format, are Maysoon Zayid’s article, Geoff Simons’s three articles, and, indeed, all of our articles going back to 1968.

--John F. Mahoney, Executive Director, January 2012


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