Monthly Archives: June 2013

Jewish Art Jewish History (Visual Judaism in Late Antiquity, Lee Levine)

Posted on June 11, 2013 by zjb

I just recently finished Lee Levine’s Visual Judaism in Late Antiquity. It’s a big book, and definitive. Its author’s historical judgments strike me as impeccable. These would concern 2nd Temple Period aniconism and the emergence of Jewish figurative art in … Continue reading →

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Egg Song of Songs (Folk Art)

Posted on June 7, 2013 by zjb

So this is what the Song of Songs looks like written on an egg. Why do people do these kinds of things? I think because they can. I found this photograph at Tumblr and wanted to post it here. It’s … Continue reading →

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“Femalenergy”

Posted on June 6, 2013 by zjb

I’m not sure what they “mean,” these paintings by Sabina Forbes, Sonne Hernandez, Elisa Jensen, and Klari Reis at Femalenergy, a group show at Woodward Gallery on the Lower East Side. The paintings I selected here were the ones I … Continue reading →

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This is What Thinking Looks Like (Günter Gaus Interviews Hannah Arendt) (1964)

Posted on June 6, 2013 by zjb

I just saw Barbara Sukowa play Hannah Arendt in Margarethe von Trotta’s film. (And no, Arendt’s ideas did not “change the world.”) Not terribly happy with the film, I went to look for the real deal and found this old … Continue reading →

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HannahArendt GershomScholemKurtBlumenfeld Deathbed Mashup (Margarethe von Trotta)

Posted on June 5, 2013 by zjb

Did you notice or why should anyone care? In the original exchange of letters with Gershom Scholem, another great German Jew, Arendt’s famously quipped with characteristic bite that she could never love a people, only her friends. The purpose was … Continue reading →

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Thinking — The Banality of Evil – Hannah Arendt at the Movies

Posted on June 4, 2013 by zjb

I’ll confess right from the start that I was disinclined to see the new movie by Margarethe von Trotta, starring Barbara Sukowa as Hannah Arendt. Not predisposed to either its subject and to the hagiography and apologetics surrounding her, I … Continue reading →

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Creeping Boycott – Israel Day Parade (2013)

Posted on June 3, 2013 by zjb

Once upon a time in the 1980s, I marched with the Habonim Dror contingent in the Celebrate Israel march, or whatever it was called back then. The Likud Party was then in power. I recall vaguely that Foreign Minister David … Continue reading →

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Another “Arab” Synagogue (Park East Synagogue) (Neo-Moorish)

Posted on June 2, 2013 by zjb

  Luxe, neo-Moorish, and Orthodox on the Upper East Side. I like the dominant cream color tonality and the well put togehther, rich decorative objecthood that stamps the place.

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Eldridge Street Synagogue (Trans-Ethnic & Auto-Orientalist)

Posted on June 2, 2013 by zjb

I took a cousin in town for a visit to see the Eldridge Street Synagogue. We went after lunch at Mission Chinese. That wasn’t the original plan, but there we were on Eldridge Street, so I suggested we turn south. … Continue reading →

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