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Monthly Archives: February 2014
Postwar American Synagogues — Judaism at the Suburban Frontier
Reading Susan Solomon’s book on The Jewish Architecture of Louis I. Kahn, I suddenly understand something else about all those postwar suburban space-ship synagogues. Many of them were built by and include works by the best and brightest of that … Continue reading
Louis Kahn & Abraham Joshua Heschel (Synagogues & Sabbath) (Architecture & Light)
Just read for class Susan G. Solomon’s Louis I. Kahn’s Jewish Architecture: Mikkveh Israel and the Midcentury American Synagogue. As the title and subtitle indicate, the book pivots around the designs for Kahn’s unrealized Mikveh Israel project for Independence Mall … Continue reading
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Tagged American Judaism, architecture, Heschel, Shabbat & holidays, synagogue
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Eye and Mind and Flesh (Merleau-Ponty)
I just taught for the second time Merleau-Ponty’s two major essays on painting. The first one, “Cezanne’s Doubt” was written in 1945 and is typically seen as a complement to Merleau-Ponty’s completed opus from the same time, The Phenomenology of … Continue reading
Blot Out His Name — Baruch Goldstein
Death and destruction, 20 years ago, on the holiday of Purim, Baruch Goldstein slaughtered 29 people at prayer, desecrating the divine image. About Hebron today and the devastation wrought, you can read here at +972.
American Jewish Thought Looney Tunes Modern(ist) Landscape (1950)
I finally decided to include something on postwar American synagogue architecture, using Susan G. Solomon’s Louis I. Kahn’s Jewish Architecture as a platform with which to juxtapose the philosophical-theological thought of Abraham Joshua Heschel and Joseph Soloveitchik. With the recent … Continue reading
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Tagged American Judaism, Heschel, Jewish Philosophy, Soloveitchik
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New York City Harlem Walk (Elegant)
Out and about with M. on her favorite walk between Morningside Ave. and Frederick Douglas Blvd. between 113th and 120th Sts. This is Harlem grand style well into its gentrification, swankly marked out by park lawn and brownstones, churches and … Continue reading
Delmore Schwartz (Monstrous Children & Dreary People)
When Lou Reed died, I read in an obituary, I think in the Syracuse University student paper or at the Daily Forward, about how he had studied English there with Delmore Schwartz. It was a name with which I … Continue reading
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Tagged American Judaism, Delmore Schwartz, literature, what i'm reading
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