Monthly Archives: October 2014

Society for Continental Philosophy in a Jewish Context

Posted on October 22, 2014 by zjb
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Columbus Day George Washington Bridge

Posted on October 22, 2014 by zjb

Crossing the George Washington Bridge on Columbus Day, I like this kind of patriotic spectacle combining the massive hard grey steel of the New Deal’ist architectural construct, and the gigantic red, white, and blue.

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Some Thoughts re: The Death of Klinghoffer (John Adams)

Posted on October 21, 2014 by zjb

The staging of “The Death of Klinghoffer” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York opens one more chapter in the new Jewish culture wars. Throwing art and politics and the politics of representation into the mix, the opera scored by … Continue reading →

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Butler and the Affective Landscape of Grievability

Posted on October 20, 2014 by zjb
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CFP: Conference for the Study of Contemporary Religion and Spirituality (Tel Aviv University)

Posted on October 20, 2014 by zjb
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Please Don’t Eat the Art (Jeff Koons Retrospective)

Posted on October 20, 2014 by zjb

Jeff Koons has come and gone. I did not expect to like as much as I did the big retrospective devoted to him at the Whitney. You may have seen the images –the puppies and kittens, Pop Eye, the oversize … Continue reading →

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TOHU and BOHU are “Tov” (Genesis)

Posted on October 19, 2014 by zjb

One tends to think that, according to the Bible, light was the first thing God created. Not according to Nachmanides. Readers of Scripture are familiar with the passage. The earth was unformed (tohu) and void (bohu). Usually these are considered … Continue reading →

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Shape Creation (Genesis)

Posted on October 18, 2014 by zjb

The cycle of readings for Shabbat in the synagogues begins again at the beginning. About the world and its creation, the first chapter of points to the careful transitions between tohu and bohu, between light and dark, between waters and … Continue reading →

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Burnt Mosque, Racist Graffiti, And Uprooted Olive Tree (Atrocity Aesthetics)

Posted on October 15, 2014 by zjb

But the photographs, the photographs of the burnt mosque and racist graffiti at the town of Aqraba in the West Bank not far from Nablus are too beautiful for such an ugly thing. I saw them  in this article here at Ynet. … Continue reading →

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Disaster Aesthetics (Syria)

Posted on October 14, 2014 by zjb

Abstract and beautiful, the satellite images published here in the Atlantic show the devastating scale of the chaotic free-for-all in Syria that mars that country’s natural and urban landscapes. Without a human figure, they indicate from a distance a destructive human trace. … Continue reading →

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