Monthly Archives: March 2016

Watching Trump at AIPAC

Posted on March 21, 2016 by zjb

At AIPAC they don’t seem to understand that the more you say “Israel,” the less and less the word means. Waiting for Donald Trump to speak at AIPAC was as much as I ever want to see. Everyone knows that … Continue reading →

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Eruv & Occupation (Margaret Olin w/ Ta’ayush in South Hebron Hills)

Posted on March 21, 2016 by zjb

Margaret Olin’s photo essay with Ta’ayush in South Hebron Hills on eruv and occupation. “Here the eruv allows residents to live against, rather than with, other people, and some residents make use of its blessings to carry, and to throw, … Continue reading →

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Aristotle (Actuality)

Posted on March 21, 2016 by zjb

What a mess trying to sort through in English what Aristotle actually meant by “actuality.” Turns out he used two words, energeia and entelechia and these have been both translated in Latinized translations as actuality. Which is not helpful sorting through the difference. Joe … Continue reading →

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Donald Trump at AIPAC (Undermining Democratic Norms in America and Israel)

Posted on March 20, 2016 by zjb

The news that candidate Trump is going to address AIPAC, the American Jewish lobby group that lobbies U.S. government support for Israel, is part of a great unhinging About the controversial invitation, one line of argument insists that AIPAC never … Continue reading →

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A Conversation with Theodor W. Adorno (Spiegel, 1969)

Posted on March 18, 2016 by zjb

On the relation between theory and practice, radical politics and radical-left student politics: A Conversation with Theodor W. Adorno (Spiegel, 1969). A lot of it still rings true today, for me, in relation to campus arguments about BDS and the … Continue reading →

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Endless House (Frederick Kiesler)

Posted on March 17, 2016 by zjb

I saw this the other week at the Endless House: Intersections of Art and Architecture exhibition at MOMA.  Among the many models on exhibit, this one, Kiesler’s eponymous Endless House, stood out as the most simple and direct. There are … Continue reading →

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A Public Mills about the Modern Art

Posted on March 16, 2016 by zjb

Instead of static shots,  I took some digital snapshots of people milling about a few of the many familiar modern masterpieces at the Museum of Modern Art. I’d highlight three things: [1] the way in which that public physically frames … Continue reading →

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Levinas and “The Faceless Palestinians” (Ethics & Politics) (Eisenstadt & Katz)

Posted on March 15, 2016 by zjb

Stuck in the middle, did Levinas say what others impute he said about the Palestinian people or about Islam? Was Levinas a racist? At what critical junctures does his ethical project collapse? Oona Eisenstadt and Claire Katz weigh in on … Continue reading →

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Are We Dying of History?

Posted on March 13, 2016 by zjb

Source: Are We Dying of History?

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(Don’t Be Like Moses) Politics & Compromise in the Talmud (Judah b. Korha)

Posted on March 13, 2016 by zjb

In the current political climate, these words made a lot of sense the other day in the synagogue. Instead of righteous prophetic truth telling, instead of Moses and the law of strict justice that “cuts through mountains,” there’s Aaron, the … Continue reading →

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