Monthly Archives: March 2017

(Fissures) Religious Zionism Today

Posted on March 30, 2017 by zjb

Apparently it’s a much bigger story, the news that broke recently about the obnoxious remarks by one Rabbi Yigal Levinstein about women serving in the Israeli army. Levinstein runs one of the most prestigious pre-military academies (mechinot) for religious Zionist … Continue reading →

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God’s Inside/The Line of A Poem: A Philosophical Commentary

Posted on March 29, 2017 by zjb

Playing with the notion that the place of the gods and God is not outside in conventionally physical space, but inside language, inside the line of a poem. I wrote this little bit on theology and poetry, which appeared in … Continue reading →

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(Conference) The Place of Religion in Film (Syracuse University)

Posted on March 28, 2017 by zjb

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE MARCH 31 – APRIL 1 2017 Friday 9 – 10:40 a.m. (3) Panel 1 Reinhartz, Religion, Body and Place inFélix et Meira (Quebec, 2014) Shenker, That made me a woman: On body and gender representations in Israel’s religious-community films-making … Continue reading →

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Bright Color Impacted in the Dark (Alexi Jawlensky & the Mystical in Art)

Posted on March 26, 2017 by zjb

Russian born Alexei Jawlensky (pronounced Yavlensky) gets almost no respect in much of the critical literature, including the ones for the recent show of his work at the Neue Gallerie in New York. Generally his work is considered derivative in … Continue reading →

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Lvov (Vodka) in New York

Posted on March 25, 2017 by zjb

This advertisement caught my eye on a long walk down Second Ave in East Harlem the other day.

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Affect & Auto Anti-Semitism (JCC Bomb Threats)

Posted on March 24, 2017 by zjb

Maybe this recent wave of anti-Semitism in America never existed in the first place? Or maybe it’s the case that its existence is more complex than simple. Viewed in the round and from a critical distance, what strangeness is revealed … Continue reading →

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(Impossible) Geometrical Gnosis (Paul Klee)

Posted on March 22, 2017 by zjb

From 1932, Paul Klee’s Two Ways (Zwei Gänge) was bought by the museum and is now on view at Visionaries: Making a Modern Guggenheim. Klee is most famous for his quirky figurative paintings, less so for more abstract works such … Continue reading →

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Abstract World (Paul Klee) (Horizon, Zenith, and Atmosphere)

Posted on March 21, 2017 by zjb

This image by Paul Klee, Horizon, Zenith, and Atmosphere (1925) is now on view at Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim. Klee’s extraterrestrial figures tend to be drawn from more down to earth perspectives that shadow our own. This picture takes … Continue reading →

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What To Do About American Nazis On Campus?

Posted on March 20, 2017 by zjb

There has been a lively debate about free speech on campus of late. It began with Zionism and BDS and has since morphed into racism and fascism. There is every reason to think that, with the increasing popularity of the … Continue reading →

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Paul Klee and “the Spiritual in Art” (Dance You Monster to My Soft Song!)

Posted on March 19, 2017 by zjb

Dance You Monster to My Soft Song! enjoys an exclamation point at the end of the title, at once stern and genial. Less famous than his cousin Angelus Novus, this funny little monster from 1922 by Paul Klee has none of the bathos … Continue reading →

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