Monthly Archives: February 2018

(Conference) Once more With Feeling: Affect & the God of the Philosophers (University of Dayton) (February 24-25)

Organized by Dustin Atlas, the upcoming Affect, God, and Philosophy conference at the University of Dayton seamlessly integrates Jewish thought and philosophy into continental philosophy and theory. The program is arranged around classical, modern, political, and aesthetic affects. What follows … Continue reading

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Did the Jewish Museum Just Break Its Permanent Collection?

I read here in the New York Times about the new re-organization of the permanent collection of the Jewish Museum in New York. The old exhibition was a standard historical chronology of “the Jewish experience.” The thing was heavy with … Continue reading

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(Maimonides) Makalah Fi-Sina-At Al-Mantik (Treatise on Logic)

In its own way a page-turner, his Treatise on Logic is a useful little guide to Maimonidean thought. This version of the 1938 English translation by Israel Efros for the American Academy of Jewish Research comes with the Arabic original … Continue reading

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KIKI SMITH AND PAPER: THE BODY THE MUSE, AND THE SPIRIT

KIKI SMITH AND PAPER: THE BODY THE MUSE, AND THE SPIRIT is a smart and powerful little show of drawings by the artist at Syracuse University. It is broken up into three parts. The first part is focused on body … Continue reading

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Don’t Sell Guns to Idolators (Maimonides)

Apropos to the gun-murders in Florida, holding gun makers liable, and repealing the Second Amendment, this week in shul Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky at Ansche Chesed worked off this little piece of halakhah from the Mishne Torah, the code of law … Continue reading

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Caryatid (Modigliani)

Metaphysical maybe, these were probably the most surprising and even revealing works on view at the recent Modigliani Unmasked at the Jewish Museum. I would not have known that these were by the artist. But the elegantly straining caryatid figures and the … Continue reading

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(Emotional Intelligence) Nudes & Primitives (Modigliani Not Picasso)

Mostly drawings, Modigliani Unmasked at the Jewish Museum has come and gone. I was not entirely persuaded by curator Mason Klein’s emphasis on identity, both the artist’s own hybrid Jewish identity (Italian-French, Sephardi), race, with the idea of “primitivism” hovering … Continue reading

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Arabic Movie (Eyal Sagui-Bizawe)

The Jewish Studies Program at Syracuse was delighted to host last night a screening of Arabic Movie (2015) and conversation with filmmaker Eyal Saguui-Bizawe. The movie explores the institution of the Friday afternoon “ceremony” of watching what was called “Arabic … Continue reading

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Eco Toilet (New York Visitor Center)

I’m being childish, to be sure, but the toilets at the New York State Southern Tier Visitor Center on rt. 81 just south of Binghamton are a technological wonder. The first time I was startled. Where’s the water? It’s a … Continue reading

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Opera & Landscape (David Hockney)

A musical painter or a painter of music, David Hockney painted landscapes and operatic sets –and they are glorious. The first painting that I have posted above is a view on a drive on the hilly Pacific Highway with Los … Continue reading

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