Monthly Archives: June 2019

Fragmentary Colossal Head of A Youth

Posted on June 23, 2019 by zjb

This colossal head Greek head from the 2nd century BCE found in a gymnasium at Pergamon in western Turkey and brought by way from the Pergamon in Berlin where he is still on loan in New York at the Metropolitan … Continue reading →

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Bad Faith & Concentration Camps

Posted on June 20, 2019 by zjb

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has done important work in calling attention to the political and moral atrocity at the U.S. border. En masse, people are stripped of their legal right of asylum and where children are ripped from their parents and people … Continue reading →

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Culture of Politics at the Jewish Museum in Berlin

Posted on June 18, 2019 by zjb

One should be pretty sure it was more than a single tweet and rightwing mendacity that has caused so much trouble. For anyone interested, I’m posting links to articles relating to the forced resignation of Professor Peter Schäfer as director … Continue reading →

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(Hertz Pentateuch) Bourgeois Social Order (Sotah)

Posted on June 17, 2019 by zjb

Having committed to keep track of the Hertz Pentateuch commentary (1936), I would have been remiss not to include a note on the commentary to the Sotah passage in Numbers, chapter 5. As it turns out and on closer inspection, … Continue reading →

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Fake Ramat Trump (Architectural Folly)

Posted on June 16, 2019 by zjb

An initiative that initiates nothing? This photograph announcing Ramat Trump recalls an “architectural folly,” defined by Wikipedia as “a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends … Continue reading →

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(Latex, Textile, & Mother of Pearl) Architectural Skins (Heidi Bucher)

Posted on June 14, 2019 by zjb

(Heidi Bucher, Elfenbornhaut, 1982)     [clockwise from top left: Borg, 1976; Fenster mit Läden und Schindeln, Bellevue, 1988; Elfenbornhaut, 1982; Bett (Bed), 1975; Untitled (Door to the Herrenzimmer), 1978 The Site of Memory, an exhibition of works by Heidi Bucher (1926-1993) caught my … Continue reading →

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New York Cityscape (Abstract w/ Organic Elements)

Posted on June 13, 2019 by zjb

View from a window, New York cityscapes are abstract with organic elements. New York is more typically associated with the vertical, in particular with the skyscraper. But the most interesting part of the urban geometry might be the horizontal lines … Continue reading →

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Green Light (Riverside Park)

Posted on June 11, 2019 by zjb

In Riverside Park on the walk-path under the Olmstead Wall, which framed the intense green light shooting down the length of a single tree branch on a bright spring day

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(Violent Surge of Excellent Writing) Habakkuk (Shavuot)

Posted on June 10, 2019 by zjb

Locked up tight in the liturgical reading of Scripture in the synagogue as the haftarah on the second day of Shavuot, the holiday of revelation, the manifestation of  God in the third chapter of Habbakuk signals total world disaster. In … Continue reading →

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(Kiddush/Chillul Ha-Sehem) Jewish Respectability Ethics (Hertz Pentateuch)

Posted on June 5, 2019 by zjb

A standout moment in the classic Hertz Pentateuch commentary from 1936, a fixture in the liberal synagogue for the better part of the 20th century, is the appeal to respectability, phrased in terms of kiddush Ha’Shem, the hallowing/sanctification of  God’s … Continue reading →

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