Monthly Archives: January 2025

(Liberal Community) 2025 Jewish National Book Awards (Comfort)

Posted on January 22, 2025 by zjb

What is the value of a Jewish book and Jewish books? The 2025 Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards are a liberal balm in the midst of a miserable year+ of hostage crisis and war and two+ miserable years of Kahanist government … Continue reading →

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Anti-Zionism and/not Anti-Semitism (4 Working Statements)

Posted on January 17, 2025 by zjb

Anti-Zionism and/not Anti-Semitism (4 Working Statements) 4 working statements on anti-Semitism and the relation between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism and/or anti-Israelism: IHRA, Nexus, Jerusalem Declaration, Association for Jewish Studies All 4 declarations are only working definitions and legally non-binding. All 4 … Continue reading →

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Winter Syracuse On The Road

Posted on January 16, 2025 by zjb

[i have a fast car]

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Post-Holocaust Vulcan Social Solidarity (Spock Hears the Death Scream of 400 Vulcans)

Posted on January 15, 2025 by zjb

A most Jewish moment in the Original Star Trek series, this confrontation between Spock and McCoy took my breath away. Spock’s soliloquy (truly speaking his mind outloud) comes as if out of nowhere n the mirror of post-Holocaust Jewish collective consciousness, … Continue reading →

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religious zionists oppose hostage deal

Posted on January 13, 2025 by zjb

More grist for the mill. Religion and politics are a toxic mix. Critics of Israel have a point when they cast a critical eye on Israeli society as a whole. But as a social sector, religious Zionists are the only … Continue reading →

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(Reader’s Digest) ME’OR ‘EINAYIM (Theology of Mind and Cossack Baroque)

Posted on January 10, 2025 by zjb

What follows in this post after a quick introduction is a digest of my reading notes to Me’or ‘Einayim (Light of the Eyes) (1763 -1797). Translated into English with erudite care by Arthur Green, this early Hasidic text is a … Continue reading →

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READING + WRITING + AI

Posted on January 6, 2025 by zjb

Guidelines for students YOUR RESPONSIBILITY To create content that reflects student-generated knowledge: intellectual content that is uniquely your own. What counts as learning is time-intensive work to which you as a student commit. Reading: You are responsible for reading the … Continue reading →

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(All Red Lines Crossed) Israel and Hamas Forever War in Gaza (2024)

Posted on January 2, 2025 by zjb

2024 –the year following October 7, 2023– was a long year of bewildering violence against civilians defined by systemic destruction of human life on both sides of the border between Israel and Gaza. Nothing coheres its disorientation of political consciousness. … Continue reading →

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