Author Archives: zjb

About zjb

Zachary Braiterman is Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University. His specialization is modern Jewish thought and philosophical aesthetics. http://religion.syr.edu

Eric Adams Rosh Hashana

Posted on September 28, 2025 by zjb

Look no further if you want to understand why Eric Adams was winning some 40% of the Jewish vote in NYC. Before dropping out of the race for mayor, Adams for the first day of Rosh Hashana went to glad-hand … Continue reading →

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(Judgment) Rosh Hashanah (Mercy)

Posted on September 26, 2025 by zjb

Here is one way to juxta-position what is the combination of judgment, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the canny confidence with which Jewish tradition meets the new year. The relation is not one thing next to … Continue reading →

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An Indelicate Question re: Tikvah, Trump, and Jewish Studies

Posted on September 18, 2025 by zjb

The last time around, when no one was looking, blue chip Jewish Studies colleagues and elite universities provided cover to the rightwing Tikvah Fund and its network of academic programs and online platforms. The plan then was to use university … Continue reading →

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(Netanyahu) Israel Super Sparta (Jacques-Louis David)

Posted on September 16, 2025 by zjb

Jacques-Louis David, Leonidas at Thermopylae (1814) “The emphasized man in the center, presumably Leonidas, instantly draws the viewers’ eyes to him. Not only is Leonidas more bathed in light out of any of the partly shadowed figures in the painting, … Continue reading →

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(Religious War) Stickers (Jerusalem)

Posted on September 4, 2025 by zjb

Memorial stickers and flyers of dead soldiers are all over Israel. In Jerusalem, there is a predominance of religious messaging. I took these photos outside the Yitzhak Navon Train Station in early August. “Don’t touch our soldiers,” Know what we’re … Continue reading →

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(House) Israel (Utopia)

Posted on August 26, 2025 by zjb

I was in Israel this summer to give a talk about Zionism and the national home idea at a conference about People, Society and State after October 7. My talk focused on place and space and house and utopia at … Continue reading →

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Zionism (Signs) Democracy

Posted on August 21, 2025 by zjb

Only in real life, because some things you can’t make up. Am pretty sure this is at R’chov David Marcus near corner of R’chov Pinsker in Jerusalem

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(Last Week) Erev Shabbat (Jerusalem)

Posted on August 15, 2025 by zjb

The place shuts down erev Shabbat on Rechov Azza. The sign reads, “They could have returned alive”

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Facts, Law, and Judaism (World Union of Jewish Studies)

Posted on August 5, 2025 by zjb

At a special panel at the World Union of Jewish Studies Congress taking place at the Hebrew University, colleagues, mostly Israeli, came to discuss facts, law, and Judaism. At the podium and from the floor, colleagues spoke to testimony, international … Continue reading →

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(נתיב ההפקרה) Tisha B’Av (2025)

Posted on August 4, 2025 by zjb

Tisha B’Av directs the religious imagination deep into its own pain. This fearsome day looks straight ahead, neither to the right nor to the left. In the book of Lamentations, read on the fast day, the suffering that the collective … Continue reading →

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