Tag Archives: Holocaust

Elie Wiesel & His Critics (Israel & Palestine)

Posted on July 5, 2016 by zjb

Some of the questioners are malicious, but certainly not all of them. For his critics it is hard to square the image of Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor as witness against God and “man,” as apostle of universal morality with … Continue reading →

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Elie Wiesel & His Critics (Post-Holocaust Theology)

Posted on July 3, 2016 by zjb

(Sighet after the deportation of the Jewish ghetto in 1944) With either impatient snark or without a shred of decency, self-defined iconoclasts are taking easy shots against Wiesel and his legacy in the instantaneous wake of his death. None of … Continue reading →

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Elie Wiesel (z”l)

Posted on July 2, 2016 by zjb

(1948-1949) (France) I wanted to post this photo of a twenty something year old Elie Wiesel; it’s not the first picture that comes to mind. I’m over 50 years old and I’ve never seen it before. I’m looking at a … Continue reading →

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Architecture & Auschwitz (Evidence Room)

Posted on June 15, 2016 by zjb

Evidence Room is now showing at the Venice Architecture Biennal. It’s a small and simple room the center of which are reconstructions of objects from the gas chambers at Auschwitz. A work of art put together by historian Robert Jan van Pelt … Continue reading →

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Holocaust Memorial Day Sirens (Israel & Affect Zionism)

Posted on May 5, 2016 by zjb

  For those who’ve never seen it, here’s a Youtube clip from Israel on Holocaust Memorial Day. The sirens go off and the whole (Jewish part of the) country stops at a stand still. On one hand, and for good … Continue reading →

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Son of Saul (Art At Auschwitz)

Posted on December 23, 2015 by zjb

Who cares about the Holocaust anymore? Who goes to see a Holocaust movie and what does one want from it? These were my thoughts going in to see Laszlo Nemes’ Son of Saul this afternoon. For some time now, so … Continue reading →

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Son of Saul & Cynical Claptrap (Interview with Terri Gross)

Posted on October 8, 2015 by zjb

It played at Cannes and just recently at the New York Film Festival, but it won’t be out for public release until December. Everything being written and said about Son of Saul sounds like it’s going to stand in sharp … Continue reading →

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Islamic Studies & Holocaust Studies (Mehnaz M. Afridi) (Syracuse University)

Posted on February 21, 2015 by zjb

Apropos to arguments made by Aaron Hughes about Jewish Studies being too Jewish, here’s a powerful profile in the NYT, which you can read here, about Mehnaz M. Afridi, assistant professor of religion at Mehnaz M. Afridi Manhattan College, where she … Continue reading →

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“My People Was Burned to Death in Poland”  (Abraham Joshua Heschel)

Posted on February 17, 2015 by zjb

A world on fire. And no one cares. Whenever I work through Heschel’s Man is Not Alone, I spend a lot of time on his construction of the ultimate question. It’s not “Is there a God?” It’s not “why is … Continue reading →

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Taking Pictures (Margaret Bourke-White at Buchenwald)

Posted on November 12, 2014 by zjb

This will be my last post about Margaret Bourke-White.  In this photograph, the photographer is photographed taking photographs of dead bodies at Buchenwald. I found the image online, and wanted to share it along with a passage from her 1946 report Dear Fatherland, … Continue reading →

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