Tag Archives: Jewish art

(Talmud & Art) Cats at Seder Behold I Bite the Mouse (Illuminated Haggadah)

Posted on April 14, 2020 by

Pesach is almost done with this year but I wanted to share with my Talmud, art, and animal friends this charming little post from the amazing blogsite here at the Bodleian. These medieval illuminated images from the Haggadah are the … Continue reading →

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(Diminutive) Ancient Judahite Art (Tel Motza Temple)

Posted on February 4, 2020 by

Not gods or god-like are these diminutive little figures from the Tel Motza temple site in the Judean Hills, in close proximity to Jerusalem. One can only speculate if similar figures were on hand at the Jerusalem temple site during … Continue reading →

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(Posthuman Catalogue) Jewish Art & Aesthetics of Judaism

Posted on December 6, 2019 by

Stepping back at the long arc of Jewish art in tandem with the history of Jewish thought gives to view a kind of cataloge. Included are black inky letters their script and configuration, rosettes and arabesques and other ornamental figures, … Continue reading →

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(Lachrymose Diaspora) Coins Jewels & Things Lost & Found (Colmar Treasure)

Posted on November 25, 2019 by

With all due respect, the paltriness of the so-called Colmar Treasure, now on view at the Cloisters, is a lachrymose little testament. On loan from the Musée de Cluny in Paris, the “treasure” refers to the remains of valuables (coins, … Continue reading →

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The Jews are Not The Nation Without Art (Hertz Pentateuch)

Posted on March 4, 2019 by

I thought I was done with the Hertz commentary, that he has nothing much to say after a few things. But then there was this important surprise in these comments about art in his famous Pentateuch & Haftarahs from 1936. … Continue reading →

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(Tabernacle) Jewish Art is Jewish Feminist Philosophy (Exodus 35-36)

Posted on March 3, 2019 by

When art is the subject, and art and Judaism, it’s time to retire the Second Commandment and the Golden Calf. Look instead to the concluding chapters of the book of Exodus for a theory of Jewish Art. The first thing … Continue reading →

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(What Are These Things) Material Judaism & Priestly Religion (Sarah Kayla Jacobs)

Posted on February 17, 2019 by

Yesterday at Ansche Chesed, Sarah Kaya Jacobs gave these words about some of the most arcane material in the Hebrew Bible: matters relating to the Tabernacle cult and the vestments of the High Priest, in particular. The material appears in … Continue reading →

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(Lachrymose) Floating Jews and Other Black Squares (Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich)

Posted on November 21, 2018 by

O Me O My, I’ve been lachrymose, this time at the Jewish Museum having seen Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich: The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918-1922. The exhibit is super cool, showing art made by Chagall with these two masters of the … Continue reading →

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Hunger Art (Chaim Soutine)

Posted on August 22, 2018 by

“Still Life with Herring” sounds like a Jewish spoof on the French fine art tradition. From the same milieu of Russian Jews in Paris, Chaim Soutine is the anti-Chagall. There is nothing dreamy about his work. There is no lift … Continue reading →

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Did the Jewish Museum Just Break Its Permanent Collection?

Posted on February 21, 2018 by

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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