Tag Archives: liberalism

Reinhold Niebuhr and The Case for Israel

Posted on May 19, 2014 by zjb

Why Reinhold Niebuhr Supported Israel Posted: 05/07/2014 11:13 am EDT Updated: 05/07/2014 11:59 am EDT I saw at the Huffington Post this piece by Syracuse University colleague Gustav Niebuhr and Elisabeth Sifton about Reinhold Niebuhr. As a historical reflection with strong contemporary echoes … Continue reading →

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Porcelain Ape (Moses Mendelssohn & Illiberal Enlightenment)

Posted on April 23, 2014 by zjb

The story behind this porcelain ape has to do with the Royal Porcelain Factory owned by Frederick the Great. Unable to compete with the finer items produced by competitors. “In order to increase business, he decreed in 1769 that a … Continue reading →

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(Bitter Sweet) Moses Mendelssohn Bio (Shmuel Feiner)

Posted on April 23, 2014 by zjb

I finally got around to reading Shmuel Feiner’s biography, Moses Mendelssohn: Sage of Modernity , a less than the brilliant title that I imagine was chosen by the series editors at Yale University Press for the Jewish Lives Series. A graceful little … Continue reading →

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(Type) Assimilation (Hannah Arendt)

Posted on April 3, 2014 by zjb

About Hannah Arendt’s thesis re: anti-Semitism I’m caught. On the one hand, I think she is right to note among modern Jews the turn to and the trust placed in state authority, not “society.” On the other hand, I’m not … Continue reading →

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Patient Political Gesture: Law Liberalism and Talmud (Braiterman)

Posted on April 1, 2014 by zjb

Here’s the introduction to the bit I wrote against political theology for Randi and Martin’s Judaism, Liberalism, and Political Theology. The diagrams are from the Talmud Shas, tractate Shabbat. You can find the whole essay in ms. form here as well as at … Continue reading →

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Erasing Jews (Badiou & Zizek) (Response to Sarah Hammerschlag)

Posted on March 28, 2014 by zjb

(Gerhard Richter, Abstract Painting (Grey) (880-3), 2002 In her essay “Bad Jews, Authentic Jews, Figural Jews” for the volume Judaism, Liberalism, and Political Theology, Sarah Hammerschlag quotes Slavoj Zizek who writes about “the Jews.” If Jews, according to Zizek, are not … Continue reading →

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Jewish Philosophy & Political Theology (Liberal-All-Too-Liberal)

Posted on March 27, 2014 by zjb

Stepping back from Judaism, Liberalism & Political Theology, edited by Randi Rashkover and Martin Kavka has me convinced that, yes, after all, Jewish philosophy is liberal-all-too-liberal. Randi and Martin have put together a remarkable volume, representing  a first and overdue … Continue reading →

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New Deal Architecture Monumental (1938) (Hunter College)

Posted on March 25, 2014 by zjb

This too is liberal, an example of New Deal architecture from the 1930s –big stone blocks and unadorned window panes pressed flat along the surface of the building, bold script carved onto the side of the structure, an architectural monument to … Continue reading →

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Tolerating (Publick) Religion (John Locke)

Posted on March 17, 2014 by zjb

Following the lead by Craig Martin in Masking Hegemony: A Genealogy of Liberalism, Religion, and the Private Sphere, I took a peek at John Locke’s A Letter Concerning Toleration. The standard version is that Locke represents a liberalism in which … Continue reading →

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Public Civic Private Religion (Craig Martin)

Posted on March 13, 2014 by zjb

Gearing up for a talk on Moses Mendelssohn, Judaism, and the “rights of man,” I’m reading around in political theory and religion. Finally I got around to reading Craig Martin’s Masking Hegemony: A Genealogy of Liberalism, Religion, and the Private … Continue reading →

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