Tag Archives: Mendelssohn

(Fast Without Motion) Felix and Moses (Mendelssohn)

Posted on April 25, 2014 by zjb

On the drive home to New York a couple months back I caught an episode of David Dubal’s Romantic Piano on WQXR. I don’t like very much 19th C. romantic repertoire, but I stuck around to listen because Dubal is … Continue reading →

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(Flowers) Moses and Fromet (Mendelssohn) (Aesthetic Judaism)

Posted on April 24, 2014 by zjb

More beautiful than a porcelain monkey, this Torah ark curtain was donated by Moses and Fromet Mendelssohn to what I’m guessing was their local synagogue in Berlin. The embroidered delicate flowers, carnations, roses, lilies in full color are woven into the cream … 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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Friedrich Nietzsche & Moses Mendelssohn (Not So Naive)

Posted on February 14, 2014 by zjb

I hadn’t thought it possible to square or at least complement Nietzsche and Moses Mendelssohn, two philosophers who mean a great deal to me. It was a contradiction that I was always happy to let stand, like the one between … Continue reading →

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Leo Strauss & Moses Mendelssohn OR God & the Rights of Man (Martin Yaffe)

Posted on November 11, 2013 by zjb

I don’t think you can understand Moses Mendelssohn without Leo Strauss, just not in the way that Strauss himself intended. That’s my takeaway after having just finished the introductions by Leo Strauss to the Moses Mendelssohn Jubiläumsaugabe, expertly edited by … Continue reading →

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Religion Without Idolatry (Moses Mendelssohn) (Gideon Freudenthal)

Posted on November 7, 2013 by zjb

A week or so back, I finally got to and finished reading Gideon Freudenthal’s book on Mendelssohn and the Jewish Enlightenment, No Religion without Idolatry. It’s part of the new Mendelssohn Studies approach. None of the great 20th century readers … Continue reading →

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Leo Strauss and Moses Mendelssohn

Posted on December 13, 2012 by zjb

Leo Strauss behind glass. Looking forward to reading. I like the bright blood red cover. Kudos to Martin Yaffee! http://www.amazon.com/Leo-Strauss-Moses-Mendelssohn/dp/0226922782

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Object Oriented Aesthetics (Another Tiny Old Groovy Car (New York)

Posted on August 24, 2012 by zjb

Another tiny old groovy car. This one immediately grabbed my eye, as if flashing out from nowhere. I saw it on a shady stretch of Morningside Drive near St. Luke’s Hospital. I like dimunitive things, and how they appeal to … Continue reading →

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