Jenna Weissman Joselit
By Jenna Weissman Joselit
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Culture Thou Shalt Suspend Disbelief
Tourists thronged New York City’s Times Square over the holiday period. Some had come to take in the sights, others a Broadway play and still others the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were to be found in temporary residence at Discovery Times Square (“More than a museum”), on West 44th Street. Visit this “once-in-a-lifetime-exhibit”; “Experience firsthand…
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The Schmooze Semiotics of the Suitcase
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree As everyone knows by now, we are what we eat. But we’re also the sum of our associations, many of them derived from museum exhibitions and film screenings. Take old suitcases, for instance. When I think of these objects, of where they’ve been and what they contain, what springs…
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The Schmooze Making the Bintel Brief New
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree I’m often asked how to go about extending the shelf life of yesteryear’s Jewish cultural treasures. It seems to me that studying them in class is one way to keep them fresh and evergreen. Another is through creative recycling. A lively, smart example of how to preserve Jewish culture…
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Culture Jewish Gallery Was Far Ahead of Times
Last month, on December 14, three carefully detailed renderings of synagogue interiors, the handiwork of Marc Chagall, fetched $2.3 million at Sotheby’s. In the days preceding the auction, much was made of the rarity of these works and of how they stood apart from the artist’s oeuvre, which tilted toward the fantastical. A great deal…
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The Schmooze Pictures at the JCC
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree When American Jews first discovered the Jewish community center, or JCC, way back in the 1920s, what drew them in droves was the novelty of its indoor pool and well-equipped gym. Today, the JCC’s constituents are just as likely to be drawn by the art on the walls as…
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Culture Discovering Israel’s Not-So-Old History
When American Jews think of the Israeli landscape, what come to mind are ancient ruins, contemporary settlement blocs and walls of all sorts. But as I recently discovered on a whirlwind trip, the situation on the ground is far more complex than that. Buildings whose history stretches back to pre-state days are being given a…
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The Schmooze Jewish Jesus, Now and Then
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Not since the 1939 debut of Sholem Asch’s “The Nazarene: A Novel Based on the Life of Christ,” has so much media attention been showered on the Jewish perspective on Jesus and the New Testament. The recent release of “The Jewish Annotated New Testament,” an Oxford University Press publication…
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Culture Living With And Without Revered Maid
The other night I dreamed that my parents, siblings and I were sitting in the sukkah, making polite conversation with our guests, when the sukkah’s rickety wooden walls were breached by the high-pitched and insistent cry of my mother’s name: “Al-ice, Al-ice.” My mother, reddening slightly, got up from the table with all the dignity…
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