How a brilliant Jewish philosopher anticipated the cult of Donald Trump
Walter Benjamin's 1936 essay on art in the age of mechanical reproduction looks particularly prescient today
Walter Benjamin
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Culture The new iPad ad literally destroys art — what would philosopher Walter Benjamin think about it?
The Age of Mechanical Reproduction is upon us once more
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Culture Did Chuck Woolery just have a ‘Hitler was right’ moment?
Chuck Woolery, the arch-conservative game show host and catheter pitchman was slammed on Twitter for appearing to take an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” approach to… Hitler? In a Memorial Day post, Woolery tweeted “Critical Race theory is based on Critical theory, given to the world by Marxists from the Frankfort School [sic]…
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Community Jewish messianic belief has inspired hope for generations
How, in a global pandemic, can we look forward to the future with hope? Faith in a better future lies at the heart of the Bible, starting with God’s covenant with the children of Israel. In these intensely uncertain times, the history of Jewish hope that has been built on those foundations offers a rich…
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Community Understanding how we understand George Floyd
In his 1936 essay “The Storyteller,” the renowned critical theorist Walter Benjamin contrasts the “story” with the morning news, the primary mode in which information was disseminated in his era. Benjamin was not interested in the idea of a story: what makes something a story, how stories work. He was instead interested in the tradition…
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Culture Life, Death And Wrestling With Delacroix’s Angel In Paris
‘You must see the garden,” said the guard, in French, pointing to a door in the Delacroix Museum that my daughter and I hadn’t noticed. It led outside and down two sets of stairs to an exquisite courtyard, a silent oasis below the studio where Eugène Delacroix lived while he struggled to finish his last…
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Culture Why I Really Want The Walter Benjamin Biopic To Fail
Writing in “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” Walter Benjamin quotes 20th century French director and film theorist Abel Gance as saying “Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Beethoven will make films . . . all legends, all mythologies and all myths, all founders of religion, and the very religions . . . await their exposed resurrection, and the…
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Breaking News I’m Moving To Israel, Says Belgian Jew Who Lost Leg in Terror Attack
A Belgian Jew whose leg was amputated in a suicide bombing at Brussels’ main airport said he would immigrate to Israel. Walter Benjamin plans to make aliyah when he recovers from the injury he sustained in the March 22 attack he told Israel’s Channel 2 Sunday. The attack was part of a series of bombings…
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