Menachem Wecker
By Menachem Wecker
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Culture How Alfred Dreyfus Laid the Foundations for Blogging and Social Networking
Revising Dreyfus Edited by Maya Balakirsky Katz Brill, 438 pages, $209 The public trial for treason of French Jewish captain Alfred Dreyfus has proven fodder for everything from anti-Semitic walking cane handles to a riot-inducing 1931 play and another play in 1974, which the New York Times panned as a flop. Roman Polanski is reportedly…
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The Schmooze Chicago Concert Brings Interfaith Music Together
“This sanctuary is the most religiously diverse place in this great city,” said Michael Siegel, the rabbi of Anshe Emet, a Conservative synagogue in Chicago. If that sounds like crowing, consider that conspicuous among the attendees of the synagogue’s April 6 “Sounds of Faith” concert were kippas, Greek Orthodox vestments, and headscarves. The program, which…
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The Schmooze A Royal Menorah in Amsterdam
A Hanukkah lamp that was recently given to the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam may have one of the most compelling provenances of any Jewish ritual object. The lamp was created by a Christian (Dutch Reformed) silversmith, Harmanus Nieuwenhuys, for the Dutch Jewish community in 1751 — when Jews were still barred from guilds. (Harmanus’…
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News An Unusual Hanukkah Lamp in Boston
At first glance, Yehia Yemini’s 1920s Hanukkah lamp, which was recently acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in its 119-object Charles and Lynn Schusterman Collection, looks pretty typical. The silver lamp, supported by four small orbs for legs, contains the correct number of candleholders and an offset well for the shamash. The decorations…
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The Schmooze What Do Menorahs Have To Do With Madonnas?
Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins, ‘piETa’ (2007), image courtesy Art Gallery of Ontario. The Pietà, or the Virgin Mary mournfully cradling Christ’s dead body, is an artistic invention, which, as the Encyclopedia Britannica explains, “has no literary source.” One of the most important representations of the Pietà is Michelangelo’s late 15th-century marble sculpture at St….
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Culture Vilna Synagogue Is Rare Gem in Tony Boston Neighborhood
The 10-minute walk from Boston’s Charles/MGH Red Line stop to the Vilna Shul meanders along narrow tree-lined streets with picturesque streetlamps and houses in the ritzy Beacon Hill neighborhood. It’s easy to walk right past the synagogue, which is set back from Phillips Street behind a fence with a Star of David, as one hurries…
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Israel News MLA: No Boycott, But Censure of Israel for Alleged Curbs on U.S. Scholars
The Modern Language Association’s annual conference here this past weekend was chock full with panels of Jewish interest, including discussions of Philip Roth, Yiddish, Sholem Aleichem, Jonathan Safran Foer, Sephardic film, Jewish monsters, Zionism and Holocaust literature. But the only events of Jewish interest that most people seemed to care about were four sessions that…
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Culture How Children’s Books Discovered Their Jewish Roots
In many ways, 2013 has afforded Jewish children’s literature the big break it has needed for some time — perhaps akin to the widespread attention that Jewish comic books and graphic novels have received for years, with their Jewish mice and superhuman men punching out Hitler. At the Chicago Humanities Festival in November, Paul Reitter,…
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