Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Just in time for Pesach comes word of a new batch of holiday-related materials. No, I’m not referring to the New American Haggadah, which seems to have colonized the American Jewish imagination this year, leaving little room for anything else. Instead, I have in mind a recent auction in…
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Just when you think you’ve heard of everything, comes word of a brand new vegetarian restaurant that proudly calls itself “Maimonide of Brooklyn.” Located in the hip Boerum Hill neighborhood, its menu, a paean to healthy eating, offers fig, date, hazelnut and almond sausages, soy nuggets and doughnuts that…
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree The modern Jewish experience is awash in fascinating personalities whose imprint extends far and wide. Were you to compile a list of such people, Benedictus (né Baruch) Spinoza would undoubtedly be on it. Streets are named after him, conferences mark his birthday and both paintings and plays take him…
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…
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…
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…
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree This past Sunday afternoon, the students in my Jewish Geography class got more than they bargained for when they attended a matinee performance of “Parade,” a two act musical at the historic Ford’s Theatre that centered on the sobering events that culminated in the lynching of Leo Frank of…
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Ever since the late 19th century, much of what we know, or think we know, about the Middle East is derived from photography, whose images run the gamut from ancient ruins to latter-day landscapes scarred by conflict, from scenes of renewal and affirmation to those of despair and anguish….
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