Walter Benjamin
Understanding how we understand George Floyd
We do not take in an event and walk away to ponder it. Instead, everything we consume is inseparable from its immediate interpretation.
Life, Death And Wrestling With Delacroix’s Angel In Paris
I had come to Paris to take a breather from deranged tweets, a friend’s bad MRI, calls in the night and the whole gathering storm. But I found angels.
Why I Really Want The Walter Benjamin Biopic To Fail
I’m excited for the film, but only if it’s a complete disaster. It must fail to be at all interesting.
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.
National Poetry Month: 'Jew on Bridge' by C.K. Williams
This year, the Forward is celebrating National Poetry Month in style. The Arty Semite will be featuring new poetry every weekday, and it is our great pleasure to kick off the series with “Jew on Bridge” by C.K. Williams, an American poet who has been awarded nearly every major poetry prize, including a Pulitzer in 2000, a National Book Award in 2003, and a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1987.
Walter Benjamin, Book Collector Redivivus
Enthused readers of the German Jewish intellectual Walter Benjamin are impatiently awaiting the announced May 9 publication date of a landmark translation of Benjamin’s “Early Writings” from Harvard University Press. Until then, readers afflicted with Benjamania can delight in a catalog published by the Kunstmuseum Solingen in Germany, “Stellar Immortality” (Die Unsterblichkeit der Sterne, to accompany an exhibit on display at the end of 2010.
This Storm Is What We Call Progress
Earlier this week, Michael David Lukas shared a list of his top ten favorite Jews of all time and his connection to Nomi Stone. His blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog series. For more information on the series, please visit:
Tunisia, Whitesnake, and My Top Ten Favorite Jews of All Time
Michael David Lukas’s first book, “The Oracle of Stamboul,” is now available. His blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog series. For more information on the series, please visit:
Forward Fives: 2010 in Music
In this, the second annual Forward Fives selection, we celebrate the year’s cultural output with a series of deliberately eclectic choices in film, music, theater, exhibitions and books. Here we present five of the most important Jewish music releases of 2010. Feel free to argue with and add to our selections in the comments.
Films on Susan Sontag, Joann Sfar Receive Hefty Grant
In a bid to shape which Jewish documentaries find an audience, the Foundation for Jewish Culture announced the recipients of the Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Documentary Film on December 15. The $140,000 grant (split between five recipients) enables filmmakers, considered to be expanding the understanding of Jewish experience, to reach a wider audience.