James Rosenquist announced that he will cancel his September show at Brandeis University’s beleaguered Rose Art Museum. The artist told the Boston Globe late last week that his decision had nothing to do with the controversy surrounding the museum, but rather a 2009 fire that destroyed much of his home and studio and Read More
A couple of times now, I’ve posted items imagining Jimmy Carter as being motivated by a spiritual debt to Anwar Sadat. Carter made Sadat stay at Camp David in 1978 when he wanted to leave; and Sadat gave his life for the accords he signed there. Now Carter is making up to his old friend. Read More
One of Jimmy Carter’s most powerful points at Brandeis Tuesday was a challenge to Brandeis to organize its own trip to the Occupied Territories to find out whether he was exaggerating the horrible conditions that Palestinians face. “See for yourself.” That’s an important issue. Today’s Christian Science Monitor has a strong piece by former Read More
When I was a kid, my parents had an expression, WASPy Jews. It was based in part on our one German-Jewish relative: Trudy (a pseudonym). Trudy was cold, straightforward, and wealthy. German Jews and Eastern-European Jews used to be the Sunnis and Shi’ites of American Jewish life. Having lately visited Trudy, I wanted to record Read More
M.J. Rosenberg has a terrific piece on TPM about his alma mater Brandeis saying that Jimmy Carter can only speak there if he’s balanced by Alan Dershowitz.
It is with real pain that I note that Brandeis is yielding to what amounts to an academic boycott of a former President for criticizing Israel…. We Read MoreI’ve been thinking about something Marty Peretz said at Yivo Institute last week.
Following Niall Ferguson’s talk about Jews & Money, a lady in the second row asked whether the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which the British government committed itself to a homeland for the Jews in Palestine, arose from a need Read More
When Brandeis shut down an exhibit of Palestinian art last week, the organizer promptly found a new home for it across town at MIT. Then this week a group of Brandeis faculty started a petition drive to have the exhibit brought back to Brandeis. They have gotten 90 signatures, including many Jews. I’ve posted it Read More
Yesterday when I asked Brandeis troublemaker Lior Halperin whether she was Jewish, she said, “Yes. I’m what people call a self-hating Jew.” I said, “I love you, Lior. Me too.”
I’m not a good Jew. I’m probably a bad Jew. I don’t go to shul, don’t believe in the Old Testament God, married a Read More
The Boston Globe put the Brandeis censorship on its front page today (and did a better job than I did of writing it up!).
Dennis Nealon, a spokesman for Brandeis, tells me the school did take down the exhibit.
“The university had to make a decision. We were getting complaints from people that the exhibit was one-dimensional. There was no other context… It was as if someone was looking at this issue with one eye closed. People were Read More
