‘Jew Dat?’
by Habitus · 02/17/10
In the wake of the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, we’ve come across a few interesting thoughts on New Orleans and the political implications of carnival and spectacle:
David Rieff, with whom we talked about Sarajevo in Habitus No. 2, has some observations about the threat to democracy posed by commercial culture, sparked by his experience of the symbolic power of football, its associated constellation of commercial imagery, and the casting of the New Orleans Saints as vehicles for liberal hope.
Meanwhile, Tablet magazine looks at New Orleans’ Jewish krewes, and the place of Jews in the city’s complex web of race and class. Profiled at length is Krewe du Jieux founder L.J. Goldstein, whose photographs were featured in Habitus No. 4, and pictured is outgoing King of the Jieuxs and Habitus No. 4 contributor Rodger Kamenetz.
