Browsing all posts by David Gutherz
Agnes Heller on Anti-Semitism in Hungary
by David Gutherz · 09/04/10
“The problem in Hungary is not that anti-semites are allowed to speak freely,” says Agnes Heller, in a recently translated interview for Salon” but that nobody tells these people to shut up.” For those interested in exploring of the complex inter-connections between government, media, and culture in Hungarian anti-semitism (and, mutatis mutandis, the recent outburst of American Islamophobia) Heller’s ever-insightful analysis is not to be missed. And after that, be sure to re-read our interview with her in issue 1.
Leave a Comment “The Israeli Republic” through Iranian Eyes
by David Gutherz · 08/31/10
It uncommonly difficult, these days, to find a fresh perspective on Israel–but that is precisely what former Habitus editor Samuel Thrope offers in his new translation of, and commentary on, the Persian author Jalal Al-e Ahmad’s 1964 essay “Velayat-e Esrael.” Translating roughly as “The Israeli Republic” Ahmad’s piece attempts to situate Israel in a “Republican” tradition that (as Thrope astutely observes) has more in common with Plato and the Ayatollah Khomeni” than Jefferson and Rousseau. As Ahmad puts it, “Ben Gurion lacks not from Enoch, and Moshe Dayan is no less than Job: these new guardians, each one a prophet or—at least—a clear-visioned seer, built a Republic in the land of Palestine and called to it all the Children of Israel, of whom two million live in New York and eight million others in the rest of the world.”
More than the curious musings of one renegade Iranian intellectual, these words are a poignant reminder of an Israel (and Iran) long gone, and a call to reflect on the ever-controversial relation between religion and politics in the Middle East. In Thrope’s words:
“The Israel Al-e Ahmad visited and to which it was possible to ascribe these semi-mystical qualities, even if he was naive in so doing, is long gone. Who today could confuse Israel’s political leaders—even those not on trial for corruption—with prophets and guardians? This is no place to speculate on precisely what changed or why. My point is only that Al-e Ahmad’s strange vision is a memorial not only to a lost relationship between Israel and Iran, but also a testament to the way that Israel once saw itself and was seen by the world, as a light unto the nations.
This essay is also a warning. As we debate Israel’s future, we would do well to consider the ultimate outcome of the left-religious coalition Al-e Ahmad advocated for Iran. As much as that dynamic and invigorating fusion of theology and politics propelled the 1979 revolution, it also led directly to the repressions and injustice of the Islamic Republic. For those on the right and on the left who argue that Israel’s policies should be grounded in Jewish texts and values, who claim that Judaism is us and not them, who advocate constant traffic, intellectual and physical, between the political demonstration and the beit midrash, Jalal Al-e Ahmad should give us pause. Fusion IS explosive not only in a nuclear bomb.”
Congratulations Margo Glantz!!
by David Gutherz · 08/31/10
Margo Glantz, whose piece “Shoes: Andante With Variations” appears in our most recent issue, has just been awarded the 2010 Literature Prize in Romance Languages at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. In a statement released with the award, the jury lauded Margo’s “extensive literary career,” her ability to combine fluidly the “language of different disciplines” and commented that, “Margo Glantz has demonstrated that Latin American identity is a finished and unfinished journey of multiple social realities that generate a moving continent giving language its force and its multiple connections to the world.”
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves!
Summer Fun in Budapest
by David Gutherz · 08/31/10
As New York recovers from “Rock The Bells,” it seems our Jewish brethren in Budapest are just getting warmed up. The Budapest Jewish Summer Festival, which began on August 26th, is now in its 13th year and only getting stronger. Based in the spectacular Dohany Street synagogue–one of the biggest synagogues in Europe–the festival features an eclectic array of movies, music, and cultural events. Past attendees include Shlomo Artzi, Habitus contributor George Konrad, and the mind-blowing 100 Member Gypsy Orchestra. Aside from the wonderful opening night performance by Serbian “gypsy-brass” band Boban Markovic (a touching display of solidarity between the Jewish and Romani communities, so often partners in persecution) some of the biggest highlights this year should be the performances by the Israeli Beer-Sheva theater, Matisyahu, and acclaimed cellist Gavriel Lipkind.
Buenos Aires Meets Berlin At Jewish Museum
by David Gutherz · 08/24/10
One of our founding principles here at Habitus is that the Diaspora is not only–as Ahad Ha-Am conceived of it–a web of roots strengthening the tree of some (material or spiritual) Jerusalem. It is also rhizome: a constantly shifting multiplicity of connections across and between several centers, several worlds. And so it is always with great pleasure that we hear of things like the current Bi-Centennial Celebration of Jewish Life in Argentina at the Jewish Museum of Berlin. Tracing the evolution of the Argentine Jewish community from the first recorded Jewish wedding in 1860 through to the present day, the exhibition employs a number of multimedia elements including a mesmerizing presentation of contemporary Argentine Jewish film. The guiding theme, however, is that most paradigmatic Jewish medium: The Book. At the “heart” of the exhibit lies “Book Store of Memories,” a collection of several hundred biographies that showcases the singular diversity and richness of Argentine-Jewish culture. Mirroring this celebratory monument, however, there is also the “Underground Library II,” a re-imagining of Israeli artist Micha Ullman’s memorial to Nazi book burnings. All in all, the exhibit goes far beyond its stated aim of “illustrating the integration of the Jewish community into Argentine society.” It is powerful homage to the continued vibrancy of Diaspora existence in general, and in Argentina and Germany specifically.
The exhibition runs through October 10th.
Hey, Chicago: “Backyard” in your backyard!
by David Gutherz · 08/18/10
Citizens of the Windy City, be sure not to miss a rare opportunity to see the thought provoking thriller Backyard (El Traspatio). Mexico’s official submission to the 2010 Academy Awards, Backyard is a fictionalized account of the all-too-real 1990′s Juarez femicides written by Sabina Berman. A critically aclaimed playwright and contributor to our soon-to-be-released Mexico City issue, Berman has made it clear that she has intentions that transcend the simple catharsis that characterizes the murder-mystery genre. “When people leave the theater,” she told one interviewer, “their sense of right or wrong will be strengthened.”
Presented as part of the Maya Indie Series, Backyard will be playing for only one more night in Chicago. After that, its off to Miami until the 26th.
Ian Buruma on Israel
by David Gutherz · 07/27/10
True or false: “there has ever been a source of great tension between Judaism and democracy.” See what Habitus advisor Ian Buruma has to say about it, in this fascinating interview with Farid Boussaid and Jonothan Gharraie. Author of more than a dozen books on a dizzying array of topics, Buruma’s most recent English-language work is The Taming of the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents. In it, Buruma focuses on the complex relations between religion, liberalism, secularism, and democracy in America, Asia, and Europe.
A Klezmiracle in Le Marais
by David Gutherz · 07/27/10
Chances are if I asked you to give me an example of radical Jewish culture, klezmer and gefilte fish would not be the first things that comes to mind. For most people, these things are more or less total opposites. Indeed, John Zorn’s project Tzadik: Radical Jewish Culture project, featured in a recent exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Paris, explicitly advertises itself as “Jewish music beyond klezmer.” Claude Berger, however, begs to differ. When he’s not pulling teeth or writing manifestos calling for an end to salaried labour, Berger runs a small Yiddish cabaret and restaurant called “The Train of Life.” Though not quite as out there as some of the “dub-Gypsy-tango-punk-thrash-neo-clash-post-post-klezmer outfits” we New Yorkers are familiar with, if you’re in Paris in search of some cholent, leftist fury, and mind-expanding jams Berger’s bistro is the place to be.
And if you’re in Brooklyn, well, there’s always another Gogol Bordello show.
Of Shylock, Ponzi schemes, and Survivors
by David Gutherz · 07/21/10
As if it weren’t sweltering enough already, this season of New York summer theater has got a lot of Jews shvitzing under the spotlight. First, there was the Public Theater’s staging of the ever-controversial The Merchant of Venice. Probably the most notorious anti-semitic work of art ever produced, I doubt that there ever was, will, or should be a presentation of Shakespeare’s Shylock that won’t anger and annoy members of his Tribe. Sufferance is our badge, after all. This time around, the most interesting–and for many most enraging–part is the connection many seem to be drawing between between Shylock and recent financial villains. Consider the following anonymous comment, posted as a response to Time Out New York’s review of the piece.
“Sullivan hands us a sublimely faithful version and is disturbing and thought provoking at the same time. One cannot help be reminded of today’s Madoffs, AIGs, Goldman Sachs et al as well as the global explosion of anti-Semitism caused by Israel’s Likud government committing atrocities all in the name of the Torah’s Judaism, instead of the satanic Talmud (of which Shakespeare may well have been aware).”
As it so happens, this season one need not stretch all the way back to the Bard for such reminders, for Madoff himself is the subject of Obie award winner Deborah Margolin’s new play “Imagining Madoff,” opening tonight at Stageworks/Hudson, in Albany. An imagined dialogue between Madoff and Solomon Galkin–a Holocaust survivor, Poet, and victim of Madoff’s ponzi scheme–Margolin’s piece has already been the subject of a firestorm of controversy because its initial version featured Elie Wiesel (who lost upwards of 15 million dollars because of Madoff) as the crook’s interlocutor. And though that draft was scrapped after Wiesel threatened to sue, judging from its early reviews “Imagining Madoff” remains a whimsical reflection on Wiesel as well.
