Tag: 2012

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Boris Schatz (1866 – 1932) had a revolutionary vision. He believed that the creation of a new modern Jewish visual culture would become a major force to both articulate a Jewish national identity and sustain the Zionist enterprise. In 1904 he approached Zionist leader Theodor Herzl with the proposal to establish a national arts and crafts school in Palestine and got his blessing. Tragically Herzl died later that year, but the Zionist leadership in Vienna assumed responsibility for the project and its funding.

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The exhibitions that precede Judaic auctions are rather special events for anyone who has a feeling for the fabric of Jewish life as it has been lived for the last 500 years. Not only is one afforded the opportunity to see a wide variety of Judaica, books, manuscripts and Jewish art of considerable historic importance, but if something strikes your fancy; intellectually or acquisitively, you can actually handle the objects. For most artwork the thrill is in seeing it up close and judging the brushstrokes and details of a painting or watercolor. One stands in the exact proximity as the creator did.

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Everybody reads comics. From the New York Times to the Post there is hardly any periodical published that doesn’t sometimes feature a cartoon or comic; some kind of drawn image with text to entertain or provide commentary. Even the Jewish Press. When most people think of comics they immediately think of fictional comic books that kids read or the comic strips in the daily newspapers for adults.

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The Commerce Department's Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) published a notice regarding a petition it received on January 11, 2012 from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), requesting formal designation of Arab-Americans as a minority group that is socially or economically disadvantaged.

Children from kibbutz Tzuba near Jerusalem celebrated Shavuot, May 27, 2012. For the past century, the Israeli labor movement has embraced the agricultural aspects of...

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The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) raised its 2012 economic growth estimate for Israel to 3.2 percent, up from its November estimate of 2.9 percent.

The Jerusalem Day Parade

A young Israeli woman meditates in the Sunken Garden next to the Habima national theater in Tel Aviv, May 14, 2012. Amidst the chaotic streetscape...

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The auction at Christie’s in Paris this May 11 of a Tuscan Mahzor, created and illuminated in the 1490’s, will be an extraordinary event. This rare example of illuminated Jewish art has not been seen publically in over 500 years and, aside from tantalizing internal suggestions, lacks conclusive identification of the scribe and illuminators. Because the gold-tooled goatskin binding was made about 50 years after the manuscript and has a different coat of arms than those found in the machzor, it is assumed that this prayerbook may have quickly changed hands.

Some 354,000 visitors arrived in Israel in April 2012, 19% more than in April 2011 and 12% more than in April 2010, Israel’s record...

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The Moody's credit rating agency lowered its outlook for the credit rating of Israel's banking system from stable to "negative," due to the economic...

Israelis shop tomatoes at a vegetable market of Machne Yehuda in Jerusalem, May 06, 2012. Tomato prices are expected to rise up to 16...

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We have to believe in the superiority of our Western values. If we do not, we will not be prepared to defend them. That is why we have to end the biggest disease in the world today, the cultural relativism which posits that all cultures are equal. Our Judeo-Chrisitian, humanist civilization is more free, more democratic, more tolerant than any civilization the world has ever seen. We should not be afraid to say so.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with his son Yair, at the funeral of the Prime Minister's father, Benzion Netanyahu, in Jerusalem on April 30,...

Efraim Halevy will speak at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue on Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 8:00 p.m, as part of the annual Kanee Distinguished Speaker Series lecture. His topic, “Impossible Missions: Israel’s greatest threats inside and out” candidly outlines the country’s modern-day challenges.

Unless new elections are called, this year's Summer Session will last less than three months, ending on July 25, 2012.