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Sam Ben-Meir[/caption]
Sam Ben-Meir, PhD is an adjunct professor at Mercy College. His current research focuses on environmental ethics and animal studies. sam@alonben-meir.com
When they reached
the foot of Moriah,
the father could no longer
bear to look his son
in the eyes— … [Sam Ben-Meir]
Descent from the Mountain Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Sam Ben-Meir, Staff and Bylined Contributors“…it is inexcusable
to write poetry
as though Auschwitz
never happened …” [Sam Ben-Meir]
At its core, Passover is not about what happened once. It is about what must be recognized again and again. The command at the heart of the holiday is not simply to remember, but to remember as if you yourself had been enslaved. This is not historical education. It is a transformation of perspective. It refuses the distance that allows us to say: that was then; this is now. Instead, it insists: the structure of that experience still concerns you. [Sam Ben-Meir]
Passover and the unfinished work of freedom Read More »
Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Opinion, Sam Ben-Meir, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Travel and FoodIn Fête juive (1883)—also titled Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)—Schjerfbeck depicts a moment of Jewish ritual dwelling emptied of festivity. An older man sits beside a young girl on a thin, red-edged mattress placed directly on the floor of the sukkah, the temporary shelter mandated by the festival. [Sam Ben-Meir]
Review: Helene Schjerfbeck retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Read More »
International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, USARead through the biblical Book of Job, Leviathan becomes a rigorously anti-consolatory work, approaching nihilism only to expose the conditions that make nihilism plausible. [Sam Ben-Meir]
The movie ‘Leviathan’ counters the biblical Book of Job Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish Religion, Sam Ben-Meir, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & BroadcastHe took his walks by the river at dawn, when the fishermen were still flicking their lines to taste the mood of the current, and the first fruit sellers were bargaining with sleep. He liked the way mist lifted from the water as if the world were exhaling a secret it had no stake in keeping. [Sam Ben-Meir]
Jewish Short Story: ‘The Gatherer’ Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Fiction, Jewish Religion, Sam Ben-Meir, Staff and Bylined ContributorsThere was no rabbinic academy then, no definitive text—only scrolls that wandered from town to town like goats, a few psalms humming under their breath, a few laws clean and sharp as a knife’s new edge. Prophets came and went as sandstorms do: sudden, convincing, then gone. The poet—let us call him simply the poet—kept his own counsel, carried a knife and an abacus, and learned the shapes of rumors. [Sam Ben-Meir]
A Short Story: The Poet of Uz Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Fiction, Jewish Religion, Sam Ben-Meir, Staff and Bylined Contributors
The centerpiece of the exhibition is Ndiaye’s Tabaski III (1970), explicitly depicts the aftermath of ritual sacrifice. The ram’s body, twisted and half-abstracted, glistens in layers of crimson and ochre, its form dissolving into painterly matter. The flesh here is not symbolic—it is the subject, the drama, the philosophy. [Sam Ben-Meir]
Flesh and Sacrifice: Iba Ndiaye at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Read More »
International, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
The foremost representative of early German Romantic painting, Friedrich is thankfully receiving renewed attention at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the public can acquaint itself not only with such well known works as Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog and Two Men Contemplating the Moon, but lesser-known works that are no less extraordinary. [Sam Ben-Meir]
Nature and Geist: Caspar David Friedrich at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
By Sam Ben-Meir TOPEKA, Kansas — Dancing Waters is a new exhibition at Topeka’s Mulvane Art Museum, curated by museum director Connie Gibbons, and featuring the work of Rita Blitt, who has been making art consistently and diligently for over sixty years. In that time, Blitt has created a body of work of immense breadth
Dancing Waters: Rita Blitt at Mulvane Art Museum Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, USABy Sam Ben-Meir NEW YORK — The levels of wealth inequality we are currently witnessing in this country are unprecedented and alarming. The very richest among us have succeeded in grabbing ever more of the proverbial pie, and the trend is only worsening. Wealth inequality is proving disastrous for America. On both collective and individual
Freeing America From the Quagmire of Inequality Read More »
Opinion, Sam Ben-Meir, USA
By Sam Ben-Meir NEW YORK — Clement Greenberg once observed that Edward Hopper was a “bad painter. But if he were a better painter, he would, most likely, not be so superior an artist.” “Edward Hopper’s New York,” a major retrospective currently on view at the Whitney Museum, confirms this judgment. There is occasionally a
Light and Obliquity: Edward Hopper at the Whitney Museum Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, USABy Sam Ben-Meir “Anarchism is an aspect of socialism (among many others) that those of us wishing socialism, or some comparable form of resistance, to survive will have to think about again, this time without a prearranged sneer.” T. J. Clark, Farewell to an Idea It is 180 years since the birth of Pyotr Kropotkin
Pyotr Kropotkin, 180 Years Later Read More »
International, Opinion, Sam Ben-Meir
By Sam Ben-Meir NEW YORK — Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure, on view at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, features more than 200 artworks and artifacts from the artist’s estate – 177 of which have never been exhibited before. This highly unusual and intimate exhibition was assembled not by a curator or art historian, but by Basquiat’s
‘King Pleasure’ Lives Up to Its Name Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, USA