Arts and Culture
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Yann Martel
Beasts in the Jungle
The ways in which we’ve been taught to remember the Holocaust have made us indifferent to the tragedy. According to novelist Yann Martel, the only way to re-sensitize ourselves is to imagine how we might tell the story differently.
Music Is the Food of the Soul
In Christopher Nupen’s spare, inspirational film Everything Is a Present, the concert pianist Alice Sommer Herz explains how performing at Theresienstadt wasn’t playing for her supper, so much as playing AS her supper, a form of spiritual sustenance.
Bonaparte, the Entrepreneur
What if the Zionist movement failed to create a Jewish homeland? In a previously untranslated short story, its founder, Theodor Herzl, considers the consequences.
Yossi Avni-Levy: Israeli Diplomat, Gay Novelist
Diplomat Yossi Levy only recently came out of the closet as gay novelist Yossi Avni. Jo Ellen Green Kaiser talks to him about his new book, An Ode for Sins, the Holocaust, and the sexual politics of Yisrael Beiteinu.
The Meaning of Malcolm McLaren
Sorting through responses to the controversial figure’s death, the author realizes that McLaren’s Jewish childhood can help us make sense of his legacy.
Hidden Fathers
No matter how hard they look, the “father” is somehow always missing. Mya Guarnieri’s Alma goes to an AA meeting, and gets closer to her higher power.
My Hebrew is Poetry
Modern Hebrew poetry was originally conceived as a vehicle for secular Jewish liberalism. Its impact on Israel’s national language has been forgotten.
The Stamp
Don’t let the high rises fool you. Tel Aviv is every bit as complex and mythical as the great European capitals it aspires to rival. Indeed, in, Roy (Roee) Chen’s work, life inside the Mediterranean city is worthy of the best nineteenth-century Russian fiction.
We Can Make Music
A love song for musicians traveling around the world, doing our thing.
James Sturm's Market Day
In a thoughtful depiction of Jewish angst, comic artist James Sturm explains how commercial relations between Jews can be just as cruel as persecution by Gentiles.
Jews Are Welcome Here
Her mom got married on Shabbat. The new guy is a gentile. They moved into a nice house, with air conditioning. Everything screams integration.
The Laser Eruv
The laser eruv, he says, is “the most significant advancement in eruv technology since the telephone pole.”
A Tale of Two Karkadans: Music in Multicultural Europe
Although a German metal band and an Italian rapper of Tunisian descent seem to have only the name “Karkadan” in common, their co-existence provides the perfect opportunity to meditate on the future of European culture.
A Night Like Any Other: A Pesach Play
It’s rare to find one-act plays online, and rarer to find one about Pesach.
Welcome to the Family
Whenever a parent remarries, their kids inevitably have crises. Mya Guarnieri captures the anxieties of a Jewish adolescent entering an interfaith family.
Forgiving Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt was one of the most important political philosophers of the 20th century. A German Jew, she also loved - and eventually forgave - Martin Heidegger, for being a Nazi.
Cultural Shiva? What It Means To Mourn a Popular Musician
The death of rock musician Alex Chilton prompts the author to muse on the relationship between public ritual and private pain. Mass culture is usually thought of as a means of distracting us. But what if it helps us to connect with feelings we would otherwise deny?
Black Doesn't Show Stains
Whenever a single parent starts dating, children often feel rejected. Mya Guarnieri’s Alma goes the extra mile, disconnecting every appliance in her mother’s home, in protest.
Three Stories from Blue Has No South
Frequently compared to Borges and Kakfa, Alex Epstein is one of Israel’s best-regarded fiction writers. Zeek is proud to present three selections from his new collection of short stories, forthcoming this April from Clockroot Books.
The Morning After: King Midas Sound Make Passivity a Prelude to Action
Building on the “post-dance” sensibility of Burial, LCD Soundsystem, and his own The Bug, Kevin Martin teams with Roger Robinson and Kiki Hitomi to make an album that turns the melancholy rumination on what happens after the party is over into motivation to pursue the opportunities of a new day.
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