Antiquitopia

I good friend of mine, J odi Eichler-Levine , has written an essay , "Where the Wild Things Aren't Just Jewish," in Religion Dispatches on Maurice Sendak and, I guess we could call it "inclusive chosenness" (don't blame her for such an infelicitous phrase).  Sendak, who died this past week, is most famous for the children's book, Where the Wild Things Are .  Jodi, by the way, researches the ways in which collective trauma (such as the Holocaust), holidays, and religious identity are expressed in children's books.  On her webpage (link on her name), she says this about her work, "In Professor Eichler-Levine’s current book project, which is under contract with New York University Press, she examines how Jewish Americans and African Americans incorporate traumatic pasts and religious ideals in stories young people."  Thus, it was a topical match made in heaven.  Here is my favorite passage from the article: "His response to the Ho...

The recently reinstated Holocaust-denying bishop has been asked to recant by the Pope. The Vatican, it seems, is responding to international pressure, especially in the Pope's native Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that the Pope's recently stated positions on the Holocaust were not sufficiently clear or just weren't sufficient. The NYTimes reports: February 5, 2009 Vatican Demands Holocaust Denier Publicly Recant By RACHEL DONADIO ROME — Responding to global outrage, especially in Pope Benedict XVI’s native Germany, the Vatican for the first time on Wednesday called on a recently rehabilitated bishop to take back his statements denying the Holocaust. Late last month, the pope revoked the excommunication of four schismatic bishops, including British-born Richard Williamson, who in an interview broadcast last month denied the existence of the Nazi gas chambers. A statement issued on Wednesday by the Vatican Secretariat of State said that Bishop Williamson “mu...

I have to say, I have never even thought of that question before Rebecca Lesses brought attention to this political ad by the Israeli Green Leaf Party whose primary platform is the legalization of marijuana. They are trying to garner support for this platform through Holocaust survivors: Weird!

I recently commented on the reinstatement of a Holocaust- (and 9/11-) denying bishop by the Vatican. Now the Vatican has issued a statement that says that the reinstatement does not mean that it agrees with the bishop's views. For text and commentary, see Rebecca Lesses at Mystical Politics .

It seems the Vatican is making a lot of news waves lately. The Pope's baffling and absurd statements about homosexuality about a month ago, and then the Pope establishing his own channel on YouTube to control his image yesterday. Then there are two recent stories relating to Judaism and the Vatican. One relating to antiquity and medieval issues and the other much more modern; the first regarding the many Hebrew manuscripts the Vatican houses and preserves, and the other, the Holocaust or the Shoah. Let's take the MSS first: Vatican catalogs its Hebrew manuscripts January 21, 2009 ROME (JTA) -- With the help of Israeli scholars, the Vatican has published a catalog of the Hebrew manuscripts kept in its library. Publication of the work, a Vatican communique said, "represents a significant example of co-operation between the cultural institutions of the Holy See and of Israel." The book, edited by the technical staff of the National Library of Israel, will be formally ...