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Sundown: Zionism and the Black Experience

Plus fear vs. hate, hippie art, and a rock ‘n’ roll error

by
Hadara Graubart
November 30, 2009

• An op-ed in the Jerusalem Post posits that President Barack Obama is “oblivious to African and African-American debts to the Zionist movement.” In case you are too, the paper lays them out in detail. [JPost]
• Commenting on Switzerland’s decision to ban the construction of minarets, a blogger points out that “though Islamophobia is driven by fear, whereas anti-Semitism is driven by hate, the functional expression of both in European society follows very similar trends.” [Beliefnet]
• Psychedelically inclined artist Barbara Mendes, who became a religious Jew later in life and is currently focused on paintings illuminating the Bible, says of her younger days: “My stuff was never raw and sexual.… It was about hippies saving the world through spirituality.” [LAT]
• The Los Angeles Jewish Journal reports on the “long and textured relationship” between the city’s Jews and its public school system. [JJ]
• Musician Pete Doherty committed a gaffe at his concert in Munich on Saturday when he sang a rousing round of German national anthem “Das Deutschlandlied” complete with a Nazi-era verse that has since been excised. [NME]

Hadara Graubart was formerly a writer and editor for Tablet Magazine.