Under a Spinozan Lens: Israel, Zionism and Bob Dylan’s ‘Neighborhood Bully’ [Article originally published on academia.edu for Holocaust Memorial Day / Yom HaShoah on 27th January 2024.] Thus this prejudice became a superstition, and fixed its roots deeply in the mind — Spinoza, Ethics [1] A little forty years ago — October 1983 — singer-songwriter Bob Dylan unveiled his Infidels album, which featured the ironically-titled ‘Neighborhood Bully’, a song depicting the trials of t

Academia-edu - Under a Spinozan Lens: Israel, Zionism and Bob Dylan's 'Neighborhood Bully' Published on Academia.edu (DOC) Under a Spinozan Lens: Israel, Zionism and Bob Dylan's 'Neighborhood Bully'

"The temple curtain made of some heavy purple fabric, with its curious pleats ..."

Photo credit: Rachel Posner / Posner Family Estate, courtesy of Shulamit Mansbach, Haifa, Israel / yadvashem.org The Light in That Place “Our holiday has been turned into a day of mourning” -- Chaim A. Kaplan By lamp and by oil, we hunger the hours as the dusk's frost settles in. There is still time: the freight cars are not ready yet, but we are, we are ready, on this night. Sit, sit down while I set down these makeshift wicks, these meager latkes, this hanukkiah of ours, g

Oliver Cromwell: Statesman, soldier, Puritan, Lord Protector and friend of the Jews Our English Zion: Jews and Puritans in Cromwell's Era Contemporary accounts show that European Jewish intellectuals in the 1650s saw Cromwell’s philosemitism and his efforts to readmit Jews in England as proof that the great man was on a godly mission to save Jews and establish Zion – both in England and in the ancient boundaries of Israel. ‘Our English Zion’: Jews and Puritans in Cromwell’s E