Rabbi Jon 's Website and Blog

New web host, new look! Bear with me while I set things up and make sure the content and links I had before are updated in the coming weeks.

Art

July 13, 2025

Finishing My First Year of College (Part 1)

I did finish looking at my class notes for the second semester of my first year of college a while ago, but haven’t written about it yet. Here’s a bit on one of the courses – Empire and Art. The last few weeks were not as distinctive as the earlier part of the class. The… Continue reading

Art, College, History, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
March 20, 2025

More From College

Most of the new things the past few days are from the history of Zionism course. Some things that struck me… Given the gap in experience between Herzl and Eastern European Jews, I continue to be surprised how many showed up for the First Zionist Congress. Granted it was 1897, so the Chovevei Tzion groups… Continue reading

Art, College, History, Israel, Power
March 17, 2025

Another Week Back in College

I'm catching up on the whole week, after preparing for and celebrating Purim…. The week's notes in Lit and Arts were a lot about the successors of Charlemagne, and the disjuncture between the disintegration of their authority and their realm, and their self-representation in Christian books and architecture as Christ's designated earthly power. As I… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Art, Equality, Freedom, History, Inclusion, Israel, Jewish Education, Justice, Power, Study, Tzedek, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
March 6, 2025

More College

I am noting that in the Lit and Arts course, what seems to be easiest for me to understand (and was back then too?) is architecture. I'm not spatial, generally, and geometry was my weakest part of math. But the layout of churches seems to be intelligible to me. Charlemagne's church architecture has a logic… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Art, College, History, Israel, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
March 5, 2025

Back to College Update

It has always been hard for me to find a way to interact with art that isn’t verbal. I want to think and talk about the concepts that are artistically represented, to interpret them. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it seems incomplete. As I go over Lit and Arts, I’m thinking about this but… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Art, College, History, Israel, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
February 23, 2025

College: Historical Transitions

Professor Hall started his course with a terrific introduction, setting out the goal of the course: to figure out why in particular Great Britain, France, and Germany entered the modern age from similar medieval conditions but took such different political routes. Britain had a relatively nonviolent transition toward democracy. French made the transition with violence… Continue reading

Art, College, History, Inclusion, Israel, Power, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
February 10, 2025

I’m a Second Semester Freshman

Okay, it’s second semester of my first year of college in this plan I'm doing, and already I’m a week and a half behind. I will catch up this week and then do the project the way I intended, which is a day at a time. “This semester”, I am taking first of all Introduction… Continue reading

Art, College, Education, History, Israel, Jewish Education, Psychology, Young Jewish Adult, Youth