Mark Podwal: A Unique Artist Preoccupied with Jewish History

Sept. 9 2016

In an encomium to the American Jewish artist Mark Podwal, Cynthia Ozick describes his uncanny ability to create striking images that capture the themes of Jewish history. (With slideshow; originally published in 1990.)

Podwal’s genius for . . . historical contradictions—or intensifiers—[is on display] in a drawing that accompanies Elie Wiesel’s The Jews of Silence, a meditation on the travail of Soviet Jews. Moscow rises up before us with its recognizable onion-domed old churches—only the “domes,” when you look again, turn out to be the joyfully beflagged tops of decorative spice boxes—the spice boxes used in Jewish tradition for the havdalah ceremony that separates the close of the Sabbath from the ordinary weekday round. Yet these Jews are not permitted ordinary lives.

In the foreground, one spice box, attempting to escape, has been struck down and lies prostrate on Russian earth; nearby, another strives to stand erect; the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are seen coursing like musical notes—or else like a swarm of fertilizing bees—through the city. A multitude of implications bombard the eye in glorious simultaneity: the Jews of the Soviet Union remember who they are, and like the tall heads of the spice boxes aspire to freedom and hope through the continuity of the Covenant. They may be downtrodden for the moment, but the buzz of liberation animates them. Besides, there are windows in the spice boxes—some are thrown open, others are still shut, but one of them is emblazoned with a Star of David. And a free Star of David hurtles across the Moscow sky.

Read more at Tablet

More about: Arts & Culture, Cynthia Ozick, Elie Wiesel, Jewish art, Soviet Jewry

How the Trump Administration Can Begin Squeezing Iran on Day One

Nov. 14 2024

Currently Iran has lost much of its air-defense capabilities; Hizballah, its main striking arm and its insurance policy in case of an attack on its nuclear program, is in disarray; and its missile arsenal has failed to do damage to Israel. Mark Dubowitz and Andrea Stricker urge the incoming president to follow the IDF’s military successes with financial warfare:

During Donald Trump’s first term, his administration took nearly two years to settle on a consistent Iran policy and to impose tough sanctions. This meant if [Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei could endure just two years of maximum pressure, Americans might turn President Trump out of office. The gamble paid off.

This time around, Trump should ensure that Tehran has to endure four full years of unstinting pressure. The regime is wealthier thanks to President Biden—its petroleum exports tripled after Trump left office, generating $144 billion of sales from 2021 through 2023. But Tehran is reeling from the hammer blows Israel has delivered to the regime and its proxies since the October 7 slaughter. Twice, Iran has attempted to strike Israel with barrages of missiles, rockets, and drones, all to little effect. Yet when Israel hit back on October 25, it demonstrated that Iran’s supposedly robust air defenses were nearly worthless.

If the Israelis could operate with impunity in Iranian skies, the U.S. Air Force and Navy would face even less resistance. If Trump clearly and consistently says the United States will employ every means at its disposal to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, the threat of force will be credible. Khamenei will know that if he sprints for the bomb, it may spell the end of his regime. Biden claimed he would never let Iran get a nuclear weapon, but the threat was hollow.

Read more at Fox News

More about: Donald Trump, Iran, U.S. Foreign policy