Edward Rothstein

3 weeks ago | sapirjournal.org | Edward Rothstein

While protests at university campuses since October 7, 2023, have earned appropriate notoriety for their violence, tactics, and support for Hamas, similar demonstrations have been on view at America’s museums.

Jan 10, 2025 | wsj.com | Edward Rothstein

Amherst, Mass. As you descend a ramp into the main exhibition space of the Yiddish Book Center, you walk alongside a display of 49 books. Here are volumes about America (“The Land of Wonder,” as a 1939 volume from Warsaw has it), a 1922 account of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott’s exploration of Antarctica, 1929 tales of Argentinian gauchos.

Sep 27, 2024 | wsj.com | Edward Rothstein

Naoshima, Japan: The pilgrimage from Kyoto requires a series of trains followed by a ferry to an island port. Head along a coastal road, and eventually, when you look out over the water, you see a giant gourd—a bulbous, outrageous, polka-dotted pumpkin—more than 6 feet high. It squats at the end of a dock that stretches out into the Seto Inland Sea, mountains and freighters in the distance.

Sep 3, 2024 | wsj.com | Edward Rothstein

In ordinary conversation when we speak “diplomatically,” we are, in part, lying. We avoid saying precisely what we mean. Diplomatic speech decorously cloaks what might otherwise provoke. Outposts of Diplomacy: A History of the Embassy Reaktion Books 256 pages We may earn a commission when you buy products through the links on our site.

Aug 27, 2024 | mosaicmagazine.com | Edward Rothstein

The letter “I” that begins the Latin translation of the first book of the Hebrew Bible is shaped by an unusual series of illuminations in the 13th-century Abbey Bible from Bologna, Italy. The letter’s vertical body is composed of blue, ochre, and gilt rondelles, illustrating each day of the Creation. But the letter’s elongated base shows another set of events: the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.