Saturday, August 29, 2026

THE WANDERING JERUSALEM

THE WANDERING JERUSALEM

I have long been fascinated by the Jewish conception of Jerusalem of above, and Jerusalem of below: The heavenly, perfected Jerusalem contrasted with the imperfect earthly city. Within this framework, I would like to consider the some images of a floating of dwelling in the air as a symbol of Reading in reverse.
The Wandering Jerusalem
Joseph Sassoon Semah 1977
To begin, let us turn to Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels 1726. Swift, an Anglo-Irish devoted christian clergyman, and Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, conceived a city floating in the air named “Laputa” – that is, a striking image of political criticism.
Writing amid growing fascination with mathematics, astronomy, science, and mechanical invention - Swift the devoted Christian does not simply mock science: He objects that reason is detached from the reality of Christian life - in his own words "The Laputans live literally in the clouds because their minds are in the clouds".
Lemuel Gulliver signaling the flying island of Laputa:
Jonathan Swift - 1726 Gulliver’s Travels
Hereafter, the term Laputa introduces another layer of possible resonance. Heard as the Spanish la puta, it can be understood as “the whore” or “the prostitute”. This may suggest a symbolic association with the “Whore of Babylon”/“Babylon the Great” described in Revelation 17:5: “And upon her forehead was a name written, mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth”. The figure of Babylon is associated with worldly power, wealth, corruption, and spiritual unfaithfulness.
Similarly, the floating Laputa can also be linked to the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11: “Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven”. However, Swift already reversed the narrative of Babel: At Babel, the dwellers attempted to reach heaven by constructing a Tower – and yet, in Laputa, they are always suspended in the sky. However, in this case, elevation, brings no spiritual perfection. The Laputans remain detached from ordinary reality while continuing to exercise political, and technological power over those below [the devoted Christian].
The contrast with the biblical “Jerusalem of above” is likewise suggestive, although the two images should not be equated. In Galatians 4:26, Paul speaks of “Jerusalem which is above” a symbol of freedom, and transcendence. Laputa, by contrast, represents an artificial elevation: According to Swift the inhabitants of Laputa place themselves physically above others, yet their intellectualism, and therefore their methods of abstractions do not produce Christian’s moral or any spiritual superiority. Their elevation becomes a satire of people who mistake intellectual, technological, or institutional power for genuine wisdom.
This may also recall the historical image of Rome, and the papacy as a distant, hierarchical authority exercising power over European subjects. Such a comparison is particularly relevant to Swift’s religious, and political context. Swift an Anglican clergyman was writing during a period of intense conflict among Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Protestant dissent.
Hereafter, the question of Jewish symbolism requires still greater caution. In later Christian interpretation - the term “Babylon” was sometimes associated not only with Rome but also with apostate Jerusalem or Jewish religious authorities.
So, let us turn to René Magritte’s famous painting, The Castle of the Pyrenees: A massive castle built upon a huge rock suspended in a brilliant blue sky above a churning sea.
Rene Magritte The Castle of the Pyrenees 1959 Oil on canvas 200x145 cm – collection: Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
In 1957, in Belgium, René Magritte met Harry Torczyner, a Jewish Belgian-born lawyer, and art lover who had fled Belgium during the Second World War with his wife, Marcelle Siva Torczyner. After settling in New York, Torczyner established an international law practice, and developed a deep passion for art.
Their relationship grew into a close, and enduring friendship, united by their shared love of art and ideas. Around 1958, after previously commissioning Magritte to paint his portrait, Torczyner commissioned him again - this time to paint a castle perched on an enormous rock, seemingly floating above the sea. He wanted the painting to suggest a rough, turbulent sea reminiscent of the North Sea of his childhood, beneath a clear blue sky with calm white clouds.
The painting is nothing but Torczyner’s own story - his forced departure from Europe, his memories of the North Sea, and perhaps his longing for Europe, and eventually, Jerusalem.
The rock may also evoke the Jewish EVeN Ha-ShITYA, the Foundation Stone. According to the Talmud /Yoma 54b, this sacred stone is associated with the creation of the world. It also recalls the biblical stories of Moses bringing water from a rock to sustain the wandering Jews in the desert. At the end, this commissioned painting becomes more than a surreal image: It suggests memory, homeland, and the durable GaLUT.
Upon receiving the painting, Harry Torczyner was so pleased that he wrote the following words to Magritte - “Long live Magritte! … The Castle of the Pyrenees floats majestically and proudly. It is superb … and intact! The waves of the North Sea bring me fresh air and joy.”
Please note: A longtime supporter of Israel, Torczyner became one of the founding members of the American Friends of the Israel Museum. On the twentieth anniversary of the museum’s founding, he donated The Castle of the Pyrenees to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
And so, the journey of the commissioned painting by Torczyner came full circle - born from a unique friendship between a Belgian artist, and a forced expelling Belgian Jew, inspired by memories of the North Sea, and perhaps by a longing for Europe, and eventually for Israel, the painting ultimately found its home in Jerusalem.
Anna Kamyshan
Nabatele 2026
In 2026, a floating symbolic synagogue, connected to a huge rock made of helium balloon, and tethered to the earth with ropes, was created by Ukrainian-Jewish artist, and architect Anna Kamyshan. The floating dwelling reflects on Jewish GaLUT - durable displacement, and the enduring search for belonging. Nabatele can be understood as a groundless MaKOM that carries collective memory while remaining in a continuous condition of GaLUT. The ropes anchoring it to the earth reveal the unresolved relationship between the idea of “Next Year in Jerusalem”, and the wandering in GaLUT.
Ultimately, Nabatele suggests that the idea of MaKOM does not necessarily require physical ground. An earthly dwelling can also exist in memory. After all, to wander in GaLUT is to inhabit a durable condition of a floating MaKOM within MaKOM.
In Anna Kamyshan’s own words [the Art Journal - 3 July, 2026]: “It is not trying to represent a state or a flag. It is more like a condition. Something floating, something that refuses to be pinned down” - “I was going through my own identity crisis because of the war. Questions of Jewish identity eventually came as an answer to many of the questions I was asking myself” - “If there is a political dimension, it is not in the form of a statement. It is in the refusal to simplify”.
Well, we are told that the name Nabatele is derived from the Slavic/Turkic word nabat, meaning an alarm, warning bell, or call to vigilance, combined, as it were, with the Yiddish diminutive suffix -ele. However, this linguistic blend may also reveal a hidden link with the Hebrew root נ־ב־ט (N-B-T), associated with looking, gazing, or beholding as well as with growing plant. In this sense, Nabatele becomes not only a symbolic MaKOM of warning and vigilance, but also a desire to see, to remember, and ultimately to be rooted.
Finally, why does a Jewish artist use gas as her material to create a symbolic BET-KNeSeT?
Signed heren
Joseph Sassoon Semah



















May be a doodle of text. May be an image of text that says 'Lemuel Gulliver signaling the flying island of Laputa: Jonathan Swift- 1726 Gulliver's Travels'. May be an image of text that says 'সলজম Rene Magritte The Castle of the Pyrenees 1959 Oil on canvas 200x145 cm collection: Israel Museum, Jerusalem.'. May be an image of boat and te










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Monday, September 22, 2025

GaLGaLIM גלגלים Wheels] 1984 : Three bicycle wheels, galvanized metal pipes, bronze, rope 104 meters..

Signed here - Joseph Semah 1984

OFAN - ANGEL, WHEEL...;





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Friday, August 15, 2025

Museum Schloss Moyland - Auschwitz and the Second World War in the work of Joseph Beuys 30 March - 2 November 2025 - Once again, Auschwitz is being misused to save Joseph Beuys's reputation, now at Castle Moyland

PLEASE READ FULL TEXT.
My text contribution for:
De VRIJDAGAVOND
Online Joodse Magazine.
Once again, Auschwitz is being misused to save Joseph Beuys's reputation, now at Castle Moyland








Auschwitz misbruikt om de reputatie van Joseph Beuys te redden, nu in Kasteel Moyland
Dutch version
English version:
I am really saddened [...once again] to read about the new attempt of 'Museum Schloss Moyland, Germany', to falsify the history of "Joseph Beuys, and Auschwitz":
Museum Schloss Moyland - Auschwitz and the Second World War in the work of Joseph Beuys 30 March - 2 November 2025
Excerpt press release:........"It reveals that throughout his career, from the 1940s to the 1980s, Beuys consistently engaged with themes of the Second World War and, most notably, Auschwitz, expressing these profound historical traumas in a variety of artistic ways"

Please note, the curators of - Auschwitz and the Second World War in the work of Joseph Beuys - Alexander Grönert [who actually visited me, and Linda Bouws [curator of 'On Friendship / (Collateral Damage') in 2024, in our home, in Amsterdam], and Angela Steffen, still refrain from inviting, or even mentioning our project.

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) IV
HOW TO EXPLAIN HARE HUNTING TO A DEAD GERMAN ARTIST
There is no secret here, Jose[f]ph Beuys was not busy, neither with the Jewish Shoah, nor with the history of Auschwitz in particular.
Of the outcome of the argument, there is no doubt, a project as such cannot be spontaneous, it must have a cause - namely, an attempt to rewrite a certain history. So, as we all know, there is visible evidence - Jose[f]ph Beuys never mentioned the Shoah or Auschwitz in his entire creative life. That is, except on behalf of these two events.
1.
Jose[f]ph Beuys simply participated in 1957 [...one artist out of 300 artists] in an international architectural competition, which was organized by the International Union of Architects UIA, and the International Auschwitz Committee. The subject was to design a monument in the territory of Auschwitz II - Birkenau concentration camp - to commemorate as it were, the victims, and to serve as a MaKOM [a Place] of universal remembrance.
Hereafter, one should remember that Jose[f]ph Beuys' proposal was to transform the entire area of Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp into a [symbolic] Catholic Cathedral.
See my reaction/interview [SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG MAGAZIN 7 May 2021]
page 32
Joseph Sassoon Semah (artist):
The idea of erecting a memorial in Auschwitz is shameful per se. Auschwitz itself is already always the memorial. But his [Jose[f]ph Beuys] design was particularly inadequate: Two huge red gates, resembling guillotines, accompanied by a huge solar collector symbolizing a bowl of sacramental bread [Communion Bread]. Me as a jew I find that offensive, to say the least.
Joseph Sassoon Semah (artist):
He [Jose[f]ph Beuys] hardly ever mentioned the word Auschwitz, and when he did, it was often in unworthy contexts. He never really acknowledged his past. In this case, one must be suspicious of his theories.
Joseph Sassoon Semah (artist):
To me, he [Jose[f]ph Beuys] was never a Green, more of a Brown. His idea of a utopian state “Eurasia” presented in 1968 reintroduced the concept of blood and soil. He raved about Genghis Khan, one of the greatest killers in world history, and the chosen Celts and Teutons [GERMANIA].
2.
Entwürfe für Mahnmal Auschwitz
Auschwitz-Demonstration 1968
Sketch preparation for Monument of Auschwitz 1957,
glass vitrine with objects from 1956 - 1964
Collection Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany
At bottom, therefore, in the act of looking at an artwork, hidden significances are transmuted – and this in fact is the sum-total of the world [words] of Writing.
The stretched lay-out, in which the artwork merely serves to convey, and to reveal the ChaLaL חָלָל [Void /the Killed Soldier] of Writing: Hereafter, the visible retreating of our gaze at an artwork, must eventually transforms itself into a political action i.e. into a contemporary critical Writing.
Finally, I still can't find any critical response to the attempt of Museum Schloss Moyland/ Auschwitz and the Second World War in the work of Joseph Beuys to rewrite the history of Jos[f]eph Beuys.
24.2.1948
PS
Joseph Sassoon Semah 24.2.1986: Statement + Performance
Page 58 -61
How to Explain Hare Hunting to a Dead German Artist
.....As the Guest goes back into the past, reconsidering his memories one by one, he could still hear Jose[f]ph Beuys' dictum - "How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare" - in an indefinable language i.e. broken Hebrew. Later on, the Guest will explain that the dead Hare is a symbolic Jew, and that the masked Jose[f]ph Beuys continues to hide his secret strategy, namely, the desire to erase the memory of the Guest (The Jew).
And then at a certain moment, on 24.2.1986, the symbolic Dead Hare took his revenge - he started to Explain in proper Hebrew עברית Ivrit to a Dead German Artist about the symbolic ציד ארנבות Hare Hunting i.e. the hunting of Jews.
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Monday, June 3, 2019

Leonard Cohen







HiNENI הנני,..... “Here I Am” in Hebrew.
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Monday, April 1, 2019

עיר מקלט IR MiKLaT City of Refuge/Shelter [Epistemic מקום MaKOM in MaKOM] 1986

IR MiKLaT  City of Refuge 
[Epistemic מקום MaKOM in MaKOM] 1986
2x - wood, bronze, 200 x 72 x 200 cm.







I have placed two identical objects, (i.e., two identical footnotes), 
at two different locations in Amsterdam.
1. The first object was placed in the bedroom of Gert Meijerink, 
art historian and curator - to be identified as a Private Space.
2. The second object was placed in - Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam - 
to be identified as a Public Space.

King James Bible, Numbers 35:28 'Because he (the one who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally) should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the slayer shall return into the land of his possession."

In this context, then, the invisible 'City of Refuge/Shelter', 
which I have constructed between the two identical objects, is again a certain movement between the Private and the Public spaces - but whereas the childhood memory of a public entrance of a bomb shelter is still driven by the effect of fear - the constructed 'City of Refuge/Shelter' is driven by the influence of a changing physical locations, and so it should be considered as a "Public Confession".
Please note:
this "Public Confession" has been essentially a symbol of sorrow; 
my sincere request for forgiveness -
that is, the eternal theme of the 'poetry' of the soldier - 
the War and the veil of its smell.
Thus gradually, the world of the soldier merges with the world of death, 
and this is the soldier's memory of the act of killing.
It is not, however, until the end of the war, 
that the opposition between the significance of life and the intolerable burden of being a soldier becomes apparent. 
What remains, is not a memory, but simply a "Public Confession". 

A soldier / kisses / a bird / on a garden path.
Still a soldier / even though all around / is a diadem / of birds.
Their shadow / is a bride / And one bird / kisses his mouth (A false promise)
An image / a portrait / of a soldier / I saw him / 
A man swollen up 
One died / 
He left the land/

We are all bound by the law(s) of the Private and the Public Space, in the sense that we are always already residing in a system of possibilities and limits within which we evolve our own spatial memory. But at the same time, we are also busy deciding, what the Guest's condition should be. 
Consequently, by placing a recognizable object in the Public Space, and calling it an artwork, we are reinforcing its invisible element - 
the MaKOM in MaKOM which is at once a constraining framework and a system of possibilities to be exploited by the public. True, the Public Space and the Private Space are social design, a physical entities that transform different areas of everyday life into the act of Reading while Writing. 
In these terms, then, we can observe that the form of the Private Space is a kept secret, 
and it remains a connecting KaV ( i.e., line, cord, string, outline), 
even if sometimes the KaV seems to be a Public knowledge. 
In the end, by imposing the Private Writing on the Publicness of Reading, one could keep out of sight, and sometime if needed, one could reveal his own authentic Name.

The form of the artworks is based on a childhood memory of a public entrance of a bomb shelter, in Tel-Aviv, Israel.


Please note;
between the two objects, (that is to say, between the Private Space and the Public Space) I have designated an invisible square - an invisible territory - a frame of mind  - a spatial space - a void, to remind us of the idea of the 'City of Refuge/Shelter';

 All of the unintentional man slayers went into  עיר מקלט -  CITY OF REFUGE - they were forced to leave their home, for a long staying in GaLUT (Diaspora); this is GaLUT within the Holy Land!

..."To begin with, גלות GaLUT is not an Exile, neither Diaspora, nor an existing Place; GaLUT is simply a disciplined activity, an intensive vision, and it is what GaLUT proceeds to do - to transform each and every temporary מקום MaKOM of shelter, into a perpetual search for a Hand Full of Soil. At this point, one can say that the depiction of MaKOM in MaKOM in GaLUT is an idea of a constant doubling; That is to say, that the depiction of MaKOM in GaLUT, is nothing but a double mirror-image of itself by itself. But behind all these, there is another reality, that is of an absolute Reading, to be defined in terms of the enduring action of Writing. And in return, one can say that there is one single universal Reading, -  a singular universal object - and this is the TeMUNaH (an image of a picture) of a human גולגולת GULGOLeT, (Skull); The primary element of sanctity which continues to re-assume its lucidity by the act of Reading while Writing. Here, then, the action of measuring in GaLUT, is a way to define אופק OFeK, ( Horizon, Restraining ) - the KaV, (line, cord, string, streak, outline)  which separate the Doubling of MaKOM from the absence of MaKOM. But soon, everything would be a measurement, a measurement in the public sphere, a limited and primitive gesture of a (certain) memory, of a constant Doubling - and this is precisely the significance of the Promise which has been initiated and established in GaLUT. And GaLUT is the world, the lay-out of a double mirror-image of the world thrown across. 
Remember, this is the logical predicament of GaLUT's subversive system; we shall call it, 'Reading while Writing', for it is a gesture which displays itself exclusively in maximizing the act of Measurement in MOED, (appointed time, specific date, commemorative date,). 

 Joseph Semah: The Doubling of מקום MaKOM.
In this context, then, the invisible 'City of Refuge/Shelter', which I have constructed between the two identical objects, is again a certain movement between the Private and the Public spaces - but whereas the childhood memory, namely, my private memory of a public entrance of a bomb shelter is still driven by the effect of fear; the constructed 'City of Refuge', is driven by the influence of a changing physical locations, and so it should be considered as a Public Confession.
King James Bible, Numbers 35:28 
Because he (the one who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally) should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the slayer shall return into the land of his possession.
We are all bound by the law(s) of the Private and the Public Space, in the sense that we are always already residing in a system of possibilities and limits within which we evolve our own spatial memory. 
But at the same time, we are always busy deciding, what the Other's condition should be. 
Consequently, by placing a recognizable object in the Public Space, and calling it an artwork, we are reinforcing as it were, its invisible element - the void which is at once a constraining framework and a system of possibilities to be exploited by the public.

True, the Public Space and the Private Space are social design, a physical entities that transform different areas of everyday life into the act of Reading while Writing.
In these terms, then, we can observe that the form of the Private Space is a kept secret, and it remains a connecting KaV ( i.e., line, cord, string, outline), even if sometimes the KaV seems to be a Public knowledge.
In the end, by imposing the Private Writing on the Publicness of Reading, one could keep out of sight, or even reveal his status, as needed.




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