Lecture

In the basement of the Islamic Art Museum (http://www.islamicart.co.il/default-eng.asp ) is a long rectangular room not very well suited to concerts and lectures. Last year it was the venue for a wonderful concert (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/yinon-muallem.html ). The musicians were on a little platform in the center of the long wall. My seat in the middle of the second row of plastic chairs was great. The folks at the far ends may have felt out of it, though we were all an appreciative audience.

This year I've been attending a lecture series there. Rafael Yisraeli's explanations of the bases of fundamentalist Islam are a mixture of admiration and wariness. He lectures frojm along the short wall by the horse armor. From the seats I've had, I had trouble making out what he wrote on the whiteboard and people in the irregular rows ahead of be often block my view of the lecturer, but the content puts what I already know into a broader context, diluting my ignorance.

Copyright 2009 Jane S. Fox