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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Dec. 12, 2005 / 11 Kislev, 5766

MOMA's SAFE exhibit is just too risky

By Lenore Skenazy


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Usually a museum visit leaves you feeling pretty great. You've seen some art, some genius and you feel high on mankind's creativity, as well as on your own classy, museum-going self.


Stop by the Museum of Modern Art anytime soon, however, and be prepared to leave feeling fetid.


"SAFE: Design Takes On Risk" is the show that'll do it — room after room of smart, slick items, all beautifully designed to protect us from the sicko world we are stuck in. Items like bulletproof blankets, because who knows who's gonna climb through the fire escape? And tiny hermetically sealed tents for babies to sleep in — during bioterror attacks.


You've got your bombproof windows (invented in Israel — big surprise), and your bulletproof face masks, because bulletproof vests leave the head a tempting target. Then there are the stilt-like shoes built to walk the wearer safely through a minefield. The little card next to them notes that every 20 minutes, someone, somewhere is killed or maimed by a mine.


"From paper cuts to genocide" is how curator Paola Antonelli describes the range of threats her show addresses. And she really does have some paper-cut level doodads thrown in to buoy the soul. The "banana bunker," for instance, is a curved, clear plastic case built to protect a single banana from bruising. Then there's the Swiss Fondue Earthquake Safety Table. This looks like a cheery red kitchen table, but attached to its underside are disaster necessities ranging from clean water and a fire extinguisher to fondue forks and cheese.


Silly, funny, cute. And real.


But then you're back to other real stuff, like the interlocking silver rings that double as brass knuckles. (This Christmas, for her?) And high-tech camouflage that allows warriors to infiltrate any environment. (For him?)


The weapons and armor are new, but great minds throughout history have always been devising new ways to keep us alive. Many a museum show has been devoted to their handiwork, but these were never as shocking because the objects were antique. The suits of armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for instance, just look shiny and cool. Most of us don't give much thought to how miserable it must have been living in an era when young men jousted each other to death.


Likewise, if you tour pretty much anywhere in the world, your guide will eventually bring you to a breathtaking castle. How beautiful it is! How you'll wish it contained a reasonably priced bed and breakfast! But roll back the clock 500 years and this was the place crazed peasants were clamoring to get into before the guys behind them slit their throats. Moats, drawbridges, canons, swords — these may seem romantic today, but they were all lifesaving breakthroughs in their day.


Which only means that sometime in the future museumgoers may ooh and ahh over the varied stuff on display at SAFE. How cute the baby gas mask will seem! Maybe they'll buy a postcard of it.


Then again, that's only if the SAFE devices do their job, right?

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Lenore Skenazy is a columnist for The New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here.

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© 2005, NY Daily News

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