Seven synagogues torched in Tehran

Seven ancient synagogues in the Iranian capital, Tehran, have been destroyed by local authorities.

The synagogues were in the Oudlajan suburb of Tehran, where many Iranian Jews used to live.

"These buildings, which were part of our cultural, artistic and architectural heritage were burnt to the ground," said Ahmad Mohit Tabatabaii, the director of the International Council of Museums’ (ICOM) office in Tehran.

"With the excuse of renovating this ancient quarter, they are erasing a part of our history," said Tabatabaii.

That's from Adnkronos International, via Solomonia. I noted in January a similar effort to destroy historical buildings in Old Damascus.

* Update: In a comment below, Sam Kermanian of the Iranian American Jewish Federation says the synagogues were razed but not torched:

The synagogues in question were in the old Jewish ghetto which has long been evacuated by the community and the synagogues themselves were deserted for decades and essentially decayed. Although they are part of Jewish History, the truth is that none were of cultural, historical or archituctral significance.

'LA is the apocalypse'

I'm taking off right now to interview Jonah Lehrer about his first book, "Proust Was a Neuroscientist," so I saw it fitting to finally write about this post I saw on his blog a few weeks ago, a link to BLDGBLOG, a well-written architecture blog.

L.A. is the apocalypse: it's you and a bunch of parking lots. No one's going to save you; no one's looking out for you. It's the only city I know where that's the explicit premise of living there – that's the deal you make when you move to L.A.

The city, ironically, is emotionally authentic.

It says: no one loves you; you're the least important person in the room; get over it.

What matters is what you do there.

And maybe that means renting Hot Fuzz and eating too many pretzels; or maybe that means driving a Prius out to Malibu and surfing with Daryl Hannah as a means of protesting something; or maybe that means buying everything Fredric Jameson has ever written and even underlining significant passages as you visit the Westin Bonaventura. Maybe that just means getting into skateboarding, or into E!, or into Zen, Kabbalah, and Christian mysticism; or maybe you'll plunge yourself into gin-fueled all night Frank Sinatra marathons – or you'll lift weights and check email every two minutes on your Blackberry and watch old Bruce Willis films.

Who cares?

Literally no one cares, is the answer. No one cares. You're alone in the world.

(skip)

Los Angeles is where you confront the objective fact that you mean nothing; the desert, the ocean, the tectonic plates, the clear skies, the sun itself, the Hollywood Walk of Fame – even the parking lots: everything there somehow precedes you, even new construction sites, and it's bigger than you and more abstract than you and indifferent to you. You don't matter. You're free.

I used to hate LA. When I first moved here for college, I started referring to San Diego as the Promised Land that I once took for granted. But now I love it here. I don't feel as lonely as this writer implies most Angelenos do; I've never felt like I'm missing the neighborly support that other big cities supposedly offer. But, then again, I've got quite a few UCLA buddies still around, and I'm married.

What implications, though, does this psychological breakdown carry for religiosity and spirituality in the carefree city?

'Holy Hampton Hostilities'

"Goldman Ex-Partner, Hedge-Fund Chief Sender Fight Over Church." That's a headline on Bloomberg.com this morning, and the issue at hand is as ridiculous as it might suggest.

Dennis Suskind, formerly of Goldman Sachs, has bought a Methodist church in Sag Harbor, New York with plans to turn it into a house, and Adam Sender, the manager of Exis Capital, is pouting because he says he wanted to buy it for the purpose of showcasing his collection of contemporary art.

The fact that two money machers are arguing over gets to rip apart a place many consider holy in order to satisfy personal ambitions may just be the most telling sign yet that we are in the thick of an age of excess. But that's beyond the scope of this blog.

That might be the case for the Figure Painting blog on Portfolio's site, where I found this post, but its not outside the scope of The God Blog.

This reminds a little bit of the money changers doing business in the Temple. And yet, if churches are not being used for religious services, there is nothing inherently sacred inside their walls. Regardless of any amount of sacrilege, I thinks it's safe to we're living in a time of "irrational exuberance."