Ask the Rabbis | How Do You Deal With People in Your Community Who Don’t Want to Get Vaccinated?
I don’t. It is not my place to nudge people to get or not to get vaccinated.
Oh, I Remember the Black Birch: Play Reading and Talkback w/ Velina Hasu Houston & Keren M. Goldberg
This program is part of the 2021 Moment Theater Festival.
In the Autumn of 1941, 18-year-old Brina Berman, a Jewish Polish young woman from Warsaw, finds herself alone in Kobe, Japan, having traveled halfway across the world following the Nazi invasion of her hometown and murder of her family. Thus unfolds a little-known true story of what happened to Jewish refugees when Japanese Diplomat Chiune Sugihara was stationed in Kovno, Lithuania and wrote transit visas to Japan, saving thousands of Jews who were running from the advancing German army. Seen through her many struggles in Kobe, Brina is surprised to find an established Jewish community and nurturing Japanese residents and organizations working to support the arriving Jewish refugees.
The cast, director, and playwright of Oh, I Remember the Black Birch discuss their new original play about a young Jewish woman struggling in a new country and finding community during the Holocaust. Playwright Velina Hasu Houston is also in conversation with producer and dramaturg Keren M. Goldberg about the journey of Oh, I Remember the Black Birch which is inspired by true events.
Moment Debate | Is the Filibuster Good for Democracy?
Democracy entails more than merely majority rule. It implies concern about minority rights.
Staff Picks: From ‘Mrs. Maisel’ to ‘Of Mice and Men’
What we’re reading—and watching—this week.
Why 1973, 1977, 1989 & 1993 are Critical Years at the end of the 20th Century with Deborah Dash Moore and Robert Siegel
From Watergate, the assassination of Allende in Chile and the Yom Kippur War to the election of Menachem Begin, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the march for Soviet Jewry and the signing of the Oslo Accords, a lot happened in the world in 1973, 1977, 1989 and 1993. Join American Jewish historian, Deborah Dash Moore, editor-in-chief at The Posen Library for a discussion about these events and the impact they had on the Jewish community. Moore is in conversation with Robert Siegel, Moment special literary contributor and former senior host of NPR’s All Things Considered.
This program is a continuation of Moment’s time symposium where we explored the most important years in Jewish history and is cosponsored with The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization.
QAnon’s Antisemitic Roots with Mia Bloom, Sophia Moskalenko and Sarah Posner
In their new book Pastels and Pedophiles, cybersecurity expert Dr. Mia Bloom and Dr. Sophia Moskalenko, a psychologist specializing in radicalization, show how much the recent QAnon movement owes to antisemitic tropes and, most notably, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Bloom and Moskalenko are in conversation with journalist Sarah Posner, author of UNHOLY: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump.
This program is part of Moment’s Antisemitism series supported by the Joyce and Irving Goldman Foundation.
The Fifth (Jewish) Beatle with Walter J. Podrazik and Harry Castleman
Walter J. Podrazik and Harry Castleman, authors of All Together Now – the first complete Beatles discography 1961-1975, discuss Brian Epstein, the Jewish record store owner who discovered and managed the Beatles.
RBG’S Brave and Brilliant Women with Nadine Epstein and Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt
Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein, author of RBG’s Brave & Brilliant Women: 33 Jewish Women to Inspire Everyone, is in conversation about the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her favorite female Jewish role models with Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, the Washington DC rabbi who was friends with Justice Ginsburg and officiated at her funeral.
Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury with Evan Osnos and Peter Osnos
In his latest book, Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury, Evan Osnos, a staff writer at The New Yorker, illuminates the forces that have led to the American breakdown. Evan is in conversation with his father, journalist Peter Osnos and author of An Especially Good View: Watching History Happen, about his new book as well as what it means to be a Jew in America today.
The Conversation
I had difficulty finishing this piece since I was laughing so hard that my vision was blurry.
Spice Box | My Grandma Was a Rolling Stone
Send your unmarked original newspaper clippings, curiosities and photographs to editor@momentmag.com.
A Secret Identity with Daniela Gerson and Robert Siegel
Nazi hunter and international lawyer Allan Gerson, who represented victim’s families after the Lockerbie bombing, didn’t know his real name until he was 12 years old. Born at the end of World War II, Allan and his family, out of desperation, eventually entered the United States under assumed names. Daniela Gerson, assistant professor of journalism at California State University, Northridge, discusses her father’s book Lies that Matter and what it was like learning about her family’s past secrets. Daniela is in conversation with Robert Siegel, Moment special literary contributor and former senior host of NPR’s All Things Considered.