Shooting Midnight Cowboy Movie Cover and pictures of Moment Zoominar speakers.

The Making of Midnight Cowboy with Journalist Glenn Frankel and Film Historian Rebecca Prime

In an era when a new wave of movies pushed the boundaries of mainstream filmmaking, Midnight Cowboy stands out as the riskiest, most unconventional, and most successful of them all. Glenn Frankel’s new book, Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic, explores the making of the only X-rated film to win a Best Picture Oscar and offers a window onto the creative ferment and social unrest that gripped New York and America in the 1960s: the rise of gay liberation, the treatment of sexual themes in popular culture, and the role of Jewish artists such as director John Schlesinger and star Dustin Hoffman. Glenn, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, in conversation with film historian and scholar Rebecca Prime, managing editor of Film Quarterly.

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The Rise of Antisemitism in France with French Journalist Marc Weitzmann and Robert Siegel

French journalist Marc Weitzmann, author of Hate: The Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism in France in conversation with Robert Siegel, Moment special literary contributor and former senior host of NPR’s All Things Considered, about the history and current state of anti-Semitism facing the Jews of France.

This program is hosted by Moment Magazine with the support of the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation.

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A Tale of a Niggun by Elie Wiesel with Elisha Wiesel and Mark Podwal

A Tale of a Niggun by Elie Wiesel with Elisha Wiesel and Mark Podwal

After Elie Wiesel died, a little-known narrative poem that he wrote in the 1970s, A Tale of a Niggun, was rediscovered. Based on an actual event during the Holocaust, the poem was so moving that it was turned into a book. Join Elie’s son Elisha—who pays tribute to his father with the book’s introduction— and Elie’s dear friend—award-winning artist Mark Podwal—who illustrated the book, as they discuss how the poem was discovered, why it is so important and the power of wordless Jewish melodies. With Moment Editor-in-Chief Nadine Epstein, editor of Elie Wiesel: An Extraordinary Life.

Held in observance of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

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Vietnam

A Jewish Vietnam Veteran Looks Back 50 years on the Moral Journey that Changed His Life

From 1968 to 1969, Moment Senior Editor George Johnson served as an Army intelligence advisor in the CIA’s Phoenix Program in South Vietnam.  Based on his memoir When One’s Duty and the Right Thing are not the Same, Johnson discusses his assignment to this once-secret intelligence program and the Army’s program for “pacification” of Vietnamese villages. He also discusses how his reservations about the war caused him, upon return from Vietnam and to civilian life, to call for an accounting for the war and to re-orient his life toward Judaism and Jewish social action. This program is in honor of National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

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Adapting Jewish Literature: Yentl and A Tale of Love and Darkness with Fania Oz-Salzberger, Ruby Namdar and Rokhl Kafrissen

Adapting Jewish Literature: Yentl and A Tale of Love and Darkness with Fania Oz-Salzberger, Ruby Namdar and Rokhl Kafrissen

Fania Oz-Salzberger, Ruby Namdar and Rokhl Kafrissen join in conversation about what it means to adapt Jewish literature for the big screen.

While many Jewish filmmakers choose to write their own material and draft their own stories, others turn to interpretation. This program compares two films that share biographical features, Yentl and A Tale of Love and Darkness. Though released decades apart, both were directed by acclaimed actresses making their directorial debuts, Barbara Streisand and Natalie Portman respectively. These women notably adapted literary works written by men and their star power was critical to getting these films made.

Historian Fania Oz-Salzberger shares personal insights about her father, acclaimed Israeli writer Amos Oz, and his autobiographical novel A Tale of Love and Darkness and author and educator Ruby Namdar considers the film and the legacy of the memoir. Critic and playwright Rokhl Kafrissen explores Yentl, based on a play and short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer.

This program is a collaboration between Moment Magazine and REWIND: The Shenson Retrospective Film Series, a project of Stanford’s Taube Center for Jewish Studies. Both movies can be watched on Amazon Prime.

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The Holocaust in Latin America: A Conversation with Ilan Stavans and Andrés Spokoiny

The Holocaust and Antisemitism in Latin America: A Conversation with Ilan Stavans and Andrés Spokoiny

Much attention is focused on anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States, but many Latin American countries also have a troubled history with their Jewish communities. Learn about the continent’s checkered past when it comes to the Holocaust and Nazis as well as recent manifestations of anti-Semitism with Mexican American writer and scholar Ilan Stavans, author of The Seventh Heaven: Travels Through Jewish Latin America and Andrés Spokoiny, president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network, who grew up in Argentina.

This program is part of a Moment series on anti-Semitism supported by the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation.

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