14 Apr
Moment Magazine

Moment’s 2018 Publish-A-Kid Contest

ATTENTION: STUDENTS, TEACHERS, LIBRARIANS, PARENTS & GRANDPARENTS Moment is an independent magazine that illuminates the political, cultural and religious complexities of the Jewish world. Our tagline is “The Next 5,000 Years of Conversation Begin Here,” and one of our missions is to educate and engage to expand the Jewish conversation. Moment’s Publish-A-Kid contest encourages children to read and think about what they are reading by writing book reviews! All they need to do is read a book (see list below) and write a 300 word or less review explaining what they think and feel about the book in their own words. Winning entries will be published at momentmag.com (and maybe even in print!) and winners will receive a book selected by our editors. Here are a few questions to get started: Why should other kids or grown-ups read this book? Why is...

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19 Sep
Uncategorized

September/October 2017

Profile Simon Schama Steals the Show The effusive British historian and master storyteller returns for part two of the history of the Jewish people. by Liam Hoare Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative Strangers in their own land The end of the long civil war between Sri Lanka’s Buddhists and Tamils promised peace. Instead, Buddhist nationalists found a new enemy: their Muslim neighbors.  by May Jeong Our Nation 2017 After the Cyber-storm The nation’s attention has shifted elsewhere, but Whitefish, the small Montana town hit by a neo-Nazi harassment campaign, is still recovering. By Ellen Wexler Book Interview Max Brooks The preeminent zombie expert—who has taught disaster preparedness at West Point—explains why the video game, Minecraft, is his new obsession. By Ellen Wexler From The Editor The new face of white supremacism by Nadine Epstein Opinion Younger evangelicals are less committed to Israel by Mark Pinsky Can Jared Kushner find a new path to peace? by Marshall...

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Nadine Epstein
03 Nov
2016 November-December, From the Editor

From The Editor // November/December 2016

This incredibly polarizing presidential campaign and election are finally behind us. To quote from Robert Hunter’s lyrics in the Grateful Dead song “Truckin’,” “…what a long, strange trip it has been.” This was a campaign like no other in my memory. Along with so many Americans, I was horrified by the angry rhetoric regularly hurled at immigrants, women, Mexicans, Muslims, African-Americans, and, yes, Jews. And like so many American Jews, I was continually surprised by how many times Jews, Judaism and various Jewish-related controversies came to dominate the news cycle. Although accustomed by now to playing a prominent role in presidential elections, American Jews today are less used to this kind of attention. Sadly, this campaign will be remembered for numerous incidents that either were discomfiting to Jews or, in some cases, constituted outright...

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17 Aug
Jewish World

List of Jewish Genetic Diseases

The discovery of DNA and subsequent research has opened a new door of understanding into health, helping to uncover the genetic reasons for many diseases. Moment has put together this guide to help Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews learn more about this subject which does not receive enough attention. But these diseases are not limited to Jews. Due to the whims of history, genetic mutations can be found in anyone. Ashkenazi Genetic Diseases Many recessive diseases caused by genetic mutations among Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe are disabling and fatal. They occur when a fetus inherits two mutations in the same gene, one from each parent. Tests can determine if people carry the common mutations, and prenatal testing is possible for all the diseases included on the list below. Cystic Fibrosis and Spinal Muscular Atrophy, while slightly...

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16 Aug
Uncategorized

King David’s Genes

Three thousand years ago, tradition says the prophet Samuel anointed a lowly shepherd named David king of Israel. A warrior who could defeat Goliath and write love psalms, David managed to pull the quarreling Jewish tribes together into one nation and then ruled a kingdom that today remains the heart of Jewish claims to the land of Israel. Living from approximately 1040 to 970 BCE, he had at least one daughter and 22 sons, and amassed enough wealth and power for one of those sons, Solomon, to build the Temple in Jerusalem. Male descendants of King David ruled Israel until the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem in 597 BCE, and Jews scattered. Some managed to stay in Palestine, others fled to Egypt, but the victorious Babylonians took most of the nesi’im—the princes of the Davidic line—to Babylon. There, the...

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16 Aug
Uncategorized

The Evolution of David Brooks

David Brooks, that rare New York Times columnist equally criticized by liberals and conservatives alike, was born in Toronto, Canada. His father’s college teaching jobs brought the family to New York City and Philadelphia before Brooks headed off to college at the University of Chicago, where he caught the attention of William F. Buckley. After graduation, Brooks worked as a reporter for the City News Bureau, a Chicago wire service. He left for a job at Buckley’s National Review, where he made the jump to opinion journalism. Later, he edited book reviews and op-eds at The Wall Street Journal before moving on to The Weekly Standard. Brooks began his tenure as a columnist for the op-ed page of The New York Times in 2003. There were liberal readers who bristled over every column—even those that swept...

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09 Aug
Uncategorized

The Story of Sergey Brin

How the Moscow-born entrepreneur cofounded Google...and changed the way the world searches. It takes a bit of searching to find Sergey Brin’s office at the Googleplex. Tucked away in a corner of Building #43 on this sprawling campus near the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, past rows of colorfully decorated cubicles and dorm-like meeting spaces, Office 211 has a nondescript exterior and sits far from the public eye. Although it takes several twists and turns to get there, his office is not protected—as you would expect for the cofounder of a $150-billion company—by a Russian nesting doll’s worth of doors and gatekeepers. Sergey, 33, shares the space with his Google cofounder, fellow Stanford Ph.D. dropout and billionaire pal, 34-year-old Larry Page, an arrangement that began eight years ago in the company’s first humble headquarters in a...

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