What Is Your Favorite Jewish Joke—And Why?
What Is Your Favorite Jewish Joke—And Why?
Jokes, including the Jewish variety, are a staple of Western civilization. Some Jewish jokes have been around for centuries...
To All Who Call in Truth with Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren and Journalist A.J. Jacobs
Former Israeli ambassador to the United States, former Knesset member, historian and prolific author Michael Oren discusses his latest novel, To All Who Call in Truth, a story about passion, betrayal, adolescence, and murder, drawing on his own experiences as a teenager growing up in New Jersey in the early 1970s. He also talks about current events in Israel. Michael is in conversation with journalist and bestselling New York Times author A.J. Jacobs.
Book Review | When Honor Fades
Morningside Heights
By Joshua Henkin
Knopf Doubleday; 304 pp.; $26.95
During the early days of the pandemic, I noticed many readers craving dramatic stories in exotic settings to...
Book Review | Greed, Drugs and Philanthropy
In this time of corrective unnamings—to remove traces of admiration or gratitude for the morally reevaluated—the names of unrepentant slaveholders, Confederate generals, contemporary sexual predators and other assorted wrongdoers have been erased or proposed for erasure from college dorms, military bases, city streets and more.
Book Review | Waiting for the Messiah in Williamsburg
How did the Satmar Hasidim come to dominate the Brooklyn neighborhood known as Williamsburg?
Book Review | Building Community One Tile at a Time
At the Museum at Eldridge Street’s Egg Rolls, Egg Creams and Empanadas street festival—a celebration of Ashkenazi Jewish, Chinese and Puerto Rican communities held each summer (pre-pandemic) on New York’s Lower East Side—groups of Chinese Americans and American Jewish women play mahjong side by side, sometimes pausing to teach younger festivalgoers how to play.
Book Review | A Writer Irreverent Even in Death
Even those familiar with the prolific English novelist and essayist Jenny Diski (1947-2016) don’t think of her as primarily a “Jewish” writer.
Jewish Pioneers in Television: The Next Generation with TV Historians Walter J. Podrazik and Harry Castleman
TV became the preeminent communication force in society from the 1960s onward, with Jews at the creative and business forefront. Walter J. Podrazik and Harry Castleman continue their entertaining survey of the medium’s history with a focus on influential figures such as Fred Silverman, Brandon Tartikoff, Barry Diller and Sumner Redstone and the groundbreaking shows they brought to the screen such as Seinfeld, Happy Days, Charlie’s Angels, Hill Street Blues, The Cosby Show, The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory plus made-for-TV movies and miniseries such as Roots. Their achievements paved the way for the growth of cable, and eventually streaming.
The Man Behind the Masks: Stan Lee and Marvel Comics with Journalists Abraham Riesman and Dan Raviv
Stanley Lieber, better known as Stan Lee, revolutionized the comic industry and helped create superheroes like Spider-Men, X-Men, Black Panther and more for Marvel Comics. Abraham Riesman, author of True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee in conversation about Lee’s complicated life and legacy with Dan Raviv, author of Comic Wars and former CBS News correspondent.
Co-sponsored by Moment Magazine and the Association of Jewish Libraries in commemoration of Jewish American Heritage Month.
Nazis Remember Their Pasts
Dina Gold reviews the new German language documentary Final Account with never before seen testimony from the last generation of WWII.
The Acid That Burns: Joy Ladin on The Book of Anna
The Book of Anna
By Joy Ladin
EOAGH Books, March 2021
$20, 151 pp.
The Book of Anna is a fictional narrative that tells the story of Czech-German Holocaust...
Crack, Bam, Dot: The Sounds and Stories of Mahjong with Author Annelise Heinz and Moment Deputy Editor Sarah Breger
Tiles clicking and clacking, women chatting – these are the childhood memories many Jewish women have of their mothers playing mahjong – a game still enjoyed today. How did a game from China make its way to America and how did it become so intertwined with Jewish culture in the United States? Annelise Heinz author of Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture takes us through the history of this beloved game. In conversation with Moment Deputy Editor Sarah Breger. In commemoration of Jewish American Heritage Month.