What We’re Reading: George Johnson
Here, we share what Moment editors are reading and watching, from news to novels. Up this week is senior editor George Johnson, who recently explored the Jewish origins...
HRC’s Sharon Groves on Gay Rights in Religious Communities
It's been an eventful month for the gay rights movement. Last Monday, the Supreme Court declined to review rulings overturning bans on same-sex marriage in five...
What Makes Us Happy? A Symposium
The search for happiness is as old as humanity itself. In Jewish culture, the subject of happiness surfaces in biblical psalms, rabbinic commentary, Talmudic pilpul...
A Moment with Comedian Paul Reiser on His NYC Return
Comedian Paul Reiser, best known for the hit 1990s TV sitcom Mad About You, is returning to the New York City stage to perform a stand-up...
Jewish Word // Kinehora
In 2004, the stoic, cowboy-esque Clint Eastwood unexpectedly proved himself more Tevye the Dairyman than Dirty Harry. In response to a reporter’s question about the chances of his movie, Mystic River, winning the Best Picture Oscar, Eastwood cried, “Kinehora!” He explained that it was a Jewish expression used to ward off a jinx, one of countless protective folk actions intended to avoid, fool or attack evil spirits.
Sweets & Symbols on Rosh Hashanah
It's almost time for Rosh Hashanah, the sweetest holiday of the year. In case you need a little easing into the holiday spirit, here's culinary...
Recorder of Misdeeds: Interview With a Holocaust Oral Historian
Moment speaks with Noemi Szekely-Popescu, an oral historian at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum who has collected stories from hundreds of survivors in the U.S. and internationally.
Becoming Jan Karski
One of the lesser-known heroes of World War II was Jan Karski (1914-2000), an officer in the Polish Underground resistance who infiltrated the Warsaw Ghetto twice… This past April, actor David Strathairn took on the role of Karski in a dramatic reading of Derek Goldman’s play, Remember This: Walking with Jan Karski, at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Book Review // The Torture Trap
This thriller about the Israeli-Arab conflict comes with rare praise from one of the masters of suspense fiction and with a premise that suggests exploration of deep moral dilemmas. The endorsement comes from Stephen King, who says the book is “about the lies we tell ourselves until the truth is forced upon us,” and is “what great fiction is all about.”
2014 Spotlight on Poland
PREVIEW OF THE CORE EXHIBITION OF THE MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF POLISH JEWS
My personal journey to Jewish identity has taken place by way of the past. Like many immigrants from Eastern Europe, my grandparents and great-grandparents rarely spoke of the Old Country, leaving me to spend years trying to piece together the clues. This longing to know more about my family’s origins led me to genealogical research and DNA testing, to towns and shtetls in Ukraine, and to Moment.
Steve Greenberg: How Orthodox Jews Changed Their Minds On Gay Rights
Same-sex rights proponents suffered an unusual loss this week when a federal judge in Louisiana upheld the state's ban on gay marriage, bucking a domino-like chain...
Test-Tube Burgers: Holy Cow?
In Genesis, God granted humans dominion over animals. In modern times, that dominion has spawned one of the planet’s biggest threats: a livestock industry that spews greenhouse gases, guzzles resources and renders the lives of billions of animals brutish and short. Last August, vexed by the problem, a Dutch physiologist named Mark Post came up with a solution: a burger no cow had to die for. He called it the “test-tube burger.”