Kyiv Diary 3/30/2022: ‘A Pretense of Normal Life’
There is a surreal calm in Kyiv.
The Jews of Iran: Antisemitism and the Great Exodus with Roya Hakakian and Sarah Breger
While Jews have lived in Iran for centuries, today’s Jewish community numbers around 10,000, down from 100,000 Jews prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Roya Hakakian, author of Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran and A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious, shares what life was like prior to the revolution, the antisemitism that caused most Jews to flee and what life is like now for the Iranian Jewish community. Hakakian is in conversation with Moment editor Sarah Breger.
This program is part of a Moment series on antisemitism supported by the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation.
In Israel, Jewish and Non-Jewish Ukrainian Refugees Face Separate Policies
The question of which refugees Israel should admit has quickly evolved into a debate over the meaning of Zionism and the Jewish character of the state.
Kyiv Diary 3/28/2022: ‘We Fled Our Homes Not Knowing if We Would Ever Return’
We fled our homes and our beloved cities not knowing if we would ever return. And this makes us refugees.
A New Power Structure in the Middle East
While not spelled out directly, Secretary Anthony Blinken was essentially told that there is a new power structure in the Middle East.
Kyiv Diary 3/25/2022: ‘People Just Want To Survive. So, They Adapt to War’
Despite feeling constant danger, life seems to go on.
The Hollywood Blacklist and Its Jewish Legacy with Glenn Frankel and Margaret Talbot
During the Red Scare and Hollywood blacklist period of the late 1950s, thousands of Americans, many of them Jews, were persecuted for their political beliefs, imperiling democracy. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Glenn Frankel, author of three books exploring the making of iconic American movies, including Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic, discusses the role of studio moguls, some of whom were Jewish; the damage done by the blacklist; the period’s eerie similarities to our own troubled era; and more. Frankel is in conversation with Margaret Talbot, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of The Entertainer: Movies, Magic, and My Father’s Twentieth Century. This program is part of a Moment series on antisemitism supported by the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation.
Bridgerton, Gossip and Marriage: What Does It Mean to Know Your Partner?
The world of Bridgerton, with its focus on gossip and knowledge, is very reminiscent of the Jewish dating scene in the Orthodox world.
Kyiv Diary 3/21/2022: ‘Love Is in the Air’
Love is in the air. Love for Ukraine, for the beloved city, for the defenders, and for each other.
Our Ahistorical Antisemitism
Joshua Harmon’s new play Prayer for the French Republic draws us into the life of a French Jewish family struggling to decide whether it is safe to remain in the country they have called home for generations.
Kyiv Diary 3/20/22: ‘Heartbroken Adults Are Forced To Leave the Elderly Behind’
Moment is publishing regular updates from Helen, a Soviet American Jew living in Kyiv. Read all the diary entries here.
These last nights were quiet. But nevertheless, we...
Black and Jewish views on Critical Race Theory with Janet Dewart Bell, Mia Brett, Eric K. Ward and Nadine Epstein
Nothing shines a light on the political divide in the United States more than three words – critical race theory. What is CRT and why has it become a lightning rod issue at school board meetings, state capitols and around dinner tables across the country? Is systemic racism something we should be worried about, even in the Jewish community? What are memory laws and are they a threat to our democracy? And shouldn’t we all feel uncomfortable when learning about uncomfortable issues? Dr. Janet Dewart Bell, author of Race, Rights, and Redemption: The Derrick Bell Lectures on Law and Critical Race Theory and writer Dr. Mia Brett, joins Eric K. Ward, executive director of Western States Center and Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein to discuss how intellectual conversations about the intersection of race and law developed in the 1970s have been misunderstood and led to this latest buzzword tearing communities apart. Our thinkers also discuss how CRT fits into the Black – Jewish conversation.
This program is part of The Wide River Project, a yearlong, joint initiative of Western States Center and Moment that will take a deep dive—and fresh look—into the art, history and issues that both unite and divide the Black and Jewish communities.