Beshert | “It’s Rare to Meet a Kindred Spirit…”
In 1993, my PR agency was launching a German company’s product. I was collecting the team at Montreal’s Dorval airport. Two men were arriving from...
Pandemic Strips Some Israeli Citizens Living Abroad of Their Right to Vote
Louis Fishman, a professor at Brooklyn College, usually splits his time between New York City, Tel Aviv and Istanbul. Since the beginning of the pandemic,...
Go Forth and Invite: Passover Message From Moment
Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein calls on the Jewish community to tackle anti-Semitism and COVID-19 at the same time by using the freedom of virtual seders to...
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.
Make RBG’s Birthday a National Holiday
This March 15th, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would have been 88. Over the last year of her life, she and I collaborated on...
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.
Jews in the Middle: Who Are the Jewish Independent Voters?
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1. The Jewish vote is in....
Beshert | The Meant-To-Be Coffee Pot
Judi Connery admired her mother’s classic coffee pot painting. In the midst of a pandemic, when she needed it most, the coffee pot found her.
‘The Vigil’: Dark Night of the Soul
Keith Thomas’s new horror movie The Vigil centers around a night of shmirah, the act of guarding a dead body from the moment of death...
The State of Democracy 2021: A Conversation with David Brooks and Robert Siegel
Now that we are almost halfway through the Biden Administration’s first 100 days, what is the current state of our democracy? Will Democrats and Republicans be able to put their differences aside and work together? What is the fallout from January 6th? Can Americans come back together again? New York Times columnist David Brooks is in conversation with Robert Siegel, Moment special literary contributor and former senior host of NPR’s All Things Considered. The State of Democracy is a Moment series hosted by Robert Siegel.
Beshert | A Pandemic Pup with a Name of Her Own
We called her Toots, for about a day. And then I could not look at our wild-haired, chipmunk-size puppy and call her that name, which...
Queen Esther Goes to Hollywood
The pivotal moment is when Esther decides to come unbidden before the king.
She asks the eunuch Hegai for a chariot, but he refuses her and...