Since the Civil War, over 400 rabbis have offered prayers during the opening sessions of Congress. C-SPAN Communications Director Howard Mortman shares fascinating stories about some of these rabbis, the mixing of politics into prayers and how words of Torah are tied to the issues of the day.
Louie Kemp recounts his lifelong friendship with Bob Dylan, who he met at Jewish summer camp, and which he wrote about in his book Dylan and Me: 50 Years of Adventure. Louie also talks about the 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue that he produced, a concert tour featuring Bob Dylan and other performers like Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell. Joining Louie is Kinky Friedman who performed in the Revue in 1976 and wrote the forward for Dylan and Me.
Esther Safran Foer, author of the recently released I Want You to Know We’re Still Here, shares her deeply moving story about her journey to learn more about her father’s family. It was not until Esther was an adult that she discovered her father had a previous wife and daughter, both killed in the Holocaust. Interviewed by her dear friend and former NPR All Things Considered host, Robert Siegel, Esther reveals how she became a detective and traveled the world in search of the family she never knew she had.
Aimee Ginsburg Bikel, Theo’s wife and director of the Theodore Bikel Legacy Project, gives us an up-close and personal look at the man behind the legend. Aimee shares stories about Theo’s life, from his acting roles to a sampling of his folk music, as well as his passion for tikkun olam (repair of the world). Aimee also presents an excerpt from her recently released book, Theodore Bikel’s: The City of Light, which recounts moments from Theo’s childhood in Vienna.
When she was growing up in England, Moment senior editor Dina Gold used to listen to her grandmother’s stories about her glamorous life in 1920s Berlin and of her dreams of one day recovering the building which, she claimed, had been stolen from the family by the Nazis, Dina talks about her search to unearth the details of her long-dead grandmother’s claims and the legal case she launched to recover the property.
Former New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff shows how his Jewish heritage helped him become a successful cartoonist.
