Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World joins former CBS News correspondent and Moment contributor Dan Raviv for a conversation about the heroic efforts of Vrba and why his report did not achieve its goal—of ending the Nazi slaughter of the Jews.
Filmmaker Ken Burns joins award-winning journalist Michael Krasny, retired public radio host of KQED Forum, for a wide open conversation about Burn’s just released book Our America: A Photographic History and the new three-part series The U.S. and the Holocaust.
This program is part of a Moment series on antisemitism supported by the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation.
When German Jewish scholars were expelled from universities after the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s, many hoped to flee to the United States. But it wasn’t easy to find educational institutions to sponsor them due to rampant antisemitism in academia. Some of the lucky ones found homes at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Join Dr. Lillie J. Edwards, Professor Emerita of History and African American studies at Drew University, for a conversation about why HBCUs offered Jewish scholars positions, the influence these teachers had on their students and the impact the students and schools had on the lives of these refugees. In conversation with Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein.
This conversation is part of a Moment series on antisemitism supported by the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation. The program is also a part of The Wide River Project, a yearlong, joint initiative of Western States Center and Moment Magazine, that takes a deep dive—and fresh look—into the art, history and issues that both unite and divide the Black and Jewish communities.
How did George Soros become targeted by the right— blamed for the world’s ills and even accused of being a Nazi? Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein in conversation with Bard College president Leon Botstein, a contributor to the new book George Soros: A Life in Full and former University of Hartford president Humphrey Tonkin, translator of Soros’ father’s memoir, Masquerade: The Incredible True Story of How George Soros’ Father Outsmarted the Gestapo, discuss the false claims and antisemitism surrounding Soros as well as efforts to support democracy throughout the world.
This program is part of a Moment series on antisemitism supported by the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation.
Actor David Strathairn, nominated for an Academy Award for his role as journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck, has dedicated himself to portraying great men. He’s currently performing as Jan Karski, the World War II hero who risked his life to carry his harrowing eye-witness report about the Holocaust from war-torn Poland to the Allied Nations and, ultimately, the White House, only to be ignored and disbelieved. Strathairn is in conversation with playwright Derek Goldman and Moment’s books and opinion editor Amy E. Schwartz about the play, Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski and why this courageous man’s story may be more relevant than ever.
This program is part of the Moment Theater Festival and part of a Moment series on antisemitism supported by the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation.
What if you could suddenly see your parents’ lives before you were born? And they were Holocaust survivors, who had suffered greatly but still somehow found each other. This is what happened to Tony-nominated director and Broadway/television actor Eleanor Reissa when her mother passed away, leaving behind 56 letters she’d received from Reissa’s father in the years after he survived a death march. It took Reissa 30 years to have them translated from German and discover her parents’ story. She discusses what she learned and her recently released memoir, The Letters Project: A Daughter’s Journey, in conversation with playwright and artistic director Yehuda Hyman. Reissa also reads several selections from her book.
This program is in commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Eric K. Ward, executive director of Western States Center and senior fellow with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Nadine Epstein, Moment editor-in-chief, grapple with the complicated conversations taking place around the Holocaust today and lay out some of the many “channels” of the complex relationship between Blacks and Jews in the U.S., starting in the early 20th century through today. Ward and Epstein introduce 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.
Ruth K. Westheimer has led a remarkable life. Long before she became a world-famous sex therapist, she escaped the Holocaust on the Kindertransport to Switzerland and was a teenage sharpshooter in the Haganah. As a young woman she studied and taught at the university in Paris before making her way to the United States—and “becoming Dr Ruth.” She is in conversation about how to live life to the fullest with Tovah Feldshuh, the six-time Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor who plays her in the Off-Broadway show Becoming Dr Ruth. Westheimer and Feldshuh are joined by Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein.
This program is part of the 2021 Moment Theater Festival.
In the Autumn of 1941, 18-year-old Brina Berman, a Jewish Polish young woman from Warsaw, finds herself alone in Kobe, Japan, having traveled halfway across the world following the Nazi invasion of her hometown and murder of her family. Thus unfolds a little-known true story of what happened to Jewish refugees when Japanese Diplomat Chiune Sugihara was stationed in Kovno, Lithuania and wrote transit visas to Japan, saving thousands of Jews who were running from the advancing German army. Seen through her many struggles in Kobe, Brina is surprised to find an established Jewish community and nurturing Japanese residents and organizations working to support the arriving Jewish refugees.
The cast, director, and playwright of Oh, I Remember the Black Birch discuss their new original play about a young Jewish woman struggling in a new country and finding community during the Holocaust. Playwright Velina Hasu Houston is also in conversation with producer and dramaturg Keren M. Goldberg about the journey of Oh, I Remember the Black Birch which is inspired by true events.
Nazi hunter and international lawyer Allan Gerson, who represented victim’s families after the Lockerbie bombing, didn’t know his real name until he was 12 years old. Born at the end of World War II, Allan and his family, out of desperation, eventually entered the United States under assumed names. Daniela Gerson, assistant professor of journalism at California State University, Northridge, discusses her father’s book Lies that Matter and what it was like learning about her family’s past secrets. Daniela is in conversation with Robert Siegel, Moment special literary contributor and former senior host of NPR’s All Things Considered.
At a time when antisemitism is on the rise and the Holocaust is thrown around as a comparison to many of today’s political and social issues, what can movies about the Holocaust teach us? Holocaust scholar and film producer Michael Berenbaum is in conversation with Michael Berlin, screenwriter and founder of the Jewish Film Festival of Orange County, CA, about the impact of the Holocaust on film and how film plays an important role in transmitting knowledge about the Holocaust to new generations. The conversation commences with the 1940 Academy Award nominated film, The Great Dictator, starring Charlie Chaplin and progress through the decades. This program is hosted by Moment Magazine with the support of the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation.
Authors Ruby Namdar (The Ruined House), Ruth Franklin (A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction) and Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein (Elie Wiesel: An Extraordinary Life) discuss the enduring power–and perils–of Holocaust fiction.
