The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel with journalist Kati Marton in conversation with Amy E. Schwartz

Angela Merkel, who just stepped down as German chancellor after a remarkable16 years, has redefined the image of a woman leader. A pastor’s daughter raised in Soviet-controlled East Germany, Merkel worked as a research chemist before entering politics and rising to become the unofficial leader of the West. Award-winning journalist Kati Marton, author of The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel, shares how Merkel helped shape Germany into what some call the world’s moral center, and explores her legacy—including allowing Middle Eastern refugees to enter Germany while the world looked away. She also discusses the rise of the far right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) and Merkel’s complicated relationships with other world leaders such as Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Marton is in conversation with Amy E. Schwartz, Moment’s Book & Opinion Editor.

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Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy book cover with Martin Indyk and Dan Raviv

Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy with Martin Indyk and Dan Raviv

Henry Kissinger laid the groundwork for American diplomacy in the Middle East almost 50 years ago through his efforts to end the Yom Kippur War and his “shuttle diplomacy” with Israel, Egypt and Syria.

In his new book, Master of the Game, Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations under President Obama, takes an in-depth look at how American diplomacy operates behind closed doors and how Kissinger’s design for Middle East peacemaking remains key to brokering peace in the region. Indyk is in conversation with former CBS News correspondent and Moment contributor Dan Raviv, coauthor of Friends in Deed: Inside the U.S.-Israel Alliance.

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The Kings and Rothschilds: Working Together for Civil Rights with Janice Rothschild Blumberg and Nadine Epstein

Janice Rothschild Blumberg and her husband Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, whose synagogue in Atlanta was bombed by white supremacists in 1958, were close friends with Coretta Scott King and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, working together championing civil rights.

Janice Rothschild Blumberg and Moment’s editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein are in conversation about Dr. King’s and Rabbi Rothschild’s partnership that brought the Black and Jewish communities of Atlanta together in the pursuit of justice against racism and antisemitism. Rothschild will share personal anecdotes and also talk about her soon to be released book What’s Next?: Southern Dreams, Jewish Deeds and the Challenge of Looking Back while Moving Forward.

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Jamie Raskin and Amy Schwartz

Congressman Jamie Raskin: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy in Conversation with Amy E. Schwartz

Jamie Raskin, a father, Congressman and Constitutional law professor, began 2021 grief stricken after the painful loss of his son, Tommy, to suicide. Just seven days later he experienced the horrific events of the Capitol insurrection on January 6 and then led the impeachment effort of President Donald Trump. Congressman Raskin details the first 45 days of 2021 that forever changed him and his family in his just released memoir Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy. Congressman Raskin is in conversation with Amy E. Schwartz, Moment’s Book & Opinion Editor.

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Music Between Cultures: The Sounds of Jewish America with musician Joe Alterman

Throughout the 20th century, Jews have always contributed to American popular music, from Irving Berlin to Carole King and beyond. But according to musician Joe Alterman, executive director of Neranenah Concert & Culture Series, the Jewishness of the music is defined by its story and not necessarily its melody. Part performance, part storytelling, Alterman, shares great American music with its fascinating Jewish stories woven in.

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Health care for all in Mali: A Jewish Call to Action with Drs. Ari Johnson and Jessica Beckerman

To address the child and maternal mortality crisis in Mali, Dr. Ari Johnson and Dr. Jessica Beckerman co-found Muso, a non-profit advancing child and maternal health which has developed a new, proactive model of universal health care in Mali. Today, Muso provides health care to more than 370,000 people and the communities it serves have achieved rates of child mortality lower than that of any country in Sub-Saharan Africa. Johnson and Beckerman join Moment Senior Editor George Johnson, who also happens to be Ari’s dad, for a conversation about the health care crisis in Africa and how the couples’ Jewish commitments have motivated and energized their inspirational work.

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Tom Gjelten and Robert Siegel

Uyghurs in China: An Inconvenient Genocide with journalists Tom Gjelten and Robert Siegel

The Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority concentrated in the Xinjiang region along China’s western border, have faced discrimination, detention, and genocide at the hands of the Chinese Communist authorities. And yet most countries-including the U.S.-have largely remained silent. Tom Gjelten, a former NPR international and domestic affairs correspondent and Robert Siegel, Moment special literary contributor and former senior host of NPR’s All Things Considered, explore why, and how the situation recalls inaction in the face of Nazi persecution of Jews during the Holocaust, how discrimination against the Uyghurs became Chinese policy, and what can be done. Gjelten recently wrote about the Uyghurs as part of Moment‘s Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative, which examines prejudice and discrimination worldwide.

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She's Gone infographic

She’s Gone – Shedding Light on Domestic Violence

Well before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Israeli artist Keren Goldstein created the art installation She’s Gone which features the clothing of Israeli murdered victims of intimate partner violence. Goldstein and She’s Gone co-director and designer Adi Levy, along with Rachel Louise Snyder, award-winning author of No Visible Bruises, are in conversation about why assaults against women have been recorded in greater numbers worldwide since the start of the pandemic, what can be done about it and how the exhibit She’s Gone is protesting the global phenomenon of gender-based murder performed by spouses and other family members. Dr. Shoshannah Frydman, Executive Director of the Shalom Task Force shares how the Jewish community is helping to combat and prevent domestic violence and available resources.

This program is sponsored by Moment Magazine and is in partnership with The Moment Gallery, Remember the Women Institute, She’s Gone, Strongin Collection and in cooperation with the Embassy of Israel.

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Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Tovah Feldshuh

Becoming Dr. Ruth with Ruth K. Westheimer and Tovah Feldshuh

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.

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Asylum City actress and book author with Sarah Breger

Behind the Scenes of Israeli Hit Show “Asylum City” with actress Hani Furstenberg and co-creator Liad Shoham

Asylum City, the critically acclaimed and popular Israeli series starring Israeli-American actress Hani Furstenberg, is set in the underworld of refugees and asylum seekers in Tel Aviv. Based on the bestselling novel by lawyer turned author Liad Shoham, the series follows a young police officer named Anat (played by Furstenberg) who is investigating a murder. While trying to find the assassin, she exposes a complex web of political corruption, organized crime and exploitation. Asylum City was nominated for six Israeli Academy Awards. Furstenberg and Shoham (known in Israel as the Jewish John Grisham) are in conversation with Moment editor Sarah Breger.

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Anita Diamant

The Wonderful World of Anita Diamant. Period!

Anita Diamant’s latest book, Period. End of Sentence, which “explores the cultural roots of menstrual injustice,” goes boldly where no writer has gone before. The New York Times bestselling author of The Red Tent is in conversation with Amy E. Schwartz, Moment’s Book and Opinion editor, about misogyny, her books—both fiction and nonfiction, her writing process, as well as her connection to Judaism that led to her founding the Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh.

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Oh I Remember the Black Birch playwright Velina Hasu Houston

Oh, I Remember the Black Birch: Play Reading and Talkback with Velina Hasu Houston & Keren M. Goldberg

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.

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