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If All the Seas Were Ink with Ilana Kurshan

If All the Seas Were Ink is a memoir of a young, recently divorced American-Israeli, living in Jerusalem, whose personal struggles lead her to take on the practice of Daf Yomi, reading a page from the Talmud every day for seven years. Kurshan’s inspiring memoir about learning how to put one foot in front of the other is a winner of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. In conversation with Moment book review editor Amy E. Schwartz.

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Ceasefire in Gaza, Mixed Messages in DC

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. Another Round of Fighting in Gaza, Another Round of Responses from Washington Saturday marked the end of the latest bloody round in the seemingly endless conflict between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza. This time, it was the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a relatively small faction, that was responsible for the barrage of rocket and missile attacks against Israel. Hamas, the larger group controlling the Gaza Strip, sat this round (and the previous round) out. But apart from the slightly different players, everything else was depressingly familiar: the inevitable escalation, the loss of life on both sides (35 in Gaza, 2 in Israel), the eventual negotiated ceasefire and the clear understanding—on both sides—that another round of fighting is not a question of if, but of...

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Wisdom Project | Eleanore Carsons, 104

The Wisdom Project at Moment: Inspirational conversations with wise people who have been fortunate to live long lives This week’s conversation is with Eleanore Carsons, 104, of Boca Raton, Florida.  Eleanore Carsons was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Her birth father died in the 1918-1919 Spanish flu epidemic. Her mother remarried and Eleanore’s stepfather adopted her when she was six years old. She went to New York University planning to be a teacher. Instead, saying hello to a boy named Morris (Moe) Carsons in a history of education class when she was 19 led to a 53-years-long marriage, two children, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. When Moe Carsons died in 1995, Eleanore started a new life’s chapter at age 76, eventually moving from New York to Florida permanently, where she lives independently in a...

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From 1999 | After Arafat

In 1999 Moment published an article about Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, detailing the nature of his rule, the state of his health as well as his possible successors. The piece in many ways holds up today, as it describes corruption in the Palestinian Authority and a Fatah-Hamas schism. And at times it is prescient, with the author even mentioning Arafat’s eventual successor, Mahmoud Abbas, as one of his most likely heirs. At other times the article is not so clairvoyant, predicting a coalition between the PA and Jordan that would never materialize. Today, as the aging Abbas reaches the end of his own tenure, Moment has published another piece, After Abbas, that, in tandem with After Arafat, will hopefully contextualize the current state of Palestinian politics and explain what might come next. To see this article...

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Film Review | Jerusalem Balagan

                  Paris Boutique 2022 81 minutes Director: Marco Carmel Mayane Films, United Channel Movies, United King Film Distribution Hebrew, English, French with English Subtitles Romantic Comedy When sophisticated Parisian-Jewish lawyer Louise, played by Joséphine Draï (Belle Belle Belle, Man Up!) is asked by her father to take a temporary respite from planning her extravagant wedding and fly to Jerusalem to close on a multi-million euro deal, little could she have imagined the dramas that would ensue on her three-day trip.   This zany romantic comedy admirably illustrates how Israeli cinema and Jewish culture is so much wider and richer than the sturm und drang in which it is so often portrayed. That the film has already garnered six nominations for Ophir Awards (aka the Israeli Oscars) is a testament to director Marco Carmel (Noble Savage, Almost Famous). Unlike so many films of the genre—with clichéd...

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After Abbas | Interview with Avi Melamed

Avi Melamed is a former Israeli intelligence officer and strategic consultant to some of Israel’s top politicians, such as Teddy Kollek and Ehud Olmert. A Middle East analyst and fellow of intelligence and Middle East affairs at the Eisenhower Institute, Melamed currently serves as the chief education officer of Inside the Middle East, a nonprofit dedicated to non-partisan education on the regional complexities of Israel and its neighbors. His most recent book is Inside the Middle East: Entering a New Era. This interview is part of a special Moment package about what will happen after Mahmoud Abbas no longer controls the Palestinian Authority. For the rest of our coverage, click here. What might the Israeli-Palestinian relationship or governmental relationship look like after Mahmoud Abbas is no longer in power?  To a large extent, it depends on what will...

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After Abbas | An Interview With Menachem Klein

Menachem Klein is a professor of political science and senior lecturer at Bar-Ilan University who served as an advisor to Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2000. Today he is a visiting professor at King’s College London and a senior fellow at the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue. Klein’s books include Between Israel and Palestine: An Insider’s Account of the Geneva Initiative and Arafat and Abbas: Portraits of Leadership in a State Postponed. This interview is part of a special Moment package about what will happen after Mahmoud Abbas no longer controls the Palestinian Authority. For the rest of our coverage, click here. What is the general atmosphere right now in the West Bank and Gaza, both in terms of domestic issues and vis-à-vis Israel and its new government?  There is a high concern in the Palestinian territories....

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After Abbas | An Interview With Itamar Marcus

Itamar Marcus is a researcher and the founder of Palestinian Media Watch, which studies Palestinian society by monitoring and analyzing its media. He is a preeminent critic of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority. Marcus is the co-author of Deception: Betraying the Peace Process. This interview is part of a special Moment package about what will happen after Mahmoud Abbas no longer controls the Palestinian Authority. For the rest of our coverage, click here. Mahmoud Abbas is 87, what happens if he dies or retires?  Right now, about 80 percent of the Palestinian population sees him as corrupt and a similar percentage wants him to leave office. There are a number of scenarios his exit could follow. If Abbas were to, say, suddenly die of a heart attack, he would leave a power void, since you have a number...

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An Interview With Khalil Shikaki

Khalil Shikaki is the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Research and a professor of political science, currently serving as a senior fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. An expert on Palestinian society, Shikaki has conducted more than 200 polls of Palestinians in the territories. He is the author of Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East. This interview is part of a special Moment package about what will happen after Mahmoud Abbas no longer controls the Palestinian Authority. For the rest of our coverage, click here. How do you see the political atmosphere right now in the Palestine Authority?  It is very depressing because the Palestinian Authority (PA) lacks legitimacy in the eyes of the public. Most people want to see Mahmoud Abbas resign as president....

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The Growing Threat of Christian Nationalism with Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, Katherine Stewart, Eric K. Ward and Robert Siegel

Join our distinguished panelists to learn why we should be paying attention to the rise of Christian nationalism and what can be done about it. They will also discuss how Christian nationalism overlaps with white nationalism and intersects with antisemitism, racism and other forms of hate and extremism.

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Visual Moment | Israeli Artist Sigalit Landau’s Immersion in the Dead Sea

The art Landau has created in this primal moonscape, the lowest land-based elevation on earth, explores the dualities of life and death, injury and healing, destruction and hope—a central theme of the current exhibition and a motivating force behind Landau’s art.

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Taking a Break from Battling Trump, DeSantis Heads to Israel

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. Checking the Israel Box Is Ron DeSantis running? All signs indicate that the hard-liner Florida governor is on the cusp of throwing his hat in the ring and challenging his former political patron Donald Trump for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination. These signs include DeSantis’s book tour (aka campaign stop) in Iowa and a closely watched ad war with Trump, in which DeSantis backers ran online ads calling on Trump to “fight Democrats, not lie about Governor DeSantis.” This was in response to a Trump PAC’s ad that alluded to a 2019 story about DeSantis once eating pudding with his finger while on a flight, since there was no spoon to be found. In the 20-second spot the narration talks about how...

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A stone bench between trees.

The Mensch in the Bench

As a septuagenarian, I now find myself contemplating the disposition of my mortal remains. Pondering this weighty issue prompted me to remember the especially fractious interment of an elderly Jewish couple I knew, and its unusual resolution. It involved the final resting places of my cousin’s father-in-law, a retired judge named Solly, and his second wife of many years, Belle. (The names and identities of all of these people have been changed to respect their privacy.) Solly and Belle both had three children from their first marriages. Ultimately, they retired to south Florida. Solly and Belle, both in their eighties, passed away in the same year. They had given the matter careful consideration and decided to be cremated; they had even picked out the urns for their ashes. Their plans, though unwritten, were to have their urns...

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Kugel

Recipe | JERUSALEM KUGEL

This caramelized and peppery version of the Ashkenazi dish can be cooked overnight or over any 8-hour period.  You will need parchment paper and a 7-inch round, 4-inch tall pan (8-inch round pot can also work, but the kugel will be less tall); or 2 medium loaf pans.   Serves 10-12 Ingredients 1            lb. thick egg noodles such as spaetzle or kluski 1/2       cup corn oil 1/2       cup sugar 1/2       cup water 2           teaspoons black pepper 2           teaspoons salt 6           eggs, lightly beaten   Instructions 1. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package. Drain, and put back in the pot. 2. Heat oven to 225 degrees. Spray pan with oil (see note above about the size.) Cover the bottom of the pan with parchment...

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From Nazi Granddaughter to Holocaust Scholar: Researching the Vatican’s Holocaust-Era Archives with Suzanne Brown-Fleming and Shana Penn

Dr. Suzanne Brown-Fleming, director of International Academic Programs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, discusses what inspired her to study the Holocaust, why the Vatican archives are so important and what we can learn from them, as well as what it’s like to do this work knowing that her grandfather was a Nazi.

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Drama in Israel Makes for New Partnerships in America

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. Tough Times Help Forge New Coalitions It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks in Israel, and in Israeli-American relations. Well, that’s probably an understatement. Israel reached what seems to be the apex of its internal battle over the future of the nation, with tens of thousands spontaneously pouring into the streets last week following Benjamin Netanyahu’s abrupt firing of his defense minister Yoav Gallant. Meanwhile in the United States, President Biden did away with niceties and diplomatic decorum, telling Netanyahu that he better change course if he ever wants to see the inside of the White House again. Mounting pressure led Netanyahu to announce a temporary suspension of his judicial overhaul legislation, and he agree to enter talks with opposition leaders under the...

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Will the Third Temple Survive its 75th Year?

The First Temple lasted about 400 years, the Second Temple held for 600 years, and the Third Temple—if modern Israel may assume that name—is dangerously close to kicking the bucket at 75 years. Only this time there is no Assyria to whisk ancient Israelites into oblivion, no Babylon to herd Judeans into exile, and no Rome to extinguish Jewish sovereignty for two millennia. Today—much as Iran would have liked to be our latter-day vanquisher—the Jewish state is demolishing itself from within.  The build-up began, perhaps, when Menachem Begin won by a landslide in 1977 by riding the hostility of Mizrahi “Second Israel” against the largely Ashkenazi “First Israel.” During the four following decades Israel’s fragile web of coexistences was politicized and crudely mishandled. Since the late 2000s, feeding on the outgrowth of commercial news channels and...

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Jarring, but Funny: History of the World Part II is a Fitting Sequel

Like many of Moment’s readers, I have been a diehard Mel Brooks fan since before my bar mitzvah. As a youth I loved the satire of Spaceballs, the absurdity of The Producers, and even the fourth-wall-breaking surrealism of the yet-to-be-cancelled Blazing Saddles. But of all of Mel’s movies, my absolute favorite was History of the World Part I. Perhaps it’s the zaniness, the sardonic humor, or just the way the film pokes fun at history: In any case, the song from the film’s famed segment on the Spanish Inquisition—featuring Brooks as Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada and a synchronized swimming dance routine—has been and forever will be stuck in my head.  For the uninitiated, History of the World Part I is a 1981 film composed of comedic segments satirizing history, including the Paleolithic Era, ancient Rome,...

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Bookstagram Backlash for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a 2006 novel about the son of a fictional commandant of Auschwitz who befriends a Jewish inmate his own age, has been made into a film, a ballet and an opera. The hugely successful novel was described by its author, John Boyne, as a Holocaust “fable,” or morality tale, but it has faced sharp criticism by Holocaust educators and others in the Jewish community for distorting history and putting a feel-good overlay on a tragedy.  The book has been denounced by the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum for its inaccuracies and unrealistic imaginings of what Auschwitz would have been like both for Bruno, the Nazi commandant’s son, and Shmuel, the Jewish boy who Bruno befriends. The main gripe shared by many readers and reviewers is that the pathos of the novel...

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Golda Meir and Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Pioneers of Women in Power with Pnina Lahav and Nadine Epstein

Join Pnina Lahav, author of The Only Woman in the Room: Golda Meir and Her Path to Power and Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein, author of RBG’s Brave and Brilliant Women: 33 Jewish Women to Inspire Everyone, for a conversation about these two brilliant women, the challenges they faced and overcame, how their gender impacts their legacy, their mentoring styles and why they are role models for everyone.

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Moment Magazine-Karma Foundation Short Fiction Contest- test

Welcome to the Moment Magazine-Karma Foundation Short Fiction Contest The deadline for 2023 is September 30. The Moment Magazine-Karma Foundation Short Fiction Contest encourages writers to submit stories related to Judaism or Jewish culture or history. Established in 2000, this contest has brought in distinguished judges and special guests including Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Pinsky, Walter Mosley, Nicole Krauss, Erica Jong, Jonathan Safran Foer, Geraldine Brooks, Andre Aciman and Dara Horn. Note: all submissions must be made through Submittable. The contest is now accepting submissions for the 2023 contest. Moment will award up to three prizes to outstanding works of unpublished short fiction with Jewish content, including $1,000 for first place. After the submission deadline, Moment editors will review all stories and contact winners if their stories are being considered for publication. Moment Magazine reserves the right at all times...

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The Changing Relationship Between American Jews and Israel with Eric Alterman and Dan Raviv

Join Eric Alterman, author of We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight Over Israel, for a look back at the early years of this important relationship, how support for the Jewish state has changed with each new generation of Jews in America.

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And the Bride Closed the Door by Ronit Matalon with Shulamit Reinharz

Born in Israel to Jewish immigrants from Egypt, Ronit Matalon was known for giving a voice to Mizrahi (Jews of Middle Eastern/North African decent) women. And the Bride Closed the Door is a broad comedy about a bride who refuses to go forward with her wedding ceremony, sowing havoc. The book captures a segment of Mizrahi society not often featured in Israeli fiction. Matalon won Israel’s prestigious Brenner Prize the day before her untimely death from cancer. Shulamit Reinharz is professor of sociology emerita at Brandeis University and founder of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. In conversation with Moment book review editor Amy E. Schwartz. Purchase book: "And the Bride Closed the Door" Audio version: "And the Bride Closed the Door" Author: Ronit Matalon Translator: Jessica Cohen Monday, June 5 at 12pm, ET REGISTER

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Jewish Halloween costume

Purim: The Jewish Halloween

by Sala Levin As Purim approaches, and with it the opportunity to impress your friends with the wittiness and originality of your costume. Or--if you're like this blogger--the opportunity to take a look in your closet, decide you're not nearly clever enough for this particular holiday, and celebrate instead with a Jewish cocktail. But don't despair yet, costume-less readers, because, when it comes to Purim, we take our cues from Theodor Herzl: If you will it, it is no dream. So with that determination in mind, here are some last-minute costume ideas inspired by news about Jews. The Bluth Family: Pop-culture snobs rejoiced when Mitchell Hurwitz, creator of the late, much-lauded Arrested Development, announced earlier this month that the television show would likely return to airwaves for new episodes and even a movie. So grab some friends, stash...

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With a Push and a Nudge, Biden Shows Bibi the Exit Ramp

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. What American Pressure Looks Like The Biden administration, last week, found its voice. Its public voice, that is. Not only did the White House make clear openly and formally that America is not being attacked by aliens, but top administration officials finally said out loud what they really think about the current Israeli government’s policies. It was no hot mic incident, nor was it an off-the-cuff comment. The Biden administration, in an orchestrated and calculated move, decided to escalate its pressure campaign against Netanyahu’s government. The public offensive began with Biden’s written comments to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in which he weighed in on the new coalition government’s plan for “judiciary reform,” which would severely undercut the power and independence of Israeli courts....

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Let the Comedians Say What They Want! with Judy Gold and Joe Alterman

Join Gold and Joe Alterman, executive director of Neranenah, for an in-depth conversation about the challenges facing today’s comedians—from censorship and the growing threat of cancel culture to the rise in antisemitism and its impact on telling jokes about one’s Jewish identity.

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The “Normalization” of Antisemitism with Gavriel D. Rosenfeld and Amy E. Schwartz

With so many reports of antisemitism on a daily basis, are people becoming desensitized and are these acts of hatred becoming normalized? Join Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, president of the Center for Jewish History, and professor of History at Fairfield University, and Moment Book & Opinion editor Amy E. Schwartz, for a conversation about this normalization and what we can do about it.

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Back in Time to 1909: The Black Jewish Relationship and the founding of the NAACP with Lillie J. Edwards and Nadine Epstein

W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Henry Moskowitz, Rabbi Emil Hirsch, Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise, Lillian Wald and others came together to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), launching a historic chapter in the fight for civil rights. Dr. Lillie J. Edwards, Professor Emerita of History and African American studies at Drew University discusses what was going on in 1909, the importance of this Black-Jewish coalition, and how the Black and Jewish communities can continue to work together to counter racism.

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Escaping Auschwitz with Jonathan Freedland and Dan Raviv

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.

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The Educational Legacy of Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington with Dorothy Canter, Marian and Valerie Coleman, Stephanie Deutsch, Andrew Feiler and Aviva Kempner

A discussion about Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington’s historic partnership, the impact the Rosenwald schools had on the African American community and the importance of remembering and preserving their legacy.

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Drawings by Miriam Isaacs to go along with her memoir about Mengele

Moment Memoir | Shame, Names and the Mengele Tractor Factory

I learned about the Mengele tractor factory in 1981 when I was trying to get from Denmark to Italy by rail. I simply could not avoid Germany, so I decided to book a sleeper car and sleep my way through. It was my very first time there since my parents and I left the Displaced Persons camp when I was a toddler. I woke up and I went out to the corridor to look out the window and see where I was, really hoping to be in Italy. But I could tell I was still in Germany, for in the middle of a bucolic meadow stood a tractor with “MENGELE” printed in large letters. My heart almost stopped. I couldn’t breathe. The conductor stood beside me and smiled. Mengele. I remember the name from my childhood....

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Netanyahu Rolls Out His New Government; Jewish Americans React

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. Rabbis are Speaking Out In a midnight phone call to Israeli president Isaac Herzog, Benjamin Netanyahu formally informed him that he had succeeded in forming a new government based on a coalition made up of his own Likud party, two ultra-Orthodox parties and the Religious Zionist bloc—a joint list consisting of three far-right political parties. On Thursday, he will present his new government to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and upon approval, Netanyahu’s sixth government will be sworn in, heralding the most extreme ruling coalition in Israel’s history. Bibi’s partners haven’t made this final stretch of negotiations any easier for him. As the presumptive prime minister made his rounds in the American media trying to convince an overseas audience that despite his seemingly far-right...

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Moment’s Top 10 Most-Read Stories of 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a historic trip to Washington, DC, yesterday, his first trip outside war-torn Ukraine since the onset of hostilities. He met with President Biden and also addressed members of both houses of Congress in his signature army green attire, this time a sweatshirt emblazoned with Ukraine’s Coat of Arms. “Your money is not charity,” he told lawmakers in a speech on the U.S. House floor. “It is an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way." His sentiment was echoed by Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova, interviewed by Robert Siegel last month in acceptance of Moment’s Women in Power Award. Watching President Zelensky speak was also a reminder that for Jews across the world, he is a source of deep pride.  “The Resilience of Ukraine and...

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Hanukkah: The Festival of Cheese with Vered Guttman

Potato latkes aren’t the only tradition on Hanukkah, there’s actually another-cheese! Join Israeli chef and food writer Vered Guttman to learn about the bravery of Judith, how she saved the Jewish people with salty cheese and why Hanukkah has become a Jewish celebration with a feminist angle for some. Guttman  demonstrates how to make Polish syrniki cheese latkes, Moroccan sfinge doughnuts and Ukrainian pampushki (fried potato balls filled with cheese)

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Can the Government Save America from Antisemitism?

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. Washington Takes on Antisemitism With its ornate decorations and side windows overlooking the West Wing entrance to the White House, The Indian Treaty Room, on the fourth floor of the Eisenhower Executive Building in Washington, DC, is ripe with history, from hosting official signing ceremonies to presidential press conferences dating back to the 1950s. Last Wednesday, the Biden administration chose this venue for its first-ever roundtable on antisemitism, led by Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. For a meeting full of symbolism, it was an opportunity for the White House to visually convey the importance the administration sees in sending out a clear message against antisemitism. “An epidemic of hate” is how Emhoff described the rash of anti-Jewish incidents and expressions flooding America in recent months....

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The Power of Friendship: Dinners with RBG and others with Nina Totenberg and Nadine Epstein

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Nina Totenberg were friends for nearly 50 years, meeting long before Ruth became a Supreme Court Justice and Nina an award-winning NPR journalist. They shared the ups and downs of life, the opera, shopping and so much more, and then during Justice Ginsburg’s final year of life, Saturday night dinners. Join NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg, author of the new book Dinners with Ruth, for a conversation about the trailblazing paths they both created for future generations of women and the power of friendship. In conversation with Moment editor-in-chief, Nadine Epstein, author of RBG’s Brave and Brilliant Women.

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A Wide Open Conversation with Ken Burns and Michael Krasny

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.

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