The Jews Who Saved Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
“When I tell people that a Jewish family once owned Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello, their jaws drop,” says director Steven Pressman.
“When I tell people that a Jewish family once owned Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello, their jaws drop,” says director Steven Pressman.
While Jews have lived in Iran for centuries, today’s Jewish community numbers around 10,000, down from 100,000 Jews prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Roya Hakakian, author of Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran and A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious, shares what life was like prior to the revolution, the antisemitism that caused most Jews to flee and what life is like now for the Iranian Jewish community. Hakakian is in conversation with Moment editor Sarah Breger.
This program is part of a Moment series on antisemitism supported by the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation.
The story of Esther concealing her Jewishness to save her people should lead Jews to think about the politics of “passing” in 21st century America.
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Abortion bans are predicated on assumptions about when life begins that have specific Christian theological assumptions baked into them.
As 2022 ushers in a new political cycle, the relationship between former president Donald Trump and his supporters in the Jewish community—a minority, but a passionate and often influential one—seems set to enter a new and more complicated phase.
What, if any, obligations do we have toward Israel?
Jews have always been at the forefront of American popular music. Musician and music producer Ben Sidran, author of There Was A Fire: Jews, Music and the American Dream talks about: Who is a Jew in America? What is Jewish about popular music in America? What’s the prognosis for the future? Ben is in conversation with pianist Joe Alterman, executive director of Neranenah Concert & Culture Series, which celebrates Jewish contributions to music and the arts.
In 1979 Time magazine, the quintessential barometer of American life, told the nation that even though Jews made up only 3 percent of the population, 80 percent of America’s working comedians were Jewish.
Among the pages of a medieval Middle Eastern cookbook lies a 600-year-old recipe with a title equal parts perplexing and alarming: “Meatballs Cursed by Jews.”
Film editor Dina Gold reviews the recent Latvian film “The Sign Painter.” The film won four awards at the Latvian National Film Festival.