Staff Picks: Weimar Berlin, Jewish Jazz and Ben Gurion’s Rice
What we’re reading—and watching—this week.
Staff Picks: Lebanon’s First Oscar Nod, Mobula Rays and Gaby Hoffman
What we’re reading—and watching—this week.
The Lioness Roars Again: Golda Meir at 120
Although she was a trailblazer, second-wave feminists in the 1960s disliked her, and she returned their ire, describing them as “crazy women who burn their bras and…hate men.” Meir resented attempts to turn her into a feminist icon.
Moment Staff Picks: The Best Books We Read in 2017
As 2017 comes to a close, here are some of the best books we read this year.
Tell Us: What’s the Best Book You Read in 2017?
We want to hear from you: What’s the best book you read in 2017?
Fiction | The Garden of Evil
“Have you heard about the movie?” Dorota asked. “What movie?” said Sylwia. Why, she thought, am I always the last to know?
How Two Jewish Baseball Players Processed the 1972 Munich Massacre
They weren’t just Jews but Jewish athletes, going about their professional lives in a strange city, as the Israelis had been doing a day earlier.
Who’s Afraid of Dorit Rabinyan?
Israeli novelist Dorit Rabinyan was enjoying a peaceful afternoon at home on December 30, 2015, when a phone call from an old friend, Haaretz journalist Or Kashti, changed her life. “I have something to tell you,” he said. “It may be the biggest story I will ever break.” “Good for you!” replied Rabinyan. “No,” said Kashti quietly, “it is very good for you.”
The Week Before the Six-Day War
I arrived in Jerusalem as a reporter five days before the war. When I asked directions in English of a woman on the street near the King David Hotel, she looked at me sharply and said, “Haven’t you gone home yet?” When I said I had just arrived, she nodded and pointed out my destination. The King David itself, I would learn, had gone overnight from 86 percent occupancy to one percent.
What Does Jewish Humor Mean Today?
Michael Krasny wants to tell jokes—but he also wants to explain them. “It’s important to be analytical about humor,” he says.
Timothy Snyder on Modern Tyranny
Modern tyranny can change things quickly by making us react slowly. You have an enormous amount of influence in the first weeks and months. If you spend that time saying, “This is not that big a deal,” or “The institutions will protect us,” or “This can’t happen here” or “I’m going to wait for someone to tell me what to do,” then it’s all over.
Alan Alda and His Scientific Universe
Alan Alda loves to dig to the root of things. He has no patience for jargon, for flimsy logic, for impenetrable lectures. He wants to know: What is time? How do clocks work? What are the processes that govern the universe?