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.
Morton Klein: Not Moving the Israeli Embassy ‘Harms the Chances for Peace’
“It sends a message that Jerusalem is on the table, and that the Arabs can expect to get parts of the Jewish city of Jerusalem, when in fact it’s almost certain they will not.”
Interview | Yuval Harari
Born in Haifa to Eastern European immigrants, Harari now lives with his husband in a moshav outside Jerusalem. A vegan deeply distressed by the suffering of domesticated animals, Harari meditates daily (plus a 60-day silent retreat each year). He does this, he says, to understand more fully the nature of human consciousness and “human dissatisfaction.” Moment talks with Harari about the role of technology in politics and the rise of big data, as well as topics Harari does not usually discuss, such as Judaism and Israel.
A Conversation With Rabbi Marvin Hier, Trump’s Inauguration Rabbi
“It’s not a question of supporting [Trump]; Jews support Israel. And is he good for Israel? The answer is, he sure is.”
What Does Trump’s Visit Mean for Israel?
“As a political historian, I would say that most trips abroad are filled with great hopes and, while they rarely end up in disappointment, they also rarely end up in tremendous achievements.”
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?
Michael Chabon: A Life of Fact & Fiction
A conversation with novelist Michael Chabon can easily jump from Michael Jackson song lyrics to the history of spaceships. And while his love of all things quixotic can be a lot to digest, his intellectual openness and curiosity have resulted in a compelling and innovative body of work.
Is Democracy Broken?
28 years ago political philosopher Francis Fukuyama famously declared “the end of history,”meaning that there would be “the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” It was a heady time. The Berlin Wall was poised to fall…
Meir Shalev: Israel’s Dictator-in-Writing
Although Americans may not immediately recognize his name, best-selling novelist Meir Shalev is one of Israel’s most beloved and celebrated authors. He is a man with deeply held convictions and opinions about both the art of writing and Israel.
Author Interview // Kati Marton
Kati Marton’s early life reads like the plot of a John le Carré spy novel. Marton was born in Budapest in the early years of the Cold War to journalists who, at the time, were among the most famous anti-communist dissidents in the world.
Alan Furst Will Always Have Paris
In each of Alan Furst’s 14 novels about spies—not spy novels, he insists there is a difference—characters inevitably end up dining at Brasserie Heininger in Paris. The fictional restaurant, based on the real Brasserie Bofinger, with its opulent marble staircase and shucked oysters, represents the glamour and the joie de vivre of 1930s Paris, a city he calls “the heart of civilization.”