26 Jun
Arts & Culture, Latest

Why Ramy Is the Most Jewish Show on TV

The following article contains spoilers for Season 2 of Ramy In every person’s life, there is a moment when they see themselves for the first time in fiction. For some, it comes while reading a novel on a quiet Shabbat afternoon. For others, it occurs on the booming screen of the local movie theater or the colorful stages of Broadway. It can be an empowering moment, especially at a young age, reminding the reader or viewer that others see the world as they do and that their story matters. At the same time, it can emphasize an individual’s isolation—especially if it takes years to see oneself in fiction—and highlight systemic prejudices and omissions that play out in our cultural mediums.    For me, a 24-year old American Modern Orthodox Jew, my moment came while watching Hulu’s Ramy, a...

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02 Jan
Latest, Uncategorized

Suicide Bombers Are Spreading False Islam

by Aylin Kocaman In October, the Palestine Committee of the Arab Lawyers Union honored a suicide bomber. A law student who entered a restaurant in Israel in 2003 and blew herself up, killing herself and 21 people, was honored by the lawyers’ union. The 21 people she killed included a pregnant woman and three children. This honor is thought-provoking. But before that, I want to consider the logic of a suicide bomber. Why does a person become a suicide bomber? The majority of Arab countries were to some extent touched by post-World War II communism. The Ba’ath Party that became strong in Egypt, Syria and Iraq, the Shanghai bloc that was established under Chinese auspices and quietly placed Arab countries and Iran under its protection, and al-Fatah, which grew under Yasser Arafat’s leadership, never concealed their communist/socialist leanings....

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18 May
Book Review, Culture, Interview, Latest, Religion

The New Religious Intolerance: An Interview with Martha Nussbaum

By Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil From Switzerland’s ban on minarets, to France’s ban on headscarves, and the controversy that raged over Park 51, the “Ground Zero Mosque” in lower Manhattan, religious fear is on the rise, writes Martha Nussbaum. In her latest book, The New Religious Intolerance, the University of Chicago law professor tackles the politics of fear, and lays out a roadmap for society to overcome its fear of the other, which she warns, “currently disfigure all Western societies.” To learn more, Moment spoke with Nussbaum about religious fear, anti-Semitism, burqas, Mitt Romney’s Mormonism and more. MM: You write, “We should be worried about the upsurge in religious fear and animosity in the United States, as well as in Europe. Fear is accelerating, and we need to try to understand it to think how best to address...

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06 Mar
Culture, Moment Magazine, Religion, topics

Religion in the News

By Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil The biggest religion news stories in 2011 involved tensions with Islam, followed by faith in presidential politics, a new Pew report reveals. Some of the key findings in the study, “Religion in the News,” include: Religion coverage made up just 0.7 percent of all mainstream media coverage in 2011, down from two percent in 2010 Religion received as much attention as race, gender and LGBT issues Islam made up nearly one-third of all religion news stories last year The top religion stories of the year included: religion in the election, Peter King’s “Radical Islam” congressional hearings, anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States, the Westboro Church protests, religion in September 11th commemorations, the Catholic priest abuse scandal and Terry Jones’s Quran burning For more on religion coverage in the mainstream media, Moment speaks with Jesse Holcomb, a research...

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