The Hollywood Blacklist and Its Jewish Legacy with Glenn Frankel and Margaret Talbot

During the Red Scare and Hollywood blacklist period of the late 1950s, thousands of Americans, many of them Jews, were persecuted for their political beliefs, imperiling democracy. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Glenn Frankel, author of three books exploring the making of iconic American movies, including Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic, discusses the role of studio moguls, some of whom were Jewish; the damage done by the blacklist; the period’s eerie similarities to our own troubled era; and more. Frankel is in conversation with Margaret Talbot, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of The Entertainer: Movies, Magic, and My Father’s Twentieth Century. This program is part of a Moment series on antisemitism supported by the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation.

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Black and Jewish views on Critical Race Theory with Janet Dewart Bell, Mia Brett, Eric K. Ward and Nadine Epstein

Nothing shines a light on the political divide in the United States more than three words – critical race theory. What is CRT and why has it become a lightning rod issue at school board meetings, state capitols and around dinner tables across the country? Is systemic racism something we should be worried about, even in the Jewish community? What are memory laws and are they a threat to our democracy? And shouldn’t we all feel uncomfortable when learning about uncomfortable issues? Dr. Janet Dewart Bell, author of Race, Rights, and Redemption: The Derrick Bell Lectures on Law and Critical Race Theory and writer Dr. Mia Brett, joins Eric K. Ward, executive director of Western States Center and Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein to discuss how intellectual conversations about the intersection of race and law developed in the 1970s have been misunderstood and led to this latest buzzword tearing communities apart. Our thinkers also discuss how CRT fits into the Black – Jewish conversation.

This program is part of The Wide River Project, a yearlong, joint initiative of Western States Center and Moment that will take a deep dive—and fresh look—into the art, history and issues that both unite and divide the Black and Jewish communities.

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Russian Aggression through the eyes of Eastern Europe with Konstanty Gebert and Amy E. Schwartz

The war Russia is waging against Ukraine has scrambled the lives, politics and demographics of Eastern Europe. Konstanty Gebert, a reporter for Poland’s leading daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborska and a Moment contributing editor, offers encyclopedic historical expertise and keen political insights on what’s happening right now in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and the surrounding lands, from the Baltics to the Balkans. Gerbert is in a wide-ranging conversation with Moment Book and Opinion editor Amy E. Schwartz.

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Memories and Stories of RBG on What Would Have Been her 89th Birthday with Nina Totenberg and Nadine Epstein

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s birthday was March 15th. To remember her, NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg, author of the forthcoming book Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships, and Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein, author of RBG’s Brave & Brilliant Women: 33 Jewish Women to Inspire Everyone, will share their memories of the late Supreme Court Justice and discuss her legacy.

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Russia, Vladimir Putin and Ukraine: The Struggle Between Authoritarianism and Democracy with Natan Sharansky and Robert Siegel

Natan Sharansky, born in Donetsk, Ukraine, spent nine years imprisoned in the Soviet Union, becoming the face of the Soviet Jewry movement. He eventually emigrated to Israel and has served as a member of the Knesset, deputy prime minister, chair of the Jewish Agency among other positions. The author of many books including The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, he is currently chair of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. Sharansky and Robert Siegel, Moment special literary contributor and former senior host of NPR’s All Things Considered discuss Vladimir Putin’s motivations for invading Ukraine, Russian history and politics, possible short- and long-term outcomes of war—and the struggle between authoritarianism and democracy.

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