Remembering Suzanne Singer (1936-2022)
Moment mourns the death of former Moment executive editor Suzanne Singer, who died January 1, age 86 in her apartment in Baka, Jerusalem.
Music Between Cultures: The Sounds of Jewish America with musician Joe Alterman
Throughout the 20th century, Jews have always contributed to American popular music, from Irving Berlin to Carole King and beyond. But according to musician Joe Alterman, executive director of Neranenah Concert & Culture Series, the Jewishness of the music is defined by its story and not necessarily its melody. Part performance, part storytelling, Alterman, shares great American music with its fascinating Jewish stories woven in.
Health care for all in Mali: A Jewish Call to Action with Drs. Ari Johnson and Jessica Beckerman
To address the child and maternal mortality crisis in Mali, Dr. Ari Johnson and Dr. Jessica Beckerman co-found Muso, a non-profit advancing child and maternal health which has developed a new, proactive model of universal health care in Mali. Today, Muso provides health care to more than 370,000 people and the communities it serves have achieved rates of child mortality lower than that of any country in Sub-Saharan Africa. Johnson and Beckerman join Moment Senior Editor George Johnson, who also happens to be Ari’s dad, for a conversation about the health care crisis in Africa and how the couples’ Jewish commitments have motivated and energized their inspirational work.
Uyghurs in China: An Inconvenient Genocide with journalists Tom Gjelten and Robert Siegel
The Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority concentrated in the Xinjiang region along China’s western border, have faced discrimination, detention, and genocide at the hands of the Chinese Communist authorities. And yet most countries-including the U.S.-have largely remained silent. Tom Gjelten, a former NPR international and domestic affairs correspondent and Robert Siegel, Moment special literary contributor and former senior host of NPR’s All Things Considered, explore why, and how the situation recalls inaction in the face of Nazi persecution of Jews during the Holocaust, how discrimination against the Uyghurs became Chinese policy, and what can be done. Gjelten recently wrote about the Uyghurs as part of Moment‘s Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative, which examines prejudice and discrimination worldwide.
She’s Gone – Shedding Light on Domestic Violence
Well before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Israeli artist Keren Goldstein created the art installation She’s Gone which features the clothing of Israeli murdered victims of intimate partner violence. Goldstein and She’s Gone co-director and designer Adi Levy, along with Rachel Louise Snyder, award-winning author of No Visible Bruises, are in conversation about why assaults against women have been recorded in greater numbers worldwide since the start of the pandemic, what can be done about it and how the exhibit She’s Gone is protesting the global phenomenon of gender-based murder performed by spouses and other family members. Dr. Shoshannah Frydman, Executive Director of the Shalom Task Force shares how the Jewish community is helping to combat and prevent domestic violence and available resources.
This program is sponsored by Moment Magazine and is in partnership with The Moment Gallery, Remember the Women Institute, She’s Gone, Strongin Collection and in cooperation with the Embassy of Israel.
Becoming Dr. Ruth with Ruth K. Westheimer and Tovah Feldshuh
Ruth K. Westheimer has led a remarkable life. Long before she became a world-famous sex therapist, she escaped the Holocaust on the Kindertransport to Switzerland and was a teenage sharpshooter in the Haganah. As a young woman she studied and taught at the university in Paris before making her way to the United States—and “becoming Dr Ruth.” She is in conversation about how to live life to the fullest with Tovah Feldshuh, the six-time Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor who plays her in the Off-Broadway show Becoming Dr Ruth. Westheimer and Feldshuh are joined by Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein.
The Conversation
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Behind the Scenes of Israeli Hit Show “Asylum City” with actress Hani Furstenberg and co-creator Liad Shoham
Asylum City, the critically acclaimed and popular Israeli series starring Israeli-American actress Hani Furstenberg, is set in the underworld of refugees and asylum seekers in Tel Aviv. Based on the bestselling novel by lawyer turned author Liad Shoham, the series follows a young police officer named Anat (played by Furstenberg) who is investigating a murder. While trying to find the assassin, she exposes a complex web of political corruption, organized crime and exploitation. Asylum City was nominated for six Israeli Academy Awards. Furstenberg and Shoham (known in Israel as the Jewish John Grisham) are in conversation with Moment editor Sarah Breger.
Staff Picks: Milan Kundera, ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ and Post-War Germany
What we’re reading—and watching—this week.
Spice Box | Due To Personal Circumcisions
Send your unmarked original newspaper clippings, curiosities and photographs to editor@momentmag.com.
What Should the Role of American Jews Be With Respect to Israel Today?
What, if any, obligations do we have toward Israel?
The Wonderful World of Anita Diamant. Period!
Anita Diamant’s latest book, Period. End of Sentence, which “explores the cultural roots of menstrual injustice,” goes boldly where no writer has gone before. The New York Times bestselling author of The Red Tent is in conversation with Amy E. Schwartz, Moment’s Book and Opinion editor, about misogyny, her books—both fiction and nonfiction, her writing process, as well as her connection to Judaism that led to her founding the Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh.