New York Times Foreign Affairs Opinion columnist,Thomas Friedman – insightful, candid, often controversial, always thought-inspiring, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and book author who will share his observations on globalization, Middle East politics, American politics, wars, and the state of the world…which will change enormously between now and the evening of his talk.
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson addresses the state of national and international security (and insecurity) in today’s fragile world. In addition, as Co-chair of the Board of Trustees of Columbia University, the unprecedented challenges and threats facing our leading universities.
Social commentator/culture observer Van Jones, political analyst, lawyer, civil rights advocate, bestselling author, CNN host (Crossfire, Messy Truth, The Redemption Project), President Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs, visiting fellow at Princeton University, founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, and the Dream Corps, social justice accelerator, and more – takes on the daunting topic of growing anti-semitism, and the intersection of Jewish and Black bias in America.
The New York Times Puzzle-Makers: Joel Fagliano, who interned with Times crossword puzzle editor (and folk hero), Will Shortz, and is now the lead puzzle editor and creates the Mini-Puzzle (5×5), with Wyna Liu, who went with her mother, on a 7-night Times “crossword cruise,” and met Joel, who inspired her to create her own puzzles, and today creates/edits Connections (words connected by shared but sometimes obscure themes), and Sam Ezersky, another Shortz mentee, who convinced Will to talk puzzles at his house one evening, and now creates/edits Spelling Bee (how many words you can spell with 7 letters). They’ll explain how they do what they do, why games have taken us by storm, and even how to get better at them.
Natalie Braun’s anti-war film offers a poetic and politically urgent exploration of maternal refusal. An eerily prescient work, OXYGEN follows a mother’s radical act of resistance as she attempts to stop her son from crossing the border into war. At a moment when the human cost of military conflict is being debated globally, this mother and son, Anat and Ido, wrestle with their relationship and their understanding of patriotism, obligation, family and freedom.
Runtime: 93 minutes.
Director Shai Carmeli Pollak tells the story of a boy from a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank who sets out to see the sea for the first time, not knowing the language or the way. When his father, Ribhi, an undocumented laborer working in Israel, learns that his son is missing, he leaves his job in search for him—risking arrest and the loss of his livelihood.
Runtime: 93 minutes.
Released in 1936, I Have Sinned (Al Khet) was the first Yiddish sound film made in Poland, and marks the film debut of the Polish-Jewish comedy team Dzigan and Schumacher ( known as the Yiddish Abbot and Costello). Unseen for generations until its new rescue and restoration by The National Center for Jewish Film, I Have Sinned (Al Khet) blends melodrama with a bissel of comedy and music.
Set in a small Jewish town during World War I, the film follows Esther (Rachel Holzer), a rabbi’s daughter who abandons her child after her lover dies in battle and the Russians invade. Complications unfold as Esther’s friends played by Dzigan and Schumacher attempt to reunite mother and daughter years later.
Runtime: 90 minutes.
Lisa Rivo, Co-Director of the National Center for Jewish Film, which spearheaded the digital restoration of I have Sinned, will introduce and discuss the film.
Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse (2024) examines Spiegelman’s “irreverent” life, his artistic partnership with wife Françoise Mouly, and the development of his groundbreaking graphic novel Maus. Premiering at DOC NYC 2024, the film covers his underground comix roots, New Yorker covers, and 9/11 experiences as he emerges as a leading advocate for free speech in response to book bans and rising authoritarianism.
Runtime: 98 minutes.