December 2, 2007

Broadcast Date: 
Dec 2 2007

Peace talks or war talks in Annapolis? Plus a discussion of Jews in comics and the third annual Sephardic Music Festival, with a live performance by Smadar.

Episode segments
  • The Talks in Annapolis
    Israel/Palestine
    Michel Warschawski is a founder of the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem and author of, most recently, with Gilbert Achcar of The 33-Day War: Israel's War on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Its Consequences.
    Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    Michel Warschawski cuts through the mainstream hype surrounding the Annapolis talks, which brought together representatives from the Bush administration, some 20 Arab states, Israel, and Palestine ostensibly to launch a new round of talks aimed at settling the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

  • Jews and Comics
    Arts & Culture, Comics
    Danny Fingeroth was an executive in the comic industry for many years and wrote and edited Spiderman; he is the author of Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero.
    Nan Rubin

    An insider take on the cultural presence of Jews in American comics and what it says about questions of American Jewish identity.

  • Sephardic Music Festival
    Music, Arts & Culture

    Erez, a/k/a DJ Handler, runs the independent music label Modular Moods Records and performs as a DJ as well as with the "breakbeat klezmer/jazz" band Juez. He is the founder and organizer of the Sephardic Music Festival.

    Smadar Levi is an Israeli-Moroccan singer who performs traditional and contempory music in Hebrew, Arabic, and Ladino; her debut CD is Smadar.
    Esther Kaplan

    The third annual Sephardic Music Festival opens December 4 with a performance at BB Kings by Soulfarm, Roberto Rodriguez, Sarah Aroeste, and others and continues through December 11. The festival features rock guitarist Piamenta, hip-hop artist Y-Love, Sephardic singers Gerard Edery and Consuelo Luz, electronica-influenced DJ Balagan, and more.