December 20, 2009

Broadcast Date: 
Dec 20 2009

What's a Jew to do at Christmas? Plus child sex abuse scandals roil Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn. And Beyond the Pale asks: Why is Joe Lieberman such a schmuck?

Episode segments
  • What's a Jew to do at Christmas?
    Holidays, Music, Film, Arts & Culture, Jewish Life, Literature

    Shana Liebman is the arts editor for Heeb magazine, producer of Heeb's Storytelling series and the editor of the Storyteling series collection Sex, Drugs and Gefilte Fish.

    Elliott Kalan hosts the film series, Closely Watched Films, on the first Wednesday of every month at the 92nd Street Y, Tribeca.  He is also a writer on The Daily Show.
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    What's a Jew to do?  Some options:

    December 23rd: Heeb's Storytelling Series is at Joe's Pub

    Christmas Eve:  Jewltide 7 in Brooklyn

                              The 23rd Annual Matzoh Ball

                              A Christmas Eve Gay Jewbilee

                              Heebonism: "the mother of all Christmas Eve parties"

    Christmas Day: Chinese Food and a Mel Brooks Double Feature at 92Y Tribeca.

    Writer Elliott Kalan shares with us his story from Sex, Drugs and Gefilte Fish.

  • Child Sexual Abuse Scandal Roils Orthodox Communities
    New York Politics, Jewish Communities, Jewish Life, Police/Criminal Justice, Jewish
    Hella Winston writes for The Jewish Week.
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    Journalist Hella Winston has been covering the allegations of child sexual abuse by rabbis and teachers within New York's Orthodox communities for The Jewish Week.  We talk with her about some of the key cases that have come to light in recent years and the failure of community leaders and the Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes to aggressively respond.

  • Why Makes Joseph Lieberman Tick?
    National Politics, Domestic Policy
    Ari Berman writes for The Nation and is an investigative journalism fellow at The Nation Institute.
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    Senator Joseph Lieberman campaigned with Republican John McCain in 2008 (and was said to be McCain's first choice for Vice President).  Lieberman was a headliner at right-wing religious extremist Rev. John Hagee's 2008 Christians United for Israel summit. (For Glen Greenwald's 2007 critique of the Lieberman-Hagee relationship, click here.) And this month, Lieberman threatened to vote against the Democrat's health care legislation if it contained a Medicare buy-in for those over 55-64 (something he was advocating last September).  We talk with investigative journalist Ari Berman about what's behind Lieberman's bizarre behavior and what, if anything, the Democrats can do about him.