December 27, 2009

Broadcast Date: 
Dec 27 2009

An update from Cairo on the Gaza Freedom March, whose participants are stymied by severe restrictions; plus, the legacy of Irving Kristol and the origins of neo-conservatism.

Episode segments
  • Report from Cairo on the Gaza Freedom March
    Global Justice, International Politics, Middle East, Israel/Palestine, Occupation, Obituaries
    Max Ajl is the Coordinator for Communications and Media for the Gaza Freedom March.
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    The Gaza Freedom March is one of two international efforts intended to mark the one-year anniversary of the Israeli invasion by breaking the siege on Gaza.  More than 1300 delegates from 42 countries are gathering in Cairo and hope to cross into Gaza for a December 31 march.  We talk with Max Ajl about Egypt's threats to close the crossings into Gaza and its efforts to frustrate organizing and peaceful demonstrations in Cairo.  FLASH: January 3rd update.

    Also heading for Gaza is a convoy of over 500 people from 20 countries in 250 vehicles loaded with humanitarian aid.  The convoy, Viva Palestina, has been held up in Aqaba Jordan as they continue to negotiate for permission to enter Egypt.  FLASH: January 3rd.  Convoy reported to have arrived in El Arish.

  • Remembering Irving Kristol: the godfather of neo-conservatism
    National Politics, Literature, Obituaries
    Mark Greif is the co-editor of the literary, cultural and political journal n+1 and a Professor of Literary Studies at The New School.
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    Irving Kristol, is widely regarded at the godfather of neo-conservatism and, through his journals, think tanks, and acolytes, is said to have changed the direction of America's poltical culture. Kristol died at the age of 89 on September 18, 2009.  We talk with scholar Mark Greif about Kristol's own intellectual trajectory (from Trotskyist student radical at City College to revered neo-conservative guru) and the changing shape of neo-conservative thinking and influence in American life.

  • Who is A Jew? British Courts Tackle The Question
    Religion, Jewish Communities, Jewish Life
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    An impossible telephone connection prevented us from talking with Dinah Rose, the lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the British Supreme Court case involving the refusal of the Jewish Free School to admit a boy whose mother was not Jewish by Orthodox standards (that is, she was neither born Jewish, nor did she have an Orthodox conversion).  Her conversion was through the Masorti movement, what we call Conservative in the U.S.. The Court of Appeals ruled that the school, under Britain's  Race Relations Act, had illegally discriminated against the boy on grounds of ethnicity. The school appealed to the Supreme Court, which this month upheld the lower court ruling.

    The case highlights yet again the question of what it means to be a Jew: is it one's culture and/or ethnicity, is it one's religion or is it some combination of the two?  And who gets to decide?  For a useful discussion of the conundrum by Rabbi Ethan Tucker, click here.  And for two news stories on the decision:

    The Jewish Chronicle  and The Guardian