January 24, 2010

Broadcast Date: 
Jan 24 2010

In the first human rights case to address atrocities in Somalia under the Siad Barre dictatorship, why are Jewish groups are lining up on side of the alleged perpetrator? Plus we speak with David Lehman, author of A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs.

Episode segments
  • Samantar vs Yousef: Which Side are You On?
    National Politics, Domestic Policy, Civil Rights, Jewish
    Maria LaHood is a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights where she specializes in international human rights litigation, seeking to hold government officials and corporations accountable for torture, extrajudicial killings, and war crimes abroad.
    Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark and Alisa Solomon

    On March 3rd, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Samantar vs. Yousef, the first human rights case to address atrocities in Somalia in the 1980s under the dictatorship of Siad Barre. The key issue facing the court is whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which provides immunity from civil lawsuits to foreign states, also applies to individual foreign government officials, such as Samantar, who was a high official in the Siad Barre regime. We talk with CCR's Maria LaHood about the case, the jurisdictional issue facing the USSC, and why a number of Jewish organizations have filed amicus briefs on behalf of Samantar.

  • A Fine Romance
    Music, Arts & Culture
    David Lehman is the author of A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs (Nextbook Press). He is the editor of The Oxford Book of American Poetry and the author of numerous books of poems, most recently Yeshiva Boys: Poems.
    Alisa Solomon and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    BTP talks with author David Lehman about his recent book, A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs and spins some of the great tunes by the Jewish creators of the American Songbook.

    On Wednesday, January 28th, Lehman will read from A Fine Romance at I Got A Right to Sing the Blues? a concert featuring Rufus Wainwright, Bill Frisell, Van Dyke Parks and others performing songs by Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, George Gershwin et. al.. The sold-out concert is part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook series and co-sponsored with Nextbook Press.