Beyond the Pale | Jewish Culture and Politics

BEYOND THE PALE explores cutting edge Jewish culture and offers local, national, and international political debate and analysis from a Jewish perspective.

Sundays, noon to 1 p.m., on WBAI/New York, 99.5 FM

Recently Aired

April 7, 2013 — Five million stop and frisks and the NYPD is still counting. Today's hosts, Marissa Brostoff and Kiera Feldman, talk with Candis Tolliver, senior organizer at the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCL) about the NY City Council's proposed Community Safety Act, which, among other provisions, includes the creation of an Inspector General to oversee the NYPD.

Is it possible for Israel to be both a Jewish and a democratic state.? BTP broadcasts excerpts from a panel addressing the question that took place last week at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah (CBST) in Manhattan.

BTP talks with poet, novelist, translator, critic and scholar Ammiel Alcalay about his most recent book, A Little History.

March 31, 2013 — New York City Council finally passes the paid sick leave bill. First, BTP talks with independent journalist Sarah Jaffe. Next, BTP's Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark and Alisa Solomon talk about the 2013 Hungarian Theater Showcase --a beacon of democracy. Finally, Corey Robin's The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin is out now in paperback. We rebroadcast Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark's July 2011 conversation with Robin.

March 24, 2013 — Co-hosts Lizzy Ratner and Jesse Meyerson talk with Joshua Oppenheimer about his remarkable, rivetting, award winning film, The Act of Killing, about the death squad leaders who helped the Indonesian army slaughter of morel than one million Communists, ethnic Chinese and intellectuals in 1965. Filmmaker Werner Artist Ruth Sergel talks with Lizzy and Jesse about the street-art project, Chalk, dedicated to preserving the memory victims of the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory fire. BTP co-host Alex Kane talks with us from Israel and Palestine where he has been covering President Obama's visit and the ongoing Palestinian resistance movement.

March 17, 2013 — A rebroadcast of our Jan 16 2011 show on Jews and Metal, with a tribute to the cult rock doc Anvil. Host Jenny Romaine talks with violinist and composer Alicia Svigals and with freelance journalist Mike Rubin. Svigals, a founder of the Klezmatics and of the all-women band Mikveh, is considered by many to be the world's foremost klezmer fiddler. Rubin writes about music for The New York Times, Tablet and other venues.

Here's the list of what we played today:

Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love, Van Halen

Master Race Rock, The Dictators

Hot Rails To Hell, Blue Oyster Cult

Sister Ray, The Velvet Underground

Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy, The Ramones

20th Century Boy, T. Rex

Strutter, KISS

Hatikvah, Marty Friedman

Avinu Malkenu (Our Father Our King), Mogwai

Correction: We've since learned that the melody for Hatikvah is not by Grieg. According to Wikipedia, it has been attributed to a Roumanian folk song, and to a 17th century Italian song. Smetana

March 10, 2013 — Hosts Marissa Brostoff and Kiera Feldman talk with Democratic District Leader Paul Newell.

Photographer Roman Vishniac is best known for his iconic social documentary photography of Jewish life in pre-Holocaust Europe. Yet, his body of work extends far beyond the shtetl. New York’s International Center of Photography is home to the Roman Vishniac archive, which traces his career from 1920s Berlin to post-War America.

In this segment, Beyond the Pale member Eve Sicular interviews ICP adjunct curator Maya Benton, who oversees the Vishniac archive. The Vishniac exhibition at ICP runs through May 5th in New York.