Judaism & Jewish Culture

Alexander Slepak was able to leave the Soviet Union and emigrate to the United States. His parents, both prominent Jewish activists, continue to be denied the right to leave the country.

Canadian writer Mordecai Richler, author of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and Joshua Then and Now, both of which were adapted into films.

Comic Jackie Mason. He's the star of the one-man Broadway show, "The World According to Me," a hit for eight months now. The show continues to draw more sold-out houses than any other non-musical attraction on Broadway.

CBS News Producer Leslie Cockburn. Since 1984, she has covered the United States' involvement with the Nicaraguan Contras. Her reports have aired on "60 Minutes" and "West 57th Street." Her new book is titled Out of Control: The story of the Reagan Administration's secret war in Nicaragua, the illegal arms pipeline, and the Contra drug connection.

Book critic John Leonard reviews a collection of essays by Primo Levi.

Comedian Richard Belzer. After struggling through a poor and difficult childhood and a rough decade trying to make it as a comic, he is now performing in comedy clubs from coast to coast. He is also appearing in movies, and starring in comedy specials on cable TV.

Critic-at-Large Laurie Stone previews a 5-hour NBC miniseries on the 1913 hanging of a Jewish factory manager in Atlanta, Georgia following the murder a 13-year-old employee of the factory. The case hinged on racial hatred, in this case the prevailing enmity toward Jews, and Laurie praises the production's exploration of how racial divisions have been exploited for political effect. The miniseries is titled "The Murder of Mary Phagan."

Film Director Louis Malle. He made his mark in French New Wave Cinema with such films as "Murmur of the Heart" and "Lacombe Lucien." More recently he has been working in the U.S. making films such as "Atlantic City" and "My Dinner with Andre." His latest film, "Au Revoir Les Enfants," is a reflection on his childhood.

Violinist Isaac Stern. During the past 50 years he has become one of the most renowned and recorded violinists in classical music.

Israeli novelist Amos Oz. He lived on a kibbutz for many years and is a veteran of the Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973. His books include A Perfect Peace, In the Land of Israel and his new book, Black Box.

Writer and actress Lulla Rosenfeld. She's written a book on Yiddish Theatre and her grandfather, Jacob Adler, one of its most renowned actors.

Natan, formerly Anatoly, Sharansky. He was jailed on trumped up treason and spying charges by the KGB and endured nine years of solitary confinement and a starvation diet before an international campaign forced his release two years ago. His account of his ordeal and the subsequent pressures of celebrity are recounted in his book Fear No Evil.

Wiesel, who died July 2, was one of the first survivors to devote his life to bearing witness to the Holocaust. He was the author of many books, including Night. Originally broadcast in 1988.

Standup comic Richard Lewis. In his act, Lewis portrays a spastic, tortured, self-deprecating man living a life of unrelieved pain. He says of his comedy that after he's finished his act "people throw prescription drugs and the names of their therapists instead of roses. I'm the wreck they can't be." Lewis has appeared roughly 35 times on the "Late Night with David Letterman" show. His new HBO comedy special, "Richard Lewis: I'm Exhausted Concert," premieres on June 18th.

Lumet is known for completing movies quickly and under budget. He's made 38 films in 30 years -- a pace typically associated with the studio system of early Hollywood. He joins Fresh Air to discuss the consistency of American actors, including stars like Al Pacino and Henry Fonda, and the production of several of his classic movies.

The sequel to the lackluster Winds of War is well worth the time, says TV critic David Bianculli. The miniseries about World War II already has a third installment in the works, which is slated to air next year.

The British journalist reports on Washington politics for The Nation, Spectator, and Harper's. He's frustrated by the tendency of news outlets to avoid reporting facts about political figures that may seem partisan or outwardly critical. A collection of his columns, titled Prepared for the Worst, has just been published.

Peter Sichrovsky's lives in Austria, and is the child of Holocaust survivors who grew up alongside the children of former Nazis. He is interested in how the generation after World War II dealt with their parents' experiences during this time, either as perpetrators or victims of violence. Sichrovsky's books include Strangers in Their Own Land and Born Guilty.

Book critic John Leonard reviews Eva Hoffman's new memoir, Lost in Translation, about the writer's childhood in Eastern Europe and later move to North America. Leonard says the book deserves the same praise as other literary memoirs like Nabokov's Speak, Memory and Kingston's The Woman Warrior.

The minimalist composer's new piece, Different Trains, contrasts Reich's childhood experiences crossing the country by rail to visit his divorced parents with the memories of Holocaust survivors' journey to concentration camps. The music incorporates recordings of several interviews into the orchestration.