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The history of Germany and Austria illustrates the hopes and achievements of social democracy as well as the shortfalls and failures. The first half of the 20th century was in both countries an era of peace-seeking and war-making when human hope and despair took every turn imaginable. This past has a bearing on our lives today, as we confront authoritarian political power and look for a path toward an equitable, peaceful, environmentally sustainable world.
“Betrayal in Haiti” is a theatrical adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist’s novella, published in 1811, about the Haitian Revolution.
History of the Zionist movement, beginning with the First International Zionist Conference in 1897 and followed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that remains tragically unresolved today.
“Cataract Surgery Blues” -- Human sight isn't merely biophysical, dependent on light rays, a lens, a retina, etc. It’s a social and historical affair as well.
“Notes on the History of the Barglow Family in Trinidad Colorado” describes the journey of my family of origin, which fled from Fascism in Europe and found a new home in a town in Southern Colorado.
“WiFi Woes: The Rollout of 5G Re-awakens Wireless Fear” (2022) Will the use of mobile phone and other wireless technologies exact an increasing toll in illness and death due to the dense blanket of radiation covering the earth?
“Winning the Vaccination War in California” (2017) In 2015, California bill SB 277 sought to eliminate the personal belief exemption that allows unvaccinated children to attend school. This proposal elicited a storm of libertarian, religious, and legal objections. The debate lasted for over four months and received more media coverage than any other legislative conflict in the state's recent history.
A theatrical adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1908 novel “The Road Into the Open,” exploring the origins of Zionism in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century. Featured are the experiences of the city’s Jewish inhabitants, including their fiery debates about assimilation, identity, and Zionism.
A theatrical presentation about Ukraine, reviewing the country's history from the famine in the early 1930s to the Maidan Revolution in 2014 and the Russian invasion thereafter.
“Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, and the Skeptical Humanist Tradition” (2017)
A theater piece about the life and times of my mother Hildegard, who was an actress on the German stage before emigrating to this country in the late 30s. Two staged readings of this play were held in the synagogue in Dresden Germany in 2006.
California voters passed Proposition 71, which funded the “California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative” in 2004, and reaffirmed support in 2020. Religious faith collided with science when Roman Catholic and conservative Protestant organizations, opposed to embryonic stem cell research, launched lawsuits to halt implementation of this legislation. Their opposition was eventually defeated in court.
“Radically Wrong in Berkeley” (2017) Mario Savio, a student at UC Berkeley and leader of the Free Speech Movement in 1964, said that “Freedom of speech is something that represents the very dignity of what a human being is. … That’s what marks us off from the stones and the stars…. It is the thing that marks us as just below the angels.” This high-minded ideal has not weathered well in Berkeley in recent years.
In this book, published in 1994, I made much of the following irony: although information technologies amplify human powers in certain ways, they also subvert the traditional Western concept of the separate and independent subject. Or so it seemed to me at the time.
