Sunday, March 29 | 2 – 3:30pm
In a moment when antisemitism and anti-Black racism are both headline concerns across the U.S. and beyond, this conversation brings the Wide River Project’s core approach a deep, curious, and honest inquiry to the stage. Drawing on the history, culture, and lived experience of both communities, Nadine Epstein and Eric K. Ward will explore how longstanding bonds and contemporary tensions intersect, why conflicts often feel intractable, and what it takes to talk about these issues with specificity and respect. This is a dialogue rooted in the Wide River Project’s commitment to seeing across divides so we can understand them, not a debate or scripted contest.
The discussion will also connect these themes to current public life and ongoing national debates about civil rights, institutional policy, and community safety; and scholarly and media analysis showing how antisemitism and anti-Black racism are often intertwined in American political discourse today. Participants will walk away with clearer language, sharper tools for interpreting the news and conversations around them, and a renewed sense of what it means to engage across differences with both honesty and care.
About the Panelists
- Eric K. Ward is executive vice president of Race Forward, a nonprofit racial-justice organization. He is an expert on the relationship between authoritarian movements, hate violence, and preserving inclusive democracy. In Ward’s over 30-year civil rights career, he has worked with community groups, government and business leaders, human rights advocates, and philanthropies as an organizer, director, program officer, consultant, and board member. His writings and speeches are credited with key narrative shifts. Ward is a member of the President’s Leadership Council for the Search for Common Good, chair of Proteus Fund, and an advisor to Bridge Entertainment Labs. His recognition includes the 2021 Civil Courage Prize – the first American recipient in the award’s 21-year history.
- Nadine Epstein is the Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Moment Magazine, founder and executive director of the Center for Creative Change, and founder of the Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative. She covered politics in the Chicago bureau of the New York Times and at the City News Bureau of Chicago. She was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and was a University Fellow in the political science doctoral program at Columbia University. Epstein has written several books, contributed to anthology collections and co-written a documentary film that was a semifinalist for the 2001 Academy Awards. She is also a photographer and is based in Washington DC.