Author: David Rutman

How does a rabbi become an author? Rabbi Moshe Engel described his unique route. “Many years ago, when I was 50, I decided I am going to write a book,” the retired 78-year-old teacher said. “The book was going to be about positive thinking because I had an excellent story about the subject,” which he […]

Dave Cowen’s Passover Seder is one his guests are unlikely to forget. This is not the traditional evening of long, formal passages, often written in an biblical or liturgical Hebrew that can feel distant and difficult to understand even by Hebrew speakers. Instead, it moves at a lively pace, loosens the traditional structure, and blends […]

In “How to Read Literature Like a Professor,” Thomas C. Foster explains that “Flight is freedom.” Whether it’s the ancient myths of Icarus, Disney’s Peter Pan, or Superman’s many adventures, flight is often associated with freedom from cages, be they physical, spiritual or emotional. And yet, in the story of Exodus, the epitome of the […]

Long before artificial intelligence entered film sets and editing rooms, director Stuart Acher spent time thinking about the future. His favorite film was “Back to the Future,” the 1985 box office hit about time travel and alternate timelines, and featured flying cars and hovering skateboards. For Acher, the film remains his north star on storytelling […]

The Islamist terrorists who struck in Michigan, Virginia, and New York last week didn’t know each other. They didn’t belong to the same terrorist group. And they attacked three very different types of targets. But they had one important thing in common: they didn’t fit the stereotypical profile of a terrorist. For years, certain politicians, […]

After teaching first grade for 43 years at the Hebrew Academy in Long Beach before retiring, and raising a family of seven children and many grandchildren, Rabbi Moishe Y. Engel did something new this year: he will be publishing his first book, “Shabbos in a Gas Station, and Other Personal Inspirational Stories.” Not only that […]

Sinai Akiba Academy celebrated community, leadership and philanthropy at its Masquerade Ball Gala on Feb. 21, honoring school leaders Jessica and Brad Smiedt and alumnus Jonah Platt. Wearing glittering masquerade ball masks and black-tie attire, members of the Sinai Akiba community gathered for an evening dedicated to the school’s mission and the individuals whose leadership […]

Celibacy used to be a religious relic; now it is a lifestyle choice. In a 2018 article for The Atlantic, Kate Julian reported on what she called a “sex recession.” In it, she cited multiple studies that document a significant decline in sexual relationships among young people. More recent studies confirm that this decline is […]

What’s the mitzvah of Passover? One commandment is to not eat leavened products. Another is to not see leavened products. But the steps of the Seder allow us to fulfill another mitzvah: to tell the story of the Jewish people. The Haggadah, the book that we use during the Seder, informs of us what to […]

International Women’s Day, which was celebrated around the world this week, is not exactly the Palestinian Authority’s favorite holiday, given its longstanding policy of treating women as third-class citizens. Even those self-described human rights groups that are strongly biased in favor of the Palestinian Arab cause acknowledge the PA’s systemic mistreatment of women. Amnesty International’s […]