Author: David Rutman

In a sermon prior to his retirement, Rabbi David Wolpe shared an anecdote that resonated deeply with me. He said: I know that this will sound very strange to you…the part of the service that I both enjoy most and fear most is carrying the Torah around – because I know I will not look […]

Talking to Rabbi Richard Camras, and Rabbi Stewart Vogel of HaMakom synagogue in West Hills, is like talking to identical twins. The two native Angelenos, longtime friends and professional colleagues, have strikingly similar career paths, present convictions and future intentions. They are so much in tune with each other, they practically finish each other’s sentences. […]

Here in Israel, a country still reeling from the trauma of Oct. 7 and the wars that followed, it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t think the ceasefire deal with Iran is a disaster. Times of Israel editor-in-chief David Horovitz, known for his balanced, centrist views, calls the deal a “catastrophic capitulation to Iran’s aggressors,” […]

“Zionism” is now a bad word in many circles. It’s used to insult others and has become an antisemitic slur heard on college campuses, city streets, and social media. Despite the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist sentiment poisoning so many institutions and people, Herbert Block, executive director of the American Zionist Movement, is optimistic about the Jewish community’s […]

“The aim of the operation is to end the threat from the Ayatollah regime in Iran. [It] will continue as long as necessary. … If we don’t stop them now, they will become invulnerable. Their representatives in negotiations are trying to buy time, attempting to gain time in fruitless and deceitful negotiations with our American […]

Donald Trump has always been a man of gluttonous taste. After surviving a litany of federal and state prosecutions and a slew of civil actions in his four-year hiatus from the White House, he proved to be a glutton for punishment, too. And yet, he always presented himself as a man not to be trifled […]

While Hamas terrorists were hiding behind their own people during Israel’s war in response to the Hamas massacre of 1200 Israelis on Oct.7, 2023, Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, who had moved to France in 2021, felt his home country was in a state of “total moral collapse.” So he made a film, “Yes,” to capture […]

Sinai Temple marked a historic milestone as the congregation gathered on May 17 at Barad Hall for the congregation’s 120th anniversary gala, honoring outgoing President Mehrzad Roshan for her dedicated leadership and presenting Dr. Arnold and Gloria Lushing-Gilberg with a Special Legacy Award in recognition of their extraordinary contributions to the synagogue and community. Sinai […]

These past few weeks, I have watched commencement ceremonies at both universities and high schools. The featured content is either the commencement address or valedictorian speech. Sadly, the audience holds its breath from start to finish, wondering if the seemingly pre-approved words will be political, racist, polarizing, and offensive. My own daughter is graduating from […]

You may have already stumbled upon the headline: The world does not particularly like Israel, and to be precise, the world likes Israel less today than it did a year ago, though even then it was not exactly a passionate romance. We learn this depressing data point from a recent Pew Research Center poll that […]