Author: David Rutman

The ceasefire that went into effect on Friday between Israel and Hamas, and the hostage release that took place on Monday—and the still uncertain regional peace the ceasefire may portend—is a monumental achievement from an American president not known for diplomacy. It should have garnered Donald Trump the Nobel Peace Prize. Begrudge all you wish, […]

One of the recent low points in mainstream journalism occurred in 2024 when Tony Dokoupil, a host on “CBS Mornings,” asked a few tough questions to Ta-Nehisi Coates about his new book, “The Message,” which was highly critical of Israel. Among the questions, Dokoupil asked why Coates left out of his book the crucial context […]

One of the most famous letters ever written was by the renowned French novelist Émile Zola. It was published in 1898 under the title “J’Accuse” (I Accuse). Zola accused the President of France and the military command of prejudice for knowingly convicting an innocent man of treason. That man was a Jew, Alfred Dreyfus. Zola […]

Under the terms of the deal, Hamas commits to release all of the hostages, both living and deceased, within 72 hours. That means that the U.S.-designated foreign terror organization must release all the 48 hostages by around 1:30 a.m. on Monday, Israel time. Of the 48, 20 are thought to be still living. Israeli specialists […]

Twenty-seven headstones at the Home of Peace Jewish Cemetery in Bakersfield were knocked down on Tuesday, September 30. Some of the headstones in the historic Union Cemetery date back to the 1920s. Rabbi Jonathan Klein, who has been serving as the rabbi of Temple Beth El for the past five years, said he believes the […]

On October 5, 2025, in Tel Aviv, I sat in a theater for the Israeli premiere of One Day in October, the upcoming HBO Max miniseries about October 7. It was two days before the second anniversary of that horrific day — a day that is not just history to me, but memory. That Saturday, my […]

Since 2020, the Western world has been on a covered-face fetish. The pandemic made the N95 mask an indispensable artifact of the coronavirus—more important an accessory than the iPhone. We came to accept that protecting our respiratory systems meant forfeiting our facial identities. Soon faces were masked for infections of a different sort. Viruses migrated […]

Batya Ungar-Sargon wore a Magen David necklace as she hosted the first episode of her weekly NewsNation show “Batya!” on Sept. 20. Before the debut, she told The Journal “It’s to remind me and my viewers who I am as a Jew,” One the show, Ungar-Sargon told guest Megyn Kelly she was one of her […]

Actress Rita Zohar didn’t have to search far for her role as a Holocaust survivor in Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, “Eleanor the Great.” She is a Holocaust survivor herself. Though Zohar did not experience the horrors of the war directly — she was only four-and-a-half months old when her family was liberated from the concentration camp […]