Author: David Rutman

Most of us understand what America gave the Jews. Batya Ungar-Sargon knows what the Jews gave America. After almost two thousand years of exile, America became the place where Jews achieved genuine freedom. America not only offered unparalleled economic opportunity, but separated church and state, and prohibited religious tests for office. And while it has struggled to live up to […]

In their final days as co-leaders of Hamakom synagogue in West Hills, Rabbis Stewart Vogel and Richard Camras had to repeatedly explain to community members that they were not retiring in the traditional sense — and they were definitely not leaving. June 30 was their final fulltime day. Rabbi Camras described their new arrangement this […]

“There is something about defining a problem as you see it, and thinking that you’ve defined it accurately, that leads you to expect that perhaps that is the solution to the problem,” author and scholar Ruth Wisse said this morning on the Commentary podcast. Wisse was discussing the re-release of her 1992 book, “If I […]

In California, the decision of residents to leave often begins with a spreadsheet: rising rent, escalating taxes, the slow squeeze of everyday expenses. For many, the answer is a quieter life in Nevada or Texas, where space is more affordable and the pace a little more forgiving. But for Dorraine Gilbert Weiss, 80, and her […]

After a week in which Democrats nominated a slate of antizionists to Congress in a troika of New York City House races, it would be tempting to think that their party is now the greater threat to Israel and to the Jewish community in this country. But we were simultaneously reminded by Vice President JD […]

Happy 250th, America! What a gangbuster quarter-millennium of a resume you have assembled. Much to be proud of, and, yet . . . far too few Americans are lining up to blow out the candles. A revolutionary war brought independence from the British Empire, self-governance and the adoption of natural law. A war with Mexico […]

Poetica Coffee, a Brooklyn café, promises anyone who walks through its door “unconditional dignity.” Not as a customer and not as a transaction, the website explains, but as someone who arrived and deserves to be welcomed. Recently the same business posted a photograph of Rep. Dan Goldman, who had stopped in for a coffee, and […]

In the introduction to his book “American Judaism,” Jonathan Sarna shares the following anecdote: “When I first became interested in American Jewish history, I mentioned my interest to a scholar at a distinguished rabbinical seminary, and he was absolutely appalled. “American Jewish history,” he growled, “I’ll tell you all that you need to know about […]