Author: David Rutman

You would be forgiven if this past week confused you about the state of antisemitism in America and what can, and what should not, be done about it. There was even a self-destructive reminder of how Jews themselves feel about what’s been happening around them—a crisis manifested in both the hatred of Jews, and Jewish […]

The classic response to antisemitism has always been education. Given widespread ignorance, the conventional wisdom is that education is the best treatment for the world’s oldest hatred. That makes sense, until it doesn’t. The thing about education is that we can control what we teach but we can’t control how people will react to what […]

One year, at the intense and highly competitive quiz night at the conference for the Association for Jewish Studies (we academic types really know how to party), I wrote the wrong answer to the literary softball question: “Who wrote ‘To be a Jew in the 20th Century’?” The answer was Muriel Rukeyser. (My office is […]

On November 4, 1979, Iranian student supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini stormed the United States embassy in Tehran and took 52 American hostages, whom they held for 444 days. As part of U.S.’ response, On November 27, President Jimmy Carter issued executive order 12172, under which no Iranian would be allowed entry into the U.S. and […]

From the start, odds were against Vika Bekker becoming a committed Jew. Growing up in a non-religious home in Buffalo Grove, a small town a half-hour outside of Chicago, she became attracted to Judaism in high school – through NCSY. Her fledgling interest never wavered. Later when she planned to transfer from the University of […]