Author: David Rutman

Community outreach has long been important to Rabbi Yonah Bookstein. But sitting in his modest upper-story office on Pico Boulevard, the founder of Pico Shul offers no hint of his extensive background. How does the rabbi see his career? “I’m at an amazing point,” he said. “I have been in Jewish communal work for more […]

On a construction site in Pan Pacific Park, where exposed beams and unfinished pathways are rapidly giving way to a bold new vision, two descendants of Holocaust survivors stood side-by-side, looking at what will soon become the Goldrich Cultural Center, a major expansion of Holocaust Museum LA. Overlooking the park and just steps from The […]

On Sunday, May 31, a record 50,000 people marched in the Israel Day Parade in New York. Of those, 40 were Shlichim (Israeli emissaries) from The Jewish Agency for Israel. They were part of a joint float organized with the World Zionist Organization and American Zionist Movement. “The Shlichim are a living bridge to the […]

I’m in Jerusalem, and I need some water. It’s late afternoon, the sun is still shining bright, lots of people milling around the Mamilla area. As I head to the grocery store (run by the same Arab man I’ve known for 20 years), I’m thinking only of quenching my thirst. The problem is I’ve had […]

Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills welcomed community members, civic leaders, clergy and supporters for its annual After Hours Gala on May 7, an evening celebrating community, connection and the congregation’s year-round programs and services. Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills Co-President Kara Corwin, Melissa Greenspan, Robert Bird and Gail Goldstein. Courtesy of Temple Emanuel of Beverly […]

Karle Flanagan and Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider had caught their students cheating. The two professors at the University of Illinois, who teach data science to a class of 1,200 students, realized that multiple students had skipped class and manipulated an electronic ticker that monitored class attendance to cover it up. The professors warned the class about its […]

On June 14, Free Speech Advocate Greg Lukianoff, President of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” will be awarded an honorary degree by Dartmouth College.for his outsized impact on his field. Lukianoff may have had a particularly positive impact on Dartmouth, itself. At number […]

It seems easy to be Jewish if you grow up in a Jewish area. It is even easier to be religious if you grow up in an observant area. As we grow up and sometimes leave our Jewish bubbles, the world seems to be harder, and oftentimes confusing. Recently, I heard Rachel Goldberg-Polin in an […]