Author: David Rutman

Ten months after the Palisades Fires destroyed the homes of many of the 934 families who comprise the 75-year-old community Kehillat Israel, in the heart of the Palisades, many remain dazed.  Senior Rabbi Amy Bernstein sought to explain where the close community is 300 days into the disaster.  “It starts to feel normal-ish,” she said, […]

Dear all, Earlier this week, my phone overheated. A message appeared on the screen: “iPhone needs to cool down before you can use it.” So I waited. Ten minutes later, it worked again. It struck me that sometimes our conversations are like that phone—too hot to handle. When emotions flare, communication shuts down. It happens in […]

As artificial intelligence and robotics reshape industries and daily life, will humans maintain their relevance? Machines excel in efficiency and calculation. But let’s hope there are irreplaceable aspects of the human experience — empathy, creativity and genuine connection — that technology cannot replicate despite the overwhelming profit motive to do so.  AI and robotics are […]

Start spreading the news I’m leaving today . . . Oh, sorry for the lyrical misdirection, but this version of the Frank Sinatra standard has the crooner fleeing New York! Hold onto those “vagabond shoes,” after all. Don’t jettison those “little-town blues,” just yet. New York might become the “city that doesn’t sleep” for more […]

Everything starts with a seed. Not just life, but vegetables, fruits, ideas and relationships Rachel Simons’ debut cookbook, “Sesame: Global Recipes + Stories of an Ancient Seed,” explores that metaphor through life, food, travel and history. For Simons, co-founder of popular tahini outfit Seed+Mill, based in New York City’s iconic Chelsea Market, seeds have taken […]

What sets Rabbi Elchanan Shoff apart from his colleagues and predecessors is his unquenchable desire to find out everything about everything. As a teacher for boys and girls at Valley Torah High School in Valley Village, Shoff has discovered a two-pronged approach that benefits both his students and himself. “A lot of my job is […]

There has been a lot of recent discussion about the need for Jewish self-defense. Several books and op-eds have been published advocating for American Jews to start waking up and taking this issue a lot more seriously. The contributions to this new literature come as violent antisemitic attacks continue to mount every week. Some of […]

Fifteen years ago, I noticed something different about my two-year-old daughter, Sammy’s walk. She had a noticeable sway in her hips, a little diva move that seemed more cute than concerning. But when she struggled to keep up in gymnastics and dance, we took her to a physical therapist. After months of sessions, the therapist […]

I was one of the Jewish leaders invited to the Vatican last week to witness Pope Leo XIV’s embrace of Nostra Aetate, first at a gathering of hundreds of faith leaders and the second at the pontiff’s weekly public appearance in St. Peter’s Square. Sitting near the podium I saw him declare to a 100,000 […]