Author: David Rutman

On April 1, Bar Kupershtein celebrated his 24th birthday and his first Passover with his family in Israel since being kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. Kupershtein had been working as a paramedic and deputy security officer at the Nova music festival when he was abducted. He spent 738 days in Gaza’s tunnels, enduring […]

With the third and final season of ”The Comeback,” now streaming on HBO Max more than two decades after its 2005 debut, Lisa Kudrow, 62, returns to her cult-favorite role as Valerie Cherish, a veteran sitcom actress navigating a career comeback in a rapidly changing Hollywood — much like Kudrow herself — with the same […]

Last summer, my family and I traveled to Rome. In three short days, we hurried through cobblestone streets to see ancient ruins, gaining a deeper understanding of Italian history. One of the most striking landmarks was the Colosseum, a testament to the sophistication of ancient Roman engineering and the central role that entertainment and power […]

As if Israel didn’t already engender enough reasons for an antisemitic world to despise the Jewish state, its parliament, the Knesset, came up with another one last week—a real doozy. A majority of Israel’s elected representatives voted to impose the death penalty against Palestinians—specifically, death by hanging—for acts of murderous terror intended to end Israel’s […]

Not long ago, I watched Ari’el Stachel alone on stage—alone in the fullest sense. In “Other,” his one-man show, he inhabits scores of characters while wrestling with a life spent moving between worlds: a Yemeni Jewish father, an Ashkenazi mother, and a self that could pass as Jewish, Arab, Middle Eastern or Black depending on who is looking. […]

On March 29, Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills held its fifth annual Bird Goldstein Songs of Freedom Interfaith Concert, bringing together clergy, musicians and community members from diverse faith traditions for an afternoon of music and connection. Held in the spirit of both Passover and Easter, the program celebrates the power of using our voices […]

This week, you likely belted out the words Dayeinu. Some of you hit another with a green scallion. (Email me if you need an explanation!) Others politely sang each refrain, reminiscing about days of religious school past. Dayeinu does not mean “It’s enough.” You might think the song reflects the angsty sentiments of the Israelites. […]

According to Rabbi Zach Shapiro, Spiritual Leader of Temple Akiba in Century City and a lifelong musician, the way Reform and Conservative congregations pray underwent a seismic change in the 1970s. That’s when Debbie Friedman, the hugely popular Jewish musician who died in 2011, “began to transform the way we pray.” The change, he told […]