Author: David Rutman

On his first day in office, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani moved to revoke the city’s adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism. The decision was framed as a procedural correction—an act of neutrality, even principle. In reality, it was far more revealing: a declaration that Jew-hatred would again be treated as negotiable, conditional, […]

SOS Iran is a network created to help activists inside Iran connect and operate securely when communication is risky or disrupted. Participants are assigned an SOS number—an internal identifier used to protect identities while allowing organizers to verify a person’s role, route messages or footage through trusted channels, and track reports without exposing names or […]

In our zeal to fight the demon of Jew-hatred, Jews have become masters of speaking to themselves with in-depth analyses. It’s a natural instinct: We can’t fix a problem until we understand it, so let’s analyze it to death. Meanwhile, no one seems to notice that the more we’ve analyzed, the more antisemitism has gone […]

“We must learn to recognize that as long as we lack a home of our own, such as the other nations have, we must resign forever the noble hope of becoming the equals of our fellow men,” wrote Leon Pinsker in “Auto-Emancipation” in 1882, a text often regarded as the opening salvo of the Zionist […]

US President Donald Trump warned that Washington would respond militarily if Iranian authorities killed demonstrators, as anti-regime protests spread across multiple cities in Iran and have already become deadly.   In a post on Truth Social, President Trump said the United States was prepared to act if protesters were harmed by the Iranian government. “If Iran […]

During a reunion at Habonim Dror’s Camp Tavor in Chicago, a woman approached Michelle Azar and told her she had a fascinating life story. Azar jokingly replied, “I have a show about it – ‘From Baghdad to Brooklyn.’” At the time, the actress and singer, who is married to Rabbi Jonathan Aaron, didn’t actually have […]

Do you dip apples and challah in honey for a sweet new calendar year? Maybe it’s time to start.  As Jews, we get to celebrate New Years twice! Whether you kick off the year in the fall, during the High Holy Days, or via the traditional calendar in January — or both — each comes […]

There’s something about hating things that makes me feel alive. I’ll see a post on X about, say, another nasty case of Jew-hatred, and I’ll get all riled up. It makes me feel like doing something. I feel useful. Sometimes I’ll even write a column. This attachment to negative stuff is not something I’m proud […]

In a year marked by rising antisemitism and an alarming resurgence of Holocaust distortion, one of the most chilling artifacts of the Shoah has quietly emerged into public view—this time, as a weapon against denial rather than a remnant of it. Businessman and philanthropist Elliott Broidy has acquired one of only two known surviving original […]