Author: David Rutman

Jay Ruderman has been an activist his entire life. He has long advocated for social justice for people with disabilities, ensuring their visibility in Hollywood productions. Through his work as president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, he’s been able to make meaningful change. “The reason I have been an activist is because it’s allowed me […]

This Yom Ha’atzmaut the polls are sobering. The mass media pounding and social media shaming Israel and Zionism have absorbed since October 7 soured many Americans on Israel. In response, many American Jews are wavering too. But Israel’s 78th Independence Day is an opportunity to defy this political moment and think eternally, existentially, and about […]

For those of a certain age, the name Bennett Cerf brings up fading memories of an owlish, avuncular man you’d see on reruns of “What’s My Line.” For many, that was all he was: funny, sophisticated and one of television’s first celebrities. In retrospect, he seems like an early incarnation of someone who was famous […]

The story goes that the Chief Rabbi of Israel visited the Vatican and was invited into the Pope’s private quarters.  In the corner was a pay phone.  The Pope said that the phone was a direct line to God, and suggested that the rabbi make a call.  When the rabbi picked up the receiver, an […]

Now that ceasefire negotiations with Iran have predictably broken down before they ever got started, we can finally get back to the destruction of Iran’s “civilization” that Donald Trump promised with all the subtlety and panache of a drunken sailor. The president who apparently doesn’t drink nonetheless can’t hold his tongue. Who will ever forget […]

Ten years ago, Nicole Guzik, who shares the title of Senior Rabbi of Sinai Temple with her husband, Rabbi Erez Sherman, decided she needed to pursue something that was distinctly her own. Five years later, as an associate marriage and family therapist, she launched the Sinai Temple Mental Health Center to address the mental and […]

Wilshire Boulevard Temple and the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony (LAJS), under the direction of Founding Artistic Director and Conductor Noreen Green, held “Opera Favorites with a Jewish Twist” on March 22. An enthusiastic crowd, including multiple senior homes and a local student group, turned out. Taking place in the historic sanctuary at Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s […]

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 […]