Author: David Rutman

In April 1777, in the German city of Trier, Heschel HaLevi was born to a distinguished rabbinic family. His father and grandfather had served as the local rabbis, and his older brother would eventually step into that role. When he was a teenager, the French Revolutionary Army took control of Trier, and brought with it […]

In my 19 years of writing a weekly column for the Jewish Journal, I’ve never written a column about another column. So why am I doing it now? Because I can’t stand seeing an evil entity like Hamas win the propaganda war while my beloved Israel turns into a pariah state. My friends on the […]

Heart-breaking pictures of shockingly thin young children in the Gaza Strip have been splashed across the front pages of major papers, broadcast on important news channels, and reproduced on international media sites in recent weeks. These photographs have deadly consequences. Manufactured with the intent of inflaming passions and provoking outrage, they are inciting hatred, anti-Israel […]

Who knew barbarism as a career path pays so well? With the ostensible objective of bringing the war in Gaza to an end—and the moral perversity of punishing Israel for the continued endangerment of Gazans at the hands of Hamas—the leaders of France, the U.K. and Canada have announced their nominal recognition of a Palestinian […]

One of the most consequential but least-covered stories of the year came out of a radio station in Sacramento last week. Sportscaster Grant Napear, who was fired five years ago for tweeting “All Lives Matter,” is back at work, taking over the weekday afternoon slot on Fox Sports’ local station. The man will make a […]

Eli Sharabi was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th, and taken hostage by Hamas. Sharabi had never recited the Shema. Until he was in Gaza. Even though he was never a religious man, the Shema gave Eli enormous comfort; and he repeated it over and over again, as if it were […]

There’s a simple, obvious truth that helps explain why the Jewish community gets so agitated about acts of antisemitism, and it’s not just the hatred. Everyone knows that our world is filled with racists and bigots and haters of all kinds. But we also know that one of the unwritten rules of society is that […]

My Third-grade rabbi told me he wanted to strangle me. Both my fifth- and sixth-grade teachers called me an idiot. “Mark, I know that there is a brain in there somewhere. Please find it and use it.” My mother told me she didn’t know what to do with me. “We know you’re not stupid, so […]

I adore roller coasters – the initial gradual climb leading higher and higher; the rapid descent; the exhilarating feeling as you return to where it all began.  But as Jews have discovered in recent years, when it comes to Israel and antisemitism, living a roller coaster life is something quite different. The climbs are scarier, […]