Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is the scholar in residence at National Council of Jewish Women. Her most recent book, On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World, was both a National Jewish Book Award winner and an American Library Association Honor Book. She writes a weekly newsletter.
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled today to uphold the Trump administration’s travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries. The current version suspends and restricts entry for immigrants, refugees and even visa holders from Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela; the latter two countries were added after the ban was contested in…
Yesterday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the current administration’s policy of separating immigrant families at the border as “Biblical.” Sessions referred specifically to Romans 13 in the New Testament, but Sanders later claimed that it is “very biblical to enforce the law,” and that this “is actually…
The Senate voted on a bill Monday to ban most abortions after 20 weeks; it failed along party lines. Just a few days earlier, the latest Pew data estimated that a whopping 83% of Jews believe that in all or most cases, abortion should be legal, putting us at the fourth most pro-choice group surveyed…
As I look back on the long, chaotic, exhausting, infuriating, terrifying year we’ve had since the presidency was called for Trump, one thought in particular stands out: I’m really proud of us. I’m proud of all of us who have made calling our elected representatives a new daily habit; who have gotten involved in politics…
Who will live, and who will die? Who by the length of their days, and who before their time? Who by wildfire, and who by hurricane? Who by repeal of their health care, and who by unjust pricing of their lifesaving medicines? The questions that we ask on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are not…
I’m struck by the punitive nature of the new White House budget proposal on the poor — which involves cutting $274 billion over ten years from anti-poverty programs like food stamps, tax credits and welfare, as well as austere reforms on Medicaid and disability insurance while boosting military spending. All of the early quotes commenting…
While covering the Mother’s Day second line parade in New Orleans — a festive tradition in the city — on May 12, 2013, two young brothers sprayed bullets into the crowd. The shooting wounded 19 people, including reporter Deborah Cotton, a longtime correspondent for the local alt weekly Gambit and a cultural writer for Nola.com….
Trump, Pence, Ryan and the whole GOP are Sodomites. This doesn’t mean that they engage in sodomy, per se. Rather, the Republican leadership today is guilty of sins so grievous that God found necessary to destroy their (im)moral forebears in the Torah. The actual text of the Sodom story in Genesis 18 and 19 doesn’t…
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