Particularism & universalism: Outlook divides us
I’ve lived my life between the two largest Jewish communities of our time, those of Israel and the United States. And over the past several decades, drastically different levels of…
Sectarian conflict requires constitutional amendment
By Matan Rudner While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is disproportionately covered by Western media outlets, Americans are far less acquainted with the nonviolent, internal conflicts between opposing social groups in Israel.…
A July 4th reflection: the American in me
By Matan Rudner I have a complicated relationship with America. It’s the place where I was born and raised, where as an impressionable youth I first began to understand the…
State of Israel belongs in the Middle East
By Matan Rudner In the seven decades since the establishment of the third Jewish commonwealth, we have revived our language, made the desert bloom, and ingathered the exiles of our…
Service, not simplification, the key to Judaism
By Matan Rudner Amid a rapidly changing world, the Jewish community, like all communities of faith, is trying its hardest to preserve its heritage, and pass it on to the…
Judaism is more than just a religion
Throughout millennia of our existence, we’ve transformed from family to tribe, and from people to nation. For thousands of years, we’ve retained a distinctly Jewish ethnicity, culture and system of…
My upbringing told me I belong in Israel
It’s been a year and a half since my aliyah to Israel, and I’d like to make some things clear. I didn’t leave Dallas, the city where I was born…