David Wolpe is a prominent American rabbi, author, and scholar, serving as the Max Webb Senior Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. Named one of the most influential rabbis in America by Newsweek, he is widely known for his writings and lectures on faith, theology, and Jewish identity. He contributed essays and book reviews to The Weekly Standard between 2010 and 2017, covering topics related to religion, Jewish history, and the intersection of faith and culture.
In 1992, the exiled Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide spoke to Jewish leaders in New York City. Having studied for three years in Jerusalem, he spoke to them in Hebrew as well as English. Aristide was slightly shocked to discover, after the talk, that he was not understood: Most of the…
Trivia question: Who wrote the first political autobiography? He flourished more than 300 years before Caesar, may have been a eunuch, and lived a very eventful life. The man who wrote it was a high official in an empire, became a national leader, the restorer of a city, arguably penned the first…
Trivia question: Who wrote the first political autobiography? He flourished more than 300 years before Caesar, may have been a eunuch, and lived a very eventful life. The man who wrote it was a high official in an empire, became a national leader, the restorer of a city, arguably penned the first…
The Hebrew Bible is shaped by two extended portraits, of Moses and David. Of the two stories, Moses’ is better known, but the narrative of David is more psychologically complex and dramatically vivid. As they divide the great mountains (Sinai and Zion) and two dominant terrains (desert and land)…
This is a somewhat eccentric book. It is written to oppose the display of the Ten Commandments in American public spaces, but it makes little reference to American law, precedent, principle, or polity. Rather, it is an erudite and interesting tour d’horizon of modern scholarship on the Ten…
In the early 20th century the Pale of Settlement was home to more Jews than anywhere else in the world.