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Articles by Stuart Halpern
The Last Signer
Saturday, Nov. 14, will mark a day few if any Americans will take note of but all should appreciate. On that date in 1832, Charles Carroll, the last signer of the Declaration of Independence, passed away. Carroll was born in Annapolis in 1737, the son of a wealthy tobacco planter. Maryland had been founded in 1634 as a haven for Catholics, but after 1689, when William and Mary took the throne from King James II in Britain’s Glorious Revolution, Maryland’s government was overthrown.
After the Last Out, Collect a Different Kind of Card
Someone tell Michael Rubin.
A Not-So-Alien Idea Original
"A rabbi, a priest, and an imam walk into a research program funded by NASA to talk about the intersection of God and aliens," quipped Business Insider after NASA gave more than $1 million to Princeton's Center of Theological Inquiry to study how the world's religions might respond to the discovery of extraterrestrial life.
Unstuck in the Middle with You
When George Washington was elected our nation’s first president, the various religious denominations each wrote him a letter of congratulations. There were roughly 2,000 Jews in the U.S. at the time. They, unable to agree on a unified text and representative, sent him three separate letters. As long as there has been an America, in other words, there have been American Jews disagreeing with each other. Fast-forward to today.
ARC: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera
On March 28, 2018, the Wall Street Journal made a correction to a story it had run the day before, in which it mistook a biblical mention of “a rock” for “Iraq.” In covering how the EPA had signed a deal to test a purification system developed by an Israeli water technology company, the paper had cited a promotional video for the company which quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying the company improves on Moses, who “brought water from Iraq.” As anyone even remotely familiar with...
Abraham’s Lessons in Leadership on the Eve of Israel’s Elections
As we begin reading the story of Abraham in the weekly Torah portion, and as Israelis head toward the polls on Oct. 27, it is worth pairing the Jewish founding father with another foundational Jewish leader, David. As Rabbi David Silber argues in his recently published “Human Kingship: Studies in the Book of Samuel,” much can be gleaned by considering the two great heroes side-by-side. Among the similarities he notes between Abraham and David’s tales are how they approach war.
Baseball’s Bounce Through the American Founding
As the Dodgers continue their march toward a World Series three-peat during America’s 250th year, it’s worth revisiting the relationship between baseball and the American Founding. It begins, surprisingly, with the king we tossed out.
A New Graphic Novel Re-Presents the Bible
Jordan B. Gorfinkel is a multi-hyphenate. An artist, singer, lecturer and mainstream entertainment content creator and producer, he’s now dedicating his energies to quite the intimidating task – taking the Five Books of Moses and refashioning them in graphic novel form with Koren Publishers.
Mining the Wisdom of a 3,000-Year-Old King’s Midlife Crisis
In 1959, Pete Seeger was asked by his record label to compose a feel-good record. “Pete, can’t you write another song like ‘Goodnight, Irene’? I can’t sell or promote these protest songs,” the label reps said. (Never mind that “Goodnight, Irene,” popularized by Seeger’s The Weavers, had actually been written by Lead Belly, not Seeger). “You better find another songwriter,” the rabble-rousing musician wrote back.
The Cultural Theory of YIMBY
How does anything get built? What are the political precursors to development? Michael Munger has an interesting, and at times persuasive, argument that self-interest combines with particular institutional designs, such as public hearings, to create a prisoner’s dilemma where everyone knows that development is in aggregate desirable but wants that development to be in the next town over. This is, in many ways, the conventional story of NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) politics.
The Rokeach’s Remarkable Sukkah
A sukkah’s walls are temporary, its roof porous. For around a week we trade the security of our houses for a structure that seems almost designed to remind us how little stands between ourselves and the elements. Its configuration evokes frailty, even weakness. The Rokeach (Public Domain) Yet to Rabbi Eleazar ben Judah of Worms (1176-1238), the medieval German pietist known as the Rokeach, the sukkah symbolized Jewish military might.
The Rule of Law or the Rule of Lawyers?
Democratic societies are continually wrestling with questions of law and policy. Which questions should be ceded to the courts, and which should be viewed as a matter of policy, to be determined by elected government? Ever since the 1960s, the answer has grown more complex—and more occluded—as the progressive left turned to the courts as their vehicle of choice for delivering policy outcomes.
The One, the Many, and the In-Between
In his 1948 classic Ideas Have Consequences, Richard Weaver described “the great stereopticon,” his term for the massification effect of the press and what were then the new technologies of radio and television. He wrote, “The plea that the press, motion picture, and radio justify themselves by keeping people well informed turns out to be misleading.
Not of This Earth
For people who believe that extraterrestrials have visited Earth—or who very much want to believe it—July 26, 2023, was supposed to be a historic day. That was the date of a House Oversight Committee hearing on “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency.” Three witnesses testified under oath about encounters with mysterious objects and alleged government knowledge of them.
How Yom Kippur’s Afternoon Prophet Inspires America
Headlining an upcoming blockbuster film is only the latest high-profile appearance by the ancient Jewish prophet whose story is read on the afternoon of Yom Kippur.
The Definitive Look at Israel’s Wartime Decision-Makers
As Israel stands on the cusp of an election and the U.S. enacts economic sanctions against Iran after military strikes failed to achieve a definitive victory, a newly released book serves as a must-read to understand the current moment. The Jerusalem Post’s Yonah Jeremy Bob and The Wall Street Journal’s Elliot Kaufman’s co-authored volume, “In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel’s Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis,” is the definitive telling of the aftermath of the Oct.
Deuteronomy’s Directions for America
For most Americans, Deuteronomy is an unlikely book to read as the nation continues to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary. It should be toward the top of the list. As anyone who has been to synagogue these past couple of months for the public reading of the last of the Five Books of Moses can tell you, the great Jewish leader’s farewell address is devoted largely to a question that every free people eventually confront: What do you do with liberty once you have obtained it?
‘The Final Solution to the Jewish Question' review: Confronting the oldest hatred
One evening in 2024, Dara Horn's teenage son found an unexpected and alarming message.
‘The Final Solution to the Jewish Question’ Review: Confronting the Oldest Hatred
One evening in 2024, Dara Horn’s teenage son found an unexpected and alarming message.
America’s First, Remarkable Flag, a Reminder of Biblical Faith
In a historical irony few Americans are aware of, the colonies’ first collective flag prominently displayed the very symbol of the empire from which the Revolutionaries would soon declare their independence. By the close of 1775, the Second Continental Congress had already assumed many of the functions of a national government. It had authorized a Continental Army, established a navy and created the Marine Corps that November.
Seeking the Sanhedrin and What It Means to Be a Rabbi
When I was 21 and learning Torah in Jerusalem after college, someone I happened to know from New Jersey knocked on my yeshiva’s door and asked me whether I knew where to find the Sanhedrin. I was dumbfounded, of course — as, at least to me, this individual was either 200 or 2,000 years too late. The last time a group of Torah scholars assembled using the name of the traditional highest rabbinic court was in France in 1807, under the auspices of Napoleon.
The Iranian Intellectual Who Admired Israel
While no one can predict how the simmering conflict with Iran will end, it’s worth revisiting in the meantime a remarkable episode in the history of Israel’s relationship to the country. In February of 1963, the Iranian essayist, sociologist and anthropologist Jalal Al-e-Ahmad visited Israel and came away deeply impressed.
The Forgotten Artist Who Fought Hitler with Faith
“They don’t want it to become a lost ark” is how a 2022 New York Post story began its lamenting how the Forest Hills Jewish Center, a Conservative synagogue downsizing to a smaller space, was hoping to find a new home for the room-within-the-sanctuary holding its Torah scrolls, a process still unfolding to this day.
Framing the Faith of Maimonides
For those seeking an entry into the most brilliant of Jewish legal minds, a recently launched series serves as an immensely rewarding resource. The first volume of Koren Publisher’s Steinsaltz Edition of Maimonides’ code of Jewish law, the Mishne Torah, has been published in English. It seeks to make the legendary medieval thinker’s teachings accessible to a wide audience, utilizing the commentary of the late Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, who passed away in 2020.
JFK on Israel in 1956 vs. Democrats today
JFK on Israel in 1956 vs. Democrats today (washingtonpost.com) JFK on Israel in 1956 vs. Democrats today By Stuart Halpern; Tal Fortgang 2026072710460300 "Israel's standing plummets among Democrats," an NBC News headline reported in March, announcing poll results showing that 57 percent of Democratic voters view Israel negatively.
The Empty Plaza and the Eternal Bond
“Many people today believe,” Guy Rogers observes in his “For the Freedom of Zion: The Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66–74 CE,” “that the fate of humanity itself will be decided at the site of the destroyed Temple.
The Jewish Tree of Life and American Tree of Liberty
“It is a Tree of Life for those who hold fast to it, and all its supporters are happy” is Proverbs 3:18’s praise of God’s law as the sustaining source of our existence. The line is sung in synagogue on the Sabbath as the Torah scroll is put back into the ark. As shul-goers look ahead to joyously reciting the customary melody once more this weekend, it’s worth recalling that a tree served as a symbol of life and liberty during the American Revolution’s early days, a phenomenon long forgotten.
The Yiddish Letter of American Liberty
On July 9, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was printed on the front page of The Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote. The paper, whose name translates to “Pennsylvania State-Courier,” was an influential 18th-century German periodical published in Philadelphia by Heinrich Miller that catered to the many native German speakers who had settled in the colony.
Lincoln’s Fast and Moses’ Faith: A July Fourth Reflection
On March 30, 1863, while mired in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln turned to the model of Moses to motivate the Union. It is a moment worth remembering as America turns 250 and the Jewish community commemorates the fast day of the 17th of Tammuz. A month from that day, Lincoln declared, would be a “day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer,” meant to evoke the aid of Providence in assisting the North in its fight.
The Hot Dog’s Jewish History
With the Fourth of July around the corner, it’s worth recalling how Americans’ favorite Independence Day food emerged thanks to members of the Hebrew faith. As the late rabbi and chef Gil Marks documented in his “Encyclopedia of Jewish Food,” in the middle of the 19th century, Frankfurt sausages, called vurshtlekh (small wursts) in Yiddish, began appearing in American communities with large pockets of German immigrants, most notably New York City.
Benjamin Franklin, Korah, and the Battle for the Constitution
Readers of chapters 16 and 17 of the biblical book of Numbers likely don’t realize that the tale of Moses’ conniving cousin told in those verses helped inspire the Constitution’s ratification. Those verses describe the plot of Korah, a relative of Israel’s leader, who plotted with 250 fellow rebels to overthrow the divinely sanctioned political authority of Moses and the religious authority of his brother, Aaron, the high priest.
The Courage of Jacob and Commitment to the Union
As America’s 250th birthday approaches, it is an occasion for all Americans to be grateful for their country and for American Jews to celebrate how Jewish ideas and individuals have contributed to the American story. Case in point is the remarkable career of Rabbi David Einhorn. After the outbreak of the Civil War, Rabbi Einhorn was forced to flee from Baltimore to the North due to his abolitionist views.
‘Edmond de Rothschild’ Review: A Faith In the Cause
Edmond de Rothschild watched helplessly as pogroms swept the Russian Empire. His thoughts turned to the ancestral home of his people. In 1886 Édouard Drumont, France’s leading antisemite, offered his observations of a 41-year-old Edmond de Rothschild.
Democracy, Divinity and the Inherent Challenge of the Image of God
Consider the Code of Hammurabi, from that 18th-century B.C.E. King of Babylonia. What was the life of a servant’s child worth, from its perspective? A mere two shekels. “If he strike the maid-servant of a man, and she lose her child, he shall pay two shekels in money,” the law coldly ruled. “Did people actually behave this way?” Tomer Persico wonders.
Rachel's Life in Pieces Original
"Once upon a time, I was meandering down the road of life with my husband, Jon. It was a regular and beige life, and it worked. It was a warm beige. We felt, and were, blessed and lucky. Normal. "Suddenly, one day, while walking along our way, a metaphorical 18-wheeler semitruck hit us from behind and broke every bone in our bodies. All 412 of our combined bones were fractured, our spirits were mangled, and our hearts were stolen. Our life was stolen.
The Sacred Ride of Francis Salvador
Since 1960, there’s been a memorial that sits at the intersection of Christian Road (Old South Carolina Route 72) and Laurens Highway (U.S. 221) in South Carolina. Erected by the Jewish community of Greenwood, South Carolina, it’s one of the few testimonies to the memory of an individual some have called “the Jewish Paul Revere.” It reads: “Francis Salvador, 1747-1776.
Shavuot, the Source of American Gratitude
Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book and composer of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” wrote a letter to President Lincoln on Sept. 28, 1863, urging him to solidify what had become an ad-hoc habit in America’s early years. A special day of gratitude, she felt, should have a set date.
The Remnant of Israel and the Meaning of Monticello
“Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello is one of the most beloved sites in America, drawing more than 300,000 visitors a year up a steep mountain road to enjoy majestic views of the Virginia Piedmont and house tours that can feel like stepping into its creator’s complicated mind” is how a May 25, 2025 New York Times story begins a 3,000 -word essay on the beloved landmark estate.
John Quincy Adams and Aaron, the High Priest of Harvard
John Quincy Adams was quite the multitasker. While serving in Congress as a senator for Massachusetts during the first decade of the 19th century, he also taught logic at Brown University and was the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at his alma mater, Harvard. It was at the latter that he delivered a multi-part lecture series on the nature and history of public speaking, and the power of the spoken word to unify the new nation and its diverse peoples.
The Talmudic Testimony of the United States and the Undying People
“As matters now stand, we appear to be treating the Jews as the Nazis treated them except we do not exterminate them. They are in concentration camps in large numbers under our military guard instead of SS troops. One is led to wonder whether the German people, seeing this, are not supposing that we are following or at least condoning Nazi policy.” So reads the Harrison Commission’s report on Displaced Persons camps operated by the Allies after the defeat of Hitler in 1945.
Trump administration officials are quoting the Bible, is it good for the Jews? - opinion
The Bible is back in the news. In a Pentagon prayer service on April 15, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth quoted what seemed to be a verse from the ancient Hebrew prophet Ezekiel, but was, in fact, from the Gospel of Tarantino, as Stephen Colbert quipped. In response, Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesman, released a statement on X noting that the homage to the auteur’s 1994 film Pulp Fiction was intentional. Hegseth had “shared a custom prayer...
Teddy’s Bear and the Birth of Israel
“President Called After the Beast Had Been Lassoed, But He Refused To Make An Unsportsmanlike Shot” So read the Nov. 15, 1902 headline of The Washington Post. On what perhaps was a slow news day, the paper reported that on a hunting trip, President Theodore Roosevelt had refused to shoot a 235-pound black bear tied to a tree. The incident took place on the last day of a hunt Roosevelt had scheduled while surveying land that the states of Mississippi and Louisiana were each claiming as their own.
Israel’s Minorities and Its National Mission: A Yom Haatzmaut Reflection
As Israel soon turns 78 years young, daily headlines debate the future of the country’s relationship with its Arab neighbors. In the meantime, four Israeli scholars offer a framework for considering how the Jewish state should treat those minorities within its midst. “That They May Live Among You: Minorities in a Jewish State,” by Yakov Nagen, Sarel Rosenblatt, Michal Tikochinsky and Assaf Malach lays out the Jewish values and laws that should guide the way.
A Diary Amidst Division and the Fight for Freedom
In describing the political and religious perspectives of the North and South during the Civil War in his Second Inaugural Address, President Abraham Lincoln noted that “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other.” He was, of course, describing a country with a Christian majority. Yet of course, the small Jewish community at the time was also divided.
The Legacy of Lincoln, and Passover, from Generation to Generation
April 10th, 1865 was a particularly happy day for Jewish Americans. The day marked the beginning of Passover, the celebration of the Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt. It also came the day after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia Court House, ending the Civil War. The ancient tale of the liberation of the enslaved had echoed in their own era.
A Plague on Both Your Houses
In July of 1862, Henry McNeal Turner published “The Plagues of This Country” in the Christian Recorder newspaper. Turner, born free in South Carolina in 1834, was a Methodist minister who would be appointed by the U.S. Army as the first African American chaplain in the United States Colored Troops the following year. In the essay, Turner described the not-yet-freed slaves through the prism of the Passover story—and painted Lincoln, unable to yet let those chained people go, as Pharaoh.
A Persian Pesach?
As the United States and Israel continue the war which might free the Iranian people from a tyrannical regime, the yearning of the people of Israel for positive relations with the Iranian people has been expressed across Israeli society.
Traversing Jewish History … in Reverse
A few weeks ago, after catching a 5:37 a.m. Megillah reading courtesy of a kind-hearted and early-rising friend in New Jersey, I caught the 8:25 a.m. flight from Newark to Heathrow and began my journey through Jewish history in reverse. Desperate to rejoin my family in Israel after a business trip was extended due the outbreak of the war against Iran, I ate my festive Purim meal in seat 40L and headed toward a short layover in London.
‘Out of the Sky’ Review: Bravery in the Bonfires of War
A group of Jewish volunteers parachuted into occupied Europe with the goal of saving their co-religionists and fighting the Nazis. In early 1944 a group of Jewish volunteers left British-controlled Palestine to save their co-religionists in Europe. Officially serving as British special-operations troops, they parachuted behind enemy lines and tried to disrupt the Nazi death machine.
Chosen to Make America’s Toys Original
The People of the Book, it turns out, are also the people of the Teddy Bear, Barbie, and Batman. As Michael Kimmel, SUNY distinguished professor emeritus of sociology, traces in his captivating Playmakers: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America, it all started with a presidential pardon for a bruin. Teddy Roosevelt, on the last day of a hunting trip in 1902 refused to shoot a 235-pound bear that had been tied to a tree by a tracker eager to hand the president a trophy.
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