A. James Rudin
A. James Rudin is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by A. James Rudin
Hatred of immigrants has a long history (COMMENTARY)
By A. James Rudin — September 4, 2014
(RNS) The “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, frequently confronted severe prejudice and discrimination.
COMMENTARY: Obscure no more, world’s first woman rabbi receives recognition
By A. James Rudin — July 25, 2014
(RNS) Rabbi Regina Jonas' grim task was to meet the incoming trains and provide counseling to the frightened and bewildered Jews arriving at the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
COMMENTARY: Insights of these 3 religious thinkers may be antidote to ‘feel-good’ faith
By A. James Rudin — July 11, 2014
(RNS) I have a modest proposal for those who constantly “move on” in their quest for authentic faith: “Move back” and explore the insights of three major religious thinkers: Martin Buber, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Reinhold Niebuhr.
COMMENTARY: Cardinal John O’Connor would have made a great rabbi
By A. James Rudin — May 22, 2014
(RNS) While it is for Catholics to evaluate his record, the late Cardinal John O’Connor has earned a beloved place in Jewish history. He would have been a great rabbi.
COMMENTARY: On the front lines in Mississippi
By A. James Rudin — May 1, 2014
(RNS) If the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel were the “generals” in the civil rights war of the 1960s, I was a foot soldier in the army of pastors, priests and rabbis.
COMMENTARY: Reconciling Jews and Germany
By A. James Rudin — March 19, 2014
(RNS) Reconciliation is easy to say but difficult to achieve. Especially when personal and historic memories of guilt, responsibility, shame, anger, distrust and pain are present. And most especially in the case of Germany and the Jewish people.
COMMENTARY: It’s time to open the wartime pope’s records
By A. James Rudin — February 27, 2014
(RNS) According to a British newspaper, Pope Francis wants to release the Pius XII papers for study before determining whether to consider his controversial predecessor for sainthood. It's time he did.
COMMENTARY: 100 years later, God and World War I
By A. James Rudin — January 15, 2014
God may well be an equal opportunity deity, but that's never stopped political leaders and clergy from claiming the Creator favors their side over the other in armed conflicts.
COMMENTARY: My top 10 religion stories from 2013
By A. James Rudin — December 19, 2013
(RNS) Here are my picks for the top 10 religion stories of 2013.
COMMENTARY: 35 years after Jonestown
By A. James Rudin — November 14, 2013
(RNS) Even as the Peoples Temple massacre 35 years ago fades into history, Jonestown is a bitter reminder of what happens when people surrender their emotional and moral independence and become spiritual slaves to evil leaders who guarantee salvation, eternal life and utopia either here on earth or in the great beyond.
COMMENTARY: The Olympics are coming. Whoopee.
By A. James Rudin — October 17, 2013
I suffer from a severe case of "Olympicitis," a disease causing an incurable abhorrence of the international athletic extravaganzas that supposedly increase world peace and understanding.
COMMENTARY: The persistent stained-glass ceiling
By A. James Rudin — August 22, 2013
(RNS) In the 40 years since America's first female rabbi was ordained, nearly 650 female rabbis have entered the Reform movement. Yet, Jewish and Christian clergywomen still face visible and invisible obstacles in their careers.
COMMENTARY: God didn’t choose sides at Gettysburg
By A. James Rudin — July 1, 2013
(RNS) Despite the North's victory at Gettysburg, it seems the only other victors were the munitions makers and cigar manufacturers. Everyone else lost, including those who presumed to know the will of God.
COMMENTARY: A brief brush with my own mortality
By A. James Rudin — June 13, 2013
NEW YORK (RNS) Facing unexpected triple bypass surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital, I thought I might die as I was lying on a gurney headed into the operating room. But it was not the first time I had an unexpected brush with mortality.
COMMENTARY: Father Abraham and the Jews
By A. James Rudin — February 21, 2013
(RNS) Steven Spielberg’s "Lincoln'' will probably pick up a few Oscars on Sunday, and it shows that Americans will never tire of our 16th president. While the film centers on the fight to abolish slavery in 1865, two years earlier Lincoln used his powers to correct another injustice aimed at American Jews.
