“Israel and the U.S. are trying to define anew what it means to be a pluralistic democracy.” April 6, 2021

Tom Friedman’s op-ed is an important read for anyone who cares about Israel, its future as a Jewish and democratic state, the nature of Judaism in the Jewish State, and the intense polarization between the “tribes” (as President Ruvi Rivlin called them).

I also recommend highly Micah Goodman’s new book that he calls The Wondering Jew – Israel and the Search for Jewish Identity published by Yale University Press in 2020 (190 pages). Goodman looks at the origins and trajectory of religious identity, secularism, Zionism, and Judaism in Israel from Theodor Herzl and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook to the present. It’s smart, deeply thoughtful, and inspiring.