Amanda Unvarnished

It is my job to pay close attention to outliers. As the executive director of the Natan Fund, a foundation that supports early-stage nonprofit organizations, I spend most of my time thinking about the people not yet included in Jewish communal life. Who have we been overlooking? What new programs, approaches, or organizations might we […]

The groundswell of support for Hamas in cities across Europe and North America since October 7 is a wake-up call for anyone who cares about the future of the West. The problem isn’t just an emerging alliance between Islamists and progressives who seek the downfall of America and Israel. It’s the inability of Christians and […]

Polly put the kettle on, we’ll all have tea.” This endearing 19th-century nursery rhyme is catchy, but one is left wondering, “Put the kettle on what? What’s in the kettle? Why do you need to put the kettle on to have tea?” E.D. Hirsch Jr. — American literary critic and educational theorist — reminds us that these questions are […]

When it collides with antisemitism, it’s anything but an accident.

Over the last century, the vast majority of American Jewry became progressively, and seemingly inevitably, more secular. With an intermarriage rate of 72%, all signs have pointed to the imminent end of the largest and most important Jewish community outside of Israel – until now.