Deborah Dash Moore, the author of numerous books on the history of American Jewry, talks about her research on the Jews of New York and about the transforming effect of the great move to the suburbs after World War II (interview by Rachel Gordan):

As Jews [during World War II] became identified with a Judaism that was considered one of the three fighting faiths of democracy, they began to [adopt] religious forms of Jewish life that followed the other two American faiths: Protestantism and Catholicism. Rather than understanding Jewishness as a way of being and perceiving the world, they came to think of it as set aside for specific occasions, such as lifecycle events or days on the calendar. Jews who moved to the suburbs especially privatized many aspects of Jewishness.

While President Trump has begun his term with a flurry of executive orders, their implementation is another matter. David Wurmser surveys the bureaucratic hurdles facing new presidents, and sets forth what he thinks should be the most important concerns for the White House regarding the Middle East:

The cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas may be necessary in order to retrieve whatever live hostages Israel is able to repatriate. Retrieving those hostages has been an Israeli war aim from day one.

But it is a vital American interest . . . to allow Israel to restart the war in Gaza and complete the destruction of Hamas, and also to allow Israel to enforce unilaterally UN Security Council Resolutions 1701 and 1559, which are embedded in the Lebanon cease-fire. If Hamas emerges with a story of victory in any form, not only will Israel face another October 7 soon, and not only will anti-Semitism explode exponentially globally, but cities and towns all over the West will suffer from a newly energized and encouraged global jihadist effort.

After the last hostage Israel can hope to still retrieve has been liberated, Israel will have to finish the war in a way that results in an unambiguous, incontrovertible, complete victory.