October was a productive month at the Yeshiva University Zahava and Moshael J. Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, as Straus Center staff, faculty, and students contributed insightful essays to leading publications exploring the intersections of Jewish thought, history, and American ideals. ​

Straus Center Director Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik published his monthly column in Commentary, titled “Marco Rubio in the City of David.” In it, Rabbi Soloveichik reflected on Senator Marco Rubio’s visit to Jerusalem and the senator’s remarks on the moral and spiritual parallels between ancient Israel and the American founding. Rabbi Soloveichik also appeared in the Washington Free Beacon with a review of Explaining Israel: The Jewish State, the Middle East, and America by Peter Berkowitz. ​ 

Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern, deputy director of the Straus Center, published a series of essays throughout October in the Jewish Journal on baseball, the wisdom of Genesis, the symbolism of the Garden of Eden’s rivers and the spiritual meaning of flags within Jewish tradition. Rounding out his October writings, Rabbi Halpern contributed to the Wall Street Journal with a review of Imagining Early American Jews: Liberty Proclaimed by Michael Hoberman. ​ 

Straus Center Senior Scholar Dr. Tevi Troy also published in the Jewish Journal, authoring a piece on the value of prayer in the wake of the release of the final living hostages from Gaza. He also explored the history of government shutdowns in the Washington Examiner and reviewed Andrew Busch's Ronald Reagan and the Firing of the Air Traffic Controllers for the Civitas Institute. ​ 

Over at Tradition, Straus Center Clinical Assistant Professor Rabbi Dr. Dov Lerner contributed an essay to the journal's fall 2025 issue, which celebrated the legacy of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. ​ 

Finally, Straus Scholar Ava Eden published a piece for 18Forty on how her half-hour experiment with ChatGPT turned into an unexpected confrontation with my own humanity. ​

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