New/Old American-Jewish Realities

New/Old American-Jewish Realities

From Tradition Podcast by Tradition Online

February 4, 2026 · 26 min

About this episode

Chaim Strauchler discusses his essay on the evolving American-Jewish experience and the implications of antisemitism in relation to power and law.

For much of the modern era, Jewish life rested, quietly but decisively, on an implicit promise. Power would be constrained by law. The State would bind itself to rules not solely invented for its own advantage. The weak would be protected not by benevolence but by structure. Jews, long practiced in the arts of minority survival, understood and benefited from this promise. Chaim Strauchler’s recent essay “New/Old American-Jewish Realities” at TraditionOnline.org asks what happens when those norms and rules begin to fray. He suggests that antisemitism is not a bug but a feature of unrestrained power. Reassessing R. Moshe Feinstein’s vision of America as a “nation of hesed,” he contends that Judaism has always prepared for moral loneliness—surviving not through kindness of strangers, but through internal discipline, law, and covenantal courage. Chaim Strauchler, an associate editor of TRADITION, is rabbi of Cong. Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck. He joined our journal’s editor Jeffrey Saks to discuss the essay and some of the response it’s been garnering. The post New/Old American-Jewish Realities appeared first on Tradition Online.

People in this episode

Guest: Chaim Strauchler

Topics covered

  • American-Jewish realities
  • antisemitism
  • Judaism
  • moral loneliness
  • law and structure

Keywords

  • Tradition Online
  • R. Moshe Feinstein
  • covenantal courage
  • minority survival

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: New/Old American-Jewish Realities

Places: America, Teaneck

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