For four years, we have lacked a language to articulate the unity that many of us crave or a president whose rhetorical fluency could summon our higher angels, instill humility and encourage us to recommit to the covenantal principles of equality and dignity that hold Americans together… Biden’s inaugural speech provided a moral framework within which diverse Americans can unite, reconcile and begin to redeem our troubled nation.

It is a noble sentiment. It is exactly what so many Americans want to hear. But it’s not what the country needs to hear — and it won’t work. There can be no unity without truth. There can be no healing without accountability.

What we shouldn’t expect and Biden is unlikely to deliver are bipartisan compromises of the type that were frequent during his 36 years in the Senate but that have become rarer, if not quite nonexistent, in the last dozen years.

Bannon brazenly ripped off Trump’s own most ardent followers who donated to a scam called “We Build the Wall,” federal prosecutors said. Bannon allegedly defrauded donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars they’d given to that fund and used the money for his own lavish personal lifestyle. Now, Trump has let Bannon off the hook, while hanging his own most fervent supporters out to dry.

Of 143 people granted clemency, many are drug offenders. To pick a commutation, Isaac Nelson served more than half of his mandatory 20 years for crimes involving at least five kilograms of cocaine and 50 grams of crack, the White House said. Under the First Step Act, signed in 2018, “he would likely face a 10-year sentence.”

There was Elliott Broidy, a Republican fundraiser who provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to GOP candidates and committees. Michael Liberty, a donor from Maine who was convicted of making illegal campaign contributions — and who was once described as “Donald Trump with a Maine accent” — was another beneficiary of Trump’s mercy. So was Drew Brownstein, a former hedge fund manager and son of powerful Colorado lobbyist.

Rejoining the agreement is as easy as sending a letter to the secretary-general of the United Nations. What comes after that will be much harder… The clock is ticking. During Barack Obama’s administration, the US signed onto the Paris accord and promised to slash greenhouse gas emissions between 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. That’s a goal the US is not on track to meet.

While it is encouraging to see the U.S. reengage on the global climate stage, many criticisms of the agreement have been legitimate. For example, it has no enforcement mechanisms to hold countries such as China accountable for their growing roles in climate change. As with so many international agreements, it is abstract, symbolic, and little more than an exercise in rhetorical diplomacy.

The US will have to play catch-up once it rejoins the Paris agreement. Countries are supposed to impose stricter targets on themselves every five years, with the goal of limiting emissions to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels… Biden says he will reestablish the US as a global climate leader, implying that the US will set a new, ambitious 2030 target. But years of inaction under Trump have delayed US emissions reductions, making Biden’s job more difficult.

In terms of their religious backgrounds, the Cabinet nominees are also diverse. Like the president-elect, the majority — at least eight — are Catholic. But five Jews have also been nominated, two Black Baptists and, if the surgeon general is included (often not), two Hindus. (A handful of Cabinet picks do not appear to identify with any religion.)

Biden’s choices reflect a diverse cross-section of American Jewry and possess expertise gleaned from decades of experience in government, science and medicine and law:

Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State; David Cohen, CIA Deputy Director; Merrick Garland, Attorney General; Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence; Ronald Klain, Chief of Staff; Eric Lander, Office of Science and Technology Policy director; Rachel Levine, deputy health secretary; Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security; Anne Neuberger, National Security Agency cybersecurity director; Wendy Sherman, deputy secretary of state; Janet Yellen, Treasury secretary…

What ought to matter to the Jewish community is not the number of Jews or people with Jewish relatives there are in any administration, but whether they act in a manner that makes both the United States and the Jewish people more secure. The verdict of history on those who served Trump should be far more laudatory than most American Jews are currently likely to give them. It remains to be seen whether those employed by Biden will deserve as much praise.

Back in the year 321, Cologne, then the capital of the Lower Germanic province of the Roman empire, inspired an official edict that marks the earliest evidence of Jewish life in Germany…

“By law valid throughout the empire, we permit all city councils to appoint Jews to the city council,” read the resulting edict issued by Constantine 1700 years ago. The emperor had unknowingly produced the first written evidence of Jewish life in Europe north of the Alps.

Chabad Berlin currently runs four synagogues, three kindergartens, an elementary school, and a high school; employs seven full-time rabbis and 75 staffers; and reaches approximately 20,000 people annually. Right now, the group is constructing an approximately $30 million campus for Jewish education, culture, and sports, among other activities. “We are encouraged by the positive growth,” said Teichtal, “and we look forward to the future and continuing to strengthen Jewish identity and awareness in Berlin and in Germany.”

… the AfD’s rise is only one of the distressing factors that have worried German Jews in recent years. For many, the well-documented two-pronged anti-Semitism threat on the ground has come to a head. As Germany has welcomed millions of immigrants from the Middle East and beyond, some have brought along anti-Semitic ideology, and Germany’s government has been accused of underreporting their overt acts of anti-Semitism to avoid claims of anti-Islamic sentiment.

… this new siddur wasn’t just a nice reprint of an existing one (even though that would have been nice too). Called the “First Siddur for the Special Needs Community,” this Koren Yachad Siddur is truly a game-changer, acknowledging a deep desire to fully include Jews with special needs in traditional prayer services.

When Eric Weiner chronicled his latest hunt for wisdom, the adventure had lasting impact. Despite his previous titles, The Geography of Bliss, The Geography of Genius, and the spiritual memoir Man Seeks God, the bestselling author discovered a surprising truth.

Jerome Charyn, a distinguished author with more than 50 books of his own, has dared to conjure up a quasi-biographical novel about Salinger in “Sergeant Salinger,” a tour de force that allows readers to meet a “lanky boy…with big ears and olive skin and a Gypsy’s dark eyes” — variously known as Sonny, J.D., Jerry or “a tall Yid,” per celebrity columnist Walter Winchell — and to follow him into combat in World War II.