This question – of whether American Jews can shape a politics that can meet the challenges of today – is not new to 2017. But Trump’s election has exposed its urgency. Whatever shape that politics takes, it will require an embrace of the hard truth that there are no predetermined outcome to political battles, that neutrality is a mask for cowardice, that we are only as good as we behave and not what we declaim, and that values are easily celebrated and only with difficulty and courage lived.