Thank you, Mr. President ­­- thank you, dear friend

(JNS) — Gratitude is literally written into our Jewish identity.

In the book of Genesis, when our foremother Leah gives birth to her last son, she says: “ ‘This time I will give thanks to the Lord’; therefore she called his name, Yehuda.” It is because of Yehuda that we Jews are named yehudim in Hebrew. And it is in the spirit of Yehuda that we give thanks for kinship, for friendship, for courage, for the triumph of truth.

U.S. President Donald Trump represents all of these things.

And today, as he departs the White House, he deserves our gratitude — as proud Israelis, as proud Americans and a...