[3] When she was in college her mother died of breast cancer, and Ruttenberg reconsidered religion, practiced Jewish mourning rituals, which she said allowed her to "make friends with Judaism, to be open to it"; in 2008 she published a memoir of her spiritual awakening titled Surprised by God: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Religion.

[11] She described her arrest as a "profoundly holy experience" and compared it to sacrifices made at the Temple in Jerusalem.

[15][16] In 2021, she wrote an open letter condemning attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of Steven M. Cohen after his 2018 departure from Stanford University over sexual harassment.

[18][19] In July 2024, she announced that she had disaffiliated from the Conservative movement within Judaism, and was in the process of joining a different rabbinical association.

[20] Book chapters Ruttenberg has written include: Ruttenberg has also published pieces in The Atlantic, The Forward, The Huffington Post, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, Kveller, The New York Times, Newsweek, Time Magazine, Salon, The San Francisco Chronicle, Sojourners, Tablet Magazine, and The Washington Post, and other publications.