Middle East
What motivated the smashing on April 23 of the main gate to Damascus’s historic Jewish cemetery and the digging of a pit disturbing the tomb of renowned mystic Rabbi Hayyim ben Joesph Vital? The desecration can be understood as part of the history of Jewish and Muslim leaders battling on the metaphysical astral plain in parallel to the normative Israeli-Arab military conflict.
(ANALYSIS) In May 2025, the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) reported that since the aid blockade began on March 2, 2025, 57 children have died from the effects of malnutrition. WHO further warned that if the situation persists, nearly 71,000 children under the age of 5 are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next 11 months.
For President Donald Trump’s MAGA Jewish base, the plane may be a bridge too far. Three influential Jewish voices in the MAGA movement — figures typically known for their unwavering loyalty to the GOP standard-bearer — are aghast over Trump’s decision to accept a $400 million aircraft from the government of Qatar.
A newscast from Israel streamed on a large screen, and a woman speaking into a microphone translated updates into English: “Hamas announces it has released Edan Alexander.” “The Red Cross says it’s on the scene but does not yet have Alexander.” “We have confirmation that Alexander has been released.” “Alexander is officially in the hands of the IDF.” “Alexander has had a first conversation with his mother and is telling jokes.”
Pizzaballa’s name has been included in almost every list — in secular and Catholic media — of “papabile,” or “pope able” candidates to fill the Chair of Saint Peter. Thus, journalists and church insiders have dissected sermons and addresses by Pizzaballa and other popular “papabile,” searching for clues about their stands on doctrine, worship and pastoral issues in the wake of the tumultuous Francis papacy.
(ANALYSIS) Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion and Harvard University's Human Flourishing Program, along with Gallup and the Center for Open Science, released on Wednesday the first findings of their ongoing worldwide survey examining what makes for human flourishing.
Why was Segev Schwartz the only casualty in his battalion of 30 Israeli soldiers when a terrorist tossed a hand grenade in a cafeteria on Oct. 7, 2023? That was his mother Sara’s question. The answer she found completed a picture of Segev she and her husband shared on the eve of Israel Memorial Day, the commemoration of the fallen in Israeli wars and acts of terrorism since 1948.
(ANALYSIS) In the United States, April is designated as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month and is aimed at commemorating and raising awareness about genocides that occurred in the past, including the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide.
When Jessica Yeroshalmi started her political science degree at Baruch College in New York six years ago, she was surprised to learn that some students in her classes had no idea there were Jews with roots in the Middle East. Yeroshalmi’s parents fled from Iran to New York after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It was only once Yeroshalmi went to college that she realized that her peers had an Ashkenazi-centric image of what it means to be Jewish.
Political and religious leaders from around the world offered condolences and tributes following the death of Pope Francis on Monday. The White House’s official X account posted two photos of the pope, one with President Donald Trump and his wife Melania, and the other with Vice President J.D. Vance, with a caption that read: “Rest in Peace, Pope Francis.”
(ANALYSIS) In January 2025, Trump’s administration halted visa processing for refugees. All refugee travel to the U.S. was to be canceled. This included the travel of nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared to resettle in America — including many women and girls who were facing serious risk upon return.
(ANALYSIS) It’s a straightforward part of the Easter story: The Roman governor Pontius Pilate had Jesus of Nazareth killed by his soldiers. But over the past 2,000 years, it was common for some Christians to deem Pilate almost blameless for Jesus’ death and treat Jews as responsible — a belief that has shaped the global history of antisemitism.
(ANALYSIS) Although the Ayatollahs have responded with bullets, prison cells, and executions, sheer force can only do so much against an idea whose time has come. The regime is losing its grip. The Islamic Republic has long ruled through force and fear. Yet, as disillusionment spreads, hope takes root. In this context, Christianity is not just a religion. It is an act of defiance.
As always, the annual U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom report focused on trends in nations known for bitter religious conflicts and the persecution of religious minorities, including Christians. The list of offenders of “particular concern” included China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and others. The commission pushed to add Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Vietnam to that list.
(OPINION) The international conversation about Gaza has long circled the same grim question: What would it take for the population to rise up against Hamas? We just might have the beginnings of a response: The resumption of war, after Israel broke a two-month ceasefire following 15 months of devastating conflict. The prospect of more death with no end date, all because Hamas refuses to free more hostages until Israel agrees to leave it in power as part of a more permanent truce, appears to be too much to bear.
Conditions in Afghanistan and India continued to deteriorate and remained poor in Nigeria and Vietnam, USCIRF commissioners said March 25 in its 2025 Report on International Religious Freedom, calling out countries where Christian minorities face murder, torture and other ills either sanctioned by the government or with little governmental intervention.
In many countries around the world, a fifth or more of adults have left the religious group in which they were raised. Christianity and Buddhism have experienced large losses from this “religious switching,” while rising numbers of adults have opted to have no affiliation, according to Pew Research Center surveys of nearly 80,000 people across 36 countries.
(ANALYSIS) The Iranian regime continues to ramp up efforts to restrict the rights of citizens across the country, and this is to crush dissent. According to a new report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, Iranian authorities have committed gross human rights violations, some of which amount to crimes against humanity.
(ANALYSIS) In recent days, a horrifying surge of violence and bloodshed has swept across Syria, leaving a civilian death toll of nearly 1,400. Most of the victims were part of the Alawite sect, former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s religious community. A number of Christians who live in close proximity to Alawite communities have also been killed.
During a typical week, readers (or podcast listeners) send me emails or messages through various social-media platforms. Often, these people are frustrated or even angry. Most folks are not upset with me. More often than not, they are ticked off about something they have seen — or failed to see — in mainstream press coverage of the news.
(OPINION) In recent weeks, the plight of a group of Iranian asylum-seekers claiming to be converts to Christianity has been followed by The New York Times, helping to shine a light on a story not commonly reported by the mainstream media. The story, that is, of Iranian Christians who for years have found it harder and harder to find anyone willing to accept them.
At least 973 civilians were killed in the initial attack by Alawite gunmen and killings that followed as the military and security forces intervened, the independent monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, in addition to 250 Alawite gunmen and 231 members of the Ministry of Defense and security forces.
(ANALYSIS) Pilgrims would journey across continents to light candles beneath their frescoed domes, whisper prayers into the cool stone walls, and gaze upon centuries-old icons bathed in flickering candlelight. These sites are much more than buildings. They are testaments to Greece’s spiritual, cultural and historical identity. Yet today, that serenity is under attack.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported that several regions in Syria have witnessed an escalating wave of targeted killings and individual acts of retribution. The organization noted that direct executions are being carried out through various methods, from field executions to surprise assassinations by unidentified gunmen.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch-American activist, author and thinker, has become best known for her outspoken views on Islam, women's rights and the societal consequences of secularism. Her religious journey to becoming one of the most prominent critics of Islam into her recent conversion to Christianity has been shaped by personal experiences of suffering, political activism and intellectual transformation.
(ANALYSIS) James Mangold’s film “A Complete Unknown,” nominated for eight Oscars, captures the elusive, enigmatic quality of Bob Dylan in the early 1960s: The years he emerged as a major musical and cultural phenomenon. A scant few years after he came to New York from Minnesota, and legally changed his name from Robert Allen Zimmerman, Dylan transformed American music. Especially “unknown” and baffling is Dylan’s religious and spiritual identity.
(REVIEW) The film follows Roya Mahboob, an Afghan woman whose passion in life is giving young girls a chance at a better life by teaching them computer programming. She decides that the only way to gain popular support for her endeavors in a patriarchal society is to start a women’s robotics team and win global competitions. But this will be harder and more dangerous than she suspects. It may go without saying, but the movie has a worthy message based on inspiring real-life people.
(ANALYSIS) President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. should “take over” Gaza, displace its current population and turn the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East” is unsettling — in both a literal and, to Palestinians, a very personal sense.
(OPINION) Trump’s ideas, however fantastical, would reshuffle the deck completely. How exactly he might intend for the U.S. to take over management of the territory and rebuild it “magnificently,” is unclear. Even more unclear: Who, exactly, would benefit from this dubiously thought out plan?
Many secular and modern Orthodox Israeli Jews are outraged that while the war in Gaza has been raging since Oct. 7, 2023 and they have suffered many casualties and interruptions to their civilian life in response to repeated reserve duty call-ups, their able-bodied ultra-Orthodox fellow citizens have not shared the defense burden. The IDF told lawmakers it faces a critical manpower shortage, needing approximately 12,000 new recruits, including 7,000 combat soldiers and seeks to recruit 4,800 Haredi men annually, a figure expected to rise over time.