One of America’s greatest and fearless investigative journalists, Amy Goodman, seeks the truth and reports it. Religion Unplugged sat down with her to discuss how her Jewish upbringing and its influences on her career and reporting.
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A new Pew Research Center study found religious hostilities increased sharply around the world in 2023, driven by harassment of religious minorities and fallout from the Israel-Hamas war. Government restrictions on religion remained near record highs, an issue affecting billions of people across dozens of countries.
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When the North American FIFA World Cup starts Thursday, the story will largely be told through the familiar lenses of Lionel Messi, the geography of the 48 participants and three hosts, and — because 75% of the games will be played there — the continuing rise of soccer in the United States. But there is another, less familiar story woven through the tournament: The long, strange and often overlooked history of Jews in North American soccer.
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Physical health and religious practice can help you live longer. Research points to religious involvement being positively correlated with longer life spans. Frequent religious attendance is associated with an average reduction in mortality risk of approximately 34%. In a nationwide BYU study, frequent religious attendees lived seven years longer than non-attenders.
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In the heart of Budapest lies a theater unlike any other. Founded 20 years ago, Gólem Theater stands as the only professional Jewish theater in Hungary. By blending humor with questions of identity, the theater seeks to engage audiences with a different side of Jewish culture.
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(REVIEW) Sid Klein has finally found his subject. More than half a century after he scrambled to pick a topic for his senior art project at Brooklyn College in New York — and settled on exploring the porcelain curves of a toilet bowl in a 20-painting series — he’s discovered a purpose.
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After yet another deadly attack, the focus turns — once again — to protecting houses of worship. The shooting at a San Diego mosque hit close to home for a Jewish engineer more than 1,300 miles away.
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Move over, pastors. New research reveals your counseling and pastoral care may no longer be needed. A new study shows that congregations might increasingly be turning to AI to deal with their spiritual needs and help with personal growth. The research shows 1 in 3 adults now believes AI's spiritual guidance is just as trustworthy as that of a pastor.
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(ANALYSIS) History shows that at every moment of profound technological change in our communication systems, incidents targeting Jews or other minority groups go up dramatically. This era’s technical innovation is unprecedented — but unfortunately, hate speech now travels around the globe almost instantly.
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With the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder fighting to return to the NBA Finals, one bold writer dug deep for an analogy: The Thunder, he wrote, is like the state of Israel — a former underdog now despised for its success. The Oklahoman, a daily newspaper, published the opinion column on its website Monday morning, hours before the Thunder began their semifinal series against the San Antonio Spurs. The story was accompanied by an image of a basketball with the Israeli flag on it.
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The Israeli thriller “Unconditional” has sparked accusations of “hasbara” before release, but the series proves more complicated than simple propaganda. Following a young Israeli woman imprisoned in Russia, the show explores national image-making, Israeli behavior abroad, and the moral gray zones surrounding identity, war, and public perception.
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(ANALYSIS) The general admonition is the same in many faith communities: Try to marry someone who shares your faith background. That’s certainly a well-established norm in Jewish communities.
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To fully understand Atlanta, you have to look beyond its highways and glass towers, back to the broader history of Georgia and its unusual role during colonial America. In that earlier era, a quiet but consequential force — religious diversity — helped shape a mindset that would eventually contribute to the movement for independence in 1776.
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As New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani marks four months in office, a new survey of New York City’s Jewish voters shows he’s done little to ease concerns among a community that overwhelmingly did not support his election and remains uneasy about his handling of antisemitism and Israel.
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Adam Miller, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate and former tech executive, is beginning to highlight his Jewish identity after initially downplaying it. He frames his background and leadership at Ikar as key qualifications, while criticizing city leadership on antisemitism, positioning himself as a moderate alternative in a competitive race.
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(ANALYSIS) All this has happened even as President Donald Trump has emphasized a particular idea of religious liberty throughout his second term. In his proclamation for Religious Freedom Day in 2026, he emphasized familiar ideas of Americans’ “God-given right to practice their faith, follow their conscience, and worship their God freely and without fear.” But the statement also seemed to reflect a broader project of lending government support to Christianity.
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A yarmulke-wearing basketball prospect who gained online fans with highlight-reel dunks announced his next major leap this week: He’ll try to be the first Orthodox player to play four years of Division I men’s college basketball.
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On this week’s show, Joseph Holmes interviewed Jon Gunn, “House of David” executive producer. The two talked through this balance of myth and reverence, the evolution of faith in film, the complications of portraying romance in a time when arranged marriage was the norm and much more.
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(ESSAY) In the Bay Area, a backyard feast is held to celebrate the end of Passover. The main event of Mimouna is the homemade treats. White tablecloths are meticulously arranged with pink and green marzipan cookies representing spring, dried fruits and muffleta, a silken, thin crepe doused in honey and butter.
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(ANALYSIS) The manosphere is a catchall term for websites, forums, blogs and influencers promoting hypermasculinity, from the belief that women and feminism are the cause of men’s problems to calls to legalize rape. Groups within it — including pickup artists, men’s rights groups and “involuntary celibate” or “incel” communities — portray themselves as victims of modernity.
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