(REVIEW) In 1954, the Oscar-winning composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold staged a European homecoming with a new operetta. How this came to pass — and how his planned comeback failed to materialize — is even more convoluted than the piece’s farcical plot. Korngold, a Jewish refugee from Vienna, first came to Hollywood to adapt Felix Mendelssohn’s music for Max Reinhardt’s 1935 film of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) Every major escalation in the Middle East sends shock waves far beyond the region. In the United States, those shock waves arrive not as distant tremors — but as catalysts for domestic radicalization and violence, particularly against Jewish communities. The data, in this regard, is unambiguous.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In theory, many Christians support pacifism or non-violent resistance, but for Iranian Christians, those theories are challenged by the harsh realities of a hellish regime and an ongoing war. This question of ‘just war’ has a long history, going back to the first centuries of the church.
Read More(ANALYSIS) It’s Oscars season and some of Hollywood’s most notable films about religion — from “Ben-Hur” to “A Man for All Seasons” — were made many decades ago. Why do explicitly faith-centered films appear less often in mainstream Hollywood today? How does spirituality continue to shape storytelling in different ways? We answer all these questions and more.
Read More(ANALYSIS) One thing I am always probing the edges of is how deeply religion is embedded in each one of us. There’s a saying that bounces around the sociology of religion: “you may be done with religion but religion is not done with you.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) As the American and Israeli war with Iran unfolds, some American Christians are speaking of the conflict in biblical terms — mapping end-time prophecies on to current events in the Middle East. In a sermon on March 1, for example, John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, described the war as part of a divine plan.
Read MoreThe report critiqued other branches of the U.S. government that have undercut protections for religious freedom. It criticized, for example, cuts to USAID programs, since many of those programs were specifically aimed at protecting religious freedom.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s new supreme leader on Sunday marks a pivotal moment for the country’s political and religious future — and for the religious minorities who have long lived under the constraints of the Islamic Republic’s theocratic government. As the war rages on, it remains to be seen what his elevation means for Iran and the region.
Read More(ANALYSIS) One of the books I’ve read in the last couple of years that has really stuck with me is Jonathan Haidt’s “The Righteous Mind.” It’s a distillation of a lot of his work on how people manage to puzzle their way through tricky moral situations. For instance, he discusses the classic Heinz dilemma.
Read MoreThe summit unfolded against a backdrop of escalating geopolitical tension, coinciding with U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran that resulted in the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the prospect of regime change in a country gripped by Shi’a rule for nearly 50 years. For many of the attendees who flew to Malta, regime change in Iran is the start of a new era.
Read MoreOvert antisemitism among online influencers has started to break into the real world. A notable recent example comes via Tyler Oliveira, a YouTuber who rose to fame with stunts like trying to absorb a swimming pool’s worth of water with paper towels before pivoting to “documentaries” that often purport to expose conservative bugaboos — and who has filmed two recent videos focused on Jews.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Respondents were first asked the standard question: “What is your present religion, if any?” They were given about a dozen response options, ranging from Protestant to Catholic to Jewish to agnostic. After answering that question, respondents were given a follow-up battery that asked: “Aside from religion, do you consider yourself to be any of the following in any way (for example, ethnically, culturally, or because of your family’s background)?”
Read MoreAs Holocaust survivors age, organizations are turning to AI-powered avatars to preserve their testimony. An interactive version of survivor Sonia Warshawski, created with StoryFile, allows students to ask questions about her life and experiences. Supporters call it the future of Holocaust education, while critics question its ethical and emotional limits.
Read MoreThis year’s Winter Olympic Games are filled with Jewish athletes. They can be found on the hockey rink, on the slopes, sliding on bobsleds and in the figure skating competitions. Despite a robust representation in Milan-Cortina, the stereotype that Jews are bad at sports has not fully vanished.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Former Irish President Mary McAleese argues that infant baptism violates children’s human rights by imposing church membership without consent. Critics respond that parents possess religious freedom in child-rearing, note historical and biblical defenses of infant baptism, and compare similar birth rituals across Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
Read MoreThe Pew study measured diversity by dividing the global population into seven categories — Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, followers of other religions and people with no religious affiliation — and assessing how evenly those groups are distributed within each country.
Read MoreKamryn Lute’s Olympic ritual doesn’t start on the ice. It begins with a text to her mom: “Dear God,” she types. “Please help me do my best.” Kamryn, 21, is the only member of Team USA’s speedskating squad to have had a bat mitzvah — or a beloved pug who shared her Hebrew name, Elisheva.
Read MoreThe recent rise in antisemitism is making Jewish Americans feel unsafe, causing many to change the way they live their day-to-day lives. The American Jewish Committee said Jews living in the United States felt less safe last year compared to 2024 amid a growing number of high-profile antisemitism incidents.
Read More(ANALYSIS) When we’re asked, “Are you religious?” There are a number of different ways someone might justify an affirmative answer. It could be that they attend a house of worship regularly or pray frequently. It could be that they hold specific beliefs about Jesus Christ or Muhammad. Those would be behavior and belief measures of religion. But there’s a third dimension that often gets overlooked: Belonging.
Read MoreA new ad from Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate will beam to millions, part of his years-long, multimillion dollar initiative to combat the Oldest Hatred. The campaign has given us two previous Super Bowl spots: One in which MLK’s speechwriter Clarence B. Jones urged us to speak against silence and, last year, as a counterpoint, one where Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady yelled at each other.
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