Posts in News
COVID-19 is forcing many Jews to change their Passover plans

Passover seders are often cherished family memories. But this will be remembered as the year when a public health crisis prevented generations of family from gathering together, when those who did not travel watched on a computer screen as the story of the exodus from Egypt was retold.

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How Coronavirus is Reshaping Jewish Life

Shabbat dinners are canceled, community centers are closed, and leaders in the Jewish community are having to come up with creative ways to foster community in these unprecedented times.

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Aging Catholic priesthood risk health to comfort the faithful during pandemic

The main duties of a priest are to administer the church’s sacraments — which include baptism, confession and holy communion — while also visiting the sick and providing pastoral care to parishioners. How does all that work during the COVID-19 pandemic when most priests are in the high-risk age category for contracting the deadly virus?

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The Quiet Sufi Behind Morocco's Push For Moderate Islam

Ahmed Toufiq, Morocco’s minister of Islamic affairs, is leading an export of the kingdom’s Boutchichiya Sufi Islam and pushing back against the Wahhabi tradition of Saudi Arabia with its links to Salafi jihadism.

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Kashmiri politician's release spotlights other detainees awaiting freedom

On. March 13, in a surprise move, the Indian government released former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and current Member of Parliament, Farooq Abdullah. He had been detained more than seven months inside his home in Kashmir, since Aug. 5, 2019 when the Indian government revoked Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status.

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Jews and Christians join forces to help West Bank coronavirus patients

The group delivered ibuprofen, multivitamins, gloves, masks and snacks and also aided a group of 13 pilgrims from Alabama in a 14-day quarantine near Bethlehem to protect others from coronavirus. So far, 30 people in the West Bank and 147 in Israel have been confirmed to have COVID-19 infections.

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As climate change worsens, pastoral counselors talk hope

With the future obscured by unprecedented uncertainty — or the certainty that things will get much worse — what approach is best for counseling from a faith perspective?

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Purim celebrations amid the Coronavirus outbreak teach kids how to face a crisis

The Jewish holiday Purim celebrates Esther’s rescue of the Jews from genocide in 5th century Persia. Her intervention highlights the good that humans can do. While many Purim events were cancelled to protect from the spread of Coronavirus or COVID-19, this community decided the threat was small and the lessons too great to stay home.

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Sounds of the Old City: Behind the Scenes of 'O Jerusalem'

“Apollo’s Fire: O Jerusalem!” a Grammy Award-winning ensemble, brings to the stage the musical roots of each of Jerusalem’s four quarters with poetry and sacred songs from the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Arab sections of Jerusalem’s Old City from the 13th to the 17th centuries.

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Inside Israel’s Guatemalan Outpost

In a remote part of the Guatemalan highlands, Israeli businesses are creating jobs and wealth for Guatemalan youth. The Israeli-Latino alliance relies on the prominence of evangelical faith in Guatemalan politics and culture that sees Israel as an important ally, even as locals worry whether Israeli backpackers are a bad influence on their kids.

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Internet Ban Eased In Kashmir After Seven Months

The Indian government has restored Muslim-majority Kashmir’s Internet access. Kashmiris wonder: for how long?

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Coronavirus fears cause world's largest faith groups to pause pilgrimages, rethink tradition

Egypt, Israel and Palestine are closing several holy sites after a fleet of Greek tourists who visited them have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. Meanwhile, faith groups around the world are rethinking traditions to curb the spread of the disease and protect their worshippers without straying from their religious laws.

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‘The Eating Church’ Has Fed New York's Hungry For 24 Years and Now Its Pantry Is Dwindling

Last year, Advent Lutheran Church fed more than 8,000 people, more than 20 times the number of its congregation. While food prices are rising, their funds are declining, and New York’s hungry — battling rents rising faster than wages— keep coming.

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India sees worst violence in decades as mob attacks Muslim protesters

Nearly 42 people were killed, including a Delhi cop, and more than 200 injured. The violence began when Hindu mobs clashed with Muslims in northeast Delhi protesting a new citizenship law that fast-tracks citizenship for religious minorities of all major faiths coming from some neighboring countries, except Islam.

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Faith Groups Are Converting Property Into Free and Low-Income Housing

Faith communities and interfaith coalitions from Washington to Texas, New York to California, are dedicating portions of their property to permanent or long-term homes for the homeless. Experts on homelessness and housing say this movement could make faith communities crucial to solving California’s — and maybe the nation’s — homeless crisis.

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