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For Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah, we recall the life and disappearance of the man who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust. His biographer, Ingrid Carlberg, says “he was the kind of person who preferred to act rather than letting time pass by in endless political discussions.” More
Christians and Muslims share a meal together in an effort to overcome hate speech; scientists and theologians ponder the meaning of life on other planets; and a survivor shares her life story with a group of young Jewish girls.
“The usual notion is that Christianity would have a special problem dealing with intelligence out there, because it would take us away from being the center of the universe. For some people that’s very threatening, because somehow we won’t be as special as we have been,” says astronomer and former NASA historian Steven Dick. More
“Isn’t it amazing?” says Holocaust survivor Lola Byron, who grew up understanding that “no one was supposed to know I was Jewish.” “So many Jewish young women feeling completely comfortable with where they are and what they’re doing and not having to hide and not having to do it on the sly. It’s a gift. It’s really a gift.” More
We seem to be hopelessly hooked on our digital devices; the husband of a well-known NPR host, after experiencing a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, asks his doctor to help him die; preparing for Passover includes getting rid of yeast or leaven … More
“People need to talk about this issue,” says Diane Rehm, author of On My Own. “Doctors need to be taught about this issue. The whole idea of doctors being taught about helping to keep people alive but not being taught how to listen to those who are ready to die—that seems to me sad and misguided.” More
When the festival of Passover approaches, observant Jews search their homes for any yeast or leaven and then give it away, donate it to charity, burn it, or authorize a rabbi to sell it for them to a non-Jewish buyer. “People who don’t share our faith are helping Jewish people in the observance of their faith,” says Rabbi Yosef Landa of Chabad.org. More
In honor of the eight-day Jewish holiday that celebrates faith, exodus, and freedom and that begins with a seder at sundown tonight (April 22), we asked a few writers for poetry about Passover, especially for acrostics—poems in which the first letter of each line spells out Passover or Pesach. More
The debate over deportation and immigration reform gets played out from the border to the Supreme Court; and an Episcopal church in Richmond, Virginia offers a more open, more mystical experience of God.
“One of our great strengths is to make visible in appropriate ways the migrant men, women, and children we serve,” says Rev. Sean Carroll, SJ, executive director of the Kino Border Initiative, a Catholic ministry in Mexico and the US. “The more visible they become, even to our political leaders, I think that will change their minds and hearts and help them find the political will to pass immigration reform that’s just and humane.” More