“Jerusalem is a place historically if there is something different about us, let’s fight about it. That’s basically the vibe. And so we and the chorus are trying to create an alternate reality,” says conductor Micah Hendler. He founded the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus, an ensemble of Israeli and Palestinian high school singers. More →

October 2, 2015

The Jordan River is the central location for many sacred stories of Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Modern Christians in particular are known to journey to the site some consider to be the religion’s actual starting point. Says Rustom Mkhjian, assistant director of the Jordan River baptism site: “We know this is the spot where Jesus was baptized and Christianity started.” More →

May 29, 2015

Pope Francis visited sacred sites recognized by Muslims, Christians, and Jews, including the Western Wall. He met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and a range of other religious leaders, made unexpected stops at a terror memorial and at the separation wall that surrounds the West Bank city of Bethlehem, and he inserted himself into the peace process with a surprise invitation to a prayer summit at the Vatican. More →

May 30, 2014

Of all the tourists who go to Israel and its surroundings each year, it’s estimated that more than half of them are Christian pilgrims visiting the holiest sites of the Christian story. It was Pope Clement VI who made the Franciscans the official guardians of these sites seven centuries ago. More →

March 28, 2014

“I’d like people to know that there are a lot of people in this country who are into dialogue, education, getting to know one another, trying to, trying to live together,” says Rabbi Ron Kronish, director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Jerusalem. More →

August 2, 2013

“We play to the heartbeat. That’s our mutual beat. Everybody has their heartbeat, and it’s the rhythm that is unifying us.” More →

July 3, 2013

“There were some bumps in the road” in Pope Benedict’s relationship with the Jewish community, says Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, but “they clearly were aberrations in a path that strengthened relations between the Church and the Jewish community.” More →

February 15, 2013

On the news of his death in Jerusalem on February 10, we reprise excerpts from managing editor Kim Lawton’s 1999 interview with this eminent Jewish philosopher, leader of liberal Orthodoxy, and founder of the Shalom Hartman Institute who said, “I … More →

February 11, 2013

They say Israel’s Law of Return permits them to become Israelis. But some Israelis wonder whether they are really Jews. More →

March 30, 2012

“Now we have only 5,000 Jews all over India, and in Delhi we have only five, six Indian Jewish families. We are like a drop in the ocean,” says Ezekiel Malekar, keeper of Delhi’s tiny synagogue. More →

October 7, 2011