Hillary Rodham Clinton stated that, “In Christian theology, there are sins of weakness and sins of malice,” adding that her husband’s adultery was a sin of weakness. Is there a hierarchy of sin? Are we using the insights of modern psychotherapy to excuse bad behavior instead of merely explain it? More →

August 6, 1999

In Baltimore, Maryland, Tamir Goodman is both an Orthodox Jew and a star basketball player. At 17, in his junior year in high school this past season, he averaged 35 points a game and was offered an athletic scholarship next year by the basketball powerhouse University of Maryland. More →

July 30, 1999

  BOB ABERNETHY: On our calendar this week, the Jewish festival of Passover, the eight-day commemoration of the exodus from Egypt. On Wednesday evening, Jews will gather for a Seder, Hebrew for “order,” to retell the story of the ancient … More →

March 26, 1999

BOB ABERNETHY: We’re going to take a rare glimpse now into the lives of some Hasidic women in Brooklyn; an 18th-century way of life flourishing in late 20th-century America. Hasidism, Hebrew for both “pious” and “saintly,” began in the late … More →

February 12, 1999

  BOB ABERNETHY: For Jews around the world, sundown on Sunday begins Rosh Hashanah, the start of the Jewish year 5759 and the first of 10 days of awe, a solemn time of prayer, reflection, and repentance. We celebrate these … More →

September 18, 1998

The Jewish holiday of Tisha b’Av is one of the saddest days of the Jewish year. On this day, Jews fast and grieve, sometimes sitting on the synagogue floor, remembering the destruction of ancient Israel’s first and second temples in Jerusalem and the 2,000 years of exile and suffering that followed. More →

July 31, 1998

  BOB ABERNETHY: Jews around the world are just concluding the eight days of Passover. At the Seder table on the first two nights, they read from a guide called the Haggadah, which tells the story of the Jews’ exodus … More →

April 17, 1998

One of the key issues facing Lithuania’s new president Valdas Adamkus is strong international criticism that Lithuania hasn’t done enough to bring Nazi collaborators to justice. The presence of these alleged war criminals continues to haunt Lithuania’s remaining Jewish community. More →

February 20, 1998

  BOB ABERNETHY: When this program began last September, we visited a place that we called the “Highway to Heaven.” Afterward, a lot of people wrote and called asking, “Where is this highway? What country is it in?” We reported, … More →

January 2, 1998

  BOB ABERNETHY: Now, Perspectives: more of our conversation with Marianne Williamson, whose teachings about spirituality have touched millions of seekers and also caused many traditional believers to ask, “What is her appeal?” Marianne Williamson blends Christian ideas and language … More →

November 28, 1997