Black Jews, once known as Hebrew Israelites, are finding new acceptance among white Jewish institutions and leaders, reports Forward.com (July 27). Although Hebrew Israelites have existed for 80 years and number up to 10,000 in the United States, until recently they have been rejected as inauthentic Jews by many in the mainstream Jewish community. Much […]

Judaism is vibrant and more accepted than ever in U.S. society, while it is experiencing a growing pluralism in Israel, according to a special report on Judaism and the Jews in the magazine The Economist (July 28). Forty-three percent of the world’s Jews now live in Israel. Among Jewish Israelis, 46 percent define themselves as […]

In attempts to approach the issue of intermarriages, about half of Reform rabbis in North America are willing to officiate at weddings between a Jew and a partner of another religious faith, reports Penny Schwartz in a Jewish Telegraph Agency article (July 3). Interfaith marriages are coming to be seen as “part of the world […]

The prohibition and punishment of homosexuality in Muslim societies have been given a new twist in Iran, with “sex-reassignment” surgery becoming a sanctioned means of dealing with the tendency. Foreign Policy magazine (May/June) reports that since 2008 Iran has carried out the second-highest number of sex-change operations of any country after Thailand. These operations have […]

For more than a decade since 9/11, Saudi Arabia has remained resistant to educational reform, judging by the persistent extremist Islamic themes in Saudi textbooks, reports the magazine Foreign Policy (May/June). Despite periodic reforms, textbooks in the nation’s schools “remain stubbornly impervious to change. Even in the past two years, they have instructed first graders […]

While many Salafi Muslims in the Gaza Strip remain opposed to politics, some have recently been discussing the foundation of a political party, following developments in Egypt, writes Andreas Hackl in the Jerusalem Report (May 21). With their purist Islamic practice, aspiring to follow the pattern of the original Muslim community, Palestinian Salafis—like their fellow […]

Extremist trends have often defined the perception of Islam by outsiders and even by Muslims, states the Islamic German monthly Islamische Zeitung (May) in introducing an interview with researcher Muhammad Sameer Murtaza, himself a practicing Muslim, who works with the Global Ethic Foundation. Murtaza traces the roots of these problems to the influence of (Saudi-funded) Wahhabi […]

In various places across the Muslim world over the past ten years, Sunni circles have expressed misgivings about the preaching of Shiite beliefs and the conversion of Sunni Muslims to Shiite Islam. Among recent reports, in Indonesia, Muslim leaders from West Java have issued a declaration alerting the faithful about Shiite teachings and their spread […]