Blog
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
The Islamic calendar is called the “Hijri.” Like most calendars that serve a religious community, the Hijri is based on a fundamental sacred event. Whereas the Gregorian calendar denotes year one as the year of Jesus’ birth, the Hijri counts year one as the year the Prophet Muhammad escaped from persecution by migrating from Makkah (Mecca) to Medina.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
The sounding of the shofar is a call to awaken from complacency, and to simply look and see.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
A one-of-a-kind study encompassing the increasing numbers of Jews of color—African Americans, Asians, mixed races and others of non-white descent—has turned conventional wisdom as to the definition of a Jew on its head, and has revived echoes of the age-old legend of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Vicha’s murder was recorded on video surveillance cameras around the neighborhood. His assailant simply walked up, assaulted him, beat him to death and then walked away—no evidence of intent to steal, just simply hate.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Having been a CEO myself for more than 25 years in one of the most diverse cities in the U.S., I understand the importance and value of diversity in the workplace, and I was encouraged by this uplifting event.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
As a Jew, I’ve heard a lot of this jazz. All in good fun, right? When I was a kid, I walked into a novelty store with my dad, an Orthodox Jew who, as an army officer, had liberated a concentration camp in 1944.
TOLERANCE
130 years ago this month, a slave rebellion of unparalleled persistence began which resulted in the creation of the only nation ever to be founded and governed by former slaves and captives. That new nation, Haiti, was spawned in the blood of slaves, brought on by the cruelty and torture of their masters and by the unrelenting defiance of the subjugated population of the French colony of Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola after over a century and a half of callous oppression to the point of sadism.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Those three events may have been more dramatic and grabbed more headlines than most instances of violent persecution, but they were by no means isolated. Open Doors, an organization which advocates for persecuted Christians, estimated that between October 2019 and September 2020, over 4,700 Christians were killed around the world for their faith. There were also close to 6,000 incidents of arrests or abduction of Christians due to their religion. By their estimation, 340 million Christians live in countries where they are subject to persecution.
TOLERANCE
But what about the person who gives his or her life willingly, for total strangers? How do you express the proper level of admiration and gratitude to those who have lost their lives in service to others through their humanitarian work?
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Courageously, former supermodel and fashion entrepreneur Kathy Ireland made the Yezidis her cause. According to the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation: “As this horrific genocide unfolded, Kathy not only lobbied Congress to respond, but responded herself by supporting women-led initiatives to rescue Yezidis and address the hatred and prejudices that created an environment where such atrocities could occur. To this day, almost 3,000 Yezidi women and children remain missing and almost 300,000 Yezidis still live in displacement camps in northern Iraq.
