First-generation immigrant clergy serving racially white congregations are becoming increasingly common in Canada, reports the Canadian evangelical magazine Faith Today (July/August). The experience of foreign and immigrant clergy ministering crossculturally in Canada was relatively rare up until the 1990s. But by 2010, “observers of the Canadian church were talking about this [growing phenomenon] as a […]

The longstanding disparity between men and women in atheist and skeptical groups is being accompanied by recent charges of sexual harassment in at least one quarter of this movement. The Amazing Meeting (TAM), an annual conference in Las Vegas for skeptics, humanists and atheists, has reported a dwindling number of women who attend. The reasons […]

A revival of traditional-looking Catholic churches is under way in the United States, in some cases replacing the “ubiquitous Modernist structures of the previous half-century,” writes Michael DeSanctis in the Jesuit magazine America (May 28). He adds that the anticipation of the conservative liturgical changes introduced by the Vatican in the last year may have […]

A mixture of academic rivalry, journalistic sensationalism and religious concerns is changing the field of biblical archeology, reports the Chronicle Review (June 22). For decades, biblical archeology has been driven by debates over discoveries in the Holy Land, but more recently the field has been split by “maximalist” and “minimalist” camps. The maximalists tend to […]

New technology used to trace one’s genetic makeup is confirming and, in some cases, revealing a Jewish ancestral background for many Catholics, leading some of them to a new interest in Judaism, reports Moment magazine (July/August). Genetic testing, now an inexpensive technique, “has buttressed claims of Jewish ancestry, once solely based on anecdotal evidence such […]

While some Jews harbor lingering suspicions about the motives of the evangelical group Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the political support it provides not only for Israel, but also for Jewish initiatives is valued by others, notes Jan Jaben-Eilon in Jerusalem Report (July 30). CUFI, launched in 2006 and led by evangelical minister John Hagee—who […]

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 […]