Judaism

Belfast (Special to Informed Comment) – As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it is important to remember those who put their own and their families safety in jeopardy in order to save Jewish lives including Arabs and Muslims. The heroic acts made by Muslims in order to save Jewish […]

Christianity

On How Christians and Jews are “muslims”: The Real meaning of “Islam” in the Qur’an

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – As used in the Qur’an, Islam (al-islam in Arabic) doesn’t mean what people think it means. It doesn’t mean “peace,” though it is from a common root. It doesn’t mean the religion of the Prophet Muhammad. It doesn’t mean submission to God. I’ve come to believe that the accretions of […]

Antisemitism

Auschwitz 75 years on: preserving survivors’ voices and listening to those of their children

The Conversation

By Sara Jones | – In December 2019, four people were shot dead at a kosher market in New Jersey, a horrific knife attack was perpetrated at a rabbi’s home in a New York suburb, and antisemitic graffiti was daubed on a synagogue and several shops in north London. Despite what many might think, antisemitism […]

Antisemitism

Violence against Jews a sign of increasing hate in the U.S.

Abigail Leibowitz

(The Baltimore Sun) – What could cause such hate in a person that would drive them to kill and injure innocent members of a minority group? I was troubled by this distressing question once again, when on December 28, during the last candle lighting of Hanukkah, an intruder with a large knife burst into the […]

Christianity

When Jews and Christians Believed in the Qur’an

Emran El-Badawi

By Emran El-Badawi | – ( Mizan) = When did Jews and Christians ever believe in the Qur’an? The first step towards answering this question is dispelling the myth that the Qur’an’s seventh century audience were “ignorant” pagans. On the contrary, the Qur’an’s audience had the same degree of literary, intellectual, and cultural sophistication that […]

Antisemitism

At a Time of Rising US Anti-Semitism, Remembering the Nazis’ Night of Broken Glass is More Important than Ever

The Conversation

By Wolf Gruner | – Every November, communities around the world hold remembrances on the anniversary of the Nazis’ brutal assault on the Jews during “Kristallnacht.” Also known as “the Night of Broken Glass,” it’s one of the most closely scrutinized events in the history of Nazi Germany. Dozens of books have been published about […]

Antisemitism

On Anniversary of Tree of Life Synagogue Massacre: US Jews a Face Trump-Fuelled Far Right and a Fringe Left

H. Scott Prosterman

(Informed Comment) – October 27 marks the one-year anniversary of the Tree of Life Congregation massacre in Pittsburgh. This was a result of President Donald Trump giving aid and comfort to sinister right-wing forces, which had been buried under rocks of Western Civilization until he gave the all-clear signal. Since then, violent acts of anti-Semitism […]

Iraq

On Yom Kippur, remembering the Diversity Iraq’s Mosul has Lost with Nationalism and ISIL

The Conversation

By Stephennie Mulder | – On Yom Kippur each year, as Jews around the world pray for atonement, the biblical Book of Jonah is read in its entirety. Jews recall the story of how God summons Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh to tell its inhabitants to turn from their evil deeds. At […]

Jewish History

Universal ethical truths are at the core of Jewish High Holy Days

Juan Cole

By Ronald W. Pies | – My most vivid adolescent memories of the Jewish High Holy Days are the painful rumbling of my empty stomach as I fasted on Yom Kippur, and the sharp blasts of the shofar – the ram’s horn – sounding from the synagogue pulpit. I was one of millions of Jews […]