Author: Steven G. Vegh

Source: Religion News Service

http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnstext/national_day_of_prayer_gets_a_political_makeover1/

God may provide, but the state may not when it comes to unemployment benefits for employees laid off by churches, synagogues and other religious groups.

Carol Bronson discovered that a few months ago after she lost her secretarial job at Temple...

Author: Matthew Hay Brown

Source: The Baltimore Sun

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-md.sabbath18may18,0,7128825.story

For Yoel Benyowitz, setting aside work at sundown on Friday, lighting the shabbos candles and spending the next 24 hours in prayer and fellowship with family and friends "recharges our batteries, both physically and spiritually."

It's an experience that he...

Author: Hector Becerra

Source: The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beliefs18-2009may18,0,3791849.story

On a sunny Sunday when men with 10-gallon vaquero hats mingled with men wearing yarmulkes, Sonny Estrada, his wife Susan Miller and their 9-year-old daughter Eliana stepped into the aging synagogue in Boyle Heights as unwitting symbols.

The Mexican-American-Jewish family was celebrating the...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: NewsOn6.com

Wire Service: AP

http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=10384343

Gov. Brad Henry on Monday signed a bill to permit a Ten Commandments monument to be placed on the grounds of the state Capitol.

Henry signed the bill over arguments it violated provisions of the state and U.S. constitutions that prohibit laws expressing a religious preference.

The Ten...

Author: Mike Robinson

Source: The Chicago Tribune

Wire Service: AP

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-wood-religious-bias,0,5587163.story

When a federal appeals court meets in Chicago to take up a bitter dispute over alleged religious discrimination by a condo association the judges themselves could end up as the main attraction.

President Barack...

Author: Richard Boudreaux

Source: The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pope-mideast12-2009may12,0,1951298.story

Pope Benedict XVI, trying to quell Jewish anger over a Holocaust-denying bishop, bowed in silence Monday at Israel's memorial to Jews exterminated during World War II and declared that their suffering must "never be denied, belittled or forgotten."

"They...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6261820.ece

Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians in the Middle East to hold on to their faith and traditions at an open-air Mass attended by 50,000 worshippers.

He told them to work with other religions to enrich their daily lives and counter violent ideologies. “Be faithful to your roots,” he said yesterday in his homily at...

Author: Greg Bluestein

Source: Google News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jE0d8wW2O-RA6t7Qm253EJddRsigD982D1QO0

The dozens of mock murder trials held in Atlanta's main courthouse Friday were punctuated with stubborn witnesses, compelling arguments and dizzying legal back-and-forths from high school students.

But the competition was...

Author: Mary MacVean and Duke Helfand

Source: The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kosher-jewish8-2009may08,0,6255961.story

With Sabbath candles burning and 14 guests seated around her dinner table, Joanna Arch held up a cup of kosher red wine and chanted the kiddish kiddish prayer in Hebrew:

"God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all his creative work...

Author: Ben Hubbard and Ibrahim Barzak

Source: The New York Times

Wire Service: AP

Author: Robbie Brown

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/education/06mock.html

The nation’s top high school mock trial competition has become an actual legal battleground.

Earlier this spring, the Maimonides School, an Orthodox Jewish day school in Brookline, Mass., won the state mock trial championship — and with it a coveted spot in the prestigious national competition in Atlanta this weekend. But...

Author: Lydia Saad

Source: Gallup

http://www.gallup.com/poll/118120/Obama-Approval-High-Among-Muslims-Jews-Catholics.aspx

Gallup Poll Daily tracking during President Obama's first 100 days in office finds broad support for him among Americans affiliated with most major U.S. religions. U.S. Muslims and Jews give Obama his highest job approval ratings, at 85% and 79%, respectively. He also receives solid majority...

Author: Susan Sachs

Source: The Globe and Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090430.TRIAL30ART2237/TPStory/International

When a young Jew named Ilan Halimi was found dying on a railway siding three years ago, duct tape over his eyes and his body burned and slashed, the French police were reluctant at first to call it a hate crime.

Within a week, their caution gave way to a...

Author: Jacqueline L. Salmon

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/28/AR2009042803584.html

Gathering in group homes and college dormitories, in rural woods and apartment buildings, a growing number of young Jews are spurning traditional synagogues and forming worship communities that blend ancient traditions with modern values in ways that religion scholars say could...