Source: Star Tribune

On April 12, 2003 the Star Tribune reported that "in today's society, keeping kosher is a matter of degrees for some Jews... And Rabbi Zeilingold, who is orthodox, said he applauds any effort toward keeping kosher, even something as simple as not having a glass of milk with your hamburger and fries... It's complicated, especially to non-Jews or those who have not practiced it all of their lives. The Hebrew word 'kosher' itself does not refer specifically to food, said Rabbi Asher Zeilingold, director of UM Kosher, a kosher certification...

Source: Dallas Morning News

On April 12, 2003 Dallas Morning News reported that Jewish soldiers in Iraq are celebrating Passover this year with 1,500 Solo Seder Kits sent to the Persian Gulf by the Jewish Welfare Board's Jewish Chaplains Council. "The kit includes a Passover pamphlet describing the holiday, a Haggadah, matzah, grapejuice, gefilte fish, and chicken soup with matzah balls."

Source: Los Angeles Times

On April 12, 2003 the Los Angeles Times reported that "Jewish historians are turning back the clock to examine how Passover was celebrated in California and the West in the 19th century... Today, as Jews prepare to observe Passover, which begins Wednesday at sundown, Southern California has the nation's second-largest Jewish population -- roughly 600,000. By contrast, the overwhelmingly Catholic pueblo of Los Angeles of 1854 had fewer than 200 Jewish residents and no kosher bakery or butcher shop... A lay rabbi slaughtered animals...

Source: Religion and Ethics Weekly

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week632/calendar.html

On April 11, 2003 Religion and Ethics Weekly reported that "on Wednesday night, Jews will gather for a Seder, a special dinner, where they retell the story of their ancestors' exodus from Egypt. The Seder ritual is guided by a special book called the Haggadah. In recent years, in addition to the traditional observance, some Jewish groups have developed Seders...

Source: Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On April 10, 2003 The San Francisco Chronicle reported that " U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige said Wednesday that he will not resign his post despite a growing furor about an interview in which he praised Christian values over public schooling... In a hastily organized news conference, Paige attempted to clarify remarks he made Monday to the Baptist Press, the national news service of the Southern Baptist Convention... The news conference was intended to stem growing criticism by the American Civil Liberties Union, the...

Source: Plain Dealer

On April 9, 2003 the Plain Dealer reported that "for Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews alike, the Passover holiday begins this year at sundown on April 16. Festive, ceremonial meals called Seders mark the first two nights of the eight-day commemoration of the Jewish exodus from Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. Matzo, made with only flour, water and salt, is eaten instead of bread. No products containing a leavening agent (yeast, baking powder or baking soda) are consumed... Over the centuries, Jews in different parts of the world developed...

Source: The Associated Press

On April 5, 2003 The Associated Press reported that "twenty-nine-year-old Anjum A. Ali has two very distinctive looks - that of an American patriot and that of a Muslim... Dressed in her traditional head garb, the American-born Muslim has struggled to make more traditional citizens understand that she, too, is a patriot... With the help of her friend Neil Kuchinsky, a well-known Jewish lawyer who often serves as an advocate for people of the Jewish religion, and local real estate investor Vince Ferranti, a Christian Italian-...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On April 3, 2003 the Los Angeles Times reported that "the 91-year-old cross overlooking Ventura is being targeted by a group that contends the city has run afoul of 1st Amendment guarantees against establishment of a state religion... The cross is on public land in Grant Park, a rambling, sage-studded expanse atop 800-foot-high Mission Hill. The cross will be at the heart of a meeting next week between city officials and an attorney for three Ventura County residents upset by its religious symbolism... A member of Americans United...

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Source: Daily News

On April 2, 2003 the Daily News reported that New York mayor "Bloomberg condemned yesterday anti-Semitic and anti-Christian school books in use at a number of Muslim private schools in the city... 'Personally, I find it disgraceful,' Bloomberg said when asked about a Sunday Daily News story reporting the schools' use of the books in their Islamic studies programs... The mayor made his comments while appearing with local Jewish leaders at 1 Police Plaza to discuss public safety concerns for the upcoming Passover holiday... The most...

Source: The Baltimore Sun

On March 31, 2003 The Baltimore Sun reported that "overcome with emotion, Kay Ballard had to pause several times during yesterday's Prayers for World Peace, an event she coordinated to bring a diverse range of spiritual leaders to talk about peace... On the 12th day of the war in Iraq, Ballard gathered spiritual leaders to deliver their individual messages of peace. A rabbi spoke about making peace an active pursuit, while an imam talked about how the word peace in Arabic is a part of daily life... Interspersed in the two-hour...

Source: The Washington Post

On March 31, 2003 The Washington Post reported that "as a top officer in a combat helicopter squadron, Army Maj. Mike Mahony is used to emergencies. Two of his pilots were shot down last week. His unit's AH-64 Apache helicopters were damaged by Iraqi artillery. But this morning, he was handling a different kind of emergency: getting Communion to troops near the front lines... Mahony is an emergency minister of the Eucharist, or EME, a layman trained to administer the sacrament of Communion because of a shortage of Roman Catholic...

Source: The Weekly Standard

On March 31, 2003 The Weekly Standard reported that "the Jewish people forever faces grave external threats and internal tensions, and temperature-taking would seem to be in order. Moreover, taking stock is a venerable tradition among Jews, inaugurated by God Himself when He described them as a 'stiff-necked people...' The tradition continues with two hefty collections of essays, Jewish Polity and American Civil Society and Jews and the American Public Square, both edited by Alan Mittleman, Jonathan D. Sarna, and...

Source: Columbia Daily Spectator

On March 31, 2003 the Columbia Daily Spectator published an editorial by Jennifer Thorpe stating that "in today's interconnected world, we as students and members of society are learning increasingly about other people's religious beliefs and spiritual practices. We must confront issues of religious tolerance and how nowhere in the world does universal religious tolerance exist in practice. I was raised as a Jew by a Jewish mother and a Catholic father... They may have raised me Jewish, but they only really cared that I...