On Friday, November 5, hundreds of ultra-orthodox Haredi Jews converged at the Western Wall. The group was protesting a group of women that held monthly prayers within the Western Wall. For decades, the Neshot Hakotel or the Women of the Wall have been campaigning against ultra-orthodox Jews who oppose changes in the holy site and want to maintain separate areas for men and women.
On Tuesday, October 26, the Supreme Administrative Court of Greece banned kosher and halal slaughter methods. These forms of ritual slaughter are religious requirements for Jews and Muslims. Both ways require animals to be slaughtered without anesthesia.
Peggy Parnass's picture displayed across the walls of Jerusalem at the gateway to the city hall has been defaced again. Parnass's pictures were plastered around the city of Jerusalem, along with the photographs of other Holocaust survivors for the Lonka Project. The Lonka Project's exhibition started last April 2021; since then, her image has been vandalized five times since June.
A wide range of religious organizations in the UK was subject to an inquiry investigation regarding child abuse. The inquiry revealed “shocking failures” and “blatant hypocrisies” in how these religions handle abuse allegations. Children are subjected to abuse of power and victim-blaming by religious leaders and, as a result, are often not reported.
For the past 1,500 years, Jews have maintained their presence in Afghanistan. But with the endless conflicts unfolding in these arid Central Asian regions, Jews started an unhurried exodus. With the Afghan government ensuring that their citizenship will not be revoked, Afghan Jews began immigrating to other countries. By 1996, there were roughly 5000 Jews left in Afghanistan.
In May 2021, YouTubers Mohammed Hijab and Ali Dawah, who have a combined subscriber count of a million, shared videos of themselves confronting Jewish people during the Jewish sabbath in Golders Green about Israel and Palestine. The videos show them asking Jewish people to condemn Israel's actions. Since then, both have been accused of "direct and deliberate act of incitement" for their actions.
On April 23rd, at least 45 people were killed, and approximately 150 others were treated for injuries after a stampede crushed them at a religious festival in Israel. Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered in celebration at one of the most significant events in the country.
United States Federal authorities filed charges of child exploitation and abduction against an extremist Jewish sect known as the “Lev Tahor” group. This same group has faced several such accusations over the years.
On the morning of Tuesday April 20th, the Canadian Province of Quebec announced plans to appeal a ruling which exempted minority teachers and some politicians from wearing religious attire or symbols.
The ruling, that supports much of a 2019 law, does not apply to teachers in Quebec's English-language school boards, as they hold special rights over education under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Several studies in recent decades found that being religious correlates with good health. New studies have challenged the finding that being an atheist correlates with poor health!
Believers who attend church services regularly are less likely to smoke, use drugs or become obese. They may live longer than those who do not attend any religious church services. Some have been led to conclude, according to those findings, that if religion is good for you, then being an atheist must be bad for your health.
