Day of the Dead might sound like a solemn affair, but Mexico’s famous holiday is actually a lively commemoration of the departed, with nationwide festivities and a massive parade in Mexico City. It can be traced back to the native peoples of central and southern Mexico, and Mictecacihuatl, Aztec goddess of death. Read more
In the Jewish High Holy Days are a time, tradition tells us, God writes down the names of the wicked in the Book of Death. One can avert being inscribed in the “Book of Death” by means of repentance, prayer and charity. True repentance, though, requires making amends to those we have sinned against or mistreated. Read more
Some of the earliest American arrivals were Muslims forcibly transported as slaves. Blues music, a quintessential American cultural form, has Muslim influences, says historian Sylviane Diouf: famous blues song “Levee Call Holler” has a style and melody from the Muslim call to prayer, the “adhan.” Read more
The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were designed to instill panic and fear. The vast majority of Americans have watched them replayed over and over again. How has this event impacted those individuals who are too young to remember a world before 9/11? Read more
President Trump said "Jewish people that vote for a Democrat" show "great disloyalty," presumably to Israel. Since the 70s, Israelism has mapped American Jews' relationships with Israel along the emerging liberal/conservative divide. Read more
Even though there were only a few convictions in Pennsylvania, the release of the grand jury report naming 300 sexually abusive Roman Catholic priests in the state was a watershed moment for survivors. It opened up space for new conversations and helped communities come to terms with the horror of their past. Read more
For the millions of Muslims planning to gather in Saudi Arabia on Aug. 9 for the hajj, online reviews may be misleading. Ratings for holy sites primarily reflect the contributor’s spiritual experience—not mundane, practical details like the crowds, the weather or souvenir sellers. Read more
To avoid arrest, thousands of Central Americans have taken shelter in churches, echoing the 1980s sanctuary movement involving migrants fleeing civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, denied political asylum by the Reagan Administration. Read more
The hajj is any individual Muslim’s single most symbolic ritual act that reflects the ideal of unity—performing the same rituals in the same places can connect Muslims across national and class boundaries, but only when politics do not divide them. Read more
Calls for reparations in the U.S. are generally met with skepticism, but South Africa paid victims of apartheid. The U.S. paid 82,000 Japanese Americans. Germany paid $4.9 billion to 1.7 million forced into slave labor by the Nazis, or their descendants. Read more
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