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‘The most widely celebrated Jewish holiday’

In this week’s Cover Story, Rabbi Lenore Bohm writes: “Passover is the most widely celebrated holiday in Jewish homes around the world. Why does it remain such a powerful call to us each year?” As Jewish families prepare for Passover, we ask you to read Rabbi Bohm’s column and then share it with friends via social media and email.

When is Passover? The date moves each year with lunar cycles. This year, it begins after sunset on Friday, April 15.

Learn more with Rabbi Lenore: This week, the Religion News Service carries a story, headlined, ‘Torah Tutor’ arrives in time for Passover and spring Bible studies

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More Holidays & Festivals

Ramadan around the world

HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS COLUMNIST Stephanie Fenton covers Ramadan.

FRONT EDGE PUBLISHING Editor David Crumm writes about three ideal books to learn more about our Muslim neighbors.

National Public Radio also has posted a gallery of remarkable photographs from around the world, taken as Muslim families began the Ramadan fast this past weekend.

A note on our photograph, above: This image of a traditional Ramadan lantern is available for public use via Wikimedia Commons.

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Palm Sunday, Holy Week & Easter

2 billion Christians celebrate

HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS columnist Stephanie Fenton reports …

Palm Sunday: Christians begin Holy Week with processions and palms

AND—Easter Triduum: Christians observe Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday

THEN: We also explain this moveable date of Easter.

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WANT TO SEE ALL OF THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS?—It’s easy to find our annual calendar of global observances. Just remember the web address: InterfaithHolidays.com

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From our writers—

The Pope’s apology to Native Peoples

THIS YEAR, our writers have been following the emerging news about Native Peoples and the horrific history of “boarding schools,” many of which once were run by religious groups. Revelations are moving across Canada and more news will be coming from the United States, where investigations by government agencies and religious groups are unfolding. This week, Pope Francis hosted Native leaders from Canada at the Vatican and delivered an apology.

• Here’s The New York Times coverage, headlined: ‘I Feel Shame’: Pope Apologizes to Indigenous People of Canada
• You can read Pope Francis’ entire statement, plus you’ll find nine photos from this historic gathering at the Vatican website.

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Najah Bazzy

Honored as a ‘Thought Leader Influencing the World’

OUR AUTHOR NAJAH BAZZY was honored by the Global Woman Magazine staff among “Top 6 Muslim Female Thought Leaders Influencing the World.” The magazine profile describes her this way: “An internationally recognized healer, humanitarian and interfaith leader, Najah Bazzy is the founder of Zaman International, a nonprofit organization advancing the lives of marginalized women and children by enabling them to meet essential needs and break the cycle of poverty.” During the month of Ramadan, Najah also helps to explain the worldwide Muslim tradition of fasting through her book, The Beauty of Ramadan.

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Rodney Curtis

AUTHOR and PHOTOGRAPHER RODNEY CURTIS reflects this week about the dilemmas most of us confront after two years of this pandemic: “Making things make sense can feel like a puzzle with only middle pieces and no edges.”

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David Gushee

‘The Moral Dimension of the Ministerial Vocation’

DR. DAVID GUSHEE, one of the world’s leading Christian ethicists, has started a series of columns at his website that are excerpts from his new book, Introducing Christian Ethics.

He has headlined this week’s column ‘The Moral Dimension of the Ministerial Vocation,’ which is a challenge to religious leaders to make a deeper commitment to their responsibilities in our world today. Clicking on the headline will take you to Dr. Gushee’s online home, where you also can sign up, if you wish, for free updates directly from Dr. Gushee.

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Faith & Film

ED McNULTY, for decades, has published reviews, magazine articles and books exploring connections between faith and film. Most of his work is freely published. Ed supports his work by selling the Visual Parables Journal, a monthly magazine packed with discussion guides to films. This resource is used coast-to-coast by individuals who love the movies and by educators, clergy and small-group leaders.

Among Ed’s free reviews and columns:

• SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE—Netflix now is streaming two dozen episodes of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 2015-19 TV series, Servant of the People. Ed McNulty highly recommends the series, writing: “What a series of visual parables about lifting up the lowly and of the great reversal proclaimed by Jesus in the gospels!“
• JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR in two versions: Ed reaches back to review two different versions of Jesus Christ Superstar. First, he writes about the inspiring, ground-breaking experience of the first version in the 1970s. Then, he also reviews a 2000 version of the musical.
• FREDERICK DOUGLASS IN FIVE SPEECHES—Ed writes, “Although in just 54 minutes director Julia Marchesi cannot possibly include all of the massive amount of information in David Blight’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Frederick Douglass, she does an excellent job in portraying the man and his great influence upon his times and especially upon President Lincoln.”
• LINCOLN’S DILEMMA—Ed also praises the new four-part series about Lincoln and Frederick Douglas that just debuted on Apple TV+
• FLEE—”Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s triple Oscar contender about a war refugee is different from other documentaries in that it is 95% animated.”
• IVAN’S CHILDHOOD—Looking for insights into the lingering influence of the Soviet Union on life in Russia? Ed reaches back to 1962 to recommend an early film by the famous Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.
• WINTER ON FIRE—“I hope that freedom-loving people all over the world will tune in to Netflix’s new documentary. An Oscar nominee for Best Documentary, it provides a fitting prelude to the current violence unleashed by the ruthless land-grabbing Russian tyrant, as well as a fitting tribute to the brave people opposing him.”
• CARRIE’S WAR—“The story is set during the London Blitz when the decision was made to ship the children out into the country-side for their safety and their parents’ peace of mind.”
• WRITING WITH FIRE—”This Oscar-nominated documentary’s title must have been derived from the white hot passion of journalist Meera Devi and her colleagues at their newspaper located in northern India. Khabar Lahariya, which means in English “Waves of News,” is staffed by Dalit women.”
• BUTTER—“Virtually all teenagers have felt isolated and hopeless at times, if not by the obesity of the film’s Butter (Alex Kersting), then by some other difference that makes them feel judged and rejected by peers,” Ed writes in recommending this film.
• DEATH ON THE NILE—”He’s back, that French detective with a mustache so large that it could be regarded as a fire hazard. Just as he was a passenger in 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express, so Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is again a passenger, but this time on a luxury paddle boat a few hundred miles south—the Nile River.”

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