“On Yom Kippur you resolve to do better in the coming year, not to be perfect, just to be better.” Watch more of our interview with Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles about Kever Avot, a Jewish memorial service for the dead during the High Holidays.
Author Archives: Fred Yi
Pilgrimage to Uman
The town of Uman in central Ukraine is the site of the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810), a Chassidic mystic and the continuing and only central leader ever acknowledged by Breslov Chassidism. Uman is a place of annual pilgrimage for tens of thousands of Jews from all over the world, including Rebbi Nachman’s followers and a wide range of other devout Jews, who come for Rosh Hashanah to pray at his grave. View a gallery of photographs taken at Uman during this year’s pilgrimage by Leonard Cooper of Potomac, Maryland.
Debating Intervention in Syria, Guantanamo Ethics, Buddhist University in India
We discuss religious opposition to a possible missile strike on Syria with Father Drew Christiansen, former editor of the Jesuit magazine “America”; managing editor Kim Lawton examines the complex ethical and moral questions in the debate over the detention center at Guantanamo Bay; and correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro visits the ancient city of Bodh Gaya in India, where there is an effort to revive a Buddhist university that once thrived there more than 1,400 years ago.
Debating Intervention in Syria
There was strong and widespread religious opposition this week to the Obama administration’s proposed military strike against the Assad regime in Syria. We discuss the possibility of a missile strike, and alternatives to it, with Father Drew Christiansen, former editor of the Jesuit magazine America. “I think the missile strike doesn’t do the most essential thing, which is saving the people of Syria. And we could do more if we spent the money we’re spending on bombs on caring for the refugees,” he says.
Guantanamo Ethics
A growing movement is renewing calls to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, citing concerns about the treatment of prisoners. The practice of force-feeding detainees against their will has been especially troubling to human rights activists. “They’re prisoners, but that doesn’t mean that they’ve given up every right that they have as a human being,” says a US Naval Academy professor who visited Gitmo in 2009.
Buddhist University in India
For decades, the Indian government has encouraged pilgrims to come to one of India’s holiest locations, the ancient city of Bodh Gaya. Now there is an effort to revive the Buddhist university that once flourished there long before universities like Cambridge and Oxford were founded in the West.
Moral Questions on Syria Strikes, Sister Joan Chittister, India’s Jains
University of Notre Dame professor George Lopez discusses the moral questions raised by the possibility of a US-led military intervention in Syria; Benedictine nun and author Joan Chittister explains Roman Catholicism’s need for reform and why Benedictine spirituality is for all people, not just monastics; and young Jains in India describe how they’ve adapted their religion’s strict asceticism to fit more modern times.
Moral Questions on Syria Strikes
Does the US have a “responsibility to protect” now that the use of chemical weapons by Syria has been confirmed? Watch our discussion with University of Notre Dame peace studies professor George Lopez, who says, “Is there just cause and right intention? Yes, there’s a grave public evil with a chemical weapons attack. But on criteria of last resort, proportional response, probability of success, this strike idea really falls short of the mark.”
Sister Joan Chittister
“Roman Catholicism is the storehouse, the treasure house of the Christian tradition. It’s this whole notion of the blend of wisdom, of commitment, of knowledge, of holiness. That’s the church for me. That’s the church I’m waiting for.”
Sister Joan Chittister Extended Interview
“Our purpose is to present the most humane, spiritual, moral, communal model of life for a world in chaos around us—to be an island of care and cohesion in the midst of all the movement,” says Benedictine nun and author Joan Chittister.
