US rabbi barred from entering Israel on trip to help Palestinians harvest olives

(RNS) — The annual olive harvest is of economic and cultural importance in the occupied West Bank but has become a flashpoint of tension with Israeli settlers over recent years.

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Religion News Service (RNS) 2026 Community Survey

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Three years after Oct. 7, some US Jews want to carry guns to synagogue

(RNS) — Many US synagogues hire on- or off-duty police officers to stand guard, usually outside the building. Now some synagogues say that’s not enough. They want armed congregants in the building.

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Trump administration again omits refugees fleeing religious persecution from US program

(RNS) — The Trump administration set the refugee cap for 2027 at 17,500, the same as this year. That would make it the second year in a row of historically low admissions — made up primarily of white ...

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Is ‘Free Palestine’ antisemitic? Here are 5 religion takeaways from the Macklemore cancelation

(RNS) — The charge that criticism of Israel amounts to antisemitism is highly contested.

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More universities added Muslim chaplains post 9/11. Then came 10/7.

(RNS) — Twenty-five years after the terrorist strikes, some 80 universities — among them a small but growing number of state schools, like Rutgers University in New Jersey — have full-time Muslim chap...

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As Rosh Hashanah nears, a rabbi invites Jewish skeptics to ‘Pretend You Believe’

(RNS) — The leader of an innovative San Francisco synagogue called The Kitchen counsels skeptical Jews to put aside the question of belief and enter into the experience first.

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Wendell Berry, writer and farmer, was extolled by many as a modern-day prophet

(RNS) — His writings touched on conservation, community and belonging, and he acquired legions of fans beyond environmental studies — including many scholars of religion.

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Samaritan's Purse turns down $300M from State Department for humanitarian relief

(RNS) — Franklin Graham, one of President Trump’s most stalwart evangelical allies, did not offer any reasons for rejecting the federal funds, which would have been used for ‘immediate life-saving ass...

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The schism in the UMC ended two years ago; but not in this Dallas church

DALLAS (RNS) — Two years after a schism led 7,600 churches to leave the United Methodist fold, its reverberations are now being felt in a battle between one of its most elite churches and a Texas conf...

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Cardinal Brislin joins African clergy in calling Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Drawing on Africa’s experience of apartheid, genocide and war, Cardinal Stephen Brislin and nine other Catholic clergy say Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide — and argue...

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13 US citizens denied entry to Israel for weeklong trip to learn about Palestinian Christians

(RNS) — Amid escalating violence in the West Bank, an interfaith group, led by a retired Emory University theology professor, was turned back at Israel's border.

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Not giving up: A group of social justice warriors sustains the resistance with community and meditation

RALEIGH, N.C. (RNS) — Over the past decade, a group of democracy activists with a long history of involvement in social and political causes has found a balm in Buddhist meditation.

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Haaretz Today • 'Zionist' has become toxic in America. The Jewish establishment must confront it

An organized community that cannot tolerate any dissent will lose its dissenting members, deepening its resistance to alternate views and making it less able to exert any influence outside the communi...

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Abdul El-Sayed could be the first Muslim senator. Here are 5 religion takeaways from his campaign.

(RNS) — The 41-year-old Muslim's victory in the Michigan primary was greeted with pride from Muslims and trepidation by supporters of Israel.

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This historic divinity school is offering the first doctoral degree in ‘AI and Moral Agency’

(RNS) — Shaw University Divinity School hopes to be the first theological school accredited by the Association of Theological Schools to offer a doctoral degree in AI. Its first cohort begins in Janua...

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In a Tisha B'Av reversal, these American Jews grieve for destruction of Palestinian lives

(RNS) — Seven cities across the country — including Boston, Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, Philadelphia and Seattle — held similar public rituals to mark the Jewish day of mourning.

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Samaritan's Purse to open Ebola field hospital in Democratic Republic of the Congo

(RNS) — The Christian humanitarian relief organization has deep expertise in treating Ebola.

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After refugee aid cuts, faith groups help Afghan women connect through sewing

DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) — The Trump administration’s vast cuts to refugee services have led some religious congregations to fill in gaps.

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Sidelined from legacy institutions, a movement centering Judaism outside Israel rises

(RNS) — The Jewish Diaspora Movement, launched Monday (May 18), consists of 40 groups, mostly in North America, that are united in their rejection of Israel’s ethno-nationalist Judaism.

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It's been called the Ellis Island of the South. Now residents worry about ICE.

(RNS) — As the U.S. embraces aggressive anti-immigrant policies, Clarkston, Georgia, is now a test of how to best protect the diverse community of refugees.

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Two years after schism, a United Methodist scholar pens a road map for growth

(RNS) — If the United Methodist Church wants to reach younger, more ethnically diverse people, it must focus on densely populated urban areas, suggests researcher Lovett Weems Jr.

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Faith groups seek out founding documents in bid to rescue democracy

(RNS) — The Faith250 initiative has 209 Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations signed up to study 'America’s sacred texts' as a kind of search-and-rescue mission into the country’s moral foundatio...

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These US Jews wanted to show solidarity with Palestinians. Israel deported them.

(RNS) — At least a dozen US Jews motivated by Jewish values to engage in pro-Palestine activism have been deported from Israel over the past year. Dozens of others have had their digital entry passes ...

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Iranian Duke scholar: War will increase religious fundamentalism around the world

DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) — Mohsen Kadivar, an Iranian dissident who teaches Islam at Duke University, is as critical about what the Iran war is doing to American democracy as he is of the Islamic Republic.

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With most new refugees barred, synagogues turn to serving those already here

DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) — Over the past five years, Judea Reform Congregation has helped resettle 13 refugee families from such countries as Afghanistan, Haiti, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela. Volunteers are...

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Forbidden love finds a way in new memoir about Israeli-Palestinian couple

A Jewish human rights lawyer living in Israel fell in love with one of her clients — a Palestinian Muslim living under occupation.

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A Palestinian American talks to Tucker Carlson about how US evangelicals misunderstand Israel

Fares Abraham worries that Palestinian Christian communities across the Middle East, but especially in the West Bank, are in danger of disappearing.

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Amid ICE raids, Minneapolis rabbi and pastor show solidarity in action

The partnership includes joint worship — and a $1 million fundraising drive for Minneapolis families affected by the siege.

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140 rabbis train in Washington on how to resist authoritarian governments, ICE

(RNS) — The convening will train rabbis on practical tools for non-violent resistance — both to disrupt systems with tactics such as boycotts and strikes, and to create alternative processes to help v...

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