CENTRE for RELIGIOUS PLURALISM in the MIDDLE EAST

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BEIRUT — Tucked away in Wadi Abu Jamil, a neighborhood near downtown Beirut, is the only standing Jewish synagogue in Lebanon, and its renovation is almost finished.

The killing of a Palestinian infant in an arson attack and of an Israeli youth at a gay pride march highlight the threat of Jewish extremism to Israel's national security. Such attacks are not a new phenomenon.

The Egyptian capital was once home to a vibrant Jewish population. But regional politics and demographics have left only a determined few.

Abstract

While various studies suggest that anti-Semitism is almost non-existent in Turkish society, the popularity of the conspiratorial rhetoric about Jews raises question marks about this view. This article probes into contemporary anti-Semitism in Turkey by scrutinizing conspiracy theories about a crypto-Judaic society called Dönme. It explores the influence of the paranoid style in Turkish politics, known as the Sèvres syndrome, on the popular conspiracy theories with

Anti-Semitism has risen in recent years in Turkey, a U.S. State Department report has said, adding that the Turkish government has continued to discriminate against its non-Sunni Muslim citizens.

“We have to keep Judaism alive and sparkling. The younger generation is moving away from religion and becoming more secular. So we need some sparks, energy and enthusiasm,” says Sami Azar, a volunteer with the Turkish Chief Rabbinate Foundation - the Jewish Community of Turkey, otherwise known as the Turkish Jewish Community Center or T.J.C.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan extended his holiday greetings to the country's Jewish citizens on the occasion of Hanukkah.

The leader of a right-wing Jewish group has called for a ban on Christmas in Israel and the expulsion of Christians, describing followers of the religion as "blood-sucking vampires".

Assaults on churches by right-wing Jews, a new phenomenon, raise concern about movement’s increasingly aggressive tactics.

President Rivlin: We all have a duty, at the beginning of the New Year, and every day, to stand together, and show the world that the conflict in this region is not a war about religion, it is a war against hate.

Turkey’s Jews marked a milestone Dec. 13 with a public celebration of the Hanukkah holiday, said to be the first in the republic's history after decades of Hanukkahs marked behind closed doors in synagogues or homes. Members

An historic synagogue in Istanbul has reopened with a morning prayer performed for the first time in 65 years – another significant step for Turkey’s Jewish community.

When Turkey’s official Religious Affairs Department, the Diyanet, denied a request from the Boyacikoy Yerits Mangonts Church Foundation to pay salaries to Christian clergy in Turkey, the move was challenged by the country's chief ombudsman, who asked the Prime Ministry to pay salaries to non-Muslim clergy. The Prime Ministry has not made a decision known, but non-Muslim clergy members are clearly delighted with the proposal.

Sisterhood of Salaam-Shalom conference attracts record crowd of women from two faiths working to build bridges, but Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains ‘elephant in the room.’

The Future of Religious Pluralism in the Middle East

Abstract

Andrew Doran, special advisor at In Defense of Christians, Faith McDonnell, director of the religious liberty program at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, and David Saperstein, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom at the U.S. Department of State, join National Public Radio's Thomas Gjelten to discuss the state of religious pluralism in the Middle East. The

I was one of the many Muslim scholars and other faiths leaders invited to a major summit of its kind in Morocco to debate the rights of religious minorities living in the Muslim world. The summit opened on 25 January and brought together 300 influential thinkers from across the globe to reassert the principles stipulated by the Charter of Medina. The Charter is the first constitution for Muslims which enshrines the principles of tolerance, co-existence and pluralism.

Beit Gemal: Last December, vandals – not yet identified – destroyed several tombs in the cemetery of Beit Gemal. On January 22, 2016, a group of Jews came to express their sadness and solidarity following the vandalism.

A Turkish synagogue was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti days after holding its first prayer service in 65 years, the Turkish daily newspaper Today’s Zaman reported.

A commemoration ceremony was held in Ankara on Wednesday for Holocaust victims. Representing the government at the ceremony, EU Minister Volkan Bozkır said Turkey was vigilant against anti-Semitism and embraces the country’s Jewish community.

Istanbul's Neve Şalom synagogue hosted a historic wedding ceremony on Sunday night. For the first time, it was the scene of a Jewish wedding ceremony officiated by a local official. A large crowd of guests and prominent names in the Turkish Jewish community attended the ceremony at the synagogue in the city's Beyoğlu district. Murat Hazinedar, mayor of Beşiktaş, officiated the wedding of Selin Saporta and Vedat Peranva after chief rabbi İsak Haleva married the couple in a religious

With the opening of the Grand Synagogue of Edirne, the celebration of Hanukkah and memorials held for the Holocaust and the Struma disaster, 2015 was a milestone year that shattered taboos for Jews in Turkey. However, in the same year, research has shown that Turkey is a leading country for anti-Semitic sentiments. This paradox shows that Turkey's nature is one of irony.

Israeli prosecutors pressed charges on Sunday against three Jewish teenagers for allegedly scrawling anti-Christian graffiti on some of Christianity’s holiest sites in Jerusalem, the justice ministry said.

The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved a plan to allocate an area at the Western Wall in Jerusalem for egalitarian Jewish prayer in a "historic" end to a decades-long dispute.

The decision, based on a proposal by Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky, was welcomed by liberal Jewish movements but condemned by ultra-Orthodox leaders whose cabinet representatives voted against it.

The Palestinian Authority will not permit Israel to change the entrance to the Temple Mount in order to facilitate the building of an egalitarian prayer area near the Western Wall, PA Religious Affairs Minister Mahmoud Habbash told The Jerusalem Post in Ramallah on Thursday morning.

The group is highlighting the, often forgotten, stories of Muslims who helped Jews during one of history’s deadliest genocides.

Abstract

The religious profile of the world is rapidly changing, driven primarily by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among the world’s major religions, as well as by people switching faiths. Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion.

Once a vibrant community, perfectly assimilated into society, the Jews of Egypt have dwindled in numbers and their presence is almost non-existent now. Niveen Ghoneim takes one last walk down memory lane with the last custodian of Egypt's Jewish heritage.

For centuries, a community of Jews has lived peacefully alongside their Muslim neighbours on the island of Djerba, off the coast of Tunisia.

Abstract

This article will show that, for centuries, perhaps a millennium, during which Islam dominated the area, conflict between Jews, Christians and Muslims was the exception, not the norm. The norm was peace, harmony, coexistence and cooperation among those of the three religions.

Event marking restoration of 167 Jewish graveyards in Morocco also marks need for respect, tolerance, and appreciation of all religions.

Suspected arsonists in the West Bank have burned a tent that served as a synagogue dedicated to three Israeli teenagers killed by Palestinians, provoking an angry reaction from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

With the Jewish community of Iraq's al-Qosh long gone, it has fallen to local Christian families to care for the dilapidated synagogue.

The majority of the Middle East’s population today is Muslim, as it has been for centuries. However, as the place of origin of a range of world religions – including Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and many lesser-known faiths – it remains a region of remarkable religious diversity. This article considers the place of religious minorities in the modern Middle East from three angles: their distinctive religious and communal identities, their place in the major transformations of the

Within the scope of the Anatolian Cultural Heritage Project, the Hrant Dink Foundation has listed the churches, synagogues, monasteries, schools, hospitals and cemeteries built by Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians and Jews. Based on the results of the activities carried out over the past two-and-a-half years, the Foundation has listed 10,000 structures, of which 4,600 are Armenian, 4,100 are Greek, 650 are Assyrian and 300 are Jewish. The Foundation has made an interactive map including all

When someone asks me where my family is from, I stop and think. Do I simplify it for them? Do I tell them the truth? What is the truth? Where am I from? For most people it isn’t normal to freeze up at such a simple question. One usually just has to look at one’s culture, where one comes from, what language one speaks, what country one was born in, where one's roots are. But what if none of those match up? This is my problem.

Disregarding warnings from the dwindling Jewish community in Egypt, the Ministry of Antiquities is faced with the partial collapse of a synagogue in Alexandria.

In the most recent news regarding the Jewish community in Egypt, part of a historic synagogue in Alexandria has collapsed. The Ministry of Antiquities, according to Youm 7, acknowledge the partial collapse of the third floor ceiling. The 400 metre square area covering the women’s area in the synagogue collapsed due to a lack