Ira Rifkin
Ira Rifkin is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Ira Rifkin
Buddhist views on suicide examined after climate activist self-immolated on Earth Day
By Ira Rifkin — April 27, 2022
(RNS) — Buddhism does not categorically reject suicide, though its approval is very limited.
From the cushion to the couch: Buddhism’s powerful influence on psychotherapy
By Ira Rifkin — April 5, 2022
(RNS) — Your therapist might be a Buddhist, and you'd never know it.
Thích Nhất Hạnh, Zen master who preached compassion and nonviolence, dies
By Ira Rifkin — January 21, 2022
(RNS) — The Vietnamese Buddhist monk, described as 'the second most famous Buddhist in the world, after the Dalai Lama,' by one expert, founded a worldwide network of monastic centers.
As Dalai Lama turns 85, his lineage’s future is as uncertain as Tibet’s
By Ira Rifkin — July 6, 2020
(RNS) — As the Tibetan Buddhist leader ages, a confrontation with China over the legitimacy of his successor looms.
A spiritual icon to the Boomers, Ram Dass was godfather to the ‘nones’
By Ira Rifkin — December 23, 2019
(RNS) — One of the spiritual teacher's great gifts was his great willingness to share his imperfections with the world and his ability to laugh about them.
The Dalai Lama teaches a lesson on rethinking our faith traditions
By Ira Rifkin — November 27, 2019
(RNS) — Tibetan Buddhism's leader recently called to end the prominence of reincarnated lamas, a model for religious leaders who cling to entrenched modes of thinking.
As Kabbalah Goes Mainstream, Not Everyone’s Happy
By Ira Rifkin — January 12, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service SAN DIEGO _ Madonna may be Kabbalah’s most visible non-Jewish exponent, but she’s hardly the only one. Globally, more non-Jews than Jews are studying Judaism’s once-secret mystical tradition, experts say, prompting a growing debate among Jewish scholars and religious leaders over the appropriateness of the rapidly spreading phenomenon. Some worry […]
Methodists Hire Rabbi for Spiritual Renewal
By Ira Rifkin — October 20, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service COLUMBIA, Md. _ Each Thursday, staff members of the United Methodist Church’s Baltimore-Washington Conference gather at their offices here for a lunch-hour Bible study class. Lately, those classes have taken on a distinctly different tone. That’s because they are now led by a Jewish rabbi, part of an unconventional effort […]
Orthodox Jews Fight Over Who Owns the Middle Ground
By Ira Rifkin — September 14, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ Yet another permutation of the culture war convulsing religions worldwide has surfaced, this time within American Orthodox Judaism. It’s a struggle for dominance between those who see traditional faith as fully compatible with contemporary culture and those who reject the culture and prefer to live apart. So […]
Orthodox Jews Fight Over Who Owns the Middle Ground
By Ira Rifkin — September 14, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ Yet another permutation of the culture war convulsing religions worldwide has surfaced, this time within American Orthodox Judaism. It’s a struggle for dominance between those who see traditional faith as fully compatible with contemporary culture and those who reject the culture and prefer to live apart. So […]
Orthodox Jews Fight Over Who Owns the Middle Ground
By Ira Rifkin — September 14, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ Yet another permutation of the culture war convulsing religions worldwide has surfaced, this time within American Orthodox Judaism. It’s a struggle for dominance between those who see traditional faith as fully compatible with contemporary culture and those who reject the culture and prefer to live apart. So […]
Orthodox Jews Fight Over Who Owns the Middle Ground
By Ira Rifkin — September 14, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ Yet another permutation of the culture war convulsing religions worldwide has surfaced, this time within American Orthodox Judaism. It’s a struggle for dominance between those who see traditional faith as fully compatible with contemporary culture and those who reject the culture and prefer to live apart. So […]
COMMENTARY: In Defense of a Once-Violent Tribe Depicted in Film
By Ira Rifkin — January 28, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Israel has thousands of articulate defenders, hence the many critical essays about Steven Spielberg’s characterization of Israeli agents in his new film, “Munich.” But the Waodani, the once-murderous South American tribe portrayed in “End of the Spear,” lack such international support. So let me offer a partial defense on […]
NEWS STORY: Religion journalists name Protestant Reformation millennium’s top story
By Ira Rifkin — December 2, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ The Protestant Reformation was selected as the top religion story of the second Christian millennium by members of the Religion Newswriters Association, who also voted the Holocaust the 20th century’s leading news event. In 1517, the rebellious German priest Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses condemning Rome’s practice […]
NEWS STORY: Muslim demonstrators urge end to Russian offensive in Chechnya
By Ira Rifkin — November 19, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ As Russian jets and artillery pieces continued their relentless pounding of his homeland Thursday (Nov. 18), Lyoma Usmanov waged his own rhetorical war in support of Chechnya on a downtown Washington sidewalk, handing out flyers and explaining to passersby his analysis of the latest chapter in his nation’s […]
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