Jacob Wirtschafter

Jacob Wirtschafter is an author at Religion News Service.

All Stories by Jacob Wirtschafter

The Mask Project offers jobs to unemployed and masks to Arizona’s hardest-hit communities

By Jacob Wirtschafter — May 18, 2020

PHOENIX (RNS) — Founded by Arizona Jews for Justice, The Mask Project aids the state's Latino and Native American communities, which have been hit particularly hard by both the novel coronavirus and the economic fallout.

Egyptian seminary renews its claim as arbiter of Islam’s true meaning

By Jacob Wirtschafter — March 28, 2019

CAIRO (RNS) — With Islam under global scrutiny and ISIS projecting power over the internet, Al-Azhar University's observatory has set out to counter terrorist messaging.

Threatened with an end to Shariah divorce, Egypt’s imams work to save marriages

By Jacob Wirtschafter — January 23, 2019

CAIRO (RNS) — Egypt’s skyrocketing divorce rate has spurred a debate between religious leaders and government officials about how best to keep families together.

US advocates for Syrian refugee resettlement find unexpected allies

By Jacob Wirtschafter — September 15, 2015

LOS ANGELES (RNS) Jewish American groups say they can’t be bystanders as the refugee crisis unfolds. They join Arab-American leaders in a critique of existing policies, which have sharply limited the numbers of refugees settled in the United States.

Activists intent on building third Jewish temple spark tensions at holy site

By Jacob Wirtschafter — November 12, 2014

JERUSALEM (RNS) The Temple Mount is at the center of an intense debate over messianic religious Zionism. How Israeli society deals with it may hold the key to the peace process.

On Rosh Hashanah, Israelis welcome a more diverse set of Jews

By Jacob Wirtschafter — September 24, 2014

TEL AVIV, Israel (RNS) As Israelis pause to celebrate the Jewish New Year, they can also celebrate a surge in the number of non-Jews participating in conversion courses run by Israel’s Reform and Conservative movements.

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