(RNS) — As for all the world, COVID-19 dominated Jewish life in 2020, but not all the news in the Jewish world was about the virus — and even some events driven by the pandemic were not without a silver lining.

(RNS) — Losses in the religion world included people known for their contributions to preaching, civil rights or music.

(RNS) — The RNS stories that captured moments of resilience and perseverance, and even a few moments of celebration, in this dark time.

(RNS) — The real moral hazard they’ve fallen into is building a faith identity or communal solidarity on otherness, victimhood or grievance.

(RNS) — ‘It pains me because I think when this all dies down and we get back to Mass, there will be a lot of empty pews,’ said one nurse, who has worked at a hard-hit nursing home throughout the pandemic.

(RNS) — Our reading list this year, like the rest of our lives, was colored by the triple whammy of 2020: the pandemic, the racial justice protests and the presidential election.

NEW YORK (RNS) — Eliot Engel’s unlikely defeat by progressive insurgent Jamaal Bowman signaled shifts within an electorate that straddles wide income divides in the Bronx and southern Westchester and is 30% Black and 20% Jewish.

(The Conversation) — Food preparation makes the intangible aspects of culture and religion tangible.

ORLANDO (RNS) — A Holocaust memorial center in Florida sparks controversy for an exhibit on modern racism, with many saying it diminishes the reality of anti-Semitism and the atrocities of the Holocaust.

(RNS) — One attendee described the meeting as ‘a 180 degree change from what we’ve been enduring for the last four years.’

(RNS) — Had Isaiah wanted to say ‘virgin’ or predict a miraculous birth, he would have used different Hebrew words, say biblical scholars Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler.

(RNS) — The questions in this collection, part of Moment Magazine’s long-running feature ‘Ask the Rabbis,’ offer a model for what is fundamental to Judaism.

(RNS) — As relations between Christians and Jews have changed and will change, we must change, too.

(RNS) — You call a professional what that person wants to be called. End of discussion.

(RNS) — Asked about his participation in the Moderna vaccine trial, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld replied, ‘It’s the most important sermon I’ve ever given — by far.’