Brooklyn
Orthodox Jews face collateral damage from unbalanced COVID-19 measures
By Brett Harvey and Howard Slugh — July 10, 2020
(RNS) — Many people of faith have faced limits on meeting for services. But when Jewish Americans have gathered publicly, they have faced a slew of anti-Semitic attacks — some from prominent government officials.
NYC mayor takes heat after lashing out at Jewish funeral
By Karen Matthews — April 29, 2020
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio defended his tweets criticizing a large Jewish funeral.
We should all mourn for the ultra-Orthodox
By Jeffrey Salkin — April 29, 2020
(RNS) — Jew-haters with guns are no longer the greatest threat to Jews. The new enemy is invisible.
Brooklyn Muslims document their past and present in new oral history project
By Aysha Khan — December 7, 2018
(RNS) – The Brooklyn Historical Society's new digital archive of 50 interviews with local Muslims can help "change the narrative" surrounding American Muslims, oral historian Zaheer Ali said.
Questioning real-world learning at ultra-Orthodox schools
By Karen Matthews — July 22, 2018
NEW YORK (AP) — Complaints that some schools run by the city's strictly observant Hasidic Jews barely teach English, math, science or social studies have fueled a movement to demand stricter oversight by state and local educational authorities.
Italian-American church in Brooklyn’s ‘Little Guatemala’ gets new lease on life
By Katherine Fung — April 10, 2018
NEW YORK (RNS) — St. Finbar Catholic Church in Brooklyn's Bensonhurst neighborhood is part of a larger national trend: The share of U.S. Catholics who are Hispanic has increased by 5 percentage points since 2007 to 34 percent and is expected to continue growing.
A Holocaust museum in Brooklyn focuses on faith, survival
By Yonat Shimron — January 16, 2018
NEW YORK (AP) — The Amud Aish Memorial Museum, located far from the tourist crowds, near the very edge of the Brooklyn, focuses on the experiences of Orthodox Jews during and after the Holocaust.
Brooklyn megachurch pastor explains why he left the president’s evangelical advisory board
By Chris Sagona — August 21, 2017
Brooklyn, N.Y. (RNS) — 'I took a lot of heat for joining, and I took a lot of heat for leaving,' said the Rev. A.R. Bernard.
Pastor resigns from Trump’s evangelical advisory board, asks others to speak out
By Lauren Markoe — August 19, 2017
(RNS) — A.R. Bernard cited a 'deepening conflict of values' with the administration.
Brooklyn’s Catholic bishop decries ‘racism and xenophobia’
By David Gibson — May 22, 2016
NEW YORK (RNS) Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio seems to take aim at Donald Trump and his supporters, but he uses data more than Scripture to argue that deportations would hurt the U.S. economy.
Gardner C. Taylor, dean of black preachers, dies at 96
By Adelle M. Banks — April 6, 2015
(RNS) Michael Eric Dyson called Taylor's preaching style a blend of brilliant metaphors and an "uncanny sense of rhythmic timing put to dramatic but not crassly theatrical effect.''
Brooklyn hot-plate fire leads Orthodox Jews to re-evaluate Sabbath safety
By Michele Chabin — March 23, 2015
JERUSALEM (RNS) Many Jews acknowledged they leave home while their Sabbath candles are burning and their hot plates are on.
Bodies of 7 kids killed in NYC ‘hotplate’ fire arrive in Israel
By Jane Onyanga-Omara — March 23, 2015
(RNS) Fire officials believe the blaze was started by a malfunctioning hot plate being used to keep food warm during the 25-hour Sabbath, when religious restrictions forbid cooking.
A room of our own: artists making space and time to create in community
By Rachel Marie Stone — April 26, 2014
Creatives in New York City find a way to make art AND pay the bills -- and they're doing it together.
A Brooklyn museum has every biblical animal — but no money to stay open
By David Gibson — January 2, 2014
BROOKLYN, N.Y. (RNS) All of the specimens at Torah Animal World died of natural causes, swears Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch, and were not hunted in the wild: “Instead of turning them into a fur coat I use them for education.”
