(RNS) Rabbi Rick Jacobs on Saturday (June 9) will be installed as president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the first change in leadership of the largest organization of American and Canadian Jews in 16 years. By Lauren Markoe.

JERUSALEM (RNS) While Passover cleaning has been around since the Israelites fled from bondage in Egypt, some say the lengths to which many modern Jewish families go to avoid the smallest piece of leavened material has turned the "festival of freedom" into a season of domestic slavery. By Michele Chabin.

(RNS) A plastic surgeon in Miami who's also an Orthodox Jew is in trouble after commissioning an Orthodox Jewish band to do a music video about rhinoplasty called "Jewcan Sam" which has gone viral on YouTube. By Lauren Markoe.

PARIS (RNS) As schools across France marked a moment of silence for the victims of a shooting outside a Jewish school that left four people dead, many ordinary French -- especially Jews and Muslims -- are grappling for answers. By Elizabeth Bryant. 725.

WASHINGTON (RNS) Turkey stands as a new and controversial addition to an annual list of the worst offenders of religious freedom released Tuesday (March 20) by the U.S. Commission on International Religious. By Lauren Markoe.

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Jewish community is trying to enlist the pope to intercede on behalf of Alan Gross, the Maryland Jewish man who has been in a Cuban jail for more than two years, on his upcoming trip to the island nation. By Lauren Markoe.

 (RNS) Jewish groups are up in arms about a Mormon's decision to baptize the parents of Holocaust survivor and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal. Which raises an interesting question: Why do Mormons baptize the dead? By Daniel Burke.

DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) Lauren Winner is a jumble of contradictions: A Jew who found Jesus and recently the priesthood, an accomplished historian who rides an oversized tricycle to work -- and a memoir writer who wants to keep some details of her private life private. By Yonat Shimron.

JERUSALEM (RNS) The U.S. State Department is advising visitors to Jerusalem to dress modestly when visiting certain neighborhoods in a bid to prevent provoking local religious Jews. By Michele Chabin.

(RNS) Lauren Markoe talks with Mormon writer Joanna Brooks about why she can't vote for Mitt Romney, why Americans are weirded out by Mormonism and how her interfaith marriage will affect the afterlife.