Sophie Hills

6 days ago | csmonitor.com | Sara Miller Llana |Whitney Eulich |Peter Ford |Sophie Hills

The selection of Robert Francis Prevost as the first American pope stunned Vatican watchers around the world. Many had long believed that an American would never be chosen to lead an institution with 1.4 billion followers because the United States already wields so much global power. Taking the name Pope Leo XIV, he stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as tens of thousands gathered below him.

2 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Jackie Valley |Henry Gass |Sophie Hills

The U.S. Supreme Court has taken several swings at the invisible wall separating church and state in public education. Two education cases being heard this month have the potential to either remove a few more bricks, or perhaps pull it down. The legal maneuvers underpinning the lawsuits give the courts an opportunity to profoundly change America’s public schooling system. And, in a twist, opponents of one case include people who favor both religious schooling and public charter schools.

2 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Sophie Hills

Antisemitism in the United States is surging to levels not seen in nearly half a century. A new report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) shows there was an average of 25 incidents per day over the last year – the highest since 1979, when the organization began tracking it. In the United States, about 2% of the population is Jewish, yet Jews are targeted in more than two-thirds of religious hate crimes.

2 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Sophie Hills

Antisemitism in the United States is surging to levels not seen in nearly half a century. A new report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) shows there was an average of 25 incidents per day over the last year – the highest since 1979, when the organization began tracking it. In the United States, about 2% of the population is Jewish, yet Jews are targeted in more than two-thirds of religious hate crimes.

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Sophie Hills

| Welcoming and sheltering people fleeing violence and persecution is a moral and spiritual imperative across faiths. The commandment to welcome the stranger – reminding Jews of their own experience as strangers – is repeated more than any other commandment in the Torah. “The mandate is really clear and it comes from a position of empathy,” says Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, the oldest Jewish refugee agency in the United States. But after decades of working with the government to resettle...