Religion

Blighted Scientology Building Returned To Tax Rolls

by | Mar 8, 2024 2:28 pm | Comments (42)

Paul Bass Photos

No sign of "religious" activity: Assessor Pullen (left); portions of the blighted Scientology building.

Scientologists will have to pay taxes after sitting on plans to resurrect Ron Hubbard’s spirit inside the deteriorating doors of a former furniture store — now that the city revoked the church’s tax-exempt status.

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Barber's Loneliness RX: Start With Poverty

by | Mar 5, 2024 2:14 pm | Comments (5)

Thomas Breen Photo

Bishop Barber at NXTHVN: Poverty "preventable, avoidable, unnecessary."

How do you reconcile a moral crisis of loneliness with the economic toll of a stagnant minimum wage, and then reach a more perfect union?”

Bishop William J. Barber II charted that path in a Dixwell sermon Tuesday that touched on biblical scripture, the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., the good deeds of his grandmother, the precariousness of swing-state voter turnout, and the fatal cruelty of poverty.

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How Laurel Vlock Documented The Unthinkable

by | Feb 29, 2024 11:50 am | Comments (4)

The life and work of Laurel Fox Vlock (pictured), a TV journalist who founded New Haven’s Holocaust video archives, will take center stage at an event Sunday. Hosted by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven, the event — the second annual Judith Ann Schiff Women’s History Program — begins at the New Haven Museum (114 Whitney Ave.) at 2 p.m. Click here for more details. Read on to learn how Vlock’s work broke new ground and resonates more than ever today.

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Cancer Fighters Call On Faith

by | Feb 19, 2024 1:09 pm | Comments (1)

Allan Appel Photo

Steve Harvin with his friend Rev. John Cotten at Sunday's event.

The same God that protected Steve Harvin in combat in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993, as a soldier with the 75th Army Ranger Regiment, is continuing to protect — and heal — him in an ongoing battle with cancer.

Sunday evening Harvin raised his hand in praise, along with more than a dozen other cancer survivors in a moving, music and prayer-filled celebration inside a New Haven church billed as Faith Over Cancer.”

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Love March Sparks Civil Rights Revelation

by | Jan 15, 2024 3:24 pm | Comments (26)

Jamil Ragland Photo

At the MLK Love March Monday in the Goatville neighborhood.

As a practicing agnostic, I’ve often wondered why the Civil Rights Movement began in the church. Christianity has always seemed antithetical to Black liberation to me. After all, this is the white man’s religion, with a white Jesus foisted upon our people during the degradation of slavery. I’ve resented my people’s devotion to a God we wouldn’t even know if not for our conquest. 

This question was cycling through my mind when I stepped off with the members and supporters of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church for their 54th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Love March through the streets of East Rock, the state’s longest-running celebration of Dr. King’s life and achievements.

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At Inauguration, Imam & Rabbi Pray For Justice

by | Jan 1, 2024 5:46 pm | Comments (3)

Dereen Shirnekhi Photo

Pastor Valerie Washington, Imam Omer Bajwa, and Rabbi Eric Woodward after speaking at the inauguration.

Rabbi Eric Woodward and Imam Omer Bajwa didn’t compare notes before giving back-to-back invocations at Monday’s mayoral inauguration. They didn’t need to — they knew what to say. And they had similar messages to impart.

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Food Pantry To-Be Finds A Fresh Start

by | Dec 20, 2023 8:24 am | Comments (6)

Allan Appel photo

Mother Helen Carr (center) with Babatunde Akinjobi and Marcus Harvin.

Marcus Harvin is working on a fresh start: for the food in his home community of Newhallville, and for formerly incarcerated people like himself who are looking to improve their own lives and the lives of those around them.

Enter Newhallville Fresh Start: a food pantry he’s in the process of founding to provide healthy produce and, eventually, programming for neighbors in need.

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Jewish Leaders, Pols Denounce Menorah "Desecration"

by and | Dec 11, 2023 1:09 pm | Comments (20)

Thomas Breen / Jake Dressler photos

Rabbi Gershon Borenstein on Monday: "One act of positivity will far outpace ... what one negative act can do"; a protester on Saturday, climbing the menorah with a Palestinian flag.

Elected officials and faith leaders gathered at the spot where a protester climbed a public menorah and planted a Palestinian flag — and warned that such acts, if not called out, can escalate into violent antisemitic action.

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Menorah Lighting On The Green Ushers In First Night Of Hanukkah

by | Dec 8, 2023 1:56 pm | Comments (2)

Allan Appel photo

On Thursday just after the sun went down, the first night of Hanukkah, Eric Notkin decided to come to his first ever menorah lighting on the Green simply to show solidarity at a time of rising anti-Semitism — occasioned in no small part by the violent reverberations of the Israel-Hamas war. 

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Newhallville Church's Roof Repairs Celebrated

by | Nov 13, 2023 9:05 am | Comments (1)

Christopher Wigren, Stacy and Frankie Vairo, Jane Montanaro, Lady Shalene McClam, Pastor Darrell McClam, and Mother Helen Jean Carr on Sunday.

The congregants of Pitts Chapel United Free Will Baptist Church are not only raising their historic sanctuary’s roof in dancing, singing, and exuberant prayer as they do every Sunday — now they are also able to fix it.

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God & The Internet Meet At Albertus Magnus

by | Nov 6, 2023 8:42 am | Comments (0)

Allan Appel photo

Professor Schmidt with Edward Dunar, head of Albertus's Eckhart Center.

Ever have a long email exchange end in a sudden stoppage? You send a heartfelt one and there is no answer. Nothing. Nada. An empty slot on the screen. Well, maybe that feeling of sudden absence after an enveloping presence” of the Other might not be altogether unlike the way Adam and Eve felt when God cut off their account and expelled them from the Garden of Eden.

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Jewish Historical Society Honors Career Of Community Service

by | Oct 20, 2023 10:55 am | Comments (1)

Gary Drucker Photo

Robyn Teplitzky, MSW, Honoree of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven

This write-up was submitted by Jewish Historical Society President Michael Dimenstein.

Last Sunday, more than 200 members and friends of the Jewish community gathered to recognize Robyn Teplitzky’s four decades of leadership, advocacy, and service to a host of local organizations and agencies. Following an intense week that included violence in Israel and multiple bomb threats against Jewish institutions, the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven’s Annual Award Celebration provided an opportunity for the community to gather in solidarity and support, and perhaps for a temporary antidote to the pain and grief.

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Israel-Gaza War's Grief Spills Onto Church St.

by | Oct 9, 2023 6:48 pm | Comments (157)

Thomas Breen photos

Pro-Israel protester Shmully Hecht praying in the face of pro-Palestine protesters Chris Garaffa and Kevin Menescardi.

Police bring out the barricades to separate the two sides.

Lynn Rabinovici Park and Karen Rabinovici: "All we want to do is live, and live in peace;" Faisal Saleh: "I've seen a lot of bodies" in images and videos coming out of Gaza.

Half an hour into a tense and loud and flag-filled standoff between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protesters on the front steps of City Hall, city police brought in barricades to physically separate the two sides.

Those barriers successfully kept the peace — even as they kept apart Lynn Rabinovici Park and Karen Rabinovici, two sisters worried sick about the safety of their father’s relatives in Jerusalem, and Faisal Saleh, a Palestinian museum director worried sick about the safety of artists he works with across Gaza.

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Transience Meets Transcendence On Everit Street

by | Oct 6, 2023 4:13 pm | Comments (1)

Allan Appel Photo

Rabbi James Ponet in his sukkah on the last night of the holiday.

In these fragile times, it is possible to find celebration and even the joy of a little truth lurking in the midst of the most temporary and vulnerable circumstances.

So I was reminded Thursday night when I hung out in Rabbi James Ponet’s sukkah.

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Church Campers Travel Thru The Bible, & Into Outer Space

by | Aug 15, 2023 10:02 am | Comments (0)

Maya McFadden photo

Iglesia Cristiana Estrella Resplandeciente de Jacob camp-goers practice gravity testing science project.

A Fair Haven church preached to its community youth that when things get dark,” when people don’t get along,” when good things happen,” and when sad things happen,” they should always shine Jesus’ light.”

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Service & "Sacred Conversations" Fill The Green

by | Aug 7, 2023 1:57 pm | Comments (2)

Jerusalem Peace Builders students Malak Swidan, Tavor Hazani, Hafeed Khalaily

If you pack survival kits for the homeless, or hammer in some boards on an affordable house in-the-making, or set upright fallen tombstones in an old Jewish cemetery that needs some love, you’ll be powerfully transformed — and that act of peace-making might just change the world.

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Appeals Court Upholds Yeshiva Foreclosure

by | Jun 27, 2023 9:37 am | Comments (2)

Thomas Breen file photo

The Edgewood yeshiva at 765 Elm St.

Eliyahu Mirlis is one step closer to gaining control of the former yeshiva building at Elm and Norton Streets — now that a state court has rejected a foreclosure-case appeal pursued by a nonprofit controlled by the man convicted of raping him, imprisoned Rabbi Daniel Greer.

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“Altars of Reconciliation” Unites Faith and Culture

by | Jun 9, 2023 9:09 am | Comments (0)

Erin Shaw

Protect Us From Ruin.

Erin Shaw’s Protect Us From Ruin shows photographs of three shadowed women confined within wooden panels like church windows. Each panel is wrapped with colorful bands that both imprison and protect the figures. 

That dichotomy, between protection and captivity, represents the friction between Shaw’s identity as a member of the Chickasaw Nation and a Christian. As long as I can remember, I’ve had one foot in two worlds,” she explains in an accompanying statement. It’s been the work of my life to live in that tension as best I can, understand and reconcile it.”

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Opinion: Call It Out

by | Jun 1, 2023 12:14 pm | Comments (12)

Paul Bass file photo

Abdussabur with Beaver Hills neighbor Rivka Fenton in November 2020 acting in response to a string of attacks on Jews in Beaver Hills.

I applaud President Biden and Vice President Harris on making an important first step to addressing the crisis of growing antisemitism our nation is facing. As someone who has spent weekends patrolling to keep my friends and neighbors safe while they worshiped, I appreciate President Biden for saying what has been evident for years in America: this is a severe problem, and it’s getting worse.

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Ghost Of Bill Monroe Welcomes The Sabbath Queen

by | May 19, 2023 8:39 am | Comments (0)

Contributed Photo

David Sasso, at far left, recording the new album with Jacob's Ladder.

Hunkered at home with his Martin D28 guitar one Blursday evening during the lockdown depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, David Sasso heard familiar melodies come out a new way.

Fast forward to May 2023: Sasso returned home to debut a bluegrass take on a traditional Jewish prayer service, with an album of said music about to drop.

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