#interreligious understanding

[compassionmattersmost]

A Prayer for America

A Heartfelt Prayer for Our Nation: Embracing Unity and Compassion In this pivotal moment of transition, we are called to gather our hearts and minds, reflecting on our shared values as Americans. This prayer serves as a beacon of hope and a reminder of the strength we possess when we come together, transcending our differences. May the light of righteousness, loving-kindness, compassion, truth,…

[ryanthedemiboy]

I don't understand why it matters how you worship your god, as long as others believe in that particular god. I understand the history of christianity wrt this, but it still makes no sense to me.

Actually, it also doesn't make sense why you'd want to hurt people who believe in a different god than you, but that's not my current (perpetual) confusion.

[lapsed-bookworm]

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but I’ve run into some of these organizations as places to donate, and it's fine for my followers to share other lists that have gone around. (I'm not going to be offended.) This is version three with some organizations that include long-term goals of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation and peace in addition to the initial organizations offering emergency aid. Organizations are listed alphabetically.

Alliance for Middle East Peace

ALLMEP is a coalition of over 160 organizations—and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis—building cooperation, justice, equality, shared society, mutual understanding, and peace among their communities. We add stability in times of crisis, foster cooperation that increases impact, and build an environment conducive to peace over the long term. (Even if you're not really keen on supporting AllMEP itself, searching Member Organizations may also be a way to find organizations based on sectors - environment, women, youth, etc. - or type - Palestinian, Cross Border, or Shared Society.)

American Friends of Magen David Adom

The most common way I’ve seen recommendations for USAmericans to donate to Magen David Adom. (Additional Friends Societies are on Magen David Adom’s site for other countries.)

As a fully-fledged member of the International Red Cross / Red Crescent, Magen David Adom serves as the Israeli Red Cross organization.

Anera

Anera, which has no political or religious affiliation, works on the ground with partners in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza), Lebanon and Jordan. We mobilize resources for immediate emergency relief and for sustainable, long-term health, education, and economic development. Our staff serve in their communities, navigating the politics that constrict progress to get help where it’s needed most.

A Land For All

A Land for All is a shared movement of Israelis and Palestinians who believe that the way towards peace, security and stability for all passes through two independent states, Israel and Palestine, within a joint framework allowing both peoples to live together and apart.

Doctors Without Border/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

An independent organization “focused on delivering emergency medical humanitarian aid quickly, effectively, and impartially.” This link goes to the Palestinian Territories section.

Friends of Roots

We are a network of local Palestinians and Israelis [in the West Bank] who have come to see each other as the partners we both need to make changes to end our conflict. Based on a mutual recognition of each People's connection to the Land, we are developing understanding and solidarity despite our ideological differences. Ongoing Initiatives include interreligious exchange, a women's group, partnership lectures, a children's summer camp, youth group, after school program, incident response team, and community de-escalators.

Hand in Hand

Hand in Hand is building inclusion and equality between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel through a growing network of bilingual, integrated schools and communities. [...] The curricula in Hand in Hand’s schools are based on values that reflect both cultures and languages, oriented in multiculturalism and shared and equal citizenship. In our bilingual educational model, Hebrew and Arabic have equal status, as do both cultures and national narratives. Our thousands-strong adult community members come together year-round in celebration, solidarity, and dialogue. These community activities are geared towards parents, staff, and other active citizens who are interested in taking part in a shared community. We believe it is not apt to place the burden of creating a shared future on the shoulders of our children. We, the adults, must lead the way. These community activities are an inseparable part of our work towards building a shared society.

MAUSA - Muslim Aid USA

An international charity that provides assistance from natural disasters and conflict. They have a specific Palestine Emergency page.

Mrs Najah’s Kitchen

Emergency food relief in Gaza.

Off The Grid Missions

Off-The-Grid Missions (OTG) is a global humanitarian aid organization filling the gap in disaster-response by providing Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people with critical life-saving resources in high-risk and disaster-stricken regions around the world.

Depending on the mission, aid can include assistance with evacuations, providing food, solar lighting and emergency electric sources, and assisting with alternatives to sound based warning systems. (Assistance with Deaf and Hard-of-hearing individuals in Palestine and Israel has been mentioned on quickly updated social media sites, like Facebook.)

Palestine Red Crescent Society

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) is an officially recognized independent Palestinian National Society. It is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Standing Together

Standing Together is a grassroots movement mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, and social and climate justice. We organize protests across the country demanding economic equality, climate justice, and an end to the occupation. We hold workshops on grassroots power, organize get-out-the-vote campaigns, and run candidates for student union elections [related to university chapters]. Our alternative media outlet, Rosa Media, produces Hebrew and Arabic podcasts highlighting underrepresented political stories and perspectives from across Israeli society. We maintain a robust presence in Israeli social media – combatting extremist voices and advancing hope.

Women Wage Peace

Women Wage Peace is a broad, politically unaffiliated movement, which is acting to prevent the next war and to promote a non-violent, respectful, and mutually accepted solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the active participation of women through all stages of negotiations.

World Central Kitchen

World Central Kitchen is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.

They have response teams and partners in Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, and Egypt.

Charity Navigator page for additional organizations for the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Posted: 5 February 2024. (Link to Version 2.)

[magpie-trove]

Two rules are generally regarded nowadays as fundamental for interreligious dialogue:

1. Dialogue does not aim at conversion, but at understanding. In this respect it differs from evangelization, from mission;

2. Accordingly, both parties to the dialogue remain consciously within their identity, which the dialogue does not place in question either for themselves or for the other.

These rules are correct, but in the way they are formulated here I still find them too superficial. True, dialogue does not aim at conversion, but at better mutual understanding – that is correct. But all the same, the search for knowledge and understanding always has to involve drawing closer to the truth. Both sides in this piece-by-piece approach to truth are therefore on the path that leads forward and towards greater commonality, brought about by the oneness of the truth. As far as preserving identity is concerned, it would be too little for the Christian, so to speak, to assert his identity in a such a way that he effectively blocks the path to truth. Then his Christianity would appear as something arbitrary, merely propositional. He would seem not to reckon with the possibility that religion has to do with truth. On the contrary, I would say that the Christian can afford to be supremely confident, yes, fundamentally certain that he can venture freely into the open sea of the truth, without having to fear for his Christian identity. To be sure, we do not possess the truth, the truth possesses us: Christ, who is the truth, has taken us by the hand, and we know that his hand is holding us securely on the path of our quest for knowledge. Being inwardly held by the hand of Christ makes us free and keeps us safe: free – because if we are held by him, we can enter openly and fearlessly into any dialogue; safe – because he does not let go of us, unless we cut ourselves off from him. At one with him, we stand in the light of truth.

—Benedict XVI

[mariacallous]

When the American Jewish Committee began working with U.S. bishops years ago to educate Catholics about antisemitism, they didn’t anticipate a global spike in the hatred they were trying to combat.

Nor did they know that just weeks before they would ultimately publicize their work, Pope Francis would suggest that Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza.

But when Rabbi Noam Marans and Bishop Joseph Bambera came together last week to launch a glossary of antisemitic terms, annotated by Catholic commentary, that was the context. Marans described the glossary as a “milestone” ahead of the 60th anniversary of the church’s landmark declaration that Jews did not kill Jesus. And he noted that while relations between Catholics and Jews have massively improved from centuries past, they’re facing new stresses.

“It’s easy to lose perspective on an event like this, which was surely unimaginable to my grandparents in Bialystok, Poland,” Marans said at the launch event on Wednesday. “This has been a complete transformation in the relationship that has benefitted both communities.”

Referring to the Jewish blessing to mark significant occasions, he said, “It’s a shehechiyanu moment.”

Then he added, “And even shehechiyanu moments have flies in the ointment.”

In the document published last week, the AJC’s “Translate Hate” ongoing glossary — which has around 60 entries on antisemitic terms — has been appended with Catholic commentaries on 10 of those entries. The commentaries were written by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, which Bambera chairs.

The entries with commentary range from “Blood libel” to “From the river to the sea,” a common chant at pro-Palestinian rallies that the AJC and other Jewish groups say is a call for Israel’s annihilation.

For example, in the entry on “Blood libel,” the canard that Jews kill Christian children and use their blood for ritual purposes, the Catholic gloss notes that the church has long rejected the idea, but that it still pops up in some Catholic discourse.

“Today, this charge may disguise itself in less traditional forms that must also be disavowed, such as the idea that the Jewish people support abortion as a means of ritualistic child sacrifice, or that Jews are intent on spilling the blood of their enemies for its own sake,” it says.

The entry on “From the river to the sea” says the church endorses the two-state solution and “encourages Catholics to understand and respect the deep religious connection Jews feel towards Israel.”

And in the entry on “philosemitism,” the Catholic commentary notes that the church has advised against seders that appropriate Jewish tradition. “The best way for Christians to experience the Seder meal is to observe it by invitation from a Jewish family or organization that welcomes non-Jews to this central celebration of Jewish life,” the commentary says.

The guide comes at a time when, perhaps awkwardly, the topic of Catholic antisemitism could hardly be more topical.

The adherence of J.D. Vance, the U.S. vice president-elect, to a strain of traditional Catholicism has renewed attention to varieties of Catholic belief. (Vance has weighed in on church debates, saying, for example, that while he is “not a big Latin Mass guy,” he did not support the church’s recent effort to restrict the traditional liturgy that prays for Jews to convert to Christianity.) Both Marans and Bambera said antisemitism exists in the traditionalist wing of the church but portrayed it as a fringe attitude.

Meanwhile, a series of recent statements by Pope Francis has provided a case study in the way Catholic values and scriptural citations can grate on Jewish ears.

Last month, Francis cited experts saying “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” and called for the charge — which Israel strenuously rejects — to be “carefully investigated.” Then, this month, he attended the inauguration of a nativity scene at the Vatican that positioned baby Jesus on a keffiyeh, or Palestinian scarf — a nod to activists who have identified Jesus, a Jew born in Roman times, as a Palestinian. Both incidents drew outcry from Jewish groups, and the nativity scene has since been removed.

Earlier, in a letter to Middle Eastern Catholics on Oct. 7, the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack, Francis denounced “the spirit of evil that foments war,” and quoted a passage from the Gospel of John to call it “murderous from the beginning” and “a liar and the father of lies.” The quote raised eyebrows because, in the New Testament, it is spoken by Jesus to a group of Jews, whom he calls children of the devil.

The word choice drew criticism from Philip Cunningham, a theology professor specializing in Jewish-Catholic relations at St. Joseph’s University.

“It is perilous to cite polemical words out of context, particularly words that have consistently sparked enmity toward Jews for centuries,” he wrote in America, a Jesuit magazine. “There is also something peculiarly surreal about this in a letter dated Oct. 7.”

A considerable portion of Wednesday’s event was taken up with Marans and Bambera discussing — and not quite seeing eye to eye — about Francis’ recent comments. (The pope has also issued statements condemning antisemitism, including during the current Gaza war.) Marans, AJC’s director of interreligious affairs, said in an interview that Francis has demonstrated his opposition to antisemitism — but added that his conduct has precipitated a “crisis” borne of “a lack of proper attention to Catholic-Jewish relations.” The genocide accusation, Marans said, was the most problematic.

“Whimsical use of the word ‘genocide’ against the Jewish people is dangerous because it characterizes the only Jewish state in a way that is grist for the mill of Jew-haters — which Pope Francis is absolutely, unequivocally not,” Marans said. “How does one rationalize those disappointments in speech and action with that overwhelming commitment to opposing antisemitism?”

For Bambera, the pope’s statements are simply expressions of the Catholic emphasis on the value of peace and human life. Francis’ statements stem from his concern for “the dignity of the human person,” the bishop said, including both Palestinians and Israelis.

“When he reflects upon the suffering of people who are victimized by terrorism and war, whether it be the Jewish people or countless others around the world, he will always speak of the value of human life and the need to preserve and protect it,” Bambera said at the event. He also reiterated Francis’ opposition to antisemitism.

But while Bambera and Marans read Francis’ words differently, they agreed on the path forward: more dialogue.

“I absolutely understand and appreciate the reaction of the Jewish community, the concern, perhaps the hurt, perhaps a worry about what this says about our relationship,” Bambera said in an interview. “One of the most significant things about the relationship that we have established, and that quite frankly Pope Francis supports and encourages, is the fact that we Jews and Catholics alike can talk candidly about this.”

The AJC has promoted Catholic-Jewish dialogue for more than half a century. It was active in shaping the 1965 church declaration that rejected antisemitism and said the Jews did not kill Jesus, called “Nostra Aetate” and adopted as part of Vatican II. The group consulted on the document, bringing on Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel as an adviser.

Marans said the relationship has only improved since then. He added that — even in light of the pope’s statements on Israel — Catholic attitudes toward Israel are in a better place than those of some liberal Protestant denominations that have weighed divestment from Israel.

“It is a different universe on the Catholic side because there is such commitment to Catholic-Jewish relations,” he said. “It is a given of the Catholic Church today that it is supportive of Catholic-Jewish relations wholeheartedly.”

The AJC touted plans to translate the Catholic edition of its glossary into more languages, including Spanish and Polish, and hopes to use it as a model both for Protestant denominations and other religions. Holly Huffnagle, the AJC’s U.S. director for combating antisemitism, said the group’s core goal is to teach people what antisemitism is and how to recognize it.

“People are more likely to listen to those they know, those they trust,” she said. “If you are Catholic, you’re more likely to listen to your priest than a Jewish leader.”

Working with interfaith partners, she said, has become especially important as those ties have frayed recently, in a moment where protest of Israel’s actions, and antisemitism, have been on the rise.

“The Christian space is a natural partnership,” she said. “What does it look like to go to other faiths and figure out how to do this project jointly? We have to take a step back in this moment, as we’ve seen real relationships decline.”

Both Bambera and Marans said the key to success in this project would be Catholic leadership using the glossary and imparting its message to the rank-and-file. Bambera said the archbishop of a major American archdiocese asked if he could distribute it to his clergy — which he took as a good sign.

He added that he hopes to have “more conversations about hard questions” between Catholics and Jews.

“Those hard questions shouldn’t stop the dialogue,” he said. “They should be able to grow because the dialogue is rooted in mutual respect and understanding.”

[becauseallhellseeisme]

Italian cardinal, missionary in Mongolia, known for his work in a context of first evangelization and pastoral approach adapted to local cultures.

Cardinal Marengo demonstrates a strong commitment to social justice, particularly in serving the poor and marginalized. He has actively engaged in issues related to poverty, social inclusion, and interfaith collaboration, aligning with progressive sociopolitical engagement.

With extensive pastoral experience, Cardinal Marengo has emphasized the importance of interreligious dialogue, particularly in promoting peace and mutual understanding among different faith traditions.

Known for his effective communication and pastoral sensitivity, Cardinal Marengo emphasizes the need for the Church to engage with modern culture and technology. He advocates for a Church that listens and speaks in ways that resonate with contemporary society.

Check him out on Conclavoscope.com.

[givemearmstopraywith]

As a lover of god, I’m curious. what are your thoughts on Satanists? 👀

they're cool! i am not a huge fan of anton lavey. this isn't true, i actively really dislike him the same way i dislike, for instance, martin luther, on both personal and "theological" levels, although laveyan satanism isn't theistic so i'm not sure you can call it a unified theology. in terms of lavey as the originator of satanism, i think his thought was unsound and more sensationalistic than genuine, more out of a desire to rile people and poke fun at major religions than any particular sense of moral or ethical reasoning. i see this in his exploitation of his daughter in particular. i empathize with zeena lavey, i feel for her, and have always been interested in the paralells between her relationship with her father and that between aleister crowley and his daughter lola.

i like that satanism acts as a foil to religion by calling attention to its hypocrisy and the overprivileging of christianity, especially evangelicalism/christian nationalism, over other faith practices. but i have the same criticism of satanism that i do of martin luther and christianity. if your ideology can be coopted by nazis, its bad ideology. of course this is a very generalized assessment since almost anything can be coopted by white supremacists and nazis for their own ends, but lavey was lenient on white supremacists who found empowerment in satansim, and i never liked that much. i mean, he did admit that satanism was just ayn rand philosophy with ceremony and ritual, so im not surprised.

i have less of a unified thought on theistic satanism because of how splintered it is- i don't really believe in the christian notion of satanism, or any particular notion of satan in general. i don't know enough about it to have any useful comments to make. i've met lots of satanists i like (one of my closest friends was a satanist when we met), and in terms of politics i think the satanic panic of the 80s never died and was a concerted effort to disguise much worse abuses within christian institutions and family units by playing off religious anxieties.

there is little comprehensive philosophical or theological thinking on satanism, but as much as i can venture it in a tumblr post all belief, in anything, even only the self, is still ultimately a belief in the same thing i believe in. the way i understand God he is as present in his absence as in his evidence: so in my mind, as long as we are all working towards ultimate good (even personal good) rather than purely self-service without due interest in goodness that transcends what is dictated by authority to be "good" in an attempt to be absolutely good, which i think many satanists ultimately do, we all believe the same intrinsic thing. God is matter, thinginess: the fact that God is matter sanctifies the world as part of him. but i also see God as absence. God's absence is also holy: what many christians might call profane is then also holy. if i love God, i love his absence too. satanism seems to me, an intentional manifestation of that absence: religion without God, or a very christian-style theism without the trinitarian godhead, and frankly both are a valid undertaking that i genuinely think should be considered as potentially fruitful by people in my own field (christianity desperately needs to get humble in how it deals with comparative theologies and interreligious dialogue).

[dvar-trek]

Once again asking you to donate to Roots / جذور/ שורשים, an organization dedicated to "fostering a grassroots movement of understanding, nonviolence, and transformation among Israelis and Palestinians".

They do truly incredible work. A couple of things they've been working on since October:

Helping stop settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank/the occupied territories/Judea and Samaria.

Providing money and supplies to Israeli families displaced from the north

Providing food and money to Palestinian families in the West Bank/the occupied territories/Judea and Samaria whose movement has been restricted

Supporting Israeli families displaced from the Gaza border

Sending aid to Palestinian families in Gaza

For as long as the war continues, movement is restricted, and the trauma is this fresh, they are unable to run many of their usual programs (after-school programs, youth groups, interreligious exchange groups).

But they are continuing to run peace-building discussions online and abroad (two of their activists are on a US tour currently) that are. transformative. To anyone who is interested in building a lasting peace in Israel and Palestine, I highly recommend watching recordings. Every one that I have watched has been thought-provoking, difficult, and enlightening; the speakers said so much that I disagreed with, agreed with, found hard to hear, and found inspiring. If you have a basic understanding of the conflict and are willing to listen to the people living through it, almost no matter your stance, you will be challenged.

جذور/Roots/שורשים is also remarkable for being the only peace-building organization (that they know of) that actually works with right-wing settlers, engages them in dialogue, and works to transform their understanding of the conflict and the lives of their Palestinian neighbors.

If we are ever going to have real, lasting peace, I truly believe it will be through the work of activists at جذور/שורשים/Roots and their partner organizations.

[the-hem]

Middle East Unity and Integration Framework (MEUIF)

A Peace-Centered Path to Stability and Prosperity

I. Vision Statement

A unified and inclusive Middle East built on mutual respect, economic cooperation, and regional independence—with Israel recognized as a single, sovereign state that guarantees full civil and political rights to all its citizens, including Arabs and Palestinians.

II. Guiding Principles

Sovereignty and Inclusivity

Israel exists as one unified state from the river to the sea, with equal legal and civil rights for Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and secular populations.

No separate state for Palestinians—rather, full citizenship, representation, and integration within Israel’s constitutional framework.

Human Rights and Democratic Structure

Israel will enshrine protections for all ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups under a renewed constitutional charter guaranteeing equality before the law.

Autonomous cultural and municipal councils allow communities to preserve traditions while participating in a national democratic system.

Regional Stability Through Integration

The broader Middle East will be encouraged to form cooperative regional institutions around Israel’s stability as a model.

Legacy grievances will be addressed through reconciliation forums, reparative economic programs, and transitional justice initiatives.

Regional Independence from Foreign Influence

The Middle East must be governed by its people—not by distant powers. The gradual removal of the U.S. as a political enforcer opens space for sovereign diplomacy and genuine reconciliation.

III. Political and Legal Foundations

Unified Israeli State Structure

Parliament includes proportional representation for all ethnicities and faiths.

Shared police forces, integrated education systems, and equal access to national healthcare, infrastructure, and defense.

Permanent End to Statelessness

All residents, including Arabs currently identified as Palestinians, will receive full Israeli citizenship, voting rights, and national protections.

International refugee status phased out through integration, housing initiatives, and employment programs.

Middle East Council for Cooperation (MECC)

A regional diplomatic body where Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Turkey, UAE, and Iraq collaborate on security, trade, and climate.

Encourages regional defense pacts and shared development ventures.

IV. Economic Integration and Prosperity

Levant-Gulf Economic Corridor

Connect Israel’s high-tech economy to Arab oil wealth and industrial capacity via integrated energy, logistics, and research zones.

Middle East Infrastructure Fund

Joint investment in renewable energy, green cities, desalinization, digital economies, and AI innovation hubs.

Workforce and Education Exchange

Cross-border university accreditation.

Interlinked job markets and training pipelines with labor mobility agreements.

V. Cultural Integration and Reconciliation

Truth and Reconciliation Process

Independent commission to review historical injustices, issue findings, and recommend symbolic and material reparations.

Memorials, national holidays, and education reforms that reflect a multi-narrative understanding of regional history.

Shared Heritage Programs

Preservation and access to sacred sites for all faiths, overseen by an interreligious council.

Pilgrimage zones with free movement and shared cultural festivals.

VI. Transitioning Beyond U.S. Oversight

Five-Year Strategic Drawdown

U.S. military influence ends in phased steps. Local peacekeeping responsibilities shift to a new neutral bloc led by regional powers.

American diplomacy replaced by Middle Eastern capital-based leadership (Riyadh, Jerusalem, Cairo, Tehran).

Post-American Policy Sovereignty

Regional affairs are determined by Middle Eastern governments through consensus—not Western mandates.

Conclusion

A peaceful, sovereign, and inclusive Israeli state can serve as the anchor for a new Middle East—unified not by fear or borders, but by opportunity, cooperation, and mutual prosperity. The path forward requires courage, but history proves that unity built on justice is not only possible—it’s inevitable.

[whywhywhymoney]

Probably super controversial but I kinda don't think the whole "Bruce Wayne is canonically Jewish" thing makes sense.... like at all....

The Wayne and Kane families are consistently built up as these old school, Mayflower era families who have immense generational wealth, which ya know, also tracks with their surnames as both are very Scottish and Irish.

I'll always understand why people want more representation. But to me this retroactive application only works when it's been built off of allegories or allusions in the text, or if it can be read as a sort of natural culmination. Like, Clark being retroactively recognised as Jewish? That can make a LOT more sense especially considering his origins.

With Bruce however, I think the whole thing falls really flat. Because this is a character we can all recognise as something representative of real life old money families! Who made their fortunes as soon as the set foot in America - probably in unscrupulous ways - and I think a point of Bruce's character is to sort of be that anachronism, and also a sort of atoner for that whole way of life.

Upper class old money like him still exist today and are still incredibly powerful but they're not nearly as visible as they were 50,60 years ago. They're an incredibly privileged lot and they close ranks on everything, especially relationships.

I think we can lose something by having characters like these not face up to the privilege of being white, male, old money rich and nominally Christian (99% Protestant tbh). It feels important especially now to have that as a crux of Bruce's character, especially when so many of his fans can be pretty..... incel'ish. Like, what comics SHOULD be doing is having Bruce own up to all of this, and own it, and recognise the privilege for what it is, and other characters from different backgrounds should be allowed to be able to contrast that.

I know, I know, you're gonna tell me Kate Kane is Jewish, and again, I have nothing against that, because to me, I can easily imagine Martha's mother being Jewish, what with it being the 30s or 40s, the Kane family are probably a lot more open to interreligious marriages than they would have been in the previous centuries.

I can also just as easily imagine that the various Kane children would probably take after one side or the other more, and with everything you can piece together of Martha (her family, or Jacob at least, never seemed to approve of her marriage to Thomas, her closeness to her father) it seems a lot more likely that she probably was more culturally Christian than Jewish, and obviously the opposite is true for Jacob

At the end of the day, none of this stops Bruce from being part Jewish ethnically, but i think its actually important for a character like him to be an accurate portrayal of the types of people he was meant to reflect in the first place, as ultimately, that demographic still holds a huge amount of power.

[thewordenreport]

Interreligious Learning

A way forward for humanity to understand the phenomenon of religion better in a troubled world: https://thewordenreport-religion.blogspot.com/2025/03/interreligious-learning-methodological.html

[michaelcosio]

Eternity

Orbital Operations for 19 January 2025

Warren Ellis January 19, 2025 

Hello from out here on the Thames Delta. Let me tell you about a book I read this month.

In this letter:

WAR FOR ETERNITY

The News

Elsewhere in the Republic Of Newsletters

LTD

ORBITAL

WAR FOR ETERNITY

So, I did a short note about this book on LTD, but I decided I wanted to talk about it more, and I think it might be extremely Your Shit.

Teitelbaum is an ethnomusicologist by trade. He got interested in the intersection of music and far-right nationalism. Which makes more sense if you’re European and you lived through Oi and turbofolk and national socialist black metal and knew people who dyed their hair blonde and started giving nazi salutes while chanting TWO FOUR TWO in the Eighties. Anyway, the deeper he got into that whole mess, the more weird stuff he found floating around at the bottom. Like Traditionalism.

It has a capital T because it’s the name of a thing you can kindly call a “philosophy.” It’s a hundred years old and has a relative handful of adherents. Basically a secret society. So, right away. I’m hooked, right? Anyone who knows me or my work knows I have a real weakness for this stuff.

Traditionalism borrows from everywhere: it espouses a strict hierarchical caste society, a world of thousands of culturally different states rather than two hundred countries and federalised entities, lots of racist shit, and then it starts to get really peculiar:

"Guénon and his followers believed there once was a religion—the Tradition, the core, or the perennial Tradition—that has been lost, its values and concepts surviving today only in fragments across different faith practices. Like the occurrence of a similar physical trait in separate species, commonalities among different belief systems testify to a common ancestor—namely, the original core religion. And for many Traditionalists, interreligious agreement is most apparent among the so-called Indo-European religions, notably Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and the pre-Christian pagan religions of Europe."

I mean, we’re getting into fantasy territory here, right?

"…Evola’s understanding of history: he believed that Aryans were descended from a patriarchal society of ethereal, ghostly beings who lived in the Arctic and whose virtue declined as they migrated south and became incarnate."

And it pinches the Yugas from Hinduism: the notion that we live through four world ages that cycle. Traditionalists hold that we live in the worst and most debased one currently, the Kali Yuga. In the Kali Yuga, any act committed that damages society and structure is de facto a virtuous act, because everything is awful and must be destroyed in order to push us around the circle into the first and nicest Yuga.

"Guénon describes one of the signatures of the Kali Yuga as the complete upending of value systems. He described this feature of modernity as “inversion,” and becoming privy to it encourages one to distrust modern officialdom. Everything you think is good is bad. Every change you consider progress is actually regression. Every apparent instance of justice is actually oppression."

Therefore, for certain people, trying to dismantle the US government was an act of sacred devotion intended to help bring about a better world from inside Bizarro World.

I got this book because I wanted to learn more about Aleksandr Dugin, the philosopher and author who has been considered Putin’s ideological advisor - including by Ukraine, who tried to kill him and got his daughter instead. Here, I learned a thing. He once took what was essentially a youth army into South Ossetia to stir some shit, the Eurasian Youth Union, and:

…”the Eurasianists represented themselves with a mysterious icon: a symbol with eight arrows pointing out from a central core.”

This symbol shows up on Dugin’s books, and on books by related figures:

That symbol is known as the Symbol of Chaos or the chaosphere. And it’s generally held to have been invented by Michael Moorcock in the 1960s, in the Elric books.

"I drew it on a piece of paper on the kitchen table while thinking over the first Elric stories! Since then people seem to have claimed an ancient ancestry for it just as Deep Purple claimed that Stormbringer was an ancient myth when someone asked them why they'd called their album by that name. …I drew the eight-arrows first and then I had the single arrow of law later, as I recall. The first person to put the symbol on the shield was Jim Cawthorn, whose early sketches of Elric were superb. The arrows, of course, represent diversity. The single arrow represents the kind of mind who believes there is only one version of the truth.

- Michael Moorcock

It was later borrowed as a useful sign by the chaos magicians. Its design has been played with over the decades. The most famous practitioner of chaos magic in comics is of course Grant Morrison, and here’s a bit from the KID ETERNITY book he did with Duncan Fegredo.

And, um:

So, in Traditionalist circles, this symbol, taken from fantasy books and coopted by magicians, now means “thousands of tribes in a strict caste system.” The codeword, which you see alongside the symbol a lot, is “multipolarity.”

Anyway, I’m reading around the edges of this general topic when I come across a new word: archaeofuturism. (1) Using the values of an archaic and ancestral past to plan for a new future following the (expected by archaeofuturists) catastrophes of the early 21st Century. These expected catastrophes appear to largely circle around replacement theory and anyone in the Global South being, you know, alive. They consider it “a concept of order,” and it therefore seems to share a lot of DNA with Traditionalism.

Archaeofuturism! This is all nuts, right?

Dugin, who appears to have had the ear of Putin for many years, is a Traditionalist. Steve Bannon, who had Trump’s ear, is a Traditionalist. Olavo de Carvalho, a Brazilian philosopher and pundit who had the ear of Brasilan far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, was a Traditionalist. And Dugin, Bannon and Olavo all knew each other. They had differences, but they were all pointing in roughly the same direction, and they all had some level of influence on the leaders of three of the biggest countries on Earth. At the same time.

Please allow me to share one last piece of batshittery from my extensive collection of extracts from this book, regarding foundational Traditionalist Guenon:

"René Guénon had in lesser-known texts written about centers of satanic influence—of “counter initiation” that could pull souls away from the Tradition. These are the Seven Towers of the Devil, and none can be found in the West. As Olavo explained with apparent delight: “there is one in Sudan, one in Nigeria, one in Syria, one in Iraq, one in Turkestan (inside the former USSR), and—surprise!—there are two in the Urals, well within Russian territory.”

Olavo left out that in later years of his life, Guénon suspected that there was an additional center of evil located in California…

…if one draws a line between these seven centers on a map, you see the outline of Ursa Major, or the Great Bear constellation. A bear—not only a sign of Russia but also a historic symbol for the warrior caste."

Dugin is presumably out of play since the loss of his daughter. Bannon is now just shouting from the sidelines via his online commentary operation. Olavo, a COVID denier who once helped spread the hoax that Pepsi is sweetened with the cells of aborted foetuses, is dead. (Of COVID.)

People who believed in all this got this close to power at the same time. That whole Trump 1/Putin/Bolsonaro moment was even weirder than we thought it was. There was absolutely a whole weird pulp fiction “secret cult takes over” thread running through it all. I recommend this book immensely. It’s a really easy read, clear and light, it rips along like a thriller and it’s remarkably level-headed and empathetic to boot.

WAR FOR ETERNITY (UK) (US)

1 Archaeofuturism

Right. I have to stop rabbiting on about books and get down to cracking my workload and trying to get bills paid. Look after yourself.

W

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[timetruth-voiceoffreedom]

Who is Alexander Dvorkin? Dr. Evil | The Greatest Genius

Who is Alexander Dvorkin? Dr. Evil | The Greatest Genius

Shocking facts about the man who brought the whole world to its knees! ALLATRA volunteer reveals staggering data! Have an epiphany!

So,

Who is Alexander Dvorkin? Those who watched my previous videos are certainly familiar with general information about him. For first-time viewers, I’ll give a brief overview. At first glance, Alexander Leonidovich Dvorkin is an ordinary religious scholar, historian, and Orthodox anticultist who in the early 1990s introduced the term "totalitarian sect" into public discourse. He used it to stigmatize all organizations deemed unfavorable to the Orthodox Christian Church, effectively creating a new matrix of religious thought across post-Soviet countries.

Before the 1990s, Dvorkin spent 15 years living in the USA. Upon his return, he opened the Center for Religious Studies in the name of Hieromartyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, which essentially became a center for producing defamatory narratives and provoking interreligious conflicts. He encouraged the establishment of similar anticult centers across Russia and other former Soviet states and later united them under RACIRS (the Russian Association of Centers for the Study of Religions and Sects) — sort of a platform for systematic activities on destabilizing the religious landscapes in those countries.

Who is Alexander Dvorkin? Dr. Evil | The Greatest Genius

Dvorkin actively works with organizations representing the anticult movement in Europe, China, and America. Many facts provide grounds to assert that he covertly coordinates this international anticult field of activity, promoting destructive narratives through his numerous connections.

The network controlled by Dvorkin, which includes the so-called "anticult experts" and journalists who support their narratives, is essentially a group of individuals who, under the guise of protecting society from cults, engage in systematic suppression of dissent, incitement of hatred, and destabilization of countries from within. Their tools include public rhetoric filled with subtle manipulations in the information space and a specific methodology rooted in the Nazi methods of suppressing unwanted groups, which Dvorkin has thoroughly mastered. We will revisit this topic a little bit later.

Who is Alexander Dvorkin? Dr. Evil | The Greatest Genius

As part of his carefully crafted methodology, Dvorkin publishes books and appears as an expert in various media — in newspapers, on radio, TV channels, and internet blogs, travels nationwide to deliver lectures, and arranges conferences. In other words, he employs a broad range of tools to craft and promote his agenda about the necessity of a harsh fight against dissenting, unfavorable, and foreign individuals and groups.

The description of Dvorkin I’ve just given is more or less a classic example of how those who view his work from a relatively unbiased perspective characterize his outward activities.

However, behind Dvorkin’s seemingly routine public activities, albeit unusually intense for an ordinary person, there is a far more complex mechanism of influence, a much broader scope of his personality and genius, and objectives of a significantly larger scale. It is precisely the phenomenon of his dark genius that we aim to analyze today — a genius that has caused suffering to millions of people over the 30 years of his active endeavors and can result in tremendously tragic consequences.

Who is Alexander Dvorkin? Dr. Evil | The Greatest Genius

It is crucial to understand the magnitude of Dvorkin’s continuous influence on Russia's current geopolitical strategy and the ideological vector of the Russian Orthodox Church.

So, let’s examine how Dvorkin, a single man, has managed to transform the Russian Orthodox Church — an institution established on love and compassion — into a tool of utmost confrontation.

What methods did he use to ruin the core Christian principles of tolerance by replacing them with rhetoric of perpetual war and supremacy?

How is he systematically and deliberately reshaping ROC from a realm of spiritual unity into a battleground of incessant conflict, where aggressive narratives and an enemy cult take precedence over Gospel commandments? And how, through a network of expert assessments, public appearances, and psychological manipulations, has he managed to craft a religious system model where "friends" should perpetually be ready to fight against “foes,” effectively turning Russian Orthodoxy from a spiritual practice into a geopolitical weapon?

More about Alexander Dvorkin in the video: Dr. Evil | The Greatest Genius on canal Voice of freedom

[lapsed-bookworm]

This isn't an exhaustive list, but I've run into some of these organizations as places to donate, and it's fine for my followers to share other lists that have gone around. (I'm not going to be offended.) This is version four and includes a mix of emergency aid, organizations that include long-term goals of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation and peace, and organizations that foster a shared Arab-Israeli society within Israel. Organizations are listed alphabetically.

Alliance for Middle East Peace

ALLMEP is a coalition of over 160 organizations—and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis—building cooperation, justice, equality, shared society, mutual understanding, and peace among their communities. We add stability in times of crisis, foster cooperation that increases impact, and build an environment conducive to peace over the long term. (Even if you're not really keen on supporting AllMEP itself, searching Member Organizations may also be a way to find organizations based on sectors - environment, women, youth, etc. - or type - Palestinian, Cross Border, or Shared Society.)

American Friends of Magen David Adom

The most common way I’ve seen recommendations for USAmericans to donate to Magen David Adom. (Additional Friends Societies are on Magen David Adom’s site for other countries.)

As a fully-fledged member of the International Red Cross / Red Crescent, Magen David Adom serves as the Israeli Red Cross organization.

Anera

Anera, which has no political or religious affiliation, works on the ground with partners in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza), Lebanon and Jordan. We mobilize resources for immediate emergency relief and for sustainable, long-term health, education, and economic development. Our staff serve in their communities, navigating the politics that constrict progress to get help where it’s needed most.

A Land For All

A Land for All is a shared movement of Israelis and Palestinians who believe that the way towards peace, security and stability for all passes through two independent states, Israel and Palestine, within a joint framework allowing both peoples to live together and apart.

Doctors Without Border/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

An independent organization “focused on delivering emergency medical humanitarian aid quickly, effectively, and impartially.” This link goes to the Palestinian Territories section.

Friends of Roots

We are a network of local Palestinians and Israelis [in the West Bank] who have come to see each other as the partners we both need to make changes to end our conflict. Based on a mutual recognition of each People's connection to the Land, we are developing understanding and solidarity despite our ideological differences. Ongoing Initiatives include interreligious exchange, a women's group, partnership lectures, a children's summer camp, youth group, after school program, incident response team, and community de-escalators.

Hand in Hand

Hand in Hand is building inclusion and equality between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel through a growing network of bilingual, integrated schools and communities. [...] The curricula in Hand in Hand’s schools are based on values that reflect both cultures and languages, oriented in multiculturalism and shared and equal citizenship. In our bilingual educational model, Hebrew and Arabic have equal status, as do both cultures and national narratives. Our thousands-strong adult community members come together year-round in celebration, solidarity, and dialogue. These community activities are geared towards parents, staff, and other active citizens who are interested in taking part in a shared community. We believe it is not apt to place the burden of creating a shared future on the shoulders of our children. We, the adults, must lead the way. These community activities are an inseparable part of our work towards building a shared society.

MAUSA - Muslim Aid USA

An international charity that provides assistance from natural disasters and conflict. They have a specific Palestine Emergency page.

Mrs Najah’s Kitchen

Emergency food relief in Gaza.

Off The Grid Missions

Off-The-Grid Missions (OTG) is a global humanitarian aid organization filling the gap in disaster-response by providing Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people with critical life-saving resources in high-risk and disaster-stricken regions around the world.

Depending on the mission, aid can include assistance with evacuations, providing food, solar lighting and emergency electric sources, and assisting with alternatives to sound based warning systems. (Assistance with Deaf and Hard-of-hearing individuals in Palestine and Israel has been mentioned on quickly updated social media sites, like Facebook, and in the 2024 Year in Review. I'm not aware of being able to specifically earmark a donation for one location.)

Parents Circle – Families Forum

The Parents Circle – Families Forum (PCFF) is a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization of families who have lost an immediate family member to the ongoing conflict. The PCFF has concluded that the process of reconciliation between nations is a prerequisite to achieving a sustainable peace, and the organization utilizes all resources available in education, public meetings and the media to spread these ideas. Events are held to promote dialogue, tolerance, reconciliation, and peace.

Palestine Red Crescent Society

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) is an officially recognized independent Palestinian National Society. It is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Peace Now

Under the mission of arriving at peace agreements between Israel and its neighbors, Peace Now currently works to ensure Israelis embrace the only viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: two states, meaning the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Peace Now’s activities include demonstrations, calls for action, lectures, debates, tours, public campaigns, and more.

See also: American Friends of Peace Now, whose mission is to educate and persuade the American public and its leadership to support and adopt policies that will lead to comprehensive, durable, Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peace based on a two-state solution.

Project Rozana

Project Rozana (Rozana) is an international organization promoting access to quality healthcare through joint initiatives between communities in conflict. Rozana currently operates in Israel and Palestine, addressing healthcare gaps and building relationships between healthcare actors.

Realign For Palestine

The Realign For Palestine project at the Atlantic Council is led by Gazan-American Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib. Launched in February 2025, the project is committed to challenging violent extremism, divisive narratives, and hatred by elevating common-sense approaches through policy and action. The project believes in promoting nonviolence and the two-nation solution as the only credible, humane path forward for peace between the Palestinian and Israeli people. The Atlantic Council is a nonpartisan organization that galvanizes US leadership and engagement in the world, in partnership with allies and partners, to shape solutions to global challenges.

Road to Recovery

The Road to Recovery is an Israeli Association of volunteers who drive Palestinian patients - primarily children - from checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza for life-saving treatments in Israeli hospitals. The Association also helps with the purchase of medical equipment in special cases and organizes vacations and special 'Fun-Day' outings for patients and their families.

Women Wage Peace

Women Wage Peace is a broad, politically unaffiliated movement, which is acting to prevent the next war and to promote a non-violent, respectful, and mutually accepted solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the active participation of women through all stages of negotiations.

World Central Kitchen

World Central Kitchen is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.

They have response teams and partners in Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, and Egypt.

-

Also:

Charity Navigator page for additional organizations for the Israel-Hamas conflict.

~jewish-microwave-laser has a list of Druze aimed funds and organizations after the Majdal Shams deaths.

~spanishsongs has a list of Arab and Muslim organizations combating antisemitism.

Posted: 17 March 2025. (Link to Version 3.)

The Palestine Children's Relief Fund was removed from V2 to V3 due to concerns that donations will not actually reach the intended group for aid. NGO Monitor has sources for PCRF money seeming to just go to Hezbollah and Hamas here.

Standing Together was removed from V3 to V4. I don't feel confident in a full-throated recommendation after community concerns [especially in the replies on the second linked post] about a co-director supporting the Axis of Resistance and the organization seeming to prioritize the image of peace over effective action (such as aid convoys not following protocol so the aid could be allowed into Gaza).

[demerarawaves]

Guyana Interreligious Harmony Initiative fosters Interfaith understanding and cooperation in East Berbice

The Guyana Interreligious Harmony Initiative (GIHI) on Monday said it successfully concluded a series of events designed to promote interfaith dialogue, understanding, and cooperation among religious leaders and youths in East Berbice. The initiative, implemented by the Guyana Center for Civic Engagement in partnership with the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha, and sponsored by the King Abdullah bin…

[mariacallous]

In mid-October, the authorities in Russia’s Vladimir region issued a ban against clothing that “demonstrates a student’s religious affiliation,” including hijabs and niqabs, in schools. Within days, religious and political figures in Chechnya and other regions in the North Caucasus began protesting the policy, demanding it be revoked. Russian propagandists and pro-war bloggers, meanwhile, sided with the Vladimir authorities and defended the ban. Meduza shares a timeline of how the controversy has unfolded.

October 22, 2024

↓

The Vladimir region’s Education and Youth Policy Ministry issues a decree stating that “the wearing of clothing and elements demonstrating a student’s religious affiliation (including hijabs, niqabs, etc.) is not permitted.”

October 25–26

↓

The decree officially takes effect on October 25. The media gets wind of the new policy on October 26. That same day, the regional ministry writes on social media that, according to the Russian Constitution, Russia is a secular country in which “the church is separate from the state, including in the realm of secular education,” and adds that its new ban “ensures religious neutrality” in schools.

October 28

↓

The Coordination Center of Muslims of the North Caucasus issues a statement saying that hijabs are “not just religious clothing or religious articles but daily traditional clothing for Muslim women, a symbol of their honor and dignity.” It accuses authorities in the Vladimir region of launching a “destructive” initiative aimed at “inciting interethnic and interreligious hatred in Russia.”

Later on October 28

↓

Salakh Mezhiev, Chechnya's mufti and an advisor to Governor Ramzan Kadyrov, says that the Vladimir region’s ban violates the Russian Constitution. “We’re also bewildered by the fact that this document specifically highlights a ban solely on Islamic religious attire,” Mezhiev states.

October 29

↓

Russian State Duma Deputy Adam Delimkhanov reports that he and other Chechen lawmakers met on Kadyrov’s behalf with Igor Igoshin, a State Duma deputy from the Vladimir region, to discuss the ban. “The outcome of the meeting was a decision to work together to overturn the provocative decree,” Delimkhanov writes on Telegram. He calls the regional officials responsible for the ban “irresponsible people” who are “undermining society’s stability”:

I also want to clarify the difference between a niqab and a hijab one more time. A niqab is a piece of women’s clothing that covers the face, while a hijab does not cover the face. We ourselves don’t endorse the wearing of niqabs, but wearing a hijab is a religious duty of Muslim women. If someone in the Vladimir region doesn’t understand these simple truths, we’ll explain in clear terms what religious traditions are and why they can’t just be unceremoniously banned!

October 29-30

↓

Russian pro-war bloggers sharply criticize the Chechen authorities for their efforts to overturn the Vladimir region’s religious clothing ban. Yury Kotenok, a so-called “war correspondent” who writes about the invasion of Ukraine, calls Adam Delimkhanov’s statement “an open threat” and urges officials in Vladimir “not to cave.” Oleg Tsaryov, a former member of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada and a prominent figure in the Donbas separatist movement, says that “Chechnya is part of Russia, but not the other way around.” The pro-war Telegram channel “Two Majors” tells Delimkhanov “not to meddle in other’s affairs” and to avoid using phrases like “We’ll explain in clear terms” when speaking to officials. Pro-war blogger Roman Saponkov suggests that Chechen officials’ statements about the school ban demonstrate the “weakening of the federal center during the special military operation.” The pro-war Telegram channel Alex Parker Returns writes that “a third Chechen War is inevitable.”

October 30

↓

Biysultan Khamzaev, a State Duma deputy from Dagestan, refers to officials from the Vladimir region as “idiots” who “decided to oppose a big, important, and necessary policy” in place in Russia. Speaking at a State Duma round table, Khamzaev says that “in Dagestan, we have common sense — we don’t ban crosses, Passover, or anything else.” Addressing the authorities in the Vladimir region, he adds: “What, are you more important than the Russian Constitution?”

Later on October 30

↓

Evgeny Popov, a State Duma deputy from Moscow and the host of the talk show 60 Minutes, says that Biysultan Khamzaev is a “hype-chaser” who “works to get clicks and views for his posts and mentions on social media.” He adds: “Unfortunately, this casts a shadow on the parliament, the government, and so on.” Later that evening, Popov writes on Telegram: “Khamzaev called. He threatened me. It happens.”

Also on October 30

↓

The Vladimir regional government’s press service tells Kommersant that the authorities based their ban “on the experience of other regions, as well as on the position of the Supreme Court,” which upheld the legality of such bans in schools in 2015. A high-ranking source close to the regional government tells the newspaper that the authorities are “mildly surprised” by the controversy. “If anybody feels their rights have been violated, they’re welcome to go to court. After all, we live in a country of laws,” the source says. The same source notes that the region’s “small and close-knit” Muslim community had not expressed any disappointment with the decree, but that “for some reason, people from outside [of the Vladimir region] are trying to discuss our internal matters.” The source adds that the authorities have no intention of overturning the policy: “It would be strange to reverse this decision based on someone’s public statements.”

October 31

↓

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says in a press briefing: “Look, every region exercises its own authority. We’re not participating in this discussion.”