India closes child marriage loopholeIndia’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that marital sex with a minor constitutes rape, for which perpetrators can face criminal charges. The landmark case overturns a 1940 law that permitted men to marry and consummate marriages with child brides as young as fifteen—a loophole that undermined the efficacy of a 2006 law banning the harmful…
At Center for Pluralism we have chosen the path of positive engagement to find solutions on issues of the day. We have to be genuinely inclusive and hold on to the temptations to condemn, and instead seek solutions. I will be calling on our Imams to include this issue in their Friday Sermons, and at CFP we…
In faith, as in love, we leap. We hope. We whisper holy words, words that hold power, maybe magic. We pilgrimage across whatever distances necessary. We experience the ineffable. We understand the unexplainable. We sense in an instant a familiarity, a knowing. We get over and outside of ourselves to connect with something so much…
Though she was on the panel, Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim (TBEMC) Rabbi Rachel Schwartz said little. It was mainly left to the several other panelists, who represented a diverse spectrum of families, to discuss the challenges surrounding the observances of Christmas and Chanukah — a quandary often referred to as the December Dilemma. The questions…
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, center, presents Rabbanit Shira Zimmerman with her certification as an arbiter of Jewish law at a January ceremony in Jerusalem. Nurit Jacobs Yinon/Aluma films Leaving aside President Trump’s continued impact on the country (and the Jewish community), the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the rift between Israel and the diaspora over Who is a…
We wish you, your family and friends the very best of 2018. Each New Year is a milestone in one’s life. Indeed, it is as much a day of reckoning as it is of celebrations. Reckoning involves reflecting on the reasons you did not get what you had wanted in 2017, and celebrating for what…
LYNSLEI WEDS ADAM ON JAN 1, 2018 January 1, 2018, Washington, DC – Dr. Mike Ghouse officiated the wedding ceremony today, and this is the first interfaith wedding of the year. Mike has been officiating the interfaith weddings for the last eight years and is a licensed interfaith wedding officiant in the United States. When…
I spent last week with some close friends and had a good discussion about whether couples with differing religions can successfully raise a family. Their take was it would be difficult for the children. As a family counselor, I have seen about every constellation of religions and parents imaginable. Those with the same religion, those…
Sanjoy Sachdev’s Love Commandos is a perennially cash-strapped national network of volunteers who say they have helped around 50,000 interfaith and intercaste lovers in distress. On the phone, Sanjoy Sachdev, 57, always sounds like he’s in the middle of some cloak-and-dagger activity. “Can I call you tomorrow? There’s a rescue operation happening now.” When we…
Bing single is easy. You are the dictator of your own life, spoiled by parents and pampered by friends. Your abilities and virtues are actually put into test once you get married and begin a new life with a partner! That’s when you get to know the limits of your sharing capability and tolerance threshold. The clichéd…