An Urban High School Model That Works

Jesuits Find a Working Model for Urban Schools


RNS's Daniel Burke profiles Christo Rey, "part of a national model of Catholic high schools versed in reaching out to young students from risky backgrounds," in this week's full-text article, linked above.

Quote:

The new schools join a network that sends more than 95 percent of graduates to college -- an eye-popping number compared to the rates at many inner-city school districts.

Yom Kippur, Mortality and the Kittel

At Yom Kippur, a Simple Garment Shrouds Jews in 'Holiness'

RNS's Ansley Roan discusses the significance of the kittel, a garmet worn by many Jews on Yom Kippur, in this week's full text article, linked above.

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"We begin by wearing this white kittel Yom Kippur night," said Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, a professor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. "It is as if you are preparing your body for death. The rest of Yom Kippur day, you are like you're dead -- you don't eat, you don't drink, you don't engage in sex."

All of those practices help people think about their own mortality, which is a significant aspect of Yom Kippur, said Small, who leads a Reconstructionist congregation.

The Amish "Anabaptist Escalator"

Growth of Evangelicals Has Some Amish Leaders Worried

RNS's Daniel Burke examines challenges to the traditional Amish understanding of faith coming from an "evangelical uprising," in this week's full text article, linked above.

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With his talk of supernatural healings and events, [Steve] Lapp seems more at home -- at least theologically -- in Pentecostal churches than among the Amish. But he is just the most extreme example of an evangelical influence creeping into the Old Order Amish community, according to a number of observers. The trend may be most evident here in Lancaster County, which, with 25,000 members, is one of the world's largest Amish settlements.

Rah for Raja

Muslims Hope New Show Breaks Cultural Barriers


RNS' Omar Sacirbey looks at a new television show, "Aliens in America," which features a Pakistini Muslim exchange student living with a spiritiually adrift Wisconsin family, in this week's full text article, linked above.

Quote:

To many Muslim Americans who say film and television depictions of Muslims are almost uniformly negative, the idea that a mainstream television network is introducing an empathetic follower of Islam -- as well as exploring Americans' own prejudices towards their faith -- is welcome news.