Sacred Spaces
Tibetans in Massachusetts celebrate 14th Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday
Ahead of his 90th birthday, the Dalai Lama announced that he will be reborn after he dies, and that the Tibetan Buddhist community based in India that he leads will have sole authority in finding his reincarnation. As The World’s Matthew Bell reports, this sets the stage for a dispute with China.
A family remembers a relative who died in the Holocaust with a ‘stumbling stone’ in her German hometown
David Bliss grew up hearing stories about his great-aunt Bertha, a once-energetic woman who ran her own shop in the small German town of Husen. But he knew very little else about her until he found a high school in Husen, which for decades has had students research the lives of Holocaust victims. Bliss’ journey to memorialize his great-aunt unearthed debates about such memorials in Germany, including those over the Stolperstein, or “Stumbling Stone” project. Rebecca Rosman traveled to Husen and Munich to tell this story.
After Assad’s fall, a revered Shia shrine in Syria faces a new era of uncertainty
A shrine on the outskirts of Damascus has long been a prominent destination for Shias from around the world. Its golden dome glistens in the sun and its outer walls are covered in tiles from Iran. But the shrine’s connection to Iran goes beyond aesthetics. Iranian guards not only once protected the holy site — they also helped keep Syria’s former leader, Bashar al-Assad, in power.
Christians in historic town in Syria reflect on new moment in the country
Last December, after more than a decade of fighting, forces opposing President Bashar al-Assad ousted him from power. Some people in Maaloula, long a center for Christianity in Syria, shared their concerns and hopes for the future under the new government, which has a conservative, Islamist past.
For more than a century, a synagogue known as the ‘Carnegie Hall of Brooklyn’ has been home to the US’ greatest cantors
New York, among other cities around the globe, has been the epicenter of virtuosic cantorial performance of Jewish liturgy through melody. Now, there is an attempt to revive the practice.
Ukrainian military chaplains tend to soldiers and others at risk amid the ongoing fighting
Peace talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine appear to have stalled. But far away from the negotiation table, Russian aerial attacks continue — and Ukrainians still fear for their lives, including soldiers and military chaplains, who visit front-line areas for their work.