In my piece, published this week on Salon, I wrote about Mormon gender roles being highly prescribed, with men defining themselves “in contrast to women but also against other men in the secular world.” From the outside, Mormon family norms might seem like a throwback to the 1950s, and Romney certainly garners his fair share…
Although Jewish voters will have little direct impact on the outcome of South Carolina’s presidential primary on January 21, a culture of religious tolerance and freedom is deeply embedded in the state’s history. And it is this underappreciated aspect of South Carolina’s political culture that we see playing out in this year’s contest, especially with…
In Utah, former governor Jon Huntsman is known in some circles as a “Jack Mormon,” local parlance for someone who might claim affiliation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but is less than active in his local Mormon Church. And among Utah Jews, that seems to count as a definite plus. “Jews…
Being Jewish is good for your health. So says the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a newly released survey that asked more than half a million Americans about their physical and emotional health, workplace satisfaction and health-related behavior. Jews scored the highest of any religious group, achieving an overall score of 69.8, placing them above the atheists…
You may not be smarter than a fifth grader, but do you know more about religion than the average American? The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life recently published results from a survey on Americans’ religious knowledge, which found that Jews are among the smartest religious group. (We knew we were smart,…
If there’s ever been an inter-religious dispute that’s flown under the radar, the simmering, decades-long controversy between the Church of Latter Day Saints and Jewish groups over posthumous Mormon baptisms of Jewish Holocaust victims may well be a prime example. But an agreement struck last week by the Church and the American Gathering of Holocaust…
Thanks, Orrin Hatch for the most publicized (first-ever?) Mormon-rendered Hanukkah Song. Conan’s self-proclaimed only Jew Max Weinberg returned the favor last night with a little ditty for the Mormon community to sing at Christmas time. Doubt they will though, since its purpose is to count all the ways in which the singers know nothing about…
Utah Senator Orrin Hatch isn’t the only Mormon legislator with a soft spot for Jewish traditions. Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s wife, Landra (née Gould), was raised Jewish, and the Reid family has a mezuzah on the doorpost of their Searchlight, Nev. home in honor of that heritage, a spokeswoman for Senator Reid confirmed. (Senator…
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