Social Studies

Over two million Muslims from around the world travel to Mecca each year for the Islamic pilgrimage known as Hajj. How does this experience change their lives? This video from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly follows American Muslim Abdul Alim Mubarak as he experiences Hajj for the first time.

In recent years, more than 1,000 Somalis have moved to Lewiston, Maine. At first, Lewiston's mainly white, working class residents were accepting of their new neighbors, but as more and more Somalis streamed into the former mill town, tensions began to flare between longtime residents and the new immigrants. This video from  Religion & Ethics Newsweekly looks at this controversial migration and its impact on the community.

As student bodies become more diverse, universities must begin to deal with issues such as how to accommodate religious dietary requirements. The Pavilion at Dartmouth College is an inter–religious campus dining hall featuring kosher, halal and vegetarian meals. This video from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly reports on the new dining area, a joint effort by both Muslim and Jewish students, which includes four separate kitchens, three sets of cooking implements and two dishwashing rooms.

For Muslims around the world, Ramadan is the holiest month in Islam, a time of prayer and daily fasting, as well as celebration. The start of Ramadan is signaled by the sighting of the crescent moon (hilal). This video from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly follows the process of sighting the new moon for Muslims in America.

Since September 11th, Muslims across the nation have faced numerous new challenges and opportunities as they continue to define their community in America. One of the key challenges has been differentiating themselves from terrorists in the eyes of the government and the public. This video from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly examines both the internal and external challenges facing American Muslims in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Eid al-Fitr is the Islamic celebration that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, a time of fasting, spiritual renewal and reflection. This video segment from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly looks at Ramadan and how American Muslims observe it in a non-Muslim culture.

Muslims around the world end their month long observance of Ramadan with a celebration known as Eid Al-Fitr, the "Feast of Breaking the Fast." In this video from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, members of the Islamic Center of Washington, DC discuss the religious and spiritual significance of these annual religious events.

One of the five requirements or pillars of Islam is the pilgrimage to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, also known as the Hajj. The journey is taken by thousands of Americans each year. This video on the Hajj from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly begins with a look at one American Muslim preparing for his first trip to Mecca.

This video from Religious & Ethics NewsWeekly shows a class of boys and girls preparing for their bar and bat mitzvahs (Jewish coming-of-age ceremonies) by making their own tallits. The tallit is a Jewish prayer shawl composed of a rectangular piece of cloth with fringe along its four corners representing God’s 613 commandments. The tradition of wearing the tallit dates back to the time of the Torah, the Hebrew Bible, when Jews were given the commandment to wear these fringes, known as tzitzit, on their garments.

This video from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly shows Rabbi Alan Lew describing the spiritual transformation Jews experience by observing the High Holy Days. The Jewish High Holy Days are a 10-day period of prayer and penitence beginning with Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Awe, the Jewish New Year, and ending with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. During this sacred time of reflection and repentance, Jews around the world attend special services, gather with friends and families for ritual meals, and observe a day of fasting.

This video from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly examines a worldwide Talmud study program called Daf Yomi, meaning "a page a day." Reading a page a day, it takes seven-and-a-half years to finish all 2,711 pages of the Talmud, which consists of centuries of rabbinic commentaries on Jewish law and the meaning of the Torah, the first five books of the Jewish Bible. The wisdom of the Talmud is relevant to the lives of those who study it today.

This video from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly uses a mannequin to demonstrate the time-honored Jewish ritual of tahara, in which the dead are washed, purified and dressed in traditional shrouds before burial. In keeping with the Jewish belief of a communal responsibility to bury the dead, Jewish communities throughout the ages have established burial societies, called Chevra Kadishas, whose sole function is to care for the deceased from the time of death until interment. In this video, a member of a Chevra Kadisha explains the process of tahara and why it is considered one of the greatest mitzvahs or commandments to be performed in Judaism.

This video from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly follows Neal Yerman, a sofer, or scribe, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey as he works on a Torah recovered from the Polish town of Ostrof, where 9,000 Jews were killed by Nazis over three days in 1941. The Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, is considered the holiest object in Jewish life.