Bible

Local religious movement claims the Ark of the Covenant is in the Solomon Islands

Among the To’abaita people in the north of Malaita, a deeply rooted belief holds that they descend from the “Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.”

Coastline of the Solomon Islands.
ISRAEL’S DESERTS are the opposite of boring. From the dramatic cliffs of the Judean Desert to the vast craters of the Negev and all the way south to the Red Sea shores of Eilat, the natural terrain here is as varied and striking as anything in the country’s lush North.

The Dead Sea isn’t dead: A winter hike through Israel’s most misunderstood landscape

Israelis celebrate Purim on the streets of Jerusalem amid war with Iran, March 3, 2026

Purim 2026: It’s not over until it’s good - opinion

 Purim celebrates the grape in a nod to the Persian wine parties.

Purim isn’t Jewish Halloween - it’s a theology of wine and redemption - opinion


'The Prince of Persia': History, faith, and a warning the West ignored - opinion

Evangelical Bible believers see the uprising in Iran as a battle between principalities and powers similar to a battle that happened in Persia during Daniel’s day in the Bible.

Farah Pahlavi, former Empress of Iran, pictured with the author.

Pharaoh, Nimrod, Trump: Tasnim’s headline writers went ancient this week

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-related outlet's article argues that US President Donald Trump fits a “Pharaonic” pattern of arrogance and violence. 

US President Donald Trump as Pharaoh, in an Iranian caricature

Rabbis after Google: Jewish leadership must be reimagined - opinion

Judaism has always evolved. In a world of instant access and fading institutions, rabbinic leadership must evolve with it.

Chief rabbis of Jerusalem, Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Rabbi Arye Stern

Parashat Vayechi: King David's lesson in leadership

King David’s final words are not a farewell. They are a summons. A summons to responsibility, to faith and to moral resolve.

A mosaic of King David (illustartive)

Vayigash after October 7: Tears, envy, and consolation pedagogy - opinion

What Joseph teaches Israeli society today

 Rembrandt - Joseph Accused by Potiphar's Wife

This week in Jewish history: Yearning for Zion

A highly abridged weekly version of Dust & Stars – Today in Jewish History.

PORTRAIT OF Jewish poet Naftali Herz Imber, from The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1920.

Parashat Vayishlack: I lack nothing

A significant expression of their differing worldviews appears in their attitudes toward wealth – a perspective that influences all aspects of life.

 Money and a calculator

500-year-old Bible map inadvertently shaped modern ideas of national borders, study asserts

Study author, University of Cambridge Professor Nathan MacDonald, described this map's inclusion as "simultaneously one of publishing’s greatest failures and triumphs.”

Lucas Cranach the Elder’s map of the Holy Land in Christopher Froschauer’s Old Testament (Zürich, 1525) in The Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge

Parashat Vayetze: When a nation forgets its source

If Israel, like Jacob, holds fast to its mission – even in exile, even in danger, even in darkness – then the promise of Hosea still stands.

An illustrative image of a nest and egg in human hands.

Parashat Toldot: A call for impassioned Jewish renewal

If the parasha is a saga of inheritance, of blessings fought over and destinies forged, then the haftarah is its echo, reminding us that a spiritual legacy must not merely be received, but upheld.

 SCRIBES FINISH writing a Torah scroll.