Rabbi Kaye and Sister Eve are passionately committed to their religious vocations, yet in spite of their differing beliefs become attracted to each other, only to find out they have to choose between their faith and their feelings for each other.

Religious conversion is often associated with ideals of religious sincerity. But in a society in which religious belonging is entangled with ethnonational citizenship and confers political privilege, a convert might well have multilayered motives. Over the last two decades, mass non-Jewish immigration to Israel, especially from the former Soviet Union, has sparked heated debates over the Jewish state’s conversion policy and intensified suspicion of converts’ sincerity. When the State Winks carefully traces the performance of state-endorsed Orthodox conversion to highlight the collaborative labor that goes into the making of the Israeli state and its Jewish citizens. In a rich ethnographic narrative based on fieldwork in conversion schools, rabbinic courts, and ritual bathhouses, Michal Kravel-Tovi follows conversion candidates—mostly secular young women from a former Soviet background—and state conversion agents, mostly religious Zionists caught between the contradictory demands of their nationalist and religious commitments. She complicates the popular perception that conversion is a “wink-wink” relationship in which both sides agree to treat the converts’ pretenses of observance as real. Instead, she demonstrates how their interdependent performances blur any clear boundary between sincere and empty conversions. Alongside detailed ethnography, When the State Winks develops new ways to think about the complex connection between religious conversion and the nation-state. Kravel-Tovi emphasizes how state power and morality is managed through “winking”—the subtle exchanges and performances that animate everyday institutional encounters between state and citizen. In a country marked by tension between official religiosity and a predominantly secular Jewish population, winking permits the state to save its Jewish face.

This clever joke book is uniquely shaped to represent the subject matter, and it contains the best of the best jokes on the classic topic: religion. Time-tested and often repeated, this category never goes out of date and is added to frequently. It's no wonder religion is the enduring centerpiece of so many movies, TV shows, and stand-up comedy skits. With universal appeal, these jokes are always great ice-breakers and sure to bring on fits of laughter. Filled with some old ones, some new ones, and even some blue ones, A Minister, a Priest, and a Rabbi . . . will have you laughing till you cry and flipping the pages for more.

The Nun And The Bum portrays an unlikely love story of Aneesa Haddad and Andrew LeBouef. She is born of Syrian parents, spends sixteen happy years as a teaching nun, falls in love with her pastor, leaves convent, leaves him, embarks on a peace-making journey of Arabs and Jews. Alls well except for missing soul mate. One day there he is disguised by his own strike-out.

"Modern-day badass drag queen superhero nuns"--"It was like this asteroid belt": the origins and growth of the sisters -- "We are nuns, silly!": serious parody as activism -- "A sacred, powerful woman": complicating gender -- "Sister outsiders": navigating whiteness -- "A secular nun": serious parody and the sacred -- New world order? -- Blooper reel -- Studying the sisters

The Nun in the Synagogue documents the religious and cultural phenomenon of Judeocentric Catholicism that arose in the wake of the Holocaust, fueled by survivors who converted to Catholicism and immigrated to Israel as well as by Catholics determined to address the anti-Judaism inherent in the Church. Through an ethnographic study of selected nuns and monks, Emma O’Donnell Polyakov explores how this Judeocentric Catholic phenomenon began and continues to take shape in Israel. This book is a case study in Catholic perceptions of Jews, Judaism, and the state of Israel during a time of rapidly changing theological and cultural contexts. In it, Polyakov listens to and analyzes the stories of individuals living on the border between Christian and Jewish identity—including Jewish converts to Catholicism who continue to harbor a strong sense of Jewish identity and philosemitic Catholics who attend synagogue services every Shabbat. Polyakov traces the societal, theological, and personal influences that have given rise to this phenomenon and presents a balanced analysis that addresses the hermeneutical problems of interpreting Jews through Christian frameworks. Ultimately, she argues that, despite its problems, this movement signals a pluralistic evolution of Catholic understandings of Judaism and may prove to be a harbinger of future directions in Jewish-Christian relations. Highly original and methodologically sophisticated, The Nun in the Synagogue is a captivating exploration of biographical narratives and reflections on faith, conversion, Holocaust trauma, Zionism, and religious identity that lays the groundwork for future research in the field.

We Are All Learners, Struggling to Pray Prayer can be intimidating. The idea of speaking directly to God can leave you tongue-tied, not sure what words to use, how to begin or how to end. This compelling, multifaith guidebook offers you companionship and encouragement on the journey to a healthy prayer life. Unlocking six secrets about what prayer actually is, it invites you into the practices of prayer, meditation and contemplation, showing you that prayer doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t need formulas and it doesn’t have to be planned. Discover secrets that will expand your prayer life: There Are Multiple Ways of Experiencing the Holy Your Body Is a Source of Energy for Prayer Your Senses Are Vehicles of Prayer Diversity Nourishes Prayer Interconnectedness Gives Prayer Life To Learn about Prayer, You Need to Pray

The well-known attorney discusses what it is like to be Jewish today, examining such issues as anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, assimilation, Zionism, civil rights, the role of Jews in the U.S.S.R., and changes in Eastern Europe.

A dazzling meditation on love and honor, greed and generosity, passion and death, from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea, The Sea Set in London and in the South of France, this brilliantly structured novel centers on two women: Gertrude Openshaw, bereft from the recent death of her husband, yet awakening to passion; and Anne Cavidge, who has returned in doubt from many years in a nunnery, only to encounter her personal Christ. A fascinating array of men and women hover in urgent orbit around them: the "Count," a lonely Pole obsessively reliving his émigré father's patriotic anguish; Tim Reede, a seedy yet appealing artist, and Daisy, his mistress; the manipulative Mrs. Mount; and many other magically drawn characters moving between desire and obligation, guilt and joy. This edition of Nuns and Soldiers includes a new introduction by renowned religious historian Karen Armstrong.