World Jewish Relief wins contract to support Ukrainian refugees in the UK
World Jewish Relief has won a government contract to offer employment support to 10,000 Ukrainian refugees starting a new life in Britain. Announced by the Department of Levelling Up on Ukraine’s Independence Day today, the scheme will be free and offered online. Jewish News reports that it comprises 10 weeks of daily English classes run by the British Council, and 12 weeks of employment support with a dedicated World Jewish Relief employment adviser. It aims to help Ukrainians access the jobs market and will help with CV writing, job applications, interview preparation, skills training and job searching. World Jewish Relief has been working on the ground in Ukraine for 30 years and runs a training and employment programme in the UK.
Digital archive on native American child abuse at church boarding schools
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition is creating a public database to digitise 20,000 archive pages related to Quaker schools where native American children were forcibly removed from their families. It follows the discovery of hundreds of graves in schools run by churches, and the testimony of survivors who were assaulted and abused. The project involves scanning enrolment papers, photographs, financial information, correspondence and administrative records from schools in Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. The archives will help provide answers on how many children went missing and died. Associated Press report here
Southern Baptist interim president attends church affirming women leaders
The new interim president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, Jonathan Howe, is a member of a church aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which affirms women’s leadership. The SBC annual meeting has agreed to expel any church that ordains a woman, allows a woman to preach or gives a woman the title pastor. Mr Howe’s wife Beth is “minister of students and discipleship” at Woodmont Baptist Church in Nashville, but it explains that she does not feel called to be a pastor. Jonathan Howe is the fifth SBC president in five years, following turmoil over the handling of sex abuse cases and, most recently, an incumbent who lied on his CV. Baptist News story here
Far right attacks against Muslims in Northern Ireland
Nazi flags bearing Swastika and SS insignias have been put up outside the Iqraa Mosque and School in Belfast. ITV reports that this is the first time the mosque has been targeted and is the latest in a series of racist attacks which have created headlines. These included a severed pigs head left outside Northern Ireland Islamic Centre, men dressed in KKK outfits outside the same centre, and arson at Belfast multicultural association. The Imam said the community feels intimidated, while civic leaders and politicians have condemned the attack. Amnesty International has called on police to do more to combat racially motivated hate crimes in Northern Ireland.
Research shows thriving medieval Jewish community in York
Researchers from the University of York’s Heritage 360 Streetlife project have created digital reconstructions of York’s medieval community, discovering that after the massacre at Clifford’s Tower in 1190, the Jewish community returned and thrived after 1210. They have recreated images of the early Jewish stone houses, which included shops, keeping the same use today as Boots, Next and Waterstones. They have also found the location of York’s first synagogue on the south side of Fossgate. Other archive material suggests one of the community’s representatives, Aaron, liaised with the Cathedral to buy a building which became the Guildhall, and create the ‘Five Sisters’ window in the Minster. More information here
Survey on communication with dead relatives
Latest Pew Research has found that 53 per cent of Americans say they have been visited by a dead family member in a dream or in some other way. Black Protestants had the highest rate of such an experience, followed by Catholics. 48 per cent of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated – atheists, agnostics, and those who report their religion is “nothing in particular” – say they have been visited by a dead relative in a dream or other form. 44 per cent of those surveyed said they have had some communication with a dead relative, feeling their presence, talking to them or being communicated with. The results are based on interviews with 5,000 people but they were not asked how they interpreted their experiences.
Texas nuns ban the bishop from their monastery in sexting row
Catholic nuns in Texas have banned Fort Worth Bishop, Michael Olson, from their monastery, after he claimed that the mother superior sexted a priest. The Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Arlington said they no longer recognised his authority and demanded he repent. The Telegraph reports that mother superior, Teresa Agnes Gerlach, who is 43, was dismissed in June following a six-week probe into claims she had an affair with a priest, but the nuns stood by her. There has been a standoff between the bishop and the monastery for months with further claims including spying and a civil lawsuit against the bishop. At one point the Vatican intervened. A lawyer acting for Ms Gerlach said Mr Olson had orchestrated the attack because he had his sights on the 72-acre estate owned by the monastery.
