All posts tagged: Congregations

Two new DC congregations cater to Black Jews

Two new DC congregations cater to Black Jews

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — With two new congregations led by and for African American and Caribbean Jews, Washington, D.C. is emerging as a center of Black Jewish life in the United States. Ohel Eidot Chemdat’a (“Tent of the Precious Congregations”), or OEC for short, will hold its first Shabbat evening service in a rented building in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., on March 20. The group’s founder, Rabbi Shais Rishon, will lead the service. “Every other Jewish ethnicity or culture gets to have its own space,” Rishon, a prolific writer and speaker who is best known in the Jewish world by his pen name, MaNishtana, said in an interview. “You have Ashkenazi shuls (synagogues), Sephardi, Persian, Syrian, Russian, Bukharian, Egyptian, Moroccan. It’s about time we stopped being guests in other people’s houses.” OEC is the second Black-led Jewish congregation to launch in D.C. in the past six months.  Kehillat Sankofa held High Holiday services last fall at a private D.C. home. Rabbi Koach Baruch Frazier formed the community in part because he had trouble finding …

In fire-scarred Altadena, displaced congregations remain ‘in the wilderness’

In fire-scarred Altadena, displaced congregations remain ‘in the wilderness’

Published by Sam Flores

LOS ANGELES (RNS) — To drive the streets of Altadena now, a little over a year after the Eaton Fire, is to be confronted by acres of dirt — and greenery. The last of the charred debris was removed in August, and thanks to record-breaking winter rainfall, weeds and wild grasses have claimed many of the cleared lots.  The Eaton Fire was among the most devastating fires in California history, killing 19 people and destroying more than 9,400 structures in this racially and economically diverse suburb of Los Angeles. More than a dozen of those buildings were houses of worship — like Masjid Al-Taqwa, Altadena’s first mosque. Jihad Abdus-Shakoor, whose parents helped found Masjid Al-Taqwa in the 1970s, spent much of his life within its walls. Today, all that remains of the mosque are its parking lot and street sign.  Abdus-Shakoor feels some relief at seeing rubble removed, but seeing the empty land is also “another blow,” he said. “You’re glad the city is cleaned up, but the finality of looking at dirt is a …

AI Deepfakes Are Impersonating Pastors to Try to Scam Their Congregations

AI Deepfakes Are Impersonating Pastors to Try to Scam Their Congregations

Published by skeptic

Father Mike Schmitz, a Catholic priest and podcaster, addressed his congregation of more than 1.2 million YouTube subscribers in November with an unusual kind of homily. You couldn’t always trust the words coming out of his mouth, Schmitz said, because sometimes they weren’t really his words—or his mouth. Schmitz had become the target of AI-generated impersonation scams. “You’re being watched by a demonic human,” said the fake Schmitz in one video that the real Schmitz, wearing an L.L. Bean jacket over his clerical suit, included in his public service announcement as an example. “You must act quickly, because the spots for sending prayers are already running out,” said another fake Schmitz with a looming hourglass behind him. “And the next trip will only take place in four months.” The fake Schmitz sounded ever-so-slightly robotic as he urged viewers to click a link and secure their blessing before it was too late. “I can look at them and say ‘That’s ridiculous, I would never say that,’” the real Schmitz, who is based in Duluth, Minnesota, said …