Weekend Plug-in 🔌

Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” features analysis, fact checking and top headlines from the world of faith. Subscribe now to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr. at therossnews@gmail.com.

(ANALYSIS) To Anna Salton Eisen and her son, Aaron Eisen, Thursday’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day was personal.

George and Ruth Salton — Anna’s parents and Aaron’s grandparents — survived the Holocaust.

But many of the Eisens’ family members did not.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum notes that in 2005:

The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27 — the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau — as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

On this annual day of commemoration, the UN urges every member state to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism and to develop educational programs to help prevent future genocides.

Last week, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution condemning Holocaust denial and “urging all nations and social media companies ‘to take active measures to combat antisemitism and Holocaust denial or distortion,’” The Associated Press’ Edith M. Lederer reports.

The new resolution sends a strong message, Aaron Eisen said Thursday in an online panel discussion hosted by ReligionUnplugged.com.

“This resolution had a lot of the same language as the resolution in 2005 about Holocaust Remembrance Day — that we need to combat Holocaust denial, teach the Holocaust to future generations to prevent genocide and also commend those places where the Nazi concentration camps have been preserved,” Aaron said.

“It's very important for the future generations to get this education — in the museums, at the camps, through the Arolsen Archives,” he added. “It's a very important day for our family and for all civilization to really take these lessons to heart.”

Anna Eisen, a founding member of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, where the rabbi and three others were taken hostage recently, echoed her son.

READ: A Personal Connection To Synagogue Where Hostages Were Taken, Plus 5 Key Storylines

“Nowadays, we have to preserve the truth in history, the accuracy, and teach the lessons, which is that we have to stop hate,” she said. “Or in my father's words, which is actually going to be a film, he says at the beginning, 'At one time there was a civilized country that thought that a part of its population was less than human.'

“And I think when we lose the equality, the respect, the tolerance, the inclusion, then these opinions and thoughts lead to changes in how we treat other people and can ultimately lead to violence.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Peter Smith, who covers religion for AP, joined the panel to talk about his recent reporting on Colleyville and growing antisemitism in the U.S.

Anna Eisen also offered insight on her new memoir, “Pillar of Salt: A Daughter’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust,” which she co-authored with her son.

George Salton died at age 88 in 2016. But Ruth Salton, who lives with her daughter in Texas, turned 100 this past Saturday. On Friday night, she insisted on going to Friday night Shabbat services at Congregation Beth Israel. “I want to support my people,” she told AP’s Smith.

Watch the full discussion with the Eisens and Smith. Meagan Clark, ReligionUnplugged.com’s managing editor, and I served as moderators.

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. Decades after war, Bosnian Jews who lost homes, synagogues still await restitution: Veteran religion writer Kimberly Winston reports this important story for ReligionUnplugged.com from Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Related reads:

• World remembers Holocaust as antisemitism rises in pandemic (by Vanessa Gera and Samuel Petrequin, Associated Press)

• Investigation: Some 1,500 statues and streets honor Nazis around the world — including in Germany and the U.S. (by Lev Golinkin, The Forward)

• Exclusive: Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. warns that Jews should never take their safety for granted (by Jacob Kornbluh, The Forward)

• Exhibits, online events to mark 2022 observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Times)

2. How the Capitol attacks helped spread Christian nationalism in the extreme right: “For many in the right-wing extremist fringe, Christian nationalism is becoming a shared language,” Religion News Service’s Jack Jenkins reports.

This article is the fifth part in an RNS series supported by the Pulitzer Center. Read the full series.

Related reads:

• Christian nationalism is still thriving — and is a force for returning Trump to power (by John Burnett, NPR)

• A year after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, Southern Baptists continue to debate what to say about Christian nationalism (by Liam Adams, The Tennessean)

3. Nothing sacred: These apps reserve the right to sell your prayers: “Prominent venture capitalists are flocking to invest in Christian worship apps,” BuzzFeed’s Emily Baker-White reports. “The apps say users’ prayers are a business asset.”

More Top Reads

• Trump’s travel ban forever changed the lives of Muslims around the world (by Rowaida Abdelaziz, Huffington Post)

• Inside Jerry Falwell Jr.’s unlikely rise and precipitous fall at Liberty University (by Gabriel Sherman, Vanity Fair)

• Sacred spaces: Church buildings repurposed as community hubs (by Tara Adhikari and Erika Page, Christian Science Monitor)

• Gen Z more socially disconnected, less likely to seek organized religion’s solace, survey finds (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Times)

• Christ and cocaine: Rio’s gangs of God blend faith and violence (by Tom Phillips, The Guardian)

• Monks in New Mexico desert dedicated to hospitality reflect on two years without guests (by Chris Moody, Washington Post)

• In freezing Afghanistan, aid workers rush to save millions (by Kathy Gannon, Associated Press)

• Hipster megachurch in shambles over pastor’s alleged affair (by Emily Shugerman, Daily Beast)

• Minister to follow his belief of mercy into Oklahoma's execution chamber (by Carla Hinton, The Oklahoman)

• ’Now there is no one': The lament of one of the last Christians in a Syrian city (by Hwaida Saad, Asmaa al-Omar and Ben Hubbard, New York Times)

• The untold stories of American religious life (by Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News)

• Think piece: Abortion has never been a 'religious' issue (by Timothy P. Carney, Washington Examiner)

• Think piece: What an Antisemite’s fantasy says about Jewish reality (by Bret Stephens, New York Times)

• Think piece: Chamath tells an ugly truth (by Rob Dreher, American Conservative)

Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines

Danae King, who covers faith and values for the Columbus Dispatch, talks about her job and what she likes best about it in a Q&A with her newspaper.

King, a member of the Religion News Association’s board of directors, cites her coverage of clergy sex abuse as making a lasting impact on her.

“Before I started reporting on how the diocese works with abuse survivors and those accused of abuse, survivors had to report their abuse to a priest — something survivors' groups and experts said would deter people reporting at all, and could be re-traumatizing,” King says. “After my reporting, the diocese hired a counselor and lay person, not in the uniform of many survivors' abusers, and she is now the one who takes abuse reports.”

Charging Station: In Case You Missed It

Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from ReligionUnplugged.com.

• Is America as divided as ever and are Christians making it worse? (by Richard Ostling)

• Forced to have virtual and drive-by funerals, grieving families struggle with closure (by Natasha Mikles)

• A turning point in the repression of evangelicals in Cuba (by Yoe Suárez)

• Why attacks on Christians in India rose in 2021 (by Rishabh Jain)

• Texas synagogue hostage standoff highlights media's failure to cover attacks on worship places (by Clemente Lisi)

• In Kenya, religious millennials are changing standards of modesty (by Diana Mwango)

• Christians in Ukraine call for peace but prepare for possible Russian invasion (by Erik Tryggestad)

• Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who taught peace and mindfulness, dies at 95 (by Brooke Schedneck)

• How a 13th century Christian monk's ideas of virtue offer hope for our democracy (by Christopher Beem)

• Jewish couple denied adoption services by Methodist children's home in Tennessee (by Anne Stych)

• Politico Editor Peter Canellos explores the moral formation of an American hero for equality (by Dr. Robert Carle)

The Final Plug

Hey, did you know that ReligionUnplugged.com is now on Telegram Messenger?

Check it out.

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

Bobby Ross Jr. is a columnist for ReligionUnplugged.com and editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 15 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.