Free Republic

A special Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) survey has found that more Israeli Jews are becoming increasingly religiously observant than the reverse. 21% of those surveyed said they are currently more religious than they were in the past, while 14% say they are less religious. Five percent of respondents defined themselves as “chozrim b'teshuva,” a term often used to refer to those raised in non-religious households who choose to become religious as adults. Hareidi-religious respondents were most likely to define themselves as chozrim b'teshuva – a full 22% of them said they were chozrim b'teshuva, compared to 17% of the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - For months, the young Shiite couple could not decide whether to move from Dora, a mostly Sunni Arab neighborhood and one of Baghdad's most dangerous. After death threats, the murder of a neighbor and the birth of their first child, they decided it was time to go. High rents kept Rana Ali and her husband, Hussein Youssef, from finding a new home in one of the capital's safest areas, where Shiites are dominant, and they could not afford refuge in Iraq's overwhelmingly Shiite south. Instead, they settled in nearby Saydiyah, another majority Sunni area only marginally safer...