Ethnic/Religious Minorities

MOHAMAD DABOUL/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Syria: Seige persists in Aleppo’s Kurdish enclaves despite SDF-Damascus truce

Tensions are rising over plans to integrate the Kurdish-led SDF into the new Syrian military amid clashes between government-affiliated and Kurdish forces in Syria’s largest city.

BARBOD KHORSHIDI/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Grenade attack on IRGC kills 2 in Iran’s Kurdistan province: What to know

The deadly assault comes amid recurring tensions and clashes in Iran’s Kurdish-majority western region.

Former senior commander of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman.

In a first, ICC convicts Sudanese militia leader of Darfur war crimes

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman was found guilty of 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur between 2003 and 2004.

An election poster of Henry Hamra, a Syrian-American parliamentary candidate who is the son of the country's last rabbi and who if elected will be the first Jewish representative in the Syrian parliament since the late 1940s, is displayed on the entrance of the closed Jewish Maimonides School of Damascus, in the Jewish quarter of the old city of Damascus on Oct. 3, 2025, ahead of the upcoming vote on Oct. 5.

Syria's parliamentary elections: First Jewish candidate in 58 years enters race

Syria is holding its first parliamentary elections since the fall of the Assad regime, with a Jewish candidate running for the first time in decades in a vote conducted largely through indirect selection rather than a direct public ballot.

Latest News

Pentagon pushes to accelerate ISIS detainee repatriations from Syria

Women and children walk at the Al-Amal Camp (formerly Al-Jadaa), south of Mosul in northern Iraq, which houses Iraqi families who have been repatriated from Syria's Al-Hol camp, on May 8, 2025.

Syria holds first post‑Assad parliamentary vote: What to know

Interim Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa appears in the Citadel of Aleppo in Syria, on May 27, 2025.

New Druze militia forms in Syria as Hijri calls for autonomy

Druze religious leader Hikmat al-Hijri is pictured on Dec. 28, 2024, Suwayda, Syria.

Israel, US rift with France widens as Paris rebukes US envoy: What to know

Macron and Abbas

Rabbi Mendy Chitrik (L).

Culture

Rabbis forge special bond in Islamic world

Istanbul-based Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States connects Jewish communities in some 20 predominantly Muslim countries and regions across Africa, Asia and Europe, in an effort to enable them to sustain their faith and thrive in their homelands.

EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images

Culture

US Jews ask Lapid to stop ultra-Orthodox agitation at Western Wall

Jewish-American community leaders are furious over an incident in which ultra-Orthodox activists disrupted a bar mitzvah service at the Western Wall egalitarian prayer space.

A Cham Wings Airlines Airbus A320-211 is pictured at the Aleppo airport after flights were diverted from Damascus aiport following an airstrike that damaged the airport, Syria, June 15, 2022.

Russia reportedly drafts UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel over Syria

Reports yesterday claimed that Russia is preparing a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel over its alleged attack last week on the Damascus airport.

AMIR COHEN/AFP via Getty Images

Israel’s Gur Hassidic leader picks next Knesset representative

With Knesset member Yaakov Litzman stepping down as parliamentary head of the Gur Hassidic sect, its rabbi has picked his successor.

Participants chant slogans as they march during the annual Jerusalem Pride Parade.

Culture

Knesset speaker participates, addresses gay pride parade in Jerusalem

Knesset speaker Micky Levy participated today at the gay pride parade in Jerusalem, condemning death threats that were sent earlier this week to an organizer of the parade and several legislators.

Israel Gur

Dispute tearing apart Israel’s Gur Hasidic sect turns violent

The split within the Gur Hasidic court, which has already divided families, turned last weekend into physical clashes and assaults.

People hold a giant rainbow flag during a parade on Istiklal Street.

Culture

Turkey’s Alevis to open their houses of worship to LGBTQ funerals

Turkey’s major Alevi organizations announce they will open their houses of worship to LGBTQ individuals in support of equal funeral rights.

Israeli policemen and family members of Israeli border police officer Yezen Falah attend his funeral in the Druze village of Kisra-Sumei, northern Israel, March 28, 2022.

Israeli ministers call for change in controversial Nationality Law

Paying tribute to the Druze community and its contribution to the country, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman called to change the controversial Nationality Law, which anchors the Jewish character of the State of Israel.

Hila Feldman and Renana Raz appear in a screen capture from the 2012 film "Fill the Void"

Culture

Ultra-Orthodox women produce films, inspire Israeli girls

A few courageous ultra-Orthodox women film producers are creating movies for their own audience, completely changing the perception of entertainment in the ultra-Orthodox society.

Orthodox computer

Israel advances digital literacy project for ultra-Orthodox

Israel’s ministry of trade and industry estimates that many ultra-Orthodox are digitally illiterate, but much of the community avoids the internet by choice.

AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

Arab-Israelis call for calm at Al-Aqsa Mosque

As tensions persist in Jerusalem, Israeli Arabs feel that Israeli Jews do not fully grasp the importance of Al-Aqsa to them — both religiously and identity-wise.

JAVED TANVEER/AFP via Getty Images

US watchdog says Afghanistan belongs on religious freedom blacklist

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom also recommended the State Department designate Syria as a "country of particular concern" and place Egypt, Iraq and Turkey on a special watchlist for religious freedom offenders.