Children from rising numbers of non-religious families should have their upbringing better reflected in primary schools that use new teaching resources, says multi-denominational body Educate Together.

US president Donald Trump has condemned those who deny the Holocaust and pledged to confront anti-Semitism.

Assimilation was seen as a good thing, even if it meant the eradication of a separate culture, writes Terry Prone.

World Hijab Day is a good time to acknowledge that states such as Saudi Arabia peddle an extreme form of the religion, says TP O’Mahony.

Muslim refugees in Europe and the US, and the fear there of Islamist extremism, are bringing the old debate about faith and society to the fore, says Tarek Osman.

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The haunting persistence of anti-semitism is what fuels Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’. A book on Shylock, its main character, offers an adroit slant on modern Judaism by a master literary stylist, writes Mary Leland.

Get a taste of some of the interesting and quirky happenings in Europe from our Europe correspondent, Ann Cahill.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has sparked uproar after suggesting a Second World War-era Palestinian leader convinced the Nazis to adopt the “final solution” to exterminate European Jews.

Israeli police armed with stun grenades and tear gas clashed with rock-throwing Palestinian youths who had barricaded themselves inside Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque for a third day, police and witnesses said.

The theology that leads to violence in the three main monotheistic faiths must be addressed if the continuation of the terror afflicting the world is to be tackled, writes TP O’Mahony

The establishment of a Zionist state in the middle of the Arab world for Jewish migrants from Europe was only possible due to the complicity of Western powers and their vested interests .

I am writing re Charles Hayes’ contention, (Letters 22 June) that anti-Zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism, the first being a moral stance and the latter being, “pernicious..”. 

Daniel Teegan claims that the “10m” (in reality circa 6 million) Israeli Jews are not “ancestors of” (read: descended from) “a biblical race of people”. 

Not even Shlomo Sand asserts that most Jews share no DNA with their co-religionists (Daniel Teegan, Letters, February 7) since that would mean that the majority of individuals of that faith are a hitherto undiscovered species. Humans share 99.9% of DNA with all other human beings.

FRENCH media estimate up to 3m took part in the Paris rally for unity against terrorism — more than the numbers who took to the capital’s streets when the Allies liberated the city from the Nazis in the Second World War.

Israeli police have shot and killed a Palestinian man suspected of trying to kill a hard-line Jewish activist in Jerusalem, an incident that threatened to further inflame the city's already high tensions.

The latest pension records from the Irish Military Archives show that Robert Briscoe’s application for a State pension, for IRA service in the War of Independence, was resisted by fellow republicans.

Gwyneth Paltrow is reportedly converting to Judaism.

Gwyneth Paltrow is reportedly converting to Judaism.

My column last week, urging Ireland to stand with the Palestinians, drew such a huge and often angry response that I re-read my history.

POOR Peaches Geldof.

Jennifer Aniston is thinking about becoming a Buddhist.

So this author is being interviewed by Seán Moncrieff, who interviews a lot of authors and causes me to buy a great many more books than I really should.

Israel’s population registry lists many “nationalities” and ethnicities, among them Jew, Arab, Druse and more. But one word is conspicuously absent from the list: Israeli.

Isla Fisher says her marriage to Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t “normal”.

Nathan Englander talks to Colette Sheridan about ‘cultural Judaism’ and his dedication to the short story

Rapper Snoop Dogg is to be known now as Snoop Lion. A new persona is an old trick to revive a fading career and lost fame, says Rebecca Dana

A jailed sex offender wants to bring a High Court challenge aimed at compelling the prison authorities to meet his dietary needs.

An Israeli Judaic scholar has spent the last 30 years attempting to correct all known textual errors in Jewish scripture to produce a truly definitive edition of the Old Testament.

US presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke aggressively yesterday about protecting Israel from Iranian nuclear threats and suggested that he was open to breaking with US policy dating to 1967 by moving the United States embassy to Jerusalem if the Israelis asked.

Demi Moore is "embarrassed" by her public breakdown, it has been reported.

The reaction of the major faiths to intimate acts ranges from the bizarre to the insane, writes Suzanne Harrington

STEPHEN MURRAY started writing poetry at eight years of age. “A teacher, Mr Spark, told us to write a poem based on A Christmas Carol by Dickens. I wrote Marley’s Ghost. Mr Spark said it was brilliant. After that he encouraged me.”

Jerusalem approved more than 900 new apartments in a Jewish development in the city’s contested eastern sector today, threatening new friction ahead of a White House visit by the Israeli president.

Elizabeth Taylor’s family mourned the screen legend in a brief private funeral service at a California cemetery famous for being the final resting place of Hollywood celebrities, including her good friend Michael Jackson.