Michele Chabin

A popular meme on social media here shows an illustration of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. "Why did Mary and Joseph stay in a stable?" asks one version. "Because Airbnb blocked all listings for Jews in Judea," the Hebrew term for the West Bank.

Last week, many  on both sides of the Gaza-Israel border relied heavily on their faith to cope with the most recent violent escalation, as a clash between an undercover Israel Defense Forces unit and Hamas fighters in Gaza left seven Palestinian fighters and one IDF officer dead.

That clash between Jerusalem mayoral candidates Ofer Berkovitch, the secular candidate, and Moshe Lion, an Orthodox Jew, has become focused on religious issues, including sabbath restrictions in Israel's capital.

For the International March of the Living this week, more than 12,000 Jews and non-Jews from nearly 50 countries will travel to Auschwitz to commemorate the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust.

An ethereal city graced with sunlight so bright it turns the white stone skyline gold at sunset, Jerusalem is also an earthbound city whose teachers must be paid and whose garbage must be collected.

Archaeologists excavating in northern Israel believe they may have discovered the biblical city of Bethsaida, the hometown of three of Jesus’ apostles on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.