It is a cold winter afternoon and the Starbucks coffee shop on Second Avenue and East 13th Street is crowded and noisy. Four friends in their 20’s — Shirin Montenegro, Carmel Kappus, Anisa Heavia and Kenneth Lao — seem unperturbed by the loud voices of coffee buyers and drinkers Read more
Category Archives: NYC Stories
Finding Respite in Holy Communion
There is magic in the moment of stepping into The Church of the Ascension in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The scent of incense is warm and delightful. Candles are burning in glass bell-shaped jars decorating dainty wooden gold-trimmed tables, illuminating the body of a crucified remembrance of Jesus Christ nailed to the wall. Read more
A Rally in Solidarity: Ultra-Orthodox Jews in New York City
Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and women rallied on Water Street in lower Manhattan on Sunday to protest the Israeli Parliament’s proposal to draft Haredi men into the Israeli army.
The demonstrators gathered in an area the length of 10 city blocks, between Broad Street and Fulton Street. Read more
A Priestly Personality
A small group was already gathered around a banquet table when Father Vasilios Bassakyros descended the creaky stairs to the basement of St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Manhattan. The linoleum floors were scratched and well-trodden, and the musty room’s polyester red chairs Read more
Witnessing the Bathing of a Deity
In the center of a large open Hindu temple in Queens, New York, a gleaming black statue of Ganesha sits enshrined in front of a large audience of worshipers. For the gathered believers, it is not simply a piece of stone, but a deity, a manifestation of a god on earth. Read more
At a Queens Temple, Hinduism is Taught to a New Generation
A game of Taboo is in progress, and it’s getting aggressive.
“What!? How could you not know the answer to that one?”
“Ok, he’s a blue man,” says the pre-teen girl holding the clue cards. All at once her team pounces with the answer. “Krishna!” “Krishna!” Read more
A Bible Lesson for the Young in Yiddish
Kop, akslen, kni un fis, kni un fis!
A dozen youngsters between the ages of five and six tumbled over themselves, touching their head, shoulders, knees and feet, chanting along.
Kop, akslen, kni un fis, kni un fis! Read more
Superbowl at the Synagogue
After a long and energized prayer service at the Congregation of B’nai Jacob of Park Slope, the rabbi was introduced to the congregation by a younger man. Rabbi Shimon Hecht walked briskly and with a remarkable posture for a man who looked close to 70 years old Read more
A Lesson in Judgment
Bishoy Takla waited a few minutes before beginning the Bible lesson for college students at St. Mary and Antonios Coptic Orthodox Church in Ridgewood, Queens. He was on the lookout for stragglers, hoping to catch every interested student or recent graduate. Read more