Read the transcript of a July 6, 2001, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly story on PBS about tensions in American Buddhism, in part between the religion as it’s practiced by Asian immigrants and by converts in the West.

Thomas Tweed provides a short historical essay about Islam in America for the National Humanities Center.

Richard H. Seager is an associate professor of religious studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. He is studying the globalization and Americanization of Buddhism and is the author of Buddhism in America and Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai and the Globalization of Buddhism Humanism.

Charles S. Prebish is a professor emeritus of religious studies at Pennsylvania State University. He is a co-founder of the Journal of Buddhist Ethics and can speak about the development of Buddhism in North America and the way the internet has been used to connect Buddhists worldwide.

The Jewish Coalition for Service promotes volunteerism among Jews as a fulfillment of tikkun olam, the Jewish concept of “repairing the world.” David Eisner is president and CEO.

HIAS, originally known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, has worked since 1881 to provide rescue, resettlement and reunion services to Jews in need throughout the world and to other oppressed migrants. Its headquarters are in Silver Spring, Maryland. Mark Hetfield is president, and Beth Oppenheim is CEO.

Lee Shai Weissbach is a history professor at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. He is an expert on small-town Jewish life in America, especially in the South, where surveys show traditional observance tends to be lower than in other areas.

Michael Weil heads the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans. The federation is working to revitalize the local Jewish community in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which cut the city’s Jewish population by one-third.

Annelise Orleck is a history professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. She is an expert on Jewish-American immigrants, especially Soviet immigrants.