Leonard Saxe directs the Steinhardt Social Research Institute and the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He has conducted studies on many aspects of Jewish life, including intermarriage, the impact of Birthright Israel and antisemitism on college campuses.

Combined Jewish Philanthropies is an organization bring together the Jewish community’s resources, volunteers, leadership and expertise in Greater Boston.

Some contend that clearing out clutter – simplifying, paring down – can have spiritual benefits as well. Read an Oct. 3, 2004, story in The Washington Post about how traditions from feng shui to Roman Catholicism teach about the spiritual joys of living with less.

Read an online list of some of what people collect and why – from dog tags to old bricks.

Some set up sacred spaces or altars in their homes – with candles, keepsakes, photographs, a bit of blue glass that seems exactly right – a window, almost, to the divine. Read a Beliefnet.com story about women who set up personal altars in their homes.

See a Sept. 29, 2006, Catholic News Service story, “What’s a voter to do? Election guides offer different answers” The CNS story focuses on Catholic groups but provides an overview of the issue.

Bread for the World is the largest faith-based advocacy movement against hunger, a collective of Christian groups. It posts hunger facts and figures. It is based in Washington, D.C.

Read a Jan. 24, 2011, statement from the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service saying the agency is “gravely concerned that the punitive immigration bills being considered by many state legislatures would contradict the biblical mandate to care for sojourners in our midst.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on June 10, 2011, issued a statement saying that immigration reform was a job for the federal government and that the Mormon leadership “is concerned that any state legislation that only contains enforcement provisions is likely to fall short of the high moral standard of treating each other as […]