KANKOWW FORUM

If learning and study is the heart of Jewish tradition, then the love for art, music and literature is its soul.

In Haiti, Isaac added to the misery of more than 350,000 survivors of the 2010 earthquake still living in flimsy resettlement camps as water gushed into tents and corrugated plastic shacks were ripped apart by the wind.

As soon as he is confirmed in his new job, Kerry will face a huge array of foreign policy challenges, including a critical moment in the Iranian nuclear showdown and what could be the last throes of the Assad regime in Syria.

Sparks, a city of 90,000 that sprung out of the railway industry, lies just east of Reno. Students were filing off buses and reuniting with friends after a weeklong vacation when the pop of gunfire shattered the morning calm. Children fled for their lives before the first bell rang.

STEVE EMBER: Erika Seamon teaches religion in American public life at Georgetown University in Washington. She says the Christmas tree highlights the debate over the separation of church and state in American society.