Closures of Holy Sites in Jerusalem During the 2026 Iran War

The war involving Israel, the United States, and Iran in early 2026 has affected far more than just military targets. One of the most striking consequences has been the closure of Jerusalem’s major holy sites, including Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Western Wall. What makes this situation especially significant is the timing: Ramadan, Easter, and Passover all fall around the same period, meaning that under normal circumstances, large numbers of worshipers from three different religions would be gathering in the city. Instead, these spaces have been shut down, showing how deeply the war has disrupted everyday religious life.

Israeli authorities have explained these closures as necessary security measures. Police statements emphasized that all holy sites were closed “in accordance with national emergency guidelines” and that the goal was to “safeguard public safety and human life.” These decisions were also linked to instructions from the Home Front Command, which coordinates civilian safety during wartime. In other words, the official position is that the closures are not about restricting religion, but about preventing harm during a dangerous and unpredictable situation.

The First Anniversary of the Tragic War in the Middle East (October 7, 2023)

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

As we all remember, on October 7th 2023 Hamas gunmen entered the Jewish Kibbutz and the cities of southern Israel and spread death, abuse and rape at a Festival where young people danced for peace! That day 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 were kidnapped.

From that day, a horrible war began in the Middle East between Israelis, Hamas and Hezbollah of Lebanon; other countries, such as Iran and Yemen, also got involved in it. In a central newspaper article on October 7, 2024, one year after the start of the war, the results of this horrible war were written.

"Since this day last year (October 7, 2023) 1.9 million Palestinians, 1 million Lebanese and 60 thousand Israelis have been displaced. Hamas has launched 12,000 rockets at Israel and Hezbollah 8,000. Iran 500 missiles and drones. Israel has already spent 67 billion dollars on the conflict and the economy of Gaza has shrunk by 86%" (TA NEA, p. 2, Monday 10/7/2024).

Was Saint John of Kronstadt an Anti-Semite and Pogromist?

There is no evidence - neither in the texts of Father John of Kronstadt, nor the memoirs of his contemporaries - where he would have expressed something anti-Semitic. As for being called a "pogromist" - it is exactly the opposite. When in 1903 there was a terrible pogrom in Chisinau, Father John, together with Bishop Anthony Khrapovitsky, signed a sharp statement - "Word on the Chisinau Events", where he very harshly condemned the pogroms from a Christian standpoint. Furthermore, this text was later disseminated by Jewish societies, which attracted the attacks of extreme reactionaries on Father John.

Was John Chrysostom an Anti-Semite?

The Protection of Christians from Judaism

By Stylianos Papadopoulos

Like almost all ecclesiastical writers, Chrysostom also wrote about the Jews. Those who wrote against the Jews before Chrysostom were primarily the apologist Apelles (whose text was lost), Justin (Dialogue With Trypho), Tertullian and Pseudo-Cyprian. Later Philastrius of Brescia wrote about them and more occasionally by Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius the Great and the Cappadocian Fathers. The other writers, his predecessors and his contemporaries, only occasionally referred to the Jews with judgments.

Chrysostom has eight short texts, which record his homilies to the flock of Antioch in the years 386 or 387. Often these texts contain harsh expressions about the Jews and, above all, a critique of their ceremonies and customs, and of their religious behavior during the days of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Church. Of course, his criticism is not more severe than that of the Prophets and Christ himself against the Jews. But his own criticism has prompted a fierce reaction from older and contemporary writers, many of whom attribute to Chrysostom a harsh anti-Semitism, which allegedly influenced Christian writers from the fifth century onward.

A Jewish Woman Who Survived the Holocaust With the Help of a Greek Priest

Before the Holocaust, Thessaloniki was home to 80,000 Jews. In 1943 under Nazi occupation some 60,000 Jews were deported to Treblinka and Auschwitz, approximately 90% of whom were murdered. A number of Thessaloniki Jews were involved in resistance acts both in the Warsaw uprising and the October 1944 attack and bombing in Auschwitz. Over 300 Greek Gentiles have been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among The Nations for risking and giving their lives to help the Jewish people during this time.

Sermon Against the Anti-Jewish Pograms in the Russian Empire (Metr. Anthony Khrapovitsky of Kiev)

Introduction

Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire were large-scale and targeted. Anti-Jewish rioting first began in 19th century Russia. Pogroms began occurring after the Russian Empire, which previously had very few Jews, acquired territories with large Jewish populations from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during 1791–1835. These territories were designated "the Pale of Settlement" by the Imperial Russian government, within which Jews were reluctantly permitted to live, and it was within them that the pogroms largely took place. Most Jews were forbidden from moving to other parts of the Empire, unless they converted to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The term "pogrom" became commonly used in English after a large-scale wave of anti-Jewish riots swept through south-western Imperial Russia (present-day Ukraine and Poland) from 1881 to 1884; during this time, more than 200 anti-Jewish events occurred in the Russian Empire, notably pogroms in Kiev, Warsaw and Odessa.