For the week ending 14 November 2009 / 26 Heshvan 5770
Showing Respect
At 9:10pm on September 5th, not one minute before the time Shabbat ended in Moscow, the Israel Defense Force marching band set off from their hotel for Red Square in the Russian capital to parade before tens of thousands of people at the capital's annual Moscow Day celebration.
Two major American sports events, one between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, and the other between the New York Jets and the Tennessee Titans, were rescheduled to 1 pm on Erev Yom Kippur so that Jewish fans could arrive home before the start of the holy day.
The common denominator of these reports is the respect shown for religion even in secular circles.