Ira Rifkin

Ira Rifkin is an award-winning journalist who specializes in issues relating to religion and culture with special emphasis on international religious conflicts and emerging trends, the Middle East, the American Jewish and Muslim communities, Eastern religions, new religious movements, religious freedom concerns, and the impact of globalization.

Ira has received awards from both the Associated Church Press and the American Jewish Press Association. He has also won awards from the Religion Newswriters Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the author of Spiritual Perspectives on Globalization: Making Sense of Economic and Cultural Upheaval (SkyLight Paths, 2003), and the editor of Spiritual Innovators: Seventy-five Extraordinary People Who Changed the World in the Past Century (Skylight Paths, 2002).

Formerly, he was News Producer for Beliefnet.com, a multi-faith Web magazine and community. He has contributed to three college textbooks on journalism and to a professional manual for religion journalists. He wrote "The Search for the Historical Jesus" for Microsoft's Encarta CD-ROM Encyclopedia. He has worked for Religion News Service, the Baltimore Jewish Times, the Los Angeles Daily News, United Press International, and other newspapers and magazines, and has reported from the former Soviet Union, Cuba, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Mexico and Israel/Palestine.