Check out a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life that found 50 percent of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once during their lives.

America.gov talked to a few people who have changed from one religion to another, and their responses are varied and interesting. One woman raised as Protestant Christian adopted Sufism as an adult.

Do people often change religions in your country? Why or why not?

During his weekly address yesterday, Obama said about Easter and Passover: “These are two very different holidays with their own very different traditions. But it seems fitting that we mark them both during the same week. For in a larger sense, they are both moments of reflection and renewal. They are both occasions to think more deeply about the obligations we have to ourselves and the obligations we have to one another, no matter who we are, where we come from, or what faith we practice.”

Watch Obama’s address or read the transcript here.

More on Obama at First 100 Days blog.

Here at Talking Faith we continue our exploration of religious traditions with guest blogger Joshua Stanton’s reflections on Passover, the Jewish holy day that began in the U.S. at sundown on April 8 and ends at nightfall on April 16.

Guest blogger Joshua Stanton is a founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue™ and a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College. He is also a founding co-Director of Lessons of a Lifetime™, a nursing home-based project designed to improve intergenerational relations and convey leadership skills to youth.

During Passover, Jews around the world commemorate the Exodus from Egypt, the day we escaped from slavery and came into our own as a nation. On the first two nights of the eight-day holiday, we gather together for a special meal with family and friends called a Seder, in which we reenact portions of the Passover story. We also refrain from eating leavened bread for the entire eight days of observance. This practice emulates that of our ancestors, who did not have time to let their bread rise before escaping to freedom.

This year, I have gained new insight into what freedom represents. As part of my rabbinical school training, I began working with a family of Jewish refugees from Ethiopia. Though still adjusting to life in a new country, they express a deeper affection for Passover than any other family I have met. While in Ethiopia, they experienced the travails of civil war. Fearing for their lives, they fled, leaving everything they had behind them. They did so with just the hope of freedom – something that they do not take for granted. Their impassioned discussions of Passover has given the holiday new meaning for me. People still make unimaginable sacrifices to experience freedom firsthand.

Even when the eight days of formal Passover observance come to a close, Jewish practice remains intimately tied to the Passover story. We as Jews are commanded to learn from our history and understand the gift of freedom that we enjoy in our everyday lives. Our servitude in Egypt represents an enduring reminder of the plight that foreigners and minorities can endure. As Jews, we are commanded to care for them, having learned these hardships firsthand. This guiding lesson continues to define our outlook as a people. We are compelled to use our freedom to help others who do not yet share in its blessing.

Interfaith work affords Jews an ideal way to fulfill the holiday of Passover. This year, I will have the joy of spending Passover in Jerusalem. For the first time in nearly two millennia, the Jewish people have a state of their own. But it is now more than ever that we should remember what it was like to be strangers in a strange land. As such, I will be observing enjoying Passover alongside a number of non-Jews at a Seder hosted by Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish, Director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel. His vision is to welcome Jews and non-Jews alike to the gathering in order to foment dialogue while commemorating our people’s escape from slavery. In doing so, he will fulfill the fundamental obligation of Passover and show that, irrespective of religious differences, while in his home, none are to be thought of as strangers.

The message of Passover, therefore, is for Jews not only to respect people of other religious traditions but actively protect, aid, and welcome them. Even in the moment that God set us apart as a chosen people, He compelled us to look beyond our people and help the stranger of another nation. This call for inter-religious engagement is one that Jews should observe through concrete action and dialogue with other religious communities – particularly those most isolated within our society. For Passover commands us not merely to remember our ancestors as slaves in the land of Egypt but to feel the plight of others as though it were our own.

The views expressed in Blogs at America.gov do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of State or any other office in the federal government.