Photos of the Week: Orthodox Holy Week; Israeli festival stampede

This week’s photo selection includes Holy Week for Orthodox Christians, a deadly stampede at a Jewish festival and more. 

(RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo selection includes Holy Week for Orthodox Christians, a deadly stampede at a Jewish festival and more. 

Note: RNS is expanding Photos of the Week to include reader photos. Please submit photos of your practice of religion, spirituality or beliefs HERE. We look forward to sharing your photography with the RNS community. 

Multiple funeral pyres of COVID-19 victims burn in an area that has been converted for mass cremation in New Delhi, India, Saturday, April 24, 2021. Authorities are scrambling to get medical oxygen to hospitals where COVID-19 patients are suffocating from low supplies. The effort Saturday comes as the country with the world's worst coronavirus surge set a new global daily record of infections for the third straight day. The 346,786 infections over the past day brought India's total cases past 16 million. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Multiple funeral pyres of COVID-19 victims burn in an area that has been converted for mass cremation in New Delhi, India, Saturday, April 24, 2021. Authorities are scrambling to get medical oxygen to hospitals where COVID-19 patients are suffocating from low supplies. The effort comes as the country with the world’s worst coronavirus surge set a new global daily record of infections for the third straight day. The 346,786 infections over the past day brought India’s total cases past 16 million. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)


A patient breathes with the help of oxygen provided by a gurdwara, a Sikh house of worship, inside a car in New Delhi on April 24, 2021. India’s medical oxygen shortage has become so dire that this gurdwara began offering free breathing sessions with shared tanks to COVID-19 patients waiting for a hospital bed. They arrive in their cars, on foot or in three-wheeled taxis, desperate for a mask and tube attached to the precious oxygen tanks outside the gurdwara in a neighborhood outside New Delhi. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

A patient breathes with the help of oxygen provided by a gurdwara, a Sikh house of worship, inside a car in New Delhi on April 24, 2021. India’s medical oxygen shortage has become so dire that this gurdwara began offering free breathing sessions with shared tanks to COVID-19 patients waiting for a hospital bed. They arrive in their cars, on foot or in three-wheeled taxis, desperate for a mask and tube attached to the precious oxygen tanks outside the gurdwara in a neighborhood outside New Delhi. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

A Lithuanian Orthodox woman prays and lights candles during the Palm Sunday Mass at the Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, April 24, 2021. Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter on Sunday, May 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

A Lithuanian Orthodox woman prays and lights candles during the Palm Sunday Mass at the Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, April 24, 2021. Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter on Sunday, May 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

A buyer chooses hand decorated Easter eggs at a market in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, April 30, 2021. Orthodox Serbs celebrate Easter on May 2, according to the Julian calendar. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

A buyer chooses hand decorated Easter eggs at a market in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, April 30, 2021. Orthodox Serbs celebrate Easter on May 2, according to the Julian calendar. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Priests hold palm fronds during the Palm Sunday procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Sunday, April. 25, 2021. Followers of the Orthodox and Eastern churches began marking Holy Week on Sunday, April 25. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Priests hold palm fronds during the Palm Sunday procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Sunday, April. 25, 2021. Followers of the Orthodox and Eastern churches began marking Holy Week on Sunday, April 25. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Ultra-Orthodox Jews look at the scene where fatalities were reported among the thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews during the Lag b’Omer festival at Mount Meron in northern Israel, Friday, April 30, 2021. A stampede at the religious festival attended by tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in northern Israel killed dozens of people and injured more than 100 others early Friday, medical officials said, in one of the country's deadliest civilian disasters. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Ultra-Orthodox Jews look at the scene where fatalities were reported among the thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews during the Lag b’Omer festival at Mount Meron in northern Israel, Friday, April 30, 2021. A stampede at the religious festival attended by tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in northern Israel killed dozens of people and injured more than 100 others early Friday, medical officials said, in one of the country’s deadliest civilian disasters. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Israeli security officials and rescuers carry an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man who was injured during the festival of Lag B’Omer at Mt. Meron in northern Israel, Friday, April 30, 2021. A stampede at the religious festival attended by tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in northern Israel killed dozens of people and injured more than 100 others early Friday, medical officials said, in one of the country's deadliest civilian disasters. (AP Photo)

Israeli security officials and rescuers carry an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man who was injured during the festival of Lag b’Omer at Mt. Meron in northern Israel, Friday, April 30, 2021. A stampede at the religious festival attended by tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in northern Israel killed dozens of people and injured more than 100 others early Friday, medical officials said, in one of the country’s deadliest civilian disasters. (AP Photo)


Artist Mervin Marmol puts the finishing touches on his painting of the late Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez at the street corner where he died in a car accident in 1919, in La Pastora neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, April 26, 2021. Known as the "doctor of the poor," Hernandez is set to be beatified by the Catholic church, a step towards sainthood, on April 30. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Artist Mervin Marmol puts the finishing touches on his painting of the late Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez at the street corner where he died in a car accident in 1919, in La Pastora neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, April 26, 2021. Known as the “doctor of the poor,” Hernandez is set to be beatified by the Catholic church, a step towards sainthood, on April 30. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

People hold up images of Venezuelan Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez to be blessed with holy water by a priest outside the church associated with his remains on the day of his beatification ceremony in La Candelaria neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, April 30, 2021. Known as the "doctor of the poor," Hernandez is being beatified by the Catholic church, a step towards sainthood. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People hold up images of Venezuelan Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez to be blessed with holy water by a priest outside the church associated with his remains on the day of his beatification ceremony in La Candelaria neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, April 30, 2021. Known as the “doctor of the poor,” Hernandez is being beatified by the Catholic church, a step towards sainthood. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Three-year-old Jason Smith, left, listens to a secret from James Brady, 4, during lunch at a church-affiliated day care center near Detroit, in Oct. 1978. With the dramatic increase in the number of working mothers, similar operations are on the rise at congregations throughout the U.S. Often staffed by volunteers, they provide reliable, low-cost care for the children. RNS archive photo by Dwight Cendrowski. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.

Three-year-old Jason Smith, left, listens to a secret from James Brady, 4, during lunch at a church-affiliated day care center near Detroit, in Oct. 1978. With the dramatic increase in the number of working mothers, similar operations are on the rise at congregations throughout the U.S. Often staffed by volunteers, they provide reliable, low-cost care for the children. RNS archive photo by Dwight Cendrowski. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.

Sister Mary Sylvester plays violin at the American String Teachers' Association meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, circa 1955. RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.

Sister Mary Sylvester plays violin at the American String Teachers’ Association meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, circa 1955. RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.

A young Palestinian woman does a needlework project at a World Council of Churches (WCC) home economics class in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1980. RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.

A young Palestinian woman does a needlework project at a World Council of Churches (WCC) home economics class in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1980. RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.

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