By DORIS RUBENSTEIN Over many years, American Jewish World readers enjoyed a spring issue that included a supplement with award-winning stories, poems and photography from the Keren Or arts competition. This year marks the 20th year for the program, and it warrants a look back and a look forward. Keren Or is Hebrew for “ray of light.” The founders of the program, the late Jerry and Eileen Siegel, felt that way about their only daughter, Karen Siegel Jacobs, who died a tragic death when she was in her early 30s. Karen brought light and happiness into the lives of everyone who met her. This phot ..read more

By JOHN OSTFIELD “Let all who are hungry come and eat.” This is what we say very early in the Passover seder. This year especially the question has to come to mind: Do we really mean it or is this just an annual ritual that we go through before joking that “they tried to kill us and didn’t succeed, so let’s eat!” If we really mean what we say as we quote the Haggada, we then must wonder how it is possible for us to celebrate our liberation while less than a day’s flight away from us our fellow Jews are imposing a famine in Gaza. How can we as Jews, let alone as human beings, accept this as it ..read more

The Jewish World archives are the proverbial treasure trove for a history buff. If you would like to look back on Minnesota Jewish history, you only need to set your web browser to our website, AJWNEWS.com, and click on the tab near the top of the page: AJW DIGITAL ARCHIVES. There you will find digitized copies of the American Jewish World, from 1915-2007. Some years ago, while perusing old AJW issues, I found an article of topical relevance. It was on the subject of U.S. immigration laws and reported on an unusual meeting in Minneapolis. The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, stands in Ne ..read more

By NEAL GOSMAN When I returned from the American war in Vietnam, it took me several years to actually come back. This was before I met and married your mom. For years before my deployment in that combat zone, I had been an informed and principled opponent of the American intervention in that foreign war. I had also involved myself in the Civil Rights movement and the war on poverty here at home to “repair the world.” Both on my flight to Vietnam and the flight home, I had time to contemplate the multiple failures of my efforts so far. An Israeli checkpoint is seen on April 20, 2021, during the ..read more

By JOHN OSTFIELD Purim should be canceled this year! Why is that true? The Book of Esther, with its combination of the fear of an oppressed people and in the end a triumph over their enemies with an ensuing massacre, is the fantasy of the powerless people always under threat. That story, in the context of Jews today having the powerful state of Israel, has proven to be very dangerous. Purim is rabbinic, so there is no halachic problem with making changes. A Jewish family in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood celebrates Purim, March 6, 2015. John Ostfield writes, “There should be no Purim car ..read more

By DORIS RUBENSTEIN In the early part of the 20th century, my dad grew up in a small coal mining town in southwest Pennsylvania. There was a Jewish community there — still is! — but Jews were a real minority. I remember my dad telling me how he’d gotten kicked out of high school over a production of The Merchant of Venice. Of course, he’d been cast as Shylock. There’s a line in the play where one of the characters proclaims, “I hate him because he is a Jew.” Evidently, the tone of voice used by that teenage actor during rehearsal was such that my dad knew the kid wasn’t acting; so, he hauled o ..read more

Reviewed by NEAL GENDLER Utterly preposterous, profanity laden and very clever, The Golem of Brooklyn is an unpredictable, crazy-quilt twist on the old story of a man-made rescuer of Jews whose successes become a burden. But the golem in this story isn’t made by a rabbi, in the manner of the Golem of Prague. This golem is the result of several hundred pounds of premium sculpting clay, stolen one five-pound brick a week for years by Len Bronstein, an art teacher in Brooklyn Heights. “He didn’t really know why,” author Adam Mansbach says. “Len was no sculptor; his artistic disciplines were not-p ..read more

By EARL SCHWARTZ Nearly 80 years have passed since Israel’s founders signed its Declaration of Independence, which includes the pledge to develop the homeland of the Jewish People “for the good of all who dwell in it (pituah ha’aretz litovat kol tosh’veha),” in keeping with “liberty, justice and peace, as envisioned by the prophets of Israel. …” Israel isn’t the only country with a founding document binding the nation to ethical principles. About 80 years after the American Declaration of Independence was issued, a somewhat peculiar president, in calling for rededication to ideals the American ..read more

Minnesota’s Jewish U.S. attorney Andy Luger spoke on the Temple Israel bima during a Jan. 25 community forum on antisemitism. The gathering sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas also featured talks by Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman, Temple Israel senior rabbi; Joy Hess, supervising special agent for the Minneapolis office of the FBI; Steve Hunegs, JCRC executive director; and Rob Allen, JCRC director of community security. (Photo: Mordecai Specktor) I’ll admit to a recent mistake. It was on social media, specifically, X, the platform formerly known as Twitter ..read more

By DORIS RUBENSTEIN It’s nice to have a local boy as the headliner for this year’s Twin Cities Jewish Humor Fest, held at the Minnesota JCC’s Sabes Center in St. Louis Park and Capp Center in St. Paul, from Feb. 22 to 25. Although he’s been living in Los Angeles for years, Eli Leonard is a Twin Cities guy through and through. What’s his claim to comedic fame? Eli Leonard returns to his hometown for a Feb. 22 show. (Photo: returnbackstage.com) Whether or not you have cable TV, it’s hard to have escaped hearing about the critically acclaimed series Curb Your Enthusiasm, created by and starring t ..read more