Question One, a compelling documentary, explores a pitched battle in Maine over legalizing same-sex marriage — the same issue that Minnesotans will vote on in November By MORDECAI SPECKTOR On May 6, 2009, Maine Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill making same-sex marriage legal in the state. However, opponents of the law petitioned to stop [...]

St. Louis Park native Peter Himmelman has been booked for a May 24 return engagement at Minneapolis’ premier jazz club By MORDECAI SPECKTOR Peter Himmelman has made his home in southern California for many years, but his hometown gigs, an annual affair for many years, are eagerly anticipated. The St. Louis Park native played his [...]

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, by Nathan Englander, Knopf, 224 pages, $24.95. Reviewed by NEAL GENDLER Nathan Englander continues to go from strength to strength, packing new proof of his distinctive talent into this slender package of eight short stories. Englander burst to stardom in 1999, with a short-story collection, [...]

This week’s editorial deals with recent event in Europe — a subject that’s usually not as touchy, in terms of vituperative feedback from readers, as, say, Israel. The big news this week was about the victory of French Socialist Party presidential candidate François Hollande, who edged out Nicholas Sarkozy — and ended a 17-year reign [...]

Sara Erde, Caramelo’s lead vocalist, was raised in a Jewish folk music-loving family in Brooklyn. Her Spanish friends convinced her to start dancing flamenco at an early age. She went on to act in off-Broadway shows, and then met guitarist Jed Miley, a Seattle native who studied flamenco guitar in Spain. The resulting musical collaboration [...]

Jewish Family Service of St. Paul’s Senior Advocacy Services offers a variety of resources and support to older adults, their caregivers and all members of the family By ERIN ELLIOTT BRYAN / Community News Editor If you live out of state and your aging parents require additional services, where do you turn? If there is dissension [...]

More than 35 photographs representing the theme of ‘community’ were displayed at the Yom Ha’atzmaut event on April 29 By ERIN ELLIOTT BRYAN / Community News Editor To conclude the first year of the Jewish Lens program, a community-wide curriculum that encourages participants to connect with their Judaism through photography, six organizations from Minneapolis and St. [...]

Irene Gut Opdyke was just a girl when Germany invaded Poland — 17 years old, a nursing student, Polish patriot and good Catholic girl. Disgusted by the suffering inflicted on the local Jews, Irene began to resist; she snuck food and blankets from the hotel where she worked as a waitress to Jews in the [...]