In honor of Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day), the St. Paul JCC and the United Jewish Fund and Council of St. Paul (UJFC) will host Israeli jazz pianist Omer Klein 7 p.m. Thursday, May 14 at the JCC, 1375 St. Paul Ave.
At 26, Klein is the newest force in the Israeli-New York City jazz [...]

When two Jewish teens from Toronto vowed to rock on forever in 1973, they forged the musical legacy of Anvil
By MORDECAI SPECKTOR
The opening scenes of Sacha Gervasi’s hugely entertaining documentary, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, show the titular Canadian rock band playing in 1984, before a huge crowd at the Super Rock festival in Tokyo, Japan. Anvil was [...]

St. Paul JCC will host regional premiere of Blessed Is the Match on May 17
By ERIN ELLIOTT / Community News Editor
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart.
Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor’s sake.
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling [...]

As part of the Guthrie Theater’s “Global Voices” series on Monday night, Frank Rich, columnist and former theater critic for the New York Times, spoke about the “official stories,” the tales promulgated by government and corporations that “take over our public life.”
Standing on the stage set of Caroline, or Change, the Tony Kushner musical being presented at the [...]

The band Anvil was the inspiration for many musicians who went on to become demi-gods of heavy metal music. Steve (Lips) Kudlow and Robb Reiner, two Jewish teens from Toronto, Canada, sealed a pact to rock forever on April 1973. Their musical collaboration, which morphed into the speed metal band Anvil, had its moment of fame [...]

Jews living in Paris during the silent screen era sort out their identities as they aim for fame
By DORIS RUBENSTEIN
The pivotal scene that illuminates the title of Twin Cities native Deborah Stein’s play, Chaplin: The Son of Isidore and Hanna Thornstein — which premiered at the Sabes JCC on May 2 — happens somewhere in [...]

The Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company (MJTC) production of 2.5 Minute Ride by Lisa Kron, featuring local actress Sally Wingert in the solo performance, will be presented 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. Sunday through May 10 at Hillcrest Center, 1978 Ford Pkwy., St. Paul.
The show takes the audience on trips with [...]

By MORDECAI SPECKTOR 
You don’t know me from the wind
you never will, you never did


I’m the little Jew 
who wrote the Bible


I’ve seen the nations rise and fall


I’ve heard their stories, heard them all


but love’s the only engine of survival
— “The Future” by Leonard Cohen
I read a review in the New York Times last week of [...]

Sen. Arlen Specter wants Norm back? (Photo: U.S. Senate)

The following item appears on the Time magazine blog, “The Page”:
ATTENTION, LIBERAL BLOGGERS (AND AL FRANKEN)!!!

The new Democrat says the Minnesota Republican should return to the Senate.
“There’s still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner.”
This kind of talk is not [...]

Involvement with the Civil Rights movement in the early 1960s led William Kunstler from a conventional law career and suburban lifestyle to a life at the center of radical political movements in the U.S.A.
Kunstler’s daughters, Sarah and Emily Kunstler, humanize their father and examine his contradictions in William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe, a lively 90-minute [...]