The Minnesota DFL Progressive Caucus unanimously passed “a resolution to divest from Israel bonds,” according to a report on TCJewfolk.com.
“The resolution was introduced by local pro-Palestinian activist Elisabeth Geschiere, and accepted unanimously toward the end of the three-and-a-half-hour caucus meeting,” writes Jenna Mitelman on TCJewfolk.
In an update to the original TCJewfolk post, Mitelman notes that Geschiere [...]

Sketchy press reports indicate that there could be more than 100,000 dead in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, which was devastated by an earthquake measuring 7.0 magnitude yesterday evening.
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the world’s largest Jewish humanitarian assistance organization,  is collecting funds on a non-sectarian basis for relief efforts following the catastrophic earthquake in [...]

Sarah Janacek, of Politics in Minnesota (PIM), has been talking to Minnesota Republicans and divines that “the odds on Norm Coleman getting into the governor’s race now stand at 3-1 in favor.  And for what it’s worth, the level of excitement around Coleman’s camp seems to be growing palpably.”
The departure this week of Pat Anderson [...]

Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank and her family, receiving the Wiesenthal Center’s Righteous Among the Nations Award in Los Angeles on May 12, 1994, from Rabbi Marvin Hier, the center’s founder and dean, and actress Whoopi Goldberg. (Photo: Bart Bartholomew / Simon Wiesenthal Center)

The New York Times published a touching tribute to Miep [...]

Israeli police questioned a prominent Reform movement activist in connection with the wearing of prayer shawls by women at the Western Wall, JTA reported today.
Anat Hoffman, the director of the Israel Religious Action Center, said she was fingerprinted Tuesday and that her case was being referred to the attorney general for prosecution.

Anat Hoffman

Hoffman was brought in [...]

Veteran concertmaster and soloist will perform with his ensemble at Beth El Synagogue

By MORDECAI SPECKTOR

In the latest chapter of his peripatetic musical career, Adam Han-Gorski is back home in Minnesota.
The classical violinist was born in Lvov, Ukraine, in 1940, and had a childhood marred by World War II. His mother, a concert pianist, [...]

Jazz trumpeter Randy Brecker began his amazing journey to Tykocin, Poland, in 1994, when he met Wlodek Pawlik, an acclaimed Polish pianist. In 2005, Brecker’s brother, Michael, a jazz saxophonist and his longtime musical partner, was diagnosed with leukemia. Pawlik helped in the search for a stem cell donor, which took the Breckers to their [...]

AJW Staff Report

Dr. Robert O. Fisch, a retired University of Minnesota pediatrician, award-winning author, artist and Shoah survivor, has penned a new book of inspirational stories titled Fisch Stories: Reflections on Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. The book is a collection of more than 60 vignettes about Fisch’s childhood in Hungary, his experience during [...]

This year marks the centennial of Degania, Israel’s first kibbutz
By NOGA SHAVIT
I am what you may call an “urban girl.” Nature is not really my thing, and nothing makes me happier than the feel of a city, with its boulevards, cafés, and the pleasant sounds of people and cars running around.
Still, kibbutzim were always a [...]

In the Feb. 1, 2008, edition of the American Jewish World, I wrote about a teleconference with then-Sen. Barack Obama, who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. The candidate participated in a teleconference with Jewish newspaper editors, just before appearing on a stage at American University in Washington, D.C., where he received the coveted [...]