“Is not this the fast I want?” asks God.
“To free people from all which cruelly oppresses them,
To let the oppressed go free,
To break every chain,
To share your food with the hungry,
To take the homeless into your home.
Clothe the naked when you see him.
Do not ignore a needy relative.
Then light will break forth like the dawn, [...]

Israeli violinist Gil Shaham will return to the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) for the first time since the 2002-03 season to perform Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor and Haydn’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Performances will take place 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, and 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18 at the Ordway, 345 Washington [...]

(Editor’s note: Jerry Silverman, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), visited the Minneapolis Jewish Federation last week. Formerly a high-level executive with Levi Strauss and Co. and Stride Rite Corp. — “I went from shoes to Jews,” he remarked — Silverman served, since 2004, as executive director of the Foundation for [...]