Local community members are speaking out against Wreaths Across America, which they say needs to do more to respect the military’s religious diversity
By ERIN ELLIOTT BRYAN / Community News Editor
It started with an e-mail.
A few years ago, Stacey Dinner-Levin, of St. Paul, received an e-mail that had been passed on from co-workers. The [...]

Roitenberg Assisted Living Residence on the Ackerberg Family Sholom West campus will host two upcoming events.
• Dine and Dash will take place 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 5 at Roitenberg Assisted Living, 3610 Phillips Pkwy., St. Louis Park. Guests can enjoy dinner and tour the facility. To make a reservation, call 952-908-1776.
• [...]

Fitness and wellness innovator Frederick Schjang will present “Change Your Age with Feldenkrais: Awareness Through Movement” 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 16 at the St. Paul JCC, 1375 St. Paul Ave.
Schjang’s classes are a series of easy-to-follow lessons, which can be incorporated into a daily routine and require no special athletic ability. Many people [...]

The story of an eight-year-old Israeli girl, afraid to walk to school for fear of violence from ultra-Orthodox men, spurs rallies and riots in Jerusalem suburb
By MARCY OSTER
JERUSALEM (JTA) — For several years now, the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Shemesh has been the site of on-again, off-again religious violence.
But it wasn’t until the [...]

Ravid Kahalani and his musical comrades in Yemen Blues meld disparate influences into a compelling smörgåsbord of sounds
By MORDECAI SPECKTOR
Ravid Kahalani, the vocalist for the group Yemen Blues, is from Tel Aviv — and lives part of the year in Finland. I can’t recall ever interviewing any Israelis in Finland, but Kahalani talked [...]

Members of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest (JHSUM) recently received the latest copy of the group’s journal. Linda Mack Schloff edited the periodical “Who Knew? Stories Unearthed from the Archives,” which offers fascinating glimpses of Jewish life from bygone days. There is a letter from Annalee Weiskopf Wolff’s mother responding [...]

Would Israel have handed the Sinai to Egypt had it known that, 30 years later, peace would be hanging on by a thread?
By MOSHE GIT
The Sinai Peninsula is more than twice the area of Israel, and it was virtually unpopulated, making it a prime spot for Israeli expansion. Add to that its strategic [...]

A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism, by Phyllis Goldstein, Facing History and Ourselves, 432 pages, $17.95
Reviewed by NEAL GENDLER
What do you say when the young son you’ve just put to bed looks up at you and says: “Daddy, why does everybody hate us?”
I gave the usual answers, starting with “not everybody hates [...]

In the newspaper business, you never know which story will strike a nerve, provoke controversy among readers. A seemingly inflammatory article is published without a peep from readers; and then an apparently innocuous item sparks a rash of contending phone calls, letters and e-mails.
The Dec. 9 Hanuka special edition, for example, featured the [...]

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
Michelle and I send our warmest wishes to all those celebrating Hanukkah around the world.
This Hanukkah season we remember the powerful story of a band of believers who rose up and freed their people, only to discover that the oil left in their desecrated temple — which [...]