The Sabes JCC will present the third annual Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival Jan. 14-28. The two-week Fringe-like festival of one-person shows, stand-up comedy, improv, workshops, storytelling, film and special events — featuring local and national talent — will celebrate the Jewish contribution to the world of humor.
Opening night will feature award-winning comedian Julie [...]

Many Americans know about Rosa Parks, who became the “mother of the modern-day civil rights movement,” when she refused to surrender her seat to a white male passenger on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, on Dec. 1, 1955. Parks’ arrest sparked the 13-month Montgomery bus boycott, which led to the Supreme Court ruling that [...]

Samson Palkar’s Bukhara Indian Bistro serves dishes from India — and its Bukharan Jewish community
By ROBIN DOROSHOW
A few months ago, I stopped for lunch at the Bukhara Indian Bistro in Minnetonka. Upon leaving the restaurant, I noticed a beautiful mezuza affixed to the front door. Seeing me look at the mezuza, the young [...]

Out of Palestine: The Making of Modern Israel, by Hadara Lazar, Atlas & Co., 320 pages, $25.95

Reviewed by NEAL GENDLER

Haifa-born Hadara Lazar calls Britain’s Palestine Mandate a period of great expectations, “central to the Israeli myth,” but for her, both real and undefined.
So over a quarter-century, she interviewed people who lived through it [...]

Photographer Gay Block’s amazing retrospective book, About Love (Radius Books), begins with early portraits from her suburban Houston, Texas, Jewish milieu. Block then shifts her focus, in this collection of photographs and films — five films on two DVDs are included — to Miami’s South Beach and its colorful residents. The beautiful, large-format [...]