This summer marks 30 years of my tenure at the newspaper of Minnesota’s Jewish community. And the July 2025 issue celebrates 110 years of continuous publication of the Jewish World.
(The front page of the newspaper notes that it was founded June 12, 1912, which is the first publication date of The Jewish Weekly, a paper published by Dr. Samuel Deinard that folded after six months. The American Jewish World, also published by Deinard, debuted in 1915.)
We are grateful for the support of our subscribers and advertisers, especially those who placed congratulatory ads in the July issue. I’m grateful for the dedicated and conscientious work of the newspaper’s small staff, including assistant editor Elana Warren, print production coordinator Monte Gruhlke and proofreader Ilze Mueller.
Also dear to our hearts are those readers who have sent donations to the Jewish World. Our parent company, Minnesota Jewish Media LLC, is a partnership, not a nonprofit, so contributions to this publishing enterprise are not tax-deductible. However, we welcome donations of any amount, which can be sent to: American Jewish World, 3249 Hennepin Ave., Suite 245, Minneapolis, MN 55408.
I came to the Jewish World in 1995. As I wrote in a 2023 editorial, my family returned from a visit with relatives in Scandinavia:
My wife, Maj-Britt, is a native of Sweden, so I’ve been fortunate to visit Sweden numerous times over the years. In 1995, I had finished my second tour of duty as a writer for the Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Office (now Public Information Services), a nonpartisan office at the Legislature. During the 1994 and 1995 legislative sessions, I had covered various committees and House floor debates, and written concise reports for the Session Weekly, a compendium of state House activity.
And prior to an extended visit to Scandinavia that summer, I had seen a classified ad seeking a writer for the Jewish World. I sent in an application for the job.
Upon our return to Minneapolis, there was a voicemail message. The AJW needed a writer ASAP — the new hire for the position didn’t work out. I went to an in-person interview and was hired. Then I worked my way up in the company: from staff writer to assistant editor, then managing editor. I formed a company, in 2006, brought in nine local investors and bought the assets of AJW Publishing, Inc., which was owned by the late Rabbi Marc Liebhaber. So, my final ascension in the organization finds me as president and CEO of Minnesota Jewish Media, LLC, the parent company of the Jewish World, of which I am editor and publisher (the fifth publisher in the newspaper’s 108-year history).
So, I started here as a journalist, and now I’m a small business owner.
And as I mentioned two years ago, numerous papers of the Anglo-Jewish variety have folded their print editions, including the storied Forward, which used to publish Yiddish and weekly English editions. The Great Recession of 2008 took a toll on small businesses, including newspapers.
The Jewish World office, when I arrived in 1995, was in the basement of a small office building in St. Louis Park. The building at 4509 Minnetonka Blvd. was owned by Rabbi Liebhaber and his partner, the late Mark Mandel. The rabbi had relocated to Boca Raton, but Mr. Mandel, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, had an office upstairs in the building. He was a fan of the newspaper that, in those days, published a weekly print edition.
In 2009, the board of Minnesota Jewish Media approved a shift to biweekly publication; and, in 2019, as if anticipating the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and the U.S. economy cratering, the paper went to monthly publication, with a print edition coming out on the first Friday of each month. I haven’t fully adjusted to the monthly publication schedule and still put off chores until the deadline approaches — writing this editorial, for example.
We have plenty of news to report; the challenge is keeping this newspaper business afloat. Next month, I will celebrate my 75th birthday, but I don’t have any plans to retire. There’s not a lot of heavy lifting involved in journalism, and I enjoy the perks of the job. For example, Major League Baseball issues press credentials to writers, so on many a warm summer night, you can find me sitting in the Herb Carneal Press Box at Target Field watching the Twins compete. Prior to the games, while the teams are taking batting practice, I’ll try to chat up the Jewish ballplayers that come to town, along with Harrison Bader, the Jewish outfielder who is employee No. 12 for the Minnesota Twins. He’s a nice guy.
Getting back to “plenty of news to report,” the month of June was quite eventful.
On June 3, a federal paramilitary raid on Las Cuatro Milpas, a taqueria located at Bloomington Avenue and East Lake Street in South Minneapolis, about six blocks from our house, nearly caused a full-blown riot.
Social media accounts proclaimed that an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raid was in progress and neighbors showed up. FBI agents, in SWAT gear and with armored personnel carriers, led the invasion of the restaurant, as a chaotic scene developed on Lake Street. ICE-HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) agents were spotted on the scene, so tensions escalated.
Thanks to the authoritarians in the Trump 2.0 regime, ICE raids have been causing chaos across the country. A few days after the Minneapolis incident (which officials say was not immigration-related), mass protests were organized in the face of ICE raids in Los Angeles. The mainly peaceful demonstrations in L.A. were met by local cops; then Trump federalized the California National Guard and sent 2,100 troops into Los Angeles County, which is home to an estimated one million undocumented residents.
NBC News reported on June 18 that an additional 2,000 Guard soldiers were sent to Los Angeles, “deployed at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, using Title 10, which allows the president to call in the National Guard when the country is at risk of invasion or rebellion. That means at least 4,100 National Guard troops and 700 Marines have been deployed to the streets of Los Angeles, after 2,100 were sent there on June 9.”
Trump also suggested that California Gov. Gavin Newsom be arrested. The convicted felon in the White House would like his political opponents and journalists arrested, too.
In addition to the war in Los Angeles, Trump opened a second military front by joining Israel’s war on Iran. In late June, the U.S. sent B-2 bombers with 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs to pulverize the Iranian nuclear enrichment facility at Fordo, which is located deep under a mountain. There’s an ongoing debate over the effectiveness of the raid, which also involved U.S. cruise missiles sent to other nuclear sites in Iran.
And Minnesota was shocked by a political assassination on June 14. A deranged gunman murdered former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, at their Brooklyn Park home. The alleged shooter, Vance Boelter, 57, was apparently motivated by extremist Christian ideology and opposition to abortion. Boelter also is charged with the attempted murder of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, at their Champlin home. The Hoffmans were shot 17 times by the gunman, who was disguised as a police officer.
It’s getting to the point that we flinch when a TV newscast flashes a BREAKING NEWS banner. But that’s what we’re dealing with in the MAGA era.
Anyway, the Jewish World will continue to be here for you.
Mordecai Specktor / editor [at] ajwnews [dot] com
(American Jewish World, July 2025)
