Editor's Notebook

Faith Community Looks at Issues in St. Louis Park

A recent meeting brought local religious leaders together under one roof.

Perhaps we can all learn something from St. Louis Park's religious leaders. On Tuesday, people from throughout the local faith community—pastors, a rabbi and others—gathered for an open-form meeting to discuss important issues. There was no set agenda. Those in attendance were all asked to jot down issues that were important to them—these became the talking points for smaller groups, which intermingled and mixed as the morning progressed. In one session, religious leaders discussed the problem of youth homelessness, which impacts an estimated 2,500 kids—or more—per night across Minnesota. Ideas were thrown around about possibly opening up local churches as bare-bones shelters, with volunteers from across the faith community helping each …

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Jewish Families Ready to Dine Beneath the Stars

The 7-day Jewish Thanksgiving party under a rickety hut recalls Israel’s 40 years of desert wanderings, while house-to-house sharing calls observers to remember every one who may have a need.

If God seemed a grim judge to Jewish families who fasted and sought his favor on Yom Kippur Saturday, he shows his “party side” by commanding seven days of joyous outdoor feasting, a holiday to be observed beginning sundown Wednesday. And St. Louis Park kids are excited. The Feast of Tents (or Booths) called Sukkot (soo-cote), is a celebration beneath temporary dwellings, or sukkahs, that Jewish families construct in their own back yards, recalling the days when ancient Jews wandered for 40 years in the desert living in tents, and were led by the fire of God’s presence at night and by a cloud each day. Each October, out of garages come the poles, lattice, bamboo canes and pipes to construct the makeshift homes. Then in come the pumpkins, …

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Kids Blast Trumpets Made in the Shofar Factory

Children will welcome Rosh Hashanah at sundown tonight with their own handcrafted rams' horns, signaling the Jewish spiritual New Year and the start of a three-week High Holy Day season.

“God’s shofar will travel,” said a smiling Rabbi Mordechai Grossbaum, who brought a box of rams’ horns and power tools to a Heilicher Jewish Day School classroom in St. Louis Park on Thursday.   Grossbaum’s mission is “to make Judaism come alive,” driving his Shofar Factory-on-wheels daily to kids at eight citywide Jewish schools and synagogues whose families are about to enter the High Holy Days, beginning with Rosh Hashanah at sundown tonight. “You can push a book in a kid’s face or you can involve him so he enjoys it,” said Grossbaum, as children with hacksaws cut a mouthpiece into the horns, used as home versions of the sacred trumpets that will blast 100 times in temples around the world to awaken spiritual sleepers for a three-week …

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The Fifth District Report

Ellison: Being Muslim 'Just an Aspect of Who I Am'

St. Louis Park's congressional representative spoke to CNN about his faith.

CNN's Belief Blog had a long article and video Thursday about Rep. Keith Ellison's Muslim faith. Ellison (D-MN) was the first Muslim elected into Congress when he won Minnesota's fifth district seat in 2006. At the time, he said he was surprised that his faith was discussed so much. “When I started running for Congress it actually took me by surprise that so many people were fascinated with me being the first Muslim in Congress,” said Ellison, who is now serving his third term in the House. “But someone said to me, ‘Look Keith, think of a person of Japanese origin running for Congress six years after Pearl Harbor—this might be a news story.’” Last week, Minnesota-based political blog Power Line posed a series of questions to Ellison about …

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