Star Tribune
Minnesota rabbis and imams help communities cope with fallout from the Israel-Gaza war
Sometimes the call comes at 3 a.m.
Shaykh Saifullah Muhammad, who serves as resident scholar at Plymouth’s NorthWest Islamic Community Center, goes to the mosque to sit with people in his community no matter the hour “when they’re going through things,” he said.
This past month, after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and Israel’s retaliatory siege on Gaza, the number of people “going through things” has left him constantly on call. Some have friends and relatives in the Gaza Strip who have died or who they can’t reach, he said.
The war may be 6,000 miles away, but it has upended life for many local faith leaders — rabbis, imams and Muslim scholars like Muhammad. Synagogues and mosques are hiring extra security amid increased threats, hosting discussions about the war and coordinating with members to attend rallies.
And almost all faith leaders are working overtime to help their communities cope with news of violence and death, while searching for the prayers and blessings that might give comfort.
“For so many people — Muslim, Jewish, Arab, Israeli — the last weeks have not been business as usual. It has been a time of intense anguish, and heavy heartedness and anxiety, and fear and hope,” said Amin Aaser, who runs a Brooklyn Park-based educational program for Muslim children called Noor Kids.
He is now posting guides and videos online, working to help parents answer questions like “Why can’t Allah just make it stop?”
Rabbis Rachel and Marcus Rubenstein, who serve at St. Paul’s Temple of Aaron synagogue and host a podcast called “They’re Rabbis & They’re Married,” dedicated a recent episode to coping with the war. They are working to “stay grounded” and care for their congregation, but they have their own intense feelings of anger and heartbreak about the Oct. 7 attack.
“I wanted to get on a plane and fly to Israel and join the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]. That was the thought for at least two or three days,” Marcus Rubenstein explains on the show.
He didn’t end up doing that, but continues to strongly support Israel from Minnesota, live-streaming daily prayers for Israel on Facebook and adding a prayer for the Israel Defense Forces to every service, following prayers for the United States, for the state of Israel — and for peace. The congregation also ends services by singing the Israeli national anthem.
Rubenstein said congregation members often come up to him after services, telling him about having trouble sleeping or their worries about antisemitism.
“I think there’s also a secondary mission to keep our mental health here in America,” he said. “For our families, you work for five, 10 minutes and then you go on Facebook, and you think about Israel for another two minutes and then you work for 10 minutes. And then you think about Israel again. Similar to someone who is grieving. Our family is at war right now.”
Light in a dark time
At Bet Shalom in Minnetonka, Rabbi David Locketz sought a way to bring light to his congregation and help members feel less alone. So starting on Nov. 3, he decided to dedicate time during Shabbat services on the first Friday of every month to “marking the good.”
He asked people to rise to acknowledge simple things like celebrating a birthday, getting a promotion at work, making a new friend or welcoming a grandchild, before a prayer of gratitude.
“One of the great parts of being in community with others is celebrating life together. We are there for each other in difficult times and we get to celebrate together in better ones. Our community is mourning. And in the depths of sadness, it is important to have hope. Life continues,” he said.
“We have been creating safe space for people to just ‘be,'” he said. “The synagogue is the one place where Jews do not need to explain themselves right now — how we are feeling, what we think about the war. A place where we can let our guard down.”
People have been coming to him for help understanding what is happening in Israel, asking for advice on how to talk to neighbors, teachers and school administrators, he said.
“It is a very Jewish idea that we are “am echad“ — one people. The Jewish world, whether here in Minnesota, or other places in the world, are here for one another. We will get through this difficult time. My faith demands that,” he said.
A place to be heard
At Anjuman-e-Asghari mosque in Brooklyn Park, resident scholar Sayyid Muntadher decided to turn off the lights after sunset prayer on a recent Saturday, hand out flameless candles and open a discussion about the war. They served hot chocolate and provided child care so the men and women could talk freely about how they were feeling.
“They feel guilty that they’re living a comfortable lifestyle here in the United States while seeing people so oppressed on the other side of the world,” said Muntadher. “On one hand, they’re grateful for God allowing them this, but the same time they feel guilty that they’re taking things for granted here whereas others are suffering.”
At the NorthWest Islamic Community Center, Muhammad has comforted one community member who lost dozens of family members in a bomb strike on Gaza and another who hasn’t been able to reach relatives and former classmates.
“I’m there to listen and be compassionate with them with their feelings, and also just praying with them, giving them the space to be able to have the emotions that they have,” he said.
He also works to share a “big message” with his community during this intense time of conflict, he said.
“As Muslims, we mourn the life of any innocent life that’s lost,” he said. “Our teachers would tell us, ‘We always encourage the clash of minds but not the clash of hearts.’ So, we can disagree as much as we want when it comes to theological points, but that should not lead to hatred in the heart.”
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and her daughter were among the throngs Friday as President Joe Biden delivered the apology that many Indigenous Americans thought would never come.
“I think he really said the things that people have been waiting to hear for generations, acknowledged just the horror and trauma of literally having our children stolen from our communities,” said Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “It’s a powerful first step towards healing.”
Hundreds of boarding schools operated in the 19th and 20th centuries, separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to assimilate to European ways. Many children were abused, and at least 973 died, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Other Minnesotans reacted similarly to Flanagan, saying they welcomed the apology but that additional action is needed to help Indigenous people move forward.
Anton Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, wrote in a newsletter that the apology was “a welcome first step on the journey to healing.”
“There is no way to truly right historical injustices for the children buried at Carlisle, Haskell, and other schools, but these words set a new tone for the country and will help heal the anguish so many Natives have carried for so long,” Treuer wrote. “It gives me hope that we can come together to reconcile and heal our troubled nation.”
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the first Indigenous woman to serve in the state Senate, called Biden’s apology encouraging.
“This recognition of past wrongdoings is an important step towards healing relationships between the United States and the sovereign nations affected by these past systems,” Kunesh said in a statement. “This dark period of American history must be remembered and taught.”
“I have done everything in my power to remedy this situation, and it continues to get more and more violent by the day,” Moturi wrote. “There have been numerous times when I’ve seen Sawchak outside and contacted law enforcement, and there was no response. I am not confident in the pursuit of Sawchak given that Sawchak attacked me, MPD officers had John detained, and despite an HRO and multiple warrants — they still let him go.”
On Friday, five City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressing their “utter horror at MPD’s failure to protect a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
Council Members Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley went on to allege that police had failed to submit reports to the County Attorney’s Office despite threats being made with weapons, and at times while Sawchak screamed racial slurs. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
The council members also contend in their letter that the MPD told the County Attorney’s Office that police did not intend to execute the warrant for “reasons of officer safety.”
At a Friday afternoon news conference at MPD’s Fifth Precinct, O’Hara said police had been working to arrest Sawchak since at least April, but “no Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case has been calling us.” The chief pointed out that Sawchak is mentally ill, has guns and refuses to cooperate “in the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”
O’Hara put aside the option to carry out “a high-risk warrant based on these factors [and] the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation where we may have to use deadly force with the suspect.” The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside his home, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
ROCHESTER – The Federal Transit Administration has green-lighted an $85 million grant supporting the development of the city’s planned Link Bus Rapid Transit system.
The FTA formally announced the grant on Friday during a ceremonial check presentation outside of the Mayo Civic Center, one of the seven stops planned for the bus line. The federal grant will cover about 60% of the project’s estimated $143.4 million price tag, with the remaining funds coming from Destination Medical Center, the largest public-private development project in state history.
Set to go live in 2026, the 2.8-mile Link system will connect downtown Rochester, including Mayo Clinic’s campuses, with a proposed “transit village” that will include parking, hundreds of housing units and a public plaza. The bus line will be the first of its kind outside the Twin Cities — with service running every five minutes during peak hours.
“That means you may not even need to look at a schedule,” said Veronica Vanterpool, deputy administrator for the FTA. “You can just show up at your transit stop and expect the next bus to come in a short time. That is a game changer and a life-transformational experience in transit for those people who are using it and relying on it.”
The planned Second Street corridor is already one of the busiest roads in Rochester, carrying more than 21,800 vehicles a day, and city planners have talked for years about ways to reduce traffic congestion in the city’s downtown. Local officials estimate that the transit line, which will rely on a fleet of all-electric buses, will handle 11,000 riders on its first day of operation and save eight city blocks of parking.
Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people gathered on Friday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the project shows Rochester is thinking strategically about how it handles growth.
“If you just plan the business expansion, and you don’t have the workforce, you don’t have the child care, the housing or the transit, it’s not going to work very well as a lot of communities across the nation have found,” Klobuchar said.
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