Laments are “a legitimate prayer,” Rev. Nora Boerner told the people gathered at Trinity Episcopal Church in Iowa City on Monday evening. “Anger is a legitimate prayer. Frustration, pain, anything that you are feeling and anything you believe, you can offer to God, Higher Being, Source, whatever that may be.”
Agudas Achim
Jewish Iowans celebrate pride, independence, light and joy at Hanukkah
The temperature was approaching single digits in Coralville on Sunday evening as members of the Agudas Achim Congregation gathered to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, but inside the atmosphere was warm and bright. Families were gathering in the auditorium, where the Roots of Rhythm Trio, a Cedar Rapids jazz combo, was playing. There were […]
A brief history of Judaism in Iowa
The first Jewish mayor of an American city, by some accounts, was Iowa City’s Moses Bloom. Bloom left his native Alsace, France in 1850 and arrived in Iowa City in 1857, where he soon took over ownership of a clothing store on South Clinton Street (in the space currently occupied by Ewers Men’s Store and […]

