East Coast

  I grew up in California as an Estonian-American. Despite the fact that only my father was Estonian, my parents were unusually avid: my mother learned Estonian from him and they raised us together in an Estonian-speaking household, with a strong sense of identification with Estonia. Before I was three...

  There are times when we need to recognize non-Estonians, who have positively impacted our communities. This would be the case on October 12, when Casimir Martin Zacharski, Jr., a true friend of Estonians, turns 90. To mark this occasion, I could  write about his growing up in Baltimore as...

For the second edition of stillspotting nyc, composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935, Paide, Estonia) and the New York City and Oslo-based architectural firm Snøhetta collaborate on a series of stillspots around Lower Manhattan that explore the special relationship between space and sound. stillspotting nyc, a two-year multidisciplinary project by the ...

At a service of recognition of volunteers held in Tallinn’s Dome Church (Toomkirik) on June 12, 2011, recognition was given for the project to restore St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Martna, Estonia.  Miriam Lind Lagus of St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin received award for the project she started in 1998 in...

The two performances will be held Wednesday, May 11 at 8:00 pm at St. Joseph’s Church (371 Sixth Avenue between Waverly Place and Washington Place) and Sunday, May 15 at 3:00 pm at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (921 Madison Avenue at E. 73rd Street). The Russian Chamber Chorus of New...

  Freedom House, a New York-based watchdog organization for human rights, has rated Estonia the most free of 37 countries it surveyed in its "Freedom on the Net 2011" report. Using three criteria to measure freedom - obstacles to internet access, limits on content and violations of user rights -...

  This title is from a New York Times feature story about junior tennis player Ingrid Neel on their sport’s page March 7, 2011. Ingrid is of Estonian descent, the granddaughter of Ingrid Vaga Neel, MD of Rochester, Minnesota, whose brother, Pastor Thomas Vaga of Lakewood, NJ is well known...

Without Western broadcasting, totalitarian regimes would have survived much longer.  When it came to radio waves, the iron curtain was helpless. Nothing could stop the news from coming through.  The frontiers could be closed, the words could not.  From these broadcasting stations we gleaned our lessons of independent thinking and solidarity action.  The bloodless...

  Recently Estonia, the birthplace of world-renowned architect Louis I. Kahn, has been given a rare opportunity to own one of Kahn’s most unique creations, the POINT COUNTER POINT II.  When commissioned by Robert Boudreau, founder and director of the American Wind Symphony Orchestra (AWSO), Kahn worked closely with Boudreau...

  By Vello Ederma   Without Western broadcasting, totalitarian regimes would have survived much longer.  When it came to radio waves, the iron curtain was helpless. Nothing could stop the news from coming through.  The frontiers could be closed, the words could not.  From these broadcasting stations we gleaned our...