Op-Ed

A monument commemorating the Great Flight of 80 years ago was unveiled in Pärnu. The statue, funded through donations, was erected under the leadership of the Estonian World Council, which gifted it to the city of Pärnu during a ceremony on September 21st. The sculpture depicts the final touch of...

As the instigator of the Pärnu Monument idea and the dreamer who could not let go of the desire to somehow publicly express  my generation’s “Thank you” to our refugee-suurpõgenemise families, I am so proud of ALL the other dreamers, many friends and the ÜEKN Suurpõgenemise  Commit-tee who joined what...

Twenty years ago on March 29, 2004, Estonia, along with Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This was the biggest single NATO expansion in the history of the alliance founded 75 years ago on April 4, 1949, to provide security against threats...

Amazing, awesome, excellent — were some of the words that viewers of the The Paradox of Seabrook Farms used to describe Helga Merits’ documentary that had a successful sneak preview at the Boston Baltic Film Festival (BBFF) on March 3, and a “world premiere” in South Jersey on March 16,...

In these challenging times, with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine spanning over 1.5 years, the repercussions have reverberated across  Europe, particularly affecting the Baltic States,  Finland, and the United States. By now we have accepted that this war will go on probably for a long  time. The economy is shaken...

The Estonian Society of Los Angeles is proud to present the winning essays of "The Importance of Community" contest for Middle and High School students by Allison Vilms There have been times in my life that I have felt very alone. Times where everything seemed to fall out of place....

The Estonian Society of Los Angeles is proud to present the winning essays of "The Importance of Community" contest for Middle and High School students by Miina Anvelt Growing up as an Estonian-American initially separated my communal identity into two. There was the Estonian version of me: someone who went...

Karl Altau, JBANC As we near Christmas and the New Year, it is glaringly apparent that those of us who support Ukraine’s path to victory against the Russian onslaught will be left with a big chunk of coal in our stockings. Victory will have to wait.The Grinch rejoices today, but...

Karl Altau, JBANC Three focal points have dominated in the United States Congress over the past two months:1) The emergence of new House Speaker Mike Johnson.2) Keeping Congress funded.3) Passing the Ukraine supplemental. Congressman Mike Johnson from Louisiana seemed to have come out of nowhere to assume the Speakership after...

Laas Leivat, Eesti Elu Approximately 18,000 foreign students studied at Russian post-secondary institutions in 2021. This rose to 23,000 in 2022 and jumped to 30,000 in 2023. Why such a sizable increase now? Russia quickly needs to refill the intelligence vacancies due to hundreds of its spies being exposed and...