Newspapers struggle to inform readers of the most current news in any edition but sometimes deadlines preclude timeliness. That explains the small, red-bordered box tucked discreetly into the corner the 2001 Rosh Hashanah edition of the Jewish Light.

“TERRORISM STRIKES U.S.” read the headline, set over five terse paragraphs describing Sept. 11, 2001, the most famous terror attack in history. 

Because it happened after deadline, the defining event of the nascent 21^st century didn’t make Page One of the Light.

Such ironies would encompass the paper’s most recent decade, an era of violent upheaval, radical change and deep uncertainty in the United States, Israel and the world in general. Opening on a landscape of peace, prosperity and hope, the period would close on a planet wearied by war, divided by politics and shattered by economic cataclysm.

The terrifying introduction to those tumultuous years was a jarring one and there was no shortage of news about 9/11 in the Light or elsewhere. The paper chronicled the reaction of local participants on an Israeli mission trip. The group was on its way to the Western Wall when word arrived about events in New York and Washington.

“We were all numb,” said David Bohm, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council. “Jack Croughan, one of the St. Louisans on this trip has a daughter who works in the Financial Center of the World Trade Center.”

Other Americans on Israel trips during the tragedy had similar reactions. 

“The irony is that my wife and everybody else were nervous about me coming to Israel and now I can’t find out if everyone is OK,” said one Manhattan resident frustrated by spotty cell phone service back home in the Big Apple.

“The black humor is that when this hit, I said to the group, ‘Thank God, we’re safe in Jerusalem,’” said a Long Island rabbi.

Page 6 of a post-9/11 issue featured a prayer by St. Louis native Jeffrey A. Spitzer:

“Strengthen us to stand with those

orphaned by this attack on our country.

This country, our country, shelter of

peace to the downtrodden,

which has gathered in millions of the peoples of the world

stands as a beacon of light and justice,

but today is dimmed with horror and     tragedy.”

Within the Jewish community, both in the U.S. and abroad, there was a sense of shock at the attacks but one tinged with an air of familiarity as well. Among supporters of Israel, terrorism was no new experience. For many there was a sense that it was only a matter of time before the conflicts of the Middle East arrived in American streets.

“War was openly declared on the U.S. long ago,” opined one writer on Sept. 26. “Unfortunately, America was the last to notice.”

Navigating difficult 

financial times

Economic troubles also roiled the waters of American society during the decade and Jewish life again found itself stuck in the middle of the tumult. The financial crisis in 2008 left many jobless and the community had to work hard to provide help to those suffering. An August 2009 story chronicled the introduction of the Federation-funded Lifeline program. One anonymous recipient related pulling up to the doors of Jewish Family & Children’s Service in a luxury car he could no longer make payments o“What’s happened over the past year has affected everyone from people making $10 an hour to executives,” he said. “[JF&CS] just made me so comfortable in one of the most humiliating and embarrassing times of my life.”

But it wasn’t just individuals who were hit hard. Losses also struck Jewish organizations worldwide when Ponzi scheme king Bernie Madoff’s financial empire collapsed and tens of millions of dollars vanished from balance sheets overnight. From Hadassah to Yeshiva University to the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, the toll was staggering. The New York-based American Jewish Congress suffered a hit so severe it was forced to suspend operations. 

Almost as bad was the black eye Madoff’s activities gave the community. In a late 2008 issue, the Light’s editorial page asked whether Madoff was inhabited by a dybbuk, a malevolent spirit from Jewish mythology.

“Absolutely, Bernie Madoff was controlled by a dybbuk,” concluded the paper wryly. “But when we buy what guys like him have to sell, so are we.”

Yet, even outside of Madoff, community institutions saw their balance sheets sucker punched by the economic collapse as previously generous donors turned jittery and wallets tightened all over the nation. After years of rosy totals, the local Jewish Federation campaign contracted by nearly 15 percent over the four-year period beginning in 2008.

“The philanthropic landscape has changed drastically in the last couple of years,” said development director Ruth Lederman after the 2009 effort. “People’s mindsets are still in a wait-and-see mode. The market does different things every day and I don’t think the confidence level regarding the economy has strengthened.”

Mergers and acquisitions

But the temporal economic difficulties were worsened by a more permanent, worrisome trend as Jewish institutions began to see a contraction in membership leading to a community drowning in pricey, unused infrastructure. For some, that challenge had catastrophic consequences. It was a problem illustrated well by a Page 3 story from a September 2006 edition of the Light, which featured a full-color spread of cheery photos of Congregation Kol Am’s new building dedication. 

“When we were talking about getting name tags for all the members for today I said we wouldn’t need them,” said temple president Howard Schwadron, “because the members would be easily identified by great smiles that said ‘I can’t believe it’s finally happening.’”

Unfortunately, a very different kind of disbelief would strike the congregation less than five years later as the financial strain imposed by the 22,000-square-foot facility proved to be the temple’s undoing in a rocky financial climate and an era of stagnant affiliation numbers.

“It’s a very sad time,” said congregation president Norman Berkowitz in a March 2011 issue of the paper, which chronicled Kol Am’s demise. “It was a wonderful congregation with a great group of people.”

Kol Am was hardly the only Jewish institution facing problems due to infrastructure expense. Much older congregations were feeling the pinch as well. B’nai El, a fixture in St. Louis for 160 years, found that its West County structure, built in the 1960s to suit 800 families was too great an expense for the temple, which had shrunk to 150 units by 2012.

“We hoped and dreamed it could be 800,” said a saddened Craig Roth, former president of the temple. “Many congregations are faced with the same issues.” 

The six-acre property was put up for sale. B’nai El would later find a home with Congregation Shaare Emeth as part of a collaborative arrangement.

Likewise, the Cedars at the JCA opened its new facility on the outer road of I-64 in 2003 amid much optimism but soon the financial picture turned sour. Four years later, the century-old institution found its $55-million HUD mortgage-note sold at auction to an affiliate of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. Attempts to foreclose on the 25-acre property led to a protracted court fight. It eventually resulted in a 2010 settlement under which ownership of the facility would change hands but the Jewish character of the 252-bed institution would be retained for several years. In 2012, the JCA, now known as the Cedars of Town & Country, would be sold again to a new owner who said the Jewish ambience would be maintained including holiday observances, kosher food and the continued operation of the synagogue.

Other institutions responded to the demographic changes through mergers. An arduous joining process between Shaare Zedek and Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel came to a climax in late 2012 with a vote to create a joined institution, which would eventually be called Kol Rinah. The ballot came after three years of on-again, off-again talks.

“We said, ‘you know, it just makes sense,’” said Mitchell Shenker, president of Shaare Zedek. “We need to start this process anew. We both knew then that what happened today needed to happen.”

The same year, Saul Mirowitz Day School-Reform Jewish Academy and Solomon Schechter Day School also decided to come together to form a new Jewish community institution.

“I believe that any strong Jewish community needs a strong Jewish day school,” said Ken Kranzberg who pledged a seven-figure matching challenge to smooth the process. “Two Jewish day schools weren’t doing the trick but one Jewish day school can make a huge difference.”

Over the decade, various conversations involving Temple Israel, Temple Emanuel and United Hebrew did not produce any mergers, however, a 2006 unification between two longtime Orthodox congregations, Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol and Sha’are Chesed did create the U. City Shul.

But while new facilities and costs were a major area of concern for institutions like the Cedars and Kol Am, not all new construction was as fraught with peril. 

“I cried,” said 81-year-old Lou Osheroff. “I’m in tears because so many people I’ve seen here, I was together with 70 years ago, when we were all 10, 11, 13 years old.”

Osheroff was speaking at the grand opening of the Jewish Community Center’s Staenberg Family Complex, a massive $20 million facility which came to life in 2009 due to support from community philanthropist Michael Staenberg. 

The 95,000-square-foot structure, which would eventually be connected to the repurposed Wohl Building, highlighted years of hard work revamping the JCC across all its lines of business, an effort that finally began to boost membership numbers by decade’s end and started to reverse the trend of ongoing financial losses suffered in previous years.

“I can’t tell you how often I hear, ‘Thanks for giving my kids a place to grow up just like where I grew up,’” president and CEO Lynn Wittels said. “I think we lost that for a period of time. Now we’re getting it back.”“Despite all of the rational arguments to the contrary, I will never feel the same visiting a patient at Missouri Baptist as I do at Jewish Hospital,” he wrote. “There is a sense of ownership that no merger can deny. The very least we can do for our community is to ensure that a Jewish patient will be received with respect and kindness throughout the BJC system.”

The year 1998 began with less controversial news, as the JCC’s Marilyn Fox Building opened its doors. The Chesterfield site was evidence of the continuing westward migration of Jews in St. Louis County.

“It is really hard to believe this day is finally here,” said the building’s namesake upon the unveiling of the 70,000-square foot facility attended by numerous dignitaries. 

Meanwhile, Aish HaTorah was developing its own westward presence, beginning work late in the year on its new Firehouse facility on Woods Mill Road, which aimed to complement its digs on Delmar.

“Aish HaTorah literally means ‘fire of the Torah,’” said Rabbi Elazar Grunberger, executive director, “making the acquisition of the Firehouse wonderfully appropriate.

There were other signs of expansion in the community as well. The very next issue revealed a study that would examine the feasibility of a Reform day school in St. Louis, a project that would come to fruition the next decade.

National affairs also made the pages of the Jewish Light in 1998, including the issue most on everyone’s mind, the Lewinsky scandal. 

Drawing parallels to King David’s sins, Bob Cohn opined in an August piece entitled “Mr. President: It’s Time” that the Bill Clinton should come clean.

“In the interests of respecting the office you hold, the feelings of your own family and, in Harry Truman’s words, which you often quote, because it is the right thing to do: tell the truth, and end your personal nightmare and that of the citizens you were elected to lead,” he wrote.

Clinton would eventually do just that and survive his later impeachment.

2013 marks the Jewish Light’s Golden Anniversary as an independent nonprofit offering local, national and international Jewish news.  To celebrate, we have featured a variety of retrospective features,  including two-page spreads chronicling the events, personalities and trends of each of the Jewish Light’s past 5 decades.  

View the decade-by-decade series of retrospectives at stljewishlight.com/50 

View images from our 50th Anniversary Gala event at stljewishlight.com/multimedia