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A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

Jewish Pop Culture

How Jews shaped the Western – and how the Western shaped Jews

How Jews shaped the Western – and how the Western shaped Jews

By Olivia HayniePublished May 4, 2025

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox. When you think about Jewish contributions to the world of entertainment, your mind probably immediately goes to...

Streisand and Dylan have never sang as one — until now.

After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet

By PJ Grisar, The ForwardPublished April 30, 2025

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox. They could both be the Jewish voices of their generation — but they are just now getting the chance to harmonize. On...

This St. Louis native made a Jewish indie anthem with her bubbe—and it’s beautiful

This St. Louis native made a Jewish indie anthem with her bubbe—and it’s beautiful

By Evelyn Frick, ‘Hey Alma’Published April 30, 2025

Originally published April 28, 2025 by "Hey Alma" via JTA St. Louis was first introduced to Allison Becker and her band Wetsuit back in 2023, when the Jewish Light reported on her viral “Hora do-over” music video. That project, which transformed...

He survived the Nazis, married in a camp, and forged for the Mossad—now his story hits the screen

He survived the Nazis, married in a camp, and forged for the Mossad—now his story hits the screen

Published April 29, 2025

Before he was a Mossad forger, before he became one of Israel’s animation pioneers and long before his cameo in “Schindler’s List,” Joseph Bau was just a guy in a Nazi camp who fell in love. His real story—equal parts horror, romance and resistance—is...

Barry Edelstein.

The Spielberg of Shakespeare is coming to St. Louis— How Jewish tradition helped him unlock the Bard

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished April 29, 2025

If people describe you as “the Spielberg of” anything, chances are you’re doing something right. Or at least you know what you’re doing. In the world of Shakespeare, that guy is Barry Edelstein. On May 15, Edelstein will headline the St. Louis...

Former UH president, Ron Gieseke, turned his baseball obsession into a book—and a second act

Former UH president, Ron Gieseke, turned his baseball obsession into a book—and a second act

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished April 29, 2025

Baseball is dying, or so they say. But for Ron Gieseke, longtime fan, former United Hebrew Congregation president and now author, baseball is alive and well. And if you ask him, it’s more than just a game—it’s a conversation. Gieseke is bringing...

Nathan Fielder in a scene from Season 2 of "The Rehearsal."

Paramount+ pulled his Holocaust episode. Jewish comedian Nathan Fielder isn’t letting it go.

By PJ Grisar, The ForwardPublished April 28, 2025

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox. While the newest season of Nathan Fielder’s docu-comedy The Rehearsal aims to fix an epidemic of airplane crashes, episode...

Alicia Silverstone, reprising the role of Cher Horowitz in an ad for Rakuten. by Youtube screenshot

Alicia Silverstone returns as Cher in a new ‘Clueless’ series—this time, it’s officially Jewish

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished April 23, 2025

When “Clueless” hit theaters in 1995, I didn’t expect it to hit me. I’d grown up on the Brat Pack movies of the 1980s —"The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink" and "Sixteen Candles." By the mid-‘90s, I figured I’d aged out of high school...

Tom and Rick Pernikoff. Kevin Bowers, the group’s drummer.

Pernikoff Brothers started with Beatles covers—now they’ve recorded at Abbey Road

By Kathleen Lees, Special to the Jewish LightPublished April 23, 2025

Brothers Tom and Rick Pernikoff have been playing music together since they were children—a fascination that grew from driving in the car with their mother, who cranked up Motown on the radio, to learning different instruments in high school, like bass...

David Palatnik and Dafna Revah.

A Jewish approach to wellness: Local couple behind CBD Kratom acquires WellBeing Brewing

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished April 22, 2025

For Dafna Revah and David Palatnik, entrepreneurship has always been about more than profit. The Jewish couple—best known for founding CBD Kratom and growing it into a national retail brand—has long used their platform to build community and advocate...

Darius Milhaud (Milken Archive of Jewish Music) and Vally Weigl (Karl Weigl Foundation)

They fled the Nazis, but their music survived—and now it’s coming to St. Louis

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished April 21, 2025

On Sunday, May 25, the St. Louis Chamber Chorus will present a powerful and poignant concert titled “War and Peace,” featuring the works of Jewish composers Darius Milhaud and Vally Weigl. The concert will take place at Congregation B’nai Amoona...

Performance artist Tim Youd and Stanley Lawrence Elkin (May 11, 1930-May 31, 1995) an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist.

He types. He reads. He doesn’t sleep. And it’s all for legendary Jewish St. Louis author, Stanley Elkin

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished April 21, 2025

Most performance art doesn’t come with a built-in clackety-clack soundtrack, but this one does—live, every night through May 1, on Washington University’s KWUR 90.3 FM. That’s because Los Angeles-based performance artist Tim Youd is retyping...

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