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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 Books

Chaim Grade’s "Sons and Daughters" was originally serialized in the 1960s and '70s, in New York–based Yiddish newspapers. (YIVO; Alfred. A. Knopf)

How the Yiddish writer Chaim Grade’s last novel was rescued from the archives, and wrestled into print

Andrew Silow-CarrollPublished March 27, 2025

Sixty years after he first began serializing it in the Yiddish press, and 42 years after publisher Alfred A. Knopf acquired the book, “Sons and Daughters” — the last novel by the late, great Yiddish novelist Chaim Grade — is landing in bookstores...

A five-story replica of a stamp of Superman in 1998 in Cleveland, home of the superhero’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File

See you in the funny papers: How superhero comics tell the story of Jewish America

Miriam Eve Mora, University of MichiganPublished March 26, 2025

Nearly a hundred years ago, a hastily crafted spaceship crash-landed in Smallville, Kansas. Inside was an infant – the sole survivor of a planet destroyed by old age. Discovering he possessed superhuman strength and abilities, the boy committed...

Susan Polgar, the Jewish grandmaster who made history in St. Louis and shattered chess’s glass ceiling

Susan Polgar, the Jewish grandmaster who made history in St. Louis and shattered chess’s glass ceiling

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished March 5, 2025

Susan Polgar returned to St. Louis on Thursday, March 13, and while it’s been years since she called the city home, it was clear that her legacy here is still strong. Speaking at a packed event at the St. Louis County Library,...

(Crown Books; Intergalactic Afikomen; Creston Books; Norton Books)

In new Passover children’s books include a mystery, Obama’s White House seder and a graphic novel from writer Dara Horn

Penny Schwartz, JTAPublished March 4, 2025

An endless Passover seder takes center stage in “One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe,” by writer Dara Horn and illustrator Theo Ellsworth, award-winners who teamed up for a humor-filled, time-travel graphic novel for young people. The tale...

The JCC will hold a Used Book Sale from Aug. 26 to 30 at the Staenberg Family Complex’s  Arts & Education Building.

J Used Book Sale surpasses fundraising goal

Jordan PalmerPublished February 19, 2025

The numbers are in, and this year’s J Used Book Sale wasn’t just a success—it was a record-breaker. Surpassing its fundraising goal by over 10%, the sale has solidified its role as a cornerstone of the Jewish Book Festival’s (JBF) year-round literary...

Ancient Wisdom Unlocked: Decoding the Talmud in just six weeks

Ancient Wisdom Unlocked: Decoding the Talmud in just six weeks

Published February 19, 2025

What is the Talmud, and why does it remain a cornerstone of Jewish learning after 1,500 years? Beginning Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 6:30 p.m., Rabbi Avi Rubenfeld will lead “Decoding the Talmud,” a six-week course offered by the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute...

Ari Richter depicts his visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in his graphic memoir "Never Again Will I Visit Auschwitz." (Fantagraphics Books, Inc.)

A gift shop at Auschwitz? New films and a graphic memoir explore the contradictions of ‘dark tourism’

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTAPublished January 26, 2025

In a fraught moment in the film “A Real Pain,” Kieran Culkin, playing the more volatile of a pair of Jewish cousins who go on a roots tour of Poland, berates his fellow travellers for riding in a first-class train car in a country where so many Jews...

A fly finds a home — now its book needs one! Help 89-year-old Jan Baron bring her story to life.

A fly finds a home — now its book needs one! Help 89-year-old Jan Baron bring her story to life.

Ellen Futterman, Editor-in-ChiefPublished December 17, 2024

When Jan Baron called to say she wanted to talk about a children’s book she had written, I jumped at the chance. I don’t know how long I’ve known Jan, probably 15 years or so, but it was when she was chosen as a Jewish Light Unsung Hero in 2013...

Dr. Fran Levine brings women’s forgotten stories on the Santa Fe Trail come to life

Dr. Fran Levine brings women’s forgotten stories on the Santa Fe Trail come to life

Jordan Palmer, Special To The Jewish LightPublished December 9, 2024

Dr. Fran Levine is someone who knows a thing or two about history. As the former president and CEO of the Missouri Historical Society and Missouri History Museum, and the interim executive director of the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum in 2022,...

"Oy, Santa" is among the Hanukkah children's books that also deal with Christmas that have come out in 2024. (Collage by Joseph Strauss)

New Hanukkah children’s books highlight 2024’s rare Christmas overlap

Penny Schwartz, JTAPublished December 6, 2024

To celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas, Max and Sophie, siblings in an interfaith family, bake up a batch of gingerbread dreidels. That’s the plot of a new children’s book out this year, but it could be a real-life occurrence this month, when the...

A carving of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on the facade of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. Proponents of public displays of the decalogue say it has historical, not just religious, significance. (Steve Petteway/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

The 10 Commandments, Christian nationalism and the Jewish future of church and state

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTAPublished June 30, 2024

One week after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed legislation requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public classroom in the state, nine families — including three Jewish families — filed suit in federal court saying the law was...

10 books to read before you visit Israel

Naama Barak, Israel21c.orgPublished March 27, 2024

Israel is one complex, complicated and fascinating place – and one definitely worth visiting, war permitting, of course. Should you be planning a visit here, whether now or a bit further down the line, we recommend you check out these top reads before...

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