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

Books

In his new book, “Our Palestine Question: Israel and American Jewish Dissent, 1948-1978,” he writes about an early, formative era before American Jewish institutions had unequivocally embraced Zionism, and when American Jewish leaders disagreed with the Israeli government over the fate of the 750,000 Palestinians displaced by Israel’s war for independence.

When ‘nice Jewish boys and girls’ first took up the cause of Palestinian rights

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTAPublished January 28, 2024

(JTA) — In the four months since the Hamas attacks on Israel touched off war in Gaza, Jewish protesters have joined demonstrations in the streets of New York, San Francisco and other cities condemning Israel and demanding an immediate ceasefire. But...

JCC Used Book Sale

9 things to know before attending the Winter Used Book Sale at the J

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished January 21, 2024

The St. Louis Jewish Community Center’s biannual Used Book Sale returns to the Staenberg Family Complex Arts & Education Building from Sunday, Jan. 28 – Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Patrons can once again stock up on a new selection of used reading...

(JTA collage by Mollie Suss)

The best Jewish books I read in 2023

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTAPublished December 31, 2023

(JTA) — When I spoke with novelist Elizabeth Graver in August about her novel “Kantika” — inspired by her own Turkish Jewish family — I asked her how she managed to breathe life into a tired genre like the Jewish family saga. “I want the...

Exploring American Jewish history through Kugels & Collards

Exploring American Jewish history through “Kugels & Collards”

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished November 27, 2023

Food can be a vehicle for telling stories, connecting with people, and understanding our history—including the uncomfortable parts. In this episode of Can We Talk?, Jen Richler heads to Charleston, South Carolina to learn about Southern Jewish history...

‘Maus,’ Nazi parallels and a Shylock reference make appearances at Senate hearing on book bans

‘Maus,’ Nazi parallels and a Shylock reference make appearances at Senate hearing on book bans

Published September 12, 2023

(JTA) – Nazi book burnings, antisemitic attacks on high school students and Shylock were all invoked during a Senate hearing on school book bans Tuesday morning.  The hearing brought to Capitol Hill the debate over how much control parents should...

Elon Musk doubted biblical miracles but loves Mel Brooks

Elon Musk doubted biblical miracles but loves Mel Brooks

By Benyamin Cohen, The ForwardPublished September 11, 2023

When Elon Musk was growing up in South Africa, his mother would take him to the local Anglican church, where she was a teacher. “It did not go well,” writes historian Walter Isaacson in a highly anticipated new biography of Musk due out on Tuesday.  Musk’s...

Roald Dahl signs books for children in Amsterdam on Oct. 12, 1988. Credit: Rob Bogaerts/Anefo via Wikimedia Commons.

Museum honoring author Roald Dahl updated to recognize his antisemitism

Published July 27, 2023

(JNS) -- “So shines a good deed in a weary world,” Gene Wilder whispered at the climax of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” the first of many film adaptations in a book collection that has now become canonical for generations of young readers. The...

Add one (or more) of these graphic novels to your summer reading list

Add one (or more) of these graphic novels to your summer reading list

Zia Saylor, Jewish Women's ArchivePublished July 25, 2023

This story was originally published on JWA.com This summer, my beach reads have taken a turn for the more picturesque. Tired after years of reading multiple books a semester in college, the text blurring as I highlighted yet another 100-page reading...

Mary Ann Hoberman was the author of dozens of children books, including Strawberry Hill and “All Kinds of Families!” (Legacy)

Kids’ writer Mary Ann Hoberman dies at 92

Published July 25, 2023
Poet and children’s book author Mary Ann Hoberman, whose own childhood in a “very loud, raucous, opinionated” Jewish household inspired the family themes that infused her books, died on July 7 at her home in Greenwich, Conn. She was 92.
The new book Dyed in Crimson shares the story of Harvard football captain and coach Arnold Horween, right, shown here with his brother Ralph. (Book cover courtesy of Zev Eleff, Horween photo via Wikimedia Commons)

How this unsung Jewish football hero changed all American sports

Jacob Gurvis, JTAPublished May 16, 2023

(JTA) — Decades before Sandy Koufax sat out the first game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur, and 18 years before Greenberg chased Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record in the late 1930s, a college athlete made some overlooked...

Cassie Taylor, 10, Rabbi Amy Feder and her daughter Molly Alper, 11, discussing the Judy Blume classic.

St. Louis Jewish moms, daughters discuss Judy Blume classic, “Are you there God, It’s Me, Margaret”

By Amy Burger, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 15, 2023

I was just a year old when Judy Blume’s classic young adult novel “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret” was published in 1970, long before YA Fiction was even considered a genre. By the time I hit puberty myself, around 1982, that seminal book,...

Andy Cohen launching new book here in St. Louis

Andy Cohen launching new book here in St. Louis

Published March 28, 2023

Hometown celebrity Andy Cohen is returning to St. Louis to discuss his hilarious, heartwarming, and name-dropping account of the most important year of his life and the book that came out of the experience, "The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up." Cohen...

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