(JTA) — For many younger Jews, being critical of Israel is itself a form of attachment. They may not consider themselves answerable to the Jewish state, but they definitely feel answerable for it in the eyes of the world. The same is true of some Jewish...
ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
• Published May 4, 2022
In his superbly written new biography, “The Trials of Harry S. Truman,” Jeffrey Frank, a Presidential historian, avoids both adulation and harsh judgment of the Man from Missouri.
For admirers and skeptics of HST, Frank, who previously wrote about...
BILL MOTCHAN, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published May 4, 2022
If you’ve ever signed a petition, written a letter to the editor or marched for a cause you believe in, you participated in a form of advocacy. It’s an act of free speech that can help call attention to important issues.
Cindy Levin has made advocacy...
In her new memoir, Jennifer Grey leads with her nose. For the first 29 years of her life, the “Dirty Dancing” star’s trademark proboscis was her pesky “friend,” demanding three-quarter profile headshots. It was the feature that prompted her...
Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content Officer
• Published April 27, 2022
(JWA) - After a career spent telling other people's stories, Eleanor Reissa has finally uncovered her own. In 1986, when her mother died at the age of sixty-four, Eleanor went through all of her belongings. In the back of her mother’s lingerie drawer,...
Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content Officer
• Published April 26, 2022
On this, Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), we honor the victims, remember the survivors, and educate the community about the history and lessons of the Holocaust. One such story has become a book, which will be released later this summer. "The...
Left Bank Books & St. Louis Public Library, welcome former St. Louisans Barbara Ballinger and Margaret Crane, who will discuss with humor, optimism, energy, and honesty the book that will help readers face what comes their way as they age,...
Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content Officer
• Published April 18, 2022
St. Louis author and poet Jason Sommer's father, Jay, is 98 years old and losing his memory. More than 70 years after arriving in New York from World War II-torn Europe, he is forgetting the stories that defined his life, the life of his family, and the...
JUDITH NEWMARK, Special For The Jewish Light
• Published April 14, 2022
When Alex Ludwig was born in 1979, Woodstock was 10-year-old news.
Of course, people remembered the festival, a counter-cultural phenomenon that drew some 500,000 kids to Max Yasgur’s dairy farm for three days of peace, love and music.
And what...
By Daniel Shanker and Avital Vorobeychik
• Published April 14, 2022
Machshava is the Hebrew word for thought. It’s the perfect name for Epstein Hebrew Academy’s literary magazine, as the Machshava encompasses thoughts reflected throughout the St. Louis Jewish community.
Thought is a purposely vague term, opening...
Kerri Steinberg, Otis College of Art and Design
• Published April 13, 2022
For more than a millennium, the haggadah has been the centerpiece of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The book sets out the ceremony for the Seder meal, when families tell the biblical Exodus story of God delivering the ancient Israelites from slavery...
(JTA) — The United States Postal Service released a new series of Forever stamps Friday in honor of Shel Silverstein, the Jewish author and illustrator who died in 1999.
The stamps commemorate what is perhaps Silverstein’s most famous book, “The...
