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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

JCC Used Book Sale

Dates announced for return of Used Book Sale at the J

Published June 29, 2022

The St. Louis Jewish Community Center’s biannual Used Book Sale returns from August 28-September 1 with offerings in every genre, including mysteries, general fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, and much more. “The Used Book Sale at the J...

Deanna Shoss and Jerry Witkovsky are the authors of  “Where Two Worlds Meet: A Guide to Connecting With Your Teenage Grandchildren.”

Two worlds don’t have to collide: A guide for grandparents of teens

ELLEN FUTTERMAN, Editor-in-ChiefPublished June 29, 2022

As a grandma with two amazing granddaughters, ages 6 and 4, I’ve got to say, life doesn’t get much better. They’re at the ages when they are so happy to see me, especially if it’s for a sleepover because they love to play “interview” at...

Larry Swedroe's new book explains "sustainable investing"

Larry Swedroe’s new book explains “sustainable investing”

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished June 27, 2022

Since joining Buckingham Strategic Wealth in St. Louis, in 1996, Chief Research Officer Larry Swedroe has spent his time, talent, and energy educating investors on the benefits of evidence-based investing, by writing books explaining the science of investing...

How watchmaking skills saved 3 Jewish brothers from the Nazi death machine

How watchmaking skills saved 3 Jewish brothers from the Nazi death machine

BY ROBERT A. COHN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EMERITUSPublished June 22, 2022

Every Holocaust survivor story is both a miracle and a curse. The miracle for any Jew in Nazi-occupied Europe between 1939 and 1945 is the fact that they managed to escape the merciless, ruthless and efficient Germans at all. The curse is survivors’...

The Oxford Annotated Mishnah is the product of 10 years of rigorous academic scholarship. (Image courtesy of Oxford University Press; design by Grace Yagel)

Price tag of new, ‘accessible’ Mishnah “a huge disappointment”

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTAPublished June 15, 2022

(JTA) — As an avid book collector who operates an independent Jewish press, Larry Yudelson was excited to learn that a new, annotated version of the Mishnah, the earliest compendium of Oral Torah, was on its way. Then he found out how much it would...

A 1986 Mad magazine cover designed by Mort Drucker. Courtesy of DC Entertainment

Everything I learned about Jewish humor I learned from Mad magazine

By Jim Sullivan, The ForwardPublished June 14, 2022

I grew up in central Maine in the ’60s and ’70s, and while we weren’t exactly the Mayberry of the North — the fictional town of “The Andy Griffith Show” — if you were looking to find a nearly 100% all-white Catholic and Protestant enclave...

Critics accuse Pope Pius XII of having turned a blind eye to Jewish suffering during World War II. ( Wikimedia Commons) 

A new book explains Pope Pius XII’s silence during the Shoah — but does not excuse it

PJ Grisar, The ForwardPublished June 8, 2022

One day in late October 1941, Pope Pius XII received chilling news. A bishop in Slovakia wrote to say that the country’s Jews “are simply being shot … systematically murdered, without distinction of sex or age.” We can get a sense of how Pius...

Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish mobsters battled Nazis in wartime America

Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish mobsters battled Nazis in wartime America

Published June 6, 2022

(JTA) — As Adolph Hitler rose to power in 1930s Germany, a growing wave of fascism began to take root on American soil. Nazi activists started to gather in major American cities, and by 1933, there were more than one hundred anti-Semitic groups operating...

The Miniature Torah

Out of the Vault: Video of invaluable Torah scrolls revealed

Published June 5, 2022

This year, in advance of Shavuot, the National Library of Israel (NLI) has released a series of video clips featuring four of the most significant Torah scrolls from its world-leading Judaica collection. Due to their exceedingly delicate state, the Torah...

Missouri's small towns are filled with rich Jewish history

Missouri’s small towns are filled with rich Jewish history

Eric Berger, Special For The Jewish LightPublished June 1, 2022

Mara Cohen Ioannides, an English professor at Missouri State University, once lived in New York where, she said, “If you want something, you ask for it.” So Cohen Ioannides did not understand when the editor of OzarksWatch magazine approached her...

Jeff Nussbaum returning to St. Louis with facinating new book on historical undelivered speeches

Jeff Nussbaum returning to St. Louis with facinating new book on historical undelivered speeches

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished May 26, 2022

The great speeches of history have lifted our hearts during dark times, given us hope in times of despair, provided courage when we felt fear and helped define the course of human history. But, what about the great speeches that were never delivered?...

Was the gangster Meyer Lansky a mensch?

Was the gangster Meyer Lansky a mensch?

Shelley Sackett, The Jewish ExperiencePublished May 24, 2022

(The Jewish Experience) -- When Jonathan Lang set out to write a graphic novel about the notorious Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky, he was determined to capture the mobster's life in all its moral complexity. The result is 2019's "Meyer," for which...

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