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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 Humor

Notes From A Jewish Mother: Happy double New Year to all; and now, the news

Notes From A Jewish Mother: Happy double New Year to all; and now, the news

Amy Fenster Brown, Special To The Jewish LightPublished October 3, 2024

One of the best things about being Jewish is celebrating holidays. There are the standard American and Hallmark ones like Valentine’s Day and Thanksgiving. Jews get so many extra holidays, including our gift of having two New Year’s celebrations.  When...

Kristen Bell as Joanne and Adam Brody as Rabbi Noah Roklov play interfaith love interests in Netflix's "Nobody Wants This."

From Shabbat candles to love stories: How ‘Nobody Wants This’ celebrates Jewish life on screen

Keren R. McGinity, JTAPublished September 30, 2024

As a gender historian and scholar of intermarriage, I binge-watched the new Netflix series “Nobody Wants This” with a combination of foreboding and optimism. Depictions of romances between Jewish men and Christian women have been ubiquitous in...

Kristen Bell as Joanne and Adam Brody as Noah in "Nobody Wants This." (Stefania Rosini/Netflix)

How a real-life rabbi coached Netflix’s ‘Nobody Wants This’ about making interfaith relationships realistic

Shira Li Bartov, JTAPublished September 26, 2024

“Nobody Wants This,” a rom-com Netflix series starring Adam Brody as a charming Los Angeles rabbi who falls for a blond, agnostic sex and dating podcaster played by Kristen Bell, is based on a true story — kind of. Erin Foster, the creator of...

Clara Deitchman

Yiddish things my bubbe said to me

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished September 22, 2024

Since joining the Jewish Light I’ve reflected on my own Jewish experience growing up and part of that was the Yiddish my grandparents would use, particularly my maternal grandparents whom I affectionately named Mama and Baba. Both would use Yiddish...

How to become the ultimate old fart with the 'The Old Jewish Men’s Guide to Eating, Sleeping & Futzing Around.

How to become the ultimate old fart with the ‘The Old Jewish Men’s Guide to Eating, Sleeping & Futzing Around.

By PJ GrisarPublished September 16, 2024

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox. As far back as he can remember, Noah Rinsky dreamed of becoming an Old Jewish Man — but it wasn’t always a good dream. Growing...

Notes From A Jewish Mother: Outrageous (half-written) book ideas you’ll wish were real

Notes From A Jewish Mother: Outrageous (half-written) book ideas you’ll wish were real

Amy Fenster Brown, Special To The Jewish LightPublished August 27, 2024

In my last column I mentioned an advice book I wanted to write for my older son, Davis, titled, “Quantity Over Quality: The College Years.”  It’s a guide to navigating your years in higher education, featuring practical advice about dating, partying...

Amy Fenster Brown

Notes From A Jewish Mother: When your firstborn leaves for college

Amy Fenster Brown, Special To The Jewish LightPublished August 13, 2024

It’s been said that God gives her toughest battles to her strongest soldiers. Parents sending their kids off to college are training in boot camp, prepping to march on the front lines of an emotional combat zone. We need the strength of a full platoon...

‘Lowcuterie’ and other random ideas I have to share

‘Lowcuterie’ and other random ideas I have to share

Amy Fenster Brown, Special To The Jewish LightPublished July 24, 2024

I have a lot of random ideas swimming around in my head. They’re doing laps, jumping off the high dive and frankly just taking up space. It’s time to purge my flooded brain.   • Charcuterie boards can be so impressive, elaborate and inviting....

A 1958 photo of Jennie Grossinger and the kitchen staff at her eponymous Catskills resort is featured in a new exhibit at the Borscht Belt Museum in Ellenville, New York.

New showcase on Jewish food and humor puts the ‘borscht’ in Borscht Belt

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTAPublished July 22, 2024

(New York Jewish Week) — “We honeymooned at Kutsher’s in late October 1968,” Barbara Gelman recalled in an oral history for the Borscht Belt Museum. “When we ordered dinner, the waitress enumerated all the desserts, and my new husband simply...

The crowd erupts in laughter as Bob Newhart begins his show during the 47th Annual Benefit Dinner at Freed-Hardeman University on Dec. 2, 2011

When Bob Newhart was my rabbi — and I was his

By Rabbi Bob AlperPublished July 21, 2024

I’m six months shy of 80 and in two weeks I’ll head from Vermont to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to do 75 minutes of stand-up comedy. Why am I still out there? As Bob Newhart, who died this week at 94, explained, it was worth it to him to take his...

David Halpern with Adam Heller, Jill Abramovitz, Samantha Massell, Barrie Kreinik and Cheryl Stern

Jewish actors reveal emotional connection to ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at the Muny

Bill Motchan, Special To The Jewish LightPublished July 21, 2024

The four actors playing the leads in the Muny Opera’s production of “Fiddler On The Roof” are all Jewish and they all find special meaning in their roles. That was one of the insights they shared during a behind the scenes panel discussion held...

Jewish Jokes: Did you hear the Jewish mother jokes sent in by a Jewish mother?

Jewish Jokes: Did you hear the Jewish mother jokes sent in by a Jewish mother?

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished July 16, 2024

I was recently asked by the mother of an old friend, 'Why I do a “Jewish Joke of the Day.' I responded and she thought I should share my answer. I believe as Jews, we love to laugh. I believe Jews love to laugh at themselves and laugh at the very...

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