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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: 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...

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...

Pish posh! Enough with the creepy buzzing

Pish posh! Enough with the creepy buzzing

AMY FENSTER BROWN, Special to the Jewish LightPublished June 4, 2024

Is it difficult to concentrate on reading this right now because of the distracting noise across the St. Louis area? It’s a constant buzz with crescendos and rhythms in unison that get so loud you lose focus on your task at hand. Oy with the freakin’...

Rabbi Jill Hausman of the Actors' Temple in New York appears on 'Saturday Night Live' on May 18, 2024. (Screenshot via YouTube)

Meet Jill Hausman, the real rabbi who grimaced through jokes about Jews on SNL’s ‘Weekend Update’

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTAPublished May 20, 2024

(JTA) — For Rabbi Jill Hausman, spiritual leader of the Actors’ Temple in Manhattan’s Theater District, working with celebrities comes with the job description.  So when she saw an email on Thursday from “Saturday Night Live,” asking...

Dan Ahdoot.

The funniest Iranian Jew in the world is coming to St. Louis

Bill Motchan, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 15, 2024

A special night of comedy, food and fellowship is coming up June 10 at The Factory in Chesterfield. The Men’s Event is being planned by Jewish Federation to bring together a wide cross-section of the community. According to Amy Bornstein, senior...

Cardinals call up rookie Carolyn Losos, who then retires after one pitch

Cardinals call up rookie Carolyn Losos, who then retires after one pitch

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished May 8, 2024

The St. Louis Cardinals, mired in a three-game losing streak, needed something special to create a winning spark Tuesday night. So, they called up local civic leader and lifetime educator Carolyn Losos to take the mound. The hope was Losos, who has been...

Jerry Seinfeld said that network sitcoms lost their sizzle. Photo by Jeffery Neira/ NETFLIX

In Seinfeld’s newest kvetch, a tale of two Pop-Tart jokes

By PJ Grisar, The ForwardPublished April 29, 2024

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox. Jerry Seinfeld, promoting his new film about a fictive arms race to invent toaster pastries, says they don’t make...

Robin WIlliams at the Happy Feet Two Australian Premiere 4 December 2011,

Robin Williams’ retelling of the Passover story never gets old

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished April 19, 2024

Robin Williams was not a Jew, but perhaps it was because of his lifetime friendship and professional partnership with Jewish comedy legend Billy Crystal that many people think he was indeed Jewish. Williams, who died in 2014, embraced Jewish culture...

Buzz Off! Why I’m serving up unfiltered truth to nosy advice-givers

Buzz Off! Why I’m serving up unfiltered truth to nosy advice-givers

BY AMY FENSTER BROWNPublished April 18, 2024

Recently I read an article about home organization. The expert suggested vacuuming in natural light to really be able to see dirt and debris, so you won’t have to go back and do touch ups. Until that moment, I had no idea going back and doing touch...

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