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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 History

The cattle car that is the "No Hate Now" exhibit.

Tickets on sale now for chilling Holocaust cattle car exhibit in St. Louis

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished August 11, 2025

Tickets are now on sale for the "Hate Ends Now" cattle car exhibit, coming to the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum Sept. 10–14, and organizers expect them to go quickly. Capacity is limited, and walk-up sales will not be available. Museum...

An image of Evyatar David from a video released by Hamas is shown at a rally in Tel Aviv, Aug. 2, 2025. (Ori Aviram/Middle East Images via AFP/Getty Images)

Holocaust survivors say latest hostage videos recall their own condition 80 years ago

Philissa Cramer, JTAPublished August 4, 2025

Holocaust survivors say the hostage videos published in recent days recall for them their own torture and deprivation under the Nazis eight decades ago. “Their bodies are painfully thin—nearly Muselmänner—their eyes terrified and vacant,...

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin meets with silver medalist Yael Arad and bronze medalist Oren Smadja on Aug. 31, 1992, to celebrate their Olympic judo success. Photo: Ya’acov Sa’ar, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0

This week in Israeli history: July 30-Aug. 5

Center for Israel Education, israeled.orgPublished July 30, 2025

July 30, 1992 — Yael Arad Wins Israel’s First Olympic Medal Tel Aviv native Yael Arad, 25, becomes the first Israeli to win an Olympic medal, taking the silver in judo in the half-middleweight (61-kilogram) class at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona....

A 19th-century depiction of the execution of Luis de Carvajal the Younger’s sister. 'El Libro Rojo, 1520-1867' via Wikimedia Commons

A statue in Monterrey, Mexico, of Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva. Ricardo DelaG/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

These Jewish voices were never meant to survive. A St. Louis scholar is bringing them back to life

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished July 25, 2025

When Flora Cassen first came across the name Joseph Ha-Kohen, she was researching her first book on how Jews in Renaissance Italy were forced to wear yellow badges and hats — visible symbols of exclusion imposed by Christian authorities. “Ha-Kohen,...

Four Women, One Torah—Now with four names

Four Women, One Torah—Now with four names

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished July 20, 2025

Last week, we turned to our readers with a mystery: a photo in the Jewish Light from the late 1970s or early 1980s at Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel (BSKI), showing four women and Rabbi Benson Skoff gathered around an open Torah scroll. We had zero names....

Billy Joel performs at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, May 19, 2023.

‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history

By PJ Grisar, The ForwardPublished July 16, 2025

In the second installment of And So It Goes, HBO’s new two-part documentary about Billy Joel, the Piano Man explains why he wore a yellow Star of David in August 2017, during his residency at Madison Square Garden, in his most extensive filmed account...

St. Louis dressmaker’s legacy adds new thread to Holocaust story and exhibition

St. Louis dressmaker’s legacy adds new thread to Holocaust story and exhibition

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished July 16, 2025

When Arlen Chaleff got a call from the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, she didn’t hesitate. Within moments, she was digging through old file cabinets, pulling out patterns along with  naturalization papers and anything else she could...

Synagogue of Lengnau.

This Swiss synagogue holds a secret — and St. Louis might be part of it

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished July 15, 2025

A centuries-old Swiss village may be the missing chapter in your Jewish family story — and a European genealogy group is hoping someone in St. Louis can help close the book. The Swiss Society for Jewish Genealogy is searching for descendants...

Stones are laid at the monument for Walter and Else Berger.

Two generations later, Holocaust survivor’s gravestone is made right

By Bill Motchan, Special to the Jewish LightPublished July 9, 2025

A St. Louis Holocaust survivor was honored with a special memorial service late last month — 60 years after his death.  Walter Berger’s family members gathered June 30 to unveil a new monument at his grave in Memorial Park Cemetery in Staunton,...

A still from "Sevap/Mitzvah." (©geminisnakeproductions)

St. Louis screens powerful film on Muslim-Jewish rescue during WWII

Shira Li Bartov, JTAPublished July 8, 2025

(JTA) — In 1941 Sarajevo, a Muslim woman hid her Jewish friend from fascist roundups. Half a century later, that same Muslim woman was trapped in the besieged capital during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War — and her Jewish friend made sure she got out. These...

The cattle car that is the "No Hate Now" exhibit.

Immersive Holocaust cattle car exhibit coming to St. Louis

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished July 7, 2025

The door closes behind you, and suddenly, you're in the dark. The air is still. A cold floor beneath you. Around you, shadows flicker—portraits of people once packed inside this very kind of railcar. Some clutch children. Some look out, searching for...

Israelis rejoice while awaiting the arrival of the rescued Entebbe hostages at Ben Gurion Airport on July 4, 1976. Photo Ya’acov Sa’ar, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0

This week in Israeli history: June 30-July 6

Center for Israel Education, israeled.orgPublished June 30, 2025

June 30, 2012 — Yitzhak Shamir Dies Israel’s seventh prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir, dies at 96. Born Yitzhak Yzernitzky in Poland during World War I, he made aliyah in 1935 and enrolled in the Hebrew University. He joined the Irgun in 1937, then...

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