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,...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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,...

(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 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...

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...

(JNS) -- The third-century Palmyra queen Zenobia, who ruled in present-day Syria from about 267 or 268 to 272, stands on a dais among her soldiers in Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s c. 1725-1730 painting in the collection of Washington’s National Gallery...

(THE FORWARD) -- As tensions grow over the Israel-Iran conflict, far-right influencers are reviving an antisemitic trope that claims Jews avoid military service and manipulate American soldiers into fighting wars for Israel. These false narratives echo...

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed trying to make sense of Jewish history — from Abraham to Herzl, from Sinai to the state of Israel — you’re not alone. But what if someone promised to cover the biggest turning points of the last 4,000 years… in...