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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

Holocaust survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan holding a yellow star identification badge that Jewish people were forced to wear by the Nazis

Holocaust survivor shares her story and a message of hope with St. Louis audience

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished November 11, 2024

Trapped in Nazi Germany, Marion Blumenthal Lazan and her family sought refuge in Holland, only to be captured and sent to the Westerbork transit camp and later the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Her 1996 memoir, “Four Perfect Pebbles,”...

The Bornplatz Synagogue in Hamburg, Germany, once held 1,200 congregants before it was destroyed in the  Kristallnacht pogroms, Nov. 9-10, 1938. (Wikimedia Commons)

When the Nazis attacked synagogues on Kristallnacht, they were targeting Judaism’s heart and soul

Michael Berenbaum, JTAPublished November 7, 2024

(JTA) — Eighty-six years ago this week, a series of pogroms took place in Germany and Austria. More than 1,000 synagogues were burned, their pews destroyed; sacred Torah scrolls and holy books were set aflame. More than 7,000 Jewish businesses were...

St. Louis Holocaust Museum launches study to gauge visitor impact

St. Louis Holocaust Museum launches study to gauge visitor impact

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished October 24, 2024

Have you visited the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum recently? If so, the museum wants to learn more about your experience. In partnership with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Skokie Museum, the St. Louis museum is conducting...

A sheet from James Madison's ledger The sheet containing Haym Salomon’s name is the only known surviving page from the book. (Courtesy The Raab Collection)

Rare document that shows contributions of Jewish financier to American Revolution up for sale

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTAPublished September 24, 2024

After 10 years on display at Philadelphia’s Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, a document penned by James Madison linking Jewish financier Haym Salomon to the American Revolution is now for sale. The document, a sheet from the ledger...

Named the Afghan Liturgical Quire, some believe it is the oldest Jewish book in existence. (Museum of the Bible)

Museum of the Bible unveils world’s ‘oldest Jewish book’ in new exhibit

Asaf Elia-Shalev, JTAPublished September 24, 2024

In a new exhibit opening Tuesday, the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. has unveiled what it says is the oldest Jewish book ever discovered.  According to the museum’s dramatic claim, the tiny book is a relic of an 8th-century civilization...

A display of copies of Adolf Hitler's book “Mein Kampf.” Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Hitler is trending on TikTok again — and they’re trying to make him seem like a nice guy

Published September 22, 2024

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox. Hitler is, once again, trending on TikTok. Speeches given by the Nazi Führer, translated into English and read...

Dummy Armored Car
Courtesy of National Archives

Discover Jewish heroes of the secret WWII unit, ‘The Ghost Army’ in new St. Louis exhibit

Published September 12, 2024

In a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in March of 2024, three of the last surviving members of the Ghost Army received the Congressional Gold Medal. Among them were 100-year-old Bernard Bluestein from Illinois and 100-year-old Seymour Nussenbaum from New...

Aerial view of the ruins of Masada, a fortress built by Herod the Great on a clifftop in the desert of what is now Israel. (Getty Images)

New archaeological research shows siege on Masada lasted just weeks, not years

By Jackie Hajdenberg, JTAPublished September 5, 2024

The legend of Masada is etched into Jewish lore: For years, the story goes, ancient Jews held out in a desert fortress against their Roman foes. New research from Tel Aviv University has revealed that the siege on Masada in 72 CE, long believed to have...

The old Orchard Street Market on the Lower East Side. (Courtesy Dan Slater)

How ‘uptown’ Jews fought to clean up the criminal underworld

By Jon Kalish, JTAPublished September 5, 2024

“When a lady whistled at you on Allen Street, you knew she’s not calling you to a minyan!” So goes a particularly illuminating quote from a lawyer named Jonah Goldstein, describing just how derelict life on the Lower East Side was in July 1913,...

Darryl Cooper (left) is interviewed by Tucker Carlson on an episode of Carlson's show on X, Sept. 2, 2024. Cooper, a self-proclaimed "historian," argues that Hitler and the Nazis didn't intend for the Holocaust to happen. (Screenshot)

On X, Tucker Carlson hosts ‘historian’ who says the Nazis didn’t mean for the Holocaust to happen

Andrew Lapin, JTAPublished September 4, 2024

Right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson used the latest episode of his online talk show to interview a self-proclaimed “historian" and Holocaust denier Darryl Cooper, who promoted falsehoods about the Holocaust. The episode of Carlson’s eponymous show...

Theodor Herzl addresses the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland.

This week in Israeli history: Aug. 29-Sept. 4

Published August 29, 2024

Aug. 29, 1897 — First Zionist Congress Starts Spearheaded by “The Jewish State” author Theodor Herzl, the First Zionist Congress opens in Basel, Switzerland, for three days of meetings with roughly 200 attendees. Herzl invites Jews and non-Jews...

Alexander Hamilton portrait by John Trumbull 1806, with just a slight embellishment. Original photo: Wikimedia Commons. Photo Illustration: Martin holloway

Exploring Alexander Hamilton’s possible Jewish roots as ‘Hamilton’ returns to the Fox

Ellen Futterman, Editor-in-ChiefPublished August 14, 2024

As "Hamilton" makes its return to the Fox Theatre in St. Louis later this month, we're taking another look at the intriguing historical debate surrounding Alexander Hamilton's potential Jewish heritage. According to Andrew R. Porwancher, various factors...

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