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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

The Holocaust

Tickets now on sale at new St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum

Tickets now on sale at new St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum

Published October 7, 2022
The Museum reopens to the public on November 2. 
How an Auschwitz survivor and conservative politician became an abortion rights champion

How an Auschwitz survivor and conservative politician became an abortion rights champion

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished October 3, 2022

“Her name is associated with women’s equality, the memory of the Shoah and the European community,” was a statement said about Simone Veil, a well-known French politician, Holocaust survivor, scholar, former judge, and feminist activist after she...

Babe Ruth in 1921. Photo: George Grantham Bain. Image from Library of Congress/Creative Commons

Babe Ruth and the Holocaust

By Rafael Medoff, JNS.orgPublished September 21, 2022

Babe Ruth is remembered for his home runs on the field and his hot dog binges and other peccadilloes off the field. But as the American public is about to discover, there was another Babe Ruth—one who went to bat for women and minorities, including...

This image was taken from Flickr's The Commons

Takeaways from Episode 2 of “The U.S. and the Holocaust”

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished September 21, 2022

With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, I'm now actually glad PBS put a one-day delay between Episodes 1 and 2 of Ken Burns’ “The U.S. and the Holocaust.” I needed a good day to process all that happened in the first two hours of the three-part, six-hour...

"The Americans and the Holocaust" traveling exhibition opens on Missouri S&T campus

“The Americans and the Holocaust” traveling exhibition opens on Missouri S&T campus

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished September 20, 2022

On the heels of the national release of Ken Burns’ documentary series “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” on PBS, a new traveling exhibit is opening near St. Louis that examines the same important questions about what the international community, including...

Guy Stern, a 100-year-old scholar of German literature

St. Louis war hero makes appearance in Ken Burns’ Holocaust documentary

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished September 20, 2022

In watching Episode 1 of Ken Burns' documentary series “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” on PBS, St. Louis viewers received a special treat. One of our own was prominently included in the documentary. At approximately 35 minutes in, we meet Gunther...

Takeaways from Episode 1 of “The U.S. and the Holocaust”

Takeaways from Episode 1 of “The U.S. and the Holocaust”

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished September 19, 2022

Within the first 10 minutes of Ken Burns' “The U.S. and the Holocaust” I knew that I was going to learn things I never knew. Part One starts with the U.S. government’s enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first time that admission...

Iranian president on the Holocaust: ‘There are some signs that it happened,’ research needed to be sure

Published September 19, 2022

(JTA) — Iran’s leadership has returned to Holocaust denial, its leader made clear in an interview with “60 Minutes,” after distancing itself from the phenomenon. “Historical events should be investigated by researchers and historians,” Ebrahim...

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns filming interviews for "The Roosevelts" in 2014. (Daniel J. White/PBS)

If the U.S. had acted, Anne Frank might still be alive — One on one with Ken Burns

By Dan Friedman, The ForwardPublished September 15, 2022
The legendary documentarian discusses his latest film, 'The U.S. and the Holocaust'
SS troops guard members of the Jewish resistance captured during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Picture between 19 April 1943 and 16 May 1943 taken at Nowolipie street looking East, near intersection with Smocza street. In the back one can see ghetto wall with a gate. (US Holocaust Memorial Museum/Wikimedia Commons)

These 7 facts about America’s role during the holocaust might surprise you

By Stewart Ain, Hey Alma!Published September 15, 2022
When Nazi Germany began persecuting Jews in the 1930s, some American Jews feared that protesting publicly would backfire, and they stayed silent.
Air times for “The U.S. and the Holocaust” Pts. 2-3 changed due to Queen Elizabeth's funeral

Air times for “The U.S. and the Holocaust” Pts. 2-3 changed due to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral

Published September 14, 2022

This Sunday, the first installment of Ken Burns’ documentary “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” is set to air on Nine PBS locally from 7 to 9 p.m. The three-part, six-hour series focuses on “America's response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of...

Why didn’t the US save more Jews from the Nazis’ clutches?

STEWART AIN, JTAPublished September 12, 2022

Why didn’t the United States do more to help Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust? This question haunts the history of the United States and the Holocaust and lurks behind practically every storyline in the new film on the subject from Ken Burns, Lynn...

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