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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

Ben Ferencz, 103, prosecutor of Nuremberg trials with awarded with Medal of Freedom

Ben Ferencz, 103, prosecutor of Nuremberg trials with awarded with Medal of Freedom

JNSPublished April 9, 2022
Ben Ferencz, 103, said he has worked his whole life for “a more humane and peaceful world, where no one would be killed or persecuted because of his race or religion or his political beliefs.”
2022 St. Louis Yom HaShoah Holocaust commemoration to take place virtually

2022 St. Louis Yom HaShoah Holocaust commemoration to take place virtually

Published March 31, 2022

This year’s Holocaust commemoration, Yom HaShoah 2022: Faith & Healing, will be presented on Wednesday, April 27 at 7 pm. As in past years, this program will honor the victims, remember the survivors, and educate the community about the history...

Irving and Oskar Jakob, 1946

How soup helped St. Louisan Oskar Jakob survive the Holocaust

St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, Special For The Jewish LightPublished March 29, 2022

Today, we tell the remarkable story of Oskar Jakob a St. Louisan who survived five camps before being liberated by the British. The St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum is allowing us to republish portions of their  Oral Histories Project, as a...

Why this Holocaust survivor wears the same hand-knit sweater every Passover

Why this Holocaust survivor wears the same hand-knit sweater every Passover

By Tanya Singer, JTAPublished March 29, 2022

(New York Jewish Week) — Every Passover for the last 75 years, Helena Weinstock Weinrauch, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor, has worn a vibrant blue hand-knit sweater to the first seder, which she hosts in her Upper West Side apartment building. The...

Chesterfield honoring 3 residents who experienced WWII 3 different ways

Chesterfield honoring 3 residents who experienced WWII 3 different ways

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished March 18, 2022

In his 1998 best-seller, Tom Brokaw coined the phrase "The Greatest Generation" which created a well-deserved awareness, wonder, and appreciation of those Americans born in the 1920s. They were the Americans who, through their sacrifices, deprivation,...

This St. Louisan met Mengele, fooled the Nazis and survived

The St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, Special For The Jewish LightPublished March 15, 2022

Today, we tell the remarkable story of Helena Schonfeld, a St. Louisan who concealed her Jewish identity, had contact with Dr. Josef Mengele, lived in multiple concentration camps before being liberated. The St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum is...

West Virginia ‘critical race theory’ bill leads to a statehouse debate over Jews and race

West Virginia ‘critical race theory’ bill leads to a statehouse debate over Jews and race

ANDREW LAPINPublished March 10, 2022

(JTA) – When West Virginia lawmakers opened a discussion about proposed “critical race theory” legislation on Monday, it didn’t take long before topic of conversation turned to Jews. West Virginia’s House of Delegates was debating legislation...

Lisa Johnson

Webster student making sure Holocaust memories aren’t lost in translation

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished February 17, 2022

Lisa Johnson says her internship at The St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum is nothing short of a labor of love. "I’m learning through doing, and that doing is helping make history come alive in translation," said Johnson. Johnson is an...

How Morris Gutterman survived 5 camps and was forced labor on the Autobahn

How Morris Gutterman survived 5 camps and was forced labor on the Autobahn

Published February 15, 2022

Today, we tell the remarkable story of Morris Gutterman, a St. Louisan who survived living in Nazi-occupied Poland, 5 camps before being liberated by the British. The St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum is allowing us to republish portions of their...

Collectors livid as auction site vows to prohibit sale of Nazi artifacts

Collectors livid as auction site vows to prohibit sale of Nazi artifacts

Hanan Greenwood, JNSPublished February 14, 2022

(Israel Hayom via JNS) The fight against the auctioning of Nazi artifacts took another turn over the weekend, as popular auction website “Bidspirit” announced a total ban on the sale of Nazi items. Any auction houses violating the ban will be removed...

Remembering Mel Mermelstein, who took on Holocaust deniers and crushed them

Remembering Mel Mermelstein, who took on Holocaust deniers and crushed them

Mark I. Pinsky, The ForwardPublished February 6, 2022

This story was originally published on by the Forward. Sign up here to get the latest stories from the Forward delivered to you each morning. Auschwitz survivor Mel Mermelstein, who died Jan. 28, at 95, was a modest, unprepossessing man. Whatever...

Jewish group urges pulling of book naming Jewish suspect who betrayed Anne Frank

Published February 3, 2022

(JNS) The European Jewish Congress is asking the U.S-based publishing house HarperCollins to pull a book they said contains an “incendiary claim” that a Jewish notary told the Nazis where Anne Frank and her family were hiding during the Holocaust. “In...

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