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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

Matzah pajamas are the latest trend in a long history of American Jewish branding

Matzah pajamas are the latest trend in a long history of American Jewish branding

Published April 11, 2022

(JTA) — Rabbi Yael Buechler conceived of her latest product a whole year ago, after planning ways to make the Passover seder fun for her two young sons. But it wasn’t until she started promoting the matzah pajamas she designed that she decided...

Missouri moves closer to legalized sports betting. Are Jews allowed to gamble?

Missouri moves closer to legalized sports betting. Are Jews allowed to gamble?

Jordan Palmer and MJL., Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished April 11, 2022

The state of Missouri is one step closer to legalizing sports betting.  Late last month, the Missouri House overwhelming approved sports gaming legislation, passing HB 2502 & 2556 with a vote of 115 to 33. The legislation must still be approved...

Canada set to outlaw Holocaust denial

Canada set to outlaw Holocaust denial

Published April 11, 2022

(JTA) — Canada is set to outlaw Holocaust denial, a move that has the backing of the governing Liberal Party government coalition and the opposition Conservative Party. The CTV reported on Saturday that language adding Holocaust denial to the criminal...

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

Ken Burns’ next documentary is about the US response to the Holocaust

ANDREW LAPIN, JTAPublished April 11, 2022

(JTA) — For his next historical deep dive, famed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is exploring America’s relationship to the Holocaust. Tentatively titled “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” the three-part miniseries set to air Sept. 18-20 on PBS...

Mimi Reinhard, Jewish secretary who typed up Schindler’s list dies at 107

Mimi Reinhard, Jewish secretary who typed up Schindler’s list dies at 107

Published April 11, 2022

(JTA) — Mimi Reinhard had studied literature and languages as an undergraduate before World War II. But it was a course in shorthand that saved her life. Reinhard was imprisoned at the Plaszow concentration camp outside of Krakow when she was chosen,...

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.”
APRIL 10: Golda Meir wishes her successor as prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, good luck during her farewell party in Jerusalem on June 4, 1974. Photo: Ya’acov Sa’ar, Israeli Government Press Office

This week in Israeli history: April 7-13

CENTER FOR ISRAEL EDUCATIONPublished April 7, 2022

April 7, 1973 — Israel Fourth in First Eurovision Bid Ilanit, Israel’s first entry in the annual Eurovision Song Contest, finishes fourth out of 17 nations with the song “Ey-sham,” a dramatic ballad featuring “the garden of love.” Her result...

New exhibit pays tribute to 120 years of St. Louis’ Jewish Federation

New exhibit pays tribute to 120 years of St. Louis’ Jewish Federation

Bill Motchan, Special to the Jewish LightPublished April 6, 2022

A new exhibit opening April 10 at the Jewish Federation traces the organization’s roots in the late 1880s through today. The exhibit, in the lobby of the Kaplan Feldman Complex, honors the Federation’s past and its contributions to the St. Louis Jewish...

Miriam's Song

Recalling and celebrating the overlooked great women of the Passover story

Rabbi Dr. Neal RosePublished April 5, 2022

The Shabbat before Pesach is known as Shabbat HaGadol, the Great Shabbat. For me, this particular Shabbat HaGadol will be a time to recall and celebrate the all too often overlooked great women mentioned in the Passover story. What these women...

New York Post article about Ezrat Nashim from March 14, 1972. Courtesy of Leora Fishman.

“All of us had unbelievable chutzpah.” The true story of the women who helped change Conservative Judaism

Published April 4, 2022

Fifty years ago, a group of young Jewish women piled into two cars and drove to upstate New York to crash the annual meeting of the all-male Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement. They called themselves Ezrat Nashim and they had a set of demands...

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...

10 amazing Jewish archeological finds, discovered by accident

Naama Barak, Israel21cPublished March 31, 2022

It’s no secret that Israel is brimming with amazing Jewish archeological finds, ranging from huge palaces to marble toilets. While some of the discoveries are the result of backbreaking archeological digs, many others were simply stumbled upon...

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