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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

Found diary helps retell tragedy of SS St. Louis victims in new graphic novel

Found diary helps retell tragedy of SS St. Louis victims in new graphic novel

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished February 21, 2024

The story of the SS St. Louis is a tragic chapter in the history of the Holocaust. The St. Louis was a German ocean liner carrying 937 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution in 1939. The ship sought asylum in Cuba but was denied entry. It then attempted...

In a scene from "The Devil's Confession," someone sets up the recorder to listen to a tape. (Screenshot via YouTube)

Exclusive screening of “The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes” coming to St. Louis

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished February 19, 2024

Last February, "The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes,” a three-part documentary series, began airing on Prime Video. What made this series different from others on Adolph Eichmann was its use of newly available audio of Eichmann recorded...

A bas-relief of Maimonides, sculpted by Brenda Putnam, hangs in the U.S. House of Representatives among statues of historical lawmakers. Architect of the Capitol/Wikimedia

Unlocking and understanding Maimonides

Randy L. Friedman, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkPublished February 19, 2024

I teach a philosophy of religion seminar titled “Faith and Reason.” Most students who register arrive with a mistaken assumption: that the course explores the differences between the two. “Faith” is often defined as belief in a supernatural...

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (left) and Jordan’s King Hussein shake hands in front of U.S. President Bill Clinton after signing their peace treaty Oct. 26, 1994, in the Arava. By Ya’acov Sa’ar, Israeli Government Press Office

This week in Israeli history: Jan. 31 to Feb. 7

Center for Israel Education, israeled.orgPublished January 31, 2024

Jan. 31, 1922 — Hebrew ‘Dybbuk’ Opens in Moscow The Hebrew version of “The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds” begins its successful stage run at Moscow’s Habimah Theater. Written in Russian and then Yiddish by S. Ansky and translated into Hebrew...

Missouri schools transform Holocaust education with innovative pilot program

Missouri schools transform Holocaust education with innovative pilot program

Bill Motchan, Special to the Jewish LightPublished January 25, 2024

As Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches on Jan. 27, a cross-section of Missouri schools are using a new framework for Holocaust education. The pilot program of up to 25 school districts is the result of legislation signed into law by Governor Mike Parson...

How to watch the much anticipated 'Symphony of the Holocaust' documentary

How to watch the much anticipated ‘Symphony of the Holocaust’ documentary

Published January 18, 2024

The much-anticipated “Symphony of the Holocaust” documentary World Premiere about child prodigy violinist and Holocaust Survivor Shony Alex Braun’s inspiring life and final wish being fulfilled in 2023, will be held on Saturday, January 27, 2024,...

How St. Louis' Holocaust Museum is marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day

How St. Louis’ Holocaust Museum is marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Published January 18, 2024

Each year on Jan. 27, the world commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet soldiers. This year, the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum is planning a weekend-long...

Alanis Morissette shown on PBS' celebrity genealogy series "Finding Your Roots." (Screenshot from YouTube)

Understanding Alanis Morissette’s Jewish roots will enhance St. Louis’ experience of her music

Jacob Gurvis, JTAPublished January 2, 2024

Before the Broadway musical “Jagged Little Pill,” based on Alanis Morissette’s music, arrives at the Fabulous Fox Jan. 19-21, and prior to her performance at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre slated for July 23, audiences can learn more about the...

This week in Israeli history: Dec. 14-20

Center for Israel Education, (israeled.org)Published December 14, 2023

Dec. 14, 1981 — Israel Annexes Golan Heights The Knesset votes 63-21 to pass surprise legislation to annex the Golan Heights and apply Israeli law there in place of military administration. The Labor Party boycotts the vote because of the bill’s...

Guy Stern, who escaped Germany in the run-up to the Holocaust, speaks to a group of lawmakers in Hanover, Germany, May 14, 2019.

St. Louis war hero, WWII ‘Ritchie Boy,’ Guy Stern dies at 101

Andrew Lapin, JTAPublished December 13, 2023

(JTA) — Guy Stern, a German Jewish refugee who was one of the last known surviving members of the celebrated World War II military intelligence unit known as the “Ritchie Boys” and who became an accomplished Holocaust scholar after the war, died...

Roberto Benigni in a scene from his film "Life is Beautiful."

Remembering when ‘Life is Beautiful’ hit US theaters 25 years ago and rocked Hollywood

Stephen Silver, Gabe Friedman, JTAPublished December 11, 2023

(JTA) — Ferne Pearlstein re-watched “Life is Beautiful,” Roberto Benigni’s Oscar-winning Holocaust film, around 2015. She was working on her documentary “The Last Laugh,” which focused on the possibilities — and limits — of Holocaust humor. Pearlstein...

Blue Bus Productions

Two Holocaust survivors, reunited after 80 years apart

Published December 5, 2023

(New York Jewish Week) — In March 2022, Jack Waksal thought he recognized Sam Ron, the keynote speaker at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual South Florida dinner in Boca Raton. But he couldn’t quite place him — after all, at 97, Waksal...

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