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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

Passover

5 great Passover books for kids from the PJ Library

5 great Passover books for kids from the PJ Library

JENNIFER BAER, Director, PJ Library & Family Engagement at the Jewish Federation of St. LouisPublished April 3, 2024

I have a terrible memory.  Actually, I remember obscure details really well but forget passwords, early pick up times, birthday parties and pretty much anything with numbers.  I should seriously pause for a moment each day and say a prayer of gratitude...

How to win Passover and help the St. Louis Jewish Light at the same time

How to win Passover and help the St. Louis Jewish Light at the same time

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished April 2, 2024

Remember the cozy tradition of matzah pajamas? Well, they're back and better than ever. Rabbi Yael Buechler introduced her beloved matzah pajamas to our readers in 2021, after she was inspired by her youngest son's adorable choice of "matzah...

New JGrads leadership prepares to host their first seder

New JGrads leadership prepares to host their first seder

Published April 2, 2024

JGrads St. Louis, Chabad on Campus's effort to recognize the needs of the hundreds of Jewish graduate students and their peers in St. Louis, is gearing up for its Passover seder. "The seder is targeted at Jewish graduate students and their peers,"...

Brothers Lazaroff and a host of musicians will perform at “The Passover Project: A Musical Seder,” at City Winery on Thursday, April 18.

Musical ‘Passover Project’ at City Winery will benefit Jewish Light

BY ELLEN FUTTERMAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEFPublished March 21, 2024

About a year ago, on March 16 to be exact, Michael Dorf opened City Winery St. Louis, an entertainment venue, restaurant, winery and event space at the City Foundry in Midtown. When I interviewed him at the time of the opening, our conversation ended...

Our new 'Passover Project: A Musical Seder' will unite, celebrate and elevate

Our new ‘Passover Project: A Musical Seder’ will unite, celebrate and elevate

Ellen Futterman, Editor-in ChiefPublished March 12, 2024

Tickets are now on sale for “The Passover Project: A Musical Seder,” at the City Winery on Thursday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. Rooted in a few examples from other creative communities around the country, the St. Louis Jewish Light wanted to create...

Science explains Passover constipation — and how to fix it

Science explains Passover constipation — and how to fix it

By Adam Kovac, The ForwardPublished April 12, 2023

It happens every year. By day two of Passover, thousands, maybe millions of Jews begin to feel a little … stuck. You know, constipation.  While no formal, peer-reviewed studies have been published on the link between Passover and constipation,...

PHOTO Courtesy of JTA

Passover at Rikers Island: How the notorious jail complex holds a seder for Jewish inmates

Jacob Henry, JTAPublished April 4, 2023

(New York Jewish Week) — Miriam Tohill, a Jewish chaplain intern at Rikers Island, is looking forward to co-leading Passover seders for Jewish inmates this year for the first time. But conditions at the New York City jail complex are not ideal. For...

Herman “Herm” Shelanski (far right), then skipper of the squadron on the USS John C. Stennis, celebrating Passover in 2008 on the ship with chaplain Rabbi Irving Elson (holding matzah) and Executive Officer Captain Ron Reis (next to the left). Credit: Courtesy of Vice Adm. (Ret.) Herman Shelanski.

Passover in the US Navy and “helicopter matzah incident”

By Menachem Wecker, JNSPublished April 4, 2023

(JNS) The Torah reserves some of its most elegant poetry for nautical phenomena amid the Red Sea parting. Exodus 15 describes the “heart of the sea” and Divine nostrils blowing “majestic” waters. Immediately after Miriam’s song celebrating the...

"West Covina" from "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"

The crazy-ex girlfriend audio Haggadah

Esther D. Kustanowitz and Erin Ben-Moche, The BagelsPublished April 4, 2023

After years of analyzing Rachel Bloom’s musical sitcom “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” we have created this audio Passover Haggadah filled with songs from the show. It comes with rules, of course. In this episode, Erin and Esther carefully considered...

A Jewish family welcomes home their Navy man and gathers for a Passover Seder at their home in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1943. Minnesota Historical Society/CORBIS/Corbis Historical via Getty Images

How a coffee company and a marketing maven brewed up a Passover tradition

Kerri Steinberg, Otis College of Art and DesignPublished April 3, 2023

For more than a millennium, the haggadah has been the centerpiece of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The book sets out the ceremony for the Seder meal when families tell the biblical Exodus story of God delivering the ancient Israelites from slavery in...

The good and the gross Jewish Foods. The debate is on.

The good and the gross Jewish Foods. The debate is on.

Amy Fenster Brown, Special to the Jewish LightPublished March 31, 2023

If there is one hotly debated topic just as polarizing as politics, it’s whether gefilte fish is delicious or disgusting. I’m parked firmly in Camp Yuck, but many Jews pitch their tents in Camp Yum. We are just wrapping up Passover with the final...

U.S. Civil War Union officers in tent (1862). Photo courtesy of Penn State Special Collections via Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/pennstatespecial/6346867231/in/photostream/

Civil War seder memorialized 161 years later

By ADAM REINHERZ, Special To The Jewish LightPublished March 31, 2023

This story was originally published by the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle and is republished here with full permission.  Private Joseph A. Joel noticed on his calendar that Passover was coming. He and 20 fellow Jewish soldiers requested relief from...

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