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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

Israel News

Mass protest in Jerusalem as Knesset advances judicial reforms over widespread objections

Mass protest in Jerusalem as Knesset advances judicial reforms over widespread objections

Philissa Cramer, JTAPublished February 13, 2023

(JTA) — An Israeli parliamentary committee voted to advance parts of the government’s proposed judicial reform on Monday, as tens of thousands of Israelis protested in Jerusalem and opposition lawmakers attempted to disrupt the vote. But following...

An image of Adolf Eichmann, from the Tuviah Friedman Archive, the National Library of Israel

What’s it like being a Nazi hunter?

Amit Naor, Special To The Jewish LightPublished February 12, 2023

This story is published here in partnership with the National Library of Israel. Imagine a typical workday that went something like this: you wake up, drink your morning coffee, and leaf through the local newspaper. Then you shower, dress and head...

Israeli rescue team evacuated from Turkey on Miriam Adelson’s plane amid ‘concrete and immediate threat’

Philissa Cramer, JTAPublished February 12, 2023

(JTA) — One of the Israeli teams dispatched to Turkey to assist after the devastating earthquakes there has headed home after being informed about a “concrete and immediate threat” against them. United Hatzalah told its team of roughly two dozen...

Israelis march during a rally against government plans to give lawmakers more control of the judicial system, Tel Aviv, Feb. 4, 2023. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

Diaspora alarm over Israel: Your guide to what the critics are saying

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTAPublished February 12, 2023

(JTA) — I started reporting on North American Jews and Israel in the last century, and for years covered the debate over whether Jews in the Diaspora had a right to criticize the Israeli government in public. The debate sort of petered out in the early-1990s,...

Israeli Americans protest the new Israeli government in Washington Square Park in New York City, Feb. 5, 2023. (Courtesy of protesters)

‘We have to leave our comfort zone’: Cautious but determined, Israeli expats protest Netanyahu’s government

Ron Kampeas, JTAPublished February 8, 2023

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Benny Chukrun, speaking in Hebrew on a wind-whipped day outside the Israeli embassy in the U.S. capital, had a message for his fellow protesters. “We have a special role in Washington. We have access to the Jewish opinion leaders...

: Volunteers test patients for short- and near-sightedness. Photo by Elisa Hartstein.

Meet the Jewish doctor helping thousands in Ethiopia receive eye care

Andrew Jose, JNSPublished January 31, 2023

(JNS) When Israeli ophthalmologist Morris Hartstein visited Gondar in 2014 for a family volunteering trip, he did not know he would start an initiative that would help more than 8,000 Ethiopians receive eye care. Today, he is the founding director...

This is the official State Department photo for Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, taken at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 2021. [State Department Photo by Ronny Przysucha/ Public Domain]

Antony Blinken quotes from Jewish prayer during crucial Israel visit

Gabe FriedmanPublished January 31, 2023

(JTA) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken quoted from a Jewish prayer on arrival in Tel Aviv for a state visit on Monday, days after a deadly terror attack outside a Jerusalem synagogue set off a violent uptick in Israeli-Palestinian violence across...

13-year-old Palestinian shoots 2 in Jerusalem as violence flares and government flexes

Ron Kampeas, JTAPublished January 30, 2023

(JTA) — A 13-year-old Palestinian boy shot and wounded an Israeli man and his son outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls, police said, in one of multiple incidents over the weekend during the latest incident in an escalation of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The...

Shimon Yisrael points to where a gunman fired a bullet through his window in the neighborhood of Neve Yaakov, Jerusalem, Jan. 28, 2023. (Orly Halpern)

In Jerusalem neighborhoods bound together by terror, anger and trepidation about what comes next

Orly HalpernPublished January 30, 2023

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Time stops on Shabbat in Jerusalem, for the living and the dead. Up the stairs in an apartment on the main road in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood in the city’s northeast, past hallway portraits of Sephardic rabbis, the Mizrahi family...

In season 4 of ‘Fauda,’ Israeli tactics come under fire — and so do the show’s heroes

In season 4 of ‘Fauda,’ Israeli tactics come under fire — and so do the show’s heroes

By PJ Grisar, The ForwardPublished January 23, 2023

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox. Each season of Fauda features a new director and writer and the same kind of fool-proof formula. Co-creator and star...

Photo Courtesy of 7-eleven.com

Shalom, Slurpee: Israel gets its first 7-Eleven

Deborah Danan, JTAPublished January 12, 2023

(JTA) — Yoav Silberstein, 16, waited an hour and a half to get into 7-Eleven’s new flagship — and so far only — store in Israel. Located in the heart of Tel Aviv in Dizengoff Center, the store opening on Wednesday attracted throngs of mostly teenagers...

Hikes and outdoor experiences are an integral part of the therapeutic programming at Free Spirit, a unique in-residence therapy program based in northern Israel. (Courtesy of Free Spirit)

Unique therapy program offers troubled Jewish youth a distinctly Israeli alternative

LARRY LUXNER, JTAPublished January 8, 2023

KIBBUTZ HAZOREA, Israel — Throughout high school, Ben rarely did his homework, struggled to complete school assignments and used marijuana on a daily basis. Frustrated with his situation, Ben, 18, decided in early September to leave his U.S. home...

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