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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

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Jewish Hospital, October 5, 1968. Credit Harold Ferman Photographers.

The legacy Jewish Hospital continuing in big ways

By Bill Motchan, Special to the Jewish LightPublished April 20, 2023

St. Louis has a reputation for excellence in medicine that transcends its size as the 21st largest metropolitan area in the country. Consider that U.S. News & World Report ranks the Siteman Cancer...

Fighter jets fly over the Israeli flag on Independence Day celebrations in 1957. The state’s founding a decade earlier was full of fun facts. Photo by Moshe Pridan/Government Press Office

Trust in Israel’s future despite challenging present

By Rabbi James BennettPublished April 20, 2023

“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be,” wrote Robert Browning in his poem “Rabbi Ben Ezra,” imagining the wisdom of a real 12th century scholar counseling us to recognize the challenges...

Jews being led to Umschlagplatz; photo taken from a window of St Zofia Hospital at the corner of Żelazna and Nowolipie Streets, most likely (to be confirmed) overlooking Nowolipie Street; author’s comment noted after the war at the back of the print held in the USHMM archive in Washington, DC:
”Scenes from the evacuation of the ghetto, ca 20 April 1943”
Photo: Z. L. Grzywaczewski / from the family archive of Maciej Grzywaczewski, son of Leszek Grzywaczewski / scan of the negative: POLIN Museum, Archaeology of Photography Foundation

The symmetry of storytelling can be an amazing thing, with the right story

Published April 20, 2023

We marked Yom HaShoa, Holocaust Memorial Day, on April 17-18. I don’t remember the details of the story, but I do remember some of the names. He was a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto. We met him on sabbatical...

Photo courtesy of St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum

First Look: Holocaust Museum’s new Impact Lab

Published April 19, 2023

The St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum announced the launch of the much-anticipated Impact Lab, a space which explores the themes of rejecting hate, promoting understanding, and inspiring change...

Rabbi Yosef David (left)  and Nissim Black.

Clean Speech initiative shows the power of positivity

By Daniel Shanker Sophomore, Yeshivat Kadimah High SchoolPublished April 19, 2023

“The Torah and the Talmud teach us that hurtful speech is worse than cheating someone out of money,” said Rabbi Yosef David, executive director of Aish HaTorah of St. Louis. “If you cheat somebody...

How Jewish students make varying school times work for success

How Jewish students make varying school times work for success

By Avital Vorobeychik, Sophomore, Yeshivat Kadimah High SchoolPublished April 19, 2023

Every school and every student have their own schedule for the day. Sometimes those schedules vary on a day-to day-basis, or an every-other-day, while some school schedules look the same every day. Depending...

High school students from Congregation Shaare Emeth, in front of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C

Trip to Washington, D.C. teaches St. Louis teens about social justice

By Georgia Bland, Sophomore, Ladue Horton Watkins High SchoolPublished April 19, 2023

In January, hundreds of Jewish teens from all across the United States traveled to Washington, D.C. for the Religious Action Center’s (RAC) L’Taken Social Justice Seminar. Twenty-five teens from Congregation...

First Look: New labyrinth at the J will mark Israel's 75th anniversary

First Look: New labyrinth at the J will mark Israel’s 75th anniversary

By Bill Motchan, Special to the Jewish LightPublished April 19, 2023

A labyrinth will be unveiled at the Jewish Community Center as part of the April 23 celebration of Israel’s 75th anniversary as a nation. The permanent public art installation also will be completed...

JFed relaunching interest-free loan program that began in 1912

JFed relaunching interest-free loan program that began in 1912

Published April 19, 2023

(St. Louis, April 19, 2023) – Jewish Federation of St. Louis has relaunched its interest-free loan program for the Jewish community of St. Louis. The loan program was first established in 1912 and...

Photo by Ellen Futterman

First look: Ben Poremba’s new Jewish deli

Ellen Futterman, Editor-in-ChiefPublished April 18, 2023

Growing up in the suburbs of New York City in the 1960s and ’70s, Jewish delicatessens were as plentiful as corner bars in south St. Louis — they were pretty much everywhere. And while the number...

Israel is turning 75. For American Jews, planning the birthday party has gotten complicated.

Israel is turning 75. For American Jews, planning the birthday party has gotten complicated.

Andrew Lapin, JTAPublished April 18, 2023

(JTA) – Like many synagogues have done over time, Congregation Kol Ami in Seattle is partnering with local Israelis to celebrate Israel’s birthday — a big one this year. But Kol Ami won’t be...

The Jewish Federations of North America defends Netanyahu invitation — but sympathize with protesters

Ron Kampeas, JTAPublished April 18, 2023

(JTA) — The Jewish Federations of North America is defending its decision to invite Benjamin Netanyahu to its conference in Tel Aviv next week while praising the protesters who want the Israeli prime...

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