Seeking community’s support
As we near the celebration of Passover, we thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you and for helping our community thrive.
The St. Louis Rabbinical and Cantorial Association (STLRCA) is the only clergy organization...
Amidst the sea of suffering the current administration is perpetrating on people here and abroad, I call your attention to anti-immigration legislation in Missouri: SB 58 and SB 72.
SB 58 does a couple of highly problematic and unconstitutional things....
To most people, the 2005 movie “Wedding Crashers” is a lighthearted comedy romp in which two lovelorn bachelors crash weddings to meet women. But imagine the following scenario: At your daughter’s 500-person wedding, a concerned friend informs you...
The Torah portion Tzav is about gratitude. While the Book of Leviticus is the shortest book of the Torah, it mainly speaks to the priests in a language and setting we may have difficulty understanding. We read about ritual observances of an ancient...
Rabbi James Stone Goodman
• Published April 3, 2025
So many lessons in Vayikra, “and God called,” the first word. First the lesson in form, the alef in the word Vayikra, “and God called” is writ small in every scroll. Not only does God call with a silent letter (the alef is silent), God calls...
“Mah tovu ohalecha Yaakov, mishk’notecha Yisrael.” How lovely are your tents [people of] Jacob; your sanctuaries [people of] Israel.
I often have used this prayer to teach my young students that when visiting a friend’s beautiful synagogue...
“Columbia University Loses $400 Million in Federal Grants and Contracts.”
This March 7 New York Times headline was followed by Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s statement that the cuts were due to Columbia’s “failure to protect Jewish...
The diversity experiment failed.
Let me explain.
A couple years ago, I started having coffee two days a week at a local coffee shop with a few guys who, with one exception, I did not know.
I had just retired from teaching at the University of...
Dear Miss Manners,
I saw recently that columnist Jen Rubin was next in the long line of brilliant journalists who have left the Washington Post and then on Tuesday, Jan. 22, she was followed by Philip Rucker, WaPo’s renowned national editor. I fear...
Embrace our Judaism
In response to the question asked by the article “Can science finally stop antisemitism?” (online, Jan. 6), the answer is of course, No. Trying to educate people out of their hostility to Jews will never work, it cannot work....
A ceasefire agreement has been reached between Israel and Hamas. The accord’s first stage called for the phased release of 33 hostages — alive or dead — over a period of 42 days.
Initially, three young Israeli women were released on Sunday. Since...
A Bintel Brief, Yiddish for a bundle of letters, has been solving reader dilemmas since 1906. Send yours via email, social media or this form.
Dear Bintel,
Greetings from Turkey. I’ve been reading the Forward for several years.
The resilience...
