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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

Commentary

Election 2024: How should we respond?

Election 2024: How should we respond?

By Rabbi Ze’ev SmasonPublished November 22, 2024

The 2024 U.S. presidential election elicited a spectrum of reactions across the nation. Many rejoiced, expressing optimism, gratitude and happiness. For others, the outcome was met with disappointment, concern and fear about the direction of the country. ...

Why I wrote a prayer to be said on the Shabbat before Election Day

Why I wrote a prayer to be said on the Shabbat before Election Day

David Zvi Kalman, JTAPublished October 31, 2024

This article initially appeared in My Jewish Learning’s Shabbat newsletter Recharge. To sign up to receive Recharge each week in your inbox, click here. This Shabbat, like every Shabbat, synagogues around the world will pray for the welfare of their...

December 2021- the last family photo of the five members of the Arnold family

Amid unimaginable loss, a family’s legacy of kindness shines through

By Marsha SchumanPublished October 31, 2024

This is not a happy story, but it is one of truth. Three years ago, our 15-year-old grandson Noah Arnold was hit by a car in Beverly Hills, Calif. and ultimately died from his injuries. I never believed that lightening could or would strike twice but...

Notes from a Jewish mother: You may be an alpha, dude, but you’re no sigma

Notes from a Jewish mother: You may be an alpha, dude, but you’re no sigma

BY AMY FENSTER BROWN, Special To The Jewish LightPublished October 29, 2024

Kids, these days. No one knows what they’re talking about! It’s probably the same stuff we talked about when we were young but with new words.  Remember being young, when you didn’t have back pain and went out for the evening at 10 p.m.? Those...

Would a real mensch wear a ‘mensch’ T-shirt?

Would a real mensch wear a ‘mensch’ T-shirt?

By Jodi Rudoren, The ForwardPublished October 28, 2024

This is an adaptation of our editor-in-chief’s weekly newsletter. Sign up to get it delivered to your inbox on Friday afternoons. At a Jewish conference in Chicago last month, I picked up a T-shirt for the husband with a single word on it:...

Response to recent Rabbi Smason commentary

Published October 11, 2024

In a recent op-ed (Jewish Light, Sept. 25), Rabbi Ze’ev Smason correctly notes that younger American Jews are drifting from the support of Israel. There are many reasons. The first that comes to my mind is that fewer Americans believe in the foundation...

Josh Shapiro

Shapiro need not apologize for a op-ed he wrote 31 years ago

David Suissa (Jewish Journal via JNS)Published August 4, 2024

“I do not believe that the Israelis and the Palestinians have achieved peace, nor do I believe that this will mark an end to the blood and tears,” the 20-year-old student argued in a 1993 op-ed in his college paper. This wasn’t a popular view at...

Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat, joins university union representatives and  other lawmakers at a press conference to advocate for the protection of free speech on campuses, at the U.S. Capitol, May 23, 2024. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Progressive Jews of St. Louis defend Cori Bush’s record

Published July 11, 2024

As members of the St. Louis Jewish community, we are compelled to respond to a recent letter by some area Rabbis that mischaracterizes the record of Congresswoman Cori Bush. Bush is a supporter of peace and as a co-sponsor of Representative Haley Steven’s...

We’ve been here before: Reproductive rights redux

We’ve been here before: Reproductive rights redux

By Frances LevinePublished July 11, 2024

What would Vivian do?  Vivian Zwick was a pillar of the pro-choice and the Jewish community of St. Louis. She was the first woman elected as the president of the Jewish Light Board of Trusteess in 1975 (Jewish Light Aug. 10, 2022). I met her at several...

Bean counting racial outcomes  is no way to achieve equality

Bean counting racial outcomes is no way to achieve equality

Marty RochesterPublished July 11, 2024

Yes, unfortunately, there is still racism in America. There will probably always be a degree of racism in America, as there is in virtually every country on earth. It is almost impossible to rid the United States and any other nation of the last bigot.  Still,...

St. Louis county prosecutor Wesley Bell speaks at a Salvation Army community fair in St. Louis, June 4, 2024. (Via Facebook)

Clergy Call To Action- Let’s seize the moment and get Wesley Bell to Washington

Published July 8, 2024

With a month to go until the MO-01 primary, we, rabbis and cantors from across the Jewish spectrum, write once again, in our personal, private capacities, with a clear and unified message: Let’s get Wesley Bell to Washington. It’s time for our...

New York City's daily newspapers have very different headlines the morning after former President Donald Trump was convicted in the hush money trial, May 31, 2024.

The Jewish problem with saying a guilty verdict is ‘rigged’

Rabbi Avi ShafranPublished June 7, 2024

(JTA) -- When the guilty verdicts in former President Donald Trump’s recent New York trial were handed down, Trump and his supporters — including some in my own Orthodox community — rejected the decree, saying that the legal system had been rigged...

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