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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

Opinion

Letters to the editor: Jan. 17, 2018

Published January 18, 2018

Better togetherI want to thank the Jewish Light for its front-page story last week highlighting SB 849, the bipartisan “anti-discrimination against Israel” bill that was introduced last week by Mo. Sens. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, and Jill Schupp...

What really happened at the original Trefa Banquet

Jonathan D. SarnaPublished January 16, 2018

The menu for the original Trefa Banquet, held to honor delegates of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, July 11, 1883, shows that no pork was served — although diners could enjoy crab, shrimp and frog, among other non-kosher delicacies. (Courtesy...

6 ways to address sexual harassment in the Jewish community

Lisa EisenPublished January 16, 2018

(Flickr Commons)(JTA) — #MeToo. #GamAni. The stories are numerous and painful. They span decades and reach every corner of the Jewish community. Enough is enough. The time is now for us to finally and fully address sexual harassment in Jewish institutional...

We need to stop using the phrase ‘More Jewish’

By Rachel Minkowsky, Kveller via JTAPublished January 11, 2018

My family joined a synagogue a few months ago, and overall it’s been wonderful for us. But after our first family Shabbat service, I realized I had a lot to learn. And I wanted to learn. I wanted to be a good example for both my children, but especially...

I.E. Millstone in a 1964 photo by Herb Weitman.

Letter to the editor: Millstone remembered

Published January 11, 2018

Nine years ago, I. E. Millstone took himself to a better place (he thought) and in so doing our Jewish community lost our greatest, modern-day hero. For more reasons than he would ever want listed – or that space might permit – there will very probably...

From left to right: Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994 after winning the Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in the Oslo Accords. (Wikimedia Commons)

Don’t destroy the two-state solution

Jonathan GreenblattPublished January 9, 2018

NEW YORK (JTA) — Several recent political measures in Israel — including announcements by Israel’s parliament, attorney general and ruling party — have significantly begun to undermine the possibility of achieving a two-state solution.Let me...

What Martin Luther King Jr. learned on a visit to Jerusalem

Marc SchneierPublished January 9, 2018

(JTA) — On Easter Sunday in 1959, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. rose in the pulpit of his Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, to deliver a sermon that focused on his just-completed visit, with his wife, Coretta, to Jerusalem and its...

How Israel’s BDS blacklist falls short of its own goals

Yehuda KurtzerPublished January 8, 2018

NEW YORK (JTA) — The recent decision by the Israeli government both to produce a “blacklist” of organizations that support BDS in order to prevent their leaders’ entry to Israel, as well as to share this blacklist with the media, is difficult...

The underwhelming fact that Jared Kushner has ties with Israeli businesses

Andrew Silow-CarrollPublished January 8, 2018

NEW YORK (JTA) — On Season 3 of “The West Wing,” a bomb goes off outside a cafe on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem, killing two American students.“What were they doing there?” asks C.J., the White House press secretary.C.J.’s question always...

Remembering Aharon Appelfeld

Thane Rosenbaum, JTAPublished January 5, 2018

NEW YORK — Arguably the world’s greatest writer of fiction about the world’s foremost nonfiction atrocity, the Holocaust, died Thursday in Israel. Aharon Appelfeld, a Holocaust survivor himself and one of the icons of Israel’s first generation,...

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS. Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin.

Defining ‘occupied’ and the semantic battle for peace

By Jonathan S. Tobin, JNSPublished January 4, 2018

In a demonstration of how completely at odds his views are from those of the foreign policy establishment, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman reportedly asked the State Department to stop using the term “occupied territories” and instead refer...

Letters to the editor: Jan. 3, 2018

Published January 4, 2018

Preserve crucial foreign assistance fundingYour Dec. 27 editorial “Persistence, not Petulance “ notes the need for international cooperation to counter global threats, and quotes President  Donald Trump’s foreign policy strategy blueprint for the...

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