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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

Letters To The Editor

Published September 20, 2023

In defense of recent letter to editor In the Sept. 6 edition, several writers objected to Galit Lev-Harir’s Aug. 23 letter to the editor, “No historical equivalent” regarding the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum co-sponsoring (with the...

Do the teshuvah you wish to see in the world

Rabbi James BennettPublished September 7, 2023

Is it possible to change? Can we actually make the world, or others, or even ourselves better? A well-known folktale from our Jewish tradition tells of a king who had a wayward son. In anger and frustration, the king banishes his son from the kingdom....

 Billionaire Elon Musk. Source: Facebook.

Elon Musk blames the Jews

Daniel Greenfield, JNSPublished September 5, 2023

ADL is a garbage leftist organization. It never was good for anything, but under its current head, Jonathan Greenblatt, it’s become a generic woke group dedicated to intersectionality. I have spent over a decade exposing ADL for what it is, including,...

Portrait of Rabbi Josef Davidson

Parashat Ki Tavo: We’ve come a long way

Rabbi Josef DavidsonPublished August 31, 2023

Philip Roth was a controversial Jewish author, to say the least. I enjoyed reading his writing, and one of his books, in particular, was very impactful in my youth. It was the collection of short stories entitled “Goodbye Columbus.” The title...

Rabbis Dave Levy and Rachel Ain and their two sons, Jared and Zachary, at the University of Texas, where Jared is a member of the class of 2027. (Courtesy)

Everything my college student needs to know he learned at synagogue

Rabbi Dave Levy, JTAPublished August 29, 2023

(JTA) — Last week we did it: My wife and I dropped our eldest son off for his first year of college. As you can imagine, it is a heady, emotional moment. There is pride and joy mixed with anxiety and the bittersweet sense that this primary chapter of...

Life is a treasure

Life is a treasure

By Rabbi Ze’ev Smason & Barbara A. OlevitchPublished August 25, 2023

Pamela R. Winnick told a fascinating story about her father’s illness in the Wall Street Journal on July 21, 2006.  Medical residents had repeatedly asked the family to agree to disconnect his life supports. They claimed that the patient would have...

Rabbi Noah Arnow

Longing for yesterday, grateful for today

By Rabbi Noah ArnowPublished August 24, 2023

When you think about earlier eras in American history, are you nostalgic, or are you relieved to be living today? It’s a generally conservative impulse to feel like life was better in some imagined or remembered past. And it’s a generally progressive...

It’s crying time again … and again … and again

It’s crying time again … and again … and again

By Amy Fenster Brown, Special To The Jewish LightPublished August 23, 2023

For many students in our area, school is back in session. My older son is now a senior in high school. A senior! I’m going to die. I’m going to cry, then throw up, then die, then cry some more, then run to the bathroom, then die again, and then cry....

Book bans: Both sides do it, and both should be opposed

Book bans: Both sides do it, and both should be opposed

Marty RochesterPublished August 23, 2023

On Nov. 18, a headline in Education Week read: “Nearly 300 Books Removed from Schools Under Missouri’s ‘Sexually Explicit Materials’ Law.”   School boards throughout Missouri have removed from school libraries books thought to violate the...

This week’s letter to the editor

This week’s letter to the editor

Published August 23, 2023

No historical equivalent I was surprised to see that the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum is hosting a program called “The American Dream Deferred: One Family’s Incarceration During WWII + Holocaust Museum Tour,” which is sponsored by...

The 2023 delegation from Washington University in St. Louis taking part in the Campus Leaders Israel Experience.

Pursuing justice through truth

RABBI JORDAN GERSONPublished August 16, 2023

I recently returned from leading a delegation of 19 students from Washington University in St. Louis to Israel to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This fact-finding mission, called the Campus Leaders Israel Experience, travels through...

St. Louisan writes of division, disappointment at ‘Extraordinary’ World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem

St. Louisan writes of division, disappointment at ‘Extraordinary’ World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem

Marc JacobPublished August 14, 2023

In October 2020, I wrote about my experience as a delegate to the COVID-friendly “virtual” World Zionist Congress. Two and a half years later, we received word in December that this April there would finally be an in-person “Extraordinary” Congress,...

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