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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

Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose holds the Rabbi Bernard Lipnick Senior Rabbinic Chair at Congregation B’nai Amoona in St. Louis.

Passover inspires collective yearning for freedom

By Rabbi Carnie Shalom RosePublished March 30, 2017

Even after 21 years in the rabbinate, I am still (pleasantly, of course) astonished by the number of phone calls and emails I receive in the weeks leading up to Passover. Many of these queries are from members of our shul and the extended Jewish community...

Letters to the editor: March 29, 2017

Published March 30, 2017

Opposing cuts to global aid programsThe White House is proposing drastic cuts to global development programs in our national budget. This would be disastrous for people struggling in poverty and for the U.S. standing as a world leader. Currently, millions...

Ohio State Hillel is anti-BDS, not anti-LGBT

Kyle Gersman, JTA via the ForwardPublished March 24, 2017

Last week, Ohio State University Hillel was accused of being anti-LGBT because it was forced to disassociate with a Jewish LGBT campus group, B’nai Keshet, after the group decided to co-sponsor a fundraiser for queer refugees with Jewish Voice for Peace....

Rabbi James Stone Goodman (left) and Rabbi Zach Fredman partnered to record musical videos for each portion of the Torah. 

We recorded the Torah

By Rabbi James Stone GoodmanPublished March 22, 2017

I spent the year of 1976-77 as student in Jerusalem. There I was introduced to the oud, the double course, 10- or 11-string ancestor to the lute, the microtones that distinguish the music of the eastern Mediterranean articulate on the fretless neck of...

Letters to the Editor: March 22, 2017

Published March 22, 2017

Response to editorialIn response to your editorial “A Bad, Divisive Strategy” (March 15), I will try to be brief and begin by giving a synopsis of how the Israeli media summarized the anti-BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) law targeted by your...

Defining the dream job

Alan LudmerPublished March 21, 2017

It's out there.  Somewhere.  We're absolutely sure.  Somewhere is our dream job.  We even know people who have them; we all know those people who enjoy their work.  Their faces light up when they talk about what they do.  They bring energy, creativity,...

Letters to the Editor: March 15, 2017

Published March 15, 2017

Statement from cemetery directors We, the directors of the Jewish cemeteries of St. Louis, jointly condemn the recent acts of vandalism at cemeteries here in St. Louis and throughout the United States. We hope the perpetrators are found and brought to...

The surge in anti-Semitism? Here’s how to stop it

Daniel Elbaum and Marc D. SternPublished March 10, 2017

(JTA) — Almost daily accounts of vandalized cemeteries, spray-painted swastikas and bomb threats to JCCs and other Jewish agencies have naturally evoked considerable alarm.Clearly, we must never reconcile ourselves to an America where this is considered...

Repps Hudson is an adjunct instructor and freelance journalist who lives in University City.

Trump is wasting power of his bully pulpit

By Repps HudsonPublished March 8, 2017

President Theodore Roosevelt, one of the most erratic, flamboyant and unpredictable presidents until this year, coined the term “bully pulpit” for his ability to use his office to shape public opinion and policy for what he saw as the greater good.Today,...

Letters to the Editor: March 8, 2017

Published March 8, 2017

Takeaways from cemetery incicentThe Jewish Light’s coverage of the recent events at Chesed Shel Emeth and the Jewish Community Center has been excellent and measured. While I can understand how some may fear this is the work of people who don’t like...

Battling hate in the spirit of Queen Esther

Ellen HershkinPublished March 7, 2017

(JTA) — Shots fired into a classroom window at an Indiana synagogue. Cemeteries desecrated in Pennsylvania, Missouri, and New York. Swastikas scrawled on Jewish buildings. More than 100 bomb threats called in to Jewish community centers.History doesn’t...

Alan Spector is the author of five books and is working on books six and seven. His latest is “Body Not Recovered: A Vietnam War/Protest Movement Novel.” Spector also writes the stljewishlight.com blog “Retirement According to … Alan Spector.”

Sun City Center

By Alan SpectorPublished March 5, 2017

We just returned from a two-plus-week Florida trip to get a break from St. Louis winter—never mind that while we were gone, temperatures at home were in the 70’s.  One of our stops on the trip was to visit friends from our years in Cincinnati who...

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