The St. Louis Jewish community is facing a crisis. Our congressional representative, Cori Bush, has repeatedly attacked our values and refused to even meet with us. Her smears of both Israel and the Jewish community fan the flames of racism and antisemitism....
“For 150 years, JFS has provided children, adults and seniors in the St. Louis region with the supports they need to lead vibrant, healthy lives” (— “About us” page on the Jewish Family Services website, jfsstl.org)
Jewish Family Services,...
By Rabbi James Stone Goodman
• Published June 13, 2024
It was Shabbat Naso, the longest parashah in the Torah, read in proximity to Shavuot, the great wedding celebrating the enduring wisdom given to us on a mountain top. We had prepared.
Was it a complete gift, this wisdom, or did we turn ourselves...
(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...
In response to the JNS article “After faulting ‘fog of war’ for cloudy Hamas casualty numbers, UN’s new stats still don’t appear to add up” (published online May 14) there is yet another reason to believe that the count of Gaza “innocents”...
In March, many local rabbis and Jewish leaders endorsed Wesley Bell for Congress, claiming he is an ally of the Jewish community. We as Progressive Jews of St. Louis (ProJoSTL) find this sentiment fallacious.
To start, Bell dropped his run for the U.S....
As rabbis and cantors from across the spectrum of Jewish denominations, serving St. Louis-area congregations and Jewish communities, we are unified in our personal private capacities to publicly support Wesley Bell for Congress.
Three weeks after our...
Fourteen years ago, I received an unusual phone call. The call was from a nun. Sister Mary called to tell me that Dale, a Jewish man who was a student of mine, had suddenly passed away at the age of 45.
She asked if I could assist her in raising enough...
Though it has been many decades since I was an incoming freshman in college, I remember well many of the experiences of that year as well as the three others that followed.
One was the experience of rushing a fraternity and then participating on the...
Flora Cassen, Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies Eliott Faculty Fellow Washington University in St. Louis
• Published May 16, 2024
Like many Jews, the attack of Oct. 7 and the war on Gaza have left me shocked and heartbroken. The lack of compassion and support, combined with the intensity and one-sidedness of the reactions, took me by surprise. But what added to my distress was that...
By Rabbi Mark L. Shook, Rabbi Emeritus, Congregation Temple Israel
• Published May 2, 2024
This week’s parasha is acharei mot, and is found in chapters 16-18 of Leviticus - Sefer Vayikra. Following upon the sudden death of Aaron’s two sons, a detailed account of the proper procedures for the purification of the Mishkan is given. The wilderness...
Mary Schuman and Susan Glassman
• Published April 30, 2024
Think of the worst thing you ever did. Then imagine being punished for it for the rest of your life.
Half a million Missourians have criminal records stemming from nonviolent, nonsexual offenses, including some arrests without conviction or jail time....
