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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

This Independence Day, we look forward to leaving Covid-19 behind. (MBLifestyle via Shutterstock.com)

11 things we want to declare independence from this year

Naama BarakPublished April 8, 2021

(Israel21c) -- Israel’s Independence Day is fast approaching on April 15, and over here at ISRAEL21c we are more than ready for a proper celebration – one that includes a barbecue with people we have not seen for the past year.And yet, since health...

Karen Aroesty

ADL leader Karen Aroesty: Turning the page on a career fighting hate

KAREN AROESTYPublished April 8, 2021

Having devoted fully half of my adult life to professional and lay leadership of the Anti-Defamation League’s work in our region, it is time for me to pursue other challenges in the arena of social and community justice. It is a departure laced with...

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How to fight Holocaust denial in social media

Adam G. Klein Associate Professor of Media Studies, Pace UniversityPublished April 6, 2021

One in four American millennials believe the Holocaust was exaggerated or entirely made up, according to a recent national survey that sought to find out what young adults know about the genocide of nearly 6 million Jews at the hands of Nazis some 80...

Prisoners play ‘The Tango of Death’ during the execution of Soviet citizens at the Janowska concentration camp in Ukraine. AFP via Getty Images

How the Nazis used music to celebrate and facilitate murder

Edward B. Westermann, Regents Professor of History, Texas A&M-San AntonioPublished April 6, 2021

In December 1943, a 20-year-old named Ruth Elias arrived in a cattle car at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. She was assigned to Block 6 in the family camp, a barracks that housed young women and the camp’s male orchestra, an ensemble...

10 sets of tefillin that the Shem Olam Holocaust museum said were found in Warsaw, Poland. (Courtesy of Shem Olam Faith & the Holocaust Institute for Education, Documentation & Research)

5 websites to help educate about the horrors of the Holocaust

Jennifer Rich Professor of Sociology, Rowan UniversityPublished April 6, 2021

Whenever there’s an analysis or discussion about how much people know about the Holocaust, the focus is often on what they don’t know.For instance, a 2018 survey of 1,350 people age 18 and older found that 11% of U.S. adults and 22% of millennials...

French fashion designer Coco Chanel (1883 - 1971), circa 1962. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Coco Chanel was my idol until I realized her Nazi past

By Rita PlushPublished April 2, 2021

This story originally appeared on Kveller, 70 Faces Media’s Jewish entertainment site.Clothes hound that I am — arf-arf — Women’s History Month takes my mind to Coco Chanel, the woman who made fashion history back in the 1920s. Chanel taught...

Transgender

It is hard to connect to the Torah as a trans Jew. Here’s why I’m trying anyway.

Dubbs WeinblattPublished April 1, 2021

This essay originally appeared on Alma, 70 Faces Media’s feminist Jewish culture site.Had you asked me 20 years ago, 10 years ago, even last year (truthfully, last month) if I’d ever quote the Torah in a piece I was writing, I probably would have...

Ms. Frizzle

Did the ‘Magic School Bus’ reboot make Ms. Frizzle less Jewish?

By Rachel HalePublished April 1, 2021

This story originally appeared on Alma.comFrom her corkscrew curls to eccentrically patterned dresses, Valerie Frizzle was the science teacher we always wished we had. Her role as the mystical, happy-go-lucky leader who took her class on field trips...

Rachel Bray-Spezia and James Spezia and their son, Wolfie.

Embryo donation made this Jewish St. Louis couple’s dreams come true

RACHEL BRAY-SPEZIA, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHTPublished March 30, 2021

Getting pregnant with my son Wolfie wasn’t the easiest. We had to employ several reproductive medical treatments, medications and procedures. Ultimately, I did have a healthy and successful pregnancy after a family donated their remaining frozen embryos...

Passover

Moving from the particular to the universal: The highest calling for the Jewish People?

By Rabbi Carnie Shalom RosePublished March 30, 2021

This Shabbat, we find ourselves celebrating the 7th Day of the Festival of Pesach and preparing for this week’s special reading of the account of Kriat Yam Suf, the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, which tradition posits took place on this day. And yet,...

Letters to the editor: March 24, 2021

Letters to the editor: March 24, 2021

Published March 25, 2021

Sports star takes deserved ‘Heat’ for anti-Semitic slur Regarding “NBA fines Meyers Leonard $50,000 for using anti-Semitic slur” (published online March 11, Jewish Light).My congratulations to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver (who is Jewish) for...

Maharat Rori Picker Neiss (left) is executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis. Rabbi Daniel Bogard is a member of the rabbinical team at Central Reform Congregation. 

Let’s stand up and support transgender youth in Missouri

BY MAHARAT RORI PICKER NEISS AND RABBI DANIEL BOGARDPublished March 25, 2021

We broke so many rules that day. It had been nearly a full year since COVID-19 pushed us to shut everything down. Our services went virtual, our coffee meetings became phone calls, our classes became Zooms. While we recognize that for many people in...

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