Once again, we find ourselves knee-deep in what we at our Shul affectionately refer to as “the Purim, Pesach, Shavuot Vortex.” This year, as we remain mired in the messiness of the pandemic, I have light-heartedly redubbed this intense time of the...
After this year’s J Street National Conference last month, I wanted to provide a summary of the event for those still wondering what J Street is all about.
Before I do, I want to note the ongoing violent escalation taking place in Israel and Gaza....
GALIT LEV-HARIR and TRACI GOLDSTEIN
• Published May 14, 2021
Over the past several years, leadership from St. Louis Friends of Israel (SLFI) has met with the Jewish Community Relations Council on several occasions to express our view that JCRC promotes a skewed left-wing bias to the community in its formal communications...
(JTA) — When I was growing up in Haifa, the city’s mixed population was a steady background, often overlooked rather than noted with wonder. Jews and Arabs lived, worked and raised children side by side, at times together. As part of a secular family,...
This article first appeared on Kveller.
Last night was the second time that I hugged my children in a bomb shelter.
The first time was on Nov. 12, 2019. That day, I heard a siren indicating that rockets were headed to my new home in the city of...
NICKY BLACKBURN, ISRAEL21C
• Published May 13, 2021
There is a moment that I cannot shake. I’m sitting on the sofa talking to my husband who is abroad on a work trip, and suddenly, unexpectedly, the siren goes off. It’s nearly 9 pm, and the only sound we can hear is that awful rising and falling wail.
My...
ROBERT A. COHN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EMERITUS
• Published May 13, 2021
To paraphrase Dickens’ famous description of Paris in “A Tale of Two Cities,” the situation in the Middle East is indeed “the worst of times,” and there is no counterbalancing “best” scenario in sight.
Indeed, Israel is simultaneously...
RACHEL SPEZIA, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published May 12, 2021
Virtual learning versus in-person learning. Continuing to fully shelter in place versus expanding the “bubble.” Get the COVID-19 vaccination as early as possible versus wait for more research to be done. These are just a few examples of decisions...
U.S. Rep. Cori Bush’s staff has refused to grant the St. Louis Jewish Light an interview with the Democratic lawmaker.
This should trouble our readers because Jews constitute a small, but not insignificant, portion of the first-term Democratic lawmaker’s...
(JTA) — In Sheldon Oberman’s children’s book The Always Prayer Shawl, a grandfather passes on his tallit to his grandson along with the sage advice, “Some things change and some things don’t.” At public readings, Oberman wore his grandfather’s...
(JTA) — In the coming days and weeks, there is going to be a great deal of debate – in public discussions and in private conversations – regarding whether people like me are or are not contributing to the demise of the Jewish people by virtue of...
(JTA) — Earlier this year, I used the findings of the Pew Research Center’s 2013 “A Portrait of American Jewry” to make projections about the future demographics of the Jewish population. I anticipated a small population increase by 2023 followed...
