BY RACHEL SPEZIA, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
• Published March 16, 2021
Several years ago, I visited a preschool where a friend worked. I walked into her classroom just as she was asking her students to sit “criss-cross-applesauce” on the floor. The children found their way to a comically vibrant rug across the room and...
Keep the ‘Jewish’ in Jewish Light contentThe St. Louis Jewish Light was ostensibly created as a platform through which readers could raise and discuss Jewish issues. In recent years some regular columnists’ writings loosely follow this purpose...
Eli Gottlieb
Senior Visiting Scholar, George Washington University
• Published March 11, 2021
Big Ben was stolen from Palestine. So claimed an elderly woman, in Arabic, in a retweeted clip I received recently.Yes, that Big Ben: the great bell in the iconic clock tower of London’s Palace of Westminster. The British took it, she said, from...
By Robert A. Cohn, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
• Published March 11, 2021
The patriarch Abraham and his wife, Sarah, are universally respected by the three largest Near Eastern monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In what I see as the most consequential official act of his reign, Pope Francis last week visited...
As a Jewish Agency Israel Fellow working with Chabad at Washington University, my main goal is to reach out to as many students as possible and help them establish a strong and meaningful connection to Israel and Judaism. Yet seemingly overnight, COVID-19...
Last summer and fall, as the general election approached, citizens across the country voiced concern about the prospect of voting in person. With COVID -19 spreading, many jurisdictions saw a need, even if only temporarily, to expand absentee and mail-in...
When the COVID-19 virus stormed in nearly a year ago, not everyone was affected equally. People of color and other minority groups were the most vulnerable to an inadequate and unfair health care system, a system with cracks in its foundation rooted in...
A prominent Missourian from Cape Girardeau died last week, and elected leaders were quick to applaud or acknowledge his “controversial” work.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described Rush Limbaugh’s longtime national radio program with a reach of...
All due respect for the three “Godfather” movie collaborations of writer-director Francis Ford Coppola and novelist-screenwriter Mario Puzo, some monstrous acts are not just business. They are most definitely personal.
On Jan. 6, hundreds of frenzied...
As we begin a new year, I wish to reflect on an important but often overlooked word: friendship. In particular, what is the measure of true friendship?There are several standard answers to the question, such as a willingness to go the extra mile to help...
By Rabbi Hershey Novack
• Published February 23, 2021
A recent article in The Atlantic (“The Pandemic Has Erased Entire Categories of Friendship”) focuses on the decline of interactions among “weak social ties” during the COVID-19 pandemic. This refers to the people we know casually – the people...
Amy Grossblatt Pessah
• Published February 16, 2021
How can we even begin to think about preparing for Passover when we are still living in the midst of a pandemic? As we live in the uncertainty of these times and are mostly stuck at home, as the line between work and family is blurred and responsibilities...
