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....
Stacey Newman, Special To The Jewish Light
• Published April 24, 2024
Among all the other reasons one goes to Paris on holiday, I had one primary mission during my long-planned bucket-list trip there last month with my daughter.
I was compelled to visit the Wall of Names at the Shoah Memorial, in the old Jewish quarter...
By Rabbi James Stone Goodman, Central Reform Congregation
• Published April 18, 2024
He was accustomed to the close reading of texts, but on that day he sat with eyes that had never seen before and watched words on the page before him grow legs and dance, legs became wings, and words flew off the page like pigeons off of cobblestones.
On...
This week’s Torah portion is infamous for being perhaps the grossest and least relatable portion in the entire Torah. And it’s one of my very favorites.
Tazria focuses on a skin disease known as tzara’at, which is commonly translated as leprosy...
In his State of the Union last month, President Joe Biden referenced Hamas’s “Gaza Health Ministry” casualty numbers, saying that “more than 30,000” Gazans have been killed. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has now said that Israel must make...
