U.S. should lead in solving global health crisis Decades of political neglect means almost 5,000 people die daily of tuberculosis (TB). This centuries-old epidemic is now the world’s leading infectious killer, claiming more lives last year than HIV/AIDS...
Editor's note: This commentary is part of a new Point-Counterpoint series in the Light. Read Galit Lev Harir's counterpoint commentary here.Many in the American Jewish community as well as in the Israeli Jewish community were encouraged and even delighted...
Editor's note: This commentary is part of a new Point-Counterpoint series in the Light. Read Robert Gerchen's counterpoint commentary here.On May 14, President Donald Trump officially moved the United States Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv....
Special session on Rosh Hashanah shows continuing need for awareness, sensitivityOn Aug. 30, 2018, I received an email from the acting majority floor leader informing the legislature and staff that Gov. Mike Parson was expected to call an extraordinary...
By Rabbi Yonason Goldson
• Published September 13, 2018
Two weeks ago, an early-morning text heralded the tragic news that my dear friend, Stan Jacobs, had finally lost his long battle with cancer. He was 70 years old.The memorial service drew a capacity crowd. Everyone who knew Stan adored him. And I...
I have been reading the St. Louis Jewish Light continuously since returning to St. Louis in 1998. Before that, I read it as a child in my parents’ home, though not as I do now.I appreciate the weekly rabbinical columns discussing the parsha, providing...
NEW YORK — It has become conventional wisdom in certain circles that the Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, which was signed 25 years ago Sept. 13 on the White House lawn, was simply a failure.There is no doubt that the great hopes...
Commentary on opioid epidemic ‘reflects an outdated narrative’Someone in our Thursday night Shalvah support group for people living with drug and alcohol abuse (Shalvah means serenity in Hebrew) brought me the Aug. 1 commentary in the Jewish Light,...
By Eric Berger, staff writer
• Published August 31, 2018
Are the media the enemy of the people, as President Donald Trump has now stated multiple times and with increasing frequency?Before we get to that, the more pressing question is, how will his supporters respond to that assertion?The “enemy” charge...
On April 23, 1943, Mordechai Anielewicz, the commander of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, penned his final letter.He, along with other ghetto fighters, fell to Nazi forces May 8.Anielewicz addressed the letter to Yitzhak Zuckerman, a clandestine operative...
(JTA) — The High Holidays are approaching. It is a time when Jews worldwide join together in the spirit of camaraderie, pouring out their hearts for a good new year.But the lead-up this year has been different, often pitting Jews against Jews in bitter...
(JTA) — Last year, I wrote an essay pleading with rabbis to deliver a High Holidays sermon that was relevant to the political moment.“I understand the typical view that it is better for rabbis to speak to higher values than to take sides in the rough-and-tumble...
