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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

Religion + Observance

"Why does the pig matter?" Jordan D. Rosenblum asks in, "Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig." (Steve Evans/Wikimedia Commons)

From snout to tail, a 3,000-year history of Jews and the pig

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTAPublished October 13, 2024

In 2021, the Orthodox Union declined to certify Impossible Pork as kosher, despite approving other vegan “Impossible” products like its burger and chicken nuggets. Rabbi Menachem Genack, the CEO of the Orthodox Union’s kosher division, explained...

Actress Patricia Heaton, who is Catholic, puts up a mezuzah in solidarity with the Jewish community. (Screenshot via X)

Thousands of non-Jews order mezuzahs after a pro-Israel Christian puts one on her door in solidarity

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTAPublished September 25, 2024

A Jewish nonprofit that distributes mezuzahs has been inundated with thousands of requests from non-Jews ordering mezuzahs in solidarity. The surge follows a campaign led by Catholic actress Patricia Heaton, urging people to place mezuzahs on their doors...

Supporters of Malky Berkowitz launched a “mikvah strike” — a form of protest that leverages Jewish sexual purity rituals as a pressure tactic for Malky's husband to give her a divorce. (Design by Jackie Hajdenberg. Images courtesy of Adina Sash)

Woman at center of Orthodox ‘sex strike’ receives her Jewish divorce

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTAPublished September 11, 2024

Around 1 a.m. Wednesday night, Brooklyn-based activist Adina Sash received a phone call she had long awaited: Malky Berkowitz, 29, a fellow Orthodox woman, had finally received a “get,” or Jewish divorce contract. For Sash, better known on Instagram...

(L-r) Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the father of the modern Chabad-Lubavitch movement, and far-right commentator Candace Owens. (Screenshot)

Candace Owens criticized the Lubavitcher Rebbe. His fans quickly clapped back.

Andrew Lapin, JTAPublished September 6, 2024

For decades the Chabad-Lubavitch movement has followed the teachings of its last spiritual leader, popularly known as “the Rebbe,” to bring Jewish practice and learning to every Jew across the globe through a sprawling network of emissaries and Jewish...

Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah.

Secrets of the Torah Revealed: How five sisters altered the course biblical history

By Rabbi Jessica ShafrinPublished July 22, 2024

“A person is given three names: one that their parents call them, one their fellows call them, and one that they acquire with their deeds.” (Midrash Tanhuma, Va-yakhel) The naming process is unique to each individual and culture, yet names...

Elke Bentley, 18, completed reading the Babylonian Talmud in just two-and-a-half years.(Courtesy Elke Bentley)

Meet the teenaged girl who read the Talmud in two-and-a-half years

Published July 19, 2024

(JTA) — When she was 14 years old, Elke Bentley could hear her father’s online Talmud classes through the wall between her bedroom and his home office in Brookline, Massachusetts. The 5 a.m. start time for the daily Talmud learning her father had...

Yael Jaffe, a member of Hadar's first cohort of rabbinic ordinees, learns in the New York beit midrash, or study hall, of the Jewish learning and programming center. (Courtesy Hadar)

Hadar’s new plan has it minting rabbis, opening synagogues and sending teens to Israel. Is it a denomination now?

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTAPublished July 1, 2024

When the group that would become the Hadar Institute launched in 2006 with a study hall in a rented space on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, it aimed to combine two things that, outside of a few rabbinical schools, were rarely found in the same place:...

The Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, Michigan on May 31, 2022, before a “discussion of the Jewish-Catholic Relationship”. This event was co-sponsored by the Detroit JCRC/AJC and the Archdiocese of Detroit. The Shrine was founded by Father Charles Coughlin, who had an antisemitic radio show in the 1930s. (Jeff Kowalsky/JTA)

Father Coughlin’s church will now teach visitors about his antisemitism

Andrew Lapin, JTAPublished June 25, 2024

During his Depression-era run as one of the country’s most popular radio personalities, Father Charles Coughlin spread antisemitic conspiracy theories, praised fascists and suggested Jews deserved the horrors of Nazi persecution. Now, nine decades...

Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion's main campus  is in New York City's Greenwich Village. (Plexi Images/GHI/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Hebrew Union College to admit and ordain rabbinical students in interfaith relationships, ending longstanding ban

Philissa Cramer, JTAPublished June 20, 2024

Hebrew Union College, the Reform movement’s rabbinical seminary, will begin admitting and ordaining students who are in relationships with non-Jews, following a decision by its board to drop a longstanding ban on interfaith relationships for rabbinical...

Among the new haggadahs to be published in 2024 are several for families and one for Star Wars fans. (Collage by Mollie Suss)

Inside 10 new haggadahs for 2024: America and Israel take their places at the seder table

Philissa Cramer, Penny Schwartz, JTAPublished April 5, 2024

(JTA) — The creators of new Passover haggadahs focused on Zionism and American patriotism were working on their projects long before Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel and triggered a war in Gaza and a broad reckoning over both Israel and the place...

A bas-relief of Maimonides, sculpted by Brenda Putnam, hangs in the U.S. House of Representatives among statues of historical lawmakers. Architect of the Capitol/Wikimedia

Unlocking and understanding Maimonides

Randy L. Friedman, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkPublished February 19, 2024

I teach a philosophy of religion seminar titled “Faith and Reason.” Most students who register arrive with a mistaken assumption: that the course explores the differences between the two. “Faith” is often defined as belief in a supernatural...

Ethan Smith participates in a live broadcast to fellow teens at the BBYO convention in Orlando, Florida, Feb. 16, 2024.

Today’s college hunt takes a twist for Jewish teens grappling with antisemitism

Jacob Gurvis, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)Published February 16, 2024

ORLANDO (JTA) —  Ethan Smith ranks fifth in his New Jersey high school class, scored high on the SAT and aced a full slate of five Advanced Placement tests last year. On Oct. 1, he submitted his application to a nearby Ivy League school, the University...

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