Skip to Main Content
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

Top Story

Chabad at WashU honors its 'Alum of the Year'

Chabad at WashU honors its ‘Alum of the Year’

Published October 11, 2024

Chabad at Washington University, Rohr Center for Jewish Life, honored Simone Picker as Alum of the Year. She was recognized for her leadership in spearheading a strategic initiative to support Jewish faculty and staff at WashU. Picker’s dedication...

Mike and Debbie Lefton.

Debbie and Mike Lefton to be honored for ‘exemplary service’ to our community

Published October 11, 2024

At the Oct. 19 Heart & Soul Gala, Jubilation, Congregation Shaare Emeth will honor Debbie and Mike Lefton with the Harris Frank Community Service Award, which recognizes congregants who have demonstrated exemplary service to the congregation, St....

Kristen Bell as Joanne and Adam Brody as Noah in "Nobody Wants This."

Love it or hate It, ‘Nobody Wants This’ is returning for season two

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished October 10, 2024

I’ll be the first to admit—I don’t typically spend my evenings watching rom-coms. After bingeing six seasons of "Vikings" and diving into the Menendez brothers' biopic, rom-coms just aren’t my go-to. However, when my wife, the lovely Leigh, suggested...

Claude Monet's pastel on paper, "Bord de Mer,” dated about 1865 and which was stolen from the Parlagi family in 1940 by the Nazis in Austria, is seen after its recovery by the FBI’s Art Crime Team. (FBI).

Family recovers Monet pastel generations after Nazi looting

Asaf Elia-Shalev, JTAPublished October 10, 2024

When Adalbert and Hilda Parlagi fled Vienna in 1938, a month after the Nazi annexation of Austria, they left behind a collection of artwork, which they and their heirs spent decades trying to retrieve. On Wednesday in New Orleans, FBI agents presented...

Former B’nai Amoona Rabbi Carnie Rose resigns from Cleveland JCC

Former B’nai Amoona Rabbi Carnie Rose resigns from Cleveland JCC

ABIGAIL PREISZIG, Cleveland Jewish NewsPublished October 10, 2024

For Rabbi Carnie Rose, CEO of the Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland in Beachwood, the sounding of the shofar during the High Holy Days season served as a “spiritual alarm clock.” Rose awoke to his desire to be “in a more exclusively...

Notes From A Jewish Mother: It’s our silly, embarrassing sins we need to forgive

Notes From A Jewish Mother: It’s our silly, embarrassing sins we need to forgive

AMY FENSTER BROWN, Special To The Jewish LightPublished October 9, 2024

Yom Kippur, which begins at sundown Oct. 11, is the Day of Atonement when we ask God to forgive us for our sins. We just celebrated Rosh Hashanah 5785, the Jewish New Year, and released our tashlich, casting off the sins of 5784. We are supposed to reflect...

Leonard Slatkin. Photo courtesy of The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Happy Birthday Maestro! How the Jewish Light covered Leonard Slatkin’s career since 1970

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished October 9, 2024

As the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) prepares to celebrate Leonard Slatkin’s 80th birthday with a series of concerts this October, it's fitting to reflect on the profound impact the maestro has had both on the world stage and within the St. Louis...

Honoring a legacy: University City native’s book supports local scholarship fund

Honoring a legacy: University City native’s book supports local scholarship fund

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished October 9, 2024

Professor, author/filmmaker and social justice champion Rick Stack, a St. Louis native and 2021 University City High School Hall of Fame inductee, is channeling his lifelong commitment to social justice into a new initiative honoring his mother, Ida Stack. Stack's...

Lilly and Joyce Opinsky.

St. Louis Strollathon: How the Opinsky family’s fight against Rett syndrome unites a community

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished October 9, 2024

At a recent gathering of friends and family, Lilly Opinsky celebrated her 25th birthday with a barbecue in her parents' backyard. "We have learned over the years to try to enjoy and appreciate each day, and really be grateful for the small moments...

Steven Rosenzweig

St. Louis Jewish Community Center names new CEO

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished October 9, 2024

The St. Louis Jewish Community Center (the J) has named Steven Rosenzweig as its new president and CEO, effective in late November. A longtime leader in the St. Louis nonprofit sector, Rosenzweig returns to the J after previously serving as Chief Financial...

Top row, L-R: Jordan Harris, Quinn Hughes, Adam Fox and Luke Kunin. Bottom row, L-R: Jason Zucker, Zach Hyman, Jack Hughes and Jeremy Swayman. (Getty Images; Design by Grace Yagel)

All the Jewish NHL players to watch in the 2024-2025 season

Jacob Gurvis, JTAPublished October 8, 2024

As the NHL drops the puck on the 2024-2025 hockey season, Jewish fans will have plenty to root for. The season officially began last week with a pair of games in Prague between Jack and Luke Hughes’s New Jersey Devils and Devon Levi and Jason Zucker’s...

Ina Garten's new memoir, "Be Ready When the Luck Happens," hit bookstores this month. (Crown)

In her long-awaited biography, superstar chef Ina Garten opens up about her abusive Jewish parents

Published October 8, 2024

It was, I thought, a Jewish food writer’s dream assignment. Nearly four years ago, during the first autumn of the COVID pandemic, I sat down (virtually) with food superstar Ina Garten. We discussed Ina Garten’s childhood food memories, diving deep...

Load More Stories