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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

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Columbia University student protesters camped on campus to call for divestment from Israel, April 28, 2024.

Columbia suspends, expels and revokes diplomas of 70-plus students active in anti-Israel protests

JNS StaffPublished July 23, 2025

(JNS) Columbia University penalized more than 70 students involved in violent and other disruptive anti-Israel protests on the Manhattan school’s campus, according to the New York Post. The school’s disciplinary actions include suspensions of between...

Adam Wainright (L) and Lars Nootbar (Far Right) with friends.

Adam Wainwright is more than a Cardinal — he’s a mensch. And this weekend, he’s playing for a cause

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished July 23, 2025

The last time a member of the St. Louis Cardinals was called a mensch in the Jewish Light was 2013, when our Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Bob Cohn penned a tribute to Stan Musial. He wrote of a man who played the game with grace, gave back with heart...

Heschel Raskas (center) and his grandson, Aaron Raskas, take part in morning minyan with Israeli President Isaac Herzog last month in Israel, a few days before Aaron’s bar mitzvah.

When the President of Israel made room for a St. Louis bar mitzvah boy

BY HESCHEL RASKAS, Special To The Jewish LightPublished July 23, 2025

I first met Isaac Herzog in Israel around 2018, shortly after he became chair of the board of the Jewish Agency for Israel—an organization dedicated to strengthening both Israel and the Jewish people worldwide. By then, I had already served on the board...

Brian Thomas has been named interim head of school at Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School

New Mirowitz leader brings heart, history — and a baseball glove

By Bill Motchan, Special to the Jewish LightPublished July 23, 2025

Veteran educator Brian Thomas has been named interim head of school at Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School. The appointment of Thomas was announced on Wednesday, July 23, by Scott Levine, president of the school’s board of trustees. Levine’s introductory...

In a 2018 photo, then-co-editor Adam Rush and writer Olivia Riutcel work on an Ohr Chadash section in the Jewish Light office. File Photo: Mike Sherwin

Calling all teen voices: Join the Light’s teen page this school year

Published July 23, 2025

Love to write? Want to meet other creative Jewish teens? Have something to say about Jewish identity, high school life, current events, or pop culture? Then Ohr Chadash, the St. Louis Jewish Light’s teen page, is calling your name. Ohr Chadash (Hebrew...

From left to right, The Water Nymphs are: Gloria Schonbrun, Sue Lapp, Lynnsie Kantor, Ellen Samuels, Gail Kramer, Judy Abrams, Lynda Berkowitz, Loren Ludmerer and Nancy Weigley.

Cementing the bonds of friendship, one backstroke at a time

Ellen Futterman, Editor-in-ChiefPublished July 23, 2025

One of the many unexpected bonuses of working in the St. Louis Jewish community for the past 17 years has been the friendships I’ve made along the way. Some were entirely unanticipated, born not out of long-shared history or careful cultivation but...

Kehillat Israel Reconstructionist Congregation in Pacific Palisades, California, as it appeared in May 2024. (Google Maps)

The largest Reconstructionist synagogue is set to cut ties with the denomination over Israel tensions

Asaf Elia-Shalev, JTAPublished July 22, 2025

(JTA) — The largest synagogue in Judaism’s Reconstructionist movement is moving to cut ties with its denominational body over what its leaders describe as a failure to confront hostility to Israel among affiliated rabbis and rabbinical students. The...

Debbi Braunstein (fourth from right) of the J’s Hamsa Wellness Community, pictured with members of the committee for the Beyond Pink program.

From survivor to supporter: How a cancer diagnosis sparked a wellness movement at the J

Ellen Futterman, Editor-in-ChiefPublished July 22, 2025

When Clare Richardson was diagnosed with breast cancer during the thick of the COVID pandemic, the isolation hit her on all fronts. A former marathoner and triathlete, she was suddenly too depleted to work out and, with the world shut down, there was...

Record producer David Foster, left, and entertainment executive Haim Saban speak onstage at Friends of The Israel Defense Forces Western Region Gala at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Nov. 1, 2018. (Shahar Azran/Getty Images)

Top leaders resign from Friends of the IDF amid internal reckoning

By Asaf Elia-Shalev, JTAPublished July 22, 2025

The top two leaders of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces have resigned amid an internal reckoning at the organization, just weeks after a leak revealed widespread allegations of financial mismanagement and a toxic workplace culture. In a message...

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks during a news conference at the 'Get Out the Vote' rally on In San Antonio, Feb. 12, 2022.

AOC faces backlash after Israel vote as critics deface her Bronx office

Compiled from JNS and JTAPublished July 22, 2025

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is facing political and physical backlash after voting against a proposed amendment to cut U.S. aid to Israel’s Iron Dome. As reported by both the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and JNS.org, the New York Democrat’s vote drew...

25 countries call for Gaza ceasefire as Israel rejects criticism as sending the wrong message

25 countries call for Gaza ceasefire as Israel rejects criticism as sending the wrong message

Compiled from JNS and JTAPublished July 22, 2025

A coalition of 25 nations has urged an immediate Gaza ceasefire, citing escalating civilian deaths and deteriorating conditions at humanitarian aid sites. The call, reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, drew sharp rebuke from Israeli officials, who...

America needs to ‘kvell’ more

America needs to ‘kvell’ more

Barbara Edelson Peterson, JNSPublished July 21, 2025

There’s no better time than summer to embrace an ancient Jewish practice that could transform how we connect with each other: kvelling or to Kvell. Kvell—the Yiddish word meaning to burst with pride and joy over someone else’s accomplishments—has...

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