“A young boy was standing along the edge of the river. A man approached him and inquired, ‘What are you waiting for?’ Without hesitation the youth replied, ‘I am waiting for that steamboat to pick me up.’ ‘Foolish boy,’ said the man, ‘boats...

The heavy rains that closed multiple St. Louis County roads in early November reminded Shelley Dean of another watery disaster she’d recently studied: The Great Flood in the parsha Noah.  “We had all that rain, and everyone’s basement flooded,”...

Israel has carried out the death penalty just once, when Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was sentenced in 1962 to death by hanging. “We placed the rope on his head. I pressed [a handle] and he fell downward,” Shalom Nagar, the guard who carried...

(JTA) — In March 2020, around the time B. and her husband started planning to have children, they learned they each carried genetic mutations with significantly elevated risks for a variety of cancers. BRCA genetic mutations, which are 10 times more...

This article is also available as a weekly newsletter, “Life Stories,” where we remember those who made an outsize impact in the Jewish world — or just left their community a better or more interesting place. Subscribe here to get “Life Stories”...

Around the time he was preparing to release his new book earlier this year, David Friedman, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel under Donald Trump, was approached by an advocacy group that focuses on fostering support for Israel among Christians.  The...

Sam Fox, a self-made businessman who became a prominent civic leader in his hometown of St. Louis and U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, died in St. Louis on Monday, Dec. 2, surrounded by his family.  He was 95 years old. As founder of Harbour...

A few weeks ago, I sat the adult children down and told them, in no uncertain terms, I planned to cut back on gift giving this holiday season. Let’s put the money toward a week-long family summer vacation. Making memories through an experience together,...

When a St. Louis-based white supremacist group waves Nazi flags over local highways or marches through downtown Columbus chanting hate, the ripple effects are felt close to home. Antisemitism isn’t a distant problem for St. Louisans—it’s an issue...

“There is nothing I’d rather be doing with my life right now, more than serving the country of Israel,” said Myles Rosenblum, his voice steady with conviction, with just a hint of anger. “To my core and soul, nothing is more important. I know...

Barb Kramer’s oven has seen a lot of lasagna. She’s baked about 250 trays over the past few years in her volunteer role as a lasagna chef for Lasagna Love, a homemade-meal delivery organization. That’s where Barb’s husband, Rich, enters the picture....

The man accused of shooting a Jew on his way to synagogue in Chicago in late October has been found dead in his jail cell. Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, 22, had been arrested and charged with terrorism and hate crime charges for shooting the Orthodox man...