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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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Max Frankel in 1959 working as the New York Times' Moscow correspondent. (Ben Martin/Getty Images)

Max Frankel, Jewish New York Times executive editor who fled the Nazis, dies at 94

Grace Gilson, JTAPublished March 24, 2025

(JTA) — Max Frankel, the former executive editor of The New York Times who fled the Nazis as a child, died at 94. Frankel died Sunday at his Manhattan home, according to an obituary in the Times. Frankel began working at the Times at age 19 as...

Becca Near, serves as the Central States Regional Development Director for United Hatzalah of Israel

What I witnessed in Israel changed me forever: The hidden heroes of United Hatzalah

Becca Near, Special To The Jewish LightPublished March 24, 2025

Last month, I had the immense honor of visiting Israel and spending time with our United Hatzalah volunteers on the ground. United Hatzalah is an Israeli volunteer-based emergency medical services organization, which provides free service throughout Israel. It...

Shmuel Goodman

He lost everything, beat cancer and rebuilt his life—here’s what he told St. Louis Jews

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished March 24, 2025

Shmuel Goodman didn’t come to St. Louis to talk theory—he came to tell the truth. About going broke. About beating cancer. About rebuilding a life with purpose, faith and accountability. As the featured guest of Ignite YP’s Staenberg Speaker Series,...

Federation study reveals a highly engaged evolving Jewish community

Federation study reveals a highly engaged evolving Jewish community

BY BILL MOTCHAN AND ELLEN FUTTERMANPublished March 24, 2025

The Jewish population of the St. Louis metropolitan area is now estimated at approximately 45,800, according to the 2024 Greater St. Louis Jewish Community Study, set to be released today, March 24. The study, conducted by the Cohen Center for Modern...

Bruce Pearl celebrates with his team after defeating the Alabama Crimson Tide at Auburn Arena, Feb. 1, 2022. (Michael Chang/Getty Images)

Bruce Pearl opens NCAA postgame press conference by calling to ‘bring the hostages home’

Ben Sales, JTAPublished March 23, 2025

Bruce Pearl, whose Auburn men’s basketball team advanced to the Sweet Sixteen this weekend, opened his postgame press conference by calling to “bring the hostages home.” Auburn is one of three No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Division I men’s basketball...

The YIVO building in Vilna, left, and its new home near Union Square, right, tell a story of assimilation and the struggle for continuity. Photo by YIVO Archives/Gryffindor/Wikimedia Commons

The secret stash that saved Yiddish culture—and why St. Louis should care today

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished March 23, 2025

On Monday, March 24, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research celebrates 100 years of preserving Jewish history, language and culture. And if you’re sitting in St. Louis thinking, "That’s nice, but what does a New York-based archive have to do with me?,"...

Lucy Greenbaum

St. Louis songbird heads to Jerusalem—Lucy Greenbaum’s sacred new mission!

Published March 21, 2025

Lucy Greenbaum, director of music engagement at Congregation Shaare Emeth, has been accepted to Hebrew Union College’s Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music as a cantorial student. Beginning this summer, she will embark on a five-year program that...

Lefty's Bagels, Facebook

This St. Louis bagel shop just donated 41,000 reasons to love them

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished March 21, 2025

You already know Lefty’s Bagels for their New York-style bagels, but here’s something else to love about them—they’re making sure those bagels do more than just fill stomachs. In 2024 alone, Lefty’s donated more than 41,000 bagels to the...

Buried history uncovered! The shocking Nazi death camp escape you’ve never heard of!

Buried history uncovered! The shocking Nazi death camp escape you’ve never heard of!

Alan Zeitlin (JNS)Published March 20, 2025

There have been many powerful films about the Holocaust, so if one opts to create a new one, one must “bring something new to the conversation,” according to the Israeli-American director Lior Geller. Geller told JNS that the new film “The World...

St. Louis BBYO teens make their mark at International Convention 2025

St. Louis BBYO teens make their mark at International Convention 2025

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished March 20, 2025

For five days in February, nearly 3,500 Jewish teens from 50 countries packed into Denver for the BBYO International Convention (IC), the largest annual gathering of Jewish teen leaders. Among them, 28 teens from St. Louis represented their community,...

A reader saw this hilarious Jewish film and wanted to know: Is it coming to St. Louis?

A reader saw this hilarious Jewish film and wanted to know: Is it coming to St. Louis?

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished March 20, 2025

My inbox is always interesting. The other day, I heard from a former St. Louisan named Vic Weisskopf, a veteran who now lives in Chicago but is wisely wintering down in Phoenix, presumably avoiding whatever Midwest weather we're dealing with this week....

New York Bagel Bakery in Philadelphia has served kosher-keeping customers for decades. Its longtime owner was recently accused of antisemitism, a charge he denies. (Screenshot from Google Maps)

A Palestinian man served kosher bagels for decades. Then customers found his Facebook profile.

Ben Sales, JTAPublished March 19, 2025

(JTA) — The tale sounded almost too heartwarming to be true: A kosher bagel store, just down the road from a few synagogues, was owned by an Arab American who had grown to be beloved by the local Jewish community. For decades, that was the story...

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