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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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Photo: Felise Waxman/Felise Photography

Alper-Deutsch Engagement

Published September 5, 2025

Andi Alper and Matthew Deutsch would like to announce their engagement. Andi is the daughter of Ellen and Steve Alper of Chesterfield, and the granddaughter of Shirley Alper of St. Louis. Matthew is the son of Charlie and Naomi Ruth Deutsch...

How a beloved TV detective embodies a central Jewish value

How a beloved TV detective embodies a central Jewish value

By PJ Grisar, The ForwardPublished August 28, 2025

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox. I went to the first day of the U.S. Open’s Fan Week on Monday — it would be fair to say I wasn’t exactly the target...

Police arrest suspect in JSU house vandalism case

Police arrest suspect in JSU house vandalism case

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished August 28, 2025

University City police have arrested and charged a St. Louis County man in connection with vandalism outside the Jewish Student Union (JSU) Staenberg House after a sign was defaced earlier this month. Officials say the incident happened around 11 p.m....

From clinic to community: Dr. Ron Bose takes center stage at Lynnie’s Light

From clinic to community: Dr. Ron Bose takes center stage at Lynnie’s Light

BY ELLEN FUTTERMAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEFPublished August 17, 2025

The Staenberg Family Complex near Creve Coeur will glow with purpose on Wednesday, Sept. 10, as the St. Louis Jewish Community Center hosts its annual Lynnie’s Light for Life event—a gathering that blends community, compassion and commitment to cancer...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump speak during a joint press conference in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington, DC.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Gaza ceasefire deal gaining momentum, U.S. and third parties signal

Grace Gilson, JTAPublished July 4, 2025

(JTA) — Efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be gaining momentum Thursday, with Hamas reportedly signalling satisfaction with assurances outlined in a Washington-backed proposal. The proposal comes as Israeli Prime Minister...

From Left:  Dan Leger, Amy Mallinger., Andrea Mallinger Wedner and Carol Black.

What I learned from survivors of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished June 23, 2025

On Sunday, June 22, about 60 Jewish journalists gathered in Pittsburgh not to report, but to learn. The American Jewish Press Association annual conference got underway that afternoon with a powerful start. As the lights dimmed and the opening frames...

Dinner, drama and working moms who spill the truth

Ellen Futterman, Editor-in-ChiefPublished June 9, 2025

In connection with the New Jewish Theatre’s production of “The Heidi Chronicles,” Nishmah (aka the J’s hub for all things wise and womanly) is hosting a pre-show dinner and panel on Thursday, June 12. The topic: an intergenerational dive into...

Smuggled rabbis. Forgotten thinkers. 4,000 years of Jewish survival—in one wild hour.

Smuggled rabbis. Forgotten thinkers. 4,000 years of Jewish survival—in one wild hour.

Published May 30, 2025

Jewish history spans more than four millennia—and Richard Gavatin is aiming to unpack it all in just one hour. On June 17, the Mirowitz Center will host his fast-paced presentation, “4,000 Years of Jewish History in One Hour,” where Gavatin will...

Owen Whalen, 18, and Jake Goldfarb, 17

Future Senior Olympians? Meet the teens behind the clipboards

Bill Motchan, Special To The Jewish LightPublished May 27, 2025

Two St. Louis Senior Olympics volunteers love sports and plan to enter the competition, but not for another 30-plus years. Owen Whalen, 18, and Jake Goldfarb, 17, could be seen at multiple 2025 St. Louis Senior Olympics venues, clipboards in hand. Both...

100 and going strong: Jewish centenarian veterans share their WWII memories — one last time

100 and going strong: Jewish centenarian veterans share their WWII memories — one last time

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished May 19, 2025

Imagine living through one of the most pivotal conflicts in modern history — and making it to 100-years-old to tell the tale. That’s exactly what three Jewish Centenarian World War II veterans will do on Tuesday, May 20, at Washington, D.C.’s Arena...

President Donald J. Trump meets with business leaders at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on May 15, 2025, in Doha, Qatar. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Trump: ‘A lot of people are starving in Gaza’

Ben Sales, JTAPublished May 16, 2025

(JTA) — President Donald Trump said people are “starving” in Gaza and the United States will help “get that taken care of” as he wrapped up his trip to the Middle East. | RELATED: Pregnant Israeli woman killed in a terror attack on her way...

A Torah is held up overlooking alongside the shoreline of a lake in Colorado where a bar mitzvah is about to begin.

This former St. Louis rabbi leads bar mitzvahs in hiking boots—and it’s transforming Jewish tradition

By JIM WINNERMAN, Special to the Jewish LightPublished April 1, 2025

When Rabbi Alan Shavit-Lonstein was a first-year student at Washington University in 1984, he never expected he would be a rabbi conducting bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies for a congregation of 340 families with no building, and which only practices Judaism...

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