Amidst the swirl of recent events, including the Beijing Olympics, the brief, bloody war between Russia and Georgia, the Republican and Democratic Conventions, and Hurricane Gustav, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President...

Both of the commentaries on Aug. 20 -- by J.J. Flotken and David Rubin -- represented calls to action for Jewish individuals in St. Louis. Flotken's article called upon Jewish Baby Boomer offspring to participate in their synagogues and in other community...

When I went to the JCC today to work out, I was amazed to see a large poster advertising Jerry Springer as the Keynote Speaker for the upcoming St. Louis Jewish Book Festival. Mr. Springer is in the business of presenting bizarre interpersonal situations,...

The current uproar in the Jewish community regarding Agriprocessors (Rubashkin kosher meat products) is disturbing. I do not profess inside knowledge of the company and its management. I do not know the extent to which they are guilty or innocent of the...

JEWISH LIGHT EDITORIAL For the past several weeks, the St. Louis Jewish Light has published numerous news stories, opinion pieces and letters to the editor regarding the ongoing controversy over the Agriprocessors, the Rubashkin Kosher Meat and Poultry...

Crimes against humanity Thank you for the Aug. 20 editorial on "Crimes against Humanity." I totally agree with your conclusion that the international community should see to it that Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir is arrested and extradicted to the International...

The great Jewish historian Barbara Tuchman's Pulitzer Prize-winning book on the events leading up to the First World War has a most enduring and timely title in view of current events: The Guns of August. Once again in the so-called "dog days" of August,...

I was deeply disturbed by the opinion piece from Rabbi Zvi Zuravin in the Aug. 13 Light. This article should have been identified as an advertisement for Agriprocessors. If the news article in the same edition of the Light is correct, the Rabbi's trip...

Has it ever happened to you that someone you barely knew started telling you "what's wrong" with -- your brother, your mother, or your son? What was your first reaction? Did you congratulate the busybody on his insight and add in some criticisms of your...

This year the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Jewish State. Most would agree that the Israel of today looks quite a bit different than the homeland of 1948. Forty years from now, the world and our St. Louis Jewish Community will celebrate...

When the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. was dedicated in 1993, hundreds of attendees, including several heads of governments solemnly vowed that "Never Again" would the world stand idly by while another genocide took place....

Regarding the recent raid and allegations against AgriProcessors in Postville, Iowa,(Jewish Light Aug. 6, 2008, "Fallout Continues From Postville Raid"), Rabbi Hyim Shafner is quoted as saying, "They made kosher meat affordable in a way that it never...