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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

World news

Protesters at a Jewish solidarity march in New York City on Jan. 5, 2020.

Jew-hatred keeps rising in US, per ADL annual audit

Jonathan D. Salant (JNS)Published April 22, 2025

The rise in Jew-hatred after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, showed no sign of abating, as the Anti-Defamation League reported another new high in antisemitic incidents for 2024. The 9,354 incidents of assault, harassment and...

Screenshot of Merav Ceren's public LinkedIn page.

‘A patriotic American,’ White House says of adviser accused of dual loyalty to Israel

Mike Wagenheim, (JNS)Published April 22, 2025

The White House’s National Security Council confirmed on Monday that it hired Merav Ceren, a national and economic security expert, as its Israel and Iran director, after critics, including antisemitic ones, said that Ceren has a conflict of interest...

Rabbi Noam Marans, left, shakes hands with Pope Francis in Rome, March 8, 2019. Marans and other representatives of the American Jewish Committee presented the pope with a certificate certifying that a grapevine in Israel had been dedicated to him. (Courtesy American Jewish Committee)

The Francis I knew: a warrior against antisemitism, a sometimes impolitic critic of Israel

Rabbi Noam E. Marans, JTAPublished April 22, 2025

I vividly remember each of the many times I was fortunate enough to meet with Pope Francis. The initial meeting was in June 2013, when the pontiff welcomed a group of Jewish organizations to the Vatican — the first of many such meetings of his tenure. We...

Some rabbis preach about political issues. (Wikimedia Commons)

An Israeli think tank used AI to analyze 4,400 American synagogue sermons. Here’s what it found.

Ben Sales, JTAPublished April 22, 2025

If you go to synagogue — and if you pay attention to the rabbi’s sermon — do you expect them to talk about the Gaza war? Perhaps the latest news from the White House? According to a recent study, you should. Researchers at the Jewish People...

Holocaust survivors (L-R) Guenter Pappenheim, Eva Fahidi-Pusztai and Heinrich Rotmensch sit in wheelchairs at a ceremony at the Buchenwald concentration camp on Jan. 27, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. All three died before the 80th anniversary. (Jens Schlueter/AFP via Getty Images)

Half of Holocaust survivors alive today will be dead in 6 years, new analysis finds

Grace Gilson, JTAPublished April 21, 2025

Almost all of the Holocaust survivors alive today will be dead in 15 years, a new projection by a leading organization advocating for their compensation finds. While the timeline is something of an actuarial inevitability — the Holocaust ended 80...

Artist: Marc Chagall; Title: White Crucifixion (1938); ©  The Art Institute of Chicago

How this Marc Chagall painting explains Pope Francis’ soul

By Talya Zax, The ForwardPublished April 21, 2025

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox. “Pain is depicted there with serenity,” said Pope Francis of his favorite painting, Marc Chagall’s White...

The profile picture of Phoenix Ikner, the suspected shooter in the attack at FSU. (ADL)

FSU shooting suspect used neo-Nazi imagery on social media, ADL finds

Grace Gilson, JTAPublished April 21, 2025

(JTA) — The suspect in last week’s shooting at Florida State University used Nazi imagery and language in his online profiles, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Phoenix Ikner, 20, is accused of killing two and wounding six in the shooting...

Larry David at a Los Angeles Lakers game at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Nov. 15, 2019. (Kevork S. Djansezian/Getty Images)

Larry David’s ‘My Dinner with Adolf’ essay skewers Bill Maher’s meeting with Trump

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTAPublished April 21, 2025

Add Larry David to the list of celebrities who were put off by comedian Bill Maher’s friendly sitdown with President Trump. In a New York Times opinion piece, “My Dinner with Adolf,” the Jewish creator of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” imagines...

Pope Francis meets with Hispanic Jewish leaders from Argentina, Spain and the United States at the Vatican on Aug. 22 2019. (Courtesy of Hispanic Jewish Foundation)

Pope Francis, a champion of Jewish-Catholic dialogue, dies at 88

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTAPublished April 21, 2025

Pope Francis, who significantly advanced the Catholic Church’s relationship with Jews and Israel by actively promoting dialogue, reconciliation and a strong stance against antisemitism, died Monday, one day after marking Easter with a public appearance...

Members of the Palestine Red Crescent and other emergency services pray by the bodies of fellow rescuers killed a week earlier by Israeli forces, during a funeral procession in Khan Yunis, Gaza, March 31, 2025. (Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli army fires deputy commander after finding ‘operational errors’ in killing of 15 Gazans

Philissa Cramer, JTAPublished April 21, 2025

An Israeli army deputy commander is being dismissed as a result of the Israel Defense Forces’ investigation into what happened last month when soldiers fired on medics in an ambulance in Gaza. Fifteen people were killed in the incident, which took...

A member of the band Kneecap displays a Palestinian flag before a Coachella performance that included an anti-Israel display. (Screenshot from Hasan Piker's livestream)

‘F–k Israel’ message displayed at Coachella music festival and streamed to millions

JTA StaffPublished April 20, 2025

(JTA) — The Irish band Kneecap displayed a large anti-Israel message during its set Friday at Coachella, a music festival held in the California desert. A series of messages projected behind the band accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and condemned...

Ari Siegel pitched his business History By Mail on "Shark Tank." (Disney/Christopher Willard)

How Abraham Lincoln in a kippah wound up making a $250,000 deal on ‘Shark Tank’

Grace Gilson, JTAPublished April 18, 2025

When Ari Siegel took the stage on a recent episode of “Shark Tank,” he was dressed as Abraham Lincoln, but with a Jewish twist: His outfit featured a kippah and a kapota, the black robe traditionally worn by Hasidic men. The get-up reflected Siegel’s...

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