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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

Twelve tough questions and simple answers about Israel

Twelve tough questions and simple answers about Israel

Gil Troy, (Jewish Journal via JNS)Published June 24, 2024

My good friend, Taglit-Birthright Israel’s CEO Gidi Mark, challenged me recently: “Can you offer short, punchy answers to some of the pressing questions our participants have—and some of the accusations being thrown at them?” Here’s my best...

Jeffrey Shandler, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University, is the author of "Homes of the Past: A Lost Jewish Museum." (Etty Lassman; Indiana University Press)

The true story of the ‘The Lost Jewish Museum’

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTAPublished June 24, 2024

Less than three months after Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, producers of the doomed Nova Musical Festival created a traveling exhibit in Tel Aviv about the more than 360 partygoers slaughtered on that day. Featuring the belongings of the victims...

Police arrest hundreds, including members of the Jewish group Not In Our Name, at a pro-Palestinian protest in Brooklyn on April 23, 2024. Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images

Jewish critics of Zionism have clashed with American Jewish leaders for decades

Marjorie N. Feld, Babson College, Special To The Jewish LightPublished June 21, 2024

Since October 2023, American Jews have been engaged in an intense, fractious debate over Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. Media reports say that American Jews are experiencing “the great rupture,” widening “rifts,” and stand at a “moral,...

(Clockwise from top left) High school yearbooks in East Brunswick, New Jersey; Bellaire, Texas; St. Louis Park, Minnesota; and Glenview, Illinois went to press during the 2023-24 school year with material that Jews said was antisemitic or insensitive, ranging from the swapping out of a Jewish student group photo with a Muslim group, to descriptions of the Israel-Hamas war that avoided the Oct. 7 attacks. (Collage by JTA)

Investigation completed in New Jersey high school yearbook incident

Andrew Lapin, JTAPublished June 20, 2024

A New Jersey high school yearbook’s misprint of a photo of Muslim students in place of its Jewish Student Union “was not purposeful, but rather was a highly unfortunate error,” an independent investigator has concluded.. The controversy at...

A protest led by Within Our Lifetime in Manhattan, September 17, 2021. (Luke Tress)

What is ‘Within Our Lifetime,’ the radical anti-Israel group harassing Jews and making headlines

Luke Tress, JTAPublished June 20, 2024

(New York Jewish Week) — When anti-Israel activists protested outside a Lower Manhattan exhibition commemorating the victims of the Nova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, they were condemned as antisemitic by some of Israel’s critics as well as its...

U.S. President Donald Trump and former U.S. Vice President/Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at the first debate on Sept. 29, 2020. Source: Screenshot.

Jewish moderators will grill Trump and Biden at CNN’s debate. What should they ask about Israel?

By Jacob Kornbluh, JTAPublished June 20, 2024

Israel will likely get significant airtime next week during the first presidential debate of the 2024 presidential election between President Joe Biden and Donalt Trump. Two Jewish journalists, CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, will moderate the matchup,...

Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion's main campus  is in New York City's Greenwich Village. (Plexi Images/GHI/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Hebrew Union College to admit and ordain rabbinical students in interfaith relationships, ending longstanding ban

Philissa Cramer, JTAPublished June 20, 2024

Hebrew Union College, the Reform movement’s rabbinical seminary, will begin admitting and ordaining students who are in relationships with non-Jews, following a decision by its board to drop a longstanding ban on interfaith relationships for rabbinical...

A protester holds a placard which reads as "Twelve-year-old and already a victim of antisemitic hate" as she gathers to condemn the alleged antisemitic gang rape of a 12-year-old girl, at the Paris City Hall square, June 19, 2024. Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images)

Protests, political action in France after alleged antisemitic rape of 12-year-old Jewish girl

Philissa Cramer, JTAPublished June 20, 2024

A shocking incident in which two teenage boys have been charged with the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a suburb of Paris has sparked a reckoning across France, with Jewish groups taking to the streets to protest rising antisemitism and President...

Willie Mays, left, with Jacob Shemano and the Dodgers’ Leo Durocher. Courtesy of Gary Shemano

‘Best friends I ever had’: Willie Mays’ treasured bond with a Jewish family

By Louis KeenePublished June 19, 2024

Willie Mays was in the prime of his career in 1963, but his finances were a mess. The Giants’ star outfielder had plunged into debt amid divorce proceedings, and even with more than half of his career home runs under his belt, was staring down bankruptcy. Then...

Eugene Vindman, Democratic candidate for Virginia's 7th Congressional District, attends a news conference to urge the House to pass the Senate National Security Aid Package, which includes aid to Ukraine, on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Eugene Vindman, whose Jewish immigrant story featured in Trump’s first impeachment trial, wins primary in Virginia

Ron Kampeas, JTAPublished June 19, 2024

WASHINGTON — A former White House official whose Jewish Ukrainian origins played a prominent role in Donald Trump’s first impeachment hearings won a Democratic congressional primary in Virginia on Tuesday. Elsewhere in the state, two prominent...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, June 10, 2024. (Amos Ben-Gershom/Israel Government Press Office)

Netanyahu accuses Biden of withholding weapons. White House: We ‘do not know what he’s talking about.’

Ron Kampeas, JTAPublished June 18, 2024

WASHINGTON — White House officials denied withholding weapons from Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video statement criticizing the Biden administration for an “inconceivable” delay in delivering weapons. The exchange...

El Al planes are seen at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on Dec. 31, 2022. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto)

Public outcry prompts El Al to backtrack

Asaf Elia-Shalev, JTAPublished June 17, 2024

Steeply discounted shipping of donations to support the Israeli war effort aboard El AL aircraft is coming back days after Israel’s national airline said it planned to end the program.  El Al’s decision to reinstate the discount follows reporting...

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