St. Louis Jewish groups to ‘Shine A Light’ on antisemitism

Published November 23, 2021

Five local Jewish organizations are joining with a coalition of more than 60 North American Jewish and non-Jewish organizations and corporations to launch Shine A Light, an effort that works to illuminate the dangers of antisemitism through education, community partnerships, workplace engagement and advocacy.

Co-sponsors of the effort locally are:

Jewish Federation of St. Louis
Jewish Community Relations Council
Anti-Defamation League’s Heartland chapter
American Jewish Committee-St. Louis chapter
National Council of Jewish Women-St. Louis

The groups are asking community members to join in the campaign by posting pictures of themselves with a candle or flashlight on their social media during Hanukkah, Nov. 28 to Dec. 6, and using the hashtag #ShineALight.

Starting Conversations

Amid a widespread rise in antisemitism in North America, Shine A Light seeks to catalyze conversations within and across communities, on school campuses, and in the workplace, so that people will better understand what constitutes antisemitism and take steps to respond.

They will partner with Jewish organizations around the country as well as an amazing collection of corporate sponsors, including the NBA, NFL, Google, Facebook, Hyatt, NASCAR, H & M, American Eagle, and many more.

Antisemitism by the numbers

The joint effort is taking place in the wake of sobering statistics about the prevalence of antisemitism in our community. Recent studies have shown:

Antisemitism is on the rise: the United States recorded more than 2,100 acts of assault, vandalism and harassment targeting Jews, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year, according to the ADL’s 2019 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents.
One in four American Jews has been targeted by antisemitism over the past year, and nearly four in 10 report changing their behavior for fear of being identified as Jewish or for their safety or comfort as Jew, according to AJC’s State of Antisemitism in America 2021 report.
Hate crimes in America disproportionately target Jews. Last year, according to the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics, 57 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes were against Jews, who make up just 2% of the U.S. population.

More information about the Shine the Light campaign is available at shinealighton.com. Social media handles being used in the campaign are: