Just in case you were wondering, the Jewish Light has a huge circulation. And, it’s reliable — I’m as certain to see it i my mailbox once a week as I am to hear from my grandmother five minutes later when she sees my byline.

Over the course of my internship this summer, I’ve met activists, Zionists, performers, campers, volunteer soldiers, and even a small-town school teacher.

While the paper reaches relatives I didn’t even know I had with near-startling regularity, I’ve learned that it also connects people who may not know they have a relationship at all.

I watched hundreds of volunteers from St. Louis County mingle with children from the inner-city. I saw pictures of Orthodox Jews and Reform Jews standing at the same landmark sites in Israel.

I observed rare book collectors walking into the JCC Book Sale, shopping next to common bargain book collectors like myself.

If I tried, I’ m sure I could find a way to link everyone in the world to the spirit of St. Louis’ Jewish Community. However, I will leave the meaningful (if somewhat corny) “we are all one” ruminations to the people who bring us the Olympics.

On many levels we’re not on the same page (no pun intended), but if you look past the controversies and the discrepancies, it’s worth reading into.

I don’t have quite the dazzling artistic flare of Zhang Yimou, and I definitely have a smaller audience, but I think we’re trying to say something similar.

Though I doubt many Chinese athletes subscribe to the Jewish Light, I would bet a lot of the Jewish Light readership watched the opening ceremonies on NBC. Though most of the world doesn’t watch NBC, a large chunk of it watched their local station’s coverage. Yes, it’s a connection through art, but ultimately, I think it’s a connection through reporting.

This summer, I’ve had the opportunity to help showcase our community’s caring and talented entrepreneurs. People here host some pretty incredible events.

I have enjoyed listening to their stories and goals, and I hope you have enjoyed reading about them as well.

When the Jewish Light shows up in your mailbox, it forges a link between you and everyone who went into its production. It’s a consistent link, a constant amidst differences within our (back to the always-applicable Olympic metaphor) microcosm of the world community.

Thank you for letting me stand at the distribution point for a few weeks.

Ariana Tobin, a sophomore at Washington University, worked at the St. Louis Jewish Light as a summer intern in the Joseph J. Edlin Endowment Summer Journalism Internship.

About the internship:

The Joseph J. Edlin Endowment Summer Journalism Internship Fund was started by Miriam “Mimi” Edlin to honor the late Joseph Edlin, a former president of the Jewish Light Board of Trustees. The Jewish Federation of St. Louis administers the fund, which sponsors interns at the St. Louis Jewish Light and the Sarasota-Manatee Jewish News in Sarasota, Fla. Applications for the annual intership at the Jewish Light are accepted each spring.