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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

All content by Andrew Silow-Carroll
“Cigar” (1969) by Philip Guston, on view at The Jewish Museum,  features the Ku Klux Klan figure found in several of his paintings from the period. (JTA)

A Black artist and a Jewish artist mock the KKK in a new Jewish Museum show

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published November 17, 2024
(Getty Images; JTA illustration)

National Jewish leaders weigh in about their priorities after Trump’s return

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published November 10, 2024
"Why does the pig matter?" Jordan D. Rosenblum asks in, "Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig." (Steve Evans/Wikimedia Commons)

From snout to tail, a 3,000-year history of Jews and the pig

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published October 13, 2024
In the hours after the deadly pager attacks on Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon, social media was flooded with memes about the operation. (JTA collage by Joseph Strauss)

The deadly pager operation in Lebanon is no laughing matter. Or is it?

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published September 19, 2024
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, JTA
Published June 24, 2024
Morrie Markoff in 2023. (Courtesy The Brain Donor Project)

Jewish supercentenarian and oldest man in US, dies at 110

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published June 11, 2024
Richard Lewis in 2018

Comedian Richard Lewis, dark prince of Jewish neurosis, dies at 76

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published February 28, 2024
National Jewish Book Awards for the best books of 2023 were presented to works by, from left, Sabrina Orah Mark, Ruth Madievsky, Jeremy Eichler and James McBride. (Random House, Catapult, Knopf, Riverhead)

Jewish book of the year is announced

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published January 24, 2024
(JTA collage by Mollie Suss)

The best Jewish books I read in 2023

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published December 31, 2023
Palestinians and their supporters protest outside the Embassy of Israel in London two days after Hamas killed s1.200 people in an attack on southern Israel, Oct. 9, 2023.

Understanding what ‘Decolonization is not a metaphor’ really means

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published December 3, 2023
Samuel Klagsbrun, Israel Francus and Avraham Holtz were on the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary. (Via JTS)

Conservative Judaism’s flagship mourning death of 3 influential scholars

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published November 20, 2023
Ariel Levy and John Turturro at the opening night party for The New Group Theater's new play "Sabbath's Theater," at Green Fig Urban Eatery in New York City, Nov. 1, 2023.

How Ariel Levy adapted Philip Roth’s filthiest book for the stage

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published November 3, 2023
High Holiday prayers not working for you? Try remixing metaphors.

High Holiday prayers not working for you? Try remixing metaphors.

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published September 14, 2023
"We Need to Talk About Antisemitism" responds to an era of rising concerns about hatred directed at Jews. (JTA illustration; Getty Images)

A rabbi answers her congregants’ question: Why do they hate us?

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published August 20, 2023
Author Elizabeth Graver tells the story of her mother's Turkish Jewish family, above, in her novel “Kantika.” Her grandmother, Rebecca Baruch, who inspired the novel's main character, is seated front row, fourth from right. (Courtesy of the author)

A novel of Sephardic life revives the Jewish family saga

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published August 6, 2023
Marlena Spieler wrote that she carried her signature green and white polkadot handbag "to most corners of the world." (Roving Feast, Substack)

Marlena Spieler, globetrotting writer of Jewish cookbooks, dies at 74

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published July 11, 2023
Amitai Etzioni

The Israeli origins of Amitai Etzioni’s big ideas about community

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published June 11, 2023

‘Two Israels’: What’s really behind the judicial reform protests

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published April 9, 2023
(Ben Yehuda Press)

From ‘how to’ to ‘why bother?’ The new guide to being Jewish

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published April 2, 2023
(JTA illustration by Mollie Suss)

Which side are you on: Jewish American or American Jew? 

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published March 19, 2023
Director Norman Jewison and actor Chaim Topol (Tevye) share a laugh on the set of the 1971 film “Fiddler on the Roof.” Courtesy of Zeitgeist Films.

How the late actor Topol turned Tevye into a Zionist

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published March 12, 2023
Pogrom? Terrorism? What do we call what happened in Huwara?

Pogrom? Terrorism? What do we call what happened in Huwara?

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published March 7, 2023
Jeremy Dauber is the author of "Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew" (Yale University Press)

A history of Mel Brooks as a ‘disobedient Jew’

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published March 5, 2023
Larry David attends a bat mitzvah in a season 6 episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” (HBO)

No joke, the entire history of Jewish comedy is in this one book

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published February 19, 2023
Israelis march during a rally against government plans to give lawmakers more control of the judicial system, Tel Aviv, Feb. 4, 2023. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

Diaspora alarm over Israel: Your guide to what the critics are saying

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published February 12, 2023
A "Peeps Mobile" at the Just Born candy factory in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. (Andrew Silow-Carroll)

Bob Born, Jewish maker of Peeps marshmallow candies, dies at 98

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published January 31, 2023
What American Jews fight about when they fight about Israel

What American Jews fight about when they fight about Israel

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published January 22, 2023

Comedian Freddie Roman, who brought the Borscht Belt to Broadway, dies at 85

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published November 29, 2022

A Black writer explores how U.S. and Germany differ in remembering their pasts

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published November 29, 2022

The exhausting, never-ending job of debunking antisemitic conspiracy theories

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published November 21, 2022

High Holiday prayers not working for you? Try remixing metaphors

ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL, JTA
Published September 25, 2022
‘Quiet quitting’ sounds sort of … Jewish?

‘Quiet quitting’ sounds sort of … Jewish?

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published August 28, 2022
The Catskills meet Mount Sinai at a night of Jewish comedy

The Catskills meet Mount Sinai at a night of Jewish comedy

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published August 21, 2022
How to understand Nathan Fielder’s HBO show ‘The Rehearsal’

How to understand Nathan Fielder’s HBO show ‘The Rehearsal’

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published August 7, 2022

Can Jews ever agree to disagree?

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published August 4, 2022

The Torah supports me in an argument with my wife that I will never win

ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL, JTA
Published June 26, 2022

Religion for non-believers: It’s a Jewish thing

Andrew Silow-Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of the New York Jewish Week
Published June 19, 2022
An app that identifies trees and flowers is changing my life 

An app that identifies trees and flowers is changing my life 

ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL, JTA
Published June 5, 2022
Jeffrey Veidlinger, University of Michigan

What Putin’s talking about when he talks about ‘denazification’

ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL
Published February 28, 2022
Children attend a rally for peace and unity in Point State Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to remember victims of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, Nov. 9, 2018. (Flickr Commons/Gov. Tom Wolf)

What the Tree of Life shooting revealed about American Jewry

Andrew Silow-Carroll
Published October 19, 2021
"Two By Two" by Barbara Reid is a whimsical version of the Noah's Ark story. (Scholastic)

Noah’s ark is one weird bedtime story

Andrew Silow-Carroll
Published October 8, 2021
Is Alicia Silvestone Jewish?

Is Alicia Silvestone Jewish?

JTA
Published October 3, 2021
Trader Joe’s is not your synagogue. But what if?

Trader Joe’s is not your synagogue. But what if?

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
Published June 22, 2021
New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, top, third from left, meets with haredi Orthodox Jewish leaders in Borough Park, Brooklyn, in an undated photo supplied by his campaign. (Yang for New York)

Top NYC mayoral candidates vie for haredi Orthodox endorsements

ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL
Published April 28, 2021

Brooklyn man, 19, charged with breaking into Capitol on Jan. 6

Andrew Silow-Carroll
Published April 22, 2021

NY judge killed in hit and run while vacationing in Florida

Andrew Silow-Carroll
Published April 12, 2021

A ‘Nazi love story’ about a mass murderer who got away

Andrew Silow-Carroll
Published March 30, 2021
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