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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

Supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv hold Israeli and team flags at Dam Square ahead of the Europa League football match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, Nov. 7, 2024. (Jeroen Jumelet / ANP / AFP via Getty Images)

Israel sends planes to Amsterdam to rescue Israeli soccer fans under assault by street mobs

By Ron Kampeas, Jewish Telegraphic AgencyPublished November 7, 2024

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had dispatched two planes to Amsterdam to rescue Israeli soccer fans beset by mobs after a game between Ajax, a local team, and Maccabi Tel Aviv, an Israeli team. Videos that circulated on WhatsApp and...

Friends and family of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza protest outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on April 25. Photo by Getty Images

Two more hostages, including an American Israeli, are seen in video released by Hamas

By Ron Kampeas, JTAPublished April 27, 2024

(JTA) — Hamas released its second hostage proof of life video in a week, this time featuring Omri Miran and Keith Siegel, as pressure mounts on the terrorist group to accede to the terms of a ceasefire and hostage release. Siegel, 64, is one of several...

Israeli army flares fall over the northern Har Dov area on Mount Hermon on Nov. 13, 2023, amid increasing cross-border tensions between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel as fighting continues with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images)

Survey: Jews feel close to Israel; its government, not so much

By Ron Kampeas, JTAPublished April 18, 2024

(JTA) — As of early March, five months into Israel’s war with Hamas, American Jews felt close to Israel but were also likely to feel uncomfortable with its government’s actions, according to a Jewish Federations of North America poll. Almost...

May 2, 2023; Washington, DC, USA; Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, leads the Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing on Supreme Court ethics reform in Washington. Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday declined an invitation from Senate Democrats to testify about ethics standards at the Supreme Court amid a series of high-profile controversies involving his colleagues.

Durbin among Democrats calling for a ceasefire in Gaza upon hostage release

BY RON KAMPEAS, JTAPublished November 3, 2023

WASHINGTON (JTA) — As Joe Biden was speaking at a political fundraiser in Minneapolis this week, a rabbi and activist with an anti-Zionist Jewish group stood up and shouted, “Mr. President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to...

Trump to address conference of Orthodox Jews in wake of West-Fuentes controversy

BY RON KAMPEAS, JTAPublished December 15, 2022

(JTA) — Former President Donald Trump is set to address a conference organized by a haredi Orthodox education group weeks after his dinner with two prominent antisemitic figures sparked a wave of criticism. Trump will speak Friday at the annual President’s...

Report: Iran plotting to kill Jews

BY RON KAMPEAS, JTAPublished December 3, 2022

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Iranian regime has launched dozens of plots to kill its perceived enemies abroad, including Jews, among them the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, according to a report in The Washington Post. The Iranian regime dramatically...

From McConnell to McCarthy, Republican leaders criticize Trump’s dinner with Holocaust denier

BY RON KAMPEAS, JTAPublished November 29, 2022

(JTA) — A week after former President Donald Trump dined with two men who are known for their outspoken antisemitism, Republican leaders are beginning to speak out — though some are sparing Trump direct criticism. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the...

Trump’s dinner with a Holocaust denier draws rare criticism from some of his Jewish allies

BY RON KAMPEAS, JTAPublished November 27, 2022

(JTA) — Two weeks after feting Donald Trump as America’s most pro-Israel president ever, the Zionist Organization of America had harsh words for the man who aspires to return to the White House. “ZOA deplores the fact that President Trump had...

Donald Trump is running for president, again. Recapping his volatile relationship with American Jews

BY RON KAMPEAS, JTAPublished November 15, 2022

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Donald Trump announced his third presidential campaign on Tuesday night, kicking off the 2024 presidential primary preseason and setting up a showdown over the future of the Republican Party. American Jews likely need no reminders...

Oregon auction house removes Himmler’s purported dagger after Jewish groups complain

Oregon auction house removes Himmler’s purported dagger after Jewish groups complain

BY RON KAMPEASPublished April 27, 2021

(JTA) — “VERY RARE HEINRICH HIMMLER PRESENTATION SS HONOR DAGGER,” said the entry posted Sunday on the website of the Portland auction house O’Gallerie. On Monday, after Jewish groups complained, it became even rarer. The auction house president,...

Birthright restarting trips to Israel as nation nears herd immunity

Birthright restarting trips to Israel as nation nears herd immunity

BY RON KAMPEASPublished April 27, 2021

(JTA) — Birthright, the organization that flies young Jews to Israel for a free 10-day tour, will resume its trips now that the pandemic appears to be winding down. “Birthright Israel will resume providing the gift of educational trips to Israel...

John Kerry denies he ever talked about Israeli strikes on Syria with Iranian foreign minister

John Kerry denies he ever talked about Israeli strikes on Syria with Iranian foreign minister

BY RON KAMPEASPublished April 27, 2021

(JTA) — John Kerry, an architect of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, has adamantly denied that he discussed Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria with Iran’s foreign minister. “I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally...

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