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 JACKIE HAJDENBERG
Ariel Yaron (left), Moshe Grimaldi (second from left), Evan Gilder (center) were among five members of a Jewish contingent of Boy Scouts who participated in a CPR rescue aboard a flight to New York on July 11, 2024. (Courtesy Evan Gilder)

These Jewish Boy Scouts saved a man’s life on the flight home from a 100-mile desert trek

Jackie Hajdenberg
Published July 23, 2024
A campaign for Adidas features supermodel Bella Hadid wearing a reissue of sneakers from the 1972 Munich Olympics. (Photos courtesy of Adidas. Design by Jackie Hajdenberg)

Adidas removes 1972 Olympic sneaker ads, apologizes to Bella Hadid

Jackie Hajdenberg
Published July 22, 2024
Yael Jaffe, a member of Hadars first cohort of rabbinic ordinees, learns in the New York beit midrash, or study hall, of the Jewish learning and programming center. (Courtesy Hadar)

Hadar’s new plan has it minting rabbis, opening synagogues and sending teens to Israel. Is it a denomination now?

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published July 1, 2024
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in the glass defendants cage in the Yekaterinburg courthouse where his trial began Wed. June 26. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)

Gershkovich’s espionage trial begins in Russia

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 26, 2024
From left to right: Rev. Traci Blackmon, Maharat Rori Picker Neiss and Americans United for Separation of Church & State CEO Rachel Laser march to the Civil Courts building in St. Louis. (Courtesy of Americans United for Separation of Church & State)

Missouri judge rejects suit by interfaith clergy, including rabbis, that challenged abortion ban

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 17, 2024
Diane von Furstenberg looks at herself in the mirror in a still from ‘Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge’. (Courtesy Hulu)

A new movie about fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg explores legacy of her mother’s Holocaust experience

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 7, 2024
Maya Lasker-Wallfisch, Kai Höss, and Hans-Jurgen Höss visit Auschwitz. (Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

New film revealing the true Holocaust story behind ‘The Zone of Interest’ opens in St. Louis

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published May 28, 2024
Rabbi Jill Hausman of the Actors Temple in New York appears on Saturday Night Live on May 18, 2024. (Screenshot via YouTube)

Meet Jill Hausman, the real rabbi who grimaced through jokes about Jews on SNL’s ‘Weekend Update’

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published May 20, 2024
A Columbia student wraps tefillin, while in the background, a pro-Palestinian encampment enters its third day. (Jackie Hajdenberg)

‘We would like to speak in our name,’ Jewish Columbia students say in viral open letter

Jackie Hajdenberg
Published May 8, 2024
A Jewish mother and an illustrator have teamed up to create an unofficial Taylor Swift haggadah for Passover this year. (Courtesy Shelley Atlas Serber, Wikimedia. Design by Jackie Hajdenberg)

The exodus story you know ‘All Too Well’ gets retold in new Taylor Swift haggadah

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published April 10, 2024
Jewish fertility group is helping Alabama clients due to ‘fetal personhood’ ruling

Jewish fertility group is helping Alabama clients due to ‘fetal personhood’ ruling

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published March 5, 2024
Stan Polovets (right) cofounder of the Genesis Prize, with some of the 2024 awardees, the parents of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Rachel Goldberg (center) and Jon Polin (left), for their activism on the hostages held in Gaza.

Groups working to support Israeli hostages and their families awarded 2024 ‘Jewish Nobel’

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published February 28, 2024

Leading British rabbi warns against Rafah invasion: ‘If I said nothing, I couldn’t live with myself’

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published February 13, 2024
Why Canada let convicted Nazi war criminals keep their citizenship

Why Canada let convicted Nazi war criminals keep their citizenship

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published February 6, 2024
Rabbi Ilan Glazer (drums) and his band, featuring wife Sherri on vocals, perform at the Gam Ki Elech album release show on Jan. 14, 2024.

When Judaism didn’t offer rituals for a stillbirth, a grieving couple created their own

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published January 30, 2024
Aviv sports company participates in the #StandUpToJewishHate campaign by hanging the blue square symbol on basketball nets in the Pais Arena in Jerusalem, April 2023. Credit: Courtesy.

Coach of prep player who said ‘I support Hamas, you f–king Jew’ faces consequences

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published January 8, 2024
UN Secretary-General António Guterres speaks at a UN Security Council meeting on the Israel-Hamas war on Nov. 29 (David Dee Delgado via Getty Images)

For the first time since Oct. 7, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urges investigation into sexual violence by Hamas

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published November 29, 2023
Dictionary definition of antisemitism.

Multiple US synagogues hit with anti-Israel, antisemitic graffiti

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published November 27, 2023
Sacha Baron Cohen, Debra Messing, Amy Schumer and other Jewish celebrities call out ‘the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis’ in meeting with TikTok execs

Sacha Baron Cohen, Debra Messing, Amy Schumer and other Jewish celebrities call out ‘the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis’ in meeting with TikTok execs

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published November 17, 2023
Supporters of Israel protest near the U.S. Capitol, Oct. 13, 2023.

Planes, trains and bus caravans: Ahead of mass pro-Israel rally, tens of thousands of Jews are descending on Washington

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published November 13, 2023
A front and back view of a pocket watch belonging to Jewish Titanic passenger Sinai Kantor, with salt water stains showing approximately when the ship sank.

Hebrew pocket watch, frozen in time of Titanic wreck, headed for auction

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published November 12, 2023
Rose Lubin, 20, an Israeli-American lone soldier serving in the Border Police, was stabbed by a terrorist in Jerusalem and died of her wounds a few hours later on Nov. 6.

Israeli-American border police officer from Atlanta killed in Jerusalem stabbing attack

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published November 6, 2023
Threats to kill Jewish students at Cornell prompt police to monitor kosher dining hall

Threats to kill Jewish students at Cornell prompt police to monitor kosher dining hall

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published October 29, 2023
On Oct. 16, group of Chicago-area rabbis attended the funeral of Wadea al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian-American who was stabbed by his familys landlord, to pay their respects and condemn islamophobia in the wake of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.

Chicago rabbis attend funeral of Palestinian-American child killed in alleged Islamophobic hate crime

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published October 17, 2023
Jedidiah Murphy wears a skull cap that was a gift from one of his supporters, Rabbi Yehuda Eber, in the Polusnky death row prison unit in Livingston, Texas, Oct. 10, 2019.

UPDATED: Jedidiah Murphy, Jewish man convicted of murder, has been executed in Texas

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published October 9, 2023
Fran Drescher speaks along with Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine at a SAG-AFTRA rally in New York City, Aug. 1, 2023.

Variety to hold Hollywood summit on antisemitism with Fran Drescher, Marc Maron, Alex Edelman and other stars

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published October 5, 2023
The Bornplatz Synagogue in Hamburg, Germany once held 1,200 congregants before it was destroyed in Kristallnacht.

85 years after Kristallnacht, Germany begins rebuilding grand synagogue in Hamburg

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published September 28, 2023
Siggy Flicker, left, poses with former president Donald Trump, center.

Who is Siggy Flicker, the woman behind Trump’s Rosh Hashanah message condemning ‘liberal Jews’?

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published September 22, 2023
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, center, delivers remarks during a Sep. 20, 2023 ceremony to return stolen artworks to the heirs of Fritz Grünbaums estate: Timothy Reif, David Frankel, and Sarah Reif, left, pictured left to right.

In emotional ceremony, heirs to ‘Cabaret’ inspiration Fritz Grünbaum take back 7 Egon Schiele works stolen by the Nazis

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published September 20, 2023
Former president Donald Trump posted a bizarre Rosh Hashanah message Sept. 17 addressed to ‘liberal Jews’ who ‘voted to destroy America and Israel’.

Donald Trump wishes happy Rosh Hashanah to ‘liberal Jews who voted to destroy America and Israel’

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published September 18, 2023
Jewish actor and comedian Andy Samberg, left, portrays World War II photographer David E. Scherman, right in the biographical film Lee.

Andy Samberg plays a famous Jewish WWII photographer in upcoming biopic

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published September 12, 2023
Israeli chef Shachar Yogev serves a burger made with cultured chicken meat at The Chicken, SuperMeats restaurant adjacent to their production site in the Israeli town of Ness Ziona on June 18, 2021.

Orthodox Union certifies Israeli brand of lab-grown meat as kosher — but not pareve

Jackie Hajdenberg
Published September 8, 2023
US journalist Evan Gershkovich stands inside a defendants cage at Moscow City Court on June 22, 2023.

How to write a Rosh Hashanah letter in support of detained Jewish journalist Evan Gershkovich

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published September 6, 2023
Cliffords Tower, the site of the massacre of the Jews of York took place in 1190. (Wikimedia Commons)

How a Jewish community wiped out in medieval massacre has recovered 833 years later

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published August 24, 2023
The Community Security Initiative of Los Angeles monitors threats against the Jewish community and provides safety training to Jews and Jewish institutions.

A Jewish security group says it tipped off FBI about a neo-Nazi who said he wanted to kill Jews

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published August 16, 2023
An Anne Frank burger and Adolf fries were on the menu at an Argentine fast food restaurant until Aug. 2. (Getty)

Fast food restaurant drops ‘Anne Frank’ and ‘Adolf’ menu items after backlash from Jewish community

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published August 3, 2023
Jewish man killed by police after attempting attack on Memphis Jewish day school

Jewish man killed by police after attempting attack on Memphis Jewish day school

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published July 31, 2023
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and actress Cheryl Hines arrive at the Los Angeles premiere of A Bad Moms Christmas at Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, California, Oct. 30, 2017. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

RFK Jr. on the people to blame for COVID: ‘We know who they were and they weren’t Jewish’

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published July 26, 2023
SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland join protestors on strike in Los Angeles on July 14, 2023. Photo: Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images

SAG strike puts its brash Jewish president, Fran Drescher, squarely in the spotlight

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published July 18, 2023
Signage for Broadways Funny Girl, which begins its national tour in September. (Bruce Glikas/WireImage via Getty Images)

‘Funny Girl’ national tour casts non-Jewish actor as Fanny Brice, reigniting ‘Jewface’ criticism

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published July 18, 2023
Police and protestors stand outside the Marriott Philadelphia Downtown during the Moms for Liberty summitt.

What happened when a Jewish group and the Moms for Liberty shared a conference hotel

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published July 5, 2023
Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian cries over Kanye West’s antisemitism

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 30, 2023
A sign on the Brandeis University campus with the schools emblem and motto reads, Truth even unto its innermost parts. (Wikimedia)

Orthodox students at Brandeis U. decry ad calling school ‘anything but Orthodox’

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 27, 2023
A student raises her hand in class.

The Reform movement is ending its semester-in-Israel program

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 22, 2023
Rabbi Sally Priesand

National Portrait Gallery to display portrait of Sally Priesand, first ordained woman rabbi in American history

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 21, 2023
Helen Mirren as Golda Meir

Golda Meir biopic starring Helen Mirren gets US release date

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 16, 2023
Mourners visit the memorial outside the Tree of Life Synagogue, Oct. 31, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, four days after 11 Jewish worshippers were killed during services there. The alleged shooters trial begins April 24, 2023. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Jury finds Pittsburgh synagogue shooter guilty on all counts

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 16, 2023
Matthias Weniger, head of provenance research at the Bavarian National Museum, shown with museum objects in Tel Aviv, June 5, 2023.

A German museum curator returning art looted by the Nazis to the descendants of Holocaust victims

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 14, 2023
Micaela Diamond and Ben Platt during the opening night curtain call for Parade at New York City Center, Nov. 1, 2022. Photo: Bruce Glikas/WireImage/GettyImages

The cast of Broadway’s ‘Parade’ says Kaddish before each show

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 9, 2023
City of Miami.

City of Miami Beach agrees to pay $1.3 million to settle Jewish congregation’s discrimination claims

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 7, 2023
Alfred Moses stands in front of the Codex Sassoon,

Alfred Moses bought the Codex Sassoon for more than $30 million. He just saw it for the first time.

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published June 1, 2023
A side-by-side comparison of the 1985 edition of the JPS Tanakh and the 2023 gender-sensitive edition demonstrates slight changes in the English translation.

A ‘gender-sensitive’ translation of the Hebrew Bible has hit digital shelves. Not everyone is happy.

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published May 30, 2023
Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, revered haredi leader in Israel, dies at 100

Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, revered haredi leader in Israel, dies at 100

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published May 30, 2023
Kosher food on a table

Conservative movement OKs vegetarian and vegan restaurants without kosher supervision

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published May 23, 2023
Israel to invest $40 million in North American Jewish day schools

Israel to invest $40 million in North American Jewish day schools

Jackie Hajdenberg and Philissa Cramer
Published May 17, 2023
A fruit roll up, green.

Alleged ‘Fruit Roll-Ups’ smuggling Americans caught in Israel

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published May 3, 2023
Barbara Streisand waving.

Barbra Streisand is getting the next ‘Jewish Nobel,’ in prize’s return to celebrity tradition

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published May 1, 2023
American burger and shake franchise Shake Shack is set to open in Israel in 2024. (Courtesy Jackie Hajdenberg)

Six years after telling the Jewish Light he wouldn’t, Danny Meyer is opening a Shake Shack in Israel

Jackie Hajdenberg and Jordan Palmer
Published April 20, 2023
Pictured left to right: Nancy Aucone, Hedda Kleinfeld Schachter, and granddaughter Chloe Schachter at the Wedding Salon of Manhasset. (Courtesy Ilana Schachter)

In Memoriam: Before ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ Holocaust survivor Hedda Kleinfeld Schachter revolutionized the bridal industry

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published April 14, 2023
Jewish Matchmaking follows Jewish singles in the U.S. and Israel as they search for their soulmates with the help of a Jewish matchmaker. (Netflix)

Netflix’s ‘Jewish Matchmaking’ debuts May 3

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published March 30, 2023
Boxes of Trader Joes matzah for sale. (Isabella Armus)

A fifth question this Passover: what makes Trader Joe’s matzah different from all other matzah?

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published March 22, 2023
Jewish leaders from across Missouri came to Jefferson City to testify and lobby against various bills that would restrict the rights of trans people. (Photo courtesy of Rabbi Daniel Bogard)

Missouri Jewish leaders advocate for trans rights at state legislature

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published February 6, 2023
Adolf Eichmanns audio confessions to the orchestration of the Final Solution can be heard for the first time in The Devils Confession.(Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video)

Docuseries with never-before-heard confessions from Adolf Eichmann comes to Amazon Prime Video

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published February 1, 2023
8 snapshots of Hanukkah celebrations from around the world

8 snapshots of Hanukkah celebrations from around the world

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published December 21, 2022
Lisa Geduldig shown onstage at the first annual Kung Pao Kosher Comedy show in San Francisco in 1993. (Courtesy of Lisa Geduldig)

How a standup show at a Chinese restaurant turned into a 30-year Jewish comedy tradition

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published December 19, 2022

Adam Sandler to receive Mark Twain Prize for American humor

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published December 13, 2022

Jewish passengers booted off Lufthansa flight in May are getting $20,000 payouts

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published November 29, 2022

Deeply Jewish comedy is having a moment, even as antisemitism rocks pop culture

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published November 29, 2022

Larry David being sued for promoting cryptocurrency in Super Bowl ad

JACKIE HAJDENBERG
Published November 16, 2022
Reform rabbi to be knighted by Pope Francis

Reform rabbi to be knighted by Pope Francis

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published November 2, 2022

Taliban approves conservation work on historic Afghan synagogue

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published October 27, 2022
Kanye West seen in Los Angeles, Oct. 21, 2022. (Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin via Getty)

Jewish educator leaves Kanye West’s secretive LA school amid rapper’s antisemitic comments

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published October 25, 2022

Jessica Seinfeld’s Instagram post about Kanye West’s antisemitism goes viral among celebrities and influencers

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published October 24, 2022

Ramy Youssef opens up on filming in Israel, writing Jewish characters and reading Heschel

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published October 21, 2022

The ancient Jewish practice of hakhel, an every-7-years gathering, gets a 21st-century revival

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published October 9, 2022

Why Yom Kippur IV hydration cocktails are surging in popularity

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published October 3, 2022
Fake toes for sale? An ad aimed at Orthodox women provokes questions about modesty rules gone too far

Fake toes for sale? An ad aimed at Orthodox women provokes questions about modesty rules gone too far

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published September 15, 2022

An Israeli Marvel hero is appearing in a Captain America movie. Excitement — and backlash — came quickly.

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published September 12, 2022
Yosi, the Regretful Spy tells the story of an Argentine intelligence officers undercover mission into the Jewish community of Buenos Aires and the conspiracy he uncovers. (Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video)

The real story behind ‘Yosi, the Regretful Spy,’ the Amazon drama about terror and espionage in Argentina’s Jewish community

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published July 20, 2022

Groups launched to help Jewish couples with IVF face uncertain landscape after Roe reversal

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published July 13, 2022

Tennessee court dismisses Jewish couple’s lawsuit alleging religious bias in adoption law

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published July 6, 2022

AI facial recognition tech identifies rocker Geddy Lee’s mother in anonymous WII photos

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published June 29, 2022
The Oxford Annotated Mishnah is the product of 10 years of rigorous academic scholarship. (Image courtesy of Oxford University Press; design by Grace Yagel)

Price tag of new, ‘accessible’ Mishnah “a huge disappointment”

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published June 15, 2022
The SpongeBob SquarePants theme song is now in Yiddish

The SpongeBob SquarePants theme song is now in Yiddish

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published June 13, 2022

Conservative movement approve a new way to call non-gendered people up to Torah

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published June 8, 2022
Current climate making Camp Indigo Point a hot destination for LGBTQ+ youngsters

Current climate making Camp Indigo Point a hot destination for LGBTQ+ youngsters

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published May 5, 2022
Woman’s Day magazines appointed rabbi in residence is a man

“Woman’s Day” magazine’s appointed “rabbi in residence” is a man

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published April 25, 2022

This Twitter account went viral for explaining Easter using Jewish jargon

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published April 20, 2022
Chickens eating their feed at a poultry plant. Getty Images.

Can’t find poultry for Passover? The kosher chicken shortage, explained

Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA
Published April 7, 2022
Former Wash U student, Sheryl Grossman, Jewish activist who shed light on rare genetic disorder, dies at 46

Former Wash U student, Sheryl Grossman, Jewish activist who shed light on rare genetic disorder, dies at 46

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published March 29, 2022
Rabbi Ayelet Cohen was just appointed dean of the rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary. (Courtesy of JTS)

The Conservative movement nearly expelled her. Now she’ll train its rabbis.

JACKIE HAJDENBERG, JTA
Published March 9, 2022
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