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 Penny Schwartz
(Crown Books; Intergalactic Afikomen; Creston Books; Norton Books)

In new Passover children’s books include a mystery, Obama’s White House seder and a graphic novel from writer Dara Horn

Penny Schwartz, JTA
Published March 4, 2025
"Oy, Santa" is among the Hanukkah children's books that also deal with Christmas that have come out in 2024. (Collage by Joseph Strauss)

New Hanukkah children’s books highlight 2024’s rare Christmas overlap

Penny Schwartz, JTA
Published December 6, 2024
Noya Dan, seen here in a Harry Potter costume, was murdered by Hamas alongside her grandmother Carmela on Oct. 7, 2023, in Kibbutz Nir Oz. (via X)

A young Harry Potter fan’s murder reverberates from Israel to Boston

Penny Schwartz, JTA
Published October 29, 2023

Henry Rosovsky, refugee from the Nazis who shaped Harvard University, dies at 95

Penny Schwartz, JTA
Published November 18, 2022
The cover of Curt Leviant's translation of "Moshkeleh the Thief." (The Jewish Publication Society)

‘Fiddler’ meets ‘The Sopranos’: A gritty, forgotten novel by Sholom Aleichem is published in English for the first time

Penny Schwartz
Published October 6, 2021
New children’s books for the Jewish New Year

New children’s books for the Jewish New Year

PENNY SCHWARTZ, JTA
Published August 18, 2021
Marianne Steiner

Marianne Steiner, 101, stylish Holocaust survivor who supported research on German Jewry

Penny Schwartz
Published April 9, 2021

A Boston-area high school football team used ‘Auschwitz’ and ‘rabbi’ to call plays

Penny Schwartz
Published March 24, 2021

What makes this Passover different from all others? Brandeis University is celebrating.

Penny Schwartz
Published March 23, 2021

A Jewish campus grows in suburban Boston, as Hebrew College announces relocation plan

Penny Schwartz
Published March 22, 2021

Carl Shapiro, Brandeis benefactor who lost millions to Madoff, dies at 108

Penny Schwartz
Published March 15, 2021

Leo Rechter, 93, fought for destitute Holocaust survivors

Penny Schwartz
Published March 12, 2021
new passover book

In new Passover children’s books, a bespectacled lion reads the Haggadah and a Depression-era mitzvah

Penny Schwartz
Published March 8, 2021

William Good, 96, survivor of Holocaust massacre who became beloved California doctor

Penny Schwartz
Published February 26, 2021

Italo Servi, 98, soft-spoken heir to rich Italian Jewish heritage

Penny Schwartz
Published February 26, 2021

Jewish prisoner’s photos depicting horrid life in Lodz Ghetto donated to Boston museum

Penny Schwartz
Published February 22, 2021

Another accolade for Max Gross’ ‘Lost Shtetl’: Best fiction from Association of Jewish Libraries

Penny Schwartz
Published February 8, 2021
Donald Kraft

Donald Kraft, 92, mathematician with lifelong zest for learning

Penny Schwartz
Published February 3, 2021

From llamas to a Jewish superhero, these 8 children’s books bring new characters into the Hanukkah story

Penny Schwartz
Published November 3, 2020

Bradley Fields, 68, renowned magician who studied Talmud and taught math to kids

Penny Schwartz
Published September 1, 2020

This rabbi spent 4 months on a ventilator and endured 4 collapsed lungs from COVID-19. Now he’s recovering.

Penny Schwartz
Published August 25, 2020

How did Europe’s Jews cope with a 17th-century plague? This 350-year-old memoir offers a glimpse.

Penny Schwartz
Published July 27, 2020

Sidney Forman, 95, lived out a dream with performance of musical comedy he wrote in the 1960s

Penny Schwartz
Published June 25, 2020

A Jewish ‘Dreamer’ breathes a sigh of relief after US Supreme Court preserves DACA

Penny Schwartz
Published June 19, 2020

This Jewish Boston bookseller wants to help you spruce up your Zoom background

Penny Schwartz
Published June 19, 2020

Eva Konrad Hawkins, 90, Holocaust survivor who designed underwater museum exhibits

Penny Schwartz
Published June 18, 2020

Sylvia Glenn, 98, painter who befriended Margaret Mead

Penny Schwartz
Published June 9, 2020

Elsa Dorfman, photographer who was subject of Errol Morris film, dies at 83

Penny Schwartz
Published June 3, 2020

Carolyn Becker, 83, was looking forward to life’s next chapter

Penny Schwartz
Published June 2, 2020

Jeffrey Sanderson, 62, took pleasure in the small things

Penny Schwartz
Published May 26, 2020

Lee Kozol, 87, Boston attorney who represented the Patriots

Penny Schwartz
Published May 20, 2020

Hyman Siegal, 90, taught young Leonard Nimoy to develop film

Penny Schwartz
Published May 18, 2020

Meryl Cohen, 84, hosted epic family Thanksgiving celebrations

Penny Schwartz
Published May 5, 2020

Bud Rose, 77, ‘the Steve Jobs of medicine’

Penny Schwartz
Published April 29, 2020

32 residents die of coronavirus at 2 Massachusetts Jewish senior living facilities

Penny Schwartz
Published April 14, 2020

Sun Valley, Idaho, a celebrity destination, is a coronavirus hot spot. Here’s how the local Jewish community is coping.

Penny Schwartz
Published April 7, 2020
Robert Lappin's foundation created programs aimed at bolstering Jewish identity. (Courtesy of the Lappin Foundation)

Robert Lappin, Jewish philanthropist and founder of teen Israel program, dies at 98

Penny Schwartz
Published April 7, 2020

In new Passover children’s books, meet a googly eyed gator and spend a seder in outer space

Penny Schwartz
Published April 3, 2020

Lawrence Bacow, Harvard University’s Jewish president, has the coronavirus

Penny Schwartz
Published March 25, 2020
A scene in the documentary "Etched in Glass: The Legacy of Steve Ross," in which Ross is seen speaking to a group of students at a Boston public school. Photo courtesy of Roger Lyons/Tony Bennis

Stephan Ross, survivor who founded New England Holocaust Memorial, dies

Penny Schwartz
Published February 26, 2020
Ezra Jack Keats' book "The Snowy Day" is credited with breaking the diversity barrier in children's publishing. (New York Public Library)

Trailblazing book by Jewish author Ezra Jack Keats is most checked-out book ever at New York Public Library

Penny Schwartz
Published January 15, 2020
"Goodnight Bubbala" puts a Yiddish spin on "Goodnight Moon," the beloved bedtime classic. (Penguin Random House) 

‘Goodnight Bubbala’ and other Hanukkah-themed children’s books for the holiday season

Penny Schwartz
Published December 16, 2019

The earliest known American Jewish novel introduces an early feminist voice

Penny Schwartz
Published November 19, 2019

High-profile Israel boycott conference at UMass Amherst sparks concern — and a peace march

Penny Schwartz
Published November 12, 2019

Anti-Semitic fliers in Massachusetts declare Holocaust ‘fake news’

Penny Schwartz
Published July 16, 2019

Passover inspires one of the top 50 public arts projects of 2018

Penny Schwartz
Published July 2, 2019

This chef turned his popular falafel truck into a booming Israeli restaurant

Penny Schwartz
Published June 12, 2019
Rabbi Nechemia Schusterman was accosted by pickup truck drivers who yelled at him. (Facebook) 

Boston area rallies after Chabad rabbis are targeted with anti-Semitic slurs on Shabbat

Penny Schwartz
Published June 6, 2019
Julie Flaherty, acting police chief of Arlington, Mass., addresses a news conference at the town's police station as Rabbi Avi Bukiet, second from left, looks on, May 17, 2019. (Penny Schwartz)

Police now probing 3 fires at 2 Boston-area Chabad houses

Penny Schwartz
Published May 17, 2019

Police probe second suspicious fire at Boston-area Chabad

Penny Schwartz
Published May 17, 2019

Fire at Chabad center in suburban Boston investigated as possible hate crime

Penny Schwartz
Published May 16, 2019
World War II Diary of S. Lane Faison, Jr. Image courtesy of Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art

Diary of WWII’s Monuments Man given to National Archives

Penny Schwartz
Published April 30, 2019
(Collage by Lior Zaltzman)

A ‘Sesame Street’ seder and 4 other new children’s books for Passover

Penny Schwartz
Published March 28, 2019

Immigrant tale wins top Jewish children’s book honor

Penny Schwartz
Published January 28, 2019
A stunning new facsimile of the 14th-century Sarajevo Hagaddah was on display, and for sale, by the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina,in the exhibit hall at the Association of Jewish Studies convention. Photo: Penny Schwartz

Jewish studies conference celebrates 50 years of explosive growth in the field

Penny Schwartz
Published December 18, 2018
These new Hanukkah books will light up children’s imaginations. (Collage by Lior Zaltzman/JTA; the publishers provided the covers)

What’s new for kids to read at Hanukkah? Try a fresh take on a 1950s classic.

Penny Schwartz
Published November 26, 2018

Hebrew College installs its first female president

Penny Schwartz
Published October 16, 2018

Harvard’s Jewish president wants to restore faith in higher education

Penny Schwartz
Published September 7, 2018
The crop of new children’s book for this year features, clockwise from top left: “Where’s the Potty on This Ark? (Kar-Ben); “Regina Persisted: An Untold Story” (Apples & Honey Press); “Who’s Got the Etrog?” (Kar-Ben); “A Moon for Moe and Mo” (Charlesbridge); “The Creation Book” (Hachai Publishing); and “Shani’s Shoebox” (Green Bean Books).

New children’s books: A magical shoebox and animals from everywhere   

Penny Schwartz
Published September 5, 2018

A Jewish atonement ritual (not the chicken one) gets an eco-friendly makeover

Penny Schwartz
Published September 4, 2018
This building in suburban Boston has been the home of Hebrew College since 2002. (Courtesy of Hebrew College)

Boston’s Hebrew College sells its campus to shore up its future

Penny Schwartz
Published August 20, 2018

Unique museum tells story of Polish family murdered for hiding Jews during Holocaust

Penny Schwartz
Published June 27, 2018

Century-old Boston synagogue receives city funds for historic preservation

Penny Schwartz
Published June 25, 2018

Boston-area city council turns away BDS resolution

Penny Schwartz
Published April 22, 2018

Leonard Bernstein at 100: 7 treasures from the Library of Congress’ celebration of the Jewish maestro

Penny Schwartz
Published April 16, 2018
Amar’e Stoudemire, left, speaking with Jon Frankel at the Israel Summit at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., April 8, 2018. (Collin Howell/Israel Summit at Harvard)

Harvard’s first-ever summit on Israel brings Amar’e Stoudemire and good news to campus

Penny Schwartz
Published April 10, 2018

30 years later, the author of ‘The Devil’s Arithmetic’ has a new young adult Holocaust novel

Penny Schwartz
Published March 14, 2018

Boston mourns Jewish girl and best friend killed by motorist

Penny Schwartz
Published February 13, 2018

A son of refuseniks chronicles the slow dissolve of Russia’s Jews

Penny Schwartz
Published January 16, 2018

Massachusetts, Rhode Island change primary dates to avoid conflict with High Holidays

Penny Schwartz
Published January 10, 2018

Jewish institutions batten down as monster storm hits East Coast

Penny Schwartz
Published January 4, 2018

The Reform movement is alive with the sound of music

Penny Schwartz
Published December 14, 2017
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, addressing delegates at its 2017 Biennial in Boston, Dec. 7, 2017. (Courtesy of the Union for Reform Judaism)

Debates with Israel weigh on Reform movement’s largest-ever gathering

Penny Schwartz
Published December 8, 2017

Here are 8 new children’s books for Hanukkah

Penny Schwartz
Published November 29, 2017

Harvard honors a professor who helped its Jewish life flourish

Penny Schwartz
Published November 1, 2017

Julian Edelman’s children’s book gets a Jewish makeover

Penny Schwartz
Published October 11, 2017

School project to remember Holocaust victims surpasses goal of 11 million stamps

Penny Schwartz
Published October 2, 2017

A Jewish ‘Dreamer’ is scared, but refuses to despair

Penny Schwartz
Published September 6, 2017

5 new kids’ books for the High Holidays

Penny Schwartz
Published September 6, 2017

Krakow JCC’s new preschool signals hope for a community’s rebirth

Penny Schwartz
Published September 1, 2017

Festival organizers in Krakow ask: Who speaks for Jewish culture?

Penny Schwartz
Published July 18, 2017
From top left: “The (unofficial) Hogwarts Haggadah” (Moshe Rosenberg); “Sammy Spider’s Passover Shapes” (Kar-Ben); “Passover Cowboy” (Apples and Honey Press); “How It’s Made: Matzah” (Apples and Honey Press)

7 new kids’ books for Passover, from seder guides to stories

Penny Schwartz
Published April 5, 2017

Ted Cutler, Boston philanthropist, businessman, and arts patron, dies

Penny Schwartz
Published April 2, 2017

Control over Touro Synagogue and its $7.4 million silver bells back in court

Penny Schwartz
Published March 13, 2017

Edgar Krasa, a Holocaust survivor who sang in the Theresienstadt chorus, dies at 95

Penny Schwartz
Published February 8, 2017

Ruth Bader Ginsburg picture bio takes a top honor in Jewish children’s book awards

Penny Schwartz
Published January 11, 2017

Harvard Law School dean, initiator of Jewish and Israeli program, to step down

Penny Schwartz
Published January 5, 2017

Jewish author Ezra Jack Keats honored in new children’s book

Penny Schwartz
Published December 14, 2016

6 new Hanukkah kids’ books to help enlighten the holiday

Penny Schwartz
Published November 25, 2016

Harvard Hillel sought a kosher deal for striking food workers

Penny Schwartz
Published October 26, 2016

Michael Bloomberg donates $50 million to Boston Museum of Science

Penny Schwartz
Published October 18, 2016

Study shows how Jewish vote could play crucial role in key states

Penny Schwartz
Published September 22, 2016

6 new kids’ books for the Jewish New Year

Penny Schwartz
Published September 20, 2016
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