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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

“To Repair a Broken World: The Life of Henrietta Szold, Founder of Hadassah” by Dvora Hacohen (above right); Harvard University Press, 400 pages, $35.

Biography chronicles fascinating story of Hadassah’s founder

BURTON BOXERMAN, Special to the Jewish LightPublished February 20, 2022

When Dvora Hacohen, professor and historian of modern Jewish history at Bar Ilan University in Israel, was looking for an inclusive biography of Henrietta Szold, she was unable to find one. She was surprised because Szold was considered the most famous...

The cover and an inside page of ‘Veronica Viggle and the Bubble Gum Machine: A Mad Scientist Story’

Local dad’s bedtime stories become giggles and thrills for a new generation

ROBERT A. COHN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EMERITUSPublished May 10, 2021

Comic books, once disparaged as a waste of precious childhood time and even described as a corrupting influence on kids, have come into their own.  Consider that there are three biographies of Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee and that movies based...

How immigrant women won fair kosher prices, safe food in 1902

How immigrant women won fair kosher prices, safe food in 1902

BURTON BOXERMAN, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHTPublished April 30, 2021

In 1902, meat packers increased the price of kosher meat, and religious immigrant Jewish women on the Lower East Side of New York City were having none of it. Thousands took to the streets in sometimes bloody protest, and their efforts...

“Philip Roth: The Biography” by Blake Bailey, W. W. Norton & Company, 912 pages, $40. Published April 6, 2021

Author explores the life and many loves of Philip Roth

BY ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief EmeritusPublished April 9, 2021

First, full disclosure:  I have been an unabashed admirer of the acclaimed novelist Philip Roth throughout my long career at the Jewish Light.  Roth, the tormented genius of American Jewish letters, who earned every major literary award except for the...

“Head of the Mossad: In Pursuit of a Safe and Secure Israel,” by Shabtai Shavit, 434 pages, University of Notre Dame Press, $29

Ex-Mossad chief shines light on reality of Mideast today

BY REPPS HUDSON, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHTPublished January 21, 2021

Shabtai Shavit was the top man at Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, from 1989 to 1996, so he knows lots of state secrets. He shares many of them, to the extent he can, with readers in a memoir that is at times absolutely fascinating and at other times absolutely...

Author Daniel Silva

Latest Daniel Silva thriller reaches beyond entertainment

BY REPPS HUDSON, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHTPublished September 4, 2020

This, Daniel Silva’s latest in his series featuring Israeli intelligence protagonist/hero/genius Gabriel Allon, is not at all like the others. Defending Israel from terrorists isn’t Silva’s focus in “The Order.”Uncovering the origins of anti-Semitism...

Leandra Ruth Zarnow

Rights activist Bella Abzug had major impact on party, country

By Burton Boxerman, Special to the Jewish LightPublished April 30, 2020

The trailblazing Bella Abzug – lawyer, social activist, leader in the women’s movement, congresswoman – is the subject of a riveting new biography, “Battling Bella: The Protest Politics of Bella Abzug,” by Leandra Ruth Zarnow, an assistant professor...

Michael A. Kahn

Lawyer-sleuth Rachel Gold is back fiercer than ever in pursuit of justice

By ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief EmeritusPublished April 23, 2020

Looking for some good company to beat the blahs of isolation, social distancing and videoconferencing? How about a welcome return of St. Louis lawyer and veteran supersleuth Rachel Gold, the brilliant and engaging character at the heart of a series of...

David Ben-Gurion

Meticulous research elevates Ben-Gurion biography

By Burton Boxerman, Special to the Jewish LightPublished February 20, 2020

David Ben-Gurion, known as the founder of the State of Israel, has been the subject of many books. His latest biographer is Tom Segev, an Israeli historian, author and journalist who is associated with Israel’s New Historians, a group challenging many...

“Chutzpah: Why Israel is a Hub of Innovation and Entrepreneurship” by Inbal Arieli, 272 pages, HarperBusiness, $29.99. Author photo: Micha Loubaton

Book offers insights into Israel’s rise as hub of entrepreneurship

BY ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief EmeritusPublished August 15, 2019

Among the nations of the world, the State of Israel, which turned 71 on May 14 (the fifth of Iyar), is both a relative newcomer and the successor to Jewish self-rule that goes back over 4,000 years. In 1948, when David Ben-Gurion was serving as the first prime...

‘Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power’ by Yaakov Katz; St. Martin’s Press, 306 pages, $28.99. 

Nail-biter ‘Shadow Strike’ details ultrasecret Israeli raid in Syria

BY ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief EmeritusPublished July 25, 2019

The publication of “Shadow Strike” by Yaakov Katz, editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, could not be more timely as he pulls back the layers of Israel’s daring and successful military and intelligence operations. For example, on Sept. 6, 2007,...

‘Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures’ by Adina Hoffman, 264 pages, $26, Yale University Press

Ben Hecht, political activist, revealed in new biography

By Burton Boxerman, Special to the Jewish LightPublished June 14, 2019

The most recent biography in Yale University’s Jewish Lives series is “Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures,”written by Adina Hoffman, an award-winning essayist and biographer and former film critic for the American Prospect and the Jerusalem...

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