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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

Eric Mink is a freelance writer and editor and teaches film studies at Webster University.  He is a former columnist for the St.  Louis Post-Dispatch and the Daily News in New York.  Contact him at ericmink1@gmail.com.

Trump mob’s assault on our Capitol was personal

ERIC MINKPublished February 25, 2021

All due respect for the three “Godfather” movie collaborations of writer-director Francis Ford Coppola and novelist-screenwriter Mario Puzo, some monstrous acts are not just business. They are most definitely personal. On Jan. 6, hundreds of frenzied...

Irene Fogel Weiss points to a photo of herself upon arrival in Auschwitz in May 1944. (Lesley Weiss) 

Irene Fogel Weiss survived Auschwitz. Then she watched a rioter in a Camp Auschwitz shirt break into the Capitol.

Shira FederPublished February 2, 2021

(JTA) — When Irene Fogel Weiss watched rioters storm the U.S. Capitol, just miles from her home in suburban Virginia, her thoughts turned to her parents murdered by the Nazis nearly 80 years earlier.“As I was watching, I was thinking maybe I shouldn’t...

Photo: Lloyd Wolf

Condemn rioters, not the whole party

By Marty RochesterPublished January 28, 2021

The best definition of education I ever heard was provided by a University of Missouri-St. Louis colleague: “getting students to learn to cope with ambiguity.”This applies to anyone trying to understand some happening. The point here is that, although...

Mia Kweskin

This is our moment to bear witness

BY MIA KWESKINPublished January 20, 2021

Last year, I shared a piece of my grandfather’s story in an article I wrote for the St. Louis Jewish Light about my visit to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp. Papa, a World War II veteran, saw the worst of humanity at the young age of 18, and...

Jewish groups respond to violence in DC with ‘outrage,’ ‘disgust’ and criticism of Trump

Ron KampeasPublished January 7, 2021

(JTA) — AIPAC hardly ever pronounces on any issue that does not relate to Israel. It’s also loath to criticize a sitting president.But the preeminent pro-Israel lobby did both on Wednesday after rioters supporting President Donald Trump stormed the...

A view of the crowds outside the U.S. Capitol for the "Stop the Steal" rally on Jan. 6, 2021 that led to violence. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

Rabbis in DC and beyond rush to calm congregants on edge after a day of mob chaos at the Capitol

Gabe Friedman and Shira FederPublished January 6, 2021

(JTA) — Ruth Friedman could tell that Wednesday’s pro-Trump protests in Washington, D.C., might be volatile when she boarded a plane home to D.C. from her grandmother’s funeral on Tuesday.The flight was full of people in MAGA gear on their way to...

Aaron Weinberg

I’ve been through evacuations and lockdowns on Capitol Hill before. It’s never been this bad.

Aaron WeinbergPublished January 6, 2021

(JTA) — “Are you safe? Home? Locked down?” These are the three questions I’ve sent over and over to friends and colleagues throughout the day. Today started for me like many others: email in the morning and then, after lunch, turning on...

Orthodox Jewish Trump supporters decry violence but not the movement that fueled the mob

Shira HanauPublished January 6, 2021

(JTA) — Heshy Tischler, the pro-Trump provocateur of Orthodox Brooklyn, wasn’t at the U.S. capitol when a mob stormed it Wednesday — but not because he didn’t want to be.Tischler was one of a throng of Orthodox Jews who traveled down to D.C. to...

‘Our worst fears realized’: Extremism watchdogs, after months of warnings, watch the violence in DC

Ben SalesPublished January 6, 2021

(JTA) — They warned us. And warned us. And warned us.Extremism watchdogs said there could be violence in the streets. They said minority communities — Jews among them — could be put at risk. They said that the incessant, false claims of a rigged...

One of Ukraine’s chief rabbis endorses siege of US Capitol by Trump supporters

Sam Sokol and Cnaan LiphshizPublished January 6, 2021

(JTA) — Rabbi Moshe Azman, a prominent Ukrainian cleric with ties to several Trump associates at the heart of last year’s Ukrainegate scandal, endorsed Wednesday’s violent attempt to prevent the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election...

‘I don’t recognize our country today’: Members under siege in Congress give their accounts

By Ron Kampeas, JTAPublished January 6, 2021

(JTA) — Armed protesters marching through the U.S. Capitol. Lawmakers under lock and key. At least one person shot and critically injured.Protesters attempting to stop the congressional certification Wednesday of President-elect Joe Biden stormed the...

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