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

On the left, Congressman Jamaal Bowman

Op-Ed: Congressman says Jews are crazy

Rafael MedoffPublished December 3, 2021

(Dr. Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and author of more than 20 books about Jewish history and the Holocaust.) Maybe he didn’t mean it the way it sounded, but a U.S. Congressman this week insinuated...

Trader Joe’s is not your synagogue. But what if?

Trader Joe’s is not your synagogue. But what if?

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTAPublished June 22, 2021

You know that thing when you pick up the leash and the dog runs to the front door, ready for his walk? That’s me when my wife asks if I want to go to Trader Joe’s. I’m not alone in this. The grocery chain has a big, almost cultish following....

Letters to the Editor: July 1, 2020

Letters to the Editor: July 1, 2020

Published July 2, 2020

An uplifting story What a wonderful, heartwarming headlining article about the father-son reunion written by Ellen Futterman in the June 17 edition of the Light!  I can’t begin to express how deeply touching this story was, especially welcomed coming...

Mike Leven

Legacy planning vital to future of Jewish community

By Mike LevenPublished July 2, 2020

Jewish organizations are in danger. Our charitable giving can help ensure they survive.ATLANTA (JTA) — My library has the popular book “21 Lessons for the 21st Century,” in which Yuval Harari — a Jew, an Israeli and an acclaimed author — states...

Michael Oberlander

What do we do with Art Hill statue of King Louis IX?

By Michael OberlanderPublished June 25, 2020

The protest movement in the wake of police killings of African Americans that has targeted monuments to the Confederacy has also targeted statues of Christopher Columbus (including one in Tower Grove Park), Thomas Jefferson, a Texas Ranger (not one of...

Benjamin Kruger

Coronavirus punctures my First World bubble

BY BENJAMIN KRUGERPublished June 25, 2020

The world has been changing drastically. This pandemic has forced us to rethink our values because it threatens our way of life. To many people, this ordeal has brought adversity, pain and sorrow. To me, however, this virus feels a lifetime away.I live...

Rabbi Amy Feder

In challenging authority, our motives are key

By Rabbi Amy FederPublished June 25, 2020

Korach is one of the most infamous figures in Jewish history. In this week’s Torah portion, he attempts to start a revolt against Moses, suggesting that Moses and Aaron have raised themselves above the other Israelites when all should be equally holy. A...

Letters to the editor: June 17, 2020

Letters to the editor: June 17, 2020

Published June 18, 2020

Readers respond to Jewish Federation decision to drop adult learning classesA few weeks ago, I received the news that the Jewish Federation’s Adult Education program, CJL, would be summarily eliminated and staffers Cyndee Levy and Rabbi Tracy Nathan...

Rabbi Josef Davidson

Walls, physical or imaginary, spotlight vulnerability

By Rabbi Josef DavidsonPublished June 18, 2020

Every semester, students were given the opportunity to sign up for required or elective classes. Before registering, students would inevitably ask others in the next grade or two ahead about the courses and, especially, about the teachers. It was the...

J. Martin Rochester, Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, is the author of 10 books on international and American politics.

Civics, history education needs a dose of honesty

By Marty RochesterPublished June 18, 2020

America is a “medina shel chesed, a nation of kindness.” — Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson Sunday was Flag Day. In the midst of a pandemic, economic recession, and crisis over race and policing, I am daring to call for Americans to recover a...

Cantor-Rabbi Ron Eichaker

Aspire to be a Prophet of Peace

BY CANTOR-RABBI RON EICHAKERPublished June 10, 2020

There is almost as much to unpack in this section of the Torah (Behaalotcha) as there is to unpack from these past weeks and months.  In fact, there is so much to unpack, that I will need a little help; no, a lot of help.  It’s always a good thing...

Dr. Alison Spatz Levine

Should Jewish camps open this summer? This camp doctor and nurse think it’s a bad idea

By Dr. Alison Spatz Levine and Heather Maiman, JTAPublished June 4, 2020

DENVER — In the summer of 1999, we slept head to head in top bunks at Camp Ramah in Canada. We also shared a viral upper respiratory illness that kept us from participating in the much-anticipated yom bli shemesh (a day without sun) while the rest of...

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