Growing up in Denver, one of my favorite places to visit was Cave of the Winds just outside Colorado Springs.Overcoming my claustrophobia, I found the stalactites and stalagmites fascinating, with their beautiful shapes and colors created from dripping...

As I age, I find myself reading the Torah through an entirely different set of lenses. I find the people whose stories are told in the text to be much more human and their experiences much more universal. That is certainly the case with this week’s...

Margaret (Marge) Bilinsky, a Holocaust survivor and filmmaker who served for 25 years as regional director of the St. Louis Council and Chapter of the American Jewish Congress, died Sunday, Oct. 23, at age 83. A longtime resident of the St. Louis area,...

Robert J. Lipsitz, a pioneer aviator and a camera business executive who filmed numerous key battles during World War II, died Thursday, Sept. 29 at his Chesterfield home, surrounded by family.  He was 98 and had been in declining health in recent months....

Shop talkAs the Jewish New Year begins, so does a new cause: Save the ScholarShop. Currently, it is slated to close the first half of 2017.Like many of you, I found out last week about the imminent end of this local resale institution, which will accept...

Meet Josh Kazdan, a multi-talented and inspirational Jewish teen in St. Louis who is making a significant difference in the world through his remarkable commitment to community service, love of international travel and devotion to innovative scientific...

Jewish historian Benjamin Gampel will be the featured speaker at the Morris and Fannie Jick Kallah Scholar-in-Residence Shabbat on Sept. 23 and 24 at Congregation B’nai Amoona.Gampel is the Dina and Eli Field Family Chair in Jewish History at the Jewish...

Siegmund Halpern, who escaped the Holocaust by leaving his native Vienna in 1939 and later became a successful businessman and community leader, died Monday, Aug. 1, in Kansas City. The former longtime resident of St. Louis was 96 and had been in declining...

Fifty years ago, when the Second Vatican Council issued the Nostra Aetate ( In Our Time ) document that condemned the Roman Catholic Church’s history of anti-Semitism and aimed to open up relations with Jews, church leaders probably weren’t thinking...

Amissa BlumenthalCongregation B’nai AmoonaMany of the women who live in Mary Ryder Home do not have local family members to visit them. Therefore, they always welcome new “friends” to stop by on a regular basis. And, that’s just what Amissa did....

Congregation B’nai Amoona has hired Avital Ostfield as Director of Religious Education. She started the position June 1.Ostfield comes to St. Louis from Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor, Mich., where she was first a teacher and then for the past two years...