Skip to Main Content
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

Conservative rabbinic group issues guidelines for same-sex wedding rituals

By Ben Sales, JTAPublished June 4, 2012

NEW YORK — The Conservative movement — affirming that same-sex marriages have “the same sense of holiness and joy as that expressed in heterosexual marriages” — last week established rituals for same-sex wedding ceremonies. The landmark vote...

Don’t visit Temple Mount, rabbis say

JTAPublished March 6, 2012

JERUSALEM -- Israel's chief rabbis and other senior rabbis have called on Jews not to visit the Temple Mount because it is against Jewish law. The declaration is being presented now, according to the statement's signers, because many Jewish organizations...

From left are Jeff Kopolow, Jacqueline Yocheved Rivkin Rubin,
Rabbi Ben Tzion Rivkin, Rabbi Menachen Greenblatt of Agudas Israel
and Rabbi Yosef Landa of Chabad of Greater St. Louis. Jacqueline
Rubin and Rabbi BenTzion Rivkin, children of Rabbi Sholom and
Rebbetzin Paula Rivkin, attended the siyum last week.

Orthodox day schools pay tribute to Rabbi Rivkin

BY ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief EmeritusPublished November 9, 2011

It was the kind of event that friends and admirers of the late Rabbi Sholom Rivkin say he would have loved: hundreds of students, rabbis and teachers from four Orthodox day schools filling the gymnasium at the H.F. Epstein Hebrew Academy for a siyum-a...

Rabbi Weiman is a speaker, teaches Jewish history at Esther Miller Bais Yaakov, and is author of the new book, “48 Things, 49 Days,” (Targum Press) as well as “A Simple Guide to Happiness,” “A Map of the Universe,” and “the Everything Learning Hebrew Book.”

From where do we learn our Judaism?

BY RABBI MAX WEIMANPublished August 31, 2011

For some the answer is obvious, the Torah, of course. For others it's the Talmud or the Shulchan Aruch - the Code of Jewish Law composed in the 1500s. For still others it's their personal teacher or rabbi.But for some of us, and for some things, it's...

From left: Rabbi Hyim Shafner of Bais Abraham; Simone Picker, committee chair; Phyllis Shapiro, Bais Abe president; guest speaker Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld; Amy Fox Griffel of JOFA; Donna Iken, JOFA fellow at Washington University; Karen Sponder of JOFA.

Bais Abe focuses on feminism and Orthodox Judaism

By Victoria Siegel, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 18, 2011

Orthodox feminism. To some, the phrase might sound like an oxymoron, but to a vocal contingent within the Jewish Orthodox community, a feminist movement is indeed alive and growing, In fact, since 1997, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) has...

Chabad to hold 17th conference on Talmud and law

Published May 18, 2011

Chabad of Greater St. Louis will host its annual Conference on Talmud & Contemporary Law from 12:45 to 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, June 1. The seminar has been accredited for Continuing Legal Education (CLE) by the Missouri Bar since its inception 16 years...

John Chasnoff of the American Civil Liberties Union and Gail Wechsler of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis join Muslims in Jefferson City, Mo. on April 12 to protest a proposed law banning sharia.  (Missouri News Horizon / Creative Commons)

Anti-sharia laws stir concerns that halachah could be next

By Ron Kampeas, JTA, WASHINGTONPublished May 4, 2011

With conservative lawmakers across the United States trying to outlaw sharia, or Islamic religious law, Jewish organizations are concerned that halachah could be next.If the state legislative initiatives targeting sharia are successful, they would gut...

Hadar’s popular egalitarian yeshiva grapples with sex before marriage

By Ben Sales, Forward, NEW YORKPublished April 27, 2011

Just weeks before starting his year as a fellow at Yeshivat Hadar, an egalitarian Judaic learning program for adults, Itamar Landau moved in with his girlfriend. The fellowship demanded that Landau keep kosher and observe the Sabbath. The couple agreed...

Ellen Futterman

Fashionably frum for Pesach and Take 5 for Torah

By Ellen Futterman, EditorPublished March 23, 2011

Fashionably frum for Pesach Who says modest clothing has to look frumpy? Certainly not the women's division of St. Louis Kollel, which has organized a fashion extravaganza called "Princess with Pride" for women and teens from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday,...

Load More Stories