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

Congregation Temple Israel

Temple Israel welcomes community to online High Holiday services

Published August 31, 2021

Temple Israel welcomes the St. Louis community to enjoy its virtual High Holy Days services from home, live-streamed on their website and Facebook page. Services include traditional Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur rituals, live worship music, and sermons...

Rabbi Yosef Landa, director of Chabad of Greater St. Louis, sounds the shofar. Photo: Bill Motchan

Chabad plans nine outdoor services around STL

Published August 31, 2021

To help ensure that every Jew in St. Louis who wants to celebrate Rosh Hashanah this year can do so, Chabad of St. Louis has launched a region-wide initiative that includes nine outdoor services across St. Louis. The free, 30-minute services will...

Why playing baseball on Yom Kippur matters

Howard M. Wasserman, ForwardPublished August 30, 2021

Yom Kippur has many particularities — repeating “Kol Nidre” three times; Leonard Cohen’s take on “Una Taneh Tokef”; bagels for breakfast. A fourth feature — more cultural, perhaps, but a Jewishpractice — is wondering whether Jewish...

High Holiday Italian honey cookies

High Holiday Italian honey cookies

Rob Eshman, ForwardPublished August 30, 2021

I’m not ashamed to admit that outside our kosher home, I don’t just eat kosher food. But admitting I don’t really like popular Jewish foods— that’s kind of embarrassing. Here’s my short list of the foods of my People that I’d be fine...

United Hebrew Congregation will again host a Rosh Hashanah program at an apple orchard at Eckert’s Millstadt Family Fun Farm in Illinois. Above, Rick Recht and Rabbi Adam Bellows lead a service at Eckert’s in September 2018.

A bittersweet New Year: St. Louis shuls eager to celebrate in spite of COVID disappointments

Eric Berger, Associate EditorPublished August 29, 2021

While Rabbi James Bennett is looking forward to Rosh Hashanah, he is also frustrated by the fact that he didn’t expect to still need so many precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, he said.  “If everybody would have set aside political...

A Persian meat and apple stew for Rosh Hashanah

A Persian meat and apple stew for Rosh Hashanah

Tannaz Sassooni, ForwardPublished August 29, 2021

When I was in elementary school, my family visited my cousin Rashel at her home in Maryland, and everything about the trip felt new. Rashel’s teenage daughters seemed so cool and confident, Rashel herself so relaxed and casual in her parenting...

Rabbi offers spiritual boot camp for High Holidays

Rabbi offers spiritual boot camp for High Holidays

By Heather Robinson, JNSPublished August 24, 2021

(JNS) In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Rabbi Mark Wildes, founder and director of Manhattan Jewish Experience (MJE), was looking for ways to keep students and young adults engaged with Judaism and each other. As the High Holidays approached,...

New children’s books for the Jewish New Year

New children’s books for the Jewish New Year

PENNY SCHWARTZ, JTAPublished August 18, 2021

BOSTON — Challah-eating Australian kangaroos, an adventurous cartoon retelling of the biblical story of Jonah and the welcome second-in-a-series chapter book about a young girl with a magical sense of smell are among the highlights of this year’s...

High Holidays recipe: Braised short ribs with honey and thyme

High Holidays recipe: Braised short ribs with honey and thyme

Ronnie Fein, JTAPublished August 10, 2021

(JTA) -- Some people think of short ribs as rustic fare. But they are an ideal choice for the High Holidays – and not just because of the honey representing a sweet New Year. Serve them with a thick and glossy gravy: They look impressive and substantial,...

ABOVE: Joan Silber (right) hosted her son David, his wife, Sharonne, and seven of their eight children at her home in Frontenac for the High Holidays. The family left Israel before the start of its second lockdown and is now celebrating Sukkot at Silber’s home. PHOTO: ERIC BERGER

As Israel prepared for a lockdown due to the coronavirus, a St. Louis native returned to the U.S.

By Eric Berger, Associate EditorPublished October 8, 2020

Joan and Sherman Silber had some unexpected houseguests from Israel for the High Holidays this year. As the number of coronavirus cases in Israel spiked last month to the point where the country now has the highest rate of daily new coronavirus infections...

Menu ideas for breaking the Yom Kippur fast

Menu ideas for breaking the Yom Kippur fast

By Margi Lenga Kahn, Special to the Jewish LightPublished September 24, 2020

Yom Kippur is our opportunity for t’shuvah, for repentance. I have always thought of this special holiday as a spiritual journey, a time to recognize our shortcomings, to find the good in each of us, to recognize the importance of caring for others...

Bill Kaufman runs Kaufman Broadcast Services.

TV/radio expert keeps Cardinals—and the High Holidays—on the air

BY ERIC BERGER, ASSOCIATE EDITORPublished September 4, 2020

Bill Kaufman is spending much of his time these days managing broadcast services for one venue where people typically sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” as well as one where “Avinu Malkeinu” is a familiar song.But now, Busch Stadium and the...

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