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

A man stands next to orphaned Russian Jews upon immigration to the U.S., New York, July 1919.No Credit Given

Our relatives immigrated with little help. How you can change that for new arrivals

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished December 12, 2021

In the first half of the nineteenth century, most Jewish immigrants came from Central Europe. In addition to settling in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, groups of German-speaking Jews made their way to Cincinnati, Cleveland, Louisville, Minneapolis,...

Immigration 101

Ellen Futterman, EditorPublished January 30, 2020

As a way of getting more folks from the St. Louis Jewish community involved in immigration reform, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) is joining forces with Welcome Neighbor STL and sponsoring a “Welcome Neighbor Dinner” from 6 to 8 p.m....

The Heartland for Human Justice coalition sings, chants and waves signs at Fort Sill in Lawton, Okla. 

Report: Army monitored interfaith St. Louis coalition that organized protest trip to Fort Sill

By Eric Berger, Associate EditorPublished November 14, 2019

The U.S. Army was monitoring a largely Jewish group of protesters who traveled in August from St. Louis to Fort Sill in Lawton, Okla., to protest the planned detention of migrant children at the facility, according to a report in The Intercept.The digital...

Letters to the editor: November 30, 2019

Letters to the editor: November 30, 2019

Published October 31, 2019

Story on youth groups missed Friends of Israel ScoutsOn Oct. 9, the Jewish Light Ohr Chadash page published an article about Jewish Youth Groups in St. Louis. One Jewish Youth group, however, was missing from the list. That group is Shevet Keshet, the...

A JCPA delegation recently visited the southern U.S. border during a three-day fact-finding mission. 

JCPA delegation bears witness on the border

BY PAUL KRAVITZ, MAHARAT RORI PICKER NEISS & KAREN SHERPublished October 10, 2019

When we bear witness to acts of injustice and inhumanity against our fellow human beings, we have a responsibility to tell their stories. When we bear witness to a system that criminalizes children, women and men fleeing violence, corruption and poverty,...

Go Back To Decency

Go Back To Decency

JEWISH LIGHT EDITORIALPublished July 25, 2019

Go back to where you came from.Can any insult be more threatening and demeaning to someone whose roots are in another country, no matter how long ago his or her family came to the United States? And historically, can any group of immigrants cite more...

Henry Schvey

History, the Holocaust and King Midas

By Henry SchveyPublished July 12, 2019

Americans, and Jews in particular, feel rightly indignant by the many casual references applied to the Holocaust in contemporary culture. Many feel, with much justification, that it’s blasphemous to make simplistic analogies between sequestering children...

Letters to the Editor: June 26, 2019

Letters to the Editor: June 26, 2019

Published June 27, 2019

Jews and the BluesI am writing to supplement your June 5 article “Jews and the St. Louis Blues: 7 things you might not know.” There is one more “thing” your readers may not know. My late brother-in-law, Joseph Oppenheim worked for the St. Louis...

Rabbi Aaron Brusso

Fixing our dehumanizing immigration system should be our main focus

By Rabbi Aaron BrussoPublished June 27, 2019

MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. — Last summer, I was on the phone with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer assigned to Armando Rojas, our deported synagogue custodian of two decades, assuring him that I could vouch that he is not a flight risk or a danger...

99769699

99769699

Spencer PlattPublished November 8, 2018

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 10: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg prepares to administer the Oath of Allegiance to candidates for U.S. citizenship at the New-York Historical Society on April 10, 2018 in New York City. Two hundred candidates from...

Anna Dardick

Ashamnu: A meditation on immigration for Yom Kippur

By Anna DardickPublished September 27, 2018

Indeed, we and our Jewish community have sinned.We have become guilty of ignoring pleas of detained and separated families; instead, we have prioritized personal and political comfort in our homes and synagogues. Though we have historically survived from...

Two Missouri rabbis were part of a delegation of rabbis, cantors and Jewish activists crossing the California border to visit Tijuana migrant centers. Among them were Rabbi Susan Talve, at right, who is senior rabbi at Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis and Rabbi Doug Alpert, senior rabbi at Congregation Kol Ami in Kansas City. 

Love the stranger: Stand up for immigrants

By Rabbi Susan Talve and Rabbi Doug AlpertPublished July 12, 2018

As rabbis in our respective Missouri cities we see our shared struggles against injustice as central to both living out our Jewish values, and being exemplars of those values for our congregants and Jewish communities.  Amongst those Jewish values we...

Load More Stories