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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

"The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, The National Library of Israel".

The remarkable true stories behind the voyage of the Exodus

Shai Ben-Ari, THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ISRAELPublished July 1, 2021
These video testimonies from the Toldot Yisrael Collection offer a behind the scenes look at the story of the famous ship
An Israeli armored unit of Centurion tanks mounted with 105 mm guns stand in the Negev in May, 1967, just days before the start of the Six-Day War. Photo: FRITZ COHEN/GPO

Israel says 1967 land conquests weren’t planned. Declassified documents tell a more complicated story.

ADAM RAZ (HAARETZ), THE FORWARDPublished June 9, 2021

For years, most Israeli historiography maintained that the country’s decision makers were taken by surprise by the fruits of the victory harvested with lightning speed in June 1967. “The war,” Defense Minister Moshe Dayan said, three days after...

Before learning of the bombing in Rishon LeZion, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President George W. Bush meet at the White House on May 7, 2002, to discuss how to end the Second Intifada and make progress toward peace.

This week in Israeli history

CENTER FOR ISRAEL EDUCATIONPublished May 6, 2021

May 6, 1947 — Lehi Teenager Disappears Alexander Rubowitz, 16, a member of the youth wing of Lehi (the Stern Gang), is chased, caught and forced into a car by a large, athletic man in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood while distributing propaganda....

President George W. Bush brings together Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (left) and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at a summit in Aqaba, Jordan, in June 2003.

This week in Israeli history

Center for Israel EducationPublished April 29, 2021

April 29, 1976 — Meretz Politician Tamar Zandberg Is Born Meretz legislator Tamar Zandberg is born in Ramat Gan. An urban environmentalist and social democrat known for advocacy on women’s issues, she wins a Tel Aviv City Council seat in 2008. She...

Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion tried to persuade Albert Einstein to serve as Israel’s second president.

This week in Israeli history: April 15-21

Center for Israel EducationPublished April 15, 2021

April 15, 1945 — Bergen-Belsen Is Liberated The British 11th Armored Division liberates the Nazis’ Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where Anne Frank is among an estimated 50,000 Jews and others who die in the final two years of World War II. About...

‘Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel’ by Matti Friedman, Algonquin Books, 248 pages, $26.95

Israel’s first spies illuminate origin of stalemate

By Repps Hudson, Special to the Jewish LightPublished April 25, 2019

Sometimes we read books that fill in details about a particular moment in the history we care deeply about, and we learn so much.Matti Friedman has written such a book about the Jewish spies who spoke Arabic as their native language because they had grown...

Then-IDF Chief of Staff Ehud Barak (at right) and Jordanian army Chief of Staff shake hands after the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty signing ceremony in October 1994. Photo: Ohayon Avi/GPO

Autobiography details Ehud Barak’s fascinating military, political career

By Repps Hudson, Special to the Jewish LightPublished June 7, 2018

As many readers may know, Ehud Barak is Israel’s most decorated military man. He grew up on a kibbutz in what became northern Israel after independence in 1948 and rose to chief of staff before leaving the military and going into politics on the Labor...

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