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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

“Never Forget:  My Family’s Flight From Nazi Terror”

Author/attorney Tom Singer publishes Shoah memoir

BY ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief EmeritusPublished July 18, 2012

In October 2005, St. Louis attorney, author and Holocaust survivor/escapee Thomas M. (Tom) Singer completed a personal history of his family and their escape from Nazi Germany in the aftermath of Kristallnacht (“The Night of Broken Glass”), which...

Larry Levin

Reporting nonprofit pay: No news, old news or good news?

BY LARRY LEVINPublished July 18, 2012

A bunch of folks have asked me recently what I thought about the news reported in the St. Louis Business Journal about the compensation of local Jewish agency executives. Most noteworthy to some was the line item of about $881,000 that outgoing Federation...

To thrive, Conservative movement requires continuity in college

Douglas Kandl, JTAPublished July 16, 2012

NEW YORK -- A Conservative Jew, I am a third-generation member of Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim in Cranford, N.J., was very active in the movement’s United Synagogue Youth and helped create a presence for Koach, the movement’s college program, at my...

Orthodox rabbinical group urging German Jews to defy court ruling on circumcision

JTA REPORTPublished July 11, 2012

BERLIN -- The head of Europe's main Orthodox rabbinical body said his organization is ready to back Jews in challenging the ruling in Germany that said circumcising young boys could be considered a criminal act. Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of...

Andrew Rehfeld

Editorial: Context or Pretext

Published July 11, 2012

We’ll endeavor to put up information in a broader context because we know that very little news is born at the moment it comes across our wire.— Will McAvoy, HBO’s “The Newsroom,” Episode 3, “The 112th Congress.”Andrew Rehfeld will join...

Rabbi Ari Kaiman

Parasha ‘Pinchas’ explores Jewish paths to Torah, peace

BY RABBI ARI KAIMANPublished July 11, 2012

If peace is the absence of conflict, then there are at least two paths to peace.  In a conflict of winners and losers, violence and dominance is a path to peace. One “side” overcomes the other, and imposes terms. The winner enjoys peace, the loser...

A menorah is visible in the second-story window above the Kingshighway entryway to the old Jewish Hospital building.

Jewish Hospital building razing raises memories

By David Baugher, Special to the Jewish LightPublished July 11, 2012

Earl Payne had some great experiences at Jewish Hospital but one of the most memorable was when he took a Passover meal up to an elderly woman. He had been warned that the lady seemed angry at the world and wouldn’t speak with staff. “I said ‘shalom,’”...

Israel’s Chief Rabbinate facing new wave of criticism and calls for change

By Neil Rubin, JTAPublished July 9, 2012

WASHINGTON — The latest battle over religious pluralism in Israel has unleashed a new barrage of criticism and calls for reform aimed at the Orthodox-controlled Israeli Chief Rabbinate. Unlike major flare-ups in past decades, however, this time it’s...

Rabbi Lev Baesh, center, marrying Jared and Laurie Berezin, an interfaith couple from Boston, Aug.19, 2011.

More Reform rabbis agreeing to officiate at intermarriages

By Penny Schwartz, JTAPublished July 5, 2012

BOSTON — Danny Richter and his fiancee, Lauren Perkins, have never been to a Jewish wedding. That's about to change. This fall, the interfaith couple is planning to be married in a Jewish wedding ceremony. The wedding marks other significant firsts:...

Rabbi Maurice D. Harris

Rabbi’s book takes a fresh look at the career of Moses

BY ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief EmeritusPublished July 4, 2012

In his new book “Moses: A Stranger Among Us,” ($19, Cascade Books, 164 pages), Rabbi Maurice D. Harris, a native of St. Louis, sets forth a fresh look at Moses, “from a progressive, pluralistic Jewish perspective.”  Rabbi Harris himself is no...

Letters to the Editor, week of July 4, 2012

Published July 4, 2012

Can We Talk? kudosThe last few editions featuring the mentally ill and developmentally disabled (Can We Talk? series, June 6-27) was warmly received. The turnout for the discussion program was amazing. I hope you can keep this going and maybe get more...

Sid Roth

Messianic book targets local Jewish homes

By Repps Hudson, Special to the Jewish LightPublished July 4, 2012

A few weeks ago, an unsolicited book, “They Thought for Themselves: Ten Amazing Jews,” by Sid Roth, arrived at the homes of an unknown number of St. Louis area Jewish residents. No one seems to know how many copies of the 237-page paperback were...

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