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

Students at Scheck Hillel Community School in south Florida celebrated Lag bOmer while commemorating the tragedy in Meron, Israel. (Greg Feldman)

Jewish day schools struggle with how to celebrate Lag b’Omer, commemorate tragedy

BEN SALESPublished April 30, 2021

(JTA) — After months of distanced learning, Sharon Levin was excited for her school to celebrate Lag b’Omer together on Friday with a day of outdoor activities. The spring holiday, which is popular among students at Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy...

A volunteer with the ZAKA response group walks through the debris left in the aftermath of the stampede in Meron, Israel, April 30, 2021. (ZAKA/Aharon Baruch Leibowitz)

As Israel buries Mount Meron victims, attention turns to what allowed deadly stampede to occur

RON KAMPEASPublished April 30, 2021

(JTA) — The day after the deadly stampede at a religious festival in Israel on Thursday, the focus remained on identifying victims and allowing a shocked country, and global Jewish community, to grieve. But the question of who or what is to blame...

Biden offers assistance to Israel in aftermath of Lag b’Omer tragedy

Ron KampeasPublished April 30, 2021

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Joe Biden offered assistance to Israel in the wake of the deadly stampede in the country’s north on Lag b’Omer. Biden said in a statement released Friday by the White House that he had called Prime Minister Benjamin...

‘Our dancing has turned into mourning’: For Orthodox Jews, a night of festivity and healing becomes an unspeakable tragedy

‘Our dancing has turned into mourning’: For Orthodox Jews, a night of festivity and healing becomes an unspeakable tragedy

JTA STAFFPublished April 30, 2021

(JTA) — Long before COVID-19 arrived in Israel, devastating Israel’s Hasidic communities, the annual Lag b’Omer gathering at Mount Meron was a moment of release for Israel’s Orthodox Jews, a festive night marking the end of a religious period...

Long before stampede, Mount Meron’s history has been a mix of tragedy and euphoria

CNAAN LIPHSHIZPublished April 30, 2021

(JTA) — “If you haven’t seen the joy of Lag b’Omer on the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, you haven’t seen joy at all,” wrote the author Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israel’s first Nobel Prize laureate. That description reflects an aspect of...

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