NJT gets new ADSometimes things just work out. That’s certainly the case with Edward Coffield recently being named Artistic Director of the New Jewish Theatre. He will replace Kathleen Sitzer, who is retiring in July after 22 years with NJT, and neither...

In one of the most shameful episodes of Jewish history, the astoundingly brilliant Baruch de Spinoza was railroaded into a harsh cherem, or excommunication, from the Jewish religion in the very Talmud Torah Congregation in Amsterdam he was once considered...

Prelude to PassoverLast week I was having lunch with a fairly new friend who asked if I would like to join her for Passover. She and her husband were having 18 guests to their home — two more would be no trouble at all, she assured me.I politely declined...

Edgy eateryCrispy Edge, a new pot sticker restaurant owned and operated by local Jewish entrepreneur and Washington University graduate, David Dresner, will open in early April in the Tower Grove neighborhood.Dresner, 30, who attends Central Reform Congregation...

Dress for successCongratulations to the New Jewish Theatre, whose show “Intimate Apparel” last year earned the second highest number of production nominations from the St. Louis Theater Circle. The group released its 2018 award nominees last week...

After 21 seasons and more than 100 plays that reflect the human condition through a Jewish lens, Kathleen Sitzer, artistic director of the New Jewish Theatre, will retire in June, shortly after the close of NJT’s 2017-18 season.Sitzer, 72, has been...

Telling a Jewish jokeActor, comedian, writer and singer Phil Johnson jokes that as a youngster, he was an alien in his own household.“I’ve had kind of a love affair with Jewish comedy ever since I was a kid,” said Johnson, 57, who grew up Irish-Catholic...

“Old age ain’t no place for sissies,” Bette Davis famously said, and the New Jewish Theatre’s “Tuesdays With Morrie” drives that truth in every heart-wrenching scene.  To begin its 21st season, NJT has produced a poignant and often powerful...

Generations of American Jews brought up on a steady diet of “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Hester Street” often idealize their grandparents’ backgrounds as Jewish versions of plaster saints: Orthodox, shtetl-born and eager to assimilate into the...

The New Jewish Theatre closes its milestone 20th season with Amy Herzog’s “4000 Miles,” which will run May 11- 28. It quietly tells of the developing relationship between a 91-year-old “lefty” political activist and her 21-year-old grandson....

Long before the O.J. Simpson trial, the description “Trial of the Century” was reserved for the deeply disturbing 1924 case of the abduction-murder of Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two wealthy, Jewish, and intellectually brilliant...

Never can say goodbyeSad but exciting news came last week from Rabbi Hyim Shafner, who has served Bais Abraham Congregation since 2004. In a letter to congregants, Shafner explained he would be leaving St. Louis this summer to become senior rabbi at Kesher...