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

Frances and Abe Gersten 2012

Frances Gersten, 92, survived Holocaust and embraced life in St. Louis

By Robert A. Cohn, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Published August 27, 2020

Our Hebrew Bible teaches us that God has placed before us life and death, but commands us: Choose Life!  For Frances Gersten, who died Aug. 10 at 92, choosing life was more than a maxim. She and her late husband, Abraham (Abe), who died in 2016 at 93,...

A.E. Hotchner

A.E. Hotchner, acclaimed author, friend of Newman and Hemingway, dies at 102

BY ROBERT A. COHN, EDITOR IN CHIEF EMERITUSPublished February 20, 2020

A. E. Hotchner, a highly successful biographer of Ernest Hemingway and friend and business partner of Paul Newman, died Saturday, Feb. 15, at his home in Westport, Conn., it was announced by his wife, Virginia Kiser.Mr. Hotchner, who grew up in Depression-era...

Akram Ali Hassan was a chef at Kohn’s Kosher Deli.  

Kohn’s chef, a Palestinian Muslim, cooked with head and heart

By Eric Berger, Associate EditorPublished October 24, 2019

When a Jewish Light food writer was looking for tips on matzah ball soup before Passover in 2008, she turned to someone who, to the unfamiliar, might have seemed an unlikely source: a Palestinian Muslim man.But Akram Ali-Hassan had been a chef at Kohn’s...

Sanford Jaffe in 2014. Photo: Lisa Mandel 

Sanford Jaffe, founder of Booksource, dies at 80

Robert A. Cohn, Editor-in-Chief EmeritusPublished September 19, 2019

Sanford “Sandy” Jaffe, a beloved and admired business leader and volunteer for numerous philanthropic causes, died Thursday, Sept. 12, of complications from heart disease at his home in Chesterfield. He was 80 years old. Family members described him...

Load More Stories