If Rabbi Hyim Shafner encounters Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, at Kesher Israel in Washington, D.C., he already has a line planned: “Hmmm... are you related to the Teaneck Trumps?” Shafner is preparing to become head rabbi at Kesher...

Bais Abraham welcomes the community to bid farewell to the Shafner family before they depart for Washington, D.C.  Rabbi Hyim Shafner has served the congregation since 2004. He has accepted a position as senior rabbi of Kesher Israel, a Washington synagogue....

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...

This week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim, literally means “laws,” and contains a large array of interpersonal civil commandments and regulations. Just before this portion, the Torah teaches about the building of an altar to G-d. The altar, which symbolizes...

This Shabbat, we read Ha’azinu, the second-to-last portion in the Torah. This Torah portion is written in two narrow columns like a poem or song and is often referred to as a song. But why does the Torah, a book of history and law, end with song?The...

What are the Jews? Not a religion, for there are many who would say they are Jewish but are not religious. Not a nation, for a nation is identified with its land and shared culture, and Jews have not had a land for most of their history and do not share...

Passover is about relationships.  Over and over, the Torah expresses the Passover Seder in intergenerationally related terms, such as:  “When your child shall ask you, ‘What is this service’ ” and, “And you shall say to them, ‘With a strong...

As Barry Rosenberg nurses a cup of coffee at a local café, the President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater St. Louis paints a picture of what many once thought was a typical Jewish home. "Most of our institutions were designed to serve what...