The St. Louis Jewish community is coming together for facilitated conversations on race, racism and bias. The goal is to listen, learn and take steps towards refuah (healing). Rabbis from across the region will be joined by nationally recognized speakers...
It’s 2020, a year we are not likely to soon forget. We’re barely halfway in, and the hits just keep coming: Australian fires, COVID-19, the killing of George Floyd, riots. We are people in emotional turmoil. The term for visual acuity is 20/20, the...
Shavuot, which we commemorated last week, marks the pivotal moment in Jewish history when God gave the Ten Commandments not only to Moses but to the entire Israelite community that gathered at Mount Sinai. Among those commandments is “Thou shalt not...
Just a few weeks ago, most Americans were not familiar with the concept of Zoombombing. But as the COVID-19 pandemic forced many business, community and even social meetings online, Zoom increasingly became the platform of choice for videoconferencing....
Vetting of author’s ‘truths’ neededI was so very disappointed to discover that a partner of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis — the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival — has chosen to disparage Israel and the Israel Defense Forces by featuring Yousef...
By Charles L. Klotzer
• Published November 7, 2019
Professor Marty Rochester, columnist of the Jewish Light, is a perfect example why the 1619 voluminous report published by The New York Times (in cooperation with the Smithsonian and the Pulitzer Center that the professor fails to mention) charges our...
I found the column written by Professor J. Martin Rochester, “Are we exaggerating racism?” (Oct 30. edition of the St. Louis Jewish Light), to be deeply disturbing. I am of the opinion that the persistence of systemic racism in America remains a leading...
Despite progress, systemic racism persistsWe are writing in response to Marty Rochester Oct. 30 commentary, “Are We Exaggerating Racism?” Rochester is not suggesting anything new or innovative by way of stating that we live in a post-racial society....
Did you know that, according to increasingly accepted notions of racism in America, not only Donald Trump but also Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and all the other current Democratic presidential candidates and, indeed, you,...
The daughters of Zelophechad (Numbers 26ff) challenged the systems of power and inheritance that left them invisible and vulnerable. The Book of Numbers tells us that they understood that movements for social change often take generations. They planted...
Last year, I wrote an opinion piece for JTA about a term and a trend few Jews over the age of 30 had ever heard of: intersectionality. Coined in the late 1980s, intersectionality posits that various forms of oppression — racism, sexism, classism, ableism...
By Cate Marquis, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published March 22, 2017
It is not often that a film gets its U.S. premiere in St. Louis, but that is the case for the award-winning “Judgment in Hungary.” This powerful courtroom-drama documentary spotlights the trial of four Hungarian men accused of the racially motivated...
