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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

Survivors of the terror attack on the Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, returning to Israel with the help of the Israeli Air Force, July 19, 2012.

Survivor of Bulgaria attack recalls ‘hellish’ scene

By Ben Sales, JTAPublished July 19, 2012

TEL AVIV (JTA) -- Vered Kuza was standing with her daughter, Amit, on an airport shuttle bus at Sarafovo International Airport in Burgas, Bulgaria, when she suddenly heard a blast. “It’s an attack!” Kuza, 54, shouted at Amit, 26. “We need to get...

Maxim Benvenisti, president of Bulgaria's Jewish community organization, Shalom.

Bulgaria’s economic crisis has its Jewish community facing harsh realities

By Dianna Cahn, JTAPublished May 23, 2012

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- The stories – some months or years in the making -- started trickling in last year. Young successful families were showing up desperate. As Bulgaria’s program director for the American Joint Distribution Committee, Julia Dandalova...

Rabbi Josh Ahrens demonstrating how to put on tefillin during a conversion course at the Sofia JCC in Bulgaria, May 6, 2012.

New Bulgarian conversion course offering a pathway to ‘official’ Judaism

By Dianna Cahn, JTAPublished May 21, 2012

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- As a child, Gabrielle Pavlova pored over pictures of her Jewish paternal grandmother, who died decades before Pavlova was born. The family had no other tie to Judaism, and Pavlova was fascinated. She delved into her Jewish heritage,...

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