You never know where you will find history, much less the forgotten stories of the St. Louis Jews of the Wild West. In August, we began researching any possible Jewish ties to the legendary western gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok. During that research...

Although legendary funny man Carl Reiner enjoyed a very full life in which he was amazingly successful in every medium, his passing last week at the age of 98 left our already cloudy world even darker. With the COVID-19 pandemic growing worse and with...

If you could put a value on a blessing, what might it be worth? For a unique, nearly 90-year-old blessing, the going rate is $6,750. That’s the amount a bidder paid last week in Tel Aviv for a well-traveled Lincoln penny, the subject of frenzied bidding...

The Biddle Street neighborhood once bustled with Jewish merchants hawking everything from pickles and knishes to dry goods and shoes.Roxanne Weisman’s grandparents used to live in that colorful old Jewish neighborhood.Later, her family became part...

Amid all of the buzz regarding the film “Selma,” it is appropriate to reflect on the actual events surrounding the historic 1965 voting rights marches led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., which are dramatized in the...

As Jews, should we oppose Christmas trees and other Christian holiday motifs in public places? And if we do oppose these symbols on public property, should we also object to the placement of a Hanukkah menorah in a public square?The latter was the precise...

Marking its 36th – or “Double-Chai” – anniversary, the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival started Sunday with a keynote speech by the legendary Theodore Bikel. It continues with more than 30 authors through Nov. 16.Bikel, 90, best known for his portrayal...

In 1967, author Stephen Birmingham launched his bestselling trilogy on the three major waves of Jewish immigration to the United States — German Reform Jews, (“Our Crowd”) Sephardic Jews (“The Grandees”) and Eastern European Jews (“ The Rest...

Walter Ehrlich, the late local Jewish historian and author of the two-volume “Zion in the Valley: The Jewish Community of St. Louis,” devotes an entire chapter in Volume II to “Press and Politics.” According to Ehrlich, the very first appearance...

As part of this year’s community-wide celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in 1764, Cohnipedia has been focusing on several local Jewish “firsts.” Today’s installment looks at the first area synagogue to construct...

In honor of the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in 1764,  Cohnipedia will focus on a number of “firsts” in the local Jewish community. This column’s “first” takes a look at Rabbi Bernard L. Illowy, who in 1854 became the first...