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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

Chesterfield to Ukraine: Family separated by distance, united by love

Chesterfield to Ukraine: Family separated by distance, united by love

Bill Motchan, Special For The Jewish LightPublished March 2, 2022

Between work conference calls, Olga Gorodetsky anxiously checks text messages from her mother Valentina Timoshina. They live in vastly different circumstances. Gorodetsky is in her second-floor home office in Chesterfield and Timoshina is hiding out in...

A brave Kharkov Jewish community member arrives with a delivery of food at the Chabad-Lubavitch Choral Synagogue in Kharkov, Ukraine, on Feb. 28, 2022.

72 hours under siege with the Jews of Kharkov, Ukraine

Dovid Margolin, Chabad.orgPublished February 28, 2022
Jews take shelter in synagogue; Russian troops make incursion to city; heavy aerial bombardment.
In Ukraine, a long history of Russian crimes against Jews

In Ukraine, a long history of Russian crimes against Jews

Benjamin Ivry, The ForwardPublished February 28, 2022

This story was originally published on Feb. 28, by the Forward. Sign up here to get the latest stories from the Forward delivered to you each morning. Tragic events now unfolding in Ukraine echo a history of Russian human rights offenses against Jews...

Jewish history is repeating itself in Ukraine. This time, we must fight Putin back

Jewish history is repeating itself in Ukraine. This time, we must fight Putin back

Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback, The ForwardPublished February 26, 2022

This story was originally published on Feb. 26, by the Forward. Sign up here to get the latest stories from the Forward delivered to you each morning. In 1911, my grandpa Jake was born in the small Hungarian village of Torun in the Carpathian Mountains....

Eric Mink is a freelance writer and editor and teaches film studies at Webster University. He is a former columnist for the St.  Louis Post-Dispatch and the Daily News in New York. Contact him at ericmink1@gmail.com.

President’s Ukraine shell game damages U.S national security

ERIC MINKPublished November 22, 2019

Distracted by political theater, we’re missing something significant, something more important than the admittedly historic dimensions of an ongoing impeachment inquiry into the actions of a sitting U.S. president. We’re missing the elemental...

A Constitution in Peril

A Constitution in Peril

JEWISH LIGHT EDITORIALPublished October 10, 2019

The release of a reconstructed transcript of a questionable phone conversation between President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has triggered a formal impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives. House Speaker Nancy...

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Published May 8, 2019

The logo of the Eurovision Song Contest is displayed during the 2019 national selection show in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 23, 2019. (STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images) 

Michael Oberlander is Chief Philanthropy Officer (CPO) at the Jewish Federation of St. Louis.

Babi Yar visit is a searing reminder of Shoah in Kiev, Ukraine

By Michael OberlanderPublished August 2, 2017

What is your first Jewish memory?  That is a question I was recently asked and asked of others while on a trip.  I was privileged to visit Kiev, Ukraine with Tim Stern, vice chairmain  of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis Board of Directors and annual...

Extreme winter weather harms elderly Jews in Eastern Europe

JTAPublished February 5, 2012

The American Joint Distribution Committee has had to mobilize extra assistance in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in the wake of extreme winter weather. An emergency winter response system was activated to provide additional care to tens of...

Ukraine to get first Conservative rabbi

JTAPublished January 29, 2012

JERUSALEM—The first Conservative rabbi to serve in the Ukraine will be ordained this week. Reuven Stamov, 38, a native of the Crimea, Ukraine, on Feb. 3 will be the 82nd rabbi to be ordained by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary. Following his ordination,...

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