CHICAGO — Sinai Synagogue in South Bend, Ind., has been struggling with issues facing many small congregations in an era of dwindling budgets and shifting demographics. In particular, with only 150 families, until recently it was increasingly difficult...
Our eight year olds left for overnight camp earlier this week. This is their first time going away and it’s an adjustment for all of us. Since their departure, my husband and I have been asked countless times, “Are you sad? Are you okay? Are you surviving?”...
Well I made a "big" decision. I am quitting JDate. Two years — one in Jerusalem and one in St. Louis — is long enough. That method is clearly not working for me. So how does an "older" single person go about dating Jewishly in St. Louis? I'll keep...
BY ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
• Published June 13, 2012
In his latest book, “When General Grant Expelled the Jews,” (Schocken, $27.95) historian Jonathan D. Sarna details the notoriously anti-Jewish “General Orders No. 11,” in which General Ulysses S. Grant in 1862 ordered the expulsion of all Jewish...
By Sarah Weinman, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
• Published June 13, 2012
The exhibition “Hidden in Plain Sight” sheds light on a long-kept secret in artist Bunny Burson’s family. The artist’s maternal grandparents attempted to escape from Germany and Latvia between 1938 and 1941, after they helped their children immigrate...
B’nai B’rith of St. Louis will honor Tommy Goldenberg during “Honoring A Music Master” at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, July 1 at the Jewish Community Center Staenberg Family Complex, 2 Millstone Campus Drive in Creve Coeur. The event will feature a sit-down...
By David Baugher, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published June 13, 2012
Like many 11 year olds, Yelli Smason is happy, very sociable and loves animals. She is deeply spiritual as well — a fact her father, as a rabbi, is proud to relate.“On Thursday evening, when we’d talk about the upcoming Sabbath we’d say Shabbos...
Nicholas D. Kristof, the courageous New York Times reporter who was the most persistent and forceful advocate for the innocents of Darfur in the Sudan where 300,000 were murdered, has been a lonely voice on behalf of two current groups of victims. In...
Last month I received an invitation via email through my legislative office that I wasn’t sure at first was real. However, after calling the number listed, I was assured it was legitimate. I was overjoyed. I was invited to the White House for the annual...
NEW YORK -- Today’s Reform movement is built on the shoulders of our 19th-century Reform forbearers who took Jewish tradition in an entirely new direction, re-envisioning our sacred texts and practices in the light of scientific inquiry and the new...
By Gavin Rabinowitz, JTA
• Published June 10, 2012
OTACI, Moldova -- After just half an hour the little blue tour bus painted with smiling dolphins died with a smell of something burning, leaving Matthew Bronfman stranded next to a muddy field somewhere in rural Moldova. It was a surreal start to what...
NEW YORK -- State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a settlement with a company accused of discriminating against a Shabbat-observant employee. According to a press release put out by the attorney general, a new hire at Milrose Consultants,...
