By David Baugher, Special to the Light
• Published May 22, 2011
Driven is a word that could easily describe Charles Baron.
“What drives me at the moment are primarily issues affecting the city of St. Louis and its future,” said the Temple Israel congregant. “I see evidence of the city’s collapsing....
BY SUSAN FADEM, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published May 22, 2011
The myth is that every Jew excels and succeeds. The reality is that those who fail, by conventional standards, are sometimes forgotten. A Jewish prisoner — a seeming contradiction in terms to many — wrote a letter several years ago to the Jewish...
BY PATRICIA CORRIGAN, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published May 22, 2011
“There are two ways of helping,“ says Rabbi Zvi Zuravin, executive director of the Vaad Hoeir. “There is helping because you have to and then there is helping because you want to. That’s Merle. She is an extremely selfless person who does...
BY PATRICIA CORRIGAN, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published May 22, 2011
Though pleased by the recognition from the St. Louis Jewish Light, Fran Cohen disputes the term “unsung.” Laughing, she says, “Lately I’ve been sung quite a bit — and I’m kind of surprised about it.” Cohen recently was inducted into the...
By Patricia Corrigan, Special to the Light
• Published May 22, 2011
Dr. Rebecca Aft spends her days in surgery, in hospital rooms guiding cancer patients to recovery, in classrooms, in a research laboratory — and, at the end of each busy day, at home with her husband, her teenage daughter and her 2-year-old daughter....
By Ellen Futterman, Editor
• Published May 22, 2011
She champions the causes about which she is passionate — and there are many — with gale-force determination and vigor. Friends describe her as a “human dynamo” with the energy of someone half her 81 years. What’s clear after spending time with...
By David Baugher, Special to the Light
• Published May 22, 2011
Sometimes play can be serious business. It is for Maris Berg when she is helping children with problems in the classroom.“I actually take the child aside and I find out the most about what’s going on in the child’s life by playing with them,”...
BY PATRICIA CORRIGAN, Special to the Light
• Published May 22, 2011
In 1972, when David Oughton was in college, he traveled to Europe and went to Dachau. “Going there grabbed me emotionally, and that visit changed my life,” says Oughton.“Since then, I have tried to learn as much as I can about the Holocaust, what...
By Susan Fadem, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published May 22, 2011
Had Jack Cohen and his wife, Laura, not relocated to St. Charles, they likely would still be attending temple only on the High Holidays.Instead, because of the street where they moved and the neighbors they met, Jack Cohen is being honored as a founder,...
BY PATRICIA CORRIGAN, Special to the Light
• Published May 22, 2011
Ten years ago this October, Phyllis Cantor was named chair of the Social Action Committee at Congregation B’nai Amoona. The position is a perfect fit. “I am all about tikkun olam, repairing the world,” says Cantor. “I believe we have a moral obligation...
