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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

Sam Klein started a nonprofit that recycles old printer cartidges and electronics. Photo: Yana Hotter

Sam Klein

By David Baugher, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 21, 2014

For some would-be entrepreneurs, starting a business can be an endeavor a lifetime in the making. The same was true of Sam Klein when he founded his company. Of course Klein’s life was only nine years long at the time. “I knew it was different...

Unsung Heroes - covers, 2010-2013

Help spotlight community’s ‘Unsung Heroes’

Published February 12, 2014

Hurry — you have only two weeks to nominate your Unsung Hero (hint: See the form on page 13 or online  at www.stljewishlight.com/unsung).The St. Louis Jewish Light will honor exceptional community members with its fifth annual Unsung Heroes edition...

Zubaida Ibrahim at the Daar ul-Islam mosque. Photo: Lisa Mandel

Zubaida Ibrahim

By Repps Hudson, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 22, 2013

Sometimes, Zubaida Ibrahim knows she is up against an overwhelming image problem, but that challenge only makes her double her resolve.A Muslim woman who was born in Pakistan and has lived in the United States 42 years, Ibrahim works virtually every day...

Portrait of Derek Cohn in 2013. Photo: Lisa Mandel

Derek Cohn

By David Baugher, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 22, 2013

Asking how many dogs someone has is usually a simple enough question.But not for Derek Cohn.“Today, we have five,” said Cohn. “It’s always a changing number.”That’s because Cohn takes in foster dogs, as part of a program through Stray Rescue...

Rick Rovak in 2013. Photo: Yana Hotter

Rick Rovak

By David Baugher, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 22, 2013

Rick Rovak was doing well in life. His kids went to college. His family was comfortable and his job as a high-powered sales executive in the shoe industry paid very well.Then he found himself having dinner one night with friends at a fashionable Beverly...

Sandy Silverstein displays a photo of himself in his scoutmaster uniform, at his home in Olivette. Photo: Yana Hotter

Sandy Silverstein

By David Baugher, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 22, 2013

For some, membership in the Boy Scouts is a childhood adventure that gives them memories for a lifetime. But for those like Sandy “Bozo” Silverstein, the Boy Scouts are lifetime. After all, he’s been involved with them for the better part of 80...

Nate Noss, Sam Pepose and Will Hopkins of St. Louis Food Rescue are pictured at Whole Foods Market, one of the locations where the teens pick up leftover fresh produce and bread, which they deliver to homeless shelters. Photo: Yana Hotter

St. Louis Food Rescue: Teens on a mission to feed the hungry

By Ellie Grossman, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 22, 2013

Helping the hungry is more than a mitzvah project for teenagers Nate Noss, Will Hopkins, and Sam Pepose. It’s a mission. With one in eight people in the greater St Louis area dependent on food pantries and homeless shelters for their daily meals, the...

Portrait of Josh Goldman in 2013. Photo: Lisa Mandel

Josh Goldman

By David Baugher, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 22, 2013

Framed by the Gateway Arch and a commanding view of the Mississippi from his 26th story window overlooking downtown St. Louis, the world can seem a small place.Yet still, Josh Goldman knows that everything outside that window is based on a very big concept,...

Rita Swiener at the Santa’s Helpers warehouse. Photo: Yana Hotter

Rita Swiener

By David Baugher, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 22, 2013

Rita Swiener is one of those people who always seems to know what she wants. Even as a six-year-old growing up in the slums of Pittsburgh, she was certain of which gifts she hoped Hanukkah would bring at the orphanage where she lived. “I said I wanted...

Herb Eissman is pictured at The Resale Shop, which is run by National Council for Jewish Women - St. Louis Section. Photo: Lisa Mandel

Herb Eissman

By David Baugher, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 22, 2013

Some people retire to get away from work. Others seek work out after leaving their jobs. Herb Eissman is definitely the latter.“I just like to be helpful to people,” he said.It’s something the 82-year-old native of Neosho, Mo. proves every weekday...

Jan Baron in 2013. Photo: Lisa Mandel

Jan Baron

By SUSAN FADEM, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 22, 2013

Had her dad stayed in Hollywood, once he passed his screen test, a gaping hole might have been detected, years later, in the fund-raising and religious worlds here. But since Depression-era studios had little money for beefing up raw talent, the Goldenbergs...

Rachel Miller at home, in front of paintings of three of her family members lost during the Holocaust— her mother, father and sister. A German prisoner of war created the portraits, working from photographs of the family. Photos: Lisa Mandel

Rachel Miller

By Susan Fadem, Special to the Jewish LightPublished May 22, 2013

Crossing a Paris street to go to a bakery, a young child was hit by a car driven by a Nazi. “It was like I was a piece of paper,” the French-born Rachel Goldman Miller recalls. “He never stopped.”During the German occupation of France in World...

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