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

Yiddish word of the week | Chazerai כאַזער

Yiddish word of the week | Chazerai כאַזער

RABBI BEN NEWMAN, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHTPublished April 26, 2021

Food that is awful; junk, trash; anything disgusting, even loathsome (Yiddish כאַזער, from Heb.חזיר  “khazir,” pig). Example – “Ben, before going to sleep, could you please clean up all that chazerai?”  

Will Soll teaches a Yiddish version of a Passover song at a Shaare Emeth Yiddish Club meeting.

Yiddish groups help keep language alive in St. Louis

BY BILL MOTCHAN, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHTPublished May 2, 2018

You say you have shpilkes when Cardinals manager Mike Matheny calls the bullpen for a relief pitcher? Had a little too much wine and you’re feeling shikker? That’s a shondeh! But don’t worry, bubbe, listen to my mayse.Please pardon me if I’m...

“Have I Got a Story for You: More Than a Century of Fiction from The Forward,” edited by Ezra Glinter, W.W. Norton, $27.95.

Sparkling fiction from Yiddish newspaper spans 20th century

By Curt Leviant, Special to the Jewish LightPublished April 20, 2017

It must have been a prodigious effort by editor Ezra Glinter to look through countless Yiddish Forward microfilms going back more than 100 years and come up with this superb collection of short fiction.Unlike contemporary American newspapers, Yiddish...

From left, Terry Meddows, Justin Ivan Brown, Julie Layton, Bobby Miller perform in the New jewish Theatre’s production of ‘Jacob and Jack.

Deft direction marks NJT’s season closer

BY ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief EmeritusPublished May 9, 2012

The New Jewish Theatre closes out its 2011-2012 season with “Jacob and Jack,” acclaimed playwright James Sherman’s delightfully funny and nostalgic look at the decline of American Yiddish theater and the desperation of down-on-their luck actors....

Cast of the NJT production of ‘Jacob and Jack.’

Backstage farce up next at NJT

Published April 25, 2012

“Jacob and Jack,” the final production of the New Jewish Theatre’s 2011-2012 season, combines elements of contemporary and Yiddish theater in a classic marital farce complicated by dual role-playing. It will be presented from May 3-20 in the Wool...

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