Jewish Light Digital Edition: Dec. 7, 2022

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TRUSTEES

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JEWISH LIGHT PAST PRESIDENTS

Milton I. Goldstein*, Morris Pearlmutter* (founder), Morris Moscowitz*, Melvin Newmark*, Rabbi Alvan D. Rubin*, Vivian Zwick, Joseph Edlin*, Michael Newmark, Richard Stein, Yusef Hakimian*, Sanford Weiss*, Philip Isserman*, Linda Kraus, Richard Flom, Marvin Schneider, Barbara Langsam Shuman, Terry Bloomberg, John Greenberg, David Grebler*, Milton Movitz*, Gianna Jacobson, Jenny Wolkowitz, Gary Kodner, Jane Tzinberg Rubin, Steve Gallant, Laura K. Silver * Of Blessed Memory

0036-2964)

63141-9998.

STAFF

EXECUTIVE

Betsy Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer Ellen Futterman, Editor-in-Chief Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content Officer

EDITORIAL

Robert A. Cohn, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Mike Sherwin, Managing Editor

BUSINESS AND ENGAGEMENT

Stacy Wolff Smart, Director of Business Development and Communications Angela Jolly, Administrative Assistant

SALES

Angie Rosenberg, Senior Account Executive Kelly Morris, Account Executive Elaine Wernick, Account Executive

PRODUCTION

Erin Eason, Creative Lead

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Bill Motchan, Amy Fenster Brown, Eric Berger, Burton Boxerman, Patricia Corrigan, Barry Gilbert, Margi Lenga Kahn, Nancy Kranzberg, Elise Krug, Cate Marquis, Eric Mink, Judith Newmark, Martin Rochester

CANDLE LIGHTING TIMES

Shabbat begins Friday, Dec. 23: 4:26 p.m.

Shabbat ends Saturday, Dec. 24: 5:29 p.m.

Torah reading: Mikeitz

Shabbat begins Friday, Dec. 30: 4:31 p.m.

Shabbat ends Saturday, Dec. 31: 5:34 p.m.

Torah reading: Vayigash

The Jewish Light is a community partner of Jewish Federation of St. Louis.

The Jewish Light is a member of the American Jewish Press Association

of Music’ matters, even after 50+ years

Sunday night I did something I don’t often do these days. I watched a movie — with commercials — on “regular” TV. It happened to be “The Sound of Music,” one of my all-time favorites, which clocked in at four hours on ABC.

I realize I could have saved myself some time if I had watched the movie on a streaming network, like Disney+. But I didn’t really want to make it go any faster. There were too many memories to savor.

I first saw “The Sound of Music” not long after it opened in 1965 at Radio City Music Hall. I was 9 or 10. It may have been part of Radio City’s annual “Christmas Spectacular,” featuring the Rockettes, which my parents faithfully took me to each December as a kid. It was our holiday tradition.

We’d ride the train from Long Island into “the city” to see the Rockettes perform, which was then followed by a family-friendly movie on the venue’s big screen. If I lobbied hard enough, we’d squeeze in a stop to a Horn & Hardart automat for a quick bite before or after the show.

I so looked forward to our Radio City “holidate,” hoping and even praying that my annual winter cold and cough would hold off until January so I wouldn’t be sick and miss out.

Fun little fact about the Rockettes: They first got their start in St. Louis in 1925 and were known as the Missouri Rockets.

In any case, it may have been that I saw “The Sound of Music” at Radio City at another

time of the year. Like I said, I don’t recall exactly when, but I sure do remember how much I adored the film and the romantic story it tells, based on real-life, about a widowed naval Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) and Catholic postulate Maria (Julie Andrews) who becomes governess to his seven children. My parents bought me the soundtrack, which I would play on our “hi-fi” over and over so I could memorize all the words to “My Favorite Things” and “Do-Re-Mi.”

sion into Austria, where the film is set, and how the rise of Hitler and Nazism led to the murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.

Then again, I was only 9 or 10 at the time.

Sure, I still loved the songs and the involving story and rooted for Maria and the von Trapps, but I also couldn’t help but think how they were not only lucky for the love they all shared, but that they made it to safety when so many Jews did not.

Years later, when I met my husband who is not Jewish, we decided to forge some holiday traditions of our own. He came to the marriage with two young children, and we added a third. As a family, we’d watch “The Sound of Music” together, usually around Christmastime. We’d sing the songs, and I would reprise my Liesel moves to make them all laugh.

We’d discuss, too, some of the themes in the film in language they could understand: the importance of family, of faith, of conviction, of courage, of hope, of perseverance. And when they were mature enough, we’d talk about how the film also depicts darkness. It was our first step in explaining to them about the rise of Hitler and Nazism, and the murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.

“The Sound of Music,” about a musical Catholic family escaping to freedom, is not now, nor will it ever be thought of as a “Holocaust film,” but its timeless themes teach valuable lessons, and help us, Jews and non-Jews alike, to never forget what can happen when evil goes unchecked. Given the increase in antisemitism and white nationalism, the film is perhaps more relevant today than it was when it was released 57 years ago.

Likely tired of me flitting around the house pretending to be the eldest von Trapp daughter Liesel, I recall my parents sitting me down to discuss some of the themes in the film in language I would understand: the importance of family, of faith, of conviction, of courage, of hope, of perseverance. They encouraged me to dig deeper than

When the movie finally arrived on television in 1976, I was in college and likely too busy studying (ha ha) to pay much attention. But I do recall what a different experience it was watching “The Sound of Music” in my 20s. No longer did I have any affection for Liesel’s love interest, Hitler Youth whistle blower Rolfe, and found myself annoyed at Liesel for having anything to do with him in the first place. I also realized that lurking in the background of the film was darkness in the form of the Third Reich, and the evil it unleashed.

When I texted my stepson that I was watching the movie Sunday night, he responded: “It’s a time commitment, but it’s worth the wait to watch Christopher Plummer own Rolfe’s Hitler Youth tuchus.”

Now that’s what I call proud parenting. News and Schmooze is a column by Light

Editor-in-Chief Ellen

With each lighting of the Menorah, we remember the true meaning of Hanukkah: the triumph of faith and courage over all adversity. As you celebrate the miracles of the season with family and friends, may peace and fulfillment find you during this Festival of Lights and all year long.

With each lighting of the Menorah, we remember the true meaning of Hanukkah: the triumph of faith and courage over all adversity. As you celebrate the miracles of the season with family and friends, may peace and fulfillment find you during this Festival of Lights and all year long.

With each lighting of the Menorah, we remember the true meaning of Hanukkah: the triumph of faith and courage over all adversity. As you celebrate the miracles of the season with family and friends, may peace and fulfillment find you during this Festival of Lights and all year long.

TRIPLE WHAMMY OF AGING

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each lighting of the Menorah, we remember the true meaning of Hanukkah:

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Julie Andrews sings ‘Do-Re-Mi’ in the film ‘The Sound of Music.’

IMAGE: SCREENSHOT FROM YOUTUBE.COM/ @RODGERSHAMMERSTEIN

in

a Jewish-Arab bilingual education group in Israel, visits St. Louis

BY ERIC BERGER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT

Leah Beinhaker, a leader of a JewishArab bilingual education organization in Israel, recently offered an optimistic take on how the country’s new right-wing governing coalition could impact relations between Israelis and Palestinians. That’s even though the new person overseeing border police in Palestinian territories used to chant “Death to Arabs” and once defended three men who set fire to empty classrooms at one of the organization’s schools in Jerusalem.

“I think the new government will impact relations between Jews and Palestinians very negatively,” Beinhaker said during a visit to St. Louis. “Although within those who are already more to the center, as opposed to those who are on the extremes, I think it might give some momentum to people understanding that this isn’t the way forward, that we actually need to work together.”

Beinhaker and supporters of Hand in Hand, which includes six schools in Israel and educates more 2,000 students, hope that the organization can help improve relations between Jews and Arabs, despite the possibility of increased tensions and violence.

And she and Shada Mansour, a Palestinian woman who directs the organization’s communities department, also hope that St. Louis Jews can bolster that cause.

During a visit to raise awareness and funds earlier this month, the women spoke at local Jewish organizations, including Congregation Shaare Emeth and MaTovu,

and at a Central Reform Congregation couple’s home.

“We invested into Hand in Hand partially because we think it’s obviously very good for 2,000 students, partially because

it’s a symbol of excellence and social cohesion in Israel,” Hank Webber, a Hand in Hand donor, said in introducing the speakers at his Central West End residence. “But I think really because our hope is that over time it leads to a cadre who will be committed to social cohesion and be committed to a world where everybody wins.”

Beinhaker grew up in a “very strong Zionist” home in Toronto, she said.

“My parents used to take us pretty much every winter break to Israel,” Beinhaker, the organization’s director of resource development, recalled.

She moved to Israel shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 and soon realized that she had grown up with an idealized Israel.

“I knew there were Arabs there, and I

thought of them as a minority that was really just incidentally there, and if they weren’t incidentally there, they were there as a threat, enemies,” Beinhaker, 51, who lives outside of Jerusalem, said. “It never occurred to me that it was a people with the same legitimate striving for a homeland that my people had for years.”

Two years ago, Beinhaker joined Hand in Hand after two decades working for nonprofits such as the New Israel Fund, which aims to increase equality in Israel.

Meanwhile, Mansour joined the organization six years ago. A 35-year-old, Mansour grew up in Tayibe, an Arab city in central Israel. Like Beinhaker, Mansour’s views of the country changed

Leah Beinhaker and Shada Edris Mansour speak at a St. Louis home about Hand in Hand, a Jewish-Arab bilingual education organization in Israel, during a recent visit. PHOTOS: ERIC BERGER

Leah Beinhaker and Shada Edris Mansour.

CELEBRATING HANUKKAH IN ST. LOUIS

Photographer Bill Motchan has been busy capturing images at St. Louis Hanukkah celebrations, including Chabad’s menorah lighting in Kiener Plaza with the Gateway Arch in the background (top left); Hanukkah Hullabaloo (above) in the Grandel Theatre; Hanukkah at Schnucks Ladue Crossing (below and below center); and the Chabad/Home Depot Menorah Workshop (at left and below left). View photo galleries and find out more details about the events by visiting stljewishlight.org/multimedia

ALL PHOTOS: BILL MOTCHAN

BY BILL MOTCHAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT

A late October outing at Camp Sabra included food, games and communing with nature. But the participants weren’t teenage campers. These were young adults. The Halloween weekend retreat was the brainchild of Avital Kadosh, the Jewish Community Center’s director of Jewish experience and innovation.

Kadosh, 34, joined the J in late summer to create programs specifically for two demographic groups: young families and empty nesters. The Camp Sabra retreat drew 15 participants ranging in age from 22 to 30. Most were unaffiliated with a synagogue, Kadosh said, but they all had a desire to embrace Judaism.

“We actually did a tashlich,” Kadosh said. “We didn’t toss breadcrumbs, but we found things in nature and then we talked about why we picked them. Some people threw a rock, some people picked up leaves. So we did a sort of nature-tonature ceremony. It was very cool.”

They also participated in typical camp activities like a capture-the-flag game. The retreat was so successful that almost every camper met again for a reunion-Shabbat dinner on Dec. 9th at the home of Alex Rich. Kadosh said Rich was instrumental in planning and promoting the retreat. He served as her volunteer chair and used his communications expertise to help create awareness.

“Avital reached out to me with interest in having me chair this event as someone who promotes it,” said Rich, 31. “I’m very active on the social media front and I’m on the air with Y98 in the morning, so I can use my connections to spread the word about these different events that we’re doing.”

Kadosh was born in Israel and moved with her family to Minnesota in 1991. After college, she worked for Teach for America in Detroit. She earned a graduate degree in social work from the University of Michigan and worked as the director of congregational services for a synagogue in Ann Arbor. From there, she moved to St. Louis where she served as the director of the Congregation B’nai Amoona religious school. That’s also where she met Alex Rich, who taught music.

After a stint working at a religious school in New Orleans, Kadosh came

back to St. Louis earlier this year when her husband, Jordan Kadosh, was named regional director of the AntiDefamation League Heartland.

The Kadoshes belong to Kol Rinah. They are young parents, so Avital can identify with that group. She said her

goals in creating a Jewish experience program at the J began with recruiting committed volunteers like Alex Rich.

“We got people around the table to talk about what they wanted to see from the J, what they love, what they don’t love, what they’d like added,” she said. “I was able to do that. We have between 10 and 20 people on each committee, which is great. It’s well represented from different synagogues, and from unaffiliated Jewish St. Louisans.

“Each group has met twice already,” she said. “I put together a Wiki survey. The young family group had over 1,500 hits, which is wild. It was able to generate seed ideas by score and priority, which was very helpful because we came up with probably close to 10 years of programming ideas.”

The popularity of the Halloween retreat and follow-up Shabbat dinner demonstrated that there is a desire for similar programs, Kadosh said. She’s already planning early 2023 events.

“There are seven programs between January and May,” she said. “We’re excited about that. We’re partnering with Kol Rinah for a Lag B’Omer event

at Shaw Park to do a grill and s’mores. Partnership and collaboration are a big part of this job. Some of our other programs are smaller pop ups.

“For example, we’re going to the Hollow in Kirkwood for special Passover items at the end of March. Families can come and paint either a Kiddish cup, a seder plate, or little saltwater bowls, and then they’ll be putting them in the kiln and be ready right in time for the seders.”

Rich said he welcomes the opportunity to connect with other Jewish St. Louisans who may be outside his regular circle of friends. The feedback from the first retreat was also encouraging, he added.

“The turnout that we got in the amount of time that we had to plan it and promote it, I think was really good,” Rich said. “It was a really engaged, fun group that were people I had not met before. So it was good to get outside of my everyday group of Jewish friends. Our goal is to grow that and make it a fun environment and do fun activities that open a door to connect with people.”

Avital Kadosh

Tamar Adler, Sam Deutsch, Julie Frankel, Dr. Craig Reiss, Michele Siler, Nathan Goldstein and Ben Horwitz, the Ohr Chadash Teen Page co-chairs past and present, and the founders of MaTovu. The event co-chairs were Sheri Sherman, Faith Berger, Galia Movitz and Jane Roodman Weiss.

ALL PHOTOS: BRYAN SCHRAIER

Molly Deutsch, Terri Grossman, Sam Deutsch, Craig Neuman, Stacy Wolff Smart, Kim Sloan, Lisa Deutsch

Lenny and Julie Frankel with guests.

Margo Newman, Galia Movitz, Barbara Levin,Barry Rosenberg

Faith Berger, Olivia Adams and Renee Siegel-Hearst

Lucy Greenbaum pre- forms “May I suggeest” during the ceremorny

Honoree Dr. Craig Reiss with family

Rabbi Brad Horwitz and Ben Horwitz

Avi and Bella Adler, Tamar Adler, Adinah and Heschel Raskas, Aviva Raskas, Moshe Adler

The 2022 heroes after receiving their awards.

TOP FROM LEFT: Sam Deutsch, Ben Horwitz, Nathan Goldstein, Dr. Craig Reiss, Olivia Adams, Barbara Levin, Nava Kantor, Abby Bennett, Andrew Warshauer, Russel Neiss BOTTOM ROW: Peggy Kaplan, Mimi Pultman, Jenny Wolkowitz, Caroline Goldenberg, Lauren Sagel, Julie Frankel, Michele Siler, Tamar Adler

FOUNDING MEMBERS OF MATOVU: ABBY BENNETT, SHIRA BERKOWITZ, KATIE GARLAND, BARBARA LEVIN, RUSSEL NEISS, PAUL SORENSON & ANDREW WARSHAUER

“Congratulations on the community you’ve built, and the opportunities for learning you’ve created.”

- Nathan Waldman -

JULIE FRANKEL

“Julie, I am so very proud of you, my friend, for all you do for our Jewish community. You are welldeserving of this Unsung Hero recognition award! Love you!”

- Fran Balk -

FOUNDING MEMBERS OF MATOVU: ABBY BENNETT, SHIRA BERKOWITZ, KATIE GARLAND, BARBARA LEVIN, RUSSEL NEISS, PAUL SORENSON & ANDREW WARSHAUER

“Celebrating with pride as our daughter, Abby Bennett and all of the Founding members of MaTovu are honored for their creative leadership in the community! Mazel Tov also to Michele Siler and all the honorees!”

- Rabbi Jim & Amy Bennett -

ALL 2022 UNSUNG HEROES

- Faith & Corey Berger -

ALL 2022 UNSUNG HEROES

“Mazel tov for being recognized and honored for what you’ve done!”

- Barbara Bianco -

JULIE FRANKEL

“Congratulations, Julie! You are the best!”

- Barb & Danny Bindler -

JULIE FRANKEL

“Mazel Tov on being an Unsung Hero. So proud of all you do in our community.” Love,

- Susan Bosse -

SAM DEUTSCH & BEN HORWITZ

“Congratulations on your Unsung Hero recognition. So proud of the work you’re doing to support our community. Keep it up!”

- Jonathan & Jennifer Deutsch -

SAM DEUTSCH, NATHAN GOLDSTEIN & BEN HORWITZ

“Sam, Ben and NathanCongratulations on your honor. We are so proud of you.” xo

- Jennifer & Jonathan Deutsch -

JULIE FRANKEL & DR. CRAIG REISS

“Mazel Tov!!”

- Kathy & Tom Dewoskin -

ALL 2022 UNSUNG HEROES “Such Wonderful People!”

- Janice Fishman -

ADVISERS OF THE JEWISH LIGHT’S OHR CHADASH TEEN PAGE: CAROLINE GOLDENBERG, JENNY WOLKOWITZ, MIMI PULTMAN, PEGGY KAPLAN & LAUREN SAGEL

“Mazel Tov!”

- Leslie Freeman -

FOUNDERS OF MATOVU

“Congratulations on this well-deserved award and the successful realization of your vision MaTovu!”

- Betsy & Spencer Garland -

ALL 2022 UNSUNG HEROES

“Mazel Tov Unsung Heroes on your meaningful work.”

- Rabbi Brad & Mindy Horwitz -

JULIE FRANKEL

“Congratulations, Julie!”

- Barbara Kodner -

DR. CRAIG REISS

“Dear Doctor Reiss, Mazel Tov on this well-deserved honor!”

- Carol & David Lander -

MICHELE SILER

“Dear Michele, Mazel Tov on this well-deserved honor!”

- Carol & David Lander -

JULIE FRANKEL

“Congratulations!”

- Julie, Ricki & Neil Marglous -

ALL 2022 UNSUNG HEROES

“Congratulations to the Unsung Heroes of 2022”

- Betsy Mehlman -

JULIE FRANKEL

“Congrats to the best volunteer ever. You are an inspiration to all.”

- Barbara Opinsky -

JULIE FRANKEL & OHR CHADASH TEEN PAGE

- Beverlee Sagel -

SAM DEUTSCH

“Well deserved Sam!”

- Erin & Steven Schuver -

JULIE FRANKEL

“So proud of you, Julie, for all that you do!”

- Dan & Joanne Schwartz -

JULIE FRANKEL

“Congratulations and best wishes on your Unsung Heroes Award. It is well deserved for all you have done in our community.”

- Sheri & Fred Seigel -

JULIE FRANKEL, DR. CRAIG REISS, MICHELE SILER

“ Mazel Tov on a well-deserved honor!”

- Jeffrey & Arlene Stiffman -

JULIE FRANKEL

“We so appreciate the love you have shown in your commitment to our Jewish Community! You set an awesome example of giving!”

- Leonard & Carla Weintraub -

OHR CHADASH

“What a wonderful honor to Jenny, who has made our community for many years a better place to live and work. Jenny is one of the most caring people you will ever meet, and when Jenny sees love and caring is needed, she gives it her all.”

- Patti Wolkowitz -

JULIE FRANKEL

“What some people don’t know about Julie is that in addition to the many hours she devotes to volunteering, she is never too busy to call on a friend who is ill or just needs to know someone cares. Her many friends are truly fortunate to know her.”

- Lynn Yaeger -

JULIE FRANKEL

“Mazel Tov on being honored as an Unsung Hero!”

- Aleene Zawada -

TAMAR ADLER

“Mazel Tov to lively, engaging, and always smiling Tamar Adler”

- Stuart & Betsy Zimbalist -

TAMAR ADLER

“Mazel Tov to amazing Tamar Adler and Bravo for all your excellence, commitment, and caring.”

- Betsy & Stuart Zimbalist -

MICHELE SILER & MATOVU FOUNDERS

“Congratulations on your nominations!”

- Anonymous -

JULIE FRANKEL

“Congratulations on such a well- deserved honor!”

- Michael & Margie -

JERRY ERLICH

With gratitude to Jerry for the wonderful job emceeing this years event!”

- St. Louis Jewish Light Board & Staff

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SHOWN THEIR SUPPORT AND HONORED THIS YEAR’S UNSUNG HEROES WITH PERSONAL MESSAGES!

Visit: JewishArab bilingual education group visits St. Louis

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4A

when she interacted with people on the other side of the conflict.

“I actually never thought about myself as an Arab, about my identity, until I left my town and interacted with others, with Jews,” said Mansour, who is Muslim and worked as an optometrist before joining the organization. “I started to develop the feeling that I’m not wanted, that I’m different in a bad way.”

Mansour wanted her daughter, Nai, to have a different experience. About six years ago, she and her husband learned that a group of parents were starting a Hand in Hand school in her area. They became involved in the founding effort and decided to send Nai, then 3, to the school. Around the same time, Mansour started working for the organization.

“She’s grown up in a place that really gets her to understand her culture and her scripture and understand her identity and feel proud about it, but also to get to know how to accept the Jewish kids that study with her,” said Mansour.

The organization provides education from preschool through 12th grade. It receives funding from the Israeli government, donors and tuition. Each classroom features one Jewish and one Arab teacher, and students learn in both Hebrew and Arabic.

During the talk at Webber’s home, Beinhaker shared a school calendar, which featured Jewish, Muslim and Christian holidays.

“Students get lots of holidays. They celebrate all three religions’ holidays and learn about the different festivals,” Beinhaker said.

During Nai’s first year at the school, she was asked to name her favorite holiday.

“In a very confident and open way, she would answer: ‘Purim.’” Mansouri said. “She doesn’t feel that she’s losing anything from her culture or identity by saying that, and I remember myself at her age or even older, I wasn’t able to say that because you’re forbidden to like the other side.”

Despite that positive outcome, plenty of people in Israel and the Palestinian territories still hate the other side. And former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to return to power as part of a coalition that features Itamar Ben-Gvir as the head of the police. Ben-Gvir has been compared to David Duke, the leader of Ku Klux Clan in the United States. Weeks before the assassination of Rabin, who had signed a peace agreement with Palestinian leadership, Ben-Gvir stole an emblem from his car and said during a TV interview, “Just like we got to this emblem, we can get to him too.”

(Ben-Gvir said earlier this year said he was wrong to have chanted “Death to Arabs.”)

“We know that these ultra-nationalists are deeply opposed to what we are doing,” Beinhaker said of Ben-Gvir and others.

Still, she thinks the impact of the new coalition on Hand in Hand will be minimal.

“They are public schools; they are going to continue to function as public schools,” she said.

Bob Olshan, a Kol Rinah member who lived in Israel for 11 years, attended the talk at Webber’s home and described the organization as “a beacon of light” amidst his concerns about the right-wing government.

“It’s just really wonderful to see young Israelis and Palestinians being close friends and understanding each other,” said Olshan, a retired engineer. “If that could spread, that would be wonderful.”

New 10-sessionMelton class will explore ‘Jewish Identities of Israelis’

Join Rabbi Elizabeth Hersh for a new Melton class that seeks to uncover the diverse and complex faces of Jewish Israeli identity. Beginning with the current state of Jewish Israeli identity as reflected in contemporary Israeli discourse, the lessons then proceed to explore the roots at the foundation of this complex tapestry.

The 10-session course, which runs Jan. 12 through March 23 (on Mondays from 7 – 8:30 p.m. on Zoom), provides a historic overview of the early Zionist vision, the emergence of the New Jew, and the institutions that shaped the country, providing insights into how Israeli society today reflects the dreams, aspirations and endeavors of those who settled the Land of Israel.

After establishing the historic foundation, the course examines themes, including the evolving religious landscape, the intricate relationship of politics and religion, the interplay of the Mizrachi and Ashkenazi Jews, the dynamic between

Israel and World Jewry, and Jewish Renaissance agents in Israel.

The cost is $295. Confidential scholarships are available by contacting rabbijanine@testl.org. A special tuition rate of $50 is available for any full- or part-time professionals working at Jewish organizations, including teachers and staff in St.

Louis Jewish preschools, religious schools, day schools, and youth groups, through the Borow Endowment for Jewish Education, managed by Jewish Federation of St. Louis. Email rabbijanine@testl.org for the coupon code.

Register online at https://bit.ly/ MeltonSTL-Jan.

NEWSMAKERS

Newsmakers is a compilation of the Jewish community’s newsworthy professional and academic accomplishments. Submit your news to news@stljewishlight.org. Call 314-743-3669 for more information. Published the first edition of each month. Newsmakers is compiled by Elise Krug.

Sherilyn Krell was the top winner in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s annual Holiday Cookie Contest. Her Chocolate Walnut Crumb Bars recipe can be found at stljewishlight.org/crumb-bars. Krell is a member of United Hebrew Congregation.

The United Cemetery Association (UCA), manager of the B’nai Amoona, Chevra Kadisha and United Hebrew cemeteries in University City, announced the appointment of Rabbi Binyomin Mazer as its new executive director. A member of U.City Shul, he steps in as longtime director, Barry Needle, retires at the end of this month, after 24 years of service.

At Congregation Temple Israel’s 136th annual meeting, Jeremy Shook and Lois Perryman were honored. Shook received the President’s Award for Continued Excellence (P.A.C.E.) Award for serving as TI’s legal advisor, being an important voice on the house rules committee and overseeing planned giving and facility contracts. He also was the leader of the temple’s softball team, The Tribe, who won

this year’s inter-congregational softball league championship, a first in their 20-year history. Shook is a partner with Shands, Elbert, Gianoulakis & Giljum LLP. Perryman received the Pillar of the Temple Award for single-handedly managing the TI Mitzvah Community Garden for nearly a decade. Each year she harvests produce to donate to the food pantry and engages the youth through the garden. Joining the temple’s Board of Trustees are Becky Pearson and Elizabeth Lieberman Korina Gabrielson joined the executive committee.

Lea Rachel Kosnik’s new book, “Seeking Forgiveness,” tells the story of interracial adoption in the United States today. It is a semi-autobiographical narrative memoir from the perspective of a white mother who adopts a black son and finds she has no idea of what she is doing. Kosnik, a member of Central Reform Congregation, is a professor of economics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Robert Kaiser, partner and member of the employment and labor practice group at Armstrong Teasdale, was included in the 2022 Missouri Super Lawyers publication. He attends Nusach Hari B’nai Zion congregation.

Larry Gast has joined the Jewish Federation of St. Louis as the vice president of development. Previously, he served as Moishe House’s vice president of advancement. Karen Sher was appointed

TO YOU THIS MONTH BY:

TOP ROW, FROM LEFT: Sherilyn Krell, Rabbi Binyomin Mazer, Barry Needle and Becky Pearson

MIDDLE ROW: Elizabeth Lieberman, Korina Gabrielson Lea Rachel Kosnik and Robert Kaiser

BOTTOM ROW: Larry Gast, Karen Sher, Jared Miller and Samantha Rudolph

vice president of community impact, previously serving as the Federation’s vice president of Community Leadership and

Engagement. Continues on opposite page

BROUGHT

Jeremy Shook(left) and Lois Perryman (right)

The Pump was named one of Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2022. It was created by the husband-and-wife team of Jared Miller and Samantha Rudolph, founders of Babyation. The Pump is FDAapproved and is a comfortable breast pump with patented suction technology that mimics how babies suckle. Rudolph serves as co-founder and CEO of the company; Miller serves as chief technical officer, and they are members of United Hebrew.

Carol Staenberg is the newly appointed board chair of the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum. Staenberg led the Federation’s capital campaign to raise over $25 million for the museum’s expansion; an endeavor started seven years ago.

Eli Tenenbaum, a senior at Ladue Horton Watkins High School and co-captain of the boys’ soccer team, was selected to join the All State First Team for the 2022 Boys Class 3 Soccer season. Selection for the team is based on performance, statistics, and sportsmanship.

Son of Dr. Marissa and Jordan Tenenbaum, Eli was also selected to the Missouri 2022 Boys All-Academic Team. This team is a highly select group of seniors who have excelled both on the field and in the classroom during their high school careers. Although Eli doesn’t know which college he will attend next fall, his goal is to study to become a surgeon like his mother. The Tenenbaum family belongs to Temple Israel.

Congregation Shaare Emeth welcomes member Laura Horton as the director of Camp Emeth beginning Dec. 28. She previously was with the Kirkwood Parks and Recreation Department.

Meredith Daniels was one of several co-authors of the book “Energy Healing & Soul Medicine, Stories about Healing and Miracles.” Her chapter focuses on her spiritual journey, moving into discovering her spiritual gifts, and discussing the Ancestral Healing modality she utilizes called Generational Emotional Mapping (GEM). A member of United Hebrew, Daniels is a certified Generational Emotional Mapping Ancestral Healer, Psychic Medium, Reiki Master, dõTERRA Wellness Advocate, author and speaker.

Kol Rinah Brotherhood celebrated its 2020-2022 Men and Youth of the Year at their last annual meeting. For 2020, Maurice Guller (z”l) and Jane Kalina were honored. Guller was an honorary co-chair of Kol Rinah’s capital campaign as well as

president of several local Jewish organizations. Kalina was very active as Kol Rinah’s USY chapter (KRSTL) vice president. She is currently a sophomore at Hollins University. The 2021 honorees were Alan Schwartz and Karen Huss. Schwartz is the vice president of ritual at Kol Rinah and has been active with the group for many years.

Karen is a senior at Parkway North High

School and is co-president of KRSTL for the past two years. Max Brown and Merav Portman received the 2022 awards. Brown is a past president of Kol Rinah’s Brotherhood and is the vice president of the FJMC (Federation of Jewish Men’s Club Midwest Region). Merav is a senior at University City High School and is co-president of KRSTL for the past two years.

TOP ROW, FROM LEFT: Carol Staenberg, Eli Tenenbaum, Laura Horton, Meredith Daniels

The Kol Rinah honorees are (top row, from left) Maurice Guller (z”l), Jane Kalina, (second row) Alan Schwartz, Karen Huss, (third row) Max Brown and Merav Portman

ABOVE: Three of Kol Rinah Brotherhood’s Men and Youth of the Year honorees hold their awards: (from left) Alan Schwartz, Max Brown and Karen Huss. At right, Brown and Kol Rinah Brotherhood president Bob Olshan are shown giving Maurice Guller (z’’l) his award.

OPINIONS

D’VAR TORAH — PARASHAT MIKEITZ AND HANUKKAH

ABOUT THE OPINIONS SECTION

Viewpoints expressed in letters, commentaries, cartoons and other opinion pieces reflect those of the writer or artist, and not those of the Light. We welcome submissions of letters and commentaries to: news@stljewishlight.org

Joseph ‘fought’ for his identity, and we keep up the effort

BY RABBI BRIGITTE ROSENBERG

Every year during Hanukkah, we read part of the Joseph story. In parashat Miketz, this week’s parashah, Joseph is let out of jail and finds himself in pharaoh’s palace. He rises to power, is given an Egyptian name, an Egyptian wife, and he becomes the father of two sons, Manasseh, and Ephraim.

The text is specific in giving us the names, Hebrew names, of Joseph’s sons, as they are not given Egyptian names. This is to remind us that no matter how “Egyptian” Joseph becomes, he still recognizes and identifies with the larger family group from which he came, B’nai Yisrael. In many ways, as he becomes “Egyptian,” he is saying, “I’m still Jewish.”

Joseph’s story resonates for us today in America. As Jews, we have found acceptance. We are comfortable, and it is quite easy for many of us to just be American, unlike those in our families, who generations before had to work at being American. Today, it often seems as if we must work at being Jewish.

Hanukkah, although a minor Jewish holiday, holds incredible meaning and power for us as American Jews, and not because of its proximity to the other holiday happening around us.

Hanukkah celebrates Judaism and Jewish pride. It celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over Antiochus and the Syrian Greeks who sought to get rid of Judaism. Their goal was to Hellenize the Jews and do away with Judaism. Sadly, the fight of the Maccabees was not solely with Antiochus and his army, but also with fellow Jews who had already begun to let go of Jewish practice and Judaism.

Yes, Jews also fought with Jews. Today, we, too, “fight” the powers of those who want to do away with us, but so do we fight ourselves and the fear of publicly sharing our identity due to antisemitism as well as the power and attraction of assimilation. It is easy for many of us (though not all of us) to hide and/or let go of who we are and that which makes us different from being a part of the larger, majority culture. But when we do, we also let go of thousands of years’ worth of faith and tradition that our people

have fought and struggled to hold on to in every generation.

Joseph reminds us that we can survive and even thrive in a culture that is not solely our own, and he reminds us of the importance of holding onto our own unique identity and faith.

As we kindle the lights of Hanukkah, let us ask ourselves, “What is it that I love about Judaism and being Jewish?”

May the answers to those questions, the victory of the Maccabees, and the memories of the many generations who have fought and struggled for the survival of our people, shine a light on all that is good and holy in our tradition and inspire us to continue “fighting” for the survival of our people, the Jewish people.

May we not only survive but thrive for generations and generations to come.

Hanukkah Sameach!

MARTY ROCHESTER

Taking a closer look at whether or not there is a ‘threat to democracy’?

BY MARTY ROCHESTER

We constantly hear, mostly from liberal media, that there is a “threat to democracy” throughout the world, including in the United States.

It is true that, according to Freedom House, there has been a decline in the number of free countries for 16 successive years, with only 20% of the world’s population now living in such countries. Freedom has declined in such places as Hungary, Turkey, India, Mexico and elsewhere, not to mention Russia and China, according to the organization’s report “Freedom in the World 2022: The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule.”

I wish to focus here on the United States, in particular. I would argue that (1) the threat to democracy has been greatly exaggerated and (2) to the extent it is real in the U.S., it is not just the right that is responsible but also the left.

The mainstream media are quick to blame Republicans and conservatives, calling attention especially to election deniers and the Jan. 6 “insurrection.” For sure, Jan. 6 was a horrible, unprecedented attack on our most sacred institutions.

That said, election deniers could also be found on the left, including Stacey Abrams refusing to accept her defeat in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election and Hilary Clinton continuing to blame her loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election on Russian interference.

The left also puts democracy at risk when it engages regularly in identity politics that puts racial and gender group identity above individual merit. For example, note the promotion of race-based decisions in college admissions at institutions such as Harvard. In its lawsuit against Harvard, the anti-affirmative action nonprofit group Students for Fair Admissions engaged expert Duke professor of economics Peter S. Arcidiacono, who delivered a report analyzing admissions data.

“Simply changing the race of [a typical Asian-American applicant] to white would increase his chance of admission [from 25%] to 36%. … Changing his race to AfricanAmerican … would increase his chance of admission to 95%. [The average SAT score of Asian-American applicants to Harvard] is 24.9 points higher than white applicants … and 217.7 points higher than African American applicants … [yet] Asian-American applicants have the

lowest admission rates.”

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published on Oct. 30, Students for Fair Admissions President Edward Blum wrote, “Harvard’s leadership once believed it had too many Jews on campus because almost a quarter of all Harvard freshmen were Jewish. Holistic admissions criteria [replacing SAT and other objective academic performance measures] were concocted to limit the number of Jews admitted.” Today, Harvard thinks it has too many Asians and uses holistic criteria to penalize the latter.

Also, given that constitutional democracy depends on the rule of law, the left puts democracy in jeopardy when it so cavalierly promotes lax law enforcement against criminals (crime is rising in most large American cities controlled by Democrats) as well as open borders (about 2 million illegal migrants crossed our southern border into the U.S. last year under President Joe Biden’s administration).

In addition, it is not just the right but the left that threatens First Amendment free speech rights so vital to democracy. Conservatives are criticized for banning many books in school libraries and classrooms judged by them to be too sexually explicit. But what about high schools, at the behest of liberals, banning the reading of Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” due to its use of the N-word, never mind that Ernest Hemingway said “all modern American literature comes from” that one book?

Liberals have led the way in promoting cancel culture on and off college campuses. It is the left that has threatened academic freedom in higher education by promoting radical ideological orthodoxy in the professoriate, enforcing speech codes, banning microaggressions (such as daring to ask “where are you from?”), insisting on trigger warnings and safe spaces and otherwise stifling expression.

Especially worth attention here is the state of our voting systems and the degree to which we have free and fair elections, because that is at the core of the threat to democracy claim made by liberal media.

It is odd that the left charges the right with election denial, yet it is the left that often undermines faith in democracy as it clamors about how our voting systems are producing outcomes that are unjust due to efforts at voter suppression.

Is it voter suppression to require voter ID, reduce mailin voting, expect people with few exceptions to show up

at the polls on election day, and expect all ballots to be counted and results reported across the country by the next day, as Republicans propose?

I asked this question of a friend, Paul Degregorio, who is one of the leading experts in the world on democratic election administration. I emailed him when he happened to be in Moldova, where he was observing the 25th anniversary of their Central Election Commission, which he helped to create.

He responded that, on the one hand, criticizing Donald Trump, “I do not subscribe to the ‘fraud is everywhere’ and ‘elections are rigged’ theories,” yet added that “ ‘voter suppression’ arguments by liberals are bogus.” In particular:

• “Virtually all democracies in the world require voter ID, most photo ID.”

• “I do believe early voting is OK within limits. COVID19 caused many states to expand vote by mail, which opened up real opportunities for fraud. California has taken it to the extreme, where ballots are allowed to be received long after election day, causing real delays in finalizing results.”

• “While some have argued all of these non-election day measures to give voters more opportunities to cast their ballot increase overall voter turnout, I really haven’t seen evidence that it does.”

• “The move away from electronically cast and marked ballots toward voter-marked paper-based ballots has increased invalid ballots. … In-person voting at a polling station on election day remains the integrity ‘gold standard’ for voting.”

In short, while some reforms are called for, there is no current threat to democracy posed by our elections.

To conclude, we need to remain vigilant in preserving our democracy. True, Washington is very dysfunctional. But, recall, our Founding Fathers partly built dysfunctionality into our system of government with the checks and balances that prevent sweeping changes and tyranny of the majority.

Frustrating as this may be, we should not confuse this with the breakdown of democracy.

Rabbi Brigitte Rosenberg serves United Hebrew Congregation and is a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical and Cantorial Association, which coordinates the d’var Torah for the Jewish Light.

J. Martin Rochester, Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, is the author of 10 books on international and American politics.

Jews, African American leaders share journey to D.C., similarities and pain of each culture

BY RABBI ELIZABETH HERSH

Editor’s Note: This commentary is a composite of participants’ responses to the Newmark Institute trip to Washington, D.C. Quotes from those responses are interspersed in the text below in italics.

***

“This was a life altering experience that framed my thinking and opened my eyes regarding the similarities and differences across African American and Jewish people.” ***

Earlier this month, the Michael and Barbara Newmark Institute for Human Relations at the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) hosted a trip to Washington, D.C., for 37 Jewish and African American leaders in the St. Louis region.

This 2½-day trip was co-chaired by Flint Fowler, president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis, and Phyllis Markus, immediate past chair of the Newmark Institute and past president of the JCRC. This incredible opportunity allowed leaders from the Black and Jewish communities to come together to build relationships while learning about each other’s histories, customs and beliefs, and to share and explore the commonalities and differences between these sometimes overlapping groups.

Participants traveled on a shared journey of learning painful histories that also highlighted the intersection of both communities’ stories of survival and triumph.

The Newmark Institute strives to create a more pluralistic society by building bridges with other communities, engaging in civil discourse and developing a better understanding of who we are and how we can relate to our neighbors. This trip accomplished all of that through an immersive, educational experience that interwove dialogue and created relationships that all on the trip want to continue. ***

The journey centered on visits to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. While participants were careful to not compare the atrocities on display at each museum, individuals recognized the lessons that each museum offered and the ways in which the museums created an exchange that allowed each person to dig more deeply into themselves and the other. ***

“I feel compelled to educate other people,

particularly our youth, on the relations between the Jewish and African American communities and [their] commonalities and more compelled to stand up for what’s right!” ***

At the Holocaust museum, a tour guide led the group through the exhibits, drawing attention to the political scheming and hate mongering that created the conditions for

dehumanization. In displaying the story of the Holocaust beginning in 1933, the museum shows how the Nazis used the government to target and exclude Jews from German society through organized violence and boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses. It was only through sustained policies of discrimination and increasingly radical persecution that those in power were able to shift to mass murder.

One display at the African American history museum described Europeans forging our nation and a new national identity through religion and casting out people whom they believed did not belong, such as non-Christians. The exhibit highlighted how European Americans justified the enslavement of people who they believed did not belong, without pushback. This exhibit drew parallels to our modern society that continues to dehumanize, deciding who has value and who does not, as racism and antisemitism explode throughout the United States. Loud resistance is required to combat growing silent complicity. ***

“My heart hurt for the stories our Black brothers and sisters shared about daily experiences. I sat in my own pain as a Jewish person walking through the Holocaust museum. One pain was not greater or lesser than the other. And my heart was full with the conversations and dialogues where I felt safe to ask, speak and explore. My heart holds abundant

The Michael and Barbara Newmark Institute for Human Relations at the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) hosted a trip to Washington, D.C., for 37 Jewish and African American leaders in the St. Louis region. Here, the group visits the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The Newmark Institute trip was made possible in part with funding from the Lubin-Green Foundation and the Feldman Family Education Institute.

hope that we were there to create a better future and build relationships. One step at a time. I feel like it is not our job to expect or demand. We must continue to listen, learn and ask one another ‘What can I do?’ And, ‘I want to be present for you and your concerns.’ ” ***

The group gathered after each museum visit to process the experience. These conversations were skillfully facilitated by Stephanie Briggs and Jeremy Brok of Cultural Leadership.

The trip was emotionally exhausting, full of heavy histories, hard conversations and the work of relationship building.

Although the journey in D.C. is over, the journey together has just begun. The group met last week at Jewish Federation to continue the dialogue and discuss their shared visions for next steps. Prior to that discussion, participants were invited to do a self-guided tour of the new St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum. The group discussed mutual goals, opportunities for partnership and collaborative projects, thus maintaining and further developing the relationships made on the trip to make a positive impact against racism and antisemitism in our community. ***

“My hope, and I think our shared hope, is that we will use this experience and these relationships to launch us into shared activism and advocacy work.” ***

“I feel an urgent responsibility after our journey to do more with my voice against the hate.”

Rabbi Elizabeth Hersh is the Senior Rabbi at Temple Emanuel. She also serves as the Vice-President of the St. Louis Rabbinical and Cantorial Association, as a member on the Provident Advisory Council, and as Chair for the Michael and Barbara Newmark Institute for Human Relations at the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis (JCRC).

Recommended winter reading

BY ELLEN HARRIS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT

Is there anything better on chilly, dark winter days then cozying up with a mug of steaming hot chocolate and a good book?

The Jewish authors of these five memoirs are introspective and candid. Two tell of guilt and shame. Two take us along their journeys to foreign countries. And two are late-life love stories. One author is an international icon, a private man who ruminates on his entire life in a posthumous book.

Over a five-year period, the late Paul Newman spoke on tapes that were transcribed and edited into “The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir” [320 pages, Knopf]. Being Paul Newman was not easy, his charm and grace just made it look that way.

“My feet are firmly planted in Shaker Heights,” he says, where his Jewish father, owner a successful sporting goods store, demonstrated a strong work ethic. His son starred in and directed movies until he was nearly 80 years old.

Newman is in awe of his great good luck: A face and form as handsome as anything Michelangelo could carve, entrepreneurial talent that led the co-founder of Newman’s Own food products to earn so much money he could give half a billion dollars to a children’s camp he created, a passionate 50-year marriage, six physically healthy children whom he loved, even a mid-life race car career in which he won four national championships. He became involved in the sixties in civil rights and stayed an activist.

His children’s camp, the Hole in the Wall Gang for seriously ill kids, may have been his greatest cause. He dedicated himself to raising money from rich donors. Within minutes, he secured nearly $900,00 from August Busch. In his thank you note to the beer baron, he noted the 200,000 cans of Budweiser he’d drunk since the age of 18. Yes, he admits on tape he’s a high-functioning alcoholic, one who, at one point, consumed up to a case of beer a night. It’s a wonder he lived to the age of 83 when he died of lung cancer in 2008.

Yet an underground river of sadness runs through Newman’s extraordinary life. “I’m always anxious,” he says. “I worry I’m not good enough.”

He feared his success was derived from his looks, not his acting. He lived with unyielding guilt and grief over the death of his son from an accidental drug overdose. Yet his five daughters and his wife Joanne Woodward adored him the way he was. vvv

Guilt is private, shame is public. In “Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy” [432 pages, Post Hill Press], her 12th book, Letty Cottin Pogrebin writes that while all people feel shame, shanda and secrecy are coded within Jewish immigrant DNA. The specter of public humiliation haunts daily life. Appearances matter, hence, the cover-ups.

The feminist activist who co-founded Ms. magazine, Pogrebin excavates her family’s shame. Her grandmother escaped an arranged marriage by jumping out the window on her wedding day and running off with another man. Shame extends to illness; Pogrebin admits she told no one when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Later tests showed it was benign.

In a very moving chapter excerpted in the Forward, Pogrebin reveals her main shanda: her mother-in-law Esther humiliated and maltreated Pogrebin for three decades and she kept it a secret. Having lost her own mother eight years before her marriage, Pogrebin twisted herself into a pretzel to win Esther’s love. Nothing she did could win her over. She couldn’t confide in her friends. They’d ask what she’d done to trigger such rejection.

Her mother-in-law’s boundary-crossing would shock a therapist. Pogrebin leaves her mother-in-law in charge of her household when she goes to the hospital to deliver her son. She also leaves the just-completed 350-page manuscript of her first book on her desk. Her mother-in-law takes it upon herself to “edit” every page, taking out sentences or adding them. This being before computers, Pogrebin must redo and retype the project.

Pogrebin begins to feel empathy for the bitter, unhappy woman who has suffered illness and money worries. She forgives her mother-in-law. As Esther lies dying, she says to Pogrebin, “I treated you badly. I’m sorry. You deserved better.”

Local pianist revives series of ragtime concerts

BY BILL MOTCHAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT

Ethan Leinwand is an internationally known blues piano player. Leinwand, a Jewish St. Louisan, said that after thousands of gigs, he still has to conquer selfdoubt when he takes the stage.

“Performing piano is not easy at all,” said Leinwand, 39. “It’s terrifying. It is for me, still, every time...You just walk through the thorny bush, and you take your licks.”

Ragtime music is especially challenging with its intricate syncopation, he said. And that’s the genre that Leinwand plans to feature with a monthly concert series he is helping plan that will begin in January. The idea is to allow local amateur and professional musicians an opportunity to play and listen to ragtime.

“I was in Alaska last summer and, outside Fairbanks, is an old saloon,” he said.

“There’s a ragtime club that meets there. Seeing everyone there, I thought, ‘We really need to get it going.’ They can do it in Fairbanks, and we should darn well be able to do it in the home of ragtime, right?” St. Louis is credited as one of the cities where African American musicians developed ragtime. The most famous was Scott Joplin, who popularized the genre with hits like “The Entertainer” and “Maple Leaf Rag.”

Leinwand’s monthly ragtime event will be called Ragtime Rendezvous, similar to a previous incarnation held at the Scott Joplin House on Delmar Boulevard just north of downtown St. Louis. That venue has been closed for repairs since before COVID. Leinwand and his regular musical collaborator, TJ Muller, are both on the board of directors of the Friends of Scott Joplin, so they joined forces to renew the series.

The Ragtime Rendezvous will run on the first Monday of each month beginning at 5 p.m. Players of all skills are welcome to perform for the first hour. Each month will feature a special guest musician who will perform a longer set. The featured performer at the inaugural Jan. 2 event will be Royce Martin, a St. Louis native and piano virtuoso, whose set will run from 6 to 7 p.m.

“Our hope is to grow it back organically and get the word out to music schools and to the teachers around town because a lot of kids want to play ragtime,” Leinwand said. “This will be a fun, safe space for them to come and perform.”

The Ragtime Rendezvous

WHAT: Ragtime music performances

WHEN: 5 p.m. on the first Monday of each month, beginning Jan. 2

WHERE: Jack’s Joint: Musiques at O’Connell’s Pub, 4652 Shaw Ave. The second-floor venue is not wheelchair accessible.

HOW MUCH: Free admission (but donations encouraged)

Ethan Leinwand

PHOTO: BILL MOTCHAN

PHOTO: STOCK.ADOBE.COM

reading for winter

If you’re going to read about the Holocaust, pick up “Shmuel’s Bridge: Following the Tracks to Auschwitz with My Survivor Father” by Jason Sommer [207 pages, Imagine]. The powerful Publishers Weekly writes in a starred review: “This stunning tribute isn’t to be missed.”

An award-winning St. Louis poet, Sommer grew up hearing about his father’s younger brother, Shmuel. His father tells him how he looks like Shmuel, and how his mannerisms are his. How he brought home small animals to nurture despite the family’s extreme poverty in their Czech village. How big and strong and tough he was. Sommer idolized the uncle he never met. The teenager who resisted the Nazis.

In a cattle car to Auschwitz, wedged next to his sweetheart, Shmuel pried apart the barbed wire in the window. As the train crossed a bridge over a river, he pushed himself through and jumped into the water. The guards fired and murdered the 17-year-old.

The family could not honor Shmuel with a yahrzeit because no one knew what day in 1944 he made that leap. Nor where it happened.

Sommer and his then 78-year-old father, Jay, go on a quest in 2001 to find out. They travel across the land that was at times Ukraine, Hungary, and Soviet, where Jay Sommer lived through the Holocaust and where his little brother perished. Sommer, an English professor at Fontbonne College, researches maps and railway lines and interviewed other survivors to deduce the date of Shmuel’s death.

Their quest becomes larger than Shmuel. Sommer writes how his father, who became the Teacher of the Year honored by President Ronald Reagan, had no idea of Sommer’s “interior life.” Their connection is often frayed between the Holocaust

Author Jason Sommer

datory reading with an AARP card. “In Love: A Memoir of Love & Loss” by Amy Bloom [224 pages, Random House]. Late-life love carries a special sweetness because the couple knows their time together is finite. When best-selling literary novelist Amy Bloom meets architect Brian Ameche, they both were in their fifties and stuck in miserable relationships.

“You should be with a guy who doesn’t mind that you’re smarter than he is, who doesn’t mind that most of the time you’ll be the main event … I don’t know if I can be that guy … but I’d like a shot,” he says.

They marry under a chuppah. For nearly a decade, they travel between the coasts. Ameche reads every word Bloom writes. Until he doesn’t. He gets lost trying to find his studio. He can’t recall important conversations, and Bloom, a psychotherapist who really connects with people [I’ve met her], weeps. An MRI confirms Ameche has Alzheimer’s.

A former Yale football player with a

Heisman trophy, Ameche says he’ll die on his feet rather than on his knees. He wants a quick death. Within a week, Bloom finds Dignitas, a Zurich nonprofit for medically assisted death. She plans their last trip. He insists she write about it. She tells how her husband squeezes the last drop of joie de vivre by dining together at five-star restaurants in Zurich and visiting ultra-expensive shops.

Bloom’s braids short chapters of their last journey with vignettes from their earlier life. She quotes British psychiatrist Dr. Colin Murray Parkes who wrote 50 years ago, “The pain of grief is just as much a part of life as the joy of love; it is, perhaps, the price we pay for love, the cost of commitment.” vvv

“Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life” by Delia Ephron [304 pages, Little Brown.] What happens when a rom-com writer’s life is struck by triple tragedy? Delia Ephron is grieving the death of her older sister, Nora Ephron, and co-screenwriter of “You’ve Got Mail” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” when Delia’s husband of 30 years is diagnosed with prostate cancer. Three years later, he is gone.

Ephron tries to disconnect the landline in his home office and hits the wall with the phone company. She writes a witty op-ed about it for the New York Times Dr. Peter Rutter, a widower in San Francisco, reads it and writes her of his similar experience. They begin an old-fashioned epistolary friendship via email. Finally, he flies to Manhattan, and they fall in love.

The hammer drops: Ephron is diagnosed with the same form of leukemia that killed her sister. Cute romance turns to real love as Rutter, a retired Jungian psychiatrist, is by her side when Ephron begins chemo.

They marry in the hos-

‘Jewish Lives’ series looks at the Jewish influences of playwright Arthur Miller

A. COHN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EMERITUS

A new superbly written biography of playwright Arthur Miller, by John Lahr, shines a bright light on the Jewish influences on his life and work.

Lahr has solid credentials for tackling the complex and challenging career and life story of Arthur Miller (1915-2005). Lahr has been a contributor to The New Yorker magazine since 1991, and for 24 years was its senior drama critic. Among his 18 other published books is a biography of Tennessee Williams, who he regards as a co-equal giant to Miller as the most accomplished mid-century American playwrights. Williams’ blockbuster “A Streetcar Named Desire” had its Broadway debut in 1947. Miller’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning “Death of a Salesman” premiered in 1949.

Lahr goes into considerable detail in describing Miller’s overnight transformation from a quiet and respected author into a theater megastar, thrust into the frenetic fantasyland of Broadway and Hollywood, including his disastrous marriage to the drug-addled, unhinged superstar Marilyn Monroe.

Lahr describes how the success of “Death of a Salesman” thrust Miller into “a whole new realm,” quoting him saying: “I’d spent my life on the outside and now I was on the inside, where all the wild animals live.” He wrote to his longtime friend Elia Kazan, who directed “Salesman,” that success made him miserable: “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me. I keep refusing to do things and go places, and still I haven’t eaten at home but twice a week for over a month.”

Despite the insecurities Miller confessed to Kazan, he embraced his enhanced status as a “public intellectual,” even taking up pipe smoking and other affectations, Lahr points out.

ROBERT

“Arthur Miller: American Witness” by John Lahr; Yale University Press Jewish Lives Series, 201 pages, $26

African painter finds inspiration in Black cowboys of the American West

BY NANCY KRANZBERG SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT

Whenever my birthday rolls around, I can expect to receive gifts with a cowboy-cowgirl or western flair theme. After all, I grew up in the days of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans as well as watching Hopalong Cassidy and many Westerns on television and at the movies.

You could say that I have a thing about this subject. I even loved — and still do — the western and cowboy songs and stories about the Wild West. That said, I really couldn’t remember any Black cowboys. Well, my daughter brought me a gift entitled “Black Rodeo,” which accompanied an exhibition of artist Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe’s paintings. Looking at the book, my eyes opened wide, I fell in love with the passion of this young artist from Accra, Ghana.

In this book, Alexander Thomas, a Ph.D. candidate in history and African American studies at Yale University, writes of Quaicoe ‘s infatuation with the Wild West, which was brought to him by classic Western cinema circulating around the globe. Quaicoe was intrigued by the style

and attitude of these powerful and unapologetic American cowboys.

Thomas talks about how Quaicoe’s African spirit is so uplifting to African Americans and how the artist’s exuberant brushstrokes and eye for color and texture make his works so special and appealing.

Of course, the movie “Concrete Cowboys” with Idris Elba was a huge hit at theaters a couple of years ago. A description of the movie quotes one of the characters who says, “You are who you ride with.” A young man is sent to live with his estranged father for the summer. This rebellious teen finds kinship in a tight knit group of Black cowboys in an urban community in Philadelphia.

After doing some research, I found out that Black cowboys have been around all along since the beginning, for over 100 years. There are books and articles galore. One that caught my attention online was entitled, “Five African-American Cowboys Who Shaped the West” (read it online at https://bit.ly/African-American-Cowboys) by Courtney Fox on wideopencountry. com.

One of the five was John Ware, who was born into slavery in South Carolina and

moved to Texas after the Civil War. There he learned skills to become a cowboy. He worked on cattle drives from Texas all the way to Canada, where he helped boost the ranching industry in Alberta. He became a star in the Calgary Stampede and was quite famous and highly respected.

I’ve been to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Art in Oklahoma City, which houses over 28,000 Western and Native American works of art. The museum also is home to an extensive collection of American rodeo photographs and works by Charles Russell and Frederick Remington, whose pieces we can see at the St. Louis Art Museum.

I didn’t neglect the cowgirls and went to the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. I also remember that the Sheldon Arts Foundation here featured one of the MidAmerica Arts Alliance’s “Exhibits U.S.A.” programs entitled, “Cowgirls, Contemporary Portraits of the American West.”

There is no end to the popularity of organizations such as the Cowgirl Rodeo Association; here in Missouri we have the Missouri Rodeo Association, with over 600

For more of Nancy Kranzberg’s commentary, listen to KWMU (90.7) St. Louis on the Air the first Friday of each month at approximately 12:50 p.m. She also hosts a weekly Arts Interview podcast for KDHX (88.1), available at artsinterview.kdhxtra.org.

members.

I went to a gay rodeo in Palm Springs, Calif. years ago. The 2005 film, “Brokeback Mountain,” about two gay cowboys, won all kinds of awards while more recently “The Power of the Dog,” which featured cowboys as prominent characters, also had a gay twist to it.

Another traveling arts exhibition I saw from the Mid-America Arts Alliance at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Okla. featured 41 black-and-white photographs taken by Blake Little between 1988 and 1992. His “Photographs from the Gay Rodeo” documented the gay rodeo circuit and the lives of many of the participants in those years.

I can’t stop thinking and humming songs such as, “I’m an Old Cowhand (from the Rio Grande),” “Whoopee Ti Yi Yo (Git Along Little Dogies)” and “Home of the Range.”

I really want to meet Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe and compare our memories and love of the cowboy culture from times gone by.

New Jewish Theatre reunites actors for ‘Broadway Bound’

The New Jewish Theatre kicks off its 2023 season with the Neil Simon comedy “Broadway Bound” running Jan. 19 – Feb.

5. It’s the third play in Simon’s “Brighton Beach trilogy,” and follows the trials and tribulations of the Jerome family, especially the youngest Eugene, as he grows up and becomes an adult in 1940s Brooklyn. In this final installment, Eugene is trying to break into show business with his brother, Stanley, while coming to terms with his parents’ growing estrangement. With plenty of belly laughs and a few tears, “Broadway Bound” shows the importance of family ties in a quickly changing world. In 2019 the New Jewish Theatre presented “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” the first play of Simon’s trilogy, and much of that

original cast and creative team has reunited for this production. Alan Knoll is returning to direct, and he has brought back Jacob Flekier as Eugene, Spencer Kruse as Stanley, and Chuck Brinkley as their father Jack. Joining them are new cast members Jenni Ryan as their mother Kate, Christina Rios as Kate’s sister Blanche and Bob Harvey as the wise and wisecracking grandfather Ben.

“This story is of a young artist leaving home and spreading his wings and is both heartbreaking and hilarious. Simon has said writing this play helped him work through problems with his mother and the result is a love letter to the woman who raised him,” said Director Alan Knoll.

Returning designers include Margery

Chuck

out the team.

“Though this play takes place over 50 years ago, the issues this family faces are just as relevant today. Simon is drawing from his own life experience, and he looks back on his young adulthood with his signature humor and warmth, lovingly revisiting both joyous victories and painful realities,” said Artistic Director Rebekah Scallet.

“Broadway Bound” will play at the Jewish Community Center’s Wool Studio Theatre, 2 Millstone Campus Drive. Individual tickets for the show are $49$54. Tickets are available by phone at 314442-3283 or online at newjewishtheatre. org.

and Peter Spack (scenery) and Michele Siler (costumes). Kimberly Petersen (lighting) and Kareen Deanes (sound) round

Clockwise from top left: Actors

Brinkley, Jacob Flekier, Bob Harvey, Jenni Ryan, Christina Rios and Spencer Kruse will be returning to the New Jewish Theatre for the Neil Simon comedy ‘Broadway Bound.’

Hanukkah on Hallmark and a new documentary on singer Idina Menzel

BY NATE BLOOM SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT

The Hallmark Channel has given the Jewish community a “sort-of” Hanukkah gift. The film is entitled “Hanukkah on Rye” and it was released on the first day of the holiday, the night of Dec. 18. Here’s the capsule plot: Molly ( YAEL GROBGLAS, 38) and Jacob (JEREMY JORDAN, 37) are put together by a matchmaker and things are going great until they find out that they run competing delis. Will there be a Hanukkah miracle that will keep them together?

Grobglas, a French-Israeli actress, is best known for her role in the CW show “Jane the Virgin.”

Jordan’s mother is Jewish. He’s had a pretty good career as a Broadway musical actor.

Kansas City native, loved to work and at the time of his death he had completed 10 TV shows and movies that hadn’t (yet) been released. Six Asner projects (two voice and four “live”) remain to be released.

The most exciting is “Deadly Draw” in which he co-stars as “Max Perlmutter” (got to be Jewish!) a participant in a very dangerous card game. By the way, Asner holds the record for the most Primetime Emmys won (seven) by any actor. He could be the first actor to win an Emmy two years or more after his death.

vvv

On Dec. 9, Disney+ began streaming a documentary about singer/actress IDINA MENZEL, 51. Entitled “Which Way to the Stage,” the film covers her life and career. It ends with her headlining a Madison

Square Garden concert.

Menzel’s first big break came as a star of the hit stage musical “Rent” (1996). She became nationally well known as a star of the musical “Wicked” (2003). Worldwide fame followed as she provided the voice of Elsa in the mega-hit “Frozen” series of animated flicks.

ABOVE: Jeremy Jordan and Yael Grobglas star in the Hallmark Channel romantic comedy ‘Hanukkah on Rye.’

PHOTO: HALLMARKCHANNEL.COM

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Teen Page Staff

Editor-in-Chief: Molly Levine

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Noam Buch

Benjamin Kruger

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Advisor: Caroline Goldenberg

Jewish teens at the forefront of antisemitism

BY NOAM BUCH 8TH GRADE AT SAUL MIROWITZ JEWISH COMMUNITY SCHOOL

In 2021, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that over 2,717 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in the United States. This number is a 34% increase from the previous year. At the forefront of this rise of antisemitism, are Jewish teenagers.

Rylie Fine, a senior at Eureka High School, has had several encounters with antisemitism at.

“I go to school where I am the only Jewish student,” Fine said.

“I’ve gotten comments from people asking me where my horns are, and since I go to a Jewish camp, ‘Is that like a concentration camp?’”

Ilana Boyer, a senior at Whitfield, has also been affected by this rise in antisemitism.

“An instance that affected me was witnessing someone doing the Nazi salute,” Boyer said.

Over the past few years, many have noticed a drastic increase in antisemitism.

Lauren Abraham, director of Student to Student, a classroom-based program that brings Jewish and non-Jewish high school students together, reflected on how antisemitic comments have escalated. She credited this rise in hateful comments to the prominence of social media today.

“It used to be someone saying a dirty Jew joke, seeing a Jewish star and saying something about it, or saying some-

thing about one’s kippah,” Abraham said. “I feel like [antisemitism] has spiraled out of control with the rise of social media.”

Student to Student is a program of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), which allows Jewish students to teach their non-Jewish peers about Judaism.

“The mission of Student to Student is to break down barriers,” Abraham said.

Earlier this year, Kanye West and Kyrie Irving, two influential people in American pop culture, made antisemitic remarks

that shook the Jewish community.

“When [West and Irving] say these things, it’s a bad model for the teenagers and kids of our society, who are the future of tomorrow,” Fine said.

West and Irving were able to spread their antisemitic views via social media due to a lack of online censorship. In 2021, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) found that 80% of antisemitic posts on social media were not taken down.

“People can post anything without it being fact-checked,” Boyer said. “Kanye

West was able to tweet whatever he wanted before his [Twitter] got suspended.”

Many Jewish individuals believe that the main reason for antisemitism is ignorance and a lack of education.

“It mostly comes from ignorance,” Abraham said. “People don’t know, a lot of them have never met a Jew or know anything about Judaism.”

Fine and Boyer are members of the Student to Student program. As an active participant of the organization, Boyer believes that Student to Student plays an integral part in combating antisemitism.

“[Student to Student] teaches (about) antisemitism and Jewish struggles to the non-Jewish community, who might not have known about it,” Boyer said.

Fine works closely with her peers to facilitate conversations about how to respond to antisemitic hostilities.

“The way I try to end antisemitism is by educating my friends and the peers around me about Judaism so that when they hear these microaggressions and discriminations, they can go and combat it themselves,” Fine said.

Despite this rise in antisemitism, Boyer and Fine expressed optimism for the future.

“I think with the right tools, education and people combating antisemitism, it makes me hopeful,” Boyer said.

David Feit Mann, a sophomore at Yeshiva Kadmiah High School in 2017, closed a presentation for students in an AP English class at Affton High School by explaining how a ram’s horn is used in Judaism.

FILE PHOTO: ERIC BERGER

Students at Affton High School view a mini Torah at a 2017 Student to Student presentation.

PHOTO: ERIC BERGER

HEALTHWATCH

Healthwatch is a monthly feature focusing on a health- or fitness-related topic with a Jewish angle. The feature is published the second edition of each month. Have a suggestion for a potential Healthwatch subject? Email news@stljewishlight.org.

BROUGHT TO YOU THIS WEEK BY:

A guide to understanding, helping families of kids with special needs

BY DR. RICHARD LAZAROFF

Most of us are fewer than six degrees of separation away from a child with special needs.

I like to think of this group of children more expansively than most lay people do, and I’m careful with my language when I am discussing the topic. I do not refer to this group of children as special needs children. It is an unfair label. They are children, first and foremost, who happen to suffer from a specific disability that is best named.

Some of these children carry a diagnosis identified prenatally or shortly after birth. Most of us are aware that a condition such as Down syndrome results from having an extra chromosome (Trisomy 21). But in most cases, a diagnosis comes to light only over time.

Some children present with delayed development that may interfere with the acquisition of motor skills or intellectual and cognitive challenges. Others suffer from chronic medical diseases such as diabetes, cystic fibrosis, seizure disorders, psychiatric disorders, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, or birth defects — congenital malformations — of an organ sys-

tem such as the heart, brain, skeleton or skin. A diagnosis of cancer can be associated with shortened life expectancy or late complications from chemotherapy and radiation. Fortunately, most cancer diagnoses can now be treated successfully.

All these children and their families share a common experience: increased contact with the medical system. Unfortunately, despite the assumption that the medical community is best positioned to be understanding and empathetic, there are times when individual encounters bring forth anything but these characteristics.

Fortunately, most medical professionals focus not just on treatment, but on compassion, as well.

Some children are diagnosed with diseases that can be quite rare. When this is

HAVE A

the case, families often become as expert on their conditions as the medical personnel treating them. Their own advocacy can be a powerful element in achieving a best outcome.

In rare situations, children carry a diagnosis resulting in little hope for successful treatment, but a prolonged life expectancy. These parents experience a most unusual but commonly shared, “wish” to survive their own children.

While in practice, I would attempt to reassure parents that these were normal feelings.

What advice did I offer families who had children with special needs?

QUESTION

• The greatest limitations placed on any child, with or without special needs, are the ones parents place upon their children. Do not underestimate what your child will be able to accomplish.

FOR DR. LAZAROFF? news@stljewishlight.org

A Q&A opportunity from Dr. Richard Lazaroff: I have enjoyed writing these columns, but I am open to discussing something on your mind. If you have a topic you would like to see me address, please submit a question to:

Become an expert on your child’s medical condition. The rarer the condition, the more important such expertise can be. How you choose to learn will vary from family to family. It may involve attending conferences in your hometown or internationally. It may involve joining a parent support group or asking your pediatrician whether a family with a similar condition

Dr. Richard Lazaroff is a retired pediatrician who practiced in St. Louis County for nearly 40 years. Married for 42 years, he is the father of two and grandfather of four and the author of “Some Assembly Required, A Guide to Savvy Parenting.” His latest book is the novel “Illumination.”

in that practice would be willing to meet and discuss what the diagnosis has meant in their life and the life of their child and their family.

The internet is a resource as well but, as

ERIC S. MANN MD, PHD, FACS, has been selected as a member of The Retina Society since 2001, recognizing the top 1,000 retina specialists in the world, and among the Best Doctors in America® and Best Ophthalmologist Retina-Vitreous.

Eric S. Mann MD, PhD, FACS at The Retina Group Ltd, PC focuses his sight on caring for yours.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with an eye disease that is sight threatening or causing blindness and affects the retina, you owe it to yourself and to them to trust

Eric S. Mann MD PhD FACS

The Retina Group Ltd, PC.

If you have diabetes, age-related macular degeneration, or retinal vascular disease (such as a blood clot in your eye) or had retinal tears or detachments or cataract surgery without the result you had hoped for that needs a first diagnosis or second opinion, then schedule your appointment now with Eric S. Mann, MD PhD FACS.

Same-day appointments are available depending upon your insurance.

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stated earlier, not all information or websites are equal in their trustworthiness. This reservation should be balanced against often very helpful advice and tips from other families with a child who has a similar condition. Ask your pediatrician for recommended resources and parent groups accessible on the web.

• Be an advocate for your child when working with both the medical and school communities.

• Be willing to teach, inform and train others in your community about children with special needs. Your story is likely a powerful one and will help all of us be better prepared to face our own family’s medical challenges.

• Do not expect everyone in your usual circle of support to “get it” when it comes to supporting you and your child. Sometimes the people you expect most of, family and close friends, will disappoint you. Strangely, this is often offset by unexpected support and compassion from others you would not think to count on. Be open to their help and their desire to be close to you and your child.

• Make sure your pediatrician stays involved. Your child may need to have much of his or her medical care provided by specialists, but your pediatrician can monitor things and be a respected advocate for your child making certain that all matters, large and small, are attended to. What might the rest of us do?

• Reach out to families when you become aware of such diagnoses. Many of us are afraid we might say the wrong thing, but isolation is an additional and preventable complication from a special needs diagnosis. We can all play a role.

Not being treated normally by others is a common complaint expressed by some families. These families often could use an extra hand about the house or someone to watch other children in the household while the parents are attending needed medical appointments. Don’t be a burden by asking, “What can I do to help you?” Just do it!

Get involved with local and national charities that treat children with specific special needs

• Empathy can help. Be respectful and avoid being judgmental. Every family reacts differently when facing serious, chronic medical conditions.

CHECK OUT PAST COLUMNS FROM DR. LAZAROFF

stljewishlight.org/doctor

Find past columns by the doctor on the Light’s website, including these titles:

• It’s not too early to plan for next summer’s sleep-away camp

• Lessons learned from playing games will last a lifetime

• As school year nears, it’s time to develop good sleep routines

• Is your child avoiding school? Summer is the time to get help

• Developmental assets list might help your kids find their ‘OK’

• What to consider when heading to the pool with children

• Grandparenthood comes with many perks and some responsibilities

• What role should schools play in sex, gender education — and when?

• Become a successful parent: Develop and project parental ‘presence’

• Safety vs. control remains the tightrope in raising modern children

St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum is certified sensory inclusive

KultureCity has partnered with the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum to make the museum and all of the programs and events that the venue hosts to be sensory inclusive. This new initiative will promote an accommodating and positive experience for all guests and fans with a sensory issue that visits the museum.

The certification process entailed the staff at the Holocaust museum being trained by leading medical professionals on how to recognize those guests and fans with sensory needs and how to handle a sensory overload situation. Sensory bags, equipped with noise canceling headphones (provided by Puro Sound Labs), fidget tools, verbal cue cards, and weighted lap pads will also be available to all guests at the museum who may feel overwhelmed by the environment.

Sensory sensitivities or challenges with sensory regulation are often experienced by individuals with autism,

dementia, PTSD and other similar conditions (1 in 6 individuals). One of the major barriers for these individuals is sensitivity to over stimulation and noise, which is an enormous part of the environment in a venue like the Holocaust museum. With its new certification, the museum is now better prepared to assist guests with sensory sensitivities in having the most comfortable and accommodating experience possible when attending any event at the Museum.

Prior to attending an event, families can download the free KultureCity App

where one can view what sensory features are available and where they can access them. Also, on the App is the Social Story which will provide a preview of what to expect while enjoying an event at the museum.

“Our communities are what shapes our lives and to know that the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum is willing to go the extra mile to ensure that everyone, no matter their ability, is included in their community is amazing. We’re honored to partner with the Museum to provide a truly inclusive experience for all fans and guests!” Uma Srivastava, executive director of KultureCity.

“I am proud that the museum staff pursued this certification for our worldclass facility,” said Frances Levine, interim executive director. “This is just one step in many designed to ensure the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum is accessible and welcoming to all.”

Frances Levine Interim Director of the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum

Barry and Linda Weinberg of Wildwood are celebrating their 50th anniversary.

Married since 1972, Barry and Linda have three children and six grandchildren and have lived in St. Louis their entire marriage.

Barry retired in 2008 from his business,

Charlie Jacob Mentle, son of Jenny Hoffman-Mentle and Robbie Mentle of St. Louis, became a bar mitzvah Aug. 13, 2022 at Congregation Shaare Emeth.

Charlie is the grandson of Barb and Bob Hoffman of St. Louis, and Jane and Henry Mentle of Boca Raton, Fla. He is the great-grandson of the late Harriet and Mark Hoffman of Chicago, the late Shirley and Alvin Weiss of Chicago, the late Edith and Philip Mentle of Queens, N.Y., and the late Sylvia and Ben Menn of Cincinnati.

Charlie has one sister, Audrey Mentle, who is 15.

An eighth-grade student at Whitfield School, Charlie volunteered with Winterland Hockey for his bar mitzvah project. He worked as a referee and scorekeeper at the annual Friendship Games and coached the goalies in the summer hockey program.

Winterland aims to expand access to hockey throughout St. Louis in a fun way.

Southern Waste Paper Co., which he ran for 35 years. Linda was an executive secretary for General Dynamics for a number of years, retiring in 1975.

They live in Wildwood and travel as much as possible, especially cruises!

HKF

Harvey Kornblum Foundation

Barbara Weiss Hoffman and Robert Hoffman celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at Congregation B’nai Amoona on Aug. 20, 2022. They enjoyed the celebration weekend with family and friends.

The couple met on Sept. 20, 1968 at a party at the AEPi House at the

University of Illinois. Barb and Bob were married in Chicago in 1972 and moved to St. Louis soon after their wedding. The couple lives happily in Creve Coeur where they now enjoy volunteering throughout their community and spending time with family and friends.

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT: MARTY JOY TESSER

Justin and Melissa Tesser of Brooklyn, N.Y. would like to announce the birth of their daughter, Marty Joy Tesser, on Nov. 14, 2022 in Brooklyn, weighing 7 pounds 9 ounces.

Marty is the granddaughter of Lori and Paul Tesser, and Theresa and the late Martin Needles, all of St. Louis.

She is the great-granddaughter of Barbara and the late Martin Cohn of West Palm Beach, Fla.; Sydell and the late Herbert Tesser of Merrick, N.Y.; the late Jack and Mondell Needles of St. Louis; and the late Eugene and Barbara Pieper of St. Louis.

JEWISH LIGHT STAFF

TOM COLLINGER

“ With thanks to Tom Collinger for his consulting services and wisdom.”

IN MEMORY OF

RANDA SALE

“Sorry for your loss!”

- Cathy Lux -

IN HONOR OF

DEBRA KLEVENS

“

Congratulations on your award!”

- From the Jewish Light Board and Staff

STACY WOLFF SMART

- Jennifer Soshnik

- Jewish Light Board & Staff

ALLISON CHOD

“ With gratitude to Allison Chod for her donation of graphic design services to the Light. We are so thankful for your time and talent!”

- Jewish Light Board & Staff

“

The Jewish Light is a jewel in our community. Thank you for all you do to keep the Light glowing. It has been a privilege working with you these past several years.”

- Jane Roodman Weiss

ST. LOUIS JEWISH LIGHT

ELLEN FUTTERMAN

“ Thank you for the article on Judith Garfinkel”

- Carol, Joanne & Joel Iskiwitch

“For all you do to engage the St. Louis Jewish community via the Light and other means.”

- Bill & Peg Goodfriend

“

In Appreciation for the Jewish Light.”

- Betty Levy

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPOONFUL OF SUGAR PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPOONFUL OF SUGAR PHOTOGRAPHY

BAR MITZVAH: CHARLIE JACOB MENTLE

MITZVOT

Review: New biography looks at Jewish influences of Arthur Miller

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2B

of Miller

read in tandem with Miller’s 1987 autobiography “Timebends,” which goes into detail discussing his life and times.

It is important to highlight the fact that Lahr’s biography of Miller is part of Yale University’s Jewish Lives book series, a compendium of the lives and works of outstanding Jews in numerous fields, including Spinoza, Akiba, Freud, Einstein, Marx and Philip Roth, among many others.

While Lahr has an extensive discussion of Miller’s “Focus,” his only published novel, which deals with antisemitism directly, and his late play “Broken Glass,” about a New York Jewish couple literally paralyzed with fear after Kristallnacht, Lahr does not explore the long-running debate over whether “Death of a Salesman” is a thinly disguised “Jewish” play and — whether the tragic figure of Willy Loman is not only a “low man” on capitalism’s totem pole,” but a Jewish one as well.

Students of “Salesman” point out that while the words “Jewish” and “Jew” do not appear in script, there are numerous Jewish elements in the play. When Willy Loman says, “O boy o boy,” does he really mean “Oy, Oy, Oy”? When Willy’s loyal wife Linda scolds their sons Biff and Happy that “attention must be paid” to Willy, is her inverted sentence structure the “way Jews talk?”

I had an opportunity to ask Miller directly when he was in St. Louis to accept a literary award if Willy Loman was

Jewish or universal?” Miller replied, “In my mind Willy is Jewish, but from the particular you get the universal. That’s why

the play does just as well in Beijing as in New York.”

Lahr’s scholarly and highly readable

biography of Miller is a must-read for theater enthusiasts or anyone who enjoys a good read.

MAURICE GULLER, December 11, 2022

Beloved husband of Rachel Guller; dear father and father-in-law of Margie Hartman (Brad), Jim Guller, and the late Liz Shen (Tom); father-in-law of Joanne Guller; dear grandfather of Noah Hartman (Kailey Brown), Koby Hartman, Melissa Guller, Jodie Guller (Akiba Chonoles), Emma Guller, and Max, Alan, and Anna Shen; dear son of the late Louis and the late Fannie Guller, dear brother of the late Harold Guller (late Millie), the late Annita Suffian (late Fred), the late Sidney Guller (late Bobette), the late Harvey Guller (Phyllis), and the late Arthur Guller (Lois); dear son-in-law of the late Max and the late Lucile Schneider; dear brother-in-law of the late Steve Schneider (Eileen Edelman) and Hank Schneider (Jackie). Dear uncle, great-uncle, cousin, and friend to many.

Maurice was an entrepreneur and co-owner of Warner Communications. He was a dedicated community member and served as President of Shaare Zedek synagogue (currently Kol Rinah), Solomon Schechter Day School (currently Mirowitz Jewish Community School), and CAJE (Central Agency for Jewish Education). Maurice was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. Maurice embodied the spirit of “L’Dor V’dor,” or the custom of passing values from generation to generation, including generosity, hard work, love and support to family and everyone around him.

A funeral service was held Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at Kol Rinah. Interment followed at Chevra Kadisha Cemetery, 1601 North and South Road. Memorial contributions preferred to Kol Rinah synagogue or Mirowitz

Jewish Community School.

Please visit bergermemorialchapel.com for Live Stream and Shiva information. Berger Memorial Service

CHARLES JAY HILTON, December 16, 2022

Beloved husband of Linda Sue Hess Hilton; dear father and fatherin-law of David Hilton (Melanie), Lisa Weiss, Joel Wishne, Steven Hilton (Ruth) and Jeffrey Eric Hilton (Diane); dear grandfather of Rebecca Jane Weiss, Matthew Scott Weiss and Benjamin Andrew Weiss, Juliana Maier Wishne, Barri Rose Wishne, Vanessa Ortiz, Adriana Pacquin, Donovan Hilton, Lily Cara and Alexa Sloan; dear brother of the late Jacqueline Cohen (late Sidney), late Richard Cohen and Judith Richter (Gary);dear great-grandfather of Alex Ortiz; our dear uncle, cousin and friend.

Mr. Hilton was a proud veteran serving in the Army. The family wishes to thank everyone at BJC Hospice-Evelyn’s House for their care and devotion.

Funeral services will be private. Memorial contributions preferred to United Hebrew Congregation, 13788 Conway Rd, St. Louis, MO 63141 or to a charity of your choice.

Please visit bergermemorialchapel.com for more information.

Berger Memorial Service

Families may submit an obituary for a loved one through the funeral home they work with or by using a form on the Jewish Light’s website: stljewishlight.org/submit-obituary

SUSAN KAPLANSKY, December 17, 2022

Beloved wife of Rabbi Howard G. Kaplansky; dear mother and mother-in-law of Mindy Kirsh (Dr. Edward) and Emily Cohen (Dr. Daniel); dear grandmother of Julia and Zoe Kirsh, Alex and Samantha Cohen; dear daughter of the late Manfred and the late Thekla Kraus; dear sisterin-law of the late Dr. Ronald Kaplansky (Judy); dear aunt, cousin and friend.

Susan was a passionate, focused, and driven woman.  For decades, she advocated for others as Director of the Senior Adult Department at the St. Louis Jewish Community Center.  She was an educator, as well.  Susan taught high school English while she completed graduate school.  And she loved mentoring the practicum students who passed through her department at the J.

Following her formal retirement, Susan continued to serve the community through her volunteer work at the Alzheimer’s Association. She possessed passions for learning and fitness.  Susan could often be found participating in an exercise class like yoga at the J, reading, or keeping up to date on current events. But Susan’s greatest passion was her family. She and Howard enjoyed a marriage of almost 56 years. Susan was a dedicated mother to her daughters while they were young and after they were grown. And she savored the time she spent as “Susu” to her four granddaughters, through whom her legacy continues. Her memory will be a blessing.

A funeral service was planned for Wednesday, December 21 at United Hebrew Congregation, followed by interment at United Hebrew Cemetery, 7855 Canton Avenue. Memorial contributions preferred to United Hebrew Congregation or BJC Hospice. Visit bergermemorialchapel.com for more information.

Berger Memorial Service

AMELIA (MIMI) KATZMAN, loving wife of 50 years to the late Morris Katzman, passed away peacefully at home on December 10, 2022, under the constant and compassionate care of her son, Michael.

Survived also by children, Nancy (Jonathan) Katzman-Sperber, Alan Katzman, Shirley (Mario) Cirio, 3 loving grandchildren, Alanna (Michael) Podgorski, Adam Sperber, Amy Cirio and 2 much adored, really great, great-grandchildren, Forest and Beckett.

Always a caring aunt, sister, cousin and friend.

• Mimi exceeded her wish to reach the age of 90.

• Her exceptional green thumb was rewarded by blooming orchids and decades old tropicals.

• An expert at the art of knitting, crochet and tatting.

• As a young adult, dancing with Morris brought her great joy.

• Her pies and famous cinnamon rolls were enjoyed by many.

• She was an avid trophy winning bowler.

• Adored by her grandchildren, she loved them “More than the whole wide world and then some”.

• Private family ceremony

• It is requested that kind condolences be made via donations to ALS Society, St. Louis Memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.kriegshausermortuary.com.

FAY KRAUSE, December 7, 2022

Beloved wife of the late Norman L. Krause.  Dear mother of Barbara Krause, Richard Krause and the late Diane (late Donald) Green. Loving grandmother of Scott (Danielle) Green, Kimberly Caulk and the late Marc (Leemor) Green. Cherished great grandmother of Noah Green, Logan Green, Simon Green, Justin Caulk and Adam Caulk. Beloved sister of the late A. Harry (Ruth) Gorman, the late Anita (the late Isadore) Pearlstein and the late Sam (late Ella) Gorman. Dear aunt, great aunt, cousin and friend.

Family graveside services were held on Sunday, December 11 at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in Chesterfield.  Contributions in her memory may be made to Crossroads Hospice Charitable Foundation, 10810 E. 45th Street, Suite 300, Tulsa, OK, 74146.

A Rindskopf-Roth Service

JAY HOWARD LEVE, 66, passed away on December 5, 2022 at his home in Sun City West, AZ.

Beloved Father of Sarah Leve of Philadelphia, PA, Dear Brother of Karen Leve Braverman of Louisville, CO, Loving Uncle to Michael and Jennifer Braverman of Denver, CO and Joshua and Emily Segal of Los Angeles, CA. Dear Son of the late Rubin and Beverly Leve of St. Louis, MO.

Former Husband of Betsy Gitelle of Montclair, NJ, and cousin, friend and mentor to many.

Jay grew up in St. Louis before attending Northwestern University where he earned his undergraduate and Master of Science degrees from the Medill School of Journalism. After working at the Miami Herald in Miami, Jay attended the Parsons School of Design in New York City and then moved there to head the Humanware Agency at Citibank, a creative think tank for user interface design and development. Jay continued on to become the founder and CEO of Hypotenuse and SurveyUSA, known as America’s Pollster.

At SurveyUSA, Jay revolutionized the public opinion polling and market research industries in the early 1990s by being the first firm to use interactive voice response technology. Asking questions in the recorded voice of a local news anchor — a Jay Leve innovation — and answered by respondents pressing keys on their touch-tone phones, SurveyUSA dramatically decreased the amount of time it took to conduct research and its cost, making it possible for the first time for individuals, companies, and organizations of any size to conduct scientific research. In the 30+ ensuing years, Leve grew SurveyUSA into one of the nation’s bestknown polling firms, winning numerous awards for accuracy. SurveyUSA won acclaim for the quality of its methodology and construction of questions because Leve consistently applied the rigorous journalistic principles he learned at Medill, practiced at the Herald, and believed in passionately.

Jay moved to Sun City West, AZ, where he eventually retired. Here he made many new friends, served as an officer of his homeowner’s association, and welcomed all for many memorable visits. A world traveler, Jay loved to explore using all forms of transportation, and he was proud that he visited all fifty states. He loved art, music, performance, and enjoyed being the raconteur at family events. He loved his family and friends dearly and never missed a chance to celebrate.

Jay was a powerful force to all who knew him and he will be sorely missed.

A funeral was held Sunday, December 11 at Berger Memorial Chapel, followed by interment at Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol Cemetery, 9125 Ladue Road, 63124. Memorial contributions preferred to the International Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia Foundation or to the charity of your choice.

Please visit bergermemorialchapel.com for Live Stream and Shiva details.

Berger Memorial Service

American Flag symbol denotes a United States military veteran.

LETA RAY LIPMAN, December 18, 2022

Beloved daughter of the late Harold and the late Pearl Lipman; dear sister and sister-in-law of the late Shirley Goldenberg (late Marvin), late Marilyn, late Harvey, Jay and the late Dale Lipman; dear aunt, great-aunt, cousin and friend.

A graveside service was held Tuesday, December 20 at Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol Cemetery, 9125 Ladue Road. Visit bergermemorialchapel.com for more information. Berger Memorial Service

EDITH (EDIE) JOAN (LAMNIN) MOZENTER, died December 10, 2022.

Edie was born in Philadelphia in 1933 and graduated from high school in Vineland, New Jersey.  She worked inoculating chickens on her family’s poultry farm and in the local feed industry. After secretarial school in Philadelphia, she worked for noted architect Louis Kahn.

In 1957, after being introduced by her dear friend and Stan’s first cousin, Edie married Stanley (Stan) Mozenter in Philadelphia, where their first child Randi was born. Stan and Edie were married for 56 years until Stan’s death in 2014.

When Randi was a year old, the family moved to Vineland, New Jersey where their son Richard (Rick) was born and where Stan’s men’s clothing store (Stan-Lee’s) became an institution. Edie is still renowned in Vineland for her warmth, generosity, compassion, and devotion to her family. After Stan closed the store, he and Edie moved to Scottsdale and later Sun City West, Arizona, where Edie worked in retail jewelry sales and was beloved by another group of close friends. In early 2019 during a blizzard, Edie moved to St. Louis to be closer to her daughter, Randi. As it happened everywhere Edie lived, she quickly developed friendships with, and touched the lives of, fellow residents (and staff) of The Brentmoor, the larger Jewish community, and everyone with whom she met.

Her love, kindness and wisdom will continue to inspire, and her memory will be an enduring legacy for, her daughter Randi Mozenter (the late Joel Wexelman; Lawrence Friedman) of St. Louis, and son Richard (Tamitha Senn) Mozenter of California.  Edie was the beloved daughter of the late Samuel and Berthe  (Wexler) Lamnin, beloved sister of the late Leslie  (the late Joanie McLardy) Lamnin; beloved grandmother of Zachary and Addy Wexelman and Mia and Madison Mozenter; stepgrandmother of Hannah (Tim Kurtz) and Josh (Julie) Friedman; beloved sister-in law to Sandra (the late Gary) Mozenter; cousin, aunt, great-aunt and friend to hundreds in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Arizona, California, Missouri, and everywhere her friends’ and family’s journeys have taken them.  She was a talented painter and gourmet baker and never knew a stranger. She will be dearly missed by all. A funeral service was held Tuesday, December 13 at Berger Memorial Chapel, 9430 Olive Blvd. 63132.  The service is available via Livestream at www.bergermemorialchapel.com. Interment followed at Chevra Kadisha Cemetery, 1601 North and South Rd. 63130. Memorial Contributions appreciated to the Kol Rinah Congregation Capital Campaign Kitchen Project. Berger Memorial Service

Guller, Maurice

Hilton, Charles Jay

Kaplansky, Susan

Katzman, Amelia (Mimi)

Krause, Fay

Leve, Jay Howard

Lipman, Leta Ray

Mozenter, Edith (Edie) Joan

Newport, Dolores “Dolly”

Novack, Nancy Ann

Rosenfeld, Alicia Silverstein, Richard (Dick)

Sirkin, Gloria Jean Myra

Steinberg, Joyce

DOLORES “DOLLY” NEWPORT, 5/18/193012/12/2022

Beloved wife of the late Dr. Gerald (Jerry) Newport; devoted mother of Nancy (Steve) Keyser, Drs. Kathy (Ken) Melman, and Jody Newport (Dr. Rand Dankner), loving grandmother of Caroline (Michael) Keyser, Jenna (Dolphy) Melman, David (Rachael) Melman, Danielle (Rob) Hydro and Michael Fancher; adoring great-grandmother to Max, Madelyn, Kaia, Sonya, Zoe, Maya, Eliana and Blake; dear sister and sisterin-law of Sylvia (late Jerry) Hirsch, Carla (Leonard) Weintraub, late Gene (late Morris) Matlof and late Bernard (late Harriet) Newport.  Dear friend of the late Edward Hirsch.  She will be missed by all who knew her.

A funeral service was held Thursday, December 15 at Congregation Temple Israel, #1 Rabbi Alvan D. Rubin Drive, followed by interment at New Mt. Sinai Cemetery, 8430 Gravois Road. Contributions in her memory can be made to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society or charity of your choice.

A Rindskopf-Roth Service

NANCY ANN NOVACK, December 5, 2022

Beloved mother and mother-in-law of Glenn Novack (Victoria Emery), Marcia Tobin (Marc Levinson), Phyllis Lowe and Judy Novack (Herb Trost); dear grandmother of Leah Hodge (Jessie), Cameron Novack, Jason Lowe (Rachel) and Melanie Barney (Karlos); dear greatgrandmother of Brennan, Decklan, Mason and Ava; dear daughter of the late Max and the late Sarah Gallop; dear sister and sister-in-law of Herb Gallop (Marge);  former wife of the late Jerome Novack; dear aunt, cousin and friend

A graveside service was held Friday, December 9th at Chesed Shel Emeth CemeteryWhite Road. Memorial contributions of your choice preferred. Visit bergermemorialchapel. com for more information.

Berger Memorial Service

ALICIA ROSENFELD, October 23, 2022

Beloved wife of the late Jerome Rosenfeld; dear daughter of the late Harry and the late Jeanette Friedman; dear sister of the late  Hilda Krugman (late Gary), Jackie Kreisman (late Donald), the late Francis Kranzberg (late Philip), and Leonard Friedman (Bonnie); loving aunt to many nieces and nephews; cousin and friend to many.

A funeral service was held on October 31st at the Mausoleum at New Mt. Sinai Cemetery. Memorial contributions preferred to the charity of your choice. Berger Memorial Service

RICHARD (DICK) SILVERSTEIN, 93, of Overland Park, died Monday, December 5, 2022.

He was born January 19, 1929 to the late Allen Silverstein and Sarah Silverstein, in Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated from Westport High School and was actively involved in the Cavaliers High School fraternity.

Dick entered the United States Army directly out of high school, serving mostly in Guam. After the army he attended the University of Missouri, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree and went on to receive his CPA certification.

Dick loved competitive sports, which he played until his early-70s. He was especially fond of racquetball.

He is survived by his wife, Nita Silverstein; his children, Barbara Landesman (Craig Palubiak), Joni Silverstein Sexton (Mike Sexton), and Ken Silverstein (Gladys Fernandez);two grandchildren, Sophia and Gabriel; and several special cousins.

His family will hold a private ceremony commemorating his life. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Wayside Waifs or to a charity of your choice.

Online condolences for the family may be left at www.louismemorialchapel.com (Arrangements entrusted to The Louis Memorial Chapel, 816-361-5211).

GLORIA JEAN MYRA SIRKIN, December 11, 2022

Beloved wife of the late Bernard H. Sirkin; dear mother and mother-in-law of Linda Kram (Richard), Michael Sirkin and Nancy Weigley (Andy); dear grandmother of Karin Glassman (Jeremy) and Daniel Kram (Yuan Wang), Samuel and Eli Weigley; dear great-grandmother of John Bernard Kram and Noah Benjamin Glassman; dear sister and sister-in-law of the late Anne Disner (late Morris) and the late Henry Wishnuff (late Roz and late Esther); dear sister-in-law  of the late Katie Berger (late Isadore) and the late Joe Sirkin (Sylvia). Dear aunt, cousin and friend.

A memorial service was held Wednesday, December 14, 10:30 AM at Central Reform Congregation.

Please visit bergermemorialchapel.com for more information.

Berger Memorial Service

JOYCE STEINBERG (nee Kahn), born June 4, 1941, passed away on December 15, 2022

Beloved wife of Alan J. Steinberg.  Loving mother of Les (Linda) Steinberg and Julie (Rusty) Hyken.  Dear Grammy to Lou Steinberg, Court Hyken, Nina Steinberg, and Cooper Hyken.  Beloved daughter of the late Harry and Betty Pass Kahn.  Dear sister of Farrell Kahn of Chatham, MA and sister-in-law of Gloria Friedman.  Dear aunt, cousin and friend.

Joyce and Alan began dating in high school and their love story spanned over sixty years. After one year at Miami University in Florida, Joyce returned to Missouri to join her love at the University of Missouri, Columbia. They were married in 1962.

Joyce worked for Saks Fifth Avenue while dating Alan as he studied at Mizzou.

Once Les and Julie were of school age, Joyce worked part-time so she could always be home when her children returned from school. Subsequently Joyce became a customer service agent for twelve years with TWA allowing her family the luxury of travel. Joyce’s last stop in her employment career was to work at Steinberg & Steinberg with Alan and Les.

Joyce, along with Alan, loved to host family for the holidays and bar-b-q’s around the pool. The marriages of her children and the arrival of her grandchildren were some of the happiest and proudest days of her life. There was never a playdate with Grammy that didn’t result in a bag full of new toys for her four pride and joys.

A graveside service was held Sunday, December 18 at Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol Cemetery, 9125 Ladue Rd.   Live stream available at www.rindskopfroth.com. Memorial contributions in Joyce’s memory preferred to the Alzheimer’s Association, 9370 Olive Blvd., St. Louis, MO, 63132 or to Evelyn’s House, C/O The BJC Foundation for Hospice, P.O. Box 790369, St. Louis, MO, 63179, whose incredible staff rendered such great care to Joyce in her last days.

A Rindskopf-Roth Service

CHAI LIGHTS

SATURDAY | DEC. 24

Lights, latkes and luck party at Bais Abraham

Celebrate the seventh night of Hanukkah at Bais Abraham Congregation, 6910 Delmar Blvd.. The evening starts at 7 p.m. with Havdalah and Hanukkah candles, followed by fun and feasting at Bais Abraham’s Latke Buffet and Dairy Dessert Bar, complete with a chocolate fountain. There will be doughnuts and drinks as well as Bingo, raffles, 50/50 contests, poker, board games and beer. Advanced purchase admission is $10 for adults, $5 for kids under 12 ($15/$10 at the door). Kosher dietary laws observed. RSVPs requested by 3 p.m. on Dec. 23 via www.baisabe.com/event/hannukah-party. html. For more information, call 314-7213030 or email Abby@baisabe.com.

Chinese dinner and movie

To close out Hanukkah, join B’nai Amoona for a Chinese dinner followed by a movie beginning at 7 p.m. Locations TBA.

Hanukkah party at Traditional Congregation

Enjoy latkes, sufganiyot, musical entertainment and more! Bring your family, friends, kids and grandkids and BAGTAG!Bring a Gift, Take a Gift: Bring a wrapped gift to exchange with another family. The fun begins at 7 p.m. Suggested donation: $12/ person ages 18 & over. Register at: https:// wix.123formbuilder.com/form-6313452/ form or call 314-576-5230.

SUN.-MON. | DEC. 25-26

Aish plans two-day family event

Adults, discover Jewish wisdom with classes on Jewish identity, parenting, relationships, marriage, intimacy and even lessons we can learn from superheroes, featuring guest speakers, Rabbi Leiby Burnham and Rabbi Cary Friedman. Kids, enjoy Hanukkah doughnut decorating and crafts, arcade trucks (ages 8+), an inflatable slide (kids 7 and under), and Mad Science presentation. Dine on Chinese food on Dec. 25 and make your own sandwich and salad on Dec. 26, with snacks and drinks throughout.The action takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days at Torah Prep Girls’ School, 8136 Groby Rd. Cost for seminar: $36 per adult for both days, $20 for one day. Free for kids 12 and under. Cost for Chinese lunch Dec 25: $20 per adult, $10 per child (ages 5 - 12), kids under 5 are free. Cost for sandwich and salad lunch Dec 26: $15 per adult, $7.50 per child (ages 5-12), kids under 5 are free. For more information or to RSVP, call 314-862-2474 or email cwolff@aish.com

THURSDAY | DEC. 29

Online talk about NJT’s 2023 season highlights

From 2 to 3 p.m. the Mirowitz Center will host a Zoom discussion

Theatre Artistic Director Rebekah Scallet about NJT’s upcoming 2023 season. This program is co-sponsored by the Mirowitz Center and the New Jewish Theatre. Register online for this free, online Mirowitz Center event at http://bit.ly/Register_MirowitzCenter, call 314-733-9813, or email skemppainen@mirowitzcenter.org.

FRIDAY | DEC. 30

The last shabbat dinner of 2022 at Traditional Congregation

Join us for a celebratory Shabbat dinner prepared by Rabbi Seth Gordon. Kabbalat Shabbat/Arvit services begin at 5:45 p.m. followed by a soup-to-dessert dinner. $15/ age 10 & under; $21/age 11 & over if paid by 12/23, after that $25 per person. Register at: https://wix.123formbuilder.com/ form-6309690/form or call 314-576-5230.

STARTING | JAN. 4

Weekly yoga with Ellie DesPrez

From 5 to 6 p.m. each Wednesday in January (Jan. 4, 11, 18 and 25), the Jewish Mindfulness Center of St. Louis will host sessions with certified yoga instructor Ellie DesPrez, online or in person at the center, located at Congregation Shaare Emeth, 11645 Ladue Rd. DesPrez will help participants ease into our evenings with a sense of joy and peace. A suggested donation of $10/class is suggested. Upon registering, a Zoom link will be emailed, allowing participants to join online. To register, email Stacy at sjespersen@sestl.org.

Beginning tai chi for arthritis and fall prevention

From 1 to 2 p.m. on Wednesdays beginning in January, Crown Center will be offering beginner tai chi for arthritis and fall prevention by Oasis. Retired physical therapist and Oasis instructor Jo Ann Roberts will lead the class in exercises that can relieve pain, reduce stress and decrease fall risk while improving balance, muscular strength and coordination. Community members are welcome. Give the class a try in January for free. Call 314-991-2055 to register or for more information.

TUESDAY | JAN. 10

‘The ABCs of Judaism’ at Mirowitz Center

From noon to 1 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month, join Rabbi Ze’ev Smason for the ABCs of Judaism to discuss a different topic each month with a Jewish theme. January’s topic is “What Are the Signs of a True Friend?” Register online for this free, online Mirowitz Center event at http://bit.ly/ Register_MirowitzCenter, call 314-7339813, or email skemppainen@mirowitzcenter.org.

DEC

On Jan. 12, 19 and 26 Jeffrey S. Urbin, education specialist with the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, will lead free Mirowitz Center Zoom discussions about FDR’s legacy.

WEDNESDAY | JAN. 11

RPI therapy services at Mirowitz Center

From 2 to 3 p.m., learn from Trevor Vazquez – doctor of physical therapy and one of the experts at RPI – about treatment options, including decreasing painful symptoms, improving back function, and increasing flexibility, strength and range of motion. This free, in-person program is cosponsored by RPI Therapy Services and Mirowitz Center. Register online at http://bit.ly/Register_MirowitzCenter, call 314-733-9813, or email skemppainen@mirowitzcenter.org.

STARTING | JAN. 12

Presidential legacies: FDR in our lives today

From 2 to 3 p.m. on Jan. 12, 19 and 26, the Mirowitz Center will host an online series looking at the legacy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Jeffrey S. Urbin, education specialist with the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, will lead the free Zoom discussions about the impact FDR’s policies, priorities, and politics continue to have on our lives today. This three-week program is part of the Mirowitz Center’s continuing “Presidential Legacies” series. Attend all three sessions or just one – prior attendance is not required. Register online at http://bit.ly/ Register_MirowitzCenter, call 314-7339813, or email skemppainen@mirowitzcenter.org.

SUNDAY | JAN. 15

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra & Kol Rinah celebrate MLK Day

From 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Kol Rinah will hold a special SLSO & KoREH program in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision that “We are Better Together!” Arrive early as the event begins promptly at 10:30 a.m. For more information, email karen@kolrinahstl.org. Visit https://bit.ly/KR-SLSO for more information.

Kol Rinah’s ‘Jews in Science’ Session 21

From 4 to 5:30 p.m. Kol Rinah Verein Group’s “Jews in Science” series continues with a Zoom discussion of “Jewish Penicillin” by Mark Silvermintz and Ralph Graff. The program is in three parts: 1) about the BSKI Edith Mazur library; 2) Recollections by the library’s founder’s grandson; and 3) the Jewish connection to penicillin. For more information Contact Richard Gavatin: richardjrgavatin@gmail.com. Registration on the Kol Rinah website is required by Friday Jan. 13: visit www.kolrinahstl.org/form/ jewishpenicillin.html.

Local Jewish organizations and congregations can submit calendar items to news@ stljewishlight.org. All items received by 5 p.m. the Friday before the publication date will be considered for that edition.

Jewish War Veterans Meeting

Jewish War Veterans Post 644 will meet in the Kaplan-Feldman Holocaust Museum meeting room at 10 a.m. on the third Sunday each month (please ask for directions at the desk). A Zoom option will be available for those who are unable to be at the meeting. For more information and the Zoom link contact Post 644 Commander Ellis Frohman at 636-519-7512 (leave a message if no one answers).

ONGOING

Get your game on at the Mirowitz Center

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the Mirowitz Center welcomes guests to play Mahjong, bridge, poker or Mexican Train dominoes – whatever games you like. The Mirowitz Center will provide complimentary coffee, tea and water (guests can bring their own snacks to enjoy and share). No reservations are necessary for these weekly games, held in the multipurpose room, but plan to coordinate your group’s schedule and any needed substitutions. (If you want game instruction or already know how to play but are looking for other players, drop in during game days to see what groups are available for instruction and/or need participants.)

Register online at http://bit.ly/Register_ MirowitzCenter, call 314-733-9813, or email skemppainen@mirowitzcenter.org.

Tech Tutor at Mirowitz Center

For those looking for one-on-one assistance with their technology devices and those who are wanting to acquire new skills, free, in-person 30-minute appointments are available at the Mirowitz Center. Tech Tutor’s in-person classes will be led by an extraordinarily qualified instructor, Larry Edison. Tech Tutor is supported through a grant from the Women’s Auxiliary Foundation for Jewish Aged. Register online at http://bit.ly/Register_MirowitzCenter, call 314-733-9813 or email skemppainen@ mirowitzcenter.org.

Saturday Morning Bible Study at Temple Israel is back!

Beginning this fall, Rabbi Emeritus Mark L. Shook continues his Saturday Morning Bible Study Class on the topic of “A Jewish Understanding of the New Testament.” The class will commence with an in-depth study of the Gospel According to Mark. Classes are Saturdays, Oct. 1 to April 2023 at 9:30 a.m. in person at Temple Israel and on Zoom. Registration is required at: www.ti-stl.org/BibleStudy

Rabbi leads weekly meditation

Join Rabbi Andrea Goldstein at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and 5 p.m. on Thursdays for mindfulness meditation sits. It incorporates lessons from the weekly Torah portion, as well as stories, rituals and symbols of the season. No meditation experience necessary. Questions? Contact Stacy Jespersen at sjespersen@sestl.org.

HaDerech: A spiritual practices workshop

Join Rabbi Daniel Bogard of Central Reform Congregation Thursdays at noon on Zoom to workshop ways we can use tradition, ritual and innovation to be better versions of ourselves. Each month we will dig into a new area of ritual practice (eg, Kashrut; Shabbat; Passover; clothing), explore its history, values and rituals, and experiment with practices in our own lives. For more information, visit www.centralreform.org/events/spiritual-practices.

with New Jewish

Each dinner box included afreshly prepared holiday meal, dessert and warm socks.

temple israel ’ s

THANKSGIVING DINNER FOR THOSE IN NEED

Each year, Temple Israel’s Thanksgiving Dinner for Those in Need serves hundreds of guests who come to Temple Israel through social service agency referrals. The goal is to ensure that every person who attends receives a comforting holiday meal, wonderful service, and warm fellowship with a so many others who deserve to enjoy the Thanksgiving tradition. This year’s 36th annual Thanksgiving dinner was co-chaired by TI members Jenny and Zach Abeles, Jane and Mark Tucker, and Jeff Tucker.

This year, because of COVID-19, TI pre-packaged and delivered 500 boxed holiday meals to nonprofit agencies and senior centers that support individuals and families in need. Each dinner box included a holiday meal with freshly baked and carved turkey, stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls and all the fixings, a slice of freshly baked pumpkin pie made by the temple’s Pies with a Purpose program chaired by Rachel Delston, and with a new pair of warm socks donated by our Mitzvah Market sock collection, co-chaired by Jodi Schneiderman and Stacie Weinstein.

SP TLIGHT

PHOTOS FROM RECENT JEWISH COMMUNITY EVENTS

SUBMIT A PHOTO: Have a photo of a recent Jewish community event you would like to submit? Email the image and a suggested caption to news@stljewishlight.org.

GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

Congregation members packaged and delivered 500 boxed holiday meals to nonprofit agencies and senior centers who support individuals and families in need.

VIEW MORE ONLINE: stljewishlight.org/multimedia

It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without carved turkey, stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls and freshly baked pumpkin pie made by TI’s Pies with a Purpose program.

Hanukkah

Your support of Jewish Federation of St. Louis helps ensure a vibrant Jewish community for years to come. This Hanukkah, let’s make miracles together.