Judaism

Jacob and Jack

Festival of Jewish Life

Matisyahu Cuts His Beard, But Not All Ties to Judaism: What Will it Mean For His Fans?

Image via​Looking back at it, it now seems inevitable that Matthew Paul Miller, the reggae singer popularly known as Matisyahu, would distance himself from Orthodox Judaism. After all, he'd already cut ties with Chabad-Lubavitch, the outreach-minded Chassidic sect, a few years earlier. And he' ... More >>

End Days, Deborah Zoe Laufer's post-9/11 tale about a dysfunctional family, is a laugh a minute

Image via​Looking back at it, it now seems inevitable that Matthew Paul Miller, the reggae singer popularly known as Matisyahu, would distance himself from Orthodox Judaism. After all, he'd already cut ties with Chabad-Lubavitch, the outreach-minded Chassidic sect, a few years earlier. And he' ... More >>

Your Weekly St. Louis Bestseller List

Tell us about that sexy jacket...​Here's your weekly St. Louis bestseller list for the week ending September 4, as compiled by the St. Louis Independent Booksellers Alliance and based on sales at Left Bank Books, Main Street Books, Pudd'nhead Books, Subterranean Books and Sue's News. This w ... More >>

The End Is Now

Tell us about that sexy jacket...​Here's your weekly St. Louis bestseller list for the week ending September 4, as compiled by the St. Louis Independent Booksellers Alliance and based on sales at Left Bank Books, Main Street Books, Pudd'nhead Books, Subterranean Books and Sue's News. This w ... More >>

Books: No Batteries Required

Tell us about that sexy jacket...​Here's your weekly St. Louis bestseller list for the week ending September 4, as compiled by the St. Louis Independent Booksellers Alliance and based on sales at Left Bank Books, Main Street Books, Pudd'nhead Books, Subterranean Books and Sue's News. This w ... More >>

Interview: Amanda Rainey of Dubb Nubb and Special Passenger Records

Cory Taylor Cox ​In this week's print issue, we spent some time with Delia and Hannah Rainey, the twin sisters of Dubb Nubb, and older sister, drummer and Special Passenger Records owner Amanda Rainey. Below is some of our interview with Amanda, in which she provides the label's history and ph ... More >>

Matisyahu at the Pageant, 7/9/11: Review and Setlist

Ruvi Leider​Matisyahu | Murder City Players The Pageant July 9, 2011 Only at a Matisyahu show will you find both yarmulkes and pot: The Saturday night crowd at the Pageant was transfixed as one of God's chosen people beat boxed and rapped his way across the stage. Matthew Paul Miller, better ... More >>

Ask a Mexican: Is "brown pride" the same as "white pride"?

Ruvi Leider​Matisyahu | Murder City Players The Pageant July 9, 2011 Only at a Matisyahu show will you find both yarmulkes and pot: The Saturday night crowd at the Pageant was transfixed as one of God's chosen people beat boxed and rapped his way across the stage. Matthew Paul Miller, better ... More >>

The Fate of Lazarus

Ruvi Leider​Matisyahu | Murder City Players The Pageant July 9, 2011 Only at a Matisyahu show will you find both yarmulkes and pot: The Saturday night crowd at the Pageant was transfixed as one of God's chosen people beat boxed and rapped his way across the stage. Matthew Paul Miller, better ... More >>

Local Businesses Miss Pratzel's, Attempt to Lure Buyer for Bagelry

​When Pratzel's Bakery closed on January 30, it left a hole in St. Louis' kosher food community. Nearly a century old, the bakery was the only 100 percent kosher bakery in the area, and its closure affects more than 200 wholesale buyers and the patrons of their retail location inside Kohn's Ko ... More >>

Orthodox Synagogue Wants You to Know: Kosher Food Can Be Fun!

​About ten years ago, a certain reporter toiled as an editorial assistant at an educational publisher. The publisher was working on an anthology of Jewish literature, and, since it was a small and democratic sort of place, and also since the editors were fresh out of inspiration, they solicited ti ... More >>

Will Somebody Please Fund Andy Abrams' Movie, Tattoo Jew?

Justin Dawson​Tattoo Jew. Now there's an oxymoron. By law, Jews aren't supposed to have tattoos. It's right there in the book of Leviticus, alongside the prohibitions against cheeseburgers (technically, a calf cooked in its mother's milk) and butt-sex. But for the past five years, Andy Abrams ... More >>

Potok's Big Hit

Justin Dawson​Tattoo Jew. Now there's an oxymoron. By law, Jews aren't supposed to have tattoos. It's right there in the book of Leviticus, alongside the prohibitions against cheeseburgers (technically, a calf cooked in its mother's milk) and butt-sex. But for the past five years, Andy Abrams ... More >>

Uniquely Jewish

Justin Dawson​Tattoo Jew. Now there's an oxymoron. By law, Jews aren't supposed to have tattoos. It's right there in the book of Leviticus, alongside the prohibitions against cheeseburgers (technically, a calf cooked in its mother's milk) and butt-sex. But for the past five years, Andy Abrams ... More >>

Missouri Attorney General Calls for Execution of Man Linked to Larry Flynt Shooting

Larry Flynt has been in a wheelchair since the 1978 shooting.​Attorney General Chris Koster yesterday called on the Missouri Supreme Court to set execution dates for two convicted murderers. The first, Joseph Franklin, was convicted in 1997 for the shooting death twenty years earlier of a man out ... More >>

Holiday Jam Countdown '09: Rasheeda Azar featuring Senator Orrin Hatch, "Eight Days of Hanukkah"

Here's a little known fact: Jews love Christmas. We love the cookies. We love the lights. We love the sappy movies. We spend our childhoods yearning for trees and stockings. (I myself received my first Christmas stocking at the advanced age of 31. I nearly wept with joy.)We love Christmas so much, w ... More >>

Bad for the Jews: Self-hating or just everyone-hating? The Coen Brothers aim their contempt at MOTs.

Here's a little known fact: Jews love Christmas. We love the cookies. We love the lights. We love the sappy movies. We spend our childhoods yearning for trees and stockings. (I myself received my first Christmas stocking at the advanced age of 31. I nearly wept with joy.)We love Christmas so much, w ... More >>

Down With King Louis IX!

flickr.com/photos/bestrated1King Louis IX: saint, crusader, good to Christians, really, really, really mean to Jews.​Tomorrow is Tisha b'Av, the ninth of the Jewish month of Av and the saddest day of the Jewish year. Most Jewish holidays memorialize the deliverance of the Chosen People from certai ... More >>

Attorney General Wants Racist Executed for Murders; Fashion Police Want Him for Hitler Haircut

Joseph Franklin rockin the Hitler haircut.Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster today called for the Missouri Supreme Court to set an execution date for Joseph Franklin. Franklin was convicted in 1997 of murdering Gerald Gordon -- twenty years after he shot and killed him in the parking lot of a St ... More >>

Newsweek: St. Louis Synagogue "Vibrant," Even Without Hot Rabbi

flickr.com/photos/vidiotThis guy didn't make the hot rabbi list, either.Just in time for Passover, Newsweek has revealed its list of the 50 hottest rabbis in America. (We don't see the connection between Passover and rabbinical hotness, either. Butanyway.)"Hotness" in this case refers to influence, ... More >>

Back It Up

Pay a visit to decades past

Feeling Wordy at 30

The Jewish Book Fest celebrates a milestone

Play Dress Up

Costumes go classy

Hoard Your Matzo!

Costumes go classy

Unreal Goes to Purim Town -- And We Purim Down!

Costumes go classy

Zeda's Beat Box

7 p.m. Saturday, December 29. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

God, with Training Wheels

7 p.m. Saturday, December 29. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

Small Plates, Friday, 1/5

7 p.m. Saturday, December 29. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

Beat Happenings

Music news you can use

Ah, Books

Music news you can use

Beat Happenings

Music news you can use

Hutch Ado About Nothing

No obvious joke goes untouched in this so-so TV show remake

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Week of December 24, 2003

Internal Despair

In The Believer, a Jewish student explores his inner Nazi

Series/Festivals

Week of June 5, 2002

Klezmer Nut

Self-proclaimed Jewish Christian Sandy Weltman pushes the limits of klezmer without diluting its soul

Working for Tips

With wit and banter as sharp as his izmal, Rabbi Mike Rovinsky is a circumcising machine

Bagels and Lust

Two plays -- one old, one new -- explore the place of sexuality in Judaism

Series/Festivals

Week of November 21, 2001

Best Tailor

Lyuba Bukhstaber, Perfect Fit Tailor Shop

Fear and Loathing

By keeping us back from the fighting, Kippur gives the audience a new perspective on war

Architect of Form and Spirit: Eric Mendelsohn

Center of Contemporary Arts, through March 10

Best Run

Labor Day Classic

Best Rabbi

Abraham Magence

Titan of the Temple

Architect Eric Mendelsohn designed the synagogue that became COCA's home, and a new exhibit there celebrates his work

Keeping the Faith

Directed by Edward Norton

HISTORICAL PRESENT

The Center of Contemporary Arts presents its inaugural Jewish Folk Festival

Guitars on Mars

Gary Lucas has performed with Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley, John Zorn and Allen Ginsberg. Now he's visiting St. Louis to perform alongside the silent film The Golem.