Rabbi Susan Talve
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
On a recent Shabbat afternoon, in the shadow of disappointment surrounding the thwarted gun reform legislation, a group of concerned locals gathered on Red Bud Avenue, a street in St. Louis notorious for gun violence. They stood together by the middle school and the corner grocery and somberly named each of the 46 children who died from handguns on that very corner. They stood together with Rabbi Susan Talve. Having been there in the weeks prior, rallying for gun reform, she had come to be known affectionately by the neighbors as their “Jewish friend.” They marched, Rabbi Talve told me, arm in arm with the grocer, who is a Palestinian from East Jerusalem and opens his store up to the local kids as a safe haven from the violent streets just outside his door. They marched with the neighborhood minister, who was once a drug lord on Red Bud Avenue. They marched, during the count of the Omer, with Christians, Muslims and Jews, until they reached a lot that they are now turning into a community garden.
— Jennifer Bernstein and Jen Fishering
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
