Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
On December 3, 1999, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an article on Hanukkah in St. Louis. Judy Zafft of Frontenac, Missouri remembers what celebrating Hanukkah in St. Louis was like back in the 1950s, when few non-Jews noticed Hanukkah and even buying a Hanukkah card was difficult. In school, Zafft used to sing Christmas carols: "I didn't think much about singing Christmas carols, I don't remember my Jewish parents saying anything about it...We even sang 'Jesus Loves Me.' That's the way things were then." Zafft finds that recently more non-Jews have recognized Hanukkah: "In the last 10 years, things have really changed in St. Louis. People make an effort to include Hanukkah...I think we are all trying to be more sensitive." Ronald Modras, who is Roman Catholic and a theology professor at St. Louis University, is throwing his third annual Hanukkah party because thinks that Christians and Jews should celebrate Hanukkah together: "At this time of year, we are all surrounded by darkness, and the theme of light joins the two holidays, for Christians and Jews...For Christians, the light is Jesus, who, of course, was a Jew. For Jews, the light is the Torah."