ST CHARLES, Mo. — The Jewish community came together for the 4th annual St. Charles Jewish Festival. Thousands enjoyed music and kosher cuisine on Sunday.
It's the region's only annual festival that celebrates Jewish life and culture. This year, organizers leaned more into an Israeli theme.
Rabbi Chaim Landa, St. Charles County Chabad Jewish Center said Sunday's festivities were all about unity.
"It's about building community and celebrating community," he said.
The festival focuses on highlighting the richness of Jewish culture and traditions while reminding them they're not alone.
"The more that they can feel the support of their immediate community, the better," Nathan Bibb, O'Fallon Councilman, said.
The St. Charles Jewish Festival started with only about 100 people in 2019. Now, according to Rabbi Landa, five years later it's evolved into something much greater with over 3 thousand people filling the Lewis and Clark House Parking Lot for music, food and something for everyone.
"Not only has the Jewish community shown up, but the greater community has really rallied around, I like to say, embrace, really, really embraced and elevated this community. It's a very, very special thing," he said.
The theme for this year's St. Charles Jewish Festival is 'Share the Love.' Rabbi Landa said that theme is more important than ever.
"We often talk about fighting hate, but I think there's another way, and that's to really bring people together and to have those conversations and really begin to appreciate the other and that's really what we're trying to do," he said.
Rabbi Landa said the goal this year was to focus on connections and building relationships, while turmoil continues in the Middle East.
"We're not able to be there physically, but they're on our minds constantly, and I think that just increases the reason why, it just stresses why it's so important to come together," he said.
This festival acts as a beacon of unity, sending a message of love and togetherness.
"Even though there's tragedy all around us, our hearts are still wanting peace and wanting love of the nations and people and everything. We want to show the world that we're here, and we're not going away," Tracy Bordem said.
This year also included an immersive Israeli 'shuk' experience, which refers to the open-air Israeli marketplace that attracts tourists from around the world.
