After the pandemic hit, the JFS Food Pantry locations at the Jewish Community Campus and Brookside needed to switch the way they delivered food to their clients. Here staffers and volunteers prepare for drive-up deliveries at the Jewish Community Campus. JFS is currently in the midst of its annual High Holiday Food Drive to fill the shelves of the pantries.

 

Jewish Family Services is in the midst of its annual High Holidays Food Drive, which is typically its largest collection of non-perishable food of the year. But the pandemic may have changed that. So even while JFS is providing more food assistance to clients than ever before, collecting what it needs this year could be difficult.

First Lady Michelle Obama (right) meets with Sarah Hurwitz (left) and staff aboard Bright Star during the flight from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 26, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

By Lacey Storer
Contributing Writer

When Sarah Hurwitz signed up for an introduction to Judaism class at the age of 36 — after growing up with the Jewish experience of “dull services at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and a dull seder” — she had few, if any, expectations. The then-chief speechwriter for First Lady Michelle Obama took the class merely to fill time after a breakup and wasn’t looking for any kind of spiritual awakening.

Blanche Sosland

The Park University Alumni Association has awarded it’s Torchlighter Award to Blanche Sosland, Ph.D., a Kansas City, Missouri, resident. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the ceremony was held virtually on Sept. 17.

Gerry Trilling

Kansas City artist, Gerry Trilling, debuts a new body of work entitled “Memory Ponds: Crocheting by the Light of Netflix” at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, Missouri, from Sept. 25 – Nov. 8. “Memory Ponds” marks Trilling’s first solo museum exhibition and is a departure from her previous work. More than 150 unique crocheted “drawings” will be exhibited, from palm-sized to room-sized works. The exhibition opens to the public Friday, Sept. 25, from 4 to 7 p.m.

The Sarah Peltzman Educational Series, Unit One, begins Thursday, Oct. 15. Classes will be held 10-11 a.m. via Zoom. The cost is $15 per unit or $36 for all three units. The fee for couples is $40 and includes all three units.

The Beth Shalom Sisterhood Gift Shop won’t be able to open the shop permanently until after Dec. 31, unless COVID-19 is still a problem.

If you have any immediate needs (Shabbat candles, mezuzahs and scrolls, other basic needs or gifts), call Mary Weiner at 913-642-9363. She will call Stefanie Williams, executive director, to set up an appointment.

In the meantime, Connie Simon has been working on setting up a website for the gift shop. Sisterhood will then photograph items in the shop for you to peruse. Sisterhood has already set up an online program for members to pay their dues and it works well.

 

Have you planned your menu for Shabbat/Sukkot dinner? Erev Sukkot begins at sundown Friday, Oct. 2. Skip the meal preparation and enjoy a delicious catered meal in your sukkah. This holiday meal will be prepared by Cathy Levin, Kosher Connection. Deadline for ordering your Shabbat/Sukkot meal is Tuesday, Sept. 29. Curbside pickup is from noon to 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2.

This year’s Rock Chalk Shabbat — now called Rock Chalk Shabayit — will be in your home.

KU Hillel’s Rock Chalk Shabbat is now coast-to-coast. For the 19th year of Rock Chalk Shabbat, the largest Shabbat experience at KU, KU Hillel has innovated to a completely virtual event. The best part? You can enjoy the fun of Rock Chalk Shabbat from the comfort of your living room.

Five local Boy Scouts from Troop 61 stand with boxes of food items they collected in their neighborhoods. The ambitious Scouts include (from left) Sam Hochler, Eric Fine, Shaefer Spizman, Danny Galler and Danny Martin. Together they collected more than 1,200 pounds of food for the Jewish Family Services Food Pantry.

It’s been a tough summer for area kids with so many restrictions due to the pandemic, but five members of the Jewish Boy Scout Troop 61 decided to make the best of it — and indeed, they did.