MELTON@HBHA — While traveling in Israel, Howard Haas, head of school at the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, met with Rabbi Morey Schwartz in Jerusalem to discuss plans for the upcoming year. Rabbi

Schwartz, who served as the rabbi at BIAV in Overland Park, currently serves as director of education at the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning. The local adult education program has been flourishing as one of the educational offerings of HBHA. 

FUN FACT OF THE WEEK — Yoni Schwartz, the son of the above mentioned Rabbi Schwartz and a former student of HBHA, became the 500th person to like HBHA on Facebook this week!

MITZVAH MAN — Rabbi Craig Lewis, a Kansas City native who serves as rabbi of the B’nai Jeshurun congregation, better known as the South Street Temple in Lincoln, Neb., believes in leading by example. This year he has performed several special mitzvot.

“Making gemilut chasadim (performing acts of loving kindness) part of my life and work is actually a part of my job as a rabbi,” he said.

Most recently he became a bone marrow donor. The recipient was a child and the names of both the donor and recipient are unknown to each other or the general public.

Rabbi Lewis, the son of Stu Lewis and the late Hilary Lewis and the brother of KU Hillel Executive Director Jay Lewis, told me this week that he has participated in bone marrow drives several times since he was in college. Now 39, he expects the match probably came from his most recent sample, but he doesn’t know for sure because “the data is all computerized now and that’s actually anonymous as well.”

Once it looked like he was a potential match, Rabbi Lewis said he was asked a series of questions over a period of time to see if he was actually suitable. They asked things like whether he’d ever been a drug user, what types of surgeries he’s ever had, how much alcohol does he drinks, what foreign countries he had visited … When it was finally determined he was a good match, the recipient’s doctors hadn’t decided if they wanted to do the transplant. But once they did, it actually happened in about a month.

“The preparation involved three appointments in Omaha prior to the surgery — an informational session — which I coupled with a trip to Omaha to sit on a conversion Beit Din — giving a pint of my own blood to be sued for a transfusion during the procedure and a thorough physical examination with EKG and lab work.” 

Rabbi Lewis said there are typically two ways they extract bone marrow from the donor. For recipients who are children, the donor is usually “put under general anesthesia,” so Rabbi Lewis wasn’t conscious during the procedure. He said he was in minimal pain and was able to go out to dinner with his wife that evening while still in Omaha recuperating.

“It was a minor inconvenience for me for a few weeks, nothing like it was for the recipient or even would have been if there was no match,” he said. “I never thought twice about saying yes.”

In April, Rabbi Lewis was one of 73 North American rabbis who shaved their heads, raising more than $625,000 for cancer research. The twist is that Rabbi Lewis said he is already bald and keeping his head shaved down to the skin is normal for him. 

“But I wanted to help so I figured my different angle would be to grow my hair out for close to three months and then I would shave over the three-month growth. I called it the ‘Comb Over for the Cure,’ but I never really grew a comb over.”

“It was incredibly moving to be able to do the shave with so many colleagues including Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, the mother of Superman Sam. (Superman Sam inspired the fundraiser, but unfortunately passed away before it took place). She and her husband Rabbi Michel Sommer have been truly inspiring,” Rabbi Lewis said.

He added, “I raised a little for it, but there were people who raised tens of thousands of dollars.”

He began the year by running a half marathon in Disneyland, which benefitted The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in January. He chose that charity because he knew someone who was grappling with the aftermath of losing a close relative who had taken her own life. “We saw how it affected her family and her community and I saw that the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention was having a team for that race, and I signed up to run with them and did it in honor of our friend’s sister. I was able to raise over $1,000.”

“It was fun. I got to run a half marathon, got to help a good cause and talk about an organization I’ve come to know is doing great work.”

As he was running, he remembered the world of Abraham Joshua Heschel when he said, “I felt my legs were praying.”

The Reform rabbi admits he’s done a lot in one year.

“This past year I have been able to pray with my heart, my lips, my legs, my hips (where the marrow came from) and my head,” he said.

“My friends are probably tired of getting emails from me now,” he joked at the end of our conversation. 

We think he won’t hesitate to do more such acts in the future, and when he does, we wish him well!

Man present at Jewish Community Campus 

shooting joins lawsuit

(JTA) — A man who came under fire during the deadly assault on the Jewish Community Campus joined a lawsuit against a state law that makes it a felony for federal officials to enforce certain gun laws.

Paul Temme joined the lawsuit filed Wednesday, July 9, by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence fighting, KCTV 5 News reported. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence recently organized in the Kansas City area.

Temme told the news station that he fears the law passed last year, which exempts from federal law guns bought and kept in Kansas, would facilitate the purchase of hard-to-trace weapons.

“Those weapons will not have serial numbers,” he said. “They will be permitted to be sold to dangerous individuals, potentially, and immature individuals.”

The law and others like it in a handful of states have not been tested in courts.

Temme dove to the ground when an assailant opened fire at the Jewish Community Campus on April 13.

A man and his grandson were killed in the shooting. Shortly after, the same alleged assailant killed a woman at Village Shalom.