NO BABY YET — As of 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 3, The Chronicle had not gotten word of a Jewish baby being born in the metro area.
The baby must be born within the five county area (Johnson and Douglas in Kansas and Jackson, Platt and Clay in Missouri), have at least one Jewish parent and the parents must be planning to raise the baby in the Jewish faith. (Complete official rules were published on page 13 of the 12-29-16 edition.) The baby’s parent/s need to consent to being interviewed and having the baby photographed for publication in the newspaper.
Here’s what you do if you think you have the first Jewish baby of 2017:
Contact Chronicle Editor Barbara Bayer at 913-951-8425 or . A winner may not be declared immediately and could take as long as 24 hours after the initial conversation with The Chronicle. We are looking forward to meeting the first Jewish baby of 2017!
BETWEEN NOW AND 2021 – The next four years will be extra busy ones for The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah. During this time the congregation will finalize proposals and renovate its building at 123rd and Nall, cultivate and implement ideas for its 150th anniversary celebration in 2020 and devise a successful transition plan for when Rabbi Nemitoff completes his contract and, by his choice, retires on June 30, 2021.
SAVE THE DATE — The KC Vaad’s 6th Annual KC BBQ Championship will take place on Sunday, Sept. 10, in conjunction with the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City’s Jewish Culture Fest. More information on both events will be available in the coming months.
KANSAS SEN. MORAN STANDS WITH ISRAEL — Sen. Jerry Moran, a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, was expected to introduce a resolution on the first day of the 115th Congress (Tuesday, Jan. 3) supporting Israel and expressing the sense of the Senate disapproving of the recent actions of the United Nations. This resolution comes in response to the Obama administration’s decision to abstain from a Dec. 23, 2016, vote in the United Nations Security Council and allowing the Council to vote on a resolution denouncing Israel.
In a statement released Dec. 30, the senator stated, “Over the last eight years, the Obama administration has made a series of blatantly misguided choices when it comes to working with our strongest ally in the Middle East.”
“Secretary Kerry further provoked Israelis and all who stand as allies to Israel with his remarks this week. The incoming administration will have to work overtime to repair the damage President Obama has done. The resolution I introduce next week when Congress reconvenes will express the sense of the Senate that we stand in support of Israel and disapprove of the U.N.’s actions.”
Sen. Moran continued, “I am committed to working with both Republicans and Democrats to make sure we stand with Israel and that the United Nations cannot be used as a forum to create policies that hurt our nation and its allies.”
JEFFREY ROSEN TO SPEAK — ‘On the Bench: Resetting the Supreme Court,’ will be presented Thursday, Jan. 12, by the Kansas City Public Library, the Truman Library Institute and the Historical Society for the Western District of Missouri (Howard Sachs Chapter) and features Jeffrey Rosen. The event begins with a 6 p.m. reception followed by the program at 6:30 at the Plaza branch of the Kansas City Public Library.
Hanging in the balance as the nation elected a new president was a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy created the previous February, when Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly. Donald Trump, in fact, could wind up making multiple appointments to an aging court that includes Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 83; Anthony Kennedy, 80; and Stephen Breyer, 79.
Rosen, one of the nation’s pre-eminent authorities on the Supreme Court, discusses the significance of the shorthanded court, the resultant backlog of important cases and implications for the court’s ideological direction stemming from Trump’s election.
Rosen is president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a law professor at George Washington University and contributing editor of The Atlantic. His latest book is “Louis Brandeis: American Prophet.” For more information or to RSVP go to trumanlibraryinstitute.org and click on events or call 816-268-8200.
CHECK OUT HOME GROWN THEATRE CO. — Several Jewish people are involved in the upcoming production of “The Heidi Chronicles.” Now in its fifth season, Home Grown is a nonprofit 501(c)3 (status pending) theater company in the Kansas City area. The production will be directed by Hersh Ellis, who is also the company’s artistic director. He is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in directing and theatrical production from Pace University in New York.
Wendy Wasserstein’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play follows one woman from a 1960s teen to 1990s career woman, with all of the touching and heartbreaking moments in between. A sharp-eyed and personal look at feminism, friendship and social change, “The Heidi Chronicles” explores the notion of having it all.
The production takes place at The Fishtank Performance Studio, 1717 Wyandotte, Kansas City, Missouri 64108. Performances take place Jan. 5-8 and Jan. 10-15. The official opening is Jan. 7. All performances are at 8 p.m.
Tickets are available at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2747709.
AN UPDATE FROM ISRAEL — You may remember about a year ago Daniel Cohen, a kosher supervisor from Bnei Brak, was critically wounded in a terror attack in Rishon Lezion.
He survived.
Now, a year later, he invited his doctor and former KC resident Ovadia Braslavsky to the Brit Mila of his first newborn son. (He already has five daughters, with the youngest one under 2 years old).
Rav Nahshoni from Rishon Lezion said the following at the Brit: “We have, as Jewish people, survived for thousands of years in spite of persecution. The reason for that is Brit Mila, the sign of union between G-d and us. Daniel narrowly escaped death and against all odds, a son is born to him and today we are present at his Brit Mila.”
Having lost his spleen and part of his intestines, Cohen is still not able to work. Last year Braslavsky asked for donations from the Kansas City Jewish community and said funds are still needed to help the family. To make a donation, email .