At KU Hillel’s Rosh Hashanah services, KU master’s student Maya Griswold blows the shofar. The shofar is masked to prevent the spread of germs.
KU Hillel brought together Jewish students in a safe fashion to start 5781 in style (and good health). They held their annual Rosh Hashanah service — the first major in-person holiday service they have hosted during the pandemic. It was so important to KU Hillel to offer High Holidays experiences in a safe manner for students and staff because now more than ever, connecting with each other offline is crucial.
PJ Library of Kansas City is hosting “PB & PJ,” a peanut butter and jelly drive benefitting the Jewish Family Services food pantry. The goal is to collect 1,000 pounds of food to match the generous $1,000 donation made by the Polsky Family Charitable Foundation.
The Sarah Peltzman Educational Series consists of three educational units from 10 to 11 a.m. beginning Thursday, Oct. 15, sponsored by Congregation Beth Shalom Sisterhood through Zoom. The cost is $15 per unit or $36 for all three and is open to the entire Jewish community of Greater Kansas City. The fee for couples is $40 and includes all three units. Each unit (lasting four class sessions) will be followed by a fifth session with a “guest speaker.”
Pictured is KU freshman Jack Brody joyfully displaying his Rosh Hashanah To-Go package in his dorm room from KU Chabad.
The holiday season is usually marked by families coming together to enjoy special meals, prayer and time-honored traditions. But this year things were different with the global pandemic restricting many in-person events. For Jewish college students who cannot be at home with their families, this holiday season can be even more challenging and lonely. With the support of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City and many other benefactors, Chabad at KU aimed to provide a home-away-from-home holiday experience where Jewish students celebrated these days of awe in a safe but joyful manner.
Everyone is invited to safely join a benefit celebration of 35 years of CASA of Johnson & Wyandotte Counties’ volunteers making a difference in the lives of thousands of abused and neglected children. The virtual Hops & Barley Ball: Cheers to 35 Years will be streamed beginning at 7:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, and can be viewed on an ongoing basis.
Tenth-grader Judah Schuster poses for a moment during sukkah building at HBHA.
HBHA, with its cyclical learning model, rotates between one week of in-person learning and one week of virtual learning, continues to seek creative ways to safely educate its students during in-person weeks. From Hebrew lessons to PE to social studies, HBHA teachers are working outside time into their daily class schedules to allow students to safely learn while also getting fresh air and mask breaks throughout the day.
What we eat is so important for our general overall health.
At 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, jump online for the next Learn, Laugh and Love program, “Healthy Eating for Aging Well,” with Rebecca Collier, a registered dietician. This is a virtual program via Zoom due to safety and health restrictions.
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.
