THANKS FOR A JOB WELL DONE! — Alan Bram was honored Monday night for his 26-plus years at the Jewish Community Campus. He became its executive director while it was still being built and he stepped down as its full-time exec in April 2013. However he stayed on behind the scenes, as is the way he always likes to keep things, and continued working for the Campus in a consultant role. Little did he know he would have to ramp it back up last month just after two people were killed in the Campus parking lot. Bram was responsible for instituting all the security procedures that were put into place that day and will continue to help Jewish communal leaders review and revise those procedures and policies. At the reception in his honor, a plaque was unveiled that hangs next to the security desk at the Campus’ main entrance. It reads: “In appreciation of Alan’s outstanding advice as the first executive director of the Jewish Community Campus. Alan gave his ‘Heart and Soul’ to the Campus. Alan’s dedication, devotion, diligence, time and talent made the Campus the ‘Crown Jewel’ of Kansas City’s Jewish community.” I hope I speak for everyone who has ever walked through the doors of the Campus when I say there aren’t enough plaques in the world to thank you for working so hard to keep us — and all those children attending the CDC and HBHA — all safe at the Campus.
MOVED TO TEARS — Every year I get invited to annual events and often say, “Sorry, maybe I’ll go next year.” I never say that to the annual Yom HaShoah commemoration. As always, it was very emotional. Chaired this year by Mirra Klausner, the program featured a violin performance by her father, Holocaust survivor Tiberius Klausner, who during the last year of the war hid from the Nazis in the Romanian countryside. As a friend of mine said afterward, “You have to wonder how many others like Tibor we lost during the Holocaust.” This year’s crowd appeared to be a little larger than normal, about 600 people. I always love the mix of the Jewish War Vets, the Boy Scouts, the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Hatikvah” and hearing the young voices from the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy sing “Zog Nit Keynmol,” accompanied this year by Hazzan Tahl Ben-Yehuda. Most of all, I am always moved during the candle-lighting ceremony when the survivors stand — sadly noticing that the numbers are dwindling each year. The storms earlier in the afternoon kept us all inside, yet it seemed very appropriate to say Kaddish together, in the theater, with a photo of the Memorial to the 6 Million in the background. To those in charge of the program, I think it was one of the best ever.
JOHN’S TAILORING EVICTED — I ran into Sonia Warshawski at the Yom HaShoah commemoration. The Holocaust survivor has owned John’s Tailoring, a business she started with her late husband, at Metcalf South Shopping Center since the early 1980s. The center’s new owners plan to tear it down and have given Sonia official word that she has to vacate the premises by midsummer. Featured in a story on Fox 4 News last week, she now has to decide whether to move her business or retire. We’ll keep in touch with Sonia, and keep you posted on her plans.
LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER — “The Listen to Your Mother Show: Kansas City,” co-produced by Erin Margolin, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3, at Unity Temple on the Plaza. The show celebrates motherhood through the words of a talented cast of local writers. Ten percent of the ticket proceeds are donated to Women’s Employment Network (WEN), www.kcwen.org. Tickets are available online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/599898 or at the door.