Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City welcomed Amit Yaniv-Zehavi for a visit to Kansas City as she started in her new role as the organization’s Israel community representative.
Her predecessor, Hannah Soltz-Aharony, recently retired after being in the role since 2018, having provided the connection with Federation’s partner organizations and programs on the ground in Ramle and Gezer, Kansas City’s partner communities in Israel.
“We are thrilled to have Amit join our Jewish Federation team,” said Taly Friedman, Federation’s director of community building. “She brings such passion, experience and understanding for how to create deep and meaningful partnerships between organizations and people in the U.S. and Israel.”
Yaniv-Zehavi was born in the U.S., made Aliyah at age 10 and is a member of Kibbutz Tzora. She served as shlicha (Israeli emissary) for the Jewish Federation of Milwaukee from 2014-2017. Since 2007, she also has worked for Partnership2Gether through the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI); in this role, she also serves as the director for the partnership between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Rehovot, Israel.
During her visit to Kansas City, Yaniv-Zehavi met with community leaders and professionals. She joined members of both the Jewish Federation’s Israel & Overseas committee and the City of Leawood’s Gezer Region Sister City committee for a tour of Gezer Park led by Leawood’s Gezer Region Sister City Committee Chair Stacey Belzer. The tour was held to give Yaniv-Zehavi and the other committee members an opportunity to better understand the intentionality of the design of Gezer Park and the connection between Gezer and Leawood.
Yaniv-Zehavi also spent time with Mika Kislanski, Kansas City’s shlicha, to learn more about the role Kislanski and Israeli emissaries in the Kansas City community.
“We look forward to Amit getting to know Kansas City even better over the coming months and finding new and different ways to connect our Kansas City community to our partner communities in Ramle and Gezer,” Friedman said.
