The 2025 application process for the Jacob and Rose Szneler Scholarship Fund has begun.
In July 2016, the Beth Shalom Foundation received a number of contributions to establish the Jacob and Rose Szneler Scholarship Fund. The purpose of the fund is to provide funds to high school students to help underwrite the costs of their participation in an organized trip to Israel and/or Eastern Europe.
Although the funds reside in the Beth Shalom Foundation, all Jewish students in Kansas City and Des Moines, Iowa, are eligible to apply. All 2025 applications are due by Feb. 21 and should be emailed to .
Applications should include the student’s name; grade they will be entering in the fall of 2025; name of Israel and/or Eastern Europe travel program and sponsoring organization; and a 300-400 word essay explaining why they chose to participate in this trip.
Jacob and Rose Szneler (z”l) were born in Poland, spent World War II in a number of concentration and work camps and lost their entire immediate families in the Holocaust. After the liberation, they met in Bergen-Belsen in 1945. They were married in 1946 and immigrated to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1950 under the auspices of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. They did not know English, so they attended night school in Des Moines to learn English and proudly become United States citizens. Rose Szneler worked as a seamstress for a furrier, and Jacob Szneler worked in a bag factory.
The Sznelers each were devoted Jews who benefited their communities with their kindness, hospitality and sense of humor. They cared deeply for the orphan, the widow, the aged and the sick. The Sznelers took great pride in the State of Israel and the traditions and history of their people. Jacob Szneler died in Des Moines in 1994, and Rose Szneler passed away in 2014 in Kansas City, her adopted home.
More information regarding the scholarship is available by contacting Diane Azorsky at (913) 710-0354.
