The Kansas City Jewish community embraced change in 2022, with mergers, emergency assistance abroad, planning at home and comings and goings among KC Jewish leadership.
The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle reported on this busy year, full of noteworthy stories and faces, as we prepare for another news-filled year in 2023.
Here are some of our community’s most noteworthy stories of 2022:
Conservative congregations merge
Congregation Beth Shalom and the former Congregation Ohev Sholom merged in July. The two Conservative congregations, both tracing back over a century, consolidated under the Beth Shalom name and building at 14200 Lamar Avenue in Overland Park.
Leaders of both congregations expressed support and optimism for the consolidation process and future of the merged congregations.
Mike Silverman, then-president of Ohev Sholom, said, “The consolidation was supported by the leadership of both congregations, who believe that the Greater Kansas City Jewish community will benefit from a combined Conservative congregation that is able to provide a wide range of services and programs to its members and the community.”
“This was a forward-looking and courageous decision,” said Jason Krakow, past president of Beth Shalom, at the time of the merger. “Beth Shalom is honored to join together with Ohev Sholom to create a stronger future together.”
The two congregations had discussed merging in 2009, but no resolution was agreed upon until this year. Past Ohev Sholom Rabbi Scott White told The Chronicle in July 2021 that there was “virtually no distinction in terms of religious philosophy” between the two congregations.
Community, Federation support Ukraine
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City and the Kansas City Jewish community quickly began to aid displaced Ukrainians.
Only a few days after the invasion, Federation’s board of directors approved a $139,000 grant, joining with Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA)’s $20 million emergency campaign to provide humanitarian assistance to vulnerable Jewish populations living in Ukraine.
Funds were allocated through Jewish Federations’ core partners, The Jewish Agency for Israel, The Joint Distribution Committee and World ORT, and other NGOs on the ground in Ukraine. The funds were to provide critical welfare where it was needed most and support to protect and safeguard Ukraine's Jewish community as well as Jews in neighboring countries.
“We take pride in sustaining Jewish life not only at home here in Kansas City, but around the world,” said Helene Lotman, Jewish Federation president and CEO, regarding the emergency grant. “Kansas City has always answered the call when there are needs related to Jewish communities around the globe.”
By April, JFNA had surpassed its $50 million fundraising goal for aid to Ukraine. Federation contributed $196,000 from more than 300 community donors, which, in addition to the $139,000 granted by the Federation board for emergency support, totaled $335,000 in funding from Jewish Kansas City.
Since then, Federation, JFNA and the Kansas City Jewish community have raised tens of thousands more dollars to aid the people in Ukraine. Many teenagers participating in Jewish Community Foundation’s 16th annual youth philanthropy fair chose to donate to Federation’s crisis relief fund as well.
In March, KU Chabad students signed up and pledged to do mitzvahs for peace in Ukraine during “March Mitzvah Madness.” KU Chabad Director Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel additionally was heavily involved in providing funds to help host more than 100 Jewish foster children who had become refugees from Odessa, Ukraine.
"While we feel so much pain for what our brethren are experiencing in Ukraine, Judaism teaches us about the importance of transforming our tears into action,” Rabbi Tiechtel said.
Also in March, a KCTeen-hosted ax throwing event raised $1,900 for Ukrainian orphans after a donor agreed to donate $50 to the Ukraine-based Mishpacha Orphanage for each bullseye the teens hit.
The war in Ukraine is still not over. As of publication, more than 40,000 people have been killed and approximately 14 million people displaced in the war, according to Reuters.
Kansas City Jewish community study results released
In 2021, Federation commissioned the first comprehensive population and demographic study of the Kansas City Jewish community since 1985. The results were announced this past March, and Federation is planning and working towards implementing action in response to the data.
The study was conducted by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies/Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago between April and July 2021. Nearly a thousand households participated.
“A lot has changed in the 30-plus years since we last undertook a study like this. The insights from this study can help guide our institutions and congregations better engage and support our community as we continue to grow and evolve,” said Amanda Palan, who has been involved with the study from the beginning.
Upon receiving the results of the study, Federation formed the Community Study Planning Committee to identify priority areas for community-wide planning. The committee consisted of eight experienced community leaders who reviewed the study and determined two initial priority areas for community-wide planning, according to Andi Milens, Federation’s Senior Director, Community Building.
Community connection, outreach to newcomers and interfaith families, and events and support for the aging are priorities based on the results of the study. The data from the survey can be found at jewishkansascity.org/communitystudy.
Noa Dovrat joins as community shalicha
In September, Noa Dovrat arrived in Kansas City as a Jewish Agency for Israel community shalicha (Israeli emissary). She was the first Kansas City community shalicha since 2020.
Dovrat is part of the Jewish Experiences team, a collaboration of Jewish Federation and The J, and works closely with Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, KU Hillel and many other Jewish organizations and synagogues in the Kansas City area. She also helps engage the Israeli community locally while cultivating relationships with the entire community on the topic of Israel.
“I remember connecting to [Kansas City] the most,” she said about her process of choosing a community in which to be shalicha. “First of all, because of the variety of the programs available. In this community, there is a huge variety of places [and] ages, and I remember wanting that exactly because I think every group wants, needs and deserves a different thing. I love the focus they have on impacting the young adult community, which is the one I feel suffers the most from antisemitism and has the most questions. And on top of all that, I am a Chiefs fan and have been for a long time — pre-Super Bowl.”
Dovrat finished her mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces shortly before becoming a shalicha, having been an explosives instructor in charge of educating 200 soldiers. She also served as an officer in the IDF operational headquarters.
Jewish Community Digital Archive debuts online
In the first few months of 2022, The Kansas City Jewish Community Digital Archive, jewishkcarchives.org, launched. The archive includes digital issues of The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle’s entire back catalog, plus local history video interviews.
Powered by work from Andrew Kaplan, Alan Edelman and Norman Kahn, its first phase was building the web interface so people could access materials, as well as making old microfilm copies of The Chronicle digital and searchable by keyword and issue.
In the archive’s second phase, Kaplan, Edelman and Kahn asked congregations and Jewish agencies to take a dive into their own records and see what documents they can contribute. Papers and photos from any individual can also be historically relevant.
“We’re standing on the shoulders of those that came before,” Kaplan said. “The real work was done by all of the group of individuals that founded the Jewish Community Archive, and they just didn’t have the technology to bring it to bear. All we’re doing is taking what they created, what they contemplated, what they collected, and we’re bringing that to life.”
Currently, the entire back catalog of The Chronicle, from 1920 until this year, is available for searching and reading online at kcjc.com/archive.
New clergy arrive at local synagogues
Our community welcome several new clergy members, including Aron Hayoun, Kehilath Israel Synagogue’s new cantor, and Rabbi Caitlin Brazner and Rabbi Rachel Rothstein, the new assistant rabbis at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah.
Hazzan Hayoun came from Paris, France, and had accepted the position over two years prior. Due to the pandemic, his ability to obtain a visa and travel to the United States with his wife and three of his children was met with many obstacles. After his arrival, his first Shabbat service at K.I. was on April 2.
Hazzan Hayoun studied at the Cantorial School of the Grand Synagogue of Jerusalem from 1984 to 1986 and had been the chief cantor at La Grande Synagogue de la Victoire in Paris, France since 2009. He had served in various synagogues in Canada, France and Germany before taking his position in Paris.
Rabbi Brazner and Rabbi Rothstein knew each other from school at Hebrew Union College in Israel, and coincidentally both ended up at B’nai Jehudah. They were both ordained this past May and began their roles as assistant rabbis in July.
The rabbis are dividing their time into thirds: one-third spent on the pulpit, one-third in education — for learners of all ages — and one-third on an initiative of their choice.
Community leaders accept new positions, leave Kansas City
Several community leaders have left or are leaving Kansas City for new positions elsewhere in the country: Rabbi Neal Schuster, former rabbi and senior Jewish educator of KU Hillel; Rabbi Sarah Smiley, former rabbi at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah; and Dr. Helene Lotman, Federation president and CEO.
In January, Rabbi Schuster announced his departure from KU Hillel after 13 years as its senior Jewish educator. He has now moved to Des Moines, Iowa, to serve as rabbi of Temple B’nai Jeshurun.
Leaving KU Hillel for Des Moines was bittersweet, he said, but he is only three hours away and will not lose his connection with the KU and Kansas City Jewish communities.
Rabbi Sarah Smiley left B’nai Jehudah in July to become the rabbi for the Jewish community of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the first rabbi of the Unified Jewish Congregation of Baton Rouge. She went with her husband, Rabbi Josh Leighton (who also worked at B’nai Jehudah), and her daughter, Eliana Leighton.
“I’m really proud of the work I was able to do and where B'nai Jehudah is and what has happened during these transitions. We’ve really built a community here, not just at B’nai Jehudah but in the larger Kansas City community,” she told The Chronicle at the time. “(Rabbi Leighton and I are) excited for our next adventure, but it’s still sad to leave a place that you put so much into.”
Federation president and CEO Helene Lotman announced that at the end of 2022, she will step down and move to Sarasota, Florida, to be president and CEO of Jewish Family & Children’s Services of the Suncoast.
“I had the goal of Federation really becoming the convener of the community, and I believe that has been actualized,” Lotman told The Chronicle. “That is a satisfying feeling, but even more important, I’ve enjoyed the process of working with partner agencies and executives to go beyond niceties to doing meaningful work, in alignment, on behalf of the community.”
