The Kansas City Jewish community experienced a significant number of major news events in 2024.
Hanging over the Jewish community worldwide is the cloud of the war in Israel, the ever-present memories of the Oct. 7 massacre and the rise in global antisemitism. The local community both addressed and experienced antisemitic incidents in 2024, and many front-page stories in The Chronicle covered this topic.
However, there was also much to celebrate this year — the beginnings and completions of large-scale projects, for example, and strong displays of unity throughout Jewish Kansas City. Below is a recap of some of this year’s biggest Chronicle stories.
Building projects
Major construction projects began and were completed in the Jewish community in 2024. KU Chabad announced its plans for a new 10,000-square-foot facility to replace its original building; Congregation Beth Shalom finished its long-awaited new sanctuary; and Beit Echad opened as the first new synagogue in decades in St. Joseph, Missouri.
The KU Chabad House in Lawrence, Kansas, had been a converted duplex for 18 years before it was demolished in August to make way for the new building’s construction. The new building will feature a lounge area, large dining hall and commercial kosher kitchen, increasing KU Chabad’s ability to serve the KU Jewish community.
Groundbreaking for the $6 million structure occurred on Sept. 12 and featured guest speaker KU Chancellor Douglas Girod.
In Overland Park, Kansas, Conservative synagogue Congregation Beth Shalom opened its new sanctuary, a project that had been in the works for more than a dozen years. The sanctuary replaces the synagogue’s multipurpose room as its new prayer space.
The new sanctuary is designed to look like an unfurling Torah scroll, with two cylindrical towers representing the Torah’s poles. The exterior is clad in metal panels, and the interior is full of wood accents and furnishings.
At the sanctuary’s dedication in September, past Beth Shalom Senior Rabbi Alan Cohen spoke of the project’s earliest stages in 2011, and current Senior Rabbi David Glickman emphasized the timeliness of the construction in the months following Oct. 7.
In St. Joseph, Missouri, the Jewish community opened its first new synagogue in more than a century. Beit Echad is located in a fully renovated space with a custom ark and neir tamid (eternal light).
The city’s two existing synagogues, Temple B’nai Sholem and Temple Adath Joseph, supported the creation of Beit Echad instead of merging. The decision was necessary due to the declining Jewish population there. Beit Echad aims to respect and honor the legacies of the two congregations while also looking towards the future.
The synagogue opened shortly before the High Holidays. Due to the lack of precedence of opening a new synagogue in St. Joseph in the modern era, more work is underway to finalize Beit Echad, but it is now open, active and used as St. Joseph’s Jewish house of worship.
Tragic anniversaries
Significant anniversaries of two tragedies affecting the Kansas City Jewish community occurred in 2024. This year was the 10th since an antisemitic gunman shot and killed two people at the Jewish Community Campus and Village Shalom; and the first since the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas on Israel.
“Healing Hate,” a documentary that ran on PBS Channel 19.1, partially covered the aftermath of the antisemitic shooting and was funded in part by the funded in part by the Jewish Community Foundation’s Ronald & Susan Goldsmith Philanthropic Fund and Community Legacy Fund.
Multiple memorial services were held for both the Jewish and general communities.
The Chronicle also ran an article about how community security has improved dramatically since the shooting. Efforts spearheaded by Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, its partner agencies, law enforcement and Secure Community Network have resulted in more security procedures and equipment for the Jewish community.
In October, the community gathered to mark the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 terror attacks. Myriad services, prayers, sermons and artworks took place across the Kansas City area, with the largest being a community commemoration service organized by the Jewish Community Relations Bureau | American Jewish Committee (JCRB|AJC); Jewish Experiences, a collaboration of The J and Jewish Federation; Jewish Federation and the Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City.
Representatives of nearly every community congregation shared solemn speeches, prayers, songs and poetry. The local Israeli community was represented by Moshit Snir and Kansas City Community Shalicha Mika Kislanski.
Kislanski was also a driving force behind “A Year Without,” an art installation of nearly 1,200 stones that were each hand-painted with the name of a victim of the Oct. 7 attacks. Dozens of staff from organizations at the Jewish Community Campus and Jewish students at Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy (HBHA) and the University of Kansas helped paint hundreds of stones.
Surrounding the artwork were posters with photographs and testimonies of community members and their stories of how they were affected by the attacks. Visitors were also welcomed to share their responses and stories to display.
Organizations involved with the exhibit included JCRB|AJC, Jewish Experiences, the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (MCHE), The J and HBHA. Upon the conclusion of the exhibit’s display, the stones were varnished and relocated to Mitzvah Garden KC.
The Chronicle’s Rosh Hashanah issue was dedicated to the victims of the Oct. 7 attacks and featured a story about Israeli Kansas Citians’ experiences in the year since the attacks.
Antisemitism summit
In April, JCRB|AJC hosted Driving Out Darkness in the Heartland: 2024 Regional Summit on Combating Antisemitism. Composed of a Unity Seder at Kehilath Israel Synagogue on April 15 and a day-long symposium at Rockhurst University on April 16, the summit drew hundreds of attendants, both Jewish and not.
Scheduled to correspond to the 10th anniversary of the shooting at the Jewish Community Campus and Village Shalom, the summit featured more than 25 speakers and panelists from across the country with expertise in fields where antisemitism is experienced, including politics, education, social media, journalism and diversity, equity and inclusion.
United States Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, who is Jewish, was among the headline speakers. Also featured were AJC CEO Ted Deutch; AJC Director of Combating Antisemitism Holly Huffnagle; Charlottesville, Virginia, Mayor Mike Signer; Project Shema Executive Director Oren Jacobson; and Mindy Corporon, founder of anti-hate organization SevenDays.
Then-JCRB|AJC Gavriela Geller, Deutch and Emhoff closed the summit with a discussion about antisemitism. Emhoff spoke as a representative of the White House, saying that since the Oct. 7 attacks, “the work that I’ve been doing as part of the administration will continue. It’s taken on more importance, and I’m not going to stop. I have no choice but to be involved.”
Campus antisemitism
The University of Kansas was not immune to the nationwide eruption of university antisemitism. Widespread demonstrations against Israel and Zionism began in November of 2023 with walkouts and antisemitic chants, and additional disruptions continued into 2024.
The year began with KU’s Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity’s Israeli and American flags cut down from its flagpole on Jan. 1.
In February, the University of Kansas Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) interrupted and protested at an event featuring an Oct. 7 attack survivor. The event, part of the Faces of Oct. 7 initiative to share firsthand accounts of the attack, featured survivor Gal Cohen-Solal and was jointly presented by KU Chabad, KU Hillel and Students Supporting Israel.
SJP claimed on social media that the event “endanger[ed] the safety and wellbeing of Palestinian students on campus” and planned a protest in response. Police officers and security were on hand and protected event attendees, ejecting SJP students who shouted anti-Israel messages at Cohen-Solal. Outside the event, protestors marched through the student union wearing keffiyehs and shouting anti-Israel slogans.
All Jewish organizations on campus condemned the protestors and stood in solidarity with Jewish students.
In May, SJP protestors began an encampment at KU, shortly after the University of Missouri — Kansas City’s branch set up a one-day encampment. Anti-Israel protesters chanted and carried signs with slogans such as “Intifada Now,” “Never Again for Anyone,” “Zionism Harms Jews,” “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” and other messages condemning Israel, Zionists, the United States government, the university and its administrators.
The KU pro-Israel community was quick to respond. An estimated 30-to-40 students, most of them Jewish, stood across from the encampment, some draping themselves in Israeli flags and holding photos of the hostages taken by Hamas. Not all Jewish students were against the SJP protest; some partook, holding signs reading “Jews for Palestine.”
After multiple warnings from the university and the police, the encampment was dismantled by the police on the night of May 10.
KU Chabad and KU Hillel issued statements condemning the encampment and supporting Jewish students. U.S. Senator Roger Marshall and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach condemned the protestors as well.
Maccabi Games
Kansas City was named the host site of the 2026 JCC Maccabi Games this year. The 2026 games will be the first ones in Kansas City since 1997, when nearly 800 Jewish teens participated, and community members welcomed delegates and athletes.
The Maccabi Games are an Olympic-style sports competition that engages Jewish teenagers in experiences to deepen Jewish identity and values through competition and sportsmanship.
“We look forward to using the knowledge and experience we have gained over the past 30 years to create a memorable experience for our local delegation, the participants and, most importantly, our community, as we bring the JCC Maccabi Games to Kansas City once again,” The J’s Director of Sports and Recreation Bob Hennecke said.
The announcement of the upcoming Kansas City games came shortly after 22 local teens won medals at the 2024 Maccabi Games in Houston, Texas. Kansas City’s 2025 team is being assembled to compete in next year’s games.
