News

This year will be remembered as one of the most difficult years ever. Between a worldwide coronavirus pandemic temporarily shutting down our community causing increased unemployment and economic uncertainty and racial injustice caused by violence and protest, more people in our community are hurting. There is one thing that is certain — Jewish Family Services has continued helping thousands making their lives a bit better through its many programs and services. JFS assists others regardless of faith, age, culture or lifestyle.

Just one act of kindness can start a ripple to change the world!

Entries are now being taken for the annual SevenDays® Make a Ripple, Change the World Scholarship competition, now under way in Kansas City as part of SevenDays® 2021, set for April 13-25. (Due to COVID-19, all SevenDays® events will be virtual.)

The Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City (“The J”) is excited to offer virtual and in-person art classes, led by professional art instructors. The ceramics classes will be in The J’s new expanded art studio, located at the Jewish Community Campus in Overland Park, beginning in January. The in-person classes will ensure safety precautions, including limited participants and a face mask requirement.

The pandemic has added yet another layer of stress facing our teens. Now Jewish Family Services’ YouBeYou program is offering additional resources online to help teens struggling with mental health issues.

During the October 2020 Congregation Ohev Sholom board of directors meeting, the board voted to allow congregation President Larry Gordon to proceed with a proposed project to honor Ohev’s confirmands by repurposing the main hallway of its building into a Confirmation Wall displaying all confirmation composites.

By Lacey Storer
Contributing Writer

When Melissa Taylor Standridge was sworn in Monday as the newest Kansas Supreme Court justice, she became just the sixth woman to ever serve on the court. And she is believed to be the first Jewish woman to hold that distinction.

By Mike Sherry
Editor

Leave it to a first grader to sum up Hanukkah in a way that is so simple and universal.

The Chronicle contacted the parents of the Hanukkah Art Contest winners. Here’s what the parents had to say about their children and their entries in their emailed responses.