Archived News

The table is being turned on a behind-the-camera fixture on New York’s theater scene. A Kansas City native and veteran photographer of production and publicity shots is herself about to become the center of attention.
Carol Rosegg, a graduate of Shawnee Mission East High School who grew up attending Congregation Beth Shalom, has been named recipient of the 2018 Friend of Off Broadway Award as presented by the Off Broadway Alliance. The award will be formally presented on June 19 at Sardi’s restaurant in New York in association with the annual Off Broadway Alliance Awards honoring the best Off Broadway shows that opened in the past season.

Sly James has issued his fair share of ceremonial proclamations in his tenure as mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. It takes only one raised index finger to represent the number of the mayor’s decrees read aloud from the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem’s Old City.
The honor and distinction of proclaiming Kansas City as “a Culinary and Cultural Sister City to Jerusalem, Israel” fell on Lon Lane, president of Lon Lane’s Inspired Creations, an established catering business located in Brookside. In early March and with the Kansas City mayor’s proclamation in hand, Lane and three dozen fellow caterers, chefs and their family members representing all corners of the United States spent a week in Israel as part of a Culinary Mission. This “learning journey” was associated with the International Caterers Association Education Foundation (ICAEF) of which Lane is chairman.

Ben Sayevich and his nephew, Aviad Sajevitch, want younger generations of Lithuanian Jews to learn the history of their ancestors through music and visual arts.
Sayevich is a native of Lithuania, a world-renowned violinist and a professor of music/violin at Park University’s International Center for Music. Sajevitch is a lifelong Israeli resident, a painter and a musician.
Both will perform along with additional family members and others at an event called “The Music, Art & Culture of Lithuania” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 23, at the 1900 Building in Mission Woods.

MARVIN SZNELER TO LEAVE JCRB|AJC — This month Marvin Szneler will celebrate 20 years as executive director and Bert Berkley chair for community relations for the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee. As he marked the anniversary, Szneler also informed the JCRB|AJC board of directors he intends to leave the position on September 7. He is moving on to another opportunity, which will be announced as September draws closer.
Szneler believes whoever is hired to succeed him will find the agency is in very good condition and “poised for continued success in every area.” JCRB|AJC programming has been scheduled through April 2019.

ANTI-BDS LEGISLATION STALLS IN MISSOURI SENATE — Our colleagues at the St. Louis Jewish Light reported last week the bill to combat the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel in the state of Missouri does not look like it will move forward. That’s because a Republican lawmaker plans to filibuster the bill, which would require companies that receive state contracts to certify they will not engage in a boycott of Israel.
According to the Jewish Light, opponents of the legislation, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have said it violates free speech rights. In January, a judge in Kansas ruled in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of an educator that the state cannot enforce a similar law because it violates the plaintiff’s First Amendment rights. The organization has also filed a lawsuit against an anti-boycott law in Arizona.
The bill’s co-sponsor, State Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur, and other proponents believe the bill is necessary to fight efforts to destroy Israel and strengthen economic ties between Missouri and Israel. Twenty-four states have approved similar legislation. Last month Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer signed a revised anti-BDS bill that will become law July 1. State legislators hope the revised bill will help clarify the original intent of the law in a way that would prevent court challenges.
Schupp, who is Jewish, said Missouri is “trying to become one more state that says we will not support economic policies that undermine our Democratic friend and ally, Israel.”
The Missouri House approved the legislation by a 111-35 vote, with a majority of Democrats voting against the legislation.

Former K.I. members and KC natives Sybil and Barry Kaplan moved to Israel in 2008. Six years ago they decided to move closer to their synagogue to the upscale neighborhood of Arnona, which as of this week is the home of the new U.S. Embassy in Israel.
Like others in their neighborhood, they wonder how having the U.S. Embassy a 10-minute walk from their home will impact them.
“From a purely political view, we are excited about this historic step. We waited too many years for this to happen,” Sybil Kaplan said. “Seeing the banners and posters hanging in our neighborhood with American and Israeli flags on them is very thrilling.”

Former Kansas Citian Rabbi Rachel Short and her husband Kelly Short had to evacuate their home on the Big Island of Hawaii Friday morning, May 11, after learning of the possibility that the Halema’uma’u crater near where they live could erupt.
“They are saying Kilauea is going to blow, meaning our house would be covered in volcanic ash, and we aren’t willing to take any risks since I’m pregnant,” said Rabbi Short, who is also the founder of Ahava ‘Aina, a sustainable synagogue on the Big Island located between Hilo and Volcano National Park.

Rabbi Zevi Wineberg asserts that most Jews are familiar with the rituals and practices of Judaism and that the philosophy behind them doesn’t really change: There is a God, and God said to do certain things, “and obviously you listen to God.”
From this philosophy has grown a treasury of ancient Jewish wisdom that embraces the essence of Judaism, which is born of love, Rabbi Wineberg said.
“Why did God make the world in the first place?” he said.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The following story is reprinted with permission of the author, an undergraduate student account executive in CLAgency with the University of Minnesota. Sarah Rosen is the daughter of Peter and Ellen Rosen of St. Paul, Minnesota. She attended the Talmud Torah Day School and graduated from Highland Park High School with honors. She is the granddaughter of Bonnie and Herbert Rosen of Overland Park.)

By Kim Kemppainen
University of Minnesota

“I always knew I wanted to work with kids, but I had never found the right avenue until I walked into the speech-language-hearing sciences (SLHS) department,” said University of Minnesota alumna Sarah Rosen.
Rosen’s story begins with SLHS 1401: Communication Differences and Disorders, simply an introductory class for most students. “I took the class because it sounded interesting. I had no idea that it would soon become my passion.”
“When I started at Minnesota, I was not set on a major or a career, but I knew that I wanted research to be part of my undergraduate experience,” said Rosen. “The UMN is known for being a leading research university, and that’s ultimately why I chose to continue my education here.”
For Rosen, research was an opportunity she had to pursue herself, not a guarantee.
“I started by searching through the SLHS website, looking at what projects professors were doing,” Rosen said. “When I read about Professor Benjamin Munson’s project with childhood speech development, I was immediately intrigued.”
Since Rosen had just taken Communication Differences and Disorders, this research project looked like the perfect opportunity to explore the questions she had regarding typical and atypical speech.
Although the project only listed positions for graduate students, Rosen decided to take a chance and reach out to Dr. Munson. Her risk paid off when he invited her to join the team.
“Professors get excited when students show a genuine interest in their research projects,” Rosen said. “My whole college experience changed because of one email.”
She encourages students considering speech-language-hearing sciences, or any other major, to “just take one class or send one email. There’s no harm in exploring your options.”

Hearing Research

Although she has finished undergraduate studies, Rosen continues to conduct research at the University of Minnesota with Dr. Robert Schlauch.
In May 2018, Rosen will have the unique opportunity to present her cochlear implant research at the Acoustical Society of America in Minneapolis. Rosen’s interest in cochlear implants was cultivated by one of the many undergraduate research projects she participated in during her time with the SLHS department.
“The idea of the project was to understand how patients with cochlear implants hear speech,” said Rosen. “The end goal is to improve their overall experience, but in order to do that, we first have to comprehend what using this device is like for them.”
After spending some time as a personal care assistant for a young boy with autism and hearing aids, Rosen understands the importance of looking at how hearing devices alter speech input.
“The way that minor adjustments to his hearing devices changed his ability to hear amazed me,” said Rosen. “I quickly learned how much happiness they brought him.”
Looking to the future, Rosen said, “Thanks to all of my experiences in the College of Liberal Arts and the SLHS department, my goals seem more achievable every day.”
When she started at Minnesota four years ago, Rosen only knew bits and pieces of what she wanted her future to look like. After earning a major in speech-language-hearing sciences, a minor in neuroscience, and a certificate in autism spectrum disorder, she’s a lot more confident.
Through her research and senior project, Rosen has found a way to combine her passions: working with children and making a difference.
Rosen took a semester off and will be pursuing her doctorate of audiology at Northwestern University in the fall. Her goal is to work as a pediatric audiologist as part of an infant cochlear implant team.”

The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah announced last week it is firming up plans to renovate its building. Those plans include taking all activities, except for the preschool, out of the building to other sites for much of 2019. The goal is to be back in the building before 2020, the congregation’s 150th anniversary.
Renovation plans include enlarging the Social Hall and the Chapel and adding spaces for a small prayer service, a gathering hall and a community commons area.

Rabbi Shaya Katz was giving thought some time back to the annual fundraiser for Community Kollel of Kansas City, and he had a novel idea: Why not give donors an opportunity to get directly involved in what they’re supporting?
That idea led him to create KC Kollel’s TorahThon, a first-of-its-kind fundraiser for the organization, scheduled for May 13 through May 19. Rabbi Katz’s goal is to gain sponsorships for 5,000 cumulative minutes of public, private and online Torah classes — that equates to a little over 83 hours of Torah learning throughout the community — and thereby raise $50,000.