Ian Hammer

Alana Muller and Marc Hammer announce the Bar Mitzvah of their son, Ian Alexander Hammer, at 9:30 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 27, at Congregation Beth Shalom.

Rachel Goldman and Joseph Elyachar

Andrea Elyachar of Overland Park and David Elyachar of Shawnee announce the engagement of their son, Joseph Daniel Elyachar, to Rachel Edith Goldman, daughter of Larry and Natalie Goldman of St. Louis, Missouri, and Karen Karty and Jim Blessing, also of St. Louis.

Marcie and Richard Komaiko

Marcie Ann Cooperman and Richard Andrew Komaiko were married Sunday, May 29, at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona.

Trudy Jacobson (from left) joins chef and What Jew Wanna Eat blogger Amy Kritzer and Barb Kovacs, Women’s Philanthropy campaign co-chair, at a recent campaign event.

Throughout her life as a businesswoman, volunteer and philanthropist, Trudy Jacobson counts a lot of strong women among her list of mentors.

“Praying the Bible: Finding Personal Meaning in the Siddur, Ending Boredom & Making Each Prayer Experience Unique” by Rabbi Mark Levin, available Aug. 5, 2016 from Jewish Lights Publishing, paperback, $18.99, or Amazon.com, $17.31.

Ellen Katz will perform her ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ retrospective at B’nai Jehudah on Saturday, Sept. 10.

An “edu-tainer” is someone who both educates and entertains and that’s exactly what Ellen Katz does with her retrospectives of super-musicals — the definition of a musical play that is brilliantly crafted and has social, cultural and artistic achievement.

STP BBQ — Smoked to Perfection, the Reserve Grand Champion team at the 2015 Kansas City Kosher BBQ Championship: Riley Johnson (front row, from left), Sebastian Fraley and Olivia Fraley. Back row: Lisa Bernard, Shane Johnson, Rabbi Mendel Segal, Scott Fraley, Food Network judge Simon Majumdar, Jerry Bernard and Justin Hansen. Photo by Josh Mawhirter

Tastes good. Looks good. Nice texture.

These are the three criteria the Kansas City Barbeque Society uses to judge entries in barbecue contests, and these same criteria will apply to entries in the 5th Annual Kansas City Kosher BBQ Championship.