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“The Whispering Town” by Jennifer Elvgren; Illustrated by Fabio Santomauro. (Kar-Ben Publishing, 2014.)

“Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust” by Loïc Dauvillier; Illustrated by Marc Lizano. (First Second, 2014.)

“Hidden Like Anne Frank: 14 true stories of Survival” by Marcel Prins and Peter Henk Steenhuis. (Arthur Levine Books, 2014.)

By Andrea Kempf

Contributing Reviewer

As we recall the Holocaust on Yom HaShoah this year, take a look at several newly published titles that will educate and inform younger members of the community, and indeed children everywhere, about the horrors of the Holocaust. All three books are about the goodness and bravery of people throughout Europe who hid Jewish children and protected them until the Germans were defeated.

“The Whispering Town” is set in a small Danish town where Jewish families are hiding until they can be smuggled onto a boat that will take them to freedom in Sweden. A young girl named Anett knows how to procure extra food, clothing and even library books for the guests in her family’s cellar. Then when a lack of moonlight prevents the guests from making their way to the boat waiting in the harbor, Anett devises a plan that she shares with her friends in the village. Everyone whispers directions to the fleeing guests. This whimsically illustrated book is charming and appropriate for children 3 years and up.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER — Rabbi Herbert Mandl, rabbi emeritus of Kehilath Israel Synagogue was the keynote speaker recently for Benedictine College’s annual Day of Discovery. Each year, the school cancels its classes and meetings to allow for student presentations and the special keynote event. Rabbi Mandl, who is an adjunct lecturer in Judaica in the Department of Theology at Rockhurst University, was invited to speak at the Catholic university because earlier this year he became the first rabbi ever to gain access to the heavily guarded, 500-year-old Apostolic Library inside the Vatican. His topic was “Secret of the Vatican Library.”

CONGRATS NORMAN THE ZEP MAN — It’s not often these days anyone works for one company for 50 years, but that’s exactly what Norman Baellow did. Earlier this month Norman the Zepman — yes, he is my father — celebrated his 50th anniversary as a salesman for Zep Manufacturing Co. selling industrial cleaning chemicals. He also celebrated his retirement after more than 60 years in the workforce. Mazel tov Dad on a career worth celebrating! 

By Barbara Bayer

Editor

Senseless. Tragic. Speechless.

These are just a few of the sentiments voiced by the greater Kansas City community Sunday immediately following three murders at the Jewish Community Campus and Village Shalom.

While the community has had a few days to digest the events of Sunday, April 13, members of the Jewish community are still rattled and unsettled by the tragedy.

By Tuesday the facts were beginning to become clearer to investigators. The alleged shooter shot two people, a grandfather and his grandson, at approximately 1 p.m. in the parking lot outside the Lewis and Shirley White Theatre entrance at the Jewish Community Campus. Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass reports that dispatchers received the first 911 call at 1:01 p.m. 

By David Small

Publisher

I was afraid. I was afraid I was going to lose my daughter Sunday.

I dropped my daughter off at the Jewish Community Campus 15 minutes before the 911 call was placed and Reat Underwood and Dr. Corporon were shot. I was afraid for the longest 60 seconds of my life because I thought I had sent my daughter inside the building to the shooter. An out-of-uniform policeman yelled at me to flee the building — “there’s been a shooting.” I ran into the building during those 60 seconds and it was only Jacob Schreiber — the Jewish Community Center’s executive director and CEO, who put his hand on my shoulder as I ran past him that signaled it was going to be OK (for us).

Victor Wishna

Guest Columnist

(JTA) — Every Friday at noon, my 2-year-old daughter and I rush through the doors of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City here to meet my father for lunch.

We are usually late, and the JCC’s Heritage Center, catering to active seniors (and their preschool-aged guests), is only our first stop. Vivien refuses to leave until she and Zayde have had a run of the entire building. At the White Theater, she chatters on about the time she saw “Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins.” She reads books about Purim and Passover in the library, points out the most colorful paintings hung in the atrium and chases soccer balls around the gym until it is time to go.

Compiled by Chronicle Staff

Dignataries from across the country and all over the globe — Jewish and non-Jewish — sent messages to the Kansas City community Sunday night and Monday. 

President Obama issued this statement Sunday night following the shootings:

“This afternoon we heard reports of a horrific shooting in Overland Park, Kan. Michelle and I offer our thoughts and prayers to the families and friends who lost a loved one and everyone affected by this tragedy. I have asked my team to stay in close touch with our federal, state and local partners and provide the necessary resources to support the ongoing investigation. While we do not know all of the details surrounding today’s shooting, the initial reports are heartbreaking. I want to offer my condolences to all the families trying to make sense of this difficult situation and pledge the full support from the federal government as we heal and cope during this trying time,” JTA reports.

By The Chronicle Staff

The suspect in the April 13 shootings at the Jewish Community Campus and Village Shalom that killed three people has been identified by Overland Park police as Frazier Cross. Police report he also goes by Glenn Frazier Miller or simply Glenn Miller. The Anti-Defamation League, and the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR) have confirmed that Cross is a white supremacist from southwest Missouri with a career in hatred and white supremacy that has spanned more than three decades.

On Tuesday Johnson County prosecutors filed two types of murder charges against Cross. He is charged with one count of capital murder in the killings of Dr. William Lewis Corporon and Reat Griffin Underwood at the Campus. A conviction could result in the death penalty or life without parole. Prosecutors will determine at a later date whether they will seek the death penalty.

By Barbara Bayer

Editor

People stuck inside the Jewish Community Campus on lockdown Sunday afternoon under the auspices of the Jewish Community Center report that things overall went smoothly. Girls attending a BBYO meeting at the Campus were not so lucky.

The group of nine teenage girls, members of BBYO’s B’not Lev chapter, were having a board meeting in Conference Room B on the second floor. Unlike most days, there was no adult supervising them and no one in the building came to officially tell them it was in lockdown mode, according to Logan Cole, the chapter’s 16-year-old president. The girls learned of the lockdown from a parent who happened to be in lockdown in the Social Hall.

By Barbara Bayer

Editor

I am not afraid.

Yes I was concerned and worried on Sunday. I knew a lot of people inside the JCC. My husband had just been there hours earlier. 

I was anxious about my friends and relatives who live at Village Shalom.

This is my neighborhood, so I was nervous about what was going on when we could hear sirens. Lots and lots of sirens. My children attended the elementary school, just down the road from Village Shalom and my home, where the suspect was apprehended.

But I am not afraid.

I will not be anxious the next time I go to the Jewish Community Campus or the Jewish Community Center. I drive by Village Shalom EVERY SINGLE DAY. 

By Barbara Bayer

Editor

You could describe Ricardo Zepeda as a Renaissance man. The Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy senior, who will graduate May 12, is an athlete, musician, scholar and leader. 

He serves as chapter president of the local USY chapter, vice president of summer programs for Midwest NCSY, a Torah reader, a Bar Mitzvah tutor, plays soccer and basketball, a camp counselor and an oboist in the Kanas City Youth Symphony.

Todd Clauer, HBHA’s Upper School principal, describes Ricardo as a “passionate young man who relishes every opportunity to learn and grow, whether it be in the classroom, in sports, in a music hall, or as a highly engaged leader in Jewish youth organizations.”