Millennial is a term being bantered about that many non-millennials don’t understand. Jeff Fromm understands it and he’s on a mission to help others learn  what the term means and why those regarded as millennials are important.

Fromm, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom, is the executive vice president at Barkley, the largest 100 percent employee-owned advertising agency in the United States. He is also considered one of the country’s top experts on millennials. He’s been interviewed about the subject for the Wall Street Journal and has been mentioned in Time and Forbes magazines as well.

Just last month Fromm’s new book, “Marketing to Millennials: Reach the Largest and Most Influential Generation of Consumers Ever,” was published by the American Management Association. Co-written by Christie Garton, the book is available at amazon.com and Barnes & Noble — both in stores and online.

Fromm will speak about millennials, and sign copies of his book, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Friday, July 19, at the Jewish Community Center. The event is free but reservations are requested by calling the JCC front desk at 913-327-8000.

So exactly what is a millennial?

Fromm explains it’s a person who was born in the late ’70s all the way to the year 2000. There are more than 80 million millennials in the United States today. That generation currently accounts for 21 percent of the discretionary buying power in the United States and that percentage is expected to continue to rise.

Fromm, 47, who has spent his entire career in advertising, said millennials are very influential in the world today.

“They are changing every industry and non-profit,” Fromm explained. “This is not a Jewish phenomenon. It’s an everybody phenomenon because they have a huge thirst for adventure and they like to try and test and experiment.”

Millennials are so important, Fromm believes, that if businesses and organizations continue to act and communicate in traditional ways they will not be embracing this particular consumer group.

In fact he said the influence of millennials is changing our economy, which he calls a “participation economy.” In this type of economy, Fromm said millennials want to co-create the customer journey by which they are going to receive these products.

“They also want to co-create the marketing and social media by which we are going to communicate with them. So they want involvement and engagement activities that historically have not been part of products and services in the past.”

In other words, he explained the new definition of brand value is functional plus emotional plus participative benefit divided by price.

“The old definition did not have participative methods in the numerator,” he said.

His said non-profits — both Jewish and non-Jewish — are struggling these days because millennials want a vote and a voice in how things are done in these organizations. He once again goes back to the point that they want to participate and co-create.

“If you are the Jewish Federation and you want to embrace millennial trends, let them direct the dollars to the charity of their choice. If you are a congregation, let them be involved in the creation of the programming,” he suggested.

He believes it’s important to understand various social media trends that attract millennials, because it’s not just millennials these trends attract. In fact Fromm believes those organizations that ignore these trends and the participation economy impact of millennials will not survive.

“It’s not just 80 million people, which is a huge number, it’s that they are going to influence the folks who are 39-year-olds who are not millennials but who are following trends and want to be involved and engaged,” he said.

This book came from two research projects Fromm conducted on millennials. The first was completed in 2011 and the second came out the end of June. The complete research can be accessed at http://barkley.s3.amazonaws.com/barkleyus/AmericanMillennials.pdf.

He said the book is for anyone — a business owner, marketing person or lay or staff non-profit leaders — who wants or needs to understand who millennials are and what they need.

“This book will help them understand the trends and be able to adapt and thrive versus not understand and not thrive,” Fromm said.

“It’s for the 40-, 50-, 60-year-old business book reader who wants to understand how they can continue to achieve while dealing with a generation of people who are way different than them,” he said. “The differences are very significant. For example I didn’t grow up texting girls who I want to date or using Twitter.”

He pointed out that millennials are two and a half times more likely to adopt new digital, social and mobile technology.

“But we don’t see organizations delivering sermons to millennials in 30-second units or 1-minute units or 6-second vines (a vine is a 6-second video),” Fromm said.

The book, Fromm continued, is even for people “who are just in the workforce trying to understand colleagues who are 20 or 30 years younger and wonder why they do all these things that they don’t understand.”

Fromm’s co-author is a former USA today writer. He said by adding her to the team they were able to put together a book with the best possible story with the best possible marketing strategy.

“She’s great at storytelling and I’m great at marketing strategy so it’s a great book,” he said.

In addition to this new book, Fromm regularly writes a blog — millennial marketing.com — where people can get ongoing information about millennials anytime. The blog is at http://millennialmarketing.com/.

Fromm will not profit from the sale of the book because he did it using some of Barkley’s resources. But he does hope people who read the book — and the businesses and organizations they are associated with — will profit and grow from it.

“I’m hoping that people will learn new techniques that will allow them to thrive in their lives or develop new ideas. I know non-profits likes synagogues want to increase their membership so I’m hoping that they can adopt new ways of thinking that will allow them to attract people that are currently not participating. There are new frameworks in the book so I would encourage them to consider the new frameworks as ways to re-energize.”

Last year one Israeli Scout leader — Shir Gilo — spent the summer at Camp Naish, the 1,100-acre Boy Scouts of America camp located in Bonner Springs. She enjoyed it so much that she brought 12 teenage Tzofim (Scouts) — nine boys and three girls — and a second adult leader back with her this year to get a little taste of what she experienced last year.

Gilo, a 25-year-old native of Beit Hashmonay, a small village located about 5 kilometers south of Ramla in central Israel, wanted to return to Camp Naish because she missed the people she met last year.

“I still miss them. I don’t have enough time to spend with everyone,” she said, noting the limited amount of days the Israelis were actually at Naish.

“I had a great experience last year and I wanted to give others a chance to be a part of it and feel the same warmth and love I felt and to meet people from another culture,” she continued.

Gilo got connected with the camp last year when she met a group of people from Leawood who were visiting the Gezer Region as part of the sister-city relationship between the two communities as well as the close relationship the Israeli community has with the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City. This visit grew out of efforts to continue strengthening these relationships.

The group arrived in Kansas City on June 21 and returned to Israel on July 2. They stayed with host families, many of which are connected to Congregation Beth Shalom’s Troop 61, before and after they went to Naish. The host families showed them many sites in the area. As a group while they were at camp they also visited the Grammy Museum Experience and the College Basketball Experience, both connected to the Sprint Center.

Tom Johnson, the Heart of American Council international scouting committee chairperson, explained the Israeli Scouts came as a pilot project of a wider International scouting camping experience to broaden the understanding of scouting internationally. He pointed out that scouting is one of the world’s largest youth movements, with a membership of more than 34 million Scouts who live in 216 countries. Today there are 60,000 Jewish Tzofim in Israel, with another 25,000 Arab Tzofim participating in the program.

“The scouting ethos, our Scout oath and law, is the same worldwide, as first written by Lord Robert Baden-Powell of Gilwell, U.K.,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the Israeli Scouts took part in the BSOA’s Venturing program.

“It’s coed and aimed at young people ages 14-21. It is one of the most popular programs we have with loads of international opportunities,” he explained.

This summer a group of Kansas City Scouts will visit the Swiss Alps at Kanderstag. Gilo and Johnson said there are hopes that a group of local Scouts will soon travel to Israel to see how Scouting works there.

“The Heart of American Scout Council’s International Scouting Committee is developing a sister Scout exchange program with Gezer, Israel, to parallel the city of Leawood’s program with Gezer. This Scout exchange is the first pilot activity, and we could not have been more pleased with the outcome this week,” Johnson said.

Coincidentally another group of officials from the Gezer Region were visiting Leawood at the same time, and got a first-hand look at Camp Naish during their visit in an effort to get this scouting exchange off the ground.

“We plan to make this an ongoing part of our full program and are committed to foster better relations of culture understanding through the scouting programs in both of our countries,” Johnson added.

“Our vision is to make this into something that happens every year with kids in eighth grade. We hope kids from Kansas will go to Israel and we will take them to our summer camp. We feel that it will be good because our kids are really enjoying it here and next year the kids that are now in seventh grade will have the opportunity to come to Naish also,” Gilo added.

While at Naish, Johnson said the Israeli Scouts experienced a full range of program activities including orienteering, pioneering, fire building, camping, cooking, hiking, scuba diving, Frisbee golf, climbing and rappelling.

Last week on one of the hottest days of the year so far, Gilo took a little time out from her day along with two other Scouts, Tahel Mantel and Tal Dahan, both 13-year-olds who will enter eighth grade in the fall, to discuss their time at Naish and their visit to the Kansas City area.

Neither Tahel — one of the three girls on the trip — nor Tal spoke English well. But as they spoke of their experiences in Hebrew, which were then translated by Gilo, they always had huge smiles on their faces.

“Kansas is beautiful, and it’s very expensive,” Tal said.

In English, Tal said communicating with the Americans at the camp was going “so-so.”

“I don’t speak English very good,” he said, “but my friend Brian is helping me with everything.”

Gilo said the language barrier was a small challenge, not a huge problem, for the kids and said it is amazing to watch them become friends with each other.

“They find a way to communicate and be friends. Today we had a program where they had to learn cooperation and learn teamwork and it went well,” she said. “It’s amazing to see them so connected in just three days. The first time they saw each other it was like magic. Sometimes they speak with their hands and sometimes they speak with their mouths and sometimes they are just smiling.”

Tahel said she and her Israeli friends love the camp staff and have a really good connection with them. They also love the other Scouts participating in Venturing Camp.

Both of the Israeli Scouts, Gilo said, were really impressed with the way the local Scouts respected the American flag and Scout traditions. They did a variety of things while “in Kansas” as they say, including visiting the Cosmic Dome in Olathe and shopping. They also went to the pool at the Jewish Community Center.

“I think they had a really good time there,” Gilo said.

Tal’s family took him fishing, which was a brand-new experience for him.

On behalf of Tal and Tahel, Gilo said this area is a very beautiful and interesting place filled with wonderful people.

“They are having so much fun here and they all want to come back. They feel like little ambassadors of Israel and they are very proud of our country and to be here and represent our country,” Gilo said.

“They really appreciate the efforts that all the people around here do for us and take care of us every place that we go,” she said. “They also like to find the similar things that Americans and Israelis have.”

All the Israeli Scouts had to pay for their trips here, which Tal characterized as “an experience of a lifetime.”

“We don’t want to leave.” Tahel said. “We will never forget it.”

University of Kansas sophomore Evan Traylor has been elected as the first teen to become a full member of the North American Board of Trustees of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ).

Steve Sacks, URJ board of trustees chair, said of this historic decision, “The URJ board is saying that the voices of our young people are important, not just because our constitution requires it, but because we really do want to hear the voices of our teens represented in the movement’s governing body.”

Traylor, who is 19, said being the first teen elected to the URJ board is an enormous honor that will come with a lot of responsibilities and commitment to the Reform movement.

“Nearly two years ago, the URJ launched the Campaign for Youth Engagement, a movement-wide initiative to more effectively engage the younger generation of Reform Jews. My election to the URJ board, involving more youth in the URJ’s leadership, is an incredibly tangible part of achieving success for our movement,” he said.

Being a part of the URJ board includes serving on select committees and task forces, as well as attending several board meetings throughout the year. This will require Traylor, who is majoring in political science with minors in Jewish studies and leadership studies, to travel during the school year.

“While I will have to miss some classes during this school year to attend meetings, most notably the URJ Biennial in San Diego this December, I have found that professors at KU have been extremely understanding with my travel schedule over this past year while I served as the president of NFTY,” he said.

Traylor said it was an incredible honor to serve as North American Federation of Temple Youth president for the 2012-2013 term.

“I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to serve Reform Jewish teens in such a meaningful and powerful way. As part of the position, I served on staff at the URJ Kutz Camp in Warwick, N.Y., traveled to several NFTY regions, helped to plan and coordinate NFTY’s North American level event, NFTY Convention 2013, and even traveled to Israel to collaborate with progressive Jewish leaders from around the world. NFTY is an incredible youth movement and I’m glad I could represent NFTY in this position,” he said.

Since beginning his studies at KU, Traylor has been very involved at Hillel.

“As soon as I entered the KU community this past fall, I immediately felt a part of the KU Hillel community. I was extremely active this past year in KU Hillel, including attending almost every Shabbat event and participating in the Freshmen Leadership Series. For the fall 2013 semester, I am serving as a KU Hillel Freshmen Engagement Intern, working to welcome all of the new Jewish freshmen students into the KU Hillel community,” he said.

Jay Lewis, KU Hillel’s executive director, said Traylor is a “terrific young man.”

“We are thrilled that KU attracts such outstanding emerging leaders. I am confident he has a long future in leadership in the Jewish community,” Lewis said.

The URJ represents nearly 900 Reform congregations across North America. Traylor was elected to the board during the organization’s annual meeting in New York City on May 31.

Traylor is the son of Ann Baumgarten and Ed Traylor of Edmond, Okla., where they are members of Temple B’nai Israel in Oklahoma City.

It is estimated that recent floods in Alberta, Canada, will cost the city of Calgary billions of dollars, leaving widespread and long-lasting damage.

In the aftermath of those floods, the Calgary Jewish Federation reports that many members of Calgary’s Jewish community have suffered major losses to their homes and some businesses. At the end of last week, were still homeless, awaiting a lift on evacuation orders.

Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City is joining Calgary’s Jewish Federation, as well as its network of Jewish Federations across North America, to help with a Calgary Flood Emergency Fund. The fund will help with immediate needs for victims of the flood, including

• Housing,

• Clothing and personal care items, and

• Temporary income for those whose livelihoods are lost.

“We have heard from a number of people who need immediate assistance, including housing or goods. Some are out of work because of the crisis. Some are being told their employers will not be open for several weeks, and therefore they have will have no income,” said Drew Staffenberg, Calgary Jewish Federation executive director.

“I would like to tell you that the news has overstated the situation and devastation … but they haven’t,” continued Staffenberg. “Most homes in Calgary do not have flood insurance. Many of the homes affected suffered significant personal property and structural damage. We don’t yet know how long they will require temporary housing and support.”

“As always, 100 percent of donations to this fund will go directly to helping victims with immediate needs,” said Gail Weinberg, the local Jewish Federation’s director of financial resource development. “We feel fortunate that, due to our work, we are on the ground helping every day, so when crisis strikes, we can provide immediate assistance — just as we’ve done in the past with the Oklahoma City and Joplin tornadoes.”

Donations may be made at jewishkansascity.org, via phone by contacting Weinberg at 913-327-8123, or via mail by sending in a check to Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, 5801 W. 115 Street, Suite 201, Overland Park, KS 66211, Attn: Calgary Flood Emergency Fund.

Following the devastating tornado in Joplin in 2011, the network of 154 Jewish Federations across North America, Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City and Jewish Federation of St. Louis raised more than $250,000 to help people in Joplin rebuild their lives. More recently, Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City raised nearly $23,000 in emergency relief funds for victims of the Oklahoma City tornadoes.

ISRAELI CHAMPS —On June 30 the Optica International team became the Israel Men’s Slow-Pitch Softball champions. Four men with ties to the Kansas City community played on that team including Naftali, Yoni and Akiva Schwartz, who lived here while their father Rabbi Morey Schwartz served as rabbi of Congregation BIAV. Josh Wajcman, the son of Mindy and Davey Wajcman, has lived in Israel the past several years. The league plays ball on the Gezer field that was renovated in 1997 through the generosity of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City.

NEW ONLINE MAGAZINE — Jordy Altman, who became a Bar Mitzvah and was confirmed at Congregation Beth Torah, and moved to Los Angeles not long after graduating from the University of Kansas, has recently launched an online magazine. He describes 8Bit Bro.com as “the super online magazine that covers the best in pop-culture entertainment, featuring humorous articles that poke fun at today’s movies, television stars and unsung heroes of YouTube. It’s as if your favorite late-night talk show host was always online, providing you with the most crucial information for your off-beat brain.” He said he is currently running the magazine out of a tiny office in the heart of Hollywood and created 8Bit Bro after leaving CBS to pursue a career in comedy. You can see 8Bit Bro on a regular basis by visiting www.8bitbro.com or liking it on Facebook. Altman is the son of Julie and Ron Altman.

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM — Beth Sarafraz and Rivka Berger of Brooklyn, N.Y., are seeking stories about personal experiences with intuition, premonition or precognition for a book they are writing. Jewish Chronicle readers are invited to share such stories with us. The stories they have in mind would involve experiences where people obtained information through any means that defies logical explanation (such as in a dream). Paying attention to or acting on such information may have even changed, or saved, their lives. Send such anecdotal accounts to them at (chalamti chalom means I dreamed a dream) along with contact information. They ask all information be placed in the body of the email and that no attachments be sent.

VETS SHARE THEIR STORIES — The American Legion — the nation’s largest veterans service organization — has launched a new interactive Web page that provides a way for veterans and their families to keep the memories of military sacrifice alive. The new Web page — packed with stories, photos and videos, as well as a database — is now available at www.legion.org/honor.

“All veterans and military families are encouraged to share stories of their time in uniform and/or their family’s military legacy. This is one way in which The American Legion is continuing to honor America’s servicemen and women, past and present, who keep our nation safe,” said James Hall of New Jersey, chairman of The American Legion Magazine Commission, which oversees the organization’s website.

Readers have submitted more than 150 stories since the Web page officially launched in May. Those wanting to share their stories can go to www.legiontown.org to submit text and photos online. Once approved by an administrator, those stories will appear on the honor and remembrance Web page.

“We know that honoring our military heroes is incredibly important to our membership, and veterans and their family members everywhere,” said Hall, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. “Sadly, our World War II vets are dying off. We launched this Web page so that we could preserve their memories and heroic efforts for future generations. But of course this Web page is open to all veterans, regardless of time of service.”

JERUSALEM — As the mother of a young woman who came to Israel after the Young Judaea year course and became a lone soldier (without her family in Israel) and spent two years in the army, I was very moved interviewing Alana Gaffen.

Gaffen, and her parents, Steve and Eileen, moved to Leawood when she was 2 years old. In April, her parents, former members of Congregation Beth Shalom, decided to join their family in San Diego.

Gaffen, who graduated from Blue Valley North in 2010, studied in Israel as part of the 2010-2011 Young Judaea Year Course. Near the end of her gap year stay in Israel, she attended a Yom HaZikaron program (Israel’s Memorial Day for soldiers). At the ceremony, she was inspired by stories of Holocaust survivors as well as watching the crowd of soldiers.

“I saw they were doing something really big, and I called my mom and dad and told them I wanted to join the army.”

Her parents were not enthusiastic about the idea. But Gaffen kept pushing it until they arrived at a compromise — she would return to the States to attend college for one year.

Gaffen attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., where she said she learned a lot, but she kept talking to her parents about joining the Israeli army. Finally she put her feelings in writing and sent her parents a letter. The Gaffens then agreed.

She started the process for Aliyah while in Washington and became part of the Garin Tzabar in San Francisco, a program that facilitates service in the IDF for children of Israelis and Jews not living in Israel.

She made the move to Israel in August 2012. Much to her surprise she found people from her Young Judaea year course on the same plane, making the trip very emotional. “We were very excited,” she says.

The young soldier first spent three months on Kibbutz Hatzerim (a kibbutz four miles west of Beer Sheva, founded in 1946 by the Israeli Scouts), learning Hebrew and preparing for the army.

Then she was sent to Mikveh Alon, an army base near Safed, specializing in education programs and geared for soldiers who lack Hebrew skills.

“It was hard getting used to studying,” relates Gaffen.

After three months of Hebrew training, she decided she wanted to be in Caracal Battalion, an intensive combat unit for women where men and women serve together, side by side.

“I wanted something physical and something challenging,” she says.

So she decided, “I will go to the border between Egypt and Israel,” explaining the battalion’s job is to defend Israel from smugglers, infiltrators and terrorists.

Rather than focus on the possible danger of her job, Gaffen says she looks at it as “as defending something you really love.”

She completed her basic training in mid-June and then she began a three-month general combat medic’s course. When she completes it, she will continue training with Caracal for four months, then she will go back to her original unit. When she completes it, she will continue training with Caracal for four months, then she will go back to her original unit.

Gaffen signed up for two years and because she is now 21, that is all that is required of her.

Regarding the training she has received the past six months, she says, “It’s a lot of hard work but an experience of a lifetime. It’s been really awesome.”

“Home is Kibbutz Hatzerim where I live in a caravan, like a small apartment, with two roommates. I also have a host family. I’m so in love with my kibbutz, it will be difficult to leave.”

How do her parents feel at this point?

“They are really proud of me because I’m following my dream. I definitely want to go home for a visit in November for Thanksgiving when all my family is together. It’s really an important time for my whole family and I’d also like to see my college friends and my friends in Kansas.”

What happens when the year and a half left is finished?

“I definitely want to get a college degree, but I’m not sure where I want to do it.”

“The Day the World Trembled,” a recent book authored by Leon ‘Lee’ Levin was recently named a finalist in the 2013 National Indie Excellence Award contest. Although the book did not win in its category of Military Fiction, it was one of three finalists chosen.

The National Indie Excellence Awards was first started seven years ago to enhance the readership and award the best of the self-published books. These awards are “open to all English language books that are available for sale, including small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, and self-published authors,” as stated on the National Indie Excellence Book Awards website: www.indieexcellence.com.

“I was quite pleased to learn that the book was a finalist in the competition,” said Levin, “particularly since it is national and there are thousands of entrants. The panel of judges is quite professional, and I’m delighted that my book made the final cut.”

Levin, the author of three books, has been working on “The Day the World Trembled” for 60 years!

“After doing voluminous research, I wrote the first draft when I was in my 20s,” said Levin. “I tried to get it published and got nowhere. Deservedly. It really was quite bad. I set the project aside, but couldn’t let it go since the story was so compelling. Every decade or so I went back to it, rewrote it, revised it, re-researched it.”

Based on fact, the book is historical fiction about the battle of Hannibal and his brother, Hasdrubal: Carthage against Rome. The outcome of this battle impacted Western civilization.

Levin has been focusing his writings on historical fiction. His previous two books were also in this genre: “The Messiah of Septemania” and “King Tut’s Private Eye.”

“Historical fiction, written and researched properly, has compelling interest for the reader since the tale is not merely the author’s imagination, but the story of what human beings did at times of exceptional difficulty and stress,” Levin said. “The trick is to believably bring those characters to life, since typically history tells what happened but gives little insight into the personalities of the protagonists.”

It was learning how to write historical fiction that allowed him to finish the book that had haunted his imagination for so long.

“I was learning how to turn history into fiction, while still maintaining total integrity about factual accuracy,” Levin said. “It looks like now I finally have it right. ‘The Day the World Trembled’ has received very fine reviews.”

The book is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and bookstores.

“I Am Forbidden” by Anouk Markovits. (Hogarth, 2013.)

“The Imposter Bride” by Nancy Richler. (St. Martin’s, 2012.)

“Brooklyn Love” by Yael Levy. (Crimson Romance, 2012.)

Recently several novels have been published that examine the nature of Jewish marriage. Each of these novels presents an insight into the lives of Jewish women in the modern world. Each novel has a very different manner of approaching the subject.

“I am Forbidden” by Anouk Markovits takes readers into the rarely examined world of the Satmar Chasidic community. The novel begins in World War II in Romania when two children in different families see their parents murdered. The boy Josef is rescued by the family’s maid who raises him as her son. Later Josef hides the girl Mila as her parents are being killed. Mila makes her way to a Satmar enclave. There, the Rabbi Zalman Stern hears of Josef and removes him from the maid’s care. The novel progresses from Romania to France and finally the United States. The reader sees the marriage of Mila and Josef, the alienation of Rabbi Stern’s intellectual daughter Antara who eventually leaves the Satmar community rather than being forced into an arranged marriage, and finally the fate of Mila and Josef’s granddaughter on the verge of her wedding day. This unblinking depiction of the Satmar community is fascinating, unsettling and knowledgeable. Like Antara, Anouk Markovits was raised in the Satmar community, but rebelled against its strictures.

“The Imposter Bride” by Nancy Richler is set in the Jewish community of Montreal just after World War II. A young woman named Lily arrives from Europe to make an arranged marriage. Her groom-to-be rejects her, but his younger brother steps in, marries her, and falls deeply in love. Nothing, of course, is as it should be. Lily has assumed the name and papers of another woman. She and her husband have a daughter, but she cannot continue to live a lie, and disappears. The bulk of the novel follows Lily’s daughter Ruth who yearns for the mother who could not remain in her strange marriage and eventually uncovers her secrets. This lovely novel examines the repercussions of the Holocaust, the need to escape history as well as the need to recover it. It is also a window on the vibrant Montreal Jewish community.

Finally “Brooklyn Love” by Yael Levy is a flat-out romance novel set in the Orthodox community in Brooklyn. Several marriageable young women are looking for husbands. There are problems, however, because Rachel wants to be an artist, Leah wants to go to medical school and become a doctor, and Hindy, who is not as attractive as her friends, only wants to marry a scholar. As the three of them move from shiddach to shiddach having miserable dates where there is no touching and no spark of attraction, the novel is by turns hilarious, heart-rending and constantly interesting. Levy knows the Brooklyn community. Every girl is hoping to find her beshert Each girl is following the strictures of the community, trying to please her parents, and trying to make a good life for herself. “Brooklyn Love” is a wonderful escape novel. The author is planning to write more romance novels set in the Orthodox community.

Andrea Kempf is a retired librarian who speaks throughout the community on various topics related to books and reading.

BVN GRADUATE NAMED PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLAR — A little over a year ago, in April 2012, we featured Gavri Schreiber as a Chronicle Salute to Youth. Maybe we should have waited a while to feature him because this was certainly Gavri’s year to shine. Earlier this year we told you that Gavri achieved a perfect score on his ACT exams, one of a handful of students in the entire area to do that. The Blue Valley North graduate earned a host of other honors this year including:

AP Scholars with Distinction

Kansas Regent State Scholar

Presidential Award for Educational Excellence

National Merit Finalist

The most recent, and possibly the most prestigious, was being named a 2013 U.S. Presidential Scholar. The U.S. Presidential Scholars program recognizes and honors the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors. In Kansas, only three seniors received the honor this year.

“Gavri multiplies his intelligence by combining it with curiosity and persistence,” said David Stubblefield, Blue Valley North principal. “He seeks to understand before he acts and when he decides to take action he has the initiative to ‘go for it.’ He has made the most of his high school experience.”

Gavri is one of 141 outstanding American high school seniors that have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, artistic excellence, leadership, citizenship, service and contribution to school and community. He, along with the other U.S. Presidential Scholars, was honored for his accomplishments in Washington D.C., earlier this month.

The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, appointed by President Obama, selects honored scholars annually based on their academic success, artistic excellence, essays, school evaluations and transcripts, as well as evidence of community service, leadership, and demonstrated commitment to high ideals. Of the 3 million students expected to graduate from high school this year, more than 3,800 candidates qualified for the 2013 awards determined by outstanding performance on the College Board SAT and ACT exams, and through nominations made by Chief State School Officers or the National YoungArts Foundation.

The 2013 Presidential Scholars are comprised of one young man and one young woman from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and from U.S. families living abroad, as well as 15 chosen at-large and 20 Presidential Scholars in the Arts.

Created in 1964, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program has honored more than 6,000 of the nation’s top-performing students with the prestigious award given to honorees during the annual ceremony in D.C. The program was expanded in 1979 to recognize students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, literary and performing arts.

Gavri plans to attend the University of Maryland where he has received a four-year scholarship and will be a Banneker Key Scholar. He will be a student in the Humanities Honors Program.

He is the son of Edna Levy and Jacob Schreiber and the grandson of Nouri and Claudette Levy, Simeon and Rose Schreiber of Bal Harbor, Fla., and Jeanine Schreiber of Forest Hills, N.Y.

STING DOING AUSCHWITZ — (JTA) Sting will play Poland for the first time at The Life Festival in Oswiecim, the city that was home to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The British rock icon will be performing June 29 with a five-piece band as part of his “Back to Bass” tour.

Festival creator Darek Maciborek, an Oswiecim-born journalist, is seeking to spread messages of peace and tolerance in his hometown. Sting is choosing to make his Poland debut here most likely because of the peaceful philosophy of the event and his involvement with human rights organizations, specifically Amnesty International, participating in the festival.

According to Haaretz, festival organizers had no response when questioned about holding a concert in a space with such a controversial and violent history.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers also were scheduled to perform but reportedly have dropped out.

The Life Festival, in its third year, has featured performances by James Blunt and Peter Gabriel.

“Healthy Heart and Mind: It’s ALL a Practice” by Shanna Haun. (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013). Also available in Kindle edition.

It is the hardest thing about being a mom, a wife and just a woman in general: accepting life is not perfect. I’m not the perfect mom, I don’t have perfect kids, and on top of that I can’t even force myself to eat perfectly, let alone have the perfect body. But our society still promotes this happily-ever-after goal of the family in the Colgate toothpaste commercial: really white teeth, super shiny hair and absolutely no yelling. And that’s what we aspire to.

But author Shanna Haun has given women the gift of permission in her book, “Healthy Heart and Mind: It’s ALL a Practice.” And I say permission because guess what? Shanna isn’t letting you off the hook. It isn’t a throw-caution-to-the-wind carpe diem let’s hold hands and sing “Kumbaya” tale of women surrendering to their bodies and their lives. Instead, it is permission to dive into the sometimes scary, always challenging pursuit of better health and fitness. And to do it one small change at a time, and to not be perfect, and to fall and to get back up and to have hope that you can feel better and live better, no matter where you are starting from. And permission to start today.

Shanna’s transparent take on the tale of her childhood, family and imperfect road to becoming a personal trainer and registered yoga teacher makes you feel like your own personal story has character. My childhood, my struggles, my story is no longer the reason I can’t do this, but instead the reason I can. And the honest and thoughtful stories of Shanna’s students confirm that if they can do it then I can do it, too.

In sharing her plan of eating, her go-to snacks and favorite healthy products, Shanna makes this healthy life doable in an every-single-day-kind of way. She tells readers that she doesn’t prescribe her plan of eating to anyone, but shares it simply because people are curious. I like that — because I am one of those nosey people! On the first day I started the book I read about Shanna’s lunch salads and I adopted the same for my own lunches. Now, more than a week later, I am getting loads more veggies than I did two weeks ago and it was just one small change. “No big life overhauls here,” Shanna likes to remind the reader regularly.

“Perfect does not exist. Practice is highly achievable!” is Shanna’s mantra. It turns my life into a Colgate toothpaste commercial overnight, simply by changing the goal. Instead of the white teeth, shiny hair, perfect mom goal, now I simply engage in living a healthier life, with self-loving efforts everyday — and that my friend is success!

Lauren Goldman is the art director of KC Parent Magazine and blogs about her second adventure through childhood with her two young daughters at raspberryprairie.com. This article first appeared on her blog.