The Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, alongside Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), is mobilizing a communal response to the super Typhoon Haiyan, which has wrought widespread destruction in the Philippines. Jewish Federation opened a mailbox to support relief efforts. One hundred percent of the funds raised in the Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund will be used by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) — JFNA’s partner agency –– to provide direct relief on the ground.

The typhoon, one of the strongest storms on record, has wrought widespread destruction. More than 10,000 people are feared dead, with reports of ocean surges as high as trees. The central city of Tacloban on the island of Leyte is among the worst hit on the Pacific nation. According to JTA, at least half a million people also have been left homeless by the devastating typhoon.

Currently, JDC is consulting with local officials, the Filipino Jewish community and global partners to assess the evolving situation on the ground. The Federation-supported JDC has led relief efforts for previous storms in the Philippines, and helped support the local Jewish community in a nation that sheltered 1,000 European Jews fleeing the Nazis during World War II.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Filipino people suffering from this unimaginable destruction and loss of human life, and to their family and friends around the world — including in Kansas City — who are so worried about them,” said Patricia Werthan Uhlmann, Jewish Federation board chair. “It is at times like this that I am so proud to be a part of two organizations that care so much, and are able to mobilize so quickly to help those in dire need: Jewish Federation and JDC.”

The JFNA Emergency Committee is coordinating the Federation response with JDC and its global disaster relief partners.

Donations are now being accepted to help victims of the typhoon. Again, 100 percent of donations will go directly to relief and recovery efforts. You may donate online at jewishkansascity.org/TyphoonReliefFund; donate via phone by contacting Gail Weinberg, director of financial resource development, at 913-327-8123; or donate via mail by sending a check to Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, 5801 W. 115 Street, Suite 201, Overland Park, KS 66211, Attn: Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund.

VOTE FOR HBHA TODAY BEFORE 5 P.M. — The students at HBHA got word on Nov. 6, the day AFTER The Chronicle printed, that several of its third-graders are among the top 10 finalists in the “Battle of the Brains” competition sponsored by Burns & McDonnell engineering. Even more bad timing for Chronicle readers, voting ends at 5 p.m. today, Thursday, Nov. 14. Thirty percent of the points determining the winning team come from these individual votes. The winning school receives a $50,000 donation to the school as well as an exhibit at Science City! You can only vote once per 24-hour period, but you can vote separately on Facebook, Twitter and, if you have more than one computer you can double-dip! Go to http://battleofthebrainskc.com/vote/. The winner will be announced on Nov. 20, and we’ll report the results in the Nov. 28 issue. More than 193 schools with a combined total of 3,500 students submitted 500 proposals, so no matter what the outcome, HBHA has a lot to be proud of!

VSU CUM LAUDE — The honors keep rolling in for Village Shalom University. The annual week-long, intensive-learning environment that is taught and attended by Village Shalom residents, staff, volunteers and community members recently received two top awards, adding to the kudos already reaped in 2012 from LeadingAge Kansas.

The Kansas Activity Directors Association (KADA) awarded its 2013 “Outstanding Activity Program of the Year” to VSU for elevating the quality of senior-adult programming by encouraging personal growth, social interaction and sustained involvement in lifelong learning.

VSU also captured the 2013 MOMBA “Best Resident Events” Award. MOMBA (“Mature Online Marketing Business Achievement”) awards recognize the most creative and original programs used by senior-living communities worldwide. The competition is sponsored by RetirementHomes.com, North America’s largest online senior-living directory.

The awards were presented in late October at the KADA 2013 Conference in Wichita and the LeadingAge annual meeting in Dallas, respectively.

FASTTRAC KICKS OFF ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION — The Jewish community’s own Alana Muller will be leading the kick-off celebration for the 20th anniversary of Kauffman FastTrac, a leading entrepreneurial education program started in Kansas City by Ewing Kauffman. The festive morning event next Tuesday, Nov. 19, is Connect @ The Roasterie, part of FastTrac’s popular Connect @ series of “cash mob-style” networking events. It also coincides with Kansas City’s celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2013. From 7:30-9:30 a.m. join Muller and meet FastTrac leaders, graduates, participants and fellow Kansas City entrepreneurs and support the business efforts of Roasterie founder and one of the first-ever FastTrac grads, Danny O’Neill. So toast FastTrac with a cup of Kansas City’s best java at the Roasterie Factory Café, 1204 W. 27th Street in Kansas City, Mo. — yes that’s the building with the airplane taking off from its roof! For more information, visit www.fasttrac.org.

The Jewish Community Campus opened to a grand celebration 25 years ago on Oct. 30, 1988. The anniversary passed quietly last week with no hurrahs, no special festivities. But it was business as usual and on the exact date of the anniversary, Oct. 30, 2013, a panel discussion took place bringing members of the community together in just the way the planners had envisioned.

“Bringing our Jewish community together and making it more cohesive are the underlying motives for the Campus undertaking,” wrote Rabbi Morris Margolies in October 1988 in remarks published in The Chronicle’s Commemorative Campus Issue. As rabbi emeritus at Congregation Beth Shalom, he was the community’s senior rabbi at the time the Campus was built.

During the early 1980s, leaders of the Jewish community began discussing the idea of bringing the Jewish Community Center, the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy and the agencies led by the Jewish Federation together in one place.

“We saw there was a need for a place for Jewish identity and participating for those who didn’t belong to Jewish country clubs,” George Lieberman was quoted as saying in a 1988 Chronicle article. At the time he served on the JCC board and was active in getting the Campus up and running, eventually serving as president of its board.

“By having a campus, we would be able to interrelate all the agencies to the Jewish community to provide the services which are needed,” Lieberman said at the time.

Members of four extended families donated the land for the Campus: Rose Morgan, Frank Morgan, Irene and Sherman Dreiseszun; Rita and Irwin Blitt, Bunni and Paul Copaken, Shirley and Lewis White; Sarah Ozar and Dorothea and Nathan Jagoda; and Lewis and Bessie Goldberg, Stan and Gerry Goldberg, and Phyllis and Irv Maizlish. Each of these families still has a representative on the Campus board of directors.

As Sol Koenigsberg, the executive director of the Jewish Federation when the Campus was built, noted in his 2012 book “Challenges and Growth, The Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, 1968-1989,” not everyone was in favor of a campus concept in the beginning.

“As progress was being made in planning and fundraising, a vocal minority expressed concern that a ghetto was being created. After a history of assimilation and of keeping a low profile, they felt that we were going to be seen as isolating ourselves from the general community. After the Campus was built, many of those who had held that opinion began to accept the Campus as a unifying entity. The vocal minority ranks diminished but has not completely disappeared,” Koenigsberg recalled.

‘A remarkable achievement’

Koenigsberg believes the creation of the Campus was a remarkable achievement.

“No one person should take credit for the concept of housing agencies in one building. It was a coincidence that the Jewish Community Center and the Hebrew Academy both needed a new facility at the same time. The Jewish Family and Children’s Service and the Central Agency for Jewish Education also needed to be relocated. It was readily understood that raising multiple capital fund campaigns at the same time was not practical nor was it reasonable,” Koenigsberg wrote.

Scott Slabotsky, who has been involved with the Campus since its inception as well as its largest tenant, the Jewish Community Center, since 1984, thinks the Campus has “worked out great.”

“I think it’s the jewel of the Kansas City Jewish community. It’s the single place that members of any congregation or unaffiliated can go regardless of their Jewish connection,” Slabotsky said. “It’s the only building that exists in this community where all ages can go for some benefit whether it’s socialization, cultural arts, education, athletics, tennis, swimming … we are so fortunate to have a facility like this in the community.”

The original 224,000-square-foot building cost $22 million to build and housed the Jewish Community Center — including its preschool, the Child Development Center, and its fitness facility — and the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy. Those tenants alone occupy about 82 percent of the square footage. The other occupants included the Jewish Federation, Jewish Family Services, CAJE, Jewish Vocational Services, Jewish Community Foundation, Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee and Menorah Medical Center. Menorah moved out after a few short years and the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education took over the space. Today St. Luke’s Health System also rents space in the Campus lobby.

Alan Bram, who was hired in 1987 to run the Campus and served as its helm until earlier this year, said, “The comprehensive Campus facilities provided the Jewish Community Center and Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy the special spaces they needed. Clean up-to-date office and program space was now available for all the tenant agencies.”

Until the theater wing was built nine years ago, many thought something was lacking.

“If you didn’t exercise there because you had a fitness center close to your house or you didn’t have kids in the preschool or the Hebrew Academy, there was no real piece of the Campus that could attract people of all ages at one time,” Slabotsky noted.

“When we created the design to build the theater 11 years ago and opened the theater in October of ’05, the Campus truly, in my opinion was completed. When I walk out of the theater on a Saturday night and see people of all ages … children and grandparents seeing a production … they all have options to go all kinds of other places and now you see hundreds and hundreds of people walk out of the Campus theater on a Saturday. That just warms my heart,” said Slabotsky, who has served a term as Campus president, was its treasurer for 15 years and has rarely missed a board meeting in 20 years.

In addition to the Lewis and Shirley White Theatre, the expansion includes space for the Heritage Center with its own kitchens as well as office space for the Jewish Community Foundation and JCC staffers and more meeting space.

A model for other communities

Bram said today the Campus is the focal point of the community.

“It is full of the hustle and bustle of participants of all ages taking advantage of expanded programming and services. Collaboration among agencies has become a reality providing for program growth while eliminating duplication,” Bram said. Dan Cullinan began running the Campus this summer.

Alan Edelman, the Jewish Federation’s associate executive director was the director of what was then known as the Jewish Education Council when plans for the Campus began taking shape. He is one of the few Jewish communal professionals who has worked in the building for its entire existence. He said planning for the building, before they even put a shovel in the ground, was very exciting.

“Before the Campus opened there were some examples of collaboration. But when you are under the same roof, it’s a lot easier to do programming and to meet professional-to-professional to come up with programs. It’s just a lot easier. That’s the most significant thing about being in this building,” Edelman said.

He can point to many examples as to why the Campus, and all the collaborative program it has spurred, has succeeded in its mission to bring people together.

“When you want to do a program for adults and you can offer babysitting for their children because you’ve got a great facility at the Campus through the JCC, that makes things really convenient,” Edelman said.

“Examples like that can be multiplied many times. For instance if the Academy or the CDC want to do multi-generational programming, you’ve got the Heritage Center here,” he continued.

Bram noted that the Campus was bringing people together even before it opened.

“The opening of the building brought the community a sense of pride and accomplishment. There were over 400 volunteers and staff involved in planning and overseeing the construction of the Campus, which was the first of its size in the country. It became a model for others to emulate,” he said

After 25 years, Slabotsky said it is still viewed as a model by other Jewish communities.

“We are still talked about in other cities. Houston, St. Louis and Salt Lake are my most recent conversations in my travels and it allows me to continue to be proud of what we have accomplished in Kansas City,” Slabotsky said.

Current Campus President Greg Wolf, who began his term Oct. 1, said when it comes to funding, the Campus is very secure.

“John Rubenstein raised a substantial sum during his tenure as president (which just ended) and we are on very stable financial footing,” Wolf said.

Over the years the Campus board has worked hard raising money and creating funds that can be used when money is needed for capital expenditures, Wolf explained.

“For example we just put a new roof on in the last two or three years and those are the types of expenses that you have to deal with with a building that’s 25 years old. We have absorbed those costs. The goal is to provide a positive place for all these agencies to be so their synergy is there and our goal is also to try to keep the cost of those agencies being there as low as possible,” Wolf said.

Slabotsky points out that the building has been very well maintained.

If you go to the Campus right now you could not tell that it’s 25 years old,” Slabotsky said.

Twenty-five years after it opened, Slabotsky is very glad the Campus was built.

“I could not imagine this community not having this.”

UPDATE: Rally against Nazi gathering, Saturday, Nov. 9, Kansas City’s Liberty Memorial

The Chronicle’s story below mentioned that at the time the printed edition of the paper went to press, no rally against the neo-Nazi gathering had been planned. By late Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 6, a diverse group of civil rights and human rights organizations, city officials and concerned individuals decided to gather to say NO to hatred and YES to human rights. This rally will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, at the Liberty Memorial, located at 100 W. 26th Street in Kansas City, Mo.

“This opposition rally is being planned by a wide coalition of community organizations which have come together to show our opposition to hate, and to let the NSM know they are not welcome in Kansas City,” noted the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee in an email to supporters.

The event is scheduled at the same time as a rally by the National Socialist Movement (Nazis), to be held in downtown Kansas City. The NSM rally is expected to draw participants from around the country. The theme of this rally is immigration.

The opposition rally is being held on Shabbat. Among those speaking will be JCRB|AJC Board Chair Dr. David Rudman, M.D., and Rabbi Mark Levin of Congregation Beth Torah.

An email to Beth Torah members noted that “Rabbi Levin reminds us, as we are about to celebrate Chanukah, that the Maccabees who did not fight on Shabbat were killed. Around 67 B.C.E., Mattathias and the Hasmoneans declared that it was permitted to fight on Shabbat to defend against attack to save lives.”

The board of directors of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education is also making its supporters aware of the event.

The Liberty Memorial rally is planned as a non-violent, non-confrontation event where individuals can gather peacefully to demonstrate their opposition to hate and to the National Socialist Movement’s presence in Kansas City.

The story published in the Nov. 7 print edition of The Chronicle follows in its original form:

The debate is raging on blogs and Facebook about what the Jewish community should do in the face of this rally. Peaceful protests have been suggested as a way to stand together and demonstrate the Jewish community’s unity in opposition to the NSM’s message of hate. At press time Tuesday afternoon, The Chronicle had not heard of a protest actually being planned.

Finding the middle ground is important to David Horovitz, the founding editor of The Times of Israel, the online newspaper that started publication in February 2012. After working previously as editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post and the editor of The Jerusalem Report, he saw a need for a publication with a more center view of Israeli politics.

“There are publications from the left and the right,” said Horovitz in a phone interview from Israel. “When I was at Jerusalem Post I tried to keep it fair minded. But I wanted a website that was not associated with one party or another.”

“Although we have been going less than two years, I have been vindicated,” he said. The Times of Israel’s subscribers are growing.

Horovitz will bring his viewpoint of Israel and the political environment here Sunday, Nov. 17, when he speaks at the Kansas City Israel Action Forum. Sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Forum’s keynote presentation will be on vital issues to Israel today. At the same time, he tries to give a journalism overview of life in Israel.

“I cannot be too specific because so much happens,” said Horovitz. “Things move so fast here. When I try to predict things, it is often difficult. Destabilizing events that no one thought would happen, like Morsi in Egypt and the election of Hassan Ruhani in Iran happen.”

Another destabilizing event was the cooling of the Israel/Turkey relationship. Once a strong ally of Israel, the relationship has changed dramatically over the past few years.

“(Recip Tayyip) Erdogan has been steering Turkey to a more Islamic direction. He has some basic facts and assessments wrong,” Horovitz said. “He thinks Hamas is not a terrorist group. He has a misguided view of Israel. Turkey is moving out of the European orbit and becoming more difficult. Turkey could become a powerhouse in the Middle East.

“Turkey is also involved in the Syrian conflict, which is a tragedy in and of itself,” Horovitz continued. “You have a president slaughtering his people, and the world is doing nothing. Even without the chemical weapons, he is killing. The international community is allowing this to happen. They are not stopping the evil.”

The same middle ground philosophy he uses directing the Times of Israel is the road Horovitz uses in his approach to AIPAC.

“They (AIPAC) often ask me to speak when they bring public officials to Israel,” he said. “I give them an overview on their first trip to Israel before they are pulled by political forces. I try to give the audiences current events in the Israel political scene — who is descending and who is ascending in power.”

He thinks it is most important that people realize “Israel is an astounding country with an astounding success story.”

“The achievements of reviving a land and a language in less than 150 years,” he said, is something people need to realize. “Israel solves water problems; people are awarded Noble Prizes; we do extraordinary things, but at the same times we have horrible challenges.”

These challenges are what people usually focus on.

There are people “who say they want us to make peace; they think we don’t want it,” he said. “But we do (want peace). The problems with the Palestinians and Syrians are so nuanced (and difficult). If it was obvious we would do it. We agonize because the challenges are so complicated.”

“There are issues we cannot solve by ourselves,” said Horovitz, “unless there are Palestinian leaders who will help us.”

However, he did say there are issues within Israeli society that the government can fix.

“We can fix the issues of inequality of national service,” he said. “The best and the brightest scholars should be able to study, but not the entire ultra-Orthodox community. The monopolies over life events need to be change. You cannot be born, married or die in Israel without it being in the hands of the ultra-Orthodox. Demographics have an impact on democracy. Intolerance is a problem. We need more tolerance of different streams of Judaism.”

Horovitz, who was born in Britain, also sees the challenges of the housing issue. He said the 400,000 people who took to the streets of Israel over a year ago made an impact on politicians, and people now realize that something needs to be done about the situation.

“Housing is very expensive in certain areas,” he said. “The Negev is under-populated. If we have a thriving Negev, we can provide more affordable housing.”

“The best way to understand Israel is to come,” said Horovitz. “For the first time in almost 2,000 years, we have our country back. It was too late to save the Jews of Europe. But it has been the revived homeland of the Jews. So they can flee and find a homeland and safety here.

“I will try to give people the second-hand sense of what Israel is like,” he said, “and inspire people to come to Israel and see what it is all about.”

Israel Action Forum

The AIPAC forum will be held from 1 to 3:15 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17, at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah. Cost is $25 per person. Advance reservations are requested. To register online visit www.aipac.org/KCForum2013.

“You cannot understand what someone is going through, but you can understand how painful it is,” said Rachel Kodanaz, who will present “Living with Loss: Commitment, Community and Continuity” from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16. It will be held at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, which is co-sponsoring the event with Jewish Family Services. Kodanaz tries to provide clarity to, what she calls, “the often overlooked experience of grief and death.”

“People do not want to speak about death, and shy away from talking about it,” she said. She knows, as she has experienced both the sudden death of a loved one and the grief that follows.

In 1992, Rachel’s life changed when her husband suddenly passed away leaving her with a 2-year-old daughter. She needed to face her loss and learn to accept the circumstances of her new life. Her journey became a commitment to help others.

“Grief is ongoing,” she said. “People have to do their own journey, and their journey might take a while. There are so many things to deal with that it might be a full year before the grief is there.”

Her main focus is that someone does not have to overcome grief in a day, rather it is a process. But she stresses, “You have to take care of yourself first. Take one aspect at a time, and redefine who you are and what you are doing.”

When Kodanaz makes a presentation she tries to be both real and upbeat. She thinks it is important to learn about ourselves, our families and moving forward. Living with loss means incorporating it into your life.

“You have to take each day and embrace it,” Kodanaz said. “And build a new relationship with the person you lost. It will come. You don’t get rid of them, you just have a new way of living with them.”

After her husband died, Kodanaz, who had been in a management position in a large corporation, began working with companies dealing with grieving employees. She wrote a column on grief in the workplace for “Living with Loss Magazine” for 10 years.

“It is not always the elderly who need help dealing with grief,” she said, “they expect it. It is those who do not expect it that need the most help!”

As scholar in residence at B’nai Jehudah, Kodanaz wants to help people work through their loss and realize how much life is left.

“It is important to provide hope,” she said. “If I am able to change one person’s outlook on their loss, I will feel successful.”

Rabbi Alexandria Shuval-Weiner, who is responsible for both lectures at B’nai Jehudah and serves as the rabbinic liaison from the Rabbinical Association to JFS, made the contact with Kodanaz.

“Death is part of life, every single one of us will experience many losses and many of us get stuck. Grief can be so deep that it can be very difficult to move forward,” said Rabbi Shuval-Weiner. “I see so many people who are struggling, and they think that they are alone in their grief. Rachel understands these emotions and from our conversations, she seems to be a woman with whom many in our community will resonate.”

Kodanaz was actually living in the Kansas City area and a member of B’nai Jehudah when her husband passed away. She lived here from 1991 until 1996.

“We hope that Rachel’s program will let attendees know that they are not alone as they move through their experience of grief, and that dealing with any kind of loss is a process made easier with the support and community and tradition,” said Celeste Aronoff, director of communications for JFS.

Kodanaz recently published “Living with Loss, One Day at a Time,” a book she hopes will help others. She focuses on commitment, which is to self; community, who needs to help you; and continuity to keep things going. She believes that you behaved in a certain way before the death of a loved one, you should still be the same way afterward.

The book will be for sale and a signing will follow the program, which is free and open to the community.

No matter who or what is in the headlines, you can bet the Capitol Steps will tackle both sides of the political spectrum and all things equally foolish. What more would you expect from the group that puts the “MOCK” in Democracy and sings songs such as “If I Tax a Rich Man?” The comedy group is the featured entertainment at the 2013 version of Kehilath Israel Synagogue Grand Givers, set for Saturday night, Nov. 16, at the synagogue.

The humor is not specifically Jewish humor, yet some songs and sketches may have a Jewish flavor to them. One of the five performers that evening, Brad VanGrack, is Jewish, as is pianist Marc Irwin.

Capitol Steps will perform songs from its new album, “Capitol Steps Fiscal Shades of Gray,” which will also be on sale that night. The group began more than 30 years ago, in 1981, as a group of Senate staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them. Although not all of the current members of the Steps are former Capitol Hill staffers, taken together the performers have worked in a total of 18 Congressional offices and represent 62 years of collective House and Senate staff experience.

Elaina Newport, who writes the show along with Mark Eaton, explained the show is a mix of songs and skits.

“For anyone who hasn’t seen our show, it’s the only place you can see Joe Biden sing a rock song and Barack Obama sing a show tune and Chris Christie do a classical ballet all on one stage,” she said.

You don’t really need to be a total news junkie to enjoy it.

“We will explain the news to you,” she said.

Speaking from her office in what she has dubbed “Capitol Steps World Headquarters,” in Washington, D.C., Newport said they perform about 400 shows each year, basically one every day along with an occasional lunch and dinner performance.

“We actually did a breakfast show the day the shutdown started. It was funny because it was Oct. 1 and Sept. 30 at midnight I was sitting at my computer with my hand on the send button getting ready to send lyrics to performers who, depending on whether or not the shutdown occurred at midnight, needed to know what the jokes were going to be,” Newport said.

As happens with anything involving current events, things often happen so quickly that performers have to find ways to learn their lines quickly or “cheat” their way through the performance.

“For example when Anthony Weiner tweeted his underwear, I wrote a song in the afternoon for an evening performance and I said to the woman, ‘Look, you can put this on your cell phone and you can look at your cell phone while you’re singing because you can pretend you are looking at the tweet that you got from Anthony Weiner.’ That worked perfectly,” Newman said.

Even in times when the material is so fresh and topical that the performers just plain don’t know it, Newman said the audience is entertained.

“One time we had a performer turn around and tell the audience, ‘You think this is easy? I just got this this afternoon.’ The audience just loved that moment because they knew the issue was very new. Then she backed up and started over. We get it done,” Newport said.

The Jewish VanGrack has been performing with Capitol Steps about 22 years. He travels all over the country with the group and enjoys the experience.

While there are numerous ways to learn Hebrew, one of the most comprehensive programs is right in our own backyard. Johnson County Community College offers Elementary Hebrew 1 and 2 classes for a fraction of what it would cost at a university.

Now in its fifth year, Israeli native Prof. Orit Kamara teaches the classes. She said she still finds many people who can’t believe this program is available. But it isn’t for everyone.

“This is a five-credit course, so it’s very intense,” Kamara said. “Not everyone has the time to devote to this. The student is committed to five hours in class, plus many hours of work at home with homework and quizzes. So it’s like 10 hours a week of Hebrew. You really have to have the time and the desire to do it. But there are many people who want it and are not aware that this option exists here.”

JCCC actually offered the class about 20 years ago, but then dropped it. So for about 15 years the only option for students who were serious about learning Hebrew was the University of Kansas. Then in 2009, JCCC brought it back with Kamara as the instructor, teaching Elementary Hebrew 1 in the fall.

“JUCO is trying to have a nice variety of languages offered in a local community — Italian, French, German, Chinese, Japanese — so having Hebrew and Arabic in the program helped,” Kamara said. “Many other places tend to close those classes that are not very popular or don’t bring in enough money, so I really appreciate that this college is trying to make the effort.”

Now, some students in Lawrence travel to Overland Park to take the Hebrew course at the junior college because it’s less expensive and the credits will transfer.

As the Hebrew program at JCCC grew, the college added Elementary Hebrew 2 for the spring semester. Kamara’s class is so popular that last year, because of student demand, the college also offered Intermediate Hebrew 1 and 2 as independent study courses, with 10 students enrolled. The college is currently conducting enrollment for spring classes.

“I’m guessing we’ll have it again next year, but only if we have enough students. The college wants to see some continuity,” Kamara said. “And I’m guessing there will be enough students because this year I have 18 students in Elementary 1 and I know for sure there are some who want to continue to the intermediate level.

“It’s not like in Hebrew school or taking it just because you have to take it. People who come here are really motivated and it makes it a really fun group of people.”

Students of all ages and religious affiliation are taking Kamara’s class. She said the youngest was a 17-year-old girl who took the class three years ago because she wanted to join the IDF when she graduated from high school. Kamara ran into her recently and learned she is in her second year serving the IDF in Israel.

The oldest, a retired doctor in his 80s, was in her first class.

She knows of another alum who left for Israel just a few weeks ago to join the IDF, and one who made aliyah.

“So there’s a variety of reasons why people want to learn Hebrew. I have had Jewish, Christian, Messianic and even a Muslim once or twice,” she said.

Kamara said there has been a total of 65 students in the program.

Teaching method

Because this is a credit class, it has a different standard than Hebrew classes taught at synagogues or the Jewish Community Center. One of Kamara’s first-year students recently told her that she learned more about Hebrew in the first month than her sister had learned in years at a synagogue.

“It’s involved not only with learning to read, which is what they do at synagogues, but actually conversational Hebrew, and part of it has to do with Israeli culture — not only the Jewish culture but a lot of exposure to Israel,” she said. “For this level of Hebrew, there isn’t anything like it in the area. The closest thing where someone can take Hebrew like this is at KU.”

As an example of one of her assignments, Kamara said she would send a clip home with students about the innovation in Israel. Students need to list the items that are made in Israel, then discuss it in class in Hebrew.

Kamara said her teaching method is not unique, but she tries to improve on the class each year. Right now, she is using PowerPoint during class so she can show lots of pictures while she’s talking. Then she sends a summary of the PowerPoint program home with the students, including her own lecture. She records herself so students have the lesson available to them at home. This is especially useful when new words or new grammatical structures are introduced, so students hear pronunciation and proper grammatical usage.

“I think it’s getting better and better every year, and I get a very positive feedback from the students,” she said.

“The other thing I just recently developed this year is a set of games, board games for the very early stages of learning. In our class we cover it in the first three weeks of class, but in Sunday school it would probably be something you would cover in two years,” she continued.

The board games allow students to practice certain words they learned, reading the words and putting them together into sentences. They’ve proven extremely popular with the beginning Hebrew class.

“Because learning Hebrew is not easy, it’s challenging, so you want some rewards. These games are fun and I’ve found it doesn’t matter how old they are, everyone is enjoying it and getting into the mode of wanting to win the game,” Kamara said. “Hebrew is not a language you would normally take just to fulfill a requirement, so I’m lucky to have students who really want to learn. It makes it much easier for me as a teacher.”

Kamara and her husband Efi moved to the United States from Israel 12 years ago when he was relocated. He works for Amdocs and they live in Overland Park. Their daughter Gili finished her service with the IDF and is now studying at Technion in Israel. Their other daughter, Lior, is studying to be a veterinarian at Kansas State University.

While there are numerous ways to learn Hebrew, one of the most comprehensive programs is right in our own backyard. Johnson County Community College offers Elementary Hebrew 1 and 2 classes for a fraction of what it would cost at a university.

Now in its fifth year, Israeli native Prof. Orit Kamara teaches the classes. She said she still finds many people who can’t believe this program is available. But it isn’t for everyone.

“This is a five-credit course, so it’s very intense,” Kamara said. “Not everyone has the time to devote to this. The student is committed to five hours in class, plus many hours of work at home with homework and quizzes. So it’s like 10 hours a week of Hebrew. You really have to have the time and the desire to do it. But there are many people who want it and are not aware that this option exists here.”

JCCC actually offered the class about 20 years ago, but then dropped it. So for about 15 years the only option for students who were serious about learning Hebrew was the University of Kansas. Then in 2009, JCCC brought it back with Kamara as the instructor, teaching Elementary Hebrew 1 in the fall.

“JUCO is trying to have a nice variety of languages offered in a local community — Italian, French, German, Chinese, Japanese — so having Hebrew and Arabic in the program helped,” Kamara said. “Many other places tend to close those classes that are not very popular or don’t bring in enough money, so I really appreciate that this college is trying to make the effort.”

Now, some students in Lawrence travel to Overland Park to take the Hebrew course at the junior college because it’s less expensive and the credits will transfer.

As the Hebrew program at JCCC grew, the college added Elementary Hebrew 2 for the spring semester. Kamara’s class is so popular that last year, because of student demand, the college also offered Intermediate Hebrew 1 and 2 as independent study courses, with 10 students enrolled. The college is currently conducting enrollment for spring classes.

“I’m guessing we’ll have it again next year, but only if we have enough students. The college wants to see some continuity,” Kamara said. “And I’m guessing there will be enough students because this year I have 18 students in Elementary 1 and I know for sure there are some who want to continue to the intermediate level.

“It’s not like in Hebrew school or taking it just because you have to take it. People who come here are really motivated and it makes it a really fun group of people.”

Students of all ages and religious affiliation are taking Kamara’s class. She said the youngest was a 17-year-old girl who took the class three years ago because she wanted to join the IDF when she graduated from high school. Kamara ran into her recently and learned she is in her second year serving the IDF in Israel.

The oldest, a retired doctor in his 80s, was in her first class.

She knows of another alum who left for Israel just a few weeks ago to join the IDF, and one who made aliyah.

“So there’s a variety of reasons why people want to learn Hebrew. I have had Jewish, Christian, Messianic and even a Muslim once or twice,” she said.

Kamara said there has been a total of 65 students in the program.

Teaching method

Because this is a credit class, it has a different standard than Hebrew classes taught at synagogues or the Jewish Community Center. One of Kamara’s first-year students recently told her that she learned more about Hebrew in the first month than her sister had learned in years at a synagogue.

“It’s involved not only with learning to read, which is what they do at synagogues, but actually conversational Hebrew, and part of it has to do with Israeli culture — not only the Jewish culture but a lot of exposure to Israel,” she said. “For this level of Hebrew, there isn’t anything like it in the area. The closest thing where someone can take Hebrew like this is at KU.”

As an example of one of her assignments, Kamara said she would send a clip home with students about the innovation in Israel. Students need to list the items that are made in Israel, then discuss it in class in Hebrew.

Kamara said her teaching method is not unique, but she tries to improve on the class each year. Right now, she is using PowerPoint during class so she can show lots of pictures while she’s talking. Then she sends a summary of the PowerPoint program home with the students, including her own lecture. She records herself so students have the lesson available to them at home. This is especially useful when new words or new grammatical structures are introduced, so students hear pronunciation and proper grammatical usage.

“I think it’s getting better and better every year, and I get a very positive feedback from the students,” she said.

“The other thing I just recently developed this year is a set of games, board games for the very early stages of learning. In our class we cover it in the first three weeks of class, but in Sunday school it would probably be something you would cover in two years,” she continued.

The board games allow students to practice certain words they learned, reading the words and putting them together into sentences. They’ve proven extremely popular with the beginning Hebrew class.

“Because learning Hebrew is not easy, it’s challenging, so you want some rewards. These games are fun and I’ve found it doesn’t matter how old they are, everyone is enjoying it and getting into the mode of wanting to win the game,” Kamara said. “Hebrew is not a language you would normally take just to fulfill a requirement, so I’m lucky to have students who really want to learn. It makes it much easier for me as a teacher.”

Kamara and her husband Efi moved to the United States from Israel 12 years ago when he was relocated. He works for Amdocs and they live in Overland Park. Their daughter Gili finished her service with the IDF and is now studying at Technion in Israel. Their other daughter, Lior, is studying to be a veterinarian at Kansas State University.

Congressman John Lewis, a history-maker and civil rights leader, will speak at the the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee Human Relations Dinner honoring James B. Nutter, Sr. with the Henry W. Bloch Human Relations Award. The dinner will take place on Sunday, Nov. 24, at the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center.

“We are profoundly honored to be hosting Rep. John Lewis, a true history maker who has devoted his life to the pursuit of justice for all.  And it is very meaningful that a Jewish organization is bringing this icon of the civil rights movement to the Kansas City community,” said JCRB|AJC Executive Director Marvin Szneler.

Lewis was born the son of sharecroppers in 1940 on his family’s farm outside of Troy, Ala. As a young boy, he was inspired by the activism surrounding the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which he heard on radio broadcasts. In those pivotal moments, he made a decision to become a part of the Civil Rights Movement. Ever since then, he has remained at the vanguard of the human rights struggle in the United States.

As a student at Fisk University, Lewis organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tenn. In 1961, he volunteered to participate in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South. He was beaten severely by angry mobs and arrested by police for challenging Jim Crow segregation in the South.

While still a young man, Lewis became a nationally recognized leader. At the age of 23, he was an architect of and a keynote speaker at the historic March on Washington in August 1963.

Lewis is perhaps best-known for spearheading one of the most seminal moments of the Civil Rights Movement. He led more than 600 peaceful, orderly protestors across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.,  on March 7, 1965, as they set off to march from Selma to Montgomery to demonstrate for voting rights in the state. They were attacked by Alabama state troopers in a brutal confrontation that became known as “Bloody Sunday.” News broadcasts and photographs revealing the senseless cruelty of the segregated South helped hasten the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks and serious injuries, Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence.

He was elected to Congress in November 1986 and has served as U.S. Representative of Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District since then. He is senior chief deputy whip for the Democratic Party, a member of the House Ways & Means Committee and ranking member of its Subcommittee on Oversight. Often called “one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced,” Lewis has dedicated his life to protecting human rights, securing civil liberties and building what he calls “The Beloved Community” in America.

Lewis holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University, and is a graduate of the American Baptist Theological Seminary. He has been awarded more than 50 honorary degrees from colleges and universities including Harvard, Spelman, Princeton, Morehouse, Duke, Howard and Brandeis.

He is the recipient of numerous awards from national and international institutions, including the highest civilian honor granted by President Barack Obama, the Medal of Freedom, the Lincoln Medal from the historic Ford’s Theatre, the Capital Award of the National Council of La Raza, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Non-Violent Peace Prize, the NAACP Spingarn Medal, and the only John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage Award” for Lifetime Achievement ever granted by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

Lewis is the co-author of the No. 1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel memoir trilogy “MARCH,” co-written with Andrew Aydin and illustrated by Nate Powell. He is also the author of “Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change” (2012), and his prose autobiography is entitled “Walking With The Wind: A Memoir of the Movement” (June, 1998). He has also been featured in many books about the civil rights movement, including “The Children” by David Halberstam and the Taylor Branch series on the Movement.

The congressman lives in Atlanta.

Honoree James B. Nutter, Sr.

Nutter will be the recipient of the 2013 Henry W. Bloch Human Relations Award. The award honors a person who lives a life of justice and selflessness and who makes our community a better place to live. The award will be presented by Henry Bloch.

Bloch’s quiet brand of leadership and compassion has set an extraordinary standard for community activism. A humble and soft-spoken man, few aspects of community life remain untouched by Bloch’s kindness and concern. He is a man devoted to principle, a caring visionary of exemplary character and integrity, an inspiration and a role model in the pursuit of justice.

Nutter follows in Bloch’s footsteps. He has used his business success and his community involvement to improve the lives of many in Kansas City and across the nation. Nutter refused to follow the pervasive discriminatory lending practices of the 1950s and ‘60s. His then-little company was one of the first in the region to make home loans on a large scale in urban neighborhoods and to single women. He walked door-to-door in his neighborhood to help convince his neighbors to vote to end discrimination in stores, schools, restaurants and hotels. He was an early and progressive force in local efforts to provide previously difficult-to-find opportunities and accommodations for women and minority citizens.

Serving as co-chairs for the Human Relations Dinner are community leaders Anita B. Gorman, Phil Kirk, David H. Westbrook and Kristi S. Wyatt.

For nearly 70 years, the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee has been an advocate for justice and for equal rights for all members of our greater Kansas City community. The JCRB|AJC continually builds bridges of understanding and nurtures guiding principles embraced by people of good will — working to prevent discrimination, reduce prejudice, strengthen democracy and expand freedom.

For more information about the Human Relations Dinner, contact JCRB|AJC at 913-327-8126.