Israel needs us

That’s one of the many rallying cries you will hear if you talk to members of the Kansas City Jewish community. You’ll hear it in conversations at community events, in shul and read all about it on Facebook and Twitter.

So many people have personal ties to the Jewish State, family and friends who are working, studying, visiting or living there.

“Worrying about family and friends in Israel. Hope all are safe,” posted Ellen Portnoy to her Facebook page on Sunday. Dozens of other local Jews could have, and many did, write or say the same exact thing since the violence began escalating more than a week ago.

Several young members of the community are currently serving in the IDF including Jason Barnett, Sam Mendel, Sam Kahn, Tomer Bar-Lavi and Aviv Bonomo. Rachel Kaplan, Alana Gaffen and Mai Bonomo are in a program preparing to enlist in the IDF. The Chronicle also knows of several young students studying in Israel at this time including Samantha Mayse, Joey Horak, Gili Kamara and Abby Nottberg.

Rabbi Arthur Nemitoff of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, whose daughter Elana is attending rabbinical school in Israel along with Rachael Klein, was one of the first local rabbis to send an email to his congregants last week explaining the current situation.

“The loss of life — of any civilian life — is tragic and we mourn the deaths of all innocents who have died so far, whether in Israel or in Gaza,” he noted.

In his email he suggested, as many other local rabbis have also done, that one thing we can do locally is pray.

“Pray for the safety and peace of Jerusalem, Israel and the entire region,” he told B’nai Jehudah members.

Those who want to help, he continued, should “donate what you can to help victims of terror in Israel.” Many national organizations have established funds to raise money for the people of Israel. Locally, the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City has started a fund.

The stress of rocket fire

A New York Times editorial published Wednesday, Nov. 14, stated, “No country should have to endure the rocket attacks that Israel has endured from militants in Gaza.” As Ophir Hacohen, the Israeli emissary to the Jewish Federation points out, people who live in southern Israel have been enduring this for 12 years.

Hacohen, who hails from Tel Aviv and served as an education and culture officer on the northern Gaza border in 2009, said it’s very difficult to imagine what it’s like to be hit by rockets for the past 12 years. She helps explain it using this analogy:

“Imagine your next door neighbor throwing stones at your house. Every day, every week. He has been throwing stones at your house all through the day and night. You have to think twice before leaving the house or staying in a certain room, for the fear that the stone will come through your window when you least expect it.

“What would you do? Would you just let him keep throwing those stones, when he puts your family at risk? Probably not, right?

“Now, consider this: Rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel for 12 years now. 12 years. There are kids who will soon celebrate their Bar Mitzvah, and have spent every day of their lives on edge, wondering when they will hear ‘Color Red’ (code for rocket falling) and have 20 seconds (or less) to find cover. They don’t even know whether or not they will even get to celebrate their Bar Mitzvah with their families, since gatherings of more than 100 people have been banned in certain areas around the Gaza strip for fear of mass casualties and injuries,” Hacohen said.

It is hard and stressful for Hacohen, who joined the Jewish Federation staff in September, not being in Israel right now.

“I would have probably been called up for reserve duty. Sometimes it feels that you need to be part of the struggle, because that is what makes you Israeli. However, despite the difficulty, I feel my job here is very important, that I have a lot of influence here and that I’m serving Israel in a worthy and much needed way nonetheless,” she said.

The Conflict’s human side

One of the first casualties of the latest escalation of violence happened on Thursday, Nov. 15, when three members of the Chabad community were “brutally killed” by a Hamas missile. Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel of KU Chabad, said the young woman, who was pregnant, worked in a Chabad organization in India and was visiting her hometown in Israel for the memorial service of the 2008 Chabad Mumbai terror victims.

“A second victim, Ahron Smadga, was married for 20 years and couldn’t have children. Then he had twin boys nine years ago, and his now 8-month old baby girl was injured. The third victim was a young 22-year-old, Yitzchak Amselam. Oy, Jewish blood is spilling ...,” he said.

Rabbi Simcha Morgenstern of the Torah Learning Center has been keeping his Facebook friends informed about his brother Ezzy, who joined the army in 2003 and is a member of the IDF Medical Evacuation Unit. It’s very important to Rabbi Morgenstern that people across the world see a human side to this conflict. His first order of business was to help raise money to make sure his brother — who is in the reserves and was called to duty as were many, many others, on Shabbat, Friday, Nov. 16 — had the proper equipment. By Monday afternoon (Nov. 19), through a PayPal account he had set up, enough money was raised to purchase appropriate safety equipment for members of Ezzy’s reserve unit. Ezzy’s wife, Michal, is an engineer in the IDF.

“Some amazing friends of Ezzy spent the entire day gathering up the gear his unit is in need of. Thank you to those who have donated to the cause,” Rabbi Morgenstern said. Those still interested in donating can do so at www.ezzysunit.com.

Rabbi Morgenstern’s published note to his brother echoes the feelings of many others who have loved ones serving in harm’s way.

“Ezzy, we love you and are so very proud of you. Stay strong and return safely. Am Yisrael chai!”

Lori Barnett, the mother of IDF 1st Sergeant Jason Barnett, noted that she and her husband Paul were very concerned but confident in the Israeli military. The Barnetts have been constantly surrounded by family and friends who are supporting them as they keep track of the news from Israel.

“We are very close with Uzi Klieger, the lieutenant colonel from Israel stationed at Fort Leavenworth. Our friends and community are giving us strength. I receive constant emails from our friends in Israel who also provide support,” Lori Barnett said. “We pray every day for safety and a peaceful resolution to this chaos.”

Artist Andi Arnovitz is another worried parent. Born in Kansas City, she moved to Israel in 1999 and lives in Jerusalem. Of her five children and their spouses, she has one son-in-law serving in the IDF and another who has not been called up yet. One of her daughters, Dena, is now stationed in southern Israel, working with people living in towns that are being bombarded by rockets.

“She told us the streets are deserted, shops closed, no one can work. They are all in their pajamas — afraid to shower, afraid to pee because the siren goes off so randomly and so often. Where she was yesterday they had no bomb shelters and had to crawl underneath houses when the sirens go off,” Arnovitz reported.

Show your support

Israeli Emissary Hacohen noted that the United States as a country has been a great help to Israel by providing financial support for the Iron Dome anti-rocket system, which is dismantling rockets being hurled into Israel.

“We want to thank the U.S. for that support because it means so much and it’s saving countless lives in Israel,” Hacohen said.

In addition to donating money to the Federation’s Terror Relief Fund, Hacohen encourages members of the community to “seek correct information and support the citizens of Israel in their quest … their right … for a peaceful and quiet life.”

To keep up with the current situation, she suggests visiting her Facebook page at Ophir Shlicha Kansas. She also recommends the following websites for accurate information: www.ynetnews.com, www.haaretz.com, and www.idf.il/english.

“There is a lot of misguided information and videos and pictures that aren’t true, but are portrayed as reality. Social media is a significant tool, use it,” Hacohen said.

Rabbi Mark Levin plans to assume a reduced role at Congregation Beth Torah, the Reform congregation he has served since 1988, in 2014. Members of the congregation were informed of his decision in a letter emailed to them late Monday evening by President Michelle Cole.

“I would love to continue as a rabbi at Congregation Beth Torah after June 30, 2014, but not with my current job description. I look forward to working with our board of trustees to find a mutually agreeable manner by which I can continue to serve the congregation, its people and our community,” wrote Rabbi Levin in his letter to congregants.

Cole said it will be daunting to consider a future without the congregation’s “founding rabbi and inspirational leader.” But the 20 months notice he has given the congregation will allow it to properly plan for a seamless transition.

“The goal for July 1, 2014, is clear — to find the proper balance of Rabbi Levin’s continuing involvement in our congregational life and a path forward to new spiritual leadership. The board will be forming a committee to consider all of the issues and options to insure the best possible future for our congregation. We will be in touch with the entire membership frequently as we move through this process,” Cole said.

Rabbi Levin was ordained by Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in 1976. He began his rabbinic career as the assistant rabbi at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah in Kansas City in 1976. He has been the congregational rabbi for Congregation Beth Torah since its inception in 1988. He serves on a number of boards locally and nationally, writes religion columns for the Kansas City Star, and answers questions for the “Ask the Rabbi” service of the Union of Reform Judaism.

A father of three grown children and the grandfather of one, Rabbi Levin has become aware in recent years that there are things he would like to accomplish in life that aren’t possible while serving as the senior rabbi to the Reform congregation that serves approximately 650 members.

“Some of them, like counseling people confronting mortality, can be achieved at Beth Torah; and others not,” he said. “My work does not leave adequate time for reading, writing, reflection and expanding my personal possibilities.”

The rabbi, who will be 65 years old in 2014 when he plans to scale back his duties at Beth Torah, notes that the congregation has been his “life’s work and fulfillment for a quarter century.”

“We set out to create a ‘modern American Judaism in southern Johnson County.’ In many respects we did not know where we were headed. Our successes have been the result of the combined efforts and the vision of many people, including the Beth Torah staff, the wonderfully dedicated and generous presidents of the congregation, scores of volunteers who have given of their time, energy and funds, and, of course, the most superb membership in the world,” he said.

He noted that Beth Torah has been the fulfillment of his professional dreams and he is “very grateful to have had this magnificent opportunity.”

“I pray and feel confident that we will find a path to continue forward together,” he concluded.

Students who eat at the University of Kansas’ Mrs E’s dining hall will be able to eat kosher food beginning in the fall of 2013. Mrs. E’s is located at Lewis Hall on Daisy Hill and serves approximately 3,500 students daily. Any student with a dining plan may eat at Mrs. E’s.

Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, director of the Rohr Chabad Center for Jewish Life, also known more simply as KU Chabad, is “very excited” about this news.

“In the past KU has tried to accommodate students who wanted to eat kosher foods with MREs (pre-prepared meals) ... but there’s nothing like having a fresh, kosher meal available. It changes their entire college experience.”

Jay Lewis, executive director of KU Hillel, reports that there are between 1,500 and 2,000 Jewish students enrolled at KU. The undergraduate enrollment at the Lawrence campus is estimated to be 19,000 students.

The time is ripe to add kosher food because Mrs. E’s is being renovated this summer. Sheryl Kidwell, assistant director of KU Dining Services, said other options will be added in the fall of 2013 as well including halal (for those who follow Islamic dietary guidelines) as well as those who request gluten-free and vegan-vegetarian items.

“Plans are definitely in place to add kosher food to Mrs. E’s,” Kidwell said. “We just don’t have specific menus in place yet.”

Kidwell is meeting with Rabbi Tiechtel as well as the president of the Muslim Student Association president, for assistance with recipes and ideas that will please students.

“Now that it is looking like more of a reality I think we can talk a little more seriously with Rabbi Zalman and get ideas and suggestions from him,” she said.

Rabbi Tiechtel noted he has been working with the university to provide kosher food “for a very long time, since 2007.”

“There are a lot of variables involved, obviously. Throughout the past few years every time we talked about it we always tried to bring it a few inches closer because this takes a long time,” he said.

KU’s Kidwell said the renovated area inside Mrs. E’s will be self-contained. It will have all of its own equipment — utensils, refrigeration, freezer, a little bit of dry storage, microwave, flat-top grill, gas range, hot and cold pans and a dishwasher.

“Our hope is when you invest that much money in a concept that it can be more things to more people. It’s hard to say how many of our students on our dining plans would benefit from this station,” she said.

“We want it to be not only for our students that would choose halal and kosher and that kind of ethnic diet, but would also appeal to students that are on special diets. … That’s our challenge right now.”

It was about this time last year that a kosher hot dog stand opened at Allen Fieldhouse. Earlier this semester another kosher stand opened at the Kansas Union.

“We had a big breakthrough with having the kosher stand in retail dining,” Rabbi Tiechtel said. “We really wanted to make some kind of difference in the residential dining as well, and that’s what Mrs. E’s is all about.”

Last year the kosher stand at Allen Fieldhouse served only hotdogs. Now it sells a variety of items. The kosher stand at the Kansas Union has also proven to be very popular.

“The Wednesday kosher stand is open from 10:30 to 1:30 and every single week we have sold beyond expectation. We are talking about an average week serving over 120 people in a three-hour slot. We first projected maybe selling 40 to 60 hotdogs a week. Now were talking about over 100 on average. There were weeks we have sold out. There were two weeks that we had to close it, so now we know to have reserves,” Rabbi Tiechtel explained.

Next semester Rabbi Tiechtel hopes the kosher stand at the Kansas Union will be expanded.

“We’re talking about not only increasing it to two or three times a week, but maybe adding additional foods as well. A lot of it is about logistics because kosher is so sensitive. Not only do you have to have kosher food you have to have separate serving areas and on campus that is prime real estate. It’s very hard to get that space and KU has been very accommodating to make it work.”

The rabbi said they are taking baby steps when it comes to kosher food on campus.

“The more things work and the more the response is as great as it has been, the easier to take it to the next level,” he said.

Naismith Hall, which is a private dorm that has a large percentage of Jewish residents, is also not a kosher facility. However Chabad has worked with the dorm over the years to supply such things as matzah for Passover to its residents.

“Right now they are very accommodating when it comes to offering holiday foods,” Rabbi Tiechtel said. “But as far as kosher per se, it’s something that’s in the pipeline … but it’s a business model as opposed to KU’s service model.”

Sol Koenigsberg is a wealth of knowledge who can quote Yiddish, Talmud and Shakespeare.

“Shakespeare said, ‘What’s past is prologue.’ I’ve always felt that if you don’t know where you’ve been, you can’t know where you’re going.”

That’s one of the reasons he wrote “Challenges & Growth: The Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, 1968-1989. A Memoir.” The book was self-published by CreateSpace, a division of Amazon, in October and may be purchased on the website by searching the author’s full name, Sol Koenigsberg.

Koenigsberg is executive director emeritus of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City. He moved here in 1968 and served for 21 years, through 1989. He was the fifth person to serve in that position, during which time he stewarded the agency through several special fundraising campaigns as well as the establishment of the Jewish Community Campus.

Koenigsberg originally envisioned the book to be a history of the entire community, taking over where “Mid America’s Promise,” the history of the Kansas City Jewish community edited by Dr. Joseph P. Schultz and published in 1982, ended. He wanted to include such things as the changing demography as well as the changing of professional and business characteristics within the Jewish community.

“ ‘Mid America’s Promise’ dealt with the time up to 1980. From 1980 to 2005, there was a big gap in time,” he said in a recent interview.

He decided to seek funding for his original idea in 2008. He notes that his timing was bad, as that was the year the economy crashed. When he couldn’t get the funding for a comprehensive sequel to “Mid America’s Promise,” he was “urged to put down my own experiences, which resulted in this book.”

He spent two years on his book, first determining what the content would be, then researching it.

“I felt that memory can’t be depended on, particularly after this lapse in time. After all I did retire in 1989. I had to make use of archives,” said Koenigsberg. “Plus I interviewed a number of people who were very much involved in that era and now.”

To get a better flavor of what happened in the past, and a little glimpse into the present, Koenigsberg interviewed the three people who served as president of the Jewish Federation as well as the Jewish Community Foundation. As part of his chapters on the Jewish Community Campus, he made use of recordings that were made at the time of its creation. Those are located at the State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center-Kansas City housed at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (formerly known as the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City).

David Boutros, assistant director of the historical society, actually copied the videos to disk for Koenigsberg so he could watch them from the comfort of his own home. The executive director emeritus will soon be 88 years old.

“If it weren’t for David Boutros I would have had a much more difficult time. He was exceptionally generous with his time and talent,” he said.

Koenigsberg’s memory did play a few tricks on him. Since writing the book he’s discovered that he was a little off on at least one fact concerning the Jewish Community Campus. He writes that that it opened in 1987 when in fact it opened in October of 1988. There are a few other cases in the book of names being misspelled, most notably that of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah.

Bob Gast, who served as Jewish Federation’s executive director immediately after Koenigsberg, said the book is a brilliant portrayal of a servant of the Jewish community’s experience.

“His wisdom in relating to the history and challenges of the Jewish community will serve generations to come. Sol’s dedication as a leader in the Jewish community is to be lauded and emulated,” Gast said.

Since the book was just published last month, Koenigsberg doesn’t think many people in the community know it’s available yet.

“I think that once it does become known that the book is out, the past and current leadership of the Federation, the Foundation and all the local agencies could find this of interest,” he said.

Koenigsberg said he learned a lot from writing the book.

“After such a hiatus between the time I retired and the time I wrote it, it made me appreciate more how this community has grown and achieved so much,” he said.

The book is specifically about Koenigsberg’s professional experiences and includes very few personal experiences not related to his job. That was by design.

“The idea of the book was just to let people know what happened during that period of time,” he said.

The author said this book “defines a perspective and a guide for how people can meet common needs acting as persons as part of a community.”

He devotes a big chapter in the book to what he calls “one of the most successful enterprises in the Jewish community,” the creation of the Jewish Community Campus.

“It did a wonderful job of unifying entities which never even thought of that type of cooperation before,” he said. “The Campus is almost 25 years old and one of the ways of commemorating its importance was a chapter about it in this book.”

He believes the major Jewish philanthropic institutions are thriving today and he finds that “most encouraging” for the future of the community.

“The Jewish Community Foundation — along with the Federation, the Jewish Heritage Foundation and the Menorah Legacy Foundation — has established a model of cooperation which bodes well as instruments of community responsibility,” he said.

Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City is opening a new Israel Terror Relief Fund, to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the people of Israel at this critical time. This new fund will help support the more than 1 million residents of Israel’s south and provide aid to those who are victims and the most vulnerable Israelis during this time of conflict. One hundred percent of all donations will be used for humanitarian aid for efforts including:

Moving 4,000 children, living under siege in bomb shelters, to safer areas of Israel.

Providing trauma counseling to children and adults living under fire.

Distributing food and emergency kits to the elderly and disabled in these areas of Israel who cannot leave their homes.

Jewish Federation partner agencies — Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee — are providing much of these direct services to those in need.

Jewish Federation is also working in close coordination with Reform, Conservative, Traditional and Orthodox congregations in Kansas City to help those in need through the Israel Terror Relief Fund.

How to donate:

Online: Go to jewishkansascity.org

Phone: Call Jewish Federation at 913-327-8100

Mail: Send a check to Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, 5801 W. 115 St., Suite 201, Overland Park, KS 66211, Attn: Israel Terror Relief Fund.

THE PLACE I CALL HOME — If you weren’t one of the 650 or so who attended Village Shalom’s Ages of Excellence celebration, honoring volunteer Evelyn Gibian, you missed a wonderful video starring Village Shalom residents, family, friends, staff and volunteers. The lyrics of “It’s Village Shalom, the Place I Call Home,” were written by the senior living campus’ Communications Manager Linda Salvay to the tune of “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen.” Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duehT3UbIYM&feature=colike. A new book celebrating Village Shalom’s 100th anniversary, “To Provide a Suitable Home: 100 Years of Village Shalom,” cebuted at the event and is now available in the gift shop.

JUSTICE-RAISING DINNER — I was also privileged to attend the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee’s annual Human Relations Dinner honoring Leo E. Morton with the Henry W. Bloch Human Relations Award. He was honored for his commitment to justice, leadership and service in the community as well as leading the way to prevent discrimination, strengthen democracy and expand freedom for all, which reminds me a lot of JCRB|AJC’s mission.

COMEDY SHOW FEATURES RITTMASTER — Corey Rittmaster and his wife Monique Madrid are here for Thanksgiving visiting family. They are slated to perform their brand of comedy Friday, Nov. 23, at the Westport Coffeehouse Theater (4010 Pennsylvania) along with Tantrum. Known as The Union, Rittmaster and Madrid do sketch comedy, improv, make videos, tell jokes and fight over dumb things because they’re married. The show may contain adult material. For ticket information or more information, call 816-216-7682.

Rabbi Morris B. Margolies, who served the community as Congregation Beth Shalom’s senior rabbi for 25 years, passed away Friday evening, Nov. 9. About 600 people filled the Kehilath Israel Synagogue sanctuary on Monday to honor his life. He would have been 91 on Dec. 25.

More than one of the afternoon’s speakers — which included K.I. Senior Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, K.I. Rabbi Emeritus Herbert Mandl, Beth Shalom Senior Rabbi David Glickman and Professor Zvi Gitelman, Rabbi Margolies’ nephew — referred to Rabbi Margolies as “larger than life.” Hazzan Jeffrey Shron also participated in the service.

“He was a bigger than life rabbi who believed in social justice driven Judaism,” said Rabbi Yanklowitz as he began the eulogy.

Rabbi Margolies served Beth Shalom from 1961 to 1986. During that time the Conservative synagogue’s membership grew to 1,400 congregants.

Born in Jerusalem, Rabbi Margolies came to the United States in 1930 at the age of 8. He was ordained at Yeshiva University in 1943, where he also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He completed his Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago in 1946 and his doctorate in Jewish history from Columbia University in 1979.

Before coming to Kansas City, Rabbi Margolies had pulpits in Chicago, Denver and Brooklyn, N.Y. He also served two years as executive director of the American Jewish Congress, Midwest Division.

Rabbi Margolies proudly served in the Army Chaplaincy — first at Fort Bragg, N.C., and then in Korea. A man morally opposed to war, Rabbi Yanklowitz said Rabbi Margolies went to Korea only after being told “Jewish soldiers needed him.”

Serving Beth Shalom

According to “Mid America’s Promise: A Profile of Kansas City Jewry (edited by Joseph P. Schultz, 1982) Rabbi Margolies told his new congregation in his opening sermon that he would be controversial, but not deliberately so. One of his first controversial stances in Kansas City was opposing the Vietnam War. In fact he was one of the first pulpit rabbis in the country to do so.

Rabbi Margolies always stressed social activism and urged his congregants to become involved in human rights and Jewish education. He practiced what he preached by, among other things, supporting the Civil Rights Movement and promoting equality for women in the Conservative movement.

“He was a champion for women’s representation at Beth Shalom,” Rabbi Glickman noted. “He ushered in full female participation before much of the country and he personally saw to the adult Bat Mitzvah program … dozens of adult women who never in their lifetime had had the chance to lead from the Torah or to lead services.”

In “Mid-America’s Promise,” Dr. Schultz writes that Rabbi Margolies “brought impressive intellectual qualities and fine oratorical gifts to the pulpit of Beth Shalom …. Margolies accelerated the adult education program, and his weekly evening lectures attracted large numbers of members and non-members to the synagogue. His weekly morning classes for the Sisterhood and his Men’s Club study group held over lunch in a downtown restaurant were immediately and lastingly successful.”

The rabbi felt teaching was one of his life’s missions.

“I see myself as a teacher of Jewishness and Judaism …,” he told former Chronicle Editor Rick Hellman is his last interview, featured in The Chronicles Guide to Jewish Life in the spring of 2008.

“When I got through organizing regular study periods for the Sisterhood and the regular congregation, we had as many as 600 or 700 people attend lectures I gave, a good many of them gentiles,” said the rabbi.

Day school champion

From the time he first moved to Kansas City, Rabbi Margolies fought for a Jewish day school. He believed it would help ensure the survival of the Kansas City Jewish community. He told The Chronicle that “no Jewish community can survive persistent ignorance of its own tradition and culture.”

He never served in an official capacity with the day school, but is often credited with working tirelessly to get it established. He enrolled his daughter, Malka, to be part of its inaugural class in 1966. His support of a Jewish day school was another of the rabbi’s highly controversial views.

“The rabbi was actually warned by his board not to have anything to do with the creation of a day school,” said Blanche Sosland, a founder of the Jewish day school. “In spite of that Rabbi Margolies was one of the major players, albeit behind the scenes. His guidance and advice to the young leadership was really indispensible.”

Once the Hebrew Academy was established, there was still the matter of community funding. But the school didn’t receive any financial subsidy from the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City until 11 years after it opened. Rabbi Margolies served on a committee whose purpose was to recommend whether the Federation should subsidize it. There were an even number of pro and con voices on the committee and Rabbi Margolies recalled that, “It looked fairly bleak for those who wanted Federation help for the Academy. I believe I was instrumental in swaying one steady naysayer to see the light as I regarded it, so that the committee’s report was aye instead of nay.”

Over the year Rabbi Margolies served as a consultant to Academy leaders, and he and his wife, Ruth, were honored with HBHA’s Civic Service Award in 2002.

In an article about the school’s 25th anniversary published in 1991, Rabbi Margolies said the school’s founders, and the others that followed shortly thereafter, were the true heroes of Kansas City Jewish education “because they put their children and themselves and their hearts where their mouths were.”

When he was received HBHA’s Civic Service Award in 2002, he said none of the awards he had previously received came close “to equaling my own deep gratification at this honor.”

“The reason? The Hebrew Academy represents, for me, the highest achievement of Kansas City Jewry, bar none. And to be honored by the Academy is a pinnacle of achievement for me, especially if it would help bring the vitality of the Academy to the attention of more people.”

Retirement

Rabbi Margolies was in good health when he retired from the pulpit in 1988, assuming the title rabbi emeritus, after 25 years, at the age of 64.

“My leadership didn’t want me to retire,” the rabbi said in 1994. “But remember, I was ordained when I was barely 21 years old. I had been active in the rabbinate for 43 years, and I was experiencing internal burnout. I don’t think it showed on the outside. I continued to work at the same pace, about 75 hours a week …. But inside, I was beginning to realize I needed a change.”

Soon after he retired from the pulpit in 1986, Rabbi Margolies accepted a position as a lecturer in the history department of the University of Kansas. Until 1993, he taught Jewish history at KU, winning awards from students, some of whom he kept in touch with for many years.

In 2007, Rabbi Margolies served as scholar in residence and lecturer for the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at Union Station.

At their heart, the rabbi once said, all his activities were a means of advancing the cause of Jewish knowledge. He loved books and wrote five: “A Gathering of Angels,” a 1994 Book of the Month Club selection; “Ten Turning Points in Jewish History;” “Samuel David Luzzatto: Traditional Scholar;” “Twenty/Twenty: Jewish Visionaries through 2,000 Years;” and “Torah Vision: Sermonic Essays for Our Time.”

His dedication to learning and teaching others was recognized in January 1994, when the rabbi and Ruth were honored with the “Second Century Award” from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. They were chosen for their dedicated service to the community.

“The seminary is one of the most vital institutions of Jewish life in America, and to be honored by that kind of institution is to underscore what I’ve stood for all throughout my career — namely, that only Jewish learning on the broadest possible scale will save Judaism in America in the 21st century,” Rabbi Margolies said at the time.

His rabbinical career spanned 63 years, during which time he delivered more than 2,000 sermons and lectures, wrote more than 100 book reviews and hundreds of columns for The Chronicle, a volunteer position he began on Oct. 30, 1987.

The rabbi continued to write, first alternating with other columnists and then on a weekly basis as its sole regular columnist, until the summer of 2010, when his failing health forced him to stop writing. At the time it was announced that he was “taking a break from his weekly chronicle column.” As it turned out that note was attached to his final column, which was published Aug. 6, 2010.

Love of Israel

The rabbi and his wife made frequent trips to Israel over the years. He once said in an interview with The Chronicle “that Israel is emotionally engrained into my soul.” He was willing to both defend the Jewish state as well as criticize it when he felt it was warranted, such as following the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which he called a morally unjustified tragedy in his Yom Kippur sermon.

When interviewed in 1988 on the subject of the intifada between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which began the year before, the rabbi said the conflict had only strengthened the opinion he had had since 1967, “which is that Israel should … negotiate a Palestinian state with due respect for Israel’s secure borders and with international guarantees.”

“I would hope Israel will sit down and talk with the leadership of the PLO to see if some kind of peaceful accommodation can be reached …,” he said at the time.

In what was to be his final interview with The Chronicle in 2008, Rabbi Morris B. Margolies told then-Chronicle Editor Rick Hellman he would like to be remembered as a scholar and a teacher. Since the Jewish community learned of his death over the past several days, he has been remembered as that, and more.

Rabbi Herbert Mandl became friends with the late rabbi long before he moved to Kansas City to serve Kehilath Israel Synagogue in 1977. In fact K.I.’s rabbi emeritus turned to Rabbi Margolies for advice before deciding to take the job here. Over the years Rabbi Mandl characterized his relationship with Rabbi Margolies as that of colleague, student and friend and was deeply honored when Rabbi Margolies referred to him in recent years as “his rabbi.”

At the funeral, Rabbi Mandl referred to Rabbi Margolies as “the voice of the Jewish community,” one who helped keep it together even after he retired from the pulpit in 1986.

Many, including Neil Sosland, who served as president of Congregation Beth Shalom back when Rabbi Margolies was senior rabbi, said, they will miss the rabbi’s scholarly presence.

“The true meaning of a rabbi is my teacher. He was my personal teacher for a period close to 50 years. His loss is a tremendous one, especially to me, as well as to the congregation as a whole,” Sosland said.

Beth Shalom members reminisced about the rabbi at shul Saturday morning, noted Blanche Sosland, who as a founder of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy worked closely with him.

“People were saying they were sorry that they hadn’t taken advantage of more of his classes. I think the lack of his presence has been felt since he’s been ill. He was a very vibrant man and he will be profoundly missed,” she said.

Alan Edelman, the associate executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, has been a member of Beth Shalom his entire life and was a young student of the rabbi.

“For those of us who grew up during the 1960s, Rabbi Margolies had a profound impact on our Jewish identity and development. He helped us understand how, as Jews, we needed to understand events such as the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War in the context of tzedek, justice. Every Friday night hundreds of congregants went to 34th and Paseo to hear those powerful sermons and celebrate Shabbat with the congregation he shaped,” Edelman said.

Edelman also served as education director at the congregation in the early 1980s.

“I worked with Rabbi Margolies to engage families in their children’s Jewish education. I learned much from Rabbi Margolies and he served as a powerful role model for my career as a Jewish professional,” Edelman said.

Congregation Ohev Sholom Rabbi Harry “Scott” White also grew up in Kansas City and had the opportunity to learn from the rabbi before he became a rabbi.

“Rabbi Margolies had the exceedingly rare combination of a keenly analytic mind and an encyclopedic command of scripture and Jewish history, and I daresay a good portion of rabbinic literature. The same could be said for his knowledge about certain secular subjects, including English literature and serious (and Jewish cantorial) music,” Rabbi White said.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention his mastery of baseball knowledge, both the intricacies of the game and its history. Morris was a quintessential renaissance man of the mind. Learning with and from him was never without eloquence, passion and love for the subject.”

“ ‘Lo kam b’Kansas City k’Moshe ode’ — there never was and never again will be another rabbi like him in Kansas City. We were truly blessed,” Rabbi White said.

Rabbi Mark Levin and Rabbi Margolies were colleagues for 36 years in Kansas City.

“Rabbi Margolies possessed the finest rabbinic mind the Kansas City Jewish community has ever experienced. His erudition in history, Talmud and Tanach were incomparable. His preaching has been quoted and discussed even decades later. His teaching has never been surpassed for its depth and the numbers who attended his classes. Kansas City had the privilege of learning with a first-rate rabbinic mind. Those who studied with him count themselves blessed by his intellect and mastery of all things Jewish. Rabbi Margolies established a level of devotion to Jewish learning that will outlive his long life by many decades. I pray that his legacy will be a devotion to Jewish study for its own sake for many decades to come,” Rabbi Levin said.

Rabbi Alan Cohen, who served Beth Shalom as its senior rabbi for a total of 20 years, said, “Rabbi Margolies set a very high standard for rabbinic excellence that served as a model for me all of the years that I was at Beth Shalom.”

“Rabbis of his stature and learning are few and far between. I know that he will be deeply missed by his dear wife, Ruthie, his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as the entire Kansas City community,” said Rabbi Cohen, who now lives in Florida and holds the title of rabbi emeritus at Beth Shalom.

Steve Rose, publisher of The Jewish Chronicle said that for many years Rabbi Margolies “shared his brilliant intellect as a columnist for The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle.”

“His opinions were thought-provoking and followed closely by the Jewish community. He will be greatly missed,” Rose noted.

He was not shy, as everybody knows, about expressing what he thought about any topic, particularly relating to the politics of the day, Jewish or otherwise, noted Todd Stettner, executive vice president and CEO of the Jewish Federation.

“I only knew him in his emeritus years. Even then he was a tremendous force in the community,” said Stettner while in Baltimore to attend the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly meeting. “He was a good supporter of the community and everything that went on in it. He will be missed.”

As for his legacy at Congregation Beth Shalom, Rabbi David Glickman, the congregation’s new senior rabbi, said Rabbi Margolies “left such a deep and permanent impression on countless souls.”

“It wasn’t just the depth of his knowledge that made Rabbi Margolies stand out. It was his broad mind, his robust spirit and his courage that truly set him apart. I can’t tell you how many congregants have told me ‘Rabbi Margolies was simply the most intelligent man I’ve ever met.’ ”

“Rabbi Morris Margolies was larger than life,” Rabbi Glickman continued. “They simply do not make pulpit rabbis like that anymore.”

The rabbi’s nephew, Professor Zvi Gitelman, voiced out loud what many have thought about the rabbi over the years.

“I didn’t always agree with him, but I always learned from him.”

Gitelman sang the rabbi’s praises in a number of ways.

“His kindness never failed. His concern for others never flagged. His loyalties never wavered … to his family, to his friends, to Yiddishkeit, to the State of Israel, to the United States and to the Giants, not necessarily in that order,” Gitelman said.

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, the senior rabbi at K.I., noted that Rabbi Margolies had students all over the world. He himself had been what he described as “a student of the rabbi from a distance.”

“So many were touched by him on a daily basis in so many different ways. It’s not possible to even scratch the surface of the over 90 years the rabbi lived,” Rabbi Yanklowitz said. “Reb Moshe, they really don’t make rabbis like you anymore.”

Rabbi Mandl, who knew Rabbi Margolies for 43 years, voiced what many were thinking Monday.

“Farewell dear teacher. Farewell dear rabbi. Farewell dear friend. You will be missed. Go in peace.”

“Sidonia’s Thread” by Hanna Perlstein Marcus (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2011)

Sidonia Perlstein was the sole survivor of the Holocaust within her immediate family. In 1949 she was able to immigrate to the United States with her 2-year-old daughter Hanna. Sent to Springfield, Mass., Sidonia made a life for the two of them. Because of her talent as a gifted seamstress, within a few years Sidonia found work in a dress manufacturing factory. Hanna began school, and the process of Americanization began.

In a memoir of her mother’s life, Hanna Perlstein Marcus crafts the story of a woman who kept certain aspects of her life secret, like the hidden seams in the beautifully tailored clothes she made, but created a beautiful life for herself and her daughter in the new world to which they immigrated. Using the chapter headings from “Coats and Clark’s Sewing Book,” the author constructs the various aspects of her mother’s life. Whether it’s the experiences of Sidonia and her sister Laura in Birkenau described in the chapter entitled “Clipping,” or a description of their 1983 visit to Hungary to see the town in which Sidonia grew up in a chapter entitled “Backstitch, ” Marcus displays a gift for linking sewing techniques to her mother’s experiences. Yet while Sidonia never kept secrets from Hanna about her Holocaust experiences or about her early life in Dámósc, Hungary, one huge secret lay between them. Who was Hanna’s father?

Bit by bit Hanna pieces together the information about her father, and in the chapter “Buttonholes” finally makes contact with him. This telephone call, however, does not lead to an emotional meeting or reconciliation, but it does lead to a greater understanding of her mother. Yet, it is not the secret that is the most important aspect of the book or Hanna and Sidonia’s lives. What is important is the artful way Sidonia stitched together a good life for herself and her daughter having, initially, only scraps with which to work. “Sidonia’s Thread” is a story of triumph over the most horrendous adversity. Sidonia’s motto, “Stand up straight” should be a directive for all of us.

Author to speak Nov. 27

The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education will present award-winning author Hanna Perlstein Marcus at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 27. She will discuss her memoir, “Sidonia’s Thread.” Marcus’s mother Sidonia Perlstein was the cousin of Kansas City resident and Holocaust survivor Olga Rothstein, whose son Steven still lives in the area.

The program will take place in the Social Hall on the Jewish Community Campus. The author talk will be followed by a book signing and light dessert reception. This event is free and open to the public, but reservations are requested at 913-327-8196 or .

HELP CAMP RAINBOW — Congregation Beth Torah member Daniel Hakan, a member of the BTTY youth group and a counselor at Camp Rainbow, is raking leaves to raise money for the camp. Camp Rainbow is a summer camp for children in the St. Louis area with cancer and blood related diseases. He will rake and bag your leaves and donate all the money to Camp Rainbow. His schedule is flexible; email him at if you are interested. You’ll write your check to Camp Rainbow, making this a tax deductible contribution! While he’s raking, you might want to ask him to tell you about all the wonderful benefits of Camp Rainbow!

A DAY OF THANKS-DOING — Congregation Beth Shalom’s Rabbi David Glickman made an interesting suggestion to members in the synagogue’s monthly newsletter. “As you are preparing your own Thanksgiving dinners, I would like to request that you pick up extra cranberry sauce, extra pumpkin pie filling, as well as more nutritious non-perishables and bring them to the new JFS Food Pantry so Thanksgiving can become a day of Thanks-doing.” For more information on the food pantry, click on www.jfskc.org. I would like to add that Yachad-The Kosher Food Pantry could use your help as well. For more information about Yachad, email .

BOOK SIGNING — Those of you with young children or grandchildren may want to check out this new book, “The Pillow Fairy,” written by Marcia Gale Riley, a Lawrence resident who graduated from Shawnee Mission South and attended The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah as a youth. The first-time author shares the joy of imagination and wonder that her sons, Justin and Matt, experienced as they faced one of life’s first challenges — sleeping in their own beds all by themselves. She will appear at a book signing at Barnes & Noble’s Oak Park Mall location from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17. For more information visit www.thepillowfairy.net.

NOVEL DISCUSSION — Another local author, Beth Lyon Barnett, is showcasing her work. The author of “Jazz Town,” will discuss her novel at the Sulgrave Regency Ballroom, 200 W. 49th St., in Kansas City, Mo., from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17.

Barnett will discuss “Jazz Town” again in a special event that begins at 5 p.m. at the American Jazz Museum, 1616 E. 18th, in Kansas City, Mo., on Friday, Nov. 30. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the museum. “Jazz Town,” is the story of the free-and-easy days of prohibition, sex, the birth of the jazz age and how Jews assimilated into Midwestern culture. Readers will recognize famous people like Jelly Roll Morton, Count Basie, Sigmund Harzfeld and Rabbi Samuel Mayerberg, all of whom add to the true-to-life plot. “What really happened in Kansas City was just too good a story not to be told,” Barnett said.

For more information visit www.bethlyonbarnett.com.