Jewish food lovers get ready. Ohev Sholom’s KosherFest, Kansas City’s Celebration of Jewish Food & Culture is just around the corner, slated for Sunday, June 3, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the congregation in the lower parking lot, located at 75th and Nall in Prairie Village.

This will be the fourth time the event, which will feature food, music, activities for children, dancing, as well as an opportunity to browse arts, crafts and gifts, will be held. It premiered in 2007 and again in 2008 and 2010. It is being chaired by Ace Allen, Donna Oberstein, Kelly Jackson and Ruth Roth. Allen also serves as the Conservative congregation’s president.

For the first time, a $2 admission fee is being charged for the event. Children 3 and under will be admitted for free. Members of the Jewish Community Center will also be admitted free by showing a valid membership card.

In the past patrons had to purchase items with tickets only. This year exact cash will be accepted at the booths as well as tickets. Credit cards may be used to purchase tickets. Everything is priced in dollar amounts. Prices range from $1 to $8.

Parking will be available on the surrounding residential streets as well as the Masonic Lodge and the Asbury Methodist Church.

The weekend of KosherFest is filled with a variety of events in the Jewish community. In addition to the festival, it’s the farewell weekend for Kehilath Israel Synagogue’s Rabbi Herbert Mandl, the farewell weekend for Rabbi Vered Harris of Congregation Beth Torah, The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah’s Comedy Tonight fundraiser and Joel’s Ride, a bike ride for charity at Beth Torah.

“We’re thinking it’s jam packed with good things to do and we hate to think that any one event becomes the exclusive event for the weekend. We hope people will be able to pace themselves for an exciting weekend in the Jewish community,” Oberstein said.

Allen explained that Ohev sponsors KosherFest primarily as a community builder. In fact volunteers come not just from Ohev, but from all over the community.

“The great majority of the funds we bring in go directly to the event itself. A smaller portion does support Ohev’s programming,” he said.

What’s new?

In the past all the food at KosherFest has been supervised by Ohev Rabbi Scott White. This year the Vaad HaKashruth of Greater Kansas City will supervise the meat grill, the Blintz Bar and Frieda’s Heavenly Challah.

“We’ve made a real effort to have some Vaad supervision so that the whole community feels that they have access to this event,” Oberstein said.

A new focus for the Conservative congregation and the festival, Allen said, is kiuum ha’adamah — sustaining the earth.

“This is a new way of looking at how we approach the world. That feeds into our new tagline: KosherFest. It’s not just the food we eat. It’s the life we live,” Allen said

“We’re tying together sustainability with KosherFest and tying kashrut into sustainability so that it’s broadening the way we think about kashrut,” he continued.

Allen said the idea is that since Jews approach food and eating as a holy and communal activity, the point can be made that Jews should approach every aspect of their lives as a holy and communal activity.

Allen pointed out that KosherFest is not innovative in this area. “This has been part of a trend in Jewish thinking for a long, long time,” he said.

With the help of Kansas Interfaith Power & Light, which will be present at the festival along with Sustainable Sanctuaries (faith-based organizations that help synagogues and churches discover their relationships with the environment), Ohev has already begun working on ways to have a more sustainable structure in terms of saving energy.

“That’s the main thrust of it, which is huge in a big building like this,” Allen said.

At the festival, Oberstein said in addition to recycle bins located through the area, they are proud to be Styrofoam free this year.

Equal Exchange products — coffee, tea, cocoa and chocolate —will be sold at a special booth this year. Equal Exchange is a fair trade product supplier and worker-owned cooperative that has a partnership with the non-profit American Jewish World Service called Better Beans. All Better Beans products are certified kosher by the Orthodox Union, the Kashruth Council of Canada or Rabbi Abraham Hochwald, chief rabbi of the Northern Rhine-Germany.

Allen has also connected with a local produce farmer that they hope will be able to provide Ohev with the produce needed to meet all their needs for the Israeli booth.

“This is where our biggest vegetable demand is with Israeli salads and other Israeli dishes,” Oberstein said.

For those who have food sensitivities, a booth has been added to include some favorites that are gluten- and dairy-free.

“It will mostly be desserts, like a flourless chocolate torte. But we will also have matzah balls,” Oberstein said.

Returning favorites

Volunteers began preparing for this event in February. Before the gates open they will have prepared 1,800 falafel balls, 1,200 beef kabobs and 800 cabbage rolls. The second year they sold out of just about everything. In 2010, Oberstein said all the baked goods sold out as well as cabbage rolls, chicken and the entire Israeli booth.

“The real challenge is projecting the right numbers and not ending up with freezers full of food afterwards or not enough food,” Oberstein said.

In case there is leftover food, a post-KosherFest sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 5, and continue through Friday, June 8, or until the food runs out, whichever comes first. The sale will be open to the public

The Israeli booth will be back this year serving falafel plates, Israeli beef kabob plates, chicken shish kabob, Israeli salad, tabouli salad and a Middle Eastern dessert plate with baklava, and blintzes.

Assisting with the Israeli booth this year will be Barry Brooks, the son of longtime Ohev member Carol Brooks. Barry Brooks has been a corporate chef for more than 30 years and is currently working with ROTI, an upscale fast food Mediterranean restaurant with locations in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and new ones opening in Maryland and New York in the near future.

Blintzes will be hot off the grill and served with such toppings as strawberry, sour cream, and cinnamon and sugar.

Take-home-and-eat booths featuring delicacies such as noodle kugel, stuffed cabbage, tender brisket, crisp potato latkes, blintzes, corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, bagels with cream cheese, matzo ball soup will also be featured.

The popular bakery is expanding this year as well.

“We’ll have a lot more traditional favorites such as three kinds of Mandelbrot. We have a traditional one with nuts and cinnamon, a chocolate chip one and a craisin pistachio one. We also have three kinds of rugelach, a traditional apricot almond, a craisin orange marmalade and a chocolate one. I personally think the chocolate one, made with chocolate and Nutella, is to die for,” Oberstein said.

Celebrated local Jewish “chefs,” Oberstein explained, are sharing their expertise with KosherFest volunteers. They are Carol Brooks (cabbage rolls), Shirley Pener (babke and sweet dairy kugel), Patty Shapiro (cinnamon rolls) and Ray Davidson (Frieda’s Heavenly Challahs).

Not just food

Synagogue tours, music and children’s activities have proven to be popular over the years. The newest non-food addition to KosherFest will be Electric Avenue, which Allen describes as a showcase for the new “kosher” cars which fits right into this year’s sustainability theme. More that 5,000-square-feet of space has been devoted to all-electric and hybrid-electric cars.

“Petroleum-based transportation and a petroleum-based infrastructure is not sustainable for a whole lot of reasons,” Allen said. “So the question is what can we do about it at a local level beyond cutting energy cost in the synagogue and in our homes? One of the ways to do that is to move to electric-powered cars which are far, far more efficient than gasoline-powered cars.”

KosherFest’s gold sponsor, the KC Chevy Dealers, will display Chevy Volts and other high-efficiency cars, available for test drives. Other display cars will include a Tesla Roadster, Fisker Karma, Mitsubishi MiEV, Nissan Leaf, and Lexus Hybrid. Also, in partnership with the Mid-America Automobile Association, there will be a show of customized electric cars converted from gasoline.

Other major sponsors of KosherFest include Teva, Bob’s Seafoods, Advantage Metals & Recycling, King Louie America and Asner Iron & Metal Company.

Doug Alpert, the spiritual leader of Congregation Kol Ami, is now officially a rabbi. He received his smicha (ordination) from the Academy for Jewish Religion, on Thursday, May 17, in New York City. He was presented to the Jewish community as a rabbi for the very first time at the ceremony by Rabbi Scott White and Debbie Sosland-Edelman. A large contingent of family and friends also traveled to New York to attend the ceremony. Several former Kansas Citians now living in the New York area were present as well.

Kol Ami will honor the occasion of Rabbi Alpert’s ordination at a special worship service Friday, June 8. The service will begin at 7:30 p.m., with an Oneg Shabbat in his honor immediately following. The community is welcome to attend the festivities.

The Kansas City native’s path to the rabbinate was a bit winding. Now 54, he doesn’t know exactly when he began considering the rabbinate, but he thinks it was sometime in the late ’80s or early ’90s. Sometime in the early ’90s he applied to and was accepted to Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

“I deferred for a year. Then circumstances here in town postponed that indefinitely,” he said.

Before rabbinical school, he practiced law for about three years and served as director of the Kansas City Jazz Commission for about eight years. He also worked in real estate.

Even though he had postponed entrance in rabbinical school, he still wanted to learn more about Judaism. About the time he made that decision, he learned that people in the local Jewish community, including Steve Israelite, were building a relationship with the Siegal College of Judaic Studies in Cleveland. So he enrolled in the distance-learning program and earned a master’s degree in Jewish studies in 2005.

Around this time Rabbi Alpert said he again began considering the possibility of becoming a rabbi. He learned that there was a rabbinical school in New York that offered all its classes on the first three days of the week.

“So I could be here a little more than half the week,” he said.

He applied to and was accepted to the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralist rabbinical school that teaches the full spectrum of Judaism, in 2006. Rabbi Danny Horwitz, who served Congregation Ohev Sholom in the late ’80s and early ’90s, was also ordained from AJR.

Until last year when he finished up his coursework, Rabbi Alpert spent about 30 weeks a year traveling back and forth to New York. This past year while he worked on his thesis and took various exams, he didn’t have to spend as much time in New York.

Even though he hadn’t yet been ordained, he was chosen as the spiritual leader of Kol Ami last summer. Rabbi Alpert just recently renewed his contract with the Reform congregation for another year. He has also worked part-time this year for Congregation Beth Shalom, helping Rabbi Alan Cohen (the rabbi emeritus serving as the interim rabbi this year) when he needed assistance.

“Having this back up has been very important because with the Beth Shalom reorganization that left only Hazzan Menes and me as the clergy and my interim status, there have been times when having another clergy person available has helped immensely. Since Rabbi Alpert grew up in our community and at Beth Shalom, he has a great degree of familiarity with congregants and they with him. I very much appreciate the professional qualities he brings to his work and the skill sets he so admirably demonstrates. I am thrilled to have him join our rabbinic community,” Rabbi Cohen said.

Rabbi Alpert decided to become a rabbi “first and foremost because of the opportunity to be a part of so many meaningful relationships.”

“Part and parcel of this is to be a part of a caring Jewish community,” he said.

He describes himself as a trans/post/multi-denominational Jew.

“Some would argue that denominational Judaism doesn’t carry as much weight or meaning as it once did. We are such a mobile society that you can walk in to any synagogue and everybody has come from somewhere else. So the background of the congregants within any given congregation is pretty diverse,” he said.

“I find something to commend in each of the movements,” he continued.

Up until he took the jobs at Kol Ami and Beth Shalom, he served as the rabbinic intern at Congregation Ohev Sholom.

“I love all the communities I’ve been involved with,” Rabbi Alpert said. “I love my Kol Ami people. I love the Ohev community. Beth Shalom’s going to forever be home; it’s family both literally and figuratively.”

Rabbi Alpert enjoys doing the things rabbis do: worship, Torah learning and study as well as engaging with community in issues of social concern.

“I enjoy being a part of people’s lives,” he said. “People will welcome you into the most meaningful experiences in their lives. It’s a big honor for me,” he said.

Since he’s been working as a spiritual leader for a while, some people had already begun calling him rabbi. But he’s excited to have officially earned the title. Yet he believes it’s a title he will continually have to earn.

The historic Brookside neighborhood has a new addition to its list of shops and restaurants, one with a familiar name but a new look.

Panera Bread opened its newest location on May 3 at 6301 Brookside Plaza. This location features a brand new design for a Panera restaurant.

“We have some great minds that came up with a look that we are very happy with,” said Eric Cole, vice president of operations for Panera Bread of Kansas and member of Congregation Beth Torah. He and his wife Michelle are also part-owners of this location. “Going forward, all new stores and all remodeled cafes will have this design.”

In addition to the new design, all Panera Bread stores still offer intimate seating areas, a community table and free WiFi internet access.

Though Brookside typically features more one-of-a-kind shops, Cole believes Panera has many of the elements that Brooksiders enjoy.

“We pride ourselves on being a neighborhood cafe with a friendly atmosphere,” Cole said. “With a focus on that neighborhood bakery aspect, we definitely fit in with what Brookside is all about.”

Cole believes this is not just grabbing a bite on the go.

“We have a comfortable space where people can come in, take their time and relax,” he said. “You can bring in your laptop and use the free WiFi. We have ladies come in and play cards at our tables. This continues to be a place where people can come and be in a casual, friendly environment.”

A friendly environment such as that would have to be fostered by the men and women taking the orders and preparing the food.

“It always starts with the employees,” Cole said. “It doesn’t matter how good the food is, if the employees are grumpy, people will not want to come back. So having the right people working our counters has been vital.”

Joining the Brookside community seemed like a logical next step for the franchise that originally began in St. Louis.

“We looked at a Brookside location for 10 years, but there had been an issue with the parking,” Cole said. “When that issue was resolved we jumped at the opportunity to have a Panera in Brookside.”

Cole says that their response in Brookside has been phenomenal, with the community welcoming them with kind words and repeat business. He says that Panera believes in paying back the areas they join.

“We want to be a part of the community, and to donate to the community. That has always been a part of who we are,” Cole said.

To donate to the community, this new location will join the other Kansas City area Panera locations in giving back through its local Day-End Dough-Nation™ and Community Breadbox™ programs.

At the end of each day, Panera Bread also donates all unsold bread and baked goods to local area hunger relief agencies as part of its local Day-End Dough-Nation program. Collectively, Panera bakery-cafés annually donate more than $100 million worth of unsold bread and baked goods to help people in need.

Cole began working for Panera 17 years ago in the marketing department and worked his way up to his current position. His experience has led him to a new opportunity with Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers in addition to overseeing the local Panera locations.

Cole now has a financial interest in new Freddy’s opening throughout the state of Missouri. The chain has the look of a ‘50s- style diner that Cole has long had an interest in.

“It’s a neat concept that always stuck with me,” he said. “Panera is still my day job. This is a business that I wanted to be a part of because I saw fantastic growth.”

This growth has not come overnight. After working with Freddy’s for two years, Cole’s first location opened on May 15 in Jefferson City, Mo. Cole was more than excited to see the work pay off.

“Excited is a vast understatement,” Cole said. “To see it finally come to fruition has been almost unbelievable. It’s like when you’re 16 and you’re waiting to finally be able to drive. The day it comes, the excitement is overwhelming.”

Cole has another Freddy’s location opening over the summer in Sedalia, Mo. For more information visit the website, www.freddysUSA.com.

For more information on Panera Bread visit www.panerakansas.com.

Panera Bread at 6301 Brookside Plaza is open Sunday 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Monday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.  For more information, call Panera Bread at 816-363-0676.

Panera Bread of Kansas operates 33 bakery-cafe locations in both Kansas and Missouri, including the Kansas City metro area, Wichita, Topeka, Lawrence, Manhattan and St. Joseph. A new location is coming in June to Sedalia, Mo.

For Meryl Engle, contributing to the Jewish community is a family tradition.

The 16-year-old followed in her older brother and sister’s footsteps when she became a madricha for the Weiner Religious School at Congregation Beth Torah.

Her parents, Teala and John Engle, also stay involved; Meryl’s mom is a teacher at the religious school.

The best part of the job is “when I can tell that I’ve made a difference to a kid,” she said. “There was a little boy with special needs who wouldn’t talk to anyone. We were planting parsley, and I finally got him to plant his parsley … every week he would grab my hand (to show me the parsley). I made a difference. I helped him open up and not stay so quiet all the time.”

Experiences like that help Meryl feel connected to Judaism.

“The feeling I get when I come home every Sunday at noon— I feel like I’ve made my little contribution to my synagogue and to the Jewish community,” she said. “I just feel like sometimes I lose concentration on what’s important when I’m stressed with school, and (this) puts my life back into perspective for me.”

Meryl, who will be a senior at Blue Valley North in the fall, has tried to promote religious understanding at the school through the Jewish Student Union.

“She’s never concerned about her ego; she’s always focused on the big picture that the club was succeeding and reaching out to new kids,” said Hillel Goldstein, JSU’s director.

As president of JSU last year, she planned programs and recruited new members while also encouraging non-Jewish students to attend meetings so they might understand their Jewish classmates better.

“They think it’s interesting to learn about something they haven’t really been exposed to. I really enjoy being that connection to Judaism for them. Showing them what my beliefs are is important to me,” she said.

When she was a candidate for Matzo Ball queen in BBYO, Meryl became involved in philanthropy projects. After she won the title, she decided to continue spreading goodwill by teaming up with her uncle, Jim Engle, who runs a contracting company.

“I realized I had a knack for getting people (organized) to do something big. I didn’t want to stop my charity work,” she said.
In honor of friends and family who have died from cancer, Meryl helped arrange for contractors to donate time and supplies to build a house, with the proceeds of the sale going to support brain cancer charities.

This summer, she will continue to make Jewish connections by leading services and other Jewish activities as an ozo counselor-in-training at the Herzl Camp in Wisconsin for a group of 10-year-olds. Meryl has been a camper there for five years.

“I am so excited to go back to my favorite place on Earth … where I found my own Judaism, and where Israel became important to me,” she said. “

Israel has a place in Meryl’s plans for the future. After visiting Israel on a month-long trip with United Synagogue Youth last year, she decided she wants to make aliyah.

“Other than Herzl, I’ve never felt so at home and so comfortable being Jewish. I want to contribute to Israel somehow … I just can’t see myself anywhere else. Everyone (on the trip) was willing to teach me every part of Judaism that is there,” she said.

Before that, she has to finish high school and go to college, where she hopes to study biomedical or biochemical engineering.

“I just feel like being a biomedical engineer would be where finding a cure for cancer would really start,” she said. “I love science and chemistry, and I feel like it’s my calling.”

She is preparing by participating in the Blue Valley Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) program in biomedical engineering, where she will take classes, complete labs and have a bioscience internship in the field.

To others, Meryl’s future seems clear.

“She has amazing natural ability to be a leader and an amazing passion for her connection to Judaism. She’s going to accomplish amazing things,” said Goldstein.

PROUD OF OUR GRADUATES — Every year the Jewish community can boast about the achievements of our college and high school graduates and this year is no exception. One such graduate her parents are happy to brag about is Gabbie Fried, a 2012 graduate of Blue Valley North and the daughter of Sandi and Ed Fried. Gabbie was selected to speak at BVN’s graduation ceremonies, where she reminded her classmates that “rejections only make you stronger, and that’s the key to success.” Gabbie, 18, received the Superintendent’s Award, which is reserved for the top 10 students in the school. In addition she was recognized as an AP scholar with distinction, Kansas Honor Scholar, a Forensics League Academic All American and is a member of the International Thespian Society and National Honor Society. She will attend New York University in New York City in the fall and plans to major in acting with a minor in psychology.

PERFECT SCORE — Last month, on April 26, Gavri Schreiber was featured in The Chronicle as a Salute to Youth honoree. Then last week we found out that the Blue Valley North junior has achieved something less than one-tenth of one percent of ACT test takers nationwide achieve, a perfect score. Gavri earned perfect scores of 36 on the college entrance exam. The ACT tests in the areas of English, reading, math and science. Approximately 1.4 million students take the test each year

THE COMMUNITY WE NEED — Congregation Beth Torah is featured in the newest edition of Reform Judaism magazine, which came out on the Union of Reform Judaism’s website last week and should be arriving in subscribers’ homes any day now. Beth Torah is in the article “How to Build Community on Shabbat,” and it can be accessed at www.reformjudaismmag.org. Five congregations are featured, with Beth Torah being the lead! It’s a much shorter version of the front-page feature story we published on March 21, but it has some great quotes in it we didn’t get. Check it out.

SEEN ON CHANNEL 41 — I was watching the television news, again, and this time I heard a story on 41 Action News and realized it was about a couple many of us know. On May 15, Tom Christiansen reported that Jeff Fromm had lost his wedding ring on a business trip earlier this month. Before going out to purchase a new ring, which he had had for almost 24 years, Jeff’s wife Rhonda decided to look for it by placing an ad on Craigslist. Rhonda got a response from a man in Omaha, who had also posted an ad after he found a ring in Chicago. Luckily for the Fromms it was Jeff’s ring and he got it back last week. To see the whole story, go to http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/local_news/water_cooler/craigs-list-reunites-husband-with-lost-ring.

TRADER JOE’S PAREVE CHOCOLATE CHIPS GO DAIRY — Last week I heard the news that Trader Joe’s semi-sweet chocolate chips will no longer be certified nondairy. The Los Angeles Jewish Journal, distributed to us through our news service JTA, reported the following:

OK-Certification will no longer be able to certify the products as pareve because of a change in the supplier’s production procedure.

In a statement, Trader Joe’s said the ingredients have not changed and the chips will continue to be made on equipment dedicated to nondairy chocolate.

The bagging process, however, has changed, with the supplier now using a dry cleaning procedure for a machine that also packages milk chocolate products.

These changes “triggered the need for an FDA regulated, dairy-related allergen statement, and this in turn brought about a change in the kosher certification for our item — going from ‘Kosher Pareve’ to ‘Kosher Dairy,’ ” the statement read.

As a result, OK Kosher said supervising rabbis can no longer guarantee that errant milk chocolate won’t be in the semi-sweet bags.

A petition at change.org urges “Trader Joe’s: Keep the Chocolate Chips Pareve!” A Facebook campaign to restore the pareve status was also launched. Or contact the company at  http://www.traderjoes.com/about/product-information-form.asp

Michael Klein can be described as a visionary, a person who has had unusually keen foresight, especially when it comes to the Jewish community. Over the years that foresight has included helping steward the move of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah to its current location in Johnson County. He has also been instrumental in seeing the Jewish community’s home for the aged, now known as Village Shalom, also move to Kansas, located just a hop, skip and a jump from the Reform congregation.

Earlier this year Klein was honored, along with his entire extended family, for his contributions to Village Shalom. Now it’s B’nai Jehudah’s turn to honor Klein as one of its most devoted benefactors and his ongoing support for the congregation at Comedy Tonight: A benefit for The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, Saturday evening, June 2. (For more information, see below.)

“We are so grateful to be able to honor someone like Michael, who has given so much of his time and energy to help us move into the future,” said B’nai Jehudah Rabbi Arthur Nemitoff. “I can’t think of a better venue in which we can pay homage to his work on behalf of the congregational family.”

Klein has been a member of B’nai Jehudah for almost four decades. A Kansas City native, he completed his undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and then earned his juris doctorate at the University of Michigan Law School. Described as a dedicated and generous member of B’nai Jehudah, he first served on the congregation’s board of trustees from 1989 to 1995. Due to term limits he stepped away from the board for many years, returning to the board again last year.

“During that stretch of time I was the head of the art committee, which I still am, and I was on the education committee. I’ve always had an interest in education. I am simply concerned about how to transmit Jewish values to a new and younger generation,” Klein said.

His desire to make sure Jewish values are transmitted to younger generations is the reason Klein recently underwrote the commissioning of the Paul Mesner Puppets to develop a special High Holiday presentation “to the delight of the youngest members of our congregation.”

He decided changes needed to be made to children’s services about four years ago after attending High Holiday worship with his nephew and great-niece.

“It brought back all the memories of how bad youth services were when I was small,” Klein said. “The kids were squirming, the parents were unhappy because their kids were squirming and it was generally not a good time for anyone. I think that whole thing is fairly universal across all synagogues and all Jewish denominations.”

So he visited with Rabbi Nemitoff about his concerns.

“To his credit, he was willing to listen to an idea. I said that you cannot hope to even begin to teach children if you can’t engage them and clearly the youth services that I had seen were not engaging anyone,” Klein said.

Klein said Rabbi Nemitoff helped craft an entirely new service for children using the puppets.

“They’ve done it two years now,” Klein said. “The kids were absolutely spellbound. I watched my nephew’s daughter again and she was just bug-eyed throughout the entire service.”

From what he’s seen just with his own family, Klein thinks the creative services are accomplishing the goal of educating and transforming Jewish values to young children. For example, he noticed that his great-nephew Jonah, who was only about 2 ½ years old at the time, walked around following Yom Kippur services telling everyone “I’m sorry.”

“It amazed me that, as young as he was, he picked up part of the lesson that if you do something harmful you need to say I’m sorry, which is the message from the Jewish High Holidays,” Klein said.

An added bonus to the change in service, according to Klein, is the increase in extended families attending it.

“The kids were no longer squirming, the parents were enjoying it and then suddenly the grandparents started coming,” he said.
“It really has gotten to the point where a lot of the young kids are looking forward to services. When was the last time that happened?”

Setting the plan in motion to change the children’s services is just one example of what Klein has tried to do during his tenures on the board at B’nai Jehduah.

“I’ve tried to look at things with a new eye and see how things can be done better and how the values that are important to Judaism in general and the Temple in particular can be carried on,” Klein explained.

In addition to his service to B’nai Jehudah, Klein has also committed his time and energy to the Jewish Community Foundation, Flo Harris Foundation, Village Shalom and its predecessor Shalom Geriatric Center, and Kansas City Jewish Museum, where he also was a past president and one of its earliest supporters.

Today Klein is semi-retired from US Toy Company, a family-owned company founded in 1953. About two-and-a-half years ago he sold his interests in the business to his two nephews, but has stayed on at their request.

He is proud to be associated with B’nai Jehudah and the Jewish community and he believes B’nai Jehudah plays an important role as an anchor in it.

“We need things like The Temple to be able to transmit our Jewish values to the next generation. It’s one thing if someone said I don’t need to go to a temple or synagogue to teach my children right from wrong. Yet The Temple, and Judaism, give a vessel in which to put those values that makes it easier to transmit from generation to generation. That’s why I think the Temple is important.”

Comedy Tonight

Comedy Tonight: A benefit for The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, takes place at 7 p.m. Saturday evening, June 2, at the Westin Crown Center. This evening will feature “Jewtopia,” off-Broadway’s longest-running comedy hit, featuring co-creators Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson.

In addition to live comedy, the evening will feature cocktails, desserts, and live and silent auction.

Funds raised from the event will benefit B’nai Jehudah and its programs. For more information about the event, or to purchase tickets, go to bnaijehudah.org, or call 913-663-4050.

The Kansas City Jewish Community has made a big impression on Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. So much so that the rabbi, whose book “Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History” is the most widely selling book on Judaism in the past two decades, is coming back here to be the keynote speaker at the community’s annual all-night Shavuot celebration on Saturday, May 26, at Kehilath Israel Synagogue.

More than 500 people came to hear Rabbi Telushkin when he was here three years ago. As Rabbinical Assocation President Rabbi Herbert Mandl describes it, it was a standing-room only crowd.

“I did this a few years ago and I had a very nice turnout so I’m very much looking forward to coming back to Kansas City,” Rabbi Telushkin said in a telephone interview last week.

“It was an extraordinary experience. I go and I speak in many communities but it’s very moving to have so many people in attendance. I hope it happens again,” he said.

The event greatly appeals to Rabbi Telushkin because it is sponsored by the Rabbinical Association and a variety of congregations from all the movements.

“It’s always moving when you feel you are coming to a community and speaking to different communities. Obviously when you speak at just one synagogue you are more limited to the nature of the outreach you are doing,” he said.

“I really had a wonderful experience here before. To be able to speak on a higher level as one can and to feel that people are really being reached is a dream for a speaker,” he continued.

Rabbi Telushkin was ordained at Yeshiva University in New York, and pursued graduate studies in Jewish history at Columbia University. He resides in New York City with his wife, Dvorah Menashe Telushkin, and their four children.

He lectures throughout the United States, serves as a senior associate of CLAL, is on the board of directors of the Jewish Book Council and is spiritual leader of the Synagogue for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles.

Rabbi Telushkin’s Shavuot topic will be “Seven Lessons from a 2,000 Year Old Rabbi That Still Matter for all Jews Today.” The 2,000-year-old rabbi he is referring to is Hillel. Rabbi Telushkin believes that many of Hillel’s teachings “remain exceedingly relevant” today.

“We’ll start with his most famous teaching where a non-Jew approaches him and he defines the essence of Judaism for this non-Jew by saying ‘what’s hateful unto you don’t do unto your neighbor. This is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary now go and study.’

“So he really takes seriously the pre-eminent significance of the ethical in Judaism. What makes that clear is that the non-Jew did not ask him ‘Oh tell me about Judaism while I’m standing on one foot.’ He said, ‘Convert me to Judaism on the condition that you can explain it to me while I’m standing on one foot.’ So this is a question, almost in a legal form, coming from a would-be convert. So Hillel very much takes the essence of Judaism on that and that’s one of about seven examples that I want to give.”

Rabbi Telushkin said that even within that example there are other interesting parameters he will discuss.

“One is why doesn’t he choose a verse like love your neighbor as yourself? Why does he come up with his own formulation and a negative formulation — what’s hateful unto you? What’s the reason he chooses to do that?”

That’s just a taste of what Rabbi Telushkin will discuss for about 45 minutes. He usually follows his prepared remarks with a question and answer session.

Many of the special presenters at the annual Shavuot program choose not to participate in additional study sessions throughout the night. Unlike those speakers, Rabbi Telushkin plans to participate in the study sessions and is looking forward to it.

“I am actually speaking three times. The speech on Hillel will happen at 10:30. Another speech is at 1:45 in the morning and another speech will be about 3:30 in the morning. That can knock a person out for a couple of days,” he said.

The all-night study session, Rabbi Telushkin said, is an old Jewish tradition.

“In recent years it’s getting a little more popular. I think people are attracted by the unusual nature of staying up all night and studying. Though admittedly the last time I was there I had literally 500 or more people there at my first talk, but I’m not going to have a crowd of nearly that size at 3:30 or 3:45 in the morning. But people try and do it and it’s very moving that people do. Since the holiday celebrates the giving of the Torah, it’s that appreciation of the Torah that they are acting out on that day.”

The world-famous author, who was named by Talk Magazine as one of the 50 best speakers in the United States, most recently published “Telushkinisms: Wisdoms to the Point,” in late February.

“It’s the first book I have really coming out as an Internet book. It gives a variety of thoughts of mine on different subjects,” he explained.

For the past two years he’s been working on a book about the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. He hopes to have it finished in about a year. He chose to write about the Rebbe because he was a rabbinic figure who had an extraordinary outreach.

“He took over a small movement in 1951 and he turned it into this extraordinarily dynamic movement. As far as I can understand he was supervising the first attempt in all of Jewish history to try to reach every Jewish community in the world. I want to try to come to an understanding of what motivated him to do this and how did he influence so many people to follow his lead,” Rabbi Telushkin said.

“It’s really a study in leadership and in this instance of an exceedingly dynamic and influential leader,” he continued.

All-night Shavuot program

The community’s annual all-night Shavuot celebration begins at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, May 26, at Kehilath Israel Synagogue.
Two Mincha services will be held at 8:30 p.m., a traditional and a learner’s service. A dairy buffet will follow at 9:30 p.m. The keynote speech, will be given at 10:30 p.m. Study sessions and teen activities will be offered throughout the night. The event will conclude with a sunrise service and breakfast.

Participants may attend all or some of the activities. There is no charge for the study sessions, however reservations are requested. This program is cosponsored by The Rabbinical Association of Greater KC and area congregations and funded by the Frank Morgan Fund and Goldie Chalet Fund of Kehilath Israel Synagogue.

Reservations for the dairy buffet are required. For more information regarding the cost or to make reservations, contact Annette Fish, administrator/program director for the Rabbinical Association, or 913-327-4622 or visit www.kcrabbis.org.

Village Shalom’s upcoming 25th annual Father’s Day Run/Walk event is a family affair. Just ask Jennie Stolper and her son, Jeff.

Back in 1987, the Associate Board of Shalom Geriatric Center (Village Shalom’s predecessor) initiated a large-scale annual race to raise funds that would benefit dementia-care programs for SGC residents. Associate Board members Jennie Stolper and Dr. Andy Jacobs co-chaired what was then called the “May Day Run.”

With no prior experience in organizing an event of that magnitude, Stolper and Jacobs oversaw the logistics of that first race, set in the heart of downtown Kansas City. They pursued every available avenue to secure sponsorships and donations, and to solicit free radio airtime to advertise the event. Jennie said, “It was just so amazing to see everything actually come together that first year.”

Being a new mom at the time, Jennie brought her baby, Jeff, along to some of the race-planning meetings. It must have made an impression on him.

Twenty-five years later, Jeff Stolper is now president of the Village Shalom Associate Board, and is overseeing the various plans for this year’s silver anniversary race — now called the Father’s Day Run/Walk. The event coincides with Village Shalom’s centennial year.

A couple of years ago, when Jeff decided to become involved in volunteer work, he naturally gravitated to Village Shalom, where his mom had invested so much of her energy years earlier. “I had been looking to get involved with a charitable organization, and wanted to make sure it was going to be something I legitimately cared about,” commented Jeff.

Coincidentally, Jeff’s grandfather, Robert Navran, was temporarily residing at Village Shalom for physical therapy and rehabilitation. Jeff visited him there every day for two months. During those visits, Jeff saw “what a great place Village Shalom is, and I thought it would be nice to help out.”

His mother, of course, suggested that he join the Associate Board, which is aimed at developing volunteer and leadership opportunities for young Jewish adults. Now in his second year as a member, Jeff serves as its president. “I was born and bred to do this,” he quipped.

Added Jennie, “The fact that it’s a full circle now, with Jeff being on the Associate Board, and the fact that he did actually come with me when he was a baby to meetings — it’s pretty special.”

It’s a tradition that Jeff hopes will continue. “After seeing my grandfather come here,” he said, “I know that Village Shalom still needs to be here when I’m ready. For now and future generations, I think it’s extremely important to have a stable, solid place” to care for Jewish senior adults.

The community is invited to join in Village Shalom’s family tradition, the 25th Annual Father’s Day Run/Walk, on Sunday, June 17, at 5500 W. 123rd St., Overland Park, KS. Race-day registration begins at 6 a.m., and the 5- and 10-kilometer event begins at 7:30 a.m. The event will also feature a Kids’ Fun Run and other family attractions.

Funds raised through race sponsorships, donations and registration fees will help to provide essential support for Village Shalom’s programs and services that directly benefit individuals and their families confronting the challenges of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

For sponsorship opportunities, to register for the race or to make a donation, visit the race website, www.fathersdayrun.org, or call Monica Pontarelli, Village Shalom development associate, at 913-266-8469.

Ruthie Bergman is a member of the Village Shalom Associate Board.

Avid golfers that have been cooped up inside all winter long — OK maybe not so much this past winter — often pencil in Memorial Day weekend as their time to head back out to the links. This year members of Oakwood Country Club can count on a big celebration of Kansas City’s golf history to go along with lots of great golf.

Oakwood Country Club, originally known as The Progress Club, officially opened its one and only golf course on Memorial Day weekend in 1912 at its location at 9800 Grandview Road in Kansas City, Mo. The club plans to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its golf course with several special events on Memorial Day weekend. (See below for more details.)
The Progress Club was first established in 1881. The original club moved several times before taking up permanent residence at the golf location.

When the Progress Club golf links opened on Memorial Day 1912, there were just three other private courses plus the public Swope Park and Excelsior Springs courses available to golfers. Today, at 100 years, Oakwood is the city’s oldest private golf courses. Originally designed by well-known golf architect Tom Bendelow, the course has seen several improvements over the years with designs by Scott Miller, Tom Watson and Craig Schreiner. Watson has been an honorary member of the Oakwood for many years.

“It’s a gem of a golf course,” said Todd Stice, head golf professional for Oakwood. “I have played extensively and it is as beautiful as any course around.”

Ward Katz has been a member of Oakwood most of his life and, as a former president, can be considered one of the club’s historians. He’s a third generation member, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, a charter member, and his father. The course was located quite a distance from where most of the Jewish community lived when it opened.

“My grandfather and father would take a street car out to Waldo, stop and have lunch, then take a train to a town called Dodson, then finally a horse and buggy out to Oakwood to spend the weekend,” Katz said. “This is when a country club was really out in the country. But even today, Oakwood is rare among local golf courses in that there are no houses around the course preserving a serene feel. Common sights on the course are deer, wild turkey, fox, blue heron and even an occasional peacock. The club’s iconic lake is teeming with fish.”

Katz said Oakwood began its existence as a strictly Jewish club. It was created after members of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah decided to form an organization for their families to enjoy social activities. Founded just 11 years after B’nai Jehudah, Oakwood remains one of the oldest Jewish institutions in the city. As an interesting side note, many of the founders of these two landmark institutions would later go on to start Menorah Hospital, the predecessor of Menorah Medical Center.

By 1910, members were looking for a more rural setting so that the Jewish community might enjoy the new, popular game called “the golf.” A town club was also retained for the use of the members for card-playing and social affairs during the winter months.

“It was a very important hub for business and social activity,” Katz said. “The club provided a venue outside of religious settings where Jewish men could get together and talk in an informal environment.”

Oakwood stopped having an exclusive Jewish membership in the mid-‘80s. However its Jewish heritage still factors large in the makeup of Oakwood.

“I’m sure the club was a source of pride for the Jewish community then,” Katz said. “Kansas City was a rough and tumble place, but here was a place our group could come together and grow those community bonds.”

The Memorial Day celebration will provide an opportunity to look back at the entire history of Oakwood.

“It’s great when you look back and find new pieces to the history,” said Polly Kramer, Oakwood’s vice president. “This is where Harry Truman would play cards and catch the train. You can always find things about the club that you didn’t know about.”
Katz and Stice agree that that the weekend events would not be possible if not for the commitment many men and women have to Oakwood. Their dedication has been reflected in the work they have done to make sure these events go smoothly.

“It has taken the work of very knowledgeable volunteers to complete a whole range of events,” Katz said. “It’s needed as we are anticipating a lot of participation.”

“Everyone is very excited for all of the events,” Stice said. “It’s a great celebration to celebrate the past, and to kick off the next 100 years.”

Katz also invites those interested to visit Oakwood’s website, www.oakwoodcountryclub.org, to learn more about the events and history of Oakwood.

“The Memorial Day celebration will be an important event,” Katz said. “It’s historical for us (Oakwood), and it’s historical for our city.”

Oakwood’s anniversary weekend

Members of Oakwood Country Club and the community have the opportunity to take part in several events Memorial Day Weekend to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Oakwood’s golf course at 9800 Grandview Road in Kansas City, Mo.

The first event, a couples’ open twilight golf with dinner, drinks and prizes, is Friday, May 25. A Centennial Smoke-out Barbecue will be held Saturday, May 26. A gold tournament followed by The Bee’s Knees Bootleggers Balls takes place Sunday, May 27. The celebration ends with the Centennial Gold Tournament Tuesday, May 29. Teams from several other country clubs have been invited to compete in this tournament, with the proceeds going to First Tee (www.thefirstteekc.org), a charity that benefits young golfers of all backgrounds.

“That is something everyone will play to win,” said Todd Stice, head golf professional for Oakwood, who will play on the Oakwood team. “But more importantly, it’s for a good cause. For a variety of reasons, it’s one of the things I am most looking forward to.”

Both competitive and more laid back golf will be held over the weekend. Whatever skill range, Stice believes everyone will find a game that suits them.

Events are open to members and their guests. For more information on prices or activities, or to make a reservation, call 816-761-5501.

“When we were planning events, the goal was to have activities for all age ranges,” said Polly Kramer, vice president of Oakwood Country Club. “We have a great nexus of people that belong to Oakwood. I’m most excited to see everyone come together for this big celebration.

Sailors looking for the next great open body of water would not normally come to Leavenworth, Kan.

However, in Berlin in 1936, Siegfried Held was only looking for an escape. Fleeing the Nazis, Held immigrated to Kansas City, where he had relatives. He soon met and married Linette Goldmon, a woman born and raised in the tiny Jewish community of Leavenworth.  Together they moved into her mother’s home there. His life, once that of a wealthy Berlin banker, had completely changed. Previously an avid sailor, in Leavenworth Held now had no place to sail, and even if there had been a place, there was no money for a boat. He earned a meager living, working for the IRS. In 1944 he and his wife gave birth to a daughter, Kathy.

The Helds’ daughter would be raised in a safe place, away from the war in Europe. However, tragically both of Kathy’s parents died during her adolescence, leaving her with only the memories of her parents and the culture and worlds they came from.

“When my father died I found all of his old documents, and I felt like I became the caretaker of my family’ history,” Kathy Green said. “Looking through his mementos and various items, I got a sense of this other city, Berlin, and about life there. I kept looking, and finding interesting bits of history here and there.”

Now continuing with that role as caretaker for her family history, Kathy has released her memoir, “Sailing in Kansas.” With a title inspired by her father’s love of sailing, her book tells both the story of her family leaving Berlin, and her own experiences growing up in the small Jewish community in Leavenworth.

In her preface, Kathy writes “These tales of my early years in the small Jewish community of Leavenworth, Kansas, also tell of a childhood lived in the shadow of a great city, the Berlin of my own father’s youth and my own childhood daydreams. As an adult I have lived in a number of great cities: Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Jerusalem. But none of these really figure in this book. They have been my adult homes, the places where I really live. But the most important places for these reflections, the ‘Two Cities’ of this ‘Tale,’ are Leavenworth and Berlin. Maybe I will never stop living in those two cities. In fact, Berlin and Leavenworth formed me. They were the cities of my childhood.”

Living with her grandmother and going to high school with many poor kids, Kathy said she always felt different both religiously and in life experiences. This made the support of the local Jewish community even more important.

“My family tried very hard to be a part of the gang. There were only 20 Jewish families living there at that time, so being part of the community was very important,” Kathy said. “That led to great closeness for us all; it was like an extended family. We all knew each other very well.”

Kathy’s family were members of Temple B’Nai Jeshurun in Leavenworth. Her family was very active in the synagogue.
Today the temple is closed, and Kathy has no more family living in Leavenworth. However, after the book came out, Kathy did begin receiving calls and emails from high school classmates and others she knew from town.

“They were people she hadn’t talked to in years, reaching out and telling her they remembered her,” said Art Green, Kathy’s husband. “Once they saw the book it brought back a lot of memories for them as well.”

“The response was more than I could have imagined,” Kathy said. “The outpouring of support was very important to us.”

After leaving Leavenworth to go to college, Kathy met and married theologian and scholar Arthur Green, founder and currently rector of the Hebrew College Rabbinical School. She taught Jewish Education at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. She previously authored “The Jewish Family Book,” co-edited with Sharon Strassfeld, along with several essays in the field.

The book opens with Kathy and Art traveling to Berlin, years after her father’s death. She said the experience felt like they were living out his trip “back” to Berlin, since he never had a chance to return after fleeing the city.

“The emotions were very powerful, and the various associations I felt for things made it a very emotional trip,” Green said.

Kathy and Art visited Kathy’s grandmother’s grave in Berlin’s vast Jewish cemetery. The gravesite was undamaged and Kathy made sure to collect a memento. She took a clod of dirt from the grave and transported it all the way to her grandfather’s grave in Leavenworth, to lay it there with him.

“It was fascinating that this simple clod of dirt could mean so much,” Art said.

Kathy is glad that the book will be something she can pass down.

“I wanted to leave these memories to the next generation,” she said.

Kathy is currently battling Parkinson’s disease, and communication can sometimes be difficult. That made getting her story out all the more gratifying.

“There is a Berlin legacy, and a Leavenworth legacy, and they are both parts of her and made her the person she is,” Art said. “Writing the book was a deep self-examination, and it helped her recover a part of herself. It’s a piece of herself we will always have.”

Kathy and Art currently live in the Boston area. or more information on Kathy Green’s book or to order a copy, go online to www.sailinginkansas.com.