What is a rabbi? Among other things, he/she is often a trusted leader and adviser. Congregants go to their rabbi in times of joy, troubles and sorrow.

But where do rabbis go for advice? Luckily young Orthodox rabbis can turn to other members of an informal group affectionately known as the West Coast Rav. Congregation BIAV’s Rabbi Daniel Rockoff is hosting this year’s West Coast Rav here Monday through Wednesday, Nov. 7-9. Twenty-five rabbis are expected to attend from across the country.

In some ways, West Coast Rav can be termed a support group.

“It’s a great group of guys,” said Rabbi Jonathan Gross of Beth Israel Synagogue in Omaha, Neb. He attended the first one in 2003 and every one since.

The meeting is always held this time of year as a way for the rabbis to wind down and rejuvenate from the High Holidays.

“The High Holidays are our busy season. For us, it can be compared to a whole bunch of accountants getting together on April 16th. It’s very informal. We unwind,” Rabbi Gross said.

The West Coast Rav was the brainchild of Rabbi Jonathan I. Rosenblatt, the senior rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center, a diverse and dynamic Zionist Orthodox synagogue community of some 700 families located in the Bronx, N.Y. Rabbi Rosenblatt will arrive in Kansas City several days before the meeting to serve as BIAV’s scholar in residence Nov. 4 and 5 and be the featured presenter at Schmooze with the Jews at the Zoo: A family happening! (For more information on these events, see below.)

Rabbi Rockoff explains that Rabbi Rosenblatt has a special interest in the training and mentoring of young rabbis. The New York rabbi is an instructor in the RIETS Rabbinic training program as well as in programs in Israel that train rabbis for the Diaspora. Under his leadership the Riverdale Jewish Center, through its internship program, has become a major “finishing school” for talented young rabbis.

Rabbi Rosenblatt explained the group arose from an idea he had prior to a visit he made to Los Angeles to speak at Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills, Calif., where Rabbi Steven Weil, now the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, was the rabbi.
Rabbi Rosenblatt thought that while he was there, the two experienced rabbis should find a way to help the many young rabbis working up and down the West Coast who didn’t have budgets to bring people in from all over the country to help mentor them and their congregations.

Following Rabbi Rosenblatt’s suggestion, Rabbi Weil invited young rabbis from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, down to San Diego to visit Los Angeles for a few days.

“We sat for two days talking about the rabbinate and the experience of the rabbi as a person from the inside out,” Rabbi Rosenblatt said.

Those involved in West Coast Rav say this is unlike other rabbinic conferences.

“This is much more from the inside and some of us have become a real support network for one another with a very special emphasis on smaller communities where there may not be five Orthodox synagogues,” where the rabbis can get advice from each other, Rabbi Rosenblatt noted.

Rabbi Gross and Rabbi Rockoff, who also happen to be cousins, agree.

“This group has attracted a lot of new, younger members. We have great mentorship from Rabbi Rosenblatt and Rabbi Weil. It’s a great opportunity to get together with our friends,” said Rabbi Gross, who just finished his seventh year in Omaha and has been a rabbi for about 10 years.

The meeting goes to a different community every year so the rabbis can see what works in other areas. Since the inaugural meeting in Beverly Hills it has been held in Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto in Canada, Oakland, Calif., Omaha, Neb., Charleston, S.C., Teaneck, N.J., and Skokie, Ill.

The group is now national and members come from all over North America and Canada. Rabbi Rosenblatt noted “there’s even one young rabbi who’s joined the club who comes in all the way from Sydney, Australia,” although he can’t make the trip every year.

The rabbis stay in touch year round through a listserve, a small program that automatically sends messages to multiple email addresses on a mailing list that is coordinated by Rabbi Gross.

“The listserve is a great way for us to ask each other questions. We know we are not going to be judged and we’re just going to get good, sound advice from colleagues and friends,” Rabbi Gross said.

Rabbi Rockoff agrees.

“The guys are very willing to participate and it’s a nice, safe haven for the rabbis to communicate. We all learn from each other and are inspired by each other’s experiences. We’re all on the younger end of our rabbinic careers so we’re all seeking to learn from the experience of others,” Rabbi Rockoff said. He received his rabbinic ordination in 2003 and has been in Kansas City since 2008. He has worked with Rabbi Weil in LA, with Rabbi Rosenblatt in New York, for the OU and also served as an assistant rabbi in West Orange, N.J., before coming here.

Rabbis Gross and Rockoff are excited to get together with their mentors. The excitement goes the other way, as well.

“We have this little game,” said Rabbi Rosenblatt, who has served in Riverdale for 27 years and been a rabbi for almost 30.

“They pretend that I’m the guy, the answer man, and I’m coming to teach them. The truth of the matter is every year I come back thinking Rosenblatt, you’re getting stale. There are much better rabbis out there now. You try to be as good as they are. That hasn’t worked out yet but I’m still trying.”

The meeting is sponsored in part by the OU and local sponsors recruited by Rabbi Rockoff. The rabbis will eat all their meals together, but will stay with BIAV families. They will attend meetings at BIAV, the Jewish Community Campus and at the Latrhop & Gage law firm, which Rabbi Rockoff said has a “great view of the city.”

Along with the formal meeting opportunities, Rabbi Rockoff has arranged for relaxing activities as well. For instance the rabbis will get to visit downtown Kansas City and attend the Downtown Minyan’s annual barbecue.

Rabbi Rockoff is thrilled to be able to show his fellow rabbis around his community.

“It’s been a lot of hard work, but I have some good volunteers helping me. After all these years of attending these meetings and being a part of this very fine group, it’s gratifying to be able to host it,” he said.

Scholar in Residence weekend

Rabbi Jonathan I. Rosenblatt will serve as scholar in residence at Congregation BIAV Friday and Saturday, Nov. 4 and 5.
An Oneg Shabbat will be held at 8:45 p.m. Friday night, Nov. 4, at a private home.

Rabbi Rosenblatt will give the sermon at 10:45 a.m. on Shabbat morning Nov. 5 at BIAV. He will also speak at a se’udah shlisheet at 5:30 p.m. that evening at BIAV. Saturday’s event are open to the entire Jewish community. Contact the BIAV office for more information at 913-341-2444

KC native, KU graduate and Harvard professor Robert S. Kaplan can add his name to a prestigious list of political and business leaders — former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Supreme Court chief Justice John Roberts, Vice-President Joe Biden; former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and NBC Anchor Tom Brokaw to name just a few — when he speaks at the Dole Institute on Nov. 17. (See below for more information.)

The author of “What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential” published by Harvard Business School Press, Kaplan is no stranger to the spotlight. His business expertise and insight is often sought by the media — Bloomberg Business Week, the Boston Globe, Glamour Magazine and the local NBC Action News to name just a few.

Kaplan left Goldman Sachs in 2005 on a one-year leave of absence to teach at Harvard. He enjoyed it so he chose to stay at Harvard, something he calls “a fantastic thing.”

“In 2005 I was sitting on top of the world. It’s hard to get to the very top of a firm. You’re sitting there and life is pretty fun. You only do what you want to do. It was a blast,” he said.

He started thinking about the change a few years before he made it because he didn’t feel as good anymore about what he was accomplishing in the business world. It took him a few years to build up the courage to take the leave of absence.

“Once I came here to teach, I realized it was a fabulous thing. I think I can survive outside of Goldman and I think I can have a more positive impact in the world doing something else,” Kaplan said he told himself.

As he got more comfortable with teaching, he got more comfortable with the idea of writing a book.

“The truth is I have more access now to more leadership than I ever had, and I have a lot bigger impact than I ever had,” he said.

This is Kaplan’s first book. He enjoys writing and has written articles for Psychology Today and Huffington Post. As a professor, he is expected to do some writing so it’s something he has had to learn.

“I ran businesses. English was always a good subject for me but I would have never thought myself to be a writer,” he said.

Now he enjoys it.

“I like it more and more. I like teaching and I like writing. It’s been fun,” he said.

Kaplan didn’t write his book, however, because the university expected him to.

“I had written a couple of very popular articles in Harvard Business Review and they had felt like, gee if you write a book a lot of people are going to read it.”

“But more than that, I would say in the aftermath of the whole economic crisis I tried to help so many people that I finally decided I had a lot more to say than what I had said and a book might actually be worth writing. I had a zillion anecdotes about what I think leaders need to do and I hadn’t read anything out there like I was going to write,” he continued.

Kaplan was originally surprised he had the stuff to write a book. In fact when he was first approached, he turned down the offer.

“I said I can’t write a book. That’s not me. I’m the wrong guy. I don’t have a book in me. Then I realized that maybe, shockingly, maybe I do. But I have to feel pretty strongly to write a book and we’ll have to see if that happens again in the future.”

The book is No. 2 on Inc.com’s list of bestsellers for business executives and has been for the past three months. It’s gotten excellent reviews and is recommended to all levels of leadership from volunteers all the way to CEOs.

“A leader, by my definition, is anybody who spends time deciding what they believe and has the courage to act on it. So if you write a column, you are a leader. A single mother? That’s a leader. You can be in the military. That’s a leader.”

“On the flip side, you could manage thousands of people and not be a leader at all. You might be a good manager, but you’re not a leader. There are lots of managers out there that aren’t great leaders. They don’t ever try to figure out what they truly believe and have the courage to speak out and act on it,” he said.

The reason Kaplan believes the book has a broad appeal is because this book is written for that person.

“I wrote this to help that person who is struggling and striving to do that. That is not, by the way, an easy thing to do,” he said.

As already noted, the book has been selling well.

“A lot of companies are buying it and giving it to all their people. First the CEO reads it. Then he gives it to the top 20 people. Then they like it and say let’s give it to the top 500. That’s happened a lot,” he explained.

The son of Florence and the late Meyer Kaplan, he moved to the East Coast in 1981. But he returns to the area often to visit his mother, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom. He mentions his parents in the book’s dedication.

“To my parents, who taught me to never stop asking questions, and to all those who over the generations have protected our right to do so.”

Kaplan serves on a variety of boards for charitable organizations, including Project A.L.S. where he is chairman. He chose that particular organization in 1999 because his friend who founded the organization, Jenifer Estes, had the disease and eventually died from it. He has chaired or co-chaired it ever since.

When he’s passionate about something, like ALS, Kaplan said he dives in and studies it. Learning about ALS raised his interest in medical research. Former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was interested in both his business and medical research expertise, and invited him to become a member of the Kansas Healthcare Policy Authority Board (2006-2010), even though he no longer lived in the state.

“I had to go before the legislature and get approved and make sure I was committed to come to Kansas once a month,” he explained.

Now that he’s an educator, he feels he has more opportunities to actually help people. For instance he plans to visit Haiti in January to share his leadership expertise with the local case workers.

“I couldn’t have done that five years ago. Five years ago I would have been a spectator. Now I can actually be central to helping them. I actually know how. I love that.”

Professor speaks Nov. 17

Author Robert S. Kaplan, a professor at the Harvard Business School, former Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs Group and KU alumnus, will discuss the fundamentals of successful leadership at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, at the Dole Institute on the University of Kansas campus. This event will include a book sale and signing of “What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential.” The event is free and open to the public; no reservations are required.

Dancing, dining and celebrating the works of one of the most important figures in American dance will be on tap for the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey’s Gala 2011. KCFAA presents Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts from Wednesday, Nov. 16, through Saturday, Nov. 19. Performance week culminates Saturday evening with Gala 2011.

Prior to the evening’s performance — simultaneously across Kansas City — more than 1,600 guests will take part in intimate suppers in private homes and other creative venues. The food is donated by some of the city’s finest restaurants and caterers. The Gala will be used to promote diversity in the community.

“I believe the arts are one of the best tools we have to promote diversity and to bring people together,” said Bunni Copaken, who has been a member of KCFAA for 30 years. “The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater brings people in. It’s a universal language that everyone can appreciate and enjoy.”

KCFAA will bring the Ailey company to schools and homes for a week-long celebration.

“I think kids are really helped by seeing the dancers,” said Gayle Krigel, who along with her husband Bruce and Deborah and Paget Alves are the chairs for the Gala 2011. She has been involved with the Gala events for the past eight years. “The Gala is held every other year, but this will be the first year we are in the Kauffman Center, and that makes it special.”

The dinner before the show will run from 5:30 to 7:15 p.m. in several private residences. These “signature suppers” provide a cozy atmosphere for attendees to chat and get to know one another.

“The host homes gather a diverse group of people together, and puts them in a setting where everyone can feel comfortable,” Krigel said. “The way people come together through this time is remarkable.”

“The dinner is such a nice component,” said KCFAA member Sharon Hoffman. “You look out into the crowd, and you see about a 50-50 mix of people. One African American man told me years ago, that ‘there are more black couples in white homes than ever before.’ This event did that. Of course, things are better now. But events like these are still very important.”

After dinner, the attendees will see the world famous Ailey dance company, led by Artistic Director Robert Battle in his inaugural year. The 50-year anniversary of Ailey’s most famous work, “Revelations,” will be celebrated with a special performance.

First premiering in 1960, “Revelations” has been performed for more people around the world than any other modern dance work, including appearances at the Olympic Games and “The White House Dance Series: A Tribute to Judith Jamison” presented by First Lady Michelle Obama. Most recently, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution, authored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, “recognizing the artistic and cultural contributions of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the 50th Anniversary of the first performance of Alvin Ailey’s masterwork, ‘Revelations’ and honoring the timeless classic beloved by people around the world’ with universal themes ‘that illustrate the strength and humanity within all of us.’ ”

“It is the finest contemporary dance I have ever seen,” Hoffman said. “The ‘Revelations’ piece is so uplifting. It’s like an old favorite song, that you never get tired of hearing.”

In addition to the performance of the renowned “Revelations,” a new piece will be on the program. Making this a unique experience will be the world premiere of a new work partially funded by the Arvin Gottlieb Foundation and the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation.

Following the show there will be a celebratory After Party with desert and dancing.

“It’s a chance for everyone to get out on the dance floor and dance with the greatest dancers in the world,” Krigel said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Proceeds from the Gala go to support KCFAA’s educational programs, including the AileyCamp. The AileyCamp is a free, six-week summer day camp for 180 students entering grades seven to eight.

“One of the most important things we do is working with kids,” Hoffman said. “The camp gives them a chance to express themselves and build confidence. It can change their lives.”

The volunteers all agree that they have gotten back a lot from their time with the KCFAA.

“I’ve been involved for the last 28 years, and I love the people that I am working with,” Hoffman said. “It is really a group that reaches out to people.”

“It’s great to be a part of something that touches a tremendous amount of members of the community,” Krigel said. “And to help children as well.”

“I feel that it is the Jewish tradition to be part of one’s larger community,” Copaken said, “And bridging the racial gap is one of the most important collaborations in America today. It’s been very rewarding.”

The Gala is part of a week of performances and school/community outreach programs. For more information on Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey, visit their website at www.kcfaa.org.

For Gala 2011 tickets, call the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey office at 816-471-6003, ext. 100. All other performance tickets are sold through the Kauffman Center box office, 816-994-7222, or www.kauffmancenter.org.

“I think the KCFAA is attempting to find what brings people together,” Copaken said. “And the arts have always been a way to do that.”

JOKE OF THE DAY — A colleague sent me this joke:
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream is now available in Israel in the following flavors:
Wailing Walnut
Moishemallow
Mazel Toffee
Chazalnut
Oy Ge-malt
Mi Ka-mocha
Bernard Malamint
Berry Pr’i Hagafen
Choc-Eilat Chip
Simchas T’Oreo
It should be noted that all of these flavors come in either a cup or a Cohen.

WHITE SCHOLARSHIP — The UMKC Bloch School of Management’s Lewis White Real Estate Center and the family of Lewis White announced the formation of the Walter S. Clements Endowed Scholarship to support graduate real estate education at the White Center, specifically the new Master of Entrepreneurial Real Estate. The Lewis White Center is the only provider of graduate real estate education in the region. The family of Lewis White has made a gift of $50,000 for a scholarship named after Walter S. Clements, director of the Lewis White Real Estate Center. Jerry White, son of the late Lewis White, noted one reason the scholarship is named after Clements is because “He brings outstanding experience to the Bloch School and was able to quickly develop a successful real estate program from the ground up, which has been extremely well-received by the real estate community.”

BIPARTISAN PLEDGE — The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee have joined together to encourage other national organizations, elected officials, religious leaders, community groups and individuals to join them in signing the “National Pledge for Unity on Israel.” This initiative aims to rally bipartisan support for Israel while preventing the Jewish state from becoming a wedge issue in the upcoming campaign season.
“If there is one thing candidates for high office, and people of all political stripes can agree on, it is the importance of the long tradition of bipartisan support for our friend and ally, Israel,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris.
“We want the discourse on U.S. support for Israel to avoid the sometimes polarizing debates and political attacks that have emerged in recent weeks, as candidates have challenged their opponents’ pro-Israel bone fides or questioned the current administration’s foreign policy approach vis-à-vis Israel,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “The last thing America and Israel need right now is the distractions of having Israel bandied about as a tool for waging political attacks.”
Visit www.adl.org/unitypledge to sign “The National Pledge for Unity on Israel.”

JEWS PROTESTING — I regularly read the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy student newspaper, The Academy Voice, and the paper’s writers have contributed stories to The Chronicle. In a story published in the most recent issue (Sept. 24-Oct. 12) Senior Editor Sam Abrams reports that a former HBHA student is among those who have been arrested while taking part in the Occupy Wall Street movement protests in New York City. Isaac Wilder, now 21, was arrested on Sept. 21 while leading a group of approximately 85 protesters to the New York Stock Exchange for the opening bell, and then to the Chase Manhattan Plaza. Sam reported that Wilder has been quoted in the New York Times following his arrest, saying that he told police officers “I stood my ground, and said that we were within our rights.” Wilder was also allegedly asked questions about the Israeli stamps on his passports while he was debriefed by police. He was released from custody after a short time with a summons to appear later in court.

SOUND THE SHOFAR — If you are planning a trip to Jerusalem between now and February, our Israeli correspondent Sybil Kaplan recommends a visit to the Bible Lands Museum. Last month it opened “Sound the Shofar — A Witness to History. She said the exhibit is fascinating and shows aspects of Jewish history through the prism of a shofar over the last 3,000 years. A short film about making shofarim can also be viewed, but Kaplan reports that not everything is revealed as some of the techniques of making the shofar are secret.

Correction

The identification of the girls featured in a photo illustrating the Tot Shabbat story published in the Oct. 20 issue was reversed. They girls are Delilah Rose Garcia (left) and Alice Lenz.

“To life! To life! L’chai-im!”

On its chai anniversary, it seems appropriate that the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education will celebrate the life of an organization that was born because of the horrors of the Holocaust.

MCHE was founded 18 years ago in 1993 by Holocaust survivors Isak Federman and Jack Mandelbaum. It teaches the history of the Holocaust, applying its lessons to counter indifference, intolerance and genocide. Its programs reach thousands of youths and adults each year through school and community outreach programs, often offered in cooperation with other not-for-profits.

Many are proud of its accomplishments, including Bill Kort, a former president of the board. Besides being a board member, he has a unique perspective as the husband of Regina Kort, the daughter of Holocaust survivors Sonia and the late John Warshawski. John Warshawski and Isak Federman were friends and brothers-in-law as well.

One of the things Kort is most proud of is what MCHE stands for in a time when the country, and the world, is tremendously polarized. By teaching the lessons of the Holocaust, Kort said MCHE can compare the past to the present, addressing what happens when a group becomes polarized, intolerant and unaccepting of other people and their views, their religions or their races.

“Things like the Holocaust do happen and it’s not just the Holocaust as we know it, which was the most terrifying, horrible event of the 20th century. Smaller versions of the same have occurred and continue to occur in places like Rwanda and Darfur. It’s up to us to speak out and let people know what happens when we as a people or other nations as people become intolerant and fearful of their neighbors or those who are different,” Kort said.

MCHE’s success stories

Jean Zeldin has served as MCHE’s one and only executive director for the beginning. An educator herself, when the doors opened in August 1993, she said they “hit the ground running,” knowing how urgent it was to begin their first project — the oral recordings of witnesses.

That project, Witnesses to the Holocaust, produced video testimonies of nearly 50 eyewitnesses (all of which have now been digitized). The Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University helped train volunteer interviewers. The project took 16 months to complete and years later, as more and more survivors pass away, they are still used today.

“From those testimonies, two documentaries have also been created — one for classroom use and one for community use,” Zeldin said.
Those testimonies have also served as a basis for other thematic programs.

“I really think that one of our greatest successes is the recording of those testimonies and the educational use that we have made of those,” Zeldin said. “We did have that sense of urgency. Many of the survivors that participated had not spoken before, but I think they felt that sense of urgency as well and that this could be their contribution to posterity.”

Zeldin also points to the Portrait 2000 exhibit, displayed at the Jewish Community Campus and Union Station, and the book “From the Heart,” that came from that, published by Kansas City Star books in 2001, as other successful projects.

“We have collected what I have called a treasure trove of memories and we keep going back to that as a core of our educational programming,” Zeldin said.

It is no mistake that education is part of MCHE’s name. Blanche Sosland, a former MCHE president who also served on the original board of directors, pointed out that it was very important to the founders that the organization would not be a museum.

“It should be a living organization providing education, which it does very well,” Sosland said.

Teacher education is indeed something MCHE takes pride in. One important program is the Isak Federman Holocaust Teaching Cadre, which is currently comprised of 18 teachers. They meet monthly to continue their own education as well as provide education for other teachers, post articles to the educator’s blog and create lesson plans posted on the MCHE website.

In addition, Zeldin said MCHE has been recognized by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous in New York as a center of excellence. As such, MCHE has been invited to become a training hub — one of 10 centers nationwide — for curriculum called Echoes in Reflections and designed in a collaborative effort by the Anti-Defamation League, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute and Yad Vashem.

Collaboration and cooperation

MCHE has always tried to partner with other not-for-profits in the community. In the beginning, MCHE always had to search for partners; now other organizations are inviting MCHE to join them. Over the years relationships have been established a large assortment of partners including the Kansas City Public Library, Kemper Museum, Truman Library, Eisenhower Library, Rockhurst University, Science City, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum.

“We know we are a visible presence in the community and we’re recognized for the work that we do. The fact that we have been able to take our message not only to the Jewish community but to the general community through these partnerships is something that we’re very proud of,” Zeldin said.

The relationship MCHE has had with the non-Jewish community dates back to its first project. For example in addition to seed money provided by the founders, funding for Witnesses to the Holocaust was provided by grants from the William T. Kemper Foundation, the David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation and the Oppenstein Brothers Foundation.

Blanche Sosland, a former MCHE president who served on the original board of directors, noted that it was key from the very beginning that MCHE not solely be a Jewish organization.

“James Kemper of Commerce Bank told us the mission of this organization has to be a mission for every member of our community. He said that 18 years ago and it still rings in my ears and that was accomplished,” Sosland said.

In fact MCHE’s board pulls from a very diverse cross section of the community and, Zeldin said, at least a quarter of its members are not Jewish.

“Virtually every religion, race and creed is represented on the board. Of all the boards that I’ve been on, this is a board where a quorum is never a problem,” Sosland said.

Zeldin said that in addition to the passion of its board, MCHE has been able to successfully carry out its mission due to its “small, but mighty staff” which can adapt to a variety of duties and help each other when the need exists.

Zeldin said she and the staff — Frances G. Sternberg, Ph.D., director of university programs and adult education; Jessica Rockhold, director of school programs and teacher education; Laurel Maslowski, evening resource assistant; and Dana Smith, executive assistant — are all honored to be entrusted with the vision of the founders and the board.

“Working at MCHE is more than a job. It is also a personal mission and commitment. It is a privilege and an honor to have that trust and we all take that very seriously,” Zeldin said.

An extended community

Sosland said that MCHE really serves the entire Midwest.

“It is a center in the true sense of the word and, of course, the Holocaust is a very difficult but a very inclusive subject,” she said.

Besides being in the Midwest, another geographic distinction is that it is located between the Independence, Mo., and Abilene, Kan., homes of the Truman and Eisenhower museums respectively. Both of those presidents are historically linked to the Holocaust.
That’s a fact that intrigues Kort.

“Someday another president may come from this neck of the woods. Maybe that person happened to sit in on a class presented by an MCHE-trained teacher on the subject of the Holocaust, indifference or man’s potential to do inhuman things to other men over differences of opinion,” Kort said.

Following the anniversary celebration, Zeldin said MCHE will embark on a new strategic plan. As it continues celebrating, Art Federman, a former president and son of founder Isak Federman, said now is also a good time “to refocus all of our energy on the work that still remains to be done.”

“MCHE has made a lot of progress in using the lessons of the Holocaust to teach others of the need to confront hatred and bigotry, but we still have a long way to go,” Federman said.

Hamlisch tickets still available

The legendary Marvin Hamlisch will be in Kansas City Nov. 3 as the featured performer at MCHE’s 18th Anniversary Celebration. The event, which will also honor the Kansas City Jewish community’s Holocaust survivors, begins at 7:30 p.m. in Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. For information on patron opportunities and donor tickets, visit www.mchekc.org, call 913-327-8192 or email .

It’s music to a mother’s ear, especially if she’s a rabbi, too, when she hears her young child sing “Shema Yisrael …”

That’s why Rabbi Vered Harris is happy about the resurgence of Tot Shabbat in the community. Congregation Beth Torah’s education rabbi, along with Judy Jacks Berman of Congregation Beth Shalom and Rabbi Alexandria Shuval-Weiner of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, have arranged for Tot Shabbats to be held at each of these congregations once each month beginning in November. Any member of the Jewish community, affiliated or not, is welcome to attend any and all of these services for young children.

B’nai Jehudah will host its Tot Shabbat, led by Rabbi Shuval-Weiner, on the first Friday of every month. Rabbi Harris will lead services at Congregation Beth Torah on the second Friday of the month. Congregation Beth Shalom will take charge on the third Saturday of the month. Berman, who is the director of Beth Shalom’s Rose Family Early Childhood Education Center, explained that Beth Shalom’s services are being coordinated by a group of volunteers.

Over the past year or so many of the congregations have discussed, and in some cases even started, collaborating on programs. So it wasn’t surprising last year when Rabbi Adam Stein, who at that time was Beth Shalom’s assistant rabbi, approached Rabbi Harris to learn more about the Tot Shabbat program she was organizing. As the idea was being discussed following a Rabbinical Association meeting, Rabbi Shuval-Weiner joined the conversation as well.

Less than a year later the three congregational representatives, with Berman taking over when Rabbi Stein left the city, designed the rotating schedule which, Berman said, is a win-win for everyone.

“We want to have as many opportunities as possible for young Jewish families in our community to celebrate Shabbat. Rather than competing with each other by scheduling activities at the same time, we wanted to give families different opportunities in the month.

That’s how we came up with each taking a week in the month,” Berman said.

Rabbi Shuval-Weiner said the idea of partnering with other congregations for Tot Shabbat was wonderful.

“In addition to what we provide for our families, now we are able to say that there are more opportunities for your little ones as well,” Rabbi Shuval-Weiner said.

She noted that Jewish preschools, such as the ones at B’nai Jehudah and Beth Shalom, always tell children that Shabbat comes every week.

“But when it comes to Tot Shabbat that’s not what they are experiencing. So for families to have the opportunity to have something that is age-appropriate for their little ones, where they can be part of community, where they can be making Jewish friends not just in their own congregational home but within the community at large, it is a wonderful opportunity for young families to bond and strengthen their connection to Judaism, to their community and to Shabbos,” Rabbi Shuval-Weiner continued.

In addition to the service itself, Berman is excited that Beth Shalom’s Tot Shabbat has been created by three women — Shira Goldenberg Zigler, Rebekah Merrill Calloway and Samara Minkin — who all moved here from other communities. They’ve taken successful models from their former communities and created a model they feel will work well at Beth Shalom. Zigler and Calloway are each originally from Kansas City and moved back “home” recently to be closer to family.

Rabbi Harris said they all hope that these Tot Shabbat opportunities will help raise a generation that is enthusiastic about celebrating Shabbat.

“We want these children to know that when they go to synagogue they are going to see their friends there, even if it’s not their synagogue. Jewish people come together on Shabbat and celebrate. When you think about Friday night or Saturday, you think about being together with your friends in synagogue. The more opportunities we can give our families to do that, the better. “The reality is that our children, whether they go to the B’nai Jehudah preschool, or Beth Shalom or the CDC at the Jewish Community Center, are in preschool with friends from all over the community. We want to expand the feeling that when you come to Shabbat you are coming to celebrate with your friends,” Rabbi Harris said.

As the mother of a tot, Rabbi Harris said taking her child to these services is fun.

“At a Tot Shabbat there is no expectation that the children are going to sit there quietly. So as a mom I can relax … it’s OK if there is a little bit of chaos at this service,” Rabbi Harris said.

The rabbis and Jewish educator agree that the decision to have three services at three different congregations and open them to everyone is simply about being Jewish in a Jewish community.

“We can all play together,” Rabbi Harris said.

At the same time, these families can add a little Judaism to their lives.

“I think if we don’t do Judaism in our lives, there’s really very little hope that the next generation is going to just randomly pick it up. So the Tot Shabbat opportunities are a way to bring Judaism into our lives on an age-appropriate level that hopefully will build into more mature observances,” Rabbi Harris said.

Jimmy Rosenbloom has been to Israel at least a dozen times. The last two times he participated in The Arava Institute and Hazon Israel Ride. Eddie Meltzer enjoyed hearing about those bicycle rides so much that this year he asked Rosenbloom, his life-long friend, to join him on the ride that takes place from Nov. 8 to 15. It includes an orientation session in Jerusalem, five riding days and Shabbat in Mitzpe Ramon. A colleague of Meltzer’s, Larry Seltzer from New York, will also ride with them.
Meltzer is excited to be on this ride for the first time.

“It will be such an adventure and I’ve never been on a bike ride of this length,” he said. “If you’re a bike enthusiast, who wouldn’t want to bike from Jerusalem to Eilat?”

Together Meltzer and Rosenbloom are committed to raising a minimum of $7,200 for the ride. As of early this week they still needed $3,000 to reach their goal. They will ride on the Jewish National Fund team and raise money to support the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and Hazon.

Hazon means vision and is America’s largest Jewish environmental group. The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, affiliated with Ben-Gurion University, is the premier environmental education and research program in the Middle East, preparing future Arab and Jewish leaders to cooperatively solve the region’s environmental challenges.

Meltzer and Rosenbloom will ride their bikes, which they are taking with them to Israel, from Jerusalem to Eilat. Rosenbloom explained that other than the descent out of Jerusalem to Ashkelon on the Mediterranean, the ride is entirely in the Negev desert. So temperatures are expected to be in the 90s during the days and cool desert temperatures in the evening.

The two friends went to Israel for the first time in 1973 as members of the Kansas City Israel Pilgrimage. Later, Rosenbloom attended Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has also been to Israel three times with his family.

In addition to the Pilgrimage, Meltzer took a gap year while in college in 1976-77 and lived on Kibbutz Dse Yoav. He went again in 1986 for his brother’s wedding.

When he’s not training for the ride, Meltzer works in the electronic security industry for a company called Niscayah, Inc. Before the company was sold a few years ago, he managed Wornall Electronics, a company that had been in his family 50 years. Meltzer has been preparing for this ride since March, riding his bike 75 to 100 miles per week. He’s also worked out with a personal trainer, tries to eat healthy and attends Pilates classes. He calls this preparation, “a labor of love and anticipation.”

Rosenbloom has been trying to ride at least 15 to 25 miles three or four times per week in preparation for the ride.

For the ride itself in Israel, riders can choose from one of three route options. All routes enjoy full support, stocked rest stops and expert tour guides and educators. Rosenbloom said he and Meltzer plan to do the Tzofim ride, which averages 55 miles a day.

“Interestingly, the strongest group of riders, Halutzim, typically takes an extra loop to the Nizzana junction (a 95-mile day), on the Egyptian border in the Sinai desert. But because of all of the trouble at the Egyptian border, the riders have been informed that this option will not be available this year,” Rosenbloom said.

Rosenbloom, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom and a tax attorney who is a partner in the firm McQuain, DeHardt & Rosenbloom, P.C., said he is blessed to have completed the ride with another best friend, Danny Dunn, in 2007, and with his son, Jared, in 2010. In 2010 he and Jared raised almost $9,000 for the two charities.

In 2007, Rosenbloom said his focus was simply to have the opportunity to ride a bicycle in Israel, which combines two of his favorite things in the world.

“After two rides, and growing familiarity with Arava and Hazon, I have come to learn the incredible things that these two important organizations are doing to promote environmental protection in Israel and the U.S.,” he said.

He said ride organizers are serious about saving the environment. For instance the meals provided on the ride are maintained with as little environmental “footprint” as possible.

“We use no throwaway silverware, plates or cups. All such utensils are washed and re-used,” Rosenbloom said.

Friends of the two bicyclists will be able to keep up with their progress by visiting Meltzer’s facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/eimeltzer. Those wishing to donate can visit www.israelride.org and click on either participant’s name.

Hanna Katz isn’t an average student at St. Teresa’s Academy. However, being the school’s only Jewish student is something she takes in stride.

“It hasn’t always been my favorite thing, but everyone is very accepting and curious about my faith and my tradition. It’s cool to have people to explain things to and who are curious,” the high school senior said.

The 17-year-old member of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, says studying at the Catholic school has actually strengthened her faith.

“It means I get to learn so much about another culture, about another religion… It makes me more confident in my Judaism,” she said.
B’nai Jehudah youth group adviser Amy Ravis Furey is pleased with Katz’s attitude.

“As a child of an interfaith family, how seriously she takes her Jewish identity impresses me,” Furey said.
Katz has taken many leadership roles in the community, most notably through the North American Federation of Temple Youth.

Currently, she is the religious and cultural vice president for NFTY’s Missouri Valley region and has been part of the local board through B’nai Jehudah for three years.

Last year, when she was the religious and cultural vice president for PB&J at B’nai Jehudah, she “decided it was time for youth group to enter the age of technology,” she said. This came in the form of a blog about what makes a Jew Jewish.

The daughter of Jill and Mark Katz said her most meaningful Jewish experience in Kansas City was last year’s Western Fall Chavurah, which she co-chaired with her friend Lauren Katz. More than 100 people participated.

“People were excited to be involved in these Jewish programs we had planned, and so much time and effort went into it. It was so cool to see people take things so seriously,” Hanna Katz said.

She has attended leadership training in New York and traveled in Europe and Israel, visiting sites related to Jewish history and culture, including Auschwitz.

Katz also wrote several pieces for the Kansas City Star’s Faith Walk column.

“I wrote about seeing the divinity in people we don’t agree with… obviously people at school have different religious and political views than I do, but those people are my friends,” Katz said.

Another Faith Walk column she wrote focused on Harry Potter.

“I’m a complete Harry Potter nerd, (but) it always evaded me that it completely alluded to the Holocaust,” she said.

A group of people at NFTY decided to go see the seventh Harry Potter film as part of a social event, and “when I was watching the movie, I realized the connection between the Holocaust and Harry Potter, so I wrote about my realization and then how it threw me back to when I went to Auschwitz that summer,” Katz said.

“My final article was about the first Shabbat at camp this summer. It was staff and avodah (staff member in training), and that was it. We did everything we normally do, but it was about 30 times more intense. Everyone was ready to start camp. Havdalah was beautiful,” she said. “We sat and sang songs, we were outside. It was absolutely incredible, and my closest friends were with me.”

NFTY isn’t Katz’s only Jewish outlet. She has attended the Goldman Union Camp Institute, better known as GUCI, as a camper for seven years. This past summer, she was there as an avodah. Katz wants to apply for a counselor position next year.

“I attend a Catholic school, so it’s really nice over the summer to go to GUCI and be in a completely Jewish environment, and I know it’s important to my parents that I have a Jewish environment I really love,” Katz said.

Katz is looking at colleges for next year and has her eye on Emerson College in Boston, Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles or the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She hopes to become a director and is impressed with the film programs at those schools. Katz plans to be involved with Hillel programs wherever she goes.

The leadership skills she has learned through her involvement with Jewish youth groups, such as commanding the attention of a group, will be helpful if she becomes a director, Katz says.

“She really is an exemplary leader. She has a vision of where she sees the community going … she makes that happen because she cares so much,” Furey said. “As an adult looking at teens like Hanna, it gives me great hope for the future of our community. She has such passion for our community and Reform Judaism. She’s going to be a leader for years to come.”

SOME ENCHANTED EVENING — This year marks the 25th anniversary of Some Enchanted Evening, the Johnson County Community College Foundation’s glittering black-tie gala. Each year proceeds from the event help students in need to continue their education. The event has also recognized a Johnson Countian of the Year — a man, woman or couple who worked to benefit the county through civic leadership or philanthropic support. The roster is a who’s-who of county leadership and includes several members of the Jewish community —. Sue Ellen Fried, George and Floriene Lieberman, Shirley and the late Stan Rose, Steve Rose, Walt Hiersteiner and Elaine and the late Norman Polsky. These people will be recognized, along with the other honorees, at the Nov. 12 event for their service to the community and the college.

STAR SPANGLED FUNDRAISER — Lynn Intrator and Melynn Sight, members of the Star Spangled Spectacular committee, the fundraiser put on by the Overland Park Rotary Club on the 4th of July every year, sent us this photo of the check presentation. Last month the OP Rotary Club presented $55,500 to four local charities, representing the proceeds from the 20th annual event at Corporate Woods. The four charities included Down Syndrome Guild of Greater Kansas City, Head Start of Shawnee Mission, SAFEHOME and the club itself for its Tomorrow’s Leaders Today program.

DESIGNER JEWELRY — Artist and jewelry designer Mariana Ravid will introduce her new jewelry collection, including pieces designed exclusively for Shop Beautiful, on Saturday, Nov. 5, at the shop’s Hawthorne Plaza location. This is Ravid ’s first public appearance in a U.S. retail establishment. Mariana Spirit of Design is known for popularly priced jewelry that interfuses hand cut gem stones, material beads and Swarovski crystals — some of them antique pieces over 100 years old — with gold and silver-plated metals.

Corrections

An article mentioning Temple Israel of Greater Kansas City in last week’s issue (Oct. 13) incorrectly stated its membership. More than 80 families are now members of the Reform congregation.

An item submitted about Rosh Hashanah in the Rockies published Oct. 6 incorrectly stated that Adventure Rabbi Jamie Korngold received her Bat Mitzvah training in New Jersey from Cantor Paul Silbersher. Cantor Silbersher reports they actually studied together at Woodlands Community Temple in Hartsdale, N.Y.

The Oct. 20 article about The G3 Summit: Women’s Guide to Good Giving omitted information regarding the funders. It is funded by the Jacob and Frances O. Brown Family Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation.

Residents at Village Shalom like to say that something special happens there every day. Earlier this year, something truly remarkable took place that underscores not only the special nature of Village Shalom, but of the Kansas City Jewish community that supports it.

The continuing-care retirement community recently culminated a quiet, two-and-a-half-year effort to reduce the $40 million in capital debt on its 26-acre campus. Through the efforts of members of the Kansas City community, local funding agencies and the organization’s major creditor, the behind-the-scenes, albeit aggressive campaign has reduced the organization’s debt to a more manageable $16 million. Matthew E. Lewis, president and CEO of the 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization, said, “It is the community’s most ambitious and successful fund-raising effort in recent memory.”

The issue of Village Shalom’s debt has not been a secret; in fact, three years ago, The Chronicle published an interview with Lewis and then-newly elected Chairman of the Board James Klein about the financial challenges facing the organization. They openly discussed the situation and how Village Shalom’s debt arose from a broad and longstanding array of factors, including higher labor costs, a higher percentage of residents on Medicaid and lower Medicare reimbursement rates, and lower proceeds from the sale of Shalom Geriatric and Shalom Plaza at 78th and Holmes. The collapse of the financial markets in the fall of 2008 seemed to cast a final pall on any immediate prospects of initiating a broad-based debt-reduction campaign.

Amid this environment, however, the newly constituted board appointed a debt-restructuring subcommittee, led by Klein, to develop a strategy to establish Village Shalom’s financial stability once and for all.

“In a strange way, the financial crisis gave us the clarity of what needed to happen in order to achieve our goal,” said Klein. “In the same way a conventional fund-raising campaign was a non-starter, the idea of combining the collective efforts of several different constituency groups began to take shape.”

A Shared Commitment

Village Shalom opened in June 2000 as an innovative retirement community offering a continuum of living options that enables residents to “age in place.” Its Overland Park campus consists of 64 independent-living villas; 54 assisted-living apartments; two 26-unit skilled-nursing floors providing both short-term rehabilitation and long-term care; and assisted living, skilled nursing and adult day programs for senior adults with memory loss and dementia-related illnesses. The facility also meets the needs of non-residential senior adults through its wellness center and outpatient therapy services. In addition, the facility provides more than $1.6 million annually in financial assistance to nearly one-third of its main-campus (assisted living and skilled nursing) residents who rely on Medicaid or other subsidy for their care.

While Village Shalom’s early years were marked by lower-than-expected occupancy rates and high staff turnover, changes in management prompted a reversal of those trends starting around 2005. Village Shalom has averaged 95 percent occupancy over the last four years and has a waiting list for its popular assisted-living apartments. Staff turnover has declined substantially, and efficiency measures now rank high, based on national figures.

The $40 million in debt being carried by Village Shalom as it marked its first decade of operation was, however, more than twice the amount it could financially support. After running multiple financial models and getting input from community funders, the board of directors determined that reducing the debt to a figure nearer $16 million would give Village Shalom the necessary financial flexibility to operate in the highly competitive senior-care industry in which it had otherwise made great strides. Thus, Village Shalom would need to reduce its debt by $24 million.

The magnitude of this figure led the debt-restructuring subcommittee to conclude that help must come from every possible avenue. It would require debt relief from the creditors of Village Shalom as well as contributions from the community in a variety of creatively conceived formats. Negotiations began with the largest creditor, a global bank, to write down a significant portion of their debt.

The community effort was proposed as a matching-gift challenge in which funds raised from major gifts would be matched by grants from the Jewish Heritage Foundation and the Menorah Legacy Foundation. Lastly, additional debt relief would result from Village Shalom’s repurchase, at a discount, of bonds originally issued in the retail market on its behalf. The lynchpin of the plan was that each group’s commitment was contingent upon the success of all the others.

After nearly two years of discussions, the bank agreed to a write-down on the debt; both the Jewish Heritage and Menorah Legacy foundations pledged their side of the community-matching grant; and with deadlines looming, the major-gifts campaign exceeded its $8 million target in a matter of weeks, in an extraordinary display of generosity and community leadership.

Reason for Being

“We were fortunate to have some truly dedicated and visionary community leaders who literally made house calls to ensure we could garner the support we needed,” said Lewis of the community-based campaign. “Much of the success is due to the fact that we remained focused on Village Shalom’s reason for being, and that message was reiterated to everyone we approached for support.”

The senior-living community traces its roots to the Moshav Zkeinim (home for the aged), chartered in 1912 to care for elderly Jews in Kansas City who lacked personal financial resources. The organization provided housing and care for residents in the Michael Appleman Home for Jewish Aged and later the Jewish Geriatric and Convalescent Center and Shalom Geriatric Center. Village Shalom maintains the organization’s longstanding commitment to Jewish traditions and values, and continues to be largely supported by the Kansas City Jewish community. Approximately 75 percent of Village Shalom’s residents are Jewish.

The success of this year’s debt-reduction campaign comes at a particularly momentous time in Village Shalom’s history: The organization will mark its centennial year in 2012.

“While we certainly serve a much broader senior population than we did 100 years ago, and offer a full range of options for elder living and care, we have never lost sight of the organization’s original commitment,” said Michael J. Abrams, chairman of the current Village Shalom Board of Directors. “We are dedicated to ‘honoring our parents’ by providing them with the best possible quality of life. This can happen only with the support of a cohesive, caring community.

“We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all parties involved in this monumental campaign,” Abrams added. “That we were able to pull together and succeed on so many fronts underscores the dynamic nature of the Kansas City community. Our visionary board and subcommittee, our funding organizations, our community leaders, our generous donors — they all worked hand in hand to ensure that Village Shalom will continue to thrive and grow.”

Lewis commented that the campaign’s success enables Village Shalom to look toward upcoming generations of senior adults: “We’re extremely proud of our past, and now the organization is in a position to think more strategically about our future as well. Many more people are living longer, and demographic trends ensure that the number of people needing long-term care will increase significantly. As the baby-boom generation ages, it will present the industry with formidable challenges, but also opportunities. We can now begin to envision the next phases of Village Shalom’s presence in meeting the changing needs of our community’s seniors.”

As the situation stands, the bank debt has been paid in full; $1 million dollars in bonds have been repurchased in the open market at a substantial discount; and residual funds reside with the Jewish Community Foundation to retire additional bond holdings. The total reduction of debt from this effort currently exceeds $25 million.

But the job is not yet complete, Abrams noted. “The first stage of this campaign exceeded all targets, but Village Shalom wants to keep up the momentum and expand this campaign to the broader community. The recent 11 percent cut in Medicare payments to skilled-nursing facilities is a timely reminder of the challenges we face in the health-care business and the importance of doing everything we can to further solidify our financial base.

“Kansas City’s Jewish community has a long history of banding together to overcome challenges and obstacles,” he added. “I’m proud to say that we have accomplished that on behalf of Village Shalom’s residents and their extended families. In fact, we’ve done what other Jewish communities across the country have not been able to do. Cities like Pittsburgh and St. Louis have faced similar situations in recent years, yet were unable to maintain their Jewish community-supported long-term care facilities as independent not-for-profits — forcing them to sell to for-profit groups. The campaign we’ve undertaken here in Kansas City points to the particular strength of this community. As a result, we are strongly positioned to uphold the Jewish tradition of caring for our elders in generations yet to come.”