Ten years ago Steve Burnstein’s son died when he was just six months old of a genetic disorder. The “crisis of faith” he suffered during that time led him on a course of study that included, among other things, liturgy (prayer). It also led him to rabbinical school, where he was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia June 12.

When he started studying, it was simply to study. The 46-year-old Kansas City native, the son of David and Rosalyn Burnstein, decided to become a rabbi when a friend encouraged him to pursue ordination.

He was drawn to the Reconstructionist movement through its prayer book.

“I fell in love with their approach to prayer and liturgy. When I met the people at the college, I realized it was the type of community that would be a pleasure to learn with and study with,” Rabbi Burnstein said.

He doesn’t expect any drastic changes in his life now that he’s a rabbi. He will continue to serve as the director of IsraelExperts’ Center for Israel and Diaspora Education. IsraelExperts is an Israel education and travel organization that works with major organizations around the world, including Birthright Israel, in the field of Israel-Diaspora relations and Israel education.

Rabbi Burnstein said his rabbinical degree will make a difference to some he works with.

“In the North American Jewish community there is a certain amount of respect for the title, although that certainly wasn’t the goal of getting it. But in my work it’s certainly the reality,” he said.

“The journey wasn’t about the title or the degree, it was about the learning.”

It took him nine and a half years to finish his journey, which Rabbi Burnstein jokes is a record for the RRC. He decided to apply to rabbinic school at the same time he and his wife Varda began the process of adopting their son Micah, who is now 10. With the timing of the adoption, he couldn’t begin school at the start of the academic year. Instead the three Burnsteins spent the spring semester in Philadelphia.

“Then we went back to Israel for what was just supposed to be the summer. While we were there the social worker we had worked with for Micah’s adoption called us and said she had another baby for us if we were interested. That process took a year,” he said. Daughter Gabi is now almost 9. Both children are of Ethiopian descent.

When he decided to continue his studies they were interrupted once again, this time with his own health issues. He had a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery.

He continued to take classes “here and there,” and then the opportunity at IsraelExperts presented itself.

“It is my dream job. I get to share my passion for Israel with people and I get to work in Israel-Diaspora relations and try to bring our communities closer together and build bridges and somebody pays me to do it,” he said.

Finally, it got to the point that to finish his degree he had to come to Philadelphia for that final semester.

“Starting rabbinic school was my crazy idea. I really would not have finished it without Varda pushing me,” he noted. “She’s an absolute saint.”

Rabbi Burnstein grew up in the Conservative movement as a member of Congregation Beth Shalom. He was very active in USY, serving as the local president as well as taking an active regional role in the youth organization. He earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

“One of the most important things I learned at JTS was that philosophically, ideologically and theologically, the Conservative movement is not for me. I grew up in the movement not really understanding with any depth the meaning of the approach to Judaism,” he said.

With three degrees in tow, he began working at Congregation Beth Torah as its religious school director. He stayed six years, and while he was there he earned the Reform Jewish Educator certification.

When he left Beth Torah he worked in corporate America for a few years developing seminars.

“I learned a little bit about a lot of things, but I realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life. But I wasn’t sure how I wanted to get back involved in the Jewish world,” Rabbi Burnstein said.

So he took a leave of absence from his job, took a group of kids to Israel, and stayed on his own for two months.

“While I was there in 1995, I got involved with Pinat Shorashim and Kibbutz Gezer. Then I went home, closed up shop and a little over a year later made aliyah in 1997,” he said.

He met his Varda, who is originally from the Philadelphia area and made aliyah right after high school, on the baseball field at Gezer.

“She comes from a very connected Zionist family. Her dad was a crew member on the Exodus,” he said.

The Burnsteins live at Kibbutz Gezer and he has never regretted his decision to move to Israel.

“My mother-in-law says you make aliyah every day, which is very true. There’s this love-hate relationship. I love where I live. I love being in the center of the Jewish world. Living in America, when I would get upset with politics or anything else I would say ‘this is horrible.’ In Israel, you say ‘why do I live here? How can I live in a place like this?’ But we’re all trying to make a difference and make it a better place.”

In today’s fast-paced business world, it’s unusual for a person to spend his whole career working for the same company. Frank Friedman has done that and more, rising to the very top management levels of a well-known national accounting firm while keeping his home base here Kansas City.

Friedman has been named chief financial officer and managing partner of finance and administration of Deloitte LLP, a firm he has been with for 32 years. A lifelong resident and a member of Congregation Beth Shalom, Friedman is responsible for the financial operations of the $11 billion professional services organization and managing the real estate, field operations and procurement divisions comprising approximately 3,500 people. He also will serve as a member of the executive committee of Deloitte LLP.

He assumed his new position June 1 and credits his success to hard work and a good education, as well as the longevity itself.

“The attitude many people have today is that you can’t stay with the same firm and be successful for your career. I think that’s not a true statement,” he explained.

Deloitte has a strong history in Kansas and Missouri as one of the most prestigious professional services organizations, serving the region’s top companies since 1920 with more than 240 local employees. In 2010, the Kansas City Business Journal ranked Deloitte No. 2 on its list of the Top 25 Area Accounting Firms and No. 3 on its list of the Top 25 Management Consultant Firms. In May 2010, Deloitte also was recognized in Ingram’s Magazine as one of the Best Companies to Work for in Kansas City.

Friedman explained that Deloitte, together with the other member firms of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, is the world’s largest professional services network serving client needs in audit, tax, consulting and financial advisory services across more than 20 industries.

“We have over 100 offices in the States and we continue to grow most years,” Friedman said.

A 1979 graduate of the University of Kansas, Friedman went to work at what was then Touche Ross right out of college.

“The key to my success at Touche and Deloitte is that it gave me every opportunity I frankly ever wanted or desired from an accounting firm,” Friedman said.

Over the years Friedman said he has worked in a variety of challenging and different positions while climbing the ladder of success, starting out in the auditing department.

“Then I moved to tax. I had some of the best clients that one could imagine in this city. I got very involved with individuals and private companies,” he said.

His next move was to become a managing partner of the Kansas City office and then added management of the St. Louis office to his portfolio.

“Then I went off and did some national things around operations, technology, real estate and finance,” Friedman said.

About four years ago he began concentrating fully on the company’s finances.

“Eventually, and naturally, I think, I then assumed the CFO position,” he said.

The beauty of working for Deloitte or another other large firm, Friedman said, is that there are “always opportunities to try something different.”

“Although I’ve been here since 1979, once I became a partner in 1988 I’ve probably changed jobs and responsibilities every three or four years,” he said. “That’s what makes it fun and that’s what makes it challenging.”

He is proud of the company he has dedicated his adult life to.

“We pride ourselves on our clients. We pride ourselves on our growth. We pride ourselves on our people and we also pride ourselves in having good, sound, fundamental financial discipline,” he said.

Friedman said his job, in part, is to maintain and to improve the company’s financial discipline as well as to make sure it is financed for the next decade.

“I think a big piece of my job is to ensure the financial stewardship of the firm, along with our incredible board of directors. But I think in large part that’s what we’ve been doing for the last several years,” he said.

Friedman thinks his new position will be much more banking, treasury and investment related than he’s been involved with in the past.

“I will be getting much more involved in our real estate strategies, our procurement strategies and most importantly our growth strategies for the firm,” he said.

Friedman has served on a variety of civic endeavors including Health Midwest, Menorah Hospital, Overland Park Hospital, Starlight Theater, Reach Foundation, Minority Supplier Council, and the Full Employment Council. He and his wife, Sondra, have two children, Micah, a sophomore in college and Lily, a junior at Pembroke.

JOIN US AT URBAN TABLE — Urban Table, a new restaurant opening in Corinth Square on July 19, is offering the chance for 50 Jewish Chronicle readers to sample the breakfast or lunch menu for free on Sunday, July 17. The first 20 readers to e-mail Judy Lanes at will receive a reservation for two. (Don’t forget to tip your server!) Judy will e-mail the 20 lucky readers with all pertinent information. The restaurant is owned and operated by Bread & Butter Concepts, the group behind BRGR Kitchen + Bar, and is dedicated to serving good food to good people at a reasonable price. It is located at 8232 Mission Road in Prairie Village. We’ll tell you more about Urban Table in a few weeks. Until then you can check it out at urbantablekc.com and on Facebook and Twitter.

ANOTHER RABBI ON THE MOVE — Rabbi Craig Lewis, a Kansas City native (Shawnee Mission East ‘93 and KU ‘96), is returning to the Midwest to assume the pulpit of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun (the South Street Temple) in Lincoln, Neb. Having received ordination from the Hebrew Union College Cincinnati campus in 2008, Rabbi Lewis spent the last three years serving as assistant rabbi at Congregation Shir Ha-Ma’alot in Irvine, Calif. During his tenure there he performed a variety of rabbinic functions, including worship, Torah study and life cycle events. He also taught in the religious school and worked closely with the youth groups, the brotherhood and the congregation’s seniors’ group. Upon their arrival in Lincoln, Craig’s wife Jennifer will be the art studio program manager for Resources for Human Development, a non-profit agency that serves disabled adults. Their 3-year-old son Eden is excited to explore his new pre-school and to grow up closer to his saba (grandfather), aunts, uncles, and cousins in Kansas. Craig is the son of Stuart and Hilary (z”l) Lewis of Prairie Village.

HAPPY FOURTH —The Overland Park Rotary will host its 20th Annual Star Spangled Spectacular in Corporate Woods Monday, July 4. Several Jewish people are on the planning committee. Admission is free. All purchases made the day of the event benefit four charities: Down Syndrome Guild, Headstart of Shawnee Mission, Overland Park Rotary Club Foundation’s Youth Leadership Institute and SAFEHOME. Food and beverages will be available beginning at 4 p.m., live entertainment begins at 5:30 p.m. and the fireworks should light the sky around 9:30 p.m. The rain date is Tuesday, July 5. For more information, visit the Star Spangled Spectacular website at www.starspangledspectacular.org.

Correction

In last week’s article on the Israel pilgrimage reunion, Debbie Kershenbaum Haith’s maiden name was misspelled.

For the second year in a row, Congregation Beth Israel Abraham & Voliner has played host to a group of interns from Yeshiva University. Known as the Kansas City Summer Fellowship, it is touted to other students at Yeshiva U as a program where the men and women “will become a part of the Kansas City BIAV Jewish community for a month, spending their days working at a variety of exciting internships, and dedicating their nights to energizing and learning Torah with the Jewish community.”

“Having the Yeshiva University Summer Fellows be part of our community for the month has been a special experience. I am especially proud of the positive example they have set throughout the entire Jewish community as spirited observant young Jews who are eager to engage the world around them,” BIAV Rabbi Daniel Rockoff said.

The group is led by Tuvia Brander, 23, a second year rabbinic student who also has served as Rabbi Rockoff’s intern these past few weeks. He hails from Boca Raton, Fla., but now calls Teaneck, N.J., home as do Baruch Cohen, Asher Lindenbaum and Yaakov Taubes. Three other New Yorkers are part of the group: Sarit Cohen from Jamaica Estate, Malkie Krieger from Monroe, and Mindy Sojcher from West Hempstead. The eighth member is Gabrielle Moskowitz from Tarzana, Calif.

Joining them this weekend, their last here, as BIAV’s scholar in residence is Rabbi Dani Rapp, Yeshiva U’s assistant dean of Judaic Studies.

Rabbi Rockoff said Brander’s skill and creativity has been especially helpful in making the program thrive.

“His successful efforts in bringing together Jews from across Kansas City for a relief effort in Joplin are testimony to his growing leadership capabilities,” Rabbi Rockoff said.

Brander said one of the intriguing things about this program is that it not only gives the fellows a chance to get professional experience, but it gives them “a communal element” as well.

“We interact with the broader Jewish community and it gives the members of the program a chance to view a different model of the Jewish community outside of New York and outside the East coast,” Brander said.

He said Kansas City is a fantastic Jewish community.

“It’s incredibly warm and welcoming. It’s really a model of a community with all sorts of people who play a variety of roles in the shul. That’s something we hope to teach the students at the university, that whatever profession that they go into they could be lay leaders in the Jewish community,” Brander said.

This year the interns spent time shadowing doctors and psychologists as well as people in the marketing and pharmaceutical professions. One student who is interested in Holocaust research spent time at the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education.

As Rabbi Rockoff’s intern, Brander said he had a great opportunity to meet and learn from different people in the community. Rabbi Rockoff said BIAV enjoyed having Brander serve as its rabbinic intern this month.

“Altogether, our Summer Fellows are a very special group of young men and women. It is my hope that this program provides inspiration for our community and an educational life experience for the students,” he said.

For the second year in a row, Congregation Beth Israel Abraham & Voliner has played host to a group of interns from Yeshiva University. Known as the Kansas City Summer Fellowship, it is touted to other students at Yeshiva U as a program where the men and women “will become a part of the Kansas City BIAV Jewish community for a month, spending their days working at a variety of exciting internships, and dedicating their nights to energizing and learning Torah with the Jewish community.”

“Having the Yeshiva University Summer Fellows be part of our community for the month has been a special experience. I am especially proud of the positive example they have set throughout the entire Jewish community as spirited observant young Jews who are eager to engage the world around them,” BIAV Rabbi Daniel Rockoff said.

The group is led by Tuvia Brander, 23, a second year rabbinic student who also has served as Rabbi Rockoff’s intern these past few weeks. He hails from Boca Raton, Fla., but now calls Teaneck, N.J., home as do Baruch Cohen, Asher Lindenbaum and Yaakov Taubes. Three other New Yorkers are part of the group: Sarit Cohen from Jamaica Estate, Malkie Krieger from Monroe, and Mindy Sojcher from West Hempstead. The eighth member is Gabrielle Moskowitz from Tarzana, Calif.

Joining them this weekend, their last here, as BIAV’s scholar in residence is Rabbi Dani Rapp, Yeshiva U’s assistant dean of Judaic Studies.

Rabbi Rockoff said Brander’s skill and creativity has been especially helpful in making the program thrive.

“His successful efforts in bringing together Jews from across Kansas City for a relief effort in Joplin are testimony to his growing leadership capabilities,” Rabbi Rockoff said.

Brander said one of the intriguing things about this program is that it not only gives the fellows a chance to get professional experience, but it gives them “a communal element” as well.

“We interact with the broader Jewish community and it gives the members of the program a chance to view a different model of the Jewish community outside of New York and outside the East coast,” Brander said.

He said Kansas City is a fantastic Jewish community.

“It’s incredibly warm and welcoming. It’s really a model of a community with all sorts of people who play a variety of roles in the shul. That’s something we hope to teach the students at the university, that whatever profession that they go into they could be lay leaders in the Jewish community,” Brander said.

This year the interns spent time shadowing doctors and psychologists as well as people in the marketing and pharmaceutical professions. One student who is interested in Holocaust research spent time at the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education.

As Rabbi Rockoff’s intern, Brander said he had a great opportunity to meet and learn from different people in the community. Rabbi Rockoff said BIAV enjoyed having Brander serve as its rabbinic intern this month.

“Altogether, our Summer Fellows are a very special group of young men and women. It is my hope that this program provides inspiration for our community and an educational life experience for the students,” he said.

In the world of Jewish music, Matisyahu is a real rock star. The Grammy-nominated reggae artist will be in Kansas City again Thursday, July 7, when he and his band the Dub Trio, perform at Crossroads KC @ Grinders along with The Wailers.

Matisyahu isn’t sure how many times he’s been to Kansas City, but he thinks it’s somewhere between five and 10. The Chronicle caught the recording artist while he was walking around New York City earlier this month before his summer touring began. He spent last weekend in Poland, where JTA reports that thousands of fans packed a stadium just a few miles from the Auschwitz death camp for a concert. He was the headliner of the

Life Festival June 18 in Oswiecim, the town in southern Poland outside where the Auschwitz camp is located.

The festival was founded last year by a popular Polish disc jockey to use music and youth culture to fight anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia, and send “a message of peace and tolerance” from the place that is a symbol of the Holocaust.

He’s also been in Israel performing this week. He will zig zag his way across North America for 54 tour dates, beginning tomorrow, June 25, in Boston, and ending Sept. 7 in Toronto.

This summer tour will support his latest release, “Live at Stubb’s Vol. II.” This is Matisyahu’s first offering since his 2009 critically acclaimed studio album “Light,” which debuted inside the Billboard Top 20 and whose single “One Day” was chosen as the official theme song for NBC’s 2010 Winter Olympics broadcast.

Five years after the release of his groundbreaking original live album, “Live at Stubb’s,” Matisyahu returned to the Austin, Texas, venue last August with his band where he performed what has been described as an unforgettable live music experience. The concert was captured in the form of “Live at Stubb’s Vol. II.” The collection was released as a DVD/CD and a DVD.

When he’s in Kansas City, he said besides hearing songs from “Live at Stubb’s Vol. II,” concertgoers can expect to hear many old songs, “some new material as well as some improvisation.”

He has been described by many, including the JTA, as a Chasidic rapper or reggae star. But when he was asked how the Chabad-Lubavitch philosophy helped him see his potential as such, he immediately answered that he doesn’t “really ascribe to one philosophy.”

But he said Judaism has definitely influenced his life as a musician.

“Judaism is one of the core pieces of who I am in terms of my life and what I do in my life. Everything is influenced by it,” he said.

His music, or what he calls his art, “is an expression of his inner world, which is heavily influenced by my Judaism.”

Judaism started playing an important role in the 31-year-old performer’s life when he was about 16. Because he was an observant Jew before he became a “rock star,” he said keeping Shabbat, even when he’s touring, is “really not an issue.”

“A lot of rock stars have a lot more issues than not performing one night of the week,” he said.

He makes it work, sometimes by arriving in a city a couple of days early or staying close to the venue so that he’s ready to perform when the sun goes down on a Saturday night.

“Sometimes I’ll walk four or five miles to the venue so when Shabbos ends I’m ready to perform. It’s little things like that. My career didn’t start until after I was religious so I never knew anything else,” he said.

His popularity is one reason it’s not an issue.

“I have a draw of a certain number of people that come to my shows. It’s all money and promoters know that. They don’t care if I start at 8 o’clock or 10 o’clock as long as those people walk in the door and pay the ticket price,” Matisyahu said.

He said there is a combination of things that inspire him when he writes his songs, including the music itself.

“I’ll go into the studio with no ideas, with nothing done, and I’ll start working with my band or the producer to create the music. Then I turn off a switch in my head and I don’t think too much. I free associate and I let the music inspire my words. I don’t think about what they are so much,” he said.

He also has had success working the exact opposite way.

“I’ll take an idea or concept and there’s a person I work closely with and we’ll spend anywhere from two to three years to two to three weeks developing the idea and concept and writing the lyrics pre music,” he said.

He mentioned “Light,” his last original CD, as an example.

“That was the story by Reb Nachman called ‘The Seven Beggars.’ We spent about two years studying it and then writing,” he explained.

“On my next record, whenever it comes out, we took the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, and some of his basic concepts. We went to his grave site in the Ukraine and spent about a week there meditating and delving into his concepts about God. And on the next record we are talking about getting into the Zohar and the Kabbalah,” he said.

There are a variety of options to order kosher meat online. One of the newest, The Kosher Express, has a local connection. The company ships its glatt kosher meat from a warehouse in Independence, Mo.

Robert T. Bernton is owner and president of The Kosher Express. He launched it less than a year ago, in August 2010, with the idea of providing the highest quality kosher beef and poultry online.

“We have rapidly expanded and now we sell kosher bison, lamb and duck. Everything is glatt kosher and business is picking up and it’s wonderful,” said Bernton from the company’s main headquarters in Aurora, Colo.

As a new business, Bernton said the customer base is still small.

“We’ve reached our 800th sale, which is great and a lot of those customers are repeat customers,” he said. In fact he believes more than 35 percent of his customers are repeat customers.

He believes a fine product and good customer service will continue to keep customers returning to The Kosher Express as well as impress new customers.

“Our website (www.TheKosherExpress.com) is very easy to use. We walk customers through the actual order to the confirmation letter we send explaining when the order will ship to the final invoice where we tell the exact price of the product,” Bernton said.

Prices on the Web are estimates, Bernton explained, until the final cost of the order is calculated based on the actual weight.

“Ultimately when they receive the product they are happy and enjoy the product. We stress our quality and hope they will come back to us,” he said.

The Kosher Express ships from an Independence warehouse because orders can be received on either coast within three days.

“A lot of our online competitors require second-day shipping or higher to make sure the product gets there safe. We can provide ground shipping in three days or less,” he said.

Meat is supplied from all over the country including Minnesota, Pennsylvania and California.

One thing that sets The Kosher Express apart from its competitors, Bernton said, is it has access to kosher bison, lamb and duck.

“A lot of people really like our kosher bison and lamb products. It’s very hard in the kosher world to find bison. I am only aware of one supplier that offers it, and that’s something really unique about this company,” Bernton said.

Bernton believes one of the reasons bison is so popular today is that a lot of people think bison is healthier than beef.

Because of its popularity, it’s been hard to keep kosher bison in stock, he said.

“With the rise in demand, there has also been a national shortage that is especially pronounced in the kosher industry. Much of this is due to the fact that bison calves take about three years to reach maturity, and so the supply lags greatly behind the demand,” he explained.

The company has begun advertising, including placing an ad in The Chronicle this week. But Bernton believes most of his customers have found the company simply by searching the Web. Those customers, he said, have spread the word to their friends.

Another way The Kosher Express hopes to expand its business is through a partnership it has established with congregations and Jewish organizations called Tzedek Express. The Kosher Express gives its partners a portion of the sale anytime a special promotional code assigned to that particular organization is used.

“It’s really our way to give back to organizations and the Jewish community in general,” Bernton said. “That’s also helped us spread the word around.”

Bernton didn’t grow up in a kosher home and didn’t start keeping kosher until he visited Israel on a USY trip.

“When I came back to the States I told my parents keeping kosher was something that I wanted to start doing and I’ve kept kosher since then,” said the Denver native.

He attended Emory University in Atlanta, where he was surprised to find there was no kosher meal plan.

“I thought that was strange because 30 percent of the student population was Jewish,” he said.

Because keeping kosher was important to Bernton, he worked with the university’s Hillel and the campus food service to provide a kosher meal plan. He said it was a very difficult task, but as a freshman he succeeded in getting a kosher meal offered once a week.

Bernton stayed connected with Emory’s Hillel for the remainder of his college years, ultimately serving as president. When he graduated in 2009, armed with a degree in marketing and business communications, he wanted to combine his passion for Jewish life and kosher food with his business background.

Because he had a hard time purchasing kosher food as a college student — he didn’t have his own car until his junior year — he conceived The Kosher Express. He liked the idea of having fine kosher meat delivered right to his doorstep.

“As I worked with mentors and other people, we came up with this idea to launch a national company to offer the highest quality kosher everywhere,” he said.

But this didn’t happen overnight. He needed to find a supplier, and the funding, so he took a job at a marketing firm in Westchester, N.Y.

“I wanted to make sure that any supply we had was constant so people could know exactly what to expect from the company,” he said.

He also wanted to make sure the meat was high quality, antibiotic and hormone free and vegetarian fed.

“Some people who are going to buy kosher meat online don’t have ready access to kosher meat. But others are looking for a higher quality of kosher product and there is really not a lot of kosher meat that’s really high quality on the market today,” he said.

About a year after graduation, he made a friend who also happened to be in the kosher supply business.

“I was able to tell him about my idea and what sort of products we wanted to see,” he said.

That was in February 2010 and over the next six months they worked hard to create the operation and get the investors to pay for building the website, purchase the initial inventory and launch the company. He continued to work at the marketing firm until October when he began focusing his full-time efforts on The Kosher Express.

Now officially a senior in high school, Mollie Chesis could probably teach classes on organizational skills.  In order to do everything this Blue Valley High School student does, she must stay organized and on schedule.

“I am a very organizationally-minded person,” Mollie said. “So I get a lot of enjoyment out of planning and putting together programs.”

Mollie had a lot of practice doing just that last year when she served as president of Beth Torah Temple Youth Group (BTTY). Planning events and watching them come to fulfillment gives Mollie pleasure.

“When everything comes together perfectly, the left-brain side of me screams with joy,” she said. “Then, when actually at the event, and I see everyone enjoying themselves, talking and really becoming a part of a community, the right-brain side of me is bursting with happiness. It’s a win-win situation with me.”

Her activities at Beth Torah do not stop with her commitment to the Temple Youth Group. She also has been a madricha for the Weiner Religious School for three years and on Sunday mornings volunteers to help lead religious services for the students. For the coming school year, she has agreed to chair NFTY’s Missouri Valley Regional Spring Chavurah, the largest regional event of the year.

“Mollie is one of the most responsible teens I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with,” said Marcia Rittmaster, religious school and youth groups director for Beth Torah. “She understands her position as a role model with younger teens in always being inclusive and interested in others. She also has many talents such as drama, art and music and is willing to share those talents.”

She has truly enjoyed her time as BTTY president.

“I have found a real and true happiness in BTTY,” Mollie said. “I had been worried when I first got involved that it was not going to be something I found truly enjoyable; I was completely wrong. The sense of pride and accomplishment — the true passion I have for BTTY and what we do — that comes from the happiness I see when I meet people at events and they want to keep coming back.”

The daughter of Paul and Julie Chesis, Mollie excels in school as well as at synagogue. A member of the French Honor Society, Art Honor Society and National Honor Society, Mollie will be attending two programs at Brown University this summer. She will split her time between two topics she loves, one week of writing and two weeks learning about infectious diseases. Eventually Mollie plans to be a physician focusing her talents on either infectious disease or endocrinology.

Her commitment to helping others is already apparent. Mollie donates blood almost every two months.

“As a person, my motto in life is ‘do anything I can to help others,’ ” Mollie said. “I feel the happiest seeing smiles form on others’ faces. That is why I work so hard to give back to my community.”

Among her community service efforts she is working on her Girl Scout Gold Award. Mollie is creating a documentary video about teens with mental illness and fighting the stigma of these diseases. She hopes it will help teens in the community.

“A lot of people have depression and ADHD,” Mollie said. “It would be better if people could be more accepting of others. Mental illness affects teens and young adults. We need to help these people.”

Besides her schoolwork, her volunteer activities and her community service, Mollie finds time for activities she loves like being a part of the Fifth Wall Improv Comedy Troupe. The group puts on shows about once a month either at Blue Valley High School or around the community. They even performed at a BTTY event.

She recently participated in the National Forensics Competition in Dallas as an entry in the Dramatic Interpretation competition. To go to the national competition, a student has to place first or second in district competitions. Although Mollie did not place in the national competition, she was proud to make it to the semi-finals.

But the truth to the focus and core of Mollie is her commitment to enjoy life and to help others.

“I love knowing that I can make things better for others,” Mollie said. “Also, I really work to enjoy life. I do everything I can to be involved and learn more so that I can take advantage of all the opportunities that are presented to me, I feel so blessed to have all of these. It is remarkable that I am truly able to do so many wonderful things in my life, so I work to repay that by giving opportunities to others.”

UP, UP AND AWAY — Jeanne Mallin recently celebrated her 86th birthday. She’s been an active and beloved member of Congregation Ohev Sholom for more than 35 years according to Rabbi Scott White, and she has many friends among the members. One of those, Bob Magoon, wanted to do something special to help her celebrate this birthday. He said Mallin had told him she always wanted to take a hot air balloon ride so she could feel the wind in her face. So he arranged to take her on her dream ride on June 15. As they sailed the big blue sky they dropped manna, or in this case matzah, from heaven. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for both of them!

SINGING FOR CHARITY — The Country Chicks, made up of five Glaser sisters and a neighbor friend, have entered the Town Center Plaza SING 2011 Contest. The winning group will take off with a Grand Prize Package of $20,000 for their favorite charity, $5,000 in Developers Diversified Realty MasterCard Gift Cards and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to record a song with Emmy-award-winning singer/songwriter Kevin Briody. Mom Lori Glaser said the girls immediately wanted to enter the contest in the hopes of winning the Abby’s Run for the Heart — an event initiated in 2003 to raise money for pediatric heart diseases. The Glaser’s oldest daughter, Abby, died in 2001 from a disease called viral myocarditis, a virus that quickly infected her body and attacked her heart causing her sudden death. To date, fundraising efforts have raised more than $600,000. While the group may sing a little out of tune, they are garnering lots of votes. Voting continues through July 15 and you can vote for them at www.towncenterplaza.2011sing.com. You’ll have to register and look for The Country Chicks and hit play. 

Kelly Manning, owner of the new suburban hot spot Tavern in the Village, is a local in nearly every meaningful sense of the word. (Located at 3901 Prairie Lane, Prairie Village, KS 66208, (913) 529-2229) He grew up within a couple miles of the Prairie Village restaurant he opened several months ago, attended Pembroke Hill High School, and garnered a feel for the restaurant business under the wings of the Kansas City-rooted PB & J folks. Having worked his way up the ladder of the Morton’s Steakhouse chain for 14 years, he came home to demonstrate the fruits of his years of restaurant labor to his old neighborhood. There is something gratifying to Midwesterners — Kansas Citians, particularly — when one of their own returns home to make a favorable mark on his community of origin. And Manning has done just that.

Prairie Villagers, and Kansas Citians in a broader sense, have pined for a place like Tavern in the Village for some time: a comfortable, locally owned spot where folks can eat well-prepared food made with solid ingredients at reasonable prices. Since he built it (or, at least, opened it — in the space that was once an Applebee’s), they have come. Our group of four had a 6 p.m. reservation, but heard the hostess tell another group of four that wandered in sans reservation that the wait was an hour.

The décor, menu and overall “feel” of the place are somewhat reminiscent of the Fairway Grill, a beloved spot just off Shawnee Mission Parkway that closed a number of years back. The bar area (with large screen TV’s) takes up about half of the place, and the dining room the other half. Attractive art adorns the soft, green-shaded walls. Servers are generally enthusiastic and helpful, and adequately pace meals to optimize the restaurant’s cozy, neighborhood dynamic. There is an energetic buzz about the place, though the dimmed lighting keeps the mood refined. At one table, an ostensible group of Johnson County soccer moms celebrating ladies’ night out sipped cosmopolitan drinks, conversed loudly and made grandiose hand gestures for emphasis. At another table, a Mit Romney clone wore a serious expression and appeared to talk business with and/or solicit campaign donations from another “suit.”

There is nothing extraordinarily inventive about the menu, nor are there a broad array of choices. At some point, the kitchen might do well to spread its wings just a bit. But for now, the focus is on quality ingredients and careful preparation and execution. We sampled two appetizers that epitomized this particular approach. The Fajita Steak Sliders ($9) featured excellent ancho-seared tenderloin, cooked perfectly with roasted red pepper and just a touch of creamy cheese sauce. Simple, but effective. We particularly enjoyed the Spicy Ahi “Tacos” ($11), slices of rare Ahi tuna with a wonderful grill flavor and a spicy jolt, served atop bibb lettuce cups, with a sweet and sour slaw to offset the spiciness of the tuna. Avocado and fresh jalapenos rested atop the tacos, for good measure.

We tried two of the three salads that could be ordered as accompaniments to meals ($3, $7 for full salad). The Tavern Salad was an interesting offering with an excellent house-made rosemary basil vinaigrette dressing. It included a blend of spring greens, feta cheese, sun-dried cranberries and the crunch of roasted pumpkin seeds. The Traditional Caesar Salad was a quality rendition, with a well-made, mustardy Caesar dressing and shaved parmesan. The rolls served alongside the salads were not commensurate with the quality of the salads and the other offerings — rather dry and bland, and not warmed.

Some food folks operate with a mental line-up of certain, bellwether dishes that can be sampled — for comparative purposes — from restaurant-to restaurant. One such dish, for me, is a basic, roasted chicken (on the bone) — the quality of which is wholly rooted in effective seasoning and cooking technique. Tavern’s ½ Rotisserie Chicken ($13) came with the skin crispy on the outside, and the chicken moist and flavorful on the inside. The half bird was served atop decent mashed potatoes and al dente lemon pepper green beans.

Another bellwether is a restaurant’s burger. The Tavern Burger ($9), which a friend ordered without the bacon that comes standard, was evidently ground from superior beef — denoted “our own recipe” on the menu.

Though ordered (and served) well done, the meat in the thick burger remained flavorful and juicy. The well-seasoned fries served alongside were crispy, and an excellent accompaniment to the burger. Another friend went in another sandwich direction — opting for the Portobello Melt ($9), also served with the superior fries. The sandwich included slices of the tender and meaty mushrooms, which blended beautifully with the roasted red pepper and melted brie served on top.

The Penne Pasta ($12) my wife ordered did not sound especially exciting, but was well-executed, with a nice blend of ingredients — including fresh tomatoes, garlic, basil, Kalamata olives, asparagus, feta cheese and fresh lemon wheels, with a subtle, oil-based sauce. The lemon wheels looked to me like yellow summer squash, leaving me with one surprisingly sour bite of the otherwise solid dish.

After such a hearty meal, I might have been inclined to skip dessert; but we were with a friend who shuddered at the idea. As such, we tried the Tavern Brownie Tower ($7), a decadent dessert with a mélange of sweet, rich flavors: chocolate, peanut butter and caramel, with vanilla ice cream. We also loved the simple but terrific Cinnamon Sugarcoated Donuts ($5), warm, crescent-shaped pastries on a narrow, chocolate zig-zagged plate served with a creamy custard dipping sauce.

Welcome home, indeed.

Out of Four Stars
Food: ***½
Atmosphere: ***½
Service: ***½