Join members of the National Council of Jewish Women for a performance of Tony Kushner’s “Caroline, Or Change” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, to raise money for the NCJW Kansas City Section’s community service projects. Open to the public, the cost is $54 for center section seats and $36 for side section seats. Reservations can be made by sending a check to NCJW, Greater Kansas City Section, 5311 W. 75th St., Prairie Village, KS 66208. Include your email address so an email can be sent with your reservation information.
Ethan Corson, a Jewish attorney and Democrat, announced Oct. 21 his candidacy for the Kansas Senate, District 7. Incumbent State Senator Barbara Bollier announced her campaign for the U.S. Senate last week.
“I grew up in Johnson County, and every opportunity I’ve had in my life is due to the education I received from attending Shawnee Mission public schools,” said Corson. “I’m running for the Kansas Senate to make sure our schools remain strong for the next generation of Kansans, like my 4-month-old son, Isaac. I will work tirelessly to make sure every child in Kansas can attend a world-class public school and every Kansan has access to quality, affordable healthcare.”
Corson said as state senator he will also work to update our anti-discrimination laws to cover sexual orientation and gender identity; enact responsible, fair and sustainable tax policies; and create opportunities for more Kansans to earn good-paying jobs.
“Senator Bollier serves the Seventh District with distinction. She is smart, hardworking and a tenacious advocate for our shared values. Her work helped put the state back on track after years of the disastrous Brownback-Colyer-Kobach experiment,” said Corson. “I know there is still a lot of work to do, particularly in the areas of education, health care and job creation, and I hope to continue her legacy of public service.”
Raised in Overland Park, Corson graduated from Shawnee Mission South. He then attended Garden City Community College, where he played baseball and was an Academic All-American. Corson went on to earn a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Starting in November, he will be working as an attorney at Blake & Uhlig, one of the nation’s leading labor law firms. Corson’s practice will focus on representing unions and advancing and protecting workers’ rights.
From August 2017 to August 2019, Corson served as executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, leading the party through its most successful election cycle in a decade, including the election of Governor Laura Kelly and Congresswoman Sharice Davids.
Prior to serving as executive director, Corson was appointed by President Barack Obama to two senior executive positions at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He first served as a senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, and then as chief of staff of the International Trade Administration. Drawing on these experiences, Corson served as a Fellow at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas this spring, where he led a discussion group on “International Trade in the 21st Century.”
Before entering government service, Corson practiced law for seven years in the Washington, D.C. office of one of the country’s top law firms, focusing his pro bono practice on voting rights litigation.
Corson lives in Fairway with his wife, Jenna Brofsky, and their infant son, Isaac.
Randy Kort is coming back to his hometown to lead Kehilath Israel Synagogue’s 43rd Annual Grand Givers event Nov. 10.
Kort will emcee the event and be its DJ, along with an assistant. He lives in Los Angeles and owns Extravaganza Party Productions.
“Dancing through the Decades” is a fundraiser for K.I., which described it in a news release as “an epic journey through the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.” The event will have music, dance, multimedia presentations, contests, prizes and food.
“This is going to be a fantastic evening,” Grand Givers Co-Chair Dr. Michael Sokol said in the release. “There will truly be something for everyone. People who like to dance will have the opportunity. If you’re nostalgic for the ’60s, ’70s or ’80s, you’ll love it. And if you weren’t around yet during those times, you should come to see what you missed.”
Kort was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Overland Park. He attended Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy from kindergarten through sixth grade before transferring to public schools in the Shawnee Mission School District. After graduating from Shawnee Mission South High School, he attended the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles. He grew up as a member of Congregation Beth Shalom and became a Bar Mitzvah and was confirmed there.
This will be his first time as emcee or DJ for K.I.’s Grand Givers, Kort said. The opportunity arose when he was in Kansas City recently for the 50th anniversary of Lloyd Stahl’s Bar Mitzvah. Some K.I. board members expressed interest in having him host Grand Givers, so he pitched them a couple of ideas and they liked “Dancing through the Decades.”
“They wanted to see if there was something I could do,” he said. “It’s stepping out from what Grand Givers has done in the past.”
Kort has traveled the world in his work. He has worked in Monte Carlo, Spain, France, England, the Bahamas, Mexico and probably 30 states in U.S., he said. And he has opened for “a lot of amazing celebrities and bands,” including Journey, Styx, Michael Bolton, Michael McDonald, Sheryl Crow, Rod Stewart, KC and the Sunshine Band and the Beach Boys.
At age 21, he decided to move to Los Angeles. At the same time his friend and former classmate, Jewish actor Paul Rudd, was moving there, so the pair traveled there together.
Kort still has a lot of family in the area, including his parents, Arnold and Joan Kort; his cousin, Jay Lewis, and his wife, Kimberly Lewis; and his great-uncle, Frank Loeffler, and his wife, Phyllis Loeffler. His late aunt, Hillary Lewis, was a well-known and beloved Jewish educator in the city for many years.
Kort is 51. He started working as a DJ at age 18. He worked in radio, on cruise ships and in other venues. He started Extravaganza Party Productions in 1994. He was once named as Entertainer of the Year at the National American Disc Jockey Awards.
He has worked at a lot of weddings, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs and other events over the years.
“It’s a great job,” he said. “It’s the best job in the world. I get to be involved in everybody’s most important day of their lives. Everyone’s in a good mood and happy to be there.”
TEL AVIV — About 2.1 million women worldwide developed breast cancer in 2018, according to the World Health Organization.
Last year also saw some 627,000 fatalities due to breast cancer — nearly all because their cancer had spread to distant organs.
Israeli researcher Neta Erez is trying to find out how the cancer spreads in a bid to stop it.
“Most studies are still done on the primary tumor, but that’s not what kills the patient,” Erez said. “If we can intervene at an early stage, we may be able to prevent metastasis.”
If successful, this could lead to significant improvements in cancer treatment and survivability.
Erez, the chairwoman of the Department of Pathology at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, is one of many Israeli cancer specialists studying breast cancer, which strikes Ashkenazi Jewish women at three times the rate of the general population. That’s because Ashkenazi women are much more likely to carry mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that lead to extremely high rates of developing cancer.
Even so, 99% of breast cancer patients whose tumors are diagnosed and removed at an early stage are still alive after five years. That five-year survival rate drops to 92% if the tumor reaches Stage 1 classification, and drops to just 14% for patients who have the Stage 4 disease.
The key to improved outcomes, Erez says, is to stop the disease from spreading.
“We no longer look at tumors as a bunch of cancer cells, but as multicellular organs. They actually recruit and hijack lots of so-called normal cells that then become part of the tumor,” she said. “We’re trying to understand the interactions and relationships between those tumor cells and the normal cells that get hijacked.”
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In the United States, where breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, there will be countless fundraising events, marches for cures and other efforts to raise money for research to fight the disease.
The Israel Cancer Research Fund, which raises money in the United States for cancer research at Israeli universities, hospitals and other institutions, has long been a funder of breast cancer research. Erez is one of the organization’s grant recipients.
So is Dr. Gad Rennert, director of the Clalit National Israeli Cancer Control Center in Haifa, who is studying why breast cancer is so prevalent among pre-menopausal women under the age of 45.
“Most cancers develop over a pretty long period, maybe 10 to 15 years,” said Rennert, whose lab is the recipient of a $420,000, three-year ICRF grant split evenly between the City of Hope Cancer Center in Los Angeles and his agency. “So when a woman develops cancer at 35, you’ve got to wonder what happened to her at age 25.”
Rennert’s project is analyzing the DNA of newly diagnosed young women with breast cancer — Stage 1 patients up to 35 years old and Stage 2 patients up to 45 — and testing their DNA for changes in about 130 genes known to be involved in the development of breast cancer.
“I don’t have Phase 2 results yet, but in Phase 1 we identified another 10% of women with mutations in other genes or rare mutations in BRCA,” he said. “We’re trying to see if there are other genetic events or unspecified mutations.”
The next phase of Rennert’s study involves evaluating the immune system of women who had been excluded from the previous phase of research based on BRCA1, BRCA2 or other gene mutations.
“Our project is not meant to look for environmental factors, but rather genetics and immunological response,” he said. “We want to see if these women have a weakened immune response to a cancer attack.”
The effort to arrest the spread of breast cancer involves more than cancer experts.
Gilad Bachrach teaches at Hebrew University-Hadassah’s Institute of Dental Science in Jerusalem. A microbiologist who specializes in clinical diseases like tuberculosis and Malta fever, Bachrach has taken a particular interest in Fusobacterium nucleatum — a specific bacterium that was found recently within malignant colon tumors.
Now in the second year of a $50,000-per-year ICRF grant, Bachrach runs one of only five labs worldwide that can genetically manipulate F. nucleatum. Since that particular bacterium in colon cancer originates from the mouth, he speculated that it might reach tumors via blood.
Specifically, a fusobacterial surface protein, Fap2, binds and activates a receptor on immune cells known as TIGIT, thereby suppressing the ability of immune cells to destroy the tumor. Fusobacterium can travel to the colon not only through the gut but also through the blood, meaning it can reach other cancers as well, protecting them from the immune system.
“When you have gum disease, you bleed, and bacteria could enter,” said Bachrach, a former Israeli army tank commander who has done postdoctoral work at the National Institute of Medical Research in London and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. “We found that they specifically colonized the tumor because they find sugar exposed on cancer cells. Then we looked for other cancers where this sugar is exposed, and one of them is breast cancer.”
To stop the spread of cancer, Bachrach says, clinicians should consider anti-spreading agents, not just typical cancer treatments. It is possible fighting this bacteria will have implications for breast cancer patients.
“Antibiotics are drugs that can kill bacteria,” he said. “At some point, physicians should think about using antibiotics when they’re treating people with cancers.”
Ultimately, Bachrach wants to re-engineer the fusobacterium to turn it into a cancer killer rather than a cancer protector.
“Our long-term goal,” he said, “is to engineer the fusobacteria in order to colonize the cancer and kill it.”
This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with the Israel Cancer Research Fund, whose ongoing support of these and other Israeli scientists’ work goes a long way toward ensuring that their efforts will have important and lasting impact in the global fight against cancer. This article was produced by JTA’s native content team.
KEHILLA, BUILDING COMMUNITY — One of The Jewish Community Center’s (The J) five values is Kehilla, building community, and that was one of the themes at its 2019 Annual Meeting on Sunday, Oct. 20. As the various speakers touched on building community and the other values — being welcoming, inclusive and nurturing; enriching mind + body + soul; passing on Jewish culture + history; and treating others as you wish to be treated — attendees celebrated award winners, thanked Andrew Kaplan for his two years of service as board chair, welcomed Shanny Morgenstern as the new board chair and got an update from CEO Jim Sluyter on the state of the agency. As Sluyter thanked the staff and volunteers, he noted, it takes a village for The J to be successful. “Thank you for helping us build a vibrant and strong community based on these values.”
Annual Meeting Chair Gary Weinberg, who is also a former chair of the agency, pointed out that The J “touches more Jews and non-Jews than any other Jewish agency in town.” In her speech, Morgenstern built on that when she said, “We are making the world a better place every day” for Jews, Muslims, newcomers, life members and others. “Together we have formed a strong, inclusive community.” She also noted her belief that strengthening the community was a great way to combat hate. “When we treat everyone with dignity, we make the world a better place.”
In his farewell speech, Kaplan said, “The buildings and endowment are important, but the smiles and the friendships are much more.”
When it comes to the upcoming Staenberg Family Recreation Complex project, guest speaker Mindy Corporon, who gave the d’var Torah, pointed out these kinds of projects were important for the future. “It’s not for us; it’s for those who are coming next. … It’s our responsibility to build it.”
CAMPUS POWER OUTAGE CANCELS EVENT — A last-minute power outage at the Jewish Community Campus on Oct. 17 caused the cancellation of Dr. Rebecca Erbelding’s presentation about her book “Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe.” The power went out about 5:30 p.m., which did not give MCHE enough time to arrange an alternate venue. Jean Zeldin, MCHE’s executive director and CEO, said they had expected about 150 people to attend the event.
The event can’t be rescheduled this year because “Dr. Erbelding is currently on a tightly scheduled book tour, which, in addition to her work at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, makes it impossible to reschedule her talk this year,” a post on MCHE’s Facebook page announced. “She and her husband were already planning a visit to Kansas City in 2020, and she is eager to schedule her talk at that time. She, too, was very disappointed by the unfortunate turn of events.”
JEWISH ASTRONAUT PART OF FIRST ALL-FEMALE SPACEWALK — In case you missed it, one of the two female astronauts charged with fixing a failed power control unit on the International Space Station Oct. 18, Jessica Meir, is Jewish. According to The Associated Press via Haaretz, Meir is the daughter of a mother from Sweden and an Iraqi-Israeli father and holds Swedish and American citizenship. She was the first Swedish woman, the fourth Jewish woman and the 15th Jew overall to be part of a space mission.
In May, JTA reported Meir grew up in Maine and said being Jewish was an important part of her identity.
At the time, she also told JTA she was planning to take an Israeli flag with her to the space station, as well as some socks sporting menorahs among her personal items.
Twenty-five years of the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning have been transformative for Kansas City Jewish life. That commitment to and enthusiasm for Jewish learning will come to the fore as Melton holds its annual Kallah in Kansas City for the first time.
MeltonKC, powered by HBHA, is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a Friends of MeltonKC dinner on Sunday, Nov. 3. This casual, kosher barbecue dinner will reflect on 25 years of Melton adult Jewish learning in Kansas City.
Dan Osman thinks Overland Park provides excellent services to its residents. But he also thinks the city has room for improvement, and he wants to be part of the solution.
Osman is running for the Ward 4 seat on the Overland Park City Council. Ward 4 covers 119th to 151st streets and Antioch to Pflumm. His opponent is Fred Spears, a 16-year veteran of the council. The general election is Nov. 5.
Avi Jorisch, the author of “Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World,” explains how Israeli innovations are improving the lives of billions of people around the world when it comes to medicine, science, agriculture and much more.
“This particular story of innovation, technology and making the world a better place I don’t think gets a sufficient amount of exposure and it is one of the more inspiring narratives coming out of that part of the world today,” Jorisch said. “This is a story that I think we all can get behind — on the left, on the right, religious, secular. This is not just a good story, it’s reality.”
To name a few innovations Israelis have developed: Israel is a global water superpower that has achieved full water independence despite half the country being a desert; Mazor Robotics turned CT scans into a 3D hologram image of the body, so surgeons can now virtually plan operating procedures before walking into the operating room; GPS for brain surgeons guides them as they carry out deep brain stimulation procedures used to treat neurological disorders like Parkinson’s.
“Where Israel also shines is the idea of curing the sick, feeding the hungry, helping the needy,” said Jorisch. “If you look at where Israeli tech really moves the dial for people around the world, it’s in those realms. And that speaks to the cultural roots of our people.”
When Jorisch says tikkun olam is part of Judaism’s spiritual DNA, he is speaking in a cultural sense, not a religious sense.
He said for the last 1,500 years traditional Jews have been praying the Aleinu prayer three times a day, which instructs us to repair the world in the image of God.
He also pointed out that in the Mishna, the rabbinic body of teachings, it instructs us no less than 10 times to engage in tikkun olam — making the world a better place. And the prophet Isaiah calls upon us to ultimately bring more light to the world.
“That is where it is ultimately at, bringing more light,” he said. “You can’t repeat the ideas of repairing the world, curing the sick, feeding the hungry, helping the needy for 3,000 years day in and day out without having a deep cultural impact on the DNA of your people.
“We are not a nation of saints, but we have been seeking higher meaning for the last 3,000 years.”
Jorisch believes the secret of Israel’s success rests on three foundations: the cultural DNA of the Jewish people; the diversity of the State of Israel, which, in addition to Jews from every part of the world, has Christians and Muslims of every variety; and Israel’s secular values.
“It’s these three legs of the stool that really are the secret behind Israel’s success,” he said.
Jorisch believes cultural DNA inspired the founders of the state of Israel, quoting David Ben-Gurion who said, “We have been granted the privilege and the obligation to tackle some of the greatest challenges of the 20th century.”
“He seemed to be saying that at the very center of the reason to bring Israel into existence was the idea that Israel was there to protect and enrich its own citizens, but also make the world a better place and Israel is doing that today through innovation,” Jorisch said. “Israel is leveraging its best asset — innovation — in order to bring more to the world. It’s about bringing light.”
He said there are great challenges facing us today and over the course of the next 20 to 30 years — whether it’s food insecurity, war insecurity, artificial intelligence, space, medicine, etc.
“We are experiencing massive challenges on the planet Earth today, which are only going to become more prevalent, and Israel is offering solutions,” he said.
Author talk
Avi Jorisch will talk about his book “Thou Shalt Innovate” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, at the Jewish Community Campus. Cost for the event is $12, including a reception, book sale and signing. Pre-registration is requested online at thejkc.org/getlit or by calling 913-327-8074.
Copies of the book are currently available for a discounted price at The J’s main reception desk.
BETH TORAH SAYS GOODBYE TO LAURA INTFEN — The Congregation Beth Torah community will thank Operations Director Laura Intfen and her husband, Tim, and wish them well as they move to Denver, where Laura will be the executive director of Hebrew Educational Alliance, a large Conservative congregation. The community is invited to say thank you to the Intfens on erev Shabbat, Oct. 25, with a nosh at 6 p.m. and worship at 6:30 p.m.
The Intfens have been members of Beth Torah for 22 years. Laura has served as operations director for the past five years and in a variety of other professional and volunteer roles over the years. In all her roles, her co-workers and fellow members have said she “gave the congregation 100%.”
“Her smile, her passion, her knowledge and her writing will benefit another holy community and the Jewish people,” Senior Rabbi Javier Cattapan said. “Beth Torah is sad to see her go but feels a sense of pride because everyone in the congregation has shared Laura’s journey as a Jewish professional for two decades.”
Tim has shared his talents in a variety of roles, as well, including as a soloist for services and as a songwriter. The choir has performed many of his original songs over the years.
PAUSE WITH PITTSBURGH — Almost one year ago, on a quiet Shabbat morning, Pittsburgh’s Jewish community suffered the most brutal anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history when a gunman opened fire in the Tree of Life building, taking the lives of 11 innocent people across three Pittsburgh congregations: Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life * Or L’Simcha, which all were holding services. One year later, we will take a moment to honor the memory of those we lost and other people who were affected. In solidarity, Jewish Federations across the country are asking that you join them in taking a moment to Pause with Pittsburgh by visiting pausewithpittsburgh.com.
“Rather than become desensitized to the terror of a never-ending cycle of senseless deaths, we must focus on doing what we do best: building and sustaining community that brings people together,” said Mark Wilf, chair of the board of trustees of The Jewish Federations of North America.
On Oct. 27 at 4 p.m. CDT, one year to the day since the attack, the Pittsburgh community will join in a public memorial service for a moment of remembrance. Though we cannot all be there in person, friends are invited to stop — wherever they are — and join together virtually. Those who wish to participate can sign up to receive a text message at 4 p.m. CDT that will contain a video reading of a mourning prayer and the names of the 11 lives lost. Following the prayer, you can tune in to a livestream of Pittsburgh’s public memorial service and submit messages of support and solidarity by text.
“Nothing can erase what happened one year ago — but we can choose to stand even stronger and strive even further to demonstrate our resilience and strength as a people,” said Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of The Jewish Federations of North America. “Through the darkness of this tragedy we have seen a wave of solidarity, and we are gratified that it has sparked a movement of renewed unity.