Archived News

In its almost 150-year history, The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah has occupied four facilities. Its most recent, located at 12320 Nall Ave. in Overland Park, was built 20 years ago to specifically house the congregation’s religious education programs for its youth. At the time, it was never imagined to be the sole home for the oldest and largest synagogue in the area.

But the congregation ultimately moved all activities to the Nall location. As needs grew, the congregation made the decision to embark on a radical transformation of its current facility. Following a fi ve-year planning process, the synagogue is now ready to begin renovations. The project will take nine to 10 months and cost more than $12 million.

500 DAFFODILS — Last week volunteers helped the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (MCHE) plant 500 daffodils at the Memorial for Six Million located on the grounds of the Jewish Community Campus. The daffodils are in commemoration of MCHE’s 25 anniversary. It is anticipated the bulbs will bloom in time for the Yom HaShoah ceremony to be held at the memorial this spring. Along with the volunteers — including eighth-grade students from Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy — MCHE was able to do the project with assistance from the Campus and True North Outdoor.

This is all a part of The Daffodil Project (DaffodilProject.net). Am Yisrael Chai!, a nonprofi t Holocaust Education and Awareness Organization, established this worldwide project empowering Holocaust Education in 2010. The goal is to plant 1.5 million daffodils around the world in memory of the children who perished in the Holocaust, as well as to support children suffering due to humanitarian crises around the world today.

During the Holocaust, 1.5 million children died senselessly in Nazi occupied Europe. No one knows what kind of lives these children would have gone on to lead. Their potential for growth and fulfi llment was cut short. Am Yisrael Chai! chose daffodils to help build a Living Holocaust Memorial because the shape and color of the daffodils represent the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. Yellow is the color of remembrance. According to the Am Yisrael Chai! website, daffodils “represent our poignant hope for the future. They are resilient and return with a burst of color each spring, signifying hope, renewal and beauty. The daffodils also honor those who survived the Holocaust and went on to build new lives after this dark and diffi cult period.”

Since the project began more than 475,000 daffodils have been planted.

MANISCHEWITZ HAS A NEW LOOK — Apparently Manischewitz has quietly changed it look and its slogan. Check out the new logo, which says: “Comfort food for the soul. Established 1888.”

FIRST ETHIOPIAN-ISRAELI PILOT GETS HIS AIR FORCE WINGS (JERUSALEM, JTA) — The Israeli Air Force announced its fi rst Ethiopian-Israeli pilot. Lt. Y, known only by his fi rst initial for security reasons, completed the rigorous three-year-long pilots course on Dec. 19 , Army Radio reported. He will begin his service as a navigator on fi ghter jets. Ethiopian Israelis have been slow to advance in the military. The lag has been attributed to the poverty in which many recruits grow up and the military’s slow response to cultural issues. There also have been allegations of racism both in the military and Israeli society as a whole

Adam Tilove has been hired by Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy (HBHA) as its new head of school. The announcement was made by HBHA Board President Li Balanoff in an email sent to parents and supporters on Dec. 13. He will come on board July 1, 2019.
Tilove will come to Kansas City with his wife Marni, and their three children, Naftali, 10, Raviv, 5, and Yakir, 2 months.
“We were impressed by Adam’s innovative approach to academics and his interest in gaining a thorough understanding of our school and our community,” said Carol Porter, who co-chaired the Head of School Search Committee with Pete Levi.
“We believe Adam is a visionary leader who can help HBHA maintain its excellence in general and Jewish academics, while building a strong foundation through financial sustainability and institutional advancement,” Levi said.

DIRECTOR WITH KC TIES ­DEBUTS AT SUNDANCE — Garret Price, the grandson of Janet and Harold Price, made his directorial debut in the full-length documentary “Love, Antosha.” The film is one of 111 feature-length films being screened at the Sundance Film Festival, this year slated for Jan. 24 through Feb. 3.
The first-time director described “Love, Antosha” as a documentary about the extraordinary life and career of the late actor Anton Yelchin. The actor is best known for his role as Pavel Chekov in three “Star Trek” movies released in 2009, 2013 and 2016. Yelchin was the son of Jewish figure skaters from the former Soviet Union who fled to the United States when he was just 6 months old. His 2016 death outside his home is attributed to a freak accident involving his SUV.
Price, who was asked to direct the documentary by Yelchin’s parents, said the names of the film’s narrator and its star are being kept under wraps until the film’s premier at Sundance.
“He (Yelchin) was such an amazing human being and had a profound effect on so many people, which makes the film such a mesmerizing watch,” said Price, whose father, Steve Price, grew up in Prairie Village and graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School.

LENDING A HELPING HAND AT THE HOLIDAYS — For 31 years in what a local Ronald McDonald House spokesman calls “an awesome show of
holiday spirit,” members of the local Jewish community will be stepping in and taking over the three Kansas City Ronald McDonald Houses on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This allows all the regular Christian volunteers to spend time with their families on those special days. Known as “The Christmas Mitzvah Project,” they will staff the kitchen and do laundry and a myriad of other things to keep the families focused on their kids who are hospitalized at Children’s Mercy and other area hospitals.
The effort is led by Suzanne Gladney and Alan Lubert, who have been coordinating this effort for 31 years. Celebrating their 30th anniversary as volunteers with the project are Lynn Murray and Richard Gilman and their family. A homemade turkey dinner, cooked on-site, is one of the items on this year’s menu.

CANDLE WAX REMOVER — I learned last week there is a product that can help clean candle wax off candlesticks or in my case, my hanukkiot. I looked it up online and found something called Spray Away Wax-Off Remover. This is how it is promoted: “No more scrapping, freezing or boiling water to clean up wax drippings, just spray it away! Simply spray the ‘Wax-Off’ remover to remove candle wax drippings from most surfaces and fabrics. For use after the candles finish burning. 4 oz. bottle.” Has anyone used it? Would love to hear about the experiences with this product, both good and bad. Email me at .

Dr. Allen Parmet has been putting on fatigues, sleeping in a cot — at best — and eating MREs just over 50 years. The first 25 of those years were spent serving his country in the Air Force. But because old soldiers, or in his case airmen, don’t fade away he has continued to serve by providing medical care throughout the country, and in some cases across the world, following natural disasters.
“I always felt we should be serving our people and our country,” said Dr. Parmet. “Since I have the training and experience from the military, I believe I should continue to use these skills and to serve our people.”

The four Kansas City-area chapters of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom have engaged in a local arm of a national charitable effort for the past three years called Sadaqa/Tze­dakah Day to help women and children in need who celebrate Christmas.
Sadaqa in Arabic and tzedakah in Hebrew mean “voluntary charity.” Sadaqa/Tzedakah Day falls on Christmas Day or sometimes earlier in December to better allow for people’s holiday schedules.
The spirit of the day embraces the mission of the Sisterhood (sosspeace.org) “to find commonality and bridge Jews, Muslims and Christians through multigenerational volunteerism,” said Sheila Sonnenschein, a member of the organization’s national advisory board and of the first of four chapters in Kansas City. She also is the liaison among the four chapters and the national group, and she was the Jewish co-leader of this year’s Sadaqa/Tzedakah Day on Dec. 9.

Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel always looks forward.
As co-director of the Rohr Chabad Center for Jewish Life at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, he looks forward each day to the continuing “sense of yearning and seeking for connection from the students.”
And he looks forward to the ongoing community support from the students, donors, KU parents, alumni “and most importantly, the blessings from G-d,” as he strives to fulfill KU Chabad’s mission “to deliver accessible and meaningful Jewish experiences” for the students.
A few weeks ago, Rabbi Tiechtel received a blessing he hadn’t been looking for: an email from The Forward telling him he’d been chosen as one of its 2018 Forward 50. It’s an annual list The Forward has published since 1994 ­recognizing 50 American Jews who are doing and saying things that are making a difference in the way American Jews view the world and themselves.

For more than 30 years, Lauren Aaronson has been spurred to action by the plight of those suffering from AIDS and HIV. She was honored late last month at Congregation Beth Torah for her 25 years of service helping AIDS patients through SAVEHome.
Aaronson first became aware of AIDS when she was a nurse educator and researcher on the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Nursing in Ann Arbor in the late 1980s. The AIDS epidemic was raging, and homosexual men were losing their battle with this then-dreaded disease.
“I was appalled about what I was reading and hearing about what was happening to patients with AIDS and HIV,” said Aaronson, who has both undergraduate and master’s degrees in nursing as well as a doctorate in sociology. “I knew then, as a young researcher, that if I worked clinically, I would be volunteering to care for these patients. It touched my heart.”

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS — At least four members of the Jewish community were on the list of the Top 50 Kansas City Influencers | Social Media by Influencers & Bloggers chosen by Blogger Local (kansascity.bloggerlocal.com). The list, posted Dec. 1, includes meteorologist Gary Lezak (3), Royals sportscaster Joel Goldberg (4), executive Michael Levine (6) and “solopreneuer” Julie Cortes (33).
According to the blog, these online influencers “are part of the fabric of society these days, and the general meaning is someone who influences others to take some sort of action using reach, contextual credibility and salesmanship.”
Lezak has been in Kansas City since 1992 and chief meteorologist at KSHB 41 Action News since 1999. He’s active on Twitter, Facebook and kshb.com. Kansascity.bloggerlocal notes Lezak’s personal website is weather2020.com. Another Jewish meteorologist, Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy parent Jeff Penner, is a founding member, co-chairman and chief meteorologist of this website.
Goldberg has a front-row seat to the Kansas City Royals and speaks to businesses and organizations regularly. Listen to his podcast and read some of his blogs at joelgoldbergmedia.com.
Levine is now the interim executive director of the newly merged Susan G. Komen affiliate. The organization formerly covered only Kansas City and now serves Western Missouri and the entire state of Kansas. The blog calls Levin, as Komen’s communications director, “a wizard when it comes to all things digital marketing and manages everything related to print, broadcast messaging, and digital. The local Kansas City affiliate has come away with multiple local and national awards thanks to Michael’s efforts.” Levine, who actually has a few bylines to his credit as a former Chronicle staff writer, has a passion for food and beverage and is the founder of EAT (Entertaining and Training), an events and marketing firm, and leads monthly ­caffeine crawls to various spots in North America. He is also the chairman of the Social Media Club of Kansas City.
The blog calls Cortes a “solopreneur” and says she regularly “fires up audiences with her high-energy speaking and helps people reach their full potential with a no-BS coaching style.” She is the founder of The Freelance Exchange and teaches a course called Freelancing 101 at the Kansas City Art Institute. Learn more at juliecortes.com.

ESSAY WINNER — Martha Gershun has had a busy year. She published her first book, donated a kidney and now has won the 2018 Women’s Voices Essay Contest, sponsored by the Johnson County (Kansas) Library and The Writers Place. Her essay ­titled “Channeling Marjorie” was written as a gift to her best friend and his son and “is about the ways knitting brings us closer to those we love.” You can read it at https://bit.ly/2BYbs9t.

TREE OF LIFE: A CONCERT FOR PEACE AND UNITY — Earlier this week PBS aired a concert by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) to honor the Tree of Life Synagogue victims and first responders. The performance, featuring Itzhak Perlman at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall, was taped one month after the tragedy on Nov. 27 as part of the PSO’s “Music for the Spirit” series. The concert is available for streaming on PBS.org and PBS apps for iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast.

When Rabbi Mendy Wineberg first saw the hanukkiah that would eventually be chosen as the grand-prize winner in the 2018 Hanukkah Art Contest, the first thing that came to mind was “and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,” which means turn to peaceful pursuits and away from war. The rabbi didn’t yet know the title of the winning piece of art — visualized and constructed by 9-year-old Evan Albee — was “Building a Peaceful World.” Evan won a $100 gift card to Amazon, supplied by Chabad of Leawood.
Evan’s entry was one of 33 submitted to the 22nd-annual Hanukkah Art Contest, sponsored by Chabad of Leawood, The Jewish Community Center (The J) and The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. This was the largest group of entries submitted in several years.