KU Hillel wraps up a safe, eventful semester with weekly outdoor events, Shabboxes and meal deliveries. They are looking forward to a winter break full of exciting virtual programming.
As students in the University of Kansas Jewish community begin to head home for the semester, KU Hillel is reflecting on its first full semester since the onset of COVID-19.
In this year of COVID-19, with no possibility of an in-person event, Village Shalom has received a blessing and a challenge from a group of donors. Ronnie Baker, Irene Bettinger, Stanley Bushman, Charley Helzberg, and Frank Lipsman have come together with a $25,000 challenge grant in support of Village Shalom’s Ages of Excellence campaign. Ages benefits the one in four healthcare residents who are beneficiaries of this Financial Assistance Program.
Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is celebrated by Jewish people this time of year. The holiday focuses on religious freedom and generally is celebrated at home with the lighting of the Menorah each of the eight nights of the holiday. Small gifts are exchanged, traditional holiday foods (made with oil) such as potato latkes are enjoyed, and games of dreidel are played to commemorate the festival. This year, Hanukkah begins at sundown Thursday, Dec. 10.
Congregation religious school families are invited to a virtual interactive and engaging community Hanukkah educational experience from 10 to 10:50 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 6, in place of regular religious school morning sessions. Parents are encouraged to join in the fun and grandparents are welcome to participate!
Rabbi Mendy Wineberg with his granddaughter Menucha Perman, kindergarten; daughter Sarah Wineberg, fourth grade; and daughter Esty Perman.
By Marcia Montgomery / Associate Editor
Rabbi Mendy Wineberg of The Shul — Chabad of Leawood is over the moon about his granddaughter being the first of a third generation of students to attend Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy.
Gabriella Sonnenschein, 23, is working in Tel Aviv as part of the Masa Top Interns program. She contracted COVID about a month after arriving in Israel.
A gap year in Israel comes with restrictions and reservations
By Lacey Storer / Contributing Writer
For many Jewish young adults, spending a year after high school or college in Israel is the dream of a lifetime. That dream was put on hold this year for some, but others managed to make it a reality despite the pandemic.
Thinking about my transition to editor of The Chronicle sent me to one of the large plastic tubs that sit on shelving in our basement. This particular container holds a lot of my childhood memorabilia.
When Rabbi Mark Glass, Congregation Beth Israel Abraham & Voliner’s (BIAV) new rabbi, learned about the synagogue located in Overland Park his first reaction was, “Where?” After all, a rabbi who grew up in Manchester, England, and had spent just a few years in this country’s Northeast couldn’t be expected to know much about the Midwest, and Kansas in particular.
