In the January 14 edition of The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, the front page headline read, “COVID notwithstanding, plenty of action on tap for local Jewish community in 2021.” The community certainly had its share of action this year.
Here are 11 of the Kansas City Jewish community’s biggest stories of 2021:
COVID-19 vaccinations in the community
The advent of widely-available COVID-19 vaccines was extremely beneficial in protecting people, especially the elderly and at-risk. The community made significant efforts to provide accessible vaccinations for those eligible.
In mid-January, Village Shalom began COVID-19 vaccinations for its residents and staff, with more than 200 staff and residents receiving their first doses. Village Shalom worked with CVS, the federal designee for vaccinations in nursing homes at the time.
The Village Shalom vaccinations came at a time where Kansas had only about 117,400 people vaccinated. By March, The J’s CDC and after-school program staff had also received their vaccines.
Jewish Family Services also played a crucial role in getting the community vaccinated. Through a series of health and vaccine clinics, JFS helped vaccinate the elderly as the vaccine rollout began, and the agency was quick to get the majority of its staff vaccinated.
In-person community events, services return
In-person, outdoor summer camps resumed in 2021. Camp Sabra, the Goldman Union Camp Institute, and the Jewish Community Center’s J Camp all reopened with the advent of accessible COVID-19 testing and a better understanding of social distancing.
Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy began its school year in person with a mask requirement along with other precautions.
The J reopened the Heritage Center in May after more than a yearlong closure due to the pandemic. Virtual programming remained available, but in-person fitness, art and educational classes resumed with precautions including wearing masks and maintaining social distance.
The White Theatre resumed in-person plays. “Something Rotten,” which had a run earlier this year for virtual audiences on-demand, was performed in a second run for live audiences. With the return of in-person performances came the theater’s vaccination policy, which requires all attendees to be fully vaccinated or show proof of a negative COVID test.
“Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away.” comes to Union Station
A primary focus of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education in 2021 was providing educational support and programming for Union Station’s run of the “Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away.” exhibit — the most comprehensive exhibition to the history of Auschwitz and its role in Holocaust ever presented in North America.
“Most people are not going to be able in their lifetime to go to Auschwitz, and this is an opportunity for Auschwitz to come to them,” MCHE Executive Director Jessica Rockhold told The Chronicle in July. “It’s a different kind of learning than you will ever get from a book.”
MCHE serves as the educational partner for Union Station. Its role includes setting up speaker events, providing docent training, writing educational materials and conducting teaching courses. They have held more than 18 presentations.
In May, before the exhibit opened, Holocaust survivors Sonia Warshawski, Elizabeth Nussbaum and Adela Dagerman were honored at Union Station in front of a recently-installed WWII-era railway freight car, similar to the ones that transported millions of people to ghettos, concentration camps and death camps.
The exhibit opened in June, and soon after it was announced that the exhibit set a record for Union Station. More than 150,000 tickets were sold only weeks into the exhibition.
Many Jewish groups have gone to the exhibit, including teens involved in local religious schools, KU Hillel students, a group from Chabad on the Plaza and the Jewish Federation staff, to name a few.
In November, the exhibit’s popularity prompted Union Station to extend it through March 2022 (it was originally scheduled to end in January). George Guastello, president and CEO of Union Station, told The Kansas City Star that the exhibit was Union Station’s best attended, drawing nearly 260,000 visitors.
Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City launches community study
The Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City undertook and completed the first comprehensive community study since 1985, with more than 1,000 households participating. Jewish Federation partnered with Brandeis University’s Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago on the project, with partial funding from The Jewish Federations of North America Research Benchmarking Project, via support from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.
Results will be forthcoming early in 2022; the final report will show demographics, including population, geography, household makeup, affiliations and involvement with synagogues and community institutions, engagement with Jewish education and Jewish life, plus connections to Israel, as well as standard of living, and health and caregiving statistics.
Jewish Federation plans to share the data and analysis with the community, and to work collaboratively with local Jewish agencies and congregations to make data-driven decisions about meeting needs and using resources.
Solidarity gathering at JCC supports Israel
On May 23, during the escalation in rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel and the heightened conflict with Hamas, about 250 attendees rallied at the JCC to stand behind Israel. The event was organized by the Jewish Federation in partnership with the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee and the Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City.
The rally, which lasted roughly 45 minutes, included speeches, songs and prayers, and remarks from community leaders.
Community welcomes new rabbis
This year, The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah welcomed Rabbi Stephanie Kramer and Topeka’s Temple Beth Sholom welcomed Rabbi Samuel Stern.
Rabbi Kramer became B’nai Jehudah’s 15th senior rabbi in the synagogue’s 150-year history. She began July 1 upon the retirement of Rabbi Arthur Nemitoff.
Rabbi Kramer is a native of Houston, Texas, and most recently was senior associate rabbi at Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa, Calif.
“We felt very embraced by the community,” she told The Chronicle in August. “Everyone has been very welcoming.”
Rabbi Samuel Stern was ordained this past May and moved to Topeka to become rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom, the city’s only synagogue. He is the successor to Rabbi Moti Rieber, who served as interim after the departure of Rabbi Debbie Stiel.
A native of Rockville, Md., he served in various congregations across the country during his time at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion before settling in Topeka after he was ordained.
Rabbi Stern told The Chronicle that his favorite thing about the Topeka Jewish community is that the people are kind.
Synagogue renovations/additions
The New Reform Temple and Congregation Beth Shalom both began major construction projects in 2021.
NRT’s renovation focuses on accessibility. Before renovation, the building had no elevators or handicapped accessible restrooms. It was originally a Southwestern Bell telephone office and had been largely unchanged since 1967. Renovation plans include an accessible bimah in a redone sanctuary, and audiovisual upgrades.
The renovation, costing an estimated $2.2 million, remains in progress.
Beth Shalom broke ground for a new sanctuary in November. The congregation raised more than $12 million through a campaign that began in 2019 and was temporarily paused in 2020.
According to Beth Shalom’s website, the new sanctuary, lobby and restroom will be 11,525 square feet. The sanctuary will seat 466 (and up to 519 for High Holiday services). During construction, services will continue in Beth Shalom’s Goldsmith Hall.
Another year of COVID holidays
Passover and the High Holidays were celebrated differently this year because of the pandemic and the advent of widespread videoconferencing.
Organizers decided two of the community’s biggest seders, the JCRB|AJC Unity Seder and the Rabbinical Association’s Community Seder, needed to go virtual because of the pandemic. The rabbinical association decided to pre-record a seder and make it available a few days before Passover so people could use it for their seders.
JCRB|AJC settled on a hybrid program that included pre-recorded videos featuring leaders in the Jewish and Kansas City community, such as U.S. Reps. Sharice Davis and Emmanuel Cleaver, and live components like Zoom breakout rooms.
For Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, synagogues adapted in different ways, running the gamut from entirely virtual services, hybrid services available in person and online, and all in-person services. All synagogues with in-person services suggested or required vaccination and masks, or held services outdoors.
JVS helps resettle hundreds of refugees
In the wake of the United States military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the mass evacuation of Afghans this summer, Jewish Vocational Service of Kansas City has helped more than 180 Afghan refugees resettle in the Kansas City area. More than 90 of them arrived in Kansas City the week before Thanksgiving.
Because of this influx of Afghan refugees, JVS has served more than 220 refugees in the first two months of its current fiscal year, more than double the number of refugees it served in all of fiscal 2021 (109) and all of fiscal 2020 (88).
“There is something about the Afghan situation that has really sparked people’s compassion and willingness to get involved,” JVS Executive Director Hilary Cohen Singer said. “We have had a really tremendous outpouring of support from the community that says we want to specifically support your work with people from Afghanistan.”
Chabad on the Plaza burglary
On the third night of Hanukkah, Chabad on the Plaza was broken into and damaged. Drawers and cabinets were emptied, books and sheets of paper were scattered, and damage was done to the electrical system and plumbing.
Although police don’t believe it was a hate crime (the Torah was untouched and there was no graffiti), Chabad on the Plaza’s Rabbi Yitzchak Itkin said that nevertheless, “a sacred space has been desecrated and our community has been rendered homeless.”
Chabad on the Plaza launched a 54-hour fundraising campaign to raise $54,000 to secure a temporary location; it is now operating at Industrious Country Club Plaza (420 Nichols Road, 2nd floor). Campaign donations totalled more $90,000 by the end of the 54 hours.
Antisemitism still an issue locally, nationally
The Pew Research Center released its second study on Jewish Americans this past spring, with 51% of Jews surveyed reporting expereinces of antisemitism. In July, Jews braved the summer heat to attend “No Fear: A Rally in Solidarity With the Jewish People” in Washington, D.C. Frustrated over growing anti-Semitic acts in the United States, many felt it was their duty to show up and be heard in close proximity to the epicenter of American democracy.
Locally, a swastika was found on a desk at The Pemproke Hill School in Kansas City in January. Jewish parents told The Kansas City Star that this is not the first case of anti-Semitism at the school, and said school officials hadn’t done enough to address such instances in the past. After this incident, Pembroke Hill officials immediately reached out to JCRB|AJC Kansas City and the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education for guidance on how to handle the situation.
In a show of solidarity and support for the Kansas City Jewish community, Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Quinton Lucas and Leawood Mayor Peggy Dunn signed onto the Mayors United Against Antisemitism initiative. This was a national effort to combat antisemitism from the American Jewish Committee and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Most recently, Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City partnered with JCRB|AJC and a handful of other local Jewish organizations to “shine a light on antisemitism” during Hanukkah week.
Federation, leveraging a grant from Jewish Federations of North America, commissioned an original one-act play dealing with antisemitism, written by local playwright Victor Wishna. Initially performed for members of the community and HBHA students and staff, performances are now being scheduled at Blue Valley High School and Blue Valley North High School.
