Now, that’s matzah!

Imagine setting aside five cups of flour, two cups of water and one of oil. Mix these ingredients well and rapidly. Flatten the dough and separate it into several smaller sections. On a lightly oiled tray place the dough sections. Beat a couple of eggs in a bowl and brush the beaten eggs generously on the dough. For garnish, sprinkle some sesame seeds. By now, the oven has reached the 500 degrees needed for fast baking. Place the tray in the oven and wait for about five minutes until golden.

I know, it feels like cheating, but that’s the Sephardic matzah for Pesach. What a treat!

If you want more details, please ask Mahta and Mark Millerlile, who last Sunday, March 31, baked Sephardic matzah and shared their delicious charoset at their congregation, Beth Torah.

For those interested in the subject of matzah, I recommend reading Shayna Zamkenai’s “Why our ancestors never ate matzos.” (http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-your-ancestors-never-ate-matzos/)

Eduard de Garay

Overland Park, Kan.

Saving lives through organ donation

I wanted to thank you for the excellent article you ran on March 14 regarding Robby Berman’s recent visit to K.I. as its scholar-in-residence. Your article inspired many to attend his informative sessions, and many left committed to talking with their families during Passover about becoming organ donors. As a donor family member myself and a 20-plus year staff member at Midwest Transplant Network, it was heartwarming for me to witness the excitement and commitment that grew from his comments. I sat there wishing our entire Jewish community could hear all we heard from him throughout the weekend.

During Mr. Berman’s visit he spent time with members of the Rabbinical Association and garnered a great deal of understanding and support in acknowledging the confusion that exists regarding whether or not we as Jews support the opportunity to save lives through donation. If indeed we believe the notion that “To save one life is to save the world” we must consider organ and tissue donation the perfect opportunity to do so. Donation and transplantation do take place within our own Kansas City Jewish community, and we know it is the true to life stories that sometimes move people to take action.

Today in this country more than 117,000 people (nearly 2,500 of them live in Kansas or Missouri) await the gift of a life-saving organ from a generous donor, and roughly 1 million people will benefit this year from gifts of donated tissue. April is designated as National Donate Life Month urging all Americans to give life through organ, tissue and eye donation and would be the perfect time to say “yes” to life.

To register to be a donor go to www.mwtn.org.

Marcia Schoenfeld

Midwest Transplant Network

Westwood, Kan.