On behalf of JET Express, Jewish Family Services’ volunteer driver program, and the hundreds of older adults we serve, I would like to thank The Chronicle for its recent coverage of our program and our need for volunteer drivers.
Hundreds of Israelis mourn at the funeral of three of the victims killed earlier in the day when two Palestinian terrorists from east Jerusalem entered the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue in the Orthodox neighborhood of Har Nof, Jerusalem, with pistols and axes, and began attacking Jewish worshipers, Nov. 18, 2014. Miriam Alster/Flash90
It was 11:32 Monday night. As I was trying to fall asleep, the first message came in from my friend. “OMG, Gevu terror attack in HAR NOFF!!!” Har Noff is the neighborhood in Jerusalem we were blessed to live in for six years. It’s where I studied. It’s where we were married. It’s where our two oldest children were born.
At 6:20 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21, my clock radio awakened me in my home in the Bronx to the radio announcer saying, "Giants and Royals in Kansas City tonight. Game one of the World Series." "I am dreaming," I thought. When I realized I wasn’t, I jumped out of bed to call my Abba so we could share our exuberance about the ultimate Margolies World Series. His lifelong beloved Giants and his much-loved Royals. Then I truly woke up; my father’s second yahrzeit was rapidly approaching. This World Series was dreamt up in heaven, by my father.
With my daughter on her death bed, my wife, Julie, and I spent the day reciprocating her love, hope and inspiration with as much of the same as we could. Ilana was 3 days old and was not going to make it through the night. We learned of this around 1 p.m., which meant that by the time she would pass, we would have 11 hours more with her.
The 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the infamous "Night of Broken Glass," is Nov. 9 and 10. Kristallnacht is a harsh reminder of the anti-Jewish violence that rocked Germany, occupied Austria and areas of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia.
I am finished apologizing that I am unable to marry gay and lesbian Jewish couples. Thus, I write this personal, open letter to my congregation, as well as to the entire Jewish community of Kansas City.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, child abuse kills over 1,600 children every year. Most child abuse victims are infants less than 1 year old. Abusive Head Trauma is the most common form of fatal child abuse.
Thank you for providing me with such a warm welcome to the community. It’s been a pleasure to meet so many of you and I look forward to the opportunity to meet more of you over the coming montI feel both honored and humbled to be able to serve the greater Kansas City Jewish community as your director of community security.
{mprestriction ids="1,3"}Over the next several months, I will be installing a wide range of security upgrades at the Jewish Community Campus. Security at our facilities requires a commitment from the entire community to ensure safety for all of us as a family. Please keep in mind that we are designing features and policies to increase our security posture, while maintaining a warm and inviting environment to the facilities. The security upgrades at the Campus will be installed in phases and will require multiple vendors on the premises to accomplish these goals. The same goals will be foremost in my planning as I move around the community and begin to work with our other facilities.
I ask all community members to be patient during this process and keep in mind that security systems are designed to delay an intruder’s access and mitigate the effects of a tragic event. Security is seldom convenient and some of the procedures may cause some minor delays and inconveniences in our daily lives.
As a community, it is our goal to make our facilities safe and friendly environments and I look forward to working with all the communal institutions as partners in this process. Please do not hesitate to contact me by way of email with any questions or concerns you may have.{/mprestriction}
