Opinions

“Ma tovu ohalekha Ya’akov, mishk’notekha Yisra’el.”

“How goodly are your tents oh Jacob, your dwelling places oh Israel.” These are the words that Jewish people from all over the world say to prepare to pray.

Balaam, a pagan prophet, said these words when he was hired to curse the Israelites. However, when he looked across at their encampment, he blessed them instead.

Balaam didn’t say that the dwellings were beautiful — he said that they were goodly — which is a very different and much more important description.

Beautiful is pleasing to the sight.

Goodly is pleasing to the soul.

When Balaam saw how the Israelites treated each other, he realized that they were a good people dedicated to making the world a better place for all of us.

When we focus on what is truly important — building personal connections and helping one another — we turn our dwellings from just being shelters to being goodly places.

In goodly places people gather to schmooze, learn, grow, study and connect with others. They are places where people gather to repair the world.

Just like The J.

I’m so proud to be associated with The J. We are making the world a better place every day.

Thousands of different people walk through The J’s doors each week. They are young and old and every age in between. They are Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists and many other faiths and beliefs. Newcomers to our community, and lifelong members. Republicans and Democrats. KU fans, K-State fans and Mizzou fans. Together we make The J a goodly place.

Our community has forged a strong, vibrant and inclusive community. We are building and expanding on the incredible foundation that our predecessors passed down to us.

Kol hakavod to everyone who has helped make our J one of the best in the country.

To some of you, The J is your home away from home. To others, The J is just one part of our broader Jewish community.

I want to hear from everyone in the community. Please let me know:

• What is The J doing well?

• What is The J doing not so well?

• What should The J be doing, that we currently aren’t?

I promise to listen to each one of you. We are stronger together. Please email me at or I would be happy to talk with you.

Send me your ideas, comments and, yes, especially your complaints. Really. Despite my size I can handle it. Thanks to my yoga classes at The J, I’m stronger than I appear.

The J is in great shape. The staff is filled with dedicated and caring people focused on bringing The J values to life. They do an exemplary job of managing the budget and delivering excellent programs. There are more members and participants than we have ever had before.

But we can always do better. We can help more people. We can do more good. Help us make the world a better place. This is the best way for all of us to fight back against those who hate.

Balaam’s words were high praise — but they were also a charge to each of us to build goodly communities.

At The J, we fulfill that charge by bringing The J values to life.

L’chaim!

Bringing the J Values to Life

When we are welcoming, inclusive and nurturing, we make the world a better place.

When we work to strengthen our community, we make the world a better place.

When we enrich people’s minds, bodies and souls, we make the world a better place.

When we celebrate and pass on Jewish values and culture, we make the world a better place.

When we treat everyone with respect, dignity and loving kindness, we make the world a better place.

Shanny Morgenstern is chair of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City (The J). This column is based on remarks she made at The J’s annual meeting and installation on Oct. 20.

You and some other Democrats vying to become the party’s candidate for president have made statements about using leverage of U.S. military aid to Israel. Why? Are all of you so ill informed about the continuing past and current strife between Palestinians and Israelis? You, Sen. Warren, and Sen. Bernie Sanders are quick to criticize Israel for “overreacting” to terrorist activities and threats that face Israel daily. You have not criticized Palestinians who have rejected all peace proposals that began with non-acceptance of a divided Palestine and continue to this day.

Funds given to Gaza have been used to enrich a few prominent Palestinians and to dig tunnels that were built to terrorize. Terrorists that have killed Israelis are being awarded with monthly payments for life. If you really feel for the Gazans, help them relinquish acts of terror and destruction and come to the negotiating table. Please remember the Israelis vacated Gaza and in return Gaza sends missiles and incendiary balloons into Israeli territory.

Have you not noticed that the onus is always on Israel? You need not be reminded that Israel is threatened in a hostile environment and by those seeking its destruction. Israel needs your continuing support. And we need Israel!

 Sol Koenigsberg

Overland Park, Kansas

Prediction: The impeachment process will be defeated in the U.S. Senate, Donald Trump will lose the 2020 election and will be prosecuted as a private citizen for tax evasion, as was Al Capone, and will be on his way to prison unless he is pardoned by the next Democratic president.

Marvin Fremerman 

Springfield, Missouri

For the last few weeks, I have been reading the left wing liberal letters that have been written to The Chronicle about our President Donald Trump. I have tried to stay out of this argument because there are no winners, and the real losers are the American people. After the Oct. 17 edition, I can no longer stand the hypocrisy. The left wants to blame President Trump regardless of which side of the issue he is on.

They blame the president for the situation in Syria. His choice was to go to war against a NATO ally, or remove American troops from harm’s way. The president was elected to protect America and its troops, not Syria. They blame the president for using the term “lynching,” but yet there is ample video evidence that Joe Biden and a half a dozen other Democrats used that same term during the attempted Clinton impeachment, no one complained. As a side note, the connotation of this word came about because southern Democrats were hanging innocent African Americans, as well as white Republications who were trying to help them. The hypocritical liberals also want to impeach President Trump because of his phone call with Ukrainian’s president in which he supposedly threatened to withhold aid if Ukraine did not investigate Hunter Biden. Yet the left completely ignores the video tape where Joe Biden stated with great pride and joy that he told the then Ukrainian president that if they did not fire the prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden, then he would withhold a $1 billion loan.

Finally we get to the State of Israel. The president is criticized because doing more than any president since Harry Truman is not enough. We are told that we all love Israel. However, loving Israel is not enough. Israel is an insurance policy to protect Jews all over the world. If there had been an Israel in 1939, maybe my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles, as well as tens of thousands of other Jews may have not been murdered by the Nazis. We need to support any president who helps strengthen the State of Israel. The liberal left has no problem calling President Trump a Nazi, and his administration the Gestapo. It is obvious to me that these people have no understanding who or what the Nazis were.

My cousin Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg is being heavily criticized by people who do not know him or anything about him. Rabbi Rosenberg grew up here in Kansas City. Both of his parents were survivors of Auschwitz Birkenau, and I would venture a guess that he has done more good in the world than all of the left wing hypocrites who wish to defame him.

Sam M. Devinki

Leawood, Kansas

The members of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City are heartsick to have to write yet another statement in response to baseless hate and violence inflicted on individuals with the intent to harm our fellow Jews in Halle, Germany, while observing the Yom Kippur holiday. Amidst our mourning for the loss of life of two precious souls and our on-going prayers for the those who were injured, we stand committed to fighting against the hatred against our Jewish community, and any and all acts of hatred and religious persecution. We offer support and comfort and respond with a unified voice for religious freedom and a zealous pursuit of peace and love for all. It is that commitment that has and will continue to sustain Jews throughout centuries of persecution.

The Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City

Dear Sen. Sanders,

I am greatly disturbed that you accepted, with glee, the endorsements the “squad” in your bid to become the Democratic nominee for president. You must be aware that this group is hostile to Israel, an ally of the U.S.A. I am aware that you are an outspoken critic of Israel, particularly when that country acts to defend itself. 

I do not understand your pleasure at obtaining the support of Israel’s sworn enemies, knowing how the Jewish people are constantly attacked, both before and after World War II.

Where is your conscience? 

Sol Koenigsberg

Overland Park, Kansas

“Thou Shalt Innovate” by Avi Jorisch, Gefen Publishing House, 2018.

Avi Jorisch, who will be speaking at the Jewish Community Center at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, is the author of a page-turner book about the incredible number of ways in which Israeli Individuals have created better methods for improving the world.

To be specific, he examines 15 of the 50 innovations he lists that have made the world a better place. They include a method for getting caregivers to the scenes of emergencies in record time and drip irrigation which assists farmers in arid regions in keeping their crops watered with a minimum of water. He informs readers about Israel’s creation of the “Iron Dome,” which protects civilians from missile attacks.

My favorite chapter in the book is about how Michael Revel discovered a method to fight multiple sclerosis using a protein called interferon. It is a rare protein found largely in the foreskins of penises. Fortunately Revel had an assistant related to the Lubavitcher Rabbi Schneerson who persuaded the rabbi to donate foreskins from circumcisions to the research. Thus began the search for a cure that today helps thousands of individuals suffering from multiple sclerosis.

Every chapter in this book is another tale of a fascinating innovation from Israel. It is well worth reading.

Donald Trump’s main adversary in the upcoming 2020 presidential election is not any of the Democratic candidates, including Kamala Harris whose husband is Jewish, but rather: The Truth. And the truth will always win out.

Marvin Fremerman

Springfield, Missouri

I am writing in response to my fellow Jews who are ardent supporters of Donald Trump, in many cases because of his support for Israel. This is the first time I have ever written a letter to publicly air my feelings. As my friends know, I am a very private person. But my feelings over the past years of the current president are reaching a breaking point and I need to speak out.

I was raised in a very passionate, close knit Jewish community. I have been actively involved since I was a young child to perpetuate the existence of the Jewish people and Israel. During my formative years at my synagogue and home, I was taught to be an ethical person. I was immersed in the love of Israel and have been fortunate to participate in amazing trips to Israel. So to set the record straight, I love our Jewish homeland Israel!

But to support our president solely because of Israel is a mistake. Our president is corrupt and unethical. Not the embodiment of what I was taught in my home or synagogue. Donald Trump was an embarrassment after Charlottesville, has continually lied, called people demeaning names, had extramarital affairs, made political decisions based on his businesses and self-interest, ridiculed the handicapped, set up a sham university, refused to pay contractors, put children in cages and many times acts like he’s part of the Mafia.

When reading the list of sins during our Yom Kippur service, I realized Trump has committed almost all the sins listed. Truly shocking!

My question is how can anyone who truly believes in the values and ethics of Judaism, feel that our president is the right person to lead our country? There must be at least one other candidate, who is both ethical and cares about the wonderful country of Israel, who will admirably represent the people in the United States.

Shirley Stettner

Olathe, Kansas

In the Oct. 10 issue of The Chronicle, Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg (a New Jersey rabbi who apparently thinks that we Midwestern Jews cannot think for ourselves) expresses his view that Jews who follow “the faith of our fathers” should support Donald Trump because of his supposed pro-Israel policies.

I resent his holier-than-thou attitude. It is a central tenet of Jewish belief that the law of the land is the law. Since Donald Trump is a self-acknowledged criminal (using his political power to ask foreign governments to dig up dirt on his political opponents), it should be our religious duty to oppose him, not support him.

More significantly, education about the Holocaust has been a central component of Jewish education in recent decades, and we generally teach that “Never Again” should apply not only to Jews but to all people. Trump’s tacit permission to the Turks to commit genocide against the Kurds is not something that we should overlook simply because we are not the ones under attack.

Stu Lewis

Prairie Village, Kansas