Conference gives families hope

My husband Harold and I were fortunate to attend the Mucolipidosis Type 4 (ML4) Foundation Family & Research Conference last month in Atlanta. ML4, a relatively unknown genetic disorder, is one of 60 lysosomal disorders that affects the brain, cells, eyes, digestive system, kidneys and an ability to walk, talk and function. It

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Our Jewish community has held two memorial services in the last three months — 77 days apart to be exact. Thousands of people attended the first one, as the Jewish community grieved for the senseless deaths of three people killed on the grounds of Jewish communal agencies, allegedly by a man who was looking to kill Jews. We all know by now that the three people who were murdered were not Jews and were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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No champion of Jewish values

I cannot share Washington Jewish Week/JNS.orgreporter Dmitriy Shapiro’s lament for the demise of Eric Cantor’s political career (The Chronicle, June 19, or www.jns.org), because I have never seen him as a champion of Jewish values — at least, not the values that are of importance to most of the Jews with whom I am acquainted. He has been in the forefront in opposing universal health care, living wages for American workers and employment rights for gays, to name just a few of his reactionary positions. Although these were not the issues that brought him down, I am glad he will no longer be the symbol of all that is wrong in American politics today.

Stu Lewis

Prairie Village, Kan.

 

Alan Widman (left) and Stacey Belzer (right) visit with Sybil Sylvian in June. Sylvian’s picture was featured on Page 1 of The Chronicle in January as part of a story about the KU Hillel European Leadership Mission.

Last month, I was honored to travel on a mission with nine other Kansas City Jewish Federation Israel & Overseas Committee members and leaders to Eastern Europe. It was an unforgettable journey, where we saw some of the projects that our Federation funds in partnership with the JDC (American Jewish Joint

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“Propaganda is a truly terrible weapon in the hands of an expert.” — Adolf Hitler, “Mein Kampf,” 1924

 

I attended a press preview this week for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museums Exhibition “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda,” which opened to the public Tuesday at the National Archives at Kansas City. The exhibition is presented by the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, one of the jewels of our Jewish community. 

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Stop saying ‘hate’

The name of our community is Village Shalom — a place of peace. That peace was shattered April 13 when Terri LaManno was killed at Village Shalom, and Dr. William Corporon and Reat Underwood at the Jewish Community Campus.

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Judaism is a religion not a career … or so I thought.

Growing up in a family full of business minded people, being Jewish was my religion but I had never thought of it as anything more. In 2009 I was working for a company in Chicago and began networking in Kansas to potentially move there. I was put in touch with Jay

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