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.
The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye," by Jeffrey Dauber. (Nextbook, Schocken, 2013.)
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}
We wish the K.C. Jewish Community a L’Shanah Tovah V’Metukah — a sweet near year filled with Hebrew learning! From across the Jewish community, we are promoting the importance of learning Hebrew.
Our goal is simply “Something for everyone” — whether you know an alef from a bet or speak fluently.
(Editor’s note: This letter to the editor, originally published in the Aug. 28 issue, is reprinted in its entirety with corrections.)
The latest issue of The Chronicle features a picture of an Arab child before a bombed building in Gaza. Everybody, except for Hamas, has sympathy for the people of Gaza who are suffering from the destruction arising from the so-called war.
But, we wonder, what were the editors of The Chronicle thinking about when they printed this picture? Where is the picture of a bomb hole in Israel, caused by a Hamas rocket? Where is a picture of Israeli children huddled in a bomb shelter when Hamas rockets are raining down upon their communities?
Hamas fires rockets into Israel with the intention of killing Jews.
Israel fires rockets into Gaza with the intent of stopping Hamas rockets. There is a distinction! There is a difference!
Innocent people are killed and wounded on both sides. You are not helping by featuring only the evidence of the suffering of one side.
Joel Pelofsky
Kansas City, Mo.
I had a shock.
On the news I saw that three people were murdered in South Kansas City. I knew exactly the spot as Susan and Charles lived there.
Then I found out that she was one of the people murdered. I am in shock.
We met about five years ago. She became active in National Council of Jewish Women, Greater Kansas City Section. We began working together on committees. She was very interested in two issues important to me, interfaith relations and the issue of agunot, Jewish women who could not get a religious divorce.
When we met we realized that our lives had touched once before we met. I had replaced her as a speaker at an interfaith event when she was ill. She was supposed to speak about Judaism. Since I was at the event with my daughter, I was asked to fill in. Later, when we met, it was this incident that gave us something in common.
This past March, I drove her to the national NCJW Convention in St. Louis. We had spent five hours together each way.
In the car we talked about our families. Susan was very proud of her nephews. And spoke about them as I spoke about my children. We talked about interfaith, as our section of NCJW would soon be having our interfaith event. We had combined learning about different religions and the issue of divorce in these religions: Judaism, Catholicism and Islam. It turned out to be a wonderful panel discussion. Susan was one of the panelists.
A few days after our return, Susan and Charles brought us Hamantashen that Charles had made for Purim. And they wanted me to have some as a thank you and as, “shaloch manot,” for Purim.
I saw her the week before she died. We met by chance in a women’s clothing store. She was out shopping for the first time since her mother had passed. I had been out of town when her Mom died, so had not been at the funeral or paid a shiva call.
We talked about NCJW and when she would get back to volunteering. I told her everyone understood. It is difficult to lose your mother. When she was ready it was time enough.
Now I feel sad and am shocked, as she will not volunteer again.
Baruch Dayan haEmet, May her Name be for a blessing.
Ellen Portnoy
Overland Park, Kan.
It is with great shock and sorrow that the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council received word of the tragic death of its Jewish director, Susan Choucroun, Sept. 2 in the Kansas City Woodbridge neighborhood.
Susan was a valued member of the interfaith community and had a passion for community activism and interfaith understanding and cooperation. She was a caring person. She wanted others to know about her Jewish faith, and she wanted to know theirs.
This unconscionable act is, unfortunately, yet another indication that our society is in great need of compassion and healing that not only Divine love can give, but family, friends and the whole community can give to each other as well. The Council extends its condolences to Susan’s husband, relatives and to members of her congregational families at Ohev Sholom and Kehilath Israel Synagogue, as well as to the Jewish and Kansas City communities.
The Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council calls on everyone to react with a determination to replace violence with peace as a way to honor Susan’s memory as well as the memory of the other victims.
Sheila Sonnenschein, convener
Mary McCoy, co-conveneer
Greater Kansas City
Interfaith Council
