Everyone in the Kansas City Jewish community remembers where they were when they heard about the shooting at the Jewish Community Campus. For us, it ranks right along with how our parents’ generation remembers where they were when JFK was shot, how our grandparents remember where they were when D-Day and Pearl Harbor occurred, and our peers remember the exact moment the twin towers went down. Even our 7-year-old daughter remembers 4/13.
The song from the musical “Annie” begins with these lyrics: “The sun will come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun.” However, for our daughter Elizabeth, there will be no more tomorrows or sunshine.
It has been a bizarre week in Kansas. First has been the trial of the man who killed two people at the Jewish Community Campus and one at Village Shalom in April 2014. I know his name, but it is not worth saying. He wants the publicity. He is a sick demented man who was able to get guns and act out on his baseless hatred.
Throughout the year each of us searches for meaning. This search becomes more intensified as we anticipate the start of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and contemplate the other important holidays that follow in rapid succession. Our sages instituted the sounding of the shofar during the month of Elul to stir our souls in order to awaken us to the importance of the coming weeks — not just days — of awe.
Rabbi Arthur Nemitoff on the flight deck of the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman geared up and ready to watch a F-18 take off.
“Firing sequence complete! Salute given! Fire!”
With that, I pushed the red “FIRE” button and launched a $45,000,000 F-18 Hornet Fighter jet from the deck of the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman in the middle of the Atlantic.
In recent months, I have read the terms and details of the proposed nuclear deal with Iran and listened to the testimony of numerous senior administration officials responsible for crafting and negotiating it. Informed by this information as well as classified intelligence analysis, I believe this proposal falls short of its goal to prevent Iran’s nuclear weapons capability. Back in Kansas during August, conversations with many people from across the state have only reinforced my conviction that the world can and must do better than this potentially dangerous deal.
It was not surprising that Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) embraced some of the most convoluted logic about the Iran deal to rationalize her support for it. After all, McCaskill, back in 2008, was one of candidate Barack Obama’s strongest, earliest and most vocal supporters.
Classes began this week at the University of Kansas, the University of Missouri and have or will be starting soon at college campuses across the country. The rise in anti-Semitism on American campuses is alarming, and likely due to the toxic combination of destructive groups and ineffective academic leaders.
When you see or if you know anyone associated with the Flo Harris Foundation, please express appreciation to them for allowing me to do outreach in the Jewish Community regarding the importance of healthy relationships, and specifically defining and addressing unhealthy ones. Additionally, I hope the wonderful anonymous donor who enabled me to attend the Association of Jewish Family & Children’s Agencies (AJFCA) Domestic Violence Professionals Fly-In that took place in Chicago sees this article! This quick but powerful conference attracted professionals from across the nation addressing education, prevention, safety, and the importance of learning how abuse (of any nature) affects a person and family during their life span.
