Service honors Judy Jacks Berman

They came by the dozens. Chairs were added to the back of the room. Young children sat on the floor in front of the bimah. Educators, grandparents, parents, school age youngsters and preschoolers all packed into Congregation Beth Shalom’s services last Shabbos (Feb. 8) to honor Judy Jacks Berman, a teacher’s teacher and director of the Rose Family Early Childhood Education Center of Congregation Beth Shalom.

Everyone helped “Miss Judy” celebrate 20 years as teacher and director of the nationally accredited children’s preschool program. Miss Judy has infused the curriculum with Judaic and life principles gained growing up as the daughter of practicing Jewish parents and KU early childhood training. It was so natural for her to greet congregants with “boker tov” and a smile, and hug all the service participants as they left the bimah. Miss Judy remembered the names of her preschoolers, their parents, former students and the 40 or so present and past educators who joined in paying homage to her for her many abilities and joyful attitude over the past two decades.

Miss Judy encourages children to learn about their world and religion through creative programs and an evolving curriculum. If the lessons worked before, she thinks of ways in which the students can become more involved or leave with a more positive experience. Jewish current events help students connect the present to the past. Services express how important tradition is to Judaism. All the service participants last Saturday have a direct connection to the education program — present and past, except for Rabbi Glickman and Hazzan Ben-Yehuda — although the rabbi’s youngest is enrolled in the school. Middle-schoolers and high school students chanted the service. A few undergraduates traveled home from nearby universities. Many community members honored Jacks Berman by donating to the Education Center to keep it a program of excellence.

Jacks Berman admitted other synagogues in the area also have good early childhood programs, but with her skills and heart invested in Beth Shalom’s, its participants will continue to be winners.

Marlene Lerner

Overland Park, Kan.

As President’s Day approaches, we can rededicate ourselves to protecting the liberties we enjoy today by reflecting on Jewish life in colonial America, when we were granted both citizenship and religious freedom for the first time.

To the first president of the United States, George Washington, liberty and democracy were central causes. Letters from various congregations to Washington urging action on these fundamental tenets are considered to be among the most important letters in American Jewish history. An excerpt from one letter from the Newport Congregation in Rhode Island begins “Sir: Permit the children of the stock of Abraham to approach you with the most cordial affection and esteem for your person and merit. … we rejoice to think that the same spirit which rested in the bosom of the greatly beloved Daniel. … rests and ever will rest upon you, enabling you to discharge the arduous duties of the Chief Magistrate of these States. Deprived as we hitherto have been of the invaluable rights of free citizens, we now — with a deep sense of the gratitude to the Almighty Disposer of all events — behold a government which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance, but generously affording to all liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship, deeming everyone of whatever nation, tongue or language, equal parts of the great governmental machine.” (Friedman, L. M. [1942]. “Jewish Pioneers and Patriots,”  Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America.)  It was signed: Moses Seixas, Warden, August 17, 1790.

Washington replied as follows, “… The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy — a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. … For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support….” (Friedman 1942). It was signed: G. Washington.

The letter from the congregation refers back to our biblical history with pride but it does not hold back from voicing concerns about the status of the Jewish people. Washington’s response reiterated the Jewish writer’s own words in assuring him that intolerance and discrimination had no place in America. Washington added the phrase “the Government of the United States” to emphasize that the Jewish people had the protection of the authority of the federal government. Consequently, for the first time, the Jewish people became both citizens of a nation and enjoyed religious freedom.

George Washington is a towering figure in American history. He was a leader who recognized the real and pressing problems of the new nation. Washington addressed the concerns of a minority group by guaranteeing the principles of equality and religious liberty to the Jewish people. We can be guided today in our own search for good leaders by the sound foundation established by our American heritage. We need leaders who are guided more by ethical principles than emotional reactivity. We need leaders who recognize the real problems our society faces and solve them without putting unjustified pressures on minority groups.

Individually and collectively, we must become advocates for choosing responsible leaders who address real societal problems. Each of us must acknowledge the challenges of our times and take well defined positions on real problems. Real problems are in contrast to imagined problems, which universally falsely target vulnerable minority groups such as the Jewish people. Each of us must speak up and speak out. Every society has real problems that need solutions. Each of us is responsible to direct attention to these problems and to make sure that our leaders listen and act. Our colonial ancestors’ words and actions can be the benchmarks to inspire us with the courage to meet the challenges of being responsible American Jews.

Mary Greenberg, Ph.D. is a member of the State of Kansas Holocaust Commission and Temple Beth Sholom in Topeka, Kan. An adjunct research associate at the Department of American Studies at The University of Kansas, Greenberg also holds a master’s degree in social work. Her commentary is based on “The Staying Power of Anti-Semitism and a Possible Explanation of Its Resilience,” which she gives at speaking engagements.

One-side article

I thought the J Street/ Peace Now item in the Jan. 30 issue (written by Ron Kampeas, distributed by JTA) was remarkably one-sided. It addresses the Obama/Kerry Iran strategy, but neglects to observe that the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism is Iran. The Kerry/Obama deal can support the Iranian economy to achieve its goal of completion of a nuclear weapon. Mr. Kampeas does not seem to recall that this is the same Iran that demands the annihilation of Israel and of the United States as well. How does Mr. Kampeas explain that this arrangement enhances national security of the United States? Of Israel?

Attempts to block the world’s most dangerous and fanatic regime from achievement of nuclear weapon capability is defensive, not warmongering! I perceive J Street as legitimizing the anti-Israel policies of the Obama administration. Obama, Kerry and Ron Kampeas have not explained how continuation of Iran’s uranium enrichment and development of heavy water increase the security of the United States or that of Israel. Iran is being permitted to continue on its path to possible global destruction.

David S. Jacobs, MD

Overland Park, Kan.

Boker tov, Kansas City!

The average person lives for about 27,375 days. I am only 18 and I have already had the 10 best days of my life. It sort of seems a little crazy. Now you are probably curious as to what made these 10 days the best, right? Well I can make it simple for you, it is called Birthright. Birthright, or Taglit in Hebrew, is a 10-day trip to Israel for Jewish teens. I went on this trip with KU Hillel in early January and returned feeling like a totally new person. I know it all sounds so cliché, but hear me out.

You become a different person after climbing Masada. You become a different person after floating in the Dead Sea. You become a different person after eating falafel and schwarma for 10 days in a row. And you most definitely become a different person after visiting the Western Wall. I just did all of these things on my trip. So, if all of these things make me such a different person, then there is absolutely no way that I am the same person that I was before going to Israel. I am different now and I love it.

Israel taught me to be open to new things. Israel taught me to make friends even when I thought I already have enough. Israel taught me to eat foreign foods and enjoy them. Israel taught me to do things that I would never do at home. Let Israel change you like it did me.

I have never been so affected by something like this in my entire life. I look at the whole world differently now, in a good way. I have 46 new best friends, I have eaten spicy schwarma and burned my lips off, my skin has cringed from all the salt in the Dead Sea, and I have had one of the most impactful experiences of my life.

On one of the first nights of the trip we were each asked what we wanted to get out of being in Israel. My response was that I wanted to cry while I was there. It seems strange, so let me clarify. I am not an emotional person, but I wanted something we were going to do or see in Israel to make me emotional. Nothing got to me and I sort of felt guilty about it.

I have had some time to reflect since we got back and I have come to realize that I did not mean emotional like tears streaming down my face. I think what I meant was that I wanted to feel touched by Israel. I wanted to feel inspired and rejuvenated and I am glad to say that I have accomplished that. It was a new type of emotional experience for me and I would not change it for the world.

While in Israel, Rabbi Neal Schuster, who was one of our group leaders, talked about how participating in Shabbat does not necessarily mean that a person must attend services, all someone has to do is acknowledge it. Light a candle, have some challah at dinner, or say the Shema before bed. What the rabbi said made me recognize how easy it can be to celebrate Shabbat and I look at Judaism differently now because of that.

I am having major Birthright withdrawals because Israel really did change me. I know I will go back and meet again with the Holy Land — I can hardly wait. I know that when I get there, everything will be — as they say in Israel — sababa (everything is all good).

Rebeka Luttinger is a freshman at the University of Kansas majoring in journalism.

(Editor’s note: This is a response to a guest column by Katja Edelman headlined “Bibi, can you hear me” published in the Dec. 19 issue.)

As a citizen of Israel, resident of Jerusalem, I thank you for your voluntary service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). You have earned the right to criticize Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, even from a distance, now that you are back on Morningside Heights.

You take the prime minister to task for his coddling of the settlers and for “turn[ing] Israel into something unrecognizable from the outside.” You ask him to “honor the legacy of the great Nelson Mandela and be the kind of leader who takes risks for the people and nation he loves.”

Indeed, the mark of the great leader is the willingness to take risks; but it is also the ability to know when to take those risks. Furthermore, in a democracy, the prime minister must not only weigh the international consequences of his actions but also the impact that his policies will have on the citizens of his country.

Israel is a democracy and nothing is simple in a democracy. The decision-making process in a democracy, and especially in Israel, is convoluted, loud, quite often too open and subject to many competing pressures. As the only democracy in the region, Israel’s open processes are subject to much second guessing. How much easier would it be for Prime Minister Netanyahu if he did not have to worry about the maintenance of his ruling coalition, the next election or comments from abroad?

What may be perceived as an incoherent Israeli policy on settlement construction when viewed solely from the single perspective of those outside of Israel, may be a rational second-best policy when the domestic perspective, and hence, the need for balance, is thrown into the equation.

Take the makeup of the current ruling coalition. The recent election for Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, was primarily contested over domestic social and economic issues. The ruling coalition, which consists of doves and hawks who hold diametrically opposed views on settlement policy, was stitched together to deal principally with the domestic challenges currently facing Israel. Were the prime minister to take bold action and develop a coherent policy on the settlements and settlers, as you urge, he would lose his current coalition in favor of a coalition that would support his settlement policy but would not be able to move on the more pressing domestic issues.

And now is not the time to do that, since Israel does not have a genuine partner for peace.

President Mandela had a negotiating partner who shared his goal of ending apartheid. By freeing the imprisoned Mandela, South Africa’s last apartheid president, F.W. de Klerk, demonstrated, through action and not just word, that he was willing to work with Mandela to reach their shared objective. The current Palestinian leadership has not sent any signals that it is willing to live in peace with a Jewish state or coexist with Israel. Palestinian maps continue to exclude Israel and their schoolbooks make no attempt to educate Palestinian children for peace or coexistence with Israel. Under such circumstances, how can we ask the prime minister to take the risk and make the hard decisions on a settlement policy that could very well create fissures in the political and social fabric of Israel?

The fact that the current round of negotiations with the Palestinians consists of two separate negotiations that require two conflicting negotiating styles also makes Israel unrecognizable from the outside.

On the one hand, the prime minister is negotiating with the Palestinians as if he were in an old-fashioned Mideast bazaar. In such a non-rational negotiation, one stakes an extreme opening position, sticks to the maximalist position and does not offer to show his or her cards unless reciprocated.

On the other hand, Israel is simultaneously negotiating with the United States in a rational give-and-take over what Israel should be offering the Palestinians, with the “outside” expecting an Israeli position that is logical, internally consistent and will lead inexorably to the final outcome. This bifurcated negotiation is the reality that you say is unrecognizable from the “outside.”

What is tragic about the current situation is that polls show that a large majority of Israelis would give up sizeable chunks of land in the West Bank for a genuine peace with the proper security arrangements. Katja, you want Prime Minister Netanyahu to essentially act like Mandela and take risk. A genuine peace is, however, dependent on Netanyahu’s having a de Klerk to his Mandela.

Jacques J. Gorlin held senior positions in the State and Treasury Departments and served as senior economic adviser to Sen. Jacob K. Javits (R-NY). He subsequently was president of the Gorlin Group for more than 25 years before moving from Washington, D.C., to Israel in 2011.

For many years, Super Sunday has been a cornerstone of the Jewish Federation’s Annual Campaign. Recently, however, many people have shied away from both volunteering and answering the phone. Deserved or not, the perception exists that the Jewish Federation does not value all levels and kinds of giving.

We have listened.

Whether it’s more hands-on volunteer opportunities you are seeking, or if you’re wondering if your “small” gift matters, this year, my Super Sunday co-chair Jeremy Applebaum and I have re-imagined Super Sunday in an effort to assure you that the Jewish Federation deeply values all gifts of time, talent and treasure. That is why Super Sunday is offering a number of ways to participate this year.

Give Time

Fight hunger at one of our three community service projects, or drop off non-perishable food for our JFS Food Pantry project. Barrels for food collection are in the front entryway of the Jewish Community Campus.

Post #supersundaykc on any of your social media outlets on Feb. 2. For each post, we get $1, and every dollar is important. Furthermore, if we reach 500 posts, we’ll quadruple our money, receiving $2,000 for a few seconds of your time. We definitely need everyone’s help with this … wherever and whatever you are doing that morning.

Give Community

Enjoy delicious New York bagels and kosher pastries, JCC’s Alef Bet Café smoothies and a good time with friends at our Super Sunday Open House! You’ll also have the opportunity to get a quick picture of yourself on our red carpet, and learn more about where your Jewish Federation dollars go.

Give Sweat

Once you’ve completed your workout at the JCC on Feb. 2, come up to the lobby, log your minutes at our Open House (10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) and enjoy a nosh. Generous donors will turn your workout minutes into a cash donation for Super Sunday.

In addition to your gift of time, we realize — and are extremely thankful for — the many of you who make donations of all amounts to support the more than 75 programs that Jewish Federation funds each year, programs that sustain and enhance Jewish life at home and around the world.

Whatever the size of your gift, we want each of you to understand how powerful your gift to the collective becomes. Together, we become a force to be reckoned with, reaching more people than we could individually. So, if you think your gift is too small, or worse — unimportant — to Jewish Federation, think again. “Small” gifts are the heart and soul of Federated giving.

If everyone in Kansas City gave, think of the impact. Bagel Bash, our annual party for young Jewish people in Kansas City is a perfect example of the power of the collective:

This year, for the first time ever, the 250 attendees of Bagel Bash donated $5 to Jewish Federation as part of their ticket price. Through this effort, we collected $1,250 in one evening. That’s $1,250 that will go a long way toward feeding the hungry right here in Kansas City.

If each of those 250 people gave $100, (approximately $8.33 per month, and roughly the equivalent of two coffees from Starbuck’s each month) all of a sudden, they have raised $25,000. That’s no small change.

Finally, if those same 250 people pledged $365 to the annual campaign (just $1/day), that small but powerful group of people will have raised more than $90,000! The math is compelling. We have strength in numbers. This is the whole point of federated giving — giving to the collective, increasing your impact. More importantly, federated giving allows everyone the opportunity, regardless of the size of your gift, to do the mitzvah of tzedakah.

I hope you will join us this Super Sunday.

I hope you will join us in person at the Super Sunday Open House, or on social media with your tweets, Instagram pics and Facebook posts. I hope you will join us by fighting hunger at our community service projects, or by logging your fitness minutes. And finally, I hope you will join us in the privilege of helping Jewish people … everywhere, everyday.

For more information about Super Sunday, go to jewishkansascity.org/supersundaykc, or call the Jewish Federation directly at 913-327-8100.

A board member of Jewish Federation, Tracy Shafton is the co-chair of Jewish Federation’s Super Sunday. She is also chair of Jewish Federation’s Engagement and Leadership Development Committee and co-chair of the Israel Together mission. Tracy and her husband Alan live in Overland Park with their two children.

(Editor’s note: This message, written by Rabbi Scott White, was originally published in Congregation Ohev Sholom’s weekly email blast to the congregation on Monday, Jan. 20.)

(Monday night) was to have marked the opening at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters of an exhibition, “People, Book, Land — The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People to the Holy Land.” But last Tuesday (Jan. 14), UNESCO canceled the exhibition in the wake of protest from the Arab League claiming that “the exhibition could create potential obstacles related to the peace process in the Middle East.”

Why are we not surprised? After all, in 1975 the U.N. adopted a resolution equating Zionism with racism. It stood on the books for 16 years. Just one example of many when that august body singled out Israel, while turning a blind eye to real atrocities being committed in various countries belonging to its club.

What is not to be expected, however, is for our own country to jump on the bandwagon. Yet, here is a segment from a State Department letter rescinding U.S. sponsorship of opening night. “At this sensitive juncture in the ongoing Middle East peace process, and after thoughtful consideration with review at the highest levels, we have made the decision that the United States will not be able to co-sponsor the current exhibit during its display at UNESCO headquarters.”

Read it and weep.

Every Sunday morning after I finish my first of a tri-daily visit to my lovely wife Zelda, who lives in Park Meadows Memory Care, I go to my favorite Hen House on 118th and Roe for my enjoyable coffee and $6 New York Times. Incidentally when I was a kid growing up in New York the daily Times was 3 cents and 25 cents on Sunday.

This particular Sunday, Dec, 1, 2013, was the fourth day of Chanukah. This year Chanukah was very significant to all Jews since Chanukah and Thanksgiving don’t coincide that often. It was personally very significant to me because it was the 35th anniversary of my heart attack in 1978 when I was 58 years old.

As I was leaving the Hen House and placing my groceries into my car an elderly man, Donald Boresow, approached me and said, “Do you remember me Mr. Reiz? When I was a 12-year-old kid I had you as my Sunday school teacher at the Beth Shalom Synagogue. You have not changed a bit. I’m 79, so you must be in your 80s.” I chuckled as I am 93. Donald mentioned that he has 51 grandchildren, an unusual accomplishment.

This encounter with Mr. Boresow reminded me of Ida Rose “Skipper” Feingold. Skipper had many accomplishments, including founding the Beth Shalom preschool whose alumni numbered thousands of adults in this area. When Zelda and I were married on Dec. 29, 1946, and after return home by train from our seven-day honeymoon from Excelsior Springs, Skipper was pregnant with her first child, Anita Goldsmith. Skipper asked me if I would do her a favor and substitute as the teacher in her Sunday school class at Beth Shalom temporarily until she gave birth in February 1947, which was only one month away.

I accepted and was terrified since I had never had any previous teaching experience and saying no to Skipper was simply never an option. That one month of substituting became 18 years of teaching at Beth Shalom. My Israel Coins and Stamps class was popular and jam-packed with pupils like Donald Boresow. Hundreds of people who went through my classes are now in their 70s and 80s. Some of these students are no longer with us, including Joan Vigder Greenberg, who unfortunately passed away about a month ago.

It would be almost sinful if I didn’t mention Raffy Arbisser, our beloved principal. When I began teaching in 1947 he paid me 50 cents a week. My top salary was $12.50 per session. The acme of my teaching career was in 1950 when I was awarded a silver cup for Best Teacher of the Year.

The third person in this triangle as I call it is Dr. Daniel Scharf. As I mentioned earlier I had a heart attack when I was 58 years old. At the time I drove myself to the emergency room at Menorah Medical Center, which at that time was located on Rockhill Road in Kansas City, Mo. A very young doctor with dark hair performed a relatively new procedure on me and discovered that I had some blocked arteries but no heart damage. Upon my discharge I was told to exercise daily and watch my food intake. This is advice that I continue to follow faithfully every day and to which I attribute my longevity.

Last October I happened to go to St. Luke’s South for a cardioscan. While I was there a nurse overheard a conversation I was having with another nurse about Dr. Scharf. Dr. Scharf happened to be in the building and, after he was informed of the conversation, he asked to see me.

It would be an understatement to say that my meeting with Dr. Scharf was most enjoyable. I jokingly asked him what happened to his dark hair and he countered by asking me why I was two inches shorter. It was a short, but priceless meeting.

I have enjoyed this trip down memory lane and would enjoy hearing from others of you who are former pupils. Please consider calling me at 913-730-3466 or sending me a note at 6077 W. 107th St., Overland Park, KS 66207.

Andy Reiz is a retired general contractor. His three adult sons and their wives (David and Pam, Nathan and Nancy, and Joel and Lana) also live in the area. His daughter Miriam and her husband Bill live in Israel.

Last September Therese Park wrote a column in the KC Star describing what she learned in the summer of 1950 as 9-year-old in Pusan, Korea, during the start of the Korean War. Due to the war, the government ordered all private home owners to open their homes to refugees. All of a sudden, Ms. Park’s home housed additional families. Ms. Park’s mother decided to start a “sewing circle,” in order to give the additional women a pleasant, constructive activity. Her mother allowed her to sit on these lessons as well. Often times, conversation included comments about husbands, children’s behaviors, challenges with money, how to extend the food rations, etc. Everything discussed during the sewing circle stayed amongst the women ... no one passed judgment on any one or any comment.

Almost buried in the article’s paragraphs she wrote about a woman staying in their home whose husband beat her regularly. He chose to do this when they were alone, and he never hit her where bruises showed. The sewing circle ladies wanted her to leave him, even helped her devise a plan, but the woman replied, “He always finds me.” Just one day later the couple left, and Ms. Park’s mother never heard from the woman again. She always regretted she didn’t do more to protect her and possibly save a life; she feared the worst scenario.

Therese Park’s article wasn’t about domestic abuse, but rather what she learned sitting at the feet of adults, and the sacredness of female time together. Yet it was that one paragraph that resonated with me, due to my work at SAFEHOME, Johnson County’s only domestic violence shelter. How many of us hear comments we don’t quite understand, maybe said lightly, maybe in jest, possibly as an afterthought? Then we wonder, what does that mean? Is it someone reaching out? Is it someone wanting us to ask “Are you okay? Are you safe?” Then, later, we regret taking no action.

Therefore, in 2014, I encourage you to take action and live without regrets. If you think someone needs help, especially with matters relating to abuse, call SAFEHOME’s hotline, 913-262-2868. Finding help and ensuring safety represent acts of Kiddush Ha-Shem, sanctification of God’s name. If you are more comfortable asking me questions or want information concerning resources, call me at 913-378-1518. Let this new year help each of us to evolve into careful listeners, concerned human beings, and pro-active friends.

Before I close, I want to thank Ray Davidson and B’not Lev BBG for the wonderful outreach they did on behalf of SAFEHOME at the Jewish Arts Festival in October. Ray generously donated proceeds from Frieda’s Challah sales, and B’not Lev members distributed purple ribbons and information about SAFEHOME. Caring people make such a difference!

Susan Lebovitz is SAFEHOME’s Volunteer Manager along with being the Jewish Community Outreach Coordinator on Domestic Violence, funded by the Flo Harris Foundation.

Tu b’Shevat, the New Year for the trees observed on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat, is being celebrated this week in Israel and all over the Jewish world. Here in Kansas City, we celebrated the holiday with many different events.

I remember celebrating Tu b’Shevat as a child on the kibbutz. For Israelis Tu b’Shevat is an important holiday as our connection to Israel is through the earth. We planted trees in our boots and coats and ate hot soup and fruits. Growing up on a kibbutz allowed me to see those trees grow and experience that natural process first hand. My dad tells me that all the trees on the kibbutz were planted on Tu b’Shevat by kids since the day they settled on the hill in the western Galilee. I’m very fortunate for having that unique experience of watching the tree I planted grow, blossom and bloom. And I’m even more fortunate for being able to do that in Israel and enjoy the fruits of the land, the seven species (“A land of wheat, and barley, and vines; of fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey.”).

Tu b’Shevat is one of what we call the “mitzvahs of the land” (the commandments of the land of Israel) that are only possible when one lives in Israel. Although the tradition of planting trees on that day is actually a late custom going back to the Zionist movement in the beginning of the last century in Israel, there are some laws that go back to biblical times. The Shmita, (Sabbatical year) that falls every seven years according to Jewish law, is another one of those Jewish laws regarding the land of Israel. The Shmita involves all farmers leaving their fields and allowing the ground to rest, letting the poor or any person take what they want and the cancellation of debts.

Although these two commandments are connected to the land of Israel, they should be lessons for the way we live our lives today. Tu b’Shevat is a time for us to celebrate nature and appreciate the great things we receive from it. Today, Tu b’Shevat is also an opportunity to change the way we look at the world around us and treat it better. The Shmita year is a time to put our work aside (in those days agriculture was the main trade for most people) and concentrate on our family and our community. Today, we can’t really leave our jobs every seven years but we can take that opportunity to invest more in ourselves and the people around us.

Like many laws, holy days, customs and ceremonies in Jewish tradition, Tu b’Shevat can have a profound meaning for our lives beyond eating fruits grown in Israel. I hope many of you enjoyed feasting on the seven species (and drinking some delicious Israeli wines), but I also hope that you took the time to recognize the beauty of nature and the privilege of being able to celebrate a holiday connected to the Land of Israel and the modern State of Israel.

Yahav Barnea is the Israeli Emissary of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City.