Michael Klein can be described as a visionary, a person who has had unusually keen foresight, especially when it comes to the Jewish community. Over the years that foresight has included helping steward the move of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah to its current location in Johnson County. He has also been instrumental in seeing the Jewish community’s home for the aged, now known as Village Shalom, also move to Kansas, located just a hop, skip and a jump from the Reform congregation.

Earlier this year Klein was honored, along with his entire extended family, for his contributions to Village Shalom. Now it’s B’nai Jehudah’s turn to honor Klein as one of its most devoted benefactors and his ongoing support for the congregation at Comedy Tonight: A benefit for The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, Saturday evening, June 2. (For more information, see below.)

“We are so grateful to be able to honor someone like Michael, who has given so much of his time and energy to help us move into the future,” said B’nai Jehudah Rabbi Arthur Nemitoff. “I can’t think of a better venue in which we can pay homage to his work on behalf of the congregational family.”

Klein has been a member of B’nai Jehudah for almost four decades. A Kansas City native, he completed his undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and then earned his juris doctorate at the University of Michigan Law School. Described as a dedicated and generous member of B’nai Jehudah, he first served on the congregation’s board of trustees from 1989 to 1995. Due to term limits he stepped away from the board for many years, returning to the board again last year.

“During that stretch of time I was the head of the art committee, which I still am, and I was on the education committee. I’ve always had an interest in education. I am simply concerned about how to transmit Jewish values to a new and younger generation,” Klein said.

His desire to make sure Jewish values are transmitted to younger generations is the reason Klein recently underwrote the commissioning of the Paul Mesner Puppets to develop a special High Holiday presentation “to the delight of the youngest members of our congregation.”

He decided changes needed to be made to children’s services about four years ago after attending High Holiday worship with his nephew and great-niece.

“It brought back all the memories of how bad youth services were when I was small,” Klein said. “The kids were squirming, the parents were unhappy because their kids were squirming and it was generally not a good time for anyone. I think that whole thing is fairly universal across all synagogues and all Jewish denominations.”

So he visited with Rabbi Nemitoff about his concerns.

“To his credit, he was willing to listen to an idea. I said that you cannot hope to even begin to teach children if you can’t engage them and clearly the youth services that I had seen were not engaging anyone,” Klein said.

Klein said Rabbi Nemitoff helped craft an entirely new service for children using the puppets.

“They’ve done it two years now,” Klein said. “The kids were absolutely spellbound. I watched my nephew’s daughter again and she was just bug-eyed throughout the entire service.”

From what he’s seen just with his own family, Klein thinks the creative services are accomplishing the goal of educating and transforming Jewish values to young children. For example, he noticed that his great-nephew Jonah, who was only about 2 ½ years old at the time, walked around following Yom Kippur services telling everyone “I’m sorry.”

“It amazed me that, as young as he was, he picked up part of the lesson that if you do something harmful you need to say I’m sorry, which is the message from the Jewish High Holidays,” Klein said.

An added bonus to the change in service, according to Klein, is the increase in extended families attending it.

“The kids were no longer squirming, the parents were enjoying it and then suddenly the grandparents started coming,” he said.
“It really has gotten to the point where a lot of the young kids are looking forward to services. When was the last time that happened?”

Setting the plan in motion to change the children’s services is just one example of what Klein has tried to do during his tenures on the board at B’nai Jehduah.

“I’ve tried to look at things with a new eye and see how things can be done better and how the values that are important to Judaism in general and the Temple in particular can be carried on,” Klein explained.

In addition to his service to B’nai Jehudah, Klein has also committed his time and energy to the Jewish Community Foundation, Flo Harris Foundation, Village Shalom and its predecessor Shalom Geriatric Center, and Kansas City Jewish Museum, where he also was a past president and one of its earliest supporters.

Today Klein is semi-retired from US Toy Company, a family-owned company founded in 1953. About two-and-a-half years ago he sold his interests in the business to his two nephews, but has stayed on at their request.

He is proud to be associated with B’nai Jehudah and the Jewish community and he believes B’nai Jehudah plays an important role as an anchor in it.

“We need things like The Temple to be able to transmit our Jewish values to the next generation. It’s one thing if someone said I don’t need to go to a temple or synagogue to teach my children right from wrong. Yet The Temple, and Judaism, give a vessel in which to put those values that makes it easier to transmit from generation to generation. That’s why I think the Temple is important.”

Comedy Tonight

Comedy Tonight: A benefit for The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, takes place at 7 p.m. Saturday evening, June 2, at the Westin Crown Center. This evening will feature “Jewtopia,” off-Broadway’s longest-running comedy hit, featuring co-creators Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson.

In addition to live comedy, the evening will feature cocktails, desserts, and live and silent auction.

Funds raised from the event will benefit B’nai Jehudah and its programs. For more information about the event, or to purchase tickets, go to bnaijehudah.org, or call 913-663-4050.