By Barbara Bayer, Editor
BATTER UP — A loyal reader and Royals fan informed me late last week that the Royals have a Jewish player on the roster this season. Hopefully we’ll get a more up close and personal view of him soon. According to our news partner JTA, Danny Valencia, is in his fifth season in the majors and plays third base/designated hitter. Playing last season for the Baltimore Orioles, Valencia provided an able bat — nearly half his hits went for extra bases on the way to a .304 batting average — especially during the team’s ultimately unsuccessful playoff drive. After returning from the minor leagues, Valencia contributed primarily as a DH against left-handed pitchers. Playing for the Minnesota Twins in 2011, he cranked out 15 homers and knocked in 72 runs, by far his career highs. The Royals lost their season opener in Detroit on Monday. The first home stand of the 2014 season is this weekend versus the Chicago White Sox.
NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED SCHOOL OF BUSINESS — Rockhurst’s Helzberg School of Management, named after Barnett Helzberg Jr., has moved up in the national rankings. U.S. News and World Report’s 2015 Best Graduate Schools List, published late last month, ranks the Helzberg Management MBA No. 20 in the nation, making it the only program in Kansas City to rank in the top 20.
REMINDER — Alex Bigus will make his professional directorial debut at the Leawood Stage Company’s production of “Watch on the Rhine.” The play, by Lillian Hellman, is about an idealistic German who, with his American wife and two children, flees Hitler’s Germany in 1940 to find sanctuary with his wife’s family in the United States. He hopes for a respite from the dangerous work he has involved himself with, but his desire for personal safety soon comes into conflict with the deeply held beliefs that have made him an active anti-Nazi. It will be presented April 4-6 in the Oak Room at Leawood City Hall. Tickets will be sold at the door. For more information contact April Bishop at 913-339-6700, ext. 157.
POLL: ISRAELI JEWS FAVOR PLURALISM — Last week we published a story featuring local rabbis’ thoughts about pluralism in Israel. This week I came upon a JTA report on the topic, so I thought I’d pass it along. Here it is: Nearly half of Israelis surveyed said Israel’s Chief Rabbinate should officially recognize Reform and Conservative Judaism.
In the survey of 500 adults, 49 percent “strongly feel that the Chief Rabbinate should officially recognize the Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism,” Walla.com reported, because this “will in turn strengthen the connection with American Jews.”
The poll, published March 27, was commissioned by the Ruderman Family Foundation and conducted by Teleseker polling. It focused on how Israelis perceive the relationship between their countrymen and state institutions and U.S. Jews.
Asked about whether the views of American Jews on the peace process should be taken into account, 30 percent of respondents said “to some extent,” 22 percent said “to a great extent” and 18 percent said “not at all.”
Thirty-one percent of respondents said that Diaspora Jews should not be represented in the Knesset while 29 percent said Diaspora Jews should be represented “to some extent.”
WRECKING BALL PARODY — The world has certainly seen its share of Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball parody songs, but I never thought I would see one of a Chassidic man swinging on a matzah ball in a miniature set made of real pieces of matzah. To complement the video, a mock fan site was created to showcase the virtues of the “real star” of the film, the matzah ball itself, which is portrayed as a living entity “with a soul.”
“We had the idea for this film months ago, when the Cyrus film first came out,” says Shalom Shore, one of the project’s creators along with Jacob Ross, and Chaya Pittleman. “But we felt that the setting best fit the Passover spirit and decided to release it closer to the holiday.” To film the short video, its three creators constructed a miniature set out of matzah and strung a matzah ball onto the chain of a bathtub plug. A bearded Playmobile man with a tire on his head was used to portray the Chassid.
The film’s creators hope to add a new twist to both the long line of Miley Cyrus parodies, as well as add a creative spin to the many Passover videos that surface before the holiday.
To view the film and accompanying website visit these links: http://youtu.be/pnPFsZ0vig8 or http://www.matzahball.shalomshore.com.
