THE SINGING RABBI — Rabbi Larry Karol recently mounted a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to record a third album. The Kansas City native surpassed his initial fundraising goal last week and hopes to
complete his new album in the next couple of months. He thanks all who contributed for their support!
OUR FORMER JEWISH CHIEF — Geoff Schwartz, who played for the Chiefs last season and now has a four-year contract with the New York Giants, talks about his life as Jewish football player in a recent article in the New York Post. In it he mentions his visit to the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy and his participation in Chabad’s annual Chanukah party. He and his wife also became parents this summer. Read the article at http://nypost.com/2014/08/07/bar-mitzvahs-fasting-protecting-eli-life-as-a-jewish-giant/.
BIKE FOR THE BRAIN — Dr. Ken Sonnenschein and his crew are busily planning the annual Bike for the Brain, a community event for mental health, scheduled to take place on Labor Day, Sept. 1. Volunteers are needed for the event, which will be held in the parking lot of Johnson County Mental Health Center at 6000 Lamar in Mission, Kan. Bike for the Brain raises funds for Kansas City area agencies and organizations that enhance the lives of people with mental health challenges. To register for either the bicycle ride or to volunteer go to www.bikeforthebrain.org and click on the appropriate link. Questions? E-mail .
DR. METZL IN THE NEWS AGAIN — I saw Jordan Metzl on the “Today Show” last week, and he’s also recently been featured in the New York Times. The article called “The Workout: Practicing his own medicine,” can be found on this link: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/the-workout-practicing-his-own-medicine/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0.
COMIC MOURNED BY JEWISH COMMUNITY (JNS.org) — The Jewish community mourned the loss of actor and comedian Robin Williams, who passed away at the age of 63 at his home in northern California on Monday.
The Jewish Federations of North America posted a photo of Williams on their Facebook page along with the caption, “We mourn the loss of the great actor, comedian Robin Williams, z”l.”
Williams, who was born Episcopalian, was well-known for incorporating the use of Yiddish and Jewish humor into his comedy, and has played several Jewish characters on film, including 1999’s “Jakob the Liar,” where he portrayed a Jewish shopkeeper in Holocaust-era Poland, as well as in the 1986 film “Seize the Day” alongside Jewish-American actor Jerry Stiller, and Armand Goldman in 1996’s “The Birdcage.”
Jewish-American comedian and actor Billy Crystal, a close friend of Williams who appeared alongside him and Whoopi Goldberg in the “Comic Relief” specials from 1986 to 2006, simply tweeted “No words,” in response to William’s sudden death.
Last February, while on set for his short-lived TV show “The Crazy Ones,” Williams tweeted a picture of himself wearing a kippah and saying “Too late for a career change? Rabbi Robin?”
There is also the famous scene from 1993’s “Mrs. Doubtfire,” where Williams, along with Jewish-American actor Harvey Fierstein, sings a rendition of “Matchmaker” from “Fiddler on the Roof.”
The Marin County Sheriff’s department said in a statement that it suspects Williams’s death was a suicide due to asphyxiation, but that a complete investigation is still needed to determine the exact cause of death. William’s publicist Mara Buxbaum said that he had been battling severe depression recently.
