Listening Post

CHECK OUT THE NEW HEBREW CORNER — Several members of the Jewish community have started a grassroots Hebrew initiative and intend to provide Hebrew learning opportunities. Recently, the Jewish Community Campus gave them permission to place a Hebrew Corner in the front lobby. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}I’ve been told there has been great discussions over the Hebrew translation of “Hebrew Corner.”  The three contenders are: HaPinah HaIvrit, Pinat Ivrit, or simply Pinah Ivrit. I also understand a person has to be a Hebrew grammarian, which I am not, to appreciate the nuanced differences. To find out which name finally won, stop by the corner and check out the sign! (And let me know, I haven’t seen it yet, either!) More information about the group’s programming should be available in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

PARENT’S NIGHT OUT — Saadia BBG is hosting a Parent’s Night Out fundraiser from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday night, Feb. 20, at the MAC room in the Jewish Community Center. For a fee of $15 per child, members of Saadia BBG will spend the evening with children ages Pre-K and up. There will be games, snacks, movies and fun! Reservations are required and should be made by Sunday, Feb. 15, to with information about the child’s name, age and anything you feel might be of concern (ex: certain allergies). Cash or checks will be accepted and payment can be made when you drop off your child/ren. For more information, email the address listed above. Donations accepted!

BBYO AND NFTY JOIN TOGETHER IN ATLANTA —For the first time ever, two youth groups, NFTY and BBYO, will have a convention in the same city, Atlanta, and have planned at least one event when approximately 3,000 teens will participate in a shared Limmud day of learning, including over 200 workshops led by program educators, guest speakers and leaders. There will be a session when all will join in one room to recognize the strength of these communities coming together, featuring a text study led by teen leaders and a keynote address by Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center. Almost 40 teens and two adults from the local Jewish community who are members of BBYO and the NFTY groups at Congregation Beth Torah and The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah will be there. 

“These young Jewish leaders are committed to doing great things for our community and the world around them. Organizational boundaries don’t stop them from that,” said Matt Grossman, BBYO chief executive officer. “This is just the start of more collaboration for the next generation.”

THIS WEEK AT STARLIGHT — Ben Caplan plays the leading role of Christian Grey in “50 Shades! The Musical Parody,” that opened Tuesday night and continues through Sunday, Feb. 15. The performance is the first ever held indoors on-site at Starlight on its expansive and climate-controlled Jeannette and Jerome Cohen Community Stage. Caplan is a Jewish graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (Atlantic Theater Company). His recent credits include “Ragtime” (Willie Conklin), “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Puck) and “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” (Caiaphas/Judge). 

MUSICAL SATIRE FEATURES LOCAL JEWISH ACTRESS — “The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!),” produced by the Olathe Civic Theatre Association and touted as a hilarious satire of musical theater, features local PR maven and actress/songstress Ruth Baum Bigus. The show runs three weekends beginning Friday, Feb. 13, through Sunday, March 1. The musical premiered off-Broadway in 2003, and delivers a satire of musical theater structured into five acts. Each act is the same “heroine in distress” story done as a short musical that pays homage to the style of a specific American or British musical theatre composer/lyricist team such as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The theater bug has bitten Larry Bigus as well, and he serves as stage manager for this production. For more information, visit olathetheatre.org.{/mprestriction}