HELP SOLVE THE MYSTERY — This portrait, pictured to the right, was found with items stored from Congregation Beth Israel Abraham & Voliner’s move from Missouri over 20 years ago. It has a label on the back indicating it was framed in Overland Park, and bears a brass plaque saying “In beloved Memory of Rochel bas Nesanel Schwartz.”
Is this a familiar family name to you? Can you identify the woman in this portrait? If you know anything that can help BIAV determine who the woman is and why the photo was hanging at the shul at one time, email your comments to .
LOOKING FOR FORMER KANSAS CITIANS IN ISRAEL — Our friend and Israeli correspondent Sybil Kaplan is updating her list of people from our local Jewish community who are now living in Israel. If someone you know and love now currently calls Israel home, email or call 913-951-8425, and tell us his or her name and contact information, so we can make sure we have the most up-to-date list.
‘CABARET’ KICKS OFF THEATRE IN THE PARK SEASON — Theatre in the Park (TTIP) opens next Friday, June 3, with Cabaret. As far as we know, no one in the cast is Jewish but the music is by Kansas City’s own John Kander and lyrics by partner Fred Ebb. Kander was raised in a Jewish household, as was the late Ebb.
The powerful musical about life in Berlin in the 1930s as the Nazi party begins its rise to power continues through Saturday, June 5, and again the following Wednesday, June 8 through Saturday, June 11. The box office opens at 6 p.m. and the gates to the seating bowl open at 6:30 p.m.; the show begins at 8:30 p.m.
Under the direction of TTIP veteran Mark Swezey, “Cabaret,” the winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical, takes place when Germany is faced with an economic depression following World War I. Reality is bleak but inside the Kit Kat Club cabaret where the avant-garde culture thrives, “life is beautiful” the emcee tells the audience. The story follows American Clifford Bradshaw, a struggling writer who has come to Germany. He encounters the vivacious Sally Bowles, a talented cabaret performer who is a lost soul. Together they face the changing nature of Berlin — and their own lives — from frivolous to ominous under Nazi rule. Faced with growing hatred and anti-Semitism their friends and neighbors confront, Sally and Cliff grapple with tough life decision discovering that life is NOT always a cabaret.
“This is simply a story of the consequences of wearing blinders to those unpleasant realities around us,” said director Swezey.
“It is my hope, in this election year, that through theatre and art, we can take a step in today’s world to remove the obstructions and rhetoric from our view of the real world.”
Due to its adult language and mature themes, “Cabaret” is rated PG-16.
The Theatre in the Park is located in Shawnee Mission Park at 7710 Renner Road, in Shawnee, Kansas. Later this summer TTIP is collaborating with the Jewish Community Center to present “Mary Poppins.”
ISRAEL HAS WORLD’S SIXTH-HIGHEST LIFE EXPECTANCY (JNS.org) — Despite ongoing security threats and regional instability, Israelis can expect to live well into their 80s, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) newly released global report on life expectancy.
Japan has the world’s highest average life expectancy—nearly 84 years—followed by Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, and Spain. Israel came in sixth. The shortest life expectancy belongs to Sierra Leone, with women in that country only expected to live to about 51 years and men about 59 years.
Israelis can expect an average lifespan of 82.5 years—80.6 for men and 84.3 for women, according to WHO. This sharply contrasts with some of Israel’s neighbors, including Jordan (74 years), Egypt (71 years), and Syria (65 years).