Twenty-five years of the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning have been transformative for Kansas City Jewish life. That commitment to and enthusiasm for Jewish learning will come to the fore as Melton holds its annual Kallah in Kansas City for the first time.
Two members of Melton’s international board are from Kansas City: Alan Edelman and Susie Goldsmith. Edelman had a hand in bringing Melton to Kansas City when he was associate executive director of the Jewish Federation.
“One of the powerful things about Melton is it brings together not only people from different backgrounds — Reform, Conservative, Orthodox — but the instructors are from different backgrounds,” Edelman said.
He credits Rabbis Amy Wallk Katz and Morey Schwartz, formerly of Congregation Beth Shalom and BIAV respectively, for getting the community interested in Melton. Both will be back in town for the Kallah. Rabbi Schwartz is currently Melton’s international director of education and innovation.
Mixing different parts of the community within classes is the key to Melton’s ability to boost Jewish life in Kansas City, Edelman said.
“We discovered that it increased the amount of Jewish engagement that students would participate in. They would attend more Jewish events. They were attending synagogue more often and took leadership roles in Jewish organizations,” he said. “Because they sat in classes with people from different backgrounds, they made interesting connections with people in the community.”
Edelman estimates between 500 and 600 people in the metro area have gone through the Melton curriculum.
Goldsmith was one of those who studied with Melton when it first came to Kansas City.
“It’s a different kind of study than anyone else offers, and it’s not offered at the exclusion of what congregations are offering. This is all text-based, and we have a variety of classes,” she said.
She joined the board after taking all the Melton classes available here, then traveling to Israel and Italy for Melton seminars. Now, she helps plan those traveling seminars.
A new strategic plan is on the horizon for Melton, Goldsmith said.
“We’ve done an entire investigation as to everything we offer, what people want, what’s good, what needs changing,” she said.
The upcoming Kallah’s theme is “The Spirit of the Israel-America Relationship” — one that’s very fitting for Kansas City.
“We want to remind them of the role of Harry S. Truman in the establishment of the State of Israel. Not a lot of people know that story, but it’s important and should not be taken for granted. We want them to know Kansas City isn’t the cow town so many people think it is,” Edelman said.
The current political climate makes the Kallah’s theme especially relevant.
“These days Israel is getting a lot of attention because of the political situation there and the political situation here. The Jewish population has kind of split around Israeli policy,” Edelman said.
The Kallah won’t exclusively be about heavy studying. The first optional activity on the Kallah’s schedule? The Chiefs-Vikings game.
“We reached out to the Twin Cities Melton program and said, ‘Hey, come for the game and stay for the Kallah,’ ” Edelman said.
Among the other activities are a program with the Truman Library, a visit to the National WWI Museum and Memorial, a kosher barbecue dinner (see box on this page) and numerous study sessions.
Members of Melton’s host committee for the event include Goldsmith, Edelman, Schwartz, Megan Pener, Henri Goettel, Ann Elyachar, Don Goldman, Annie Glickman and Haim Aronovitz.
The Melton Kallah, “The Spirit of the Israel-America Relationship,” will take place Nov. 4-6. For ticket information, visit meltonschool.org. Tickets to a community brunch and discussion Nov. 6 with scholar-in-residence Professor Sylvia Barack Fishman are also available for $36 for non-Kallah participants.