Coming back to Kansas City to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of Melton classes here is Rabbi Amy Wallk Katz, former Congregation Beth Shalom clergy and director of the Department of Adult Jewish Learning for the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City.
Rabbi Katz is excited about coming to Kansas City, which she said holds a special place in her heart.
“First of all, I have always loved the Kansas City community and I have many friends there; I raised my three children there,” she said. “Second, I really believe in adult education and the Melton program transformed the Kansas City community. The serious learning and the way in which the community was brought together through all different corners really shaped the community while I was there. Melton does that throughout the country.
“So being asked to speak at a Kallah that brings those two together, I feel profoundly honored.”
On Sunday, Nov. 3, MeltonKC powered by HBHA will be holding a Friends of MeltonKC dinner. For a gift of $180 or more, Friends will receive two tickets to a kosher BBQ dinner, which will feature Rabbi Katz and the current international director of the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning, Rabbi Morey Schwartz.
The Florence Melton School will host its International Kallah in Kansas City, celebrating 40 years of adult Jewish learning, Nov.4-6. The theme is “The Spirit of the Israel-American Relationship.”
Rabbi Katz will be speaking at one of the sessions on the subject of Judaism and gratitude. She said around the first part of November people begin to think about Thanksgiving.
Since Rabbi Katz left this area 11 years ago, she has been the rabbi of Temple Beth El in Springfield, Massachusetts. In addition to her duties as rabbi she served on Chancellor Arnold Eisen’s Rabbinic Leadership Cabinet, the Rabbinic Cabinet for the Masorti Foundation and the Rabbinic Cabinet of the Jewish Federations of North America. She has a column in Moment Magazine and teaches classes at the Jewish Theological Seminary in the Davidson School of Education.
More recently, she served on the editorial committee for Siddur Lev Shalem, the new prayer book for the Conservative Movement that was just published and was a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Israel.
“I’ve had a very rich and terrific 11 years. I’m grateful for where I landed and the opportunities I’ve been able to experience,” she said.
Rabbi Katz said that before there was a Melton on the Jewish landscape for education, there were classes at universities and there were conversion classes — and not much in between.
“Melton offers rigorous intellectual opportunities, but they’re not for an academic degree; they’re to enhance Jewish living,” she said. “American Jews like to learn, we know that about them. Melton is especially important because it allows for serious learning for serious people.”
But, she emphasized, you don’t have to be a scholar to take Melton classes.
Rabbi Katz said she and Rabbi Schwartz worked together when she was here and she’s excited to have the chance to work with him again.
“For me, in a sense, coming back to Kansas City is like coming back home,” she said. “It is really a home away from home. That’s the place the community has in my heart and will always have in my heart. I hope there will be a chance for me to visit with members of the community who don’t go to the Kallah.”
The Friends of MeltonKC celebration takes place at Kehilath Israel Synagogue and features kosher barbecue from Steve Ellenberg. To become a Friend of MeltonKC, go to hbha.edu/melton, or contact Megan Pener at or 913-327-8161.