BRAVO — The opening events of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts were the talk of the town this weekend and early this week. It was designed by Israeli architect Moshe Safi, and the buzz is it’s magnificent. Many local Jews were involved in opening-weekend activities. One was Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy junior Avery Parkhurst, who plays violin in the Kansas City Youth Orchestra and performed Sunday in Helzberg Hall. Greg Azorsky had a booth outside the Kauffman Center during the open house Sunday selling one of his KC Cool shirts, which is an expansion of his Meshugge Shirts featured in the paper earlier this year. The design, “Move Over, Sydney,” sold well. Describing the design, Azorsky said that “the Sydney Opera House has been such an iconic building for the performing arts and now we have this new building here that may very well become another such building. I had a lot of people come up to our tent who said ‘That is just what I was thinking.’ ” Even Kansas City Symphony Music Director Michael Stern purchased a shirt! If you didn’t get a chance to see Kauffman Center last weekend, check it out when Marvin Hamlisch performs Nov. 3 in honor of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education’s 18th anniversary.
MENORAH MILESTONE — Menorah Medical Center hasn’t been a Jewish hospital since it was purchased by Health Midwest in 1994. Now a for-profit hospital owned by HCA Midwest Health System, we feel it would be in poor taste for us not to recognize the hospital’s rich Jewish history as it celebrates its 80th anniversary. It opened its doors on Sept. 7, 1931, but Jewish doctors began calling for a Jewish hospital way back in 1882. Funds became available to start building the hospital in 1917, but other things in the community took precedence and the Jewish Memorial Hospital Association wasn’t formed and incorporated until 1926. By 1931, its name had changed to Menorah Hospital and ground was broken on 14 acres south of Brush Creek from Troost to Holmes and north of 50th Street. Sixty-three years later in 1994 the complex called Menorah Park opened at 119th and Nall to take advantage of the Jewish migration to southern Johnson County. In 1996 the Missouri location was closed entirely as a new Menorah Medical Center opened in Kansas. We salute everyone who was instrumental in getting the hospital open and making it an institution the entire city can be proud of.
UMKC’S BLOCH BUILDING — Henry Bloch has donated $32 million — the largest outright gift in UMKC’s history — to fund a state-of-the-art building to house the Henry W. Bloch School of Management’s (Bloch School) graduate and executive programs. Bloch has been a lifelong advocate of education and began supporting the UMKC School of Business Administration when he endowed the school in 1986. Most recently The Princeton Review recognized the Bloch School’s undergraduate and graduate programs among the top 25 entrepreneurship programs in the country. Only 11 schools nationwide have both undergraduate and graduate programs included in this ranking.
TWEETING WITH THE WHITE HOUSE — Earlier this month Kansas City native Chloe White, who now lives and works in Washington, D.C., was selected to attend the White House Tweetup briefing with Press Secretary Jay Carney. Those interested in attending applied and White was one of only 12 people selected to attend. Members of the group were given the opportunity to ask questions about President Obama’s speech on creating jobs and growing the economy. They also got to take a tour of the White House and had a chance to meet with other White House officials. After the event, the group was encouraged to tweet all about it. White said it was a fantastic experience to get the opportunity to go behind the scenes of the White House and talk to senior officials about the issues of the day. She even got to pet Bo!