YOUNG PHILANTHROPIST — Eleven-year-old Jack Novor, the son of Scott and Jennifer Novorr, has started his yearly quest to raise money for Children’s Mercy Hospital. In the last six years he has raised nearly $23,000 for the hospital. His siblings — Sophie, 9; Tate, 6, and Lilah, 2, and friends — help him now and they hope to raise $15,000 this year. Last year donations went toward the purchase of new equipment for the dental clinic. This year funds raised will help buy fun carts — mobile units with games and toys taken into patients’ rooms, which cost about $4,200 each. The first big event will be a kids and clothing toy sale at Jack’s house on Nov. 19. For the third consecutive year, Jumping Jax in Overland Park will let people play from 3 to 6 p.m. on both Dec. 27 and Dec. 29 for a donation. For more information about all of Jack’s fundraising activities, visit his new website at www.threeand3.webs.com. Donations can be made there, too! 
HEARTWARMING EXPERIENCE — Joyce Bratman recently had the opportunity to travel to Israel for the very first time and was able to visit her grandson, Michael Davidson, who is studying at Or Sameach Yeshiva there. She said the trip was made even more special by the chance meeting she had with friends from here. While her family was on its way to visit the Kotel (Western Wall), they literally bumped into the Rabbi Jonathan Rudnick family, who had just visited the Kotel. Bratman calls it “a wonderful, joyful spontaneous meeting, from Kansas to Jerusalem, walking in the Jewish quarter of the Holy Land of Jerusalem, Israel.”
RABBI HONORED — Kansas City native Rabbi Larry Sebert was among the 41 rabbis — all members of the Rabbinical Assembly who have served the Jewish community with distinction for 25 years or more— presented with honorary doctorates by The Jewish Theological Seminary at a convocation on Nov. 1. Through the degrees, JTS celebrated the achievements of these spiritual leaders and voiced appreciation for their manifold contributions to Jewish life. The ceremony took place at the JTS campus in New York City. The rabbis honored included congregational rabbis, Jewish communal professionals, educators and chaplains from across the United States as well as Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Israel and Peru. Rabbi Sebert has served Town & Village Synagogue in New York City since 1991.
CARDOZO’S BOOK — A reader reminded me that in the story about Max Cardozo, “Survivor’s book being used in Dutch classrooms,” we neglected to mention if his book, “A Child Underground,” is still available for purchase. It can be purchased from Cardozo’s website, www.achildunderground.com.
NOW PUBLISHED — Nathan Goldman, now a sophomore at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md., had his first short story published recently in the Journal of Microliterature, an online and print journal of critically acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction between 1-1,000 words in length. The story is called “Muscle.” You can read it at http://www.microliterature.org/.
TZEDEK EXPRESS HELPS HBHA — Kosher Express, an online kosher meat website The Chronicle featured a few months ago, has set up an HBHA Tzedek Express account. When you purchase meat from Kosher Express, the company will donate between 5 and 10 percent of your purchase to HBHA. There are two ways that HBHA can receive the donations. Enter the code Hyman2011 into the coupon box at the bottom of the shopping cart or visit the Kosher Express’ website: http://thekosherexpress.com/#HymanBrandHebrew%20.