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Volume 101, Number 14 www.kcjc.com April 8, 2021 26 Nissan 5781

jewish chronicle The KANSAS

CITY

Unique Johnson County Museum Passover exhibit to run until May 1 By Beth Lipoff Contributing Writer For years, the only holiday showcased in the Johnson County Museum’s All-Electric House has been Christmas, but at the end of March, that changed. The 1950s home is set up for a seder through May 1. The new display came from discussions where museum staff were considering “what other communities were here in Johnson County in the 50s and 60s and what would they celebrate,” said Anne Jones, curator of collections for the museum. “… Passover’s a family celebration. It makes sense to have it set up in the 50s house.” To create the display, Jones asked Abby Magariel, educator/curator of the Michael Klein collection at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, for help. “We formed it together based on the objects that we have in the Klein collection. I approached it knowing the AllElectric House is this fantastic artifact, and I was thinking about how a family would celebrate Passover in such a house,” Magariel said. Ultimately, the collection lent the museum two seder plates, one created by local artist Irma Starr in 2009, and one done by Israeli artists Avraham and Pnina Gofer in the 1960s. Nearby is a 1960s

A new display at the Johnson County Museum’s All-Electric House features a table set for a Passover seder. (Johnson County Museum) haggadah featuring watercolors painted by artist Ben Shahn in the 1930s. It was Magariel’s suggestion that the museum use those ever-present Maxwell House Coffee haggadot on the table. In addition to the items from the Klein collection, which are under glass beside the house, the Passover table also features B’nai Jehudah’s own seder plate and Elijah’s cup alongside the Manischewitz wine. The museum has had a Jewish exhibit once before, in 1994 or 1995, Jones said, but it wasn’t a holiday-specific one. She said the research from that exhibit

also helped inform this one. “It’s not anything big or major in terms of number of items, but I think just having it in the museum and having it as part of the house for us is significant in the sense we’re trying to reach out to other communities and partner with organizations to talk about other community histories that are out there,” Jones said. Jones has been trying to find ways to incorporate the experiences of many different ethnic and religious groups into the larger narrative of the county’s history that the museum presents.

“I think Jewish visitors to the museum will appreciate seeing a Jewish family represented in the All-Electric House. It’s always welcome to find Jews and Jewish traditions represented in places where they are not typically represented,” Magariel said. Although it doesn’t get into too much detail, the exhibit’s informational panels do address the restrictions Jewish people faced in finding housing in Johnson County, specifically mentioning the Kroh Bros., whose 1945 restrictive covenant for the Leawood Estates excluded anyone who had one Jewish grandparent. Magariel and Jones both expect that the exhibit will be interesting to many groups of people, not just Jewish visitors. “I think that anybody approaching the exhibit will be engaged by the seder table and interested to see the formal place settings. They’ll find it a familiar one. No matter their religion, families always gather around a meal,” Magariel said. “That happens all the time. That’s universal. That’s something I think anybody will find familiar and comforting.” The Johnson County Museum, 8788 Metcalf Ave., is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors 60 and older and $4 for children ages 1-17. The Passover exhibit will be up until May 1.

Proud to serve as a SevenDays Kindness Youth Leadership Team Ambassador By Ian Hammer Contributing Writer It was April 13, 2014. The air was unusually stale that Sunday, low-hanging clouds darkening the sky, making the humid midday hour seem later than it was. Mama was in the kitchen preparing for the upcoming Passover seder. I heard a gasp and, fearing she had knocked over the matzo ball soup, ran to check. Soup safe, I noticed her ashen face and asked, “What happened?” No response. The next voice I heard was from a local news anchor: There had been a shooting at our Jewish Community Center. The perpetrator: a white supremacist; the victims: the son and father of a family friend — plus another victim at Village Shalom. In answer to such a hateful act, in 2015, SevenDays

was born — designed solely to spread kindness and interfaith understanding. Not willing to let bigotry silence me with fear, I was drawn to SevenDays. Early on, I worked on teen programming, such as an interfaith workshop designed to teach about other faith traditions, which drew approximately 100 youth. Later, the Kindness Youth Leadership Team (KYLT) was formally established. Naturally, I applied. High school students from throughout the Kansas City metro comprise the team.Though we come from different backgrounds, geographies, experiences, and faith traditions, we are collectively interested in making our world a better place. Together, we seek to generate ripples of kindness throughout the community. And, we have a lot of fun doing so! Plus, as Judaism compels us to engage in Tikkun Olam — to repair the world

— I feel a deep sense of responsibility to contribute in this way. It’s no wonder that, in addition to myself, several other KYLT ambassadors, namely Caroline Haines, Kate Levinson, Emma Sandler and Zoe Sher, identify as Jewish. Through monthly meetings, planning committees, service projects and other activities, ambassadors have access to adult mentorship and have the opportunity to help shape SevenDays experiences during the year. I am especially proud to have helped organize our annual Kindness Walks, bringing together thousands of participants each year, for which I worked with my adult mentors, Bill Bergersen and Dave Stine, and was responsible for course mapping and logistics. Plus, this year, in partnership with my adult mentor, Len Losen, I had the fun responsibility of selecting our official Kindness Walk t-shirt and face mask! All registrants will receive one of each. It feels great knowing that I am playing a role in bringing together our community. My involvement in SevenDays and, specifically, my role as a KYLT ambassador, has educated me about the perspectives and experiences of others, and helped me establish friendships

Ian Hammer with people different from myself. It’s been a privilege to have access to and be able to share SevenDays tools, resources and experiences with friends, family, classmates and others. I’ve come to understand the importance of promoting social justice and believe that change is possible when people come together. Ian Hammer, 17, is a senior at Blue Valley West High School. He is the son of Alana Muller and Marc Hammer and is a member of Congregation Beth Shalom.

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B’nai Jehudah member prodded President Truman on Israel issues

By Dan Stolper The Congregation, Temple B’nai Jehudah

Editor’s note: With Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) set to be observed April 15, The Chronicle is running this timely blog post by Stolper, who is posting a series of entries on the temple website to mark B’nai Jehudah’s 150th anniversary. Eddie Jacobson’s good name is closely associated with President Harry Truman. Jacobson’s sustained efforts for Israel spanned several years and made a critical difference during the new nation’s precarious infancy. He was an unlikely diplomat, yet he rose to the occasion with distinction when he was needed most. Edward Jacobson was born to poor immigrants in New York’s East Side in 1891. His father was a shoemaker and the family was orthodox. His parents moved the family west to Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1893, in search of a better living, which proved elusive. In 1905, the Jacobsons moved to Kansas City and Eddie, then 14 years old, got a job at a wholesale dry-goods firm. It was in that role that he first met Harry Truman, who was working as a bookkeeper at Union National Bank. Truman returned to his Grandview, Missouri, family farm in 1906, and the two young men lost touch. Jacobson and Truman were reunited in the U.S. Army in 1917. Lieutenant Truman and Sergeant Jacobson were tasked with opening a canteen at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The operation thrived. Truman noted in his memoirs, “Many other canteens of the 45th Division were failures, and some of the men who ran them were sent home, but after our arrival in France I was promoted, largely because of the work Eddie Jacobson and I had done.” OPENING THE STORE

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April 8, 2021

The success of their canteen led them to open a men’s clothing store in downtown Kansas City in 1919, after World War I. The store did well initially but was forced to close in 1922, after an economic downturn. Truman and Jacobson each assumed their share of remaining debt from the store, which took years to repay. Truman became a judge of the Jackson County Court and Jacobson went on the road as a traveling salesman. In 1919, Jacobson married Bluma Rosenbaum who was a B’nai Jehudah confirmand. After the failure of the haberdashery, they made their home with her parents and the family regularly attended Temple services together. In 1927, Bluma and Eddie became members in their own right to enroll their first child, Elinor, in Sunday school. Jacobson maintained his B’nai Jehudah membership throughout his life and served on the Brotherhood board in 1944. Jacobson’s concern for the plight of Europe’s Jews was first nurtured through his active participation at B’nai Jehudah. The British were threatening to close Jewish immigration to Palestine by March 31, 1944. B’nai Jehudah’s board sent a resolution to then U.S. Senator Truman in favor of opening Palestine to Jewish immigration, a desperate need as Nazi persecution

Left to Right: Bluma Jacobson, Edward “Eddie” Jacobson, and a group of unidentified men look at a book possibly having to do with the founding of the new nation of Israel. Eddie Jacobson was Harry S. Truman’s friend and former business partner. (Harry S. Truman Library & Museum) of the Jews became known. Truman went on record as being supportive of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Truman’s unexpected elevation to the presidency lifted Eddie Jacobson from obscurity to public notice. By 1945, Jacobson was back in the menswear business at 39th and Main Streets in Westport. Soon, people were stopping in the store to ask him to use his friendship with President Truman for favors. Jacobson was uncomfortable to impose on the president for personal gain and all such requests were rejected on the spot. However, he said he was glad “to urge the President to use every influence he has to rescue and save as many of the desperate and homeless Jews of Europe as possible.” POWER OF PERSUASION Jewish leaders, including B’nai Jehudah’s Rabbi Samuel Mayerberg, sought to persuade Jacobson to discuss Palestine with President Truman. Great Britain was enforcing Jewish immigration restrictions more than ever, just as hundreds of thousands of homeless European Jews needed a place to resettle. Some of Truman’s closest advisors opposed any involvement in Palestine. In 1946, Jacobson arranged a meeting with President Truman for himself and Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld, who was director of the Committee on Unity for Palestine. They asked the president for financial and technical aid to transport 100,000 displaced persons to Palestine. Truman agreed to support the request. Jacobson and Kansas City Jewish attorney A.J. Granoff called on Truman at the White House on December 9, 1947. The purpose of that visit was to express appreciation for the U.S. role in obtaining the United Nations General Assembly recommendation for a Jewish State in a partitioned Palestine. By January 1948, Palestine was in chaos while the British prepared to end their mandate on May 14. Meanwhile, Arabs demanded control of all of Palestine with no partition. Zionist leaders pushed President Truman aggressively, so much so that he refused further appointments with anyone promoting a Jewish homeland. Dr. Chaim Weitzman came to America in February 1948, to try to gain an audience with Truman. Again, Eddie Jacobson was asked to arrange a meeting between the future president of Israel and President Truman. Initially, Truman refused the meeting but Jacobson persisted. Ed-

die presented himself at the White House in March and persuaded Truman to meet with Weitzman. The meeting took place days later. Truman committed to work for the establishment and recognition of the Jewish State. INDEPENDENCE In Tel Aviv, at midnight on May 14, 1948, the first sovereign Jewish State in more than 2,000 years came into being as the British mandate ended. Eleven minutes later, the White House announced the United States’ de facto recognition of the provisional government of Israel. Weitzman was elected as Israel’s first President on May 17, and asked Jacobson to call on President Truman as his unofficial ambassador to discuss lifting a U.S. arms embargo and for a $100 million loan to Israel. On June 22, the United States and Israel established diplomatic relations. The loan was authorized in January 1949. On January 31, 1949, Eddie Jacobson was one of three American Jews to witness the signing of the decree by which President Truman proclaimed full United States recognition. In March of 1949, Bluma and Eddie Jacobson flew to Israel and were houseguests of U.S. Ambassador and Mrs. James G. McDonald for two weeks. Upon his return, Jacobson gave President Truman a first-hand report about his visit to Israel and its “great potential for industrial, agricultural and scientific growth.” MORE MEETINGS Jacobson called on the President several more times during his administration, each time making the case for economic or other support for Israel. His influence resulted in Truman requesting an increase in assistance to $80 million from a planned $25 million. Congress approved a $73 million grant-in-aid for the government’s fiscal year 1953. Eddie Jacobson died on October 25, 1955, at the age of 64 and was interred at Rose Hill Cemetery. B’nai Jehudah’s sanctuary was filled to overflowing for his funeral. Former President Truman said poignantly at his death, “Eddie was one of the best friends I had in the world. He was absolutely trustworthy. I don’t know how I’m going to get along without him.” This B’nai Jehudah member and unlikely diplomat was one person who made a world of difference.

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community news

B’nai Jehudah CDC enrolling for August reopening Becca Browar named as new site director

The J in partnership with The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah will reopen the B’nai Jehudah Child Development Center (CDC) beginning with the new school year on August 20. Along with the reopening, Becca Browar has been named as the new site director. B’nai Jehudah CDC temporarily closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are excited about resuming our partnership with The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah this fall to so that we can continue to offer amazing educational opportunities for children in a small environment,” said Jim Sluyter, CEO & President of The J. “And, we are excited to have Becca join us in leading the program.” Browar most recently served as the

HR coordinator at Behavioral Health Kansas City, which provides services and support for children with disabilities. Prior to that, she was the autism lead program facilitator at Kids TLC, Inc. She also has served as a lead teacher at the Educare Preschool Program and the Sunnyside Toddler Program at the University of Kansas. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas in general studies, where she majored in applied behavioral science with a concentration in early childhood education and intervention. “I have a passion for supporting children and their families. The J has an outstanding early childhood education program in the CDC, and I am looking forward to being able to extend that to B’nai Jehudah CDC,” said Browar. “I

Becca Browar also grew up at the J — from attending the CDC and J camps, to BBYO, to working at Barney Goodman for several

summers — so I am thrilled to have an opportunity to give back to the community that raised me!” B’nai Jehudah CDC and the CDC at The J are enrolling now for spots for August. B’nai Jehudah CDC provides part-time childcare for children ages 1 to 3 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and for children ages 4 through 5 years of age Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The CDC at The J provides fulland part-time care options for children ages 1 through 5 years of age. With an emphasis on Jewish values, The J’s early childhood programs are open to children of all faiths and cultures. For more information on both programs, visit TheJKC.org/earlychildhood.

Black-Jewish relations focus of American Public Square at Jewell April 12 program How are the historical experiences of the Black and Jewish communities at once distinct and interconnected? Should we see efforts to combat racism and anti-Semitism as separate struggles? What are African Americans’ and Jews’ responsibilities to one another in America’s current racial reckoning? On Monday at 7 p.m., American Public Square at Jewell is partnering with the University of CaliforniaBerkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies for a conversation, “Race & Responsibility: A Conversation on Black-Jewish Relations,” a free virtual program. This event is sponsored in partnership with The Forward newspaper and UC-Berkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies, the Center for Democracy,

Toleration, and Religion, the Department of African American Studies, the Othering and Belonging Institute, Berkeley Hillel, the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, the Graduate Theological Union, and the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies. The discussion will be moderated by Professor Tina Sacks of the School of Social Welfare. Panelists include: • Erik K. Ward is a nationallyrecognized expert on the relationship between authoritarian movements, hate violence, and preserving inclusive democracy. He is currently the executive director of the Western States Center and a Senior Fellow of the Southern Poverty Law Center. His essays include “Skin in the Game:

How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism” (Public Eye, 2017), “As White Supremacy Falls Down, White Nationalism Stands Up” (Pop Culture Collaborative, 2017) and “The Evolution of Identity Politics” (Tikkun, 2018). • Michael Rothberg, a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA, where he holds the 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies. His first book was “Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization” (Stanford UP, 2009). His most recent book is “The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators” (Stanford UP, 2020). • Tina Sacks, an assistant professor in University of California-

Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare. An expert on racial inequities in health, social determinants of health, and poverty and inequality, she is the author of “Invisible Visits: Black Middle Class Women in the American Healthcare System” (Oxford, 2019). She has written about the way that her Black and Jewish roots shaped her sensitivity to systems of discrimination and violence. Audience members will be able to ask questions through Zoom’s Q&A function. Advance registration is required at: https://americanpublicsquare.org/event/race-responsibility/.For more information about this or any of APS programs, please visit the organization’s web site at www. americanpublicsquare.org.

Learn Laugh & Love offers Join the ‘Fight Back Against interactive program with challah Parkinson’s Disease’ Expo on April 23 Nothing says Jewish cuisine like challah! Just its aroma conjures up memories of holidays, home and tradition. Join challah baker extraordinaire Meghann Hennen for an interactive program, Challah Baking, at 5 p.m. April 15. This free virtual program is part of the Learn Laugh & Love series sponsored by Jewish Family Services and The Heritage Center at The J. Hennen, a Jewish preschool teacher based in Cleveland, discovered challah’s incredible impact on her life during the pandemic. Join Hennen as she shares her inspirational story, and find out how you can place orders for her amazing challah! The program is free, but advance registration is required. A link to the program will be sent. Register at www. jfskc.org. For questions, please contact

April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month

Meghann Hennen Susie Hurst, JFS director of family life education, at susieh@jfskc.org.

Join The J, the Parkinson’s Foundation, Soundscaping Source and Jewish Family Services for the Fight Back Against Parkinson’s Disease Expo on April 23 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in The J’s Fitness + Sports + Aquatics lobby. The free expo, held as part of Parkinson’s Awareness Month, is a onestop-shop for information, education, and resources to learn about fighting the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease and to live a healthier, active, and more vibrant life. Participants can browse tables and booths that include information on: • Parkinson’s Choir: Learn about the resources through music from Soundscaping Source and Westchester Village.

• Parkinson’s Movement: Participate in a low-intensity fitness class at 10:45 am (Zoom option available upon request). • Rock Steady Boxing: Observe this unique class that has incredible results at 11:15 am (Zoom option available upon request). • Aqua Fit: Learn about the benefits of buoyancy with this fitness class. • Jewish Family Services: Hear about the resources they provide from transportation to mental health. For more information, visit TheJKC. org/expo. To learn more about exercise programs for Parkinson’s at The J, visit TheJKC.org/parkinsons.

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community news

celebrations BAT MITZVAH Julia Helena Luetje Chucker Luetje and Susan Bernstein announce the Bat Mitzvah of their daughter, Julia Helena Luetje, at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 10, at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah. Friends and family are invited to join virtually at facebook. com/ttcbj or vimeo.com/bnaijehudah. Julia is the granddaughter of Dr. Phyliss and Robert Bernstein and Dr. Charlie and Sandra Luetje. She has three siblings: Chad, Ali and Adam. Julia enjoys competitive gymnastics, art, baking, being with family, traveling and is active in Kesher. When she was 10, she won the Grand Prize in a national invention contest out of 13,000 entries for her Storm Sleeper invention, which she created to help others manage stress and anxiety. She went from young inventor to entrepreneur when she recently launched The Storm Sleeper business. On her own, she also created a Donor Advised Fund with a portion of her prize winnings to support children’s hospitals, the autism community and pet rescues. For her mitzvah project, Julia is collecting arts and crafts to donate to Children’s Mercy.

BAR MITZVAH Hunter Matthew Brown Stacy and Steve Brown announce the Bar Mitzvah of their son, Hunter Matthew Brown, at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 10, at Congregation Beth Shalom. Relatives and friends are invited to worship virtually with the family. Hunter is the grandson of Carole and Bernard Ellis and the late Elaine and Alan Brown. He has one brother, Miller Brown. Hunter plays baseball and basketball. He loves watching sports and enjoys spending time with his friends and family.

BAR MITZVAH Maxwell Lane Goldstein Halley and Erich Goldstein will celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of their son Maxwell Lane Goldstein, as he is called to the Torah at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah at 10:30 a.m. on Shabbat morning, April 17, 2021. Max is the grandson of Suzy and Myron Goldstein, Marci and Mark Klein,

Debbie and Mike Saferstein. He has one sibling, Zoey. Max is a seventh grader at Leawood Middle School. He enjoys playing baseball, basketball, biking and cooking. He participates in BBYO Connect, Kesher and attends Camp Sabra. For his Mitzvah Project, Max is working with Camp Rainbow and Camp Sabra collecting games and activities to help these camps offer their programs safely this summer.

BAR MITZVAH Jacob Ryder Goldstein Amy and Darren Goldstein will celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of their son, Jacob Ryder Goldstein, as he is called to the Torah at Congregation Shalom in Milwaukee at 10 a.m. on May 22, 2021. Jake is the grandson of Suzy and Myron Goldstein and Barbara and Bruce Sherman of Des Moines. He has two siblings, Sam and Sadie. Jake is in seventh grade at Whitefish Bay Middle School. He plays basketball for the Whitefish Bay Junior Dukes and is on the middle school tennis team. He also plays soccer and saxophone, and spends the summer at North Star Camp for Boys in Hayward, Wisconsin. Jake’s Mitzvah Project will support “Camp For All Kids.” CFAK promotes and facilitates racial diversity by sending kids from underserved communities to six overnight summer camps, including North Star. Max and Jake are cousins.

BIRTH Dr. Daniel Brystowski and Molly Frank Brystowski of Detroit announce the birth March 14, 2021, of their son Nathan Peter Brystowski. Nathan has one sibling, Leora Aria Brystowski, 2. Grandparents are Jeannie Frank of Roeland Park and Dr. and Mrs. Henry Brystowski of Detroit.

HAVE A STORY IDEA FOR US? Email editor Mike Sherry at mikes@jewishkc.org.

April 8, 2021

JVS celebrates refugee- and immigrant owned-restaurants Jewish Vocational Service is hosting its ninth annual Global Table fundraiser as a series of four Monday evenings in May featuring carryout cuisine from refugee- and immigrant-owned restaurants. Along with delicious food, participants in Global Table To Go will receive a toolkit of enrichment activities to engage them with the featured culture of the evening. Diners can select just one evening, or try all four nights at the following restaurants: • May 3: Blue Nile Cafe (20 E. 5th St.) • May 10: Fannie’s West African & Tropical Cuisine (4105 Troost Ave.) • May 17: Mediterranean Market (1404 Westport Rd.) • May 24: The Bite (23 E. 3rd St.) The event is being co-chaired by Julie Doane and Rev. Robert Lee Hill. “I’m inspired by the resiliency and tenacity of newcomers resettled, and grateful this year’s event includes delicious food from talented, diverse restaurateurs & entrepreneurs,” Doane said. Participation in Global Table To Go supports people on their journey to self-reliance and helps make Kansas City a place where all are welcomed, included and valued. “This year’s Global Table To Go is a celebration of the human spirit and compassion and good will of the greater Kansas City community,” Hill said. “I’m honored and delighted to be part of this year’s Global Table To Go as we seek to continue services for untold numbers of refugees and immigrants and their families.” Please visit http://jvsgttg21.eventbrite.com to view the menus for each evening and more information. BLUE NILE Daniel and Selam Fikru have been serving Ethiopian dishes in Midtown, Overland Park and now in the City Market location, since 1995. Daniel arrived in the U.S. on a student visa in 1981. He and his brother fled Ethiopia, which was under a military government that was especially dangerous for young men. Their older sister was already in Michigan and helped the brothers’ efforts to join her in the U.S. Daniel was granted political asylum due to the situation in Ethiopia. Selam and Daniel met in high school. When Daniel first came to the United States, the two spent nine years apart. But then Daniel returned to Ethiopia to marry Selam, who joined him in the U.S. in 1991. She joined his family in Michigan, where they eventually left in favor of warmer weather in Kansas City. Today, Daniel and Selam both have their U.S. citizenship. They have three adult sons, and the family is active in an Ethiopian church in Olathe. The pair grew up around food and cooking, and they see Blue Nile as a way to stay deeply connected to their culture while making Kansas City their home.

FANNIE’S Fannie’s restaurant embraces African lifestyles. The menu reflects ethnic, cultural and traditional themes. Fannie’s story started in Liberia, where she was born and raised. Her grandmother was her first inspiration and always made sure the family had food for the day, even when they were struggling. Watching her, Fannie grew to love cooking. Fannie and her family were in Ghana for a while before coming to the U.S. as refugees in 2003. Fannie and her aunt arrived in Kansas City, her mother and siblings went to Canada and her father and other family members remain in Liberia. When she moved to the U.S., she had the opportunity to turn her passion for food into reality and stay connected to her home. Fannie began just cooking for family and friends and posting her food on social media almost 10 years ago. She received requests for shipped food and eventually opened a storefront. Fannie’s West African & Tropical Cuisine was opened April 13, 2018. MEDITERRANEAN MARKET Husband and wife Mohamed and Rose own and operate Mediterranean Market. The two moved to the United States from Syria more than 20 years ago, and both have been working in the restaurant industry for almost as long. The Market is a grocery store and restaurant combo where you can order your food while you shop for cheese, spices, juice, olives and much more. You can get your Baklava for dessert as well, all in one place! Mohamed bought the location in 2014, which had before been a Mediterranean bakery. The Westport neighborhood has been receptive to this unique model. Rose’s parents live in this area and spend a lot of time with Rose, Mohamed and their 5 year old son. THE BITE At The Bite, located in the City Market and opened in 2014, owner and chef Carlos Mortera serves Mexican- and Korean-inspired sandwiches as well as pozole, a Mexican hominy and meat stew. He loves sandwiches, and it shows in his creations. His father, Carlos Montera, owned rotisserie chicken restaurants in Mexico. The family, including Carlos, his parents and his two brothers and sister, moved to Kansas City when he was in middle school so that his father could pursue electrical engineering. Chef Carlos considers Kansas City his home and loves the restaurant’s location in the City Market. His parents still live in the area, and one of his brothers works as his right hand man in The Bite. He is married to Amy, whom he met at the City Market, and they have a 9-monthold daughter. Carlos Mortera and his father opened a Mexican barbecue chicken restaurant, Poi-O, together in the fall of 2018. It will soon re-open in a new location.

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community news

New Melton courses available

Feed your mind with MeltonKC. Discover new meaning, connect and engage in new topics and ideas. Find more information and register at hbha.edu/ melton/current-courses.cfm or contact Megan Pener at mpener@hbha.edu, MeltonKC director, with questions. Upcoming courses: • Genesis/Bereshit II Students will embark on some of the most dramatic and iconic stories of sibling rivalry, wrestling with angels, palace seduction and more from 7 to 8:30

p.m. Thursdays beginning April 15 (no prerequisite needed). Faculty: Rabbi Moshe Grussgott; location: Zoom • “Beyond Borders: The History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict” This course provides students with a strong, text-based historical overview from the late 19th century through today. 7-8:30 p.m. Thursdays for 10 weeks, beginning mid-April. Faculty: Bill Greenberg; location: Zoom • “Social Justice: The Heart of Judaism in Theory and Practice”

Explore how social justice work goes beyond addressing short-term needs, looking at structural causes of injustice today. Topics include issues related to poverty, immigration and environment, and students are encouraged to identify issues they would like to explore in greater depth. 6:30-8 p.m. Wednesdays for 10 weeks, beginning April 21. Faculty: Rabbi Doug Alpert; location: Zoom • “Jewish Answers to Life’s Most Challenging Questions”

Students will explore answers to timeless questions, including “Why do good people suffer?” and “Why is there so much evil in the world?” in this mini course. The last course maxed out quickly, so Rabbi Glickman offered to teach it again this spring. This Taste of Melton course is free of charge, with a $20 fee for materials purchase only. Go to hbha.edu/melton/currentcourses.cfm for the waitlist. Register at hbha.wufoo.com/forms/z1rk21ez15qizhz/.

‘Judaism and Dreaming,’ a three-part course via Zoom

The Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City and The J will offer a three-part virtual course series titled “Judaism and Dreaming,” with Rabbi Howard Avruhm Addison. The series will kick off on April 29 with subsequent dates on May 6 and May 13 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. via Zoom. The course is part of the Jewish Federation’s and The J’s collaborative Jewish Experiences programming. The prophet Joel foresaw a time when God’s spirit would be manifest, when men and women, young and old would dream dreams and see visions. Yet, despite having a rich tradition of dream interpreta-

tion, modern Judaism has given little spiritual credence to dreams. Drawing upon Jewish tradition, Kabbalah, and the insights of modern psychology, Rabbi Addison will investigate how dreams can reveal the movement of the divine within us, leading us to wholeness and growth. Rabbi Addison is associate professor for instruction at Temple University, where he teaches a course entitled “Dreams, Visions and the Good Life.” Ordained by JTS, he earned his doctorate at the Graduate Theological Foundation; there he directs its Jewish Spirituality Doctoral programs and teaches

a graduate tutorial, “Spirituality and Dreams.” A founding teacher of the Lev Shomea Jewish Spiritual Direction training institute, Rabbi Addison completed his Dreamwork studies at the Haden Institute, on whose faculty he serves. A lecturer, spiritual director and dream guide, his books include: “The Enneagram and Kabbalah,” “Jewish Spiritual Direction” and the recently published anthology, “Seeking Redemption in an Unredeemed World.” The series costs $40. For more information and to register, visit TheJKC.org/dreaming.

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The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

April 8, 2021

important dates Friday, April 9 Candle-lighting time 27 Nissan, 7:32 p.m. Virtual Oneg Missing the post-service schmooze or Oneg desserts? Join Congregation Beth Torah for a virtual Oneg. Do Kiddush and Hamotzi together before schmoozing and tasting the sweetness of Shabbat. Email connect@bethtorah.org to request the Zoom link 7:30-8:30 p.m. Shabbat Stars at B’nai Jehudah Rabbi Elana Nemitoff-Bresler serves as rabbi-educator at Temple Israel, in Westport, CT, having been ordained from HUC-JIR in 2019. She spent her years growing up in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Kansas City. She is passionate about teaching children and adults and nurturing them on their Jewish journeys. Join us on Facebook or Vimeo http://facebook.com/TTCBJ or http://vimeo.com/bnaijehduah. Service Time: 6:00pm

Saturday, April 10 Beth Torah’s Sichat Shabbat This Shabbat, join Congregation Beth Torah to explore halacha (Jewish law) of childhood and coming of age under the larger theme of Halacha of Lifecycle Events. Email connect@beth-torah.org to request the Zoom link. 9-10:30 a.m. K.I. Parsha of the Week An in-person class with Rabbi Moshe Grussgott. Enhance Shabbat by gaining deeper understanding of the weekly Parsha. This class will be taught between Mincha and Ma’ariv. 7 p.m.

Sunday, April 11 ‘Fiddler in Concert’ Many of the memorable songs of “Fiddler on the Roof” will be part of “Fiddler in Concert,” a virtual cabaret, presented by The Lewis and Shirley White Theatre at The J, today through May 9. The concert will be performed and pre-recorded and then available for viewing on-demand for $18 per household. To purchase tickets for “Fiddler In Concert,” visit TheJKC.org/ Fiddler. For more information about upcoming events at The White Theatre, visit TheWhiteTheatre.org. Boker Tov Live! Get your morning off to a great start with B’nai Jehudah’s Sunday morning program family service via facebook.com/ttcbj. 9 a.m. Ohev Sholom Morning Minyan Call the synagogue office at 913-642-6460 for the Zoom link. 9:30 a.m. B’nai Jehudah Minyan Services B’nai Jehudah’s Sunday morning minyan services are held via facebook.com/ttcbj. To participate, join at 9:45 a.m. K.I. PrayerWorks Virtual gathering. PrayerWorks is facilitated by Sharon Friedman who said, “PrayerWorks brings people to-

gether to find healing for themselves and for others. At the monthly, hour-long session, we discuss something about healing, health and wellness, then have a small healing prayer service and say misheberachs (prayer for healing) for those who need healing. We end with a short healing meditation. The group is open to anyone in need of healing — whether it be from a physical illness or emotional — and those who would like to pray for themselves and others.” All members of the Jewish community are invited to join. Meets on the second Sunday of each month. zoom.us//j/98521373264. 11 a.m. K.I. ‘Shmooze & Kvetch’ Everyone who logs on is encouraged to sit with their own brunch and a beverage. We’ll go around the “room” checking in with each other and giving everyone a chance to say what they’re thankful for that week. Email info@kisyn.org for the Zoom link. 11 a.m. Yom HaShoah Community Event Join the community virtually for Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, presented by the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education and Jewish Experiences, a collaboration of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas and The J. Chaired by Ida Kolkin, the event is free. Sign up at thejkc.org/jewishexperiences. 1:30-2:30 p.m. KC SuperStar Auditions Auditions for The J’s singing competition and annual fundraiser take place virtually. Open to high school students in the Kansas City metro and surrounding areas. More information at kcsuperstar.org. 3-6 p.m. K.I. Mincha/Ma’ariv Join K.I. on Zoom if you are unable to go to the synagogue. Contact info@kisyn.org and request the link to weekday Ma’ariv. 6:15 p.m.

Monday, April 12 Bikur Cholim Kavod v Nichum and Neshama: The Association of Jewish Chaplains and several other groups including Jewish Family Services of Kansas City are sponsoring an innovative program about Bikur Cholim — visiting and caring for the sick and vulnerable — Renewing Bikur Cholim in the Time of COVID-19 North American Conference. Prominent teachers and rabbis from across the country provide an educational forum and a venue for exchange of ideas and concerns, assisting providers and volunteers in providing this essential service biweekly through May 10. For information about the Bikur Cholim conference and how to register, visit: jewish-funerals.org/2021-bikur-cholim-conference/. If you are interested in becoming a spiritual care giver and would like more information about this enriching program, contact JFS Volunteer Engagement at 913730-1410 or volunteer@jfskc.org. Boker Tov Boker Tov at B’nai Jehudah is live on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on Facebook Live. Let B’nai Jehudah guide your day — and your month — with readings, teaching or other reflections. 9 a.m.

Ohev Sholom Morning Minyan Call the synagogue office at 913-642-6460 for the Zoom link. 9 a.m. Happiness Habits The Greater Kansas City Mental Health Coalition, based at Jewish Family Services, and the Kansas City Public Library are offering a free program to make your days better. Happiness Habits is a half-hour program held on Mondays via Zoom. The focus is how to manage the uncertainty of our daily lives with simple habits fostering happiness regardless of our circumstances. Each half-hour interactive program has a theme. The program is open to anyone, but registration is required through the library’s website, kclibrary.org/events-activities-calendar. 3 p.m. Happiness Habits The Greater Kansas City Mental Health Coalition, based at Jewish Family Services, and the Kansas City Public Library are offering a free program to make your days better. Happiness Habits is a half-hour program held on Mondays via Zoom. The focus is how to manage the uncertainty of our daily lives with simple habits fostering happiness regardless of our circumstances. Each half-hour interactive program has a theme. The program is open to anyone, but registration is required through the library’s website, kclibrary.org/events-activities-calendar. 3 p.m. B’nai Jehudah Minyan Service Daily minyan service, Monday-Thursday, will continue to be only virtual via facebook.com/ttcbj at 5:45 p.m. K.I. Talmud Class Exploring the Secrets of the Talmud — study of this central Jewish text pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. This class is on-going and is the longest running Jewish class in our area, but no previous knowledge is needed. Taught by Rabbi Herbert Mandl. Meets Mondays unless otherwise noted. Email info@ kisyn.org and request the Zoom link. 7 p.m. Beth Torah Kehilah Concert Join our Kehilah musicians for this next Kehilah Concert. We will sing in numerous languages of our people: Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino! This concert will be live streamed on Beth Torah’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/CongregationBethTorah) and Virtual Sanctuary (https://beth-torah.org/virtualsanctuary). 7 p.m.

Wednesday, April 14 B’nai Jehudah Torah Study Start your day by delving into this rich and insightful text. Grab a cup of coffee and join our clergy for this always exciting exploration as we study the weekly Torah portion and learn from its many faceted lessons. Drop-ins welcome; no experience necessary. To participate, contact Damien Timms, rabbiadmin@bnaijehudah.org for a link and access to the Zoom meeting. 10-11:30 a.m. Women’s Study Group In this weekly ongoing virtual class, the women choose the topics. Taught alternately by Rabbis Moshe Grussgott and Herbert Mandl. Email info@kisyn.org and request the Zoom link to the Women’s class. 7 p.m.

Those Who Remained Film The Kansas City Jewish Film Festival at The J, in partnership with the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (MCHE), will present the film, Those Who Remained, in honor of Yom HaShoah. Tickets $12 per household at TheJKC.org/remained. On-demand viewing April 7-14. Presentation and discussion with Dr. Shelly Cline, Director of Education and Historian with MCHE, at 8 p.m. Beth Torah’s Midweek Song Session Join Lezlie Zucker to take a deep breath and sing some songs together! Mid-Week Song Session is streamed on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/CongregationBethTorah) and our Virtual Sanctuary (https://beth-torah.org/virtual-sanctuary 7 p.m.

Thursday, April 15 New Melton Course Genesis/Bereshit II — Students will embark on some of the most dramatic and iconic stories of sibling rivalry, wrestling with angels, palace seduction and more. No prerequisite needed; taught by Rabbi Moshe Grussgott on Zoom. Find more information and register at hbha.edu/melton/current-courses.cfm or contact Megan Pener at mpener@hbha.edu, MeltonKC director, with questions. 7-8:30 p.m.

Friday, April 16 Candle-lighting time 4 Iyar, 7:39 p.m. Erev Shabbat Service at B’nai Jehudah. Join us on Facebook or Vimeo http://facebook.com/ TTCBJ or http://vimeo.com/bnaijehduah. Service Time: 6:00pm Shabala-La Welcome the beauty of Shabbat as a community with the musical talent of Coleen Dieker. Dance, sing and share Shabbat blessings with The J community via Zoom. Go to thejkc.org/Shabalala to sign up. 9:3010:30 a.m.

Saturday, April 17 K.I. Parsha of the Week An in-person class with Rabbi Moshe Grussgott. Enhance Shabbat by gaining deeper understanding of the weekly Parsha. This class will be taught between Mincha and Ma’ariv. 7 p.m. Beth Torah’s Sichat Shabbat This Shabbat, join Congregation Beth Torah to explore Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of Our Fathers. Please email connect@beth-torah.org to request the Zoom link. 9 a.m.

Sunday, April 18

Boker Tov Live! Get your morning off to a great start with B’nai Jehudah’s Sunday morning program family service via facebook.com/ttcbj. 9 a.m.

Outside the Kansas City area:

April 8, 2021

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

page 7

spotlight BELOW: Cub Scout Pack 3153 recently had a crossover event to recognize those scouts that have graduated from the pack and will be continuing with Scouting. Pictured are Angel Halls, Scoutmaster of Troop 692, Brian Bell, Scoutmaster of Troop 61, Bella Gladish, Frankie Swerdlove, Miles Tarjan, Josh Snitz and Beth Albee, Pack 3153 Packmaster. Bella will be continuing on with Troop 792 and Frankie, Miles and Josh will be continuing with Troop 61. If you are interested in Scouting, please contact Richard Simon at troop61chairman@gmail.com.

Special delivery

Moving on

ABOVE: KU Hillel freshman, Brayden Cardozo, picked up his Seder kit for Passover. Brayden picked up extra Kosher-for-Passover meals to share with his roommates so they could experience their first Passover Seder, too.

O TLIGHT SPO PHOTOS FROM RECENT JEWISH COMMUNITY EVENTS

GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

SUBMIT A PHOTO: Have a photo of a recent Jewish community event you would like to submit? Email the image and a suggested caption to mikes@jewishkc.org Please write spotlight photo in the subject line. BELOW: Congratulations to Dawn Arnoff, Group Fitness Lead at The J, for receiving the Live Up Award! She was nominated by a member in her Aqua Fit class who said, “Dawn is very engaged and engaging. Her sense of humor and rhythm are infectious and make the classes fun and rewarding! I feel lucky to have her as an instructor.” Pictured left to right are J staff Jim Sluyter, Carrie Monaghan, Dawn Arnoff, Denise Sarver and Hannah Rank.

Compliments to the chef ABOVE: KU Hillel students gathered together for Passover Seder. Kate Jacobs, Noah Kahn, Maya Matatall and Sedah Klein enjoyed their time together with Hillel’s Virtual Seder, and Kate said the matzo ball soup was delicious!

On with the show!

Aqua award

ABOVE: Rehearsals have begun for Fiddler In Concert, a virtual cabaret, presented by The Lewis & Shirley White Theatre at The J, running April 11 through May 9. Tickets are on sale now at TheJKC.org/Fiddler.

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The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

April 8, 2021

local news

Synergy Services celebrates the Power of Kindness

Synergy Services is pleased to announce that it will be holding the 31st annual Kindest Kansas Citian Award via virtual livestream on May 7 at 7 p.m.. The event will honor Jake Jacobson, the Geiger family, 20 everyday heroes in Kansas City chosen from the community, and Gracemor Elementary School as the 2021 Rita Blitt Kindest School. The Kindest Kansas Citian event raises funds and awareness of Synergy’s anti-bullying school-based intervention program, while highlighting community leaders who inspire those around them every day. At the heart of the event is the honoring of everyday heroes throughout the Kansas City metro. To find these everyday heroes, Synergy hosted an essay contest for children in grades K-12 to write about the kindest person they know. More than 2,000 students submitted essays, and 50 volunteers read through each and every essay. Of these, 20 heroes were selected. Joining these folks in the spotlight are the honorary stars, Jacobson and the Geiger family. These outstanding community leaders will be inducted into the Kindness Crew for their charitable work in the community. The Geigers are the proprietors of Geiger ReadyMix concrete, and pride themselves on being part of the “foundation” of Kansas City. Currently on its fifth generation of family ownership, Geiger credits their close

familial ties with their commitment to giving back to the community. Notably, their 100% participation in Kansas City United Way and their donation of thousands of yards of concrete for the construction of wheelchair ramps, playgrounds, and ball courts throughout the metro. Jacobson is a former news editor at the Kansas City Star, social media manager, PR director for Children’s Mercy, and VP of Growth at Native Digital who has been on the board of dozens of local nonprofits. Jacobson earned Nonprofit Connect’s award for Emerging Volunteer of the Year in 2017, and raised more than $35,000 for Noah’s Bandage Project and the BMA with his, as he puts it, “questionable” ballroom dancing skills. He also ran three separate marathons for the Ronald McDonald

House, at one point being the nation’s fifth-highest individual fundraiser for that charity. Gracemor Elementary school welcomes more than 600 students daily. Gracemor is a Title One, diverse school. Students also find support through Synergy Services schoolbased programming. The event will allow the Geigers, Jacobson, Gracemor Elementary and these 20 everyday heroes an opportunity to encourage charitable work through short pre-recorded speeches, and to invite their friends, family and colleagues to purchase sponsorships to the event to help raise funds for Synergy Services and celebrate this honor with them. This event typically raises more than $150,000 to support Synergy Services programming. Sponsorship opportunities at the virtual event come with bonuses like wine, chef-curated charcuterie boxes, and a chance to create a 30 second ad to play during the livestream. Synergy is a non-profit organization that works to create stronger families and safer communities, as the agency strives to overcome family violence. For more information, contact Synergy at www.synergyservices.org, or Special Events Coordinator Anne Vigliaturo at 816-5054785 or annev@synergyservices.org.

Jackson County CASA to hold virtual Light of Hope breakfast April 14 Honorees are Jewish Family Services and Robinson family Jewish Family Services (JFS) and the Robinson family are being honored for their roles in an innovative program that has helped hundreds of abused and neglected children stay in their foster care placements, avoiding the trauma of being moved. The Light of Hope Award will be presented during Jackson County CASA’s live virtual Light of Hope breakfast, which begins at 7:30 a.m. on April 14. In 2012, Jackson County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) — which began as an NCJW program — recognized a small amount of flexible emergency assistance could make a huge difference in keeping foster children in their placements. CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to cases where children most need an advocate as they navigate the foster care and court systems. Saving these vulnerable children additional trauma sometimes could be avoided with just a few hundred dollars of emergency assistance to pay overdue rent, utility bills, or make car repairs needed to retain jobs. Turning to JFS, the nonprofits agreed to work together and jointly sought funding. The Robinson family provided seed money and has continued to support the collaboration between Jackson County CASA and JFS. “I think it’s great when nonprofits work together,” said Irv Robinson, whose family decided to fund the program through its Robinson Family Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation. “The idea that JFS and CASA came together was something that we value.” Irv Robinson, wife Ellen, daughter Ashlee, son Michael and his wife Carrie

say the program matches their mission of helping underserved, at-risk children and youth. “We thought that’s where we could make the most difference in society as a whole,” said Ashlee Robinson. “The fact that this program was connected through JFS made it that much better for us because there was also a Jewish component to it. Of all the different charities we’ve given to, CASA is one of our favorites.” CASA DATA To date, 220 children and 83 families served by Jackson County CASA have received emergency assistance. In addition, many were introduced to additional JFS services such as its food bank. Carrie Robinson said it feels good knowing exactly how her family’s funds are impacting those helped by the emergency assistance fund. “A small thing like a car seat for a grandma to be able to take in her grandkids will keep that family together. It’s just a little bit goes a long way.” Michael Robinson likes that he can clearly see how their donations have made a difference. “The thing I like about CASA is, sometimes they come to us with a direct request, and we know exactly how the money is going to impact someone. Larger organizations do great work, but you don’t exactly know where your funds are going. I think it’s really fulfilling to know exactly how you’re impacting someone.” In addition to reporting to the Robinsons stories of how children served by CASA benefit from their donations,

Jackson County CASA passes along notes occasionally received from families helped by the emergency assistance program. ‘SO BLESSED’ “We’re so blessed that we can have our funds support families that can’t afford things,” Ellen Robinson said. “It warms our hearts. We’re all touched by knowing that our resources are making a difference. Not just on a big level but on a day to day level. Because we pledge funds, their lives are easier for it and we love hearing when they send us the update of what the money was used for. It’s one of the sweet spots in our funding to know how our fund has impacted families.” This year, Jackson County CASA volunteers will advocate on behalf of about 1,250 children removed from their homes for their safety. That’s only about half the children under court protection in Jackson County. Through contact with the child, family members, and other interested parties, a CASA volunteer provides the court with information to help them make the best possible decisions regarding where the child should live and what medical, therapeutic, and educational services they need. Sometimes, volunteers recognize that emergency assistance would allow a placement or keep a child in a safe placement. The Light of Hope Award is presented annually to a special community partner. Angie Blumel, president and CEO of Jackson County CASA, said there are numerous stories of

how JFS’ partnership made a difference for the children they serve. In one case, a father recently reunified with his children, after they were removed for neglect, was doing a great job caring for his family. Then, his car broke down, he couldn’t get to his job, and was at risk of losing his children. When CASA asked JFS for emergency assistance to fix his car, JFS recognized that the repair shop’s $1,000 price was inflated, identified a respected repair shop and paid about $500 for the repair. The father was able to work again and retained custody. AUNT GETS NECESSITIES In another case, an aunt wanted to take in her nieces and nephews who had just been removed from their homes for their safety. But approval of funding to provide necessities for them would take time and she didn’t have the means to immediately provide beds, dressers, car seats, and a highchair. Emergency assistance allowed her to take in the children without their having to first go into other housing while they waited for services to be approved. The children only had to move once — into their aunt’s home — which became permanent when she adopted them. The Light of Hope will be live from Jackson County CASA’s website, www.jacksoncountycasa-mo.org, and rebroadcast throughout the day on its Facebook page and YouTube channel. For information about Jackson County CASA or to register for Light of Hope, please visit the website or call 816-984-8200.

April 8, 2021

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

page 9

national news

US lawmakers reintroduce bill to address hate, violence in Palestinian schools (JNS) A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has reintroduced a bill to require the U.S. State Department to address hate and violence in the Palestinian school curriculum. The measure—the Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act (H.R. 2374)—was introduced by Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), David Trone (DMd.) and Brian Mast (R-Fla.). It calls on the State Department to take a number of steps to monitor the Palestinian Authority educational curriculum, such as: • A determination of whether content and passages encouraging violence or intolerance towards other nations or ethnic groups have been removed from such curriculum;

• An assessment of the steps the Palestinian Authority is taking to reform such curriculum at schools to conform with standards of peace and tolerance in the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; • A determination of whether U.S. foreign assistance is used, directly or indirectly, to fund the dissemination of such curriculum by the Palestinian Authority; • A detailed report on how U.S. assistance is being used to address curriculum that encourages violence or intolerance towards other nations or ethnic groups; • A detailed report about U.S. diplomatic efforts in the last five years

to encourage accountability in Palestinian education. “The United States has provided millions of dollars to support the education of Palestinian children with the stated goal of equipping Palestinians with the tools to build a democratic, secular and politically moderate Palestinian civil society as a driver for peace. As a result of the GAO’s findings, it is necessary for Congress to request additional reports from the State Department to ensure U.S. taxpayer dollars promote dignity and tolerance, and that the educational materials such schools employ do not incite hatred,” said Sherman. He added that “last Congress, this bill passed the Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously. I hope to work with

my colleagues to build on this support and secure the passage of this bill in the 117th Congress.” The bill’s reintroduction was praised by IMPACT-se, a research, policy and advocacy organization that monitors and analyzes education. “The curriculum taught in Palestinian Authority and UNRWA schools eradicates the possibility of peace. It incites Palestinian children to violence and encourages them to acts of jihad and martyrdom. This has gone on for far too long,” said IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff. “This bill’s welcome reintroduction will send a clear message that Congress will not tolerate the teaching of hate and anti-Semitism in Palestinian schools.”

Helen Mirren to play Golda Meir in upcoming film ‘Golda’ (JTA) — It’s a Meir moment. Academy Award winner Helen Mirren will portray Golda Meir, Israel’s only female prime minister, in an upcoming biopic set during the Yom Kippur War. Production on “Golda” will begin later this year, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The news follows the announcement last month of another starpowered production on Meir, a series titled “Lioness” led by Israeli actress Shira Haas of “Unorthodox”

fame. While “Lioness” will follow Meir from “her birth in Kiev to her American upbringing in Milwaukee, her role in the formation of Israel and her rise to become the new nation’s first and only female prime minister,” according to a report in Deadline, “Golda” will focus on the turbulent Yom Kippur War period. Along with the rest of Israel, Meir and her all-male cabinet were taken by surprise by the attack on the eve of the holiday in 1973 by Egyptian,

Syrian and Jordanian forces. The ensuing bloody conflict — chronicled in the recent acclaimed Israeli production “Valley of Tears” on HBO Max — shattered the nation’s growing sense of confidence at the time in an embattled region. “Golda” will be directed by Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv, who won the 2018 Academy Award for best short for “Skin,” a film involving neo-Nazis that he later made into a feature. “As someone who was born during the Yom Kippur War, I am hon-

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ored to tell this fascinating story about the first and only woman to ever lead Israel,” Nattiv said in a statement. “Nicholas Martin’s brilliant script dives into Golda’s final chapter as the country faces a deadly surprise attack during the holiest day of the year, a core of delusional generals undermining Golda’s judgment. He added: “I could not be more excited to work with the legendary Miss Mirren to bring this epic, emotional and complex story to life.”

page 10

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

April 8, 2021

local news

Kansas City, Kansas, Catholic newspaper runs series on anti-semitism Sources include leaders in the local Jewish community

The Leaven, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, recently explored past and present roots of anti-semitsm. The stories below are reprinted with the permission of the paper, which introduced the series as follows: Across the centuries, the Jew-

ish people have been viewed as the “other.” They have been blamed as scapegoats for Jesus’ crucifixion, the Black Death, war and struggling economies. Based on unfounded conspiracy theories and fabricated claims of racial inferiority, Jews have suffered

harassment, exclusion, violence and genocide. Christians, Catholics, Fathers of the Church, Nazis, white supremacists, and leaders and individuals given to stereotyping and to inaction have been complicit in what is called “the oldest hatred” that persists still today.

This year as the Christian observance of Holy Week coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passover, this sacred season presents a timely opportunity to probe the history and resurgence of antisemitism, and to identify ways to counter this age-old prejudice.

Antisemitism today: ‘It’s like a virus. It never goes away’ By Therese Horvat The Leaven As a fifth-generation Jew who grew up in Overland Park, Gavriela Geller has witnessed a rapid rise of antisemitism. As executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee (JCRB/AJC) Kansas City, her focus includes advocacy and education. “Antisemitism is like a virus,” said Geller. “It never goes away. It lies dormant, then re-emerges when a scapegoat is needed. In times of rapid social change and economic and political uncertainty, Jews have historically become scapegoats.” Geller describes antisemitism as pervasive today. Citing FBI statistics, she says that while Jews account for 2% of the country’s population, 60% of hate crimes nationwide in 2019 represented acts against Jewish people or their properties. Incidents tracked nationally by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reflect a 56% increase in assaults against Jewish individuals in 2019 compared to 2018. These numbers could potentially be higher; it is believed that 76% of Jews don’t report the antisemitism they experience. In tracking hate, extremism, antisemitism and ter-

By Therese Horvat The Leaven

Gavriela Geller

Chuck Green

rorism, ADL reports six antisemitic incidents and 11 cases of distribution of white supremacist propaganda in Kansas (March 2019 through July 2020). The incidents include harassment and vandalism; five of the six occurred in northeast Kansas. Geller links demonizing rhetoric and divisiveness in the United States with the rise of antisemitism. Antisemitism manifests itself culturally, politically, religiously and racially. It operates on the thesis that Jews are the source of all evil in the world. For example, theories arose that Jews were somehow nefariously involved in the spread of COVID-19 and the California wildfires.

Antisemitism today thrives on what Geller calls “code words and dog whistles” — words, phrases and tropes that subtly but definitely target Jews. In addition, there are incidents of Holocaust denial and distortion, and rhetoric about Israel that denies Jewish people the right to a homeland. Antisemitism’s main sources are the far right, far left and religious extremists, but it also stems from insensitive remarks and negative stereotypes. Geller acknowledges that social media platforms perpetuate images and tropes targeted against Jews. An article posted to the “Police Chief Online Magazine” cites the role of online platforms in amplifying hateful ideologies and identifies propaganda as a stepping stone to violence. Chuck Green, director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, says that there are individuals who need to believe in something and that often they are very impressionable. The former Secret Service special agent says social media makes it easier to recruit and indoctrinate. His role as security director is to help Jewish institutions detect threatening behaviors before harm occurs. Green is an alum of Bishop Miege High School in Roeland Park and a member of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Leawood.

How to counter antisemitism

He encourages that upon hearing an antisemitic statement, persons should call this out and not How can Catholics, Chrislet it pass. He believes the tians and others who may Catholic Church should not even know Jews counter re-evaluate hymn lyrics antisemitism and advance and homily hints through what Pope Francis calls “the the lens of sensitivity to journey of friendship”? Jews and Judaism. Philip Cunningham, proFirst on the list for fessor of theology and direcPhillip Cunningham Gavriela Geller, executive tor of the Institute for Jewishdirector of Jewish ComCatholic Relations at Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, sug- munity Relations Bureau|American gests that individuals should be aware Jewish Committee Kansas City, is: of personally held stereotypes and use “Educate. Educate. Educate. You may of language deemed harmless but lad- not recognize antisemitism unless you en with antisemitism — for example, spend time to understand it.” Geller offers her organization as a the phrase “Jewing people down.”

resource for groups seeking to begin this process. She identifies building relationships at the organizational and individual levels as important — operating from a position of friendship rather than fear. She urges people to recognize that antisemitism is not just a Jewish issue, saying, “Allowing conspiracy theories to proliferate and grow is dangerous for the values we all hold dear in our democracy.” At the national level, the March 2020 American Jewish Committee (AJC) policy statement on “Countering Antisemitism and Hatred at Home and Abroad” calls for opposition to antisemitism and hatred in all its forms and the restoration of U.S.

leadership on this issue. AJC advocates for countering hateful rhetoric and antisemitism; improving hate crime reporting; addressing white supremacist ideology as “the most deadly and dangerous threat to the United States”; and asserting American leadership to confront antisemitism abroad. Cunningham’s work is directed toward acknowledgment that Christians and Jews walk with God in different ways but with many resonances. “We should assist each other in living out our respective covenantal obligation; we should be ‘co-covenanting companions,’” he proposes. “This requires constant, sustained intensive dialogue.”

Educator enlists next generation in ensuring ‘Never again’

By Therese Horvat The Leaven

When Lisa Bauman developed and taught “Holocaust Literature: Putting Words into Action” at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park, her goal was for students to understand that the choices individuals make, make history. In the elective course, juniors and seniors studied the history of antisemitism and what led to the Holocaust.

Annually, they took a day trip to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., where Bauman is a fellow. They heard survivors speak. In collaboration with two teachers from schools in California and New Jersey, Bauman incorporated a Holocaust study tour into the course for several years. Groups traveled to Berlin, Prague and Krakow, including sites of concentration camps. Students raised funds to create a memorial in the Czech Republic to recog-

nize townspeople who provided food and occasionally shelter for a Jewish family that hid in the forest for three years. “I wanted students to understand the compelling history of the Holocaust,” explained Bauman. “It was a specific time in history when people did not do well for others. Good people made choices: They did nothing.” Bauman invited her students to identify who is being discriminated against today and ways they could counter this. The class visited social service agen-

cies. Students developed projects to raise awareness or work toward change to make the world a better place. Bauman believes that the course changed students’ lives. A member of St. Pius X Parish in Mission, Bauman concludes, “The Holocaust happened years ago, but its lessons remain universal. Important among them is that the choices we make every day make a difference. God calls Catholics and Christians to do good for others.”

April 8, 2021

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

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Making Ripples of Kindness

April 13-25, 2021

We provide opportunities encouraging all people to increase kindness through knowledge, mindset, and behaviors. We accomplish this with our SevenDays® experiences held in April 2021. Each day, a new theme helps us practice kindness.

VIRTUAL FOR 2021

Please consider being a sponsor!

Check out all of these events!

Info at GiveSevenDays.org TUESDAY APR

TUESDAY APR

LOVE

CONNECT

10:30 a.m. CT | virtual

6:30 p.m. CT | virtual

Join women in the community as we CONNECT over tea and networking to make our world a better place through kindness, interfaith understanding and healing. Space is limited.

LOVE day is a celebration of our youth. We are honoring special Kansas Citians who are devoted to spreading kindness and positively impacting the lives of kids.

THURSDAY APR

DISCOVER

6:30 p.m. CT | virtual

SATURDAY APR

Tour a Hindu Temple, learn how to cook a favorite Indian dish and DISCOVER how a day in the life of a teenager living in India compares to a typical American teen’s day.

YOU

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish is our guest speaker on OTHERS day. Be inspired by his journey of peace and human dignity. Then enjoy his conversation with Pastor Adam Hamilton and Rabbi Art Nemitoff.

SUNDAY APR

10:30 a.m. CT | virtual We provide hands on activities that help you focus on taking care of your own mind, body and soul on YOU day.

ONWARD

Let’s find your ONWARD. Join us virtually for our Kindness Walk. Take time to consider how YOU will spread ripples of Kindness beyond SevenDays.

MONDAY APR

OTHERS

6:30 p.m. CT | virtual

6:30 p.m. CT | virtual Engage in an interfaith workshop and panel on GO Day with local representatives from four diverse faiths.

GIVE BLOOD! (not a virtual event) SevenDays is teaming up with Community Blood Center, encouraging all healthy individuals to donate blood at any of its seven metro locations during SevenDays, April 13-25. Appointments can be made online at savealifenow.org or call 1-877-468-6844. Please provide the code EF86 when you donate.

www.GiveSevenDays.org

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The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

April 8, 2021

national news

Meet the longtime Jewish labor activist going up against Amazon in Alabama

By Andrew Lapin JTA A historic union battle in Bessemer, Alabama, could result in the country’s first organized Amazon warehouse — and it’s thrust a longtime Jewish union leader back into the spotlight. Stuart Appelbaum is president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents more than 60,000 workers in retail, food and warehouse jobs nationwide. The union, known as RWDSU, is vying to represent the nearly 6,000 warehouse workers in Amazon’s Bessemer fulfillment center, and Appelbaum, who has led the union for more than two decades, has been a constant presence in the town and in the media during the months-long union vote. As a youth in Hartford, Connecticut, Appelbaum was president of his Conservative synagogue’s USY chapter and attended Camp Ramah. He graduated from Brandeis University and Harvard Law School. Today, he and his husband reside in New York, where in addition to RWDSU, the 66-year-old Appelbaum is also president of the Jewish Labor Committee. Founded in 1934 to raise awareness of Nazi atrocities in Europe, the group now works to promote solidarity between American Jews and trade unions, something Appelbaum also seeks to advance as a member of the executive council of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “I always had a sense that Jewish values made me want to be part of a fight for social justice, especially for working people,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. His fight against Amazon will soon have Appelbaum facing off against another Jew: incoming Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who will be succeeding Jeff Bezos later this year. (Amazon did not respond to a request for comment for this article.) The union fight has been messy, with Amazon’s tactics (including pressuring the county to change the traffic lights outside its warehouse and using its social media accounts to attack members of Congress) coming under intense scrutiny. Appelbaum, who said he expects “some sort of result” in the union vote within the next week as both sides prepare to closely monitor and possibly challenge the count, spoke to JTA about his Jewish roots and what this fight has changed in the American labor movement. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. JTA: How are you feeling about your union’s prospects? Appelbaum: No matter what the vote count shows, it’s already been a huge victory. I feel that what we have done is to shine a spotlight on the abusive conditions in Amazon workplaces. We feel that people understand better now, as a result of this campaign, the

Rep. Nikema Williams of Georgia and RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum visit the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Birmingham, Ala., after meeting with workers and organizers involved in the facility’s unionization effort, March 5, 2021. (Megan Varner/Getty Images) extent Amazon and other employers go to bust unions. We’ve highlighted the need for labor law reform. We’ve renewed the coalition between the civil rights movement and the labor movement. I think that it’s very important that the Black Lives Matter movement said that a union is an important way to confront racism in the workplace. We have excited young people all over the country about unions once again. And most of all, I believe that this campaign, regardless of the outcome, has already breathed new life into the American labor movement. We’ve already heard from more than 1,000 Amazon workers alone wanting to find out how they can begin organizing efforts in their workplaces. JTA: Amazon is such a big company and is doing so many things. I’m sure many unions would have wanted to be scrapping with them right now. How is it that the RWDSU got involved in this fight? Appelbaum: Amazon is transforming industry after industry. It’s creating a model for what the future of work will look like. And it’s a model that we find unacceptable, where workers are dehumanized and mistreated. We could not afford to leave Amazon unchallenged, which is why this campaign was so important. When workers came to us and said that they were having real problems with their employer, and that there needed to be change, and described to us the abuse on their bodies and on their mental health, we felt that we needed to take on this fight. The RWDSU has a long history in Alabama and a long history of involvement with the civil rights movement. The 1963 March on Washington, much of the planning for that march took place at the RWDSU offices. The march from Selma to Montgomery, the RWDSU was there providing tents along the way, as well as participating in the march itself. We were a natural place for these workers to come. Also, we represent a lot of poultry workers in the southeast United States. And we have been very, very vocal during the pandemic about the need for better working conditions because people are getting sick and dying. And

there is a blatant disregard for the health and safety of workers in the poultry industry. We had decided to launch a major organizing effort in Alabama. We started training worker organizers. And after people came to us about the Bessemer facility, we decided to focus those worker organizers on this Amazon warehouse. JTA: Isn’t it also true that given the overall decline in union memberships over the last few decades, as well as the decimation of physical retail, your union needs this fight as much as those workers need you? Appelbaum: Despite our name, we’re involved in many industries. We have tens of thousands of people involved in food processing. We felt that this was the sort of campaign that really captured the zeitgeist, was really about the moment that the American labor movement needed to take on. It’s impacting not just commerce, it’s impacting logistics, technology, all sorts of things. We felt we had to take it on. This is also not our first experience with Amazon. We were heavily involved in the fight over HQ2 in New York City. [In 2019 Amazon aborted plans to open a major office in Queens after intense criticism.] What we learned from that fight was that Amazon is arrogant and tone-deaf and can be beat. And we’re assured that Amazon will be beat, even if it’s not in this first election. JTA: Do the old rules of organizing still apply in big tech today? Appelbaum: Tools may have changed over time. We take advantage of a lot more digital tools than we ever even conceived of years ago. But I think that it’s still the same thing. You need to communicate honestly with people. You need to listen to people. And you need to engage them. And it’s really the same concerns now, at their core, as they’ve been for decades — about people wanting to have a voice at work, people wanting to have their health and safety protected, people wanting to be paid decent wages with decent benefits, people wanting dignity and justice when they go to work. These are the same things we’re

talking about now as we were talking about almost 85 years ago, when the union was formed. JTA: You are also president of the Jewish Labor Committee. Do you think that organized labor is resonating with American Jews now the same way it was when this group was formed in the 1930s? Appelbaum: When we were formed in the ’30s, we were really focusing on what was happening in Europe to the Jewish community. And the demographics of the labor movement were different. But I’m really proud that our Jewish heritage has inspired so many Jews to align themselves with social justice. And I think that’s something we have done for generations. I feel like there is still strong sentiment in the Jewish community to stand up and support people in need, including working people. We’ve brought resolution after resolution to the Jewish Council for Public Affairs over the years. And they’ve taken amazing stances on behalf of the Jewish community in support of workers and workers’ rights. I’m also on the executive committee of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. And I’ve brought to the conference people like Rich Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, and Tom Perez, when he was chair of the Democratic National Committee, and Kamala Harris, when she was running for president. And I’m really impressed with the positive response they all received from across the political spectrum. JTA: You have invoked a Passover metaphor during the Amazon fight. Appelbaum: I’m not quite sure if I actually did refer to Jeff Bezos as Pharaoh. [Laughs] But the point I was making was really that the struggle of the Israelites to escape oppression and achieve freedom is really comparable, in many ways, to the struggle of working people to escape what they see as oppression from our workforce, and to try to gain their own dignity and justice. For instance, what really bothers workers [at Amazon] is they feel like robots are being managed by robots. They feel dehumanized. Every motion they make is monitored and surveilled. They’re expected to work at a pace that’s unbearable. Amazon facilities are not air conditioned, no matter how sweltering heat is, because the robots don’t like the air conditioning. People are going back to feeling like robots that are managed by an algorithm. They’re disciplined by an app on their phone. And they’re fired by a text message. These are not working conditions that we want to become the norm going forward. And these are the sorts of conditions that people are trying to escape. And I think in many ways you could see parallels with the stories of anybody who was suppressed, including the time of Moses.

April 8, 2021

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

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global news

The next major Jewish action is on behalf of Uighurs By Ron Kampeas JTA When Rayhan Asat attended a Passover seder last month, its contours seemed familiar and different at once — especially the tradition of leaving a seat empty at the table. It reminded Asat, a lawyer, of leaving a seat empty for her brother, Ekpar, at her graduation from Harvard Law School in 2016. Ekpar, a member of China’s Uighur minority, had been disappeared by the Chinese government. Jewish World Watch, an anti-genocide group that hosted the online seder for Uighurs on March 30, suggested that families leave a seat at the seder table for the more than a million people whom China’s government has imprisoned or otherwise disappeared. “As a sister of an imprisoned victim of China’s antiUighur campaign, Ekpar Asat, I’m grateful a seat has been reserved for him on this Passover,” Asat said as she participated in the recitation of the plagues. “This seat is very different than Ekpar’s seat that remained empty at my Harvard graduation.” In an interview a couple of days later, Asat told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that her first encounter with Jews was when she befriended Jewish students at Harvard. She quickly realized that they would be compassionate allies in the struggle of her Muslim ethnic minority. “Other people, you know, they might ask questions like, ‘Oh why did they put him in the camp?’ or ‘How did this happen?’” Asat said. “And what is so assuring was the level of compassion and understanding that comes from the Jewish community because of the history and the community’s deep understanding of how these things do happen, and I don’t have to explain it to them.” One of the friends Asat made at Harvard, Amy Woolfson, has become a leading campaigner for the Uighurs in her native England, where British Jews have emerged as leading champions for the Uighur cause. Now Jewish organizers in the United States are hoping to galvanize American Jews in the same way through a major Jewish advocacy campaign on a par with the Save Darfur campaign of the 2000s. That campaign helped bring about a peace process that culminated last year in an agreement between Sudan and the Darfur rebel groups. Many Jewish groups have already issued statements and taken policy positions as an early step, and a community effort in Indianapolis is emerging as a local model. DELICATE SITUATION But even as they ramp up their activity on the issue, the organizers say they recognize that going up against China is potentially a more fraught endeavor for American Jews. “Anytime that one deals with a government that has an important relationship with Israel and with the United States, one needs to weigh the pluses and minuses of criticism,” said Jason Isaacson, the chief policy and political affairs officer for the American Jewish Committee. “There are times when the demands of conscience require kind of a reassessment of that balance, but we have never wanted to behave in a way that would prevent continued contact for mutual interest.” In recent months, attention to the Uighur cause has deepened, with new reports about how China’s government has interned members of the Turkic Muslim minority in “reeducation” camps. The government said the move is meant to combat terrorism. Reports, denied by the government, say the captive Uighurs are pressured to abandon their culture and have been forced into labor, and that women have been sterilized. The Trump administration designated the atrocities against the Uighur a genocide, and in a rare foreign policy consistency across administrations, President Joe Biden has embraced the term as well. “It clearly has deep resonance to Jewish history,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, who led the Jewish campaign for Darfur when he helmed the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center. “It has evoked a response.

Protesters against China’s policies toward the Uighurs demonstrate outside United Nations headquarters in New York City, March 22, 2021. The protester in the foreground is wearing a kippah. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) “There are a number of grassroots groups around the country that have mobilized around Uighur issues, a number of national groups have taken policy positions on it, and speak out on it, including the [Union for Reform Judaism] and the American Jewish Committee and others,” said Saperstein, who participated in the online seder and is now a senior adviser to the Religious Action Center. Other major Jewish groups involved in Uighur activism include the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, the Anti-Defamation League and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. NOT LIKE DARFUR So far it hasn’t translated into widespread action like that generated by the Darfur issue, when teens donated their bar and bat mitzvah money to the cause. Serena Oberstein, the Jewish World Watch executive director who is at the nexus of the emerging campaign, identified a number of factors to explain why the rollout has yet to achieve the intensity of the Jewish Darfur activism 15 years ago. Oberstein named the difficulties of direct action during the pandemic, and China’s world preeminence — compared to Sudan’s relative powerlessness — and how that can inhibit Jewish action. “I think that because of how integral China is to the world’s economy, people really want to support in theory, and so it’s a matter of taking it beyond just words and turning it into deeds, getting corporations to end partnerships to pull their labor force out,” she said. That effort gets sensitive when a Jewish organization is partnered with a corporation that does business in China, or when board members of an organization do business in China, Oberstein said. “I’ve heard from a number of people who have said things like, ‘I want to be supportive, but my business has a headquarters in Shanghai,’” she said. “They work in the private sector and they don’t want to be pushed out of the Shanghai market. And so that is something that is really hard to hear.” BOYCOTT Another factor, Oberstein said, is the trepidation about validating boycotts (although Uighur activists and their allies are not yet calling for boycotts) at a time that the mainstream Jewish community is trying to face down calls from the left to boycott Israel. Isaacson acknowledged the risks of taking on a major power, particularly for an organization like his. The American Jewish Committee fashions itself as the Jewish community’s diplomatic arm. But the persecution of the Uighurs are so acute, he said, it necessitated some form of action. “You also recognize that we’re an organization that has a long-standing relationship with China, we have an Asia Pacific Institute that has maintained a high level of contact in Beijing and through consulates

and the embassy and the U.N. mission in New York,” he said. “So we take our diplomatic contact very seriously and we recognize that this is a government that we want to remain in contact with, but terrible abuses are being committed and they need to be addressed.” A number of the Jewish groups now speaking out on the Uighur issue have already been advocating for the Rohingya, the Muslim minority facing the depredations of a government ethnic-cleansing campaign in Myanmar. LOOKING TO EUROPE They are also looking to Europe, where the Jewish campaign for the Uighurs is more advanced. In England, students have taken the lead in advocacy, and have recruited to their cause the British chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who rarely involves himself in political issues. A trigger in Europe for activism is the concentration in that continent of fashion designers, who import Chinese cotton. About a fifth of the world’s cotton is produced in the Xinjiang region, where the Uighurs are indigenous. Human rights groups say forced Uighur labor is being used to produce cotton. The United States banned cotton from Xinjiang earlier this year. Among its actions, the American Jewish Committee welcomed the Trump administration designation last year of the anti-Uighur persecution as a genocide, and it backs legislation under consideration in Congress that would ban the entry into the United States of goods believed to be manufactured in Uighur labor camps, and that would elevate the refugee status of Uighurs. JEWISH LAWMAKER The two pieces of legislation, with bipartisan support, have become the focus of Jewish community lobbying. Rep. Ted Deutch, a Jewish Democrat from Florida, is a lead sponsor of the refugee bill, which would reclassify Uighur refugees for more immediate access to U.S. resettlement. He told JTA that his Jewish involvement was a leading factor in advancing the bill. “Jewish communities have lived in countries with antagonistic rulers where we’ve been forced into ghettos,” he said. “We’ve been used as scapegoats for issues within countries, there have been efforts to force us to give up our traditions, made to convert under the threat of death.” At this stage, national action is focusing on educating Jewish communities, said Tammy Gilden, the associate director for policy at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, or JCPA, the umbrella body for national and regional community relations groups. But that will transition soon to activism. A webinar for constituent groups in January that included Asat sparked enough interest for a repeat last week, and the JCPA is shaping a resolution to guide further action. “We received this deluge of requests for a more public lengthy or more in-depth conversation on the issue,” she said.

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The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

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global news

Strained Saudi-US ties will likely bring Gulf kingdom closer to Israel By Yaakov Lappin JNS American-Saudi ties have been growing increasingly strained in recent months—a development that will likely see the Sunni power draw even closer to Jerusalem, Israeli observers have told JNS. Professor Eyal Zisser, vice rector of Tel Aviv University and the holder of the Yona and Dina Ettinger Chair in Contemporary History of the Middle East, said that it appears as if relations between Washington and Riyadh are returning to the type of relationship the two countries had during the days of the Obama administration. “American support is not automatic or unconditional,” said Zisser. Meanwhile, Washington is pursuing its objective of progressing to a nuclear agreement with Iran, despite deep misgivings by Saudi Arabia and Israel, he added. The United States is no longer censoring its criticism of internal Saudi affairs, particularly on the issue of human rights, noted Zisser. The diplomatic tensions are coming at a particularly sensitive time in the region. Col. (res.) Udi Evental, senior research fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, stated in a recent paper that the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen have significantly

increased the frequency of missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia. “The uptick in attacks occurred despite a decision by Biden to remove the Houthis from the United States’ terror designation list and its decision to suspend sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia that it uses in its war in Yemen against the Houthis,” he wrote. On March 7, the national Saudi oil company, Aramco, came under missile and drone attack in its oil terminal at Ras Tanura, one of the largest oil shipping ports in the world in eastern Saudi Arabia. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, although Saudi officials later said they originated either in Iran or Iraq and not Yemen. “The Houthis have also publicly threatened to attack Israel, and reports have recently stated that the Israel Defense Forces deployed an Iron Dome battery in the south,” said Zisser, to protect against a potential attack from Yemen. “The Saudis are fully reliant on the U.S., so they will dance to the American flute in the hope for better days,” he assessed. “The U.S., too, has limitations; it can’t totally break ties with Saudi Arabia because that will have consequences on what U.S. allies around the world will say. So cooperation must occur, but with many disagreements that are now being openly expressed.” This will, on the one hand, bring

U.S. and Saudi flags. (FreshStock/Shutterstock) Saudi Arabia closer to Israel, he added, since Riyadh will not feel that it can trust Washington as much. On the other hand, the lack of U.S. backing and ongoing U.S. pressure will cause Saudi Arabia to be cautious about doing this publicly. These developments “encourage the Iranians to increase their daring with negative consequences for regional stability. However, the Iranians have prioritized the goal of reaching a nuclear agreement at the moment. After that, everything will be open,” said Zisser. ‘Aim to achieve a greater balance of power in the Middle East’ Professor Benny Miller, an expert on international relations from the School of Political Sciences at the University of Haifa, told JNS that the Biden administration will show “much greater sensitivity to the Saudi human-rights violations than [former

President Donald] Trump, and to some extent, will go beyond Obama in ending U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.” However, he added, “the commitment of the U.S. security umbrella in relation to external threats—Iran— will persist.” The Saudis, in turn, “will have an incentive to ‘compensate’ for their human-rights violations by upgrading their relations with Israel,” continued Miller. “At the same time, this issue [the normalization of Israeli-Saudi ties], even if welcomed by Biden, will not have the high urgency it had under Trump before the 2020 elections.” In terms of regional security, “while Trump tried to create a ‘hegemonic’ alliance of Israelis and Arabs vis-à-vis a much weakened Iran, Biden—like Obama, in this sense— will aim to achieve a greater balance of power in the Middle East between the Israel-Arab alliance vs. Iran, but this also heavily depends on the Iranian response,” assessed Miller. “If Iran continues to endorse a hardline and aggressiveness, Biden will give more support to the Israel-Arab alliance.” “The key objective of the administration will be to stabilize the region,” he added, “so as to enable a gradual U.S. disengagement from the region militarily, and so that the U.S. will be able to focus on its foreign policy issue—the competition with China.”

Rabbi Peter Hyman receives world’s highest Scouting award By Alan Smason JNS Rabbi Peter Hyman was announced as the recipient of the Bronze Wolf Award, the highest Scouting award in the world and the only one given by the World Scout Committee, on March 30. It acknowledges the significant work of an individual to the World Scout Movement. Rabbi Hyman became the 377th individual to have received this award since it was first established in 1935. The founder of the Scouting movement, Lord Robert Smyth Baden-Powell, was the initial recipient. Rabbi Hyman is the first rabbi to have been honored and one of a handful of Jewish recipients worldwide. He is the first Jewish recipient of the Bronze Wolf Award since Alain Silberstein of France, the executive secretary of the International Forum of Jewish Scouts, who was named in 2016. The rabbi was selected to receive the award for his work encouraging interfaith dialogue as the first chairman of the “Messengers of Peace” sponsored by the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. He was even invited as the first rabbi to visit Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he spoke at the invitation

Rabbi Peter Hyman (left) with the last Jewish recipient of the Bronze Wolf Award, Alain Silberstein of France. (Alan Smason) of King Abdullah on Scouting’s values before a group of worldwide Scouting sponsors. He served as head chaplain at three World Jamborees: in Thailand; in Japan; and at the most recent one held in 2019 at the Brechtel Family Summit Reserve in West Virginia, jointly sponsored by the United States, Canada and Mexico. A former national chairman and longtime national chaplain for the National Jewish Committee on Scout-

ing associated with the Boy Scouts of America, the rabbi has been named a Distinguished Eagle Scout. He has also served as head chaplain for four previous National Jamborees. Contacted by the Crescent City Jewish News to speak on this award and his family connection to Scouting, Rabbi Hyman said he was “speechless and stunned.” He said his career began before he was even a Cub Scout. “My father was a Scoutmaster, [and] I was at Boy Scout camp way before I was old enough to be a Scout because he used to take me with him,” he explained. The family connection continued after his own Scouting career ended. “I take great pride in the fact that both of my boys are Eagle Scouts,” noted Rabbi Hyman. He said he is grateful for what Scouting has allowed him to do and for the ability to share its values with others around the world. “It’s allowed me in many ways to give back to this foundational movement,” he said. “It speaks to the value, the vision, the mission and the power of Scouting.” Rabbi Hyman is the religious leader of Temple B’nai Israel in Easton, Md. Previously, he served at synagogues in Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania.

reader’s forum JEWISH WAR VETERANS POST 605 MARKS ANNIVERSARY The Jewish War Veterans Post 605 would like to announce the March 15 commemoration of the 125th Anniversary of the founding of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America. The Jewish War Veterans (JWV) is the oldest active veterans group in the United States. Founded to commemorate the Jewish soldiers’ participation

in the Civil War, the JWV has continued to represent and help Jewish war veterans who served our country up until the present. Jews have served our nation in peace and war since our founding, and it is important that all Americans understand that Jews also shoulder the burdens of our nation, and do not shirk our duty to protect the United States. In recent years, the JWV, and our post, have added to our mission to try to help all veterans who need assistance. Post 605 has participated in service

projects for a number of years to help all veterans in need. The post’s service activities usually culminate in our Holiday Gifts for Vets program, where we give veterans in need essential items to help them transition to a more normal life. The Post works with the VA hospitals in Kansas City and Leavenworth, and other veteran centers in the area to provide needed supplies and essentials to the veterans in those facilities. Even during the pandemic, the post

continued to provide for needy veterans by substituting Walmart gift cards for essential items (the VA facilities would not allow any item to go into their hospitals). The mission to help veterans does not stop for the post! The JWV looks to the future to continue to represent Jewish veterans, and to further help all those in need who have served our country. William Greenberg Post Commander JWV Post 605

April 8, 2021

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

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obituaries SIMON RAHBARRAD LAVI Sion Rahbarrad Lavi passed away peacefully, in his home, on April 2, 2021, in Olathe, Kansas, a few months short of his 100th birthday. Born in Hamadan, Iran, he was the youngest of seven children. In the early 1980s, Sion and his wife Parvin emigrated to the United States to rejoin their children whom they had sent here a few years earlier. He left behind a successful career as a bookkeeper, a comfortable home, and most of his belongings. In his mid-60s, he and Parvin learned a new language and started their new life from scratch. He was a man of deep faith and tradition who embraced life with an open mind. His humility was a source of strength, and he possessed a quiet dignity that drew young and old towards him. He had a green thumb that even the most avid gardeners would envy and he loved to tinker with anything electronic or fix anything that was broken. He enjoyed his wife’s delicious meals and taught his children and grandchildren how to make the perfect loghmeh (a mini-sandwich wrap). Most of all, it was his love for his children and their children which made him happy. He was preceded in death by his parents, Tavus and Yahudah Lavi and all of his siblings. His memory lives on through his wife, Parvin, their two children Mahta and Mahyar with their respective spouses William and Christiane, four grand-children and spouses Setareh & Michael, Sanam & Eric, Arman and Amita, and three wonderful great-granddaughters Isabelle, Layla and Sasha. He will be missed dearly. The family suggests memorial contributions to the Congregation Beth Torah Families in Need Fund. Online condolences for the family may be left at www.louismemorialchapel.com. (Arr: The Louis Memorial Chapel 816-361-5211) MORTON STANLEY MANN Morton Stanley Mann, 92, of Prairie Village, KS passed away April 4, 2021 at his home. A private family service was be held on Wednesday, April 7, 2021 at Mt. Carmel Cemetery. Please email zoom2@louismemorial. com for Zoom information. Morton was born November 29, 1928 in Kansas City, MO to Paul and Jesse Mann. He graduated from Southwest High School and later joined the U.S. Army serving in the Korean War. Morton worked the

majority of his career at Block and Company Real Estate for many years then later owned his own answering service, Johnson County Answering Service. Morton enjoyed playing golf at Meadowbrook Golf Course and was an avid woodworker. He was also famous in the family for fixing all things that needed sewing. Morton was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Harriet and sister, Nellie Yeddis. Survivors include his sons, Russel Mann (Ann), Darren Mann; grandchildren, Julie Harding (Jordan), Sarah Mann, Jessica Mann; great granddaughter, Sophie Grace Harding and many loving nieces and nephews. Online condolences for the family may be left at www.louismemorialchapel.com. (Arr: The Louis Memorial Chapel 816-361-5211) MARCIA ROSALYN THOMAS Marcia Rosalyn Thomas, formerly Marcia Rosalyn Markowitz, age 76, died peacefully in her sleep April 4, 2021 at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. At her request, a small graveside service for family will be held at Sheffield cemetery where she will be laid to rest. In lieu of flowers, please send a contribution to the United Way of Greater Kansas City or plant a tree in Israel through the Jewish National Fund https://usa.jnf.org/jnf-treeplanting-center/ Marcia was born December 2, 1944, in Fort Worth, Texas to Samuel and Davida Markowitz. Mr. and Mrs. Markowitz moved to Kansas City, her father’s hometown, with Marcia in 1946 and were soon thereafter joined by the arrival of Marcia’s baby brother, Joel. Marcia was a two-time alum of the University of Missouri, where she earned her bachelor’s in journalism and her masters in library science. Marcia lived and worked in Kansas City her entire adult life. Marcia married her husband, John “Jack” Katchmarik, on her fiftieth birthday in 1994. Together, they enjoyed twenty-six wonderful years of marriage. Marcia was very active in her community from the 1970’s into the past decade. In 2012, Kansas City’s thenMayer Sly James recognized Marcia’s substantial record of service toward her community with a Good Neighbor Award. Marcia’s personal philosophy was, “If you turn it up loud enough, you can find the answer to any of life’s challenges in rock and roll.” Marcia is survived by her husband, Jack; her son Aaron, Aaron’s wife Shelby, and their children Reagan (age 18), Davis (age 15), and Shiloh (age 8); her son James, James’s wife Afton, and their children Olive (age 9) and Noah (age 6); and by Marcia’s brother, Joel, Joel’s wife Susan, and their two children Adam (age 24) and Sarah (age 24).

Online condolences for the family may be left at www.louismemorialchapel.com. (Arr: The Louis Memorial Chapel 816-361-5211) CHARLES L. TIGERMAN Charles L. Tigerman, 89, of Overland Park, Kansas passed away peacefully on March 31, 2021. Private family services will be held. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Charlie’s memory to a charity of one’s choice. Charles was born May 27, 1931 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to the late James S. and Hazel (Frisch) Tigerman. When Charlie was just 3 years old, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri. This is where Charlie grew up, graduating from Southwest High School in 1948 and continuing his education at Kansas City Junior College in 1950. On November 30, 1951, Charlie enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. He served at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois and then served at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, near

Kaiserslautern. While serving in Germany, Charlie met Ruth Theobald. They were then married on November 5, 1955, in Kaiserslautern, Germany at a U.S. military chapel. After being honorably discharged in January of 1956, Charlie and Ruth returned to Kansas City where they spent the better half of 60 years together. Charlie held various jobs for a few years before going to work for the U.S. Postal Service. Charlie was a devoted mail carrier until his retirement in 1989. For 23 years, with his wife Ruth, Charlie volunteered at Shawnee Mission Medical Center. He was a proud member of the American Legion Post 370, and a member of the Letter Carriers Union Branch 5521. Charlie was also a long time member of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah. In addition to his parents, Charlie was preceded in death by his wife, Ruth. He is survived by his niece and her husband: Janice and James Hodes; nephews and their wives: Rick and Cindy Glass, Randy and Diane Glass; and eight grandnieces and grandnephews. Online condolences for the family may be left at www.louismemorialchapel.com. (Arr: The Louis Memorial Chapel 816-361-5211)

Rabbi Robert Marx, social justice pioneer who marched with Martin Luther King, dies at 93 (JTA) — Robert Marx, a pioneering social justice advocate and leading Reform rabbi who drew inspiration from his experiences marching with Martin Luther King, Jr., is dead at 93. He died on March 28 at the beginning of the Passover holiday, surrounded by family at his home in Saugatuck, Michigan, the Chicago Tribune reported. He had suffered a heart attack weeks prior, the Chicago Sun-Times noted. Marx’s legacy lives on through the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, a community organizing group devoted to social justice causes in Chicago that he founded in 1964, and the Hakafa congregation on the city’s North Shore that he founded in 1983, which grew from a few families to hundreds of members. The Cleveland native, ordained at the Reform flagship Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, was moved to

make Holocaust comparisons after witnessing white Chicagoans pelt civil rights marchers with rocks and bottles in the summer of 1966. During the march, Marx reportedly sat guard in front of a pile of rocks so that the racist protesters could not use them. “What I saw in Gage Park seared my soul,” Marx wrote in a letter to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which is now the Union for Reform Judaism. “I was afraid and I am afraid now. I saw how the concentration camp could have occurred, and how men’s hatred could lead them to kill.” Quotes from that letter are inscribed on a memorial in Chicago’s Marquette Park to King and the infamous march, which King called the most hostile he had ever seen at the time. Marx marched with King in a follow-up in August of 1966, as he had in the famed Selma march of 1965.

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The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

April 8, 2021

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