HAPPY GRADUATE — Karen B. Gerson graduated with her Executive Masters of Public Administration degree from the Bloch School of Business and Management from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in May. Karen is well known in the Jewish community getting her professional start here working in the
after-school program at the Jewish Community Center. Prior to completion of graduate school, Karen worked for The Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City as the director of informal Jewish education. In June, she completed a five-month executive internship with First Call, whose mission is to reduce the impact of alcohol, drugs and addiction by providing quality resources to individuals, families and the community.
JUST CALL HIM RABBI Q — Rabbi Mendel Segal, executive director of the local Vaad HaKashruth, is knee-deep in preparing for the third annual Kansas City Kosher BBQ Contest & Festival, slated to take place Aug. 17, at a new location — The Ritz Charles. While preparing for this festival, the rabbi has been dabbling in a little barbecue himself and he’s getting a little publicity for it as well. His team, Rabbi Q, was named Grand Champion at Chicago’s first ever Kosher BBQ contest a few weeks ago. He entered the annual barbecue competition in Liberty last week, drawing the attention of KCTV-5, which interviewed the rabbi. And in a clever twist, he spells the name of his team with upper and lower case letters, as to emphasize BBQ — RaBBi-Q! I hear this time RaBBi-Q took 11th place in the chicken competition. Go to KCTV-5 to see the entire story.
VICTIMS OF TERROR FUND — The Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City is collecting donations for the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Victims of Terror fund for those who want to show solidarity with Israel and honor the memories of Gilad Shaar, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrach. This fund provides Israel’s terror victims with direct, immediate financial aid. One hundred percent of donations to this fund will go to victims with immediate needs. Donations are accepted online at www.jewishkansascity.org; via phone by contacting Bev Jacobson at 913-327-8108 or via checks. Send checks to Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, 5801 W. 115th Street, Suite 201, Overland Park, KS 66211, Attn: Victims of Terror Fund.
VISITING A VIBRANT JEWISH COMMUNITY — Last month the Jewish community of Costa Rica invited Max Cardozo, a Holocaust survivor who is a native of Holland, to speak on the occasion of Anne Frank’s birthday. She was born on June 12, 1929, in Germany, but the famous attic where she hid was in Holland. This year is the 85th anniversary of her birth.
Cardozo is a Holocaust survivor from Holland. In previous interviews with The Chronicle, he explained how in the summer of 1942, with the start of the deportations of the Dutch Jews to the camps in the East, his family went into hiding. By the time the Germans withdrew from Holland on May 9, 1945, Cardozo had changed hiding places six times, having been helped by five families (one twice). All four members of his immediate family survived and were reunited at the end of the war.
Cardozo, who has been a resident of Overland Park for many years, was invited to speak on the anniversary of Frank’s death in Costa Rica because he lived in the Central American country for more than 15 years. He spoke to approximately 200 people at the Shaare Zion Synagogue and again at the Haim Weizmann Comprehensive School, an Orthodox day school located in San Jose that has more than 200 pupils enrolled in kindergarten, primary and secondary grades. The students learn in Spanish and Hebrew. Cardozo says most Jewish children in that area attend the Jewish day school.
He reports that Jewish life in Costa Rica today is very vibrant and caters to the 2,500 Jews in the country. All denominations of the community revolve around the Centro Israelita Sionista founded in 1930, which includes a WIZO, B’nai B’rith, La Sociedad de Damas Israelitas de Beneficencia, as well as several Zionist and youth organizations. New buildings for the Shaare Zion Synagogue and the community center were inaugurated in September 2004 on a 17,000-square-meter plot. The new buildings house the synagogue, the Hanoar HaTzioni youth organization’s headquarters, a community museum and library, a kosher restaurant, and three mikvahs, one for women, men and khelim (kosher dishes and utensils). These buildings also house administrative offices for all active Jewish organizations in Costa Rica, including the Asociacion Ciudadano de Oro House, the Golden Citizen Association for the elderly.
Kosher food is readily available in San Jose with a kosher butcher shop, and a delicatessen run by Orthodox Jews that carries kosher products. There are two kosher hotels in Costa Rica, one in San Jose, and another in Camino Real. Until 2010, a kosher Burger King even existed in one San Jose shopping mall.
Cardozo wants to thank the Costa Rican Jewish community once again for their hospitality, and hopes Jews around here will consider visiting the Jewish community there soon.