MAKING OUR WORLD A BETTER PLACE ONE TOOTHBRUSH AT A TIME — It’s awesome when the youngest members of our community feel the need to help repair the world. Drew Squire, an alum of the Beth Shalom Rose Family Early Childhood Education Center, started learning about tikkun olam while he was in preschool and he has continued living with strong Judaic values today. After a recent trip to the dentist Drew learned that orphanages in third world countries did not have proper dental care. It moved him and he started collecting brand new toothbrushes. Here’s what he said in a video posted on Facebook.
“I really want to start a toothbrush drive because I heard some kids in some orphanages have to share toothbrushes with other people. I really want the kids to be happy and have their own and not spread germs. So I will be donating them to Global Dental Relief. Some of the countries are India, Kenya, Cambodia, Nepal and Guatemala. Please, please, please give us one or more packaged toothbrushes to make the kids happy. Thank you. “
Drew is the son of Jamie and Mindi Squire and is a first-grade student at Mission Trail Elementary School and The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah. The Squires have already shipped 1,500 toothbrushes to Global Dental Relief and Drew has collected about 300 more. Donations are still being accepted at Beth Shalom.
“Drew always has ideas how to make things better,” said Judy Jacks Berman, director of early childhood education at Beth Shalom.
HOOPS AND MINYANS — Whoever said that basketball can be a religious experience can now mean that literally. HBHA parent Jeff Goldenberg recently wanted to attend his daughters’ basketball game, but it was also his father’s yahrzeit. He went to the game and the HBHA community was at his side when he needed to say Kaddish. Here’s what happened in Goldenberg’s owns words: “To avoid missing the game, I simply convened a minyan at half time of the game (well after sundown). My fellow boosters were more than happy to assist. We did this right in the stands. A number of us have davened is some unusual places, for many this was a first. I don’t usually get too worked up over this part of the process, as I’ve been observing this for 22 years (hard to believe!), but I was a bit overwhelmed by the support of my friends and community. It was a lot different than being in shul or even in a shiva house.”
I don’t know whether the Lady Rams won the game, but their supporters sure were winners that night!
LOCAL JEWISH FEDERATION AMONG THOSE CHAMPIONING MARRIAGE OUTSIDE THE RABBINATE IN ISRAEL — The Times of Israel reported last week that a consortium of Jewish Federations, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, has awarded grants to several Israeli-based groups to encourage Israelis to consider alternatives to marrying through the Chief Rabbinate. By Israeli law, only Jewish weddings performed by the Orthodox rabbinate are recognized by the State and received official marriage certificates. Jewish ceremonies performed in Israel by any other liberal branch of Judaism is not officially recognized.
The local Jewish Federation is a member of The Israel Religious Expression Platform, or IRep, funded by the Federations as well as private foundations. It aims to strengthen Israeli civil society and encourage respect for diverse Jewish expressions in Israel. The other Federations involved are Ann Arbor, Boston, Cincinnati, Greensboro, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.
The groups receiving funding are Od Yishama, a collaborative venture of The Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism; the Masorti (Conservative) movement in Israel; Israel Hofsheet; Hiddush, an advocacy and public education organization that works to strengthen Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and Ne”Emanei Torah Va’Avodah, a religious-Zionist organization.
Jewish Federation’s President and CEO Todd Stettner said the organization has been involved in supporting religious pluralism in Israel for a long time. In fact, Alan Edelman, Jewish Federations associate executive director said that history goes back more than 20 years to when “Who is a Jew,” was a big issue.
Edelman said one reason the Kansas City Jewish Federation supports these issues of pluralism is because the issue affects a significant number of Israel’s Jews, especially those from the former Soviet Union.
