Israeli experts in emergency preparedness offer help

With its experience of war and terrorism, sadly, few nations’ health-care systems have more experience treating mass-casualty events than does Israel. Happily, though, Israeli hospitals are eager to share that expertise with their colleagues in the United States.

It was to promote that exchange of information and ideas that brought Judith Jochnowitz from the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya to the Kansas City area this week. Jochnowitz spoke to members of the public and to hospital personnel in Overland Park Wednesday as part of a multi-stop national speaking tour.

Jochnowitz, who was born in Pennsylvania and made aliyah in 1975, became a hospital employee in 1997 and has worked to build relationships between WGH and its counterparts in the United States ever since.

The Western Galilee region is linked via the Jewish Agency’s “Partnership 2000” program to 16 different cities in the central United States — from Akron, Ohio, to San Antonio, Texas. And it was as part of Partnership 2000 that WGH established its first “Emergency Response Group” training course, in which American physicians, nurses and hospital administrators travel to Israel to see how their peers prepare for mass-casualty emergencies. The participants earn continuing-education credits and wedge two days of sightseeing into the weeklong program. The next one begins Oct. 29.

‘As the Katyusha flies’
While the Americans can and have learned a great deal from the exchange program, it’s unlikely that any American hospital will implement emergency-preparedness measures on a scale that WGH — which sits just six miles south of the Lebanese border “as the Katyusha flies,” Jochnowitz said — has.

WGH has 700 beds above ground, plus a 450-bed underground facility that sits empty most of the time, but which was employed during the Second Lebanon War of 2006, when Hezbollah forces crossed the border to attack Israeli soldiers and kidnapped some of them.

“We were targeted from the very first morning of the war,” Jochnowitz said. “They improved their aim, and on the 16th day of the war, a Katyusha rocket flew in a fourth-floor window in the ophthalmology department and exploded, causing extensive damage.

“Luckily, no one was injured because of our emergency preparedness. On the first night of the war, we moved 225 patients to the underground facility — those on the north side of the building whose rooms were exposed, or those totally bed-ridden, like maternity patients just before or after birth. Those who couldn’t fend for themselves.”

Jochnowitz said Israelis realize it’s not necessary for every hospital to take such precautions.

“It’s not necessary to bury millions of dollars worth of equipment underground,” Jochnowitz said. “There are inexpensive things you can do, too, like installing colored lines on the floor and using color-coded instruction sheets in every department.”

In addition, Jochnowitz said, exchange-program participants have found that “American hospitals are not accustomed to drilling, which we feel is a very important part of emergency preparedness. So we teach them how we do it.”

Jochnowitz said two of WGH’s physicians — eye surgeon Dr. Zvi Sheleg and the head of its trauma unit, Dr. Guy Lin — were in Haiti this week as part of a team of Israelis volunteering to treat the most recent mass-casualty event to galvanize global attention — the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Kibbutz at odds with educator

A dispute between Kibbutz Gezer management and kibbutznik David Leichman has led to the partial destruction of the outdoor education park, Pinat Shorashim, which was the starting point for the now-decade-old relationship between various entities in the Kansas City area and the Ramla-Gezer region.

The differences between Leichman, who established the park, and the current managers involve costs, payments, permits and other issues of the sort that often lead to lawsuits in the United States.

In Israel, Leichman says he doesn’t want to hurt the kibbutz he helped to establish, and so he has done as the managers have asked — walked away from his creation and turned it over to them.

Who is responsible for the apparent destruction of certain statues and other semi-permanent parts of the park is hard to say from halfway around the world. But the dispute is apparently about to break out into public view with a story in Haaretz, Israel’s leading newspaper, according to Leichman.

A personal connection
Pinat Shorashim is Hebrew for “Corner of our Roots,” and it was Leichman’s experiment in experiential Zionist education. Visitors built grape arbors and sculptures of animals mentioned in the Bible, for example.

Now, the dispute centers on who controls the seven-acre park and its improvements.

Jewish Federation Associate Executive Director Alan Edelman said Pinat Shorashim “is designed to help people make a connection to Israel; to leave a mark in an area. It’s unlike planting trees — which is great, but you never knew where they were. People from Kansas City created pieces of Pinat Shorashim and have that personal connection. My kids go back and make a beeline for the sage garden they helped create. … I am sure other people who created things feel that same attachment.”

Edelman first made the connection with Leichman and helped to build on that relationship over the years, including the establishment of Sister-City relationships between Kansas City, Mo., and Ramla and between Leawood, Kan., and the Gezer Region. Leawood dedicated a new Gezer Park at 133rd Street and Mission Road in October.

Edelman said Tuesday he was sorry to see the split between Leichman and the kibbutz, but that it is part of the overall transformation of the kibbutz movement away from collectivization and toward individualism and bottom-line profit.

Leichman said much the same thing. Kibbutz Gezer today is a far different place than the one he helped to found (reestablish, actually) back in 1976 with such fellow American expatriates as J.J. Goldberg, who is now editor of The Forward, and David Twersky, the former New Jersey Jewish News editor.

Rocky road
“The kibbutz has gone though major changes,” Leichman said this week. “Most people aren’t really involved in the ins and outs. Everyone earns his own salary. There is a secretary general, a mazkir, who is a member, and then there are two other people — the executive director or general manager, and a business manager — and they are hired professionals. They are not members … so you have a situation where a handful of people are making these decisions.”

Leichman sent out a letter to Pinat Shorashim supporters Dec. 27, saying in part: “During the past few months, we have been in negotiations with the kibbutz regarding the amount of ‘rent’ they want us to pay. It seems that they feel the land could be more valuable if developed in a different way. We have had a rocky road with the administration of Kibbutz Gezer for quite some time. In the last couple of years they have created a number of obstacles that made our work very difficult at times. Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to come to an agreement with the kibbutz.”

Leichman said he agreed to vacate Pinat Shorashim at year’s end, although he is still unhappy over the kibbutz’s claim to the trees and other improvements he says his not-for-profit entity made over the past 18 years.

When The Jewish Chronicle inquired of Kibbutz Gezer Mazkira Marcos Ben-Elias by e-mail this week, he responded by polling the kibbutz’s elected secretariat, which issued a letter, saying the kibbutz “deeply regrets the departure” of Leichman’s not-for-profit entity “from its property,” but that issues between the two became insurmountable. (See below for text of letter)

“I intend to continue living at the kibbutz, but I am deeply hurt by what the community has done,” Leichman said. “I was creating this educational philosophy and process … that left a product. And what’s happening today is they are trying to claim the product is theirs, and it’s very uncomfortable. … They want us to leave what people in Kansas City generously gave. … We took seven acres of weeds and turned it into a beautiful, blooming park, filled with educational tools. Those tools will, unfortunately, be lost. …

“We will come to some kind of compromise, I am pretty sure. … The not-for-profit (entity) is not closing. We are looking for alternative ways of continuing, but I am not 100 percent sure that will happen.”

Pinat Shorashim West
Although Rabbi Arthur Nemitoff of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, was on sabbatical this week and unavailable for comment, Leichman said the rabbi has proposed that Leichman create a “Pinat Shorashim West” at the Temple’s Cohen retreat center in rural Missouri.

“I am very excited about helping people in Kansas City create not only a park like this, but a way in which it can be used to enrich … Hebrew school and Sunday school in an experiential Jewish way,” Leichman said.

Edelman said he heard that another kibbutz, the Conservative movement’s Hanaton in northern Israel, had asked Leichman to replicate Pinat Shorashim there, too.

Thanks, KC
Leichman said he wanted to thank his Kansas City supporters.

“This is an opportunity to thank … people from the Kansas City Jewish community who have been so remarkably supportive of us, not only economically but also ... the philosophy we’ve been trying to teach. Pinat Shorashim is for everyone who uses Jewish as their last name, whether your first name is Orthodox or Reform or Kansas City or Israeli. If Jewish is your last name, we’re in the same family. And that philosophy is shared by so many people, from the Federation to individuals in Kansas City.”

Leichman said he was “not crying over spilt milk.”

“I am looking to the future, learning from the past,” Leichman said. “What is really most important to me is a world of dear friends, many of whom are in Kansas City, which is almost my second home, and for that I am so grateful. No words can express how my life has been changed by the friendships and relationships I have had with people from Kansas City.”

What about Partnership 2000?
The Jewish Federation and the Gezer Region first established relations in the 1990s, under an international Federation-system program known as Partnership 2000. Alan Edelman said that during the first couple of years, Kansas Citians donated funds to help renovate Kibbutz Gezer’s main office, etc., but that as the years went by, support became focused on activities at Pinat Shorashim, David Leichman’s educational venture.

“It moved to Pinat Shorashim and to Birkat Shalom, (Rabbi) Miri (Gold)’s congregation there. So that’s what we’ve really been funding, not the kibbutz.

“Partnership 2000 was with the Gezer Region. There have been student exchanges; professional exchanges. Our KU kids spent time there and were hosted by families.

“We’re about people to people, not place to place. We still have wonderful relationships with many people who live in Gezer.

“Leawood is doing some exchanges. The Hebrew Academy is working on student exchanges, and we will continue to support Leawood and Kansas City in their Sister City relationships with whatever assistance we can.”

Letter from Kibbutz Gezer Secretariat
The educational project, ‘Pinat-Shorashim,’ was established in 1991 by the kibbutz to advance the values of peace and the environment. Many kibbutz members took part in its establishment and still take pride in its achievements. In 1998, Amutat Pinat Shorashim was established, and this organization took over the management of Pinat-Shorashim. Since 2000 the Kibbutz has received no contributions from the Kansas City Jewish community nor received any support of any kind from anyone in Kansas City or its citizens. We regret if you were ever informed otherwise.

Kibbutz Gezer has invested 7 years of considerable time and effort in assisting Amutat Pinat Shorashim to receive all the permits required by the authorities but alas, despite all our best intentions, those permits were not all granted. Since all the Pinat-Shorashim activity has taken place on kibbutz property, and the Amuta has not succeeded in resolving its activities according to the law, the kibbutz was unfortunately forced to demand that Amutat Pinat Shorashim cease its activity, painful as that decision may be.

As you can see, above, Pinat Shorashim was established on the kibbutz prior to the change in management. During that period, the kibbutz had invested (together with our friends in Kansas City) both work and other resources in the park. To date, the only one to remove anything from the park has been Amutat Pinat Shorashim.

The kibbutz claims that some of the property was in the park before it was turned over to Amutat Pinat Shorashim, and is saddened by its recent destruction out of what appears to be spite. Unfortunately, it would have been preferable for it to be kept for future generations.

Furthermore, the agreement between the managers of the kibbutz and Amutat Pinat Shorashim stipulates that anything left in place is to be accepted by the Kibbutz in exchange for canceling the Amuta’s debt of tens of thousands of shekels to the Kibbutz. The kibbutz, in return, agrees to forgo the debt and to undertake repair and maintenance of the site. Our intention for the future is to maintain the park as an open space for the use of the people who live on Kibbutz Gezer and our visitors.

— The secretariat of Kibbutz Gezer

Teen’s book tells grandmother’s Holocaust tale

Every Holocaust memoir is unique, but Phoebe Unterman’s book, “Through Eva’s Eyes,” is perhaps more unique than others. The children’s book, written and illustrated by Phoebe, is based on her grandmother, Eva K. Unterman’s, experiences as a Jewish child growing up in Poland and surviving some of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps.

The first version of the book was written when Phoebe was just 13; she’s now 17 and a senior at Shawnee Mission East High School. She writes the book as though she were Eva Unterman telling her story.

In eighth grade, Phoebe entered the National Kids-in-Print Book Contest for Students, sponsored by Landmark House Ltd, a Kansas City, Kan., publishing company. She didn’t win in her age group, but the publishers chose it for their Publisher’s Choice Gold Award Line. Phoebe received a $15,000 scholarship and the chance to have her book published.

“We have a book that is very rare, because there aren’t very many books written about the Holocaust for elementary school children,” said Teresa Melton-Symon, president of Landmark Publishing. “It’s a wonderful beginner for a teacher to do a classroom project on the Holocaust. Without being extremely graphic, you get the idea that people died. And kids are interested in what other kids go through.”

Little did Phoebe know that it would be more than three long years before the book would actually make it to print. During that time, several people close to Melton-Symon became ill, including her mother and then-company president Nancy Melton, which held up the process somewhat.

The whole truth
Phoebe entered the contest to fulfill a project requirement in her speech class, and had intended to do a picture book for very young children.

“But I realized that my grandma’s story was the most amazing story I’ve ever heard,” she said, “so why not be able to tell something that could really affect people and make a difference?”

The original story only went as far as Eva Unterman having to leave her home in Lodz and move with her family to the Lodz Ghetto. However, the publisher felt the whole story needed to be told.

“(Phoebe) really didn’t get into a lot of detail,” said Melton-Symon. “The family eventually went on to (be imprisoned in) Auschwitz, but (Phoebe) really didn’t want to get into that. She just wanted to brush over it in an epilogue. But (our editor) said the story wasn’t worth telling if we don’t tell the whole truth. People are going to want to know what happened.”

Phoebe says she wanted to keep it a children’s book and not be graphic or violent. Plus, she didn’t know how to do illustrations for the concentration camps.

“But I came around because it really was an unfinished story at that point. And it raises the (reader’s) age a little; it’s not for little kids,” she said. “It’s a true story, and it’s told through the eyes of my grandmother. So that puts it on the same level as someone her age during the war would have seen it. It’s appropriate for kids just learning about the Holocaust, and adults can enjoy it, too.”

Phoebe spent the entire summer of 2008 working on the illustrations. She perused photos in Holocaust-themed books and online.

“The illustrations were the longest … and most frustrating part of the process,” she said. “I’ve always liked art, but that’s not the kind of art I usually do. It was such a huge project … there were a lot of times when I thought I couldn’t finish this. I’m glad I did, because now it’s really paying off. … It was something I wanted to do so much that I got it done.”

The last group
Although Eva Unterman — who lives in Oklahoma — has talked of writing her own memoirs, Phoebe said her grandmother was pleased with her version “because it’s not the whole story, not as detailed.”

“She’s done some research about the war and found out some things about her story that she didn’t know then,” Phoebe said. “She was sort of sheltered. So I tried to keep it like her; her view. I really think it’s important to have something out there because she’s in the last group of survivors, and she’s one of the only kids. … There were not a lot of kids that went through the camps, very few. Most were in hiding. So it’s really unique that she somehow made it through, because they almost always killed the kids when they got to Auschwitz, or even earlier on.”

“Through Eva’s Eyes” is available for $20.95 at Rainy Day Books, 2706 W. 53rd St., or it can be ordered directly from the publisher, Landmark House, Ltd., 1949 Foxridge Drive, Kansas City, KS 66106

Perhaps some time in the future, Phoebe will write more about the Holocaust, but for now her main focus is getting into one of the eight colleges to which she has applied. Being a published author ought to help.

Phoebe, the daughter of Ellen Murphy and Stephen Unterman of Mission Hills, is currently planning to major in journalism, but said that may change.
Eva Unterman lives in Tulsa, where she is active in Holocaust education.

Meet Eva Unterman
Phoebe’s grandmother, Eva Unterman, will be the guest speaker at 6:30 p.m. services Friday, Feb. 5, at The New Reform Temple. There will be a question-and-answer period, and Phoebe’s book will be available for sale.

Winners of first Jewish baby

Grandma called it: When her son and daughter-in-law, Jeff and Amy Covitz (above), learned Amy was due in mid-January, Mary Covitz said she realized the child might win The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle’s annual First Jewish Baby of the Year contest.

And sure enough, that’s what happened when Leo James Covitz, 7 pounds 2 ounces, made his debut at around 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 9. Mom, dad and baby got home from the hospital Monday afternoon and were doing well, planning a bris Sunday.

They belong to Kehilath Israel Synagogue. Jeff Covitz works with his father, Rick Covitz, at Rick’s Tailoring and Menswear. Amy is an unemployed attorney who’ll think about work when the baby is a bit older.

They won prizes from the following Chronicle advertisers: Jewish Family Services, free parenting consultation; Fine Tooners , caricature;  Cigar & Tabac Ltd., It’s a Boy cigars; JCCC Spring Performing Arts Series, two tickets; Delish, catering for baby-naming or bris; Riley’s Phillips 66, $25 gift certificate; Cosentino’s Price Chopper, $25 gift certificate; Intercontinental Hotel, one night’s stay; Jewish Federation, Shalom Baby Basket.

Meet Jewish Federation’s eyes, ears in Israel

For many years, 10 percent of the Jewish Federation’s Israel and overseas allocations have helped fund special projects in Israel, primarily in Ramla and the Gezer Region. While Federation executives and volunteers kept an eye on these special projects through e-mails, photos and phone calls, there was no one in Israel to actually keep tabs on them. Now there is.

Ofer Lichtig has been the Federation’s eyes and ears in Israel for these projects since last July. He is director of the Israel Office of the UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey and the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City and splits his time overseeing the projects of both federations. His portfolio for Kansas City includes Congregation Birkat Shalom, KU Hillel Seminar, the Israel Emissary program and a variety of projects to help at-risk youth and promote Jewish-Arab dialog. He oversees about 14 projects for Kansas City.

Lichtig regularly visits and communicates with agency professionals in Israel and reports back to the Federation, helping to ensure that Federation funds are spent as donors intend, solving problems that arise, identifying new needs and opportunities and serving as a liaison between the Federation and its umbrella agency, Jewish Federations of North America in Israel, along with the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Joint Distribution Committee.

Lichtig communicates with the Kansas City community via bi-weekly e-mail reports and by phone. He also sends photos and videos on a regular basis. Last week, for the first time since he was hired, he visited Kansas City.

Experienced emissary
Lichtig holds a degree in psychology and criminology from Bar Ilan University and is a graduate of a JDC training course for leaders of non-governmental organizations. Most recently, he served as community shaliach (Israeli emissary) to the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. He has also been the director of education and organization for a division of JAFI and served in the Israel General Security Service.

Lichtig had been doing this job for the Northern New Jersey federation for three years. Until this past summer, the job was full time, but New Jersey’s federation fundraising efforts suffered because of “the Madoff crisis.”

“Many of the donors in the New York area were hit hard, and, unfortunately, the campaign went down, and they had to cut down on the Israel projects,” he explained.
Lichtig’s job was downsized at the same time the Kansas City federation was looking for someone to “be its eyes and ears on the ground.”

“Sometimes it’s all about timing,” Lichtig said.

Alan Edelman, the Federation’s associate executive director, said having a community representative in Israel is extremely valuable to the Federation.

“Ofer has tremendous experience and understands the North American approach to funding projects in Israel. It’s also beneficial that he is part of a group of community representatives in Israel who are supported by the national Federation office in Jerusalem.”

KC’s Israel projects
Lichtig reports there are several American communities — including Atlanta, St. Louis, Washington, Pittsburgh and Central New Jersey — that hire the same service Lichtig provides through the Jewish Federations of North America. Those directors share office space in Jerusalem and regularly meet to discuss their various projects.

“We learn from each other’s experiences and share insights,” Lichtig said. “We learn a lot from each other.”

A few larger cities, such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, have their own Israeli offices.

While Lichtig works for the Kansas City and Northern New Jersey communities, they currently do not share any projects in Israel. However, most of Kansas City’s special Israel projects do receive additional funding from other sources.

Elem, a program in Ramla, is one project solely funded by Kansas City. Elem works with youth at risk. Lichtig, who has volunteered for the program to see how it works firsthand, explained one of the things it does is send an outreach van at night to the more troubled neighborhoods in Ramla. A paid staffer runs the program along with several volunteers. They take hot drinks, snacks and board games in the van and approach kids who are simply wandering the neighborhood.

“If nobody pays attention to them, they will probably get in trouble. The volunteers make a very unthreatening connection with them. These people are there to listen. The goal is to give these kids an image of an adult they can trust and give them a mentor,” he said.

Lichtig thinks the program is amazing.

“The same crew has to commit for at least one year and they commit to go out in the van every week. They go to the same spot and meet the same kids. One time we were a little late getting there and the staff member got a phone call from one of the kids asking where they were,” he continued.

Kansas City’s programs in Israel also include a program for senior citizens to help them stay in their own homes as long as possible, which, coincidentally, was the model for Jewish Family Services’ Help@Home program. Lichtig is also proud of the work being done in Ramla to encourage Israeli-Arab relations.

In addition, whenever Kansas Citians come to Israel — on missions, business or private visits — Lichtig is available to show them Kansas City’s Israel’s projects.
Lichtig and his wife, Michal, an educator, have two daughters and live in Mevaseret Zion, a suburb southwest of Jerusalem, where Michal’s family has lived for seven generations. It’s about 30 minutes from Ramla and Gezer.

Ofer enjoys his job, especially being able to work closely with the American Jewish community to strengthen relations with the people of Israel.

“I firmly believe that the future of the Jewish people is dependent on this connection,” he said. “I consider myself very lucky in that I get a chance every single day to see beautiful Israel at its best and, with the support of our Federation, truly make a difference here.”

Interfaith arts event aims to bring forth ‘Winter’s Light’

“Winter’s Light,” a multi-faith storytelling and arts event that has proven successful in Atlanta, is being replicated here next Saturday evening by the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council. (See below for details)

And the creator of “Winter’s Light,” former Kansas Citian and now a longtime Atlanta resident, Audrey Galex, will come to town to tell a Jewish tale as part of the inaugural KC event.

Galex has worked with Arab-Jewish dialogue and storytelling groups over the years, and said she got the idea for “Winter’s Light” while attending a national storytelling conference in Denver several years ago.

“I was so inspired,” Galex said, “by people telling about their interfaith story events in Tempe, Arizona, … and Schenectady, New York, that I said ‘I’ve got to do this. I don’t know how and what.’ ”

She returned to Atlanta and approached a friend who was a Christian minister, and he, too, inspired her to go for something during the traditional, December holiday season.

“We had Warren Jacobs, who is a Jewish storyteller, and Janice Butt, a Christian, and a Muslim named Opal Muhammad and a singer by the name of Elise Witt.

She led some chanting, and each teller told their story,” Galex recalled. “I thought it was one-shot deal; maybe three people would show up, or 30 people. Well, we had an overflow crowd of 300-plus people of all ages, just on word of mouth; it really didn’t get much publicity. … And someone walked up and said ‘Here is $20 for next year’s Winter’s Light.’ ”

The sixth annual event was held in December in Atlanta. Each event has a charitable component, too, Galex said.

“The format has been the same each time,” Galex said. “We have a number of different singers and storytellers, and we have expanded it with Baha’i and Hindu storytellers, a Hindu dancer, and we have invited children from different faiths to share their stories, too

“The point being to celebrate our different stories and traditions at a time when, in a sense, we were ghettoized because of our different holiday traditions. This is a way to … get together.

“People tried to dissuade me from doing this; people are busy baking or shopping or cooking, they said. But I said that is the point; I want this to be a part of the holiday tradition like baking and cooking and family. It’s kind of caught on.”

Breaking down barriers
Sheila Sonnenschein, the Jewish representative on the Interfaith Council, said she had heard about Galex’s Atlanta events and determined to bring something similar to Kansas City. She proposed it last year to the Interfaith Council, which ran with the notion.

In addition to Galex, the other artists featured here Jan. 23 will include storytellers Caroline Baughman, a practitioner of Paganism; Rev. Cara Hawkins, American Indian spirituality; and Karta Purkh Khalsa, Sikhism. Sonnenschein said there will also be some Sufi dance, Hindu music and more.

“I thought this would be such a great thing for the Interfaith Council to do,” Sonnenschein said. “Everyone got so excited, because so many faiths have storytelling as part of their tradition.”

That’s the point, Galex said; to accentuate commonality and break down barriers.

“The arts are a comfortable vehicle for bringing people of different faiths together; like food, like interfaith canoeing, as opposed to saying ‘We are going to sit down and dialogue.’ After you’ve celebrated a bit, maybe you can confront the issues that divide us. Maybe (that can be done) after you’ve heard people’s stories and found out we have more in common than different. I am never one to sweep differences under the carpet. That is not what interfaith dialogue is about. You find ways to respectfully engage in conversation, dialogue and questioning.”

Winter’s Light Jan. 23
The Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council presents “Winter’s Light,” a multi-faith evening of storytelling, music, dance and the arts.
The event takes place Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Goppert Theater at Avila University, 11901 Wornall Road. There is a $10-per-person suggested donation. Youth are welcome free of charge.
The schedule is as follows:
6:30 p.m. — Doors open, art displays, refreshments
7:15 p.m. — Children’s story on the stage
7:30 p.m. — Program begins
Reception to follow
For more information, call (913) 548-2973, or visit www.kcinterfaith.org.

Yeshiva University students see how other half lives

About two dozen Yeshiva University students got out of their East Coast, Orthodox bubble and saw how Jewish life is lived in the great beyond with a visit to the Kansas City area last week. They continued on to Omaha, Neb., and conclude their 12-day winter-break trip with visits to Boulder, Colo., and Denver this weekend.

It’s a YU program called the “Coast to Coast Life Mission.” While here Jan. 7-10, they visited the kosher Subway restaurant, the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy and other agencies at the Jewish Community Campus. They spent a frigid Shabbat in and around Congregation Beth Israel Abraham and Voliner, where they were hosted in the homes of local families.

According to BIAV’s Rabbi Daniel Rockoff, “the goal of the program is to expose college students to Jewish communal life around the country, to leadership models and community service.”

So, for example, on their visit to the kosher Subway restaurant, in addition to proprietor Joan Fogel, the students heard a presentation by Yachad Food Pantry organizers Sherrill Parkhust and Nancy Eisen.

YU student and mission participant Jillian Login of Boston said last Friday she was enjoying the trip, despite the snow and cold. She is a ba’al teshuvah, or recent adherent to observant Judaism, and wants to give something back to the community that has benefited her. She said she hoped the mission trip would provide her with some ideas.

Heritage Center programs benefit from Federation funds

Scientific studies prove that staying active and socially connected helps people stay healthy, happy and resilient. Marian Hermanson knows that’s true, and one thing that helps keep her healthy and active is taking part in activities sponsored by the Heritage Center, a program of the Jewish Community Center.

Hermanson was hardly ever alone while married and raising her sons. Then, 13 years ago, her husband, Elza, or LZ for short, became ill. During this time, her brother-in-law, Harry, convinced her to have lunch with him at the Heritage Center. Afterwards, he and then-Heritage Center-director Barbara Frager kept noodging her to come back.

“I didn’t,” she says, “but when LZ passed away I was depressed. I finally went back and never left! It’s been a godsend to me.”

The reason is simple. “There are people there,” says Hermanson. “It just makes my outlook on life a lot better. I’m 86, and even the doctor tells me: ‘You keep going to the Center.’ ”

The Heritage Center is open Monday through Friday to anyone 65 and older. Hermanson catches a ride there most days in the Heritage Center van that picks her up from her home at Willow Creek apartments. Besides spending time with friends, she enjoys exercise and art classes. The Heritage Center publishes a newsletter, Prime Times, describing upcoming activities for the month, ranging from lectures and discussion groups to concert, museum and casino outings. On a typical day, 50 to 100 older adults disperse throughout the JCC to participate in scheduled activities, as well as informal card groups and conversation.

Highlights from this December included a Grandparent’s Movie Matinee, with pizza, prizes and a showing of the film “Up” for participants to share with grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Looking to the future, Heritage Center Program Director Sandy Terwilliger anticipates more evidence-based and brain-fitness program offerings, which allow participants to set goals and measure changes in physical and mental performance.

Terwilliger attributes the Heritage Center’s success to its innovative programs with few boundaries. Most programs are provided at no charge to the participants. Some classes, lunch and transportation require a nominal fee; however, if a financial need is present, these fees are waived. These subsidized programs are made possible by major funding from the Jewish Federation, the Jewish Heritage Foundation and United Way of Greater Kansas City.

“The Heritage Center is a gathering place for people to increase their connections and take care of each other,” says Terwilliger. “When someone doesn’t come to class, people ask to find out if they’re OK. We’re truly a family.”

Supporting Super Sunday sustains Jewish programs

The Heritage Center is one of many programs funded by the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City. Your support of the Jewish Federation, through Super Sunday 2010, will help the Federation us continue to fund programs like the Heritage Center. Super Sunday will take place Sunday, Jan. 31. To find out more about the Jewish Federation, or Super Sunday, go to www.jewishkansascity.org, or call (913) 327-8100.