Blanche E. Sosland (z”l), one of the Kansas City Jewish community’s most prolific supporters, educators and anti-bullying advocates, died on July 5 at age 90.
Originally from New Jersey, Sosland joined her husband, Neil Sosland, in his hometown of Kansas City in 1958. For nearly 70 years, Blanche Sosland was a pillar of the community.
Sosland was involved in the start of two of the community’s most prominent and education-focused institutions — Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy (HBHA) and the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (MCHE).
She and her husband were among the founding six families of the Hebrew Academy of Greater Kansas City in 1966, which would later become HBHA. She served for decades on its board and executive committee, and all her children and many of her grandchildren have graduated from HBHA. Upon the school’s 50th anniversary, she and Neil Sosland were recognized with the school’s Civic Service Award.
The daughter of two immigrants who had fled Nazi Germany, Sosland was drawn to the mission of MCHE and was one of its founding board members. She would later become its president.
She also supported Jewish Federation of Kansas City, the National Council of Jewish Women – Greater Kansas City, Hadassah Greater Kansas City, the Kansas City Chapter of AMIT Women, and Congregation Beth Shalom and its Sisterhood. She was involved with or received awards from national organizations such as the Jewish Education Services of North America, National Youth Commission of United Synagogue of America (now the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism), National Conference of Christians and Jews and Jewish Theological Seminary.
Sosland also served as a director of the Sosland Foundation, a nonprofit which distributes millions of dollars each year to organizations working to bolster civic, cultural and Jewish life across the greater Kansas City area.
Her public service also included serving on various education committees for both the state of Missouri and museums such as the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
After earning her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1983, she spent the following decades sharing her knowledge and teaching, including at Park College (now Park University) for 21 years. She was an expert in teaching educators how to recognize children with reading problems and teach children who are both gifted and learning-disabled. Sosland used this expertise to write her 2022 book, “Identification and Intervention for Twice and Thrice Exceptional Students.”
Sosland’s experiences in academia led her to witness the effects of bullying. To help people learn how to combat what she described as an “epidemic of bullying,” Sosland joined with fellow anti-bullying advocate SuEllen Fried (z”l) to coauthor “Banishing Bullying Behavior: Transforming the Culture of Pain, Rage, and Revenge” in 2009 and “Banishing Bullying Behavior: Transforming the Culture of Peer Abuse” in 2011. Sosland wrote the third book in the series, “Banishing Bullying Behavior: A Call to Action,” in 2019.
In her retirement, Sosland continued to work on behalf of her community. She led the “Minyan Maker” initiative at Beth Shalom for 15 years. The program, which continues to this day, ensures there will be enough adults to make a minyan at the synagogue’s daily prayers so that mourners can recite Kaddish.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to HBHA at hbha.edu/support-us or by mailing a check to 5801 W. 115th Street, Overland Park, KS 66211.
