It’s been seven months since the community was sent into shock by the shootings at the Jewish Community Campus and Village Shalom, which killed Dr. William Corporon, Reat Griffin Underwood and Terri LaManno. Last week plans were announced to commemorate the anniversary, and to show the world, that faith wins.
For the first time ever, a former Member of Knesset and chief of Israel’s security agency will be the keynote speaker at the Israel Action Forum. Sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the event features The Honorable Avi Dichter Tuesday night, Dec. 9, at the White Theatre on the Jewish Community Campus.
Raised in Davenport, Iowa, Rabbi Barak Cohen never expected his career would take him all the way to Australia, only to bring him back to the Midwest in order to research Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy’s renowned dual-track Jewish studies program. Rabbi Cohen is bringing the knowledge he picked up in Kansas City and at other North American Jewish day schools to Masada College, a K-12 Jewish day school located in St. Ives, Australia. Masada’s goal: To implement a dual-track Jewish studies program similar to that of HBHA.
Earlier this month the Israeli government adopted a major reform expected to ease the path to conversion for hundreds of thousands of Israelis now prohibited from marrying in the Jewish state.
ROCH CHALK CHALLAH — If there’s a KU basketball game on a Friday night and you are a Jewish student waiting to enter Allen Fieldhouse, you just may encounter KU Hillel’s Rabbi Neal Schuster passing out challah. Rabbi Schuster said KU Hillel does not do a program on a night featuring a KU home game. Instead, he tries to reach the Jewish students where they are.
WASHINGTON — Mementos of Jacob Goldstein slide across the 3-foot-by-4-foot horizontal screen like cards being dealt at a casino: his photograph, his name, an Operation Urgent Fury headline denoting the 1983 military campaign in Grenada, Goldstein’s explanatory text summarizing his role during the invasion.
Just over 10 years ago, no state allowed same-sex couples to marry, support for marriage equality nationwide hovered below 40 percent, and politicians everywhere thought if they touched on the controversial topic, their political career would be dead. Today, with Supreme Court action recently expanding the freedom to marry to 35 states, nearly 60 percent of Americans are in support. Democrats use the issue to their advantage, and a bipartisan array of judges — 42 out of 44 at latest count — have ruled that marriage discrimination violates the U.S. Constitution.
DRIVERS TAKE NOTE, NO PARKING POLICY TO BE ENFORCED IN CAMPUS CIRCLE DRIVES — In mid-September, the Jewish Federation hired Blair Hawkins as the first director of community security in response to the April 13 tragedy. Almost exactly two months later, the public is seeing the first security change at the Jewish Community Campus that has been implemented under his watch.
When it comes to making the grade, the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City has earned the equivalent of straight A’s from a very important national philanthropic organization for the fourth consecutive year.
Jim Klein and Vicki Novorr are very busy people with a passion for helping others, especially older adults. As longtime good friends, they have teamed up to co-chair one of the Jewish community’s most successful events, Village Shalom’s Ages of Excellence Celebration. This year’s event takes place Thursday, Nov. 20, at the Overland Park Convention Center beginning with a 6 p.m. buffet dinner. Afterwards, author and award-winning sports writer Rick Reilly will be the evening’s guest speaker, regaling the audience with humorous anecdotes from his years covering the sports arena for Sports Illustrated and ESPN.
