University of Kansas sophomore Evan Traylor has been elected as the first teen to become a full member of the North American Board of Trustees of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ).

Steve Sacks, URJ board of trustees chair, said of this historic decision, “The URJ board is saying that the voices of our young people are important, not just because our constitution requires it, but because we really do want to hear the voices of our teens represented in the movement’s governing body.”

Traylor, who is 19, said being the first teen elected to the URJ board is an enormous honor that will come with a lot of responsibilities and commitment to the Reform movement.

“Nearly two years ago, the URJ launched the Campaign for Youth Engagement, a movement-wide initiative to more effectively engage the younger generation of Reform Jews. My election to the URJ board, involving more youth in the URJ’s leadership, is an incredibly tangible part of achieving success for our movement,” he said.

Being a part of the URJ board includes serving on select committees and task forces, as well as attending several board meetings throughout the year. This will require Traylor, who is majoring in political science with minors in Jewish studies and leadership studies, to travel during the school year.

“While I will have to miss some classes during this school year to attend meetings, most notably the URJ Biennial in San Diego this December, I have found that professors at KU have been extremely understanding with my travel schedule over this past year while I served as the president of NFTY,” he said.

Traylor said it was an incredible honor to serve as North American Federation of Temple Youth president for the 2012-2013 term.

“I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to serve Reform Jewish teens in such a meaningful and powerful way. As part of the position, I served on staff at the URJ Kutz Camp in Warwick, N.Y., traveled to several NFTY regions, helped to plan and coordinate NFTY’s North American level event, NFTY Convention 2013, and even traveled to Israel to collaborate with progressive Jewish leaders from around the world. NFTY is an incredible youth movement and I’m glad I could represent NFTY in this position,” he said.

Since beginning his studies at KU, Traylor has been very involved at Hillel.

“As soon as I entered the KU community this past fall, I immediately felt a part of the KU Hillel community. I was extremely active this past year in KU Hillel, including attending almost every Shabbat event and participating in the Freshmen Leadership Series. For the fall 2013 semester, I am serving as a KU Hillel Freshmen Engagement Intern, working to welcome all of the new Jewish freshmen students into the KU Hillel community,” he said.

Jay Lewis, KU Hillel’s executive director, said Traylor is a “terrific young man.”

“We are thrilled that KU attracts such outstanding emerging leaders. I am confident he has a long future in leadership in the Jewish community,” Lewis said.

The URJ represents nearly 900 Reform congregations across North America. Traylor was elected to the board during the organization’s annual meeting in New York City on May 31.

Traylor is the son of Ann Baumgarten and Ed Traylor of Edmond, Okla., where they are members of Temple B’nai Israel in Oklahoma City.

It is estimated that recent floods in Alberta, Canada, will cost the city of Calgary billions of dollars, leaving widespread and long-lasting damage.

In the aftermath of those floods, the Calgary Jewish Federation reports that many members of Calgary’s Jewish community have suffered major losses to their homes and some businesses. At the end of last week, were still homeless, awaiting a lift on evacuation orders.

Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City is joining Calgary’s Jewish Federation, as well as its network of Jewish Federations across North America, to help with a Calgary Flood Emergency Fund. The fund will help with immediate needs for victims of the flood, including

• Housing,

• Clothing and personal care items, and

• Temporary income for those whose livelihoods are lost.

“We have heard from a number of people who need immediate assistance, including housing or goods. Some are out of work because of the crisis. Some are being told their employers will not be open for several weeks, and therefore they have will have no income,” said Drew Staffenberg, Calgary Jewish Federation executive director.

“I would like to tell you that the news has overstated the situation and devastation … but they haven’t,” continued Staffenberg. “Most homes in Calgary do not have flood insurance. Many of the homes affected suffered significant personal property and structural damage. We don’t yet know how long they will require temporary housing and support.”

“As always, 100 percent of donations to this fund will go directly to helping victims with immediate needs,” said Gail Weinberg, the local Jewish Federation’s director of financial resource development. “We feel fortunate that, due to our work, we are on the ground helping every day, so when crisis strikes, we can provide immediate assistance — just as we’ve done in the past with the Oklahoma City and Joplin tornadoes.”

Donations may be made at jewishkansascity.org, via phone by contacting Weinberg at 913-327-8123, or via mail by sending in a check to Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, 5801 W. 115 Street, Suite 201, Overland Park, KS 66211, Attn: Calgary Flood Emergency Fund.

Following the devastating tornado in Joplin in 2011, the network of 154 Jewish Federations across North America, Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City and Jewish Federation of St. Louis raised more than $250,000 to help people in Joplin rebuild their lives. More recently, Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City raised nearly $23,000 in emergency relief funds for victims of the Oklahoma City tornadoes.

ISRAELI CHAMPS —On June 30 the Optica International team became the Israel Men’s Slow-Pitch Softball champions. Four men with ties to the Kansas City community played on that team including Naftali, Yoni and Akiva Schwartz, who lived here while their father Rabbi Morey Schwartz served as rabbi of Congregation BIAV. Josh Wajcman, the son of Mindy and Davey Wajcman, has lived in Israel the past several years. The league plays ball on the Gezer field that was renovated in 1997 through the generosity of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City.

NEW ONLINE MAGAZINE — Jordy Altman, who became a Bar Mitzvah and was confirmed at Congregation Beth Torah, and moved to Los Angeles not long after graduating from the University of Kansas, has recently launched an online magazine. He describes 8Bit Bro.com as “the super online magazine that covers the best in pop-culture entertainment, featuring humorous articles that poke fun at today’s movies, television stars and unsung heroes of YouTube. It’s as if your favorite late-night talk show host was always online, providing you with the most crucial information for your off-beat brain.” He said he is currently running the magazine out of a tiny office in the heart of Hollywood and created 8Bit Bro after leaving CBS to pursue a career in comedy. You can see 8Bit Bro on a regular basis by visiting www.8bitbro.com or liking it on Facebook. Altman is the son of Julie and Ron Altman.

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM — Beth Sarafraz and Rivka Berger of Brooklyn, N.Y., are seeking stories about personal experiences with intuition, premonition or precognition for a book they are writing. Jewish Chronicle readers are invited to share such stories with us. The stories they have in mind would involve experiences where people obtained information through any means that defies logical explanation (such as in a dream). Paying attention to or acting on such information may have even changed, or saved, their lives. Send such anecdotal accounts to them at (chalamti chalom means I dreamed a dream) along with contact information. They ask all information be placed in the body of the email and that no attachments be sent.

VETS SHARE THEIR STORIES — The American Legion — the nation’s largest veterans service organization — has launched a new interactive Web page that provides a way for veterans and their families to keep the memories of military sacrifice alive. The new Web page — packed with stories, photos and videos, as well as a database — is now available at www.legion.org/honor.

“All veterans and military families are encouraged to share stories of their time in uniform and/or their family’s military legacy. This is one way in which The American Legion is continuing to honor America’s servicemen and women, past and present, who keep our nation safe,” said James Hall of New Jersey, chairman of The American Legion Magazine Commission, which oversees the organization’s website.

Readers have submitted more than 150 stories since the Web page officially launched in May. Those wanting to share their stories can go to www.legiontown.org to submit text and photos online. Once approved by an administrator, those stories will appear on the honor and remembrance Web page.

“We know that honoring our military heroes is incredibly important to our membership, and veterans and their family members everywhere,” said Hall, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. “Sadly, our World War II vets are dying off. We launched this Web page so that we could preserve their memories and heroic efforts for future generations. But of course this Web page is open to all veterans, regardless of time of service.”

JERUSALEM — As the mother of a young woman who came to Israel after the Young Judaea year course and became a lone soldier (without her family in Israel) and spent two years in the army, I was very moved interviewing Alana Gaffen.

Gaffen, and her parents, Steve and Eileen, moved to Leawood when she was 2 years old. In April, her parents, former members of Congregation Beth Shalom, decided to join their family in San Diego.

Gaffen, who graduated from Blue Valley North in 2010, studied in Israel as part of the 2010-2011 Young Judaea Year Course. Near the end of her gap year stay in Israel, she attended a Yom HaZikaron program (Israel’s Memorial Day for soldiers). At the ceremony, she was inspired by stories of Holocaust survivors as well as watching the crowd of soldiers.

“I saw they were doing something really big, and I called my mom and dad and told them I wanted to join the army.”

Her parents were not enthusiastic about the idea. But Gaffen kept pushing it until they arrived at a compromise — she would return to the States to attend college for one year.

Gaffen attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., where she said she learned a lot, but she kept talking to her parents about joining the Israeli army. Finally she put her feelings in writing and sent her parents a letter. The Gaffens then agreed.

She started the process for Aliyah while in Washington and became part of the Garin Tzabar in San Francisco, a program that facilitates service in the IDF for children of Israelis and Jews not living in Israel.

She made the move to Israel in August 2012. Much to her surprise she found people from her Young Judaea year course on the same plane, making the trip very emotional. “We were very excited,” she says.

The young soldier first spent three months on Kibbutz Hatzerim (a kibbutz four miles west of Beer Sheva, founded in 1946 by the Israeli Scouts), learning Hebrew and preparing for the army.

Then she was sent to Mikveh Alon, an army base near Safed, specializing in education programs and geared for soldiers who lack Hebrew skills.

“It was hard getting used to studying,” relates Gaffen.

After three months of Hebrew training, she decided she wanted to be in Caracal Battalion, an intensive combat unit for women where men and women serve together, side by side.

“I wanted something physical and something challenging,” she says.

So she decided, “I will go to the border between Egypt and Israel,” explaining the battalion’s job is to defend Israel from smugglers, infiltrators and terrorists.

Rather than focus on the possible danger of her job, Gaffen says she looks at it as “as defending something you really love.”

She completed her basic training in mid-June and then she began a three-month general combat medic’s course. When she completes it, she will continue training with Caracal for four months, then she will go back to her original unit. When she completes it, she will continue training with Caracal for four months, then she will go back to her original unit.

Gaffen signed up for two years and because she is now 21, that is all that is required of her.

Regarding the training she has received the past six months, she says, “It’s a lot of hard work but an experience of a lifetime. It’s been really awesome.”

“Home is Kibbutz Hatzerim where I live in a caravan, like a small apartment, with two roommates. I also have a host family. I’m so in love with my kibbutz, it will be difficult to leave.”

How do her parents feel at this point?

“They are really proud of me because I’m following my dream. I definitely want to go home for a visit in November for Thanksgiving when all my family is together. It’s really an important time for my whole family and I’d also like to see my college friends and my friends in Kansas.”

What happens when the year and a half left is finished?

“I definitely want to get a college degree, but I’m not sure where I want to do it.”

“The Day the World Trembled,” a recent book authored by Leon ‘Lee’ Levin was recently named a finalist in the 2013 National Indie Excellence Award contest. Although the book did not win in its category of Military Fiction, it was one of three finalists chosen.

The National Indie Excellence Awards was first started seven years ago to enhance the readership and award the best of the self-published books. These awards are “open to all English language books that are available for sale, including small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, and self-published authors,” as stated on the National Indie Excellence Book Awards website: www.indieexcellence.com.

“I was quite pleased to learn that the book was a finalist in the competition,” said Levin, “particularly since it is national and there are thousands of entrants. The panel of judges is quite professional, and I’m delighted that my book made the final cut.”

Levin, the author of three books, has been working on “The Day the World Trembled” for 60 years!

“After doing voluminous research, I wrote the first draft when I was in my 20s,” said Levin. “I tried to get it published and got nowhere. Deservedly. It really was quite bad. I set the project aside, but couldn’t let it go since the story was so compelling. Every decade or so I went back to it, rewrote it, revised it, re-researched it.”

Based on fact, the book is historical fiction about the battle of Hannibal and his brother, Hasdrubal: Carthage against Rome. The outcome of this battle impacted Western civilization.

Levin has been focusing his writings on historical fiction. His previous two books were also in this genre: “The Messiah of Septemania” and “King Tut’s Private Eye.”

“Historical fiction, written and researched properly, has compelling interest for the reader since the tale is not merely the author’s imagination, but the story of what human beings did at times of exceptional difficulty and stress,” Levin said. “The trick is to believably bring those characters to life, since typically history tells what happened but gives little insight into the personalities of the protagonists.”

It was learning how to write historical fiction that allowed him to finish the book that had haunted his imagination for so long.

“I was learning how to turn history into fiction, while still maintaining total integrity about factual accuracy,” Levin said. “It looks like now I finally have it right. ‘The Day the World Trembled’ has received very fine reviews.”

The book is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and bookstores.

“I Am Forbidden” by Anouk Markovits. (Hogarth, 2013.)

“The Imposter Bride” by Nancy Richler. (St. Martin’s, 2012.)

“Brooklyn Love” by Yael Levy. (Crimson Romance, 2012.)

Recently several novels have been published that examine the nature of Jewish marriage. Each of these novels presents an insight into the lives of Jewish women in the modern world. Each novel has a very different manner of approaching the subject.

“I am Forbidden” by Anouk Markovits takes readers into the rarely examined world of the Satmar Chasidic community. The novel begins in World War II in Romania when two children in different families see their parents murdered. The boy Josef is rescued by the family’s maid who raises him as her son. Later Josef hides the girl Mila as her parents are being killed. Mila makes her way to a Satmar enclave. There, the Rabbi Zalman Stern hears of Josef and removes him from the maid’s care. The novel progresses from Romania to France and finally the United States. The reader sees the marriage of Mila and Josef, the alienation of Rabbi Stern’s intellectual daughter Antara who eventually leaves the Satmar community rather than being forced into an arranged marriage, and finally the fate of Mila and Josef’s granddaughter on the verge of her wedding day. This unblinking depiction of the Satmar community is fascinating, unsettling and knowledgeable. Like Antara, Anouk Markovits was raised in the Satmar community, but rebelled against its strictures.

“The Imposter Bride” by Nancy Richler is set in the Jewish community of Montreal just after World War II. A young woman named Lily arrives from Europe to make an arranged marriage. Her groom-to-be rejects her, but his younger brother steps in, marries her, and falls deeply in love. Nothing, of course, is as it should be. Lily has assumed the name and papers of another woman. She and her husband have a daughter, but she cannot continue to live a lie, and disappears. The bulk of the novel follows Lily’s daughter Ruth who yearns for the mother who could not remain in her strange marriage and eventually uncovers her secrets. This lovely novel examines the repercussions of the Holocaust, the need to escape history as well as the need to recover it. It is also a window on the vibrant Montreal Jewish community.

Finally “Brooklyn Love” by Yael Levy is a flat-out romance novel set in the Orthodox community in Brooklyn. Several marriageable young women are looking for husbands. There are problems, however, because Rachel wants to be an artist, Leah wants to go to medical school and become a doctor, and Hindy, who is not as attractive as her friends, only wants to marry a scholar. As the three of them move from shiddach to shiddach having miserable dates where there is no touching and no spark of attraction, the novel is by turns hilarious, heart-rending and constantly interesting. Levy knows the Brooklyn community. Every girl is hoping to find her beshert Each girl is following the strictures of the community, trying to please her parents, and trying to make a good life for herself. “Brooklyn Love” is a wonderful escape novel. The author is planning to write more romance novels set in the Orthodox community.

Andrea Kempf is a retired librarian who speaks throughout the community on various topics related to books and reading.

BVN GRADUATE NAMED PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLAR — A little over a year ago, in April 2012, we featured Gavri Schreiber as a Chronicle Salute to Youth. Maybe we should have waited a while to feature him because this was certainly Gavri’s year to shine. Earlier this year we told you that Gavri achieved a perfect score on his ACT exams, one of a handful of students in the entire area to do that. The Blue Valley North graduate earned a host of other honors this year including:

AP Scholars with Distinction

Kansas Regent State Scholar

Presidential Award for Educational Excellence

National Merit Finalist

The most recent, and possibly the most prestigious, was being named a 2013 U.S. Presidential Scholar. The U.S. Presidential Scholars program recognizes and honors the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors. In Kansas, only three seniors received the honor this year.

“Gavri multiplies his intelligence by combining it with curiosity and persistence,” said David Stubblefield, Blue Valley North principal. “He seeks to understand before he acts and when he decides to take action he has the initiative to ‘go for it.’ He has made the most of his high school experience.”

Gavri is one of 141 outstanding American high school seniors that have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, artistic excellence, leadership, citizenship, service and contribution to school and community. He, along with the other U.S. Presidential Scholars, was honored for his accomplishments in Washington D.C., earlier this month.

The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, appointed by President Obama, selects honored scholars annually based on their academic success, artistic excellence, essays, school evaluations and transcripts, as well as evidence of community service, leadership, and demonstrated commitment to high ideals. Of the 3 million students expected to graduate from high school this year, more than 3,800 candidates qualified for the 2013 awards determined by outstanding performance on the College Board SAT and ACT exams, and through nominations made by Chief State School Officers or the National YoungArts Foundation.

The 2013 Presidential Scholars are comprised of one young man and one young woman from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and from U.S. families living abroad, as well as 15 chosen at-large and 20 Presidential Scholars in the Arts.

Created in 1964, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program has honored more than 6,000 of the nation’s top-performing students with the prestigious award given to honorees during the annual ceremony in D.C. The program was expanded in 1979 to recognize students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, literary and performing arts.

Gavri plans to attend the University of Maryland where he has received a four-year scholarship and will be a Banneker Key Scholar. He will be a student in the Humanities Honors Program.

He is the son of Edna Levy and Jacob Schreiber and the grandson of Nouri and Claudette Levy, Simeon and Rose Schreiber of Bal Harbor, Fla., and Jeanine Schreiber of Forest Hills, N.Y.

STING DOING AUSCHWITZ — (JTA) Sting will play Poland for the first time at The Life Festival in Oswiecim, the city that was home to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The British rock icon will be performing June 29 with a five-piece band as part of his “Back to Bass” tour.

Festival creator Darek Maciborek, an Oswiecim-born journalist, is seeking to spread messages of peace and tolerance in his hometown. Sting is choosing to make his Poland debut here most likely because of the peaceful philosophy of the event and his involvement with human rights organizations, specifically Amnesty International, participating in the festival.

According to Haaretz, festival organizers had no response when questioned about holding a concert in a space with such a controversial and violent history.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers also were scheduled to perform but reportedly have dropped out.

The Life Festival, in its third year, has featured performances by James Blunt and Peter Gabriel.

“Healthy Heart and Mind: It’s ALL a Practice” by Shanna Haun. (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013). Also available in Kindle edition.

It is the hardest thing about being a mom, a wife and just a woman in general: accepting life is not perfect. I’m not the perfect mom, I don’t have perfect kids, and on top of that I can’t even force myself to eat perfectly, let alone have the perfect body. But our society still promotes this happily-ever-after goal of the family in the Colgate toothpaste commercial: really white teeth, super shiny hair and absolutely no yelling. And that’s what we aspire to.

But author Shanna Haun has given women the gift of permission in her book, “Healthy Heart and Mind: It’s ALL a Practice.” And I say permission because guess what? Shanna isn’t letting you off the hook. It isn’t a throw-caution-to-the-wind carpe diem let’s hold hands and sing “Kumbaya” tale of women surrendering to their bodies and their lives. Instead, it is permission to dive into the sometimes scary, always challenging pursuit of better health and fitness. And to do it one small change at a time, and to not be perfect, and to fall and to get back up and to have hope that you can feel better and live better, no matter where you are starting from. And permission to start today.

Shanna’s transparent take on the tale of her childhood, family and imperfect road to becoming a personal trainer and registered yoga teacher makes you feel like your own personal story has character. My childhood, my struggles, my story is no longer the reason I can’t do this, but instead the reason I can. And the honest and thoughtful stories of Shanna’s students confirm that if they can do it then I can do it, too.

In sharing her plan of eating, her go-to snacks and favorite healthy products, Shanna makes this healthy life doable in an every-single-day-kind of way. She tells readers that she doesn’t prescribe her plan of eating to anyone, but shares it simply because people are curious. I like that — because I am one of those nosey people! On the first day I started the book I read about Shanna’s lunch salads and I adopted the same for my own lunches. Now, more than a week later, I am getting loads more veggies than I did two weeks ago and it was just one small change. “No big life overhauls here,” Shanna likes to remind the reader regularly.

“Perfect does not exist. Practice is highly achievable!” is Shanna’s mantra. It turns my life into a Colgate toothpaste commercial overnight, simply by changing the goal. Instead of the white teeth, shiny hair, perfect mom goal, now I simply engage in living a healthier life, with self-loving efforts everyday — and that my friend is success!

Lauren Goldman is the art director of KC Parent Magazine and blogs about her second adventure through childhood with her two young daughters at raspberryprairie.com. This article first appeared on her blog.

While in Israel on sabbatical this past winter, Rabbi Arthur Nemitoff learned about a Kabbalat Shabbat service at Port Tel Aviv right on the Mediterranean Sea. The more he learned about it, the more he wanted to bring a similar Kabbalat Shabbat service here. So The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah is doing just that: three erev Shabbats this summer — beginning tomorrow, Friday, June 21, as well as July 19 and Aug. 16 at Gezer Park in Leawood.

“Summers are for enjoying nature and sounds and sights of the world around us. So, it seems summer-ish to enjoy Shabbat outdoors,” Rabbi Nemitoff explained.

The evening begins with Bisseleh Nosh at 5:30 p.m. The one-hour service will begin at 6 p.m. It is open to the community. Those planning to attend should bring chairs and blankets to sit on.

Gezer Park, while not the Mediterranean Sea, was chosen because it’s a unique spot that brings the spirit of Israel, especially the Gezer Region, right here to Johnson County. The Gezer Region just happens to be the sister city of Leawood and the region the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City works closely with as well.

“Included in the park are a sculpture of Jacob’s Ladder, a copy of the oldest agricultural calendar known (the Gezer Calendar), and a Havdalah Garden. Celebrating Shabbat in this setting brings a bit of Israel — its history and spirituality — to our experience,” Rabbi Nemitoff said.

B’nai Jehudah’s senior rabbi explained these Shabbat at Gezer Park services will be come-as-you-are gatherings that will be very relaxed and full of music. A simple 8 ½ by 14-inch piece of paper will replace the prayerbook for these services.

Outdoor services have been around for centuries. Rabbi Nemitoff explained in his weekly Bisseleh Bytes email to congregants last week that in the “16th century, Jewish mystics in Safed, Israel, would go out into the fields on Friday evening, in order to welcome Shabbat. So excited and filled with joy to have this island of time to relax and reflect, they would literally go out so that Shabbat would arrive earlier ... just like we often go out our own front doors to the cars when family and friends arrive at our homes! On these three Friday nights, we go outside, to be part of nature ... as we welcome Shabbat.”

Music will be provided at these three services by a group of musicians new to B’nai Jehudah.

“We are creating a vibe and a sound and feeling that we hope will be both joyful and spiritual and moving for people. We hope it will appeal to all ages,” the rabbi said.

“Our service will be 90 percent musical and we hope that folks will join in and sing with us every moment of our tefillah. Through participatory singing, we will raise each other up to a place of joy,” he continued.

B’nai Jehudah has done a lot of experimentation with prayer for the last two years. When the formal experimentation ended last year, a group of lay people in the congregation led by Rabbi Neal Schuster, who is also a member, analyzed the data, comprised of 547 responses from 28 different services.

“What we heard was two things. Music and message were the most important aspects of tefillah for people who came,” Rabbi Nemitoff said.

“They wanted music that was embracing and joyful. Whenever we had that kind of a service that was more focused on music, our attendance was higher. Our people’s sense of being uplifted as they left the service was higher and it’s clearly one of the things that is driving people to find meaning and spirituality in their lives.

“So we’ve heard that. People want participatory music and we are going to try that in these three services,” Rabbi Nemitoff said.

The rabbi is hoping several hundred people will come to each of these services.

“If we have a great response we’ll have people return. It may determine where we go as a congregation in terms of tefillah. We don’t know. But we are hoping this is going to touch people in a very special place,” the rabbi said.

These services are being marketed toward unaffiliated Jews in the community.

“But we invite anybody who wants to who would not otherwise be at this synagogue to experience Shabbat with us these three times. We do not want anybody else’s numbers. But we’d love to have the world see what we’re doing. We’d love to have non-Jews come to this service. We want people to see what Shabbat can be like. Nothing would be more wonderful to us than if we had 300 people and 100 of them were people who we have never seen before. And if we never see them again, that’s OK too,” he said.

The goal of these three services, Rabbi Nemitoff said, is to create a spiritual and joyful moment and to teach people that Shabbat can be celebrated in many different ways — outside or inside.

“We really, really want people to embrace it and find great meaning in what they are doing for that hour period,” he said.

“The Port of Tel Aviv is not 133rd and Mission and 133rd and Mission is not the Port of Tel Aviv. But we hope people will see us and they’ll be intrigued by it and they’ll come and celebrate Shabbat with us. We just hope that it will be this incredibly wonderful experience,” Rabbi Nemitoff said.

Parking is extremely limited at Gezer Park, so participants are urged to park cars in the Price Chopper parking lot on the south side of 133rd Street and walk across the street. Organizers also are encouraging people to bring a Shabbat picnic dinner to the service. A special price for a four-piece chicken dinner at McKeever’s Price Chopper will be available those three evenings.

For more information about Shabbat in Gezer Park or to learn more about ordering a meal from McKeevers, contact B’nai Jehudah at 913-663-4050.

While presenting what is usually Rabbi Daniel’s Rockoff’s monthly lunch-and-learn in Village Shalom Monday, June 3, I was reminded why I decided to return to Kansas City. I entered the room to speak to a group of elderly women and one gentleman expecting to be teaching what I had prepared. When I left, I had learned as much, if not more, from their wisdom and warmth and had gained a new understanding of the material for myself.

For the fourth consecutive summer, Congregation Beth Israel Abraham & Voliner has hosted a group of interns from Yeshiva University so that they “will become part of the K.C. BIAV community for the month, spending their days working at a variety of exciting internships, and dedicating their nights to energizing and learning Torah to the Jewish community.” Now that I’m in my second year in the program, I can testify that this description is only half of the story.

For instance Ora Laufer, a 20-year-old participant from Monsey, N.Y., explained her experience, this way: “It may be cliché, but we are getting way more than we are giving. To see lay-leaders step up to service the community’s needs is inspiring to us as a group.”

This attitude has pervaded the trip, with all the interns immediately seeing what they could learn from the community. David Muller, a 22-year-old participant from Cleveland, felt that this was “the perfect transition from college to the real-world.” “While at Yeshiva University, we learned a lot about being in the workplace while living a life of service to one’s community. This is the perfect chance to see it firsthand.”

Muller continued to discuss how impressed he was at the seamless teamwork that allowed the community to operate smoothly.