At least monthly people walk into my congregation, The New Reform Temple in Kansas City, Mo., and tell me they have never been inside the building before. Some are newcomers to Kansas City, some have lived here their whole lives. I am sometimes amazed at how little most of us know about other congregations as well as Jewish Kansas City sites and personalities in our area.
In March 2002, at the request of my friend and editor of "Hadassah" magazine, Alan Tigay, I wrote a piece about Jewish life in Kansas City. The piece compared Jewish life in Kansas City to the lives of Jews in China. The piece was titled "Jews in the Middle Kingdom." In it I exalted our Jewish community and institutions. I also acknowledged that most people outside of Kansas City are totally unaware of our existence or how good we really have it here. Every one of us is likely to have been asked by a surprised fellow Jew: "Really? There are Jews in Kansas City?"
Kansas City is not only a great place to live, but it has places and personalities that are relevant for Jews nationwide as well as worldwide. We also have institutions that represent major Jewish thoughts, ideas and ideals. We are blessed with a multitude of congregations as well as chapters of national and international Jewish organizations.
In this column, which will run the first and third weeks of every month, I hope to explore the many Jewish treasures in Kansas City as well as the ideas and historical processes that led to the shaping of our Jewish community. Thus I call the column "Jewish places, Jewish times."
I am honored to be associated with the Jewish Community Archives because it is a repository of our collective Jewish memory. It also gives me great joy to lead people on Jewish tours of Kansas City.
There are so many unknown Jewish treasures, such as former synagogues and communal buildings, a myriad of sites and people associated with President Harry Truman as well as cemeteries where some interesting and noteworthy individuals are buried. In Eudora, Kan., located near Lawrence, sits the oldest Jewish cemetery in this part of the world. It was created by the earliest Jewish pioneers in 1859 and is still used today by the Lawrence Jewish community.
The now defunct Jewish community in Leavenworth, Kan., was the first white settlement in the Kansas Territory. Today only the former temple building, transformed into the Temple Apartments, and the cemetery remain in the Kansas City area. Elmwood Cemetery on Truman Road was the first dedicated Jewish burial ground. Recently a book was written highlighting some of the burials. They include the first Jewish settlers in the area, the first rabbi and the founder of Sears Roebuck.
Our treasures are not limited to sites or buildings. There are many people in our area who have lived interesting, eventful and meaningful lives. Loeb Granoff, for instance, has shared with me vivid memories of the events that led to President Truman’s recognition of Israel. We have in our community both Holocaust survivors as well as soldiers who liberated concentration camps. We have Jews who have served in our military, as well as in Israel’s. There are families in our community that descend from the earlier pioneers who arrived in Kansas City when the city was still called Westport Landing as well as descendants of people who settled the Jewish agricultural colonies created in the Kansas Territory at the end of the 19th century.
There is so much to explore and to learn about! We only need curiosity and willingness. I hope you are as excited as I am to do some of the exploring of our rich and diverse community with me.