There’s an expression from Greek philosophy: “The only constant is change.” It is age-old wisdom because of its inherent truth.

In my case, just when I thought things were really settled in my life, an opportunity came up for me to make an impact in the Kansas City Jewish community — the community where I was raised — and I moved my entire life from Chicago back here. Now I find myself part of an incredible evolution, both of the Kansas City Jewish community and of an organization that has long served this community.

There’s a fresh buzz about Kansas City as a place to live for young Jews. Whether graduating from KU or other universities, or moving back from cities like Baltimore, Chicago and Portland, Kansas City is becoming a destination for meeting like-minded individuals, finding meaningful work and building community. Part of this is happening organically, but I also attribute it to the great work of community members and community organizations who have worked diligently to build and maintain a vibrant Jewish life in our city.

I’m excited to be part of Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, an organization that at this moment is rethinking everything about itself — the way we plan, the way we program, how we are structured and how we engage people in Jewish life in Kansas City. And I have a number of ideas to help us build community, involve different people, develop leaders and continue to raise more funds to support vital and innovative programs in Kansas City and around the world.

I want to share just one of those ideas, and ask you to join me in this effort:

The idea is to be out front on something.

Be the first to act. Be the first to welcome a stranger. Be the first to sign up for a class or program. Be the first to speak out for a cause. Be the first to fund a campaign.

You don’t have to be the first overall — maybe you can be first in your neighborhood, first in your congregation, first in your school or first in your family. Just take a risk, take the lead, let people know what you are doing, and see who you inspire.

With my new role in fundraising, I wanted to be the first Jewish Federation staffer to donate to our 2014 Community Campaign. On making my commitment, I learned someone else in our organization was already out front on this, but I figured this just gave me a chance to be first in my department.

Now I’m sharing my story with others, and the resulting generosity and philanthropy inspires me to keep going every day. If you’d like to be the first in your group to join me, send me an email at or give me a call at 913-327-8100 — your support is welcome and appreciated.

I also ask you to reach out to tell me about a first of any type. With your permission, we’ll honor these firsts in future Jewish Federation e-newsletters, on Facebook, on Twitter and in our personal storytelling. I can’t wait to see the outstanding things our community will do in rising to this challenge.

Meanwhile, in the Jewish Federation office, we’ll be evaluating opportunities to be first to try all kinds of new things as we recognize the need (now more than ever) to co-create and innovate. If you have an idea for a program, please bring it to us. If you have a lesson we can learn, or a model we can follow, please bring it to us. Our aim is to be nimble and ever-evolving, and that calls for the ideas and talents of the community to help us achieve success.

Lastly, in the spirit of change, please help me recognize some long-serving members of Jewish Federation, and thank them for their passion and dedication to Jewish communal service. Gail Weinberg, the longtime financial resource development director (and for the past few weeks, my mentor) is retiring. Vicky Kulikov, after nearly 10 years of service, is moving on to another exciting opportunity at the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. Thanks to both of these individuals for their outstanding relationship-building and fundraising work. They will both continue to be part of our own microcosm in Kansas City, which we are thrilled about.

And to Kim Lewis and Carol Pfau, talented Jewish professionals in their own right, our best wishes in your new roles at the Jewish Heritage Foundation and the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy — both Jewish Federation partner agencies. We know your important and impactful work will continue, and we are fortunate to have you continuing not only in the Jewish community, but at the Jewish Community Campus!

To everyone who makes a difference in our community, in any role or capacity, thank you for all that you have done, thank you for all that you currently do, and thank you in advance for all that you will do as we move forward together.

Derek Gale is the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City’s incoming director of financial resource development.

It’s a draw

On behalf of Ohev Sholom’s Great Latke Hamantash Debate committee, I want to express my sincere appreciation for the wonderful press coverage you gave our first ever event over the past five months. The attendance exceeded our expectations as well as the audience’s enjoyment of the program.

Team Latke debaters Hazzan Tahl Ben-Yehuda, Larry Gordon and Izzy Cernea and Team Hamantash debaters Rabbi Beryl Padorr, Mike Kolb and Rabbi Herbert Mandl were very witty and entertaining. Even with the spirited debater rebuttal and audience participation, declaring a winner was not achieved this year. Maybe next year?!

Thank you again,

Melanie Allmayer, event chair

Committee: Mary Birnbaum, Meredith Farnan,

Sally Gordon, Terri Herman,

Maureen Kelts, Kira Lillard,

Jennifer Metcalf and Ruth Roth

(Editor's Note: Katja Edelman is a junior at Columbia University in New York and a graduate of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy. Between her first and second year of school, Edelman joined the IDF. She served in a combat role in the IDF’s canine unit, Oketz. Edelman studies political science with a focus in International Relations, is the daughter of Alan and Debbie Sosland-Edelman and a member of Congregation Beth Shalom. This article first appeared on The Times of Israel website on Dec. 12.)

“Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to skip Mandela memorial, citing cost.” After double-checking to make sure I wasn’t reading a headline from “The Onion,” I held my breath hoping this was some sick joke. Nope, Bibi’s done it again. The same guy who famously spent nearly $3,000 on ice cream last year is trying to convince the world that he skipped Nelson Mandela’s funeral because of a tight budget.

I have a little confession to make: I’ve never been a big fan of Christmas. My wife gets a lot of enjoyment out of listening to the music and looking at the lights, but to me it’s always felt like someone else’s culture being shoved down my throat for a month. And then there’s having to call school musical directors to convince them to include something other than Christmas songs in the “Winter Concert” (hah!). I have basically grimaced and (barely) tolerated the month of December for most of my life.

When I was growing up, most of the Jewish kids I knew had two Jewish parents, and Christmas felt like a threat, like we were being proselytized by the majority culture. It felt like the boundary between us and Christmas had to be kept strong lest the shiny bauble threaten our Jewish identity.

Lately I’ve been rethinking this — a little. Nowadays most of the Jewish kids I know have one Jewish parent, and expecting these families to keep Christmas out doesn’t seem realistic, given that they almost certainly have close family (grandparents, cousins, even mom or dad) that celebrate it. Asking them to keep Christmas out is only going to teach them that “Judaism” asks for something they can’t (and wouldn’t even really want to) give.

I’ve also come to realize that my attitude toward Christmas reflected a rather paranoid view of the standing of Jewish people in this country. Today, I’m very comfortable with America’s acceptance of Jews; with some exceptions, most problems are of misunderstanding rather than malice. The fact that people are aware enough about the issues that they’re willing to say “Happy Holidays” so as not to alienate us is actually pretty awesome. And let’s face it, Christmas has been so thoroughly secularized that if it proselytizes anything, it’s consumer culture rather than Christianity.

Today I think that it isn’t really up to the majority culture to undersell its big holiday — although like I say, I appreciate the realization that not everybody celebrates Christmas. Rather, it’s up to us to make our Jewish life compelling enough so that it satisfies our (and our kids’) needs for meaning and connection. If we do that, than Christmas doesn’t pose any kind of threat, if it ever did. And if we don’t do that, then Christmas isn’t the problem.

We live in a multi-hued, multicultural society, with all kinds of people in it. That’s true in our schools, in our neighborhoods, even in our own homes. Just as we would like our friends and neighbors to respect and even enjoy our holidays and customs, so we should respect and enjoy theirs. A strong sense of Jewish identity, and what that means and what it offers, is the basis from which we explore and enjoy the world. Including Christmas.

And let’s face it, the lights are pretty neat.

According to a recent study by the ADL, anti-Semitism in America is the lowest it has ever been. Of course this is a good thing. Of course we want to eradicate anti-Semitism, and racism and bigotry and sexism and homophobia and every other kind of crazy baseless hate. But the effect of this widespread acceptance of, and even appreciation of, Jews in American life has had a sizeable effect on Jewish Identity: 20 percent of American Jews do not identify as religious. In our bright, glittery world of Woody Allen and Drake and hummus and chutzpah, we are liberated of the terrible stigma that has always marked us as other. This should be beautiful, this should be glorious, this should be the stuff of utopian fantasy! And yet.

Here I am now with this terrible luxury, this magnificent burden, of choice. I have the ability to choose Judaism, or not to choose it. I am not branded, segregated, or shunned by the circumstances of my birth; I am amazingly, terrifyingly free. For many young American Jews, this means religion-lite, religion in small, calorie-free portions. A brisket sandwich, sure. A little Heineken and hamantaschen when Purim rolls around, no problem. A Friday night service? That’s a bit much, now, giving up some of my Friday night to participate in a tradition I have little connection to or interest in maintaining. Why should I, the wicked son, participate in something arcane and musty and confining? I have no incentive. And therein lies the tragedy.

At the 2013 Jewish Federations of North American General Assembly held last month in Israel, I met Jews from Poland, England, France and an array of other places. Places where, I was chagrined to learn, anti-Semitism is not the lowest it has ever been; rather, it is on the rise. Thus the young adults I met from those countries were fighting, still, for the freedom to be Jewish. Fighting! For what so many American Jews give up voluntarily, thoughtlessly, every one an Esau throwing his birthright at a pot of lentils. In an environment of openness and tolerance, where Jews are not held together by the threat of external forces, we must find a concrete way to retain Jewish identity and encourage its continuation.

The greatest accomplishment of the General Assembly of 2013 was the ingathering of so many cognizant, clever, and vibrant young Jews: Jews from all across North America as well as the world over, Jews with brilliant, enterprising minds and fresh ideas and well-thought-out opinions derived from formative experiences. We learned so much just from being in the same room with each other. Sharing our beliefs and passions and ideas enriched our sense of Jewishness and of belongingness, which really boils down to being the same thing. Judaism is a way of life built on community, on togetherness, on belonging to something created by individuals and yet greater than any individual. Together, we hold the future of our people in our young, unlined palms, and it is that spirit of unity, and the strength of that unity, which will eventually draw young, apathetic Jews back to Judaism.

Samantha Oppenheimer is the daughter of Carla and Scott Oppenheimer and a member of Congregation Beth Shalom. She is currently spending the year on Masa’s Israel Service Fellows program, teaching English at a rehabilitation village for troubled youth, planting and maintaining community gardens for older immigrant communities and various other volunteering placements.

“Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman” by Mark Cohen (Brandeis University Press, 353 pp. Also available in Kindle and Nook editions)

When I told people I was in the middle of reading a book about Allan Sherman, I was surprised how few people even recognized the name, including people from my own generation, who might be expected to remember this comic genius who was at one time one of the most popular entertainers in America, whose comedy albums, beginning with “My Son, the Folk Singer” rivalled the albums of the best-known singers of the era on Billboard’s charts. At best, some may remember “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah,” a song about a homesick boy at summer camp.

The old cliché about the clown crying on the inside was certainly true of Sherman, whose life is described in Mark Cohen’s fascinating study, “Overweight Sensation.” With a narcissistic mother and a neglectful father and two stepfathers, young Allan’s life might have been completely devoid of sustenance had he not been shipped off for long periods of time to live with his maternal grandparents, Esther and Leon Sherman. As Cohen tells it, “The whole Jewish world that Sherman’s mother rejected was now his to discover and enjoy, and he did.” He expressed his devotion to the Shermans by adopting their surname for his stage name. Unfortunately, their nurturing was apparently not enough to overcome the insecurity Allan felt as a child, and much of the narrative of his life concerns his numerous addictions — tobacco, alcohol, gambling, overeating and multiple sex partners — which destroyed both his family life and his health and probably contributed to his early death just short of age 49.

While Sherman had a varied career in the entertainment industry (he was the producer of various game shows, including “I’ve Got a Secret”), he is best remembered for his song parodies, many of which have stood the test of time. Anyone who works in this genre, whether they be professional singers such as Weird Al Yankovic or the Capitol Steps, or simply people writing a Purim spiel for their local synagogue, works in the shadow of Allan Sherman. Moreover, Cohen asserts, Sherman was a pioneer in the development of ethnic humor in general paving the way for Jewish comedians such as Woody Allen and Jerry Seinfeld, as well as comics in other ethnic groups, such as African-Americans.

If “Overweight Sensation” were simply a biography of one man, it would probably be of limited interest to all but a handful of nostalgia buffs. But it is much more than that. Mark Cohen has provided us with a brilliant analysis of Sherman’s work and its place in the development of Jewish humor and ethnic humor in general in American culture.

Whereas it is sometimes fashionable to refer to humor such as Sherman’s as self-deprecating, in Cohen’s view, Sherman’s parodies were meant as affirmation of Jewish ethnicity. When “How are Things in Glocca Morra” was changed to “How are Things With Uncle Morris,” it was an ironic call to Jewish composers to assert their own roots. As Sherman once commented sardonically, “How would it have been if all the great Broadway hits of the great Broadway shows had been written by Jewish people — which they were.”

One of the many strengths of Cohen’s study is his analysis of the way in which Sherman’s humor works. Speaking of the English of Yiddish immigrants, he says “The life it represents is simple, direct and unpretentious. With such qualities, the more serious the original material, the funnier the Jewish parody.” When Sir Greenbaum (in the “Greensleeves” parody) declares that knighthood is “no job for a boy who is Jewish,” he is not ridiculing the Jews so much as he is expressing Jewish skepticism of the whole concept of knighthood, similar to that expressed by Rebecca in Scott’s “Ivanhoe.” Cohen points out that another reason for Sherman’s popularity was his timeliness, as the first Jewish comedian to chronicle the Jews’ migration to the suburbs. When he resigns the knighthood, Sir Greenbaum moves not to Brooklyn but rather to Shaker Heights.

In short, “Overweight Sensation” is much more than the story of one man. It is rather an important analysis of American ethnic culture and our place in it. On this basis I give it my highest recommendation.

The Chanukah that was

The date for the stone setting for Rabbi Margolies is Dec. 1. His many accomplishments, as well as never forgotten memories, are deeply etched in the minds of the Kansas City Jewish community. One memorable occasion was a particular Chanukah address.

That year Chanukah came late according to the Gregorian calendar. A large crowd of worshippers attended Shacharit services at Beth Shalom Synagogue on that Sunday of Chanukah because it fell on December 25th, the birthdate of Rabbi Morris Margolies. Entering the social hall of the synagogue following the service, the large turnout knew from the pleasant smell of Mr. Koppel’s steaming eggs and the sight of bagels before they became secularized that the breakfast would sufficiently fortify them to attend to Rabbi Margolies’ address. That year he did not talk about the unending light from the small vial of sacred Shemen. Instead his opening remarks were that the desecration of the Bet HaMikdash was the first of an uncountable number of anti-Semitic attacks that the Jewish people endured for about 2,000 years.

Rabbi Margolies spoke forcefully regarding the drenching of European soil with Jewish blood. His account of the ruthless Crusaders who without reason slaughtered Jews who tenaciously held to the Torah that G-d had given them. These heroic and loyal Jews held fast to our tradition as they lost their lives at the hands of the Cross. The rabbi spoke of the pervasive influence of Pope Innocent III who declared at the Fourth Lateran Council that Jews were to be assigned to “perpetual servitude” because of their complicity in the crucifixion of Jesus. Among other crimes against the Jews that Rabbi Margolies cited were the eviction from Spain, the German ovens of the Holocaust and with particular emphasis to personify the indignities that Jews suffered each day of their lives the virulent anti-Semitism directed to the son of a French assimilist family. His face was filled with anguish when retelling the story of artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus who was an uninformed Jew and whose father had declared that baptism was the only antidote for Jewish survival. I recall vividly that the word the rabbi used for this false accusation of treason against the French people was “canard,” in this case a groundless, anti-Semitic rumor that led to the ripping of the buttons from Dreyfus’ uniform, the breaking of his sword, and confinement to prison until his eventual release and later his exoneration. For Jews, he said, the rebirth of Israel meant that its citizens could live a life of Torah without the treachery and indignities of anti-Semitism, concluding with this remark: Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.” With great applause the attendees stood and sang Happy Birthday in Hebrew.

Harris Winitz

Kansas City, Mo.

Thanks for the coverage

Thank you for the articles and photos you published recently in honor of our Centennial Celebration in Greater Kansas City on Sunday, Nov. 10. Your extensive coverage not only informed members about our event, but also educated our community about the history of our Hadassah Chapter in the past 100 years and enabled us to share our vision for the future. A special thank-you to Barbara Bayer for the well-written article she wrote about the Greater Kansas City Chapter in the Oct. 31 issue after interviewing us.

As a result of your publicity, we welcomed 143 members, guests and Associates (men who support the women of Hadassah) to our celebration. In addition to a luncheon and fashion show, attendees learned about our current Hadassah projects in the United States, Israel and around the world and we raised funds to promote our mission inspired by the values of our founder, Henrietta Szold.

Please accept our sincere thanks for helping us start our second century in such a positive way.

Marian Kaplan

President

Greater Kansas City Chapter of Hadassah

Rita Shapiro

President

Great Plains Region of Hadassah

I read with great interest Barbara Bayer’s commentary/response to the community conversation regarding the Pew Research study of which I was a panel participant. My admiration and respect for all of my fellow participants was affirmed during the evening. I was and am appreciative for the opportunity to share my views and the work of my Congregation Kol Ami with the community. However, there is one inaccuracy in the article that requires clarification.

I am not a Reform rabbi. It is not that I would in any way have an issue with being one if I were so. I have great respect for the character and work of all of the Reform rabbis in our community. Having spent most of my adult life as a member of Congregation Beth Torah I am grateful for having been a part of such a wonderful Jewish community (Mazel Tov to them for their 25 years of contributing to Jewish life in Kansas City), and particularly to have Rabbi Mark Levin for my rabbi.

However, I did not receive smichah from (was not ordained by) a seminary recognized by the Reform movement. My seminary, the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York takes great pride in being a pluralistic, trans/post/multi-denominational school. I had three Talmud teachers: one Orthodox rabbi, one Conservative rabbi and one Reform rabbi. My colleagues also represented the broad spectrum of the Jewish American community. For davening we had available to us Siddurim from all movements: Reconstructionist, Renewal, Conservative, Orthodox and Reform.

As I explicitly stated during the community conversation, in addition to the many years I spent at Reform Congregation Beth Torah, I grew up at Beth Shalom (Conservative), davened at Orthodox congregation Kesher Israel in Washington, D.C., during my college years, and was the rabbinic intern at Ohev Sholom (Conservative). I liked and valued each of those experiences, and find something to commend in what each of our broad Jewish communities have to offer K’lal Yisrael. I simply do not want to have to choose one over the other, and would rather freely take what I like from each.

Congregation Kol Ami has never officially affiliated with the Reform movement. More to the point, our kehilah made the conscious decision over the last year or so to present ourselves as non-movement specific, an open tent eager for what each unique voice can bring into our community to enrich our collective spiritual lives. Our members represent this broad spectrum of Jewish theology and practice, seeing our community as one that eagerly welcomes those who have elsewhere felt disenfranchised: Jews who are new to the city with little previous connection to anyone in the community, interfaith couples and families, and people from the LGBT community.

This decision was attendant to our decision to buck a decades-long trend in Kansas City’s Jewish community of moving further and further away from the central city. We are now a truly urban synagogue, worshipping at 45th and Walnut, locating our community garden at 43rd and Forest (east of Troost) working with the historic Manheim Park neighborhood, and engaging in issues of social justice and concern to the central city (issues of gun violence, racial and economic justice, comprehensive immigration reform). By actually locating in the central city these problems truly become “our problems” and not “their problems.”

I would respectfully suggest that categorizing me and my congregation as Reform is not merely a misstatement, but rather reflective of an adherence to preserving a familiar and comfortable way of looking at Judaism in the United States versus seeking real change, and finding new ways to look at forming strong Jewish communities. (The panel organizers also insisted that I was on the panel representing the Reform movement, notwithstanding my insistence that it was not the case.)

Bayer rightfully asserts that “... we have to make adjustments in the way we do things to maintain a viable Jewish community.” But she questions whether or not we will do more than talk about making those needed changes during the next 20 years, stating that “only time will tell.”

We at Congregation Kol Ami are making those changes now. What remains to be seen is whether our Jewish community leaders will support those changes designed to create and strengthen Jewish community, rather than only discuss the need for change, yet commit total support solely to programs and institutions that maintain the status quo.

In regard to disputing my assertion that strong Jewish communities will be built through relationship, and not programming, I would suggest for reading, Dr. Ron Wolfson’s book “Relational Judaism,” Rabbi Elie Kaunfer’s book “Empowered Judaism” and the S3K Report-Synagogue 3000 study, “Reform and Conservative Congregations: Different Strengths, Different Challenges,” which I mentioned during the community conversation.

For those who were wondering, the sky is not falling. In fact, as one panelist so eloquently put it last week, it would be strategically unwise to be pessimistic.

I agree.

And when I left last week’s community conversation, which discussed the recent Pew Research Center study, “A Portrait of Jewish Americans: Is the Sky Falling?” I was more optimistic than I typically am. Do we have to make adjustments in the way we do things to maintain a viable Jewish community? You bet. Do we have a clue how to do that? I don’t really think so. Will we actually do more than talk about needing to make changes during the next 20 years? Only time will tell.

Even with all those uncertainties, I walked away from the community conversation — hosted by the Jewish Federation, the Rabbinical Association and the Jewish Funders Council — last week feeling good about our community. Here in Kansas City, or more accurately southern Johnson County where the majority of our local Jewish population lives, we’ve known for a while that we need to do things differently to continue to have a viable, vibrant Jewish community. So the numbers that came out in the Pew Research Center study shouldn’t have been a surprise. The study pointed out that the proportion of Jews who say they have no religion and are Jewish only on the basis of ancestry, ethnicity or culture is growing rapidly. We can see that in the decline of synagogue members. The study also said two-thirds of these people are not raising their children Jewishly at all. That’s easy to figure out as well, based on the fact that the intermarriage rate is at 58 percent, up from 43 percent in 1990, and 17 percent in 1970. Among non-Orthodox Jews, the intermarriage rate is even higher at 71 percent.

So while there’s been quite a bit of national analysis on the Pew Research Center study, approximately 130 people came out on a stormy Kansas City evening to hear what our local experts had to say. That fact alone — that so many people showed up when it would be easier to not venture out at all — was enough to boost my spirits.

Those experts represented the three major Jewish religious movements — Orthodox Rabbi Daniel Rockoff, Conservative Rabbi David Glickman and Reform Rabbi Doug Alpert; two agencies that have a major impact on young people and families — Hillel Executive Director Jay Lewis and Jewish Community Center President and CEO Jacob Schreiber; and community volunteers Sarah Beren and Victor Wishna. The panel presented its views and answered questions from the audience during the event.

As Lewis pointed out, there are many positives in the study under discussion. In fact, 94 percent of those who identified as Jewish said they were proud to do so. It was also heartening to hear Rabbi Rockoff say that he believes God will never let the Jewish people disappear.

Our problems, our lack of Jewish involvement and engagement, could very well stem from the fact that it’s never been easier to be Jewish. We were told that it’s a blessing and a curse that Jews are now totally accepted by the general community. Young Jews today didn’t live through the Holocaust and may not even know any survivors. To them, Israel hasn’t been the struggling young Jewish state many of us grew up with … and from their perspective, it has even frequently been portrayed as the aggressor.

Congregation Beth Shalom’s Rabbi Glickman may have presented the best idea of the night. He pointed out that we throw money and programs at a wide variety of age groups starting with Jewish preschoolers and teens — including all the various youth groups, Hillel and Birthright Israel — all good things he added. But we do very little once these young adults graduate college. Then we expect them to marry Jewish people, raise their children Jewish and join congregations. With that huge gap in programming for many young Jewish people who get married — on average between the ages of 29-35 — that lack of connection and the resulting disengagement can be hard to overcome.

Rabbi Glickman concluded the evening by reminding us we have to reach out and bring every person we know into our community. Interestingly enough, this same point came up at the beginning of the evening when Rabbi Alpert reminded us the Jewish community has to be welcoming to everyone — saying it’s about relationships, not programs. I think we actually do need programming, especially programs that bring us together. I’ve been to several big events in the last month and there’s nothing better than being in a room filled with Jewish people, especially Jewish people you know well and can joke and laugh with.

One example of the power of programming is the success of KU Hillel. The Jewish student organization recently hosted more than 550 people at the 12th annual Rock Chalk Shabbat. During the rest of the school year, KU Hillel consistently provides programs and meals for hundreds of Jewish students. Through those programs, KU Hillel ultimately builds relationships. Statistics show that many of these students, especially those who take part in a Birthright Israel experience, tend to be more dedicated to the Jewish community after they graduate.

This isn’t nearly enough though. We need to find ways to change and evolve. Borrowing one of Lewis’ lines from the community conversation, young Jews are not disinterested, but their engagement may differ from the traditional way to which many of us are accustomed. Schreiber reminded us that “change is cool,” and we need to listen as our young people try to re-invent the Jewish community. Perhaps we should find out what they want before we plan programs for them.

While we’re doing that, listening to our young people and figuring out where we need to go next, let’s hope funders and donors follow Sarah Beren’s advice.

“Take a leap of faith and invest in our future.”

Well said Sarah.

A genuine mitzvah

Thank you so much for publishing the excellent piece regarding kidney transplants by Judy Firestone Singer as well as The Chronicle’s helpful articles about my condition last summer.

Last week, Ellen Murphy (our donor) and I attended a conference on transplants hosted by Gift of Life, an organization dedicated to inculcate a culture of helping each other in these matters. It was an extraordinary gathering of several hundred people — many mother/daughter, father/son and friend-to-friend organ-sharing stories. Others were anonymous donors.

All in all, the message was clear: help your community by being an organ donation advocate and potential organ donor.

The need for donors now way exceeds the supply. The gift of donating is highly personal. Know, however, it does not impair your health and adds immeasurably to the lives of others.

Certainly, nachas for all but most important, a genuine mitzvah!

David Seldner

Leawood, Kan.