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Volume 101, Number 22 www.kcjc.com June 3, 2021 23 Sivan 5781

jewish chronicle The KANSAS

CITY

‘Repairing the world’

Flora draws on Judaic teaching of tikkun olam for public service, run for Mission mayor By Jerry LaMartina Contributing Writer Sollie Flora draws on her legal training to work through complicated issues as a city council member in Mission, Kansas. But as a Jew, her inspiration for public service also comes from the spirit of tikkun olam. “There is an influence of Judaism in the work that I’m doing,” she said, “that social justice tradition that I feel very strongly about and making sure that we really are welcoming and inclusive of everyone that wants to be part of our community.” And now, Flora is hoping to apply those ideals as the mayor of Mission, as a candidate in the Nov. 2 election. Flora is a Ward 4 member of the city council, elected in November 2017. Her mayoral opponent is Arcie Rothrock, who represents Ward 2 on the council. Flora said her motivation to run for the Mission council, her first elected office, came from the “overwhelming and pretty discouraging” national and state political climate at the time and her belief that she could help her community. She is the council’s only lawyer, and along with working through issues, Flora uses her professional skills to communicate with stakeholders and resolve disputes. She is running for mayor “to cement our city’s forward progress,” she said. She thinks the city’s government is on the right path but needs “strong leadership.” Her priorities, if elected as mayor, would include executing the council’s parks and master plans; catching up on deferred maintenance of streets; increasing connections between city government, residents and businesses;

Sollie Flora, pictured here in the Mission, Kansas, downtown business district, with her fiance, Dave Leigh, and their dog Wags. (Courtesy Sollie Flora) and pushing efforts for environmental sustainability and equity — all aimed at making Mission the “very best place to live and work.” As a Mission councilmember, Flora updates her constituents on social media and holds quarterly ward meetings to field their questions and concerns. She is considering expanding that by holding themed, citywide town hall meetings if elected as mayor. “I am dedicated to transparency and community participation,” she said on her mayoral candidacy website. “I work hard to ensure that my neighbors and Mission residents understand my positions, and am always willing to explain the ‘why’ behind my votes.” Heather Ousley knows why Flora has “a strong shot” at becoming Mission’s mayor. Ousley is the Shawnee Mission School District’s board president. Like Flora, she is Jewish and a lawyer. They met when Flora ran for Mission’s council. “She’s a genuinely good person,” Ous-

Flora and her supporters gather for a group shot on May 23 during the kick-off of her mayoral campaign for the city of Mission, Kansas. (Courtesy Sollie Flora) ley said. “I think she’s one of the hardestworking people I know.” Flora recognizes that some problems have policy solutions, Ousley said. For example, soon after joining the Mission City Council, Flora helped develop an LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinance and helped other cities’ councils do the same. “She recognized that there was a potential problem in that our LGBTQ friends and family could be at risk because there were no specific ordinances that recognized them as a protected class,” Ousley said. “So, she set out to correct that and was successful.” Hillary Thomas, who represents Ward 1 on Mission’s council, met Flora when they were both running for the council and they became friends. They learned they had gone to the same high school a few years apart and had grown up near each other. Asked what made Flora tick, Thomas said it was “when things move too slow.” “She very much has an entrepreneurial spirit,” Thomas said. “She’s always ready to move things forward as quickly as we can. … She’s going to be a

fantastic mayor.” Flora lived in Chicago for three years and returned to this area in 2015, when she bought a house in Mission. She likes living there because of its people, the Johnson Drive corridor with its independent businesses and walkability, the city’s old neighborhoods with mature trees and its central location, she said. “I think it’s a lot of those intangibles that make a difference,” she said. “The people when you’re out and about. We have an ethos of looking out for one another in Mission.” Flora is 35. She is an in-house lawyer for Corbion, a Dutch company with U.S. headquarters in Lenexa. She was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Overland Park, where her parents, David and Elaine Flora, still live. She became a bat mitzvah at Congregation Beth Torah. She doesn’t currently belong to a congregation. She graduated from Blue Valley Northwest High School. She received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Grinnell College and a law degree from the University of Michigan.

Israeli Supreme Court president blasts critics for ‘undermining’ rule of law (JNS) Israeli Supreme Court President Esther Hayut blasted critics of the court at the annual Israel Bar Association conference in Eilat on Monday. “The undermining of the legitimacy of the courts and their judgements in effect undermines the principle of the rule of law, and from here to anarchy and chaos the distance is short,” Hayut said, according to Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster. “The judiciary is an island of stability in this time of great upheaval, although unfortunately there are those who have

set themselves the goal of harming and weakening it,” Hayut said. “This trend is reflected, among other things, in blatant and unbridled attacks that sometimes border on actual incitement and are directed personally at judges in all courts, due to decisions that are not to the liking of those parties,” she said. “These attacks are not just the domain of private individuals and tweeters of various social networks. They are also heard, regretfully, from elected of-

ficials,” Hayut said. Hayut was reportedly referring to remarks made last week by Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionist Party, who had attacked the court over a ruling in which it warned against passing future Basic Laws of the kind that extended the state budget by 11 billion shekels. In a subsequent Facebook post on Monday, Levin wrote: “The silencing choir of the leaders of the judicial system worked overtime today, trying to guide the new legal revolution, which means the final transfer of the legislative powers from the Knesset to the Supreme Court. The attempt to delegitimize and threaten those who stand up with determination to protect the Knesset and democracy will fail.”

Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on May 27, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

NEW GOVERNMENT IN ISRAEL As The Chronicle went to press, Israel was poised to have a new government, which would oust Benjamin Netanyahu from power after a record 12 years as prime minister. If the agreement held until Wednesday, the new coalition was to include right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties. Please see next week’s Chronicle for more coverage of the situation.

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The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

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June 3, 2021

local news

KU Hillel celebrates class of 2021

Every spring, senior Jayhawks look forward to the culmination of their time at the University of Kansas with a few traditions: walking under the Campanile and standing together under the tallit to receive their graduation blessing from Rabbi Neal Schuster, KU Hillel’s rabbi and senior Jewish educator. “Each year we invite our seniors and their families to celebrate their accomplishments, receive their Campanile mezuzah, and have a moment to intentionally pause before they leave our nest to reflect on their Jewish journey at KU,” said Suzy Sostrin, executive director of KU Hillel. KU Hillel recently celebrated with havdalah and dinner. Just as havdalah marks the end of a beautiful Shabbat and welcomes in the new week, it also marked a time of transition and the start of a new journey for the Class of 2021. The outdoor event took place on the terrace of HERE apartments with views of the Campanile — a fitting location for the seniors who received their Campanile mezuzah, created to look like the famous campus landmark. “I loved getting my iconic Campanile mezuzah KU Hillel gave to seniors, and being together one last time,” said Miriam Adler. “I can’t wait to hang up my mezuzah at my next home.” Following the havdalah service, Rabbi Schuster gathered the seniors under a tallit, spread out like a chuppah, and shared some final words of wisdom with the students, culminating in the Priestly Blessing. This tradition was a moving moment for the graduates as they feel the support of their Hillel fam-

Students gather for a group shot at KU Hillel’s sendoff for the class of 2021. (KU Hillel) ily and their loved ones. “Not only did I celebrate the end of my undergraduate journey surrounded by my peers and family, it also marked a personal commemoration of reuniting with loved ones nearing the end of the global pandemic,” said Ilexa Axelrod. “I believe that it was the perfect metaphor for closing one chapter and starting a new one.” KU Hillel also created gift bags for all the seniors. “We give them gifts, but it’s about much more than, ‘You’re graduating, mazel tov, here’s some stuff,’” said Rabbi Schuster. “Everything we prepare for

the graduates is symbolic and means something; from the Campanile mezuzah, down to the number of shabbat candles we put in the bag.” In addition to the student-favorite Campanile mezuzot, seniors received havdalah candles, custom embroidered KU Hillel blankets and six sets of Shabbat candles. “Hillel’s graduation havdalah was so meaningful, being able to be surrounded by great friends, mentors, and family, all of whom helped shape my college experience,” said Abrie Berkowitz. “I’m so grateful to have been surrounded by everyone there!”

KU Chabad bids farewell to beloved seniors April showers bring May flowers. On some level, the old saying was true at the Chabad House at KU during the recent graduation farewell parties for the classes of 2021 and 2020. Just like a blossoming flower, the graduating seniors are ready to leave KU and move on to whatever comes next in their life’s journey. Becoming an alumnus of the University of Kansas also means becoming an alumnus of Chabad at KU. It was truly a bittersweet few days, as saying goodbye to members of the family is always so hard. Many students gathered at the Chabad House to enjoy a special evening of bonding and reflection. During the celebratory dinner, the seniors each received a gift and spoke movingly about their time at KU and what Chabad meant to them. “KU Chabad has always been an educational and high-energy place to be Jewish,” said Sam Kricsfeld, of Omaha, Nebraska. “Rabbi Zalman always has a smile and a warm greeting whenever you come!” Ryan Gold, of Overland Park, emphasized how much Chabad truly became a part of his family. “I’m leaving KU, but my connection to KU Chabad will always be there,” he said. “My advice to all future Jewhawks is to take advantage of everything Chabad has to offer in hopes

Seniors celebrated with KU Chabad for a graduation farewell, joining together with their fellow Jewhawks and their families. (KU Chabad) that everyone has the same impact it had on me.” The senior farewell celebration was filled with laughter and tears, excitement and melancholy. While the accomplishments of the seniors were celebrated by all, at the same time the Chabad House and KU community has lost some of its dedicated members. Functioning as a family, it is not easy to say goodbye

to these friends who are like the big brothers and sisters to the underclassmen. “There is nothing more rewarding than being part of this special journey for these young Jewish men and women,” said Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, co-director of Chabad at KU. “We have no doubt that the Jewish people will see great things in the future from these young Jewish leaders.”

June 3, 2021

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

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community news

Daniel Spiegel earns Eagle Scout

Jeffrey and Julie Spiegel are proud to announce that their son, Daniel Spiegel, earned the rank of Eagle Scout on March 25, 2021. He was recognized at his Troop’s Eagle Court of Honor on May 16, 2021. Daniel began his scouting journey in 2013 as a Tiger Cub in Pack 3476 in the first grade at Harmony Elementary School. He was awarded the Arrow of Light and crossed over to Troop 10 on February 15, 2018. While a Boy Scout, Daniel has so far earned 39 merit badges and received both the Aleph and Ner Tamid Reli-

gious Awards. He is a Foxman in the Tribe of Mic O Say and an Ordeal member of the Order of the Arrow. For his Eagle Project, Daniel organized a LEGO collection and led a team of volunteers to separate, inspect, clean, sort and package them for The Giving Brick. Daniel’s Eagle Project resulted in collecting 44 pounds of loose LEGOS (approx. 20,000 pieces) that The Giving Brick could potentially create more than 100 sets for the children of CASA. Additionally, 14 new sets and 23 used sets were donated.

Daniel is an eighth grade honor student at Harmony Middle School. He is involved in track & field, baseball, basketball, and soccer. He plays the bass clarinet in the school band. He is a madrich for the The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah Sunday School and is involved in Kesher and BBYO. Daniel is the grandson of Victor and Paula Suroff and Carolyn and the late Robert Spiegel. Daniel is the third generation in his family to participate in Scouting and the first to achieve the rank of Eagle.

Daniel Spiegel

Jewish Community Foundation annual report highlights positivity during challenging year In its new annual report, the Jewish Community Foundation reflects upon how the Foundation, its fundholders and partner organizations found positive ways to make an impact during an unprecedentedly challenging year. The theme of the 2020 report is “Celebrating Silver Linings,” and it includes two dozen engaging testimonials from community members describing their own personal silver linings during the pandemic. The annual report also provides detailed information about the Foundation’s financials and is a comprehensive resource for learning about the many philanthropic programs, tools and services the Foundation offers to givers of all ages and stages of life. Many of the contributed silver linings focused on the joys of greater connection with beloved family members. “When the pandemic hit, I started calling my 84-year-old aunt in Austin,

Texas once a week,” Martha Gershun shared in the report. “This hour-long ritual has become extremely important to both of us, as we share current news and stories about her childhood in Marfa, Texas and mine in Southern California. We have both agreed we will continue even after the pandemic is over!” Kurt Kavanaugh also found a silver lining in spending time with his family, in person and virtually. “We’ve had a bonus year with our daughter, who took

a semester off from college. Our nephew was born on March 24th and we’ve enjoyed ‘meeting’ him and watching him grow via Facebook Portal,” he said. Technology was a common silver lining that helped people keep in touch and also allowed them to mobilize their philanthropy. “Through quick action, the J-LEAD program [the Foundation’s young adult giving circle] pivoted to a virtual format this year,” said Kris Zeid. “We maximized the impact of our contributions by supporting organizations that had critical needs during the pandemic. While our members were not able to meet in person, we were able to adapt during these unprecedented times and fulfill the mission of our great program and the mitzvah of tzedakah.” Through fund and donor listings, the annual report recognizes the thousands of generous givers with whom the

JFS summer “Wipeout” returns, collecting toilet paper for food pantries It’s summer and what better time for a “wipeout” — of toilet paper, that is! This summer, Jewish Family Services food pantry is seeking donations of packages of toilet paper during its summer “Wipeout” campaign to keep the shelves of its two locations stocked. Each month, the pantry provides clients with more than 2,700 rolls of toilet paper. Toilet paper is a bare necessity SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) does not cover. With the pantry currently serving more than 900 families each month, keeping toilet paper in stock is a challenge. The pandemic increased demand, so JFS is asking for the public’s help. “We are looking for organizations and individuals to get creative this year and help other families in Kansas City with this essential item,” said Jo Hickey, JFS food pantry director. “It has been amazing to see the difference the community has made in response to the increased need for assistance and demand hasn’t stopped.” Jump-starting the JFS summer Wipeout drive is a partnership with Theatre in the Park (TIP), Kansas City’s largest outdoor community theatre. During TIP’s seven performances of the musical “Curtains” (June 18-20 and 23-26) at Shawnee

Mission Park, patrons are encouraged to bring toilet paper donations to drop off before showtime. JFS volunteers will be on hand to assist with the process. Patrons will receive a coupon for a free box of popcorn as a thank you for each toilet paper donation. “We’re excited to team up with our friends at Theatre in the Park and encourage theatre-goers to bring along toilet paper as they enjoy a night of entertainment under the stars,” Hickey said. The community is also encouraged to host a COVID-safe drive at workplaces, in neighborhoods, and through schools or clubs. JFS provides numerous tools to help make any summer “Wipeout” drive successful including dropping off and pick-

ing up barrels or totes for collections, and providing downloadable fliers, email templates, and online resources to help promote your drive at www.jfskc.org. Toilet paper donations can also be dropped off in designated JFS food pantry barrels in the lobby of the Jewish Community Campus or delivered to the circle drive of the building between 10 a.m. and noon on June 20. Donations can be delivered to the Brookside location, 425 E. 63rd St., by appointment by calling (816) 333-1172 or in the parking lot from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on June 10. If you are interested in hosting a summer “Wipeout” toilet paper drive this summer, email fooddrive@jfskc.org or call Hickey at (913) 327-8257.

Foundation is fortunate to work. From the B’nai Tzedek program which introduces teens to philanthropy, to Donor Advised Funds which are personal charitable giving accounts, to planned gifts which help ensure the bright future of our community, the Foundation is an active partner in impactful charitable giving. In 2020, Foundation funds distributed more than $28 million to 1,181 nonprofits. Nearly $21 million of that was designated for local Jewish communal organizations. Approximately $1 million went to organizations directly providing pandemic relief. Community members may now view the annual report online through the Foundation’s website, jcfkc.org. For more information about the Jewish Community Foundation or to request a printed copy of the annual report, please contact Josh Stein at (913) 3278121 or jstein@jcfkc.org.

IDEAS FOR A TOILET PAPER DRIVE:

• Place a food pantry barrel or bin on the organizer’s front porch or at a community pool. • Host a summer wipeout drive in conjunction with camp, ballgame or special event. • Host a lemonade stand and offer a refreshing cup as a thank you for each toilet paper or monetary donation. • Drop off bags with a note on neighbors’ doorsteps explaining the drive and indicating a date when volunteers will return to pick up donations. • Host a virtual summer wipeout drive by connecting employees or members of any group to JFS’s food pantry Wish List through Amazon Smile.

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The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

celebrations BAT MITZVAH

BAR MITZVAH

June 3, 2021

Paul Silbersher: ‘Celebration of a Life’ By Ricky Silbersher Special to The Chronicle

Beatrix Willa Colbert David and Mara Colbert announce the bat mitzvah of their daughter, Beatrix Willa Colbert, on June 12, 2021, at The New Reform Temple. Beatrix is the granddaughter of Ward and Donna Katz. Beatrix enjoys field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse. She also loves reading, art, and science. Bea will be attending Camp Sabra at the Lake of the Ozarks for her third summer. WEDDING

Rachel Salvay and Brian Crawford Rachel Anne Salvay and Brian John Crawford were married May 14, 2021, in a private ceremony at sunrise on the banks of Wellington Lake, near Bailey, Colorado. The bride is the daughter of Craig and Linda Salvay of Lafayette, Colorado, formerly of Prairie Village, Kansas. Parents of the groom are Frank and Olivia “Bunny” Crawford of Bellevue, Washington. The couple resides in Boulder, Colorado.

Jonah Ethan Stein Joshua and Sheryl Stein announce the bar mitzvah of their son, Jonah Ethan Stein, on June 12, 2021, at Congregation Beth Shalom. Jonah is the grandson of Stewart and Esther Stein, and of Marilyn Rosen of Dunnelon, Florida, and the late Marc Rosen. Jonah’s sibling is Leora. Jonah attends Leawood Middle School. He is an avid athlete who enjoys soccer, track and baseball and is a big fan of the Royals and Chiefs. He plays trumpet in school and is active in Jewish student organizations. He loves exploring and traveling and spending his summers at his favorite place, Herzl Camp in Wisconsin. Jonah wanted to make a difference when he saw the incredible food insecurity during the pandemic, so for his bar mitzvah project he created MASKerAIDs as a way to raise money for the Jewish Family Services food pantry. MASKerAIDs are beaded lanyards that attach to face masks allowing them to hang around your neck so they are readily accessible when not being used. He sold the MASKerAIDs with 100% of the proceeds going to JFS and has sold over 1,000 of them, raising $20,000 to help the hungry in our community. Jonah looks forward to continuing to serve the community through volunteerism and his B’nai Tzedek Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation.

Congregation Beth Torah to host playground meet ‘n greets

Congregation Beth Torah and Rabbi Monica Kleinman, director of lifelong learning, are proud to announce a series of playground dates for those who are currently enrolled or interested in joining the Weiner Religious School. The Weiner Religious School is open to all KC-area Jewish families regardless of their membership at CBT. Rabbi Kleinman said CBT’s Weiner Religious School had a very successful virtual year in 2020-21 with their family-based model, but missed the hallway and parking lot conversations and the play-based learning with peers. These upcoming Sunday morning events aim to give students the opportunity to see their religious school friends and meet new friends, and for adults to socialize with one another.

Rabbi Kleinman will greet families with children in specific grade levels on certain days to create a more intimate experience, which is a hallmark of CBT’s program. Rabbi Kleinman will be present to answer questions about the Weiner Religious School program, faculty, community, and the latest COVID-19 procedures. The meet ‘n greets take place at Meadowbrook Park Grand Pavilion Shelter from 10:00-11:30 a.m. Four dates are available for various age groups: June 6 for rising fourth and fifth graders; June 27 for rising second and third graders; July 11 for rising kindergarten and first graders; and August 1 for three- and four-year-olds. Rabbi Kleinman can be reached at mkleinman@beth-torah.org with questions.

Paul Silbersher, beloved rabbi/cantor and spiritual leader of Jewish life in Kansas City for over 40 years, died April 26, 2020, just as COVID had shut down life as we knew it. The new lockdown meant he was not to have visitors as he lay dying at home, so he put all his will into holding on til his 90th birthday, April 23rd—which with me (his eldest), his granddaughter Scout, and angelic health carers by his side, he was able to accomplish before letting go. Scout and I flew back East to bury Dad quietly in the family plot in Beth Israel Cemetery in NJ…still no one else in attendance. He could not even have a fitting funeral in either place once he passed. For a man who conducted thousands of profound funerals in his own lifetime, thousands of inspired weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, and ceremonies across his 70 years of serving others—this was a massive travesty. And so the year passed, everyone locked at home in a sort of global shiva, while the travesty remained. I had a year to deal with my Dad. To clean out his home, tidy his affairs, to mourn, to re-learn Kaddish, to talk about him, go through his letters, pictures, papers. And to think. He was complex, and he was flawed. He gave more to everyone else than he gave to his nuclear family(s). BUT. The flame he managed to hand me — passed as a Cohane from my Grandfather and beyond — was so profound, that I learned to burn with it myself. My Dad taught me Meaning. He taught us all what it means to feel and live with Meaning. What we do with that feeling is up to us, but to be handed the spark is a spiritual privilege he lived to give us. And with that pride of purpose, I booked the KC Jewish Community Center for a gathering on behalf of his community, aiming for his Yahrzeit date. With safety protocols finally lifted by Sunday May 23, “Celebration of a Life” came together. A room full of devoted stalwarts from all walks of Dad’s life shuffled in. The social hall was set up in a horseshoe, like a campfire, so people could face each other together. Familiar belongings shrouded the dais and his recorded services played. On a plate sat a challah with a nectarine on top, representing Paul’s foundation of tradition balanced with modernity and humor (an homage to the 2,000-year-old man). I have never held a dais, and to stand there on behalf of a man who was most at home on one, was daunting. But I was not there for me—I’d already had my year. I was there to “honor my father” by honoring all those who he loved and had to leave behind without a word. To create a campfire and light a match. Everyone else was the reason I was there. They deserved to celebrate, remember, feel, learn, connect, be together and enjoy closure. The lovely surprise I did not expect, was to see all the sprouts of unexpected continuity. The community Dad built still pulses on. And this is a reflection of Paul himself.

Ricky Silbersher speaks at the May 23 “Celebration of Life” held for her father, Paul Silbersher, at the Jewish Community Center. (Courtesy Ricky Silbersher) He tossed thousands of seeds over his years, and it became clear how many little shoots of life still grow out of even the mention of his name. He left a life force with people—it was their own life force that he touched — and it was a blessing to witness this in every story shared, every song sung, each shofar blasted, every funny memory that got a rise out of the room, every choked-up moment that brought us to tears for 2-1/2 hours of expressing meaning together, and in the process, building even more of it. As his dear friend David Block said afterward, “I’m not done with him yet.” There is a wonderful new furniture setting that now sits in the theater lobby of the J which bears a plaque for Paul. Pincus (Paul’s Hebrew name) loved nothing more than sitting together with people, talking and fressing. If you care to be a part of this living memory, it would be very meaningful to help fund it and a place Dad called home, by directing any donations to the JCC, via Alley DeWitt at alleyd@thejkc.org. Deep thanks to all who have already done so. For a CD of Paul’s album and notice of when the event recording goes online etc, contact Ricky at: silbersher@icloud.com. Precious todahs to all who threw their hats in the ring to make the celebration come to life. Devra & Bruce Lerner and the Nigun Choir, Linda & Vance Andreas for blowing Dad’s shofar, Sam Matier for filming everything (which will be cut and shared online soon), Jan and Debbie for manning the guest book, Alley at the J for hosting us, Kim’s homemade kosher cookies, Steve at Louis Chapel who posted the event flyer, Larry Gelb for being the oldest there at 94 and who stuck with Dad through everything to the very end including this ceremony. To his friends who invited me for meals, to David Block who has made space for Dad’s library of books and music, donated the guest book, flowers, and beyond. To ALL who WERE THERE and ALL who WERE NOT. As Paul would say, “nothing missing, nothing broken.”

June 3, 2021

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

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community news

Oxford Middle School student is one winner of this year’s White Rose Student Research contest

The White Rose Student Research contest, sponsored annually by the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, is open to students in grades

eight through 12. MCHE announced this year’s winners at an awards banquet last month. You can see a video of the

event here (https://mchekc.org/videos/mche-programs/). The 2020-2021 contest theme was propaganda.

By Anna Kruger Oxford Middle School “I was coming home and there was a neighborhood boy, with whom I had grown up, standing in front of our door in uniform and acted as if he didn’t know me.” Ilsa Cole spoke these words about the discrimination she experienced as a German Jew living in Nazi Germany, an experience shared by Jews throughout that country. Before and during World War II, non-Jewish Germans saw and read antisemitic propaganda almost daily; this propaganda reinforced the message that the Aryan Germans shouldn’t acknowledge Jews. Some propaganda created an environment of mistrust and hatred against Jews, while other types encouraged non-Jewish German citizens to stay true to Aryan ideals and celebrate German culture; no matter the type of propaganda it was always repetitive. Nazi propaganda in the form of posters, magazines, and more served a dual purpose: to instill a strong sense of pride and nationalism in non-Jewish Germans, and to promote and encourage discrimination and hatred of Jews. The rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany originated in the aftermath of World War I. In November 1918, Germany surrendered, and the resulting Treaty of Versailles wasn’t favorable to Germany. The treaty included a war guilt clause, a severe reduction of the German military, and $70 billion in war damages. The weak German government, known as the Weimar Republic, struggled to lead under the strain of the growing anger among the German citizens and the effects of the Great Depression including high unemployment and inflation. German citizens desired a scapegoat to blame for both Germany’s loss in the war and for the current conditions within the country. This desire for a scapegoat, combined with hope for a better situation, caused the German people to willingly accept the Nazi message and led to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party. Between 1928 and 1932, the number of seats the Nazi Party held in the Reichstag rose by 35%. In 1932, the Nazis held the largest minority in the Reichstag, which led President von Hindenburg to name Hitler Chancellor in January 1933. Within months, the Nazis began to pass laws that discriminated against Jews as well as spread antisemitic propaganda throughout society. The Nazis’ propaganda machine focused on two types of propaganda: one that supported the idea of perfect ‘Aryan’ Germans, and the other that portrayed Jews as Germany’s misfortune. Targeted at the perfect Aryan citizen, the purpose of inclusionary propaganda was to make non-Jewish Germans feel national pride and to establish a sense of belonging. The Nazis began producing this type of propaganda in the early 1930s to appeal to the Aryan men and women of Germany and present Aryans and the Nazi Party as the ideal. Found on posters and in magazines, this state-supported propaganda displayed the qualities of a perfect Ayran as someone with blonde hair and blue eyes who was tall and strong. Additionally, the propaganda established societal roles for the Aryan men and women and imbued them with a sense of national pride. The Nazis used these images to reinforce their messages of promoting Aryan perfection while at the same time delivering Nazi ideology. Published in the late 1930s and early 1940s, ‘Das

Anna Kruger deutsche Mädel’ was a magazine that appealed to German girls. Some of the covers portrayed Aryan German girls as blonde, healthy, and young. Through the utilization of softer colors and encouraging phrases, the propaganda had the ability to connect with German girls and inspire sacrifice for their country. By utilizing inclusionary propaganda, the Nazi Party portrayed Hitler as a hero to the Germans, persuaded the German public to join the Nazis’ causes, and inspired the included to make sacrifices for the good of the racial community. While this type of propaganda was inclusive of German citizens, exclusionary propaganda had differing qualities and characteristics. More commonly used than inclusionary propaganda, exclusionary propaganda informed the German public of both the traits and dangers of Jews. Exclusionary propaganda portrayed Jews as repulsive and as enemies of the German public. A nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses began April 1, 1933, during which antisemitic Germans painted the Star of David and the word “Jude” on Jewish

The Chronicle is publishing the essays of the two winners, including the one below. We will publish the second one in the June 10 issue.

storefronts; additionally, the boycotts turned violent in some areas of Germany. Ultimately, the boycott was unsuccessful, and the government turned to other forms of discrimination. Six days later, on April 7, 1933, the Nazi government passed laws to exclude opponents of the state and to require civil service employees to prove their Aryan descent. To do so, these employees had to document the religion of their parents and grandparents or risk dismissal from service. In the following weeks, the Nazis passed similar antisemitic laws that adversely affected Jewish lawyers and doctors. “The great masses’ receptive ability is only very limited, their understanding is small, but their forgetfulness is great.” These words in Hitler’s book ‘Mein Kampf ’ expressed his ideas over propaganda. Propaganda allowed an opportunity to place blame on the Jews. The propaganda slowly twisted the way the German citizens thought, so that over time German society became disgusted and repulsed by Jews. As Cole and many other German Jews experienced, people who had previous relationships with Jews would no longer acknowledge them. Nazi propaganda discouraged association with Jews and established them as the enemy, calling them children of the devil. Violence and discrimination resulted from antisemitic propaganda. German society began to fear and exclude Jews, which originated from the ideas present in the propaganda. In talking about propaganda, American philosopher Eric Hoffer stated, “Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.” Hoffer’s statement expresses his idea that humans are easily tricked by propaganda because they are already inclined to believe its message. I agree with Hoffer’s statement. Humans by nature are selfish and arrogant, and throughout history, there have been several examples of that. One of the underlying reasons for the Holocaust is that one group of people believed they were superior to another. There are several other instances where humans put themselves first as opposed to thinking of others, leading to disastrous situations or events. Propaganda can be as support in peoples’ minds that they are superior to others. Propaganda in Nazi Germany succeeded in promoting the idea of a perfect Aryan German because those who believed the stereotype also believed they were superior. Jews became the enemy, as portrayed in widespread propaganda because Aryan German citizens felt that someone else was to blame for their post-WWI difficulties. The government that should have served as a control against this selfish and superior thinking instead directed and oversaw the machinery promoting it. Through the manipulation of government propaganda, the Nazis directed the German citizens to place blame and aim their misery at Jews. The purpose of the Nazis’ state-sponsored propaganda was to promote and encourage discrimination and hatred of the Jews, and to instill a strong sense of pride and nationalism in non-Jewish Germans. The goals for inclusionary propaganda were to establish roles for Aryan men and women, to bolster German national pride, and to inspire the included to make sacrifices for the good of the racial community. The goals for exclusionary propaganda were to inform the public of the qualities of a Jew and portray them as the enemy. Propaganda factored into every German citizen’s life, and its effects were all-encompassing and devastating.

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The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

June 3, 2021

important dates Friday June 4 Candle-Lighting Time Sivan 24, 8:23 p.m. The J Share Shabbat Join us at Shabbat every month on first Friday! Each month will feature a new story, an activity, Rabbi Joshua Leighton will lead a family-friendly service with fun stories, and we will sing with Laura Payne. FREE & open to everyone. Located a The J - Outdoors on the grassy knoll. 5 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.

Saturday June 5 Beth Torah’s Sichat Shabbat This Shabbat, join Congregation Beth Torah to explore Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of Our Fathers. Please email connect@bethtorah.org to request the Zoom link. 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Sunday June 6 Beth Torah’s Meet and Greet for Fourth & Fifth Graders and Their Families Join Congregation Beth Torah at Meadowbrook Park to meet new friends and learn about the Weiner Religious School’s 5782 School Year! Please email mkleinman@bethtorah.org for additional information. 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Monday June 7 Golf Tournament Kehilath Israel Synagogue hosts the Allan Greenberg Memorial K.I. Golf Tournament at the Deer Creek Golf Club. Check-in and lunch are at 11 a.m. A shotgun start begins at 12:15 p.m. You can register for the event online at (https://files.constantcontact. com/a61cc04b001/97fb19f8-2707-41d4-bb3b7e4b8c8d5427.pdf) Virtual Coffee Club Jewish Vocational Service Career Skills and Connections is excited to announce its new virtual coffee club. To learn more or RSVP for the event, email Sabrina Simon at ssimon@jvskc.org. Please RSVP by June 2. 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Heritage Center movie The Heritage Center at The J offers a movie matinee with Tom Hanks portraying Mister Rogers in a timely story of kindness triumphing over cynicism, based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod. Free. pre-registration required. 1 p.m.

Tuesday June 8 It’s Not Fair Sara Christensen will share her shock and sorrow over the death of her friend and colleague Assistant Prosecutor JoEllen Engelbart. In January, Engelbart died from complications of COVID-19 at just 32 years old. She left a husband and newborn son. Register at www. faithandgrief.org/gatherings. Hosted by Kansas City Area Faith & Grief Congregations. For more information, call 816.381.9249. Noon to 1 p.m.

Yiddish Speaking Enthusiasts Group Meeting If you are interested in spending time with other Yiddish-speaking enthusiasts, this group site is for you. Not only is there a site full of interesting, fun, and informative subject matter but you will make connections with individuals with similar interests. Find out more about Fishl at derbay.org. Virtual (ZOOM) - Pre-registration Required. 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Wednesday June 9 Vital Conversations: Waking up White This month’s discussion focuses on “Waking Up White,” the book author Debbie Irving wishes someone had handed her decades ago. By sharing her sometimes cringe-worthy struggle to understand racism and racial tensions, she offers a fresh perspective on bias, stereotypes, manners, and tolerance. As Irving unpacks her own long-held beliefs about color blindness, being a good person, and wanting to help people of color, she reveals how each of these well-intentioned mindsets actually perpetuated her ill-conceived ideas about race. She also explains why and how she’s changed the way she talks about racism, works in racially mixed groups, and understands the antiracism movement as a whole. For more information, please contact David Nelson at humanagenda@gmail. com. A Program of the Human Agenda, Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, CRES, and Mid-Continent Public Library - Antioch Branch. Online: us02web.zoom.us 1 p.m. B’nai Jehudah’s Weekly Wednesday morning Torah study Start your day by delving into this rich and insightful text! Grab a cup of coffee and join our clergy for this always exciting exploration as we study the weekly Torah portion and learn from its many faceted lessons. Drop-ins welcome; no experience necessary! To participate, please contact Damien Timms, rabbiadmin@bnaijehudah.org for a link and access to the Zoom meeting. 10:00 – 11:30am. The J Member Pool Party Come out and play at the Member Pool Party and enjoy a movie too! FREE for Members Limited Capacity Register Now! A great event for the whole family! All the pools will be open as well as the Waterama and the new Splash Pad. The slides are primed and ready for those daring enough to partake. 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Thursday June 10 JFS Nurses Virtual Support Group Join a group of your peers along with a JFS licensed clinical professional and a registered nurse for: safe and confidential space, peer support, and coping skills. To join this free support group, email: nursespeersupport@jfskc. org. The group meets virtually the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Beth Torah’s Lunch ‘n Learn Join Rabbi Cattapan for some learning (and lunching!) on Zoom. Please email connect@beth-torah.org to request the Zoom link. 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Bring Your Own Baby (B.Y.O.Baby) - Summer Session Join us every Thursday, from 10-11 am, for quality activities for babies in Kansas City. Classes are focused on exploring movement, music, storytelling, and more with your baby. Classes are recommended for children new-

born up to 4 years. Summer Session will be a hybrid of inperson + ZOOM*. 12-Week Session: $40 for Members | $60 for Guests. Drop-In Class: $5 for Members | $8 for Guests. 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Friday June 11 Candle-Lighting Time Tammuz 1, 8:27 p.m.

Saturday June 12 Beth Torah’s Sichat Shabbat Join Congregation Beth Torah to explore halacha (Jewish Law) of childhood and coming of age under the larger theme of Halacha of Life Cycle Events. Please email connect@beth-torah.org to request the Zoom link. 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Beth Torah’s Muzzle Tov Havdalah We are celebrating man’s / woman’s / person’s best friend: DOGS... and Havdalah! B.Y.O.D. (Bring Your Own Dogs) to Congregation Beth Torah’s Backyard for a blessing and a treat! We will also take a moment to remember our dogs who are no longer with us. This unique Havdalah experience will be streamed on our Facebook page (https://facebook.com/CongregationBethTorah) and our Virtual Sanctuary (https://beth-torah.org/virtualsanctuary). Please call the Beth Torah office for additional information (913-498-2212). 7 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Parkinson’s Revolution Ride Parkinson’s Revolution will take place across the country on June 12, 2021. Join us in-person on The J’s pool deck or virtually for a high energy ride that generates funds and awareness for Parkinson’s disease. We are carefully monitoring the ongoing public health concerns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and will be following local regulations to create an event experience that is fun, inspiring, and safe for our riders, volunteers, and staff. We can’t wait to ride together with one goal: beat Parkinson’s. Join us for this high-energy ride! If you can’t join us in person you can also register for a virtual ride and cycle from wherever you are! Cost: NO FEE | Donations welcome with perks at various levels. Ride Time Slots: 8 am + 9 am

Sunday June 13 Safe Sitter Prepare students in grades 6-8 to be safe when they’re home alone, watching younger siblings, or babysitting. After this course, Safe Sitter students will have gained safety skills, child care skills, first aid + rescue skills, and life + business skills. Location: Fitness+Sports+Aquatics Meeting Room 1 Class sizes capped for social distancing. Register early! Cost: J Members: $50 per child. Guests: $65 per child. 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Monday June 14 “Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away.” This exhibit opens at Union Station in Kansas City. This groundbreaking exhibition brings together more than 700 original objects and 400 photographs from over 20 institutions and museums around the world. Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. is the most comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the history of Auschwitz and its

role in the Holocaust ever presented in North America, and an unparalleled opportunity to confront the singular face of human evil—one that arose not long ago and not far away. For more information, see (https://unionstation.org/event/auschwitz/)

Tuesday June 15 Yiddish Speaking Enthusiasts Group Meeting If you are interested in spending time with other Yiddishspeaking enthusiasts, this group site is for you. Not only is there a site full of interesting, fun, and informative subject matter but you will make connections with individuals with similar interests. Find out more about Fishl at derbay.org. Virtual (ZOOM) - Pre-registration Required. 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Wednesday June 16 JFS Grief and Loss Group The ongoing support group, which meets the first and third Wednesday of the month, is for individuals grieving from the death of a loved one. The group provides an opportunity to address issues of loss and grief within a Jewish spiritual context in a warm and confidential environment. The program is co-facilitated by Lauren Glass, LCSW and Rabbi Mark Levin To register for this support group contact Molly McGurk, LCSW – JFS Director of Mental Health Services phone: 913-327-8298 email: mmcgurk@jfskc.org. 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. B’nai Jehudah’s Weekly Wednesday morning Torah study Start your day by delving into this rich and insightful text! Grab a cup of coffee and join our clergy for this always exciting exploration as we study the weekly Torah portion and learn from its many faceted lessons. Drop-ins welcome; no experience necessary! To participate, please contact Damien Timms, rabbiadmin@bnaijehudah.org for a link and access to the Zoom meeting. 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Conversation Cafe at the Heritage Center Join Bob Gast and his popular Conversation Cafe classes for a limited time. 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Thursday June 17 Bring Your Own Baby (B.Y.O.Baby) - Summer Session Join us every Thursday, from 10-11 am, for quality activities for babies in Kansas City. Classes are focused on exploring movement, music, storytelling, and more with your baby. Classes are recommended for children newborn up to 4 years. Summer Session will be a hybrid of inperson + ZOOM*. 12-Week Session: $40 for Members | $60 for Guests. Drop-In Class: $5 for Members | $8 for Guests. 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Learn, Laugh, Love: Containers with Style at the Heritage Center Artist and gardener, Karen Lyman will show you the latest tips and techniques to create fabulous containers beyond red geraniums and spikes. Based on the elements of fine design, she will present everything you need to know to make your next container garden a work of art. Lyman is a Johnson County Extension Master Gardener volunteer. She combines her art background and gardening knowledge to create many fabulous container gardens for herself and others to enjoy. Location: Virtual (Zoom). 1 p.m.

Outside the Kansas City area:

June 3, 2021

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

page 7

spotlight Survivor Tribute

LEFT: Local Holocaust survivors Sonia Warshawski, Elizabeth Nussbaum and Adela Dagerman (who could not attend) were recently honored in a tribute at Union Station. They and their families sat against a backdrop of an authentic German-made WWII-era railway freight car that was installed as part of the “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far Away” exhibition, opening at Union Station on June 14. They were joined by Union Station’s Board Chairman Ramón Murguía, Union Station’s President & CEO George Guastello, City Manager Brian Platt, Auschwitz Exhibition Producer Luis Ferrerio and Rabbi Joshua Leighton.

O TLIGHT SPO PHOTOS FROM RECENT JEWISH COMMUNITY EVENTS

GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

SUBMIT A PHOTO: Have a photo of a recent Jewish community event you would like to submit? Email the image and a suggested caption to laceys@jewishkc.org Please write spotlight photo in the subject line. BELOW: Dayna Gershon, B’nai Jehudah’s director of formal and informal education, was thrilled to be able to host an appreciation event for our congregation’s incredible group of religious school teachers and staff! While the rain pushed the event inside, teachers enjoyed seeing each other in person, and discussing the highlights of what turned out to be a special year, full of learning and the many meaningful connections made (yes, even via Zoom!) with students at all grade levels. Pictured here: Michelle Adler-Wexler, Dawn Gale, Dayna Gershon, Sheryl Poole (who provides year-round administrative support to the entire education team) Deb Rock, Paula Suroff, Farrah Udell, as well as two madrichim, Marissa M. and Daniel S. Teachers not pictured (but equally appreciated) are: Ally Fabes, Ellie Frager, Madeline Harris, Nate Harris, Jamie Katz, Rabbi Josh Leighton, Ben Novorr, Lana Prager, Suzy Rieber and Emily Williams.

Teacher Appreciation

Wrapping Up The Year ABOVE, TOP & MIDDLE: HBHA’s final day of school, May 26, was celebrated with continuation ceremonies for fifth and eighth graders, as they prepare for middle and upper Schools, respectively. Mazel tov to all of the HBHA students for handling a challenging and unusual year with grace, resilience and perseverance. Whether via Zoom or in person, HBHA students and faculty worked hard, learned a great deal, and stayed connected to one another. Kol HaKavod! ABOVE BOTTOM: A handful of HBHA kindergarten students took a moment to pose before their graduation ceremony. Students enjoyed a fun party to celebrate all they have accomplished in kindergarten, and they say they are looking forward to all that they will learn next year in first grade! For more information about HBHA or the admissions process, please go to hbha.edu, or contact Tamara Lawson Schuster, director of admissions, tschuster@hbha.edu.

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The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

June 3, 2021

The Barstow School

Congratulations

Susanna King!

CONGRATULATIONS!

CLASS OF 2021

University Of Kansas

Congratulations

We’re so proud of your accomplishments upon your graduation from the Barstow School. We can’t wait for your journey to continue at Brandeis! Love, Mom and Dad

Sam Galapo! 2021 KU graduate - BS in Finance and Accounting with a History Minor Corporate Banking Analyst with Bank of America Tower - Manhattan, New York

Wesleyan university

Blue Valley High

Congratulations Max Gelman! We are so proud of you. Your likeable friendly nature will take you great places. Watch out U of A!

Hooray for Emma Shapiro!

“You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you choose!” - Dr. Seuss

Shawnee Mission South Bachelors in Chemistry from Wesleyan University

Good luck to you as you pursue your PhD in Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University! Amy, Peter & Sophie

Congratulations

Paige Lambert! It’s been a journey and an adventure! Not only are we so very proud of you, but you should be proud of yourself. On to Drake and the unknown. Love, Mom, Dad, and Tad

June 3, 2021

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

St.Teresa’s Academy

page 9

Blue Valley High

Congratulations

Mazel Tov

Claire Smith!

Noah Beth Clayman!

We are so very proud of your accomplishments thus far and cannot wait to watch your continued growth at UC Berkeley…. And so the adventure begins!

Noah graduated Summa Cum Laude, National Honors Thespian, Sunflower Ambassador, and a Kansas Honors Scholar. Noah will be attending Kansas University, having received the Chancellor’s Scholarship.

All of our love, Mom, Dad and Marin

Not only is her work ethic one to be admired but, matched with her compassion, modesty, drive and strength, she is a force to be reckoned with. We are so incredibly proud of this remarkable young woman and know she will succeed at anything she puts her mind to.

Blue Valley North

Mazel Tov

Jonah Gordon! We are proud of you, and excited for all that lies ahead. Love you very much and can’t wait to see you find your passions! - Grandma, Papa Lew, Mom, Dad, John, Aaron, and Honey

Blue Valley West

Mazel Tov

Ian Hammer! We are so proud of you for all that you are and all that you will be. Keep changing the world, Buddy! We LOVE You!

Noah is the daughter of Ben Clayman and the granddaughter of Lois Clayman and the late Alvin Clayman. She has two adoring sisters, Rachel Hoskins and Jada Clayman. WE LOVE YOU.

Blue Valley West

Mazel Tov

Mitchell Goldstein! We couldn’t be more proud of your achievements, involvement within our Jewish community and the incredible man you are becoming. We are excited to see where your creative talent, leadership experience and adventurous spirit take you. With much love, Mom, Dad & Josh

- Mama, Daddy and Cinco

Blue Valley High

Congratulations

Lydia Schwartz! Ian graduated with honors on May 23, 2021, from Blue Valley West High School. He will attend Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, in the fall to study entrepreneurship and international business. Ian is the son of Alana Muller and Marc Hammer, the grandson of Charlene and Max Muller and Susan and the late Steven Hammer, and the great-grandson of Rose Carr. He and his family are members of Congregation Beth Shalom.

Lydia, we are so proud of you! Congratulations and Mazel Tov on this milestone! We look forward to watching you explore and experience the next phase of your life and all that it has to offer! We love you so much! Mom, Dad and Melanie

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The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

June 3, 2021

national news

Elliot Resnick, Jewish Press editor who entered US Capitol on Jan. 6, to be replaced

By Shira Hanau JTA Elliot Resnick, the editor of a politically conservative Jewish newspaper who was identified among the crowd that breached the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, is out of the job. Shlomo Greenwald, a grandson of the founders of The Jewish Press who has worked at the weekly paper since 2004, announced in a Facebook post last week that he would be assuming the role of senior editor at the paper, replacing Resnick. “I am both exhilarated and daunted by the work ahead in building on the great things The Jewish Press has always done while making improvements,” Greenwald said in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, declining to comment on the paper’s decision to replace Resnick. “The Orthodox Jewish community in the US is broad, and I hope to make a newspaper that will speak to and enlighten the community. The core interests of the commu-

nity remain: fighting for a secure Israel and advocating for religious freedom at home, areas that The Jewish Press has always championed, and that I will continue to embrace in this role.” Greenwald did not respond immediately to questions about the future political direction The Jewish Press would take under his leadership. But he takes over at a time when the political identity of the newspaper — and its editor — has been the subject of widespread attention. Resnick was identified in YouTube videos of the Capitol breach by a researcher and first reported on by Politico in April. A video from Jan. 6 shows Resnick stumbling as he enters the Capitol building through a doorway while a Capitol police officer tries to keep out the intruders. His face is clearly visible when he reappears a few minutes later, standing nearby as another person shouts at a Capitol police officer. At the time Naomi Mauer, the publisher of The Jewish Press, appeared to

stand behind Resnick. “As we understand the facts, we believe that Mr. Resnick acted within the law,” Mauer told Politico in an email, declining to respond to follow-up questions. The paper’s editorial board later published a statement online saying that Resnick was at the Capitol in a journalistic capacity on Jan. 6 but the paper decided not to publish anything about the Capitol breach “because of the heated atmosphere surrounding the day’s events, especially within New York’s Orthodox Jewish community.” Mauer did not respond immediately to a JTA request for comment. Resnick assumed the position of editor at The Jewish Press in 2018. He has long had a history of using incendiary language and has called the gay rights movement “evil.” Under Resnick’s editorship, The Jewish Press was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League in 2019 after publishing an oped titled “The Pride Parade: What Are They Proud Of” comparing gay march-

ers in the New York event to animals, adulterers and thieves. “If blacks resent America’s [sic] so much, let them discard Christianity (which the ‘white man’ gave them) and re-embrace the primitive religions they practiced in Africa,” Resnick wrote in a tweet in 2019. “Can someone give me a coherent reason why blackface is racist?” he wrote in another tweet that year. Resnick was not the only editor in Jewish Press history to espouse racist views. The paper was edited in the 1960s by Rabbi Meir Kahane, a Jewish nationalist who advocated violence against Arabs and was banned from the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Though the paper distanced itself from Kahane in 1969, it still lists him among the paper’s prominent past editors on its website. In 2015, Resnick gave a glowing review to a Kahane biography written by Kahane’s wife and described his own experience of “near trance” while reading one of Kahane’s books in high school.

Jewish journalist from Detroit detained in Myanmar while trying to leave the country By Stacy Gittleman JTA On his way home for a surprise visit to see family and friends, Jewish journalist Danny Fenster was detained last week in Myanmar, where he works for a news site in the country’s largest city of Yangon. Fenster is among the many journalists who have been detained, imprisoned or expelled from the country since a military coup took control of its government in February. The 37-year-old Detroit native was detained at Yangon International Airport shortly before boarding a flight to Kuala Lumpur and is being held in Insein Prison, which has a notorious and well-documented reputation for its deplorable conditions for political prisoners. Fenster’s brother Bryan, 39, said he was alarmed to see multiple cell phone messages from Myanmar early one morning from Fenster’s wife, Julianna. Bryan Fenster assumes his brother is being detained because he is a journalist who has been covering the coup in Myanmar. Since then, Myanmar’s military government has arrested about 80 journalists, according to media reports, which said that Fenster is the fourth foreign journalist to be

detained. Bryan Fenster last saw his brother at a friend’s wedding in Krakow, Poland, in September 2019. He said his younger brother, a graduate of Columbia College of Chicago and Wayne State University, had been working as a journalist in Asia for about three years. He had positions in Thailand and was working for another media outlet in Myanmar before the military government shut it down. Then he joined the staff of Frontier, an independent news site. “We do not know the exact reason why he is being detained or of his physical condition,” Bryan Fenster said in an interview with the Detroit Jewish News. “The good news is that we’ve been able to get in touch with the right people. Local [congressional] representatives, Governor Whitmer and the U.S. State Department are aware, and they are working on it.” The day after the detainment, U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is Jewish, along with all 16 members of the Michigan congressional delegation, sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the State Department to secure Fenster’s immediate and unconditional release. Levin said he spent a great deal of time May 28 speaking with Bryan Fenster, as well as the State

Department and the U.S. ambassador to Myanmar, Thomas Vajda. Levin said Vajda is “leaving no stone unturned” in efforts to release the journalist. “I was very reassured after speaking to Ambassador Vajda and learned all he is doing to win Danny’s release,” said Levin, who serves in Congress on the Foreign Affairs Committee and is the vice chair of the subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia and Nonproliferation. In March, Levin sponsored a House resolution that condemned the military coup in Myanmar. It passed in a 398-14 vote. “Vajda has thorough, measured and strong experience in protecting Americans in every country he has served in as ambassador,” Levin said. “Washington is coming at this at all angles to release him.” In February, the military detained Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her support of democracy. The military declared a state of emergency, claiming there was voting fraud in elections that Suu Kyi’s party had won, according to observers. The United States and other nations have harshly criticized Myanmar’s military leaders for the coup.

For progressive Democrats, the condemnation of antisemitism is lumped in with other forms of hate

By Ron Kampeas JTA

As reports of attacks on Jews broke into the news late last month, Democratic lawmakers moved quickly to condemn antisemitism — but they didn’t stop there. “We’ve recently seen disturbing an-

tisemitic attacks and a troubling rise in Islamophobia,” Bernie Sanders, the Jewish Vermont senator who is a leader of American progressives, tweeted. “If you are committed to a future of equality and peaceful coexistence, please stand united against anyone who promotes hatred of any kind.” Numerous other progressives soon

followed suit, including multiple members of “The Squad” in the U.S. House of Representatives. “The work of dismantling antisemitism, anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and every other form of hate is OUR work,” Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri tweeted. Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York

wrote, “We’ve seen an increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic hate, in NYC and nationwide — hateful words, hate crimes, and other forms of violence.” And Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts tweeted, “I strongly condemn the rise in anti-Semitism and islamophobia we’re seeing across the country.”

June 3, 2021

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

page 11

global news

IDF seeks to fast-track revolutionary approach to lessening future rocket fire By Yaakov Lappin JNS The Israel Defense Forces are seeking to fasttrack a new system designed to remove Hamas’s ability to terrorize the Israeli home front with mass rocket attacks in future conflicts. Writing in the IDF’s military think tank, the Dado Center, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, Commander of the IDF’s Operations Branch, said it was time to accelerate the development of the “rocket repressing blanket” approach, which has been envisaged by IDF planners since 2019. According to this method, forward interceptor missile batteries placed on the Gaza border can destroy most rockets in their ascent stage over Gazan territory, eliminating most warning sirens. This would leave Iron Dome batteries inside Israel to “mop up” the minority of rockets that do get past and begin descending towards Israeli cities. Meanwhile, a network of sensors, including radars and specialized launch detectors, can be placed on large fleets of drones in the air and on the ground. This network of sensors can then guide relatively cheap missiles directly to the sources of hostile fire—the rocket launchers—destroying them within 15 seconds of their attack on Israeli cities. The approach was detailed in a previous paper by Brig. Gen. Eran Ortal, who heads the Dado Center, under the headline, “turning on the light, putting out the fire.”

In his recent commentary, Haliva wrote, “The rocket arsenals are what separate terror-armies, which have the ability to manage a war, from terror organizations that rely [only] on ‘high-quality’ terror attacks.’ ” He described the new approach as a “revolutionary development for taking away this capability from the enemy; now this development and (acquisition) of the capability must be accelerated.” Haliva sketched out a future escalation between Israel and Hamas in 2023, in which Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar orders a large-scale rocket assault on Jerusalem to improve Hamas’s standing in the battle to succeed Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas. “Six launchers, each with 12 barrels, are armed with the latest model of long-range missiles, with improved accuracy, in Hamas’s possession. They fire a coordinated barrage at the coordinates of the Israeli Knesset, the Prime Minister’s Residence, the Mount Scopus Campus, Machane Yehuda Market, Mount Herzl and the President’s Residence,” wrote Haliva. “Seventy rockets are fired within 20 seconds, leaving the Iron Dome battery stationed in the Jerusalem area ahead of time with low chances of intercepting the whole barrage. Unlike the past, thanks to new technology, only a small part of the improved accuracy rockets would have missed the built-up area,” he added. Yet Sinwar and Hamas’s military-wing commander, Mohammed Deif, are in for a surprise in

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this simulated scenario. “Forty of the rockets were shot down within seconds of their launch over Gazan territory. All six of the launchers were attacked within 10 to 15 seconds from the launch, with each one still armed with the last rockets waiting for [further] launches. Massive secondary explosions rock Gaza City, and a rocket warehouse near the launcher belonging to the terror organization catches fire and explodes. The last 12 rockets are intercepted by the Iron Dome battery in Jerusalem. Since these threats were not about to hit the city of Jerusalem, only a few sirens in Motza and Pisgat Ze’ev [on the city’s outskirts] go off. The city’s routine is safeguarded.” Formulated by the IDF General Staff, the “rocket blanket” concept is part of the military’s multi-year working plan, dubbed “Momentum.” “Its essence is positioning rapid interception and attack missile batteries on the borders of Gaza and the north, connecting them to a new system of radars and launch sensors, and taking advantage of the proximity between the launch areas and the new system to intercept the rockets while they are still climbing and to attack the launchers while they are still firing,” he explained. This would dramatically decrease warning sirens in Israel and decrease the role of the civilian home front in future combat, he argued. It would also be efficient in attacking anti-tank missile cells and mortar launchers that have targeted Gaza-border communities during the latest conflict.

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global news

North Macedonia’s first Jewish lawmaker quickly broke taboos — and was hit with antisemitism By Cnaan Liphshiz JTA Politics was supposed to be a very brief interlude in Rashela Mizrahi’s career as a scientist. A 39-year-old Jewish fertility researcher from North Macedonia, she was appointed last year to serve for 100 days as the temporary minister of labor in her Balkan country, situated north of Greece. She was deemed a good nonpartisan pick to serve as a placeholder ahead of elections. “I had zero interest in politics,” Mizrahi told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “But I thought it’d send a good message for women. Plus, like any Jewish daughter, I wanted to make my parents proud.” But what began as a token stint resulted in multiple diplomatic spats and the country’s worst-ever wave of public antisemitic rhetoric. Along the way, Mizrahi became an unlikely hero for many of her country’s conservatives and a fighter for preserving the memory of a Jewish community that the Nazis and their allies almost rendered extinct. It all started in February, she said, during a routine press conference that she gave at the labor ministry in the capital Skopje weeks after she became its temporary boss. “I talked unemployment, stimulus plans, welfare. The usual stuff,” she recalled. But in media reports, Mizrahi’s message was upstaged by the backdrop: A large wooden sign that read “the Republic of Macedonia.” This was an issue, because the previous year Macedonia had changed its name to North Macedonia due to pressure from its richer and larger neighbor, Greece. That country has long argued that its northern neighbor’s former name implied territorial claims to Greek’s northern province, which is also called Macedonia. The sign landed Mizrahi at the center of a polarizing debate between Macedonian hawks who see the 2020 name change as surrender to a foreign power, and doves who defended the change as a pragmatic gesture that opened the door for Macedonia to join NATO and in the future also the European Union. Mizrahi was not a member of any political party back then and said that she had no intention of making a political point at the press conference. She didn’t even make the sign, which Mizrahi says was “just part of the furniture.” “The sign was just there. I didn’t have it put up there,” she said. But as a business and science-oriented straight talker with little interest in diplomatic niceties, Mizrahi did not hide her disdain for the controversial name change. “You can thank my predecessor, who didn’t commission any new signs. Maybe she recognizes that this is the Republic of Macedonia and that we’re Macedonians,” Mizrahi said to reporters about Mila Carovska, a member of the left-leaning SDSM party that led the name change. Greece’s ambassador protested the remark and then Nikola Dimitrov, North Macedonia’s foreign at the time, warned that Mizrahi was putting “Euro-Atlantic aspirations in danger.” She was fired just five weeks into her three-month stint. But what might have ended as the axing of a novice politician snowballed into the country’s firstever wave of antisemitic rhetoric — with Mizrahi as its target. Branko Trickovski, a well-known journalist and a supporter of the left-wing SDSM party, ridiculed Mizrahi on Facebook, describing her as a zealot for Macedonian and Jewish nationalism, who gets her strength from “eating hummus made of dead Jews.”

Rashela Mizrahi speaks to a colleague during a cabinet meeting in Skopje, North Macedonia, Jan. 14, 2020. (Courtesy of the Parliament of North Macedonia) Mersiha Smailovic, a former official from the ministry that Mizrahi had headed, on Facebook wrote that Mizrahi was planning to place an Israeli flag at her office. Another SDSM activist called her a “Jew who worked for the Nazi occupation in World War Two.” It triggered “a stream of hundreds of antisemitic messages. Death threats. Even against my daughter,” Mizrahi said of her two-year-old, her younger child she had with her husband, a 43-yearold welder who comes from a Christian Eastern Orthodox family. “I’m still afraid. Not so much for me but for my daughter. I never thought this could happen in this country, where antisemitism never used to be a part of life,” Mizrahi said. “It has changed how I see my country.” It has also caused her to change her career plans. “I decided I can’t walk away, I needed to stay and fight,” she said. Parking her career as a consultant and researcher for an international pharmaceutical company, Mizrahi joined the VMRO right-wing opposition party and became a lawmaker in parliament. She’s North Macedonia’s first-ever Jewish parliament lawmaker since it broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991. According to a report titled “Antisemitic Discourse in the Western Balkans” published this year by the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit whose mission statement is promoting democracy, the Mizrahi affair showed that “antisemitic narratives exist [in North Macedonia] and are utilized for political gain. Antisemitism is used to sow divisions within the country, which subsequently increases its vulnerability to manipulation.” The rhetoric on Mizrahi also shocked other members of the Jewish community, a tiny minority of about 200 people, which hasn’t grown since the Holocaust, when the Nazis and collaborators murdered about 98% of Macedonian Jewry. “We had lived here without antisemitic statements before,” said Maja Susha, an educator and Holocaust researcher who is a member of North Macedonia’s Jewish community. “But after what happened with Rashela we saw the real reality.” The antisemitism has since subsided and life is safe for Jews, said Susha, who like almost all of North Macedonia’s Jews lives in Skopje. It’s a placid capital where about a quarter of North Macedonia’s 2 million citizens live, mostly in crumbling Soviet-era buildings that are juxtaposed

with a staggering wealth of statues and classical style monuments. The anti-Semitism came as less of a surprise to Mizrahi’s father, Viktor, who for many years had led the Jewish community. The Holocaust shaped much of the way that Rashela Mizrahi and her brother Rahamim were raised by their parents Viktor and Liljana, a convert to Judaism who observes the religion more devoutly than her husband. “I was encouraged to be a doctor. Rahamim to become a lawyer. Why? Because these are professions so vital that the recipients of your services don’t care if you’re Jewish,” Rashela Mizrahi said. Her parents “were terrified when I stepped into politics,” Mizrahi said. “But they were also very proud.” In parliament, Mizrahi focuses on initiatives that will help young people gain an education in North Macedonia – which she still refuses to call by its new name – and on projects to mitigate the country’s brain drain problem. But it’s Mizrahi’s foreign policy actions that grab headlines in the Balkans. In addition to vocally opposing concessions to Greece, Mizrahi is a prominent critic of what she considers the left-wing government’s appeasement of neighboring Bulgaria — another powerful neighbor whose actions have had a devastating effect on Mizrahi’s own family. On Dec. 30, Mizrahi delivered a speech in parliament about Bulgaria’s role in the Holocaust, when Bulgarian forces occupied what is today North Macedonia and helped round up 98% of the area’s 7,000-plus Jews and deport them to be murdered by German troops. Standing against the giant Christmas tree that decorates parliament in Skopje during the holiday season, Mizrahi held up pictures of her dead relatives and asked Prime Minister Zoran Zaev: “Who killed them?” The video, that went viral on local social networks, was a protest over Zaev’s decision last year to remove from government property any memorial plaques for World War II victims that called their killers as belonging to the “Bulgarian fascist occupation,” because “Bulgaria was not a fascist occupier of Macedonia but an administrator,” as he put it. “My family was not murdered by an administrator’s pen, Mr. Zaev,” Mizrahi said in parliament. Her protest echoed the position of the Jewish Community of the Republic of North Macedonia, a nonprofit that represents Macedonian Jewry’s interests. Last year, it accused Bulgaria of “deliberately whitewashing its dark history and thus distorting the truth about the Holocaust.” But Mizrhai’s speech was the first time that this accusation was discussed in such a way in North Macedonia’s parliament, according to Sasha Uzunov, an Australia-based journalist and an expert on Macedonian politics. And it has made Mizrahi “a very visible politician,” he said. Both that speech and her push against the name change have turned Mizrahi “in a way into a hero” for many people in North Macedonia, Susha added. She is also speaking for many Bulgarian Jews, said Lyna Degen, a Bulgaria-born Dutch-Jewish psychologist who has written extensively about the Holocaust in her native country. “The danger in Macedonia, as I see it, is that the leader of the country is willing to revise the history of the Holocaust in order to please Bulgaria, whose support they need in order to become a member of the EU,” Degen said. “It is very unusual that a Jewish politician raises awareness for the atrocities perpetrated by Bulgarian troops,” Degen added. “I don’t know of any other politician doing this” besides Mizrahi.

June 3, 2021

The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

global news

German military to get chief rabbi for first time in 100 years (Israel Hayom via JNS) For the first time since World War I, the German military is set to appoint a chief rabbi. The move, an initiative of German Defense Minister Annegret KrampKarrenbauer, is designed both to serve the hundreds of Jews in the German military and to fight antisemitism. Some 300 German Jews currently serve in the country’s military. Rabbi Zsolt Balla will continue in his current roles as chief rabbi of Saxony and its capital, Leipzig, while serving as the chief military rabbi. Balla will head the military rabbinate that will be established in Berlin and will be responsible for the work of 10 religious figures in the military. Alongside the provision of religious services to Jewish soldiers, the military rabbinate will take part in the education of all German soldiers to prevent antisemitism. Balla will officially enter the role at a ceremony at a Leipzig synagogue, scheduled for June 21. The ceremony will be broadcast live on German TV channel ARD. Among those set to attend are Kramp-Karrenbauer, Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer, Central Council of Jews in Germany President Josef Schuster, as well as representatives of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), of which Balla is a member. CER and Moscow Chief Rabbi Pin-

Rabbi Zsolt Balla (Screenshot) chas Goldschmidt welcomed Balla’s appointment. “This is a significant step in bolstering ties between the German people and the Jewish community that has resided in Germany for hundreds of years,” he said. “The establishment of a military rabbinate in the German military sends a clear message of tolerance and pluralism, which will bring us one step closer toward maintaining Jews’ freedom of religion in Germany and fighting against any antisemitic phenomenon that arises later on,” he said. While the decision to appoint a chief rabbi was made last year, its implementation was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Germany approved the appointment of rabbis as chaplains in 2020.

During Jerusalem visit, Lindsey Graham calls Israel the ‘eyes and ears of America’ (JNS) During a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) described the country as “the eyes and ears of America,” and said that “nobody does more to protect America from radical Islam than our friends in Israel.” “To every American, what happens with Iran matters not only to America but to the world,” he said. “The worst possible outcome for the world is to allow the Iranian regime to acquire nuclear capability.” He also noted that America’s Arab allies “feel far more threatened by Iran than they do Israel.” Graham said that he hoped to “find an alternative” to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) from which former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018—one “that would allow for nuclear power but not create a nuclear arms race through enrichment, and that’s the

existential threat to the State of Israel and the world writ large.” Netanyahu thanked Graham for his efforts on behalf of Israel. “No one has done more for Israel than you, Senator Lindsey Graham, a stalwart champion of our alliance and we have no better friend. I want to thank you for everything you’ve been doing over the years on our defenses, our security, on Iran. You’ve been a tremendous friend and a tremendous ally,” he said. Graham’s remarks, which he ended by promising more U.S. support for Israel in the “coming days and weeks,” come on the heels of a fifth round of talks in Vienna between Iran and world powers. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Tehran’s delegate to the talks, told Iranian state TV last Tuesday that he hoped the current round would be the last, after “good progress” was made in the previous four, AP reported.

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commentary

Being free from responsibility does not equal freedom By Rabbi Moshe Grussgott Kehilath Israel Synagogue

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Rabbi Grussgott’s sermon at Kehilath Israel Synagogue on May 29th. As the Jewish people wandered through the Sinai desert, they began to complain (what else is new!) One of their complaints in particular is almost comically tragic: (Bamidbar 11:5) – “We remember the fish that we used to eat for free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.” For free! (“Chinam”, in Hebrew). Rashi comments that of course the food did not in fact come for free – it came in exchange for forced labor! Rashi exposes the true underlying psychology behind their bizarre nostalgia: “chinam min hamitzvot” – they really missed being free from the commandments. We can universalize Rashi’s comment as meaning “free from responsibility.” A slave of course has numerous tasks, but no real responsibility; because responsibility, as represented by the covenant of mitzvot, implies choice (“I call upon the heaven and the earth this day as witnesses for you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. And you shall choose life, so that you and your offspring will live”). Some people prefer slavery to re-

sponsibility. At least your choices are narrowed, and your anxiety therefore curtailed. That was the sin of that generation. And so, God babied them, as they required: He rained down magical food from heaven (the manna), built them ready made huts to dwell in (sukkot), protected them with magical clouds of glory. Their children would be ready to be sovereign in the Promised Land, but not them. The word chinam means “free” in its connotation as an adverb; free of cost. But freedom as an adjective, as a state of being, is represented by the word Cherut. “No one is free (Ben Chorin) but he who engages in Torah” (i.e., he who grapples with his/ her set of ideals, responsibilities, and principled choices), teaches Pirkei Avot. Cherut and Chinam are two very different things. There appears to be a line of thought among some young and misguided American Jews that if only the state of Israel didn’t exist, we would not have to contend with antisemitism anymore. This was the apparent line of thinking of the comedian Sarah Silverman when she tweeted, in response to the recent violent attacks on Jews all over America: “Jews in the diaspora are not Israel!” Considering that close to half the world’s Jews live in Israel, and a strong majority of the other half support it in some way, it simply is not the case that one can so neatly separate Jews from Israel. But for the sake of argument, I’ll accept Silverman’s premise. Perhaps it is indeed the case that if only we’d stop peskily asserting our right to simply

exist as a nation in our homeland, free from genocidal terror, that the Jews in the diaspora would be left alone. I suppose this is true of anything in life: if you stopped asserting your rights and needs, you’d likely be free from the need for confrontation. Your life would be free of cost and sacrifice. This would be a state of Chinam. But you wouldn’t have Cherut, freedom. And neither would the Jewish People, without the State of Israel. “Today we are here, next year we will be in the Land of Israel; today we are slaves, next year we will be free (bnei chorin)”, begins the Maggid narrative of the haggadah. Being free is intertwined with our presence in Israel. We always knew that our cherut in Israel would entail struggle, cost and sacrifice. Bamidbar 10:9: “And it shall be that when war comes to you in your Land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound a long blast on the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the LORD your God and be delivered from your enemies.” I imagine that those long trumpet blasts sounded just like the sirens that people in Ashdod and Ashkelon heard last week, giving them about 10 seconds to run to shelter from the rockets raining down. Thank God for the miracle of the Iron Dome. I’ve been horrified and even traumatized by the antisemitic violence of the past week. One source of comfort I draw is in telling myself that if this is the price of standing up for our right to national liberation as a people, I’ll accept it. I’d rather have cherut than chinam. And why are we so willing to pay

that high cost, much of the world seems to wonder? Wouldn’t you rather live without confrontation, without sacrifice? The most concise answer I’ve seen of late was provided by a Vietnamese general, as quoted in a recent article on timesofisrael.com: In the mid-1990s, two IDF major generals were coming to the end of their long and storied military careers… They applied for visas and made a special request to the Vietnamese authorities: to meet General Vo Nguyen Giap… When the Israelis rose to leave, Giap suddenly turned to the Palestinian issue. “Listen,’ he said, “the Palestinians are always coming here and saying to me, ‘You expelled the French and the Americans. How do we expel the Jews?’ The generals were intrigued. “And what do you tell them?” “I tell them,’ Giap replied, ‘that the French went back to France and the Americans to America. But the Jews have nowhere to go. You will not expel them.” He was not a righteous man, Giap, but it seems that he had some wisdom. As we lament the cost and the sacrifice that is occasionally unjustly and outrageously exacted upon diaspora Jewry for supporting Israel, let’s also find space to celebrate the fact that that cost derives from our resolute and undeterred willingness to support the freedom of our brothers and sisters in Israel; and let’s continue to pray for the day, as we always have, that Jews and Arabs can both live in a sense of peace and liberation together in Eretz Yisrael. Amen. Rabbi Grussgott is senior rabbi at K.I.

Rep. Cleaver issues May 27 statement condemning the rise in despicable antisemitic attacks against Jewish Americans Irrational hatred of, and violence toward, Jewish Americans has been occurring with alarming frequency, and, as President Biden has said, “This must stop.”

Having been blessed to have come of age under the tutelage of the giants of the civil rights movement, I was taught that the worst thing one could do to the targets of hate was not to join

forces with the bigots, but rather to display absolute indifference toward the bigotry. When my Jewish brothers and sisters are wounded, my soul bleeds, as it should for every American.

Hatred of any of God’s children is an abomination and it must be called out and condemned. I do so with the strongest possible measure of my being.

reader’s forum WOKE RABBIS I was shocked and deeply saddened by the recent article in the Chronicle titled “Dozens of U.S. Rabbinical sign letter calling for American Jews to hold Israel accountable for alleged human rights abuses.” It is obvious to me that these woke Rabbis have no sense of history. Did they expect Israel to turn the other cheek in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973? Would they be happier if the number of Israelis killed was equivalent to the number of Hamas terrorists killed? Would they feel better if more Israeli children were killed? Golda Meir once said “When peace comes, we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill

their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.” It is irresponsible to blame Israel for defending themselves against a barrage of 4,000 undiscriminating rockets. The blame lies directly at the doorstep of Hamas. Forty years ago my mother, Maria Devinki of blessed memory, told me that when the Nazi’s came to power, some Jews supported Hitler. I couldn’t understand that. I also can’t understand the squad and the woke culture towards Israel today. In my opinion, any Jew who does not stand 100% behind the Israeli people is complicit in the death of every Israeli killed by Hamas. As American Jews, we must stand together. Sam M. Devinki Kansas City, Missouri

TRULY A SORRY RESPONSE’ Jews are being attacked on the streets, while dining in restaurants and while on the way to synagogue. Synagogues are being vandalized and fire bombed. Jews are afraid to wear signs of their religion and some are removing mezuzahs from their homes out of fear. President Biden was silent for days until public pressure forced him to take what he thought to be appropriate “action” — a mere two-sentence tweet, probably written by a staffer. Out of his mouth came only silence. Hardly what a real president would do. Over at the Justice Department the attorney general was also silent. The U.S. has a veritable army of investigators, lawyers and prosecutors, yet there has been no announcement of a

Justice Deparment task force against anti-Semitism. The U.S. attorneys have not been directed to make prosecuting crimes against Jews a priority. The office of Ambassador against anti-Semitism is vacant. Biden’s nominee to be the assistant attorney general for civil rights is a bigot. Truly a sorry response. Both Jews and non-Jews alike must demand that the Biden adminIstration use the full force and power of the U.S. government against these vicious antiSemites. Right now Biden gets a failing grade as he is failing all citizens of the USA. Civil rights means nothing in the USA if the government fails to protect the group that has had the largest number of hate crimes directed at them. Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg Edison, New Jersey

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obituaries JOSHANA OFFENBACH Joshana Offenbach, J. D., died on Monday, May 17, 2021, after an eightmonth battle with cancer. She was born in Newport News, Virginia, on February 29, 1972. She will be greatly missed by her parents, Carol and Dr. Stefan Offenbach, and other relatives and friends. Graduating from Washburn School of Law in 2007, she was first employed by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts and then by Scharnhorst Ast Kennard Griffin PC. She had the rare ability to make friends wherever she was, and many have now reached out to support her parents in their grief. She loved her job at SAKG, learning from other attorneys, being mentored by the senior attorneys, and helping a myriad of clients. Law was more than merely

employment for her—it was a source of meaning, which she valued highly. Joshana liked traveling. She visited more than 30 countries in her life. Her particular favorites were Italy, where she spent a week in Florence in March 2019, and New Zealand, where she spent two weeks in October 2016. She liked going on walks in the various places, such as walking around Lake Bled in Slovenia or over the Charles Bridge in Prague. Even after she was diagnosed, she was still interested in planning trips and was looking forward to driving along the Ring Road in Iceland. Friends were her principal passion. She still had friends from grade school, high school, college, and religious school. She worked as a unit secretary at Olathe Medical Center and retained a close relationship with other employees including doctors and nurses. She had new friends both from law school and her two places of legal employment. She made friends easily and was fiercely loyal to them, going out of her way to help them whenever she could. Her smile and laughter will be remembered by many.

Graveside services were held on Friday, May 21, 2021 at New Mount Sinai Cemetery (St. Louis, Missouri) where she was buried near her beloved brother, Shalon, who died in 1994 from cancer. A memorial tribute to her will be held at Congregation Ohev Sholom (5311 W. 75th Street; Prairie Village, KS 66208) on Sunday, June 27, 2021 at 2 P.M. Friends are invited to come and share their memories of Joshana. If you wish to make a donation in her memory, The Joshana Offenbach Fund (to provide financial aid for women diagnosed with cancer) has been established at the Jewish Community Foundation (5801 W. 115th Street; Overland Park, KS 66211). LINDA (REMIS) SCHICK Linda Schick passed away at Menorah Hospital on Wednesday May 26, 2021. Linda was born November 8, 1944 in Kansas City, Missouri to the late William “Bill” and Ruth Remis. Linda spent her professional career working as a supervisor for Maritz Market Research prior to her retirement. She was a lifelong member of

Congregation Beth Shalom. Linda was devoted to the happiness of her husband and children and took great joy in watching her only grandchild grow up. Linda was preceded in death by her older brother Laurence “Larry” Remis in July of 2017. Linda is survived by her beloved husband of 55 years, Allen Schick; her son, Ira Schick Kansas City, Missouri; daughter, Brenda Bennett and her grandson, Aaron Bennett, both of St. Louis, Missouri. A private graveside service was held Sunday May 30, 2021 at Mt. Carmel Cemetery. Kindly omit flowers: the family suggests a contribution may instead be given to a charity of one’s choice. Online condolences for the family may be left at www.louismemorialchapel.com (Arrangements entrusted to The Louis Memorial Chapel, 816-361-5211).

Jaime Lerner, renowned Brazilian-Jewish urban planner and politician, dies at 83 RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Jaime Lerner, one of the world’s most influential architects and urban planners who was involved in his local Brazilian Jewish community, died May 27 at 83. Lerner also had a long political career, serving three terms as the mayor of his native city Curitiba and two terms as governor of the Parana region. He died from complications of chronic kidney disease. “Our Jewish community loses a great Jew and Brazil loses a great man,” said Isac Baril, president of the

Parana Jewish federation. “He would always serve as a board member of some of our Jewish institutions. Jaime Lerner was a Yiddish ‘voiler,’ a good Jew,” Lerner, born in Brazil to Jewish parents who fled Poland in the early 1930s, became internationally known for his innovative Bus Rapid Transportation system in Curitiba, a city of over 3 million. The system, now copied in cities around the world, constructed gutter lanes for buses that made public transportation far more efficient and nearly as quick as a subway train.

Lerner also helped the city become a leader in urban environmentalism. He was the first Latin American to preside over the International Union of Architects, a Paris-based organization representing 1.5 million professionals in 98 countries. Time magazine named Lerner one of the 25 most influential thinkers in 2010, and in 2017 the American magazine Planetizen ranked him the second most influential urban planner of all time, behind only Jane Jacobs. Lerner is also a distinguished figure at a permanent exhibit about prominent Jews in the Diaspora at the

ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Israel. “Jaime Lerner marked his life by an ethical stance, without ever leaving aside his Jewish roots,” Szyja Ber Lorber, president of B’nai B’rith’s branch in Parana, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “He was considered one of the most influential personalities in the world.” In March, days after receiving the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Lerner tested positive for the virus but developed only a mild case and recovered at home. He is survived by two daughters and four grandchildren.

Israeli researcher named National Geographic Society ‘Emerging Explorer’ (JNS) The National Geographic Society named University of Haifa professor Dr. Aviad Scheinin as one of its “Emerging Explorers” in 2021—one of 15 individuals it described as changing the world “one idea at a time.” In an announcement last week, it said its cohort of storytellers, researchers and conservationists “are conducting innovative work focused on a range of topics such as inventing space technologies, ocean exploration, understanding the past through archaeology and anthropology, species conservation, storytelling and elevating young voices for the future of education.” Scheinin, a marine conservationist who heads the University of Haifa’s Marine Apex Predator Lab at the Morris Kahn Marine Research Station and is the Apex Predators Principal Investigator at the Leon Charney School of Marine Sciences, has spent two decades honing his expertise on conservation, behavioral science and long-term ecological research of coastal dolphins,

sharks, rays and bluefin tunas. The publication praised his work on the world’s first long-term research project examining the behavior of coastal dolphins, as well as for being the first to note the presence of gray whales and false killer whales in the Eastern Mediterranean. Scheinin is only one of two Israelis selected for this honor. The first was fellow University of Haifa professor Dr. Beverly Goodman, who received the accolade in 2009. She was recognized for work that is an amalgamation of archaeology, geology and anthropology, which “explores the complex ways nature and humans interact on coastlines.” As populations on the coastline increase around the world, Goodman is at the forefront of research examining how human presence on the earth’s shores influences natural events like tsunamis and floods. “Professor Scheinin’s work is not only a point of pride for the university but for Israel,” said Professor

Ron Robin, president of the University of Haifa. “His research spotlights how ecologically robust the Mediterranean is. Together with Dr. Goodman and others, the university is at the forefront of research bringing us closer to understanding the complex relationship between humans and our oceans.” To date, only some 200 researchers have been selected as part of the nonprofit’s ongoing effort to document, educate and conserve the planet and

its resources. Scheinin joins the ranks of an elite group of dedicated scientists and educators that include groundbreaking individuals like Jacques Cousteau and Jane Goodall. “This is a very significant milestone,” said Scheinin. “After 20 years of intensive research at sea, this major demonstration of international recognition is an exciting and empowering opportunity which will provide the university access to the most impressive minds in the field.”

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The most comprehensive exhibition on Auschwitz featuring more than 700 original objects.

Exhibition Opens June 14 Tickets at UnionStation.org An Exhibition By

Community Partner

Presented By

Supported By

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We are pleased to announce a speakers series associated with the exhibition. These online and live events are free and open to the public but require pre-registration. Schedule, additional information and registration are available at UnionStation.org.