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The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
celebrations Bar Mitzvah
Asher Glass Adina and Norman Glass announce the Bar Mitzvah of their son, Asher Micha Yaer Glass, at 9 a.m. Saturday, June 22, at Congregation Beth Israel Abraham and Voliner. Asher is the grandson of Judith and David Solomont, Ann Stern and Leonard Glass, and the late Carol Glass, of blessed memory. His siblings are Sara Glass, Nadia and Adam Glass and Netanel Kass. Relatives and friends are invited to worship with the family and to attend the Kiddush luncheon following services. In his free time Asher enjoys playing video games, bike riding, collecting sports memorabilia and getting them signed by the players.
Birth
Leo Sandhaus Evan Sandhaus and Tara Bobiak of Brooklyn, New York, announce the birth May 11, 2019, of a son, Leo Ezra Sandhaus. Grandparents are Becky and Ron Sandhaus, and Carol and Joe Bobiak of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
June 20, 2019
World Refugee Day Celebration set for June 22 JVS, Kansas City’s largest refugee resettlement agency, is spearheading the annual World Refugee Day Celebration from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 22, at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences (Ricci Auditorium), 1730 Independence Ave. in Kansas City, Missouri. World Refugee Day commemorates the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of refugees and shows support for those forced to flee their homes and make a new life in Kansas City. Kansas City Mayor Sly James said Kansas City is known for its exceptional hospitality, which means everyone is welcome. “We did not become one of the greatest cities in this country by keeping people, culture and ideas out — we welcome people in,” the mayor said. “Refugee communities have made Kansas City stronger, and are a critical part of our community’s past, present and future.” The event’s keynote speaker will be Huda Dalaq, the domestic program manager of Mercy Without Limits. Family entertainment will include dancing, henna painting, music and food. JVS Executive Director Hilary Cohen Singer said World Refugee Day is an opportunity to acknowledge the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children that are forced to flee their homes due to conflict, violence and persecution. “On World Refugee Day and every day, JVS stands with refugees and im migrants. At JVS, we work to make all
feel welcome and valued,” Singer said. The event is co-sponsored by: AES Resources, Baraza African Cultures Center, Betty Rae’s Ice Cream, Camel Milk Company, Children’s Mercy Hospital, Country Financial, Della Lamb Community Services, The Don Bosco Centers, Egbe Omo Yoruba, Ezeh Law Firm, International Relations Council, Jackson County, Missouri, Jewish Vocational Service Kansas City, KC Ethnic Enrichment Festival, Kansas City Girls Preparatory Academy, Kansas City,
Missouri City Government, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City Public Schools, KC International Academy, KC for Refugees, Mercy Without Limits, My Village Grill, Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Once We Were Refugees, Samuel U. Rodgers, St. Thomas More Parish, Translation Perfect, Truman Medical Centers, United Nations Association of Greater Kansas City, and YMCA of Greater Kansas City
Smithsonian Channel documentary explores ‘Adolf Island,’ a British isle that housed concentration camps (JTA) — Many are familiar with the names of the larger Nazi concentration camps like Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. But some estimate the Nazis had as many as 40,000 satellite camps around Europe. Several existed on the only British soil conquered by the Nazis: Alderney, one of the Channel Islands, where the Nazis imported thousands of slave laborers to build defenses in hopes of conquering more English land. Caroline Sturdy Colls, a British professor and forensic archaeologist perhaps best known for her 2014 documentary on Treblinka, explores the island in a documentary called “Adolf Island” airing June 23 on the Smithsonian Channel. While she was forced to tears in the making of “Treblinka: Hitler’s Killing Machine,” her experience on Alderney is a little different — she’s mostly angry. Colls starts her research journey at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. The most notorious camp on Alderney was Sylt, built and run by the SS-Totenkopfverbände, or Death’s Head squads.
The Nazis burned most of the records on Alderney, so there was no telling how many prisoners were killed there. But a couple of clues survived a last-minute Nazi attempt at a cover-up. One was a Royal Air Force aerial photo taken toward the end of the war that seemed to indicate disturbed ground near the official cemetery. The other was a letter from Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler to the camp commander ordering “no surrender,” and to “shoot all the prisoners without hesitation” if the Allies attacked. Colls’ original plan was to study and then excavate some promising areas, but she soon received notice from the local government that excavation was prohibited even though she had received permission from the landowner. So she brought in some high tech, including drone-mounted laser gear. But the government foiled that, too, prompting the professor’s outrage. You cannot imagine, she says, “how angry and absolutely horrified I am at the character of these people,” who “want to forget.”