Shabbat Study, Worship and Brunch Beginning at 9:30 a.m. this Saturday, May 20, we celebrate Shabbat together with engaging study, services and a Seudah, a festive Shabbat meal. Join us either in person at the home of Fay and Rabbi Doug or via Zoom. If attending in person, you must RSVP to rabbidoug@kolamikc.org. If participating via Zoom, click here.
Upcoming Kol Ami Event
Mahjong Club Meets Up The Mahjong Club will hold an organizational meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 24, at All Souls’ Conover Hall. On the agenda: an overview of the game and its "Jewish connection,” where and when to meet going forward, and what options are available for instruction on how to play. Email office@kolamikc.org if you can attend in person or prefer to meet via Zoom.
Yahrzeit This Week May 19 Irv Dietchman – father of Alan Dietchman
We Wish Mi Shebeirach A Complete Healing of Mind, Body and Spirit to:
Robert Clinton Kenneth Dantzler Sheila Denton Rev. Kendyl Gibbons Amanda Goldstein Frank Karr LJ Karr Marc Ordo Rachel Perera Michah ben Sarah Edi Shifrin Carol Swartz Joel Weeks
If you would like a name to continue to be listed or if you have a new name to include, please send an email to healing@kolamikc.org.
In this, my weekly blog, my thoughts seem to move back and forth between being more positive and inspiring (at least, I hope they inspire) and pointing out injustices in order to fulfill our obligation as Jews to work for a more just community and world. I don’t have it necessarily planned out that way. It is more a reflection of the state of the world in which we need to carve out moments of joy in order to confront the chaos.
This Week's Torah Portion Parashat Bamidbar (Bamidbar/Numbers 1:1-4:20)
With this week’s Torah portion, we begin the fourth book of the Written Torah. The Hebrew word Bamidbar does not translate as Numbers; rather, it means “in the wilderness.” The book reflects our 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. It is a book filled with legislation and stories of rebellion. Ultimately, the wilderness becomes a place of learning, usually learning very hard lessons. Yet, notwithstanding the difficult times endured, it was in those challenges that the people made great progress.
Kol Ami News
Finding Family — and Good Food — in a Kol Ami Cooking Class By Barbara Gorodetzky
Passover — my favorite holiday, even with the exhausting preparation that my mother, a working woman, did each year. I was raised in Boston, with an extensive (mostly Sephardic) family, yet I raised four children in Kentucky with no family. Without thinking about it, my husband and I provided the absent spirit of family warmth by “adoption,” a process of including close friends and total strangers as we celebrated meaningful holidays, somehow passing on the favorite-holiday concept to our children and, later, they to their families.
Kol Ami’s Passover cooking class March 22, part of its new Jewish Cooking Series, was a lovely menu of both Sephardic and Ashkenazic dishes, which Brad Ordo and Fay Balk planned and partially cooked in advance (as some dishes needed additional cooking time), as well as dishes the 20-plus attendees prepared together. We were surprised with wonderful falafel from the Mediterranean Market in Westport. We feasted on appetizers, salad, mains and desserts, plus two styles of charoset. Fay explained many facets and traditions of Passover, as well as many changes to today’s menus.
Sephardic and Ashkenazic charoset
Kookoo sabzi, a Persian frittata-like dish of fresh greens, herbs and eggs
This program was perfect, not only for the food but also for the coming together of our Kol Ami friends/family. Reconnecting, meeting newer (and younger) KA family members and the joyous chatter that lasted way beyond the program time — it could have been Boston or Kentucky or here, where my husband and I have lived for 29 years. I believe strongly that there is a holiday-food tie and tradition. But without the addition of family, there is a disconnect. For us, Kol Ami has always provided the family tie, although we were once like those strangers at our table in Kentucky.
Thanks to Fay, Brad and Doug, who created the environment for this to occur. _________________________________________ The next cooking class — challah making — TBD late summer/early fall. Watch for details.
Our mailing address is: Congregation Kol Ami 4501 Walnut Street ℅ All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church Kansas City, MO 64111
