Newsletters

Worship Events
of the Week

Shabbat Service
and Short Meeting
We are together this week at All Souls for meaningful prayer lifted up by wonderful music, beginning at 6:45 p.m. Friday, May 3 — an Oneg Shabbat, Shabbat joy, along with a short meeting, to bring you up to speed on all the wonderful things going on in our Kol Ami family.

Shabbat Study
At 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 4, we engage in study and in-depth discussion at the home of Fay and Rabbi Doug and on Zoom. If attending in person, you need to RSVP to  rabbidoug@kolamikc.org. For Zoom, click here.

Kol Ami
Social Justice

Paper Bag Donations
When you come to All Souls, you may bring your gently used paper grocery sacks with you. We donate them to Migrant Farmworkers Assistance Fund for food distribution to farmworkers and their families. Thank you!

Kol Ami Social

Bring Joy (Oneg) to a Shabbat Service
We invite volunteers to sponsor an Oneg Shabbat by bringing simple vegetarian treats to the first Friday-night service of the month. (Kol Ami provides challah and grape juice.) Please respond to  worship@kolamikc.org if you have questions or to sign up.
— Kol Ami Worship Committee

Upcoming
Kol Ami Events

Mah Jongg Club
Mah Jongg players
meet at All Souls
twice a month. To join
in or for information, contact 
office@kolamikc.org. 

Young Family
Get-Together
Enjoy snacks and games at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 11, at Loose Park. Feel free to invite friends outside the Kol Ami community. If you have any questions, email Julia, Kol Ami’s director of engagement, at engagement@

kolamikc.org.

Community
Event

Drag Charity
Bingo Night
Ga’avah KC hosts Drag Charity Bingo Night 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 2, at Hamburger Mary’s (3700 Broadway, #110), to raise funds for Ga’avah’s participation at this year’s KC Pride. Bingo is cash only. For cost information and to make a reservation, click here. Can’t attend but want to support Ga’avah’s presence at Pride? Click here.

Yahrzeit
This Week

May 2
Evelyn Young - friend of Lara Steinel

​​​​We Wish
Mi Shebeirach
A complete healing of mind, body and spirit:

Travis Beard
Karen Chisholm
Robert Clinton
Kenneth Dantzler
Renée Dietchman
Harriet Greenwald
Karla Jacobs
Scott Krell
Anna Schwartz
Daniel Shafton
Melvin Michael Slater
Robert Allen Slater

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. 

Rabbi's Week in Review



I have always looked forward to celebrating Pesach. While the holiday is Torah-based, the seder is really a product of the Rabbinic and Geonic periods. Which is to say, it is ripe for good discussion and healthy argument — Machloket L’Shem Shamayim, Argument for the Sake of Heaven.

Yet I came into this year’s Passover feeling down, and concerned as to what was an appropriate way to celebrate — or even if it was appropriate to ... Click here to read the rest of Rabbi Doug's blog post.

This Week's Torah Portion
Parashat Acharei Mot
(Vayikra/Leviticus 16:1-18:30)



We read this week about laws regarding sexual relations, including verse 18:22, which has traditionally been interpreted to prohibit gay sex. We, as progressive Jews, have a different, more compassionate interpretation of the verse. Those who hold to the traditional interpretation ignore that other mitzvot/commandments in Torah have been reinterpreted to arrive at a more compassionate result. We should always use Torah as a means to include, rather than exclude, and never lose our sense of compassion in the process.

Kol Ami News

​​​​​​​
Team Kol Ami and Ga’avah KC at this year’s AIDS Walk on Saturday, April 27. (Photo courtesy of Julia Patterson)
            __________________________

Member Spotlight: Barbara and
Charles Gorodetzky
By Wynne Begun
 


WB: Tell us a bit about yourselves and your family.
Gorodetzkys: We are natives of Boston. Chuck graduated from MIT, then Boston University School of Medicine. He later earned a Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky. Barbara graduated from UMass Boston and earned a master’s in education at the University of Kentucky. We met on a blind date, both doing a favor for a friend. We married in 1961. We have four children and four grandchildren, all scattered around the country. We have lived in Kentucky, North Carolina, New Jersey and California, but KC is home. Chuck has had a career in medical research and still consults. Barbara has had a career in secular and Jewish education, and as a stained-glass artist.
 
How did you wind up in KC?
In 1994, we arrived for what we felt would be a two-year position with Marion Merrell Dow. We decided to stay. It offered us everything we wanted in a community (except an ocean). 
 
What are your hobbies/avocations?
We are avid readers and travelers. We love symphony and opera, local theater and museums, and Scrabble almost every evening. Chuck can be seen almost daily walking many miles around the Plaza, Brookside and Sunset Hill. Barbara enjoys baking and bridge.
 
How long have you been involved in Kol Ami?
From its beginning, as part of the original families that helped in its formation. We remember meeting in area parks and any borrowed spaces that would have us. We served on and led many committees, and Chuck served on the board and as vice president.
 
What keeps you involved at Kol Ami? What is special about it?
We feel that Kol Ami’s strength is its people and its mission. From the very beginning, it has felt like a family. We both have a long history of involvement in synagogues and Jewish life, even as teens — Barbara in BBYO, Chuck in USY. It continued as we aged — regional and national involvement when we lived in areas where a Jewish community was largely absent, to provide a larger presence for our children. 
 
Being a member of Kol Ami is like being an aging teen who belongs to a youth group and continually becomes inspired by those around us to work for a better future.