Newsletters

Worship Event
of the Week

Shabbat Service
We are together at All Souls at 6:45 p.m. this Friday, June 7, to celebrate Shabbat with wonderful, meaningful prayer, music, Torah and Oneg Shabbat — Shabbat joy. Join us to make Shabbos together and to kick off Pride Month.

Upcoming
Kol Ami Event

Erev Shavuot
Next Tuesday
We celebrate Shavuot with some Torah study and a dairy meal at the home of Rabbi Doug and Fay beginning at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 11. You must RSVP by June 10 to rabbidoug@kolamikc.org. To participate via Zoom, click here.

Community Events

KC PrideFest
Don’t forget to check out the KC Pride Festival June 7-9 at Theis Park (4701 Oak) to show support for KC’s queer community. Ga’avah KC will have a table at the festival. Click here for more info.

Pride Havdalah
Congregations Kol Ami and Beth Torah host Pride Havdalah at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at Arno Park (1200 Arno Road, in KCMO). Bring a dessert to share, and a chair or blanket. For more info, email Brad at kehilahvp@kolamikc.org.

Yahrzeits
This Week

June 8
Henry Feir – former husband of Ellen Karp

June 11
Garrett Wheaton – father of David Wheaton

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

Rabbi Doug Alpert
Karen Chisholm
Robert Clinton
Kenneth Dantzler
Renée Dietchman
Harriet Greenwald
Karla Jacobs
Rabbi Sally Priesand
Jean Shifrin
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



The news of Donald Trump’s conviction on all 34 felony counts brought against him is too big to ignore, and I couldn’t if I wanted to. Following are some observations, particularly in response to the subsequent numerous attacks by Trump sycophants on our judicial system and our democracy.

Trump was not indicted by President Joe Biden, the Biden administration or the DOJ. He was indicted by New York citizens serving on a grand jury ... Click here to read the rest of Rabbi Doug's blog post.

Kol Ami News

Paper Bag Donations — a BIG Thank-You
A huge “thanks” to Yalene, Wynne, Marian (from Hadassah, Greater KC), Allison and Nancy for their generous grocery-bag donations to Migrant Farmworkers Assistance Fund. And for those who have brought paper grocery sacks with you to All Souls, Kol Ami thanks you, too!

This Week's Torah Portion
Parashat Bamidbar (Bamidbar/Numbers 1:1-4:20) ​​​​​​​



This week’s Torah portion begins the fourth of the five books of the written Torah. Bamidbar, meaning in the wilderness, recounts our time of wandering in the wilderness. It is a time of growth and learning and, most important, a time of transition from our prior slave mentality to one of serving G-d. We serve G-d in the way we support and care for each other — all of us created B’tzelem Elohim, in G-d’s image.

Weekly Feature

Counting the Omer Wraps Up With Shavuot
By Ellen Karp



The holiday of Shavuot (which this year occurs next week) originated as a celebration of agricultural bounty. It became a commemoration of the giving of the Torah. 

Where Passover celebrates the initial liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, Shavuot marks the conclusion of the process of liberation, when the Jews became an independent community with their own laws and standards. 

The omer period — counting the omer —between Passover and Shavuot thematically links Passover and Shavuot, and it reminds us of the process of moving from a slave mentality to a more liberated one.

The word “omer” means “sheaf.” The period after Passover marked the beginning of the barley harvest, when Jews took the first sheaves to the Temple to thank G-d, and it refers to those early offerings.