Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

As we approach Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we engage in the difficult work of Cheshbon HaNefesh, an accounting of our souls, by which we engage in self-reflection and ponder how we can do better and act better in the coming year 5781. While in challenging times like these this work can seem even more difficult, I take heart in the possibility of the new and our potential to be better.

Kol Ami has recently recommitted itself to pursuing justice through our work in Manheim Garden, led by Steve and Linda Sackin; our work with MORE(2), the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity; and by supporting the work of the Migrant Farmworkers Assistance Fund and the Martin Luther King School in the Kansas City School District. By this recommitment, we seek to improve ourselves by improving life for others.

Even in the last week, we are seeing a significant increase in those who are interested in who we are as a progressive Jewish community, and being a part of our community. New members give us new energy, and the new perspectives they bring into the community add to the Kol Ami story.

May we continue to strive to do what is good and just, and be leaders in establishing a different kind of Jewish community — one that lives out our best Jewish values beyond the walls of the synagogue.