Virtual summer classes cannot replace the magic of in-person Jewish summer camping but local youth had an opportunity to stay connected this summer through a community virtual summer youth program for Jewish first through 8th graders. Interactive sessions were held Monday afternoons and students could choose to participate in one session each week in areas of art, cooking, dance, yoga, drama, music and sports. The program was fun, engaging, and a safe way to connect with other Jewish children during this unprecedented summer. Over 50 students participated.
The sessions were coordinated by Molly Hess and sessions were led by our community’s talented adult and local teen and college students Lauryn Glass, Sydney Strauss, Farrah Udell, Paige Lambert, Noah Lindenlaub, Emma Jacobson, Audrey Bryant, Skylar Arlotti and Noah Kahn.
A final culminating pre-Shabbat event was held on August 7 and was filled with Shabbat ruach and songs led by Noah Kahn with special Shabbat messages and thank you’s from Annette Fish, Rabbinical Association and Jewish Education Directors Dayna Gershon, Shelley Hedrick, Rabbi Beryl Padorr and Rabbi Monica Kleinman. Rabbi Padorr concluded the program with Shehecheyanu and Molly Hess expressed hope that next year “may we all come back together in person so we can wrap our arms around each other.”
This program was offered by the Rabbinical Association and congregation religious schools in Kansas City and Lawrence. There was no charge to attend the program due to the generosity of community funders Alan Edelman and Debbie Sosland Edelman, Stewart and Esther Stein, Edward Goldstein and Rachel Krantz, Dr. Alexander and Peggy Davis with special guidance from Beatrice Fine, Director of Funder Services & Education, Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City.
