With your help, we can continue our work to grow the Kansas City Jewish Community. Your donation will allow Chabad on the Plaza to create a home for our Sefer Torah. 

Thirteen years ago, when the Itkin family came to inspire Jewish life in Kansas City, they came to a place where there are Jews, but not a Jewish Community.  They listened to the needs of the community and humbly facilitated a nurturing place for Jewish individuals and families to develop their identity. Itche and Chanale Itkin brought their youth and their courage, armed with loving kindness, began growing their family each day by minding the details and moving past committees, to engage each individual, personally and authentically; listening more, telling less, celebrating successes and empathizing with losses, always with a hefty dose of joy and laughter.

As the Kansas City Jewish community grew, the Itkins moved into their current home, a few houses down from the tennis courts near Loose Park. Here their shabbat table grew, while the Rothstein family generously provided a space to celebrate holidays and hold classes.  For the past 9 years, the Rothstein family has graciously hosted our community in their space.

Unfortunately, the space was  recently vandalized and rather than put money into a building, the Kansas City Jewish community is going to build our community up, piece-by-piece, starting with a home for our Sefer Torah. Taking time to enjoy the opportunity to take action and give the community an opportunity to grow as a family, connecting to our practices in addition to our charitable giving.

When taking on the project of building an ark, we consulted with a pillar of our community, Ilya Tabakh, who brought his network, his innovative spirit, and a desire to take action.  We started assembling at Hammer Space, with the help of David Dalton. After completing the ark, with David’s help, we hope to take on many more projects, such as knife making and forging washing cups. We wish to invite everyone to take part in this unique opportunity. Additional information on knife making and forging washing cups will be available in the coming months. Ilya generously helped launch the project, but it’s important that we all work together to grow our community in a way that is uniquely Kansas City, where we have an amazing heritage and so many capabilities.

As a sign of gratitude to the Rothstein family for their generosity and graciously hosting our community, we will be dedicating the ark in the memory of Olga and Michael Rothstein. They impacted the Jewish world, both nationally and at home, migrating to Kansas City from Europe. Most significantly, they left a heritage that is still alive and well in Kansas City today.  Just as they entrusted Kansas City as a place to raise their family, we want to honor their memory as a place where we safeguard our most sacred text.

While a donation is much appreciated, what we truly desire is your presence. We want to see you, grow with you and connect with you. Your donation will help us provide programming for people in the plaza area, young, old, married, and single. We also ask for your time, talent, and treasure to grow our community, in honor of those who came before us, and for the sake of those who will come after us.