Annual Community-Wide All Night Shavuot Program
A Kansas City Tradition to Feature Keynote Speaker Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Tuesday, Saturday, May 26 at Kehilath Israel Synagogue, 10501 Conser - The Jewish community will join together for an evening of prayer, study and celebration at the annual all-night Shavuot program on Saturday, May 26 at Kehilath Israel Synagogue, 10501 Conser. The evening begins at 8:30 p.m. with two Mincha services including a traditional and a Learner’s service. The celebration will include a catered dairy buffet dinner, followed by a keynote featuring noted author, lecturer and scholar, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin.
Joseph Telushkin, named by Talk Magazine as one of the 50 best speakers in the United States, is the author of the Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History. Rabbi Telushkin’s earlier book, Words that Hurt, Words that Heal became the motivating force behind Senators Joseph Lieberman and Connie Mack’s 1996 Senate Resolution # 151 to establish a “National Speak No Evil Day” throughout the United States. Telushkin is also co-author with Dennis Prager of one of the most influential Jewish books published in the last thirty-five years, The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism, hailed by Herman Wouk as “the intelligent skeptic’s guide to Judaism.”
Rabbi Telushkin was ordained at Yeshiva University in New York, and pursued graduate studies in Jewish history at Columbia University. He resides in New York City with his wife, Dvorah Menashe Telushkin, and their four children.
He lectures throughout the United States, serves as a Senior Associate of CLAL, on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Book Council, and as spiritual leader of the Synagogue for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles.
A rabbinic panel discussion will follow the keynote. Informal study sessions with Rabbi Telushkin and the Kansas City Kollel will be offered all night. A sunrise service and breakfast will conclude this holiday celebration. Stay for a few hours or remain until dawn and engage in ruach and stimulating study opportunities. Snacks and coffee will be served.
Special youth programs facilitated by our area’s informal youth educators will be offered throughout the night including informal study, sports and games. Permission forms for all students is required.
Shavuot comes fifty days after the first day of Pesach, after the counting of the Omer has been completed and celebrates God’s giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai. Learning is an integral part of Judaism and therefore, it is befitting for the community to come together at this time to study. Shavuot also celebrates the harvest season. It is a custom to read the Book of Ruth, the story of a woman who voluntarily converts to Judaism as well as to stay up on the first night of Shavuot to study Torah and then to say the morning prayers at sunrise. The Kansas City Jewish Community has celebrated this Shavuot tradition for over 30 years.
A catered dairy buffet dinner featuring a favorite selection of Shavout delicacies including blintzes and cheesecake will be served at 9:20 p.m. The cost is $14.00 per adult and $10 per student (age 21 and under). Mandatory advance reservations are required by Monday, May 21 and should be sent (make checks payable to Rabbinical Association) to Rabbinical Association, 5801 W. 115, Suite 113, Overland Park, KS 66211. Reservations received after May 21, is $18.00 per adult. There is no charge to the community to attend the study programs only, which begin at 10:30.
This program is cosponsored by The Rabbinical Association of Greater KC and area congregations and funded by the Frank Morgan Fund and Goldie Chalet Fund of Kehilath Israel Synagogue.
For additional information or if planning to attend the study program only, contact Annette Fish, Administrator/Program Director for the Rabbinical Association, afprogram@aol.com or 913-327-4622 or visit www.kcrabbis.org.
