Current Community Needs

Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy is seeking funding to support the continuation of a full-time security guard to ensure the safety and well-being of its students, faculty, and staff. As a school dedicated to providing a nurturing and secure environment for Jewish education, it recognizes the importance of staying proactive. The overall cost for this request is $30,000.

Priya provides emotional and financial support to Jewish families facing infertility issues. Since it began, more than 15 babies have been born with support. Priya’s services include counseling, support groups, and subsidies to help pay for fertility treatments or adoption fees for qualified Jewish households. Because infertility is a significant issue in the Jewish community, this program can have a long-term positive impact.

For almost 20 years, KC Hospice & Palliative Care has participated in the National Institute of Jewish Hospices accreditation program to train their staff to be sensitive to the needs and practices of its Jewish clients. The organization typically sent a few staff members each year who would in turn give presentations to the rest of the staff. The National Institute of Jewish Hospices have changed the rules for accreditation and now require that all staff participate in the NIJH program at the same time to receive the accreditation. Up to $30,000 is need to cover this expense.

Midwest Center for Holocaust Education is seeking gifts in support of rehousing the New Americans documents/photos/materials in archival quality housings and will be conducting archival scans of all documents for preservation. It has secured the commitment of a professional curator/collection manager as a volunteer to process the documents and rehouse them. The current estimated cost to purchase archival materials and the scanner is $1,500-$2,000.

The Mitzvah Garden has grown food for those in need since the year 2000 with the assistance of hundreds of volunteers of all abilities, ages, backgrounds, cultures, and religions. It distributed 10,432 pounds of food to KC area food distribution centers or pantries in 2023. It spends around $2,500 on seeds and plants annually. Grants of any size would help underwrite seeds and/or gardening supplies.

Music is a very important aspect of life at Village Shalom. Its piano is played practically every day for special programing like the Heller Bettinger Music Series and Opera-to-Go with the Lyric Opera, holiday events, weekly happy hour, resident and family gatherings, resident piano use/lessons, and sing-a-longs. The grand piano has been worn down through years of playing and can no longer be maintained to the quality its programs require. Village Shalom wishes to purchase a new quality grand piano. The UMKC Performing Arts Center hosts an annual piano sale with used high quality pianos which are available for between $10,000 and $12,000.