Gov. Jay Nixon and his wife Georgianne and Kathryn Green Weber

A seemingly endless summer outdoors and women with an incredible sense of fashion spilled indoors at Marriott’s Ritz Carlton Hotel, where the Jewish Federation gala, “Visionaries 2010″,  was held.  Past the lobby lounge, which each morning is frequented by guests with heroic hangovers and prodigious deeds printed by fuzz-cheeked reporters and into the ballroom.  Jam-packed with 700 supporters of the Federation, Mo. Gov. Jay Nixon was in the political spotlight praising Israel, where he and wife, Georganne, Tom Green and Mike Staenberg visited a few years ago. He said, “It’s a nation steeped in the past – but always looking to the future. A nation where King David’s tomb and the Einstein Institute of Mathematics co-exist – in real time. . . That duality – of past and future, of loss and hope, of sacrifice and generosity, of individual and community – is what we are here to celebrate.” Nixon continued to praise “the philanthropic vision of tonight’s honorees – Tom and Karole Green, Ken and Nancy Kranzberg and Michael and Carol Staenberg – a model of enlightened leadership not just for the city and our state, but for our nation and the world.” Major supporters of the Federation on hand included leading African-American dynamos Thelma and David Steward, topper of Worldwide Technology, Inc., who claim their lives have been centered on living in the Jewish community.  The columnist observed Cong. Russ Carnahan, after he took a bow  before the program began and then hastily exited the hotel.  Co-chairs were vampy Kim and Bill Miller whose sacred commitment to the Federation were lauded by guests  Contemporary Productions’ Steve Schankman introduced to friends his new, stunning  friend, Katie Ryan. (Schankman and his wife,

Katie Ryan, Bill and Kim Miller

Andria, are awaiting final divorce papers.)  Rabbi Howard Kaplansky, esteemed spiritual leader of United Hebrew Temple, gave the columnist his take on Jewish Catholics.  “There’s nothing Jewish about it,” he said.  “If they accept Jesus, they’re not Jews – they’re Christians.” Kaplansky said he will officially retire from the pulpit on June 30.  With the rabbi was his wife, Susan, director of adult services at the JCA.  Glamorous Kathryn Green Weber flew in from her home in L.A. to be with her much-admired parents.  Famed WashU cardiologist and prof Dr. Alan Weiss and his wife, Marcia, Randee and Dr. Myron Jacobs, Jan and Ron Greenberg, Colleen and Bob Millstone, Wilma and Harvey Gerstein, Diane and Paul Gallant, Phyllis and Sanford Goffstein, Diane and Dr. David Katzman and a bevy of members of the Sansone family were spotted around the room.  On the sidelines, Gov. Nixon’s communications chief and cool mom Christine Bertelson proudly pointed out, that her daughters: Rosie is a college student; Meredith is practicing law.