Endowed by the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Fund AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA January 8, 2016 27 Tevet 5776 Vol. 96 | No. 17
Return to Rivesaltes
This Week
by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor The Holocaust happened many years ago in places far from here, and to many modern American teenagers, that may make it into a story that doesn’t truly touch them. Survivors like Bea Karp understand the danger in turning real life terror into myth, and it is why she has tirelessly spoken to audiences everywhere about her experiences. In her book, My Broken Doll, which she cowrote with her daughter Debby Pappenheimer, who also painted the illustrations, she spoke about her father, who received a raw egg during extreme hunger in the concentration camp Gurs. Noticing it contained a spot of blood, he hurled it against the wall, rather than eating it. “I later came to understand what my father might have been trying to teach us. God gave humans a brain to choose between right and wrong. My Papa’s actions demonstrated that while he had no control over what the Nazis did to him physically, he still had a choice. The choice of not eating the egg was my father’s way of maintaining his Judaism and his humanity despite being treated as sub-human.” That choice between right and wrong, and the responsibility to make that choice, is at the center of Bea’s life. Like her father before her, Bea is first and foremost a teacher to the rest of us. In 1942, Bea, together with her mother Rosa and her sister Susie, was moved from Camp Gurs to Camp Rivesaltes. The camp was used as a transit center starting in August of 1942, before becoming the assembly camp for Jews deported from the Southern part of France. Rivesaltes illustrated the extent of political exclusion: internees included refugees from the Spanish Civil War, foreign Jews, and Gypsies who were deported from the Alsace. There was never just one camp at Rivesaltes, according to the Memorial’s brochure: “a Continued on page 2
Dorothy Kaplan Book Discussion Group Page 5
Community open house at Friedel Jewish Academy Page 6
Alan Gross opens up about surviving Cuban prison Page 12
Eye on the Israeli Inside health care system Point of view Synagogues In memoriam
This Month The Women’s Issue See Front Page stories and more at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on Jewish Press
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by ELIAD ELIYAHU BEN SHUSHAN Community Shaliach Of the many reasons to be proud of Israel, its health care system is at the top of the list. After only 67 years of independence, the State of Israel receives worldwide recognition because of its achievements in the medical field. Israel is held in esteem for its medical innovations that benefit the entire world, for being one of the
most helpful nations in conducting humanitarian aid missions and, most recently, for providing medical care to Syrian refugees of the ongoing civil war. Israel is also recognized for treating family relatives of the Hamas leaders. As always, in Israel everything is controversial. While these highlights above can bring a lot of respect and positive recognition to the state of Israel, there are many opinions and many questions being asked. Many people ask how it is that a young state with everyday existential threats, with social and economic challenges, can contribute so much to the world and give medical help even to its worst enemies. In the upcoming session of Eye on Israel, we will talk about the medical health care in Israel. We will learn Continued on page 2
PJ Library fun
Mike Ginsberg and his daughters. by NANCY RIPS Saturday night I dined with the elite. I met a Russian beauty, chatted with an aspiring neonatologist, and
Credit: Mark Kirchhoff admired a young professor and his wife. The evening featured giveaways, a “Whiz Bang Science Show”, Continued on page 3