Vol. LXXXVI No. 18 Omaha, NE
Celebrating 86 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa
In season of giving, young adults help war-battered northern Israelis by the Lynn and Charles Schusterman Family Foundation. “When you live abroad and you are a Jew, it is a unique feeling when there is a war going on here -- you feel as if it is your own family that is suffering,” said Gabriel Buznik, 29, a lawyer from Buenos Aires. “Here we can show them they are not alone, we are the same Jewish people.” The young people, drawn from organizations such as their university Hillels and leadership programs sponsored by the Schusterman foundation, spread out over 10 northern communities for 10 days of volunteering and service. They not only worked with their hands, they also interacted with local residents -Jewish, Muslim and Christian -- and heard about their lives during and since the war. The idea for the program followed the successes of Hillel-organized trips last year to areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and similar alternative spring breaks to places like Argentina and Ukraine that the Schusterman foundation helped fund in conjunction with the American Young Jewish volunteers from around the world gather to plant trees in a northern Israeli for- Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). est damaged by Hezbollah rocket fire during this summer’s war. Credit: Itzhak Elharar/Scoop 80 Continued on page 2
22 Tevet, 5767 January 12, 2007
Omaha t-shirt now holds place of honor on Ambassador’s wall
by DINA KRAFT KIRYAT SHEMONA, Israel (JTA) -- They painted flowerbeds and underwater worlds on the walls of bomb shelters. They planted tree saplings and cleared brush on hillside forests scorched by Hezbollah rockets. Hundreds of young adults from across the Jewish world rolled up their sleeves to give back to the residents of Israel’s war-battered North. The group of 550 college students and young professionals from North America and Europe, from India and Australia, joined a mass community service project over the winter holidays called “Leading Up North,” funded
Haggai Alon, senior advisor on foreign affairs in the Ministry of Defense, meets with United States Ambassador to Israel -- Richard Jones of Nebraska. The “Omaha” t-shirt, presented to the Ambassador in November by Jewish Press Editor Carol Katzman, apparently holds a permanent place on his office wall at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. Katzman’s interview of Amb. Jones appeared in the Dec. 8, 2006, issue of the Press. Alon, grandson of former Nebraskans Harry and Annie Allen, is the son of Miriam Allen Kluska, Ph.D., and Avram Kluska of Kibbutz Naan. Alon and his wife, Gili, and daughter Mika also live on Kibbutz Naan. The Allens, formerly of Lincoln, were unable to attend the Reception for Nebraskans in Israel, sponsored by the Jewish Press with a grant from the Special Donor-advised Fund of the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation. Harry Allen is an occasional contributor to the Press; Annie is Mary Fellman’s Photo courtesy of the U.S. Embassy staff sister.
A quiet woman’s beliefs have a big impact by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Foundation Public Relations Coordinator Dorothy Blacker Rothkop worked for the Jewish Federation-Council (JFC) of Los Angeles for 40 years. She was hired as a temporary clerk in 1948, the same year that Israel became a state. “Everyone broke loose” that day, she recalled. “We brought champagne onto the tennis courts of the grounds. Someone started playing an accordion and we all started dancing the hora. It was exhilarating.” It also made it easy for Rothkop to remember how long she had worked at the Federation, because “Israel and I celebrate our anniversaries together,” she said. Eventually, Rothkop was named operations manager for the United Jewish Welfare Fund Campaign and acted as the liaison with the JFC data processing department. She managed the pulse of the campaign -- more than 100,000 names and more than 50,000 pledges. According to a news story in the May 21, 1979, JFC Bulletin, Rothkop became an ardent supporter of the campaign. “I think it is an obligation for all Jews to help their fellow men,” she said. “I would like to see everyone involved. I truly feel it is a moral obligation.” She continued to believe in this credo for the rest of her life. Her life began in Omaha. The daughter of Isaac and Esther Blacker, Dorothy was the youngest of eight children. Rothkop and her dear friend, Sylvia (Babe) Cohn,
Inside Opinion Page see page 16
had known each other since they were both three years old. They lived across the street from one another and attended Lake School and Central High School together. “We even lockered together,” commented Cohn. “Dorothy” -- or Dodo as Cohn called her -- “was quiet and charming and sweet. She was a good friend.” But Rothkop left Omaha in 1948 with her widowed mother and brother. She met Theodore (Ted) Rothkop, also from Omaha, in 1965 in Los Angeles. They enjoyed an extended courtship before returning to Omaha to be married in 1987. “I went with her to buy her wedding dress,” Babe Cohn recalled. After their wedding, the Rothkops retired to Santa Barbara, California. They enjoyed life and traveled across the United States, to Europe, and to Israel at least once. For short vacations, they rented a house at the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean in Summerland, near Santa Barbara. Dorothy taught Ted to fish there -- although she was a little miffed that he never learned to land a fish once he hooked one or to clean them. Ted died in 1998. In a 1999 Omaha Jewish Press article, Dorothy reminisced about their life together: “We had each other, friends, and family. I love him and miss him terribly.” Prior to Ted’s death, the couple had discussed possible beneficiaries of his will in addition to family heirs. They remembered their days at Central High School
Dorothy and Ted Rothkop and the old Jewish Community Center on 20th and Dodge. Dorothy also recalled the “unusual closeness between family and friends” in the Omaha community. “We always had a warm feeling for Omaha, and we know people get involved there,” she said in the 1999 article. Although he had not lived in Omaha for nearly five decades, Ted made bequests to the Jewish Federation here and several Omaha agencies including Jewish Family Service and the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society as well as organizations in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Frank Artusio, an attorney in Santa Barbara, knew the Rothkops for 15 years. “But I knew Dorothy best in the last five years,” he commented. Dorothy moved to
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Leisure Village in Camarillo, California, after Ted died. She derived much pleasure from reading the journals and looking at the photographs from her travels with Ted. Cohn continued to visit Dorothy after Ted died. The close friends always called each other on their birthdays. Artusio visited Dorothy on a fairly regular basis, he said. “She liked growing tomatoes in pots on her back porch.” She also told him stories about her childhood. “She loved Omaha,” he said. Artusio oversaw the people who came to care for Dorothy at Leisure Village and helped her with her financial affairs. “Her mail box was always jammed full with donation envelopes,” he remarked. Marty Ricks, director of the Jewish Federation Foundation, met Dorothy in 2001. “Leisure Village was only a few miles from Thousand Oaks where we lived prior to moving to Omaha in 1998,” said Ricks. At breakfast with Dorothy “she talked a lot about Omaha as well as Ted. She was a wonderful lady and obviously very philanthropic. After that meeting, we spoke to each other about every six months,” Ricks mentioned. When Dorothy died in January of 2005, the balance of her estate, after some family bequests and individual $1,000 gifts to 16 charities, was split equally between the Jewish community foundations of Omaha, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara. Continued on page 2
Coming Next Month: Simchas & Celebrations on Feb. 9 JTA series examines sexual misconduct in the clergy: Page 7
Downtown Jerusalem gets a $100 million facelift: Page 20