Sponsored by the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Endowment Fund AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA
Major donor event
January 30, 2015 10 Shevat 5775 Vol. 95 | No. 20
This Week
February JCC Gallery: Omaha Artists, Inc. Page 3
Mainstreeters February activities Page 6
by SHERRIE SAAG Communications, Jewish Federation of Omaha 2015 Annual Campaign cochairs Norm and Suzy Sheldon and host Zoë Riekes welcomed our community’s major donors Tuesday evening, Jan. 13 for a special briefing with counter terrorism expert Dr. Howard Stoffer. The following morning, he participated in the Federation campus leadership meeting, discussing current events and providing his national security perspective to the professional staff. Currently a professor at the University of New Haven, Stoffer was an administrative director of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee of the Security Council and spent 25 years with the State Department’s Senior Foreign Service at posts around the world. The Sheldons began the evening remarking, “The events of the past week (Paris terror attacks) illustrate, perhaps better than anything else, our need to come together in solidar-
Dr. Howard Stoffer ity and support of one another, Jewish Omaha and our global Jewish community.” Stoffer discussed global hot zones ranging from Egypt and Syria to Indonesia, Russia and, of course, Paris. As a staunch supporter of Israel,
Stoffer described the current “allies” Israel has in the Middle East. “Egyptian President elSisi and his military dictatorship is clearing out Sinai neighborhoods filled with tunnels and sharing military and intelligence information with Israel. So, for now, Israel has a friend to the west and, I would say, a stable neighbor to the East in Jordan. King Abdullah and his wife, Queen Rania are pragmatic, peace-seeking and have established good stable relations with Israel.” As with any explanation of current events, historical context is necessary. Attendees listened to a very brief overview of recent Syrian social and political conflict, after which Stoffer noted that the Shia/Sunni Muslim divide dates back to Mohammed. “The call for a third caliphate refers to their desire for a ‘state in the medieval sense’,” he said, and “those currently fighting have no sense of justifiable engagements or rules of war. Basically, anything goes.” Continued on page 3
Klutznick Learning Series by MARY SUE GROSSMAN Program Coordinator, The Center for Jewish Life Last year, the Center for Jewish Life introduced a new program, the Klutznick Learning Series. That first series focused on the Ten Commandments, and nearly 200 people attended over a six week period. Of unique interest – and great success - was the session format. Each commandment was first examined by a clergy member, from the religious view. That was followed by a presentation by a community member, focusing “real life” experiences and expertise regarding that commandment.
Diane Zipursky Quale Open Pulpit: Love your neighbor, love yourself Page 16
Inside Point of view Synagogues In memoriam
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Next Week Simchas & Celebrations See Front Page stories and more at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on Jewish Press
by OZZIE NOGG “My life changed forever in 2000 when my husband, John Quale, was diagnosed with aggressive bladder cancer,” Omaha native Diane Zipursky Quale said. “We had never heard of bladder cancer, didn’t know anyone with the disease. We were frustrated by the difficulty in finding information about bladder cancer, but more frustrated to learn about the limited treatment options available. We discovered there had been advances in surgery, but no new drugs or medical treatment for twenty years.” Diane and John understood that when survivors of other types of cancer banded together and demanded better treatments, they got results. “Betty Ford opened everyone’s eyes to breast cancer. Katie Couric became an advocate for colon cancer screening after her husband died of the disease. But no one was speaking about bladder cancer despite its prevalence and its tremendous impact on lives,” Diane explained. So, in 2005, Diane and John invited their friends and family to help launch BCAN -- the Bladder Cancer Advo-
Dr. Leonard Greenspoon
John and Diane Quale at the Bladder Cancer Patient Advocacy Network Patient Forum, March 2007, in Boca Raton, FL cacy Network -- as the first patient advocacy organization for bladder cancer. John Quale died of bladder cancer in 2008. Diane continues her work with BCAN as co-founder and President of the organization. “Our objective seemed simple,” Diane said. “We wanted to bring bladder cancer out of the shadows. Shine a light -- a beacon -- on it so people would pay more attention. We wanted to change the landscape for this disease by funding research to discover new treatments that would save lives. We didn’t have a ‘grand plan’ nor did we really understand what we were getting ourselves into.” What John and Diane Quale “got into” was, in Diane’s words, “an organization built on love. A partnership between patients, their families and the medical community.” The first person the Quales con-
tacted about their intention to start an advocacy group for bladder cancer was John’s physician, Mark Schoenberg, M.D., then Professor of Urology and Director of Urologic Oncology at Johns Hopkins. (Dr. Schoenberg is currently Chair of the Department of Urology at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.) Schoenberg put BCAN on the fast track. “Just two weeks after our initial conversation with Dr. Schoenberg, John and I were part of a medical conference in San Antonio. We decided that if six people showed up to hear our pitch for BCAN, it would be a success. It was standing room only, and by the end of the day we had eighteen members on our Scientific Advisory Board, all urologists with a focus on bladder cancer.” Continued on page 2
Based on the positive response to last year’s program, the Center for Jewish Life is delighted to announce the dates for the 2015 Klutznick Learning Series. Sessions will be held on Tuesday evenings, Feb. 24, March 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, 7-8:30 p.m. in the Social Hall at the JCC. It was decided that with 603 additional commandments on the books, continuing the investigation of more of the rules would be a good option. Based on this, the 2015 theme is Beyond the Big Ten – And We’re Not Talking Football. The five sessions will follow the same format, taking a dual look at ten commandments not found in the traditional “Big Ten” lineup. Each unique commandment will be examined from a religious side followed by a focus of the topic in today’s world. The series is available free of charge due to the generous financial support from the fund of the Klutznick Chair of Jewish Civilization at Creighton University. The Klutznick Governance Council includes Dr. Leonard Greenspoon, the Klutznick Chair, along with Bonnie Bloch, Steve Riekes and Marty Shukert. “We were very pleased with the success of last year’s Klutznick Learning Series,” commented Dr. Greenspoon. “We had a great cross section of presenters and participants who provided a unique Continued on page 2