Vol. LXXXVI No. 21 Omaha, NE
Celebrating 86 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa
As candidates enter 2008 race, they begin courting Jewish support AMERICA DECIDES 2008 by RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA) -- It’s a Washington ritual as reliable as the cherry blossoms, if nowhere near as pretty: Midterm congressional elections are over and aspirants for the most powerful job in the world are throwing their hats into the race for the U.S. presidency. Another ritual within the ritual is lining up Jewish support, and this year is no different. Some candidates are acting immediately: This month, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) plucked Jay Zeidman, President Bush’s popular Jewish outreach official, to lead his Jewish campaign. Sometimes it’s even sooner than immediately: For the past two years, Ann Lewis, who has been prominent in Jewish causes since she served as the Clinton administration’s deputy communications director, has been sounding out Jewish support for Clinton’s wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Here’s a glance at the candidates and where they stand on issues of concerns to the Jewish people. The Democrats • U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) You probably won’t hear all about Clinton’s Jewish stepgrandfather this time around. That’s because she won’t need to grab at Jewish straws after six years of support for Jewish causes that activists across the spectrum say is stellar. Clinton’s 2000 run for the Senate was marred by a 1999 incident in which she Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sat by and said nothing as (D-N.Y.) Credit: U.S. Senate Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat’s wife, accused Israel of deliberately poisoning children. Clinton and Suha Arafat embraced after the speech. Clinton later claimed the interpreter skipped over the poisoning allegation, but she set about atoning for the gaffe. In addition to the revelation about her step-
granddad, she told two different Jewish audiences within weeks of Suhagate that Jerusalem was Israel’s indivisible capital. She won solidly that year, but with less-than-enthusiastic Jewish support. By 2006, however, Jewish support for Clinton was overwhelming and spanned the religious spectrum. Much of the money she has raised -- some analysts expect her to bring in $500 million by election time -- has come from Jewish donors. Pro-Israel lobbyists say Clinton’s voting record on issues related to funding for Israel and isolating its enemies, including Iran and Syria, has been top notch, and she has visited the country multiple times since becoming a senator. On domestic issues, too, she is reliably pro-choice and backs increased federal involvement in health care, stances that reflect the majority U.S. Jewish opinion. Her supporters say one area where Clinton has strengthened Jewish support might offer a clue to how she plans to overcome overwhelming conservative opposition to her candidacy, a residue of the 1990s culture wars: She seeks imaginative legislative solutions to get funding to parochial institutions while not skirting church-state divisions. • U.S. Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) As the lead Democratic spokesman on foreign policy -- Biden chairs the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee -- his rhetoric on Israel at times has been tough. Biden repeatedly has suggested that Israel and the United States “blew it” in the summer of 2003 by not backing sufficiently Mahmoud Abbas, who was Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) Credit: U.S. Senate then the Palestinian Authority prime minister. Abbas eventually quit because P.A. President Yasser Arafat frustrated his efforts to make peace with Israel, but he also accused Israel and the United States of failing to provide concessions that might have helped him confront Arafat. Pro-Israel advocates say there’s a substantial gap between Biden’s rhetoric and how he ultimately votes: He has a solid pro-Israel voting record and was a leader of the successful effort last year to pass the Palestinian Continued on page 2
14 Shevat, 5767 February 2, 2007
Banking on blood by SORIYA DANIELS The women’s weekly parenting class at our synagogue wasn’t so lighthearted. Posted on the walls near the Sephardic sanctuary, where our class is held, was the desperate plea of a mother for the life of her 31-year-old daughter, Tani, just diagnosed with “a serious medical condition” that only a match from a bone marrow donor can save her life. The flyer displayed photos of a beautiful, young woman with four small children, including one baby. I wanted to help, but it was unclear from what was written, other than “bone marrow fund,” what they needed from the Jewish community. I know that my husband and I registered our blood with a national registry at a bone marrow and blood drive several years back, so I figured that they must have exhausted the registry and come up emptyhanded. At the bottom of the Newborn Blood Banking flyer was a phone number 1.888.836.2262 to call for more informa- Viacord 1.866.668.4895 tion. This number put me Cord Blood Registry in touch with Tani’s moth- 1.888.932.6568 er, who revealed that to Stembanc 1.877.836.2262 their surprise and utmost CORD 1.877.CORDBLD *This list is not extensive. dismay, none of Tani’s many sisters were a match. There are many cord banking I learned that there are ten centers. Check with your physicompatibility factor’s that cian. The author and this publidetermine whether the cation do not endorse or guartransplant with be rejected antee any services provided by specific cord blood banks. by the host. I remembered the photos with the children, pasted along the edges of the flyer. Four children, four potential ideal matches for her. It was just on an episode of Boston Legal last year -- a father with an incurable disease sought the cord blood of his only child. It was his best chance for a match (of course, there were legal and custody issues, which was why it was on Boston Legal and not Oprah.) Tani’s mother regretfully told me that her daughter never banked any of her own children’s blood. “No one talked about cord blood when Tani had her children. Who knew?” she sadly said. Researchers are finding a rich supply of stem cells in umbilical cord blood for use in treatment of a number of diseases like leukemia and other blood and immune disorders. The stem cells found in cord blood are as viable and flexible as those found in embryos, can be easily collected without any ethical drawbacks, stored Continued on page 12
Resources/Cord Blood Banks
Doing their part to preserve history by ANDREA BARTMAN for JSS/RBJH The Lomir Redn (Let Us Speak) Yiddish Group, sponsored by Jewish Senior Services, is on a mission -- a mission to preserve a language representative of their heritage. Inspired by an article she read, Anne Skolkin began her work as a zamler (a person who gathers scattered things) for the National Yiddish Book Center. Located in Amherst, MA, the center depends on dedicated volunteers, like Skolkin and the Yiddish Group, to continue their work preserving the language that is an important piece of Jewish culture. According to Aaron Lansky, President and Founder of the National Yiddish Book Center, “The price of admission to America was to throw the old country away.” However, many immigrants to this country did not. With a current col-
Inside Opinion Page see page 8
lection of more than 1.5 million Yiddish books and more coming in every day, it’s become clear to Lansky, his staff and volunteers that there are many more books out there to be rescued. The word “rescued” is appropriate because, although these books survived transfer to the United States, they are in danger of being lost now by a generation that doesn’t read or understand Yiddish. When an older person passes on or moves to a care facility, often times it’s left to family members to organize and disperse their belongings. Yiddish books are many times among the trash because younger family members either don’t understand what they have or can’t read the language; therefore they find no value in the books. These books are definitely wanted. With more than 10,000 visitors annually, the Center is fulfilling it’s first mission; to preserve the books. Now, with the help of
interested less in the details of the holocaust than by this question: so who were these Jews they wanted to murder? What was this culture they wanted to destroy? I discovered in Yiddish the language by which Jews made sense of the modern world.” The Yiddish Group works to make sense of the Yiddish language every Thursday, 1-3 p.m., at the Some members of the Lomir Redn Yiddish Group include: Jewish Community Maxine Noodell, seated left, Frieda Krizelman, Abe Schloff, Center. “It’s not a club,” Miriam Meyerson; standing: Alan Wolfson, Harry Wolfson, says Skolkin. “We don’t Esther Simon, Anne Skolkin, Jack Noodell and Bob Gerelick. have presidents or a board. movie producer and director Steven Every week we have someone who takes Spielberg the Center is working to pre- care of the program and everyone conserve the collection digitally. tributes. It’s gotten so it’s like a family.” Says Lansky, “Early on I found myself Continued on page 2
This Week: Teen Age Features NCSY: Page 7 See Front Page Stories & More at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on ‘Jewish Press’
NCJW presents “A Sweet Affai”: Page 4
Coming Next Week: Simchas & Celebrations Heard any good stories lately?: Page 5
Jews and Christians learn together: Page 11