February 22, 2013

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Sponsored by the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Endowment Fund AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA

Creating a heart-to-heart

February 22, 2013 12 Adar 5773 Vol. 93 | No. 23

This Week

Lithuanian Holocaust heroine by LEONARD GREENSPOON Creighton University Omaha audiences will have two opportunities to hear author Julija Sukys describe her work in uncovering a little-known Holocaust heroine who repeatedly risked her life to help those trapped in Lithuania’s Vilna Ghetto during World War II.

The poetry of Leonard Cohen Page 3

Dr. Jim Newland, left, Dr. Catherine Eberle; UNMC medical students Suzanne Higgins, Matthew Pazderka, Joseph Marion, Yang Hu and Sara Schenk; Dr. Ruti Margalit, Course Director. Seated in front of the group is Blumkin Home resident Louise Abrahamson who acted as the RBJH Ambassador at the Feb. 1 event.

Incredible Experiences in Israel Pages 6 & 7

by OZZIE NOGG Students participating in an elective program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center called The Healer’s Art recently received small red felt hearts from Blumkin Home residents. “Last year, Dr. Ruti Margalit of UNMC came up with the idea to partner with the Blumkin Home to make the felt hearts,” said Maggie Conti, RBJH Activities Director. “The RBJH activity staff

produced over twenty hearts, each a little different to represent each student’s uniqueness. The first couple years of med school can be a struggle for students, and we hope the hearts will help them focus on their goal.” Conti explained that the hearts can be tucked inside students’ lab coat pockets “to always remind them of their mission to heal with compassion.” The Healer’s Art is a medical

school curriculum designed in 1991 by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., a pioneer in the mind/body holistic health movement and the first to recognize the role of the spirit in health and recovery from illness. Currently available at more than seventy medical schools world-wide, this is the second year the elective course has been offered at UNMC. Fourteen students and eight faculty Continued on page 2

Customer Service a campus priority In Uruguay, Jews are finding security and sandy beaches Page 12

Inside Point of view Synagogues In memoriam

Next Month The Passover Issue See Front Page stories and more at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on Jewish Press

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by SHERRIE SAAG Communications Specialist, Jewish Federation of Omaha Our One Campus, One Community initiative is well documented and well known across the community. Everyone is probably very familiar with the new business model and the many changes it implemented. What you may not know is that improving customer service quickly became a top priority. In his first year as CEO, Michael Silverman prioritized excellent customer service across all campus agencies and programs. Continually improving customer service became an important goal in the spring of 2011, and its ongoing implementation has paid off in countless ways. Whether making a phone call, arriving on campus for a class or special event, attending a fine arts program, working out at the JCC, or looking us up on the world wide web

Patty Nogg and Howard Epstein (r.) joined a recent customer service class (www.jewishomaha.org), Silverman believes, “Everyone deserves an outstanding experience each and every time they are on this campus.” Silverman relayed an especially heartfelt story at a Campaign meeting a few months after customer service training had begun. A longtime JCC member (from another city) was enjoying a workout here in Omaha when an issue arose that required assistance from our JCC staff. This particular JCC member found the staff person so helpful and accommodating that he phoned Silverman directly, relayed his experience and expressed his appreciation with a gift to the Federation.

Karen Gustafson, Executive Director of Jewish Family Service, was an original Customer Service Initiative committee member and continues to lead the project. While attending an Annual AJFCA (Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies) meeting in Calgary, Canada, in 2011, Gustafson attended a session which presented Zingerman’s theories for delivering great customer service. Inspired, she returned to Omaha to recommend its training methods. In August, 2011, the Federation Board of Directors agreed and made a meaningful appropriation towards Continued on page 2

Julija Sukys Sukys will speak at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27, at The Bookworm (in Countryside Village), and at 7 p.m., on Thursday, Feb. 28, at the HixsonLied Auditorium in Creighton University’s Harper Center. Sukys’s research uncovered the story of Ona Simaité, a littleknown university librarian who entered the Vilna Ghetto for three years under the pretext of collecting unreturned library books. In reality, Simaité was bringing in medicine, food, and other forms of aid, then carrying out and hiding letters, manuscripts, and even children. Sukys painstakingly sifted through a collection of thousands of letters scattered in archives around the world. Fragment by fragment, she succeeded in painting a nuanced portrait of Simaité’s compelling and courageous life. Last year, the University of Nebraska Press published Sukys’s account in the book Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Simaité. Through this and her other writings, Sukys has become known as a passionate archival researcher and a writer whose work examines the facets of individual lives with a view to uncovering bigger truths. Creighton political science professor Terry Clark made this observation about Sukys: “She leverages both the talents of a historian and a creative writer to bring one of the ‘Righteous among the Nations’ back to life.” Julija Sukys’s visit to Omaha is coordinated by the Omaha Friends of Siauliai Committee (Omaha Sister Cities Continued on page 2


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