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MA R C H 1 2 , 2 02 1 | 2 8 A DA R 578 1 | VO L. 1 01 | NO. 2 1 | CANDLELIGHTING | FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 6:10 P.M.
Week of Understanding The Kaplan Book Group has had so much Mazel with Zoom meetings Page 5
Virtual cooking with Michael Solomonov Page 6
SCOTT LITTKY IHE Executive Director ach year a highlight of the Institute for Holocaust Education calendar is our annual Week of Understanding. As we all know we have been faced this year with many challenges and obstacles to ensure that we have a successful year of programming. As we reviewed our programming calendar for IHE, we knew that we could not cancel the Week of Understanding but that we needed to design the program this year to meet what has been presented to us because of COVID-19 and the restrictions that are still in place. As a result of this our annual Week of Understanding will be 100% virtual. Between March 22 and 26, the IHE has arranged more than 20 speaking engagements that will reach some 7,000 Nebraska students. Some of these engagements will take place with local Holocaust survivors such as Dr. Fred Kader and Kitty Williams along with second generation speakers, Hazzan Michael Krausman and Dr. Steven Wees. To learn more about these and other local survivors, you can check out the “Survivor Stories” section on the IHE website.
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George Elbaum
Sarah Kutler
Kiel Majewski
Peter Metzelaar
Agnes Schwartz
Danny Spungen
We are also honored to welcome Holocaust survivors who have agreed to “travel” to Omaha virtually especially for the Week of Understanding program. The guests who will be joining us in 2021 are profiled below. The public is invited to share in these
Once upon a summer at the JCC Page 12
School day at the J
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Spotlight Voices Synagogues Life cycles
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A cohort of children during a School Day at the J morning meeting , Fall 2020.
GABBY BLAIR Jewish Press Staff Writer The disruption to the world’s educational systems due to the Covid
pandemic has been without precedent. Omaha area school districts employed a wide array of independent plans heading into the 2020-21 school year ranging from 100% remote instruction to 100% in-person learning to rotating hybrid schedules in between. This non-uniformed return to schooling across the metro created a lot of havoc for families who were scrambling to balance the professional work of parents with the educational needs of their children. See School day at the J page 4
moving testimonies, through three evening engagements. The whole community is invited to attend as follows: Agnes Schwartz, Holocaust Survivor, A Roll of the Dice on March 22, 6:30 p.m. To join the Zoom please contact See Week of Understanding page 3
Welcome, Mike Siegel hood Development Center! We are ANNETTE VAN DE KAMPrecent empty nesters - give or take a WRIGHT pandemic. My family loves dogs and Jewish Press Editor The Jewish Federation of Omaha we currently have a one-year-old is pleased to welcome Mike Siegel standard goldendoodle named as President of the Ozzie.” JFO Board of DirecMike’s favorite tors. The oldest of movie is Shawshank three boys, Mike Redemption. “To be was born on Long honest, I also love Island, NY. He atdumb comedies that tended Washingjust make me laugh ton University in St. out loud. My friends Louis and worked love to go with me as in the buying ofthey are entertained fices of a St. Louis by how hard I laugh. department store I enjoy all different for two years after types of music, but graduating: classic rock is my faMichael Siegel “I met my wife, Anvorite as it reminds drea, an Omaha native, while work- me of the summer camp that I ating in St. Louis,” he said. “We moved tended for 12 years.” to New York where I started workHe has taken an active role in the ing for the family business, manu- Omaha Jewish Community for 19 facturing novelty tin boxes. After years. Initially asked to be part of seven years in New York, we decided JOLT’s Young Leadership Training, we wanted to raise our family in he was soon afterwards asked to sit Omaha. We’ve been in Omaha since on the Jewish Press Board. From 1999. We have three children, Tyler, there, he found himself on the JewMonica, and Josh - all proud gradu- ish Community Center Board, folates of the Pennie Z. Davis Child- lowed by the JFO Board.