March 21, 2008

Vol. LXXXVII No. 28 Omaha, NE

Celebrating 87 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa

14 Adar II, 5768

March 21, 2008

Six students selected for Sokolof and Javitch Scholarships, Friedel teacher to be honored

by JANET HENTHORN Foundation Endowment Associate For the third year, $10,000 scholarships based on merit have been awarded to two graduating high school seniors and two students in a healthcare program. The scholarships come from the Phil and Ruth Sokolof Honor Roll Fund administered by the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation.

The awards will be presented following a community concert on Tuesday, April 1, 7 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center, featuring Cantor Jacob Mendelson.

In addition to his performance, a showing of the documentary, A Cantor’s Tale, will precede the awards cere-

Ben Nachman

Sarah Edelstein are the winners of the health care scholarships. Karen Sokolof Javitch Music Merit scholarships (see sidebar at right) have also been awarded to Jeffrey Malashock and Adam Skog.

Naama Arzi of Friedel Jewish Academy was named the Outstanding Jewish Teacher of the Year and will receive a $10,000 award.

Jacklyn Saferstein-Hansen

Sarah Edelstein

Two receive scholarships from Javitch Music Fund

by JANET HENTHORN Foundation Endowment Associate Phil Sokolof left another legacy at the Foundation in the Karen Sokolof Javitch Music Fund, which awards merit scholarships to students pursuing a degree in music performance, composition or music education.

Jeffrey Malashock Currently a freshman saxophone performance major at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Jeffrey discov-

Naama Arzi

Elina Yurikov

Jeffrey Malashock Adam Skog ered his love of music when he was seven years old watching his brother and sister practice piano. He soon began taking piano lessons and says he was hooked after the first lesson.

Jeffrey plays several instruments, but feels that learning to play the saxophone brought him a means to truly express his love of music. While in high school he played in the Metropolitan Area Youth Jazz Orchestra, the OPS All-City Music Festival Concert Band, the UNO Honor Concert Band and the UNL Honors Jazz Weekend. Norm Edwards, band director at Burke, says of Jeffrey, “His passion for music is obvious each time Continued on page 5

mony. A reception will follow the free program.

Foundation Executive Director Marty Ricks admires the late Phil Sokolof’s forethought in establishing these scholarships. Ricks states, “Phil’s desire to recognize and encourage such talented and exceptional students will benefit the whole community for many years to come. I am sure he would be excited about the things these young people will accomplish. I want to publicly congratulate this year’s award winners.”

The recipients, chosen for their good character, scholastic performance, personal achievement and community service, are Benjamin Nachman of Westside and Jacklyn Saferstein-Hansen of Burke; Elina Yurikov and

Benjamin Nachman Ben, in describing himself, says that between sports, school and his various other activities, there is barely time to do everything. Everything is the key word. His list of accomplishments and activities is remarkable.

Ben is first in his class of 492 students at Westside. His course load, filled with honors and advanced placement classes, is the most rigorous curriculum possible at a school recognized for academic excellence, according to Douglas Hauserman, Westside guidance counselor.

Hauserman goes on to say, “The combination of Ben’s academic ability and caring, positive personality have Continued on page 4

Campaign for CornerStones Fund now underway

Greeted warmly in Israel, Merkel pressed on Iran ties

by MARY SUE GROSSMAN Administrator Center for Jewish Education A wealth of opportunities awaits Omaha’s Jewish children including preschool, day school, summer camp and youth programs. Sadly, not all families can afford to have their children participate.

A fundraising campaign is underway to support the CornerStones Fund, which was established in 1995 to provide need-based scholarships to youth and families.

The goal of the campaign is to raise $25,000.

“Unfortunately, the amount of funding needed each year exceeds the money available to award,” said Cheryl Cooper, chairman of the Financial Aid Committee.

“Without the generous help of donors, many children in our community will not be able to attend vital programs that so many of us take for granted. Our ultimate goal would be to provide an endowment fund so that interest could be used to provide support on an ongoing basis.”

The CornerStones Fund provides scholarships for Jewish youth to attend the Pennie Z. Davis Child Development Center, Friedel Jewish Academy, Jewish youth programs and Jewish summer camps.

Scholarships are awarded by the Financial Aid Committee, a committee of the CJE, an agency of the Jewish Federation of Omaha.

“We have seen family income change significantly in recent years,” said Jan Goldstein, executive director of Continued on page 2

Inside

by LESLIE SUSSER toward Israel. Israeli JERUSALEM (JTA) -Prime Minister Ehud On a deeply emotional Olmert describes her as a and history-laden visit to “close confidante,” and Israel to mark the Jewish Merkel says she believes state’s 60th anniversary, the existential threats facGerman Chancellor ing Israel also threaten Angela Merkel focused Germany. on two pressing issues: At the Yad Vashem Israeli-Palestinian peace Holocaust memorial on and Iran’s nuclear Monday, a visibly moved weapons program.

Merkel declared that Merkel outlined plans Germany accepted responfor an Israeli-Palestinian sibility for its Nazi past and peace conference in was determined to work Berlin in June, and the together with Israel for a Israelis asked that common future.

Germany, one of Iran’s Indeed, Israeli leaders biggest trading partners, say they are convinced do more about stopping Germany can play a crucial Iran’s fundamentalist role in helping Israel regime from acquiring establish its future security.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accompanies German nuclear weapons.

For one, Germany Although still very Chancellor Angela Merkel to a special cabinet meeting at his seems set to play a more Credit: GPO/BPH IMAGES active role in the Israelimuch in the shadow of office, in Jerusalem, March 18. the Nazi past, relations between Israel and Germany Palestinian peace process. Merkel and Tony Blair -- the have never been stronger. More than any German chan- special Middle East envoy of the Quartet grouping of cellor, Merkel seems to have genuinely warm feelings Continued on page 2

This Week: Film’s director brings documentary to Omaha: Page 9

See Front Page Stories & More at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on ‘Jewish Press’ Opinion Page see page 12

An American soldier’s Purim in Europe in 1945: Page 3

Coming Next Month: Israel@60 on April 18 A piece of Esther in all of us: Page 8

The annual hike: a journal entry from Israel: Page 10

Page 2

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

March 21, 2008

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS FRIDAY, MARCH 21 Purim Celebrations, 12 a.m. at Beth Israel Understanding Jewish Mysticism, noon A Look at Jewish Mysticism, noon at Temple Israel New York Deli Purim Lunch, 12:30 p.m. at Chabad International Kabbalat Shabbat Service, 5:45 p.m.

Purim Dinner, 6 p.m. at Beth Israel Purim, 7 p.m. at Chabad House

C SATURDAY, MARCH 22 L I Hazak Lunch and Learn, noon at Beth El P SUNDAY, MARCH 23 Reading the Rambam Class, 9:45 a.m at Beth Israel & Bible Study Group, 10 a.m. at Beth El Mishpacha Mornings, 10:15 a.m. at Chabad S USY Purim Carnival, 11:30 a.m. at Beth El A BESTT Early Dismissal, 11:30 a.m.

V MONDAY, MARCH 24 E Iran, Jews & Israel with Dr. Moshe Gershovich, 7 p.m.

Beginning Hebrew, 7 p.m.

Derech Torah: Judaism 101, 8 p.m.

C L I P & S A V E

TUESDAY, MARCH 25 Eye on Israel, noon Hebrew Lunch ‘n Learn, 12:15 p.m. at Temple Israel Parent/Teacher Conferences, 5 p.m. at Friedel Academy BBYO Advisor Appreciation Dinner, 6 p.m.

Parshah Roundup, 7 p.m. at Chabad Jewish Federation Board of Directors Meeting, 7:30 p.m.

responsible for the accuracy of events. To keep calendar accurate or for questions, call Marlene Hert at 334-6437.

FOR A COMPLETE LISTING, VISIT THE FEDERATION’S WEBSITE: www.JewishOmaha.org (click on calendar)

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Continued from page 1 once declared in a speech to the Bundestag. the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and For the Israelis, though, even more important than the United States -- are jointly organizing the proposed any facilitating role Germany might play is its potential Berlin peace conference. The parley will focus on steps leverage on Iran. Olmert is convinced that Germany can to prepare the Palestinians do more than most other to run their own state. countries to stop Iran from If the Annapolis peace condeveloping nuclear weapons ference last November was because Germany remains meant to create a diplomatic one of Iran’s largest trading framework for peacemaking, partners and Iran seeks out and the Paris parley that folGerman technology for its lowed in December raised nuclear projects. $7.4 billion to provide the Germany’s Siemens comeconomic underpinning for pany designed the as-yetPalestinian state-building, the unfinished Russian-built Berlin meeting is meant to Bushehr nuclear plant in help create Palestinian com1974, and German-made petency in governance, espeparts remain more compaticially in keeping a lid on terble than others. Indeed, until ror, so Israelis can feel confiwork at the plan was halted in dent in having an independ2005, German parts were German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Yad Vashem with smuggled to Bushehr via a ent Palestinian neighbor.

Credit: ISRANET nuclear reactor in the Russian “We need a proper, fully Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. fledged operational security plan for the transformation city of Rostov. Construction at Bushehr recently resumed. of Palestinian capability on security,” Blair declared in a While trade between Germany and Iran is down 26 recent interview on Israeli television. Instead of first cut- percent since 2005, to $4.7 billion in 2007, and major ting a peace deal and then attending to the details on the German banks have stopped dealing with Iran, some ground, Blair argues that the Palestinian state in the 1,700 German companies still do business with Tehran. making first should be built. Only then may the deal be Despite a tightening of export controls, nuclear-related struck, when both sides see it is not a pipedream. items apparently are still getting through.

That also seems to be the new approach by Germany, Olmert planned to show Merkel the latest Israeli intelwhich sees a vacuum in U.S. peacemaking efforts and is ligence on Iran’s nuclear program and urge the chancelmoving to keep the two-state solution alive. The lor to clamp down further on trade with Iran, irrespecGermans long have advocated a greater European role in tive of U.N. sanctions decisions -- as the United States Middle East peacemaking while recognizing the ulti- has done. mate necessity of American leadership.

Perhaps the most significant German contribution Since unification in 1990, Germany has shown a readi- toward nullifying the Iranian nuclear threat has been the ness for greater involvement in Middle East affairs. In state-of-the-art Dolphin submarines Germany has prothe mid-1990s, Germany mediated a prisoner exchange vided to Israel. Three are in service, and two more are deal between Israel and Hezbollah. Former German due in 2010.

Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer played a leading role in According to foreign sources, the submarines could drafting the 2003 “road map” peace plan. carry nuclear warheads and provide Israel a fail-safe, secAnd in 2006, after the Second Lebanon War, ond-strike capability against any Iranian nuclear attack.

Germany made the unprecedented move of sending The closeness and special nature of Israeli-German ties troops to the Middle East to help keep the peace. As was underlined by the chancellor’s entourage: eight part of the expanded United Nations peacekeeping force Cabinet ministers who met one on one with their Israeli established under the U.N. resolution that brought the counterparts and then took part in an unprecedented 34-day war to an end, Germany provided a naval task government-to-government meeting in the Israeli force that patrols the Lebanese coast to prevent arms Cabinet room. smuggling. The Germans also have taken the initiative in The two sides signed a string of agreements upgrading trying to pry Syria from the Iranian axis. economic, defense, scientific and cultural ties. With The Germans also have been able to balance their trade of more than $5 billion a year, Germany is Israel’s close support for Israel with generous aid to the second-largest trading partner after the United States.

Palestinians. Among E.U. countries, Germany has been Merkel also was given the honor of addressing Israel’s the Palestinians’ largest and most consistent donor. parliament, the Knesset. The plan to deliver the address Since 1993, it has donated more than $700 million in German captures the highly complex nature of the directly, as well as 23 percent of all E.U. contributions. Germany-Israel relationship.

Merkel believes this “even-handedness” gives For some, especially Holocaust survivors, the idea of Germany a unique advantage in peacemaking or in the German being spoken in the Knesset is anathema. For delicate role of negotiating prisoner exchanges with others, the strong support for Israel from such a powergroups like Hezbollah. ful European country, Nazi history notwithstanding, is “It is impossible to overstate the significance of the seen as one of the major diplomatic achievements of degree to which Germany is trusted in the region,” she Israel’s 60 years of statehood.

Campaign for CornerStones

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26 Parsha for Kids, 3:45 p.m. at Chabad House

C THURSDAY, MARCH 27 L Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel I Adult Study with the Clergy, 10 a.m. at Temple Israel P Insights and Values from the Torah, noon at Beth El Yiddish Group, 1 p.m. & Women’s Book Group, 1:15 p.m. at Beth El Parent/Teacher Conferences, 5 p.m. at Friedel Academy LOVE Auxiliary Board Meeting, 7 p.m.

S Akko Theater Company at Western Galilee Performing Arts Series, 7:30 p.m.

A Class with Rabbi Gross, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel V The Rabbi Sidney H. Brooks Lecture, 7:30 p.m.

E All events held at the JCC unless otherwise indicated. The Jewish Press is not

In Israel, Merkel pressed on Iran ties

C L I P & S A V E

summer camp were Continued from page 1 “We want to thank you for your generosity in received for 23 children, the Federation. “In addiaveraging $800 per child. tion to two parent fami- awarding a scholarship towards our daughter’s In 2007, requests averlies struggling financially, attendance at the JCC preschool. She has aged $1,200 and were there are more single parreceived for 52 children. ents, and grandparents blossomed in her personality and social skills. She is The number of assistance raising grandchildren -- learning about Jewish customs and is able to share requests to allow children with each circumstance with us what she has learned. We trust that in the to attend the CDC and having a huge impact on future we will take a position to help other families Friedel has doubled in the a family’s financial situaas you have done.” past five years. tion.”

All donations to the Cooper concurs. “We all “Thank you so much for helping our child attend know that establishing a Friedel Jewish Academy. We have been so blessed to CornerStones Fund are tax-deductible and can be Jewish identity for our made by calling the CJE children begins in the very be a part of that community. We greatly appreciate early years and continues your generosity and look forward to the day when we at 334.6445. Tribute throughout their years at may help another student attend Friedel.” cards are also available, home,” she said. “The with a minimum donapreschool program at the Child Development Center is tion of $10. Checks should be made payable to the excellent. Friedel Jewish Academy is an outstanding edu- “CornerStones Fund” and mailed to the CJE, 333 So. cational program. Attending Jewish summer camps, par- 132 St., Omaha NE 68154-2198. ticipating in youth group activities, and going on trips to “No one should be left out simply because they can’t Israel are key to helping our Jewish youth take pride in afford to participate and especially so if it is our chiltheir Jewish heritage and to stay Jewish.” dren,” said Cooper. “If we support our young people Each of these opportunities is costly and the challenge now, we will ensure that our Jewish community remains for families is rising. In 2001, scholarship requests for vibrant in the future.”

March 21, 2008

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 3

An American soldier’s Purim in 1945

by JANE ULMAN Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles “Pardon me, sir, are you perchance a Jew?” R a l p h Goodman immediately reached for the .45 on his hip. The 24-year-old American soldier didn’t know what to expect Ralph Goodman in spring from the 1944 in Bristol, England, approaching before deploying to Europe. middle-aged man wearing a felt hat, one side folded up, and speaking Australianaccented English.

Goodman stopped and looked the stranger in the eye, his hand firmly planted on his gun. “I am,” he replied. “Why do you ask?” “It is so nice to be able to say aloud ‘I am a Jew,’” answered the man, introducing himself as Philip Vecht.

The two stood together on a hill in Spa, Belgium. It was February 1945.

Goodman, who was on an errand for the First U.S. Army Headquarters, relaxed as Vecht explained that he was Australian born and that he, his wife and two young children had fled their home in Antwerp in 1942 and spent the war years stranded in a rented cottage in this oncepopular resort town. Only their British passports saved them from deportation.

Vecht recounted that virtually no Jews remained in Spa. And that his own fatherin-law, a Belgian citizen hidden in a nearby house, had died of natural causes several years earlier and been secretly buried.

The family had not been able to recite Kaddish for him.

The two men also noted that Purim was approaching.

“Sir, I have holy books buried safely in my cellar, and amongst them Megillat Esther, and my daughter has not yet heard it read,” Vecht said.

“Mr. Vecht, the Megillah The Vechts -- Henrietta and will be read Philip, children Rosette and P u r i m Romeo, in Spa, Belgium, 1943. e v e n i n g , ” Goodman said.

Goodman, from an Orthodox background in Pittsfield, MA, was looking for a reason to celebrate. It had been a bitterly cold and nasty winter. Hanukkah had passed unnoticed. And the Battle of the Bulge, a surprise attack, one of the war’s bloodiest battles with 80,000+ American casualties, ended less than a month earlier.

Life for the Vechts was also dire. In Spa, they had been required to report to the Gestapo every week. And Philip Vecht, formerly in advertising and banking, was forbidden to work; he sold his wife’s jewels to sustain the family.

Daughter Rosette Vecht, born in 1937 and now a social worker in London, remembers her mother crying often and rarely smiling. Her father was gone much of the time, searching for food or working with the Resistance. Rosette was always frightened of being separated from her parents and always hungry, hating the rutabagas that were served at every meal.

The Vecht family was forced to abandon all their possessions in Antwerp, but Philip refused to leave a Torah scroll that

his father had given him on the day he died. Vecht kept it with him throughout the war, wrapped in an old shawl. “He truly felt that by keeping the Sefer Torah close to him, God would keep him and his family safe,” Rosette Vecht said.

Amazingly, the Vechts maintained an observant life throughout the war. “My father never changed,” explains the daughter. “He was a religious Jew. He prayed every morning and we kept strictly kosher.” But because the children were anemic, he arranged for them to eat meat at the neighbor’s house.

During the war, however, Rosette was never told she was Jewish, for fear she would tell others. She thought that everybody observed Shabbat and that she and her brother Romeo, born in 1935, had dark hair because they were Italian.

The Vechts had enjoyed a brief respite from the war the previous September when Belgium was liberated by the Americans. Romeo Vecht, now a cardiologist in London, remembers meeting at that time a Rabbi Frank, a chaplain, who gave him a pair of GI-issued tefillin, which he uses to this day.

But the Battle of the Bulge, which erupted on Dec. 16, sent the Vecht family into sudden exile from Spa, their lives endangered on several occasions. By the time Purim came, the family had only recently returned, still reeling. Yet, Philip welcomed Ralph Goodman’s Purim offer.

In preparation, Goodman approached his mess sergeant, Tony Seas, a former World War I Polish army captain, for whom he had done a favor.

“Tony, I need flour, oil, raisins, poppy seeds, sugar and lemons. It’s Purim.”

“What the hell you talking about?” Seas answered. “Tony, you owe me.”

Before the holiday, Goodman delivered

the ingredients to Henrietta, Philip’s wife, who greeted him open-mouthed at the sight of such luxuries. He returned on erev Purim with a group of Jewish soldiers, including his yeshiva-trained buddies Paul Burstein from the Bronx and Melvin Lewis from Washington, D.C. Romeo was not present that evening; he had already been sent to London to boarding school. And Rosette, 7 at the time, remembers it only vaguely. But Goodman clearly recalls that Purim celebration. The Ma’ariv service was prayed, Kaddish was recited for Henrietta’s father and the Megillah was read.

“The GIs ate lovingly baked and tasty Purim pastries with coffee that Sargeant Seas provided,” Goodman said.

Goodman also remembers two little girls -- Rosette and perhaps a younger cousin -- who “sat on a kitchen table with tears running down their faces and sang zemirot [songs].”

In the story of Purim, with its unpredictable and paradoxical chain of events, “The world turned topsy-turvy,” according to Megillah 9:1.

But for the Vecht family and the Jewish GIs, for a few hours that Purim night in Spa, Belgium, with Haman dead and Hitler on the run, with a Megillah reading and homemade hamantaschen, the world turned right side up.

Philip Vecht died in Antwerp in 1968; Henrietta Vecht died in London in 1985.

Goodman lives in Pittsfield, Mass., and both Rosette Vecht Wolf and Romeo Vecht live in London. The Vechts and Goodman were reconnected for the first time since 1945 through the writing of this article, and this Purim, Goodman, who is now 87, traveled to London to eat hamentaschen and sing zemirot with Rosette and Romeo Vecht and their families.

A Special Evening Watch A Cantor’s Tale

The compelling movie about the life of Cantor Jacob Mendelson.

Hear A Live Performance Cantor Jacob Mendelson will perform live in the JCC Theater.

Honor The Sokolof Merit Awards

Phil and Ruth Sokolof Honor Roll Fund Benjamin Nachman Jacklyn Saferstein-Hansen Sarah Edelstein Elina Yurikov Naama Arzi

Karen Sokolof Javitch Music Fund Jeffrey Malashock Adam Skog

Tuesday, April 1 • 7 p.m. • JCC Theater A Reception Follows this Free Evening Sponsored by the Sokolof Funds Steven Bloch, President Martin C. Ricks, Executive Director

Page 4

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

March 21, 2008

Sokolof Scholarships Continued from page 1 earned him the utmost respect of our faculty and student body.”

Ben is a member of the National Honor Society, team captain of Mock Trial, hosted by the Nebraska Bar Association and was selected to attend Cornhusker Boys State. He also is a four-year member of math club and SIMP, a city-wide engineering competition, and has been project leader of a physics research project for the past two years. Ben’s interests go beyond academics at Westside; he is also in the orchestra and runs track and cross country.

He has held various leadership positions within BBYO, and is currently chapter president as well as one of three AZA presidents on the regional coordinating committee. Rachel Blum says, “Ben sees the value of giving whatever and whenever he can to the community, and encourages his peers to do the same.”

He is an Eagle Scout, and a member of the Boy Scout’s national honor society, the Order of the Arrow, whose purpose is to lead through service. Ben says “It was one thing to go through the motions of service, but it is another to lead many on the path of cheerful service.” He is a four-year member of Key Club, the high school branch of Kiwanis Club, as well as Shiputznik, a Jewish teen volunteer group, and has been peer-tutor for fellow students for two years The son of Beth Staenberg and Gary Nachman, Ben has been accepted non-binding early action to the University of Chicago, but will wait to make his decision until April when he will hear from MIT, Stanford and Princeton.

Jacklyn Saferstein-Hansen Not the kind of student to coast through her senior year, Jacklyn’s schedule this year has only one class that is not an advanced placement course -- and that class is Chinese. She has consistently taken a rigorous slate of honors courses and ranks in the top four percent in her class of 430.

Ann Johnson, English teacher at Burke says of Jacklyn’s efforts to establish a Jane Austen Book Club, “This appetite for literary knowledge beyond the classroom exceeds that of any other high school student I have worked with.” Jacklyn plans to major in English, possibly in the prestigious writing program at the University of Iowa.

Some of Jacklyn’s other activities include being a member of Young Democrats and Spanish Club, playing the clarinet in the orchestra and volunteering at the Nebraska Humane Society walking dogs. She also belongs to a new club at Burke called Tree Huggers, which raises money for environmental preservation through such efforts as recycling.

Jacklyn has devoted much of her young life to gym-

nastics. She started participating in club gymnastics at the age of four, and began competing at ten. Even though she competes as an individual, Jacklyn has learned the value of teamwork and was named team captain. She also volunteers her time to teach younger athletes.

Practicing four and a half hours each day while keeping up with her homework has been a difficult balancing act and Jacklyn says that while academics always came first, gymnastics is still her passion. She hopes to compete on the collegiate level.

Jacklyn sees herself as small in stature, but not afraid to voice her opinions. Anne MacFarland, Director of Guidance at Burke, agrees saying, “She consistently challenges herself and contributes to the positive climate of our school. She has transformed herself from a shy, quiet little girl to an independent, confidant, assertive young woman.”

The daughter of Rhonda Saferstein-Hansen and Jeff Hansen, Jacklyn has not yet decided where she will attend college, but lists MIT, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Iowa as her first choices.

Sarah Edelstein A graduate of the University of Kansas, Sarah is in her first year of physical therapy school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Grateful for her own childhood physical therapy which enabled her to successfully participate in ballet, Sarah chose this career as a means to similarly help others. She currently works as a rehabilitation aide assisting physical and occupational therapists in patient treatment and overall clinic operations. She is an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association and a member of the Order of Omega National Honor Society.

Sarah’s advisor at UNMC, Dr. Laura Bilek, says of Sarah, “…to be a successful professional and good citizen requires one to be conscientious, dependable, responsible, thoughtful and self-sacrificing. Sarah embodies all of those characteristics.”

Throughout her sophomore and junior years at KU, Sarah gained clinical experience by volunteering weekly at Bird Physical Therapy in Lawrence, KS. She also completed an internship at Therapy Works during her final semester and says, “The time I spent at both of these outpatient clinics reinforces my desire to enter the field of health care and pursue a career in physical therapy.”

Sarah was the recipient of Sigma Delta Tau’s Outstanding Junior Award which is presented annually to one chapter member who exemplifies the qualities of scholarship, leadership, dedication and service. She held various leadership positions in SDT, including President of Philanthropy Planning and Vice President of Scholarship.

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She was selected to serve on the University of Kansas Panhellenic Executive Board where she worked on several philanthropic projects, including fundraising for Prevent Child Abuse America. She also served on KU’s House That Greeks Built Committee, where, in addition to raising funds, she organized student workers to help in building a house for Habitat for Humanity.

Sarah is the daughter of Ellene and Stan Edelstein.

Elina Yurikov As a child being treated in the hospital, Elina was cared for and reassured by compassionate nurses. This experience led her to choose a career in health care; she will enter nursing school at either Rockhurst or Creighton University this fall.

Elina faced another challenge early in her life when her family left Latvia to immigrate to the United States. She says that arriving in America and attending an American elementary school was one of the most challenging things she has ever done. She credits a saying from her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, with helping her through it: “If you want to survive, you have to put in twice as much effort as anyone else.”

Hope Smejkal, Elina’s guidance counselor at Burke, confirms that she took that advice to heart, “Elina has a very strong work ethic, which is evidenced in the rigor of courses she has taken at Burke and is a poised, friendly, helpful leader.” Honors classes, volunteering in the guidance office and serving as a Student Ambassador complete Elina’s days at Burke. She is also a member of the French National Honor Society.

For the past year, Elina has volunteered at Goodwill assisting customers and helping with displays. She has also given her time to both the Kripke Library and the Millard Branch of the Omaha Public Library, and received a commendation from Mayor Mike Fahey for her volunteerism in the Omaha community.

Understanding that nurses spend considerable time with patients and connect with them on a personal level, she hopes to tend to patients’ physical needs, as well as allay their concerns. Sharon Hostler, math teacher at Burke in describing Elina says, “She is a good peer model and helps anyone in need. I think she will make a very good nurse because she is so giving to others.”

Daughter of Galina and Artur Yurikov, Elina will graduate from Burke in May.

EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press will be closed Monday, April 21 for Passover. The Passover issue publishes April 18; synagogue schedules are due to the Press office no later than April 1.

The deadline for the April 25 issue is Wednesday, April 16, 9 a.m. for all ads, articles and photos.

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March 21, 2008

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 5

Javitch Music Fund

Spice up Passover at the Kripke Library

Continued from page 1 one sees him rehearse and perform.”

At UNO, Jeffrey plays second tenor sax in a Jazz ensemble, second alto sax in University Band and tenor in a saxophone quartet. Understandably, most of his spare time is spent in the practice room, but he also teaches private saxophone lessons.

A recognized performer, Jeffrey was awarded the most outstanding woodwind at the Winter Park Music Festival in 2006, as well as the first ever Metropolitan Area Youth Jazz Orchestra Outstanding Achievement award in 2007. He also designed and taught a class called Hebrew School of Rock at Beth El’s Hebrew High School in which students learned the intricacies and roots of klezmer music. He helped the class put together a klezmer band that performed at Beth El’s Hanukkah Concert in December of 2007.

For four weeks each summer he volunteers at the Beveridge Middle School Summer Band Camp helping individual saxophonists with difficult concepts as well as rehearsing sectionals.

The son of Diane and Dr. Larry Malashock, Jeffrey plans a career as a professional musician, but would like to also teach music on the collegiate level.

Adam Skog Adam attacks the daunting challenge of learning an entire opera score with excitement. He eagerly memorizes up to 70 songs for Madrigal Singers at Simpson College where he is presently a junior majoring in music education.

Music became important to Adam at Westside as a member of several vocal ensembles, but says he really began to embrace it at Simpson. As a freshman he sang in the Simpson Choir, in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and small parts in operas. Last year he joined Madrigal Singers, a selective group of 18-20 students which tours widely in the United States and Europe. Emphasis for these performances is placed on students' individual vocal skills and the ability to utilize those skills in a small ensemble.

During the past two years Adam has performed major roles in several operas at Simpson, including I Pagliacci

by Leoncavello and The Consul by Menotti. Dr. Robert Larson, Professor of Music at Simpson says of Adam, “With his seriousness of purpose, fine tenor voice, personal charm and consistent work ethic I feel he can succeed eminently in the field of music.”

Adam has added piano and conducting to his musical skills and has joined the Iowa Choral Directors Society.

He has also spent numerous hours in classrooms at Indianola Elementary, observing and helping music students and has been a counselor and teacher of high school students at Orpheus Music Festival at Simpson.

Teaching music is foremost in Adam’s plans after graduation and Dr. Maria DiPalma, Chair, Department of Music at Simpson commends his choice. She says, “With his musical and intellectual skills combined with his determination and pleasing personality, he will make a fine teacher and role model for young students.”

The son of Ricki and Jeffrey Skog, Adam is also interested in pursuing cantorial training and would like to be a cantor soloist some day.

hip Jewish-American family juggling relationships,

by GARY KATZ Library Administrator careers, and tradition at the fast pace of modern life.

The Center for Jewish Education will spice up For years, newspaper comic strips have depicted the Passover with its second annual Passover program, hijinks that ensue when cartoon families venture though Tuesday, April 8, 7 p.m. at the Kripke Jewish the highs and lows of everyday life. But none had ever Federation Library. This unique Passover program will portrayed the daily grind from the perspective of a Jewish-American family -- that is, until have three different takes “Edge City”. It appears in more than 50 on this festive holiday, national newspapers across the country focusing on distinctive Lastly, Nancy Rips, the library’s resident traditions and aspects of “book maven”, will read selections from her Passover. new book Seder Stories on Passover experiDebbie Denenberg will ences. The book relates favorite Passover first show how to add a memories she has gathered from famous little spice and creativity Jews, local and elsewhere, such as: Rabbi to Passover Seders. She Harold Kushner and attorney Alan will demonstrate ways to Dershowitz. Some of the stories are funny, make seders more cresome poignant, some thought provoking ative, while keeping them and all are worth reading. Copies will be within the traditional available for sale. framework.

This program is part of the Kripke Jewish In our second part, get Federation Holiday Enrichment Series. The the chance to meet next program is: Shavout: Friends Event: nationally syndicated carBooks, Blooms, and Blintzes, June 2, 7p.m. toonist Terry LaBan, creCredit: Edge City © Terry and Pat Laban, The series is presented by the CJE through ator of “Edge City”.

King Features Syndicate the Kripke Library and is sponsored by the LeBan will display and discuss several of his famous Passover comic strips, star- Special Donor Advised Fund of the Jewish Federation of ring the Ardens: Len, Abby, and their kids Colin and Omaha Foundation and by the Klutznick Chair in Carly. And he’ll highlight several of his Passover comic Jewish Civilization at Creighton University. For more information, please contact me at 334.6462 or strips that have appeared nationally.

“Edge City” is a groundbreaking comic strip about gkatz@jewishomaha.org.

Public school educators invited to Shabbat at Temple Israel

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator Public school teachers and principals will have an opportunity to visit Religious School teachers at Temple Israel on Friday, March 28. Children from kindergarten through sixth grade have invited their public school teachers to tour their classrooms at Temple at 5:30 p.m. followed by a family Shabbat service at 6 p.m.

“A Celebration of Learning: an Educator’s Shabbat” helps foster a friendly atmosphere of understanding and sharing and provides an opportunity for secular educators to see how their Jewish students are involved in Temple.

Susie Norton is the lead volunteer for this event, and she and her four sons, Justin, sixth grade, Seth, third grade, Aaron and Leo, first grade, have invited their public school teachers to the Educator’s Shabbat.

“The boys are excited,” Susie said. “We haven’t done this since Seth was in kindergarten. The boys are looking forward to showing off their Religious School classrooms, their teachers, and Temple to their public school teachers and sharing these two aspects of their lives.”

A Shabbat dinner will follow worship services. After dinner, Elyce Azriel, director of religious education; Lori Bennett, Religious School administrative assistant; and Temple’s clergy will be available to answer questions.

Page 6

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

March 21, 2008

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Friedel keeps Jewish identity alive

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT have to play together and rely on each other because of Earlier this month, Friedel Jewish Academy opened its the size of the school. It is a big advantage when teachdoor to community members and interested parents, ers really know the students, as well as the parents.” and teachers and staff were able to show off their school.

Kindergarten teacher Diana Zeman added: “This is Principal Cookie Katskee invited guests to eat, sit more than a school; it’s a family.” back, and enjoy a presentation of some of the most First grade teacher Angie Mass joined the Friedel famimportant things the school has to offer. ily this school year, and is already completely at home.

“I care passionately about this school,” she said. “It is the most wonderful experience,” she said, “I love “There has been enormous growth in Jewish day schools coming to work! Not only is the curriculum fantastic, across the nation, because more and more parents make there is room for fantastic experiences; one day we may that choice. It’s a thrill to see this growth taking place at have published authors visiting, the next day we may be Friedel as well.” listening to an orchestra. I feel very lucky being able to Principal Katskee will be retiring at the end of this teach at Friedel.” school year, but the school Na’ama Arzi and Eadie will obviously remain close Tsabari are Friedel’s Hebrew to her heart:. “The beauty is, teachers; they are enthusiasthis school takes all the tic advocates of integrating Jewish values and wraps it up Judaic studies into every into a nice package. Being a aspect of daily life. parent isn’t always easy, but “Being Jewish in a Jewish sending your child off to environment is very liberatKindergarten can be particuing,” Na’ama said, “and it is larly difficult,” she added. important that students Friedel tries to make that from all synagogues are transition easier through comfortable here. Torah parental involvement. “A Graduates Kevin Adler, left, and Trevor Gerson made time in study and the Hebrew langood example of that is the their busy schedules to come promote their favorite school: guage keep Jewish identity Tzedakah Project the stu- Friedel Jewish Academy. alive.” dents are currently working on. During the weeks leadFriedel students, starting in kindergarten, are ing up to Purim, students sent Mishloach Manot pack- immersed in the language every day, and especially for ages to IDF soldiers, and collected donations for the the youngest students, music is used often to practice Sienna Frances House,” according to Katskee. “They new Hebrew words. “It is like a language in and of can’t do this without strong parent involvement. With itself,” Arzi said, and just to illustrate the point, some stuthe help of the parents, we teach the children there is a dents were brought in front of the guests to share a song. bigger world around them.”

“The expectations certainly are high,” Eadie Tsabari Another example is the Nextbook initiative, which added, “but the children always have fun while they brings parents together to read and discuss a Jewish learn. There is an amazing amount of crossover between themed biography, under the capable supervision of Bob general studies and Judaic studies.”

Goldberg, whose daughter Lily attends first grade at Hearing all these positive aspects of Friedel explained Friedel. by the teachers is one thing, but people might wonder: After the visitors were treated to a video highlighting what do the students themselves have to say? To answer what makes Friedel so fabulous, Yaffa Podbilewicz- any questions guests might have had, several graduates Schuller introduced the teacher’s panel. She is co- showed up to explain and illustrate what Friedel has President of Friedel’s Board of Directors, together with meant for them.

Susan Fellman-Witkowski, and the organizer of the Kevin Adler was one such graduate, and said: “Friedel annual open house. She is also in charge of recruitment, is the best school I have ever attended.” Pointing at his and through her hard work the school continues to Air Force t-shirt, he added: “And I’ve moved around a grow. lot.”

“Not only are the numbers increasing, but we continWhen asked by Podbilewicz-Schuller whether any of ue to have all synagogues represented in our student them had attended honors-classes once they left Friedel, body,” she said, adding that Friedel continues to serve they all raised their hands. The graduates gave testimomany different nationalities. “Hearing all the different ny about how close they felt to their teachers, how close languages spoken in the hallways gives the school a won- they felt with other students, and how much they felt at derful international flavor.” an advantage once making the transition to a public Denise Bennett, who teaches fifth and sixth grade, school. told prospective parents about the wonderful relation“Teachers at Friedel responded to the students’ need ships that exist in a school of Friedel’s size. “Our student for learning,” Trevor Gerson said, “and displayed an body, although growing, is small enough that everybody open mindedness which was very good for us.” knows each other; and our students do well in subseNoam Margalit, daughter of Ruti and Eyal, and big quent schools because of the foundation they build sister of Tal (class of 2007) and Doron, currently in here.” kindergarten, perhaps said it best: “You have the best in Barb Sather, who is in charge of second through front of you: take it.” fourth grade, agreed. “Kids don’t get lost at Friedel,” For information, or to schedule in individual tour, Sather said. “They are comfortable with each other, they please call the office at 334.0517.

OTYG enjoys bowling with Muslim and Episcopal youth groups

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator “It was really fun, ’cause we mixed with the other youth groups more than we did the first time, and we got to know them better,” said Emily Katz, a ninth

Taking a break from strikes and spares are: Maha Haroon, left, Susan Freeman, Ashley Bernstein, Sarah Bleicher, and Paige Perry. grade member of Omaha Temple Youth Group (OTYG), after bowling earlier this month at Cougar Lanes with Omaha Muslim Youth Organization (OMYO) members and teens from All Saints Episcopal Church.

In January, OTYG and OMYO met for the first time

at a “Know Thy Neighbor” mixer.

Sam Burrell, also a ninth grader, thought “it was fun and a good bonding experience. Everybody got along.”

Haley Burns agreed that “it was really interesting to talk to the kids in the other youth groups. I met a lot of

All three youth groups gathered for refreshments and conversation before they took to the alleys. new people,” said the ninth grader.

All three expressed interest in OTYG sharing additional activities with the other youth groups, because, as Haley noted, “We’re friends.”

March 21, 2008

Artisan Bread In Five Minutes a Day

by JEFF HERTZBERG & ZOË FRANÇOIS (Thomas Dunne Books, $27.95)

READ IT AND EAT Reviewed by LOIS FRIEDMAN

An eccentric family project turned into “the discovery that revolutionizes home baking” and resulted in this bread making cookbook for avid bakers and nonbakers alike. All this was set in motion by a phone call to a NPR radio talk show by this Minneapolis duo: she, a professional baker whose goodies are described as “endlessly delicious” and he, a scientist whose grandmother preferred rye bread from a little bakery in Queens, like many corner shops in New York City at that time creating handmade Easten, Central and Southern European bread … artisan bread.

Twenty years of experimentation led to the creation of this lightening fast method to make ethnic breads. “We developed this method to recapture the daily artisan bread experience without further crunching our limited time…and it works!” note the authors. The linchpin of this bread is pre-mixed, pre-risen, high moisture dough that keeps well in the ‘fridge (for two weeks).

I love breadmaking, but thought all this was too good to be true and had to give this five minute easy process a try.

After all, five minutes, a little flour, kosher salt, yeast and water … what could

I lose? Off I went to the kitchen…even though it was 9 p.m. I put the dough in the ‘fridge’ during the night and baked my first loaf in the morning. Delicious! We loved it! Next will be the Deli-Style Rye … their version of the classic sourdough rye that Grandmother loved.

Eight chapters of easy-to-read, user-friendly instructions, headnotes, sidebar tips and quotations by Jeff and Zoë are contained within. The Master Recipe for the artisan free-form loaf called the French boule with several other shapes suggested … Ciabatta, Baguette and more is followed by Peasant Loaves -- rougher and more rustic breads: Bagels, Pretzels and such, Flatbreads and Pizzas and Enriched Breads and Pastries, including Challah, Pletzel and Babka.

Recipes are from Almond Brioche “Bostock” to Za’atar Flatbread, several sandwiches, salads and this French spread, part of the Tapenade Bread recipe.

THE TAPENADE (makes 1 to 2 cups) 1/2 pound pitted black olives 4 teaspoons capers, drained 4 anchovy fillets 1 garlic clove, put through a garlic press or very finely chopped 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme 4 tablespoons olive oil Making the tapenade: coarsely chop all the tapenade ingredients together in a food processor.

Lois Friedman can be reached at: Read It and Eat@yahoo.com.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT What’s a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn doing in Lincoln? Scott Blakeman, “the top political comedian working in New York today,” according to NBC, will brings his contemporary Jewish humor to UNL on Thursday, March 27, 7 p.m.

Sponsored by the Norman & Bernice Harris Center for Judaic Studies, it is free and open to the public.

Proclaimed the 2007 “Up and Coming Musician of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association, Anat Cohen has established herself as one of the primary voices of her generation on both the tenor saxophone and clarinet. Cohen brings her quartet’s unique blend of traditional jazz, Brazilian choro, and AfroCuban sounds to Omaha for one night only at the 1200 Club at the Holland on Friday, March 28, 8 p.m. thanks to Omaha Performing Arts.

Born in Tel Aviv Israel, Cohen has been inspired by the music of Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane from day one. With training at Tel Aviv’s Jaffa Conservatory, the Thelma Yellin High School for the Arts and the Berklee School of Music, Cohen has experienced a wide variety of jazz styles. It wasn’t until she arrived at Berklee, however, that she began to explore world music such as Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms. Studying world music, especially Brazilian percussion, had a definite impact on Cohen’s overall style. Rather than follow a particular genre, Cohen prefers to blend styles together and allow them to “…influence (her) ideas on clarinet.”

Cohen’s 2005 CD debut, Place and Time, was named one of All About JazzNew York’s “Best Debut Albums of 2005” and she has since released two additional albums, Noir and Poetica, in 2007.

ORGANIZATIONS WALK-IN, DROP-IN For those members going to the Ameristar Casino on Thursday, please meet at the JCC by 8:45 a.m. For information call Maggie Conti at 334.6521.

has received a large donation of Sigma Alpha Mu memorabilia from the UNL chapter and needs assistance in sorting the items. If you can help with this project, please call Renee Corcoran at 334.6442.

LOMIR REDN YIDDISH Come to the Yiddish meeting at the JCC on Thursdays, 1-3 p.m. If you have any Yiddish books to donate, please call Anne Skolkin at 343.1638.

B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS Dr. Ken Bird will speak at Breadbreakers on Wednesday, March 26, noon, at Regency Lodge, according to Gary Javitch, chairman. The District 66 Superintendent will reflect on the eve of his retirement and his new job. All men and women in the community are invited to attend. Cost is $13 for a complete lunch and $3 for beverage service only.

NEBRASKA JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY Calling all Sammies: the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society needs your help! NJHS

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Page 7

AKKO THEATER WOMEN’S PROGRAM Thursday, March 27th, 7:00 p.m.

Special performance, just for women - FREE Complimentary dinner by reservation only with the cast following the show Make your dinner reservation by March 24th Call Joyce at 334-6430 to reserve your space today

Page 8

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

March 21, 2008

There is a piece of Esther in all of us

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT for Chabad The Torah is populated by many strong women. From Sarah to Tamar, from Rivka to Bathsheba, they marry, have children, take care of their families and wander the desert. They cook meals, and welcome guests; they run, dance, pray, defend their husbands and children, they are under attack, they fight, and they conquer.

Reading the Megillah this Purim, we are once again reminded that no nation can survive without some very determined women in its midst, standing shoulder to shoulder with the men.

Esther is determined indeed; she singlehandedly organizes a feast, and convinces Ahasuerus that her people are not as bad as Haman makes them out to be. The underlying message is that Esther is in charge, she knows the choices she has to make and is willing to put herself at the forefront, rather than stand idly by.

In his book, The Jewish Holidays, Michael Strassberg writes: “Haman’s description of us as ‘a certain people scattered about and dispersed among the other peoples’ has had a deep resonance for each generation of Jews. The tale of a group of Jews living in the Diaspora at the mercy of the whims of their rulers has been often repeated. All too frequently, we have faced Hamans and the conclusion of the story has not been happy.

Purim affirms the bright moments of victory and denies the long, bleak centuries of persecution.”

The story is an old one, but it’s as true today as it was then. “Don’t go to the feast,” Mordechai warned the Jews, as he saw the threat of assimilation into a culture that would ultimately attempt to

swallow the Jews whole.

They didn’t listen, and it took a woman like Esther to turn t h i n g s around.

Shani Katzman at Chabad knows all a b o u t Maxine Kirshenbaum s t r o n g Jewish women in general, and Esther in particular. “We can learn from her that assimilation may seem benign, and nothing to worry about, but as Jewish women we need to be strong in our identity, and not let society infringe on our desire to be Jews,” she says. “This is a challenge we all face, because Haman and Ahasuerus don’t exist only in the Megillah, but in modern society as well.”

The story of Purim is so relevant today that the laws of Megillah actually forbid the reading of the story of Esther ‘backwards’, meaning, according to the Baal Shem Tov, that we need to read it as a current event rather than something that is just a piece of history and nothing more.

When asked what she thought Queen Esther would say to Jewish women today, Katzman says, “She would encourage us to immerse ourselves more Jewishly, through study, prayer, and by doing mitzvahs. We must fortify ourselves as Jews, as women, as families; she put herself on the line and would tell us

to do the same.”

Adding, “The role of the Jewish woman is sometimes q u e s tioned,” Katzman s a y s .

“Many still equate traditional with old Gail Yanney fashioned.

But a Jewish man is obligated to love his wife as much as himself, and honor her more, and there is good reason for that.

Women in Judaism take a leadership role all the time; they are not wallflowers, they are at the forefront. Unfortunately, we think of importance in terms of visibility. A Jewish woman does not have to project her strength outward to make an enormous impact, her strength always comes from within.”

Chabad heavily relies on the strength of women in organizing next month’s Fundraising Gala, “Mitzvahs and Music” at KANEKO in downtown Omaha on Sunday April 13, 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Tippi Denenberg, who is chairing the entire event, continues to earn Katzman’s admiration.

“I am greatly impressed by Tippi’s spunk, love of life, and her fierce devotion to her family. She has the ability to extract the important things from life; she celebrates them and ignores the rest,” says Katzman. “We at Chabad are immensely grateful that she has shoul-

dered the lion’s share of the work for this event; and she has done it with finesse and joy, professionalism, and unlimited energy.”

The two couples who are being honored at the Gala are Maxine and Joe Kirshenbaum, and Gail and Mike Yanney.

Both Maxine and Gail would do Queen Esther proud; neither is the type to sit back and watch things unfold from the sideline.

“Gail Yanney represents a beautiful balance between intelligence and compassion,” Katzman says, “and it is an unusual balance. She has accomplished much in life professionally - but she never ceases to be concerned for the little things, for the ordinary, for the every day, making life better for others. She is unassuming and down to earth. Our admiration and affinity is indicative of how the world can be unified, once we can focus on the bigger picture.”

About Maxine Kirshenbaum, Katzman notes, “she is small in stature, but a giant when it comes to bringing about change.

She is passionate about Judaism and a great example for other women. I met Maxine soon after coming to Omaha, and throughout the years she has continued to amaze me.”

Maybe if Queen Esther could visit today, she would be proud of what women have been able to accomplish, maybe she would tell us it is not quite enough; who knows? The Jewish woman today has as many faces as she had back then; it is for us to read the writing on the wall, and figure out where we could be headed.

For information about the Gala, or to order tickets, visit www.ochabad.com, or call the Chabad House at 330.1800.

March 21, 2008

Film’s director brings intense documentary to Omaha

by GARY KATZ Library Administrator It is the heart-wrenching story of a mother’s quest for answers. It is the story of 17-year-old Israeli student Rachel Levy and her murderer, 18-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber Ayat al-Akhras in the powerful documentary To Die in Jerusalem.

On Thursday, April 10, 7 p.m., To Die in Jerusalem will be presented to the community by the Center for Jewish Education in the Jewish Community Center Theater. Immediately after the showing, the film’s director, Hilla Medalia, will discuss the making of the film and answer questions. The event is open to the community, free of charge.

The documentary focuses on Rachel and Ayat, attractive, promising students. With their dark complexion and long brown hair, they could have been mistaken for sisters. Newsweek featured the two teenage faces on a striking cover that triggers the hard memories of the day that Ayat killed Rachel in a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem convenience store in 2002.

As part of her quest for answers, Rachel’s mother, Avigail Levy, was determined to meet Um Samir al-Akhras, the mother of her daughter’s killer, face to face. Despite the fact that the two live just a few miles apart, the first in Jerusalem and the second in a refugee camp, it took more than four years for the meeting to occur. After many failed attempts, they finally meet via satellite video conference in a heated and often uncomfortable confrontational face-off.

To Die in Jerusalem offers a unique personal perspective of a longstanding conflict that is all too often overshadowed by

political issues, revealing the complex obstacles to reconciliation. “The film doesn’t suggest a solution to the conflict, but it unabashedly explores the difficulties, fears and gaps between opposing sides,” says Medalia.

Recently, Medalia showed To Die in Jerusalem at the JCC in Manhattan to a packed, standing room audience. More than 250 people came to watch the film and ask questions afterwards.

“We are very lucky to have the opportunity to show a program of this caliber.

This movie will raise many complex questions and provide a human face to the hardships Israeli’s face everyday,” said Dr. Guy Matalon, CJE executive director.

Medalia earned a master’s degree from Southern Illinois University. Recently, she was a senior producer of the award-winning documentary 39 Pounds of Love, (2005 Ophir Award, “Israeli Oscar”). It was released in U.S. in late 2005 and made it onto the Academy Award short list for best documentary film. Medalia has received numerous honors and recognitions. To Die in Jerusalem is Medalia’s first feature documentary.

While visiting Omaha, Medalia will also show the film and lead a discussion at the BBYO Spring Regional Convention. It is expected that more than 150 teens from the Midwest region will participate in the convention and have this special opportunity to interact with Medalia.

For more information, please contact me at 334.6462 or e-mail gkatz@jewishomaha.org. This program is sponsored by the Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Fund, and by the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University.

Yachad band to be featured at Women’s Seder

by MARY SUE GROSSMAN Administrator, Center for Jewish Education Variances in seders are nearly as numerous as “the stars in the sky”.

One need only to begin with the old adage “two Jews, three opinions” to realize celebrations of this annual event span a huge range.

Consider the four questions and the traditional focus on the four sons.

For some seders, this is changed to the four children. Others refer to the four humans. Some simply ask the questions with no reference as to who Yachad, the Traveling Tefillah Band from Kansas asks the question.

Then there is the more practical side. City, played at the Women’s Seder in 2004.

Which charoset recipe do we use this year? musical talents of Yachad: The Traveling Can we use disposable plates this year? Tefillah Band. Their mission is to bring a Who do we invite? How many verses of refreshing spirit to Jewish worship.

“Having Yachad on the line-up was a natChad Gadya are we going to sing?

So where does a women’s seder fit into ural,” says Debbi Josephson, a committee member. “The energy they gave to the this puzzle?

“Riding on the spiritual strength of 2004 event was delightful and I am so women in the story of Exodus helps pleased they were available again this year.”

Cost is $14 through March 28, after empower women of today,” says Shani Katzman who is working on the which it increases to $18. For ages 10 Haggadah for the event with Patty Nogg. through high school, cost is $10.

“It allows us to reach unimaginable Reservations are required. A raffle featurheights in our own quests for meaning. ing items from Sisterhood gift shops will This evening, which is not an additional also be held. Tickets are $1 each with proseder but a preparation of sorts, allows us ceeds benefitting Jewish Family Service.

The Women’s Seder is co-sponsored by to be ready for Pesach emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It is both helpful and Beth El and Beth Israel Sisterhoods, Beyt exciting to gather with women of all ages Shalom Women, Chabad Women, Hadassah, National Council of Jewish to garner energy and draw inspiration.”

The Women’s Seder is Monday, April Women, and Temple Israel Women of 14, 7 p.m., in the Jewish Community Reform Judaism. For information, please Center. Enriching the seder will be the call Patty Nogg, 493.3479.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

March 21, 2008

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JOURNAL ENTRY FROM ISRAEL

by TEDDY WEINBERGER The tiyul shnati is an important feature of Israel’s education system. All students from the first through the 12th grades go on an annual hike. The main purpose, from the perspective of the Ministry of Education, is to show students the wonders (natural, archaeological, historical) of the land of Israel.

From the perspective of the kids, especially those in grade school, the main purpose of the tiyul shnati is to buy as much junk food as possible and eat it on the bus.

There have been many times when my children threatened not to even bother going on the trip if they could not buy the required kilograms of candy, chips, chocolate milk, etc. Needless to say, on a tiyul shnati, it’s a good idea to gage the motion tolerance of your neighbor.

For each of the first few years after we made aliyah, I would go out with one or two of my children on their respective annual trips. My kids were cool with this as long as I didn’t publicly acknowledge the fact that we were related. I was trying to make up for the gap in my education.

Officially, I was just a volunteer adult rather than an armed chaperone (schools are required to hire these for every trip; parents who are legally allowed to bear arms can thus save their school some money). A few (unarmed) mothers would also tag along on these trips, and so I didn’t feel totally out of place -- just a little wimpy for not carrying a gun.

I enjoyed going both for the pleasure of exploring Israel and for the satisfaction of witnessing my children participating in a fundamental Zionist experience. It’s important to emphasize that the tiyul shnati is not to be confused with any sort of year-end graduation trip. They may take place at the beginning of the school year, in the middle, or at the end.

The length of the tiyul shnati increases from year to year. In the first grade, a short bus trip to a nearby park

BIRTHS

for an hour or two can suffice. By the fifth grade, it is an all-day affair, and overnight trips begin in the sixth grade.

The day-trippers in primary school can avoid serious hiking by horsing around, walking slowly, acting up, etc.

It never ceased to amaze me how a group of 10-yearolds coming upon a little pool of water, say, in Ein Gedi, would prefer to splash each other like toddlers for an hour or two rather than hike to the peak of the mountain for a magnificent panoramic view of the Dead Sea. I would look beseechingly to the teachers and to the other parents for support in trying to get the kids out of the water so that we could continue our hike, but their attitude was: relax let them have their fun.

Junior high and high school students know that they are going to really have to hike. On my (then) 11thgrader Ruthie’s trip last year, students had the option of hiking with the group of “hikers,” or they could hike with the group of “dilettantes.”

But the distance covered by even the latter group was quite impressive to me, as was the students’ sleeping outside in tents and sleeping bags. (Ruthie, on the other hand, felt that the fact that the tents were located a short distance from the field school’s perfectly usable dorm rooms represented cruel and unusual punishment.)

Twelfth graders (also known as “eighters” following the British form-system, which begins in the fifth grade) often have a tradition of going to Eilat for their tiyul shnati.

These trips foster a culture of hiking in Israel. On school vacations, it’s quite common to see groups of teenagers camping out and hiking on their own throughout many of the country’s trails and nature areas. My own teenagers are game for any hike in any weather for any length of time that is organized by one of their peers.

Any suggestion by yours truly concerning a proposed family outing is met with the following words: “Dad, you know we don’t hike.”

Teddy Weinberger made aliyah in 1997 with his wife, former Omahan Sarah Ross, and their five children.

He works in the Department of Education for the Jewish agency for Israel and can be reached at: weinross@netvision.net.il.

Beth El third graders celebrate consecration

Kerry and Mike Hollst announce the March 4 birth of their son, Ayden Michael.

He has a brother, Ryan and a sister, Shalie.

Grandparents are Joan and Kevee (Cal) Kirshenbaum, and Rose and Harvey Kenec of Utan, NE. Tim and Denise Kully anounce the March 3 birth of their daughter, Madison, named for her great-grandmother, the late Ida Forbes.

She has a brother, Cameron, 7, and a sister, Sydney, 5.

Grandparents are Leslie Kully, the late Bill Kully, and Larry and Sophie Nicholson.

Great-grandfather is Irving Forbes.

Lara and Mark Rosenblum of Golden Valley, MN, announce the Feb. 24 birth of their son, Zachary James.

He has a brother, Jake, 8.

Grandparents are Dottie Rosenblum, Hub Rosenblum, Scarlett Wilson and Cliff Wilson.

Family and friends recently gathered in Beth El’s sanctuary to honor the synagogue’s third-graders, as they celebrated their consecration. Participating in the special ceremony were, front row: Joshua Kurtzman, left, Eliana Schuller, Whitney Feidman, Noah Eckles, Geordana Gonzales, Ally Kavich, Jacob Spivack, Zev Randone and Jason Gallagher; back row: Education Director Judy Rubin and teacher Eadie Tsabari. Not pictured: Calista Epstein.

EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE There is no regular news in the April 18 Passover issue and the Press will be closed on Monday, April 21 for the second day of Passover. Synagogues must send the Press the Passover schedule of services no later than than Tuesday, April 1, 9 a.m. The deadline for all articles, photos and ads for the April 25 issue is Tuesday, April 15, 9 a.m.

Questions? Call 402.334.6448.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

March 21, 2008

China, Sudan, Tibet and the Olympics The government of China has been busy lately.

In between poisoning dog food and toothpaste, they’ve continued to purchase oil from Sudan and invest in its oil infrastructure (in fact, more than half of China’s oil comes from the brutal dictatorship, which has killed more than a quarter million of its citizens in Darfur and displaced an estimated one million more).

A news report in Business Week magazine last Friday linked China’s growing oil imports from Sudan to an increase in Chinese weapons there. China, now second only to the United States, in the world demand for oil, has been accused by Human Rights Watch of supplying the Sudanese government with more than three million dollars in small arms.

And last week, Chinese troops killed dozens in Lhasa as monks protested China’s demand that the Olympic torch be carried through the tiny country of Tibet, which has been under Chinese domination since 1951.

Back in Beijing, the Chinese are preparing for the 2008 Summer Olympics, building huge arenas and sports complexes, as well as dorms for athletes and hotels for visitors. Of course, they’re also planning on shutting down factories starting the week before the Games, and banning cars, all in hopes of decreasing the unhealthy levels of pollution that spew into the skies every day.

Some American team managers are considering bringing Hepa masks for their athletes, who may not even arrive until a day or two before their events. And others have already made arrangements to bring in their own food to avoid relying on what could be tainted food provided by the Chinese.

So what does all this this have to do with the Jewish community?

Let’s start with Steven Spielberg. He was originally to have had a role in the Olympics,

as an artistic adviser to the Games, but withdrew last month in protest over China’s relationship with Sudan. As the Academy Awardwinning director of Schindler’s List, Spielberg was right, even though IOC President Jacques Rogge dismissed any thought of boycotts as “a thing of the past,” according to Spanish-language newspaper Marca.

Would a boycott hurt the refugees of Darfur? What of the Tibetans and their halfcentury without freedom -- and without the rule of their leader, the Dalai Lama? Lastly, what of the Chinese people? What is the message they will understand if the Olympic Games continue, in all their splendor and glory ... while refugees continue being slaughtered in Darfur, monks cower in fear in Tibet and Chinese citizens wonder why they can’t access the entire World Wide Web because of Chinese censorship.

The 1980 American boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow only hurt the athletes, some of whom never got the chance to compete on the world stage again. So is there anything we as Americans can do, or as Jews, to get the message across that Chinese bullying is unacceptable?

Let’s be clear: this isn’t something we should ask the athletes to do. To put their lives in danger when their only goal is to compete is unfair.

And the goal should be to modify China’s behavior; embarrassing them at the Games by, let’s say, holding up signs in the stands, might only serve to harden their position (or get the protesters thrown in jail).

There is another way, and that is

by pressuring American corporate sponsors to withdraw their support of the Games.

And that’s where the Jewish community can help. Start by e-mailing and calling giants like Coca Cola and McDonalds to let them know there will be consequences for their support.

Turn off the tv during their commercials.

Regardless of the pull of the billions of new customers, corporations are sensitive to image.

Adidas, Anheuser-Busch, General Electric (parent company of NBC), Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, Microsoft, Staples, UPS, and Visa are sponsors, too. Find out what you can do to help at: www.dreamfordarfur.org.

FOCUS ON ISSUES

by AMI EDEN NEW YORK (JTA) -- Children dressed in costumes. Parents celebrating.

Stories of massacres greeted with revelry.

Sounds like a decent pitch for Hamas television -- if you switch out the Hebrew for Arabic and ignore that it’s the scene at most synagogues in the world on the night of Purim.

To be fair, most of the Jews in the pews -and for that matter, the rabbis in the pulpits -- don’t think of it that way. The tendency is to view Megillat Esther as the prototypical story of survival in the Diaspora, with the general focus on Mordechai’s political astuteness and the role of unseen divine intervention.

Yes, the deaths of Haman and his sons are cheered. But little if any attention is paid to the most gruesome passages of the story, when Mordechai and Esther pave the way for the Jews to carry out bloody massacres against their foes.

“The Jews,” we learn at the start of the Megillah’s next-to-last chapter, “smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword and with slaying and destruction, and they did to their enemies as they wished.”And that was just the first day.

Seeing that Mordechai and the Jews are not to be messed with, King Ahasuerus hands Esther the keys to the castle and asks her what she wants. Her answer: more blood.

The death toll in the end was about 800 men in Shushan and 75,000 in the rest of the empire. Of course by that point, most people in shul, especially outside the Orthodox world,

With Israel facing continued rocket attacks and reeling from the most heinous of terror attacks -- not to mention coping with a modern-day Haman in Persia eyeing nuclear weapons -- it’s a good year to ponder that message.

While Goldstein’s moral compass was demonically broken, his sense of timing was not: No matter how much the modern Jew focuses on the food, drink and fun, skips over the latter portions of the story, and chooses to see Mordechai strictly as a master political maneuverer, Megillat Esther has something quite dark to say about confronting truly evil enemies.

With Israel facing continued rocket attacks and reeling from the most heinous of terror attacks -- not to mention coping with a modern-day Haman in Persia eyeing nuclear weapons -- it’s a good year to ponder that message.

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This is the year to reflect on Purim's darker message are thinking ahead to the carnival. Ask them about violence in the story and most won’t get past the killing of Haman and his sons. It’s as if the concluding tidal waves of blood are a minor footnote, hardly the central point and not vital to understanding the message of the Megillah.

This sanitized view explains to some degree the level of shock and outrage that most Jews around the world felt in response to news in 1994 that a West Bank settler, Baruch Goldstein, had gunned down about 30 Muslim worshipers at a religious site in Hebron -- on Purim.

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To be clear, for nearly two millennia many revered rabbis have stressed that the biblical injunction to wipe out all of Amalek -- issued in the Torah after Haman’s ancestors attacked the women, children and elderly among the Israelites following the exodus from Egypt -does not apply to any existing race or nationality. So, for example, Goldstein’s random targeting of innocent Palestinians was almost universally, and rightly, condemned by Jews.

But this praiseworthy rabbinic reflex to mute incitement to mass murder does not negate the less jarring yet equally powerful warning that the Purim story offers regarding negotiations with a sworn enemy: Some foes are so foul and immoral that accommodation is ultimately the riskiest course, even if the alternative carries obvious dangers.

This message is hammered home by Mordechai’s refusal at the beginning of the story to bow down to Haman. How else to explain such a seemingly reckless provocation on the part of the story’s most politically adept character than to accept that Mordechai saw something fundamental in Haman’s nature that made compromise and acceptance even more perilous than confrontation?

Refocusing our attention to different sections of the Megillah must never be transformed into an excuse for murder. Nor will this approach provide a clear answer as to whether any of Israel’s current diplomatic or military adversaries -- Fatah, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran’s Islamic fundamentalist leaders -- fall into the category of those who cannot be negotiated with, or how to proceed if they do.

But it will offer a healthy reminder that in rare cases, accommodation is the most dangerous course.

Ami Eden is managing editor of JTA.

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March 21, 2008

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Page 13

Come to terms with full depth of catastrophic yeshiva attack

FOCUS ON ISSUES

by RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB NEW YORK (JTA) -- When do we label an event “catastrophic”?

We say that a wound is “catastrophic” when it is complex, when it involves many dimensions of injury. So, too, with tragedy.

The tragedy of the brutal murder of eight students of Yeshivat Mercaz Harav is catastrophic because its meanings are multiple and complex, and can be viewed from numerous perspectives.

Some of these meanings are apparent to all. Others are much deeper and must be contemplated from a variety of vantage points.

The uppermost layer is the loss of human life, one that all people of good will can understand. Just beneath that layer is the loss of life of people so young, of mere children; again, painful to every decent human being.

Deeper layers include bereaved parents, destroyed dreams and traumatized witnesses. And all of us are witnesses.

Some dimensions are not so apparent, however, and perhaps not even sensed by those who feel the agony of this butchery.

The setback to prospects of peace, already so remote, is one such dimension. The loss of a sense of security that had been almost totally restored to the streets of Jerusalem is another.

To the sensitive Jew, however, there are dimensions deeper still. The shootings occurred in a place of Torah study, a “makom Torah,” the innermost sanctum of Judaism. Besides all else this was sacrilege, a profanation of the highest and most central of Jewish values, the study of God’s Word.

As such it calls to mind images of Kristallnacht, of medieval book burnings

and of the horrible massacre Every day, as part of our daily prayer, we in Hebron in 1929. That say the words of the Mishna: “Ve-talmud massacre, too, was carried Torah keneged kulam” – Torah study is as out in the study hall of a significant as all the other mitzvot comyeshiva, and it is no wonder bined. that the eulogizers last week Torah study is Jewish eternity, Jewish connected this event to the continuity, so that the image of the cutnever-forgotten crime of ting-down of boys so engaged penetrates nearly 80 years ago. to the very core of our existential reality.

One cannot make comparisons as to There are further dimensions still, and whose life is more precious. In the words they demand the use of a vocabulary so of the Talmud, “no one’s blood is redder alien to post-modern society that the than the words ring blood of hollow. I refer any other.” to the words But some “holy” and killings “pure,” in carry heavH e b r e w ier symbol“kadosh veic meaning tahor.” than othW h o ers. raises his chilA few dren these years ago, days to be after many pure? Who acts of terraises them to rorism, strive for murder holiness? It and may- A blood-stained Jewish religious book lies on a table at the suffices in the hem, the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, where young men are educated to be West to train I s r a e l i “pure” and “holy,” Rabbi TzviHersh Weinreb writes. children to be Credit: Avi Ohayon/GPO “well-adjusta r m y moved into action only when a Passover ed” or, at the most, “decent.” seder was the target of terror. The symBut these young men were educated to bolism of the seder cut deeper than the be “pure” and diligently attempted to be symbolism of the Dolphinarium, a Tel “holy.” The murderer did not merely Aviv disco. snuff out the lives of young and healthy As a rabbi, I feel the responsibility to and bright and personable and ethical and teach those who may not know that as moral kids. He sullied purity, he contampowerful a symbol as the Passover seder inated the sacrosanct and defiled holiness. is, as much as it is a central ritual of This tragedy is indeed catastrophic.

Judaism, as much as it heralds the mes- And to “redeem” it one must come to sage of liberty and freedom, it pales in terms with every layer of its impact, with religious significance when compared to the full depth of all of its ramifications. the scene of Torah students poring over Only by the cultivation of Torah study, their volumes of Talmud. of authentically Jewish spirituality, of Torah study is the holy core of our Jewishly informed acts of charity and faith, more so even than our festivals and kindness, and of the appreciation of the fast days. More so even than mitzvot. place of holiness even in this profane

world, can the pain be assuaged and our spirits redeemed.

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb is the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.

JTA NEWS BRIEF LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- The simplest innovations sometimes lead to the greatest rewards, as Rachel Andres learned last week when she was named the 2008 recipient of the $100,000 Charles Bronfman Prize. The annual prize is awarded to a person or team of people younger than 50 whose Jewish values spark humanitarian efforts that help improve the world.

Andres in her work provides succor to some of the most helpless and brutalized people in the world -- 10,000 refugee families, mostly fatherless, who have escaped the massacres in Darfur The genocide in the Sudanese province, now in its fifth year, has claimed an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 civilians.

Some 2.5 million refugees, mostly women and children, have been displaced.

For the past two years Andres, 45, has directed the Solar Cooker Project of Jewish World Watch, which has expanded from a small Los Angeles base across the United States, as well as parts of Canada and Australia. The solar cooker concept is an elegantly simple response to a terrifying fact of life facing the women and young girls in the Iridimi and Touloum refugee camps on the Sudan-Chad border.

Her answer was a sun-powered cooker, made of cardboard and aluminum foil, at a cost of $15 each. Some 15,000 have been distributed. Since each family needs two of the $15 cookers, www.jewishworldwatch.org/ has pitched its donation appeal at $30. More than $1 million has been received to date. from some 20,000 contributors.

Bulgaria’s rescue of its Jews provides a lesson for today

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

by DANIEL S. MARIASCHIN WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Sixty-five years ago last week in Bulgaria, a rare chapter in human courage took place. It wasn’t an uprising of arms, but rather one of simple decency and respect for the lives of one’s neighbors. It was the rescue of Bulgaria’s 48,000 Jews from deportation and certain death in Nazi concentration camps.

In the midst of the maelstrom and carnage that was World War II and the Holocaust, how this singular act of heroism took place can be explained only by the broad involvement of Bulgarians at every level of society who joined the effort. Members of parliament, physicians, lawyers, the leadership of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, intellectuals and ordinary citizens were the heroes of this story. Their example should be looked upon today in a world increasingly infected by intolerance and bigotry.

In 1943, the Kingdom of Bulgaria was an ally of the Third Reich, which supported its claims to a “Greater Bulgaria,” including lands in Macedonia and Thrace. As the war churned, the Nazi killing machine by that time had murdered millions of Jews. Though not under Nazi occupation, the Bulgarians established a special office for “The Jewish Problem,” and as early as 1940 adopted sweeping anti-Semitic legislation -- the infamous “Law for the Defense of the Nation,” which established forced labor camps and imposed the wearing of the yellow star.

When the Nazi ambassador to Bulgaria, Adolf Heinz Beckerle, demanded the deportation of Bulgarian Jews to death camps in Poland, it must have been a foregone conclusion in Berlin that his insistence would be heeded.

Indeed, the commissariat for Jewish affairs drew up plans that included rounding up Jews and designating assem-

bly points from where the deportations would take place.

Ordinary Bulgarians already had a chilling inkling of what was to come. More than 11,000 Macedonian and Thracian Jews living under Bulgarian military occupation were herded into cattle cars and deported to the camps on trains that traveled through Bulgarian territory. Bulgarians surely must have seen the utter suffering of the victims and concluded the same could occur inside the country’s prewar borders.

Each generation unfortunately brings new tests to the fore. Today it is the killing in Darfur; tomorrow it can be somewhere else.

The lessons of 1943 are as relevant today as they were then ...

Word spread quickly about the deportation plans, motivating a campaign of defiance so swift and so effective that it surprised the authorities. Though led at first

by Deputy Speaker of Parliament Dimitar Peshev, it spread to nearly every sector of society. The Bulgarian church was among the most active in defending the Jewish minority, with Metropolitan Kliment of Stara Zagora explaining that “we cannot stay indifferent to the fate of the persecuted Jewish minority because we would be condemned by God.” In cities and towns across Bulgaria, citizens worked to upend the racist Nazi dictates. Ultimately the orders were never carried out, prompting Beckerle to cable back to Berlin, “But they are tied by the mentality of the Bulgarian people that lacks the ideological enlightenment that we have. The Bulgarian, who was raised with Armenians, Greeks and Gypsies, doesn’t see in the Jews any flaws justifying taking special measures against them.”

Certainly there are many stories of individual heroism by non-Jews to save Jews during the Holocaust, but nowhere was such a broad base of the population part of

an entire community’s rescue. At a time when wartime collaborators elsewhere in Europe competed with each other to join in the persecution of the Jews, many Bulgarians were lining up to reject that very persecution.

Where some European churches were either complicit in this tragedy, or at best passive, the Bulgarian church leadership provided a moral underpinning to the effort to stop the deportations.

The Bulgarian rescue story, like that of the Danes, only serves to highlight what might have been elsewhere in Europe. Bulgarians, horrified by the thought that their friends and neighbors – perhaps the teacher or the shoemaker or tailor – might be taken from their midst and sent to an uncertain future, took matters into their own hands by protesting and refusing to comply with a racist decree. Others, like Peshev, who saw the inherent evil of Nazism and its pursuit of its helpless victims, rallied to defend a community he saw not only as a Jewish minority but as Bulgarian.

Indeed, maybe that is the secret of the success of the rescue in Bulgaria – that Jews were not seen as aliens in society but rather an organic part of it. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the rescue in 2003, I attended a commemoration ceremony in the town of Kyustendil, a provincial town that was fiercely defiant against the deportation order. At the conclusion of the program, an elderly Bulgarian woman in the crowd rushed to an Israeli official wanting to know if her childhood friends were living in Israel. She had not seen them since they left after the war.

In their collective act of defiance, the Bulgarian people demonstrated that it is possible to stand up to the worst form of evil. They did it under the most difficult and harrowing of circumstances. Each generation unfortunately brings new tests to the fore. Today it is the killing in Darfur; tomorrow it can be somewhere else. The lessons of 1943 are as relevant today as they were then in a distant land and at the darkest moment in modern history.

Daniel S. Mariaschin is the executive vice president of B’nai B’rith International.

Page 14

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

March 21, 2008

Candlelighting Friday, March 21, 7:19 p.m.

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Tifereth Israel Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Blvd., Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 423.8569 www.tiferethisraellincoln.org

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Allan Handleman, 402.334.6451 or Robyn Belgrade 402.334.6559

B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

FRIDAY: Services followed by Oneg, 7:30 p.m.

Office Hours: Mon.-Thurs., 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Fri., 8:30 a.m-2 p.m. Services conducted by Rabbi Jonathan Gross.

FRIDAY: Shacharit and Megillah Reading, 6:45 a.m.; Megillah Readings, 9 a.m. at Beth Israel, 10:30 a.m. at Remington Heights and 5:30 p.m. at Beth Israel; A Purim Seuda will follow the 5:30 p.m. reading; Kabbalat Shabbat, 7 p.m., followed by a Shabbat dinner.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m. free babysitting, 9:30 a.m.; Children’s Classes, 9:45 a.m. with Torah Parade; Kiddush is sponsored by Sisterhood; Mincha, 7 p.m., followed by Suedat Shlishit; Havdalah, 8:21 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; “Reading the Rambam” with Rabbi Oxman, 9:45 a.m.; Rabbi Gross’s teen class, 10 a.m.

WEEKDAYS: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m.

THURSDAY: Women of the Torah class, 9:30 a.m.; Rabbi’s weekly class, 7:30 p.m.

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Services conducted by Rabbi Mordechai Levin and Cantor Gastón Bogomolni.

FRIDAY: Musical Kabbalat Shabbat service, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY: Morning services, 9:30 a.m.; following services.

Rabbi Mordechai and Susi Levin, and Cantor Gastón Bogomolni will speak about growing up Jewish in Argentina, Dominican Republic and Spain duing a Hazak Lunch ’n Learn. Cost: $9.50 for adults, $6.50 for children 6-12, free for children five and under. For information, call Gloria Goodman, 333.3351.

Minha/Ma’ariv, 7:20 p.m.

WEEKDAY SERVICES: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.; weekdays, 7 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.

Sitter Service is available during Friday night and Saturday morning services, on a drop-in basis, at no charge.

ADULT EDUCATION SUNDAY, Bible Study Discussion Group, 10 a.m.

THURSDAY: Rabbi Levin’s Insights and Values from the Torah, noon; Women’s Book Club, 1:15 p.m.

USY PURIM CARNIVAL: Sunday, March 23, 11:15 a.m. to 2 p.m. This year’s theme: “Israel @ 60,” a celebration of this milestone birthday. Tickets will be available at the door. For more information, contact Robert Mosenkis in the office, or at youthdir @bethel-omaha.org.

SHABBAT TUNES AND TALES: Saturday, March 29, 11:15-11:45 a.m. Monthly Shabbat sing-along program led by “Miss Patty” Nogg will focus on learning Passover songs. Open to all Jewish children five and under with parents and grandparents.

BEYT SHALOM

Prophets, and Prayer, 9 a.m.; Parshah Roundup: Weekly Torah Portion Class, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY: Jewish Thought, 12:45 p.m.

All events and programs are open to the community.

Services conducted by Rabbi Ilan Emanuel.

FRIDAY: LJCS Family Shabbat Service, 6 p.m. at Tifereth Israel led by Rabbi Emanuel and Nancy Coren; LJCS Purim Dinner, 7 p.m. prepared by the Sixth and Seventh grade class.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10:30 a.m. all led by Rabbi Emanuel.

SUNDAY: No LJCS Classes.

WEDNESDAY: No Hebrew classes.

ADULT EDUCATION TUESDAY: The Songs of Songs, 7 p.m. led by Rabbi Ilan Emanuel.

Family School hours, Friday evenings service except when there is a Tot Shabbat, Saturday mornings when there is a B’nai mitzvah, and Sunday mornings during Religious School. Advance reservations and a $5 donation appreciated. Young children, including infants, are welcome.

TUESDAY: Hebrew Lunch & Learn, 12:15 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Grades 3-6, 4 p.m.; Family School, 6 p.m.; All School Dinner, 6 p.m. Come and watch Mr. Pickles toss the hamburgers; Grades 7-12, 6 p.m.

THURSDAY: “Adult Study with the Clergy” with Rabbi Azriel.

Friday, March 28: “A Celebration of Learning: A Teacher’s Shabbat,” 6 p.m.

Temple’s Religious School hosts a special Shabbat honoring public and religious educators.

Saturday, March 29: Zane, son of Hillary and John Fletcher, will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah at the Shabbat morning service.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

NEIGHBORHOOD MINYAN

CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN

FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Shabbat in the Home.

CHABAD HOUSE Services conducted by Rabbi Mendel Katzman. Office hours: Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Services, 7 a.m.; Purim in the Deli, 12:30 p.m.; Shabbat-Purim Dinner, 7 p.m.

RSVP to www.ochabad.com/ reserve.

SATURDAY: Maamar class, 9 a.m.; Service, 9:30 a.m.; Kiddush luncheon follows the service; Youth Minyan, 10:30 a.m.

SUNDAY: Service, 8:30 a.m.; Mishpacha Mornings, 10:15 a.m.

WEEKDAYS: Services, 7 a.m.

MONDAY: Maamar Kabbalistic Insights for Women, 12:15 p.m.; Parsha class for pre-schoolers, 12:30 p.m.; Halacha class, 7 p.m.

TUESDAY: W.O.W. Parsha,

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by Alan Shulewitz.

THURSDAY: LOVE Board of Directors Meeting, 7 p.m. in the JCC Social Hall.

TEMPLE ISRAEL FRIDAY: Understanding Jewish Mysticism, noon, with Dr. Guy Matalon; Shabbat Service, 7:30 p.m. Rabbi Eric Linder and Cantor Wendy Shermet will lead the service.

SATURDAY: Sparks Beneath the Surface, 9:15 a.m.; Shabbat Service, 10:30 a.m.

SUNDAY: No Religious School.

SITTER SERVICE: Available Wednesday evenings during

FRIDAY: Minyan, 7 p.m.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m.

TIFERETH ISRAEL Services conducted by Nancy Coren, Lay Leader. Office hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

MONDAY and THURSDAY: Minyan, 9 a.m. Contact the office to arrange for a minyan.

FRIDAY: LJCS Family Shabbat Service, 6 p.m. led by Rabbi Emanuel and Nancy Coren; LJCS Purim Dinner, 7 p.m.; Kabbalat Shabbat service, 8 p.m. for Congregants.

SATURDAY: Morning service, 9:30 a.m., followed by kiddush lunch and Talmud study.

SUNDAY: No LJCS Classes.

WEDNESDAY: Men’s Lunch Group meets at the Knolls, 12:30 p.m. Contact Yale Gotsdiner at 423.7066; No Hebrew classes.

What can you do about Iran? Use the phone, Meridor says

by RON KAMPEAS His call was not for nothing.

WASHINGTON (JTA) Meridor sent Altshuler-Shaham -- It was a question that a list of European companies that plagued Israel’s ambashave Iran holdings. The list was sador to the United compiled by the state of Florida, States whenever he one of an increasing number of spoke to U.S. audiences U.S. states opting to disinvest about the need to stop their pension funds from Iran Iran from acquiring and Sudan, whose government is accused of aiding militias in carnuclear weapons. rying out genocidal raids in Audience members Darfur. inevitably would ask: Was the pension fund invested What can I do? in any of the companies on the Sallai Meridor, who says list? in his talks that the most effective way to stop Sallai Meridor, Israel’s ambassador to the United To the surprise of the socially Iran’s bomb is through States, says a phone call can help increase the conscientious Israeli investment Credit: Robert A. Cumins house, there was one: Statoil, a economic isolation, had pressure on Iran. no answer beyond advisnot to divest from companies Norwegian oil company.

Altshuler-Shaham executives ing supporters to continue advo- doing business with Iran.

But seeking to set a personal acted immediately. cating for divestment.

Explaining the decision in an “I believe in social responsibili- example at a time when the interty,” he told JTA in a recent inter- national community again is rally- op-ed piece in Israel’s daily view at the Israeli Embassy here. ing around the need to isolate Iran Ha’aretz, Altshuler-Shaham’s Ran Meridor figured the only money -- last month the U.N. Security Shaham and Ido Saguy wrote, supporters having invested in Council approved a third set of “We’re confident that our clients Iran-related companies lay in pen- sanctions -- Meridor decided to would prefer that their savings sion funds, and only pension fund place a phone call to his own Israeli (however small a portion) would not find their way into stocks in managers could decide whether or pension fund, Altshuler-Shaham.

companies that reinforce nations that threaten our security.”

That comported with AltshulerShaham’s profile on Dun and Bradstreet-Israel.

“For Altshuler Shaham, social involvement is part of its business philosophy,” the profile says.

“The Group sees no contradiction between strong profitability on behalf of its clients and authentic social involvement within the community.”

Altshuler-Shaham switched the investment to the U.S. energy giant ConocoPhillips.

Now, Meridor says, he has something to tell his audiences when they ask what they can do: Pick up the phone.

Incorporating that message into a recent speech to the annual meeting in Atlanta of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Meridor was met with wide applause.

“It was really one phone call,” Meridor said. “Any one of us has influence.”

March 21, 2008

Silence: why can’t we tolerate it

SPARKS FROM THE WORD

by RABBI MYER S. KRIPKE Parashat Tzav I have noticed in myself, and I’m sure that most of us have as well, that we can’t enter a room without quickly turning on the TV or a radio for some sound. We have become accustom to sound to such an extent that we cannot listen to silence.

Blame it on anyone you will. It may be because of the rock ’n roll generation. But, we must have sound.

The psalmist had it that the dead praise not the Lord, but we will praise the Lord forever, hallelujah.

It was Job’s wife who wanted to get him out of his misery and suggested, therefore, that he curse God and die. He reproved her quickly, saying that she speaks like a foolish woman. And Job goes on for many magnificent chapters discussing what it is that God desires of man.

In the end, our unknown author determines that it is not the friends who protect God’s reputation, but rather Job, who attacks God, who has won God’s favor, for he spoke in naked honesty as he attacked God’s justice in the world.

Silence: why can’t we abide it? We can’t because the most profound silence lies in death, and we are not comfortable when we speak of death. It is not that we fear death, for we know it is already in the wings of the stage with a time picked out for all of us. It is not death itself, but rather the silence associated with it that we cannot confront with assurance.

Our generation has been trained to avoid silence and to choose sound. So, listen up, everybody, Sh’ma.

Beth Israel accepting orders for shmura matza

by MARY BORT for Beth Israel Synagogue With Purim celebrations underway, it may seem surprising to already be thinking about Passover. However, Beth Israel has begun Passover preparations by taking orders for shmura matza.

“If you want to have authentic shmurah matzah at your Seder, then we can help,” said Executive Director Beth Cohen. “Each year, we provide the community with the opportunity to order shmura matza. We’re grateful to Bag ’n Save for coordinating our order.”

A one-pound box of shmurah matzah costs $16. Each box has approximately eight whole matzahs. Please place your order by March 24 with the office by calling 556.6288.

Unknown future

Many thousands of people from African countries like the Sudan and Eritrea have been trying to infiltrate into Israel to escape persecution in their own countries. Up until Dec. 25, 2007, Israel gave temporary resident visas to people from war-torn Eritrea. Refugees arriving after that date are considered illegal residents. Over the past weeks, some 400 infiltrators arrived at United Nations offices in Tel Aviv seeking similar status given to previous infiltrators. Most arrived here via the sparsely protected Israel Egyptian border which runs the length of the western Negev and Arava. Now some 100 Eritrean refugees are sleeping in Independence Park in north Tel Aviv while Credit: ISRANET the authorities decide what to do.

Why does religion matter?

by HANNA WANZENRIED Project Interfaith Program Coordinator Religion always seems to be a taboo subject- it’s the elephant in the room that everyone steers away from.

However, religion plays a critical role in our culture, politics, and history. Krista Tippett, creator and host of National Public Radio’s popular program “Speaking of Faith” will address religion, ethics, and ideas in her community presentation “Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters and How To Talk About It.” The program will take place on Thursday, April 3, 7 p.m., at Countryside Community Church United Church of Christ (8787 Pacific Street). She is one of the featured speakers of Project Interfaith’s “Community Conversations” speaker series, which is designed to engage the community on issues of religion, faith, identity, and interfaith relations.

In her presentation, Tippett will illustrate a way to speak across faiths and across the atheismreligion divide in order to live more thoughtfully, generously, and hopefully with the tensions of our age. Participants also will explore the new model of conversation that takes religion and spiritual ethics seriously, while avoiding the polarization Krista Tippett of public debates. Tippett Credit: Marc Norberg will share passages from her recently published book Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters and How To Talk About It which chronicles the religious impulses and moral dilemmas of our age.

“We believe that Krista Tippett will not just inspire community members with her tales of interviewing some of the most influential and significant spiritual and religious leaders of our time, but that she also will motivate others to further explore and delve into the rich opportunities for meaningful interfaith interactions and relations that already exist in our community,” said Beth Katz, Director of Project Interfaith, a leader and resource for religious diversity and interfaith issues located here in Omaha.

This program is free and open to the public, but registration is required and space is limited. Register online at the KIOS website: www.kios.org. For questions or more information on this program, contact me at 334.6447. The program is jointly presented by Project Interfaith, KIOS Omaha Public Radio, and the Center for Faith Studies at Countryside Community Church.

DEATH DOROTHY KAPLAN The “Diva of the Kripke Jewish Federation Library”, Dorothy Kaplan died March 17 at the age of 82.

Services were held March 19 at BHH/Fisher Farms Cemetery.

She had worked part-time at the library since 1980.

Last year, she was honored by the Kripke Library for her decades of devotion and love of books.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Marvin Kaplan; and sister, Lucille Hutchins.

She is survived by son and daughter-in-law, Howard Kaplan and Julie Frank; son, Robert Kaplan; grandson, Marty Kaplan; brother and sister-in-law, Earl and Sylvia Kaplan of New Jersey, and brother, Stanley Kaplan of Massachusetts.

Memorials to the Dorothy Diva Fund, Kripke Library, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE, 68154.

PERSONAL The family of Fannie Sherman Chunovic wishes to thank all her friends for their expressions of sympathy on her passing. She touched so many lives during her 30 years in Omaha.

Cantor Leo and Annette Fettman

To submit obituaries: E-mail to the Press at jpress@jewishomaha.org; fax to 402.334.5422, or mail to 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154, or online at the Jewish Federation of Omaha website: www.jewishomaha.org. Click on “Jewish Press” and go to Submit Announcements.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

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ALUMINUM BOAT Lifts, new, used, $350 - $5,700. Cash & carry. Surfside Lifts & Docks, 1850 West “O”, Lincoln, 402-432-3000. Shoremaster Shorestation sales, service. Our 21st year.

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HOT TUBS, “Early Bird” sale, March 1-30, final closeout on all 2007 Aquaffordables.

Call 1-800-869-0406 for price list and pictures. Free delivery in March. Town Center Showcase, Lincoln, NE. RESTAURANT EQUIPMENT Outlet; New and used equipment; ice makers & frozen drink machine. See www.Chillmasters.biz for more info; Sioux City, IA, 1-800-526-7105.

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AIRLINES ARE hiring. Train for high paying aviation maintenance career. FAA approved program. Financial aid if qualified. Job placement assistance. Aviation Institute of Maintenance, 888-349-5387.

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PUBLIC WORKS Director. Fulltime position would directly supervise and assist all Public Works employees & departments. Water/wastewater certifications preferred, not required. Benefits. Send resume to City of Ravenna, PO Box 108, Ravenna, NE 68869 or 308-452-3273. EOE. WANTED: JD Technicians. Send resume to Plains Power & Equipment, PO Box 465, Geneva, NE, 68361 or call Steve at 1-800-247-8866.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

March 21, 2008