Sponsored by the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Endowment Fund AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA
Marina Sadofsky to receive Sokolof Outstanding Jewish Teacher Award
April 6, 2012 14 Nisan 5772 Vol. 92 | No. 29
This Week
JCC Gallery to feature “Butterfly Facts and Mythology” exhibit Page 4
Beth El religious school students enjoy Passover fun Page 6
by MARY BORT Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation When you meet Marina Sadofsky for the first time, you realize that she is someone special. The fact that she was born in Russia and immigrated to the United States to start a new life is only part of her unique life story. She also has a “spark” that draws others to listen and learn from her. She has the experience, creativity and passion that come with being an outstanding educator. Sadofsky has been selected to receive the 7th annual Phil and Ruth Sokolof Outstanding Jewish Teacher Award. The late Phil Sokolof created this $10,000 award to recognize an Omaha metro area educator, preferably K-12, who has made an outstanding contribution as a teacher and mentor to his or her students. In Saint Petersburg, Russia, Sadofsky dealt with the hardships and discrimination that came with being Jewish in the communist country. After a year of training, Sadofsky began teaching at a Kindergarten school when she was only 17 years old. “In Russia, ‘Kindergarten’ is the
Marina Sadofsky with some of her students at Bryan Middle School. first four years of school,” she explained. “I then became the principal and did that for 16 years.” Sadofsky ended up in Omaha thanks to a promise that the late Sol Parsow made to his mother – promising to try and find family members in Russia and bring them to the U.S.
Ruth Rosenfeld to speak at Omaha Holocaust Commemoration Toulouse attack leaves French Jewish community shaken Page 20
Inside Point of view Synagogues In memoriam
Next Month Mother’s Day See Front Page stories and more at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on Jewish Press
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by HILLARY FLETCHER Marketing Assistant, Institute for Holocaust Education Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, will be observed on Wednesday, April 18. Events will include a community commemoration service and high school program, both taking place at Beth El synagogue. The high school Yom HaShoah program will begin at 5:30 p.m. and is open to all local Jewish high school students. The community commemoration will begin at 7 p.m. and is open to the public. Yom Hashoah programming is presented by the Institute for Holocaust Education, the Jewish Federation, Beth Israel, Beth El and Temple Israel synagogues. Each year Yom HaShoah programming features a special area of focus. This year’s focus will concentrate on the Righteous Among the Nations, which is an honorary title
given to non-Jews who risked their lives performing courageous acts in order to save Jewish people during the Holocaust. Ruth Rosenfeld, a child survivor of the Holocaust and
Dr. Gerald and Ruth Rosenfeld mother of JCC Omaha Executive Director Aaron Rosenfeld will be the guest speaker. Rosenfeld will share her testimony following the candle lighting at the community commemoration. Born in Wadowice, Poland, Ruth Rosenfeld was orphaned before the age of three. She has previously explained her early childhood during the Holocaust as follows: “We remained in the ghetto until August, 1943, when the Germans liquidated the ghetto. As the aktion Continued on page 3
Sadofsky’s mother and Parsow’s mother were first cousins. “Sol and Lee Jane Parsow found us and helped us come to the U.S.,” said Sadofsky. “My nine-year-old daughter, Katya, and I arrived in Omaha in 1990. I am very grateful to the Parsow family, the Kaslow family, Shirley
Goldstein, the Jewish Federation of Omaha and so many other people for everything they did to help me and other Jewish immigrants from Russia. I’m so appreciative.” After arriving in Omaha, she studied the English language for four months and then began her 22 year career with Omaha Public Schools (OPS) as an assistant teacher at the before-and-after school program at Sunny Slope Elementary School. She also taught the Russian language at Metropolitan Community College, and later, at Burke and Central High Schools. In 1993, Sadofsky was hired as a full-time teacher, traveling between Burke, Central and South High Schools. After earning her teaching endorsement, Sadofsky received an endorsement in Industrial Technology in 1997 and was transferred to Bryan Middle School. “I chose Industrial Technology because I’ve always been a ‘hands on’ type of person,” noted Sadofsky. “While OPS initially was interested in my ability to teach Russian, they appreciated my teaching abilities Continued on page 2
Joel Gordon to deliver keynote presentation at Arab Spring workshop by MOSHE GERSHOVICH, PHD opments in geographic subunits The Middle East Project Fund at (such as North Africa and Egypt, UNO is proud to host a one-day Turkey and Iran) as well as a thescholarly workshop marking one matic panel on the impact of the year from the start of the series of demonstrations and protest movements throughout North Africa and the Middle East, commonly termed the Arab Spring. The event will take place on Sunday, April 15, at the CPACS building on the UNO campus. Cospon-soring the workshop are the UNO College of Arts and Sciences, the History Depart-ment and its Charles and Mary Martin Fund, the Islamic Studies Program and the Natan and Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies. The event is free and open to UNO students and members of the greater Omaha community. The Workshop will feature Dr. Joel Gordon at an Afghani tomb. presentations by twelve scholars of “Arab Spring” on religious and eththe contemporary Middle East and nic minorities. Of special interest related areas who are teaching at to members of the Jewish commuUNO, UNL, Creighton, as well as nity of Omaha should be the panel the University of Denver, Wichita exploring reactions to the regional University State, and the Univer- turmoil among Israelis and sity of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Palestinians. For a complete These presentations and follow-up schedule of these panels and titles discussions will be framed in five of the presentations, go to panels representing recent devel- Continued on page 3
2 | The Jewish Press | April 6, 2012
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Continued from page 1 and supported my interest in Industrial Arts.� Sadofsky teaches the Technology and Living course at Bryan Middle School. The course gives students the opportunity to apply math, reading, writing and listening skills in a unique hands-on lab setting featuring 24 work stations. A colleague noted that Sadofsky is “...an outstanding teacher who uses her experience to provide useful tips, lesson plans and worksheets to creatively teach her students year after year. She makes learning exciting. Mrs. Sadofsky creates an atmosphere in her class that motivates her students to strive for a better grade, better behavior and to be a better character.� “It’s a vocational education course,� explained Sadofsky. “My students will tell you that I emphasize business manners, business attitude and business behavior. The course is hands on; students apply what they learn, working at a series of stations. It’s important to teach them to do research, learning skills and listening skills. They learn the basics of technology that can be used in different careers.� Sadofsky also draws from her experience as an immigrant. “I tell my students that this is the way the business world is; that you work with people from many different places with different accents,� she stated. “And saying the ‘Pledge of Allegiance,’ they see it on my face that what we’re saying is important, that it’s a part of me.� Sadofsky’s students signed a recommendation letter describing her as organized and inspirational, and that they enjoy her classes. “She is incredibly nice and you can really tell she cares about the subject and all of her students,� they wrote. “Mrs. Sadofsky always meets us in the classroom with a positive attitude and a smile. And she has this way to move the student in the right direction to figure out the correct answer.� Parents described Sadofsky as an enthusiastic educator who considers their perspectives. “She knows that every parent has high hopes, valid concerns and great expectations for their child,� they wrote in a recommendation letter.
“She sees parents as an integral and vital part of the child’s education. What makes Mrs. Sadofsky really stand out is that she believes in her students; she tugs and pushes and leads them to the next plateau.� Another teacher wrote, “She is able to connect with her students and build relationships with them. Mrs. Sadofsky sees each student as an individual with hopes, dreams and personal strengths. By setting high expectations in her classroom for each and every child, Mrs. Sadofsky motivates her students and helps them succeed.� Sadofsky’s colleagues describe her as a wonderful educator who challenges students and successfully accommodates different learning styles. “One of my favorite things about teaching is creating curriculum and enhancing the program according to how kids can perceive it and be successful,� she stated. “I want to make a difference with my teaching.� She also appreciates the assistance that other teachers provided to her. “I received help learning computers and learning how things are done in America,� said Sadofsky. “And I’m grateful to OPS for hiring me and for being interested in my ability to teach.� “I’m so happy to say I’m Jewish and that I live in America,� she continued. “I was able to bring family here. It’s exciting to do this for people because it was done for me. I say ‘work hard and pay back.’� When she isn’t teaching, preparing for classes or grading, Sadofsky likes to travel with her husband, Mike. She also enjoys spending time with her daughter, her step-daughters and their families. Visiting with grandchildren is a great joy. “I am so happy to receive this award,� she stated. “It is a fantastic feeling. I wanted to make the most of my opportunity to come to America. I’m very grateful.� Sadofsky will be honored along with the winners of the Sokolof Merit Scholarships and the Sokolof Javitch Merit Music Scholarships at the Jewish Community Center on Sunday, April 15 at 2 p.m., following the play, Rachel and Ruthie. The community is invited to attend.
The story of Titanic survivors Leah and ‘Filly’ Aks by MARSHALL WEISS Leah searched the deck until someone urged or pushed her (The Dayton Jewish Observer) -- When Titanic departed into lifeboat 13. She sat in the middle of the Atlantic with 63 on its first and last voyage from Southampton, England on others in number 13, a broken woman. Hours after Titanic Wednesday, April 10, 1912, 18-year-old Jewish immigrant went down and the cries for help from those dying in the Leah Aks and her 10-month-old son, Philip were on board. water faded away, the liner Carpathia arrived at daybreak. Passover had concluded the day before. On sailing day, Leah searched the deck of Carpathia in vain for her baby. Leah was pleased to find that the third class was not com- Despondent, she took to a mattress for two days. Titanic pletely booked; she and Philip had a cabin all to themselves. survivor Selena Cook urged Leah to come up on deck for air. Leah was born in Warsaw, When she did, she heard Poland. In London, she had Filly’s cry. met Sam Aks, a tailor who Unknown to Leah, Filly had was also from Warsaw. They fallen into lifeboat number were married there. 11, right into another “In London he was barely woman’s arms. In Geller’s making a living,� wrote Valery account, the woman is preBazarov, historian for the sumed to have been Italian Hebrew Immigrant Aid immigrant Argene del Carlo. Society, in a piece about the Her husband was not permitfamily for HIAS. “A cousin ted to follow the pregnant who lived in America visited Argene into the lifeboat. him in London and told him “Argene shared her warmth that if he came to America with Filly through the long he’d make money very quicknight,� Geller writes. “Toward ly. So he came over, got a job morning she began to believe Titanic survivors Leah and 'Filly' Aks. and soon saved enough that God had sent this child Credit: John P. Eaton-Charles A. Haas Titanic Collection money to bring Mrs. Aks and to her as a replacement for the baby over.� Sebastino (her husband) and a brother for the child she carSam settled in Norfolk, Va. and entered the scrap metal ried in her womb.� business. In Titanic: Women and Children First, author On the deck of Carpathia, the woman who had cared for Judith B. Geller indicates that all the money Sam earned was Filly since Titanic sank refused to give Leah the child. used for Leah and “Filly’s� trip to join him. Their arrival in Leah appealed to the Carpathia’s captain, Arthur Roston, Norfolk would mark the first time Sam would meet his son. now put in the role of King Solomon. Though Leah and Filly were booked onto an earlier ship, In an e-mail interview with The Observer, Gilbert Binder, Bazarov explained that Leah’s mother convinced her to wait the husband of Leah’s late granddaughter, Rebecca, a week and travel on Titanic, considered the world’s safest described what happened next. liner. Binder said that Filly was returned to Leah because “she Four days into their journey, after the ship struck an ice- identified him as a Jewish baby and he was circumcised. The berg, Leah and Filly followed other third-class passengers to (other) woman was Catholic and Italian and her male child the bottom of the third-class staircase at the rear of the ship. would not have been circumcised.� At 12:30 p.m., the crew permitted women and children in After their arrival in New York, Leah and Filly were taken this group to make their way to the boat deck. When crew to HIAS’ shelter and remained there until Sam could come members saw that Leah and Filly couldn’t get through the for them. crowd up the stairs, they carried the two. Leah and Filly “Leah Aks gave birth to a baby girl nine months after made it to the boat deck, part of the first-class area of the arriving in this country and intended to name her Sara ship. Madeline Astor, the young wife of millionaire John Carpathia,� in honor of the rescue ship, Binder explained. Jacob Astor, covered Filly’s head with her silk scarf. “The nuns at the hospital in Norfolk, Va. got confused and According to Bazarov, a distraught man -- who had been named the baby Sara Titanic Aks. I have a copy of her birth rebuffed by the crew when he attempted to get into a lifeboat certificate.� Sara was Binder’s mother-in-law. -- ran up to Leah and said, “I’ll show you women and chilLeah lived until 1967; her son, Filly, until 1991. dren first!� Marshall Weiss is the editor and publisher of The Dayton The man grabbed Filly and threw him overboard. Jewish Observer.
April 6, 2012 | The Jewish Press | 3
Omaha Holocaust Commemoration Continued from page 1 [round up] began, my father Arik hid with Halinka [my sister] and me in a small space he had created in the attic of a building. It was extremely hot in the attic and we had to remain absolutely quiet. I don’t know why my mother, Sala, did not go into hiding with us. Instead, my mother, my grandmother Renee, my grandfather David, my Aunt Rosa, and my Uncle Aaron were taken to Auschwitz where they were murdered.” Ruth Rosenfeld and her sister Halinka (Helen) survived the Nazi horrors by each hiding with a different Christian family who put their own lives in jeopardy to care for the girls. She recalled being hidden in attics, under floorboards, and in barrels of poppy seeds to elude the Nazis. In 1949, after spending three years in a number of orphanages, Ruth and her sister were brought to America and placed with an adoring adoptive family. Ruth, who married Dr. Gerald Rosenfeld in 1962, has three children and six grandchildren. She has been a volunteer for many communal organizations in her home state of New Jersey, including Monmouth Mental Health Services. She also served as president of the Jewish Federation of Monmouth County. Ruth received the Hannah G. Solomon Award from National Council of Jewish Women as the founder of “Project Understanding,” which is a dialogue group between Arabs and Jews. In 2010, Ruth and her family traveled to Poland to take part in a ceremony recognizing her rescuer, Julia Wala, as a Righteous Among the Nations. A short video highlighting her reunion with the members of her Righteous Among the Nations family will be shown at the community commemoration. Ruth will also speak on Tuesday, April 17 at 10:30 a.m. at the Durham Museum. This talk is free and open to the public. Additional Yom HaShoah commemora-
tions will also be taking place throughout the month of April. The Nebraska State Yom HaShoah Commemoration will be held on Sunday, April 15 at 3 p.m. at the Capitol Rotunda. Guests will include Nebraska State Senator John Nelson, and UNL professor of history Gerald Steinacher, who received the National Jewish Book Award in 2011. On Thursday April 19 the docudrama stage production, The Trial of Franklin D. Roosevelt, will be presented at 7 p.m. in the Harper Center on the Creighton University campus. The Trial of Franklin D. Roosevelt explores the forces that influenced
Roosevelt’s policies on Jews seeking refuge in America. One such example was with the S.S. St. Louis, a transatlantic liner on which over 900 Jewish men, women and children fled to Cuba in order to avoid persecution. Their plans were destroyed when politics and immigration laws left them adrift at sea for 30 days. Eventually they were denied entrance into Cuba, Canada and the United States, and were sent back to Germany – a death sentence for many of them. Four survivors of the S.S. St. Louis will attend this performance. On Friday, April 20, the four survivors of the S.S. St. Louis will provide their testimo-
ny during a talk at the Durham Museum at 10:30 a.m. Please contact the Durham at 402.444.5071 for reservations. The public is also invited to visit the Nebraska Holocaust Memorial at Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, NE, and the exhibit, Searching for Humanity: Veterans, Victims and Survivors of World War II at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, NE. These sites are open year round. For more information on any of these events, please contact the Institute for Holocaust Education at www.info@ihene. org or 402.334.6576.
Arab Spring workshop Continued from page 1 http://www.unomaha.edu/history/arabspring.php. Capping the day's deliberations will be a keynote presentation titled Tahrir Square: One Year and Counting, delivered by Joel Gordon, Professor of History and Director of the King Fahd Center of Middle East Studies at the University of Arkansas. A native of Chicago – south side – Gordon received his MA from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and his PhD in History from the University of Michigan. He joined the University of Arkansas faculty in 1999. Before then, he had taught for two years at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Professor Gordon writes on modern Egyptian history and popular culture in the Arab Middle East, especially Arab cinema. He is the author of three books: Nasser’s Blessed Movement: Egypt’s Free Officers and the July Revolution (1992), Revolutionary Melodrama: Popular Film in Nasser’s Egypt (2002), and Nasser: Hero of the Arab Nation (2006).
JMR Productions Presents
Rachel and Ruthie Written by Karen Sokolof Javitch Featuring: Danielle Burr as Rachel Becca Zaretzsky as Ruthie Grace Bydalek as Sarah
Sunday, April 15, 2012 | 2:00 pm Immediately followed by the Sokolof Scholarship Awards Jewish Community Center
The Middle East Project Fund, which was created in 2010 thanks to a generous donation made by Charles J. Mikhail, an Attorneyat-Law from Biloxi, Mississippi. A native of Ramallah in the West Bank, Mikhail has
Charles Mikhail and Moshe Gershovich become a major donor to UNO and to the Schwalb Center. The Middle East Project Fund is designed to encourage and enhance teaching, research, and scholarship related to the study of the modern Middle East. In February 2011, the Fund sponsored a panel
discussion on the crisis in Egypt and two months later it hosted the visit to UNO of Dr. Bill Lawrence, a specialist on North African history and politics who at the time was working at the US Department of State in Washington DC. The purpose of the workshop on the first anniversary of the “Arab Spring” is twofold. First of all, we seek to reevaluate the changes that have been reshaping the region and examine the ways these changes have affected US relations with its societies. Secondly, we hope to establish a network of academics from across the Midwest who will form asustainable core of researchers capable of enlightening our community aboutchanges in that part of the world, which remains so vital for our national security. Moshe Gershovich serves as Professor of History at UNO. He is the Director of the Middle East Project Fund and Special Projects Coordinator for the Natan and Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies.
Congratulations to the Winners of the Seventh Annual Sokolof Awards Phil and Ruth Sokolof Honor Roll Fund $10,000 Merit Scholarship – College David Glazer Westside High School
Lilly Phillips Westside High School
$10,000 Merit Scholarship – Health Care Rick Emas MMC Respiratory Therapy Program
Samantha Kenik Creighton University Pharmacy School
$10,000 Outstanding Jewish Teacher Award Marina Sadofsky Bryan Middle School
Karen Sokolof Javitch Music Fund Merit Scholarship Caroline Juster Northwestern University
Arthur Masyuk Indiana University
The recipients will be recognized following the 30-minute play, Rachel and Ruthie, which will be performed at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 15 at the JCC. A reception honoring the recipients will follow the concert.
Rachel and Ruthie is the poignant story of two
Recipients will be profiled in the Jewish Press
21 year-old college students who discover they have an inexplicable bond. This riveting show will bring tears to your eyes & inspire you to reach out to your loved ones. Sponsored by the Sokolof/Javitch Funds at the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation
Jay Noddle, President Martin C. Ricks, Executive Director
4 | The Jewish Press | April 6, 2012
Eadie Tsabari named Beth El’s Director of Congregational Learning by JILL BELMONT Year award; she has also been honored as the Volunteer of the Beth El Publicity Coordinator Year at the Jewish Community Center, and recognized at Beth After years on the faculty at Beth El’s Talmud Torah, Eadie El for her outstanding contributions to the congregation. Tsabari will take the helm as the Director of Congregational Bev Fellman, president of Beth El’s Board of Trustees, Learning at the synagogue, beginning in June. Tsabari takes noted the infectious enthusiasm Tsabari shares with stuover from BESTT Director dents, plus her love of Jewish Judy Bisman Haven, who is education. retiring at the end of this “Eadie Tsabari is a teacher’s school year. teacher,” Fellman said. “She The newly-established has the know-how of position of Director of approaching every age group. Congregational Learning This is not a job to her, but a oversees educational propassion! I have seen her teach gramming for all ages at Beth a class of youngsters where El, from pre-kindergartenshe had every student aged children through adults, involved and following her as well as the synagogue’s direction. I could readily see three youth groups. Coming that she was enjoying being to the job, Tsabari said her with these young people. I goal “is to make sure people have also seen her lead servicare getting what they need. I es, playing her guitar to Flanked by some of her BESTT students, Tsabari says she want to bring people in who accompany some prayers. looks forward to taking the helm as Beth El’s Director of normally wouldn’t come in to Bringing musical skills with Congregational Learning this coming June. take a class and see what it her will mean reaching peotakes to entice them. ple through singing and musical participation. “I want to make Jewish education a priority in people’s lives “Every time I see Eadie’s name in a program, I know I again: a priority over sports and other activities that we are so want to be there, and so do our young congregants,” she involved in today,” she continued. “By making programming added. “I think she will have a similar impact on other that’s interesting, by making programs that are inclusive and members of every age.” educational, we can encourage people in a friendly way to be For her part, Tsabari says she is excited to work with Beth more Jewish, or more learned about their own religion.” El’s children in her new capacity, and would like to make Tsabari’s dedication to Jewish education is unquestionably Hebrew school more experiential. long standing: in addition to teaching at Beth El for over 20 “I’m so whipped up about this group of kids – we have the years, she leads Junior Congregation for second to seventh- coolest kids!” she said. “They’re committed and they’re very grade children, and leads Simchat Shabbat, one of the syna- excited to be there [at Beth El]; they’re ready, they’re willing, gogue’s alternative Shabbat celebrations. In addition, she has they want to learn, they want to be Jewish, and they’re very spent the past six years at the Friedel Jewish Academy, where sweet. she teaches Hebrew in the school’s immersion program. “Whether children or adults, I’m looking forward to (Tsabari said that even with her new job, she will continue working with all of our congregants, and am committed to teaching a morning class at Friedel.) making sure that we offer the very best programming to In 2011, she was the recipient of the Sokolof Teacher of the everyone.”
LOVE is in bloom for Mother’s Day What woman doesn’t LOVE beautiful flowers? Take advantage of the selection that LOVE will once again have available at their annual Mother’s Day Flower Sale. This sale will benefit the Residents of the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home and your mother. This year you can choose from: an African violet for $8, a
Gerbera Daisy or Begonia for $15 or an elegant Hydrangea for $40. New this year will be a single Mylar balloon, to add to your plant, for $2 ea, or a balloon bouquet for $12. Deadline for placing orders is Friday, April 20. To receive an order form, please call Lois Wine at 402.334.6519
JCC Gallery this April: Al Rhea – “Butterfly Facts and Mythology” by LYNN BATTEN Publicity and Gallery Manager Local artist, Al Rhea shows “Butterfly Facts and Mythology” during the month of April in the JCC Gallery. These large photos of butterflies set in the backdrop of their habitat represent how fragile our planet is. Environmentalists know that because the butterfly is so
Habitat-San-Francisco fragile it is an important indicator of the entire ecosystem – and that includes humans. The butterfly is a symbol of the fertility of the earth. Born out of the caterpillar in the chrysalis, butterflies were a symbol of rebirth, regeneration, happiness, and joy to Native Americans. Metamorphosis of butterflies is one of the mysteries of nature. The JCC Gallery is open Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. - 9 p.m., Friday: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sunday: 11: a.m. - 5 p.m. For more information contact Lynn Batten, Gallery Manager, at 402.334.6564.
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April 6, 2012 | The Jewish Press | 5
Schwalb Center presents Israeli cinema by MOSHE GERSHOVICH, PHD In April 2012, the Natan and Hannah Schwalb center for Israel and Jewish Studies at the University of Nebraska – Omaha (UNO), in collaboration with Film Streams, will present a three film series of contemporary Israeli cinema. The presentation is
onto the Academy Award short list for best documentary film. Medalia received the 2004 Angelus Award for directing the student film, Daughters of Abraham. Her first feature documentary, To Die in Jerusalem, has garnered many prestigious awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award and three
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high school seniors and parents funded in part by a gift from Ms. Tammy Rubin Abramowitz in memory of her father, Abner Rubin, through the University of Nebraska Foundation. All films will feature post-show discussions, including one with the director in person. The series is part of Film Stream’s Community Development Program, which facilitates partnerships with other nonprofits and community groups for film-related events. The goal of the Schwalb center is to expand knowledge about Judaism and Israel, both on the university campus and in the broader Nebraska community. A special screening of director Yossi Madmoni’s 2011 Sundance Award-winning drama Restoration, will be held on Thursday, April 12, at 7 p.m. Yossi Madmoni’s first feature yields a complex set of frayed character relations for which Restoration proves an apt metaphor. Marked by restrained writing, which leaves significant details open to interpretation, Restoration depicts the rich texture of modern Israeli society. The post-show discussion will be led by Dr. Ran Kuttner of the Werner Institute at Creighton University School of Law. The following week, Thursday April 19, at 7 p.m., there will be a special screening of the 2010 documentary Happy You’re Alive, featuring a post-show Q&A with director Hilla Medalia. Happy You’re Alive follows the lives of two men struggling after their encounters with war, documenting the tragedy of battle in the West Bank and the repercussions that war inflicts upon society, which raises questions and awareness. Hilla Medalia is a Peabody Award Winner, Israeli Producer and Director. After graduating from Southern Illinois University in 2004, she has worked in various positions including senior producer of the award-winning documentary 39 Pounds of Love. The film won the 2005 Ophir Award (Israeli Oscar) and made it
Emmy Award nominations. Medalia also directed After the Storm (2009), a collaboration with Rosie O’Donnell and the Priddy Brothers dealing with Hurricane Katrina. The final film presentation will occur on Thursday, April 26, at 7 p.m. and features a special preview screening of director Joseph Cedar’s 2012 Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Footnote. Footnote is the tale of a great rivalry between a father and son, both eccentric professors, who have dedicated their lives to their work in Talmudic Studies. The father, Eliezer, is a stubborn purist who fears the establishment and has never been recognized for his work. His son, Uriel, is an up-and-coming star in the field, endlessly seeking recognition. Then one day the tables turn. Uriel, thrilled to see his father’s achievements finally recognized, must choose between the advancement of his own career or his father’s. Will he sabotage his father’s glory? The postshow discussion will be led by Dr. Moshe Gershovich from UNO. Daily screenings of Footnote at Film Streams’ Ruth Sokolof Theater will start in May. Tickets for all three screenings in the series will be $9 general, $7 for seniors, students, teachers, military and those arriving by bicycle, and $4.50 for Film Streams members. Advance tickets can be purchased now at www.filmstreams.org or at the box office inside Film Stream’s Ruth Sokolof Theater. Given the popularity of these events, we urge you to purchase your tickets ahead of the screening dates. All films will be screened in Hebrew with English subtitles. Moshe Gershovich serves as Professor of History at UNO. He is the Director of the Middle East Project Fund and Special Projects Coordinator for the Natan and Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies. He can be reached by email: mgershovich@unomaha.edu.
we will be publishing our annual high school graduation class pages on june 1, 2012. to be included, we need your graduation photo and the information below. you can also email your information and photo to: jpress@jewish omaha.org.
high school senior information name _______________________________ parent(s)’ name(s) _______________________________ current high school _______________________________ college you plan to attend _______________________________ send by may 7 to: the jewish press | 333 So. 132 St. | omaha, ne 68154
At Magen David Adom, they’re not always saving lives. Sometimes they’re delivering them.
U.S. Congressional candidates to speak at Temple Israel by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator Temple Israel’s Men of Reform Judaism (MRJ) has invited two candidates for U.S. Congress to speak to the community. Dan Marburg, MRJ president, expects the candidates to discuss thought-provoking topics in a comfortable setting. John Ewing, a Democrat, has been a public servant for more than 29 years as a police officer, minister, and Douglas County treasurer. He’ll be at Temple Israel on Sunday, April 15 at 10 a.m. When he was sworn in as treasurer in 2007, Ewing was the first African-American to be elected countywide in Nebraska history. His office has been recognized by the National
Association of Counties for providing effective and efficient services as well as conserving costs for the county’s taxpayers. Republican Lee Terry, who will be at Temple Israel on Sunday, April 22 at 10 a.m., has been the second congressional district’s representative since 1999. He currently serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee and is an advocate for energy independence, ending legal abortions, and a balanced federal budget. Prior to being elected to Congress, he served eight years on the Omaha City Council and two terms as its president. Members of the community are welcome to attend both discussions.
Yocheved’s twins couldn’t wait until the ambulance arrived at the hospital, so a Magen David Adom paramedic and two 16-year-old volunteers delivered the babies en route. The 10,000 maternity cases MDA handles annually aren’t always so dramatic, but more than 100 of these babies had to be delivered before they reached the hospital. Every one of them is a gift. Give the gift of life and donate today.
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6 | The Jewish Press | April 6, 2012
Beth El students enjoy Passover fun during religious school
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Beth El’s Talmud Torah students got an early taste of Passover as they were treated to special holiday activities recently during religious school. Clockwise from above: Students learn about Passover rituals during a model Seder; Preston Gordman and Courtney Schwarz join in a rousing rendition of Dayenu; and teacher’s assistant Aleks Salkin, second from right, helps students find answers to holiday questions as they participate in educational Passover activity stations.
April Mainstreeters programs offer appealing choices
We do everything from the concrete to the roof
by OZZIE NOGG Mainstreeters -- the fun-filled organization for Jewish residents of the Omaha area age 60 and older -- is keeping its promise: to offer a range of learning opportunities that give participants the chance to meet new people, exercise their brains, take part in new activities and continue enjoying life to the fullest. The list of upcoming events has something for everyone. Fused Glass Project with Larry Budwig. Wednesday, April 25, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the RBJH Board Room. Are you curious as to what this popular medium called fused glass is all about? Amazed by the colors? Students in Larry’s workshop will design a 6x6 inch plate and a jewelry pendant. The $20 fee includes instruction and all materials plus firing. Come join us for fun and creativity -- all while learning something new and enjoying the company of other fused-glass enthusiasts. But beware. It’s addictive. Reservations are appreciated by Friday, April 20th. Please make checks payable to Jewish Social Services and mail to: MAINstreeters c/o Maggie Conti, 323 South 132 Street, Omaha, NE 68154. More details are available from Rocky Stern. 402.393.4952. A free afternoon at the movies: Hugo. Friday, April 27, 1:30 p.m. in the JCC Theater. Winner of five Academy Awards, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Ben Kingsley and Sacha Baron Cohen, Hugo is the astonishing
adventure of a wily and resourceful orphan boy who lives in the walls of a 1930s train station. His quest to unlock a secret left to him by his father will transform Hugo and all those around him, and reveal a safe and loving place he can call home. Free popcorn, warm and delicious, will be served. No reservations needed. Invite a friend. If you’d like to have lunch -on your own -- at the Star Deli in the RBJH before the movie, call Maggie Conti at 402-334-6521 to reserve a table. The Star Deli opens for business at 11:30 a.m. Free Poker class every Tuesday: runs from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the Husker Lounge on Mainstreet at the Blumkin Home. Shawn Menagh, poker enthusiast and volunteer at the Home, is your instructor. Sit down with Shawn and learn the lingo, the rules and basic strategies of this popular game including the poker hand rankings, how and when to bet, and when to bluff. Note: The class is having so much fun, no one wants to stop. Call Maggie Conti, 402.334.6521, to save your seat at the table. If you have questions, please call Rocky Stern at 402.343.4952. “It’s wonderful to see so many different Mainstreeters programs taking place on Campus,” Conti said. “We invite all of you to join in the excitement.”
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by ILANA WEISS This April, students in Fifth and Sixth grade are invited to participate in a special educational program: the Historical Jewish Omaha Tour. Made possible by a grant from the Herbert Goldsten Trust, and brought to the community by Beth El Synagogue, Beth Israel Synagogue, Temple Israel, Friedel Jewish Academy and the Center for Jewish Education, students, teachers and selected chaperones will take a “virtual tour” to learn about the rich history of the Omaha Jewish community. The program will utilize a multimedia approach, including an interactive activity and the use of computer resources and visuals to see sites of interest in the history of the Omaha Jewish community. Students will also be divided into groups and guided by docents from the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society to explore three areas located on the Jewish Community Center campus: the mikvah, the historical picture gallery and the Riekes Museum. This program was developed after the success of the 2010 Synagogue Mystery Tour during which first and second graders toured the various Omaha synagogues and learned
about the uniqueness of each synagogue and the similarities between them all. The Historical Jewish Omaha Tour takes things a step further to encourage students to recognize how the Omaha Jewish community has maintained its dedication to our religion upon which our current synagogues have been built. Judy Haven, Education Director at Beth El who, on behalf of the community, wrote the grant to fund the program noted, “This program will demonstrate to students that they ‘stand upon the shoulders’ of those who came before them. They are the recipients of a rich heritage that was founded by those visionary Jews who settled in Omaha in the 1800s and it will become their responsibility to pass on this heritage and its institutions to their children.” The Historical Jewish Omaha Tour is open to all Jewish students in Fifth and Sixth grade and will take place on April 29, from 10 a.m. – noon. Students will gather in the auditorium of the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. Information and registration forms will be made available at synagogue religious schools and at Friedel Jewish Academy. For more information, contact Ilana Weiss at weiss.ilana@yahoo.com.
To order a gift subscription to the Press... Send a check for $30, made out to the Jewish Press and prorated for the year, to 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154. For more information on how to connect your out-of-town relatives and friends, call 402.334.6448.
April 6, 2012 | The Jewish Press | 7
Get your mind in control ADL works to educate community on immigration and education issues by LIZZY GILBERT Corporate & Community Development, ADL The issues of immigration and education intersect in America’s communities. What role can a school play in creating an inclusive community? How can a school be sure that it is providing all students with a proper education? The Anti-Defamation League has recently showcased a documentary that begins to address some of these questions. When We Stop Counting, a documentary filmed in Crete, Nebraska, follows six Hispanic high school students through their personal struggles and triumphs while bearing the pressure of their parents’ backbreaking sacrifice in hopes of achieving the American Dream. An influx of immigrants to a small community presents new and unique challenges to local school districts. Subjects like assimilation and prejudice can emerge in light of such demographic changes. Throughout the film, administration, faculty and scholars examine how schools can serve both the students and the community. On March 13, the ADL held a third screening of the film for a packed house at Aksarben Cinema, a mainstream commercial theater with a commitment to using their facilities as a community gathering place. Previous screenings have been held at Film Streams and the Jewish Community Center Theater. The event began with a networking reception at 6:30 p.m. in Aksarben Cinema’s lounge area. Mayor Jim Suttle, as well as
Learning Community Representative Lorraine Chang, were in attendance. Following the film, co-director Elisabeth Reinkordt, Crete Public Schools Superintendent Kyle McGowan, Crete Bilingual Guidance Counselor Karen Buchfinck, and Crete High Alum profiled in
the film, Marco Ortiz, participated in a panel discussion with the audience. Attendees asked questions of the panel about the tone of acceptance within the school hallways, how language barriers are handled, and the types of obstacles some immigrant students face in their pursuit to attend college. “Crete and Omaha are very different communities, and yet, we can learn a lot from the educational model that Crete has used,” remarked Alan Potash, ADL Regional Director. “The fact that the screening sold out is a demonstration of Omahans’ interest in immigration and education issues,” he said. If you were unable to attend these screenings, but would like to see the film, contact Lizzy Gilbert, Corporate & Community Development at the ADL, for a link to stream the film: egilbert@adl.org or 402.334.6582.
The Trial of Franklin D Roosevelt directed by Matt Karasek
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Creighton University will host an original docudrama about the 1939 voyage of the SS. St. Louis with four survivors taking part in the trial of FDR.
Thursday | April 19 | 7:30 p.m. Mike and Josie Harper Center Auditorium | 602 N. 20th St. It is free and open to the public and a reception will follow. For more information contact Pam Yenko, Administrative Assistant, Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization-Creighton University at 402.280.2303 or pyenko@creighton.edu.
The event is in partnership with the Institute for Holocaust Education and The Durham Museum.
by ANAT CABILI and ROCHI KATZMAN for Chabad Center Would you like to learn effective methods to deal with every day stress? The Chabad Center will host an engaging evening with Dr. Gill Heart on the subject of Mind in Control on April 16, at 6:30 p.m. Be sure to save the date! The event’s committee, Anat Cabili, Rochi Katzman, Lene Larson, Gill Heart, PhD and Bonnie Pfrenger are excited to welcome you for this experience. The event is dedicated in honor of the late Phil Schrager. “Phil was always looking for ways to enhance our day-to-day lives,” says Rabbi Mendel Katzman. “This is a very tangible way in which to honor his memory.” The presenter, Dr. Gill Heart, will share with the audience concepts and techniques on how to control emotional responses to daily stresses, professional or personal. His workshop is based on the Kabbalistic idea that we each have the capacity to control our response to stress. Heart will share how he has found this ancient teaching to be true, based on his experience in the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) as well as recent scientific research. Gil Heart, PhD, was born and raised in Israel. He served for over 6 years in an elite, Special Forces unit in the IDF. He received his PhD in Bio-Medical Engineering from London University, moved to the US and became an entrepreneur. Over the past 10
years Dr. Heart has been seriously studying Torah, Jewish mysticism, and Kabbalah. He implements Kabbalistic knowledge of how to control emotional responses to stress by utilizing the same Special Forces techniques he practiced during his service. About his IDF experience, Heart says: “I was in a unit that operates under extreme pressure, stress and risk. This is a unit that goes on reconnaissance missions beyond enemy lines, the same unit that carried out the Raid on Entebbe. These are highly trained professionals that have to operate calmly and perform their best, even when their lives are at risk,” says Heart. “Of course, as soldiers in this unit, one undergoes excellent physical training. However, being in shape only gets you part of the way.” Heart says he and fellow soldiers were constantly battling fear and anxiety. Other times, they were cold, tired or hungry. They needed their mind to make it through those situations, to control their responses to the stressors. In his presentation, Heart will share techniques similar to those he learned in his IDF service, coupled with concepts from Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah, and science. His interactive talk, relevant to everyone from moms to CEOs, students to parents, will include learning techniques and exercises that can help everyone to remain in control during stressful, everyday life events. These would help the participant make rapid improvements in their personal and professional performance. The event will take place at Chabad, 1866 South 120th Street on April 16, at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults for reservation in advance and $15 at the door. Student admission is $7. For more information, visit: ochabad.com or call Chabad 402.330.1800.
8 | The Jewish Press | April 6, 2012
Creighton hosts docudrama on the April 16 Mainstreeters luncheon Tragic 1939 voyage of the SS. St. Louis offers something to chew on by Pam Yenko inform and educate audiences about historOn April 19, Holocaust Remembrance ical justice and the need to look beyond conDay, Creighton University, in collaboration ventional wisdom to find the root causes of with the Omaha Jewish Community, will anti-Semitism and racism. host an original docudrama about the 1939 He is a graduate of Georgetown Univ. Law voyage of the SS St. Louis at 7:30 p.m. in the School. His strong interest in the criminal auditorium of the Mike and Josie Harper Center located at 602 N. 20th St. A reception will follow. The event, in partnership with the Institute for Holocaust Education and The Durham Museum, is free and open to the public. Written by Robert M. Krakow, the docudrama The Trial of Franklin D. Roosevelt, tells the story of the more than 900 Jewish men, women and children who were adrift at sea for 30 days and denied Jewish refugees aboard the SS St. Louis in Cuba. credit: en.wikipedia.org entrance to Cuba and then the United States after President Franklin D. law process has influenced his creative choicRoosevelt said the U.S. had reached its es. While practicing law, Robert was also a immigration quota. They were sent back to member of the adjunct faculty at American Germany, which for many was a death sen- Univ. and Catholic Univ. Graduate School. tence. On Friday, April 20 at 10:30 a.m., The Today there are only 60 survivors world- Durham Museum will host a special prowide. Four of them will be at Creighton to gram presented by Herbert Karliner, Philip take part in the docudrama of the trial of Freud, Hans Fisher, and Sol Messinger, four FDR, which will be directed by Creighton of the survivors of the SS St. Louis. Due to Fine Arts graduate Matt Karasek. limited seating, reservations are required. Archival exhibits from the voyage, includ- Please call 402.444.5071 or email reservaing the original Senate Resolution 111 that tions@DurhamMuseum.org. Cost of was signed in 2009 by the survivors, will be admission applies and members are free. on display as well. For additional events during the week of Krakow’s research, study and understand- Holocaust Commemoration please contact ing of Judaic history and religion drive his The Institute for Holocaust Education at approach to theater and film. His goal is to info@ihene.org.
by OZZIE NOGG Want to feed your tummy and your brain? Then plan to attend the Mainstreeters luncheon on Monday, April 16, when special guest Ruth Meints, Executive Director of the Omaha Conservatory of Music, speaks about the benefits of learning a new skill, no matter what your age. The lunch begins at 12:30 p.m. in the Rose Blumkin Home Auditorium. According to Ms. Meints, “Scientific research shows that when people learn a new skill, the white matter in their brains -- the myelin -- increases, even in adulthood. Each time you learn something new and each time you practice that skill, the learning cells in your brain thicken. A perfect example of this is the Myelin 4, a quartet of adult learners at the Omaha Conservatory of Music. Each of these adults -- two violinists, a cellist and a pianist -began to study their instruments only within the last few years, proving it’s never too late to study, learn, and strengthen one’s brain.” In addition to her position at the OCM, Ruth Meints is also a violin instructor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, teaches violin and viola in the metro area, and conducts various workshop orchestras throughout Nebraska. “The Omaha Conservatory of Music’s mission is to build an inspired artistic community through education and performance,” Meints explained. “We have a huge adult cello class and even an adult cello choir. We aim to create an environment that opens new pathways in the brain and motivates students of any age to reach their potential.”
Maggie Conti, Director of Activities and Outreach Programs, Jewish Social Services/ Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, said, “We’re delighted to have Ruth as our guest speaker on April 16. In addition to her presentation on the therapeutic benefits of adult learning, two of Ruth’s Conservatory students -Jehong and Jennifer Ahn -- will treat us to a mini concert. They are thrilling performers from Westside High School, and both are winners of Orchestra
Omaha’s Concerto Competition. They also placed in the National Concerto Competition this year, which included only nineteen participants from across the country. This educational, entertaining program is another example of Mainstreeters’ goal -to give members of our community the chance to meet new people, exercise their brains, learn new skills and enjoy life to the fullest.” Co-chairs of this Mainstreeters event are Shelley Stern and Linda AbramsTederman. Luncheon choices are Chicken Cacciatore or Salmon with Dijon butter sauce, both served with pasta. Entree includes mixed green salad, roasted asparagus, challah rolls, cannoli and beverage. Lunch is $11.50 a plate, and reservations are appreciated by Monday, April 9. For more information, call Maggie Conti at 402.334.6521.
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Jonathan Biss April 10, 2012
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April 6, 2012 | The Jewish Press | 9
Changes in governance spur individual participation by SHERRIE SAAG and Israel/Overseas. Communications Specialist, Jewish Federation of Omaha Those serving on the standing committees must be memNew by-laws were approved by the Jewish Federation of bers in good standing of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. In Omaha board at its Feb. 28 meeting. As reported earlier, the addition, each Federation Director will serve on at least one new by-laws include adoption of a governance structure rec- Standing Committee and at least two Board members will ommended by the Planning and Community Engagement serve on each committee. Committee intended to make the Federation more efficient, “Standing committees will be making recommendations responsive and representative in all its operations. directly to the Federation Board on programs, services and Changing the size of the activities directly affecting the Board and boosting individcommunity, so their work is ual board member responsicritical and of the highest bilities were key changes to importance,” Cohen-Dunning Federation governance. explained. Standing Committees Chief Executive Officer Executive Committee According to Bob Belgrade, Mike Silverman described Budget and Financial Review Committee chairman of the Planning and this move as “not only excit- Building and Grounds Committee Engagement Committee, this ing, but monumental.” system gives more people an Nominating Committee A change in term lengths Human Resources and Compensation Committee opportunity to provide input for board members (it is now Planning and Community Engagement Committee in areas of interest to them. a three year term) was anoth- Financial Resource Development Committee “This really gives a multitude er key element. Continuity Rabbis and Presidents Committee of ways to make a true contriand experience were parabution to the Jewish mount in the decision to lengthen the Board term. “Every Federation of Omaha. And the knowledge and expertise one year, one-third of the Board will end their term of service. chooses to donate to the community will be a meaningful This develops and ensures a base of knowledge and expert- and valuable use of their talents,” he said. ise and it means our professional staff can do a better job of Federation agencies will begin the process of re-writing providing critical and timely information to lay leadership,” their by-laws to be effective in January, 2013. Federation said Toba Cohen-Dunning, a member of the Planning and professionals have met with agency executives and presiCommunity Engagement Committee. dents to outline the common components of the Federation In addition to changes at the board level, the new struc- and agency by-laws. Each agency will soon receive a temture addresses the need for broad community-wide repre- plate from which to begin changes with the goal being consentation in the form of standing committees. sistency across agency lines. “Hopefully, the model adopted Dunning described the standing committees as “a way to for the Federation moving forward will be a great tool for involve donors, community organizations and leaders and the individual agencies to re-do their own by-laws,” said synagogues in the issues and decisions brought before the Mike Siegel, board president-elect of the Jewish Community Board.” Center and another committee member. The Board of Directors established the following standing “All these parts, the Federation Board, standing commitcommittees: Executive, Budget and Financial Review, tees, governance rules and by-laws are designed to work in Building and Grounds, Nominating, Human Resources and tandem for the betterment of the whole system. Involvement Compensation, Planning and Community Engagement, and communication will be the key components to improvFinancial Resource Development, Rabbis and Presidents ing our community for the benefit of all,” Belgrade said.
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Schwalb Center presents Israeli Photographer Harel Stanton by CAROLINE GILLAN Administrative Assistant, Natan and Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies Harel Stanton, staff photographer for the Israeli Geographical magazine Masa Acher, will be the guest speaker at the Jewish Community Center, on Monday, April 9, at 7 p.m. The event is presented by the Natan and Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at the University of Nebraska - Omaha. The event is free and open to the general public. Stanton’s presentation, Harel Stanton entitled 1000 Faces of Israel, will showcase a unique photographic journey through the streets and people of Israel, offering a glimpse of what it
means to live in the real Israel. The audience will be taken beyond the politics and conflicts, touching people’s hearts and making them fall in love with Israel all over again through a new and refreshing perspective; illustrating the rainbow colors of people, cultures and ideologies of Israel. Stanton’s work has been featured extensively in the world’s leading geographical magazines, including GEO and National Geographic. As an ethnographical photographer, professional lecturer and tour-guide he has held several photo exhibits in Israel and the United States. He currently teaches at the Geographical College of Photography and the Odyssey School of Photography in Tel Aviv, as well as at Haifa University. In addition to his photographic work, Stanton has delivered interactive multi-media slide presentations and lectures throughout many parts of the world, including Russia, Europe, Central America, Israel and the United States. Stanton has been a visiting artist for The Center of Contemporary Arts (St. Louis, MO), The Craftsman Institute (Pittsburgh, PA), Columbia college of Art (Chicago, IL), and the Milwaukee Institute of Arts & Design.
Kem Ludwig’s
April 13–May 6, 2012
Brownville Concert Series Announces 2012 Season by JAN CHISM WRIGHT The Brownville Concert Series announces its 22nd season with a mix of genres including New York Cabaret, Jazz, Classical, Rock and Bluegrass. Brownville audiences are up close and personal with the artists, become part of the show, and feel enveloped in the music. This year, Season Passes are available to all eight shows for just $130.00 until April 22 and 7 shows until June 22. Some of the performances offered this year include: KT Sullivan & Mark Nadler in Gershwin – Here to Stay: Enjoy magical musical theater with nonstop music, theater, comedy, duets, solos, a little soft shoe, tap, patter, joy, and a few tears. April 20 - 21 at 7:30 p.m. and April 22 at 2 p.m. Bearfoot: Drawing from a broad range of music styles including bluegrass, old-time, folk, country, Cajun blues, and western swing, the female-fronted acoustic quintet delivers a
powerful, live show. June 22 - 23 at 7:30 p.m. and June 24 at 2 p.m. Robert Bonfiglio: He can play spellbinding classical lines with superb technique but also “knock the socks off” anyone listening with his down home, foot stomping Delta Blues encores. He will be accompanied by Stephen Benson, guitar. July 15 at 2 p.m. Joe Cartwright Trio: Kansas City Jazz at its best! Joe Cartwright on piano, Danny Embrey on guitar, Tyrone Clark on bass, Mike Warren on drums, and featuring the sensational vocalist Stephanie Moore. It doesn’t get any better than this! August 10 - 11 at 7:30 p.m. and August 12 at 2 p.m. To purchase tickets and for more information, please visit www.brownvilleconcertseries.com or call the box office at 402.825.3331.
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April 6, 2012 | The Jewish Press | 11
Community Happens Because of You. T H A N K YO U F R O M T H E J E W I S H F E D E R AT I O N O F O M A H A , I T S A G E N C I E S A N D B E N E F I C I A R I E S .
LOJE/PACE “I did not find the world desolate when I entered it. And as my parents planted for me before I was born,so do I plant for those who will come after me.” - Talmud
Pacesetter Pacesetters Prime Minister’s Circle Ted Friedland ($100,000+) Omaha Steaks Anne & Alan Simon Betiana & Todd Simon Eve & Fred Simon Stacy & Bruce Simon
King Solomon Circle In Blessed Memory Norman & Frances Batt PACE Fund Aileen Eisenstatt LOJE Fund Leo Eisenstatt PACE Fund Rosalie Friedman LOJE Fund Thama Friedman PACE Fund Ann Goldstein LOJE Fund Henry Riekes PACE Fund Dorothy Riekes LOJE Fund Lorraine Silverman PACE Fund LOJE - Lion of Judah Endowment Fund PACE - Perpetual Annual Campaign PACE - Endowment For more information, contact Marty Ricks, Federation Foundation Director at 402.334.6440 or mricks@jewishomaha.org www.jfofoundation.org
Agencies and Beneficiaries Your gift to the Jewish Federation of Omaha’s Annual Campaign impacts the entire Jewish world. Locally, your ONE gift to the Campaign funds a wide variety of community services provided by the Federation and our Family of Agencies.In Israel and overseas,your gift helps feed the hungry, rescue the oppressed and fight anti-Semitism. Your gift will help empower the next generation to continue to build, support and grow the Omaha Jewish community. Bar/Bat Mitzvah Grants birthright israel Campus Capital Funds Center for Jewish Education Central Services Child Care Financial Assistance Community High School Community Relations Committee Friedel Jewish Academy Institute for Holocaust Education Israel/Overseas Israel Experience Teen Trips Jewish Community Center Jewish Family Service JFO Contingency Fund Jewish Federations of North America Jewish Press Jewish Senior Services Kripke Federation Library National Agencies Needy Funeral Fund Partnership With Israel Passport to Israel Program Religious School Subventions • Beth El • Beth Israel • Friedel Jewish Academy • Temple Israel Scholarship Assistance – Children’s Fund Special Needs Education Subvention • Beth El • Beth Israel • Temple Israel Va’ad
($50,000-$99,999 Corp, $25,000-$99,999 Ind) Joel Alperson Baker Family Joseph Erman Michael Erman Tom Fellman Joseph Kirshenbaum Howard Kooper Murray Newman Robert Newman Jay Noddle* Phil Schrager In Blessed Memory Theodore M. Seldin Estate of Phil Sokolof Special Donor Advised Fund of the JFO Foundation
Chai Circle ($25,000-$49,999 Corp, $18,000-$24,999 Ind) Ronald Blumkin The Epstein Family Harold Epstein Paul Epstein Gary Epstein Friedman Family Herbert Goldsten Trust Howard Kaslow Jay Lerner Omaha Bedding Company Steve Pitlor Carl Riekes* Harley Schrager
Sanford Friedman Sheldon Gallner David Gilinksky Jerome Gordman Kip Gordman Ideal Pure Water* Richard Jacobson Gary Javitch Keith Josephson Larry Josephson Jeff Kirshenbaum Joseph Kirshenbaum Kevee Kirshenbaum John Lehr Martin Lehr Robert Lepp Jon Meyers Jerome J. Milder Allan Murow Allan Noddle Alan Parsow Eric Phillips Marty Ricks Jonathan Rockman Blaine Roffman Larry Roffman Les Schneiderman Jack Shrago Estate of Maurice Udes Wiesman Development Phil Wolf
($100,000+) Susie Cohn
Emerald Lion ($25,000-$49,999) Nancy Friedland Cari Sommer
Sapphire Lion
Joshua Circle
Pacesetters ($6,000-$17,999 Corp, $6,000-$9,999 Ind) David Bailis Harold Bernstein Jack Cohen
Ben Gurion Society
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Men’s Campaign
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Women’s Campaign
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Women’s Campaign
Scott Meyerson* Brian Nogg Jeff Nogg Rebecca Rosen Aaron Rosenfeld* Judy Rosenfeld* Andrew Ruback Anthony Scioli Michael Shrago Michael Siegel Mimi Silverman* Adam Yale Sarah Yale
Bob Endelman Randy Endelman Arnold Epstein Aryeh Epstein* Daniel Epstein Gary Epstein Howard Epstein Irv Epstein Mel Epstein Ronald Epstein Sam Epstein Abram Erlich Richard Erlich Mikhail Etus Steven Evans Richard Evnen James Farber Scott Farkas Sam Fedman Ronald Feldman Richard Fellman Stanley Feltman Aaron Ferer & Sons N. Ferer W. Ferer Cantor Leo Fettman Paul Fine Glen Fineman Steven Fingold David Finkelstein David Finkle Doug Finnicum Stephen Fischer Hersz Flatowicz Pierre Flatowicz John Fletcher Jim Folsom Joseph Frank Alan Fredricks John Freeman Jerry Freeman Robert Freeman Jim Fried Marshall Fried Samuel Fried Dustin Friedman Harold Friedman Josh Friedman Lloyd Friedman Morris Friedman Scott Friedman Harry Gates David Gerber Donald Gerber Larry Gilinsky Eitan Gill Ron Giller Stu Giller Lawrence Ginsburg Mikhail Ginsburg Arkadiy Ginzburg Petr Ginzburg Larry Gittelman Mort Glass Jim Glazer John Glazer Richard Goedeken Steven Gold Bob Goldberg David Goldberg Frank Goldberg Richard Goldberg Irwin Goldenberg Mark Goldfein Gary Goldstein Howard Goldstein Michael Goldstein Brad Goldstrom Larry Goldstrom Mark Goldstrom Alan Goodman Scott Goodman Tom Goodman Bruce Gordon Peter Gordon Gary Gotsdiner Gary Green
Andy Greenberg Barton Greenberg Leonard Greenspoon Alex Grossman Josh Gurock Victor Gutman Bruce Gutnik Mace Hack Howard Halperin Michael Halsted Allan Handleman Jerry Hoberman Ken Hoberman Ron Ipock Lewis Izenstat Art Jacobson Ed Joseph Leslie Joseph Darrin Kader Allen Kahn Marcel Kahn Robert Kahn Howard Kaiman Jerome Kaiman Nathan Kaiman In Blessed Memory Leo Kamisar Gary Kaplan Myron Kaplan Robert Kaplan Konstantin Kaplun Richard Katelman Robert Katleman Jerry Katskee Milton Katskee Philip Katz Rabbi Mendel Katzman Les Kay Louis Kazor Larry Kelberg Jay Kenik Adam Kirshenbaum Kevee Kirshenbaum Harry Klein Milton Kleinberg Alexander Kogan David Kohll Justin Kohll Beau Konigsberg Joseph Kosinovsky Harold Kosowsky David Kotok Jack Kozlen Joe Kravitz Dan Kremer* Stanley Krieger Rabbi Myer Kripke Gary Kudym Gary Kuklin Eugene Kulik Gregory Kulik Allen Kurland Marshall Kushner Bruce Kutler David Kutler Howard Kutler Wayne Lainof Randy Langdon Alan Langnas Jeffrey Laudin Michael Lazer Michael Leibowitz Martin Leiserowitz David Lercher Gary Lerner Richard Lerner Hugh Levin Rabbi Mordechai Levin Michael Levine Michael Levine Steve Levinger Clifford Levitan Dmitriy Libov Harvey Lipsman Boris Litvin Robert Lohrman Stephen Lubman
Chuck Lucoff Phil Lucoff Bernard Magid Larry Malashock Neal Malashock Robert Malashock Stanley Mandler Harold Mann Justin Manvitz Todd Manvitz Dan Marburg Gerald Marburg Eyal Margalit Myron Marko Leon Martin Mark Martin Jose Martinez Guy Matalon Boris May Patrick McNamara Sheldon Mendelssohn Gerald Meyer Bruce Meyers Joseph Meyers Larry Meyerson Troy Meyerson Carl Milder Myron Milder Paul Militzer Michael Miller Paul Miller Sidney Mirvish Stanley Mitchell Rabbi Yitzchak Mizrahi Michael Mogil Gordon Moshman Jack Moskovitz Ken Munzesheimer Alan Muskin Stuart Muskin Gary Nachman Alexander Nahimov Leonid Nakhimovich Howard Needelman Steve Neesman Alan Nogg Anthony Nogg Dave Noodell Steven Noodell Michael Norton Mark Ocheretyanskiy Bob Olesh Dennis Paley David Parsow Gary Paskar Allen Passer Jeffrey Passer Joel Patton Robert Perelman Stanley Perlmeter Edward Pesetsky Harvey Pickel Eric Pisetsky Matt Placzek Jay Plotkin Jim Polack Oliver Pollak Steven Popp Alan Potash Merle Potash Ira Priluck Paul Rabinovitz Hertzel Rahmani Leonid Raksin Matthew Ray Gerald Raznick Steven Redler Rob Reiss Miles Remer Stephen Rennard Don Rice Steve Riekes Gary Rifkin Stuart Rochman Lawrence Roitstein Lloyd Roitstein Brian Rosen
Kenneth Rosen Jacob Rosenberg Gerald Rosenblatt Sidney Rosenblatt Martin Rosenstein Jerry Rosinsky Richard Rosinsky In Blessed Memory H. Steven Rothenberg Mark Rubezhin Ron Rubin Alexander Rubinstein David Saag Michael Sadofsky Rodney Sadofsky Michael Salkin Ernie Saltzman Errol Saltzman Kevin Saltzman Marc Scheer Edward Schneider Seymour Schneider Michael Schop Richard Schrager Dan Schuller Wayne Schwarz Jeffrey Schweid Charles Scudder Greg Searson Barry Segell Matt Seigel Seim, Johnson, Sestak & Quist* Nathan Seitelbach Ben Shapiro Matt Shapiro Andrew Shefren Lev Shekhtman Mark Sherman Michael Sherman Rodney Shkolnick Leon Shrago Martin Shukert Alan Shulewitz Gary Shyken Paul Shyken Michael Sigmond Peter Silberstein James Silverman Michael Silverman Chuck Simon Jim Simon Michael Simon Scott Simon Steven Simon Harold Siporin Larry Siref Steve Siref Michael Skolkin Stuart Smoler Ramon Somberg James Sophir Ben Spatz Brent Spivack Jim Spooner Arthur Stein David Stern John Stern Alan Stoler Bud Studna Charles Sullivan Scott Susman Mark Sweet Melvin Tatelman Jeff Taxman Alain Taylon Roger Tederman Alan Tipp Max Tomchin Eitan Tsabari Allen Tully Stewart Tully Boris Turetsky Lazar Turetsky Tom Vann Bennett Wagner Martin Warren
Bill Wax* James Wax Phil Wayne Aaron Weiner Marc Weinstine Rabbi Yaakov Weiss Bryan Wine Norman Wine Stewart Winograd Leon Wintroub Wolf Brothers Matt Kirshenbaum Tom Kirshenbaum Alan Wolfson Louis Wolfson William Wolfson In Blessed Memory Warren Wolpa Jeremy Wright Mendel Wright* Irvin Yaffe Laurence Zacharia Richard Zacharia Steven Zalkin Ted Zetzman Michael Zinkov James Zipursky Barry Zoob Mort Zuber Robert Zuber
Helen Burns Molline Cassman Peggy Chasen Joyce Clark Kimara Clark Eileen Clignett Penny Cody-Cox Anne Cohen Arlene Cohen Beth Cohen Joyce Cohen Karla Cohen Marla Cohen Rose Cohen Frances Cohen-Peterson* Calli Cohn* Linda Cohn Pam Cohn Sandra Cole Edith Comisar Sharon Comisar-Langdon Maggie Conti Judy Cooper Lisa Cooper Rose Cooper Sarita Cooper Susan Cooper Renee Corcoran Fran Coren Suzan Crabb Janey Dann Rose Davis Sylvia Davis Peggy DeLand Pam DePorte Debra Dodd Esta Dubov Jean Duitch Eleanor Dunning Julia Elkin Michelle Elkin Lois Endelman Penny Endelman Audrey Epstein Edith Epstein Etta Epstein Geri Epstein Harriet Epstein Helen Epstein Michelle Epstein Sharon Epstein Esther Erlich Patty Erlich Mary Etus Deidre Evans Veronica Fadke Judy Farber Judith Feigin Lillian Feldman Marla Feldman Becca Fellman* Toby Fellman* H. Ferer Mary Ferer Annette Fettman Lois Finkel Marti Finkel-Poulos Rebecca Finkelstein Barbara Finkle Deborah Finnicum Janis Fischer Linda Fischer Betty Fisher Jane Fishkin Claire Flatowicz Paulette Flatowicz Hillary Fletcher Sherry Fletcher Shelly Fox Beverly Frank Joanne Freeman Beverly Freiden Norma Fried Pam Friedlander Amy Friedman Beth Friedman Cindy Friedman
Debbie Friedman Gloria Friedman Lois Friedman Beverlee Fromkin Marlen Frost Mandy Frost-Becker Susana Frydman-Levin Linda Gates Lizzy Gilbert Deanna Gilinsky Barb Giller Kaye Giller Julie Ginsberg Beth Ginsburg Larisa Ginzburg Jennifer Gittelman* Phyllis Glazer Darlene Golbitz Cindy Goldberg Kim Goldberg Sandra Goldberg Wendy Goldberg Ruth Goldenberg Inna Goldman Judi Goldstein Dora Goldstrom Dee Goodman Jen Goodman Shirley Goodman Allison Gordman Andie Gordman Sandy Gordon Jeanette Graudreau Sherri Green Carole Greenberg Caryl Greenberg Rosalie Greenspan Rebecca Groothuis Miriam Gross Mary Sue Grossman Sarah Grossman-Lopez Amanda Gurock Karen Gustafson Margie Gutnik Deb Hale Mendy Halsted Nanciana Hamicksburg Florence Hauss Judy Haven Julie Herskovic* Marlene Hert Shari Hess Bonnie Hines Cookie Hoberman Jennifer Hoberman Nancy Hoberman Tiffany Hoberman Nancy Hornstein Bonnie Horwich Sharon Houchin Sarah Howard Denise Ipock Marilyn Ivers Doris Izenstat Elaine Jabenis Nancy Jacobson Ronnie Jacobson Linda Jess Sylvia Jess Anne Joseph Debbi Josephson Judy Josephson Ilse Kahn Roxanne Kahn Ann Kaiman Joan Kaiman Sylvia Kaiman Bernice Kaplan Marilyn Kaplan Sally Kaplan Marcia Kapustin* Frankie Kasin Renee Kasner Edythe Kass Lorrie Katelman Esther Katleman Cookie Katskee
Kari Katskee Amy Katz Esther Katz Nan Katz Julee Katzman Madeline Katzman Shani Katzman Nanci Kavich Helen Kay Joanna Kay* Lily Kay Renee Kazor Betty Kelberg Heather Kelln* Suzan Kenik Gail Kenkel Na’ama Keren* Barbara Kirkpatrick Jenn Kirshenbaum Kate Kirshenbaum Nikki Kirshenbaum Janet Klein Vicki Klein-Allely Marsha Kleinberg Karen Klingberg Diane Kohler Janet Kohll Sandy Kohll Betty Kolnick Robbi Kolnick Marilyn Konigsberg Sarah Konigsberg Georgine Koom Lori Kooper-Schwarz Leah Kosinovsky Alice Kosowsky Dorothy Kotok Shane Kotok Bette Kozlen Natasha Kraft Ruth Kraft Edye Krasne Jori Kravitz Cheryl Kricsfeld Angie Krieger Traci Kugler Janie Kulakofsky Rita Kulik Sandra Kurland Jordana Kurtzman Barbara Kushner Abigail Kutler Debi Kutler Nancy Kutler Pam Kutler Carole Lainof Pauline Landman Laurie Langdon-Gerber Geraldine LaPierre Joan Latchaw Allison Latenser Grace Lebowich Cheryl Lerner Martha Lerner Corinne Levin Cheryl Levine Jodi Levine* Bonnie Levinger Lina Levit Barb Levitan Lisa Lewis Rocky Lewis Vera Lewis Marina Libov Marcia Lipsman Anna Litvin Helene Lohman Bonnie London Doris Lubman Erika Lucoff Lisa Lucoff Fritzi Luefshuetz Carolyn Magid Diane Malashock Lueen Mansfield Marilyn Manvitz Wendy Manvitz
Judy Marburg Ruti Margalit Harriet Marko Michelle Marsh Jean Marshall Joan Martin Julie Martin Nancy Martin Elinor Matalon Beverly Maurer Janet McCarthy Ashley McClure* Kathy McGauvran Esther Meiches Karen Menagh Denise Meyers Tina Meyers Jamie Meyerson Miriam Meyerson Renee Micklin Gayle Milder Rhoda Milder Nancy Milder Lazer Sue Millward Lynda Mirvish Evie Mitchell Talia Mizrahi* Crystal Modde* Ethel Mogil Patricia Mogil Susie Mogil Anna Mosenkis Ann Moshman Bettie Muskin Linda Muskin Amy Nachman Randi Nanfito Naava Naslavsky Lee Needelman Maria Neesman Karli Newman Patricia Newman Jaime Nogg Kelly Nogg Ozzie Nogg Sandy Nogg Susan Norton Ann Noodell Linda Novak Rita Novak Donna Olesh Maggie Ortmeyer* Reva Oruch Ruth Oruch Ann Osborne Doris Parker Margo Parsow Clara Paskar Sandy Passer Helga Patterson Magda Peck Elinore Penner Betty Perelman Vicki Perlmeter Cheryl Phillips Gerri Phillips Julie Phillips Shelly Pichik Ann Pickel Gilda Pieck Helen Pisetsky Kim Placzek Deborah Platt Karen Plotkin Yaffa PodbilewiczSchuller Susan Polack* Sheila Polikov Linda Pollard Julie Potash Ruth Potash Debbie Powers Amy Raffel Wendy Raffel Jan Rahmani Irina Raksin Emily Ray
Shayna Ray Wendy Reiss Eileen Remer Barbara Rennard Juliana Reno Amy Reynolds Diane Rich Caryn Rifkin Helen Rifkin Jane Rips Nancy Rips Judy Roffman Phyllis Roffman Sivi Roffman Marcelyn Rogers Mimi Rogers-Farkas Betty Roitstein Debbie Roitstein Margo Rosen Rita Rosen Toni Rosen Sue Rosenblatt Marti Rosen-Atherton Dottie Rosenblum Janet Rosenstein Bunny Rothenberg Susan Rothholz Faye Ruback Marcia Ruback Teresa Ruback Betty Rubin Sherrie Saag Marina Sadofsky Janette Salkin Debbie Salomon Linda Saltzman Lynne Saltzman Rosalie Saltzman Lynn Samuel Betty Sanford Caryn Scheer Lisa Scheet Melissa Schop Laura Schrager Lillian Schrager Debra Schwartz Phyllis Schwartz Andee Scioli Aviva Segall Dalma Seitelbach Diane Shandell Melissa Shapiro Sherry Shapiro Jeanne Shechet Claudia Sherman Patty Sherman Sally Sherman* Cynthia Shoham Follick Dani Shrago Josie Shrago Shoshy Shrago Aveva Shukert Cindy Shulewitz Liat Shyken Susie Shyken Sissy Silber Esther Silver Susan Silver
Susie Silverman Jill Simon Joie Simon Tootie Simon Nancy Skid Andrea Skolkin Anne Skolkin Susan Somberg Marcie Spivack Dorothy Spizman Lorraine Stein Melissa Stern Rocky Stern Louri Sullivan Lynn Sweet Barbara Taxman Flora Telpner Mindy Tene Shiri Tene* Talia Tene* Marilyn Tipp Sonia Tipp Ellina Tomchin Sheila Tomps Margarita Treskunova Elizabeth Tully Judy Tully Lucy Turetsky Tevee Turkel Annette van de KampWright Jen A. Viehrig Jody Vinci Yuliya Vishnevskiy Patsy Wallace Mary Wampler Phyllis Wasserman Esther Wax Jan Wayne Helen Weber Joye Wees Kathy Weiner Ruth Weiner Alice Weiss Ilana Weiss Anne Weitz Julie Westman Audrey Wiener Cynthia Wiesman Allyson Wilczewski Andi Willensky Ellen Willer Laura Wine Lois Wine Sally Wintroub Blanche Wise Susan Witkowski Isabella Wright* Ann Wolfson* Mary Kay Young Barb Zacharia Terri Zacharia Kathleen Zalkin Rosalyn Zeffren Inna Zevakina Sally Zipursky Bev Zuber Rosie Zweiback
Double Chai ($3,600) Chris Blumkin* Sandy Lehr Barb Platt Susan Scherl* Suzanne Singer
Lion of Judah Platinum Lion
($18,000-$24,999) Sharee Newman (18,000-$24,999 Corp, $10,000-$17,999 Ind) Steven Bloch Irvin Blumkin Richard Glazer Donald Goldstein Leonard Goldstein In Blessed Memory Jeff Gordman Nelson Gordman Mark Javitch* Arnold Joffe Forrest Krutter Michael Liddy Livingston Foundation Edward Malashock Steven Nogg Andrew Robinson Joel Schlessinger Natan Schwalb Bruce Shackman Norman Sheldon Steven Silver Stanley Silverman Gerald Simons Milton Simons Mark Singer John Waldbaum Eugene Zweiback
Lion of Judah Joanie Lehr Bobbi Leibowitz Jody Malashock Sue Meyers Jean Neff Phyllis Newman Kim Noddle Susan Noddle Patty Nogg Carol Parsow Marcia Pitlor Daphna Pollak Julie Rochman Stacey Rockman Cynthia Schneider Jan Schneiderman Beth Schrager Hannah Schwalb Sarah Seldin Norma Silverman Eve Simon* Harriet Singer Melissa Steiner Joodi Veitzer Nancy Wolf
Ruby Lion ($10,000-$17,999) Ellie Batt Fran Juro Maxine Kirshenbaum Sharon Kooper Nancy Noddle Zoë Riekes Terri Schrager Anne Shackman Phyllis Sherman Gail Veitzer
Lion of Judah ($5,000-$9,999) Phyllis Aronson Judy Baker Sandra Belgrade Carol Bloch Susie Blumkin Paula Boggust Marcia Cohen Eunie Denenberg* Lisa Epstein Sandy Epstein Ruth Erman Darlynn Fellman Pearl Richman Giventer Janet Glass Shirley Goldstein Linda K. Gordman Karen Javitch Gloria Kaslow* Andi Kavich Sharon Kirshenbaum
Pomegranate ($1,800) Babe Cohn Cheryl Cooper Debbie Denenberg Elaine Feldman Bev Fellman Frances Fried Jordana Glazer* Jan Goldstein Jill Goldstein Kathy Goldstein-Helm Danielle S. Gordman Linda Gordman Andrea Hamburg Joanie Jacobson Sheryn Joffe Bea Karp Dana Kaufman* Susan Lehr Bert Lewis Deana Liddy Thelma Lustgarten Linda Mann Ducky Milder Lyra Monasee Janie Murow Fefe Passer Iris Ricks Margo Riekes Nancy Schlessinger Suzy Sheldon Helene Shrago Judy Simons Debbi Zweiback
Ben Gurion Society ($1,000 less than age 45) Rabbi Steven Abraham* Brett Atlas Stacie Brodkey Toba Cohen-Dunning Jason Epstein Laurie Epstein Jamie Friedland Jay Gordman Rabbi Jonathan Gross Michael Kaufman* Adam Kutler* Lisa Lieb
Men’s Campaign Harold Abrahamson Mark Abrahamson Robert Adler Lawrence Albert Harry Alloy Rami Arav Izrail Aronchik John Atherton Rabbi Aryeh Azriel Bruce Baron Donald Baum Ron Beach Robert Beber Bruce Belgrade Robert Belgrade Mark Belmont Jay Benton Harry Berman Stuart Bernstein Terry Bernstein Thomas Bernstein Philip Bierman Alan Biniamow Morris Birenbaum Marvin Bittner Larry Blass Mike Blatt Jon Bleicher Bernard Bogdanoff Brian Bogdanoff David Boocker Howard Borden Bob Boumstein James Bresel Bruce Brodkey Lawrence Brodkey Peter Brodkey Ron Brodkey Larry Budwig Sam Bukenholts Scott Burger John Burns Steve Caplan Frederick Cassman Jay Chasen Kevin Clark Edwin Clignett Alan Cohen Bob Cohen Howard Cohen Marc Cohen Paul Cohen Sheldon Cohen William Cohen Stephen Cohn David Cooper Jeff Cooper Ronald Cooper Meyer Coren Don Dandy Jerold Dann Art Davidson D. David DeLand Stephen Dick William Dreyfus Gregory Dubov Eric Dunning Teddy Dunning* Gilbert Dysico Stan Edelstein Eugene Elkin
Women’s Campaign Shira Abraham* Gaylene Abrahamson Helen Abrahamson Linda Abrahamsom Louise Abrahamson Linda Abrams Tederman Bettie Adams Charlotte Adler Patti Adler Paula Albert Doris Alloy Millie Altman Sophie Ambrose Phyllis Angrisane Patricia Anson Mona Aoki* Phyllis Aron Alexandra Aronchik Betty Arons Joyce Ashley Stacey Atlas Diane Axler-Baum Elyce Azriel Jill Baron Celia Barron Deborah Baum Kathryn Beauchaine Virginia Becker* Ann Belmont Jill Belmont Diane Berman* Mary Berman Joanie Bernstein Mary Bernstein Rose Bernstein Rita Biniamow Phyllis Bittner Claire Blass Joann Blatt Esther Bogdanoff Jennifer Bogdanoff Fanny Bohbot Natalie Borovski Marge Bresel Susan Brezack Beth Brodkey Gloria Brodkey Florence Brody Amy Brooks Phyllis Brown Beth Brown-Gershovich Freda Bucheister Michelle Bucher Elaine Bukenholts
to e m and i t l il ift ct. t s s ur g pa i e er e yo n im nbaum.org h T ak e a irshe aha m ak haronKjewishom85 4 m tS tac baum@ .334.6 n o C en 402 sh or skir
* New in category
The 2012 Jewish Federation of Omaha Annual Campaign 333 South 132nd Street
Omaha, NE 68154
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Please note that this list of Federation donors is complete as of April 2, 2012. Every effort is made to ensure that the list is accurate and we sincerely apologize if any name was incorrectly printed or inadvertently omitted.To update information in this donor listing, please contact Sharon Kirshenbaum at 402-334-6485.
12 | The Jewish Press | April 6, 2012
Women of Reform Judaism Donor event to highlight “Acts of kindness” by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator “Through kindness we realize that we are part of a community in which giving and receiving kindness are vital to our health, harmony, and hope,” noted Tina Meyers, cochair of the Women of Reform Judaism Donor event with Denise Meyers. “If we act from empathy, we will offer kindness, and in that moment, a surprising, gracious, humanitarian connection is made.” She extended an invitation to all women in the community to attend the WRJ Donor and Passover Dinner on Thursday, April 12 at 6 p.m. Shelly Fox at Temple Israel to share personal stories about the impact of kindness. Dinner will include a Passover salad with cold salmon, grilled food kabob, matzo, and macaroons for dessert. Mimi Silverman, president of WRJ, added, “The focus is on the small things that people do to make a difference... not the big projects... but the personal small things that come up every once in awhile in all of our everyday lives.” “In choosing the speakers for the panel on “Acts of
Kindness,” the WRJ Board focused on finding congregants who would have inspirational stories of kindness to share from their personal or professional lives,” explained Tina Meyers. Three speakers, including Shelly Fox, a social worker at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, will share their stories. Fox
Stacey Rockman
Sheila Tomps
will talk about assisting elders and their families who live at the Home and in the community. Also speaking, Stacey Rockman, a past member of the Temple Israel Board of Trustees, is currently co-chair of the Capital and Endowment Campaign for Temple Israel’s new building and vice president of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. A recipient of the Jewish Federation’s Lois Jeanne Schrager Award, Stacey is also a past chair of the Federation’s
Births Jean and Phillip Paley of Atlanta announce the March 6 birth of their daughter, Ahuva Belle, who is named for her great-great Aunt Bella Seigel. She has a sister, Elisheva Meira age 4, and a brother, Eliyahu Tzvi age 2 Grandparents are Susan and Dennis Paley, and Mariyln and Yale Shure of Atlanta. Great-grandparents are Joan Rips, Bob Diskin of Atlanta, the late Alice Rich Diskin, the late Sydney Rich, the late Norman Rips and the late Arthur and Evelyn Paley. Teresa and Andrew Ruback announce the Feb. 2 birth of
their daughter, Chloe Isabel. She has a brother, Max, age 2. Grandparents are Jayne and Altan Ruback, and Hilda Kramer and the late Larry Kramer. Paige and Jeff Shyken of Chicago announce the March 13 birth of their son, Cooper Benjamin, who is named for his great-grandmothers, Bess Lowendorf, Bessie Levy and Bess Shyken. Grandparents are Susie and Paul Shyken, and Lisa and Morris Levy of Youngstown, OH. Great-grandmother is Ilene Pachman.
Partnership 2000 Project. Sheila Tomps is “always” at the Blumkin Home taking residents to doctor appointments, helping at special events, and assisting wheelchair-bound residents. She’s also frequently at Remington Heights and Skyline Manor visiting residents. She’s been active as a public school volunteer, in Special Olympics, and with the Boy Scouts. The Jewish Federation honored Tomps with its Chesed Award in 2011 for a life that “has embodied the values of kindness and compassion and whose actions have been devoted to helping others lead meaningful, dignified lives.” She’ll discuss why she thinks of her efforts as her profession. Dinner costs $10. Donor categories range from $18 to $1000 and will support Temple Israel’s Religious School and kitchen, holiday events, and programming for women, children, and families of our congregation. Coinciding with the Donor, an on-line cookbook of family recipes will be added to the WRJ page of Temple Israel’s website (www.templeisrael-ne.org). Local businesses and individuals can purchase $100 ads which will remain on the web page for a year.
Organizations B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS Tony Endelman will talk about his latest book and the angst and turmoil he experienced as an Omaha teen on Wednesday, April 11, noon at the Blumkin Home. An optional buffet lunch costs $11; beverage service only is $3. For more information or to be placed on the email list call 402.334.6443 or bnaibrith@ jewishomaha.org. LOMIR REDN YIDDISH How much Yiddish do you know? Probably more than you think. Some English words have made their way into Yiddish. Many Yiddish words are commonly used in English. Every first Thursday of the month, we will be playing Yiddish Bingo. This will give you a chance to show off the Yiddish you didn’t even know you knew. Everyone is invited! We meet every Thursday from 1-3 p.m., in the Rose Blumkin Home Board Room. For information call Anne Skolkin at 402.343.1638.
congratulate your graduate Congrats, Jacob! The annual Graduation Issue will publish this year on June 1. Senior photos will run in that issue and we know you’ll want to highlight the achievements of your high school graduate! Congratulatory ads are available in two sizes.
Mazal Tov, Lisa! We are so proud of your achievements – membership in NHS, varsity letter in tennis and a Merit Award from the Band.
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April 6, 2012 | The Jewish Press | 13
The end of a grand tradition of hospitality?
Journal entry from Israel TEDDY WEINBERGER Sarah and I began our marriage within a Jewish community that prides itself on its magnificent southern hospitality. Indeed, on each of our first two nights in the Beth Jacob community of Atlanta, GA, a “sheva brachot” party was given in our honor, to help us complete the first week of our married life. Many families in the Beth Jacob area rarely had what I call an “open” Shabbat, one in which they were neither hosting nor being hosted for at least one meal. The lovely thing about this hosting was that it cut across generations: young couples hosting people who could be their grandparents, families with small children hosting families with teenagers, single adults hosting whole families, etc. Slowly but surely Sarah and I began to develop our own hospitality traditions. Eventually, we too would have few open Sabbaths. We were willing to give any person a onetime invite: Jew or non-Jew, religious or non-religious, friend or stranger (with a reference). As you can imagine, it helps to be obsessive-compulsive if you are rarely going to have an open Shabbat. As soon as one Shabbat is over you need to be worrying about your next Shabbat. If I called and invited a party that I knew was hard to get and they turned me down for the coming Shabbat I would immediately ask them for the following Shabbat. We only invited people for Shabbat lunch, setting aside Friday nights for concentrated family time. Unlike other hospitable people, I was loathe to go more than “one up” on an invitee, although there could of course be exceptions. Over the past 27 years we have had some wonderful hosting experiences, gotten to introduce many people to the traditions of a Shabbat meal (including singing zemirot and
telling divrei Torah), and provided much needed diversion for our kids. Our 5 children, who could be quite a handful left to their lonesome (at one point we had 5 under 7) would inevitably be charming and charmed with our company. In the process, our children became social dynamos. They learned from Sarah and me how to converse with people even if those people were basically strangers and/or seemingly very different from us. I realized the effect of our hospitality tradition on our children when one day my friend Bruce Abramson visited our home in Givat Ze’ev. Elie, then 8, answered the door. The two had never met before, and Bruce introduced himself. I then heard Elie say “‘Hi Bruce. Please come in. May I take your coat?” It is with some degree of sadness that I have recently noticed a change in my hospitality thinking. With several of my children now only coming home for weekends, I am increasingly reluctant to share my children with a family with whom I am not exceptionally close. Indeed, this may explain the lack of a wide hospitality tradition in Israel. All your relatives in Israel are usually within an easy car-ride away. After divvying up Sabbaths with one’s parents, in-laws and married siblings there are not many open Sabbaths left. There have been quite a number of cases in Givat Ze’ev of Israeli families not reciprocating our invites but only a few cases of this happening with Anglo families: we need each other more. In a few years my children will hopefully begin their own hospitality traditions. And kids being kids they have already told me that there is a lot to improve upon my way of welcoming guests. They tell me that I need to be more hospitable, that I need to extend myself more, to be more interested in my guests, to make them feel more at home. I think to myself: If they can do it better than I did, more power to them. Teddy Weinberger made aliyah in 1997 with his wife, former Omahan Sarah Ross, and their five children. Their oldest three, Nathan, Rebecca and Ruthie, are veterans of the Israel Defense Forces; Weinberger can be reached at weinross@netvision.net.il.
Buffett purchases the Rabbi’s Chametz by STEPHEN STEINER Director of Public Relations Every year, in the frenzied hours leading up to the start of the Passover festival, rabbis become businessmen and take charge of selling chametz (leaven) from their congregations to a non-Jew, as described above. The purchaser is an individual who is trusted by the rabbis to treat the goods with respect and then to sell them back after the holiday. Who wouldn’t trust Warren Buffett, the world’s third richest man? Rabbi Jonathan Gross of the OU member [http://www. ou.org/synagogue_ser vices] Beth Israel Synagogue in Omaha, where Mr. Buffett resides, certainly did and arranged for the sale of chametz this year to the man whose name is synonymous with wise investing, a modest lifestyle, and who already has major investments in Israel. In his blog, Rabbi in the Middle of America, Rabbi Gross details his experiences. “’There are Jews in Nebraska?’ Rabbi Gross writes. “That is the first question that every Jew from Omaha is asked when they travel outside of Omaha. The second question is always, ‘Do you know Warren Buffett?’” “What I did know,” says Rabbi Gross, “is that Warren Buffett is modest and conservative and he has a tremendous impact on the Omaha community. His impact helps make Omaha a good place to live, as it reflects down to earth American values.” And so, a bit chagrined that he didn’t know him, Rabbi Gross, acting on a suggestion from his uncle Mark Honigsfeld, wrote the great investor a letter. “Dear Mr. Buffett, I have a business deal that you may be interested in.” He explained the law behind the sale of chametz to a nonJew, selling low and buying back high. “A great short term investment. I figured Warren Buffett should be able to relate to that,” Rabbi Gross says. He did indeed, responding within two days, and inviting Rabbi Gross to visit him in his office to make the sale and providing a choice of three afternoons. “I freaked out!!” Rabbi Gross reports. “On the one hand, I was excited to finally be able to meet the richest man in the world (actually third richest) and to actually do business with him. On the other hand, the sale of chametz is done the day before Pesach in the morning. After much thought, I
decided that the best thing to do was to accept the earliest date possible - bird in hand - and figure out how to make a sale of chametz six weeks early.” He sought the advice of Rabbi Mendel Senderovic, dean of the Milwaukee Kollel and a renowned posek (halachic decisor). It became clear to the two rabbis that the usual manner of sale would be impossible. “Selling chametz early is problematic,” Rabbi Gross explains, because it would not include any leaven acquired by Jews in the period before Passover. “Selling chametz is a serious thing and I did not want to play around with it, even for Warren Buffett.” After some serious pondering, Rabbi Gross came up with the idea of selling Mr. Buffett some chametz and then asking him to donate it to a food bank. With this in mind, and accompanied by Rabbi Myer Kripke, who became a philanthropist from his early investment with Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Buffett’s company, the Rabbi went to see the legend. He was also accompanied by his former Executive Director, Beth Cohen --who has participated in the OU’s annual Executive Directors Conferences -- and now works for the Omaha Federation, together with Rabbi Kripke’s son-in-law, Yossi Stern, and Beth Israel member Gary Javitch as photographer. In order to make the sale tangible, Rabbi Gross purchased some chametz that he would give him as part of a sale, a challah from the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. In a handshake transaction, Mr. Buffett had purchased the largest furniture store in the world from Rose Blumkin -- a business the Jewish immigrant started in her garage. Rabbi Gross also brought along some fine scotch as an example of expensive chametz. “So together our group went to visit Warren Buffett,” Rabbi Gross reports. He noted the sign above his secretary’s window with a quote from The Wizard of Oz: “Nobody gets in to see the wizard. Not nobody. Not no how.” That rule did not apply to Rabbi Gross’ small delegation. Upon meeting Mr. Buffett the rabbi recited the blessing upon encountering someone of great genius and then explained what the sale of chametz is all about, giving the investor two dollars to finance the deal. Rabbi Gross made a kinyan, in which Mr. Buffett would take possession of a small object, “in this case the keys to the synagogue and to my home, with the understanding that Continued on page 15
May Passover Bring You Peace and Happiness With Love from The Jay Stoddard Family
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14 | The Jewish Press | April 6, 2012
Food Stamp Challenge 2012
Novozymes is recruiting Maintenance Technicians for its new, state-of-the-art industrial enzyme facility in Blair, NE. We are looking for motivated and skilled individuals to perform one or more of the following disciplines at a journeyman level: mechanical, instrument, electrical, and /or utilities. Includes emphasis on maintenance, repair, installation and modiÞcation of plant, equipment, facilities and systems. Rotating day and overnight shifts available. Novozymes Blair offers a competitive starting wage plus shift differential pay, excellent beneÞts package (most beneÞts begin on your Þrst day of employment), superb work environment and promotional opportunities. Submit your application and resume online to www.novozymes.com/careers. Only online applications will be accepted.
We are seeking candidates for our Industrial Maintenance Operations, located at the Cargill corn milling site in Blair, NE
• Grounds Technician • Janitorial Technician • Mechanical Technician
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We offer an excellent benefits package and paid holidays/vacation, medical/dental insurance, 401(k) and work uniforms. Background check and drug screen required. Submit resume with position title to tevans@na.ugllimited.com or by mail to P.O. Box 227, Blair, NE 68008 or Fax to 402-533-4305. No phone calls, please. Visit our website at www.unicco.com or www.uniccoplantservices.com EOE M/F/D/V
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pureed the rest of the beans and used it in the sauce for the pasta. I found a wonderful recipe for an Orange Tomato Soup. Again, using Organic oranges, I felt comfortable using the zest in the soup. We used a couple of the cans of tomatoes (fire roasted, organic, BPA free). We paired this with grilled cheese sandwiches. This meal actually was more than the “meat” meals at $1.65/serving. I found a 14.74 ounce can of Salmon for $2.99. My mother often made Salmon croquettes on Thursdays (always a milchik dinner). Served with some fresh fruit and a bagel for $1.56. We love salads, made a Caesar salad with 1.00 organic romaine, homemade dressing and croutons, and the remaining anchovies. Is this a challenge? Yes. Can it be done? Of course. What did we miss? Wine with dinner (although it cannot be purchased with Food Stamps, there are some good wines available for under $5.). I usually enjoy a snack of olives, or almonds and raisins before dinner. When I was trying to organize this, I came up with about 2 weeks of recipes. This would be easier if families could buy in bulk, split items to avoid eating something more than twice in one week. When I looked at my 2 week shopping list, it definitely would have been much easier to accomplish. I had to make a decision regarding beverages. The brand of tea that I usually drink is $4.99 for 25 teabags. I also enjoy coffee in the morning. I opted to purchase bulk coffee using a discount bag I received in the mail. I was able to make enough concentrate with my cold brew to provide concentrate for 1 cup each morning for Jeff and me. We never drink soda (only seltzer with our Soda Club machine) and rarely drink juice. Today only (3/14) Whole Foods is offering an apple pie for $3.14 in honor of Pi day. We do not usually eat desserts; however, I think I may buy one. The unused portion can always be frozen for next week! BTW, for anyone who thinks that Kosher, organic, or even Whole Foods, would make your grocery bill soar; it is possible to do this. Obviously purchasing produce at Aldi’s or purchasing non Kosher meat would cut your bill considerably. It only reinforced to me that with some guidance, anyone can do this. Although I did not use it, the USDA has a SNAP-Ed website with 594 recipes with cost per serving and nutritional information.
Sam Wolf crowned Mr. AZA by SHERRIE SAAG Communications Specialist, Jewish Federation of Omaha It was a full house on Tuesday night, March 20, when the Ediar chapter of BBYO staged the Mr. AZA Talent Show as a fundraiser for the chapter. Katie Zetzman, Ediar member and talent show chair, welcomed the crowd. “After an almost ten year hiatus, we are so excited to bring back the tradition and crown Mr. AZA tonight.”
their own personal style. The talent portion of the competition came next and the audience was treated to a drum solo, a juggling act, ventriloquism and card tricks. Gabe Levin recited his memorization of Pi and won most original talent by default! The interview was the last part of the competition. When asked what advice they may have for incoming 8th grade BBYO’ers, Levin provided this answer, “Just stick with it. The
Mathew Weisman, left, Ethan Potash, Isaac Rogers, Gabe Levin, Sam Wolf.
Ediar girls: Sara Thompson, vice president, left, Mel Epstein and Rachel Saag help out. If you brought a canned good for the food pantry, you received $1 off admission.
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by SHERRY TAXMAN As a family, we agreed to take on this challenge, knowing that for our household it would be even more of a challenge: $126 dollars for the week! How to accomplish this while keeping Kosher, and organic? Although Chelsea works at Whole Foods, and receives a discount, we purchased all items at retail prices. Normally Jeff and I do not eat breakfast (except for Sundays); however, for this challenge, we included some breakfast items for each of us daily. The main items NOT purchased at Whole Foods were bread products; bread can be purchased for $1.00/loaf at Rotella’s. I acquired a loaf of Whole Wheat Bread (20 slices), a bag of whole wheat bread crumbs, a package of 8 whole wheat hamburger buns and a pizza crust for a total of $4.10. We did purchase some bagels at Bagel Bin. Taking advantage of Whole Foods’ 365 brands, their weekly ads, and manufacturers’ coupons helps in maintaining any budget, especially this week. Muir Glen canned tomatoes were $1.25/can. I coupled a 75 cent off coupon (for each can) and I purchased 4/$2! I needed two for the soup and used 1 for the pizza. We blended the 4th can and made Virgin Marys with a celery stalk and spices that I had. We only eat whole grain pasta; again, I found a coupon on line for $1.00 off of the penne. Produce: we try to eat only organic, especially vegetables without skins and those grown in the ground. Again, look for the sales; I was able to purchase 1/2 of a large cabbage for less than $2 (yes, they will cut some vegetables for you if you need less). Fabulous whole wheat penne recipe with cabbage, anchovies, garlic and bread crumbs was in this week’s New York Times. I saved some of the cabbage for slaw with one organic carrot (22 cents) and some of the organic yellow onion (also on sale for 99 cents/lb). The organic Kosher 1/2 Turkey Breast was our big splurge for $8.93; however, we easily obtained 3 meals for 4 (actually more since Chelsea is a vegetarian). Soup one night, stir fry another and turkey salad a third. One pound of ground meat was another splurge, technically 4 burgers, with Rotella’s buns, some sautéed mushrooms and onions and a slice of tomato, we made oven fries from organic red potatoes for a total of $1.57. Since we spent less on breakfast, we included some fruit for dessert. I made a veggie burger from scratch for Chelsea, using some of the mushrooms, carrots, bread crumbs and part of a can of beans (99 cents) I then
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The night’s surprise special guest was the Grand Aleph Godol of BBYO, Oz Fishman. A native of Sunnyvale, CA, Oz is spending this year visiting BBYO chapters around the world, providing guidance, support and “BBYO Ruach”. The contestants were: Gabe Levin, Sam Wolf, Mathew Weisman, Isaac Rogers and Ethan Potash. Jack Weiss was the very capable Master of Ceremonies. The evening began with the Formal Wear competition, where all contestants were allowed to walk the runway in
best memories you will have of these years will come from BBYO. You won’t regret it. You will get back so much more than you give.” This just may have earned him his place as 1st runner-up. Ultimately the title of Mr. AZA went to Sam Wolf. He was awarded a paper crown, flowers, a $5 Subway gift card and, maybe most importantly, the admiration of Ediar for being such a great sport.
To submit announcements: Announcements may be e-mailed to the Press with attached photos in .jpg or .tif files to jpress@jewishomaha.org; faxed to 402.334.5422, or mailed to 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154 (with photos we will scan and return). Forms are available through Omaha and Lincoln synagogues, by contacting The Jewish Press at 402.334.6448, or by e-mailing: jpress@jewishomaha.org. Readers can also submit other announcements -- births engagements, marriages, commitment ceremonies or obituaries -online at the Jewish Federation of Omaha website: www.jewishomaha.org. Click on “Jewish Press” and scroll down to ‘Submit Announcements’, complete the form and click on “submit” twice. Deadlines are normally eight days prior to publication, on Thursdays, 9 a.m. Check the Jewish Press, however, for notices of early deadlines prior to secular and Jewish holidays.
April 6, 2012 | The Jewish Press | 15
ADL to host Project Interfaith for April Educator Breakfast by LIZZY GILBERT Corporate & Community Development, ADL The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) will be providing educational interfaith resources to teachers, administrators, families, and community members for their first 2012
launches this spring, will contain a video library of 720+ videos of Omaha residents discussing their spiritual/religious identities and stereotypes that affect them. The video library is accompanied by discussion guides and a myriad of educational materials about the profiled
discussion with educators on how to use this site to create learning and dialogue in classrooms and schools. A light breakfast will be served promptly at 7:30 a.m. with the presentation beginning shortly thereafter. The ADL’s Educator Breakfast is available to the public at no cost. This
RavelUnravel features videos of more than 720 Omahans discussing their faith. These pictures represent several of the people who sat down with Project Interfaith to discuss religion. Jewish, Wiccan, Native American, Buddhist, Seventh Day Adventist, Muslim, and many more - this project captures Omaha’s rich spiritual diversity.
Educator Breakfast. The event, which takes place at 7:30 a.m. on April 18 at the Jewish Community Center Auditorium (333 S. 132nd Street), will feature Project Interfaith as they unveil their newest resource for educators, RavelUnravel. RavelUnravel is a multi-media website exploring the diversity of religious and spiritual identities that make up the Greater Omaha community and world. The new site, which
identities and belief systems. Interviewees represent a wide array of theistic and non-theistic religious and spiritual identities including Agnostic, Atheist, Secular Humanist, Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu, Jehovah’s Witness, Jewish, Latterday Saints, Muslim, Native American, Orthodox Christian, Protestant Christian, Roman Catholic, Seeker, Seventh Day Adventist, Sikh, Spiritual, Unitarian, Wiccan, and other identities. “Interfaith education is an important aspect of classroom instruction in a pluralistic society. We are proud to shine a light on a new resource, particularly one that was created locally with real Omaha residents sharing their stories and perspectives,” said Jessica Gall, ADL Education Project Director. The Project Interfaith staff will preview the site and lead a
In the news
is a unique opportunity for educators, administrators, and community members to learn about a new resource within the Omaha community. The Educator Breakfast Series is brought to the community in part by Cox Communications. RSVP to Jessica Gall, ADL Education Project Director, at 402.334.6573 or jgall@adl.org by April 13. Space is limited so please contact us soon!
The Rabbi’s Chametz
United Way of the Midlands will hold its Annual Meeting and Volunteer Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Omaha Hilton, 1001 Cass Street in Omaha. Michael Yanney and Dr. Gail Walling Yanney will be recognized as United Way’s “Citizens of the Year.” Among their many contributions in the metro area, the Yanneys founded “Partnership for Our Kids” which focuses mentoring and financial resources on school children in underserved Omaha neighborhoods. Michael Yanney is Chairman Emeritus of The Burlington Capital Group LLC. His board service includes Building Bright Futures, Avenue Scholars Foundation and Heritage Services. Dr. Gail Walling Yanney is an anesthesiologist, and currently serves on the boards or councils of Building Bright
Futures, Lauritzen Botanical Gardens and Nebraskans for Research. The Master Singers Concert, titled I Hear America Singing, is scheduled for April 15 at All Saints Episcopal Church, 9302 Blondo at 6 p.m. Music will include composers, such as Berlin, Gershwin, and Porter. Adult tickets are $15, seniors and students $10, children under 12 are free. Sandy Gordon, an instructor at our JCC Taekwondo School and Omaha Black Belt Academy advanced to the level of Specialty Trainer. To achieve this level Sandy had to put in 200 classroom hours assisting students and attending an 8 hour intensive certification camp in Okoboji Iowa. She expects to attain full certification within the next 6 months.
Continued from page 13 when he took procession of the keys, along with them he would also take possession of the challah and scotch” as well as the chametz in Rabbi Gross’ home and in the shul. They exchanged coins and keys, and Rabbi Kripke said “Hakol sharir vekayam,” declaring the sale valid. Mr. Buffett agreed to turn over the food to the food bank. “That was it,” Rabbi Gross reports. “I hope that the publicity helps the Food Bank of the Heartland in Omaha with meeting the goal of our pre-Passover food drive. But for me, I can’t wait for the next person to ask me, ‘Do you know Warren Buffett?’ I sure do. I sold him our chametz!” According to Rabbi Steven Burg, Managing Director of the OU, “It’s amazing to see the sensitivity of Warren Buffett to Judaism’s customs and laws. Congratulations to Rabbi Gross for creating this Kiddush Hashem.”
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16 | The Jewish Press | April 6, 2012
Point of view
American Jewish Press Association Award Winner
Nebraska Press National Newspaper Association Association Award winner 2008
Love Me Tender
by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT The latest overlap between the King and Israel will occur Editor of the Jewish Press in May of 2013, with the “Elvis Presley Holy Land Tour.” It Finding weird news about Elvis Presley is easy; all you will provide an opportunity for 100 Elvis fans to take a traditional tour of Israel, includhave to do is put his name in the ing a stop at the Elvis Inn, a Youtube search bar. He never really Presley-themed diner near died, some claim; his ghost appears at Jerusalem (reportedly the random events (though most often at only place in the world where Vegas weddings- he must be checking you can get both Elvis souup on all those impersonators) and all venirs and Shoarma). paperwork relating to his autopsy has The 10-day tour includes the mysteriously disappeared. Sometimes, standard stopping points for a when famous people die, it’s hard for Christian-oriented visit based the public to say goodbye. on the life of Jesus – Nazareth, But Google Elvis + Israel, and you’ll Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, a be amazed at what pops up. Not only cruise on the Sea of Galilee are there many, many Elvis fans in and the option of being bapIsrael (they get together on his birthtized in the Jordan River: day every year); there’s also a Jewish side to the King: The connection between Elvis According to the 1998 book and Israel appears to be his Schmelvis: love of gospel music. Though Searching for the King’s Jewish Roots, gospel music does not come there are numerous connections from Israel, “Elvis fans, a good between Judaism and Presley. Among majority of them, are church them: His maternal great-great-grandpeople, so it’s a good fit,” Brian mother, Nancy Burdine, was a Jew; he Mayes, co-founder of Israel always wore a chai pendant; he put a Theme Tours and an enterStar of David on his mother’s headstone; tainment publicist, told The and his tremolo vocal style may have Associated Press. “A large porElvis Presley in 1970 been influenced by his upstairs Memphis tion of fans are evangelical: neighbor, Rabbi Alfred Fruchter, singing cantorial music when Christian, Catholic, Jewish. The Holy Land is an interesting destination for them.” (JTA.com) Presley was a teen. (Jerusalem Post)
To each his own, of course, and I’m not looking to insult any Elvis fans out there; I know better. And yet, I can’t help having visions of middle-aged Americans crammed in a super sized tour bus, loudly singing Love Me Tender. Every single last one of them dressed in a bedazzled white jumpsuit. An Elvis-themed Israel tour: it just seems too much like serving McDonald’s at your wedding, or opening a Disneyland next to the Dead Sea. Some things shouldn’t mix. Talking about tolerance for others is simple, feeling it in your heart is a different matter entirely. While I usually have a relatively easy time accepting people for what they are, I apparently hit my limit when it comes to Graceland-meetsIsrael. But once I reconsider my snarky attitude (Jailhouse Rock and the Dome of the Rock all in one day? Really?) I realize that this is actually a good thing. Just because you get on the El Al flight as an Elvis fan doesn’t change the fact that Israel affects people. These travelers won’t just see rivers, lakes and old buildings, but real people- Muslims, Christians and Jews- leading everyday lives. They will see a country that offers a lot more than a backdrop to long-forgotten Sunday school lessons. They won’t only see history, they’ll see the present. If more people can experience Israel as a vibrant, living place, not merely an archaeological dig, maybe we in America can be more nuanced in our approach to Israel. When watching the news over here, one sometimes wonders how people without a personal connection to Israel interpret Middle Eastern politics. The best way to counter all that negative p.r. is by giving as many people as possible a chance to experience Israel first-hand. One Elvis-fan-filled tour bus at a time.
The Jewish community remains open for business
Focus on issues PAUL GOLDENBERG NEW YORK (JTA) -- The breaking news from France yesterday morning was tragic. Just after 8:00 a.m., a lone assailant on a motorcycle pulled up in front of the Ozar Hatorah School in a quiet neighborhood in the eastern part of Toulouse and opened fire with two high-powered handguns. The fusillade of gunfire was at close range and lethal. Four were killed in the attack, including a father and his two young children, and a third child, literally executed at pointblank range. A fourth student was critically injured. The attack lasted all of a minute. French President Nicolas Sarkozy rushed to the city north of the Pyrenees and declared, “This is a day of national tragedy because children were killed in cold blood.” The world was horrified by the massacre of Jewish children in France, but it should not be surprised by it. In 2004, I traveled to Europe as the senior U.S. law enforcement representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE. I spent four years assessing vulnerable houses of worship and community centers across the continent. In Europe, Jewish synagogues and day schools are often surrounded by rows of concertina wire, a bank of surveillance cameras, and a phalanx of heavily-armed counterterrorist police. Law enforcement agencies have assessed their small Jewish communities tactically, the way they would an embassy or a financial center, and have created -- by no fault of their own -- fortresses in the process. The sight of Jewish communities, some that have been forced behind walls out of concern about terror, saddened me. The dream of being able to worship freely, and to send one’s children to school without the fear of random violence,
(Founded in 1920) Andrew Ruback President Annette van de Kamp-Wright Editor Richard Busse Creative Director Jessie Wees Advertising Executive Lori Kooper-Schwarz Assistant Editor Barbara Kirkpatrick Bookkeeper
Jewish Press Board Eric Dunning, Vice President; Jason Epstein, Treasurer; Bobbi Leibowitz, Past President; Marc Brodkey; Phyllis Brown; Daniel Christensen; Mel Epstein; Scott Farkas; Michael Kaufman; Paul Rabinowitz; Caryn Scheer; Mark Senal; Nancy Wolf. The role of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to involve Jews in meeting Jewish communal needs locally, nationally and in Israel. Agencies of the Federation are: Community Relations, Jewish Community Center, Center for Jewish Education, Jewish Family Service/Jewish Senior Services, and the Jewish Press. Guidelines and highlights of the Jewish Press, including front page stories and announcements, can be found online at: www jewishoma-
was one of the foundations this nation was built on. In the United States, synagogues are not just houses of worship, and Jewish schools and community centers are not mere facilities for education and gathering places. They are American institutions. An attack against any of these symbols is an attack against all of us. The question of whether or not the American Jewish community is targeted by hatred and terror is not up for debate. Jews here and abroad remain targets. Tripwires around the world can trigger an attack; global conflict serves to put the entire Jewish community on alert. In this country, both law enforcement and the Jewish community recognize this unique reality and have taken proactive and outside-the-box steps to create a culture of security that joins the mission of the Department of Homeland Security with the concerns of the Jewish community. In 2004, the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations partnered with DHS to create the Secure Community Network (SCN). Since then, SCN has advised community leaders around the country on measures to enhance the physical security of their schools, community centers, and houses of worship. SCN has trained security staffers at these locations, and served as a liaison for local and federal law enforcement. This flow of information enables community leaders to prepare Jewish facilities and to increase vigilance. The lifeblood of this effort is the flow of accurate information to community security heads and leaders. SCN also operates a national emergency notification system with the capability to alert hundreds of senior Jewish leaders of terrorist threats and security alerts in real time. The foundation of this initiative is the flow of accurate, realtime information about potential or actual threats. The Jewish community cannot be held hostage by fear generated
from “breaking news” flashes or Internet rumors. Fear cannot be the currency of day-to-day life for this or any other community. It must thrive and survive, and accurate information and security protocols are vital to this equation. Recently, thanks to the assistance of Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, and with the support of JFNA, SCN has introduced the “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign, an effort that has helped safeguard New York City transit, the American Jewish community and others. The partnership with law enforcement and homeland security creates confidence and empowerment that nurtures a culture of security. A culture of security prevents us from succumbing to terror and violence. Empowerment comes through knowledge, awareness and better understanding of how to mitigate risk and threats to our community and institutions. The day after has come to France, and the 15,000 Jews in Toulouse mourn their dead and ponder the future now that their sense of security has been forever shattered. Across the ocean, the day after warrants that the American Jewish community consider building a culture of security through empowerment, not fear. There can be no copycats of Toulouse here in this country. Attacks that specifically target and kill Jewish children are so abhorrent and unthinkable that they paralyze a community’s ability to function and thrive. That was exactly the murderer’s objective when he pulled the trigger with the first of his victims in his sight. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance that the fanatics and terrorists are denied their cold-blooded goals. In Israel, citizens who are now numb to the reality of daily terrorist violence refuse to allow suicide bombers to interfere with their daily need to travel on buses, shop at malls, or sit and unwind in cafés. During World War II, the resolute Continued on page 17
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material and photos to: avandekamp @jewishomaha.org; send ads (in .TIF or .PDF format) to: rbusse@jew ishomaha.org. Letters to the Editor Guidelines The Jewish Press welcomes Letters to the Editor. They may be sent via regular mail to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154; via fax: 1.402.334.5422 or via e-mail to the Editor at: avandekamp@jew ishomaha.org. Letters should be no longer than 250 words and must be single-spaced typed, not hand-written. Published letters should be confined to opinions and comments on articles or events. News items should not be submitted and printed as a “Letter to the Editor.” The Editor may edit letters for content
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April 6, 2012 | The Jewish Press | 17
President Obama is not a Muslim (not that there’s anything wrong with that)
Behind the headlines AARON J. HAHN TAPPER SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) - Pundits have been pointing fingers since a recent poll found that 50 percent of Mississippi and Alabama GOP supporters said they believe that President Obama is a Muslim (with approximately another 40 percent in both states saying they are unsure). Some accuse Republicans of attempting to raise questions about Obama’s Christian identity. Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum insists he has said repeatedly that Obama is a Christian. But in January, during a town hall event in Florida, Santorum did not correct a woman who said that Obama “is an avowed Muslim,” responding to her false statement by saying that he agreed with some of the things she said. A few weeks later, in February, the Pennsylvania Republican referred to the president as adhering to a non-Christian faith -- “some phony theology, not a theology based on the Bible.” Santorum later argued that he was suggesting Obama’s religion was secularism. But many observers weren’t buying it. An editor at The Atlantic, David Graham, criticized the poll itself, arguing that simply asking the question ends up perpetuating the “pernicious” claim that the president is a Muslim. Implicit in all of these arguments is that there is something wrong with adhering to Islam. And on this front, Obama and his aides are not much better than the president’s opponents. This latest turn in the 2012 presidential election plot line underscores a widespread yet underlying Islamophobic societal trend that noticeably has been around since the last presidential campaign. During the 2008 campaign, the false gossip ranged from the extreme -- Obama has secret ties to al-Qaida! -- to the benign, such as his having chosen to be sworn into Congress using a Koran. Then and now, the Obama campaign has actively dismissed all such claims, even ones that aren’t particularly negative. In 2007, then-campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs referred to claims that Obama is a Muslim as “malicious and irresponsible charges.” One of the 2008 Obama campaign election websites [http://www.jta.org/?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fightthesmears.com] stated: “Lie: Senator Obama was sworn
into the U.S. Senate using the Koran. Truth: Barack Obama was sworn in using his family Bible.” As former Secretary of State Colin Powell once asked, “What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?” Would something be wrong if Obama had been sworn in using a Koran, as was U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) in January 2007? The answer should be no. But the president and his supporters make it seem otherwise by treating the “Obama is a Muslim” claims as both insults and accusations that need disputing. Religious identity is important to Americans, especially those running for the highest office in the land. This is a genuine concern for supporters of Obama just as it is for those behind Mitt Romney, who is seeking to become the first member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be president. The crux of this particular prejudice, however, is not based in wanting to know what Obama’s religion is but wanting assurances about what his religion is not. Much of this likely stems from an American populace that is still dealing with the trauma of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, which were carried out by violent Muslim extremists with the implicit guilt by association tied to all followers of Islam. By repeatedly insisting that Obama is not now nor has he ever been a Muslim, the Obama campaign and the White House deliver a problematic message to the world, including the Muslim American minority -- 1 percent of America’s population, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life -- and the 1.6 billion Muslims living outside the United States. The message: At the very least, Muslims are unfit to be president. And it’s not just the denials. At one event in Detroit during the 2008 presidential race, the Obama campaign moved two Muslim women wearing headscarves away from the podium and out of the sight of the cameras. Throughout that campaign, Obama spoke at numerous churches and several synagogues, but never once at a mosque. Yes, in 2009 Obama gave a widely watched speech in Egypt, the largest Muslim majority country in the Middle East, in which he cited many verses from the Koran, thereby showing respect to the Islamic tradition. Yes, Obama’s administration has sent out statements to Americans and non-Americans alike honoring annual Muslim holidays. Yes, in an interview with CNN’s Larry King, responding to
the satirical cover of The New Yorker tying him and his wife to Osama bin Laden and black militancy, he said that this “is actually an insult against Muslim Americans... sometimes I’ve been derelict in pointing that out.” But Obama also added, “I wasn’t raised in a Muslim home and I pledge allegiance to the flag...” When did these things become mutually exclusive? Why the mixed messages? Obama’s administrative staff, supporters and even some of his opponents continue to echo the mantra that Obama is a practicing Christian. Instead the main message should be that it does not matter if Obama were a Muslim. When his campaign in 2008 said it was a “smear” to be called a Muslim, when his campaign and administration aides today fail to stress that there would be nothing wrong even if he were a Muslim, Obama is perpetuating the notion that there is something wrong with having a Muslim identity. Would false rumors that a politician were Jewish be considered an insult? What about being a Hindu or a Sikh? During the 1940s, Nazi propagandists attacked Charlie Chaplin -- his film The Great Dictator mocked Adolf Hitler -- for being Jewish. Chaplin was a Christian, but he never denied the charge because he believed that to do so would play into the hands of anti-Semites. Why hasn’t Obama taken such an approach? He’s had more than three years as president of the United States to stand loud and firm about how problematic it is to use the label “Muslim” as a pejorative. The television sitcom Seinfeld dedicated an episode to this sort of liberal hypocrisy, with Jerry and George denying being gay lovers followed by a quick “not that there’s anything wrong with that” with each denial. The sitcom was mocking the insincerity of those who preach acceptance of a minority group but display revulsion when mistakenly confused as a member of that group. Ideally, perhaps, the president would follow Chaplain’s lead. But if he and his aides are going to make a point of responding to claims about his religion, the least they could do is give us some Jerry and George. Even a “not that there’s anything wrong with that” would be an improvement. Aaron J. Hahn Tapper is the director of the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice at the University of San Francisco and the co-executive director of Abraham’s Vision, an educational organization working with Jews, Muslims, Israelis, and Palestinians.
Synagogues must reach out to ‘the uninspired’
Focus on issues RICK JACOBS NEW YORK (JTA) -- A few months back I saw Moneyball, a film about a creative re-imagination of Major League baseball. In my favorite scene, Billy Beane, the legendary general manager of the Oakland Athletics, challenges his scouts to think differently about the game if they are to have any chance at success. Beane declares, “Adapt or die.” These words haven’t stopped echoing in my head. In this new era of Jewish life -- an era defined for many by the abundance of choices we face in every aspect of our lives -- our synagogues must adapt or risk becoming ossified. Synagogue life is too important to be entrusted solely to those who already are within congregational walls. We must, emphatically, expand the notion of what a synagogue means. That’s the path being blazed by the Union for Reform Judaism and others seeking to widen the embrace of Jewish life. Today, less than 50 percent of American Jews are synagogue members. The fastest growing group in the Jewish community is what we too often call the “the unaffiliated.” The term, of course, puts the onus on them. I prefer to call that group “the uninspired;” it’s our job to inspire and help them find their place in the Jewish community. How? By re-orientating our synagogues to address the needs of this group. Most of the time the synagogue is not reaching them. Synagogues must speak to the soul; they must challenge and educate. Against a secular culture that places each individual at the center of the universe, we can choose to be part of something larger than just ourselves. Taking responsibility for others lifts us out of the indulgence and narrowness of self and connects us to a world of meaning and purpose. Rebuilding broken lives in the developing world is surely a part of our sacred calling, as is caring for our Jewish elders in Brighton Beach or the Ethiopian Jewish girl living in Beersheva amid rocket fire from Gaza. Synagogues must be places where we extend ourselves to
people we don’t know. It is easier to associate only with those who are just like us, but being part of a sacred community makes us responsible for those who think, earn, practice and vote differently than we do. That is how our souls get stretched beyond their narrow reach. Our web of mutual responsibility doesn’t end with those in our congregation. Rather that’s where it begins. Synagogues must reassess their focus on what happens outside their walls. Young Jews on the outside are not knocking on the door. It is our collective responsibility and challenge to reach them by breaking down the synagogue walls and engaging them, wherever they may be. A growing network of urban congregations including Temple Israel in Boston, Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco and Temple Emanu-El in Dallas are doing just that. In Atlanta, St. Louis, Washington, Miami and elsewhere, Reform congregations are going where young people are -- to coffee shops and bars, gyms and apartments. Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, N.Y., sponsors Shabbat in the ‘Hood: Unaffiliated Jews host a young rabbi in their homes for a festive and educational Shabbat dinner. When I served as the senior rabbi at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, N.Y., we hired a rabbinic intern from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and told him never to step inside the temple. We knew that most of our young people weren’t in the synagogue or even in the suburban neighborhood anymore; they were seeking new lives and careers in New York City, and that’s where they needed to be found. A bright Jewish future requires us to widen our circles of responsibility and geography. We must create a web of mutual extension that begins in the congregation and, in theory, is limitless. That web is something that our morning service calls “elu d’varim she’ein lahem shiyur” -- the things that have no boundaries, no limits, because the good they do goes on, making individuals into congregations, congregations into movements, movements into one united Jewish people and the Jewish people into a force for good and for God -- everywhere. The congregation is simply, and crucially, where the “me to we”
begins. In his commentary on Leviticus, the great scholar Nachmanides wonders why God had to summon Moses to enter the first praying place. His answer imagines that Moses hesitated to enter because he was intimidated by the holiness of the ancient Mishkan, or tabernacle. Today, too many of our people remain outside the walls of our synagogues, sometimes intimidated, but even more often simply uninspired. We can change; we can adapt the enduring institution to this dramatic moment in Jewish history. What are we waiting for? Rabbi Rick Jacobs is the president of the Union for Reform Judaism.
The Jewish community Continued from page 16 British nation endured the Blitz under the banner of Stay Calm and Carry On, a statement that the complexion of their national identity and their national resolve could not be deconstructed by Nazi bombs. The American Jewish community must follow these brave leads. They must remain vigilant, maintain their level of alert, and most importantly, they must broadcast the message loud and clear that we are open for business as usual -- and, most importantly, “If You See Something, Say Something.” Paul Goldenberg is the national director of the Secure Community Network, an initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America.
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18 | The Jewish Press | April 6, 2012
Candlelighting
Synagogues B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE
Friday, April 6, 7:37 p.m. | Saturday, April 7, 7:38 p.m. Thursday, April 12, 7:44 p.m.
618 Mynster Street | Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 | 402.322.4705 email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com For information on our historic synagogue – dates and times for Friday night services, please call 712.323.8885. FRIDAY, April 13: Services followed by Oneg, 7:30 p.m. with guest speaker, Rachel Rosenberg, Holocaust Survivior. The community is invited.
WEEKDAYS: Shacharit, 6:45 a.m. MONDAY: Weekly Teleconference Mishnah Class, 10:30 a.m. with Rabbi Gross. Contact the office for information on how to call-in to the conference call. TUESDAY: Rabbi Mizrahi’s Weekly Class, 6:30 p.m. WEDNESDAY: Rabbi Weiss’s Weekly Class, 7:30 p.m. THURSDAY: Women of the Torah class, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Gross.
BETH EL SYNAGOGUE
CHABAD HOUSE
Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California | Omaha, NE 68154-1980 | 402.492.8550 www.bethel-omaha.org Services conducted by Rabbi Mordechai Levin, Rabbi Steven Abraham and Cantor Beth Schlossberg. FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat Service, 5:45 p.m. followed by congregational Seder at 6:30 p.m. For more information, contact Margie in the office, or at programming@bethelomaha.org. SATURDAY: Shabbat Services, 9:30 a.m.; No Junior Congregation; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:50 p.m. WEEKDAY SERVICES: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.; weekdays, 7 a.m. & 5:30 p.m. SUNDAY, Second Day: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m.; Minha/ Ma’ariv, 7:50 p.m. MONDAY, Hol Hamo’ed: Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.; Wrestling with Rabbis of the Talmud, 10 a.m. with Rabbi Abraham; Minha/Ma’ariv, 5:30 p.m.; Join Men’s Club at 6 p.m., to package yellow candles for Yom HaShoah project. A light dinner will be served. TUESDAY, Hol Hamo’ed: Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.; YAC Playgroup will meet at 10:30 a.m., at the synagogue for a play date with the rabbis and cantor in the nursery. For more information, contact Caryn Scheer at carynscheer@yahoo. com; Minha/Ma’ariv, 5:30 p.m. WEDNESDAY, Hol Hamo’ed: Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.; BESTT Classes resume, 4:15 p.m.; Minha/Ma’ariv, 5:30 p.m. Jewish Values in Today’s World class on Sunday, April 15, 11 a.m., led by Rabbi Levin. THURSDAY, Hol Hamo’ed: Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.; Minha/Ma’ariv, 5:30 p.m. All Beth El classes and programs are open to everyone in the Jewish community.
An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch 1866 South 120 Street | Omaha, NE 68144-1646 | 402.330.1800 www.OChabad.com | email: chabad@aol.com Services conducted by Rabbi Mendel Katzman. FRIDAY: Services, 7 a.m.; Taanit Bchorot-Fast of the Firstborn, Siyum, 8 a.m.; Chametz may be eaten until 11:16 a.m. and must be burned by 12:21 p.m.; Family Seder, 7 p.m. Join us for an interactive, warm and engaging Seder. SATURDAY, Pesach Day 1: Pesach Minyan, 9:30 a.m.; Youth Minyan, 11 a.m. Mini-Mensch title will be awarded; Kiddush lunch follows; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:45 p.m. SUNDAY, Pesach Day 2: Shacharit,, 9:30 a.m.; Youth Minyan, 11 a.m. Mini-Mensch title will be awarded; Kiddush lunch follows; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:45 p.m. WEEKDAYS: Services, 7 a.m. MONDAY-WEDNESDAY, Chol HaMoed Day 1-3: Minyan, 7 a.m. THURSDAY, Chol HaMoed Day 4: Minyan, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:45 p.m. FRIDAY, April 13, Pesach Day 7: Minyan, 9:30 a.m.; Youth Minyan, 11 a.m. Mini-Mensch title will be awarded; Kiddush lunch follows; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:45 p.m. SATURDAY, April 14, Pesach Day 8: Minyan, 9:30 a.m.; Yizkor, 11 a.m.; Youth Minyan, 11 a.m. Mini-Mensch title will be awarded; Kiddush lunch follows; Annual Moshiach Feast: Bid Farewell to Pesach, 7 p.m. Please reserve at shalom@ochabad.com. All programs are open to the entire community.
BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 12604 Pacific Street | Omaha, NE. 68154 | 402.556.6288 www.BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org Office hours: Monday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Fridays, 8:30 a.m-2 p.m. Services conducted by Rabbi Jonathan Gross and Rabbi Yitzchak Mizrahi. FRIDAY: The synagogue office will be closed for Erev Yom Tov; Shacharit, 7 a.m., followed by Siyum B’chorim; Burning/nullification of Chomets, before 12:10 p.m.; Mincha, 7:37 p.m.; Earliest Seder time, 8:30 p.m. SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m. free babysitting, 9:30 a.m.; Children’s Classes, 9:45 a.m. with Torah Parade; Kiddush sponsored in honor of those celebrating birthdays, anniversaries and simchas in April; The Laws of Shabbat, 5:30 p.m.; Advanced Parshah Study for Kids (ages 10 and up), 6:30 p.m.; Mincha, 7:30 p.m. followed by Seuda Shlishit; Start of the Seder, no earlier than 8:39 p.m.; Second Seder with Rabbi and Miriam Gross, 8:30 p.m. SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Kiddush is sponsored by Sisterhood; Mincha, 7:30 p.m.; Havdalah, 8:40 p.m.
ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME 323 South 132 Street | Omaha, NE 68154 FRIDAY: First Seder, 6 p.m., led by Carole and Andy Greenberg. SATURDAY: Passover Services, 9 a.m. led by Rabbi Maximo Shechet; Second Seder, 6 p.m., led by the Polack family: Susan, Jim, Josh and Max. SUNDAY: Passover Services, 9 a.m. led by Rabbi Maximo Shechet. FRIDAY, April 13: Concluding Days - Passover Services, 9 a.m. led by Andy Greenberg. SATURDAY, April 14: Last Day - Passover Services with Yizkor, 9 a.m. led by David Herzog.
TEMPLE ISRAEL Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 7023 Cass Street | Omaha, NE 68132-2651 | 402.556.6536 www.templeisrael-ne.org FRIDAY: Shabbat Service, 5 p.m. led by Rabbi Azriel, Rabbi Linder and Cantor Shermet. (Note: Due to the first night of Passover falling on a Friday night, services will begin an hour early.) SATURDAY: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m.; Shabbat/Passover Service, 10:30 a.m.; Congregational Seder, 6 p.m. The cost for adults is $23, $12 for children six to twelve years old. Reservations are required. SUNDAY: No Religious School. WEDNESDAY: No Religious, Family or Grades 7&8. THURSDAY: God was in this place and I did not know, 1011:30 a.m. with Rabbi Linder. He will be looking at what our tradition says about the normal moments ... Maybe they’re not so normal?; Acts of Kindness WRJ Donor and Dinner, 6 p.m. Cost is $10. (see full story on page 12.) FRIDAY, April 13: Conclusion of Passover Services and Yizkor, 10:30 a.m.; Shabbat Comes to You at Remington Heights, 4 p.m. led by Rabbi Linder; Shabbat Service, 6 p.m. led by Rabbi Linder and Cantor Shermet.
TIFERETH ISRAEL CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN South Street Temple | Union for Reform Judaism 2061 South 20th Street | Lincoln, NE 68502-2797 | 402.435.8004 www.southstreettemple.org Services conducted by Rabbi Ilan Emanuel. FRIDAY: There will be no Shabbat Evening Services. SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9 a.m.; Torah Study, 10:30 a.m.; Annual Passover Second Night Community Seder, 6 p.m. SUNDAY: No LJCS Classes. WEDNESDAY: No LJCS Hebrew classes. ADULT EDUCATION TUESDAY, 6:30 p.m. Intro to Judaism, Session #13 led by Rabbi Lewis. The cost is $50 to cover course materials. Register by calling the Temple office at 402.435.8004 or email stemple@neb.rr.com. THURSDAYS, Beginning Hebrew, 6 p.m. and Intermediate Hebrew, 7 p.m. The cost is $50 to cover course materials. For more information call the Temple office at 402.435.8004 or email stemple@neb.rr.com. Note: Please contact Rabbi Lewis if the cost for a class creates a financial hardship.
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE SAC Memorial Chapel 301 Lincoln Highway | Offutt AFB, NE 68113 | 402.294.6244 FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m.
Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Boulevard | Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 | 402.423.8569 www.tiferethisraellincoln.org Services conducted by Nancy Coren, Lay Leader. Office hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. FRIDAY: Temple office will be closed in preparation for Passover and there will be no Shabbat Evening Services. SATURDAY: Pesach Services, 9:30 a.m. and we will NOT be serving a Kiddush lunch; Second Seder in the homes. SUNDAY: No LJCS Classes; Pesach Services, 9:30 a.m. WEDNESDAY: Services, 9 a.m.; No LJCS Hebrew classes. FRIDAY, April 13, Pesach Day 7: Mincha, 6:30 p.m. followed by Kabbalat Shabbat/Ma’ariv. SATURDAY, April 14, Pesach Day 8: Passover Shabbat Services with Yizkor, 9:15 a.m. Note: If an individual is looking for a home Seder, please call the office to leave your name and seder date request. The Annual Holocaust Commemoration, Sunday, April 15, 3 p.m. at the State Capitol Rotunda. Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, Music as a Bridge on Friday, April 20, 7:30 a.m. (doors open at 7 a.m.) at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 1040 P Street. Cost is $25 per person, $250 per table of 10 RSVP to the Temple or Synagogue office with your payment by Thursday, April 12. Checks should be made payable to “Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast.”
Bar Mitzvah Spencer David Arnold, son of Brenda and Barton Arnold, will become a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday, April 14, at Temple Israel. Spencer is a seventh-grade honor roll student at Westside Middle School. He is a Presidential Award winner. His interests include football and jazz band. For his mitzvah project, Spencer has befriended a few residents at QLI and has had fun times hanging out, talking, playing pool or whatever he can do to help them and the staff out. He also has helped the older residents in our neighborhood with yard clean up and shoveling. He has two brothers, Jacob (15) and Zachary (10). Grandparents are Charles Arnold, Joy Arnold, Mae Peterson and the late Harold Peterson. Great-grandmother is Beverly Freiden.
Brooklyn food co-op rejects Israel boycott by JTA NEWS STAFF NEW YORK (JTA) -- A well-known cooperative grocery store in Brooklyn voted to reject a boycott of Israeli goods. At a special meeting, members of the Park Slope Food Coop rejected by a vote of 1,005 to 653 a proposal to hold a mail ballot referendum for all members on whether to stop selling Israeli goods. The meeting was held at an area high school to accommodate the expected crowd, which ended up exceeding in size any previous co-op meeting, The New York Times reported. The co-op, founded in 1973, is well
known in New York City as a bastion of socially conscious consumerism. Each member is required to do a work shift of 2 hours, 45 minutes every four weeks in order to shop at the coop, which offers an array of organic and other goods at significant discounts. Supporters and opponents of a boycott had campaigned aggressively in the run-up to the vote at the co-op, which has a large number of Jewish members. The call to boycott Israeli goods had been percolating for several years and was the subject of vigorous debate in the co-op’s newsletter. The issue garnered substantial media attention. New York City
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other elected officials strongly criticized the boycott proposal. “I think it has nothing to do with the food,” Bloomberg said Monday when asked about the boycott at a news conference. “The issue is there are people who want Israel to be torn apart and everybody to be massacred, and America is not going to let that happen.” The co-op’s general manager and one of its founders, Joe Holtz, urged members to reject the boycott call, calling it “divisive.” The co-op reportedly sells only a handful of Israelimade products.
Pulverent e
April 6, 2012 | The Jewish Press | 19
The Festival of Freedom
In memoriam LOUIS BERNSTEIN
Sparks from the word RABBI MYER S. KRIPKE Parsha Pesach It could be said that of all the Festivals observed by Muslims, Christians and Jews, and by those who dwell in far-off eastern Asia, that Passover (Pesach) is the most important of all. According to Biblical accounts, Israelites were slaves to the Pharaos of Egypt for 400 years. Then, however, after a series of ten devastating plagues, the then-reigning Pharaoh was obliged to let the Children of Israel depart into freedom. Thus Passover became the Festival of Freedom, par excellence. It’s name derives from the Biblical account that when the plagues struck Egypt, the Lord “passed over” the homes of the ancient Israelis. We get a picture here of the way tyrants “keep their word.” Ten times, the Pharaoh promised to let the Children of Israel proceed into freedom, and ten times he broke his promise. Eventually, there was no choice left. He could not countenance the death of his own first born son, nor his own death, since he was a first-born son himself. Therefore he could not keep the Israelites from leaving Egypt. He did not permit them to go, but to save Egypt from total destruction, he forced them to leave, and pushed them out. He denied residence to the Israelites, even as slaves: “Out you go, and don’t come back!” Historians, trying to place all these events in history, have come to determine that these events actually occurred, and that the time was perhaps the 12th or 13th century B.C.E. Freedom, then, Freedom, is the message of Passover.
Owners of Washington Jewish paper buy Baltimore Jewish Times by JTA NEWS STAFF (JTA) -- The owners of Washington’s Jewish newspaper submitted the winning bid for The Baltimore Jewish Times at a bankruptcy auction. Route 95 Publications, LLC, an affiliate of the WJW Group, which owns the Washington Jewish Week, announced that it won a Monday auction to purchase Alter Communications, the publisher of The Baltimore Jewish Times and Style Magazine. The group’s bid was $1.26 million, The Baltimore Sun reported. The sale needs to be approved by a federal bankruptcy court judge, who will reportedly consider the issue on Thursday. “The Baltimore Jewish Times is, literally, a significant communal institution, and a meaningful player in the world of Anglo-Jewish newspapers,” said Louis Mayberg, a partner of Route 95 Publications, in a statement. “We respect that tradition, and we are committed to continue it, and to build upon it.” Alter Communications went into bankruptcy following an acrimonious legal dispute with its printer that had rendered uncertain the future of The Baltimore Jewish Times, a 93-year-old weekly. Route 95 Publications was one of three bidders for Alter Communications. The other two bidders were Baltimore Community Publishing, LLC, which owns a local sports publication and is led by physician Scott Rifkin, and the printer, H.G. Roebuck & Son, Inc., which had won a legal judgment against Alter over breach of contract that led to the bankruptcy. According to The Baltimore Sun, Alter’s CEO had previously estimated that the sale would be for between $400,000 and $600,000. In Monday’s auction, Baltimore Community Publishing bid $1.25 million, while Roebuck bid up to $905,000, The Baltimore Sun reported. Mayberg said in his statement that while his ownership group anticipated “the development of some efficiencies on the administrative side of the paper, our plan is to keep as many employees of the paper who can help make it better and stronger, and to bring in additional support to help the paper continue to grow and prosper.” He stated that his group is “committed to maintaining the high level of journalistic integrity of the Jewish Times” and to it remaining “a Baltimore-based paper.”
Louis Bernstein passed away peacefully in his home on March 20 at the age of 84. Services were held on March 23 at Bikur Cholim Cemetery in Seattle. He is survived by his wife, Shirley Green Bernstein; daughters and sons-in-law, Leslie and Michael Boguch of Seattle, Rhonda Bernstein and Philip Anderson of Singapore; son and daughter-in-law, Jeff and Randie Bernstein; grandchildren: Joshua Boguch, Spencer and Olivia Anderson, and Rachel and Sam Bernstein; brother and sister-in-law, Dave and Peggy Bernstein; sister and brother-in-law, Bev and Joe Frank. After graduating from Georgia Tech, he came to Seattle in 1949 and began a career as an aeronautical engineer for the Boeing Company. He worked on military, space and commericial projects, including the B-52, the space shuttle program and wide body jets, the 747 and 767. Memorials may be made to the charity of your choice.
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JOYCE PERSON POCRAS Joyce Person Pocras passed away on March 29 in Las Vegas, NV. Services were held at Hillside Memorial in Culver City, CA. She was preceded in death by her parents Harry and Lillie Person; sister, Zelda Friedman; and brother, Gilbert Person. She is survived by her husband, Ken of Las Vegas; daughter, Jeanne of Los Angeles; son and daughter-in-law, Hap and Suzanne; grandchildren: Lily, Lucy and Knox. She taught math at Pius X High School and Irving Junior High School in Lincoln. Later she returned to college to obtain her CPA license. She worked for the Nebraska State Auditor of Public Accounts and later moved to First Federal Lincoln S&L as their internal auditor eventually becoming a board member of TierOne bank. Memorials may be made to the charity of your choice.
RUTH EILEEN ELLIS RAWSON Ruth Eileen Ellis Rawson passed away on Feb. 25 at the Blumkin Home at the age of 85. She was laid to rest on Feb. 28 at Beth El Cemetery. She was preceeded in death by her parents Lewis and Anne Ellis and her daughter Michele Rawson. She is survived by daughter and son-in-law, Sharon Rawson-Secor and Rich Secor, grandsons: Spencer Dean and Niko Secor; sister and brother-in-law, Gerri and Jim Phillips; niece, Cheryl Phillips; daughter, Karen Rawson of Green Mountain Falls, CO; nieces: Cindy and Jill. Memorials may be made to the Rose Blumkin Home. The family would like to thank everyone at the Rose Blumkin Home for their outstanding love and care of Ruth.
RICHARD R. ROSINSKY Richard R. Rosinsky passed away on March 25 at the age of 84. Services were held on March 27, at Temple Israel Cemetery. He was preceded in death by his wife, Doris M. Rosinsky. He is survived by his son, Samuel J. Rosinsky; daughter and son-in-law, Barbara J. Rosinsky and Martin I. Ellenby of LaGrange, IL.; son and daughter-in-law, David E. and Karin Rosinsky; grandchildren: Jacob, Hannah and Benjamin Ellenby, Samantha and Sydney Rosinsky; brother, Jerry Rosinsky; and nieces, nephews, extended family members and loving friends. He served proudly in the U. S. Navy during World War II.
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Wolpe tops Newsweek’s list of 50 influential U.S. rabbis by JTA NEWS STAFF (JTA) -- Rabbi David Wolpe, who heads the largest Conservative synagogue west of the Mississippi, made his debut atop Newsweek’s list of the 50 most influential American rabbis. Wolpe, of Sinai Temple in Beverly Hills, CA., moved up from No. 2 a year ago on the 2012 list, which was released Monday. He swapped spots with Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, the chairman of Chabad-Lubavitch’s educational and social services network, who was No. 1 on the last two lists. Two Reform rabbis were next: Peter Rubinstein, senior rabbi of New York’s historic Central Synagogue, and David Saperstein, head of the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, were No. 3 and 4. Saperstein held the top spot in 2009. Conservative Rabbi Sharon Brous, head of the IKAR community in Los Angeles, rose from 10th last year to become the first female to crack the top 5. Among the criteria used to determine America’s top 50 rabbis were their impact on Judaism and beyond the Jewish community; the size of their constituencies; their social/ political influence; and their media presence.
A POSITION for a staff medical laboratory technologist is available at the Cherry County Hospital. Benefit package includes health, disability, dental/vision insurance and pension. Contact the Cherry County Hospital, Box 410, Valentine, NE 69201 or 402-376-2525. FIREFIGHTER/E.M.T.P. - City of Columbus, NE, immediate opening. Firefighter and Paramedic level skills tests are given on Saturday, 4/21/12, at 8:30 a.m. Go to www.columbusne.us for enrollment information. HELP WANTED: Careers available. Grosshans International Inc. of Aurora and Grosshans Inc. of Central City, Nebraska, have full-time positions available for additional shop technicians and sales personnel. Prior experience is preferred. Please send resume to or contact Alan Anderson, Grosshans International, Inc., 1471 West Hwy. 34, Aurora, NE 68818 or call 1-402-694-2121 or 1-800-742-7423. CONSTRUCTION FOREMAN, home building & foreman experience required. $21 per hour to start. Send resume to ASONPLLC, PO Box 745, North Platte, NE 69103. BECKER TRANSPORTATION - OTR drivers. $1,000 sign-on bonus, safety bonus, competitive pay, benefits, dedicated lanes. Jim, 800-542-6645, jim@beckertrans.com, 1501 South Burlington, Hastings, NE 68901. YOU GOT the drive, we have the direction. OTR Drivers, APU equipped pre-pass EZ-pass, pets/passenger policy. Newer equipment. 100% No Touch. 1-800-5287825. MTC METALS buying iron per ton from your farm or ranch. Taking wire, equipment, combines, pivots, blowouts, etc. We’re insured. Call 308-530-1088 or 308530-1563.
20 | The Jewish Press | April 6, 2012
Toulouse attack leaves French Jewish community shaken by DANA KENNEDY PARIS (JTA) -- When Arie Bensemhoun, a Jewish community leader in Toulouse, woke up Tuesday morning, he thought for a moment that the horrific shooting of three children and a rabbi at a local Jewish school might just have been a bad dream. Like others in the close-knit Jewish community in the southern French city, Bensemhoun said he couldn’t bear knowing that the worst anti-Semitic attack on French soil in decades had taken place just 24 hours before in his own backyard. “Then the reality hit and I knew it was true and it had really happened,” Bensemhoun told JTA. “We are living a nightmare. It’s hard to describe the shock felt by our whole community. It’s worse than you can imagine. How can this be happening in the 21st century?” Southwestern France went to a scarlet terror alert, the highest possible, shortly after the shooting, which occurred just after 8 a.m. Monday at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse. A manhunt involving dozens of French police and anti-terrorism investigators was underway Tuesday for a gunman with a video camera around his neck who pulled up on a black motorbike and fatally shot three Jewish children and a teacher. The bodies of at least three of the victims were flown to Israel for burial Tuesday, while schoolchildren all over France stood and paused for a moment of silence on Tuesday morning to remember them. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who suspended his presidential campaign until Wednesday and flew to Toulouse after the attack, called the tragedy “obviously antiSemitic,” and the interior minister called for heightened security at all Jewish schools and institutions in France. France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, has an estimated 600,000 Jews. On Monday night, thousands of Jews and non-Jews, including politicians, gathered in Paris for a silent demonstration organized by the French Union of Jewish Students. One banner among the many French flags held aloft by the marchers read, “In France, Blacks, Jews and Arabs are killed.” “It could have been anyone’s child,” said Jacques Benichou, the executive director of the Fonds Social Juif Unifié, the main French Jewish welfare organization, in a phone interview as he was boarding a plane for Paris Monday night after spending a large part of the day with Jewish leaders in
Rabbi Jonathan Sandler and his two sons, Arieh, left, and Gavriel, were killed in the shooting at the Ozar Hatorah School in Toulouse, France. The rabbi’s wife is holding their Credit: Flash90/JTA daughter. Toulouse. “Even if the killer was targeting other minorities, there’s no escaping that he targeted Jewish children as well. We all feel deeply sad and very alarmed.” Nicole Yardeni, one of the leaders of the Toulouse area branch of the CRIF, France’s main Jewish umbrella organization, said she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support after the shooting. “What I’m focusing on is how we feel about the outpouring of support from our neighbors, the country and beyond the country that came so quickly,” she said Tuesday. “Even the Jewish community of Istanbul has called us. And not just Jews; many people all over the world have reached out. It has been such a great help. We never expected such an outpouring of support.” Yardeni’s son attended Ozar Hatorah a few years ago and she, like many in the 20,000- to 30,000-strong Jewish community in Toulouse, knew parents and teachers at the school. She said the Paris-born rabbi killed in the attack, Jonathan Sandler, 30, was an enormously well-liked teacher who had just begun work at the school in July. Not everyone knew that he was an alumnus of Ozar Hatorah and, after 10 years of study and training in Israel, had decided to return. “He wanted to give back to this school who had given him so much,” Yardeni said. She spoke to reporters through tears on Monday after
viewing the surveillance tape of the shooting. Witnesses described the gunman as “calm” and “determined” as he pulled up to the school, dismounted without taking off his helmet and started shooting. He first shot Sandler along with his two young sons, Aryeh and Gavriel, as they waited for a minibus to take them to their nursery. When the first of the killer’s two guns jammed, he reached for a second and continued shooting as he chased pupils into the schoolyard, witnesses said. He cornered 7-year-old Miriam Monsonego, the daughter of school principal Yaacov Monsonego, and shot her in the head. He also shot a 17-year-old boy, who remained hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday. Police say the killer used the same weapon used in the shooting last week of the three French paratroopers of North African and Caribbean origin in the Toulouse area. France’s Interior Minister said Tuesday that surveillance tapes at the school showed the killer wore a video camera around his neck but said they do not yet know if he was recording his own carnage. Official reaction around the world to the attack was swift. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack had a “strong, murderous anti-Semitic motive.” The Vatican called it a “heinous” crime, and the White House said it was “outrageous and unprovoked.” However, remarks by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton about the attack in Toulouse angered some. “The days when we remember young people who have been killed in all sorts of terrible circumstances -- the Belgian children having lost their lives in a terrible tragedy and when we think of what happened in Toulouse today, when we remember what happened in Norway a year ago, when we know what is happening in Syria, when we see what is happening in Gaza and Sderot and in different parts of the world -- we remember young people and children who lose their lives.” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman called the statements “inappropriate” and asked Ashton to re-examine and retract them. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak also criticized Ashton. Ashton said her remarks had been “distorted” and that she drew “no parallel whatsoever between the circumstances of the Toulouse attack and the situation in Gaza.”