Sponsored by the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Endowment Fund AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA
April 15, 2011 | 11 Nisan 5771 Vol. 90 | No. 32 3 Sections
2 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
Introduction
American Jewish Press Association Award Winner
Nebraska Press National Newspaper Association Association Award winner 2008
An Honor and a Privilege
by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press What you hold in your hands is the 2011 Jewish Press Passover issue. Does the time really go that fast? Have you cleaned your kitchen yet, disposed of your Chametz, ordered your Matzah? If you haven’t, don’t worry: there’s still time. Not much, but still. Here at the Jewish Press we have been in Passover mode (the frantic variety) for quite a while now. Putting together a special issue such as this is quite a task, and it couldn’t be done without a phenomenally dedicated staff. And so I want to start off by thanking Creative Director Richard Busse, Assistant Managing Editor Lori Kooper-Schwarz, Advertising Director Allan Handleman, and Bookkeeper Barbara Kirkpatrick. You’ve done it yet again, you’ve made it through piles of work, long hours, weekends and evenings, and many challenges, and yet you’re still here. You’re all heroes in my book. And speaking of heroes, the topic of this issue, “Jews in the Military,” allowed us a privileged glimpse at what exactly real heroes are made of. The stories put together by our wonderful freelancers will make you feel humbled and grateful. “It’s not heroism, it’s duty,” one veteran told me. He may think so, and I am reluctant to disagree with any of these women and men, but I still must. To put your very life on the line so that others may live free cannot be defined as anything but heroism. We hope you enjoy these profiles and stories as much as we enjoyed collecting them. The timing is appropriate; as we collectively celebrate the end of slavery back in Egypt, it is a good thing to remember more recent fights to preserve the freedom we all enjoy so much. Especially now, as I am writing this during the second half
of March, when the United Nations has lead the effort to stand up to the Dictator in Libya, and we continue to have troops stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, as well as many other places around the world. In addition, wherever disaster strikes, military personnel are usually the first to arrive. Hurricans, floods, earth quakes: when people are desperate, the military quietly does its work. Then, there is the constant battle in Israel: “Such a small piece of land,” Binyamin Netanyahu called it during his recent interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan; and yet it is constantly under threat. It seems only fair that when we talk about ‘Jewish soldiers’, we include those who have in the past, or currently are, enlisted in the IDF. Everybody who is included in this issue has shared unique experiences. Listening to your stories has been an honor, and a privilege. Of course, it has been hard to limit ourselves, and so we haven’t. There were so many names brought to us, we could have never fit them all into one issue. Even with this many pages, it wasn’t enough, and so we have decided to continue this series. We will do another section on November 11 of this year, in honor of Veteran’s Day. If you miss anybody in these pages, please give us a call. They may already be on the list, but if they are not, we will do our very best to add them. These are the stories we must preserve. We express our thanks to our proofreaders: Ellie Batt, Margaret Kirkeby, Deborah Platt, Dottie Rosenblum, and Suzanne Singer who make sure we appear much more polished than we deserve. We thank all our colleagues in the building, the rabbis and staff at the synagogues, all the people who agreed to be interviewed and in some cases remem-
bered things they’d rather forget. It’s been a big year: one of the biggest highlights for us here in the office was, no doubt, the unveiling of our new layout. We thank the Federation leadership for showing faith in us, and we thank those who have given, and continue to give, financial support. The past few years have been rough; thanks to the generosity of the Wiesman family, we can all rest easy in the knowledge the Jewish Press will be here for a long time. For that, we are very grateful. We also thank our dedicated Jewish Press board members who came up with the theme of this issue (you hit a home run, we think), all our freelance writers, and the Jewish Historical Society for sharing valuable resources. We thank Star Deli for feeding us and keeping us off the street during Friday lunch (keep the banana cream pie coming, Mike). If there is anyone I am forgetting (and I have that sinking feeling I am) then I hereby offer my sincere apologies. Most of all, we thank you, the reader. For continuing to give us feedback, telling us what you like and don’t like, and sharing your important events with us. For dropping by the office, calling us, writing to us, and for being a part of what it’s all about. For enjoying what we print, for sometimes getting upset because of what we print, for having an opinion, and for being invested. Without you, there would absolutely be no reason for all of us to get out of bed in the morning. Happy Passover to all of you from all of us, Bobbi Leibowitz, Jewish Press Board President Annette van de Kamp, Editor
Passover Greetings
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(Founded in 1920) Bobbi Leibowitz President Annette van de Kamp-Wright Editor Richard Busse Creative Director Allan Handleman Advertising Manager Lori Kooper-Schwarz Assistant Managing Editor Barbara Kirkpatrick Bookkeeper
Jewish Press Board Andy Ruback, Vice President; Eric Dunning, Treasurer; Howard K. Marcus, Past President; Daphne Pollak Alperson; Marc Brodkey; Phyllis Brown; Jason Epstein; Mel Epstein; Scott Farkas; Michael Kaufman; Bette Kozlen; Jamie Meyerson; Michael Sigmond; Jim Simon; Dorothy Spizman; 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 sto-
ries and announcements, can be found online at: www jewishomaha.org; click on ‘Jewish Press.’ Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole. The Jewish Press reserves the right to edit signed letters and articles for space and content. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the Kashrut of any product or establishment. Editorial The Jewish Press is an agency of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Deadline for copy, ads and photos
is: Thursday, 9 a.m., eight days prior to publication. E-mail editorial 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 and space restrictions, but it should be printed as soon as possible to ensure timeliness. Letters may be published without giving an opposing view. Information shall be verified before printing. All letters must be signed by the writer, but the name can be withheld at the writer’s request. The Jewish Press will not publish letters that appear to be part of an organized campaign, nor letters copied from the Internet. No letters should be published from candidates running for office, but others may write on their behalf. Letters of thanks should be confined to commending an institution for a program, project or event, rather than personally thanking paid staff, unless the
writer chooses to turn the “Letter to the Editor” into a paid personal ad or a news article about the event, project or program which the professional staff supervised. For information, contact Annette van de Kamp-Wright, Jewish Press Editor, 402.334.6450. Postal The Jewish Press (USPS 275620) is published weekly (except for the first week of January and July) on Friday for $37.50 per calendar year U.S.; $80 foreign, by the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Phone: 402.334.6448; FAX: 402.334.5422. Periodical postage paid at Omaha, NE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154-2198 or email to: jpress@jewishomaha.org.
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By land, by sea, by air Omaha Jewish Vets did their wartime duty by LEO ADAM BIGA As a group, Omaha’s Jewish World War II veterans performed duties spanning the spectrum of that immense struggle. They served in virtually every military branch and theater of war. They fought in historic battles. They supplied troops with vital war materials. They earned commendations, ribbons, medals. The men featured here are only a small sampling of Omaha Jews who saw action. Some have siblings that distinguished themselves in wartime. For example, Stuart Muskin is profiled here but his brother, Leonard Muskin, could just have easily been. Leonard, who resides in California, received a Navy Cross and a Gold Star for extraordinary heroism as the pilot of a carrier-based torpedo plane during the Battle for Leyte Gulf in the Philippine Islands. Lloyd Krasne’s younger brother Bud was a weather observer and his older brother Milton was in the supply division that kept Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army fueled and Lloyd Krasne ended up in war-ravaged Tokyo as part of the army of occupation. Every veteran has a trunkful of stories. In the case of Lloyd Friedman, he was in the presence of three historic figures from WWII: Gen. Patton; Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower; and President and Commander in Chief Harry S. Truman. Friedman, Muskin and Marvin Taxman fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Milt Saylan was present at the formal surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay. Kevee Kirshenbaum served on minesweepers in both WWII and Korea, along the way interacting with Soviets, Filipinos, Chinese and Koreans. It turns out anti-Semitism was not an issue for most of Omaha’s Jewish war vets. Some saw loads of combat and others saw none at all. Some were married with children, others were single. All put their lives on hold, however, to answer the call of duty. To a
man, they’re grateful to have simply survived. Old Warriors Never Die, They Just Fade Away Like veterans everywhere, Omaha’s Jewish vets run the gamut when it comes to how much or how little they’ve invested themselves in things like post-war reunions and commemorations. Some, like Lloyd Krasne, Stuart Muskin and Kevee Kirshenbaum, have been to numerous reunions. Muskin, Kirshenbaum and Bill Cohen of Omaha traveled on a Heartland Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. Some of these same men attended a tribute two years ago honoring Omaha area veterans and Holocaust survivors. Some concentration camp prisoners met their liberators. Other vets want little to do with any fanfare over those times. Some have scrapbooks and mementos, others -- nothing. For most veterans, Omaha’s Jewish ranks included, wartime service was something they spoke little of after returning home and getting on with their lives. It’s only in the last two decades, as major anniversaries of the war were observed, that they began openly telling their stories. All lost something along the way. Buddies. Time. Innocence. Their humble attitude about going to war, which Lloyd Friedman summed up with, “somebody had to do it,” helps explain why they are the Greatest Generation. Several vets get together Mondays at the Bagel Bin. They may be gray now, but there was a time when they cut dashing figures and did heroic things. As their numbers grow ever fewer, they represent a trove of history not to be forgotten.
Editor’s note: Leo Adam Biga’s short profiles on wartime heroes can be found throughout this issue. This is in response to many requests from our readers to include shorter stories in our special edition. We hope you enjoy them, and would love to hear what you think.
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Kevee Kirshenbaum C.O. of minesweepers in WWII and Korea accomplishment.” Some fears he harbored were soon quelled. “When I went aboard ship I didn’t know what the reaction THE PACIFIC THEATER OR BUST would be to my being Jewish. The Navy had as a whole very by LEO ADAM BIGA few Jewish personnel. Then there was my age. I knew some Kevee Kirshenbaum had the distinction of being assigned of these guys knew more than I did. Half the crew was much six different minesweepers in two separate wars during his older than I was and more experienced. But luckily enough U.S. Navy service. I didn’t have any problems. He was a University of Nebraska sophoThe crew was very good and more when he joined up in 1942. His first respectful.” assignment came as an ensign aboard a Back home he finished sweeper sent to the Aleutian Islands. At Cold school, joined the Navy Bay, Alaska, he helped train Soviet naval perReserve, went to work and got sonnel in minesweeping techniques as part of married. Then the Korean the top secret Project Hula, which was to conflict broke out and he was ready the Soviets to invade Japan from the assigned minesweeping duty north. again. In Sasebo, Japan, he Once, while traversing an igloo-like tunnel served on a ship and transon base, he ran into an old chum from Omaha ferred to train the South -- Lee Bernstein. When they see each other Korean Navy, which helped today, they’re still amused at meeting each shake off the rust of four years other in such a desolate spot. away from active service. Kirshenbaum went from one extreme to the Later, he went to Korea to other in the Philippines, where he said, “we command the USS Redhead, swept mines all the way along the coast down which swept mines in hostile close to Borneo.” He said sweepers lived by the waters, even past the 38th motto: “where the fleet goes, we’ve been.” parallel. The minefields were His worst WWII experience came while thick with danger and his ship anchored in Subic Bay during a typhoon. and others came under fire by Ordered to get under way, the ship’s fluke shore artillery batteries. (anchor) caught on the open hatch of a Mines, especially the magsunken boat. That left the ship riding out the netic kind, were the main storm like a top on a string. threat. A replacement ship Kevee Kirshenbaum “We stayed there for 48 hours, just going venturing where the Redhead around in circles. You never saw so many sick people.” would have been was sunk by one. His most harrowing duty His group made preparations for Okinawa and the came sweeping Wonsan Harbor at night when the Redhead planned invasion of Japan when the atomic bombs were set off a magnetic device whose blast destroyed the vessel’s dropped. It was then he took command of his first ship, the mine cutting gear. Luckily, the hull was intact and the illYMS-49, in Shanghai, China. conceived operation cancelled. “My best experience of the war really was when I had The small, wooden minesweepers were the runts of the command of a ship. The war was already over -- what we did fleet but being small had the advantage of being resupplied was sweep the mines in the Huangpu River. We didn’t find every few days, which meant fresh eats. any mines there, but we found an awful lot of bodies. You Looking back on all the responsibility he assumed at such would see Chinese boats going by with a hook picking the a young age, he said, “I felt good about it.” He’s most gratebodies up.” ful for coming out alive. The retired entrepreneur feels forBecoming a C.O. at only 22, he said proudly, “was an tunate to have had the chance to lead “a successful life.”
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American Jews divided: Jews in the Civil War by DEVRA BRAM Neptune. This ship proved effective in One hundred and fifty years ago this defeating the Union’s blockade of the island April marks the start of the American Civil of Galveston and helped with the South’s War. It was a war that divided the nation victory of the Battle of Galveston. and the Jewish population. At that time there were about 150,000 Jews out of a total population of 3.4 million. Record shows there were about 8,500 Jews actively fighting for the North and the South. It was a significant enough number that Congress approved the first Jewish Chaplains. American Jews demonstrated that their loyalty to their country was stronger than their loyalties to each other. Since one of the causes of the war was the issue of preserving slavery in the South, why would Jews fight for the South? It starts with the question why they lived in the South. If being elected to office was a scorecard, the South was more hospitable to Jews. In the years leading up to the Civil War, Jews in the North were elected only as high as representatives to Congress while Southern Jews like Judah Benjamin had been elected to the Senate. Some of the oldest synaJudah P. Benjamin gogues in North America were founded in Credit: jewishcurrents.com the South, in coastal cities such as Alexandria, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina, because of the hospitable climate for Jews. During the German-Jewish migration to America from 1815-1877 Jews were settling in larger numbers in the South. The German Jews had been peddlers and merchants and found their skills much needed in the South as they blended into the economy based on agriculture and trade. Many new Jewish immigrants in the Southern States started as peddlers with packs or horse-drawn wagons taking items through the isolated farm country. When they became more successful, they opened stores and some became traders on a large scale. Confederate uniform. Credit: museumofmilitaryhistory.org Scholar Louis Schmier said, "Jews became a part of southern sociSome, like Major Alfred Mordecai, a ety, made their presence felt, and wove their West Point graduate who was first in his contributions through the southern fabric. class, chose to retire at 58 rather than pick a Jews took hold of life in the South and side. He had experience in active duty. He found it good and rewarding, and the was trained as an engineer and made severJewish presence has been good and reward- al contributions to munitions technology. ing for the South." American Rifleman calls him the “Wizard Jewish Civil War Heroes on both sides of Weaponry” for his input into the latest There were notable standouts on both rifle design, .58 cal U.S. Model 1855. When sides of the Civil War. During the Civil the Civil War broke out he had torn loyalWar, Congress established the Medal of ties. He considered himself a Southerner, Honor, the highest award of bravery given. but was loyal to the Union. He retired Six Jewish soldiers received this honor for rather than fight and did not see his place bravery in various Union battles; they were in history. Sgt. Leopold Karpeles, Benjamin Levy, A Civil War hero known to some Henry Heller, Isaac Gause, David Omahans was Edward Rosewater. He was Orbansky, Abraham Cohen, and Simon part of the Telegrapher Corps of the Union Suhler. Army. He worked for President Lincoln and Some companies included more than a transmitted President Lincoln’s Gettysburg handful of Jews. The Jewish Colonel address, among other messages. Rosewater Edward S. Salomon, Commander of the resigned from the War Department in 1863 82nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, had more to take a position as Chief of Operation for than 100 Jewish soldiers who were part of the Omaha City telegraph office. After the the Battle of Gettysburg. After Gettysburg, war, he stayed in Omaha where he founded Salomon was promoted to Brigadier the Omaha Daily Bee which, after merging General and in 1869 President Grant with another paper, eventually became the appointed him Governor of the Territory of Omaha World Herald. Rosewater was voted Washington. to the state legislature in 1871. He also ran The Confederacy also had its share of unsuccessfully for Senator. Jewish heroes. Prior to the start of the Civil After the terrible devastation of the Civil War some Jewish officers retired their com- War, Jews could be found in different places missions in order to join the Confederacy. to help the rebuilding. Jewish merchants in Captain Levy Myers Harby, who was a the South were able to extend life-saving native of Charleston, South Carolina, had credit to farmers at a time when cash was in already had an impressive naval career. short supply and banks unreliable. Many When the Civil War started he was 68 years Jews in the North helped to resettle freed old, and asked to command the ship the slaves by finding them housing and jobs.
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 5
“Not heroism, but duty” by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press Born and raised in Omaha, Bill Cohen has this to say about his WW II experience: “I still think about how lucky I was. I survived it all without extensive injuries, when many others did not.” He would have been drafted and therefore decided to join the military a little early. “I was young, and scared, and I had no idea what I was getting into,” he says. His father, Michael, was a reserve officer in the U.S. Army; his younger brother Gerald ended up in the Navy towards the end of WW II. Bill himself completed 13 weeks of basic training at Camp Roberts in California: “Most of the training was physical. We marched, hiked, and did weapons training; we spent a lot of time getting used to the discipline.” He became a member of the Army’s Infantry, which wasn’t his choice, but he says: “Back then, I felt very strongly that I wanted to serve my country. I feel the same way today.” Serve his country he did: Bill found himself far from home, on the Marshall Islands, in the Pacific. The Marshall Islands were in an important geographical position for Japan, being the easternmost point in Japan's defensive ring at the beginning of World War II. In 1944, the United States, troops during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, invaded and occupied the islands. The archipelago was added to the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, along with several other island groups in the South Sea. When discussing World War II, it can be easy to focus on Europe and the atrocities that happened there. Without downplaying what Europeans as well as their liberators went through, it is important to remember that many U.S. troops saw similar inhuman conditions in the Far East. U.S. initially began attacking the Marshall Islands in mid-1943; in just one month in 1944, Americans captured Kwajalein Atoll, Majuro and Enewetak, and in the next two months the rest of the Marshall Islands except Wotje, Mili, Maloelap and Jaluit. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. There was the
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invasion of Okinawa, the invasion of Saipan, there was relentless fighting and suffering on both sides, and ultimately, there were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Europe and its mass murder, meantime, seemed far away: “I don’t really remember hearing much about what was going on in the rest of the world,” Bill says. “News about concentration camps didn’t penetrate us very quickly. I was in the company of other Jews, and when we started hearing
the other hand, I wouldn’t mind seeing again.” Back in the U.S.A., Bill married Ileane; together, they raised daughters Sheri and Joni. Sheri lives in Houston and has two children, and Joni lives in New York. Ileane passed away in 1999, and Bill subsequently married Doris, who passed away in 2009. Doris’ children are Terri Kwiatek, and Ron Kwiatek; Ron has a son, Zachary. Nowadays, Bill dedicates himself to a different kind of service: he splits his time between Miracle Hills golf course and the Rose Blumkin Home. “Miracle Hills opens back up sometime in March,” Bill said, “and I eagerly await that time during the winter. People like to tell me I’m the world’s oldest cart kid. I love golf, and since I didn’t start playing until age 50, I don’t waste time practicing. I just play.” He likes that Miracle Hills is a public course that is affordable to many people. “The amenities are great,” he says, “and I’ve happily worked there for the past 16 years or so. The best fringe benefit? Everybody is very nice to us retired guys.” During the off season, Volunteer Coordinator Lois Wine is happy to have Bill’s help at the Rose Blumkin Home. “He comes in every Thursday, and relieves our receptionist at the Left: Bill during WWII, above: Bill Cohen waiting for main entrance to the home,” she says. golf season. “He greets visitors, answers questions, things, we just could not answers the phone, and takes care of meal tickets, among grasp that people could treat other things. Then, at 12:30, he goes over to Jewish Family others in such a fashion. It Services and does the same thing. He has a wonderful sense was hard to comprehend.” of humor, is always courteous, and we absolutely love having Bill himself had no prob- him, until we lose him to Miracle Hills by the end of lems with anti-Semitism, he March!” says. “I had no issues with Bill may not have the happiest memories, and he may have that while I was in the U.S. Army. My division was the 27th a hard time talking about his experiences, but he does not Infantry, which was originally the New York National regret his choice to serve his country. “Serving in the miliGuard, and there were lots of Jews in it.” tary is an extremely honorable thing to do. I think this counTalking about his war experience is difficult, as it is for try deserves protection, loyalty, and service. Anybody who many. “When we came home, at the end of 1945, nobody doesn’t recognize what this country really stands for is makreally asked about your mental state. You just went on with ing a huge mistake.” your life, and nobody really asked if you were okay. Because He doesn’t consider himself a hero: “My generation tends of that, I don’t remember a lot of the details, the things peo- to think it more as duty, rather than heroism.” He’s not alone ple ask about nowadays; for so many years, all I did was try in that opinion; it’s something you will hear again and again to forget.” in talking to veterans. Most heroes don’t think of themselves When that first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on in those terms; that is up to those who benefit from the sacAugust 6, 1945, Bill was in Aishima, on Ainoshima Island. rifices they made. This leaves it up to the rest of us to both “We could barely believe it. It was so unreal. I was glad acknowledge the sacrifices Bill and many others made, to when, in December of that year, I was sent home. I don’t ever remember what they did and why, and show our heartfelt want to go back to the mainland of Japan. The Islands, on appreciation.
6 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
Rabbi Yitzchak Mizrahi: from army garb to prayer shawl by GLORIA SHUKERT JONES community leaders from the religious population, including Not everyone who attends a yeshiva becomes a rabbi. outreach rabbis who felt they needed to provide a setting for Some go just for the ambience, and others for the intensive religious Jews who want to serve in the Army, but couldn’t Torah studies. Yitzchak Mizrahi was a student who wasn’t because of the nature of the service and what it entails. So quite certain whether he wanted to follow in the rabbinical footsteps of his grandfather and father before him. At the same time he had a desire to make a difference. Mizrahi is the son of Rabbi Moshe and Sharon Nadoff Mizrahi, and the grandson of Jeanette Nadoff, and the late Rabbi Isaac Nadoff. In fact, the name “Yitzchak” is the Hebrew equivalent of Isaac, for whom Mizrahi is named. “In our family, we have a tradition of naming people after the living,” explained Mizrahi. “When I was born, I was given my grandfather’s name even though he was still alive.” Mizrahi was born in Cleveland, Ohio, where his parents met and married. His mother grew up in Omaha and went to high school in Cleveland. His father, originally a resident of Miami, went to yeshiva in the same city. Mizrahi grew up there until seventh grade, when the family, which by that time Yitzchak Mizrahi in the watchtower with his rifle. included his eight siblings, moved to Israel, where his youngest brother was born. they wanted to create what they call a ‘kosher unit,’ which When asked about his educational background, Mizrahi means they wanted to provide the soldiers with the ability to explained that the yeshiva system in Israel was different maintain higher standards of religious practice. Now, the from that of the United States. IDF is kosher, entirely kosher, but its kashrut is of a more “There are two types of yeshivot, a younger age yeshiva basic, lower standard that does not cater to everyone. Some and an older age yeshiva. The younger age yeshiva is a people want to maintain a higher standard, so with the birth three-year cycle. I guess that would be the equivalent of high of this unit people could go into the Army, knowing they school. I skipped eighth grade and went to Yeshiva, after- could maintain a higher level of observance. ward advancing to the older yeshiva at the age of 17. From “Additionally, what sets this unit at a higher religious stanthere, I attended another yeshiva for two years, and then dard and sets it apart from the other units, is that there are took a break and went into the Army at a later age than most no women on its bases. While to many people this appears people do. I was older than most of my peers there. After my to be a step backwards, this was in fact a very progressive service I returned to yeshiva.” step, acknowledging human weaknesses and allowing for With regard to his military experience, Mizrahi indicated accomodations. The average 18-year-old recruit has a onethat he joined a unit which he described as one-of-a-kind in track mind. Boys that age, with their raging hormones, Israel, or even in the world. understandably have a difficult time maintaining religious “It was a religious unit. I was drafted in 2003, when it was and family values and practices. Many worrying parents and still a fledgling unit. It was around 1998 that this unit was religious leaders were very relieved that those challenges born,” Mizrahi recalled. “It was the work of a number of were mitigated.”
In answer to my question regarding women in the military, Mizrahi clarified their duties as generally serving jointly with men, including in combat units, although often of an auxiliary nature or as staff support in the units that were not segregated like the one he was in. He said they are generally not in active combat, although there now is a unit in which they can serve actively in combat, and that unit is mixed, or co-ed. “Otherwise,” he emphasized, “women serve in many different capacities. Even in combat units, they need people to do support work, including paper work. They are often educational instructors, and guides. They are also very involved in the Intelligence Corp, and women perform many of those difficult tasks alongside men, often becoming officers and assuming top positions. In addition, every unit has different divisions and regiments. And every company needs a number of support people, and usually those are women. Obviously, they have separate barracks, but they serve on the same base and come in daily contact with the soldiers,” Mizrahi concluded. He added that many support positions previously held solely by women in this unit are held by men. In describing his particular unit, Mizrahi further stated, “What the religious community wanted to do was introduce Israeli yeshiva students into the socio-economic life, beginning with the Army service. The problem is, many of the students never trained for any particular vocation and had no experience. They were perpetually in academia. They didn’t know anything that was of value to the workforce and couldn’t get a job anywhere, unless they wanted to stock shelves in a grocery store. One of the goals of this unit was to help introduce yeshiva students into the general workforce in Israel.” “I started out as all recruits do, as a private. Eventually I was promoted to corporal, and by the time I was discharged I was a sergeant. The rank was kind of meaningless to me, although others took great pride in their stripes. I did not serve during a particular war. Israel is perpetually fighting, so we were in combat state regardless. Only ten percent of Continued on page 7
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Jack Epstein A long way from home “We serviced all of them,” he said. Planes came and went all day, every day. “From the Philippines they came, from Okinawa they came, from all THE PHILIPPINES, NEW GUINEA, AND STATESIDE over. They were in and out -- they didn’t stay,” he said. The by LEO ADAM BIGA roaring engines were a constant companion. “Maybe that’s The son of an immigrant fruit peddler, Jack Epstein was the reason I can’t hear so good (today), I don’t know,” he married and attending then-Omaha University when draft- ventured. ed into the service in 1943, ending up in the U.S. Army Air He was tasked with inventory control. Corps. As a company clerk in remote outposts, he never saw “I was the company clerk you might say. I kept track of the any action but was a part of the huge ins and outs of the barrels that came in logistics apparatus that fed the Allied and the barrels that went out .” war machine. As staff sergeant, he said, he became Military life didn’t exactly agree with “very close to the two officers. We Epstein, yet he persevered. played bridge most of the time we were “I didn’t take to the Army very good, there.” Finding diversions on an island but I managed to do OK with it because in the middle of nowhere, he said, was of the fact I knew I wasn’t in danger and vital for maintaining one’s sanity. I had something to do all the time. I was Besides playing bridge there was fishbusy. Time went pretty fast,” he said. ing, but reading and writing letters was His wartime odyssey overseas began his main relief. with a voyage aboard a merchant ship “I wrote my wife every single day and from southern California to Brisbane, she wrote me most every single day, Australia. From there he went to and it was really great as far as the Milne, New Guinea, where he camaraderie we had with each other.” remained for the next 27 months. The He still marvels at how their letters only time he laid sight of the enemy arrived without interruption, as did the was when Japanese surveillance planes airfield unit’s supplies of everything flew high overhead. from canned foods to typewriter ribNew Guinea natives were rarely bons. glimpsed. “One reason we won the war was our He never came under fire, but he did supply lines,” he said. “No matter what Sidney and Jack Epstein contract malaria. The rainy season you wanted, we had it -- about anythere soaked everything for weeks on end. Mosquitoes had thing you could imagine. Our supply was unbelievable.” a field day. The oppressive heat rarely let up. By war’s end he was sent to Okinawa, where he endured Epstein was part of a unit comprised of two officers and 28 two typhoons, and then back to the Philippines. En route enlisted men. “We took charge of all the 100 octane gasoline home by ship he suffered chills and fever from his malaria. on that base for airplanes,” he said. The gasoline came in 150 It took two years before he was over the symptoms. gallon barrels unloaded from supply ships and then stored After three years of separation he and his wife reunited and secured on base. Thousands of barrels were stacked on and raised a family. Epstein ended up in the distillery busisite. The fuel serviced fighter planes as well as troop and ness. At age 88 he still goes to work every day. cargo planes.
By air
From army garb to prayer shawl Continued from page 6 the IDF is combat. Most soldiers who enlist do not become combat soldiers. They’re in different capacities that support the war effort. It used to be every boy’s dream to join one of the elite combat units, but the ideology is corroding. Now people do whatever they can to avoid it. However, there are still pockets of idealists who want to serve in that capacity, and a great number of them are religious. The religious soldiers usually have strong feelings of patriotism and they also view the protecting of their brethren as a great mitzvah. They work hard to get into those units.” He then talked about basic training: “I didn’t like it. In the infantry we marched, carrying everything on our backs. We once had an all-night march in the pouring rain and mud. It was awful. But the weather didn’t really make a difference. Either you were wet with rain, or you were soaked in sweat. There were many such marches. Some units have marches that are 80 to 100 kilometers long, or longer. Those marches take 18 hours or more which is kind of useless when you think about it, because you never march even a fraction of that distance in actual war. In modern warfare all available means of transportation is deployed. There are vehicles that the Army uses, and when they exhaust those, they contract civilian companies. There would never be a time in modern warfare, when you would have to march 80 kilometers. Nevertheless, that’s the tradition in training.” “Basic training traditionally culminates with a very long march. We didn’t have to do that much, thankfully, and my knees are still good because we didn’t have too long a march. We had about 30 kilometers, which is long enough. There’s a lot of misplaced pride in the Army. One soldier will boast to another, ‘We marched 60 kilometers, and you guys only did 40, or we did 40, and you guys only marched 30.’ I always boasted that we only had to do 30. We did four months of basic training, during which each soldier specialized in the use of a particular weapon. I was trained as a sharpshooter in our squad.” “After we finished basic training, we went into advanced training, where I specialized in a couple other things. I became an APC driver, (armored personnel carrier). That was lots of fun. Then I took a sniper’s course, and became a sniper. We took our first frontline tour in the Jordan
Valley where it was extremely hot. However, we didn’t have to sleep in tents for a change. We actually had barracks, some of which were air conditioned.” Other aspects of his advanced training that he described in detail included terrorist raids in which his unit participated. According to Mizrahi, he served two years in active service, and in the third year was able to return to yeshiva. “During our third year we had the option of vocational training and I took advantage of that third year to go back to yeshiva and begin rabbinic training.” When I asked if he had finally yielded to family tradition and decided to become a rabbi, he said, “It wasn’t just family tradition. The turning point came when I took a furlough, and came to Omaha to visit my grandmother, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time. I’d never been to Omaha before that, in fact I hadn’t left Israel since we moved there, 13 years earlier. I came to Beth Israel and met Rabbi Gross. I saw great potential in the synagogue and I realized that this just may be my calling. It was an experience that stayed with me when I went back to Israel to finish off the last couple of months of my active service. And that really solidified my decision, even though I was leaning towards that before.” Mizrahi returned to Omaha several more times at Rabbi Gross’ invitation. He was ordained as a rabbi in 2007. Summarizing, Mizrahi said one of the primary goals of Beth Israel is to educate people: “It was always expected and assumed that the family would be the haven of Torah and Judaism, but over the years it became clear that this could not be taken for granted. Somebody woke up and said, ‘Just a minute. We’re losing a lot of people because the educational system is not working.’ So they changed the model. The synagogue is both a place of prayer and of education but its primary purpose is to educate.” Mizrahi met his wife, Talia, in Jerusalem, where they were married and lived for nine months prior to moving to Omaha. They have a baby daughter, Yael. Rabbi Yitzchak Mizrahi, who traded army garb for the prayer shawl, has worn both with honor and dignity. He is personable, easy to talk to, and hopefully will serve as a source of guidance and inspiration to Beth Israel congregants and the Omaha Jewish community for many years to come.
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by LEO ADAM BIGA When America entered World War II, Stuart Muskin enlisted in the U.S. Army while still a University of Nebraska senior. He was able to complete his degree before reporting for basic training. He got the cushy job of regimental clerk and saw what looked like a good deal: volunteering for overseas duty earned 30 days leave. He got his leave alright, but still owed Uncle Sam. So, with the war at its peak, he shipped out in late spring 1944 as part of a light machine gun squad in Company C, 3rd Infantry Division. En route to England the DDay invasion had commenced. Upon landing in Liverpool the wounded from Normandy were being brought in from across the Channel, the dull booms and thuds of artillery barrages thundering in the distance. After one day on the island, the Yanks headed for France. Aboard the landing craft Omaha he arrived on already secured, though badly scarred, Omaha Beach. “It was still torn up from just a week ago when the Allies invaded,” he said. Before he knew it his squad squared off in the Battle of Saint Lo, fighting Germans hedgerow to hedgerow. The combat was costly to both sides. “I wrote a letter to my mom telling her, ‘Goodbye, you’re never going to see me again,’ but then I thought to myself, ‘that’s dumb to say,’ so I tore it up and wrote another letter back to her telling her everything is fine.” The brave front didn’t change the fact he feared for his life. “I was by myself, I didn’t know anybody, a Jewish kid, and I was scared as hell.” He ended up in a Nebraska unit of Gen. George Patton’s 3d Army. “You’d think a guy like Patton you’d never see him -- we saw him all the time, he was always around,” said Muskin, “and people would yell out and call him every name in the world, and he would smile because he liked a soldier that was mad.” Patton kept his troops on the go. “One day we walked 28 miles with packs on because we were moving, and we were not getting any resistance, and that went on for maybe two or three weeks,” said Muskin. “Finally we got to Nancy, France, the trucks rolled in and the French girls jumped all over us and all of a sudden snipers up in the buildings were shooting at us, and it emptied out just as fast. “The next day we crossed the Meurthe River and the Germans flew over us like they did a lot of times, broadcasting that our wives and girls are getting screwed back home and we ought go home. That was the first time we knew there was a big resistance by the Germans.” Taking the high ground was crucial to breaking through, but the enemy wasn’t giving up anything without a fight. “They started throwing mortars down,”
said Muskin. While he could tell by the sound where an artillery shell would land, a mortar round was too unreliable to predict. In late September a mortar-fired projectile exploded near him, fragments and splinters hitting him “in a lot of different places -- my arm was the worst, and my leg.” “Fortunately,” he said, “I got picked up and brought to a big tent hospital.” It was there he had a fleeting
Stuart Muskin but surreal encounter. “There was a guy walking around with fatigues on tapping guys on the shoulder and asking, ‘How you doin’ soldier?’ and I look around and it’s Bing Crosby. He was visiting the troops.” Once Muskin registered the unmistakable face and voice he remarked what an unusual circumstance this was, whereupon the crooner-actor replied, “It’s no big deal -what you guys are doing is.” From there Muskin was slated to be flown to a hospital in England but Operation Market Garden tied up all available air transport. Instead, he went by train to a Paris hospital. After three months recouping, he rejoined his unit on the front lines, still in France, teasing them, “Can’t you guys move without me?” His last major action came in the Battle of the Bulge, when a last-ditch German offensive cut off thousands of Allied forces amid the harsh winter in the Ardennes Forest. His squad got pinned down by German machine gun and tank fire. As Muskin and his men pulled back, a tank shell exploded near him and metal shredded his bandolier and bloodied him but only slightly wounding him. Muskin, a staff sergeant, announced to the squad, “Boys, I’m going to get home alive if I can get through that.” His unit advanced as far as the Elbe River, where aside from a skirmish they waited out the end of the war in relative calm. Hordes of captured German soldiers marched past them. Back home, Muskin was a traveling salesman before he bought into a children’s wares business that took off as Baby Town, later renamed Youngtown. He married, raised a family and feels grateful to have lived the good life at the ripe age of 88.
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What’s a nice Jewish boy (or girl) like you doing with a gun like that? by OZZIE NOGG should be put to good use) he studied mechanical engineer- innovative design housed the magazine inside a pistol-like Most discussions about the contribution of the Jewish ing. After three years Gal was pardoned, returned to Yagur, grip, making it easier for tired, fumbling soldiers to reload, people to civilization highlight their accomplishments in and continued to develop clandestine weapons for the even in the dark. The UZI was also remarkably easy to strip science, medicine, finance, the arts, philosophy, etc. Factor Jewish underground. and reassemble. When recalling his own days in the Israeli in the ten Jews who have received the military during the late 1960s, Yiftah Nobel Peace Prize -- including Henry Shapir of the Jaffee Center for Kissinger, Menachem Begin, Elie Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv Wiesel, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak University said, "I can still disassemRabin -- and one could argue that our ble an Uzi with my eyes closed, hands people lean toward intellectual, aestied behind my back, even if you wake thetic pursuits. Yet one notable Jewish me in the middle of the night." contribution to 20th century society For his efforts, Uziel Gal was the first was a G-U-N. Specifically, the UZI. person to receive the Israel Security Once described as “just a few pieces Award, presented to him in 1958 by of metal, one spring, and that’s it,” the Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. UZI was the brainchild of Uziel Gal, But by all accounts, Gal was loathe to born Gothard Glas in 1923 Germany. draw attention to his family or to himWhen the Nazis came to power in self. When the UZI won the 1951 1933, his family moved to England, design competition, he begged, “Don’t then to British Mandated Palestine name the weapon after me.” Request where they settled in Kibbutz Yagur denied, and today the UZI is probably near Haifa and changed their name to the most well-known name in Israeli the Hebrew, Gal. As a young child, exports. After all, it’s hard to remain Uziel showed a precocious interest in anonymous when Arnold weapons, and at fifteen he developed Schwarzenegger’s cyborg Terminator a bow that could automatically fire brandishes an UZI on his murderous arrows. But Uzi Gal was destined for rampage. Or when, during the 1981 bigger things. Fast forward. attempted assassination on President The first UZI submachine gun was Ronald Reagan, press cameras caught designed shortly after Israel's 1948 one of his bodyguards pulling an UZI War of Independence. The prototype from his jacket. "Obviously, he was was finished in 1950, introduced to proud to be identified with the prodIsraeli Defense Forces in 1954 and uct of his craftsmanship," Gal's son, proved its deadly effectiveness in the Iddo, said after his father’s death in 1956 Sinai campaign against Egypt. 2002. "But he was also a modest man The weapon went on to star in the who made efforts to move on to other Israeli women soldiers learn to handle Uzi sub-machine-guns in Tel Aviv in this July 23, 1998 file photo. audacious rescue of hijacked passenthings." gers at Entebbe airport in 1976. During the 1948 War for Independence (during which When Lieutenant Colonel Uziel Gal retired from the IDF, The success of the IDF in the Six-Day War created world- Uziel Gal fought, bringing his own homemade machine gun he moved to Philadelphia and lived in relative obscurity for wide buzz for the UZI. Since 1956, the Israel Military to the front lines), the ill-equipped Israeli army suffered a quarter of a century, working -- according to Israeli press Industries has sold more than 1.5 million units to over 90 unnecessary losses due to shoddy weapons. After finding reports -- on a new pistol designed to ‘create a revolution in countries and netted $2 billion dollars, plus. (As a state nothing on the market that met its requirements, the Israeli the international weapons market’. "He had thought of workemployee, Gal did not profit from his invention.) To date, military commissioned two IDF soldiers to independently ing in orthopedic medicine, given his skill with steel," Iddo UZI submachine guns are in the hands of more armies and develop a new submachine gun that was compact, reliable Gal said. "But then again, he figured that if you are good in police (and drug barons and terrorists . . .) than any other and lethal. something, and you are protecting your country, you might submachine gun ever made. The gun ($500 current U.S. The contest pitted Major Chaim Kara, head of the IDF’s as well stick with it." street price for the modified single-shot pistol version) is Science Corps light weapons division, against 26 year-old The Talmud teaches, “If someone comes to kill you, get up one of the most copied weapons in the world, with knock- Lieutenant Uziel Gal, described at the time as “a local young- early in the morning and kill him first.” Was Gal inspired by offs produced in China and various eastern European coun- ster who was moving rapidly up through the ranks and who the Sages? Who knows. Still, he is quoted as saying (with just tries. So, now that we’ve talked about UZI, the gun, let’s turn seemed to possess a genius for weapons design.” In 1951 the a hint of pride), “Never in 2,000 years had there been such a to Uzi, the guy. rival guns were submitted to the army for testing. Gal’s UZI thing. A weapon that the Jewish people had made for themIn 1943, while a member of the underground Palmach, won, hands down. With few parts, the gun was small and selves, and I designed it from the ground up.” Appropriate Gal was arrested by British officials for carrying firearms light weight, could handle Middle East sand without jam- words coming from a man whose name, Uzi, means power, illegally and sentenced to seven years in jail where (the time ming, and was inexpensive to build. Furthermore, Gal’s strength.
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When your grandchildren get the call to serve...in Israel by DEVRA BRAM restrictions on the next generation. The How did Americans Marsha and Milt Levy children looked forward to their miliKleinberg, who came from Milwaukee to tary service with great pride and were ready Omaha in 1990, come to have grandchildren to serve the required three years for boys in the Israeli army? As staunch Zionists they belonged to the Milwaukee Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). In 1987 they visited Israel with the ZOA for the national convention. It so happened that their daughter Cindy, 16 years old at the time, was also in Israel. She was there to attend a Mission Trip sponsored by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. As they all met at the Knesset to hear Prime Minister Golda Meir (a former Milwaukee school teacher) speak, the first words to come out of Cindy’s mouth were: “You know I’m coming back?!” True to her word, Cindy did return to Israel with her husband Michael Levy and family. She was eight months pregnant with their fourth Clockwise from above: Zev Levy, left, Michael Levy, and child. Cindy and Michael ultiAviShai Levy, youngest grandson who is now 13; Milt mately settled in Efrat, where Kleinberg, left, great-grandson Noam Eisenstock, and Yossi they raised six children. Levy; Natanel, who is in active duty. Michael is an allergist, but was not allowed to join the army because of and two years for girls. his obligation to his children. At that time Cindy and Michael Levy are observant there was an Israeli law in place which did Jews, and consider themselves Modern not allow fathers with four or more children Orthodox. When it was their oldest daughto enlist in active duty in the Israeli Defense ter Liza’s turn to serve, she was given the Force (IDF). choice that is available to observant girls While Michael was prevented from serv- between military service and national serving in the military, there were no such ice. She chose national service and worked
with an organization, Tehillah, that helps North American new immigrants. The army offers observant boys a combined yeshiva and army program called
“Hesder” which can last up to five years. In this program a boy studies for three-and-a-
half years and is in active duty for a yearand-a-half. During the yeshiva studies the students are still enlisted in the army and can be called up at any time for active service. The Kleinberg’s two oldest grandsons, Zev and Yossi, participated in that combined program. Zev was a paratrooper who was injured during a night jump. Yossi was accepted in the Army’s officer’s candidate school and graduated at the top of his class. He commanded one of the first groups in the incursion into Gaza during the 2009 campaign. The next oldest grandson, Natanel, chose to go directly into the army. He recently graduated from the sergeant’s school and is now being considered for officer’s candidate school in the IDF. If he chooses to accept, he will have another year added to his active duty commitment. As Marsha describes it, the IDF is a central institution in Israeli life. It is where people make contacts and friends for life as they learn more about their place in the world. It is a transitional time for Israeli teenagers and is a part of everyday life with soldiers coming home on weekends, bringing laundry and a few friends to feed. While life in the military may be typical for Israeli families, it is not always easy. Of course there is concern for the son or daughter in active duty, and then there are the logistics of being always prepared for war. The evening that their oldest grandson Zev was getting married was also the start of Continued on page 11
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No “ceremonial stuff ” by HAL G. SENAL For many, Hyman G. Rickover, a Jewish four-star admiral, will be forever known as “The Father of Nuclear Navy.” To one man though, Robert Rickover, he will always be known, simply, as “father.” “My family, other than the fact that my father was in the navy, had very little connection with the Navy itself,” said Robert. “We lived in a residential area of Washington D.C., and he was not one to attend Navy functions. He hardly ever wore a uniform.”
Robert. “He often dressed like the janitor. You’d never know, looking at him, who he was. He wore really cruddy clothes. That was part of his persona: To be underdressed, appear to be very unassuming. The charismatic officer—known for having a natural ability to manipulate and influence various Powers that Be, including Congress, on more than one occasion, and even some Presidents (i.e. Jimmy Carter), just by opening his very-outspoken, sharp-tongued and razor-toothed mouth— was also a force to be reckoned with, making waves and cutting through red tape whenever he deemed it necessary, seemingly, with a snap of his fingers. When push came to shove, he could be anyone or anything the circumstances warranted. “He could adapt very quickly to a situation,” said Robert. “If it seemed like a good idea to yell at someone, he would do that. If he thought it was a good idea to be very polite to someone, he could do that, too. He could switch, back and forth, at an instant’s notice. He just learned how to relate to different people in different ways.” However, when it came to serving his country, he was as protective as he was single-minded. “It’s because of him that there is a nuclear Navy,” said Robert. “And probably because there was a nuclear Navy, in terms of the Cold War with Russia, that was the one area, militarily, we were always way ahead of them.” So, to a certain extent, it was because of his dear old dad that we beat Russia? In Robert’s eyes, there’s nary room for question. “I’m not a historian, but I would guess that the Clockwise fron top: Hyman Rickover meeting course of the Cold War with Jimmy Carter, Hyman Rickover, and was drawn with influence Rickover with his son, Robert. by him, because he created Then again, Admiral Rickover, a Polish, Russian-born a system where, if the Russians ... attacked us, they knew that Jewish immigrant, who moved to New York with his moth- they would be destroyed by the submarines that were under er in 1905, never fit the standard-issue “ooh-rah!” mold of the water. That was the ultimate thing you would have to most military dads. think about, if you decided to attack the US.” In fact, as famous as he became, being the original develDespite whatever controversies may surround Admiral oper of nuclear propulsion, acting as director of nuclear Hyman Rickover’s legacy of developing nuclear propulsion naval operations for 30 years, and being the longest-serving (toward the end of his career, the Admiral spoke out against Navy officer in the branch’s history (a whopping 63 years of nuclear weapons), his son remains proud. active duty!), you would have thought he would have worn “He did different things than I would do, he had a different such a high-ranking status on his shirt - er - uniform sleeve. lifestyle than me, but yeah, he was a hardworker, accomOf course, if you thought that, you’d be wrong, for plished a lot,” said Robert. “In many ways, he actually Admiral Rickover was more likely to be mistaken for just a believed America was the best hope out there. He was totalregular Joe…or even the regular Joe behind the regular Joe. ly aware of the flaws of America, but he believed we were bet“He did not have any interest in ceremonial stuff,” said ter off having America running the show than anyone else.”
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When your grandchildren get the call to serve...in Israel Continued from page 10 the Gaza conflict. Zev’s unit was called up and his younger brother, Yossi, who was already in Gaza, was unable to attend the wedding. Zev still wanted his army buddies who were already sequestered on base to attend the wedding. Since they had not yet been actually moved up to the front, Zev called the base commander and asked if he would allow some of the soldiers to leave base. The commander agreed that they could go for a few hours if they were picked up and returned to their base near Gaza. Yossi’s mom Cindy was able to arrange for a small bus to transport them and they arrived in all their regalia. As Marsha describes it, “Since they had to keep their
weapons in their possession, it was a sight to behold, watching those young men dancing vigorously with their weapons on their backs.” After the festivities, they were promptly returned to their post. The Kleinbergs have accepted that part of Israeli life for their daughter and her family is being connected to the army. Sure, Marsha feels a fear in her gut when she hears about some incident in the news in the Middle East and knows that a grandchild is on active duty. However, mostly the Kleinbergs are proud of their grandchildren who have served in the Israeli army, and of the boys who will continue to serve a month each year until they are 50 years old.
Brunello Cucinelli S/S 2011
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Brothers by birth become comrades-in-arms
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by CLAUDIA HARRIS SHERMAN In December, he was selected as first pilot of a crew that Norman, Irvin, and Lee Harris grew up in Omaha in the crossed the Atlantic on the Queen Mary which zigzagged to 1920s and 1930s. They all attended Belvedere Elementary Europe to avoid German submarine attacks. and North High School. The sons of Reuben and Tibbie Irvin flew twin-engine troop carrier transports from a Harris, two of the young men, Norman and Lee, attended base in France, dropping paratroopers and towing gliders the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Irvin was a student at into combat zones. On VE Day, May 8, 1945, Irvin was at a the University of West Virginia while a cadet in the U. S. base near Nancy, France. “I was one of the first pilots into Army Air Corps. Growing up on North 33rd Avenue, the boys were involved in Boy Scouts, ROTC, Student Council, and the National Honor Society. They had no way of knowing that world events would rudely interrupt their lives and the lives of millions of others when on December 7, 1941, the Japanese conducted an unprovoked attack on an unsuspecting Pearl Harbor. Norman, who graduated from UNL in 1941 after serving as editor of The Daily Nebraskan, began working for Sears, Roebuck and Co. “Then Pearl Harbor happened,” he said. Within days, he enlisted. Newly married to The Harris Brothers: Lee, Norman and Irvin Bernice Silverman in a ceremony in Lincoln on June 22, 1941, Norman was sent to Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri and assigned to the post finance office. While there, Private Harris was called in with two others to the colonel’s office and told he was going overseas. They left the next morning. Flying across the South Betty and Lee Harris Bernice and Norman Martha and Irvin Harris, Atlantic Ocean, he landed in Harris, July 1953 1963 Lagos, Nigeria, and then flew to Accra, British Gold Coast (now Ghana). “The airport was Templehof Airport in Berlin after it was captured.” a landing place for bombers and fighter planes coming off He remained in Europe with a new assignment for anothaircraft carriers, a stopping off point en route to engaging er year. “Part of the U.S. fleet of transport aircraft picked up German Field Marshal Rommel and joining forces with the concentration camp survivors who were delivered to us by British Army.” truck, train, or bus. They received medical attention from After about seven months working in the finance office, American military doctors. We literally lifted these people Norman was recommended for Officer Candidate School. “I one at a time aboard our aircraft since they were too weak to went back to the United States to Duke University for about climb the stairs.” The Americans lifted fragile men who three months. They asked me to stay and teach, and I was weighed “no more than 100 pounds, their bones were prothere for about a year and a half.” Bernice was able to join truding, and they were gaunt and starry eyed. They had a him there. The school was later moved to Indianapolis along ghost-like appearance,” he remembers. Realizing that if not with the faculty and student body. “I was there six or seven for the fact that he was an American, he too would have months before transferring to an engineer depot in Baton been subjected to “the greatest shame of all humanity.” Irvin Rouge, Louisiana, as the fiscal officer.” He remained there felt “a very special sense of pride in having this assignment” through the end of the war and was honorably discharged as of helping survivors. He tried to express his kinship with a captain in January 1946. them by speaking Yiddish. “Their responses were usually a Norman and Bernice returned to Omaha, and he resumed smile, a handshake, or an occasional embrace.” his career with Sears rising to general merchandise managHe returned to the United States in June 1946 and was er and sales promotion manager in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In released from active duty until March 1951 when he was 1965, they moved to San Diego where he worked for recalled to active duty due to the Korean crisis. Along with FedMart, “the forerunner of Price Club and Costco.” In Martha and their three daughters, Irvin was stationed in 1973, he started his own accounting and tax service. He’s Okinawa; Brooklyn, New York; northern California; France; now been retired for about 30 years. He and Bernice, who Illinois; and Germany. He later served in Vietnam where he died in 2007, are the founders of the Harris Center for Judaic flew about 130 combat missions before returning to Omaha Studies at UNL. in 1970. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and retired In the meantime, Irvin, who dreamed of being a pilot, in 1974. Martha died in 1972. Irvin has lived in San Diego asked his parents to sign papers to allow him to enlist in the since 1976 and returns to Omaha occasionally to visit his Army Air Corps. He wasn’t 21 yet and needed their permis- daughters and their families. He has seven grandchildren sion. After several days of examinations, he was accepted in and four great-grandchildren with the fifth expected in October 1942. August. Although he knew he would have “to put my life on hold After graduating from UNL in business administration, like everybody else,” he married Martha Zusman on June 7, Lee Harris took a job with Sears in 1950 where he worked 1942, just days after she graduated from Central High until 1956. His employment there was interrupted for 22 School. They moved to Baltimore where Irvin was working months beginning in December 1950. “I got called up in for the Social Security Board and attending night classes at June shortly after the Korean War broke out,” he said. the University of Maryland. It took his ship, loaded with 6,000 GIs, ten days to get to In February 1943, Irvin began cadet training at military Korea. Once there, “everybody had a touch of malaria,” he bases throughout the southeast. Martha followed him from said. “Mosquitoes were the national bird in Korea -- that and base to base. rats,” he irreverently reminisced. A mortar platoon leader, “I World War II gave Irvin the opportunity to fulfill his was the officer in charge of 40 men. I would pick their posidream of being a pilot. His heart pounded the first time he tions and place observers on the hill above us. It was my job climbed into a cockpit. “I loved it, and it showed,” he to make sure we had a good position so the enemy wouldn’t acknowledged. “Finally, I was looking down on the earth hit us when they bombarded us -- which was every day.” instead of up at the planes. This was not just another model Living conditions were nothing to write home about to his airplane that I had built as a youngster.” parents and bride, Betty Gilman, who he had married on Irvin survived the cadet casualty rate of 25 percent, and February 12, 1950 in Omaha. “We built bunkers on the Martha pinned on his pilot wings and lieutenant bars when mountainside out of logs and sandbags. There were four or Continued on page 15 he was commissioned in May 1944.
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 13
On the shoulders of giants by GARY JAVITCH “I had many scary moments in Iraq,� Sgt. Jay Benton says. “Our battalion always faced life-threatening heat and quite often dangerous crowds. There were times when we performed military activities in full battle regalia in the direct sun, when the heat registered 150 degrees.� As a military policeman in the US Army Reserves, Jay also recalls the times he was surrounded by prisoners or even by Iraqi civilians. “We always feared for our lives, regardless of the situation.� How did he survive it all? “We stayed focused on our training and thanked God for getting us through every situation,� he says, verifying the oft-used phrase that “there are no atheists in foxholes!� For Jay Benton, serving in the military was both a family tradition and a calling. He saw it as his duty and his honor. He is one of only a few Jewish Omahans to serve in Iraq. “I feel like I have stood on the shoulders of giants,� Jay recounts proudly. “I gained inspiration from the family members who went before me. My father, Thomas Hines, served in military. So did my mother’s (Bonnie Jean “BJ� Hines) father, Richard Spiegal. My uncle, Dave Bieber and other relatives did also, including Norm Pitlor, Ron Bieber, and Scott Boresow.� Tours of duty and deployments Jay joined the Air Force in 1980, about 8 months after his graduation from Benson High School. “My first tour of duty was to Spangdahlem Air Force Base, a small base northwest of Frankfurt Germany (near Luxembourg). At that time, America was still engaged in the Cold War,� he explains. “I was a part of the military police. I helped guard US military personnel and the entire installation. I was just a young kid, but
I had a big responsibility, carrying a M16 rifle and, as my primary sidearm, a .38 caliber special (a handgun).�
in Criminal Justice. “After getting my bachelor’s, I decided to return to the service. I wanted to capitalize on the AF time I earned and build up a base for a retirement fund. So I joined the Army Reserves in 1997. Doing that worked out great for me because I also wanted to continue serving my country. I found I could accomplish that by attending drills (battle assembly) one weekend a month in Omaha plus participating in a two-week annual training (AT). The AT locations varied depending on the training I needed.� His bivouacs included Fort Knox, Ky. and Wichita Kan., among Sgt. Jay Benton in front of the Company formation while he other places. briefly served as the First Sergeant, top enlisted person-also Taking advantage of his known as ‘Top,’ for the 530th MP BN. criminal justice degree, (For perspective, readers may recall that at the Army Reserves assigned Jay to the 530th the beginning of March 2011, two U.S. air- Military Police Battalion out of Omaha. men were killed and two others were As a reservist, Jay knew that the wounded at Frankfurt airport. According to Commander-in-chief could order a call up. the Air Force, the victims had just arrived That occurred in 1999, when President from England. An escort group of MPs from Clinton ordered him to active duty in the a local base were there to pick them up, a Kosovo conflict, in what became the first of task similar to the types of duties Jay would his three reserve call-ups. have performed.) While not directly in a “combat zone,� he He left Germany in 1982 and then was sta- was serving in a “hostile fire� area. He could tioned at Offutt Air Force Base. not freely leave the base. Moreover, when Jay continued on active duty in the AF for going out, he had to be in full “battle rattle� about eight years and then left the service. “I (battle dress and gear), with his weapons took ten years off, working and going to loaded. Occasional mortar rounds landed school, primarily UNO,� he says. During outside his immediate perimeter. He served that time, the young veteran earned a degree an 8-month tour and was away from home
Class of 2011
for about 10 months. As part of his military police duties in Kosovo, he and his fellow Omahans worked on refugee internment resettlement, provided force protection and helped keep law and order. He also helped run a detention facility in the war-torn country. Because the base of operations was new, he and his group first slept in tents and then eventually got assigned to a barrack. “In October of 2001, while not on active duty but still in the reserves, I began work for the Asset Appraisal Company, here in Omaha,� he says. “However, just two years later, shortly after the launch of the Iraq War, President George W. Bush ordered my unit to Iraq for a 14-month tour.� His home base was Camp Bucca, located near Basra, by the Kuwait border, where he served as a squad leader. His unit ran detention facilities, escorted truck convoys and provided force protection. “While I did not come under direct attack, the desert conditions were extremely difficult. We lived in tents without air conditioning. When outdoors, we found shade wherever we could. “We tried to drink lots of water and sought ice, every chance we could. We would pour water over our heads and tried to get it down the back of our shirts, working to get air flow in between our body and the vests. “Fighting the heat was one of our biggest concerns and many fell victim to heat exhaustion. We constantly felt on guard. An alarm often woke us in the middle of night. At the sound of it, we immediately grabbed our helmets and weapons and ran to the sand berm to protect ourselves against a Continued on page 15
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Kapow! Muscled redeemers and adolescent fantasies by OZZIE NOGG Captain America comes face to face with Hitler! screamed the March 1941 comic book cover. “Another victory for the Red, White and Blue,” sez Captain America while decking the genocidal Nazi with an uppercut to the jaw. “Justice demands that I put an end to your evil onslaught. And remember, when you fight me, you’re fighting my country, and we don’t like to lose.” Zap! Ka-BOOM! Ka-POW! Yep. Captain America (created by clever Jewish boys Jack Kirby and Joe Simon) remains one of the classic comic book superheroes of all time, and one of the greatest patriotic symbols of World War II ever drawn. Of course, Superman was no slouch either. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (while still in high school, noch) birthed the Man of Steel in the early 1930s -- arguably the most anti-Semitic period in American history. In that poisonous atmosphere, Shuster and Siegel developed Superman -- a muscle-bound redeemer who embodied their adolescent frustrations, actualized their fantasies, and served as a liberating mouthpiece of the oppressed. How did so many Jewish illustrators, writers and editors come to dominate the U.S. comic book industry before and during WWll? Because other areas of commercial illustration were virtually closed to them. “Jewish cartoonists practiced the craft in Yiddish-language publications, but were largely excluded from high-paying illustration jobs and the advertising industry,” said James Sturm, of the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont. “They dreamed their dreams on paper, in comic books -which were kind of this cheap, throwaway medium that wasn’t really thought suitable for the more genteel population -- and responded with their own comic strips, creating some of the most celebrated cartoon characters.” According to journalist Aaron Howard, “In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the comic book industry offered no barriers to anyone with a talent for illustration or storytelling. So Jews and comics were a natural fit.” But was ‘Jewish identity’ part of the superheroes persona? The debate continues. Arie Kaplan (author of From Krakow To Krypton: Jews and Comic Books) maintains that Jewish comics creators were careful to fashion superheroes who were super-American, who would not be perceived as being Jewish or belonging to any specific ethnicity. On the other hand, comic book historians see the superheroes as outsiders, alien to mainstream America, thereby mirroring the general experience of Jewish immigrants at the time. Mavens on these matters cite Steve Rogers (Captain America’s sickly, ‘other’ side) and Clark Kent (Superman’s nerdish alter ego) as representative of the stereotypical immigrant -- nervous,
passive, uncertain of themselves and struggling to fit in. Gerard Jones, in Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book, writes that, “Superman quite literally embodies the Jewish immigrant’s dilemma -- he has
“Coming over from the old country, changing his name like that. Clark Kent, only a Jew would pick a name like that for himself.” Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay to pretend he fits in, while knowing that he has special, unseen and potentially unappreciated powers.” (Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer-Prize winning writer and cartoonist, suggests that the Man of Steel really came ‘from the planet Poland.’)
Rabbi Simcha Weinstein, author of Up, Up and Oy Vey! How Jewish History, Culture and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero, pulls out all the stops. Superman is Moses. And perhaps the Rabbi has a point: Pharaoh plans to murder all the Jewish baby boys. To save her son, Jochebed puts Moses in a basket and sets him afloat on the Nile. The planet Krypton faces annihilation. Superman’s father puts his son (named Kal-El, which in Hebrew may be translated as: all that God is) into a rocket ship and launches him into outer space. Moses and Superman -- both extraordinary foundlings -- are eventually discovered and raised in foreign cultures. Superman leads a double life as the stuttering, spectacle-wearing reporter whose true identity no one suspects. For his own safety, Moses (also a stutterer) keeps his Jewish roots hidden for a time. In the context of the 1930s, this narrative also reflects the saga of the Kindertransports -- the evacuation of hundreds of Jewish children (without their parents) from Austria, Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia to seek safety with families in England. From 1941 to 1945, Superman gave the Nazis such a pounding that, according to legend, Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, jumped up in the middle of a Reichstag meeting, attacked the comic’s writers and denounced the Man of Steel as a Jew. “Even as a child,” said Arie Kaplan, “I was aware of this subtext and took a lot of pride in it. Nerdy kids like me were proud that the creators of Superman were Jewish. Superman fought against villains you could find in everyday life and in the newspapers. It was an adolescent power fantasy. You could make it happen on paper.” In the late 16th century, Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel reportedly created a Golem out of clay to defend the Prague ghetto from anti-Semitic attacks. Cartoonist, writer and comic-book historian Will Eisner views Superman as a descendant of the Golem and a link in the chain of Jewish tradition. To paraphrase Eisner, “This kind of storytelling seems to dominate Jewish culture. The Golem was the precursor of the super-hero ... the mythological defender. Jews needed a hero who could protect us against an almost invincible force. So Siegel and Shuster created Superman, an invincible hero.” Captain America and Superman. Bully-bait on the outside, heroes on the inside. Both captured the fantasy of every young boy (and adult, too) during WWll -the secret wish that he could somehow be magically transformed into a super hero, in order to defeat the evil Hitler. The pen (in truth) may not be mightier than the sword. But in the hands of Jewish comic book creators, the pen was quite a weapon.
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Brothers by birth become comrades in arms Continued from page 12 five guys in a bunker. Temperatures got to 40 below zero. My unit served the longest consistent stay in the history of the Army on the MLR (the main line of resistance).
Irvin Harris by his “quarters,” Dreux Air Base, France, March 1945 There were no cities around there. Just little towns that had been wiped out by the North Koreans. We pushed them all back. It was a brutal battle,” he emphasized. At night, the enemy infiltrated the Americans’ positions. They protected themselves by stringing barbed wire trimmed with tin cans, flares, and booby
traps around their bunkers. “I felt fortunate to come back with just a few scratches. When we pulled off the MLR line in late summer of 1952, I was the executive officer of the company.” After 17 months, Lee was ready to go home. He and Betty, who have three married sons and seven grandchildren, now live in Scottsdale, Arizona. He spent a major part of his retail career in St. Louis where he became a vice president of the GEM membership department store. He now owns RAYCO car service in Scottsdale and still works there full-time. Although he encountered no problems as a Jew in the military, he “had to lay down the law and tell my men to respect a black enlisted man.” As for his brothers, Norman said being Jewish didn’t cause any serious problems. He does remember being asked, “Why did you get in the Army if you’re a Jew?” Although “thousands of Americans had given their lives to destroy the very core of world anti-Semitism in World War II,” explained Irvin, “other Americans, some of them my own comrades, found satisfaction in keeping it alive. This troubled me greatly.” Recalling his emotions as the war drew to a close, he felt “shame because I was powerless, pride because I could help those who survived the Holocaust, fortunate because I was spared, and great sadness because they were my people.”
On the shoulders of giants Continued from page 13 Class Jay Benton possible attack. We were (reserves) will have also always fighting wind earned 21 qualifying and sandstorms.” years towards his Called up again in 2008, retirement; he only Jay was, coincidentally, needed 20. “Now sent back to Camp Bucca, that I can, I am conIraq. “I got there just templating retiring before General Petraeus from the Reserves,” launched his ‘surge.’ I was he says. then a platoon sergeant,” Jay’s military he adds. “And I had comservice held great mand of a group of about significance for him. 35 soldiers. We were gone “Because of what I for a year total and were experienced,” he nine months in-country.” observes, “I truly Life as a Jewish soldier appreciate the sim“I am not the most pler and the smaller observant Jew, but I Sgt. Jay Benton in his ‘Class A’, or dress things in life. And I learned a lot when grow- uniform in 2009. don’t sweat the petty ing up at Beth Israel Synagogue,” Jay says. stuff,” he says, remembering when his “During my first Iraq tour, out of 1100 mili- biggest pleasure hope was just getting a tary personnel at our base, maybe 10 of us ration of ice. “And after eating the army’s were able to get together on Friday nights. pre-packaged MRE’s (Meals ready to eat) That ratio, by the way, roughly reflects the three times a day, I savor even more the joys percentage of Jews in the military – about of my sister’s home cooked-meals – even the one per cent. Our religious services were left-overs. very informal, but half way around the “People often thank me for my service to world, they meant a great deal to me. If no the country. That makes me want to one individual knew enough to lead it, we acknowledge my fellow Jewish vets and ran the service as a group effort. thank them as well.” “In 2003, my first night in Iraq coincided In an emotional moment, Jay, 49, reflects with the first night of Passover. A part of me on his two decades of military service. “It has found it humorous from a biblical perspec- made me a better person. It has made me tive, that while the Hebrews were leaving the appreciate what I have, my friends and fami(Egyptian) desert, I was entering it. My duty ly. I recognize those who have gone before experience gave me a great appreciation for me to defend our country, and I truly realize our ancestors who lived in tents for 40 years. that all the freedoms I have did not come I know for sure,” he smiles, “that that was no without a cost. I am deeply appreciative of easy task.” the support I have gotten from people in the “On my second Iraq tour, I was the Jewish community. lay person for the entire base. I emailed my “And I am very thankful that my employrabbis and asked for help about the holidays. ers at Asset Appraisal Services. Michael and Although we had a smaller group of ‘congre- Penny Cox have been so accommodating gants,’ we looked to our faith much more. and flexible working around all my weekend We felt less threated during the second tour, drills and calls to active duty. and we lived in huts, not tents, and could get “I have also come to realize the glorious ice a lot easier.” burden that falls on the deployed military Observations personnel who have children. My heart goes By September of this year, Sergeant First out to them.”
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Beyond the call by GLORIA SHUKERT JONES Although an outstanding baseball player, he was devoted to When it came to answering the call of duty and putting serving his country. He was discharged from the Service their best efforts forward, Jewish military recruits were shortly before Pearl Harbor, due to the policy at that time to some of the first responders. This was especially evident at release soldiers over the age of 28. However, he re-enlisted the time of Pearl Harbor and the ensuing World War II. and served as both a lieutenant and captain in the United Military leaders at that time highly praised the efforts of States Air Force. Jewish men and women who had served when the United He also never forgot his Jewish heritage. One example was States declared war on Japan and Germany. At that time, when he gave up an important game that happened to fall on there were thousands of Yom Kipper that year, and Jewish lives lost in protectinstead, spent the day, ing the United States and praying and fasting in the its allies. At least four synagogue. The Tigers lost times that number were the game, but won the wounded in action. pennant. However, that It would take many same year, they lost the pages to describe all the World Series to the St. heroism and the dedicated Louis Cardinals. servicemen and women Equally fascinating is who put their lives on the the story of Barney Ross. line in the battlefields. All “As a boy in Chicago, of them deserve unending Barnet Rasofsky planned recognition. But the few to become a Talmudic mentioned here are represcholar and Hebrew sentative of all who fought teacher. In 1924, when for our country. Barnet was 14 years old, There were at least two two men who robbed the Jewish war heroes, family grocery store shot Raymond Zussman and and killed his father. Left Isadore Jachman, who with five children to supwere awarded port, Barnet’s mother had Barney Ross Congressional Medals of a nervous breakdown and Credit: wymaninstitute.org went to live with relatives. Honor for going far beyond what was expected of them. Although their situa- Barnet and his oldest brother, Morrie, went to live with a tions varied slightly, both, without regard to their personal cousin; his three youngest siblings were placed in an safety, proceeded ahead of their respective divisions into the orphanage. line of fire and disengaged the enemy, thus averting an In his grief, Barnet Rasofsky renounced his Orthodox attack. Unfortunately, Jachman suffered fatal wounds. faith and sought revenge on the world by becoming a petty More than a hundred Jewish war heroes received the thief, numbers runner and brawler. He vowed to make Distinguished Service Medal and crosses. Countless others enough money - by whatever means he could- to reunite his were proud recipients of the Silver Star. family. Barnet took up amateur boxing, pawning his medals Frances Slanger was a Jewish lieutenant in the Army for the few dollars they would bring. Sometimes, he took six Nurse Corps, who administered medical aid to wounded fights in a week, growing tougher with each confrontation. soldiers in a tent, which was a makeshift emergency medical At age 19, he turned professional and took the name Barney facility. However, she never thought of herself, but main- Ross so his mother, now back on her feet, wouldn’t worry tained the greatest respect and admiration for the soldiers. about him getting hurt. As Barney Ross, he won world So impressed was she by their bravery and good humor, that championships and was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame. she wrote to the “Stars and Stripes,” the G.I newspaper, When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Ross, who at 32 thanking them for risking their lives and praising their was beyond draft age, received permission to join the efforts. Marines. Assigned to serve as a boxing instructor, Ross The following is an excerpt of that letter which appeared instead asked for combat duty and was shipped to in the Nov. 7, 1944 edition of that paper: Guadalcanal, scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in the “I am writing this by flashlight. The GIs say we rough it, but Pacific. On patrol one night, a superior force of Japanese we in our little tent can't see it. We wade ankle deep in mud. troops attacked Ross and three comrades. All three comYou have to lie in it. We are restricted to our immediate area, rades were wounded. Ross gathered them in a shell crater a cow pasture or hay field, but then, who is not restricted? We and defended them through the night by firing over 400 rifle have a stove and coal. We even have a laundry line in the tent. rounds. When he ran out of bullets, Ross threw 22 grenades Our GI drawers are at this moment doing the dance of the at enemy machine gun positions. Ross claimed that he said pants, what with the wind howling, the tent waving precari- two hours of prayers, many in Hebrew, hoping to make it ously, the rain beating down, the guns firing... through the night. Finally, at dawn, with two of his three Sure, we rough it, but you, the men behind the guns, driving comrades dead, out of ammunition and wounded in the leg our tanks, flying our planes, sailing our ships, building bridges, and foot himself, the 140-pound Ross picked up his 230and the men who pave the way, and the men who were left pound surviving comrade and carried him to safety. Ross, behind—it is to you that we doff our helmets...” whose helmet had more than thirty shrapnel dents, was (Used with permission from the Stars and Stripes (1944, awarded the Silver Star for heroism. 2011 Stars and Stripes.) These are just a few examples of valor and loyalty shown The letter was written on October 21, 1944. That evening, by Jews in the Military. There are many more stories, some along with two other nurses, Frances Slanger was killed by a of them closer to home. A few years ago, the Nebraska German shell as she huddled in the tent with her colleagues Jewish Historical Society presented a pictorial exhibit at the during an enemy raid lasting approximately 45 minutes. Jewish Community Center, of local Jewish veterans and war At the end of the war, she was buried in a military ceme- heroes. Many of you may remember viewing their pictures, tery in France, among the fighting men she served. She was reading about them and their contributions, and experienclater moved to a Jewish cemetery in the United States, near ing a variety of emotions. For many who had lost their loved Boston, where her family lived. ones to war, it was a mixture of pride and sadness. Jewish women veterans in that area formed an all-female Though many years have gone by, and many wars have chapter of Jewish War Veterans of the USA, naming it the been fought by this nation, the brave men and women of all “Frances Slanger Memorial Post” in honor and in memory faiths, who daily risk their lives to keep our country safe and of this courageous nurse lieutenant. preserve our freedoms, deserve a special place in our hearts. Perhaps more familiar to most people, particularly to (Barney Ross Greatest Battles Chapter 68, updated January baseball fans, was another Jewish war hero: Hank 25, 2011; Joel G. Ackerman Soviet Jewry collection; P-787; Greenberg, who played with the Detroit Tigers and the folder number 258; American Jewish Historical Society, Pittsburg Pirates. He was the highest paid player in the Newton Centre, MA and New York, NY. Used with permismajor leagues, and was drafted into the Army in 1941. sion from AJHS).
JEWISH PRESS OFFICE CLOSING AND DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press office is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 19 & 20 and Monday and Tuesday, April 25 & 26 for Passover; the deadline for the April 29 Mother’s Day issue is Wednesday, April 20, 9 a.m. Questions? Call 402.334.6448.
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 17
Semper Fidelis in Jerusalem by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press James Pollack is a mild mannered Omahan, husband to Susan, and father to Max and Josh. He can often be found at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, volunteering his time to help out the residents. Nowadays, RBJH residents can ask him anything, but Jim wasn’t always as knowledgeable about Judaism as he is today. For that, in a roundabout way, he has the United States Marine Corps to thank. Jim enlisted with the Marine Corps in 1977. “I was looking for something interesting and exciting to do with my life,” he says, “and what I found was 95% boredom, and 5% pure adrenaline.” He spent the first three years in a relatively calm environment, working with computers, which at that time was a lot more unusual than it would be in 2011. “I worked with the mainframe computer as an operator; back then, we weren’t surrounded by technology the way we are today. It was an opportunity you couldn’t find anywhere else.” The end of Jim’s three-year stint with the computer coincided with the Tehran hostage crisis, when 52 American citizens were held hostage for 444 days from Nov. 4, 1979 to Jan. 20, 1981, after a group of Islamic students and militants took over the Embassy of the United States in support of the Iranian Revolution. Sixty six Americans were taken captive when Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, including three who were at the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Six more Americans escaped and of the 66 who were taken hostage, 13 were released on Nov. 19 and 20, 1979; one was released on July 11, 1980. The episode reached a climax when, after failed attempts
to negotiate a release, the United States military attempted a rescue operation, Operation Eagle Claw, on April 24, 1980,
which resulted in a failed mission, the destruction of two aircraft and the deaths of eight American servicemen and one Iranian civilian. It ended with the signing of the Algiers Accords in Algeria on Jan. 19, 1981. The hostages were formally released into United States custody the following day, just minutes after the new American president Ronald Reagan was sworn in. (Wikipedia.com) With this kind of p.r. going around, military recruitment was slow. Jim Pollack volunteered for embassy duty: “We focused on terrorism and diplomacy; the bottom line is, you can be assigned anywhere, although you
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do get to put in three choices. I don’t remember after all these years which places I picked, but I was sent to Haiti from 1981 to
Organization’s failed assassination attempt against Shlomo Argov, who was Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. In the process, a conflict broke out between Israel and Syria. In 1983, over 200 United States Marines were killed when a truck loaded with explosives crashed into the U.S. Marine compound at Beirut Airport. The Marines, who had been in Beirut as part of a multinational force to promote peace in Lebanon, had become a target of Syriansupported extremists. Soon after the bombing, U.S. forces withdrew from Lebanon. In spite of this backdrop of continuously building conflict in the Middle Left: At work in the Embassy in Port au Prince. Above: The back East, much of the work yard of the Marine House in Port au Prince. The former occuwas fairly routine, Jim pants had been assassinated in the night by the Duvalier remembers: “We would regime, including the family dog. work front security, screen 1982.” Haiti during that time was ruled by people, monitor cameras. Occasionally we dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, better known would escort people off the premises. as ‘Baby Doc’. “After that, I requested to be Considering the political climate, we took sent to Israel,” Jim says. the protection of others extremely seriously.” Jim got his wish: from 1982 to 1983 he was In Oct. of 1983, Jim volunteered one last stationed at the United States Consulate in time for a special operation: he served as Jerusalem. “I worked as part of a security escort to deceased military during their final team, especially during special occasions. I travel home. “The Marine Corps will not was there, for instance, during a diplomatic ship deceased marines without an official visit by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.” Burial Escort, so that was what I did.” In 1982, Israel went to war with Lebanon Jim was very young when he served with during what would come to be known as the U.S. Marines, and it made a difference: Operation Peace for Galilee. The “To work where you are confronted with Government of Israel launched the military career diplomats, the types of people who operation after the Abul Nidal are such experts in their field, and who are
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Lloyd Krasne From Audubon to Tokyo by way of Leyte
Semper Fidelis in Jerusalem
in Harvard, Neb. learned years that later a fellow Jew from back He made second lieutenant. home -- Nate Katelman -- was there, too. In early 1945 he got overseas Krasne said anti-Semitism faded in THE PHILIPPINES, NEW GUINEA, AND STATESIDE orders, prompting him and his wartime, when differences seemed mute in by LEO ADAM BIGA fiance to get hitched before his departure. The the face of life-and-death stakes: “You were Lloyd Krasne clearly recalls hearing over couple went to Salt Lake City, Utah and then in this together. You wondered what would the radio the news of Japan’s attack on Pearl to Calif. before he shipped out to Manilla and come next.” However, he did witness racism Harbor. He was driving a truck into Omaha then to Hollandia, New Guinea. No sooner toward blacks that disturbed him. to get supplies for his Ukrainian immigrant did he arrive than new orders sent him right He said his C.O. showed him the plans for father’s grocery story in the invasion of Japan -- kept in a Audubon, Iowa. Krasne soon locked safe -- that thankfully joined the war effort as a U.S. never had to be executed. After Army Air Corpsman. Japan’s surrender he went to Tokyo “They needed people very to serve in the army of occupation. badly, so it was rush rush, “We saw a country that was torn rush,” he recalled. up,” Krasne recalled. “The main Initially pegged to study buildings were made of stone and cryptography he wound up they were allright, but the areas learning power-operated gun constructed of bamboo and turrets. Seizing an opportunity paper the fire bombs had to apply for Officers reduced to nothing. Whole Candidate School he put in blocks were empty.” and made the grade and after After initial distrust, the completing the course in Japanese warmed to their Aberdeen, MD he was comAmerican occupiers, but persistmissioned an officer. He did ed in their blind obedience to Lloyd then (left) and now. more schooling in aviation authority. “It was quite an obserHe retired after many years ordinance before being vation because the people were in the grocery business. assigned to a unit in Calif. still oriented that the emperor is charged with training B-29 crews on operat- back to Manilla, where he was reunited with a god and can do no wrong and whatever he ing the bomber’s state-of-the-art gun systems. commander in Tacloban, Leyte. says goes,” said Krasne, who saw citizenry He said as the conflict progressed and “Across from the house we quartered in dutifully bow to policemen. America’s production of war materials was a little hut on stilts. There was a plank “It brought home the fact these people advanced, the Army Air Corps found itself from the front door going down to the were oriented differently than anybody we’d in a constant state of flux as new planes ground and in the morning here’d come a ever met. It was quite an experience.” came on line that required different support. couple chickens, a pig, a couple kids -- that’s Though he meant to quit the grocery busiWith his unit scattered to the far corners, the kind of economy it was.” ness when he returned home, he found it the Krasne was transferred close to home, first On Leyte he attended a memorable Yom only sure thing and remained in the field the to a base in McCook, Neb. and then to one Kippur service in a cockfighting arena. He rest of his working life.
Continued from page 17 working towards resolving political disputes, it’s quite fascinating when you are only 20 years old. It’s an unbelievable honor.” Was it different for a Jewish Marine? Jim thinks there are two answers to that question: “Essentially, it’s probably the same, whether you are Jewish or not. Until, that is, you get to Israel. In Israel, you can’t put your foot down without being immersed in history. You James Pollack have no choice but to confront yourself about your Jewish identity, your Yiddishkeit. I knew nothing, until I came to Israel; before I was stationed in Jerusalem, I really had no idea how ignorant I was. Once I was there, the urge to learn more was huge. Luckily, I met a teacher, a Vietnam vet, while I was there. He told me what books to read, and where to go for Shabbat.” Jim would do it all over again, especially his service at the consulate. “It’s a great opportunity to grow up, and get a healthy dose of Yiddishkeit in the process,” he says.
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Sydney Osten: In the Royal Canadian Air Force by BERT LEWIS four engine planes, whatever was available. When the powSydney Osten and his wife Regina (Gigi) lived in Omaha ers that be declared we were fit, we began flying missions.” from 1958 until they moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, 45 years Syd recalls: “The first mission was over northern later. Germany. The skies were alive with searchlights and whatevSyd’s family was originally from Russia; they settled in er else you could imagine, plus the roar of the planes.” As the Halifax, Canada, where in Rear Gunner, he was seatdue time Syd made his ed in one of the most vulappearance. When he was nerable parts of his plane. six years old, the family “We flew, that was our moved to Edmonton, job,” he said. “In all, we flew where Syd grew up. 35 missions, and that comAfter high school, he pleted a tour.” The RCAF didn’t spend much time rule was that after the comwondering what he wantpletion of 35 missions, the ed to do next. World War serviceman was honorably II was in progress and discharged and free to go patriotism was a real feelhome. Syd says he gave it a ing in the hearts of everylot of thought, but didn’t one. The military beckfeel strongly about leaving oned. the service, nor did he have Syd enlisted in the Royal anything he was anxious to Canadian Air Force, someget back to. He eventually thing he had had his eye decided he wanted to stay on. After the enlistment where he was and continue was a fact, he learned there to do the job he had been was still school in his trained to do. future. He says, “One of The second time around the requirements for the he was part of a new crew. Air Force was one year of None of the men he flew college, and if the recruit with were familiar from didn’t have that, the Air past service. He says “that Force sent him to school to was hard to take. My old get it.” The phrase, ‘one crew were my buddies - we Syd Osten year of college’ turned out went through a lot togethto have special meaning. He explained “We didn’t actually er, shared many flights and experiences, many scares, even go to classes for a year. What we really had was the year’s some good times. But we flew, and we fulfilled the requirework condensed into 4 months. We went to the University ments and in time we could see we were coming around to of Alberta, all day, every day, in order to accomplish what a probable finish. And then, all of a sudden, it was D-Day!” was expected of us.” Syd said: “I’ve never been able to describe to anybody The training was intense and he says “When it was fin- what it felt like to be in the air on D-Day. The sounds, the ished we were sent for more schooling, to hone our skills.” planes, the ships to shore, parachutes. There just isn’t any Because Osten was designated to be a Rear Gunner, he went way to describe what it was like, or how I felt being there, in on for more training in Bombing and Gunnery School. the middle of it all.” When he finished the training, he was sent to Quebec as an D-Day was over, and so was Syd’s second tour. He had yet instructor in a training center. After some time, he request- again flown 35 missions by then, and was once more eligible ed “to be sent to England to be part of a crew and do what I for honorary discharge and a return to civilian life. He was was trained to do.” He explained they were losing so many discharged near the end of 1945, which ended his active men in training, he felt “if I was going to die, let it at least be duty with the RCAF. It must be understood, although Syd while in action.” refuses to discuss the topic of medals, I have it on the best Syd was “crewed up,” which meant he was matched with authority: Syd Osten is a decorated hero. the other members of a group to become the flying crew. Editor’s note: Read more about Syd Osten’s “other” mili“We trained in everything,” he said, “two engine planes and tary career on page 29.
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THE EUROPEAN THEATER by LEO ADAM BIGA As a U.S. Army Reserve Corps member, Marvin Taxman was allowed to remain in school at Creighton University until called to active duty in early 1943. He was 22. He wound up in a glider company, 327th Infantry 101st Airborne Division -the Screaming Eagles -- and by September sailed to England. In April 1944 his unit was part of a secret D-Day landing rehearsal on English shores. The maneuvers turned lethal when German torpedo boats attacked, killing hundreds of American soldiers and sailors. The incident was not made public for years. On D-Day itself, his company hit Utah Beach aboard landing crafts -- with the objective of moving inland to relieve paratroopers who jumped overnight and to secure bridges across the Douve River. Mission accomplished. Things turned Marvin Taxman hairy the next morning when, he recalled, war buddies. “On a patrol my platoon attempted to cross the river on rafts and were repulsed by machine gun fire.” That’s when Taxman got in the water and swam back to shore. He and another American directed mortar fire on the German position as cover for their comrades -- saving lives. His exploits made Yank, the Army news magazine, and
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402-397-8700 Omaha newspapers. Fighting ensued amid the awful, impenetrable hedgerows. “The Germans would be dug in behind those hundredyear-old hedgerows, and until you knocked out their machine guns they could move to the next…It wasn’t easy,” he said. The 101st’s next major action came during Operation Market Garden in September. Taxman recalled “serious foreboding” at this airborne invasion of Holland happening between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The operation failed. He was among a fraction of men in his glider company to ground safely amid heavy fire. Surrounded by German units, the GIs were in a tight fix until British tanks arrived. His platoon advanced on a target bridge when shrapnel from a mortar round cut him down. The officer who assisted him to safety was killed. Taxman was taken to an Antwerp field hospital and then onto a regular hospital in England. By late December he rejoined his decimated company in Bastogne just as the and some of his Allies broke through at the Battle of the Bulge. In April he attended a seder prepared by French Jews. “They proudly announced the plates we ate from were fashioned from the wings of a downed German aircraft,” he recalled. In liberated Paris he ran into several Omaha chums, Continued on page 20
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Book review HAL SENAL No one likes a party-pooper. In December of 2001, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of the LOTR Trilogy, based on J.R.R. Tolkein’s novels of the same name, was nearly universally hailed by audiences worldwide and, for the most part, all of the major film critics of the day. The emphasis, in this case, should be placed on for the most part. TV film critic, Richard Roeper, co-host to Roger Ebert on their syndicated program, Ebert & Roeper, dismissed the film as “boring and overlong.” In fact, he gave the film a national dis on Jay Leno’s show, going as far as making fun of fans of the books and the movie. He also seemed to forget that it was a fantasy—as in, it has absolutely, positively no basis in reality and, therefore, should not be placed under such harsh scrutiny as trying to look at it from a “real world” perspective. Being a fan of all three films, I was fairly outraged. Sure, it’s just one “critic’s” opinion, but to try and bash a film for trying to be unique, epic in scope, and visionary, well… I thought to myself, wow, dude... pretentious much?! And yet, here I am, nearly a decade later, finally (kinda-sorta) understanding where Mr. Roeper was coming from. Granted, I still wholly disagree with him (on, like, a gazillion levels) about Fellowship, but sometimes, one person’s vision is another person’s “say what?!” The source of my ire is Jewish author Michele Lang’s Holocaust gothic witch/vampire/werewolf fantasy opus, Lady Lazarus. (Tor Books: Aug. 31, 2010 release; priced around $10.) Yes, you read that correctly: Holocaust gothic witch/vampire/werewolf fantasy opus. The story begins in Budapest, with Magdalene Lazarus, a Jew with paranormal roots, in that she comes from a long line of powerful witches. The plot consists of her journey to the heart of darkness to fight, using her magical powers, and overthrow Hitler, who has been possessed by demons—natch—all the while being hunted down by S.S. Werewolves and vampires (oh, my!) and...well, you get the idea. Lang’s novel certainly wasn’t boring—I’ll give her that. And yet, at the risk of being a Debbiedowner, what started out as a somewhat interesting premise, grew more and more preposterous as the story unfolded (for example the titular character even has a few run-ins with Mr. Führer himself); not to mention the fact that it comes across as a tragic, and fairly tasteless, misfire. After all,
the loss of six million Jews is scary enough in its own right, without having to Twilight it up into a gothic horror novel. If you’re looking for something more along those lines, you needn’t look further than a good ol’ Anne Rice. And yet, there’s a part of me that believes a novel such as this one, no matter how distasteful, is an admirable experiment. Lang’s creative story really is one of a kind. And that gives it at least some significance, no matter what your view is on the topics, in this sprawling epic. For that, I’ll give the author an A for effort, trying something new and different. However, that’s about it. One could argue that I’m being unfair. After all, how can I give a film like Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 nutty-but-brilliant WWII film, Inglourious Basterds, which played fast, loose, and furious with historical facts, such high praise, and yet, give this film a negative critique? It’s certainly neither a bad point nor an unfair argument. Let’s face it, the idea of (spoiler alert ahead!) Hitler, Goebbels, et al., being riddled to death with bullets, in Basterds, is, if you think about it, kind of a slap in the face of actual written record, as well as a sucker punch to all of the poor souls who lost their lives, during WWII/The Holocaust. Yet, Basterds never claimed to be anything other than a blood-thirsty spaghetti Western, a campy look at what could be considered as alternative history. Certainly, it never took itself seriously, which Lang insists on doing. Tarantino is no guiltier of creating a hypothetical course of history than, say, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Philip Roth for writing his novel, The Plot Against America, in which everyone’s favorite American Hero and anti-Semitic flyboy, Charles Lindbergh, defeats FDR in the 1940 presidential election. Hitler was Evil because he was just that: Evil—a murderous, bloodthirsty sociopath that rose to power by playing to the German peoples’ embittered emotions after losing WWI. That’s what has and most likely always will cause people to flinch at the sound of his name, what will always instill fear, disgust into the hearts of men and women. Throwing things like ghosts, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night into the mix of already-tragic historical events just seems kinda, well, trivial, compared to what took place in real life. As for demonic possession, Ms. Lang? Um, let’s give credit where credit’s due. And if that makes me a party pooper, well, I’ll take that mantle.
Marvin Taxman Continued from page 19 including Warner Frohman, Lazier Singer and future brother-in-law Nick Rips. “Together we toured the Louvre, the opera and the Folies Bergere. Those were not to be forgotten days.” Across the Rhine into Germany, Taxman’s outfit was moving toward Munich when they encountered Dachau survivors. “It was gruesome, but we had no idea of the enormity of it,” said Taxman, who was detailed to help sift out German soldiers among the flood of refugees on the roads. By mid-May the war in Europe was over
but more adventures awaited Taxman. He visited Berchtesgaden and Hitler’s mountain retreat, the Eagle’s Nest. He filed reports for a division newspaper. He was put in charge of a troupe of Hungarian singers and dancers. Redeployed to France, he took a class at the University of Grenoble in the French Alps, where he was befriended by French Jews who escaped the Nazis by hiding in the mountains. He listened to their tales of woe and attended Yom Kippur services with them at a theater. He married and raised a family after the war, and he continues to enjoy a career in the wholesale optical business.
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 21
And the Oscar goes to... Oskar Schindler by OZZIE NOGG American artist Jonathan Horowitz (whose videos, sculpture, sound installation and photography turn a critical eye on politics, celebrity, cinema and war) opened an exhibit in a Berlin, Germany, gallery in 2007. Smack-dab at the entrance to the gallery was a fully operating popcorn machine, topped with popcorn-filled paper bags printed with the Time magazine cover of American football star Pat Tillman who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. The popcorn machine was emblazoned with the title of Jonathan Horowitz’s show: People Like War Movies. Well, I guess. Oh, how I bawled my pre-adolescent eyes out over the 1946 Best Picture winner, The Best Years of Our Lives. Oh, the drahhhma, as returning soldiers joyously reunited with their families, suffered domestic tragedies, were tormented by lost limbs and loveless marriages. (The heart-wrenching faces of Dana Andrews and Theresa Wright haunt me still.) Mrs. Miniver mesmerized me, too. Beautiful Greer Garson. So noble, so spunky, so selfless. Her refusal to let Nazi bombs wreck her roses won Garson an Oscar in 1942 for Best Actress. (And helped Jewish perfectionist, Billy “90-take” Wyler, win a celluloid trifecta. Best Director for Mrs. Miniver; Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for The Best Years of Our Lives.) Which segues nicely into the trivia movie buffs love. To whit: The number of war films with (1) a Jewish narrative arc or that (2) were directed by Jews or (3) were nominated for or won Oscars, is legion. Battleship Potemkin (1925); All Quiet on the Western Front (1930); Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944); Stalag 17 (1953); Judgment at Nuremberg (1961); The Diary of Anne Frank 1959); Private Benjamin (1980); Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). Films that focus on the Holocaust are plentiful, too. The Stranger (1946, believed to be the first feature film to include footage of concentration camps); The Search (1948); The Man in the Glass Booth (1975); Marathon Man (1976); Sophie’s Choice (1982); The Pianist (2002); The Boy in the Striped Pajamas as well as Defiance and The Reader (all 2008); and Inglourious Basterds (2009). There are more, but you get the picture. Filmmakers have been writing war into Oscar history since the birth of the industry and Birth of a Nation. No other subject has resulted in more key Oscar contenders, with nearly three dozen World War II-themed films nominated for best picture, starting with Charlie Chaplin's 1940 Nazi slapstick spoof, The Great Dictator (in which the Little Tramp plays both a poor Jewish ghetto barber and a Hitler look-alike). Seven films with war as a backdrop have won
the top prize at the Oscars -- roughly one in ten of the bestpicture winners since 1940. These films (some of which combine patriotism with propaganda) show that the sacrifice, struggles, futility and horror of war are not always a case of black or white. Case in point. Schindler’s List -- Steven Spielberg’s 1993 black and white masterpiece, which took home seven Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture. The actions of the film’s main character continue to be fodder for amateur psychoanalysts. By all accounts, Oskar Schindler was a con artist, an opportunist, a profiteer of slave labor, a man motivated by money-driven amorality, who eventually made a silent, conscious decision to preserve the lives of his Jewish employees. Spielberg himself has asked, “What motivated Schindler to do this? That's important. But I agree with most of the Jews who told me that what was really important was that he did it, not why he did it. It was a sting operation against the Nazis . . . and I think he got to the other end of his humanity when he did this. And then it was just a matter of maintaining the con game so nobody would catch him . . . saving lives, saving Jewish lives and Schindler's own life as a result.” Spielberg shot Schindler's List in and around Kraków, Poland, and though the locals welcomed the filmmakers, there were some anti-Semitic symbols scrawled on local billboards near shooting locations. Ben Kingsley (who played Itzhak Stern, Schindler's accountant and business partner) came close to decking an elderly German-speaking businessman who insulted Israeli actor Michael Schneider. Nonetheless, the positive effect on the cast was undeniable and life changing, as Spielberg himself described during this interview with Inside Film Magazine. “The men who played the Nazis were fantastic German actors. Many of them would come up to me before a take and tell me how disgusting it felt to have the uniform on. They would confess to me that their parents were involved in the War, in the military, and often they would just say to me, ‘Thank you for letting me resolve my secrets by playing in your movie.’ The most moving thing that happened for me was on Passover. We had Passover at the hotel and all the young German actors who were playing Nazis showed up. They put on yarmulkes and opened up haggadahs and sat with the Israeli actors and took part in the Passover service. And this family of actors sat around, and race and culture were just left behind. I wept like a baby.” What a fitting way to end this story in this Passover edition of our Jewish Press.
Lloyd Friedman Ike, Old blood and guts, Give ‘em hell Harry
By land THE EUROPEAN THEATER by LEO ADAM BIGA Lloyd Friedman’s five-year military odyssey began in late 1940. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln ROTC graduate helped oversee a black regiment in the 25th Infantry at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. He returned to Omaha ready to resume civilian life when Pearl Harbor put him right back on active duty. The next three years he was assigned to units in Europe. He went from the 134th National Guard Regiment of the 35th Infantry Division to the 137th Infantry Regiment. As D-Day neared in June 1944 Friedman, by then a captain, became regimental adjutant under Col. Grant Layng, which entailed being “his gofer or shadow.” Friedman was one of two Jewish officers in his regiment. While in Captain Lloyd Friedman England his unit was inspected by Allied Supreme Commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. His outfit hit Omaha Beach in the aftermath of the Normandy invasion, but they discovered an area still hot with enemy activity. “The Germans had the cliffs fortified,” he said. “That was pretty rough, We fought a little bit there but we got out of that. Normandy, above Saint Lo, was made up a lot of hedgerows. You couldn’t see what you were shooting at.” In an account for the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society, Friedman wrote: “On the first day of combat we lost the colonel to machine gun fire. I was not with him. It was tough to see friends wounded and die. The lines did not move very fast.” Then, he wrote, “I saw in the air the most bombers ever. They practically leveled Saint Lo, and even a few stray bombs landed on our troops.” Every time the regiment got orders to move, Friedman went with the advance party. Continued on page 23
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22 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
Serving one’s country weapons instructors, and physical fitness trainers (my daughter Ruthie, for example taught Hebrew to new-immigrant soldiers), and you only need one teacher for every class of students. The national religious community is split concerning women and the military. In some quarters military service for women is stigmatized as immodest, and so girls are encouraged to apply for exemption and to perform one or two years of voluntary national service. For a community that firmly believes in full integration and participation in Israeli life, such a stigma seems to me to be misplaced. Issues surrounding service become more weighty concerning men, for it is the men almost exclusively who are called upon for combat duty. A serious issue facing national religious boys is how to combine post-high school Judaic study with military service. What was once the preferred option, yeshivot hesder, has come under attack. In the hesder program, young men commit to a period of 5 years where they study in a yeshiva, go as a group into the army (usually in combat positions), and then return to their yeshiva. The troubling part of this system is that the actual military service of these young men is approximately half of what it is for the regular 3-year boys. As a result of this, a popular option called mechina has come about (my son Ezra chose a mechina in the Golan called Keshet). Boys spend a year or more in Judaic study and then enter the regular army, giving God and the State their full due. Issues of military service can seriously impact friendships. Sarah and I have found a strain put on our relationship with friends whose two sons requested and received
Journal entry from Israel TEDDY WEINBERGER Judging from Israel's media, the main question concerning military service that Israeli society faces is how to get ultra orthodox men to serve. The truth is, however, that Israeli society continues to wrestle with various aspects of national service (military and non-military). Basic questions such as who should serve, for how long, and in what capacity are constantly being mulled over by your average Israeli, far from the day's headlines. What follows are issues faced by my own family. It is important to note at the outset that there is a huge difference between service for men and service for women. Boys are drafted for 3 years (and also serve about 20 years in the military reserves), while girls are drafted for only two years. If a girl feels that military service is incompatible with her religious beliefs, she can request to be exempted from service. There is an interview held at the local offices of the Chief Rabbinate, and the girl will be asked certain questions pertaining to Judaism, such as what is the blessing said over an apple (and some girls who are not quite religious but who don't want to serve ask their religious friends to help them cram for this interview). Typically any girl can get this exemption if she wants it. The fact is that the army does not have enough good positions for the young women who do enter military service. After all, a lot of the positions in the army for women are teaching-type positions, such as drill instructors,
exemption from the IDF for psychological reasons (though they are adequately functional in our opinion). These boys are not doing anything for the State (young men can perform voluntary national service), and yet our friends don't want to criticize them, saying that everyone is different. For a parent, there is a huge difference between having a child in combat service or in non-combat service. Simply put, if you are the parent of a combat soldier you don't really sleep for 3 years. It may turn out to be the case that our eleventh-grader Elie, our youngest and our most spiritual child, will be the only one to serve in a combat position. For the diaspora there would be irony here, since Jews and especially religious Jews are still caricatured as all brain and no
brawn. For Elie there is no irony, since he has lived in Israel since the age of two. Being a religious Jew in Israel is part of the range of normative options for an Israeli citizen, and serving in a combat unit (the eliter the better) is something to which normative young men are socialized to aspire. Like his older siblings, when the State of Israel comes calling, Elie will answer “Here I am.” As a father and as a Jew, this makes me very proud. Teddy Weinberger made aliyah in 1997 with his wife, former Omahan Sarah Ross, and their five children. Their oldest two, Nathan and Rebecca, recently completed mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces; their daughter Ruthie is still serving in the IDF. Weinberger can be reached at weinross@net vision.net.il.
Getting down to work
The newly appointed IDF Chief of Staff Lt. General Benny Gantz wasted no time to begin to familiarize himself with the main hotspots along Israel's borders. Gantz visited the Gaza Division and spoke with many of the IDF soldiers presently stationed in the area. Copyright: Edgar Asher/ISRANET
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Soldier’s story highlights plight facing gay would-be converts in Israel by DINA KRAFT spokesman said in response to a JTA query. “The soldier in YEHUD, Israel (JTA) -- The young would-be convert to question chose to leave the course of his own accord Judaism with a gold Star of David pendant peeking through because, as he noted, ‘He did not feel ready to complete the a buttoned shirt is still baffled by the summer afternoon he conversion process.’ The soldier was clearly informed he says he was called in and dismissed from an Israeli army could return to the course when he felt ready to do so.” conversion course for being gay. Y.B. says that during his meeting with conversion course The 23-year old Y.B., as he asked to be identified, had not officials, he signed a form saying he was not ready to comdisclosed his sexual orientation to anyone in the course, but plete the process only because he was told he could not conone of the rabbi instructors “outed him” to course adminis- tinue to study if he indeed was gay. The stipulation given for trators after presuming he was gay. his return would be based on his agreeing to pursue rela“I was in shock. I felt the color draining from my face,” tionships with women, Y.B. says he was told. Y.B. told JTA. “I left, eyes full Y.B. says he grew up believing he was fully Jewish. So of tears and angry, asking it came as a surprise when one of his officers myself, why are they doing approached him to see if he was interested in signing up this to me? I have a partner for Nativ, the IDF conversion course through which of six years who comes from some 4,000 soldiers have converted. a religiously observant home Y.B. immigrated with his family at the age of 2 from and we are there every Buenos Aires, Argentina. His father is Jewish and his Friday night for Shabbat. mother is not, but she kept a kosher home, lit candles The family is accepting and for Shabbat and went with the family to synagogue. Y.B. loving. If they come from had a bar mitzvah and observed the holidays. such a traditional place and When the officer approached him about the course, Y.B. accept us with love, why said he responded, “What does this have to do with me?” can’t others?” She told him he was not listed as being Jewish in his During the tense dismissal army paperwork. meeting, Y.B. said he was “I remembered that my mother has mentioned not told by two program officials being Jewish, but it was not something I ever really that homosexuality is an thought about,” Y.B. said in an interview. “Everything I aberration of Jewish law and knew about our home was Jewish.” Y.B., a gay Argentine-born Israeli that he would be welcome to But Y.B. decided he also wanted to be Jewish under the who was raised as a Jew but has a return to the course if he eyes of Jewish law and the State of Israel, so he signed up non-Jewish mother, was told to committed himself to a hetfor the course when he was 19 while doing his mandadrop out of an Israeli army convererosexual lifestyle. tory military service. He decided not to continue to the sion course because of his sexual The soldier’s experience second of two seminars but later regretted his decision. orientation. He declined to be idenhighlights the plight that gay Some three years later, when he was approached again Credit: Dina Kraft tified. would-be converts to to join a new conversion course for those in the Judaism face in Israel: Because there is no separation of state reserves, Y.B. said he jumped at the chance. and religion, and the state religion is regulated by the By the time he started the course in July, Y.B.’s observance Orthodox-controlled Chief Rabbinate, it is practically level had deepened. He was observing Shabbat and praying impossible for an openly gay person to convert to Judaism. daily. He also was concerned about his father, then battling Under Orthodox Jewish law, a would-be convert who rejects cancer. He said his father was heartened that his son was a tenet of the Torah -- in this case, the prohibition against doing the conversion course. homosexual intercourse -- cannot join the faith. “It had been very hard for my parents to accept me, and I The Israel Defense Forces’ conversion course, under the thought I could never be hurt like that again,” Y.B. said. “But auspices of the army’s chief rabbi, has been considered to be when this happened” -- the conversion course dismissal -- “I a more open and tolerant vehicle for conversion than those felt like it was happening all over again.” overseen by the Chief Rabbinate. His father died last fall, just a couple of months after Y.B. A bill is pending in the Knesset that would make the army had to leave the conversion course. program officially independent from the Chief Rabbinate. “He took it very hard,” Y.B. said. “He said he was surprised Uri Regev, former head of Israel’s Reform movement and by this discrimination within Judaism. He asked, why do president of Hiddush, an organization lobbying for freedom people distance those who want to join our religion?” of religion in Israel, said Y.B.’s case is an example of why the During his three years of mandatory army service, Y.B. bill doesn’t go far enough. said he was always open about his sexual orientation and “Even the military conversion, which is considered in never encountered any problems because of it. Israel to be a relatively liberal conversion avenue, stops short “The army was always such a supportive place, which is of openness and tolerance towards homosexuals,” Regev part of why I was so surprised when all of this happened,” he told JTA. “One must not accept a situation where the Israeli said. “I felt like I had gone backward in time back to when I army, known for its progressive attitude towards homosexu- was meant to feel like a mental case again.” als, will be a party to erecting a wall barring such soldiers Looking down at his gold engagement ring -- he has plans from entering into the Jewish fold and declaring them to be to marry his partner -- Y.B. said he understood that homounworthy of Jewish status.” sexuality is condemned in the Torah. But he says he took the An IDF spokesman denied that Y.B. was expelled from the prohibitions in context, noting that the Torah also calls for course because he is gay. adulterers to be stoned. “The IDF believes that a person’s origin, gender and sexu“I don’t think God hates me because I’m gay,” he said. “I al orientation cannot have an impact on his or her ability to believe he made me gay because that is the way he saw me. appropriately complete the conversion process,” the He makes us in his image.”
Lloyd Friedman Continued from page 21 “My worst job,” he wrote, “was reconnoitering for the times I got ahead of the front lines. On one occasion my jeep driver and I were going up a road, dodging brush and debris. After passing, we looked back and saw that they covered mines...We breathed a sigh of relief.” More relief came with the break out across France. His company was attached to Patton’s 3rd Army. He got to see the irascible, flamboyant commander up close. “He was a buddy of our new colonel and visited us for socalled ‘lunch’ one day. I will never forget his two pearl-handled pistols.” At times Patton’s forces moved so fast they outstripped their supply lines. “As we neared Germany things slowed down,” Friedman wrote. “We had some fierce fights across the border (Mosel River). By Christmas…we were sent to Metz for what we thought would be a well-earned rest. We were so wrong.
Immediately we were moved north to outside Bastogne (Battle of the Bulge). Those were horrible days. Between the cold and driving the Germans back, it was miserable.” “We were near Berlin when VE Day came in May (1945). Our regiment was sent to Boppard on the Rhine for occupation duty. On July 11 we assembled near Brussels and were picked for the honor guard for President Truman who was en route to the Potsdam Conference.” Friedman, who was never wounded, won five battle stars, including the Bronze Star. During an R &R stint on the French Riviera he ran into Omahan Stanley Slosburg and upon returning to the States he met another Omahan -- Stuart Muskin, who served in the same division but in a separate regiment. After the war Friedman married Lois Novitsky, and became a buyer and merchandise manager for Herzberg’s before making his career in insurance.
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Louie Blumkin The long, slow slog “Many times we met with very tough resistance, but we overcame all of our obstacles…For several months, although our progress was slow, we liberated several French cities” THE EUROPEAN THEATER and “received a very warm welcome from the French peoby LEO ADAM BIGA ple.” It sounds like a legend now, but when Louie Blumkin was In one action a fragment from an explosive injured his away in the U.S. Army his mother Rose, worried by slump- hand. ing sales at the furniture store she’d opened a few years By year’s end the weather turned and for a time so did the before, wrote her son she was thinking campaign’s fortunes. By then his unit of selling it. He persuaded her to stick it was assigned to Patton’s 3rd Armored out until his return, and the rest is hisDivision. tory. Under his management the “Winter set in while we were in Nebraska Furniture Mart became a Southern France,” and to the north “the phenomenon of folklorish proportions. Germans were making their counteratBut there was no guarantee Mrs. B’s tack, known as the Battle of the Bulge, boy would make it home. A state diving in a maneuver which was supposed to champion at Omaha Technical High drive our forces to the English Channel. School, Blumkin was considered an Our organization was called to help Olympic-caliber athlete. That dream relieve the Americans in their plight faded as America drew closer to enteragainst the Germans…” ing the war against the Axis powers. When the weather finally cleared Blumkin enlisted in 1941. After field enough for Allied planes to attack artillery training and serving as a gunenemy positions the German offensive ner on a 155 millimeter howitzer he was stopped and its last gasp effort to was promoted to corporal and battalreverse the tide turned back. Blumkin ion company clerk. The work suited his saw first-hand the enormous conceninquisitive mind. tration of Allied war materials flooding His battalion was en route to the into the region and recalled thinking, Pacific Theater, with a planned “There is no way the Germans are going stopover in Hawaii, when Pearl Harbor to win this war.” He was part of the conU.S. Army Junior Warrant Officer, was attacked. His ship was turned tingent that crossed the Remagen Louie Blumkin around to return to the west coast, Bridge, a key link between France and where he received orders to go to Fort Germany. His unit went toward Austria while others went to Lewis, Wash. There, he became junior warrant officer of his spearhead the push into Berlin. battalion. He transferred to the 974th Field Artillery and Along the way, Blumkin and his mates came across went overseas with his unit in 1942. After training in Belfast, Dachau concentration camp survivors. Ireland and in England, he awaited orders for the invasion of “It was an extremely emotional experience for me, one Europe. which I will never forget because of the conditions of both To help ease the tedium and tension until D-Day, he put the camp and the individuals,” he said. on diving exhibitions at Chaltham, England for his fellow His wartime experience ended with Displaced Persons GIs. duty -- transferring Italian refugees or DPs from Innsbruck, His group landed on Omaha Beach a few days after the Austria to Riva, Italy. He returned home in time for invasion and in the teeth of still stiff German defenses moved Christmas in 1945 and after reuniting with his “street smart” inland, first east and then south. In a 1984 interview he gave mother at the Mart, he became president and CEO during a his niece, Jane Kasner, he described the slow, bitter slog. period of remarkable growth.
By land
From The Lone Soldiers project
Howard N. Epstein Ari D. Riekes Dirk V. Block Tyler C. Block Elizabeth Stuht Borchers David A. Christensen Michael A. Nelson
Steven J. Riekes John J. Velasquez Kelli J. Watson Steven M. Watson David P. Wilson
by SYBIL KAPLAN soldiers and the Michael Levin Memorial Center for Lone Tziki Aud spent 27 years with the Aliyah Department of Soldiers was founded. “I am the only old person in our the Jewish Agency including serving as its Information organization! The agenda is being built by lone soldiers.” Director. Josh Flaster, formerly of Phoenix, In 2009 he started a new project. We Arizona, is director; Jared White, formerwere recently invited to his “dress ly of Dunedin, Florida, is program direcrehearsal” for a US speaking tour on tor. behalf of the Michael Levin Memorial Five times a year an orientation is held Center for Lone Soldiers. with the Ministry of Absorption, and lone A lone soldier is one serving in the soldiers are directed to this meeting. Israel Defense Forces whose parents live “We tell them, the Israel Defense Forces in France, England, the United States, is not day camp; this is a game for life.” South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, Once a month, in Jerusalem, the Great Australia, the former Soviet Union, Brazil Synagogue offers a Friday evening meal at or other countries. There are 500 lone no cost and at least 200 soldiers attend. soldiers in Jerusalem; 5,000 nation wide. Now Bar Mitzvah kids are sending some The Michael Levin Memorial Center of their gifts to this project; people are for Lone Soldiers is the first and only making contributions for simchot. A parorganization dedicated to taking care of ents group of volunteers has been organthese young people. With branches in Tel ized and another group of volunteers are Tziki Aud Aviv and Haifa, it offers educational semex-lone soldiers. Credit: Barry A. Kaplan inars for new immigrant soldiers and Currently, Tziki is on a fund-raising other volunteers, Shabbat dinners, guidance and monitor- speaking tour in Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington, D.C. ing, holiday and cultural events, furniture for their apart- and New York. ment, advocacy work, and post-army guidance. Donations are tax deductible. A check may be made out A few years ago, Tziki happened to meet a fellow from to: FJC (Write on Memo Line: Michael Levin Memorial Philadelphia named Michael Levin. They became friends. Center). Mail to: Michael Levin Memorial Center, PO Box Michael became a paratrooper. “In his uniform he walked, 93372, Phoenix, AZ 85070. smiling, and gained another 20 centimeters because he was Please direct any questions regarding donations to: so proud.” info@lonesoldiercenter.com, 011-972-54-318-9474 In 2006 he went to the States for a vacation. While there, For a direct wire-transfer to the Center: The First the Lebanon War started and he returned early. Fifteen International Bank of Israel LTD, Swift Code: FIRBILhours later, he was killed. ITXXX, Jerusalem Main Branch No. 12, Hillel Street 10, “I thought that the army serves the good of all the soldiers. Jerusalem, IBAN: IL560310120000000293849, Beneficiary I thought our army is the only one in which there are no Account No: 293849, Beneficiary Account Name: Michael problems. I learned the biggest problem in the army is a lack Levin Memorial Center for the Support of Lone Soldiers of understanding. The commanders do not understand the FJC is the Foundation of Philanthropic Funds – FJC is a situation with lone soldiers. His death became part of my registered 501(c)3 and manages the Michael Levin unwritten contract with soldiers.” Memorial Fund. In Israel, the Center is a registered nonIn 2009, Tziki was asked to continue to give service to lone profit organization, Non-profit # [Amuta]; 580520104.
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 27
Meeting Bette Midler in Hawaii, and other adventures by JOYCE COHEN What do Shabbat services, hamantaschen, blind dates and Bette Midler have to do with army life? When Sheldon (Shelly) Cohen went into the army in 1963, he didn’t realize that those things would all be part of his military experience. The first few days of basic training at Fort Ord near Monterey, California, were spent getting whipped into the proper Army look – “buzz cut” short hair, clean and pressed uniform and gleaming “spit-polished” boots. The correct military attitude was also drilled into the men-- obey any command given by someone of higher rank. For Shelly that became difficult when he asked permission to attend Friday evening services, and it was denied. His sergeant said that the barracks needed cleaning. Shelly then offered to do his share while the others attended church, but again the answer was “no”. Shelly repeated that to keep him from going was a violation of his religious rights and he left. Feelings of uncertainty as to what awaited him were overcome with surprise and relief when he returned. The other men stood up for his right to go to services and an apology came from the sergeant. Several weeks later his request for permission to attend Passover services in San Francisco was granted without any problems. The congregation welcomed the single soldier dressed in uniform, invited him to stay for the Seder and seated him next to a beautiful young woman. After his 8 weeks of basic training he was assigned to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey for advanced training in electronics. He stayed six months for training and another six months as an instructor. During a short visit home, he attended Shabbat services at Beth El synagogue. Rabbi Kripke suggested
that he go to services at Red Bank, New Jersey and tell Rabbi Rosenberg that he sent his regards. Shelly decided to do just that. Having no transportation, he walked the five miles to Red Bank. Imagine his surprise when a voice called out, “Shelly, is that
said he would remember it. Sunday morning he called with the names and phone numbers of five women who were interested in meeting Shelly and all had cars. While he was stationed in New Jersey he found he had time for a part-time job. With
Shelley Cohen, right, receives an award from an Army Major. you?” Shelly says, “He was a bootstrapper who was in one of my classes at OU. After asking me if I was an “MOT” we became friends and he often came to dinner with my family on Friday evening.” When Shelly met Rabbi Rosenberg, he told him of Rabbi Kripke’s greetings. The Rabbi then asked him about his marital status, if he wanted to meet young women, and whether or not he had a car. When Shelly responded, the Rabbi said he would call him Sunday. As it was Shabbat, the Rabbi couldn’t write the information down, but
his electronics knowledge Shelly was able to find one in a television store with a Jewish owner. His boss had a daughter attending Douglas College, connected with Rutgers. By this time Shelly owned a car and was asked to pick her up, drive her home and take her to dinner. This became a frequent part of his job. Before leaving for his permanent assignment at Fort Shafter in Honolulu, Hawaii, Shelly’s mother gave him five dozen of her home-baked hamantaschen to take along. Once aboard the troop ship, volunteers
were recruited. Shelly raised his hand and became a company clerk, not part of the KP (kitchen police), which he hadn’t wanted. The situation became even better when he met his commanding officer, Dr. Cohen. Daily after accomplishing the necessary work, he and the doctor spent the time talking and eating the Purim goodies. The beautiful tropical flowers, palm trees, and blue ocean with crashing waves were a contrast to his work environment, which was inside an extinct volcano. His electronics knowledge was used to coordinate transmitters and receivers, which was like being an air traffic controller. Once he settled into the routine of army life there, he explored the island and says “six times around the island and you’ve seen it all”. Once again, Shelly checked on the Sabbath services. What a laugh to find that the services on base were held on Thursday evening because there were too many other more fun activities on Fridays. This prompted him to look for a synagogue; he found a reform temple and attended services. Unlike other synagogues he had visited, this congregation didn’t have many single young women for him to date. The one available wasn’t his type, although he took her out a few times. Shelly remembers that her father was a dentist and they lived in a beautiful home on the ocean. It wasn’t until years later that he realized that the “Divine Miss M” was the same Bette Midler he had dated in Hawaii. Shelly spent time seeing some of the other islands and especially liked Kauai. When his three-year tour of duty came to an end, despite numerous attempts to persuade him to “re-up,” he was grateful that he had been sent to Hawaii rather than Vietnam and was very glad to return to Omaha, his family, his friends and the Jewish community.
Best Wishes for a happy Passover and a celebration of freedom with family and friends.
28 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
No more eating ham for Uncle Sam by OZZIE NOGG In The Navy Chaplain magazine, Commander Warren Tanninbaum, USNR, described the challenge to maintain one’s Jewish identity while stationed overseas. “Practicing Judaism in America is a relatively simple endeavor,” Tanninbaum wrote. “If you want to join a synagogue, there are probably several in the local area to choose from. If you need cultural identity, there are plenty of Jews with whom to socialize. But [stationed overseas] I discovered that if I wanted to practice my Judaism, I would have to work for it. There were no Jewish chaplains or organized Jewish communities on the military base. There were no synagogues within 100 miles. I now understand the struggle of my ancestors... I will never take my faith for granted again.” Help has arrived. Just as the Hebrews carried the Tabernacle with them through their desert wanderings, today's Jewish military -- even when deployed in the middle of nowhere -can now pack traditional practices with their gear. Examples: Kosher K-rations: The Meal, Readyto-Eat (MRE) is a self-contained, individual ration used in combat or other field conditions that lack kitchen facilities. According to Deborah Dash Moore’s book G.I. Jews, no longer do Jewish soldiers “have to eat ham for Uncle Sam.” Several food companies, including My Own Meals and La Briute (Hebrew for to your health), offer (among other entrees) kosher Chicken Mediterranean, Pasta with Garden Vegetables, Vegetarian Stew, Cheese Tortellini, Florentine Lasagna, Meatballs and Spaghetti, Chicken Primavera with Noodles, Turkey with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, and Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage in sweet raisin tomato sauce. (For armies that march on their stomachs, this is fuel with a hechsher.) Working hand-in-hand with the above MREs are multi-purpose kosher cutlery sets. Color-coded and labeled Meat (red) and Milk (blue), each set has a fork, spoon, knife, can and bottle opener. The pocketknife splits open in two parts enabling users (according to the advertising blurb) to eat like a mensch with a knife and fork in each hand. Assembled in China. (Voh dehn?) Collapsible stainless steel kiddush cups are also available. Study opportunities: Armed with an MP3 player, soldiers can access a veritable yeshiva-in-your-pocket, learning Torah and other Jewish subjects from podcasts a-plenty: • Pardes From Jerusalem: From the Pardes Institute, this weekly discussion of the Torah portion is in-depth and thought provoking, according to users. • Take Five for Torah: A brief d’var podcast daily from rab-
bis all over the U.S. and Canada. • Nextbook: Spotlights Jewish literature and culture, featuring interviews with Jewish authors about Jewish subjects or recent books. • Religion Outside the Box: A sort of new-age, spiritual look at questions about God and life. Tefillah, anyone? In 2008, the Jewish Publication Society, in partnership with the Jewish Welfare Board Chaplains Council, printed 10,000 copies of the new JPS Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures for Jewish Personnel in the Armed Forces of the United States. The 1,069-page book (which replaces the 1941 JPS version that has been out of print for years) contains the text of the Torah, Nevi'im (Prophets) and Kethuvim (Writings), as well as prayers recited in times of danger, during illness, for a safe journey on the road, plus the traditional blessings over meals. According to JPS, until this recent printing, Jewish soldiers (when asked if they wanted a bible) would receive a Christian Bible as standardissue. Compact enough to fit into a military uniform pocket, the new Tanakh features a cover with the official camouflage patterns from each branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, overlapped with a tan Star of David. To show, perhaps, that happy days ARE here again, the May 6, 1941 dedication by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was president and commander-in-chief when the last version was printed, still appears in the new troop Bible. Kippah? Okey-dokey: Department of Defense Directive 1300.17 (Accommodation of Religious Practices Within the Military Services) allows for the wearing of religious apparel providing said articles are (1) Discreet, tidy, and not dissonant or showy in style, size, design, brightness, or color, (2) Do not replace or interfere with the proper wear of any authorized article of the uniform, and (3) Are not temporarily or permanently affixed or appended to any authorized article of the uniform. Translation: Kippot, talit katan and tzitzit may be worn proudly by Jewish military personnel while on duty. And get this. Service people now have their choice of camouflage yarmulkes made of ‘real’ U.S. military fabric (no cheap imitations, says the manufacturer), as well as kosher military olive drab T-shirt tzitzit which are (according to the PR press release) definitely not your zaidy’s tzitzit. (Nor my poppa’s either...) So what's the lesson here? That Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell -- at least when it comes to openly displaying one’s Judaism -- is a non-issue.
Stan Silverman A dry dock Navy tour
By sea THE PACIFIC THEATER OR BUST by LEO ADAM BIGA Homefront contributions to World War II often get lost in the haze of history. But the men and women who worked the factories, fields, docks, warehouses and countless other jobs vital to the war effort made it possible for America to execute its battle plans and achieve final victory. Long before Stan Silverman ever entered the service he worked on a ditch-digging crew opening the earth with shovels to accommodate water mains at then Offutt Field on the old Fort Crook base. The site is where the Martin Bomber Plant would be built and where Offutt Air Force Base would house the Strategic Air Stan Silverman Command. His family ran a grocery store on Vinton Street and he and his folks lived above it. The Central High graduate earned a chemical engineering degree from Iowa State University at a time when quotas limited the number of Jews accepted into higher education and certain career paths. “That irritated me,” Silverman said. While at Iowa State he said the school’s physical chemistry department secretly played a significant role in the Manhattan Project by purifying the uranium for the atomic bombs ultimately dropped on Japan. After college he went to work as a chemical engineer for Phillip’s Petroleum Company in Kaw City, OK, where he fell in with a mix of engineers, Native Americans and roughnecks. He learned to play a mean game of poker there. Oklahoma was a dry state then and Silverman said when he’d come home to visit he’d stock up on liquor to bring back to his parched buddies. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1944, looked forward to going to sea, but it never happened. His wartime Continued on page 30
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Syd Osten
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My second military career by BERT LEWIS Sydney Osten speaks of coming home to Edmonton, and “knocking around, working at whatever job he could find, fretting over what he ought to do while remembering his government ‘owed me 6 years of university’ and wondering if he should do it.” He was, he says, “a mess.” At the time he probably didn’t blame his recent 70 missions as a rear gunner during the war for his feeling of unrest. (Today, the professionals have terms for the causes of such unrest.)
Gigi and Syd Osten In addition to all this, he says he was aware of “the rumblings in the air.” There were tales coming across the ocean, mentioning names like Ben Gurion and “his minions.” There were questions being bandied about, and there were secret talks and quiet meetings, Syd says. “When I heard such talk, all I could think of was the old joke that said Israel’s secret weapon was chutzpah!” And he knew whatever was going to happen, he wanted to be part of it. Around that time, “a man named Adelman came to town and rumor had it that he was a major in the Israeli underground,” Syd says. “He somehow got out the information there would be a meeting of any and all Jewish young men who wanted to know what was happening.” It was said he had only an hour to speak (he was being watched), but he apparently sold his audience on what he offered, which was recruitment into the Israeli underground. Many of his listeners were interested, Syd among them. He knew he was exactly what the major wanted: a well-trained soldier, with more than a little expertise in weaponry of all types. The group at the meeting had great potential, and most were intrigued enough to sign up. Arrangements were made and soon the group of new recruits left for New York, along with some Palmach and whoever else was connected with the Major. They spent an unspecified amount of time in the city, making necessary arrangements for the men to be transported overseas. There were trips to the French Embassy to “make friends with the right official” so a ship might be made available. This was accomplished. Syd loves telling about the “shenanigans and quiet little tricks that provided everyone with a passport.” An available passport with many stamped pages of different countries had great value, because it could be artfully altered into several new passports. Syd gave up his own for the benefit of others. Following these cloak and dagger games, plans were finalized and passage was procured, and off sailed a group of young men of mixed nationalities. (In an offhanded remark, Syd tells me that shortly after he had left Edmonton for NY, the M.P.’s were at his home, asking about his whereabouts. He knew his activities were being monitored by Canadian authorities.) In spite of such spy novel incidents, the ship was on its way, headed for France and after an uneventful
voyage, they docked at Le Havre. There, according to Syd, they were met by “a little bit of a 16-year-old girl from the underground, who led a group of 12 of us to Marseilles, to a camp of some 3,000 displaced persons - people who had been liberated from the camps.” “We were expected to do all we could for these people - to teach them language, to help them in every way we could, to bring them up to the standards of the day as best we could. By the time we finished, we had them in pretty good shape”. They too were ultimately headed for Israel, and when we left, some 300 of them sailed with us. As history tells us, many thousands like them later found their way to Israel, to help the tiny country protect herself. Many stayed and became citizens. Syd says “when the time was right, some in our group managed to get on the boat that was headed for Israel. It wasn’t much of a boat and we worried about leaks and safety, because we had guns as well as people stashed under cover.” After some seven or eight days they reached Israel, where they learned the British were still there. Still, as they approached, five “big boats came out toward us and we sort of melded into the group.” Now they had docked and landed and were on dry land, mingling and moving around people. It seemed logical to ask where the headquarters of such as Army Intelligence could be found, or the Air Force. They were met with blank stares, since there were no visible headquarters for the Air Force and little to no Air Force. There weren’t many planes either. Nothing but several old Spitfires and odd pieces of old relics. In addition, the Palestinian Jews didn’t know how to fly them. It must have suddenly become crystal clear why these volunteers had been recruited. When the experienced volunteers got busy, an actual Israeli Air Force was formed; it was nearly 100% American. The Jews had been constantly threatened by the five Arab nations surrounding them, and had little or no equipment with which to protect themselvs. They desperately needed help. The recruitments, which included Syd Osten, brought much of what they needed. The volunteers who answered the plea for help became the group known as Machal, a Hebrew word meaning ‘volunteers from abroad.’ The people with whom Syd was connected became a group of some 1500 men and women, both Jewish and Christian, from Canada and America. Others came in great numbers from a total of some 40 countries. Most were veterans of the recently fought World War II, and as such were well trained. They knew how to do everything from building roads to teaching basic skills needed for survival. In addition, they knew how to manipulate circumstances in order to get the necessary results, even when it seemed impossible. Perhaps a better way to describe the extraordinary part Machal played in Israel’s history is to quote from an article by Aliyah Bet & Machal Virtual Museum. “Israeli youth had suffered devastating losses from Arab attacks before and after the departure of the British on May 15, 1948. The Machal volunteers, when they arrived, provided the additional manpower and expertise to help make Israel the master of its enemies.” Continued on page 30
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by LEO ADAM BIGA Bernie Altsuler was only 20 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942, but he was already a married working man. The Omahan was inducted in the service in California because at 19 he’d gone to Los Angeles with a brother in search of new horizons. His fiance joined him there and the two were married. As he had some college -- he attended Creighton University -he was put in base operations logging flight records. When assigned a training command unit at Kirtland Field in Albuquerque, NM, his wife came with him. Rookie pilots trained in twin-engine Beechcrafts. He said his only encounter with anti-Semitism occurred there. “I was working on the line -- that’s where they brought planes in -- and there was a master sergeant, and boy he laid into me. He gave me all the problems you could imagine, but I was only there six months before I got transferred. I loved Albuquerque but I was sure glad to get away from that guy.” Altsuler then ended up in Fort Sumner, NM, as part of a command training navigators. He was there 15 months and once again his wife accompanied him. “My wife was a shorthand expert and she became the base commander’s secretary. That’s probably why I stayed there 15 months,” he said. After another training stop stateside he shipped overseas in 1945 to the Philippines, where fighting had ceased. All
the zig-zagging his ship did to throw off enemy subs slowed the voyage to a crawl and he remembers “one of the longest craps games there ever was” played out over 39 days. He said troops from Europe began filtering in as the Allied Pacific force geared up for the anticipated invasion of Japan. The atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki cancelled the invasion to everyone’s relief. By now a sergeant, he went from Tacloban, Leyte, to Zamboanga and the 18th Fighter Group, which consisted of a P-38 squadron that only months earlier had escorted B-24 bombers in live missions over Japan. “Our squadron commander was an ace -- he had shot down five Japanese planes.” As part of his duties Altsuler had frequent contact with pilots, whom he admired. “They were all cocky young kids,” he said. “We got to know them very well.” Bernie Altsuler Despite no combat, there were still risks. Accidents happened. He remembers a couple of planes cartwheeling down the runway and bursting into flames. He developed a lifelong love of flying in the service, his appetite whetted by junket flights he hopped. “We had a C-47 in our operation overseas that we’d fly all over the Pacific to many different islands picking up supplies, and I went along.” Within a few years of his return from the war he earned his pilot’s license and instrument rating in a Piper Comanche along with his friend, Harold Abrahamson. Ironically, he said during his nearly four years in the service he never bumped into anyone he knew from back home until the day of his discharge. He stayed in L.A. a few years before returning to Omaha, where he opened his own wholesale plumbing, heating and air-conditioning business. He later sold it and retired.
Stan Silverman Continued from page 28 service consisted of training school assignments from Indiana to Mississippi to Chicago to California. As an electronics technician third class he worked on radar, sonar and radio equipment that was big and bulky in the days before transistors and microchips. He got married while in the service, and his wife Norma, who did clerical work for the 5th Army Corps in Omaha, joined him at various stops. His arrival on the Stan Silverman west coast coincided with VJ Day and the memory of the jubilation over Japan’s surrender is still vivid. “I was in San Francisco, where they had a helluva cele-
bration. People went wild.” The war was officially over but he was still Uncle Sam’s property and the wait for his discharge made the time drag. “I was sitting there not doing a helluva lot.” The one time he was assigned to a ship the orders were cancelled before he got aboard. He was a statistician on Treasure Island, where a military unit was set up. The closest he came to shipping out was riding a Navy launch across the bay. All in all, he said his time in the service was agreeable. He never ran into any anti-Semitism and he was able to practice his faith and attend High Holiday services. After his discharge in early 1946 he worked a variety of jobs the next several years, including men’s furnishings at J .L. Brandeis. Helping him get by was a $25 a week stipend from the Servicemen’s Readjustment Allowance fund. He was with the Container Corporation of America in Chicago before moving back to Omaha to work for the City’s smoke abatement division. He was later at Quaker Oats. He eventually joined his father-in-law Ben Seldin and brother-in-law Millard Seldin in the Seldin Company, a commercial real estate, multi-family management and development organization. At 88, he still goes to the office every day.
Syd Osten: My second military career Continued from page 29 Syd remembers the early days in Israel, wandering around wondering what they should be doing. There was a new language to be learned, while they acquainted themselves with everything else. Syd was a well-trained and experienced addition to any army, thanks to what he was taught in the RCAF. He could be useful in Army Intelligence, in the Rear gunners seat in a plane, as an instructor to green recruits learning about various arms. In addition, he spoke and understood Yiddish. A day came when Osten “met a fellow who seemed to be an important figure,” and who suggested Syd get into the Palmach, which he did. He moved around and met people who ranked very high in govenment. He tells with pride he
became friends with Chaim Weitzman. He left Israel “probably in 1950 or 51,” returning to his home in Canada. Syd has enormous affection and respect for the Israeli people, remembering them as really tough, really patriotic, and the best he could ever meet. I asked a question about his opinion of the Jews who fought so valiantly for their independence. Without missing a beat, he gave me a tough soldier’s answer: “They’re Glorious Bastards!” Said, I must add, with total admiration. He keeps close watch on the politics, history and daily happenings of the Israeli people and, when asked, admits he “would do it all over again.” Editor’s note: Read more about Syd Osten’s other military career on page 19.
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 31
What the Civil War meant for American Jews, then and now by JONATHAN D. SARNA Korn, the foremost expert on American WALTHAM, Mass. (the Forward) -- The Jewry and the Civil War, examined “the 150th anniversary of the Civil War is upon major meaning of the Civil War for us. April 12 is the anniversary of the firing American Jews.” He listed five key themes: on Fort Sumter, the war’s opening shot. • The opportunity accorded Jews to fight From then, through the sesquicentennial as equal citizens and to rise through the anniversary on April 9, 2015 of Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House and five days later of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, every major event in the “ordeal of the union” seems likely to be recounted, re-enacted, reanalyzed and, likely as not, verbally re-fought. The American Jewish community, meanwhile, has expressed little interest in these commemorations. A few books, a play, a film Sherman’s army in Washington, D.C., May 1865. and a forthcoming scholCredit: britannica.com arly conference form the totality of the Jewish contribution to the ranks, something not granted them by most sesquicentennial. When I suggested a talk of the world’s great armies at that time. on the Civil War and the Jews in one setting, • Jews’ “total identification with their the organizers questioned the relevance of neighbors” -- Northern Jews with the North the topic. Only a small minority of Jews, and Southern Jews with the South. Jews they observed, boast ancestors who partici- demonstrated their loyalty and patriotism pated in the Civil War. By the time most during the Civil War, and then boasted of it Jewish immigrants to America arrived, the for many years afterward. war was but a distant memory. • Jews’ tenaciousness in courageously Fifty years ago, for the Civil War centenni- fighting for their rights. Soon after the war al, the level of interest within the Jewish began, they organized to correct legislation community seemed noticeably higher. New restricting the military chaplaincy to “reguYork’s Jewish Museum mounted a grand larly ordained ministers of some Christian exhibit titled The American Jew in the Civil denomination.” In December 1862, they War. Fully 260 photographs, documents and rushed to the White House to fight Ulysses objects appeared in the multi-gallery show. S. Grant’s notorious General Orders No. 11 It was the largest display of Jewish Civil War expelling “Jews as a class” from his war zone. memorabilia ever assembled. In both cases they won empowering victoIn the exhibit’s catalog, the late Bertram ries.
May each cup of Passover wine be filled with sweetness during this holiday season; may you and your family be blessed with happiness and good health year after year.
• The forthright repudiation of antiSemitism by Abraham Lincoln, who overturned Grant’s order (“to condemn a class is, to say the least, to wrong the good with the bad,” Lincoln declared. “I do not like to hear a class or nationality condemned on account
when it came to the peculiar institution. “Any Jew who could afford to own slaves and had need for their services,” he wrote, “would do so.” In the North, meanwhile, Jews divided over the question of slavery. Some advocated abolition, others sought peace above all else, even if that meant acquiescing to Southern slavery. Many Jews simply remained silent. To be sure, Jews formed far less than 1 percent of the national population, and their contribution to the overall institution of slavery was negligible. Still, notwithstanding their ancestors’ slavery in Egypt Petersburg, Va. Company H, 114th Pennsylvania Infantry and their own celebration (Zouaves). Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, of freedom on Passover, the siege of Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865. Jews basically followed in Credit: armchairgeneral.com the ways of their neighbors of a few sinners.”). In the Confederacy, when it came to slavery. As a group they did Jefferson Davis likewise repudiated anti- not oppose it. Semitism and worked closely with Judah All of this is worth recalling as sesquicenBenjamin, his Jewish and much-maligned tennial commemorations of the Civil War secretary of state. multiply. Far from being irrelevant to con• The acceptance by the president and temporary Jews, the anniversary provides a Congress of the principle of Jewish equality. welcome opportunity to learn from our past, Notwithstanding considerable wartime anti- to recall the evolving relationship of Jews to Semitism, Jews achieved equal status on the America and to remember that following in battlefield, and Jewish chaplains won the the ways of our neighbors can sometimes right to serve alongside their Christian lead us astray. counterparts. Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. & A sixth and somewhat uglier theme, large- Belle R. Braun Professor of American ly overlooked in the catalog, should now be Jewish History at Brandeis University and added to this list: complicity with slavery. chief historian of the National Museum of Korn, a pioneering historian who elsewhere American Jewish History. He is the co-edipenned an essay on the topic of “Jews and tor, with Adam Mendelsohn, of Jews and Negro Slavery in the Old South,” demon- the Civil War: A Reader (NYU Press, strated that Jews were in no way exceptional 2010).
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32 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
From Omaha to Israel: the Dotans and Tsabaris by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT armed services, both those who border Israel, as well as Editor of the Jewish Press others. She is responsible for setting up educational proThe Omaha Jewish community is lucky to have quite a grams for soldiers from UNDOF in the Golan, the UN few Israelis living amongst us. It strengthens our connecforce which maintains peace along the Syrian-Israeli bortion to Israel, while at the same time providing people with der. “Much of what the IDF does with UNDOF is diploan opportunity to ask questions about what Israel is really matic,” she says, “and people often forget that. The “D” in like. Not the country described in the media, but the real ‘IDF’ stands for ‘Defense’, and this is very important to Israel. Particularly when discussing the Israeli Defense remember. We train with others, we do exercises, and we Forces (IDF), what it is they really do, and why we should communicate with foreign military representatives, as well support and show respect regardless of our personal politas the United Nations. There are many different ways to ical ideas and ideals, it can be humbling to talk to someone defend Israel, and communication is a big part of that.” who has personally been there. “An Israeli soldier can sometimes go home for a weekend,” Although many members of our community have visitBeth adds, “and be back with her or his platoon by Sunday ed Israel more than once, what it is like to have children night. That border he or she defends: it is home. They live who grow up in Omaha and end up serving in the Israeli where they serve; they defend what is down the street, and military is a different thing. For this issue, we spoke with Beth, Liatte and Amnon Dotan in the summer of 2010. not on the other side of the world. There is an urgency that members of two families who do have that experience. comes from that, and Israeli society at large is very aware Beth Seldin Dotan is married to Amnon Dotan, and of why it is important for every soldier to serve. Liatte, like Eadie Tsabari is married to Eitan Tsabari. They have six many IDF soldiers, has become an ambassador for her children between them; both Amnon and Eitan have country; soldiers in Israel are well respected. Their responserved in the IDF themselves. sibility is everybody’s.” THE DOTAN FAMILY THE TSABARI FAMILY Liatte Dotan, daughter of Beth and Amnon, was born in Let’s have full disclosure: Eadie Tsabari is my daughter’s Omaha, but moved to Israel at the age of three. The family fourth grade Hebrew teacher. In that role, she has always eventually moved back to Omaha, but Liatte moved back to impressed me as someone who dearly loves my child, Israel when she was 19 years old. “Joining the IDF was always while not buying a single excuse (and there have been an optional decision,” she says. “It was definitely not somemany). In other words, she is a great teacher, and I gladly thing I felt forced into by anybody. When I went back to leave my child with her on a daily basis. study in Jerusalem, I really immersed myself into Israeli sociAt the same time, I have always wondered: what is it like ety. It accentuated the importance of the IDF for Israel, and for her own children? We often look at teachers as teachers Beth and Liatte Dotan Eadie Tsabari for me. My connection with Israel was already very persononly; it’s so easy to forget they are also sons, daughters, al, but living there really put things in perspective.” parents, children, wives and husbands, aunts and uncles. If What is very essential to the success of the IDF, accordshe is this good with other people’s children, how has she ing to Liatte, is that it is “a linking factor between so many done with her own? As it turns out, she’s done really well: Israelis. The majority of the population has served, and the high time to give her an opportunity to brag about it. military is not separate from the rest of Israeli society. Eadie was born in Omaha, and went to Israel at the age of There are very few families who don’t have members who 16, laying the groundwork for a life-long love for the country. haven’t served in the past, or are currently serving.” “It was a BBYO trip, and lasted six weeks. Then, in college, I “It helps to have friends here in Omaha who are in the went back for a college internship,” she says. When, after colsame position”, says Liatte’s mother Beth Seldin Dotan, lege, she started talking about joining the Peace Corps, her Director of the Institute for Holocaust Education. “There friends in Israel were not exactly pleased. Their arguments are other families here who know what it’s like to have your didn’t fall on deaf ears, and in 1980 she made Aliyah. children serve in Israel, while the parents are here. Unlike “From 1980 until 1986, I worked for a genetic engineerin the American military, some soldiers in Israel get time ing firm, in Kyriat Weizman, growing flowers for seeds. Ran, left, and Savta Mazal, Onie, Gal, Eadie, cousin Omri, and off on a regular basis. When Liatte is off, we can’t help her, Then in 1986, I met Eitan; we were married, and in 1989, Eitan Tsabari. or have Shabbat together. We won’t be ironing her uniform after daughter Gal was born, we moved to the U.S.” Eitan or cooking her dinner, and that can be incredibly hard. the army. She spent her first year on Kibbutz Ortal in the had two sons, Ron and Onie, bringing the total number to Some parents in Israel drive one or two hours to the base, Golan Heights and was adopted by a “host” family. She later three; youngest sister Effie joined the Tsabari kids to comdecided to leave Garin Tzabar and move to Tel Aviv. She still plete the family. and we just can’t do that.” Luckily, there is “Tzofim Garin Tzabar,” which is a pro- has a great relationship with her host family.” “The first three went to the Israeli army,” Eadie says, “and Now that she is living on her own, she often has to take time especially for the boys, there was never a question of gram run by the Friends of the Israel Scouts Inc., and is specifically designed for IDF soldiers who don’t have their during her off days to take care of everyday business. “It’s whether they would go. They wanted to return, because family nearby. Members of Tzofim Garin Tzabar are placed complicated, being a new citizen and being a soldier at the Israel is simply an integral part of their lives.” For Eadie and in hosting kibbutzim that quickly become their home away same time,” Beth says, “but she manages it.” Of course, after Eitan’s kids, as for Liatte Dotan, the ‘lone soldiers’ program her free weekends, Liatte returns to the base in the Golan. from home throughout the duration of their army service. was very helpful. Once Ron and Onie went to Israel, local There are many demands placed upon the soldiers: “There families were able to step in and assist where needed. The Dotans initially requested special permission for both their children, son Yonatan as well as Liatte, not to serve is no ‘can’t’ in the IDF,” Liatte says. “You have to solve a prob“The enemy is knocking on your door in Israel,” Eadie while they continued to live in the U.S. “Liatte participated lem, and the only question is how, not whether you can or adds. “You have no choice but to be connected to the miliin a gap year in Israel,” Beth says, “and later she decided to can’t. It’s just not optional, the way it is in high school.” tary, you see the need everywhere, and all your friends are join Garin Tzabar and reinstate her rights as an Israeli citi- Liatte is part of the Strategic Liaison Department, which connected to the IDF. Also, the expectations are different in zen. The program guided Liatte through the steps to enter means she works with representatives of other countries’ Continued on page 33
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April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 33
To serve or not to serve by ELYA WILSON community, of becoming a vital part of the It all started with David Ben-Gurion, work force, and escaping the cycle of poverty Israel’s first Prime Minister, who agreed to within the ultra orthodox community. grant a pass from the mandatory army service In order to deal with the situation in to 400 Yeshiva students. The Yeshiva heads of which thousands of Yeshiva students were the time had asked for a pass for all the stu- exempt from the mandatory army service, a dents, so that they committee was could become the next formed, with generation of Torah Supreme Judge Tal at scholars to those who its head. The purpose were murdered in the of the committee was Holocaust. As stated, to find a practical and Ben Gurion agreed to lasting arrangement, grant the pass only to such as examining the 400 most promispaths and frameing scholars. works for the involve1977 marked a ment of some of the political revolution in ultra-orthodox comIsrael, “Mahapach.” munity in the IDF. Menachem Begin and The committee subthe Likud Party mitted its report to received the majority the Knesset in 2000. of votes for the 9th It contained recomKnesset, putting a mendations regardright-winged party in ing exempt students. Elya Wilson the lead for the first The Knesset passed time in Israeli history. Caving in to political the “Tal Law” in 2002, which permits party pressure, Begin lifted the 400 limit, Yeshiva students to receive an exemption allowing all students of any Yeshiva in Israel from army service under certain criteria. At to receive a pass from serving in the IDF. age 22, a Yeshiva student has a year to And so, the number grew from 400 to tens decide: he can either continue with his studof thousands students who weren’t required ies or go out and work. If a young man to serve in the IDF. chooses the latter, he can either join the IDF Just to make sure it’s clear – Israeli society is for a shorter time period of a year and 4 diverse, where each sect can branch out to months (as opposed to 3 years) with reserve multiple different sects. The IDF nowadays duty as required, or he can complete a year continues to be mostly secular, but the reli- of unpaid civil service with the option of gious Zionists are becoming more and more working simultaneously. prominent in the army in general and in comIt was also decided to expand options for manding positions in particular. The Yeshiva acceptable army service to accommodate students who are exempt from serving are the the needs of this specific community, such students from the ultra orthodox community. as opening a unique infantry unit, the Before discussing the involvement of ultra “Nachal Charedy,” or opening special proorthodox young men, the financial aspect grams for air force technicians. must be considered as well: statistics show In 2005, when only a minimal amount of that the majority of these men choose not to ultra orthodox men had decided to join the work, while supporting their growing fami- IDF, the government admitted that the law lies. In addition, Israel’s financial and social had failed. During the first three years of the systems support families with many chil- law’s existence, the country did nothing to dren with stipends, which might add to the implement it. The failure of the law was even decision not to go out and join the work more problematic in light of the worsening force. fiancial situation for the ultra-orhtodox All these factors add up and maximize the community. There was no incentive to exclusion of the ultra orthodox community choose to join the work force. from the general Israeli community. Some In a lawsuit from 2006, the Israeli would say the serving in the IDF is the thresh- Supreme Court decided that the way in old to becoming a vital part of this general Continued on page 34
From Omaha to Israel Continued from page 32 Israel. In the United States, when you turn 18, there are no specific expectations.” For daughter Gal, according to Eadie, things were slightly different, since she was so young when the family moved to the United States. “She was only one-and-ahalf,” Eadie remembers, “and so the expectations weren’t automatic. The choice was totally hers, and she came to it completely on her own. Her reasoning was that if she ever wanted to live there and be integrated into Israeli society, she had to have that experience. Serving in the IDF means you take ownership on an entirely different level.” “There are some big differences between the IDF and the US armed forces,” Eadie says. “Here, soldiers leave home for months at a time. In Israel, after two weeks, your mom is on the phone. When the boys were in the IDF, we would talk to them all the time, sometimes once a week. There is much more integration between the armed services and the rest of society.” The gap between what the IDF accomplishes on a daily basis and what is shown on television in the United States can be quite large. “The IDF has such a broad scope,” Eadie says, “and the news can be so
subjective. It often focuses on what is ‘newsworthy,’ and doesn’t show all the positive help and community service that is accomplished. The IDF communicates with the UN and helps in peacekeeping. They also share cutting edge technological expertise, which the media rarely pays attention to.” “Another big misconception is caused by the amount of publicity about Israel, which ‘causes people to forget what a small country it really is.” A tiny piece of land that needs to be defended against actual attacks, but also against a lot of criticism. The IDF is not a terrorist force, they don’t blow up people, and soldiers are taught to respect life. At the same time, people sometimes romanticize it slightly; although, along with the US military, it’s probably the best of the best.” Gal served from 2005 to 2009; she now attends Hebrew University. Eadie and Eitan’s youngest daughter, Effie, currently attends the University of Texas, and chose not to join the IDF, “and that is okay too, because it comes down to a personal choice each of our children had to make,” Eadie adds. “It is important to say that I have tremendous respect for all four of my kids.”
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To serve or not to serve Continued from page 33 which the Tal Law was implemented was contradictory to “human dignity,” a basic law equivalent to a constitutional amendment, that didn’t fulfill the proper purpose of this law. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court decided not to repeal it, and to grant the Knesset another chance to implement it wisely. In 2007 the Knesset decided to extend the law for another 5 years. So what’s the right answer? On the one hand, the natural response might be: “That’s just not fair!” Many of my friends share that response, claiming that in such a major responsibility, where the majority of our friends and family have to do their part to protect Israel’s security, many times sadly costing the lives of young men and women, there is simply no justification for an entire sect not to take part. On the other hand, as I have tried to demonstrate, the situation isn’t a simple one, there is no black and white, right
and wrong – the dynamics within Israeli society are so complex that this issue raises many questions regarding broader topics than simply what is fair. Another problem when dealing with this sensitive topic is the fact that the differences between me and my close family and friends from all walks of life many times seem so deep that there is no common frame of reference. For example, I started volunteering with a friend in an organization called “Pa’amonim” (meaning: bells), which helps families get back on their feet financially by constructing a working plan to fit their budget and spending. We were assigned an ultra-orthodox family to work with for a year. Although they lived only a short bus ride away, walking in this Jerusalemite neighborhood seemed at first strange and foreign (yes, even more than walking -or rather driving- around Omaha as an Israeli!). When we met the family, we were pleased to see we had much more in common than we believed, and the mutual
suspicion we felt towards each other vanished. It’s not as easy as I’m describing, of course, the rift between sects in Israel is much deeper and more complex, but the point I’m trying to convey is that the personal relations between people can always overcome differences between groups. I personally happen to believe the ultra-orthodox community has to start participating and taking part in Israeli society’s general affairs, including joining the IDF or performing community service. I don’t believe that the reason should be simply the initial intuitive response regarding fairness. I believe the right choice for the ultra orthodox community is to begin playing a major role in Israeli society, both for the goodness and wholeness of our country and for the good of their community. There is no other way to lower the rates of poverty within that specific sect without their integration into the Israeli work force, which relies heavily on the army service, which in turn is mandatory for almost all other citizens.
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A different kind of hero by HAL G. SENAL This massive undertaking involved locating and inter- Funari, who is still alive today, has kept that dollar bill, after It would be somewhat of an obvious pun to say that Al viewing countless military veterans who witnessed Jolson all of these years, in a safety deposit box; and not because of Jolson was a man of many faces. perform, throughout the various wars of the twentieth cen- its worth, mind you, but simply because the moments that Then again, nothing could be closer to the truth. tury, including The Spanish-American War, both World Jolson spent with him meant so much to him. To many, he was simply The Jazz Singer, the titular char- Wars and The Korean War. Most notably, he was also the And, let’s face it: being the consummate patriot, and being acter of the first non-silent film of the same name; a “talkie,” first person to perform for troops after the tragedy of Pearl famous for rarely using a microphone, he probably wouldn’t as they were then referred to, back in 1927, when the cine- Harbor, during WWII. have messed up The National Anthem, as certain performmatic sensation erupted into theaters. ers have been known to do over the years. Some consider him to be The World’s “All the technical stuff, nowadays,” said Greatest Entertainer, famously performing Estee, with a chuckle. “He [usually] just had on the radio and in popular films. a piano player and he would sing without a There are those who, in this day and age, microphone, frequently, because he had still can’t grasp the concept that there’s a such a powerful voice. context to certain elements of the times in Without a doubt, Jolson was one-in-awhich people lived, denouncing him as a million. However, while he was -- and, racist, dooming him to be remembered obviously, still is -- beloved by millions of with the unfortunate moniker, infamously people, all over the world, the man was also known as “black face.” known for having a large ego, and making a Yet, there are still hundreds of thousands few enemies on his way to the top. of people -- the few and the proud, one could “A great entertainer, who was a contemposay, as many of them are no longer with us— rary of Jolson, was Eddie Cantor,” said that consider the man, the myth, and yes, the Estee. “They were rivals, but they were also legend -- Mr. Al Jolson, originally born in great friends. After Jolson died, Eddie Lithuania, and named Asa Yoelson—to be a Cantor was interviewed and was asked true American hero. ‘what kind of a guy was Jolson? What kind Two such people are Kirk Estee of of a singer?’ Cantor said, ‘Aw, Jolson! He Omaha, and his partner, collaborator, and was the world’s greatest entertainer!’ He fellow Jolson (fondly referred to, by many, said that ‘he was the king of them all’ and as “Jolie”) fanatic, Marvin Freeman of that Jolson ‘sang with a tear in his throat!’ Phoenix, AZ. He influenced so many great singers, from “Jolson had such a unique voice,” said Bing Crosby, to Frank Sinatra, to Presley. Estee, a retired school principal who now He was so many ‘firsts!” Premiere of The Jazz Singer in 1927. In 2011, it is the blackface that draws attention, and makes delivers flowers, part-time, for a living. As previously mentioned, he was the first many audience members uncomfortable. Yet, Al Jolson was instrumental in getting many black “Not everybody cared for Jolson’s voice, but person to speak in a film -- 1927’s The Jazz performers the attention they deserved. you had to see and hear Jolson perform, Singer, in which he exclaimed “You ain’t because he was really the first rock star, before the term “I just talked to a World War II veteran, the other day,” heard nothin’ yet!” In the film, he played Jakie Rabinowitz, “rock star” even came about. I mean, he had such an electric said Estee. “As I’ve been doing this Jolson Service Project, the son of a disapproving cantor. After running away, he charisma!” trying to interview veterans who had seen or heard Jolson becomes a talented jazz singer, changing his name to Jack In a separate interview, Freeman couldn’t agree more. performing for the troops overseas, it’s fascinating to hear Robin. However, his ambition soon comes into conflict with “When I first heard the Jolson voice on the radio, he people tell their stories and to see a smile come across their his conscience, heritage, and soul. Jolson, as well as the film touched my soul,” said Freeman. “It was just a magnificent face, when they talk about him: ‘Oh, my G-d! Al Jolson!’ or itself, has come under fire over the years, as the character of voice. I could hear the humanity in his voice, and the more ‘Jeez, yeah! I saw him entertain...’ or ‘I heard him...’ And ya Jack (Jolson) performs using what is known as blackface in I listened, and the more enthralled I became, I started to know what? This guy, the other day, was like, ‘aw, yeah! The his Broadway show. learn about him; and what I found out about him, as years guy was such a great communicator! After the first couple of However, Freeman defends Jolson and the film’s bravery went by, was that he was a firm believer in tikkun olam, songs, he had the audience in the palm of his hand.’ I mean, for breaking certain barriers. helping to repair the world. He came from a background of we’ve had our Elvis Presleys and Michael Jacksons -- just fas“Jolson appreciated great talent, wherever he could find cantors, so he looked at the world as a huge place where we cinating entertainers that had such an electricity! -- and it,” says Freeman, “and that included honoring black percould help each other.” that’s what Jolson was all about.” formers for what they had to offer. He played a large role in To simply write off Estee and Freeman as being just your He also acted as a liaison to many of the soldiers, taking getting black performers into the Musicians Union. People ordinary “big fans” would not only be a slap in the face to messages from them and going as far as calling up their like Eubie Blake, Duke Ellington and Sammy Davis, Jr. -the both of them, but it would also diminish the hard work, spouse or mother or loved ones, just to tell them that they and we can go through a long, long list! -- appreciated what the blood and sweat they’ve put in developing The Jolson were doing just fine. In once instance, when Jolson couldn’t Jolson did for America, and for Black America especially. Service Project for The International Al Jolson Society (jol- find anything to write on, he signed a dollar bill for a seriSo, when you talk about ‘blackface’, you have to son.org), an official site dedicated to their hero. ously wounded soldier. That soldier, Vincent “Vinnie” Continued on page 38
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Can’t (or won’t) carry a gun? Then carry a tune by OZZIE NOGG Tobias -- Eddie Cantor’s brother-in-law. The song premiered When America entered WWI in 1917, the back of almost on Cantor’s radio show just three days after Pearl Harbor); every piece of sheet music bore a patriotic message: songs Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (Sam Stept, 1942); Praise the are to a nation’s spirit what ammunition is to a nation’s army; Lord and Pass the Ammunition (Frank Loesser, 1942); The there isn’t anything in the world, even letters from home, Ernie Pyle Infantry March (Ann Ronell, 1954). Talk about that will raise a soldier’s spirits like a good, catchy marching thanks for the memories... tune; and (uppercase, bold face) Music Will Win The War. Jewish Tin Pan Alley songsmiths -- probably as idealistic as the next guy -- recognized the profit potential in patriotism, sat down at their pianos and cranked out war tunes faster than you could sing And He’d Say Oola-la! Wee-wee! (Harry Ruby/George Jessel, 1919). War is hell, and composer/lyricists were determined to AcCent-Tchu-Ate the Positive (Harold Arlen, 1944). What fun Irving Berlin must have had when he penned Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning for the 1918 musical review Yip, Yip Yaphank. Berlin (a lifelong insomniac) performed the song himself, standing in for every reluctant soldier who groaned at the sound of reveille. The closing night of Yip Yip Yaphank showed Berlin-the-director at his dramatic best. During the final song -- We’re On Our Way to France -- the soldier-actors (in full battle gear) marched down the aisles, out of the theater, into the street and up the gangplank to a waiting troop carrier. They were actually heading to France, to war, for real. Irving Berlin entertaining troops on the deck of a ship in 1944 In 1941, Berlin retooled Yip, Yip Yaphank under the title, During WWII, Axis bashing was a favorite sport. In 1942, This Is the Army. According to music historians, there was Abe Lyman’s Let’s Put the Axe to the Axis had radio audimore to the revue than simple morale boosting. Berlin, ences humming. Other totally non-PC tunes of the times through his songs, managed to inject human touches that included We’ll Knock the Japs Right Into the Laps of the Nazis made life in the armed services comprehensible to civilian (Ned Washington and Lew Pollack) and The Sun Will Soon audiences. Nowhere did he accomplish this goal more Be Setting for the Land of the Rising Sun (Sam Lerner). Even adroitly than in the title song, This Is the Army, Mr. Jones, in Irving Berlin got into the act with When That Man is Dead which hapless inductees describe how the war had altered and Gone (1941). The lyrics paint Hitler -- rather poetically their lives. -- as the devil, a satan with a small moustache asleep While Irving Berlin tops the list of war-themed songwrit- beneath the lawn. ers (I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen is another To be fair, some Jewish composers/lyricists sang against standout), let’s not forget Al Jolson’s 1914 hit, Sister Susie’s jingoism and war. One key figure of the 1960s protest moveSewing Shirts for Soldiers, or the Sammy Fain/Irving Kahal ment (yes, he’s returned to Judaism) is Bob Dylan who pro1923 classic, I’ll Be Seeing You. And how about Kiss The Boys duced landmark protest songs such as The Times They Are Goodbye (Frank Loesser/Victor Schertzinger, 1941); We Did A-Changin’ and Blowin’ in the Wind. Dylan’s question: How It Before and We Can Do It Again (Cliff Friend and Charlie many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever
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banned? remains unanswered. Phil Ochs, another anti-Vietnam War protest singer, contributed Draft Dodger Rag and I Ain’t Marching Anymore. Tom Lehrer added his voice to anti-nuclear proliferation protests with So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III). And let’s hear it for Arlo Guthrie, who wrote one of the 1960’s most famous protest songs in the 18 minute-long talking blues Alice’s Restaurant Massacree (odd spelling, but correct...), a bitingly satirical protest against the Vietnam War draft. FYI, Arlo was trained for his Bar Mitzvah by Rabbi Meir Kahane, who went on to form the Jewish Defense League. “Rabbi Kahane was a really nice, patient teacher,” Guthrie later recalled, “but shortly after he started giving me my lessons, he started going haywire. Maybe I was responsible.” (Offtopic, but interesting...) And now, the coda. Berlin’s 1917 version of Yip, Yip Yaphank contained a song titled God Bless America. After deciding it didn’t suit the musical score, Berlin yanked the tune from the show and filed it away until 1938, when Kate Smith sang it to mark the 20th anniversary of Armistice day. To paraphrase the poet, David Lehman, “On that same day, people read newspaper reports about Kristallnacht. The Nazis did battle with tanks, welltrained soldiers and the Luftwaffe. We needed something for our side to fight back. That song was one way that we fought back. Irving Berlin created a song that people authentically like and turn to in time of crisis.” On the afternoon of 9/11, members of Congress stood on the Capitol steps and sang God Bless America after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Two nights later, Broadway turned its lights back on, and the casts of numerous shows led theatergoers in renditions of the same song. Describing the significance of the reaction, Time Magazine’s Richard Corliss said, “It was a simple plea for divine protection in a dark time. At least for a while, many Americans traded cool pop culture for warmth, sarcasm for sentiment, alienation for community. In the blink of a national tragedy, we went from jaded to nice, just like that.” God Bless America -- with a mere forty words -- is, for many, the unofficial national anthem of the United States. Thank you, Israel Isidore Baline.
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 37
Howard Silber An infantryman’s perspective
By land THE EUROPEAN THEATER by LEO ADAM BIGA Howard Silber experienced anti-Semitism growing up in New York City. Early on he learned to stand up for himself with words and fists. A fair high school athlete and student, he was denied admission to Columbia University when the school met its quota of Jews. He played football and studied journalism at the University of Alabama, where his freshman coach was legend-to-be Paul “Bear” Bryant and the head coach was legend-in-themaking Frank Thomas. A roommate was future Alabama governor and presidential candidate George Wallace. Silber was a semester shy of graduating when he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942 at 21. After training with coastal artillery and parachute glider units he ended up a grunt in the 411th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Division, 7th Army. He encountered bias at bases and camps in the States, but once in southern France his faith didn’t matter in a fox hole. His company’s first action resulted in eight members of his platoon being killed. “A baptism by fire,” he soberly recalled. Years after the war he and comrades paid for a monument to the eight, and Silber and his wife Sissy Katelman have visited it. The push through France went over the Vosges Mountains in the midst of the region’s worst recorded winter. The Americans were not properly geared for the conditions and German resistance proved fierce in spots. In early engagements enemy ranks consisted of conscripts -- an indication of Germany’s desperation. “I saw German soldiers who couldn’t have been more than 12 or 13,” he said. “I also saw men in their 40s and 50s.” His company later ran up against a hardened SS outfit. “But we managed to fight our way through,” he said. “I saw some hand-to-hand combat....” After breaking out of the mountains onto the Rhine Plain, Silber’s company proceeded around Strasbourg. “Integrated into our army corps,” he said, “was the French 1st Army -made up mostly of North Africans. They had come across
the Mediterranean with (Charles) de Gaulle. They were good fighters.” Heading north, Silber and Co. approached the Maginot Line, with orders to break through, but the Germans were dug-in behind well-fortified positions. “We woke up one morning to the sound of artillery high above us, exploding in the trees,” Silber said. He’ll never forget the bravery of an African American anti-tank unit: “When I think of it I become emotional because they were shot up to hell and kept fighting.” The artillery barrage slowed but then a German tank advanced. With the platoon’s bazooka team knocked out, Silber took action. “I picked up the bazooka, knelt and loaded it, fired once and missed. The last thing I can remember is that tank lowering its beastly 88 millimeter cannon in my direction. I woke up the next day in an Army field hospital. Apparently the shell was a dud but it half buried me in my fox hole. Our platoon medic got me out of there. Both my arms were broken and the left side of my rib cage was pretty well beat up.” Howard Silber The Battle of the Bulge erupted the next day. His “million dollar wound” spared him from further fighting. He recovered at a hotel-turned-hospital in the resort town of Vittel. There, bigotry reappeared in the form of a chaplain who said something ugly to Silber. After complaints were lodged, the chaplain did not return. Back home, Silber was a reporter for New York newspapers before joining the Omaha World-Herald. In his 34-year Herald career he covered the Starkweather murder spree, he went to the South Pole, he reported from Vietnam and he became the first journalist to fly in a B-52 bomber. He interviewed Joint Chiefs of Staff commanders and senators, but may be proudest of his Band of Brothers legacy.
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Si Kominsky never forgot his Judaism by HAL G. SENAL minds. Retired General Simon “Si” Kominsky of Lincoln, NE, is a “At the time, when I was in the service, I thought it was tergood-humored man with a light-hearted approach to his rible,” said Kominsky, now 87. “But after I got out, looked past military career. around, got a little older and wiser, it wasn’t so bad, because “My wish, before I got drafted, was to be in the Air Force,” other people didn’t have it as good as I did, being in the states. said Kominsky. My second wish was be stationed in Atlantic Some never came back, some got wounded, and so forth. City or Miami Beach. I’m originally Fortunately, I was never at any front from Philadelphia. Miami Beach was a where I could’ve gotten hurt. I could’ve nice place and Atlantic City was 60 gotten hurt running airplanes, but not miles from home. So, I got part of my like on a battlefield. wish in that I was in the Air Force and “I learned a lot, because it was the the other part was that I got stationed first time I was away from my parents, in Miami Beach.” when I first got into the service; and, of Once he hit Miami Beach, Kominsky course, it was a big change—but I never attended services, every Friday night. forgot my Judaism. The area that I However, doing so proved to be quite a grew up in was strictly Jewish. In fact, I transition, as Kominsky was eventually would say that the whole area was 80 to forced to become Orthodox90 percent Jewish. In the big city, Conservative, after being raised in a Philadelphia, just like any other city, strict Orthodox household growing the Jews stayed closer together as othup. After Miami Beach, he was staers moved away. But my parents stayed tioned in Lincoln, where services were in the area where there were shuls on held once a month. almost every corner. They were not big “After Miami Beach, I went to ones. The thing is, if you got mad at school here [in Lincoln],” said one shul, you could go to another!” Kominsky. “It was at the airbase, and I After leaving the service, practicing was supposed to learn how to work on his faith became a major part of his life airplanes; the engine and so forth. So, again. After all, his parents instilled in with that career, I moved up and down him the Jewish values and traditions Sgt. Simon (Si) Kominsky at the Sunken that would last throughout all of his the West Coast.” It was in Lincoln, however, where he Gardens in Lincoln, NE, May 1945. life. met the person who would change his life. “My parents’ household was always Jewish and Kosher,” “I was stationed here for about six months and met my said Kominsky. “So was my house, after we got out of the wife, Estelle. She would bring a friend with her, to the air service. I’m still very close to my Judaism.” base, and we would attend services, every Friday. Of course, Despite being raised Orthodox and later becoming we corresponded while I was traveling around the country. Orthodox-Conservative, Kominsky now belongs to the Whenever I would have a furlough, I would visit her. Reform Temple in Lincoln, to attend services with his kids. Compared to other people, I was very fortunate. After I got Yet he still wears his Judaism with pride. Literally. out of the service, we got married and started a family.” “When I go to the Temple, I still wear a yarmulke and a Looking back at his military career, he seems to be of two tallis. I still have my tallis from my Bar Mitzvah!”
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Milt Saylan On the Battleship USS South Dakota
By sea THE PACIFIC THEATER OR BUST by LEO ADAM BIGA When Milt Saylan entered the U.S. Navy in 1944 he was 24, married, a father and the owner of his own grocery store in Charter Oak, Iowa. The Omaha native developed a taste for the food business working summers at an uncle’s store. Compared to many he served with in the Navy, he said, he was “an old man. I was a little different than some of the young punks that went in. We called ‘em kids -- they were young, single, with no responsibility.� Saylan had his own store four years by the time he became a seaman apprentice and, he said, that experience naturally “put me in the galley� -- first at Shoemaker Camp in California and then aboard the battleship USS South Dakota. As a meat cutter he readied enough chops, steaks and roasts every day to ensure there was enough for the next day’s chow. The South Dakota became part of Naval lore through a stunning series of engagements against Japanese forces -- sinking several vessels and bringing down multiple planes in major sea and air battles. It was the most decorated ship in WWII. So as not to make it a special target, the U.S. military withheld its name from the press -- its exploits chalked up to Battleship X or Old Nameless. “We were the flagship of the 13th fleet,� said Saylan. The South Dakota earned battle stars at Guadalcanal and in action in the Coral Sea, Okinawa, Iwo Jima and Midway, before eventually sailing into Tokyo Bay. From the deck of the South Dakota Saylan and his fellow 2,200 crewmen witnessed Japan’s formal surrender on the USS Missouri tied up alongside it. There were times he wasn’t sure he’d make it through the war. One of those was when kamikaze attacks wreaked havoc on the ship at Okinawa. “We got hit and we lost 37 men,� he said, the memory still making his voice quiver. During combat he manned a battle station. His job: help corpsmen tend wounded
and get them into sick bay. During the Okinawa attack he went to the forward part of the ship, where the kamikazes struck, and amid the carnage helped carry the wounded away on stretchers. He wasn’t close to any of the sailors who lost their lives that day, but burying that many comrades at sea left its mark.
Milt and Rosalie Saylan The South Dakota, which supported carrier strikes against Tokyo, made its way ever nearer Japan in anticipation of the planned Allied invasion. When the atom bombs ended the war the battleship made its way into Tokyo Bay for the formal surrender. As a precaution against a Japanese ambush, said Saylan, the crew was in full battle gear. Nothing untoward happened. He said the “very somber� ceremony on September 2, 1945 proceeded aboard the Missouri with the assembled crews of the Missouri, the South Dakota and other ships topside to observe the historic moment. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, Admiral William Halsey and Southwest Pacific Area supreme commander Douglas MacArthur led the U.S. contingent in accepting the surrender of their Japanese counterparts. It all went off without a hitch. Saylan and his shipmates followed orders by not expressing any emotions that might dishonor the Japanese. Saylan was discharged as a first class petty officer. After the war he remained in the grocery business and by the mid-1950s he retired. Bored after a few months, he took over a window wares company that became a big success. His son now has the business.
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Continued from page 35 consider the time. A lot of major performers performed in blackface, but it was done, really, with love. I mean, take people like Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, and a lot of others -- they performed in blackface, occasionally, but again, it was done to illustrate the times, and to be proud of our American heritage.� Before and since his death in 1950 (he died due to complications from Malaria, after entertaining troops in Korea), Jolson’s legacy has marched on. Without ever holding a rifle, Jolson received accolades from such public figures as Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who gave him a medallion inscribed, “To Al Jolson from Special Services in appreciation of entertainment of armed forces personnel -- Far East Command.� Months
after his death, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Merit by Secretary of Defense George Marshall. It was handed to Jolson’s widow and son. Several films have been made about his life, including The Jolson Story (1946), the first movie to ever spawn a sequel, the 1949 film entitled -- you guessed it! -- Jolson Sings Again.� The latter was nominated for three Academy Awards. As recently as 2007, Jolson has been entertaining audiences, putting smiles on faces, all across the world. German filmmaker, Andrea Oberheiden, wrote and directed a documentary, simply titled A Look at Al Jolson. “The Jews, as a people, can be very proud of what this man did,� said Estee. “We all can.� Clearly, we ain’t heard nothin’ yet.
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 39
You’re in the Navy Now by OLIVER B. POLLAK meetings at the Chavez Ravine Naval Reserve Center, just Fifty years ago, in 1961, while a senior at Susan Miller down the hill from Dodger Stadium. Two-week summer Dorsey High School in Los Angeles, I enlisted in the U.S. activations include assignments to Long Beach and San Navy Reserve. What was I thinking? ROTC had held no Diego, as well as a cruise to Mazatlan. attraction. No doubt signing up stemmed from a combinaDeferments did not last forever. While we maintained tion of my need for adventure, leaving my parent’s home, 50,000 troops in South Korea in 1961, Vietnam went from pre-empting the draft, and maybe a certain nobility of pur- 900 advisors under Eisenhower, to 2,000 under Kennedy in pose. Rebellion played a part, since the more my father 1961, and rose to 16,500 under Johnson in 1964 and then objected the more it seemed the right course. soared to over 200,000 in 1965. The 1965 buildup plucked My grandfather, a surgeon in the German Army, lost the me out of graduate school. use of his right arm during the First World War. My father, who had been in the Czech and English Army between 1939 and 1943, knew well the hazards of war, being evacuated from Marseille. His paternal resistance to my enlistment was understandable. But it was 1961 and it was the Cold War, not hot war. We only had a few hundred low profile advisors in Vietnam, the inglorious Bay of Pigs invasion occupied April 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis did not pop until October 1962. Shortly after graduation it was off to boot camp in San Diego. I am not sure what I expected. My father and I were both addicted to Victory at Sea, an early black and white television documentary mainstay based on original film footage. I still occasionally hum the melodies composed by Richard Rodgers. Above: Reg Truman and Oliver Pollak at the Sampaguita Club, According to Wikipedia, that score was a favorite of Subic Bay, Philippines, 1965. Right: Bob and Reg Truman, Richard Nixon and played at his funeral. Credit: Reg Truman 1946. We lined up for everything. Dungaree pants and denim shirts, dress blue wool bell bottoms, and other Memory is again buttressed by the letters I sent and uniquely naval garb filled my duffle bag. Everything was received from my girlfriend, fiancé and wife (all the same stenciled with O. B. Pollak. They shaved my head to a cue person - Karen). ball. We lined up for a hernia check and shots. Hazing and I served on the Landing Ship Tank, LST 1148 Sumner cursing were standard operating procedure. County, from mid 1965 to mid 1967, with two stints in Mess hall servers unceremoniously dolloped food onto Vietnam. The best things to come out of this experience outstretched metal trays. We marched on the grinder in was an interest in Southeast Asia and the G.I. Bill eligibilicadence responding to the commands forward, left turn, ty that got me through UCLA graduate school. right turn, about face, left and right oblique, double time, My attitude toward the Stars and Stripes is ambiguous attention, longing for at ease and fall out. The palest ink is and equivocal. I do not object to free speech and political more reliable than the memory of seven wise persons. protest desecration, and I fly Old Glory on Memorial, Fortunately my parents saved the letters I sent them during Independence and Veteran’s Day. Patriotism is personal the summer of 1961. and perhaps contrarian. I did not join the American Legion The service provided miniature Jewish prayer books or the Veterans of Foreign Wars. (which I wish I had preserved). On Shabbat, the USO proI developed a disdain for uniformed life and regimentavided, through the local Jewish community, bagels, lox and tion, which included the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. My milk, served outdoors in a park on the base, weather per- two sons are the first generation of Pollaks not to wear a mitting. uniform. The necessity, opportunity, or inclination never On my first liberty in San Diego, still identifiable as a re- occurred. cruit despite wearing civvies, by the slow back growth of Military service fosters varying degrees of camaraderie. I the hair, we took advantage of the beach, burlesque shows, have one enduring friendship from the Navy, Reg Truman. and non-Navy food. My parents visited and we stayed on We served on the Sumner County. People respond differattractive Half Moon Bay. I graduated from boot camp as ently to military service. My grandfather, father and myself an E2. hardly ever talked about it. Reg continued in the Reserves During my undergraduate years I attended monthly for several years after active service, is active in the LST
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Alumni association, and sends me emails of their reunions, and became a civilian assistant in Los Angeles Sheriff police cars. He likes uniforms. A certain nostalgia, bonding, cooperative spirit, expectations of covering one’s back emerge from common experience. The comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, Civil War veterans, met annually in camps. The last World War I Veteran died in February 2011 at the age of 110. Involuntary servitude in harm’s way left proud scars, some displayed publicly, some barely revealed. Jerry Sellers, a Korean War navy corpsman vet, in his eighties, continues to be active in the Jewish War Veterans. The father of Marianna, my daughter- in-law, served in the Russian Army at about the same time I served in the Navy. Then enemies, now we gloat over our two grandchildren, Shaina and Jaikob. The father of Erika, my other daughterin-law, served as a doctor in the US Army. We glow in the presence of our grandchildren, Zev and Yael. My History department colleague, Bruce Garver, an officer in the Navy during the early 1960s, saw service in Vietnam. My law partner, David Hicks, served in the Navy. When I enlisted I weighed 147 pounds and had black hair with silver strands. Today I weigh 169 and have a silver fringe. The conditions of aging, blood pressure, cholesterol and low back pain would render me 4F. War has a long tail; my 2004 diagnosis with type II diabetes and presence in an Agent Orange area qualified me for a monthly Veteran’s disability check. As a historian, looking back over 50 years, I search for the motivation. As a child I read Horatio Hornblower stories by Cecil S. Forrester. Visions of Admiral Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar were not unusual for an English-born youngster, a limey. Big ships and naval films fascinated me. We came to America in 1952 on the world’s fourth largest passenger ship, the German and then French S.S. Liberté. My eldest son, Noah, graduated from Millard North High School in 1989. The armed forces sent recruitment literature and a recruiter called a couple of times. What in 1961 appeared as an opportunity, necessity or inclination, in 1989 was not. What an emigrant volunteered for, three decades later was not an option. Would I again take the same path? Hindsight is wonderful, but given the bravado of a 17-year old in 1961, I would probably do it again.
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A Passover Seder in Asia by MASADA SIEGEL Life has a funny way of working out, at least that is what I keep telling myself. But nonetheless, as I was leaving for a working holiday in Asia and flying to China, solo, I was scared. You might think someone who has by choice stepped out of perfectly good airplanes at 12,000 feet in New Zealand, raced in the Olympic Bob run with the Swiss Olympic Silver medalist at breakneck speeds (1612 meters in 49 seconds) in St Moritz, Switzerland and dared to be seen in a bikini having a swim lesson with the all time great Olympic gold Medalist Jason Lezak, would not be so easily intimidated. Wrong! Not only was I flying to China alone, I was spending Passover in Hong Kong and I did not know a soul. Passover is such the family oriented holiday, I debated not going on my Asian adventure, but my mom, of all people, said: “It’s such an opportunity, and you can always go to the Chabad house in Hong Kong for Seder.” I immediately contacted Chabad in Hong Kong and they were more than gracious with information. Meanwhile, after I wrote for the New York Times about Israeli Figure Skater Tamar Katz not being allowed to represent Israel in the Olympics, I received a lot of reactions. One email came from a man I did not know, by the name of Steve Goldberg. In 2002, his son Brian qualified to compete for Israel in Luge. Alas, he suffered the same fate of not meeting Israel’s internal standards and was not allowed to participate in the Olympics. I asked what Brian was doing now, and Steve explained that Brian had completed his Master’s degree at Columbia University (just like me) and was now living and working in Hong Kong. Reading his email, I started to laugh. Talk about an answer to my prayers. It also got me thinking about reaching into my own network on Facebook and finding a few friends in Hong Kong. After posting a request to be introduced to people, there was an immediate response. My friend Ilknur Aslan from Turkey introduced me to her friend Rita, and my friend Ed Allen, a James Bond type who works for the State Department in South Africa introduced me to Timothy, a colleague of his who works in international security.
A Hong Kong park with towering skyline in the background. Needless to say, I felt a lot safer and less scared; it seemed as if my Hong Kong adventure just might work out. I contacted Brian, and we decided to go to Seder together. Talk about an interesting first meeting. Hong Kong is a mix of Asia meets the West, as it is a sophisticated city, mixed with ancient Chinese culture and customs, a fusion of sorts. Most intriguing was walking around the Soho area of the city, which one minute is filled with pricey clothing stores more expensive than Rome, Italy, and on the next corner is a “wet market” a street filled with stands and stores selling everything from fresh fish to furniture. (They are called wet markets because at night the shops are closed and the streets are hosed down with water.) Brian picked me up from the Four Seasons Hotel, where I had experienced possibly the best massage of my life, the Jade stone therapy. A full body massage, it is based on an ancient Chinese practice of gua sha. According to this practice, the heated jade stones produce negative ions supposed to strengthen the immune system. The description got lost
in translation, but I certainly felt fantastic. Prior to Seder, he took me on a tour; we drove in his little green convertible all through Hong Kong Island, past beaches and lush green forests. I was surprised; I’d always thought it would be just a metropolis, a banking city at most. We arrived at the Seder, and I could have been back home at the Chabad house in Scottsdale, with the exception of meeting more Asians. The reception was warm and inviting. The service was filled with meaningful stories, happy children shouting out, and plenty of delicious food. It was the first time in my life I was away from my family for Seder, and did not feel completely homesick. I met people from South Africa, Russia and France. I continue to marvel at how the Jewish connection can make anywhere in the world seem like home, or close to it. My Asian home was now at the JW Marriott. They host kosher events and can accommodate for their Jewish guests in a variety of ways year round. Tea in the lounge is a real treat, with 60 different choices, and you can even buy some to take home, which I did. (You have to buy tea in China!-what else?) The next day, I met Timothy and his two best friends Rich and Dave who were also visiting. Timothy became my personal bodyguard and guide, introducing me to Buddhist Temples, street markets filled with shopping galore, and to my new best friends, two Jewish women, Melissa, an international television correspondent, and Stacey, a South African woman. With our Jewish connection, we immediately bonded. It was crazy, thousands of miles away from home, and I was invited to a girl’s night. We met up with another lovely woman, Laura, a midwife from Scotland and spent the night laughing at life’s stories, and our similarities stood out. It was as if we had been friends for years. I only spent a week in Hong Kong, and as per usual my fears were unfounded, somehow life does work out; occasionally in the most wonderful of ways. By the time I left, I felt a sense of community. It was as if all the pieces of the puzzle of Jewish travel and adventure had fallen into place. So I wonder; the next time an adventure comes knocking at my door, will I embrace it or be nervous? Probably both. Masada Siegel can be reached at Fungirlcorrespondent@ gmail.com.
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April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 41
A special man by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press Victor Mashbein is full of stories, and those stories are worth listening to. Especially for somebody like me, who would have never been born if it weren’t for U.S. soldiers like Victor liberating my country, the Netherlands. He fought in France, and Belgium, and Holland, and Germany, although – by his own admission - he didn’t always know exactly what country he was in. What he did know: it wasn’t anywhere near home, and yet he battled for it as if it was. He was just 17 years old when he found himself landing in Normandy in 1944. During that initial landing, he was immediately wounded. “In fact, I was wounded twice: my eardrum was punctured and I took artillery fire to my left leg,” he says. He went via hospital ship to a hospital in Wales and stayed there for about three weeks. Then Victor went right back to the Continent. “I still had the shrapnel in my knee; they didn’t even bother to take the bandages off,” he says. “They thought I’d be dead in two weeks anyway - what’s the difference? They bandaged you up and sent you right back in, like it’s some kind of football game. “My parents would hear about it, it would be in the local paper, and then they’d get a letter from me claiming I was fine, the war was going alright, and so forth. In my letters home I never told them anything about being wounded.” Though he was seriously injured, nobody thought of sending him home. “That wasn’t an option,” he says. “Today, they put you on a airplane and a nurse holds your hand back to the US, but back then: nothing. As a matter of fact, the first time I was wounded in France, needless to say, there were no hospitals; just beach and ocean and sand. After taking me out of the jeep and putting me on one of the two stretchers we had on the back of every jeep, they took the wounded to the ‘duck,’ which was a truck that could swim. Then, out on the English Channel a few hundred yards, on to a Landing Ship Tank. The LST drops one side so tanks can drive straight out of it on to the beach. Of course, they stopped those things about 1000 yards from the beach, so quite a few people drowned in their tanks.” From France, through Belgium, Victor eventually ended up fighting in Holland, where he didn’t get a scratch; during
the winter of 1944, he was wounded in Belgium a third time. “That time, I lay in a field until they picked me up,” he remembers. Victor received a Purple Heart, which he earned three times over.
Victor Mashbein “I remember a Sunday afternoon when we were on the Dutch side of the border, and the people were sweeping the broken glass off the streets. We had to tell them: would you please go inside so we can carry on with this war?” Victor’s memories of what he and his comrades went through seem fresh, as if it happened yesterday. “We were in Belgium during the last winter,” he says. “The Germans started a counter two weeks before Christmas. They were losing and losing, and this was their final attempt to win the war back. They broke through the Ardennes. They put us on huge cattle trucks; there was a little snow, and we were in those trucks running into Germans going the other way. The weather was horrible, our air force couldn’t fly because of it.”
Many of the Germans had switched uniforms, he remembers, and there were those who spoke English. “They had turned road signs around so we didn’t know where we were going. It was a horrible mess, but we won. I don’t know how we won, but we did.” During the last year of the war, those German troops were getting younger and older. “You never saw healthy men anymore. They were either retirement age, or very young: 14,15, or 16.” Which, when you think of it, wasn’t that much younger than Victor himself. Victor, like those fighting alongside him, was born into a world that had not yet seen the Holocaust. Although this genocide was surely beyond what anyone could imagine, they definitely knew about what was happening in Europe at the time. “We knew about the camps; we knew, but we had to close our eyes to it. It was pretty well publicized by then. The Jewish people especially knew it, because of family members. And in a way, we did somewhat similar things to the Japanese. We gathered them up and put them in internment camps. We didn’t call them concentration camps, and I’m sure they were treated a whole lot better, they weren’t exterminated in any way, but at the same time, they didn’t go there willingly. It’s a dirty world; it still bothers me.” The American troops found small countries in Europe, with borders that were fairly open and not always clearly marked. “You can visit four countries in a day,” Victor remembers. “We never knew where we were. We’d read our Stars and Stripes newspaper, and say: Oh my, were we there? We didn’t know! When I was wounded the last time, I initially didn’t even know where I was. Belgium or Germany? Turned out, it was Belgium. Many Europeans are married to people from other European countries, they all speak half a dozen languages. How they were all constantly at war, I have no idea; they should have loved each other. Of course, the Germans wanted to get bigger, and that never goes over well.” After Victor received his discharge papers, he went home. He then busied himself with “chasing Alice, a girl from Council Bluffs, until she married me.” Alice and Viktor raised a daughter, Robbin, who currently lives in San Fran sisco with her family. Continued on page 42
42 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
You’d be sewww nice to come home to... by OZZIE NOGG should make him one just like it. Without Okay, trivia buffs. What do Czar Nicholas any explanation, the terrified Kurichkess II, U.S. Army WACs and Heinrich Himmler was picked up by motor car and whisked have in common? You’re probably on pins away to the Palace. and needles waiting for the answer, but first At Livadia, Kurichkess remained rooted to (this could be a clue): the floor while the Czar Jews & Tailoring 101. said, “Chaim In the beginning, Eve Kurichkess. Good forsews fig leaves together. tune has befallen you. I Joseph wears a coat wish you to make me a whipped up (perhaps) uniform of the by an ancestor of Isaac Crimean Dragoons, Mizrahi. In the Middle but it must be as good Ages, the banner of the as that of the Colonel of Jewish Tailors' Guild -the regiment. Do your a colorful patchwork best. Don’t make a cloth bearing a pair of mess of it. See that it is scissors embroidered in a good fit and get to gold -- waves over work at once.” countless shops in After four days, Eastern Europe. the uniform (made, During the 1600/1700s, said Kurichkess, with from Ponevezh to the help of God) was Prague, thousands of finished. The satisfied Jewish master tailors Czar thanked the tailor, Czar Nicholas II and simple shneiders, paid him three-huntrouser sewers, linen menders and button dred rubles (150 bucks) for his trouble, and makers ply their trade. In 1859, Mayer sent him back home. Mandel (a Prostějov, Czechoslovakia, cutSome days later, an imperial messenger up) supplies uniforms to the entire Turkish brought to his shop a case containing a gold army. So now can you guess the Nicholas- watch and chain, with the double eagle of WAC-Himmler connection? Bingo. They all Russia engraved on the watch, which also wore military uniforms made by Jewish tai- bore the inscription: ‘To Chaim Kurichkess: lors. Here’s proof. for zeal.’ Chaim Kurichkess: Summoned to Livadia L’chaim, Chaim! Palace, he went in terror but returned in joy. Modiste to the Military. Vienna-born So goes the March 2, 1913 headline in the Henrietta Kanengeiser (aka Hattie New York Times. What follows is an edited Carnegie) ruled New York’s fashion scene version of the story. from the 1920s to the 1960s. Though she While in residence at Livadia, his summer had no formal training, could not cut a patpalace, Czar Nicholas ll noticed the uniform tern and had never sewn a seam in her life, worn by a Colonel of the Crimean Dragoon. Hattie (originally a milliner) promptly (and The Czar admired the uniform, asked who with astonishing chutzpah) opened a dress had made it and, on being told, demanded shop on the tony Upper West Side. that the tailor -- Chaim Kurichkess -- Continued on page 44
Passover Greetings
A special man Continued from page 41 Victor, who had been old enough to join the army, go overseas to war torn Europe and get wounded not once but three times, wasn’t old enough to come home and celebrate with a beer. “When I came home from the war, I was 19 years old. So anybody who wanted to buy me a drink because I had fought overseas, had to buy me something without alcohol.” He carried those discharge papers with him until after 20 years, his billfold wore out. He put them into his new billfold, until that one wore out. “I just kept putting it from the old one into the new, and sixty years later, I tried to read it, and couldn’t. Someone at the Veteran’s hospital helped me decipher it.” In the Spring of 2010, Victor was supposed to go back for a visit to the place he helped liberate. “My daughter Robbin was going to take me, but I came down with a bad case of the gout.” Recently, Victor Mashbein received a special kind of thanks for his service during WW II. Omahan Bill Williams took 5 planeloads, with a total of about 700 veterans on board. “I went on the sixth trip,” Victor says. “He took us to Washington on the biggest plane I have ever seen. It took ten buses to pick us all up in Omaha. Me, I’m dancing my way out to the bus, others are on crutches and in wheelchairs. We finally make it to the airport, turns out, this plane is too big and we all have to get out on the tarmac. It took about 2 hours to get everyone on the plane, all 300 of us, mostly men, and of course, they all have to go to the bathroom at the same time. In Washington, we have the same story, but in reverse. We went to visit the WW II memorial, which was an impressive sight.” “The trip was fully paid for,” Victor says,
“and free for all veterans, regardless of what their background was. I did not know Bill Williams before this, but as far as I’m concerned, he should run for office.”
Victor Mashbein Anyone who listens to him for more than five minutes knows: Victor is a special man. What he and thousands of others like him did in liberating Western Europe is a gift that continues to give. It is a story that deserves to be told many times over.
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From Long Island to Omaha, via Spain by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press Jordana Kurtzman was born and raised on Long Island, but never intended to stay there for the rest of her life. “Life on Long Island was kind of provincial, and I knew I didn’t want to go straight to college,” she said, “and I wanted to serve my country. Besides, student loans did not sound good at all, and so I decided to join the military.” Jordana joined the United States Air Force, to be precise.
would be glad to get away from each other, but we actually spent most of our free time together having huge picnics and parties.” In addition, living in Spain afforded Jordana the opportunity to travel all over Spain, to many other European countries, and of course, Israel, where she spent two weeks of her leave. Jordana loved the Air Force life: “You can go where you don’t know a soul, and yet, everybody will help you. You gain an instant family, an instant community.” When she was stationed at Offutt Air Force Base in 1989, “I probably had eight of my co-workers putting together furniture for me within weeks of my moving here.” While stationed at Offutt, Jordana worked at the Worldwide Military Command and Control System, or WWMCCS. In contrast to the nonstop work pace she had been used to for the Airman Kurtzman past four years, Graduation 1985 WWMCCS’ mission That idea didn’t go over well was to provide a cenwith her parents, who were Sgt. Kurtzman receiving the Air Force Commendation Medal in trally managed inforslightly “horrified” at the 1990. mation processing and thought of their nice, Jewish daughter going into the serv- exchange network of mainframe computers at geographiice, says Jordana. “My father, in particular, really had a hard cally separate locations. “That sounds technologically fascitime understanding why I was joining the Air Force. But it nating, especially for the time, but in practice, it left a lot of was more than just wanting to leave Long Island and more time where we sat around playing Trivial Pursuit. I didn’t than not being ready for college. I felt a real emptiness, or like the feast or famine aspect of the work, but given a lack of purpose, that I felt serving my country would fill -- choice, I’d rather be working nonstop than not at all. I didand I was right.” n’t have that same sense of contribution that I’d had when I “Not only did serving in the military teach me how to fol- was stationed in Spain, where we were undermanned and low orders, and eventually give orders, but it also made me overworked.” into a well-rounded person. Most civilians don’t know this, Jordana left the Air Force in 1994 to finish her college but when you’re in the military, part of your yearly evalua- degrees that she began pursuing a year after she joined the tions consider how much volunteer work you do -- above military, but she still misses the sense of community. “It can and beyond serving your country. I volunteered with the be hard without other military people around you. Those squadron booster club, the Red Cross, the Veterans who have not had that experience can’t understand what it Administration Hospital, and many, many other places, but is like, and most civilians even forget what branch of the I particularly loved working at the girls’ orphanage in service I was in, never mind what my actual job was. Do Madrid. Those girls were fabulous! They were so happy to people think she is tougher because of her Air Force backsee us every month -- how could you not love that?” ground? “Yes,” she says, “but they are right: I really am! But After basic training in San Antonio, Texas, Jordana went I also think of the word ‘tough’ as a synonym for ‘competo tech school in Wichita Falls, Texas, to become a tent.’ The Air Force just gave me the confidence to use the Communications Specialist, where she trained on comput- skills that I was born with and accumulated through my ers and cryptography. “My training assignment said life.” ‘telecommunications’ on it, but I didn’t even know what The gender gap continues to exist in U.S. society, includthat meant! I had to ask a friend to explain it, and even ing all the military branches; the Air Force is no different. then, I wasn’t sure,” laughs Jordana. “I went in as an open And yet, that may change in the future, if more women feel career field, meaning the Air Force would place me where I the way Jordana does: “We as women need to be equally had tested highest in my aptitude tests.” responsible for our safety, and we need to defend and proAfter tech school, she received her first assignment to tect our country with the same sense of duty as men do -Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana; however, Jordana did- just as it is in Israel. Of course, it’s everybody’s individual n’t see herself living in the Deep South -- particularly as a decision, but I’m hopeful that the number of women in all Jew. While in Wichita Falls, the Air Force “let me partici- branches will continue to grow, and I am equally hopeful pate in a three-way switch, and I ended up at Torréjon Air that Jewish Americans will make the decision to serve our Base, near Madrid, Spain.” Jordana would stay there for country as well. In the military, so many different cultures four years, from 1985 to 1989, working in the 2186 and people come together; of course women and Jews Communications Squadron. should be represented.” Torréjon Air Base was one of three major United States Popular culture doesn’t necessarily help, she thinks. “I Air Force Cold War air bases in Spain; the others were don’t think movies about the various aspects of military life located near Zaragoza and Seville. During the Cold War, are harmful, but they are almost always unrealistic and porTorréjon was the headquarters of the 16th AF of United tray the military in a negative aspect. They rarely show the States Air Force in Europe (USAFE) and home to the 401st special comradery and quiet sacrifice that is what makes up Tactical Fighter Wing. The base was a major Strategic Air the American armed services. They make these movies for Command base and cooperated with Spanish Air Force sheer entertainment for the masses. The only real exception units. I can think of is Band of Brothers, which was amazing.” “We worked 12-hour shifts,” Jordana remembers, “and it It’s been 26 years since Jordana joined the Air Force. She was really high-stress work. I worked in the came out a Staff Sergeant, and since then, she has earned Communications Center, in the days before the Internet her Bachelor’s degree in English and History, and her and personal computers. Every piece of communications Master’s degree in English, using both the military discount that came from every other military, Department of for college while she was on active duty and her G.I. Bill Defense, and NATO base in the world that came to our when she separated from the Air Force. These days, she base, came through our shop. We would work five 12-hour works as an Instructional Designer, writing training mateshifts one week, and two 12-hour shifts the next week, so rials for salespeople who sell servers, storage equipment, although it was often stressful, we had a great sense of and software to companies. So in the end, Jordana credits closeness with one another.” the Air Force for both training her in a career she does well “Technology has made it really quite different these days. and providing a way to achieve her college education withWhen men and women get stationed overseas, they have out incurring any debt. “If I could change anything, I would e-mail, Facebook, Skype, and cell phones to keep in con- have stayed in longer and gone overseas again,” reflects stant contact with their families. We didn’t have that back Jordana, “because I really loved that experience. But other then -- most people in Spain didn’t even own a telephone than that, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m very grateful that I back then -- so your co-workers became your family. You’d was able to serve my country. The Air Force gave me just as think that after working together for twelve hours, we much back as I put into it.”
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44 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
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by JTA STAFF Mishnah encouraged us to take liberties, using its example SCARSDALE, N.Y. (JTA) -- You can find the secret to cre- as a core and a guide. Alas, over the centuries, the balance ating lively Passover seders in a surprising place -- an 1,800- between the fixed and spontaneous elements of the seder year-old law code called the Mishnah. disappeared. Rather than asking their own questions, chilFor starters, the Mishnah did not envision reciting a dren read or memorized a mandated set of questions. And Haggadah at the seder. Instead, it designed a careful balance in place of an answer aimed at the level of the child’s underbetween aspects of the standing, the Haggadah incorporated a written evening that should be midrash on “My father was a wandering Aramean.” fixed and others that left The goal of an ideal seder became reading the room for spontaneity. Haggadah from beginning to end, skipping not a Fixed elements included word. The result? Instead of seders feeling like a celdrinking four cups of ebration of freedom, they began to feel more like a wine, eating matzah, chore. explaining the meaning of Generation after generation we recited these words the Passover sacrifice, eatfrom the Haggadah: “Whoever elaborates on the ing matzah and bitter story of the Exodus from Egypt deserves praise.” But herbs, and reciting the six rather than prying open a little room for creativity, psalms of Hallel. These they remained just words on the page. would bind us together as In the liberty with which we elaborate on the a people wherever and Exodus, we taste and celebrate freedom. We experiwhenever we live. ence ourselves as free, independent creators, the very But when it came to antithesis of our ancestors mired in the mind-numbtelling the Passover story, ing pits of slavery. In so doing we renew the divine the Mishnah encouraged sparks within us that mark us each as images of God, creativity. This would prethe paradigmatic free creator. In a bid to liven up the festive meal, vent seders from becomIn the spirit of the Mishnah, here are two simple Creating Lively Passover Seders sug- suggestions that will help breathe life into your seder. ing lifeless clones of one gests having the participants talk about another. Brilliant! A few weeks before Passover, ask each of your questions that are important to them. For example, the guests to respond to the following question: “What Credit: Jewish Lights Mishnah envisioned a do you think would be a particularly important night that should be so different from other nights that chil- question to discuss at the seder this year?” dren would naturally ask, “Why?” Only if a child were If you do this by e-mail, paste the responses into a docuunable or failed to ask spontaneous questions should a par- ment without identifying who asked which question. Make ent offer the prompt, “Why is this night different from all a copy for each of your guests. Take turns reading the quesother nights?” Then a parent might point out things like “on tions aloud. This is an easy, non-threatening way to let the all other nights we eat leavened bread or unleavened bread, group know what’s on everyone’s mind. Choose a few queson this night only unleavened bread.” tions for discussion throughout the seder. You’ll probably Just as the child’s questions were not prescribed, neither find that questions cluster around particular issues, which were the answers. As to a response, the Mishnah says, can guide you in choosing which questions to discuss. “According to the understanding of the son his father teachThe second suggestion involves deciding where and when es him. He begins with disgrace and ends with glory; and he to hold this discussion. Instead of doing it at the seder table, expounds from My father was a wandering Aramean... if possible gather in a different room beforehand. You’ll find (Deuteronomy 26:5) until he finishes the whole section.” that shifting the location to the living room, for example, Using a succinct version of the Passover story in sets the tone for an entirely different conversation. Deuteronomy 26:5-8 as a frame, the story was to be told Countless readers of Creating Lively Passover Seders have through the process of expounding, drasha -- literally confirmed that holding some of your Passover discussions “drawing out meaning” -- or making midrash. before you sit down at the table is the simplest, most powerThere was no expectation to create the same midrash every ful way to create a more engaging evening. year. The story was to be geared to the level of the child’s If either of these suggestions helps you to experiment with understanding, which would develop from one year to the your Seder this year, Dayyenu! It would suffice! next. The story becomes meaningful to those gathered David Arnow is the author of Creating Lively Passover around the table through an interactive, creative process. The Seders: A Sourcebook of Engaging Tales, Texts & Mishnah thus implies that the seder should change from year Activities (2nd Edition, Jewish Lights, 2011) and co-editor to year and that no two seders should be exactly the same. of My People’s Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, In lieu of “slavishly” reading a prescribed text, the Modern Commentaries.
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Continued from page 42 Carnegie’s sophisticated fashions were a massive success with the likes of Clare Booth Luce, the Duchess of Windsor, Joan Crawford, et al., and soon socialites and Hollywood stars were wearing her elegant couture. Fame and fortune were hers. Life was good. But the proudest moment in Hattie Carnegie’s career came in 1950 when (prepare to be surprised...) she designed the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) uniform. The uniform was adopted for wear on New Year's Day, 1951, and on June 1, 1952, Hattie received the Congressional Medal of Freedom for the WAC design which proved so timelessly elegant that it was still in use in 1968. (Had Hattie the Hatter also designed the green berets, our Special Forces guys would look far more stylish...) Himmler’s haberdasher. The stories of Kurichkess the tailor and Hattie the Modiste are light-hearted. The story of Jacob Frank, not so much. A skilled tailor, Frank survived four Nazi concentration camps, including Dachau and the little-known Lipowa labor camp in Lublin, Poland, where the SS randomly chose him to head a 450-man clothing factory. Here he met the notorious Himmler (and other Nazi elite) for whom he tailored uniforms, special leather coats and other apparel. Frank’s personal stories -captured by Professor Mark Lewis in Himmler’s Jewish Tailor -- are both fascinating and chilling. Here, in Frank’s Yiddish-English syntax, is an excerpt of his experience making Himmler’s leather coat: “I saw for whom I had to take the measurement. I recog-
nize his face from the pictures, with the little eye-glasses, the special glasses. He was wearing a black uniform, just like the other SS officers, but when you saw the emblem, the mark from the rank was different. I was scared to look at him because two guys are standing two feet away with machine guns pointing at me... he didn’t say anything, no talking, no expression on his face... in my mind, in my brains was to get over quicker and to finish and to get out from there. I was shivering for fear, shaking. I made a sketch, all kind of measurements, how wide the lapels should be, how wide the collar should be, how wide the flaps from the pockets should be, all the details. I had a picture in my head how the coat should look. This was the first leather coat I made. Making the coat, just to know for whom the coat would be, we was very scared... God forbid if something would happen to the work. We know what this means. It means death.” Jacob Frank emigrated to the United States in 1946, becoming a successful clothing designer and tailor in New York City. He died in 2006, a symbol of the will to live and the role of memory. May his memory be for a blessing. Addendum: In 1919, Lithuanian-born tailor Hyman Capin (nee Kapinski) was hunched over his sewing machine in Nogales, New Mexico, running up military uniforms at Camp Steven D. Little, while Pancho Villa shot up the neighboring countryside. There’s no evidence that Capin supplied the legendary revolucionario with custommade serapes, but if he had, well... that would be one heck of a yarn.
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 45
Looking back: Growing up during WWII years by GLORIA SHUKERT JONES Pretend for the moment you are on a time machine, rapidly rewinding back to the 1940s, the war years. Children of the war era were content to use imagination rather than technology to fulfill play instincts and creativity. We relied on color books, paper dolls, doctor and nurse kits, dolls, toy soldiers and guns, story books and interactive play, like ‘kick the can’ and ‘hide and go seek.’ While war raged in Europe and the Pacific, I remember playing hopscotch, jump rope and jacks with my neighborhood friends. We didn’t have computers or anything comparable. Our means of communication consisted mainly of newspapers and radio broadcasts. I remember our old Zenith radio console that stood about five feet high, and had a big green eye in the middle. It was state-of-the-art at that time, as we could get broadcasts from short-wave radios anywhere in the world, including the war zones. We would sit in front of the radio and listen to programs like Inner Sanctum, The Shadow and Dick Tracy. We had to use our imaginations, since there was no television screen to watch. Radio newscasters and announcers utilized common objects to create realistic sound effects. The one I remember most: crumpled cellophane that sounded just like eggs frying. We didn’t miss television because at that time, it was like something that existed far into the future. Our mind’s eye served us well as we listened to our favorite “who-dunnits” and quiz shows. We could easily visualize the actors as they went through their routines of song, dance and mystery. We made friends with invisible entertainers, and created mental images of their appearances. Some of my favorite programs were Henry Aldrich, It Pays to be Ignorant and Dr. I.Q. My father had served in the United States Marine Corps, and completed his tour of duty in Hawaii, shortly before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. My mother considered it fate because she was spared having to worry about him, and about whether he’d ever come home alive. He and his siblings together with my grandfather had a family-owned kosher meat market on North 24th Street. I remember my dad having to work long hours, sometimes even during the night, cutting meat, making up and delivering orders. We hardly ever saw him except on Shabbat when the store was closed. I don’t know if anyone remembers ration points. These
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were stamps used along with money to make grocery purchases. Each family was allotted a certain amount of stamps to buy food, since many commodities were rationed during the war, going to the troops at the battle fronts. One aunt
and uncle had a grocery store on North 16th Street, called the “Super-Duper Market.” Every week, I sorted the ration stamps for them, putting the various colored ones in separate piles of red for meats and other perishables, green for produce, and blue for packaged and prepared items. Since my dad had the meat market, we gave our red stamps to other families. I remember when a package of prime kosher beef hamburger sold for about fifty cents a pound. Dad would bring home rib roasts and steaks, as well
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as kosher hot dogs, baloney, salami and corned beef. I never cared that much for meat, but I still remember how delicious the corned beef sandwich on a poppy seed roll tasted. My dad made the corned beef that was sold in his meat market. Franklin Roosevelt was president in those years, having enacted Social Security, which was still fairly new. At that time, people were opposed to this legislation, expressing fears of Socialism. (Somehow that has a familiar ring.) Nevertheless, Social Security has endured for several generations of Americans, providing not only a secure source of income after retirement, but also giving aid to families who had lost their principal provider. The average Social Security checks in the early 1940’s were about $25.00 per month. In that era, Federal spending was at 13.65 billion, and the national debt was about 57.5 billion. The consumer price index was set at 14.7 and the unemployment rate was 9.9 percent. I can remember when the price of a first-class stamp was only three cents. In 20 years, it had only increased one penny. People complain about today’s economy, however it has been proven historically, that fluctuations in the economy are nothing new. Getting back to the radio, I recall the singing commercials. In those days, the most popular items to sell appeared to be shampoo, toothpaste and laundry soap. If anyone remembers these, feel free to sing along the praises of these washday necessities: Super Suds, Super Suds, lots more suds from Super suds... And Oxydol: White without bleaching, that’s what we’re preaching... DUZ: D-U-Z, D-U-Z, put DUZ in your washing machine, See those clothes come out so clean... Rinso: Rinso white, Rinso white, happy little washday song... Then there was Fitch, the first dandruff shampoo: Don’t despair, use your head, save your hair, use Fitch shampoo... Not to be outdone by its competitor, Halo: Halo, everybody, Halo. Halo is the shampoo that glorifies your hair... And a word or two of advice concerning your teeth: Brush your teeth with Colgate, Colgate dental cream. It cleans your breath, what a toothpaste, while it cleans your teeth... At that time laundry products were soap-based. When combined with the minerals in the water, they often left a residue on the clothes. Then a product called Vel came on Continued on page 46
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46 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
Spring greening: Reconnecting to Passover’s roots by LEAH KOENIG NEW YORK (MyJewishLearning) -- One of the dirty little secrets about the Jewish calendar is that many of the holidays have agricultural subtexts, which over time have been muted or lost completely under the historical and religious themes that were layered on top of them. Two of these holidays, Sukkot and Shavuot, have maintained a relatively transparent relationship to their earthy roots. But finding the natural themes of Passover takes a bit more digging. The first step is to forget about Moses -- for now, anyway -- and recall that Passover, also known as Hag Ha-Aviv (holiday of spring), is one of the Torah’s three mandated pilgrimage festivals. It is inextricably linked to the beginning of the barley harvest in Israel. Leviticus 23:10-11 describes the omer (sheaf) offering of barley (the first grain to ripen in the spring) that took place in the Temple on the second day of Passover: “When you enter the land that I am giving to you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest. He shall elevate the sheaf before the Lord for acceptance on your behalf.” This priestly grain dance symbolized prosperity and was the official green light that the season’s harvest could be consumed. Jews today count the Omer for 49 days, starting on the second night of Passover -- to coincide with the date of the omer offering -- and continuing through Shavuot, the beginning of the wheat harvest. In most cases, however, Omer practices have been nearly disembodied, stripped of their connections to grain and ground. Contemporary Jews are, of course, forbidden to bring sheaves of just-picked barley, which is chametz, to our seder tables. Still, if one is willing to look, signs of spring and nature’s rejuvenation abound throughout Passover. This is especially true of the seder plate, which weaves together the historical and agricultural in one eating ritual. The roasted lamb bone (z’roa), which commemorates lamb sacrifices made at the Temple, is taken from one of spring’s most iconic babies. The green vegetable (karpas) sitting next to it that gets dipped in saltwater is a symbol of the first sprouts that peak bravely out of the just-thawed ground in early spring. The roasted egg (beitzah) recalls both the sacrifices made at the Temple and also spring’s fertility and rebirth. Even before Passover begins, the act of removing chametz from our homes offers other opportunities to connect to the natural world. This period of “Jewish spring cleaning” requires us to shake out our sheets and round up any bread or crumbs hiding in our kitchen cupboards. But removing chametz from our homes also can remind us to get rid of the excess “stuff ” clogging up our lives -- to liberate ourselves from any emotional or spiritual baggage from the year, and send bad habits packing. It is a perfect time to recycle the stack of junk mail piling up on the desk (and stop more from coming), plant seedlings in the garden, start composting, switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs or volunteer for a cleanup day at a nearby river, beach, forest or park. It also offers a great opportunity to plan ahead in order to avoid the all-too-common overuse of disposable dishware during Passover. As you
clean out your kitchen cabinets, stock them with lightweight, recycled dishes and cutlery that store easily and can be reused year after year. While these actions might seem like a distraction on an otherwise busy pre-Passover to-do list, integrating them into our holiday preparations can imbue our celebration with deeper significance that lasts beyond the holiday. During Passover, Jews are challenged to remember the
Israelites’ journey from slavery to freedom, and feel as if they went through it themselves. But for those willing to dig even further, the story of Passover is not simply historical. It is rooted to the land, the giddy joys of spring, and to the reminder that after every period of dormancy and every experience of suffering, new life awaits just under the soil. For more information about Judaism and Jewish life, visit MyJewishLearning.com.
Looking back: Growing up during WWII years Continued from page 45 the market, and was the forerunner of all detergents. It proved superior to soap-based products, which eventually were phased out. Vel, Vel, V-E-L, to make hard water act soft, use Vel. Even today, there are sign-off ads set to music, but most of those promote retail businesses. Back in the days of World War II, everything in the civilian world focused on boosting morale as well as selling products. So these melodic ads in some small way, provided a brief respite to the stark happenings abroad. Materials such as silk and nylon were scarce, as they were needed to make parachutes. So women’s hosiery was made of rayon. The stockings had seams down the back, and it was a real hassle making sure the seams were straight. The popular hairstyle of the day included the pompador, and women working in the food industry always wore hairnets. Dresses and jackets bore large shoulder pads. Our first television set purchased in 1949, was a black and white Motorola, with a round 15” screen, encased in a blond cabinet. We’d watch the test pattern until the programming came on about 6 p.m. The sign-off time was 10 p.m. In order to get a decent picture, we would adjust the horizontal and vertical knobs, and tinker with the antennae aka “rabbit ears” on top of the set. These were the days when blackberries were simply a fruit, and there was no such word as software. There was no email or voice mail. Texting was a yet uncoined and unimagined phrase and the only time we encountered, “text”, was in reference to our books at school. Windows were something we looked out of. Telephones were black clumsy instruments with a dial and receiver, and many folks had to share the line with another family. These were called party lines, although they had nothing to do with parties. Sometimes the urge to eavesdrop on conversations was tempting, despite the fear of getting caught. Cell
phones might have been construed as individual phones for prisoners. There were no iPhones and iPods, high definition TV’s or MP3 players. Nevertheless, I enjoyed music as a child, despite the fact that hi-fi, LP’s, stereo consoles and 8-track tape players, though still unheard of, were soon to be considered the last word in modern musical devices. By necessity, we were resourceful. I discovered how to make tunes with a comb and tissue paper. I also made dolls out of hollyhocks and toothpicks. I gathered fireflies in a jar on summer nights. I wrote stories, drew pictures and daydreamed. I never felt deprived or at a loss for something to do. My grandchildren may snicker, or roll their eyes when I describe my childhood. But we had much to brag about. Some of the most famous movie actors, writers, composers and producers in the entertainment field were introduced in that era. Our rudimentary technology led to the first massive computer, as big as the room itself. Now, when the grandkids laughingly compare those to today’s computers of hand-held proportions, I tell them someday their grandkids may scoff at what to them will be ancient history. As war was in full force overseas, civilian life was comparatively calm, but industrious. I don’t recall as much political bickering. Everyone pitched in to help win the war. Women worked at factories, helping to build war planes, and performing other industrial tasks formerly held by the men who were overseas. Families were closeknit and conservative. We all worked together to do what we could toward the war effort. This is just a small sampling of the things I remember growing up during World War II. While younger folks can’t imagine life without electronic gadgets, the internet and instant communication, those of my generation have experienced the best of both worlds, past and present.
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April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 47
Chicken and Egg by JANICE COLE (Chronicle, $24.95)
Read it and eat Reviewed by LOIS FRIEDMAN If you’ve ever wondered which came first, the chicken or the egg: this chicken and egg raising chef has written your read. My first take was: what a title for Passover! Both are mainstays in Seder traditions. The hard-boiled egg on the Seder plate and chopped in salt water, and chicken soup and matzo balls starting off dinner. Memories of years of hearing about Grandma Sally’s light and fluffy matzo balls or that Ida’s were like rocks...I believe one of the secrets is cooking them covered!
Follow along in this memoir of suburban homesteading from Chapter One: Why Chickens? Wander through the clucks, chirps, and squawks and discover everything chicken. Cole shares her experiences starting from three chicks in a backyard coop. The 125 chicken and egg recipes are divided seasonally from Early Spring to Late Winter with chapter essays detailing her homesteading experiences. The photographs of chickens, eggs and dishes are beautiful. There are mouthwatering ideas for chicken: rosemary chicken burgers with fried onions, red lentil chicken soup, pot-roasted chicken with lemon and olives, and chicken with pomegranate-orange sauce. There are lots of desserts, including a frozen chocolate-almond merengue cake. Clear detailed instructions and helpful notes are included. From this method of hard-boiling the freshest eggs: Put the eggs in a medium saucepan and add enough hot tap water to just cover the eggs. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat immediately to medium-low or low and gently boil for 9 minutes. Keep the water at a very slow, steady boil (the eggs should never bounce or rattle because of quickly boiling water), adjusting the heat as necessary. Remove the eggs from the water immediately with a slotted spoon and put in a bowl of ice water until cool. Remove the shells under running water. Use them for various egg salads (what to do with all the leftover chopped hard-cooked eggs!) like Cucumber-Basil Egg Salad, Lemon-Tarragon Deviled Eggs. What to do with all those hard-cooked eggs... CUCUMBER-BASIL EGG SALAD 6 hard-cooked eggs (2 cups) 3/4 cup seeded, diced cucumber (about 1/2 cucumber) 1/4 cup minced shallots 1/2 cup sliced green onions (green part only) 3 tablespoons lightly packed chopped fresh basil 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper Gently combine the eggs, cucumber, shallots, green onions, and basil in a medium bowl. Stir in the mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Store in the refrigerator for up to three days. Serves 6 Lois Friedman can be reached at ReadItAndEat@ yahoo.com.
Families of High School Seniors, On June 10, the Jewish Press will publish its annual Salute to Graduating Seniors. Please return the information with your teen’s graduation photo by June 1 for inclusion in this issue. If you have any questions, please call Lori Kooper-Schwarz at 402.334.6558 or e-mail jpress@jewishomaha.org.
Relearning and rethinking the Passover saga by ARTHUR WASKOW AND PHYLLIS BERMAN (JTA) -- If a pharaoh fell in the Red Sea but nobody told the story, did it actually happen? No. If no pharaoh fell in the Red Sea, but we told the story for 3,000 years, did it actually happen? Yes. Is it still happening? Yes. To people brought up in the modern mode of focusing on cold, hard facts, these responses may seem ridiculous. Either something happened or it didn’t. Suppose, however, that we can find no evidence beyond the Bible that our ancient stories of Exodus and wandering in the wilderness actually happened the way we have learned them? Should we throw them out? Or is there some profound value for our generation in retelling the story of Exodus, of Sinai, and of Wilderness? We concluded that there is indeed deep wisdom in reframing and retelling the story, and that is why we wrote “Freedom Journeys,” paying especially close attention to the transformative roles of women and of ecological upheavals that have often been downplayed in previous tellings of the Exodus story. Modern historians and archeologists have found little evidence outside the biblical text that the Exodus ever happened, yet the story lives, more powerful than its factuality, because it speaks to deep strands of arrogance, fear, despair and courage in the human process. Far beyond the Jewish community, it has influenced not only the religious traditions of Christianity and Islam, but also the life of black America and many modern secular liberation movements rooted in class, nation, culture and gender. It has even influenced efforts to free and heal the Earth from destructive exploitation.
The pharaoh motif invoked in news coverage of the recent Egyptian upheaval that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak was due certainly not only to geographic accident, but also to the nature of tyranny and popular resistance. And the issues are not only macro-political, but apply also to the spiritual and psychological struggles of individual human beings confronting their own “internal pharaohs,” when one aspect of the self takes over the whole person, twisting and perverting a person’s humanity by turning other facets of the self into slaves that yearn for freedom and full integration. As T. S. Eliot wrote, “April is the cruelest month, mixing memory with desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.” Mixing memory with desire -- weaving together our memory of the past with our hope for the future, a profound description of the intertwining of Exodus with Passover, Passover with Palm Sunday, Moses with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “Mixing memory with desire” is what the biblical account of Exodus does by weaving together the description of the Exodus itself as a moment in the utter present - hope and desire turned into action -- with detailed instructions of how to celebrate that transformative moment, remembering it through festivals far into the future. Looking at the world today, we see the whole human race, the whole planet in a crisis that reminds us of the archetypal tale of Pharaoh and the Ten Plagues, which were ecological disasters brought on by Pharaoh’s arrogance, stubbornness and brutality. Continued on page 48
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48 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
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by DAVID A.M. WILENSKY MADISON, N.J. (JTA) -- There are two things you need to know about Our Haggadah: Uniting Traditions for Interfaith Families, one of the many new Passover haggadahs hitting the shelves this spring. The first is it’s not quite a haggadah. The second is that it’s by Cokie and Steve Roberts. Yes, that Cokie Roberts, longtime senior news analyst for National Public Radio. She’s Catholic and Steve, her husband and a contributing editor at U.S. News and World Report, is Jewish. What I mean when I say that it’s not a haggadah is that I cannot imagine any seder being conducted with nothing but copies of Our Haggadah for all the guests. As a resource for interfaith families who want help holding a seder that is accessible to the whole family, it’s wonderful. The book bridges the gap between ritual and logistical for an audience that may not know the rituals well, including everything from recommendations about when to begin refilling wine glasses to some of the Roberts’ favorite recipes. But despite the authors’ claims to the contrary, it’s not really a haggadah that should be used as the main text for a seder. And when I say you need to know that the authors are Cokie and Steve Roberts, that’s the only way to make sense of the over-thetop name-dropping. How many haggadahs can boast, as this one does, of its authors’ attending a high-profile seder at the Waldorf-Astoria residence of the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations? How many list their famous friends? That distraction aside, Our Haggadah is remarkable as a record of the traditions of a particular slice of world Jewry. It is replete with examples of little riffs that have become annual traditions in the Roberts household. In her introductory essay, Cokie writes, “Every year Steve and I argue about where exactly in the service we first move to the book, causing hoots and hollers from our longtime Seder buddies who have come to see this dispute as a Passover tradition.” That she finds this tradition worth mentioning is a testament to the extent to which she is invested in creating a seder for an interfaith audience, but not really an interfaith seder -- the Roberts’ seder is a Jewish ritual through and through. In a blog post on March 17, Ed Case, founder and CEO of interfaithfamily.com, wrote that “It is clear from Cokie Roberts’ introduction that she completely respects the
Seder as a Jewish ritual. She explicitly says she is not trying... to ‘Christianize’ the Seder.” Some might think that the Roberts’ focus on multiculturalism would break down the Jewish nature of the seder, but it’s more accurate to read this haggadah as an attempt to lend universal relevance to the seder’s themes of freedom. This tendency to universalize the Passover experience has been around for some time. Our Haggadah is a fine addition to the long list of texts attempting to do that. However, this haggadah demonstrates limited respect for the liturgical integrity of the occasion. That’s not to say it is because the haggadah is aimed at interfaith families --Jewish families are just as capable of glossing over the minutiae of meaning in their liturgy. A striking example is the text’s exclusion of the seder’s most famous line. Cokie writes, “The Seder’s traditional ending is ‘Next year in Jerusalem,’ and if that phrase is meaningful to you, by all means, use it.” What goes unsaid is that if you do want to conclude your seder with this sentence, you won’t be able to use their haggadah because it isn’t there. There is a case to be made for a seder that eschews messianic aspirations for the future, which the Roberts seem to imply by leaving out the traditional “Next year” hope, but any pretense to a carefully considered approach to liturgy flies out the window when they describe how children at their seder open the door for Elijah. I guess no one told them Elijah is the herald of the messiah. There’s really no other reason for him to put in an appearance on Passover. Despite being a beautiful volume, Our Haggadah has been poorly proofread. There are multiple instances of the same misspelling of the Hebrew word borei, or creates. (They end the word with a hey instead of the correct letter, alef.) Case says that what is useful about Our Haggadah is the way it is contextualized. “The context that they put around it is that they’re saying that it’s accessible to interfaith couples and they’re saying it’s good for interfaith couples to have a seder,” Case told JTA. However, Case adds, the book is “limited” because it does not present outside material. Indeed, my favorite haggadahs are those that provide such outside commentary. Excerpts from Our Haggadah no doubt will be included in the homemade haggadahs that many people use, but it may not be the best choice for the sole text at the seder table.
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Continued from page 47 Today it is the arrogance of some powerful human institutions that an overwhelming majority of the world’s climatologists, oceanographers and epidemiologists say is leading to the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere heating up in a way that is already disrupting climate patterns and is likely to bring about radical changes in polar and high-mountain ice, ocean levels, droughts, crops and distribution of disease. These predictions warn of huge movements of new kinds of refugees, deepening the gulf between the extremely rich and the desperately poor, and could lead to the widespread collapse of many governments. In short, to what the Torah calls “plagues.” But the echo of the Exodus story does not stop there. The ancient story sows the
seeds of hope, too. A new community was born at Sinai and tested in many experiments during the trek in Wilderness. Today we are seeing the seeds sown for new forms of grass-roots community that curve across our globe. So we believe that whether the story of Pharaoh, the Exodus and the Wilderness “actually happened” or not, our present situation calls us to relearn and rethink the story. It calls upon us to learn in order to act. Rabbis Arthur Waskow and Phyllis Berman are the authors of Freedom Journeys (Jewish Lights Publishing). Waskow founded and directs The Shalom Center in Philadelphia; Berman founded and directs the Riverside Language Program, which teaches English to new immigrants.
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 49
Matzo Brei: Don’t be a slave to traditional recipes
Staying in touch OZZIE NOGG Food blogger Debby Koenig (Words to Eat By) confesses that though she hates Passover with its ‘stick to the roof of your mouth matzo, crumbs all over your shirtfront matzo, halt all intestinal activity matzo,’ she considers the ‘only saving grace of this cardboardy so-called food is that it’s the main ingredient in matzo brei.’ Fried matzo. I sympathize with Ms. Koenig’s position, though a cardboardy piece of matzo slathered with unsalted butter is one of my alltime, any time favorites. Just as cooks (at Purim) spar over Hamantashen dough (cookie vs. yeast) and filling (sweet vs. savory), so too do they battle (at Passover) over various matzo brei methods. Soak the matzo ‘til it’s mush? Run the matzo under the faucet for a mere mili-minute to keep the crunch? Sprinkle with cinnamon? A pinch of paprika? A conundrum, for sure. Rumor has it that there are as many recipes for matzo brei as there are Jewish grandmothers, and regular folk as well as the famous among us continue to argue the soggy/crisp/sweet/savory issue. For some, matzo brei is a substitute for French toast, awash in maple syrup. “Ixnay,” says Ruth Reich -- former Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine and ex-restaurant critic for both The New York Times and the L.A. Times -- who considers sweet matzo brei to be an abomination. (Ms. Reich’s word. Honest.) Others prefer matzo brei dished up like plain old scrambled eggs. Oddly enough, this humble presentation is preferred by over-the-top architect Frank Gehry (born Frank Owen Goldberg) who told Mark Bittman (a.k.a. The
Minimalist of the New York Times) that he (Gehry) could make only one dish -- matzoh brei -- which he learned from watching his mother. “I take the matzohs out, run them under the tap and then crumple them,” Gehry said. “Do you make the matzoh brei look beautiful?” Bittman asked. “Do you arrange it in an architectural fashion?” Gehry answered, “No.” (Listen. The guy probably depleted his creative juices designing the undulating Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the phantasmagoric Dancing House in Prague.) We’re told that when the Israelites dashed from Egypt with only flat bread in their back packs, God answered their culinary cravings with endless mounds of manna. According to
Ginsburg’s Legends of the Jews, this miraculous manna contained the flavor of every conceivable dish. If an Israelite wanted a certain food -- roast lamb, let’s say -- all he had to do was think of it, and VOILA! the manna tasted like roast lamb. Manna, it is also said, tasted to everyone who ate it according to his or her age. To little children it tasted like milk; to strong youths, like bread; to old men like honey; and to the sick, manna tasted like barley cakes steeped in oil and sweet mead. Nowhere, even in legend, do we read that manna tasted like matzo brei. (I’ll keep looking...) But those
of us who consider matzo brei to be a latter day manna from heaven can conjure it up in traditional -- plus astonishing alternative -- flavors. In fact, pretty soon our seders might need to add a fifth question: Why is this matzoh brei different from all other matzoh brei? Here’s one possible answer. MEXICAN MATZO BREI (FROM YUM RECIPES, BY WAY OF THE BOSTON GLOBE) Guacamole filling ingredients: 1/2 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and coarsely chopped. 1 scallion, finely chopped 2 Tbsp. sour cream 1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice Omelette ingredients: 1 matzo, broken into 2-inch pieces 3 eggs, lightly beaten Kosher salt and pepper to taste. 1 Tbsp. butter for pan 1/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese 1 small Jalapeno pepper, cored and finely chopped Salsa and various toppings (optional) Make the guacamole Stir together the avocado, scallion, sour cream, and lemon juice in a small bowl. Set aside. Make the omelette Place matzo in a colander in the sink and pour boiling water over it. Let stand 2 minutes. Squeeze out the liquid and place matzo in a bowl. Add eggs, salt, and jalapeno and mix well. In a 10-inch, nonstick frying pan, melt the butter. Pour matzo mixture into the hot pan and cook over medium heat, pulling eggs toward the center of pan with a spatula and tilting the pan to allow uncooked portions to flow into empty spaces until set. Sprinkle the omelette with cheese. Spread the guacamole filling over half the omelette. Cover pan and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Fold omelette in half and slide onto a serving plate. Divide it in 2 and serve at once. If desired, garnish with salsa and/or grated cheese, black olives plus more sour cream. Now let all who are hungry come and eat. Ole! (Or maybe, Oy, vey...)
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50 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
Irresistible Passover pastries: Who knew it was possible? by LINDA MOREL NEW YORK (JTA) -- With all the restrictions, are decent desserts even possible during Passover? “My particular talent is working around restriction,” says Paula Shoyer, author of The Kosher Baker: Over 160 Dairyfree Recipes from Traditional to Trendy (Brandeis University Press, 2010). Her cookbook contains a chapter on Passover baking, as well as many sensational recipes sans flour or yeast -Passover taboos. Flourless Chocolate Cake, Marble Chocolate Matzoh and Mocha Matzoh Napolean are some of the book’s gems. Shoyer, whose magical touch is without peer in the Passover dessert genre, calls them “my gift to the Jewish people.” More than anything, Shoyer wants the eye rolls to stop upon hearing the words pareve desserts -- pastries made without dairy products. She laments that kosher bakeries year after year for Passover offer the same dry brownies, sponge cakes, coconut macaroons and vanilla rolls with jam inside. “Have you ever noticed that packaged Passover cookies and cakes start appearing in supermarkets in February?” asks Shoyer, of Chevy Chase, Md. “With so many preservatives in them, they could survive a nuclear attack.” During Passover, Shoyer bakes as much as possible, mostly for the sake of her children. “Home-baked desserts are kind of a holiday bonus,” she says. Using 28 dozen eggs during the holiday, mostly in pastries, Shoyer prepares plenty of Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Biscotti and Chocolate Brownie Cookies for the kids’ snacks. She also keeps a supply of her popular Amaretto Cookies on hand for visiting friends. Her most stunning Passover dessert? Without doubt it’s the Key Lime Pie -- even though Shoyer’s favorite is the Chocolate Chiffon Cake. Waxing poetic about the silky texture of her Strawberry Mousse, Shoyer confides that when she was growing up, her mother stuck to traditional dessert fare at Passover. She relied on Manischewitz mixes to make brownies, coffee cakes and sponge cakes. Her grandmother baked the perfect lemon sponge cake using a recipe straight from the Streit’s box, then changed it so frequently over time that one couldn’t recognize the airy but distinctly citrus result. With such natural talent, Shoyer’s grandmother once asked her, “Why go to school to learn how to bake?” Shoyer had started baking for fun during college. She brought back chocolate from a trip to Belgium in 1984 and began experimenting with it in recipes. During her 20s she moved to Geneva and landed a job at the United Nations. In Switzerland, she tasted some sensational desserts and decided to reinvent them as dairy free
without sacrificing their buttery flavor. Then in her 30s, while living in Paris, Shoyer received her pastry diploma from the Ritz Escoffier Ecole de Gastronomie Francaise. She returned to Chevy Chase, Md., and started Paula’s Parisian Pastries Cooking School. http://www.jta.org/?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.paulasp astry.com. With such a varied career, she found time to get married and raise four children -- and revolutionize kosher baking.
“I wouldn’t eat a dessert that isn’t worth the calories,” Shoyer says. In The Kosher Baker, Shoyer worried that the Passover chapter was too heavily weighted with chocolate pastries. “Can you have too much chocolate?” asked one of her friends. The following recipes are from The Kosher Baker. All are pareve and kosher for Passover. KEY LIME PIE (Three-Step Prep, Doable But Requires Planning) Although this classic American dessert is usually made with condensed milk, Shoyer went through several stages of experimentation to achieve creamy results using only pareve ingredients. Her recipe calls for regular limes. Crust: 4 tablespoons pareve margarine 2 cups ground walnuts (walnuts can be purchased ground or can be prepared from 4 cups of walnut halves ground in a food processor but not as fine as flour) 3 tablespoons light brown sugar 8- or 9-inch pie pan Filling: 5 large eggs, plus 3 yolks 1 1/2 cups sugar 7 limes, or 14 Key limes (which are smaller than regular limes)
1/2 cup (1 stick) pareve margarine 1 drop green food coloring, optional Meringue Topping: 2/3 cup sugar 1/4 cup water Candy thermometer 2 large egg whites Preparation: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To make the crust: Place the margarine in a medium microwave-safe bowl and heat for 45 seconds or until melted. Add the walnuts and brown sugar; mix until combined. Place this mixture into the pie pan and press to cover the bottom and about 1 inch up the sides. Place in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Leave the oven on. To make the lime cream filling: Place the eggs, yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl and set over a medium saucepan with simmering water (or use a double boiler). Zest 3 of the regular limes (6 of the Key limes) and add to the bowl. Stir to combine. Juice the 3 zested limes, plus the remaining 4 limes (or 8 Key limes) to obtain about 1/2 cup of juice. Then stir juice into the egg and sugar mixture. Cook uncovered over simmering water for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until a thick mixture forms. Be patient and do not stir too much. If the water in the saucepan or double boiler boils too fast, turn down the heat. Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk in the margarine in small pieces until the lime cream is smooth. Add the green food coloring, if using, and stir. Pour the lime cream into the prepared crust and smooth. Place the pie on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes, or until the outside edges of the lime cream are set (the inside can remain wobbly). Let cool and then place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. To make the meringue topping: In a small heavy saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Continue to cook the sugar until it reaches 230 degrees on the candy thermometer. You can dip a pastry brush in water and wipe down the sides of the pot, if any sugar crystals appear on the sides. While the sugar is cooking, in a medium bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff. When the sugar is ready, turn the mixer speed to low and then slowly pour the cooked sugar into the bowl, down the side of the bowl, not directly onto the wire whisk. When all of the sugar has been poured in, turn the mixer up to medium-high and beat for 1 minute, until the meringue is thick and shiny. Use a silicone spatula to spread the meringue all over the top of the pie. You can use a blowtorch to lightly brown the top or place the pie in a 450-degree oven for a few minutes, watching the entire time until the top browns. Chill in the refrigerator. Pie can be stored in the refrigerator for up to four days. Yield: 8 servings. Continued on page 52
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April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 51
A few new Passover haggadahs, and a facelift for an old favorite by SUE FISHKOFF SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- Nearing its 80th birthday, perhaps it was time the most printed Passover Haggadah in history had a major facelift. The Maxwell House Passover Haggadah, which has had more than 50 million copies published, hits the shelves -- and supermarkets -- this spring featuring its first new English translation since 1934, the year it was originally printed. Banished are the awkward “thee” and “thou,” replaced by the more conversational “you.” The Eternal One no longer “deliverith” but “delivers,” and seder participants are not invited to “eat thereof ” but simply to eat. While American Jews of the early 20th century might have
From left to right, the changing look of the Maxwell House Passover Haggadah: the original from 1934, the most recent photo collage and the newest version out this spring. Credit: Joseph Jacobs Advertising accepted the original, archaic language, “it makes the haggadah more clumsy for contemporary readers,” said Elie Rosenfeld, CEO of Joseph Jacobs Advertising. The firm has represented Maxwell House from the beginning and spearheaded the new translation, which took nearly a year to complete. “We wanted to make sure everyone who uses it feels comfortable with it,” Rosenfeld said. That meant political as well as linguistic changes. The Higher Power in this haggadah isn’t a He, Lord or King, but is referred to by the gender-neutral monikers God, the Eternal or Monarch of the Universe. The impetus for the new translation was not to address gender issues but to retell the old tale in contemporary language. Still, using gender-neutral language for God is indicated by modern theological understanding, Rosenfeld says. “The fact of the matter is, God doesn’t have a gender,” he said. The original Maxwell House Haggadah was created as a marketing tool to promote the company’s coffee, which was certified kosher in 1923. There had been controversy for years over whether coffee beans were legumes, and thus forbidden for Passover according to Ashkenazic norms, or whether they were in fact a berry -- a fruit -- and therefore permitted. Marketing whiz Joseph Jacobs, founder of the ad agency, got Orthodox Rabbi Hersch Kohn to certify the coffee kosher for Passover. The publication 11 years later of the eponymous haggadah, still distributed free in supermarkets with the purchase of the coffee, cemented the dominance of Maxwell House and its haggadah at American seder tables ever since. Over the years, the cover design has changed, from the original bronze through various blue-and-white versions to this newest iteration, which features a Yemenite-style silver kiddush cup. The inside illustrations are more subtly rendered than in previous versions but have not changed significantly, with one exception: Instead of a young boy, a little girl is pictured asking the Four Questions. And not just any little girl: It’s Rosenfeld’s youngest daughter, 6-year-old Abigael. The text is bigger to make it easier to read, and the layout is easier to navigate. But the story stays the same. “The Jews don’t end up in Boca; they still get to the Promised Land,” Rosenfeld says. Another old-new Passover haggadah out this year is a new edition of the famous Szyk Haggadah featuring the magnificent illustrations of Polish-Jewish artist Arthur Szyk. Set for April publication, it has a newly commissioned English text written by Rabbi Byron Sherwin with Irvin Ungar. A refugee from Nazi Europe, Syzk embedded Eastern European Chasidic imagery in his intricate and highly emotional rendition of the Exodus narrative, creating the original version of his hagaddah in the mid-1930s. Jewish survival, which Szyk viewed as the pressing need of his age, also is the theme of his haggadah: The illustration on page 26, for example, depicts empires that have tried to conquer the Jews, from the Assyrians to the Inquisition to Nazi Germany, with the two tablets of the Law astride them all, signifying the perseverance, and ultimate triumph, of the Jewish people. “Szyk was an activist artist,” said Ungar, a former pulpit rabbi and San Francisco Bay Area resident who is curator of the Arthur Szyk Society. “He believed the Jews of Europe needed to be rescued immediately, and he was going to do whatever he could to motivate the world community to take action.”
Arthur Szyk’s magnificently illustrated haggadah is being released this spring in its first widely available format since Credit: Abrams 1940. A Passover Haggadah: Go Forth and Learn, by Rabbi David Silber with Rachel Furst, is being printed by the
Jewish Publication Society. If the Szyk Haggadah is gorgeous, this new work by Silber and Furst is thought provoking, delivering new insights into the seder themes as well as first-rate commentaries on the liturgy. Silber is an Orthodox Torah scholar and educator of wide renown, the founder and dean of the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He has been teaching these lessons for years, and here he puts them down on the page in a manner at once scholarly and accessible. Furst teaches at Matan, a women’s institute for Torah studies in Israel, and is pursuing a doctorate in medieval Jewish history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. This is a seder to study and discuss, but also to use -- with the right crowd. Speaking of the right crowd, kids are the target audience for Passover Haggadah in Another Dimension by Michael Medina, with artwork (sculptures and paintings) by Emi Sfard and photographs by Eli Neeman. Published by Kippod3D, this haggadah boasts 3-D illustrations and comes with a pair of 3-D glasses that make the characters seemingly leap from the pages. Whoa, are those soldiers really drowning in the Red Sea? There’s an English text, some Hebrew and transliterations of the main attractions -- the plagues, the blessings, the favorite songs. But this is really all about the images, which might make some adults too queasy to tackle the gefilte fish. It’s a gimmick, but a fun one. Proceeds will be donated to the children of Hayim Association, which raises money for pediatric cancer research in Israel.
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52 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
Irresistible Passover pastries: Who knew it was possible? Continued fom page 50 CHOCOLATE CHIFFON CAKE (TWO-STEP PREP, BUT VERY DOABLE) This cake is a classic Passover dessert in terms of the technique, which entails separating eggs. But the flavor is without peer. Ingredients: 1 cup matzah cake meal 1/2 cup potato starch 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided in half 1/2 cup vegetable oil 8 large eggs, separated 3/4 cup water 1 tablespoon rum extract 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice 4 ounces pareve bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/4-inch chunks Preparation: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, sift together the cake meal, potato starch, baking powder, salt, and 3/4 cup of the sugar. Add the oil, egg yolks, water and rum extract; beat
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very stiff and shiny, about 1 minute more. Use a silicone spatula to fold the egg-yolk mixture into the whites and then fold in the chopped chocolate. Pour the batter into an ungreased 10-inch Bundt or tube pan. Bake for 1 hour. Let cool in the pan. When cool, use a knife to loosen the edges of the cake and turn onto a serving plate. Store covered in plastic at room temperature for up to five days or freeze wrapped in plastic for up to three months. Yield: 16 servings.
Chocolate Mousse Meringue Layer Cake is one of the Passover goodies featured in The Kosher Baker. Credit: Michael Bennett Kress until smooth. In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer on high speed to beat the egg whites with the lemon juice until stiff. Turn the speed to low and gradually add the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar. Turn up the speed to high and then beat until the whites are
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AMARETTO COOKIES (Quick and Elegant) If you’ve ever been to Italy and sipped a cappuccino, you may have been lucky enough to enjoy these almond-flavored cookies, which are a favorite of Shoyer’s. Ingredients: Parchment paper 8-ounce bag slivered almonds (about 1 3/4 cups) 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon potato starch (flour can be substituted after Passover) 2 large egg whites 1 tablespoon amaretto (almond-flavored liqueur) Preparation: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a large jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Spread the almonds on the parchment paper and toast for 20 minutes, stirring the nuts after 10 minutes. When the almonds are golden and fragrant, remove the pan from the oven and slide the parchment off the pan. Let cool for 5 minutes. Place the toasted almonds into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process until the nuts are ground to a powder. Place the ground nuts in a medium bowl. Add the sugar, potato starch, egg whites and amaretto; mix until combined. Paula Shoyer likes to use her hands to mix the ingredients, but a wooden spoon is a neater option. Line 2 jelly roll pans or cookie sheets with parchment. Wet your hands and take walnut-sized clumps of dough and roll them into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Be sure not to overcrowd the cookies; they spread while baking. You can bake in two batches. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes: 25 minutes for chewier cookies or 30 minutes for crunchier cookies. Slide the parchment off the cookie sheet onto a cooling rack and let the cookies cool. Place baked and cooled cookies into an airtight container or freezer bags and store at room temperature for up to five days or freeze up to three months. Yield: about 3 dozen cookies. STRAWBERRY MOUSSE (TWO-STEP PREP, BUT VERY DOABLE) Shoyer likes to serve this dessert in individual ramekins. You can also use wine or martini glasses. Ingredients: 16 ounces fresh strawberries 1 teaspoon rum or cognac 2 teaspoons kosher for Passover confectioner’s sugar (or confectioner’s sugar after Passover ends) Juice of 1 lemon 6 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons unflavored kosher gelatin powder 1 cup pareve whipping cream Preparation: Remove the stems from the strawberries. Select 6 strawberries, slice thinly, and place in a small bowl with the rum and confectioner’s sugar. Mix to combine and then place in the refrigerator. Cut the remaining strawberries in half and place in a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade. Puree the strawberries completely, scraping down the sides of the processor bowl or blender so that all the strawberry pieces are pureed. Place the strawberry puree in a small saucepan. Add the lemon juice and sugar and stir. Cook on medium-low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sugar melts. Add the gelatin, whisk, and then remove from the heat. Strain into a medium bowl, pressing hard to get as much strawberry puree through as possible, and place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes, stirring twice during that time. In a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed, whip the whipping cream until stiff. Remove the strawberry puree from the refrigerator and fold in the whipped cream in four parts. Scoop the mousse evenly into the ramekins and smooth the tops with the back of a spoon. Cover with plastic and place in the refrigerator for at 3 hours or overnight. You can store covered in the refrigerator for up to three days. To serve, remove from the refrigerator and place a few of the rum-soaked strawberry slices on top. Yield 8 servings.
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 53
Escaping the box: 18 minutes to Passover freedom by EDMON J. RODMAN “It’s unlike the egotism of the challah, which is mostly air,” rise and thus be leavened. LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- In every generation, the he said. “With matzah, what you see is what you get.” As I measured out the ingredients, three parts flour to one Haggadah tells us, the wise, the simple, the non-askers and A Conservative rabbi with whom I consulted had another part water, it dawned on me that in addition to becoming a even the baddies are obligated to see themselves as though opinion, believing that I could simply use kosher flour. She baker, I was now a game-show contestant, too. As I readied they themselves actually had come out from Egypt. the mixing bowls and measuring cups, I imagined a Unfortunately, the closest many of us come to this show called Unleaven Heaven or 18 Minutes to Win ideal is a stroll through the Passover aisle of our It. neighborhood supermarket. Round 1: I added water to flour, mixed it togethWhy does Passover have to come in a neatly er with my hands, kneaded the sticky ball for a packaged box with easy bake instructions? minute and slapped it down. With a rolling pin I This Passover, to heat up and personalize my flattened and spread the dough. I carefully poked leaving from Egypt, I decided to forego the usual holes with a fork. But when it came time to lift the rectangular shrink wrapped packages of the holitaco-sized round, the whole thing wouldn’t budge. day’s mainstay, matzah. If our ancestors could preMy exodus was stuck. pare for their journey in one night by baking an Round 2: I checked the instructions; I needed to unleavened quick bread, so could I. knead longer. As I did, I could feel the dough In my best Mah Nishtanah singsong I chanted, becoming less sticky in my hands. For the bread “How hard could it be to bake homemade matzah?” made in haste the night before the departure from With only a teaspoon full of baking experience, I Egypt, patience was an unlisted ingredient. consulted Claudia Roden’s authoritative “The Book I flipped the easily freed round into the oven and of Jewish Food,” which assured me that Jewish peoreturned to rolling out another. But why did the ple once “made unleavened bread at home.” kitchen smell like burning toast? I opened the oven According to Rodin, all I needed was some “special door to matzah flambe. Two of the wonders of the hard wheat bread flour,” spring water, an oven and Haggadah were happening right in my kitchen: fire a fork to poke holes in the rolled-out dough. and pillars of smoke. Problems rose immediately: The flour is harder With just flour, water and a homemade “forkler” freedom from commercial pre- Round 3: The fork wasn’t working; to bake more to find than any afikomen. Many observant Jews pared matzah is attainable. Credit: Edmon J. Rodman crisply, the dough needed more holes. Veterans of will have nothing less than shmurah flour for their matzah, suggested that I was covered for Passover use under the matzah baking use a kitchen tool called a docker, a hand which is made from wheat that has been guarded from the principle of “batel b’shishim,” a loophole which says that if a roller with spikes. I thought about buying one. What would time it was taken to the mill to ensure that it has not come forbidden ingredient like chametz is less than one-sixtieth of Moses do? Didn’t liberation call for taking freedom into in contact with fermentation-causing moisture. the whole, then the product is still OK. your own hands? So with three forks, some duct tape and a Searching for shmurah flour, I called a kosher market Still, if you choose to try this at home and the origin of piece of cardboard, I devised a “forkler.” where I shop. your flour is important, please consult a religious authority; I mixed, kneaded and rolled. I forkled. “Don’t have it,” said David, one of the owners, adding, rabbis do differ. Flipping the round into the oven with plenty of time to “And I don’t think it’s available anywhere commercially.” I prepared my exodus from the box with a bag of kosher spare, this time I watched, guarding my freedom carefully. Next I tried a local Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, Mendy whole wheat flour and a bottle of spring water. I cranked up Still warm out of the oven, I admired my work as I ate it. It Cunin. the oven as high as it would go, to 550 degrees. While wait- was one part haste, one part invention and one part humili“I can help arrange a trip to Crown Heights, where there is ing for the oven to reach the desired temperature, I removed ty, but all parts with meaning baked in. a matzah bakery,” he suggested. my watch and laid it on the kitchen table; I would need it. And if it tasted like a chewier cardboard, well, it was my That meant traveling across the country to Brooklyn, N.Y. Someone long ago determined that the matzah-baking cardboard. I was in a rush, I explained. process from the time you add water to flour until you take Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA columnist who writes on Unfazed, Rabbi Cunin suggested that as I proceeded, I the unleavened bread from the oven could not take more Jewish life from Los Angeles. Contact him at edmoshould see the “humility of the matzah.” than 18 minutes. Longer than that and the mixture could jace@gmail.com.
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April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 55
Through righteous women’s deeds, deepening the seder experience by DASEE BERKOWITZ NEW YORK (JTA) -- What woman has changed your life? My toddler intuited his answer when he said to me, “Thank you ima for making me.” That’s right folks, mothers, hands down, have probably had the single biggest impact on our lives. Giving birth to children is probably one of the most courageous things that women can do (do you know how much that hurts?). Beyond the physical drama, there’s the courage to bring life into
Pharaoh’s daughter to let an Israelite (her mother) nurse the baby. We meet Miriam again after the crossing of the Red Sea, leading the women in victory. As the text in Exodus 15:20 states, “And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.” Rushing out of Egypt, with little time to pack any non-essentials, Miriam brought her tambourine. She had faith that there would be reason to celebrate. Shifra and Puah, Hebrew midwives, blatantly defy the demand of the Egyptian king. In reaction to the bursting population growth of the Israelites, Pharaoh orders them to kill every son born to an Israelite woman. When the king discovers their civil disobedience and they continue to let baby boys live, the midwives defend their actions by saying, “The Hebrew women are not as the (Egyptian) women; for they are like Miriam and Moses Credit: lostartoriginals.com animals, and [give birth] our uncertain world. Even in places of dire before the midwives come to them” (Exodus political and social unrest, women continue 1:19). Their strong moral compass and to have children and, in that very act, they clever protest save lives. prophesize hope for better days. Israelite women seduced their husbands It’s a story familiar to Jews as it is precise- while the husbands toiled under the harsh ly the story about birth, and more specifical- conditions of slavery. They had the foresight ly, the birth of a Jewish nation, that we cele- to know that the survival of their people brate each Passover. depended on having a next generation. Rashi, The birth images and references of the the famous French commentator, speaks of Passover story are uncanny. Just look at the God’s praise for the mirrored jewelry that the first chapter of the book of Exodus. We see a Israelite women later brought as their contrination swelling in numbers under a Pharaoh bution to the Mishkan, the temporary taberwho did not know of the deeds of Joseph. We nacle in the desert, saying that “these are meet midwives ordered to kill the Hebrew dearer to Me than all the other contributions, male babies and deny Pharaoh’s decree by because through them the women reared letting the Hebrew children live. We meet those huge hosts [many children] in Egypt!” Israelite women who are incredibly fertile. Rashi continues, “For when their husWe see how Moses’ mother, Yocheved, pro- bands were tired through the crushing labor, tects her three-month-old child in a womb- they used to bring them food and drink and like basket. And finally we witness the forced them to eat. They would then take Twelve Tribes of Israel bursting forth to free- the mirrors and each gazed at herself in the dom surrounded by rushing water. mirror together with her husband, saying The Rabbis say that Israel was redeemed endearingly to him, ‘See, I am more handfrom Egypt because of righteous women. some than you.’ Thus they awakened their While women may have been front and cen- husbands’ affection and subsequently ter of the story way back when, by the time became the mothers of many children.” the seder rolls around these days, the only These women, both named and unnamed, thing that righteous women have strength to have the qualities that redeemed the Jewish redeem is the pot roast from the oven. people. Their courage, foresight, willingness Who were these righteous women of the to fight for what they knew was right and Exodus story and how can their deeds help self-possession give us cause to celebrate. deepen our experience of Passover this year? When we sit down to the Passover seder Yocheved, under the decree to murder this year and raise four cups of wine, let’s Israelite male babies, she conceives and has dedicate each cup of wine to these qualities a son. After three months she is afraid that that our women of freedom possessed in he will be discovered and harmed, so she abundance. Like Yocheved and Miriam, places her son in a basket in a river and when we are faced with adversity, in what hopes he will arrive to a new reality in safe- ways are we courageous? Like the midwives, ty. Because of her daughter’s intervention how can we be sure to do what is right even with Pharaoh’s daughter, Yocheved is able to when it is unpopular, or worse, politically feed and nourish her own son until he is dangerous? And like the Israelite women, grown. Only then does she give him over to how can we cultivate a sense of faith that Pharaoh’s daughter. Her decision to contin- moves us beyond the pain of the present ue to have children might be viewed as risky moment toward a more promising future? or even negligent to some, but it is that sense We read in the Passover Haggadah that of risk that brings about the leader of our “everyone who expands upon telling the redemptive narrative, Moses. story of the Exodus is praiseworthy.” This Miriam, Moses’ sister, stands guard on the year, let’s expand our notion of the story we bank of the river as Moses’ basket floats tell every year and let the righteous women downstream. She has the confidence to ask of the Exodus story lead the way.
JEWISH PRESS NOTICE The Jewish Press office is closed Tuesday and Wednesday, April 19 & 20 and Monday and Tuesday, April 25 & 26 for Passover; the deadlines for the April 22 issue is Wednesday, April 13, 9 a.m. and for the April 29 issue is Monday, April 18, 9 a.m. Questions? Call 402.334.6448.
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by ADAM KREDO Chaplains of the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs, which WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week) -- A cam- has spearheaded the project. paign to memorialize 13 fallen Jewish military chaplains Plans called for the monument to stand in a section of with a monument in Arlington National Cemetery is back Arlington known as Chaplains Hill, which now houses three on track after hitting a monuments honoring 242 demoralizing snag. chaplains of other faiths. “I think that this will The new monument correct an injustice of hiswould honor eight Jewish tory,� said William Daroff, chaplains who perished the Jewish Federations of while on active duty durNorth America’s vice presing World War II, two who ident of public policy and died during the Cold War head of its Washington and three who lost their office. “This is a fitting lives during the Vietnam way to recognize these War and elsewhere in brave servicemen who Southeast Asia. gave their lives for our The congressional resolucountry and our people.� tion that would clear the The logjam broke in late way for construction of the January with the introducmemorial has been activetion of a congressional resly supported by a broad olution endorsing the Arlington National Cemetery, December 2009. swath of the Jewish comCredit: Mike-LeBlanc munity, including the effort to honor the memory of the Jewish chaplains in the same way that fallen chap- American Jewish Committee, the Orthodox Union and the lains of other faiths have been honored at Arlington. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs. legislation --companion measures are pending in both Members of Congress, Daroff said, “are overwhelmingly houses of Congress -- enjoys the firm backing of more than supportive� of the resolution -- once they find out that 30 Jewish groups that JFNA organized into a coalition. Jewish chaplains who perished while on active duty have Arlington’s overseers originally had told organizers that to been excluded from Chaplains Hill. erect the monument, they needed only to raise sufficient “Unfortunately, most folks don’t know about Chaplains funds ($30,000) and secure approvals from each of the mil- Hill and beyond that, the Jewish chaplains who died,� said itary’s chief of chaplains. Acting on that, the organizers Daroff, who is optimistic about the resolution’s chances. mounted a vigorous fundraising effort early last year, and The resolution is slowly gaining traction in both chambers assumed that ground soon would be broken. -- the resolutions have been referred to their appropriate In November, however, they learned that they had been committees for consideration. misinformed. The House version had 24 co-sponsors as of Feb. 15 (none Patrick Hallinan, the cemetery superintendent at of them from Maryland), while the Senate version had four, Arlington, told the organizers that his predecessor, John including Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), who is Jewish. Metzler Jr., failed to mention a law passed in the late 1980s Cardin, in a statement to the Washington Jewish Week, that required congressional approval for new memorials. A said it is critical “that Jewish chaplains who died while in major scandal at Arlington had cost Metzler his job. active duty serving our nation be honored and remembered “It was quite frustrating,� said Rear Adm. Harold on Chaplains Hill along with the chaplains of other faiths.� Robinson, a rabbi and director of the Association of Jewish
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S A N F O R D
INTELLIGENT ARCHITECTURE
M AY
ALL THE
BLESSINGS OF THE
PA S S OV E R S E A S O N BE WITH YOU A LWAY S .
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402â–˛598â–˛0442
Clockwise from top left: The Priestly blessing at the Kotel; the distribution of food for Holocaust survivors in need; burning the chametz; collecting food for charity in Jerusalem; the Israeli Navy prepares for Passover. Credit: Isranet
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 57
A happy and blessed
PASSOVER to you and your family.
5150 Center St.• 402-553-2664 • 50th & Center | 10808 Fort St. • 402-493-2089 • 108th & Fort | 11650 South 73rd St., Papillion • 402-597-5790 • Shadow Lake Towne Center 14591 Stony Brook Blvd. • 402-697-0811 • Stony Brook | 7910 Cass St. • 402-384-8668 • Peony Park | 180th & Q St. • 402-896-4168 • Welch Plaza 8809 West Center Rd. • 402-384-9072 • 90th & Center | 747 North 132nd St. • 402-493-2911 • Westridge | 3505 L St. • 402-731-6107 • Stockyards Plaza | 156th & Maple • 402-493-0390 9707 Q St. • 402-339-3047 • Applewood | 1745 Madison Ave., Council Bluffs • 322-9260 • Mall of the Bluffs | 2323 Broadway • 328-9792 • Council Bluffs
58 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
Synagogues B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE 618 Mynster Street | Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 | 402.322.4705 email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com FRIDAY: Services followed by Oneg, 7:30 p.m. There will be no Services on Friday, April 22.
BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California | Omaha, NE 68154-1980 | 402.492.8550 www.bethel-omaha.org Office Hours: Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. SATURDAY: Morning service, 9:30 a.m.; Junior Congregation (3-7), 10 a.m.; Learners’ Service, 10:15 a.m. led by Cantor Schlossberg; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:55 p.m.; Samantha Nahimov, daughter of Inna Goldman and Alex Nahimov, will become a Bat Mitzvah during the Mincha/Ma’ariv service. WEEKDAY SERVICES: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.; weekdays, 7 a.m. & 5:30 p.m. SUNDAY: Torah Study Discussion Group, 10 a.m. BESTT: Students will be on Passover/Spring Break from April 17-26. Classes resume April 27. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE: Deadline to purchase tickets to the Omaha Community Playhouse production of Tuesdays with Morrie is Monday, April 18. For more information, contact Margie in the office, or at programming@ bethel-omaha.org. PASSOVER SEDER: Spend the second night of Passover, Tuesday, April 19, at Beth El’s congregational Seder, open to the entire community. The family-friendly holiday celebration begins at 6 p.m. For more information, call Margie in the office or visit www.bethel-omaha.org. PASSOVER MONDAY: Shaharit/Siyyum B’khorim, 6:45 a.m.; Minha/ Ma’ariv, 5:30 p.m. TUESDAY, First Day: Shaharit, 9:30 a.m.; Minha/ Ma’ariv, 5:30 p.m.; Community Seder, 6 p.m. at Beth El. WEDNESDAY, Second Day: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m.; Minha/ Ma’ariv, 8:10 p.m. THURSDAY, Hol Hamo’ed: Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.; Minha/ Ma’ariv, 5:30 p.m. BETH EL BRINGS SHABBAT TO THE BLUMKIN HOME: On Friday, April 22, 2:30 p.m., Rabbi Levin and Cantor Schlossberg will present a musical Shabbat program for Blumkin Home residents and their guests. SHABBAT IS FOR STUDY: Saturday, April 23, 12:20 p.m. – 12:50 p.m. Andy Greenberg will lead a lively discussion about Torah – Fact or Fiction? Everyone is welcome to participate. MATZO BREI BREAKFAST: Sponsored by Men’s Club, on Sunday, April 24, 10 a.m. Cost is $4.50 for adults, $2.50 for children 6-12, and free for children five and younger. RSVP to Margie in the office, or at programming@bethelomaha.org. All Beth El classes and programs are open to everyone in the Jewish 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. FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 7:30 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 by Rabbi Jonathan Gross and Raya Liba in honr of Miriam’s birthday; 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; Havdalah, 8:50 p.m. SUNDAY: Gemara class, 8 a.m., learning tractate Kiddushin; Shacharit, 9 a.m. followed by breakfast; Search for Chometz, not before 8:43 p.m. WEEKDAYS: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Chol Hamoed Shacharit, 6:45 a.m. The synagogue office will be closed on Monday, April 18, in preparation of Pesach. The office will be closed on April 19 and 20 for the holiday. MONDAY: Shacharit, 7 a.m., followed by Siyum B’chorim; Pesach To Go orders may be picked up between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.; Weekly Teleconference Mishnah Class, 10:30 a.m. Contact the office to get the dial-in number and access code; Burning of chometz, 11:30 a.m. at shul; Mincha, 7:50 p.m.;
Earliest Seder time, 8:44 p.m. TUESDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Kiddush is sponsored in honor of the April Simchas; Mincha, 7:55 p.m.; Second Seder, 8:53 p.m. at Beth Israel. WEDNESDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Kiddush is sponsored by Sisterhood; Mincha, 7:55 p.m.; Havdalah, 8:54 p.m. THURSDAY: Women of the Torah class with Rabbi Gross is canceled during Pesach.
CHABAD HOUSE 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.; 11 Nissan Farbrengen (in honor of Rebbe’s birthday) followed by Kabbalat Shabbat and dinner, 7 p.m. Reservations appreciated. SATURDAY: Shabbat HaGodol Minyan, 10 a.m.; Youth Minyan, 10:30 a.m. Mini-Mensch title will be awarded; Kiddush lunch follows; join Rabbi Katzman from 12-1 p.m.; W.O.W. Parsha, Prophets, and Prayer, 12:45 p.m. SUNDAY: Service, 8:30 a.m. WEEKDAYS: Services, 7 a.m. MONDAY: Shacharit, 7 a.m. Taanit Bchorot Siyum followed by refreshments; Chometz may be eaten until 11:08 a.m.; Burn Chometz before 12:15 p.m.; Family Seder, 7:30 p.m. TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY, Pesach Day 1 & 2: Shacharit, 10 a.m.; Priestly Blessings, 11:30 a.m.; Kiddush to follow davening. THURSDAY, Chol HaMoed: Shacharit, 7 a.m. FRIDAY, April 22, Chol HaMoed: Shacharit, 7 a.m. All programs are open to the entire community.
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: Shabbat Evening Service, 7:45 p.m. led by Rabbi Emanuel, with oneg following hosted by Michael Boekstal. SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10:30 a.m. all led by Rabbi Emanuel; Game Night/Potluck, 6 p.m. SUNDAY: No LJCS Classes; Board of Trustees Meeting, 1 p.m. TUESDAY: Community Passover Second Seder, 6 p.m. Prices are Adults (13 and up), $13, Children (ages six-12), $7; five and under are free. Contact the office for information at 402.435.8004 or stemple@neb.rr.com. WEDNESDAY: No LJCS Hebrew classes.
Candlelighting Friday, April 15, 7:47 p.m. | Monday, April 18, 7:50 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, no earlier than 8:53 p.m.
a reservation. SATURDAY: Sparks Beneath the Surface, 9:15 a.m.; Shabbat Service, 10:30 a.m. Michael Militzer, son of Ellie and Paul Mititzer will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah. SUNDAY: Teacher Meeting, 9 a.m.; Grades K-6, 10 a.m.; Grade 6 parent meeting: Putting God on the Guest List, 10:15 a.m.; Deli Lunch, 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Reservations preferred! Carry-out available, please call the office, 402.556.6536; Deli Night, 5-7 p.m. Reservations preferred! Carry-out available, please call the office, 402.556.6536. TUESDAY: Passover Service, 10:30 a.m.; Congregational Seder, 6 p.m. WEDNESDAY: No Family, Religious or Middle/High School; Passover Seder, 6 p.m., St. Martha's Episcopal Church, 780 Pinnacle Drive Papillion. Rabbi Azriel and Cantor Shermet will lead a traditional Seder sponsored by the Tri-Faith Initiative. Members of all faiths are invited to participate. Cost is adults $15; children $8; no charge for children five and younger. Please RSVP by April 5, to Nancy Kirk, info@trifaith.org or 402.934.2955. You can also register online, www.tri-faith.org. THURSDAY: Adult Study with the Clergy, 10 a.m.; Passover Seder at Remington Heights, 4 p.m., 12606 West Dodge Road. Rabbi Azriel will lead a traditional Passover Seder. Reservations are requested by April 15. Contact Program Director Wendy Goldberg, 402.556.6536 or wgoldberg@templeisraselomaha.com, for more information.
TIFERETH ISRAEL 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: Shabbat service, 6:30 p.m. SATURDAY: Learners Minyan, 9:30 a.m.; Morning Service, 10 a.m. followed by a Kiddush luncheon and Torah Study. SUNDAY: No LJCS Classes. MONDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m. First Seder TUESDAY: Services, 9 a.m. and 8:51 p.m. Second Seder WEDNESDAY: Services, 9 a.m.; No LJCS Hebrew classes. The temple office will be closed on Monday, April 18, in preparation of Pesach. The office will be closed on April 19 and 20 and on April 25 and 26 for the holiday.
Pre-Pesach learning
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE SAC Memorial Chapel 301 Lincoln Highway | Offutt AFB, NE 68113 | 402.294.6244 FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m.
NEIGHBORHOOD PRAYER GROUP 1317 North 57 Street | Omaha, NE 68132 | 402.551.6609 FRIDAY: Minyan, 7:47 p.m. SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m. There will be no serices held during Passover, resuming April 29.
Rebbetzin Shani Katzman and Shevi Katzman present a fun and interactive Pesach program for the students of the Lincoln Jewish Community School in Lincoln on Sunday, April 10.
To submit announcements: ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME 323 South 132 Street | Omaha, NE 68154 SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by David Herzog and Jim Polack. PASSOVER MONDAY: First Seder, 6 p.m., led by Carole and Andy Greenberg. TUESDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by Carole and Andy Greenberg; Second Seder, 6 p.m., led by the Polack family: Jim, Susan, Josh and Max. WEDNESDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by Carole and Andy Greenberg.
TEMPLE ISRAEL Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 7023 Cass Street | Omaha, NE 68132-2651 | 402.556.6536 www.templeisrael-ne.org FRIDAY: Shabbat Service, 6 p.m. led by Rabbi Azriel, and Cantor Shermet; Tot Shabbat and Dinner, 6 p.m. led by Rabbi Linder and hosted by Jamie and Ted Friedland, Jamie and Troy Meyerson. The cost for dinner is $5 for adults and no charge for children. Please contact the office, 402.556.6536 or mkube@templeisraelomaha.com, to make
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 go to Submit Announcements. Deadlines are normally eight days prior to publication, on Thursdays, 9 a.m. Check the Jewish Press, however, for notices of early deadlines.
Personal Thanks to everyone who sent cards and made donations in honor of my 90th birthday, my sincere thank you. I treasure your friendships, and your caring made this birthday especially memorable. Esther Meiches
April 15, 2011 | The Jewish Press | 59
Advertising index Advertiser Page Hockenbergs ............................................................... 42 Horizon Dental Center ................................................. 16 House of Mufflers ........................................................ 51 Hy-Vee ......................................................................... 57 Ideal Pure Water & Coffee ............................................ 35 Industrial Packaging Corporation ................................. 18 Institute for Holocaust Education ................................. 60 Interim Homestyle Services ......................................... 20 Jack & Mary’s .............................................................. 49 Javitch Family .............................................................. 46 JetLinx ......................................................................... 42 Jewish Community Center .......................................... 15 Jewish Federation of Lincoln ........................................ 29 Jewish Federation of Omaha ....................................... 25 Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation .................... 25 Jewish Press .......................................... 2, 13, 23, 24, 59 Jewish Social Services ................................................. 47 Jewish War Veterans of America .................................. 60 Johanns, Senator Mike ................................................ 38 John A. Gentleman Mortuaries .................................... 38 Julio’s .......................................................................... 30 Kahn Family .................................................................. 7 Kidwell ......................................................................... 15 Kohll’s Pharmacy & Homecare .................................... 16 Lakeside Dental ........................................................... 20 League Offering Volunteers for the Elderly ................... 60 Leisure Life Sports ......................................................... 9 Lerner Company ......................................................... 48 Lion’s Automotive Upholstery ...................................... 37 Louie M’s Burger Lust ................................................. 30 Lynn Roberts International ........................................... 14 Malashock Jewelry ...................................................... 39 Malbar Vision Centers .................................................... 7 Marathon Real Estate .................................................... 3 Marathon Ventures ...................................................... 37 Mark Sanford Group .................................................... 56 Marks Clare & Richards ............................................... 26 Marriott Regency Hotel .................................................. 8 McGill, Gotsdiner, Workman & Lepp, PC, LLO. .............. 3 McGrath North ............................................................ 35 Mid Con Systems Inc. ................................................. 28 Mid-City Jewelry & Loan .............................................. 33 Midwest Ear, Nose, & Throat, P.C. ............................... 42 Mulhall’s ...................................................................... 43 Nan C .......................................................................... 11 Natan & Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel & Jewish Studies ................................................................... 60 National Council of Jewish Women .............................. 60 Nebraska Cancer Specialists ....................................... 32 Nebraska Democratic Party ......................................... 10 Nebraska Furniture Mart ................................................ 7 Nebraska Jewish Historical Society .............................. 60 Nebraska Press Statewide Classifieds .......................... 59 Nelson, Senator Ben and Diane ................................... 18 No Frills ......................................................................... 9 Nobbies ....................................................................... 16 Noddle Companies ..................................................... 22 NP Dodge-Kathy Miller ................................................. 37
Advertiser Page Omaha Compound Company ..................................... 29 Omaha Steaks ............................................................. 10 Omaha Storm Chasers ................................................ 51 Omaha Surgical Center ............................................... 21 Omaha Symphony ...................................................... 41 Omaha Temple Youth Group ........................................ 24 Omaha Trans Video ..................................................... 55 One Drake Place ............................................................ 4 One Pacific Place-Broadmoor ...................................... 29 Parsow’s ...................................................................... 33 Pasta Amore ................................................................ 54 PeggyBank .................................................................. 40 Peterson Brothers Realty Co. ....................................... 19 Pulverente Monument Co. ........................................... 26 Regency Court ............................................................. 33 Rehab Visions .............................................................. 28 Remer Family .............................................................. 44 Remington Heights ...................................................... 17 Republic National Distributing Company ..................... 47 Roberts Dairy .............................................................. 52 Rockbrook Floors ........................................................... 4 Rockbrook Village ........................................................ 54 Rotella’s Italian Bakery ................................................. 12 Russell’s ...................................................................... 34 St. Joseph Villa .............................................................. 5 St. Peter & Paul, St. John Nepomucene & Holy Trinity Catholic Churches .................................................. 23 St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church .......................... 8 Sanctuary Day Spa ...................................................... 13 Sarah’s ........................................................................ 34 Schwalb Realty ........................................................... 19 Scott Conference Center .............................................. 18 Security Equipment, Inc. ............................................. 50 Security National Bank ................................................ 54 Seim Johnson ............................................................. 22 Senior Market Sales, Inc. ............................................. 50 Sir Speedy ................................................................... 43 Sol’s Jewelry & Loan ................................................... 19 Sonny Gerber Auto Sales ............................................. 22 Sparks Computerized Care Care ................................. 44 Star Deli ....................................................................... 21 Stoddard Family ........................................................... 11 String of Purls .............................................................. 34 Suburban Newspapers Inc. ......................................... 37 Superior Pools, Spas, Etc. .............................................. 5 Swartzbaugh Farber .................................................... 26 Sweet & Associates ...................................................... 55 Tea Trove ..................................................................... 46 Temple Israel ............................................................... 60 Terry, Congressman Lee .............................................. 55 Tifereth Israel Synagogue ............................................. 28 University of Nebraska Medical Center .......................... 6 van de Kamp-Wright Family ......................................... 14 Wiesman Development ................................................. 7 Winery ......................................................................... 12 Wolfson Used Cars ...................................................... 35 Zio’s Pizzeria ................................................................ 12
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KEARNEY GUN/Coin Show, April 16 and 17, Sat. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sun. 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Expo Center, Fairgrounds, Kearney, NE.
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Excavators: ‘96 CAT 320B, ‘85 CAT 235BH, ‘86 CAT 235B Loaders: ‘92 CAT 953 track ldr, ‘73 CAT 930 Backhoes: ‘99 Case 580 Super L Series 2 Paving: Gomaco GT3600 curb mchn Roller/packers: Bomag 142 PDB-Z sheeps foot rllr, Pettibone C-200 flat wheel combo rllr/vbrtry cmpctr Heavy trucks: ‘78 KW W900A semi Trailers: ‘78 Hyster 50 ton low-boy Skid steers: (3) Case 1845C and more 10% buyers premium applies
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Advertiser Page A Permanent Solution .................................................. 16 A Well-Dressed Window ............................................... 54 Abacus Consulting ...................................................... 20 Abrahams, Kaslow & Cassman LLP ............................ 48 Acura of Omaha ............................................................ 8 All Makes Office Equipment Co. .................................. 52 All Seasons Home Improvement Company ................. 39 Allens ........................................................................... 11 Amazing Pizza Machine ............................................... 48 American Friends of Magen David Adom ..................... 13 American National Bank .............................................. 46 Anderson O’Brien Gallery ............................................ 34 Anti-Defamation League .............................................. 60 Associated Counseling Professionals ........................... 16 B’nai B’rith Henry Monsky Lodge ................................ 60 B’nai B’rith Youth Organization .................................... 24 B’nai Israel Synagogue ................................................ 60 B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue .......................................... 21 Badger Body & Isuzu Truck ............................................ 4 Bag ’N Save ................................................................. 31 Bagel Bin ..................................................................... 30 Bailey, Jane A., M.D. .................................................... 11 Belgrade Family ........................................................... 23 Bergman Incentives/Bergman Jewelers ........................ 3 Beth El BILU USY ......................................................... 24 Beth El Sisterhood ....................................................... 60 Beth El Synagogue ...................................................... 60 Beth Israel NCSY ......................................................... 24 Beth Israel Sisterhood .................................................. 60 Beth Israel Synagogue ................................................. 60 Body Basics ................................................................. 54 Boys Town ................................................................... 36 Broadmoor Market ...................................................... 34 Brodkey’s ..................................................................... 26 Brownell Talbot ............................................................ 43 Canfield’s Sporting Goods ........................................... 19 Care Consultants for the Aging ...................................... 3 CB Richard Ellis/MEGA ............................................... 38 Chabad ....................................................................... 60 Christel’s ..................................................................... 44 Cohen Family ................................................................ 5 Countryside Village ...................................................... 34 Creative Hair Design Salon & Spa ................................ 45 Cruise Planners ........................................................... 44 Dance Shoppe ............................................................ 34 Enterprise Bank ........................................................... 15 Feinman Family ........................................................... 37 Frankel, Zacharia ................................................................. 9 Fraser Stryker Law Firm ............................................... 52 Friedel Jewish Academy ............................................... 23 Gordmans ................................................................... 27 Grace/Mayer Insurance .............................................. 39 Grubb & Ellis/Pacific Realty ......................................... 31 Hadassah Upper Midwest Region .............................. 53 Hap Abraham Catering ................................................ 30 Heritage Pointe ............................................................ 10 Hiller Electric ................................................................ 14
F In- REE Est Hom ima e tes
EOE
LOOMIX® FEED supplements is seeking Dealers. Motivated individuals with cattle knowledge and community ties. Contact Bethany @ 800-870-0356/bjenkins@loomix.com to find out if there is a Dealership opportunity in your area. HELP WANTED: Live-in manager for 40-unit motel in Central Nebraska. For more information or application, contact Jayne Mann, PO Box 10, Aurora, NE 68818, or call 402694-3111. INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP seeks volunteer host families for Foreign Exchange Students arriving August 2011. Or earn extra cash as Area Rep! 1-800-647-8839, internationalfellowship.org. MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIST/Manager full-time, Chase County Community Hospital, Imperial, Nebraska. MT and ASCP certification required. Supervisory experience preferred. www.chasecountyhospital.com. HVAC - EXPERIENCED in installation, fabrication and duct cleaning. 90 year contractor. Green Furnace and Plumbing, 4200 N. 48th, Lincoln, NE 68504. EOE. 402-467-4444 or mdsmith@callgreens.com. DRIVER: RECESSION proof refrigerated freight. Plenty of miles. Need refresher? Free tuition at FFE. $1,000 sign-on. Pet & Rider policy. CO & O/O’s. recruit@ffex.net, 855-3789328.
Contact your advertising representative to advertise in this very special edition.
Allan Handleman 402/334-6451 ahandleman@jewishomaha.org
Publishing Date 04.29.11 Space Reservation 04.15.11 Camera Ready Deadline 04.18.11
GRAND ISLAND Express, $1,000 sign-on bonus with good DAC & MVR. CDL-A required. Up to $0.405 cpm based on experience. New equipment arriving! Solid family owned company. Contact Kris, 866-472-6347 or apply online www.giexpress.com. YOU GOT the drive, we have the direction. OTR Drivers, APU equipped pre-pass EZ-pass, pets/passenger policy. Newer equipment. 100% No Touch. 1-800-528-7825. ATTENTION OWNER Operators! New pay increase. No upfront costs, industries best fuel discounts, bonus programs and home weekly. 25+, 2 years OTR, CDL-A. Call 866-9464322, www.fcc-inc.com. $25,000 REWARD for older Gibson, Fender, Martin, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, National, Mosrite guitars. Paying $500-$25,000+. Please call Crawford White, 1-800-477-1233 x300, Nashville, TN.
60 | The Jewish Press | April 15, 2011
JEWISH WAR VETERANS of AMERICA
It is an obligation to tell the story...
Wishing the community a Happy Pesach from the Staff and Governance Council of the Institute for Holocaust Education www.ihene.org | holocaust@jewishomaha.org | 402/334-6576
Epstein Morgan Post 260
Passover
Best wishes for a happy, healthy and peaceful Passover. FREE membership to all active-duty personnel Contact: Jay Benton, Commander 402-250-6133 We welcome any and all new members
Best Wishes HAPPY for a Kosher and Happy Passover The Rabbi, Staff and Volunteers
Chabad House
Beth El Sisterhood The Natan and Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel Jewish Studies at the University of Nebraska-Omaha wishes everyone a:
Happy Passover
League Offering Volunteers for the Elderly
Best Wishes for a
Happy
wishes its friends in the Jewish community A Passover filled with good health,happiness and peace.
B’nai Israel Synagogue
Peace and Happiness on Passover
The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home Auxiliary
Passover
Council Bluffs, Iowa National Register of Historic Places A Century of Tradition 333 South 132nd Street Omaha, NE 68154 402-334-6441 or 402-334-6442 njhs@jewishomaha.org
618 Mynster Street, Council Bluffs
323-8885 You’re always welcome at B’nai Israel!
A Happy and Healthy National Council of Jewish Women Omaha Section
Passover to the Community
NCJW extends its warmest wishes to the Jewish community for a Joyous Passover.
With Your Help We’ll Have A Great Past Ahead Of Us
Happy Passover from
The Beth El Synagogue Board of Trustees, Congregation and Staff As we celebrate the Exodus this Passover, Beth El Synagogue invites you to celebrate with us at our community second Seder, open to all on Tuesday, April 19, 6:00 pm.
Best Wishes for a Happy Passover
Henry Monsky Lodge B’nai B’rith
402-334-6443
For more information and reservations, contact the synagogue office at 492-8550.