April 16, 2010

Vol. LXXXIX No. 30 Omaha, NE

Celebrating 89 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa

2 Iyar 5770

April 16, 2010

Experience fine dining, Friedel style

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press For the third year in a row, Friedel Jewish Academy is inviting the entire community to be part of something big. The annual Friedel Tribute Dinner will take place at Beth Israel on May 23, from 5:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. This year’s honorees are Dr. Bonnie Bloch and Dr. H o w a r d Gendelman, K o h l l ’ s Pharmacy and Homecare, represented by Marvin and Sandra Kohll, Dr. Bonnie Bloch and David and Janet Dr. Howard Gendelman Kohll, and Justin Kohll, and, Julie and David Stein.

“The annual Tribute Dinner is a great opportunity for us to show what we’re made of,” says principal Ron Giller. “Not only do we get to share success stories about the school, we also get to pay tribute to people who help make it all possible, whether through financial support, or by rolling up their sleeves, or both. On top of that, we all get to support the school, while enjoying a great meal and program. What’s not to like?”

Current Board President Bruce Potash is excited to have such an outstanding crop of honorees this year: “They all support the school in their own unique way, and they have all done it for many years,” he says.

Yom Ha’Atzmaut Rick Recht concert at the J!

by ANNE MUSKIN JCC Teen and BBYO Director He sings loud and proud and for all the world to hear “Odyavo Shalom Aleynu” (Peace will come to us)!! What perfect lyrics to kick off Omaha’s Community Wide Yom Ha’Atzmaut Celebration!

On Tuesday, April 20 from 5 to 8 p.m., Israel’s Independence Day will be held on the back lawn of the JCC. Filled with music, food, and fun for the entire family, Omaha will have a truly Israeli-style celebration. In the Pavilion, Star Catering is providing a kosher cookout for purchase. There will be hamburgers, hot dogs, polish dogs, chicken sandwiches, and even falafel! Not to mention sides, drinks, and desserts, too!

Beginning at 5 p.m. and continuing during the show, the event starts with food and lots of fun activities for children of all ages including, face painting, an Israeli archeological dig, getting wet with boat races, and much more!

Continued on page 2

Inside Opinion Page see page 12

“Bonnie Bloch, for instance, has been involved with Friedel for a very long time and has stuck with us through thick and thin. Her leadership is inspiring to anyone who works with her; if she decides to do something, she gets it done, every single time. We are incred-

Kohll’s Pharmacy and Homecare David, Justin, Marvin and Sandra Kohll Janet Kohll not pictured. ibly lucky to have her, as well as her husband Howard’s, support.”

“Since coming to Omaha 17 years ago, Howie and I are grateful to the Omaha community,” Bloch says.

“They have given us this opportuntiy to serve as volunteers; as educators, nothing has been more dear to our hearts than Friedel Jewish Academy. Howie has taught Friedel students in his classes at Beth El, and I have served on the Board for many years. The students, volunteers, financial supporters, and professionals who have elevated Friedel to a level we never dreamed possible, bring us so much pride and joy. We are happy to be a

NCJW fashion show to benefit Omaha community service projects

by TIPPI DENENBERG life for women, children and families in this country ...

Vice-President of Public Relations for NCJW and to ensure their individual rights and freedoms -- is The National Council of Jewish Women Omaha one of the best examples of community outreach our Section will present “NCJW Project: RUNWAY!” on Jewish community has to offer,” noted Andee Scioli, coSunday, April 18, 4president. “Council is 5:30 p.m. at Beth El based on fundamental Synagogue to benefit a Jewish values and works variety of its community through a program of service projects in the research, advocacy, comOmaha area. The show munity service and educawill feature over 45 modtion. We help a lot of peoels wearing the latest ple who can’t help themspring fashions. selves.”

Proceeds from the “We’re going to be honshow will provide hardoring Omaha Section’s cover dictionaries to 4th past presidents since grade students in Omaha 1954 at the show,” added public schools; backpacks Nikki Kirshenbaum, coloaded with school suppresident. “We’ve had plies to students at some amazing leaders -Jackson Elementary some who went on to School; and a directory of serve on the National resources and social serv- “NCJW Project: RUNWAY!” - A Family Affair, Melanie Schwarz, Board, including Jan ices for teenagers in the third from left, will be one of 45 models featured in a musical fash- Schneiderman, who was Omaha metropolitan area ion show presented by the National Council of Jewish Women. elected National in the event of a crisis. In Cheering her on will be dad, Wayne; left, sister, Courtney; mom, President in 1999 -- and addition, NCJW’S Lori and sister, Sabrina. we’re proud to recognize “Reading Pups” helps elementary school children their commitment to NCJW as respected ‘role models’ improve their reading skills by reading to friendly dogs; on so many levels.” and currently, in conjunction with Child Saving “NCJW Project: RUNWAY!” will also feature songs Institute’s Foster Care and Emergency Shelter pro- by Nancy Rips, Cantor Wendy Shermet, and a duet by grams, Council’s “Totes for Tots” provides duffle bags Cantor Beth Schlossberg and Matt Uehling. Door prizes and bedding for young children and other needed sup- include a $250 Day Spa Gift Card from Garbo’s Salon, plies to take to their foster homes. a $200 Gift Package from Omaha Steaks, a $100 Gift “The mission of NCJW -- ‘to improve the quality of Continued on page 4

This Week: B’nai B’rith Charity Banquet announces honorees: Page 9 See Front Page Stories & More at: www.jewishomaha.org; click on ‘Jewish Press’

very small part of the school’s achievements, and eagerly await the distinguished futures of Friedel, its students, and staff.”

Bruce Potash agrees with Ron Giller that the opportunity to say thank you is a welcome one. “To be able to, once a year, put the spotlight on people who have done so much for us is a good thing. Take the Kohll family, for instance; they have supported Friedel for years, because they truly believe in the value of Jewish education, as well as in Julie and David Stein a strong commuwith their children Zach, back, nity day school.”

Josh and Hannah.

Sandra Kohll considers it a pleasure to give to the school: ”I love Friedel. I love the excellent education the students get.

It’s why I sent my parents’ endowment there. Now, thanks to my father and mother, Bernard and Ann Fisher, the Friedel science fair is supported every year in their memory.”

Julie and David Stein are parents to Zach, who is in 6th grade, and Hannah and Josh, who attend 3rd grade.

With all three kids at the school, Friedel has been a big part of their lives. In addition to that, Julie has spearheaded the PTO for several years, and helps out at the Continued on page 2

Omaha teens to take part in March of the Living Page 4

Coming This Month: Mother’s Day Gifts

World renowned violinist to perform at JCC Page 5

Temple’s social justice efforts turn green Page 9

Page 2

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

April 16, 2010

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by DINAH SPRITZER It was one of the great ironies of Polish history that a PRAGUE (JTA) – For Jews, Poland’s late president, nationalistic, ultra-conservative Catholic who may have Lech Kaczynski, was a man of many firsts. counted some anti-Semites as his supporters was a pivHe was the first Polish president to attend a service at otal figure in the post-Communist healing of grudges a Polish synagogue, the first to celebrate Chanukah at that have so long divided Poles and Jews. the presidential palace, Kaczynski’s death, as tragic as it may be, the first Polish leader to is not likely to set back Polish-Jewish or provide support for a Polish-Israeli relations, insiders say. The Jewish history museum role of president is largely ceremonial in on Polish soil.

Poland; the government is run by the His death in Saturday’s prime minister, currently Donald Tusk. plane crash along with his Tusk and his Cabinet are considered allies wife and 96 members of of Israel and the United States, and are Poland’s political elite repfriendly to Jewish concerns. resents a huge loss for the “Fifteen years ago, such a calamity Polish-Jewish relationship, would have serious repercussion, but Poland’s chief rabbi, New today relations are well established,” said York native Michael Andrzej Zozula, executive director of the Schudrich, told JTA. Union of Jewish Communities in Poland.

“A lot of those who are Zozula said he had been friendly with the politically right of center late president since their days together in are open to Jewish contrithe anti-Communist opposition in the butions to Polish culture, 1980s. “The interests of all are more but if you had a different important than one man, even a person person in power they such as Mr. Kacynsnki,” Zozula said. would have been quiet Examples of the president’s dedication about it.

Kaczynski to Jewish issues reads like the refrain in empowered those people Dayeinu, the Passover hymn: “It would to also have a voice,” have been enough if…”

Schudrich said.

As mayor of Warsaw before winning the Schudrich had been presidency in 2005, Kaczynski donated invited to accompany the Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife visit- public land and money for the Museum presidential delegation to ing the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in of the History of Polish Jews, to open in the April 10 event in Jerusalem, Sept. 12, 2006.

2012.

Credit: Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90/JTA In 2008, as president, he restored Katyn commemorating the 1940 massacre there of 20,000 Poles by Soviet Polish citizenship to the 15,000 Jews exiled in 1968 by forces, but the rabbi could not attend because it was on Poland’s Communist government in the throes of an the Sabbath. anti-Semitic frenzy. Kaczynski was among Europe’s top On Sunday, mourners packed Warsaw’s Nozyk political supporters of Israel.

Synagogue, where Kaczynski once visited, for a memori“The president and his wife were great friends to al service for the victims of the crash. Nearby, some Israel,” Israel’s former ambassador to Poland, 100,000 Poles filled the streets as the president’s coffin DavidPeleg, said. “And those who traveled with him on Continued on page 15 passed by in a procession.

The Friedel dining experience Continued from page 1 school wherever she is needed. “In 2006, one of the other moms called,” Julie remembers, “and asked if I wanted to join the PTO. I have been doing it ever since.

Being on the giving side instead of receiving is a great thing, because the kids are so excited. Working with kids is very different than working with adults, and I’d love to get more people involved. It’s busy, but it’s worth it.”

“Julie is tireless,” Ron Giller says, “and she is involved with all the PTO activities, such as different kinds of fundraising, movie night, and the annual ice cream social. She also volunteers for things that aren’t PTOrelated; she spends countless hours planning and organizing activities for the school. It’s very nice to have such dedicated parents.”

“This year’s dinner, catered by Nancy Mattly, features a trendy tasting menu giving guests the opportunity to try three unique entrees,” says Tippi Denenberg, one of the committee members and organizers. “We’ll have blackened salmon on a bed of pearl couscous, penne pesto with sun dried tomatoes. topped with chicken

breast, and braised shoulder roast in wine reduction mushroom sauce over egg noodles. In addition to that, we will serve glazed carrots, cold asparagus salad, and of course, chocolate fudge cake for dessert. It’s a fantastic menu, and knowing it supports the school should make it taste even better.”

The evening will start off with appetizers from 5:30 p.m. until 6:15 p.m., during which a silent auction will take place. “Dinner starts at 6:30 p.m.,” Tippi says, “and we will have a great program, as well as a raffle.

The prizes are fantastic, and come from places like the Omaha Community Playhouse, Bag ‘N’ Save, One Tree Yoga, Denenberg Facial Plastic Surgery, and One Drake Place. And, you do not need to be present to win!”

“This dinner is a great way for us to say thank you, while at the same time an opportunity for people to continue their support,” Giller added, “I am looking forward to a full house.”

For more information and/ or to order raffle and dinner tickets, contact Tippi Denenberg at 553.2977, or email: tippimd@gmail.com.

How is this publication thinking about the future?

Rick Recht concert for Yom Ha’Atzmaut By becoming part of the past.

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Continued from page 1 At 6 p.m., Rick Recht will take the stage. With his positive, organic, groove-oriented rock, Recht plans to bring Hebrew songs to life. To add energy and excitement to his shows, Recht wants anyone who plays a musical instrument or sings to get involved. Participants will get the incredible opportunity to sing and “jam” with him on stage, too. Elya Wilson, Omaha’s Community Shlicha, is organizing different musical groups, so contact her right away at www.ewilson@ jccomaha.org or 334.6403.

Recht and his band have shared the spotlight with national acts such as the Samples, Freddy Jones Band, Guess Who, America, Supertramp, Three Dog Night, and Government Mule to name a few.

“We have the opportunity to constantly change things up and do what it takes to inspire Jewish youth and adults and make them feel connected to each other and their Jewish heritage.” Recht said. He continued, “The family concerts are a little bit of everything! Only in the Jewish world could we experience this wonderful variety

of creativity, spirituality, and interaction.”

Yom Ha’Atzmaut is traditionally also the showcase for the B’nai B’rith Trivia Quiz, and this year is no exception. Held in the Child Development Center at 7:30 p.m., there will be prizes and challenging trivia for all! To register a team please contact B’nai B’rith at 334.6443.

For American Jews, celebrating Yom Ha’Atzmaut is a way to express solidarity with the state of Israel and to strengthen our partnership. As a united Jewish community, this will be a fun, relaxing, and wonderful way to show Israel we believe and value all they do to keep our Jewish State safe and thriving.

Concert and Picnic “go-ers” are encouraged to bring a blanket or outdoor chair from home for your comfort and convenience. In the event of inclement weather, the concert, picnic, and activities will move indoors to the JCC Auditorium and Gallery.

The 2010 Yom Ha’Atzmaut Celebration is generously sponsored by: the Sokolof Javitch Music Fund, the Special Donor Advised Fund, and the Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation.

April 16, 2010

Temple Women’s Speaker to address women’s health issues

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator Sylvia Ziegenbein, M.D., a University of Nebraska Medical Center physician who teaches in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, will address the common complaints, treatments, and screening guidelines for perimenopausal and menopausal women at Women of Reform Judaism’s Donor Luncheon at noon on Thursday, April 22, at Temple Israel.

Originally from southern California, Dr. Ziegenbein earned her medical degree Dr. Sylvia Ziegenbein from UNMC and served her residency there. She’s been in practice since 2006. The main foci of her position is clinical and surgical practice and educating residents and medical students, she explained. She has been at UNMC since 2007.

“I love sports, traveling, and gardening,” she said. A wife and mother of two teenage daughters, she attended Loyola Marymount University in California as an undergraduate and was a scholarship basketball player there for two years.

At the luncheon at Temple she’ll talk about mammograms, DEXA scans, pap smears, vaccinations, and hormone replacement therapy.

Kim Noddle, co-chair of the Donor Luncheon along with Mimi Silverman, invited women to attend to learn about their bodies. “It’s the only one God gave you.

Treat it like a temple not a tent! Come learn what’s ‘to come of age’ as you age!”

Cantor Wendy Shermet will share a teaching on the Jewish connection between mind and spirit.

A portion of the proceeds from the luncheon will be donated to support UNMC‘s Olson Center for Women‘s Health, a comprehensive health center to treat women‘s needs. The cost to attend the luncheon is $10 per person. Donations range from $18 to $200.

Please make a reservation by calling Temple at 556.6536.

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Page 3

Beth El scholar-in-residence weekend features Dr. Richard Freund

Exodus might have happened to a position that it could

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator not have happened,” he explained that, “after working Biblical archaeology will be all the rage at Beth El from on the site of a new location for Mount Sinai, I examined April 30–May 2, as the synagogue welcomes renowned the archaeological record and realized why many archaearchaeologist and scholar Dr. Richard Freund, during a ologists could not find the evidence for the Exodus and how the Exodus did happen. It is one of the special scholar-in-residence residence weekmost compelling journeys of discovery that end. Freund, a former Omahan, will focus I have ever been on.” his presentations on the various aspects of On Saturday, May 1, during 9:30 What Has Biblical Archaeology Taught Us. a.m. Shabbat services, Freund will address Freund, an ordained rabbi, is director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic “The Weekly Torah Portion – Parsha and Studies and Greenberg professor of Jewish Archaeology,” the premise of a book he has History at the University of Hartford. He been working on for the past decade. The has directed six archaeological projects in week’s parsha – Emor – “is another in one Israel and three projects in Europe on of the vexing chapters of Leviticus that behalf of the university, including always makes the life of a rabbi offering an Dr. Richard Freund Bethsaida, Qumran, the Cave of Letters, insight on the weeks Torah difficult,” he Nazareth, Yavne, Har Karkom (Mount Sinai), as well as said. “I will be comparing one of the most interesting archaeological projects in Burgos and Cadiz, Spain, and parts of the parsha -- the calendar -- and showing how at the extermination camp at Sobibor, Poland. archaeological discoveries in the past 100 years have In addition to authoring six books on archaeology and changed how we understand the Jewish calendar and its two books on Jewish ethics, he has penned over 100 development.” scholarly articles. His most recent book is Digging Finally, during the Kiddush luncheon after services, Through the Bible: Modern Archaeology and Ancient Freund will delve into “The Greatest Archaeological Bible, published last year. Two other tomes, Discovery of the Century: How the Dead Sea Scrolls Understanding Jewish Ethics, Volume I and II, are used in Changed Judaism and Christianity.” college Jewish ethics courses nationwide.

“I spent three years excavating at Qumran, the site of Freund has also appeared in a variety of television doc- the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and we found new umentaries, among them the History Channel’s God vs. and exciting information from the site which has been Satan: The Final Battle, CNN’s After Jesus: The First called ‘the greatest archaeological discovery of the centuChristians, and NOVA’s Ancient Refuge in the Holy ry.’” he said. “The discovery of the Scrolls revolutionized Land, based on his book, Secrets of the Cave of Letters. the way that Christians understood the transition from During his weekend in Omaha, Dr. Freund will offer the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament, and for the the following presentations (he noted that each topic is first time modern Jews understood that ancient Judaism a chapter from his most recent book): On Friday, April was much more diverse than anyone ever imagined.”

30, during 6 p.m. Kabbalat Shabbat services, he will disFor those interested in thought-provoking discussions cuss, “What Happened to Mount Sinai?” about the Bible, Freund will lead the synagogue’s Bible “As we approach the holiday of Shavuot, is there a Study Discussion Group on Sunday at 10 a.m.; all adults topic more important than Mount Sinai, the place where in the community are invited to join in the conversation. the revelation of the Ten Commandments took place?”

All of Freund’s presentations are open to the entire he asked. “The problem is that archaeologists have con- community. Cost of the Friday night dinner is $8.50 for cluded that we really do not know where the ‘true’ adults; $5 for children 6-12; free for children five and Mount Sinai really is. The location of one of the most younger. In addition, free babysitting will be available by important places on earth, Mount Sinai is not really reservation only. Dinner reservations are needed by April known! Archaeologists have spent the better part of the 26, and may be made by sending a check to Beth El last century and have come up with almost a dozen pos- Synagogue, 14506 California St., Omaha NE 68154. sible locations. I will talk about why the place that tourists Please specify meat/fish preference. There is no charge have been taken for 1,500 years is not the site and we may for the Kiddush luncheon. For more information about have recently stumbled upon the ‘true’ Mount Sinai.” the scholar-in-residence weekend, please call Program At a special Shabbat dinner following services, Freund Director Margie Gutnik at 492.8550. will explore “Did the Exodus Happen? New Insights Freund’s visit has been made possible by a generous from Archaeology.” Saying that for the past half century, donation from the Dorothy and Henry Riekes Family “archaeologists have gone from a position that the Endowment Fund.

Congratulations to the Winners of the Fifth Annual Sokolof Awards Phil and Ruth Sokolof Honor Roll Fund

Karen Sokolof Javitch Music Fund

$10,000 Merit Scholarship – College

Merit Scholarship

Dayna Cohen

UNO

Ilya Poluektov

Millard West High School

Molly Goldberg Westside High School

$10,000 Merit Scholarship – Health Care Joel Passer UNMC College of Medicine

The recipients will be honored at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, May 17 at the JCC during the Partnership with Israel Performing Arts Series concert featuring internationally acclaimed violinist,Vadim Guzman.

Recipients will be profiled in future editions of the Jewish Press

Ellina Pisetsky UNMC College of Pharmacy

$10,000 Outstanding Jewish Teacher Award Beth Spizman Hartman Elementary, OPS

Jay Noddle, President Martin C. Ricks, Executive Director

Page 4

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

April 16, 2010

Shin Bet details efforts to bring Blau back to Israel

by RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Israel’s security service wants to question a Ha’aretz journalist about the whereabouts of 2,000 classified documents.

In an extraordinary and detailed statement on the Anat Kamm affair posted Thursday on the Shin Bet website, the agency said its efforts to negotiate the return of Uri Blau to Israel had arrived at a “dead end.”

The agency said it arrived at an agreement in September with Blau, an investigative reporter, to destroy 50 classified documents he had obtained.

The agreement included the destruction of Blau’s computer and a pledge by the Shin Bet not to charge him, not to force him to reveal his source, and not to charge his source should he or she be uncovered.

In its own statement, Ha’aretz confirmed the deal, which it said was signed on Sept. 15, adding that Blau handed over “dozens of classified documents in his possession.”

The Shin Bet statement goes on to suggest that its agreement with Blau was nullified when investigators allegedly discovered that Kamm -- Blau’s alleged source -- had appropriated 2,000 documents, many of them top secret, “including special operations, operational commands, operational and intelligence assessments, command forum summaries, ongoing security activity, documents having to do with means of warfare, deployment of troops. etc.”

Because of the “critical gap” between the 50 documents Blau handed over and the 2,000 allegedly appropriated by Kamm, the state attorney requested an interview with Blau, who has been overseas since December, the statement said. The Tel Aviv district prosecutor has negotiated the terms of his return over the last few weeks with Blau’s representatives, the statement said, but on April 6, the negotiations came to a “dead end.”

Ha’aretz’s statement confirmed the second set of negotiations, but added that, in its view, the Shin Bet had violated the terms of its deal with its continuing efforts to question Blau.

The newspaper’s statement does not specifically address whether Blau holds additional documents; it describes the papers returned by Blau in September as “documents he had used to prepare his articles.” It also said the original deal was aimed at “preserving the newspaper’s sources of information and the freedom of a reporter to act without harming the nation’s security.”

The statement also notes that Blau’s reporting passed the censor.

“Ha’aretz regrets the sudden about face in the Shin Bet’s position and its results, the substance of which is the placing of heavy pressure and threats on a journalist fulfilling his role,” its statement said.

Blau, who left Israel in December on a honeymoon trip, is now believed to be in London.

Kamm had, as part of her military service, worked for Central Command. She subsequently was a media reporter for Walla, an online news site that was until recently partly owned by Ha’aretz.

Kamm, who had been placed under house arrest in December, was charged on Jan. 14 with “Grave espionage -- relaying classified information with the intention of harming the state’s security, and the gathering and keeping of classified information with the intention of harming the state’s security,” the statement said.

Kamm has denied the charges.

The Shin Bet investigation was launched after Blau published documents in November 2008 showing that senior army staff approved targeted killings in 2007.

Blau quoted legal experts to show that the assassinations violated Israeli Supreme Court rulings.

One memo said Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, then as now the chief of staff, approved assassinations if troops determined that no more than one innocent would be killed; the Supreme Court had ruled that no innocents may be killed in such attacks. After the publication of the documents, the Shin Bet says in its statements, Ashkenazi requested an investigation.

One of Kamm’s lawyers, Avigdor Feldman, says that authorities are making Kamm a “scapegoat.”

“If she had been really interested to undermine state security, there would have been no shortage in hands willing to accept that material and use it to hurt the state,” Feldman told Ha’aretz in a story published Thursday. “Someone just said to himself, ‘Let’s find a scapegoat.’”

The Shin Bet statement alleges that Kamm attempted to interest another journalist in the documents. It said that military intelligence “assesses that exposing the documents to hostile forces could bring about substantial harm, a risk to life, and harm to the state’s security.”

Israeli courts gagged news of the case and of Kamm’s arrest in December. The gag was lifted Thursday after JTA and other news services not subject to the gag order published accounts outside of Israel.

NCJW Fashion Show Continued from page 1 Card from Bergman Jewelers, and a bamboo bowl and kosher spices from Pampered Chef. Everyone who attends is eligible to win.

Tickets are available by contacting Nikki Kirshenbaum at 965.8935 or via email, nrkirshe@ cox.net. The entire community is invited.

March of the Living

by ANNE MUSKIN JCC Teen and BBYO Director Established in 1988, the March of the Living is an international study mission designed to give Jewish teens an intense educational experience that is beyond textbook readings, focusing on the history of the Holocaust and Israel. Originating in Poland and concluding in Israel, this two-week program covers significant Jewish sites, primarily those associated with the Holocaust and Israel as it emerged from the Second World War. This year, March of the Living begins April 8 and ends April 22. Sponsored by B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, Inc., this is currently the only trip of its kind available to teens in the Omaha area. This is a once in a lifetime experience, that both humbles and empowers these teens, enabling them to be advocates for the rest of their lives.

A lot of energy and expertise has gone in to preparing the four Omaha teens who will be taking this trip. Shir Palmon, Adi Gill, Brenna Robinson, and Molly Gilinsky worked with Beth Dotan, Director of the Institute for Holocaust Education, and Elya Wilson, Community Schlicha, to ready them for this experience.

“Throughout February and March, we met three times” Wilson offered. “We spoke with the teens about the years leading up to the Holocaust, the reality of life in the Ghettos and concentration camps, and the revival and the early years of the new State of Israel.”

During these educational sessions, they reviewed the historic aspect of those years, but spent a considerable amount of time dealing with the difficult way of life and the dilemmas every single person who lived through the horrors of the Holocaust were faced with.

The four girls we are sending to represent Omaha and the entire Jewish People in the 2010 March of the Living in Auschwitz are prepped and ready for a deeper understanding and connection to the Jewish Community.

All the teens were given considerable financial assistance, as this trip is astonishingly expensive. I wanted to ensure anyone who wanted to attend, could. Joining me in this belief were many from the community who chose to help fund this experience. Our heartfelt thank yous to the Gary Javitch Family Fund, Special Donor Advised Fund, the Milton S. and Corinne N. Livingston Foundation, the Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation, and the Jewish Federation for it’s Israel Experience Grants.

As a requirement for receiving funding, upon their return, all the participants are doing many outreach efforts in our community. They will be speaking at schools and lunches, writing articles in the Jewish Press about their experiences, and creating moving media presentations to help recruit future March participants.

For more information, or to book one of our teen speakers, contact me at 334.6404 or amuskin@jccomaha.org.

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April 16, 2010

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 5

World renowned violinist to perform at JCC

by MARY SUE GROSSMAN Center for Jewish Education The Partnership with Israel program of the Jewish Federation presents world renowned violinist Vadim Gluzman Monday, May 17 at 7 p.m. in the Jewish Community Center Gluzman, Theater. accompanied by his wife Angela Yoffe, is with the world famous Keshet Eilon Music Center at Kibbutz Eilon in the Western Galilee.

This extraordinary concert is presented free of charge through the generosity of the Sokolof

Javitch Music Fund. Seating is limited; reservations are required -call 334.8200.

Intermission will feature the presentation of the Sokolof Merit Scholarships and Outstanding Jewish Teacher Awards; The Sokolof Javitch Merit Music Scholarship and the Roberrt and Ellen Gordman Jewish Teen Leadership Award. A reception will follow the concert, compliments of the Phil and Ruth Sokolof Honor Roll Fund.

Obama nuclear plan raises questions about long-term impact

by RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA) -- President Obama’s proposal to reduce nuclear weapons is expected to have little immediate impact on Israel’s posture because of its caveats for enemies and allies.

In the long term, however, there is some concern that a new focus on transparency ultimately could pressure Israel to make its nuclear capabilities publicly known.

For the time being, Jewish groups are hoping that the policy’s noted exception of Iran will ratchet up the pressure on the Islamic Republic to end its own opacity about its suspected nuclear weapons program.

Obama announced the planned policy shift on the eve of a new missile reduction treaty with Russia and just days before a Washington summit on nuclear security that will include Israeli leaders. The proposal would, for the first time, explicitly commit the United States to avoid using nuclear weapons against any state that abides by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, even if such states attacked America with nonconventional arms such as biological or chemical weapons.

Pro-Israel groups were reassured by explicit and repeated assurances from the Obama administration that Iran and North Korea are exempt because of their rogue activities.

Robert Gates, the defense secretary, cast the exemption as sharpening the nuclear focus on those two states. The plan has a “very strong message for both Iran and North Korea,” he said in a news conference on Tuesday. “All options are on the table for countries in that category, along with non-state actors who might acquire nuclear weapons.”

Shoshana Bryen, the director of special projects for the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs, said that by exempting rogue states like Iran and North Korea, the Obama administration is making it clear it will not be a pushover. “Carving out the exemption for Iran is to say, ‘We’re serious about this,’” Bryen said.

But Bryen expressed doubts about the long-term efficacy of the policy, saying that the strategy could bog down U.S. policymaking in seeking to please divergent interests. “If we tie our behavior to others who have different needs and

requirements, we won’t get rid of nuclear weapons,” she said.

Spokesmen for a number of pro-Israel groups would not comment, saying they were still examining the policy. One mainstream pro-Israel insider said the focus, for now, would remain on enhancing sanctions targeting Iran.

Israel’s nuclear weapons program would not be affected, because Israel is one of the few nations not to have signed on to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Although the Israeli government has never acknowledged that it has nuclear weapons, the government also maintains an explicit policy of never being the first to use nuclear weapons.

Avner Cohen, the author of “Israel and the Bomb” and a University of Maryland affiliate, said the plan’s emphasis on reducing ambiguity and more doctrinal explicitness eventually could pressure Israel to end its policy of opacity.

“It highlights the anachronistic nature of opacity,” Cohen said. “Israel is the only nuclear weapon state that still cannot acknowledge having nuclear weapons, the very first condition of transparency.”

Obama also plans to further cut the U.S. nuclear arsenal and freeze development of new nuclear weapons. The idea behind the policy, called the Nuclear Posture Review, is to take a step toward making nuclear weapons obsolete and remove the incentives for other states to pursue nuclear weapons, Obama said in an interview with The New York Times.

“We are going to want to make sure that we can continue to move towards less emphasis on nuclear weapons,” Obama said, to “make sure that our conventional weapons capability is an effective deterrent in all but the most extreme circumstances.”

In an Op-Ed distributed by the White House, Vice President Joe Biden sought to allay concerns that the new policy would harm the ability of the United States to defend itself or its allies.

“Because of advances in conventional capabilities and technologies such as missile defense, we need fewer nuclear weapons to deter adversaries and protect our allies than we did even a decade ago,” Biden wrote. “Under the new review, we will retain only those weapons needed for our core requirements.”

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April 16, 2010

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Jewish group to Glenn Beck: Haik U

by BEN HARRIS Jewish bloggers sided with the president, NEW YORK (JTA) -- If Glenn Beck arguing that the retelling of the Exodus has his way, many American Jews would story is meant to inspire Jews and others be abandoning their synagogues. If one to combat injustice.

Jewish group has its way, the popular Such talk, but especially Beck’s comright-wing talk-show host will be ments, are a sign of desperation, said Mik drowned out by a wave of haikus.

Moore, the chief strategy officer at Jewish The popular right-wing talk show host Funds for Justice.

-- who has called the health care reform “It’s part of a broader assault, in this legislation “an assault on the republic” instance, on faith communities that put and the first African American president a social justice at the center of their work,” “racist” -- is urging people to quit their Moore said. “It stems from a fear that the churches if the term “social justice” side that rejects the relationship between appears anywhere on their Web sites. “I Judaism and social justice, that they’re beg you, look for the words losing.” ‘social justice’ or ‘economic It’s noteworthy that the justice’ on your church Web tension between Jewish parsite,” Beck said on his ticularism and wider social nationally broadcast radio concerns should come to a program March 2. “If you head around Passover, perfind it, run as fast as you can. haps the most expansively Social justice and economic understood and universally justice, they are code words.” resonant of all Jewish holiTo illustrate the point furdays. Passover seders have ther, Beck, on his television long been an occasion for show, held up cards imprintinterfaith dialogue, and Glenn Beck ed with a swastika and the Jewish groups routinely credit: Jamie McCarthy/ organize seders around such hammer and sickle. Social WireImage.com diverse themes as labor justice, Beck said, was tantamount to Nazism and communism. rights, children’s nutrition, and the civil Christian leaders of various stripes were rights struggle. outraged. But surprisingly, considering Jewish conservatives, for their part, that a good number of synagogues in the don’t call for Jews to abandon wide social United States would be shuttered if causes altogether, but rather to find a betAmerican Jews followed Beck’s advice, ter balance between them and the specifJewish groups haven’t had much to say. ic needs of the Jewish community.

The exception was Jewish Funds for “Nobody here is claiming that we need Justice, which last week launched a Web to expunge a universalist frame of refersite, “Haik U Glenn Beck,” in which users ence from our Jewish point of view,” said are invited to respond to Beck -- poetically. Jonathan Tobin, the executive editor of “Hurling expensive/coffee at the Commentary, who asserted that putting expensive/TV screen now, Ahhh,” wrote Beck and Wertheimer in the same categothe novelist and Daily Beast columnist ry is “screwy.”

Christopher Buckley in one of nearly “What we’re saying is, when things get 1,000 haikus submitted during the site’s out of whack, when you are primarily first week of operation. interested in the universal agenda, then The Beck controversy comes at a the Jewish end of it can suffer,” he said. moment when social justice, for years a Newer Jewish non-profits often claim growing -- and minimally controversial -- that social justice is a greater animating area of communal activity, has emerged as cause for younger Jews than the issues trasomething of a dividing line between ditionally associated with older, more estabJewish liberals and conservatives. lished Jewish organizations. But Tobin Jack Wertheimer, a professor and for- believes that if Jewish affiliation and donamer provost of the Jewish Theological tions to specifically Jewish causes continue Seminary of America, sparked a minor to decline, then all Jewish institutions will uproar last month when, in the March suffer -- the social justice groups included. issue of Commentary magazine, he criti“The idea that only Jewish universalism cized the diversion of community will survive while Jewish parochialism resources to projects aimed at helping goes down the tubes is, to me, a remarknon-Jews under the guise of social justice. ably foolish point of view,” Tobin said.

More recently, Jennifer Rubin, also For his part, Moore accepts that. Jewish writing for Commentary, called President Funds for Justice, he said, wouldn’t be Obama’s Passover message, with its training rabbis and working with synaemphasis on a universal social message, gogues if it was unconcerned with strength“off-key, hyper-political, and condescend- ening the Jewish community. “But,” he ing.” Obama’s “secularized spiel,” Rubin added, “we’re doing it in a way that is wrote, denies the holiday’s uniquely meaningful to them and yet is genuinely Jewish message. At the same time, liberal rooted in Jewish history and tradition.”

BIRTH Sarah and Shawn Schroeder of Alva, OK, formerly of Omaha, announce the March 5 birth of their son, Sterling Mason. He has a sister, Sadie, and a brother, Shane.

Grandparents are Veronica and Jared Wilson of Little River, KS; Nancy and

Duane Schroeder of Dodge City, KS; Charles Shub of Colorado Springs, CO; Clara Shub of Peyton, CO. Great-grandparents are Evelyn Schroeder of Lyons, KS; Wanda Hale of Haven, KS; Gwen and Fred Brooks of Dodge City, KS.

Bus ad for Third Temple yanked Contact your advertising representative to advertise in this very special edition.

ALLAN Handleman Call Allan Handleman at 402.334.6451 or email: ahandleman@jewishomaha.org

by JTA NEWS STAFF JERUSALEM (JTA) – An Israeli bus advertisement campaign by a group calling for the building of the Third Temple has been removed.

The Our Land of Israel party had put posters on 200 city buses in Jerusalem shortly before Passover showing an artist’s rendition of the Third Temple on the site now occupied by the Al Aksa Mosque with the slogan, “May the

Temple be built in our lifetime.”

The signs were removed by the advertising franchiser this week, several days before the campaign was set to end, following many threats received in the last week, according to Ynet.

Far-right figures Baruch Marzel and Rabbi Shalom Wolpe formed the Our Land of Israel movement in 2008. The group told Ynet it is considering suing the franchiser and the Egged bus company.

April 16, 2010

Beware the cholesterol boogeyman

BERT’S EYE VIEW

by BERT LEWIS

I always enjoy writing the first column after Spring finally shows a sample of the warm days to come. Especially following a winter such as we’ve just endured. As so often happens here in the unpredictable midwest, one day it was winter and the next nearly summer! I’m not complaining, mind you. Just commenting.

Things are beginning to turn green and tiny buds seem to be on the way, and it makes me wonder. Are we always so happy to see these signs, or is it just gratitude the snow has gone? Who knows....and who cares? We’ve made it once again. For some of us the winter may have been worse than for others, but that’s true of every season. Whatever the case, if you’re reading this, you survived!

And we’ve already welcomed Passover and committed it to the category of “past holidays.” Next year, may we do it all over again.

This year was nothing like past years, but I did, with a nod to the season, make the usual gefilte fish. One of my sons was with me for that weekend, and was at my elbow, cleaning up after me; as a result, the effort was lightened greatly. And I must admit, his pleasure when he sampled the finished product, was worth any amount of work.

Every year I debate with myself: should I make the fish, or will the preparation exhaust me for days after?

It’s an old argument, and I always end up with the same conclusion my late Mom had. She would say, “I’m going to do it one more time, because I might not be able to next year.” I take that as a good reason to continue the tradition. So we made the fish, my son and I. And while we were only the two of us at the table, it was still hamish enough to be ok. It was far from the way it always was, but so is life for us at this time. Regardless,

Pesach still makes an appearance every year, and we do the usual things because that’s our tradition.

And I do love our traditions and customs, and find I’m already looking forward to Shavuos and thinking about what I call “blintz season.” I’m hoping our weather will be gorgeous by then and we’ll all feel really festive. As I think I’ve done every year for most of the time I’ve been writing these columns, I always have a story or two about my late Father, who really loved it when Shavuos rolled around again. He loved the dairy dishes we women like to specialize in, and made no bones about it.

I can almost hear him asking my Mom how many dozens of eggs she needed, in order to make all those goodies.

Earliest of those memories preceded the cholesterol boogyman, of course.

All of that leads to the ever present question: Do we have to associate food with our holidays? Is it a must with just us, or do other groups do the same? Not a burning question, but it always, always is heard among us. I don’t know the answer, but I know it’s a fact. Just pick one of our holidays and see how quickly you can recite the foods that will appear right after the brocha.

Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe we just need to observe the holiday as it was meant to be, and add the enjoyment of food as part of it. And before I dismiss the food topic completely, I am compelled to remember just one really old fashioned treat: the mashed potatoes that appeared with a meat meal.

Those were special almost beyond description. First of all, they were liberally laced with fresh schmaltz, then grebenes were generously added, plus chopped hard cooked eggs. Naturally plenty of salt and pepper, and don’t tell me about sodium! I almost salivate when I remember those mashed potatoes. Really a relic of the past, since describing them almost causes arteries to gurgle!

I hope everyone enjoyed Passover 2010, and I hope you all had your loved ones at the table. And no matter where you plan to be next year for Seder, may you be surrounded by those dearest to you.

Bert Lewis can be reached at BertLewis39@aol.com.

National Healthcare Decisions Day set for April 16

by MARY GROSSERODE Director of Marketing and Sales for Remington Heights Remington Heights Retirement Community, along with other national, state, and community organizations, are leading a massive effort to highlight the importance of advance healthcare decision making. This effort has culminated in the formal designation of April 16 as National Heathcare Decisions Day (NHDD). Remington Heights and AseraCare are providing information and tools for the public to talk about their wishes with

family, friends, and healthcare providers. They will also advise on how to execute written advance directives, such as healthcare power of attorney, and living will, in accordance with Nebraska state laws.

On April 16, from 9 until 10 am, Remington Heights will welcome the public with free information; coffee and rolls will be served. Call today to reserve seats. For more information about National Healthcare Decision Day, please visit http://www.na tionalhealthcaredecisionsday.org.

Page 7

Rabbi Zweiback impresses worshippers, learners at Temple Israel

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator “I have been to many Shabbat services in my life here, and in California where I was very active in our Temple, and other cities where we visit,” remarked Marty Ricks after attending a worship service on March 26 at Temple Israel welcoming home Rabbi Josh Zweiback.

“The combination of Rabbi Zweiback’s singing and his story about moving to Israel, his eloquence, and his charm,” added Ricks, “was one of the most inspiring and enjoyable services I have Rabbi Zweiback speaking ever witnessed.”

Ricks said he “could relate during scholar-in-residence. to my first trip to Israel in 1987 visiting for the first time.

Because of delays leaving Los Angeles, we were in the plane for 25 hours. Seeing the ground was a welcome relief.” Rabbi Zweiback mentioned that in the airport terminal after landing in Israel, he saw a sign that read, Welcome Home. Ricks insisted that “the first time landing in Israel, sign or no sign, is an emotional experience.”

On Saturday morning at Torah study prior to Shabbat worship services, Rabbi Zweiback described the story of Rabbi Eliezer’s excommunication. Angie Krieger explained that “as a member of a community, I must recognize the validity of other views on matters of a community concern. I also was reminded of the special responsibility of those in positions of power to exact sanctions against individuals with some measure of humility and to better appreciate the impact of that action on that person’s ability to continue to participate in the wider community.”

Phyllis Glazer was among those who attended Rabbi Zweiback’s examination on Sunday morning of the teachings of French Jewish philosopher Emanuel Levinas. “Workers rights have been a part of Judaism since the year 200,” Glazer learned. “We are to see that our workforce is fed and given a set amount of time in which to work each day without exploitation. Levinas is overwhelmingly difficult to understand,” she added, “but Rabbi Zweiback has a wonderful ability to make the difficult much easier and more palatable. I’m always awed by the knowledge which Rabbi Zweiback has at his finger tips. His sense of recall is truly a wonderful gift.”

“For me, ”Karen Oyler said, Sunday “was a confirmation of what I’ve heard or learned elsewhere. Participating in the Sunday session was a highlight of the week.”

Photo: Kate Turning

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April 16, 2010

Kyrgyz Jews hold breath amid upheaval

by ANNA RUDNITSKAYA & URIEL HEILMAN MOSCOW (JTA) – As the capital of Kyrgyzstan erupted in violence April 7, members of the Central Asian nation’s small Jewish community held their breath and sat tight.

The ORT school in the capital, Bishkek, shuttered its doors, sending students home just as they were returning from their Passover break. With public transportation suspended and the city in disarray, only three people made it to morning services at the local synagogue.

Meanwhile, Jewish community leaders exchanged frantic phone calls, updating each other about the situation on the street.

By the end of the day, opposition protestors had stormed the presidential compound, overwhelmed the police and taken control of the government. The president, Kurmanbek Bakiev, had fled, and more than 40 people had been killed. On Thursday, a former foreign minister announced he was leading a new, transitional government, which would last six months.

It was not immediately clear where this one-day revolution would leave the country -- or its estimated 1,500 Jews, most of whom live in Bishkek.

“The situation is the city remains unstable, but the Jewish community has not suffered so far,” Kyrgyzstan’s chief rabbi, Arieh Reichman, told JTA. “All the community leaders keep in touch with each other and with the community members, mostly by phone. I have been contacted by an Israeli foundation that could provide us with humanitarian aid. But the situation is not so bad so far, and hopefully things will calm down in the near future.”

More than half of Bishkek’s Jews are on community welfare, receiving aid through the local Hesed center, which is sponsored by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Asher Ostrin, the executive director of JDC’s operations in the former Soviet Union, said the community was working to ensure that its Jewish welfare clients experience no disruption during the unrest.

“When the rioting spread earlier in the week, and then escalated into a full scale revolution, we established immediate and ongoing contact with our sources in the community,” Ostrin said in a dispatch to JDC officials.

“There were no reported injuries among the Jewish population. Critically, we were told that services to elderly clients were not interrupted.”

A security office at the synagogue, Valentin Sharov, said the violence came close but did not reach the shul.

“A shop just 100 meters from us was ravaged last night, but no one tried to attack the synagogue,” Sharov said last Thursday.

A police truck burns in front of the presidential palace in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on the day opposition protesters overthrew the government, April 7.

Credit: Svobodanews.ru After shuttering early on last Wednesday, all the city’s Jewish institutions stayed closed on Thursday, reported Vladimir Katsman, director of Bishkek’s ORT school.

“Wednesday we had to finish the lessons earlier than usual and to close the school until the situation gets more foreseeable. We even called the parents to come and take the children, because we were not sure the school bus that usually takes the children home could be safe enough,” Katsman said. “Our ORT school is under surveillance. It became more difficult and expensive to keep the security men on duty these days, but we managed to solve the problem.”

The Jews of Kyrgyzstan are comprised largely of the second and third-generation descendants of Jews from Ukraine, Belarus and central Russia who fled here to escape the Nazis during World War II. Most returned home after the war, but enough remained to make an

impression in Kyrgyzstan, where many of the Jews went into health care. Even during the era of Soviet statesponsored anti-Semitism, there was little hostility toward Jews in this remote republic, local Jews said. When the country became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Jewish security remained good. Though three-quarters of Kyrgyzstan’s 5.5 million people are Muslim, radical Islam has not really gained a foothold in the country.

“We don’t feel any problems because of the Islamic environment,” Katsman said. “I haven’t heard of any antiSemitic utterances because of the street violence so far.”

However, one journalist in the country told JTA about an encounter with a group of drunken young people demanding to know if the journalist was Jewish. The leader of the group made a disparaging remark about Jews.

The closest Israeli embassy, in neighboring Kazakhstan, said it was tracking events closely.

“We ask citizens of Israel who are in Kyrgyzstan to get in touch with us. This is a standard procedure in case of any trouble,” an embassy official told JTA. “We do not have plans for an evacuation operation so far. We don’t have information on the exact number of Israelis in Kyrgyzstan.”

The ousted government, while widely considered repressive, was also pro-Western, and the United States has a large air base in Kyrgyzstan that’s critical to the NATO campaign in nearby Afghanistan. It’s not clear whether or not the U.S. friendliness toward the former regime -- which the opposition denounced and which U.S. observers described as a stance borne of pragmatism -- will cost the West in its relationship with the new Kyrgyz government, which has close ties to Moscow.

Opposition members who took control Wednesday said they were interested in creating a government based on “justice and democracy.”

Kyrgyzstan is bordered by three other former Soviet Republics -- Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan – as well as China.

“Jews were treated good in Bishkek even in Soviet times, and we hope that whatever government is in power in Kyrgyzstan, this will remain the same and Jews will prosper here,” Reichman said.

Out

Dining

April 16, 2010

Temple’s social justice efforts turn green “green” initiative, said, “Reform Judaism endeavors to

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator promote an awareness of environmental considerations Electronic Recyclers, Inc. is partnering with Temple and environmentally responsible acts by integrating Israel’s Social Justice Committee on Sunday, April 25, Jewish values, learning, and actions that promote sh’mibetween the hours of 10 a.m. - noon, to take discarded rat ha’adamah, protection and renewal of the world. electronic equipment off your hands. If you’ve got com- Reusing our electronics is a simple way to be ‘green.’” puter monitors, keyboards, printers, FAX machines, telIn another effort to take good care of the earth, evisions, copiers, telephones, stereo systems, cell phones, Temple families will participate in the Community electronic toys, calculators, radios, alarm clocks, or med- Supported Agriculture (CSA) project for the second ical equipment you’ve summer in a row. Brent been storing, because you and Rebecca Bloom grow weren’t sure how to disorganic produce on their pose of it, this is your Fertile Crescent Farm in opportunity to get rid of Crescent, Iowa. Each the clutter. There is no week, families that have charge, but a $10 donapurchased a membership tion per item is requested. in the CSA project will Since it was established pick up a box of lettuce, in 1996, Electronic radishes, summer squash, Recyclers has grown to cucumbers, tomatoes, serve local businesses, beans, potatoes, raspbernational companies, and ries, peppers and assorted individuals in Georgia, other fruits and vegetaOklahoma, Missouri, bles at Temple over an Texas, and Nebraska. ERI 18-week period. The averages nearly a million project is intended to be pounds a year in recyeducational, promote cling. The company polihealthy eating, and procy is: “Nothing goes to tect a small farm from the landfill.” The best over-development and form of recycling is urban sprawl. reusing materials and Families participating in last year's Community Supported “We were excited to repurposing them for Agriculture project lined up to get their pick of the produce. participate in the CSA future use, according to ERI. It’s ultimately about pro- project (last year), because we ate healthy and fresh food tecting the environment. Many donated electronics are all summer long,” commented Kathy Beauchaine. “Also, donated to charities locally and as far away as villages in we learned how to cook produce that we had avoided Africa. previously such as kale, collards, and other mysterious ERI uses a program called “Kill-Disk” that meets mil- green leafy plants.” itary standards and specifications to ensure that confiJudy Feigin, who like Beauchaine and her husband Jeff dential, private, and personal information on hard drives Laudin, has signed up to participate in CSA again this is destroyed and cleared from all materials received. year, said, “Fresh produce delivered to Temple…what’s According to the Consumer Electronics Association, the not to like? It introduced me to ‘veggies’ I wouldn’t typaverage home has 24 pieces of electronic equipment, and ically have, and my summer meals were interesting and the demand for getting rid of obsolete electronic equip- more creative.” ment is growing every day. The Environmental So far, 17 CSA shares have been purchased for the Protection Agency forbids “hazardous waste” such as upcoming summer. There are still two memberships lead, mercury, cadmium, and brominated flame retar- available. If you’re interested, contact Program Director dants, that can be found in electronics, to be disposed of Wendy Goldberg at 556.6536 or at wgoldberg@temin city garbage or landfills. After information on com- pleisraelomaha.com. puters is destroyed and cleared, ERI gives them a second While greening the earth, Temple’s Social Justice chance by donating them or reselling them at substantial Committee is also planning to brighten some of the discounts. classrooms in the Religious School wing on Sunday, Mimi Silverman, chair of Temple’s Social Justice May 16, by painting them. Volunteers, organized by Committee, taking a cue from the Reform Movement’s Silverman and Kim Noddle, will provide free labor.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 9

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B’nai B’rith Charity Banquet announces student-athlete honorees

by HOWARD BORDEN The most outstanding male and female scholar-athletes in the metro Omaha area will be honored at the 56th Annual B’nai B’rith Charity Sports Banquet, on Wednesday, May 12 at the Qwest Center Omaha.

Legendary sports basketball superstar Kareem AbdulJabbar is the dinner’s featured speaker.

“The two honorees are standouts in the classroom and on their respective playing fields,” Banquet chair Howard Shandell stated, “and were selected by metro area coaches and media representatives. Sarah Nelson, from Omaha Westside, earned the 2010 Earl Siegel Memorial Award and Ronald Coleman, from Omaha North garnered the 2010 Bert Render Memorial Award given annually by the Lodge,” Shandell added.

Both have received multiple honors. Sarah, for example, was named to honor teams by the Omaha WorldHerald (First Team Superstate Basketball 2008-10), the Lincoln Journal Star (First Team Superstate

Basketball 2008-2010); and 2008-10 Omaha WorldHerald First Team All-Division, All-Metro and AllNebraska, as well. She earned similar honors for soccer.

Ronald Colman defines the words “Elite Athlete,” winning national and state championships and a multitude of local commendations. The Omaha WorldHerald and the Lincoln Journal-Star (Boys Prep) named him their Athlete of the Year.

In football, Coleman was a driving force and team leader for his high school team, setting records for most points, touchdowns, and rushing touchdowns for the season and for his career. On the mat, the undefeated Nebraska Class A wrestling champion also won national honors from the Coaching Association (1st Place) and took the Brute National Champion title.

Patron Tickets for the event are $110 and VIP tickets, including a private reception with Abdul-Jabbar are $160. They can be purchased online at bnaibrithomaha.camp9.org or by calling Jenny at 334.6443.

Washington Post columnist: Obama weighing new peace plan

by JTA NEWS STAFF NEW YORK (JTA) -- President Obama is weighing a new American plan for Middle East peace, a Washington Post columnist reported.

In his column Wednesday, David Ignatius cited two unnamed administration sources who said Obama is “seriously considering” putting forth a proposal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

According to one of the officials, the plan would be linked to the issue of Iran, whose suspected nuclear weapons program is the top strategic priority of Israel’s

leaders and the top legislative agenda item for the American pro-Israel community.

“Incrementalism hasn’t worked,” one of the officials is quoted as saying. “As a global power with global responsibilities, we have to do something.” The plan, he said, would “take on the absolute requirements of Israeli security and the requirements of Palestinian sovereignty in a way that makes sense.”

The proposal could be launched by the fall, one of the officials said.

Seasons ARE CHANGING Snowbirds Please let the Jewish Press know in advance when you are leaving and when you are returning. Sometimes several papers are sent to your “old” address before we are notified by the Post Office. Every time they return a paper to us, you miss the Jewish Press and we are charged 70¢! Please call us at 402.334.6448 or email us at jpress@jewishomaha.org.

Page 10

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

April 16, 2010

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by TOBY AXELROD BERLIN (JTA) -- It isn’t easy facing the cold stare of a Nazi perpetrator, even in a photo. Increasingly, however, memorial sites in Germany are making the confrontation possible, opening a door that long has been sealed.

A new exhibit at the former Ravensbrueck women’s concentration camp in the ex-East German state of Brandenburg is the latest example.

“The Fuehrerhaus: Everyday Life and Crimes of Ravensbrueck SS Officers,” opened March 20, allowing a glimpse into the life of camp commandant Max Koegel and his SS underlings through informational panels arranged in his former villa, steps away from the barracks that once housed thousands of prisoners.

On April 18, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to visit the memorial for the first time to mark the camp’s liberation 65 years ago by Russian Red Army soldiers.

During a recent preview, members of the restoration crew and their spouses entered the peak-roofed house of Koegel, passed through the former dining area with its large fireplace, climbed the polished wooden staircase to the second floor and stepped out onto the balcony from which Koegel himself could survey the camp below.

The spheres of SS and prisoner “were two completely separate worlds,” exhibit curator Alyn Bessmann said.

“We hope this [dichotomy] will be more tangible to the visitors now.”

The contrast “should make people think,” said restorer Dietmar Gallinat, 46, standing on the balcony.

Koegel, notorious for his eagerness to punish prisoners for the slightest transgression, “was probably no different from the town baker” who ignored the brutality around him. “And there are still people who think this way today.”

“The whole thing has a kind of nightmarish atmosphere,” said painter Karsten Neumann, 46. “It is astonishing that people were capable of spreading such misery … and it is important to name these people.”

“When I think that they lived normal lives in these rooms, I feel sick,” said Neumann’s wife, Ulrike. “I felt I had to wash my hands after leaving the house because I did not want to touch what they had touched.”

Ravensbrueck reportedly is the third permanent exhibit on Nazi perpetrators mounted at a concentration camp memorial in Germany.

The first, about female camp guards, opened at Ravensbrueck in 2004. The second, also about guards, opened at the Neuengamme camp memorial near Hamburg in 2005.

At both sites, scholars thought it was time to confront perpetrators as a way to help Germans gain insight into a dark chapter of their own history and prevent future crimes.

The resulting exhibits highlight the victim’s perspective.

“The first thing you hear in the exhibit [about female guards] is former inmates speaking about these guards,” said Insa Eschebach, director of the Ravensbrueck memorial.

Major hurdles had to be overcome to launch the exhibit.

Skeptics, including survivors and their advocates, said such sites should be solely dedicated to the memory of victims. Some feared that exhibits about perpetrators might attract neo-Nazis or feed an unhealthy fascination with horror.

Eschebach counters that it was high time to confront the perpetrator after years of suppression.

In the former West Germany, memorials had been dominated by “a kind of religious intention,” she said, so chapels were built at such sites as Dachau, near Munich. And in the former East Germany, remembrance took on an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist tone.

“If there was any mention of perpetrators, it was to say they were all sitting in West Germany,” Eschebach said.

After German unification in 1990, memorials started “providing historical documentation,” Eschebach said.

“And with that came the question: Who were the perpetrators?”

New information centers opened in the early 1990s, including the “Topography of Terror” archive at the site of the former Gestapo headquarters in Berlin and the House of the Wannsee Conference, a villa outside Berlin where high-ranking Nazis met in January 1942 to map out the genocide of European Jewry.

A trove of archival material was suddenly available, and retired schoolteacher Werner Schubert was among those who took advantage.

At Wannsee, Schubert, now 85, learned that Rudolf Lange, one of the Nazis at the infamous conference, came from his own hometown, Weisswasser, in former East Germany.

Schubert’s work exposing the biography of Lange and naming other local Nazi criminals led a town leader to accuse him of “nailing perpetrators to the wall.”

“I answered that the perpetrators themselves are long dead, but they have children and grandchildren, and … they should deal with the past,” Schubert told JTA. Increasingly, descendants of Nazi perpetrators have sought information themselves. At Neuengamme, a discussion group was started for them, said historian Oliver von Wrochem.

“The need to confront our own history is relatively large today, much more than 10 years ago,” von Wrochem told JTA. “That is partly because most of the perpetrators are no longer alive, so one can deal with this more intensively and more easily.”

But it is also because this history “is a part of their biography and they have started to think about it again.”

The daughter of a camp commandant and a granddaughter of a camp doctor once told Bessmann that “they very much wished to love their relatives and that they could not. And I think that this is something quite central in the country from which the perpetrators come,” she said.

But in a sense, all Germans might feel “related” to the criminals.

“In that moment when I stand before the perpetrator, I have a personal relation to him,” said Schubert, a former Wehrmacht soldier, though never a Nazi Party member, he said. The perpetrator “becomes like a neighbor.

And when a personal relation is there, it is always hard.”

Empathy is a natural risk. Many debates have been heard in recent years in Germany as to whether films portraying Hitler, Goebbels or other high-ranking Nazis are too humanizing.

Bessmann isn’t concerned, having learned years ago from Israel’s Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem “to show the perpetrator as a person whom we must confront.”

“And as a normal person, you just have to distance yourself from them,” said Schubert.

At a reception following the recent preview tour of the new exhibit, one of several roofers having a few beers together said he resented the fact that “we as grandchildren are still paying” for the crimes of the past. Another said he wanted his own grandchildren one day to learn about the past, “but it should not be exaggerated.”

Such views are not uncommon in Germany. But the resources are there for those who actively seek to know more.

“The confrontation with the perpetrator is so fundamental and important in this country,” Bessmann said, and “increasingly, people are ready.”

Today, however, the closest they may come to a confrontation is with a photo on the wall.

Olmert trial postponed over new scandal

by JTA NEWS STAFF JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The corruption trial of Ehud Olmert has been postponed after the arrest of the exprime minister’s former aide.

During a recent hearing, the Jerusalem District Court rejected a motion filed by Olmert’s defense attorney to stop the trial completely until the completion of an investigation into Olmert's former aide, which came to light Wednesday when a media ban on the investigation was partially lifted.

Attorney Uri Messer was arrested Tuesday for alleged corruption in dealings with various real estate projects in

Jerusalem. Several others, including Jerusalem’s former municipal engineer, were also arrested. The charges involve accepting bribes to advance various construction projects around the city.

Last year, prosecutors announced that Messer would not be indicted in the corruption scandals for which Olmert himself was indicted.

The Olmert trial was postponed until May 6 due to “special circumstances,” at which time the trial hearings will begin.

Olmert is currently traveling abroad, according to reports; he has not been ordered to return to Israel despite rumors that he also will be charged in the scandal involving Messer. Olmert will return at the end of next week as scheduled, his spokesman told reporters.

April 16, 2010

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 11

Temple members head first responders’ Appreciation Day

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator Two Temple Israel congregants, Jerry Hoberman and Ray Somberg, have organized a daylong appreciation tribute to firefighters and police for Thursday, June 10, in Omaha. Hoberman and Somberg started planning the event two years ago.

“Jerry and I feel these people (firefighters and police) put their lives on the line for us 24 hours/365 days a year,” Somberg explained. “When something like 9/11 happens or kids fall through the ice” on a frozen body of water, the news media call attention to the importance of first responders. “But when it’s out of the news, we take them for granted,” said Somberg. He added that he’s had a visual in his mind since September 11, 2001, of “firefighters and police rushing in” to the doomed towers in New York City that day. He wants Omaha to show its appreciation for what these brave men and

women do “every hour of every day.”

Somberg, vice president of the Firefighter and Police Appreciation Foundation, and Hoberman, president, will talk at the 6 p.m. Shabbat worship service on Friday, April 16, at Temple Israel about what’s planned for June 10 in Omaha. Lt. Shayna Ray, with the Omaha Police Department and a member of Temple Israel, will be recognized during the service for her role in the community.

Among others who will be honored that night at Temple are Suzie Somberg, Beth Brodkey, Susan Rothholtz, Wendy Furst, Nancy Noddle, Paula Albert, Mary Bernstein, Silvia Roffman, Suzanne Singer, Nelson Gordman, Cliff Levitan, Gary Javitch, Tom Bernstein, Jonathan Rockman, Cookie Hoberman, Jane Rips, Ron Brodkey, Shelley Stern, and Joanie Jacobson, who are all serving on Appreciation Day committees. Noddle and Rips are also members of the Firefighter and Police Appreciation Foundation.

B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS Democrat state senator Tom White wants to challenge six-term congressman Republican Lee Terry for the opportunity to represent Omahans and Douglas-Sarpy County residents in the US House of Representatives and will speak on Wednesday, April 21, noon, in the JCC

invited at no charge to the Qwest parking lot for high angle rescue, vehicle pursuit, house fire, K-9 apprehension, rapid deployment force, and simulated vehicle accident rescue demonstrations. There will also be about 20 static displays such as a bomb truck robot, fire trucks, and a hazmat truck.

In the evening, firefighter and police families exclusively will be treated to a concert, fireworks, and rides for children.

“We think this is the first time” for such an all-day event, noted Somberg. “We don’t think that anything on this scale has been done anywhere in the country.”

He also pointed out that the Foundation has raised more than “$600,000 for equipment and training that make police and firefighter jobs safer for them and, in turn, for us.”

Governor Heineman will establish the event as an annual affair when he proclaims that June 11 will be Firefighters and Police Appreciation Day in 2011.

IN THE NEWS

ORGANIZATIONS

LOMIR REDN YIDDISH Yiddish brings us closer to our roots!

Come join us every Thursday from 1-3 p.m. in the JCC social hall. For information call Anne Skolkin at 343.1638.

After Mayor Jim Suttle kicks off the official schedule of events at 8 a.m., 400 volunteers will take their places at 60 major intersections in the city with signs urging drivers to “honk and turn their lights on” to commemorate the day. A luncheon honoring firefighters and police officers begins at noon at the Qwest Center. Somberg indicated that 1,600 people are expected including Governor Dave Heineman, Lt. Governor Rick Sheehy, Mayor Suttle, and U.S. Senator Ben Nelson, who has invited Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to attend as well.

While the luncheon is in progress at the Qwest Center, Temple Israel volunteers will be among the organizations delivering meals to 24 fire stations, four police precincts, the fire and police headquarters as well as the training center. Hy Vee is donating approximately 700 meals for the occasion.

From 1:30 to 5 p.m., the public is

social hall. Everyone in the community is invited. The program is free; an optional lunch is $13; beverage service, $3. For more information or to be placed on the email list, contact Jenny at 334.6443 or bnaibrith@jewishomaha.org.

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN NCJW-Omaha Section will host a fundraiser at California Pizza Kitchen in One Pacific Place on Wednesday, April 21, when patrons can help NCJW by eating, lunch, dinner or both at CPK. Just bring in

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All of us here at the Holiday Inn Omaha Convention Center are pleased to offer our special packages for your Bar or Bat Mitzvah.

We would be honored to be part of your family’s celebration.

Let Us Help Celebrate Your Special Day.

Rod Shkolnick, professor of Law, the NCJW flier and 20% will be returned to the organization to support community Creighton University School of Law will service projects. To obtain a flier, contact be inducted into the Commercial Real Vicki at vks4psu@hotmail.com.

Estate Workshop Hall ACLU Nebraska is holding their Annual of Fame during the Dinner on Saturday, April 24 at Cascio’s annual Hall of Fame Steakhouse in Omaha. Social hour at 6 Luncheon on April p.m., dinner at 7:15 p.m. The speaker for 16. Every year, this honor is awarded to the evening will be Ellery Schempp.

Tickets for the event are $45. For more distinguished profesinformation contact Megan at mmoslan- sionals whose careers have had a great or call impact on the commercial real estate der@aclunebraska.org industry in the Omaha area.

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ALLAN Handleman Call Allan Handleman at 402.334.6451 or email: ahandleman@jewishomaha.org

Page 12

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

April 16, 2010

A serious case of the ‘gimmes’

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press It used to be, we were happy with the invention of the washing machine. Don’t get me wrong: washing machines are important. I’ve heard too many stories from my father, about waking up at 5 am every Monday morning, and hauling hot water from the fire to the barn, where his mother would be doing laundry by hand. And that is all she did, all day long. I bet the day my grandmother received her first washing machine, it felt like having ten birthdays at once. So yes, I’m grateful for my washer and dryer; you push a button, and voila: clean crisp laundry. I feel the same about the iron, the vacuum, and the stove: all very handy contraptions that allow me to do something more exciting with my day. I imagine most people would agree with me that living without makes one feel, well, a bit too Cinderella.

Nowadays, with technology ever advancing, we have bigger wishes. Household items, bah: we want Bluetooth. We want a blackberry, an iPod or two, the newest widescreen and the latest GPS. Without them, we are lost: who can imagine going anywhere, or getting anything done without the assistance of something that is shaped like a flat box and tells us what to do?

With all that, there are of course some massive differences between then and now. We are much more connected to the world we live in: between our satellite dish and our wireless, we no longer have to wait for news to reach us.

We watch things happen in real time, and we can no longer say: “we didn’t know.”

Nowadays, not knowing is a clear choice. It involves work: not checking your email, your Facebook, your iPhone: ignoring every single tweet that comes your way, even the ones from your favorite pundit. Personally, I think it’s fantastic to find out about anything and everything right away; I despise nothing more than

missing out on news, especially if it involves an electronic toy I don’t yet have (No, I don’t own an iPad yet; if you have an extra one lying around, call me).

Yet, the more connected we are, the more disconnected we act. There is less need to visit if you can simply leave a voicemail, a comment, or an electronic greeting card; and sometimes we forget that social action is something more than expressing our feelings via twitter. The question is, now that we know so much, so immediately, what do we do with all that knowledge? Do we still make the jump from knowing to acting, and do we make it fast enough?

With every new toy that hits the market, we line up and get excited: this one, surely, will make life easier, and better. I will be the first to admit that merely seeing an apple logo gives me a serious case of the ‘gimmes’. But we must remember (yes, I’m lecturing) that even though our technology advances faster than the speed of light, there are still millions of people who would be happy with clean running water. That for every time we heat something in the microwave, there are too many children who don’t know what a balanced meal looks like. That for every iPod we program, there are people dying in earthquakes, civil wars, and mud slides. That for every time we switch the laundry, there is somebody, somewhere, who

doesn’t own a decent shirt, let alone enough clothes to warrant an entire machine to wash them with.

Fortunately, there are many opportunities to get involved with good causes; in order to do a mitzvah, nobody has to stand in line.

Owning the latest toy is fine, and wishing for the newest phone is okay, as long as we remember those that go without the most basic needs. There is a big difference between wanting, and needing; as long as we acknowledge that, social action can remain a major drive for all of us. And we don’t even need an app for that.

FOCUS ON ISSUES

by PAUL GOLDENBERG

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Despite global efforts in the aftermath 9/11 that have disrupted plots and constrained terrorist groups’ capabilities to strike the United States, our nation and our communities face a persistent and evolving terrorist threat, primarily from violent Islamic extremists, but also from lone wolves, white supremacists, and others that espouse hate and embrace a range of extremist ideologies.

In the past several months, our nation has faced a range of threats from terrorism.

Networks linked to or inspired by al-Qaida in Pakistan, Yemen and other hot spots continue to train operatives and plot attacks against the United States. We have seen firsthand that we are not immune to the emergence of homegrown radicalization and violent extremism.

In 2009, the exponential increase in domestic plots in the U.S. put the threat of homegrown terrorism on center stage. In a recent speech, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano remarked, “Homebased terrorism is here … and like violent extremism abroad, it is now part of the threat picture that we must confront.”

We must remind ourselves to remain cognizant of the current security environment and remain vigilant. Our approach should not be just about employing more security guards or buying more technological equipment. It is about approaching security in a different, more comprehensive manner. It is about building a culture of security. It is about considering the realm of possible threats and developing proactive solutions, testing your

Jewish Press Board Andy Ruback, Vice President; Michael Sigmond, Secretary; Michael Siegel, Treasurer; Howard K. Marcus, Immediate Past-chairman; Daphne Pollak Alperson, Marc Brodkey; Eric Dunning; Jason Epstein; Andie Gordman; Michael Kaufman; Bette Kozlen; Jamie Meyerson; Jim Simon; Dorothy Spizman.

The role of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to involve Jews in meeting Jewish communal needs locally, nationally and in Israel. Agencies of the Federation are: Community Relations, Jewish Community Center, Center for Jewish Education, Jewish Family Service/Jewish Senior Services, and the Jewish Press .

Guidelines and highlights of the Jewish Press, including front page stories and announcements, can be found online at: www 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: editor@jewishomaha.org; send ads (in .TIF or .PDF format) to: rbusse@jewishomaha.org.

Jewish community cannot be complacent on security emergency plans through tabletop exercises and ensuring that you have active shooter and evacuation measures ready to be implemented.

It is about forming partnerships with your local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to give others a stake in ensuring that all that can be done is done.

Never before has confidence in security been more critical. Homeland security for Jewish institutions has emerged as an unprecedented concern. The United States is engaged in a war against terrorists who want to attack Americans and Jewish targets here at home.

The threat is not restricted to high-profile cities such as New York and Washington, D.C. In fact, tighter security measures in those cities may convince terrorists to seek softer targets in less-prepared and populated areas of the country.

Complacency is a challenge we all face, but at this time of increasing uncertainty, we need to ensure that security remains an ongoing process. At SCN, we realize that each person working, volunteering and or participating in the organized Jewish community -- at a synagogue, JCC, federation, day camp or social agency -- is the critical ingredient in securing our community. Who that person is, what that person thinks and how that person reacts may make the difference between calm and calamity.

As our communities have come to know, credible information and information flow is the lifeline during a crisis, disaster or threat situation. Knowing when and where to evacuate during a disaster, and whether a shooting at a synagogue is an isolated attack or part of a larger operation are just some of the scenarios that impact our facilities and communities.

During a threat or crisis, Jewish leaders are

(Founded in 1920) Bobbi Leibowitz President Annette van de Kamp-Wright Editor Richard Busse Managing Editor Allan Handleman Advertising Manager Lori Kooper-Schwarz Assistant Managing Editor Barbara Kirkpatrick Bookkeeper

required to make decisions that can impact an entire community. Rarely do incidents of this nature remain isolated events. The Jewish community has been forced to spend millions of dollars on security equipment, guard protection and other security expenditures to create safer, more secure facilities and communal places.

Terrorism-related events targeting synagogues or other Jewish organizations create a ripple effect that impacts the entire American Jewish community. Sending children to Jewish day schools and synagogue services, or enjoying recreational activities at Jewish community centers are all decisions that may well be predicated on a terrorist threat or incident, and the ability to make an informed assessment and decision based upon the best available information we have during the current situation.

That is why the community has come to rely on SCN communications: “The process of providing our community with information that serves to reduce anxiety and fear as well as provide suggestions for planning that will assist the public in responding appropriately to some crisis (or impending crisis) situation.”

Our nation and community will continue to face complex and dynamic threats from extremism and terrorism. The immediacy of the threat of terrorism provides the American Jewish community with a compelling incentive to take awareness, preparedness and resiliency efforts seriously. But our response will be appropriate and measured, devoid of the fear that terrorism seeks to instill.

Paul Goldenberg is the national director of the Secure Community Network, which serves as the central address for the American Jewish community on security matters.

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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.

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April 16, 2010

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 13

Sshh! Let’s talk about Jewish Family Service

GUEST E DITORIAL

by KAREN GUSTAFSON Director, Jewish Family Services

How do you talk about an agency that is supposed to be confidential and quiet in order to protect its clients? AH! Herein lies our on-going challenge, and, if you know me, I can be up for a good challenge now and then.

When I was approached by our new “editor extraordinaire” to write a guest editorial and yet another challenge…to make it creative, I thought to myself how fun this could be “if” a great idea came to me. Well, the idea came to me at 1:00 am when I could not sleep. Instead of my usual tossing and turning, I decided to get out of bed, and so as not to disturb my family, I sat in the bathroom putting my thoughts to paper (isn’t this the place where men usually say they do their best thinking? Well, I never thought it would be me!)

What I’ve learned most about Jewish Family Service since coming to the agency almost 10 years ago is that

we are not always seen as relevant until you personally need us. That attitude baffles me: How can an agency be not relevant when we responsibly utilize community donations to provide over $100,000 annually to help those in need within the Jewish community? How can we be not relevant when we provide holiday food packages to over 60 individuals and families who do not have anywhere else to go to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah or Passover? How can we be not relevant when we serve an average of 136 clients a year through our counseling services and an average of 150 a year through our parenting classes? How can we be not relevant when we provide social and religious programming for our Yachad members? How can JFS be not relevant when our staff has over 70 combined years of experience in our respective professions? I’m sure you will agree, all of these community members are very relevant!

Yet, the sad reality is, unless you have needed us for one of these services (and many of you right now may be saying, not me…never) you might not have paid attention.

It is suggested to us time and time again to advertise more. “Let people know what you do”. We have…have you seen our ads? Our recent stories about the 4 Sons?

What about our Dreidel Chronicles from past years? Did any of you answer our job description for G-d’s Assistant?

If we have not caught your attention before, let me take this time to introduce ourselves. We are YOUR Jewish Family Service. We may work behind the scenes, but we work very hard to care for those who walk through our doors. There is not a person we work with who doesn’t wish it wasn’t them asking for help (have you ever tried it when you’re usually the one doing for others?) And please don’t think for one second that it’s only the indigent. We work with your friends, your neighbors and maybe even you.

Our goal, every day, is to make sure each and every person feels respected, is provided understanding for how difficult this is for them and is given our undivided attention.

So, if you don’t know us well because we are not shouting from the roof tops or walking down the corridors of the J, please know we are in our quiet place serving the community with pride…YOUR community. Do you hear me now?

For more information about the services JFS provides, brochures are located throughout the JCC and at your local synagogues. Or you may call us at 330.2024.

U.S. should not give Palestinians a free pass

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

by DENNIS GLICK & DANIEL MARIASCHIN

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- How much can you berate a friend and still call them a friend?

As Israel continues to dust off from the latest dust-up with her closest ally, it might be wondering about the future of a once-storied friendship. Over the Passover holiday week, a period of relative quiet has set in. But we can’t let this seeming calm make us complacent that things are back to normal.

It’s quite possible that this strained relationship is the new normal. And that will require some major adjustments.

Taken together, Vice President Joe Biden’s harsh condemnation of a construction announcement during his March trip to Israel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s reported lambasting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other public rebukes by the administration form a dangerous and shocking pattern.

Before this, the United States, which has historically been Israel’s only real friend in the court of public opinion, has kept its differences with Israel largely off the general radar. Aggressive and open criticism of Israel is a rarity. This type of criticism represents a disturbing change and warrants dogged attention.

In its anger over the March settlement announcement, the United States made an end to all settlement activity, including in Jerusalem, a condition for peace talks to begin. But it hasn’t put similar conditions on the Palestinians regarding, for example, something as deadly as Palestinian incitement of hatred -- in the Palestinian press, on the airwaves, and in Friday sermons -- which is a deep and pervasive problem that permeates all aspects of peace efforts.

There seems to be an asymmetrical series of expectations in the administration’s demands on Israel; Israelis should do the heavy lifting, while the Palestinians -- who have been cast as the weaker party -- are often given a free pass.

While demanding Israel halt settlement construction, the White House, for instance, hasn’t demanded that the Palestinians shut down the deadly al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the terrorist wing of Fatah, as it was required to do after the 1993 Oslo Accords. Fatah late last year re-endorsed armed struggle against the Jewish state.

One might think dropping calls for armed struggle would be a prerequisite for conducting serious peace talks. But Fatah, controlled by Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, is not held to account for this.

Logic would dictate that Israel would be in the right to impose its own demands; to say no to any talks until incitement ends, or Hamas terrorists stop firing rockets and mortars on Israeli civilians, or Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit -- kidnapped nearly four years ago in a cross-border raid -- is returned home safely. What is left for Israel to negotiate in direct talks if the White House has sought to predetermine two key issues: the status of Jerusalem and an end to settlement activity?

With this kind of approach, what’s to prevent the Palestinians from constantly upping the ante, and threatening to scuttle talks every time its demands are not met?

In fact, the Palestinians have already raised the stakes -warning they will unilaterally declare statehood by 2011.

This idea, which has already been embraced by several European diplomats, suggests that any agreement to participate in indirect talks may simply be a stalling tactic, and that the Palestinians are really counting on international pressure to get Israel to accept statehood, absent negotiations.

Logic would dictate that Israel would be in the right to impose its own demands; to say no to any talks until incitement ends...

By allowing those who oppose peace to believe a Palestinian state will exist without peace talks will surely invite instability. No one expects a perfect peace. But there must be a negotiated peace that includes an acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state before a Palestinian state is created.

So far, the administration’s aggressive stance does not reflect the views of most Americans. A recent Gallup poll finds that 63 percent of Americans are more sympathetic to Israel than to Palestinians. That’s the highest

American support has been in 20 years.

The U.S-Israel relationship is truly two-way. Israel, an innovative, technological marvel, provides the United States with an invaluable ally in a volatile region. The United States can no more afford to lose Israel as a trusted friend and partner than Israel can afford to lose the United States.

The harsh language, unfair demands, and collateral damage the administration has engaged in over these last few weeks sends the wrong message to the wrong people: That the ties that bind the U.S.-Israel friendship are fraying. In the rush to achieve a solution within 24 months, as some administration leaders have proposed, we must avoid inviting further instability in the region.

The administration’s impatience, in the form of its harsh criticism and unilateral demands, is misdirected. An incomplete and ill-conceived peace plan will whet the appetites of those whose interests are inimical to peace.

Clearly, there is something wrong with this picture.

Let’s hope the United States can refocus.

Dennis Glick and Daniel Mariaschin are, respectively, the president and executive vice president of B’nai B’rith International.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR We, the children of Stanley Widman would like to thank Joan Marcus for including our father in the special Passover edition of the Jewish Press. We noticed that a few stories about our father were left out that we would like to share.

One of his proudest awards and memories, that was inadvertently omitted in the Jewish Press article, was being named All-City in baseball during his senior year at Central High.

Some of our favorite memories of our father had to do with athletics as well. We used to travel to many small towns (Ashland, Gretna, etc.) each year as he played basketball and fast pitch softball in highly competitive adult leagues. We loved accompanying him.

Another favorite memory, which shows his sense of humor, occurred around 1972. He was again playing basketball, but this time it was a fundraiser game which pitted the KOIL Good Guys (radio personalities) against the Millard JC’s (Stan’s team). When Roger W. Morgan, a popular radio personality at KOIL, learned that Dad wore a toupee, he dreamt up a prank and asked Dad’s permission, which was granted. As Dad was shooting a free throw, Roger snuck up behind him and grabbed the toupee off his head and began to run around the court with our father chasing him. We vividly remember Roger putting the toupee on his own head and dancing around. Cheryl, the oldest of the 3 siblings, was 10 years old at the time and was horrified, at first leading her to hide under the bleachers, although she did come out when she heard the incredible laughter.

Larry, his middle child, remembers fondly playing in a JCC basketball league in 1983-84. Larry and his group of AZA friends were all 20 years old and Stan decided to lace up his basketball shoes one more time. It should not surprise you that Stan was the leading rebounder and one of the leading scorers on the team. Dad also coached many of our teams and led Alan’s AZA #1 basketball

team to an undefeated season and the league championship his senior year of high school.

Stan’s love of the horse races came from his relationship with his in-laws, who owned many thoroughbreds over the years. Stan could be found on any given day out at Ak Sar Ben with all his kids rooting them on.

While athletics were very important to Stan, his 3 children and 4 grandchildren (David, Leah, Bennett, and Sophie) played an even more meaningful role in his life.

When the grandkids were born, he couldn’t wait to play “horsey” with them! He would shake his head and say, “I LOVE this!” Even as his dementia progressed, he still loved interacting with them. His lifetime spent playing sports came in very handy as he was still able to throw and catch balls with them even when he couldn’t communicate in normal ways and his memory had failed him.

Stan has a very close relationship with his youngest brother, Marshall, who lives in Kansas City. He lost his younger brother David at a very young age due to a motor vehicle accident; it was a tragedy that he never dealt with fully.

In the end, he is much more than a Jewish athlete. We will always remember him as the loud, charming, dramatic, and loving father and grandfather.

Sincerely, Cheryl Widman Sukenik, Larry Widman, and Alan Widman

HIGH HOLIDAY CLOSING & DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press will be closed Wednesday and Thursday, May 19-20 for Shavuot. The deadline for all ads, articles and photos is 9 a.m. as follows. Questions? Call 402.334.6448.

Issue Deadline May 28 Monday, May 17

Page 14

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

April 16, 2010

Candlelighting Friday, April 16, 7:48 p.m.

Synagogue Listings B’nai Israel Synagogue

B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

618 Mynster St. Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 322.4705 email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com

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

There will be no services on Friday, April 23.

Beth El Synagogue

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE

Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California Omaha, NE 68154-1980 492.8550 www.bethel-omaha.org

Services conducted by Rabbi Mordechai Levin and Cantor Beth Schlossberg.

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

SATURDAY: Morning service, 9:30 a.m. Bat Mitzvah of Maddie Weaver, daugther of Felicia and Mark Weaver; Minha/Ma’ariv, 8 p.m.

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

SUNDAY: Beginning Hebrew, with Eadie Tsabari, and Bible Study Discussion Group, 10 a.m.; Jewish Images on the Big Screen, 10:30 a.m. with Frydman-Levin.

MINI COURSE: “Parsha and Pizza,” with Cantor Schlossberg, Wednesdays, April 21 and 28, and May 12 and 26, 7-8 p.m.

Cost is $18 for Beth El members, $25 for non-members. Register by calling the office.

THURSDAY: Rabbi Levin’s Understanding and Living Jewish Values, noon.

SCHOLAR-IN-RESIDENCE: Dr. Richard Freund will be the featured guest during the April 30 weekend. (see full article on page 3.)

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 St. Omaha, NE. 68154 556.6288 BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org

Chabad House An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch 1866 S. 120th St. Omaha, NE 68144-1646 330.1800 www.OChabad.com email: chabad@aol.com

Congregation B’nai Jeshurun South Street Temple Union for Reform Judaism 2061 S. 20th St. Lincoln, NE 68502-2797 435.8004 southstreettemple.org

Offutt Air Force Base SAC Memorial Chapel 301 Lincoln Highway Offutt AFB, NE 68113 294.6244

Rose Blumkin Jewish Home 323 S. 132 St. Omaha, NE 68154

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE Temple Israel Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 7023 Cass Street Omaha, NE 68132-2651 556.6536 templeisrael-ne.org

The Neighborhood Prayer Group 1317 No. 57 St. Omaha, NE 68132 551.6609

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

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Allan Handleman, 402.334.6451

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

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 is sponsored by Bruce and Linda Potash in honor of Sarah’s birthday; “Guard Your Tongue,” “The Great Midrash” and “Advanced Parshah Study for Kids” (ages 10 and up), one hour prior to Mincha every Shabbat; Mincha, 7:30 p.m. followed by Seuda Shlishit; Havdalah, 8:51 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Bagels & Beit Midrash begins with breakfast, 9:40 a.m.; Sacred Text Messages (for teens) with Rabbi Gross, 10 a.m.; Living in Season with Miriam Gross, 10 a.m.; Sunday Night Dinner, 6 p.m. featuring hand-tossed pizza.

WEEKDAYS: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Yom Hazikaron Service, 7 p.m.

TUESDAY: Scholars Club for fourth-sixth graders, 3:45 p.m. at the Blumkin Home; Rabbi Mizrahi’s Weekly Class, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Rabbi Weiss’s Weekly Class, 7:30 p.m. at Temple Israel; Advanced Halacha Kollel, 9 p.m. Follow at www.omahakollel.blogspot.com.

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

p.m.; All School Dinner, 6 p.m.; Grades 7-12, 6 p.m.; Bookless Bookclub: Modern Jewish American Literature, 6:30 p.m. April 21 and 28 facilitated by Jeremy Wright. Cost is $18 for members; $25 for non-members; no charge for Family School parents.

THURSDAY: Adult Study with the Clergy, 10 a.m.; Celebrating Women’s Health: Straight Talk about Menopause, noon. (see full story on page 3.)

Recycle Your Electronics, Sunday, April 25, 10 a.m.noon. (see full story on page 9.)

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

NEIGHBORHOOD PRAYER GROUP

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

FRIDAY: Service, 7 a.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat 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.; Mishpacha Mornings Re-mix, 10:15 a.m.

WEEKDAYS: Services, 7 a.m.

THURSDAY: The Parsha Club for Level I beginners, ages 5-6; and Level II intermediates and experts, ages 7-9, 3:50 p.m. Please contact Shevi@ochabad.com.

All programs are open to the entire community.

CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN Services conducted by Rabbi Ilan Emanuel.

FRIDAY: Shabbat Evening Service, 7:45 p.m. led by Rabbi Emanuel, with oneg following hosted by Temple Gift Shop personnel as a Relocation Celebration of the gift shop.

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: LJCS Grades 3-7, 9:30 a.m.-noon at Tifereth Israel; Gan Simcha -Grade 2, 9:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. at South Street Temple; Hallah High, 10 a.m.noon at South Street Temple; Board of Trustees Meeting, 12:30 p.m.

TUESDAY: Women’s Lunch Group, noon at The Parthenon.

WEDNESDAY: Hebrew classes (grades 3-7), 4-6 p.m. at Tifereth Israel.

ADULT EDUCATION SUNDAYS, 7 p.m. Intro to Judaism, led by Rabbi Emanuel.

TUESDAYS, 7:30 p.m. Yom

BAT MITZVAH Jessica Stevie Shandell, daughter of Diane and Howard Shandell, will become a Bat Mitzvah on S a t u r d a y, April 24, at Beth El. Jessica is a

Ha’atzma’t and Israel, led by Rabbi Emanuel and Nancy Coren.

Prayer Mayor’s Interfaith Breakfast, Friday, April 23, 7:30 a.m. with guest speaker Dr. AmyJill Levine at the downtown Holiday Inn. Joint service with UN-L Hillel, Friday, April 23 on UN-L campus.

Second Annual Hallah High Rummage Sale for charity, Sunday, April 25, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

For questions, please contact Katie Cook Wilson, 423.9198.

seventh-grade Principal’s Honor Roll student at Beveridge Middle School.

Her interests include dance and cooking.

She has a sister, Ally.

Grandparents are Mary Saferstein and the late Jack Saferstein, and Eleanor Shandell and the late Steve Shandell.

FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m.

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME FRIDAY: Chef’s Demo, 1 p.m. in the SW Wing led by Beth Israel Members.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by Jim Polack and David Herzog.

THURSDAY: LOVE Board of Director’s Meeting, 7 p.m.

TEMPLE ISRAEL FRIDAY: Shabbat Service: Police and Fire Fighters Appreciation, 6 p.m. led by Rabbi Aryeh Azriel and Cantor Wendy Shermet. (see full article on page 11.)

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

SUNDAY: Teacher Meeting, 9 a.m.; Grades K-6, 10 a.m.; Grade 3 meets at the Blumkin Home, 10:15 a.m.; Grade 2 Parent Meeting, 10:15 a.m.; Children’s Choir Rehearsal, noon. Pizza lunch provided for choir members and younger siblings; JYG Boys Day, noon-2 p.m. Seventh and Eighth grade boys are invited to Rabbi Linder’s house (5012 Cass St.) for lunch, board games and Rock Band! $6 will help cover the costs. RSVP to JYG Advisor Paul Miller, pnmiller@up.com.

WEDNESDAY: Grades 3-6, 4 p.m.; OTYG Welcomes eighth graders, 5 p.m.; Family School, 6

FRIDAY: Minyan, 7:48 p.m.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m.

TIFERETH ISRAEL Services conducted by Nancy Coren, Lay Leader. Office hours: Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and Friday, 8-11 a.m.

FRIDAY: Services, 6:30 p.m.

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

SUNDAY: LJCS Grades 3-7, 9:30 a.m.-noon at Tifereth Israel; Gan Simcha -Grade 2, 9:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. at South Street Temple; Hallah High, 10 a.m.noon at South Street Temple.

TUESDAY: Women’s Lunch Group, noon at The Parthenon.

Contact Stephanie Dohner at dohners@windstream.net.

WEDNESDAY: Hebrew classes (grades 3-7), 4-6 p.m. at Tifereth Israel.

ADULT EDUCATION TUESDAYS, 7:30 p.m. Yom Ha’atzma’ut and Israel, led by Rabbi Emanuel and Nancy Coren.

Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, Friday, April 23, 7:30 a.m. with guest speaker Dr. AmyJill Levine at the downtown Holiday Inn. Second Annual Hallah High Rummage Sale for charity, Sunday, April 25, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

For questions, please contact Katie Cook Wilson, 423.9198.

Yom HaShoah at Friedel Top picture: Friedel fourth sixth graders spent some time listening to Judy Meisel after FJA’s Yom HaShoah Commemoration on Friday, April 9; Bottom picture: Students and staff remember and honor Shoah victims annually during a special service in the Riekes Shul.

“Learning about the past is essential for every Friedel student’s future,” says principal Ron Giller.

Pulverente MONUMENT CO.

April 16, 2010

The slanderer as moral leper

SPARKS FROM THE WORD

by RABBI MYER S. KRIPKE Parashat Metzora It is not completely clear what kinds of illnesses and funguses are involved in the “leprosy” of our Sidrah.

The seriousness with which the matter is discussed and the wealth of detail in the regulations imply, of course, that for our ancient ancestors important matters were involved.

For us the questions are of historical interest only, not medical. Especially interesting to us – perhaps puzzling – are, at first, the involvement of the Kohanim (priests), and second, the association of the illness and the decay with moral lapses and moral decay. For the rabbis of the Midrash the passages about the metzora, the leper, were already academic, as they are to us. The rabbis made the association between the physical and the moral by an ingenious play on words. “Metzora” they read as “Motzi Ra” – not a “leper,” but rather one who spews out evil.

Jewish history, unfortunately, has had to include defense against a long list of slanderers of Jews and Judaism over the centuries. Philo of Alexandria and Josephus were among the early defenders of Judaism against detractors.

And we have not finished. I need not spell out the list of professional and nonprofessional anti-Semites in contemporary world history and contemporary American history. These are people with diseased minds, who spew their venom against Jews on all who will listen. And those who listen may also contact the disease.

Indeed, rabbinic Judaism offers an insightful remark

about slander: it slays three. Who are the three? The slanderer himself, seat of the disease; his victim, who may become the target of murderers; and he who listens, who may contract the disease in mild or virulent form.

If I were to offer advice to the non-Jewish world, it would have to take two tacks. One is the painfully long and arduous task of hammer-and-tongs answer of the slanderer, point by point. Our defense agencies undertake this task manfully, often successfully. But can we ever eradicate, for example, the evil of the great slander of our time, perpetrated by anti-Semites within the United Nations, Zionism Is Racism? Can this noxious international plague be arrested? Its message translates into Jews Are Evil. It is a heavy burden for so small a people as we are to bear, against the Soviet bloc plus the Arab bloc plus the so-called Third World.

In short, our answer might be not a logical refutation, but rather an open charge that the slanderer is morally diseased and must not be listened to. He is outside the bounds of civilized conduct – even when he is a thumping majority of the General Assembly of the United Nations. He is a lynch mob in high places. He is a band of thugs in uniform. He is a menace to civilized living.

As a moral leper, he must be quarantined.

One need not hesitate to use this approach. No exaggeration is possible when one identifies the slanderer as a moral outcast. He is self-proclaiming as a running source of moral pollution. He does not deserve to come among civilized and moral people.

In the Western World, in the democracies, there are people who will respond to the second tack as well as the first. We must use them both.

Editor’s note: Due to scheduling conflicts, this column was reprinted from Rabbi Kripke’s 1988 book, “Insight and Interpretation”.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

60 Years Experience With Jewish Lettering and Memorials

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DEATHS GERSON LEBER Gerson Leber, 87, passed away Tuesday morning after a short illness. Graveside services were held April 8 at the Mt. Sinai Jewish Cemetery.

He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Martha; daughter and son-in-law, Susie and Perry Stange; son and daughter-in-law, Abe and Kathy Leber of Belmont, VT; grandchildren, Jeremy and Molly Leber of North Haven, CT, Rebecca and Mark Zelis of Brandon, VT, Cody, Brett, and Josh Stange; and two great-grandchildren, Luke and Emerson Zelis of Brandon, VT. Born Oct. 9, 1922 in Bendzin, Poland. Leber was a Holocaust survivor of both the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps before being liberated near the end of World War II. He emigrated to the United States in 1949 and settled in Omaha through a post-war sponsorship by the Omaha Jewish Community Center. A lifelong employee of the Nebraska Furniture Mart, he served as the warehouse manager for over three decades

before retiring in 1986.

Memorials to the Institute for Holocaust Education at 333 South 132nd Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68154.

NATHAN SHUKERT Nathan Shukert passed away April 8 at age 88. Funeral services were held April 11 at Beth El Synagogue, followed by interment at Beth El Cemetery.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Jacob and Miriam Shukert; wife, Doris Shukert; and brothers and sisters.

He is survived by sons and daughters-in-law, Martin and Aveva Shukert, and Jamie and Ruth Shukert; grandchildren, Richard and Jennifer Shukert, Rachel Shukert and Benjamin Abramowitz, Jennifer and Dale Luebbert, Ariel Shukert, and Angela Shukert; great-grandchildren, Jessica Shukert and Allison Shukert.

Memorials to Beth El Synagogue or Jewish Senior Services.

Kaczynski leaves legacy of Polish-Jewish reconciliation

Continued from page 2 that Israel,” Israel’s former ambassador to Poland, David Peleg, said. “And those who traveled with him on that plane were not only personal friends of mine, but were dedicated to the preservation of Jewish sites in Poland.”

Peleg singled out for praise Janusz Kurtyka, head of the National Remembrance Institute, Deputy Culture Minister Tomasz Merta and presidential adviser Mariusz Handzlik. Handzlik was so close with the Jewish community that he attended the bat mitzvah of Schudrich’s daughter.

Peleg, now head of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, noted that Kacynski lobbied against the Goldstone report criticizing Israel for its actions in the 2009 Gaza war. He also upgraded military, economic and cultural cooperation between Israel and Poland and opposed anti-Semitism by emphasizing the shared history of Jews and Poles.

“In my first discussions with him as mayor he talked about the Jews at Katyn,” said Peleg, referring to the Russian site where Kacynski was headed when his plane crashed. “He made the point that more than 10 percent of those killed in Katyn were Jewish officers.”

This focus took on special meaning when postCommunist Poland began reexamining its history without Communist censorship.

Long-simmering confrontations erupted: Some Jews felt Poles were too sympathetic to Hitler’s Final Solution; some Poles insisted that their suffering under Hitler was ignored by Jews. There were condemnations of Jewish-Communist collaboration, and of Polish Catholic disdain for Jews.

All along, the conservative Kaczynski, from the Law and Justice Party, did what he could to bring the two sides together.

“I would never vote for his party, I have leftist views,” said Oskar Skuteli, a member of Zoom, a Polish youth organization. “But the amount of things that Kaczynski did for Jews had never been done before by a leftist government. He was even called a Jewish agent by the radical right.”

To be sure, there were bumps in the road to PolishJewish reconciliation that still have not been quite smoothed over. For a short period, the Law and Justice Party partnered in a government coalition with the League of Polish Families, whose members have been accused of anti-Semitic rhetoric. Kaczynski also never fully turned his back on Radio Maryja, a Catholic fringe broadcaster who accused Jews of terrorizing Poland with demands for property restitution.

Progressive Jews also found some of Kaczynski’s social positions disdainful. He twice banned gay pride marches in Warsaw, citing fears that homosexuals were trying to “spread their lifestyle.”

But few would deny that Kaczynski, along with others who worked to preserve Jewish culture and died in the plane crash, collectively represented a brain trust of Jewish-Polish-Israeli relations.

“Kaczynski and those around him, they are not replaceable,” said Monika Krawczyk, CEO of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland. “His approach to Jewish issues has to do with his personal experience and convictions. We hope for people similarly sensitive, but they will not be the same.”

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

April 16, 2010