May 23, 2008

Vol. LXXXVII No. 37 Omaha, NE

Celebrating 87 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa

Part I: The Brandeis story

The family-owned department store becomes an institution and tradition

by LEO ADAM BIGA Editor’s note: Omaha’s major 20th century institutions interfaced with the public in their own niche ways. Daily and weekly newspapers informed us.

Union Pacific transported us. The packing plants fed us. Ak-Sar-Ben entertained us. Schools educated us. Hospitals healed us.

Synagogues lifted us.

And then there was Brandeis, whose downtown department store enthralled us. That store and the many other Brandeis stores that followed are no more, but the name Brandeis represented more than a com- Scions of the Brandeis department store family: David Baer, left, and his wife Norma, Alan and Photo credit: Nebraska Jewish Historical Society pany with a large payroll Marcia Baer, Dr. Robert Baer and his wife Jean. the department store market in Omaha, serving hunand customer base. The name embodied a family whose dreds of thousands of customers each year. rich history and commercial-civic activities contributed In its heyday, the symbol of the company’s and the to Omaha’s early progress. family’s success was the downtown store.

Period adverMembers of that extended family have commissioned tisements billed it as “the greatest store in the West.” a documentary to chronicle the Brandeis story. The still Modeled after Marshall Field’s, nothing quite as elaboin-progress film, co-produced by the Nebraska Jewish rate as Brandeis could be found from the Windy City to Historical Society and Oberon Entertainment, inspired the Rockies. the following two-part series. By any measure, the “Any city of any pretension, any city of any caliber Brandeis story is an epic in the immigrant-made-good, developed a huge department store,” said Omaha histoempire building tradition. One full of momentous rian Dennis Mihelich. “When Brandeis built that events and interesting figures. store...Omaha was the 20th most populace city in the There was a time when every great downtown fea- United States. That meant a city had arrived. It’s kind of tured an immense department store. New York had its like saying you’re a major league city today ... If we go Macy’s and Gimbels. Chicago had its Marshall Field’s. back to the turn of the century, what gave a city cachet ...

Further west, smack dab in the middle of the Great one thing would be that symbol. ‘Look where we get to Plains, Omaha had Brandeis. As local family dynasties shop.’ They were architectural symbols in the city.”

Designed by John Latenser Sr. in the Second go, few evoke the nostalgia the Brandeis name conjures.

Continued on page 6 That’s because for a century, J.L. Brandeis & Sons ruled

18 Iyyar, 5768

May 23, 2008

Burmese Jew going home as Jewish groups mount aid effort

by JACOB BERKMAN NEW YORK (JTA) -- The Starbucks on 50th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan is a world away from the gruesome mayhem that is the aftermath of the cyclone that hit Myanmar last week.

But as Sammy Samuels sips on a $4 coffee, his thoughts are with his home and family in the ravaged country’s capital. His is one of only eight Jewish families in Yangon.

Samuels headed there last week to deliver suitcases of water purification tablets and medicine.

When he arrives, the fourth-generation Burmese will become one of the few Westerners to bring aid into Myanmar, where an estimated 1.5 million people have been severely affected by the cyclone that ripped through the country May 3.

Cyclone Nargis killed anywhere between 30,000, the number given by the country’s military rulers, and 100,000, the estimate provided by human rights groups.

Continued on page 2

Few in the tiny Jewish community in Yangon attend services at the 110-year-old Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue, which is shown prior to the cyclone.

Courtesy Sammy Samuels

Sky’s the limit during current phase of Home construction

by OZZIE NOGG The completion of Phase One of the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home’s “New Beginning” was celebrated last February with an Open House for the new resident unit in the West wing.

Phase “2A” of construction, currently underway in the Northwest wing, has already created new office space for the Federation Foundation and is now focused on the renovation of seventeen resident rooms -- singles and doubles -along with the addition of a kitchen, sun room and dining room. With the start of Phase “2B,” the sky’s the limit -- literally.

“At the end of May we plan to remove the North nurses’ station, take off the roof and open up the sky for a few days,” said Mike Silverman, RBJH executive director. “This phase includes building a new main kitchen and is a major piece of the construction puzzle.”

The ‘puzzle’ analogy is apt, and Silverman likens the next phases of the Blumkin Home construction to a popular brain teaser. “When I think about this

Inside

part of the project I get the image of a Rubik’s cube, twisting and turning, switching locations, leaving other pieces in place while trying to get this solved with the fewest moves.”

But moves are inevitable, and Silverman chose Sasha Loock, Blumkin Home Controller, to oversee many of them.

“Sasha has a nice way of communicating with the various managers so no one gets upset when their office location is changed,” he explained. “Both the activities and financial staff will be shifting or sharing spaces, and I know Sasha will help make the transitions go smoothly.”

According to Loock, “Mike was already kicked out of his temporary cubbyhole office and that space is being converted into a med supply room and med room that the North East nursing staff can use for the time being. We’ve turned the existing Ceramic Room into a temporary Executive Office Suite and moved Mike into a slightly larger cubbyhole office in the back of the Suite.”

That “suite” used to be the office of

Sasha Loock, Blumkin Home Controller, schleps a ladder (and boxes and files and ...) during the recent move of staff offices.

This Week: Coverage of B’nai B’rith Sports Banquet: Page 9

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

18 questions for local photographer: Page 4

Jewish Press Editor Carol Katzman prior to the expansion of the Press office into the former baby and toddler rooms of the Jewish Community Center. During the JCC’s expansion, Katzman’s office moved and her old office was converted into a storage room. During the Blumkin Home’s construction, the Press gave the space up, allowing a succession of Blumkin employees to utilize it during Phase One. Loock added, “Mike’s assistant, Phyllis Gentry, is out front. Jennifer TompkinsKirshenbaum, our Human Resource specialist, will share that office with Phyllis on Wednesdays. Our other moves in Phase 2A will take the entire accounting staff and two nursing support staff people to brand new offices downstairs,” Loock continued.

“And the Activities Department will relocate to the Administrative Suite where Cathy Carroll-Moriarty, one of our social workers, will join them. The current Activities Office will become the Continued on page 2

Coming Next Month: Father’s Day/Graduation Issue, Emory Law professor to discuss religion and politics: Page 10

Beth El celebrates Israel’s 60th with “Praise the Land...”: Page 11

Page 2

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 23, 2008

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CLIP & SAVE

CALENDAR OF EVENTS FRIDAY, MAY 23 Friedel Yom Yerushalyim Jewish Motorcycle Alliance Breakfast & Lecture, 9 a.m.

Beth El Shabbat comes to the RBJH, 2:30 p.m.

SUNDAY, MAY 25 C Reading the Rambam Class, 9:45 a.m. at Beth Israel L Bible Study Group, 10 a.m. at Beth El I Mishpacha Mornings, 10:15 a.m. at Chabad P

C L I P

MONDAY, MAY 26 & Friedel Jewish Academy No School/Memorial Day

&

JCC H&PE open; Federation closed S A TUESDAY, MAY 27 V E W.O.W Parsha, Prayer and Prophets, 9 a.m. at Chabad

S A V E

Eye on Israel, noon Hebrew Lunch ‘n Learn, 12:15 p.m. at Temple Israel Federation Executive Committee Meeting, 6 p.m.

BBYO Night, 6 p.m.

From Generation to Generation, 7 p.m. at Temple Israel Federation Board of Directors Meeting, 7:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 28 Know Thyself, Know Thy Christian Neighbors, noon at Temple Israel Parsha for Kids, 3:45 p.m. at Chabad USY Final Banquet, 6 p.m. at Beth El C Friedel Jewish Academy Graduation, 7 p.m.

L Parsha Roundup, 7 p.m. at Chabad I P

THURSDAY, MAY 29

& Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel S A V E

Adult Study with the Clergy, 10 a.m. at Temple Israel Yiddish Group, 1 p.m.

Beth El Clergy at Remington Heights, 1:30 p.m.

NCJW Installations and Awards, 5 p.m., at the Champions Club Israeli Society Through Film, 7 p.m.

Class with Rabbi Gross, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel All events held at the JCC unless otherwise indicated. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the accuracy of events. To keep calendar accurate or for questions, call Marlene Hert at 334-6437.

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

This Space For Rent Call Allan Handleman 334-6451

C L I P & S A V E

Burmese Jew going home Continued from page 1 native country. Samuels plans to move back one day, With the Burmese left without homes, food, water and hopefully when the economy develops. Perhaps then he basic medical supplies, the United Nations is warning could earn more than the $100 to $200 a month he estithat the situation could spiral out of control. mates he would earn now.

Yet even as worldwide pressure is mounting on Yangon Samuels sends 10 percent of his salary to Myanmar to to admit aid from Western countries, and even though help keep up the synagogue and cemetery, which he estiThailand is becoming a staging ground for what could mates costs approximately $2,200 per month. be the largest U.S. aid effort since the 2004 tsunami in But Samuels says he feels tremendous guilt about Southeast Asia, the military junta has refused to allow in being in the United States while his family, friends and aid workers from the West. fellow Burmese suffer through the cyclone and its afterOnly Westerners with Burmese citizenship are being math. allowed into the country. Aid groups, including a numThe day it hit, he had turned off his cell phone because ber of Jewish groups trying to mobilize, are waiting to he was busy at work while the AJCongress held its annuhelp but are handcuffed. al meetings. Samuels turned on his phone to find 40 Along with the water purification tablets, Samuels will messages from friends and acquaintances asking about bring cash to buy a generator for Yangon’s only syna- his family and the synagogue. gogue and hopefully to help repair the 110-year-old With no idea what was happening, he checked CNN temple, whose roof and windows were destroyed during and saw that several thousand Burmese had been killed. the cyclone.

That number grew steadily as Samuels refreshed his “I’m just tired of being worried away from home,” browser.

Samuels, 27, told JTA in an interview May 12 at He called home but couldn’t get through.

Starbucks. “I just can’t stay here “People died. My family, I while people are having a difficult tried to call them every 15 time, having gone through these difminutes -- for three days I ficulties. I just can’t stay here.” had no contact with them,” When the Samuels family moved to Samuels said. “I was so worBurma about 80 years ago from Iraq ried and terrified. I had no to pursue business interests in the rice idea what was happening.” and teakwood trade, the community Samuels finally reached his numbered in the thousands. Most family via e-mail through the Burmese Jews fled to Japan during Israeli embassy in Myanmar.

World War II. The rest left when the The reports from his father military seized power in 1962 and were harrowing. nationalized many of the businesses.

Though his family was (The military changed the name of unharmed in their big apartThe colorful blue glass window of Yangon's the country from Burma to Myanmar ment building in Yangon, a Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue fell to the floor durin 1989, and Rangoon to Yangon.) city of five million, they were ing the cyclone that ravaged Myanmar on May 3.

Samuels’ family stayed and watched shaken. “My father said in all Credit: Courtesy Sammy Samuels as the community dwindled to about his life, in 60 years he had 20. Four are in his family -- his father, Moses; his moth- never seen anything like that,” said Samuels, slight of er, Nelly; and his two sisters, Kazna, 29, and Dina, 31. frame, bespectacled and Asian in appearance. “Both of Along with the Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue, Yangon my sisters, they were shaking and praying. All the winds has a Jewish cemetery. Moses Samuels, who runs a trav- and rain and sounds were just terrifying.” el agency that arranges Jewish tours of Myanmar, serves He recalls his father saying, “‘Even though we are here as the de facto caretaker for both. suffering like this, you cannot imagine how the small vilThe beautiful brick synagogue features a two-tiered lages and the small towns and all of these small houses, sanctuary -- the men sit downstairs and the women in what these families went though that night. You cannot the balcony -- but few worshipers attend services. imagine.’’”

Samuels recalls that as children, he and his sisters on Despite his father’s protestations, Samuels decided he sunny days would sit in the sanctuary and watch as a would go to Burma. prism of light through the stained-glass windows would “Though they wouldn’t say so, I know they wanted to be cast over the area in front of the Torah ark. see me,” he says of his family.

Those windows were destroyed last week.

His two-week trip is turning into a relief mission Samuels moved to the United States in 2002 to attend through the help of Scott Klepper, a business consultant Yeshiva University, from where he graduated in 2006 in Utah. with a degree in international business, and to find a Klepper, 47, met Moses Samuels on a trip to Burma in Jewish bride. In Myanmar, with only 15 Jews who are March. Upon hearing about the cyclone Klepper, an avid not family, that’s a difficult proposition. outdoorsman, remembered the water purification tablets He heads the information technology department for he uses when hiking. the American Jewish Congress but remains close to his Continued on page 3

Blumkin Home construction and an oversized elevator Continued on page 2 designed to carry a hospital central station for folding bed are next on the agenda. and sorting clean linen, and “We estimate Phase 2A the Ceramic Room will conand B will be complete by tinue to be used for small the end of the summer,” informal meetings between Silverman said. “At that staff, builders, and venpoint seventeen remodeled dors,” she explained. resident rooms will be ready For her part, Loock enjoys for occupancy by twentythe challenge that comes four residents, and Phase 3 with planning staff moves. can begin. That work covers “I determine each move removal of the existing based on a staff person’s kitchen, relocation of the need to be accessible to a new Therapy Suite into the certain location or to particspace now occupied by the ular information,” she said.

Synagogue, and the renova“So it makes sense to move staff who have little Lisa Johnson, Blumkin Home Resident Account tion of fourteen resident contact with the direct care Representative, prepares to relocate her work space. rooms in the North hall, of our residents to areas like the basement. I appreciate which will gain back twenty-two resident beds. Our the fact that everyone has made sacrifices during all the projected completion date for Phase 3 is fall of 2008.” moves, and my intention is to provide the Blumkin Meanwhile, Sasha Loock is monitoring a contest staff with as much of their current work environment as between two RBJH staffers. possible,” she added.

“Steffanie Betkie, who orders medical supplies, and Silverman describes the current action on Phase 2A Marcy Jones in medical records, are competing for the and B as ‘aggressive.’ The walls of resident rooms have title of Person With the Most Office Moves Within the been pushed out four feet, sheet rock is going in, and Facility,” Loock said.

“Steffanie is currently in the lead, 6 to 5.” work on the new Kosher kitchen, laundry, loading dock

May 23, 2008

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 3

Burmese Jew going home Continued from page 2 They entered the country on Israeli pass- May 13 had raised some $60,000 to funHe pulled out one, looked at the pack- ports via Israel and through Thailand. nel to the 19 grass-roots organizations it aging and found the manufacturer, Myanmar, unlike its paranoia about the works with on the Thai-Burmese border.

Wisconsin Pharmaceutical. Klepper called American government, has good diploAnd B’nai B’rith International the company’s president, who offered to matic relations with Israel. announced it would allocate $10,000 to sell him the pills at cost and make a donaThe JDC opened an online mailbox to help the Israeli organization IsraAid send tion of 20 percent of the total sale to help raise money and will allocate whatever it 10 relief workers, including paramedics, Myanmar. raises to help Burmese citizens of all doctors, nurses and water specialists.

Working with the American Jewish faiths.

A team of Israeli volunteer doctors, Joint Distribution Committee and The United Jewish Communities and nurses and water specialists from two through an e-mail blast, Klepper had the North American Jewish federation Israeli nongovernmental organizations raised about $1,000 for the under the umbrella of the pills. He was hoping by the Israel Forum for Intertime he sent the water purifinational Humanitarians also cation pills overnight to arrived in the area. But Samuels, he would have money has been slow to been able to buy enough to come in from the United make up to 2,500 gallons of States, according to water usable.

Schwager.

Hillel at New York When he spoke with JTA, University and two partners a day after the JDC opened held a fundraiser May 12 at a its mailbox, the organization downtown art gallery to had received about $50,000. help raise money for the On May 13 according to Burmese Jewish community. another senior staff member Samuels said the purificaat JDC, the number still had tion tablets will go to help yet to reach $100,000. the general community, not That staff member said the just Jews. He also hopes the organization purchased a ton synagogue can be repaired of bananas, rice and bottled quickly so it can take in water to ship into the region, those left homeless -- Jews and it was working with the The roof of Yangon’s Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue suffered damage in the Israeli Red Cross, the Magen and non-Jews.

Courtesy Sammy Samuels David Adom, in getting Two Jewish families from cyclone that ravaged Myanmar. villages just outside Yangon are now liv- system, as well as other groups, also will medical workers into the region and was ing in a building behind the synagogue funnel money to the JDC mailbox. searching for Burmese organizations with after they were left homeless. A nonDuring the Indian Ocean tsunami four whom JDC could partner.

Jewish family is living with them. years ago, the system raised some $18 The JDC expects the federation system Samuels’ mission is only part of what is million for relief to help build infrastruc- appeal to slowly start funneling more a mounting Jewish response to the ture, schools, community centers and money into the relief effort, Schwager cyclone. low-income housing, the JDC’s executive said.

The JDC has three staff members in director, Steve Schwager, told JTA. The junta is warier of foreign press than some of the hardest hit areas of Myanmar.

The American Jewish World Service by of aid workers, and it is hard to appeal for The Jewish Federation of Omaha is proud to nominate the following community members for positions of leadership

ELECTION 2008-2009 INFORMATION For the Jewish Federation of Omaha and its Centers of Excellence This slate will be approved at the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board Meeting May 27, 7p.m. Ɣ Jewish Community Center Ɣ 333 South 132nd Street Ɣ 402-334-8200

OFFICERS & CHAIRMEN:

JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA

President...................................................................................................... Robert Lepp Past President ......................................................................................Norman Sheldon Vice President........................................................................................... David Gilinsky Vice President........................................................................................ Jody Malashock Treasurer ................................................................................................Mike Abramson Secretary ................................................................................................... Jay Gordman Foundation Chairman .................................................................................Steven Bloch Budget and Allocations Chairman..............................................................Myron Kaplan Building and Grounds Chairman...................................................................Mark Martin Partnership/Overseas Chairman...........................................................Stacey Rockman Young Leadership Chairman .......................................................................... Brett Atlas Community Development Chairman .......................................................... Wendy Raffel ADL/CRC OFFICERS: President ...................... Richard Evnen Past President............... David Gilinsky Vice President....... Jonathan Rockman Financial Officer ........... Michael Levine

CENTER FOR JEWISH EDUCATION

OFFICERS: President...................... Bob Goldberg Past President.............. Ann Goldstein Vice President......... Stacey Rockman Vice President.. Toba Cohen-Dunning Treasurer ........................ Susan Long JEWISH PRESS

OFFICERS: President................... Bobbi Leibowitz Vice President......... Michael Sigmond Secretary .................. Stanley Mitchell Treasurer .................... Michael Siegel

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER

OFFICERS:

President ...................... Kimberly Robinson Immediate Past President .....Michael Miller Past President ................... Gary D. Epstein Vice President ......................... John Glazer JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE & JEWISH SENIOR SERVICES

OFFICERS:

President ............................. Bob Belgrade Past President ................... Joan Bernstein Vice President .......................... Jim Farber Vice President .......................Harold Mann Vice President .................... Larry Roffman Secretary ..........................Suzanne Singer Treasurer..........................Howard Epstein

aid without adequately being able to describe to donors the situation on the ground. “The issue is that pictures are missing from the press,” Schwager said.

“It is purely all about the pictures.”

He added, “During the tsunami, it was about dead bodies in the streets and corpses not yet picked up. The folks in Myanmar are busy expelling reporters.”

Just as it did in the aftermath of the tsunami, the JDC is organizing a coalition of Jewish groups to mobilize a collaborative relief response. But while 40 to 70 organizations worked together in the aftermath of the tsunami, Schwager said only 10 participated in a conference call.

U.S. relief organizations are livid but not surprised by the junta’s actions.

“The military regime is infamous for being extremely closed to international organizations and having very strict restrictions,” said an AJWS spokesperson, who asked not to be identified. “They are one of the most egregious human rights violators in the world. It is a very difficult place to work for international groups.

The situation now in Rangoon illustrates that the military government has no responsibility towards its citizens.”

That worker is applying for a visa into Burma and is afraid of being identified because the government, which scours the Internet for negative news reports, would likely deny the visa for speaking out against it.

Similarly, Samuels won’t say much on the record about his mission, about the things he has seen in Myanmar in the past, and about his feelings about the situation there now. He loves the Burmese people. He says they are peaceful, respectful of other faiths and beautiful.

Continued on page 5

Page 4

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 23, 2008

Eighteen questions with Ophir Palmon camera or about photography, and his pictures will still

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Ophir Palmon is a photographer who lives and works turn out okay.

JP: What makes a really good picture? in Omaha. Born in Ramat Gan, Israel, he moved here in OP: When it makes the viewer feel what the subject in 1987 with wife Roni Reiter-Palmon, and their two children. His work will be shown at the Jewish Community the picture felt the instance the picture was taken.

JP: If you could take any picture, anywhere, what Center Gallery from May 30-July 30. The public is invited to the official opening reception on Sunday, would it be?

June 8, 2-4 p.m.

OP: I did, and I do. See my portfolio!

JP: Why did you JP: How many picbecome a photogratures have you taken in pher? your life?

OP: I chose to be OP: 998,537. I plan one after realizing the to host my one million creative abilities it picture gala at Chuck E allowed me, and the Cheese (get it? Cheese). endless possibilities it I’ll have you write that brought. press release also.

JP: How did you JP: Do you know if a end up in Omaha? picture is good the moment you take it?

OP: My wife Roni OP: Yes. Always. accepted a position as JP: Who is your psychology professor at UNO, and I have a favorite photographer, Self portrait Ophir Palmon well-developed habit and why?

Credit: Ophir Palmon, Artistic Visions of following her OP: I appreciate many people’s work, but don’t feel as having a favorite one. around anywhere in the world.

JP: If you couldn’t take pictures, what would you do JP: Is there something you can see in a photograph with your time? that you can’t see with the naked eye?

OP: Go back to engineering, and look for an alternaOP: A photograph allows you to study an instant over eternity. All physical properties, emotional states, and tive to oil for fuel. It’s the root of all evil. other currents that may be hidden from view in normal JP: Do you have any pictures in your wallet? time, are given an opportunity to be more visible to the OP: Just the one on my driver’s license. I look cute. knowing eye.

JP: What is the worst picture you have ever taken?

JP: How is a photographer different from other OP: It was a picture of two people who didn’t want to artists? be together, but were forced to by the situation. I OP: The photographer’s work is instantaneous. His thought I erased this one from my memory, but it still work is created in a split second. A photographer who is freezes me over when I think of it. working in an evolving scene must constantly evaluate JP: What will people see at your exhibit? the given situation, make quick artistic decisions, and OP: Images that will make them think, and wonder. choose the right time to create his photograph.

Abstracts that take the mind for a tour.

JP: What do you hope people will take away from your JP: Do you think the easy access to digital cameras has caused people to appreciate the art of photography dif- work?

OP: An inspiration to create themselves, and look at ferently?

OP: It might. Digital photography, and access to dig- the obvious with a more challenging perspective. I ital tools has made photography more accessible to more would also hope that they take at least one image home people; people who would have shunned photography with them. before. The instant results that are available with digital JP: Will the photographs at the exhibit be for sale? cameras make it possible for anyone to take photos. The OP: Funny you should ask ... They are! popularity of cameras in other gadgets (built-in cameras JP: Do you like being on the other side of the camera? in cellular phones, computers, etc.) may have extended OP: Yes. It’s a position where you can remain silent, the range of experience required of one to take a photo. create a lot, and inspire people in ways they do not Before digital photography, a novice photographer expect.

JP: Any exciting plans for the future? had to know a few things in order to even begin taking OP: Yes. Making more plans. pictures. Now a novice needs to know nothing about his

The 32 members of the Class of 2008 were accepted to 72 colleges and universities in 27 states and the District of Columbia, including:

Congratulations

Class of 2008 75% of the Class of 2008 received scholarship offers totaling more than $2.25 million.

.ORTH (APPY (OLLOW "LVD s /MAHA .EBRASKA s

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Beth El students celebrate Yom Ha’Atzmaut

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator

Yom Ha’Atzmaut was on the minds of Beth El’s religious school students last week, as they celebrated Israel with an afternoon of holiday-related activities. Following a Yom Hazikaron ceremony led by JCC shlicha Zohar Winer, each grade broke into groups. Photos from top: fourth graders learned about a variety of Israeli foods from teacher, Margo Riekes; seventh graders received a lesson in Krav Maga, Israeli self-defense techniques; Eadie Tsabari’s third graders spent time in the computer lab exploring the Babaganewz website, which allowed them to tour different sites and cities. w wwww.plantationgeraniums.com w. p l a n t a t i o n g e r a n i u m s . c o m Visit images of of the the 2004 2008 varieties! varieties!

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May 23, 2008

Be a role model;

IN THE NEWS Rachel Shukert has just published her first book, Have You No Shame? And Other Regrettable Stories. A collection of humorous autobiographical essays about the author’s childhood and young adulthood in Omaha and New York, the book was released last month by Random House/Villard, and is available at bookstores everywhere.

Shukert, the daughter of Marty and Aviva Shukert, lives in New York City with her husband, Ben Abramowitz.

Marci Brookstein earned a master’s degree in Clinical Counseling and Family and Marriage Therapy from the University of Northern Colorado earlier this month.

A certified National Clinical Counselor, she completed an internship with the Division of Colorado Youth Correctional Facilities working directly with juvenile offenders as part of her program. A 2001 graduate of Indiana University, Marci has been teaching children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders in Colorado since August of 2001. She is the daughter of Spencer and Debbie Brookstein and Mark and the late Lori Sweet.

In celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary, the Israel Government Tourist Office for the Midwest Region is sponsoring a contest for the best original internet video commercial about visiting Israel. In a video of no more than 30 seconds, entrants should spotlight what they think is the best reason to visit Israel.

The video should be in the format of a television commercial -- this is a chance to “advertise” your reason for visiting Israel to the rest of the world. Videos will judged based on creativity, adherence to the “Best Reason to Visit Israel” theme and originality. The grand prize winner will receive two round-trip airline tickets from Chicago to Tel Aviv, courtesy of EL AL Israel Airlines.

The contest is open to legal U.S. residents, 13 years of age or older; the deadline is July 7. For contest details visit www.goisrael.com/videocontest.

Alegent Health marked the beginning of an $88 million construction and renovation project that will expand and enhance the hospital and services it provides. Called “Generation Patient,” the construction

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

the person you want your kid to be. and renovation at Immanuel Medical Center is part of a system-wide commitment to deliver the next generation of patient-centered care in environments that promotes healing while honoring the dignity of patients and their families. Among the highlights: • A new home for Immanuel’s world-class rehabilitation program, which will be connected to the current facility but will provide all private rooms, new gyms and a new pool for patients in and out of the hospital.

• Upgraded and modernized all private inpatient rooms redesigned using the latest research in constructing healing environments.

• An expanded, comprehensive Alegent Health Cancer Center providing one stop cancer care in a hightech and comforting environment, which includes patient gardens and an Image Recovery Center designed to help heal the spirit.

• A new Ambulatory Center will be anchored by key clinical services including walk-in diagnostics and therapeutics areas for quick and easy access.

• A new Residential Treatment Center located on the Immanuel campus will provide behavioral health services for children and adolescents in a contemporary setting specifically designed with youth in mind. This facility is moving from the Midlands campus to further centralize Alegent Health’s Nebraska behavioral health services.

• An Emergency Department renovation and expansion that nearly doubles its capacity.

For more information about Alegent Health, visit Alegent.com or call 1.800.ALEGENT.

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Mayor Fahey, left, David Brown, president & CEO of Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce and Wayne Sensor, Alegent Health CEO, celebrate the groundbreaking of Alegant’s new $88 million facility.

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

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

JEWISH SENIOR SERVICES JSS presents “Memories of Elvis in Concert” with special guest appearance of ‘Marilyn Monroe’ on Wednesday, June 4, 7 p.m., at the JCC. There is no admission fee. Costumes are exact replicas of those worn

by Elvis. For transportation to the JCC, call Maggie Conti at 334.6521.

Iowa Western Community Band presents “Sensational

Summer Sounds” on Wednesday, June 25, 7 p.m., at the JCC. There is no fee. For information, call Linda Fitzgerald at 334.6520.

B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan will speak at Breadbreakers on Wednesday, May 28, noon, at Regency Lodge, according to Harold Bernstein, chairman. The Mayor will discuss “Growth, Gambling and the Future of the City.” All men and women in the community are invited. The program is free. An optional buffet lunch is $13 and beverage service only is $3.

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN Officers and board will be installed and awards will be presented at the Thursday, May 29, 5:30 p.m. annual meeting of NCJW-Omaha Section at the Champions Club. Cost is $30 for dinner. RSVP to Patty Nogg at: 333.5186 or patty_nogg@cgsystems.com.

Burmese Jew going home Continued from page 3 And he is hopeful that one day the country will open up.

“It is not their fault. They should make a positive thing now and join with all the relief workers to let them in,” he said of the government. “The natural disaster is not their fault, but their action now, that is their fault.”

Is he angry? “Yeah,” he says, but then tempers his response. “Not only me, but all the international people.”

But his eyes belie his lips, framed by the sparse beginnings of a Vandyke beard. They grow cold and angry

when he says that he understands the government’s position on not allowing in aid to help the 1.5 million citizens it claims to protect because he understands the junta is afraid of Western influence from aid workers influencing a coup.

Those eyes warn that one should not misread that understanding as sympathy. And they grow a little nervous when he is asked to consider if something should go wrong, if authorities grow fickle and arrest him for bringing in aid from a Western country -- albeit just a suitcase or two of tablets and medicine.

“I hope they have sympathy,” he said. “It is part of the Burmese culture. But whatever happens, I have to go.”

Page 5

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 23, 2008

Part I: The Brandeis Story

The family-owned department store becomes an institution and tradition Continued from page 1 Renaissance Revival style, the half-million square foot, brownstone edifice included ornate ceilings, Corinthian columns and marble floors. Its vast, sweeping spaces contained every imaginable good and service. So distinct was the store, it became a destination stop for anyone visiting Omaha. Its sheer size, fabulous amenities, everything underone-roof selection and firstrate customer service set it apart from the competition.

“Brandeis was really the source of most of the things you wanted. It was where you bought your first suit. It was where you went to have dinner with your friends...it was 10 floors of just a wonderful array of things,” Omaha historian Barry Combs said.

All things have their seasons and as downtowns lost their competitive edge to suburban malls in the 1950s and 1960s department stores began to feel the pinch. Many closed in the ensuing years.

Omaha and Brandeis were no exception.

As the suburbs beckoned, Brandeis followed -- building a mall, opening outlets.

At its peak in the early 1970s, the family-owned retail chain grew to 15 stores, 3,000 employees and $100 million in sales. As fewer folks shopped downtown the flagship store became a drag. When, in 1980, Brandeis closed the downtown store as part of a general downsizing, it marked the end of an era. A leaner Brandeis became profitable again by the time Younkers bought it in 1987. More than 100 years of Brandeis retailing was no more.

The dynasty dates back to company founder Jonas Leopold Brandeis. This family patriarch set The Great Man precedent. Born in 1837, the Austrian-Jewish immigrant was a tanner by trade in his native Prague. J.L. came to the U. S. in his late teens, part of a flood of immigrants helping settle the frontier.

His self-made success story in America began as a merchant in the wilds of Wisconsin, where he traded with Indians.

He married Fanny Teweles of Milwaukee and the couple made a life for themselves and their family in Manitowoc.

A sportsman tradition that runs through the Brandeis family began with J.L., whose prowess with a gun became legendary.

He next set his sights south on Omaha, a booming transportation, mercantile and livestock hub with excellent rail and river access. He, Fannie and their four children, Sara, Arthur, Emil and Hugo, moved to Omaha in the early 1880s. J.L. built the first of what would be several downtown Brandeis merchandising enterprises.

The first retail venture, The Fair, opened at 506 South 13th Street. By 1888 J.L. and his boys were full partners when they rented a new site at 114 So. 16 St. , calling it The Boston Store, a then-popular name for retail outlets. The J.L. Brandeis & Sons name first appeared over the door there and would appear, on building plates, on all future Brandeis stores.

Business soon outgrew that location and in 1891 the family built a second Boston store on the corner of 16th and Douglas, near what would become the anchor spot for the burgeoning Brandeis empire. J.L. was determined to succeed and not even the total loss of the building in an 1894 fire could deter him. He

built a new, larger, better store on the same site.

It didn’t take long for the muttonchopped J.L. to make his mark, drawing much attention with lighted store windows at night and illustrations in newspaper ads.

Every Saturday he released a dozen balloons containing coupons redeemable for a free suit of clothes. Thus, from the very start, Brandeis was known as a pacesetter and innovator. These qualities would distinguish the company and the family members who ran it throughout the 20th century.

before it. Elaborate window displays drew lines of spectators. Mihelich said, “Those window displays were virtual museum exhibits. They would change regularly and would reflect the seasons and the holidays. They were used to entice people in. People literally did window shop.”

Former Brandeis VP Gene Griffin of Omaha said it was a showplace: “People came from near and far to see what was going on...”

Gleaming glass counters and mirrors, polished marble floors and overbrimming bins filled the cavernous interior. “The

Left: Arthur D. Brandeis, Right: Emil 1884.

Brandeis, left, A.H. Gladstone and Julius Meyer.

Courtesy of the Nebraska State Historical Society “It seemed like Brandeis was always very progressive with the things they did,” said Omahan Ted Baer, whose father, the late Alan Baer, was a great-grandson of J.L and the company’s last owner/president.

As a savvy merchant, J.L. knew a prospering city and Jewish community meant more good will and business for Brandeis and so he and his wife immersed themselves in civic pursuits.

He was among those who spearheaded efforts in the years after Nebraska’s first synagogue, Congregation of Israel, was founded in 1871. He, along with Carl Brandeis, a relative he brought to Omaha, actively worked to create a chapter of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith.

Fannie organized a sewing class for Russian Jewish immigrants and led efforts to establish the area’s first Jewish hospital -- Wise Memorial -- as a sanctuary from bias. When Fannie died the hospital board paid tribute to her with a resolution: “With patience and perseverance, undaunted by discouragement, she courageously carried forward her plan of founding a permanent institution...open and free to the afflicted without distinction as to creed or race.”

Fannie and J.L. were also on the committee that promoted the largest event in Omaha history -- the 1898 TransMississippi & International Exposition, a five month-long fair of more than 4,000 exhibits on 108 city blocks that drew 2.5 million visitors. The Brandeis’ also served on the city parks commission that extended the system of parks and boulevards.

By the early 1900s, the Brandeis name owned currency with customers and vendors. His sons were already running things and they embarked on the family’s biggest expansion to date, construction of the giant Brandeis store, between 16th and 17th and Douglas Streets.

Work began in 1906 and the $1 million building opened to much fanfare in 1907, displaying the latest goods from the post London and Paris trade centers.

Eleven-year-old E.John Brandeis -Arthur’s son -- was accorded the honor of laying the cornerstone.

Originally eight stories, the building qualified as a skyscraper by that era’s standards. Later additions brought the structure to its present height, complete with an Art Deco-style penthouse bungalow atop the 10th floor.

Ads ballyhooed the new store as “absolutely fireproof,” a reference to the fire that destroyed The Boston Store a dozen years earlier.

Brandeis pulled out all the stops to assure the public this store was unlike any

display was key,” Mihelich said.

“Christmas, of course, would be the most important of all.”

At Christmas the 10th floor was transformed into Toy Land, a Santa’s workshop-inspired seasonal display that thousands of children and parents visited.

Lines of kids waited to sit on Santa’s lap and to have their picture taken with Old Saint Nick. Ex-Brandeis VP Vic Mason of Omaha said, “People looked forward to going downtown and shopping at the store, especially at Christmas time, when they had those fabulous displays on the 16th and Douglas corner and the big Toy Land up on the 10th floor.”

Any time of year the main floor mezzanine was a take-your-breath-away sight with its gilded columns, hanging chandeliers, copper-plated ceiling and brass-fixtured elevators hand-operated by white gloved attendants. A large clock near the 17th Street entrance was a popular meeting spot. A mosaic-tiled balcony offered secluded shopping and custom services.

The bargain basement floor attracted teeming crowds. An arcade included an array of eateries -- the Pompeian Room, the Tea Room, Hamburger Heaven and a cafeteria. “... there was a certain elegance to the department store. You had a shopping experience that you certainly wouldn’t have in a big box store today,” Omaha historian Harl Dalstrom said. “... just the surroundings, the showcases, the decor inside the building, the majestic construction of the buildings themselves, the high ceilings, the display of merchandise and, of course, the windows ...”

The Brandeis brand stood for something special, representing an ultimate shopping experience unequaled in these parts. A one-time Brandeis VP, the late Sam Marchese, may have put it best when a newspaper quoted him saying: “When my grandfather came to this country he could speak only three words of English: ‘Hello,’ ‘goodbye,’ and ‘Brandeis.’ From Omaha there are only four real institutions in the state: the University of Nebraska, the Omaha World-Herald, Creighton and Brandeis.”

More than a flagship, the downtown

store was ‘the’ center for commerce. It’s where people shopped and dined and caught up with friends or associates.

It’s where you went to be seen. Where big wigs did business, sealed deals, made plans. Brandeis hosted fashion shows, parties, receptions, graduations and meetings.

Dalstrom said, “You would find going to the big department stores such as Brandeis part of an overall urban experience. When you look at the Brandeis experience you need to consider it too as part of an overall orientation toward important things downtown ... and so downtown shopping was very much the thing.”

Not to be overlooked, Brandeis was viewed as one of Omaha’s own.

“Locally owned. Local ties.

That was different than all the other department stores. It was kind of funny growing up because everybody I knew either had somebody in their family who did work or had worked at Brandeis,” Ted Baer said.

Every city has its movers and shakers. Big wheels turned early Omaha from a prairie town outfitting Western Plains settlers into a modern metropolis of railroad, meatpacking, livestock, banking and mercantile interests. The names of those who made it happen -- Kountze, Storz, Joslyn, Dodge, Reed, Hitchcock, Clarkson, Millard, Doorly -- adorn streets and public places. The Brandeis name lives on, too.

The executives guiding the company were more than merchants. They were part of the elite inner circle that called the shots. Through the years, Brandeis family members filled the top executive slots in the company, but with its growth, Brandeis increasingly looked outside the family. Family or not, the Brandeis name opened doors. When a Brandeis spoke, people listened.

“At one time, Brandeis ran this town,” said former VP Helmuth Dahlke. “... in the heyday Brandeis pretty much controlled every corner of downtown Omaha, strategically, so that no one could move in. They controlled the real estate ... owned the buildings, the properties. When we wanted something we called and one minute later they called you back. We had muscle.”

“Yes, the Brandeis family and other major corporate executives of Brandeis provided substantial leadership in the business community, in civic affairs, in philanthropy,” Mihelich said. “They did it individually, serving on things like the board of governors of Ak-Sar-Ben ... In all of these numerous kinds of activities the Brandeis family and the Brandeis company certainly for the better part of a century were as influential as any of the other major Omaha players.”

Befitting their means, the Brandeis family lived like Midwestern rajahs with their mansions, stables of horses, recreational activities, parties, appointments, titles, world travels and charitable work.

Newspapers detailed their comings and goings. Cousins George and E. John Brandeis cut dashing figures with their good looks and active pursuits.

Fellow sportsmen, their exploits made much news: George with his prized horses and hunting of fowl in western Nebraska; and E. John riding, yachting, hunting on one of his big-game safaris or squiring eligible young women.

Continued on page 7

May 23, 2008

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 7

Part I: The Brandeis Story Continued from page 6 “The Brandeis family were like rock stars,” Ted Baer said. “One of them was on the Titanic. E. John lived like the young Howard Hughes, playing polo, flying all over the place and doing pretty much anything he wanted to do.”

There would be many stars in the Brandeis firmament, but none quite as bright as J.L. By his death in 1903, the company was already viewed as a linchpin in the local economy. An Omaha Bee article proclaimed: “... its prosperity has been a part of the growth of the city and its faith in the city has been shown by its constant endeavor to grow within the city.”

Even in death, J.L. continued Above left: Leola Brandeis Baer with her sons: Alan, left, Robert and David. E. John Brandeis ran the giving, as his will directed generous company from the 1940s until the 1970s. Below: a “toilet goods” (cosmetics and personal care prodgifts to several charities, including ucts) exhibit held at the downtown store in 1927. Photos courtesy of the Baer family and the NJHS the Creche, the Omaha Benevolent in memory of our late fellow citizen, Emil Society and Temple Israel, beginning a Brandeis...” long tradition of charity by Brandeis heirs Upon his death, Emil’s will directed and descendants. funds to the Visiting Nurses Association, Following in his footsteps, J.L.’s sons an organization the family continues supcontinued as community stewards. porting today.

Arthur, Hugo and George each served on Only months following Emil’s death, the Ak-Sar-Ben board of governors. The brother Hugo died after an operation, family’s association with the civic-philan- leaving Arthur as the only Brandeis at the thropic organization would last genera- helm. Soon, Arthur cast his eye to divertions. sify Brandeis interests with development After J.L.’s passing, his three sons of the Brandeis Theater, which opened found their niches. Arthur, the visionary, across the street from the store in 1910, assumed the presidency. Emil, the joining the spate of motion picture housbuilder, handled and supervised con- es downtown. struction and maintenance of the compaMeanwhile, Arthur’s son, E. John, ny’s early building projects. Hugo, the began learning the business as a boy, retailer, sent buyers to foreign markets occasionally accompanying his father on and managed the store’s sales policies. buying trips overseas.

Cousin George Brandeis joined them at With the loss of his two brothers, the department store, first at J.L.’s urging Arthur turned to cousin George, then and later at Arthur’s. George’s presence manager of the Boston Store in Chicago, only this time someone from outside the proved invaluable when a series of to join the family empire. tragedies struck down J.L.’s boys, leaving By 1914, a restless Arthur left the family, Karl Louis, a German immigrant.

George to take over. store’s leadership to George in order to Brandeis and Louis met at Chicago’s The first of these tragedies befell Emil. attend to his extensive realty holdings and Boston Store, where the two men forged The lifelong bachelor had concluded his to become vice president of Stern a professional and personal relationship annual overseas trip in the spring of Brothers dry goods store in New York, that lasted 36 years.

Louis got the nickname “Cyclone Kid,” 1912, touring the European continent where he took up residence. When and Egypt with his niece and her hus- Arthur died in 1916, his will left in excess as his arrival coincided with the horrific band. For his return trip, he boarded the of $1 million in personal property and Easter Sunday tornado that laid waste to Titanic as a first-class passenger and died real estate, in a trust, to his son, E. John. miles of Omaha on March 23, 1913.

Louis was George’s top aide and evenin its sinking. He was 45.

As a boy, E. John had laid the cornerHis body was recovered on an ice floe stone of the Brandeis department store. tually made vice president and general by the MacKay Bennett. He was wearing E. John had worked under his father at merchandise manager. Helmuth Dahlke a dark suit, brown shirt with blue stripes, Stern Brothers, but at age 21 was not yet has fond memories of Louis. “He was a black shoes and silk socks. Among his deemed ready to take over the reins at great merchant. He was a great guy. He effects were diamond cuff links, a gold Brandeis, where George remained in ran the company all those years -- under knife, a platinum and diamond watch charge as general manager. E. John George -- but he ran it. Longer than anychain, a gold pencil case, a gold ring, a would have to learn the business from the one else. I was in total awe of him.”

With Louis looking after the store, gold cigarette case and match box, a pearl ground up. George mentored the heir George Brandeis turned his attention to tie-pin and a 500-franc note. apparent.

Various personal accounts of the disasGeorge’s tenure at the top lasted longer developing Omaha’s downtown business ter to reach the Brandeis family placed than anyone’s in Brandeis history. He district. Always looking to consolidate the Emil at a card table when the “unsink- grew up in Lieben, Austria. His uncle, old store’s position and spur growth around able” luxury liner struck the iceberg that J.L., was already a success in America it, George directed the Brandeis spelled its doom. when he visited Lieben in the early Investment Company in providing the An old friend who survived the sinking, 1890s. Impressed by his uncle’s tales of land and the impetus for construction of Mrs. Henry B. Harris, wired the family riches, young George returned to the Fontenelle Hotel, the Omaha her own account of her and her husband America with J.L., who put him to work Athletic Club, the Elks Club and the dining with Emil on the ill-fated maiden at the family’s Boston Store in Omaha. Medical Arts Building. All became fixvoyage and how he proudly boasted to George began humbly enough -- check- tures on the vital downtown scene.

As Ak-Sar-Ben president, George them of his recent travels. Once the ship ing parcels for customers. was damaged and the evacuation begun, Upon returning to Omaha to help swelled the organization’s membership and led the drive to give Omaha toll-free Mrs. Harris was put safely out to sea on a manage Brandeis he told a reporter: jampacked lifeboat and watched Emil and “It was one of the surprises of my life to bridges across the Missouri River. He was Mr. Harris remain among the throng of find ... Omaha has grown to such a thriv- crowned King of Ak-Sar-Ben in 1931.

Ak-Sar-Ben bestowed on him the honmen on deck, stoically awaiting their fate, ing city. And I was also greatly surprised she reported, “without fear.” at the enormous amount of business my orary office of chairman of the board.

Emil was remembered as a solid citizen cousin is doing. Why, they are selling Active in the Omaha Chamber of in a statement issued by the Knights of higher class goods here ... than in Commerce, George’s leadership extended to serving as a director of Omaha’s Ak-Sar-Ben published in the Omaha Chicago.”

World-Herald: On his watch George is credited with Union Stock Yards Company, operator of “In the consideration of his distin- growing the store’s market share. The the world’s largest livestock market, and guished services in the upbuilding of growth continued despite the Great head of the Central Land and Cattle Omaha and in appreciation in the loss of Depression and two world wars. Just as Company.

Mihelich said, “George Brandeis ... was his loyal devotion to her interests that his Arthur Brandeis brought George on home city has sustained in his tragic board to guide the company, George a mover and shaker ... with a vision and a death, we ... have called a public meeting brought in a key lieutenant of his own, passion for his city ... His name was associ-

ated with virtually everything going on.”

George raised and trained show horses on his farm west of Omaha. Many of his saddle and harness horses won ribbons on the show circuit. He also owned a prized thoroughbred gelding, Hal Mahone, once valued at $20,000. Long before media titan Ted Turner invested in Nebraska’s rich ranch lands, Brandeis purchased a 30,000-acre Sand Hills spread, the T-O, south of Valentine, where he raised cattle.

When Brandeis died in 1948 he was memorialized by newspapers as “a merchant and civic leader” and more: “Mr. Brandeis’ civic-mindedness reached into all corners of Omaha life.

The story of George Brandeis ... is the oft-told tale of the immigrant who achieved great business success. It is the story of a man who worked to build his community while building businesses.”

With George gone, cousin E. John

installed himself as president. His early immersion in the family business was interrupted by military service during World War I. E. John was assigned a machine-gun unit at Camp Funston, Kansas, and later made inspections of aircraft production. After the war he returned to the fold, opening Brandeis’s New York office, from where he networked with big Eastern jobbers and traveled to European markets.

He remained in the Army Reserves, retaining a captain’s commission. On many of his store buying trips -- to acquire textiles, chinaware and leather goods -- his companion was the “Cyclone Kid,” Karl Louis.

In 1924, E. John came into possession of the Brandeis store and investment company held in trust for him since his father’s death. Confident in cousin George’s management ability, he left well enough alone and remained a background figure. E. John bided his time, waiting for his chance at the top. It came in the late 1940s. He would guide Brandeis through the early 1970s.

A dynamic man with a penchant for high living and the outdoors, he spent most of his time at his ranch in California, where he moved in elite social circles.

While on the coast or off on one of his many jaunts around the world, he received regular briefings on Brandeis affairs. On monthly visits to Omaha, he attended to business. So it was this largely absentee owner oversaw the company at its time of greatest growth.

Change was in the wind, however, and Brandeis would meet new opportunities and challenges that forever changed the company and hinted at its fate.

In Part II, Brandeis reaches its zenith in the post-World War II boom but changing trends force the company to do the unthinkable.

Page 8

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 23, 2008

Beth El fourth graders say ‘I Do’ Friedel students win in district and state speech contests during annual mock wedding

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator The mood was festive as family and friends recently joined together at Beth El Synagogue to witness the religious school’s annual fourth-grade wedding celebration.

During the ceremony, each student assumed a special role, from bride and groom and parents of the “couple,” to attendants and ushers. In addition, each

child took a turn in explaining Jewish wedding rituals to the audience. Photos from: the groom, top, Daniel Levy, was escorted down the aisle by his “parents,” Brooke Shulewitz and Jacob Klein; Cantor Gastón Bogomolni and Rabbi Mordechai Levin,

presided over the festive ceremony; the bride, Aliyah Jabenis, and her “mother,” Emilie Stein, made their presentations to attendees, surrounded by fellow wedding participants and teacher Margo Riekes, left.

Credit: Ophir Palmon/Artistic Visions

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT home trophies for herself and Friedel.

Earlier this month, Friedel students Eva “Friedel has had one state winner in the Phillips, daughter of Dr. Eric and Julie past: Jacob Katzman,” Bennett rememPhillips, and Elissa Wiener, daughter of bered, “I wish I remembered the exact Richard and Audrey Wiener, had the year, but it was before 1995; we were still honor of representing their school at the located in the old building.” annual district speech competition. Elissa Principal Cookie Katskee is looking forwon the competition, while Eva placed ward to the next round at nationals. third.

Denise Bennett, who teaches fifth and sixth grade, prepared her students well for the event, which was held at Aldrich Elementary.”

Students from Aldrich, Wegner Middle School, St. Vincent DePaul, and Friedel competed,” Bennett said.

The topic was “An American Landmark.”

“Elissa spoke about the Empire State Building, and Eva spoke about Chimney Rock. They were both excellent representatives of Friedel; they’re very gifted public speakers!” she added.

Elissa, who attends fifth grade at Friedel, then recited her speech again at the state competition held May 19 at Brownell-Talbot, where she won first place! Students from the Omaha area as well Elissa Weiner, daughter of Richard and Audrey Weiner, as from Columbus and shows off her district trophy to her proud Friedel teacher Madison, NE, competed Denise Bennett. against her.

“Our students do a fantastic job with As the winner of this state competition, their speeches, and they are getting better Elissa had her speech videotaped and sent every year,” Katskee said. “It’s very to the national competition. She also inspiring to watch them develop their received a check for $100 and brought skills in front of an audience.”

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Come and hear Ambassador Dennis Ross talk about what it will take to Restore America’s Standing in the World.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL TOLL FREE DAVID A. WEINTRAUB, ESQ. (800) 718-1422 Admitted to practice in Nebraska, Florida and New York

As U.S. point man on the Middle East peace process for both the first President Bush and President Clinton, he played a key role in shaping America’s policy for more than 12 years.

Weds, June 4 7:30 P.M. Scott Conference Center 6450 Pine Street

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The FREE Holland Lecture Series invites you to come and learn how Ambassador Ross says we can rebuild America’s global reputation.

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The Douglas Building, 209 S. 19th Street, 5th floor, Omaha, NE 68102 A reception with Ambassador Ross will follow his presentation

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CHURCH OF OMAHA More on Ambassador Ross at: firstuuomaha.org

7471 West Oakland Park Blvd., Suite 110, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33319 The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisements. Before you decide, ask us to send you free written information about our qualifications and experience.

May 23, 2008

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 9

Sports fans welcome Kansas coach to B’nai B’rith banquet

Above: Henry Monsky Lodge chairman Gary Javitch, Coach Bill Self, award winning female athete Amy Monson, and Gil Cohen, banquet chairman; below: Bob and Frank Goldberg.

Nearly 1100 people attended the 58th annual B’nai B’rith Sports Banquet at the Qwest Center to hear Bill Self, the award-winning basketball coach of the Kansas Jayhawks.

Photos from top left: Among the crowd were: Richard Diamond, left, and Bruce Brodkey;

Adam Jacobs and former Husker coach and Congressman Tom Osborne; Wendy Raffel and Self; members of AZA#1 and Chaim Weizmann AZA. Below left: Mel and Lois Epstein; Chuck Siegerson, Sylvia Wagner and Hal Daub. Photos by Allan Handleman

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EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press will be closed on Monday, May 26, for Memorial Day, and Monday and Tuesday, June 9-10, for Shavuot. The deadline for all ads, articles and photos is 9 a.m.

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Page 10

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 23, 2008

Religion and American political scene focus of lecture

by MARY SUE GROSSMAN Administrator, Center for Jewish Education How much does religion truly affect politics? Does the faith of a candidate guarantee success? Or on the flip side, can it promise failure?

“Religion in the American Political Public Forum” will be the topic of a community lecture by Professor Michael J. Broyde on Wednesday, June 11, 7:30 p.m.

The event, which is free of charge, will be held at the Jewish Community Center.

Broyde is Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law and the Academic Director of the Law and Religion Program at Emory University. He has taught courses in a variety of subjects including Jewish law, family law, federal courts, alternative dispute resolution, secured credit, and bankruptcy. He received his juris doctor from New York University.

Additionally, Broyde is ordained as a rabbi by Yeshiva University and is a member (dayan) of the Beth Din of America, the largest Jewish law court in America. He was the director of that court during the 1997-1998 academic year while on leave from Emory.

Bob Goldberg, president of the CJE, encourages everyone in the community to add this event to their calendars. “To host someone of Professor Broyde’s caliber is such an honor,” states Goldberg. “With his experience in the American law and the Jewish legal system, his presentation should be fascinating.”

Broyde has published more than 60 articles in law and religion and Jewish law, including “Error in the Creation of Marriage and its Relationship to the Talmudic Text, it is better to be married than to be sin-

gle,” Techumin (2003).

He has also published a number of articles in the area of Federal courts, including an article in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy on the impeachment process. He is the author of a recent article in the Connecticut Law Review: “Cloning People: A Jewish View.”

His books include The Michael J. Broyde Pursuit of Justice and Jewish Law, Human Rights and Judaism, and Marriage, Divorce and the Abandoned Wife in Jewish Law: A Conceptual Understanding of the Agunah Problems in America.

The lecture is presented by the Center for Jewish Education and sponsored by an endowment from the Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Chair of Jewish Civilization at Creighton University. “We are delighted we are able to bring such an outstanding scholar to our community,” said Steve Riekes, chairman of the Cardozo Society, for Jewish members of the legal profession.

On Thursday, June 12, 11:45 a.m., Prof. Broyde will address members of the Cardozo Society (Jewish members of the legal profession) during a deli luncheon. His topic will be “Jewish Law as Practiced in Modern America: A Possible Avenue for Alternative Dispute Resolution.” Cost is $11 per person. The luncheon is also open to the community, however reservations are required and can be made by calling 334.6445.

Books, blooms, and blintzes

by GARY KATZ Library Administrator The Kripke Library has put together a program highlighting the festival of Shavuot entitled “Books, Blooms and Blintzes: It’s Shavuot! on Monday, June 2, 7 p.m.

The story of Ruth will be told by Rita Paskowitz, local storyteller. Customarily read on Shavuot, the most quoted reason is that Ruth’s conversion to Judaism took place around Shavuot and her acceptance into the Jewish faith was analogous of the acceptance of the Torah.

Next up will be a demonstration of flower arranging by master floral instructor Damon Samuel, AIFD/AAF/DFCI. It is believed that when the Torah was given on Mount Sinai, the barren desert exploded with blooming flowers, as if the earth rejoiced. This, along with the fact that Shavuot began as an agricultural festival, makes it customary to embellish the synagogues and houses with flowers.

And could there be a Jewish event without food?

Absolutely not and blintzes will be the culinary treat to end the program! Dairy meals are traditionally served on Shavuot to remember the laws of kashruth were received with the Torah. While in Sinai, the Jews did not have the utensils needed to prepare kosher meat, so they ate only dairy. Another line of thinking is that eating dairy shows restraint. When the Jews on Sinai accepted the Torah and committed to follow it, they committed themselves to leading lives with restraints.

This final event of the Holiday Enrichment Series is presented by the Center for Jewish Education through the Kripke Library. For information, please contact me at 334.6462 or gkatz@jewishomaha.org.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT The Omaha Children’s Museum will open a new traveling exhibition, “DinO!saurs: A Prehistoric Expedition,” on June 7. This blockbuster exhibit features 13 robotic dinosaurs and will be open at the museum through Jan. 4, 2009.

This exhibition brings a whole new herd of the ancient creatures sure to entertain and educate young and old alike. Exhibit highlights include a 22-foot-long Tyrannosaurus Rex, plus other favorites including Triceratops, Stegosaurus and a Corythosaurus protecting her nest of eggs and hatchlings.

Against a realistic backdrop of lush scenery, the 10,000 square foot exhibit will also include: two rubbing stations, a Dinosaur Dig where guests can uncover fossils and a Duckbill Dinosaur robot that visitors can operate. No skin is attached to its robotic frame.

DinO!saurs: A Prehistoric Expedition brings a new herd of dinosaurs to the museum than those that were on display in 1989 and 2006. Exhibits featuring dinosaurs are the most popular traveling exhibitions featured at the museum to date; in 2006 they drew nearly 100,000.

Opening day will feature a preview of the exhibition for museum members from 9-10 a.m. and will open to the public at 10 a.m. Activities will include a “Make Your Own 3-D T-Rex” in the museum’s Creative Arts Center, science shows every hour on the half hour, and Paleo Camp activities every hour on the hour.

On June 14 and July 26, 9-11 a.m., the Pancake Man will visit the museum, providing a Dino Breakfast for $5. Admission is $2 for non-members and free for members. Regular museum admission applies.

For more than 50 years NET Television has served as a mirror to Nebraska -- reflecting its people, places, history and stories. Beginning Saturday, May 24, 7:30 p.m., on NET1, “Nebraska Night” marks the origin of a new intermittent programming feature that celebrates the best of what Nebraska has to offer by showcasing some of NET Television’s finest productions.

The premiere begins with a tribute to Nebraska’s -and America’s -- service men and women. “Canteen Spirit,” NET Television’s documentary looks at the North Platte Canteen and the support it provided to America’s Second World War troops. Following at 8:40 p.m. is “Most Honorable Son” about Nebraska’s Ben Kuroki, who not only fought the Axis powers in Europe and the Pacific during WWII, but also battled discrimination and prejudice in America. At 9:45 p.m. the award-winning “On the Frontline: Nebraskans at War in Iraq” airs. While not part of “Nebraska Night,” the popular and patriotic annual PBS special, “National Memorial Day Concert” will air on Sunday, May 25, at 7 p.m. CT and again on Memorial Day at 10 p.m. CT on NET1 For a complete program schedule, visit NET’s Web site (netNebraska.org/television).

May 23, 2008

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 11

Temple Israel seniors graduate as Beth El celebrates Israel’s 60th with family event, “Praise the Land kindergartners get ready to start a new year ... and Pass the Falafel!”

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator Who can resist a birthday party, especially one with great food and wonderful entertainment for the whole family?

Certainly not the folks at Beth El, who are making preparations for “Praise the Land ... and Pass the Falafel!” a community-wide, multi-media celebration of the State of Israel’s 60th birthday.

Planned for Sunday, June 8, 5:30 p.m., “Praise the Land” Committee members Joanie Jacobson, Margie Gutnik and will be a festive loveletter to Cantor Gastón Bogomolni are singing the praises of Beth Israel, an evening of tributes El’s birthday party celebrating Israel’s 60th. sheet of those years has certainly been impressive. We are filled with pride with joy and with gratitude for what Israel has achieved in 60 years.”

The rabbi also noted that the event falls on Erev Shavuot, an evening which Beth El members traditionally commemorate with Torah-study sessions; however, “this year we will welcome Shavuot by paying tribute to the land of Israel and celebrating this milestone 60th birthday.”

Mike Friedman, left, Dan Canfield, Liatte (Shavuot services will begin at 7:30 Dotan and Emily Giller are among those who p.m., following the party.) will help decorate for the party.

Joanie Jacobson, who is helping to through song, dance, personal stories, and organize “Praise the Land ...” remarked that, “Israel’s celebration is our celebraof course, a few surprises.

The synagogue’s social hall will be trans- tion. Its birth, its struggle, its victories formed into “Kibbutz Beth El” where and its incredible accomplishments in scicongregants will enjoy “A Taste of Israel,” ence, agriculture, technology, the arts, a delicious family-style dinner. In addition, medicine and nation-building are reasons families with young children are invited to for all Jews everywhere to celebrate. To come early (5 p.m.), to make birthday ‘praise the land’ is to share in the miracle that is Israel, and at Beth El, that means cards to be sent to Israeli children.

“All year, the 60th anniversary has cre- a spirited, feel-good evening for anyone ated so much excitement” said Mindy who wants to join in!”

In addition to Jacobson, planning comTene, who is chairing the event with her husband, Gady. “This will be a chance for mittee members include Amnon Dotan, everybody to celebrate Israel. It’s just Joan Marcus, Ozzie Nogg, Ophir going to be a big birthday party and lots Palmon, Robert Mosenkis, Margie of fun.” She added that the meal will be Gutnik, Jill Belmont and Cantor Gastón relaxed and informal, filled with “tasting, Bogomolni. Also helping on this unique event are: Darlene Golbitz, Daniel dipping, dunking and smushing!”

Saying that the event will be a wonder- Christensen, Cheryl Lerner, Ruti ful celebration for the community, Rabbi Margalit, Susan Witkowski, Beth Dotan, Mordechai Levin said, “The dreams of Iris Varkony and Nava Naslovsky.

Cost is $5 per person. To RSVP or for generations have come true in our time.

We are the generation that has seen our more information, contact Program prayers answered. In historical terms, 60 Director Margie Gutnik at 492.8550, or years is not a long time. But the balance at programming@bethel-omaha.org.

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ed to links representing generations of Temple confirmands and graduates.

Parents blinked back tears as their children led the Shabbat service which began with a processional and the Shabbat candle lighting by sisters Ashley and LaShanna Bernstein. The eight graduates welcomed Shabbat, followed Rabbi Eric Linder who carried the Torah in a joyful hakafah around the sanctuary, and then three of the seniors, David Anderson, Sarah Bleicher, and Sarah Sadofsky, read Torah.

Parents of the seniors were invited to the bimah and recited a prayer in gratitude for the gift and blessing of parenthood and then looked to their sons’ and daughters’ futures. In a poignant tradition, Rabbi Aryeh Azriel individually blessed each graduate in a few moments of personal reflection.

Before the end of the service, the 2008-09 The youngsters are, front row: Mia Zweiback, left (who accom- Omaha Temple Youth panied her older brother Max who will be in kindergarten next Group Board was asked year), Sydney Kully, Leo Ray, Clara Murphy, Elizabeth Kazor; to ascend the bimah to be back row: Max Zweiback, Ben Wilczewski, Ruby Platt, Laura installed by Youth Group Kirshenbaum, and Jack Beach who will be joined by several Advisor Amy Katz. The new Board members are others when Religious School resumes in the fall.

Susan Freeman, president; Haley Burns, programming vice president; Emily Katz, social action vice president; Grace Hack, religious/cultural vice president; Adam Goldberg, communications vice president; Hannah Ferer, membership vice president; Jordan Jensen, Junior Youth Group liaison; and Sam Burrell, mascot.

Two days later, beginning the Religious School journey just completed by the seniors, a new group Temple Israel graduates completing 12 years of Religious of five-year-old students School are: David Anderson, left, Matthew Heyman, Sarah attended Kindergarten Sadofsky, Robert Friedman, Ashley Bernstein, Jaclyn Adelson, Round-Up with their parents at Temple.

LaShanna Bernstein, and Sarah Bleicher.

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator In a moving service, Temple Israel’s high school seniors graduated at Shabbat worship services on May 9. Annie Rips, representing the graduates of 2007, presented Sarah Sadofsky of this year’s class with a silver link to add to The Chain of Tradition which was started in 1954. The names of each class’s members are inscribed on a new link which is connect-

Page 12

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 23, 2008

Keeping politics out of Memorial Day Monday we remember.

We remember soldiers -- men and women -who gave their lives in service to the United States of America. We recall their names, where they were stationed, the events surrounding their deaths.

Their lives, cut short, many before they had the chance to marry and begin families, could only be described as promises of the future.

Yet they joined America’s military services in good faith, knowing that their belief in a cause could very well be their undoing.

They died on the beaches of Normandy during World War II, in the jungles of Bataan, in the damp cold of Korea and the biting desert heat of Iraq. They were young and hopeful that their actions would save the lives of the ones they loved (and left) behind.

Republican and Democrat, Jewish and Christian, Muslim and Buddhist, skin of white and black, of brown, red and yellow, tall and short, heavy and thin -- they are our brothers and sisters -- fellow Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice.

And we, who sit in our air conditioned offices and homes, who drive our gas guzzling vehicles, who complain about a broken nail or lousy service at a restaurant -- who are we in this adventure called freedom and democracy?

Forget politics on Monday. Forget the acrimony between candidates in one party and what’s to come after the summer’s political

conventions. Forget the naivete of some and the arrogance of others. Forget the plea for funds and the endless commercials.

It’s Memorial Day. It’s a time to remember our dead, say a prayer for their souls and recite their names aloud -- as if just doing that will give them a moment more of the life that fierce combat took from them.

We pray for a day when there will be war no more, but it’s unlikely that human behavior will change. We’re competitive and territorial; we want what’s ours (and sometimes what’s theirs) and we want it now -not a great formula for peaceful civilization ... sigh.

On the other hand, we have to wish for peace, for us, for Israel, for the world. Without that there’s no point in getting out of bed in the morning. So yes, live your lives: fall in love, marry, have children and celebrate the birth of grandchildren.

Build businesses

and expand practices; create, develop and invent.

But also remember.

This Monday, when the urge to shop or barbeque overtakes you, stop for a moment and recall a soldier who fought their last fight in order that we, Americans, can criticize our government, march on Washington, pray at a synagogue, church or mosque, and vote.

Those men and women are heroes; they deserve our prayers and our thanks.

Olmert fights for survival amid political, legal and PR troubles

ISRAEL @ 60

by LESLIE SUSSER JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Ehud Olmert is fighting for his political life on three fronts: legal, political and in the court of public opinion.

The multi-pronged battle follows allegations that the prime minister may have violated campaign regulations or taken bribes as mayor of Jerusalem or minister of trade, industry and labor.

Olmert is said to have received hundreds of thousands of dollars -- ostensibly as political campaign donations -- between 1993 and 2006. The money allegedly came through Morris Talansky, an American fund-raiser, who handed over most of it in cash.

Several questions arise: Were the sums within the prescribed limits for Olmert’s campaigns? Was all the money declared in campaign records as required by law? If not, what happened to the undeclared funds?

Olmert could be in trouble even if he did not take bribes; showing that he breached campaign funding regulations knowingly would be enough to force his resignation.

The campaign funding laws in Israel are strict, complicated -- and full of holes.

Donations are restricted to relatively small sums by individual donors, and a ceiling restricts the amount that can be spent in total for a campaign.

But the figures keep changing and vary for the types of elections -- municipal, national, internal party primaries for Knesset candidates and internal party primaries for party leaders.

And there is a catch: The limits on campaign donations apply only to the nine months before an election and donations have no limits before the run-up.

President Shimon Peres, for example, received donations of $100,000 from American Jewish supporters Bruce Rapaport and Haim Sabban, and $120,000 from another American supporter for the Labor Party leadership primaries in 2005.

But Peres was able to show that he received

the funds before the critical nine-month period, that he registered all the donations and that he used the money for campaign purposes.

The Peres case sheds light on Olmert’s predicament: If Olmert received large sums in any nine-month run-up period, he could be guilty of violating campaign funding laws. And if he received large sums outside the ninemonth periods but cannot show they were used for an election, he could be accused of taking bribes.

The police investigation apparently focuses on two areas: money Olmert received in 1999 to cover debts incurred in his 1998 race for Jerusalem mayor and funds received between 2003 and 2005. The funds for his mayoral race could involve campaign funding violations, and the later money, contributed without an election in the offing, could be construed as bribes.

... like Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak before him, Olmert was claiming that if any campaign violations had taken place, they were without his knowledge.

Under Israeli law, it is considered a bribe if the state can show that a high-ranking elected official pocketed large sums. The state does not need to prove that any favors were sought or rendered.

In a TV interview with Israel’s Channel 10, Talansky argued that bribery is not an issue because he had no business interests in Israel and never considered making money in the country.

“It never crossed my mind,” he said.

According to Talansky, all the money raised was for Olmert’s political campaigns, and he made cash handovers because he had no bank account in Israel and Olmert did not have one in America.

Talansky couldn’t say whether all the money was used for campaign purposes.

“I just don’t know,” he said. “It’s very confusing.”

On the face of it, Olmert’s political survival will depend on his legal fortunes. But the

prime minister also has a serious political and public opinion battle on his hands.

The results of a public opinion poll released Monday showed that 59 percent of Israelis believe Olmert should step down and 33 percent believe he should stay. Sixty percent of respondents do not believe Olmert’s claim that he did not pocket any of the money, while 22 percent believe the prime minister.

Perhaps the most crushing blow was in the poll’s election predictions, which showed that if Olmert were to stay at the helm for a new election, his Kadima Party would capture only 12 Knesset seats, compared to 28 for Likud and 19 for Labor.

But if Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni were to become the Kadima candidate for prime minister, the party would beat its rivals with 27 seats compared to Likud’s 23 and Labor’s 15.

It will be hard for Olmert to retain support in Kadima if it becomes clear he would be an electoral disaster compared with Livni’s expected strength.

Olmert is not taking any of this lying down.

Last week, at the end of Israel’s Independence Day, he delivered a calculated address to the nation in which he revealed part of his survival strategy.

First, he insisted that he had not taken any bribes. As to his alleged violations of campaign donation laws, he moved to shift the burden of responsibility to his once-close associate and former law partner Uri Messer.

Messer, an experienced lawyer, handled all the campaign funding, “presumably within the limits of the law,” Olmert said.

In other words Olmert, like Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak before him, was claiming that if any campaign violations had taken place, they were without his knowledge. It was a strategy that worked for his two predecessors.

Most important, Olmert took the urgency out of the political maneuvering to unseat him by promising to resign if indicted. Israeli politicians are now saying Olmert must be given a fair chance to clear his name and that they will wait to see whether or not he is charged.

Continued on page 13

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May 23, 2008

The fence and the American dream

FOCUS ON IbySSUES RABBI STEVE GUTOW JCPA Executive Director The immigration debate has been raging for quite some time, and Congress still lacks consensus on meaningful, comprehensive immigration reform. The system is broken, and there are no quick fixes.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) has worked extensively on the immigration issue, but I realized that working from New York, there is much I don’t understand. So, last month I took a trip to the Arizona border with the Jewish Community Relations chair from Tucson and two members of a group called the Samaritans. The mission of Samaritans is to bring food, water, and medical assistance to the hundreds of immigrants who cross the border illegally and are often left to die in the hot desert.

I learned there is literally a civilization of people responsible for preventing Mexicans from crossing the border. The increase in personnel and infrastructure has been significant, and the truth is it will be hard to diminish the program of ‘prevention and capture’ because it employs so many people and has become so large. We saw some less-than-friendly border patrol agents rounding up some immigrants. We asked if we could provide them food and water and we were gruffly told no.

Eventually, we arrived at the fence, which consisted of very tall, iron bars reaching towards the sky, still probably penetrable or climbable for a healthy person. The verse from Frost’s poem, Mending Wall that goes “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall” filled my mind.

By that time it was late in the day and we were driving towards the border town of Nogales. Suddenly, we saw five young Mexican men, perhaps boys, on the road ahead of us. Their coyote, the person who agrees for a fee to sneak them across the border, and five of their undocumented colleagues had been picked up at dawn by the border patrol and these five had been left to wander in America.

I could now understand how many of these immigrants had died. These men were 18 miles of rough desert terrain from the border and 40 miles from Tucson. Both stretches would be long and difficult treks. We could feed them and speak to them but if we put them in our car, we could face up to 15 years in prison.

The young men realized they were out of options and had us call the border patrol. The border patrol agents, who probably could have placed them in prison on a misdemeanor, assured us that they would simply bring them back to Mexico and release them. Though their attempt was unsuccessful and fraught with danger, I left them feeling as though they would try again and again until they secured safe passage and their American dream.

How we treat the twelve million just like them who are already here in many ways colors who we are as Americans.

How we react to those who want to enter our borders and become part of our country says a lot about how well we remember our own stories when we were immigrants looking for a safe haven from religious and ethnic persecution, a place to rest and live and prosper. Citizenship must be attained lawfully -- by no means should this country open its borders.

However, we cannot go to the other extreme and close them. We must make the legal path to citizenship more accessible by clearing back logs and speeding up the application process.

Euripides, the ancient Greek playwright, said “There is no greater sorrow on earth than the loss of one’s native land. As Americans, we stand to lose everything our country was founded on if we do not fix our badly broken immigration system. The twelve million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States are not going away, and countless others will die trying to join them. Illegal immigration affects us all so we all benefit from a real solution.

Rabbi Steve Gutow is the Executive Director for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs

Olmert fights for survival Continued from page 12 This could give Olmert months of breathing space and, if no charges are brought against him, he actually could survive as prime minister.

Olmert and his close supporters have made other moves to bolster his position.

They organized a meeting of party activists to express support; they tried to undermine allegations against him by insinuating that it was all part of a rightwing conspiracy to undermine him after his political transformation from hawk to relative dove; and they moved to delay legal proceedings by appealing a court ruling that allowed Talansky to give pretrial testimony.

Olmert, however, is weighed down by

his history. He has been at the center of so many questionable financial dealings that the public seems reluctant to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Recently he has been targeted in no fewer than four police investigations: for allegedly trying to fix conditions for the sale of Bank Leumi to suit a friend -- a case police now recommend should be closed; for allegedly buying, selling and renting two Jerusalem homes at discounted prices when buying and inflated prices when selling; and allegedly giving jobs to cronies when he was the minister of trade, industry and labor.

Olmert may find himself a lame duck if Kadima unseats him as party leader before the next election.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR To the Editor: I was surprised to find that Nancy Rips included my personal Passover memories in her delightful Seder Stories, but I wish I’d have been more careful to use the past tense in identifying myself as a “lox and bagel and matzah” Jew. Today, happily, the term no longer applies. Thanks to the support and guidance of many caring Beth El members, I have exchanged the respectful, somewhat detached Judaism of my parents for an involved, active, meaningful Judaism.

I attend Shabbat services and morning minyan regularly; serve on the Mitzvah Mensch Committee; and participate in Rosh Hodesh, Hazak, and Sisterhood activities. A few years ago I became an adult Bat Mitzvah. Pesach remains my favorite week of the year, but since I left Philadelphia 20 years ago, Omaha’s Jewish community, and especially Beth El Synagogue, have enriched the other days of my year immeasurably.

Diane Axler Baum

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 13

Sixty-four years later: A timely broadcast from Germany

BEHIND THE H EADLINES

by GARY SPRUCH More than 200,000 people in the past two months have clicked their way to a dramatic YouTube video about a historic Jewish religious service led by Chaplain Sidney Lefkowitz, a 1933 graduate of Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.

The video tells how, on Oc. 29, 1944,

The congregation sent him a letter telling him: “We were thrilled to hear your voice on such a memorable occasion and we are not ashamed to tell you that the tears flowed when we heard the boys sing.” They expressed their hope that “victory for righteousness will very speedily prevail and you and all the boys will be home once again.”

An article in the November, 1944, edition of the Hebrew Union College Bulletin reported that the service was held “near the scene where, six years ago, the Nazis destroyed the only Jewish syn-

Rabbi Sidney Lefkowitz is third from the right in this photo from a film broadcast by NBC in 1944 and recently as video widely seen on YouTube.

Credit: the National Archives as artillery shells exploded in the distance, Rabbi Lefkowitz led the first Jewish service for advancing Allied soldiers broadcast from liberated German soil.

Two weeks before that day came a momentous turning point in the history of freedom: “At 10:30 this morning we crossed the border ... now, at last, we are in Germany itself,” wrote the rabbi in his diary.

“Our first act, after setting up, was to have a snapshot made of our Jeep, flying the flag of the Jewish chaplain.”

No doubt, at the historic service he led, the rabbi raised a flag of hope, sending a powerful message to a world wearied by years of cataclysmic war.

And through the plaintive chanting of the Ein Kelokeinu prayer and the other prayers he led that day, he sent a message, too, to Jews everywhere, that the Jewish people would live again, that the Nazi regime of genocide -- and the world of hate, slavery, and murder it created -would be trampled underfoot.

In a booming, sonorous voice clearly heard on the video, Rabbi Lefkowitz proclaims: “The light of religious freedom has pierced through the darkness of Nazi persecution. Freedom of conscience again exists in the land which had been denying men that.”

He added, “The eternal truth has lived through,” declared the chaplain, “and will outlive the fanatical power which fought to destroy it.”

“The service at Aachen certainly marked the beginning of a new day, but only after a most horrendous night,” explained Professor Barry Lynn, president of the United States Commission on Military History.

“We proudly remember Chaplain Sidney Lefkowitz,” said Chaplain (Major General) Douglas L. Carver, Army Chief of Chaplains. “The service he conducted stands as a great moment in history.”

Indeed, immediately after NBC broadcast the service, numerous articles about it appeared in newspapers across the country. The reaction of the rabbi’s home synagogue, Beth Sholom, in Brooklyn, New York, was characteristic.

agogue in Aachen during the pogroms which swept Germany.”

In a letter sent out that same month, Hebrew Union College president Julian Morgenstern told the rabbi of HUC’s great pride in his achievements.

After the war, Rabbi Lefkowitz moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where his daughter, his grandson, and his great-grandchildren live today.

The rabbi’s daughter, Ann Lentz, said that a belief in God and man and a fiery passion for liberty drove her father all the years of his life.

She recalled how, as a girl, sneaking around her parents’ attic, she discovered and opened a locked piece of her father's luggage.

In it she found a collection of articles from the war, including, to her horror, photos her father had taken of prisoners at Camp Dora, near Nordhausen, a Nazi concentration camp.

During walks with Ann, late in his life, he told her of the sadness he carried as a result of the terrible things he had seen as a chaplain.

“But no one ever saw his sadness,” she said, “and he turned it to the good, by transforming it into sensitivity to others.”

To be sure, it was the rabbi’s sensitivity and compassion for others that prompted the American Jewish Committee -- which co-sponsored the broadcast from Germany and produced the video about it -- to recently name an international humanitarian award in his honor.

The organization will present the award annually to an individual who, like Rabbi Sidney Lefkowitz, has made outstanding contributions to advancing the great ideals of mankind.

Just as Rabbi Lefkowitz in 1944 inspired a nation, he is inspiring many thousands today through the unusually popular YouTube video that tells of the historic service he conducted.

Gary Spruch is assistant director of Publications at the American Jewish Committee and editor of its quarterly newsletter, AJC Today.

Page 14

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 23, 2008

Candlelighting Friday, May 23, 8:25 p.m

Synagogue Listings

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.

SUNDAY: Memorial Day Graveside Service, 11 a.m. for Bikhor Cholim and Oak Hill.

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 Gastón Bogomolni.

Friday, May 23, 2:30 p.m., Shabbat at the Blumkin Home, Rabbi Levin and Cantor Bogomolni will lead a special Shabbat celebration for Blumkin Home residents. The Jewish community is welcome; Musical Kabbalat Shabbat service, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY: Morning services, 9:30 a.m.; Kiddush sponsored by Audrey and Richard Wiener, in honor of their daughter, Samantha, becoming a Bat Mitzvah; Minha/Ma’ariv, 8:40 p.m.

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

SUNDAY: Bible Study Discussion Group, 10 a.m.

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

USY FINAL BANQUET: Wednesday, May 28, 6 p.m.

REMINGTON HEIGHTS VISIT: Thursday, May 29, 1:30 p.m., Rabbi Levin and Cantor Gastón will visit Remington residents, sharing a special celebration in honor of Shavuot.

WOMEN’S ROSH HODESH GROUP Wednesday, June 4, 6:45 p.m. for tea-tasting and conversation at TeaSmith, 168th & West Center.

Cost: $10. RSVPs are needed by Sunday, June 1, and may be made by contacting co-hosts Darlene Golbitz, 334.7862 or dzgolbitz@cox.net, or Leslie Eades, 330.8208, or, leslie.eades@cox.net.

“PRAISE THE LAND ...

AND PASS THE FALAFEL!” Sunday, June 8, 5:30 p.m.

Cost: $5 for those ages 6 and over; 5 and under are free. For reservations, contact Margie Gutnik in the office, or at programming@bethel-omaha.org.

Shavuot service follows at 7:30 p.m. (See full story on page 11).

B’nai Israel Synagogue

Beth Israel Synagogue Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 12604 Pacific St. Omaha, NE. 68154 556.6288 BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org

Beyt Shalom An Affiliate of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation 3012 S. 119 St. P.O. Box 390352 Omaha, NE 68139 660.2395 www.beytshalomomaha.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

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

The Neighborhood Minyan 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

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

CONGREGATION Office Hours: Mon.-Thurs., B’NAI JESHURUN

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

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 7 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 Phil and Nancy Wolf in honor of Hannah’s college graduation and Alex’s upcoming move to study in China; “Guard Your Tongue” and “Advanced Analysis of Midrash Rabbah” begins one hour before Mincha each Shabbat afternoon; Mincha, 8 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:34 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Reading the Rambam with Rabbi Oxman is cancelled; Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m.

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

MONDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Synagogue office will be closed for Memorial Day; Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m.

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

BEYT SHALOM FRIDAY: Shabbat in the Home.

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

FRIDAY: Services, 7 a.m.

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

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

WEEKDAYS: Services, 7 a.m.

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

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

WEDNESDAY: Kabbalah Circle, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY: Jewish Thought, 12:45 p.m.; Parsha for Kids, 3:45 p.m.

All events and programs are open to the community.

Services conducted by Rabbi Ilan Emanuel.

FRIDAY: Shabbat Evening Service, 7:45 p.m. led by Marc Shkolnick, with sermon by Stephanie Dohner and oneg following hosted by Lori Merliss.

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

MONDAY: Temple office closed for Memorial Day.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m.

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME FRIDAY: Shabbat Comes to the Blumkin Home, 2:30 p.m. led by Beth El members.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by Steve Riekes.

TEMPLE ISRAEL FRIDAY: Shabbat Service, 6 p.m., led by Rabbi Aryeh Azriel.

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

TUESDAY: From Generation to Generation, 7 p.m. Fee is $18 for Temple members and $25 for

others. To register, call Program Director Rosie Zweiback, 556.6536.

THURSDAY: “Adult Study with the Clergy,” 10 a.m. with Rabbi Azriel.

NEIGHBORHOOD MINYAN FRIDAY: Minyan, 7 p.m.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m.

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

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

FRIDAY: Services, 6:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: Morning service, 9:30 a.m. followed by special Kiddush lunch in honor of Eli Modenstein’s 90th birthday and Talmud study.

WEDNESDAY: Men’s Lunch Group meets at the Knolls, 12:30 p.m. Call Yale Gotsdiner, 423.7066.

UPCOMING EVENTS Sunday, June 1, 1 p.m., Annual Meeting at the synagogue.

EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press will be closed on Monday, May 26, for Memorial Day, and Monday and Tuesday, June 9-10, for Shavuot. The deadline for all ads, articles and photos is 9 a.m. Tuesday, June 3, for the June 13 issue.

All photos and albums used in the Passover issue may be picked up during regular business hours.

Questions? Call 402.334.6448

Zweiback family members to return for guitar service at Temple Israel

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator Former Omahans and brothers Rabbi Josh Zweiback and Adam Zweiback will join their aunt, Devra Lerner, at a Shabbat guitar service on Friday, May 30, 6 p.m., at Temple Israel.

Rabbi Zweiback, who joined the staff of Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos, California, in 1998, is a member of the band Mah Tovu, which has been playing contemporary Jewish music

since 1991. Adam Zweiback is the lead singer of the band Twice Baked out of Phoenix, Arizona, while Lerner performs with Yachad: The Traveling T’filah Band of Kansas City.

Yachad recently performed at the Women’s Seder in Omaha.

Rabbi Zweiback promised to include a few Mah Tovu tunes in the “joyous, uplifting” music.

Cantor Wendy Shermet will join the guests in leading the service.

All members of the community are welcome to attend.

B’NAI MITZVAH If you’re looking at this space, so are others!

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to reserve space, call

Allan Handleman, 402.334.6451 or Robyn Belgrade 402.334.6559

Joseph Robert Hack, son of Rosie Zweiback and Mace Hack, will become a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday, May 31, at Temple Israel.

Joe is a seventh-grade student at Westside Middle School, and he runs track and cross country. He also plays trombone in two school bands and has represented his school at the state Geography Bee for the

past two years.

His interests include bird watching, fishing, and reading.

Joe has a two sisters, Grace and Abby.

For his mitzvah project, Joe organized and ran a garage sale to raise funds for two conservation organizations; Birder’s Exchange and Kibbutz Lotan, a pioneering community in the Negev Dessert.

Grandparents are Eugene and Debbie Zweiback, and the late Hermene Zweiback, and Renee and Robert Hack of Greenwich, CT.

Zachary Daniel Kahn, son of Kimberly and Marc Kahn, will become a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday, May 31, at Beth El. Zachary is a seventh-grade Silver and Gold honor roll student at Morton Middle Magnet School.

He received an Academic Excellence award in Art and Computer Science. He is a member of Boy Scout Troop 558 with

Star rank.

His interests include swim team, wrestling team, video games and playing with his dog, Casey.

Zachary has a an older brother, Nathan.

Grandparents are Esther and Allen Kahn, Nancy Jabenis Kagan of Englewood, CO, and Dr. James and Cheryl Kagan of Fort Collins, CO. Great-grandparents are Eli Jabenis and the late Pearl Jabenis, and the late George and Toby Kagan.

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May 23, 2008

The goal is justice

SPARKS FROM THE WORD

by RABBI MYER S. KRIPKE Parashat Behoukotai Our Sidra suggests that there are good things that will come to you, says the Lord, if you follow My instructions, including laws and statutes. On the contrary, if you fail to follow my instructions and mitzvot, dire things may happen.

This is obviously an example of reward and punishment; the first brings reward and the other brings punishment. All that aside, we must recognize that the Torah legislation is just that: legislation.

The Torah will not have the House of Israel governed by a powerful leader, who makes up his own decisions, which in turn, become law. We must note, therefore, that the Torah will have none of one-man rule or even a rule by oligarchy.

The law is officially a law of God. But this comes to mean law by the people. President Abraham Lincoln understood this very well in his Gettysburg address, where he said, “government of the people” which

should be “by the people, for the people.”

We have come so much to accept this as elementary that we have forgotten what occurred extensively in the ancient world. In country after country, a strongman decided what public policy was to be and the people had no choice whatsoever.

Thus we may say with pride that ancient Israel set the example here for mankind. The strongman was not to be countenanced. Instead, government by the Lord’s rule, Behoukotai, came to mean government by the people.

This ancient example of democratic thinking morphing into democratic government should bring us into a close and happy relationship with the development of human law, from ancient times until our own. Now it is not “reward and punishment” that leads to government, but a thorough examination to determine where justice lies that becomes the one final criterion by which law may be imposed upon a people by its own choice.

The one criterion, therefore, is not the benefit or loss to a people, but justice only. “Tzedek, tzedek, tir dof.”

It is only justice that must be pursued and established.

It is necessary to note that the central book of Torah, Leviticus, ends with this emphasis: that justice is the goal of a forward looking society.

ETHEL GOLDSTON Ethel Goldston died at the age of 87. Services were held May 18 at Beth El Cemetery.

She was an active volunteer throughout her life in many community organizations, including the Omaha Community Playhouse, where she won awards for membership recruitment, and Visions.

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DEATHS BERTHA “BABE” DOBROFSKY Bertha “Babe” Dobrofsky died May 9 at the age of 96 at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. Services were held May 13 at Beth El Cemetery.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Leon, and daughter, Judi Krizelman.

She is survived by her grandchildren, Carolyn and Jack Donnelly and Jeffrey Abramson; and two great-grandchildren.

Memorials to the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home or the LOVE organization.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

She was preceded in death by her husband, Seymour Goldston.

She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Sheila and Marvin Polikov; son, Marc Goldston of Thailand; grandchildren, Kenny and Jodi Polikov of Chicago, Chad Polikov and his fiancé Carla Levingston of Atlanta, and Lance and Sara Polikov of Atlanta; and two greatgrandchildren.

Memorials to the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, Omaha Community Playhouse, or the Visiting Nurses Association.

get history buff.

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To submit obituaries: E-mail to the Press at jpress@jewishomaha.org; fax to 402.334.5422, or mail to 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154, or online at the Jewish Federation of Omaha website: www.jewishomaha.org. Click on “Jewish NOTE TO PUB: DO NOT PRINT INFO BELOW, FOR ID ONLY. NO ALTERING OF AD COUN Press” and go to Submit Announcements.

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His visit was arranged by the Chabad Terror Victims Project (CTVP). Voight has been closely involved with CTVP and also Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl (CCOC) project.

During his stay, he will welcom CCOC’s 80th rescue mission, airlifting children from irradiated regions of Ukraine, Belarus, and Western Russia. On May 13, Voight visited Sderot, to see the devastation and misery caused by the more than 6,000 rockets and mortars that have rained down on the region.

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Support staff to be honored at Temple Israel annual meeting

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator Temple Israel will honor support staff members at its upcoming annual meeting on Tuesday, June 3, 7 p.m.

Lori Bennett, Willie Clark, Vicki Ducharme, Edith Gamble, Maureen Kube, Bonnie Sullivan, Misty Weidner, and Lonnie Williams, who has worked at Temple Israel for 37 years, the longest of any current employee, are a key part of the Temple team. Together, they represent more than 101 years of dedicated experience.

In addition, Board President Jon Meyers will give a State of the Congregation report, and Rabbi Aryeh Azriel will address the congregation. There will also be an election of one-year Executive Board positions and several new Board members.

“It’s amazing how quickly the first year went by,” commented Meyers, who will serve another year as president.

“It has been a lot of work but very rewarding work. I

have had opportunities to meet with some incredible people this year that I might otherwise not have been able to.”

He went on to note, “We have accomplished so many good things this year. Adult education put on many terrific programs including our scholar weekend with Dr. Reuven Firestone. The Caring Committee has continued to do wonderful mitzvahs and has structured itself in partnership with the WRJ-O (Women of Reform JudaismOmaha) to ensure continued success. Fundraisers like the golf outing, deli night, and the OTYG spaghetti dinner were all very successful and included many different volunteers’ participation.

He added, “We are a very busy, active congregation.

Our programming is second to none. The clergy team continues to get stronger. They have such a strong relationship based on mutual respect and genuine care for each other.”

A dessert reception will follow the meeting.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 23, 2008

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