May 28, 2010

Vol. LXXXIX No. 36 Omaha, NE

Erman family donates Ark to Rose Blumkin Jewish Home

by OZZIE NOGG The Erman Family Ark -- given by Mike and Jill Erman and Joe and Ruth Erman -- will soon be a focal point of the new Simon Family Chapel at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. And while the ark is currently being fabricated, its genesis -- and the tale of one particular Torah it will house -began almost seventyfive years ago.

“The Torah is from the small synagogue in my mother’s home town of Drove, Germany,” Mike Erman explained, “and it came to America with my parents and baby me when we fled the Nazis in 1938. It was placed at the Sher Home in the late ‘40s and then moved to the Blumkin Home when it was built in the early 1980s. The Torah will remain at the Blumkin Home for the future, so dedication of the Ark as The Erman Family Ark doors a memorial to our par- are the work of stained glass ents, Frieda and Morris artist Valerie Batt. Its Tree of Erman, seems very Life motif incorporates the Flower of David, a bloom appropriate.”

“As we were growing native to Israel, whose fiveup,” Joe Erman added, petaled flowers form inter“the synagogue was an locking Stars of David. integral part of my family’s life. Our parents also stressed the importance of charity and giving, especially to Jewish causes, so the gift of the Ark reflects the lessons our parents taught us. We’re proud to be part of the Omaha Jewish community, and that pride extends to the new Blumkin Home and the wonderful campus we’ve built together.”

The Erman Ark doors are the work of stained glass artist Valerie Batt, who has a unique connection to the project. “One day last year, Sivi Roffman came to the Hot Shops looking for a stained glass artist,” Batt said. “She was brought to my studio, we visited, and in the conversation I told Sivi about my connection to Rose Blumkin’s family. You see, I was once married to her great-grandson, and even though we’re no longer together, we have a three-year old son, and I continue to enjoy a wonderful relationship with his extended Blumkin family. Sivi asked me to submit a design for the ark doors, and I’m honored to have been given this commission which allows me to contribute to the Blumkin Home -- the facility my son’s family created and is so involved with.”

Batt is excited about the commission for another reason, as well. “Before I got married, I converted to Judaism,” she explained. “My conversion took place at the Blumkin Home mikvah. That was a powerful day for me, one I will never forget. In light of the path I took before Sivi visited my studio, this commission seems fateful.”

Mike Silverman, Executive Director of the RBJH, along with Batt’s mentor, Rabbi Aryeh Azriel, helped inspire Batt’s design. “Mike’s specific vision for the doors included a tree of life motif,” she said. “Rabbi Azriel suggested using flowers native to Israel on the tree, to show the connection Blumkin residents feel Continued on page 2

Inside Op-Ed Page: see Page 20

Celebrating 89 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa

May 28, 2010

What the Omaha women’s mission was all about

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT ing the Federation’s annual campaign ends up in Israel, Editor of the Jewish Press and it is important to visit the places that benefit from While it is not my custom to use my editorial voice in these donations: “Israeli society is focused not only on a front-page article, I have decided to make an excep- taking care of, but also on empowering various individtion. Some of you may consider this bad form, and you’re probably right. Allow me to explain: sometimes, when a story happens, and the writer of that story finds herself in the middle of it, I think the distance necessary for a third-person voice is lacking, rendering any objectivity false.

On May 15, 2010, I found myself in Israel. I had traveled there to be part of the women’s mission trip, led by the very capable Jan Goldstein and Kathy McGauvran, and co-chaired

by Lisa Epstein and Jeanie Neff. Thirteen women in all had taken various flights east, until, on May 17, we The Omaha Women’s Mission, front row: Lisa Epstein, left, Miriam Gross, Jan Goldstein, were all together at the Ruth Erman, Kim Noddle, Nancy Noddle; back row: Kathy McGauvran, left, Sandi Cole, David Citadel Hotel in Phyllis Aronson, Jeanie Neff, Mary Kay Young, Dana Kaufman, and Annette van de KampWright.

Jerusalem.

One of the main reasons for going on this mission, uals,” Goldstein said. “Helping people succeed in Israeli according to Federation Executive Director Jan society is what represents our Jewish values.”

Goldstein, was to strengthen the connection between One of those places supported by the federation is Yad Israel and Omaha. A large part of the money raised dur- Continued on page 7

Jews recovering, pitching in following floods in Tennessee

by KATHY CARLSON Countless grayish mounds of dusty-smelling debris -NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Jewish Observer) -- Ruth Klar sodden drywall, insulation, ruined tables, chairs, couchand Alicia Safdie knew they were lucky, safe and healthy es, books, toys, you name it -- took over what used to be amid the flood’s muddy wreckage. But the little things grassy front yards. The small enclosed patios on the back made them cry. side of the condos looked much the same.

“My cookbooks are gone,” Klar said in her den at “It was pretty surreal,” Rabbi Kliel Rose of West End River Plantation, a large townhome condominium com- Synagogue said. “I don’t know how else to describe it.” munity in Bellevue, one Rose had gone door to of the areas of Nashville door at River Plantation hardest hit by the May 1the day before, just talk2 floods. Stains on the ing to residents, Jewish or wall marked the 3.5 feet not. the floodwaters reached, “The wonderful thing is taking the cookbooks full the way the community is of favorite Jewish food. coming together for supA few hundred yards port,” the rabbi said. “It’s away at Safdie’s home, very powerful.” she and Eva Watler took a Rose’s visit was just one break from clean-up. example of the Jewish “I used to baby-sit her community responding in this house,” said to the flooding.

Watler, tearing up.

Jewish Nashville quickly A few days earlier, Debris from home interiors fills the lawns at River Plantation in the joined together to rebuild Credit: The Jewish Observer waterlogged homes and Safdie had broken into Bellevue area of Nashville. tears when she realized she had no shoes; they were resettle uprooted families after more than 13 inches of gone with the flood. Now she was sounding an opti- rain pounded Middle Tennessee over two wearying mistic note. weekend days.

“We’re gonna be OK,” said Safdie, who was rescued, The Jewish community began mobilizing its postalong with her mother and two guests, by boat. flood relief efforts when Harry Baker, the sports and fitJust a few days after the rains finally quit, River ness director at the Gordon Jewish Community Center, Plantation offered up an eerie landscape. All types of fielded a phone call just as rains began slackening a bit. vehicles lined the streets -- visitors’ cars, workers’ trucks, A nearby Red Cross shelter was overflowing, and 140 church vans and dirt-crusted cars rendered useless by the people needed a place to stay.

Continued on page 3 flood.

This Week: Senior Living See Front Page Stories & More at: www.jewishomaha.org; click on ‘Jewish Press’

15 Sivan 5770

Coming Next Month: Salute to Graduates/Father’s Day Is Netanyahu alienating Israel’s friends in Europe?

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Budapest Jewish food scene takes off Page 12

Study of American Jews making its way into Israeli schools Page 13

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 28, 2010

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by RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA) -- U.S. Jewish groups welcomed the announcement of the unified front by major world powers on Iran sanctions.

But they want to know the details -- and they’re still pressing for unilateral sanctions by the U.S. Congress.

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the five permanent, veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council had agreed on “strong” Iran sanctions.

The announcement came partly in response to Iran’s attempt this week to defang international efforts to monitor its nuclear development by agreeing to a nuclear exchange with Turkey and Brazil.

“We have been working closely with our P 5+1 partners for several weeks on the draft of a new sanctions resolution on Iran,” Clinton said, referring to the five Security Council members and Germany. “Today, I am pleased to announce to this committee we have reached agreement on a strong draft with the cooperation of both Russia and China.”

Those two countries have been the most reluctant to expand existing U.N. sanctions on Iran.

The American Jewish Committee, one of the groups at the forefront of efforts to galvanize international support for multilateral sanctions against Iran, welcomed the announcement.

“Secretary Clinton’s announcement is very encouraging,” said David Harris, AJC’s executive director. “We hope the U.N. Security Council will accelerate its deliberations and adopt a new resolution to significantly tighten the sanctions regime to thwart Iran’s ambitions to obtain nuclear weapons capability.”

Clinton did not outline the proposed sanctions, noting that the draft resolution must circulate among all 15 members of the Security Council. Reports in recent months have suggested that the sanctions under consideration would expand the list of individuals and entities already sanctioned in earlier resolutions and also target Iran’s financial sector.

The U.S. Congress is considering its own set of expanded and tougher unilateral sanctions that would target third-party entities -- companies, individuals and countries -- that deal with Iran’s energy sector.

The Obama administration is wary of the package, fearing it would drive away partners from multilateral sanctions.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee called on the Obama administration to embrace the congressional package -- likely to pass within weeks -- as a complement to the multilateral sanctions.

“American and international sanctions on Iran must be overwhelming to change the dynamic within Iran and to alter the policies of Iranian leaders,” AIPAC said in an analysis it distributed after Clinton’s announcement.

“Sanctions should target Iran’s finance, insurance, shipping, transportation, natural gas and manufacturing industries in addition to Tehran’s dependence on refined petroleum.”

Clinton drew a direct link between her announcement and Iran’s attempt this week to head off additional sanctions by agreeing to a diluted version of an earlier U.S.initiated proposal to enrich some uranium to medical research levels in exchange for transparency. Under the agreement, Iran would export half its low-enriched uranium to Turkey and Brazil for enrichment to medical research levels.

The Obama administration has rejected the deal as inadequate. U.S. officials noted that under the original U.S. proposal, Iran would have had to relinquish its entire existing store of uranium and make its program more transparent. Under the Brazil-Turkey deal, Iran would retain enough low-enriched uranium to manufacture a single nuclear bomb should it obtain the means to further enrich it.

AIPAC called the deal a “stalling tactic.”

“The Iran-Brazil-Turkey deal fails all counts,” AIPAC spokesman Josh Block said. “It leaves them with enough material to make a bomb, Iran has said it plans to continue enriching nuclear fuel and there is no indication that Iran is even willing to talk about suspending enrichment as called for by four U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

Clinton said the administration’s announcement of an agreement on Security Council sanctions against Iran “is as convincing an answer to the efforts undertaken in Tehran over the last few days as any we could provide.”

Erman family donates Ark to Blumkin Home

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Continued from page 1 doing the same. “Hopefully,” Joe said, “when they see for the Land. After extensive research, I decided to use the Torah in the Ark that bears the Erman name, the Persian buttercup, or Flower of David, which is they’ll feel the same connection I and my siblings feel. native to Israel and filled with Jewish symbolism. The The connection to Drove, where the Torah originated, flowering bulb can thrive and survive in harsh condi- to the vacant piece of ground where the synagogue tions, and when viewed under a microscope its five- once stood, and to the Jewish population of that town petaled flowers form interlockthat no longer exists.” ing Stars of David. The ceiling The Torah’s breastplate, of the Simon Chapel is a lowwhich Stacey Erman Rockman ered Star of David, so the had commissioned in Israel, choice was all the more perand was purchased by the five fect.”

Erman siblings, bears this Design elements in the inscription: Erman Ark make subtle referIn 1938, two weeks before ences to the passage of time.

Kristallnacht, this Torah was “The leaves and branches of brought to America by Frieda the tree are scarce at the botand Morris Erman. It was restom, representing youth and cued from the synagogue in the beginning of knowledge,” Drove, Germany, one of many Batt said. “The top of the tree small but vibrant Jewish comhas fuller leaves which reflect munities in the Rhineland. The the wisdom gained with age. remaining Jews, unable to Also, the colors of the leaves escape, perished; among them change from youthful, springwere Klara and Alexander like green at the bottom, up Daniel, Frieda Erman’s parthrough yellow, orange and ents. No Jews live in Drove or red, colors that represent the the region today. seasons of nature and life. The “The Blumkin Home repredesign speaks to the generasents the commitment of the tions.” community to care for the old The two ark doors are made and infirm among us,” Mike Frieda and Morris Erman in the 1950s of opaque glass that glows Erman said. “The ark will when lit from within, and are topped by a canopy-like, house four Torah’s, but for me, the presence of the resarched and leaded stained glass window. “Seen from cued Torah in the beautiful ark is testimony that we’re the side, this creates a three-dimensional glowing still here in spite of the efforts of the Nazis who murenclosure,” Batt explained. “This is part of Mike dered so many of my family. There is joy in knowing Silverman’s unique vision for the ark, and it makes this that future generations will visit the Home, see the ark, project truly special. I’m thrilled to know that the and read from this Torah which has such special meanErman Family Ark will be seen and enjoyed by so many ing to all the Erman family.” people and in such a beautiful, sacred space.”

Note: Valerie Batt will be constructing the Erman The scroll rescued from Germany is freighted with Family Ark doors in studio #202 at the Hot Shops Art both sorrow and joy. Each of Mike Erman’s grandchil- Center, 1301 Nicholas Street. You’re invited to see the dren read from the Torah at their Bar and Bat progress, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday or Mitzvahs, and Joe looks forward to his grandchildren weekends by appointment. Call 708.9696.

May 28, 2010

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 3

Jews recovering, pitching in following floods in Tennessee Continued from page 1 “Without hesitation we said, ‘Get them over here,’” Baker said.

Five minutes later, the Red Cross arrived and workers readied the JCC gym and auditorium. In the end, more than 500 individuals slept in the gymnasium on cots provided by the Red Cross. They also were served three meals a day, thanks to the generosity of local restaurants.

In addition to providing shelter to displaced individuals, the JCC operated a relief distribution center for several days, allowing flood victims to come and take items of need, such as food, clothes, toys, books, toiletries, cleaning supplies and much more. It provided hundreds of individuals with items they needed to begin rebuilding.

Volunteers associated with the JCC staffed the relief center around the clock.

“The place looked like Macy’s -- it was filled,” said the JCC’s executive director, Eric Goldstein, who had been out of town when the flooding first hit. Baker guided the first flood-relief efforts.

“I was glad that our Jewish campus was there for the community,” Goldstein said. “I was glad Harry was here to lead the project, and all of the staff pitched in.”

Initial help has reached Nashville quickly, from volunteers and donors. Jewish federations, including ones in San Antonio, Birmingham, Atlanta and southern Arizona, were quick to send food and donations. Day schools and preschools are collecting money, as are federations and congregations nationwide.

Congregations outside Nashville also may send members volunteering to help, said Steve Edelstein, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Nashville.

“We are assessing needs with [Jewish Family Services] and for now are encouraging donations from Jewish communities across North America,” he said. “The impact will be long term, and we and the general community will need support.”

Nashville resident Fred Zimmerman, chair of the national emergency services committee of the Jewish Federations of North America, said the disaster relief process encompasses three parts: immediate rescue work, resettlement and efforts to boost emotional

resilience.

“This is a long-term process,” he said.

The JFNA provided the local Jewish community with consultation, communications and fund-raising assistance.

The community’s rabbis visited flood victims; three spent time at the Safdie home. On one visit, Sherith Israel Rabbi Saul Strosberg pulled up Klar’s soaked carpeting with another community member.

The Safdies’ story began at about 9 a.m. on a Sunday when rain crept into the first floor of their home. At first there were jokes about how they always wanted to

Flood victims sort through piles of clothing organized by gender and size by volunteers at the Gordon Jewish Community Credit: The Jewish Observer Center in Nashville. replace the carpeting anyway, but the wisecracks soon stopped. In two hours, 4.5 feet of water inundated the first floor.

Alicia Safdie, her mother, Suzi Safdie, and her visiting cousin and his girlfriend went upstairs and stayed there until someone in a small boat rescued them that afternoon.

“We each packed a little bag,” hers with two favorite stuffed animals and two external hard drives from her computer, Alicia said.

They then climbed out the second-story window and

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down the side of the house, hanging onto woodwork, and into the boat. By that time the water outside was perhaps six feet high. Broken glass in a large downstairs window marks where the boat hit the house, and dark scuffs on the siding show where the four climbed down.

They threaded their way through newly formed “canals” between the subdivision buildings (“We’re bumping into buildings in the boat,” Alicia said). Once they reached safety in an unflooded part of the subdivision, Alicia’s uncle picked them up and took them in.

She’s been keeping friends updated on Facebook.

Nearby, Ruth Klar talked with friends on her cell phone. She had lived in her house since 1986, when that section of River Plantation was first built and when her late husband, Stanley, retired.

“He wanted to put the key in the door and walk away,” she said.

Klar was able to salvage many family keepsakes – wedding photos, original pastel artwork of her three sons as bar mitzvahs, framed immigration documents from two or three generations ago. A mezuzah remained affixed to a doorjamb, and her mother’s antique mirror was untouched.

The floodwaters stopped just short of a stenciled family tree that Klar had painted on her kitchen wall. But everything below the water line was pretty much destroyed.

“My freezer out in the storage shed was turned upside down,” she said. Inside were 260 pounds of kosher meat.

And she won’t be able to use the now-soggy boxes of matzah she had put aside to make toffee brittle. Still, she and her son, Arthur, in from Knoxville, slogged through the next steps: a tetanus shot for him, FEMA aid applications for her.

The Safdies followed similar post-flood steps, with Suzi away from home to complete FEMA paperwork.

The bottom line, Alicia Safdie said, is they are here and they are safe. The rest, she added, is “all stuff, though.

It can all be replaced.”

The Nashville federation has set up a mailbox on its Web site, www.jewishnashville.org http://www.jewishnashville.org, for flood relief donations.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 28, 2010

Is Netanyahu alienating Israel’s friends in Europe?

Iby LESLIE SUSSER JERUSALEM (JTA) – On the day last week that Israel gained admission to the prestigious Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Israel’s continued control over the Palestinians was eroding its global standing.

Whereas Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Israel’s joining of the OECD as an economic and diplomatic coup, Barak warned of a growing tide of international isolation unless Israel comes out with a major peace initiative of its own, irrespective of the OECD membership.

The differences between Netanyahu and Barak lie at the heart of the debate over how central the Israeli-Palestinian process is to Israel’s diplomatic efforts worldwide.

Some believe Israel can safely ride out the storm of international pressure for progress on the IsraeliPalestinian front. But many others argue that a credible peacemaking orientation is an essential component of Israel’s standing in the world, and that Netanyahu is alienating Israel’s few friends.

Barak, the Labor Party leader, makes no secret of his concern at the way differences over peacemaking have embroiled the Netanyahu government not only with the Obama administration, but also with some of its closest allies in Europe.

Israel long has had a rough ride in European public opinion, but since Netanyahu came to power in March 2009, there have been growing signs of tensions with friendly European leaders and governments, particularly Britain, Germany and France.

Part of Netanyahu’s image problem has been his foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who is widely perceived in Europe as a crude anti-Arab bulldozer against peace. But mainly it is skepticism over Netanyahu’s own seriousness about peacemaking that is hurting Israel. European leaders are not convinced of the genuineness of his commitment to the two-state solution, and they also see his declarations about continued construction of Jewish housing in eastern Jerusalem as unnecessarily provocative.

Moreover, Netanyahu’s oscillation between peace commitments to satisfy President Obama and construction promises to appease his right wing have led to a loss of credibility on the international stage.

Britain, for example, has been one of Israel’s staunchest allies in Europe. On a visit to Israel in July 2008, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown underlined the intimacy of the relationship by addressing the Knesset and launching a new Britain-Israel partnership for research and academic exchange. Brown also was one of six European heads of government who made a solidarity visit to Israel at the height of the war with Hamas in Gaza in January 2009.

But after Netanyahu came to power two months later, the Brown government’s policies quickly took an anti-

Israel turn. In July, Britain decided not to renew five military export licenses, all for spare parts for naval guns, to protest Israel’s alleged use of disproportionate force in Gaza.

Angel Gurria, right, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, congratulates Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem after Israel’s admission into the OECD. Credit: Moshe Milner/GPO “We do not grant licenses where there is a clear risk that arms will be used for external aggression or internal repression,� a British Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv declared.

In December, the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ruled that produce from West Bank settlements could no longer be labeled “produced in Israel,� but must be tagged “product of the West Bank.� An optional additional label could clarify whether the origin was an Israeli settlement or Palestinian -- a move Israel saw as encouraging a boycott of settler produce.

Also in December, much to Israel’s consternation, Britain backed an abortive Swedish move to have the European Union recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestine.

Relations were strained further by the British government’s failure to take promised action against legislation enabling anti-Israeli groups to bring war crimes charges against Israeli leaders and generals.

Alarmed by a move to press war crimes charges against Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni, British leaders in December again vowed to repeal the offending legislation – but so far to no avail.

Tension between the two countries came to a head in February when it became apparent that suspected Israeli Mossad agents allegedly used forged British passports, among others, for the assassination in Dubai of a leading Hamas operative. The British responded by expelling an unnamed Israeli diplomat from London.

Things may be worse with Germany, where Netanyahu

got into a spat with Chancellor Angela Merkel, who probably has been Israel’s best and most influential friend on the continent. It happened in a telephone conversation in mid-March.

According to the German version, Merkel called Netanyahu at Obama’s request to urge no further building in eastern Jerusalem. She asked that the call be kept secret and promised to refrain from public criticism of Israel’s construction policies.

Netanyahu, however, immediately arranged for a briefing of Israeli journalists and told them he had called Merkel to inform her of Israel’s building plans in eastern Jerusalem.

Merkel felt Netanyahu had betrayed her trust, according to senior German sources. The Germans then released their version of the conversation and, during a news conference the next day, Merkel publicly criticized Israeli building in eastern Jerusalem.

Netanyahu apparently also is on the outs with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, once a close personal friend.

In mid-April, Sarkozy told Israeli President Shimon Peres that he was disappointed in Netanyahu and found it hard to understand the prime minister’s political thinking. “I don’t understand where Netanyahu is going or what he wants,� the French president was quoted as saying.

Sarkozy also has been outspoken about Lieberman’s presence in the government. In a meeting with Netanyahu in Paris last June, he urged Netanyahu to replace Lieberman as foreign minister with Livni and “make history.� “You must get rid of that man,� Sarkozy was quoted as saying.

The fact that Israel has strained relations with its three most important backers in Europe has yet to translate into dramatic change in EU policy. Israel’s requested upgrading of ties with the European Union remains on hold, but that was the case before Netanyahu came to power. And Israel’s acceptance to the OECD was unanimous by the group’s members.

However, if there is a showdown between Israel and the Palestinians over the peace process, Europe could well be more supportive of the Palestinians. As with the Obama administration, the major European powers make the distinction between fundamental support for Israel’s security and right to exist, and criticism of the policies of the current government.

That same distinction is also being made by Jews on the left in Europe, following the lead of J Street in America. In early May European Jews, backed by notable intellectuals such as Bernard Henri Levi and Alain Finkielkraut, formed JCall, a new Jewish organization “committed to the state of Israel and critical of the current choices of its government.�

Continued on page 5

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May 28, 2010

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 5

JTS head charting new course for outreach

by GARY ROSENBLATT NEW YORK (N.Y. Jewish Week) -- Call it chutzpah or commitment -- or a combination of both.

Even as the Conservative movement is losing members left (to the Reform) and right (to the Orthodox), literally, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary is setting his sights not just on survival but on expanding the school’s focus, “carefully but boldly,” throughout North America.

Arnold Eisen, completing his third year in his post as head of the educational and spiritual center of the movement, is launching a campaign to roll out “a new JTS mission that defines our purpose and sets our future direction,” with an emphasis on “learning, leadership and vision.”

Considered too low-key until now by some critics, Eisen plans to enlarge his JTS Chancellor Arnold Eisen duties as a spokesman for “what Judaism has been and can be,” and take on the role of “intellectual leadership.”

In an exclusive interview with The Jewish Week three days before the JTS commencement on May 17, at which he formally announced his vision, the chancellor explained its development and goals with passion and conviction, including providing his own view of what he considers the most important point.

“Here’s the vision headline,” he said toward the end of our 90-minute discussion: “This great institution, long known for its distinguished scholarship and innovation,” like establishing Camp Ramah and The Jewish Museum, “now will bring its resources of learning to bear in new ways on the needs of the North American Jewish community.”

Eisen acknowledges that the Conservative movement, once the largest of the four Jewish denominations, has shrunk, and that its numbers continue to decline. But while some say the movement’s demise is inevitable, if not imminent, Eisen says he remains an optimist and chooses to measure success “by quality rather than numbers,” looking to “the potential for major achievement.”

“Instead of counting our losses, let’s seize the moment,” he insists, while agreeing that the moment is one of urgency and in need of a large dose of innovation.

Eisen, 59, a longtime religious studies professor at Stanford University prior to coming to JTS, and only the second of its seven chancellors not to hold rabbinic ordination, is banking his reputation and legacy on this new plan to reach “Conservative Judaism and the vital religious center of North American Jewry.”

He defines that center as including Orthodox, Reform and unaffiliated Jews who are serious about deepening their Jewish knowledge and commitment.

The key to success is to make better use of what JTS, established in 1886, has long been best known for -- its scholarship. “First-rate, excellent scholarship” is at the core of his vision, soon-to-be policy, of outreach.

Eisen noted that the Conservative establishment already is reaching Jews outside of the movement through its Camp Ramah, about 20 percent of whose families are not affiliated as Conservative, and a slightly lower percentage of families whose children attend Solomon Schechter day schools.

With an estimated 20 percent of American Jewry apparently uninterested in affiliation of any kind, and another 20 percent highly involved (and mostly Orthodox), Eisen’s target audience is what he calls “the big middle,” which he hopes to reach by stressing the

Is Netanyahu alienating Israel’s friends in Europe?

Continued from page 4 The friction with Obama and Europe, and the loss of automatic Jewish support in both Europe and America is causing concern among many in Jerusalem.

“For the first time we have a government that is succeeding ... in causing the rest of the world to hate us,” Shlomo Avineri, one of Israel’s most respected political scientists, wrote recently in the Israeli daily Haaretz.

The conclusion of politicians on the center left, from Livni to Barak, is the same: Israel under Netanyahu needs credible peace policies to turn around its diplomatic fortunes.

Some of Netanyahu’s defenders say the perception that he isn’t serious about peacemaking is not fair. The question is, does Netanyahu believe his policies are alienating Israel’s friends, and what will he do about it?

importance of a balanced center, and by adding thoughtful, relevant content.

“They are in play,” he says of the 60 percent of American Jews he is focusing on, “and they can be won over through meaning and community.” JTS has a vital message, and responsibility to serve a post-denominational generation, which Eisen describes as “younger Jews who don’t want to see a denominational adjective before the word ‘Jew.’” Several Conservative rabbis, who preferred not to be named, expressed views ranging from enthusiasm to cynicism.

One welcomed the vision statement for “defining what the Conservative movement is rather than what it isn’t,” and for “attempting to place JTS in a position to capture the center -- a real effort to reach beyond our constituency.” But another said the vision’s emphasis on scholarship rather than spirituality is out of sync with the times, and that essentially it was window dressing to couch the fact that JTS needs to make financial cutbacks.

The practical plan is to train rabbis and cantors to be leaders who can balance their knowledge with the needs of contemporary Jews, and to focus on more systematic coordination among the five schools of JTS: the rabbinical school, cantorial school, graduate school, Davidson Graduate School of Education and List College of Jewish Studies, affiliated with Columbia University.

A 30-page strategic plan outlines broad strategies for reorganization and extended engagement with the community, including service through scholarship; making use of campus synergy through interdisciplinary shared learning; partnerships with a wide range of other schools

and programs in New York City; and reaching new types of students, primarily through adult education programs at JTS. In general, the emphasis is on responding to financial constraints with innovation and partnerships, both within JTS, with other institutions and with funding foundations. The subtext here is that with the movement long plagued by a lack of coordination among its many branches, including the United Synagogue, Rabbinical Assembly and JTS, Eisen appears to be broadening the scope of JTS by bringing more of the educational arm of the movement under its wing.

In the end, it remains to be seen whether Eisen can reinvigorate his movement. His most ambitious project to date has been an initiative for congregations to focus on mitzvot, blending text study with practical application. He says it has had much success, with several dozen congregations sponsoring weekly discussions on what it means to be commanded in the 21st century.

Eisen likes the idea of synagogues taking on a particular cause, be it feeding the poor or establishing a chevra kadisha, or Jewish burial society, and making it their own “signature” mitzvah.

In the meantime, it is clear that he sees the new strategic plan as the centerpiece of his chancellorship. It reflects, as does the mitzvah project, his attempt to combine the head and the heart in reaching both professional Jews (rabbis, cantors, teachers) and laymen in a mix of study and action to deepen one’s Jewishness and humanity.

“We dare not fail to respond with all the boldness and experience at our command,” he said in closing his commencement speech Monday. “Let’s get to it.”

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 28, 2010

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D.C. mom recounts her child’s life, efforts to save him

by ERIC FINGERHUT WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week) -- Fourteen years ago, District resident Laurie Strongin remembers, it seemed almost like “science fiction” the notion that you could “pick the baby you could get pregnant with.”

Moreover, cells from that newborn might save the life of her young son, Henry, who was suffering from a rare genetic disease, Fancomi anemia.

A new vitro fertilization procedure known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) could potentially achieve both results, but it was ethically controversial. For guidance on whether to use it, Strongin and her husband, Allen Goldberg, turned to Jewish values.

PGD would enable doctors to select the right embryo for implantation, one that would allow Strongin not only to give birth to a child free of Fancomi anemia, but would also provide a perfect match for the stem cell transplant that Henry needed to save his life.

“Saving a life is held in the highest regard in Judaism,” Glover Park resident Strongin said in an interview in March discussing her new book, Saving Henry: A Mother’s Journey. “It was very clear to us, and consistent with that Jewish value in not only Henry’s life, but the baby’s life to not have this disease. ... To us, the decision was clear.”

In the end, PGD wasn’t successful, although Strongin and Goldberg did later have another child Joe, now 8, naturally.

Saving Henry tells the story of the in vitro process (now more common), but also recounts the life of Henry, who died at the age of 7 in 2002 and, said Strongin, was “such an incredible lover of life.”

Each chapter of the book, released in March by Hyperion, begins with a few items from the list of “Henry’s Favorite Things” everything from Batman and baseball great Cal Ripken Jr. to Shabbat Sing at Adas Israel’s Gan HaYeled Preschool. And Strongin said Henry’s zest for life “he looked at medical procedures as something to get over with to get back to what he was doing” inspired doctors and others he came in contact with to “work harder to find a cure.”

“I hope that will be inspiring and hopeful to any parent that reads the book, not just those facing a terrible illness,” said Strongin, 44, Strongin, a D.C. native who grew up in Chevy Chase and graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, said part of the book came from contemporaneous material. She kept a journal during the PGD experience and sent e-mail updates to friends and family during Henry’s bone marrow transplant. After Henry died, she said she wove those together and “added Henry and his spirit and who he was as a person,” which she said helped her deal with the loss.

“I spent almost 24 hours a day with Henry the last couple years of his life,” she recalled. “It was an incredibly intimate relationship, and after he died, I still had a need to spend a lot of time with him. Writing about him fulfilled that

need.”

“It was painful, but also a beautiful way to remember everything that was so wonderful” about Henry,” she said, noting that the book is “infused with those good times” with her son.

Strongin said, though, that she still is unable to write about the final few days of Henry’s life; to tell that part of the story, she used blog entries her husband wrote at the time.

Fancomi anemia, like Tay-Sachs, is considered a Jewish genetic disease because Ashkenazic Jews are disproportionately affected, said Strongin, who belongs to Adas Israel Congregation in D.C. About 8 percent of those who suffer from the disease are Jewish. The condition leads to blood failure, which necessitates a bone marrow transplant by the time a child is 6 or 7 years old.

Prenatal testing told them that Henry’s younger brother, the now-13-year-old Jack, would be born without the disease.

But the chance of producing an embryo with the bone marrow match, but without Fancomi, was only 18 percent, and nine cycles of in vitro fertilization did not produce a pregnancy.

It was not easy going through IVF, a difficult physical and emotional procedure for any couple, especially those knowing that the life of one of their children hangs in the balance.

“It was an absolute real-life race against time,” said Strongin. “That sense of urgency [was] paired with higher and higher stakes as time went by,” as she and her husband watched Henry’s blood counts drop. But Strongin said she always looked to Henry and wondered, “What did I have to complain about?”

Henry eventually had a bone marrow transplant from an anonymous donor, but complications resulted. He died not long after his seventh birthday. As a menorah burned in his hospital room, his final words before being placed on a ventilator were “Mom, this is a very bad last night of Chanukah.”

They would be his last words; Henry died a few days later.

Since Henry’s death, Strongin, a former nonprofit executive, has created the Hope for Henry Foundation. The organization fills a need Strongin saw during Henry’s illness: hospital resources that lift children’s spirits and allow them to “laugh and have fun.” The foundation, operating in hospitals in the D.C. area, Baltimore and Philadelphia, provides patients with such things as birthday parties, iPods and cameras that allow them to send pictures to their friends.

And even after he was gone, Henry was still having an effect on others. At the young boy’s funeral, one of his doctors from Georgetown University Hospital sat down next to a then assistant rabbi at Adas Israel. Dr. Ali Mendelson and Rabbi Jeremy Winaker were engaged a year later, with Max Henry Winaker born in 2007.

“It was so beautiful,” said Strongin about the name. “It was such an incredible honor.”

IN THE NEWS The Omaha Farmers Market opens May 30 marking its new “Sunday Market” at Aksarben Village located at 67th and Center Streets. The Market will be open every Sunday until Labor Day weekend from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.

For more information visit www.omahafarmersmarket.com.

Jonathan R Simon son of Michael and Sandra Simon, grandson of Esther and the late Manny Simon has been awarded a Fulbright Grant to teach English at Smolensk State University in Russia.

Jonathan graduated with honors in Russian Studies from the University of Chicago in 2007.

May 28, 2010

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 7

What the Omaha women’s mission was all about Continued from page 1 problems facing the State of Israel, that there are deeply LaKashish, or ‘Lifeline for the Old’. I broached the sub- rooted conflicts, and that the threats from various terject briefly during last week’s editorial: it is a place rorist organizations are real, there is more to the picwhere the elderly can go for assisture. tance. In addition, women on the “The main goal of our trip was to show the mission were exposed to various depth and breadth of Israel,” Goldstein added, other places and, more impor“and the existence of the largest natural resource, tantly, various people who receive which is the human resource. Israel has, for help, and those who are the coninstance, an enormous amount of immigrants to duit for that help. integrate into the country (almost 3.4 million “The things we try to show people have immieverybody are what we value in grated to Israel people,” Goldstein said. “There between 1919 and is a bigger context here. When 2006, ed.). What one looks at Israeli society, it is so happens to all those easy to focus on the politics people, and how the alone, the viocountry responds to lence and terror the need that is crethat the world ated is just one piece media paints a picture of.

When we listen to that, we are in danger of forgetting the human element. What is often communicated to us is fear, the idea that ‘Israel will never be left alone’, and will forever be seen as both a dangerous Goliath, and an oppressed nation that can’t take care of itself. We need Clockwise, from top left: Jeanie Neff; Israeli tour guide Raz Zabar and Omahan to look beyond Dana Kaufman model some Kibbutz-made Israeli accessories; one of the artists that, and realize at Yad LaKashish working with dyed silks; co-Chairs Lisa Epstein and Jeanie the reality is Neff pose with Miri Eisen, a former colonel in the Israeli Army; the tireless much more Miriam Gross shows the group what it’s like to shop for Shabbat ingredients in complex, but the Jerusalem market; Mary Kay Young enjoys alternative transportation. also much richer.” of the puzzle we try to show. In As a newspaper editor, I see news from a large variety addition, there are homeless chilof sources on an almost minute-by-minute basis. Jan dren, families who need assisGoldstein is right: most of it focuses on how violent and tance, traffic accident victims who threatened daily life in Israel is. Unfortunately, any need to go back to work, and other news about everyday life is hard to come by, and there are Ethiopian immigrants who need help with lanyet, we know, rationally, that many Israelis (Jews, Arabs, guage and life skills, and so on and so forth. Israel doesand Christians) have an actual life. They celebrate holi- n’t only deal with rockets and terrorist threats; they, in days, they attend school, they go to the opera; they get addition, deal with all of society’s problems that any sick and pay taxes, they vote and go to work in the country deals with. There are many people in Omaha morning. While there is no doubt that there are big who have supported the Federation’s annual campaign

for years, and we want them to know that these dollars go to actual people, Israeli citizens who need them.”

One such participant in the women’s mission was coChair Jeanie Neff, who said people kept asking her, after she returned, what ‘the best thing’ about her Israel trip was. “What I took away was that the people were the best,” she said. “Not Yad Vashem, or the Dead Sea, or any specific location we visited, but the people themselves. The effusive love they have for their country, and the feeling you get that they do not doubt Israel’s survival, was what stayed with me. There is so much negative news you hear, when Israel is being reported on, and I never felt that there. The citizens of Israel emote a positive energy that left a stamp on me. And of course, I loved every minute of it.”

The people are, indeed, what makes Israel, well, Israel. If we remember that the people are the most important resource, we must also remember that those people are a very diverse group. There is no standard Israeli answer to whatever faces the nation on a dayto-day basis, just as there is no easy solution to any nation’s problems.

However, if we keep the connection strong, not just with the land, but with the citizens themselves, we might just-over time-gain a better understanding of what Israel is all about. The best way to do that is to visit, and to keep the Omaha Mission trips going, year after year. It is not enough to send money (although that is a great and necessary item), we need to keep the connection strong, and share a common goal.

Jan Goldstein, too, is eager to share her experiences with others, which is why the Mission trips are so important to her: “I don’t want the appreciation of Israelis to be seen by only a select few, I want many, many Omahans to share the that feeling of being connected to not just the land, but the people in it. No matter how many times I go there, I see the faces and recognize them. I am so aware that we do much more than give money: we really are a part of people’s lives.”

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 28, 2010

Making a trip to the stars of Memorial Day

by EDMON J. RODMAN Mojave Cross was stolen recently, and I don’t want these man in a shell hole some distance away calling for water, LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- What stands for those who new memorials going anywhere, save for perhaps a brief Sgt. Sawelson, upon his own initiative, left shelter and have fallen? court appearance. crawled through heavy machine-gun fire to where the As a small boy, I played with green plastic soldiers.

My first nominee for a Star of David memorial is the man lay, giving him what water he had in his canteen. He Sometimes after they died in backyard battle, I would first Jew to die in the Revolutionary War, Francis then went back to his own shell hole, obtained more mark their passing with a little cross made of twigs.

Salvador. Salvador, a plantation owner and delegate to water, and was returning to the wounded man when he Even then it seemed off. two provincial congresses, died in a British-induced skir- was killed by a machinegun bullet.”

This Memorial Day weekend -- before you load the mish with the Cherokees a few miles from the Keowee Who knew that Congress gave medals for “gemulut car, board the plane or hit the mall -- contemplate River, about 25 miles from his home in Greenwood, S.C. chasidim,” acts of loving kindness? another trip, one of recognition for those American Considering his action, Sawelson’s six-pointed star Jewish men and women who died in the service of their should definitely stand overlooking a place of water. country. Since Jews have served in America’s armed He was from Newark, N.J., so why not a parcel overservices from the Colonial period up to Afghanistan, looking the nearby Passaic River, which many environthere are many possible destinations. mental groups as well as the U.S. Army Corps of “Thousands of Jews have died in combat for their Engineers, are working to restore? country,” relates the National Museum of American Casualties of World War II have numerous memorials Jewish Military History Web site, “and thousands more across the country. I will add another with my third have been wounded.” nomination; a new memorial with a Star of David is in Inspired by the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision order for Gertrude Shapiro, a young Jewish Army nurse that for now essentially keeps a cross used to memorialwho was sent to Hiroshima, Japan, to help care for surize American soldiers who died in World War I on pubvivors in September 1945, only a few weeks after the lic land in California’s Mojave Desert, I am suggesting bomb had been dropped. a mission to reclaim and re-mark the sacrifice of Jewish On her return to the States, Shapiro suffered from a men and women in America’s wars. variety of ailments, and according to Hasia R. Diner and If as Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the plurality Beryl Lieff Benderly in their book “Her Works Praise opinion, “A Latin Cross is not merely a reaffirmation of Her,” she died in 1972 “of a cancer probably caused by Christian beliefs,” perhaps then a Star of David, which JTA columnist Edmon J. Rodman proposes that a Star of David her exposure to nuclear radiation.” is not purely a religious symbol either, is not merely an memorial for U.S. service personnel who died as a result of aiding To honor Shapiro, as well as other service personnel survivors of Hiroshima be placed in Los Angeles beside a sculpture who died as a result of aiding atomic victims, a two-triaffirmation of Jewish beliefs.

In lieu of the court’s opinion, perhaps now is the time of Chiune Sugihara, a World War II Japanese diplomat who during angled star should stand in the Little Tokyo section of to redirect communal energies toward building addi- the Holocaust saved thousands of Jews. Credit: Edmon Rodman downtown Los Angeles. tional war memorials -- not with a cross but the Star of A memorial to Salvador in downtown Charleston that There, in a several-block area of Japanese shops, apartDavid.

I saw a few summers ago reads in part: ment buildings, cultural center and Buddhist temple, on Since it now seems acceptable to erect public war “Commemorating Francis Salvador 1747–1776 a bench sits a life-sized bronze statue of Chiune memorials using symbols once thought to be purely sec- First Jew in South Carolina to hold public office And Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who during his WWII tarian, in memory of the Jewish servicemen and service- to Die for American Independence” service as vice counsel in Lithuania saved the lives of women who have died for their country, it’s time to Perhaps on a bluff overlooking the Keowee River, the thousands of Jews by issuing them transit visas. The present a few names and locations where new Star of Star of David for Salvador and all those died in the accompanying plaque quotes from the Talmud: “He David memorials could be erected to honor them, and Revolutionary War could be erected. who saves one life, saves the entire world.” all others who died in service.

My second nomination for a memorial star goes to Placing the star nearby would complete a circle.

As you will see, the star works as well as the cross, even William Sawleson, a World War I U.S. Army sergeant It’s not just playing with symbols. in the unlikeliest of settings. who posthumously received the Congressional Medal of The marker should be about 7 feet high and made of Honor.

Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA columnist who writes on wood or stone, built with a secure foundation. The The citation for his medal reads: “Hearing a wounded Jewish life from Los Angeles.

Thanks to You the Dream Came True The June 25, 2010 issue of the Jewish Press will feature a special pull-out keepsake section celebrating the new Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. The completion of construction marks an exciting accomplishment for our entire community, and we invite you to place a personal congratulatory note in the special section.

Just select one of the three ad sizes pictured on the right, and fill out the form shown below with the names you want listed in the ad. Feel free to include a message, but please limit it to 10 words. Deadline for inclusion in this special section is June 4, 2010. Thank you.

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Dining

May 28, 2010

Rhapsodic Hungarian recipes

by RUTH ELLEN GRUBER BUDAPEST (JTA) -- Antonia Szenthe likes to read Jewish cookbooks such as “Spicy Eszter” Bodrogi’s “Spice and Soul: Jewish Cooking Here and Now” and adapt the recipes to her family’s taste. She also enjoys experimenting to adapt pork-laden traditional Hungarian recipes to kosher style.

“Instead of bacon or smoked pork, I’ll use smoked goose leg,” she says.

One of Szenthe’s favorite main dishes is baked fish and spinach. She varies the quantities to taste.

BAKED FISH AND SPINACH Ingredients: Fillets of cod, or some other saltwater fish (enough for 4 people) Just over 1 pound frozen spinach (or better, fresh spinach leaves) About 10 ounces fresh mushrooms 2 cloves of garlic About 1 1/2 tablespoons butter for the sauce, plus butter to saute the mushrooms 1 cup and a bit of milk -- or cream, if you do not mind the calories 2 tablespoons flour Half a lemon Grated Parmesan cheese Grated nutmeg Vegetable stock cube or powder, without MSG Freshly ground pepper (preferably 4-colored peppercorns) Preparation: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (or “moderate”).

Arrange the fish fillets in an oven-proof, buttered pan, grind pepper and squeeze half a lemon on them. Thaw the spinach, or wash the fresh spinach and simmer it on a slow flame until soft. Wash and chop the mushrooms, sauté them on high flame in butter.

Prepare the sauce: Melt the butter, mix it with the flour and add the cold milk. Season with plenty of ground pepper, vegetable stock or soup powder, ground nutmeg and mashed garlic. Cook it on slow flame, constantly stirring with a whisk, until it thickens. The sauce should be overly seasoned, as the spinach, the mushrooms and the fish absorb a lot of flavor.

Layer the spinach and the mushrooms on the fish fillets, pour on the sauce and grate plenty of Parmesan cheese on the top.

Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, until the cheese on top becomes a nice golden brown.

SOLET Everyone has his or her own solet (cholent) recipe, and family recipes are passed down from generation to generation. Some folks like dark beans, some like white beans and others, like me, prefer to mix them. All agree that for a good solet you need both smoked and regular meat.

Classic solet is baked for hours in an oven.

Traditionally it was put in a sealed oven Friday before Shabbat fell to be ready to eat on Saturday. But you can also prepare it on top of the stove.

For Facebook users, there is a solet interest group, which includes a recipe that uses four types of meat -including ham! See www.facebook.com/group.php? gid=132617699568&v=info.

Andras Singer serves six types of solet at his Fulemule restaurant: solet served with eggs, with goose leg, with smoked meat and eggs, with goose liver and onion, with mixed meats and a non-traditional-sounding Mexican solet with chili.

He provided this basic recipe, which of course can be varied to suit individual taste.

Ingredients: About 2 cups dried beans (Singer prefers dark beans)

1 large onion, chopped 4 tablespoons goose, duck or chicken fat (schmaltz is recommended, but you can substitute cooking oil if you wish a lighter taste)

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Meat: Singer’s basic recipe calls for 1 1/2 pounds smoked beef brisket plus poultry legs -- 1 or 2 turkey legs, or 2 goose or duck legs. But you can vary this to taste.

Just make sure that you use at least 2 types of meat, and that one of them is smoked -- in Hungary it is easy to get smoked turkey or goose legs.

6 eggs in their shells, washed (Note: make sure that the eggs are fresh, as one bad egg could ruin the dish. Some people recommend cooking the eggs separately; others leave them out entirely.)

1 cup pearl barley, washed Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic, or to taste About 2 teaspoons powdered mild Hungarian paprika (or to taste) Preparation: Rinse the beans and soak them overnight. Preheat the oven to 275. While the oven is heating, saute the onions in 2 tablespoons of the fat until they become soft, using a very large flameproof baking dish, casserole or oven-proof pot.

Stir about half of the drained beans into the onions. Add the meat, the eggs in their shell (see note above) and the barley. Cover with the remaining half of beans. Add salt, pepper, garlic and paprika, to taste, plus the remaining 2 tablespoons of fat or oil. Cover everything with water.

Cover the casserole tightly, place in the oven, and cook for 6 to 7 hours until the beans are very tender. (Check the solet after 4 or 5 hours and, if needed, add hot water.) When the solet is done, turn off the heat, but leave the solet in the cooling oven for another 2 or 3 hours. Adjust the seasonings to taste.

To serve, shell the eggs and quarter them. (Some people prefer to leave them whole or slice them.) Slice the brisket and remove the poultry meat from the bones. (Some people prefer to leave the poultry legs intact.)

SPICY ESZTER “Spicy Eszter” Bodrogi is an influential Jewish food writer whose cookbook “Spice and Soul: Jewish Cooking Here and Now” and blog www.fuszereslelek.hu/ have had a powerful impact on the Jewish culinary lifestyle of today’s younger generation of Jews in Hungary.

Her recipes, all kosher or kosher style, center on fresh ingredients and are elegant and often simple to prepare.

Both her blog and her book also provide recipes for traditional foods and holiday fare, such as hamentaschen and matzah balls. Hungarian speakers will find a treasure trove of gastronomic delight. Unfortunately, neither the blog nor the book is (yet) translated into English.

Bodrogi’s Web site has a video of her preparing a very simple version of solet -- with only one type of meat, turkey leg, and no eggs. Even though it is in Hungarian, it is easy to follow: www.fuszereslelek.hu/2008/07/ solet-video.html.

The Jewish Press will be closed Monday, May 31 for Memorial Day. Questions? Call 402.334.6448.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 28, 2010

Rolling with not so holy Chasidim

by AMY KLEIN NEW YORK (JTA) -- Danny A. Abeckaser -- or “Danny A.,” as he likes to be called -- looks like your typical slick, smooth-talking Sephardic “playa” from Brooklyn.

He’s wearing a dark blue dinner jacket over a white V-neck T-shirt, showing a smidgen of his chest, where a gold chain and a white beaded necklace hang over low riding cross-stitched jeans held up by a leather belt that’s just the right hipster color amber.

With his slicked, gelled jet-black hair and thick uber-nerd-cool black-framed

could happen to anyone,” Abeckasser says, mentioning Shlomo’s struggle with his family, who throws him out of the house when they find out he is involved in drugs. Shlomo cuts off his (fake-looking) sidecurls, removes his big black yarmulke and other black garb, and looks like, well, like Jesse Eisenberg.

Shlomo, now Sammy, is drawn into the world of clubbing, Shabbat breaking and women (the inevitable blond hottie, played by Ari Graynor) -- although he doesn’t fall as far as his friend Yosef (Justin Bartha from The Hangover), a real shyster who begins to take drugs and

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Danny Abeckaser, left, and Ari Graynor in Holy Rollers.

Club owner Danny Abeckaser Credit: First Independent Pictures was inspired to make Holy glasses, the 37-year-old nightclub skim money Rollers, an indie film about owner/actor-cum producer looks signifi- off the top Brooklyn Chasidim who serve his as drug mules to transport cantly different from Jackie Solomon, the from sleazy Israeli-American drug lord/party boss, Jackie ecstasy from Europe to New Credit: Eyal Solomon York. boy he plays in the film Holy Rollers, Solomon. which Abeckaser also conceived and produced in his first foray as a filmmaker.

If this sounds like blatant stereotyping, no worries, because this new, languid, low-budget indie feature revels in them.

The film tells the story of Brooklyn Chasidim who serve as drug mules to transport ecstasy from Europe to New York. The religious family talk is filled with schmaltz, using words like “gelt,” “bubbeleh” and “baruch Hashem,” and the other characters hurl epithets like “schvartze,” “goy” and “Polack,” or say things like “I never heard a Jew complain so much about making money.”

But for Abeckaser, Holy Rollers is simply a beautiful story that needed to be told.

After he watched a documentary about Interpol and drugs that mentioned the Chasidic mules, Abeckaser (“I’m not a writer”) hired writer Antonio Macia.

They put together a fictional story of Shlomo “Sam” Gold (the convincingly confused Jesse Eisenberg from Zombieland and Adventureland), who loses his way after a match with a potential wife falls through and is duped into transporting drugs, which at first he thinks is “medicine for rich people.”

As it says at the end of the film, Holy Rollers is based on the real crimes of an Israeli drug ring in 1988-89 that was responsible for transporting more than 1 million pills using the Chasidic patsies, who stuff the drugs in their fur streimels and suitcases. (In real life, the Israeli ecstasy cartel continued for many more years, bringing more and more pills, with Chasidic and other mules.)

“I grew up in that community and I thought it was fascinating that people don’t know what it’s like,” Abeckaser told the audience at a screening at Soho House in New York City, which showed the film in conjunction with the Woodstock Film Festival (which will feature Holy Rollers and other Jewish films in the fall).

Abeckaser was born in Israel, the sixth of seven children of Moroccan parents who immigrated to America in 1980. He attended yeshiva for sixth and seventh grades, then switched to public school for the rest of junior high and high school.

“Everyone sees that this is a story that

Why did Abeckaser give himself the role of the dim-witted Israeli boss, the third lead?

“I didn’t think I could pull off the Chasid thing,” Abeckaser says with the right accent because he’s fluent in Hebrew.

“But I knew so many guys like Jackie, I’ve been around them. Growing up Israeli, it’s not a hard character for me,” he says. Besides, Abeckaser shrugs, “I always like to be the bad ass and not the good guy.”

The good guy, though, is not really so good, as he leaves his religion and starts recruiting his own Chasidic mules to do the dirty work. Jewish audiences might not like to see their own running drugs, to let the world wonder if what’s under a Chasid’s bekeshe -- the long, black coat - are packets of drugs.

“I would say that’s sad,” Abeckaser says.

“I feel like we tell a beautiful story. You can see how beautiful the community is and how happy they are there,” he says.

“Obviously everyone would like their children to be doctors or lawyers or rabbis, but people go on the wrong path.”

At one point in the film, Abeckaser points out, the rebbe warns, “All men must choose to be either closer to Hashem or further from Hashem.”

Shlomo, he adds, “strayed far away and yet he moves closer to Him [God] in the end.”

Abeckaser says he fought with the director for the last scene, in which Shlomo has regrown his sidelocks.

“I would never want to portray Jews in a bad way -- he goes back to religion in the end,” Abeckaser says.

What would he tell those people who only see the world through the lens of “Is it good for the Jews?”

“I’m a big Jew and from a big Jewish family, and I want them to know this is a beautiful Jewish story because he goes back to religion in the end,” Abeckaser says. “The most beautiful thing about the religion is that God forgives everyone.”

Holy Rollers opens May 21 in New York and Los Angeles, and May 28 and after across the country. For more information, visit http://holyrollersfilm. com/ now-playing/.

May 28, 2010

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 11

A tough decision

BERT’S EYE VIEW

by BERT LEWIS

If you know me and/or these columns, you know I seldom do anything that might be called a serious discussion. Today I’d like to disprove that I never do serious stuff. Let me tell you about an incident I experienced a little while ago.

I had stopped at one of our local supermarkets for a few things, had finished shopping, and was on my way to the car in the parking lot. I got there, opened the trunk and put my groceries away. As I closed the truck and was looking for a place to park the basket, I was approached by a youngish woman, looking somewhat agitatied. She was very polite, asked to be excused for bothering me, and proceeded to tell me what sounded like a suspicious story about a sick child at home and her need to get there. There was something about a cab she’d called, then found she’d be six dollars short. Ok? Got the picture?

I was dubious and hesitated for a moment, and she kept pleading her case. All the while sounding as sincere as anyone could sound. I looked at her and thought, “she’s probably just mooching, but what if she’s telling the truth?” And that’s what got to me - the “what if”. I will readily admit if this had been a man I’d more than likely have said I was sorry and gotten in the car. Not a very equitable decision, but I would have been more suspicious. All I could do was look at her and think “what if she’s telling the truth? What if her situation is so bad she’s reduced to this degrading act?” And then I thought of my late partner. the one I always called my room mate.

I didn’t have to wonder what he’d have done in that situation. I knew without giving it a split second to think about . He’d have known he was probably being “scammed”, but he’d have given her the money anyway.

And I know, although I can’t prove it, he’d have said “what if her story is true?”

I opened my purse, found six dollars, and handed it to her. Of course she blessed me and thanked me all over the place, and I quickly got in my car and started to leave. Somebody pulled up behind me and blocked my

exit...then a woman got out of the car and came over to mine, knocking on the window. She asked me if I had just given that woman money and then told me she was a scam artist and I shouldn’t have. I could only look at her and ask her my one question” What if she really, desperately needed that money?”

I suppose a policeman would have said I was foolish, but I doubt I would have done differently. Because when is it ok to just decide somebody elses veracity? When did we get permission to make serious judgements about total strangers? And what if we make such a judgement and it turns out we’re wrong? Is this how decent people conduct the every day business of life? By deciding who shall receive help and who isn’t worthy of that help?

I can really hear what my room mate would have said.

I’d take an oath he’d have said “that six dollars won’t make a lot of difference in your life, but it might make a great difference in hers”. I know he would have said that, just like I know this whole thing really happened. I drove home, thinking about the entire story, and my conclusion is the same as when I started. What if?

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

Hillel meets the needs of Jewish Millennials

by LORI YADIN AND SUSANNAH SAGAN reprinted from the Ohio Jewish Chronicle According to the Pew Research Center’s recently released portrait of Millennials, i.e., those born after 1980 this generation is, “confident, connected, and open to change”. 26 percent cite no religious identity.

When naming life priorities, Millennials say that “being a good parent, having a successful marriage, and helping others in need” are most important. They are looking to be part of societal conversations, believing that “social change” is the answer to “greater change.”

As Jewish parents, we anticipate and encourage their exploration, while hoping they find a place that is filled with a sense of belonging, reminiscent of those comforts, messages, and experiences of home.

As parents, we know that each child is unique and will require different things from the university. The university will now support our student’s search for meaning, purpose, and faith as he or she pursues a higher education. What is often a surprise to parents is the equally complex and mentoring role that Hillels serve on campus. Parents often see Hillel through the lens of their own college experience.

Hillel has always addressed the needs and desires of students, and today, Hillel is rising to the challenge of the Millennials. These young people distrust institutionalized organizations and prefer to shape their own experiences and connect to their own networks. The Hillel professionals’ role is to be thoughtful mentors, build

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relationships with students, and connect them to Jewish experiences.

Hillel professionals guide students to move beyond the self-absorbed space of young adulthood and take responsibility for their own identity. We help them to become united with their inner Jewish voice - a voice that connects their personal life experience to a source of understanding, trust, hope, and faith. When they apply that voice to their daily lives, they will create a Jewish life that is relevant to them.

Today’s Hillel recognizes that students find many entry points into their Judaism. Hillel provides a Jewish context and content; it helps students connect to their interests in community service, leadership and career development, advocacy, dialogue, spirituality, community, culture, and Israel. This generation arrives on campus with a strong global perspective, but often without the intimate connections to Jewish history of previous generations. Hillels have responded by creating space where students can ask difficult questions.

Hillel recognizes the power of social networks, and is utilizing this new asset to expand its reach. Two engagement models, employed by nearly 50 campuses this year, are the Campus Entrepreneurs Initiative (CEI) and PeerNetwork Engagement Internship (PNEI). Starting with the premise that students are the best connectors, these two models hire a core group of students with broad social networks to build relationships with uninvolved Jewish students. Acting as peer mentors, these interns

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engage their friends in Jewish conversations and help them to experience Jewish life, values, rituals, and traditions.

By creating this multi-leveled mentoring environment, Hillel is connecting “our Millennial children” to Jewish life. As parents, we all dream of the moment the college acceptance letter arrives. At the same time we approach our children’s transition with mixed emotions. Hillel can be an effective partner in our children’s development.

They will not be alone on campus. Rather, they will have the opportunity to learn that living a Jewish life is valuable and, perhaps, to make an enduring commitment to a Jewish future.

With 85 percent of Jewish high school graduates attending college, today’s young adult Jews have the potential to dramatically impact the future landscape of Jewish life. As Hillel professionals, we are proud to be part of a worldwide organization that has the opportunity to mentor our future Jewish leaders, community builders, inventors, artists, entrepreneurs, healers, teachers, and philanthropists. As parents, we are grateful that there are Jewish educators and mentors on college campuses, who understand that each individual they meet represents the future of the Jewish world.

Lori Yadin of North Potomac is director of the International Hillel Campus Entrepreneurs Initiative and the mother of four Millennials. Susannah Sagan is associate director of Hillel at Ohio State University and the mother of two Millennials.

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Page 12

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 28, 2010

Budapest Jewish food scene takes off

by RUTH ELLEN GRUBER BUDAPEST (JTA) -- Rahel Raj calls herself a 21st-century Yiddishe mama.

The daughter of a rabbi and mother of a toddler, she and her family run a pair of popular Budapest bake shops that specialize in Jewish pastries such as flodni, a calorific confection of layered nuts, apple and poppy seeds that is one of the symbols of local Jewish cuisine.

“A modern Yiddishe mama is not someone who sits in a chair and says, ‘Eat!,’” said Raj, a slim 29-year-old with long, dark hair. “I like to dress up, I have a profession, I have a baby -- but on Shabbat I serve a four-course Friday-night meal.”

Raj is part of a burgeoning Jewish food scene in Budapest that’s making an impact on restaurant menus in the city and on the way Hungarian Jews eat at home.

In addition to her pastry business, Raj writes a column for a local Jewish magazine and two years ago anchored a 10part Jewish cooking series on a Hungarian TV food channel. On the show, Raj prepared dishes with several local Jewish cooks to demonstrate how old-style traditions now coexist with new forms of culinary practice, as Jews use food both to connect with their roots and reflect a contemporary Jewish lifestyle.

One of her guests was Andras Singer, whose award-winning Fulemule restaurant goes heavy on cholesterol-laden recipes handed down from his mother and grandmother. They include stuffed goose neck, chopped liver, spiced goose fat and six types of solet -- the Hungarian version of cholent, the slow-baked dish of beans and meat traditionally served on Shabbat.

But Raj also featured a young Jewish working mom who prefers to feed her family salads and Israeli favorites such as

hummus and pita, which have become hummus. Spinoza even has bagels. popular and easily available in Budapest in “It’s lighter food, a combination of recent years thanks in part to an Israeli- Israeli dishes and light Hungarian,” said run chain of hummus bars downtown.

Tal Lev, the Israeli restaurateur who runs Another guest was the influential Jewish food writer Eszter Bodrogi, who goes by the pen name Spicy Eszter. Bodrogi, who is in her late 30s, has helped spark new trends in Jewish at-home eating with a popular food blog and lavishly illustrated cookbook, “Spice and Soul.”

Her message is that contemporary kosher (or kosher style) cooking can be elegant, Rahel Raj’s husband, Miklós Maloschik, behind the counter at the Credit: Ruth Ellen Gruber easy, healthy and fun. family-run Noe pastry shop.

“Things are really different today,” Raj Spinoza. “Things that no one else serves, said. “We want modern, lighter, quicker like whole roast eggplant on a bed of tahiversions of the old traditional recipes -- ni, with pine nuts and feta cheese.” using olive oil, for example, instead of Jews have lived in Hungary for cengoose fat. Or making gefilte fish with turies;, as many as 80,000 Jews are living salmon, flavored with orange. Or instead in Budapest today. of solet, maybe serving a barley risotto The vast majority, however, are acculwith smoked duck.” turated into the Hungarian mainstream, Several Jewish-style restaurants that have and over the years a number of typical opened in Budapest in recent years feature Jewish dishes have also become embraced this type of lighter fare. Notable among as Hungarian standards. them are Spinoza and Koleves, both locatMatzah ball soup and solet turn up on ed on Dob Street in the old downtown many mainstream restaurant menus. And Jewish quarter, the Seventh District. solet has become so assimilated that it is Neither is kosher, but neither serves often served with smoked pork, even at pork. Both offer a dish or two that mix restaurants such as Kadar’s, a legendary dairy and meat. eatery in the heart of the Jewish quarter.

Both serve versions of classic With or without pork, even unaffiliated Hungarian Jewish fare, such as roast or nonobservant Jews often regard solet goose leg, but they also feature vegetari- as a talisman of Jewish identity. an choices, as well as Israeli salads and Every winter since the mid-1990s, for

example, Andras Kovacs, a Jewish studies professor at Central European University, and a group of friends have staged a solet competition.

“There’s a jury as well as popular vote,” said Kovacs, 63. “They judge on several criteria -- taste, appearance, fidelity to tradition and so on. How do you put in the eggs, sliced or whole? What kind of meat do you use? Black pepper or not? Some even put in tomato!”

Kovacs is not Jewishly observant. But, he said, “I had solet growing up as a child. My aunt was a great solet chef -- I use her recipe.”

Travel to Israel has played a significant role in popularizing a lighter style of Jewish eating among Budapest Jews, said Antonia Szenthe, whose family switched to keeping a kosher-style home in the early 1990s.

“Young people in particular come home from Israel very enthusiastic and decide to cook at least kosher style -- lots of salad, less meat, and first of all no pork,” said Szenthe, who is in her 50s.

“It’s like something that keeps us together -- a common taste, a common style.”

Keeping a kosher-style kitchen has been an important part of her family’s Jewish identity, Szenthe said. And over the years, she has learned how to adapt non-kosher Hungarian recipes to kosher style: substituting turkey for pork, for example, and leaving out the sour cream that Hungarians often use in meat dishes.

One thing that was hard to give up, Szenthe said, was szalona, a kind of smoked lard cooked in garlic and covered in paprika.

“But I found out that smoked butter fish tastes almost like smoked szalona,” she said.

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May 28, 2010

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 13

Study of American Jews making its way into Israeli schools

by DINA KRAFT TEL AVIV, Israel (JTA) -- The Jews of America may be the largest Jewish community in the Diaspora, but that does not mean Israeli schoolchildren learn much about them.

Sixty-two years after Israel’s founding, its school system still largely sticks to the Zionist trope that all Jews should live in Israel and those who do not at the very least should be actively engaged in helping support the Jewish state. In turn, there is scant study of contemporary Jewish life in America.

If an Israeli Education Ministry pilot program to teach about American Jewry takes root, Israeli schoolchildren will learn about the Diaspora’s largest Jewish community for the first Credit: Yossi Zamir/Flash90/JTA time.

“The bottom line is that there is very little taught, if there is anything at all,” said Daniel Gross, a Hebrew University graduate student who has researched the topic.

But there is some change afoot.

Signaling the beginning of a shift in direction, 11thand 12th-graders preparing for the national history matriculation exam this year for the first time were required to study a unit on American Jewry’s contribution to the Jewish people after the Holocaust.

Orna Katz-Atar, a high school history teacher who drew up the new curriculum for the Education Ministry, said that plans are under way to introduce a new unit on Israel and the Diaspora, with a focus on American Jewry, probably by the fall of 2012.

“We are in the process of building the curriculum, gathering material and teaching the teachers,” Katz-Atar said.

At a time when studies show a declining sense of kinship between American Jews and their Israeli counterparts, Israelis’ unfamiliarity with Diaspora Jewry is a subject of some concern in America. This lack of familiarity only exacerbates tensions over divisive Israel-Diaspora issues, such as the debate over who is a Jew. There is a feeling that members of the world’s two largest Jewish populations know less about each other with each passing generation.

Until this year, when and if the subject of American Jewry was taught at all in Israeli schools, it usually was within the context of the great wave of Jewish migration in the 19th century, the life of Jews in America between the world wars and what American Jews did to try to help their brethren during the Holocaust.

Policymakers feared that “showing a successful Diaspora might encourage emigration,” Gross said.

“Another problem has been how the religious schools would teach about Reform or Conservative Judaism, and how the topic might hurt the Zionist agenda.”

A 2005 report by the American Jewish Committee found that only 14 percent of Israeli teachers surveyed said they taught about Reform or Conservative Judaism in their schools in the previous three years.

While Israeli students are beginning now to study more about American Jewry, the focus remains on American Jews’ connection to Israeli history. In preparation for the history matriculation exam, Israeli students are taught about the aid American Jews provided at postwar DP camps, and the role American Jews played in helping lobby the White House to support Israel’s creation.

“I tell my students all the time that we and the American Jews are brothers,” Katz-Atar said. “It’s important that students understand that we did not do everything alone, that the Zionist project was assisted by the entire Jewish world.”

One place where Diaspora studies are taught differently is in Modiin, a rapidly growing city midway between Continued on page 14

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May 28, 2010

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MZ Yoshanah and Ediar’s Annual Beau Dance

by MZ YOSHANAH AND EDIAR MEMBERS Reno. Their 2009-2010 Beau was Ryan Saturday night, May 15, was the B’nai Kirshenbaum. MZ’s beau candidates were B’rith Girl’s Annual Beau Dance. The Kevin Adler, Ben Noodel, Jordan Kohll, fundraising dance was planned by MZ and Yaniv Azriel. The honoraries are Alex Yoshanah #2053 and Ediar BBG #710. Brown and Lev Nachman. Colin Belmont The dance committee consisted of three was 2009-2010 Beau. Being a candidate Ediar members and three MZ members. and honorary is a great honor, as it means They were Rachel Saferstein, Dayna being recognized for all they have done Cohen, Megan Bucher, Marlee Skolkin, for BBYO, their chapter, and the organiMolly Kudym, and Adi Gill. The beaus, zation as a whole. candidates, committee, and other BBYO The new beau for each chapter was members were busy selling ads to raise announced at Procession at 10:30 pm. money for BBG. The theme for this year’s Ediar chose Bradley Kutler and MZ’s pick dance was Alice and Wonderland, and the was Ben Noodell. With their new titles, dance had incredible decorations! “It felt like I walked into the movie,” one BBGer said. This year’s Beau Dance was held in the The B’nai Brith Girls strike a pose before their annual Beau Dance JCC Auditorium. The dance started at 7:30, and these manly men will be an honorary the Blumkin Home’s Star Catering member of the chapters that selected brought in a taco bar complete with gua- them for the 2010-2011 year. The beau is camole, black bean and corn salsa, and selected based on their overall contribuyummy seasoned chicken and beef! The tion to BBYO and the chapter that nomdance was open to all BBYO members inated them. Spirit and creativity play a and potential members, and over 60 teens large role in the final decision, and all of attended. the candidates this year were outstanding.

The beau candidates for Ediar were For more information on this and any Alex Kirshenbaum, Bradley Kutler, Max other BBYO programs, please contact Saferstein-Hansen, and Sam Monsky. Anne Muskin BBYO/Teen Director at The honoraries are Joe Slosburg and Jesse 334.6404.

Israeli schools study American Jews

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Continued from page 13 Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. For the past five years, seventh-graders have been studying a course called “Friends Across the Sea” as part of a pilot program initiated by the Education Ministry, the TALI educational fund and the Jewish Agency for Israel.

In this new curriculum, students learn about the various Jewish religious denominations, the challenges of Jewish continuity and Diaspora concerns over intermarriage. A section on Jewish feminism includes the emergence of female rabbis.

The program’s backers want to bring the curriculum to public schools across Israel -- and to translate it into English for study in American Jewish schools and into other languages for other Diaspora communities.

“I think it’s a result of changes in 1990s, when increasing numbers of Israelis encountered the Jewish American community through organized delegations,” said Varda Rafael, an educator who helped coordinate the project. They “realized we can learn from each other -not copy each other, but inspire one another.”

Gross says the Israeli perception of American Jewry is changing, at least in academic circles.

“In the past, Israelis would say of American Jewry that they chose not to be with us, but if they want to support us financially or politically that’s great,” he said. “But now there is the sense that maybe there is a need for greater Jewish pluralism in Israel.”

Israelis unhappy with the Orthodox monopoly on religious matters are beginning to look to American Jews for direction, Gross noted.

But among the general Israeli population, most Israelis seem to have little or no concept about the lives of their American Jewish counterparts.

Yisrael Wolman, in a scouring Op-Ed last month in the Israeli daily Yediot

Achronot, mocked his fellow Israelis for being apathetic about American Jews.

“The American Jewish leadership is aging and is frightened by surveys of assimilation and low birth rates and is putting most energies into strengthening its own community,” he wrote, “but this does not mean a parallel blind identification with Israel. The tragedy is that for the average Israeli, it is as interesting as last year’s snowfall. Tens of thousands of Israelis fly to America each year to have a great time in Times Square, gamble in Las Vegas or hang out in Disney World.

How many of them have visited a single Jewish institution or have met with American Jews of their own age?”

Rabbi Ed Rettig, acting director of the American Jewish Committee in Israel, says that American Jews do almost as bad a job of educating their children about Israel as Israel does in educating their youth about American Jews.

“We in Israel, by not learning how American Jews think, lose in our capacity to engage in deep dialogue with them,” he said. Israelis pay for this ignorance, he noted. “These are the same people from which we are asking for passionate advocacy within the American Jewish system, people whose own children we are sometimes disallowing as Jews. We are smacking around the people who love us most.”

Shlomi Ravid, co-director of the Jewish Peoplehood Hub, a start-up that seeks to be a clearinghouse for peoplehood issues, says there is one key question.

“Are we a people with a state, or a state that has a people?” he asked. “I would say for most Israelis it’s all about Israel, and the Jewish people are supposed to be a source of personnel, support and funding. There is a loss of a sense that the real client here is the Jewish people, and the state is a very important expression of the agenda of the people, but it’s not the soul. That Jewish life matters and is important everywhere it exists.”

May 28, 2010

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Film Streams and The Kent Bellows Studio and Center for Visual Arts are presenting a screening of Beautiful Losers (2008) on June 15 at 7 p.m. It is at the Film Streams’ Ruth Sokolof Theater located at 1340 Mike Fahey St. Tickets are $9, $7 for seniors, students and teachers, and $4.50 for Film Stream Members. Exit Through the Gift Shop will also be showing at Film Streams from June 18-July 1. For more information about Beautiful Losers visit www.Film Streams.org and for Exit Through the Gift Shop visit http://bit.ly/ cbPs0e.

The Rose Theater presents its production of High School Musical 2 from June 4-20. Performances will be at The Rose mainstage located at 2001 Farnam Street.

Shows will be at 7 p.m. every Friday; 2 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday; as well as 7 p.m. Thursday June 10 and 17. Tickets can be purchased at The Rose Box Office for $25 for main floor seating and $20 for balcony seating. For more information visit www.rose theater.org.

The Taste of Omaha will kick off its 13th annual event starting June 11-June 13. It will be open the 11th and 12th from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. and from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. on the 13th at Heartland of America Park and Lewis & Clark Landing. This event will showcase Omaha’s greatest foods and entertainment and is free to the public. For more information visit www.tasteofomaha.info.

ORGANIZATIONS NEBRASKA JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY The Nebraska Jewish Historical Society is still interested in receiving stories and photographs about “Mom and Pop” grocery stores that were located in Nebraska and Western Iowa. For further information please call 402.334.6442 or email njhs@jewishomaha.org.

B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS Harvey Perlman, UNL chancellor will speak on current issues facing the University on Wednesday, June 2, noon at the Blumkin Home. The program is FREE. An optional buffet lunch costs $13; beverage service only is $3. RSVP required before June 1 at 5 p.m. Contact Gary Javitch at gjavitch@cox.net, or Jenny at the B’nai B’rith Office. For more information or to be placed on the emial list contact Jenny a 334.6443 or bnaibrith@ jewishomaha.org.

LOMIR REDN YIDDISH Yiddish brings us closer to our roots! Come join us every Thursday afternoon from 1-3 p.m. in the social hall of the JCC. For information call Anne Skolkin at 343.1638.

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by MICHAEL SIGMOND Edward Jones Financial Advisor You may not have the pictures, suntan or souvenirs to show for it, but if you’re at least 70-1/2, you’ve just finished a “vacation.” And that means you’ll have to do some work — on determining how much to take out of your retirement plans this year.

Typically, when you reach 70-1/2, you must start taking withdrawals (“required minimum distributions,” or RMDs) from your traditional IRA or your employer-sponsored retirement plan, such as a 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b). However, the sharp decline in the financial markets in 2008 led Congress to give you a one-year vacation from taking RMDs in 2009 so that you wouldn’t have to cash out assets whose value had fallen significantly. But 2009 is over, and so is your RMD vacation. So if you must take distributions this year, you’ll need to do some planning.

For starters, you can calculate your RMD by dividing the last year’s retirement account balance, as of December 31, by a life expectancy factor, found in the Internal Revenue Service’s Uniform Lifetime Table. Your financial advisor or tax profession-

Kathy Miller

A (gray) whale of a tale

My fair Knesset member

by MARCY OSTER JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A gray whale that took a wrong turn was spotted in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Tel Aviv on May 8, marking the first time a gray whale was seen from Israel's coast in more than 200 years.

Other types of whales have appeared in the Mediterranean from time to time.

The whale reportedly folCredit: Aviad Scheinin/IMMRAC lowed a Russian ship from Turkey into the Haifa port. Gray whales live in the north Pacific and migrate to warmer waters off of Mexico in the fall.

Some scientists believe the whale got through the Northwest Passage, which links the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In the past, the route through the Arctic Sea has been blocked by ice all year round, but it is now open at certain times of the year due to global warming, according to reports.

The whale left Haifa Bay five days after it arrived, without the help of scientists.

“Over a lifetime, a gray whale migrates the equivalent distance of a return trip to the moon. However, these new images show that this particular whale would have had to beat all previous distance records to end up where it has,” whale expert Nicola Hodgins said.

by MARCY OSTER JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli lawmakers are set to attend a government-sponsored finishing school.

The members of Israel’s Knesset will learn how to better represent Israel abroad after completing their classes on improving self-confidence, public speaking and dressing for success. The classes will be led by expert academics and media figures, as well as by some fellow lawmakers with media experience.

Attendance at the classes, which will begin in the coming months and will be held for several hours over the course of one week, will not be mandatory, but highly recommended, Ynet reported.

The new program was initiated by the chairman of the State Control Committee, Yoel Hasson of the Kadima party, after several lawmakers admitted to difficulty in meeting the challenges of confrontation in front of audiences around the world.

“The 120 members of Knesset are the State of Israel’s ambassadors in their appearances around the world and in Israel,” Hasson said. “Some of them are well acquainted with PR work, but there are quite a few that need guidance, assistance, and tools to get to know the subject better. This course can also help the more experienced, as well as the less experienced.”

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 28, 2010

New bios of Lubavitcher rebbe dig for the man behind the myth

by SUE FISHKOFF SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- Sixteen years after the death of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a flurry of new publications indicates not only how enduring the interest is in his life and legacy, but how potent the minefield is surrounding his mythology.

Writing a biography of a larger-than-life figure is never easy. And when that figure is the seventh Lubavitcher rebbe, the charismatic leader of the worldwide ChabadLubavitch movement, the usual challenges of sifting through sources and evaluating mountains of research material are complicated by internal politics, religious sensibilities, personal loyalties and a lack of reliable firstperson information.

Then there’s the Messiah business.

Until now, the only recountings of Schneerson’s life have been hagiographies written by Chabad followers.

Now there are two new biographies by academics outside Chabad circles, with a third in the works.

New York University Professor Elliot Wolfson came out last fall with “Open Secret: Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision of Menahem Mendel Schneerson,” an examination of Schneerson’s leadership within the context of Jewish esoteric tradition.

Next month will see the publication of “The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson,”

by Samuel Heilman of City University of New York and Menachem Friedman of Bar-Ilan University, an examination of Schneerson’s early life and what the authors describe as his growing Messianic pretensions.

And Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, author of several bestselling books on Jewish life and thought, is in the early stages of a book focusing on the source of Schneerson’s charisma and the influence he continues to exert on people’s lives.

The Heilman-Friedman book is generating the most controversy. Written for a lay audience, it frames Schneerson’s mission, and that of the Chabad movement he led, as motivated by Messianism, here defined as the attempt to hasten the Messianic era through human actions. The Messianic mission was so much at the heart of the late rebbe’s leadership, the authors argue, that one cannot be a follower of the rebbe without full commitment to that goal.

The authors take a psycho-bio approach to Schneerson’s life, trying to get inside the man’s head to uncover his motivation -- always a tricky business.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, standing, with his future father-in-law, the sixth Lubavitcher rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. Credit: TheRebbe.org They focus on Schneerson’s 14 years in Berlin and Paris -- the so-called “lost years” between his 1927 marriage to Chaya Mushka, the daughter of the sixth Lubavitcher rebbe, and 1941, when the couple escaped Nazi Europe and arrived in New York to rejoin the Lubavitch court.

Left to his own devices, they write, Schneerson would have preferred to “settle in Paris, become a French citizen, and live as a Jew of Hasidic background pursuing a career in engineering.”

While not explicitly claiming that Schneerson and his young wife fell away from their Chasidic roots, the authors return again and again to the short beard and secular dress Schneerson favored until his arrival in New

York, along with other similar details.

“There is no question he was an observant Jew, but he lived in places where Chasidim didn’t live, and he did things they wouldn’t do,” Heilman told JTA. It was, the authors write, a combination of survivor’s guilt -- Schneerson was the only member of his close family to escape the Holocaust -- and the improbability of his becoming an engineer in America that led him by the late 1940s to set his sights on a new career goal: succeeding his father-in-law to become the seventh Lubavitcher rebbe.

“Mendel’s whole world had collapsed,” they write.

“Now he was a childless refugee in America nearly forty years old with little or no English facility, with no job prospects in what had been his chosen field … a man who must be feeling desperate in his anxiety, loneliness, confusion, and survivor guilt, whose prospects are unclear, looking for a way out, an answer from God.” When Schneerson assumed leadership of Chabad, the authors continue, he was able to use this worldly experience to push a hitherto small Chasidic movement onto the world stage, launching the global outreach campaign that was to become its hallmark.

Eventually, they assert, Schneerson believed he was “the prophet of his generation,” the man destined to bring on the Messianic era. And because the rebbe was so alone, with no peers to contradict him, they ask rhetorically: Was he “getting lost in a culture of messianic delusion”?

This version of Schneerson’s life contradicts the official Lubavitch version of an unbroken journey toward the mantle of movement leadership and suggests a more nuanced life whose twists and turns might easily have led to a different outcome.

Even before its publication, the book has engendered considerable objections in Chabad circles. One female emissary said some of her colleagues “have been briefed by headquarters” to steer their people away from it.

Lubavitchers are ripping into it, disputing its details as well as its overall thesis, claiming it shows a lack of familiarity with readily available primary sources. According to these critics, the rebbe never trimmed his beard in Europe, he rolled it, and the rebbe attended synagogue Continued on page 18

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May 28, 2010

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 17

A most considerate gift for your loved ones

by BOB NELSON, CLU, VICE PRESIDENT AND MIKE MURPHY, LUTCF Grace/Mayer Financial & Estate Planning Division We would like to share a special idea that will make a significant impact on those you care about the most. Taking the time to do just a few things can make an important difference to assure your wishes are understood and carried out.

The following items are important and simple to put in place. We have added a brief, non-technical explanation to explain how each applies to your personal planning. Some require an attorney, some do not. You should not put this off any longer!

Have a will. The will designates your personal representative, your children’s guardian and your instructions for distributing your property at death. Consider it your “personal letter of instruction” to the court.

Have a “living will.” A living will is a medical directive written in advance that sets forth your preference for medical treatment such as a “do not recessitate” instruction. Among other things, it also specifies who has decision-making responsibility to start or withhold medical treatment.

Have a financial power of attorney. This document designates who will be authorized to manage your affairs, typically

financial ones, if you become unable to handle them.

Review beneficiary designations on all of your financial accounts, including employer provided benefits, investments, bank accounts and insurance policies. Check periodically to ensure they are still relevant to your current wishes.

Designated beneficiaries generally fall outside the provisions in your will, so it is critical that you keep your beneficiaries updated Specify where important papers, financial information and valuables are located. Keep a master list, tell your family where it is and review it periodically.

Have a list of professionals who assist you with your legal and financial affairs (attorney, accountant, insurance agent, family physician, financial advisor etc.)

Specify your preference for final arrangements such as funeral expenses, where you want to be buried, whether you want to be an organ donor, etc.

Update your planning and review it regularly. Think of how difficult and confusing these decisions would be without your input…make sure you don’t leave these decisions to someone else. Doing the above is one of the most considerate gifts you can give!

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According to the mortality tables, a 65 year old has a life expectancy of 20 years, and that by anyone’s definition is long term. With all of the uncertainty concerning Social Security one thing you don’t want to do is to outlive your assets. The history of paper money is the history of inflation, and I see lots of inflation in the near future.

Placing all of your money in low interest CDs and bonds is not a way to make your money work for you. Retirees should have a diverse portfolio that includes fixed income, stocks, and maybe some real estate.

Hiring a good investment professional is important in managing your money. A good professional who takes an interest in you, are knowledgeable, and put his/her money where his/her mouth is the way to make your money work for you.

One hobby that you may want to consider is learning more about investing. A group you may want to join is the “Bagels and Finance” group that is sponsored by Russ Kaplan Investments.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 28, 2010

New bios of Lubavitcher rebbe dig for the man behind the myth

Continued from page 16 regularly in Berlin -- videotaped interviews with Jews who saw him in shul prove it.

And the suggestion that Schneerson spent his European years divorced from Chabad activities?

Rubbish, they charge.

Rabbi Chaim Rapoport, a Lubavitch scholar and dean of Britain’s Machon Mayim Chayin, points to a wealth of correspondence that exists between Schneerson and his father showing the two engaging in deep Talmudic and kabbalistic discourse.

“All this is a far cry from” the claim by Heilman and Friedman “that the father was guiding a son who had but an elementary or, worse still, a cursory interest in a Chasidic lifestyle,” he says.

In response, Heilman said in an e-mail to JTA, “We do not deny and indeed suggest that Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson was a primary religious and Chasidic guide for his son. Indeed, we quote from the letters they exchanged. We particularly note the exchanges around the time of the wedding of the son to the daughter of the Sixth Rebbe.”

On the question of the rebbe’s beard, Heilman said readers will be able to judge for themselves by looking at photographs of Schneerson, reading comments from his father-in-law and thinking about when those comments were made.

In general, Heilman says, it should come as no surprise that some Chasidim “see things differently from the way we do. But we have presented our viewpoint based on the facts we have gathered.”

“Our book documents what we have learned about the years in Europe,” Heilman said. “We explain that most of the activities of those years were focused around the primary activity that brought the young Schneersons to Berlin and Paris. That activity was pursuit of education, career, and a life distant from Lubavitcher areas of settlement. When they wanted more of the Lubavitcher life, they either returned to the Sixth Rebbe’s court or visited with him when he came to where they were.

“We never question the future Rebbe’s knowledge of Chabad or even his interest in it. But as we document, that interest was not always the center of his concerns while he pursued his engineering studies.”

Chabad itself, through Jewish Educational Media, is about to release more than 1,200 documents related to Schneerson’s life and work, in English and Hebrew, including his own diaries and important correspondence

between him, his father and his father-in-law, the sixth Lubavitcher rebbe.

One volume will come out in late June, followed later by others, both in print and online at chabad.org.

Chabad sources say this information will “clear up many misunderstandings.”

Wolfson, a philosopher, presents a much different take on Schneerson’s Messianism than sociologists Heilman and Friedman.

The NYU professor portrays Schneerson as having a very deep and radical understanding of Jewish esoterica.

“In his prime, his teaching was very dense, very laden with kabbalistic terminology,” Wolfson said. “I don’t know how many really understood him; most were simply mesmerized by his style of presentation.”

Schneerson’s teachings are rife with internal contradictions, Wolfson says, including the subverting of Judaism’s gender hierarchy and the boundaries between the permissible and the non-permissible. But most of this was destined for the realm of theory. Schneerson never intended for them to be actualized -- not in this world.

“What the implications would be sociologically, what a Jewish community would look like if the Torah were superseded by the ‘new Torah’ he spoke about, a kind of law beyond the law, I don’t think he thought that through,” Wolfson said.

Wolfson agrees with Heilman and Friedman that Schneerson’s Messianic vision “was there from the beginning.”

“I feel he is using the rhetoric of a personal Messiah to mark not so much a political change but a change in consciousness that ... involves reaching a state of personal perfection that exceeds the need for the Torah as we have it,” he said. “I don’t think he understood the impossibility of his own vision. And he took no steps to remedy that. He took no steps to name a successor. The whole history of Chabad from the Alter Rebbe [18thcentury founder of Chabad-Lubavitch] to [Schneerson] is a Messianic line that comes to a close with him.”

Neither book will satisfy Chabad’s strongest critics, nor its closest friends. It remains to be seen whether the deluge of new material about to be published by JEM will cast further light on the most elusive aspects of Schneerson’s life and leadership.

“Like many mythic figures, he was a combination of opposites,” Heilman muses. “But you can’t really be sure what was inside his head. Who was he really?”

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 19

C R E AT I N G L A S T I N G M E M O R I E S We believe that special occasions deserve special attention.

Count on us for memorable events that exceed expectations.

June

• Weddings • Anniversaries • Bar/Bat Mitzvahs

FRIDAY, MAY 28 FJA Last Day of School Picnic 11 a.m.

Birthday Blessings, 6 p.m. at Beth El SATURDAY, MAY 29 Sparks Beneath the Surface, 9:15 a.m. at Temple Israel SUNDAY, MAY 30 Adult Education classes begin, 9 a.m. at Beth Israel MONDAY, MAY 31 Beyond Never Again class, 7 p.m. at Chabad TUESDAY, JUNE 1 FJA Teacher In-Service Days Parsha Prayer and Prophets, 9 a.m.

Eye on Israel, noon with Dr. Guy Matalon BBYO Night, 6 p.m.

Rabbi Mizrahi’s Weekly Class, 7 p.m. at Beth Israel WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2 UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman will speak at Breadbreakers Luncheon, 11:45 a.m. at Rose Blumkin JFO Executive Committee Meeting, 6 p.m.

Omaha Community High School Informational Meeting, 7 p.m. at Beth El Rabbi Weiss’s Weekly Class, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel Advanced Halacha Kollel, 9 p.m. at Beth Israel THURSDAY, JUNE 3 Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel Adult Study with the Clergy, 10 a.m. at Temple Israel Yiddish Group Meeting, 1 p.m.

CMT, 1p.m. at Beth El Introduction to Judaism, 5:45 p.m. with Dr. Greenspoon JOLT Meeting Dinner & Workshop, 6 p.m.

Rabbis Around the World, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel FRIDAY, JUNE 4 The Teachings of Reb Nachman of Braslev, noon with Dr. Guy Matalon SATURDAY, JUNE 5 Sparks Beneath the Surface, 9:15 a.m. at Temple Israel SUNDAY, JUNE 6 Bagels & Beit Midrash, 9 a.m. at Beth Israel Living in Season with Miriam Gross, 10 a.m. at Beth Israel TUESDAY, JUNE 8 Parsha Prayer and Prophets, 9 a.m.

Eye on Israel, noon with Dr. Guy Matalon BBYO Night, 6 p.m.

Rabbi Mizrahi’s Weekly Class, 7 p.m. at Beth Israel JCC Final Board Meeting, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9 Federation Partnership with Israel Luncheon Meeting, noon Beth El Women’s Book Group, 3:30 p.m. at Beth El Rabbi Weiss’s Weekly Class, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel Advanced Halacha Kollel, 9 p.m. at Beth Israel THURSDAY, JUNE 10 Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel Adult Study with the Clergy, 10 a.m. at Temple Israel Yiddish Group Meeting, 1 p.m.

Rabbis Around the World, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel FRIDAY, JUNE 11 The Teachings of Reb Nachman of Braslev, noon with Dr. Guy Matalon Temple Israel Shabbat Comes to You, 4 p.m. at Remington Heights SATURDAY, JUNE 12 Rosh Chodesh Tammuz Holiday Sparks Beneath the Surface, 9:15 a.m. at Temple Israel SUNDAY, JUNE 13 Bagels & Beit Midrash, 9 a.m. at Beth Israel Living in Season with Miriam Gross, 10 a.m. at Beth Israel JCC Maccabi Games Volunteer Recruitment Session, 1 p.m.

Lauritzen Gardens and Dinner, 2 p.m. with 39 Forever ADL Institute of Holocaust Education Presents: Four Seasons Lodge Movie, 3 p.m.

Beth El Women’s Rosh Hodesh Group, 3 p.m. at JCC MONDAY, JUNE 14 Gimmel Tammuz Farbrengen, 7 p.m. at Chabad TUESDAY, JUNE 15 Parsha Prayer and Prophets, 9 a.m.

Mainstreeters Committee Meeting, 10 a.m.

Foundation Board Meeting, 11:15 a.m.

Eye on Israel, noon with Dr. Guy Matalon Green Room for Concert, 3 p.m.

BBYO Night, 6 p.m.

Rabbi Mizrahi’s Weekly Class, 7 p.m. at Beth Israel RBJH “Iowa Western Community College Band” Concert, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16 Javitch Music Fund Committee Meeting, noon Rabbi Weiss’s Weekly Class, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel Advanced Halacha Kollel, 9 p.m. at Beth Israel THURSDAY, JUNE 17 Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel Yiddish Group Meeting, 1 p.m.

Israeli Movie Series Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi, 7 p.m.

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SATURDAY, JUNE 19 Sparks Beneath the Surface, 9:15 a.m. at Temple Israel SUNDAY, JUNE 20 Bagels & Beit Midrash, 9 a.m. at Beth Israel Living in Season with Miriam Gross, 10 a.m. at Beth Israel MONDAY, JUNE 21 Beyond Never Again Community Program, 7 p.m. at Chabad TUESDAY, JUNE 22 Parsha Prayer and Prophets, 9 a.m.

Eye on Israel, noon with Dr. Guy Matalon BBYO Night, 6 p.m.

Rabbi Mizrahi’s Weekly Class, 7 p.m. at Beth Israel NCJW Board Meeting, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23 Rabbi Weiss’s Weekly Class, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel Advanced Halacha Kollel, 9 p.m. at Beth Israel

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THURSDAY, JUNE 24 Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel Yiddish Group Meeting, 1 p.m.

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FRIDAY, JUNE 25 Birthday Blessings, 6 p.m. at Beth El SATURDAY, JUNE 26 Sparks Beneath the Surface, 9:15 a.m. at Temple Israel SUNDAY, JUNE 27 Bagels & Beit Midrash, 9 a.m. at Beth Israel Men’s Club Softball Series Beth El vs.

Temple Israel, 10 a.m. at JCC Fields Living in Season with Miriam Gross, 10 a.m. at Beth Israel JCC Maccabi Games Host Family Orientation, 10:30 a.m.

Mainstreeters Summer Picnic, 1 p.m.

Rose Blumkin Jewish Home Open House, 1:30 p.m.

JCC Maccabi Games Host Family Orientation, 5 p.m.

TUESDAY, JUNE 29 Fast of the 17th of Tammuz Parsha Prayer and Prophets, 9 a.m.

Eye on Israel, noon with Dr. Guy Matalon BBYO Night, 6 p.m.

Rabbi Mizrahi’s Weekly Class, 7 p.m. at Beth Israel WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30 Rabbi Weiss’s Weekly Class, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel Advanced Halacha Kollel, 9 p.m. at Beth Israel

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All events held at the Jewish Community Center unless otherwise noted. This calendar does not include all community events. For a complete listing, visit the Federation’s website: www.jewishomaha.org (click on calendar). To keep calendar accurate, call Marlene Hert at 334-6437. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the accuracy of the above events.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 28, 2010

Dining in the dark

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press Most of us have at some point in our lives been exposed to a blind person, and most of us have at some point tried to imagine what it must be like: not seeing anything, not knowing what the world looks like in the conventional sense, the color of trees, the sunset, or the faces of those around you. Having to rely on the other senses, and dealing with the limited understanding the rest of the world suffers from; it must get so tiresome at times.

On May 9, the women’s mission group had the opportunity to experience a certain form of blindness at the Blackout dinner theater in Jaffa. Imagine dining in the dark, not with a little candlelight, or twilight coming in through the windows; in fact, no windows at all. All you ‘see’ is pitch black, with a blind waiter who is much more comfortable than you are. He leads you to your table by asking you to place your hands on his shoulders.

When you get to your table, you feel the chair, and tentatively sit down. Then you attempt to pour a glass of water. You fail miserably, something you only realize after the table cloth is already drenched. Sound crazy? Think again.

For many blind people, this is the daily grind.

With the exception that most of them are much better at finding their way around a pitcher than those of us spoiled with perfect eyesight.

Dinner theater in Yaffa was, as it turns out, much more exciting than dinner anywhere else, because we, the disoriented diners, were part of the performance. When the food arrived (we were offered several options for entrees and dessert, as well as a ‘surprise’ option) I knew so because I could smell it, and because I heard the waiter’s voice. He asked if

I could find my plate (I could, it was right in the middle of that wet spot) and I dug in. One of the biggest advantages of eating in complete darkness? You can eat with your hands, which is good, because the silverware proves surprisingly useless. If you make a mess, nobody knows it but you.

The downside: because I couldn’t see my food, I didn’t really know what I was eating. I guessed baked sole, and it turned out to be salmon. I had no idea that my sense of taste relied so heavily on what I see on my plate: would I perhaps enjoy chopped liver more if it looked like a sorbet? How come my taste buds aren’t a little more independent? Can’t they think for themselves?

I did recognize dessert; sort of. There was something sweet and creamy on my plate, covered in vermicelli. I think. Not recognizing my food (which is something we take for granted) made me wonder what else I wouldn’t recogize once the lights are off. This dessert, too, I ate with my hands, and I’m sure it wasn’t attractive. There is a reason they wouldn’t let us see the room afterwards: technically, they say, it would ‘ruin the experience’.

I think we just made too much of a mess.

Of course, sitting in complete darkness for one measly hour doesn’t really mean a whole lot. First of all, we sit there in the full knowledge that when this is over, the lights

will be back on, and the darkness will be a mere memory. Imagine it the other way around: to have the light be the memory, and the darkness permanent. It’s hard, and so the empathy we feel for people who are different than us is often based on only a partial understanding of their struggle.

The fact that being blind is a struggle is something I’ve never questioned, but meeting some of the people at the Blackout experience has made me reconsider. The building that houses the dining room also offers a theater, where a troupe of deaf and blind actors puts on a nightly performance. They act, they dance, they tell a story, they confidently move around and they own the stage. The overwhelming feeling one gets while being in the audience is that here are people who, in spite of severe handicaps, are in charge. And that is not often a phrase that comes to mind when we consider what it means to be blind, deaf, or both.

FOCUS ON ISSUES

by SID SCHWARZ

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- I have long straddled two worlds with regard to diaspora engagement with Zionism and the State of Israel. As the founder-president of PANIM, an organization that has trained tens of thousands of American Jewish teens to pursue social and political activism on behalf of the Jewish people and the world at large, I built a strong relationship with AIPAC so as to expose our students to the pre-eminent pro-Israel lobby in the United States.

However, as an educational organization, PANIM always was deeply committed to looking at every issue from multiple perspectives. As such, PANIM students were exposed to a wide range of organizations that have challenged Israel on specific policy positions,.

Personally, in addition to being a strong advocate and donor to my local Jewish federation and a host of other mainstream Jewish organizations, I have been an enthusiastic supporter of groups like the New Israel Fund, the Israel Religious Action Center and Rabbis for Human Rights.

The mainstream organizations support a range of programs and services domestically and across the globe that make the idea of a socially responsible “Jewish people” a reality. I love being part of a Jewish people whose relationships criss-cross the globe and have deep roots in Jewish history. My personal identity is deeply tied to Israel and to the concept of Jewish peoplehood. The organized Jewish community gives substance to that concept.

The latter group of organizations is committed to the kind of Israel that I understand to be the Zionist idea -- a state that is both Jewish and democratic. A Jewish state that embodies

Jewish Press Board Andy Ruback, Vice President; Eric Dunning, Treasurer; Howard K. Marcus, Past President; Daphne Pollak Alperson, Marc Brodkey; Phyllis Brown; Jason Epstein; Mel Epstein; Scott Farkas; Andie Gordman; Michael Kaufman; Bette Kozlen; Jamie Meyerson; Michael Sigmond; Jim Simon; Dorothy Spizman; Nancy Wolf.

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Hugging and wrestling with Israel the noblest aspirations of prophetic Judaism as articulated in Israel’s Declaration of Independence is the fulfillment of the centuryold aspirations of spiritual Zionism. The principles of spiritual Zionism are the same principles that are at the core of Torah: “ahavat ger,” loving the stranger in our midst because we were strangers in the land of Egypt (Exodus 22:20); “tzelem elohim,” treating every person as if he or she was a child of God (Genesis 1:27); and the belief that only though justice will Zion achieve any form of ultimate redemption (Tzion b’mishpat tipadeh, Isaiah 1:27).

It has not always been easy to straddle these two worlds. My friends on the progressive left cannot fathom why I have had a close working relationship with AIPAC. And I have taken my share of lumps from “defenders of Israel” who have accused me of traitorous behavior for my activism with organizations that have challenged one or another policy of the State of Israel when I feel that it violates core principles of Jewish ethics and morality.

When the State of Israel feels besieged -- be it from anti-Zionist propaganda, Islamicinspired terrorism or a possible unilateral peace initiative from the United States (not in any way equal threats, but all precipitating frenetic defense efforts from pro-Israel quarters) -- the rhetoric heats up, accusations about “Jewish loyalty” are made and polarization between camps in the Jewish community deepens.

Reasonable people will disagree over whether diaspora Jewish activity can have an impact on the course that Israeli society takes.

On every trip to Israel, I become ever more humbled by how much I don’t know. Politics and society in Israel are complex and I believe that more times than not, Israel has taken the moral high ground in circumstances that make such approaches of no small risk. Nevertheless, I persist in my activism because I believe that

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my mandate as a rabbi is to speak the truth as I see it with as much courage as I can muster.

But the area about which I can speak with far more confidence has to do with the future of the American Jewish community. I spend much time with high school, college and young adult Jews. A great number of them are highly idealistic and care about making a difference in the world. Some aspire to play leadership roles in the Jewish community, including as rabbis.

Over the past decade, I note that fewer and fewer identify as Zionists, the State of Israel plays a much less significant role in their identity formation than was the case for me and my generation, and an astounding number hold the organized Jewish community in contempt.

I believe the way our community has chosen to “defend Israel” has profoundly alienated the next generation of American Jews. There is substantial survey data that backs up my personal observations.

A recently launched Israel education initiative coming out of the Jewish Agency is called Makom and its tag line is “hugging and wrestling with Israel.” It comes not a moment too soon. For we are a people whose patriarch Jacob earned the right to that mantle when he wrestled with a heavenly being. He was thus renamed Yisrael/Israel, the one who wrestled with God. We, his descendants, also must be allowed to engage in the kind of wrestling which is the meaning of our people’s name.

A generation of Jews who see themselves as global citizens will not identify with a community that offers them anything less.

Rabbi Sid Schwarz is the founder of the PANIM Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values and the author of “Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World,” from Jewish Lights. He is currently a senior fellow at CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.

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May 28, 2010

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 21

Perfidious son: Aaron David Miller rejects the peace process BEHIND THE HEADLINES

by RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Depending on your view of the Middle East and the Obama administration, Aaron David Miller is either a hero or a turncoat.

Miller, a peace process functionary under both Bush administrations and the Clinton administration, published a declaration of independence last month from what he called the “religion” of the peace process.

Critics of the Obama administration’s emphasis on peacemaking -- among them neoconservatives who once reviled Miller as an apostle of the process -- embraced his article http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/20 10/04/19/the_false_religion_of_mideast_peace, published in Foreign Policy, as the repudiation of the process.

“One can take exception to some of Miller’s argument, but the core of it is indisputable,” Jennifer Rubin wrote on Commentary Magazine’s Contentions blog. “The peace-process believers ‘need to re-examine their faith.’”

Defenders of an assertive American role in the Middle East dismiss Miller out of hand as an effete academic now removed from policy.

“For all his pessimism about the future, Miller never asks if the United States should distance itself from an Israel that is in the process of becoming an apartheid state,” Stephen Walt, the Harvard historian and author of “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” wrote on his blog on Foreign Policy.

It doesn’t stop in the blogosphere: Miller, the author of “The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace” and now a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, recently returned from a Middle East tour of Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian areas, and Syria, and found himself discussing his article with regional leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saw validation in his own belief that the Obama administration is overly invested in the prospect of imminent Palestinian statehood, Miller and a Netanyahu confidant said.

In an interview last Friday with JTA in his office on Pennsylvania Avenue -- a 10-minute walk from the White House -- Miller took the reactions with equanimity.

“I was prepared to accept the possibility that the piece would be misinterpreted, hijacked, used by people for a

variety of reasons,” he said. “So be it. These are my views. Reality changed and it’s not honest in order to simply continue to repeat the same mantras.”

This is the “catechism,” outlined in his article, and referring to his State Department years from 1985 to 2003: “First, pursuit of a comprehensive peace was a core, if not the core, U.S. interest in the region, and achieving it offered the only sure way to protect U.S. interests; second, peace could be achieved, but only through a serious negotiating process based on trading land for peace; and third, only America could help the Arabs and Israelis bring that peace to fruition. As befitting a religious doctrine, there was little nuance.”

Miller argues that the issues have become more vexing, and that there are no leaders who match the titans of peacemaking in years past, such as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat or Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

If anything, he said in the interview, his three weeks in the Middle East reinforced those perceptions.

“What I find difficult to reconcile is how you’re going to get to a conflict-ending agreement which addresses the four core issues that have driven the Israelis and the Palestinians and brought each issue to a finality of claims,” Miller told JTA. “I just do not see how to do that given the gaps that exist and the inherent constraints on the leaders in the absence also of a real sense of urgency.”

The four core issues are borders, security, Jerusalem and refugees.

Miller describes how the situation has worsened since the Camp David-Taba talks of 2000-01: The status of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been wounded profoundly by the ouster of his moderate party, Fatah, from Gaza at the gunpoint of Hamas; Netanyahu is bound by a right-wing coalition (of his choosing) that is not ready to countenance a full-fledged settlement freeze, never mind compromise on Jerusalem; and Obama has had 15 months, distracted by the economy and health care, to match Clinton’s six full years focused on the issue.

Then there’s the region: “Hezbollah and Hamas,” Miller says referring to the terrorist groups in Lebanon and Gaza, respectively. “You have two non-state actors, two non-state environments who are not proxies of Iran and or Syria but who clearly reflect their capacity to want to influence events -- and then you have Iran” and its potential nuclear threat.

The prospect that Miller says unnerves him most is

that the Obama administration says it will step in with a conflict-ending agreement if the current proximity talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians go nowhere.

“I’m very uneasy because at the end of the day, I don’t see what the game is, I don’t see what the strategy is,” he said. “Even if it’s an initiative, what’s the objective, what’s the strategy?”

In his article, Miller advises that the United States stay involved but realize there are limits.

“The United States needs to do what it can, including working with Israelis and Palestinians on negotiating core final-status issues, helping Palestinians develop their institutions, getting the Israelis to assist by allowing Palestinians to breathe economically and expand their authority, and keeping Gaza calm, even as it tries to relieve the desperation and sense of siege through economic assistance,” he writes. “But America should also be aware of what it cannot do as much as what it can.”

Such advice is beside the point for Miller’s new champions and detractors alike, who continue to perceive America’s role in the conflict as either-or.

“It’s had an impact, certainly for Netanyahu and his entourage,” Steve Rosen, who is close to Netanyahu’s advisers, said of Miller’s article in Foreign Policy. “What makes Aaron important is he’s not from central casting.

He’s the man who bit the dog. He has credibility as someone who has been a lifetime proponent of the process.” That’s exactly what irks those who advocate deep American involvement.

“We don’t have the luxury of time; the tensions on the ground are too high,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, who directs J Street, the liberal pro-Israel lobby. “That’s the difference between being an analyst and actually trying to assess outcomes.”

Miller, once a large presence at talk fests warning of doomsday outcomes, now appears relaxed, jovial even, leaning back to make a point. He has retained his commitment to people-to-people dialogue. From 2003 to 2006, he directed the youth-to-youth, Arab-Jewish dialogue program Seeds of Peace.

“Talking is better than shooting, and talking in a neutral safe space can be pretty productive, particularly when your 14, 15, 16 years old, and your identity is up for grabs and you can really be changed,” he said.

“The whole trope here is the leadership. If I could mention one word to summarize my concern, it’s the absence of leadership.”

Chassidim tragically drawn into the easy money of drug smuggling and recognize an entertainment potential. What a winning crazy-mix of imageries: the peaceful, devout world of Chassidim, and the violent, amoral one of organized crime. Payos and payoffs, one might say. Amazing it took so long for someone to come up with the idea.

Whether the resultant film is a work of art or an act of Jewploitation I leave to film critics. But, reportedly, it portrays the Chassidic world in a generally positive, accurate light. The protagonist, who is at first tricked into boarding planes with “medicine” for “rich people” and eventually gets sucked into the abyss of the drug trade, brings great pain to his family, which is in turn portrayed sympathetically.

Similarly portrayed, it is reported, are the beauty and wonder of a Jewish Sabbath, when observant Jews turn off the world and spend a full night and day in relaxation, prayer and study, floating on a tranquil cloud of time with family and friends. That is apparently what enchanted Q-Tip. And others, too; the idea of a day without meetings, media or mobile devices has attracted fans far and wide. A national effort to promote the Sabbath has been promoted of late, and a recent book intended for a general readership is dedicated to singing the Sabbath’s praises. Maybe Q-Tip even read it.

To be sure, there is much to be said for being disconnected and focused inward for a day each week.

(Although Judaism considers the Sabbath, alone among the Torah’s laws, to be a special “sign” between G-d and, exclusively, the descendants of Jacob and those who

join them by religious conversion).

But the Jewish Sabbath is more than a “day off.” It is intended to be a sort of spiritual recharging for Jews, an infusion of holiness into the six days that follow.

Which is not exactly how Q-Tip understands things.

“I’m going to enjoy Sabbath on Saturday…” he is reported to have declared. “And then when the sun sets on Saturday night, I’m going to raise the roof!” Well, actually, he didn’t say “the roof,” but you get the idea.

It is easy, of course, to be amused by a misunderstanding of the Jewish Sabbath as mere “downtime” in preparation for a hearty party. But those of us who observe the Sabbath might still learn something from the rapper’s words. We could stand to think a little about whether we haven’t been swabbed with a bit of Q-Tip ourselves.

When the Sabbath ebbs away – especially during the long days of summer – are we saddened a bit by the imminent loss of its holiness, pained at least a little to emerge from our day-long cocoon of connection with the Divine?

Or are we itching, well, if not to raise the roof (or whatever), to barge as quickly as possible back into the “real” world, to listen to the news, check our e-mail, get in our cars – surrender without a fight to the mundane?

If so, perhaps we shouldn’t smile so condescendingly at Q-Tip and his Saturday night plans, but rather recognize a bit of him in the mirror. And resolve to not only enjoy the Sabbath but to absorb it, and to take some of its holiness along with us into the week.

Rabbi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America.

Rapper’s Sabbath

FOCUS ON ISSUES

by RABBI AVI SHAFRAN

Despite having eclectic tastes in many things, I have no appreciation of urban music. And so I had never heard of Q-Tip (the person, that is; the object is familiar to me). He is apparently a rapper.

Presumably with clean ears.

I was introduced to Mr. Tip’s existence by a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report about his embrace of the Jewish Sabbath, a concept he apparently encountered while playing a role, as a drug dealer, in a film about some Chassidic boys who were lured into smuggling illicit substances.

The motion picture was “inspired” – the producer’s word, although it sits somewhat uncomfortably here – by the case of some young American Chassidim who were in fact recruited in the 1990s to carry illegal drugs overseas.

The ideals and commitments of most Orthodox Jews make them unlikely committers of crimes like drug running. But, sadly, illegalities of many types, including that one, do exist in the Orthodox world. Not every Jew in the Orthodox community lives an Orthodox life.

So it was probably inevitable that some enterprising screenwriter would come across the reports about

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 28, 2010

Candlelighting Friday, May 28, 8:30 p.m.

Synagogue Listings B’nai Israel Synagogue 618 Mynster St. Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 322.4705 email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE FRIDAY: Services followed by Oneg, 7:30 p.m.

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Services conducted by Rabbi Mordechai Levin and Cantor Beth Schlossberg.

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

SATURDAY: Morning service, 9:30 a.m.; Elissa Wiener daughter of Audrey and Richard Wiener will become 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.

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

ANNUAL MEETING: Sunday, June 13, 1 p.m. New officers and board members will be installed; outgoing board members will be recognized; synagogue awards will be presented.

WOMEN’S ROSH HODESH GROUP: Meets on Sunday, June 13, 3 p.m. at the JCC for the film, Four Seasons Lodge. Cost: $5, which includes reception afterward. RSVPs needed by June 9; to reserve a spot, contact Margie in the synagogue office or at programming@bethel-oma ha.org.

All Beth El classes and programs are open to everyone in the Jewish community.

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

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; free babysitting, 9:30 a.m.; Children’s Classes, 9:45 a.m. with Torah Parade; Kiddush in honor of the Fishkin Family in honor of Arthur Fishkin’s 80th birthday; “Guard Your Tongue,” “The Great Midrash” and “Advanced Parshah Study for Kids” (ages 10 and up), one hour prior to Mincha every Shabbat; Mincha, 8:15 p.m. followed by Seuda Shlishit; Havdalah, 9:39 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Bagels & Beit Midrash begins with breakfast, 9:40 a.m.

WEEKDAYS: Shacharit, 7 a.m.

MONDAY: The office is closed for Memorial day; Shacharit, 9 a.m.

TUESDAY: Rabbi Mizrahi’s Weekly Class, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Rabbi Weiss’s Weekly Class, 7:30 p.m.; Advanced Halacha Kollel, 9 p.m.

Follow the Kollel at www.omahakollel.blogspot.com.

THURSDAY: Women of the Torah class, 9:30 a.m.; Rabbis Around the World, 7:30 p.m taught via skype.

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

FRIDAY: Service, 7 a.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Minyan, 10 a.m.; Youth Minyan, 10:30 a.m. Mini-Mensch title will be awarded. Kiddush lunch follows.

Join Rabbi Katzman from 12-1 p.m.; W.O.W. Parsha, Prophets, and Prayer, 12:45 p.m.

SUNDAY: Service, 8:30 a.m.

WEEKDAYS: Services, 7 a.m.

MONDAY: JLI class, Beyond Never Again, How the Holocaust Speaks to Us Today, 7 p.m. Visit www.OChabad.com for more details or to register.

THURSDAY: The Parsha Club for Level I beginners, ages 5-6; and Level II intermediates and experts, ages 7-9, 3:50 p.m. Please contact Shevi@ochabad.com with any questions or to receive a guest pass.

All programs are open to the entire community.

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

FRIDAY: Evening Service, 7:45 p.m. led by Rabbi Emanuel, with participation by Rachel Balter, with oneg following hosted by the Balter family in honor of Rachel’s Bat Mitzvah.

SATURDAY: Morning Service, 10 a.m. led by Rabbi Emanuel, celebrating the Bat Mitzvah of Rachel Balter.

MONDAY: Temple office closed for Memorial Day. ADULT EDUCATION SUNDAY, 7 p.m. Intro to Judaism, led by Rabbi Emanuel.

Jewish Movie Night on Saturday, June 5. The film is When Do We Eat. RSVP to the

BAT MITZVAH Sarah Rose Kutler, daughter of Nancy and Howard Kutler, will become a Bat Mitzvah on S a t u r d a y, June 5, at Beth El. Sarah is a seventhgrade Honor Roll student at Beveridge M a g n e t Middle School. She is an active member of the National Junior Honor Society. She won first place in the Modern Woodman State

Speech contest in 2009.

Her interests include acting, music, art, math, animals, especially her dog Koko.

For her mitzvah project, Sarah is donating movies to the children’s ward at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha.

She has a brother, Danny Krantz.

Grandparents are Harriet Kutler and the late Ben Kutler, Bea Karp, Lee White, the late Robert Pappenheimer, and the late Harold Karp.

temple office at 402.435.8004 or stemple@neb.rr.com. Please let us know if you will need child care.

the Surface, 9:15 a.m.; Morning Service, 10:30 a.m.

THURSDAY: Adult Study with clergy, 10 a.m.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

NEIGHBORHOOD PRAYER GROUP

FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m.

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

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by Alan Shulewitz.

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

SATURDAY: Sparks Beneath

FRIDAY: Minyan, 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m.

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

FRIDAY: Tot Shabbat with Miss Jennifer, 6 p.m. Services, 6:30 p.m.

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

The King is dead, long live the ranch

by JTA NEWS STAFF Burger King will close its doors in Israel this summer after losing out to a local burger chain.

The 55 Burger King fast food restaurants will be renovated and reopened as Israeli Burger Ranch restaurants.

Burger Ranch first opened in Israel in the 1970s, beginning with two branches in Tel Aviv.

When McDonalds entered Israel’s fast food market in 1993, Burger Ranch had nearly 50 restaurants and was the largest restaurant chain in the country.

Israelis appear to prefer an

Israeli-style burger to Burger King's American-style Whopper, the company said in a statement.

Burger King joins Starbucks, Wendy’s and Dunkin’ Donuts as American franchises that did not make it in the Israeli market.

The same week as the Burger King announcement, McDonald’s Israel announced it is launching a new lower-fat hamburger. Israel's Big Mac already has 30 percent fewer calories than a Big Mac in the United States; now it will have only 9 percent fat compared to the 19 percent fat of an American burger.

N.Y. falafel ball aims to round up record

by JTA NEWS STAFF (JTA) -- An Israeli chef at a New York restaurant created what is believed to be the world’s largest falafel ball.

Weighing in at more than 30 pounds, the falafel ball made of chickpeas and spices was fried in about 10 gallons of oil last Friday at the Olympic Pita restaurant, according to NY1 radio.

F o r m e r Manhattan D i s t r i c t A t t o r n e y R o b e r t M o r g e n t h a u Omri Casspi helps weigh world’s largest falafel ball in Credit: Maya Barkai and an engi- NYC neer certified the ball for submission to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The effort comes less than two weeks after Lebanese chefs created the largest recorded bowl of hummus, 4 tons, breaking an Israeli record set earlier in the year.

The record-breaking falafel ball attempt was made as part of the festivities leading up to Sunday’s Salute to Israel Parade.

PERSONAL We wish to thank friends and family for their remembrances of cards, donations, flowers, and food as their showing of compassion, sympathy and caring at the lose of our beloved son, Craig.

Thank you dear friends for being there for us during this difficult time.

Rosalie and Milton Saylan and family

Pulverent e

May 28, 2010

A Light to the Nations

SPARKS FROM THE WORD

by RABBI MYER S. KRIPKE Behaalotekha There is a charming Midrashic comment to the opening verse of our Sidrah.

In the previous Sidrah, much space at the end is given to the gifts that each of the twelve tribes brought to the dedication ceremonies of the Tabernacle of the Wilderness. Each tribe was given a separate day.

Each tribe’s gifts are carefully listed, even though the gifts of each tribe are identical to the others. Each takes six verses—72 in all! The gifts consisted of pans, basins, and dishes of silver and gold, fine flour and oil, and animals for sacrifices.

And so the Sidrah ends.

Our new Sidrah opens with instructions to Aaron on how to light the lights of the lampstand, the Menorah of the Tabernacle.

Now Aaron’s tribe, the tribe of priests and Levites, were not counted amoung the twelve tribes and brought no gifts to the dedication ceremonies.

So now the Midrash comments: All through the twelve days of dedication ceremonies, with the solemn processions of tribal representatives bearing their gifts of sacred paraphernalia for the Tabernacle, Aaron’s face became more and more troubled. Here he was the High Priest; yet his tribe of Levites and he himself were clearly upstaged. He had come to the celebration with no present in hand. By the twelfth day he was sullen and embarrassed and crestfallen.

But the Lord—so the Midrash continues—the Lord now told him, “For you I have reserved a far more important privilege. It is you and your family who will light the lights of the Tabernacle. All that is good and true and meaningful in the Tabernacle worship will depend on you.”

And Aaron was pleased.

(Note, incidentally, this typical method of the Midrash. It asks, why does the previous Sidrah end where it does and ours begin without any translation?

What is the connection between the two subjects, which are quite different from each other? And then it proceeds to answer its own questions: You, Aaron, will light the lights!)

Jews have always taken seriously what is implied in the symbolism of the lights of the sanctuary. There was not only the physical light to be considered. Light was also the inner light of the spirit, the illumination of religious truth.

Isaiah of the Exile called for Israel to be a “Light to the Nations.”

It is not hard to see that human history has been permanently and ineradicably influenced by the Torah—the Teaching—that came from Zion. It is no exaggeration to say that the two main distinctive influences on western civilization are the influence of classic Greek culture on our scientific and aesthetic selves, and the influence of Hebrew civilization on the moral insights of western civilization.

In this sense, what is illuminating in Christianity and Islam rises from Judaism, and the two are “daughter religions” of Judaism.

It was our ancestors who first saw man as his brother’s keeper and who first identified the connection between love of God and love of man: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself: I am the Lord.”

We have kept the symbolism. Every synagogue has an “Eternal Light.”

But the world has turned its back—except for lip service—on the illumination that came from Zion. Our world is a world of mankind’s belligerence and brotherly hatred.

Jews ought not to give up their insistence on human values. Rather they must stress these ancient insights and keep the inner lights of morality ablaze.

Editors Note: This column was reprinted from Rabbi Kripke’s 1988 book, Insight and Interpretation.

ADL: U.S. Should Publicly Condemn Provocative Actions of Palestinian Authority

by ADL STAFF New York The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called on the U.S. government to publicly speak out against recent provocative actions by the Palestinian Authority (PA) aimed at demonizing and undermining the State of Israel.

“We call on the United States to publicly condemn recent provocative actions by the Palestinian Authority which serve to incite and demonize the State of Israel,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.

“The deliberate Palestinian strategy contradicts the spirit of the proximity talks, violates previous IsraelPalestinian agreements and creates impediments to achieving progress toward Israel’s stated goal of reaching a negotiated resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians.”

On May 19, Fatah official Nabil Shaath announced the intensification of an economic and diplomatic

“intifada” against Israel. The announcement came just one day after a PA order to boycott all products produced in Israeli settlements.

In addition, while the PA was reluctantly agreeing to participate in proximity talks, it was simultaneously lobbying OECD member countries to reject Israeli membership.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ADL noted that following the first round of proximity talks, the State Department unequivocally expressed that “if either [party] takes significant actions during the proximity talks that seriously undermine trust, we will respond to hold them accountable and ensure that negotiations continue.”

“These recent acts by the PA can only be expected to have a deleterious effect on the atmosphere of trust which Senator (George) Mitchell is working hard to maintain and enhance,” the letter stated.

Jewish theater cancels play after Wiesel objects

by JTA NEWS STAFF (JTA) -- Washington's Jewish theater company has canceled its first play of the season because Elie Wiesel objected to his being a character in it.

Theater J announced that it cancelled its first play of the season, Imagining Madoff by Deb Margolin, in which Wiesel is a fictional character, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The play, which had been scheduled to begin at the end of August, would have been a world premiere, according to the newspaper.

Imagining Madoff portrays the convicted Ponzi scheme businessman sitting in his jail cell recalling a fictional, all-night discussion with Wiesel. The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity lost all of its assets, $15.2 million, invested with Madoff. Wiesel personally lost several million dollars as well.Margolin withdrew the play after receiving a letter from Wiesel in which he describing the play as "obscene" and "defamatory" and threatened to stop the production through legal means, according to the Post.

The playwright told the newspaper that she used Wiesel in the play because "his name is synonymous with decency, morality, the struggle for human dignity and kindness, and in contrast to the most notorious financial criminal in the past 200 years. That's why he was there,

and I felt I had treated his character with great respect - the respect that I genuinely have felt for him."

Theater J is an equity theater that produces five to eight shows per year, five nights a week, selling up to 30,000 tickets annually. Other upcoming plays include New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Barcuh De Spinoza, Something You Did, and The Odd Couple.

JCC Amateur Radio Club The Jewish Community Center Amateur Radio Club is open to all licensed radio amateurs who are members of the Jewish Community or the Jewish Community Center.

The club’s radio station was originally donated by amateur radio pioneer Leo Meyerson. Anyone interested in the Club or interested in learning about amateur radio should contact Jim Polack (N6HFJ) at 707-7339 or Max Polack (KD0AFY) at 320-7339.

CORRECTION In the May 21 article about Louis Blumkin, the name of his son was listed as Ron Blumkin. This was incorrect, it should have been listed as Irving Blumkin. The Jewish Press regrets the error.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 23

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BID FOR the most scenic Black Hills views, on the edge of historic Red Canyon. June 27, Rapid City, Holiday Inn. Martin Jurisch Auctioneer, 605-209-5219.

CITY OF Ogallala is looking for a recreation facilities manager. E-mail coletta.clouse@ogallala-ne.gov or call 308-284-6001 for more info. Position open until filled. Salary $31,626-$45,043 DOQ. WANTED: LIFE Agents. Earn $500 a day. Great agent benefits. Commissions paid daily, liberal underwriting. Leads, leads, leads. Life insurance, license required. Call 1888-713-6020.

HELP WANTED: Grosshans International, Inc., a growing CaseIH dealer, has immediate need for tractor and combine technicians as well as an outside salesman/RTK specialist. Located in a high-intensity row crop ag area. Send resume to: Grosshans International Inc., 1471 West Hwy. 34, Box 168, Aurora, Nebraska 68818. Call 402-6942121 or 1-800-742-7423, Attn: Alan Anderson.

LOOMIX® FEED supplements is seeking Dealers. Motivated individuals with cattle knowledge and community ties. Contact Kristi @ 800-870-0356/kboen@loomix.com to find out if there is a Dealership opportunity in your area.

Page 24

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 28, 2010

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