May 30, 2008

Vol. LXXXVII No. 38 Omaha, NE

Rabbi Azriel to receive Doctor of Divinity degree from Hebrew Union College

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator Temple Israel’s spiritual leader since 1988, Rabbi Aryeh Azriel, will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree during ordination ceremonies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) on June 1 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“HUC awards the Doctor of Divinity Degree to select rabbinical alumni following 25 years of their devoted service,” explained Rabbi Ken Ehrlich, dean of HUCJIR’s Cincinnati campus. “We are honored that Rabbi Azriel will be among those receiving the Doctor of Divinity Degree at our graduation ceremonies this year.

He is a rabbi of knowledge, wisdom, compassion, and spirit who has served his congregation and his community with distinction.”

Currently a member of the Union for Reform Judaism/Central Conference of American Rabbis’ task force on burnout in the rabbinate and a member of the joint commission on outreach, Rabbi Azriel is also on the congregation-based Community Organization Clergy Task Force (Jewish Fund for Justice), past president of the Midwest Association of Reform Rabbis, a board member of the National Conference for Community and Justice and the steering committee for the Omaha 2000 Education Project, and chairman of the Clergy Group of OTOC (Omaha Together One Community).

He’s also served on the boards of Planned Parenthood, the Mayor’s Clergy Advisory Committee, the Omaha Food Bank, the Salvation Army, and United Catholic Social Services. A former adjunct professor in the department of classics at the University of NebraskaLincoln, Rabbi Azriel was the recipient of the 1993 Otto Swanson Spirit of Service Award presented by the Conference for Inclusive Communities (formerly the National Conference for Community and Justice) and the 1997 Martin Luther King, Jr. “Living the Dream Award” recognizRabbi Aryeh Azriel ing his continuing work on building community cooperation in Omaha with projects such as a mitzvah garden, a Black/Jewish Dialogue, and Habitat for Humanity. The Omaha Education Association honored him with its 2003 Human Relations Award.

“My greatest joy is in teaching Judaism,” Rabbi Azriel said. “The ability to enhance the lives of members of the congregations I have served and people in the general communities by communicating Jewish values and texts, educating our congregants, and giving them the courage to accept change and build relationships with God, Jews, and non-Jews alike gives them the choice, freedom and responsibility to be who they are meant to be.”

He added, “Most of my work has been accomplished through close relationships with leaders and members of our congregation who have shown outstanding leadership. Working in partnership with clergy, staff, and lay leaders has served as a cornerstone in my rabbinical career.”

As the 16th senior rabbi of Nebraska’s oldest Jewish congregation, which currently serves 770 families, Rabbi Azriel’s accomplishments include studying the possibility of creating a tri-faith campus in Omaha for Temple, an Episcopal church, and a Muslim mosque; Continued on page 2

Inside

Celebrating 87 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa

25 Iyyar, 5768

May 30, 2008

Kosher plant, Iowa residents cope with fallout from raid her carry a potential penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. But under an agreement reached with federal prosecutors, Lastor-Gomez would be given five years probation and sent back to her native Guatemala.

Lastor-Gomez’s federally appointed attorney, Jane Kelly, told Reade that her client wanted to return home, having only come to the United States to work and support her family. The judge then asked Lastor-Gomez if she wanted to address the court.

“I, Angela LastorGomez, want to thank you, thank you for not treating me badly,” she began in Spanish, her voice cracking and the tears beginning to flow.

Lastor-Gomez then asked to be returned to Guatemala. Her family is there waiting for her, she said. Finally, she asked for God’s blessings.

Reade then sentenced her to five years probation and remanded her to the custody of U.S. marshals.

“God bless you,” Lastor-Gomez said as A group of workers leaves the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville, Iowa, with U.S. Immigration she was led from the and Customs Enforcement agents on May 12.

Credit: John Gaps III/Des Moines Register room. Lastor-Gomez Lastor-Gomez, shackled at the hands and waist, the laces was among the first eight workers to be sentenced in conremoved from her white sneakers, entered a guilty plea nection with the May 12 federal immigration raid at the May 19 before Judge Jon Stewart Scoles.

Agriprocessors plant in Postville, some 75 miles northeast It was over in minutes. of Waterloo. The other seven received identical sentences.

With federal agents leading her, Lastor-Gomez wadAuthorities describe the raid, which netted 389 illegal dled from Scoles’ courtroom -- housed in a ballroom workers, as the largest federal workplace immigration with a pink neon sign out front, across the grounds of raid in U.S. history. It was so large that the government the National Cattle Congress -- to another makeshift had to rent out the exhibition center, which initially court for sentencing. served as a holding pen and now as a federal courthouse.

The chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Throughout the day on May 19, nearly 70 more Northern District of Iowa, Linda Reade, told Lastor- detainees pleaded guilty to fraud charges in exchange for Gomez through an interpreter that the charges against Continued on page 2

by BEN HARRIS WATERLOO, Iowa (JTA) -- In a makeshift courthouse at a cattle exhibition center here, Angela Noemi Lastor-Gomez appeared before a federal magistrate judge on charges that she had used false documents to gain employment at the nearby Agriprocessors meatpacking plant, the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse.

The smell of stale cigarette smoke hung in the air as

Yes, poverty is an issue -- even here

by KAREN GUSTAFSON Director of Jewish Family Service The confidentiality of our clients is strictly maintained here at Jewish Family Service, but I want you to know that there are members of our community who simply can’t make ends meet -- who can’t afford to pay their mortgage, or have trouble finding enough dollars for medicine, food, utility bills, gas or insurance. Simply put, Jewish poverty is a growing problem right here in Omaha.

Gary Rosenblatt, editor of The New York Jewish Week, describes people affected by this phenomenon as “the sudden poor.” That term, according to Rosenblatt, is being used among Jewish social service professionals to describe those hit by the latest downward economic spiral, and the numbers now include many middle- and upper-middle- class Jewish men and women who are suddenly out of work and struggling, many of them

This Week: Monthly Calendar for June: Pages 8-9

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

The Brandeis Story, Part II: Pages 4-5

below the radar of the agencies set up to help them.

The “radar” at this agency is very effective at finding members of our community who are in economic trouble, and equally effective at providing help. Lately, the average age of those who come to us for assistance is 50-years-old. It may surprise you to know that some of the “sudden poor” are in their 30s and 40s. And more often than not, their financial problems weren’t of their own making, but rather the result of an unexpected crisis or life transition.

Over the past months, Jewish Family Service has helped a wide variety of clients, including a single mom who lost her job and was having trouble paying her rent, a young family, devastated by bankruptcy, who were struggling to make ends meet, and elderly clients whose Social Security checks simply don’t cover the cost of medicine and doctor’s visits. Believe me, none of them were looking for a handout. JFS clients are good people who want to make it on their own.

Continued on page 2

Coming Next Week: Father’s Day/Graduation Issue, June 6 Liatte Dotan honored with Gendler Award: Page 7

29-year veteran recognized

by Blumkin Home: Page 16

Page 2

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 30, 2008

Fallout from raid

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Continued from page 1 five-month jail sentences followed by deportation, the Des Moines Register reported.

Mounting pressure from Jewish groups and members of Congress has led the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the United States to start searching for a new CEO.Aaron Rubashkin, the founder of Agriprocessors, announced May 23 that he intends to find a replacement for his son Sholom as company CEO. The announcement follows statements from three Jewish organizations raising the specter of a boycott, the launch of a campaign by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, and a call from U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) for an investigation of the company.

“The best course of action for the company, its employees, the local community and our customers is to bring new leadership to Agriprocessors,” the senior Rubashkin said in a statement.

The raid has wrought havoc for Agriprocessors, which produces more than half the country’s kosher beef and 40 percent of its kosher chicken, mostly under the labels Aaron’s Best and Rubashkin’s. The company has scrambled to replace its workforce, importing laborers from across the country or busing them in daily from around the state.

“I see new faces all the time,” said a red-bearded Chasid, who said he was a shochet, or ritual slaughterer, at the plant.

One of those new faces is Dan Keller, 41, an unemployed single father who received a call last week from an employment agency saying Agriprocessors was hiring.

A former machine operator at Tyson Foods in Waterloo, Keller now operates a Cry-o-vac for Agriprocessors, sucking the air out of packages of deli foods and other ready-to-eat products.

Each morning at about 5 a.m., Keller boards a coach for the hour-and-a-half ride to Postville. He spends eight hours vacuum-sealing bags of meat -- “or product, as you’re supposed to call it” -- before boarding the bus back to Waterloo.

Keller is paid $8 an hour for his troubles -- less than the $12.20 he was paid as a unionized worker at Tyson, but more than the $5 an hour Agriprocessors is alleged to have paid some of its illegal workers.

According to Keller, after taxes and child support payments are deducted, he walks away with just $39 for an 11-hour day. But he’s not complaining. The bus is comfortable and outfitted with televisions, and Agriprocessors even provided lunch the first day.

“So far it’s been awesome,” Keller said. “I think

they’re treating us really, really well. They’re just glad to have us at this point.”

Workers like Keller have allowed Agriprocessors to continue to function, though several people with connections to the plant say it is operating at a fraction of its usual capacity. Keller says his department normally employs 104 people. The day he arrived, there were four.

Now, with the additional labor, the number is up to 34.

“They’re not up to speed yet at all,” Keller said.

“They’re just trying to survive.”

Founded by Aaron Rubashkin, a butcher from Brooklyn and a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Agriprocessors has attracted hundreds of Orthodox Jews to this rural pocket of northeast Iowa in the past two decades.

The company first gained national attention in 2000 with the publication of the book Postville, which described the tensions between the company and the local community. Since then, Agriprocessors has come under fire over its slaughter methods and labor practices, as well as health and safety violations. The company sells its kosher meat under various labels, including Aaron’s Best, Aaron’s Choice, Rubashkin’s, European Glatt, Supreme Kosher, David’s and Shor Habor.

In its statement, the Jewish Labor Committee asserted that the company had displayed “a clear pattern of employer negligence and even lawlessness,” including the violation of child labor laws and toleration of various forms of worker abuse. The committee’s statement was followed by a “request” from the Conservative movement’s top bodies that kosher consumers “evaluate whether it is appropriate to buy and eat meat products” from Agriprocessors.

That same day, Uri L’tzedek, a project started by students at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a liberal Orthodox rabbinical school in Manhattan, began circulating a petition asking Agriprocessors to pay its workers at least the federal minimum wage, abide by laws pertaining to workers’ rights and treat employees according to Torah standards.

Organizers say that about 450 people from across the denominational spectrum had signed as of Monday.

As much trouble as the raid has generated for Agriprocessors, it pales in comparison to what the residents of Postville are experiencing.

The raid has decimated the local Spanish-speaking population, which went underground in the days afterward.

Children were absent from school, friends mysteriously riously disappeared and many sought refuge in one of Continued on page 3

Poverty is an issue join the ranks.

Continued from page 1 In the meantime, please know that JFS continues to quiWhich lets me segue nicely into the fact that helping our neighbors help themselves is, according to Jewish tradi- etly do its work, giving out $65,000 in assistance every year, and racking up tion, the highest form For many people, rising prices are putting them over the some nice success of assistance.

Anything you can do edge. Maybe if people read this and understand we’re here for stories.

Recently I heard to help others build them, they won’t be too embarrassed to come to us for help. from a former client self-reliance and get Karen Gustafson, Director, Jewish Family Service who called to say he back their independwas back on his feet. ence is a mitzvah of the first order.

Who asks for financial assistance? Middle-aged families He thanked us for the help we’d given This message is with kids. Single parents. Old people who are ill, folks on him and said that just accompanied by a list knowing we were of Friends of Jewish disability and individuals with the lack of education to manage Family Service. Find their finances appropriately. It’s hard to talk about this problem there made a world of difference in his the names to the left, in specifics because we provide our clients with the highest life. Nice, right? We on this page.

The Talmud teach- level of confidentiality. I can tell you from a personal standpoint need to be responsible for those in our es, “A good friend is how devastating it is to see families who have to make some who a tower of strength. tough choices in order to help themselves gain stability in their community To find one is to find need us, and happy lives. But at the same time it is also rewarding to see positive endings like that a treasure.” JFS Sandy Nogg, make what we do thanks all its Friends changes. for their generosity Jewish Family Service Assistance Coordinator worth while. and invites readers to

Rabbi Azriel to receive degree Continued from page 1 conducting joint Thanksgiving services with five area churches; participating in a Jewish/Christian/Muslim dialogue group; and sponsoring a Black/Jewish Seder.

Under his leadership, Temple Israel has become involved in numerous social justice issues such as the Save Darfur campaign. Endowments have been established to bring prominent speakers to Temple, to offer scholarships to students for their educational enrichment and to adults for exceptional educational opportunities. Partnerships with inner-city elementary schools were set up to provide resources to inspire student achievement.

This honor is “a chance for me to look back at my evolution as a rabbi. It’s such an honor to be recognized by the seminary who, after reviewing my rabbinic journey,” which began 25 years ago when he was ordained at Hebrew Union College, “made a decision to honor me in my life’s work,” the rabbi said.

He also sees this as an opportunity to look at the contributions of his wife Elyce, his family, and the congregations he’s served, and reflect on the causes he’s championed. “It’s an opportunity to review my life in the rabbinate and to realize I made the right choice. I feel indebted to HUC-JIR for the opportunity that was given to me to serve the Jewish community in America.”

May 30, 2008

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 3

Raid on slaughterhouse spurs fear of shortages, threat of boycotts

by SUE FISHKOFF predicted that any SAN FRANCISshortfall will be CO (JTA) -- As fedshort-lived. Even if eral hearings began Agriprocessors shut involving hundreds down tomorrow, he of employees netted said, other kosher in a government entrepreneurs raid on the nation’s would be ready to largest kosher step in. slaughterhouse, Lubinsky, who some rabbis and does consulting consumers adopted Students from the Yeshiva of Northeast Iowa in work for Agria “wait-and-see” Postville gather across the street from processors, said that attitude before Agriprocessors Inc. to ask questions of U.S. most of what the making any judg- Immigration and Customs officials regarding company has on the ments -- about the the raid on May 12. market isn’t coming Credit: Harry Baumert/Des Moines Register from Postville but company’s practices or the impact of the arrests on the kosher from some of its smaller North American market. plants or South American operation.

But for those already concerned about “This is a company that has many earlier allegations of animal cruelty and resources,” he said. “I don’t see a crisis.” worker mistreatment at the AgriprocesThere may, however, be a crisis of a difsors plant in Postville, Iowa, the latest ferent kind looming. legal turmoil is providing fresh ammuniThe Conservative movement, which tion for tough action against the compa- condemned Agriprocessors last week as ny, including a potential boycott. bringing “shame upon the entire Jewish On a practical level, some kosher community,” may call for some kind of butchers worry that production slow- limited boycott later this week. downs at the plant, which saw about oneThere is “talk of it,” said Rabbi Joel third of its workforce arrested on charges Meyers, the head of the Conservative related to misuse of social security num- movement’s Rabbinical Association, bers and faking their identities in employ- adding that it is a “divisive issue.” ment documents, will lead to a shortage The reaction in the Orthodox world is of kosher meat and poultry -- and a much more muted. resultant price increase.

Rabbi Menachem Genack, the CEO of Agriprocessors, which markets its prod- the Orthodox Union’s kosher division -ucts as Aaron’s Best and Rubashkin’s, the main kosher certifier of the Chasidicprovides an estimated 60 percent of the owned Agriprocessors -- refers reporters nation’s kosher meat and 40 percent of its to the O.U. policy of leaving work condikosher poultry. tions, environmentalism and animal welKosher industry promoter Menachem fare in the hands of the appropriate state Lubinsky, the organizer of the annual and federal agencies.

KosherFest trade show in New York City, The O.U.’s mandate is to ensure that

the meat is kosher according to Jewish law, he said.

Genack said, however, that if a company were convicted of a felony, the O.U. would withdraw its kosher certification.

Agriprocessors and its officials have not been charged with any crime, and say they are cooperating with the government’s investigation.

Agriprocessors’ dominance of the market

is not incidental, Genack said. Most of the small and medium-sized kosher slaughterhouses in the United States have closed since the 1970s and ’80s. The O.U. is talking to Empire about increasing its poultry output for the near future, but there is no real substitute when it comes to meat.

“Agriprocessors is an important source of meat for the kosher world,” he said.

“Finding other sources is not trivial.”

Fallout from raid Continued from page 2 Postville’s three churches. The owner of Sabor Latino, a Spanish grocery and restaurant in downtown Postville, says his business fell by half since the raid.

“They’re hiding,” the owner said of his missing patrons.

St. Bridget’s Catholic Church remained a hive of activity. Two representatives from the disaster relief unit of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America had come down from Chicago, and immigrant workers, union organizers and others had descended on Postville.

“This is such a disaster, man,” said David Vasquez, the campus pastor at Luther College in nearby Decorah.

A native of Guatemala himself, Vasquez came to to Postville the day of the raid to help the families of the detainees. “We tried to get a listing of who was missing because we didn’t know if they were taken, if people were hiding, what happened,” Vasquez said. “It felt like some of the images you see after Katrina, where people are just lists on the walls and pictures of people missing.”

The uncertainty has spread beyond the Hispanic community. Some Jewish Postville residents refused to even consider some of the government’s allegations, such as that methamphetamine was being

produced at the plant or that the company was shorting its workers. In the days after the raid, several told JTA that the affair was the product of an antiOrthodox, if not anti-Semitic, agenda.

“Many of the allegations are ridiculous, like the meth labs,” said Aaron Goldsmith, a Chabad rabbi and former Postville city councilman with ties to the Rubashkins. “Why would somebody want to pour millions of dollars into infrastructure and let a poor man’s drug business run in a plant? It doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s stupid. It’s not in the interest of the company.”

Goldsmith, who runs a custom hospitalbed business headquartered near Agriprocessors, acknowledged that whatever the truth of the allegations, the company’s reputation is “in trouble.”

Asked what he would say to kosher consumers concerned about the charges against the company, Goldsmith paused for nearly a minute. “Clearly the Rubashkins need to rethink a lot of their management style,” he said, “because whatever good they do and whatever errors they made are completely perceived in a way that’s undermining their own company. To me, they need to bring the reality and the perceptions in line with each other.”

Hard to look the world in the eye?

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

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

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

Page 4

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 30, 2008

Part II: The Brandeis Story

The family-owned department store dynasty has its last hurrah

by LEO ADAM BIGA By 1948 Omaha department store J.L. Brandeis & Sons ruled the roost with its grand downtown emporium. Founder Jonas Leopold Brandeis built an empire that his three sons, Hugo, Emil and Arthur, and a nephew, George, grew.

Arthur’s boy, E. John Brandeis, took over as president/owner following George’s death in ’48.

When E. John assumed control, Brandeis was still the only game in town.

Its 10-story store was bigger, more impressive, and offered more goods and services than any competitor around.

Downtown was still the center of everything and Brandeis dominated that retail market. Things pretty well remained that way for the next decade. But the winds of change were blowing. By the late ’50s-early ’60s Brandeis faced an altered landscape. The new playing field changed the company’s status and forced a whole new way of doing business.

Navigating Brandeis through this transition was E. John and his successor, nephew Alan Baer.

Each Brandeis titan exerted his own style and influence. Without a doubt, E. John proved the most flamboyant. Start with his California retreat, the Open Bar Diamond ranch, whose house was a replica of his favorite big game hunting lodge in Kenya, Africa. A man who indulged his passion for the outdoors, he worked the spread himself. He lived most of the year at the ranch, but stayed in his Omaha penthouse atop the 10th floor of the Brandeis building on monthly Omaha visits. He held court there, playing bridge and hosting parties. The penthouse, appointed in Native American art and big game head trophies he collected, was featured in an Architectural Digest spread.

Its interior was inspired by his ranch’s rustic decor.

Despite spending much time away from Omaha and leaving daily operations to others, E. John professed a love affair for his hometown: “I’m a million percent loyal to Omaha.

This is my life. I’ve traveled everywhere, hunted everything, but I still love to come back to Omaha and the store. I was born and raised here and I’ve got confidence in the Midwest.”

In an address he once made to store employees he spelled out just how closely Brandeis’ and Omaha’s fortunes were aligned. What set Brandeis apart from its competitors, he said, was its local-ownership and community-mindedness. He articulated how Brandeis ties to the area reaped loyal customers: “This is the only Omaha store owned

by Omaha, owned by Brandeis. Nobody can even touch us because we are Omaha and Omaha is Brandeis. All the other stores take it out of Omaha, but we put it back into Omaha and Nebraska. That’s why this is the best store. We are the only store that has EVERYTHING.” The store that has everything became a mantra. For much of the store’s history it carried full hard and soft lines, from furniture to clothes, including all accessories and sundries. If Brandeis didn’t have something a customer wanted, it got it.

No excuses. No questions asked. E. John made the policy crystal clear: “...if I find we haven’t got EVERYTHING, we must have it...”

“We were very, very keen on making sure we had what the customer wanted,” former Brandeis vice president Helmuth Dahlke said. “Anytime a customer would come to the store and something wasn’t available our clerks had to write it down

on a slip and it came through a system to central. It was typed up and then brought back to the buyer with the order, Buy this. The other thing is, we shopped our competition all the time for comparison.”

E. John’s disciplined habits found him riding and playing tennis most days. He was a regular at the Los Angeles Tennis Club, then the center for tennis in the U.S., and at Omaha’s Dewey Park courts.

On the coast his playing partners included top pros and movie stars. When he wasn’t recreating, he was off on one of his hunting jaunts to Africa, India, Alaska or some other exotic locale. He bagged lions, tigers, rhinos, bears.

He was on safari in Africa when word reached him that the U.S. had entered

With operations manager Ray Powers and other execs in tow, Brandeis would begin his tour on the 10th floor and work his way down to the basement, setting a brisk pace, alert to any speck of dirt or anything askew.

“He marched. He literally marched,” former VP Gene Griffin said. “And the executives that were with him -- just making sure to keep up. If they saw something out of place they’d try to hide it before he got to it.”

Marcus, the main floor.

Turf wars were common on the sales floor. It’s what came with high-pressure jobs, strong personalities and rivalries to see who sold more.

“These were the merchandise managers. They were tough guys. Brandeis was a rough-and-tumble environment.

We had people working there that were big shots. I mean, they were kings,” Dahlke said.

Away from the fray of the sales floor, things were more serene -- usually.

Much as George Brandeis immersed himself in shaping Omaha, E. John made it a point to convene meetings with fellow movers and shakers. These confabs, held in a private executive dining room at the downtown store, would bring Brandeis together with titans of commerce and industry. Their discussions put in motion projects to revive a restructured downtown amidst rapid westward expansion.

Dahlke recalled, “At Brandeis, you made it when you became a member of the private dining room, and I worked very hard to get there ... You would have

Left: E. John Brandeis, left, Ed Treller, and Alan Baer, Above: Accepting the United States Hockey League Anderson Cup as 1990 champions are Ted Baer, left, on the ice at Ak-SarBen with Frank Serratore, Lancers head coach. Below left: The French Room, site of couture fashions at Brandeis. E. John Brandeis presides over the opening ceremony of Brandeis Department Store’s 70th anniversary in 1951.

World War II. At his request he went back on Army active duty, serving in the Transportation Corps at bases on the west coast. By war’s end he’d made the rank of lieutenant colonel. He remained on reserve status for years afterwards.

When at his California ranch, he called daily to get sales reports. A top-line man, he always insisted on 10 percent increases across the board, regardless of conditions. E. John declared: “... I want the store to be running 10 percent ahead because if you don’t run 10 percent ahead you’re running behind ...”

The bottom line and details didn’t interest him. He spent an average of one week a month in Omaha, where he conducted inspections, chaired meetings, presided over special functions and hosted guests. No big changes in the company happened without his approval.

Said Dahlke, “There wasn’t anything major that would happen when E. John wasn’t around, without E. John giving his blessing. He would call every morning from wherever he was and want to know how business is. He knew exactly what was going on.”

Punctual to a fault, he expected the same from others, especially for the noon executive meeting or the two o’clock tennis game.

“If you were delayed, if it was even 12:01, you would not dare to enter the executive dining room,” Dahlke said. “If you got to the court at 2:01, you wouldn’t play. I mean, he was fiendish about it.”

E. John’s military-style inspections of the downtown store were legendary.

“He was totally fanatical about cleanliness. I mean, if he saw anything amiss, he’d let you have it,” Dahlke noted.

Always immaculately attired and groomed, he expected the same from his employees, who could expect a stern dressing-down if they didn’t look just right. Knowing he despised long hair on men, managers scrambled to hide, out of sight, personnel with offending locks.

Even worse was if he overheard an employee say the store didn’t carry a certain item.

And one never balked at an E. John order or request. “My predecessor made a big mistake one time,” Ray Powers recalled. “Mr. Brandeis was talking to him about something and this guy said, ‘Well, that’s not my job.’ I thought, ‘Oh, he’s dead,’ and he was dead,” Fired. On the spot.

“He was quite a formidable man, and you didn’t walk up to him just to say hello,” said Marcia Baer, whose late husband Alan Baer was E. John’s nephew and the man who succeeded him as president.

Dahlke saw another side of E. John.

“He was a very direct, very strong, very firm leader. He was a dominant person but a good person and the most loyal person,” he said. “In those days we had some people that needed to be let go ... and he would not allow it. He was very loyal to his people.”

As in any kingdom, Brandeis also had department heads who ruled over their territories like lords. Maury Aresty had the Bargain Basement. Meyer Rubin, “The Famous Fifth,” where high-trafficked hard-lines were sold. Lester

E. John Brandeis, Alan Baer, Peter Kiewit, Leo Daly, the head of AT & T, the head of the World-Herald, and these people ran this town, period. It was a working lunch. Basically, they discussed the city. They discussed projects.”

In line with post-war trends that made Americans more dependent on creaturecomforts, E. John, with Karl Louis and Ed Pettis now as his right-hand men, began a modernization program that saw the installation of escalators and air-conditioning. Responding to Americans’ love affair with their cars and a tight parking situation downtown, E. John ordered construction of the 18th Street parking garage.

Affordable vehicles and gas meant greater mobility, a vital economy meant more disposable income, prompting the Great American migration to the suburbs. All of which led Brandeis to look at expanding beyond downtown.

Omaha’s mid-town Center Mall was a harbinger of the future. Brandeis kept a close eye on it. When VPs Karl Louis and Ed Pettis broached the idea of leasing land on the outskirts of Omaha, at 72nd and Dodge, for a future outlet, E. John approved the acquisition. Louis and Pettis drafted plans for a dramatic new chapter in Brandeis history.

“They had that property, which was pretty much the end of Omaha. That’s where the and the buses stopped. It was nothing but cornfields. And they were very nervous about it,” Dahlke said.

Ted Baer, a son of Alan and Marcia Baer, said, “That was pretty progressive thinking ... Stores didn’t have outlets like Continued on page 5

May 30, 2008

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 5

Part II: The Brandeis Story Continued from page 4 that back in that time. There weren’t malls yet really. They probably took a lot of heat for it, too.” Marcia confirmed the skepticism, saying, “Yeah, it was, How crazy can they get to think this would work?” But it did work.

Brandeis took the plunge in 1959 with construction of the $10 million Crossroads Mall, anchored by the first new Brandeis store in a half century.

Crossroads opened in 1960 to a lukewarm response before the mall caught on with the public.

“We were very disappointed with the grand opening and the initial performance of Crossroads,” Dahlke said. “It was so new, so different. But then gradually it took off and it became a $36-$40 million anchor store for us and a very, very successful shopping center for us.”

The project set in motion an era of unprecedented expansion, including the purchase of Gold’s department store in Lincoln, Neb. and construction of a massive distribution center in west Omaha. “... the Brandeis family saw that expansion was necessary, that anchoring the entire business on the one store downtown was not likely to continue,” Omaha historian Dennis Mihelich said. Fellow Omaha historian Harl Dalstrom said it showed “Brandeis could and did adapt to the changing times.”

Guiding much of the later expansion was Alan Baer, the next generation to rise to prominence in the Brandeis dynasty. A nephew of E. John and a great-grandson of J.L., Baer was an Army veteran. He grew up in the San Francisco area. On summer visits to Omaha he got a taste of the retail trade.

After the war E. John invited Alan to take a greater role in the store’s operations. Alan moved to Omaha and learned the ropes under Karl Louis, his mentor.

With Louis’ death in 1959, Baer’s influence in the company grew. More and more, E. John deferred to Baer.

“They had a tremendous relationship,” Dahlke said.

Considered a visionary, Baer became the chief architect of Brandeis expansion with the addition of new stores in north, south and west Omaha, and for the first time -- in outstate Nebraska and in Iowa.

Dahlke recalled, “Alan would have more ideas in an hour than most people have in a lifetime. He was an amazingly mentally agile person.” When E. John was still in charge, Baer would pitch him ideas, pushing for new stores, new ways of doing things. Not everything Baer proposed made the grade but enough did to keep Brandeis ahead of the curve.

“Basically the guy that would sell it to him was Alan Baer. He would sell it to him and he know how to sell it to him and many times he had to ...” Dahlke said.

E. John put into words and Alan Baer put into action the Brandeis motto: “We have to keep rolling. If you don’t go ahead, you fall behind.”

In his last few years, E. John’s active involvement waned except for pronouncements, groundbreakings, and ribbon cuttings. He was more ceremonial figurehead than CEO. He continued making inspection tours. He also gave generously: $60,000 for construction of the Hanscom-Brandeis Indoor Tennis Center; and animals and big game trophies to the Henry Doorly Zoo. Where E. John had little input in dayto-day business, VP Ed Pettis did. “He was a crusty old guy. Very strong,” Dahlke said of Pettis.

Pettis carried on the tradition of Brandeis executives involved in civic affairs. Dubbed “Mr. Omaha,” Pettis chaired the Golden Spike Days celebration in 1939 and directed Omaha

Industrial Development Council activities. He lent his expertise to 4-H, United Community Services and Creighton University.

He’s best remembered as general chairman of the College World Series when the popular event was still in its infancy.

Pettis, along with advertising giant Morris Jacobs and Omaha mayor Johnny Rosenblatt, made the early CWS a success.

“Ed Pettis was the one who really got the College World Series going. Without him and Morris Jacobs, it wouldn’t have happened,” said former VP Vic Mason.

When Pettis died in 1963, Brandeis executive Jack Diesing Sr. assumed many of his duties, among them chairing the Series. Diesing is credited with building the CWS into a national phenomenon and keeping it in Omaha. Today, his son, Jack Diesing Jr., heads College World Series, Inc. “... I think Brandeis had a lot to do with the College World Series being here.

There are a lot of things Brandeis did as a community service,” Ted Baer said.

More than anyone except E. John, Jack Diesing Sr. became the face of Brandeis.

From the early ‘60s through the early ‘70s, the executive team of E. John, Alan Baer, Diesing, Vic Mason, Lester Marcus and Ray Powers charted the course.

Where E. John and Diesing were public ambassadors, the others were classic behind-the-scenes men.

Much as George Brandeis did with Karl Louis, E. John found in another German emigre, Helmuth Dahlke, an ambitious young man brought into the Brandeis sphere. As the trusted assistant to Alan Baer, Dahlke became an important cog in the Brandeis machine. He would remain with Baer long after the stores were sold.

E. John’s 1974 passing brought an end to an era of bigger-than-life leadership. A newspaper described him as “a fascinating and colorful figure.” In his eulogy, Rev. Carl Reinert said: “Brandeis believed the God-given pleasures of this world are to be enjoyed with zest ... He showed a fatherly concern for the large family of Brandeis employees.”

He was also a major supporter of the Pratt Institute for Individual Instruction.

He left an estate valued at $12.7 million, half of which went to the E. John Brandeis Foundation, now the Alan and Marcia Baer Foundation. He also left $1.5 million to nephew Alan Baer, who took full control of Brandeis upon his death.

Where E. John was a fashion plate who lived large, Baer was an introspective eccentric whose austere, frugal, bargain basement tastes fit his simple lifestyle. In his unconventional way, Baer might plop himself down on the floor during a business meeting. “But that’s the way he operated. A little eccentric. But a brilliant mind,” former VP Gene Griffin said.

“Totally disarming. He was what I call an ice-breaker,” Dahlke said. Where E. John made a show of inspections, Baer made himself inconspicuous, passing himself off as a shopper. His door was always open but he wasn’t always in his office. He might be out on the floor or playing tennis -- he loved the game almost as much as his uncle -- or traveling to some exotic spot.

Baer met his wife, the former Marcia Miller, at Brandeis, where she clerked in the French Room. Besides Dahlke, no one had Alan’s ear more than Marcia.

By the late ’70s Baer saw the changing retail landscape and realized it posed a threat. The emergence of national discounters like Target and the inroads made by department store chains like Dillards and Younkers squeezed the mar-

ket, cutting into Brandeis’ share and putting the Omaha company at a competitive disadvantage. A great booster of downtown -- just as J.L., George and E. John were -- Baer adored the flagship store but realized consumers preferred shopping at suburban malls. The times were making the giant downtown facility a white elephant.

“He was very interested and he was way ahead of the crew because he felt department stores as they existed in the ‘60s were dinosaurs,” Mason said, “and he was kind of right.”

“Brandeis was a big deal locally, but when you looked at it in the big picture, Dillards was ten, probably, a hundred times bigger,” Ted Baer said. “Brandeis could compete with a Dillards or with a Younkers, but we really couldn’t compete with both of them at the same time.”

“It was very apparent that going forward a private company like ours would have a tough, tough time staying in business with the big boys -- the national companies,” Dahlke said.

In a move to streamline operations and maximize profits, Alan brought in new management teams from outside Omaha, the first led by Jim Gibson and the second by Sid Pearlman. Departments were scaled back. Hard line, big ticket items dropped. Brandeis could no longer afford to be “everything to everybody.”

The resulting staff downsizings were tough. Tougher decisions followed, none more so than the 1980 closing of the downtown store -- the monument of the whole Brandeis empire -- along with closing three other stores. The announcement made headlines. The downtown store’s last close-out days drew huge crowds. Generations of customers and employees expressed their nostalgia. It was like losing a beloved family member or dear friend.

The building remained as a mixed retail and office center but with Brandeis gone the tradition was lost.

The Brandeis store at the Crossroads became the chain’s new flagship.

Renovations were made. But try as company officials might, it just wasn’t the same anymore. The oomph and awe were gone.

Baer’s decision to close downtown was not made lightly. It meant letting go people who in some cases worked there decades.

In larger terms, it meant abandoning the very core of what Brandeis represented.

But as much as he wanted to keep the downtown store alive, he couldn’t.

Ted Baer recalled, “It definitely was not a popular decision, either in the Brandeis community or within the larger community, because Brandeis was really one of the last stores to hang on and keep downtown, downtown. I know it was a very, very tough decision for him. Gutwrenching. It was a tradition, Brandeis.”

Still, Brandeis moved on and rebuilt its financial health. A fifth generation family member, Ted Baer, was being groomed to take over one day. Just as Alan and Marcia did, Ted and wife Kathy met while working at Brandeis.

When Dillards and Younkers tendered attractive offers to buy the company, Alan Baer ran the numbers and decided to sell the family business to Younkers in 1987.

The sale price: $33.9 million. It was a classic case of head over heart. He wanted to keep the stores that were his family’s legacy but Brandeis neither generated the profits nor owned the capital to stay competitive.

Once the deal was struck he didn’t look back, except to offer a hint of regret that Brandeis hadn’t parlayed its success to become a regional giant like Younkers.

He told a reporter: “My goal had been to hang in there until I died. If we had the bucks behind us...if we’d had the

finances and the courage, we could have done what Younkers is doing.”

Alan kept ownership of Brandeis Food Service and began Alan Baer & Associates, an umbrella company for wide-ranging business interests -- from coffee and nuts to travel services to publishing to sports teams to butterflies. Ted and his father’s longtime assistant, Helmuth Dahlke, joined Alan in the new venture, which gained a reputation for turning around small companies..

Dahlke remains a bit in awe of Alan Baer: “He was a man of incredible curiosity and quick wit. His energy was endless.

Alan would ask lots of questions and, to be sure, he knew all of the answers ...

Alan was a networker. He always worked.

He was always on the phone, always talking to someone. He was always exploring something. He went after everything. An uncommon common man.”

Father and son continued the family?s sportsmen tradition: Alan as an avid tennis player and Ted as a championshiplevel amateur bowler. They bought an amateur hockey team -- the Omaha Lancers -- that became a phenomenal success under Ted’s guidance. After his father’s death Ted went on to own a second amateur hockey franchise, the TriCity Storm. He’s since divested himself of his hockey interests to concentrate his sports holdings in bowling with the Thunder Alley and Thunderbowl centers.

Another Brandeis tradition, philanthropy, has continued. “Alan and Marcia were very generous. A lot of their generosity got no publicity,” Dahlke said.

“Countless examples abound, he said, of them quietly paying the rent or medical/dental bills of Brandeis employees in need. As it has for decades, the Alan and Marcia Baer Foundation grants monies to local cultural, educational and health initiatives.

To the end, Alan Baer searched for new endeavors to engage him, always on the look out for businesses to invest in, new challenges to overcome. It’s why Baer & Associates had a piece of so many different things.

“You know what I always thought it was? It was like Brandeis, but not under one roof, because we had everything. We did everything,” Ted Baer said.

Baer, who died in 2002, lived the credo that was the Brandeis slogan under his uncle, E. John Brandeis: “To build a business that will never know completion, to create an enviable reputation and be worthy of it, to satisfy every customer individually, through quality merchandise and friendly service.”

Marcia Baer admits she doesn’t know much about early members of this fabulous family she married into. “I don’t know anything about them, except they obviously built a place called Brandeis,” she said.

The solid foundation J.L. laid down, and that successive generations added onto, stood Brandeis alone, at the top of the heap among retailers and the city’s leadership. All things have their season, and after a century of success, Brandeis left the scene. Except it will never quite be gone. The downtown building where so much of its history was made still stands. It still goes by the Brandeis name.

A dynamic new use for it is under way.

Then there are the memories, which never quite seem to fade.

Ted Baer said, “When we run into an old Brandeis employee it’s like we’re seeing an old family member we haven’t seen in awhile. It’s like old home week.”

“Yeah, it’s like suddenly a step back in time, but it’s a good step back,” Marcia said.

“It’s a very nice warm feeling,” added Ted.

Out

Dining

Page 6

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 30, 2008

Jump into summer reading Introduction to Midrash at the Kripke Library offers day and evening

by MOR SCHEINBEIN options Library Assistant

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The Jewish Press 333 South 132nd Street Omaha,NE 68154 or see page 12 for email address and Fax number

Join “Kugel” the Kripke Library Kangaroo and “Jump into Summer Reading” as the Kripke Library Summer Reading Club gets underway for children.

Kindergarteners through sixth graders can read their way to great prizes, from June 9-Aug. 17.

“It’s no secret that the library is a “cool” place to discover great summer reading. Children are encouraged to read anything they want from the Kripke Library, so they can develop their own interests and a love of reading,” said Gary Katz, Library administrator. “To entice young people to use the Kripke Library, the staff has lined up a summer’s worth of reading fun.”

Young readers in kindergarten through third grade will win prizes for numbers of books read, with rewards for every 10 books. Children in grades four through six will log their reading time, winning rewards for every four hours spent reading.

This year’s participants can earn free prizes from toys to treats, books to bagels. In addition, Summer Reading Club members will be invited to special members only “Sundae on Monday” ice cream and craft parties.

Children can come anytime to the Kripke Library, starting June 1 to pick up the reading club packet to start their summer of great reading and fun!

Schedule of children’s summer reading events includes: Summer Story Time (ages 2-6): Mondays, June 9, 23, July 7, 21, Aug. 4, 11–11:30 a.m.

“Sundaes on Monday” Ice Cream & Craft Parties: Mondays, June 23, July 7, 21, Aug. 4, 4:30-5:30 p.m.

Summer Reading Club Wrap-Up Party: Sunday, Aug. 17, 1–2 p.m.

The Reading Program is presented by the Center for Jewish Education and is sponsored by the Special Donor Advised Fund of the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation. For more information, contact Gary Katz at 334.6462, or e-mail gkatz@jewishomaha.org.

by MARY SUE GROSSMAN Administrator, Center for Jewish Education Interested in learning the basics of how to study Midrash? Beginning in mid-June, a four-week course -“Introduction to Midrash” -- will be offered by the Center for Jewish Education. The course will be taught

by Dr. Guy Matalon, executive rirector of the Center for Jewish Education.

Midrash is a compilation of commentaries on the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. It has been described as “filling the gaps” in the narrative provided by the Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim. The methodology in studying Midrash includes inquiry and comparison in the process of reconstructing the reasoning behind the commentary. As such, a single sentence of Midrash can easily turn into a long, philosophical discussion.

“Without the Torah, there is no Judaism and without Midrash and Rabbinic literature there is no Torah,” states Dr. Matalon. “Midrash is not simply a content of information but a way of approaching Torah and thinking about texts. The course will focus on different types of Midrashim and will challenge all the participants.”

“Each time we offer a course, we have people who say they can’t attend classes during the day and others who say evening classes aren’t good for them,” commented Matalon. “In providing two options, we hope to serve a larger number in our community.”

The evening course is on Monday evenings, June 16, 23, 30, and July 7, 7:30-8:45 p.m. The daytime course will meet Wednesday, June 18, 25 and July 2, 9, noon-1:15 p.m. Both will be held in the Kripke Library.

The cost for each four-week session is $23, discounted to $18 for donors to the Federation Campaign. Preregistration is required; a minimum of eight students are needed for each class. To register for the class or for more information, call 334.6445 or e-mail mgrossman@jewishomaha.org.

Zorinsky Lake provides perfect setting for Beth El’s BBQ & Barchu

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator Grandparents brought grandkids, parents arrived with children, strollers, bicycles, soccer balls and pets in tow, and friends of all ages gathered at Zorinsky Lake to enjoy Beth El’s “Barbecue & Barchu,” a special Shabbat celebration.

The balmy weather and beautiful setting inspired Rabbi Mordechai Levin to welcome the crowd of 140 by telling them to take heed “of the wonder that surrounds us.” Top photo: following the picnic, attendees joined together for singing and a special Shabbat service; bottom photo, soonto-graduate high school seniors Daniel Canfield, left, Steven Meyer, Emily Giller and Arielle Levine were congratulated by Rabbi Levin, Cantor Gastón and Education Director Judy Rubin.

ORGANIZATIONS B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS Executive Director of the Greater Omaha Safety and Health Council, Kay Ferrel will speak at Breadbreakers on Wednesday, June 4, noon, at Regency Lodge, according to Gary Javitch, chairman. She will discuss “Why Omaha is sometimes a dangerous place.” All men and women in the community are invited. The program is free. A buffet lunch is $13 and beverage service is $3.

begin at 12:30 p.m. Join us for bingo with Miles Remer at 10 a.m. Call Teresa at 330.4272 for transportation.

For information, call Maggie Conti at 334.6521.

WALK-IN, DROP-IN For those members going on the day trip to the Platte River State Park on Thursday, please meet at the JCC by 9:45 a.m. For information, call Maggie Conti at 334.6521.

VISIONS Reminder: Visions board meeting is Friday, June 6, 9:30 a.m. at the JCC.

YOUNG ENERGETIC SENIORS Join us on Monday at the JCC with musical entertainment by Maria Harding, principal flutist of the Omaha Symphony. Harding won first prize in prestigious competitions sponsored by the National Flute Association, Richardson (TX) Symphony Orchestra, McCarty Artist's Competition, and the Texas Flute Society. Lunch is served at noon for $7 per person; the program will

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

JEWISH SENIOR SERVICES Reminder: JSS presents “Memories of Elvis in Concert” with special guest appearance of “Marilyn Monroe” on Wednesday, June 4, 7 p.m. at the JCC. There is no admission fee. For transportation, call Maggie Conti at 334.6521.

Iowa Western Community Band presents “Sensational Summer Sounds” on Wednesday, June 25, 7 p.m., at the JCC. There is no admission fee. For information, call Linda Fitzgerald at 334.6520.

May 30, 2008

Sand in the City 2008 is FridaySunday, June 6-8 at Miller’s Landing.

Friday, June 6, Sand Sculpting, noon–5 p.m.; Celebrity Judging, 4–5:30 p.m.; Sand Blast Party on the Riverfront, 7 p.m.–Midnight. Dine, dance, and take a cruise on the River City Star, $75 per person. Saturday, June 7, 10 a.m.–8 p.m. and Sunday, June 8, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. is Family Fun Day.

Page 7

Dotan honored with Beth El’s Gendler Award

IN THE NEWS Melissa Stern was one of 15 teachers in the Omaha Public Schools chosen to receive Alice Buffett Outstanding Teacher Awards for 2008. Each received $10,000, a medallion and $500 in gift certificates from McDonald’s from Omaha financier Warren Buffett. The awards are given out by the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. Allen Greenberg, president of the Buffett Foundation, said about 1,500 letters nominating 466 teachers were received this year.

Stern, who is a language arts teacher at Lewis and Clark Middle School, earned a degree from the University of Kansas and a master’s from UNO. She’s taught in OPS for 16 years, seven at Lewis and Clark. Noted in one of the nominations letters, “Although her students know they will have to work hard, they also know that what they are learning from Ms. Stern will be of importance to them ... in the future. She is well known and loved at Lewis and Clark, even by those who do not have her as a teacher or coach.”

She is the daughter of Shelley and Skip Stern.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Open to public with free admission at Miller’s Landing on the Riverfront., Sand in the City is sponsored by Nebraska Children’s Home Society; programs include statewide adoption services and education, unplanned pregnancy services, medically fragile foster care and child care programs.

How is it that, not long after 9/11 brought the free world to our side, U.S. foreign policy was in a shambles?

Ambassador Dennis Ross argues that the Bush administration’s problems stem from its inability to use the tools of statecraft -- diplomatic, economic, and military -- to advance our interests.

He’ll discuss that and more at a free community lecture “Restoring America’s Standing in the World” on Wednesday, June 4, 7:30 p.m., at the Scott Conference Center, on the UNO South Campus. Admission is free and a reception with the speaker will follow.

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

Hosted by the First Unitarian Church of Omaha with support of Dick Holland, the Holland Lecture Series brings world-class speakers to Omaha in an attempt to generate community discussion of important ideas and concerns. For more, visit: www.firstuuomaha.org.

The Golden Fork Gala is Tuesday, June 3, 5:30 p.m., at Metropolitan Community College-South campus, a catering challenge sponsored by MCC and the Greater Omaha Association of Catering Executives

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by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator For her involvement at and dedication to Beth El Synagogue, Liatte Dotan has been named the 2008 recipient of the A.B. and Freeda Gendler Award. The award was presented to the recent Westside High School graduate during the synagogue’s May 17 BESTT graduation ceremony.

The Gendler Award is an honor given to a high school senior who has shown exemplary dedication to the synagogue. The criteria include: regular attendance at BESTT Hebrew High School, Torah reading and/or Haftorah chanting, leading service portions in the sanctuary, attendance at services and participation in the synagogue’s USY youth group, as well as other service to the synagogue.

In addition to a $500 award, Dotan’s name will be included on a plaque on the synagogue’s Wall of Honor. Dotan’s involvement at the synagogue has included serving as a tutor for younger children during the Torah and Siddur Skills program, assisting with Kadima Shabbatonim, and contributing as a leader of the USY youth group. A regular Shabbat and holiday service attendee, she has read Torah and given divrei Torah during Shabbat services. In addition, she is a graduate of Beth El’s High School of Jewish Studies and participated in the school’s Merit Scholarship program for the past four years.

The daughter of Beth and Amnon Dotan, Liatte attributed her synagogue involvement to her parents, who encour-

aged her to continue her Jewish education through Beth El’s high school program; she also noted a strong connection with USY. The youth group “offered an opportunity to take a leadership role and [my synagogue involvement] just snowballed from there. Things blended together and that’s how I ended up spending so much time at the synagogue -- everything just fit together.”

Education Director Judy Rubin applauded Dotan, saying that she was a logical choice to receive the Gendler Award. “Liatte is very deserving of the award because she has demonstrated on many occasions and many levels that she is devoted to Beth El and to our programs,” Rubin commented. “She is an outstanding student and the professional staff of Beth El recognizes her strengths as they appear in all areas of the congregation.”

President Sally Zipursky also offered her congratulations, saying, “I can't think of a more deserving teen than Liatte Dotan. It has been a joy to watch her develop into an amazing young woman with so many skills. She has been dedicated to her Judaism and Beth El for many years. She is a role model for the younger girls in our congregation through her involvement in Junior Congregation, USY and Hebrew High. Liatte always has a smile on her face. I know Liatte has a bright future ahead where Judaism will play a great role.”

This fall, Dotan will head to Israel as part of the nine-month-long “Kivunim: New Directions” study abroad program; she will be based in Jerusalem, and will have the opportunity to travel to and study in countries such as Morocco, Spain, India, Russia and Greece.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 30, 2008

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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 below events.

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JCC Final Board meeting and Awards night, 7 p.m.

Annual Meeting, 7 p.m. at Temple Israel From Generation to Generation, 7 p.m. at Temple Israel WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 Speciality Camp Trip, 9 a.m. to The Amazing Pizza Machine Beth El Women’s Rosh Hodesh Meeting, 6:45 p.m. at TeaSmith on 169th and Center

THURSDAY, JUNE 5 Speciality Camp Trip, 9 a.m. to Worlds and Oceans of Fun Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel Adult Study with the Clergy, 10 a.m. at Temple Israel Parsha for kids, 4 p.m. at Chabad Class with Rabbi Gross, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel FRIDAY, JUNE 6 Institute for Holocaust Education Echoes and Reflections Training, 8:30 a.m. at ESU #3 Speciality Camp Trip, 9 a.m. to Worlds and Oceans of Fun SATURDAY, JUNE 7 BBYO BBG Beau Dance, 7 p.m. at Holiday Inn Convention Center SUNDAY, JUNE 8 Reading the Rambam Class, 9:45 a.m. at Beth Israel Bible Study Group, 10 a.m. at Beth El Praise the Land and Pass the Falafel, 5:30 p.m. at Beth El Shavuot Service, 7 p.m. at Temple Israel Shavuot Service, 7:30 p.m. at Beth El Dairy Dinner & Tikun Leil Shavuout, 8:15 p.m. at Beth Israel

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MONDAY, JUNE 9 Annual Shavuot Ice Cream Party and Luncheon, 11a.m. at Chabad Shavuot Service, 10:30 a.m. at Temple Israel Shavout Classes for Youth & Adults, 1 p.m. at Beth Israel TUESDAY, JUNE 10 Shavout Classes for Youth & Adults, 1 p.m. at Beth Israel ADL/CRC Youth Leadership Mission Meeting, 7 p.m. at JCC From Generation to Generation, 7 p.m. at Temple Israel WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11 Community Lecture with Michael Broyde, 7 p.m. at JCC THURSDAY, JUNE 12 Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel Adult Study with the Clergy, 10 a.m. at Temple Israel Cardozo Society Luncheon with Michael Broyde, noon Parsha for kids, 4 p.m. at Chabad Class with Rabbi Gross, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel FRIDAY, JUNE 13 Temple Israel Shabbat Comes to You, 4 p.m. at Remington Heights

SUNDAY, JUNE 15 Reading the Rambam Class, 9:45 a.m. at Beth Israel Bible Study Group, 10 a.m. at Beth El

TUESDAY, JUNE 17 ADL/CRC Board of Directors Meeting, noon at JCC BESTT School Board Meeting, 7 p.m. at Beth El WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 Intro to Midrash, noon at Kripke Library THURSDAY, JUNE 19 Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel Parsha for kids, 4 p.m. at Chabad Class with Rabbi Gross, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel

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SUNDAY, JUNE 29 Reading the Rambam Class, 9:45 a.m. at Beth Israel Bible Study Group, 10 a.m. at Beth El Men’s Club Softball series begins, 10 a.m. at JCC Ball Fields

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A decade ago my family and I were new immigrants in Israel. We had moved here from Miami in July of 1997 and were fortunate enough to have our first Independence Day coincide with Israel’s 50th. My wife Sarah and I were smitten with optimism back then. Our ostensibly rash gamble was turning out well.

We arrived in Israel without jobs -- but with five small children ages two through nine; by May of 1998, my wife had an excellent job as an institutional salesperson for a Tel Aviv brokerage house, I was teaching at several schools, and our children had all become fluent in Hebrew.

Israel’s jubilee year ushered in a period of great optimism for the whole country. Ehud Barak rode this optimism all the way to the Prime Minister’s office in May 1999, and peace with the Palestinians (and with the Syrians) seemed imminent.

This was especially good news for us because we lived (and still do) in Givat Ze’ev, a West Bank suburb of Jerusalem. It was a mark of those optimistic times that we hardly paid attention to the fact that our choice of where to live was technically in “occupied territory.” This designation seemed like a minor irritant that would soon fade away.

As Israel begins its seventh decade, optimism is definitely not the spirit of the times here. Peace with the Palestinians and the Syrians does not seem possible, Prime Minister Olmert seems inept, religious people are in the headlines as corrupt politicians and child abusers, and the rape trial of the former President of Israel looms ahead.

From my personal perspective, however, the reasons why I immigrated are still holding strong.

There are two aspects of life in Israel that continue to be a special source of joy and wonder for me and make me feel good about living here. The first of these has to do with the large Sephardic population in Israel. Thanks to the Sephardim, my whole sense of Judaism and Jewishness has radically changed.

Because American Jewry is largely Ashkenazic (Jews who originated primarily in Russia and Eastern Europe), America has a narrow definition of Jewry. Adding a relatively large population of Sephardim to this mix -- hailing from countries like Morocco, Yemen, Iran, and Iraq -yields a richer variety of Jewish food, a fantastic medley of Jewish music, and, most strikingly, a beautiful Jewish body.

Yes, having grown up in America where there sometimes is a certain stigma attached to Jewish looks, the fact that

Chabad hosts annual ice cream party

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by SHEVI KATZMAN On the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, which corresponds to June 9, Chabad invites everyone to join and celebrate the amazing gift G-d gave us with an ice cream party at 11 a.m. at Chabad House!

The custom of eating dairy foods on Shavuot began when the Jews first received the Torah 3,320 years ago.

The Torah commands us to eat only kosher meat and the meat couldn’t be slaughtered on that day because it was Shabbat, therefore the Jews made do with dairy food. There will also be plenty for the lactose intolerant.

Reserve now by e-mailing shevi@ochabad.com.

The feasting and partying will be highlighted by the children taking center stage under the tallit to hear the Ten Commandments being read. The children await this honor all year. Children who have been studying Torah in anticipation of receiving the Torah will get a special recognition.

Lauren Kirk, age six-and-a-half, has been studying the weekly Parsha for some time now and “can’t wait for the ice cream party!” when she will receive the Torah again.

Rabbi Mendel Katzman, director of Chabad of Nebraska, encourages everyone to learn from the kids, adding “We would all accomplish so much more and find the time to study some Torah if we adapted some of the childish eagerness to utilize the present moment to its fullest, instead of delaying important goals for some imaginary future. On Shavuot, we celebrate the children’s commitment to G-d as the guarantor for His Torah.”

The children will have the opportunity to create an edible craft and participate in holiday activities.

Reservations are appreciated but not required. Please call Carol at 330.1800 or email ChabadOffice@cox.net.

Israelis are gorgeous never ceases to amaze me.

The other aspect of life in Israel that is a constant source of inspiration to me is the normalcy of being a religious Jew here. While it is perfectly normal to be Jewish in America, only in Israel is it normal to be a religious Jew. I can best illustrate this with an example from just a few weeks ago. My family and I were in Nahariya on the Mediterranean coast for three days during the Passover holiday. We spent several hours of each day at Nahariya’s municipal sports complex.

There is a snack bar in the complex, run by an attractive Israeli woman. On our last day, the woman took a break to play ping-pong and left her teenage son in charge of the register. The son wore a kippa. As I passed by on my way to the pool, I could see that he was having a grand old time, joking with the customers and sampling the (kosher for Passover) snacks.

It clearly was no big deal that the boy is a religious Jew. This type of scene does not occur at America’s public recreational centers -- at least I never witnessed it. Why is this so important to me? Because it tells everyone that it’s cool to be a religious Jew. Since I am a religious Jew and have tried to raise my children to be religious Jews, such a scene is extremely gratifying.

Most immigrants to Israel who return to their country of origin do so during their first decade, and so it was significant for my family that Israel’s 60th Independence Day was our 11th one.

My children, no longer very young, are negotiating their way through adolescence. The light at the end of the tunnel for them (and for me and my wife) is compulsory conscription. The Weinberger-Ross family pictured above: Rebecca, 19, left, is a “teacher soldier” for at-risk youth, Ruthie (17) is begins her army service early in 2009; Sarah Ross; Eli, age 11, Teddy; Ezra, 16; and Nathan (20), midway through his service in the IAF, the Israel Air Force.

I hope and pray that President Bush surprises all of us this year and brokers a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Amen.

Teddy Weinberger, who made aliyah in 1997 with his wife, former Omahan Sarah Ross and their five children, works in the Department of Education for the Jewish Agency for Israel. He can be reached at weinross@netvision.net.il

Elvis has not left the building

by ANDREA BARTMAN for JSS/RBJH He will be performing at the Jewish Community Center on Wednesday June 4, 7 p.m., along with special guest co-star, “Marilyn Monroe.” This dazzling concert is sponsored by Jewish Senior Services and is offered at no admission cost to the entire community.

Enjoy this chance to relive Elvis’ glory days on the Las Vegas stage!

‘Elvis’ began performing in 1988 when he had a huge party at his home and did his first show as a joke for friends there.

“Everyone said ‘this is no joke, you’re pretty darn good,’” he comments, and from there friends and family began urging him to perform professionally. “Marilyn” and “Elvis” will perHe tracked down the peo- form at the JCC on Wednesday. ple who had made Elvis Presley’s actual jumpsuits and purchased a few that are exact replicas of those worn by Elvis himself. Over the years he’s added numerous costumes, special effects and a special guest to his show.

He met ‘Marilyn’ through a friend and she came on stage to perform the song “Fever” with him that night.

He invited her to don a costume and begin performing with him and the perfect stage pair was made.

According to ‘Elvis’, the two perform the current show with an underlying storyline based on the concept of “What would have happened if Elvis and Marilyn had been an item and Elvis had been trying to win her heart?” The show progresses on this theme and includes famous numbers from each and the two as a duet.

May 30, 2008

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 11

At Shavuot, professing a love of Torah and for the scroll

by EDMON J. RODMAN LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- In a knowledge world ruled by books and pages and digitized memory, why do Jews hold onto the scroll?

As Shavuot and its focus on receiving the Torah approach, I must ask: Could it be that rolled along together somewhere in our minds with the love of Torah is the love of scroll?

We are fascinated with book forms that when opened, extended, unfolded or unrolled change shape before our eyes. In the scroll, we have a form that can also expand our minds.

Though the scroll is used in other cultures and religions, it remains a distinctive Jewish form, distinguishing it especially from early Christian writings that used the newer form -- the Roman codex, or book, to record their writings. It is our handmade, not mass-produced form passed from generation to generation that we read, study and honor.

Seeing the words of the Torah scribed in perfect columns makes us think of a book. But as the parchment unrolls without a beginning or an end in sight, we think of a journey. You find your place in a book by turning the pages, moving through paper by the numbers. With the Torah, you turn and turn and move through place and time.

Grab on to the wooden spindles to which the Torah is attached, the etzai chaim. As your hands and arms move, you also move through time, places, names and law. As you cross the Red Sea, you cross the sea of context as well. As you scroll, and the portion is chanted, the physical action moves you inside the story: the sea parts, you hurry through, and are saved and ready to sing as you reach the other side.

Consider that in the Torah when the Ten Commandments are given, they are written on two tablets. From a book designer’s point of view, the tablets are two pages -- a spread. Form-wise this is perfect -attention is focused only on the two tablets; nothing more is needed.

Yet the Torah is not contained on a series of tablets or ated with season or date. Many of us know that if the left pages, it is on a roll. So where is our attention directed? side is small, then the end of the Jewish year is approachOpen the Torah scroll to ing and it is time to send out your Rosh a single column and that is HaShanah cards. what we see. Open it two Even our coming Shavuot readings remind columns, three, four, and us of the scroll’s circularity. On this holiday, our attention suddenly many read the liturgical poem Akdamut, opens to the entire beautiwhich pays poetic homage to the endlessness ful calligraphic panorama of Torah. The end of each line ends with the before us.

Hebrew letters tav-alef, the final and first letAs time passes the scroll ters of the Hebrew alphabet, reminding us becomes more modern. As that when we get to the end of the scroll we an information system, the begin anew. scroll is a forerunner to Our culture places high value on creating many of our modern inforwhole designed environments. In restaurants, mation systems that also hotels, theaters and homes, we surround ourwork by revolving mechaselves with music, lighting, art and colors. We nisms: computer hard admire the seamless and the artful motif. drives and DVD players.

The scroll, the Torah, is a gateway to a whole We scroll down our comenvironment as well. It unrolls in so many puters only reluctantly, ways, and as it does, we can become hoping what we need is in enveloped by its words and texture, and the opening screen. But understand that indeed everything is in it. unlike the monitor, the It is said that on the first night of Shavuot, Torah scroll encourages us Edmon Rodman says the scroll “remains a at midnight, the heavens open. This year, Credit: J. imagine they unroll. by its form to scroll across uniquely Jewish form.”

Nathan Matias/Creative Commons Edmon J. Rodman, a book and toy design-- to continue to read, visualize and, week after week, make the journey’s end. er, designed “Mitkadem” and “Jewish Holidays Our brains are wired mostly for visual experience. It’s Building Blocks.” He is the author of “Nomo, the a visual system that is ready for more. As you scroll Tornado Who Took America By Storm.” He is a Torah through the Torah, names and places pass by and the reader and occasional roller at the Movable Minyan in mind makes connections. The scroll encourages the par- Los Angeles. ticular form of Jewish study that requires skipping from passage to passage, and from book to book. (So, add To order a gift subscription to the Press...

Web surfing to the claims of Jewish invention). The Send a check for $25, made out to the Jewish Press and form helps the mind hold together as one the words, the prorated for the year, to 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154. verses and parashot from throughout the Torah.

For those whose task it is to the find the place in the For more information on how to connect your out-of-town relTorah for their congregations, the scroll can be a curviatives and friends, call 334.6448. linear calendar, the position of the reading being associ-

Temple Israel to celebrate Israel and congregants turning 60 on Erev Shavuot

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator This year, the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, adds to the celebration of Shavuot which commemorates the Children of Israel entering the Promised Land after receiving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.

In honor of this landmark moment in time, the 31 members of Temple Israel’s congregation who are also turning 60 in 2008 have been invited to participate in the service on Erev Shavuot, Sunday, June 8, 7 p.m.

Also born in 1948, Dr. Jonathan Adelman of the University of Denver, will be Jonathan Adelman Temple’s guest scholar on Shavuot on a subject especially appropriate for the holiday, “The Rise of Israel: How Did the Miracle Happen and What Happens Now?” A professor at the Graduate School of International

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Studies at the university where he has taught since 1978, Dr. Adelman has written 12 books including The Rise of Israel: A History of a Revolutionary State, published in London this year. A popular speaker on Israel for AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee), United Jewish Communities, the Jewish National Fund, and Hillel, Professor Adelman has been sent by the U.S. State Department on 15 international speaking tours to more than a dozen countries including China, Japan, India, Russia, and France.

Dr. Adelman’s expertise and research interests cover Soviet and Chinese politics, comparative revolutions, and the military, as well as contemporary Middle East issues. Having appeared on Fox News and the Dennis Prager Show, Dr. Adelman is a frequent and popular speaker on Israel and has given lectures on numerous university campuses including Cambridge University, Harvard University and the Air War College.

A Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C., he has taught at Columbia University where he received his Ph.D. in 1976, the Russian Diplomatic Academy, Central European University, and the Chinese People’s

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University. An honorary professor at Peking University and the People’s University in China, Dr. Adelman, has also taught at Hebrew University and the University of Haifa. He was Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice’s doctoral dissertation adviser and has conferred with her on policy issues.

On the bimah, Adelman will give a taste of the Tikkun Leil Shavuot, an interactive discussion, which will follow the service when he’ll examine how Israel has gained the strength to overcome great obstacles and become a serious regional power in the Middle East.

He provides a fresh perspective to view one of the most controversial states in the world and avoids the highly charged ideological descriptions that sometimes plague such discussions. Applying his knowledge of revolutions and international affairs to the creation and flourishing of Israel can help explain a lot about the Middle East today.

A traditional dairy oneg will follow the service.

On Monday, June 9, the Temple offices will be closed, and there will be a morning service at 10:30 a.m. Omaha Symphony principal flutist Maria Harding will play, and Yiskor will be recited. Please call the office at 556.6536 to add a name to be read at the service.

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Page 12

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 30, 2008

What do agricultural subsidies and immigration have in common?

In a little known amendment earlier this month, Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Larry Craig (R-ID) slipped through a provision in a Iraq funding bill that would give amnesty to some 1.3 million working illegally as farm workers, mostly in the Southwest.

What does this bill have in common with the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on the Rubashkin kosher meat plant in Postville, IA? This newspaper has declared previously that giving a free pass to would-be immigrants who jump the queue, forge documents and raise local costs for education, crime prevention and health costs is wrong.

We still recall the days of massive immigration from the former Soviet Union in 1978-79 and again in the late 1980s, of Jews waiting for a year or more in not-so-pleasant housing in Vienna or near Rome’s old airport, of loans that Jewish Federations throughout North America had to guarantee to pay for immigrants’ housing, health care and food costs.

And before that, we remember the days of quotas, when European Jews couldn’t even get into the United States -- regardless of what Jewish communities would or could do to help support them.

So we have mixed feelings about those in this country illegally getting services and benefits denied for so long to Jews -- and nonJews alike -- who have taken the path to immigration and citizenship seriously, who have waited patiently in line and filled out forms too numerous to list, and borrowed and

begged to join the millions of immigrants who have come before them -- legally.

On the other hand, when we hear about the loss to a town like Postville, brought back from the dead by a fledgling meat packing plant, we cringe. Yes, illegals seem to have been hired.

Yes, paperwork appears to be forged. But a town, thriving with the addition of other new businesses (from a mattress factory to a kosher cheese plant) is now decimated -- many of its residents have fled, leaving empty apartments, restaurants and shops to the dismay of owners who depended on these customers and tenants.

The Western States face the same problem. Farmers who hope to sell their crops of lettuce, wine grapes, strawberries and avocados to supermarket consumers cannot harvest their fields without the help of these same illegals. So what are we to do?

We can watch as produce rots in farm fields, as the supply of kosher meat dwindles, and as prices rise for the agricultural products that can be brought to market. Or, as Feinstein and Craig have determined, we can make peace with the people who are willing to do the jobs American citizens are not.

We understand that even with frequent visits by ICE (checks, not raids) that some criminals will slip through.

But we’ve begun to understand that this country cannot operate without

undocumented workers. To those who are calling for the Orthodox Union to recall its certification of Agriprocessors because of this raid, we say “hold on a minute.” Is this about immigration, or kashrut, working conditions, a town’s survival or is there something else going on?

While there are still many questions about the process by which illegals become citizens (or at least gain legal working status), we think it’s time that cooler heads prevail in this often inflammatory discussion.

Postville a clarion call for Jews and Americans

FOCUS ON ISSUES

by GIDEON ARONOFF NEW YORK (JTA) -- The recent raid in Postville, Iowa, on this country’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, where at least 390 people were arrested on immigration charges, is troubling on many levels.

As Jews, a collective shudder runs through the community whenever a business enterprise so closely connected with the community is raided by government agents. Because of the terrifying associations of other raids against Jews by uniformed personnel in Europe and elsewhere, we must take it seriously when the unprotected among us are subjected to singleminded enforcement policies.

It is also difficult to forget our own experience in America when in 1924, the Congress passed the National Origins Quota legislation -- highly restrictive immigration laws designed to bar thousands of immigrants fleeing Eastern and Southern Europe. Those laws were still in place in the 1930s and ’40s when European Jewry most needed the U.S. to come to its rescue.

Despite our country’s varied immigration record, Jews as a community proudly harken to America’s founding principle of welcome.

We have benefited from its ultimate generosity and want others – regardless of national identity, race or religion – likewise to enjoy its earned privileges.

Every generation of immigrants shares the dreams of religious freedom and family unity.

As Jews we are taught repeatedly throughout the Torah and the Talmud to “love the stranger” and “welcome the stranger among us.” These religious and ethical teachings are at the core of who we are as a religious community and as a nation.

Yet sovereign countries must protect their borders by passing immigration legislation, and those laws must be enforced. Historically, immigration raids periodically have been the

method of enforcement, from the Palmer Raids against communists and anarchists in 1919 to raids targeting Italian immigrants throughout the 1920s. The Postville raid is, however, by the government’s own admission, the largest immigration raid in this nation’s history.

Not only the size of this raid, but the increased frequency of using raids as a means to address the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in this country is a most disturbing trend. We cannot condone the hiring of undocumented workers.

We must dispense with quick, harsh “fixes” -- such as raids and deportationonly or forced-expulsion strategies – and return to the essential business of creating comprehensive immigration reform.

But at the same time, we cannot ignore that American workers are unwilling to meet business’ labor needs at prevailing wages and there is no legal avenue for businesses to petition for the unskilled migrant workers they so desperately need. Congress has ignored this problem for decades through its refusal to facilitate the legal entry of unskilled workers.

Yet just as raids are no substitute for fair and humane immigration reform, Congress’ failure to enact immigration reform is no justification for immigrant workers, their families and entire communities to have their lives subjected to such turmoil.

In March 2007, workers and residents in New Bedford, Mass., faced circumstances similar to those in Iowa this week, when 361 workers of the Michael Bianco factory faced deportation, and all but a small number were detained and separated from their families.

And in 2006, raids at Swift & Co. plants in Colorado and Nebraska created similar chaos.

Families and residents in these and other communities across the country have been left frightened and worried, not knowing the fate of their relatives. Businesses have been dis-

rupted, and the economic impact on many communities has often been hard to overcome.

In addition, recently there have been increased incidents of unlawful home invasions, and reports of aggressive interrogation and mistreatment of detainees, who lack ready access to legal services. From Postville come disturbing reports of attorneys -- some representing as many as 30 detainees -- being given only one week for many of their clients to consider plea options.

The federal government has a responsibility to enforce the law, but raids, whether at the workplace or in homes, must be done humanely and in ways that do not violate workers’ constitutional and civil rights.

Furthermore, safeguards must be in place to ensure that children are cared for, families can determine the whereabouts of their relatives and undocumented workers have ready access to social services, including schools and emergency services.

Though they do not adequately address the enormous problem of undocumented workers in this country, raids that are conducted humanely and compassionately may be a legally acceptable means of enforcement.

Postville should be a clarion call for our community and our country. As Jews, it is our obligation to advocate for fair treatment of the 390 detainees in Postville and the millions of other undocumented workers nationally, who are “strangers in a strange land.” As a nation, it is time for us to return to the core values forged by the teachings of our great religions and fundamentally reject our current illegal immigration “system.”

We must dispense with quick, harsh “fixes” - such as raids and deportation-only or forcedexpulsion strategies – and return to the essential business of creating comprehensive immigration reform. Rather than divide communities and families, Congress and the administration must lead our country in this effort.

Gideon Aronoff is the president and CEO of HIAS, the international migration agency of the American Jewish community.

(Founded in 1920) Howard K. Marcus President Carol Katzman Editor Richard Busse Managing Editor Allan Handleman Advertising Manager Robyn Belgrade Sales Associate Lori Kooper-Schwarz Assistant Managing Editor Barbara Kirkpatrick Bookkeeper Anne Muskin Editorial Intern Jewish Press Board Bobbi Leibowitz, Vice President; Stan Mitchell, Secretary; Scott Meyerson, Treasurer; Joanie Jacobson, Immediate Past-chairman; Susan Lehr; Jamie Meyerson; George Quittner; Eve Randone, Melissa Schop; Michael Siegel, Michael Sigmond; Jim Simon; Nancy Skid; and Dorothy Spizman.

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Page 13

Still fighting the same war:

‘Revisionist’ historian’s ‘1948’ places current and past conflicts in perspective

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

by JONATHAN S. TOBIN In the course of a lengthy essay in The Atlantic, writer Jeffrey Goldberg quotes an encounter with a Gazan imam named Ibrahim Mudeiris, who had just delivered a sermon in which he described the Jews as “the sons of apes and pigs.”

Mudeiris summed up the current standoff between Israel and the Hamas movement which currently runs Gaza by saying, “It does not matter what the Jews do. We will not let them have peace.”

He went on to describe the futility with which generations of Israelis have sought to deal with the Palestinians succinctly: “They can be nice to us or they can kill us, it doesn’t matter. If we have a ceasefire with the Jews, it is only so that we can prepare ourselves for the final battle.”

What can the Israelis do when faced with such intransigence?

Goldberg’s lengthy and disquieting ruminations provide no easy answers, but the question in the title of the piece, “Is Israel Finished?” provides the decided non-celebratory feel to a piece published to coincide with Israel’s 60th birthday.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert comes across in Goldberg’s story as a petulant, defensive figure who is clearly uncomfortable being in the cross-hairs of vocal critics like novelist David Grossman, who lost a son during the prime minister’s disastrous Lebanon war. It is also hard to argue with Goldberg’s contention that “he is not Israel’s deepest thinker.”

But you have to sympathize with Olmert during his interview when he expresses impatience with Goldberg’s focus on the “flaws in the execution of the Zionist pro-

gram.” Speaking of Israel’s achievements, he begs for a bit of historical perspective.

And for that, readers can do no better than a new authoritative source about the beginnings of the Israeli state, Benny Morris’ 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli Wars.

Those who do will be left with the inescapable conclusion that there is nothing new about Olmert’s dilemma.

Morris is the most famous and certainly the best of the so-called “new historians” in the 1980s to question the romantic view of Zionism that had heretofore prevailed in Jewish history writing. The author’s diligent digging in the state’s archives has resulted in some work that has outraged many Israelis. But no nation’s history is that one-sided.

Some Jews speak as if Israel’s right to exist is called into question unless all Israelis were and are without a blemish, though that is a notion that is nonsensical in itself and a reflection of a legacy of anti-Semitic delegitimization of Jews.

There will be readers of 1948 who will howl with outrage at Morris’ acknowledgement of the fact that there were some atrocities committed by Israelis during the bloody War of Independence.

Others will be uncomfortable with his presentation that at certain points of the conflict, Israelis outgunned the Arabs, even though the few hundred thousand Jews in the country were outnumbered by the tens of millions of Arabs and Muslims in the region who opposed them.

But the general thrust of the narrative is inescapable.

War was inevitable, not because the Zionists were imperfect or wanted a larger Jewish state than the truncated province offered them in the various partition plans, but because the Arabs never

once considered making peace with the Jews on any terms.

“The 1948 war, from the Arabs’ perspective, was a war of religion as much as, if not more than a nationalist war over territory,” Morris writes. “Put another way, the territory was sacred. Its violation by infidels [Jews] was sufficient grounds for launching a holy war and its conquest or reconquest, a divinely ordained necessity … The evidence is abundant and clear that many, if not most, in the Arab world viewed the war essentially as a holy war.”

Unlike popular historians such as Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre’s O Jerusalem!, there is no escape from the general into the particular and personal via anecdotes. Without human interest angles, all we are left with are the results of Morris’ unforgiving scholarship in this clearly written and exhaustive volume.

Morris once refused service in the Israel Defense Force because of his opposition to Israel’s presence in the territories, and is still reviled by many on the right. But in recent years, he has spoken of the need for Israel to act to stop the threat of nuclear attack from Iran. He has also ruminated publicly that Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, may have erred by not doing what the Jewish state’s opponents accused him of having done: actively seeking to push all the Arabs out of the country.

There is nothing about that in 1948, but what does come through is a lack of illusions about Arab war aims. If the number of Arab atrocities against Jews were few (though terrible), he notes, it is only because they lost most of the battles and thus had fewer chances to commit crimes.

As for the tragedy of Palestinian refugees, though he has no illusions about the desirability for many Israelis of having fewer Arabs in the territory under their control, Morris comes straight to

the point about the responsibility for their suffering. “The refugee problem was created by the war -- which the Arabs had launched,” he asserts.

For all of of his reputation as a critic of Israel, Morris points out something that even the Israeli government is often reluctant to say: that there were two sets of refugees created by the war since nearly as many Jews were forced to flee from Arab countries as Arabs who fled from Israel.

Sixty years after winning a brutal war in which there was plenty of nastiness on both sides, the problem for Israel remains the same. Despite Israel’s willingness to make peace and share the land, the Arabs are still refusing to do so whether, as Imam Mudeiris says, the Jews are nice are not.

“1948 has haunted, and still haunts, the Arab world on the deepest levels of the collective identity, ego and pride. The war was a humiliation from which that world has yet to recover,” Morris writes.

Despite peace process and some treaties, he understands that still “the Arab world -- the man in the street, the intellectual in his perch, the soldier in his dugout -refused to recognize or accept what had come to pass. It was a cosmic injustice.”

The “jihadi impulse” is, more than ever, the dominant motive in Islamic life; nothing the Israelis can do or say will change that. All they can do is what they did in 1948, win and survive and hope their enemies will eventually have a change of heart.

But, as Morris notes in his final paragraph, the challenge from Iran and its terrorist allies leaves us still understanding that “whether 1948 was a passing fancy or has permanently etched the region remains to be seen.”

Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.

He can be reached at: jtobin@jewishexponent.com.

What’s pushing old foes Israel and Syria to talk?

NEWS ANALYSIS

by RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The diminishing fortunes of the Bush administration and the resurgent fortunes of Hezbollah may be behind the surprising announcement that Syria and Israel are renewing peace talks.

The announcements last week by the two countries, which said Israel and Syria would launch talks in Ankara under Turkish auspices, came despite longstanding U.S. opposition to talks with Syria.

The news garnered only tepid endorsement from the Bush administration.

“We were not surprised by it, and we do not object to it,” said Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman. “We hope that this is a forum to address various concerns we all have with Syria -- Syria’s support of terrorism, repression of its own people.”

With Bush nearing the end of his term in office, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert might have felt emboldened to shuck off Bush’s longstanding resistance to reach out toward Syria, analysts said.

“This demonstrates that what has kept things back is the United States,” said Steve Spiegel, a professor of political science at UCLA and a scholar at the Israel Policy Forum. Bush’s “leverage is not as great -- Bush has seven-and-a-half months left.”

The Bush administration long has blamed Syria for not doing enough to keep insurgents from crossing its border into Iraq and for interfering in Lebanese affairs.

This month, Hezbollah militiamen backed

by Iran routed the U.S.-backed Lebanese army in violent clashes in Beirut, alarming officials in the Bush administration.

Syria, analysts said, also may regard Hezbollah’s recent political and military gains with alarm -- notwithstanding its longstanding alliance with the Lebanese terrorist group.

Syria’s alliances in Lebanon have shifted over the decades, from the Christians in the 1970s to the Palestinians to the Sunni Muslims, and over the last decade or so, to Hezbollah’s Shiite plurality in the country, noted David Makovsky, a senior analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

But Hezbollah’s growing power -including its resurgence following the 2006 summer war with Israel, its relative strength vis-a-vis the Lebanese army and its success this week in securing a veto in the Lebanese Cabinet -- threaten to undermine the balance of power between Lebanon’s minorities that has allowed Syria to control much of Lebanon.

“Syria has been a patron of Hezbollah,” Makovksy said, “but there has always been an ambivalence because it doesn’t share its Islamist orientation.”

That orientation -- militant Islamic extremism -- is shared by Hezbollah, Iran and Hamas, the largely Sunni Muslim terrorist group in Gaza, that with Iran’s backing has obstructed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Israel’s defense establishment long has perceived Syria as the weak link among those groups and has advocated outreach to the Assad regime as a way of crippling Iran’s influence in the region, Makovsky said.

“Unlike the Palestinian issue, where

there is a sense that there is a will but not necessarily a capacity, they feel in Syria there is a central authority” to ensure the success of a peace deal, Makovsky said.

Hezbollah’s growing strength in Lebanon, and Hamas’ persistent rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel, has made neutralizing Syrian support for those groups all the more urgent for Israel.

But the Bush administration’s reticence to embrace Syria-Israel peace talks has impeded rapprochement -- until this week, that is. The Olmert administration reportedly sought and received the green light from the Bush administration for renewing peace talks with Syria.

U.S. support for the process is key. Aside from the return of the Golan Heights from Israel, Syria would seek U.S. support and the opening of Western doors as a trade off for foregoing its alliances with Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.

A State Department official, speaking to JTA on condition of anonymity, said any Israel-Syria peace deal would require Syrian concessions in areas of concern to the United States, including tighter controls at Syria’s border with Iraq and human rights reforms within Syria.

“It is our hope that discussions between Israel and Syria will cover all the relevant issues, including the Syrian government's support for terrorist groups, facilitation of the passage of foreign fighters into Iraq and intervention in Lebanon -- as well as repression inside Syria,” the official said.

David Kimche, a former director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said negotiations will take a while, likely stretching beyond Bush’s presidency.

“These negotiations are not going to end in a week or a month; it’s the begin-

ning of long negotiations,” Kimche said.

“The aim is to bring the Americans in.

This could be the beginning of movement, not just between Israel and Syria, but between Syria and the United States.”

Kimche discounted suggestions by some Israeli politicians that the May 21 announcement was timed to distract the Israeli public from the investigation into Olmert’s financial dealings.

Rather, he said, Israeli and Syrian negotiators reached the point in the process where they were able to make the formal announcement.

For the Israelis, that point was Olmert agreeing to a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, said Professor Eyal Zisser, a Syria expert at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and African Studies at Tel Aviv University.

“What has changed is the Israeli position,” he said. “Olmert came to the conclusion, probably some time ago, that is in his interest and in Israel’s interest to make peace with Syria, and he is willing to give something that previous prime ministers were not. According to the Syrians, he has committed himself to a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights.”

That point for Syria, Makovsky said, was a readiness to consider ending its role as a conduit for arms from Iran to Hezbollah.

“You cannot have a peace deal with the Israelis and still be a conduit for weapons,” Makovsky said. Further down the line, involvement from the United States and others will be necessary, he added. “If this is going to work, you need a lot of players to help Syria,” he said. “It’s not just a local agreement.”

JTA managing editor Uriel Heilman contributed to this report from New York.

Page 14

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 30, 2008

Candlelighting Friday, May 30, 8:31 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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to reserve space, call

Allan Handleman, 402.334.6451 or Robyn Belgrade 402.334.6559

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

FRIDAY, JUNE 13: Services followed by Oneg, 7:30 p.m. with guest speaker, Toni Goodman on Living Each Day to the Fullest. The community is invited. The oneg is sponsored by Toni and Steve Goodman in honor of Steve’s 60th Birthday.

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Services conducted by Rabbi Mordechai Levin and Cantor Gastón Bogomolni.

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

SATURDAY: Morning services, 9:30 a.m.; Kiddush sponsored by Kim and Mark Kahn, in honor of their son, Zachary, becoming a Bar Mitzvah; Minha/Ma’ariv, 8:45 p.m.

Sitter Service is available during Friday night and Saturday morning services, on a drop-in basis, at no charge.

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

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

WOMEN’S ROSH HODESH GROUP: Wednesday, June 4, 6:45 p.m. for tea-tasting and conversation at TeaSmith, 168th & West Center. Cost: $10. RSVPs are needed by Sunday, June 1, and may be made by contacting co-hosts Darlene Golbitz, 334.7862 or dzgolbitz@cox.net, or Leslie Eades, 330.8208, or, leslie.eades@cox.net.

“PRAISE THE LAND ...

AND PASS THE FALAFEL!”: Sunday, June 8, 5:30 p.m. Cost: $5 for those ages 6 and over; 5 and under are free. For reservations, contact Margie Gutnik in the office, or at programming@ bethel-omaha.org. Shavuot service follows at 7:30 p.m.

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.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 7 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m. free babysitting, 9:30 a.m.; Children’s Classes, 9:45 a.m. with Torah Parade; Kiddush is sponsored by Harry Wolfson in Commemoration of the yahrzeit of his father, Louis Wolfson; “Guard Your Tongue” and

“Advanced Analysis of Midrash Rabbah” begins one hour before Mincha each Shabbat afternoon; Mincha, 8:45 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:41 p.m.

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

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

WEDNESDAY: Rosh Chodesh Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.; Mincha/ Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m.

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

BEYT SHALOM FRIDAY: Shabbat in the Home.

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

FRIDAY: Services, 7 a.m.

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

SUNDAY: Service, 8:30 a.m.

WEEKDAYS: Services, 7 a.m.

MONDAY: Kabbalistic Insights for Women, 12:15 p.m.; Parsha class for pre-schoolers, 12:30 p.m.; W.O.W presents Kosher by Design with Susie Fishbein, 7 p.m.

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

WEDNESDAY: Kabbalah Circle, 7 p.m.

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

All events and programs are open to the community.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by Miles Remer.

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

SATURDAY: Sparks Beneath the Surface, 9:15 a.m.; Shabbat Service, 10:30 a.m. Joseph Hack, son of Rosie Zweiback and Mace Hack, will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah.

SITTER SERVICE: Available Wednesday evenings during Family School hours, Friday evenings service except when there is a Tot Shabbat, Saturday mornings when there is a B’nai mitzvah, and Sunday mornings during Religious School. Advance reservations and a $5 donation appreciated. Young children, including infants, are welcome.

TUESDAY: From Generation to Generation, 7 p.m. Fee is $18 for Temple members and $25 for others. To register, call Program Director Rosie Zweiback, 556.6536; Annual Meeting, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: OTYG Board Retreat THURSDAY: “Adult Study with the Clergy,” 10 a.m. with

Rabbi Azriel.

SUNDAY, June 8: Erev Shavuot Service, 7 p.m. A celebration of Israel’s 60th Birthday with guest speaker, Dr. Jonathan Adelman. (see full story on page 11).

MONDAY, June 9: Service and yizkor, 10:30 a.m. If you would like to have names of your loved ones read at the Morning Yizkor Service, please call the Temple office, 556.6536, with the names by Thursday, June 5.

NEIGHBORHOOD MINYAN FRIDAY: Minyan, 7 p.m.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m.

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

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

FRIDAY: Services, 6:30 p.m.

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

SUNDAY: Annual Meeting, 1 p.m., at the synagogue.

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

Beth El gets ready to ‘Praise the Land’

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

FRIDAY: Shabbat Shalom - A Peaceful Shabbat, 7:45 p.m. led

by David Williss, with sermon by Alicia Chapelle and oneg following hosted by Barbara Barron.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. led by Stephanie Dohner; Torah Study, 10:30 a.m. led by Larry Rosenfield.

THURSDAY: Board of Trustees, 7:30 p.m.

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

BAT MITZVAH Kylie Kirshenbaum, daughter of Marcy Noodell and Corey Kirshenbaum, will become a Bat Mitzvah on Saturday, June 7, at Beth El. Kylie is a seventhgrade Superior Honor Roll student at Kiewit Middle School. She received

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME

an award for Level 6 State AllAround Cham-pion in gymnastics.

Her interests include gymnastics and Herzl camp.

Kylie has a brother, Ryan.

Grandparents are Shirley and Max Kirshenbaum, and Maxine and Jack Noodell.

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator Beth El congregants are busy preparing for their upcoming communitywide celebration of the State of Israel’s milestone 60th birthday, themed “Praise the Land ... and Pass the Falafel!” From song and dance rehearsals to decorating the synagogue’s social hall as ‘Kibbutz Beth El,’ party organizers look forward to the fun-filled, family-friendly party, planned for Sunday, June 8, 5:30 p.m. (Families with young children are invited to come at 5 p.m., to create birthday cards to be sent to Israeli children.) Top picture, Education Director Judy Rubin leads religiousschool students in a rehearsal of ‘Hatikvah’; Bottom picture, Robert Mosenkis, Margie Gutnik and event chairman Mindy Tene double-check their list, making sure they’ll have everything needed to prepare “A Taste of Israel,” the delicious family-style dinner planned for party-goers.

Everyone in the Jewish community is invited to attend; cost is $5 per person; to make reservations, contact Program Director Margie Gutnik at 492.8550, or programming@bethel-omaha.org.

May 30, 2008

Don’t get lost ... in the wilderness

SPARKS FROM THE WORD

by RABBI MYER S. KRIPKE Parashat Bamidbar Our Sidra begins a fourth Book of Torah and it hastens to tell us that the Israelites are still at Sinai. Thus we are reminded that everything from the giving of the Torah (which we will celebrate during Shavuot, next Sunday-Tuesday, June 8-10) through the end of the Book of Exodus and all through Leviticus, the Children of Israel were still at Mount Sinai. And now they are about to set forth to the land that would become the Land of Israel.

We must remember that when we translate the word midbar into “desert” or “wilderness”, it really means a land without settled communities, without roads that could be numbered. (Though the Sidra itself “numbers” the People of Israel in the first parashat which contains an entire census of the People-- hence the Book of Bamidbar also is known as “Numbers”) Even without signs saying east or west, north or south, it is wilderness only in the sense of “the hand of man had never set foot” on it.

Our Book thus begins still at Sinai (if only we could identify it!) and ends with a catalog of the places at which the Israelites stopped in their so-called 40 years in the wilderness.

We can no longer identify the stopping places of the Children of Israel during that long journey. They had many names and unnamed enemies during that time, because no one likes to have strangers pass through their own land. But the Israelites did so and acquired new mitzvot (commandments from the Lord) as they went on their way.

Among them is the three-fold blessing found in next week’s Parasha, Nasso: “May God bless you and keep you. May He lift up His Countenance upon you and be gracious unto you. And may He grant you peace.” Who knows how many billions of times this has been used, from Sinai until our own time. we still use it and many of us marvel at its literary grace, which starts with only four words. In the second and third sections, it adds new and other levels of blessing, including the Lord resting His Eyes lovingly on Israel and offering peace, peace, peace.

On a personal note, I find myself over and over again noting that this is my favorite passage of Torah. Favorite passage? In the wilderness? Yes, Indeed! For questions lead to the opportunity to find perceptive answers.

Someone (who was it) says that a Jew always answers a question with another query. Thus we are enabled to suggest brilliant answers.

Now, if you never walked through territory as an explorer in a place where no one has walked before you, you are ready to plunge into the midbar, the wilderness.

Or as it has been said, now that you have seen the picture, read the book. Which Book? Bamidbar, naturally!

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

Questions? Call 402.334.6448

DEATHS JUDITH RUSTON Judith Ruston died in Aurora, Colorado, on May 21.

Services were held May 23 at Beth El Cemetery.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Paul Ruston.

She is survived by her sons, Robert and Charles Ruston, both of Colorado; sister, Jean Duitch; grandchildren, Robin and Michel Ruston of Colorado, and Rebecca Ruston of Portland, OR; four great-grandchildren.

Memorials to Hadassah.

JACKIE LYNN ROFFMAN CHRISTENSEN Jackie Christensen died suddenly at home on May 14 at the age of 50. Services were held May 16 at Golden Hill Cemetery.

The youngest childen of the late Milton “Mickey” Roffman and Yvette Bratter Roffman, she was a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Omaha and dedicated many years to teaching, first in the public schools, and more recently at the Pennie Z. Davis Child Development Center at the Jewish Community Center, and as a Sunday School teacher at Temple Israel.

She was preceded in death by her brother, George Roffman, M.D. In addition to her mother, she is survived by her husband, Gary Christensen; brother, Randy Roffman of Coral Springs, FL; sister-in-law, Sherlyn Roberts of Westminster, CO; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Diz Christensen and Kay Schilling of Crescent, IA; nephews, Scott Roffman of Alexandria, VA, and Jeffrey Roffman of Decatur, GA. HUBERT I. ROSENBLUM Hubert “Hub” Rosenblum died May 23 at the Blumkin Home at the age of 81. Services were held May 26 at Beth El Cemetery.

A longtime certified public accountant in Omaha, he moved to San Francisco in 1982.

He is survived by his wife, Jeanne Lipsey Rosenblum of San Francisco; son, Mick Rosenblum of San Diego; daughter and son-in-law, Marcy and David Ruback, son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Lara Rosenblum, Golden Valley, MN; stepchildren, Janet Lipsey and John Harkin, Dan Lipsey, all San Rafael, CA; grandchildren; Joe and K.C. Ruback, Jake and Zach Rosenblum, Karolina Hobson and Dianna Sekowski, Noah and Jesse Harkin; and sister, Shirley Drooz of San Diego.

Memorials to the Rose Blumkin Home or Eastern Nebraska Wheelchair Athletic Association (ENWAA) c/o Marcy Ruback.

CHARLOTTE KAPLAN Charlotte Kaplan died at the age of 85. Services were held May 29 at Beth Israel Cemetery.

After working for many years as a secretary for Beth Israel Synagogue, she became the volunteer coordinator of the women’s burial society, the Chevra Kadishe. She also held leadership positions in AMIT Women and Hadassah. For her service, she was honored by the Jewish Federation in 1999 with the Chesed Award.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Samuel S. Kaplan.

She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Col. Marshall and Annette Kaplan of Tarkio, MO; daughter, Marilyn Treller; daughter and son-in-law, Andrea and Scott Dull; grandchildren, David M. Kaplan, Allison and Jason Ruchaber, Rebecca and Pete Thomas, Allen and Emily Cipinko, Cara Dull and Nathan Dull; five greatgrandchildren; a great-great-grandson; and her sister, Adeline Tepper of Las Vegas.

Memorials to Beth Israel, AMIT Women or Hadassah.

Shavuot is special at Beth Israel

by MARY BORT For Beth Israel Synagogue Shavuot - a time to celebrate the giving of the Torah.

It is also a time to study the Torah and enjoy dairy meals. Beth Israel will be doing this and more during the holiday. “We’re thrilled to welcome some special guests to be a part of our Shavuot celebrations,” said Beth Cohen, executive director. Our High Holiday Chazzan, Rabbi Ari Dembitzer and his wife, Chana Dembitzer will be here. Rabbi Dembitzer will provide us with wonderful music and teach classes.”

Rabbi Dembitzer is a frequent visitor to Beth Israel.

Residing in New York, he is the head counselor at Camp Simcha, a camp for children who have cancer or other serious illnesses. Dembitzer is known for his energy and beautiful voice, as well as for his work with youth.

In addition, Beth Israel will host scholars from the Graduate Program for Women in Advanced Talmudic Studies through Yeshiva University. They will speak to adults in sessions concurrent with youth learning.

Shavuot begins on Sunday, June 8, 8:15 p.m., with a dairy dinner. Cost is $8 for adults and $4 for children.

Following dinner will be Tikun Leil Shavout, 9-11 p.m.

Rabbi Dembitzer will lead seventh through 12th graders. At the same time, Rabbi Gross will teach the class, “The Life and Times of Elisha HaNavi.” Sefer HaChinuch, the Book of Mitzvah and independent learning is scheduled for 11 p.m.

On Monday, June 9, 9 a.m., a dairy kiddush will follow shacharit. After kiddush, Rabbi Dembitzer will teach to third through sixth graders, while Rabbi Gross will teach seventh through 12th graders, “The Torah of Modern Israeli Politics.”

Tuesday, June 10, 9 a.m., will begin with Shacharit, followed by Yizkor at 10:30 a.m. and a dairy lunch.

Cost is $8 for adults and $4 for children. Between Minchah and Havdalah, youth will learn about “What Do Those Shalosh Seudat Songs Mean Anyway?”

To RSVP, call the office at 556.6288. There is no cost for children ages three and younger.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

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Page 16

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

May 30, 2008

RBJH staff members honored during National Nursing Home Week oring those who have been with the Home for more than 20 years.

Julie Hoffmeier, who at 29 years, stands as the most tenured staff member, was one of those recognized at this final reception.

Mike Silverman, RBJH executive director, commented to the crowd that “Julie comes in at very odd hours of the morning. She’s here while most of us are sleeping, taking care of the laundry and making sure that when we all do wake up that there is laundry and clothing and linens and they go back into resident rooms in good shape.”

He went on to describe to the group how staff like Julie make the difference at the Blumkin Home. Attention to small details and a real sense of caring make the difference for residents no matRBJH Executive Director Mike Silverman praises Julie ter what the job at hand may Hoffmeier as the Home’s longest tenured employee. be. “She goes above and Special receptions were held for resi- beyond what is asked of her and always dents and staff to gather, enjoy one puts the needs and special requests of resanother’s company and to applaud the idents as her first priority,” he added. dedicated staff. Recognized lengths of Other 20+year staff members honored service began with those employed at the were: Darlene Golbitz, Marcy Jones, Home for one to four years, and culmi- Shane Kotok, Bert Benson, Maureen nated in a special tea-time reception hon- Neuman and Paul Roth.

by ANDREA BARTMAN for JSS/RBJH The theme chosen for this year’s National Nursing Home Week celebration was “Blumkin Home Birthday: 25 Years.” Throughout the week, staff members were recognized for their commitment to residents and for their varying lengths of service at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home.

PEOPLE WHO READ NEWSPAPERS ARE

STUDENTS WITH BETTER GRADES It all starts with Newspapers

Friedel fires up Lag B’Omer

Left: Sarah Kutler, Mika Kaplan, Elissa Wiener, Hannah Leff, Eliana Schuller, and Rebecca Denenberg enjoy the beautiful weather while Dahlia Hamicksburg is covered by the sand. Right: Destiny Wiseman

and Feigy Katzman njoy a a magical day with a hot air balloon, games, crafts, music, and food, organized by Friedel parents Ruti Margalit and Sarah Wiseman. The event was attended by more than 150 people.

Beth El’s cantor’s concert wows crowd

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator A crowd of 350 was treated to energetic, entertaining and poignant performances during Beth El’s annual Cantor’s Concert, “Broadway on the Bimah.” The event raised $20,000 for the Cantor’s Scholarship Fund, which benefits the synagogue’s Youth Scholarship Program and provides opportunities for youth to attend Jewish summer camps, visit Israel or attend Jewish youth conventions.

Top photo: Singers Jeff Taxman, Jonathan Rathsam and Cantor Gastón were joined by keyboardist Brent Spivack, second from left, to perform a touching acappela version of “Close Every Door,” from Joseph and the Amazing Techni-color Dreamcoat. Before performing the moving “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins, the cantor dedicated the song to his children, sitting in the audience. Following the performance, concert chairmen Steve and Joye

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Wees chatted with Beth El’s Rabbi Mordechai Levin.

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