June 13, 2014

Sponsored by the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Endowment Fund AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA

Federation Annual Meeting

June 13, 2014 15 Sivan 5774 Vol. 94 | No. 39

This Week

State of the Federation 2014

by JAY NODDLE President, Jewish Federation of Omaha ood evening, everyone. It’s wonderful to be here with all of you. We are here to celebrate this past year and to recognize so many terrific volunteers.

G

CDC graduation Page 2

The Jewish Community Center welcomed our new Executive Director, Mark Martin. Mark, thank you for all you have done and all we have to look forward to under your leadership. The JCC has added over 150 new members since the first of January, unveiled a remodeled teen lounge, improved the Fit ‘n Sit program with expanded hours, and already have 151 children signed up

Dancing in Jaffa Page 5

Knish: In Search of the Jewish Soul Food Page 12

Inside Point of view Synagogues In memoriam

Next Week Senior Living See Front Page stories and more at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on Jewish Press

8 10 11

Humanitarians: Richard Heyman, left, Betsy Baker, Chloe Heyman, Jack and Judy Baker, Tom and Amber Baker.

Tonight, I would like to personally thank our fabulous staff here on campus, I’d like to congratulate our award winners and, most importantly, I’d like to thank you, the community, for your unwavering support.

This has been a good year for our Omaha Jewish community and for the Federation and its agencies. We made great strides in many areas this year, and we see very bright days ahead for all of us.

Here are a few of the highlights from this past year: The Center for Jewish Life added several great programs, including the Friday Learning series, the Klutznick Learning series and the PJ Library Program, where 123 kids receive Jewish books each month.

for preschool next Fall.

The Jewish Press will introduce a new look in July that I’m sure we will all appreciate and enjoy for many, many issues to come.

The ADL/CRC continued its important work quietly and diligently, as is their practice. They advanced their initiative of greater awareness of the bullying issues in our community and led the public art program known as TypeCast/ReCast.

On campus, we enjoyed Marty

Ricks’ first full year as our development director, saw the launching of the new Life and Legacy program and welcomed Margo Parsow to the Foundation. We have also seen the re-energizing of the Rabbis and Presidents committee.

Our Annual Campaign rose above the $3 million mark for the first time in several years, as over 100 new community members participated in this year’s effort. Stacey and Jonathan Rockman were fantastic as they led our community through the campaign.

We maintained a very high level of support for Israel and Overseas, and we were able to respond to several immediate, if not emergency, requests for additional resources.

The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home has been as active as ever providing love, compassion and care to so many individuals and their families.

Continued on page 6

2 | The Jewish Press | June 13, 2014

CDC graduation

The 2014 graduating class of the Pennie Z. Davis Child Development Center charmed their captivated audience with their singing and dancing prowess. The graduation class consisted of 35 graduates who will go forth into the elementary world. They leave us with fond memories, and we hope they come back and visit often.

As you can tell by the pictures, these children have poise and confidence. Their lives have been enriched and touched by the caring, dedicated, and fabulous staff of the Pennie Z. Davis Child Development Center.

L’Dor’V’Dor

June 13, 2014 | The Jewish Press | 3

Beth El offers special summer Shabbat speakers

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity As a special summer treat, Beth El’s Saturday morning Shabbat services will feature a variety of guest presenters who will speak about a variety of topics, sharing personal stories and wisdom.

The series kicked off on June 7, with Sophie Ambrose Friedlander, who spoke about My Jewish Journey. Upcoming Sophie Ambrose Friedlander speakers include: June 14, Oliver Pollak, who will discuss, First Impressions: Faith, Food, Family, Fellowship and Friends in the Holy Land; June 21, Marty Shukert, who will explore Korach and political/religious power; June 28, Waitman Beorn, Louis and Frances Blumkin Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at UNO, and the executive director of the Sam and Carol Gendler Frances Fried Holocaust and Genocide Education Fund Board; July 5, Andy Greenberg, who will present, Why Do Animals Talk in TV Advertisements, and Why Do We Believe Them?; July 19, Jim Zipursky, who will speak about Words and Weapons: Which Are More Dangerous?

Lessons from Parsha Mattot; Friday, July 25 (during 6 p.m.

Kabbalat Shabbat services), Oliver Pollak Carol Gendler will share A Bat Mitzvah in Beijing, the story about her trip to China to celebrate her granddaughter’s Bat Mitzvah; and on Aug. 9, Steve Riekes will present a topic to be announced at a later date.

The entire community is welcome to enjoy all of these special Shabbat speakers. For more information, contact the synagogue office at Marty Shukert 402.492.8550.

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Lincoln Youth Group members honored

JEWISH EDUCATION SERIES

GRADUATION FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2014 2:00 p.m.

2:30 p.m.

Graduation Ceremony in Simon Chapel Graduation Reception in Silverman Auditorium

Join us for a celebration of the many Residents who participated in the Jewish Education Series!

We will honor graduates of the series, who worked diligently to complete the required courses and acknowledge their dedicated teachers.

The Jewish Education Series was created as a Members of LTYG and advisors at a recent rush event. Back row: Ashley Bernstein (Advisor), left, Josh Jolton, Rachel Crable, Julie Sadofsky (Advisor), David Crable, Ben Schreiber; front row: Madison Crable, left, Tye Chapelle, Tanner Crable, Ariel Kohll (Songleader)

fulfillment of the adage “you are never too old…”

During the General Assembly of the Spring Chavurah of NFTY Missouri Valley, members of the Lincoln Temple Youth Group (Congregation B’nai Jeshurun) received two top honors.

Religious and Cultural Vice-President Tye Chapelle accepted the award for “Best Overall Package” for religious and cultural programming. Youth group President

meaningful and thought-provoking discussions

Tanner Crable accepted the award for “Best Small Youth Group.”

NFTY is the youth movement of the Union for Reform Judaism. The Missouri Valley Region is geographically the largest NFTY region covering Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, and parts of Illinois. LTYG is led by advisors Julie Sadofsky and Ashley Jade Bernstein.

and as an opportunity to engage Residents in

through their participation in educational classes, workshops and seminars.

THE JEWISH EDUCATION SERIES IS SPONSORED BY A GRANT FROM THE SHIRLEY & LEONARD GOLDSTEIN SUPPORTING FOUNDATION

4 | The Jewish Press | June 13, 2014

D-Day and the bombing of Auschwitz

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by RAFAEL MEDOFF Spaatz directed the Allies’ “oil war” offensive. In the sum(JNS.org) -- Seventy years ago last week, the Allies staged mer of 1944, he clashed with Chief of Staff General Dwight the D-Day invasion, landing some 24,000 troops on the Eisenhower, after Eisenhower repeatedly diverted bombers beaches along France’s Normandy Coast in one of the major from the oil attacks to the Normandy region, to support the turning points of World War II. What is not widely realized, Allied advances following D-Day. Spaatz was furious over however, is that the D-Day assault on June 6, 1944, also had the diversions and ultimately threatened to resign, forcing an important link to the fate of Europe’s Jews -- and in par- Eisenhower to relent. ticular to the controversy over the Allies’ refusal to bomb Ironically, at the very same time Eisenhower and Spaatz Auschwitz. were arguing about divertApologists for the ing planes from the oil war, Roosevelt administration’s the “diversion” argument failure to bomb the death became the centerpiece in camps often point to the the controversy over fact that President whether or not the U.S. Roosevelt and the U.S. milishould bomb Auschwitz. tary were preoccupied with American Jewish leaders D-Day. “We are talking who urged the Roosevelt about the summer of 1944,” administration to bomb the Roosevelt Institute presideath camp, or the railways dent William vanden leading to it, were told by Heuvel has emphasized.

Assistant Secretary of War “[Because of] the invasion John McCloy that such of Normandy on June 6th... bombings would be Americans and our allies “impracticable.” McCloy were stretched dangerously claimed that the War across western and southDepartment conducted a ern Europe.” “study” of the feasibility of But that argument mixes the proposal and concluded apples and oranges. The it would require “diversion” bombers that would have of U.S. bombers from battle been used to strike zones elsewhere in Europe.

Auschwitz would have had In fact, no such study was to come from the U.S. conducted and, as the War An aerial surveillance photo that U.S. pilots took over Auschwitz Fifteenth Air Force, which Department knew, in 1944. Credit: The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust was based in Italy. They American and British Studies were the ones close enough planes were regularly for such a mission -- and they had almost nothing to do with bombing the Auschwitz area as part of the oil war. “In other the D-Day preparations. words, the bombers were already there -- the claim that they Moreover, Allied planes were flying over Auschwitz long would have to be ‘diverted’ from the war effort was false,” before D-Day. Starting in February 1944 -- four months Stuart Erdheim, director of They Looked Away, a documenbefore the Normandy landings -- Allied photo-recon planes tary film about the question of bombing Auschwitz, told based in southern Italy began carrying out surveillance mis- JNS.org. “Spaatz himself was fighting with Eisenhower to sions over Auschwitz. keep American bombers in the Auschwitz area to target the This Allied surveillance was focused on a cluster of syn- oil factories -- and Spaatz won that argument.” thetic oil factories that the Germans set up in that area, some The irony is painful: while the Roosevelt administration of them within the greater Auschwitz complex and operat- was claiming it could not “divert” planes to go to Auschwitz, ing with Jewish slave labor. Several of the plants were situat- the only actual diversion was when Eisenhower diverted ed less than five miles from the gas chambers and cremato- American planes away from Auschwitz. ria. On May 12, British bombers carried out the first raid in Elie Wiesel, then a 16 year-old slave laborer in Auschwitz, what was to become known as “the oil war.” was an eyewitness to the American bombings of the oil facThe oil plants represented a high-priority military target tories next to Auschwitz and wrote about what he saw in his for the Allies because the Germans desperately needed them best-selling book, Night. “[I]f a bomb had fallen on the to sustain the Axis war effort. It was in part because of their blocks [the prisoners’ barracks], it alone would have claimed dwindling oil supplies that the German air force, the hundreds of victims on the spot. But we were no longer Luftwaffe, was unable to take part in the defense of the afraid of death; at any rate, not of that death,” Wiesel wrote.

Normandy region when the Allies landed.

“Every bomb that exploded filled us with joy and gave us “During the entire first day of the invasion, enemy oppo- new confidence in life. The raid lasted over an hour. If it sition in the air, fighter or bomber, was next to nil,” U.S. air could only have lasted ten times ten hours!” force chief General Carl Spaatz noted in a postwar interview.

Dr. Rafael Medoff is director of The David S. Wyman That was a major reason why the D-Day invasion succeed- Institute for Holocaust Studies, www.WymanInstitute.org. ed, and why fewer than 4,000 Allied soldiers lost their lives His most recent book is FDR and the Holocaust: A Breach at Normandy. of Faith.

Organizations Jerry M. Slusky 8712 West Dodge jslusky@lawsgs.com 402.392.0101

B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS Speaker to be announced for Wednesday, June 18, noon, at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. An optional buffet lunch costs $11; beverage service only is $3. For more information or to be placed on the email list call 402.334.6443 or bnai brith@jewishomaha.org.

LOMIR REDN YIDDISH Our meetings are on Thursdays from 1-3 p.m., at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home’s boardroom. We welcome all who would like to attend. For information call Anne Skolkin at 402.343.1638.

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June 13, 2014 | The Jewish Press | 5

New at CJL’s Kripke Library

Dancing in Jaffa

by MARY SUE GROSSMAN The Center for Jewish Life On Wednesday, May 28, a group of 38 traveled to Lincoln for a special evening, seeing the documentary film Dancing in Jaffa at the Mary Riepman Ross Media Arts Center on the University of Nebraska campus. The idea for the event came from

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT It’s almost summer: the perfect time to sit outside, enjoy the weather and catch up on your reading. There is always something new at the Center for Jewish Life’s Kripke Library; here are three examples to jumpstart your summer reading.

In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist

by Ruchama King Feuerman An eczema riddled Lower East Side haberdasher, Isaac Markowitz, who moves to Israel to repair his broken heart and becomes, much to his own surprise, the assistant to a famous old rabbi who daily dispenses wisdom and soup to the troubled souls who wash up in his courtyard.

There, Isaac meets Tamar, a newly religious young American hipster in search of a spiritual life. Together they become friends with Mustafa, a Muslim janitor who works on the Temple Mount. The events that follow expose Isaac to Israel’s worst criminals, puts Mustafa in mortal danger, and leaves it up to Tamar to save them both.

The Artisan Jewish Deli at Home Michael Zusman and Nick Zukin If you’re like me, good photographs in any

cookbook are half the battle. The Artisan Jewish Deli certainly delivers: from deli basics like chicken broth and Kreplach, to mouthwatering desserts like challah sticky buns, it’s all portrayed in the most attractive way.

The book includes instructions on how to shop, where to shop, and tips about where to find the best delicatessen (in case you don’t feel like actually cooking any of the recipes).

The Mapmaker’s Daughter

by Laurel Corona On the eve of the 1492 Jewish expulsion from Spain, Amalia Riba stands at a crossroads. In a country violently divided by religion, she must either convert to Christianity and stay safe, or remain a Jew and risk everything.

It’s a choice Amalia has been walking toward her whole life, from the days of her youth when her family lit the Shabbat candles in secret. Back then, she saw the vast possibility of the world, outlined in the maps her father created. But the world has shifted and contracted since then.

The Mapmaker’s Daughter is a novel about identity, exile, and what it means to be home.

Ophir Palmon who is a friend of the film’s director, Hilla Medalia. Ophir contacted Marty Ricks, who then sought the involvement of the Center for Jewish Life, and planning was underway. Thanks to the generosity of Steve and Toni Goodman and Marty and Iris Ricks, in addition to funding from the Center for Jewish Life, a coach bus was provided free of charge.

In the film, Pierre Dulaine, four-time ballroom dancing world champion, takes

his belief that dance can overcome political and cultural differences and puts it into action with one hundred fifty, 11 year-old Jewish and Palestinian Israelis. He introduces his program, “Dancing Classrooms,” in Jaffa, the city of his birth, and transforms the lives of the children, thus confirming his belief that dance can overcome hatred and provide the first steps towards real change.

Locally, “Dancing Classrooms” are offered through The ARTery. This past year, the program served 68 classrooms in 31 different schools in Omaha and Council Bluffs - including Friedel Jewish Academy - reaching nearly 1,700 students. Roxanne Nielsen, who directs Omaha’s program, gave a short introduction to the film and she recognized the five Friedel students who were in attendance who participated in “Dancing Classrooms.” Ophir Palmon also shared greetings from Hilla and spoke briefly about Hilla’s pride in being involved with the project and the importance that the dance program had in breaking down barriers.

In an email received after the event, one attendee wrote “I want to thank all who played a part in arranging the outing to Lincoln for a wonderful event. The bus was great, movie excellent and the dinner and service at Lazlo’s terrific. It was so well organized and really a lovely afternoon and evening. Please pass along my thanks to all who were involved in the planning and to the generous folks who provided the bus.”

This event was coordinated through the Center for Jewish Life, whose mission it is to maximize involvement of Omaha’s Jewish community in imaginative, compelling and meaningful Jewish experiences. For additional information, please call 402.334.6445.

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6 | The Jewish Press | June 13, 2014

June 13, 2014 | The Jewish Press | 7

Jewish Federation of Omaha Annual Meeting

State of the Federation 2014

Continued from page 1 Mike Silverman, Jordana Glazer and the entire senior leadership team have provided great leadership, and the results of their tireless efforts can be seen everywhere on campus.

From where I sit, it has been a busy year, full of meetings, initiatives and action. Our Jewish community continues to amaze me with its commitment to one another and to the countless numbers of complete strangers we reach out to on a daily basis.

Over the past three years we have learned a lot about ourselves and about how to improve on the great work the entire staff provides to the community.

As is the case of a community not-for-profit organization, the pressure is on to deliver better programs and services to more people and families, at less expense. I have no doubt that trend will continue. However, I feel even stronger about our ability to deliver in the future. The Federation volunteers are working with our professional staff on a daily basis, and we are carefully and thoughtfully planning for the future. In the months ahead, you will all learn of future dreams, plans and commitments.

Our awareness of global issues, potential threats at home and abroad, and commitment to advancing Jewish Omaha all stay clearly in focus and will not go unattended.

From the top: Stacey and Jonathan Rockman; I AM Happy; Igor Mosenkis, left, Shirley Goldstein, and Anna Mosenkis; Toba Cohen-Dunning and Rabbi Gross; Richard Jacobson and Jon Myers

from the desk of the CEO MIKE SILVERMAN, CEO, Jewish Federation of Omaha

The business of the Jewish Federation

T

hank you all for attending tonight’s meeting. We have already recognized some wonderful leaders in our community, and there is more to come. Tonight is an example of what an exceptional Jewish community Omaha is.

On a regular basis I am contacted by various communities around the country asking what makes Omaha so special and how we specifically function as a Federation. Because Omaha is unique and arguably the most complex integrated Federation in the Federation system, Omaha has set the standard that other communities aspire to be. I recently spoke in New York at the Intermediate Federations Executives Institute about Omaha, and when I discuss our successes it always comes back to the same thing. A secret ingredient that makes Omaha special. The individuals who settled in Omaha as a Jewish community, who put their time, energy, and resources into creating facilities and programs and services that would ensure a vibrant and thriving community have shaped Omaha to be a very special place.

As Jewish communities across the country seek to reinvent themselves, so many are exploring opportunities to join together on one campus. Omaha had the foresight to bring Jewish Omaha to one central location. Whether it be to participate in fitness programs, to drop off your child at our daycare center, to attend a dance recital, to visit elderly Residents, and the list goes on and on... You can do all that and so much more and never have to leave our campus. And each generation has provided for the next generation to ensure that we remain vibrant and active.

The Federation is blessed to have outstanding executives running the agencies. Each focused on their individual missions but all collectively working together for the greater good of the entire Omaha Jewish community. The level of communication amongst the agencies is at the highest level it has ever been, and there are more and more collaborative efforts taking place each month.

Our future as a Jewish community is as bright as our past. We have many strategic initiatives underway including, but certainly not limited to, working with the Lincoln Federation to provide some best practices; visioning how to expand services and programs for our youth and seniors; making sure that our physical plant is in exceptional shape and that the campus remains the hub of Jewish activity in Omaha – and the list continues. The credit for that belongs to all of you in this room because it is the people in our community that make Omaha so very special. Your expectations are high but more importantly they are realistic and attainable. I feel confident saying that you will all be pleased as we continue to grow and respond to an ever-changing and complex environment.

We still have some business to tend to tonight, and a few more awards to give out. I thank you again for attending and for the privilege of serving now for three years as your CEO.

Driving positive change

What it means to be Jewish

by CARYN SCHEER hank you very much for this incredible honor. To the Lois Jeanne Schrager family, thank you for recognizing me, and for establishing this award.

It has been an honor serving on the Jewish Press board for the last three years. I would like to thank Andy Ruback, Annette van de Kamp, and the Jewish Press staff for the important work that they do each and every day. It is appreciated by our community.

To my Beth El family, thank you for giving us a home here in Omaha. The last three years being on the Beth El Board have been so rewarding to me. Creating the young adult committee and Our Shabbat Tables would never have happened without the support of our wonderful members.

To the Beth El staff, Larry, Eadie, Judy, Jill, Laura, board presidents Bev, Lloyd, Joel... you are all wonderful to work with. Margie Gutnik - we make a great team! Thank you for being such a pleasure. Hazzan Krausman and Rabbi Abraham, it is an honor working alongside you. Our congregation is lucky to have you lead us.

I believe that being a leader is having a passion to drive positive change. Those of you who know me know that I am not one to sit on the sidelines. My motivation is my family. Mom, I love that you traveled from Chicago just to see me here tonight. Your support is so appreciated.

To my husband Marc, thank you for being patient with me as I spend many nights away at meetings, while we have three young children at home. Cadee, Matthew and Alex, you are my greatest gifts. It is of course my hope that I am being a good example to you. Always speak up, and have the courage to drive change. Thank you very much.

by BRETT ATLAS first want to thank the Fellman family for this honor in Bruce’s name. Bruce Fellman’s life was tragically cut short, but it sounds to me that he knew how to enjoy every minute of it. All of us here tonight can certainly learn from Bruce to appreciate each moment and find the fun in what we do each day. To receive this kind of recognition from a family who has done so much for this community is humbling.

A couple of quick thank-yous, if I may: I came to Omaha over a decade ago without even knowing that a Jewish Federation existed. So I really want to thank Federation staff and lay leaders I’ve come to know over the years for believing in me and for giving me the opportunities to make a difference.

I’ve learned that as a parent, you are constantly teaching your children, even though it’s frustrating to not receive the immediate results you hoped for. But you never give up because you believe in them. So to my parents, I say that I hope this makes you proud not of me, but of yourself.

My in-laws, Carl and Zöe never told or even asked me to get involved. If it weren’t for your incredible passion and dedication to Jewish causes in Omaha and around the world that has inspired so many people, I wouldn’t be in this room right now.

And of course, my wife Stacey. Despite my constant absences for work and volunteer commitments, you continue to make a difference in both the Jewish and the greater Omaha communities. I am proud of your involvement with so many organizations and with such little time I’ve left you to do it with.

Zach and Noah, Mom and I have worked hard to teach you our definition of what it means to be Jewish: It means we step up. We take care of other people. We give our time and money when we have it, and we don’t wait for someone else to handle things.

There is a quote attributed to Winston Churchill that says, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” My volunteer work has truly enriched my life and deepened my own sense of purpose and accomplishment.

This Community, and everything that makes us unique, was built by the vision and generosity of a rare and special generation of Jews. While we inherit it from them, we also borrow it from our children. It is our turn to take our seats at the table. We owe it to both the past and the future to also be great.

Thank you.

T

From the top: Murray Newman and Jack Baker; Tyler Siegel and Rachel Saag; Lois Friedman, left, Mike Silverman and Bruce Friedlander; Andy Greenberg and Jason Epstein

From the top: David Phillips and Shiri Tene-Phillips; Bonnie Bloch and Beth Cohen; Jack Baker and Jay Noddle; Jody Malashock, left, Sandy Nogg and Buzz Malashock; Andy Ruback and Dr. Leonard Greenspoon

I

8 | The Jewish Press | June 13, 2014

Point of view

American Jewish Press Association Award Winner

Nebraska Press National Newspaper Association Association Award winner 2008

Compartmentalizing hate

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press Because, growing up in Holland, I took world history as an elective in high school, my teacher allowed me to read one chapter of Mein Kampf. The other students and I read it in class, and had to turn the photocopied pages back in when class was over. It allowed us to see how clearly Hitler outlined his “final solution,” and that no one who read the book when it was published in 1925 should have been surprised at what would eventually happen. It was difficult to read, it was dry and boring and mean, and at 15 years old we all still struggled with the German language a little.

However, our German was good enough: we got it. What’s more: we were happy to hand that drivel back to the teacher. Nobody tried to smuggle it home. I think, in retrospect, we were mostly relieved he didn’t make us read more of it.

A few months later, I found myself in Antwerp, Belgium. My aunt and uncle had taken me for a day trip; we admired the architecture, visited the diamond district and did some shopping. While navigating the narrow streets, we came upon a second hand bookstore, and I glanced inside.

There, proudly displayed in the center of the window, was that dreaded book: Mein Kampf. For sale, to anyone who would want it. I don’t remember the exact words my uncle used when I gave him a horrified look, but it was something to the effect of: “We’re in Belgium. That crap is allowed here.”

That was news to me. Up until that point, it hadn’t occurred to me that there were places where Nazi literature was freely accessible. Even at the Dutch universities, it’s behind lock and key, and you can only access it with permission from a professor. Then you may enter the special section, you can’t photocopy anything, you can’t take it home; you have to study it right there.

Unfortunately, in the United States, the rules are the same as in Belgium (I still have the habit of turning Mein Kampf around on the shelf when I see it, as if temporarily hiding the spine from the browsing public helps). Free speech is a beautiful thing, but too much free speech is a disaster.

The more access to the library of hate, the more that hate will fester and grow.

Even when I think most white supremacists are too uneducated to actually read that book.

Sure, the man who murdered four people in Brussels was not a white supremacist. He was a Jihadist, recently returned from Syria. The question is, is it right to compartmentalize

hate, and all its ugly consequences, or should we address it as a whole? Can we see it as a problem that not only affects radicalized Muslims and Jews, but every level of society?

Does it really matter who kills whom? I know that’s not a popular question these days, but I think it’s often of the uncomfortable questions that need the most attention.

That library of hate has grown exponentially since I was confronted with that single dusty copy in that Belgian bookstore. Nowadays, we have the Internet. And while I think (hope) most people would still hesitate if they have to face a live person at the counter of the bookstore to purchase Nazi literature, the Internet offers an unprecedented level of anonymity. What’s more, it’s easy to find like-minded individuals; you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your home.

Repeated exposure to hateful words can breed familiarity.

We begin taking it for granted, the way we no longer feel shock when a teenager is shot, when a so-called church protests at a funeral, when a pundit makes a racist comment.

Oh, for a few split seconds we may rubberneck, but we don’t really pay attention. Who still talks about what happened in Kansas City last month? We forget and we move on. We compartmentalize our grief over our messed-up world, and until the next school shooting or deadly terrorist attack happens, most of us focus on the mundane. We tell ourselves we can’t live in fear; we can’t be constantly looking over our shoulders. And while we are not completely wrong about that, we often miss the bigger picture.

Playwright John Kander once said: “It’s not about Jewishness; it’s about hatred and the danger of not being aware of what’s going on around you.”

He is right. Hate is hate, and regardless who directs it at whom, we should always take it personally. That’s not being overly sensitive, that’s being smart.

Presbyterians, BDS and Israel — here we go again

Focus on issues NOAM E. MARANS

NEW YORK (JTA) -- In the charming movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s character repeatedly relives the same day until learning from the repetition transforms him from lout to worthy wooer of his colleague, played by Andie MacDowell.

The Groundhog Day of Presbyterian-Jewish relations is coming soon to a theater near you, but if we do not fully engage the issue, a Hollywood ending is unlikely.

The biennial General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has regularly included an unhealthy confrontation between pro - and anti-Israel voices. This struggle is out of sync with the norms of American interreligious comity.

For the sixth time since 2004 -- this time in Detroit on June 14-21 -- a minority within the denomination will attempt to convince fellow Presbyterians that IsraeliPalestinian peace can be encouraged by anti-Israel resolutions, divestment from companies doing business with Israel, boycott of Israeli products produced in the territories, labeling Israel an apartheid state and replacing church support for a two-state solution with a one-state vision signifying the end of Israel as a Jewish state.

In 2012, at the last biennial, a divestment proposal was narrowly defeated by only two votes out of 664 cast. Despite multiple defeats, divestment supporters have not given up.

They are back with new tactics.

Why is this General Assembly different from all others?

The Presbyterian BDS camp has revealed its desperation by publishing a virulently anti-Israel document, “Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study Guide,” available for sale

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on the Presbyterian Church’s website. In this document, the church’s Israel/Palestine Mission Network openly admits that its argument with Israel is not about the IsraeliPalestinian territorial dispute but rather the entire Zionist enterprise and Israel’s very existence.

This screed presents Zionism as a “false theology,” “heretical doctrine,” “evil,” a “pathology,” “racism,” “colonizing” and responsible for “cultural genocide.”

When asked for its response to “Zionism Unsettled,” the denomination’s leadership said, “Our Church has a long history of engaging many points of view when it comes to dialogue on critical issues facing the world around us -- it’s who we are, part of our DNA.” Really? Are there no limits? Does Presbyterian DNA include a document that respected Presbyterian theologians have labeled anti-Semitic and anti-Judaic?

While the BDS minions are harming the PresbyterianJewish relationship, it is not yet beyond repair. Jews and Presbyterians can still prevent a minority of Presbyterians from using the ignominious demonization and delegitimization of Israel from driving an irreparable wedge between the two religious communities.

First, Jews and Presbyterians must clearly reaffirm their commitment to a two-state solution achieved through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

That solution envisions a future Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel. BDS, in sharp contrast, encourages and promotes the ideology of those who do not accept Israel's existence, and therefore must be rejected.

Second, Presbyterian leadership must rein in the excesses of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network and its fellow travelers.

To say that the network speaks to the church but not for

the church is a cop-out. After all, the network is chartered by the church, and its propaganda is marketed by the church.

Similarly, BDS proponents should not be allowed to turn General Assembly committees discussing anti-Israel initiatives into kangaroo courts in which conclusions are predetermined and intimidation is used to silence other voices.

In April 2014, the assembly’s committee on Middle East issues deposed a moderator who dared to have a relationship with his local Jewish community and participate in interfaith trips to Israel. Where is the fairness and representativeness that are Presbyterian hallmarks?

Third, Jewish religious leaders and laypeople are encouraged to reach out to their Presbyterian friends -- clergy and lay -- and tell them what is being done in their name.

Let them know how central Israel is to your Jewishness and how hurtful this process has been. Make sure they know of the Jewish commitment to peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Like Americans as a whole, American Christians overwhelmingly support the State of Israel, whose values and aspirations for peace they share. Presbyterians in the pews are no exception.

But a vocal minority -- with tacit approval from the church’s leadership -- has dominated the conversation. They cannot be allowed to turn back the clock on PresbyterianJewish relations.

It’s time for Presbyterians and Jews to reclaim their historic alliance on issues of mutual interest, including working together for Israeli-Palestinian peace. That would be a Hollywood ending -- or, in this case, a beginning.

Rabbi Noam E. Marans is the American Jewish Committee’s director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations.

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June 13, 2014 | The Jewish Press | 9

Anti-Israel campaign at UCLA echoes of McCarthyism

Behind the headlines ABRAHAM COOPER and ARON HIER LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- UCLA has some proud moments in the history of civil liberties.

After World War II, UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley, were the hotbeds of opposition to an anti-communist loyalty oath that California tried to impose on academics. Ultimately the professors won in court in 1954.

Sixty years later, a different pressure group purportedly speaking for the “progressive” grassroots wants to impose on UCLA students a loyalty oath of sorts -- a pledge foreswearing going on trips to Israel sponsored by certain Jewish organizations. Issued by five pro-Palestinian groups, the call demanded that candidates for student government take the pledge.

Who would have thought that McCarthyite tactics would be used to target, harass and intimidate pro-Israel students -Jewish and non-Jewish -- at UCLA? There are ominous echoes here of both the medieval witch hunts against Jews and Stalin’s show trials.

Leading the charge is Students for Justice in Palestine, which is funded in part by two organizations dedicated to the destruction of Israel, American Muslims for Palestine and Al-Awda.

SJP is using cyberbullying to punish Jewish students in the UCLA student government majority who voted against a recent resolution to divest from and boycott Israel. Jewish students who opposed the resolution reportedly feel uncomfortable even walking on campus because of the hate mail they have received.

Adding insult to injury, SJP has introduced an initiative calling for a judicial board investigation of student council members who have taken trips to Israel sponsored by groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Hasbara Fellowships -- the SJP deems the groups have “political agendas that marginalize multiple communities on campus.”

On other campuses across the country, SJP tactics include mock eviction notices against Jewish students, “die-ins,” and promotions of virulently anti-Israel speakers and events.

The SJP initiative demanding that candidates for student government positions sign a pledge not to take certain trips to Israel violates both the UCLA Principles of Community Conduct and the Student Conduct Code against harassment

of all kinds.

Unfortunately, what’s happening at UCLA is not an aberration but part of a national trend. Here are examples from a coast-to-coast report compiled by Tammi RossmanBenjamin, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a founder of the AMCHA Initiative, a nonprofit group that combats campus anti-Semitism: • At UC Davis, a student who expressed concern about anti-Semitic banners displayed at an anti-Israel “occupation” rally was physically assaulted by a protester who screamed in his face, “You are racist and you should die in hell.”

• At UC Berkeley, a Jewish girl holding an “Israel wants peace” sign was ramrodded with a shopping cart by the head of the local SJP chapter.

• At San Francisco State University last fall, the General Union of Palestine Students hosted an all-day event where participants could make posters and T-shirts that said, “My heroes have always killed colonizers” -- meaning Jews.

• At Harvard University, the Palestine Security Committee frightened Jewish students by placing mock eviction notices on their dormitory rooms.

• At Northeastern University in Boston, SJP vandalized a menorah and disrupted Jewish events.

• At the University of Michigan, anti-Israel student activists hurled death threats at Jewish student council members and called them “dirty Jew” and “kike.”

Why is it that so many university administrators and academics seem paralyzed to act if the victims of campus bullying are Zionist Jews?

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block’s reactions to the developments on his campus have been unsatisfactory. First, according to the Daily Bruin, he wanted to “leave the matter to be resolved by students.” Later, he said, “I am troubled that the pledge can reasonably be seen as trying to eliminate selected viewpoints from the discussion,” but he nevertheless stood up for the pledge as free speech protected by the First Amendment.

By defending the organized demands that students who have taken sponsored trips to Israel should disqualify themselves from participating in UCLA student body elections as “sacrosanct” and “within the realm of free speech,” Block is doing more harm than good. It’s the equivalent to leaving the matter to a lynch mob seeking to bar Jews from the fundamental rights of political association and free expression.

Aggrieved UCLA students have had to turn to the University of California system’s president, Janet Napolitano, and the Regents in an attempt for relief. Napolitano released

a statement saying she shared Block’s concerns.

Is it so-called free speech when the goal is to end Jewish students’ full access to free expression and politically active lives on campus? Dressing up intimidation as a “sanctified” right is an obscene distortion of the First Amendment.

It’s time for our colleges and universities to rediscover their moral compass. If necessary, major Jewish donors should withhold their gifts. Jewish philanthropists should support only schools that protect the rights of all students to participate fully in campus life from the quad to the classroom without fear or intimidation -- including lovers of Zion.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and its Museum of Tolerance. Aron Hier is the Wiesenthal Center’s director of campus outreach.

Historian Harold Brackman also contributed to this piece.

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‘That Woman’

Behind the headlines REGINA BRETT (JNS.org) -- Monica Lewinsky is back in the news by choice after a ten-year silence. She recently wrote an article for the June issue of Vanity Fair. When I heard about it, I cringed, rolled my eyes, and shook my head. I read the criticism of the article before I actually read the article.

Big mistake.

As expected, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd weighed in and was unkind. She criticized Lewinsky for “keening about her own social collapse. It was like a Golden Oldie tour of a band you didn’t want to hear in the first place.”

Then I read the Vanity Fair piece and saw Monica Lewinsky in a new light. The queen of humiliation has much to teach us about humility, the good kind. She also has something to teach us about how to survive and how to treat others.

Why speak up now? She wants to stop tiptoeing around her past, stop tripping over it everywhere she goes. She wants to have a future that isn’t based on what she did in her 20s.

The timing is right. Public humiliation has become a contact sport. We have contact with it everywhere. People post private text arguments on Facebook, secretly record conversations and put them online, tweet rumors and nasty comments. Anything can, and does, end up on the Internet.

“No one, it seems, can escape the unforgiving gaze of the Internet,” Lewinsky wrote.

The death of Tyler Clementi tugged at her heart. The 18year-old Rutgers freshman was humiliated to death. It all started when his roommate sent this message on Twitter: “Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly’s (sic) room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.” Three days later, Clementi, an accomplished violinist, jumped off the George Washington Bridge to his death.

Lewinsky’s mother wept for Clementi and for her daughter, whose bedside she wouldn’t leave after the Clinton scandal became public. Her daughter was suicidal from the

shame, the scorn, the fear.

Why speak up now? Lewinsky wants to be more than “the most humiliated person in the world.” She isn’t just an intern that once gave a president oral sex.

She moved to England. Graduated from the London School of Economics with a master’s degree in social psychology. But her “history” keeps her from getting traditional employment. “I’ve managed to get by (barely, at times) with my own projects, usually startups that I have participated in, or with loans from friends and family,” she wrote.

Her friends have moved on. They married, had children, built lives and left their 20s behind. Yet Monica is frozen in time as “That Woman.” It’s time for a thaw.

It’s time to let those two words “Monica Lewinsky” mean something else. It’s time to let her be someone else. We let Bill Clinton off the hook. He earns millions giving speeches.

CNN reported that in 2011 alone, he earned $13.4 million.

Lewinsky? She’s reduced to the woman who had “sexual relations” with the president.

The jokes were relentless. She became the joke. Too often we lock people in. Reduce them to their worst mistake.

She acknowledges her humiliation was a “consequence of my own poor choices.” She assures us it was a consensual relationship. She regrets it and adds italics for emphasis: “I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply.

Regret. What. Happened... I look back now, shake my head in disbelief, and wonder: what was I -- what were we -- thinking? I would give anything to go back and rewind the tape.”

She can’t. But we can help her fast forward it.

David Letterman, host of The Late Show, told viewers he read the Vanity Fair article and “started to feel bad, because myself and other people with shows like this made relentless jokes about the poor woman, and she was a kid.”

“I feel bad about my role in helping push the humiliation to the point of suffocation,” Letterman said.

Monica Lewinsky is 40. It’s time we let her breathe.

Regina Brett, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author, is a columnist for the Cleveland Jewish News, where this column originally appeared.

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Synagogues B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE 618 Mynster Street | Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 | 402.322.4705 email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com For information on our historic synagogue – dates and times for Friday night services, please call 712.323.8885.

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California | Omaha, NE 68154-1980 | 402.492.8550 www.bethel-omaha.org Services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman.

FRIDAY: Synagogue Annual Meeting with special Shabbat on the Green picnic dinner, 5:45 p.m.; Kabbalat Shabbat service follows, including special blessing for children going to summer camp. Reservations are required and may be made by visiting www.bethel-omaha.org.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Services, 9:30 a.m. with special speaker, Dr. Oliver Pollak will present First Impressions: Faith, Food, Family, Fellowship and Friends in the Holy Land; Mini-Minyannaires, 10:45 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:45 p.m.

SUNDAY: Torah Study Group, 10 a.m.; “Daddy and Me” goes to Henry Doorly Zoo, 10 a.m.

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

Our Shabbat Tables, Friday, June 20 at congregants’ home, following Shabbat services.

Shabbat morning speaker Marty Shukert, Saturday morning, June 21 will dicuss Korach and political/religious power.

Dames & Drinks, 7 p.m., poolside at the home of Carole Greenberg, and co-hosted by Sara Kohen.

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

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 12604 Pacific Street | Omaha, NE. 68154 | 402.556.6288 www.BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org Office hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha-Ma’ariv, 7:15 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit (Barchu), 9 a.m.; Mincha, 8:25 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:51 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.

WEEKDAYS: Shacharit, 7 a.m.

CHABAD HOUSE An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch 1866 South 120 Street | Omaha, NE 68144-1646 | 402.330.1800 www.OChabad.com | email: chabad@aol.com Services conducted by Rabbi Mendel Katzman. Office hours: Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Minyan and Meditation, 7 a.m.

SATURDAY: Minyan and Meditation, 9:30 a.m.

SUNDAY: Minyan, 8:30 a.m.

WEEKDAYS: Minyan and Meditation, 7 a.m.

TUESDAY: Dynamic Discovery with Shani Katzman, 10:15 a.m. A class for women based on traditional texts with practical insights and application. RSVP by calling the office.

WEDNESDAY: Personal Parsha class, 10 a.m. with Rochi Katzman. RSVP by calling the office; The Development of the Oral Tradition, 7 p.m. with Rabbi Katzman. RSVP by calling the office. In memory of Forrest Krutter -- Efrayim Menachem Ben Avraham Yitzchak.

THURSDAY: Women’s Study at UNMC with Shani Katzman, noon. RSVP by emailing Marlene Cohen at mzcohen@unmc.edu.

All programs are open to the entire community.

CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN South Street Temple | Union for Reform Judaism 2061 South 20th Street | Lincoln, NE 68502-2797 | 402.435.8004 www.southstreettemple.org Services conducted by Rabbi Craig Lewis.

FRIDAY: Shabbat Evening Service, 7:45 p.m. with oneg following hosted by Karin and Ray Coulter.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10:30 a.m. on Parashat Shelach; Jewish Movie Night showing of “The Frisco Kid,” 7 p.m. with a Havdalah service and potluck dessert.

TUESDAY: Ladies Lunch Group, noon at Parthenon.

As part of the Temple’s 130th anniversary celebration, we want to reach as many former members and clergy as possible. Are you in touch with someone who used to attend?

With kids who grew up and moved away? With friends or family with Temple connections? If so, please give their contact information to Barb Straus at barbstraus@gmail.com.

LJCS Camp Israel, July 14-25 from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Cost is

$75 per week (includes lunch and snack). If you are enrolling two or more children, the cost is $50 per child per week.

Please let us know if you are interested by emailing Tracy at tgordongjc@yahoo.com or Andrea at ahalpern1386@ gmail.com. We require all campers to be registered through the LJCS; therefore, we cannot accept drop in guests. If you would like assistance covering the cost of the camp fee, please do not hesitate to ask us about discretionary funds.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE Capehart Chapel 2500 Capehart Road | Offutt AFB, NE 68123 | 402.294.6244 FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m. every first and third of the month.

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME 323 South 132 Street | Omaha, NE 68154 FRIDAY: Shabbat Comes to the Blumkin Home, 2:30 p.m. led by B’nai B’rith.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by Andy Greenberg.

Services will be held in the Chapel. Members of the community are invited to attend.

TEMPLE ISRAEL Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 13111 Sterling Ridge Drive | Omaha, NE 68144-1206 | 402.556.6536 http://templeisraelomaha.com FRIDAY: Shabbat Comes to You at Remington Heights, 4 p.m. led by Rabbi Brown; Summer Shabbat Evening Services: A Pause for Reflection with Stacy Simon, 6 p.m.

Candlelighting Friday, June 13, 8:40 p.m.

SATURDAY: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m.; Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m. Torah Reader and Haftarah Reader: Miles Remer.

Summer Shabbat Evening Services: A Pause for Reflection, Friday, June 20, 6 p.m.

TIFERETH ISRAEL Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Boulevard | Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 | 402.423.8569 www.tiferethisraellincoln.org Services conducted by lay leader Nancy Coren. Office hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

FRIDAY: Services, 6:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: Morning service, 10 a.m. followed by a Kiddush luncheon.

TUESDAY: Ladies Lunch Group, noon at Parthenon.

Please contact Stephanie Dohner with any questions.

LJCS Camp Israel, July 14-25 from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Cost is $75 per week (includes lunch and snack). If you are enrolling two or more children, the cost is $50 per child per week.

Please let us know if you are interested by emailing Tracy at tgordongjc@yahoo.com or Andrea at ahalpern1386@ gmail.com. We require all campers to be registered through the LJCS; therefore, we cannot accept drop in guests. If you would like assistance covering the cost of the camp fee, please do not hesitate to ask us about discretionary funds.

Tifereth Israel Board Meeting, Sunday, June 22 at 2 p.m.

Brussels Jewish museum suspect denies charges, Amsterdam increases security

by JTA NEWS STAFF perceivable,” according to the NOS broadcaster.

(JTA) -- The lawyer representing Mehdi Nemmouche, Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard Edzard van der Laan said the the Frenchman suspected of killing four people at the extra security measures, which were not specified in Dutch Jewish museum in Brussels, denied that his client commit- media, will come in addition to existing security arrangeted the murders. ments made by the Jewish community of Amsterdam, where Nemmouche, 29, said he stole the assault rifle and handgun most of the Netherlands’ 45,000 Jews live. that customs officers found in his possession on May 30 in Marseille, Nemmouche’s lawyer, Apolin Pepiezep, said June 4 in an interview with the French broadcaster i>TELE. The lawyer said Nemmouche stole the weapons from a parked car in Brussels and planned to sell them in Marseille. He added that his client should not be extradited to Belgium to face murder charges because “nothing connects him to the murders.”

On May 24, a man entered the museum with an assault rifle that appeared to be an AK-47 and a handgun. He killed four people, two Israeli tourists and two museum staffers.

French police said on June 1 that they believed Nemmouche committed the murders at the Jewish Museum of Relatives and family members mourning in Tel Aviv during the funeral for Belgium and then travelled to Emanuel and Miriam Riva, the Israeli couple killed in the May 24 shooting attack Marseille in southern France aboard a at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels, May 27.

Credit: Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images bus. He was arrested at a routine customs inspection of the passengers on the bus, which left “It will increase the community’s security and ability to from Amsterdam via Brussels to France. resist [attacks],” ANP quoted van der Laan as saying.

Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said that Dutch politicians and Jewish community representatives a video found after Nemmouche’s arrest contains his voice have lobbied for years for their government to increase claiming responsibility for the attack and murders. security arrangements around Jewish institutions. The Nemmouche had tried to film the attack, according to Van Jewish community of Amsterdam estimates its annual Leeuw, but the camera failed. expenditure on security at just over $1 million.

Nemmouche, who lived in the French city of Roubaix on Simultaneously, in the Belgian city of Antwerp, a the border with Belgium, had spent several years in a spokesman for the local police told the ATV channel that French jail for armed robbery. French authorities believe police will soon reduce security around Jewish institutions, he left for Syria via Belgium to fight with jihadists in 2012, which since the attack have been guarded by a special force before returning to Europe. of approximately 200 officers armed with machine guns.

Meanwhile, the City of Amsterdam said it will increase “We can continue patrolling for a while longer, but not security around Jewish centers indefinitely in the aftermath forever,” the spokesman said Monday. of the deadly shootings at the Brussels Jewish museum.

On June 3, the museum reopened to the public for the The decision was based on the recommendation of the first time since the attack, under heavy police surveillance, Dutch National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism and the news site 7sur7.be reported.

Security, or NCTV, the ANP news agency reported June 5.

The following day, Belgium’s interior minister, Joelle The coordinator said in an advisory notice that there was Milquet, visited the museum with her French counterpart, no concrete intelligence on planned attacks, The Bernard Cazeneuve, to express solidarity with the Jewish Associated Press reported, but added that the May 24 mur- community and extend their condolences for the dead -der of four people in Brussels shows “that such an attack is two of the museum’s staffers and two Israeli tourists.

Pulverente MONUMENT CO.

June 13, 2014 | The Jewish Press | 11

Going to Israel

by BETH COHEN Executive Director, The Center for Jewish Life Mike Silverman, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Omaha, will travel to Israel from June 16 through June 27. The trip is Mike’s first one to Israel, and an action-packed itinerary awaits him. The goal of this trip is to give Mike a comprehensive understanding of Omaha’s relationship to people, projects and places in Israel.

The majority of the trip is focused on various aspects of Partnership2GETHER, the global people-to-people platform that connects Diaspora communities with Israeli communities. Omaha is one of twelve stateside Jewish communities that partners with the city of Akko and the Matte Asher region in the Western Galilee of Israel.

Mike will participate in both the Management Team meetings and the general Steering Committee Meeting of our Partnership. In his role as the Financial Review Committee Chair, Mike’s participation will focus on budget and financial oversight.

During his time in the Western Galilee for the various meetings, Mike will also visit the following important sites in our Partnership region: The Emergency Room of the Western Galilee Medical Center: The hospital serves a diverse population of 500,000.

During the 2006 Second War in Lebanon, it became the front line hospital for Israeli soldiers and civilians because of its 450-bed underground facility. The hospital now has a cutting edge, above-ground Emergency Department that is fully-fortified from chemical and conventional weapons.

The Security and Command Center of Akko and Matte Asher: Connecting the police, fire department and other safety and rescue entities into one communication network, the centers were built to provide security and safety support for the residents of the area.

Kivunim: Founded in 2003 for young adults with sensory and physical disabilities, Kivunim means “directions,” enabling young people with disabilities to become independent through life-skills training and community building programs.

The Damon Rose Partnership Center: A capital campaign is underway to establish the Damon Rose Partnership Center as a community destination in the Western Galilee, serving as a meeting place for locals and the new home to our Partnership office.

In addition to these Partnership site visits, Mike will see first-hand the impact of Omaha’s annual Israel and Overseas allocation in supporting our international partners, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Joint Distribution Committee and World ORT. He will visit a World ORT school in Merom HaGalil where four smartclassrooms were donated by the Jewish Federation of Omaha. The classrooms are equipped with an interactive whiteboard, laptops for students and teachers, and wireless internet. The technology provides for the continuation of student learning even when children are required to be in bomb shelters.

Mike will also tour the Amigour Senior Housing program of the Jewish Agency for Israel. Amigour operates 57 sheltered housing facilities throughout Israel, serving more than 7,500 vulnerable senior citizens, the majority of whom are Holocaust survivors.

As this is Mike’s first time visiting Israel, he will spend the last two days of the trip touring in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Rolling Stones give legendary Tel Aviv performance despite BDS pressure

by JNS NEWS STAFF (JNS.org) -- The Rolling Stones performed their first concert in Israel Wednesday night to a crowd of 50,000 fans despite Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists pressuring the band to cancel the show.

Most notably, Pink Floyd’s frontman and anti-Israel activist Roger Waters had publicly called on the band not to perform in Israel in May. The band took the stage in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park and performed 19 songs over the two-hour show. Tickets to show had cost fans in the range of NIS 700 ($200).

“Good evening Tel Aviv, Happy Shavuot, We are the Rolling Stones!” front man Mick Jagger said in Hebrew, reported Israel Hayom.

As a sign of respect for observant Jews, the start time of the concert was pushed back by half an hour to allow those observing the Shavuot holiday to arrive at the event comfortably after the holiday ended that evening.

Prior to the concert, Rolling Stones band members also visited the Western Wall upon arriving in Israel Tuesday where they placed notes, reported the Israel National News.

by JTA NEWS STAFF (JTA) -- David Blatt, who guided Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv to the Euroleague basketball championship, is rumored to be in the mix for several coaching jobs in the NBA. The Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly have contacted Blatt for their vacant head coaching post, The Associated Press reported. The Cavs, who fired Mike Brown last month for a second time, have not commented on the reports.

New York, Minnesota and Golden State reportedly are interested in Blatt, who holds U.S. and Israeli citizenship, to fill slots as an assistant coach. The Boston native reportedly has turned down NBA assistant coaching jobs in the past.

Along with leading Maccabi Tel Aviv to the Euroleague title last month, Blatt coached Russia to a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

Blatt played for Princeton University from 1977 to 1981 and was a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. men’s basketball team at the 1981 Maccabiah Games. Following the games, Blatt played for several Israeli teams until he was injured in 1993 and took up coaching.

Frank L. Ciciulla, Jr.

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12 | The Jewish Press | June 13, 2014

Knish

by ROBERT GLUCK (JNS.org) -- The history of the knish represents more than just the lineage of a fried, dumpling-like food. It demonstrates the often-central role of food in communities and cultural legacies.

Laura Silver knows that all too well. She has consumed knishes on three different continents, and her exhaustive research on the iconic potato treat has resulted in her new book, Knish: In Search of the Jewish Soul Food, which was released in early May. When she started her knish book project, Silver had no plans for an intercontinental journey, though she did plan to go to Vineland, N.J., home of the Pasta Factory, the company that purchased the famous knish recipes of Mrs. Stahl’s bakery.

As a young girl from the New York borough of Queens, Silver vividly remembers heading to Mrs. Stahl’s in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn for knishes.

“Mrs. Stahl’s was our go-to place, but there were certainly knishes in other places,” she told JNS.org. “When I grew up in Queens, there were many Jewish delis around. Mrs. Fanny Stahl was born with the Yiddish name of Feige. She was an immigrant who supported her five children by doing many jobs, including cooking. She started the knish shop and ran it until her death. She was very active in the Brooklyn chapter of Hadassah (the women’s Zionist organization) and she knitted sweaters for the people of Palestine before Israel was a state. She was an entrepreneur par excellence. She worked very hard.”

Silver is considered the world’s foremost expert on the knish. But can she definitively say where the first knish came from?

“I don’t think it’s possible to know exactly who made the first knish,” she said. “It certainly happened in a different time but it was

before 1614, the first recorded history of the knish, which is in a poem in the Polish language. It comes from a town called Krakowiec, which is in modern-day Ukraine in what would be the Pale of Settlement.”

The knish undoubtedly has links to the Polish town of Knyszyn, where Silver’s own family originated, she said. But before setting out on her quest, she had no idea that she might be related to direct descendants of the knish’s pioneers from that very town.

“I didn’t realize I was on a quest until I was in Poland with my family and we learned that our great aunt was from Knyszyn,” she said. “That’s what tipped me off that I might be a direct descendant of the knish, which I am in fact. It was bashert (meant to be).”

According to David Sax, author of Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen, Silver’s knish book is a lovingly researched volume that elevates the knish -- arguably the humblest of Jewish foods -- into a weighty symbol of history, identity and family.

“Knishes haven’t met anything this good for them since the invention of mustard,” Sax

told JNS.org, referring to Silver’s book. “The knish is ripe for the spotlight Laura has shone upon it. Just look at the lineup for Black Seed, the new Montreal bagel place in New York, and you’ll see that the revived interest in Jewish soul food is only growing. I bet we’ll see some amazing knishes in the years to come.”

Arthur Schwartz, author of Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited, said that the knish “has never been put to better use” than it is in Silver’s book.

“Laura Silver’s at-times poetic meditation on knishes is not only a cultural history of this filled lump of dough, as meticulously researched as any doctoral thesis, but also a Proustian personal memoir that hints of James Joyce, no less, in the way Silver intones and uses the rhythms of Aramaic Jewish liturgy, Yiddishkeit and Yiddish humor to tell her story,” Schwartz said on the book’s website.

During her research, Silver discovered that the knish has connections to sources as surprising as Eleanor Roosevelt and rap music. One of her favorite stories in the book is about Gussie Schwebel, a former knish maker on Houston Street in New York. Schwebel wrote to Roosevelt to ask her to sample her knishes.

“They turned her away because there was too much press,” Silver told JNS.org.

“Mrs. Roosevelt’s secretary thought it was a public relations stunt. I say hats off to Mrs. Schwebel, because she had the chutzpah to write to Roosevelt. She wanted to help her adopted country so she asked to cook knishes for the armed forces. She used what she had, a knish, a food, and she ramped it up.

That was in the 1940s.

Later on she was quoted again in the Washington Post saying that knishes are going to bring about world peace and put an

Preserving the Jewish Press for the next generation.

end to the Cold War. She saw food as an instrument for political maneuvering. Good for her.”

Where are Silver’s favorite places to buy a knish?

“The best knish you can get is one you make yourself,” she said. “Barring that, I like the one at Gottlieb’s in [the Brooklyn neighborhood of] Williamsburg because they speak Yiddish behind the counter. I also like the ones at Pastrami Queen uptown [in Manhattan], and if you have a hankering walking down the street there’s Gabila’s.

Knish Nosh also has some good knish shops in Queens, and there’s Yonah Schimmel’s Knish Bakery on Houston Street.”

Every culture does seem to have its wrapped pastries, and Silver calls them “knishin’ cousins.”

“Food is never just about food,” she said.

“It was about identity, otherness, sameness. I never thought of the knish as anything unusual. The more I talk about it the more I realize everyone doesn’t know what a knish is. It’s a great moment for knish literacy.”

Silver was recently hired to teach a course at the Brooklyn Greenery, “Improve Your Knish IQ,” to give people a chance to expand their knowledge of the food.

“The knish is a simple food and it is accessible,” Silver said. “It is one that people yearn for even when they don’t need to eat simple food because it reminds them of connections that may be difficult to maintain, or obtain.”

The author is also set to appear at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage on June 15 to discuss her book with food writer Gabriella Gershenson. Gabriel Sanders, director of public programs at the museum told JNS.org that what “King Arthur is to the knight, Laura Silver is to the knish.”

“Never before has the potato pocket had such a devoted champion,” Sanders said.

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