June 16, 2023

The Jewish Press

Women’s Event

RACHEL RING

JFO Director of Development

Join us in celebrating the wonderful women who make up our community on Tuesday, June 27, from 6-8 p.m.! Our event chairs Mindi Marburg, Brooklyn Armstrong, Toba Cohen-Dunning, Eleanor Dunning, Rita Yaffe and Caryn Sheer invite you to Omaha’s beautiful Lauritzen Gardens to celebrate

with each other. Enjoy summer and nature while tapping into your creative side.

We’ll start with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at 6 p.m. followed by a Build Your Own Moss Terrarium workshop given by Moss Hunters and then end the evening with prosecco and dessert.

Moss Hunters will provide all the materials you’ll need –See Women’s Event page 2

JCC Summer Camp 2023 JFO hosts FBI Victim Services Education

The 2023 JCC Summer Camp officially began June 5. This year the camp theme is The Future is Ours.

Over 400 unique campers will have days filled with fun adventures exploring different paths including arts, science, nature, sports and community services.

More than just fun, summer camp See JCC Summer Camp page 3

JAMES DONAHUE

JFO Security Manager

As many of you reading this probably already know, antisemitism is on the rise. Of all the citizens in our country, the Jewish population only makes up about 2.4 percent. However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says that 63 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes are antisemitic. We will never be able to know the

exact location or exact time of the next major incident in the Jewish community, and we would be naïve in thinking that we can stop them all, but what we can do is choose how we prepare.

On the evening of May 30, the Jewish Federation of Omaha hosted Supervisory Special Agent Andrew Mitchell who is the Crisis Management Coordinator from the local See FBI Victim Services page 2

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Andrew Mitchell and James Donahue 300+ Campers migrate from the Columbian School drop off to gather around the flagpoles at 9 a.m.

FBI Victim Services

Let’s have some fun at Sunday Funday

The Jewish Federation of Omaha is excited to host the next Sunday Funday!

Join us on June 18 for the Father’s Day Cornhole Tournament! Fatherhood not required. Just the ability to have fun while tossing a bean bag! Everyone is welcome to play!

Join us Sunday, June 18. Check-in is at 2:30 p.m. and Bags Fly at 3 p.m. at the Staenberg Omaha JCC Soccer Fields.

It is free to play! Sign up with a teammate or register yourself! We’ll find you a partner! Double elimination bracket, and standard ACL rules apply.

Prizes and Kona Ice will be available!

REGISTER NOW at https://fundraise.givesmart.com/ form/8aDwSw?

vid=z4g2m

Continued from page 1 Omaha FBI

to help educate community leaders of Jewish and nonJewish Institutions in the Omaha and Council Bluffs area about how the FBI can help our community move forward if a major disaster were to occur. Community leaders learned about the FBI’s various initiatives and programs, such as the Victim Services Response Team, which provides support for victims in mass casualty events. These events can be anything from a natural disaster, to a terrorist attack. The FBI’s Victim Services Division is committed to providing

assistance and services to victims of these disasters and their families by:

• Helping manage death notification with trained counselors

• Providing emotional and logistical support to victims and their family members

• Acting as a liaison between victims and the investigative team

• Coordinating family briefings and site visits

• Coordinating with the Red Cross to establish a Family Assistance Center

• Cleaning and returning personal items that may have been left at the

scene

We as a community do a lot to preemptively prepare for disaster, like training on how to improve our situational awareness or training on how to counter an active threat, but preparedness has to come full circle That means having a plan for what happens after a major event. The evening wasn’t about fear, panic, or worry, but about hope, resiliency, and our belief that our community has the ability to overcome adversity by recognizing we are stronger together, and can move forward with confidence and courage.

Tournament management and equipment are provided by Kallio’s Custom Cornhole.

Women’s Event

Continued from page 1 just bring yourself, your friends, and your readiness to learn, and have a good time!

Feel free to come to Lauritzen Gardens at 5 p.m. to have a leisurely walk through the gardens before our event at 6 p.m. Come plant some JOY!

Wellness

field office

JCC Summer Camp

Continued from page 1 provides a lifetime of memories. Campers make new friends, learn new skills and participate in specialized activities.

Watch for all our campers around our campus this summer, it’s sure to put a smile on your face.

The camp utilizes both aquatic facilities, the gymnasium, youth lounge, dance studios, theater, and really every area of the JCC.

Week One started off without a hitch as we unloaded 419 campers at Columbian School for a variety of camps.

Pictured clockwise from top right: Art & Crafts for every age. Today’s science project is making paper airplanes; Imagination Station Camp – A New Premiere Camp this season; Stop Motion Camp – A New Premiere Camp this season; The Gaga Pit is a big hit for fun camper recreation; Dance Camp, with a focus on ballet for the older ladies; Camp Shemesh for our ELC – New this year; Basketball Camp AM/PM for young/older players. New this year – Bellevue University Coaching; Swim Team Practice Inside and Outside: 8 a.m., 9 a.m., 4 p.m. and Dive Practice: 9 a.m., 10 a.m.

Trade scholarships available for the 2023-24 academic year

An anonymous donor in our community has created two trade school and/or cosmetology school scholarship opportunities, up to $5,000 each, to go towards the 2023-24 academic year.

Not every student who advances into higher education signs up for a four-year curriculum. Some high school graduates seek job training that lasts a year or two and then places them in the workforce. Such opportunities include, but are

INFORMATION

ANTISEMITIC/HATE INCIDENTS

not restricted to: Information Technology, Construction, Industrial, Transportation and Horticulture. It is not too late to apply for this upcoming school year!

Qualified students who have unmet needs regarding tuition for either a two-year trade school program or a trade certificate program can contact the Jewish Press at avande kamp@jewishomaha.org or jpress@jewishomaha.org for more information.

If you encounter an antisemitic or other hate incident, you are not alone. Your first call should be to the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) in Omaha at 402.334.6572, or email JCRCreporting@ jewishomaha.org. If you perceive an imminent threat, call 911, and text Safety & Security Manager James Donahue at 402.213.1658.

DC’s new Jewish museum highlights Jews who shaped the nation’s capital, from a Confederate spy to RBG

RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON | JTA

Washington, D.C.’s new Jewish museum features at least two notorious women from history.

One is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice, who was dubbed “Notorious RBG” late in her life by a cluster of fans. When the Capital Jewish Museum opens next week, it will launch with Ginsburg at its center when a traveling exhibit on her life has its final stop here.

The other is the 19th-century figure Eugenia Levy Phillips, whom the museum characterizes as “notorious” without irony.

“One of DC’s most notorious Confederate sympathizers, Eugenia Levy Phillips (1819-1902) came to town in 1853 with her congressman husband, Philip Phillips (1807-1884) of Alabama,” one of the exhibits says. “Eugenia, a spy, delivered Union military plans and maps to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.”

Another description of Levy Phillips in the museum is more straightforward: “SPIED for the CONFEDERACY,” it says below her photo.

The late justice and spy are two of an assemblage of notable Jews throughout history who grace the Capital Museum, which opens next Friday in northwest Washington’s Judiciary Square neighborhood, which was a local center of Jewish life more than a century ago.

Showcasing the warts-and-all history of Jews in and around the nation’s capital — both prominent officials and ordinary denizens of the city — is the point of the museum, its directors say.

“Jews are a Talmudic people, we like to argue, we like to look at different sides of a story,” Ivy Barsky, the museum’s interim executive director, said recently at a tour for members of the media. Sarah Leavitt, the museum curator, involved the Jewish idea of “makhloket l’shem shamayim,” Hebrew for “an argument for the sake of heaven” — in other words, for sacred purposes.

“We’re telling the story in this museum in a Jewish way,” Leavitt said. “So that it’s not just that we might not agree, but actually the disagreement is important and preserving those disagreements is important.”

Barsky, who was previously the CEO of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, said that in relating the local history of Washington’s Jews, the new museum fills a gap. Unlike many of the country’s other longstanding Jewish communities, Washington attracted Jews not because it was a port but because it was the center of government. Like the district’s broader community, Jews in the area have been prone to transitioning in and out of the city.

“Lots of our stories start in other places, with folks who end up in D.C.,” Barsky said. “This is a unique community, especially because the local business is the federal government.”

Jews have been in Washington since it was established in 1790, and the area now includes some 300,000 Jews, according to a 2017 study. The museum chronicles that community’s expansion from the capital to the Maryland and the Virginia suburbs, driven at times by Jews joining “white flight” — when white residents left newly integrated neighborhoods — and other times by restrictions that barred Jews from certain areas.

Larger historical events have also at times played a role: The Jewish population in the city grew in the 1930s and 1940s because of the expansion of government during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal and World War II.

An exhibition asks visitors “Who are you?” and features a

ORGANIZATIONS

diverse range of Washington Jews, past and present, as well as others with quirky biographies, including Tom King, a CIA spy who became a comic book writer.

The changing fortunes of American Jewry are embedded in the date the museum opens, June 9: On that date in 1876, Ulysses Grant was the first president to attend synagogue services, when he helped dedicate the new building of the Adas Israel congregation. Fourteen years earlier, as a Union general, he infamously expelled the Jews of Paducah, Kentucky, accusing them of being war speculators. President Abraham Lincoln rescinded the order, which has been described as “the most sweeping antiJewish regulation in all of American history,” Esther Safran Foer, the museum’s president and the former executive director of the city’s historic Sixth & I synagogue, said Grant’s presence in 1876 in the Adas Israel building was emblematic of the upward trajectory of American Jewry. “He sat here for more than three hours in the heat, no air conditioning, and he even made a generous personal contribution,” she said.

The museum’s core is the 1876 building that Grant helped dedicate. It has since been physically moved in its entirety three times in order to preserve it, most recently in 2019 as part of the initiative to build the museum, which began in 2017. The museum’s upper floor reproduces the sanctuary, with the original pews. Its walls, however, are renovated: they display an audiovisual chronicle of the area’s Jews.

The museum’s permanent exhibition aims to traverse that history in other engaging ways as well. The same section that highlights Levy Phillips’ adventures (including her diary’s account of her arrest — “I am not in the least surprised Sir” she told the agent who had come to take her away) also mentions Rabbi Jacob Frankel, who was commissioned by Lincoln during the Civil War as the first Jewish military chaplain.

A photo of Jews and Blacks joined in a bid to desegregate a local amusement park in the early 1960s gets equal billing with one of Sam Eig, a Jewish developer who in 1942 advertised the new Maryland suburb he built as “ideally located and sensibly restricted,” a euphemism for not allowing Black people to buy property.

Interactive exhibits include a Seder table that encourages guests to debate immigration, Israel and civil rights. Parts of the museum’s exhibition recount Jewish debates over pivotal issues such as those and others, including abortion.

Ginsburg will be the museum’s first main attraction, and it makes clear she was a role model. The special exhibition on her life and career includes a glamorous photo of the two Jewish women who coined the “Notorious RBG” nickname, Shana Knizhnik and Irin Carmon. Visitors can go into a closet and don duplicates of Ginsburg’s judicial robes.

One of the first events is on July 12, when museum goers will join in fashioning the special “I Dissent” collars that Ginsburg would famously wear over her robes when she was ready to dissent from the bench.

Jonathan Edelman, the museum’s collections curator, described one prized collection — items he persuaded disability rights advocate Judy Heumann to donate before she died in March.

“Judy’s is a Washington story,” he said. “She came to this city first as an outsider, as a protester protesting for disability rights. And then she came back to the city as an insider working within the government to make change both in D.C. government and in the federal government.”

The interior of an 1876 synagogue that is the core of the new Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C., June 1, 2023. Credit: Ron Sachs/ Consolidated News Photos

An exhibit on Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the new Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C., June 1, 2023. Credit: Ron Sachs/ Consolidated News Photos

SP O TLIGHT

PHOTOS FROM RECENT JEWISH COMMUNITY EVENTS

SUBMIT A PHOTO: Have a photo of a recent Jewish Community event you would like to submit? Email the image and a suggested caption to: avandekamp@jewishomaha.org

GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

Below: Esther and the dancers going to Israel this summer - kibbutz contemporary dance company. This was the second meeting to get to know Israel and checking out a bunch of Israeli snacks.

Top, above, right and below: Annual Cantor’s Concert benefiting the Seth Rich Memorial Camp Scholarship Fund. Rick Recht was the featured artist on Sunday, May 21, 2023.

Above, right and below: Yom Yerushalayim at Beth Israel.

Below: Instruments AND bubbles in Friedel’s music class! What could be more fun?!

Top, above, below and bottom: The 2023 JCC Dance recital

2023 Awards Night & Annual Meeting

The JFO held its annual meeting on June 5. The event was preceded by a beverage reception and followed by a dessert reception, both hosted by the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation. The Foundation served as the spotlight organization for the event, celebrating their 40th anniversary.

Event highlights included the Foundation’s presentation of their celebration video, the approval of JFO’s merger to acquire NJHS as a new agency, Bob Goldberg’s first address as CEO of the Federation, and the recognition of Natan and Hannah Schwalb as Humanitarians of the Year, along with numerous other well-deserved awards for community members. Over 200 community members joined together to celebrate the great work completed this year and look ahead to an exciting year to come.

Column 1: David Gilinsky, Harmon Maples, Steve Levinger; JFO Board Co-President Nancy Schlessinger; Josh and Louri Sullivan; Natan and Hannah Schwalb; 2024 Annual Campaign Chairs, Steven, Alan, Marilyn, Amy and Sonia Tipp; new to Omaha Daniel Nemirovsky with Eleanor Dunning.

Column 2: Jody Malashock, Margie Utesch, Buzz Malashock.

Column 3: Geoff Silverstein and Ally Freeman; Agency

Volunteer of the Year Winners, Back Row, Debra Kaplan, Murray Newman, front row, Toba Cohen-Dunning, Carol Bloch, Gretchen Hutson and Jeff Zacharia (not pictured); Michael and Melissa Shrago with Suzi Mogil and Janie Kulakofsky; CEO Bob Goldberg; Andi and Don Goldstein; Sharee and Murray Newman.

Column 4: Jody and Buzz Malashock; Andrea and JFO Board Co-President Mike Siegel; Engaging crowd.

Column 5: Pam Monsky; Jay Gordman; Robyn Freeman, Justin Spooner, Bob Freeman; Natan and Hannah Schwalb with Jenn Tompkins, and Sharon Comisar-Langdon.

Column 6: Leanne, Frank and Bob Goldberg; Dan Mueller, Margie Utesch and Algene Mueller; Geoff Silverstein; Amy Bernstein Shivvers; Robyn, Ally and Bob Freeman

Photo credits: Debra Kaplan and Mark Kirchhoff

Voices

The Jewish Press

(Founded in 1920)

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Editor Richard Busse

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Margie Gutnik, President; Abigail Kutler, Ex-Officio; Helen Epstein;Seth Feldman; David Finkelstein; Ally Freeman; Mary Sue Grossman; Chuck Lucoff; Patricia Newman; Joseph Pinson and Larry Ring.

The mission of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to build and sustain a strong and vibrant Omaha Jewish Community and to support Jews in Israel and around the world. Agencies of the JFO are: Institute for Holocaust Education, Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Social Services, Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and the Jewish Press. Guidelines and highlights of the Jewish Press, including front page stories and announcements, can be found online at: www.jewishomaha.org; click on ‘Jewish Press.’ Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole. The Jewish Press reserves the right to edit signed letters and articles for space and content. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the Kashrut of any product or establishment.

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Bubble party

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT

Jewish Press Editor

“Polish city throws bubble party on top of Jewish graves” is potentially one of the worst headlines ever.

“The chief rabbi of Poland sent an angry letter to the mayor of Kazimierz Dolny,” JTA’s Dinah Spritzer wrote, “condemning the eastern Polish town for throwing a festive children’s bubble party on the site of a former Jewish cemetery where the dead are still buried.

The Kazimierz Dolny authorities filled the former cemetery with bubbles for Children’s Day, a holiday celebrated on June 1 in many European countries.”

The town’s deputy mayor, Bartłomiej Godlewskia, apologized:

“I regret the wrong decision to organize Children’s Day. We share a common history and a common home, and it was never our intention to hurt feelings — it was human error. I hope that this event will not interfere with our dialogue and cooperation in the future. I extend my apologies to you to the entire Jewish community.”

‘Human error’ indeed. But sometimes, human error comes in multiple layers. And I’m not convinced that the continued disregard for Poland’s history can still be ascribed to a simple mistake— because it’s a mistake that keeps on giving. If a nation repeatedly ignores its own history, and its own

SASHA GOLDSTEIN-SABBAH JTA

The Sassoon family is having a moment. The Baghdadi Jewish dynasty that made its fortune in trade across the Indian subcontinent and East Asia is the subject of the current exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York, titled The Sassoons. Joseph Sassoon’s book, The Global Merchants: The Enterprise and Extravagance of the Sassoon Dynasty, was published last year. Last month’s highly publicized auction of the Sassoon Codex for over $38 million focused attention on the Sassoon heir who once owned the 1,100-yearold Hebrew Bible. The Sassoon Family Archive at the National Library of Israel has been newly digitized.

The Sassoon dynasty is the epitome of the cosmopolitan transnational Jewish families I retrace in my book Baghdadi Jewish Networks in the Age of Nationalism: intrepid merchants who transcended empires, continents and cultures. Starting with David Sassoon (1792-1864), who left Baghdad in 1828, eventually settling in India, the Sassoon empire would, at its height, extend from China to England.

The transnational networks they and their contemporaries established, tied together disparate Jewish communities and laid the foundation for present-day philanthropies dedicated to the plight of world Jewry.

The Sassoon family cannot be reduced to a stereotype of wealthy Jewish collectors who assimilated into European culture, nor can they be seen simply as The Rothschilds of the East — although they mingled with Rothschilds and held similar riches gained through business. They were their own phenomenon quite apart from the Rothschilds. Too often modern Jewish history is presented from an Ashkenormative (Eurocentric) perspective. Elevating the histories of families like the Sassoons and the communities who benefitted from their philanthropy, highlights the diversity and complexity of the modern Jewish experience.

Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole.

culpability in that history, is it still an error, or is it simply a pattern? Especially when the government does everything in its power to minimize Poland’s responsibility? The message, after all, has been: “We are not at fault, and anyone who says other-

The Jewish Museum exhibit is laden with dreamy

wise will be corrected.” Yet, most of us know that the Nazi regime could not have been as effective had it not been for other countries’ cooperation. What’s worse, when that regime met its downfall, the cooperation continued.

Antisemitism in Europe was worse than ever during the years immediately following WWII. Blame went to the victims and the German government, while everyone else tried as hard as possible

family portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and John Singer Sargent and the 18th-century European art the family acquired. This might give the mistaken impression that the Sassoons abandoned Baghdad, adopted European social and cultural tastes and never looked back to the Middle East. Fortunately, this visual narrative is balanced by the manuscripts, marriage contracts and Judaica that speak to the family’s deep connections to the Middle East and their Jewishness. The Sassoons exhibit, with its comfortable and opulent objects, subtly raises awareness of the diversity of Jewish experience.

The late 19th and 20th century world of the Sassoons is, in short, a gateway to understanding the specifically dynamic transnational Jewish networks of modern Middle Eastern Jewish history. The exhibit offers hints of the Baghdadi heritage of the family and the cosmopolitan religious, business and philanthropic networks in which they participated. Examples include the beautiful silver tikim (Torah cases) and a haftarah scroll, both commissioned by Flora (in Arabic, Farha) Sassoon (1859-1936), who was born in India and later emigrated to England. Flora was admired for both her erudition and business acumen, and her commissions are vivid examples of her religiosity and her concomitant global network: The silver for the tikim was smithed in Shanghai and styled in a Middle Eastern motif; the scrolls were written by a sofer, or scribe, in Baghdad, and the whole Torah was assembled in her hometown of Mumbai. During Flora’s lifetime both Shanghai and Mumbai were important nodes in the Sassoon business empire, and as a result had small but flourishing Baghdadi Jewish communities beyond the Sassoon family itself.

Similarly, the manuscripts on display in the exhibit, many acquired by David Salomon Sassoon (18801942), Flora’s son, illustrate the family’s interests in multilingualism and their Jewish material heritage. David collected over 1,000 manuscripts, and many of the rarest pieces in his collection were acquired during his trips back to Iraq. His close connection to

to escape responsibility. One way several countries have done this is by literally covering up remnants of what used to be thriving Jewish communities:

“The former cemetery, now a children’s play area next to an elementary school, was demolished roughly 50 years ago, but the bodies were not removed. Jewish headstones were used to pave roads and used as building materials throughout Eastern Europe during the communist era.”

Growing up in Europe, I know first-hand how hard it is to escape history. Reminders of what happened there are everywhere. You don’t necessarily have to learn about history only from books, the evidence is all around you. With that comes the repurposing of old buildings: churches become art galleries, castles host concerts, those beautiful old stately mansions turn into classrooms. It’s pretty normal to go clubbing where once people worshiped. yet, doing that with graveyards is generally still a no-no. Not so in many east-European communities. The dead don’t protest, and those among the living who care have long since moved away; who is left to make their case?

In Poland especially, when it comes to remembering, taking responsibility and honoring the victims, ‘children partying on Jewish graves’ might be just the perfect metaphor.

the Jewish community in Baghdad despite his birth in Mumbai and adulthood in Britain, his proficiency in Judeo-Arabic (that is, Arabic written in Hebrew script and inflected with Hebrew and Aramaic loanwords) and his fluency in Judeo-Baghdadi (the spoken dialect of Iraqi Jews) enabled the acquisition of these rare and varied manuscripts. While many of the pieces on display seem to speak to the ”Europeanness” of the Sassoons, they also underscore that the Sassoons remained a part of Iraqi society, and that these two societies were not mutually exclusive.

The inclusion of a 1946 photograph (by Arthur Rothstein) of Jewish refugees reading a list of Holocaust survivors in the exhibit points to yet another critical role of the Sassoons as important philanthropists for Jewish transnational causes. By 1939 over 20,000 Jews fleeing Europe had found their way to one of the few locations that did not require a visa, Shanghai. Arriving with little means and few, if any, connections, they were welcomed by a well-established Baghdadi Jewish community for whom the Sassoons had been throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the primary contributors to Jewish life, endowing schools, synagogues, and charities there as they did across the Baghdadi diaspora and the Middle East itself.

Philanthropy and communal leadership are essential components of the Sassoon legacy, helping us see a broader community beyond the beautiful and durable objects which are easiest for curators to display and which attract visitors for their inherent qualities. If you happen to be in New York before Aug. 13, visit the exhibit to luxuriate in the wonders of wealth and prestige which the Sassoon family possessed. While you are there, pay special attention to the dual cosmopolitan and communal approach to Jewish history that is exemplified by many of the pieces on display. View the many artifacts and documents as an invitation to explore the global cultural, economic and philanthropic contributions of Middle Eastern Jewry, an enduring and rich legacy of a remarkable family.

Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah is assistant professor of Middle Eastern Studies at University of Groningen. She is the author of Baghdadi Jewish Networks in the Age of Nationalism (Brill, 2021).

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

Children enjoy a bubble party in Kazimierz Dolny, Poland, for Children’s Day, June 1, 2023. Credit: Screenshot from YouTube/Kan

The Sassoons are having a moment. Here’s why that matters.

Hannah Gubbay (1885–1968) was the daughter of E. D. Ezra and Mozelle Sassoon, members of one of the richest and most cultivated Jewish families in Europe. Credit: Private collection.

Photo by Barney Hindle.

Nuance is crucial in fighting hate.

JONATHAN JACOBY JTA

My 95-year-old mother knows a thing or two about trauma. Not only because she is a survivor of Auschwitz but also because she is a psychologist.

“What worries me,” my mother says, “is that we Jews will succumb to our past trauma rather than rise above it.”

I share my mother’s concern.

Jewish Americans face the threats of escalating antisemitism and growing white nationalism at the same time that the Israeli government’s anti-democratic policies are eliciting increasingly harsh condemnation worldwide.

There is no inherent relationship between antisemitism and the outcry over Israeli policies. But when they occur together, they can trigger traumatic memories and confuse our thinking. This confusion can lead to a dangerous conflation of issues at the intersection of Israel and antisemitism.

Prime Minister Netanyahu exploits this confusion to deflect condemnation of his policies. He constructs a misleading equation, portraying severe criticism of Israel as not only a threat to the Jewish state but also to the Jewish people.

To demonize his political opponents, Netanyahu invokes the ultimate act of antisemitism, the Holocaust. He did so when he blasted those negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran and when he reprimanded The New York Times over its criticism of the agreements he reached with far-right political parties. His strategy is to downplay antisemitism on the right and emphatically equate left-wing with right-wing antisemitism to obscure their distinctions.

Some Jewish organizations, perceiving strong criticism of Israel as threatening Jewish unity and the Jewish state, reflexively reinforce that equation. A case in point is Anti-Defamation League chief Jonathan Greenblatt’s approach to anti-Zionism.

Greenblatt used his keynote address at ADL’s annual leadership summit in May to hammer home his assertion that “Anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Full stop.” Over the past two weeks, he has played a leading role in the campaign to endorse the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance non legally binding working definition of antisemitism (IHRA) as the sole such definition in the Biden administration’s U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism. In a tweet urging its adoption, Greenblatt proclaimed: “Anything else permits antisemitism under the guise of anti-Zionism.”

Greenblatt was worried about reports that the White House would include other definitions in the strategy, such as the Nexus Document, which addresses “the complexities at the

intersection of Israel and antisemitism.” Greenblatt has repeatedly denigrated Nexus by calling it a “pasted-up process organized by activists” and circulating inaccuracies like: “The Nexus definition assumes that unless there is outright violence involved, anti-Zionism is generally not antisemitism.”

In fact, the Nexus Document includes seven examples of antiZionist or anti-Israel behavior that should be considered antisemitic and four that might not be. As Dov Waxman, a member of the Nexus Task Force and chair of Israel Studies at UCLA, tweeted: “Nexus clearly identifies when criticism of Israel or opposition to it crosses the line into antisemitism. But because it is clearer than IHRA in this respect, it is less susceptible to being misused and weaponized against Palestinians and their supporters.”

the greatest danger facing Jewish Americans. As President Biden said in his opening remarks when the National Strategy was unveiled: “Our intelligence agencies have determined that domestic terrorism rooted in white supremacy including antisemitism is the greatest terrorist threat to our Homeland today.”

“We can’t take on white supremacy, xenophobia, anti-LGBTQ hate, or any form of hate without taking on the antisemitism that helps animate it,” says Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and former head of Integrity First for America, which successfully sued the neo-Nazis who organized the deadly 2017 Charlottesville march. “And likewise, we can’t take on antisemitism without taking on white supremacy or these other forms of hate … All our fates are intertwined.”

But Israel’s policies create a dilemma. When many of our potential allies see Israel, they see a country that calls itself a democracy but enacts laws enshrining Jewish dominance over Palestinian citizens of Israel. And they see a country that has denied fundamental human rights to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza for 56 years. So, not surprisingly, they are moved to speak out about these realities.

It’s not that Greenblatt doesn’t understand the complexity of these issues. He has taken nuanced and moderate positions on anti-Zionism in the past. But complex formulas impede the use of simplistic equations. If Greenblatt wants to show that anti-Zionism is always an existential threat to both the Jewish state and the Jewish people, he can leave no room for nuance.

Ultimately, the White House acknowledged the significance of utilizing a varied set of resources to combat antisemitism, stating, “There are several definitions of antisemitism, which serve as valuable tools to raise awareness and increase understanding of antisemitism.” The strategy acknowledged that the United States had already “embraced” the IHRA version, describing it as the “most prominent,” and went on to say that it “welcomes and appreciates the Nexus Document” and other efforts.

That formula has angered some supporters of the IHRA definition, including World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder, who said: “The inclusion of a secondary definition in addition to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism is an unnecessary distraction from the real work that needs to be done.”

Like Greenblatt, Lauder wants to build a consensus around a simple explanation for a complex situation. But their approach actually diminishes our ability to carry out “the real work that needs to be done” because it weakens our ability to confront the dominant force fueling increased antisemitism in America: white supremacy. According to the ADL, white supremacy is

Criticism of Israel will inevitably heighten in response to the policies and actions of this Israeli government. Some of Israel’s critics may indeed cross a line by using antisemitic tropes or stereotypes or denying Jews the same rights afforded to others, including Palestinians. When they do, they should not get a free pass. Full stop.

But we must resist the temptation to reflexively respond with accusations of Jew-hatred, even when the criticism of Israel is off-base or unjustified. We cannot afford to oversimplify complex issues by conflating political disagreements about Israel with antisemitism. If we do, we risk distracting from addressing the most dangerous instances of antisemitism and bigotry.

Times like these call on us to shed the weight of our past and approach these issues with clear minds and thoughtful consideration. “Sometimes we split the world into good and bad to guard ourselves against difficult realities,” my mother said. “If we can rid ourselves of the bad and make it so the other side is always guilty, then we feel safe. But by doing so, we lose the ability to find a solution.”

Jonathan Jacoby directs the Nexus Task Force, which is affiliated with the Center for the Study of Hate at Bard College. He is the former executive director of the New Israel Fund and former executive director of the Israel Policy Forum. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

As a child of survivors, I see my parents in every Ethiopian immigrant to Israel

MARK WILF

JTA

Recently, I watched a mother reunite with her son for the first time in 41 years.

On May 9, I was part of a delegation of the Jewish Agency for Israel that accompanied Ethiopian olim (immigrants) from Addis Ababa to Ben Gurion Airport and new lives in Israel. The mother had made aliyah in 1982 as part of Operation Moses, when Ethiopian Jewish immigrants trekked for weeks through the Sudan, hiding out from authorities in the daytime and walking by moonlight, to reach Israeli Mossad agents, who were secretly facilitating their transport to Israel.

But the son, due to family circumstances, was left behind. And here she was on the tarmac, praying and crying, and the embrace they had when the now grown man walked down the stairs, that depth of emotion after decades of waiting and yearning, was something that I will never forget.

The Ethiopian Jewish community dates back some 2,500 years, from around the time of the destruction of the First Temple. We know that they have always yearned, from generation to generation, to be in Jerusalem. Most of the Ethiopian Jews emigrated to Israel during the 1970s and 1980s and in one weekend in May 1992, a covert Israeli operation, dubbed Operation Solomon, airlifted more than 14,325 Ethiopian Jews to Israel over 36 hours. Those coming today are being reunited with family members who came during one of these earlier operations.

On my four-day trip from Addis Ababa to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, I listened to the stories of incredible perseverance, and of heartrending suffering, among Ethiopian Jews — our brothers and sisters. Close to 100,000 of them have made their way to Israel over the past 40-plus years, fulfilling this community’s centuries-long quest to come to Israel.

I heard about the Ethiopian Israeli who, as a 15-year-old, marched through Sudan with his family and lost three of his siblings to starvation. I heard the stories of families waiting, for months or years, for that moment of aliyah, as clandestine negotiations among government negotiators dragged on. It was so powerful to hear of the sacrifices they made and how strong the dream was, and is today, of coming to Jerusalem, to Israel.

And I thought of my own family’s journey — a different time, under different circumstances. But also a Jewish journey of perseverance, suffering and, for the fortunate among us, survival.

My parents were born in Poland in the 1930s. During World War II, my father and his family survived in a Siberian labor camp and then in a remote part of Poland. My mother’s family managed to get work papers, but her father did not have them. He survived the war by hiding under the floorboards of a barn on a farm where they were living. The woman who owned the farm did not know they were Jewish, so it was a harrowing day-to-day existence.

about 80 years earlier. Back then, there was no one there to protect my family, no one to do anything for them. And here I was in 2022 standing amid a massive array of aid agencies, and the very first thing these refugees saw — whether they were Jewish or not — were signs with the Star of David, marking the Jewish Agency, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and other Jewish groups.

While there has been significant hardship and struggle for the first generation of Ethiopian Jews in Israel, it was incredibly inspiring for me to meet members of the second generation — those who made the trek as children or teenagers in the 1980s and ’90s — who are now Israeli adults in positions of leadership and significant responsibilities. We heard from Havtamo Yosef, who immigrated as a young child from Ethiopia with his parents, and then watched his father become a street sweeper and his mother a housecleaner while he was growing up. Now he heads up the entire Ethiopian Aliyah and Absorption services for the Jewish Agency, ensuring that there are stronger absorption procedures, better education and firmer foundations for better lives for these new immigrants than there ever was for his family.

But my mother and father survived, managed to make it to liberation, and eventually came to the United States. They were first sponsored by the Birmingham, Alabama, Jewish community, and then made their way to New York and New Jersey, where our family has built a new life. We now have fourth-generation children growing up here in New Jersey, and we feel so fortunate for the lives we have.

Here is the essential difference from their story and mine: For my family, there was no state of Israel. Many members of my family perished in the Holocaust. There was nowhere for them to go. This drives what I do. Today, everything has changed because we have a state of Israel, and we have a Jewish Agency that ensures that Jews can make aliyah and helps them make new lives in Israel.

Last year, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I traveled to Poland and stood at the border as thousands of Ukrainian refugees streamed across. I was standing only a few miles from where my grandfather hid under the floorboards of that barn

While there was no Israel for my family when we were refugees, there were — in Birmingham, Alabama; in Hillside, New Jersey; and everywhere along the way of my family’s journey — people who thought outside of themselves, who cared and took care of my relatives. This is my legacy and what motivates me today.

So when I stood on the tarmac at Ben Gurion earlier this month, I cried tears of sadness at the long family separations and tears of joy that today this Jewish journey continues, from Ukraine and Russia and Ethiopia to Israel. Today, there is a place to go and a people to welcome Jews on that tarmac, with an Israeli flag, a smile and a warm embrace, and a promise of better lives in freedom.

Mark Wilf of Livingston, New Jersey is chairman of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel and immediate past chair of the Board of the Jewish Federations of North America. He is also a past president of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey, now the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

Mark Wilf, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, in blazer at right, greets new immigrants from Ethiopia at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel, May 9, 2023.

Credit: Maxim Dinshtein

Credit: Getty Images

B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

618 Mynster Street

Synagogues

p.m.

Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766

712.322.4705

email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE

Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism

14506 California Street Omaha, NE 68154-1980

402.492.8550 bethel-omaha.org

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

12604 Pacific Street Omaha, NE. 68154

402.556.6288 BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org

CHABAD HOUSE

An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch

1866 South 120 Street Omaha, NE 68144-1646

402.330.1800 OChabad.com email: chabad@aol.com

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN

South Street Temple

Union for Reform Judaism

2061 South 20th Street Lincoln, NE 68502-2797

402.435.8004 www.southstreettemple.org

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

Capehart Chapel 2500 Capehart Road Offutt AFB, NE 68123

402.294.6244

email: oafbjsll@icloud.com

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME

323 South 132 Street Omaha, NE 68154

TEMPLE ISRAEL

Union for Reform Judaism (URJ)

13111 Sterling Ridge Drive Omaha, NE 68144-1206 402.556.6536 templeisraelomaha.com

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: TIFERETH ISRAEL

Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

3219 Sheridan Boulevard Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 402.423.8569 tiferethisraellincoln.org

Monthly Speaker Series Service, Friday, July 14, 7:30 p.m. with our guest speaker. Our service leader is Larry Blass. Everyone is always welcome at B’nai Israel!

For information on COVID-related closures and about our historic synagogue, please contact Howard Kutler at hkutler@hotmail.com or any of our other board members: Renee Corcoran, Scott Friedman, Rick Katelman, Janie Kulakofsky, Howard Kutler, Carole and Wayne Lainof, Ann Moshman, Mary-Beth Muskin, Debbie Salomon and Sissy Silber. Handicap Accessible.

B’NAI ISRAEL BETH EL

Services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman.

VIRTUAL AND IN-PERSON MINYAN SCHEDULE: Mornings on Sundays, 9:30 a.m.; Mondays and Thursdays 7 a.m.; Evenings on Sunday-Thursday 5:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Kiddush & Kittens following services; Havdalah, 9:45 p.m. Zoom Only.

SUNDAY: Torah Study cancelled.

MONDAY: Evening Minyan, 5:30 p.m. followed by Jennifer Kay Memorial Speaker.

TUESDAY: Board of Trustees Meeting, 7:15 p.m.

FRIDAY-June 23: Nebraska AIDS Project Lunch, 11:30 a.m.; Kabbalat Shabbat 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

SATURDAY-June 24: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Kiddush following services sponsored by Aveva & Marty Shukert; Havdalah, 9:45 p.m. Zoom Only.

Please visit bethel-omaha.org for additional information and service links.

BETH ISRAEL

FRIDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Summer Camp JYE BI 2023, 9 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat, 7:30 p.m.; Candlelighting, 8:41 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:45 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity 9 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:51 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:40 p.m.

MONDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.; Mincha/ Ma’ariv, 8:40 p.m.

TUESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 6:45

a.m.; Board of Directors Meeting, 7 p.m.; Mincha/ Ma’ariv, 8:40 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7

a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:40 p.m.

THURSDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7

a.m.; Character Development, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Ari; Mincha/Ma’ariv 8:40 p.m.; Parsha Class 9:10

FRIDAY-June 23: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat, 7:30 p.m.; Candlelighting, 8:43 p.m.

SATURDAY-June 24: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat 10:45 a.m.; Mincha/ Ma’ariv 8:30 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity 9 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:53 p.m.

Please visit orthodoxomaha.org for additional information and Zoom service links.

CHABAD HOUSE

All services are in-person. All classes are being offered in-person and via Zoom (ochabad.com/academy). For more information or to request help, please visit www.ochabad.com or call the office at 402.330.1800.

FRIDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochabad.com/ Lechayim; Candlelighting, 8:41 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 9:51 p.m.

SUNDAY: Sunday Morning Wraps: Video Presentation 9-9:30 a.m. and Breakfast, 9:45 a.m.

MONDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Personal Parsha, 9:30 a.m.; Intermediate Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

TUESDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Intermediate Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 7 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

WEDNESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Mystical Thinking (Tanya), 9:30 a.m.; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 11:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

THURSDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Parsha Reading, 10 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Advanced Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 11 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Talmud Study (Sanhedrin 34), noon; Introduction to Alphabet, Vowels & Reading Hebrew, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) Class, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY-June 23: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ocha bad.com/Lechayim; Candlelighting, 8:43 p.m.

SATURDAY-June 24: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 9:52 p.m.

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY:

B’NAI JESHURUN & TIFERETH ISRAEL

Services facilitated by Rabbi Alex Felch. Note: Some of our services, but not all, are now being offered in person.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Nathaniel and Stever Kaup, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg host: TBD; Shabbat Candlelighting, 8:42 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service 9:30 a.m.

with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Sh’lach; Havdalah, 9:51 p.m.

SUNDAY: Tifereth Israel Annual Meeting, 10 a.m.; Men’s Bike/Coffee Group meet, 10:30 a.m. at RockN-Joe, just off of 84th and Glynoaks. For more information or questions please email Al Weiss at albertw801@gmail.com; Jewish Book Club, 1:30 p.m. and will discuss Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump by Jonathan Weisman via Zoom; Pickleball, 3-5 p.m. at TI.

MONDAY: Synagogue Offices Closed for Juneteenth.

FRIDAY-June 23: Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Nathaniel and Steve Kaup, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg host: TBD; Shabbat Candlelighting, 8:44 p.m.

SATURDAY-June 24: Shabbat Morning Service 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Korach; Havdalah, 9:53 p.m.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

FRIDAYS: Virtual Shabbat Service, 7:30 p.m. every first and third of the month at Capehart Chapel. Contact TSgt Jason Rife at OAFBJSLL@icloud.com for more information.

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME

The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home’s service is currently closed to visitors.

TEMPLE ISRAEL

In-person and virtual services conducted by Rabbi Batsheva Appel, Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin, and Cantor Joanna Alexander

FRIDAY: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m. In-Person; Shabbat B’yachad Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Tot Havdalah, 4 p.m. at the Splash Pad. RSVP Required.

TUESDAY: Temple Israel Annual Meeting, 7 p.m. InPerson & Zoom.

WEDNESDAY: Yarn It, 9 a.m. In-Person

THURSDAY: Thursday Morning Class 10 a.m. with Rabbi Azriel via Zoom

FRIDAY-June 23: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m. InPerson; Shabbat B’yachad Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY-June 24: Torah Study 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom.

Please visit templeisraelomaha.com for additional information and Zoom service links.

JEWISH PRESS NOTICE

The Jewish Press will be closed on Tuesday July 4. There will be no Jewish Press on July 7, 2023 Questions? Call 402.334.6448.

US State Department calls recent Roger Waters concert ‘antisemitic’

GABE FRIEDMAN JTA

The U.S. State Department has condemned Roger Waters, calling the former Pink Floyd frontman’s recent concert in Berlin “antisemitic.”

A reporter asked at a press briefing on Monday whether the department agreed with recent comments from Deborah Lipstadt, the department’s envoy for combatting antisemitism, who tweeted criticism of Waters.

“The concert in question, which took place in Berlin, contained imagery that is deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust,” the department wrote in a response to the question on June 6, the Associated Press reported. “The artist in question has a long track record of using antisemitic tropes to denigrate Jewish people.”

Waters is a leader in the call to culturally boycott Israel, often promoting the cause of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS. Jewish leaders around the world have long said his harsh criticism of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians crosses the line into antisemitism.

Waters incorporates his Israel criticism and other political views into his live shows, which have in the past included a large pig-shaped balloon with images of dollar signs, the Star of David or the logo

of an Israeli armaments firm. His stances have incurred blowback in the past, but on his current tour, he has enraged critics by juxtaposing the names of Holocaust victim Anne Frank and Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian journalist killed in an Israeli military raid last year, on the screen at his performances.

The municipalities of Frankfurt and Munich unsuccessfully attempted to have Waters’ concerts in their cities canceled. Groups of protesters, in some cases involving local Jewish leaders and politicians, have shown up outside his concert venues. At the Frankfurt show, one protester stormed the stage with an Israeli flag.

Since last month, German police have been investigating whether a costume that Waters has worn for years at concerts, which resembles a Nazi officer’s uniform, constitutes Nazi glorification, which is outlawed in Germany.

Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Union’s antisemitism envoy, who is German, tweeted late last month that she was “sick & disgusted by Roger Waters’ obsession to belittle and trivialize the Shoah & the sarcastic way in which he delights in

trampling on the victims, systematically murdered by the Nazis.” Waters has in the past compared Israel to Nazi Germany.

Lipstadt replied, writing that she “wholeheartedly” agreed with von Schnurbein’s take. Waters had responded to the accusations about his costume, which includes a long black coat and a red armband, in a statement to social media. “[T]he elements of my performance that have been questioned are quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms,” he wrote.

Roger Waters seen performing in Berlin in 2013. His onstage costume resembling a Nazi officer has come under scrutiny.

Credit: Adam Berry/Getty Images

Pulverente

Over 60 Years Experience With Jewish Lettering and Memorials

Raise your hand if you can see the future

AMY BERNSTEIN SHIVVERS

JFO

Foundation Executive Director

If you are like me, your hand is down. This is an important sentiment when it comes to the work we do at the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation (The Foundation). One of the highlights of my job is meeting with potential clients and donors.

During these conversations we ask “what is important to you?” Charitable giving begins with your heart. What do you care most about? When it comes to our Jewish community, where do you feel the need is greatest? There are no right or wrong answers but there is one certainty... we do not know what the future holds.

This plays a key part in creating a donor’s endowment at The Foundation. Your wishes and preferences are very important so is realizing what our community needs are today, may or may not be the same in the future.

Ten years ago, did we have the vision to build a Jewish middle school, and who would have predicted a global pandemic which reshaped our lives? Three years ago, who owned a pickleball racket? You get my point. When you answer “what’s important to me?” it is best practice to not be too narrow or overly specific.

The best endowment gifts for any community, including ours, is unrestricted. Unrestricted is not a bad word, in fact, this type of gift allows the leadership of the Jewish community, those who work most closely with early childhood to seniors, to have a say in determining where, and what, is our greatest need – Nice!

At The Foundation, our door is open and we look forward to learning about you and what is in your heart. Hopefully, there is flexibility to plan for the unknown so that your fund

1439 So. 13th 402-341-2452

Family Owned and Operated

Executive Director Nebraska Jewish Historical Society

assets are always utilized to best serve the needs of our community today, tomorrow and in the future.

Are you interested in learning about the tools at The Foundation to support our Jewish community?

Please call 402.334.6498 or ashivvers@jewishomaha.org to schedule an introductory conversation.

We need everyone’s help to assure a solid future for the Omaha Jewish Community.

Israel wins third place at U-20 World Cup

JUAN MELAMED

LA PLATA, Argentina | JTA

Israel won third place in the U-20 World Cup on Sunday, capping a historic run in its first-ever appearance at the tournament by beating South Korea 3-1.

Local Jews and Israeli visitors made up a large portion of the crowd of over 15,000 at the stadium in La Plata, Argentina, a city about 40 miles outside of Buenos Aires. Israel’s success at the tournament, which is meant to showcase the next generation of global soccer stars, has been a galvanizing event for South American Jews.

“We were so welcomed,” Ofir Haim, the Israeli team’s coach, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after the match. “How they sing the [Israeli] national anthem, Hatikvah, is very moving for me and the players.”

He added, “At the 85th minute, I heard the fans singing the anthem. They created an atmosphere as if we were at home. It’s impossible to describe the feeling.”

The victory June 11 came at the end of a surprising string of wins for the Israeli team, which beat Uzbekistan and Japan before shocking Brazil, one of the world’s best teams, in the quarterfinals. Israel lost 1-0 in the semifinals earlier in the week to Uruguay, which won the tournament in a separate match on June 11 by beating Italy.

“Two days ago I was disappointed because we couldn’t reach the final,” El Yam Kancepolsky, an Israeli midfielder, told JTA. “But now I’m very happy. Third place in the world is amazing.”

Roby Schindler, the president of Uruguay’s umbrella Jewish

organization, the Comité Central Israelita de Uruguay, said this was the result he had been hoping for.

“I want Uruguay to be the world champion,” he said. “And I also want Israel to win third place.”

Israel won on June 11 thanks to goals from Ran Binyamin, Omer Senior and Anan Khalaili. The victory came despite a

The Executive Director is the management and development officer of the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society (NJHS) which is an agency of the Jewish Federation of Omaha, a non-profit 501c3 organization. The incumbent is responsible for carrying out the mission of the NJHS which is to help assure the collection, preservation, protection, and promotion of the history of the Jewish family heritage including business and social histories of the Jewish Communities of Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Education and Experience:

• Master’s Degree in History, Art History, or Museum Studies required.

• At least 5 years of experience in a historical society, museum, or gallery required.

• Published research manuscripts focusing on Jewish, local, or regional history preferred, but not required.

• Teaching history, art history, or museum studies at the secondary or university level preferred, but not required.

• Knowledge of standards and best practice for museums or similar organizations.

Apply online at https://www.indeed.com/job/executivedirector-nebraska-jewish-historical-society-c1dbbe8eb5e5 dc33

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decision by the Israel Football Association to recall five of its key players from the tournament before the game so they could join Israeli teams ahead of upcoming matches in Europe.

And Israeli soccer got another piece of good news on Friday: Argentina’s national soccer team, which won last year’s World Cup, will play a friendly match in Israel next year.

“We are not players, we are a family with an amazing coach,” said midfielder Roy Navi. “I feel on the top of the world now.”

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Israel’s under-20 men’s soccer teams celebrates winning third place at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in La Plata, Argentina, June 11, 2023. Credit: Marcio Machado/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images

A Salute to Community Donors: The Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation

On May 24 at the Samuel Bak Museum at Aksarben Village the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation hosted donors to kick-off the yearlong calendar of events for The Foundation’s Fabulous at 40! Anniversary celebration.

Donors enjoyed exploring In the Beginning: The Artist Samuel Bak, now through July 16. The exhibition features over fifty works that explore Bak’s artistic career from his watercolors done in the Landsberg Displaced Persons Camp in Landsberg, Germany, to his most recent paintings. He curated this selection of works to showcase his gift of over five hundred works to the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Samuel will celebrate his 90th birthday this August and has painted over 5,000 pieces. At age nine, Samuel and his mother were sheltered in a local covenant, his father and four grandparents all perished at the hands of the Nazis. Samuel continues to paint daily, it is his lifeblood.

As part of the donor salute, guests enjoyed food from Star Catering, drinks and socializing. Amy Bernstein Shivvers, Executive Director of The Foundation gave a brief presentation on new initiatives at The Foundation and guests viewed The Foundation’s debut video – a story told by generous donors and grateful recipients.

The Foundation video included a few impressive numbers: Over 40 years, we have grown from $5.6 million to $107.2 million in managed assets, thanks to generous donors like you. Over 40 years, The Foundation has distributed $145 million to support the causes you care about!

The celebration is just getting starting. Everyone is invited and all programs are complimentary for registered guests. To rsvp visit https://tinyurl.com/Fabat40

Photo credit: Debra Kaplan

Don and Ann Goldstein

JFO Foundation Staff: Amy Bernstein Shivvers, left, Stacie Metz, Diane Walker and Laurie Peatrowsky

Anne and Ed Joseph

Denis and Pam DePorte