Vol. LXXXIV No. 41 Omaha, NE
Celebrating 84 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa
10 Sivan, 5765 June 17, 2005
Jewish-Arab Play Aims to Open Eyes and Hearts on Both Sides by DINA KRAFT TEL AVIV (JTA)--“Show me your identification,” the soldier, wearing a helmet and camouflage flak jacket, barks at unsuspecting theatergoers trying to reach their seats. Faces go pale. But nervous laughter follows once it becomes clear that the soldier is not really a soldier at all, just an actor in the play they are about to see--a production about the Palestinian-Israeli conflicted called Plonter, a Hebrew slang word for a mess. The idea of a checkpoint in the middle of a darkened theater may be absurd, but the absurdity of the conflict is what Plonter is all about. The play, which debuted at the respected Cameri Theatre last week, is the creation of its cast, a mix of Israeli Arab and Jewish actors who drew on real life scenes from the conflict, including some from their personal experiences. During the series of scenes and vignettes that make up the production, the nine actors switch back and forth between portraying Israeli and Palestinian characters, speaking in both Hebrew and Arabic.
A scene from the new Israeli play Plonter which depicts life on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This scene shows an Israeli Jewish family comforting their sister and daughter in the hospital after she miscarried a pregnancy as a result of being injured in a terror Credit: Cameri Theatre attack.
UNP: A Hidden Treasure by BOB EISENBERG Special to the Jewish Press Wittgenstein and Derrida; Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Power; Judenrat; and A Jewish Colonel in the Civil War. Which university press publishes these books? Harvard? Columbia? Tel Aviv? No. These and scores of other titles of similar Jewish interest, some entertainingly obscure and others ponderously intellectual, are put out by Nebraska’s very own University of Nebraska Press. This largely independent arm of the University of Nebraska system has been a serious player in the realm of academic publishing since its inception in 1941 and has been a formidable presence in the Jewish literary world since at least the 1980s. The University of Nebraska Press (UNP) is, as a whole, the second largest university press in the country when measured in the number of titles it publishes, just behind the gargantuan California. Indeed, UNP puts out more than 300 books in new and reprint form a year. “We’re a hidden treasure” observes Elizabeth Demers, who until early this month had been History acquisitions editor and had served as interim editor-inchief. “People regularly come up to us at book fairs to congratulate us. They call us things like ‘scrappy’ and ‘daring’.” “They say we have a quirky edge,” adds Ladette Randolph, the press’s Humanities editor. It is these two editors who have between themselves directed the lion’s share of acquisition, development and distribution of Jewish Studies books in recent years, a list of titles which has its own catalog comprising over 120 books in print. For any serious bibliophile of the Jewish persuasion, reading this catalog is like being the proverbial kid in a video-games emporium. Continued on page 2
Inside Opinion Page see page 8
In one scene, Yousef Sweid, an Arab Israeli who grew up in Haifa, plays the role of a senior Israeli officer overseeing the cover-up of an army shooting of a Palestinian boy. In the next scene, he’s a Palestinian militant wearing a black-and-white checkered kaffiyeh and firing an automatic rifle in the air, calling for vengeance. In another scene, Irit Kaplan, a Jewish Israeli actress, dons the black clothes and mourning scarf of a Palestinian woman, then returns to the char-
acter of a middle-aged Israeli mother fussing over her soldier son who accidentally shot a boy in the West Bank--the same child her Palestinian character is mourning. The interlinking story lines are part of the play’s message that all the players in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are human beings; the tears of a Palestinian mother who lost her son from a soldier’s bullet, or a Jewish settler who lost her baby to a terrorist’s bullet, convey similar feelings of grief and loss. “The settler is really the opposite of who I am,” said Mira Awad, who plays the role of a Jewish settler in several scenes but who herself is Arab. She had trouble at first preparing for the part, she said, but then saw the humanity in her character. “A mother losing a child is universal; it’s the same disaster wherever you go,” she said. The cast spent seven months researching, writing and haggling over the script. They traveled to checkpoints, to Arab villages and throughout Israel, passing out questionnaires to citizens on their views of the conflict. Continued on page 11
Two More Shlichim Join JCC Shaliach This Summer in Day Camps by CAROL KATZMAN diers are placed in development towns and the poorer Editor of the Jewish Press areas of Israel’s big cities to work with disadvantaged Omaha’s Jewish Community Center has employed an youth. Many of them wind up staying on in the comIsraeli shaliach or shlicha every summer in its camping munity after they finish their army service.” program since 1983. This year, however, two shlichim “These counselors are really admired by the Israeli peowill join Uri Levin, the J’s full-time year ’round shaliach. ple,” added Dorfman, who has also completed a threeDoron Dorfman, 23, from Kiriyat Motzkin near year stint in the Israel Defense Force’s Intelligence Unit. Haifa, and Avital Lowe, 21, of Jerusalem, will spend As a high school student, Dorfman learned Arabic, eight weeks here, working with the children of the JCC. which he put to use in the IDF, but was also active in Noar Dorfman, who will major in law and media studies at l’Noar--BBYO’s Israeli counterpart. In fact, he was Hebrew University when he President of his chapter and returns to Israel late in lead a delegation from Israel August, will work with to ILTC (the International Laura Wine in the day camp Leadership Training Confrom serving children vention) at Camp Perlman in kindergarten through fifth Starlight, PA. grade. Lowe will work in the His mother, Adrianna, is a Pennie Z. Davis Child teacher and his father, Development’s summer proGideon, who was career gram under the supervision army, now works for Galil of Corey Kirshenbaum. Medical, a biotech company Levin is thrilled to have the that has patented a needle company. “Having been in that can freeze individual Omaha a year already, I can cancer cells. Doron’s older introduce them to the combrother, Liron, works for munity. And they can teach Netvision, the Israeli web me, too; they both have backand e-mail company. Avital Lowe and Doron Dorfman arrived in Omaha last grounds in youth work.” Dorfman also brings expeweek from Israel to work in the JCC camps this summer. Lowe comes from a family rience to his position as a of three girls. Her older sister Michal, 24, just finished shaliach this summer. “I worked in the JCC camps in her third year of psychology studies at Tel Aviv Las Vegas last summer,” he smiled, “and wanted someUniversity; another sister, Hila, 22, studies at a culinary thing different. Omaha is very kind, very Midwest.” “They are a wonderful asset to our summer camps,” institute in Herzylia. Education is an important value in the Lowe family; Avital’s mother, Anat, is a special edu- noted Lisa Shkolnick, JCC Assistant Director, “and we are cation supervisor in the Ministry of Education and her very excited to have three shlichim here this summer.” Like other shlichim in the past, Avital and Doron didfather, Joseph, is an orthopedic surgeon at Hadassah Hospital. Avital plans to put her own background to n’t know where Omaha was located! Both hope to do good use while working in the JCC camps this summer. some traveling in America before they return to Israel. “In the army, I served as a youth counselor first and In the meantime, they plan to get to know their host then as a commander of other counselors,” she told the families and the children in the CDC and JCC summer Press last week. “In this, the Garin program, young sol- camps--and hope Omahans will meet them, too.
This Week: CDC Graduates PreSchoolers: Page 4 Jewish Groups Launch Campaign for Jews from Arab Lands: Page 3
Crowds Enthralled by “Best of Beth El”: Page 7
Coming Next Month: Health and Wellness on July 15 Sides Rearming in Battle Over Boycott of Israeli Academics: Page 9
JCC Honors Volunteers and Staff at End-of-Year Meeting: Page 12