Vol. LXXXII
No. 43
Omaha, NE
27 Sivan, 5763
June 27, 2003
SERVING NEBRASKA AND WESTERN IOWA FOR 82 YEARS
Pavelka Goes to Israel by JOAN K. MARCUS Kent Pavelka, a member of the Nebraska Radio Personalities Hall of Fame, longtime voice of the Cornhuskers and talk show host at radio station KKAR, spoke of his recent trip to Israel at a meeting of the B’nai B’rith Breadbreakers. The Jewish Federation of Omaha and an anonymous donor sent Pavelka to Israel. Bob Wolfson, Executive Director of the Anti-Defamation League of Omaha, accompanied him on the trip. The concept of the trip was to try to build an understanding of the problems between Israelis and Palestinians. The program, called “America’s Voices in Israel,” invites local radio news broadcasters to come to Israel and broadcast their shows from there for a week at a time. “I didn’t go there just to broadcast. The idea was to educate me,” Pavelka said. “They took me around so I would know about what I was speaking. The philosophy is that the value doesn’t stop at the end of the five days. I have a prospective to draw on whenever news comes from the Middle East.” Wolfson added, “Israel is a very disturbing place to be. What’s disturbing is that people aren’t coming. We went to restaurants, all of the regular sights and we were everywhere. And, I must tell you that, in spite of the fact that there’s still occasional violence, I felt just as safe as I ever have!” He went on to say that when they got off of the plane in Jerusalem, he took Pavelka for his very first experience in Jewish life to the Kabbalat Shabbat service at the Western Wall. “The yeshiva bochers (students) were coming down the steps, 60 at a time, singing and that ‘sea of faces’ was really quite extraordinary.” “I asked Bob before we started the trip to explain the issues between the Palestinians and the Israelis,” Pavelka explained. “I wanted to ‘cut to the quick’ and have him explain about the problems.
Now, I know that this is incredibly c o m p l e x , multi-faced and terribly misunderstood. My perspective on things has cert a i n l y changed!” Pavelka said that being in Jerusalem was a spiritual experience for him. “To be in Jerusalem, Kent Pavelka where three great religions had their roots, grabbed hold of me right away. I felt kind of like a novice but I stepped right up to the Wall and said a prayer. I felt the same thing as everybody there who was bringing in the Sabbath. Because of that, I have an appreciation for Judaism I didn’t have before,” he admitted. He commented that he was taken by the values that he sensed being Jewish is all about. These values have to do with celebrating Shabbat and the sense of purpose in life. “I’m talking about the things that Jewish people do on an everyday basis,” he continued. “I was also taken by the fact that, interfaced against that spiritual feeling, there’s a contrast with all of the political tension!” (Continued on page 10)
A ‘Tree of Life’ is Planted in Omaha by ARIELLA HOFFMAN If you have always assumed you had to live in a major metropolitan city to provide your preschooler with a top notch traditional Jewish education, think again. Beginning Sept. 2, Torah Umesorah, the leader in creating Jewish day schools in America, will be represented in Omaha with the Etz Chayim Preschool. The name Etz Chayim is Hebrew for “Tree of Life” which alludes to the tree planted in the Garden of Eden that if eaten would give everlasting life. Similarly, the purpose of Etz Chayim Preschool will Rabbi Tuvia Hoffman, Administrative Director, and Shari Blum pause be to give each child the while working on the set up of the new Etz Chayim Preschool. opportunity to connect to their Jewish heritage, an everlasting heritage more ery rhymes. Etz Chayim’s classes will run from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on than 3,000-years-old. Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that children enrolled in Etz Chayim will open its doors this fall to Jewish the Pennie Z. Davis Child Development Center at the children ages of three to five. The school’s focus will Jewish Community Center will also be able to benefit be on integrated Jewish education. It will provide a from Etz Chayim. (Torah Tots, a program for twobalanced secular education including learning the year-olds, will continue on Mondays.) alphabet, exercises in age appropriate developmenAn Open House will be announced soon for those tal learning, and social and emotional growth and parents who would like to preview the facility, development. located at 2646 No. 90 St. (corner of Maple and The children will also be introduced to traditional 90th), and meet the staff. The entire staff at Etz Jewish learning. The Jewish curriculum will Chayim is dedicated to Jewish ideals and instilling include: the Jewish year, Shabbat, holidays, a love for Judaism and the Jewish people. Hebrew alphabet, learning about kosher food, (Continued on page 2) Jewish arts and crafts, and Hebrew songs and nurs-
Despite Terror and Economic Trouble, More North Americans Making Aliyah by RACHEL POMERANCE NEW YORK (JTA)--It’s the time of year when hemlines recede, sports head outdoors and North American Jews move to Israel. Each year, most North Americans who make aliyah do so in the summer. Paradoxically, that number has been growing since the Palestinian intifada began in September 2000. “Israel’s going through a very difficult time right now,” said Marcos Monheit of North Miami Beach, voicing a key reason many new immigrants give for their move. “We can’t take it for granted, and the best way to help is to be there.” About 1,000 North Americans are expected to take the plunge this summer, joining 500 who departed for the Jewish state earlier this year. Another 300400 North Americans visiting Israel are expected to adopt Israeli citizenship by summer’s end.
Some of the Americans who will be making aliyah this summer attend a Jewish Agency farewell party Tuesday, June 17, in New York. Photo by David Karp
North American aliyah has averaged between 1,300 and 1,500 for the past decade, according to Michael Landsberg, Executive Director of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s North American aliyah department. Last year, however, 2,020 North American Jews made aliyah, up from 1,560 in 2001, he said. The last major wave of aliyah was in the 1970s, when the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War and 1973 Yom Kippur War--when Israel seemed particularly embattled--helped raise North American aliyah to levels of 6,000 to 7,000 Jews annually, he said. Now, while general immigration to Israel is down--due to Israel’s shaky security and troubled economy--aliyah from the West is up, according to the Jewish Agency. Several immigrants say the intifada has rekindled their Zionism, many received economic help to make the move and some say it’s just serendipity. Like Monheit, most of the North American immigrants are Orthodox Jews--some 56 percent this year, down from 69 percent the previous year, according to the Jewish Agency. “We’ve been away from the land for 2,000 years,” said Monheit, chief financial officer for a chain of nursing homes. “It doesn’t makes sense to pray for it and not to be there,” said Monheit, who will move with his wife and four pre-teen children next month. “Today it’s a matter of getting on a plane and going.” (Continued on page 12)
INSIDE: Monthly Calendar ............................. pages 6-7 Rabbis Regale Hadassah Members ..... page 9 Schlicha Arrives to Instill Love for Israel in JCC Campers ......................................... page 10