June 27, 2008

Vol. LXXXVII No. 42 Omaha, NE

Israelis protest high cost of fuel

In common with most of the world, Israel has been profoundly affected by the rise is the cost of oil. Convoys of vehicles left from Ashdod, Jerusalem and Haifa to converge on Tel Aviv's main artery, the Ayalon Highway, last Thursday. Truck drivers, taxi drivers and bus drivers coordinated a protest of what they see is the government's inaction to stabilize fuel prices. The Israel Road Transport Board is protesting against sharp rise in fuel prices, as well as high diesel taxes affecting costs throughout the Credit: ISRANET business sector.

Celebrating 87 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa

24 Sivan, 5768

June 27, 2008

Making peace, talking war

by ROY EITAN JERUSALEM (JTA) -While nowhere near coexistence, Israel and Hamas are trying out an accommodation of sorts with an Egyptian-brokered truce in the Gaza Strip.

The deal came into effect at dawn on June 19 and seemed to be holding until late Monday night, when a Palestinian mortar shell was fired into Israel.

On Tuesday, several Kassam rockets landed in southern Israel, slightly injuring two people.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Despite the apparent violations, Hamas said it was committed to the cease-fire, and the rocket Despite the cease-fire with Hamas that went into effect June 19, 2008, Israeli tanks remain Credit: BPH Images salvo elicited no immedi- poised on the Gaza border. ate response from Israel.

The Gaza problem has presented the scandal-plagued Hamas is expecting the cease-fire to bring a letup in prime minister with a thorny dilemma.

Israeli attacks and an easing of the Israeli blockade of If Olmert were to order a major invasion, left-wingers Gaza, which was designed to weaken support for Hamas would go after him, and the Israel Defense Forces could among the strip’s 1.5 million, mostly aid-dependent end up in the same insoluble quagmire it encountered in Palestinians.

Lebanon in 2006 with Hezbollah. But by agreeing to a For Israel, the cease-fire is expected to bring a reprieve truce, the right-wing opposition has slammed Olmert from Palestinian shelling and rocket attacks, though for dealing, albeit indirectly, with Hamas, saying it will Tuesday’s rocket attack fueled speculation that the quiet give Hamas time to rearm and enable the terrorist group would not hold for long. to gain legitimacy abroad.

Palestinian rocket attacks have killed 16 people since Some Israeli strategists suggest that the Olmert gov2004, including three in recent weeks, and raised the ernment may have to do both: Try out a truce, then pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to order an invade Gaza if it fails. invasion of Gaza.

Continued on page 2

Local authors describe heroic Grand Island merchant who saved his countrymen from grip of Nazis

by GARY JAVITCH for the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society Many Jewish-Americans remember the tragic 1939 voyage of the St. Louis. That was the story of the ship that sailed from Hamburg, Germany with 937 Jews aboard fleeing an uncertain fate in the Nazi “Fatherland.” Tragically, no country would give the refugees permission to disembark. The boat was forced to return to the Third Reich and almost all were murdered in concentration camps.

But what if they had had a savior? What if someone could have opened a doorway to freedom for them? What if ...?

Fortunately for more than 80 families, one such man did exist.

And while he couldn’t save the passengers on the St. Louis, during the five-year period from 1936 through 1941 and for a brief time after World War II, David Kaufmann courageously risked his reputation and his wealth to rescue hundreds of Germans from certain death.

This remarkable story about this extraordinary man came to light recently and is revealed in the just-published book: Doorway to Freedom: The Story of

Inside

David Kaufmann: Merchant - Benefactor - Rescuer.

Well-know local PR man Bill Ramsey and his co-author Betty Dineen Shrier meticulously researched the story of German-American David Kaufmann (1875-1969), interviewing a fourth of the families the merchant saved.

“From planning to writing to publication,” Ramsey said, “this book took four years.”

At a special book signing and dessert reception, the authors, both Catholic, will explain how Ben Nachman, a retired Jewish dentist got them involved in a project about a German Jew. They will also take questions and discuss their unique project on Wednesday, July 9, 78:15 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center. The program is open to all.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the research, Ramsey explained, was the urgency of the situation in which the families found themselves in pre-war Germany. Family members told us that “[David Kaufmann] was our only hope.

We had nowhere else to turn.”

Kaufmann’s story has its roots in

Bill Ramsey and Betty Shrier will sign copies of their book, Doorway to Freedom: The Story of David Kaufmann, in an event sponsored by NJHS and the Kripke Library.

This Week: Senior Living Issue starts on Page 13

See Front Page Stories & More at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on ‘Jewish Press’ Opinion Page see page 16

Part II of AIPAC Conference: Prime Minister, candidates, more: Pages 5 & 6

Berlin, Bonn, and Cologne, where he grew up and learned the retail trade. He came to America at the age of 28 in 1903, mastered the language and started working at Abraham & Strauss (A & S) in New York City.

He so impressed a Grand Island, NE, merchant on a buying trip to Manhattan that in 1904, Kaufmann returned with the retailer to the Heartland to work in his store. Eventually, David Kaufmann went out on his own and became wealthy.

With a special section, the book gives historical context to David’s life and the unfolding world events that accompanied Adolph Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s. During this period, Kaufmann had returned for visits to his native land and let it be known that he would sponsor German Jews who want to emigrate to America.

Leaving Germany, however, was not easy. Neither was getting into the United States, as the St. Louis passengers discovered. To emigrate, a person had to have an American sponsor.

Continued on page 2

Coming Next Month: Health & Wellness on July 18 Monthly Calendar for July: Pages 10 &11

Long, productive, compassionate llves honored by Temple Israel: Pages 12 & 14

Page 2

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

June 27, 2008

Making peace, talking war

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Ashdod and Kiryat Gat and, who knows, maybe even Continued from page 1 “My feeling is that ultimately we are destined for vio- further north than that,” said Eyal Zisser, an expert at lent confrontation” with Hamas, Deputy Defense the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and African Minister Matan Vilnai said last week during a visit to the Studies at Tel Aviv University.

“Israel, therefore, is waking up to a reality in which a Gaza-Israel border. “But before we send our boys to the battlefield, we have to know that we exhausted other hostile entity that is not interested in a peace process and historic reconciliation with it has been formed on its options first.”

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told France’s Le southern border,” he said. “This entity is prepared to Monde newspaper, “Historically, we are on a collision have a truce with Israel, but similar to the quiet -- or, course with Hamas. But it still makes sense to grasp this should we say, truce -- that exists on Israel’s northern border with Hamas’ twin sister, Hezbollah. It seems opportunity.”

Olmert was unapologetic last week about his agreeing that in this case we are talking about a temporary state to a cease-fire -- a deciof calm that is not going sion that was backed by to lead Israel and the his security Cabinet -entire region in a positive and said Israel would direction.” resort to force if the Hamas refuses to cease-fire fails. renounce its mission to “The terrorist organioverthrow the Jewish zations that control the state, but its leader in Gaza Strip have been Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, under continuous milithe deposed P.A. prime tary and economic presminister, struck an sure in recent months as a unusually conciliatory result of the governnote last week. ment’s policies. It was “Should Israel honor they who sought the the calm, it will also procalm,” Olmert said in a vide some relief to the speech on June 18, using Israelis,” Haniyeh told Israel’s more amorphous reporters.

The “calm” as Olmert describes it, is supposed to prevent further term for the truce. “I Olmert flew to the rocket attacks by Gaza terrorists into Israel. Israeli paramedics would like to emphasize Egyptian resort of Sharm evacuate the body of a woman killed by a rocket launched by the and make it clear that we el-Sheik this week for Islamic Jihad from the Gaza Strip into Moshav Yesha on May 12, did not hold -- and I will talks with Egyptian Credit: The Israel Project/BPH Images 2008. not hold -- negotiations President Hosni Mubarak with any terrorist organization. We have no illusions.” about staunching arms smuggling from the Egyptian Hamas, which found itself cut off in Gaza after seiz- Sinai to Gaza and stepping up efforts to secure a prising control of the territory from the Fatah faction of oner swap involving Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last Shalit, who was taken captive two years ago, would be June, has demanded an end to Gaza’s “siege.” swapped for Palestinian terrorists jailed in Israel.

Hamas’ armed wing, which lost a gunman to an Israeli Shalit’s father, Noam, told Israeli media he felt airstrike just hours before the truce began, also has said “cheated” by the government’s willingness to enter a it is ready to resume attacks. The terrorist group has Gaza truce without a guarantee that his son would be made no secret of its plan to use the quiet of the cease- returned. But Israeli officials said Egypt has agreed to fire to stockpile weapons and train fighters. hold off on opening its border with Gaza -- a key “It seems that the people who turned a blind eye to Hamas demand -- until there is progress in talks on the rocket fire on Sderot and continued to turn a blind Shalit’s return. eye to the rocket fire on Ashkelon will continue to turn In any case, the IDF is expected to be ready for a lasta blind eye now if Hamas begins to fire rockets at resort invasion of Gaza, if the cease-fire fails.

Local authors describe heroic Nebraska merchant Continued on page 2 Kaufmann stepped forward to sponsor and sign an Affidavit of Support for more than 80 families-hundreds of desperate Germans. By doing that, he guaranteed that each family member could come to America and would not be a burden on the country, state or county-and that he would be financially responsible for each person’s employment, housing and education.

This was during the depression.

Kaufmann never met some of the people for whom he pledged his own personal resources.

Ramsey and Shrier bring

Above: the Kahn family arrives in Omaha with Terese, age three, and twins Joe and Hugo, eight-years-old.

Courtesy of Terese Kahn Stiss.

Right: the SS St. Louis, turned away by United States authorities in 1939, sailed back to Europe, where most of its passengers were sent to concentration camps.

Credit: Max Reid and the U.S. Holocaust Museum

EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press will be closed Friday, July 4, for Independence Day. The deadline for all ads, articles and photos is 9 a.m. Wednesday, July 2, for the July 11 issue. Photos from the Passover issue and Salute to Seniors issue may be picked up during regular business hours. Questions? Call 402.334.6448

to life the fascinating little-known efforts of a man whom Rabbi Kripke eulogized in 1969 as “Mr. Grand Island.”

The publisher, Mosaic Press (www.mosaic-press.com), included more than 200 photos, maps and documents throughout the book. Co-publishers are the Ted and Sarah Seldin Family Fund and the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society. The Kaufmann-Cummings Foundation, originating from the David and Madeline Kaufmann estate, has made a grant to purchase books for schools and libraries in Grand Island and Hall County. Several other grants have also been given for civic and educational distribution of books in other communities.

For more information about the event, sponsored by the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and Kripke Jewish Federation Library, please call the NJHS office at 334.6442 or the Kripke Library at: 334.6462.

June 27, 2008

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 3

With Ethiopian aliyah ending, uncertainty for those left behind

by RON CSILLAG GONDAR, Ethiopia (JTA) -- The sight of a mother trying to coax one more spoonful of mushy cereal into her child's mouth is a far cry from the horrifying famine that engulfed Ethiopia in 1984.

Today, the hundreds of young mothers and wideeyed infants crowded into the Gondar Beta Israel Association's feeding center face another problem: seemingly endless waiting. They are among several thousand Thousands of Falash Mura eat at feeding centers in Gondar Ethiopians in Gondar hop- aid compounds as they wait to hear whether they will be Credit: Ron Csillag ing for permission to immi- allowed to immigrate to Israel. committed to bringing in under a grate to Israel.

“They really have no choice but to be February 2003 government decision has here,” says Getu Zemene, chairman of the been exhausted, and except for a few association, which runs an aid compound hundred who will be leaving the country that provides food, schooling and some over the next few weeks, the vast majoriemployment assistance to Ethiopians here ty of those waiting in Gondar will not be who say they are part of the Beta Israel part of this mass aliyah.

Zemene says there are 12,000 Falash community of Ethiopian Jews.

These Ethiopians were practicing Mura living in desperate poverty in Christians until recently, and claim links Gondar and that a pall of fear has to Jewish ancestors who converted to descended over the community as the Christianity several generations ago to realization has set in that most might not escape economic and social pressures. be allowed to go to Israel.

“I’m disappointed in Israel,” Zemene They are known as Falash Mura.

“Israel made them a promise and they says. “Look, these people have fathers have come to Gondar,” Zemene said. and mothers” in Israel.

Since the exodus to Israel of Ethiopian “Here they wait.”

Over the last five years, more than Jewry -- known as Beta Israel -- in 17,000 Falash Mura have been taken to Operations Moses in 1984 and Solomon Israel from Ethiopia, most of them from in 1991, respectively, Israel has taken in the Gondar area. Now, however, the tens of thousands of Falash Mura. Due to Israeli government says it has finished the difficulty Falash Mura have of proving screening potential Ethiopian immi- their links to Jewish ancestors, Israel has grants. The list of Falash Mura that Israel relied on an informal 1999 census to

identify potentially eligible immigrants.

Israel requires that petitioners demonstrate that they have close relatives in the Jewish state and that they embrace Judaism as a condition of aliyah.

Zemene says the 12,000 people in Gondar -- including those whose petitions for aliyah were rejected, and some 8,500 or so who migrated to Gondar over the last five years but whom the Israeli government has declined to screen -- will be stranded should Israel end its Ethiopian operation.

Zemene himself was rejected for aliyah seven years ago. Asked why, he says, “Still nobody has told me anything.”

American Jewish aid groups involved in Ethiopian aliyah have promised to provide domestic resettlement aid and humanitarian assistance for Ethiopians who waited in Gondar for years but whose petitions for aliyah were rejected.

As thousands of Ethiopians in Gondar await word of their fate, they continue to flock to aid compounds in the city that are funded by the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee also runs health clinics here.

At the feeding center, nearly 1,000 children up to age 6 come with their mothers twice daily for meals of cereals, eggs, bread, vegetables and fruit. Children ages six to 18 receive one daily meal consisting of a small pile of white beans, two eggs, an orange, a bread roll and a banana.

No one lives at the aid compounds -there are three in this city -- and the people here are free to find other food and employment. But in one of the poorest countries on earth, that isn’t easy.

“The food here is not adequate,” Zemene says. No one is starving, he

explains, but there is widespread hunger.

Over at another compound, hundreds of children study for up to four hours per day at the School for Hebrew, Jewish Culture and Religion. Here they learn Jewish prayers, how to lay tefillin and about Israel. Zemene estimates that 85 percent of children in the classes have never attended a regular school.

Around the corner, a nurse examines the younger children. They sit patiently outside as each takes his or her turn filing into the dingy Solomon Clinic where they present their hands to the nurse, who checks to see whether their nails are clean.

She added, though, that they suffer from several communicable diseases, including tuberculosis, malaria, scabies, intestinal parasites and lice.

Dr. Rick Hodes, JDC’s resident medical director in Ethiopia says few if any children have tuberculosis or malaria, but agrees that children at the clinic do suffer from scabies, lice and intestinal parasites, as do many children throughout Ethiopia.

The clinic does what it can to treat children and encourage hygiene, he says.

This is not easy, however, given that the children’s clothes are worn and ragged, and many of them walk barefoot on the muddy, rutted ground.

Inspiration comes at the synagogue, adjacent to the feeding center and a mikvah. During a recent afternoon service, three older boys led the congregation in a mix of Amharic and Hebrew. Men and women, clad in traditional white robes, sat separately, many with heads bowed, the younger ones following along in donated prayer books.

If Israel shuts down its emigration operation here, “we will continue as before,” Zemene pledges, without elaborating.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

June 27, 2008

Kripke Library blooms

Group braves weather to hear lecture

by GARY KATZ Library Administrator Earlier this month, the Kripke Jewish Federation Library hosted at Books, Blooms, and Blintzes, an event in preparation for Shavuot. Right: Anna Mosenkis won a beautiful floral arrangement. Below: Master floral designer showed how to put together a Shavuot bouquet, after storyteller RIta Paskowitz performed

by MARY SUE GROSSMAN Neither rain, nor sleet, nor wailing tornado sirens will keep the Center for Jewish Education from welcoming a speaker. Last week, Rabbi Michael Broyde discussed “Religion in the American Political Public Forum” to a small but brave group. The event began in the auditorium at the Jewish Community Center, but with strong possibility of tornados, the JCC staff soon asked everyone to move to the hallway.

Unfazed by the change in venues, the attendees grabbed chairs and settled in for the remainder of the talk. Rabbi Broyde commented it was one of the more

“interesting” situations in which he had spoken. The following day, he addressed the Cardozo Society, discussing the increasing use of the Beth Din of America in both family law and commercial disputes. The lectures were underwritten by an endowment from the Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Chair of Jewish Civilization at Creighton University. Below left: A hallway lecture becomes the venue for a lecture with Rabbi Michael Broyde during a stormy night; right, Rabbi Broyde, center, greets Steve Riekes, left, and Rabbi Jonathan Gross.

Yachad asks, “Where’s the beef?”

Ben Friedman, right, and the Yachad members are welcomed to the game by Sir Loin, the mascot of the Omaha Beef football team. The group cheered the team to victory in the final regular season game, before the 10-4 Beef went into the playoffs. For information about upcoming Yachad events, call Jewish Family Service at 330.3024.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

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AIPAC Conference: Of the Prime Minister, the candidates (and other Senators) vivor ever elected to Congress, who died just a few months ago.

In an interesting departure from his released text, Olmert said that “Israel will never capitulate to terrorism or show weakness (The original read “choose appeasement”) in the face of evil.”

The Prime Minister noted the recent start of talks with Syria (through the mediation of Turkey). He said that if Syria were to choose peace, “…for which it will have to disengage from its allies in the Axis of Evil, this will constitute a drastic, strategic shift in the entire Middle East.

Iran’s negative response to this process can serve as an indication of the benefits embodied in it.”

As to the Palestinians, Olmert noted that we are at a “critical crossroads” saying of President Mahmoud Abass’s government, “They know full well that the path of terrorism only condemns the Palestinian people to misery and hopelessness, and have a genuine desire to see a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel, in peace.”

Addressing the problem of Iran, the Prime Minister said that “The international community has a duty and responsibility to clarify to Iran, through drastic measures that the repercussions of their continued pursuit of nuclear weapons will be devastating.”

Referring to the current situation in the South, Olmert noted that “…we canIsraeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stressed the nature of bipartisan U.S. sup- not be expected to accept a situation that port for Israel in his speech to AIPAC forum on June 3. Credit: Courtesy AIPAC no other nation in the world would tolI spoke privately at the Banquet with Sen. Lieberman erate,” adding (in another addition not in his released and a few of his colleagues, about the prospects for text) “terrorist killers, murderers and Qassam rocket peace in the Middle East, and particularly the likelihood shooters.” of any sort of agreement by the end of this year.

The Prime Minister also spoke of the three Israeli capLieberman felt that “It’s going to be hard, but it’s worth tives, held nearly two years, and on the minds of all the effort. Obviously the difficulty is that Hamas -- a ter- Israelis. This writer has brought up the subject of these rorist group -- controls a third of the Palestinian area,” captives on several occasions with U.N. Secretaryhe said. “But we’ve got to keep trying, and the U.S. will General Ban Ki-Moon. And I once even explained to do everything it can in that to support Israel, of course, him the importance in Jewish tradition of pidyon shvu’yand Palestinians who genuinely want peace with Israel.” im (the redemption of captives) and hatzalat n’fashot John Kyl (R-AZ) expressed similar sentiments, saying, (the saving of souls).

“It’s very difficult to make a deal with people who are But perhaps the most momentous events of the Policy Conference were the speeches made by the three major candidates, John McCain (R-AZ), Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (DNY).

John McCain, former P.O.W. and Senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, holds the seat of the late Barry Goldwater, the 1964 G.O.P presidential candidate. Unlike his predecessor, he has been Left: During an AIPAC plenary, Steve Riekes, left, greets Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) representing the a consistent supporter of Second Congressional District; right: retiring United States Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) wel- Israel, and of legislation comes Mark Javitch to his office.

Photos by Gary Javitch important to it.

McCain first lauded two Democrats -- Pres. Harry not willing to acknowledge your right to exist, and to eschew terrorism against your people. And many of the Truman for his rapid recognition of Israel, and Sen. Palestinian people within Israel would like to be able to Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson for his consistent support live peacefully. Unfortunately, they’re under the rule of of it.

McCain lambasted Iran and its President, Mahmoud Hamas right now …”

And Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), originally from Ahmadinejad. The Iranian regime, he said, “…does far Brooklyn and a graduate of its James Madison High more than issue vile insults. It acts in ways directly detriSchool (along with Sens. Schumer and Sanders), noted mental to the security of Israel and the United States.”

And he reminded his listeners that Iran is the chief that “…folks understand that the real enemy is Iran.

That’s the common enemy -- not just of Israel, not of sponsor of both Hamas and Hezbollah, therefore the United States, but of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt. remaining the “… chief sponsor of terrorism and threatAnd so the consensus…that the real enemy is not Israel, ens to destabilize the entire Middle East, from Basra to Beirut.” He also noted that “Hezbollah fighters recentit’s not the Jews. It’s extremism.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke at the ly took up arms against their fellow Lebanese, starting Banquet, in what has become an annual tradition. In the worst internal fighting since the civil war ended in some years the speech is briefer, and made by means of 1990.”

As for the Palestinians, McCain said that “they are a satellite hookup from Jerusalem (One wonders how badly served by the terrorist-led group in charge of they did it, at three or four in the morning!).

He noted the large crowd (some 7,000 diners in all), Gaza. This is a group that still refuses to recognize and joked that “I understand there are some members of Israel’s right to exist, refuses to denounce violence, and Congress in the audience” (Various AIPAC officials refuses to acknowledge prior commitments.”

In summary, McCain was certainly supportive in his spend nearly half an hour, “calling the roll” of various legislators and other VIP’s.) And he movingly noted the address (as he has been in the Senate), but one also got absence of the late Tom Lantos, Chair of the House an impression of a recitation of all the hot-button Foreign Affairs Committee and the only holocaust sur- Continued on page 6

by GEORGE BAUMGARTEN United Nations Correspondent The highlight of this year’s (and every year’s) AIPAC Policy Conference is the Banquet, on the second night, at which there is always a major speaker from Israel, and which is always attended by large numbers of Senators and Members of Congress, from both parties. Also present are many officials from the Executive Branch, as well as diplomats from all over the world -- including, in recent years, a few from the friendly Arab countries. In the words of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I/D-CT), “it’s a very unifying and unified event”.

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June 27, 2008

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AIPAC Conference: Continued from page 5 President since Truman has recognized Middle East issues that he thought his the special relationship and has made it audience wanted to hear. stronger. Israel is stronger because of us Senators Obama and Clinton spoke to and because of you. But even as we celeAIPAC on the last day of the Conference, brate these achievements, we know the right before all the delegates left for their work is far from over. Israel is not yet lobbying appointments on Capitol Hill. safe. The values that Israel represents are By a fortuitous coincidence, this was the not yet secure.” very morning after the last of the She added, “Our hearts go out in parDemocratic primaries, when Obama had ticular to the courageous citizens of just clinched the requisite number of del- cities, like Sderot and Ashkelon, who live egates to “wrap up” his party’s nomina- in fear that a rocket will fall on their tion. Both he and Senator Clinton homes and their children’s schools at any received enthusiastic receptions. moment.”

Sen. Obama has been a solid supporter Sen. Clinton also spoke -- as the of Israel, though only for a bit over three Senator from New York -- of her identifiyears, since taking office in 2005. He sits cation with the tragedy of Sept. 11, and on the Foreign Affairs Committee, added that “My support for Israel doesn’t although not on its subcommittee which come recently or lightly. I know it is right covers the Middle East.

Obama has been the victim of several scurrilous rumors in the Jewish community: that he is secretly a Muslim, that he is supported by Hamas, etc. etc. Obama confronted these rumors head on, saying some e-mails are “… filled with tall tales and dire warnings about a certain candidate for president. All I want to say is let me know if you see this guy named Barack Obama, because he sounds pretty scary. But if anybody has been confused Barack Obama insisted that Jerusalem must remain Israel’s by these e-mails, I want you undivided capital in his speech at AIPAC on June 4. to know that today I will be Credit: Courtesy Obama for America speaking from my heart and as a true friend of Israel.”

Obama told how he had first heard about Israel from a Jewish camp counselor at the age of 11. The counselor had been to Israel, and told the future Senator of that “extraordinary land”. He also related how he “…understood the Zionist idea, that there is always a homeland at the center of our story.”

He also told how his great uncle had been among the liberators of Ohrdruf, the Nazi concentration camp in Germany in which General Eisenhower was pho- Sen. Hillary Clinton addresses AIPAC on Photo by Gary Javitch tographed, contemplating its horrors. June 4.

Elaborating on his commitment to the in my head, in my heart, and in my gut.”

Jewish state, Obama said that “…we canSpeaking of future possibilities in the not relent, we cannot yield, and, as presi- Middle East, Clinton said, “Here’s how I dent, I will never compromise when it feel. Until Hamas renounces terrorism comes to Israel’s security.” and recognizes Israel, negotiating with And in a reference to the Bush Hamas is unacceptable for the United Administration’s policies, Obama stated States. The second principle is a simple that “I won’t wait until the waning days one: No nuclear weapons for Iran.” of my presidency. I will take an active role And the Senator’s third principle was and make a personal commitment to do “… standing up against hatred and antiall I can to advance the cause of peace Semitism wherever it is found.” from the start of my administration”.

In a reference to a meeting that is And in a line that received thunderous increasingly worrying the international applause (and which some have sought to community, Clinton stated that “We “clarify”), Obama promised that should take very strong action to ensure “…Jerusalem will remain the capital of anti-Semitism is kept off the agenda at Israel, and it must remain undivided”, Durban II. And if those efforts fail, I something on which he backtracked a day believe the United States should boycott later, noting that the issue would have to that conference.” be settled by final status talks between the This last statement was a reference to Israelis and Palestinians. the 2001 Conference Against Racism, Obama’s speech was substantially held in Durban, South Africa. Its “follonger than Sen. Clinton’s, and was low-up” conference is slated to be held in warmly and enthusiastically received. And 2009, probably in Geneva. There is -- contrary to this writer’s expectations -- growing concern that this could well no Republicans in the audience sought to degenerate into another orgy of Israelinterrupt it with any boos, catcalls or bashing. other “distractions”.

In summary, this was a most stimulating Sen Hillary Clinton spoke last at the Policy Conference. It was buoyed by its Wednesday morning session. Her address huge numbers, particularly of student delwas somewhat shorter than Obama’s -- egates. There were many, however, who less rousing, but heartfelt just the same. felt this new Monday-Wednesday schedule Clinton has long been a loyal supporter was too great a time imposition, and next of Israel (though she drew the ire of some year’s Conference will return to the familin the Jewish community for her embrace iar Sunday-Tuesday format. But the conof Suha Arafat, while First Lady), both in fluence of fascinating programs, important the Senate and before. leaders and -- uniquely -- presidential canShe spoke of her many visits to Israel, didates served to make this AIPAC Policy and noted that “Every American Conference a truly historic one.

June 27, 2008

ORGANIZATIONS B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS CEO Andrea Skolkin of One World Health will talk about her organization at Breadbreakers on Wednesday, July 2, noon, at Regency Lodge, according to Gary Javitch, chairman. Skolkin will also talk about her special visit with President Bush when he came to Omaha last year to visit her agency. The program is free. An optional buffet lunch is $13 and beverage service only is $3.

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

VISIONS Visions and 39 Forever go to “the ‘Blatt” for their annual baseball game day on Thursday, July 10, 6 p.m., beginning with dinner on your own at the Stadium View Club. The game (Royals vs. Nashville Sounds) begins at 7:05 p.m. Cost is $6 per person.

Send reservations to Harry Alloy, 11317 Harney Plaza Circle, Omaha, NE 68154 by July 5. If you have any questions, call Judy Katskee at 493.8875 or Harry Alloy at 697.8709.

Luncheon meeting is Friday, July 18, 12:30 p.m., at Caniglia’s Venice Inn . Cost of $11 per person includes lunch, beverage, tax and gratuity. Musical guest is Cantor Gaston Bogomolni. Send reservations to Tootie Simon, 8725 Izard St., Omaha, NE 68114, by July 11.

For information, call Harry Alloy at 697-8709. For transportation, call Florence Hauss at 571-4583. Make check payable to Visions.

JEWISH SENIOR SERVICES Take a musical journey to Mexico with Mariachi Luna and Sol on Thursday, July 17, 1:30 p.m., at the JCC .

There’s no admission fee. With their beautiful hamonies and soloists they have stunned crowds with unforgettable performances. All members of the group are dressed in the traditional Mexican outfits. For information, call Maggie Conti at 334.6521.

“EYE ON ISRAEL” The popular “Eye on Israel” will extend its “summer vacation” through July and will resume on Tuesday, Aug. 5, noon-1 p.m., with meetings each Tuesday in August with Dr. Guy Matalon and various guests leading a discussion on the latest events in Israel and the Middle East. Sessions are open to the community at no charge and held in the Kripke Library. Attendees are encouraged to bring a lunch and a friend and join in the discussion. For any questions, please call the Center for Jewish Education, at 334.6445.

Out

Dining

Former Omahan Jayme Tichauer has graduated with a Master of Clinical Social Work from the University of St. Thomas/St. Catherine University located in St. Paul, MN. Jayme has chosen to focus on young women and children from infancy to pre-school age. She has worked extensively with immigrant families and young children in residential and family settings through grants and internships. She is currently employed with Way To Grow of Minneapolis, MN. as a Family Resource Advocate.

Jayme is the daughter of former Omahans Carl and Gayle Tichauer of Peoria, AZ, and the granddaughter of Helena Tichauer, and Lillian Lerman of Peoria, AZ. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has certified Omaha Steaks International F Street Plant in Omaha at the “star,” or highest level, in its prestigious Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP). A recognition ceremony was held on June 19 at the facility.

The management and 181 employees of the Omaha Steaks “F” Street plant, which processes meat, will be recognized for their outstanding commitment to comprehensive safety and health programs.

The VPP is designed for worksites with comprehensive, successful safety and health programs. It is open to all employers with injury rates below their respective industries’ national averages. More than 1,950 worksites nationwide have earned entry into the VPP. Over the years, the VPP has proven to be an effective means of reducing injuries, illnesses, fatalities and costs, while fostering a more productive workforce and increasing employee morale.

Trocadero women’s clothing store is included in July’s Travel+Leisure magazine as “One of the 50 Reasons to Love the U.S.A. Now.” With each state having one mention, Alice Kim, owner of Trocadero, is excited to represent “Nebraska” as a destination spot in America. This city is buzzing,” says former InStyle fashion editor Kim, who left New York last year to set up shop in the Old Market area. Her boutique Trocadero holds an eclectic mix of her favorite things (Giuseppe Zanotti pumps; John Derian decoupage plates). The walls, meanwhile, are lined with fashion-show invitations and notes from her designer friends, including Thakoon Panichgul, who was raised in Omaha himself.

Dave Bonicatto of Hague Quality Water ranked #5 nationally during the month of March. Bonicatto was also the #1 sales rep for the Great Plains Region. “I’d like to thank my customers and team members for all their help in making this possible.” Dave said.

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Researchers in the UNMC Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience (PEN) have secured funding for seven grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a pharmaceutical company to study three distinct areas all related to neurodegenerative disorders.

The grants are a significant contribution to the already growing body of neuroscience research developed by the department in recent years. Lead scientists include: Howard Gendelman, M.D., chairman of the department, Georgette Kanmogne, Ph.D., associate professor, Jialin Zheng, M.D., associate professor, and James Haorah, Ph.D., assistant professor.

Four of the grants exceed $1 million.

The largest grant is a $5.8 million program project grant led by Dr. Gendelman that pulls together the work of several investigators who all study therapeutic immune-based strategies for improved drug delivery to the brain.

Nanoparticles are the focus of a $2.3 million grant looking at ways to improve the delivery of anti-retroviral drugs commonly used to treat HIV. Another grant for $1.8 million looks into therapeutic immunization to promote neuroprotection from Parkinson’s disease and HIV associated dementia.

Four additional grants secured by other members of the department look at neurodegeneration related to AIDS and alcohol consumption, and drug development for Parkinson’s disease.

“Through vision and growth, we have evolved into an interdisciplinary team spanning neuroscience, immunology and pharmacology research,” Dr. Gendelman said.

In addition to the four lead scientists, other investigators include: Tsuneya Ikezu, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor, Pawel Ciborowski, Ph.D., assistant professor, R. Lee Mosley, Ph.D., associate professor; Larisa Poluektova, M.D., Ph.D., and professor; and Yuri Persidsky, M.D., Ph.D., newly named chairman of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

June 27, 2008

Only if I were the Queen BERT’S EYE VIEW

by BERT LEWIS Recently I watched yet another tv special all about the Royal family of England. I say yet another because it seems to me they get lots of attention, but that’s just a guess on my part.

You may recall I often speak about the fact that Liz (that is, the Queen) and I grew up together. We’re very close in age and when we were both little kids, she was often seen in the newspapers, being the eldest child of the then King of England. I always was jealous of her very fancy clothing, particularly her little fur coat. Hey, I didn’t even have a cat at age four, never mind a fur coat!

She had a pony and later a full size horse and who knows how many dogs? I had a pony too, only I just had it long enough to pose on it for a picture. Remember that? A fella came around the neighborhood with a pony, looking for little kids who would want to sit on it and be photographed. As I recall, he put a cowboy hat and chaps on the kid to make the picture look even more western!

And like me, little Liz didn’t stay little longer than was usual. She grew up, just like I did. I don’t know if she had as much fun as I did, and I always doubted she skinned her knees as often, but I know for sure her mom (er, mum) wasn’t always there with just the right after school snack. She was too busy being Queen, for heaven’s sake.

I’ve been thinking, how different would my contemporary, Elizabeth been if her family had been Jewish?

To start with, who knows if that shiddach with her Philip would have been made? There might have been a nice Jewish boy from a good family someplace in Europe who would have passed muster with the matchmaker. I guess that doesn’t matter. She did marry Philip, and she had a family.

Me, too. I married my Prince and we too had a family.

Closely as I’ve followed Liz, I can’t remember ever hearing about religious school training for her children.

Well, if they were Jewish, of course the kids would have been sent someplace to learn all the same stuff my kids

learned -- which would have probably kept them from getting into the mischief that the London papers liked to report (the tattletales!).

My kids went to Hebrew School and being overachievers, also had time to get into mischief. My good fortune was they weren’t important enough to be written about in the newspapers.

The kids grew up, both hers and mine. I know mine were more fortunate because they had bubbes and zaydes and aunts and uncles. I guess Liz’s kids had relatives too, but the only bubbe I remember knowing about was her father’s mother, known as the Queen Mother and her name was Mary. I wasn’t there of course, but I can bet anything the Queen Mum didn’t bake poppyseed cookies and cinnamon rolls like my kids’ bubbes did!

If I were speculating about being Jewish, I betcha when Liz’s eldest got married to that pretty young girl, there might well have not been any fooling around outside the marriage. Can’t you just hear his mother hocking him, “Are you mad? Don’t you recognize a shanda when you see it? You took vows under the royal chuppah and you’re breaking them?”

Hey, when a Jewish mother has good reason to straighten up one of her kids, well royal-shmoil, she does it!

And we aren’t even going into stuff about traffic tickets and car accidents and not always perfect behavior in school. Heaven forbid! But even though it was forbidden, Liz’s kids had such stuff happen.

Now if she had been Jewish, I believe she’d have stepped in and grabbed her boys by the collar and talked turkey to them, straightening them right out. Instead, she was probably in her royal office, signing fancy papers and hardly remembering she had kids!

On the other hand, oh, wait a minute. We don’t have to go into all those comparisons. Let’s just reiterate my belief that if she were, the world wouldn’t have known all their family business.

Well, it’s their loss. I don’t know what shul they’d go to, or even who they’d invite to the seder or if Liz would have been a good daughter-in-law. And I don’t know what she and her prince would be doing in their retirement years.

Would they spend the winter in Miami? Oy, hardly! Or would they be kvelling over great-grandchildren?

When I think it over, I realize that fur coat, pony, dogs and all, I wouldn’t trade her for a minute. True, she and the prince have been married the same number of decades we have, and she has a throne and a crown and a tiara with who-knows-how-many-diamonds.

I still wouldn’t trade her. My kids are smarter and better looking than hers anyway! And besides, I wouldn’t wear those hats of hers for all the riches in the world! If those aren’t enough reasons, I think all her responsibilities have made her look, shall we say, very mature.

No, I’m not younger than springtime and it’s been a long time since I was carded for age, and nobody is surprised I’m old enough for Medicare, but I still think she looks like a really old lady. Now if she was Jewish, first of all, she’d be blond by now and be wearing a stunning, uptodate hairdo, not that 1950 number. She’d be dressed by the best designers in Paris and she’d have had Botox on that forehead.

Oh dear, maybe I’ve gone too far. Well, she could sue I suppose, but I think I’m safe. I’ve looked and looked but never seen her name on the subscription list of the Jewish Press. Also her loss.

Anyway, those are some of the things I was thinking about after seeing that TV show. Yes, I know. I ought to spend my time in better ways. But what can I tell you ... this is what some of us Jewish octogenarians do to entertain ourselves.

Bert Lewis can be reached at BertLewis39@aol.com.

BIRTHS Drs. Karen and Michael Cohen announce the May 27 birth of their daughter, Eva Miriam.

She has a sister, Lillian and a brother, Jack.

Grandparents are Jane and the late Jack Cohen, and Gail and Roger Williams of Des Moines, IA. Toba Cohen-Dunning and Eric Dunning announce the May 16 birth of their son, William Theodore Yitzchak Dunning.

He has a sister, Eleanor Grandparents are Jane and the late Jack Cohen, Gina Dunning of Lincoln, and Frank Dunning.

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From July 4-31, Film Streams will celebrate Laura Dern’s career with a series featuring seven of her films,

Page 9

Cooking From Memory

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT On Wednesday, July 2, 7:30 p.m., Rona and Aaron Michelson of Modi’in Israel, will present a travelogue on China and Tibet, lavishly illustrated with their beautiful pictures and covering not just the locales, but also the Jewish experience in China in history and in the present. They also will be bringing along some interesting and attractive door prizes.

Rabbi Aaron Michelson served for over 20 years as a U.S. Army chaplain and later as a civilian rabbi before making aliya. Dr. Rona Michelson is a marriage and family therapist who taught on a masters level as well as having a private practice.

Together they have become tour guides for Shai Bar Ilan Geographical Tours, guiding kosher/shomer shabbat tours in in English in China and in Vietnam/ Cambodia. Their other hobby is their five children and 24+ grandchildren, all of whom live in Israel. They promise an entertaining evening filled with laughter, information, and beautiful images at the Jewish Community Center. There will be no sales pitch, but they will be available afterwards to answer any questions.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

including Smooth Talk (1985), Rambling Rose (1991), for which she earned an Oscar nomination, We Don’t Live Here Anymore (2004), Wild At Heart (1990), Blue Velvet (1986), Inland Empire (2006) and Citizen Ruth (1996), a film written and directed by Film Streams Board Member Alexander Payne and shot in and around the Omaha area.

Curated with Dern’s input and help, the series will also feature two movies that have influenced her work in film: Sidney Lumet’s Network (1976) and Federico Fellini’s La Strada (1954).

On Sunday, July 13, Dern and Payne will share the stage at the Holland Performing Arts Center for Feature 2008, a fundraiser in support of Film Streams’ nonprofit cinema, with Payne interviewing Dern about her remarkable filmmaking career and introducing select clips from her movies.

All screenings within the “Laura Dern” film series will take place at Film Streams’ Ruth Sokolof Theater, 14th & Webster. Tickets to all screenings are $8 for adults, $6 for students and seniors, and $4 for members. For more information, please visit www.filmstreams.org, or contact Casey Logan at 402.933.0259 (ext. 11) or casey@filmstreams.org.

Long Term Care insurance: What you don’t know may hurt you Here are six quick “tips” for obtaining the coverage that fits

by BOB NELSON, VICE PRESIDENT & MICHAEL MURPHY you best: Grace/Mayer Financial & Estate Planning Division 1. Start with an advisor you trust….this should be an “educaWe have long thought that “scare tactics” do not belong in talks about insurance. Yet we have all heard disturbing stories tional” process, not a sales process. about rising costs of long term care…both in nursing homes and 2. Ask about your advisors experience in this area, is your for care received at home. So how should any of us decide agent’s office set up to serve you for a lifetime? whether to consider long term care insurance?

3. Check out the nursing home facilities in your own commuHere are a few facts to help you do just that. nity. Know their approximate costs, their levels of care and who Understand that governmental benefits for long term care are owns them. limited and/or available only after you have spent down your 4. Include a “cost of living” rider…claims are not likely for own assets. Government benefits are also not likely to increase many years (perhaps decades) into the future. considering the strain on government budgets at all levels.

5. Consider the concept called “shared care” whereby a couThere are limited benefits available through state sponsored ple shares the policy benefit. For example the total benefit may programs called “Long Term Care State Partnerships” which be eight years and the first person might use two years, leaving six years of benefit for the other. This approach provides great Nebraska established in 2007 that you should check out.

Insurance products themselves have changed greatly in flexibility.

6. Be deliberate, make an informed/common sense decision, recent years. Those who bought policies in the past and thought their premiums would never go up, are now receiving price not a quick, emotional decision.

As always, the more you understand, the better decision you increases…much to their surprise. You should understand if your prices can be increased for any policy you have or might will make. be considering.

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

To order a gift subscription to the Press...

Send a check for $20, made out to the Jewish Press and prorated for the year, to 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154. For more information on how to connect your out-of-town relatives and friends, call 334.6448.

by H. SMORGON, G. WEEDEN & N. KING (Hardie Grant)

READ IT AND EAT Reviewed by LOIS FRIEDMAN

Twenty one stories from the “numerous tales of separation and loss, accounts of miracles and tragedy” that have formed the Jewish Diaspora in Australia and illustrate the Jewish migration to this country: displacement and reunion, separation and celebration form the basis of this lovely book. The indelible link of the past and the future is the culinary voyage: the cooking, foods and flavors.

The subtitle of the cookbook is “The Journey Through Jewish Food”. The Australian authors were inspired by one’s grandmother from Poland and another’s mother from Hungary. Each story includes a few treasured recipes.

The stories and recipes are in six sections: Eastern and Western Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Luba’s is the first story and her trek from Kiev to Israel to London to Melbourne with her mother-inlaw’s food from Georgia. And Shirley’s, and Miriam’s and Bram’s.

Cooking From Memory is beautifully illustrated with color photographs of the stories, people and food.

Reading each story connects you to their recipes that follow. Just the right mix of details and descriptions. A delightful read and a culinary, multi-cultural adventure, read the rituals, customs, personal and culinary journeys.

The delectable journey is from African Peasant Stew to Zeesy’s Pea Soup. The recipes have brief instructions and include the following from Yoko Ryan’s story with beginnings in Japan.

FISH IN GINGER SOY SAUCE 1/2 cup water 1 tablespoon sugar 3 fl. oz soy sauce 1 tablespoon sake 4 white fish fillets (orange roughy, john dory, flathead or snapper) 10 fine slices ginger, skin on Mix water, sugar, soy sauce and sake, and bring to the boil. Add fish and ginger and cook for 5 minutes, until fish is cooked. While cooking, keep the fish coated with the sauce. Serve with green vegetables. Serves 4.

Lois Friedman can be reached at ReadItAndEat@ yahoo.com.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

June 27, 2008

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All events held at the Jewish Community Center unless otherwise noted. This calendar does not include all community events. For a complete listing, visit the Federation’s website: www.jewishomaha.org (click on calendar). To keep calendar accurate, call Marlene Hert at 334-6437. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the accuracy of the below events.

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FRIDAY, JUNE 27 Musical Theater Camp presents Disney’s High School Musical, 11 a.m.

FRIDAY, JULY 4 Independence Day, JCC & Federation offices closed

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

SUNDAY, JULY 6 Reading the Rambam Class, 9:45 a.m. at Beth Israel Bible Study Group, 10 a.m. at Beth El

MONDAY, JUNE 30 Speciality Camp Trip, 9 a.m. to Adventureland in Des Moines Intro to Midrash, 7:30 p.m. at Kripke Library

N.A., MEMBER F.D.I.C.

TUESDAY, JULY 1 Nebraska Jewish Historical Society Meeting, 11 a.m.

BBYO Night, 6 p.m.

Beth El Women’s Rosh Hodesh Group, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 2 Intro to Midrash, noon at Kripke Library THURSDAY, JULY 3 Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel Theology 354: Introduction to Judaism, 5:45 p.m.

FRIDAY, JULY 11 Visions Board Meeting, 9:30 a.m.

SUNDAY, JULY 13 Reading the Rambam Class, 9:45 a.m. at Beth Israel Beth El Men’s Club Summer Softball Series, 10 a.m.

39 Forever, 7 p.m. at Papillion LaVista Theatre

MONDAY, JULY 7 JSS Senior Luncheon, 9:30 a.m.

TUESDAY, JULY 8 BBYO Night, 6 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9 Sisterhood Open Board Meeting, 10 a.m. at Beth Israel Day of Dance Lunch, 11:30 a.m.

Intro to Midrash, noon at Kripke Library Board Meeting, 6:30 p.m. at Beth Israel NJHS & Kripke Library present Book Signing, Doorway to Freedom: The Story of David Kaufmann, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY, JULY 10 Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel JCC Camp Overnight, 4 p.m.

Visions & 39 Forever Baseball game, 5:30 p.m. at Rosenblatt Stadium

TUESDAY, JULY 15 NJHS President’s Meeting, 11:30 a.m.

Executive Meeting, 6 p.m. at Temple Israel BBYO Night, 6 p.m.

JCC Maccabi Parent/Athlete Meeting, 7 p.m.

Board Meeting, 7 p.m. at Temple Israel THURSDAY, JULY 17 Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel School Directors’ Meeting, noon Kripke Library Dorothy Kaplan Book Discussion Group, 1 p.m.

JSS Community Concert, 1:30 p.m.

LOVE Board Meeting, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY, JULY 18 Visions Luncheon Meeting, noon Temple Israel Shabbat Comes to You, 4 p.m. at Remington Heights

SUNDAY, JULY 20 Fast of the 17th of Tammuz, commemorating the beginning of the three-week seige of Jerusalem against the Jews by the Romans LOVE Game Day, noon Musical Salute to Cantor Bogomolni, 4 p.m.

MONDAY, JUNE 21 JSS Senior Luncheon, 9:30 a.m.

Jewish Book Club Meeting, 2 p.m.

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 23 Day of Dance Lunch, 11:30 a.m.

THURSDAY, JULY 24 Institute for Holocaust Education training: Children and the Holocaust, 8:30 a.m.

Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel JCC Camp Overnight, 4 p.m.

FRIDAY, JULY 25 Temple Israel Shabbat Comes to You, 2:30 p.m. at Blumkin Home

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 30 Institute for Holocaust Education training on Echoes & Reflections, 8:30 a.m.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

June 27, 2008

Long, productive, compassionate lives honored by Temple Israel

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator “Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art,” according to Garson Kanin, American writer and director of such classics as The Diary of Anne Frank and Funny Girl.

To celebrate their “works of art” over the past 75 years of life and even longer, Temple Israel honored its senior congregants at a Shabbat service in May. “I thought it was very nice,” commented Rosalie Greenspan who blessed the candles. “It was the first time we (she and her husband Bud) had used the new prayerbook, and we got the jist of it right away. The choir, as usual, was very good and so were (soloists) Jon Rathsam and Tami Field. The buffet was wonderful,” said Rosalie, a member of Temple since 1954.

Ann Kaiman, a member of Temple for about 20 years, also “thought it was very good, very enjoyable,” adding, that she has “always been welcomed,” at Temple.

Fritz Cassman, who led the kiddush during the service, agreed with the others. “It was very nice,” said the Temple member of 56 years.

Milton and Rosalie Saylan joined Temple some 51 years ago. They’ve been very happy with the “association we’ve had with the clergy. We went to Israel about eight or nine years ago with Rabbi Azriel. “It was fun!

Rabbi Azriel is so warm and friendly.”

Rosalie, born and raised in Omaha, lived first at 27th and Webster with her parents and four older sisters and then at 3432 Webster until she was 15. Through eighth grade, she attended Henry W. Yates School and then Central High School until she graduated in 1939. She and her sisters attended Sunday School at the Park Avenue Temple where she was confirmed in 1935.

Milt, also an Omaha native, went to Lake School and then on to Central High. The oldest of four children, Milt’s Dad, a Russian immigrant, sang in the choir at the Park Avenue Temple and at Beth Israel Synagogue at 52nd and Charles. Milt became a Bar Mitzvah at the old Kapulier Shul, 24th and Douglas. “Everyone had to work in those days,” Milt said. He had a newspaper route delivering the Omaha Bee News.

After meeting at a dance at the Blackstone Hotel, Milt and Rosalie were married in 1940 at the Paxton Hotel

by Rabbi David Goldstein. They moved to Charter Oak, Iowa -- population: 750 -- and opened Milt’s Market, a small grocery store. From 1944 to 1946, Milt was in the Navy and served on the battleship USS South Dakota in the South Pacific. After he was discharged from the Navy, the Saylans bought a grocery store in Manilla, Iowa, followed by a move to Denison, Iowa, where Milt became the owner of Super Valu supermarket.

In 1956, Milt and Rosalie moved back to Omaha, and he started a wholesale distribution business, Window Wares, selling window blinds, shades, and drapes. The

Milton and Rosalie Saylan business made about $150,000 and had one employee its first year. The company is now owned and operated by the Saylans’ oldest son, Steve, and employs about 45 people and earns several million dollars a year.

Rosalie helped Milt in the grocery stores and volunteered for numerous organizations including the Red Cross Blood Bank, Nebraska Psychiatric Institute, and Methodist Hospital. She raised three children: Dorothy who lives in Lincoln with her husband Robert Shapiro; and sons Stephen and his wife Jacki; and Craig and his wife Ellen, who all live in Omaha.

Milt retired when he was 75, and the couple moved to Palm Springs, California, where they enjoyed a life of

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golf, tennis, and volunteering at a hospital. In addition, Milt started a second career saving lives by donating 166 pints of blood.

But they returned to Omaha in 2004, “because of our family” which has grown to include six grandchildren and six great grandchildren -- five boys and, finally, last month, a girl. They moved to Bloomfield Forum, and “we love it. The people are wonderful here. There are no worries.” Milt volunteers at Methodist Hospital twice a week and enjoys playing cards. They feel a responsibility to the Jewish community and donate to the Jewish Federation, the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, and Temple Israel.

Rosalie believes that living a successful life means “always being thoughtful of the other person, caring about your community -- not only the Jewish community but the whole community. Take good care of each other,” she added. “My mother always said, ‘Don’t ever go to bed mad!’” It must have been good advice. Milt and Rosalie are celebrating 68 years of marriage in 2008.

Edythe Kass, born and raised in Ellenville, New York, met her husband Irving when she took a course in anesthesia at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. He was a resident there and she was in nurses training. The daughter of Russian and Austrian immigrants, Edythe attended nursing school at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. A year after she graduated in 1941, she became a World War II Army nurse and served in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines before returning to the United States in 1946.

“We had to wear long sleeves and long pants because of malaria,” she explained. “To this day, I don’t wear yellows, because our skin turned yellow from the antimalaria medicine. She cared for soldiers who were afflicted with “New Guinea rot” from being confined to foxholes for days on end. “They hadn’t been able to bathe.

I was only 26, but I felt like their mother.”

“Irving was very serious,” Edythe recalled. But after only three weeks of dating, “he asked me to marry him.”

After their wedding on May 9, 1948, Irving finished his residency. A pulmonary specialist, Dr. Kass worked at National Jewish Hospital in Denver and then at Will Rogers Hospital in upstate New York.

Continued on page 14

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

June 27, 2008

Long, productive, compassionate lives Continued from page 12 In 1966, Dr. Kass started the pulmonary department at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “He loved it, because he could do research and take care of patients.” Edythe was raising three children, Mark who now lives in Overland Park, Kansas; Philip; and Sharlene, both of Omaha, but worked in the recovery room at UNMC part-time. When Irving’s health began to decline, Edythe stayed home to care for him. He died of a heart condition in 1984.

Edythe Kass Edythe lives down the hall from the Saylans at Bloomfield Forum where she has lived since December.

She enjoys playing bridge and volunteered on Temple Israel’s Caring Committee. Her number one priority in life “is my children.” She has five grandchildren and one great grandson. She has been a member of Temple since 1966, “and it was a good decision.” She remembers the rabbi meeting her children at the front door on the first day of Religious School at Temple Israel.

“That’s something you don’t forget,” she said.

She tries not to dwell on her own illnesses and prefers to be of help to others. “Once a nurse, always a nurse,” she believes. After a fellow resident returned home from hip surgery, Edythe visited every morning. It’s all in your attitude,” she pointed out.

Another couple who made Omaha their home is Hugh and Corinne Levin. Corinne spent the first 18 years of her life in New York City. Hugh grew up in Newport, Vermont, a small town about eight miles from the Canadian border. Newport boasted a population of 5,000 and only eight Jewish families.

Corinne’s mother was from Vermont and enjoyed renting a cottage on Lake Champlain in the summers.

In 1953, Corinne met Hugh there, and they attended a concert together. They dated every night for the rest of

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They were married on June 27, 1954, in the Bronx by his rabbi from Burlingame, Vermont, and hers from New York. While Hugh completed medical school at the University of Vermont, the couple lived in Burlingame for two years. They moved on to Columbus, Ohio, for Hugh’s internship, residency, and a fellowship followed by two years at Wright-Patterson

became an architect who designs medical facilities in Omaha. Temple Israel Sisterhood, B’nai B’rith Women, Hadassah, Opera Omaha, the Omaha Symphony, and the physicians wives auxiliary at Bergan Mercy all became the beneficiaries of Corinne’s volunteerism.

Before moving to Omaha, the Levins had not joined a synagogue. “We decided we wanted to belong to a synagogue where we could understand what was going

Corinne and Hugh Levin on their wedding day in 1954, and right, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. While serving in the Air Force, Hugh was involved in cardiovascular research related to the response of astronauts to simulated conditions.

Corinne also worked in the medical field as a secretary in the nursing office at a Burlingame hospital, in medical records in Columbus, and as a specialist in the newly emerging Medicare program.

Eventually, Creighton University Medical Center welcomed Hugh to its teaching faculty. In 1968, he moved to Archbishop Bergan Mercy Hospital and became the first medical director of cardiology and the coronary care unit which he established while maintaining his affiliation with Creighton. He started two more coronary care units in Omaha before retiring in 1995.

“I never had any second thoughts” about my career, Hugh insisted. As a resident, “they were just starting to do open heart surgery. It was tremendous, a very exciting time in general.”

Corinne was busy raising their two children: Deborah, who now lives in Plano, Texas, and Michael, who wanted “nothing to do with medicine” but

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on,” Hugh said. “We’ve been very satisfied with Temple and with Rabbi Brooks and Rabbi Azriel. Both our children became Bat and Bar Mitzvah there and were confirmed there. Temple’s been a significant part of our lives.”

They’re also “really devout music fans,” Hugh noted.

They’ve belonged to the Symphony and the Opera. The music scene in Omaha is “excellent,” agreed Hugh and Corinne who “love the Holland (Performing Arts Center).” They also like to swim in their backyard pool and play golf. “We like to go to Texas, too,” to visit their family which now includes three grandchildren and two great grandsons. In addition, they’ve been spending winters in California since the 1980s.

Looking back, Hugh believes that “education should never stop. I enjoy learning new facts about anything.”

He added that a good life is one of “integrity and honesty, and I have the utmost respect for anybody who does a good job at whatever they do no matter how menial it may seem to them.” Family and “having a religious affiliation, no matter how devout” someone is, are also key to a successful and happy long life.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 15

You can go home again: Connecting with ancestors on their home turf FAMILY HISTORY

by SCHELLY TALALAY DARDASHTI

Family historians are no longer content to merely search through dusty archives or gather information from Internet sites, but are actively planning trips to the “old country” to follow their ancestors’ footsteps. Destinations include Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Spain, Morocco, the Caribbean and wherever Jews lived, as well as Israel.

Some root-seekers make it a family affair, strengthening the connection from past to present and future with a life-cycle trip such as B’nai Mitzvah, anniversaries or other milestones.

These time travelers don’t have to do it on their own either, as many businesses are now catering to this category.

The First Step The first step is to find your roots. You can’t travel there if you don’t know where “there” is, so be prepared for some research. Can you answer these questions?

• What do you know about your family?

• Have you done basic research to determine the original family name and towns of interest?

• From where did your ancestors immigrate?

• When did they arrive?

• Where was the ancestral homestead and where is it today?

• Are you looking for a custom-tailored roots adventure with private guide/interpreter/driver, or a general group bus tour?

• Are you interested in archival visits and meeting the town’s mayor?

• Will an informal, low-key “see the sights” trip be more to your liking?

If your family came from a large city and your plans are simply to see Jewish and general sights, this is easy to arrange. However, if you’re trying to access the ancestral “dot on the map,” make sure to add plenty of time.

There’s something else: If this is a B’nai Mitzvah trip, do you want to celebrate the event during the trip? This may be meaningful to both your child and the family, but it requires advance planning.

Sephardic families with roots in Barcelona, for example, will find help at the restored medieval Adret synagogue in the old Call, where the local Progressive synagogue ATID holds monthly services away from its main north Barcelona location. An increasing number

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of lifecycle events have been held since restoration, including weddings and numerous B’nai Mitzvah.

Check services offered by various companies; make sure you’re comparing apples and apples and not apples and broccoli. Some are all-inclusive, including flights, meals, individualized research and guided visits, while others may be simply land packages concentrating on archives and village visits with some Jewish and general touring.

Armed with town names, research them on JewishGen (www.jewishgen.org) and through various geographical special interest groups. Subscribe to discussion groups and ask questions about your proposed visit. Many experts have taken such trips and are happy to share information.

Contact your local Jewish genealogical society (find the closest group at www.iajgs.org) for more information on roots travel; their libraries may hold useful books. Here are some practical sources, but check for others at Amazon.com or your local bookstore for more: • Ruth Ellen Gruber’s National Geographic Jewish Heritage Travel, updated/expanded 2007 edition of the original 1992 edition. Gruber, a journalist, author, and travel expert, details many fascinating sites in villages, hamlets and cities. Resources are for Austria, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia. It offers practical travel information, language guides, local addresses and current details.

• The annual Jewish Travel Guide — in conjunction with the U.K.’s Jewish Chronicle — provides excellent information for global destinations, along with local resources. Hadassah Magazine’s Jewish Traveler: Guide to the World’s Jewish Communities, by Alan M. Tigay, is more general.

• Community-specific books include The Jewish Guide to Italy by Anne Sacerdoti; The Complete Jewish Guide to France and The Complete Jewish Guide to Britain & Ireland, both by Toni L. Kamins, and Ben G. Frank’s A Travel Guide to Jewish Russia & Ukraine.

Here are some other resources: Barcelona’s Progressive congregation, ATID, can help with lifecycle arrangements. Also www.urbancul tours.com, run by Argentinean expatriate Dominique Tomasov Blinder, is a good source of information and planning assistance. Barcelona is ideally located for day trips in the region to other towns that had major Jewish communities, pre-Expulsion, in 1492.

JewishGen’s ShtetlSchlepper service offers both a general overview and detailed shtetl and archival visits in its 2008 schedule to Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine (land-package

only). For more: www.jewishgen.org/Shtetl Schleppers.

Israeli travel company Gil Travel (www.giltravel.com) offers trips to Germany, the former Soviet Union, Italy, Czech-Romania, Spain and Turkey. These are general, but include Jewish touring, Shabbat dinners and services.

Kosher Expeditions (www.kosherexpeditions.com) is a good resource for observant travelers. In much of Eastern Europe, kosher food is difficult to find and special arrangements are required.

For the serious genealogist, try a custom tour by certified genealogist Miriam Weiner’s Routes to Roots Foundation, which offers trips to Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. Her services can encompass every detail (and cost accordingly). See www.routestoroots.com Last but not least, respected genealogist Stan Diamond of Montreal offers a Code of Behavior for researchers visiting foreign lands, at www.jewish gen.org/InfoFiles/ CodeOfBehavior.html.

Journalist/genealogist Schelly Talalay Dardashti writes the only Jewish genealogy blog: “Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy” blog under the JTA umbrella at: http://tracing thetribe.blogspot.com.

She also writes for the Jerusalem Post, JTA, World Jewish Digest and other publications.

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The screening will consist of blood pressure checks, family history review, breath and lung sounds evaluated by a Respiratory Therapist. Anyone answering yes to any of the following questions should attend this event to find out how to better their quality of life: Is it hard to breathe?

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

June 27, 2008

Peace with Hamas? Now What?

As this newspaper was going to press last week, stories came out of the Middle East that a “truce” had been brokered by Egyptian officials between Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Now that the dust has settled, let’s take a look at what that actually means.

According to a variety of sources, including Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel agreed to a truce with Hamas in order to stop the shelling of Israeli towns and cities from Sderot near its western border with Gaza to Ashkelon, north of Gaza on the coast. Israel also is demanding the return of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas in captivity for what will be two years next month. In exchange, Israel will ease restrictions between Gaza and Israel and allow for the safe passage of more goods and people.

Of course, immediately following the announcement, Hamas-backed terrorists launched 40 rockets into Israel. On Sunday, eight Palestinians were killed in an explosion and Hamas, at first, blamed Israel. Later, a website announcement acknowledged the eight were killed in a bomb making factory.

Two days later, Israel shot back killing six “Army of Islam” terrorists, three of whom had been involved not only in Shalit’s kidnapping, but the abduction of British reporter Alan Johnson (who was later released), and a joint attack with Hamas in which five Israeli civilians were murdered.

And now everyone wonders: will the ceasefire hold?

IDF generals are skeptical. The “truce” does not require Hamas to stop planting mines on its border with Israel; Hamas can continue digging tunnels and build bunkers (which allows terrorists to smuggle weapons and other armaments into Gaza). In addition, the truce doesn’t prohibit Hamas from deploying its armed militia on the border with Israel. The

conclusion to many Israelis is that Hamas will use the truce to build up its cache of arms and fortify its troops, preparing for an even bigger battle with Israel in the future.

Though Israel withdrew completely from Gaza three years ago, it has been subject to a non-stop barrage of rocket fire, even more so after Hamas was elected in 2007. So yes, Israel tightened restrictions on people and goods coming in and out of Gaza, for good reason.

And yes, the tightly controlled access (along with the building of the security fence) has stopped suicide attacks in Israel proper.

Despite the constant shelling, Israel continued to supply residents there with essential foodstuffs, medicine, and even electric power.

Imagine what would happen if Israel withdrew from the West Bank, too -- instead of rockets falling on uninhabited desert in the Negev, explosions would be heard and felt from Jerusalem to Tsfat.

In the socalled “second stage” of the ceasefire (that is assuming it holds), Israel will have to release 71 prisoners it currently holds in order to get Cpl. Shalit back home s a f e l y .

Admittedly the Israeli government has released prisoners before, in

so-called “goodwill” gestures. But the list of prisoners Hamas is demanding be freed are some of the most notorious, those “with blood on their hands, including convicted Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar.

Kuntar, who was part of a four-man attack on an Israeli family in 1979, murdered four Israelis, including two toddlers, as well as an Israeli policeman. He was supposed to serve a life sentence.

This sets a bad precedent for future negotiations (be they with Lebanon, Syria, or final status talks with the PA).

And although the PA officially welcomed the truce, it’s really not good news for them. This truce belies the PA claims that they are the only official representatives of the Palestinian people. Indeed, this truce gives Hamas legitimacy and tells the world, and certainly its notso-moderate Arab brothers-in-arms, that violence works, and works quite effectively.

JOURNAL ENTRY FROM ISRAEL

by TEDDY WEINBERGER Here we go again.

On June 12, indirect negotiations between Israel and Syria began in Ankara through Turkish mediation. Syria has always insisted on the Golan Heights in exchange for peace, and if anything, this position has only hardened, since Syria apparently feels that Israel is now negotiating from a position of weakness.

The next day, Syrian President Bashar Assad was thus quoted in an Indian newspaper: “The Israelis used to think that with time they were going to be stronger and any opposition to their policies would be weaker, but actually what happened was the opposite.”

Asked in the same interview what Syria was prepared to offer in exchange for the Golan Heights, Assad replied: “We don’t have something to give, but we have something to achieve together, which is peace ... It is something we achieve together, but Israel has the land and should give it back.”

In negotiations with Arab states and with the Palestinians, concern about the trustworthiness of the other side is countered by the following cliché: peace is made with one’s enemies and not with one’s friends. This is a cute saying, but it does not hold up under examination.

Hitler was no friend of England in 1938 but that doesn’t mean that Chamberlain was wise to negotiate with him. Some enemies simply cannot be trusted.

... if we really want peace with Syria, we have to stop wasting time with talk about giving away the Golan Heights ... The people of Israel won’t stand for it.

No one in their right mind would suggest that Syria, a country that has been at war with Israel much longer than were the Egyptians (and the Jordanians), would quickly nurture a warm peace with Israel. We need to give up the Golan for another frosty peace?

Israeli lawmakers are readying a bill that would condition a peace treaty with Syria upon a public referendum. Members of Israel’s liberal camp are against such a bill.

With good reason.

Israelis have grown to love the Golan. We like vacationing there. We enjoy the charming bed and breakfasts in the Golan, the beautiful

Jewish Press Board Michael Sigmond, Vice President; Stan Mitchell, Secretary; Michael Siegel, Treasurer; Howard K. Marcus, Immediate Past-chairman; Andie Gordman; Michael Kaufman; Betty Kozlen; Susan Lehr; Jamie Meyerson; George Quittner; Andy Ruback; Jim Simon; Nancy Skid; and Dorothy Spizman.

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Peace with Syria?

Has President Assad demonstrated that he can be trusted to work together with Israel once Syria gets the Golan Heights? Has he taken any confidence-building steps to win over the hearts of the Israeli people? No, and judging from his recent remarks, we are not likely to see such steps anytime soon.

In contemplating peace with Syria in exchange for the Golan Heights, one cannot help but look at Israel’s relationships with Egypt and Jordan. In neither case can the peace be described as warm (which would mean, for example, free and frequent exchanges between citizenry), and in Egypt’s case the peace is downright cold.

(Founded in 1920) Bobbi Leibowitz President Carol Katzman Editor Richard Busse Managing Editor Allan Handleman Advertising Manager Robyn Belgrade Sales Associate Lori Kooper-Schwarz Assistant Managing Editor Barbara Kirkpatrick Bookkeeper

hikes, the sophisticated wines, and we are tickled “white” by our very own ski resort on Mt. Hermon.

The Golan Heights began to be settled by Israel shortly after the Six Day War, with the founding of Kibbutz Merom Golan in July 1967. For more than two-thirds of Israel’s history, therefore, the Golan has been part of our lives.

We know exactly what we would be giving up were we to abandon the Golan, and I believe that a majority of Israelis feels that the chances of receiving something of greater value in return are extremely small.

If Israel does not want to give away the Golan, must we remain at war with Syria? Not necessarily.

Israel has much to offer a friendly neighbor in areas such as technology, medicine, and commerce. And I’m sure that the United States, Israel’s great friend, would do its best to sweeten Israel’s offer.

But if we really want peace with Syria, we have to stop wasting time with talk about giving away the Golan Heights. That avenue of negotiations is a dead end.The people of Israel won’t stand for it.

The sooner we make this absolutely clear, the quicker we will move toward the possibility of negotiations that may indeed yield a lasting peace with Syria.

Teddy Weinberger made aliyah with his wife, former Omahan Sarah Ross, and their five children in 1997. A frequent contributor to this newspaper and others around the country, he works in the Department of Education at the Jewish Agency for Israel. He can be reached at: weinross@netvision.net.il.

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June 27, 2008

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 17

UNRWA and NGOs: the real U.N. ‘Insult’ BEHIND THE H EADLINES

by JONATHAN S. TOBIN Earlier this month, the United Nations Committee on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) met in New York to consider what was for them an important issue: redeeming the tarnished honor of their organization from the “insults” of its critics.

The object of their concern was the World Union of Progressive Judaism, the Reform movement’s international arm, which has had observer NGO status at the world body since 1972. It stood liable to lose its U.N. status for “insulting” the world body.

This committee is comprised of such exemplary democracies as China, Cuba, Pakistan and Egypt as well as other countries. The current chair of the group is Sudan. Despite the fact that its government is responsible for genocide in Darfur, Sudan still parades around international forums as if it were not a pariah regime.

What did the Reform movement do to put itself in such hot water? At a recent meeting of the U.N.’s Human Rights Council in Geneva, David Littman, a representative of the Reform group attempted to read from the Hamas charter calling for Israel’s destruction.

The meeting was being used as a forum by countries hostile to Israel to indict it for “military incursions” whose purpose is to defend the Jewish State against Palestinian terrorists. By reading the Hamas document,

To this council, murder of Jewish civilians by terrorists whose goal is to eradicate a U.N. member-state is treated as inconsequential. Instead, it uses its resources to delegitimize Israel’s right of self-defense.

The real insult is not Littman’s truth-telling but the record of calumnies that have been heaped upon Israel and the Jewish State at U.N. forums such as the Human Rights Council. To this council, murder of Jewish civilians by terrorists whose goal is to eradicate a U.N.member state is treated as inconsequential. Instead, it uses its resources to delegitimize Israel’s right of self-defense.

At the same time that this was going on, the U.N. continues to fund an entire organization whose purpose is to perpetuate the Arab war against Israel: the United Nations Relief Works Agency or UNRWA.

The U.N. has two organizations, one which aids all refugees around the world, and a second which is devoted solely to the cause of those Palestinians who fled the State of Israel during its War of Independence, as a result of the Arab war launched to eradicate the state at birth. But rather than seeking to resettle these refugees, UNRWA is an impediment to any hope for peace.

As a recent report issued by the Herzliya-based Global Research in International Affairs details, UNRWA’s scandalous policies include doing everything to prevent resettlement of the refugees out of the “refugee camps.”

UNRWA’s schools are places where anti-American and anti-Semitic indoctrination is business as usual and virtual recruiting offices for terror groups. Its facilities are virtual military bases for those groups.

That all this goes on not only under the authority of the U.N. but at the expense of U.S. taxpayers (who fund much of the U.N.’s activities) is outrageous.

It is the U.N. as a whole and UNRWA in particular that is the insult to the honor of the organization.

Reform can only begin with UNRWA’s dissolution, which is a course of action that should be at the top of Washington’s Middle East priority list.

But pending that outcome, we will have to content ourselves with saluting Littman for speaking the truth.

His “insult” earned this group a U.N. reprimand (but not its U.N. status) but, if so, it is one that should be worn as a badge of honor.

Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia. He can be contacted via email at: jtobin@jewishexponent.com.

The road taken

LETTER TO THE

the hope was that the world might see what it was that Israel was up against. But instead of allowing this information to be heard, Littman was silenced.

In response, Littman replied that “something is rotten in the state of this council.”

Never have truer words been spoken.

This incident and the attempted retribution against the Reform movement sums up in a nutshell the insanity that is the U.N.

EDITOR

To the Editor: United Jewish Communities/the Federations of North America launched a relief effort for victims of natural disasters, including floods and tornadoes, that have wreaked havoc in the central United States since mid-May. The UJC Central U.S. Disaster Relief Fund -- which will include a mailbox for accepting checks and an online donation form -- will help victims in the Jewish and general populations, with funds going to local communities that have been affected by natural disasters. No administrative costs will be deducted from funds raised.

To donate online, go to: www.ujc.org or mail your tax-deductible check, marked “Disaster Relief”, to United Jewish Communities, P.O. Box 30, Old Chelsea Station, New York, NY 10113.

To date, flooding caused by storms and tornadoes has ravaged states including Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Mississippi and Wisconsin. UJC staff is working with federations and the UJC Network of Independent Communities to assess the impact on members of the community and on property. UJC continues to collaborate with federations and their constituent agencies such as Hillel, Jewish Community Relations Councils, Jewish Family Services, Jewish Community Centers and a variety of religious movements to monitor the situation, determine new and emerging needs and the appropriate response.

As a member of NVOAD (National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster,) UJC continues to monitor the needs of the general community. In addition to coordinating this continental relief effort, UJC is also encouraging local federations to open their own emergency mailboxes and raise funds directly in order to more closely track their donors, with the understanding that these funds will be forwarded for distribution by the UJC Emergency Committee.

The UJC/Federation system raised more than $10 million in response to the Southeast Asia tsunami, which helped the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee deliver critical assistance. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, UJC/Federation raised more than $28 million to help the Jewish and general communities rebuild.

Those of us not affected are the lucky ones. All we can do is pray for the victims and serve as a vehicle for those individuals who want to help by making contributions.

Our expertise has enabled us to be responsive on a continental level on so many such occasions lately.

We wish the facts were otherwise.

Howard Rieger UJC’s President and CEO

So I sank in my seat with resignation, reassuring myself that it would all be over soon enough.

As it happened, though, where this particular young Jewish woman went with Frost’s famous lines was something not to be missed. I don’t have her words before

by RABBI AVI SHAFRAN me but I well recall their essence.

The poem’s narrator, she explained, seems to take pride in having chosen from the “two roads diverged in a yelAs summer unfolds, we behold and endure graduation ceremonies -- the recognition of aca- low wood” the one “less traveled by” -- a choice that, demic milestones, the bestowing of diplomas, the con- looked back upon “somewhere ages and ages hence,” ferring of awards and the delivery, to excess, of com- would turn out to have “made all the difference.”

The graduation speaker, though, begged to take issue mencement addresses.

Having had the privilege for many years of serving as with the idea that the less traveled path is necessarily the a teacher and an administrator of a Jewish high school, I more valiant choice. The life-path, for example, that she probably imposed on captive audiences more than my and her classmates had come to value most was a road share of shared wisdom, heaping servings of words that well-worn indeed, trodden by countless Jewish generawere likely lost entirely in the reveries of proud parents tions that came this way before our own arrival here.

We hold our heads high, she declared, as we endeavor and squirmy students. Now, having had graduates of my own and having been on the receiving end of graduation to walk in their very footsteps, filled with pride at the chance to follow such speeches, I find myself with a fresh appreciation The graduation speaker, though, begged to take inspiring predecessors, and to wear as did they, for oratorical minimalism. issue with the idea that the less traveled path is the hallowed mantle of Still and all, an occaTorah and Jewish obsersional graduation speech necessarily the more valiant choice. The life-path, vance. Judaism, after all, -- sometimes even one for example, that she and her classmates had delivered by an actual come to value most was a road well-worn indeed, she explained, is not about blazing new paths graduate -- achieves trodden by countless Jewish generations that but about cherishing and memorability. That was preserving time-honored the case at one of our came this way before our own arrival here. ones. daughters’ high school It was, ironically, a rebellious message in its own way. graduations.

The custom at the Orthodox Jewish all-girls school It boldly shunned the conformity-in-the-guise-of-indishe attended is to not designate a valedictorian or salu- vidualism proffered at every turn by our open, freedomtatorian. Instead, the class members themselves, by loving society, a society that trumpets self-celebration, closed vote, suggest several young women to briefly self-fulfillment, self-respect, self.

What this 17-year-old was saying was that our undenishare thoughts with those gathered for the graduation able value as individuals must be tempered by, even made ceremony.

One of the seniors that year began with what seasoned subservient to, our value as links over history in a chain graduation-goers immediately recognized, and dreaded, of life and family and peoplehood -- as members of an as a numbing cliché: a reference to Robert Frost’s “The eternal community of belief and commitment.

It is a message, truly, for our times. In an age of emoRoad Not Taken.”

Oy, we collectively (if silently) moaned. Another dec- tional alienation, marital discord, rampant consumerism laration of personal independence, one more sweet and instant gratification, nothing could be healthier to paean to individualism. Although a careful reading of digest than the fact that we have not only desires but the poem reveals the possibility, perhaps probability, of responsibilities, that we were gifted with our lives to fulan ironic intent in Frost’s haunting words, the poem has fill something more than ourselves.

Those who come to recognize that fact, and its nevertheless widely come to be taken as a satisfied celebration of individuality, of the existential value of the upshot, will likely one day, ages hence, look back and realize that, indeed, it really made all the difference. less-traveled road.

Now there’s nothing wrong with individuality, to be Rabbi Shafran is director of public affairs for sure. But all the same, the poem and its purported point are rather heavily traveled themselves, having become Agudath Israel of America and can be reached at staples of countless literature classes, poetry recitals -- Shafran@agudathisrael.org. His column is courtesy of Am Echad Resources. and graduations.

FOCUS ON ISSUES

Page 18

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

June 27, 2008

Candlelighting Friday, June 27, 8:42 p.m

Synagogue Listings B’nai Israel Synagogue 618 Mynster St. Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 322.4705 email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com

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

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE

Rabbi Jonathan Gross.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 7 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m. free babysitting, 9:30 a.m.; Children’s Classes, 9:45 a.m. with Torah Parade; Kiddush is sponsored by Shnayder Family in honor of Dr. Michael Shnayder completing his residency program; “Guard Your Tongue” and “Advanced Analysis of Midrash Rabbah” begins one hour before Mincha; Mincha, 8:45 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:53 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; “Reading the Rambam” with Rabbi Oxman, 9:45 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m.

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

THURSDAY: Women of the Torah class, 9:30 a.m.; Rabbi’s weekly class is on break for the month of July.

FRIDAY, July 4: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Synagogue office is closed.

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

Services conducted by Rabbi Mordechai Levin and Cantor Gastón Bogomolni.

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

SATURDAY: Morning services, 9:30 a.m.; Kiddush luncheon in honor of Cantor Gastón Bogomolni and family is sponsored by Beth El; Minha/ Ma’ariv, 8:55 p.m.

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

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

Bible Study SUNDAY: Discussion Group will resume July 13.

MEN’S CLUB SOFTBALL: Sunday, 10 a.m. at the JCC softball field.

WOMEN’S ROSH HODESH GROUP: On Tuesday, July 1 attendees will tour the mikvah at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home; meet at the Home’s front desk at 7 p.m.

To RSVP, contact meeting host Susan Paley at 330.6583, or susanpaley@cox.net, or Ann Goldstein, 391.1050, or akgoldstein@gmail.com.

Offutt Air Force Base

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

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

Office Hours: Mon.-Thurs., 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Fri., 8:30 a.m-2 p.m. Services conducted by

Rose Blumkin Jewish Home

Overnight camp: ready or not?

Beth El Synagogue Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California Omaha, NE 68154-1980 492.8550 www.bethel-omaha.org

Beth Israel Synagogue Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 12604 Pacific St. Omaha, NE. 68154 556.6288 BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org

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

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

Congregation B’nai Jeshurun

323 S. 132 St. Omaha, NE 68154

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

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

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

If you’re looking at this space, so are others!

YOUR AD CAN GO HERE...

to reserve space, call

Allan Handleman, 402.334.6451 or Robyn Belgrade 402.334.6559

JEWISH P ARENTING

by SHARON DUKE ESTROFF Going to overnight camp for the first time; it is -- in many circles -- a Jewish rite of passage.

Unlike becoming a bar or bat mitzvah, however, the perfect timing for transitioning from daycamper to overnight camper is not preordained; on the contrary, it can vary significantly from child to child.

With no magic age to rely on, how do we determine whether or not our child is ready to take the sleep-away plunge?

We take a deep breath, separate our own conflicted-emotions from the question at hand, and look for the following overnight camp readiness markers in our son or daughter (adapted from guidelines by Chris Scheuer, director of camping for YMCA camping services of Greater New York) A desire to go to overnight camp. True some kids require gentle nudges to get them into the sleep-away state of mind. But if you notice your child turning a ghastly gray every time you broach the topic of bug juice or

BEYT SHALOM FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat Services, 7:30 p.m. at the synagogue.

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

FRIDAY: Services, 7 a.m.

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

SUNDAY: Service, 8:30 a.m.; “Heading Somewhere” studing the book of Numbers, 9:30 a.m.;

s’mores, chances are you should wait another round of the calendar before bringing them up again.

Successful experiences away from home. Generally speaking, kids who routinely spend the night with friends without 3 a.m. pleas for pick-up or survive a week at Grandma’s with minimal trauma are more likely to take to an extended stay at overnight camp than kids who don’t.

Adaptability to new routines.

Every child takes a little while to settle into new schedules and routines, but some kids become prohibitively anxious in the absence of familiar protocol. In other words, if you believe your child might wig out if his favorite Scooby Doo mug isn’t delivered nightly to his bedside with spring water and crushed ice, overnight camp may be a Scooby Don’t for now.

Ability to interact with other children. Your child needn’t be a social debutante, but a basic knack for integrating into a group, relating to other kids and forging friendships is vital for group/bunk life.

Parsha study, 10 a.m.

WEEKDAYS: Services, 7 a.m.

MONDAY: Kabbalistic Insights for Women, 12:15 p.m.; Halacha, 7 p.m.

TUESDAY: W.O.W. Prayer, Prophets, and Prayer, 9 a.m.

WEDNESDAY: Kabbalah Circle, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY: Jewish Thought, 12:45 p.m.; Parsha for Kids, 1 p.m.

All events and programs are open to the community.

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

FRIDAY: Shabbat Shalom Peaceful Shabbat Service, 7:45 p.m. led by Rabbi Emanuel, with oneg following hosted by Marc Shkolnick.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10:30 a.m. all led by Rabbi Emanuel.

TUESDAY: Board of Trustees Retreat, 6:30-9 p.m.

ADULT EDUCATION TUESDAYS, 7 p.m. Introduction to Hebrew, led by Rabbi Emanuel will begin a four-week session on July 8. Contact the Temple office at 435.8004 or stemple@neb.rr.com to register.

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

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME

led by Rabbi Maximo Shechet.

TEMPLE ISRAEL FRIDAY: Shabbat Service, 6 p.m., led by Rabbi Azriel Aryeh and Cantor Wendy Shermet; D’var Torah: Jan Goldstein -“California Dreamin’ to the Promised Land.”

SATURDAY: Sparks Beneath the Surface, 9:15 a.m.; Shabbat Service, 10:30 a.m.

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

NEIGHBORHOOD MINYAN FRIDAY: Minyan, 7 p.m.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m.

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

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

FRIDAY: Services, 6:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: Morning service, 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush lunch and Talmud study.

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

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m.

A handle on hygiene basics.

While overnight camp provides an excellent forum for promoting independence in kids, a child who has yet to nail down hygienic basics ( i.e. face and body washing, hair and tooth brushing, nose and tuchas wiping) can quickly become disheveled, malodorous and embarrassed.

Ability to express needs.

Plenty of shy kids thrive in a sleep-away setting, but profound hesitance to communicate personal needs – especially when a child is not feeling well, needs help learning a skill, or isn’t sure where an activity is taking place can compromise a camper’s physical and emotional well-being.

Willingness to experience the outdoors. No matter how expensive an overnight camp might be, it is not going to be the Ritz. On the contrary, spiders, snakes, rain, and mud are part of the overnight camp fabric. While most kids take well to the opportunity to connect with nature on such an intimate level, some kids -- let’s just say -- do not.

Respect for adults. Enjoying a bit of parent-free abandon is part of the fun of overnight camp.

Still, basic kavod toward counselors, specialists and other authority figures, and willingness to adhere to adult-initiated

boundaries, are prerequisites for a successful sleep-away stay.

Finally, keep in mind that the aforementioned guidelines are not foolproof. Some kids may receive stellar scores in classic overnight camp readiness signs and still not be ideal summer sleep-away candidates.

Others may come up short on paper, but do absolutely fine at overnight camp. This is why it’s always important to consult your parent gut -- your intrinsic understanding of your child -- before making a final decision on this issue (and on any other parenting issue for that matter).

If, after careful consideration, you determine your son or daughter is not quite ready for prime-time overnight camp, don’t despair.

Embrace the coming months as an opportunity to help your little camper reach these milestones, and reassess the situation next year.

Sharon Duke Estroff is an internationally-syndicated parenting columnist and author of Can I Have a Cell Phone for Hanukkah: The Essential Scoop on Raising Modern Jewish Kids. She can be reached at: www.sharonestroff.com or www.modernjewishkids.com.

June 27, 2008

The great rebellion

SPARKS FROM THE WORD

by RABBI MYER S. KRIPKE Parashat Korah No, it isn’t at all like Obama or McCain hoping to replace Bush as President of the United States. That would make sense. Here we have a rebellion against the leadership of Moses, which really makes no sense since his leadership was impeccable and competent.

There’s always someone who says, “Why him? I could do as well or better myself!”

In fact, however, Korah was interested in self-aggrandizement: “I could do better than he” and “I would like the position he occupies.”

Korah surrounded himself with other boastful characters who wanted a piece of the pie. They overlooked the fact that the pie was full of responsibilities and obligations. Instead, they only saw the cherries and blueberries they imagined were in the pie.

Moses humbles himself before them. But it is the Lord Himself Who destroys the ambitions of Korah and the hungry men who were his companions. In this whole incident, we are involved in a very human situation: everyone, or almost everyone, thinks he could do better than the boss.

In the case of President Bush, perhaps everyone, or almost everyone, is right. But no one, I repeat, no one could give of himself as much as Moses did and retain a basic humility and selflessness.

It was for this reason that the Lord Himself had to take control of the situation and deal directly and swiftly with Korah and his gang. Simply put: the earth opened up and swallowed them all. The Midrash tells us that even to this day, one can hear the pathetic pleas from this gang, entreating anyone who will listen to get them out.

It is a simple human truth: leadership, when it is successful, must include readiness to give up pride and ambition and replace these with the hopes of the group represented -- in this case, the Israelites as a while.

Korah remains forever the example of a jealous demagogue.

EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press will be closed Friday, July 4, for Independence Day. The deadline for all ads, articles and photos is 9 a.m. Wednesday, July 2, for the July 11 issue. Photos from the Passover issue and Salute to Seniors issue may be picked up during regular business hours. Questions? Call 402.334.6448

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Pet/House Sitter

DEATHS DEBORAH LYDDON (GOLDSTEIN) Debra Lyddon (Goldstein), M.D., a radiologist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, died June 5 at the age of 53. Services were held June 10.

A graduate of UNMC’s Nursing School in 1997, she went back to UNMC to earn her medical degree.

She is survived by her husband Michael Goldstein, M.D.; children, Blair, Gayle and Grant; sister and brother-in-law, Patricia and Fred Scott, Fremont, NE; her inlaws, Phyllis Angrisane, Gary and Barbara Goldstein; and sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Beth and Daniel Bernstein.

Memorials to the Nebraska Humane Society.

FRIEDA KRIZELMAN Frieda Krizelman died June 23 at the age of 94 at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. A graveside service was June 25 at Beth El Cemetery.

She was president of both the Omaha chapter of B’nai Brith Women (now Jewish Women International) and of T.O.P.S. She also held leadership positions in the Young Energetic Seniors.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 50 years, Max. She is survived by her son, Norman Krizelman; daughter and son-in-law, Sandra and David Cohen of Houston; grandchildren, Pamela and Donald Smith of Richmond, TX, Laurie and Phillip Applebaum of Dallas, Phillip and Lisa Cohen of Austin, Carolyn and Jack Donnelly of Glenshaw, PA, and Jeff Abramson of Omaha; seven great-grandchildren; and her sister, Esther Swerdlow of Philadelphia.

Memorials to Beth El Synagogue or the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home.

To Submit Announcements to the Jewish Press: Announcements may be e-mailed to the Press with attached photos in .jpg or .tif files to jpress@jewishomaha.org; faxed to 402.334.5422, or mailed to 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154 (with photos we will scan and return).

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Readers can also submit other announcements -- births engagements, marriages, commitment ceremonies or obituaries -- online at the Jewish Federation of Omaha website: www.jewishomaha.org. Click on “Jewish Press” and go to Submit Announcements. Deadlines are normally eight days prior to publication, on Thursdays, 9 a.m. Check the Jewish Press, however, for notices of early deadlines prior to secular and Jewish holidays.

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Page 19

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Page 20

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

June 27, 2008

Seniors rock Massachusetts chorus director’s world FILM REVIEW

by MICHAEL FOX Whatever urge Bob Cilman has to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony has been satisfied for the past 25 years by a group of New England seniors.

Cilman, who was raised Jewish in Rochester, New York, has been the director of the Young@Heart chorus practically since its inception. A kindly autocrat, he’s the one who selects and teaches the rock ‘n’ roll repertoire that distinguishes the unique Northampton, Massachusetts, vocal group.

“It’s Jewish kind of work, isn’t it?” he muses during a recent interview in San Francisco. “Integrating all kinds of people to make something artistic. Jews, blacks, Polish people, Irish people, French people -- they’re a real American melting pot, this group. It’s a good thing to see, people in that generation, which drew distinctions pretty close to the bone. Blacks went out with blacks; Jews went out with Jews. There wasn’t a lot of integrating at the same level.”

Cilman and the chorus have built an audience abroad with 16 trips to Europe and Australia in the last 10 years. They’re about to expand their fan base in the States with the entertaining, poignant documentary Young@Heart, which records several weeks of rehearsals leading up to a concert.

Cilman, who was born in 1953, grew up surrounded by other Jews. His father ran a kosher meat market, and he went to Hebrew School, spent his summers at Camp Ramah and was bar mitzvahed.

The Young @ Heart Chorus.

Credit: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures or Credit: Timothy White “My cantor was kind of brilliant,” he recalls. “He was a real singer, and I think between him and the Beatles, I had a real appreciation for music.”

Cilman’s other key influence was a great-aunt who was part of the labor movement, and worked with Sidney Hillman and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers.

“She used to stick strikebreakers with pins.” Cilman relates. “It was really quite an amazing union, mostly Jewish people who were looking at the world in a very revolutionary way. She was a real character and probably one of the reasons why I got so interested in this work.”

Cilman inherited his great-aunt’s affin-

ity for political activism -- he went to the University of Wisconsin -- and he also felt an immediate connection with the seniors who joined Young@Heart at the beginning.

“The people I was surrounded with, the older people from that World War I generation, were so amazing on some level,” Cilman explains. “They didn’t have the seriousness that our parents’ generation had. They were wild and wacky. My great-aunt [had been] into big-time wrestling, and she would make us go and watch Hans Schmidt and Fritz von Erik, all these German wrestlers, and make us throw popcorn at them.”

Immersed in a Jewish universe growing

up, Cilman was determined to expose himself to the broader culture.

“I think we as Jews have to be open to the rest of the world,” he declares. “And the more we do that, the better off we are. We can’t see things from just a Jewish prism all the time.”

At the same time, he notes, “Jews have been very into integration. It’s one of our strong suits, I think, and so it’s natural that a number of the people involved in this project would be Jewish.”

One is Stan Goldman, a likable chorus member whose inability to remember the words to James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good)” adds some tension to the film.

The songlist for Young@Heart includes the work of Jewish composers such as Bob Dylan (“Forever Young”) and Lou Reed (“Walk on the Wild Side”).

“We also do a great band that all Jews should be proud of,” Cilman points out.

“They were called the Fugs, and we do a song called ‘Monday Nothing.’ That song is where they sing in Yiddish. They have a Jewish radical sensibility.”

Cilman, who also serves as executive director of the Northampton Arts Council, couldn’t be more pleased about following in a Jewish artistic lineage.

“We have such a tradition of being on the edge artistically,” he says. “That gives me more pride than just about anything, what Jews have done for culture in this country.”

The film, which opened nationwide in April, will soon be released on DVD. Michael Fox is a freelance writer and film critic in Northern California. He can be reached via e-mail at: foxonfilm@yahoo.com.