Vol. LXXXVIII No. 44 Omaha, NE
Celebrating 88 Years ofService to Nebraska and Western Iowa
18 Tammuz 5769
July 10, 2009
Franken recount victory leaves Senate without Jewish GOPers
Life of Academy Award nominee highlighted with biographer’s appearance
by ERIC FINGERHUT More specifically, for the first time WASHINGTON (JTA) -in decades, a moderate GOP Jewish With its decision in favor of voice -- embodied over the years not comedian Al Franken, the only by Specter but also Rudy Minnesota Supreme Court Boschwitz of Minnesota, Warren has given the U.S. Senate its Rudman of New Hampshire and the first veteran of “Saturday late Jacob Javits of New York -- will Night Live” -- and left the be absent from the Senate. chamber with no Jewish During the court battle over the Republican members. Minnesota vote, Coleman has been In a unanimous, unsigned serving as a paid consultant to the decision -- after eight Republican Jewish Coalition, an months of recounts and organization for which he often legal challenges -- the stumped during his years in the Minnesota Supreme Court Senate. A former Democratic mayor ruled June 30 that Franken, of St. Paul who switched parties after a Jewish Democrat, two years in City Hall, Coleman “received the highest numserved as a Republican poster child for ber of votes legally cast” and efforts to recruit Jews to the GOP. is entitled “to receive the Matt Brooks, the RJC’s executive certificate of election as The Minnesota Supreme Court issued a ruling director, said his organization has an United States senator from June 30 clearing the way for comedian Al “open-ended agreement” with the state of Minnesota,” Franken to become the state’s second U.S. Coleman and “we’re going to continCredit: Al Franken ue together for the foreseeable according to media reports. Senator. His Republican opponent, the incumbent Norm future,” with Coleman serving either “as an ongoing Coleman, then ended his legal battle, officially conced- consultant or as a leader involved in a volunteer capaciing the race. Coleman, who also is Jewish, said further ty.” litigation “would damage the unity of our state.” “He has been extremely helpful to us and will continWith Coleman’s defeat and the decision by ue to be going forward,” Brooks said. “Americans, and Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter to join the Democratic cau- certainly those in the Jewish community, have lost a cus, the Senate now has no Jewish Republican members. great friend and a great leader by not having Norm The House of Representatives has one Jewish GOPer, Coleman in the U.S. Senate.” Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia. Continued on page 2
by GARY KATZ Library Director On Wednesday, July 15, 7 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center, the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and the Kripke Jewish Federation Library will host Tighe Zimmers, the author of Tin Pan Alley Girl, A Biography of Ann Ronell. Zimmers a Chicago physician has been researching and collecting memorabilia about American popular song composers for more than two decades. Zimmers did a bulk of his research on Ronell during a previous trip to the NJHS in Omaha. Ann Ronell (Ann Rosenblatt) was born in 1905 in Omaha and graduated Central High School in 1923. She was one of the first women to have a successful career as a composer and lyricist of film in Hollywood. One of her earliest compositions was “Willow Weep for Me”, a jazz and pop standard. In 1933 Ronell cowrote “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”, one of Disney’s first hit songs. She also composed background music for other Disney animated short films. She went on to write full musical scores. Ronnel penned her most famous song for the classic 1945 movie, The Story of G.I. Joe, which earned her two Academy Award nominations for best musical score and best song. Continued on page 2
The new American Girl doll: She’s Jewish, her name is Rebecca and the Kripke Library is hosting a tea in her honor! by SUE FISHKOFF SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- It’s official: The newest American Girl doll is 9year-old Rebecca Rubin, a JewishAmerican girl who lives with her family on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1914. The much-anticipated latest addition to the American Girl series of historical characters, Rebecca went on sale May 31 along with six books about her life. No cheap date, she costs $95 with one book, or $118 if accompanied by the complete set. But the Kripke Jewish Federation Library already has obtained a set of books. And to introduce her, the Library is hosting a tea on Sunday, July 19, 2 p.m. (See more details on page 2.) Rebecca joins 14 other historical dolls in the series -- from Kaya, a Nez Perce girl set in 1764, to African-American Addy, a Civil War doll, to World War IIera Molly, part of an Irish immigrant family. Her unveiling will include a tie-in at the Tenement Museum in New York City and a harbor cruise with “kosher-style” food, according to USA Today. She’s a feisty girl, our Rebecca. In one book she rescues her cousin Anna from the top of a stalled Ferris wheel. In another she marches in a garment workers’ strike and gives an impassioned speech about labor rights. But she also cooks,
Inside Opinion Page see page 8
crochets and dreams of becoming a movie star, just like a proper lass. Rebecca lives with her Russian-immigrant parents, siblings and grandparents in a Lower East Side row house, just a step up from the tenements of Orchard Street, and they struggle mightily to save boat fare to bring more family over from the Old Country. The Jewish blogosphere has been floating guesses about her name, release date and details of her life for more than a year with an intensity that belied her insensate status. She is, after all, just a doll, albeit a soft-bodied, large and quite beautiful one. But Jews love history, especially their own, and Jewish parents hip to the American Girl formula of nicely made dolls and well-written books about the period of American history they represent wanted a piece of their own people’s story to give their daughters. “This is our history, right here in this doll,” says author Meredith Jacobs of Rockville, Md., host of “The Modern Jewish Mom” on The Jewish Channel. Jacobs’ family is also from Eastern Europe, and her Uncle Saul’s dreams of becoming an actor were dashed by family pressure to enter the cantorate. Jacobs plans to buy Rebecca and her books for her 13-year-old daughter, Sophie, even though she’s just beyond
The newest American Girl doll -- nine-yearold Rebecca Rubin, a Jewish-American girl -- will make her appearance at a tea at the Credit: American Girl Kripke Library. the target demographic. “I want her to read the books and talk to my parents about our history,” Jacobs says. “I don’t think people who aren’t Jewish think about how big a deal it is for a mainstream doll company to make something Jewish.” Rebecca confronts many of the same
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dilemmas faced by today’s American Jewish children as they navigate between tradition and modernity. In “Candlelight for Rebecca,” her teacher asks the class to make Christmas centerpieces, and Rebecca agonizes over what to tell her parents. In “Meet Rebecca,” she asks her father, an observant Jew who keeps kosher, why he opens his shoe store on Shabbat. (They need the money, he explains). Children’s author Jacqueline Dembar Greene penned the six books about Rebecca’s life, basing some of the stories on her own family’s history. She quizzed her mother-in-law about the correct usage of certain Yiddish words and her 92-year-old father about his memories of riding the Ferris wheel at Coney Island. Greene’s mother worked as a stitcher in a garment factory in Hartford, Conn., much like the one where Rebecca’s uncle and cousin suffered two decades earlier. “Nothing had changed,” Greene says. “She told me about the bosses walking up and down yelling at the workers, about being locked in even though it was totally illegal. They weren’t allowed to talk or hum; they were timed when they went to the bathroom.” Even the Christmas story came out of her own experience. Greene was in third Continued on page 2
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