July 14, 2006

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18 Tamuz, 5766 July 14, 2006

Delays on Falash Mura Aliyah Leave U.S. Groups Frustrated and Impatient by URIEL HEILMAN NEW YORK (JTA)--Ever since the Israeli government decided a year and a half ago to accelerate Ethiopian immigration, the Jewish agencies and federations working on the issue have waited for the government to make good on its promise. As months passed without any action, the United Jewish Communities, federations’ umbrella organization, voted to raise $100 million for Ethiopian aliyah and absorption. Last June’s pledge, part of a $160 million special campaign called Operation Promise, was intended in part to pressure the government to implement its decision to double the pace of Ethiopian aliyah, to 600 people per month. Last month, however, an Israeli interministerial committee voted to put the brakes on the plan, possibly until well into 2007. The reason, according to Finance Minister Avraham Hirschson: not enough cash. The latest delay has left American Jewish leaders behind the Ethiopian campaign frustrated and impatient. “Federations should continue to advocate strongly for the government to accelerate aliyah,” said Jan Goldstein, Executive Director of Omaha’s Jewish Federation. “However, this portion of Operation Promise funds represents only 15% of the total and the fact is, we continue to take care of those people in the camps who are living under the worst kind of circumstances.” “Obviously, it slows a lot of things down,” said Stephen Hoffman, President

of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland. “We don’t believe there’s a significant economic difference to the Israeli state, because these people are going to be coming eventually,” Hoffman said. “We think it’s not a financial issue, it’s a timing issue.” On average, each Ethiopian immigrant costs the State of Israel approximately $100,000 over the course of his or her lifetime, according to government estimates. John Ruskay, Executive Vice-president of UJA-Federation of New York, said some Israeli and U.S. Jewish observers suspect that the current government has no intention of implementing its predecessor’s decision on the Falash Mura. Former Prime Minister A woman displays Ariel Sharon’s Cabinet “New Jerusalem.” voted twice--in February 2003 and January 2005--to expedite Ethiopian aliyah and bring to Israel all eligible Falash Mura remaining in Ethiopia. So far, the only official word from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s current government was the vote to delay the plan.

her wares in a market in Lalibela, Ethiopia’s Credit: Michael Arnold/JTA “Some Israeli observers believe this decision was deferred,” Ruskay said. “Others believe that the prior government’s decision was reversed. It’s uncertain.” In a letter to U.S. Jewish officials, Zeev Bielski, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, who was at the interministerial

Forever Marilyn:

committee meeting, called it a question of “if and when the final decision is made.” The committee deferred the decision until “after the priorities of the 2007 budget are settled in the coming months,” Bielski explained. One reason for the delay is the government’s preoccupation with other pressing problems, such as renewed conflict with the Palestinians. Ethiopian aliyah appears to be a low priority for attention and funding. “It’s a question of timing, not a question of implementation,” insisted Doron Krakow, UJC’s Senior Vice-president for Israel and overseas affairs. “There’s been no change in policy.” Federation officials say they’ll continue to press hard for Ethiopian aliyah, partly by bringing money to the table. “These Ethiopian Jews will continue to come to Israel, whether at a rate of 300 or 600 per month,” Omaha’s Goldstein said. “It is our responsibility to continue to pressure those who are holding up the process, and we have no intention at this point of changing our strategy for raising critical Operation Promise funds. Added Hoffman, “We’re conducting the fundraising now to show the government that we're ready to hold up our end of the deal,” echoing sentiments expressed a year ago by UJC CEO Howard Rieger. But the fund-raising effort has been complicated by the delay, in part because donors were promised an expedited aliyah operation that hasn’t yet happened. Continued on page 6

Tennis, Anyone?

Former Omahan’s New Film Frames the Monroe Doctrine ines the persistence of Marilyn’s image in pop culture as filtered through the canon of still photographs taken of her, photos that largely account for the potency of her sex goddess status 44 years after her death. Long intrigued by how MM and the photogs who shot her crafted an image with such currency as to cast a spell decades later, the daughter of Omahans Jack and Sallye Levin, committed to the film after hearing Marilyn would have turned 80 this year; reason enough to delve into the ageless Marilyn forever fixed in our collective consciousness. The film maker dealt once before with MM--for her 2003 documentary, Making the Misfits, which looks at the intrigue behind the 1961 Monroe feature vehicle The Misfits, penned by her then-husband playwright Arthur Miller. On a recent Omaha visit to see family and friends, Levin Marilyn Monroe strikes a glamour pose. Credit: Sam Shaw Continued on page 4

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT by LEO ADAM BIGA Film maker Gail Levin is at it again. Only a year after the Emmy Award-winning Omaha native’s documentary on James Dean premiered on PBS as part of the American Masters series, she has a new Masters film set to debut on July 19 that tackles another larger screen legend --Marilyn Monroe. Another Monroe treatise? That cynical reaction is precisely what the New Yorkbased Levin, a Central High graduate, hopes to overturn with her new documentary Marilyn Monroe: Still Life, premiering on Wednesday, July 19, 8 p.m., on Nebraska Educational Television. Instead of yet another biopic approach to this much revisited subject, Levin’s “gentle film” exam-

Inside Opinion Page see page 20

This Week: Health & Wellness Section Starts on Page 12 See Front Page Stories at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on ‘Jewish Press’

Are Consumers Paying Attention to Kashrut Controversy?: Page 2

Julia Brodkey, just starting her career, is a member of the four-to-five-year-old tennis class at the Jewish Community Center. While she doesn’t have her backhand perfected yet, she sure has a good time on the courts! She’s the daughter of Stacie and Marc Brodkey. More JCC summer photos on page 24.

Coming Next Month: Back-to-School Issue on Aug. 18 Israeli Entreprenuers Turn to Health Care: Page 7

Next Generation in Business Features the Kapalans: Page 12

Page 2

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

July 14, 2006

Media Join Fray over Kosher Plant, but Are Consumers Paying Attention?

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SUNDAY, JULY 16 Nashir Choir, 10 a.m. at Beth El Adult Education, 11 a.m. at Beth El MONDAY, JULY 17 Summer Hebrew Class, 9 a.m. at Beth Israel JSS Senior Luncheon, 10 a.m. Hadassah Board Meeting, 1 p.m. TUESDAY, JULY 18 Summer Hebrew Class, 9 a.m. at Beth Israel CJE Class “Israel Now,” 11 a.m. Visions Baseball Game & Dinner, 5:30 p.m. at Rosenblatt Stadium BBYO Night, 6 p.m. Adult B’nai Mitzvah Class, 6:30 p.m. at Temple Israel CJE Conversational Hebrew - Level 2, 8 p.m. WEDNESDAY, JULY 19 Summer Hebrew Class, 9 a.m. at Beth Israel THURSDAY, JULY 20 ADL Teacher Workshop for Echoes and Relections, 8:30 a.m. Summer Hebrew Class, 9 a.m. at Beth Israel Yiddish Group, 1 p.m. Kripke Library Book Discussion Group, 1 p.m. CJE Conversational Hebrew - Level 2, 8 p.m.

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kosher consumer--like the average consumer in general-by CHANAN TIGAY PHILADELPHIA (JTA)--Arlene Holtz grew up right just doesn’t give very much thought to the ethical provebehind her grandfather’s kosher butcher shop in down- nance of the products they buy.” “My sense,” he adds, “is that it’s a far less prominent town Philadelphia. It was there that she learned to be mindful of the mitzvot--among them the laws of keeping issue in the mind of the average kosher consumer than many other things going on these days.” kosher. Standing in line at the kosher deli at an Acme market But when news broke that the killing practices at the Agriprocessors plant, America’s largest kosher slaughter- in suburban Philadelphia earlier this week, Uri Monson house, may have been less than ideal--even, some have seemed to confirm Weiss’ impression. “For most of my friends and me who are faced with claimed, less than kosher--Holtz began to think twice the high cost of keeping kosher, we look at what’s on about her fidelity to kosher meat. “I believe the ideas behind kashrut are good,” says sale that week and save our righteous indignation for Holtz, 59. Strictures on what sorts of meat can be eaten and how the animals must be killed were intended to ensure humane treatment of the animals, she says. But what if it turns out they’re not always treated so well? “If I eat that meat, then what am I saying, that it’s OK?” she asks. “It’s not OK. That’s not kosher meat-even if, by the letter of the law, it is.” The recent spotlight on the esoteric field of kosher slaughtering practices has sparked a mini-tempest in Jewish journalism circles. Some 18 months after an animal rights group’s video showed Agriprocessors using a controversial method for slaughtering cattle--turning the animal upside down and pulling out its trachea after its throat had been slit--the Forward reported that workers at the plant are underpaid, undertrained and exploited. Hamodia then ran a piece slamming the Forward's reporting, as did the Jewish Press (of Brooklyn). The As president of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America Bob Kovacs selects an Forward responded to the (JVNA), I was very pleased to read that animal welfare expert Aaron´s Best steak in the kosher meat section of a criticism in an editorial. Temple Grandin inspected Agribusiness’s Postville, Iowa Agriprocessors itself took glatt kosher slaughterhouse and indicated that practices Philadelphia-area supermarout an ad in The Forward there have improved. However, I believe, respectfully that ket on July 7. Credit: Chanan Tigay/JTA defending its practices. And these improvements involve the application of a band aid, Steven I. Weiss weighed in when major surgery is required. Even if ritual slaughter at Darfur,” he says, referring to on his Canonist blog, calling the plant is carried out perfectly, with a minimum of pain, the region in southern part of the Jewish Press’ cov- can we ignore the months of mistreatment of animals on fac- Sudan where the United erage “hilarious” and label- tory farms, contrary to the Torah mandate to avoid causing States has deplored an ongoing genocide. ing the Forward’s editorial unnecessary pain to animals? The Acme market’s mash“ridiculous.” And can we ignore that the realities of the production and The Conservative move- consumption of meat and other animal products also violate giach, or kosher supervisor, ment, for its part, has estab- Jewish teachings about preserving human health, protecting says the Agriprocessors dislished a joint committee of the environment, conserving natural resources and helping pute is a non-issue for custhe United Synagogue of hungry people? At a time when some climate scientists are tomers. “I haven’t had a Conservative Judaism and saying that we may reach a point of no return with regard to question about it since the the Rabbinical Assembly to global warming within a decade and there are almost daily first week or two” after the investigate the complaints reports of environmental pollution and degradation, can we news broke in 2004, Reuven about working conditions at ignore the major contributions of modern intensive animal Wayden tells JTA, his long Agriprocessors. agriculture to these threats? It is time that we played our role white beard wrapped protecAside from the media and as a “light onto the nations” and led a movement toward tively in a tight white net. This week, an expert in denominational interest, plant-based diets, for our health and for the sustainability of slaughtering practices visited however, do concerned con- our imperiled planet. sumers like Holtz exist in Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D. the Agriprocessors plant after more than a year and a any great number? Are those half of pressure from PETA and found it had “made a lot who regularly buy kosher meat even paying attention? For Holtz, the issue has forced a change: After more of improvements.” The plant, whose kosher practices are monitored by than half a century keeping kosher, the butcher’s granddaughter has stopped eating kosher meat and begun the Orthodox Union, has instituted a quality-assurance buying beef at Whole Foods, where she’s more confi- lab, built a room for processing meat and has improved dent the animals have been treated well and slaughtered its handling of animals, Temple Grandin told JTA. “What we have to do is make sure we keep them that quickly. “It was a very, very serious decision that I made,” way,” said Grandin, a professor of animal science at Holtz says. “I try to be mindful of the mitzvot and do Colorado State University. The O.U. is hoping Grandin’s findings will put some them, not to be blindly mindful.” The Postville, Iowa-based Agriprocessors, which pro- of the complaints to bed. “I don’t know if people know about this yet, but I duces Rubashkin’s and Aaron’s Best meat products, has been in the news since the animal-rights group PETA hope those who were concerned will be satisfied with sent an undercover activist to videotape conditions at its that. They should be,” said Rabbi Menachem Genack, plant. Investigators with the U.S. Agriculture rabbinic administrator of the O.U.’s kosher division, Department later determined that some plant employees who took part in Grandin’s visit. Some observers say Grandin’s findings may, indeed, violated humane slaughter regulations. The recent Forward report about working conditions take the wind out of PETA’s sails. Further, they say, the at the plant just added fuel to the fire. fact that many who keep kosher aren’t even aware of the But are kosher eaters paying attention? situation--and that for many of them there’s little alter“In large part, they’re not,” Weiss says. “The average native to this meat--may deflate the controversy.

Onyx | Vanity Tops | Shower Panels | Cabinets | Faucets All events held at the JCC unless otherwise indicated. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the accuracy of events. To keep calendar accurate or for questions, call Marlene Hert at 334-6437. FOR A COMPLETE LISTING, VISIT THE FEDERATION’S WEBSITE: www.JewishOmaha.org (click on calendar)

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Page 3

Israel’s Olmert Stands Firm as Hostage Crisis Remains Unsolved by DAN BARON JERUSALEM (JTA --More than two weeks into the biggest crisis he has faced as Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert appears determined to demonstrate that Israel is willing to stay in the Gaza Strip for now. With little public progress in efforts to recover an Israeli soldier abducted by Palestinian gunmen on June 25, and troops and tanks waging a bloody sweep for Gaza rocket crews, Olmert on Sunday vowed more of the same. “This is a war that cannot be put on a timetable,” he told Cabinet ministers. “We will press this campaign with calm and patience, mustering all the right means and preserving the proper discretion.” In tactical terms, the Gaza Strip campaign has scored points for Olmert. Some 50 Palestinians, mostly combatants, have died, compared to one Israeli soldier likely killed accidentally by his comrades in northern Gaza. Despite censure from the European Union over “disproportionate force” by Israel, global outcry has been largely muted. And while Cpl. Gilad Shalit remains captive somewhere in Gaza, the Hamasled Palestinian Authority government, which at first distanced itself from his kidnapping, has as the military pressure mounts become more outspoken on the need to keep him alive and embrace diplomacy. After days of intense Israeli military pressure, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh proposed a truce last Saturday. “To solve this crisis, we must return to the starting point, to calm, including an end to military actions on both sides,” he said. Olmert rejected the overture, just as

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert talks to the foreign press corps in Jerusalem, pointing out that the citizens of Israel had not enjoyed a single full day of calm since the complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza last summer. Credit: ISRANET last week he rejected a demand by Shalit’s captors that hundreds of Palestinians jailed in Israel be freed. “We will not negotiate with terrorists. We will not negotiate with Hamas. To do so would encourage more abductions,” Olmert said. But one of Olmert’s closest allies in the Cabinet suggested a compromise, a kind of retroactive prisoner swap, could still be in the works. “The release of the kidnapped soldier will be a must. The moment that Kassam rocket fire also stops, we will enter a period of quiet, at the end of which it will be possible to release prisoners as a goodwill gesture,” Israel’s internal security minister, Avi Dichter, said at a conference in Tel Aviv. “This is something that Israel has done in the past and that can serve it in the

future as well.” The remarks were relayed internationally, prompting Dichter to say he had been misunderstood and Olmert’s office to deny a deal was in the offing. But the Palestinians, under pressure to see Israeli forces out of Gaza, were nonetheless encouraged. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he felt a prisoner swap could still be achieved. Similar comments were made by Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy to Hamas’s leader abroad, Khaled Meshaal. “These reported statements increase the chances of a deal,” Abu Marzouk told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat. In any event, Israel appears to be prepared to keep its forces in Gaza--especially as cross-border rocket fire has contin-

ued in defiance of the crackdown. Three people in the Israeli border town of Sderot were wounded by a salvo on their homes Sunday, one of them moderately. Defense Minister Amir Peretz told the Cabinet he envisages a situation where tanks and troops are dispatched to Gaza on an ad-hoc basis. “We are prepared to continue the operation another month, two months and if need be even more,” said Maj. Gen. Yoav Gallant, chief of Israel’s Southern Command. “When the Palestinians do their overall reckoning in another month or two, and count the hundreds of dead terrorists and the infrastructure that has been damaged, I expect that they will think twice before the next kidnapping attempt.”

U.S. Silence about Israeli Raid by RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA)--Is U.S. silence in the face of Israel’s massive counterattack on the Gaza Strip a function of friendship or weakness? The United States largely has refrained from criticizing Israeli strikes on Gaza that began June 28, days after gunmen affiliated with Hamas, the terrorist group governing the Palestinian Authority, attacked a base in Israel, killing two soldiers and kidnapping a third, Cpl. Gilad Shalit. One spin on the U.S. restraint is that the Bush administration is hard-pressed to criticize Israel for retaliating against a Palestinian government that seems to recognize no red lines. Another spin says the silence is a signal of U.S. impotence after years of relative inaction in the region--and they wonder whether a more involved Bush administration might have been able to bring

about Shalit’s release. U.S. reticence to rebuke Israel “is disguised as a kind of supreme cooperation and friendship,” Yossi Beilin, a leading dove and former Israeli Cabinet minister, told JTA. “But what do you need friends for if they can’t help you at the moment of truth?” The U.S. response has been to call on both sides to show restraint--and to make clear that, in U.S. eyes the party failing to do so is the Palestinians. “Let’s remember that this began with the tunneling into Israeli territory, the abduction of an Israeli soldier,” the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said July 5. In an interview with a Turkish newspaper, an assistant to Rice accused the media of misrepresenting Israel, an opinion once almost unthinkable among State Department functionaries who deal with the Middle East.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

July 14, 2006

Forever Marilyn Continued from page 1 spoke to the Jewish Press about her new project and the Monroe mystique that still beguiles us. She said MM is a muchreferenced figure all these years later “not because of the movies” but “because of all the photographs”--photos the image makers and the icon used to their own ends. “She made herself quite available to photographers and the list is just endless. We sort of picked a path through this huge archive of photographs,” said Levin. In addition to being “perhaps the most photographed woman of the 20th century,” there are MM-inspired books, articles, songs, videos, “and I was interested in what motivates all of that,” Levin said. “The masters part of this American Masters is as much these great photographers as it is her. It’s kind of book-ended by the great Eve Arnold and the great Arnold Newman. These are two giants of 20th century photography.” Not just noted photographers contributed to her image. The film includes pics by Ben Ross, “whom none of us had ever heard of before,” Levin said. “He was one of these itinerant photographers from the 1950s and his photographs of her are stunning.” At least one of the artists whose images of MM are featured, Andre De Dienes, was also her lover. “He really knew her from the time she was probably about 20 to the time she died, and shot her all that time, and had a big romance with her,” Levin said. “There’s some very beautiful young stuff with her.” There’s the ubiquitous Andy Warhol take on Marilyn in the film. Some images

are quite familiar but “This was a guy’s others are new, at least woman. She liked guys. It to a general viewing was not against her will,” audience and, Levin Levin said. “I don’t think predicts, some images she felt victimized at all. I will even be new to think she exploited it in Marilyn and photograevery way.” phy aficionados. The story of the famous Besides interviews calendar nudes she posed with top photographers for as an unknown, later who helped shape published in Playboy at MM’s image, Levin’s the height of her starfilm features comments dom, reveal an MM in from Norman Mailer, charge of her own image. Gloria Steinem and “Hefner makes the Hugh Hefner. There remark that nude photos are even audio excerpts in those days could take from the last interview you down. But when they Marilyn gave. came out she stood right Levin said former up to it,” Levin said. Redbook editor Robert “Her whole attitude Stein provided a key toward it was, This is life. insight into MM when She wasn’t ashamed of he told her “she was an any aspect of her body or Credit: Bob Henriquez, 1954 her being.” odd combination of Marilyn Monroe pauses while reading a script. She was an Everywoman. She really was.” innocence and guile.” Ironically, Levin was forced to pixilate The invention of her image did not the nipples and other body parts in the As Levin has come to find, “I think a transcendent aspect with her is this real happen by chance. Nor did she play a pas- wake of the Janet Jackson breast flash, genuineness. I think she was completely sive role in its creation. She owned her even though, as Levin argues, the MM approachable and accessible. You could image and, if not the negatives, then what nudes are “not pornographic, they’re not be no one and talk to her and you could they conveyed. slutty, they’re absolutely beautiful. They’ve “This was very deliberate. This wasn’t been made ugly by other people.” get into her bed. I think there’s something about her that is completely open, an accident,” Levin said. “She got it and What transpired with the nudes, which completely accepting. Burt Stern’s assis- she had it and she made it and she knew made others rich while MM never got a tant was 22-years-old when Stern took it. She was not guileless because she was residual dime over the $50 modeling fee, photos of her and he said, ‘I was at the not stupid. She manufactured this image mirrored her life in the spotlight, Levin bottom of the totem pole and yet she was brilliantly. It was a calculated image, but said. “I think people were rather cruel to so kind to me and so sweet to me.’ And with good heart, with good intent, with her and I think she was hurt. But I also people say that across the board about good will.” think she was defiant in the face of it. She Levin feels it’s wrong to apply a femi- was courageous. I think the soul of her her. Marilyn Monroe was not an imperious bitch. She was not a diva. That’s not nist prism in viewing Marilyn as a victim was terribly resilient.” who she was. She was a very real person. of misogyny or unenlightened ambition. Continued on page 5

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Forever Marilyn this off? She’s OK. She has a cute, sweet face, but hers was Continued from page 4 Much of the film refers to the sessions that produced not a remarkable face. At the same time you see right the images that still transfix us today, including The through that to the whole iconography of Marilyn Seven Year Itch shoot. In these settings MM willingly Monroe. I chose this picture because I thought it emblemgave herself over to the camera. She projected a playful atic of the whole of her being.” woman-child persona, both real and acted, as she also Like any fine actress, and Levin ranks MM “a great asserted influence over what final images would see the comedienne,” she could summon her public persona on light of day. Perhaps nothing else gave her such a sense demand. As Levin tells it, “There’s a known story of her of self-determination. walking down a New York street incognito and saying to “You see that she loved it. It was her best relationship, her friend, ‘Do you want to see her?’” Meaning Marilyn really. It was really the place where she was most com- Monroe, superstar sex symbol. The shape shift only took fortable and had the most control,” Levin said. “She a subtle change -- to a more free, less uptight bearing. very much had control of her contact sheets. She would The power of it bemused and bothered her. “I think she edit them. She was notorious for Xing out photos in red lived in that schism.” lipstick or marker. Eve Arnold says in the very beginning Taking on as familiar a figure as Monroe and all that of the film, ‘This was her way of working and even “we bring to her” scared Levin. “It’s the hardest film I’ve though I was free to do what ever made. This material has I wanted, she really conbeen so manipulated in so trolled the image.’” many ways. The challenge As Marilyn evolved from and the task is how do I take aspiring actress to star “she this and make this something understood what it was she you feel is completely fresh?” wanted” and she pursued In the end, she feels she’s specific photographers she captured the essential knew “could do her justice,” Monroe. “We started out likLevin said, “and got herself ing her and we ended up lovin front of those people and, ing her. We tried not to take of course, those people anything from her. She looks wanted to photograph her. so beautiful in this film.” They considered her a great Levin’s Marilyn will have subject. It was the perfect multiple showings, along metier” for a photographerwith her James Dean, the subject to play in. last two weeks of July. A model must make love Marilyn Monroe relaxes while reading a script. (Check local NET1 and to the camera for the images listings for Credit: Bob Henriquez, 1954 NET2 to last. MM invested her dates/times.) photos with rarely seen rapture. “Eve Arnold comments With two movie icon subjects behind her, one might there were a lot of four-letter words used to describe the expect Levin to tackle another, but her next film may key way she seduced a camera. She loved to do it and she did off a documentary she worked on last fall. From Shtetl it great,” Levin said. “Marilyn’s take, which I think is the to Swing deals with the great migration of Jews from critical take, is she just thought it was great to be Russia and Eastern Europe to America and their develthought of as sexual and beautiful. And why not? I think opment, with African-Americans, of the music style any woman would want to look like that for five minutes known as swing. of her life.” Slated for Great Performances, the film was delivered For Levin, one particular image encapsulates Monroe in less than airable condition, causing series officials to in all her complexity. call in Levin to do some “doctoring.” Her work helped “We open the film with a dark room sequence in which the film get “the highest ratings in New York in years for we print a photograph of her,” Levin said. “It was taken by a Great Performances. One of the things I’m planning Roy Schatt during the time she was in the Actors Studio in on next is something similar to that, but on Latin music New York. Her face is completely open. No makeup. You and how it’s transmogrified into the culture.” see that sort of Norma Jeane plainness, really. There’s American Masters is produced for PBS by some pictures of her, like this one, that when you look at Thirteen/WNET New York. Susan Lacy is executive them you think, Whatever gave her the idea she could pull producer of the acclaimed series.

Former Midwesterner Publishes Book on American Playwrights

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT by CAROL KATZMAN Editor of the Jewish Press For years, Victor Wishna had a dream--to interview and photograph American playwrights. He says he’s spent the last few years, “in my ‘free’ time, completing a project I hoped would be a book.” The Kansas City native has finally realized that dream with the publication of In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights. Published by Umbrage Books, this 9x9” coffee-table book is a compendium of some of the foremost writers of the American stage, captured through photographs by Ken Collins. Wishna, who has interviewed a number of public figures--from actor Robert DeNiro to celebrity chef Wolfgang Punk, uses the playwrights’ own words to convey the single idea that gave birth to American classics. His column “Letter from New York” has appeared occasionally in the Jewish Press and other newspapers. He is senior editor of Quest magazine, and has written for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the Miami

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Herald, the Forward, Avenue, and other major magazines and newspapers. In Their Company includes 61 playwrights, among them: Edward Albee, Eric Bogosian, Richard Foreman, Beth Henley, David Ives, Adrienne Kennedy, Larry Kramer, Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally, David Rabe, John Patrick Shanley, Neil Simon, Anna Deavere Smith, Wendy Wasserstein, and Lanford Wilson. Ken Collins’ portraits have appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, New York, Premiere, ARTnews, The London Independent on Sunday, American Theatre, Avenue, and Orion. Neil Simon Wishna and Collins, who both live in New York, are planning a number of events around the country. No doubt, one will be in Wishna’s home town. The book, while not yet in bookstores, is available online at Amazon.com.

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Delays on Falash Mura

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Continued from page 1 In New York, for example, the local federation’s pledge to Operation Promise is contingent on Israel accelerating the pace of Ethiopian aliyah. Because that hasn’t happened, New York hasn’t yet sent any of its $5.3 million pledge for Operation Promise to UJC, though UJA-Federation of New York continues to support Ethiopian aliyah and absorption projects through its regular annual budget. In any case, a steady stream of 300 Ethiopians continues to arrive in the Jewish state each month. Even if the rate is never doubled, all the aliyah-eligible people left in Ethiopia may have made it to Israel by 2010. In the meantime, Ethiopians in Addis Ababa and Gondar continue to petition to immigrate to the Jewish state. The petitioners say they are Ethiopians of Jewish ancestry whose progenitors converted to Christianity several generations ago to escape social and economic pressures. Now they have begun returning to Judaism in a bid to emigrate, along with their extended families, to the Jewish state. Israel calls these people Falash Mura. The Falash Mura’s Jewish pedigree is virtually impossible to prove. Unlike Ethiopian immigrants who came to Israel in Operations Moses and Solomon in 1984 and 1991, the Falash Mura have not maintained Jewish traditions and practice, so Israel has been accepting only those Falash Mura who can demonstrate a familial connection with Ethiopians already in Israel. It’s not clear exactly how many Falash Mura remain in Ethiopia, though aid officials say the number is likely not more than 13,000. However, the Jerusalem Post last year found indications that tens of thousands more Ethiopians with ties to Jewish ancestry are living in the Ethiopian highlands. Some Israeli officials stationed in Ethiopia and American Jewish federation leaders who have gone on fact-finding missions to Ethiopia say it’s essential to bring the current group of Falash Mura as quickly as possible so the number of petitioners for aliyah stops growing. For their part, Jewish aid and advocacy officials say the Falash Mura must be brought to Israel as quickly as possible because they suffer from extremely poor living conditions in Ethiopia. “The delay in aliyah will result not only in prolonging suffering in Ethiopia, but cause a delay in absorption” of the Ethiopian immigrants in Israel, said Orlee Guttman, director of operations for the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry, which maintains aid operations in Gondar.

A recent Operation Promise luncheon in Omaha featured special guest Micha Feldmann, above, who has devoted the past 20 years to bringing Ethiopian Jews to Israel and helping their absorption into Israeli society. Currently Micha serves as consultant on Ethiopian issues to the IDF, the Jewish Agency and the Israel Crisis Management Center. Below: Hannah Schwalb, Jim Farber, and Nate Schwalb were at the update, as were: Jan Goldstein, who stands between Omaha’s two Joe Kirshenbaums, Maxine Kirshenbaum, and Bob Kully. Omaha has raised more than $250,000, nearly half of its $600,000 goal for Operation Promise.

The delays also have postponed a planned transfer of Jewish aid operations in Ethiopia from NACOEJ to the Jewish Agency. As a consequence, since March the UJC has been providing $50,000 per month to NACOEJ to help it maintain its aid compound in Gondar, UJC officials said. “It is clear to us that we must consolidate our great efforts in the near future so that we may implement the previous government’s decision,” Bielski said after the meeting. Federation officials said the Israelis promised to revisit the issue soon. “It will be discussed in a matter of weeks rather than months,” Hoffman said. “The prime minister promised us that we will get to this sooner rather than later.”

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After Dot-Com Bust, Entrepreneurs from Israel Turn to Health-Care Fields by CHANAN TIGAY NEW YORK (JTA) -- At a recent conference on Israeli start-up companies, a group of young investors stood in the hallway chatting animatedly about Israeli businesses and venture capital opportunities. They were particularly surprised by the growing number of health care-related firms that had come from Israel to the conference -- held at the Newark offices of telecom giant IDT -- to hawk their wares. There was FlowMedic (Israel) Ltd., a company that develops non-invasive treatments for circulatory difficulties; InspireMD, which develops coronary and carotid stints; and BrainSavers, which has developed a program to maintain and improve brain function as individuals age. And there were several others. Had the conference, sponsored by youngStartUp Ventures, been held five years ago, it would have been dominated by Israeli high-tech firms, the investors said. Now, though, on the eve of Israel Independence Day 2006, businessmen looking to launch sustainable companies since the high-tech bubble burst are turning to health care. The growth is “an outcome of investment over the last 20 years,” said Jacob Dagan, managing partner of ProMed, a financial investment firm with a focus on Israeli biotechnology companies. “But it takes time. You see the results over the last five years.” Israel long has been on the cutting edge of medical research, from Parkinson’s to diabetes. But if necessity is the mother of invention, Israel’s precarious security situation has led to a significant investment in the defense industry. Much of the science behind new medical devices Israeli companies are developing originated in the defense realm, observers said. Among these firms is Given Imaging Ltd., which developed a miniature, disposable video camera that can be fitted into a capsule and swallowed, giving doctors thousands of images of a person’s intestines. “The brain behind the product designed missiles with sophisticated imaging systems,” Dagan said. “The infrastructure in Israel for devices is very developed. All of them are based on technology that came up from the defense industries.” That doesn’t mean that strictly high-tech companies are no longer thriving in Israel; they still represent some three-quarters of Israeli start-ups. But the biotech and health care industries are growing -- quickly, noticeably and successfully. Some 70-100 new biotech companies now are created each year in Israel. “There are far more start-ups and much more entrepreneurship on a ratio basis than there is just about anywhere else in the world,” said Adam Farber, COO of

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IDT Ventures, the telecom company’s venture capital arm. “If you compare it to countries that are 100 times bigger than Israel,” Dagan said, “they don’t have this kind of growth.” Health industry firms are receiving a great deal of financial assistance from the office of Israel’s chief scientist, insiders say. “They’re really making a very big effort to move the technology along,” said Henry Kay, an executive in new market development and strategic planning for the Boston Scientific Corporation, a medical device company in Massachusetts. Israeli start-ups also have been aided by governmentfunded incubators, where companies are provided with laboratories and offices to get their projects off the

Participants listen to a panel discussion during a conference Newark, N.J., in March 2006. ground. There are now some 30 incubators in Israel, including some in peripheral areas, an effort to encourage scientists to expand beyond Israel’s urban centers. These incubators increasingly are being privatized. Kay, whose company has invested in several Israeli firms, said he has noticed a jump in the number of biotech conferences held in Israel over the past three to four years. He recently returned from one, and received an invitation to another in late May, he said. Nevertheless, Kay said some Israeli firms still have

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things to learn if they hope to compete in the international market. “The technology that I see is superb,” he said. “However, there’s a naivete on how to deal with American venture funds” and how to turn a good idea into a marketing strategy. Also complicating matters for health-care companies is the fact that other fields allow for a quicker “exit” for investors. Because regulatory barriers for standard hightech companies are relatively low compared to medical companies, they can be built, developed and sold more quickly, giving investors a quicker return on their money. In addition, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Palestinian intifada and the dot-com crash, Israel finds itself facing a capital shortage that could threaten the growth in health care and other kinds of start-ups. In 2000, Dagan said, Israeli venture capitalists raised $3.7 billion; in 2003, they brought in just $14 million. In 2006 they’re expected to raise $600 million -- a marked improvement, to be sure, but far short of the amounts raised at the turn of the century. That could mean that some Israeli companies, desperate for capital, will become available at bargain basement prices. “There’s not enough capital and there are lots of companies,” Dagan said. “From an economic point of view, there is more supply than on Israeli start-up companies in demand, so the price goes Credit: youngStartUp Ventures down.” While IDT Ventures’ Farber recognizes the capital shortage, he sees a concurrent, positive trend. “The flip side is that in the last two to three years, there are a lot of high-tech companies -- Microsoft, Intel, those types of companies -- that have opened up offices in Israel and know that Israelis are entrepreneurial,” said Farber, whose parent company has a legal/accounting outsourcing division in Israel. “We love giving to Israel, we love doing it,” he said. But, he added, “we recognize that there’s good stuff elsewhere, too.”

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July 14, 2006

Healthy Skin From Israel’s Minerals and Botanicals by JUDITH BRODER SELLNER No matter what the season, weather exerts harsh effects on our skin. In winter, cold weather outdoors and artificial heat indoors cause dry and flaky skin conditions. In summer, excessive sun actually drains natural oils as it burns the skin. And then, acne, bruises, and other disorders take their toll. To the rescue, Israel has antidotes. The healthful properties of products derived from the minerals and plant extracts from the Dead Sea and other plants and herbs found in Israel have been treating damaged skin from ancient times. Most Israeli products are hypo allergenic, environmentally friendly, and not tested on animals. Since everyone’s skin reacts individually, products described here may require a dermatologist’s advice before use. Ah, Ahava. The company’s divinely rich hand and foot creams, shampoo, mineral salt soap bars, bath salts, and more are widely distributed. Ahava’s manufacturer, Dead Sea Health Products at Mitzpe Shalem, has a great retail shop--a “must� stop on any drive along the Dead Sea. If a trip to Israel is not on your agenda, you can get a complete look at the company’s products at www.ahava.com. Beyond Ahava, many Israeli companies with less extensive marketing and distribution have impressive product lines. Mineral Care Spa, also using Dead Sea minerals, has many facial and body products, including moisturizing, nourishing day and night creams, mud soap, and natural sulphur soaps. The company’s Essential Eye Serum and Cream soothe the eye area and reduce puffiness and lines. A similar product duet cares for lines in the less sensitive facial areas.

Other intriguing products include massage oil, aromatic oils, foot soak bath salts, and after-massage body lotion. Products are gender neutral except for a men’s kit containing aftershave, along with shower gel, shampoo, and foot salts. Find them at www.mineral care.com. AromaSalts, classic combinations of aromatherapy scents and 100% Dead Sea salts, aid in relaxation and rejuvenation and are beneficial in treating skin disorders, joint pains, muscular complaints, swollen feet, and more. They come in eight appealing scents, shown at www.aromasalts.com. Pre-moistened eye and face make-up remover cleansing towelettes from JeanPierre Cosmetics are alcohol free, hypo- allergenic, and PH-balanced. Made of plant extracts, they deep cleanse to the

pores, removing oil, dirt, and make-up, leaving the skin smooth and refreshed. The company’s dual-sided Foaming Facial Cleansing Pillows, available in purse packets, need to be dampened under warm water to release their vitamins and botanical extracts. They deep cleanse with a textured side, then lift away

residue with a soft side. JeanPierre Cosmetics in Brooklyn, NY, distributes them. www.jeanpierreusa. com The DSM (Dead Sea Mineral) products, created by Mon Platin scientists from the Dead Sea’s unique mud and minerals, cover a wide range of skin care needs. Its catalog details more than 25 products for men and women, for face, body, and hair, as well as anti-sun, and anti-aging products. For a catalog or information, call 1.866.652.1152 or look into web sites www.a-meshi.com (Israel) or www.terra-beauty.com (USA). Ein Gedi Dead Sea Spa’s line includes aromatic shower gels and exfoliating body scrubs, face creams, mud masks, shampoo, foot soaks, and moisturizers. Essential oils and aromas characterize this company’s products. Extracts from pears and kiwis energize, from lavender and chamomile relax, and from bergamot and lime refresh the body. Learn more at www.eingediusa. com. Israeli model/singerturned-entrepreneur, Pnina Rosenblum started the cosmetics company bearing her name in 1989. Among the unusual Israeli skin care products is her Caviar series promising elasticity, nourishment, and glowing skin. From the fish substance Acipenser Stelatus, Caviar products are rich in protein and amino acids and deeply penetrate the skin to encourage skin cell reactivation. The series includes eye cream, peeling cream, night and day creams, toners for oily and normal to dry skin, serum, and moisturizing gel. Details and other products at

www.rosenblum.co.il. Dr. Green’s exhaustive line of natural products goes far beyond skin care, with food supplements and baby care items. Noteworthy for skin is Young Topical Vitamin C Serum. With Vitamin E as well, it rejuvenates collagen and elastic tissues for smoothing fine lines and wrinkles and helps lighten dark spots from sun damage and aging. For a skin care education, go to www.dr-green.com. Noveya uses 100% natural ingredients-no artificial anything--in its products: oils and extracts from hand-picked herbs; facial, body, and hand soaps from the seven species found by Moses’s spies in the land of Canaan, and more. Soaps moisturize while removing dead cells without abrasive scrubbing. Goat’s milk adds silky smoothness. A learning experience awaits at www.noveya.com. The main ingredient used by Moraz Medicinal Herbs, Polygonum, is from a delicate, warm-weather plant grown world wide. The Israeli variety has been proven most effective for medicinal and cosmetic uses, as in most of Moraz’s health, baby, and beauty care products. Benefits include anti-fungal, anti-oxidant, and anti-inflammatory action. Teenagers Face Cream is a blessing for acne sufferers; Herbal Massage Ointment relieves rheumatic pain and stiffness in joints and muscles; Multi-purpose Herbal Ointment effectively treats skin burns. The list goes on at www.moraz.com. And Israeli companies developing special products for skin care of all types go on providing a multitude of health and beauty benefits. Judith Broder Sellner, a New Yorkbased freelance writer, focuses many of her articles on Israel.

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BREADBREAKERS The Honorable Luis Alva will speak at Breadbreakers on Wednesday, July 19, noon at Regency Lodge according to Gary Javitch, chairman. Señor Alva is the Deputy Consul of Mexico and will speak on the subject of immigration. You will not want to miss this, especially after hearing President Bush’s comments All men and women in the community are invited to attend. Cost is $11 for a complete lunch and $3 for beverage service only. BOY SCOUT TROOP #218 Join us for a one hour meeting on Tuesday, July 18, 11:45 a.m., at the Bagel Bin. The Jewish Committee on Scouting will meet to discuss how to motivate more Jewish youth to join our program. For more information or if you have any questions, call Jeff or Sandy Passer at 330.4289. THE YOUNG ENERGETIC SENIORS Join us on Monday at the JCC for music with Mary Pat Roy and Esther Wax on piano. Lunch is served at noon for $6 per person. Try your luck with Bingo at 10 a.m. with Eileen and Miles Remer. Call Dee Dee for transportation at 330.4272. Call Maggie Conti at 334.6521 for reservations to Ameristar Casino on July 20. WALK-IN, DROP-IN For those members going on the day trip to the Ameristar Casino on Thursday, please meet at the JCC by 8:45 a.m. LOMIR REDN YIDDISH Your are invited to attend the Yiddish meeting at the JCC on Thursdays, July 20, 1-3 p.m. featuring, storyteller and author Ozzie Nogg. Call Anne Skolkin at 343.1638. VISIONS Reminder: Visions Luncheon Meeting is Friday, July 21 at the Venice Inn starting at 12:30 p.m. Special musical entertainment from Jon Rathsam with accompanist, Esther Wax. Bring donated items to help support the Nebraska Humane Society. Please bring items, such as used blankets and towels, to the luncheon or deliver to the Blumkin Home in care of Maggie Conti. For more information call Betty Kolnick at 553.4748. Reminder: Visions Baseball Night is Tuesday, July 18 starting a 6 p.m. for dinner in the Stadium View Club. Brownville Concert Series presents Maude Maggart on Sunday Aug. 20. Dinner follows at Farmer B’s Steak House. Cost is $40 per person. Depart from the JCC at noon. Return by approximately at 7 p.m. Send reservation to Rose Pitlor, 827 Dillon Drive, Omaha, NE 68132. For information, call Ethel Goldston at 393.7358. Deadline is Aug. 1.

KELEN/BLOOM Sarah Kelen and Kenneth Bloom of Lincoln will be married on Sunday, July 16. Rabbi Ilan Emanuel of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun and Rabbi Royi Shaffin of Tifereth Israel Congregation will officiate at the ceremony. The bride is the daughter of Miriam and Erwin Kelen of Minneapolis, MN. Dr. Kelen is Associate Professor of English at Nebraska Wesleyan University. The groom is the son of Estelle and Joel Bloom of Kintnersville, PA. Dr. Bloom is Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. They are members of both Tifereth Israel Congregation and Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Lincoln.

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by GARY KATZ Library Administrator Join the Kripke Book Discussion Group to watch the film Everything is Illuminated on Thursday, July 20, noon in the Kripke Federation Library. The story is about a young man’s journey to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. According to Roger Ebert, Chicago SunTimes, “It is a film that grows in reflection.” The film, starring Elijah Wood, is based on the novel written by Jonathan Safran Foer, which the book group discussed and enjoyed last year. The Kripke Library Book Discussion Group is open to the community and everyone is welcome. For more information, please contact Dorothy Kaplan, Assistant Librarian at 334.6463.

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The Nature Conservancy announced today that Mace Hack, the organization’s Director of Conservation Programs in Nebraska, has accepted the position of State Director for Nebraska. As State Director, Hack’s areas of responsibility include leading the chapter’s conservation strategy development and implementation, fundraising oversight and board development. He will be working with Conservancy partners on projects such as the Platte River Habitat Partnership and the Nebraska Natural Legacy Plan’s implementation. In his current position at the Conservancy, Hack works in both land protection and stewardship roles, supervising four project offices across the state. He also conducts conservation planning for Nebraska and works with Conservancy partner organizations and state and federal agencies. “Being a state director is a great opportunity to bring together the important conservation work on the ground with issues at regional, national and international levels,” said Hack. Hack previously worked for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s wildlife research section, where he and his team worked on an array of game and non-game wildlife projects. He helped start the Nebraska Partnership for All

Bird Conservation and played a significant role in development of the Natural Legacy Project, a historic plan to conserve Nebraska’s plants, birds, mammals and reptiles. Hack holds an undergraduate degree from Princeton University and a doctorate in ecology, evolution and behavior from the University of California at San Diego. Participate in the 2006 MS 150 Bike Tour July 15-16, and help the Nebraska Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society raise funds for the over 5,000 individuals in Nebraska and Southwestern Iowa affected with MS. The MS 150 Bike Tour, presented by Omaha Steaks, will begin and end at Seward High School in Seward, NE. For more information, please call the Nebraska Chapter of the National MS Society at 402.572.3190 or 1.800.FIGHT MS or visit nationalmssociety.org/nen. Tomorrow night, the Homey Inn, owned by Terri and Sue Finkle, will be hosting an event to raise money for playground equipment for Lydia House at the Open Door Mission. The fundraiser, broadcast by KGOR-FM radio, is at 1510 No. Saddlecreek Rd.

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READ IT AND EAT Reviewed by LOIS FRIEDMAN by Mary Lou Heiss (Harvard Common Press, $12.95) Here’s to your health, all you healthconscious tea drinkers! Just in time for your summer sipping pleasure…cool quenchers, for a morning wake-up or if there is a chill in the air, hot drinks and treats all created using green tea, which has a 2000 year history as the world’s oldest beverage, shared by a consummate tea connoisseur, food and travel writer and with her husband founded a gourmet food shop thirty years ago in Northampton, Massachusetts. Green tea conjures up visions of China, Japan, teahouses and “soothes away the rough edges of the day”…uplifting, relaxing, invigorating, delight the senses are words used to describe this “tranquil liquid jade”. The Basics chapter covers details and preparation and precede the chapters Hot Green Tea, Iced Green Tea & Smoothies, and Green Tea Cocktails

using cardamom, chrysanthemum flowers, mint, cinnamon, star anise and more to make smoothies, cocktails, and toddies, too. Then ten recipes for Savory Dishes and Sweet Endings for a total of 50 recipes. Chapter and head notes and sidebars give tea tidbits and tips. The instructions are clearly written and easy to follow. Fresh Fruit Salad with Green Tea Syrup, Creamsicle, Green Tea Banana Split Smoothie, In-the-Pink Iced Green Tea. Frost a few glasses and enjoy this cold green tea drink..it could be just what the doctor ordered. PINEAPPLE-GINGER ICED GREEN TEA 1 cup chilled green tea 2 cups chilled pineapple juice 1 cup very fizzy chilled ginger ale ice cubes Mix the chilled green tea with the pineapple juice in a medium-size pitcher. Stir well. Add the ginger ale to the pitcher and bend thoroughly. Pour the tea mixture into tall glasses filled with ice and serve immediately. Serves 4. Lois Friedman can be reached at ReadItandEat.@yahoo.com.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Anniversaries are usually pretty tricky; they’re difficult to buy gifts for and even easier to forget. But at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, celebrating an anniversary is simple. As the Center marks twenty-five years of supporting exceptional talent, the public can celebrate its Silver Anniversary in the best way possible: by becoming a Bemis Center Member. Beginning this July, the Bemis Center is launching a 25th Anniversary Membership Drive, designed not only to provide membership benefits but also to celebrate its legacy of presenting the best in contemporary art programs to the local, regional, national and international communities. For the past quarter of a century, the Bemis Center has been providing contemporary art programs to a global com-

munity, and artists from all over the world--including those from right here in the Midwest--have participated in hundreds of residencies, exhibitions and outreach and educational programs. And even though the Bemis Center maintains a strong presence in the international art world, it remains a community-based arts organization committed to expanding accessibility to contemporary art for everyone. A variety of Bemis Center Membership levels exist, with tiers ranging from Student ($20) Individual ($35) and Dual ($65) and Family ($100) to Donor ($250), Patron ($500) and Contributor ($1,000). To become a Bemis Center Member or to learn more about the benefits of becoming a Bemis Center Member, call 402.341.7130 or visit www.bemiscenter.org.

July 14, 2006

A Be Gezunt! BERT’S EYE VIEW by BERT LEWIS Health and wellness--now there’s a worthwhile topic to address. After all, don’t we concentrate much of our energy on the things that allegedly make and keep us healthy? Aren’t we bombarded with suggestions and ideas for the best foods to eat and th healthiest diets to follow? And exercise....oh yeah. Get off that couch and turn off the tv, then pick up your housekeys and go for a walk. You don’t like to walk? Get a dog, which will insure the need for walking and do you a world of good. Yes, if we read or listen to the most recent maven (or the old ones who have been around for ages), we know that all that stuff I mentioned above is mostly true. Especially the words about eating properly. OK, I believe that, except one thing bothers me. How come some of our zaydes and bubbies lived to very ripe old ages on a diet that included chopped liver laced with golden schmaltz, chicken soup with enough fat to fry grebenes in, garlicky pickles cured in a brine salty enough to float a boat and blintzes made with lots of eggs and fried in plenty of butter? How come? And you didn’t hear a lot about heartburn either....well, wait a minute. There was a lot of baking soda in every household back then, and it wasn’t all to keep the icebox smelling sweet! Nevertheless, this generation managed to be as healthy as necessary to live very long lives. Many of them of course, not all. They knew how to dose themselves if they did get sick too. For example, one of my Zadies believed that a healthy swig of good, salty pickle juice could cure a routine belly ache. He also knew that petroleum jelly could heal any wound, even if he was advised to go get stiches. My Bubbie, his wife, had her own cure for a headache. This one is guaranteed to make you laugh, whether or not it works on the headache. She would take a potato, cut it in half, and hold the cut side directly to the forehead. Honestly, I’m not making that up! I assume she brought that remedy with her from Russia, well before Ibuprofen was invented. The other side of my family had remedies brought from both Austria and from reading Rambam, as my other Zadye called Maimonides. Those grandparents knew a bad cough would respond to liberal dosing of a mixture of honey, lemon juice and whiskey. I won’t vouch for it’s therapeutic value, but I do know it was taken without protest. If that didn’t work and the cough was persistent, a cold compress was wrapped around the neck in order “to draw out the hot feeling” from the throat. I can thankfully report they didn’t believe in rubbing smelly stuff on the chest or anywhere else for curative purposes. As for exercise, this generation didn’t need to know about treadmills or bikes or any other apparatus used for strengthening muscles. Daily life provided plenty of exercise, which they knew as hard work. Depending on rural or city life, people didn’t always have something to ride on. Mostly they walked and didn’t find anything unusual about that form of locomotion. that’s why you had legs, for crying out loud! Of course life was much simpler in the days of my grandparents. Nobody sat up until midnight reading on a school/work night. Early morning wake-up was exactly that...early. People in rural areas mostly got up with the sun, so they went to bed early enough to have “plenty of rest”. And I’d guess most didn’t need and/or didn’t have sleeping pills either. They slept because they were exhausted from their day, so we can scratch off another of our current words of advice about “getting enough rest”. So where does that leave us? Eat a healthy diet, get plenty of exercise, be sure to sleep blank number of hours every night. That’s what the nutrition gurus tell us is the way to be and stay healthy. And I know they’re right too. Only sometimes I can almost laugh out loud when I think how that immigrant generation would view such advice. They’d think we’re all nuts, for sure. Having said all that, I can only advise that you pay little or no attention to making comparisons between then and now. After all, now is when we’re living this lifestyle so maybe we’d better heed the experts. Here’s one little sidebar to the whole story. In todays paper I read about a woman who’s 109-years-

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 11

Stamp to Depict Greenberg old. She was a farm wife and mother and her children remember how active and how athletic she was as a young mom. How she’d come outside and play baseball with any of her 17 children (!), and how she enjoyed picking corn and other such hard work. There was a photo of her with the story and I have to tell you, she looks terrific! But then, how is a 109-year-old lady supposed to look? I haven’t seen many but I must say I was impressed. She reminded me of a story told to me recently by my doctor son. He mentioned, when on the subject of multiple medications taken by most seniors, he had a 94-year-old patient who was unhappy with her meds. She was on a schedule that called for four pills a day, and she wanted to know why she had to take so many! I know people half her age who take a lot more than four pills every day, as I’m sure you do too. This lady was one of those who grew up in another time, when life was lots harder physically than now. She was in pretty good shape and figured all that medicine was unnecessary. So there you are: Health and Wellness. Choose the right way for you, Don’t go to extremes and do remember the word moderation. but if I were you, I’d lay off the schmaltz! Bert Lewis can be reached at BertLewis39@aol.com.

(JTA)--Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg is among four former sluggers to be depicted on a series of stamps. The 39-cent stamps of Greenberg, Roy Campanella, Mel Ott and Mickey Mantle will be unveiled July 15 at Yankee Stadium. Greenberg, who is in baseball’s Hall of Fame, was the first modern Jewish baseball hero in the 1930s and 1940s. He was twice named MVP during his career, which was mainly spent with the Detroit Tigers.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

July 14, 2006

Illness Brings a Couple Together NEXT GENERATION IN BUSINESS by JOAN K. MARCUS Sally and Gary Kaplan are thoroughly entrenched in Omaha’s Jewish community. As a partner in GraceMayer Insurance Company, Gary represents the second generation of his family in the business. Sally is a wellknown social worker and therapist, spending much of her time at Jewish Family Service. They are both part of the board of directors of Temple Israel, where Gary is a past president. Because of their vitality and ambition, it is hard to believe that serious illnesses brought them together. They both suffered through serious illnesses when they were only in their 20s and agree that their problems have made them appreciate life. They don’t want to waste precious time. And, they never would have met each other if they hadn’t been sick. Gary was born in 1949 in Omaha. His parents, Susie and the late Howard Kaplan, were longtime Temple members. Howard was an insurance executive and Gary decided at an early age that he wanted no part of the insurance business. “My grandfather occupied the second pew at Beth El,” he said. “But my dad came to Temple when he was 16 and mother was raised in a very classical reform tradition.” Gary was very active in a strong Temple youth group. He served as president, regional conclave chair, regional president and remembers many Jewish friends--in and out of Omaha. “I remember meeting Sally and she was cute as a button!” he said. “But, my girlfriend in Omaha was also cute and she was a lot closer. Kids couldn’t drive to Lincoln in those days.” In Temple Youth Group, he discovered social justice and the obligation to repair the world. “I wanted to be part of that,” he recalled. “I remember going to a convention in Wichita and they took us on a bus ride. I was amazed because I had never seen poor people before.” After graduation from Central in 1967, Gary went to

Christopher A. Stanosheck, D.D.S.

the University of Pennsylvania. “I was on a premed track in college and loved science and physics,” he said. “But when I came home during the summer, I worked in a tutoring program in North Omaha. I ended up challenging the board of education to do more for these kids. Then, after every summer vacation, I went back to college.”

in Omaha at Clarkson Hospital (now part of Nebraska Health Systems) and my treatment improved when I moved back to Omaha. It was a warm, nurturing environment, and I did well.” Howard Kaplan was recovering from his heart attack, too. “My dad and I spent time taking long walks together and visiting while we regained our strength. That’s when I learned what is really important in life,” Gary said. “But I didn’t know what to do with myself and my mother suggested I try the insurance business for six months.” Gary did and to his surprise, he liked it. “That’s when my friend told me about Sally’s illness,” he recalled, deciding to call her. “I convinced her I should come down to Lincoln.” His visit was the first time she had been off the sofa.“We sat and talked for hours. We skipped all the fluff that couples do when they date and got down to the important stuff.” Sally Davidson was actually born in Fort Worth, Texas. Her parents, Patsy and Sam Davidson, moved to Lincoln when Sally was six-month-old. Patsy was a convert to Judaism and the family The Kaplan family: Sally, daughters, Elizabeth, Carrie and Katie, and Gary. belonged to B’nai Jeshurun, When he was a senior, life dropped a bombshell. known as the South Street Temple. Sally remembers her “I was diagnosed with cancer,” Gary said matter-of- upbringing to be “classical reform” with her parents factly. being very involved. Since his father had just had a heart attack, Gary decid“We didn’t learn Hebrew or have Bar or Bat ed not to worry his mother and took his treatment into Mitzvahs,” Sally said. “Our rabbi (Wolfgang his own hands. After exploratory surgery, he had radia- Hamburger) was from Germany, and our services were tion treatments and developed complications. extremely reform. Lincoln is a small Jewish community “My friends got scared off and left me alone, so I and my younger sisters, Susie Davidson and Peggy decided to go home and spend time with my parents,” Sargent, and I went back and forth between Lincoln Gary said. “There was also a wonderful radiologist here Continued on page 14

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Illness Continued from page 12 and Omaha for social reasons.” When she was in high school, she and some of her friends started the Lincoln Temple Youth Group (MoFTY). “There were only about six of us in it so we had to come to Omaha fairly often for activities,” she said. “That’s where I met Gary for the first time when I was 15. I thought that he was very cute, but he always had a girlfriend!” He always had a pencil behind his ear in case he had to write something down. He was president of the youth group, after all. But Sally actually had a crush on his friend, Joel Aresty. After graduation from Lincoln High in 1967, Sally went on to Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. “It is a small college and it’s difficult to get into because of high academic standards,” she said. She was a good student and graduated in 1971 with a degree in sociology. “I had no idea what I wanted to do. It was the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s. We arrived at college wearing skirts and sweaters and, by the time we graduated, we were wearing jeans. I even marched in a few protest marches against the Viet Nam War.” Sally and Gary admit that their political views have always been socially liberal. Sally’s father had been a Republican and said that Richard Nixon drove him out of the party into the hands of the Democrats. After graduation from college, Sally decided to move to Boston with a good friend, Richard Krantz. “He was going to Harvard Law School. But I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so, I packed my Volkswagen bug with his things and mine and moved. In those times, Boston was one of the ‘cool’ places to go.” She had no job and discovered that her degree in sociology was “worthless.” “The only job that I could find was an accounting job in a lumber company,” she laughed. “At the end of that year, I quit my job, packed my stuff and went back to work at a summer camp where I run their counselor training program in Minnesota.” Then, she quickly decided she needed an advanced degree. “I went back to Lincoln and moved in with my parents to save money for school,” she said. She earned another degree, this time a bachelor’s in elementary education and got a job in Lincoln Public Schools teaching a reading program. “That’s when I got really, really sick and my life changed.” In 1973, Sally was hospitalized for a long time for what turned out to be Crohn’s Disease, an autoimmune dis-

ease that attacks the intestines. It’s painful and, if untreated, deadly. Her friend Richard called Gary and told him that Sally was very sick and that he needed to visit me. Since Gary also battled a serious illness, Richard knew he would be sympathetic. It’s probably what has made him such a successful insurance executive. Gary can relate to clients in a very personal way, understand their problems and challenges and offer solutions that, in some cases, can actually be life-changing. This couple was bound to be together. Between their common bond of illness, they share the kind of empathy for others that have led them to their respective careers. The couple married in 1974 in Lincoln, and Sally moved to Omaha to begin her life with Gary. Their daughter, Elizabeth was born in 1976, and, in 1978, they adopted Katie, a baby from Laos. Sally had always believed that at least one of their children should be adopted. Before they married, she had decided that she wouldn’t have more than two children; if they wanted more, they should adopt. In 1981, their daughter Carrie was born. “It was a funny feeling when we walked into the room and they give me this little, teeny Asian baby. Instantly, we knew that she was ours,” Sally recalled. “You don’t think about it when you have a biological child, but when we saw Katie, we knew that she was ours even though we had never seen her before.” Sally says that having both adopted and biological children is the greatest gift that anyone can have. “With biological children, you have time for the hormonal changes. When you adopt, you feel so privileged to have gotten a child. It’s like winning the lottery and then the bonding begins to grow.” Katie’s adoption also spearheaded Sally’s interest in social work and she began working at Child Saving Institute with parents who adopted children. This led to her earning an MSW degree in order to do counseling and therapy for several different agencies. In spite of their illness and surgeries, Sally and Gary feel that they are the luckiest people in the world. “We had no idea that our marriage would be as fulfilling and meaningful as it has been,” Gary said. “It wouldn’t have made any difference where we lived as long as we were together to raise our family,” Sally added. “We didn’t know that having children world be challenging, wonderful and as ‘life-changing’ as it has been,” Gary said.

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Financial Planning: an Important Part of Overall Wellness by LINDA GRUNBERG Wellness Coordinator, Senior Market Sales A decade ago, the average life expectancy in the U.S. was 70.2 years according to National Center for Health Statistics. Today, due to advances in medicine, diet and lifestyle, the average American can expect to live 7.6 years longer. Actuaries predict that this number will continue to increase. A longer, richer life is something to look forward to for most, unless those extra years stretch thin your financial resources. People are living longer on retirement incomes, sometimes with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other unexpected long term disabilities.

Planning for financial security should be an integral part of every person’s wellness program. You eat right, exercise, visit your doctor regularly, get enough sleep, take your vitamins, and work at stress management. You should live to 100 in relatively good health. But can you afford it? There are plenty of books, periodicals and websites out there to help you make important financial decisions regarding savings and money management, budgeting, debt reduction, tax planning and wealth transfer. If you’re not comfortable making these decision on your own, contact a certified financial planner or licensed insurance agent for assistance. Milton M. Kleinberg, CEO of Senior Market Sales, Inc. has

been in the business of helping individuals and families plan for a lifetime of economic security for over 40 years. There is no wonder he was recently recognized by his peers with the 2006 Service to Mankind award at the Omaha Association of Health Underwriters awards luncheon. Kleinberg has surrounded himself with experts in the field of Medicare, wealth transfer, life and long-term care insurance, and annuities. Given this expertise, his company has developed an information-packed website on financial products for senior Americans and those approaching senior years. Milton invites you to visit www.MatureHealthCenter.com to help you plan for a financially secure future.

Kohll’s Pharmacy & Homecare A Community Built on Lifestyle Wellness munity, but still enjoy home ownership. (The Clubhouse and by GALEN MOES Offers Wheelchair Vans Independent Living will open in Spring 2007.) Executive Director of Elk Ridge Village On The Lake Village On The Lake is the newest community develThe grand jewel of Elk Ridge Village will be the majestic Elk Ridge for Complete Mobility by JOE PEPITONE Kohll’s Mobility Director Many people in Omaha suffer from limited mobility. Items such as wheelchairs and electric scooters are often good ways to get around when mobility is limited. While many people benefit from a wheelchair or scooter, some are still left behind because it may not be as easy to transport their mobility devices. In these cases, a vehicle specifically made to transport wheelchairs is a great option. Wheelchair Vans of Kohll’s is a service of Kohll’s Pharmacy & Homecare to offer complete independence to their clients. A minivan is modified from a van manufacturer by cutting the floor completely out and reinstalling it 10 to 12 inches lower to the ground. Lowering the floor allows a person in a wheelchair to enter the side of the van while in their wheelchair without hitting their head or worrying about steep inclines or declines. Most of the vans are equipped with a kneeling system which electronically lowers the passenger side of the van to shorten the angle of the ramp. By simply pressing a button, the passenger side door opens and a ramp unfolds. If the van has a kneel system, the door will open, the van will kneel, and then the ramp will unfold. Kneeling is a feature that is used by people who want a low and smooth ride up into the van. Once in the van, the person can choose to be a passenger or a driver. Each van is equipped with front seats that can be removed. The middle seats are permanently removed so the you can easily get into the van. Wheelchair Vans of Kohll’s can install a lockdown system which allows you to pull into the spot and lock into place as a passenger or driver of the van. If you know anyone that may benefit from a wheelchair van, please call 408.1330.

opment of Dial Companies. Located at 194th & Blondo in Elkhorn, NE, this community will provide a multitude of housing options for senior residents of the region that are interested in a unique combination of both rural and suburban settings. Elk Ridge Village is being constructed on 40 acres of property just East of Elkhorn High School. Its signature feature is a beautiful 60 acre lake development and walking trails throughout the community. The property contains six Assisted Living apartment floor plans ranging from 533 to 930 square feet. Independent Living apartments will be available with options of nine floor plans ranging from 751 to 1,281 square feet. The community will also provide special accommodations for individuals needing assistance with memory care. Additionally, three types of villa homes are available for those who would like to be part of the lake com-

20,000 square foot clubhouse. The clubhouse will be centrally located within the Independent Living and Villa homes. It will provide fine and casual dining, a movie theatre, bakery, bar/lounge, billiards, salon services, massage and banking services, health, wellness and social activities, as well as many other services and amenities. Elk Ridge Village has been designed to provide a beautiful home for residents, while offering an elegant environment to maintain an active, quality lifestyle. Our vision is to provide an atmosphere that allows the enjoyment of community living without compromising individuality, privacy, and choice. To learn more about Elk Ridge Village On The Lake, please visit www.ElkRidgeSeniorLiving.com or call 402.216.8835 to speak with a representative.

Health Insurance for Small Businesses by BEV CARLSON Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, along with the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, is launching a major new product—ChamberBlue. This new small group product will benefit business owners and their employees, as well as address the growing need for affordable health care. ChamberBlue offers 13 coverage plans which were designed exclusively for members of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce with 2 to 50 employees. Within these options are three plans which allow policy holders to acquire prescription drugs with a zero co-payment. Other major highlights of ChamberBlue include: • Deductibles ranging from $250 to $5,000 • Four Health Savings Account (HSA)-eligible plans. Preventative care will be covered at 100% of the allowable charge • Optional maternity for age/sex-related groups with 2-9

employees • Companies with over 10 participating members can offer employees two plan choices “We are excited to be involved in this partnership with the Chamber,” said Steven S. Martin, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska. “We are committed to finding better health coverage solutions for small business, and we believe ChamberBlue is a step in the right direction.” Brokers appointed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska who are also members of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce are eligible to sell ChamberBlue. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, insures or provides benefit administration to more than 560,000 people. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska is a not-for-profit mutual insurance company.

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July 14, 2006

Forget Chemistry: Try Better Living Through Friendship STAYING IN TOUCH by OZZIE NOGG By now you’ve heard the news. Even with cell phones, internet chat rooms and jampacked email address books, one out of four Americans say they have no close friends in whom they can confide. How ironically sad. ( As one wag put it, “Apparently people watch ‘Friends’ but don’t actually have any.”) Even more sobering, medical research finds that social isolation, loneliness and lack of intimate social ties can lead to premature death. I’ve long considered myself lucky to have a circle of friends with whom I discuss all manner of personal stuff. Now, in light of the latest data regarding the perils of isolation, I appreciate even more just how blessed I am. After all, if a lack of friends is hazardous to one’s health, might it follow that having good buddies adds length to one’s years? While there’s still no hard evidence to support this theory, social scientists suggest that friends can actually help us live longer--thereby adding credence to the proverb, “A faithful friend is the medicine of life.” For us women, this comes as no surprise. (Like, duh...) We understand that Mah Jongg games, Rosh Hodesh group rituals, and long talks with girl friends--about matters both silly and serious--have a salubrious effect. Dubious? In June of 2001, the Harvard Medical School Nurses’ Health Study reported that female friendships have healing powers, and the more friends a woman has, the more her quality of life is enhanced. The study went on to conclude that not having at least one good friend to confide in is as detrimental to a woman’s health as smoking or being overweight. Other findings determined that interaction with friends can lessen stress, boost immunity, promote healing, lower blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol. Oddly enough, these benefits are not provided by one’s spouse, children or male friend--all of which I have, each of whom I cherish. What can I say, guys. Friendships between women are special. So why do bonds between women reduce our risk of disease and help us survive? Scientific tests indicate that women are genetically hard-wired for friendship as a way to cope with stress. In tough times we deliberately seek out alliances with other women--not with men. And rather than responding to tense situations with the “fight or flight” syndrome (as most men do), women

typically “tend and befriend.” We talk with other women. We listen, we soothe, we’re there for one another. Simply put, unlike men (who handle confrontation with aggression or avoidance), women ease stress through the comfort of friendship. In their book, I Know Just What You Mean: The Power of Friendship in Women’s Lives, Ellen Goodman and Patricia O’Brien write that “women are keepers of each other’s secrets, boosters of one another’s wavering confidence, co-conspirators in life’s adventures. Through laughter, tears and an inexhaustible river of talk, they keep each other well and make each other better. Across species and throughout human cultures, females have banded together for protection and mutual support. They have groomed each other, tended each other’s young, nursed each other in illness and engaged in the kind of aimless sociability that has generally mystified male anthropologists.” This “tend and befriend” phenomenon may also explain why women consistently outlive men. Which gets us to the single woman. For widows--as well as for women whose husbands are “absent” because of physical illness, and women who are alone by choice --female friends are the go-to safety net. When sickness or loss change our personal world, women friends offer emotional intimacy and save us from feeling abandoned. As we face the challenges of aging, women friends continue to cheer us up and cheer us on. They compliment our new hairdo, hug us when we’re scared. Women friends boost our morale and our immune system. Judaism has always placed a high value on friendship. In Ecclesiastes we read, “Two are better than one, for if they fall, one can lift the other. But woe to the one who is alone and falls with no companion to help him up.” To paraphrase Maimonides, “A woman must acquire a friend who loves her, for through this, her life will be improved.” Pirke Avot (the Ethics of Our Fathers) teaches, “One must acquire a friend even if it means paying a price--not in money, but in thoughtfulness, patience and understanding.” Finally, the sages tell us that our true attitude towards other people is reflected back at us, like an image seen in a pool of water. If that’s the case, then the most effective way for us to acquire a true friend is to make the effort to become one ourselves. Hopefully, over the years, I’ve given as much thoughtfulness, patience and understanding as has been given me. L’chaim, dear women friends. You are the sisters I never had. Stay in touch. And stay well. Author and storyteller Ozzie Nogg can be reached at OzzieNogg@cox.net.

Upcoming Beth El Rosh Hodesh Meeting to Celebrate “L’Chaim: to Health!” by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator Beth El’s Women’s Rosh Hodesh group will welcome the month of Av with a toast to good health and good nutrition during its upcoming meeting, themed “L’ Chaim – To Health!” The Wednesday, July 26, 7 p.m., get-together, co-hosted by Carol Parsow and Darlene Golbitz, will be held at the Parsow home, 2222 Skyline Dr., in Elkhorn. “We’d like to reinforce healthy habits to inspire us all to lead healthier lives,” Parsow explained. “We plan to present some interesting, informative materials, and our discussions will focus on creating healthy lifestyles-including good nutrition and exercise--that will nourish both the brain and the body.” Reservations are needed by July 23, and may be made by contacting Parsow at cparsow@aol.com. By request, driving directions will be e-mailed or may be obtained by calling her at 289.3217.

Meet the Strongest Woman-Right Here in Omaha by RICK HUSSEY Meet Becca Swanson. She has the highest squat, bench and deadlift of any female lifter ever. She was recently featured in Hers Muscle and Fitness as one of the 20 fittest women in the world. You may have also seen her in Men’s Fitness, achieving the eighth greatest sports feat ever. Students from Ithaca College in New York recently finished a documentary on Swanson’s lifting and life. They followed her for two years filming her struggles to be strong, own a business and the relationship with her coach/boyfriend (yikes!). The documentary is currently being submitted to film festivals where it has a chance to be picked up by a network. Here is what she has to say about personal training. “I have trained beginners so inexperienced they have coordination problems. It is extraordinary when their nervous system and muscles start to work in harmony,” she said. “On the other hand, I have new clients that think they have experienced everything, then I show them a new level; they learn what they are really capable of.” Swanson owns her own gym and does personal training for beginner and advanced lifters. She also offers a half-hour express workout, convenient for people on the move. She offers a new level of lifting for those looking to get stronger. And when it comes to nutrition, if you are willing to learn, she is willing to teach. Swanson can be reached at 402.392.2446.

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Solid Surface Counters Are Healthier Touch — Unlike stone, which is cold and hard, solid surface is silky smooth and warm to the touch. Absorbs Impact — By absorbing the force of impact, solid surface is easy on expensive crystal and china. Affordable — It is the best value for a premium countertop available. Heat/Cold resistant — Remains stable and undamaged within reasonable hot/cold fluctuations. Hygienic — Will not absorb food, odors or bacteria. Integral bowls and built-in coved backsplashes can be fused to the countertop to create a water-tight and bacteria-free transition. Non-porous — Resists stains and won’t expand and contract with humidity. Unlike granite or marble, solid surface never needs sealing. Seamless — Pieces can be joined to create seams invisible to the naked eye. Easy to repair — Easily repaired and restored to its original finish when done by a qualified professional. Water Resistant — The ideal material for use around wet areas, such as counter-tops, bathtubs, shower surrounds, laundry rooms and floors. Versatile — In the hands of an experienced craftsman, solid surface can be seamed, shaped and sanded into virtually any shape or configuration. The following is a partial listing of uses other than conventional kitchen and bath countertops: Outdoor kitchens and wet bars and Cabinet doors; Decorative fronts for refrigerators and dishwashers; Paper towel dispensers; Switch and wall plates and Cabinet hardware; Wainscoting; Dining room table tops; Fireplace surrounds; Pool changing rooms; Shower walls and floors; Bathroom floor tile. For more information, contact Mory Ludwick at Premier Countertops, 991.7258.

by RUSS LEE Fry Communications Henderson, Nevada — Solid surface is the most versatile counter-top material in the world because it offers unbeatable value for residential applications. Benefits include: Broad range of Textures and Colors — The aesthetic includes solid colors (pastel to bold), granite look-alikes, lightly sanded textures, multi-colored veining, translucents and metalized versions that take on an authentic patina with age. Its palette includes every color of the rainbow. Limitless Design Possibilities — There is no limit to how solid surface can be fabricated and customized, including inlays, borders, design trim, etc. It can also be molded into a wide range of useful shapes, such as sinks, bathtubs, shower pans, decorative embossed wall panels and even faucets. Molded Sinks — Solid surface is the only material that features molded sinks seamed directly to the counter-top. There are no gaps or messy caulks to contend with. Easy to clean — Cleans easily with soap and water. Most household cleaners are also safe for solid surface. Stain and Chemical Resistant — Unaffected by most household acids and alkalis. Scratch Resistant — Scratches can be buffed out with a non woven pad (Scotch- Brite™). Deep scratches are easily removed by sanding, but may require the services of a professional. Range of finishes — Solid surface is available in every kind of finish from dull matte to shiny high gloss. Durable — Solid throughout. There are no veneers to chip, crack, peel or wear out. Long-lasting — The longest warranty in the industry (10 years or more). It is repairable and renewable. Even counter-tops that have been in use for years can be refinished to look as fresh and clean as the day they were installed.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 17

Exercise = Health & Wellness

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

July 14, 2006

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by MARY LOU BRASEE Vice President of Marketing & Development for the VNA As a leader in healthcare, Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) provides innovative solutions to meet the health needs of our community. The use of emerging technologies like VNA CareWatch, a state of the art in-home health monitoring system, is changing the way healthcare needs are satisfied. More importantly, it helps people remain in the comfort of their own homes, providing peace of mind, quality of life, and independence. Everyone can benefit from health monitoring. The system allows individuals, regardless of age and health status, to have their health monitored daily by qualified clinicians. Whether it’s a parent with a chronic illness living far from their children or a working adult with high blood pressure, the VNA CareWatch system quickly and easily collects key health status information in the comfort of the individual’s home. It also allows the users to take an active role in their health and impact how they live their lives. The automated system greets the user each day with a friendly voice and guides them through a simple three minute step-bystep process to collect their health information. The user is also asked simple yes/no questions to further assist clinicians in evaluating their health. All data collected is automatically transmitted to VNA. If the user’s vital signs fall out of a range established by health professionals, the VNA will contact the user for follow-up. VNA CareWatch helps users maintain an active lifestyle with the peace of mind that trained healthcare professionals are monitoring vital medical information seven days a week. VNA CareWatch is available for all appropriate VNA home care patients, as well as any individual in the community that would like the benefits this in-home monitor can provide. For more information on VNA CareWatch for you or someone you love, call 402.342.5566, or visit our website at www.vnaomaha.org.

by AVA WENDT In this special health-related edition, remember that your computer can be one of your best resources in finding current and even leading-edge information regarding health and medical information. There are many reputable sites, even one run by the National Institute of Health (www.nih.gov/). The NIH site contains links to other medical institutes such as the National Cancer Institute, National Eye Institute, National Library of Medicine, and many more. The National Library of Medicine has categories such as Drug Information, that tells you everything you may want to know about generic or brand name drugs you or family members are taking (get there directly at http://medlineplus.gov). You can also find out about clinical trials and how you might participate. A friend of mine learned about an experimental cancer drug on the internet, and since convincing her doctor to let her try it almost two years ago, her cancer is in remission and she is still enjoying an active, full life.

Because your computer is becoming more and more integral to your communications with friends and family, with helping you stay informed, perhaps with how you manage your money, and in your work, keeping it healthy is also important. Although the space constraints of this article limit me from outlining the usual PC health steps I recommend, please see the Tips Menu of my website for the article, “Health & Wellness for your PC.” Ava Wendt is a personal computer specialist with over 20 years’ experience in the Information Technology field. She started Home PC Advisor.com because she wanted to put her acquired computer and training skills to use on a more one-on-one level. Personalized customer service, affordable prices, and “making house calls” set Home PC Advisor.com apart from other computer services and training classes. For more information on how Home PC Advisor.com can help with your computing needs, call 850-3778, e-mail ava@homePCadvisor.com, or visit our website at www.homePCadvisor.com

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Specialized Facilities Offer Support for Seniors with Dementia by JANET ROPER RN at Edgewood Vista What is the best possible environment for loved ones suffering from memory loss illnesses? We at Edgewood Vista believe it is the love and support of family combined with trained, dedicated professionals. Edgewood Vista blends these 2 into an Assisted Living home dedicated solely to those with memory impairment. Our facilities are small, 12-14 Residents at most. Each facility is constructed to resemble most ranch-style homes, with added safety and security features. There are spacious private and semiprivate rooms with large closets and 1/2 baths. The rooms are large enough to hold several cherished pieces of furniture from home, if one so chooses. Each room has a beautiful oak memory box outside their door to display cherished photos and mementos from home. There is a large great room with open kitchen and dining, complete with cozy fireplace and French doors to a secured outdoor courtyard with walking path and gardening opportunities. The staff has specialized training in memory support care and know the special needs and techniques that are necessary to promote independence, dignity and joy in the lives of our residents. All religious, cultural and dietary needs are followed according to each individual. Residents enjoy a variety of activities such as; sing-alongs, arts & crafts, gardening, games, exercising, outside entertainment, and too many others to mention. Along with the support and guidance of the family and Physicians, our staff can promise a life that is still full of joy and rewards. Families are welcome to visit at any time. All meals are served family style in the great room, promoting fellowship for the residents. Our residents and their families become our extended family. Come see it and feel it for yourself. We welcome tours at any time. Day programs and Respite Services are also available, for as long as is needed. Edgewood Vista facilities are also located in the communities of Fremont, Norfolk, Grand Island, Columbus and Hastings. Our Omaha facility is located at 17620 Poppleton Ave. For more information call, 402.333.5749.

Understanding Sciatica by DR. MICHELLE WICKES Throughout the course of our lifetime, 80% of us will experience acute back pain severe enough to lead to a loss of work. A 2004 study indicated that back pain accounts for more than $100 billion in annual US healthcare costs and is the second leading cause of physician visits and hospitalizations. More importantly, back pain robs us of our precious free time. It affects our ability to participate in recreational activities, perform daily tasks, or to enjoy our lives to the fullest extent. Sciatica is a common condition that often occurs with low back pain. Sciatica is defined as pain occurring along the sciatic nerve- the largest nerve in the body. The five pairs of nerves that exit the lumbar spine form the sciatic nerve. Sciatica is often described as pain, numbness, burning, or tingling that begins in the lower back and travels into the buttocks and down the back of one or both legs. Sciatica is traditionally caused by irritation (also known as herniation or bulging) of the lumbar intervertebral disc, which irritates or compresses the sciatic nerve. If the vertebrae in the lower back are misaligned or out of place; or if the disc between the vertebrae is inflamed, irritated, bulged or herniated, it causes pressure on those nearby nerves. This can lead to extreme pain and normal daily activities become almost unbearable. Sciatica typically occurs in adults between the ages of 30 and 50. More often than not, sciatica is caused by normal “wear and tear� on the structures of the lower back, rather than by a single event or injury. Usually sciatica affects only side of the lower body; however, although uncommon it can occur in both legs. Usually, more than 80-90% of sciatica cases can be resolved without resorting to complicated surgical intervention. Considering the staggering costs of low back pain and that society is searching for ways to control surging healthcare costs, there is a practical yet cost effective method to alleviating back pain and sciatica. Chiropractic care should be your choice for eliminating low back pain and sciatica. Omaha Advanced Chiropractic specializes in improving spinal structural problems to as near normal as possible. Gentle chiropractic adjustments reduce the pressure placed on the sciatic nerve and can greatly alleviate the pain of sciatica. Call Omaha Advanced Chiropractic today at 934.2299 to discuss your options for dealing with this life altering condition. PAID ADVERTISEMENTS

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UNMC, the Nebraska Medical Center Physicians Rank among America’s Top by VICKY CERINO UNMC Public Affairs Full-time faculty, and physicians affiliated with the University of Nebraska Medical Center and it’s clinical partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, made the recent listing of “America’s Top Doctors� and “Regional Top Doctors� books. Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., publishes the books to help consumers find good physician. Criteria for making the list includes education, board certification, reputation, experience and disciplinary history, as well as interpersonal skills such as empathy, being a good communicator, educator, and someone who can instill trust and confidence. Among those listed as America’s Top Doctors are: Stephen Rennard, M.D., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema; and Steven Denenberg, M.D., cosmetic surgeryface, rhinoplasty. Among those listed on the Regional Top Doctors list are: Philip Bierman, M.D., medical oncology; Kenneth Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., medical oncology; Alison Freifeld, M.D., infectious disease; Bruce Gordon, M.D., pediatric hematology-oncology; and Joel Schlessinger, M.D., dermatology, a private practice physician affiliated with The Nebraska Medical Center. UNMC is the only public health science center in the state. Its educational programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other institution. Through its commitment to education, research, patient care and outreach, UNMC has established itself as one of the country's leading centers in cancer, transplantation biology, bioterrorism preparedness, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, genetics, biomedical technology, ophthalmology and arthritis. UNMC’s research funding from external sources is now more than $72 million annually and has resulted in the creation of more than 2,400 highly skilled jobs in the state. The Nebraska Medical Center can be found online at www.nebraskamed.com.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

July 14, 2006

What a Healthy Jewish Community Needs, Here and Worldwide What makes a healthy Jewish community? Is it the use of a state-of-the-art fitness center at the Jewish Community Center? Is it the caring kindness proffered by the staff of the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home to its residents? Is it incorporating swimming lessons in the curicullum of the Friedel Jewish Academy? Or is it Jewish Family Service training young Jewish couples in good parenting? Of course all these elements are necessary. But there are other traits of good health--here-and in the former Soviet Union, Ethiopia, and Israel--which are needed even more. You can probably guess that the first item needed for good health is a safe and secure environment. That’s not something the residents of Sderot--or even Ashkelon--in Israel are getting right now. Having more than 800 rockets aimed your way certainly doesn’t make for a good night’s sleep, especially if it’s your child’s bedroom or school that may be hit. While the European Union is decrying the “disproportionate response” of Israeli troops against Palestinians, let’s remember that the PA (read Hamas) hasn’t used the time since Israel left Gaza nearly a year ago to build a proper state for its citizens, but instead has been lobbing rockets into a sovereign state and tunneling under its borders. Cpl. Gilad Shalit was abducted--not captured in battle. If the PA wants a safe and secure environment for its children, return Cpl. Shalit now. And what do the elderly Jews in the former

Soviet Union need for a healthy life? They need more than a $15 a month basket of food; they need medicines and they need visits from social workers on a more frequent basis. Most of them are too infirm to move to Israel; it’s our responsibility to make their twilight years as comfortable as possible. As to those Jews--the Falash Mura--left in Ehtiopia--they need our help as well. Living in a state of political turmoil, exposed to parasites and the threat of AIDS, these long-lost relatives want desperately to come to Zion. If the State of Israel--no doubt busy at the moment with a rather serious military crisis--can’t bring them all at once, they should at least allow the number of refugees to double from 300 to 600 so that within three years or so, they’ll all be reunited with their relatives in Israel. So what else is needed in Omaha? An antidote to loneliness, a precursor to declining health. It leads to depression, loss of appetite and lower immune response. It’s something this com-

munity can easily correct. The health of a community is based on how good we are to one another. Whether it’s someone who’s recently lost a spouse or had a baby or just moved here, these sometimes forgotten people could all use a friendly phone call or an invitation to get out of the house. Sure you should eat right, get plenty of sleep, exercise (at the ‘J’), but don’t forget the social aspects of good health...and that includes your neighbors here, in Israel, and wherever Jews need a helping hand and friendly smile to remind them that we haven’t forgotten.

Relief, Reconnection, Rescue and Rehabilitation

ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW by JAN GOLDSTEIN Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Omaha A few weeks ago, our Federation kicked off a community-wide campaign for Operation Promise with an extraordinary event featuring the stories of two remarkable young women; one born in the Soviet Union, the other from Ethiopia. Together, they embody the story of Operation Promise. I want to personally thank our Event Chairmen Jody and Buzz Malashock, who, having returned from their first Federation mission to Kiev and Israel last October, came home with a personal commitment to help Jews in the former Soviet Union and those from Ethiopia find dignity and a better way of life. If you haven’t heard of Operation Promise then you should know this: Operation Promise is one of the most noteworthy fundraising challenges North American Jewry has embarked upon in recent years. It embodies our Jewish promise to take care of one another, which we have done for thousands of years. Omaha’s part in this worldwide goal of $160,000,000, directed by United Jewish Communities, is to raise $600,000. To date we have raised nearly $250,000, towards our “fare share” Jewish responsibility. For those in the FSU, about half of the destitute elderly are Holocaust survivors who live on an allowance of $260 per person, per year. More than 100,000 FSU elderly are not considered Holocaust survivors and struggle even more, to live on a mere $150 a year and what they receive from core overseas allocations coming from our Federations. Clearly, neither of these scenarios are enough for anyone to survive on. These people, so much like our grandparents, have suffered tremendously since the years of the Holocaust, and they continue to suffer today. In addition to caring for the old, some of these dollars will be used to connect an estimated 50,000 young Jews between the ages of 17 and 28 who have been stripped of their cultural and religious tradition through 70 years

of official governmental repression. Like their parents before them, they have little or no Jewish connection or commitment. But many today are discovering their families’ past and want to know more about what it means to be Jewish and live Jewishly. By investing in Operation Promise, we provide the funds which give them an opportunity to take back their heritage and create a sense of belonging to the Jewish people. If we act now, we can introduce them to Jewish culture, strengthen their identity and connect them to Israel and the Jewish people. If we do nothing, we risk losing a group of young people who come from the third largest area of Jewish population today.

Jan Goldstein meets an elderly Jewish woman in Kiev during last September’s Federation mission. The other vulnerable group addressed by Operation Promise dollars is the Ethiopian Jewish population. Today, 12,000 to 20,000 Falash Mura are left in Ethiopia. Like their cousins in the 80s and 90s, this group of soon–to-be-Israelis are currently rural farmers, illiterate in their own language and totally unprepared for life in a modern society. They live in a world of bone-crushing poverty and despair, but with the hope that one day they will be able to return to Jerusalem. And, like the more than 100,000 before them that Diaspora Jews helped to bring to Israel, we need to help these people. Most of those already here have had great difficulty adjusting to this new way of life. However, over the past few years, we have already begun programs that have proven successful in

changing this. Our dollars will continue to provide the extra services, scholarships and programs which will make a substantial difference in their lives. The fear, of course, is if we don’t spend these dollars now will they become a permanent underclass in an already burdened Israeli society. Will a high enough percentage of Ethiopian Jews be successful and make their march into the Israeli middle class, thereby pulling others up with them along the way? Or will a high enough minority of Ethiopian Jews fail to thrive and therefore create a black underclass that will be a permanent blight on Israeli society? The answer is in the dollars, and we can make the difference now. Operation Promise is an opportunity for American Jews to recognize and acknowledge that our active participation can make right this final chapter of rescue and rehabilitation of Ethiopian Jewry in their new home in Israel. The funds from Operation Promise will provide the additional support that these people need to succeed. Getting stuck in-between means that they will never achieve true economic and social independence. It means being caught in a downward cycle of welfare, school dropouts, drug addiction, prostitution and crime. We need to give each of them a fighting chance to become productive for themselves and society as a whole. We need to do this for them, for Israel and for ourselves as a Jewish community. I take so much pride in our community, and what we have already accomplished through our hard work and commitment to this Campaign. I also want to thank Anne and Bruce Shackman, Maxine and Joe Kirshenbaum, and the others who have given generously of their time and financial commitment. Yes, once again, Omaha Jews are being asked to help those less fortunate with whatever we can afford to give, large or small, and have always responded when the need has been presented. As your Executive Director, I am so very grateful and proud to be associated with the Omaha Jewish community.

(Founded in 1920) Howard K. Marcus Chairman Carol Katzman Editor Richard Busse Managing Editor Allan Handleman Advertising Manager Lori Kooper-Schwarz Assistant Managing Editor Terri Greenwood Advertising Executive Barbara Kirkpatrick Bookkeeper Anne Muskin Editorial Intern Jewish Press Committee Bobbi Leibowitz, Vice-Chairman; Stan Mitchell, Secretary; Scott Meyerson, Treasurer; Michael Siegel, Finance Chairman; Joanie Jacobson, Immediate Past-chairman; David Herzog; Susan Lehr; Jamie Meyerson; George Quittner; Melissa Schop; Michael Sigmond; Jim Simon; Nancy Skid; and Dorothy Spizman. The role of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to involve Jews in meeting Jewish communal needs locally, nationally and in Israel. Centers of Excellence of the Federation are: Community Relations, Jewish Community Center, Center for Jewish Education, Jewish Family Service, and Jewish Senior Services. The Jewish Press is a constitutional committee of the Jewish Federation. Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Committee, the Jewish Federation of Omaha or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole. The Jewish Press reserves the right to edit signed letters and articles for space and content. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the Kashrut of any product or establishment. Editorial The Jewish Press is a Constitutional Committee of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Deadline for copy, ads and photos is: Thursday, noon, eight days prior to publication. E-mail editorial material and photos to: ckatzman@jewishomaha.org; send ads (in .TIF or .PDF format) to: rbusse@jewishomaha.org. Letters to the Editor Guidelines The Jewish Press welcomes Letters to the Editor. They may be sent via regular mail to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154; via fax: 1-402-334-5422 or via e-mail to the Editor at: ckatzman@jewishomaha.org.. Letters should be no longer than 250 words and must be singlespaced typed, not hand-written. Published letters should be confined to opinions and comments on articles or events. News items should not be submitted and printed as a “Letter to the Editor.” The Editor may edit letters for content and space restrictions, but should be printed as soon as possible to ensure timeliness. Letters may be published without giving an opposing view. Information shall be verified before printing. All letters must be signed by the writer, but the name can be withheld at the writer’s request. No letters should be published from candidates running for office, but others may write on their behalf. Letters of thanks should be confined to commending an institution for a program, project or event, rather than personally thanking paid staff, unless the writer chooses to turn the “Letter to the Editor” into a paid personal ad or a news article about the event, project or program which the professional staff supervised. For more information, contact Carol Katzman, Jewish Press Editor, 402.334.6450. Postal The Jewish Press (USPS 275620) is published weekly on Friday for $31 per calendar year U.S.; $36 foreign, by the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Phone: 402.334.6448; FAX: 402.334.5422. Periodical postage paid at Omaha, NE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154-2198 or e-mail to: jpress@jewishomaha. org.

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Medical Care in Israel

Urgent news for people who took

We were raised and schooled with the idea that the free enterprise system, a system based on working to earn as much money as you want and can, is the best system around. Fulfilling the American dream means earning more. Because of this, the way most people judge success is by the superficial yardstick of how much money someone earns. Using this criterion, Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest men, has certainly reached the highest level of the American Dream by joining the ranks of the ultra-rich. If we sat down to talk to Buffett, we would most likely hear about self-discipline, taking certain risks, how to make the most use of our time, how to find a good bargain, the value of small things etc. Now, according to Fortune Magazine, Buffett took the American dream to a higher level, giving us even more food for thought about the meaning of success even if we are not the world’s richest man. Buffett--who’s financial net worth is $44 billion - said that he will start giving away 85% of his wealth in July. Buffett, 75, has said for decades that his wealth would go to philanthropic causes but always insisted the handoff would be made at his death. Now he is rescripting the timetable. “I know what I want to do,” he said, “and it makes sense to get going.” This tremendous give away of assets is typical Buffett: rational, original, breaking the mold of how extremely rich people donate money. Additionally, Buffett believes the price of the stock, and with it the dollar size of the contributions, will trend upward--perhaps over time increasing substantially. Buffett has pledged to gradually give 85% of his Berkshire stock to five foundations. Most of the money

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--five-sixths of the shares--will go to the world’s largest philanthropic organization, the $30 billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose principals are close friends of Buffett’s. The Gateses credit Buffett with having “inspired” their thinking about giving money back to society. “The generosity and trust Warren has shown,” Gates adds, “is incredible.” There is much to be learned from Buffett’s gift of giving. Buffett is giving the bulk of his assets while he is alive. He is redefining the meaning of success by giving in a way that benefits so many, while at the same time he can have the pleasure of seeing this terrific deed bear fruit. Those of us blessed with the money to give away can certainly take Buffett’s example to heart. And those of us who were not blessed with monetary riches can learn from his actions and generosity anyway. We all have something to impart that would help humanity. We are all blessed with some resources that could be used to help people. We all possess something to contribute to society. If we could analyze what our strengths are and what we have to contribute and start to contribute it right away, we would see the value of our gift grow with time as good deeds tend to do. Like Buffett and Bill Gates, who are teaching other wealthy people about giving money to worthy causes while alive, we can do things that contribute to society and our contributions can inspire others to do the same. But, perhaps the most important thing we can learn from Buffet is to make a radical change in our attitude. We’ve been taught to judge people on how much money they have and how much money they earn. Now, thanks to Buffett, perhaps we can start judging people by a truer scale--by how much they give to help others.

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encased leather boxes which are strapped to the head and arm during morning prayer, creates an effect similar to acupuncture, according to Dr. Steven Schram, a chemist and licensed acupuncturist. This ritual, as mentioned in his article in the Chinese Journal of Medicine, 2002, stimulates a very precise set of acupuncture points which clear the mind and harmonize the spirit. Other factors in religious observance which promote an overall sense of well-being, improved health and reduced stress levels, according to Jeremy D. Kark, a member of the Hebrew University team, include a coherent world view and sense of belonging; belief in an external Divine source rather than an autonomous source within people; repetitive, regulated ritualistic behavior; highly stable marital bonding; and the collective religious experience. Jaffe concurs: “The religious lifestyle has a protective effect. I can only hypothesize that in this age group, religious life provides more social support, a stronger sense of belonging, and a healthier lifestyle. There may be practical reasons to--for example, fewer accidents because people do not travel on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays.” For elderly men, going to synagogue to pray provides them with a social as well as religious environment, thereby promoting better mental health and a more positive outlook on life. Although women from the lower and middle socio-economic strata also benefited from living in a religious environment, there was little difference between religious and secular women in the upper socioeconomic strata. The study also cited University of Michigan researcher Linda M. Chatters, who referred to 22 studies in the Annual Review of Public Health 2000 in making a strong case for the positive impact of religious affiliation and involvement on mental health and diseases such as cancer, hyper-tension, stroke, respiratory disease, infectious disease, liver cirrhosis, physical disability and gastro-intestinal disorders.

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(IPS)--A study in Israel shows a direct correlation between religion and health. It indicated that “Jewish men, in by SHARON KANON every socio-economic strata, and women in the middle and lower socio-economic strata living in religious neighborhoods, live significantly longer than people living in secular neighborhoods.” Dr. Dena Jaffe and colleagues at the School of Public Health of the Hebrew University based their findings on statistics provided by the National Census, and linked them to mortality records over a 10-year period. The study tracked 141,683 individuals ranging in age from 45 to 89. “One of our goals was to study the effects of area-level religiosity on mortality over and above that of individual characteristics,” said Jaffe. Men living in a religious neighborhood, for example, are 25% less likely to die in the next 10 years than men living in a secular neighborhood. For women, the risk of death is reduced by 14%; although this effect was primarily for women living in lower and middle socio-economic areas. For women living in a higher socio-economic area, religion does not have an appreciable effect. Researchers also discovered the health benefits of religious ritual--during prayer, for example, the brain waves change. This supports research by a group of neuroscientists at the University of California which claims that a particular region of the brain appears to be linked to thoughts of spiritual matters and prayer--“the G-d spot” --and inspires optimism as well as creativity. Intense prayer, like meditation, is thought to reduce brain waves to a lower frequency, inducing a relaxed, dream-like state in which bodily functions, including breathing, slow down. This is both calming and restorative. Also, putting on tefillin (phylacteries), the prayer-

FOCUS ON ISSUES

Every citizen in Israel is entitled to choose between several state-subsidized health-maintenance organizations under Israel’s socialized medical system. Once you have entered an HMO, you receive a booklet telling you of the nearest family doctors and a list of participating specialists throughout your area. I am in the Maccabi HMO. The monthly charge for my family (including my wife and five children, plus extra benefits not covered in the basic plan) is about $30. Most of the HMOs are represented in my town of Givat Ze’ev and each of them has several family doctors, who also serve as pediatricians (well-baby care is offered by each HMO at Tipat Halav--Milk Drop clinics). Additionally, the HMOs will rotate in the more frequently-visited specialists on different days of the week. When we first moved here, with children between the ages of two and nine, I was stunned by my children’s doctor’s visits. In the States, I had to phone our pediatrician days in advance of a check-up, and then I had to set two hours aside for the visit (including the car-ride to and from the doctor’s office, the minimum half- hour wait, and the various “stations” for measuring my child’s temperature, weight, and eyesight). In Givat Ze’ev, a bedroom community, family doctors’ hours are conveniently arranged from 7-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. Even for routine visits, it’s standard procedure to call for an appointment about an hour before you want to come (this is especially true for the morning hours). The system works like this. Your child wakes up in the morning and doesn’t feel well and you need to take them to the doctor. You wait until 7 a.m. and call for an appointment. You will invariably be asked if you can arrive within the next 10 minutes (it’s pretty quiet between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.). If you indicate that you’d prefer something later, you’ll get an appointment for, say, 7:50 a.m. At 7:45 a.m. you leave your house, walk up the hill (if you live on my block) and arrive exactly on time. You have an excellent chance of being seen immediately. Harvey, our friend and doctor, will typically diagnose the problem very quickly (surprise surprise: ear infection) and give you a prescription for penicillin. By 8:05 a.m., you will be walking down the block to the pharmacy. You will hand in the prescription, which will usually have a big number 15 on it, representing your standard percentage co-pay. Most medicines that will be routinely prescribed to you will be cost the minimum co-pay amount of about $3. Get the first dose of penicillin into your child with the spoon and water that you’ve remembered to bring; tell your child he/she will soon feel much better; kiss hime/her goodbye. While you walk back home, your child walks five minutes to school, in time for the end of morning prayers at the public religious school of Givat Ze’ev (okay, okay, if the kid really doesn’t feel well, take him home with you). HMOs are on a quarter system. After you go to an internist once during the quarter and have your sixshekel ($1.50) co-pay debited from your account, you are not billed again until the next quarter’s visit--no matter how many more times you see your internist that quarter. This is the reason why it’s possible to draw a bell-curve of Harvey’s moods throughout the year, with the high points at the beginning of every quarter--when every one he sees is a paying customer. The quarterly procedure with a specialist is similar. You are billed 18 shekels per quarter for every specialist you see. The caveat is that you cannot switch mid-quarter. Harvey, who is from England, which has its own form of socialized medicine, always jokes with me: “You Yanks! You can’t get enough of the medical system here. You just love it, don’t you?” Yes. We do. Teddy Weinberger can be reached at weinross@netvision.net.il.

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It’s Official: Religion is Good Medicine

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

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 nebraskajudaism.com email: chabad@aol.com

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

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

Rose Blumkin Jewish Home 333 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.tiferethlincoln.org

If you’re looking at this space, so are others! YOUR AD CAN GO HERE...

to reserve space, call

Allan Handleman, 334.6451, or Terri Greenwood, 334.6559.

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

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE FRIDAY: Musical Kabbalat Shabbat service, 6 p.m. SATURDAY: Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Kiddush sponsored by Beth El Synagogue; Evening Service, 8:50 p.m. WEEKDAY SERVICES: Sunday, 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.; Weekdays, 6:55 a.m./5:30 p.m. ADULT EDUCATION SUNDAY: Bible Discussion Group, 10 a.m. K’TANTAN PLUS: Our summer program, led by Daniel Christensen, meets in the chapel from 10:45-11:45 a.m. Our next session will be held, July 22. The program is open to children in K6, and offers opportunities to take roles in leading Shabbat services, as well as the parasha discussion. For information, call Judy Rubin at 498.0904. SHABBAT DINNER FOR YOUNG ADULTS: All Jewish adults in their 20s and 30s are invited to a special Shabbat dinner, “Mexican, Margaritas & Music,” on Friday, July 21 following Kabbalat Shabbat services. Cost is $10 per person (babysitting will be provided, free of charge). For more information, contact Margie Gutnik in the synagogue office, or at programming@bethel-omaha.org. WOMEN’S ROSH HODESH MEETING: Planned for Wednesday, July 26, 7 p.m., at the home of Carol Parsow, 2222 Skyline Dr. The theme is “L’Chaim: to Health!” and will focus on good nutrition and exercise. RSVP by July 23 to Parsow at cparsow@aol.com. HAZAK INSTALLATION DINNER: Thursday, July 27, 6 p.m.; following installation, a musical program will be presented by Cantor Gaston Bogomolni and Jonathan Rathsam, accompanied by Esther Wax. Cost: $12.50 for

adults; $8 for children six-12; no charge for children ages five and under. RSVP by July 24 to Natalie Rubin, 2004 So. 138 Ave Cir., 68144.

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE Office Hours: Mon.-Thurs., 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Fri., 8:30 a.m-2 p.m. Services conducted by Rabbi Jonathan Gross. FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 7:30 p.m. SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m. Free babysitting, 9:30 a.m.; Children’s Classes, 10 a.m. (contact the office for class schedule); Kiddush is sponsored by Sisterhood; Mincha, 8:30 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:46 p.m. SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Contact the office for Mincha/ Ma’ariv service time. WEEKDAYS: Shacharit, 7 a.m; Contact the office for Mincha/Ma’ariv time. MONDAY: Intensive Summer Hebrew Class weekday mornings from 9 a.m.-noon through July 21 with Prof. Sara Kasher. WEDNESDAY: “The Holiness of Music” class, 7:30 p.m. with rabbinic intern Seth Nadel. THURSDAY: Women of the Torah class, 9:30 a.m. with Seth Nadel; Advanced Parsha Study, 9 p.m. with Seth Nadel. Rabbi Gross will be attending the Israelite Institute Rabbinic Fellowship program in Jerusalem from July 13-26.

BEYT SHALOM FRIDAY: Shabbat in the Home.

a.m.; Service, 9:30 a.m.; Kiddush luncheon follows the service. SUNDAY: Services, 8:30 a.m.; Torah Studies-Journeys exploring the Book of Bamidar (Numbers), 10 a.m. WEEKDAYS: Minyan, 7 a.m. MONDAY: Camp Gan Israel Kiddie Camp, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.; Camp Gan Israel Older Division & Pioneers, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Halacha class, 7 p.m. TUESDAY: Women of Worth Prayer Circle, 9 a.m.; Camp Gan Israel Kiddie Camp, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.; Camp Gan Israel Older Division & Pioneers, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. WEDNESDAY: Camp Gan Israel Kiddie Camp, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.; Camp Gan Israel Older Division & Pioneers, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Kabbalah Circle, 7 p.m. THURSDAY: Camp Gan Israel Kiddie Camp, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.; Camp Gan Israel Older Division & Pioneers, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Jewish Thought, 12:45 p.m.; Camp Gan Israel Auction and BBQ, 6:30 p.m. FRIDAY, July 21: Shabbat Dinner and Prayer Service for the 15th Biennial National Conference on Osteogenesis Imperfecta, 7:30 p.m. at the Hilton Hotel. If you would like to join us extending a warm Omaha welcome to these special visitors, call 330.1800. All events and programs are open to the community. For information or to register, call 330.1800 or visit www. Ochabad.com.

CONGREGATION Services conducted by Rabbi B’NAI JESHURUN

CHABAD HOUSE

Mendel Katzman. Office hours: Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-4:30 p.m. FRIDAY: Service, 7 a.m.; Camp Gan Israel Kiddie Camp, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.; Camp Gan Israel Older Division & Pioneers, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Camp Gan Israel Family Shabbat Dinner, 7 p.m. SATURDAY: Maamar class, 9

Services conducted by Rabbi Ilan Emanuel. FRIDAY: Shabbat Evening Service, 7:45 p.m. led by Rabbi Emanuel, with oneg provided by Deborah Swearingen. SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10:30 a.m., led by Rabbi Emanuel; Game Night/Potluck, 6 p.m.

During the month of August, the Social Action Committee is collecting school supplies to donate to Saratoga School. Place them in one of the boxes in the Social Hall. Thank you from the Social Action Committee and especially from the students!

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

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by Andy Greenberg.

TEMPLE ISRAEL FRIDAY: Shabbat Service, 6 p.m.; “Shema Temple Israel: Many Stories, One Congregation”; d’var Torah by Joanie Lehr - “Where did my White Gloves Go?.” SATURDAY: Sparks Beneath the Surface, 9:15-10:15 a.m.; Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m. TUESDAY: Board of Trustees Meeting, 7:30 p.m.

NEIGHBORHOOD MINYAN FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m. SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m.

TIFERETH ISRAEL Services conducted by Rabbi Royi Shaffin. Minyan, MONDAY, & THURSDAY, 9 a.m. FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m. followed by a light oneg. SATURDAY: Parashat Hashavu’a class, 8:30 a.m.; Morning service, 9:30 a.m. followed by Shabbat lunch and Talmud class. WEDNESDAY: Men’s Lunch Group will meet at the Knolls, 12:30 p.m. Contact Yale Gotsdiner at 423.7066. TUESDAY: The Ladies’ Lunch Bunch will meet at Windchimes, noon. For more information contact Helen Sweet.

Congregant Stories Continue at Temple Israel Summer Services by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator Telling their stories, members of Temple Israel have been sharing personal accounts of their life journeys at summer Shabbat worship services. These stories are the prologue of this year’s adult education theme, “Shema Temple Israel, Many Stories, One Congregation.” All Shabbat services during the summer begin at 6 p.m. in the Livingston Chapel. Coming up on Friday, July 21, Jonathan Rathsam will talk about “Going Away to Find Yourself.” Rathsam has been a member of Temple Israel for two years and sings with Cantor Wendy Shermet, the adult choir Kol Rina, and as a soloist. He’s also a Bar Mitzvah mentor and took part in Temple’s Purim spiel and the congregation’s recent tribute to Rabbi Aryeh Azriel,

“Chai Aryeh,” on the anniversary of his 18th year serving as rabbi at Temple. A graduate student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha Peter Kiewit Institute studying room acoustics, Rathsam said his topic will focus on “a defining moment in my Jewish journey” including experiences he had living in Germany and studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Lee Needelman, will share her story about becoming a Jew when she speaks at worship services on Friday, July 28. An Outreach Fellow, a member of Temple’s Adult Education Committee and the Synagogue Community and Outreach Committee, Needelman will talk about “A Letter to My Sister: My Conversion Story,” which provides insight into how she let her family know why she converted. “My sister especially wondered,”

said Needelman, a former Outreach chairman. “The Strength to Continue” is the subject of Sam Fried’s story on Friday, Aug. 4. A Holocaust survivor, he wonders “not that there were Jews who lost their faith at Auschwitz, but that the Jews continued to cling to their faith and maintain their belief in their heavenly Ruler of the Universe. The question is not where God was during the Holocaust. The question is where was man? “What troubles me the most, “he continued, is that “there are genocides happening everyday in other parts of this world, and the rest of the world is standing by silently. And there are many among us who are satisfied being good silent Jewish Americans... and allow the Holocaust to fade silently into history.” Steve Fischer will tell the final chapter in the summer service

worship story series on Friday, Aug. 11, when he elaborates on his book, When the Mob Ran Vegas, Stories of Money, Mayhem and Murder. “The Jews of Las Vegas: Making Dreams Come True” will be “kind of a fun, enjoyable topic,” Fischer promised. It’ll be about “the early developers of Las Vegas, the Jewish men who came to Las Vegas and developed the town and what they did, not only for the town, but what they did for Judaism in Las Vegas by opening synagogues and producing a president of the national B’nai B’rith organization.” A no-host dinner at Pasta Amore, 11027 Prairie Brook Road in Rockbrook Shopping Center, will follow the Aug. 11 Shabbat worship service. RSVP to Rosie Zweiback, Temple’s program director, at 556.6536 or at rzweiback@templeisrael.com to reserve your seat at the table.

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Moral Fiber SPARKS FROM THE WORD by RABBI MYER S. KRIPKE Parasha Pinhas (Editor’s note: this column was originally published in Rabbi Kripke’s book, Insight and Interpretation, in 1988.) Our Sidra calls for the punitive war against the Midianites which was undertaken later. In the Midrash, the rabbis offer a deeply penetrating view of the reason for the war. They suggest that the two nations met Israel’s striving for independence in the Promised Land with confrontation by the sword. One was Egypt. When Israel was stooped by the Sea of Reeds, the Egyptians attacked with their famous chariots. The other was Edom, which obliged the Israelites to undertake a dangerous, delaying route to the east. If the Israelites had come any closer, the Edomites threatened to cut them to pieces with the full force of their military. The rabbis point out in later generations that the Egyptians and the Edomites were not to be considered loathsome. They had acted selfishly, to be sure, and from self-=interest; but ancient warfare, with its hand-to-hand combat (as distinguished from the mass, long-distance slaughter of our day) had a certain “honor” about it. Since their motives were above-board, and understandable, “Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite...thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian” (Duet.23:8).

DEATH GERTRUDE ZEVITZ Former Omahan Gertrude “Gertie” Canar Zevitz died July 9 at the age of 87 at Weinberg Village in Tampa, FL. Services were held July 10 at the Fisher Farm Cemetery. She came to Tampa a year ago from Hallandale, FL, where she had resided for more than 30 years. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ben. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Dr. Richard Zevitz and Dr. Susan Takata of Racine, WI; daughter and son-in-law; Maureen and Doug Cohn of Tampa; grandchildren, Greg and Shira Cohn, Jamie and Menashe Frank and Elise Zevitz; five great-grandchildren. Memorials to the “Friends of Weinberg Village” C/O Weinberg Village, 13005 Community Campus Drive, Tampa, FL. 33625. An online guestbook is available at www.segalfuneralhome.com

To Submit an Obituary Notice: Send full name, age, date of death, location of service and burial site, as well as other pertinent information to the Jewish Press via e-mail: ckatzman@jewishomaha.org; fax, 402.334.5422; or mail, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68114. Obituaries--as well as engagements, marriages, commitment ceremonies, and births--also can be submitted at the Jewish Federation of Omaha’s website. Just go to: www.jewishomaha.org, click on Jewish Press and click on “Submit Announcements.” Guidelines also are located on the Jewish Press home page; just click on the box at the lower right.

It was different with the Moabites (who engaged the Midianites against Israel) and the Ammonites: “An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord” (Deut 23:4). These, as the rabbis noted, attempted to defeat Israel by attacking not their military forces or even their civilians, but by destroying their moral strength, by luring them into apostasy and religious infidelity. The Midianites (allies of the Moabites in their endeavor) had lured Israelites into the licentious fertility worship common in the ancient Middle East, as it is clear from the incident that so infuriated the priest Phineas. It is the destruction of the soul, not the body, that the rabbis see as far more reprehensible than a military attack. Consider for example, that it is suspected that the influx of destructive drugs into the United States is not merely a criminal way of amassing illegal fortunes. It is rather a loathsome attack on the American mind and spirit. If American morale and morality can be corroded, the nation falls. Consider, further: the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir had said that the Arabs can be forgiven everything, even terror, since we understand their aims, but we cannot forgive them that they have forced us to teach our children to kill. And further: that the continuous Arab terror, interspersed with full-scale wars, terror persevering year after year, decade after decade, has finally corroded Israeli morality to the point of the emergence of Jewish-Israeli counter-terror organizations, responding to Arab terror. Luring the Children of Israel to sinfulness, the rabbis said, cannot be forgiven.

AFMDA Calls on International Red Cross to Intervene on Behalf on Kidnapped Soldier by YAEL HARTMANN New York--The American Friends of Magen David Adom (AFMDA) has launched a grassroots campaign today calling on America’s citizens to demand that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) intervene on behalf of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier being held by the Palestinian terrorist organization, Hamas, as a Prisoner of War. Magen David Adom, Israel’s first-aid and disaster relief organization was recently admitted into the ICRC and has always lived up to the tenets of the Geneva Convention in accordance with prisoners of war during this conflict. “The American community cannot sit idly by,” said AFMDA Executive Vice-president Daniel Allen. “Hamas has declared Shalit a prisoner of war, then we must join together and ask the ICRC to make sure that Shalit is receiving the treatment afforded to him, as stated by the Geneva Convention.” In a press conference on Monday, Syrian Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal referred to Cpl. Gilad Shalit as a Prisoner of War and insisted that International protocol be upheld. The Geneva Convention states that injured Prisoners of war must be admitted to any military or civilian hospital where treatment can be given, even if they are to be released. Cpl. Gilad Shalit has been held hostage since June 25, and has not received any medical treatment. Through a grassroots e-mail petition campaign, AFMDA looks to apply pressure on the international body until Cpl. Shalit’s release. To sign the petition, visit the organization’s website at: www.afmda.org.

Hazak Group Plans Installation Dinner by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator Beth El’s L’Chaim Chapter of Hazak (for adults ages 55 and up), will hold its annual installation dinner on Thursday, July 27, 6 p.m. at the synagogue. Rabbi Mordechai Levin will lead the installation and the evening’s entertainment will be provided by Jonathan Rathsam, accompanied by Esther Wax. The following members will be installed as officers and board members: Jim Wax, president; Alan Goodman, advisor; Harriet Marcus, secretary; Gloria Goodman and Natalie Rubin, programming; Tootie Simon, membership; Ilse and Marcel Kahn, treasurers; Frances Gottlieb, publicity; Phyllis Schwartz, Audrey Epstein, Harriet Kutler, Rita Novak, Helen Chorney, Diane Baum and Sally Masnek, members-at-large. A branch of the United Synagogue of Conservative

Judaism, Hazak provides programming for senior citizens who are members of congregations affiliated with USCJ. Hazak affirms the traditional Jewish view that mature adults should have the opportunity to continue to learn and be active in their congregations, their communities and among themselves. Since its establishment several years ago, Beth El’s Hazak has served a vital role at the synagogue, sponsoring a variety of creative programs that include study, prayer, entertainment and socialization. Cost to attend the installation dinner is $12.50 for adults; $8 for children six-12; and no charge for children five and younger. Reservations are needed by July 24, and may be made by sending a check to Natalie Rubin, 2004 So. 138 Ave. Cir., Omaha, NE 68144. For more information about the evening, contact Gloria Goodman at 333.3351.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

July 14, 2006

Volunteers Recognized, Board Installed at Blumkin Home, L.O.V.E. Event by LOIS WINE world inside for the resiVolunteer Coordinator dents. The dining room of the Parsow was responsible for Rose Blumkin Jewish Home creating a garden where reswas filled to capacity with idents could plant flowers volunteers, residents, and and vegetables; she began guests for the annual volunthe sing-a-longs, instituted teer recognition and installaceramics classes, bingo, field tion of new officers and trips, and the LOVE banboard members for quets to name a few. This L.O.V.E.--the League caring lady knew that group Offering Volunteers for the activities and volunteers Elderly. The afternoon would go a long way toward began with a concert featureliminating loneliness and Lois WIne, Volunteer Coordinator, congratulates Judy Yoo, ing Jonathan Rathsam, who boredom. Many of these Blumkin Home volunteer of the year. also honored the volunteers programs still exist at the by singing special “thank Rose Blumkin Home today. you songs”. Esther Wax Judy Yoo is a member of accompanied him on keythe LOVE Board of board. Directors and the newly After teatime, the LOVE elected Fundraising CoCo-Presidents, Miles and Vice-president. She was a Eileen Remer, presented a registered nurse for 35 years check for $10,000 to Jewish and loves working with the Senior Services Executive elderly. For the past two Director Michael Silverman. years, she has been a friend He told the crowd about the and helpmate to many rebuilding of the Home, Blumkin Home residents. slated to begin this fall, and Yoo volunteers at least four Mike Silverman, Eileen and Miles Remer celebrate the said that “this donation will days a week. She rides in the $10,000 donation from L.O.V.E. be used to purchase an item Blumkin Home van to docin the newly reconstructed Home.” tors’ offices with those who need extra help and comVolunteers who reached special plateaus of service panionship. Visiting with her “special group of resihours were honored with a certificate or special volun- dents” is her passion. On Shabbat, you will find Judy in teer pin. The Lee Jane Parsow Volunteer of the Year the Chapel at the Home assisting residents and helping Award was presented to Judy Yoo. with the kiddush. She helped with the Passover Seder, Parsow had been involved with volunteering at the Dr. Grandparents’ Day, the LOVE Booth at the Beth El Philip Sher Home, the forerunner of the Blumkin Bazaar, and holiday parties. Sewing hospice quilts for Home. She knew that living in a nursing home meant the current LOVE project six hours a month makes her more than just sitting around looking at four walls and feel good. Yoo knows why she volunteers; she feels it helped develop programs that would bring the outside helps her as much as she helps others.

Crowd “Chills” at JCC Pool Party

Cantor Gaston Bogomolni, top, and his children, Emmanuelle and Samuel, were among the more than 400 members at the JCC’s annual Fourth of July Pool Party the Sunday prior to Independence Day. Below: Teens Effie Tsabari, left, and Lydia Stern, were more interested in the sun (and their iPods) and left the pool games to the dozens of families with young children.

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