Vol. LXXXII
No. 47
Omaha, NE
25 Tamuz, 5763
July 25, 2003
SERVING NEBRASKA AND WESTERN IOWA FOR 82 YEARS
Jewish Press Wins Three Rockowers at Annual AJPA Convention by CAROL KATZMAN, Editor A record number of awards has brought recognition to the Jewish Press this past year. At the annual convention of the American Jewish Newspaper Association (AJPA) late last month, this paper picked up three more awards, adding to the three awards won at the Nebraska Press Association (NPA) meeting in the spring. It is the highest number of awards garnered by the Press in a single year, since its founding in 1920. Two second place awards were given: one in Excellence in Editorial Writing for a three-part editorial series last January on “The Costs of Being Jewish”; and another for Excellence in Special Sections or Supplements for the Sept. 6, 2002, New Year’s issue: “A Salute to the 100th Anniversary of the Jewish Federation.” In addition, an Honorable Mention was also awarded for the July 12, 2002, Healthy Living issue’s front page story, “Friends for Life”, which featured the powerful story of Cheryl Cooper’s donation of one of her kidneys to her best friend, Ann Goldstein. “I’ve been associated with the Jewish Press, either as a writer, coordinator for the TeenAge page or member of the Press Committee for more than 10
years,” said Joanie Jacobson, Chairman of the Jewish Press Committee, “I couldn’t be more excited to be serving as chairman of this award-winning newspaper because, it’s a fact, the Press just gets better and better. “While it’s only human to take certain things for granted now and then, it’s good to remind ourselves that the Jewish Press shouldn’t be one of them,” Jacobson added. “It’s the one and only connection we have to e a c h other-s y n a g o g u e news; Federation and other organizational news; regional, national and international news from a Jewish perspective; Jewish special events and life cycle events, and, of course, good news, like winning awards.” Interestingly, the three awards given by the NPA were for different features and issues. In the 2002 Better Newspaper Contest, the Jewish Press won a third place award for Leo Adam Biga’s story about Swedish diplomat Carl Lutz, “A Rescuer’s Story”; a third place for the monthly full-page feature TeenAge in the Youth in Community category, and second place for Special Edition or Insert for its Passover issue: “Jews in Sports: Omaha Hosts the 2002 Maccabi Games.” (Continued on page 2)
Nebraska Attorney General Makes Israeli Prime Minister a “Husker” by JOAN K. MARCUS
Release of Diary Entries Harms Jews’ Fondness for Truman’s Show by PETER EPHROSS NEW YORK (JTA)--All children must come to grips with the news that their parents aren’t infallible. For many American Jews, something similar may be happening following the recent revelations that President T r u m a n made antiSemitic comments in his diaries, discovered last week at the President Truman in November, T r u m a n 1945. Photo courtesy of the Harry S. Library in Truman Library his home state of Missouri. “I think we’re all upset to hear it because it’s so much easier to hold the view of him as the great defender” of Jews and of Israel, said Deborah Dwork, Director of the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University in Worcester, MA. “It was comforting to hold that view, and now that view is challenged.” Before the diary comments were released, Truman was best known in Jewish circles for making the United States the first country to recognize Israel after the Jewish state was declared in 1948-and for passing refugee acts that allowed many Jews languishing in displaced persons camps to immigrate to the United States. But the diary entries reveal another side to the buck-stops-here Truman, who succeeded Franklin Roosevelt as president in 1945 and served in the White House until 1952. “The Jews, I find, are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as” displaced persons, “as long as the Jews get special treatment,” Truman wrote in 1947. “I know anti-Semitism when I see it. And that’s anti-Semitism,” said Deborah Lipstadt, the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. Such comments were not out of character for Truman. In 1946, he reportedly asked his Cabinet, “If Jesus Christ couldn’t satisfy the Jews while on earth, how the hell am I supposed to?” said Warren Bass, author of Support Any Friend: Kennedy’s Middle East and the Making of the U.S.-Israel Alliance. Truman was not a particularly dedicated Zionist, Bass said. But he was “someone who was committed to alleviating the plight of refugees.” And that he did: The 1948 and 1950 Displaced Persons Acts allowed 200,000 additional European refugees, more than 80,000 of them Jews, to enter the United States. (Continued on page 8)
INSIDE: Beth El Introduces ‘New Service’ ........ page 3 Monthly Calendar ............................. pages 6-7 Jon Bruning, State Attorney General for Nebraska, was in Israel last month as part of a mission funded by the American-Israel Friendship League and the Association of States’ Attorneys General. When the group met with Ariel Sharon, Bruning made the Israeli Prime Minister an honorary Husker with a gift of an official University of Nebraska Cornhuskers hat and t-shirt. Complete story on page 9.
Bruning Visits Israel .............................. page 9 Red Cross/Magen David Adom Issue Simmers .................................................. page 12