August 7, 2009

Vol. LXXXVIII No. 48 Omaha, NE

Celebrating 88 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa

Torch passes to Team Omaha for 2010 Maccabi Games

Israeli athletes arrived last week from the Western Galilee, Omaha’s Partnership in Israel, as a part of the Maccabi Games Sister City program; its purpose is to connect American and Israeli teens and host families. Israelis Reuel Ben Moshe, 16, and Sapir Baum, 16, will participate in basketball and dance. The athletes will return to Omaha

Jewish Film Festival returns to Omaha

by GARY KATZ Kripke Library Administrator The Omaha Jewish Film Festival, now in its eighth year, will again feature the best films from around the globe.

This year’s festival runs from Aug. 25-Sept. 3 in the Jewish Community Center Theatre. Tickets are $7 each.

The popular “Dinner and a Movie” returns with a kosher deli dinner served on Sunday, Aug. 30, before the movie 66. The deli dinner is $13 and reservations are due by Aug. 27. Advance ticket sales and reservations for the dinner can be made by calling the Kripke Jewish Federation Library at 334.6462.

The Film Festival opens with: The Lemon Tree on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m. Produced in Israel in 2009, the film has English subtitles and runs 106 minutes.

The film is about Salma Zidane, a 45-year-old widow living alone in a tiny Palestinian village on the West Bank. When the Israeli Minister of Defense builds a house on the other side of the Green Line, his bodyguards consider Selma’s lemon trees to be a security risk because they can hide terrorists and impede the bodyguards’ work. Salma’s family planted the trees generations ago and they are symbolic of her family’s history.

Salma retains a lawyer, but finds herself up against Continued on page 2

Inside Opinion Page see page 8

for the weekend following the Games. Above: Preparing for a challenging ropes course at a Maccabi Team Event just days before Team Omaha flew to San Francisco for the 2009 JCC Maccabi Games, are David Glazer, left, Max Saferstein Hansen, Reuel Ben Moshe and Grant Glazer.

Continued on page 2

17 Av 5769

August 7, 2009

Wet your appetite for Limmud: Omaha

by SHERRIE SAAG Center for Jewish Education Limmud: Omaha -- A Day of Learning, taking place this year on Sunday, Aug. 23, 1-5 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center, promises to feed our hunger with an outstanding schedule of presenters and sessions sure to satisfy your craving for “Limmud”, which literally means learning.

“The only agenda at Limmud: Omaha is to take you one step further on your own Jewish journey. It doesn’t matter what form your journey takes, just so long as you learn something new and enjoy yourself in the process,” said Patrick Jensen, chairman of the Adult Education Committee of the Center for Jewish Education.

The fourth annual Limmud: Omaha has the theme “Feed Your Hunger for Judaism” and features an address by a keynote speaker followed by two breakout sessions in which participants choose between several presenters. The one hour sessions will begin at 2 and 3:15 p.m. In total, there will be eight sessions from which to choose.

The keynote address at 1 p.m., titled Food & Faith: American Jewry’s Appetite for Connection will be delivered by Jenna Weissman-Joselit. She is the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies and a professor of history at George Washington University. Her work, both in and out of the classroom, examines the relationship between material culture and identity. She has Continued on page 2

NJHS honors AZA on its 85th anniversary

by GARY JAVITCH AND RENEE CORCORAN for the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society It was just a little over 85 years ago that Omaha officially became the home of the first organized Jewish social group for high school boys.

The prejudice that prevented young Jewish teens from joining their classmates in school social clubs forced the young men to launch their own organization. That first group was called “Aleph Zadek Aleph” and came to be known as AZA”. From its launch in Omaha, it went on to become a world-wide organization under the umbrella of B’nai B’rith, the adult group.

To honor the history of this groundbreaking event, the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society (NJHS) will display AZA memorabilia in the gallery of the Jewish Community Center throughout the month of August.

A new oral history video In addition, at the NJHS annual meeting, an oral history video will debut of former and present AZA members reminiscing about their AZA experiences.

The video, produced by videographer Ben Nachman, highlights experiences of Marshall Kushner, Howard Kaslow, Kevee (Cal) Kirshenbaum, Mark Zinkov, Gary Epstein, George Shafer, Joe Kirshenbaum, Steve Riekes, Sherman Brodkey, Howard Borden, Howard Epstein, Kevee Kirshenbaum, Kevin Adler, Adam Goldberg, Martin MacNabb, Alex Brown, Cameron Stern and Allan Handleman.

During the meeting on Sunday, Aug. 16, 3 p.m., in the JCC auditorium, the NJHS will install officers and new board members, including Don Dandy, Bev Fellman, Rocky Lewis and Sissy Silber.

As a special part of annual meeting, the Society will

This Week: A renaissance in Akko: Page 12 See Front Page Stories & More at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on ‘Jewish Press’

honor Kevee Kirshenbaum with the NJHS prestigious “Shirley Berman Volunteer Award” for his dedication and long-time service. The award will be presented by Bob Belgrade, last year’s winner. The celebration, open to the entire community, and will be followed by a reception in the gallery.

The founders of AZA include, front row: Stanley Levin, left, Harry Sidman, Hyman Shrier, Marion Graetz, Harry Wise, Jerome Diamond, Harry Freed, Leonard Herman; middle row: Fred Brodkey, Louis Fellman, Sam Glazer, Simon Cohen, Ben Falk, Ben Kazlowsky, Mike Freeman, Abe Babior; top row: Max Givot, David Beber, Leo Milder, Jack Milder, Morris Alperin, Harry Rubenstein, Bernard Theodore, and Edward Ruback.

Coming This Month: The Learning Curve (back-to-school issue) on Aug. 21

After arrests, Orthodox groups stress importance of Obeying law: Page 3

Christian leaders urge Obama to “lay off” Israel: Page 4

Helping your child kick off kindergarten with confidence: Page 7

Page 2

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

August 7, 2009

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Continued from page 1 Shirley and Samuel Cemaj, Rhonda Saferstein and Jeff Hansen, Ophir and Roni Palmon, Stacey and Jonathan Rockman and Steve Danon were host families to the Israeli athletes. The Sister City program is sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Omaha’s Partnership with Israel. In San Francisco this past week, the torch was passed to Team Omaha, hosts of the 2010 JCC Maccabi Games next August.

A complete wrap-up of medals will be published in next week’s Jewish Press. Photos from top left: Welcomed by BBG past and current presidents at Heartland of America Park, the day the Israeli teens arrived are Sapir Baum, left, Aviad Albo (Israeli chaperone), Anna Grossman (BBG president), Amanda Bucher (BBG past president), Tamar Halevy and Reuel Ben Moshe. Alan Potash, director of the Plains States Region of the Anti-Defamation League, took the teens on a tour of the state capitol and made a stop at Lincoln’s Memorial stadium, home of the University of Nebraska Huskers: Aviad Albo, top left, Reuel Ben Moshe, Michelle

Davidson, Sarah Potash, Ben Lohman, Sapir Baum. Visiting the Capitol building are Reuel Ben Moshe left, Aviad Albo, and Ben Lohman.

Jewish Film Festival returns Limmud: Omaha Continued from page 1 clever military lawyers, all of whom are backed by the top brass. It’s an unfair battle, that isn't made any easier when Salma falls in love with her lawyer.

On the other side of the grove, Salma’s struggle to keep her trees has not gone unnoticed. The defense minister's wife feels increasingly drawn to Salma as the unfair battle between her husband and their Palestinian neighbors drags on. An invisible bond connects these two very different women who find themselves on the brink of a new phase in their lives.

Two days later, Max Minsky and Me will be shown on Thursday, Aug. 27, 8 p.m. Made in Germany in 2007, the film has English subtitles and is 94 minutes long.

Nelly is an intelligent, no-nonsense girl except for her crush on the Prince of Luxembourg who shares her passion for outer space. Learning that her school basketball team is going to compete in Luxembourg, she abandons her studies and starts training with 16-year-old Max Minsky in return for doing his homework.

Will she follow her heart or mind? Will she find her prince?

The Kosher Deli Dinner is Sunday, Aug. 30, 6 p.m.

JCC Auditorium; cost is $13 for the dinner and the film 66, which will be shown at 7 p.m. Made in 2006 in the United Kingdom, it is 93 minutes long.

It is the summer of 1966, and England is about to be consumed by World Cup Fever. But for 12-year-old Bernie the biggest day of his life is looming: his Bar Mitzvah, the day he becomes a man.

Bernie’s family is increasingly distracted by the threat of losing their business and the scale of Bernie’s Bar Mitzvah diminishes daily. Even worse, the World Cup Final is scheduled to take place on the same day as his Bar Mitzvah. When England makes it through to the qualifying rounds, Bernie’s longed-for gigantic Bar Mitzvah looks set to be a complete disaster.

The final film in the series is For My Father, on Thursday, Sept. 3, 8 p.m. Produced last year in Israel, the film has English subtitles and runs for 100 minutes.

The story takes place during one weekend in Tel-Aviv, in three main locations leading to the Carmel Market.

There are three protagonists: Tarek, a Palestinian youth from Nablus; Katz, an embittered old fellow; and Keren, a 17-year-old girl who grew up in a strictly religious family and left her home to become a secular youngster.

The Jewish Film Festival is sponsored by the Center for Jewish Education and supported by the Avy L. and Roberta L. Miller Foundation by Lindsey MillerLerman; 66 is co-sponsored by the Henry Monsky Lodge of B’nai B’rith. For more information call 334.6462; or visit Facebook or the web at www.jewishomaha.org.

Continued from page 1 extensively studied food, clothing, social culture and the “American Dream” as it relates to the Jewish experience.

There are four presenters for the first breakout session at 2 p.m. Rabbi Yaakov Weiss, who recently completed a residency at the Nebraska Medical Center in Clinical Pastoral Education and will be continuing work in pastoral care presents “Feeding Other Souls: The Art of Caring for Others”.

Alan Potash presents “A Modern Jewish Identity in a Complex World.” He is Regional Director, Plain States Region of the Anti-Defamation League. “Utopia in Zion: A Century of the Israeli Kibbutz Movement,” is the title of Dr. Moshe Gershovich’s session. Gershovich is the Martin Professor of History at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

Miriam Gross, a first time presenter at Limmud: Omaha, holds a masters in Jewish Education from Hebrew College in Boston, MA. As a community educator who recently relocated to Omaha, she will share a popular lecture titled, “Heaven Doesn’t Do Halves: A Rabbinic Approach to Sexuality”.

The second breakout session at 3:15 p.m. includes four presenters as well. Rabbi Mordechai Levin of Beth El Synagogue will “feed our hunger” for Jewish ritual with a talk entitled: “The relevance of Jewish prayer.”

Dr. Guy Matalon, CJE executive director, will lecture on “The Kabbalah of Food”. He is also the Federation Professor of Judaic Studies, Department of Philosophy, and the Director of the Natan and Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at UNO. “Eating Your Way Through Life, Biblically” is the intriguing title of Dr. Leonard Greenspoon’s session.

Greenspoon is the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University. Weissman-Joselit, the keynote speaker, will present a breakout session as well. Based upon her expertise on the history of the American Jewish cookbook, her session is titled, “Jewish Cookbooks, What They Bring to the Table.”

“I can’t think of another opportunity during the year where you can create your own Jewish learning experience -- by choosing the sessions you are most interested in attending,” said Matalon. “This year’s lineup sounds so intriguing, it may prove difficult to pick just one class,” he added.

Limmud:Omaha is made possible with the support of The Philip and Ethel Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University. It is open to the community and offered at no charge. Babysitting is available by reservation by calling 334.6463.

Refreshments will be served throughout the afternoon.

For more information, please contact 334.6445 or mgrossman@jewishomaha.org.

August 7, 2009

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 3

After arrests, Orthodox groups stress importance of obeying the law

by ERIC FINGERHUT mail sent out by Agudah’s executive vice WASHINGTON (JTA) -- In the wake president, Rabbi David Zweibel, to the of last week’s arrests of several prominent organization’s supporters. Titled “An rabbis, some Orthodox leaders are work- Urgent Gathering,” the e-mail said the ing to ensure that their institutions are meeting would be “focusing on the timefollowing the letter of the law. less (but also all too timely) theme of At a Chabad-Lubavitch regional confer- ‘Vi’asisa hayashar vi’hatov,’ or making sure ence over the weekend in northern Virginia, several of the Chasidic movement’s senior rabbis stressed the importance of obeying the law, according to Rabbi Levi Shemtov, director of the Washington office of American Friends of Lubavitch.

The movement’s late spiritual leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, “clearly instructed all emissaries of Lubavitch that activities, particularly those Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra Jr. at a news conference on July undertaken in the 23, 2009, called the indicted rabbis “a group of criminals hiding name of the move- behind a facade of being religious leaders in order to commit Credit: Robert Wiener ment, must be lawful,” crimes.”

Shemtov said. “The Talmud clearly rules one is doing ‘the good and honest thing.’” that the law of the land, especially in the “In the wake of recent headlines and case of a government which allows Jews front-page photographs that made every to live freely, takes on the force of Jewish feeling Jewish heart ache, it is even more law.” timely for us to take a good, hard look at In New York, a leader of Agudath Israel our obligations to our fellows, to our of America, an umbrella group bringing society, to our government,” Zweibel said together several Chasidic and non- in the e-mail, adding that “I am confident Chasidic communities, helped organize a that you realize how vital it is that we hear meeting to stress the same theme. The words of mussar [taking stock] and meeting was to feature two prominent chizuk [reinforcement], and that we learn rabbis and two well-known New York to distinguish between conduct that conlawyers, Benjamin Brafman and Jacob forms with dina d’malchusa [the law of Laufer. the land] and conduct that does not.”

The meeting was announced in an eThe meeting comes less than a week

after five New York and New Jersey rabbis were arrested July 23 on charges of money laundering. Authorities say the rabbis accepted large checks made out to tax-exempt charitable organizations associated with their synagogues, usually keeping 10 percent of the money and returning the rest to the donor in cash.

The charges somewhat echo a case involving the spiritual leader of the Spinka Chasidic sect in December 2007, in which religious leaders in New York and Jewish businessmen in Los Angeles were charged with soliciting “tens of millions of dollars” in contributions to their charities while secretly refunding as much as 95 percent of the donors’ money, allowing the contributors to claim improper tax deductions.

The head of the Spinka group, Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Weisz, agreed to plead guilty to the charges earlier this month.

A criminal defense lawyer familiar with the Jewish community said he doubted that the New Jersey and Spinka cases signaled any kind of targeting or trend among federal prosecutors of Orthodox Jewish groups.

“I think it’s a coincidence,” said the lawyer, who did not want to be identified.

The cases are “instances of somebody trying to reduce their own sentence” by

telling the government what he knew about other possible criminality, he said.

In both scandals, a defendant charged with serious financial crimes unrelated to the Jewish community became a confidential informant for the government, wearing a wire to implicate rabbis.

A U.S. Justice Department spokesman declined comment on both affairs and referred a reporter to the individual U.S. attorneys offices that brought the charges.

The Orthodox Union declined comment on the New Jersey scandal.

One expert said the best ways for charities to avoid getting caught up in any trouble with the law are pretty basic.

First, “stick to what the mission really is” of the charity and don’t start freelancing, said Kenneth Ryesky, an attorney who teaches tax and business law at Queens College in New York.

One rabbi who did not wish to be identified said he periodically gets a request from a potential donor similar to what the Spinka rabbis were allegedly doing -accepting a large check and returning most of the money in cash to the donor -and always rejects the offer immediately.

That’s the best reaction, Ryesky said.

“If it doesn’t pass the smell test,” he said, “don’t have anything to do with it.”

JEWISH PRESS EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press will be closed Monday, Sept. 7 for Labor day; the deadline for the Sept. 11 issue is Wednesday, Sept. 2, 9 a.m. for all articles, ads, and photos.

The Press will publish the New Year’s issue on Sept. 18, 2009, entitled “What we did THAT summer!”

All rabbis’ holiday messages, as well as articles and photos are due by Aug. 7; all lists of marriages, births and deaths, as well as board lists are due on Aug. 14; synagogue schedules for Rosh Hashanah are due by Aug. 21.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

August 7, 2009

Stop the pressure! At CUFI confab, lawmakers, Christian leaders urge Obama administration to lay off Israel

by ADAM KREDO Washington Jewish Week Lawmakers, Christian activists and top Jewish leaders took several swipes at the Obama administration’s Middle East policy Tuesday, criticizing its public chastisement of Israel regarding the growth of settlements.

“America is singling out Israel” and unduly “pressuring” it, Pastor John Hagee declared Tuesday afternoon as he addressed several thousand Christian Zionists at the fourth annual Christians United for Israel Summit in Washington, D.C. “Despite all of the risks Israel has taken for peace, our government is pressuring Israel to take more risks,” said Hagee, CUFI’s founder and chair. “Hello Congress, we’re putting pressure on the wrong people here. You want to get tough, get tough with the terrorists, not the only democracy in the Middle East.”

Earlier in the day, Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) also got a rousing applause when she said, “To pin the peace process on a settlement issue, which is nonexistent, is absolutely foolhardy.”

Berkley went on to label Obama’s public chastising of Israeli settlements a “huge mistake” and a “red herring,” ultimately declaring that there is “no way Israel should be restricted from having natural growth; it’s their right!” That comment elicited a massive ovation from the audience and the blowing of a shofar by one attendee. (Pleased with the crowd’s response, Berkley quipped, “if I wasn’t so Jewish, I’d think about converting,” and later described the group as, “the wind beneath my wings.”)

Berkley and Hagee weren’t the only ones to criticize the administration’s public battles with Israel.

Throughout the day, top Christian and Jewish leaders urged the president to ease off Israel, and to stop trying to force it into implementing U.S.-backed policies.

Speakers at the event - among them Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and a slew of pastors from across the nation - may have ranged in their religious affiliations, but all brought a stalwart inclination to unabashedly support the State of Israel.

During a Wednesday CUFI lobbying session on Capitol Hill, attendees were to address the issue of “pressuring Israel” with lawmakers, according to David Brog, the group’s executive director.

“There’s a worry that [public pressure] might extend to territorial concessions” by Israel, Brog said, explaining that lobbyists would not “specifically” address the settlement issue with lawmakers. “We are saying they should not pressure Israel - respect it as a democracy... [and] apply pressure” to those who promote terrorism.

Lobbyists also were to push legislators to back two pieces of legislation dealing with Iran, Brog said.

The first bill, the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act, which is backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, urges divestment from Iran’s energy sector. The second bill, the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act, would also strangle the Iranian economy and encourage divestment from the country. CUFI is seeking to add congressional co-sponsors to both pieces of legislation.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on several large screens via satellite from Jerusalem, bringing the cheering and applauding crowd to its feet.

Pastor John Hagee, with U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) standing behind him, at the Christians United for Israel conference in Washington on July 21, 2009 rapped the Obama administration for “putting pressure on the wrong people,” Credit: Christians United for Israel referring to Israel.

Lauding the growth of CUFI and Christian support for Israel, Netanyahu said that “a new chapter in the relationship between” Christians and Jews “is being written. Today millions of Christians stand with Israel because they stand for freedom, millions of Christians stand with Israel because they stand for truth, millions of Christians stand with Israel because they want to see a genuine peace in the Holy Land.”

As for Israel’s “enemies,” the prime minister, who did not mention settlements, had a simple message: “We’re staying home.”

Contentious land issues, many of the speakers maintained, are not the root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; pure hatred of Israel is the prime motivator among the country’s enemies, they said.

“The whole idea of land for peace is dead,” declared Christian political commentator Fred Barnes, the executive editor of the Weekly Standard. Israel, he continued, has “given up a whole lot of land without peace.”

The “key to peace,” Barnes said, is Arab recognition of Israel as “a Jewish state.”

The conservative commentator also took a direct shot at President Barack Obama, something most other speakers refrained from doing.

Obama, Barnes said, reneged on a campaign trail promise to withhold disproportionate pressure on Israel.

“Well,” he lamented, “that was a promise ... I know he wasn’t going to keep and, of course, he hasn’t.”

The president, he continued, has a “manic” obsession with Israeli settlements “as if it’s the key to unlocking peace in the Middle East; it’s not!”

Lieberman, who received CUFI’s Defender of Israel award during the group’s Tuesday evening banquet, reminded attendees that “the chief obstacle to peace in the Middle East isn’t Israelis living on the West Bank, but the regime in Tehran.”

The summit, though, wasn’t all doom, gloom and strife. Intermittently during the dinner banquet, guests danced in circles and jointly waved American and Israeli flags, while the CUFI orchestra gave classic Jewish songs a countrified, blue-grass interpretation.

Speaking at the conference,, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that U.S. policies in the Middle East must be “firmly grounded” in Judeo-Christian principles.

“Reaching out to the Muslim world may help in creating an environment for peace in the Middle East, but we must insist as Americans that our policies be firmly grounded in the beliefs of the Judeo-Christian tradition upon which this country was founded,” said Cantor, the House minority whip and the only Jewish Republican in Congress.

Cantor mainly focused on the importance of U.S. support for Israel, and the threats to the Jewish state from Iran and terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

He told the group that “now, more than ever, it is vital you’re here, at a critical moment in history.”

“Critics say the stumbling block” to peace in the Middle East “is settlements or Jerusalem or refugees,” Cantor said. “We all know the real stumbling block to peace is posed by those who vehemently deny the nation of Israel’s historical right to the land of Zion.”

Pastor Scott Thomas, who directs CUFI Florida branch, said the tone of the conference felt slightly different this year. “We certainly are not in the George Bush era,” he said, adding that he is “hoping” to see “more affirmation” of the U.S.-Israel relationship by the current administration “in the future.”

“Take the pressure off of Israel,” said Thomas, who serves as the senior pastor of the Without Walls Central Church in Lakeland, Fla. “The last time we looked, Israel was a sovereign state.”

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August 7, 2009

Beth El Women’s Rosh Hodesh group plans to dazzle with the “Year of the Moon and the Stars”

Jacobson and Jean Duitch, will be held in the San Soucie Room at the Swanson Tower Condominiums, 8405 Indian Hills Dr. Social time will be at 7 p.m.; the formal meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.

During the evening, attendees will be treated to a short media quiz, said Katzman, who has guided the Press for the past 13 years; as a bonus, the winner of the quiz will receive a one-year gift subscription to give to the out-of-town recipient of her choice.

Future meetings, topics and guest stars are: Throughout Sept. (Tishre): “Calling All Congregants!” starring the women of Beth El, who, prior to the High Holidays, will phone fellow congregants with New Year’s greetings; Monday, Oct. 19 (Chesvan): “Who Put the Rush in Rosh Hashanah?”

Nancy starring Rips; Wednesday, Nov. 18 (Kislev): “Living It and Loving It! Helping Kids and Grandkids Joanie Jacobson, left, and Jean Duitch, right, are co-hosting the Aug. Find the Joy in 20 Beth El Women’s Rosh Hodesh group, featuring Jewish Press edi- Being Jewish,” startor Carol Katzman, center. ring Patty Nogg; Thursday, Dec. 17 (Tevet): Project Organizer Ann Goldstein expressed excitement with the year’s line-up. Linus service project, starring Caryn and “We’re so pleased with this year’s pro- Annie Rifkin; Monday, Jan. 18 (Shevat): Dinner grams, which offer a variety of thoughtprovoking topics and interactive activities, and a Movie, starring Susi Frydmanand all interweave important Jewish ele- Levin; Monday, Feb. 15 (Adar): ments.”

Emphasizing that all women in the Hamantaschen packing service project, Jewish community are invited to attend starring the women of Beth El; Monday, March 15 (Nisan): “Wine, these Rosh Hodesh celebrations, Goldstein shared that, “It’s always won- Women & Song: Kosher Wine Tasting,” derful to have new women participate in starring Sally Zipursky; Thursday, April 15 (Iyar): “What’s our programs. That’s what we’re all about: women joining together to greet Cooking in Israel?” starring Eadie Tsabari. each new month.”

Goldstein noted that additional 2010 This year’s first meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 20, 7 p.m.; the topic Rosh Hodesh celebrations will be will be “Breaking News: The Media announced at a later date; for more inforRevolution,” featuring special guest star mation about the above-mentioned Carol Katzman, editor of The Jewish Press. events, contact her at 391.1050, or The get-together, co-hosted by Joanie akgoldstein@gmail.com.

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator A year of stellar events, insightful discussions and exciting guest speakers will highlight the Beth El Women’s Rosh Hodesh Group’s monthly get-togethers, as the group presents “2009-’10: The Year of the Moon and the Stars.”

Whether celebrating the joys of Judaism, Israeli wine tasting, participating in service projects or a variety of other topics, the stars will be out and shining throughout the year, and the Jewish women in our community will welcome each month with lively discussions and camaraderie.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 5

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IN THE NEWS

The fifth annual charity Memorial Golf Classic will honor Dr. Ben Kutler at Miracle Hills Golf and Tennis Club on Aug. 22, 12:30 p.m. Kutler was an Omaha dentist who served as a role model to the profession by his caring and compassionate treatment of all, no matter what their financial circumstance.

Dinner and awards will follow the golf tournament. Cost is $100 per golfer or $30 for dinner only.

Every year, Creighton Universty School of Dentistry provides dental care to those in need. The funds generated by this charity golf outing will be used to help defray the costs incurred in providing much needed dental health care for those

who can least afford it.

To register or make a contribution, contact Dr. Tom Meng at Creighton University: 402.280.5065.

Research funding at the University of Nebraska Medical Center soared 22 percent to more than $100 million during the past fiscal year. More than $76 million of that funding came from federal sources. UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., said that UNMC’s net research funding support for fiscal year 2008-09, was $100,474,000 -- an increase over last year when UNMC investigators brought in $82.2 million in external research funding.

BIRTH

Sarah and David Kotlyar of Neve Yakov, Jerusalem, Israel announce the May 13 arrival of their son, Moshe.

He has a brother, Yosef.

Grandparents are Kenneth Morrow, of Stirling, NJ, Judith Morrow of West

Orange, NJ, and Natan and Joan Simon Kotlyar, Albany, CA. Great-grandparents are the late Sylvia Wettenstein, and Stuart and Esther Simon.

to ing a trip Wall dur n r te s e salem’s W ys at Jeru a r p n re r arty Wa mahan M O r e m r .

Fo t of 2005 in Augus

Israel

Coming September 18!

Stories and photos of what members our Jewish community did during any summer.

Weddings, B’nai Mitzvahs, travel and so much more.

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Page 6

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

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Beth El mini-course explores meaning of High Holidays

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator Ever wondered what Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are really about? Are you puzzled by the complexity of the High Holidays services? Want to make the holiday experience more meaningful, both for yourself and your loved ones? Join Beth El’s Rabbi Mordechai Levin as he leads a special three-part mini course, “How to Make the High Holidays More Meaningful,” which will take an in-depth

in order to be able to improve and make things right with those we have harmed.

We always have the opportunity to renew ourselves, to re-create our lives.”

According to the rabbi, each session will offer contemporary insights and ‘user-friendly’ explanations about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

“We’ll provide an overview of the meaning, themes, theology, poetics, structure, and customs of the High Holidays,” he explained, adding that dur-

Rabbi Mordechai Levin, seen here teaching a class earlier this year, will lead a three-session course, "How to Make the High Holidays More Meaningful" on Aug. 16, 23 and 30. look at the holidays and our unique connection to them. Classes are scheduled at the synagogue on Sundays, Aug. 16, 23 and 30, 11 a.m.-noon; everyone in the Jewish community is invited to take part in the conversation, at no charge.

“Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur ask us to consider what path our life is taking, what our dreams and objectives are and what choices are we making,” said Rabbi Levin. “We engage in a self examination

ing the class, “we’ll also outline the basic structure of its liturgy and take a closer look at specific prayers and their significance.

“Please join us and learn more about the deeper meaning of this season and how to prepare yourself to get the most out of it.” To reserve a spot in this class, please contact Program Director Margie Gutnik at 492.8550, or at programming@bethel-omaha.org.

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WALK-IN, DROP-IN For those members going on the bunch to lunch day trip to Elkhorn to the Heartland Café, please meet at the JCC at 10:30 a.m. For information, call Maggie Conti at 334.6521.

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Rave reviews from Visions

VISIONS Reminder: Visions board meeting is Friday, Aug. 7, 9:30 a.m. in the Social Hall of the JCC. B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS The international president of B'nai B'rith, Moishe Smith, will be in Omaha on Wednesday, Aug. 12, noon, at Regency Lodge, to update the community on world events, according to chairman, Gary Javitch. All men and women in the community are invited. The program is free. An optional buffet lunch is $13; beverage service only is $3. An RSVP is needed by Aug. 10. For more information or to get on the email list, contact

Members of Visions enjoy a very humorous guest speaker: Jeff Koterba, Omaha World-Herald editorial cartoonist, as he entertained the group with his wit, while showing examples of his clever cartoons.

Large print living will available Jewish Heritage for the Blind announced the availability of the large print “Jewish Halachic Living Will”, produced by the Agudath Israel and the Orthodox Union. Forward your request on your formal stationery to fax #: 718.338.0653 or send an e-mail to jewishheritage@gmail.com. Requests must include a phone number to confirm delivery. The supply is limited.

August 7, 2009

Helping your child kick off kindergarten with confidence JEWISH P ARENTING

by SHARON DUKE ESTROFF

Preparing our child for the first day of kindergarten -- it’s among the most bittersweet tasks of our parental career. But wistfully tracking down the coolest Batman or Barbie backpack on the market is only a fraction of the job description. The following suggestions will help ensure your little slugger enjoys a successful start to his rookie school year.

Visit the school. A summertime sneak preview of the school, kindergarten classrooms and playground will help minimize fear of the unknown and make your child more comfortable during her first days of school.

Get into the Kindergarten Swing. A week or so before the start of school, begin easing your child into the school-year schedule. That way he’ll be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on his first day. Play down your own mixed emotions. Rather than rambling on about how you can’t believe your baby is growing up, emphasize how excited you are that she’s going to kindergarten.

Send a security object. The promise of being able to bring a favorite blanket or stuffed animal -- albeit stashed safely out of sight in his backpack -- will be worth its weight in lunch money in building your rising kindergartener’s courage.

Celebrate. Boost your child’s excitement about school with a special celebratory dinner the night before he starts kindergarten. Use colorful school supplies to decorate the table or the occasion. (Just don’t go overboard on the sugar!)

Talk about your first-day-of-school experiences.

Psychologists believe that sharing family stories is one of the most effective ways for parents to emotionally strengthen their children. During your celebratory dinner, take turns sharing first day of kindergarten stories.

Ease into aftercare. Many children’s after school situations change with their entrance to kindergarten. If your child will be attending a Jewish community center

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or other daycare program after school, see if the facility offers a camp and enroll her there for a week or so over the summer; that way she’ll be settled when school kicks off in the fall. If you’ll be utilizing the school’s aftercare program, talk to your child about where she should go, who’s in charge and what to expect there.

Make sure she has a familiar face at school. Having at least one friend on the first day of kindergarten can make all the difference to a child; so call the school over the summer, ask for the names of a few of your child’s future classmates, and arrange a playdate or two.

Read all about it. There’s nothing like an uplifting story about another kid in the same boat to help build a rising kindergartener’s confidence.

Here are some worthy choices.

• Annabelle Swift, Kindergartener by Amy Schwartz • Kindergarten Rocks by Katie Davis • Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten

by Joseph Slate • The Night Before Kindergarten by Natasha Wing, Julie Durrell • Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!

by Nancy Carlson • The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn Find Your Place in the Kindergarten Circle: Truth be told, even after our child is primed and ready for his elementary debut, our work is not done. To the contrary, it’s just begun. Researchers have identified that the one factor constant in students who do well in school is parent involvement.

So volunteer in your kindergartener’s classroom; make sure he’s geared and ready for school each day; and make a Yom Kippur caliber promise -- right now when your child is still cute and baby-faced -- to provide him with steady educational guidance, unwavering moral support and occasional kicks in the tuchas every single school day for the next thirteen years.

Sharon Duke Estroff is an internationally-syndicated Jewish parenting columnist with graduate degrees in education and child psychology, an award-winning Jewish educator, and mother of four. Her first book Jewish parenting book was released by Broadway Books; learn more at: www.sharonestroff.com.

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READ IT AND E AT Reviewed by LOIS FRIEDMAN

It is the time of the year for puttin’ up the bounty of the harvests and Solomon, food crafter (food is her medium of choice)/culinary tinkerer (creating real food rather than using the prefab that is full of gunk) and writer, dedicated this cookbook to her mom “the original balabusta” and shares “the joy of real, obtainable DIY kitchen crafting projects at their best” and thinking outside the jar.

With “It” are a dozen chapters... Munch as in crackers, chips and dips, Bottle as in condiments, Brine as in pickles and olives, Noodle as in pasta, Hook as in preserved and cured fish, Hunt as preserved and cured meat, Milk as in butter and cheese, Jam as in preserves, Sugar as in sweet treats, Freeze as in frozen confections, Unwrap as in candy and Drink as in hard and soft beverages. Chapter and headnotes (the bean dip is described as family bar mitzvah fare) relate to Solomon’s friendly light hearted observations. Instructions are clear and reader friendly. Prep Ahead and Variations are given. How to Store It suggests ideas are mostly to refrigerate but a fun loving “in your gut” or “devour immediately” are suggested, too.

Lovely color photographs suggest mouthwatering goodies.

Turn flabby, flavorless, gooey and bland (store bought stuff) into great condiments and let your culinary inhibitions fly free. Plan to eat this tangy-sweet pickle within a day or two. Serve with spicy curries, noodles and fried rice.

SUPER-FAST THAI CUCUMBER SALAD Time Commitment: Less than 1 hour 1 English cucumber or 2 regular cucumers, peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced (about 2 cups) 1 small red onion, thinly sliced (about 3/4 cup) 2 teaspoons sugar 2 teaspoons kosher salt 1/2 cup unseasoned rice vinegar Toss all the ingredients together in a bowl, and let stand for 30 minutes.

This is meant to be eaten immediately, but leftovers can be refrigerated, covered, up to 2 days.

Makes 2 cups Lois Friedman can be reached at Read ItAndEat@yahoo.com.

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The Opera Omaha Guild is hosting an all-new event -- Burgers & Bordeaux -- on Sunday, Aug. 30, 1-4 p.m. at the Sunset Valley Country Club, featuring the gourmet burger creations of five top area chefs competing for the title of “Best Grilled Burger in Omaha”.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

August 7, 2009

Living up to the double standard for Jews Jews have made the news in recent months -and not in a good way.

From the revelation that Bernard Madoff’s investments were the biggest Ponzi scheme in history to last month’s arrest of political figures -- and rabbis! -- in a black market sale of organs, these news stories do three things: • They are fodder for hard-line anti-Semites (like Omaha’s recent “guest”, Holocaust denier David Irving) who will use the news about Jewish criminals to enforce their “Jews are trying to take over the world” philosophy; • They prove that whether the criminal is secular (Madoff) or “supposedly” observant (the Sephardi rabbis from Deal, NJ), criminals come from all shades of religious (or non-religious) backgrounds; and • They should be a wake-up call to all of us -- especially this time of year.

Last Thursday was the 25-hour fast of Tisha b’Av, commemorating a number of historic events in Jewish history: the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem, the deportation of the Jews from Spain, and the start of World War I. It comes about two months before Rosh Hashanah, which this year falls on Friday night, Sept. 18.

In the three weeks prior to Tisha b’Av, and then again in the month of Elul, four weeks before Rosh Hashanah, we Jews are supposed to be spending that time examining our behavior. We are to be introspective, looking for our faults, remembering those we have wronged, and attempting to figure out how we can make amends.

It doesn’t help our public image that Jews are landing on the front page for all the wrong reasons. But it may help our private image -the one we have ourselves -- the one we pres-

ent to our Creator. And while I don’t know how Bernie Madoff can look at himself in a mirror each day (does he have one in prison?)

-- we can.

In addition to our personal lives, we also have an obligation to our fellow human beings in how we conduct ourselves in business and our volunteer activities.

For those who serve on boards of directors for non-profit organizations, do you have access to all the information you need, in order to make the best decision possible? Do you have the latest copies of your group’s policies and procedures, its bylaws and financial statements? Are you aware of the group’s employment practices?

What about its investment policies?

There are even more questions for business owners -- from legal issues to financial ones, from immigration laws to labor laws. And obviously not every businessperson can keep track of the complicated myriad of laws -- so that’s why G-d invented lawyers and accountants! (Honest ones, anyway.)

On the other hand, who the heck was doing the books for Bernie Madoff? And we assume that the rabbis involved in selling organs were not declaring that income on their 1040s!

So, yes, not only are we responsible for asking the right questions, we also have to ensure that we’re getting the right (and honest) advice and counsel.

What a headache! But as the old adage goes: “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Just because we look away when we know a crime is being committed doesn’t excuse our behavior.

Though whistle-blowers are often rebuked for bringing secrets into the open, in the end, it’s better for all of us.

Regardless of how the world views the Jews, we do have a standard to uphold; it’s all in the Torah -- if only we would live by its rules and laws. Whether it’s rioting on Shabbat, boasting of profits that don’t exist, selling organs on a black market, or hiring illegal immigrants and treating them badly -- it’s wrong. We all know it, so why do it? And why give ammunition to anti-Semites to use against us?

A shande, (shame) indeed, for the Jews.

FOCUS ON ISSUES

by ROBERT WIENER New Jersey Jewish News

WHIPPANY, N.J. -- An unwritten commandment permeates many parts of AmericanJewish society: “It shouldn’t be a shande for the goyim.”

That fear -- that the bad acts of a few Jews may bring great shame to their people’s reputation in the eyes of the broader gentile world -- is embedded in fears and realities of persecution that have lingered for centuries.

Since the July 23 arrests of 16 Orthodox Jews on money-laundering charges, and a 17th accused of illegally buying and selling kidneys, the word shande -- Yiddish for “shame” -- has echoed in countless Jewish conversations.

So, too, have fears of anti-Semitism, calls for serious introspection, concerns about media coverage and even some suggestions that the insularity of the Syrian Jewish community may have contributed to the alleged lawbreaking.

“It looks terrible to the outside world, but I am more concerned with the Jewish world,” said Mark Charendoff, president of the Jewish Funders Network. “My late father used to say, ‘The anti-Semites don’t need our help to be anti-Semitic.’”

Shortly after news of the arrests broke, Charendoff wrote an op-ed for The New York Jewish Week urging community leaders to examine whether “something” in the Orthodox world creates “fertile ground” for corruption.

“For me, as an Orthodox Jew, Orthodoxy is supposed to stand for something -- a system that creates higher levels of moral conduct and better communities,” Charendoff said. “Here we are not just seeing Orthodox Jews, but some Orthodox Jewish leaders. That is

Jewish communities must confront an ethos that seeks to protect wrongdoers from outside scrutiny. “It is time for Jews to face the fact that there are criminals among them, just as there are criminals everywhere else” ...

Azriel Fellner, a Conservative rabbi who was raised in a Modern Orthodox home and educated at an Orthodox yeshiva, blames the “insularity” of groups like the 75,000-strong Syrian-Jewish community.

Such insularity “is part of the fundamental reason they think they can do things like that,” said Fellner, the former religious leader at Temple Beth Shalom in Livingston, N.J. “They don’t think they can be judged by anybody else,” he said. “They also feel selfrighteous about everything they do -- that somehow they’ve got the key to true Jewish belief and true Jewish law and anyone who deviates from that -- even other Orthodox groups -- do not match up to who they are.

Jewish Press Board Andy Ruback, Vice President; Michael Sigmond, Secretary; Michael Siegel, Treasurer; Howard K. Marcus, Immediate Past-chairman; Daphne Pollak Alperson, Marc Brodkey; Eric Dunning; Jason Epstein; Andie Gordman; Michael Kaufman; Bette Kozlen; Jamie Meyerson; Jim Simon; Dorothy Spizman.

The role of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to involve Jews in meeting Jewish communal needs locally, nationally and in Israel. Agencies of the Federation are: Community Relations, Jewish Community Center, Center for Jewish Education, Jewish Family Service/Jewish Senior Services, and the Jewish Press .

Guidelines and highlights of the Jewish Press, including front page stories and announcements, can be found online at: www jewishomaha.org; click on ‘Jewish Press.’

Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, 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 an agency of the Jewish Federation of Omaha.

Deadline for copy, ads and photos is: Thursday, 9 a.m., 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.

Focus turns to ways norms may reinforce improper conduct extraordinarily disturbing.

“Whenever someone dons the mantle of leadership, it comes with enormous responsibility and influence. One can use that influence for good or for ill.”

In the wake of the arrests, some commentators are suggesting the tight bonds of religious observance can sometimes lead to an us-andthem view of the outside world.

In an interview with Time magazine, the American-born Israeli writer Yossi Klein Halevi spoke last week of a “kind of borderless community that in its best expressions maintains international charity efforts that are second to none. But the dark side of this is a mentality that often too easily slides into rationalizations for acts that cannot be rationalized, with the idea that the end justifies the means.”

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

They feel not only insular but also protected against other people’s judgments, and that is dangerous stuff.”

A spokesman for the fervently Orthodox group Agudath Israel of America says such analyses ignore the positive sides of tightly knit Orthodox communities.

“One of the premises of the haredi community is that it can be stronger and more effective by being insular and protecting our families and children from the influences of the outside world,” Rabbi Avi Shafran, Agudah’s director of public affairs, said in an e-mail interview. “There is something to be said for that, but on the other hand, the result of that is you are not challenged by outside thinking and the norms of the broader community.”

In recent weeks, Shafran says he has been pained by reports of haredim rioting in Jerusalem in protest of various rulings by Israel’s secular authorities, and now by accusations of wrongdoing by American rabbis.

“There is no question that the recent reports create a sense of shame in us all. But at the same time, we are enjoined by Jewish tradition to not assume guilt on the basis of accusations,” said Shafran, referring to the corruption probe. The accusations against fellow religious Jews “reflect negatively on us as divine signals that something is in fact amiss in our lives,” he said. “When we all are living as we should be, we believe, such things cannot happen.”

Adrienne Asch, director of the Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University, said Jewish communities must confront an ethos that seeks to protect wrongdoers from outside scrutiny.

“It is time for Jews to face the fact that there are criminals among them, just as there are criminals everywhere else,” she said. “We should not be protecting criminals for fear of persecution. We should be speaking out for what is fair and just.”

Continued on page 9

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August 7, 2009

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 9

How to promote baseless hatred

FOCUS ON ISSUES

by RABBI AVI SHAFRAN

Yes, yes, there is a media double standard when it comes to haredi Jews.

That’s nothing new.

And so, when thousands of Iranians poured into Tehran’s streets in protest of what they saw as a fraudulent presidential election, the press emphasis was not on the protesters who threw rocks, set trash bins aflame and vandalized public property. The focus, rightly, was on the bulk of the crowd, peaceful protesters of what they believed to be a fraudulent election.

When tens of thousands of haredim, though, demonstrated in reaction to a decision by the Jerusalem municipality to open a public parking lot on the Jewish Sabbath, increasing traffic in the heart of the Holy City and disturbing the peacefulness of the day of rest, the main coverage was not of the overwhelming mass of the crowd, peacefully standing up for the sanctity of the Sabbath -- but rather of the tiny fraction of the crowd that threw rocks, set trash bins aflame and vandalized public property.

But that fraction of the crowd cannot be ignored by those of us who cringed at, and remain shamed by, its ugly behavior. The rioters may have been boys, but they were our boys. And if boys of ours can imagine that acts of destruction and hooliganism are somehow the right way to stand up for the Sabbath’s honor (leave aside the way to bring non-observant Jews to appreciate the Jewish day of rest), there is much, much work to be

Improper conduct Continued from page 8 At the same time, Jews must be confident enough to treat wrongdoing as the issue, as opposed to what the “outside world” thinks.

“Jews are powerful people,” Asch said.

“We have got to stop acting as if every terrible thing someone does is a public relations nightmare for Jews, as if we are all about to be persecuted if one person does a bad thing.”

But the potential for persecution is on the mind of Etzion Neuer, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s New Jersey region.

“It is predictable that anti-Semites will come out on the Internet. This case was no exception,” he said. “Unfortunately, issues such as this are fodder for professional anti-Semites.”

While the Jewish community is “not immune” from criminal behavior, Neuer said, he found especially troubling “the visual of a haredi man with long beard and a black yarmulke in handcuffs under arrest. It will be salacious for many antiSemites, and we have to be vigilant about the way the media conveys this message.”

Shafran viewed the media coverage through a different lens.

“The fact that among the arrested in such a major operation were not only visibly Jewish Jews but rabbis was not one any of us could reasonably expect the media to ignore,” he wrote in the email. “It does us no benefit to blame the media here.”

Of special concern to Asch, a bioethicist, were the charges against Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, who is accused of buying kidneys from poor people for $10,000 apiece, then reselling them to the desperately ill for as much as $160,000.

“What he is charged with is trying to buy and sell organs with desperate people,” Asch said. “The important word is ‘desperate.’ Why should people make money by losing parts of their bodies?

They compromise their health.”

She added, “Why are people buying organs? Because there is not an adequate supply,” she said. “It is very disturbing.”

done to teach them what Torah is and what it isn’t.

And, yes, yes, again, there are unanswered questions about the arrest of a Hasidic mother of a long hospitalized child on suspicion of having starved him. The media, quoting hospital authorities, said that the woman was suffering from a mental illness that compels a person to invent or create symptoms of illness, sometimes in another person, in order to garner medical attention.

The hospital video footage, moreover, that authorities said showed the mother removing the child’s feeding tube 20 times has yet, at least at this writing, to be released. And why did the hospital not act after the first tube removal? Or the tenth?

Why, further, if the woman is in fact mentally ill, was a simple restraining order not obtained, barring her from contact with the child? Why did the police choose instead to slap handcuffs on the five-months pregnant woman in public (and in front of a summoned press) and place her in a jail cell (with an accused spouse-killer, an Arab woman, as a cellmate)?

None of us can know with certainty at this point the answers to those questions -- or whether the woman at issue is a would-be murderess, a sufferer of mental illness or a caring mother wrongly accused.

What we can know, though, is that the reaction of some members of her community and some other haredim was horrible abuse of its own sort. To review in any detail even a sampling of the repulsive behavior in which some religious Jews engaged would only increase the desecration of G-d’s name it embodied. There may well have been grounds for protest -- and civil protest is a fundamental right in a democracy -- but there were no grounds for violence. None.

That judgment was made unequivocally by, among others, the head of the anti-Zionist Edah Charedis, the

renowned halachic authority Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch.

“Anyone,” he wrote, referring to the riotous behavior, “who commits acts of violence declares that he doesn’t belong to our community.”

Insulting another is a grave violation of halacha, as is causing him physical harm. Destroying another’s property -- or communal property or, for that matter, one’s own property -- is also forbidden by the Torah. No exceptions have ever been made in halachic codes for instances where a government policy or action is not to one’s liking.

How ironic that the idealization of boorishness and destructiveness -- most prominently embraced by the criminal world and Hollywood -- should have managed to infiltrate the relatively insular haredi world – a world that clearly stands for diametric ideals.

This time of Jewish year, Judaism-conscious Jews are focused on the destruction of the Holy Temples. The second Temple, whose destruction led to our current exile, was destroyed, the Talmud teaches, “because of baseless hatred.”

The recent rioters in Jerusalem may well have believed their hatred to have had ample basis. But, whatever their rationalizations, their actions evoked disgust in Jews the world over, some of whom, tragically, will generalize from the rioters’ bad example and bear ill will toward haredim as a group.

And so, even if the violent protesters believe that they are innocent of baseless hatred, they should be made to confront the fact that they are deeply guilty of promoting it.

Rabbi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America. This essay is courtesy of Am Echad Resources. Rabbi Shafran can be reached at: Shafran@agudathisrael.org.

Allow incentives for donating organs

BEHIND THE H EADLINES

by JEFF STIER NEW YORK (JTA) -- The Jewish community in the New York metropolitan area, and to a degree around the world, is grappling with how to respond to the high-profile corruption arrests there.

While money-laundering and bribery charges are nothing new, unfortunately, the charges against Levy Izhak Rosenbaum seemed most shocking. He was arrested for conspiring to broker the sale of a human kidney for transplant, a “business” he privately claimed to be in for many years.

The American system of organ donations, which forbids any incentives for donation, has created a niche market for just this type of wrongdoing.

The statistics are overwhelming. Some 102,640 patients are waiting for an organ donation in the United States, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. More than 7,000 people died last year while they waited, and over 2,000 have died this year.

These deaths are entirely preventable.

But the current system, which is based on pseudo-moralistic concerns, actually creates incentives for black markets, rewards only the most wealthy and punishes the poorest.

If morality matters, what could be more immoral than all these unnecessary deaths?

Take the recent case of Steve Jobs, cofounder and CEO of Apple. He traveled to Tennessee, which has a shorter waiting list than other states, when he needed a liver transplant this spring. He did it legally, but the rich have advantages when it comes to receiving transplants because they can get on numerous lines and jet to a waiting organ at a moment’s notice.

For those who aren’t fortunate enough to game the system one way or another, options are limited. Unless you’re lucky enough to have a relative or some other

highly motivated and altruistic donor, there is little one can legally do to improve their chances in the painfully slow race against death.

The shortage of organs available for donation from unrelated donors has led to the macabre black market that exists today. Gruesome underground kidney markets are nothing new. National Geographic reported on a poor neighborhood in India known as “kidney village” -- residents illegally sell their kidneys for about $800, far less than the $160,000 Rosenbaum allegedly charged.

Now it is emerging that Israel also is becoming a black market hot spot. A whole new industry -- transplant tourism -- is meeting the needs of the wealthy patients, creating demand.

Patients now face a choice between two extremes: Wait for a fundamentally broken system and risk death, or venture into the unregulated Wild West of the black market for organs.

There is a better and more ethical alternative.

We don’t need to delve too deeply into the black market to see that donated (or purchased) organs have a high value to potential recipients. Yet because of the ban on incentives for donations, a familiar economic principle comes into play: Whenever a product’s price is held below market demand, a shortage ensues.

Despite campaigns to increase altruistic donations, organ donations are basically stagnant.

This failed status quo is no more ethical than exploring new approaches, which actually could save lives, even if we cannot foresee all the possible downsides. Many innovative plans could help shorten the line for an organ, and they do a better job than the current system of taking incentives into account.

As Dr. Sally Satel argues in her book When Altruism Isn’t Enough: The Case for Compensating Kidney Donors, a practical and ethical government-regulated donor compensation system would put the likes of Rosenbaum out of business.

The level of communal guilt voiced by Jews not involved in the scandal -- has reached new levels. The news broke at the start of the Nine Days, a period seemingly reserved for bad news for the Jews.

This, however, is a time not for selfflagellation but for self-reflection and to increase good deeds. Perhaps instead of crying about the misdeeds of others, it is a time to look inward and consider how we personally would behave.

If your life depended on getting a kidney that wasn’t otherwise available, would you conduct business with Mr. Rosenbaum? I would.

Would you prevent one of the 13 deaths taking place today among those in line for a kidney by donating one of yours? Would you do so for compensation? I’d do neither.

But given an incentive, perhaps others would. Clearly the incentive to save a life isn’t enough, or synagogues would be sponsoring kidney drives alongside their blood drives.

It would help to know that according to the halachic authority Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, selling a kidney is not only permissible, it is a mitzvah.

Auerbach wrote that “even if the person selling his kidney is poor (and needs the money for himself) or to pay off his debts, since he obtains this money by saving the life of another Jew, he will certainly be doing a mitzvah. This is true even if he would not have donated his kidney only to save life.”

That it is a good deed to save life, even for compensation, is a Jewish value we should embrace in response to the chilul Hashem, desecration of God’s name, of this crisis.

Even the most tightly regulated system that creates incentives for donors would save lives, reduce the shortages that promote the black market and level the playing field by helping all potential recipients, not just those who can afford a trip to Tennessee, Kidney Village or Brooklyn.

Jeff Stier is the associate director of the American Council on Science and Health in New York.

Page 10

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

August 7, 2009

Candlelighting Friday, August 7, 8:16 p.m.

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

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

Congregation B’nai Jeshurun 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 323 S. 132 St. Omaha, NE 68154

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

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

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

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B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

FRIDAY: Services followed by Oneg, 7:30 p.m.

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 and Rabbi Yitzchak Mizrahi.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; free babysitting, 9:30 a.m.; Children’s Classes, 9:45 a.m. with Torah Parade; Kiddush is sponsored by Rabbi Yitzchak and Talia Mizrahi in honor of the community at their one year anniversary of living in Omaha; “Guard Your Tongue”, “The Great Midrash” and “Advanced Parshah Study for Kids” (ages 10 and up) one hour prior to Mincha, 8 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:18 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m.

WEEKDAYS: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha, 5:45 p.m.

TUESDAY: Rabbi Mizrahi’s Weekly Class, 7:45 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Board of Commissioner’s Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

THURSDAY: Women of the Torah class, 9:30 a.m..

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Services conducted by Rabbi Mordechai Levin and Cantor Beth Schlossberg.

FRIDAY: Musical Kabbalat Shabbat services, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY: Morning services, 9:30 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:25 p.m.

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

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

YOUNG FAMILIES SHABBATON: Aug. 7-9 at the Lied Lodge and Conference Center in Nebraska City.

BBQ & BARCHU: On Friday, Aug. 14, celebrate Shabbat at Zorinsky Lake, just south of Center on 156 St. Dinner will be at 6:15 p.m.; musical Kabbalat Shabbat service will follow at 6:45 p.m. Cost: adults $8.50 (Beth El members), $10.50 (non-members); kids 6 – 12, $4 (Beth El members), $6 (non-members); no charge for children 5 and younger. To RSVP, contact Margie Gutnik in the office or at programming@beth el-omaha.org.

HIGH HOLIIDAYS MINICOURSE: Rabbi Levin will lead How to Make the High Holidays More Meaningful on Sundays, Aug. 16, 23, and 30, 11 a.m. to noon. No charge to attend; open to everyone in the Jewish community. To RSVP, contact Margie in the office, or at programming@bethel-omaha.org.

SISTERHOOD HONEY SALE: Send bottles of honey for $7.50 each; $7.25 for 15 or more

by Friday, Aug. 17. To order, contact the office at programming@bethel-omaha.org, or Wendy Berenson at Munch765@ aol.com or call 253.2028.

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

FRIDAY: Service, 7 a.m.; The Parsha Club for Level I beginners, ages 5-6; and Level II intermediates and experts, ages 7-9, noon.

Please contact Shevi@ ochabad. com to receive a guest pass.

SATURDAY: Maamar class, 9 a.m.; Service, 9:30 a.m.; Youth Minyan, 10:30 a.m. MiniMensch title will be awarded; Kiddush lunch follows; join Rabbi Katzman from 12-1 p.m.

SUNDAY: Service, 8:30 a.m.

WEEKDAYS: Services, 7 a.m.

TUESDAY: W.O.W. Parsha, Prophets, and Prayer, 9:15 a.m.

Please contact Shevi@ ochabad. com to receive a guest pass.

All events and programs are open to the entire community.

JTA NEWS BRIEF WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The White House is defending the selection of Mary Robinson as a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

Some supporters of Israel, particularly on the right, have criticized the selection primarily because of Robinson’s role in the 2001 Durban anti-racism conference. Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, was one of 16 choices of the Obama administration to receive the nation's highest civilian honor.

As the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Robinson presided over the conference and was seen by Jewish groups as not doing enough to stop the expressions of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel actions at the event.

The Anti-Defamation League said awarding the medal to Robinson, was “ill advised.”

“While Mary Robinson may have accomplishments to her credit, she also, unfortunately, has an animus towards Israel as evidenced by her tenure as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,” said ADL National Director Abraham Foxman in a statement. “As head of the international body that was consumed with anti-Israel bias, rather than be constructive and act objectively, she became its lead cheerleader by adopting the Palestinian narrative.”

A White House official said that the administration was standing behind the choice but would not be getting into the deliberations over her selection.

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

FRIDAY: Snacks, 6 p.m.; Early Family Shabbat Service, 6:15 p.m. led by Rabbi Emanuel.

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

Day MONDAY-FRIDAY: Camp, 9 a.m.-noon at Tifereth Israel.

THURSDAY: Choir Rehearsal, 7:30 p.m.

Outdoor service and potluck dinner, Friday, Aug. 21, 6 p.m. at Holmes Lake Park.

The Lincoln Jewish Community School is currently seeking additional Judaic and Hebrew teachers for the 2009-10 school year for fifth through seventh grades on Wednesdays, 4-6 p.m., and Sunday mornings, 9:30 a.m.noon. If you are interested, contact Andrea Halpern at halperns @inebraska.com or call 402.217.2631.

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

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME SATURDAY: Services, 9:15 a.m. led by Andy Greenberg.

Friday, Aug. 14: Shabbat Comes to the Blumkin Home, 2:30 p.m., with members of National Council of Jewish Women-Omaha Section.

TEMPLE ISRAEL FRIDAY: Religious School Steering Committee Meeting, noon; Used book sale preview party, noon-4 p.m. Preview Fee: $20.

Shabbat Service, 6 p.m. led by Rabbi Eric Linder, and Cantor Wendy Shermet and followed by an outdoor BBQ on the lawn. $10 per family, $5 for individual. RSVP to the office or mkube@templeisraelomaha.org.

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

SITTER SERVICE: Available Wednesday evenings during Family School hours, Friday evenings service except when there is a Tot Shabbat, Saturday mornings when there is a B’nai

mitzvah, and Sunday mornings during Religious School. Advance reservations and a $5 donation appreciated. Young children, including infants, are welcome.

SUNDAY: WRJ Annual Used Book Sale, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. All proceeds of the sale support the work of WRJ-O. Any books that are left will be donated to the Omaha Public Library to support its used book sales. If you’re interested in helping, please call Linda Sadofsky, 397.2400, Danielle Gordman, 343.1435 or Wendy Goldberg in the Temple office.

MONDAY: WRJ Used Book sale: half-price sale, 10 a.m.noon, and $5 for a grocery bag full of books, noon-4 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: OTYG Board Meeting, 5 p.m.

THURSDAY: CSA delivery for shareholders, 4:30-5:30 p.m. at South entrance.

FRIDAY, Aug. 14: Shabbat Comes to you at Remington Heights, 4 p.m.

Annual Temple Golf Outing, Monday, Aug. 24, noon at Ironwood Golf Country Club.

NEIGHBORHOOD MINYAN FRIDAY: Minyan, 7 p.m.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m.

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

MONDAY and THURSDAY: Minyan, 9 a.m.

FRIDAY: Services, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY: Morning service, 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush lunch, sponsored by Marcia and Sheldon Kushner in honor of their 60th wedding anniversary and Talmud study.

SUNDAY: Unveiling in memory of Esther Rae and Leon Chesin, 10:30 a.m. at Mt. Carmel Cemeetery.

WEDNESDAY: Men’s Lunch Group will meet at the Knolls, 12:30 p.m. Contact Yale Gotsdiner at 423.7066.

The LJCS in cooperation with Soul Train will run a day camp from through Aug. 14, 9 a.m.noon for children preschool to fourth grade, at Tifereth Israel.

Congregational Pool Party Picnic, Sunday, Aug. 16, noon-4 p.m. at the Brockman’s home.

BAR MITZVAH Issac Solomon Rogers, son of Mimi Rogers and Scott Farkas, will become a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday, Aug. 15, at Temple Israel.

Issac is a seventh-grade honors math student at Kiewet Middle School.

His interests include football, drama, math and games.

For his mitzvah project, Issac volunteered with the Omaha

Food Bank Duck Race by helping collect donors for ducks, wash and tag ducks, and help with the “Duck Olympics.”

He has a sister, Cleo Rogers, and brothers, Forrest and Max Rogers-Marcovitz, and Jordan Farkas.

Grandparents are Jerry Farkas of Boyton Beach, FL, Elaine and Ronald Marcovitz of Del Ray Beach, FL, the late Bunny Farkas, and the late Frank and Wilma Rogers.

Great-grandmother is Freda Marcovitz of Randolph, MA.

August 7, 2009

DEATH LOUIE FEDMAN Louie Fedman died at the age of 84. Services were held Aug. 5 at Mount Sinai Cemetery.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Betty.

He is Survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Sharon and Les Joseph; son and daughter-in-law, Don and Dana Fedman; grandson, Brian Joseph; and brothers, Sam and Ben Fedman.

Memorials to the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home or the American Cancer Society.

U.S. vigils remember slain gay Israelis

by ERIC FINGERHUT WASHINGTON (JTA) -- An Orthodox rabbi spoke out against anti-gay rhetoric in the Orthodox community at a Washington vigil mourning two Jews slain at a gay center in Tel Aviv.

“It’s time to do some internal accounting” as to whether such “rhetoric has created this climate” that allows for violence and “vilification” of gays and lesbians, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of the Ohev Sholom -The National Synagogue -- said Monday night at the candlelight vigil.

More than 200 people attended the hourlong rally in which participants lit candles, held signs denouncing hatred of gays and lesbians, and sang songs. Six young Jewish adults organized the event, which was co-sponsorsed by a number of communal groups.

A similar community-sponsored candlelight vigil and march was held in San Francisco on Monday evening, with a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Jewish and LGBT leaders among the speakers.

In an attack Saturday night at the Tel Aviv community center, a masked gunman killed a 17-year-old and a 26-year-old. Ten others were 10 injured.

The motive remains unclear, but speculation has centered on it being a hate crime. The gunman is still at large.

The law of consequence

SPARKS FROM THE WORD

by RABBI MYER S. KRIPKE Parashat Eikev You will remember that when the twin brothers, Jacob and Esau, were born, Esau, trying to be first, was hanging on to the heels of Jacob.

And that’s what Eikev means: on the heels of “a” there is “b”, and on the heels of “b” there is “c” and so on.

In other words, there are consequences to everything we do or say. One thing follows another, and still a third follows the second, as surely as day follows night and is followed by another day.

Our Sidra points out therefore, I repeat, therefore, if the Israelites follow carefully and lovingly the charge that the Lord puts upon them, then they will have a land, indeed, “flowing with milk and honey.” But if they are rebellious and selfish, then they may expect nothing but hardship and one obstacle after another as they come to the Promised Land.

It is even so with us who are reading these chapters today. There are rewards, but there are also punishments.

Alas, this is the world as it ought to be, but not as it is. We all know decent, upstanding, honorable people who struggle to make a living. And we know others who, by their disregard for decency and justice, should have nothing, but who seem to enjoy all the good things life affords.

So it was, for example, with Moses, who, if anybody, should have entered the Promised Land in glorious reward. But because of doing something he wasn’t told to do, was denied entrance to the land to which he had been leading this stubborn and uncooperative people for 40 years in the wilderness.

I suppose that here we have an example of life’s disregard of many failures of average people, but perfection -or near perfection -- required of the great ones among us.

Most of us will not be subject to rigorous requirements in life, but great ones, strong leaders, intellectuals who show us the right direction and teachers of morality -- these are required to live up to the highest standards which might be demanded of humanity.

Thus, whether or not it works out in the life we see about us, this is the world as it ought to be.

This is the law of consequence.

Prayerbooks Available for Visually Impaired The Jewish Heritage for the Blind announced the availability of the High Holiday Machzor in large print and in Braille free of charge for those who need them. A doctor’s note stating necessity is required. To receive a complimentary Machzor, contact our office at 718.338.4999; or fax 718.338.0653; or e-mail to Jewishheritage@gmail.com.

Participants at a candlelight vigil in Washington on Aug. 3 remember two Israelis slain at a Tel Aviv LBGT youth center.

Credit: Kitra Cahana At the Washington vigil, speakers included Rabbi Jack Moline of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly, Mark Pelavin of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, an Israeli Embassy official and other Washington Jewish community leaders and activists.

Herzfeld called for the Orthodox community to create a “communal pledge” that “we will not create a climate of gay bashing” and “enforce it.”

In an interview after his speech, Herzfeld did note that homosexuality was “prohibited by the Torah,” but said at the same time that crimes like the murders Saturday evening in Israel were “a desecration of God’s name.”

Martin Peled-Flax, the Israeli Embassy minister-counselor for domestic political affairs, in his speech called the murders an attack not just on the LGBT community, “but on Israel’s civil society as a whole.”

He also noted that Israel is the “only state in the Middle East where it could occur” because it is the only place where gays and lesbians can “gather together without a fear of violence.”

Meanwhile, the Progressive Jewish Alliance is sponsoring a “Virtual Summer Love-In” to repudiate the weekend violence and mark Tu B’Av, which starts Tuesday evening and is known as the “Jewish Valentine’s Day.” The e-card campaign is designed to allow particpants to “spread the message that they welcome and love their LGBT friends, family and colleagues.”

JEWISH PRESS EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press will be closed Monday, Sept. 7 for Labor day; the deadline for the Sept. 11 issue is Wednesday, Sept.

2, 9 a.m. for all articles, ads, and photos.

The Press will publish the New Year’s issue on Sept. 18, 2009, entitled “What we did THAT summer!”

All rabbis’ holiday messages as well as articles and photos are due by Aug. 7; all lists of marriages, births and deaths, as well as board lists are due on Aug. 14; synagogue schedules for Rosh Hashanah are due by Aug. 21.

Questions? Call 402.334.6448.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 11

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

Forms are available through Omaha and Lincoln synagogues, by contacting The Jewish Press at 402.334.6448, or by e-mailing: ckatzman@jewishomaha.org.

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

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Page 12

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

August 7, 2009

A renaissance in Akko

Inside the Old City is a small synagogue

by EDGAR ASHER AKKO (ISRANET) -- In 2001, the Old which has its origins going back to the 1740s. It was established by the great City of Akko and the mountain fortress of Masada, were both inscribed by Italian Talmudists Rabbi Moshe Haim UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. They Luzzatto, known by his acronym as the were the first such locations to be ‘Ramhal’.

In 1743 Luzzatto came to the Holy inscribed by the United Nations.

Since then several other sites in Israel Land and settled in Acre where he estabhave been inscribed by UNESCO, lished his synagogue. In 1746 he and his including the Biblical tels of Megiddo, family died from the plague. The original Hazor and Beersheva; the four ancient synagogue was destroyed by the city’s desert cities of the Negev including Avdat and Mamshit; the White Bauhaus City of Tel Aviv and the Baha’i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee. There are several other additional locations in Israel that are now being considered for future inclusion in the list -- including The old harbor in Akko is still a working port for local fishermen.

Bedouin rulers in 1758 and a mosque was the Dead Sea. Last year, on the eve of Yom Kippur, built in its place. The Jews of Akko were inter-communal rioting occurred in given a small building north of the Akko. The tension between the residents, mosque that bears the name of the where 20% are Arabs, caused a delay in Ramhal. The present synagogue has been the annual Akko festivals of music, theater and dance. Traditionally held at Succot, the festival was eventually held during Hanukkah.

Akko soon came back to normal and the visitors returned to see this unique city. It is clear that Acre is enjoying a renaissance as its future is assured due in no small The interior of the Tunisian Synagogue is covered in colorful mosaics and part to the fact stained glass windows. that UNESCO will advance funds for the renovated and shows how a synagogue Old City to be renovated and also allow might have looked 250 years ago.

Akko is part of Omaha’s Partnership funds for further excavation. The UNESCO inscription will also be an encouragement to open up the city and the Western Galilee to more tourism.

Usually the visitors to the Old City confine their tour to the Crusader and Turkish parts of the Old City, but there is a Jewish interest as well, represented by two unique synagogues, one in the Old City and the other just outside. `The Tunisian Synagogue ‘Or Torah’ was established in 1955 just outside the Old City wall by a former Tunisian immigrant Zion Badasche. Badasche had made it his life’s work to completely cover the inside of the synagogue with magnificent mosaics and stain glass windows. The mosaics which depict ancient and modern events, Jewish sym- Tourists stroll through the old city of Akko towards the Khan bols, animals and musical El Omdan clock tower. instruments used in the Temple, were with Israel Region -- the Western Galilee made in the workshops of Kibbutz Eilon -- and most Federation Missions, includin the Upper Galilee. Even the staircases ing the recent Young Adult Mission in June, put Akko on their itineraries. have mosaics.

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