August 11, 2023

The Jewish Press

Kaplan Book Group

SHIRLY BANNER

JFO Library Specialist

On Aug. 17th at 1 p.m. the Dorothy Kaplan Book Discussion Group will gather for their monthly meeting. Group members have the choice of meeting either in person in the Benjamin & Anna Wiesman Reception Room in the Staenberg Jewish Community Center or via Zoom. This month they will be discussing The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom. New participants are always welcome.

Jewish Press Editor

Behind every Lion pin is a woman. A story. A legacy. A future. Lions of Judah wear their pin proudly – knowing that it’s an internationally recognized symbol of her philanthropy, commitment, Jewish values, and sisterhood. But the pin, as valuable as it is, doesn’t have the power to share what being a Lion really means. What happens when the pin gets passed down?

Lions now have the opportunity to pass on their legacy to the women of their family - the women they know and those who will come after.

The Jewish community of Omaha currently counts 77 women who give at the Lion level, and 35 Pomegranate donors, and counting! Tuesday, Sept, 12 from noon-2 p.m., the Jewish Federation of Omaha will host The Lion Behind the Pin in the Champions Run Ballroom. The event, chaired by Darlynn Fellman and Louri Sullivan, invites

Lions and Pomegranates and their guests to share their heritage and inspire the generations to come.

Hear from Shelly Robbins and Debbie Lazarov, the inspirational creators of the Lion Behind the Pin program. They will guide you to ensure your Jewish legacy for generations to come.

“I grew up watching my parents support the Jewish Federation of Omaha,” Louri Sullivan said, “helping Russian Jews move to Omaha, getting Ethiopian Jews to Israel. In 2004 my Dad took a group of young leaders on a free trip to Israel. His only request was that each of us commit time and energy to the Omaha Jewish community. Shortly after that, Anne Shackman took me for coffee and planted the seed - the importance of becoming a Lion - as a leader and a donor. The first year that I planned to attend the International Lion of Judah conference as a professional I knew it was time - I wanted to be a Lion with the 18,000 other women from See The Lion behind the pin page 2

Sam’s summer at Herzl

ASHTON KAY

Jewish Press intern

Sam Kutler is the son of Abby and Adam Kutler. He attends Aldrich elementary in Millard public schools. He plays hockey and wants to try out for basketball. This year, Sam went to camp Herzl, a Jewish summer camp in Wisconsin. It’s his third year going to Herzl, and he went for three weeks.

“Every year, there’s different food, and when you’re older you get to do more stuff,” Sam said. “You get more choices about what you want to do, and when you want to do it.”

Being older means more freedom, particularly when it comes to cabin mates. This year, Sam was able to request to room with friends he made the year before.

“In the morning, we wake up at 7:45 a.m. The counselors come in with a speaker and play music. When you wake up, you have to brush up and get dressed.” Once the campers are up and ready, they check their duties for the day. Next up is something called ‘flag.’

“Flag is when, in the morning, we have an American, an Israeli and Herzl camp flag that we raise to a song of our choice. My cabin picked the song Party in the USA.” Afterwards, the campers eat breakfast and then do some Jewish education.

“The Jewish education is mostly about Israel,” Sam explained. “Some stuff about holidays, but mostly Israel. There were also some challenge games like trying to pop a balloon without hands.”

Finally, the campers have to clean up after themselves, which means making beds, sweeping, trash, or setting the table. Then for the rest of the day they play games. There were a lot of games that the campers could play, like basketball, three sticks, and something called roof ball:

“You have a ball and you throw it on the roof,” Sam said, “and you have to catch it without it dropping. If you don’t catch it, you’re out. And these aren’t big roofs, just the cabins. You See Sam’s summer page 3

Is it possible to have a profound change in the lives of people in your life? For Frankie Presto, a gifted but troubled musician, this is accomplished with the gift of six magical blue guitar strings. The book is written in the first-person from the perspective of “Music” which is representative of the music within all humans - from the music of a beating heart to the music created within one’s soul. ”Music” provides us with first-hand accounts from a variety of who’s who influencers of music who are in attendance at Frankie Presto’s funeral. They relate their relationship with Frankie as well as provide a narration for the reader of Frankie’s difficult and tragic life.

The novel is divided into six parts of Frankie’s life: part one deals with Frankie’s birth and early childhood; part two deals with Frankie’s early musical start and subsequent success and failures; part three deals with Frankie’s love life and how his music takes on a different emphasis in his life and ambitions; part four deals with Frankie abandoning music all together and becoming a recluse on a small New Zealand island with his wife Aurora who is the true love of his life. There he adopts Kai, an abandoned child, and reconnects with his music. Part five deals with the heartbreaking results of Frankie and his family’s return to his native Spain in search of his music mentor, El Maestro. Part six deals with several tragedies in Frankie and Aurora’s lives, the joy of See Kaplan Book Group page 3

Rabbis, monks and bats: A religion scholar and a zoologist find a new way to map early Jewish-Christian relations Page 4

Start planning for Rosh Hashanah Page 5

Pickleball is a hit at Jewish camps Page 7

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT

Sam Kutler

The Lion behind the pin

Continued from page 1

Meet the Staff: Richard Goedeken

ASHTON KAY

Jewish Press intern

Richard Goedeken has been at the JCC since 1996, and is the Senior Director of Finance.

Richard is from Columbus, Nebraska, a mid-sized town, just over 50 miles west of Omaha.

“I graduated from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln for an undergraduate degree and from the University of Nebraska at Omaha for a Master’s,” Richard said. “My degrees are in accounting and business administration.”

Richard moved to Omaha in 1984, when he took a job as a certified public accountant.

“I have a wife and three children: two boys, one girl. My one son lives in St Paul, and the other two live in Omaha.”

Richard’s job varies quite a bit. There are six people in the finance department Richard supervises; he oversees all accounting and finance for the Jewish Federation of Omaha.

“The integration between the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation and the JFO is something that people don’t really understand. One commonly missed thing is the complexities of the Foundation based accounting and the complexities of the JFO’s variety of programs.”

These complexities are only compounded by the missiondriven aspect of a non-profit.

“It has to be sustainable. People don’t always understand the complexities of how all those individual components act. A nursing home is different from the JCC and the preschool. The way

you summarize the accounting for transactions is different.”

Richard elaborated on how accounting in a for-profit differs from a non-profit.

“The people paying you money aren’t directly receiving anything in return. Somebody else benefits from it. We’re not charging for a lot of what we do for the community, so many programs and services have to be funded through donations.”

Richard noted the team environment that he works in, you have to communicate well and have respect for eachother: “Teams work best. Everyone needs to do their best to contribute to the team so that others don’t feel like they’re being taken advantage of. You say thank you a lot, and you show appreciation. You have to understand what’s affecting other people, more so than just providing instruction on tasks.”

I asked Richard if in his time here he has gotten better at working in a team or learned anything about it, and his surprisingly insightful answer was, he wouldn’t know:

“You have to be flexible and always be on your toes. People are always changing. You can’t put people into boxes.”

Richard said that his favorite part about his job is the sense of accomplishment he gets. As a team, when everyone works hard and feels appreciated, accomplishments don’t go unnoticed. Of course, Richard’s job comes with a lot of challenges.

“The hardest part about my job is the volume of work. There’s always more to do than you have time to do. You can’t overcome it, you just address it. Based on what’s going on, you have to be intuitive and try to communicate with people the best you can.”

Richard’s favorite part about the JCC: “Seeing all the various people who use our facilities. The building brings diverse crowds, not all of whom are part of the Jewish Community.”

Ashton Kay is the 2023 Jewish Press intern. His position is made possible through the generous support of the Murray H. and Sharee C. Newman Supporting Foundation.

Trade scholarships available for the 2023-24 academic year

An anonymous donor in our community has created two trade school and/or cosmetology school scholarship opportunities, up to $5,000 each, to go towards the 2023-24 academic year. Not every student who advances into higher education signs up for a four-year curriculum. Some high school graduates seek job training that lasts a year or two and then places them in the workforce. Such opportunities include, but are

not restricted to: Information Technology, Construction, Industrial, Transportation and Horticulture. It is not too late to apply for this upcoming school year!

Qualified students who have unmet needs regarding tuition for either a two-year trade school program or a trade certificate program can contact the Jewish Press at avandekamp@jewishom aha.org or jpress@jewishomaha.org for more information.

around the world. Sitting in that ballroom in Miami - I felt such a strong bond and pride to be a Lion with women that are truly changing the world through philanthropy and leadership. I am excited to co-chair the Lion Behind the Pin event together with my mom, and hope to see all of you there.”

Each attending Lion and Pomegranate will receive a Lion Behind the Pin toolkit that will serve to support you on a journey of self-reflection. Specific questions inside this toolkit help you articulate your values, designate your pin and endow the future of our Jewish community.

“Being a Lion of Judah,” Sharon Kirshenbaum said, “means being part of an international community of women with whom you share the Jewish values of Tzedakah and Tikkun Olam. The Lion Behind the Pin program is so important because we cannot allow our Lion of Judah giving to stop with us. We have to ensure that the next generation of Omaha women continue our legacy by passing our pins to our daughters, granddaughters, sisters, or nieces. I hope that all Lions of Judah and Pomegranate donors attend the event on Sept. 12. And don’t forget to bring the next generation in your family!”

Learn how to pass on your legacy to the women in your family by inviting your sisters, daughter, cousins and nieces to share in this special program. Cost to attend is $18; RSVPs can be made by scanning the QR code, or by contacting Rachel Ring at rring@jewishomaha.org

ORGANIZATIONS

B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS

The award-winning B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS speaker program currently meets Wednesdays via Zoom from noon to 1 p.m. Please watch our email for specific information concerning its thought-provoking, informative list of speakers. To be placed on the email list, contact Breadbreakers chair at gary.javitch@gmail.com

JEWISH PRESS READERS

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Richard Goedeken

Backyard Concert Series

The Backyard Concert Series (BYCS) has returned for our late summer outdoor musical festivities. Concerts take place in the pavilion every Sunday in August, with a different band performing every week. Everyone is welcome to attend (it’s free!)and no reservations are necessary. Be sure to bring chairs and blankets! Each concert starts at 5 p.m. and lasts until 7 p.m. The Dante and Kona trucks will be back, as well as additional food trucks every week, so stay tuned for updates. And as always, the playground and gaga

pits will be available for use during the concerts.

Aug. 21, we welcome The Personics, a cover band with a diverse set list, who have a way of closely replicating all the songs you know and love.

In case of inclement weather, please check the JCC Facebook page/website for cancellation announcements.

The Backyard Concert Series is supported by Morgan Stanley – Andrew Robinson and Omaha Steaks.

Sam’s summer

Continued from page 1 throw it up and it can bounce or roll down. The goal is to throw it where other players aren’t so they can’t catch it. Last one still in wins.”

Sam and his friends also invented a game called ‘angry ball,’ which is similar to scatter ball.

“Someone throws the ball up, and when they catch their own ball, they can throw it at someone.

If that person catches it, the thrower is out, and if not, they’re out.” Unlike scatter ball, in angry ball, the thrower doesn’t get any steps. If Sam and his friends weren’t playing games, they would play on inflatables, or go to the water to skip rocks and catch minnows.

Sam says that one of the best parts of camp was color wars.

“I signed up for a flag song, so we made a song about our flag. We chose other songs, but used our own words. Whoever did the best got the most points. There were a lot of activities you could choose from. Then, there was a marathon with all these challenges, and you signed up for one. I signed up for bouncing a ping pong ball on a paddle ten times. At the end, you have to run there and see who gets there first.”

Other than color wars, Sam most enjoyed cabin time. After doing the activities during the day, the campers would do things they wouldn’t normally do with their cabin mates.

“We went tubing one day, we did our own little Olympics, which took up a few days, and we did rock climbing. Also at

Kaplan Book Group

Continued from page 1 playing in a prestigious musical competition with Kai and finally understanding the power and what his six magic strings that turn blue represent.

Can one person’s presence really make that much difference in shaping a life? Is life really a matter of randomness or are our lives predestined? Do the people we meet throughout our lives serve a higher purpose? Frankie’s life is tragic but his influence upon others and the world of music itself lives long after his death. “...Music is in the connection of human souls, speaking a language that needs no words. Everyone joins a band in this

night, right before bed, the cabins did something fun, like raiding a cabin. We didn’t go in, but we’d pound on the doors and walls and run away as quickly as possible. One time, they had another cabin sneak into our cabin and we danced and stuff.”

At breakfast, there was always cereal available, and usually there were eggs.

“Every Saturday there was a special breakfast that was better than normal,” Sam said. “And for lunch and dinner, there were more common things like brisket or grilled cheese. Usually after dinner there was dessert, and every Saturday night there would be a song session and skits. The dessert that night would be ‘Chipwiches’ which are cookie ice cream sandwiches.”

When Sam isn’t at camp, he enjoys playing a lot of athletic activities. He likes to shoot around on the basketball hoop and the hockey net, skateboard, rollerblade, and scooter. Leaving camp can be sad, but it comes with upsides too. Sam has friends in Omaha that he’s able to see when he’s back. Next year, Sam wants to go to camp for an even longer stay.

“You miss camp a lot when you’re not there, but you’re also happy to see your parents and siblings and dog. It’s fun to come home.”

Ashton Kay is the 2023 Jewish Press intern. His position is made possible through the generous support of the Murray H. and Sharee C. Newman Supporting Foundation.

life. And what you play always affects someone. Sometimes it affects the world.” Who provides the music in your life? Please feel free to join us on Aug. 17 in person or via Zoom. The Dorothy Kaplan Book Discussion Group meets on the third Thursday of every month at 1 p.m. New members are always welcome.

The Group receives administrative support from the Community Engagement & Education arm of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. For information about the group and to join in the discussion, contact Shirly Banner at 402.334.6462 or sbanner@jewishomaha.org

Gunman shoots five at Maaleh Adumim restaurant

RON KAMPEAS

JTA

A Palestinian gunman shot and wounded five people at a hamburger restaurant in the Israeli West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim before a policeman shot him dead.

One man was seriously injured and four had moderate wounds in the terror attack on August 1, the Times of Israel reported. An off-duty policeman shot the shooter as he tried to get away.

“When I arrived at the scene I found several people who were injured with gunshot wounds,” Meir Bogot, a local volunteer with the United Hatzalah first responder service, said in a statement emailed to reporters. “Together with additional first responders, I provided them with initial treatment which included bleeding control and bandaging, after which they were all transported to the hospital.”

Maaleh Adumim, one of the larger settlements in the central

West Bank, functions as a Jerusalem suburb. The attacker, a cleaner, had permission to enter the settlement. The shooting comes after more than a year of increased Israeli-Palestinian tensions, spurred by a period of stabbing attacks on Israelis in the spring of last year and followed by a series of deadly Israeli raids seeking terrorists in Palestinian West Bank cities, as well as continued Palestinian terror attacks.

INFORMATION

ANTISEMITIC/HATE INCIDENTS

If you encounter an antisemitic or other hate incident, you are not alone. Your first call should be to the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) in Omaha at 402.334.6572, or email JCRCreporting@ jewishomaha.org. If you perceive an imminent threat, call 911, and text Safety & Security Manager James Donahue at 402.213.1658.

Rabbis, monks and bats: A religion scholar and a zoologist find a new way to map early Jewish-Christian relations

JTA

What did rabbis of late antiquity know about Christianity?

To find out, an Israeli religion scholar turned to an Israeli zoologist who studies bats.

Their strange-bedfellows paper on the topic uses network analysis — a mathematical field used to visualize data — to map the connections of the rabbis of the Talmud with Christians who were writing and teaching at the same time, including new insights into how the literature of Christian monks made its way into Jewish thought.

Michal Bar-Asher Siegal, a scholar of rabbinic Judaism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Yossi Yovel, a zoologist from Tel Aviv University, say their approach, once it becomes widely used, could revolutionize the field of JewishChristian studies.

Their visualizations — picture color-coded dots representing rabbis and church elders connected by a spider web of relationships — are “a snapshot of a multi-faceted reality spread over many decades and thousands of kilometers in which Jews and Christians interact in various ways with one another,” they wrote in the May 2023 issue of Human and Social Science Communications.

The Babylonian Talmud, a vast anthology of rabbinic law and lore, was produced in present-day Iraq between the 3rd and 7th centuries CE. At the same time, Christianity was evolving from a heretical Jewish sect to a religion with growing influence across the waning Roman Empire. Like most scholars of rabbinic Judaism, Bar-Asher Siegal rejects a dated theory that Jews and Christians “parted ways” in the early centuries of the Common Era and had limited contact. But she also wanted proof beyond the painstaking scholarly method of comparing passages in Jewish and Christian texts. For that, she approached Yovel, who works at the Bat Lab (full name: The Bat Lab for Neuro-Ecology at the Sagol School of Neuroscience). There, he uses network analysis to understand the social structures of a colony of Egyptian fruit bats.

The lab’s live Bat Cam broadcasts 24/7.

For the Talmud study, he and Bar-Asher Siegal gathered rabbinic texts that seemed to have some knowledge of Christian sources and mapped the relationships among them. The results show, for example, how one rabbinic source might be familiar with many other Christian traditions, or how many rabbinic traditions showed familiarity with one Christian source.

In one example, they demonstrate the extent to which the “Sayings of the Desert Fathers” — a 5th-century collection of Christian monastic literary traditions — feature in multiple rabbinic passages.

“The application of network analysis makes it possible to identify the most influential texts — that is, the key ‘nodes’ — testifying to the importance of certain traditions for both religious communities,”

Bar-Asher Siegal said in a statement from BGU.

“What did the Jews know?

The New Testament or later sources? And which parts of the New Testament? This leads to interesting scholarly questions: why these texts and not others? How did they know and how did they react to this knowledge?”

The authors acknowledge that their paper is only a “proof of concept” and that traditional methods have long revealed the different types of literary interactions between the rabbis and Christians, from fierce anti-Christian polemics to shared theological concepts to the occasional parody.

But they assert that network analysis, combined with extensive human input, can produce more data in less time and provide a more complete picture of the complex interplay between the two religions.

Other humanities scholars have used network analysis to study the relationships between characters in modernist novels, the family ties of prominent Britons and the relative complexity of Shakespeare’s tragedies.

The Talmud study, said Yovel, “is a good example of how interdisciplinarity and the use of tools from one scientific field can enrich another.”

How American Jewish groups are reacting to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter’s sentence

JTA STAFF JTA

American Jewish organizations reacted to the news that the man who murdered 11 Jews at prayer in 2018, had been sentenced to death. Below is a rundown of statements, in whole or in part, from Jewish organizations:

American Jewish Committee: “As we collectively process the jury’s decision today, what should always be top of mind is the memory of the eleven people murdered in a synagogue while at prayer by a cold-blooded hater of Jews. Ultimately what is of most significance is not how the shooter will spend the end of his life, but the fact that the U.S. government pursued this case with vigor and demonstrated that such crimes will not be countenanced, excused, or minimized.”

World Jewish Congress: “Today’s decision represents a measure of justice for the slaughter of 11 Jewish worshippers on that fateful day in 2018 at the Tree of Life synagogue. Nothing can ever bring back the people killed in the attack, the deadliest act of antisemitism in the history of the United States. The jury’s decision is a stark reminder to remain vigilant about countering antisemitism, wherever it may hide. I call on American leaders to amplify their efforts to protect Jewish communities across the country so that such a tragedy never again takes place.”

Squirrel Hill Stands Against Gun Violence: “The jury today issued its final verdict, ensuring that the perpetrator of the deadliest act of antisemitic violence in American history will never walk free. We thank the many participants in the judicial process, including the jurors, Judge Colville and his staff, the prosecutors and other Justice Department employees who worked long and hard to bring us to this day. We are also grateful to the law enforcement officers who put themselves in harm’s way on October 27, 2018, and saved many lives. And we remember the eleven people murdered that day

because they were Jews and because of the easy accessibility of guns in our state and nation.”

Alan Hausman, Tree of Life Congregation: “I am thankful for the thoughtful deliberation and hard work of all who got us to today’s decision. Nothing about this process has been easy. I will forever be grateful for all those who have helped our congregation these past four-plus years: the public safety department and law enforcement officers, our fellow Pittsburghers, and people of all faiths and backgrounds from across the country and around the world. While today’s decision is hard, it also marks the start of a new chapter at Tree of Life, and I find myself hopeful because of the love and support we still receive as we continue to heal and move forward.”

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, Tree of Life Congregation: “Today’s decision and the pending sentences on the non-capital crimes mark the closing chapter of an emotional, months-long trial. In the years we have spent waiting for this trial to take place, many of us have been stuck in neutral. It was a challenge to move forward with the looming specter of a murder trial. Now that the trial is nearly over and the jury has recommended a death sentence, it is my hope that we can begin to heal and move forward. As we do, I have my faith, bolstered by the embrace and respect with which my community has been treated by our government and our fellow citizens. For this and the seriousness with which the jury took its duty, I remain forever grateful.”

Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh: “… We are grateful to the prosecution team for their meticulous process to seek justice for the victims, and we are grateful to the jury for their time and dedication in reaching this sentence. This trial shows that our justice system can work by giving a voice to the voiceless and by ensuring that we, as a society, can bring the perpetrator of this attack to account.”

Read more at www.omahajewishpress.com.

ANDREW

Michal Bar-Asher Siegal, rear, a scholar of rabbinic Judaism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Yossi Yovel, a zoologist from Tel Aviv University, say network analysis could revolutionize the field of JewishChristian studies. Credit: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Tel Aviv University. Bat image via Oren Peles/Wikipedia. JTA illustration by Mollie Suss

Jewish groups condemn comparison to Nazi persecution

RON KAMPEAS

JTA

Two major Jewish civil rights groups want Donald Trump to stop using Nazi analogies to decry his legal woes.

The former president’s first official comment Tuesday after the unveiling of a federal indictment charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States after he lost the last election was to invoke Nazis. This is the third time this year Trump has been indicted.

“The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes,” his campaign said. Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination.

“Comparing this indictment to Nazi Germany in the 1930s is factually incorrect, completely inappropriate and flat out offensive,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the Anti-Defamation League CEO, said on Twitter. “As we have said time and again, such comparisons have no place in politics and are shameful.”

The American Jewish Committee in a statement advised Trump to chat with a Holocaust survivor.

“Here’s some advice. Please sit with a Holocaust survivor and let them share their story,” AJC said in a statement. “Just listen. Then show them the respect they deserve and honor the memory of the six million Jews slaughtered by the Nazis by never making a comparison like this again.”

Since launching his campaign, Trump has come under fire for socializing with a Holocaust denier as well as invoking Nazi analogies to lambaste his critics and law enforcement officials investigating his myriad scandals.

In 2017, after BuzzFeed published an unverified dossier containing allegations about him, Trump sent a tweet asking, “Are we living in Nazi Germany?”

Visit

Start planning for Rosh Hashanah

Editor’s note: The following recipes are from Beth Israel’s 1993 cookbook.

BIG APPLE DUMPLINGS

Mrs. Maurice Katzman

Ingredients Dough:

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup milk

Ingredients Syrup:

2 cup sugar

2 cup water

2 or 3 Tbsp. cinnamon candy

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 cup butter or margarine

6 apples, pared and cored

Directions Dough: Sift flour, salt, and baking powder. Cut in the shortening. Add milk all at once. Stir

Ingredients:

only until all flour is moistened. Roll out on floured board or pastry cloth 1/4 inch thick. Cut into six 5-inch squares. Place an apple in each square. Fill the cavities with additional sugar and spices. Dot each apple with a dab of butter. Fold corners over apples and pinch edges. Place apples 1-inch apart in a greased baking pan. Prepare syrup and pour over the apples. Bake for 35 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

Directions Syrup: Combine sugar, water, cinnamon candy, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the butter until melted. Pour around apple dumplings while syrup is hot.

CRANBERRY AND APPLE RELISH

Mrs. Irv Charney

1 large, red delicious apple (unpeeled)

1/2 orange

2 cup fresh cranberries

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions: Grind apple, orange, and cranberries. Add sugar and blend until sugar is dissolved. Add nuts. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

APPLESAUCE COOKIES

Mrs. Maurice Katzman

Ingredients:

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup applesauce

2 1/2 cup sifted flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cloves

1 cup seedless raisins

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

Cream the shortening, sugar and egg together thoroughly. Stir in the applesauce. Sift flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Blend into the first mixture. Add raisins and nuts and blend. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Makes about 4 dozen.

Above: Rabbi Eli

teaching the first class in a series learning Yiddish. Lots of laughter all evening and everyone who attended had a “gevaldig” time.

SP O TLIGHT

PHOTOS FROM RECENT JEWISH COMMUNITY EVENTS

SUBMIT A PHOTO: Have a photo of a recent Jewish Community event you would like to submit? Email the image and a suggested caption to: avandekamp@jewishomaha.org

GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

Above and below: PJ Library’s Babies and Bagels. The drop-in event from 9-11 a.m. was for parents who have children 18-months old and younger. Each family received a Shalom Baby bag and one family won a trial membership to The J.

Left, above and below: Cantor Joanna Alexander and her children at OSRUI.

Above, right and below: Omaha representation at Camp Shwayder in Colorado.

Tenenbaum

Below: Amy Shivvers looks on as Fred Tichauer speaks at the dedication of the Walter and Helena Tichauer Holocaust Survivors Reflection Garden.

Above: Mary Beth Muskin, Janie Kulakofsky and Renee Corcoran at the recent Kulakofsky family reunion.

Above: It’s been ten years since this group graduated from Friedel Jewish Academy. Elon Kaplan, left, Lily Goldberg, Isa Wright, Lillian Cohen and Ilana McNamara.

Above: Barbie time for some of the JFO staff and friends.

Pickleball is a hit at Jewish camps

JACOB GURVIS

JTA

As head of programming for Maccabi USA, Shane Carr is used to having people ask him to add sports to the organization’s many Jewish sports tournaments around the world.

But since 2019, one sport has been suggested above all others: pickleball.

Widely considered the fastest-growing sport in America, pickleball is a sort of condensed court tennis and pingpong hybrid that has attracted millions of new fanatics since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, from middle schoolers to the likes of Bill Gates

At Camp Avoda, a Jewish sports camp about 50 miles south of Boston, Director Ronni Guttin estimated that about 40 of the camp’s 140 campers are playing pickleball. It’s offered as an elective alongside tennis, and campers can also play during free time. Guttin lauded the sport’s accessibility, noting that it’s especially popular among kids who may find tennis too difficult.

Guttin said Avoda brought in a group of pickleball players to run a clinic for the first time last summer, and “it took off like crazy.” They brought the instructors back this summer, too.

and LeBron James. Originally created in 1965 in Bainbridge Island, Washington, the sport adapted well to the quarantine era with its short learning curve and low-cost equipment.

One study estimates that 5 million people played pickleball in 2021, while the Sports & Fitness Industry Association found that participation in the sport nearly doubled in 2022 and has increased 158.6% over the past three years.

The Jewish world is no exception to the trend. The sport is a frequent sight at Jewish community centers and camps across the country, attracting players of all ages.

Carr said the requests to add pickleball to Maccabi events “blew up” during the pandemic. And after years of conversations about the sport’s popularity and potential — plus Carr getting “tired of saying no” — pickleball will officially be played at the Pan American Maccabi Games in Buenos Aires this December.

“The great part about pickleball is it’s so approachable, and people can pick it up so quickly,” Carr told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “It’s a great opportunity to build community, especially Jewish community.”

Carr explained that adding a sport to the tournament is a multi-step process that included convincing the global Maccabiah body. He said the popularity of racket sports in Argentina helped their case, and that the Hacoaj sports club in Buenos Aires — where Jewish-Argentine tennis star Diego Schwartzman got his start — hosted a pickleball open house to help generate interest.

Delegations from the United States, Canada and Argentina will compete in pickleball at the Pan Am Games, and Carr said Israel could potentially join as well. The tournament will include traditional men’s and women’s singles and doubles, plus a team event and a “Pickle Palooza” offering for anyone who wants to play.

Carr also said Maccabi USA is hoping to include pickleball in the full 2025 Maccabiah Games in Israel.

The demand for pickleball has also skyrocketed at Jewish summer camps across the United States.

The camp has two pickleball courts, but Guttin said that if they had five courts they would all fill up. “People are clamoring for it,” she added.

Camp Bauercrest, a Jewish sports camp 40 miles north of Boston in Amesbury, Massachusetts, did add more courts for this summer.

Director Ken Cotton said the camp had invited an alum to host pickleball clinics last year, and “the kids ate it up.” So when it came time to repair the camp’s tennis courts before this summer, Bauercrest added four outdoor pickleball courts to go along with two indoor courts.

The familiar “pop” that echoes from pickleball courts — which has caused real problems for those who live near them — has also become a common sound at numerous camps run by the Union for Reform Judaism and the Conservative Ramah movement.

Ruben Arquilevich, the URJ’s vice president who oversees its 14 camps, told JTA the sport is now offered at multiple camps, adding that it is “very popular.”

At Eisner Camp in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, one of the camp’s tennis instructors has also started teaching pickleball. Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, California, lists pickleball among its many offered activities, and the URJ’s 6 Points Sports Academy in Asheville, North Carolina, offers it as an elective.

Pickleball is also now offered at the Ramah movement’s day camp in Nyack, New York, and its overnight camp in Wisconsin, according to Ramah’s national director Amy Skopp Cooper.

At the Ramah camp in Ojai, California — about 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles — pickleball has become “the sport of the summer,” said Molly Auerbach, the camp’s program director.

Ramah California offers pickleball during its sports period, taught by a pickleball coach, as well as during free time and a weekly Shabbat pickleball tournament.

“I would say it’s become one of the themes of the summer and most people have tried it, if not become obsessed with playing it,” Auerbach told JTA.

Pickleball has exploded in popularity at Jewish summer camps. Credit: Camp Avoda; design by Mollie Suss

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The verdict is in. Now what?

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor

For killing 11 Jews at Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, a jury in Pittsburg handed Robert Bowers the death sentence. The first thing I did after finding out was text my family, and then I texted my Rabbi. I do not know how to feel about this.

“The overriding feeling now that the gunman has been sentenced to death is gratitude,” Ron Kampeas wrote. “Not for the penalty itself, which was the preference of some but not all of the victims’ families and which some local Jews openly opposed, and not even for the end of a trial whose long delay protracted communal trauma.”

There is nothing good about this. And, it’s not even really over: the gunman has the right to appeal his sentence, which means more court dates. That a murderer deserves punishment, I don’t doubt. Whether that punishment needs to be death, I cannot decide. How could anyone? At the end of the day, a life is still a life, isn’t it? But then, would I really speak up for someone like him, who committed such atrocious crimes? And, just so you know, this is not an editorial about the death penalty. It is about how we can talk about forgiveness all day long, but when situations like these arise (and thank G-d that’s not very often) that forgiveness can be hard to find.

I think sometimes we tend to look at crime and punishment as a 50/50 situation. The punishment should fit the crime, as if there’s math to it, a ‘titfor-tat’ feeling, where when punishment is meted out, it should even the score.

ANDREA HODOS

JTA

Last week, the Knesset began the process of overhauling Israel’s judiciary, removing the only checks and balances that currently exist in Israel’s government. It has done so with the slimmest of possible majorities, in defiance of the months of demonstrations, hundreds of thousands of protestors and international condemnation, including from some American Jewish institutions.

As Israeli democracy is shaken to its core, I have received other messages from the American Jewish community — messages that acknowledge little about the judicial overhaul, nothing about protests, and less about increasingly emboldened settler violence that has unfolded between Purim and Tisha B’Av, I say to myself: “How? How can this be?”

As the words leave my mouth, I realize that the first word of the Book of Lamentations, the central text of last week’s Tisha B’Av fast, is “eicha,” or how, and gives the book its Hebrew title. “How does the city sit solitary, that was full of people!” it begins in disbelief.

Many of us in the Jewish community are echoing this cry of “Eicha — How?” as we seek to understand the monumental, anti-democratic shifts going on right now within the Israeli government, or try to address Israeli human rights abuses of Palestinians.

For years now, one of the central tenets of our communal and educational institutions is that if we just continue repeating the same talking points about a shiny, illusory Israel, rehearsing them for ourselves and inculcating our children with them, then no matter what is actually happening on the ground, they will be true. This fixation on only one side of the picture belies the growing fear and pain expressed by the very people these institutions serve: Israel may no longer be a democracy, and for some, it has never been.

Tisha B’av provided a moment to consider the rabbis’ thoughts about this exclamation, “How?” as they reflected on the destruction of Jerusalem. In the first chapter of the rabbinic commentary on Lamentations (Eicha Rabbah), some of the commentators understood the initial cry as God’s. In need of a model for mourning after the destruction

What happened in Pittsburg will not be undone by punishment, no matter what that sentence looks like. It also would not have been worse if Bowers had escaped justice. What happened, happened; we will never get those lives back. There is no silver lining.

For Bowers, I think it would be great if he was forgotten. The rest of us can focus on our communities, on spreading love and kindness and on being proud Jews. If murders like these happen because certain people don’t want us to live, let’s live more. Let’s be more engaged, let’s give more, let’s be present often and pray harder. Light more candles, celebrate and sing louder.

Will this be a deterrent for others who might want to copy this hateful act? I doubt it. Hate is not logical and neither are the acts inspired by it. But knowing that cannot force us into denying who we are.

One of the key points in Judaism, for me, is joy. This we find in prayer and in each other, our communities and family relationships, Torah study, our friends, random hugs, music and food and Israel trips and holidays (yes, even Yom Kippur). It is a deep joy, something that is built through thousands of moments during our life, and it exists in-

of the Temple, God was looking for direction and asked the angels, “How does a king of flesh and blood mourn?” The angels reply, “‘He sits in silence” and “He sits and weeps.”

“That is what I will do,” God replies, according to the commentary.

We must find a way to shift from the paralyzed silence of the “how” in Lamentations to the frankness and honesty of “how” we should be speaking with one another. None of us should find ourselves sitting in silence, alone and in mourning. We must rededicate ourselves to critical conversations, so we can openly confront the pain of Israel’s reality and find a path forward together.

We have been in the silence for a while already, and it’s part of what has brought us to this place. Tonight and tomorrow we may need to sit in deep lamentation, but what about the day after Tisha B’av?

We have a collective fear that if we start to deal dynamically with the reality on the ground, the picture of the world we have so carefully constructed will fall apart. But we can’t make violence go away by pretending we don’t see it. Only by confronting hard truths together do we stand a chance of keeping our real world from falling apart.

So we ask once again, “Eicha? How?” How do we move from paralysis to action? The first step must be to find constructive rather than destructive ways of engaging.

We already have models in our community for opening conversations about the really hard things that matter to help us hear one another and face reality together. In my work at NewGround: a Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change, we convene groups across a wide spectrum of differences to break down polarizing terms that obscure our understanding of one another and what is at stake for our communities, and we broaden our perspectives

side of us even during the darkest days. This particular sentence may not bring any of the victims back to us, but neither has the murderer been succesful in killing the joy of Judaism. I think that’s the bottom line.

“After the verdict was read, rabbi Meyers of the Tree of Life congregation, opened a press conference at the Jewish community center in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, where he recited the Shehecheyanu, then translated it for the media: thank God, ‘who has kept us alive, sustained us and enabled us to reach this stage.’” (JTA.com) Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger: may their memory be for a blessing.

through listening to one another’s experiences and stories.

Resetting the Table, another group focused on facilitating hard conversations, uses its “core technology” to help communities “grapple, argue, and learn across political differences” in Hillels, synagogues, federations and, increasingly, churches, throughout the country. Libby Lenkinski of the New Israel Fund

and anti-racism educator Jonah Canner, in their article “The Elephant in the Bunk,” remind us that summer camp can be a place where young Jews seeking to define their Jewishness are invited to think, feel and listen to one another about why and how Israel matters to them.

After Tisha B’av, we get up from mourning and move toward the reflective month of Elul, toward Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It is never too late for teshuvah, for repair. But we must do the work, which means we have to engage these communal questions together and reflect upon our own complicity. To continue to sit in silence is but to bring on more destruction. Reckoning with reality is the only way to bring redemption.

Andrea Hodos is the associate director of NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change (https://mjnewground.org). She lives in Los Angeles.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

We need to talk about Israel. Tisha B’Av’s central text suggests ‘how.’

"Jeremiah seated in the ruins of Jerusalem," Eduard Bendemann, 1837. Credit: JTA collage, Wikimedia Commons

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers leads survivors and families of the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in a prayer of thanks, at the Jewish Community Center in Pittsburgh, Aug. 2, 2023. Credit: Ron Kampeas

Why Donniel Hartman sees a brighter Israeli future — in 2026

When Israel’s parliament on Monday passed the first plank in a series of reform proposals meant to curb the power of Israel’s judiciary, it set off alarms among Israel’s supporters abroad.

Liberal and centrist Jewish groups said weakening the judiciary would undermine Israeli democracy. Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, wrote an open letter to President Joe Biden saying that he must save Israel “from being destroyed from the inside.” Conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin welcomed news that Israel’s Supreme Court would review the legislation, saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will have endangered the country for nothing.”

Rabbi Donniel Hartman is urging critics of the judicial reforms and Netanyahu’s government to take a deep breath. Not because he supports the proposals — he agrees they would “undermine the systems of checks and balances necessary to protect Israel’s democratic identity.” But he warns that the bill passed on Monday represents one of the least controversial planks in Netanyahu’s reform plan, and that the massive demonstrations against the proposals have united an Israeli consensus around what he is calling a “new social coalition.”

Hartman is the president, along with Yehuda Kurtzer, of the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Jerusalem-based think tank that promotes pluralism and liberal values in Israel and beyond. Hundreds of North American rabbis and Jewish lay leaders have cycled through Hartman programs, which promote diversity, civil discourse and what it calls the “democratic character of Israel.”

Hartman recently spoke to a group of rabbis about the public backlash to the reform proposals, and the political implications between now and the next scheduled Israeli elections in 2026. On Thursday, he shared some of those same ideas with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, explaining why he thinks Netanyahu is playing a weak hand, why the Palestinian issue is on the back burner and why North American Jews should channel their gloom over the current legislation into support for its opponents.

A note on the judicial proposals: The legislation passed Monday would end the Israeli Supreme Court’s ability to strike down government decisions and appointments judges deems “unreasonable.” Other proposals include changing the law to allow ministers to install political appointees as legal advisers in their ministries — which critics say would remove an important check on corruption — and one that would give the Knesset the power to override Supreme Court decisions by a simple majority. Another proposal would give more power to politicians in appointing judges.

For now, those proposals are on pause.

Our conversation was edited for length and clarity.

I’ve been thinking of the “day after” fear and anticipation after some recent watershed events – Trump’s election, the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, maybe the Brexit vote. Did Monday’s vote on the “reasonableness” clause mark a before and after?

No. It doesn’t feel like a Brexit moment, because the vote on the reasonableness clause is not big enough. The election itself was more significant. The proposal of the reform was more significant. The “reasonableness” clause was the perfect issue for Netanyahu to pick, because it’s the most reasonable of the judicial reform proposals. Overall there are five big reform proposals, including the way the Israeli Supreme Court is selected, the power of the attorneys general and the “override” clause. The last is the one the haredi Orthodox want because no matter who is on the Supreme Court or what they decide they could just cancel it out. That’s just the end of democracy.

So Netanyahu pushed the right one for a first victory, but in order to stop the slippery slope process, [the opposition] had to pretend as if this was very big. It was a tactical game, to claim that the override clause was the end of democracy. Tom Friedman overplayed his cards. Nope. It’s far from the end.

This was just the beginning of a three-year war. This is going to go on until 2026.

Why 2026?

That’s when the next elections are.

Assuming the government doesn’t fall before then.

It can’t fall. Because unless there’s an internal split in Likud [Netanyahu’s party], neither [far-right government ministers Itamar] Ben-Gvir or [Betzalel] Smotrich or the haredim will ever join with the Joint List [an Arab coalition] or Avigdor Lieberman [a nationalist opposition member] to vote this government out. They’ll kvetch, they’ll complain, they’ll threaten, but they can’t leave and that’s what makes it so strange that Netanyahu seems so intimidated by them. Because he holds all the power. They have no power. Where are they going to go? Who are they going to sit with? If they vote against the right-wing government, their careers will be over.

You said the 2022 election was the real watershed moment. In what way?

The consequence of the election was the judicial reform proposals, which raised a fundamental question: What is the nature of our country? Trump wasn’t the end of America, but his election asked the question, What is America?

Can Israelis right the ship as they see it in the next election?

I believe this is the last Likud-led government and it certainly is the last right-wing government. That’s assuming that Netanyahu is not going to be prime minister. This whole reform issue has created an awareness that there are different coalitions being formed in Israel, which aren’t being formed around the right-left wing divide. That divide doesn’t really exist anymore. There is a broad centrist camp that agrees on Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and economic theory. And there is no possibility of a two-state solution anyway — I just don’t know how to implement it. On the fringes, there is a leftwing socialist camp, let’s call it, and there is a right-wing settler group. Other than that, 80% of Israel is not divided under

other liberal issues.

I distinguish between tolerable occupiers and intolerable occupiers. Intolerable occupiers are those who believe that we have a right to all of Israel, and that Palestinian lives don’t matter. It’s a combination of ultra-nationalism, fascism and messianism. That’s one group. Then there’s a whole massive group for whom the only reason why the occupation continues is that they believe that there is no peace partner and that Israel’s survival is in danger if we do anything.

People think I’m liberal. I’m more or less liberal. I’m for a two-state solution. I just don’t know how to implement it. Tell me what I could do now? I’m willing to stop settlements. I’m willing to curb settlements. I’m willing to do everything. I used to be for unilateral withdrawal. What would happen if you had unilateral withdrawal from Judea and Samaria?

Now, when you have a government that is not willing to admit that Palestinians have rights, or is not yearning for a peaceful solution, then of course we lose. That’s what Ne-

“If you fight and you stand up and you don’t walk away, there are partners in Israel who are looking at you and who feel encouraged by you,” said Rabbi Donniel Hartman, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute. Credit: Courtesy

the left wing-right wing categories. You see at the demonstrations and in the polls that 20 to 30% of those who used to be on the right or are still on the right no longer want to vote for Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir. They want to find alternative expressions for their identities.

What we need to do over the next three years is to frame a new social coalition in Israel, around internal values of liberal Zionism and liberal Judaism, which 80% of Israelis accept. Then we can win and that’s where 2026 is going to change.

You said “assuming that Netanyahu is not going to be prime minister.” How does he keep this new social coalition from happening?

As long as he runs, the center and the left won’t join a coalition with him. They’re like never-Trumpers. They despise him. They don’t trust him. The Likud kept Netanyahu because he gave them 32 seats [a formidable bloc in the 120-seat Knesset, where 61 seats are needed to form a government]. But if he goes down to 26, there’s a whole bunch of people who are just waiting to replace him.

You used the term “liberal Zionist” before. I think you use it differently than an American Jew might. Here it means someone who is pro-Israel but is desperate to see a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It’s very interesting how the category of liberalism has been reclaimed in Israeli society. While in America the term is very divisive, actually in Israel it is becoming much more inclusive. It’s the old liberalism of liberties — a belief in Zionism and the right of the Jewish people to a state but one that believes in human rights and a diverse public sphere and that respects law and the Supreme Court. It’s the old Likud. It’s the old [Ze’ev] Jabotinsky [the pre-state leader of Revisionist Zionism]. It’s the old [Likud Prime Minister] Menachem Begin. It’s not Smotrich or Ben-Gvir, and it’s not the haredi parties.

But it doesn’t extend to the Palestinian issue.

Liberal Zionism in Israel recognizes that we don’t want to be an occupier of another people. But for the vast majority of Israelis, “the Palestinians want to murder me.” There is no Palestinian Authority today. The Palestinian Authority controls the Mukata [the P.A. headquarters in Ramallah] and three upper-middle-class towns in Judea and Samaria. Hamas and Islamic Jihad would run away with any election.

It’s very hard to even have a conversation about Palestinian rights in Israel, when you feel you’re talking about a society that wants to kill you.

I just finished a book that is getting published in November, and I have a whole section on it challenging North American liberal Jews to recognize that they have liberal partners in Israel, even though they don’t agree with you on Judea and Samaria, or the West Bank, or what you even call it.

And yet, for a lot of American Jews — as well as for American anti- Zionists and a lot of progressives — Israel is judged only to the degree that it solves the Palestinian problem. Liberal Zionists define themselves around their commitment to a two-state solution, but you’re asking them to see common ground around

tanyahu’s doing since he sits with these [far-right] people. He has quieted all moral conversation when it comes to Israeli political life. So when that happens, of course, people with a moral voice would say, “What’s going on here?” Because it’s true, as you said, Zionism has ceded the moral conversation to the anti-Zionist camp.

Still, I think we can create a unified liberal Zionist conversation even though North American Jews and Israeli Jews might have a different opinion on what is the most viable solution right now.

Since we’re talking on Tisha B’Av, I went to services last night and the person who led the services gave a scorched-earth lament for Israel, basically saying his dreams for Israel are dying and he tied the week’s events, as a lot of people have, to the cataclysms that we acknowledge on the fast day, including the destruction of the First and Second Temples. What are you telling either Israelis or Diaspora supporters of Israel who are talking in apocalyptic terms about this week’s vote and the push for judicial reform by this government?

We mourn the destruction of the Temple. We learn from the destruction of the Temple. But we don’t declare the Temple destroyed before it’s destroyed.

Everything in Jewish history is about hope. It’s about working under impossible conditions. And Israel is now working under impossible conditions. That’s true. There is a government which is advocating for an Israel that half of Israel and 90% of North American Jewry wants nothing to do with. But Israel is not defined by its government alone, as you discovered when it came to Trump. People have a voice. What the demonstrations make clear is that the vast majority of Israelis do not support these proposals.

It’s one thing to turn your back on the Israeli government. But we’re out there marching. We don’t embrace destruction before it happens, but we get to work. There is a blueprint forward. The vast majority of Israelis now are embracing a liberal Zionism of the type I mentioned. North American Jews now have partners. They might not be perfect partners, but they have partners. Why walk away from Israel, when the majority of Israelis are now saying things they never said before: “I care about the Supreme Court. I care about human rights. I care about the rights of minorities”? This is what they’re talking about at every demonstration.

So I would go back to your [prayer leader] and say to him, “We waited 2,000 freaking years to have this country. Could you wait three more years? And could you fight for three years?” Because if you fight and you stand up and you don’t walk away, there are partners in Israel who are looking at you and who feel encouraged by you. We can build it.

Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor at large of the New York Jewish Week and managing editor for Ideas for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

Israeli anti-judicial reform protesters block the Ayalon highway in Israel, June 3, 2023. Credit: Matan Golan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

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THURSDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.; Character Development, 9:30 a.m.; Mincha/ Ma’ariv 8:10 p.m.

FRIDAY-Aug. 18: Nach Yomi, 6:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat, 7:30 p.m.; Candlelighting, 8:01 p.m.

SATURDAY-Aug. 19: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:45 a.m.; Mincha/ Ma’ariv 7:50 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity 8:20 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:02 p.m.

Please visit orthodoxomaha.org for additional information and Zoom service links.

CHABAD HOUSE

All services are in-person. All classes are being offered in-person and via Zoom (ochabad.com/academy). For more information or to request help, please visit www.ochabad.com or call the office at 402.330.1800.

FRIDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochabad.com/ Lechayim; Candlelighting, 8:11 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 9:12 p.m.

SUNDAY: Sunday Morning Wraps: Video Presentation, 9-9:30 a.m. and Breakfast, 9:45 a.m.

MONDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Personal Parsha, 9:30 a.m.; Intermediate Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Introduction to Writing Hebrew Script and Vocabulary Practice, 5 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

TUESDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Intermediate Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 7 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

WEDNESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Mystical Thinking (Tanya), 9:30 a.m.; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 11:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

THURSDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Parsha Reading, 10 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Advanced Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 11 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Talmud Study (Sanhedrin 34), noon; Introduction to Alphabet, Vowels & Reading Hebrew, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) Class, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY-Aug. 18: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ocha bad.com/Lechayim; Candlelighting, 8:01 p.m.

SATURDAY-Aug. 19: Shacharit 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 9:01 p.m.

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN & TIFERETH ISRAEL

Services facilitated by Rabbi Alex Felch. All services offered in-person with live-stream or teleconferencing options.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Leslie Delserone and Peter Mullin, 6:30

Robert Kraft speaks with rapper Meek Mill

JACOB GURVIS

JTA

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft participated in a panel conversation on fighting antisemitism and racism on Sunday during the annual NAACP convention in Boston.

Titled Hate Has No Home: Racism, Anti-Semitism and Building Bridges to Fight All Hate, the conversation was moderated by Fox Sports host Joy Taylor and featured NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson, historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Kraft and the rapper and activist Meek Mill.

Mill and Kraft have been friends since Kraft helped advocate for the rapper’s release from prison in 2018. They co-founded the nonprofit REFORM Alliance in January 2019 to advocate for criminal justice reform, alongside rapper Jay-Z and Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, who is also Jewish.

Mill spoke about how meaningful it was when Kraft visited him in prison and compared the experience to his trip to Poland with Kraft for the March of the Living earlier this year. He said they each gained an understanding for the other’s community and their hardships.

“It was probably two years ago when Robert said, I’m going to get you to come to Poland with me,” Mill said during the conversation. “And I didn’t know the effects of how many friends I had that were Jewish, that had family members that were

connected to what happened in Poland in Auschwitz.”

Earlier this year, Kraft launched a $25 million social media campaign called #StandUpToJewishHate through his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, which aired ads during NFL games last year. He spoke on Sunday about the meaning of “tikkun olam,” or repairing the world, and the important partnership between the Black and Jewish communities.

“People are trying to put boulders between the Black community and the Jewish community,” Kraft said. “And we’ve always been uniquely tied together. And I want us to continue that, and any way we can build those ties, I want to be part of that.”

Kraft said he hopes his #StandUpToJewishHate campaign — with its signature blue pin, which each panelist wore on stage — would serve as “a symbol of unity and solidarity.”

Gates, who teaches at Harvard University and hosts the PBS series Finding Your Roots, said that anti-Black racism and antisemitism are often tied together by white supremacy.

“I tell my students at Harvard that under the floorboards of Western culture run two streams:

p.m. at SST; Oneg Host: TBD; Shabbat Candlelighting, 8:12 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Re’eh; Havdalah, 9:14 p.m.

SUNDAY: LJCS Teacher Planning Meeting, 9:30 am.; Men’s Bike/Coffee Group meet, 10:45 a.m. at The Mill on the Innovation Campus. We sit outside, facing east. For more information or questions please email Al Weiss at albertw801@gmail.com; Pickleball, 3-5 p.m. at TI. Everyone is welcome.

WEDNESDAY: LJCS Parent Meeting, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY: High Holy Days Choir Rehearsal, 7 p.m. at SST. If you are interested in choir, please contact our music director, Steven Kaup, via email at: Mus icDirector@southstreettemple.org. Our choir is open to anyone.

FRIDAY-Aug. 18: Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Nathaniel and Steve Kaup, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg Host: TBD; Shabbat Candlelighting, 8:02 p.m.

SATURDAY-Aug. 19: Shabbat Morning Service 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Shoftim; Havdalah, 9:03 p.m.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

FRIDAYS: Virtual Shabbat Service, 7:30 p.m. every first and third of the month at Capehart Chapel. Contact TSgt Jason Rife at OAFBJSLL@icloud.com for more information.

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME

The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home’s service is currently closed to visitors.

TEMPLE ISRAEL

In-person and virtual services conducted by Rabbi Benjamin Sharff, Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin, and Cantor Joanna Alexander

FRIDAY: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m. In-Person; Shabbat B’yachad Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SUNDAY: Teacher and Madrichim Orientation 10 a.m.; Conversion Class Summer Coffee Series, 11 a.m. at the JCC.

WEDNESDAY: Yarn It, 9 a.m. In-Person.

THURSDAY: Thursday Morning Class, 10 a.m. with Rabbi Azriel via Zoom

FRIDAY-Aug. 11: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m. InPerson; Shabbat B’yachad Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY-Aug. 12: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Saturday Morning Shabbat Service, 10:30 a.m. In-Person & Zoom. Please visit templeisraelomaha.com for additional information and Zoom service links.

one is anti-Black racism and one is antisemitism,” Gates said. “And any time a demagogue wants to stir up people they just lift up the floorboards and dipper out all that hatred against our people and against our Jewish brothers and sisters.”

Gates also noted the famous friendship between activist Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. He added that he is working on a PBS series on Black-Jewish relations — which he said Kraft was the first to financially support.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, left, and rapper Meek Mill. Credit: Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Life cycles

IN MEMORIAM

JERRY GOLDSTROM

Jerry Goldstrom passed away on July 25, 2023 at age 81. Graveside services were held on July 28, 2023 at Oak Hill Cemetery in Council Bluffs, IA.

He was preceded in death by parents, Betty and Bernard Goldstrom; and his wife, Kathryn.

He is survived by his son and daugther-in-law, Jeffrey and Donna; grandchildren; Jenna & Michael; best friend, Rona Weiss; brothers and sisters-in-law, Mark Goldstrom and June Richards, and Larry and Carol Goldstrom.

Memorials may be made to the Rose Blumkin Home or the organization of your choice.

Argentine restaurant drops ‘Adolf’ fries

JACKIE HAJDENBERG

JTA

A fast food restaurant in Argentina has apologized after naming a hamburger on its menu “Anne Frank” and giving french fries the name “Adolf.”

Jewish organizations in Rafaela, a city more than 300 miles north of Buenos Aires where the Honky Donky restaurant is located, condemned its menu’s nomenclature. On August 1, the organized Jewish community of Rafaela announced on Facebook that it would pursue legal action.

“In light of the fact that a fast-food place in our city has trivially used the names of Anne Frank and Adolf to identify their products, the Jewish Community of Rafaela expresses its repulsion and indignation,” the group said in a statement.

According to reports in Argentine media, the menu items’ names might have put the restaurant in violation of Argentina’s anti-discrimination law, which prohibits discrimination based on a range of factors, including race, religion and nationality. The law carries penalties including fines and possible prison time.

Following the backlash and legal threats, Honky Donky removed its cheddar, bacon and green onion “Adolf” fries from the menu, and also renamed the “Anne Frank” burger — which featured tomato, pickles, lettuce and mayo on a beef patty. That item is now called the “Anne Boleyn” burger, after the second wife of England’s King Henry VIII who was beheaded due to allegations of treason and infidelity.

Honky Donky also issued an apology on its Instagram story, an account which the restaurant has since made private.

“Irony and cynicism do not fit” in all cases, the restaurant said in the statement posted on Tuesday.

Hitler is not the only dictator to be represented on Honky Donky’s menu. As of Tuesday, it also featured “Benito” fries, named for Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator; the “Gengis” for Genghis Khan, the Mongolian emperor; and the “Mao” for Mao Zedong, the Chinese communist dictator.

The Jewish Community of Rafaela had been aware of Honky Donky’s menu items since March, Ariel Rosenthal, a member of the board of directors, told the local publication InfoBae this week. Officials from the community had spoken with the restaurant owners earlier this year, who promised to change the names.

“We do not understand the delay in doing it, but I understand that at this moment, it is being modified and there will be an apology,” Rosenthal told InfoBae ahead of the removal of the items from the menu.

Rosenthal said the event was “completely atypical” in the city, which is home to about 30 Jewish families. Normally, he said, there is “an excellent coexistence between the different communities and religions.”

This is not the first time a restaurant has been accused of flippantly referencing the Holocaust in order to promote its fare. In November, the German division of fast food chain KFC sent out an online promotion tied to Kristallnacht, the night of Nazi-led antisemitic riots throughout Germany and Austria in 1938 that is seen as the start of the Holocaust.

Israeli security guard killed in Tel Aviv terror attack

BEN SALES TEL AVIV | JTA

A security guard was killed in a shooting attack by a Palestinian gunman in central Tel Aviv on Saturday afternoon as violence between Israelis and Palestinians has continued to rage.

The terror attack came after a Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank on Friday night. Since the beginning of the year, more than two dozen Israelis and more than 100 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in the violence. This year has also seen multiple riots by Israeli West Bank settlers in Palestinian towns.

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The U.S. State Department used similar language in statements published nearly simultaneously on Twitter condemning each incident. Regarding the West Bank shooting, the department said, “We strongly condemn yesterday’s terror attack by Israeli extremist settlers that killed a 19-year old Palestinian.”

Regarding the Tel Aviv shooting, the department said, “We strongly condemn today’s terrorist attack in Tel Aviv that killed 1 and wounded 2 others, as well as other recent terrorist attacks against Israelis.” Both statements extended sympathy to the victims’ families.

The Tel Aviv security guard, a city employee who has been identified as Chen Amir, 42, spotted a man acting suspiciously in a busy Tel Aviv commercial area on Saturday and approached him, according to Israeli reports. The man opened fire, wounding Amir, before being shot dead by another guard. Amir died of his wounds shortly afterward.

The shooter has been identified as a member of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian terror group. Israeli forces appear to be preparing to demolish his home in response to the attack.

While many of the terror attacks against Israelis have occurred in the West Bank and Jerusalem, Tel Aviv has seen violence multiple times this year. In July, a Palestinian injured at least seven people in a stabbing attack in the city, and in March, a shooting in a Tel Aviv cafe killed one and injured two. One person was killed after being rammed by a car in April on the city’s boardwalk in what Israeli security forces deemed a terror attack, though the driver’s family has said it was an accident.

The night before the Tel Aviv attack, during a confrontation between Israeli settlers and Palestinians, a settler opened fire and killed Qusai Jamal Matan, 19, and wounded four others.

Israeli police have detained two suspects for the crime of murder driven by racism, including Elisha Yered, a former staffer for the far-right Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power, party, which is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, according to Haaretz. Israeli Channel 12 reported on Sunday that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads Otzma Yehudit, backed the detainees. “Whoever defends himself from rocks being thrown should get a medal of honor,” he said.

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Police and rescue forces at the scene of a terror attack in Tel Aviv on Aug. 5, 2023. Credit: Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90

Reuben Efron, a Jewish spy who loved Midrash

RON

JTA

KAMPEAS

For decades, armchair analysts scrutinizing the mysteries of the President John F. Kennedy assassination have fixated on who, exactly, opened his future assassin’s mail while he was under CIA surveillance. As the conspiracy theory went, that person would have understood Lee Harvey Oswald’s relationship with the Soviet Union and thus could unlock new information about a possible Communist plot against Kennedy or a U.S. government plot to obscure his true killer.

Last month, a new document dump in the ongoing declassification of Kennedy documents revealed the identity of the CIA screener: one Reuben Efron, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania.

The New York Times was the first to report Efron’s identity. “And that means — what, exactly?” the newspaper asked in its report. “A tantalizing clue to unraveling a complicated conspiracy that the government has sought to cover up for decades?

Additional proof that the C.I.A. knew more about Oswald than initially acknowledged? Or a minor detail withheld all this time because of bureaucratic imperatives irrelevant to the question of whether Oswald was the lone gunman on the fateful day?”

A deep dive into Efron’s Jewish identity does not answer those questions. But it does reveal that Efron not only worked as a spy but had a deep knowledge of the spies in Jewish tradition.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has confirmed that Efron spent time living in Israel before dying on Nov. 22, 1993 — 30 years to the day after Kennedy’s assassination. While there, he contributed five articles in the 1970s to the Jewish Bible Quarterly, a World Zionist Organization-affiliated publication based in Jerusalem, that channeled his expertise in espionage.

“Rahab and her premises were under surveillance of a counterintelligence team of the king of Jericho who soon established that the two men visiting Rahab were actually Israelite spies,” he writes in one of the essays, referring to a Jericho courtesan who,

according to the Book of Joshua, assisted the Israelites in preparing to rout the Canaanites. Efron called Rahab “a prototype of a Mata Hari,” the World War I-era exotic dancer-turned-spy.

In one of the essays, Efron directly addresses the problem of spies incorrectly assessing their surveillance target — a critique that has been leveled about his read of Oswald. About the 10 spies who, in the Book of Numbers, returned to the Israelites unsettled by their venture into Canaan, he writes, “The

years in that city — a thriving hub of Lithuanian Jewish life that would become the site of the country’s largest ghetto under the Nazis — before emigrating, as his brother had done previously.

Efron immigrated to the United States in December 1939, arriving in Miami via Cuba. U.S. immigration documents list his profession as a salesman. According to a family history compiled by a relative, the following fall he enrolled at the Atlanta Law School, a night school that closed in the 1990s. He worked at a clothing store in downtown Atlanta until graduating in 1943.

He spoke Russian, Lithuanian, Hebrew, Yiddish and German and enlisted in the Air Force during World War II as an interpreter, according to a death notice published in the Miami Herald. After the war, the death notice said, he played a role in peace negotiations and in talks related to the resettlement of war refugees — among them, perhaps, members of his own family, but not his mother, who according to the published genealogy was murdered in the Holocaust.

For decades, Efron worked for the U.S. government, playing roles that are only now coming to light as secret government documents are made available to the public. His family history says only: “Reuben worked for the Pentagon.”

militarily inexperienced scouts apparently had been unduly impressed with the prowess of the enemy and, as is frequent among Easterners, exaggerated his capabilities.”

The essays, three of which appeared in a series called Military Intelligence in the Bible, do little to illuminate either the Kennedy assassination or the inner life of the man who read Oswald’s mail. But they do shed light on how he spent his retirement.

Efron was born Ruvelis Effronas in Simnas, Lithuania, on April 12, 1911, and attended a Jewish high school there (a “Hebrew gymnasium,” in his words), followed by Vytautas Magnus University in what is now Kaunas. He practiced law for five

It’s not clear if he ever officially immigrated to Israel using its Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to Jews who move to the country. But the obituary in the Miami Herald said that Efron “commuted between Israel and the United States for many years, during which he studied Israeli law and was admitted to the Israeli bar.” The obituary said Efron was inspired by his mother’s work in Lithuania with Jews who were immigrating to Palestine.

Details about Efron’s identity and background exercised the community of JFK assassination theorists to a much lesser degree than the fact that a senior CIA official was tracking Oswald — and the tantalizing prospect that there was more to learn.

Efron had a wife, Edna, a brother, Irving, and no children. Read more at www.omahajewishpress.com

ROSH HASHANAH 5784

Celebrating 40 Years

The Dallas Police Department mug shots of Lee Harvey Oswald following his arrest for possible involvement in the John F Kennedy assassination and the murder of Officer JD Tippit.

Credit: Corbis via Getty Images