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Witness
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The Art of Samuel Bak New art of campus Page 2
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Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz visits Beth El Page 6
inside Spotlight Viewpoint Synagogues Life cycles
Witness: The Art of Samuel Bak, opens Tuesday, Sept. 3 in the UNO School of the Arts’ Art Gallery, housed in the Weber Fine Arts Building. The collection spans five decades of Bak’s artistic journey, featuring pieces that have been shown in major museums and galleries in cities such as Tel Aviv, New York, Paris and Rome. The art will be on display through Thursday, Nov. 14. Bak’s art visualizes his Holocaust experience See Witness page 3
The Pomegranate Society
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annEttE van dE kamP-WriGht Editor, Jewish Press A lay leader in our Jewish community, according to Laurie Epstein, is “someone who volunteers their time and expertise to serve their community because they want to give back.” She would know; together with Patty Sherman, Laurie serves as Chair of the Pomegranate Society. ‘Pomegranates’ lead by example. They understand we are more powerful together. More than 125 Jewish Federations throughout North America participate in the Pomegranate Pin program; donors in this category wear a specially designed
Schwalb Center welcomes Jeannette Gabriel
annEttE van dE kamP-WriGht Editor, Jewish Press This past August, Jeannette Gabriel moved into the Director role at Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Gabriel had previously been working as a Resident Scholar at the Schwalb Center
Samuel Bak
Sam PEtto Director, Editorial & Media Relations, University of Nebraska Omaha enowned artist and Holocaust survivor Samuel Bak will visit the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) this September in tandem with a showing of 70 of his creations. The showing and a series of related public events will be free and open to the public.
Catching up with Omaha BBYO Page 12
SPonSorEd By thE BEnJamin and anna E. WiESman FamiLy EndoWmEnt Fund
Laurie Epstein and Patty Sherman Pomegranate pin. In 1981, the women of Allentown, PA, introduced the pin as a way to inspire giving. It’s modeled after the Lion of Judah program and since its inception, more than 7,000 have been distributed across North America. An ancient symbol found carved into the lintels of the earliest synagogues, the pomegranate is recognizable as a Jewish symbol. Pomegranates are sym-
bolic with their 613 seeds, one for each of the mitzvot or commandments in the Torah. Pomegranate donors provide strength, compassion and inspiration for our community through their annual gifts of $1,800+. Each year that a Pomegranate increases her gift by $100, she can add a Ruby to bejewel her Pomegranate pin. The pomegranate pin offered to See Pomegranate Society page 2
Jeannette Gabriel
where she taught classes and worked on a research project documenting how the African-American and Jewish community lived together in North Omaha. She has also been teaching community classes at Beth El Synagogue. In her new position Ms. Gabriel will be teaching classes and conducting research related to Jewish and Israel Studies. Gabriel’s primary research focus is American history and religion with an emphasis on issues of race and gender. She is continuing to research AfricanAmerican and Jewish collaboration and conflict with an emphasis on issues of redlining and domestic work. “During the short time Jeannette has been in Omaha,” Nate and Hannah Schwalb said, “she has immersed herself in the Jewish community in a variety of ways. We are impressed with her Jewish teaching and her special interest in the history of Midwest Jewish communities. We feel extremely fortunate to have Jeannette as a leading force in our Center; she will no doubt carry on what the late Moshe Gershovich so successfully started at UNO.” Gabriel came to Omaha from Iowa City where she curated an extensive archival collection of over sixty individual and institutional collections on Jewish Women in Iowa at the Iowa Women’s Archives, University of Iowa. The Jewish Women in Iowa collections include materials that will contribute to new and complex stories about Jewish women’s experiences in Iowa. Before relocating to Iowa, Gabriel had worked for about a decade with Smithsonian Associates as Resident Historian training high school history teachers through the Teaching American History Program. She recently defended her PhD at the University of Iowa in Social Studies Education. Her thesis examined how See Jeannette Gabriel page 3