Vol. LXXXVIX No. 1 Omaha, NE
Celebrating 89 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa
29 Elul, 5769 September 18, 2009 3 Sections
Page 2
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
What we did THAT summer! We got married, had babies, celebrated anniversaries and high school reunions. We went to Jewish summer camps and Israel. And while we didn’t go to Woodstock or journey to the moon, we were awed by historic events that occurred during the summers of our lives. Here in these pages of our annual Rosh Hashanah issue, you’ll read about the soldiers who liberated concentration camps in the summer of 1945 and about one woman who survived. A former Omahan recalls Israel’s Six-Day War in June of 1967. And while American Jews celebrated the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we can also recall where we were during the miraculous rescue by the Israel Defense Force during the infamous Entebbe hijacking on Fourth of July weekend, 1976. Last month was also the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina -- not the largest storm to hit the United States (that dishonor belongs to Hurricane Andrew, which flattened whole neighborhoods in Kendall and Homestead, FL, in August of 1992). Katrina’s damage was manmade, caused by the failure of the New Orleans levee system which flooded the city’s ninth ward. Former Omahan Judy
Newman describes the aftermath of survival in the Big Easy. This issue also highlights major achievements of some of Omaha’s young people: from volunteering in South America to winning the state baseball championship, cutting a child’s hair for a good cause to playing in Israel’s Maccabiah Games. And, as always, there are lots and lots of pictures featuring Omahans and former Nebraskans at weddings, camp and in Israel, of construction of new buildings to other highlights in our Jewish community The Jewish Press board of directors deserves the credit for this issue’s theme. In a spirited and lively discussion, these passionate board members cooperate in a spirit of harmony to create new themes and guide the Press in weekly publication. With a new website premiering by the end of this calendar year, the Press will be able to offer even more of what’s going on in the lives of our readers! But in order to accomplish all of this, the talents, expertise and long hours of our staff are needed. Thanks to Advertising Manager Allan Handleman, who even in these turbulent economic times, has managed to solicit enough ads for a rather respectable New Year’s issue!
Managing Editor Richard Busse has out done himself in creating one of the most memorable New Year’s covers ever, as well as all the color pages and many, many ads within these pages. Lori Kooper Schwarz, Assistant Managing Editor, juggles the weekly issue with production on this large issue, all on top of posting to our current website (located at www.jewishomaha.org) -- a rather large task she handles without losing a beat. And Press bookkeeper Barb Kirkpatrick has the monumental job of invoicing all these ads, and following up with clients’ payments for weeks down the road. Finally, our office volunteers -- Deborah Platt, Dottie Rosenblum, and Suzanne Singer -- keep all of us on track with their attention to detail. To all of these hard working, loyal folks: Kol haKavod -- a job well done! You all deserve our thanks and respect. We hope this issue will bring back memories and create new ones, but most of all, we wish our readers and advertisers a happy, healthy, peaceful -- and prosperous -- 5770! Shana Tova -Carol Katzman, editor Bobbi Leibowitz, president
Cover photos, starting at the top left: baseball players Brian Reiter and Josh Sweet celebrate victory at the parent/camper softball game in July 2000; Lisa Shkolnick accepts the torch at the JCC Maccabi Games in Sarasota in 2001; Omaha’s young adults travel to Israel in June: Robyn and Chad Menin, Sarah Lopez, Ted Friedland, Dana Kaufman, Jamie Friedland, Howard and Jan Goldstein, Daniel Levitt, Israeli guide Raz Zabar, Sue Lipsman, Karen Klingberg, Steven Fingold, Jason Lev, Carrie Fingold, Mike Kaufman, Dave Lopez, Toby Schonfeld, Rabbi Eric Linder, Susan Langnas and James Blasingame; Judy Ratner and Larry Brookstein were married in 1970; United “Buddy Bear” exhibit in Israel, 2007 (Credit: ISRANET); Jerry and Janey Dann celebrate their 25th anniversary in 1984; Omaha celebrates the closing ceremonies of the 2002 JCC Maccabi Games; JCC campers -- front row: Jason Flatowitz, left, Randy Romanik, Andy Ruback, Alex Cooper, middle row: Bobby Shapiro, Benji Engel, uniden-
tified, Gary Shyken, Jason Itkin, Kevin Saylan, and counselor Scott Muskin in the back; Elie and Teddy Weinberger hike in Israel, 2008; architect Mark Sanford surveys the new Sokolof Fitness Center at the JCC in 1999; athletes at the 2009 Maccabiah Games in Israel celebrate a group B’nai Mitzvah in July; Israeli President Shimon Peres welcomes Nicholas Sarkozy to Israel, 2008 (Credit: ISRANET); American cantors unroll a Torah scroll on the grounds of Auschwitz in July, (Credit: Piotr Malecki) ; Jennifer Cooper chats with a police officer at the 2000 JCC Maccabi Games in Tucson; host Team Omaha marches in to opening ceremonies at the 2002 Games at the Civic Center; road signs in Israel point the way to Syria and Iraq during 2006 War with Lebanon (Credit: Brian Hendler); French olim arrive in Israel in July (Credit: ISRANET); David and Wendy Goldberg and Jonathan and Stacey Rockman and their families celebrate Shabbat in Elmwood Park with Temple Israel, 2001; Gay Pride parade in
Tel Aviv in June (Credit: ISRANET); Art Goldstein plays the piano at the Blumkin Home in July of 1999; Israelis practice a “home front” drill in June in Tel Aviv (Credit: ISRANET); Suzanne Singer and Susan Rothholz prepare for programs at the Kripke Library during the summer of 2005; a baseball game at the JCC Maccabi Games in Omaha in 2002; Omaha Partnership group visits a monument on the bank of the Danube in June which commemorates Jews who were thrown into the water during the Holocaust. ( Credit: Ruth Ellen Gruber) ; Jerusalem’s “Big Dig” still under construction in June (Credit: Amihai Zippor); the funeral of captured IDF soldier Elad Regev, July 2008 (Credit: ISRANET); Jodi Levine practices for Omaha’s 2002 JCC Maccabi Games; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes U.S. Mideast Envoy George Mitchell in June (Credit: ISRANET); Central grads Silvia Roffman, left, Marilyn Hurwitz and Sandra Belgrade celebrate their 50th reunion in 2005.
Rosh Hashanah G R E E T I N G S
(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 Jewish Press Board Michael Sigmond, Vice President; Stan Mitchell, Secretary; Michael Siegel, Treasurer; Howard K. Marcus, Immediate Past-chairman; Marc Brodkey; Andie Gordman; Michael Kaufman; Bette Kozlen; Susan Lehr; Jamie Meyerson; Andy Ruback; Jim Simon; Nancy Skid; and Dorothy Spizman. The role of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to involve Jews in meeting Jewish communal needs locally, nationally and in Israel. 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 and photos to: material ckatzman@jewishomaha.org; send ads (in .TIF or .PDF format) to: rbusse@jewishomaha.org. Letters to the Editor Guidelines The Jewish Press welcomes Letters to the Editor. They may be sent via regular mail to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154; via fax: 1-402-334-5422 or via e-mail to the Editor at: ckatzman@jewishomaha.org.. Letters should be no longer than 250 words and must be singlespaced typed, not hand-written. Published letters should be confined to opinions and comments on articles or events. News items should not be submitted and printed as a “Letter to the Editor.” The Editor may edit letters for content and space restrictions, but should be printed as soon as possible to ensure timeliness. Letters may be published without giving an opposing view. Information shall be verified before printing. All letters must be signed by the writer, but the name can be withheld at the writer’s request. No letters should be published from candidates running for office, but others may write on their behalf. Letters of thanks should be confined to commending an institution for a program, project or event, rather than personally thanking paid staff, unless the writer chooses to turn the “Letter to the Editor” into a paid personal ad or a news article about the event, project or program which the professional staff supervised. For more information, contact Carol Katzman, Jewish Press Editor, 402.334.6450. Postal The Jewish Press (USPS 275620) is published weekly (except for the first week of January and July) on Friday for $35 per calendar year U.S.; $72 foreign, by the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Phone: 402.334.6448; FAX: 402.334.5422. Periodical postage paid at Omaha, NE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154-2198 or e-mail to: jpress@jewishomaha. org.
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September 18, 2009
A soldier’s story Diary gives insight into last summer of WW II
ple of Germany all claim they had no knowledge of all by FRED KOTOK Editor’s note: Steve Kotok, the son of Shane and C. this. Although they are fully being paid back for their misDavid Kotok, transcribed his grandfather’s wartime diary. Steven is named for is uncle (shown in the photo deed, not one [German] has to really suffer what these people in Buchenwald Concentration Camp endured. below), who died at the age of 31 in 1974. Born in Poland, Fred Kotok came to St. Joseph, MO, When one sees Buchenwald, he fully appreciates his as a young child. He married Dorothy Mazvinsky time spent in the Army was not in vain, a cause to stop before the war on Sept. 15, 1940. Leaving her to raise suffering and prevent such a thing [from] happen [ing] their son Steven on her own, he was drafted at the age in the future. I thank the Almighty G-d for giving me a chance to of 29, even though he was the sole support of his family, as well as as his mother. He was a member of the be a member of the U.S. Army and to be able to liberate all these human beings from want and suffering. 76th Division of the United States Army. It was a great sacrifice to have left my wife and son The 76th arrived in England in December of 1944, but Pfc. Kotok’s orders arrived late and he didn’t get to and loved ones at home, but at least I hope and pray LeHavre, France until the end of January, 1945. that it will never happen again and that the suffering that the Germans According to a Feb. 10, brought upon this world 1945, entry, Kotok noted will soon be forgotten that “the 76th Division and will never happen had its first combat misagain. sion and actual contact with the enemy. The river June 17: crossing was costly -- and Today I was presented hazardous.” the Bronze Star at Gneiz, Combat took place on Germany, by Colonel the border between G.E. Bruner. I can’t Luxembourg and describe how proud I felt Germany: “on the fortithat day. There were 23 fied Siegfried line,” he of us in line and -- all offiwrote. “After today’s cers and first M/Sgt. heavy combat, the 417th Dunning and myself, the (Infantry) was finally only two EM. I was the relieved due to the great last in line as I was of lowloss of men and euipment est in rank. ... the 417th was highly Darling, if you would praised for having have seen the ceremony, achieved its objective. how proud you would They had captured 80 have felt. pillboxes (machine gun locations) and 300 June 28: POWs.” Received word of the By February, the 76th redeployment of the 76th had crossed the Sauer Division and the first River and reached Germany. “Our forces Pfc. Fred Kotok is shown here in a formal portrait with his wife, shipment of officers and had gone so fast that it Dorothy, and son Steven, just before he left to serve in the U.S. enlisted men came in for the 30th Division. All the was necessary to move Army during World War II. officers in the section and Master Sergeant Dunning again further into Germany,” Pfc. Kotok wrote. A month later, the division was on the move again. was on it. It really made us feel bad. In fact, there were tears in “Got notice to move again after only 12 hours in the last town,” Kotok continued. “I went on a recon mis- many of the officers’ eyes. So, we all got together and sion to set up a new company post (C.P.). That was real- liberated some gin, brandy, and beer. I felt plenty blue to see my friends leave. So, we all got polluted. That is ly an experience. I say I was just scared. He added, “We arrived there just as the front line really one time I really got drunk. troops had gone to clean up the snipers. Artillery fire all around us and they were landing plenty close; I had to July 1: Moved to Reinwar, Germany. Really hated to leave hit the ground. Our TDs and artillery was on the hill just outside the town and the Germans on the other. We Greiz as we really had a perfect setup. Our German neighbors cared when we left. I don’t know if they were caught right in the middle!” Some years after the war, Kotok moved the family to cared because they hated to see us go or for fear of the Ft. Dodge, IA, where he lived until his death 16 years Russians that were coming after we leave. ago. His wife, Dorothy, moved to Omaha. Here, then, in his own words, is a description of what July 12: Received my first letter in two weeks from my darling he saw -- and felt -- during that final summer of World wife. Gosh, was I ever happy to get that letter. It was War II. just as if I had received a million dollars. I’m still waiting and sweating it out for my orders to June 9, 1945: 1 went along with Captain Benefend to Weiman, come in and see what my fate is. I sure hope I get a Germany, and we dropped him off at the airstrip as he break. The new officers from the 30th division that we was flying to the Riviera [in] France for eight days. On are working with now just aren’t as friendly as our old the way back, the jeep driver and myself decided we ones are. would like to see Buchenwald concentration camp. I hope I get a break and will see my family soon. We drove eight miles out of our way in order to see it. While there, I contacted a young Jewish boy, age 14, July 13: who had been there for five years, since he was nine Drove to Herd, Germany, where our division C.P. is years old. His family had all been killed there and he located and spoke to Sergeant Yanhowich who prompersonally guided us through the building and grounds ised to take care of me. I hope he does. He told me he had a good deal for me and tried to call me, but couldof the horrid camp. What a terrible sight for human eyes and the brutali- n’t get through. It was for a coding job at the Port of ty of the Germans is beyond description. This young kid Marseilles which would had been a good job, but for had told us and showed us where he was shot in the leg one handicap. I wouldn’t be able to get a furlough and once and cut with a bayonet in his other leg. He also see my precious darling. As I told him to be sure that my furlough home was explained to us how he begged the guards to kill him so the most important thing to watch out for me. So he he wouldn’t have to suffer. I don’t see how an Almighty G-d permitted our race didn’t put me in the list without getting an okay from such suffering. I realize on paper [that] it seems exag- me first. It might have been a good deal, but who gerated and far-fetched, but one must see it in order to knows. I trust in G-d that maybe it was for the best. believe such atrocities. It is the truth -- and yet the peo- Continued on page 4
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
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September 18, 2009
A soldier’s story
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Continued from page 3 This morning I got up at five o’clock and went to the seventh company to take off for the 19th for the repossesion depot 25 miles from Paris. It was a small shipment of men, all clerks with a 0-55 spur number. Nobody knows what will be the outcome and were all hoping it will be home. I hope G-d will be with us and see that we don’t go to the Pacific before we get a chance to see my darling wife and Stevie. Left six-thirty in the morning of H of Division HQ. At Hof, we were taken to a third Army leave camp ten miles out of Nuremberg. Stood at the camp all day where they treated us swell, fed us and gave us a movie and saw A Tree Grows in
time in order to catch the train for Etams, France, location of the 19th Repo Depot. Arrived at Etams at about seven o’clock. Ate supper and were given our barracks, place to sleep. Aug. 6: First day spent at the 19th Repo Depot. Still sweating it out and wondering what our destination will be. Lots of rumors, but nothing definite. Aug. 7: Was on K.P. First time I been on K.P. since I left Fort Hood. Looks as if we are going to go through all the -- we experienced in basic training. Still a lot of rumors and nothing definite. Went to the movies and saw Unseen.
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453-8800 Colonel G.E. Bruner, left, commanding officer of the 417th Infantry, awards the Bronze Star to PFC. Fred Kotok. Brooklyn. It was very good. First movie I had seen in a month. Left Nuremberg. Leave camp 11:30 at night and much to our surprise boarded coach cars instead of (box cars called) 408s. Seven men to a compartment. We were packed in like sardines. I got my sleeping bag out and slept out in the aisle. Aug. 4: Stopped in Augsberg, Germany. First stop where they fed us our breakfast. It was a large town and really destroyed by bombs. Also went through two other large towns, Ulhm and Stuttgart. Aug. 5: Our train stopped in Strasbourg and Saarbrucken and that night we stopped and ate at a rest center in France. Aug. 6: Arrived in Paris about noon. Ate dinner at the USO Center in the station. Had to wait in line about one and a half hours, but it was worth it. It is a lovely place. The station was immense and beautiful. We got on busses and drove to another station where were to catch another train for the 19th repo depot. Saw quite a bit of Paris while driving there and was certainly impressed by its sights. We arrived at the station at three o’clock and were told we had one and a half hours to roam around and would have to be ready to board train at 4:30. Four of us decided to catch a metro(subway) and go to the famous Roinbou (sp?). Was really impressed by all of the beautiful sights and would have given anything in the world to have had my darling wife by my side enjoying it together. Went to this Red Cross Club at the Roibou Center. It doesn’t seem as if Paris ever felt this war as it was not damaged and everything felt normal. Got back in
Aug. 8: Did nothing but goof off all day. Slept most of the day. Sounds like it’s pretty hard to endure the life of a combat man. They just want to do anything. Went to the show at night. After the show got back to our bunks and heard the great news that Russia had declared war against the Japs. That was really great news. It will possibly mean that we get home much sooner. Nothing new, but looks --. Aug. 19: Left 19th Repo Depot, but instead of going home I was sent to Reimz of the Office of Fiscal Director. After taking three weeks schooling in finance was transferred to 23rd Finance district in Verdon, France. Sept. 3: Arrived in Vendon, France which was a good deal as far as the Army was concerned because it was a good branch of the service, but G-d, who wants good deals. I want to go home to the sweetest person in the world. It would be more than five months, before Pvt. First Class Fred Kokok was mustered out of the Army; he was finally discharged on March 19, 1946, in St. Louis. Feb. 15, 1946: This is the day I’ve been waiting for since V-E Day. The chance of going home and being with the most charming, sweetest/and most wonderful person in the world. I finally received my orders that I was entering the pipeline on the way home. Gosh, how excited I was finally fulfilling the hope of being with my wife and son once again. Sounds like a dream, but really I am actually entering the pipeline and going home to my darling.
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 5
Omaha soldier helps liberate concentration camp in summer of 1945
by JOAN K. MARCUS Total figures for the Jewish genocide, including shootOmaha attorney Jerome Paul Grossman is one of ings and the camps, was between 5.2 and 5.8 million, Omaha’s best kept secrets. He was one of the liberators roughly half of Europe’s Jewish population. About five of the Nazi concentration camps in 1945 and witnessed million other victims perished at the hands of Nazi the atrocities of Hitler’s Third Reich. He is one of thou- Germany. sands of American soldiers who liberated living skeletons Basically, there wasn’t too much to the liberation of from Nazi slave labor and death camps across Europe. Landsberg. “We came in and took over and the He, and others like him, had a commitment to free- Germans ran the other way. Some were captured and dom which eventually led to the collapse of Imperial others got away. I had already seen so much destruction Japan during the summer of that same year. The camp and killing that I really was numb when we arrived and that he helped to liberate was one of the smaller camps, found the piles of bones and the people who were near called Landsberg, located about 40 miles from Munich. death,” he explained. Grossman was born in Omaha in 1923, the son of Philip and Hannah Goldman Grossman who ran the Gate City Furniture Store on 16th and California. He graduated from Central in 1941 and tried to enlist in the army even before Pearl Harbor. However, he was rejected because of his eyesight and then decided to attend Creighton University. As the war progressed, he was drafted in 1942. He quit school and went into the United States Army as a private. (He retired many years later as an officer.) “We had some training in California for a couple of weeks and then I found myself on a ship heading toward Le Havre in France. We landed and they said that the ship sank when we got off,” Grossman recalled. “We were just a bunch of kids and we decided that we would take a military car and head south. We traveled for a while and then we found ‘our bar.’ I was the Above: Jerome Grossman was spokesman for the group and I asked in my best French, promoted to officer status in where there was an American bar. They answered that 1946; Right: Grossman, left we were in a German city and we all turned around to front row, with his company. get out as fast as we could,” he laughed. “Finally, the war was over and I asked permission to “The Germans were always shooting at us and we go to Biarritz, France, where there was a university. were always moving. There were many times that I Since I am somewhat of an artist, they invited me to stay could have been killed. They shot at us and we fired and teach for a semester. I did that and also took some back; that went on all of the time.” courses that I knew I would use when I got home and Grossman was part of the group of servicemen who went back to Creighton Law School,” he added. helped to liberate the concentration camps. Although he Soldiers were released from service and sent home was cognizant of the atrocities, he viewed the operation when they had accumulated enough “points.” as an historian -- rather than as a Jew. Grossman had more than he needed, but to live in Beginning in 1942, the Jewish genocide went into France post war was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. operation. There was no selection process, Jews were “So, I didn’t come home for several months after the destroyed upon their arrival at the camps. The Nazis war,” he smiled. were responsible for the deaths of 2.7 million Jews in After earning his J.D., he married Betty Simon in the death camps alone. 1953. They have two sons, Michael and Barry who both The murders were done secretly under the description live in Omaha. Barry and his wife, Stephanie, have two of what the Germans called “resettlement.” They hid children, Hannah and Noah. their plans from citizens and inhabitants of the ghettos Later, he went to New York University, where he by saying that Jews were being “resettled” in the east. received an LL.M, degree which made him an expert in
tax law. He was offered a position in Washington, D.C. However, by that time, he had married and started a family here in Omaha and declined to move them. Although he was trained to be a tax attorney at NYU, Jerry practiced every kind of law -- from criminal defense to personal injury. As a voracious reader, he has studied history and is an expert on many subjects -including rare coins and other collectibles. Grossman also is one of the coin experts who has been a forerunner in trying to preserve the Byron Reed Coin Collection. Because of his extensive knowledge of coins
and autographs, he has been a valuable consultant to the collection and was president of the Byron Reed Historical Society. He coordinated the collection’s preservation for the City of Omaha. He has collected coins since he was a child and himself has an extensive collection of coins, stamps and autographs. His collections also extend to etchings, art and furniture. According to Jerry’s son, Barry, also an Omaha attorney, “Some parents would throw out the stuff that their kids collect. My father encouraged us so save ours.” Barry says of his father, “He tells things from an historian’s point of view but he doesn’t go out and look for publicity. My father is an incredible human being who is very humble. He never brags about himself or what he has done throughout his life.” But that summer in Germany is one he will never forget.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
Memorable summers highlight life of former Lincolnite
by HARRY ALLEN “Summer and the Living is Easy”- so goes the lyrics to the song from Porgy and Bess. But for Annie and myself there have been some summers which have neither been easy nor in all cases hard - but they have been eventful. The summer of 1944 was a defining time in our lives. I was a brash new Second Lieutenant in the Army Air Force about to go overseas to fly B-24 bombers in what Stalin called the great Patriotic War. And so it was for me as an American and a Jew. The summer began in Topeka, Kansas, where I went, along with others, to pick up a new airplane and fly it to Italy to become a part of the 484th bomb group, of the 824th bomb squadron. Annie came to Topeka from the safe harbor of Omaha to see me off. (Her father permitted the visit because my mother also came). We agreed to marry when I returned. I remember so well that July 4th, we sat out on the grass, talking of our future, embracing, alternately crying and laughing -- two days later I flew off. On July 22, I flew the first of my 51 combat missions -- a huge 1,000 plane raid on the Ploesti oil fields and refinery. I flew three more times to what was one of the most heavily defended targets in Europe. For those of us who were in the Air Force, the war was different than for those in the ground forces. Though we sustained substantial casualties at the end of the day, we returned to a good meal and a warm bed -- not always so with the ground troops. The summer of 1944 was for us a beginning, an adventure, a time of personal peril but also one of great promise and expectation.
I will skip the intervening summers between then and 1976 -- the summer of Entebbe and the American bicentennial. Not that those passed-over summers were uneventful -- they were very eventful. We moved from Denver to Lincoln, for example, where we spent 22 wonderful years but that is a whole other story. July 4, 1976 -- America was caught up in the bicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The ele-
were herded into the terminal building. The hijackers were demanding that Israel release all of the terrorists held in its jails as a price for release of the hostages. Israel refused but began a process of stalling for time. We were having a 4th of July picnic that day with our friends, including Yale and Irene Gotsdiner, Dorothy and Gerry Grant, of blessed memory, the Niedens, and others. We were a gloomy group that
Above: Harry and Annie Allen have lived in Israel since 1987. Right: A column of Israeli infantry takes up battle positions in the 1967 Six Day War. Credit: Religious News Service gant and graceful tall sailing ships moving slowly up the Hudson River in New York were an amazing spectacle. Patriotic speeches and special programs filled the TV. The celebrations acted as a kind of national catharsis to the Viet Nam war. But to us, that July 4th will forever be remembered for the Israeli rescue of some 125 hostages from the Entebbe airport. The Black September terror group, part of the larger terror organization, the Palestine Liberation Organization, had hijacked an Air France plane with about 124 passengers (largely Israelis but also others -- including Sanford Freedman). The plane ultimately landed in Entebbe, in Uganda, and the passengers
evening as we were all sure that the hostages would be killed. Not so Annie. She kept insisting that Israel would go in and rescue everyone -and so they did (with the exception of one hostage left in a Ugandan hospital -and of course, Yonaton Netanyahu). It was a miraculous July 4 as we later watched the hostages return to Ben Gurion Airport to the emotion of Israelis, the blowing of the shofar and our own joy at the outcome. In July, 1969, Annie and I made our first of what would be several trips to Israel and eventual aliyah. Israel was awash with enthusiasm. The 1967 war had established the country as a supreme military address in the Middle East. Israelis and Arabs mingled in Jerusalem, and despite the misgivings many had over
what to do with the Sinai and the West Bank, the overall mood was one of confidence. But of that summer what remains most lastingly in our minds was July 20, the day that American astronauts landed on the moon. Now, 40 years on, the marvel of that moment has receded and Americans no longer seemed attuned to such great projects. There was hardly any tv in Israel then, but there was a store on Hillel Street in Jerusalem that had one in its front window, so we stood there watching along with hundreds of others the grainy pictures of America’s stunning achievement. But as special as was the event, what stands more poignantly in my mind was the assembled crowd. Kibbutzniks in their kova timbels, Arabs and Jews, nuns and priests, rabbis and imams, tourists and natives -all watching in stunned silence and perhaps even thinking, as did we, what a small thing we were in the great cosmos. But 2009 is not 1969. The kibbutzniks are now privatized with many leading middle class lives; Arabs and Jews eye each other with suspicion and most of the nuns and priests have left. Many of the Israeli rabbis in that crowd are now part of the haredi onslaught against the government of Israel and the imams preach their message of hate from the mosques. And we, we have spent 22 wonderful years in Israel --still loving it -- warts and all. Shana Tova. Former Lincolnites Harry and Annie Allen made aliyah in 1987.
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September 18, 2009
Twenty-plus years ago in Israel
by BEN WIESMAN Anna and I visited Israel each summer in the mid1980s, when our son, William, studied and worked there during a five-year period. Bill worked in Jerusalem and had a small apartment within walking distance to the King David Hotel. We can remember early each morning cutting-through the park area behind the hotel and crossing a busy highway to get to the Wall. Few people were there early each morning and we can recall the serenity that prevailed. It seemed years away from what was really occurring in Israel. During the summers, we had developed friendships with some Israeli citizens and were able to attend sessions with some of the government leaders At the King David Hotel, we attended some social functions and were able to talk to their leaders on a personal level. We were always amazed at the politics, but also the optimistic attitudes of the party leaders.
During the first two trips, we had a guide to show us the historical (and so-called “tourist”) sites -- from the Dead Sea to the Golan Heights and everything in between. On the succeeding trips, we had a car and were on our own. We were able to spend as much time (or as little time) to view and reflect on our magnificent history as a people. As we have dedicated physical places, like Beth El’s Chapel, and Children’s Hospital’s new admittance lobby, etc., we were fortunate to be able to make similar dedications in Israel, in memory of our parents. Our sons have been to Israel, and we hope that our legacy with Israel will continue forever.
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Photos from top: Anna and Ben Wiesman visit the “Good Fence” on the IsraelLebanon Border, 1980s; Ben Wiesman makes a stop to insert a note at the Kotel -- the Western Wall; Anna and Ben Wiesman stop in front of the Menorah at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Nan C. 4911 Dodge Street Hilltop House 551-4831
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SCHWALB REALTY 551-9494 The summer of love: not 1967 -- 1938!
by MARILYN WARREN What we did that summer. Which summer? Summers seem to have been so full of memorable occasions for our family -- both of our sons were born in the summer; my late sister and two of her daughters were married in the summer. Both of our sons became Bar Mitzvah in the summer; my parents, both our children, as well as and Marty and I all took our first trips to Israel in the summer. And three of our grandchildren were born in the summer. But none of these events could Jeanne Glazer married Dave Dvorkin on have occurred July 9, 1938. were it not for what happened THAT summer -- the summer of 1938. For, on July 9, 1938, my parents, Dave Dvorkin and Jeanne Glazer, were married. Dave was born in Sioux City and Jeanne was born in Omaha. One of his older sisters lived in Omaha, and when he came to visit, he was introduced to Jeanne. They dated for the week Daddy was visiting, and a week after he returned to Sioux City, he called her and proposed. Jeanne accepted, and thus began a commuter romance of several months, culminating in Dave’s moving to Omaha and their becoming man and wife a year later. That summer also marked the last time Dave wore a
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
hat! It was very hot the evening of their wedding, and his hat was most uncomfortable. He didn’t like the hat anyway, so he tossed it out the window of the taxi at 20th and Dodge! My parents’ “tree” added branches and twigs -- two daughters, two sons-in-law, five grandchildren, five grandchildren-in-law and 12 great-grandchildren. (What pride Mother and Daddy had when we would fill an entire row at Temple!) I have very fond memories of the summers of my childhood. The couple celebrated their 65th Summer evenings anniversary in 2003. were spent on the front porch visiting with our neighbors; Sundays found us joining my parents’ friends and their families for picnics in Elmwood or Peony Park. And who can forget the pool at Peony, the evening sing-alongs, drive-in movies, and Playland Park? And how many summer evenings we spent playing outside ‘til after dark -- and not having adult supervision. But, there is no doubt that our most outstanding summers were those in which family and friends gathered from across the country to celebrate with my parents on their milestone 50th, 60th and 65th anniversaries -- all made possible because of what happened THAT summer of 1938!
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September 18, 2009
Student joins to fight Korean War, but winds up in postwar Europe
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by GLORIA SHUKERT JONES Harold Siporin related many stories about his three years spent overseas in the Air Force, from 1953-56, one of which was a 23-day tour in Israel in the summer of 1955. Siporin was born June, 10, 1932, in Omaha. His father and grandfather came over here in 1911 from Russia, and in 1913, his grandmother arrived in the United States. His grandparents had eight children, the youngest of whom was born in Omaha. His father was in the Army in WWI about 1917 or ’18. After the war, his mother came from Poland, along with other members of the family. His prophetic uncle always felt that the family was not safe in Europe, and that someday all the Jews would be killed. This was long before Hitler and the Nazi regime. The uncle was also a visionary who forsaw that the property that later
One of the MPs came up to Siporin and asked him, “Do you want to get on that bus, or do you want to go to the stockade?” Siporin realized he was in the military now and replied, “Okay -- I’m going on the bus.” The MP then told him not to worry: “Your parents will know you’re here.” They taught the new recruits how to handle guns and throw grenades as well as hand-to-hand combat, and how to handle prisoners. “A lot of folks think the Air Force doesn’t do any ground fighting,” Siporin related. “We’re trained to fight on the ground just like the Infantry.” After basic training, they sent him to Cheyenne, WY, to learn how to keep records in the office. He was allowed a 25-day furlough home before reporting to Camp Kilmer, an Army base in New Jersey, before departing for Europe. “When I left Omaha, the ground was
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In England in 1955, Harold Siporin, right, trained this group of English clerks in record keeping. Prior to being stationed outside London, Siporin served on a base near the old Roman city of Trier, in what was then West Germany.
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became Ak-Sar-Ben would someday be valuable real estate. Siporin graduated from Central in 1950. The Korean War started about that time, and he wanted to join the Marines. “I was idealistic,” he said, “I wanted to help the (South) Koreans fight for democracy, but my father, a WWI Aryy vet, told me by the time I got through basic (training), the war would be over, that the Americans would win and I’d be stuck with the enlistment. So he said, ‘Don’t go. Go to college instead.’ I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” he explained. For a few years, Siporin attended ollege at the University of Omaha. But his friends were joining the Service. He knew he could return to his university studies under the G.I. Bill; after all, he was only 20-years-old “We had friends in the Air Force. My cousin was a captain in WWII, a bombardier navigator who flew missions over Germany. He was lucky to come back alive.” An uncle was in the Marines in WWII, in the Pacific. “The Air Force also teaches you a trade, so I enlisted,” he said. “I had never been further than 60 miles away, but I went to Fort Omaha and enlisted. They gave me a physical and swore me in.” They sent Siporin and two others to California for basic training, puting him in charge. They left from the old Eppley Air Field, a small airport then. When they arrived in California, the Military Police were waiting for them with buses. “When I first got there, I wanted to let the folks know that I was okay,” Siporin recalled. “They said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘What do you mean, what am I doing? I want to tell my folks that I got here okay.’” The MPs replied, “Just get on the bus.”
covered with snow, it was windy and cold, and I was wearing a winter uniform. When I changed planes in Chicago, the weather was just like it was in Omaha,” Siporin recalled. “Then when we got to New York, it was 80 degrees and I’m walking around in a winter uniform!” His cousin lived in Long Island and Siporin stayed with him and his family overnight. He had served in the Marine Corps in WWII and told Siporin what to expect. The next morning, he took a trolley car to New York City, and arrived at Grand Central Station. From there, a train took him to Camp Kilmer across the Hudson River. “When I got there, there were 15 guys I trained with in Cheyenne. We’re all wearing uniforms, everybody was shaking hands, hugging each other and glad to be reunited,” he laughed. At Camp Kilmer, they processed Siporin and assigned him to guard prisoners in the stockade. He also had a rifle with live ammunition. He did get to New York a couple of times with his buddies for sightseeing. “On the fifth day, we got on a Navy ship headed for Europe and sailed out through the tugboats around the harbor, all ringing their bells. It took us about nine days to get to Germany. I only got seasick once,” he laughed. He asked a tech sargeant on board, “How will I get along with the Germans? I heard they don’t like Jews and I’m Jewish.” The sargeant replied, “Don’t worry about it, Harold. They won’t bother you. They’re more scared of the Russians. They need all the help they can get.” But then he pointed to Siporin and everyone else at the table and added, “But Continued on page 9
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 9
Student joins to fight Continued from page 8 being Jewish. “Nobody ever bothered me; they knew I don’t ever turn your backs on them. You can’t trust was Jewish, but they were polite,” he added. them. We fought them in two wars within 25 years. While in Germany, Siporin would go dancing. One day What they’re going to be like after the occupation, I he noticed a sign on the bulletin board announcing a don’t know. If they’re going to be peaceful, I don’t tour to Treir, about 40 miles away. An old Roman town, know. The occupation will not last forever.” Trier had about 100,000 people then and was located in After landing, Siporin and his fellow soldiers saw the French Zone, next to Luxembourg. So about 30 or Germans stacking rubble from bombed-out buildings. 40 of the men signed up for the tour. Treir was as far The men were minus an arm or leg, even an eye. north as the old Roman Empire had extended and still One of the officers asked Siporin if he knew a foreign had a number of ancient monuments. language. “I told him I speak Yiddish, not real well, but “A short, funny-looking man got on the bus, and told enough to get by on,” Siporin recalled. “And he said, ‘I us he was our tour guide. His name was Herr Bloom, think we’ve got a good place for you to work.’” and that he wasn’t going to charge us anything for the The Air Force assigned him to the main building’s tour. I thought this guy must be Jewish and probably office for requisitions where requests were made for spe- had been in a concentration camp, and that’s why he cial equipment and supplies. There, Siporin met the master sergeant and a German woman. “I asked her where she learned English, and she said in school. She lived in Estonia and when the Russians invaded Germany, she escaped and went to West Germany,” he said. The woman married and her husband was in the German army. Her father worked for a German electrical company and sold electrical supplies in Poland and Estonia. She would come to Germany two or three times a year to visit friends and relatives. Her husband was During his 1955 tour of Israel, Siporin met Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the President of Israel, center. wounded; after he got out of the hospital they put him looked so bad,” Siporin recalled. “But then he said, ‘I in training. was a captain in the German Air Force, a pilot, and was “I asked if her husband was a Nazi, and she said, ‘No. shot down by the British.’” He was captured by the Nein. He was no Nazi,’” he recalled. “Eventually we Americans and spent the rest of the war in South became friends and she invited me over to her house. I Carolina in a prison camp. “So he was no Jew, that’s for didn’t really trust her, because she asked me how I pro- sure!” Siporin added. nounced my name. I told her it was Hebrew, and meant, He showed the group the Colosseum, where the ‘bird.’ So she asked, ‘Oh, you’re Jewish?’ Roman soldiers had fed the Christians to the lions, and “Yes,” he answered. “Does it make any difference?” several other buildings that the Romans built. She said, “No. I have lots of Jewish friends here in One member of the group asked, “Hey Bloom, where Germany.” She had a girlfriend who was Jewish in did you learn to fly?” And he said, “I joined the German Estonia. “When I asked what happened to her, the Air Force and became a pilot.” He fought the woman indicated her friend’s father owned a pawn shop, Communists, too, in 1936 in Spain. His father was a first but he was a Communist, and then he disappeared, and secretary in the German Embassy in London in the ’30s, so did the girlfriend.” Siporin thought to himself, “A and Bloom went to school in England, where he learned communist who’s a businessman?” English. In Germany, he did not have any bad experiences At the end of the 40-minute tour, Bloom invited the
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group to a German beer hall as his guests. The floor was half dirt and half cement, and the place had a terrible odor. Bloom called to the waiter to bring beer for everyone, but the guys shouted, “We don’t want beer. We want schnapps, cognac, whiskey, wine.” And Bloom, seeing that he wasn’t getting anywhere with them, said to the waiter, “Give them what they want.” But the other soldiers laughed when Siporin related the story. “You mean to tell me you think he paid for the beer? He didn’t. The USO sponsored it. It’s cheap beer, and the bar owner gives him a kick-back for whatever is spent in the bar. He’s a thief!” the soldiers laughed. Siporin also went to Luxemburg. But the only girls they met were “pay for play” girls. So some of the guys told them to go to a synagogue in Luxemburg to meet some nice girls there. There was a wedding there, but by the time they arrived the wedding was over, and everybody was leaving. Instead the men visited a cemetery and saw where 5200 G.I.s were buried who had been killed in the Battle of the Bulge, as well as General Patton’s grave. Siporin wanted to go nightclubbing and see the sights. He was determined to see the real Paris. “When I got off the train from Amsterdam, I took a subway for about an hour and 45 minutes. I didn’t know where I was going, but it took me out of Paris.” He noticed from the condition of the buildings, the homes, and the way people were dressed, that this was a slum area. He was wearing civilian clothing, a blue sport jacket, a white shirt, grey pants, and a bow tie with red and white polka dots, and black shoes. There were people living in this area from the remnants of France’s empire: French Indo-China, Morocco, Algeria. Siporin was lost. He stopped a young couple with a child about five years old, but Siporin’s French consisted of only a few words. They shook their heads. “Madame, Monsieur...,” he said. They shook their heads. “So I used sign language, pointing in the direction where I thought Paris was, and added ‘Eiffel Tower -USA. Then the man said, ‘Ah, Monsieur,’ and then with his fingers representing each block, he counted six.” “I wanted to give them a dollar, four-hundred francs to a dollar to buy some ice cream or a cola for the kid,” he said. He reached into his pocket and felt something. It was a package of Wrigley’s gum. And the couple both started chanting, “Vive la American! Vive la G.I.!” “So I chanted, ‘Vive la France!’” he laughed. “The woman patted me on the shoulder and kissed me on the cheek, and I handed them the four-hundred francs, and said, ‘Buy a Hershey bar, buy a Coke.’ And I went on my way.” Continued on page 10
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September 18, 2009
Student joins to fight
Continued from page 9 When he finally got back to England, he told the story to his fellow G.I.s, and they applauded. They told him that a lot of people don’t like the American soldiers, but he said, “They were grateful.” More travels awaited him after his tour of duty in Trier was over and he was transferred to another Air Force base outside London. He spoke to Jewish G.I.s, who asked their captain to arrange for a tour to Israel. “The more I got to thinking about it, the more I wanted to go. Then I got lucky and won some money in a bingo game to pay for the tour. So I went down to a tourist agent’s office and they said that 14 days would cost $500, which would pay for the hotel, food and transportation,” Siporin recalled. “I was very impressed with the Israelis. They are a hard-working people, very nice and honest people. I had no complaints and felt very comfortable. I noticed they took a great deal of pride in doing manual labor, building roads, building structures, and building everything. In two weeks, the tour was over, but I stayed seven more days and ran out of money.” He told the owner at the hotel he couldn’t afford to stay in the room. And the owner said, “Don’t worry about it. When you get back to the base, you can send us the money. We’ll give you three meals a day, clean your clothes, and do anything else to make your stay more pleasant.” He went to the American Embassy and told the Air Force officer he had run out of money and needed $70 to pay the hotel. “So the night before I was leaving, I told the manager I wanted to pay for my extra five days. And he said it was only $40, but if I couldn’t pay it all, to pay what I could and send the rest to him,” he said. Another time I bought some stockings, and forgot them, so the clerk ran after me and gave me the stockings.” He met a woman in Israel with the name Siporin, too, but was not related to him. Siporin is a common name in Israel. It’s in the Bible. While in Israel, Siporin saw the Independence Day parade, with a number of military units. The group also met the President of Israel at the
time: Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. end of the interview, he became philosophical, and again “As I boarded a plane to go back to England, I noticed expressed concern about Israel’s future. all these teenagers with an older man and asked where While he was there, he said the Israelis spoke of the they were from,” he said. It was an Air National Guard Holocaust with much sorrow, but at that time, most of Auxiliary Unit to train these young people to be pilots. the worst atrocities had not yet been known or widely The older man was the writer of the comic strip, “Smilin’ publicized by the media, so more of the focus of the Jack Martin”. He also noticed a lot of planes on the run- Israeli population in the 1950s was on rebuilding and way. In Israel at that time, the airlines would send their developing their nation’s resources. Israel was a very planes for repairs and maintenance. young country at that time. “The Jews are praised for their nationalism. I was very Siporin emphasized his appreciation for the freedom of proud. I was amazed at the admiration people had for our country, and was proud to have served in the United the Jews, after years of persecution,” Siporin said. “I’m States Air Force. He referred to a note posted in The glad that I went to Israel, but I’m worried now, because Jewish Veteran, a national magazine that serves Jewish everybody seems to gang up on the Israelis. People who vets: An 18-year-old high school senior from Ostrander, are supposed to be our friends, turn out to be our adver- Ohio, is looking for stories and other memorabilia from military veterans. Contact: Kyle Nappi, 1890 Warren saries.” Road, Ostrander, OH He admires the 43061, or via e-mail at: Christian Zionist like knap607@yahoo.com. Pastor John Hagee, of Siporin wrote him San Antonio, who raises back: “Thought you’d be millions of dollars for interested in Lt. Cohen Israeli causes. “He is a and PhR.M.L/c Marvin true friend,” Siporin Adler. November is an insisted. important month for Siporin has lived in Jewish people. In Nov. Omaha all his life, except 1938 Jewish people were for the time spent in the beaten and killed, Jewish Air Force. He said when women were raped, he returned from the Jewish property was service, his parents and stolen and burned. This brother were sick, and he happened in Austria and took care of them. He Germany. cites that as one of the “In Nov. 1944, two reasons he never married. However, he admits to On El Al flight from the U.K. to Israel in 1955, Harold Siporin, cen- Jewish American patriots having a lot of lady ter, participated in a tour sponsored by the Jewish National Fund. were killed in combat: Lt. Irving Cohen was a bomber pilot in Europe and PR.M. friends. “I think it was a disappointment to my parents,” he L/c Adler served in the Pacific. Both of these men were concluded, “but I never really had the time to devote my from Council Bluffs, IA.” While these are old memories of long ago summers, life to a successful marriage.” Siporin could probably entertain for hours with they are still fresh in the mind of the veteran who lived accounts of his many adventures in the service. Near the them, and who also enjoys telling about them to others.
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September 18, 2009
College student spends summer in public service
by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator As part of her college scholarship, the Morehead-Cain Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Rebecca Crabb, a 2008 graduate of Westside High School, spent this past summer in a remote location in the Andes Mountains. She taught computer skills to elementary school children and their teachers. Morehead-Cain’s motto is “Lead an Extraordinary Life.” Rebecca, who became a Bat Mitzvah in 2003 at Temple Israel where her family has belonged since they moved to Omaha when Rebecca was five, was one of 11 Westside seniors asked to complete the application form for the Morehead-Cain Scholarship. The next step was a four-day interview process with 140 other candidates.
and regions, “One Laptop per Child,” supplied the computers to the schools. To get to Paucartambo in the Andes Mountains from Lima, Peru, “we took a bus for six or seven hours and then a taxi down a really windy, dangerous mountain dirt road for an hour and a half and then a different taxi 20 minutes to the camp where we stayed.” Every two weeks, Rebecca and her fellow collegians moved to another school. Although their skills with the laptops ranged from “very basic to competent,” the teachers, in Rebecca’s opinion, were good instructors. In addition, “I learned a lot and grew as a person,” according to Rebecca. “There were a lot of difficulties along the way such as trying to organize workshops with the parents and teachers and organize projects in the community,” but the
Rebecca Crabb, a student from Omaha who is attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, taught computer skills this
summer to students like these fifth graders in remote towns in the Andes Mountains.
Although Rebecca had been accepted at Amherst, Swarthmore and other schools, she “fell in love” with UNC, said Suzy Crabb, Rebecca’s mother. “When Rebecca got the scholarship, she felt it was just too special an opportunity to pass up,” remarked Suzy. Also a soccer player, Rebecca was invited to come for preseason, and she walked on to the team. At the heart of the Morehead-Cain experience is its summer enrichment program which includes four diverse opportunities for students to understand more about the world and themselves. These hands-on experiences are outdoor leadership, public service, international research, and private enterprise. “This is the give back or public service summer,” explained Suzy. She likened it to tikkun olam. Rebecca left for Peru on June 5 and returned for preseason soccer on Aug. 1. “We went to school everyday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and worked with the students and teachers during the day,” said Rebecca. “The first week we had workshops with the teachers everyday from 3 to 6 p.m. We tried to have other workshops for the rest of the trip with the teachers, but often times, nobody showed up or one or two showed up an hour late. This was difficult since we came here to help and wanted to work with the teachers. The kids learn faster, but the teachers need to learn so they can continue to teach future generations of students,” she added. Rebecca worked with children five to 12 years old. In preparation for teaching computer skills, “we had a week of training in Lima before we went to our deployment sites. We didn’t really receive that much training about the actual computer though.” However, “with the amount of time that we all spend on computers in school and at home in the States, we were all pretty capable of using the features of this basic laptop.” An initiative to bring computers to classrooms in underdeveloped countries
experience was “definitely worthwhile and meaningful. The people were very nice but did not seem to want to work extra or go out of their normal routine to take advantage of our help. We offered English classes after school when we realized the teachers were not going to come to the workshops. Our group of volunteers definitely did help the town of Paucartambo. We definitely stimulated the economy for bottled water, and we improved the use of laptops as a pedagogical tool in the classroom. Our stay in Paucartambo was cut a week short...due to swine flu cases found mainly in kids. This was unfortunate.” But it did provide time for “a little more traveling,” added Rebecca who is considering majoring in computer science and economics. She and her friends went to the market in Paucartambo “to buy fruit and meat” for a Fourth of July barbeque. “There were lots of animal parts hanging from the little booths, and it was pretty gross. We bought two whole chickens and some hot dogs.” After finding fireworks in Huallayamo, Rebecca was expecting “the Fourth of July to turn out to be pretty sweet. The lady who owns the stores closest to our camp offered to take us fishing with her. By fishing, she means wading in the water and throwing nets. I am so excited!” Rebecca wrote on her blog. On July 5, Rebecca wrote, “Last night was so fun! We cooked out on the grill, and the food was amazing.” She played four versus four soccer and “scored one goal and assisted two. We had bought big bottle rockets ... that we lit one, every time someone scored. The workers at the camp came out with a cake that they decorated like the American flag. It was amazing. The red stripes and the blue square were dyed coconut, and the border and inside filling was dulce de leche which is kind of like caramel. We had a very American night for the Fourth of July” in a village in Peru that Rebecca will never forget.
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September 18, 2009
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Part I: the Budapest connection
Omaha’s Jewish Federation forms a new partnership by JAN GOLDSTEIN Executive Director of Jewish Federation of Omaha You’ve heard me refer to our latest Partnership with Budapest -- but why Budapest? And why now? The estimated 120,000 Jews of Budapest are part of a renaissance of European Jewry happening today. We are witnessing the emergence of a third generation of postHolocaust/post-Communist era young people who are only now finding out that they are Jewish and they want to know about their roots and reclaim their Judaism. So how did this happen? Zoe Riekes, co-chair of the Budapest connection says, “The Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) approached the Dallas Federation with an idea to create a connection between Dallas and the Jewish Community of Budapest, Hungary. Gary Weinstein, the executive director of the Dallas Federation thought it was a great opportunity to involve the entire partnership consortium instead of keeping it only for Dallas. That’s when we had our first vetting mission and started planning the program. There was buy-in by all 16 communities.”
attend university or find a job. “We don’t teach them how to be Jewish, but we do give them the tools to ‘be Jewish’ in a relevant and inspired way. Our contribution to their Jewish life is to assist them in reclaiming their Jewish identity and reaching out to others who want connections to Israel and the Diaspora,” Riekes added. There are around 120,000 Jews in Budapest and only 20,000 who are in some way affiliated and so the goal is to find the other 100,000. The answer today in Hungary is the notion of ‘Judaism without walls.’ “The goal,” says Lisa Epstein, who participated in the recent trip, “is to create meeting places that are not religious and not official, so they use alternative theaters, lectures and music events. They have street festivals with music and film and poets, called JewStock and Judafest.” Siraly (pronounced Shirai), which means Seagull, is a JDC sponsored café on a main street in Budapest that
Lisa Epstein, left, Zoë Riekes, and Jan Goldstein visited Hungary as part of a Partnership Mission this summer. Amidst the global economic recession and Hungary on the verge of bankruptcy, world Jewry wants to help; 75% of the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust were from Eastern Europe. They lost their homes, families and property. Communism followed with the goal of erasing their roots. The last several years have offered new hope for reclamation of their Jewish faith and their Jewish community. “The thing about our Partnership with Israel program is that we are really progressive and so this was another notch up for us to enlarge our circle. Everybody was very excited about it,” says Riekes. The vision of the Budapest Partnership is to create a three-way connection with the Midwest consortium, the Western Galilee and Budapest, in which everyone benefits while empowering the strengths of each side, enlarging the circles of involvement, strengthening Jewish identity and increasing our fundraising capacity. In Budapest today, anti-Semitic voices, not only from the far-right, blame Jews for the current economic struggles. They use age-old anti-Semitic canards to further their nationalistic beliefs. Representatives of the rightwing Jobbik party that espouse these beliefs were recently elected to three seats in the European Union. Budapest is a microcosm of what we as North American Jews do worldwide through our overseas partners -- the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) and the JDC. These groups do the primary work of relief and social welfare, but providing assistance for rebuilding Jewish communites, particularly when they have been affected by political events and anti-Semitism, is also their mission. “When we arrived, met with the Jewish community and went to a lot of the JDC sites, we saw great possibilities of programming and connections with the people, especially with the young people,” says Riekes. “They are the ones who are trying to re-energize and revitalize the Jewish community. These kids didn’t know they were Jewish until they were 14 or 15 years old and finally got their parents and grandparents to speak about who they were. There were always little signs, they said, that didn’t make sense. Because of the Holocaust and Communism, their parents and grandparents just did not practice Judaism.” The Jewish community in Budapest has been conditioned by years of torment to resist formal affiliation with Jewish groups or synagogues. This fear emanates from the fact that for them, “belonging” equates to being deported, ending up on a “list,” and unable to
Ellie Batt joined the group as well, and is shown here against the backdrop of the Budapest skyline. has a very colorful and creative scene. The idea came from a group of young Jewish people along with a theater group that wanted to create an alternative meeting and performance space in a non-religious setting. Siraly is an example of “Judaism without walls.” It is open to the public yet schedules regular Jewish programming in its lowerlevel theater. They celebrate Jewish holidays The shoes of the Danube Memorial in innovative ways and recall the horrors of the Holocaust, provide an environand is regularly filled with flowers. ment for engaging the younger Jewish community. The result is a place where the young and hip can read, use their laptops, see a play, listen to music, or drink a beer. In doing so, they are growing an active community in learning about Judaism. What gives Siraly such conflicting energy is that within walking distance is the Shoes on the Danube memorial. Stacey Rockman, Omaha Partnership Chairman who visited Budapest says, “There is terrible anti-Semitism in Hungary. The night before we got there, someone had desecrated a Holocaust memorial (the “Shoes on the Danube” memorial). The memorial is a long line of bronze shoes in the style of the 1940s which memorialize the Hungarian Jews who fell victims to the Arrow Cross terror in the winter of 1944-45.” The Arrow Cross group had close affiliation with the Nazis and toward the end of the war Jews were collected, lined up on the banks of the Danube River and tied together. Randomly, five people were shot and tossed into the river, the weight pulled the rest of them in and they all drowned. Rockman added, “Someone had put pig’s feet into the bronze shoes.” The Budapest community responded immediately by cleaning out the muck and replacing it with flowers. This is the struggle, even today, in Budapest. Continued on page 14
September 18, 2009
Omahans love Israel!
Above: Danielle Tornkvist hikes in the Negev during a NFTY trip in high school in 1995; here she is getting ready to rapell down the cliff. Below: In the summer of 2006, Annie Rifkin, left, Amanda Ipock, and Emily Gordon traveled to Israel with the birthright israel program and had the time of their lives!
Right: Former Omahan Lt. Gal Tsabari completed her three year service in the Israel Defence Force in May, 2009, and will begin college next month at Hebrew University. in Jerusalem.
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 13
Local girl donates hair to Chai Lifeline
by JORDANA L. KURTZMAN that provides much needed help to families who are She may have had her hair cut just this summer, but it dealing with unspeakable hardships. Rachel’s mitzvah took six-year-old Rachel Kricsfeld a full year and a half demonstrates that anyone can be involved in supporting to grow out enough of it to donate to Chai Lifeline. Chai Lifeline in some way,” said Rabbi Gross. On June 4, Rachel had 12 inches of her beautiful, The mission of Chai Lifeline is to “ease the burden of wavy black hair snipped off so that children who have illness on families dealing with serious pediatric illnesslost their hair due to es,” said Melanie Kwestel, chemotherapy treatments Director of Communicacould have a sense of nortions at Chai Lifeline. malcy in their lives. “Originally, we started Rachel’s mother, assisting families with Debbie, said the idea for cancer, but then we donating her daughter’s expanded to helping hair to Chai Lifeline came those with other serious about during a trip to the debilitating illnesses such doctor’s office for her as muscular dystrophy, checkup. Going to the multiple sclerosis, cystic doctor opened up a confibrosis, familial dysauversation about children tonomia, and illnesses who get sick and how that only a handful of some children get cancer children in the world and lose their hair. share.” “Rachel asked how Chai Lifeline has a nonother children feel when Above: Beth Israel’s Rabbi Jonathan Gross makes the first cut of medical focus, providing they are sick and why they Rachel’s hair. Below: Nikki Okun, owner of Seven Salon, donated families with anything can’t save their hair her services for Rachel’s haircut. they need “to help the before they get sick. family live with hope,” That’s when we began said Kwestel. In addition talking about growing to providing wigs for chilout her hair for those dren with cancer, Chai children,” explained Lifeline provides family Debbie. respite programs, retreats, Rabbi Jonathan Gross, and four two-week sumof Beth Israel Synagogue mer camp sessions for where the Kricsfelds are children with serious illactive, cut off Rachel’s nesses. ponytail. He was very For more information happy to see someone so about donating hair, makyoung support such a ing a financial contribusupportive and compastion, or volunteering with sionate establishment. Chai Lifeline, call “Chai Lifeline is a really 1.877.CHAILIFE, ext. wonderful organization 236.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
Jewish Federation’s new partnership
Continued from page 12 Andrash is a young man, born into a family who never spoke of their Jewishness. He told the group from Omaha how growing up he had no sense of religion, but questions arose. Why does grandmother have numbers tattooed on her arm? What is this special candleholder? Why do we have relatives in Israel? Secrets became exposed. Once his parents finally told him that he was Jewish he asked, “Okay, now I’m a Jew -- what does that mean?” Andrash travelled with friends to Israel on a Jewish Agency program. After his trip, he committed to returning to Israel. He did just that, staying for four years, enlisting and serving in the IDF. He eventually returned to Budapest and became very involved in ‘Limmud’, a program organized by the JDC. ‘Limmud’ is a program that allows the group the freedom to create their own personal way of learning Judaism by engaging in lectures, culture and volunteerism. “Limmud is a gateway for Jewish life,” says Andrash. “Our last Limmud event, we had 500 people coming from all over for a kosher weekend in the countryside. It’s our Jewish Woodstock.” Maccabi is another “gateway to Jewish life.” The group heard from Joseph, a young Jewish volunteer and civic leader who helps young people prepare and participate in the Israel Maccabiah Games every four years. “It’s not only a sports organization. It is a gateway for non-affiliated young Jews to enter Jewish life -- especially here in Hungary,” says Joseph. “This is a wonderful example of developing grassroots organizations and an example of how we, through JDC are encouraging volunteerism and ownership.” Ellie Batt went to Budapest as part of Omaha’s Partnership group and noted, “What struck me is this new paradigm which has been going on. A shift from just writing checks for philanthropic purposes to having a more personal, face-to-face relationship. The renaissance of European Jewry is nothing less than breathtaking when you consider the past and all that is possible today.” Everyone was greatly touched by their experiences
with Budapest. None more so than Guy Matalon, director of the Center for Jewish Education and director of the Nate and Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at UNO. “Budapest was not easy for me. The hotel we stayed at had a plaque on the wall reminding passers-by that two Portuguese diplomats hid Jews there during WWII,” he explained. “Sitting one evening at the bar, a 68-year-old Hungarian man asked me my purpose for coming to
Aggie, the group’s guide, was born in 1964 and, very typical of her generation, had a very good secular education, but no Jewish education. She did not find out that she was Jewish until she was 19. There was no G-d in her life due to Communist censorship. Once Communist restrictions began to relax, Aggie visited relatives in America; only then did she begin to experience a feeling that she belongs to a people and they care about something. After Democratic changes began to take root, JAFI and JDC became entrenched in Hungary and sent Aggie with her peers to Israel. She returned to Hungary to begin her discovery of finding her place in the Jewish community. “We are bringing back the generation of our parents by teaching them,” she says. “We are learning to have seders to celebrate holidays and we need to continue this with our own children. We can’t leave. We must rebuild our Judaism here in Hungary. All that we started we can not and will not give up.” There are 22 synagogues open in Budapest today including a medieval synagogue from the 13th century, the huge Dohany Synagogue, built in 1932, that Left: Front entrance of the restored Dohany can seat up to 4000 -- and the tiny synaSynagogue in Budapest. Above: Stacey gogue often referred to as the smallest synRockman, Omaha Partnership Chairman, agogue. With all these places for Judaism meets Michael Novick, JDC Executive to thrive, we may be surprised to know Director for Strategic Development. Below: a that they are mostly empty. view of Buda and Pest, separated by the “The synagogues are empty today Danube River. because of the fear from both the Holocaust and Communism,” Epstein added. “People are afraid to put their name on any list identifying them as Jewish because that is what got many of their relatives and families transported to Auschwitz and later barred from employment and educational opportunities under Communism. Many in the younger generation are just discovering their Jewish roots. It is this younger generation saying that they are not afraid to be Jewish and through them they are bringing their parents’ generation back to Judaism.” The Jewish community is always striving to develop and build Jewish identity. This is the goal, too, in Budapest. In Omaha, Jewish community is built through the Federation, its agencies, the synagogues, Friedel Budapest, and I told him I was here with the Jewish Jewish Academy and other Jewish organizations. Agency. He proceeded to break down and cry as he We all know the challenges. By comparison, the chalshared his experience in the Holocaust. He told me that lenges faced by the Jews of Budapest are much greater. he never spoke about it before. This conversation made Knowing that our contribution is helping them build me understand how complicated Jewish life in Hungary Jewish identity is significant and it makes us much more is today.” eager to keep building on this initial success.
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September 18, 2009
A minority among minorities
by MENDY HECHT Thoughtful, cool, almost cerebral, Yosef Abrahamson is not your average Crown Heights Brooklyn Lubavitcher Chasidic Orthodox Jewish black teen Republican from Omaha, Nebraska. Then again, the 17-year-old two-time winner of the NYPD’s “Commissioner for a Day” essay contest is not exactly average anything, either. Born in Omaha into an unbroken matrilineal line descended from German Jewish immigrants and raised by his devoted mom, long-time Nebraska GOP activist and national delegate, Dinah Abrahamson, along with older sister Sarah, Yosef grew up in the Cornhusker State’s Republican Party. In the state’s GOP, Yosef joined his mother in hobnobbing with such heavyweights as Hal Daub, Mike Johanns, Lee Terry and later, George W. Bush, over a lifetime of political activism.
Yossi Abrahamson, who was a page at last summer’s Republican Convention in Minnesota, is a yeshiva student in New York; his sister Sarah (in background, who was a page five years ago), is now a teacher.
Hip-Hop Republican sat down with this unusual, unique young black Jew for a stimulating interview on life as a minority among minorities -- and for his views on his own future and that of his party. Hip-Hop Republican: Who is Yosef Abrahamson? What drives him? Yosef Abrahamson: Well, in what aspect of life do you mean? Of course, here [in yeshivah high school in Crown Heights] what drives me is wanting to grow more in learning and Torah, and in the political sense, just wanting to see what’s going on and having a part in the direction the world is taking. So you want to put down political roots here? Right. Do you see yourself running for City Council or Mayor in New York eventually? I don’t know about New York, but … I don’t know. The actually running thing is very difficult for me to wrap my mind around even though I love being a part of helping the right candidate get into office, but I’m not sure if I would 100% want to actually be a politician; for now I’m just content watching and helping as best I can these great people shape the country. Why do people equate conservatives with Republicans? Probably because Republicans and conservatives do have a lot of the same interests at heart, but [from] a Democratic standpoint I could see it as someone who is a potential opponent for them, and worldwide I think it’s just because they do share a lot of the same values. So what would you say to the conservative Democrat?
To the conservative Democrat I would say… [pauses to think]… what do you mean, exactly? Like here in Crown Heights, a lot of people are registered Democrats but are the same as you religious-wise, conservativewise, values-wise -- what’s the Republican message to them? More or less, probably, “Look at the issues 100% and look at each person that’s running and don’t just judge by ‘Democrat,’ ‘Republican’ -- continue having that conservative outlook. And that’s how you have to vote and those are the people you have to support: the people who have the same outlook as you, not just the same political affiliation. Recently one of the Young Republican movements had some controversy you may be aware of … so again, the problem has risen again of the stereotype of the Republican Party being the racist good ol’ boy party. How does the GOP shake that stereotype? [Thinks] Being more, probably, open and honest about our message… and getting it out there. Just being honest with the people. I mean, we have to work very hard to change that, the thinking that the GOP is just a bunch of the old boys just keeping it the same and not changing anything, being against more people of color and that kind of thing, which is 100% not true! But that’s the thinking that’s in the world right now and we have to just be honest with our message and show what we’re really supposed to be. You won a NYPD essay award for the second consecutive year. What did you do right that the other contestants didn’t? I don’t know so much what they did. I tried my best just to focus on what I wanted in there, my message … I think writing is my true calling, hopefully … I did a lot of research and tried to put my thoughts into words, and thankfully, it came out good. So you think the Police Dept. found what they were looking for in your ideas? I hope so. I think that the ideas I put out there were good, and I hope that they decide to implement them; I think they could really help change some things around here and get the public back on the police’s side. There’s a lot of negative stuff, negative thoughts about the police here … and I hope that by implementing [my essay’s ideas, it will] make the streets a lot safer here for innocent people but also, give them a lot more faith in the NYPD. Why this contest of all things? Why not any other literary contest? Because I thought it would really make a difference to write there and it really kind of struck a chord when it was presented to me to write for this contest, and I honestly, as I said before, had some ideas there that could really help, and it was just about doing something important. So you always had an interest in improving the relationship between the public and law enforcement? More or less. When I first came here … it was really an opportunity to help the community here. You had mentioned writing before. Do you see yourself becoming a journalist? Not exactly a journalist. I like writing more fiction-based things, but writing in general I find as a way to put things that are inside you -- feelings, thoughts -- into words and express them, and I think that’s really almost one of the more freeest [sic] jobs you can have. Continued on page 17
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September 18, 2009
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High school graduation, wedding coincide with Israeli history
explained. by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Two of those “kids,” Communications Coordinator Marcia Zimmerman and Steve Leder, became rabbis It wasn’t your typical high and remain friends of the school graduation. In fact, Azriels. Rabbi Zimmerman “It was a horrific time for of Temple Israel in me,” recalled Rabbi Aryeh Minneapolis, laughed as Azriel. It was June 1967, the she remembered how summer of the Six-Day War Rabbi Azriel “got us lost in between the Israel Army and the Golan Heights, and the the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Israeli Army had to get us and Syria. “It was almost out. He thought he knew like a siege before the war the way out but not in the started. We took the matricdark! Israel had just gotten ulation exams, but really, the Golan Heights,” she our heads were not into recalled. those exams.” She remembers Rabbi Living in the city of Bat Azriel telling the kids, Yam with his family, Azriel, “‘You can only complain who has been rabbi of and sleep in the United Temple Israel since 1988, States -- not in Israel!’ It was mobilized along with was a very fun trip,” she his graduating class to paint admitted. “I have told it the headlights of cars blue many times. It’s a badge of and black for camouflage. honor.” The high school students Rabbi Leder of Wilshire also cut black construction paper and sealed all the win- Rabbi Aryeh Azriel, left, who as a college student, was among Boulevard Temple in Los dows in the city or delivered those who disagreed with then-Prime Minister Golda Meir, at Angeles, agreed. “It was the paper to families to right in the back, and was invited for a conversation with her. mostly riotous fun! I knew cover windows in their The young Azriel also spoke to the head of the Zionist Labor both Aryeh and Elyce from Movement, right front. OSRUI. Mostly, it was homes. “We filled sand bags and put them at the entrances of jokes and fun.” It was supposed to be a day hike,” said apartment buildings,” added Rabbi Azriel. He also Leder who was 16 that summer. “We didn’t get out of the Golan before nightfall. We cleaned basements to be used as shelters. In their white and blue school uniforms, “we felt like couldn’t move. This was before cell phone and GPSes. policemen,” he said. “There was so much anticipation, And it wasn’t an entirely safe area,” he said. “PLO terfear, trepidation, anxiety, and then in six days it was rorists occasionally were sneaking in over the border over. Thank God. Then we had the graduation. Some from Lebanon.” But Rabbi Leder was impressed with Aryeh whose leg kids, who were 18, didn’t attend. They were already was affected by polio when he was a child. “It was an mobilized.” Rabbi Azriel pointed out that, “My political views incredible thing for him to do -- pushing and dragging have definitely been shaped by that experience. In ret- himself. I remember his amazing perseverance and rospect, I definitely enjoyed being part of the eupho- determination.” That wasn’t the only rescue that summer. On June 27, ria,” when he was a student at Tel Aviv University Air France Flight 139, originating from Tel Aviv, carrystudying geography and Bible. “There was nothing in my mind to be a rabbi” at that ing 238 passengers and a crew of 12, took off from time. He considered being a teacher but was intent on Athens, heading for Paris. Soon after the 12:30 p.m. takeoff, the flight was being politically involved. He joined a group that tried to ensure that the fruits of the war would not be an hijacked by two Palestinians from the Popular Front for impediment to making peace with the Arabs. He was the Liberation of Palestine and two Germans from the among the students carrying empty caskets in front of Revolutionary Cells. The hijackers diverted the flight to then Prime Minister Golda Meir’s house to protest the Libya where it was held on the ground for seven hours failure of achieving peace. “We’re still paying the price for refueling. From there, it left for Entebbe Airport in Uganda today,” he said. Nine summers later, Rabbi Azriel again found himself where the hijackers were joined by four more. They living alongside the headlines as he took his bride, Elyce demanded the release of 40 Palestinians held in Israel Azriel, to Israel to meet his parents. They had been mar- plus 13 other detainees in other countries. They threatried June 6, 1976, at Beth Tikaveh in Hoffman Estates, ened to begin killing the hostages on July 1 if these demands were not met. IL, by Elyce’s childhood rabbi, Hillel Gamoran. Deliberately sorting the hostages into Jews and genThe Azriels had first met in 1974 at Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute (OSRUI), a Reform summer camp in tiles, the hijackers held them for a week in the transit Wisconsin. He was a shaliach in Chicago Reform syna- hall of the airport. Some hostages were released, but 83 gogues, working in the northern suburbs with youth Israelis and French Jews remained captive as well as 20 and at the Hillel at Northwestern University. Elyce was others most of whom were the Air France crew who pursuing a joint degree in Jewish studies from the refused to leave with the released passengers. University of Illinois Circle and Spertus College. After negotiating a July 4 deadline with the hijackers, Rabbi Azriel was a counselor in the summer of 1974 the Israeli cabinet approved Operation Entebbe. Four at OSRUI. Elyce’s brother, Phil, was one of Aryeh’s Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft flew campers. Elyce and her parents came to visit Phil and secretly to Entebbe under cover of night without took his young counselor out to dinner with the family. ground control. They flew no more than 100 feet above “I knew 30 seconds into dinner, I was going to marry ground to avoid radar detection. Elyce,” Aryeh insisted. Landing at Entebbe an hour before midnight, with At the time, he was living with Gary Zola and Don their cargo bay doors already open, the Israeli assault Rosoff with whom Elyce had grown up. Both became team drove quickly to the airport terminal. The Israelis rabbis, but that summer, they were encouraging Elyce sprang from their vehicles and burst towards the termito go out with their Israeli friend Aryeh. After a year nal. and a half of dating, “He kind of grew on me,” Elyce During a brief but intense moment, a Ugandan sniper smiled. in the airport control tower shot and killed Commander “My parents didn’t come to the wedding,” Rabbi Yonatan Netanyahu. He was the only Israeli commando Azriel continued. “The only way to get to Israel to meet killed in the operation. them was to take 60 NFTY kids on a trip to Israel,” he Continued on page 17
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 17
Israeli history
A minority among minorities
Continued from page 16 rescue on the speaker. Oh my God! There The hostages were in the main hall of was great joy. People came out from the the airport building, directly adjacent to the runway. Upon entering the terminal, the commandos shouted in Hebrew and English through a megaphone, “Stay down! Stay down! We are Israeli soldiers.” Commandos threw several hand grenades into a closet where the passengers indicated the hijackers were hiding. After the raid, the Israeli assault team returned to their aircraft On their wedding day in 1976, rabbi-to-be Aryeh and Elyce Azriel and began loading the signed their ketubah with Rabbi Hellel Gamoran officiating. hostages on board while Ugandan sol- kibbutz to the pool. It was the Fourth of diers shot at them. The Israeli comman- July -- freedom! There was dancing in the dos returned fire, killing many Ugandan social hall.” Many of the soldiers who parsoldiers. The Israelis finished the loading ticipated in the rescue had grown up on of hostages and Netanyahu’s body and Kibbutz Galed which threw “a massive then left Entebbe Airport. (One hostage, celebration” when they returned. a Jewish woman who had been taken to “We were very sad about Yonatan the hospital in Uganda, had to be left Netanyahu, and it was hard for the kids to behind; she brought to four the number understand. There was lots of talk on of hostages killed.) what should be the price of freedom. We The entire operation lasted 53 minutes used every moment as a teachable -- of which the assault lasted only 30 min- moment. The rest of the trip was imbued utes. All eight hijackers were killed. At with the Entebbe rescue. In fact, it least five other Israeli commandos were became experiential later when we were wounded. Out of the 105 hostages, three lost in the Golan Heights,” he recalled. were killed and approximately 10 were “The kids felt the Fourth of July even wounded. more there in Israel than here in the “We were at a pool at Kibbutz Galed U.S.,” said Rabbi Azriel. As they listened with all the kids,” recalled Rabbi Azriel. to the news of the hijacking, the rescue, “A barbeque was set up. It had been non- and the reaction of the country, “many of stop worrying as we listened on the them grew up that memorable summer in speaker system. We heard the news of the Israel.”
What are the unique challenges of being “How can you be Jewish and darka black Orthodox Jewish Republican skinned?” Is that black or Jewish? teenager? More black people, ‘cause they see me People ask questions, and I guess some people don’t think that if you’re dark- with my [traditional Chasidic] black hat skinned now in this era that you should and jacket, but I just explain to them the support someone that’s not black, let’s background and more or less, they get it. say, as in President Obama as president: What sort of future do you envision for we were strongly for McCain. So I guess the Republican Party? that sorta had people kinda strung the Hopefully we can get all the stormy wrong way but really, you have to look at weather clear and we can go back to the issues and what each candidate stands being the dominant party, because the for, and that’s the most important thing. Republican Party really has the best ethics Skin color shouldn’t have anything to do and values of anyone out there right now. with that. And as for [being] Jewish, of We just have to reestablish that and come course you have to look at our heritage as back stronger, which I think we’ll do in Jews and the message that we stand for as the coming years once we see that the Chasids [sic] and have to incorporate that other side’s ideas aren’t working, as is being shown right now. into who should lead the It’s just not working. And country and so on and so our ideas work. forth. How do you get the mesWhat would be the sage out that the biggest stereotype you’ve helped shatter, then? [Democratic] ideas don’t Hmmm …. I’m guesswork? Because the majority ing that “someone darkof America wouldn’t really skinned can’t be Jewish.” agree with that. I was born Jewish, my It’s starting to show now, subtle things are mother’s line straight showing that some of the directly through, and ideas the Democrats have complexion shouldn’t aren’t clicking with the have anything to do with country. This recession is that … That’s probably not getting any better the biggest stereotype Yossi Abrahamson right now. We have to put that I’m hoping has been forth the ideas and show that our message shattered and continues to be shattered. So from whom are you getting it worse? is the stronger one, and that’s how From Jewish people who never saw a black Republicans get back into the position of Jew, or blacks who never saw a black Jew? leading this country. It’s really been not so in your face as This piece is reprinted courtesy of Hip people would have you think. People do Hop Republican Blog -- http://hiphooccasionally come and ask questions, prepublican.blogspot.com/.
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Page 18
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
A father “instills grit” in this former Omahan by GARY JAVITCH To do that, Jeffrey started the United “When I was growing up, my father States “Adopt a Battalion” program for taught me that there was no such thing as Friends of the IDF. The requirement for ‘can’t.’ He (Stanley) and my Uncle Ted participation in that program is a dona(Seldin) instilled that in me and the idea tion of $75,000, contributed over a three-year term. The entire program will to be the best.” Part of that mindset includes having raise about $10 million in that time peri“grit” (pluck and stick-to-it-ive-ness). od. With more than 130 soldiers in each “Anybody can have it,” Jeff Silverman stated. “It doesn’t matter your intellectu- battalion, the money raised will cover a al level; you can accomplish anything you wide variety of programs the Israeli govbelieve in,” he observed during a phone ernment cannot afford. Torchman added, “The program sponinterview from Chicago last month. The determination that made him a sors unit fun and sports days and other wealthy commodities trader in Chicago recreation needs, like the events marking also came with a desire to help others. the end of professional training. Other Toward that end, the former Omahan uses of the money include honoring outand Central High School graduate has standing soldiers and celebrating major devoted a great deal of time, energy and High Holy days. money to helping Israel. Indeed, for his energetic and philanthropic work on behalf of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), the Central Regional office (Chicago) announcement during the summer that it would hold a major dinner “celebrating Israel’s soldiers and honoring Jeffrey Silverman,” according to the invitation for the gala Oct. 21 event. At the celebratory dinner, Jeffrey will receive the 2009 Yonatan Netanyahu Memorial Award, Left: Jeffrey SIlverman talks to Major General Amos Yadlin recognizing him for his about what IDF troops need. Right: Israeli tank hero Avigdor extraordinary leadership Kahalani Brig. General (Ret.), second from left, and best selling “The program’s goal is to support the and advocacy on behalf of Israel’s soldiers, according to Adina Y. Torchman, IDF soldiers who operate daily to protect FIDF Executive Director for the Central Israel’s borders while at the same time risking their lives and enduring tremenRegion. (Yonatan Netanyahu, the late brother dous stress.” Today’s success, however, did not come of the current prime minister, died on July 4, 1976 while commanding the easily. Just three years ago, the Adopt a heroic and successful mission to save Battalion program was floundering, and Israeli hostages in Entebbe, Uganda after there was little money in the treasury for it. their plane was hijacked by terrorists.) The realization of Silverman’s effort in To help honor him, he will be surrounded by family and friends, present the Adopt a Battalion program is a testaand past top executives from the Chicago ment to his gritty pursuit of a worthy Board Options Exchange and the philanthropic goal. This is the backChicago Mercantile exchange, the venues ground: about three years ago at a dinner meeting in Israel with several top generin which he worked. In a focused discussion about that als, Silverman was briefed on the objecupcoming tribute, Silverman, 63, spoke tives and mechanics of the program, about his support of Israel, the dinner which originated in Israel, but was not doing well. and his work ethic. An MIT engineer with a degree in manFriends of the IDF The goal of “Friends” is straightfor- agement, Jeff became energized by the ward and exemplified in their motto: problem and the challenge. “Their job is to look after Israel...Ours is He redesigned the program to make it to look after them!” more “user friendly” for 18-year olds
going to do after college?’” Jeff was unsure of the answer to that question. But as a problem-solver, he came up with a plan. “I thought I would look at how other people lived their lives. So I began to read a bunch of biographies in a quest to figure out my career plans. “After a while, I got tired of reading biographies in a random order. That’s when I started again at the beginning of the alphabet with the letter ‘A.’ I got all the way to Bernard Baruch, a financier, arbitrageur and advisor to Presidents when I decided that something in finance would be my life’s calling. Jeffrey did well as a student, too. He had an incentive. His Dad and he both went to Central High. By chance he found his dad’s report cards stored in a chest of drawers. “I took similar courses and I saw his grades. I knew I couldn’t get criticized if I beat him. So I worked harder!” Jeff commented. “After graduating from MIT, I worked for a securities firm in Boston. Out of that an opportunity developed to work with a Chicago firm attached to a commodity exchange. I ended up getting involved in cash markets and livestock,” he explained. “My former finance professor at MIT was a pork belly trader. I handled author and hero of the ’73 war during which four tanks stopped some of his business. 600 Syrian tanks, welcomes H. Scott, Jeffrey and Lance That’s when I decided to Silverman to Israel during a Friends of the IDF mission. specialize in cattle and hogs. It all seemed like a zero sum game: America. With a better “product” to sell, the full the market distributes wealth from dumbcomplement of 120 battalions got adopt- er to smarter players.” ed. With that achievement, the program He added, “I wanted to be a smarter expanded to include police battalions, player. And as my dad taught me, I wanttoo. ed to be the best and know the most.” Backing up his efforts and talk, Jeffrey As a trader, Jeff is always viewing the currently supports four battalions in world a little differently than conventionIsrael. In addition, he has established al wisdom would suggest. He is known to say, “Sometimes you make money, and numerous mobile gyms. The mobile gyms make a difference to other times you contribute to liquidity.” However, by all measures, Jeff did Israeli sailors on the open sea, where it’s hard to keep “fighting trim” aboard the extraordinarily well as a commodity tradconfined space of a ship. As one soldier er. In 2005, he took a different track, and quoted by FIDF said, “If you’re not in along with his youngest son, Scott, 34, shape, you’re not alert -- and that is criti- the pair co-founded Agman Partners, a cal for what we do.” private, family firm to diversify their Making a fortune extensive holdings. “As a 12 year old boy attending (Jeff has two sons: Scott who has a docDundee Elementary School and while torate from Oxford University and Lance, studying for my Bar Mitzvah,” Jeff 38, a MD, specializing in feet and ankle recalled, “I made my career plans by read- care.) ing biographies in response to the persistJeff gets back to Omaha three to four ent questioning of my Uncle Ted. He fre- times a year. His parents, Stanley and quently asked me, ‘Jeffrey, what are you Continued on page 23 away from home and living in conditions that were not the greatest. To raise funds, he introduced a successful competition between American and Israeli companies, and he dramatically improved the components of the program. Among many other of its facets, he opened opportunities to strengthen the bonds between unit members and commanders and gave the battalion leaders the opportunity to disburse funds to soldiers in urgent situations to get back home. He also included a component for which he had been a big advocate: providing career counseling and guidance for the individual soldiers by supplying each base’s library with biographical books of successful Jews in both Israel and
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 19
A teen sees Europe through a Jewish lens by ROCHI KATZMAN In the summer of 2007, I had the opportunity to travel through Europe with a group of Jewish teenage girls from Austria, Israel, France, Sweden, Ukraine, Belgium, Germany and America. It was extremely uplifting to be with so many girls who are active in their local Jewish communities. One of the most impressive stops was at the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp, which claimed the lives of millions of Jews through cremation or other horrific tortures during the Holocaust. As we arrived at “The place at which the unthinkable occurred,� the first things I noticed were the green succulent grass and the strong towering trees. Images flooded my mind as I thought of the many frightened individuals who stood previously in the shadow of death awaiting their fate. Here I stood -- on this hallowed earth as a spectator, a mere tourist, traversing with abandon the very same paths which they traveled with terror and fear.
Rochi Katzman, daughter of Rabbi Mendel and Shani Katzman, and her friends stand in front of the infamous sign at Auschwitz: “Work makes you free.� My soul ached for this spilled innocent blood, the very blood which fertilized the greenery surrounding the camp. My entire being filled with pain just looking at the picturesque scene which belies any hint of the diabolic acts that were perpetrated here just six decades previously. Nature itself was hiding a terrible secret, the secret that was able to end the lives of millions. Nature was thriving. Fresh. Gorgeous. Green. Bright. How could the saplings that watched the smoke of the crematoriums rise and cloud the skies now evolve and become stunning foliage? How could this place, now idyllic and serene, been borne as life was being zapped and humans shrivelling and dying. I expected to see destruction and ruins. Instead I found the so-called beauty of nature. Is this a world that punishes the innocent and rewards the culpable? Where is justice? I grappled with these questions for many months. Who will bear witness to the horrors of the Holocaust, I thought to myself, if “The Place� itself denies it? The survivors rarely are able to recount their stories because of its inexorable pain. Trauma is always difficult to retell. This factor is exponentially greater in relation to Holocaust survivors. The suffering they endured: hunger, ghetto life, loss of loved ones, excruciating pain -- multiple experiences crammed into such a short span of time. Additionally, as nature has it, survivors pass on with their memories. How can the world be assured that those who perished will not be forgotten? Nature, I felt must be a remembrance to those who were mercilessly sent to their deaths. Yet, the opposite is reality; a place where millions were sent to their deaths is now a place where people visit, just like a regular museum. Is this the way to show honor to those who were denied basic decency to the furthest degree imaginable? My reaction to what I witnessed in the camp was an inner desire to disrupt the peace, the injustice. For months I explored the meaning of the beauty in and around “The Place.� At a certain point, ideas began to crystallize. I started to feel perhaps that there was a purpose to the loveliness and attractiveness there. My initial feelings of nausea, hate and disgust turned into a feeling of hope. It seemed as though G-d was whispering a message to me. It was the message of hope, the message of life, the message of revival. It was as if G-d was showing me that just as nature blossoms out of the mud, I need to rebuild what was. It was as though He was granting me the tools to build the most magnificent structure of creation. It was as though G-d was telling me, “I don’t want to regret allowing this immeasurable destruction, for the Continued on page 23
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Page 20
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
Former Omahan weathers the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
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by GLORIA SHUKERT JONES briefly-opened, and then quickly-closed acute care facilHurricane Katrina, one of the costliest and deadliest of ity, in her new position as Director of Rehabilitation. On Atlantic hurricanes, hit the coast of New Orleans, Tuesday, after the hurricane hit, she drove up with a Louisiana in August of 2005. As the storm whirled its patient. Her director of nurses took two other patients, ominous path toward that city, thousands of people and they were accepted at the Healthsouth facility in were evacuating their homes, not knowing for certain if Alexandria. they would have a home to come back to. If the storm “Becca was offered a job on the spot, accepted, and did not destroy everything, surely the flood waters was given an unused pediatric diagnostic room at the would, and there was reasonable fear that the levees hospital to live in,” Newman added. “We found out would not hold. Becca was working at the hospital when the rabbi told Former Omahan Judy Newman and her husband, us he met our daughter while he was making routine Jerry were one of the couples who sought higher and calls to the sick at the hospital! I guess the newcomer dryer shelter in the nearby town of Pineville. was easy to spot.” The following story was contributed by Newman in a When they finally met up with Becca, she chided her written account, and through a personal interview. parents for not reading the text messages she had sent, “As Katrina came near, telling us she was okay, we were lucky to have and in Alexandria. made a reservation the (“I’m embarrassed to day before we left. It was admit that I still don’t just for one night, as that know how to text,” Judy was all there was available added.) in Pineville, a town just She started a teaching north of Alexandria. We job, and was quickly in thought that would be all possession of donated we’d need, as we could teaching supplies and then begin to head south transportation to the after that and come home office whenever I needed in a few days. Therefore, it. She and Jerry were we took the reservation sharing a car, so Judy was and drove through the specifically placed in two night to Pineville on schools within walking Saturday,” she explained. distance of one another. When they awoke on “It felt very strange to Sunday, people were still be on the receiving end of evacuating. The couple so much kindness from was able to secure a resertotal strangers. It was a vation for two nights in relief to be able to help Alexandria, all they had. out when I went to the By Monday, they knew it civic center with ladies was going to be a while from the Temple before they could return. Isaac Leider, a volunteer from ZAKA, the Israeli rescue service, Sisterhood to help out “We went into town removes the Torah to safety from a flooded synagogue in New and deliver some things and began to search for a Orleans on Sept. 13, 2005. ZAKA joined other volunteers to aid the they had procured for the place to stay. Alex, as the National Guard soldiers in rescuing seven Torah scrolls, though evacuees,” she admitted. locals called it, was a good none were salvagable. The recovery effort was partially funded by “It also felt good place for me to be, as I Agudath Israel of America. when at a meeting of the Credit: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images speech could apply for a tempotherapists, a rary position as a speech/language pathologist in the child’s name came up and they asked if anyone knew schools, a position I hold in Jefferson Parish,” she said. anything about this child. You must know that kids were “Having had the foresight to bring my teaching cre- coming in from down south, and they didn’t have evaldentials as part of our evacuation kit, and a few changes uations, individual educational plans or forwarded foldof uniform (beige pants and navy shirt), I applied for a ers,” she explained. job, and my husband started to look for a place to stay. “As it was, I had worked with this child for a time in We were at the newspaper office, and someone there my school in Avondale, and was able to give them some told him about Rabbi Arnold Task.” input. I really felt good having been able to contribute When Judy met up with her husband, they went to see to a meeting when I was such a newcomer.” the busy rabbi. “While I was struggling to hold back After all, they had given her things she would need for tears, he was busy getting us coffee, reassuring us and her room, she noted, “as well as a skirt and cooler that making calls. In short order, we had a place to stay with my new friend, Jackie, said I just had to have. I was told a lovely family, two doctors who met with us that that I was really needed to work with the expanded case evening, welcomed us as if we were cousins, and gave us load, and I was thankful to have the work. Going to a key to the house with instructions to help ourselves work at a school everyday was a routine I was familiar and make ourselves at home.” with, and it became a brief area of stability until I was The following evening, they found themselves at the called back to work in Jefferson on Sept. 21.” home of more new friends, who just happened to have The school district was ready for teachers on Sept. 22, some clothing being collected for the Temple’s nearly- and students would be coming on Oct. 3. Judy had to new sale; she was given several articles of apparel. resign, giving only a day’s notice, and she went back to “They said I might enjoy wearing them, instead of my her regular school on Sept. 23, 2005. uniform, to a celebration at the Temple. I was even Coming home to a house in need of rehab created yet coerced into taking a pair of waterproof sandals that another problem, but going right to work led to a conwere a half size too big, ‘because you might need them versation with a school bus driver. when you go home and find a bit of water in your “She gracously offered us a room for as long as we house,’ as one of my new friends told me,” Newman needed it. I was so grateful. We ate, slept and did launcontinued. dry there, until we were able to go back to our uncarHer husband met a man at a previously scheduled peted, unwalled, but still liveable home until the FEMA insurance meeting, and offered to share his space. He trailer came,” Newman said. “Again, I had to thank had planned to vacate at the end of the month. Uncle Sam, not only for the food stamps card we used However, anticipating Jerry’s arrival, told him he could in Alex, or the MREs and the trailer, but also because stay there and use the time to get a new office ready. The the Air Force gave my son emergency leave from Iraq to businessman took his phone, but left Jerry with a fully- come home and help us begin the process of gutting the equipped office with copier, fax and refrigerator. “And house so we could make repairs.” he gave us the use of four dehumidifiers to use when we However, the Air Force then decided to send him got home. It was to be a joyous occasion when we could back to his base in Boston, and then to South Korea. return them, as that would mean the house was suffi- But not before he was able to join his parents in ciently dry, and we could begin repairs,” she said. Monroe, LA, where they all were guests, courtesy of The cell phone system in Alexandria wasn’t working friends of the Chabad community, for Rosh Hashanah very well, and they couldn’t reach their daughter who services. had stayed in New Orleans with her patients at the Continued on page 21
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 21
Former Omahan weathers Katrina
Continued from page 20 Jerry was born in “The whole Katrina expeBrooklyn, New York, son rience turned many from of Mano and Regina givers to receivers, and Newman, born in helpers while being helped. Romania and Hungary, It afforded us the opportunirespectively. ty to meet ‘family’ we never The Newmans have two children. Their son, knew we had, and to thank Manny, was an Air Force G-d for what we had, what Captain who was honorwe got, and what we could ably discharged on Aug. give,” she added. “I am still 5. He was married Aug. 6 encouraged that people from to Karen Krakow, a conall over want to help others sulate for the Canadian in need. I still remember the Embassy in Camaroon, cleaning and cooking packAfrica, where the couple ages from people of Saudi is now residing. Arabia, and also the Daughter Becca is a Mormon Church.” physical therapist and an Newman was born and athlete. She just won First raised in Omaha. Her parOverall Women in a ents were Gary and Rose Judy Newman visited Omaha during summer of 2009. Sherman. After she and Jerry married, they lived for a short-course triathalon. She is on the Team USA and will short time in the Millard area. Then they moved to compete with the team in Australia in October. She has Sioux City, and Sergeant Bluff in Iowa, and later to competed with the same team in Sweden and Denmark, Sedalia, MO. Finally, they settled in Metairie, a suburb and also competes in bike races and duathalons. She is married to a civil engineer, Guy Bradley, who of New Orleans, where they are still making their home.
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reads Torah and sings in two synagogue choirs, one all men, and the other mixed. They met in the triathalons and are now living in Texas. This was not the only time the Newmans were flooded as the result of a hurricane. Several years prior to Katrina, they experienced almost the same situation from Hurricane Georges. Now that the hurricane season is approaching once again, and the Newmans have twice repaired damage to their home, I asked Newman if she planned to continue living in the New Orleans area. She indicated she would probably remain until she retires in 2014 from her teaching position. Even though her children seem to be world travelers, Newman would have to be a jet-setter to keep pace with them. But she does hope to eventually move to Dallas, TX, where she can be closer to Becca and Guy. Once they start a family, they may stay home more often, and hopefully Manny and Karen will be able to visit occasionally, too. Despite living in a place where hurricanes are an almost constant threat, the Newmans seem to enjoy the New Orleans area for its local color. It is an interesting city that draws a lot of tourist trade, and this summer, was the site of several conventions. So they try to view the positives, and hopefully will never again have a repeat of what they did THAT summer in 2005.
Photos from top left: playwright Karen Sokolof Javitch, left, singer Eric Crouch, choreographer Judy Farber, and performer Stan Widman rehearse for the July 2000 Alzheimer’s benefit performance of Javitch’s musical, “Surprise”; JCC executive director Jeff Aizenberg, left, donor Phil Sokolof and fundraising co-chairman Tom Fellman inspect the Sokolof Fitness Center, June of 1999; IDF soldiers raise the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount, June 7, 1967; On Sept. 7, 1978, President Anwar Sadt, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin came to Camp David with President Jimmy Carter; BBYOers on the roof -- Alex Raksin, left, Nathan Fineman, Robert Mosenkis, and Erin and Brad Abramson, standing -- volunteer at a Paint-a-thon in 2002.
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Page 22
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
All-Stater’s five RBI’s kept Westside alive in regional finals
by GARY JAVITCH “Super State” player. In Ironically, Jory might not even have played his last seaIt was Jory Goldstrom’s addition, Collegiate Baseball son of baseball. A two-sport athlete and winner of six two home runs and a sinMagazine’s list of top varsity letters, he injured his ankle severely during footNebraska High School base- ball in the fall. It healed in time for the start of baseball gle that propelled his ball players included Jory in in March, however. summer legion baseball both 2008 and 2009. team to the regional tourLife for a student athlete is not easy. “I really did not How did he do it? Work. have time for other extra-curricular activities. I devoted naments. And at the Jewish Press deadline, the myself to baseball/footthird base “All Stater” for ball -- they are very timeKB Building Services consuming,” Jory said. (The Westside High By the end of his junior School [WHS] American year, while achieving sucLegion Team) continued cess, Jory recognized he to fire up his ball club by was not at the level he knocking in five runs in a needed to be with his 13-7 victory over their glove. Minnetonka, Minnesota “My defense wasn’t the hosts. best and I wasn’t getting a At 2-1 in their quest to good jump on the ball. At make it to the American third base, you get a lot of Legion World Series, KB hard-hit line drives. I had was counting on their 5’ to make plays where I 10,” 170 lb. teammate to have to range to left and help mow down the right. You have to time it opposition. just right,” he said. “A lot of times the way “So I practiced on Jory goes, that’s how our ground balls; I worked a whole team goes,’’ KB Westside grad Jory Goldstrom proudly holds the State Baseball The Goldstrom family: Carol, Jory, Ben and Larry celebrate the lot with coach Greco on win at Lincoln’s Haymarkat Park. coach Bob Greco said in Championship trophy after this summer’s win. getting ready. Like a tenthe Omaha World-Herald. Hard work. Jory, himself, thought that his work ethic nis player, I worked at getting my feet down before the A three-year starter for his Westside High School was probably the real reason for his great success, espe- ball was hit so I would be ready to go.” team, Jory, like many varsity student athletes in cially during his senior year. That’s when Jory won the He added, “It seemed like I also worked harder than Nebraska, also plays for a summer legion team with the prestigious Walt Weiss award. about anyone else; I would hit almost every day, inside same high school teammates. Named for a former WHS student who went on to at Ultimate Baseball or at Frozen Ropes, where an assisFor the Goldstrom’s, baseball has always been a fami- become a standout, the accolade is given, not necessari- tant WHS coach works. This was kinda tough because I ly activity. Parents Larry and Carol are avid fans, as is ly to the best hitter, fielder, or even the most outstand- was playing football at the same time. But I believe, if Ben, Jory’s older brother, also a former WHS baseball ing pitcher. The end of season award represents team you want it bad enough, you’ll work for it.” star, and now a baseball-playing senior (catcher) at work and sportsmanship. It’s only given to the hardest Reflecting on the season, his father thought that the Midlands Lutheran College. Even his grandmother working player on the team. That his brother Ben also number one achievement in Jory’s senior year was their Betty was watching the Regional championship games at won that award in 2006 makes us doubly proud, his winning the state baseball championship. the Blumkin home via a borrowed computer. beaming father explained. “The icing on the cake was that the Westside team also For motivation, Jory has often looked to his brother. Awarded at the end of the spring 2009 season, the took the summer Legion title, too. That’s the first time “Ben let me watch all his games, and he let me practice school chose Jory following the team’s stellar year in ever that a Westside High School team has won both,” with the team. When I was having difficulty, he would which they enjoyed a 34-4 season. Jory hit .336, had 31 his father Larry added. occasionally tease me to get me over the hump and RBI’s, and scored 43 runs, based on 43 hits, including 4 “I rank Jory as a high school player right up there with would push me to keep on working.” home runs. Matt Kutler (son of David and Debi) and Tony Schrager For his efforts, Jory was recognized with many tribOf all his many tributes, Jory said, “The ‘Walt Weiss’ (son of Harley and Beth), who was the only other Jewish utes, including being named a consensus 1st Team All award meant the most to me. ‘The All-State’ honors are Nebraskan (and also a WHS alumnus) to be named a State infielder by the Omaha World-Herald as an “All just peoples’ opinions of me. It is the state champi- consensus All-State player.” Continued on page 23 Nebraska” player and by the Lincoln Journal Star as a onships and the team that are most important.”
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A father “instills grit”
Continued from page 18 Norma celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on Aug. 20. Jeff and Mary Kay, his wife of five years, helped organize a party in Chicago for them, including arranging for a surprise renewal of their vows. His father smashed a glass and they even had a Ketubah. He hopes his story of hard work and grit can inspire Jewish youngsters to read about Jews, “with an eye towards digging into how they made the Jeffrey Silverman, standing left, Stanley Silverman, and Denise decisions that led to their Silverman and Norma Silverman, seated, celebrated Norma’s successful careers.” and Stan’s 65th anniversary last month in Chicago.
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 23
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Europe through a Jewish lens Continued from page 19 ultimate purpose of destruction is to rebuild.” It was as though G-d was giving me the responsibility to be His partner in creation by fulfilling His will. It seems that G-d is testing how strong we believe and how strong is our will to live. Perhaps the lush greenery surrounding the camp is to help us understand how to honor the dead. Continue their legacy, do what they did. Do what they would have done. Make their dreams your dreams. Reclaim the lives that were snuffed before their time. Make them live on. The best way to remember those who perished is not through disrupting the peace, rather to build upon what exists
Rochi Katzman, left, and her friend pray in one of the famous synagogues in Poland.
through strengthening it. As Kohelet teaches “the living must take to heart.” We, the living, must carry on the legacy of those who passed on by bettering ourselves and the world. By living as strong Jews and keeping the Torah, we will succeed in destroying Hitler’s (yamach sh’mo -- may his name be blotted out) plan of making the world Judenrein. I find it especially appropriate, since we have mourned the destruction of the two Temples that were destroyed on Tisha B’Av (July 31), it is an opportune time to reflect on improving ourselves. Let us take advantage of this time and do what we can to add to what our ancestors have begun, ushering in a time of only peace. If we were to remember for a single moment all the lives that were mercilessly snuffed out throughout our history, we would not dare stop for a moment to deviate from our mission in this world. The Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed because of baseless hatred toward fellow Jews, so the best way we can take part in rebuilding the third Temple, is by increasing our love to our fellow Jew in a stronger more palpable way than we have previously. Let us vow to finish the job that others were unable to complete. May we merit a time where ultimate peace will reign and all the innocent lives that were torn away will return. Am Yisrael Chai!
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All-Stater’s five RBI’s
Continued from page 22 Who said Jewish athletes can’t be great? “It’s very interesting,” Larry continued, “My son’s full name is Jory Brooks Robinson Goldstrom. He has the same middle names as the all-star third baseman who played for the Baltimore Orioles. Brooks always wore #5 on his uniform and so does Jory. When Jory was 18 months old, he sat on Brooks’ lap. We also have multiple memorabilia signed by Brooks all over the house.” The 2009 Westside graduate earned a baseball scholarship to attend Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College, which plays very competitive baseball. Their Blue Dragon baseball program qualified for the junior college Regional Tournament in Wichita last season. At 18, Jory would like to be a professional baseball player. If that doesn’t happen, for now he is thinking he wants to be a business major and stay involved in baseball, maybe even one day becoming a coach, or owning a sports-oriented business. The spectacular Robinson made it to
the Hall of Fame. For the guy with the same middle names as the super star, it’s all just beginning. We’ll watch his career closely!
Jack and Helene Shrago Leon, Dani and Shoshy Shrago Michael, Ethan and Noah Shrago
Westside High School Coach Bob Greco hugs Goldstrom after the State Jory Championship baseball game in June.
76th & Dodge • 114th & Dodge • 156th & Blondo 156th & Q • 144th & Center • 108th & Maple 90th & Maple • 108th & Q • 50th & Grover 51st & Harrison • 1826 Vinton
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
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Page 25
Summer’s Israel mission starts young adults on journey of Jewish leadership
programs that would not be possible by BOB GOLDBERG Federation Communication without their considerable support,” said and Young Leadership Director Jan Goldstein, executive director of the Twenty-three young Omaha adults Jewish Federation. took part in a ten-day journey to the Rabbi Myer S. Kripke, who has been a Jewish homeland last June, exploring the strong supporter of the missions program vast history of Israel from Masada to the added, “It pleases me to know that young sunny beaches of Tel Aviv, from the people from our town are going to Israel. blooming orchards of the Golan Heights to the Roman ruins of Beit She’an. The group learned historical roots and collective responsibility to world Jewry. Travelling to Israel reconfirmed commitment to the Jewish homeland and to Jewish peoplehood. This was not the first young adult mission. Starting back in the early 1990s, this community has consistently invested in young people. Omaha’s Jewish founda- From a group shot on top of Masada in the south of Israel to the tions and individual north, where Jason Levy, left, Ted Friedland and Dan Slusky donors believe strongly in this plan and It has become noticeable that those who have underwritten these missions so have been to Israel, even if they’ve gone young people can afford to go to Israel without much interest, most certainly and begin their journeys of Jewish return to Omaha with a heightened interinvolvement and leadership. est in Jewish life.” This mission was possible because of In fact, when the group returned home the longtime commitment of local Jewish in late June and went back to their famifoundations and some generous donors. lies and routines, something was differ“I want the community to know the ent. Mission participants couldn’t help enormous effect these foundations and but recognize the heightened excitement individual donors have had on the kind of to explore and expand Jewish identities. Jewish community we are. They fund For that reason alone, this mission was a
great success. Jamie Friedland, mission co-chairman, went on the first Artza trip to Israel when she was 16-years-old. She says, “Coming back to Israel now, as an adult, has been a much different experience. As a teenager, it was an emotional trip. This trip has been much more educational. I have
listen to conversations discussing books about Israeli politics by Michael Oren or Natan Sharansky, documentaries about the Yom Kippur War or the creation of the State of Israel. It’s exciting to see people wanting to learn and wanting to be more active. No brochure or power point presentation can do what being there does for connecting the dots for someone. Visitors to Israel put their hands directly on programs that are supported through the Jewish Federation’s Annual Campaign. The group’s first stop was at the Mevasseret Zion Absorption Center outside of Jerusalem. This Jewish Agency program teaches new immigrants from Ethiopia how to live a modern life. climb a tank, this summer’s Young Adult Mission had elements At Mevasseret, 1,300 of serious discussion and adventure. immigrants who have learned about our Partnership with Israel come to Israel to avoid persecution live and the Western Galilee region and have on an expansive campus. They live there seen with my own eyes where some of my for two years and after that time are mildcampaign contribution dollars are going. ly prepared to enter Israeli society. It is Israel is a very complicated country in a mind boggling that they have lived as many ways, but I now have a better people did 3,000 years ago. Their understanding of the passion of the Israeli Ethiopian homes were crude huts made people.” out of sticks; they preserved their food by No one can explain what each person burying it in the ground, and the senior learned or wants to learn, but for mission men owned the first and last word in all participants, it is fun to sit around a table, discussions. as a group, two months after the trip and Continued on page 26
Shana Tova uMetukah Wishing you a good and sweet year from the board and staff of the Jewish Federation of Omaha
Jan Goldstein, Executive Director
Bob Lepp, President
Page 26
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
Journey of Jewish leadership
story about suffering during the war and separation from families with drug and alcohol problems,” explained misContinued from page 25 This is not an easy task. The adults are immersed in family,” says Karen Klingberg, “but most importantly sion co-chairman, Dana Kaufman. “It is run by Yehuda Hebrew learning classes five days a week, five hours a day about keeping hope and trying to survive. He was the Kohn and his wife Riki and they accept every one of the for 10 months. They are taught how to use a toothbrush, one member of his family to survive the death camps. He 210 children as their own. It is much like Boys Town. a refrigerator and to read and write for the first time. It is immigrated to the Holy Land after the war and did not The children live on the campus fulltime, go to school tremendously difficult for the older generation and they speak of his experiences to anyone for 37 years. His and participate in activities. The dedicated staff of professtruggle, but the younger children learn quickly and chance meeting with Elie Weisel in the early 1980’s sionals and volunteers work incredibly hard to instill selfhelped him find his voice and purpose. Since then he confidence and pride in all the children. They are beautiadapt to this safe and nurturing environment. It was difficult for mission participants to understand spends three days a week leading tours through Yad ful children and they simply want to know that someone their challenges, but clearly in Israel, they are free to prac- Vashem, he wrote a book about his life and he consulted cares for them.” with Steven Spielberg for the movie, Schindler’s List. He As a parent,” Kaufman added “this experience really tice Judaism, to live in safety and have a better life. spoke to me. While I canJerusalem is a magic city. not imagine anyone leavThe Old City’s narrow ing their child, it was reasstone alleys entice walkers suring to see that Yehuda with questions and inspiand Riki give these chilration. Each member of dren a second chance to the group tries to better flourish. The children understand through the from Bet Elazraki gradulens of history, learning ate, go to university, enter about sites holy to the army and become proChristians, Muslims and ductive members of socieJews. ty and most importantly The group visited King end the cycle of abuse David’s tomb, shopped in they came from.” the Cardo and prayed at Traveling north to the the Kotel. Prayers written Western Galilee, the by fellow Omahans at group took advantage of Yom Ha’atzmaut were time to explore Omaha’s stuck in the crevices of the Wall and the group said JFO staff Janie Murow, left, and Kathy McGauvren lead the Dana Kaufman, left, Carrie Fingold and Jamie Friedland relax Partnership area and tour near one of the pools at the Ein Gedi oasis, near the Dead Sea. the ancient port city of Kaddish for a father and a Young Adult Mission group in Havdalah. speaks out to make sure that we do not forget.” Akko. They visited many friends, including Yishai, who friend. From there, the young adults traveled to nearby Mount heads the Garin Ometz and spent a morning helping the Ben Yehuda Street is the Howard Street of Jerusalem. Pizza shops, jazz clubs, beggars and people from every Herzl. James Blasingame noted, “Despite having lived in Garin (young soldiers in training, sons and daughters of corner of the globe congregate there to shop, eat, sing Israel for five years, this was my first visit to Mount Herzl. Israelis living in the Diaspora) prepare food baskets for As an employee of the United States government, I rec- hundreds of Jewish and Arab children in the Akko area and dance. Like any modern city, Jerusalem is full of great expec- ognize the magnitude of the memorials to these impor- who do not have the money for fresh lunches. “This trip has been about learning what it means to be tations and contradictions, from the ultra-Orthodox to tant figures. However, as a retired member of the U.S. the punk rockers, from young American tourists to military, it was the personal stories of the individual fall- a Jew living in the Promised Land as well as what it means to be a Jew in the Diaspora,” added Klingberg. “Israel is Filipino and African workers. Jerusalem is a worldly city, en soldiers that touched me the most.” He added, “Our guide, Raz, shared the story of a land so small in size, but so big in culture and history and it is nice to share its neshama (soul) and falafel with Michael Levine, a Philadelphia kid who made aliyah that it can be overwhelming. This mission has helped me friends. “It has been an unbelievable experience with many dif- specifically to join the Israeli army and who died during understand how important it is to find a connection that ferent emotions,” says Carrie Fingold. “Like the over- the Second Lebanon War. With my experience in combat goes beyond geographical boundaries.” whelming feelings as we walked up to the Kotel. Even areas, I truly appreciate the commitment and sacrifice of The group learned about Israel’s strengths and its though I had been there before, it still felt as special as both Michael and his fellow soldiers. Standing by his struggles, by learning about the innovative hi-tech industhe first time. We were able to briefly visit the memorial gravesite brought home the connection between tries, including Iscar, environmental and green initiatives site of a friend who was killed in a terrorist bus attack American Jewry and Israel. It was an honor to light the in agriculture and real examples of co-existence and of a going from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This was a very diffi- Yahrzeit candle at his grave on behalf of all of those who democratic state in the Middle East. The struggle for cult moment, but I hope that her memory will never be have worn a uniform.” security, the difficulties for immigrants and of poverty, forgotten.” From there the bus took the group north stopping in the challenges of providing jobs and for natural resources The group took a long, detailed tour of Yad Vashem, Netanya at the Bet Elazraki Children’s Home. like water and fuel are all important issues not just for guided by a Holocaust survivor, Eleazer Ayalon. “This family home is for children who have either been Israelis. “He shared with us a very emotional and inspiring abandoned by their parents, are victims of abuse or from Continued on page 27
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392-2600 and Coffee
Kripke Library has tips for parents and kids
He added, “I remember the staff served us these small square pizzas, on cafeteria trays, and I remember playing a lot of kickball. There were two things I really loved back then: kickball and books.” Katz smiled. “Our teacher was a very young woman, it was her first year of teaching, and she was newly married. I don’t remember her name at all, but I do recall she was blonde and pretty. But then, every woman is pretty when you are a five-year-old boy. What did I know?” There were about 20 kids in Katz’s class, and he only spent a year with them, as following kindergarten, his family moved to Rochester. “My most vivid memKripke Library director Gary Katz had a fun summer with children ories, besides the pizzas Joseph, who started kindergarten this year, Charlotte and Paige. and the kickball, have It is also a time busy with ordering new to do with books,” he says. “I remember books, scheduling classes for the fall, ‘Curious George.’ The teacher would preparing for authors to visit for Jewish send books home with us, to practice our Book Month, and getting ready for the reading, and I loved George, even back onslaught of kids from the Jewish then. Something else I liked was ‘monCommunity Center’s Pennie Z. Davis ster’ books; I would take them home and Child Development Center (CDC) and learn my letters. Even back then, a love of Friedel Jewish Academy students, who books was in my blood. I guess it was will flock to the library come the new inevitable I grew up to be surrounded by school year. books, although my love of kickball didIn addition to being a librarian, Katz is n’t turn me into an athlete.” also a father. He and his wife Monica How did Katz prepare his son Joseph have three children, Joseph, Charlotte for kindergarten? They talked a lot. and Paige. Their oldest child, Joseph, has “Joseph talked about it nonstop all started kindergarten this year. Getting summer,” Katz says. “We have also drivready for that monumental day reminds en by his building a few times, and, of Gary of his own illustrious career as a course, we read books” kindergartener in New York City. Any tips? “Yes, we read ‘Sammy “I had to take the bus every day, “ he Spider’s First Day of School’ by Sylvia recalls, “and I remember my mom wav- Rouss. It is a great book to read with ing me goodbye in the morning. It was- your child while they are getting ready n’t like these days, when kids get for kindergarten. We have it at the Kripke dropped off and picked up by their par- Library, of course, if anyone wants to ents, like I see happening next door every read it,” he added. day; I had to get on that bus all by Obviously, the race between kickball myself!” and books is over: the books have won.
by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT To a librarian, like Gary Katz at the Jewish Federation Kripke Library, summer is a time for scheduling special activities, like the Kids’ Reading Club, specialtheme classes, and the American Girl tea party.
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
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Journey of Jewish leadership
Continued from page 26 It is exciting to see how a group of people can share an experience and come away as friends, share stories and plans for the future. This is the goal of the Federation’s missions programs -- to build community, to build Jewish identity and to strengthen Jewish literacy. Whether these words come from Buddy Goldstein, Bob Kully or Joe Kirshenbaum, all strong supporters of the missions program, they all CJE director Guy Matalon, left, Rabbi Eric Linder and tour guide say the same thing -- you Raz Zabar enjoy the sights of the Old City of Jerusalem. cannot fully understand Israel or Jewish peoplehood until you coffee shops, raise children and drive to have your feet on the ground in Eretz work.” “Now we have an important job as we Yisrael. “Throughout the trip, I thought about arrive back to Omaha,” says Fingold. “To a poem by Yehuda Amichai, entitled educate. I feel very lucky to have had this ‘Tourists’,” recalled Rabbi Eric Linder. unbelievable experience, to have experi“He cautions us not just to look at the enced it with such an incredible group of ancient holy sites of Israel. We must open people and I can only hope that others in our eyes to the people of Israel -- to their our community will get to have similar industries and farms, their wineries and experiences and feel the passion of Israel restaurants. It is a place of holiness, sure, as I do -- a place I am happy to call but it is also a place where people meet at home.”
Page 27
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
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camp schedule. by BETH COHEN Executive Director Other Beth Israel kids kept very active this summer as The children and youth well. On the Sharks Swim of Beth Israel kept themTeam at the Jewish selves very busy in both Community Center were: learning and sports activiZoe Berman, Anna Kohll, ties this summer. Sam Kohll, Max Kohll, Jack Rabbi Yitzchak Mizrahi Kohll, and Aaron Kurtzman. offered a new program for At one swim meet, Leo children ages eight Kohll was called in to fill a through 13. The goals spot on a relay team. At that were to enhance the kids’ meet, all five Kohll kids Hebrew skills while learnswam, and Leo won first ing Torah and gaining place in his event. At the familiarity of Bible stories. end-of-season swim banThe program combined quet, Aaron won “Most traditional classroom style learning with games and Hannah Wolf, a former basketball star at Grinnell College, was Improved Swimmer” of his selected for the USA Women’s Basketball Team, which won sil- age group (13-18), and the field trips. They studied practical ver in the final match against the Israelis at the Maccabiah team brought home the “Most Spirited” award from concepts, such as the Games in July. Mishnah, tractate Bava Metzia, to learn what to do when the Greater Omaha Swim League. The Wolf family also saw their share of exciting sportone finds something outside, when one is obligated to seek its owner and when one can keep the item for ones- ing events this summer. Hannah Wolf was a member of self. The group also read through stories of some great the Maccabi Team USA basketball team competing in the 18th Maccabiah Games in Israel. past leaders from the book of Judges. The open women’s team was hoping to repeat as Gold On the 17th of Tamuz (July 9), a fast day in the Jewish calendar, the group went to visit a Holocaust survivor, Medalists after being undefeated in Australia in the Cantor Leo Fettman, cantor emeritus of Beth Israel Maccabi world games in 2007. But the Israeli women’s Synagogue. The kids had prepared questions to ask and basketball team captured gold this time, with Team USA the Cantor told some fascinating stories from his experi- garnering silver in the finals. In addition to competing in the Maccabiah Games, ences. Cantor took the kids to his basement to show them the chapel he has there. Every Shabbat, Jews who Hannah and her teammates spent several days touring live in the cantor’s neighborhood come to pray with the around Israel. It was Hannah’s first trip back since participating in a birthright israel trip while she was in colhim in his chapel. For another field trip, after reviewing a list of kosher lege at Grinnell in Iowa. Alex Wolf competed in the Nebraska Cornhusker symbols, the group took a trip to Bag ’n Save for a scavenger hunt of kosher foods. The kids were split into two Games in table tennis, playing both singles and doubles. teams and were given a time limit to find as many items Alex is a regular participant at the Omaha Table Tennis that had different kosher symbols as they could. When Club. While in Beijing, China, last year for study abroad, the time was up, the carts were laden with a plethora of he rode a bicycle several miles to a public park where kosher products, making it difficult to determine which multiple tables awaited table tennis enthusiasts. He was team had won. Returning the products to their proper often the only “foreigner” and earned the respect of the other players. shelves proved to be another fun challenge. Nathan Wolf was proud to receive recognition as High The group also played rousing games of Pictionary and Wheel of Fortune using phrases and themes that had School Athlete of the Year from the Omaha Jewish Community Center for his efforts in bowling. He played been studied in the program. In addition to participating in Rabbi Mizrahi’s sum- in a summer league, where his average is in the 180s, and mer program, Max Weiner attended “Yeshivas hopes to participate at the collegiate level when he HaKayitz” (literally, summer yeshiva) in Chicago, learn- begins his studies at the University of Iowa this fall. Hannah, Alex and Nathan are the children of Phil and ing Torah, and Gemara from the tractate “Sanhedrin.” Daily sports and lots of field trips were also part of the Nancy Wolf.
Temple religious school donation delivered to children’s home in Israel
with incredible warmth by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel and gratitude” by Bet Communications Coordinator Elazraki. Established in 1969 While in Israel on the with the cooperation and Jewish Federation Young support of the Ministry of Adult Mission in June, Labor and Welfare, the Rabbi Eric Linder made a Ministry of Education, point to deliver a gift of the Netanya municipality, $1,000 to Emunah Bet and many donors from Elazraki Children's Home Israel and elsewhere, the when he was in Netanya. Children’s Home proThe money was raised by vides a warm environTemple Israel Religious ment, family atmosphere, School students. and supportive staff for “We found Bet Elazraki more than 200 children through Louri Sullivan, through the age of 18. on a trip to Israel she took Their families are unable a couple years ago, and through the Temple Israel to care for their children's family trip to Israel last basic needs or offer them December. We chose to Rabbi Eric Linder, left, presented a donation this summer on the tools for development donate to it, because it behalf of Temple Israel Religious School students to Yehuda Kohn, and growth. The children involved children in need. right, director of the Emunah Bet Elazraki Children's Home in are referred to Bet by welfare Our children have a spe- Netanya, Israel. Jan Goldstein, center, executive director of the Elazraki cial connection to other Jewish Federation of Omaha, was also in Israel with the partici- authorities. Their physiological children in need,” pants of the Federation young adult mission. explained Elyce Azriel, director of religious education at demands are met, enabling the children to grow in a supportive setting. They receive emotional and social Temple. Rabbi Linder reported that the donation “was received rehabilitation and academic and educational enrichment.
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 29
Yachad group “camps out” for independence
by JAN MCCARTHY for Jewish Family Service Self-esteem, self-reliance, self-direction, self-awareness; all these self words are components of independence. Independence is a desired human condition. The members of our Yachad community are no different. Activities they plan always have aspects that will broaden their independence. These activities illuminate that they are valuable members of the community. One activity that has been a successful favorite is camping. Earlier this summer, Yachad had an overnight camping experience at Mahoney State Park. It was great fun and everyone enjoyed the recreational activities. Marilyn Zevitz, Nancy and Grace Isler, and Jeff Steinberg enjoyed miniature golf, while Alan Friedman, Avi Wolfson, Ben Friedman, Jillian and Lisa Salomon and Josh Parsow enjoyed horseback riding. Everyone participated in fishing and of course the campfire. To Yachad members there were other activities much more intense and fulfilling. They participated in meal preparation, cooking, leading prayer, and cleaning up. Marilyn and Ben grilled the hot dogs and chicken. Avi helped them with the barbeque sauce. They did a great job and were understandably very proud of their accomplishments. Inside Alan, Jeff, Jillian, Josh and Lisa helped prepare the salads and side dishes. Grace and Nancy helped set up and serve. Jeff led the mealtime prayer and shared a special prayer at the campfire. What members talked about all the way home and for weeks after was not about riding or golfing but the activities they participated in that allowed them to use
new skills, to identify their strengths, to see tangible results of their participation. The value of life is not in being entertained it is in being challenged. To Yachad members a camping trip is not merely a time for relaxation and fun. It is a Photos from above left: Ben Friedman, left, Marilyn Zevitz, time to use Avi Wolfson and Yachad adviser Jan McCarthy camp out at life skills. To Mahoney. Jillian Salomon and volunteer Mark Kazor show stand before a off their success at fishing. Below: Playing putt-putt at grill even Mahoney State Park in 2006 are: volunteer David Glazer, though fire left, Jeff Steinberg, parent Carol Parsow, Josh Parsow, Ben commands a great deal of respect and it is a little scary. It is having an imperfect walk but being able to help carry the food to the table; it is using a knife and being sure to remember the safety skills you learned in cooking class. It is sitting down to a meal and looking around the table and knowing, “We did this!”
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Friedman, Grace Isler, Allie Cooper, adviser Duane Pieper, and Michael Parsow. In summers past, Yachad members gave a “thumbs up” to the movie Cars: Jeff Steinberg, left, Josh Parsow, volunteer Nathan Wolf, Ron Giventer, Eric Friedberg, Lisa Salomon, Ben Friedman and kneeling, Jillian Salomon.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
Summer means getting ready for a new school year by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Part 1: Ron Giller Principal of Friedel Jewish Academy By the end of May, when the last diplomas are handed out, the final homework put away, and students’ minds are preoccupied with summer camps and swimming pools, the work of a Principal is far from over. “When the kids leave, we begin working on a long list of things, like class schedules for the new school year, staff development, and textbook orders. If we happen to need any new staff, summer is the time to finish recruiting, and we have to evaluate our emergency evacuation plans. It isn’t just the principal and teachers who continue during the summer,” Giller explained. “Right now, Josh Gurock, one of our board members, is hard at work on improving the school lunch program; something which we are looking forward to,” he added. Before the end of the 2008/09 school year, standardized testing was completed, and the results are in.
“We are definitely excited about our growth,” Giller stated. “To see our student body practically grow under your nose is a very inspiring thing. The next few years will bring a crucial change to the school, as we anticipate that this pattern will continue.” The summer of 2009 is a far cry from last year, when Ron Giller had just started as Friedel’s Principal. “The nice thing now is, I don’t have to ask as many questions, and I am very much at home with all the expectations. I have a calendar in my head, I am familiar with things like endowment due dates, I don’t have to second-guess myself,” he said. “I definitely feel at home; a year makes all the difference!” Giller has spent much of this past year familiarizing himself with everybody in the community, meeting with different people at all the different agencies. “I feel closer to everybody who makes this community thrive, and have been able to build my own relationships, and strengthen Friedel’s relationships with the
Principal Ron Giller spends lunch time with the 2009 graduating class, standing: Isaac Rogers and Max Weiner and sitting: Max Polack, left, Ethan Potash, Sarah Kutler, and Elissa
Wiener. Right: GIller enjoys Lag B’Omer with Friedel students Josh Polack, left, Isaac Rogers, Tziporah Hamicksburg, Aidan Shnayder, and Melanie Schwarz.
“We use the summer to look at those test scores, and analyze them. Our students consistently score above average in all areas; we look at how they arrived there, and how we can continue to help them excel,” Giller said, “but, of course, it doesn’t end there.” Before the time students and parents arrive at Friedel for a brand new school year, a very long list has to be completed. The parent handbook needs to be revised, furniture must be inspected and ordered new where needed; staff has numerous meetings, and a new after school program is being developed. “We are especially excited about the option of having after school activities,” Giller noted. “At the moment we are considering a technology club, math, and chess, but the possibilities are endless. It will be one more way to strengthen our Friedel family.” That Friedel family is growing; the 2009/10 school year will welcome 54 students to the building.
Jewish Federation, the Jewish Press, the CDC, the Blumkin Home, the Center for Jewish Education, the Kripke Library, the ADL, and BBYO,” Giller said. “The list goes on and on. I have met so many fantastic people, and every single one of them has made me feel welcome.” He added, “We have been able to do projects with the CDC and the Blumkin Home, and we hope to continue that in the years to come. A school like Friedel can’t stand alone, and we are lucky to be part of the bigger whole. It gives our students a very solid start as valuable community members.” In addition, Giller is grateful to have the support of the Jewish clergy, as well as very involved parents, enthusiastic students, and a dedicated staff who can’t wait to start the new school year. “It is a bit quiet in the building during the summer, without the kids,” Giller said, “and we all look forward
to that first day of school.” Speaking of that much anticipated first school day, how should the students get ready? “They should get a good night’s sleep, eat a healthy breakfast, and put a smile on their faces,” Giller said. “We can’t wait to see them again.” Part 2: Yaffa Podbilewicz-Schuller Friedel Recruitment Officer and Board member Home in Mexico, Yaffa Podbilewicz-Schuller attended the same Jewish Day school for 16 years. She started junior preschool at the age of three, and stayed until she graduated high school at 18. “We started with roughly one hundred students in my year, and most of them stayed around until the end,” Schuler said. “It was amazing to go to school with the same kids for so long, and be able to build such wonderful friendships. I never questioned that we would be split up by the time we went to middle or high school, it was just a given that we had the opportunity to stay together.” Although her father was a board member for many years, it was uncommon for the students to see much of their parents while in school. “I remember there was someone dressed as a dreidel, who visited the class room,” she recalled, “and we were supposed to spin around with it. So we did, we were spinning, and suddenly I hear this voice coming out of the dreidel. Imagine my surprise: it was my mother!” Preschool was separated from the rest of the building. “We really didn’t get a chance to interact much with the older kids. The age differences are big, and when you are in preschool, you need your own space, your own playground,” she explained. “As a result, I didn’t really know where I was going when I started first grade.” Continued on page 31
Yaffa Podbilewicz-Schuller holds Yael at a Friedel picnic, daughter Eliana is at left (wearing a hat).
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Getting ready for a new school year
Continued from page 30 Schuller added, “My father took me to see this new, strange, part of the building, so I would be prepared. He even pointed out who would be my Hebrew teacher, and told me how fantastic she was. I vividly remember him taking me there, putting me at ease, preparing me for what was to come.” Nowadays, Schuller has two tasks during the summer: preparing her two daughters, Eliana and Yael, and guiding new parents in enrolling their children at Friedel Jewish Academy. As the recruitment officer, she is constantly in motion to educate new parents about the advantages of sending their children to a Jewish day school. Currently, 54 students are on track to be either returning or entering for the 2009/10 school year. “The growth is phenomenal,” Yaffa says, “and we may have some additional students in the fall that we are not yet sure about. When I talk to new parents, I always remind them that getting ready for Friedel, means also getting the home ready. Make sure to create a space to study, talk about expectations, answer any questions children may have about the journey they are embarking on.” How does she get her own daughters ready? “Yael will be starting second grade, and Eliana is entering fifth grade. Of course we shop for school supplies, including uniforms and shoes. Friedel’s staff sends out a complete list by the end of summer, and we make sure they have what they need,” she added. According to Yaffa, there is quite a difference in those needs, compared to when she was in elementary school herself. “We were given one pencil, and one pen; what more do you need to write with? We definitely didn’t need piles and piles of things, and we had to cover our own books. I was also given two pairs of shoes at the beginning of the school year, and a bottle of shoe polish,” Schuller explained. “At home, we clean out their desks, and sort through last year’s school stuff. We decide together what to keep, and what to throw away. We clean closets, separate too-small uniforms and donate them back to the Friedel closet; getting ready at home is a big part of getting ready for school. Just like I was as a child, my daughters look forward to returning to school. Going back to school is the highlight of the summer!” Part 3: Susan Fellman-Witkowski, Past Board President and parent Susan Witkowski is more than averagely involved in the wellbeing of Friedel Jewish Academy. She has served as President of the Board for the past two years, has made Friedel logo clothing a staple, participated in the organization of the annual Friedel gala, and volunteers for anything that might come up. Any given day, you could find her cooking a special Shabbat lunch for the students, assisting with the latke sale, or helping out during the scholastic book fair. Susan and her husband Isaac Witkowski have a daughter, Gabby, in third grade. Their son Julian will begin kindergarten at Friedel during the 2010/11 school year, so Susan’s involvement is sure to continue for many years to come. She is following in the footsteps of her father, Dick Fellman, who was an equally involved parent when Susan was little. “Before there ever was a Friedel Jewish Academy, I went to what was then the Omaha Jewish Day School. During the early seventies, I attended kindergarten through third grade, in a school that had approximately 15-20 students in total,”
she recalled. “The two-story building was located on Pacific Street, where Beth Israel Synagogue is now, and we had an understanding with the Montessori school up the road. Teachers from the Montessori would come over and teach us general studies; for Judaic studies, we had a rabbi.” To get the full picture of Richard Fellman’s involvement, we have to go back in time. “First, there was the Omaha Hebrew A c a d e m y, and it was Richard Fellman located near the downtown JCC building, on 20th and Dodge,” he explained. “It was run very much like a yeshiva, usually had between 20-25 students. In the mid sixties, it abruptly folded when the rabbi who headed the school left with little notice. Because he left just a few weeks before the beginning of the school year, there was no time to find a replacement, and the school closed. That summer marked the end of the Omaha Hebrew Academy,” he said. Fellman wasn’t satisfied, and together with other concerned community members started working towards reopening a Jewish day school in Omaha. “We started working in earnest in 1970, and it was an uphill battle. We had no building, no accreditation, no staff, and no money,” he admitted. So where, eventually, did the money come from? “That’s an interesting story,” Fellman said, “and the story starts with Dr. Irving Shapiro, who ran a Bingo game at the old City Auditorium. You have to remember there was a time when there were no casinos on the Missouri river; the only option people had for any type of gambling was the bingo game. Catholic churches, for instance, would often obtain the special license necessary to run a Bingo game, and then proceed to use it for fundraising.” He added, “Dr. Shapiro did the same thing, to benefit education. When the Hebrew Academy closed, the bingo game didn’t. Dr. Shapiro kept running it, and we were able to access some of that money and use it to open the new Jewish Day School.” So the school was paid for through gambling? “Well, not exactly,” Fellman smiled. “First of all, we had several additional donors -- people like Joe Kirshenbaum and Dr. Paul Shyken were instrumental in re-opening the school. Also, we weren’t allowed to use the Bingo money directly for the annual budget, because it came from gambling. That part was a bit frowned upon. What we did instead was use it for scholarships, and if the school would run a little short, we’d take out short term loans against the bingo money.” By the fall of 1972, the Jewish Day School of Omaha was open for business. “We were grateful to our donors, and for all the practical assistance from Dr. Michael Rockland, UNO Professor of Elementary Education, and consultant Dr. John Langhan, who would go on to become the Chairman of the Omaha School Board, as well as Dean of UNO’s College of Education,” Fellman added. Continued on page 32
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
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What we did that summer!
On the Israel trail JOURNAL ENTRY FROM ISRAEL by TEDDY WEINBERGER The Israel Trail (Shvil Yisrael) is a hiking trail that cuts across the entire length of the country, beginning in Eilat in the South and ending in Dan on the Lebanese border. The winding length of the trail, 940 kilometers (580 miles), is twice the actual length of the country. If you’ve done any hiking at all in Israel chances are that you’ve been on portions of the trail, since it makes much use of existing area trails and overlaps them. Regular trails are demarcated by two stripes of white with a second color in between (red, green, black, or blue). The Israel trail is marked off in 3 colors: orange, blue, and white. In 2007, my son Elie’s school opened an “Israel Trail Club.” The club hikes the Israel trail in approximately 100-kilometer stages. The club is staffed by Noam Shapira, a strapping 28-year-old, and his father Zev (55), who acts as medic and secondary guide. I decided to join Elie for some of the club’s July, 2008, hike. Our group of 13 arrived in the southern town of Mitzpeh Ramon a little after 6 p.m. on sultry evening in July. After getting organized we set out at 6:30 p.m. About an hour later, shortly after we had resumed hiking following our mincha prayer break (led by Elie), Noam called to us to turn around, and there silhouetted on a hill against the last light of the day was a group of four camels. It felt like a scene right out of ancient times. A moonless night came on and we kept hiking. Some of us stumbled and even fell in the dark (including yours truly). At one point there was a steep cliff to the right, which Noam was kind enough to warn us about. Each time the club goes out, two boys are given significant responsibilities for that portion of the hike: one is charged with making decisions about hiking logistics, and the other is charged with organizing the food. Shlomo, the boy in charge of the route, advised the group that we had about 40 kilometers to walk until Monday night and that it would be better to get in as much hiking as possible in the cool night in order to hike less the next day in the heat. The call to stop hiking for the night finally came at 11:45 p.m. The first thing we did at our sleepsite was to pray the evening prayer. I was wondering: shouldn’t we get the campfire started first? No, there was no need for this, since there would be no campfire that evening. Supper was a spartan fare of pita, pickles, and halvah. On the other hand, given that I had just walked for five hours and was starving, the food was quite delicious. After a decent night’s sleep, thanks to a sleeping pill (does that make me a bad camper?), we said the morning prayers, had a breakfast of pita and chocolate spread, and were off. At 85º, the temperature was relatively tolerable (it would heat up to well over 100º by the end of the week) The boys were in good spirits, singing all kinds of Hebrew songs, from pioneering ballads to modern rock hits. The weight of my pack was beginning to bother me
and I took two of my four big water bottles and held one in each hand. We only had to carry our water needs for each day, thanks to pre-arranged water drop-offs in secret hiding spots (and to the water that arrived with the food delivery mid-way through the hike). We were deep into the Zin basin and the landscape was otherworldly. The shapes in the rock (often of pyramids -- the Egyptians apparently went with the obvious) were sometimes eerily perfect. The climb out of the basin was challenging, especially given the minimal caloric intake I was working with. (Memo to self: Try not to put yourself in a position where a 17-year-old boy is in charge of what you eat.) Before we went to sleep Monday night, we saw several foxes nearby. Zev encouraged everyone to take precautions by putting all leather items, including tefilin, in our bags. When I asked Zev if he thought that the foxes looked particularly hungry, he responded: “Don’t worry, you’re too big Teddy Weinberger and his son Elie hike the for them -- they trail in Israel, during the summer of 2008. go after smaller animals.” By Monday night, I realized that I needed to leave the group at the first good opportunity (I had forgotten to transfer my orthopedic inserts to my hiking boots, and the balls of my feet were painful putty by then), and this came the next morning. It’s true that I had a tough 90minute hike up to civilization (in the form of the Sde Boker Academy -- where David Ben Gurion and his wife Paula are buried), but by golly what an intense feeling of release came over me. I was free. Free! Elie and the group continued on for three more days of hiking, and Elie was kind enough to tell me that the time I had spent with the group constituted the easiest portion of the week. The little whippersnapper. Noam’s Request: Many of the boys who go to Elie’s school come from families with limited means. Even though the cost for participation in the club is a modest NIS 1,000 ($300) for each of the two years, for many families, this puts the Israel Trail Club out of their son’s reach. Noam, who can be reached at: ns82@walla.co.il, asked me to let my readers know that he is looking for sponsors so that more boys can hike the trail. I am doing as he asked and only hope that if I join the group again for another portion of the trail, Noam will reward me by helping to carry some of my drinking water. Teddy Weinberger made aliyah in 1997 with his wife, former Omahan Sarah Ross, and their five children. To celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary (they weremarried at Beth Israel in Omaha on Aug. 21, 1984), they vacationed in Italy last month. He can be reached at weinross@netvision.net.il.
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Continued from page 31 grated in the community. One thing is certain: The whole experience my Fellman had to go out of his daughter has is different way before he could send his from when I was her age.” own daughter to a Jewish day That experience includes school. Nowadays, when one of Susan’s most vivid Susan is a parent herself, memories: the daily prayer things are certainly easier. the boys had to deliver, Friedel, which has ultithanking God for not makmately replaced the Jewish ing them women. “I managed to ask the rabbi Day School of Omaha, is whether there was a similar continuing to grow: the 2009-10 school year welprayer for us girls, and landcomed a kindergarten class ed myself in a bit of trouble of 17, bringing the total over that question,” Susan number of students to 54. remembers. “It’s so much more of a We can assume she has family nowadays,” Susan since been forgiven for that stated. “Friedel is a comminor infraction. pletely different school. For For information about instance, I love the Tal Am Susan Witkowski and her children, Julian and Gabby parade Friedel, to make an appointprogram, as well as the fact around the Riekes Shul during the 2007 Simchat Torah cele- ment to visit the school, contact Ron Giller at 334.0517. that the school is more inte- bration at Friedel.
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 33
UNMC team receives $9.1 million CDC summer volunteer brings grant renewal welcome male role model In heart failure, the heart cannot pump by VICKY CERINO University of Nebraska Medical Center, enough blood throughout the body. The NIH reports that about 5 million people Public Relations, Media Relations Coordinator A $9.1 million program project grant in the United States have heart failure renewal will allow a team of University of and the condition is the main cause of Nebraska Medical Center scientists to hospital admission for patients older than continue its groundbreaking heart failure 65. research. The condition causes or contributes to The project was first fundabout 300,000 deaths annued in 1999 by the National ally in the United States. Heart, Lung, and Blood UNMC is the only public Institute -- a division of the health science center in the National Institutes of state. Its educational proHealth (NIH). This is the grams are responsible for second time the grant has training more health profesbeen renewed. sionals practicing in “We are excited by the Nebraska than any other NIH’s continued support of institution. Through their our research,” said Irving H. commitment to education, Zucker, Ph.D., chairman of research, patient care and the department of cellular outreach, UNMC and its and integrative physiology Irving H. Zucker, Ph.D. hospital partner, The and director of the grant. “I’m grateful Nebraska Medical Center, have estabfor the continued hardwork and commit- lished themselves as one of the country’s ment by our team to confront heart fail- leading centers in cancer, transplantation ure.” biology, bioterrorism preparedness, neuTom Rosenquist, Ph.D., UNMC vice rodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular chancellor for research, said Dr. Zucker’s diseases, genetics, biomedical technology leadership of a world-class team is a and ophthalmology. model for the best practice in the comUNMC’s research funding from exterplex world of 21st century science “His nal sources now exceeds $82 million scientific innovation, energy and produc- annually and has resulted in the creation tivity have made him a leading interna- of more than 2,600 highly skilled jobs in tional figure in the study of cardiovascu- the state. UNMC’s physician practice lar physiology,” he said. group, UNMC Physicians, includes 513 In his work, Dr. Zucker focuses on physicians in 50 specialties and subspehow exercise training can reduce levels of cialties who practice primarily in The a molecule -- called angiotensin II -- that Nebraska Medical Center. plays a key role in heart failure; For more information, visit www. The grant also provides funds for three unmc.edu. core facilities
by JORDANA L. KURTZMAN Volunteering can be hard to fit into anyone’s schedule, but for a teenager, this can be especially challenging.
“I love those kids. They’re my little buddies,” said Aaron. Carole Greenberg, Assistant Director of CDC, puts teenagers through a
CDC volunteer Aaron Kurtzman spends time with Zachary Mintz. Thirteen-year-old Aaron Kurtzman had a busy summer this year with swim team, a high school preparation program, and summer camp, but he made sure that he made time to volunteer for two weeks at the Pennie Z. Davis Child Development Center (CDC). Aaron volunteered last summer and had such a positive experience in working with the four-year-olds that he came back over winter break as well. This summer, Aaron worked with the fouryear-olds in Lisa Cooper’s class where he helped the children with art projects, story time, and recreational playtime.
screening process when selecting volunteers to work in the classrooms with the children. “We welcome volunteers, but we don’t want to have additional children to watch when they come to volunteer here” at the Jewish Community Center’s CDC. She added, “Not everyone is a good volunteer. Many of our volunteers have gone on to work with the JCC Youth camp when they reach the required age. Aaron gets along great with the kids and is an excellent male role model for the children. He really gets into it with the kids!”
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
Temple members form enduring friendships on summer trip to Turkey
(NFON) which was founded ordinary people there. The whole town was waiting for by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel in 2008 by a group of us to arrive.” Communications Coordinator Omaha and Lincoln resiPaskowitz has been a member of the planning commitTwenty-one Omahans, dents, mostly of Turkish tee, served as a keynote speaker, workshop leader, and including Jews, Christians, background, NFON is a emcee of Women of Spirit, an Omaha interfaith organiand Muslims, were recently branch of the Niagara zation. She also represents the Jewish faith on Ted E. treated to a ten-day trip to Foundation, a subsidiary of Bear Hollow’s Interfaith Panel and has been active on Turkey. Temple Israel memNiagara Educational Project Interfaith’s Advisory Board which led to her invibers Rita Paskowitz, Dr. Services, Inc. (NES). A non- tation to go to Turkey “on what sounded like a very Howard and Lee Needelman exciting adventure,” she said. were on one of the two trips; Lee Needelman’s backDavid and Wendy Goldberg ground in interfaith groups traveled on the other tour. including an interfaith book In addition to visiting club “has always been a pasIstanbul, Izmir, Ankara, sion,” she described. “The Konya, Cappadocia, and opportunity to take this pasKayseri, “getting to know sion to a modern Muslim the other people with whom country with others who I was traveling and forging share that passion was a friendships that will go dream come true.” beyond the days we shared “Turkey has been high on in Turkey,” were among the my list for years,” said highlights according to Goldberg. “This was the Paskowitz. opportunity of a lifetime.” For Lee Needelman, active For Paskowitz, the Niagara with Women of Spirit since Foundation trip was her first 2001 and a member of In the ancient city of Ephesus, Howard and Lee Needelman Rita Paskowitz and her companion, Virgil Coate, visited visit to Turkey as it was for Project Interfaith’s Advisory also traveled to Turkey on the trip, sponsored by the Niagara Cappadocia, famous for its caves. The rock formations are the Goldbergs and called fairy chimneys. Council since its beginning, Foundation of Nebraska. Needelmans. One evening in “the number one highlight,” which she was not expect- profit organization founded by a group of businessmen particular stands out in Paskowitz’s mind. ing, but “will never forget, was meeting the wonderful in Chicago in 1997, NES is dedicated to innovation and “All of us sat around a table over a late supper to talk participants as well as our guide. I really hope our expe- revitalization in education. about what we would like to see happen in Omaha in rience together may lead to lifelong friendships.” Her In response to unrest in the world and in cooperation terms of interfaith dialogue and relations. It was honest, husband, Howard, a physician at the University of with Chicago area organizations and universities, the open, and enlightening. I look forward to doing it Nebraska Medical Center, agreed that the people he was Niagara Foundation is dedicated to promoting the again.” She also appreciated “being in a country with with and met were highlights of the trip. development of human values, bringing together thou- such a rich and varied history and learning about a culDavid Goldberg first became interested in tri-faith sands of people from different communities and ethnic ture so far removed from my own.” relationships when Dr. Richard Freund, formerly with backgrounds. NFON organized its first two trips to Other unique memories were walking through the the University of Nebraska-Omaha and now at the Turkey this year as a means of building bridges and ruins of Ephesus; spending time with local students in University of Hartford, envisioned an effort among strengthening friendships between East and West. Afyon “who added so much color and texture to our Omaha’s Jews, Christians, and Muslims to promote eduDr. Ferhat Ozturk, vice president of NFON, said, visit;” overlooking Cappadocia’s Fairy Chimneys, cation, understanding, and dialogue. “There were more than 30 to 35 applicants” to go on “capped spears of stone punctuated by caves rising from David’s wife, Wendy, program director at Temple the excursions to Turkey which more than met “our tar- the valley below;” and chatting with a Turkish man at a Israel, later stepped in to an active role on the board of get of about ten to 15 for each group. Long-time friend- bazaar “whose incredibly good English allowed us to the Omaha Tri-Faith Initiative of which Temple is a ships have been established,” believes Ozturk, a native of have a mutually enlightening conversation about both member. “‘Back of the bus’ discussions with fellow trav- Turkey who has been in the United States for six years. our countries.” Seeing King David’s sword, Moses’ rod, elers on religion, faith, politics, education, and more” He is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Eppley Joseph’s turban, and Abraham’s saucepan at the musewere likewise highlights of the trip for David. These Institute for Cancer. um in Topkapi reminded Paskowitz of “the closeness of resulted “in friendships I will treasure forever.” He added that “the best part was the village” the Judaism and Islam.” Sponsored by the Niagara Foundation of Nebraska Americans visited. “Our guests had a chance to meet Continued on page 35
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 35
Summer trip to Turkey
two types of cheese. There were always quartered tomatoes -- bright red -- and peeled cucumbers” along with bread, hardboiled eggs in their shells, and triangles of watermelon.” A big bowl of tangy yogurt, “much richer than the plain variety found in the States,” meat options, and in some hotels, Corn Flakes and Coco Puffs were available.” Food was always plentiful and delicious, agreed the Needelmans. “We always had a clean and comfortable hotel waiting for us,” added Lee. “One was a spa offering Turkish bath, sauna, and the works.” In restaurants, eggplant, other vegetables, cheese pizza, and several types of salad could be found on every table. As for dessert, “Let it suffice to say that I never met a Turkish dessert I didn’t like,” admitted Paskowitz. “Women were advised to never wear shorts and to have our shoulders covered if we were scheduled to attend a mosque. No low, provocative necklines either. Each of us brought scarves to cover our heads. I made a point of wearing sandals,” Paskowitz a d d e d , “which were the easiest shoes to r e m o v e when going into a place of worship. For the most part, I dressed the same as I do at home -comfortably David Goldberg, right, a participant on an intercultural friendship tour to casual.” Turkey in June, shared stories and gifts near the Church of the Father with For the new friends he met in Istanbul. Needelmans, Goldberg was also impressed by the “the sights were wonderful,” said Lee. generosity of the hosts including one “The caves above and below ground in who removed art from the wall of his Cappadocia were a wonderful, fanciful own home and presented it as a gift to a surprise, of practical purpose to the origperson on the tour. inal creators and residents. Being in When encountering Turkish people on Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia when the rain the streets, “they were friendly and cour- came thundering down gave us a chance teous, and occasionally members of our to linger and make that huge space our group initiated dialogue” with those own.” “who enjoyed the contact with us, the “This trip to Turkey,” concluded chance to try out their English, share Paskowitz, “showed me an openness of their laughter, and make a connection.” mind that I would otherwise never have When language was a barrier, Lee said, realized. Turkey was not on the top of my “we still enjoyed communicating in list of countries to visit and yet, because whatever way we could,” even if it was of this amazing opportunity, I felt eager simply a “high five!” to learn about everything that came my “I only met extraordinary Turkish citi- way. We were often asked what people in zens,” noted Goldberg, “extraordinarily America think about Turkey, and I never generous, friendly, curious, bright and had the heart to admit that most of us happy. Children, seniors, and many in never think of Turkey at all. For me, that between expressed an honest interest in has changed, because I now think of it as us, in the U.S. and our politics, in busi- a vibrant place, steeped in history, with a ness and much more.” thriving faith.” The Americans accompanied their new Goldberg agreed that “the rich history, Turkish acquaintances to a mosque. “It culture, and faith of Turkey and its peowas an honor to be present as others ple represent a unique place, overflowing prayed,” noted Paskowitz. Later, when with pride, gratitude, and faith” visiting a family ... they, like everyone we We got along with the other people on met, wanted to talk about Obama to let the tour “very well,” acknowledged us know how much they admired him. Howard Needelman. “I think we all were Spending time with these people made always very respectful of each other.” me feel that I was actually having a real “I think the trip normalized Islam for Turkish experience -- something...not me,” commented Lee Needelman. “The found in any guidebook. It was one of warmth of our relationships with the peothe high points of my trip.” ple who went on the trip was a wonderful As for the food, Paskowitz especially surprise. We were able to have some enjoyed “the perfect cherries bought by interfaith dialogue, and I think we did our driver from one of the hundreds of begin to bridge new understandings, roadside stands and the huge mulberries appreciating our similarities, and respect... that were sweeter than I could have ing our differences. I hope we made new imagined.” friends forever as I really came to love my Everywhere they went, “we had a typi- fellow travelers and that we can continue cal Turkish breakfast buffet consisting of to dialogue together openly and deepen at least two types of olives and at least our discussions and friendships.”
Continued from page 34 Two English instructors and four high school-age students “met us at our hotel with roses and boundless enthusiasm,” Paskowitz continued. “We ate lunch together at a lovely buffet, and the bravest of the four did her best to converse with us. Their tutor was a lovely and quite well-spoken young woman who made it a point to tell us that covering her head was her own choice -- not something decreed from on high.” “Several opportunities for us to meet Turkish citizens” were set up by the Niagara Foundation and the trip planners, explained Lee Needelman. She also mentioned the high school girls who she described as “wonderful, fun, enthusiastic, and excited to meet travelers from the United States. They and their teacher initiated meaningful conversations with us.” Two families joined us at different dinners, staying with us and enjoying conversation throughout the meals.” They “couldn’t have been more pleasant, warm and welcoming,” Lee said.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
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reinforced at summer camp -- fairness, teamwork, and respect for others, pride and self-confidence, the importance of tradition, a sense of belonging to a community. A show about camping is not history lite, but history LIVED!” [tinyurl.com/4vcbdh] Understanding what camp really is like can be daunting for parents especially if they never had the opportu-
Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh, Here I am at Camp Granada. Camp is very entertaining, And they say we’ll have some fun if it stops raining. [tinyurl.com/49az2d] Whether you went to Camp Herzl, Camp Ramah, Camp Moshava... or comedian Allan Sherman’s fabled “Camp Granada,” nothing can compare to those long summer days and bug-filled nights at summer camp.
Photos from top left: At Camp Esther K. Newman in 1963, Janet Lipsey and an unidentified camper dress up for costume day; also dressing up at Esther K were, back row: Susan Rips (Paley), left, unidentified, Jim Novak, John Lohrman, middle row: unidentified; front row: Janis Friedman (Yale), Steve Hoberman, Carol Adler (Shovers); at right: Rachel Javitch, left, Sara Gordon, Anne Muskin, Rini Gonsher, Leah Raful and Tony Endelman were Camp Herzl staff, in the summer of 2000; Jeff Katzman, fourth from left, Zach Gonsher, back row center, Ben Gonsher second from right, were Herzl campers in 1992. As your kids count down the days until next summer and their return to Sabra, Schwayder or Beber, here’s a look at some summer camp memories. Dina Fuchs owes a lot to her summer camp. Her existence. Dina’s parents met at a Jewish camp. And Dina continued her family’s connection to the camp when she packed up at the tender age of seven. But for Dina, things didn’t start off too well: “To me, camp was like a Jewish juvenile detention center.” Eventually, things changed and now she looks back fondly at those years. “My camp memories still sneak up on me once in awhile. One day, I was walking to my car after a rain storm and I caught a whiff of that sweet grass-soaked fragrance that lingers after a summer downpour. And in that instant, I was carried back to those sleepy mornings where I stood shivering in the dewy field at Camp Judaea -- standing with my hands folded behind me, singing Hatikvah.’” [tinyurl.com/2haq9j] A few summers ago, Contact, The Journal of Jewish Life Network, devoted an entire issue to Jewish Summer Camps: Our Precious Resource. If you love camp or want to understand more about it, do yourself a favor and download this lovely 16-page magazine. [tinyurl.com/6875uw] As you scan the web, it actually is fascinating to note how many scholarly studies you’ll find that have examined the importance of camping in Jewish life. One that keeps on coming up is “Limud by the Lake: Fulfilling the Educational Potential of Jewish Summer Camps.” [tinyurl.com/5n9wb8] Given its role in North American Jewish life, it shouldn’t be that surprising that the Jewish Museum of Maryland decided to focus on the summertime ritual. The museum’s Avi Decter explains that for many Jews, “the fundamental values we acquired came from or were
nity to experience it themselves when they were young. If you’re in that category and your kids are about to set off, then hitch a ride with Amy Baskin. As the mother of a child at Camp George in Parry Sound, Ontario, [george.urjcamps.org] she knows the drill. In Scenes from Summer Camp, she’s written a sneak-peak tour for those who don’t: • About the cabins: The camp cabin is a social microcosm where lifelong friendships are forged and every night is a slumber party. Try to ignore the lingering odor of wet towels and grubby socks. • The canoe trip: On canoe trips, kids experience the wonder of time slowing down. After a hard day’s paddle, a group of usually hyperkinetic 11-year-olds sit silently on a rock transfixed as a beaver swims back and forth gathering sticks for a dam. • The counselors: Kids think counselors are like parents -- only cool. [tinyurl.com/5ttxn2] Camp is not only a special time for kids but also for the parents they left stranded back in the city. Stay on the same webpage for Parents do the Darndest Things. Let’s just say that this story hits a bit too close to home: “To his profound embarrassment, one 12-year-old camper opened his trunk and discovered his mom had packed all his clothes in 14 separate zip-top bags. As he was to be at camp for two weeks, there were 14 pairs of socks, 14 pairs of underwear, 14 T-shirts -- one complete outfit per bag.” Allan Sherman’s fictional “Hello Muddah” camper has nothing on the very real Joshua Hammerman. Recently the rabbi pulled out some of his own genuine camp letters from when he was 10. Here’s one: “Dear Folks, I REALLY am sad now. I need more food because I haven’t had anything to eat. My swimming teacher is making me jump into the water but I don’t want to. I’m scared of putting my clothes into the laundry because I’ll lose them and they’ll come back different colors. Send ear plugs.” Continued on page 39
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 37
Omaha teens return from ARTZA trip to Israel by ANDI GORDMAN On June 17, a group of teens from Omaha embarked on a journey of a lifetime to Israel. The delegation was led by Corey Kirshenbaum, Tamar Halevy and Jodi Lerner. Halevy, Omaha’s community shlicha, said, “Seeing my home through the eyes of the teens was an extraordinary experience. I myself had the opportunity to rediscover Israel like I never did. She added, “I think that the beauty of Israel lies in the fact that each and every one us has the ability to connect with this wonderful country and its people in many different ways.
Burrell, Sam Weinstine, Jeff Libov, Laura Gilinsky, Molly Gilinsky, Rachel Saferstein, Marlee Skolkin, Chloe Heyman, and Michelle Elkin. The group’s experience started in Jerusalem watching the city prepare for Shabbat and a visit to the Wall. This was Lindsey Thomas’ favorite part of the trip. “I thought the most meaningful part of the trip was when we went to the Kotel for Shabbat because when we got there we saw all of the Israeli soldiers and everyone was
Photos from top left: At Akko's port, during a weekend in the Western Galilee, Omaha’s Partnership with Israel area, are Rachel Meyer, left, Lindsey Thomas, Laura Gilinsky, and Sam Weinstein; at Chawarim Stream in the Negev Heights, Jeff Libov, left, Sam Monsky, Haley Gordman, Sam Weinstine, Sam Burrel, Rachel Saferstein, Alex Kirshenbaum, Chloe Heyman, Mitchel Raznick, Lindsey Thomas, Corey Kirshenbaum, Marlee Skolkin, Michele Elkin, Anna Grossman, Rachel Meyer, Sam Kohll, Molly Gilinsky, Talia Simon and Laura Gilinsky jump for a group shot; Snorkeling in the Red Sea in Eilat are Rachel Saferstein, left, Marlee Skolkin, and Chloe Heyman.
dancing,” she said. After experiencing their first Shabbat in Israel, the group spent the day learning the history of the city -- from ancient times to its current modern day existence. Their next stop was an archeological dig, followed by visit to a Bedouin tent in the Negev desert. In the Negev, they also rapelled down a crater and rode camels. Massada, the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi National park were next on the itinerary. After another Shabbat in Jerusalem, the group traveled north to Beit Shean to visit one of the most important cities in ancient times. Up next was Safed, the center for Kaballah, and then on to the Golan Heights -- to learn not only about the historical significance of this area but why it continues to be important in these times. Omaha’s teens were hosted by the families of the Israeli teens who were in Omaha in February as part of the Federation’s Partnership with Israel in the Western Galilee.
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The teens said it was one of the highlights of the trip. Halevy noted that she “watched the teens developing throughout this extended and intense experience. I truly believe that everyone of them have established a long living connection to Israel, and hopefully will choose to come back in the future and continue their journey to Israel and their Jewish identity.” After a visit to a Druze village and learning about the people in this area, it was on to Eilat for some fun in the sun. After exploring the Tel Aviv area, the group participated in Shabbat services near the beach. “I really enjoyed Israel with the Artza program. It was a lot of fun. My favorite parts were all the beautiful beaches,” said Talia Simon. The group headed back to Jerusalem to participate in a day of activities with teens from other JCC groups. Omaha’s group was proud to report that even though they were the smallest delegation, they came in first in the competition. The trip concluded with a trip to Yad Vashem, the National Holocaust memorial and to Independence Hall in Tel Aviv. The group also participated in community service programs with Yad Sarah by repairing wheelchairs and with Table to Table by picking vegetables. One of the other highlights of the trip was attending the opening ceremonies of the International Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv. Little did they know that Omahan Hannah Wolf, a former basketball player at Grinnell University, would be playing with Team USA! When asked what she liked best about the trip, Laura Gilinsky said, “I couldn’t narrow it down to one thing. The whole trip was an amazing experience. But if I had to say one thing, I think I was really blown away how all this history was right there and how much of it made me feel more tied to being a Jew.” After their return, ARTZA adviser Corey Kirshenbaum commented, “The trip was really fantastic from the beginning to the end due to the excitement of the teens that went on the trip. We are lucky to have such a supportive community that gives dollars to make sure that our Omaha teens get to Israel.” Molly Gilinsky added, “I would love to go back to Israel with my family; hopefully that will happen soon. I also would love to go to school for a semester or year in Israel.” Added Talia Simon, “I now feel like I have a better understanding in my Jewish heritage.” Continued on page 38
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Page 38
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
Omaha teens in Israel
Photos from left: At the Maccabiah Chai (18th) opening ceremonies are ARTZA staff Corey Kirshenbaum, left, Jodi Lerner, and Tamar Halevy; Swimming at Ein Gedi are Sam Monsky, clockwise left, Rachel Saferstein, Laura Gilinsky, Mitchel Raznick, Molly Gilinsky and Rachel Meyer; Riding camels at Chavat Nokdim are Haley Gordman, left, Michelle Elkin, Sam Monsky, Mitchel Raznick, Rachel Meyer, Anna Grossman, Chloe Heyman, and Molly Gilinsky.
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September 18, 2009
Summer camp nostalgia
Continued from page 36 But then Rabbi Hammerman continues, “What’s funny is that I actually loved camp -- even that first year -- because I discovered there what children have been discovering about summer camp for decades, and what Jews have known for millennia: When you leave home, you can reinvent yourself.” He then draws the parallel of how Abraham had to leave his home in order to found a new faith. And later, when Jews were sent into exile in Babylon, they were forced to examine themselves and create new national institutions. [tinyurl.com/5x8wbx] Those are big shoes for a summer camp to fill. But what Jewish activity has the
Right: Also in 1958, Howard Kooper was the counselor at Camp JCC for Barney Baron, left, Steve Luttbeg, Ron Blumkin, Gerry Krantz, Bob Batt and John Jabenis. Below: At Camp JCC in 1957 are Bobbi Jo Robinson Sherman of Des Moines, Karen Gotsdiner, Cheryl Milder (Cooper), Debbie Gordman (Platt), Debbie Janov of Rock Island, IL; Counselors were Linda Veret and Hermene Davis (Zweiback).
greatest impact on campers? After interviewing over 100 professional and lay leaders involved in Jewish camping, researchers like the late Gary Tobin and Meryle Weinstein think they found the answer: Shabbat. Brian Greene of Camp Ramah in California agrees. “Beginning Friday afternoon, the camp is cleaned, and campers prepare themselves to put on their best. Our campers prepare ‘Shabbat-o-grams,’” wishing each other a good Shabbat. “Our children are inspired by that and look for ways to take it home.” [tinyurl.com/6x7fbh] If you ever spent a summer at camp and want to relive those long ago joys (and traumas) then don’t miss The Girls of Summer by Geraldine Sherman. Sherman was a camper at Camp Kawagama in the 1950s in northern Ontario. Her story begins as she and her childhood friends
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 39
L’SHANA TOVA Left photo: In 1958, Bobbie Adler (Epstein), was a counselor at Camp JCC for campers Carmela Frienrich, left, Beth Novak, Debby Fromkin, Judy Sloan, and Marcie Kaiser; below left: performing in the 1950s at Camp JCC were Justin Horwich, left, Adrienne Rice, Jack B. Cohen, Phyllis Bernstein, Don Rice and Leah Cohen; at the Esther K. Newman Camp in 1973, counselors Esad Colakovic (of Yugoslavia), left, Larry Hurwitz of Sioux Falls, SD, and Aquatics Director Gary Javitch (who had recently arrived from Cleveland, OH) were on staff. Photos courtesy of Cheryl Cooper and the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society.
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8712 Countryside Plaza • Omaha,NE 68114 (Countryside Village • 87th & Pacific) attend the funeral of their beloved camp director. With the help of the Girls of Cabin 22, she looks at how a summer camp almost half a century away molded who they are today. Even the picture on the website of Geraldine Sherman and the Kawagamite girls in their plaid shirts and broad grins will bring smiles and a touch of melancholy to anyone who’s been there and done that. [tinyurl.com/2dbgav] What is it about Camp Kawagama that exercises this lifelong hold (or at least turns out some great journalists)? Sam Levene spent six summers there long ago and after he grew up and became a producer at CBC Radio, he decided to try to understand the magic. You can listen in on his trek back to Kawagama Island (and other camps too.) [tinyurl.com/4ueqdy] For Rebecca Ets-Hokin, memories of summer camp include a not so delicious recollection of summer camp meals. “My dining hall memories include rubbery scrambled eggs, warm Kool-Aid and unappetizing stews.” Although food has improved considerably since then, it seems Ets-Hokin feels no generation should be deprived of the classic. So she collected recipes for campers’ favorites like Max’s Meat Loaf, Tomato Sauce, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Deborah Newburn’s Fruit Crisp. You can rest easy if you don’t have 400 mouths to feed in your dining hall. She’s adapted the recipes to feed eight. [tinyurl.com/2ay2hj] How to wash all that down? Bug juice, of course. Phyllis Wilson’s recipe for the classic summertime beverage calls for flavored drink mix, sugar and “red food coloring if you feel a little sadistic” but no bugs. “Serve over ice if you want it cold. Serve with fleishig sandwiches, either on a picnic table under a shelter (day camp) or at long wooden tables with benches in a room with a screen door leading to a flag circle (overnight camp.)” [tinyurl.com/2aflw3] To all campers (and former campers), hope you had a marvelous and safe summer! Mark Mietkiewicz is a Toronto-based Internet producer who writes, lectures and teaches about the Jewish Internet. He can be reached at highway@rogers.com.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
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by GLORIA SHUKERT JONES speakers, Dr. Michael Wilschanski and Dr. While many large organizations have Eiten Kerem who will describe their been affected adversely by the economic research in Cystic Fibrosis. The event is downturn, it’s business as usual at the by invitation to donors of $1,000 or Upper Midwest Regional Office, even more. though some cost-saving measures have The national organization held its been necessary. The Regional office has annual business meeting in New Orleans moved to a new home this summer, locat- in mid-July. ed at 5905 Golden Valley Rd., Suite 237, Carol Rosenthal, the latest past presiGolden Valley, MN 55422. dent of the Region Office, is They are soliciting volunnow its webmaster. teers to help staff the office Press releases on the when regular staff members national scene during the are not available, or work months of June and July of two-hour shifts during the this year include; seven week. The office is open 10 Simon Rockower awards a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays received by Hadassah through Thursdays, and Magazine, winning first closed on Fridays. place in Feature Writing; first and second place in both Those who visit the Excellence in Personality Region website are warmly Profiles and in Photography, welcomed by the Region’s Region president and second place in Single new president, Judy Judy Edwards Edwards, who gives several examples of the various reasons members have joined Hadassah. For some, the objective was personal. They joined for health education, and stayed for Zionism. Some had political motivations, and stayed for the friendships they made. For some, it was about the past. They joined for their mother, and stayed for their grandchildren. And for others it was about the future. They Attending the July, 2003, National Hadassah convention: joined when Hadassah was Sarene Silver, past Upper Midwest president, left, Georgia young, and stayed to see it Ann Steinberg, Sandra Kohll, Beth Gaines Ginsberg, and grow and link their name to Debby Jewitt, then president of the Upper Midwest Region. Commentary and Personal Essays. The Israel’s future and that of its people. Says Edwards, “Whether you are inter- magazine can now be read adjunctively ested in meeting new people, advocating on the internet, which can offer substanon issues important to you, learning tial savings on printing, paper and mailing about Israel and our projects there, or costs. Subscribers will still receive their helping to grow our region in member- hard copies bi-monthly instead of every ship or development, we all share certain month. Hadassah has again received a four-star important values in common.” Edwards stated that these values have been passed rating from Charity Navigator, America’s on by our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, largest independent evaluator of charities. Thanks to generous donations from aunts, friends and teachers, and that we’ve been blessed by this shared legacy members and advocates around the world, the Sarah Wetsman Davidson that we can continue to pass on. The Upper Midwest Region presently Tower at Hadassah Medical Center in Ein consists of active chapters in Cedar Kerem, Jerusalem is still a work in Rapids, Iowa City, and Sioux City, in progress and construction continues Iowa; Lake Superior, Minneapolis, St. around the clock. Since security is of the utmost imporCloud and St. Paul in Minnesota; Lincoln and Omaha; Fargo, North Dakota, and tance, 20 surgical operating theaters will be Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Members located underground. The Tower is schedgather in groups and chapters to partici- uled to be dedicated in 2012, and will be pate in its many activities, from social the first to unite advanced medical technolinteraction to Hadassah’s life-enriching ogy with a spirit of profound healing. For other National Hadassah news work. Some of the social events include Mah Jongg, book clubs, study groups, headlines, log on to the website, dinner clubs, “Read to Me” or “Ivrit www.Hadassah.org. Here at the Omaha Chapter, President L’Hadassah” programs, as well as leaderGeorgia Ann Steinberg and board memship development training. Minneapolis Chapter member, bers are brainstorming ideas for the comMaureen Davis, was appointed to a newly ing year’s activities and events. Plans are created position as Region Office underway to increase membership and Coordinator, by President Judy Edwards. participation in projects and social getDavis was instrumental in the move to the togethers. In addition to its annual membership new office, and will be overseeing its operations. She will be responsible for drives and fundraisers, board members recruiting and scheduling volunteers. For are considering other activities to genertraining purposes, she has developed a ate more interest, both on a charitable and social level, and plan to participate in Region Office procedures manual. Davis has served as president of the the “Adopt A Family” program again this Scopus Group of the Minneapolis year, through “Project Dreidel”, sponChapter, Region Corresponding sored by Jewish Family Service. As in previous years, the Omaha Secretary, Chapter Recording Secretary and Co-Chair of the 2008 Big Gifts Chapter will have a Hanukkah party and Dinner. She is a life member of Hadassah Spring luncheon, as well as other social and a member of the Circle of Founders. gatherings. Hadassah members look forThis year’s Big Gifts Event will be a ward to meeting with the new president brunch held on Oct. 18, and will feature and staff of the Upper Midwest Region.
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 41
No rest for NCJW volunteers during summer
Board installed at the event includes: However, the top task for the group was to determine by TIPPI DENENBERG AND TINA MEYERS Co-Presidents: Andee Scioli and Nikki Kirshenbaum; which of the NCJW’s many forms of social assistance On June 24, the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) Omaha Section held an Installation and Awards Community Service Vice-Presidents: Roxanne Kahn and would take precedence. After careful consideration, this Ceremony to welcome the 2009-10 board and to honor Marcy Ruback; Public Affairs/Education VP: Sara Juster year’s NCJW Board focus was narrowed to the following the past year’s award winners. Public Relations: Tippi Denenberg; Membership VPs: projects: The event was a progressive kitchen tour with appetiz- Jaime Nogg and Wendy Raffel; Fundraising VP: Vicki • Maintaining the current Community Service Project ers at the home of Sharee and Murray Newman, fol- Sanford; Treasurer: Beth Friedman; Financial Secretary: Schedule* while expanding each program to reach the lowed by desserts and the installation/awards program Julie Martin; Corresponding Secretary: Cheryl Lerner; maximum number of children, including Dictionary at the home of Carol and Day, R.A.F.T. (Resources Steve Bloch. The familial yet Available for Teens), Totes festive feel of the event was a for Tots and Teens, Reading fitting match for the grassPups, Mini Grants for roots organization that has Teachers and Adopt-aaddressed the unique and School. *Note: the current vast needs of local women, NCJW directory has information explaining what all children, and families since these programs are, pages 1896. 19-20. The NCJW volunteers • Continuing advocacy who were honored for their programs, such as Lobby service to the Section were: Day, and expanding efforts Emerging Leader Award to advocate for other issues winner Wendy Raffel, and such as children’s education Distinguished Service Award and ensuring individual winner Shelly Pichik. Raffel was honored for her Above: New board members for Omaha Friedman, Pam Friedlander, Andee Scioli, mother-in-law and Andee’s mother, Kate rights and freedoms. ‘potential for assuming Section of the National Council of Jewish Vicki Sanford, Wendy Raffel, Nikki Kirshenbaum, left, and Pam Friedlander; • Developing new memfuture section leadership,’ Women for 2009-10 include, front row: Kirshenbaum, Debbie Friedman, Roxanne below right: Shelly Pichik, Distinguished bership events to recruit new and as someone who ‘under- Tippi Denenberg, left, Jaime Nogg, Cheryl Kahn and Patty Nogg; below left: Co- Service Award recipient, left, and her co- members and to get our stands and supports the Lerner; back row: Dottie Rosenblum, Lori Presidents Nikki Kirshenbaum and Andee president, Tina Meyers, served for two members together to talk about current events and NCJW purpose and pro- Kooper-Schwarz, Kate Kirshenbaum, Beth Scioli, center, were installed by Nikki’s years. upcoming issues that NCJW grams, and demonstrates is or will be addressing. commitment to the section.’ • Re-vamp our current The Emerging Leadership fundraising activities to find Award began at the NCJW events that will excite our national level to allow each members and community, as Section to pay tribute to a well as raise funds to support member new to the NCJW our important programs. scene who shows great • Remind our membership promise. There are approxito support our Tribute mately 100 sections in the Funds, which provide fundU.S. which in total serve ing for the Rose Blumkin over 500 communities. Jewish Home, Special “The NCJW puts ideals into action without discrimination -- we are out there Recording Secretary: Pam Friedlander; Parliamentarians: Services for the Physically & Visually Impaired, Children helping both Jews and non-Jews,” said Raffel. “Our Debbie Friedman and Dottie Rosenblum; Directors: & Youth (which supports our Community Service procommunity is strengthened by the work we do. These Lori Kooper-Schwarz, Melissa Stern, Patty Nogg, grams), and NCJW in Israel. The new presidents commented, “For so many years, [NCJW programs] are social obligations we can not fail Michelle Hoberman, and Kate Kirshenbaum; Omaha’s Section of NCJW has truly improved the qualto perform.” Nominating Committee Chair: Joanie Jacobson The Distinguished Service Award recognizes a dediThe new Co-Presidents, Andee Scioli and Nikki ity of life for women, children, and families in our comcated NCJW member who volunteers with a willingness Kirshenbaum, kicked off the 2009-2010 year with the munity and in Israel. We are very grateful for the comto work at any level. Shelly received the honor to mark first board meeting at the home of Kate Kirshenbaum on munity's continuing support and enthusiasm for our her years of outstanding service, in addition to her loyal- July 28th where the board members determined their outstanding programs and events.” Want to get involved? Call Andee at 212.8577 or ty, commitment, and impact on the Omaha Section. meeting schedule and learned about their respective Nikki at 651.9754. The new 2009-10 NCJW Omaha section NCJW roles from the previous year’s out-going members.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
ADL uses summer to prepare for yet another year
by THERESE VAUGHN-WEINER Anti-Defamation League Plains States A kindergartener says to her African American friend, “You’ve got funny hair.” A 10-year-old calls a book the class is reading, “so totally gay.” A sixth-grader asks his Jewish lab partner, “Did you guys really kill Jesus?” A couple of high school students warn a Latino classmate to: “Speak ‘American’ or go back to Mexico.” A college student equates the Israel-Palestinian conflict with South African apartheid during a class debate and the professor agrees. Prejudice is learned early -- as early as playground politics -- but according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), it also can be unlearned. That’s the cornerstone principle behind the nearly centuryold civil rights agency and its award-winning anti-bias education programs. Over the years, the ADL Plains States Regional Office has made education a key priority in advancing its mission of combating prejudice and fostering respect. This past year was no exception. “While we’re on the frontlines fighting extremism and hate, we’re also working to stop hate from taking root in the first place,” Education Associate Jessica Gall said. “This requires that we help kids of all ages learn to value other people, their common human dignity and their unique differences.” Gall, who joined the ADL regional staff in 2008, looks back at the year’s education efforts and the ways they’ve impacted kids and schools throughout the community. Here are a few: Prejudice Elimination Workshop Last year, nearly 250 high school students from Greater Omaha came together to participate in the ADL’s 22nd annu-
al Prejudice Elimination Workshop (PEW). The intensive and interactive seminar challenges teens to destruct their own hidden (or not so hidden) biases and build connections with people of all races, faiths, economic conditions, personal backgrounds. Made possible through a grant from the Murray H. and Sharee C. Newman Supporting Foundation, PEW isn’t called a “workshop” for nothing. Participants are required to roll up their mental sleeves and work hard to overcome stereotypes, habits of exclusion, hurtful language and indifference. It isn’t easy. One student from Roncalli High School struggled with reconciling her religious beliefs with the issue of same-sex marriage: “So many religions say [being gay] is a sin, but I don’t believe that government should be able to Jessica Gall accompanied the Youth Leadership tell people who they can’t marry.” Mission trip to Washington, D.C. last spring. “The point of PEW is to inform minds Boys and Hillside Elementary School celnot to change them,” Gall said. “Also, ebrated their prestigious designation as a the workshop can transform hearts just by NPFH community with banner cerebringing together diverse kids from most monies. Students at both schools first signed a every school district in the city so they resolution pledging to fight prejudice and can talk about these tough issues. When foster understanding. They then develdo you see adults in the neighborhood or oped and participated in several projects at the office do this? PEW is a terrific designed to confront bigotry in the classopportunity for Omaha’s youth.” ® room, on the field and across campus. No Place for Hate (NPFH) One student led a campaign against the Another nationally-recognized ADL “R-word,” helping his peers understand program, No Place for Hate® (NPFH) empowers and inspires schools to develop the harm that the ignorant anti-disability a climate of safety, respect and inclusion. term can cause. Next year, students at ADL Plains States brought the innovative Creighton Prep will be meeting with North High School students for an interprogram to several area schools last year. Creighton Preparatory High School for group exchange between the schools.
From our family to yours during the High Holy Days. May you and your loved ones have a new year that is blessed with love, happiness, prosperity and peace!
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“We congratulate Creighton Prep, Hillside and all the schools that have undertaken this challenge. Receiving the NPFH title is a little like winning the championship game; both can bring home a spirit of hard-earned pride,” ADL Regional Director Alan Potash said. Tribute to the Rescuers Essay Contest Offered through ADL and the Institute for Holocaust Education, this year’s annual Tribute to the Rescuers Essay Contest challenged a new batch of local youth to use the Holocaust as a lens through which to explore issues of humanity, moral courage and history. With subjects spanning continents and epochs, the essays all attest to the power of Holocaust education to help young people learn about individuals who have stood up against the dark forces of history and what that has meant for future generations. Among the winning essay subjects was Professor Liviu Librescu, a 76-year-old Holocaust survivor, who sacrificed his life to save his students in the 2008 massacre at Virginia Tech College. All the students’ essays were celebrated at a special awards ceremony last spring. Cyberbullying: Understanding and Addressing Online Cruelty With more than 40 percent of teens reporting online bullying, ADL’s newest education programs address the growing problem of electronic cruelty. The Plains States Office hosted several cyberbullying prevention workshops for educators and administrators last year. Participants learned how today’s technology is being misused to humiliate and harass beyond the classroom and the school-day. Continued on page 43
Annual meetings are a summer tradition for NJHS
by RENEE CORCORAN Director, Nebraska Jewish Historical Society Since the summer of 2002 the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society has held annual meetings inviting the entire community to participate in programs of historical value and interest. Also part of the meetings are the Installation of board officers and new board members. Right: Mary Fellman and Louise Abramson at Annual Meeting in June 2002. Below: Rabbis of Nebraska Exhibit , 2002.
Left: Ben Nachman receives the Shirley Berman Award from Board President, Louise Abrahamson, 2002. In June of 2002, the Society celebrated Mary Fellman’s 85th birthday and opened “Remember Our Rabbis”, a permanent exhibit in the JCC corridor. Dr. Ben Nachman was given the NJHS Shirley Berman Volunteer Award for his many hours of interviewing the elders of the Jewish community.
Linda Mann, Bob Belgrade, and Sandra Belgrade attended the annual meeting on Aug. 24, 2003. In the summer of 2003 the NJHS presented Louise Abrahamson with the Volunteer Award for her years of dedicated service and her legacy of preserving the history of our community.
Joanie Bernstein, left, presented the award to Ellie Batt, right, and Janice and Bob Batt at the annual meeting honoring Frances Batt who received first the Mary Fellman award on Aug. 7, 2005. A new award was established by the NJHS the summer of 2005. The first Mary Fellman Award was given to an individual, family or organization that recognizes the qualities of leadership, compassion and service impacting the history of the Jewish people in Nebraska and Western Iowa. In August of 2005, the first Mary Fellman Award was given to Frances Batt. Due to her failing health, members of the Batt family attended the meeting and received the award on her behalf. Continued on page 44
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 43
ADL uses summer to prepare Continued from page 42 “The psychology of cyberbullying is uniquely harmful because of its invasive and pervasive nature,” ADL Education Associate Jessica Gall said. “When bullies can harass someone anonymously, they don’t need to see their victim’s face crumple in pain. This diminishes the chance for empathy.” For Nebraska schools, responding to cyberbullying is more than a good idea; it’s the law. In 2008, the state passed legislation requiring schools to adopt clear policies on bullying – in or out of school and on or off-line. The ADL offers legal advice to help educators stand up to the problem without overstepping freedom of speech rights. Robert B. Sturm Youth Leadership Mission Over the past decade, nearly 200 local high school students have taken a life-altering journey through the Robert B. Sturm Youth Leadership Mission to Washington D.C. and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Representing a mosaic of creeds, complexions and backgrounds, the young people examine historic and modern issues of prejudice, injustice and moral courage so that they can become positive agents of change. The program requires a year-long commitment and challenges participants to take the lead at their schools and wider communities. “The 2009 delegation was a great mix of kids,” Gall said. “They each brought their own unique stories to this program.” Anti-Bias Education for Kids in Detention With 33% of all known hate crime offenders under age 18, the ADL understands that addressing biases and bigotry among today’s teens is critical. This is why the Plains States office is leading anti-bias workshops for youth at area juvenile detention centers.
Participants, typically 12 through 18-years-old, have a chance to talk about issues of prejudice and tolerance which, for many of them, have personal relevance. Using a results-based curriculum and experiential methods, ADL’s education staff help the teens open up about their own unconscious stereotypes, including self-demeaning attitudes. The youth also learn about different cultural backgrounds and perspectives through empathy-building exercises. “We are pleased to be able to bring anti-bias education to kids who are in the juvenile corrections system,” Potash said. “It is so important to foster respect and prosocial behavior among young people who have seen little of both.” Confronting Anti-Semitism on Campus ADL Plains States is equipping college-bound Jewish students with the skills they need to effectively respond to anti-Semitism on campus. Through interactive workshops, the Confronting Anti-Semitism Program helps kids challenge stereotypes and rising anti-Israel sentiment. Since the recent conflict in Gaza, the ADL has noted a surge of anti-Israel activity on college campuses including hate rallies evoking the Holocaust; incidents of vandalism, extremist speech and harassment; calls for divestment and boycotts; observance of “Israel Apartheid Week;” and one-sided panel discussions, seminars and academic tracks of inquiry. “This program is most timely. Today’s college students need information, support and the tools to protect themselves,” Potash said. Also available to campus Hillels and student groups is ADL’s Fighting Back: A Handbook for Responding to Anti-Israel Rallies on College and University Campuses. For more information on ADL Plains States education programs, contact Jessica Gall at 402.333.1303 or jgall@adl.org.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
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The summer of ’42 BERT’S EYE VIEW by BERT LEWIS It was such a very long time, ago I’m wondering if I can trust my memory. Unfortunately, most all of the key people involved in my memory are no longer available to either confirm, correct or deny my memories. However, I’ve committed to telling this story and if it contains errors, you won’t know anyway, so let’s have a shot at it. The block of time is important, so we won’t make any mistakes about that. It was definitely summer, it was vacation time and it was the year I celebrated my 17th birthday. It was 1942. The actual birthday was (and still is!) in August, so early in the season is the time I’m recalling. My parents, or more likely my mom, wasn’t pleased with the job I had found for myself in downtown Omaha. She wasn’t unhappy with the idea of me working, she didn’t like the job and the fact that the location enjoyed icy cold air conditioning. It should be remembered that in 1942 air conditioning wasn’t exactly a household word or for that matter, it wasn’t a reality for most of us either. Retail stores and businesses were beginning to understand the value of making the place to spend money a comfortable, cool place to be. So, my job was in a/c heaven in my opinion. However, I managed to catch a terrible cold and was really sick. Mom was absolutely certain I got sick because I was going in and out of the cold and hot air -- alternately perspiring and freezing. She may have been right, who knows? But she was a strong willed lady and when she made up her mind about something, very little stood in her way. She wanted me to sever relations with my employer, and that was the bottom line. I believe, without anyone to confirm, she plotted and nudged until one day, Dad asked me: “How would you like to go to Los Angeles for your birthday? It would be a great chance to see your Bobie and your favorite aunt and go to the ocean” and yada, yada, yada. Of course, it was the yada yada that got me and I
agreed I’d love it. Who wouldn’t? Of course I’d have to give up my job, but I could handle that, and certainly my mom could. If you’re old enough to also recall the summer of 1942, you’ll remember the country was still reeling from the Pearl Harbor Day attack, and it was a time when Americans were newly engaged in the war. It was a frightening time for all of us, and as I think back, I know we didn’t even realize the horror that was yet to come. My brother was waiting for the mail to bring the official papers telling him when he was to report for military duty, as were all other able bodied young men and boys in the country. But me? I was more than aware of the fear that filled the eyes of my parents, but hey, I was a teen and I wasn’t really much involved. And, Dad said I could go to L.A. All by myself. What was he thinking?! Ok, back to the trip. I can’t truthfully say I remember preparations, but I’m sure they were hectic. I know my mom must have made her sewing machine hum for hours at a time, while she skillfully reproduced the summer fashions seen in the Brandeis windows. Plus, she had seen pictures of Marlene Dietreich wearing long pants! With matching jackets too. Pants, on a girl! Wide leg, bell bottom pants that really almost resembled pajamas, and Mary Wine couldn’t wait to get downtown, buy material, and make some of them for me. Oh yeah -- I was the teen “fashionista” of 1942 -- me and my pants! Which, by the way, were already in style in L.A. But I’m getting ahead of my story, so wait a minute. Back up to the getting ready part. We did all that and the day finally came when I was to leave. Remember the year? Remember the mode of transportation? The train -- and since it was my first real train ride, I was excited! My parents, who had traveled a number of times from Omaha to L.A. were experienced enough to tell me what to expect (and how to behave), but I was both very excited and scared to death. Of course, if I had been able to even guess what that ride would be like, I wouldn’t have been scared. I would have been even more anxious to get going. And truthfully, this is the part of the whole story that made me think it was something I could submit as a memorable summer experience. Continued on page 45
Annual meetings are summer tradition Continued from page 43
The 2007 NJHS annual meeting featured the photos of Gary Gerelick in an exhibit at the JCC.
In the summer of 2006 Leonard (Buddy) and Shirley Goldstein received the NJHS prestigious Mary Fellman Award for their contributions to the NJHS oral history program. The attendees of the annual meeting also were treated to an oral history video, a combination of interviews conducted by Dr. Ben Nachman.
Gary Gerelick, who could be seen taking photos at almost all Jewish community events, attended many NJHS annual meetings before his death three years ago. The 25th anniversary of NJHS was celebrated the
summer of 2007. Presentation of the Mary Fellman Award was given to the Riekes Family for their many contributions to the Society including the Henry and Dorothy Riekes Museum. Also celebrated in August of 2007 was the opening of the exhibit, “There WAS Film in the Camera”, a display of more than 500 photographs taken by the late Gary Gerelick. Another important part of our local history was presented at the NJHS annual meeting the summer of 2008. A d o c u m e n t a r y, “The Brandeis Story”, was shown. The video, funded by the Marcia and Alan Baer Foundation, and Marcia Baer, depicted the history of the Brandeis family and department stores that were so important to the history of The downtown Brandeis department this community. store.
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 45
The summer of ’42
Continued from page 44 Up to that time, the Union Pacific train station was the place where we picked up arriving visitors, or on special occasions, had been there for dinner. Or maybe I had been in the car when we took somebody there for a return trip. Personally, I hadn’t had much to do with the actual train. Until that fateful day, that is. In order to appreciate what my trip was like, you have to know it was a time when trains, buses, cars were filled with young people traveling here and there in or to the military installations. And lo and behold, guess what I found after I got settled into my seat on that train. The seat that was picked out by my dad, who got on the train with me. He connected with a porter, put “something” in his hand and then spoke to him in a low voice I couldn’t hear. Actually, I didn’t want to know what he was saying, but I later guessed, because that porter became my shadow. He watched over me and made sure I was ok. Most of the time. Truthfully, if my sweet Dad had seen what filled the car right behind mine, he would have taken me off the train and brought me right back home. It was a great number (heaven only knows how many) of young, boisterous, excited and I’m sure scared, boys! Who were they? Guess! Recruits on their way to some camp in California for basic training and ultimate service to their country. As the kids say, O.M.G. When I innocently openned the connecting door and saw where the roar of voices was coming from, I thought I was hallucinating. To say nothing of the response of the first few who noticed me: a girl! Holy cow! Look -- a girl!
Well kinderlach, I’ve told this story so many times in the last 67 years, I’m hard pressed to swear to the absolute veracity of every word, but I gotta tell you, it was a blast! I learned many things on that trip: I learned those kids were so gung ho about going to war they could hardly be still. Except when many of them were asleep and those awake were staring into space, wondering what was really going to happen. I got my first taste of what a mob of young people are like when there’s nobody to tell them to settle down. I also learned what rum tasted like, and what it tasted like when combined with the ubiquious cola -- othewise known as a Cuba Libre. Plus, these kids all had cigarettes, which weren’t yet in short supply, but while I had already found the ugly habit, I was not yet buying and carrying my own. When offered, well sure. Why not? I’m sorry to say it took me until 1968 to kick the habit those guys helped me learn in 1942. And I was a quick study. Somehow the phrase “just 30 hours” sticks in my mind, but I wouldn’t take an oath. No matter, I had such a great time with those guys, laughing, listening to this story or that, hearing where everybody was from and where they were going, smoking until we were hoarse, and I think, maybe trying to pretend nobody was scared. Of the few things in life I’m still sure of, I know this: if my parents had known about my travel companions, I think my dad would have gone ballistic. At the very least, I could see him meeting the train at it’s first stop and taking me off! I think there was an exchange of
BEST WISHES for a happy, healthy & prosperous NEWYEAR!
addresses and phone My aunt ... my precious numbers and names etc., aunt, about whom I’ve but I don’t remember any written volumes, was not follow-up on that. It was yet married to her a trip to be remembered. boyfriend, but they were Sort of what might be so good to me. They took called “a coming of age” me to the beach -- my story. No matter what we first experience with an call it, it left an indelible ocean, and any other impression on me. place they thought I’d The rest of the summer enjoy. The man who had its highs and lows, became my uncle was mostly highs. My late right there in his little brother Harvey and his coupe, ready to roll anyclosest friend Roland time, cigar and all. Lewis (who later became Those two people are my brother-in-law), also Bert Wine (Lewis) at age 17. such a strong part of my included L.A. in their summer that year. memory, I can never talk about California They drove a car and planned to just without telling about them. They were have some fun, prior to going into the married 66 years and were as devoted the miliary service. They were four years day she slipped away from us as the day older, so mostly they didn’t want me they married. When I think of my aunt, I around, but now and then I was included, understand better the phrase “may her and it was better than fine. Probably memory be a blessing.” because my brother was realizing I wasn’t Having said all that, I still have to smile a little kid anymore, but I can’t remember when I think back to 1942, my train ride, if I had the nerve to smoke in front of my incredible experiences. And here’s a him or not. Their vacation was cut sort funny ending to the story. I have when Dad called and told Harv his absolutely no recollection whatsoever of “papers” had come and he had to report my trip back to Omaha. Nor do I recall soon. The war, you know, and it was only how long I stayed before I was sumthe beginning. moned home. Before my folks said okay So they packed and headed back home. that’s enough. My brother-in-law remembers they drove My final memory? I think maybe it was straight through, stopping only long one of the important chapters in my enough in Las Vegas to play a few growing up book. Digging back and trymachines, then right back in the car. ing to recall details makes me think it My bubbe and my aunt were the most couldn’t have really been 67 years ago, hospitable women in California, except but it was. I’m left with just one word Bubbe knew I was sneaking my cigarettes about it all. Incredible! and disapproved strongly. She never threatened to “tell” on me, but she made Bert Lewis can be reached at my aunt suggest I quit it. BertLewis39@aol.com.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
Former Omahan plans mission to Israel for a major Jewish organization
dreams of Zion. A year later my older brother was born. by EMMA BURSZTYN LEBOWITZ Some time between my parents’ wedding and my My parents came to Omaha in April of 1960 and I was born that August. My father was from Poland and my brother’s birth a year later, my grandmother was contactmother was from Afghanistan, but they met in Israel, in ed by the Red Cross with the news that she had a broth1957. My father’s family escaped to Siberia on a mid- er who had survived the Holocaust and was looking for night train because his father had the foresight and con- her. This brother, a Partisan fighter, had lost his first wife and their children in the Holocaust and met and married nections to leave while they were still able to. Ironically and tragically, his father died during a rou- his second wife at a Displaced Person’s camp. With the aid and advice of an immigration group, he tine operation, leaving behind his pregnant wife and three children. My father, the eldest son, was haunted by had settled in Omaha. My grandmother was the first the memory of having to dig his father’s grave at the family member to leave Israel, followed by my grandfayoung age of 15 because there was no one else to do it. ther, my parents and brother, my uncles, and my aunt and their families. As the eldest son, he felt that enormous responsibility. For the next 22 years, my parents and grandparents When the war ended, he, his mother and three siblings headed back to Lodz and looked forward to the comfort and extended family lived in Omaha. My two siblings and I were raised on of uniting with their rela58th and Hamilton and tives and friends. They were members of Beth had no access to the news Israel Synagogue. We and hadn’t heard anywere actively involved thing but rumors that a in the NCSY chapter, Holocaust had taken which influenced and place. Rumors they chose inspired many of my not to believe. peers to live a Torah On the train, they heard observant life or move more rumblings that most to Israel. of the Jewish community When I was 17-yearsof Lodz was gone. They old, I left Omaha to literally found that incredpursue a Torah obserible and could not undervant life as inspired by stand how people could NCSY. I was to attend a make up such stories. Yeshiva day school in When they arrived and saw that no one familiar The Lebowitz family: Laura, left, Emma, Jenny, Benjy, Jeff, and Sara. Chicago and live with my uncle and aunt. was living in their rela- Emma Bursztyn Lebowitz is a former Omahan. From there, I went on to Stern College at Yeshiva tives’ homes, they went to what was left of the Kehilla University; after graduation, I spent two years in Israel, (organized community) and inquired. The authority to whom my father spoke sat him down where my two best friends from Omaha lived. One lived and told him that most of the people were killed and a very religious lifestyle while the other a very secular there was nobody left. His entire extended family had lifestyle. I saw them frequently while in Israel but I lost probably perished, they were told. touch with them when I returned to the States. I did I can’t imagine what my father was going through look them up when I went four years ago and we spent emotionally. He was still mourning for his father and time together. now they had to contend with losing all his relatives and After Israel, I moved back to New York at the urging friends. Mustering all their strength, he and his family of my father, who wanted his kids near him. He and my began to forge a new life with new plans. mother moved to Florida, along with my grandparents. My grandmother remarried a Holocaust survivor who I then met the man who would be my husband, married, had lost his wife and four daughters and they produced and soon after our first daughter was born, moved to a son who would grow up to be one of the biggest phi- North Jersey. There are several former Omahans living in lanthropists in the Yeshiva world. The newly blended North Jersey. I run into them occasionally and renewed family moved to Israel, where they had believed they a friendship with one of them. were going to live out the rest of their lives. My father My husband and I are the proud parents of four kids, met my mother shortly after the move. She had emigrat- all of whom attended yeshivot; we are active in the ed from Afghanistan (via India) to be united with her Orthodox Jewish community. I serve as an officer of my large Bucharian extended family and live out their shul and I make my livelihood working in Jewish com-
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munal service. Presently, I am the Associate Director for American Friends of Yeshivot Bnei Akiva. We are planning our first mission to Israel, Jan. 9-17, 2010, and I am inviting everyone from Omaha to attend. It is being led by an extraordinary couple, Rabbi Benjamin and Shevi Yudin. (Visit our website at www.afyba.org). Rabbi and Shevi Yudin have been associated with Congregation Shomrei Torah of Fair Lawn, NJ, for the past 40 years; that is where I have lived for the past 21 years. They have inspired thousands of individuals to lead more observant lives. Rabbi Yudin gives a weekly d’var torah on “JM in the AM”, a morning radio program with Jewish content. Included in our itinerary, is a stop at our newly constructed Hesder Yeshiva in Akko, in Omaha’s Partnership with Israel region, the Western Galilee. Also included in our itinerary is the opportunity to partake in meaningful community service projects with the teenagers of some of our schools. Seeing Israel through the eyes of these great leaders will be a most memorable experience. When I tell people I grew up in Omaha, the first comment usually is: “I didn’t know there were Jews in Nebraska!” Ironically, I tell them that not only is there a stable Jewish community in Omaha, but it’s where I developed my Jewish identity. It’s not so much that my parents and their parents went through so much persecution because of their being Jewish, but it’s more that they made sure to put us in an environment where we would be proud of our Jewish heritage. I remember the JCC downtown. It’s where I went to kindergarten and then the school moved out west until it closed in 1969. I attended Talmud Torah at Beth Israel, a communal Hebrew High, was part of NCSY, and BBG. I remember celebrating Yom Ha’atzmut and observing Yom Hashoah with the community. Rabbi Isaac Nadof, z”tl, and Cantor Leo Fettman had a very positive influence over my life. Today I work very close to the former World Trade Center or Ground Zero as they call it. I get off there every morning from the train and am reminded daily of the horrors of 9/11. It spooks me out because today’s terrorism was yesterday’s Holocaust and no matter how safe we think we are, we are never too safe. I see them rebuilding the World Trade Center just as I saw my grandparents and parents before me rebuilding their lives. Our generational ideologies are all intertwined and connected. We have all strived for the same things; to raise our children with proud and strong Jewish identities and to maintain a strong tie to Israel.
Rosh Hashanah Greetings from Morris Bresel Candee and Jerry Mack Josh and Amanda Gurlock and Kids
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From
September 18, 2009
Jewish Food by Marlena Spieler (Southwater, $16.99)
READ IT AND EAT Reviewed by LOIS FRIEDMAN
Celebrate Rosh Hashanah and other festivals and special occasions with recipes from “the culinary tradition of the global Jewish community” -- Balkan Aubergines with Cheese, New York Deli Coleslaw, Jerusalem Kodafa Drenched with Syryp, Tuscan Citrus Sponge and more. Having 30 cookbooks to her credit, Spieler introduces this cookbook with the history of Festival Foods: “the food of the Jewish table is inextricably linked to the history of its people.” The Jews have adopted the flavors of the lands they dwell in. From the first exile each time they flee and reestablish communities in new countries, they have incorporated new foods keeping the laws of kashrut. Jewish festivals are the same date of the Jewish year following the 354-5 day Lunar calendar, which differs from the 365-6 Gregorian calendar. Did you know that a 13th month is occasionally added to the Jewish calendar to keep the months in their appropriate season? Rosh Hashanah, which means the head of the year and is the start of the Ten Days of Penitence/Days of Awe, is always celebrated between summer and autumn: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, then Sukkot-Tabernacles, festival of thanksgiving and Simchat Torah, Rejoicing of the Torah. Symbols for Rosh Hashanah include the Shofar (ram’s horn), tashlich (throw-
ing all your sins in running water), apples dipped in honey, pomegranates, a round challah and special blessings. Generously illustrated with reproductions of art work, photography of symbols, ceremonies, food, people and many how-to preparations, this cookbook has a very readable brief history that preceeds the 75 recipes for Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, Pesach, Other Festivals and Family Feasts. For Rosh Hashanah the eating of a food containing a “head” -- as in carrots or a fish head -- are traditional. Try this recipe: MOROCCAN CARROT SALAD 3-4 carrots, thinly sliced pinch of sugar 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin or to taste juice of 1/2 lemon 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1-2 tbsp red wine vinegar or fruit vinegar, such as raspberry 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves or a mixture of coriander and parsley salt and ground black pepper Cook the carrots by either steaming or boiling in lightly salted water until they are just tender but not soft. Drain, leave for a few moments to dry, then put in a bowl. Add the sugar, garlic, cumin, lemon juice, olive oil and vinegar to the carrots and toss together. Add the herbs and season. Serve or chill before serving; serves four to six.
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 47
;(:> ;'&0 Best wishes for a peaceful, prosperous, and productive 5770!
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Lois Friedman can be reached at ReadItAndEat@yahoo.com.
Summer fun in Nebraska by LINDA FITZGERALD Activities Director Rose Blumkin Jewish Home Blumkin Home residents enjoyed a summer picnic/fishing outing at Zorinsky Lake in July. Lois Wine and several United Way Volunteer Youth accompanied the residents, and the outing was planned by Activity Director Mary Heiman, along with the activity team members, Adrienne Kitagawa and this writer. Photos below: Among those enjoying the outing were residents Roie and Bernie Meyers; Mary Heiman, Activity Director, and resident Helena Tichauer; and volunteer Clara Kincaid and resident Eli Stone.
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Page 48
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
Exploring the world with Nebraskans
Matt, Kathleen, and Laura Kirshenbaum hike in the Rockies, after visiting parts of Nebraska with Matt’s wife, Jenn, who took this photo.
At the August JCC Maccabi Games in San Francisco, Ari Juster, center, took home an impressive 10 medals: four golds, five silvers and a bronze.
B’nai Israel Synagogue
Shalom
A Century of Tradition 618 Mynster Street, Council Bluffs 51503
323-8885
You’re always welcome at B’nai Israel!
Omaha Chapter of
HADASSAH
HA DAS SAH
Wishing all our friends a “Shana Tova U’metuka.” May G-d grant us all our most fervent wish - A glorious year in which we will merit the coming of Moshiach. Rabbi Mendel Katzman, Chabad of Nebraska
Wishing Your Family a Healthy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year. National Council of Jewish Women Omaha Section
NCJW extends its warmest wishes to the Jewish community for a Joyous New Year.
Happy & Healthy New Year
Come Join the Fun!
Young Seniors with Vision An organization of Jewish Social Services
Wishes You
With Your Help We’ll Have A Great Past Ahead Of Us
Become an NJHS Member and Provide a Legacy for Future Generations Benefactor $1,000 • Life Member $500 Patron-1 Year $100 • Sponsor-1 Year $50 Basic-1Year $25
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Rosh Hashanah
L’Shana Tovah
BETH ISRAEL SISTERHOOD Henry Monsky Lodge Best Wishes for a Happy New Year
B’nai B’rith
The Congregation of Temple Israel
L’Shana Tova Wishing you and your family a year filled with good health, happiness and peace!
Shana Tovah!
From the Board Members and Staff of the Center for Jewish Education
wishes the community a healthy and happy New Year A Peaceful and Prosperous
League Offering Volunteers for the Elderly The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home Auxiliary
National Register of Historic Places
Wishing you a year of health, love and peace, happiness and joy
Eadie Tsabari, left, was visiting her daughter, Gal, right, and was able to attend the Israel Defence Force induction ceremony for Garin Tsabar (children of Israelis in the Diaspora) for Liatte Dotan, daughter of Beth and Amon Dotan.
A beneficiary of the Annual Campaign of the Jewish Federation of Omaha
Rosh Hashanah Greetings
Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year
to the Community
Beth El Synagogue The Mount Sinai Cemetery Board
Sisterhood Kadimah USY BESTT
Men’s Club BILU USY Hazak
September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 49
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
A Holocaust story:
A survivor finally shares her experience
by LEO ADAM BIGA For the longest time, Holocaust survivor Kitty Williams of Council Bluffs didn’t think her story warranted telling. She considered her suffering insignificant amid the weight of Nazi atrocities. Other tragedies far surpassed her own. Nobody could find hers interesting or edifying. It had all been said before. She’s keenly aware that despite the cruelties her Hungarian-Jewish family endured, others endured more, such as a such as her own extended family who lost about 80 members. Kitty can still hardly believe she and two sisters survived Auschwitz. Another sister escaped certain demise on the Budapest Death March. Two brothers made it out of forced labor camps. “Miraculously, six of us lived. We’re an exception. We were very fortunate that as many lived as did,” said the former Katalin Ehrenfeld. She was made reticent, too, by Holocaust depictions of incalculable losses. To Kitty, 85, her own losses seemed almost trivial by comparison. But how can losing an adored father be minimized? He was her whole world. Then there was the survivor guilt Kitty felt. Why was I spared? Why should I be singled out for attention? “I had it relatively easy, and that’s why I feel guilty telling you my story,” she told a reporter for the Omaha WorldHerald. This despite imprisonment in ghettos, at Auschwitz and in a forced labor camp. Her father and a brother killed, their home desecrated, her innocence violated. All sacrificed to the machi-
Kitty Williams’ parents, Anna Roth and Mor Ehrenfeld, were married in Hungary in 1911. Anna died at the age of 40. nations of the Final Solution. She’d already lost her mother and a sister to typhus at age seven. The permutations of her story, when taken together, make it singular: hiding and “passing” to escape capture, accepting Christian neighbors’ kindnesses, falling for a wounded German airman; finding and nursing her sister Magda at Auschwitz, and being chosen for a lifesaving detail of women laborers at a German munitions factory. After liberation Kitty married an American airman and came to live with him in Council Bluffs. At his request she
concealed her heritage. She then experienced the devasation of a failed marriage and a son’s suicide. Her reluctance persists despite reminders that every survivor’s tale is a vital link to the body of eyewitness testimony that forms the historical record. Only those who actually experienced the Shoah can bring history to life and deny the deniers. The larger story is not complete unless the smaller individual stories are documented. As the number of survivors fast dwindles here and around the world, the need to preserve every untold story becomes more urgent. Kitty recognizes that, which is why she first testified for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Project. Omahan Ben Nachman interviewed her and her words are now part of the project’s massive archives. But perhaps no one outside her family will ever see that video. Last May, the Omaha World-Herald sketched the bare bones of her story after she met an American liberator at the Heartland Honor Flight reunion. Now, the Jewish Press offers Kitty’s odyssey in its entirety. She may still feel an unworthy subject, but perhaps her story’s publication will validate her travails. “That’s when we became very scared” Born in 1924, Kitty grew up in the Eastern Hungarian town of Sarand, near the Rumanian border. She was the second youngest of eight siblings. Their father, Mor Ehrenfeld, was a World War I combat veteran who incurred wounds fighting in the Austro-Hungarian army. However, losing the mother of his chil-
dren, his beloved wife Anna, cut deeper than any shrapnel. “It changed everything,” recalled Kitty. “It’s almost like there was a life before my mother that was beautiful and there was a life after my mother died that was sad. Of course, my father took it very hard and really I don’t think he ever recovered from the loss. He did not want to bring a stepmother into our lives. I remember he got us together and said, ‘We’ll make it, somehow we’ll make it.’” Kitty said, “I think most of all of the love that radiated between us is how we made it.” Her sister Magda, 12 years her senior, became Kitty’s surrogate mother. The family were the only Jews in the vicinity, except for the Leitners, to whom they were not close prior to the Holocaust. Mrs. Leitner, a Christian girl from the town, converted to Judaism. Circumstances would thrust the families together on a harrowing journey. Before the madness, Kitty recalls an idyllic life. “I have beautiful memories mostly because of my large family. Most of my siblings were very musical and played instruments -- that was our entertainment, sitting on the porch, my brothers playing these heartbreaking love songs on the violin. They’re still etched in my memory. We were so close as family, and since socially we really weren’t accepted in town, it was a wonderful feeling.” She explained, “We always had a lot of books in our house. We had probably the first radio -- a crystal set. We got a newspaper from Budapest every day, although a day old.” Continued on page 51
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 51
A survivor finally shares her experience
Continued on page 50 Her father’s third grade education belied wisdom. He ran a general store in town, he dealt in grain, he owned a vineyard. Harvest time marked a communal peasant celebration. “Half the town would come and pick the grapes,” said Kitty. “It was kind of like Fourth of July here. It was a get together for a lot of people.” Kitty said her father was admired for his advanced ag techniques and many skills. “The school board approached him every year with different parcels of land for him to look at, and he would farm these on shares ... because he was always able to figure out what was needed to build it up. The town didn’t have a lawyer and so anytime anybody needed an official paper translated or written they would come to my dad. Besides, he had the most beautiful handwriting. For any advice there would be a knock on the window or door even at night of somebody asking, ‘My child is sick, can I have something from the store?’ Of course, my father obliged.” She said she’s read his “Who’s Who in Hungary” listing, praising him as a patriot, citing his WWI service. His community standing and military record helped insulate the family from punitive, restrictive Jewish laws. Even when new, harsher anti-Jewish decrees began being instituted in 1939, she said, “he was always exempted from the Jewish laws until the very end.” But nothing could save the family once German forces occupied Hungary, a noncombatant but complicit ally of the Nazi regime and its master race ideology. Up until then, Hungarian Jews and gypsies largely avoided the mass internments and killings. But as these ethnic minorities discovered to their horror many of Hungary’s Christian leaders and citizens willingly participated in genocide. The Ehrenfelds and their Jewish brothers and sisters had been duped into a false sense of security. “For us to be able to live amongst Gentiles peacefully it was like paradise,” said Kitty, “but in looking back in our history there were pogroms, we were persecuted.” She could not imagine what lay ahead. There were signs but few could read them. Where once her family “took part in a lot of the town’s activities,” they became isolated, ostracized. The anti-Semitic enmity could be construed as a dangerous new pogrom or as just the latest wave of Jew bashing. “The Hungarian radio broadcasts were very biased and so it was always full of good news of German victories. The movie house newsreels only showed all the battles they won,” said Kitty. “Of course they never missed an opportunity for Jew hating. You know, ‘If it wasn’t for the Jews everything would be fine.’ Everything was always the fault of the Jews.” Even when the family encountered refugees fleeing neighboring countries they didn’t interpret it as a warning their own safety was in jeopardy. “I remember young Polish and probably Czechoslovakian men knocking on our door saying they were trying to escape, trying to get to Israel, going through Hungary, and of course we always fed them and gave them some supplies. When they were telling us about the atrocities I don’t think we really believed them,” Kitty admitted. “The human mind cannot imagine this can happen. It’s an exaggeration, it can’t be true, it just can’t be. Of course, we never heard about the gas chambers. We heard about the shooting and the looting and that kind of stuff, but not the systematic killing of the Jews. We were completely unaware of it,” she added. “We were so naive.” By 1939, the circle of Kitty’s life narrowed. She was 15 -years-old and her family was dispersed, her older siblings married and moved away. It was just Kitty and her father. Back home in Sarand and in the nearby city of Debrecen, where Kitty attended high school and her sister Magda lived, things were getting more difficult. “I was a young girl but I couldn’t get out except maybe for a couple of hours a day. You couldn’t travel, you were forbidden to do anything,” she said. Wearing the Star of David in public became compulsory. Once, when a Gentile girl asked her to go to the movies, Kitty, anxious to leave the house and be a nor-
mal teenager again, agreed. “It was like a dream to get out of my almost virtual prison,” she said. The dream turned nightmare. The movie was a virulent German propaganda film, Walking home from the theater in the chill of the afternoon Kitty put on a coat, inadvertantly covering her Yellow Star. Someone must have reported her, as the next day the
police came to her home and arrested her. She was taken away and jailed in another town despite the protests and pleadings of her and her father. “I just begged and begged, ‘I have to be with my dad, please let me out,’ but they had no mercy. They kept me in there,” she recalled. She got out only after a Gentile woman who once worked for the family walked the eight kilometers to obtain her release. Kitty suspects her father gave the woman money to bribe officials. Kitty will never know though as the incident “was never discussed.” Kitty’s
father had been allowed to keep his store but eventually he was forced to close it. Then, on March 19, 1944, the German Army occupied Hungary. “I remember I was visiting my sister Magda in Debrecen. She was married and pregnant. I was walking on the street and I saw German troops marching all over. They’d just landed or drove into Hungary. It happened all in one day. They just descended on us. They were everywhere. That’s when we became very scared.” “Even to go to our death it was torture” Before long her brothers were nabbed and sent to forced labor camps. Left: Mor Ehrenfeld, left, Kitty’s Her sister Elizabeth, who sister Magda and her husband lived in the capital city Michael Stone, and Kitty in the Budapest, was taken prisfamily’s hometown of Sarand in oner the very day the 1932. Above: Kitty had to have Germans stormed into her photo taken in 1934 in Hungary. She ended up in order to ride the train from Auschwitz with Kitty and Sarand to Debrecen for a Magda. Another sister, Jewish Middle School. Klari, was forced from her home in Budapest to march with thousands of others. Their supposed destination -- Vienna. But standing orders said no Jews were to make it there alive. Stragglers or resistors were shot on the spot. Klari was a comely young woman who, with a girlfriend, drew the attention of a Hungarian guard. He confided they would not survive the march and offered to hide them at his family’s home in Budapest. Klari accepted the offer and lived. Her girlfriend refused and died. Klari ended up a virtual slave but she made it through. Continued on page 52
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
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A survivor shares her story Continued from page 51 It was a while before the Germans reached Kitty’s town. She can never forget the mob that came for her in the middle of the night. Rape and murder on their minds. “The first night we heard ... let me put it this way, we had our Kristallnacht. It was a mixture of German and Hungarian hoodlums. They broke every window in the house. My dad got up. The Germans demanded I come out. They wanted me. I was a young girl of not even 19. Fortunately my dad spoke German. He said, ‘I’m so sorry, she’s not here.’ The Hungarians were more demanding.” Somehow he convinced the thugs she wasn’t there. They left uttering epithets. “I remember spending the night under the bed shaking,” said Kitty, “and from then on I never slept at home.” For a time she hid in the apartment of a Christian family in Debrecen. But the stress of avoiding detection became too much and the family put her out. Kitty wanted to be home anyway. “I didn’t really like this hiding. I wanted to go and be with my dad, to take care of him,” she added. Her law-abiding father also wanted her home. He arranged for her to travel in the wagon of a farmer going to market. Posing as a gentile, head wrapped in a babushka, she passed. Back in Sarand, the Ehrenfeld’s Christian neighbor, widower Mihaly Toth, offered to put Kitty up. He didn’t have children of his own and felt protective of her, his friend Mor’s last child at home. So for a month, she whiled away the daylight hours at home before stealing away to the old man’s tiny place at night. He slept in the one bed; she slept under it, his chickens clucking and pecking all about. She called him “uncle.” But the ruse could only buy Kitty and her father so much time. In 1985, when Kitty visited Hungary for the first time after the war, neighbors told her that before Toth died, he told them if he should die before the Ehrenfelds returned, he wanted to be buried in the blanket Kitty left behind. Kitty’s home was confiscated, the guest bedroom taken over by a wounded German pilot. He stayed two weeks. “We had to take care of him. My father changed his dressing; he had a leg injury and I fed him.” One thing led to another. “He was a young man and I was a young girl. He wanted to meet me after the war. I remember he gave me a note with his town’s name, Dusseldorf, and his address. He gave us so much encouragement,” she recalled. “He kept saying, ‘Don’t worry, it’s going to end, we are losing the war. Everything will be wonderful for you.’ Of course, that is not how it happened, but it was a nice fantasy until he was sent home.” Even after the ghettos, right up through arriving at Auschwitz, she clung to hope they might meet again. “I remember I had this little note I was holding that I finally dropped just before they shaved us and everything, because it was sort of like my security blanket.” Any sense of security she still had was shattered. In April the roundup of Jews began. Kitty’s large home was designated a ghetto. Mr. and Mrs Leitner and daughter Ica were taken there. The girls became friends. A doctor’s widow, Mrs. Kovacs, was brought there, too. Only part Jewish, she’d lived as a Christian. “She came with all her furs and jewelry and she kept saying, ‘I believe in Jesus Christ, how can this happen to me?’ But, you know, it didn’t matter,” said Kitty. “If they knew you had even an ounce of Jewish blood ...” As insurance, Kitty’s father had a shoemaker fashion false soles in his shoe. Mor stashed some 5,000 pengos in each cavity.
A fortune then. “Maybe that’s all he had, I don’t know,” said Kitty. “At any rate I remember my dad saying to me, ‘You know, maybe it will buy you a loaf of bread some day.’” After two weeks all the occupants were taken to a ghetto in another town, where they joined more Jews. Then in June everyone was trudged off to Nagyvarad, whose factory-works complex of barns with dirt floors became a makeshift camp for some 2,000 prisoners. Men, women, children. Sick and healthy. Rich and poor. That many people crammed into a space not made for human habitation made for “horrible conditions.” She said, “It was a huge place. All the Jews taken from the surrounding towns and small ghettos were concentrated in this one facility. They let us take some food, clothing, supplies along. The food didn’t last very long. We were already starting to be hungry.” Kitty and Ica were ordered into evacuated outlying ghettos, with an armed guard escort, to forage for food left behind. “That’s how we supplied the camp,” said Kitty. “We went from house to house and picked up food left here and there. The sight of it, it still chills me, because I would see children’s things, a shoe here, a shoe there, toys, furniture, clothes. It looked like they must have been taken in the middle of the night and that they weren’t prepared for it.” She couldn’t shake the scene of quiet lives so violently interrupted. Weeks passed. Rumors of death camps and gas chambers spread. As did counter rumors the Germans needed the Jews for war labor. Kitty, her father and most others chose to believe their lives were too precious to be snuffed out. They were even hoping the railroad tracks that ran nearby would soon bring a train to transport them to a labor camp. Anything would be better than this, they thought. “You can’t imagine the brutality from the Hungarians,” said Kitty. It was “a relief” when a train did come for them in August. Relief gave way to dread as they were herded onto the cattle cars in the summer heat. “The horror of that I can’t even...” she said, her voice breaking. “It’s very hard for anybody in the free world to imagine what they did to us. Anything you’ve seen or read, it was much worse. They put us in there on top of each other with no water and a bucket for a toilet. We could never lie down. You couldn’t see out. Total darkness. Just one little hole. And by this time we hardly had any food.” No one knew the destination. The journey was interminable, impossible, awful. “It seemed to me like it was at least five days,” said Kitty. “I do know you can get there overnight by train.” She refers to Auschwitz, the death camp they were en route to. It’s a trip she’s remade twice in the ensuing years. Getting there that first time was like a slow, agonizing death. “We stopped and slowed down, again and again. It was like torture on purpose, even to go to our death, it was torture.” “It was death and smoke and smell.” It all had the intended dehumanizing effect. “I know at first there was some modesty left in us,” said Kitty. “We hung up a sheet or something when somebody had to relieve themselves. But after awhile nobody even cared. What surprised me is we didn’t go mad, we were still functioning. I mean, I know there were people dead around me because I know we left bodies in there when we finally got out. But it’s like I didn’t want to even believe it’s happening. It didn’t register.” At a stop German soldiers replaced the Hungarian guards. An officer announced anyone carrying valuables must surrender Continued on page 53
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Continued from page 52 They decided they couldn’t chance it. She said as their drama played out others in the car wrestled with the same dilemma. The deliberations grew animated. Some decried their fellow Jews as hoarders, lashing out, “See, that’s why we’re in the state we’re in -- you don’t obey the law.” Others commented, “You were smart to do it.” Mor used a tool to wedge his soles off, handing over the money to a pair of young soldiers. “At the next stop,” said Kitty, “the same two soldiers came with buckets of water and big baskets of French bread and they flung the bread into the car, and only our car. Loaf after loaf. Everybody was reaching for it. I know everybody got at least two loaves. My dad was treated like a hero.” The lost fortune “did buy us a loaf of bread,” after all, she said. The further the train went the more unfamiliar the surroundings appeared. But Mor knew the territory. He recognized they’d crossed into Poland. Then they were there -- Auschwitz. “At least we weren’t hungry when we got there,” said Kitty. She would know real hunger and deprivation soon enough. Kitty, her sisters, her father, the Leitners, the rich widow -- they were part of the flood of refugees the Nazis evacuated from Hungary in ’44, the last major contingent of Jews targeted for death. The war was being lost and what Kitty calls “the killing machine” had to be fed before the advancing Allies arrived. “We arrived early morning; the sun was just coming up. Nobody spoke to you, everybody yelled, they always yelled. ‘Get out, get out! Leave your luggage, you’ll
A friend of Kitty’s, who had the miserable job of looking through clothing of those gassed at Auchwitz, found this photo of Kitty’s sister Elizabeth’s wedding to Tibor Goldfeder in 1939. That’s how Kitty learned of her father’s death. get it later! Stand in line!’ In the distance Before her father was led away, she I saw this beautiful, tall German officer all recalls embracing him, “looking over and in white uniforms, with several dogs and saying something like, ‘See you later.’ soldiers around. He was sitting and look- Well, later never came. That was the last ing at us, pointing -- right, left. I found sight of him I ever had.” She learned he out later it was Dr. (Josef) Mengele.” was killed that same day. The selection separated Kitty from her Her sister Elizabeth, who arrived father. “I went to the right with my friend before, was on a work detail sifting and her parents and my dad went to the through clothes of those killed in the gas left.” chambers. “It was,” said Kitty, “a plum Kitty asked men in striped garb where job. You would give your right arm for it the others were being taken. The cryptic because you were able to go through reply: “You’ll see.” She learned “the pockets and find food.” striped ones were inmates who had the A friend was rifling through a man’s job of getting us organized. Everything overcoat when she found a wedding picwas so organized. The method was so ture she recognized as Elizabeth’s. The perfect. There were typists, barbers.” overcoat belonged to Mor. He’d carried Lines and names and counts. Chilling the photo with him. “That’s how efficiency. Always, guns, whips, clubs at Elizabeth knew our father was dead. I the ready. have the picture.”
The dead at least were free of degradation. The living had to endure more misery. In Kitty’s experience, the worst brutality was meted out not by Germans but arm-banded kapos, prisoners working for the Nazis. “They were so hardened by then. They’d been in concentration camps for years and seen so much that they weren’t even like human beings any more. Whatever beatings I had in the camp were always from a kapo.” A gray pall hung over this killing zone. “I don’t think a blade of grass ever grew, and I don’t think a bird ever flew in Auschwitz. It was the most devastating place. It was death and smoke and smell. When it rained, it was mud. It was unbelievable. “A reason to live” Kitty said she was still “in denial” even with the crematoriums going full blast, the flames licking the sky, the stench of human flesh permeating the air. “I didn’t want to face it. I could not believe it.” The kapos didn’t mince words when asked, “When will we see our parents?” The cold answer: “They’re up in the smoke.” Stripped, shaved, showered, disinfected, the inmates got mismatched rags as clothes, a metal pan for their daily ration of watery soup. The newly built barrack or lager she and Ica were assigned was within a half-block of a crematorium. The barrack was a windowless barn with a dirt floor. No partitions. Approaching it, she said, “we saw these shaven heads atop walking skeletons. They were inquiring where we were from and did we know so-and-so.” She passed another lager whose inmates “were even in worse shape. They were dark-skinned Continued on page 54
Shehecheyanu To everyone in the community who sustained us and enabled us to reach this day, we say thank you. May you and yours have a sweet, blessed and prosperous New Year.
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A survivor finally shares her story Continued from page 53 worse fate than I did, but she did make it. She died a year and there were entire families together.” The identities ago at 96.” of these exotics puzzled Kitty until learning they were “We were just happy to get out” A book written by a campmate of Kitty’s reveals that gypsies. “The first night was my introduction to seeing some- male workers had been requested. Either due to lack of body dying. Somebody next to me had a diabetic reac- able-bodied men or a mix-up, said Kitty, “us girls” ended up in Allendorf, tion and died.” Germany. 1,000 of them. Death became numb“We were just happy ingly routine. With no to get out,” she said. By bunks, people were “half war’s end, virtually all the way on top of each other women survived. Every-- a thousand of us in this thing about Allendorf was one huge barrack. We an improvement over were there a few days and Auschwitz. Traveling by new transports were comtrain, the cattle cars were ing from Hungary almost far less crowded. Kitty daily. The Germans were recalls her surprise lookin a rush to kill us. They ing out and seeing ordicouldn’t do it fast nary people going about enough.” their daily lives. “August 2, 1944 we “Life goes on on the woke-up to this horrible outside. Not everybody is noise, people begging for help. We went outside Sisters Elizabeth, left, Magda and Kitty survived the war, along with like us,” Kitty remembers and saw smoke and flames Magda’s husband, Michael Stone, top right, and his brother, Alex. thinking. The women’s quarters were in the woods, the barracks from the crematorium chimney near us. Next to the crematorium was a ditch and from that direction there were built for free workers and “so it was not unbearable,” screams and flames going up, the smell of human flesh said Kitty. The munitions factory was an hour’s walk. “The work was heavy, it wasn’t designed for females. burning,” she remembered. “And that screaming, sometimes I wake up and it comes back to me. It just pierces My work was to chisel powder out of duds (undetonated) bombs, shells, grenades. Other people were filling to your soul.” When Kitty learned her sister Magda was in camp she them and putting them on the conveyor belt. The managed finding her in another barrack. Magda had Germans were so desperate for war materials they were been expecting while in the Debrecen ghetto and so remixing, reusing explosives. It was a tremendous operKitty anticipated meeting the newborn, but there was no ation. We thought it was underground, but it was really baby. It died in the ghetto. Unburied. Magda was deso- just camoflaged.” The workers handled toxic chemicals without proteclate and weak. Kitty became her caregiver. “I fought for her to get even a drip of water, anything, tion -- no gloves, no masks. The poison made people because she really didn’t have the strength. I moved over sick. Hair turned purple. Skin assumed a yellow cast. to her barrack. They kept track of us but not to the point Shifts lasted 12 hours. The factory operated around the where it made any difference because people were dying clock. The workers were issued wooden shoes and coming back and forth from the factory to camp the women constantly.” Kitty begged Ica to come with her but she declined. clopped, clopped on the town’s cobblestone streets. Supervising were mostly civilian German overseers. One day, Kitty went to her old barrack to check on Ica Kitty described them as “more neutral” and “not really and it was empty. The Germans had liquidated it. Getting Magda back to a semblance of health gave brutal.” The few guards were mostly women and, she Kitty “a reason to live. We were together.” In mid- said, they “were particularly cruel. They punished us for August the sisters were fortunate to be selected for forced just petty things.” One German woman guard, however, did befriend labor. Before boarding the train the Germans made a second cut, eliminating the sick. When a guard noticed Kitty and even though they couldn’t speak each other’s language a weakened Kitty was allowed respites from Magda’s lactating breasts she was pulled from the line. “I was just devastated,” said Kitty. “I was sure she work at a forest hideaway. The German gave her extra would never make it. Neither of us could run back to the food Kitty then shared with campmates. The prisoners heard snatches of news about the war’s other without getting shot. She ended up with a lot
progress: the Allies landing, the war going badly for Germany. “But we didn’t believe it,” said Kitty. By March of 1945, food was scarce for everyone. In late March the commandant gathered the camp’s entire contingent in a courtyard to announce he and his staff were leaving. The Americans were approaching. The war was over. “He told us, ‘You’re free to go, you’re on your own. Good luck.’” Kitty said. It was a shock. Some survivors followed the commander and his staff. Most hit the road in groups. Kitty was among a group of 20 women who’d shared a room and become like sisters. “We decided to stick together. We went one direction. We had no idea really. We ate anything we could find -grass, vegetables in the fields, eggs in hen houses. We feared knocking on the doors of German houses. We were afraid of the reception we would get. Once in a while some of us, probably not me, was brave enough to knock. There was hostility from some, generosity from others.” One day on the road, someone in Kitty’s group spied a convoy of U.S. tanks. She took off her white slip, tied it to tree branch and flagged them down. It was April 1, 1945. Mor’s birthday. To the survivors, the G.I.s became their personal liberators. “They showered us with candy and gum. I’d never had chewing gum. The Americans were almost childlike, so good, so unspoiled. They were like angels that dropped down from heaven,” Kitty recalled. She and the others were trucked to the nearest village, whose burgomeister was pressed into putting them up, the villagers ordered to wait on them hand and foot. G.I.s stood guard to prevent reprisals. After a few days the Army decided it wasn’t safe and relocated the women to Fritzlar, a former Luftwaffe air base. The women were offered housing, food, jobs, protection. They readily accepted. For two years Kitty lived and worked there, first as a mess hall waitress, then, having quickly picked up English, as a PBX operator. Affairs and romances between G.I.s and native girls were common. Kitty was not immune. “My holocaust here” In the post-war limbo of piecing together broken lives, everybody was searching for loved ones in displaced persons camps. Communication and transportation were slow in a region reduced to rubble. Kitty had no desire to return to her hometown. Too painful. An old beau from Hungary who “never stopped looking” found Kitty. “He wanted to marry me,” she said. Once reunited, the engaged couple set marriage plans. She even had a wedding dress made from sheets. But then she called it off. She’d met a WASP American flyer with whom she wanted to make a fresh start in the U.S. Continued on page 55
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A survivor shares her story
reunion with her fellow campmates. All expenses paid. She’d sworn never to step foot again in Germany. But this was something she hadn’t counted on -- a reunion and reconciliation. She went with family. All told, 333 of the 1,000 women came. She renewed old friendships and made new ones. The Germans’ “kindness and sympathy and regret” struck her. “They rolled out the red carpet. It was like magical. They even had a kosher table and brought in rabbis from Frankfurt. They couldn’t do enough for us. It changed my outlook.” Above: In 1991, the German town of Allendorf, hosted a reunion She also visited for survivors of the slave labor camp, paid for by the German Auschwitz. She remade government. Students from a local high school presented Kitty the trip in 2000. She Williams with a drawing of eyes, representing the nightmares of returned again this month the past and the day dreams of a hopeful future. Below: a porwith a grand-niece and trait of Kitty and her grandson, Morgan Ehren Peters of New granddaughter. York. Credit: David Radler She treasures these visits. She’s glad she’s shared her story. The past still haunts her though. “My most vivid memory of Auschwitz is seeing the carts carrying the dead bodies. Whenever I can’t sleep it comes back to me -- this image of people in striped uniforms pulling this wagon and throwing the bodies on it. The pile got so high the limbs were hanging out, and nobody knew who they were. We just went on existAfter an epic struggle to send for her, ing. You get used to it, you’re callous, over the Army’s strenuous objections, she you just think about your own survival. met him in New York and they caught a Sometimes I feel like, Was there a life train for Iowa. before Auschwitz?” “On the train he asked me not to ever There was. More importantly, there’s mention I’m Jewish, not to talk about been a life after. Auschwitz. He said, ‘My family would A reminder of change is a new Allendorf not accept you -- no reason for you to museum dedicated to the 1,000. All their repeat the past. I want you to be treated names inscribed there, Kitty’s included. like everybody else.’ And, you know, he “It’s a memory forever,” she said. “It’s made sense. But it’s very difficult to deny pretty remarkable.” She especially likes your heritage. For years, because of his that school kids must tour the site. family, nobody knew. I can’t say it was all “That’s what’s most outstanding.” his fault. It was two different worlds. We Through it all, Kitty’s never lost her were worlds apart.” humanity. “I love people -- the interacHis drinking further drove a wedge tion.” between them. They had three children Visit her and this doting Jewish mother together. After 12 years they separated. will humble you with her warmth and Kitty became a single working mom. She hospitality. She’s amazed by the new life was a bank teller and later trained tellers. she made for herself in America after Her first-born, Mike, earned a college everything she knew was gone. Times got scholarship, but never used it. Nobody tough, sure, but help was always there. knew it but he was troubled. At 19 he “I am so fortunate in so many ways,” committed suicide. Kitty added. She’s even glad her survivor “It was the ’60s. No father, me working identity is known. “Now I’m sort of out long hours. We were abandoned. I blame of the closet.” myself,” she said. “I expected him (Mike) Leo Adam Biga is an award-winning to be the head of the household and con- freelance writer who often contributes to centrated on the other two kids and did- the Jewish Press. He can be reached at: n’t realize he was slipping away. That was leo32158@cox.net. my holocaust here. That had a lot to do with the divorce.” But life went on. Kitty’s surviving children, Mark and Pamela, earned scholarships to Yale and Grinnell, respectively. Kitty rose to vice president at the bank. She finally spoke about her Jewish heritage and survivor past. She met a good man in Bill, her husband of 32 years now. He’s embraced her past. “I’ve had a lot of bad things happen but the good outweighs the bad. Bill’s the Kitty Williams was among a number of survivors who were best thing that ever hap- invited to attend the Honor Flight Reunion in May. She is currently in Hungary with her granddaughter and great-niece, to pened to me,” she said. In 1990 Kitty was invited visit her hometown of Sarand and her mother’s home (which back to Allendorf for a is still standing). They are also visiting Auschwitz. Continued from page 54 “I didn’t want to go back to the past. It was a mistake. I paid a really terrible price to come here. But that was my decision at the time,” she said.
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Rosh Hashanah messages from the rabbis What to remember and what to forget by RABBI MORDECHAI LEVIN Beth El Synagogue Researchers at the University of California identified three people in the world who have a powerful autobiographical memory, a condition called hyperthymestic syndrome, from the Greek words for excessive (hyper) and remembering (thymesis). These people can remember what they did and what happened every day of their lives. One of them, Jill Price, wrote a book called “The Woman Who Can’t Forget.” She describes her situation with these words: “Imagine being able to remember every fight you ever had with a friend, every time someone let you down, all the stupid mistakes you’ve ever made.” From an early age, she writes, “I was always correcting my parents about things they claimed I had said, or that they had said to me, which, as you can imagine, didn’t go over very well.” The situation of these three people poses a thoughtprovoking question: What would it be like to recall almost every day of our life since childhood? Is this ability a blessing or a curse? What is good to remember and what is best to forget? We are endowed with two faculties: memory and forgetfulness. To live, we need both. If only memory existed, then we would perhaps be crushed under its burden. And were we ruled by forgetfulness, what place would there be for culture, science or self-consciousness? We need memory. It is memory which forms identity. A person devoid of memory is an individual devoid of self. Individuals and nations need to remember and record significant moments of personal and national history. The theme of remembrance is a recurring theme of the High Holidays. Rosh Hashanah is called Yom Hazikaron, the Day of Remembrance. Throughout the Ten Days of Repentance, we beseech our Creator, “Remember us for life, O King who desires life.” The Torah commands us to “Remember the Shabbat day to
keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8), “Remember this day when you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery” (Exodus 13:3). Remembering is a noble and necessary act, central to Jewish life. It is one of the Torah commandments that figures frequently and consistently. Remembering is the way we nurture our identity as a people, and the way we teach our children the richness of Jewish life. It is incumbent upon us to remember the good we have received, such as the liberation from Egypt and God’s revelation in the Torah, and the evil we have suffered as a people, such as the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holocaust. It’s good for us as individuals to remember. To remember our loved ones and friends, our Jewish people and community, the blessings we enjoy, the kindnesses done to us, and the happiness that comes our way in living. To remember our responsibilities, and the promises we have made. Yet there are times for each of us that forgetting - if not permanently, at least temporarily - is a blessing. There are times when it is best to forget insults and injustices done to us because nursing that anger may poison our lives, hurting us more than it punishes the object of our ire. It is best to forget certain worries and distresses of the past that can’t be changed. It is better to forget the gossip and slander that we hear before we repeat it. On this Rosh Hashanah, may we learn something about what is best to remember and what it is best to forget. My best wishes for a year of life, health, fulfillment, justice and peace. Shana Tova!
As summer ends ...
L’shana Tovah!
by RABBI JONATHAN GROSS Beth Israel Synagogue In the section of the Gemara that deals with vows, a ruling is sited that states if a man vows to stay awake without sleep for three consecutive days his vow is invalid [as it is physically impossible to do so] (Nedarim 15a). When I learned this passage as a student in Yeshiva, it prompted an interesting and relevant theological problem. “Why did Hashem create the need for us to sleep?” asked one student. The question was posed in the classical method of the Yeshivas as a logical contradiction. On the one hand scripture clearly states (Yehoshua 1:8), “You shall meditate in the [Torah] day and night,” i.e., the Divine Will is that we spend every waking hour studying Torah, ergo the more waking hours, the more Torah, the more we can fulfill the Divine Will. Why then would The Creator Himself limit our waking hours by creating a being that requires sleep 8 out of every 24 hours - one third of our lives? God is the Creator and God wants Torah study. Would it not have been logical for Hashem to create us so that we never had to sleep and could thereby study more Torah? Our teacher contemplated the question and after a minute of thought responded as follows. Through God’s creations he demonstrates his kindness to us. If God had created us so that we never had to sleep, our entire lives would be one long day. That may sound nice, but what if you are having a bad day? King David wrote (Tehillim 30:6), “In the evening one lies down with weeping, but in the morning -- a cry of joy!” If we did not have periods to rest, our troubles would overwhelm us. God gives us the gift of sleep so that every night we can lie down, refresh, and wake up with a newfound strength to embrace the new day. In a certain sense the summer serves that purpose as well. Although the secular year ends in December, our calendar ends with the summer, hopefully giving us an opportunity for some much needed rest so we can enthusiastically greet Rosh Hashanah and start a fresh new year with a sense of excitement, optimism and hope.
by RABBI ERIC LINDER Temple Israel The end of the summer represents the beginning of a special cycle for us. We tend to think that Rosh Hashanah represents a new beginning, but in my mind, it is tisha b'av, the ninth day of Av in which we commemorate and mourn the destruction of the Temple. We take into our hearts the communal tragedies of our people as we also think on our own personal tragedies regrets, times of hardship and sadness ... Times of pain and sadness that are as much a part of our biography as times of joy and happiness. From destruction, we look to build anew, as we look ahead to Rosh Hashanah. We rebuild our relationship with ourselves, with each other and with God. Even as we pray to be inscribed in the book of life, Judaism teaches that we must merit that inscription. As the New Year approaches, we vow to live our lives with more intentionality and honesty. We promise those around us that we will listen more. We promise ourselves that we will be less selfish and open ourselves anew to the needs of others. These promises, however, are only as meaningful as the actions that stem from them. As we look back on this summer, this can be “what we did during THAT summer.” It’s somewhat easy to pray to change our actions and our selves; it is much harder to do the actual work. During this season of the High Holidays, let us do the meaningful (and difficult) work of tsuvah, as we mend our broken relationships, and as we mend ourselves. May we be inscribed in the Book of Life for a year of happiness, health, growth and peace.
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Does G-d speak to you?
by RABBI ILAN EMANUEL Congregation B’nai Jeshurun South Street Temple, Lincoln My experience interviewing for rabbinical school will always stick in my mind. I was tired and jet-lagged and hoping that I had made the right decision about the rest of my life. The interviews themselves went well and I found myself with other prospective students who shared my passion for Judaism. But what sticks out in my mind the most were the psychological tests. To be sure that students were sane and stable – or as sane as someone who wants to spend the rest of their life as a rabbi can be – the school insisted that all candidates do a test called the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. This test included such fascinating questions as “Do voices in your head ever tell you to hurt people?” “Do you love your parents – or if they are dead, did you
love your parents?” We all chuckled over these and other such questions but the one that caused the greatest discussion was “Does G-d talk to you?” As a group of religious, spiritual Jews how were we to answer this. Clearly the question wanted to know if we believed we heard divine voices in our heads, like Joan of Arc, but the answer wasn’t as easy. No, none of us believed that G-d spoke to us in a literal sense, but in some way or other we all believed that G-d communicated with us and that we as religious Jews could hear the “voice of G-d” and feel G-d’s presence in our lives. This raises an important question. How do you have a relationship with G-d? How do you relate to a G-d who is infinite, incorporeal, unknowable and untouchable? The religious soul yearns to connect with G-d, to enter and maintain a spiritual relationship with the Divine. But to do so potentially requires us to think outside the parameters of our human experience. In human terms we understand what it takes to have a good relationship – even if we don’t always succeed. A good relationship involves communication, love, and trust. All of these can be achieved with a human being – with a lover, spouse, parent child or friend. But how do we apply such relationship criteria to G-d, a being we cannot touch, with whom we cannot hold a conversation as we could with another person, and whose love and trust we must take on faith? One answer may be found in a wonderful reading in the Reform Movement’s latest siddur, Mishkan T’filah. This passage by Rabbi Leo
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Baeck reads as follows: Religion embraces both faith and action. The primary quality is action, for it lays the foundation for faith; the more we do good, the more readily do we grasp the meaning of duty and life and the more readily do we believe in the Divine from which stems the good. (Mishkan T’filah, CCAR Press 2007, p 81[199]) One of the most distinctive elements of Judaism in a theological sense is its focus on action over belief, deed over creed. While what we believe and feel in our hearts is important, it is what we do that is most significant. And indeed this applies to G-d as well. Jewish thinkers through the ages have argued that one can “know” an unknowable G-d primarily through G-d’s actions. The Talmudic Rabbis spoke of G-d having aspects -- of Justice, Love, Wrath, and Compassion etc. The Medieval Jewish philosophers argued that G-d could not be described in human terms but could only be appreciated through G-d’s actions. The Kabbalists explained that G-d’s essence was an unknowable -- it was Ein Sof, without end -- but that we can experience and interact with G-d through Gd’s emanations, the Sephirot. While these ideas are quite different in their details, they have in common that G-d can be experienced through both G-d’s actions and our own. How do we connect to G-d through G-d’s actions? In my life I have experienced G-d in wonders of nature -- the desert landscape in Israel’s Negev, the
awesome power of Midwestern storms, the stark beauty of Norwegian Fjords and the blossoming of flowers every spring. And I have found G-d in the relationships with people in the world around me -- in the love of my wife, the support of my parents, the laughter of my daughter. Each of us will appreciate different aspects of G-d’s presence in the world, but we can all “see” G-d’s presence, and “hear” G-d’s voice in our lives through G-d’s actions if we would but open our eyes and our minds to appreciate the Divine. And, if as Rabbi Baeck proposes, “The primary quality is action, for it lays the foundation for faith; the more we do good ... the more readily do we believe in the Divine from which stems the good,” then we can also reach out to G-d through our actions. In each act we undertake in G-d’s name -- in each act of loving kindness to others, in each Mitzvah and Jewish tradition we take upon ourselves, in each experience of prayer or Torah study -- we reach out to G-d. It is through our actions in the name of G-d, in the name of Judaism, and in the name of our congregations and communities -- that we ourselves speak to G-d. And it is through our commitment to such action that we open our hearts and minds to G-d’s presence and to a relationship with the Divine. May we all strive to act in such ways that open “communication” between ourselves and G-d and may we seek to do more in the New Year to come.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
Summer weddings around the heartland -- then and now! Left: On Aug. 17, 1969, Cheryl Midler married Ron Cooper at Temple Israel; in the wedding party: Ben Cooper, left, and Faye Cooper, parents of the groom; Ron and Cheryl; and Fran and Jerry Milder, parents of the bride. Below left: Emily Larmore married Josh Cooper on June 24, 2000, at Joslyn Art Museum. Alex Cooper married Valerie Jackson on Sept. 3, 2005, at Lauritzen Gardens. Right: Joan and Milt Marcus celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2009.
Omahans at Boris Davidson’s wedding to Naomi Haber in 2001 included Rachel Katzman, left, Brittney Eshelman, Jacob Katzman, Zach Gonsher, Avi Zinn (St. Louis), Scott Saltzman, unidentified; standing: three unidentified, Ben Gonsher, unidentified, Josh Gonsher, Tiffany Eisenman (Yankovich,) and Amanda Mack (Gurock).
Photos from left: Janey Dann’s parents Iz and Rose Weiner celebrated their 50th anniversary on June 21, 1981, at the Sir Frances Drake Hotel where they honeymooned. Jerry Dann, left, Rose and Iz Weiner and Janey also celebrated the Dann’s 25th anniversary there. Below: Jerry and Janey celebrate their 50th in July of 2006 (notice Janey’s veil -- it’s the same one her mother wore at her wedding and is pictured at the left at the Weiner’s 50th!).
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Left: Ann and Jack Belmont were married Aug. 22, 1948, at Birchwood Club. Rabbi Israel Moshowitz and Cantor Aaron Edgar performed the ceremony. They’ve been married 61 years and have three children and four grandchildren.
Above: Susie Sachs married Jim Silverman on Aug. 14, 1965; below left: daughter Ann Silverman and Don Osborne were married on Aug. 23, 1997; and son Mike Silverman, right, and his partner Dave Greenbaum, left, watch as Rabbi Aryeh Azriel signs the ketubah at Omaha’s first commitment ceremony on June 6, 1999.
Left: As part of the “shtick” -the entertainment for newlyweds Tiffany Eisenman to Mordechai Yankovich last month, former Omahans Evan Saltzman, left, Josh Gonsher and Zack Gonsher led a group in a “performance” of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Below left: Evan Saltzman is accompanied down the aisle by his parents, Errol and Lynne Saltzman, at his wedding to Rebekah Chaifetz, June, 2002. Below: Engaged by then, Amanda Mack and Josh Gurock were married in June, 2003.
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September 18, 2009
Learning from experience
Bring the message to those still in chains
by RABBI ARYEH AZRIEL Temple Israel Tragically, we are losing the focus of our historical obsession to be peacemakers and justice producers. Too many of us have either forgotten how or we no longer care enough to try. Amos, the prophet of old, told us to “Let justice well up as waters [within us], and righteousness like a mighty torrent.” But of late, the torrent has been more like a babbling brook. How many of us are actively involved in the social ills of today? How many of us care about the plight of Central American refugees, AIDS victims, the plight of the elderly poor, the homeless -- the hopeless? If we care only about those social and political ills that affect us -- our homes, our income or our children -then we are not involved in social action, and we are not involved in social justice. We are just involved with ourselves and protecting what is ours. Justice, as our tradition defines it, is concern for the individual rights of all people, but especially those who are most vulnerable. The Bible, while demanding justice for rich and poor, strong and weak, native and stranger, commands it more empathetically for the weakest members of society: the widow, the orphan and the stranger. I do not, for one moment, fear the end of the Jewish people as some do. So long as there are human beings, I have no doubt that some of them will be Jewish. Should other planets ever be colonized, I am certain that some Jews will be there asking passersby whether they had put tefillin on that morning. Others will be asking to support the Jewish homeland on Alpha Centuri. I am concerned not that Jews will die out or that our numbers will decrease significantly, but that we will become irrelevant. Using Herman Wouks’ metaphor, if the Jews are an army, one does not ask whether all of its soldiers will survive. One asks whether its struggle is nearer to or farther from success. Or, to cite Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s equally accurate description, the modern Jew is “a messenger
who forgot his message.” Here, too, one does not ask whether the messenger will die. But if he forgot his message, his survival is meaningless. Fewer of us remember our message, that what we are fighting for is justice. A Talmudic rabbi was asked, “What is more important: prayer or study?” The sage responded, “They are both equal in merit, but only so if they lead the individual in the pursuit of justice.” Many of the cultures that we remember are no more. The Romans lost their empire and the Egyptians died, but we as Jews have survived. Not because of antiSemitism [as some have argued], but because we have a purpose: “To be a light unto the nations.” Our history is full of struggles against tyrants. At every encounter we cried out, “Let My people, let all people go.” We stood up, and were counted. Oppressed ourselves -- ex-slaves, ex-strangers, wanderers, pariahs -- we worked for the day when all peoples would be free, when all peoples would taste the sweetness of freedom. What people introduced the notion of the messianic age to humankind? The Jewish people did. It was an age not of holy ghosts, but of peace ... lions lying down alongside of lambs, spears cast into the fires, to be reworked into implements of harvest and bounty. This is our heritage; this is our mission; this is our obsession. We are free now, but let us not, because of our freedom, lose our raison d’etre. As Jews we have survived oppression, as Jews we will survive freedom by bringing the message to others still in chains. How proud I am that this is what my faith and my community demands of me. But, please don’t forget it demands it from all of us. L’shana Tova. A healthy, meaningful New Year.
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by RABBI YITZCHAK MIZRAHI Beth Israel Synagogue I’m still the new kid on the block, even after having been here a year. This past year has gone by so quickly. It feels like I have just arrived. Everything feels as fresh and exciting as the beginning of last year. What can be more rewarding than going through another year just like the last one? It is a chance to do it all over again. I am particularly looking forward to the autumn season bringing an explosion of color as the leaves shed their luminous green with the receding sunlight and revert to their natural yellows, oranges, reds and browns. (Last autumn, we had an early frost and were therefore robbed of some of the brilliance of the morphing leaves.) Being new has both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it requires adapting to the unfamiliar. On the other hand, if the ancient cliché has any truth to it, then the implications of being a new dog is that I might learn new tricks more easily. In their writings, our sages have asked in numerous places what quality is a mark of wisdom in a person. In other words, which attribute of one’s personality indicates that one is wise? Numerous answers are advanced in various places in our sages’ writings, from “one who learns from every person” to “one who foresees and predicts the consequences of an action.” Notably missing from their suggestions is an obvious mark of wisdom -- “one who learns from past experience.” I feel that the reason this point was omitted is because it goes without saying. Learning from past experience is so basic because it is a lesson we learn personally through our own encounters. Hopefully, the lesson is learned through success in an endeavor. Often times a lesson is learned even more poignantly by less than success. We would be foolish not to take such experiences to heart and therefore this suggestion did not make the cut; it does not display wisdom as much as it displays common sense. A new year means a fresh start, and when beginning anew we always want to come in as prepared as we possibly can be. History is one of life’s greatest teachers. Last year, last month, and even last week are parts of history on a smaller scale. The lessons we have learned over the course of the previous year will help to ensure that the coming year will be even better and more successful. I have learned many things this past year. Among other revelations, I have learned to know and to love the city of Omaha and its very special community. The greatest lesson that I learned, however, was that I can always learn more and more. Now, I don’t claim to be wise, although I hope someday to be so. But we each have a healthy dose of common sense. We can choose to do better and be even better people this year. We can use our common sense to learn from past experiences and resolve to make sure we don’t repeat past mistakes. We can all be new dogs and learn all sorts of new tricks. We have only to will it. If we have a touch of wisdom, we can learn from other people’s experiences as well. Looking up to others as potential teachers is a mark of wisdom according to our sages. The ability to glean from the wisdom of others is a very useful trait to have. Our sages noted that there is something to learn from everybody, and one who can apply this is fortunate indeed. For simple people like myself, however, we can suffice to learn from our own experiences which are certainly ample. This year I hope to put the lesson of learning from past experience into effect. Let us all lean forward into the wind and face the coming year with confidence and resilience. Let us “steer our bark with Hope in the head, leaving Fear astern” (says Thomas Jefferson), and gain more knowledge, more understanding, and most importantly, find more ways to share it. With all the blessings for a happy and healthy year.
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Temple Israel Cemetery, 6412 No. 42 St., 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27 Oak Hills/Bikhor Cholim, Council Bluffs, 10 a.m. Beth El Cemetery, 84th and ‘L’ Sts., 11 a.m.
September 18, 2009
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Births in 5769
The alert of changing seasons by RABBI MENDEL KATZMAN Chabad House of Nebraska The New Year dawns. We reflect on the summer past and anticipate the incoming year. The distinct flavors of summer -- the pool’s splash, the scent of sunscreen, and barbeque dinners- -- are treasured memories along with family vacations, long car rides and misty early morning hikes. Fall is the crunch of fallen leaves, sharp new pencils, and the joy of the first day of school. It is the crisp air, fuzzy sweatshirts, and hot cocoa and pancakes. Every season affords us unique sounds and sights. For Jews the gift of the seasons interfaces with myriad Mitzvahs that arrive at the doorstep. Indeed, Spring coincides with the “Season of our Redemption”, Summer with the “Harvest Festival”, and Fall with the “Festival of the Ingathering of the Crop.” We have Mitzvahs that beckon every week (Shabbos), once monthly (Kiddush Levanah), and as we have observed this year, Mitzvahs that knock on our door once in twenty eight years. Each of these Mitzvahs is, in essence, a once-in-a-lifetime occasion. “A summer day and a winter night are a year”, Rabbi Shneur Zalmen of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe asserted. His great-grandson elaborated, “Time must be guarded. Every bit of time, every day that passes, is not just a day but a life’s concern.” At the beginning of my two year stint as a rabbinic student in Caracas, Venezuala, I marveled at the pleasant, peaceful, casual lifestyle that the tropics introduce. The sun, the mountains, and mild temperatures -- they are equally guilty for the oft quoted expression “manana”- tomorrow. There is no urgency. No deadlines. No rushed leaf raking before the first snowfall.
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
No need to clean the furnace or check the gutter. If not today, we will get to it tomorrow. Hence, the changing seasons help alert us to the fact that one must make the most of each day. Remember. There will not be many more days to swim outdoors once Fall comes around. Enjoy a pleasant walk or run before snow and ice cover our roads. And yes, while summer will grace us once again next year -- there will never be another Summer 2009. The Talmud informs us that as the summer winds down, “the sun is weakened”. The days are shortened and the moon gains dominance among the celestial bodies. The sun, symbolic of the “Big Machers” of the world pipes down in deference to the moon which is symbolic of the Jews and our mission. Rosh Hashana coincides with the birth of a new moon. It represents the renewed strength that Jews who are “compared” to the moon are blessed with at this time. So dear friends, let us garner our strength today. Live more Jewishly. Learn how to act more G-dly. Be in the Mitzvah moment. Never pass up a prized chance for a Mitzvah. May all our days be overflowing with seized Mitzvah opportunities. Best wishes for a Ketiva va Chatima Tova. May we merit the coming of Moshiach immediately.
Shayna Leah, daughter of Atarah and Avi Block Moses Bloom, son of Sarah Kelen and Ken Bloom Rose Joli, daughter of Joanna Kaslow and Lou Bopp Bentley Lauren, daughter of Lesley and John (Ashley) Buchanan Yonatan Charlie, son of Saundra and Kevin Clarke Jason Anthony Michael, son of Eileen and Ed Clignett David Jacob, son of Katherine and Michael Cohen Owen Asher, son of Valerie and Alex Cooper Vanessa Jade, daughter of Joan and Justin Cooper David Xavier, son of Brenda and Christopher Croes Joel Duncan Hack-Curtis, son of Lori Hack and Tim Curtis Sima Dora, daughter of Tippi and Steve Denenberg Benjamin Gabriel, son of Rebecca and Cliff Deutsch Jacob David, son of Melissa and Rabbi Daniel Fellman Gideon Avraham, son of Whitney and Dan Feferman Meyer David, son of Jessica and Jamie Feinstein Liat Schachar, daughter of Sarah and Matthew Frey Eitan Yisrael, son of Natanel and Gilat Gold Jennifer Blair, daughter of Suzanne and Matthew Goldberg Evan Michael, son of Ashley and Max Goldberg
Naftali Chaim, son of Aviva and Rabbi Binyomin Gonsher Seth Aaron and Eli Jacob, twin sons of Lisa and Major Brad Green Sophia Kae, daughter of Amanda and Josh Gurock Samuel Ethan, son of Michelle and Jason Hoberman Colin Hershel, son of Heather and Mark Kelln Rex Kramer, son of Drs. Sarah and Beau Konigsberg Moshe, son of Sarah and David Kotlyar Mark Benjamin, son of Anya and David Kricsfeld Megan Anne, daughter of Traci and Lance Kugler Casey Daniel, son of Tracy and Lester Lewis Makayla Lynn, daughter of Lisa and Chuck Lucoff Israel Leib Nechemiah, son of Sarah Ita Merestky and Rabbi Nosson Meir Lena, daughter of Emily Michelson and Bill Shackman Trevor Owen, son of Andrea and Richard Nevitt Ava Elaine, daughter of Nicole and Max Newman Cory Benjamin, son of Jaime and Brian Nogg Avery Kathryn, daughter of Kelly and Jeff Nogg Murray Spencer, son of Cori and Sam Passer Knox Oliver, son of Suzanne and Hap Pocras Hayden Elizabeth, daughter of Sara and Lance Polikov Continued on page 64
Wishing the Omaha community
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September 18, 2009
Synagogues
B’NAI ISRAEL, COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA BOARD OF DIRECTORS Allen Kurland, President; Mark Eveloff, Vice President; Ruth Edelman, Secretary; Karen Turpen, Treasurer; Board Members: Sandra Kurland, Flora Telpner, and Barry Kricsfeld.
CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN LINCOLN, BOARD OF TRUSTEES Lori Merliss, President; Marc Shkolnick, Vice President; Maureen Lobb, Secretary; Dave Rosenbaum, Treasurer; Christie Emler, Tracy Gordon, Eleanor Shirley-Kirkland, Nathaniel McHargue, John Mosow; Sue Schreiber, and Dottie Shapiro. B’NAI MITZVAH John, son of Jennifer and David Williss Sue Schreiber Sarah, daughter of Susan Poser and Stephen DiMagno, Lillian, daughter of Christie Emler and Brian Bornstein,
TIFERETH ISRAEL, LINCOLN BOARD OF TRUSTEES President: Cindi Weiss; Vice-President: Lou Halperin; Secretary: Debra Evnen; Treasurer: Howard Feldman; Immediate Past President: Julie Brockman; Ritual Chairman: Ken Bloom; Membership Chairman: Jeffrey Payne; Fair Share Dues Chairman: Richard Evnen; Trustees: Pinkie Hansen, Rifka Keilson, and Marlon Weiss; Members at Large: Sarah Bauman, Lucy Bowers, Joyce Davidson, Bob Evnen, Dan Friedman, Alan Hersch, Dennis Kornbluh, Marcia Kushner, Sheldon Kushner, Jennifer Rosenblatt, Julie Widman; Lay Leader: Nancy Coren; Executive Director: Cece Hill. BAR MITZVAH Asaf Trainin, son of Guy and Sarah Trainin CHABAD OF NEBRASKA SHAREHOLDERS Joel and Daphna Alperson, Nancy Riekes Calderon, David and Marlene Cohen, Robert Eisenberg, Samuel and Suzanne Eisenstat, Irving and Geri Epstein, Tom and Darlynn Fellman, Dr. Joel and Debbie Gellen, Donald Geber, Irwin and Ruth Goldenberg, Leonard and Shirley Goldstein, Rabbi Allan and Rini Gonsher, Kathy Helm, Shami Jacobs, Gary Javitch, Michael and Carol Katzman, Joe and Maxine Kirshenbaum, Milton and Marsha Kleinberg, David and Janet Kohll, Justin Kohll, Marvin and Sandra Kohll, Howard and Sharon Kooper, Jay and Bobette Lerner, Denny and Lisa Lewis, Syd and Regina Osten, Dr. Eric and Julie Phillips, Carl and Zoë Riekes, Michael and Fiona Scharf, Phillip and Terri Schrager, Drs. Dan and Yaffa Schuller, Steven Silver, Dr. Tom and Elaine Urban, and Phil and Nancy Wolf.
BETH EL BOARD OF TRUSTEES President, Steve Pitlor; Vice Presidents: Eric Phillips, Toby Schonfeld, and Norman Sheldon; Secretary, Mark Kelln; Treasurer, Allan Noddle; Past President, Sally Zipursky; Yonatan Dotan, Beverly Fellman, Jon Jabenis, Les Kay, Jeffrey Kirshenbaum, Shane Kotok, Bruce Kutler, Sheldon Lerner, Steve Levy, Lisa Lieb, Gabe Meyer, Stanley Mitchell, Amy Nachman, Helen Rifkin, Linda Saltzman, Ed Schneider, Wayne Schwarz, Alan Shulewitz, Marcie Spivack, Alan Tipp, Jan Wayne, Susan Witkowski. HAZAK: President, Helen Rifkin; Secretary, Joan Marcus; Treasurer, Ed Schneider; Programming, Esther Wax and Harriet Marcus; Membership, Peggy Chasen; Bill Cohen MEN’S CLUB: President, Steven Levy; Finance, David Finkelstein; Religious, Glen Fineman; Social, Mark Kelln; Fundraising, Gabe Meyer; Membership, Michael Schop; Secretary, Andy Raffel; Past President, Scott Simon; At Large, Jason Hoberman SISTERHOOD: President, Marcie Spivack; Treasurer, Jori Kravitz; Boutique, Susan Witkowski; Past President, Caryn Rifkin. USY: President, Yonatan Dotan; Israel Affairs VP, Adeev Potash; Religious/Education VP, Ezra Potash; Membership VP, Ari Brodkey; Social Action VP, Noam Margalit; Communications VP, Brad Kutler; Historian, Ryan Kirshenbaum; Past president, Danya Cohen. B’NAI MITZVAH: Matthew, son of Susan and Mark Stein Ari, son of Sara Juster and Sorin Juster Tal, daughter of Ruth and Eyal Margarlit Elizabeth, daughter of Jane and Michael Snyder John, son of Elizabeth and Jack Gallagher Julia, daughter of Ellene and Stanley Edelstein Alyssa, daughter of Sharon and Jeffrey Kirshenbaum Chad, son of Cindy and Alan Shulewitz Eva, daughter of Julie and Eric Phillips Megan, daughter of Becki and Tom Kahn Halle, daughter of Alan Unger Jacob, son of Deborah and Steve Levy BETH ISRAEL BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS President: Alan Kricsfeld; Vice Presidents: Sharon Kirshenbaum, Guy Matalon, Michael Shrago; Treasurer: Joshua Gurock; Secretary: Lesley Gendelman; Board Members: Joshua Follick, Howard Gendelman, Bruce Goldberg, Mary Sue Grossman, Julee Katzman, Bette Kozlen, Bruce Potash, Zoë Riekes, Dani Shrago, Susie Shyken, Jeff Stein and Harry Weiner. All past presidents who are members in good standing are on the board. SISTERHOOD President, Debbie Kricsfeld; Executive Committee: Shirley Goodman, Julee Katzman, Bette Kozlen, Susie Shyken. All past Sisterhood presidents are members of the Board.
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September 18, 2009
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 63
Jewish Federation of Omaha
Robert Lepp, President; David Gilinsky and Jody Malashock, Vice Presidents; Mike Abramson, Treasurer; Jay Gordman, Secretary; Myron Kaplan, Budget & Allocations Chairman; Norman Sheldon, Past President; Stacey Rockman, Overseas/Partnership Chairman; Board of Directors: Bruce Friedlander, John Lehr, Michael Miller, Nancy Schlessinger, Anthony Scioli; UJC National Board: Joel Alperson, Joe Kirshenbaum, Jan Schneiderman, UJC National Committee; Agency Presidents: Jim Farber, Jewish Social Services; Richard Evnen, ADL/Community Relations Committee; Toba Cohen-Dunning, Center for Jewish Education; Bobbi Leibowitz, Jewish Press; Kimberly Robinson, Jewish Community Center; Jay Noddle, Foundation President; Committees: Mark Martin, Building and Grounds Chairman; Wendy Raffel, Community Development Chairman; Senior Rabbis: Rabbi Aryeh Azriel, Rabbi Jonathan Gross, and Rabbi Mordechai Levin; Campaign Leadership Team: Zoë and Carl Riekes; Executive Director: Jan Goldstein.
FOUNDATION OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA Jay Noddle, President; Steven Bloch, Paul Epstein, Michael M. Erman, Donald Goldstein, Joseph Kirshenbaum, Allan Murow, Murray H. Newman, Carl Riekes, Andrew Robinson, Larry E. Roffman, Harley D. Schrager, Ted M. Seldin, Frederick J. Simon, Suzanne Richards Singer, and Norman Veitzer; Ex-Officio: Jody Malashock, Myron J. Kaplan; Non-Voting: Jordana M. Glazer; Executive Director: Marty Ricks. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER Kimberly Robinson, President; Michael W. Miller, Immediate Past President; Gary D. Epstein, Past President; John Glazer, President-Elect; Elected Board Members: Harry Alloy, Jason Epstein, Sheldon Gallner, Kevin Gilinsky, Cindy Goldberg, Danielle Gordman, Jay Gordman, Mark Javitch, Diane Malashock, Mark Martin, Scott Meyerson, Jeff Platt, Lt. Shayna Ray, Stacey Rockman, Michael Siegel, Eitan Tsabari, and Dana Wear; Executive Director: Jeffrey Aizenberg.
JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICES Jim Farber, President; Bob Belgrade, Immediate Past President; Carol Bloch, Secretary; Justin Cooper; Howard Epstein and Paul Epstein, Vice Presidents; Andi Willensky, Treasurer; Directors: Joanie Bernstein, Judy Brookstein, Ted Friedland, Alex Grossman, Jeff Kirshenbaum, Joe Kirshenbaum, John Lehr, Cliff Levitan, Lisa Lewis, Harold Mann, Nancy Noddle, Steve Nogg, Larry Roffman, Anthony Scioli, Harriet Singer, Suzanne Richards Singer, Dorothy Spizman, Norman Veitzer; Synagogue Representatives: Rabbi Aryeh Azriel, Rabbi Jonathan Gross, Rabbi Mordechai Levin; Executive Director: Mike Silverman.
THE CENTER FOR JEWISH EDUCATION Toba Cohen Dunning, President; Bonnie Bloch and Patrick Jensen, Vice Presidents; Susan Langnas, Treasurer; Board Members: James Blasingame, Hillary Fletcher, Ann Goldstein, Cheryl Cooper, Bruce Kutler, Michael Shrago, and Annette Van de Kamp-Wright; Executive Director: Guy Matalon; Library Director: Gary Katz. ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE/ COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL Richard Evnen, President; Jonathan Rockman, Vice President; David Gilinsky, Past President; Executive Committee Members: Carol Bloch, Laura Crosby, Rich Juro, Sara Juster, Michael Levine, Jan Lund, Dan Marburg, Brian Nogg;, Aaron Weiner, Irv Yaffe; Board Members: Michael Alley, Ellie Batt, James Blasingame, Bob Bleicher, Katherine Finnegan, Herb Friedman, Bruce Goldberg, Danielle Gordman, Gary Javitch, Patrick Jensen, Jeff Kirshenbaum, Jack Kozlen, Jaine Merliss, Allan Murow, Gary Nachman, Bob Nefsky, Alan Parsow, Shayna Ray, Susan Rothholz, Jan Schneiderman, Melissa Schop, Ray Somberg, Charlie Sullivan, Belinda Vacanti, Tom Vann, and Jim Zipursky; Advisory Committee: Bucky Greenberg and Sylvia Wagner; Executive Director: Alan Potash; Director of the Institute for Holocaust Education: Beth Seldin Dotan. JEWISH PRESS Bobbi Leiboiwitz, President; Andy Ruback, Vice President; Michael Sigmond, Secretary; Michael Siegel, Treasurer; Howard K. Marcus, Immediate Past-chairman; Board Members: Daphne Pollak Alperson, Marc Brodkey, Eric Dunning, Jason Epstein, Andie Gordman, Michael Kaufman, Bette Kozlen, Jamie Meyerson, Jim Simon, and Dorothy Spizman; Editor: Carol Katzman.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
Jewish Organizations NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN Co-Presidents: Andee Scioli and Nikki Kirshenbaum; Community Service VPs: Roxanne Kahn and Marcy Ruback; Public Affairs/Education VP: Sara Juster; Public Relations VP: Tippi Denenberg; Membership VPs: Jaime Nogg and Wendy Raffel; Fundraising VP: Vicki Sanford; Treasurer: Beth Friedman; Financial Secretary: Julie Martin; Corresponding Secretary: Cheryl Lerner; Recording Secretary: Pam Friedlander; Parliamentarians: Debbie Friedman and Dottie Rosenblum; Directors: Lori Kooper-Schwarz, Melissa Stern, Patty Nogg, Michelle Hoberman, Kate Kirshenbaum; Nominating Chairman: Joanie Jacobson; Nominating Committee from the General Membership: Bunny Rothenberg, Diane Malashock, Iris Ricks, Carol Katzman; Nominating Committee Alternates: Penny Endelman, Jill Belmont; Immediate past Co-Presidents: Tina Meyers and Shelly Pichik.
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OMAHA CHAPTER OF HADASSAH President, Georgia Ann Steinberg; Treasurer, Esther Wax; Secretary, Myrna Grumer; Life Membership Chair, Harriet Klopper; Newsletter, Harriet Klopper; Publicity Coordinator, Gloria Jones; Board Members: Trees: Beth Ginsberg, Madeline Katzman, and Bette Kozlen; Courtesy Chairmen: Sandy Kohll, Carole Lainoff, Maxine Noodell; Lesli Shrago, and Julie Stein.
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NEBRASKA JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY Ira Nathan, President; Gary Javitch, Vice President; Rocky Stern, Secretary; Debbi Josephson, Treasurer; Midge Bowers, Past President; Board Members: Ron Brodkey, Don Dandy, Beverly Fellman, Michael Gendler, Stu Giller, Caryl Greenberg, Nan Katz, Kevee Kirshenbaum, Sheldon Kushner, Rocky Lewis, Max Neiden, Vicki Perlmeter, Caryn Rifkin, Dick Rochman, Larry Roffman, George Shafer, Sissy Silber, Beth Staenberg; Ex Officio: Louise Abrahamson, Bob Belgrade, Joanie Bernstein, Helen Epstein, Lois Friedman, Helen Rifkin; Advisor-Oral Histories: Ben Nachman; Advisor-Exhibits & Archives: Doug Hartman; Executive Director: Renee Ratner Corcoran.
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Continued from page 61 Jack Elliott, son of Cari and John Rabroker Samuel Brody, son of Rebecca and Brian Rosen Clayton Maxwell, son of Teresa and Andrew Ruback Alice and Alexander Martin, twins of Rebekah and Evan Saltzman Chaya Elianna, daughter of Sarah Schondelmeyer William Martin, son of Antonia and Andrew Schroeder Gavin Issac, son of Shawna and David Schwalb Sofia Wiley, daughter of Kim and Justin Shur Shaefer Loggia, son of Karen Loggia and David Spizman Zachary Stein, son of Jeff and Dasha Stein
Wishing You A Healthy, Prosperous New Year op
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Please let the Jewish Press know in advance when you are leaving and when you are returning. Sometimes several papers are sent to your “oldâ€? address before we are notified by the Post Office. Every time they return a paper to us, you miss the Jewish Press and we are charged 70¢! Please call us at 402.334.6448 or email us at jpress@jewishomaha.org.
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B’NAI B'RITH HENRY MONSKY LODGE #3306 Gary Javitch, President; Alvin Abramson, Treasurer; Mike Abramson, Banquet Treasurer; Rich Juro, Gerald Meyers and Aaron Weiner, Directors; Marty Ricks, Breadbreakers Co-chairman; Steve Riekes, Trustee; Howard Shandell, Banquet Chairman.
VISIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRS 2009 Executive Chairman, Jim Wax; Advsior and Luncheon Co-Chairman, Harry Alloy; Luncheon Co-Chairman, Tootie Simon; Cultural, Phyllis Roffman and Rosalie Greenspan; Historian, Sol Schwartz; Recording Secretary, Doris Alloy; Mitzvah, Florence Hauss; Publicity, Howard Silber; Membership, Phyllis Schwartz; Social Programming, Rose Pitlor; Trips and Travel, Betty Sanford; Treasurer, Ilse and Marcel Kahn.
LOVE (LEAGUE OFFERING VOLUNTEERS FOR THE ELDERLY) President, Judy Brookstein; Immediate Past Presidents, Eileen and Miles Remer; Iris Ricks; Recording Secretary, Kathy Weiner; Treasurer, Esther Wax; Directors: Doris and Harry Alloy, Phyllis Aron, Audrey Epstein, Beth Ginsburg, Dora Goldstrom, Gloria Goodman, Ilse Kahn, Howard Kaplan, Judy Katskee, Mark Kazor, Renee Kazor, Leslie Kully, Wendy Manvitz, Robert Mosenkis, Jim Polack, Natalie Rubin, Tootie Simon, Sheila Tomps, and Jim Wax.
Births in 5769
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FRIEDEL JEWISH ACADEMY Bruce Potash, President; Annette Van de KampWright, Secretary; Jerry Gordman, Treasurer; Susan Fellman Witkowski, Past President; Board members: Joel Alperson, Harry Berman, Bonnie Bloch, Saundra Clarke, Debbie Denenberg, Hollie Fineman, Donald Gerber, Josh Gurock, Nancy Kutler, Ruti Margalit, Lloyd Roitstein, Yaffa Podbilewicz-Schuller, Lise Sasson, Susie Shyken, Jeff Stein, Julie Stein, Harry Weiner; Exofficio: Rabbi Aryeh Azriel, Rabbi Jonathan Gross and Rabbi Mordechai Levin; Principal: Ron Giller.
Samuel Harrison, son of Amy and Brian Thomas Elliot Greer, son of Stephanie and David Yudelson Levi Nathaniel, son of Holly and David Weill Livia Elise, daughter of Jennifer Forman-Wright and Brian Wright Dahlia Rain, daughter of Alyssa and Brent Zacharia
To submit announcements: 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: jpress@jewishomaha.org. Readers can also submit other announcements: births, engagements, marriages, commitment ceremonies or obituaries -- online at: www.jewishomaha.org.
September 18, 2009
Celebrating the Jewish Year
BOOK REVIEW reviewed by SYBIL KAPLAN
This three volume set by Paul Steinberg includes Volume I, Fall holidays; Volume II, Winter Holidays; Volume III, Spring and Summer Holidays. Published by the Jewish Publication Society, each 200page volume is $22. These books are the kind of books a reviewer says, every family should own this set. Paul Steinberg is rabbi and director of Jewish studies and Hebrew at the Levine Academy in Dallas. He was assisted by Janet Greenstein Potter, editor of several Jewish Publication Society publications. Volume I was published in 2007 and includes Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. It is an invaluable guidebook to help the reader explore all aspects of these holidays. After introductory material on Jewish holidays and observance and the Jewish calendar, the book follows the same pattern for each holiday. First there is an exploration of the origins of the holiday in the Bible. This is followed by guiding through the sources, interpretation of the sacred texts, significance of the holiday and alternative meditations. One interesting aspect of the interpretation of the sacred texts is the three lev-
els at which these are discussed: peshot, the simple, literal meanings; derash, the historical and Rabbinic inquiry; and making it personal, contemporary analysis and application. Volume I concludes with notes on all of the sources, endnotes, a glossary and short bios of the contributing authors. Contributors include: S.Y. Agnon, Shlomo Carlebach, and a number of distinguished scholars and rabbis. Volume II, also published in 2007, includes Chanukah, Purim and Tu b’Shvat. Among the varied 18 contributing authors are: Theodore Herzl, Marin Buber, and Nachman of Bratzlav. Volume III was just published a few months ago and includes Passover, Shavuot, the Omer and Tisha b’Av. Contributors include wellknown American scholars and rabbis. Stories, essays, poems and explanations of rituals enhance the meaning of each holiday. This is really a terrific guidebook for friends and family members because it is such an enjoyable read that can be used at basic and in-depth levels. These should be top priority purchases for your library because they are “a one-stop resource” and will make meaningful contributions to the celebrations of Jewish holidays. Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, food writer, lcturer and book reviewer who made aliyah one year ago and lives in Jerusalem.
Unplanned Pregnancy?
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 65
Of blessed memory: deaths in 5769 Barry Abrams, Edith Abrams, Gail Spector Abramson, Barry Allen, Louis Azriel, Irving J. Babendir, Lillian Ban, Diane M. Bogdanoff, Minnie Yaffe Breslow, Jack H. Bufferd, Edward E. Chait, Corrine Wohlner Chapman, Esther Rae Chesnin, Leon Chesnin, Irving Chudacoff, Donald Cohen, Doris Kwiatek Cohen, Gwen K. Cohn, Rae Coren, Miriam Cooper, Ruth Stephanie Cullen, Regina Dunning, Bella Eisenberg, Cheryl Elberson, Lois Dvorkin Epstein, Rhonda Erlich, Leonid Etus, Lieb Etus, Jean-Pierre Farjon, Rose Fine, Louie Fedman, Helen Finkel, Leonard Gerald Finkel, Barbara Finnicum, William “Bill” Fitzgerald, Gertrude Guss Forman, Irving J. Forbes, Delores “Dee” Fox, Frances Rosenblatt Fox, Ruth Fox, Marilyn Joyce Bernstein Fried, Edythe Friedman, Thama Lee Friedman, Enrique Frydman, Babe Nachman Galemba, Olga Garanuner, Anne Rose Gerber, Abe Gershovich, Elaine Schlaifer Ginsburg, Lorraine Goldman, Herman Goldstein, Philip Gordon, Maurice “Bud” Irwin Greenspan, Paul Grossman, Marie Ham, Sheldon Harris, Eva Meyerson Handleman, Arthur Henry, Pearl Segall Herzog, Marie Herbert, Michael Hoberman, Jeanette Hulman, Eli Jabenis, Charles B. Kamp, Rose Shamberg Katzman, Ben Kaufman, James Kennedy, Marjorie Brodkey Kirshenbaum, Lou Klein, Leonard “Chris” Krasne, Norm Kronick, Sheldon Kushner, David Lazarus, Lewis Lavine, Sallye B. Levin, Libby F. Lincoln, Betty Lipman, Arthur Maischoss, Dr. Sidney
Merliss, Ida Miller, Kenneth Mommaertz, Constance Morgan-Jensen, Arlene Kuklin Moskovitz, Marc E. Novak, Shlomo Palmon, Sol S. Parsow, Harry Paskowitz, Nancy Peartree, Bess “Beth” Perlmeter, Janet Perlmeter, Gerald Pitalis, Bede Ostrow, Victoria Rendell, Margot Roesberg, Normand Edward Roffman, Rose Paperny Rosen, Edward Rosenbaum, Susan Rosenberg, Larry Rosenthal, Ethelyn Roseman, Shirley Rosenzweig, Doris M. Rosinsky, Elliot “Bus” Rubin, Herman Rubin, Mason Rudd, Edward Saag, Jack J. Schrager, Gerry Schuchman, Harry Schulman, Audrey Shapiro, Hershel Shulman, Miriam Shrier, Laura Sigala, Elvin Silverman, Fannye Simon, Joe Sokol, Leelo Sommerhauser, Harriet Ann Rothkop Starr, Phillip Henry Starr, Irene Wolf Stein, Esther “Tibe” Stoler, Judy Bordy Swiskay, Marilyn Jean Treller, Paul Corby Tully, Devora Urkowitz, Sally Venger, Sol Yaffe, Steven J. Wigodsky, Sara Wisnia, Bernice Paperny Wolfson, Joe Wolfson, Philip A. Wright, Michael Zevakin, Retired Lt. Col. William Zohn, and Roslyn “Roz” Zoob.
To submit obituaries: The Jewish Press cannot “pick up” obituaries from the Omaha World-Herald or other media (due to copyright infringement). Please e-mail to the Press at jpress@jewishomaha.org; fax to 402.334.5422, or mail to 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154, or online at the Jewish Federation of Omaha website: www.jewishomaha.org. Click on “Jewish Press” and go to Submit Announcements. Questions? Call 402.334.6448.
What Does Jewish Law and Jewish Tradition Say About Health Care Reform? A presentation by
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Page 66
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
Candlelighting Friday, Sept. 18, 7:10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, no earlier than 8:08 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 ROSH HASHANAH FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m., Lloyd Roitstein speaks about “Scouting and Judaism -- Strong Families, Strong Values.” Apples, honey and sweets to follow. SATURDAY:, Services, 10:30 a.m., Lieutenant Shayna L. Ray addresses “What We Do in Life, Echoes in Eternity.” All services led by Jeffrey Taxman. Saturday, Sept. 28, 5:30 p.m., Yom Kippur concluding service and Break-the-fast potluck. Please call 323.8885 to RSVP and let us know what dish you’d like to bring.
BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Services conducted by Rabbi Mordechai Levin and Cantor Beth Schlossberg. ROSH HASHANAH FRIDAY: Ma’ariv, 6 p.m. SATURDAY: Morning Service, 9 a.m.; Alternative Service, 9:45 a.m.; Mincha-Ma’ariv, 7:15 p.m. SUNDAY: Morning Service, 9 a.m.; Tashlikh, 5:50 p.m.; Mincha-Ma’ariv, 7:15 p.m. Note: Rosh Hashanah morning services end at about 12:30 p.m. WEEKDAY SERVICES: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.; weekdays, 7 a.m. & 5:30 p.m. BEGINNING HEBREW: Weekly adult-education class led by Eadie Tsabari, continues on Sundays, 10-11a.m. Cost: $36 for Beth El members, $45 for non-members, plus the cost of the textbook. To register, call the office, or e-mail programming@ Bethel-omaha.org. (Note: no class on Sept. 20.) YOU’RE ‘KID’-ING ME!: Monthly adult education course led by Andy Greenberg, scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 4, 1011:30 a.m. Open to all adults in the Jewish community. Cost: $36 for Beth El members, $45 for non-members. To register or for more information, contact the synagogue office. TOT SHABBAT & SAY “SHALOM!” TO SHABBAT: Fun-filled, monthly services returns on Friday Oct. 2, 6 p.m.
services and 6:30 p.m. dinner. Open to all families in the Jewish community. For reservations made by Wednesday, Sept. 30, cost is $5 per person for members; $7.50 per person for non-members. After Sept. 30, cost is $10 per person for members; $15 per person for non-members. No charge for children six and younger. RSVP to programming@bethelomaha.org or call the office.
BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE Office Hours: MondayThursday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m-2 p.m. Services conducted by Rabbi Jonathan Gross and Rabbi Yitzchak Mizrahi. ROSH HASHANAH FRIDAY: Selichot, 6 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m. The office will close at noon; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:21 p.m. SATURDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Torah Reading, 9:15 a.m.; Babysitting begins, 9:30 a.m. and is available through the conclusion of services; Junior Congregation, 9:30 a.m.; Sermon, 9:45 a.m.; Kiddush sponsored by Sisterhood; Mincha, 7 p.m. SUNDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Torah Reading, 9:15 a.m.; Babysitting begins, 9:30 a.m. and is available through the concluJunior sion of services; Congregation, 9:30 a.m.; Sermon, 9:45 a.m. followed by shofar blowing; Kiddush sponsored by Sisterhood; Mincha/ Ma’ariv, 7:15 p.m.; Havdalah, 8:06 p.m. WEEKDAYS: Shacharit, 6:40 a.m.; Mincha, 5:45 p.m. MONDAY: Fast of Gedaliah; Fast begins, 5:49 a.m.; Fast ends, 7:57 p.m. TUESDAY: Rabbi Mizrahi’s Weekly Class, 7 p.m. WEDNESDAY: Women of the Torah class, 9:30 a.m.; Rabbi’s Gross’s weekly class, 7:30 p.m.
CHABAD HOUSE Services conducted by Rabbi Mendel Katzman. ROSH HASHANAH FRIDAY: Shacharit, 7 a.m.;
Mincha/Ma’-ariv, 7:30 p.m. SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Shofar Service, 11 a.m.; luncheon to follow services; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:20 p.m. SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Super Sunday Special, 11 a.m. for adults and kids featuring shofar service, Haftorah, and a guide to maximizing Rosh Hashanah; Shofar Service, 11 a.m.; luncheon to follow services; Tashlich, 5 p.m. at Meadowbrook; Mincha/ Ma’ariv, 7:15 p.m. MONDAY: Fast of Gedalia; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Fast ends, 7:51 p.m. TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, & THURSDAY: Services, 7 a.m.
CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN Services conducted by Rabbi Ilan Emanuel. ROSH HASHANAH FRIDAY: Evening Service, 8 p.m. led by Rabbi Emanuel, with oneg following hosted by the Board of Trustees. SATURDAY: Morning Service, 10 a.m.; Children’s Service, 11:15 a.m.; Tashlich service, 3 p.m. at Wilderness Park. SUNDAY: No LJCS Classes; Memorial Service, 3 p.m. at Wyuka Cemetery. TUESDAY: Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, 7:30 a.m. at Downtown Holiday Inn. WEDNESDAY: Hebrew classes (grades 3-7), 4-6 p.m. at Tifereth Israel. THURSDAY: Choir Rehearsal, 7:30 p.m.
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m.
ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME ROSH HASHANAH FRIDAY: Evening Service, 7 p.m., led by Andrew Greenberg. SATURDAY: Morning Service, 9 a.m., led by Andrew Greenberg. SUNDAY: Morning service, 9 a.m., led by Phyllis Hoffman.
JEWISH PRESS EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE
BAT MITZVAH
The Press office will be closed on Monday, Sept. 28 for Yom Kippur. The deadline for the Oct. 2 issue is Wednesday, Sept. 23. Photos from the New Year’s issue may be picked up at the Press office during regular business hours: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Photos from prior special issues will be given to the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society if they are not picked up by Oct. 2. Questions? Call 402.334.6448.
Chelsea Kavich, daughter of Nanci Kavich and Jeff Kavich, will become a Bat Mitzvah on S a t u r d a y, Sept. 26, at Beth El. Chelsea is a eighth-grade student at Westside Middle School. Her interests include dance,
To Submit B’nai Mitzvah Announcements 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. Forms are available through Omaha and Lincoln synagogues, by contacting The Jewish Press at 402.334.6448, or by e-mailing the Editor at: ckatzman@jewishomaha.org. You 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.
TEMPLE ISRAEL ROSH HASHANAH FRIDAY: Evening Service, 7:30 p.m. led by Rabbi Aryeh Azriel, Rabbi Eric Linder, and Cantor Wendy Shermet. SATURDAY: Tot Service, (for ages five and under) and Children’s service, 9 a.m. (suitable for K-4) led by clergy; Sitter service (age two through third grade), 9:45 a.m.; Morning service, 10:15 a.m. No Religious SUNDAY: School; OTYG Yom Kippur Service rehearsal, noon; Kol Rina Rehearsal, 1 p.m.; Memorial Service, 1 p.m. at Schrager Memorial Chapel. TUESDAY: Kol Rina Rehearsal, 6:30 p.m. WEDNESDAY: Grades 3-6, 46 p.m.; OTYG Lounge Night, 5 p.m.; OTYG Yom Kippur Rehearsal, 5 p.m.; All School Dinner, 6 p.m.; Family School, 6 p.m.; Grades 7-12, 6 p.m. THURSDAY: CSA delivery for shareholders, 4:30-5:30 p.m. at South entrance.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD MINYAN There will be no services starting Sept. 18 until after Simchat Torah. Services will resume Oct. 16.
TIFERETH ISRAEL Services conducted by Nancy Coren, Lay Leader. Office hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. ROSH HASHANAH FRIDAY: Ma’ariv Services, 8 p.m. SATURDAY: Morning Service, 9 a.m.; Maariv, 7:30 p.m. SUNDAY: Morning Service, 9 a.m.; Tashlich & Mincha, 5:15 p.m. at Holmes Lake. TUESDAY: Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, 7:30 a.m. at Downtown Holiday Inn. WEDNESDAY: Hebrew classes (grades 3-7), 4-6 p.m.
tennis, camping, the outdoors, and hanging out with friends. For her mitzvah project, Chelsea is helping at the Nebraska Humane Society. She has a sister, Ally. Grandparents are Andi and Larry Kavich, Joyce and Dan Rudman of St. Louis, and Howard Neuman of St. Louis. Great-grandparents are Marian Bookey, and Helen and Leon Gross of St. Louis.
MEMORIAL SERVICES Sunday, Sept. 20 Temple Israel Cemetery, 6412 No. 42 St., 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27 Oak Hills/Bikhor Cholim, Council Bluffs, 10 a.m. Beth El Cemetery, 84th and ‘L’ Sts., 11 a.m.
September 18, 2009
More summer simchas
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 67
The Book of New Israeli Food by JANNA GUR (Schocken, $35)
READ IT AND E AT Reviewed by LOIS FRIEDMAN
Above: The Silverman family flew to Chicago for a 65th anniversary celebration for Norma and Stanley SIlverman: Monica Seldin Stoney, left, Denise, H. Scott , Gabrielle, Yael, Mary Kay, Jeffrey, Norma and Stanley, Jacob, Anne, Abigail, Andrew, and Lance. Below: Sam Eisenman’s Omaha Mah Jongg friends -- Cathy Christensen, left, Martha Lerner and Claire Flatowicz -traveled to New York for her daughter’s wedding.
Just in time for cook for Rosh Hashanah is this elegant and delightful cookbook that combines a culinary journey and a history experience with a photo essay (photography by Eilon Paz). Beginning with the Israeli author’s premise that Israeli food has evolved from “spartan austerity to a true gastronomical haven”, this cookbook evolves into a delicious treat. And in the beginning as in Genesis, the Bible is brimming with food, shepards and farmers as in Cain and Abel. In the Introduction follow the settlers as they brought with them their ethnic heritage resulting in “multi-ethnic food culture” which takes us to the food chapters. Included are very reader-friendly, readable chapter and headnotes, details about recipes (hummus is especially a favorite of Israeli men and has several pages and photographs). You won’t know whether to keep reading or jump up, rush in the kitchen and start cooking. (The first recipe I couldn’t resist was the lentil stew Esau sold as his birthright to Jacob.) Eight stories are here and there and offer a visit to each of the subjects ... makes you want to dash off to one of the family country inn establishments, “zimmer”, for their pride and joy breakfast. Read of the ancient lore of Olive Oil, Fishing, Lechem Achid (“standard bread”) subsidized by the government to boutique bakeries, Fruits of Paradise include the fig, pomegranate and date as possible contenders ... part of this story is the “Um-El-Fahem” almonds (thought to all be related to the giant tree in the city of the same name in the Ara Valley), and “tzabbar” (prickly pear cactus)
and more, Coffee, Cheese and Wine complete the stories. Over 175 recipes often are credited to a person, chef or restaurant, have easy to follow numerical instructions, suggestions for variations, more information in sidebars and are from Attayif (famous Ramadan delicacies) to Zhug (a fiery condiment). Rosh Hashanah recipes are for Dadi’s Gefilte Fish (fish symbolizing abundance are mandatory), Moroccan-style Hot Fish, Baked Pumpkin Jam with Cinnamon and Ginger, Lamb and Quince Casserole. Begin your dinner with apples dipped in honey and end with a Magical Honey Cake that should be matured for seven days before serving. Have a pomegranate ... the seeds symbolize the 613 commandments of the Torah -- and try this recipe to go with the gefilte fish. CHRAIN HORSERADISH SAUCE FOR GEFILTE FISH Ingredients (about 1 cup) 1 lb 2 oz horseradish root, peeled 2 lb 4 oz beetroots, peeled 1/4 cup white vinegar 1-2 teaspoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt Soak the horseradish root in water for 20 minutes.Cut it into 3-4 chunks and grind finely in the food processor. Set aside. Grate the beetroots finely in the food processor. Mix most of the ground horseradish with the ground beetroots and taste. If it’s not hot enough, add more horseradish. Mix 1/4 cup water with vinegar, salt and sugar. Stir well until the sugar and salt dissolve. Add the liquid gradually to the horseradish and beetroots to the desired consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve immediately or refrigerate in a sealed jar for a few days. Lois Friedman can be reached at ReadItAndEat @yahoo.com.
Index of Advertisers Advertiser Page Abacus Consulting .................................................... 47 Abraham Catering .................................................... 59 Abrahams Kaslow & Cassman LLP ............................ 5 Acura of Omaha ....................................................... 31 Alegent Health .......................................................... 19 All Makes Office Equipment Co. ................................ 51 Allens ........................................................................ 30 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) .... 39 American National Bank ........................................... 40 AmSan ..................................................................... 60 Anti-Defamation League ........................................... 48 Arnold Weitz & Co. .................................................... 11 Associated Counseling Professionals ........................ 21 B’nai B’rith Henry Monsky Lodge ............................. 48 B’nai B’rith Youth Organization .................................. 24 B’nai Israel Synagogue ............................................. 48 B’nai Jeshurun ......................................................... 34 Badger Body/Isuzu Truck ......................................... 56 Bag ’N Save ........................................................ 23, 55 Beth El Synagogue .................................................... 28 Beth Israel Sisterhood ............................................... 48 Beth Israel Synagogue .............................................. 48 BILU USY .................................................................. 24 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska .......................... 46 Body Basics .............................................................. 38 Boys Town ................................................................ 50 Boys Town National Research Hospital ..................... 37 Bresel Family ............................................................ 46 Broadmoor ............................................................... 10 Brodkey’s .................................................................. 56 Brownell Talbot ......................................................... 58 Canfield’s Sporting Goods ........................................ 20 CB Richard Ellis/MEGA ............................................ 57 Center for Jewish Education ............................... 48, 65 Chabad .................................................................... 48 Charleston’s .............................................................. 36 Christel’s ................................................................... 16 Clinical Cosmetics, Angela Bell ................................. 17 Cohen Family .............................................................. 3 Creative Hair Design ................................................... 6 Creighton University .................................................. 42 Crowne Plaza ............................................................ 21 Custom Care ............................................................ 30 Dance Shoppe .......................................................... 39 David Morton Food Marketing ................................... 44 DiMartino & Associates, Inc. ..................................... 63 Edward Jones-Mike Sigmond .................................... 28 Emanuel Contracting, Inc. ........................................ 29 Enterprise Bank ........................................................ 63 Expressions .............................................................. 41 Faces ........................................................................ 40 Family ENT Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic, PC. ............ 26 Frankel Zacharia, LLC .................................................... 39 Fraser Stryker PC LLO ............................................... 43 Friedel Jewish Academy ............................................ 28 Gallner and Pattermann ............................................ 27 Gordmans ................................................................ 45 Grace/Mayer Insurance ............................................ 43 Grubb & Ellis/Pacific Realty ...................................... 47 Hadassah ................................................................. 48 Hadassah Upper Midwest Region ............................. 57 Heritage Pointe ......................................................... 63 Hiller Electric ............................................................. 19
Advertiser Page Hockenbergs ............................................................... 4 Holiday Inn Omaha Convention Center ..................... 52 Horizon Dental Center .............................................. 29 Howells, Nebraska Catholic Chruches ...................... 28 Hy-Vee ...................................................................... 68 I-Go Van & Storage .................................................... 20 Ideal Pure Water ....................................................... 26 Industrial Packaging Corporation ................................ 8 Interim Homestyle Services ....................................... 10 Jacobson Fish Co., Inc. ............................................ 23 Jaipur ....................................................................... 59 Janine McClintock Studios ........................................ 15 Javitch, Gary Family .................................................. 16 Jetlinx ........................................................................ 18 Jewish Community Center ........................................ 60 Jewish Federation of Lincoln ..................................... 10 Jewish Federation of Omaha .................................... 25 Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation ............. Insert Jewish Press ................................................... 2, 24, 62 Jewish Social Services .............................................. 53 Jewish Women International ..................................... 48 Johanns, Mike Senator ............................................. 27 John A. Gentleman Mortuaries ................................. 52 Julio’s ....................................................................... 59 King Fong Cafe ......................................................... 36 Kohll’s Pharmacy & Homecare ................................. 17 League Offering Volunteers for the Elderly ................. 48 Leisure Life Sports .................................................... 37 Lerner Company ....................................................... 35 Lion’s Automotive Upholstery .................................... 32 Louie M’s Burger Lust ............................................... 59 Lynn Roberts International ........................................ 23 Malashock Jewelry ................................................... 64 Malbar Vision Centers ............................................... 16 Marks Clare & Richards ............................................ 14 Marriott Regency Hotel .............................................. 11 Max I. Walker Cleaners .............................................. 57 McGill, Gotsdiner, Workman & Lepp, P.C., L.L.O. ... 22 McGrath, North ........................................................... 9 MDK & Associates .................................................... 34 Meehan Drywall ........................................................ 28 Mercedes-Benz of Omaha ........................................ 62 Mid Con Systems Inc. ............................................... 54 Mid-City Jewelry & Loan ............................................ 55 Midwest Box Co. ......................................................... 4 Midwest Ear, Nose & Throat, PC ............................... 23 Montemarano Landscapes, Inc. .............................. 41 Mount Sinai Cemetery .............................................. 48 Mulhall’s ................................................................... 44 Nan C. ........................................................................ 7 National Council of Jewish Women ........................... 48 NCSY of Beth Israel Synagogue ................................. 24 Nebraska Children’s Home Society ........................... 65 Nebraska Democratic Party ...................................... 55 Nebraska Furniture Mart ........................................... 14 Nebraska Jewish Historical Society ........................... 48 Nebraska Press Statewide Classifieds ....................... 67 Nebraska Warehouse & Cannonball Express ............ 40 Nelson, US Senator Ben ............................................. 8 No Frills ..................................................................... 11 Nobbies .................................................................... 44 Noddle Companies ................................................... 31 Norm’s Door Service ................................................. 41 NP Dodge, Kathy Miller ............................................. 37
Advertiser Page O Dining ................................................................... 59 Oak Hills/Bikhor Cholim Cemetery ............................. 5 Omaha Community Playhouse ................................... 7 Omaha Compound Company ................................... 15 Omaha Steaks .......................................................... 51 Omaha Surgical Center ............................................... 7 Omaha Symphony ................................................... 49 Omaha Temple Youth Group ..................................... 24 Omaha Temporary Services ..................................... 20 One Drake Place ....................................................... 29 Parkwood Terrace Apartments .................................. 27 Parsow’s ................................................................... 63 Pasta Amore ............................................................. 38 Pear’s Gourmet Coffee ................................................ 3 Peterson Brothers Realty Co. ..................................... 22 Pond Doctors ............................................................ 22 Pulverente Monument Co. ........................................ 56 Quality Dental Care L.L.C. ........................................ 34 RGD .......................................................................... 47 Reef Tectonics ........................................................... 64 Regency Lodge ......................................................... 31 Remer Family ........................................................... 20 Remington Heights Retirement Community .............. 13 Republic National Distributing Company ..................... 3 Ricks Family .............................................................. 32 Roberts Dairy ............................................................ 52 Rockbrook Floors ........................................................ 8 Rockbrook Village ...................................................... 38 Rotella’s Italian Bakery .............................................. 32 Russ Kaplan Investments ......................................... 56 Schwalb Realty ........................................................... 7 Scott Conference Center ........................................... 35 Security Equipment, Inc. ...........................................65 Security National Bank ............................................. 38 Seim Johnson ............................................................. 4 Senor Matias ............................................................ 12 Sir Speedy ................................................................ 56 Social Life of Paper ................................................... 63 Sol’s Jewelry & Loan ................................................. 16 Sonny Gerber Auto Sales ............................................ 9 Souq ......................................................................... 39 Sparks Computerized Car Care ................................... 5 Spirit World ............................................................... 36 St. Joseph Villa .......................................................... 17 Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP ................................... 54 Stoddard, Jay Family ................................................... 9 String of Purls ........................................................... 56 Suburban Newspapers Inc. ...................................... 32 Swartzbaugh Farber .................................................. 26 Taxi’s ......................................................................... 12 Temple Israel ............................................................ 48 Terry, US Congressman Lee ...................................... 15 Tifereth Israel ............................................................ 34 University of Nebraska Medical Center ...................... 33 Valentino’s ................................................................ 36 Vann Realty ................................................................. 3 Village Pointe Pediatrics ............................................ 61 Wiesman Development ............................................. 37 Winery ...................................................................... 58 Wolf Bros. Western Store ........................................... 34 Wolfson Used Cars ................................................... 44 Young Seniors with Vision ......................................... 48 Zio’s Pizzeria ............................................................. 12
Statewide Classified ADOPT: A truly loving couple prays to adopt newborn. We will provide warm, wonderful, caring and happy home. Expenses paid. Call Toni and Scott, 1-888-872-7152. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING in over 175 newspapers. Reach thousands of readers for $210/25 word ad. Contact the Jewish Press at 402-334-6451 or call 1-800-369-2850. DIVORCE WITH or without children $95.00. With free name change documents (wife only) and marital settlement agreement. Fast and easy. Call us 24/7: 1-888-789-0198. LOOKING FOR the classic car, truck or motorcycle of your dreams? Go to www.midwestclassiccars.com. It’s your Midwest connection to classic vehicles for sale. Need to sell a classic vehicle? For only $25, your ad with photos will run until sold! Call this newspaper today for more information or call 800-369-2850. BANKRUPTCY: FREE initial consultation. Fast relief from creditors. Low rates. Statewide filing. No office appointments necessary. Call Steffens Law Office, 308-8728327. www.steffenslaw.com. We are a debt relief agency, which helps people file bankruptcy under the bankruptcy code. ALL NEW Happy Jack Kennel Dip II: kills fleas, ticks, stable flies & mange mites without steroids. Biodegradable. At Orscheln Farm & Home Stores. (www.happyjackinc.com). AQUAFFORDABLE HOT tubs $2,795 to $3,995. Walk-in bathtubs $3,995 up. Saunas $1,995 to $2,695. Call 1-800-869-0406 for free information package. FORECLOSED ONLINE home auction. 500+ homes must be sold! Open house: 9/12, 19, 20. REDC/bids open 9/21. View full listings & details: Auction.com. RESTAURANT EQUIPMENT Outlet; new & used restaurant equipment. See www.Chillmasters.biz for more info; Sioux City, IA, 1-800-526-7105. STOP WASTING $ on rent! Own a new single-wide home for as low as $400/month W.A.C. Call for details: 307-635-3100. AIRLINES ARE hiring - train for high paying Aviation Maintenance Career. FAA approved program. Financial aid if qualified. Housing available. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance, 888-349-5387. AUTOMOTIVE TECHNICIAN needed for an ongoing GM dealership. Inquire at Pearson Motor Company, PO Box 488, Hartington, NE 68739 or call 402-254-6801. HELP WANTED: Swine manager and herdsman needed for a 6,000 sow unit located in northeast Nebraska. Contact Doug at 402-910-8844. TRAVEL, TRAVEL, travel! $500 Sign-on-bonus. Seeking sharp guys and gals, Rock-nRoll Atmosphere, Blue Jean Environment! Call MR. T, 888-440-0944 today. LIFE’S A game! Learn how to play it better!! Easily earn $18 to $56 per hour. Call 10 am to 7 pm cst 1-402-679-4339. ESTABLISHED 19 year company seeking traveling sales rep. Gone Monday-Friday. Company average pays $910/week. Call 1-800-225-6368, ext. 333. www.brechtpacific.com.
EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE The Press office also will be closed on Monday, Sept. 28 for Yom Kippur. The deadline for the Oct. 2 issue is Wednesday, Sept. 23. Questions? Call 402.334.6448.
Page 68
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
September 18, 2009
EMPLOYEE OWNED
Starting September 18, 2009
Wishing the Community A Happy and Meaningful New Year 5150 Center St.• 553-2664 • 50th & Center | 10808 Fort St. • 493-2089 • 108th & Fort | 11650 South 73rd St., Papillion • 597-5790 • Shadow Lake Towne Center 3505 L St. • 731-6107 • Stockyards Plaza | 3404 Oak View Dr. • 697-0811 • Oakview | 7910 Cass St. • 384-8668 • Peony Park | 9707 Q St. • 339-3047 • Applewood 747 North 132nd St. • 493-2911 • Westridge | 8809 West Center Rd. • 384-9072 • 90th & Center | 180th & Q St. • 896-4168 • Welch Plaza 156th & Maple • 493-0390 | 1706 North 16th St., Council Bluffs • 328-9762 • North 16th Street | 1745 Madison Ave., Council Bluffs • 322-9260 • Mall of the Bluffs