Vol. LXXXVIX No. 2 Omaha, NE
Children’s advocate named Humanitarian of the Year by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator and BOB GOLDBERG Federation Communications Director The Jewish Federation of Omaha will award the 2008 Humanitarian of the Year to Evelyn Zysman for her lifetime commitment to improving the lives of children. The prestigious award will be presented on Monday, Oct. 12, 7:30 p.m., during the Federation’s Volunteer Recognition event at the Jewish Community Center. Born in Omaha in 1910 to immigrant parents, she is the youngest of eight children. After graduating from Central High School, Zysman went to the University of NebraskaLincoln and hoped to attend graduate school. One of her professors told Evie Zysman her that she was entitled to a fellowship but said, “Evelyn, you are a woman and a Jew. What would you possibly do with a master’s degree?” Ignoring the comment, she accepted the fellowship from the League of Women Voters and studied at the Jewish School of Social Work in New York. She earned a master’s and worked for a time in New York City for the Jewish Family Service and a foster care agency. She then formed the New York Chapter of the United Social Service Employees Union in the belief that she could more readily help others. “I could do even more for people, like getting them decent wages, than I could do in social work,” she said. Among the union’s accomplishments while she was president was guaranteeing social workers were qualified and paid fairly. Upon returning as a wife and mother to Omaha, she and her husband, Jack, soon founded their own company, Playtime Equipment, which grew out of her desire to provide her preschool-age son with quality learning materials. Education has always been a top priority for Zysman, and she has left her mark on the Omaha community. When neighborhood kids realized that she was reading to her son every night, many of them came in and listened too. “Reading to your children is the most important thing you can do for them,” she says. Her interest in educating children had just begun with Playtime Equipment. A group of volunteers she organized to teach lowerincome children was the predecessor for Head Start in Omaha. She has won several awards for paving the way for Head Start here, one of the first in the country. The Nebraska Association for the Education of Young Children took root in Zysman’s living room. She immersed herself in many more efforts to improve the lives of children, including helping to found the Council for Children’s Services, a volunteer advocacy organization focusing on the needs of children, and the Coordinated Child Care Project, clearinghouses geared to meeting at-risk children's needs. One of her goals was to inform legislators of the gap in quality education -- especially for underprivileged children. She convinced legislators that kindergarten should be a legal requirement. In 1965, Omaha Public Schools (OPS) nominated Zysman for a community service award, because she had headed Project Aid, a base for bringing the Head Start program to Omaha. She assisted in getting the first child abuse council started in Douglas County. This resulted in hospitals forming child abuse teams, the development of statewide councils, and specialized treatment for sexual abuse. These efforts resulted in the Continued on page 2
Inside
Celebrating 88 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa
7 Tishrei 5770
September 25, 2009
Israel, Jewish groups seek to discredit new U.N. report on Gaza by RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA) -Israel’s government and its supporters are promoting a one-sentence strategy to counter a 574-page U.N. report on last winter’s IsraelHamas war in Gaza: Consider the source. “The same U.N. that allows the president of a country to announce on a podium its aspiration to destroy the State of Israel has no right to teach us about morality,” Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said, referring to Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “This is a report born of bias,” Abraham Foxman, the national director of the AntiDefamation League, said in describing the report released Sept. 15 by the U.N. Human Rights Hamas’ terrorists continue to fire rockets from Gaza on Jan. 4, 2009, during Operation Cast Council. “What do you do Lead. More than 8000 rockets were fired into sovereign Israeli territory since the Israel with an initiative born of Defense Force “disengaged” and evacuated all Jews from Gaza in 2005; 3000 mortars and bombs fell in 2008 alone. The IDF finally retailiated on Dec. 27, 2008. Credit: ISRANET bigotry?” The timing of the report is not propitious for Israel, as The report, written by a fact-finding mission headed it sparks a public relations problem ahead of a planned by Richard Goldstone, a respected war crimes judge summit to reconvene Israeli-Palestinian talks and open from South Africa who is Jewish, urges Israel to set up talks with Iran aimed at getting the Islamic Republic to independent investigations into what it calls Israel’s war shut down its suspected nuclear weapons program. crimes and crimes against humanity. A battery of Israeli officials are touring Washington Calling for the probes to be set up within three months, and the United States in an attempt to convey the the report also recommends that international bodies impression that Israel is more open to negotiations than launch prosecutions if Israel does not do so within six Continued on page 2 months. It makes similar recommendations about Hamas.
A laugh a minute! Klutznick-Harris Symposium highlights “Jews and Humor” by LEONARD GREENSPOON Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University What do Joan Rivers, Molly Picon, Gilda Radner, and Belle Barth all have in common? They are (or were) Jewish, female, comedians (comediennes) -- and among the subjects of the keynote address for the 22nd Annual KlutznickHarris Symposium, “Jews and Humor.” The keynote presenter is Dr. Joyce Antler Dr. Joyce Antler, Samuel Lane Professor of American History and Culture at Brandeis University and Chair of Brandeis’ Department of American Studies. Antler’s presentation, on Sunday, Oct. 25, 7:30 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center, is titled “‘One Clove Away From a Pomander Ball: The Subversive Tradition of Jewish Female Humor.” As Antler explains it, some of these women were (are) openly rebellious and bawdy, while others employ more gentle, innocent humor. Nonetheless, all of these comediennes “stretch the boundaries of conventional comedy and gender roles.” Antler is well placed to discuss and evaluate these
This Week: Monthly calendar on pages 10 & 11
See Front Page Stories & More at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on ‘Jewish Press’ Opinion Page see page 12
Breaking the fast Sephardi style, recipes for the Yom Tovim: Pages 4-5
women within the context of Jewish humor. In the past year alone she has received three important awards: the Abram L. Sachar Medallion, from the Brandeis National Committee; the Harris S. Levitan Education Award, from Brandeis University; and the Emily Toth Award for Best Book on Women’s Issues in Popular Culture and American Culture, from the Popular Culture/American Culture Association. Moreover, she was named Goldstein-Goren Research Fellow for 2008 at the Center for American Jewish History at New York University. Her two most recent books, both critically acclaimed -- You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother and Talking Back: Images of Jewish Women in American Popular Culture -reflect not only decades of research but also much personal experience. On occasion, Antler appears with her daughter, Lauren, who is also a comedian. One of Lauren’s favorite routines is “What to Wear When You’re Fighting the Patriarchy: Lessons from the Daughter of a Jewish Feminist.” Lauren says of her mother, “I’ve always been impressed with how she, as a mother, has been able to mesh feminism with femininity -- cooking great dinners each night while reminding us to fight the patriarchy!” In response, Joyce offers some advice of her own about parenting: “Don’t worry about over-worrying. When Continued on page 2
Coming Next Week: Arts & Entertainment Issue Part II: the Budapest connection -“Judaism without Walls”: Pages 6-7
JCC’s newest shlicha arrives in Omaha: Page 16