Sponsored by the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Endowment Fund AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA October 4, 2013 30 Tishei 5774 Vol. 94 | No. 03 | 2 Sections
This Week
by LEONARD GREENSPOON The Twenty-Sixth Annual Klutznick-Harris Symposium is set for Sunday, Oct. 27, and Monday, Oct. 28. This year’s topic is “Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition.” This year’s keynote speaker is Hasia Diner, Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History at New York University. She brings to bear both professional and personal experience in her presentation, “Peddlers, the Great Jewish Migration, and the Riddle of Economic Success.” After receiving her PhD in History from the University of Illinois-Chicago, Diner has become an internationally recognized researcher and writer on immigration and ethnic history, American Jewish history, and the history of American women. Earlier, Diner had studied at the University of Wisconsin (for her bachelor’s degree) and the University of Chicago (for her master’s). Diner’s choice of mid-Western academic institutions was not by chance. She grew up in Milwaukee; both of her parents were from the
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Hasia Diner Ukraine. In this sense, immigrant history is very personal to her. As she recalls, English was not the family’s language at home. Her parents basically spoke only Yiddish. Because of this, she acquired almost all of her knowledge about America and about English from her school and on the street. This experience has enabled her to feel viscerally the process of negotiating marginality that char-
In memoriam: Forrest Krutter
Is decision to ‘opt out’ a cop-out? Page 12
Point of view Synagogues In memoriam
Wealth and Poverty
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by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMPWRIGHT Jewish Press Editor Forrest N. Krutter of Milton Mills, New Hampshire, and Omaha, NE, died Thursday, Sept. 26. He was 58 years old. He is survived by his wife, Lisa Stewart-Krutter, his mother, Shirley Levine Krutter, and his sister Marlene Krutter; he was preceded in death by his father, Irving A. Krutter. Forrest graduated from MIT, Hebrew College and Harvard Law School. He first came to Omaha in 1978 as an attorney for Union Pacific. After a few years, he left UP and went to work for Berkshire Hathaway, where he served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, where despite his illness he continued to work almost until the end. Where Forrest went to school and where he worked are important details of his life, and yet, they seem more like background noise to the people who knew him. When talking to others about Forrest, one thing immediately becomes clear: Forrest was loved. Really loved. For his in-
acterized many of the individuals she has studied as a scholar. Because her father was a teacher of Hebrew, Diner acquired excellent knowledge of that language from an early age. Together with her thorough familiarity with Yiddish, this childhood upbringing has served her in good stead in her archival research through primary documents. Diner’s father considered himself a socialist, and she herself was active in Habonim, the Labor Zionist youth movement. From these experiences, which included civil rights activities, she acquired a deep commitment to social justice. All of these experiences have come to fruition in her numerous publications, which include the following books, among others: In the Almost Promised Land: American Jews and Blacks 1915-1935, A Time for Gathering: The Second Migration, 18201880, Lower East Side Memories: The Jewish Place in America, Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration, Her Works Praise Her, and The Jews of the United States: 1654-2000. Her most recent book, which won the National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies, is We Re-
member with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence After the Holocaust, 1945-1962. This influential work has decisively changed the way in which we look at how post-World War II American Jews dealt with the many difficult issues raised by the Holocaust. In 2014, Yale University will publish her newest book, Roads Taken: The Great Jewish Migration and the Peddlers Who Made It Possible. She will incorporate research from this project into her Symposium keynote address. Given the high quality of her work and the critical approbation that it has garnered, it is probably no surprise that she has held a number of important positions in prestigious organizations. Thus, in addition to her endowed professorship at New York University, she is also director of its Goldstein Goren Center for American Jewish History. In addition, she has held a Fulbright Professorship at the University of Haifa and has been a Lilly Fellow at Harvard University’s Bunting Institute. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she is a member of the American Academy of Jewish Research and the Society of American Continued on page 2
Frances and Sam Fried honored
Forrest Krutter tegrity, his patience, his loyalty, his service to others, his passionate commitment to charitable causes, and most of all his modesty. “When Forrest first came to Omaha,” longtime friend Dennis Paley said, “My wife Susan and I met him at the old Beth El. We invited him for Shabbos dinner the next week, because he didn’t know very many people at the time. He came to us that next Friday, and stayed for twenty years.” Shabbos with the Paleys turned into a beloved tradition, and was a welcome respite in an increasingly busy life. “Making the move from Union Pacific to Berkshire Hathaway came with a lot of soul searching,” Dennis said. “When he finally made the decision, it put him in a different orbit. Continued on page 11
Frances, left, and Sam Fried, and Frances Blumkin by GRETCHEN BREN Rotary Club of Omaha On Aug. 28, the Rotary Club of Omaha presented its 2013 Service Above Self Community award to Frances and Sam Fried for their work on the Nebraska Holocaust Memorial. The Rotary Club of Omaha honored the Frieds for the work that they and their foundation have done for the Nebraska Holocaust Memorial located in the Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, NE. This Wall of Remembrance is dedicated to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust and in honor of all the liberators and survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. The Nebraska Holocaust Memorial is a place of reflection and also serves to educate visitors about the horrors of the Holocaust. A sea of
stones surrounds the monument, representing the millions of men, women and children that were slaughtered by the Nazis and their collaborators. The site also has the “Star of Remembrance” sculpture that stands 16 feet tall and depicts the three stages of the Nazi war against humanity: isolation, deportation, and extermination. The Frieds are founders of the Heartland Holocaust Education Fund, which perpetually funds college level Holocaust programs at universities and colleges so that our future leaders can gain greater understanding of the lingering and serious impact of the Holocaust. The Service Above Self Community Award is given annually by the Rotary Club of Omaha to honor Continued on page 3