thejewishpress AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA
this week
Klutznick Symposium keynote speaker
O CT O BER 7 , 2 0 1 6 | 5 T ISH REI 5 7 7 7 | V O L . 9 7 | NO . 1 | 2 SECT IO NS | C a nD LeLi G h Ti nG | FRID AY , O CT O BER 7 , 6 : 3 7 P. M.
W
Shimon Perez, respected statesman and peacemaker page a12
Dr. Lenn Goodman
Major Donor Dinner and Federation Fair photo gallery pages b4 and b5
Read it and eat page b6
inside Viewpoint Synagogues
A8 A10
WWW.JEWISHOMAHA.ORG
SponSoreD by The benJaMin anD anna e. WieSMan FaMiLy enDoWMenT FunD
The Joy of Laughter LinDa poLLarD Endowment Assistant/Staff Writer, Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation Lincoln native T. Marni Vos will perform at the next Joy of Laughter Live Comedy Series on Sunday, Oct. 16, at 1:30 p.m. in the Jewish Community Center Auditorium. Ms. Vos is a stand-up comic, humorist and keynote speaker who has made her living from the stage for the last 25 years. For T. Marni, as with many of us, what we plan for our lives is not always what happens. As the old proverb goes, ‘Man plans and God laughs.’ During her college years T. Marni wrote a humor column for the Daily Nebraskan and began performing stand-up comedy. With degrees in both speech and theater, T. Marni taught school in Waverly. Then the plans changed. T. Marni left teaching and began her life as a full-time comedian, where she performed in comedy bars, cruise ships
LeonarD GreenSpoon Creighton University Klutznick Chair hat does it take to be the keynote speaker at this year’s Symposium on Jewish Civilization, titled Is Judaism Democratic? In the case of Dr. Lenn Goodman, the invitation recognizes his decades of achievements within the academic world and celebrates his equally illustrious contributions to a number of Jewish communities. Dr. Goodman will speak on Torah and the Norms of Constitutional Democracy, in the JCC Theater at 7:30 p.m., on Sunday, Oct. 30. Currently Professor of Philosophy and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University, Goodman received his undergraduate degree in Near Eastern Languages & Literatures at Harvard. As a Marshall Scholar, he did his graduate work at Oxford University, from which he received his D. Phil (the Oxford term for PhD). After almost twenty-five years as a professor at the University of Hawaii, he moved to Nashville to teach at Vanderbilt in the mid 1990s. Along the way he has written almost twenty books, ranging from Maimonides and Saadiah to studies on monotheism, creation, and evolution. In addition, Goodman is an internationally recognized expert on Islamic philosophy. One of his fervent hopes has been that these publications, along with public presentations on this topic, “would foster better relations between Muslims and Jews.” To further his goals, Goodman has been invited to deliver prestigious lectures in Oxford, London, Jerusalem, Toronto, Boston and New York. Goodman’s most recent book, Religious Pluralism and Values in the Public Sphere, is also among his most relevant publications for this year’s Symposium topic. The theme of this volume is, in his own words, “that we can take others’ religious commitments See Klutznick Symposium page a3
Welcoming the stranger
T. Marni Vos and 5-star clubs. After eight years of stand-up comedy, T. Marni’s plans changed again. With the waning popularity of stand-up comedy, she turned to Keynote speaking. T. Marni has been giving Keynote speeches and after dinner speeches for the last 17 years, performing in over 45 states and in Canada. T. Marni’s career is broader than stand-up comedy and keynote speaking. She has performed at birthday parties, opened for Jay Leno, and entertained western state governors at Lake Tahoe. Most unusual perhaps is that T. Marni has conducted quite a few funerals. She always treats the deceased with See The Joy of Laughter page a2
The Syrian mother and Gloria Kaslow embrace
ozzie noGG The commandment to care for the stranger is mentioned more times than any other commandment in the Torah. In text and prayer we are taught: you too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Turning this precept into action, Beth El Synagogue recently helped welcome a Syrian refugee family to Omaha. Launching the project took hours of volunteer effort, but when the family -- mom, dad and five young children -See Weloming the stranger page a2