Vol. LXXXIX No. 7 Omaha, NE
Celebrating 89 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa
19 Cheshvan 5770
November 6, 2009
Riekes’ take the helm again
Former U.S. ambassador to Israel to inaugurate Couple to lead Federation’s 2010 Campaign UNO Schwalb Center by KRISTAL WALENZ Administrative Assistant Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies of the University of Nebraska-Omaha Martin Indyk, a former United States Ambassador to Israel, will be the featured speaker at the inaugural event of the Natan and Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at the University of NebraskaOmaha. Indyk’s presentation will be given at the UNO’s Thompson Alumni Center on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 7:30 p.m. The event, Martin Indyk presented by the Schwalb Center and funded by the Phil and Ruth Sokolof Endowment, is free and open to the public. Indyk’s presentation, “The New Administration -Making Peace in the Middle East,” will use material from his new memoir, Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East. The book and his lecture draw on his many years of involvement in the region to provide the inside story of the last time the United States employed sustained diplomacy to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and change the behavior of regimes in Iraq and Iran. Indyk served both as Ambassador to Israel and as Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs during the Clinton administration. “Playing an important role in the negotiations Continued on page 2
by BOB GOLDBERG Federation Communications Director This years Federation Annual Campaign will have outstanding leadership through the ranks. Carl and Zoe Riekes will be this year’s co-chairs and have built a team that is determined to raise the dollars to make this years campaign successful. The Jewish Federation is the heart of our community’s infrastructure, allocating valuable dollars to family and child services, senior services, school and camp scholarships and a host of vitally important programs. Zoe Riekes, Campaign Co-Chair explained, “In these compelling times, when more and more Jews are turning to the Federation for help, our goal is to continue to be strong and be there to support the needs of Jews both in Omaha, in Israel and around the world.” It’s an amazing story. Two thousand years ago, Jews were exiled from the Land of Israel and we vowed to care for one another like family. Today, thanks to donors that vow still holds true. Every dollar donated to the Jewish Federation enables this community to take care of our most vulnerable, reach out to Jews in more than 70 countries, act quickly in times of conflict and natural disaster, and strengthen and nurture Jewish identity. In short, every dollar is an investment in a vibrant Jewish future. This year’s campaign began at the Pacesetter kickoff
Zoe and Carl Riekes with a keynote address by Federation Vice President David Gilinsky. “We have one of the most vibrant and engaged small Jewish communities in America. I have personal relationships in our community that go back three generations. The leaders of our parents’ generation had a vision and worked hard to create what we enjoy today,” Gilinsky said. “We cannot take what has been built over generations for granted. We need to ask ourselves what kind of Jewish community we want for ourselves and for our children. And, is our generation willing to do what it takes to continue this fantastic legacy?” Members of the entire community have an opportunity to participate in continuing this legacy on Monday, Nov. 16, when the Federation will host a Campaign Continued on page 2
Rabbi’s kidney donation inspires community by YONIT TANENBAUM Editor’s note: FridaySunday, Nov. 13-15 is the annual Organ Donor Sabbath. This piece is reprinted, with permission, from www.chabad.org/news. When the opportunity arose for Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Ephraim Simon to potentially risk his life in the preservation of another’s, he paused. He wanted to give one of his kidneys to a suffering man; the problem was that he had to think about how he would communicate that decision to his nine children. So in July, Simon, codirector of Friends of Lubavitch of Bergen County in Teaneck, NJ, gathered his family around him. “As emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe,” he told them, referring to Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, “we dedicate our lives to helping other people.” Rabbi Ephraim Simon donated a kidney to a “perfect He went on to describe stranger.” Credit: ChabadNews.org
Inside Opinion Page see page 8
the terminally-ill man he had met earlier, a father of a large family just like theirs. “By tatte giving him a new kidney, he will live, G-d willing. This is our gift to him and you are all a part of it.” Simon’s journey from community leader to organ donor -- the operation took place exactly one week ago -- began last year when the 41-year-old rabbi opened a mass e-mail from a woman trying to arrange a kidney donation for a potential recipient. A 12-year-old Jewish girl with the same blood type as Simon’s was succumbing to a terrible disease, and desperately needed a new kidney. The rabbi decided to respond. “I have a 12-year-old daughter, too,” explains Simon from his home, where he’s in the midst of a two-week recovery period. Having never considered donating an organ in the past, “I was moved to consider testing for her.” “Let’s see what it entails, and then make a decision,” came the reply from his wife, Nechamy Simon, when he brought it up. After a few days of intense research, and a careful risk-benefit analysis together, the Simons reached out to the sender of the email, a Jewish woman by the name of Chaya Lipschutz, offering one of the rabbi’s kidneys if he matched as a candidate.
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“I cannot let a young girl die, and not do anything,” Simon told Lipschutz. But the woman informed him that “a donor has already been found.” Many people would have understandably felt relief at the realization that they wouldn’t be called upon to undergo major surgery. Simon, however, saw things differently. “I felt like I didn’t act fast enough,” he recalls. “I knew right then and there that if somebody else was in need, I was going to be the one to save their life.” According to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, more than 80,000 people nationwide are waiting for a healthy kidney. But last year, more than 4,500 lost their fight for life while waiting. Simon told Lipschutz, a former kidney donor herself, to keep his name on file and to contact him if another person was in need. Two months later, the woman called back with news that a 35-year-old mother of two needed a kidney. Simon immediately agreed to undergo tests at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y., where the woman was being treated. He wasn’t a match. Then in February, Lipschutz called yet again to ask Simon if he would give his kidney to a single Israeli man in his 30s. Continued on page 4
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