Vol. LXXXV No. 10 Omaha, NE
Celebrating 84 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa
With Discovery of Ancient Church, Israel Banks on Christian Tourism
16 Cheshvan, 5766 November 18, 2005
Two from Omaha Experience Israel on Birthright Trips
representative in by GIL SEDAN Italy, told JTA JERUSALEM (JTA)--It that the impormay not qualify as a miratance of religious cle, but an exceptional tourism shouldn’t archaeological find in the be underestimatMegiddo Prison in northed. ern Israel could prove to I “When be a tourism bonanza for served in Italy, Israel. they displayed an “This finding may attract exhibit with the millions of Christian pilsupposed shroud grims to Israel,” Tourism of Jesus. Some Minister Avraham two million peoHirschson told JTA. ple visited the Through September, place in two some 1.4 million tourists weeks,” she said. have visited Israel this year. In 2000, before the Israel offers intifada Palestinian the Christian pilbegan, tourism reached Discovered during construction in Israel’s Megiddo prison, the ruins of a grim a journey an all-time high of 2.67 Christian church, dated by some experts as approximately 1,700 years old, into the past that are cleaned by an Israeli prisoner. Credit: BP Images/JTA can’t be matched million visitors. The archaeological find was impressive: Inmates at the elsewhere. In addition to Megiddo--the biblical prison uncovered the remains of a 1,700-year-old church Armageddon, site of the projected doomsday conflict in during an excavation designed to clear the way for a new the New Testament--pilgrims have no lack of historic sites. A standard seven-day tour takes the religious tourist to prison wing. The mosaic floor decorated with Greek inscriptions, as Caesarea, capital of Judea under the Romans; Jesus’ well as remnants of an altar decorated with fish--a hometown of Nazareth; the Sea of Galilee; Tabgha, site Christian emblem that preceded the crucifix--raises of the miracle of fish and loaves; the Church of hopes that these are remains of “the oldest church in the Multiplication, with its fourth-century mosaic floor; Mount of the Beatitudes, where Jesus delivered the world,” Hirschson said. But can one develop a world tourism center within a Sermon on the Mount; the Banias spring and waterfall, where Peter made his great confession; the Jordan River; prison compound? and, of course, Jerusalem. “No, we’ll move the prison,” he said. Noa Sher-Greco, who served as the Tourism Mini-stry’s Continued on page 13
by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator “I wanted to go to Israel my whole life,” insisted Rebecca (Becki) Smedlund, an Omahan who attends the University of Kansas in Lawrence. “I know a lot of people who had tried to go before and their trips got cancelled.” But she thought she would try to apply to birthright Israel, a free ten-day tour of Israel for young Jews, ages 18 through 26, who have never been there on a peer/educational tour. Becki’s trip wasn’t cancelled. In January of this year, she found herself on her way to Israel with about 30 other students from KU. The trip was sponsored by KU Hillel. Lauren Freeman, a junior at Washington University in St. Louis, who is majoring in political science and international business, also saw Israel on a birthright trip. She was there in May and June 2005 on a Washington University Hillel-sponsored trip. Continued on page 20
Becki Smedlund plants a tree at the Jewish National Fund Forest at Shaar Hagag while on a birthright israel trip.
Nebraskans Make Impact on Film Scene The Return of the (Omaha) Native by GARY JAVITCH wanted to advocate for indeLook for a big difference pendent filmmaking, promote and major improvement in social education through film, your movie-going enjoyment and gain wider distribution of next year. That’s when native singular voices in filmmaking Omahan Rachel Jacobson will through the non-profit sector. open a new independent film Until she could realize her theater. dream, Jacobson worked in Even before her graduation fundraising, specifically in from the University of Illinois individual giving and marketing at WNYC, New York Champaign/Urbana in 2000, Public Radio, the most lisRachel held an abiding interRachel Jacobson tened-to-public radio station est in the movies. She nurtured it during her last semester of col- in the country. In addition, she pursued lege while taking history and criticism her love of film, enjoying the excellent courses in both French and documentary non-profit and art cinemas the city offers, film. It was then that Jacobson conceived and developing close personal relationships with filmmakers, critics, and other of the idea for an art cinema in Omaha. The idea continued to take shape after industry professionals. Saddle Creek Records Project she earned her English and Political Science degree and moved to New York It was Saddle Creek Records executives City. In the Big Apple, the young gradu- Jason Kulbel and Robb Nansel who actuate worked at Miramax Films in distribu- ally prompted Rachel’s return. The duo tion. “When I saw how the industry pri- was aware of Jacobson’s concept for a oritized money over art, it reaffirmed my non-profit cinema and wanted to incorpersonal mission,” Rachel said. porate her idea into their own project. Her mission was to start a non-profit, Their blueprint called for the redevelopindependent theater back in her home- ment of “NoDo”--North Downtown-town. More formally, she wanted to through a unique mixed-use entertain“enhance the cultural environment of ment district on vacant land between Omaha through the presentation and dis- 13th and 14th Streets and Cuming and cussion of film.” Webster. All of this is just west of the She envisioned three ways to share her Qwest Center. appreciation of the art form. Jacob-son Continued on page 8
Inside Opinion Page see page 16
Former Omahan’s Documentary Debuts in San Diego “Growing up in Omaha was really a by PAM MONSKY Tony Okun had an idea, a question and great thing, especially in the Jewish comcamera. In his film, The Park, a docu- munity. I love Omaha. My father, and brother still live there, mentary about his old and I visit often. The neighborhood park in great thing about the Los Angeles, Okun Jewish community in ponders the simple Omaha is that it seems question, “What if the like everyone knows park could talk? What each other, and I stories would it tell?” always liked that,” he The result is a explained. “Being remarkable and often humorous view of how involved in Weizmann a park affects the lives Jewish youth group of the people who go during high school was there. great, too, because not Okun’s own story of only did I play sports how a Jewish boy from with them, but I had a Omaha has become an whole additional up-and-coming filmgroup of friends outside of high school. maker in California is “There is just a tighter also remarkable. bond among the Okun attended WestJewish community that side High School and The Park, Tony Okun’s documentary, you don’t get outside graduated from the debuted in San Diego. University of Nebraska of it and I miss it,” in Lincoln in 1991 with a degree in reflected Okun. Journalism and Advertising. He moved The difference between living in a city to San Diego in 1993 and two years later such as Omaha and a metropolis like Los relocated to Los Angeles where he lived Angeles became amplified during the for more than ten years before moving time Okun lived there. Continued on page 14 back to San Diego.
This Week: Special Issue on Travel & Entertainment Live from 92nd St. Y presents Wiesel and Stewart Broadcasts: Page 2
Part III of JTA’s Investigative Series on What Your Kids Are Learning: Page 4
Coming Next Month: Hanukkah Gift Guide on Dec. 16 Romania, Roumania, Rumania Topic of Historian’s Footprint: Page 6
Exclusive Interview with King of the Corner’s Riegert and Shapiro: Pages 10