November 19, 2010: Hanukkah Edition

Sponsored by the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Endowment Fund AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA

Knesset honors Shirley Goldstein

November 19, 2010 12 Kislev 5771 Vol. 90 | No. 12

This Week

Partnership with Israel visitor to speak on Holocaust survivor testimony Page 7

Rose Blumkin Jewish Home celebrates Veteran’s Day Page 11

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMPWRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press While Deborah Baum was growing up, she sort of knew her grandmother Shirley was a special woman. Not only to her and the rest of the family members, but to a lot of other people around the world.

“In many ways,” Deb remembers, “she was a typical Midwestern grandmother. We had Shabbat dinner every Friday; the only difference was, the phone rang all the time. The constant faxes and phone calls, it was a big part of being in that house.”

Those ‘faxes and phone calls’, of course, had everything to do with Shirley-the-activist, rather than Shirley-the-grandmother. The story is well known: ever since the early 70s, when Shirley took her first trip to what was then the Soviet Union, she has devoted herself to helping Soviet Jewry.

Trying to do Shirley’s work justice in one article would be impossible.

And besides, Leo Adam Biga did a good job with that in the 2006 twopart series he wrote for the Jewish Press. In fact, much has been written over the years, and in 2009 the documentary Refusenik was released.

“Shirley and people like her pushed hard on the issues surrounding the struggles to “free” Soviet

Jewry,” says Bob Wolfson, Associate National Director of ADL’s regional operations. “Shirley and her biggest

the kind of philanthropy that doesn’t just support, but transforms.”

Wolfson has known Shirley since

Gail Raznick, left, Emily Raznick, Shirley Goldstein, Deborah Baum, Jane Kennedy, and Becca Groothuis together in Jerusalem. fan, her husband Buddy, gave money, but also gave time and leadership that leveraged the philanthropy to another level. Giving to causes always helps, but giving with personal involvement and commitment, especially when you are a communal leader, spurs others to give dollars and brains and time –

he was a young man; he values her accomplishments. “Space does not permit a fair recitation, but her involvement was internationally significant and changed history. I consider the history to be not only about that narrow issue whose major accomplishment was the opening for Jews to leave the former Soviet

Union; it also contributed to the focus by the people of that regime on the broader failures of their system.

Eventually, this culminated in the fall of the Soviet empire. Not bad all in all.”

When, on November 2nd, 2010, Shirley was invited to the Knesset, she was accompanied by five family members: her daughter Gail Raznick, granddaughters Emily Raznick, Becca Groothuis, and Deborah Baum, and Jane Kennedy.

For them, according to granddaughter Deb, it was an invaluable experience.

“For us, as her ‘entourage’, this was an intimate look into a part of her life that was always a little unknown to us. I mean, we knew, but we were so young when all this happened, we didn’t really have a true understanding of the magnitude of what she accomplished.”

Daughter Gail Raznick says: “I never thought about our upbringing as anything extraordinary, or unusual. As I look back on it now, I realize we were exposed to a bigger picture of the world. It was not unusual to have foreign visitors over for dinner, and these times were a wonderful lesson in communication, oftentimes without sharing a common language.” More than ten times Shirley went to the former Soviet Continued on page 2

Ben and Anna Giving back resonates with Young Leaders SAAG “As a person who chose Judaism and converted in Wiesman Family byJewishSHERRIE Federation of Omaha Omaha - the place where I grew up - I think this honor This year’s Lois Jeanne Schrager Memorial and Bruce says a lot about the inclusiveness of this Jewish commuendows Press Fellman Memorial Young Leadership Award winners, nity, that everyone is welcome to contribute and no one

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMPWRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press

Celebrating Hanukkah Art Contest winners Page 31

Inside Point of view Synagogues In memoriam

16 18 19

Next Month Business Guide Tax & Financial Planning See Front Page stories and more at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on Jewish Press

Anna and Ben Wiesman The Jewish Press would like to announce that the Ben and Anna Wiesman family has recently decided to sponsor the Jewish Press though an endowment. “With this endowment,” says Jewish Federation President Jan Goldstein, “Anna and Ben Wiesman are creating a tremendous endorsement for the Jewish Continued on page 4

Danielle Gordman is excluded unless they and Patrick Jensen, choose to be.” He added, come from vastly dif“While I am uncomfortferent volunteer backable with the recognition, I grounds. Danielle’s am deeply honored and family, her parents flattered to receive this and grandparents, award. I would never have were active Jewish dreamed of being recogcommunity volunnized in such a way.” teers and taught by The Center for Jewish example. Patrick is a Education (CJE) felt the Jew by conversion and marketing executive was a his involvement came worthy recipient. Dr. Guy about through an Matalon, Executive interest in Judaism’s Director, noted in his tenet of social justice. nomination that Patrick is While it’s true their a “strong advocate of histories are very difJewish Education and ferent, now both share works to promote new Patrick Jensen and Danielle Gordman a similar goal - a avenues of learning at the devotion to the Jewish community and a deep desire to CJE. Currently Board Vice President and Chairman of see it flourish and prosper. the Adult Education Committee, Patrick steps up and “After returning to Omaha permanently, I found plans many innovative classes and events, including the myself drawn to Reform Judaism’s platform of Tikkun successful Limmud Omaha.”

Olam, repairing the world. As an adult Jew by choice, the Patrick is also President-elect of the Anti-Defamation themes of social justice really resonate and motivate me. League Board and because of his passion for Tikkun I have always felt strongly about packing out what you Olam, is a big proponent of its No Place for Hate campack in and leaving a place better than you found it.” paign. “It’s a grassroots effort with curriculum that goes That is how Patrick Jensen, the Bruce Fellman right into the classroom. It’s the kind of programming Memorial Young Leadership Award recipient, explains whose benefits are seen both immediately and far into his motivation and passion for giving back to the com- the future. Impressionable young adults are our best munity. investment to fight attitudes of hate and bigotry,” he The awards are given annually to honor a young man said. and woman (under age 45) who have demonstrated Patrick is married to Lynn Jensen and his two high “personal commitment, dedicated involvement, and school age daughters, Jordan and Madison, appropriateexemplary leadership qualities in service to the Jewish ly appear to be following in Dad’s footsteps. Both are and general communities.” involved in NFTY, the youth group at Temple Israel, Patrick described feeling humbled by the recognition. Continued on page 2

2 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

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Shirley Goldstein Continued from page 1 While there, I had the opportunity to attend a small meeting Union. In the 1980s, Eunie Denenberg, a close friend of with the newly appointed Director of the Jewish Agency for Shirley, wanted to go herself, but was turned down twice. Israel. This was renowned Soviet Jewry dissident Natan “When we finally did manage to get our visa,” she says, Sharansky, and he shared that “Through Shirley Goldstein, “Shirley gave us money, and phone numbers to call—it was Omaha was at the center of the struggle to help Soviet all very CIA.” Eunie, like so Jewry”. many others, considers Now, the Israeli governShirley a role model. “I ment has decided, it is don’t know if this commutime to honor those who nity truly ‘gets it’, how were so instrumental in important she has been the Refusenik movement. internationally.”

For Deb Baum, watching This may be because her grandmother surShirley herself is likely to rounded by other activists, downplay her heroism people from around the somewhat. In a 2010 interworld who shared so view by Glenn Richter, she much, was impressive: says: “The authorities “They called this a conferwould sometimes bother ence, but when we met me a little bit. The last outside the Knesset, it felt time, they had my luggage more like a family in a warehouse somereunion,” Deb says. where. A lot of this, you “Seeing these people interforget about later, and it’s act after 20, 30 years was Larry Lerner, left, Joel Sandberg, Shirley Goldstein, Adele kind of funny.” an emotional thing to Sandberg, and Michael Sherbourne.

However, visits behind watch.” the Iron curtain were by no means easy. The regime Shirley “There was an exhibit inside the Knesset, as part of a spetook on, by returning time and again, and reaching out to cial Day of Recognition for the Soviet cause,” Deb continthe Refuseniks, was a truly intimidating one. It was the kind ued. “It had a selection of the larger exhibit, which is on perof government that wouldn’t take no for an answer, that manent display at the Diaspora Museum. There were thought nothing of sending people to Siberia for merely speeches, and those who were honored received certificates. refusing to follow party politics. And yet, Shirley kept com- However, no piece of paper meant as much as seeing all ing back for more. these people, Refuseniks and those that helped them, reunitNo story about Shirley Goldstein is truly complete with- ed. It was very, very powerful.” Gail Raznick calls the honor out mentioning Natan Sharansky, the dissident who would at the Knesset “an amazing event. It was pretty incredible to become famous around the world. While he was still meet all these activists, just as passionate and dedicated to Anatole Sharansky, he met Shirley in Moscow in 1975. the cause as my mom. She, as did they, made a real differShirley asked him for names of Refuseniks, he took her tape ence in so many people’s lives, and actually altered history.” recorder into the bathroom, where he created the now “For several decades now,” Jan Goldstein says, “Shirley and famous ‘bathroom tape’. The tape contained a list of names Buddy have been challenging this community to do the from other Refuseniks; having those names be known in the right thing. And so, we continue, to this day, to reach out to West was essential to the cause. The Soviet regime did not our family in the FSU and in Israel through our annual camlike it when the West paid attention. Sharansky had been paign’s commitment to overseas needs. Through our partdenied an exit visa to Israel in 1973; by 1977 he was arrest- ners, the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and ed for trumped up charges and sent to a labor camp. He the Jewish Agency, we help take care of over 200,000 elderly would spend nine years there.

Jews in 2,800 locations throughout the Former Soviet “When I returned home,” Shirley told journalist Leo Union. The important task of rebuilding and revitalizing Adam Biga in 2006, “I sent the tape to the Union of Jewish life will continue as long as the need is there”.

Councils’ headquarters. I didn’t even think to make a copy That need is, indeed, still there: although, thanks to Shirley of it. Look how I trusted the U.S. mail. When it got out I’d Goldstein and others like her, many Refuseniks made their carried the tape, I got phone calls from all over.” way out, many of them suffer the consequences of what they Jan Goldstein, Jewish Federation Exec. Director, met went through to this day.

Sharansky in 2009.” “I attended the Washington D.C. General Assembly of Jewish Federations of North America.

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Continued from page 1 with Jordan currently serving as its President.

Danielle and Patrick not only share the same goal, they have also chosen similar paths to that goal. Both focus their time and efforts on Jewish education, Patrick through the Center for Jewish Education and Danielle through Friedel Jewish Academy. Both serve on the Board of the AntiDefamation League.

“I get tremendous satisfaction and happiness from helping organizations and people who need it.” Danielle Gordman says as she finishes a story on why community service is so important to her. Receiving the Lois Jeanne Schrager Memorial Young Leadership Award is public recognition for a young wife and mother to whom volunteering is simply just what you do.

“I really don’t know any other way of life. My grandparents and my parents always did their part and set such a good example. Now, as a transplant in Omaha - I grew up on Long Island - I take my ability to volunteer very seriously and I am grateful I can do my part,” she said.

“I agree with Patrick’s opinion on the inclusiveness one finds in the Omaha Jewish community. It was very embracing of both of us and our desire to give back to the community we now call home,” Danielle added.

When Danielle moved to Omaha, she recalls phoning Jan Goldstein and simply saying, “I’m looking for volunteer opportunities and want to help in whatever way I can.”

She continues, “I got involved with the Federation, attending a women’s conference in Chicago and delivering packages for Project Dreidel and Project Tzedakah for Jewish Family Service. My experience working with Jews in need through JFS has been significant. Giving a baby shower for a woman in need and being personally thanked (in English, not her native tongue) is a powerful memory that motivates

me to do more and more. Together with a small group of women, we changed someone’s life. It wasn’t about us at all – just helping her.”

Danielle is very involved with Friedel Jewish Academy, where her two children, Harper and Zev, are students and whose nomination of Danielle described her as “a take charge individual, who can always be counted on and who works well with children and all student-centered activities.”

Ron Giller, Principal of Friedel, added, “her leadership is essential to a variety of school activities, in particular as cochairman with her husband, Jeff, of our capital campaign.”

Danielle also volunteers in the classroom. Two years ago, she brought the HALO (Healthy Alternatives for Little Ones) program to Friedel’s Kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms after recalling the program’s success years before while working towards her masters in counseling and interning at Jewish Family Service.

The program promotes living healthy lives and making healthy choices. Now in its second year, both teachers and students love the curriculum. Danielle’s only complaint, “I’m tone deaf and cannot carry a tune, so while the kids just love the songs in the lesson plans, they continue to be a real challenge for me!”

Danielle’s involvement extends to many other activities and organizations. She has served on the board of directors for Temple Israel and was president of Temple’s Sisterhood for two years, while also serving as the chair of the Child Development Center committee for two years. She also served on the board of Nebraskans for Research (which promotes stem cell research) and last summer co-chaired the housing committee for the JCC Maccabi Games.

Both share one more similarity, perhaps the most important one of all. It is a shared commitment to continue to make Omaha a strong and vibrant Jewish community.

November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 3

Glenn Beck attack on George Soros outrages Jewish leaders Chilean miners

by RON KAMPEAS his son to warn the targets to flee and ended senior Fox News Channel officials, and subaccept free Israel WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Jewish leaders the boy’s work with the council. sequently Beck sent Greer a note saying he expressed outrage at an attack by Glenn Soros, 80, has been slammed in some understood “the sensitivity and sacred Beck on George Soros’ World War II child- Jewish circles over his calls for increased nature of this dark chapter in human histotrip -- with kin hood.

U.S. engagement in the Middle East peace ry.”

Beck, the Fox News Channel provocateur, process and his strong criticism of Israeli is running a series this week policies. In recent months, on his radio and TV shows some pro-Israel advocates portraying Soros, a billionaire and pundits have ripped businessman and philanthroJ Street for accepting his pist, as attempting to control money and lying about it. the U.S. economy.

But the loudest Jewish In his radio show voices in this case have Wednesday, Beck revived an belonged to those defendunfounded claim that Soros ing Soros from Beck’s as a child in Hungary helped attacks. ship Jews to death camps.

“This is the height of “And George Soros used to ignorance or insensitivity, go around with this antior both,” said Abraham Semite and deliver papers to Foxman, the director of the George Soros the Jews and confiscate their Anti-Defamation League, property and then ship them off,” Beck said. who noted that as a child, he was protected “And George Soros was part of it. He would by non-Jews who had not revealed his backhelp confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. ground to him.

“Here’s a Jewish boy helping send the Jews “As a kid, at 6, I spit at Jews -- does that to the death camps. And I am certainly not make me part of the Nazi machine?” saying that George Soros enjoyed that, even Foxman said. “There’s an arrogance here for had a choice. I mean, he’s 14 years old. He Glenn Beck, a non-Jew, to set the standards was surviving. So I’m not making a judg- of what makes a good Jew.” ment. That’s between him and God. As a 14Elan Steinberg, the vice president of the year-old boy, I don’t know what you would American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors do.” and their Descendants, called Beck’s attack In fact Soros, then 13 and living under the “improper.” protection of a non-Jewish Hungarian, on “When you make a particularly monone occasion joined the older man when he strous accusation such as this, you have to was ordered by Nazis to inventory the estate have proof,” he said. “I have seen no proof.” of a Hungarian Jew who had fled.

Simon Greer, the director of Jewish Funds On another occasion, the local Jewish for Justice, was one of several Jewish leaders council had ordered Soros to deliver letters who had confronted Beck after he said durto local lawyers. Soros’ father, Tivadar, real- ing the recent election season that terms like ized the letters were to Jewish lawyers and “social justice” lead to death camps. meant to expedite their deportation. He told Greer and other Jewish leaders met with

Greer said Wednesday that Beck and Fox had made a “mockery of their professed understanding.”

“No one who truly understands ‘the sensitivity and sacred nature’ of the Holocaust would deliberately and grotesquely mischaracterize the experience of a 13-year-old Jew in Nazi-occupied Hungary whose father hid him with a non-Jewish family to keep him alive,” Greer said. “Many other Jews survived the attempted extermination of the Jewish people by changing their identities and hiding with Righteous Gentiles. With today’s falsehoods, Beck has engaged in a form of Holocaust revisionism.”

A number of commentators have described Beck’s series this week as employing anti-Semitic tropes.

“Beck went beyond demonizing him; he cast him as the protagonist in an updated ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ “ Michelle Goldberg wrote on the Daily Beast. “He described Soros as the most powerful man on earth, the creator of a ‘shadow government’ that manipulates regimes and currencies for its own enrichment. Obama is his ‘puppet,’ Beck says. Soros has even ‘infiltrated the churches.’ He foments social unrest and economic distress so he can bring down governments, all for his own financial gain.”

Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog, noted that Beck in one instance extracted a quote about Soros’ alleged abuses in Malaysia from a longer speech in which former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad makes an issue of Soros being a Jew.

by JTA NEWS STAFF (JTA) -- The rescued Chilean miners have accepted Israel’s invitation to visit on an all-expense-paid trip -- if their families can join them.

The 33 miners want to be accompanied on the trip by 70 of their family members, including children, grandchildren and mothers. One of the miners has asked to bring his mistress as well as his wife, according to reports.

The miners have said they will not come to Israel without their family members, Ynet reported, citing Israel’s ambassador to Chile, David Dadon.

The Tourism Minister’s Office is considering whether to fund the trip for all of the miners’ relatives, according to Ynet.

Two weeks ago, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov invited the miners, who were trapped in a mine in Chile for three months, to come to Israel over Christmas for a weeklong, fully paid trip to see sites in the Holy Land.

“Your bravery and strength of spirit, your great faith that helped you survive so long in the bowels of the earth, was an inspiration to us all,” Misezhnikov’s invitation said. “It would be a great honor for us to welcome you as our guests in the Holy Land.

“This December, Christians around the world will celebrate Christmas. During that time we welcome tens of thousands of pilgrims, and we would be pleased to offer you this uplifting and extraordinary experience as our guests.”

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Ben and Anna Wiesman Family endows Press

Marty Ricks, Jewish Federation Foundation Director, left, Jan Goldstein, Jewish Federation Executive Director, sons Mark Wiesman and David Wiesman, and Ben Wiesman.

Continued from page 1 Press, while helping to guarantee its perpetuity. This is such a vote of confidence in our weekly newspaper, which we will work hard to maintain, continue, and develop. Ben

and Anna understand that the Jewish Press is much more than a paper; it reveals who we are, and what our values are as a community. We are incredibly grateful that they have the foresight to see the pivotal role the Press plays.”

Younger Jewish leaders not so worried about intermarriage

by SUE FISHKOFF Jewish leaders younger than 40 aren’t as bent out of shape about intermarriage as their older colleagues.

That’s a not-very-surprising finding of Generation of Change: How Leaders in their Twenties and Thirties are Reshaping American Jewish Life, anew survey of young leaders of Jewish organizations commissioned by the Avi Chai Foundation.

Those younger Jews in leadership positions, both in "establishment" groups like the ADL and American Jewish Committee as well as "nonestablishment" groups such as Hazon and the independent minyan movement, come across as passionate about building Jewish identity, concerned about social justice and creating meaningful entryways to Jewish expression, and willing to commit their professional lives to making it happen.

In keeping with the millennial generation’s non-exclusivist ideology, these younger Jewish leaders don’t see intermarriage in quite the same light as Jewish leaders over 40 do: Older establishment leaders tend to view intermarriage as a threat to Jewish life and as a violation of long-standing communal norms. During interviews, younger nonestablishment leaders described intermarriage as an obstacle to Jewish participation, but felt it could be overcome with gen-

uine commitment and involvement. Moreover, they tended to believe that the Jewish community is unwise or not entitled to take a stance on personal choices such as marriage.

Citing her own "personal obsession with intermarriage," Jewish Week writer Julie Wiener discussed the findings in her In the Mix blog: Thirty-nine percent of young leaders, compared to 45 percent of older leaders disagree/disagree strongly with the following statement: "Jews should marry whomever they fall in love with, even if not Jewish." (Which, I assume, means that 60 percent of young leaders and 55 percent of old-timers agree with the statement or have no opinion?)

Only 36 percent of little pishers (my terminology, not Jack’s), compared to 44 percent of alter kockers (again, my language) agree with this statement: "It is important to encourage Jews to marry Jews." (I assume this means that 64 percent disagree with that statement.)

If Wiener’s weary of distinguishing between establishment and non-establishment Jewish groups, I wonder how long an organization merits the title "new." Hazon has been around for 10 years, as has IKAR and the indie minyan movement. When does one join the ranks of the established, at least linguistically?

NET Television airs Hanukkah special Shalom Sesame

by LARRY KUBERT LINCOLN, NE -- It’s time to celebrate Hanukkah in Israel - Sesame-style!

Grover is bringing the latkes, as Shalom Sesame: Hanukkah -- The Missing Menorah airs Thursday, Dec. 2, at 10 a.m., repeating Monday, Dec. 6, at 10 a.m. on NET1 and NET-HD. The educational and entertaining special is perfect for the holidays and finds the furry and loveable Grover with celebrity host Anneliese van der Pol (That’s So Raven, Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast) as they travel to Israel and celebrate the festival of Hanukkah.

In the half-hour program, all is well until Anneliese gets caught in a game of tag with a chicken and loses her special menorah -- just as Hanukkah is about to begin! Can her furry friends find the missing menorah in time?

Designed to help bring the vitality of Jewish culture and tradition as well as the diversity of Israeli life to American children and their families, Shalom Sesame: Hanukkah -The Missing Menorah will engage and entertain while emphasizing Jewish cultural traditions and values.

Program segments include a boy learning the ancient way to make olive oil for his menorah and introducing viewers to traditional foods; a girl who shares her Hanukkah traditions, music, and party; Debi Mazar (Entourage) introducing a dreidel; and children explaining the significance of the dreidel and discussing some of their favorite Hanukkah foods.

NET1 and NET-HD are part of NET Television, a service of NET. For a complete program schedule, visit NET’s website, netNebraska.org/television.

Organizations B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS Father Jon Schlegel, SJ, the retiring president of Creighton University will reflect on his tenure at the university and will also receive the B’nai B’rith “Appreciation Award” on Wednesday, Nov. 24, noon at the Blumkin Home. An optional buffet lunch costs $13; beverage service is $3. For more information or to be placed on the e-mail list call 334.6443 or bnaibrith@jewishomaha.org.

LOMIR REDN YIDDISH Yiddish words have made their way into every phase of modern life, show biz, law, classrooms, etc. Come join us at our new meeting room (across from the beauty salon) at the Blumkin Home, every Thursday, 1-3 pm. For information, call Anne Skolkin at 343.1638.

Happy Hanukkah

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generational retreat. She believes that true rest is a group activity, not a solitary one.

Jeremy Wright, who attended the retreat with his daughter Isabella, nine, said: “Shabbat is meaningful for my family, but I also am interested in how we can make Shabbat more meaningful to the community. It’s about making connections with other families. It was good to discuss what Shabbat means to us here in Omaha in 2010. I enjoyed discussing with other Omahans what we would like our Shabbat to look like and what we might do differently to make Shabbat more meaningful.”

Wright added that “we think Shabbat is so special but don’t always get the chance to celebrate with other families in Omaha. I want my kids to play with other kids on Shabbat, and I want to be able to talk Among the children romping in the leaves at a family retreat at with other adults once in a Fontenelle Forest were Jacob Arnold, left, Zach Arnold, Isabella while -- not just about Wright, Sophie Goldberg, Ashley Mason, Alex Kraft, Hannah work!” He has read Goodman, and Shelby Goodman.

Shulevitz’s book and described it as “a great mix between Shabbat in history and the writer’s own personal journey.”

Rabbi Eric Linder who participated in the retreat with Shulevitz, commented, “Judith reminded us that Shabbat ‘works.’ The idea of a Shabbat brings us closer to each other and to ourselves as we’re able to reflect.”

On Sunday, back at While the kids played, Judith Shulevitz, second from left, talked Temple Israel, Shulevitz, with the adults about sharing Shabbat as a group. Gary Kaplan, who describes herself as a left, Shulevitz, Silvia Roffman, Scott Goodman and Jennifer journalist, “not a scholar,” Goodman were part of the discussion. read passages from her American Sabbath.” But “…to have swal- book and conversed with those who had lowed up a full one-seventh of people’s lives come to hear her. She emphasized that the for at least 3,000 years, the Sabbath must collective experience is what makes the have had something to recommend it.”

Sabbath holy. “Time is in charge of us,” she Although she told people that she pointed out, giving the calendar credit for “thought that a structured period of non- holding the sacred apart from the mundane productivity could be useful for an over- in our lives. scheduled society…that wasn’t really what Saundra Clarke found it eye-opening that was driving me. There was something “all Jews have to create Shabbat. It’s an active murkier at work, a kind of dissatisfaction process,” she learned. Even for those for with my life as I was living it.” whom Shabbat is well defined, “they still “One problem,” she explained, “was that have to put forth an effort to make it hapevery day seemed drearily the same as the pen.” Being a blended family, she added, next. I was an ambitious young journalist, “I’m always interested in learning how peoand whether I was at work or not, somehow ple observe Shabbat. We want to know how I was always working.” The only time she to make the holidays, including Shabbat, really had off was when she was on a trip, special.” Clarke said, “It was such a great talk and even then, she usually kept herself “busy and even got off on a few tangents like how being a diligent tourist. So I was looking for to make Temple more inviting for families something else.” with young children.”

She came to discover that the Sabbath “is a Shulevitz “is totally charming,” according machine for building community. to Beth Brodkey who heard the scholar Community is what it gave me, and that was speak on Friday night and Sunday morning. the first big lesson I drew from the Sabbath.” “Her story, her journey is interesting.”

Later, she also recognized what she describes “People should come hear the scholars as the Sabbath’s “political resonance.” A day that we bring in,” Wright suggested. “It’s a without work was a “radical” idea 2,500 hoot, and we get in such great speakers for a years ago. “It was a completely original idea.” small community like ours.”

She went on to say that the farmers “who Clark agreed. “It’s great having these came up with the Fourth Commandment… speakers come in. It adds to your knowlcommunicated their belief in the fundamen- edge, and you get to know more people in tal dignity of every human being. The the congregation.”

Sabbath was proto-egalitarian.”

Shulevitz’s residency here was funded by On Saturday, adults and children joined Temple Israel’s Hermene Zweiback Center Shulevitz at Fontenelle Forest for an inter- for Lifelong Jewish Learning.

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Send a check for $40, made out to the Jewish Press and for the rest of this year and all of 2011, to 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154. For more information on how to connect your out-of-town relatives and friends, call 334.6448.

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by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator “I definitely was interested from the beginning in the American Sabbath, not just the Jewish Sabbath,” said Judith Shulevitz, Temple Israel’s scholar-in-residence during the last weekend in October. At Shabbat evening worship services, she revealed, “I started off with a fairly negative image of the

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6 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

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17 arrested in $42.5 million fraud at Claims Conference

by URIEL HEILMAN NEW YORK (JTA) -- Former and current employees of the Claims Conference are among 17 people who have been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York with participating in a $42.5 million fraud at the organization.

The alleged ringleader oversaw two funds from which tens of millions of dollars allegedly were obtained fraudulently from the Claims Conference, which distributes more than $400 million per year from the German government to victims of Nazism.

In a news conference Tuesday, Claims Conference officials stressed that no Holocaust victims were deprived of any funds because of the crime. Manhattan District Attorney Preet Bharara praised the Claims Conference for contacting the authorities as soon as the seriousness of the fraud became apparent and for cooperating with the FBI throughout its investigation.

“If ever there was a cause that you would hope and expect would be immune from base greed and criminal fraud, it would be the Claims Conference, which every day assists thousands of poor and elderly victims of Nazi persecution,” Bharara said. “Sadly, those victims were themselves victimized.

Without the extraordinary cooperation of the Claims Conference in ferreting out this alleged scheme to defraud them, it never would have been exposed.”

Claims Conference officials first noticed about a year ago that several claimants had falsified information to receive payments from the Hardship Fund, an account established by the German government to give one-time payments of approximately $3,600 to those who fled the Nazis as they moved east through Germany.

They were tipped off when multiple claimants used the same language and details in forms in which they documented evidence of victimization by the Nazis. That prompted a wide internal investigation that turned up thousands of additional fraudulent claims. The alleged fraud, which dates back to the mid 1990s, remained hidden so long because Claims Conference staffers at various levels conspired to hide and manage the false claims.

In all, 4,957 one-time payments totaling $18 million were obtained from the Hardship Fund through the alleged fraud.

Another $24.5 million went to 658 fraudulent pension claims drawing from the Article 2 Fund, through which the German government gives pension payments of roughly $411 per month to needy Nazi victims who spent significant time in a concentration camp, in a Jewish ghetto in hiding or living under a false identity to avoid the Nazis.

Alleged ringleader Semyon Domnitser oversaw the two funds for the Claims

Conference until he was fired in February.

Domnitser could not be reached by JTA for comment for this story.

The other 16 people involved with the fraud all reside in Brooklyn and have been charged with mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Eleven were arrested Tuesday morning. Charges against five others, four of whom pleaded guilty, were unsealed Tuesday. The charges carry possible sentences of up to 20 years in prison and fines up to $250,000.

Since its founding shortly after the Holocaust, the Claims Conference has processed more than 600,000 individual claims with total payments exceeding $4.3 billion. The money came from the German government following negotiations with Claims Conference officials and Jewish leaders. The Claims Conference continues to negotiate with the German government for the expansion and continuation of various restitution programs.

In addition to processing restitution payments from the German government to Nazi victims, the Claims Conference is the trustee of money from the sale of heirless Jewish properties in the former East Germany that had been seized by the Nazis and are now being restituted to the Jewish community. It uses the money from the sale of those properties to fund institutions that aid survivors and Holocaust education programs, distributing approximately $135 million per year.

About eight months after the fraud was discovered, Claims Conference officials went public with the news. In July, the agency announced the discovery of at least $7 million in allegedly fraudulent payments and said it had dismissed three employees in New York. Of those charged this week, six worked for the Claims Conference and 11 did not.

On Tuesday, Claims Conference officials stressed that the fraud represents a minimal amount of the annual payouts to survivors through the Hardship and Article 2 funds.

“The stealing of $40 million is disgusting,” Gregory Schneider, the executive vice president of the Claims Conference, told JTA. “But it’s less than 1 percent of funds distributed under those programs.

“No amount of fraud will be tolerated,” he said. “We identified it, documented it, investigated and brought it to the FBI.” In recent months, the Claims Conference said, it has taken steps to strengthen antifraud safeguards, overhauling procedures and shifting some claims processing away from New York. The Claims Conference also said it retained K2 Global Consulting, an international firm, to review its procedures and make recommendations.

JTA intern Uri Fintzy contributed to this story.

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Her fiancé graduated from The bride-to-be graduthe University of Chicago with ated from The University a BA in History. He earned his of Iowa, Iowa City, IA MLIS Library Science grduate with BA in History, Art degree from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. He History and Political is a Librarian in Westfield, NJ. Science. She received her He is the son of Dr. Sheree Masters from Columbia and Fredric Bennett of Verona, University - Teachers NJ and the grandson of Gitty College, New York in MEd in Educational Leadership, her Starrett of West Orange, NJ, the late Samuel Doctorate from University of Nebraska - Starrett, the late Eleanor and the late Lincoln. She is currently pursuing a EdD in Armand Bennett.

Educational Administration and is a Middle A wedding is planned in the Hudson School Principal in New York City.

River Valley, New York for Autumn 2011.

November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 7

Project Interfaith shattering Partnership with Israel visitor to speak stereotypes with Community on Holocaust Survivor testimony

by BETH SELDIN-DOTAN Mosaic Video Project grams and discuss joint ventures for the future is very excitby BETH KATZ Project Interfaith Project Interfaith invites Omaha community members of all faiths, beliefs and cultures to tell their stories and help shatter stereotypes by participating in its Community Mosaic Video Project. Participants will be interviewed by fellow community members at different places of worship and other sites in the greater Omaha area.

These brief 2 to 5-minute interviews will consist of questions regarding spiritual/religious identity, stereotypes about that identity and the ability to follow oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spiritual or religious path while living in Omaha. The interviews will be uploaded onto the Project Interfaith website to form a community mosaic of religious and cultural diversity in our community. Project Interfaith will also be developing online discussion guides and holding forums to explore some of the issues this project raises about identity, diversity and belonging.

Organizers hope this project will be a helpful tool in creating dialogue about religious and cultural diversity. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As recent events in the media and politics show, our country is in need of some honest conversations about how we as people of different beliefs and cultures can live and work together. We can only begin having truly authentic conversations about belief, identity and belonging if we are willing to share our experiences with each other,â&#x20AC;? said Beth Katz, Project Interfaith Executive Director.

Project Interfaith is offering many ways for community members to participate. People can stop by the Project Interfaith office (115 South 49th Avenue) to be interviewed on Nov. 29, from noon-2 p.m. Project Interfaith will also be conducting interviews at its fall programs. People need not RSVP to be interviewed at these programs.

Project Interfaith is also seeking places of worship, work places and community groups that would be willing to serve as interview sites. Please contact Project Interfaith if interested.

For more information contact Sierra Pirigyi, Project Interfaith, at sierra@projectinterfaithusa.org or 402.933.4647; or visit www.projectinterfaithusa.org. For a list of programming, please go to http://projectinterfaith usa.org/page/current-programs.

The Community Mosaic Video Project is one of many programs provided by Project Interfaith. Founded in 2005, Project Interfaith is a non-profit organization that grows understanding, respect and relationships among people of all faiths, beliefs and cultures. We offer a wide array of programs that bring community members together to share, learn and connect. For more information contact Project Interfaith at www.projectinterfaithusa.org.

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Director, Institute for Holocaust Education Dr. Boaz Cohen, head of the Holocaust Studies Program of the Western Galilee College in Akko, Israel, will visit Omaha as part of a tour of the Partnership with Israel Central Consortium communities.

In addition to meeting with Jewish Federation, Center for Jewish Education, and Institute for Holocaust Education board members, Dr. Cohen will have the opportunity to meet with faculty members from the Natan and Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies Dr. Boaz Cohen at UNO and professors and staff from Creighton University during his visit. The purpose of his visit is to strengthen the interest of Holocaust education and research within the Partnership communities who have established Holocaust programs.

Dr. Cohen received his Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and is a specialist in childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s memories/memoirs of the Holocaust and how these accounts relate to our understanding of the Holocaust. He has published extensively in this area â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are delighted to welcome Dr. Cohen to Omaha,â&#x20AC;? states Julee Katzman, Associate Director of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. â&#x20AC;&#x153;His willingness to travel to the Partnership communities, learn about local Holocaust pro-

ing. We hope the community will take the opportunity to hear Dr. Cohen speak at Creighton on the evening of the 22nd.â&#x20AC;?

Dr. Cohen will be the speaker for the 2010 fall lecture in the Holocaust Lecture Series that takes place each year at Creighton University. His talk, Child Survivors in the Aftermath of the Holocaust, will be held on Monday evening, Nov. 22, at 7 p.m. in the Harper Center, Room 3028. The lecture, which is open to the community, is cosponsored by the Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center for the Study of Religion and Society, the Creighton College of Arts & Sciences, the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University, the Institute for Holocaust Education, and the Jewish Federation of Omaha.

Creighton Professor Leonard Greenspoon remarks that â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dr. Cohenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lecture is being held in conjunction with a course I am teaching, titled The Holocaust and the Bible. Dr. Cohenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lecture will help my studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and in fact everyone in the communityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to better understand and appreciate how it was that interviewers were able to extract valuable eye-witness accounts of the Holocaust from the youngest survivors. Cohenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research, which he will share with us, is eye-opening and sure to provoke thoughtful reflection on the part of everyone who hears him.â&#x20AC;?

The Creighton Holocaust course, which the lecture series supports, is made possible in part through the generous support of the Heartland Holocaust Educational Fund, with special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Sam Fried. The fund also supports courses at UNO, UNL, UNK and Wayne State.

For more information, please contact Fran Minear at 280.2303 or fminear@ creighton.edu.

Israeli housing plans are counterproductive, Clinton says

by JTA NEWS STAFF JERUSALEM (JTA) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Israeli plans to build additional housing in eastern Jerusalem is counterproductive to peace talks.

Clinton made the statement Wednesday during a joint video conference with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, in which she announced that the United States would give an additional $150 million to the Palestinian Authority.

She is scheduled to meet Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York.

Clinton said Wednesday that a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians was still possible and necessary, and that the United States was continuing its efforts to bring

the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

A Jerusalem municipal committee on Monday announced approval of more than 1,000 housing units in Jewish neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem.

President Obama, during an official visit to Indonesia, cautioned that such building is â&#x20AC;&#x153;never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m concerned that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not seeing each side make the extra effort involved to get a breakthrough.â&#x20AC;?

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday ordered the PAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s observer to the United Nations to request that the U.N. Security Council call a meeting to discuss Israeli construction in eastern Jerusalem and beyond the Green Line.

8 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

Longer experiences in Israel linked to sharply increased Jewish engagement, leadership, and Jewish marriage Masa study finds Israel fills gap for those with weaker Jewish background

by JACOB DALLAL Director of Public Relations and Marketing, Jewish Agency for Israel – North America Participation in semester or year programs in Israel is directly linked to stronger Jewish affiliation and leadership – regardless of the Jewish background growing up, a study commissioned

by Masa Israel Journey finds. Masa, a joint project of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli government, commissioned the study to measure the efficacy of long term Israel programs for future Jewish involvement and affiliation. The study was conducted by Professor Steven M. Cohen, Director of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at NYU Wagner and Research Professor of Jewish Social Policy at Hebrew Union College, and Dr. Ezra Kopelowitz, principal of Research Success.

The study found that the longer the time the program participants spent in Israel and the more repeated the experiences, the greater the level of Jewish identification. The study surveyed over 13,000 Israel program participants, more than 11,000 of whom were Americans, and most of whom had been on short term experience or Masa program from 2005 to 2010. It compared three groups: 1) those who had been on Birthright but not returned to Israel; 2) those who returned to Israel for another short term; and 3) those who had been on Birthright and then went on a Masa program. The study also examined two other groups who had been on long term programs only; 4) those non-Orthodox young adults who had been on Masa without going on Birthright, and 5) those who were raised Orthodox and had been on Masa. These two groups reported far stronger Jewish background and childhood Jewish education than did the three Birthright groups.

The study found that with each subsequent Israel experi-

ence, the level of Jewish engagement rose significantly. For the married respondents, among those who did Birthright and had not returned subsequently to Israel, 50% married a Jewish spouse; among those who did Birthright and returned to Israel subsequently for a short term, 70% married Jews. Short term program graduates who never returned to Israel reported intermarriage rates close to the national Jewish average for people their age. In contrast, those who went on to participate in a Masa program were far more likely to marry Jewish, doing so in more than nine out of ten instances.

This pattern repeated itself for numerous other measures of Jewish engagement. These included Jewish organizational affiliation, taking leadership in Jewish life, interest in working professionally in the Jewish community, attachment to Israel, and, for a small but significant minority – making aliyah. The study found that, on these measures of Jewish engagement, Birthright coupled with Masa can provide a viable alternative route to high levels of Jewish engagement for young adults with limited Jewish background.

When asked if they had given thought to pursuing a Jewish professional career, 45% of those who did Birthright followed by Masa said yes, nearly identical to the 46% of Orthodox Masa graduates who said the same. Among those who had been only on Birthright, 12% indicated giving a Jewish career consideration; the number doubled among Birthright graduates who returned for a short term to 26%; and rose to 45% for Birthright graduates who did Masa.

These patterns are similar to the evidence found in the recent Avi Chai study of Jewish leaders which cites a long term Israel program as one of the most widespread experiences shared by young American Jewish leaders, along with day schools and Jewish camp participation.

Relating to Israel attachment, the Birthright-Masa cohort

scored similarly to the Masa Orthodox cohort, as they did on other measures. When asked if they had recently gone to a lecture or class related to Israel, 72% of those who participated in Birthright-Masa said they had, similar to the 80% of Orthodox Masa graduates who also had. (When it came to reading Israeli newspapers, the Birthright-Masa cohort actually outscored the Orthodox Masa group by 61% to 43%). Significantly, 18% of Birthright-Masa graduates are currently now living in Israel, a slightly higher figure than the 17% of Orthodox Masa graduates now living in Israel.

“Over the years, a body of evidence has established the value of the short-term trip to Israel. This study is one of a small number that points to the significant added value of the long-term trip,” said Professor Cohen, who co-authored the study. “If ten days in Israel is very good for Jewish engagement – and it is –then ten months in Israel is even better. This finding points to the strong policy interest in promoting return travel to Israel among Birthright alumni, and the even stronger interest in advancing long-term return travel, such as that sponsored by Masa Israel Journey.”

Last week, the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors approved the operational part of its strategic plan which calls for the organization to focus its work around two main areas of activity -- the first, a spiral of Israel experience for young adults. These would start with short term programs, like Birthright, through longer term programs like Masa, and include developing intermediate-length programs like summer school in Israel, with the overarching aim of strengthening Jewish identity and increasing attachment to Israel among today’s youth.

“The data from this study shows that we are on the right track with our strategic plan,” said Dr. Misha Galperin, president and CEO of Jewish Agency International Development. “We are convinced – and the data from this report affirms – that a continuum of Israel experiences for young adults correlates directly to them feeling, thinking and doing more things Jewish and Israel with each step they take along the Israel experience spiral.”

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November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 9

Ruthless cosmopolitan

by RUTH ELLEN GRUBER ROME (JTA) -- When I was in the United States recently, I gave a series of talks on contemporary Jewish life in Europe. One of my aims was to shed light on some of the creative new initiatives that are shaping the Jewish experience here, often against considerable odds and expectations.

“My eyes were opened to a Jewish world I had no idea existed,” one woman told me.

Having written about the Jewish experience in Europe for many years, I sometimes forget how surprised people can be by developments that by now I take for granted.

Americans accustomed to viewing Europe through the

prism of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism can be taken aback when they come face to face with such living Jewish realities as newly opened synagogues, crowded Jewish singles weekends and hip-hop klezmer fusion bands.

“American Jews don’t tend to think about European Jewry often, and when we do, it is to lament its imminent demise, the victim of an aging, diminishing population and a sharply disturbing increase in anti-Semitism,” Gary Rosenblatt, the editor of The New York Jewish Week, wrote this summer.

Some folks -- metaphorically, I hope -- go so far as to express shock to find that a country such as Poland is “in color.”

“Where had I seen Poland outside of World War II newsreels, Holocaust movies and photos, and, of course, ‘Schindler’s List’?” Rob Eshman, the editor of the Los Angeles Jewish Journal wrote last month after visiting Poland for the first time. “That entire movie was in black and white, except for the fleeting image of a tragic figure, a doomed little Jewish girl in a bright red dress.”

The American Jewish challenge when it comes to modern Poland, he admitted, “is to reverse the ‘Schindler’s List’ images, to see the country as mostly color, with a little black and white.”

An optimistic new report now provides statistical backup for the bold new Jewish realities in Europe that I described in my talks.

Published last month, the 2010 Survey of New Jewish Initiatives in Europe aims to provide a “comprehensive snapshot” of Jewish startups -- that is, of “autonomous or independent non-commercial European initiatives” that have been established within the past decade.

“Conventional discussions of Europe often emphasize anti-Semitism, Jewish continuity, and anti-Israel activism,” the survey’s introduction states. “While we do not dismiss or diminish those concerns, we know that these are only part of the story. The European Jewry we know is confident, vibrant, and growing.”

The findings are remarkably positive.

The survey presents data on 136 European Jewish startups and estimates that some 220 to 260 such initiatives are currently in operation, nearly half of them in the former Soviet Union and other post-communist states.

“There are more Jewish startups per capita in Europe than in North America,” it says.

These initiatives, the study says, reach as many as 250,000 people, of whom about 41,000 are “regular participants and core members.” They span a broad range of ages and affiliation, although European Jewish startup leaders and founders themselves “tend to affiliate with progressive and secular/cultural forms of Judaism.”

Other findings reveal that the “vast majority” of these new Jewish initiatives are focused mainly on “Jewish education, arts and culture, or community building,” and most of their

financing comes from foundation grants and “grass-roots labor.”

The survey was carried out by Jumpstart, a Los Angelesbased nonprofit that promotes Jewish innovation, in cooperation with the British Pears Foundation and the ROI Community for Young Jewish Innovators based in Jerusalem.

I asked Shawn Landres, Jumpstart’s co-founder, whether he thought the survey’s findings presented a picture that was too rosy given the challenges still faced by European Jewry.

“I don’t think the survey is overly optimistic,” he told me.

“The numbers of initiatives and the number of people involved (especially the otherwise unaffiliated) are accurate indicators of the creativity of European Jewry.”

Still, he conceded, “the financial figures, especially the small budgets and low number of individual financial contributors, indicate just how fragile they are.”

Landres noted that the demographic challenges facing European Jews -- long a hot topic for strategic planners -- were “complex.” But, he said, they could not be reduced to “a single line in a single direction.”

“Even if Jewish numbers in Europe are stagnating or declining overall, the threat or opportunity is in the details,” he said. “What about intermarried families that identify as Jewish? What about the 80,000 or so people engaged by these new initiatives who have no other connection to the organized Jewish community? What about key population centers like London, Budapest, and Berlin that will remain Jewishly vibrant for generations to come?”

Landres said the fact that the survey showed nearly twice as many startups per capita in Europe as in North America “should challenge a few stereotypes.”

But, he added, “I suppose it shouldn’t have been surprising, given the number of respondents who feel that established institutions simply aren’t making room for them and their peers.”

Landres said all the initiatives analyzed in the survey were in operation as of this year, but he acknowledged that some may not last.

“Even so,” he said, “projects need not be permanent to have impact, and the people involved frequently move on to other more successful Jewish communal endeavors armed with invaluable experience. Without risk and tolerance for failure, we cannot make transformative progress.”

Marriages RAMIREZ/PLOTKIN Kassie Ramirez and Matt Plotkin of Phoenix, AZ, were married Nov. 6 at a garden ceremony in Phoenix. Robert Glazar, uncle of the bride, performed the ceremony. A reception and dinner followed at Phoenix Garden Center.

Kassie is the daughter of Cheryl and Al Ramirez of Peoria, AZ. Maid of honor was Guldeep Sandhu of Phoenix, friend of the bride.

Bridesmaids were Mary Silva of Phoenix, friend of the bride; Jennifer Rein, of Glendale, AZ, friend of the bride; and Raechel Ramirez of Gilbert, AZ, cousin of the bride.

The groom is the son of Shelly and Chuck Plotkin and the grandson of the late Bill and Lois Joseph. Best man was Nat Nickele of Glendale, AZ, friend of the groom. Groomsmen were Zak Klein of Winslow, NE, childhood friend of the groom; Dave Anewalt of Virginia Beach, VA, friend of the groom; and Will Sullivon of Portland, OR, friend of the groom. Ushers were Joseph Ramirez of Phoenix, brother of the bride, and Mychael Ramirez of Peoria, AZ, brother of the bride. Flower girl was Elliannah Ousley of Kansas City, second cousin of the groom. Ring bearer was Alex Silva of Phoenix, the bride’s godson.

The couple will reside in Phoenix after a Caribbean cruise honeymoon.

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by ELAINE URBAN service a growing numbers of clients.

How often do you get a chance to put a The Chabad Center Food Pantry is an smile on a face that minutes earlier shed agency of the “Food Bank of the Heartland” tears? The wife’s eyes overflowed with tears as and is viewed as a partner in alleviating her husband related how all possessions were hunger in our community. The pantry sold including wedding rings to move to Omaha with their child to live in a friend’s basement because they were homeless. This is but one of many stories of need, pain and anxiety that come to the Chabad Center Food Pantry for help and sustenance.

A special thank you goes to Marsha Kleinberg for her generous donation of groceries.

Amy Gerhart, Director of Agency Relations for the Food Bank of You can share in this the Heartland, with volunteer Elaine Urban, right. great work and blessing.

Financial donations as well as non-perish- receives the United Way “211” calls for assisable food and toiletries are needed. Wish list tance from our area, and services all in items include tuna fish, pasta, peanut butter, need, Jews and non-Jews, while adhering to jelly, shampoo and toilet paper. Perhaps you Kosher guidelines. can pick up a few extra items to donate The need is great. Please contact the while shopping. Opportunities for personal Chabad Center for further information on involvement with our clients are also avail- how you can make a difference in a needy able. Perhaps you have a special skill to person’s life. Call Elaine at 402.330.1800 or share. A freezer would also be a tremendous email chabadpantry@gmail.com. Thank blessing enabling us to store donated bakery you for your consideration. Shalom and items and expand our food options as we blessings.

Protesting the religious divide

by EDGAR ASHER engineers, and economists of Israel.”

Over a thousand Tel Aviv University stuThe government has stated that funding dents suspended their learning program to kollel students is something the State has hold a demonstration rally in and around been doing for more than thirty years. Last the university today in protest over the week, nearly 10,000 students held a demonKollel (Jewish religious seminary) Stipend Bill which is being discussed currently in the Knesset.

The temporary suspension of studies was supported by the university’s president, Professor Joseph Klafter. In a letter to the student’s union Klafter wrote: “The students compose the human assets, that have always been the State of Israel’s advantage, and who will bear the Students from Tel Aviv University demonstrating against what future economic and they see as the inequality between secular and religious stunational burdens. The dents as far as government grants are concerned. state must nurture this Credit: ISRANET essential asset.”

Dozens of students also blocked nearby stration in Jerusalem against the amendintersections around the university campus ment to the State Budget that would provide forcing police to redirect traffic in a normal- an allowance for full-time Torah students ly very busy part of north Tel Aviv. with at least three children. A High Court The student organizers said that today’s ruling last June said that the situation in demonstration was a prelude to the larger which only a segment of students receive demonstration planned for next Wednesday state assistance, because of claiming to be in Tel Aviv, which is expected to include religious full-time Torah students, is unfair. participation from students from all over It has to be said that more and more ultraIsrael. religious Jews are slowly entering the job The students regard the bill as a form of market. Several organizations are encouragpolitical extortion by the ultra-religious par- ing the ultra-religious to combine regular ties in order to keep the coalition a viable learning in a kollel with a regular job. This is entity. They blame Prime Minister Binyamin a slow process, but the results are very Netanyahu for “succumbing to political encouraging. Also those ultra-religious stuextortion, by preferring to fund kollel stu- dents, who combine regular jobs with learndents to maintain his coalition, rather than ing in the kollel, are shown to be reliable and invest in the future generation of doctors, valuable assets to their workplace.

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Pam Cohn gave a chronological account of federal initiatives in American education over the past 50 years. She then discussed the topic Equitable Opportunites for All Children and how this vision of education compared with the federal initiatives. Pam Cohn

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The Speaker Series continues on Dec. 10 when Anna and Marcy Cotton, Storytellers, will present Cotton Tales. The entire Jewish community is invited to attend.

November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 11

Celebrating Veteran’s Day

On Nov. 11, the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home thanked all Veterans with a full program, which included a beautiful exhibit focusing on Veterans in the Omaha Jewish community. Clockwise from bottom left: Members of the Burke high school Jr. R.O.T.C. Color Guard/Saber Team salute Blumkin Home veterans; Kevee Kirshenbaum visits the Veterans’ Day display; members of the Nebraska National Guard received handmade thank you cards from students at Friedel Jewish Academy; Bill Hutchings and Maynard Tatelman; Jim Pollack inspects a uniform; members of the Disabled American Veterans, chapter 18, from Fremont Nebraska demonstrate how to properly fold a flag; military vehicles in the Blumkin Home parking lot; volunteer-coordinator Lois Wine poses with two members of the Nebraska National Guard.

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Give the gift of life during B’nai B’rith to hold 25th Annual upcoming blood drive at Beth El Bible Quiz at end of November

by JILL BELMONT important to maintain a healthy and reliable Beth El Publicity Coordinator supply. “It’s such a mitzvah to see people give On Sunday, Dec. 5, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Beth of themselves – literally,” Budwig said, El is teaming with the B’nai B’rith Youth adding that, “One never knows when there Organization’s AZA #1 chapter and the will be a personal need for blood.”

American Red Cross to hold a blood drive at the synagogue, 14506 California St.; community members are encouraged to roll up their sleeves and donate. Donors must be 17 (or 16 with parental permission), must weigh at least 110 lbs., and cannot have given blood after Sept.

26 (donors may only give blood every eight weeks). Those wishing to check their eligibility may visit http://www. redcrossblood.org/ don ating-blood/eligibilityrequirements, or call 1 . 8 0 0 . R E D C R O S S Ron Budwig, center, goes over details of the upcoming Beth El blood drive with Red Cross donor recruitment representative Mia (1.800.733.2767).

“Even though you may Wilcoxson, left, and Beth El Program Director Margie Gutnik. The not have donated in the blood drive is planned for Sunday, Dec. 5 at the synagogue; the past, the Red Cross entire community is encouraged to participate. makes it so easy and painless to go through To register, call Beth El at 492.8550; or visit the giving process,” said blood drive chair- www.redcrossblood.org, enter the sponsor man Ron Budwig. “You’ll be able to chat code (1104), click on “schedule an appointwith fellow donors, and to relax and ment to donate,” click on the date of the schmooze while doing this great service. It blood drive, and then select a donation time. costs nothing to give and the reward is For more information about the drive, huge.” contact Budwig at 289.2601, or ronThe Red Cross stresses the on-going need bud1@msn.com. for blood and how each contribution is

by BETH GERSHOVICH for B’nai B’rith “The tension is palpable and the excitement is obvious.” Those are the words that B’nai B’rith Bible Quiz chair Steve Riekes used to describe the annual bible quiz contest of Jewish high school students.

“We are very pleased that 20 Omaha teens have signed up to compete this year,” Steve continued. “The quiz is open to the public and the audience really enjoys the action, too.”

This year’s 25th Annual Edward Zorinsky B’nai B’rith Bible Quiz is set for Tuesday, Nov. 30 at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center. “Its purpose is to encourage Jewish youth to become familiar with the Bible, which is the foundation of Judaism and of civilization,” Steve stated. This year, quiz questions come from the books of Genesis and Jonah.

The Lodge will award first, second, third and fourth place scholarship money. The prizes in the contest can be used for college tuition, an approved trip to Israel or an approved camp or educational program sponsored by a Jewish organization. At the conclusion of the contest, the Lodge also awards a $20 cash prize to all participants who correctly answer three or more questions. The top prize winner earns a $600 scholarship plus $50 cash. In all, over $1600 is given away.

Because this is the 25th anniversary of the event, the B’nai B’rith lodge will also honor its founders, Steve Riekes, Gloria Kaslow, and Stan Mitchell. The trio has planned this event, prepared the students, and run this program for a quarter century.

There is no charge to attend the program, which is held in conjunction with Jewish Book Month. “We encourage adults to attend,” said Gary Javitch, President of Henry Monsky Lodge, “because it is exciting, it is interesting, and it’s a way to support our youth. I have also learned a few things from the kids, too.”

Dr. Leonard Greenspoon and Rabbi Yaacov Weiss are two of the judges named so far. Gloria Kaslow will return as quizmaster. Ari Riekes (timekeeper), Mark Javitch (scorekeeper) and Karen Javitch (chaperone), round out the crew of helpers.

Participants include Kevin Adler, Ari Brodkey, Hal Emas, Laura Gilinsky, Molly Gilinsky, Adi Gill, Joe Hack, Molly Helm, Ryan Kirshenbaum, Sam Kohll, Aaron Kurtzman, Brad Kutler, Lee Lohman, Hannah Perry, Adeev Potash, Ezra Potash, Caroline Rockman, Cameron Stern, Matthew Wiesman, and Aaron Zipursky.

The Lodge hosts a dinner for the judges, volunteers, contest participants, all of the high school religious school classes, and its members in the JCC Community Room before the event at 6 pm.

EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press office will be closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday, Nov. 25. The deadline for all ads, articles and photos is 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 24 for the Dec. 3 issue. Questions? Call 334.6448.

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Whither the Jewish baby boomers?

by SUE FISHKOFF If Jewish organizations cannot provide meaningful outNEW ORLEANS, La. (JTA) -- As America’s 77 million lets, Elcott cautioned, they will look elsewhere. baby boomers retire, they will place an unprecedented bur“This is the first generation for whom it will be as natural den on the Jewish community’s infrastructure. to work with the YMCA as with a Jewish organization,” he They will need more services, and many will want to said. “We are not prepared for that. We’re prepared for it become involved in a community that isn't making room for from our 30-year-olds, but not from this middle generation.” them.

The federation system and other Jewish communal strucThe federation system in particular needs to meet the tures have been putting much of their funding and emphachallenge -- and now, as the oldest boomers turn 65 next sis into programs for Jewish youth and children, with some year -- or face losing the wealthiest and most highly educat- attention to the very elderly. ed generation in American Jewish history.

Linda Blumberg, planning director for the Jewish Those are two salient results of a study presented Monday Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, told the GA audience at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North that her federation and Jewish Family Services agency are America titled “Baby Boomers, Public Service and Minority seeing increased numbers of boomers seeking their help.

Communities: A Case Study of the Jewish Community in American Jews over age 50 are losing their jobs and comthe United States.” ing to the federation for help paying mortgages, accessing The report [http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details. health care and training for jobs in new sectors, she said. cfm?PublicationID=5154], a joint effort by New York Blumberg noted that many were former donors who are no University’s Berman Jewish longer able or willing to give Policy Archive and the uni-- at least not at previous versity’s Research Center for levels.

Leadership in Action, anaThe Detroit federation has lyzed a national survey of created a number of promore than 6,500 Jewish grams to help these adults. baby boomers -- those born Women to Work provides between 1948 and 1964 -- in job training for women who 34 U.S. communities. have never been in the Jewish baby boomers workforce but whose husexpect to work after retirebands are now unemployed. ment age, want that work to Prime Time helps those be meaningful and want it over 50 prepare for a second to help others, but are not career and acquire necesnecessarily committed to sary computer skills, as well Fifty percent of affiliated American Jews are Baby Boomers, working within the Jewish as estate planning and medlike these participants at the General Assembly of the Jewish community, the report ical care.

Federations of North America in New Orleans, Nov. 9, 2010. found. Boomers represent “Federations are certainly Credit: JFNA 50 percent of affiliated Jews interested in increasing in the United States -- a major loss if they disappear. their donor base, and are looking for ways to engage baby “Even affiliated and involved Jews will look elsewhere if boomers as volunteers, too,” Blumberg said, noting that a the meaning they seek is not available within the Jewish number of boomers have been recruited to serve on comcommunity,” said David Elcott, the Taub professor of public mittees, plan these initiatives and even provide the pro-bono service at NYU’s graduate school and author of the report. professional services that their colleagues now need to While most Jewish boomers plan to work or volunteer in access, from medical care to legal advice. an “encore” career after retiring, the survey showed that 35 It is well known that federations are trying to engage and percent aren’t sure what kind of work they want to do, and train young leaders, but this year for the first time the 42 percent expect to get paid for it. The Jewish community Detroit federation started a leadership training program for is used to relying on its older population to volunteer, Elcott boomers to bring them into the federation system as plansaid. ners and other agency personnel.

Not only that, but just over a third of boomers surveyed “We are looking for opportunities that speak to them, said they “want to help other Jews” in their encore career, where they can give back to the community and make a difand just 14 percent look at the new career as a way of ference,” Blumberg said.

“In our Omaha Jewish community,” Jan Goldstein, expressing their Jewish identity.

Nearly 86 percent of those hoping to perform public serv- Federation Executive Director, says, “baby boomers are not ice work would like to work through a Jewish organization, quite as unengaged. Throughout the community, they are the survey showed, but that does not mean they are com- recipients as well as leaders, with strong ties to Judaism. While mitted to helping Jews, Elcott noted. They could just as well we have seen the needs increase, we have also seen the leaderbe building homes in New Orleans or doing literacy training ship grow, both in board and committee membership, and the increased mentoring of the younger generation”. in inner cities.

Group Loyalty

by JTA NEWS STAFF NEW ORLEANS (JTA) -- A new survey shows that younger Jewish professionals are less committed to the Jewish collective than their elders.

The results of the survey of about 2,500 self-identified Jewish community professionals were released this week in New Orleans at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America.

Most Jewish communal professionals grew up with two Jewish parents, had strong Jewish educational backgrounds and spent time in Israel, noted sociologist Steven M. Cohen, who did the pro bono research for the project. He called those factors “strong predictors” of later Jewish engagement.

Women make up two-thirds of all Jewish communal professionals, their median age is 48, and they are paid on average $20,000 less per year than men in comparable positions, according to the survey commissioned by the Jewish Communal Service Association of America.

Among those under 34, the survey showed 28 percent had been on Birthright programs, a higher percentage than one would expect among young Jews in general, Cohen said.

That indicates a correlation between participation in Birthright and choosing a career in the Jewish community.

But despite that Israel experience and their strong Jewish backgrounds, these young professionals, like their peers not in communal work, have lower levels of commitment than their older colleagues to what he calls the “Jewish collective,” including Jewish peoplehood, Israel and a sense of Jewish “community.”

The take-away from that, Cohen said, is that the Jewish community cannot count on this generation’s continued

engagement on the basis of group loyalty. Their Jewish involvement has to be earned, and Jewish professionals who understand that -- their peers -- will serve them better than older leaders.

“We’re going through a transition from peoplehood to purpose,” he posited. “Younger Jewish professionals are part of the purpose-driven generation.”

The survey was conducted in the fall of 2009 by the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

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Is Reform movement going kosher?

by SUE FISHKOFF lay leaders are keeping kosher, partially or SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- Kosher -- it’s entirely. And it ends with a guide that the first word in the book. And tackling the Reform congregations can use to develop “k” word head-on is part of what makes the their own communal dietary practice, first Reform guide to Jewish dietary practice which may or may not include kashrut. so significant.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union The Sacred Table: Creating a Jewish Food for Reform Judaism and a longtime advoEthic, to be published next month by the cate of bringing more Jewish ritual into Reform rabbinical association, uses an array Reform practice, says he was pleasantly surof essays by Reform rabbis and activists to prised to see the book’s forthright approach. challenge Reform Jews to develop a conscious In the summer of 2009, while putting dietary practice grounded in Jewish values. together his keynote speech for the moveAnd it’s not shy ment’s biennial conabout suggesting ference, Yoffie said he kashrut, both tradiplanned to suggest tional and re-imagkashrut as a model for ined.

Reform dietary prac“No longer an tice. But after running oxymoron, ‘Reform his speech by key kashrut’ has entered Reform lay leaders, the Jewish lexicon, the rabbi told JTA, he although there is no heard so much pushconsensus on what back that he dropped this means exactly,” the “k” word from the Rabbi Carole Balin, final initiative. a Jewish history proCalled “Just Table, fessor at Hebrew Green Table,” the Union CollegeReform platform for Jewish Institute of developing consciReligion, writes in ously Jewish food the book, which is choices “is not about being published by kashrut,” Yoffie told Central Conference biennial delegates as of American Rabbis he unveiled the projPress. ect last December.

The Sacred Table, soon to be published by For a movement Yoffie later told CCAR Press, suggests that Reform Jews whose founding JTA that he “wanted develop a Jewish dietary practice.

Pittsburgh Platform people to be open to Credit: CCAR Press of 1885 rejected the idea of Jewish kosher laws along with other traditional sacred eating, and didn’t want to touch an Jewish rituals of dress and body as “entirely emotional chord that would prevent them foreign” to modern sensibilities, the book from hearing that message.” represents a significant milestone in the Now, a year later, he says he finds it “fascidevelopment of Reform spirituality and nating” that the Reform rabbinical leaderpractice. ship has seized the reins.

It also illustrates the increased attention “Our rabbinical body is coming out and focused on kashrut across the denomina- unabashedly embracing the word kashrut, tional spectrum since the 2008 saying this is how we’re framing the discusAgriprocessors scandal, which shuttered the sion and we want people to struggle with it,” nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse and Yoffie said. spurred a rash of “ethical kosher” initiatives The thrust of the book clearly favors - from small, humane kosher meat opera- broadening the definition of kashrut to tions to the Conservative movement’s Magen include related Jewish ethical values, in Tzedek project, which certifies kosher food keeping with longstanding Reform history. products that meet certain ethical standards.

“That is essential,” Yoffie said. “There are In Reform circles over the past two years, those in our movement who will accept conversation about kashrut and Jewish val- kashrut in the traditional sense, but the ues has come from the grass roots, youth great majority will take elements of kashrut groups and the pulpit. It’s part of the move- in a broader sense. They want to relate it to ment’s new readiness to examine once-dis- issues of ethics, community and identity.” carded Jewish rituals for their spiritual Still, kashrut itself is offered as a recompotential, and the focus on kashrut comes mended practice, however adapted. That within the context of heightened interest does not sit well with some Reform leaders, among Americans generally in the politics whose voices also appear in the book, howand morality of food production and distri- ever briefly. bution.

One is Rabbi Joel Abraham of Temple Some Reform leaders, including the Sholom in Scotch Plains, N.J., who writes book’s editor, Rabbi Mary Zamore of that he does not keep kosher, opposing its Temple B’nai Or in Morristown, N.J., want power to separate Jews from non-Jews. He to play down the trendiness aspect. explains his position as a “moral choice “This is part of a continuum within based on my definition of Reform Judaism,” Reform Judaism,” said Zamore, who pushed and says he feels marginalized at Reform the project along for 13 years. “It’s not liber- events that serve only kosher food. They al Judaism becoming something different; may think they’re being inclusive, Abraham it’s that we continue to evolve. Here is a topic writes, but in fact such meals exclude him which for many Reform Jews was taboo or a and his beliefs. non-starter. Now everywhere I go, people are Jewish ethical values about treating worktalking about these topics as Reform Jews.” ers and animals well, and respecting the envi“The Sacred Table” opens with a discus- ronment and one’s own body, are all imporsion of the historical Reform approach to tant to Reform as well as other Jews, he says. kashrut and includes an overview of tradi“But we don’t need to graft them onto tional kosher laws -- a first for an official kashrut,” he said, acknowledging however Reform publication, according to Zamore. that he is in a shrinking minority among It also includes chapters on each of the Reform rabbis.

Jewish values that proponents of ethical Balin, who teaches a course on food for kashrut embrace as they seek to broaden the rabbinic and cantorial students, says she traditional definition of the Jewish diet, doesn’t know any who adhere to the tenets from the ban on "tzaar baalei chayim," or of Classical Reform. cruelty to animals, to preventing "oshek," or Jewish dietary practice and the politics oppression of workers. It includes the results and morality of food choices, she said, “are of a 2005 survey that showed increasing very much on the minds of these future numbers of Reform synagogues, clergy and Reform leaders.”

November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 15

Temple Israel participating again in Thanksgiving Interfaith Service

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator Temple Israel will join five other congregations this year at the annual Thanksgiving Interfaith Service which will be hosted by First Christian Church, 6630 Dodge St. The entire community is invited to attend the 5 p.m. service this Sunday, Nov. 21.

Rev. Rene Rodgers Jensen, co-pastor of First Christian Church, said the theme of “unity among the three faiths of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, will celebrate our common heritage as children of Abraham. Those attending will be encouraged to commit themselves to continuing interfaith dialogue.”

Rev. Deborah McKnight, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church, will deliver the Thanksgiving message.

Representatives from each of the participating congregations will lead the service. In addition to First Christian Church and Temple Israel, the other congregations include St. Margaret Mary’s Church, the American Institute of Islamic Studies and Culture, Underwood Hills Presbyterian Church, and First United Methodist Church. An interfaith choir, which includes Temple Israel’s Kol Rina, is always a highlight of the service.

Dave Noodell who has attended the interfaith service in the past with his wife Ann, said, “We have so much more in common with the other faiths than we have differences.

Giving thanks is deeply rooted in all faith traditions.

Thanksgiving is the perfect time for people to come together and celebrate a truly secular holiday. It’s a very uplifting service.”

“We live in trying times,” added Justin Cooper, who attended last year with his wife Joan. “Things we once thought were a given, carved in granite, now require new evaluations and assessments. We are suspicious of motives of acquaintances and even more suspicious of people who we do not yet know. There is a level of mistrust and protectionism that eats at our ’perception of the world.’ The Interfaith Thanksgiving Service is an opportunity to take a slow deep breath, relax, and re-center ourselves in the global world in which we now live.”

Phyllis Glazer recalled last year’s service as “absolutely beautiful! The music still lives with me a year later.”

All Temple Israel members who would like to carpool can

call the office at 556.6536 to make arrangements.

Canned goods or monetary donations will be accepted that evening at First Christian Church for Together, Inc. which provides food, clothing, and household items to

families in need in the Omaha area.

A dessert reception will follow the service. If you would like to bake cookies or bars, please bring them to Temple Israel by 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 21.

Absorbing the moment

Gypsy chicks JOEY HOFFMAN When I turned forty-one in August, I decided to flip the numbers. Why not? Fourteen was fabulous: Size six, sweet beau, a summer job pumping gas at a local boat dock (hmmm…Hawaiian Tropic or Coppertone?). My biggest concerns were how to conjugate fancy French verbs and eat Cap’n Crunch without ripping the roof of my mouth. But I wonder: Had I known what lay ahead, would I have faced up or fled?

In February, 2003, my daughter Daisy was born with Gastroschisis, a rare congenital defect in which her intestines developed outside her body, in the amniotic fluid.

Surprisingly, this is the case for every fetus until week four, when the organs retreat inside the body and the abdominal wall shuts. Daisy’s didn’t. After surgeons attempted to correct her anatomy after birth, she was supposed to recover in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for two weeks. She lived there for seven months.

A slew of life-threatening complications made it clear that Daisy--who survived on tube feeds and TPN, an iv fluid that often destroys the liver--needed top-notch medical care, so after her third birthday, we flew from our home in New York to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has the world’s best intestinal rehabilitation and transplant programs. Back then, I refused to say “transplant,” a frightfully futuristic word that I believed might seal our fate. But life has a funny way of handing us the truth and five months later, on July 20, 2006, Daisy received a small bowel, liver and pancreas transplant. Her re-birthday.

In old English, Daisy means the day’s eye, the sun; exactly her nature. When I dropped her off for her first day of preschool one year post-transplant, she stood on the sidewalk, and looked up at me. “Mom,” she said. “Let’s compromise. I’ll kiss you and hug you and then you go do your thing and I’ll do my thing.”

For my birthday this year, Daisy and I drove to Okoboji. I craved quiet. And water. On the way, we marveled at massive white wind turbines (magical moving sculptures!), and listened to way too much Harry Potter. After nightfall, we pulled in front of our friend’s cabin by the lake. Daisy, who knows me, said, “Mom, don’t scream.” I shrieked.

Freshly-planted flower boxes trimmed two large front windows that reflected an electric moon. We grabbed our bags and bee-lined for the bright yellow front door. Inside smelled like a camp bunk, minus the sweaty socks. We explored our new bare-bone digs, barely believing our good fortune. Like Caroline and Laura Ingalls, we carefully climbed the hand-made wooden stairs to our teeny sleep loft. I plopped on the bed, and together we absorbed the enormous moment as the cicadas serenaded us from below.

Isn’t it bizarre how we could be in the backseat of our parent’s car one minute and driving our kids to school the next?

What happens in between? Do our dreams accompany us into adulthood or do we squeeze them into a tiny wooden box and stash them behind the board books?

Daisy, this spunky old soul with a major chocolate obsession, pries open my heart every day, reminding me to live and trust and steep in the simple. And when I remember to, I do; like my fourteen-year-old self with a more sophisticated palette and the daughter of my dreams.

Joey Hoffman is a New York-born freelance writer and embarrassingly proud mother of Daisy---a singer, kosher ham, and liver, small bowel, pancreas transplant survivor.

They live in Omaha with Sadie, a carrot-obsessed Shepherd-Husky, and Nala, a kleptomaniac Greyhound.

Men of Vision:

Father Edward Flanagan and Henry Monsky On display at the Boys Town Hall of History

Discover Boys Town They Shared a Vision to Help.

More than 90 years ago, Henry Monsky took a chance and supported his friend’s dream of providing a home to Omaha’s homeless boys. That friend was Father Edward Flanagan and that home was Boys Town.

Plan your visit today!

Free Admission

1-800-625-1400 | 402-498-1140 boystown.org/discover

1008-156

16 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

Point of view

American Jewish Press Association Award Winner

Nebraska Press National Newspaper Association Association Award winner 2008

Light

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press As any reader who takes one look at the Jewish Press this week can see: we’ve made some changes. With our new, very generous, endowment from Anna and Ben Wiesman (see p.1), it seemed appropriate to debut the Press with a new look. We think it’s an excellent way to start celebrating Hanukkah a little early.

Of course, Hanukkah isn’t about gifts, and this endowment isn’t about Hanukkah. Instead, it’s about generosity, about bringing light, and about a huge vote of confidence in this agency. By endowing the Jewish Press, the Wiesman family is endowing the entire Jewish community of Omaha, because the Press belongs to all of us.

Still, this is the annual Hanukkah issue, and board president Bobbi Leibowitz and I have some people to thank, so here goes.

First of all, we would like to thank the Press staff: Richard Busse, our creative director, whose vision and energy practically jump off the page. The new face of the Press is due to his creative magic wand, and we are lucky to have him on board. Lori Kooper-Schwarz, our assistant managing editor, who keeps every letter in its rightful place; such attention to detail we should all possess: the world would be a much more organized place. Allan Handleman, who never quits and could sell an Oklahoma jersey to a Husker fan -- not that he would, of course. Last but not least, Barbara Kirkpatrick, for taking such great care of all that financial stuff, and for always having a filled M&M jar.

Our wonderful proofreaders, who never miss a typo or a run-on sentence: Suzanne Singer, Dottie Rosenblum, Deborah Platt, Margaret Kirkeby and Ellie Batt: you’re all fabulous. Our many freelance writers, who never cease to amaze me, our Jewish Press board members, the wonderful Marty Ricks, and those people on the “other side” of the hall-

way: Jody Malashock, Jan Goldstein, Julee Katzman, Bob Goldberg and Sherrie Saag, Denise Baccus, David Kampschneider and Richard Goedeken, all the ladies at the Historical society without whom I personally would be completely lost because they save me so much time; every single agency director and secretary and the people from housekeeping and maintenance…if you work and/or volunteer in the building, it’s very likely that at some point you have helped us out, brought us a story idea, or given us feedback, and we thank you. And yes, I’m very aware I’m unable to name many of you personally, but the truth of the matter is, the Jewish Press exists only by the grace of the community, and to name every single individual who has ever assisted us in some way is simply not possible. However, you know who you are, so please, pat yourself on the back.

When we get close to Hanukkah, the days get shorter, and the temperatures start to drop. We start to leave the house a few minutes earlier so we can scrape the windshield; at the end of our workday we leave the office only to find the parking lot much darker than we’d like. Soon, it will snow, and we all know what that means.

The nicest thing about darkness is that it makes the light shine extra bright.

You can see that on our

front page; the story of Shirley Goldstein is a good example.

So is the story about Danielle Gordman and Patrick Jensen and their well-deserved Young Leadership awards. With the financial crisis not quite behind us, and the nightmare continuing for many, people like Ben and Anna Wiesman come forward and decide to help, as do many, many others, and we are a better community for having such people in it. When there is a need, our community will always step up: it’s one thing we can count on.

Happy Hanukkah everybody; may the light shine brightly for each and every one of you.

Bobbi Leibowitz, Jewish Press board president Annette van de Kamp-Wright, Editor

Protection of land and water

Focus on issues FRED SCHERLINDER DOBB AND TERRY GIPS WASHINGTON (JTA) -- With a tradition thousands of years old, Judaism informs us on taking the long view -- the Divine view, as it were, since God is concerned even to the thousandth generation in the future (Exodus 34:7). So with environmental policy, we consider not only our own immediate interests, but also protecting Creation overall.

Our organization, COEJL (the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life), which works with numerous Jewish agencies and all major denominations, has this notion as its mission: “protecting Creation from generation to generation.”

This year we’ve seen frustrating setbacks in our efforts to protect Creation: Needed legislation to dramatically reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions has failed, even as we suffered the largest oil spill in American history. While the immediate political focus was on midterm elections and their projected impact on many fronts, we cannot afford to lose track of our country’s valuable natural resources in the bargaining process. And there is something we can and must do, even in this political climate.

As part of Creation, our land and water have the capacity to nourish or vanquish each of us, regardless of how we voted. We humans (“adam,” in Hebrew) come from and are dependent upon the land (“adamah”), and the “living waters” (“mayim chayim,” as Jeremiah calls them). That is why we urge safeguarding our precious public lands and water resources by having Congress dedicate full funding for the bipartisan-supported Land and Water Conservation

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Fund, or LWCF. The LWCF was established in 1965 to protect America’s great outdoors using royalties paid by oil companies to the government to fund the conservation of natural resources.

As oil and gas were extracted from federal waters, a portion of these royalties was to be reinvested for the conservation of open space onshore through the fund. The fund has since created local parks and playgrounds, and protected important wild places in every single state.

As the principal source of federal dollars for protecting national parks, forests, monuments and other public landscapes, the LWCF ensures recreational opportunities for citizens across the United States. Whether we live in urban or rural areas, in the East, West, North or South, chances are that we benefit from the Land and Water Conservation Fund without even knowing it.

Yet since its inception, the fund has never received sufficient appropriations. More than enough oil revenue flows by the LWCF, at no cost to the American taxpayer, yet Congress has failed to use that money for its intended purpose (its recent low in appropriated funding was just $138 million, less than one-sixth of what it could be). Over the years the fund has been shortchanged by some $17 billion -- a huge loss for our communities and Creation.

Without this financing, the program cannot fulfill its enormous potential for us and our environment. Finally, this July, the House of Representatives passed the Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic (CLEAR) Act, which includes full funding for the LWCF. Now we wait -- will it also pass in the U.S. Senate? We need to push for full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund as legislation moves forward.

President Obama declared September National Wilderness Month, saying that “together we must ensure that future generations can experience the tranquility and grandeur of America's natural places.”

We could not agree more. Our Jewish values teach us this very responsibility, as in the Psalms, where we experience divinity most clearly through Creation. It is incumbent upon us to preserve America’s great outdoors for the benefit of future generations.

Even while pursuing full funding for the LWCF, we at COEJL are still deeply committed to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, increasing our economic and national security, and pursuing renewable energy and green jobs. We still see the desperate need for comprehensive energy and climate policy to accomplish all this while regulating and curbing dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. In 2010, the hottest year in recorded history, our spiritual contribution to the national and global conversation on environmental policy is more needed than ever.

So without faltering in our efforts toward comprehensive climate legislation, let us take meaningful steps even now to protect our natural resources and heritage. We must urge our politicians to provide immediate, full and consistent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. And we must turn up the heat in a sustained effort against the scourge of climate change, which harms not just our land and water but people here and now, our human future, and all earthly Creation.

Both efforts are needed. Our descendants demand no less.

Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb and Terry Gips are Governance Committee members of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life-COEJL.

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November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 17

Israel, like Obama, seeing importance in India ties

Behind the headlines JENNIFER LASZLO MIZRAHI WASHINGTON (JTA) -- President Obama’s trip to India this week highlights India’s growing importance to the United States. Similarly, cooperation between India and Israel is expanding, as the importance of each country to the other increases.

India, Israel and the U.S. have much in common. They are three major democracies on three continents and are allies to one another. They share the same values of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to vote, strong judicial oversight, women’s rights and more. All three are waging battles against extremist fundamentalists who have launched terrorist attacks against them.

India is the world’s largest democracy, with a population of 1.2 billion, and a growing global economic power. It can have an enormous influence on Israel’s strategic position in the world militarily, diplomatically and economically. India has a real and active interest in the Middle East because of its massive reliance on oil from Iran and other Arab countries that have sustained its economic growth while, to a frightening degree, given money to mullahs who want to destroy Western values and Israel.

Yet in recent years, India and Israel have joined together in counterterrorism efforts and have increased trade and economic ties significantly.

Jews have lived in India for more than 2,000 years and have not been the victims of discrimination -- a phenomenon almost unknown throughout history. Israel today is home to some 60,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community, the largest group of Indian Jews, believed by some to be descendants of one of the biblical 10 lost tribes.

The November 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai, to which President Obama paid respects, is called India’s 9/11. Ten terrorists killed more than 170 people and wounded more than 300 -- Hindus, Jews, Christians and Muslims. Targeting Indians as well as Westerners, the gunmen attacked two hotels, a train station, a cafe and the city’s Chabad center, where they murdered six people, including four Israelis.

As democracies surrounded mostly by authoritarian and antagonistic neighbors, India and Israel have improved cooperation in areas of mutual interest and concern: • Following the Mumbai massacre, India and Israel have cooperated in large-scale counterterrorism efforts. As terrorism has been responsible for more deaths in India than in any other country besides Iraq, this shared experience and India’s understanding of Israel’s situation makes the two countries natural political allies. India and Israel have stepped up security and military coordination since the

massacre, but even before, starting in 1999, India’s Ministry of External Affairs and Israel’s Foreign Ministry held annual bilateral consultations in Jerusalem and New Delhi, plus periodic discussions on counterterrorism.

• Israel-India trade has grown dramatically (including high-tech, chemical and agricultural products and medical equipment), from $80 million in 1991 to $4 billion in 2008.

India and Israel signed five significant trade and economic agreements from 1993 to 1996. Negotiations on a free-trade agreement between the two countries began earlier this year when Israeli President Shimon Peres met with India’s commerce minister. Israeli Trade and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer also pushed for a free-trade agreement during an official visit to India in January. Such a treaty could have a huge influence on Israel’s economy and security.

• As a leader in alternative energy, Israel has a growing relationship with India on water management and other green initiatives, particularly agricultural. This relationship is crucial in deepening bilateral ties as India struggles with the demands of a burgeoning population. For example, the Tel Aviv-based company Netafim, which provides irrigation solutions for agriculture and landscaping, put 14,826 acres of land in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, known as the “Rice Bowl of India,” under sprinkler and drip irrigation.

• The field of Information Technology illustrates the close economic connections among Israel, India and the United States. In the past two decades, companies in Israel and California’s Silicon Valley developed close ties as Israel provided outstanding and affordable engineering labor and research and development centers for major American technology companies. As Israel’s high-tech industry matured and business costs in the country have risen, many Israeli high-tech firms are outsourcing part or all of their development to India, much like U.S. companies. IT professionals from America, Israel and India are collaborating on projects and solutions to improve the world.

Thus, like the United States, India is a natural ally for Israel. Although the U.S. remains the world’s superpower, the global balance of power is shifting east, with ascendant economic heavyweights such as India and China gaining increasing power. Israel must develop new political allies and strong economic partners with countries that hold political and economic power, particularly those that share interests and concerns with Israel. India meets all these criteria.

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi is the founder and president of The Israel Project [http://www.theisrael project.org], a nonprofit educational organization that provides factual information about Israel and the Middle East to media, leaders and the public. It has offices in Washington and Jerusalem.

Did the Jewish Futures Conference present any shared values?

Behind the headlines JACOB BERKMAN Monday, The Jewish Education Project (Formerly BJENYSAJES), JESNA, the Covenant Foundation and several other education groups held a mini-conference at the Jewish Federations' General Assembly to look at innovations in Jewish education. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, the founder and president of the social justice group Uri L'Tzedek and the senior educator at Hillel at UCLA attended the conference. This is his takeaway: Monday, I attended the morning conference at the General Assembly on Jewish Futures, organized by the creative and passionate David Bryfman. The banquet hall, packed with hundreds of Jewish leaders, showcased innovative projects such as Punk Media and Media Midrash, and dynamic speakers including Dr. Jon Woocher and Laurie Karr.

While the innovative ideas and sophisticated and important conversations proved the conference a success, I could not help but leave disconcerted.

The forum, as so many before it, centered on peoplehood.

The discussion dealt with engagement, accessibility, and sociological trends. Even a text study at the session took this focus, as we compared Sukkot’s four species to different kinds of Jews.

Ori Brafman, an entrepreneur and writer, expressed what was perhaps the session’s most provocative and subversive comment “What are the shared values for Jewish education?” he asked.

His question elicited no response, so he explained his take: Successful and growing communities have well-articulated shared values, but big-tent Judaism tends to neglect this.

So let me ask another question: Where is our Jewish values discourse?

When we think of what a Jewish future might look like in a decade, perhaps our primary emphasis should be not on increasing camp, school, and shul attendance. Perhaps it should be on more fundamental issues – values over numbers.

We must grapple with crucial topics like Jewish parenting and friendship, efforts to alleviate poverty, fewer scandals and more ethical workplaces, new ways to interpret Torah, and furthering transformational leadership for a brighter global and Jewish future from within our sacred tradition, through dynamic knowledge and spiritual activism.

The Jewish future discourse desperately needs to transition from one of peoplehood to one of values.

Encouraging students merely to follow their interests may ensure higher numbers of “engaged” young Jews, but that does little to ensure the Jewish spread of love, justice, and compassion into the world.

The language of “meaning” and “relevance” is important for crafting a collective vision but cannot replace “responsibility” and “service” in cultivating leadership. Simple fidelity to numbers-inflating engagement-promotion trends has a place, but it is not the summum bonum of Jewish life. We must have longer-term and deeper goals than getting bodies in the door.

If Jewish professional and lay leaders avoid wrestling with our time’s most pressing social, political, and moral issues, how can we expect our youth to do so?

Innovative social media is crucial for keeping us at the cutting edge of educational thought, but if the discourse is not guided by our most cherished traditional and modern values, then what do we mean when we talk about “fostering Judaism”?

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Senior Jewish Educator at UCLA and a 5th year PhD candidate at Columbia University in Moral Psychology & Epistemology.

Letters to the editor Dear Editor, In response to Paul Landow’s letter to the editor of Nov. 12, Dennis Prager’s belief that abortions are immoral when done for convenience makes him an opponent of abortion rights? He does not support a law making abortion illegal.

And how is it that Prager taking issue with extremist Muslims makes him a Muslim basher?

By invoking Landow’s logic, my opposition to his statements would make me a Jew basher.

I could go on, but to spend more time defending Prager against such charges would only add to the hysterical and defamatory claims made in Landow’s letter.

The far more important point is that Prager is not being brought into Omaha to discuss the hotbed issues of the day.

He is being brought in to inspire our Jewish community to be more committed Jews. He seeks to help Jews find more passion and meaning in their Judaism and, as Prager would put it, to be more serious Jews.

By some estimates, the most popular introductory book on Judaism is Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin’s The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism, translated into nearly a dozen languages. Prager has spoken in synagogues of all denominations all over North America, written prolifically on Judaism, and leads a remarkably compelling Jewish life himself.

Prager’s lectures are not only compelling and even entertaining ... they have changed lives. I should know. They’ve changed mine.

Joel Alperson Former National Campaign Chair United Jewish Communities (UJC)

Political end-notes

Focus on issues RON KAMPEAS Gut Shabbes, Shabbat Shalom, have an easy weekend. Just want to clean up some elections stuff: • In listing successful Jewish candidates in statewide races, I noted GOP attorney general first time wins in Georgia and Arizona (Sam Olens and Tom Horne, respectively.) I should also have noted Douglas Gansler (D) in Maryland, who was re-elected without opposition.

• As long as we’re tracking statewide Jewish wins JTA should have noted in previous elections, let’s mention Jack Markell, the Democratic governor of Delaware, elected in 2008.

• I noted the pivot by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) the other day: During his visit to the Middle East, he warned Iran it had more incentive than ever to play ball on nuclear transparency, now that the Republicans run the U.S. House of Representatives. The Financial Times story noted the likely ascension of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), an Iran hawk, to the chairwomanship of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

If Kerry was inviting Ros-Lehtinen to play bad cop, she seems more than happy to, according to this Reuters story: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who as senior Republican on the committee is poised to take over its leadership, told Reuters she believed the House body would have an “important voice” in foreign policy, without wanting to over-inflate its role or influence.

“I think that the majority of our committee, that has yet to be named ... will be able to help the president be tougher with countries,” Ros-Lehtinen said in an interview.

“I think it strengthens the president’s hand,” added the Florida representative, who is a fierce critic of countries like Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela that she terms “rogue regimes.” She spoke while Obama was on a tour of Asia, attending a G20 summit in Seoul, South Korea.

Ros-Lehtinen said Obama could even use a “tough Congress” to “play good cop, bad cop” with anti-U.S. states like Iran, which Washington and other world powers are pressuring over its nuclear program.

It’s interesting, I think, that the first sign of bipartisan foreign policy comity, in the sour post election atmosphere, comes from Kerry and Ros-Lehtinen. Both have a reputation of reaching across the aisle -- Ros-Lehtinen particularly has always been gracious to her opposite Democratic member (Gary Ackerman, Tom Lantos, Howard Berman) over the years.

They will each head the foreign relations committee in their respective chambers for the next two years. Maybe it’s a sign that the tone will not be as acrimonious as it looked just a week ago.

EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press office will be closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday, Nov. 25. The deadline for all ads, articles and photos is 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 24 for the Dec. 3 issue.

Questions? Call 334.6448.

18 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

Synagogues B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

CHABAD HOUSE

618 Mynster Street | Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 | 402.322.4705 email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com FRIDAY: Services followed by Oneg, 7:30 p.m.

There will no services on Friday, Nov. 26.

An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch 1866 South 120 Street | Omaha, NE 68144-1646 | 402.330.1800 www.OChabad.com | email: chabad@aol.com Services conducted by Rabbi Mendel Katzman. Office hours: Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Service, 7 a.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Minyan, 10 a.m.; Youth Minyan, 10:30 a.m.; Mini Mensch title will be awarded. Kiddush luncheon follows. Join Rabbi Katzman, noon-1 p.m.; W.O.W. Parsha, Prophets and Prayer, 12:45 p.m.

SUNDAY: Service, 8:30 a.m.; Jewish Pride program, 10 a.m.-noon at Lincoln Jewish Community School.

WEEKDAYS: Services, 7 a.m.

MONDAY: After school teen program, 2:40-4 p.m.; JLI class, Medicine & Morals, Your Jewish guide through life’s tough decisions, 7 p.m. Questions? Contact Shevi at 402.330.1800 or JLI@OChabad.com.

THURSDAY: The Parsha Club for Level I beginners, ages 5-6; and Level II intermediates and experts, ages 7-9, 3:50 p.m. Please contact Shevi@ochabad.com with any questions or to recive a guest pass.

All programs are open to the entire community.

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California | Omaha, NE 68154-1980 | 402.492.8550 www.bethel-omaha.org Services conducted by Rabbi Mordechai Levin and Cantor Beth Schlossberg.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY: Morning service, 9:30 a.m.; Family Junior Congregation (3-7), 10 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 5 p.m.

WEEKDAY SERVICES: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.; weekdays, 7 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.

SUNDAY: Bible Study Discussion Group, 10 a.m.

PHONE BLITZ FOR BLOOD DRIVE: Sunday, 10 a.m.

– noon.

REMINGTON HEIGHTS VISIT: On Tuesday, Nov. 30, 1:15 p.m., Rabbi Levin and Cantor Schlossberg will present a musical Hanukkah program for Remington’s Jewish residents and their guests.

All Beth El classes and programs are open to everyone in the Jewish community.

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 12604 Pacific Street | Omaha, NE. 68154 | 402.556.6288 www.BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org Office Hours: Mon.-Thurs., 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Fri., 8:30 a.m-2 p.m. Services conducted by Rabbi Jonathan Gross and Rabbi Yitzchak Mizrahi.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 4:44 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Understanding the Prayer Book class, 9 a.m.; Free babysitting, 9:30 a.m.; Children’s Classes begin with Torah Parade, 9:45 a.m.; Kiddush is sponsored by Patricia Newman in appreciation of everyone’s warm welcoming and friendship; “Advanced Parshah Study for Kids” (ages 10 and up) and Shabbat Mishnah Group, Avodah Zarah, chapter 4, one hour prior to Mincha every Shabbat; Mincha, 4:30 p.m. followed by Seuda Shlishit; Havdalah, 5:46 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Jr. NCSY Rollerskating, 2:30 p.m.

WEEKDAYS: Shacharit, 7 a.m.

MONDAY: Weekly Teleconference Mishnah Class, 10:30 a.m. Contact the office to get the dial-in number and access code.

TUESDAY: Scholars Club for fourth-sixth graders, 3:45 p.m. at the Blumkin Home; Rabbi Mizrahi’s Weekly Class, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: The Synagogue Office will be closed Wednesday through Sunday for Thanksgiving Weekend; Rabbi Weiss’s Weekly Class, 7:30 p.m.; Advanced Halchic Kollel, 9 p.m.; Follow the Kollel at www.omahakollel. blogspot.com.

THURSDAY: Women of the Torah class and Rabbis Around the World are canceled for Thanksgiving.

CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN South Street Temple | Union for Reform Judaism 2061 South 20th Street | Lincoln, NE 68502-2797 | 402.435.8004 www.southstreettemple.org Services conducted by Rabbi Ilan Emanuel.

FRIDAY: Shabbat Evening Service, 7:45 p.m. led by Rabbi Emanuel, with oneg following hosted by Nancy Myers.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10:30 a.m. all led by Rabbi Emanuel; Game Night/Potluck, 6 p.m. All ages welcome. If you have questions or need a ride, call Deborah Swearingen.

SUNDAY: LJCS Grades 1-7, 9:30 a.m.-noon at Tifereth Israel, program presented by Chabad: I Love Being Jewish; Gan Simcha-Kindergarden, 9:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. at South Street Temple; Hallah High, 10 a.m.-noon at South Street Temple.

WEDNESDAY: No Hebrew classes - Thanksgiving Break.

THURSDAY: Thanksgiving Day - Temple Office closed.

Book Drive: During the month of Nov., South Street Temple and Tifereth Israel is collecting new or gently-used preschool-level books to donate to Head Start Child Development Center. Bring your items to either the Temple or the Synagogue.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE SAC Memorial Chapel 301 Lincoln Highway | Offutt AFB, NE 68113 | 402.294.6244 FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m.

NEIGHBORHOOD PRAYER GROUP 1317 North 57 Street | Omaha, NE 68132 | 402.551.6609 FRIDAY: Minyan, 4:44 p.m.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m.

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME 323 South 132 Street | Omaha, NE 68154 FRIDAY: Chef ’s Demo, 1 p.m. led by Temple Israel

Candlelighting Friday, November 19, 4:44 p.m.

Members; Shabbat Comes to the Blumkin Home, 2:30 p.m. led by Temple Israel Members.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by Steve Riekes.

SUNDAY: LOVE Holiday Gift Shop Sale will be held from 1-3 p.m. in the Blumkin Home.

Services will be held in the Chapel. Members of the community are invited to attend Services.

TEMPLE ISRAEL Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 7023 Cass Street | Omaha, NE 68132-2651 | 402.556.6536 www.templeisrael-ne.org FRIDAY: Wine and Cheese Oneg, 5:30 p.m.; Shabbat Service, 6 p.m. led by Rabbi Azriel, Rabbi Linder, Cantor Shermet; D’var Torah given by Scholar-in-Residence Dennis Prager on Happiness is a Mtizvah - Not a Feeling.

SATURDAY: Sparks Beneath the Surface, 9 a.m. with Scholar-in-Residence Dennis Prager; Morning Service, 10:30 a.m.; Scholar-in-Residence Dennis Prager: Do Secular Jews have a future, 7 p.m. at the JCC followed by a dessert reception.

SUNDAY: Hebrew Teacher Meeting, 9 a.m.; Grades PreK6, 10 a.m.; Scholar-in-Residence Dennis Prager: Judaism’s Five Greatest Lessons, 10 a.m.; Thanksgivng Interfaith Service, 5 p.m. at First Christian Church, 6630 Dodge St. (see full story on page 15.)

TUESDAY: Adult B’nai Mitzvah, 6:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: No Religious School; No Family School; No Middle School.

It’s Time to celebrate Hanukkah with latkes, dreidels, and singing, Friday, Dec. 3, 6 p.m. Shabbat Worship Service followed by dinner. Please bring non-food items to be donated to the Jewish Family Service Pantry. Space is limited for dinner, so please RSVP to the Temple Israel office, 556.6536 or mkube@templeisraelomaha.com or as soon as possible.

TIFERETH ISRAEL Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Boulevard | Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 | 402.423.8569 www.tiferethisraellincoln.org Services conducted by lay leader Nancy Coren. Office hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

FRIDAY: Shabbat service, 6:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: Learners minyan, 9:30 a.m.; Morning Service, 10 a.m. followed by Kiddush luncheon and Talmud study; Congregational Spaghetti dinner, 6:30 p.m. sponsored

by Rika Kelison. RSVP to the office, 402.423.8569.

SUNDAY: LJCS Grades 1-7, 9:30 a.m.-noon at Tifereth Israel, program presented by Chabad: I Love Being Jewish; Gan Simcha-Kindergarden, 9:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. at South Street Temple; Hallah High, 10 a.m.-noon at South Street Temple.

WEDNESDAY: No Hebrew classes - Thanksgiving Break.

THURSDAY & FRIDAY: Temple Office closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Book Drive: During the month of Nov., South Street Temple and Tifereth Israel is collecting new or gently-used preschool-level books to donate to Head Start Child Development Center. Bring your items to either the Temple or the Synagogue.

Team SHALVA and the First International Jerusalem Marathon, Half Marathon & 10K Run

by ANDREA SIMANTOV Director of Communications, SHALVA-The Association for Mentally & Physically Challenged Children in Israel NEW YORK -- The city of Jerusalem will join the world’s leading cities in hosting an international marathon on March 25, 2011. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat - a seasoned marathon runner himself – announced recently, “We are determined to restore Jerusalem to its historic role as an international destination site for tourists and pilgrims, a task similar to running a marathon.”

The municipality is working with race-production experts abroad in order to meet international standards for the Jerusalem event. “For both professional runners and general enthusiasts, marathons are the pinnacle of a long period of training,” a municipality spokesman said in anticipation of the upcoming race.

“Marathons have become festive events, complete with traditions such as pasta dinners the night before the race, live performances throughout the city, post-race parties, and decorations on the streets where runners pass.”

Barkat, who has also completed marathons in Berlin, Paris, and New York, has a clear understanding of what the event entails. The spokesman said the municipality hopes that this

year’s run “will put Jerusalem on the map of world marathons as a challenging race.” The route will wind through strategic places in the city and include renowned sites and beautiful scenery. “Runners will pass through the beautiful vistas of

Jerusalem’s panoramic surroundings. We are a city in which past and present, east and west, merge alongside historic sites and urban modernity,” the spokesman said.

The Jerusalem Municipality dedicated last year’s half

marathon to the children of SHALVA – The Association for Mentally & Physically Challenged Children in Israel in order to raise both donations and awareness for the children’s unique challenges. The mayor himself kicked off the 2010 Half Marathon with a special 400 meter circuit run with the SHALVA youngsters!

SHALVA participation in this exciting occasion serves to highlight the abilities of youngsters with disabilities and furthers opportunities for greater societal integration. In the past, spectators were visibly moved as they watched over 100 children take to the track in the aforementioned run prior to the Half Marathon itself.

Excitement was further enhanced by a group of young musicians from SHALVA – all of whom have special needs – serenading their ‘teammates’ as they sped around the track.

Again, SHALVA will serve as a celebrated partner for this year’s race. The 2011 Marathon Team Shalva is offering free airfare and hotel accommodations for runners who register before Dec. 15, 2010!

For more information, visit Team Shalva’s website at www.run4shalva.org or call the SHALVA office at 212.725.0900.

Pulverent e

November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 19

Esau the gentleman

In memoriam ABRAHAM SCHLOFF

Sparks from the word RABBI MYER S. KRIPKE Parsha Va Yishlach Our Sidrah opens by telling us how much Jacob feared for his meeting with his brother Esau. Esau was coming, Jacob heard, with 400 armed men. So Jacob divided his own retinue into four different camps depending on which one of his wives was most beloved. Rachel and her children were farthest back, and the other three were closer to the front.

He thought that if Esau started to do harm to the closer ones, Rachel and her children could escape.

Jacob then sent flocks and herds -the only things of value that they had, not money- to Esau in the hope that Esau would be reconciled by him.

Jacob rightly feared the meeting for he had managed to get the birthright from Esau, though he was older than Jacob, and also had maneuvered to get the first blessing from their father Isaac.

And now, because he had bested Esau in two very important ways, he sought to appease Esau’s natural anger with precious gifts.

Esau, however, with his 400 armed men, had no intention of doing harm to Jacob. He made it clear that the fact that he had a private army with him was not meant to harm or even to frighten Jacob. The armed men were with him as they always were while he made his ways in these as yet uncivilized places. Furthermore, he did not accept the gifts that Jacob sent, announcing he had plenty himself. Esau did accept the gifts, however, when Jacob insisted.

And now Esau suggested they go on together to Canaan, but Jacob -still recognizing Esau’s right to be angry with him- found a lame excuse to separate his own retinue from Esau and his armed men. He told Esau it would be a very slow procession because there were so many young children in his retinue. He suggested, therefore, they separate, and they did.

And we are about to learn that Jacob thus arrived safely with his own retinue on the way to Canaan.

Obama remark misinterpreted, Cantor spokesman says

by JTA NEWS STAFF (JTA) -- U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor's promise that the new GOP majority will "serve as a check" on the Obama administration was "not in relation to U.S.-Israel relations," his spokesman said.

Brad Dayspring told The Washington Post Monday that the comment last week by Cantor (R-Va.), the putative leader of the House of Representatives, to visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been misinterpreted to refer to Israel.

According to a statement released by Cantor's office, the congressman told Netanyahu in a meeting that "the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the administration and what has been, up until this point, one-party rule in Washington. He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other."

Cantor's Republican Party swept midterm elections earlier this month for the House.

Such meetings with opposition leaders are unusual, and Cantor's office at the time cast it as a get-together between two men with a longstanding relationship.

Abraham Schloff passed away on Nov. 14 at the age of 94.

Services were held Nov. 16 at Golden Hill Cemetery, 5025 N. 42nd St. He was preceded in death by first wife, Ellabelle; and second wife, Annette Frank Schloff.

He is survived by daughter, Harriet Fisher; son, Matthew Schloff; grandchildren, Brad and Maxine Fisher, Evan and Laurie Fisher; great-grandchildren, Sammy, Shira, Mia and Jack Fisher; step-children, Ron and Marsha Frank, and Sharon and Elliot Goldman; step-grandchildren, Leslie and Scott Rogoff, Danny and Jennifer Goldman, Adam Frank, Robyn and Jason Jensen, Bradley Frank; step-great-grandchildren, Marissa and Sophia Rogoff, Arianna, Alexis, and Charlie Goldman, and Isaac and Ava Jensen; many nieces and nephews; and very special friend, Miriam Meyerson, and her family, Roberta and Scott Richard, Ronald Meyerson and Jo Samuel, and Deborah Meyerson.

Abraham was born and raised in Minneapolis. He moved to Omaha in the late 1930’s. He was a World War II veteran, and owned the Bristol Market, a grocery store in North Omaha, for over 40 years. He was a life-member of B’nai Brith.

Memorials may be made to Chai Lifeline, 9701 West Pico Blvd., Suite 120, Los Angeles, CA 90035, or to the charity of your choice.

RONALD KAIMAN Former Omahan Ronald Kaiman passed away at the age of 64 on Nov. 4 in West Palm Beach, FL. He proceeded in death by his parents Jack and Elizabeth Kaiman, and brother Ben Kaiman.

He is survived by his wife, Julia Kaiman; daughter, Rachel Kaiman of West Palm Beach, and son, Seth Kaiman of Atlanta, GA; brother and sister-in-law, Stan and Diane Kaiman of Fort Meyers, FL; brother and sister-in-law, Saul and Terri Kaiman, and sister-in-law, Joan Kaiman. Many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

N.Y. rabbis pull out of Muslim-Jewish twinning project

by JTA NEWS STAFF (JTA) -- Two rabbis in western New York have pulled out of a Muslim-Jewish outreach effort, charging that the national sponsor is involved in Islamic fundamentalism.

The "twinning" project, which has been held each November since 2008, is a project of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding in cooperation with the Islamic Society of North America, which was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorist financing case.

Rabbi Irwin Tanenbaum of Temple Beth Am and Rabbi Alex Lazarus-Klein of Temple Sinai, both of Amherst, declined to participate in Buffalo-area twinning events this month despite participating last year, citing concerns about the Islamic Society's links to Islamic fundamentalist groups, the Buffalo News reported Nov. 11. Rabbi Drorah Setel of Temple Beth El in Niagara Falls, N.Y., is the only area rabbi to go forward with the program, according to the newspaper.

“The conflict in the Middle East ends up affecting passions here," Lazarus-Klein told the Buffalo News. "The issues are very close to people’s hearts, and it’s difficult to separate the world politics from local politics, and that’s unfortunate."

A national group based in Boston last year warned Buffalo-area Jews that radical Muslims posing as moderates had infiltrated the area.

Clinton, Netanyahu produce little after six hours

by JTA NEWS STAFF WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ended a six-hour meeting with little more than an agreement on the usefulness of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

“The prime minister and the secretary agreed on the importance of continuing direct negotiations to achieve our goals,” said a State Department statement at the conclusion of the meeting in New York.

“The secretary reiterated that ‘the United States believes that through good-faith negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable

state, based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security requirements.’”

The Obama administration has been pressing the sides to return to direct talks since the Palestinians walked out in late September over Netanyahu’s refusal to extend a 10 month partial moratorium on settlement building.

U.S.-Israel tensions flared this week when Israel announced plans to build more than a thousand new housing units in eastern Jerusalem during Netanyahu’s visit to the United States.

The State Department statement said U.S. and Israeli teams would work toward resuming direct talks in “the coming days.”

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20 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

John got by with a little help from Jewish friends

by MICHAEL FOX Certainly Gandhi. Not that he would want to be put in that American Song is being modest, of course. Epstein’s credits John Lennon and Yoko Ono left England in 1971, a few same category, but also Rabbi David Saperstein [longtime also include Bill Moyers’ 10-part 1996 series, Genesis: A months after the breakup of his band, and moved to New director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism].” Living Conversation.

York. They were seeking a normal life in a teeming meltingGrowing up, Epstein was active in Jewish youth move“I don’t know how many people ever watched it, but it was pot city, far from England’s notoriously vicious press and ments. He attended a reform summer camp in as Jewish a series as I’ve ever heard of, much less participatprovincial public. ed in,” Epstein says. “It was one I carry with me quite a bit.

Yoko was widely blamed for the demise of the Beatles, it It was really a Midrash class. I had to find and cast people should be remembered, and her avant-garde art and music for the various stories, and tease out meaning in Biblical slammed and dismissed in “revenge.” This was the last narratives, like you’re trained to do in Hebrew School.” straw for Lennon, who had long rebelled against the narLennon’s relationship with Yoko and son Sean (born in row-mindedness of his countrymen.

1975) comprises the emotional heart of LennoNYC. The It’s well known that Lennon abhorred injustice, but he dramatic tension derives from the Nixon Administration’s became furious when people close to him were mistreated. concerted effort to deport Lennon, ostensibly because of Michael Epstein, the Brooklyn-based director of the fascian old drug charge but in reality because of his performnating documentary, LennoNYC, notes that the musician’s ances and appearances in support of the anti-Vietnam War eyes were opened by the Beatles’ Jewish manager. movement.

“We forget how profoundly anti-Semitic Britain can be,” When Lennon arrived in New York in ‘71, he was wooed Epstein says. “I think that larger prejudice in England, by activists Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. But soon the which Brian Epstein felt, not only being Jewish but also most important American Jew in his life was an opera buff being gay, was something of what Yoko experienced being with no idea who John and Yoko were—a Sabbath-obserJapanese and being a strong woman. I think it’s a very, very vant immigration lawyer named Leon Wildes. regimented and closed society. And John clearly was a very “John’s immigration case was the first foray into what open-minded person with nary a prejudicial bone in his became Watergate,” Epstein asserts. “John was really the body. You just go through his entire life and you see an first attempt by Nixon to use the federal government to open, inquisitive and generous soul.” keep power.”

In an interesting side note to the Beatles’ saga, the filmWildes tells great stories, Epstein says, about the FBI not maker reveals that part of Lennon’s vehement dislike for John Lennon and Yoko on NYC street. knowing what shomer Shabbas was and wiretapping withCredit: Chris Floyd/Yoko Ono out realizing that the attorney wasn’t going to speak with Linda (nee Eastman) McCartney’s family had to do with the fact that her American Jewish father had changed his Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and served a term as president of his client—or anyone else—on the phone from sundown name from Epstein. the Chicago Federation of Temple Youth (SIFTY). He devel- Friday to sundown Saturday.

LennoNYC premieres Monday, November 22 as part of oped a strong political conscience, and was arrested his “John should have by all rights lost that case,” Epstein says.

PBS’ “American Masters” series. The two-hour broadcast freshman year at the University of Illinois (before transfer- “He should have been deported very quickly. All of the roughly coincides with Lennon’s 70th birthday and the 30th ring to the University of Michigan) for protesting the things that brought him joy and happiness at the end of his anniversary of his death. school’s decision not to divest from apartheid-era South life, none of those things would have happened if it had not The original working-class hero, Lennon became a beacon Africa. been for Leon Wildes.” of inspiration for people at every level of society. Epstein, “At that point, I almost never took John’s Plastic Ono Band There is, of course, a great deal of music in LennoNYC, who’s in his 40s and missed Beatlemania, was one of those off the turntable,” Epstein says with a laugh. “I don’t think almost all of it recorded in New York. Lennon’s ill-fated, lowmiddle-class kids who looked up to the outspoken musician. anybody [I know] was surprised I was the director of a John ebb visit to Los Angeles represents an important though “When I came of age in suburban Chicago, I didn’t fit in,” Lennon documentary. They may have been surprised that it downbeat segment, but the film’s pulse is Manhattan.

Epstein confides in a phone interview. “Music was a great was any good.”

“New York City is just the right lens, because he arrives in refuge. While I never thought of the Beatles or John in any The Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer, direc- New York, he lives in New York, he wants to stay in New religious way, John was one of the lights, someone who acted tor and writer of PBS documentaries such as None Without York,” Epstein notes. “John doesn’t fall in love with America as a kind of guide for me. I would put Dr. King in there. Sin: Miller, Kazan and the Blacklist and Irving Berlin: An the way he falls in love with New York.”

November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 21

Celebrating

Hanukkah Inside Books | Music | Recipes | Nostalgia

22 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

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The Hanukkah reading menu

by PENNY SCHWARTZ BOSTON (JTA) -- Rhyming verse, lively family scenes, a cute pig who eats kosher pickles -- and yes, menorahs, latkes and the Maccabees -- are featured in a new crop of Hanukkah books for children written by some of the country’s most popular award-winning writers.

Eight Winter Nights Laura Krauss Melmed, illustrated by Elisabeth Schlossberg Chronicle Books, $16.99; ages 3-8 Laura Krauss Melmed, the award-winning author of an earlier Hanukkah book, Moishe’s Miracle, shines with her lifelong love of rhyme in this delightful family story set in verse. Krauss Melmed captures the warmth of the holiday with a poetic celebration that evokes ritual as well as whimsy.

With each night and new candle, there’s something new to celebrate. On the fifth night, the doorbell rings and in rush the cousins.

“Wild ones, noisy ones/There must be dozens!”

What a commotion, what a delight/when cousins come calling this “Hanukkah night!”

An ode to applesauce that accompanies the latkes has a contagious beat that will entertain and engage young kids.

Schlossberg’s gloriously colored illustrations bring life to the lively verse. Her depiction of a simple arc-shaped menorah with a rainbow of glowing candles are almost luminous on the page.

Krauss Melmed, a former teacher who holds a master’s degree in early childhood education, told JTA that she wanted to write a book for younger kids that captures the feeling of a family celebrating Hanukkah, a home-based holiday.

Moishe’s Miracle, an Old World, lighthearted tale published in 2005 and illustrated by David Slonim, won the National Jewish Book Award and was made into a PBS special.

The Hanukkah Trike Michelle Edwards, illustrated by Kathryn Mitter Albert Whitman, $15.99; ages 4-8 In this simple, heartfelt story that offers a good introduction to the holiday, Gabi lights the menorah, eats latkes, helps her father retell the victorious story of the Maccabees and is surprised with the gift of a shiny new blue tricycle she names Hanukkah. When she has a hard time learning to push the pedals and falls off, the trike gets dirty and Gabi gets bruised.

With encouragement from her mother, and remembering the determination and courage of the Maccabees, they clean the trike, and Gabi gets back on and learns to ride.

Edwards captures the small details that resonate with young kids, such as giving the trike a name and placing her blankie in the trike basket. A winner of the National Jewish Book Award for her first picture book, Chicken Man, Edwards was inspired to create the spunky Gabi Greenberg from years of reading with her own daughters such children’s classics as Madeline, Babar and even Harry Potter, who all celebrated Christmas.

“Being Jewish, we didn’t,” she told JTA. “Our years of reading together made me want a spirited character like them,” Edwards wrote in an e-mail.

Kathryn Mitter’s illustrations are playful and appealing for young kids, who will enjoy Gabi’s friendly puppy appearing in almost every scene.

Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher Laurel Snyder, illustrations by David Goldin Tricycle Press, $15.99; ages 4-10 Here’s a fun-filled escapade that will delight readers of all ages with a lovable piglet who’d be welcome in any family.

On a Friday afternoon before sunset, a friendly Jewish man waiting at the bus stop describes to Baxter the wonders and magic of Shabbat, a day of rest with gleaming candles that “glow and dance while our sweetest voices lift in song!”

Poor Baxter: All week he yearns to be invited for a Shabbat dinner.

“You’re not kosher,” a man laughs.

In his quest to become kosher, the curious little pig con-

sumes jars of kosher pickles, loaves of challah and even tries to imitate a cow -- a kosher animal, he’s told. At last, Baxter meets a female rabbi who clears up the misunderstanding while assuring Baxter that it is a mitzvah to invite strangers to share a meal.

As the rabbi’s Shabbat guest, Baxter watches as she lights the candles before he finally raises his sweet voice in song.

The appealing story may hold special meaning to interfaith families, or anyone who has ever felt left out.

The illustrations are an entertaining and engaging combination of cartoon-like characters and collage. Jars of Bubba’s Kosher Pickles fill the store aisles, along with other traditional Jewish and Israeli foods.

An author’s note describes the custom of inviting guests for Shabbat dinner. A glossary includes helpful, somewhat offbeat, lighthearted descriptions of the book’s Jewish words and expressions.

Maccabee! The Story of Hanukkah Tilda Balsley; illustrated by David Harrington Kar Ben, $17.95 hardcover, $7.95 paperback; ages 4-8 Here is an animated rhyming version of the Hanukkah story of King Antiochus, the Maccabees and religious freedom. Young kids will enjoy the repeated refrain, “Sometimes it only takes a few, Who know what’s right, and do it, too.” KarBen continues its devotion to producing original, creative Jewish children’s books with a wide appeal.

The Kvetch Who Stole Hanukkah Bill Berlin and Susan Isakoff Berlin, illustrated by Peter J. Welling Pelican, $16.99; ages 4-8 In the town of Oyville, an old kvetch who lives on the hill is out to steal the menorahs to spoil the celebration of Hanukkah in this spirited, obvious Jewish twist on the beloved Dr. Seuss classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

But the town’s children upend his plans by persuading the Grinch of the true meaning of Hanukkah. The bright, bold, zany illustrations are playful.

Hanukkah Puzzles Based on the book Hanukkah Haiku by Karla Gudeon Blue Apple Books, $15.99; ages 4-8 A two-sided, 36-piece puzzle featuring two of the colorful, festive illustrations by Karla Gudeon from her book Hanukkah Haiku, a National Jewish Book Award finalist. A menorah is featured on one side, and the other is a family celebration of dancing around the menorah. The puzzle comes in its own carrying case box shaped like the star of David and can be paired with the book.

For older readers: Secrets at Camp Nokomis: A Rebecca Mystery (An American Girl Mystery Series) Jacqueline Dembar Greene $6.95 paperback; ages 9 and up Families of tween-age Jewish girls will welcome the latest addition in the American Girl Rebecca series.

This one is a mystery for older readers.

Rebecca Rubin is a fictional Jewish American girl, the daughter of immigrants, who lives in New York City in the early 1900s and is one of the 10 popular American Girl characters featured in books of historical fiction that accompany a doll. This mystery explores the earliest years of summer camps for girls, an idea that at the time was considered scandalous by some, according to award-winning series author Dembar Greene.

November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 23

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Latkes and loot: Is Hanukkah for grown-ups?

by SUZANNE KURTZ WASHINGTON (JTA) -- My catalogue-stuffed mailbox was the first reminder that Hanukkah, or rather the season of shopping, was fast approaching.

Years of Hebrew school had taught me, despite its proximity to Christmas, that Jews were not supposed to commemorate the miracle of a small jar of oil by collecting lots of loot.

Still my family photo albums are filled with pictures of my brother and me posing with our loot, smiling (or not, depending on the loot), near a plate of latkes as the chanukiyah glowed just off to the side. Those were happy days.

For centuries, Jews celebrated Hanukkah surrounded by an “atmosphere of play,” says Hasia Diner, professor of American Jewish history at New York University. The tradition of “giving gelt to children has an old and long pedigree,” she adds, and the transition “from giving coins to [giving toys]” is an example of an old tradition taking a new form.

To get some insight into contemporary Hanukkah giving traditions, I recently posted a query online to friends. Based on the responses, I sensed some things have not changed much: Be it gelt or toys, there will be lots of smiling Jewish children posing with their loot this holiday.

Yet I wondered, without the anticipation of gifts, would the festival of lights still be as festive for grown-ups? Does the atmosphere of play still surround the chanukiyah of those over the age of consent?

For Deborah Brooks of Falls Church, Va., the answer is yes.

When her parents, her two sisters, their three husbands and combined four children get together for a “Hanukkah Harry” gift swap, each person gets a present -- and something from a wish list they provided.

“We decided gift giving wasn’t just for the kids, and it is fun for the kids to give gifts to the parents, too,” says Brooks, 41.

For those who have given Hanukkah gifts to someone for decades, it might be difficult to come up with new ideas for that wish list.

Gifting a shared experience is a great way to celebrate Hanukkah, says relationship expert Andrea Syrtash.

“If you’ve been with the same person for years, give a gift that’s something new you can do with your partner,” Syrtash

suggests.

Harris Lewin, 60, says his “standard Hanukkah gift” to his wife of 38 years was a gift certificate to a spa. It was so well received that she reciprocated.

“Now I get one in return and we go together, as a couple,” says Lewin, an educator from Cheltenham, Pa. Not everyone, however, has the family nearby to swap wish list gifts or a willing partner with whom to experience a shared spa gift certificate.

Rabbi Joui Hessel of the Washington Hebrew Congregation says Hanukkah can be a great time to “join and form community as a way to honor and celebrate our traditions.”

Without a family unit under their roof, “for so many people, the holidays can be very hard,” Hessel says. “It underscores the importance of community, to feel connected to people as well as to the traditions and faith.”

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Alexis Rice says Hanukkah for her “is about the parties” and a chance to network with other young professionals.

Rice, 32, a communications director for a nonprofit in the Washington area, says she will “partake in a lot of latkes” and attend “at least three” Hanukkah parties and happy hours during the holiday.

“I would be less likely to light the candles if I just went home after work,” she says. “And I just love latkes!”

Hanukkah parties for grown-ups only aren’t just for the happy hour crowd, either.

Empty-nester Susan Stone, 61, a school librarian and storyteller in Evanston, Ill., says that before her two children -now in their 20s -- left home, Hanukkah was “always about the kids.” After her son and daughter grew up and moved out, lighting the menorah with only her husband wasn’t the same.

“Just the two us -- it wasn’t exactly festive,” she says.

Stone decided to host a big open house for friends and members of her synagogue. She made latkes, scattered gelt about the house and hung an old Happy Hanukkah sign.

Someone brought over a guitar and the 50 or so guests, all adults, lit multiple menorahs and said the blessings together in her living room.

“It was low key, but a chance to be at home with friends for the holiday,” says Stone, who is planning another party this year.

Rabbi David Komerofsky, executive director of the University of Texas Hillel, says that while he encourages adults to celebrate and still enjoy the visceral rituals of Hanukkah, he urges a grown-up understanding of the historic significance of the holiday as well.

It is believed that 2,200 years ago, Hanukkah actually was Sukkot celebrated a few months late, he says. After the Hasmonean revolt against King Antiochus and the Temple in Jerusalem was rededicated, the Sages were uncomfortable commemorating a military victory and the miracle of the oil was born.

“There’s no reason not to celebrate Jewish particularism at Hanukkah,” Komerofsky says. “It wasn’t the first time Jews fought against assimilation, and it won’t be the last. But we have survived over overwhelming odds.”

That is a much greater miracle than a small jar of oil lasting eight nights or any amount of loot on a wish list.

The armest anukkah reetings from s to ou.

W H G U Y

November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 25

An extremely opinionated discussion of Hanukkah music

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Editor of the Jewish Press We were knee-deep in the production of our Hanukkah issue, when our Creative Director Richard said: “But we don’t have anything about music!” Before I knew it, I had opened my mouth and words came out. “Not a problem,” I said, “I’ll take care of it.” One short phone call to Librarian Gary Katz later, I found myself with a stack of Hanukkah CDs, ready to be reviewed at home.

To be clear, nothing qualifies me to review music. There was that time my mother signed me up for music lessons, but neither of us likes to think about that.

I have no real musical experience. The following should therefore be taken for what it is: one person’s opinion, and nothing more.

Happy Hanukkah, My Friend, by Doug Konecky and Justin Wilde was, for some reason, the first one I put in the CD player. For all of three seconds, eliciting this response from my husband: “What was that?” If Lionel Richie and Kenny G would make a Hanukkah CD, this is what it would sound like. This type of elevator music just doesn’t scream “Maccabee” to me.

The Odd Potato, produced by Joshua A. Sherman and Eileen Bluestone-Sherman, is a delightful and award winning Broadway show. For those of you who don’t like Broadway musicals; fine, be that way. For the rest of us, it’s the perfect antidote to the winter blues. The voices are solid, the writing is good, the story is believable and easy to follow, and who doesn’t want to be reminded that you don’t need a fancy candelabra to feel the spirit of Hanukkah? There’s a lot of humor, and, of course, some tears. I dare you to make it all the way through One More Day without crying; I didn’t. Now, if

only someone could bring this to the JCC theater? Anyone?

Hanukkah Swings! by Kenny Ellis, does indeed swing. It not only had my kids dancing though the house within seconds, it con-

tains the best version of Sevivon, Sov, Sov, Sov ever (never thought I’d be typing those words).

Unfortunately, Ellis has to ruin it by including a song named Hanu-calypso. Now, I don’t want to make fun of Calypso too much, everything has its place. Besides, I grew up on Harry Belafonte (thanks, mom), and also put up with it in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. But seriously, Hanu-calypso? It’s just not good. So, if you like swing, by all means,

mily a f d n a e m o from h w that o r a n f t e u b b , y ) a t c m a “I tter of f a m a s a , l , all my e e n i l n o s (in Isra i p ica Sho a d u J k away!” c ’s i l l c E a h y l n Bet o ping is elmont p B o y h a s s d h a in k L k -Hanu norah Hmmmm... maeh? or mezuz

go check this album out at the Kripke Library, but skip track 8. You’ll be glad you did.

Hanukkah Rocks, by the LeeVees, is definitely the most pleasant one of the bunch. At least, if you normally like this type of music, and I do.

The lyrics are fun and of the “I know!”- variety. From Goyim Friends to How do you spell Channukkahh?

These guys cover themes we’ve all discussed during late night dinner parties.

And who doesn’t want to sing along to a song named

Kugel? The thing is, as much as I like this CD, it didn’t really put me in the Hanukkah mood very much. Which is to say, the sort of fun you have when you pull that Woody

Guthrie album from the box of holiday decorations once a year is sort of wasted on the LeeVees. You could listen to it in March, and it’d be just fine.

Festival of Light, compilated by Robert Duskis and Bob Appel would be perfect -if Hanukkah was a moody holiday. But although halfway through the first song you may want to have a good cry, that feeling is eventually replaced by a mellowing sensation. Therefore, I would stick with it. Eight days is a long time to be up, especially if you have young children: at some point we all long for a little peace and quiet. Festival of Light offers exactly that; great relaxing sleepy time music for when after the guests leave. I recommend against listening to it while driving.

Songs in the Key of Hanukkah, by Erran Baron Cohen, who is a founding member of "world fusion beat scientists" ZOHAR. And yes, he is also the brother of actor Sasha Baron Cohen, he of Borat and Bruno fame. In fact, Erran wrote the fake Kazakhstani anthem for the movie Borat, and was later asked by the Kazakhstani Philharmonic Orchestra to write an actual, serious piece of music.

His Hanukkah album is a fabulous mix of traditional, electronic, reggae, and hip-hop music, with songs in Yiddish, Hebrew and Ladino. This is a very nice collection, with the right amount of Hanukkah spirit; that clay-made dreidel has never sounded so hip and cool. And because Baron Cohen and his co-musicians use mostly traditional and wellknown songs as the basis, you get to sing along the first time. There is not one annoying number on the entire compilation, which in and of itself is a bit of a miracle. If the Jewish Press had a ratings system, which Continued on page 26

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I think it’s safe to assume that if we send our little Jewish kids to Sunday School, they learn, among other things, all about the holidays.

If may even be fair to think that Hanukkah might be among favorites of little kids, since everybody knows that’s when “you get presents:” Kids know about the Maccabean victory over the Syrians, and about the rededicaton of the Temple, and of course about the oil meant for one day which burned for eight days. Oh yes, I’ll bet most little kids would get an A in a history test about Hanukkah. And also, about the practice of giving and receiving gifts. That they know.

Ok, let’s say we agree so far. Would you also agree that even knowing all the history, the thing about the holiday that most pleases the kids is the gift part? Well duh, certainly! And that’s really what I’m here to talk about today - Hanukkah presents.

Starting with my own time as a child, that meant money, or actually, Hanukkah gelt.

My earliest memories were gifts of money, which may have been why one of the first yiddish words learned was gelt. Before I was very old however, that charming old custom had begun to change and I remember wrapped packages in place of the gelt. Sadly, I can’t ask either of my parents when that happened, but let’s say it was a sign of the times.

If my memory can be trusted, it must have been in the early 1930s that attention was called to the close proximity of Hanukkah and Christmas, and probably by retail merchants of the time. And why not? Dollars were scarce, the economy was pathetic and who wouldn’t work to encourage shopping and spending? I have no proof of my theory, but I trust you won’t insist on documentation. So, wouldn’t it have been reasonable to buy something the child needed anyway and present it as a gift, instead of needing to part with cash?

Ok, fine. By the time I was grown, married and had a family, the December holiday season was being enjoyed not just by people with decorated trees in their house, but by Jews with a Chanukiah and candles; and children expecting presents every night of the holiday.

Are you still with me? I guess I’m now talking about the 1950s and 60s, when my generation was busy producing those baby boomers. We were the ones who shopped and wrapped and gave our kids gifts. We gave them board games, Etch-a-Sketch,

dolls of both genders, catcher’s mitts and something that I think was called a Viewmaster. In other words, simple but age appropriate things they all wanted. And, again if memory serves, that was about the time toys began to appear which required batteries.

Those were considered the latest and most innovative...wow. Batteries. Ha. Fast forward to the shopping lists and toy store catalogues of today. The toys available and advertised for youngsters include video games, toys operated by remote control, DVDs, cd boomboxes, and oh yes, combinaton TV and DVDs. Don’t forget the mini computors with the capacity to send real email. Plus, the robots that really walked, the Star Wars electronic helmet and we’re not even mentioning all the hand held little electronic gadgets that kids are forever staring at. Yes, I know many of those are considered educational.. And maybe they are, but let me ask a question: Whatever happened to beanbags and jump ropes, and bikes to ride and chalk with which to draw a hop scotch grid on the sidewalk? Or a quickly organized baseball game? Or maybe just kids lolling around on swings and telling each other tall tales? Or how about the boys who were drawn to a basketball hoop on somebody’s garage, chasing each other around the driveway with a basketball?` My first instinct is to badmouth all that electronic stuff that seems designed to perfectly fit a small palm. I have to admit it’s true, many of them are educational, but like some professionals who keep an eye on kids, I wonder if kids aren’t spending too much time with this type of “toy?” And people who investigate a sudden rise in the number of folks (both adults and children) are questioning if the hours spent with such stuff is excessive and causing eyestrain as well as headache and neck ache? Hmmm. Make you wonder? The bottom line on that one is “get the kids outdoors where they can play and run and get proper exercise.”

So this started out to be a comparison of Hanukkah toys from way back when to present times. Maybe it doesn’t matter if you think the electronic playthings are perfectly ok. If you don’t mind turning your children into tater tots (mini couch potatoes), well ok. They’re your kids. Personally, I think it’s a matter of too many and too much. but I’m no longer in the child raising business so maybe I should butt out.

I really would like to see more kids outdoors, running and yelling and playing, instead of in the house, looking for Mario or whoever.

If you’re raising children, it’s your call. I’m just a bystander.

Oh yes. Have a happy Hanukkah.

Bert Lewis can be reached at Bert Lewis39@aol.com.

An extremely opinionated discussion of Hanukkah music Continued from page 25 we don’t, I’d give this one five dreidels.

Candles Long Ago, by Lois and Bram Sharon had me apologizing to my sixyear-old son. I just think Yiddish songs need to be sung in Yiddish. Simply adding a “doy-doy” to the chorus doesn’t cut it.

Have you ever seen that annual PBS special, you know, the one with the puppets?

You know it’s dated, but since there are so few Hanukkah themed shows on television, you end up watching it anyway. This would make an excellent accompaniment to that. Still, if you want traditional, but translated to English, with a children’s choir thrown in, this is it. And, I admit, getting the whole family to sing along to

Oy Chanukah is still a highlight of the holiday, so it’s not all bad. And, once the decorations are up, you have a Sufganyotinspired bellyache, and the house smells like latkes, this c.d. will probably be a lot more (campy) fun. Although I still question why they had to have someone on the cd case dressed in a fluffy elephant suit.

All in all, after a weekend full of Hanukkah music in all shapes and colors, I am totally ready for latkes. Isn’t it funny, how music can put you in the mood like that? I hope, with the above suggestions, we gave you some ideas; if not, there’s a very nice Librarian at the JCC who will be more than happy to help you out. We wish you all a happy and melodious Hanukkah.

November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 27

Public displays of chanukiyot

by ISCAH WALDMAN NEW YORK (MyJewishLearning) -- Not every commandment is given a rabbinical justification as clear as that of the mitzvah (commandment) of lighting the Hanukkah lights (whether they are candles or oil, which are both acceptable). The rabbis explain that we light them in order to publicize the miracle of the holiday (pirsumei nisa in Aramaic, the language of the Talmud).

This symbolic act shifted during the time of the rabbis from the lighting of a solitary candle each night of the holiday to kindling an increasing number of candles throughout the eight nights of Hanukkah, according to the custom of the House of Hillel. These lights were to be placed outside, in a public space, during the most heavily trafficked time of the evening.

Today, the variety of practices range from carefully measured oil lamps to electric menorahs in department store windows to the lighting of 30-foot Hanukkah menorahs in public squares in cities all over the world.

The requirement to kindle lights on Hanukkah could easily be fulfilled with the lighting of a single light. This solitary light was all that was needed to symbolize the miracle of this late holiday -- be it the divine intervention of the story of the oil or the Maccabean victory. At an early stage, the rabbis delineated a mehadrin (better or more meticulous) way to perform the mitzvah, namely to allow for one candle per family member each day.

The mehadrin min hamehadrin (the most meticulous) method would be to do precisely what has since become the common practice -- to begin with one candle and add a candle for each subsequent night of the holiday. Along with the development of how many lights would suffice to properly publicize the miracle, questions arose surrounding the actual placement of the Hanukkah lights: How can the lights be placed in a way that maximizes their exposure to the public?

Maximum exposure Not unlike the idea behind TV networksâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; prime time, the rabbis were careful to determine the proper time for lighting the chanukiyah (Hanukkah lamp, also known as a menorah) as the one during which the largest amount of traffic would be able to view the miracle renewed in every house. During the 30 minutes or so that followed sunset, people made their way back home from the market or workplace, and this would be the optimum time to have passers-by walk through what must have seemed like an endless number of kindled lights. The lights were to be lit outside in the courtyard, or if one lived on another floor, in a window so that people could see it.

Today it has become common for people to place their Hanukkah lights in the window for the neighbors to see.

One can even find some houses in Israel that have a special niche facing the front in order to allow people to place their lit chanukiyot in a glass-enclosed display cases of their very own.

Dangerous publicity In a world that was not always tolerant of varying religious practices, the rabbis permitted the lighting of the Hanukkah lights inside on a table if one felt that one was in a â&#x20AC;&#x153;sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;at hadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;khakâ&#x20AC;? (a time of danger). This teaches us that while publicizing the miracle is the central reason of the holiday, publicizing the miracle to oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family is the essence, and further steps need not be taken if one perceives dangerous consequences.

Interestingly, even in the United States, where religious freedom is touted as one of the proudest achievements, the concept of sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;at ha-dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;khak has been tested, though not in the traditional manner of taking Hanukkah displays inside during times of danger.

One modern example: In Billings, Mont., in 1993, a small boy placed a Hanukkah decoration in his bedroom window, only to have it destroyed when a rock shattered the window.

In reaction to what was likely vandalism by members of an Aryan group, a campaign was started to have both Jews and non-Jews -- the clear majority in Billings -- decorate their windows with a chanukiyah or with a picture of one. Ten thousand people joined in this campaign, and while several windows were still smashed, the town became an inspiration to many who appreciated its courage in the face of religious hatred and intolerance.

It is the Chabad-Lubavitch sect of Chasidic Judaism that has propagated the public display of chanukiyot in cities throughout the United States, Canada and Europe -- even to Moscow in 1991. Chabadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s large, angular chanukiyot can be seen in public places across the world. Such displays have made headlines in some cases because of controversies they have generated concerning the separation of church and state.

Litigating chanukiyah displays In 1989, the issue reached the U.S. Supreme Court in Allegheny County vs. Greater Pittsburgh ACLU. The court was to decide whether the county violated the First

Amendmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clause establishing that the government may not endorse or prohibit the free exercise of any religion. At issue was the displaying of a creche, a Christian nativity

scene, and a chanukiyah on public property. The court ruled against the creche but allowed the displaying of a chanukiyah along with a Christmas tree, since the court perceived these to be secular symbols of religious holidays and therefore not an endorsement of any particular religious belief.

While the issue still causes its fair share of controversy (including issues particular to public schools), it has become a familiar sight to see even 30-foot chanukiyot lit in places such as Central Park in New York City. In fact, even President George W. Bush made a point of lighting a chanukiyah at the White House in 2001 using a menorah that made its way from Lvov, Poland, after the Holocaust.

One can scarcely find a Jewish home today without at least one chanukiyah, and candles can be found in places as mundane as the local pharmacy. Local and national politicians, businesses from banks to bakeries, and even television stations are displaying chanukiyot for publicity, solidarity and sometimes as a response to overzealous Christmas displays.

All of this public attention has not caused the family candlelighting to disappear. On the contrary, more and more families are finding this simple ritual a meaningful time for their families to gather. The miracle of Hanukkah will continue to be publicized in the homes of Jews throughout the world, even as it is granted ever-increasing exposure in the public eye.

Rabbi Iscah Waldman is the director of education and family programming at Ansche Chesed in New York City.

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28 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

A twist on Hanukkah giving

by DASEE BERKOWITZ NEW YORK (JTA) -- When I walked into our local Kmart the night after Labor Day, Christmas music already beckoned shoppers to do what they do best during the great white winter holiday: consume. Traditional Christians probably decry the way in which the focus of their “High Holiday” has shifted away from their Messiah toward consumerism. Jewish folks decry this as well (and certainly this Jewish folk does) because it pressures us to celebrate our less significant winter holiday, Hanukkah, in a similar way.

The irony couldn’t be more striking.

Hanukkah is the holiday that celebrates Jewish distinctiveness over assimilation. The Maccabees -- zealots to some, freedom fighters to others -fought to preserve a sense of Jewish distinctiveness in the face of the Assyrian Greeks and other Jews who were attracted to their ways.

So in order to really celebrate Hanukkah this year let’s ask ourselves, what makes us Jews distinct? How can we celebrate our distinctiveness in ways that strengthen our own identities and the Jewish identity of our families? How can we bring the best of what Judaism has to offer to our communities and to the larger society?

The concept of tzedakah is one of Judaism’s great contributions to the world -- Ethical Monotheism, the Ten Commandments and the concept of Shabbat rank way up there, too. Jewish tradition posits giving tzedakah as an obligation (according to Maimonides, 20 percent of your income is average, with 10 percent as the minimum) and holds that this obligation rests on everybody, not just the well-off (the Shulchan Arukh states that “even one who is supported by tzedakah is required to give from what he has been given”). This offers a paradigm for a just and supportive society that holds rampant consumerism in check.

So I propose that this Hanukkah, instead of pouring our creative energies into giving material gifts, we use that creativity to dedicate each night and each candle to a different aspect of giving.

Candle 1: Have an intimate dinner with family and friends.

Learn about the issues of most concern to them, then set aside the money you would spend on a material gift to make

a contribution to that organization or cause in their honor.

Candle 2: Make a site visit. Follow up on the first night’s activity and, if the cause is a local one, arrange to go on a site visit together to learn more about the organization’s work and how you can get involved. This activity is especially good for parents with young children.

Candle 3: Be on the lookout for charity events in your area. Plan ahead and bring a buddy to attend the event, and dedicate yourself to expanding your horizons on issues in the world in need of addressing.

Candle 4: Think about someone in your life in immediate need. It might be someone who just had a baby and could use a home-cooked meal. It might be someone in the hospital who could use a visit. Bring them Hanukkah-themed treats such as cookies in the shape of dreidels or homemade Hanukkah cards.

Candle 5: Get your charitable giving in order. If eight nights of eating latkes and jelly donuts becomes too much for you, take the night off and plan ahead for the coming fiscal year. What are the issue areas that you want to commit yourself to this year? How much time or money do you want to give? Make a plan.

Candle 6: Give more than your money and time -- give of your values. Think about a value that is important to you that you haven’t had time to develop (does the refrain “too busy” ring a bell?) and do an activity that reflects that value with a spouse, child or friend. If it is caring for the environment, find a lecture, watch a movie or canvass for an environmental organization for the day. If the value is eating nutritious food, take a trip to your local grocer to buy nutritious food and cook it together with a friend.

Candle 7: Think about someone else in your life who is too busy to think about holiday presents. Give them a break.

For a busy parent, this could mean providing child care; for a busy professional, it could be giving your time as a coach.

Candle 8: Have a Hanukkah party and ask each of your guests to bring a gift that you can pass onto a local charity -- a nonperishable food, a children’s toy, books or clothing.

Dasee Berkowitz is a Jewish life-cycle consultant in New York. For more information go to www.jlifeconsulting .com/site/.

First female rabbi ordained in Germany since 1935

by JTA NEWS STAFF BERLIN (JTA) -- Germany’s Reform rabbinical seminary ordained three new rabbis, including the first woman to become a rabbi in Germany since before the Holocaust.

Thursday’s ceremonies at Berlin’s Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue marked the third ordination of graduates of the Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam since the institution opened in 1999.

Standing on the ornate bima and wearing a yarmulka, German President Christian Wulff congratulated the new rabbis. Wulff told the packed synagogue that he was pleased “to witness this moving ceremony” and to “celebrate 200 years of liberal Judaism,” as well as the regrowth of Jewish life of all denominations in Germany. Christian and Muslim clerics were among the guests at the ceremony.

The ordinations reflect the new makeup of Germany’s Jewish community, which has grown to about 220,000 in the last 20 years, in large part due to the influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union.

Rabbi Alina Treiger, born in Ukraine, is the first woman ordained in Germany since Regina Jonas, who was ordained in 1935 and was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. Treiger is set to serve in the Jewish community of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst.

Rabbi Konstantin Pal, born in Moscow, will work for the Jewish community in Erfurt, in the former East German state of Thuringia. He will be the first communal rabbi of Thuringia since World War II. Rabbi Boris Ronis, also from Ukraine, will begin work in December as an assistant rabbi under Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin of the Jewish community of Berlin.

Germany is considered the birthplace of Reform Judaism, which was launched in the early 19th century by Jewish merchant Israel Jacobson. He opened the first synagogue in Germany where services were conducted in German and accompanied by organ and choir.

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Standing room only

by ILANA WEISS A few years ago, around this time, while my husband, Yaakov, and I were living in Israel, we decided to host a Hanukkah party for all of the families who lived in our apartment complex. The apartment that we were living in was a bit smaller than most people’s living quarters. Our living room/dining room/kitchen/computer room/coat closet was about the same size as our current dining room. We knew that cramming so many people into our home (there were about 30 families living in our complex) would be kind of tight, but we figured that if we fed people enough, nobody would care about the space.

We went all out for this party. We made hundreds of cookies shaped as Jewish Stars with sprinkles, and we hand-dipped bags worth of pretzels into melted chocolate. We experimented with some new bread recipes, and we put up a cholent – a traditional Jewish stew – to provide some warmth for the cold, winter night. Of course, no Hanukkah party would be complete without plenty of latkes and donuts, known in Israel as “sufganiyot.” While we could prepare the other food items in advance for the party, Yaakov and I decided that fresh latkes (two types, regular and sweet potato) and sufganiyot (two types, jelly and caramel) are always better than ones that are made ahead of time and reheated. So, our plan was to make these items on the night of the party itself. Our party was scheduled for 8:15 on a Saturday night; Since the Shabbat ended sometime around 6:00, we couldn’t do any preparations before that hour. We thought that it would be plenty of time to put together all that we needed to do. A few minutes after Shabbat concluded, we got to work. All that we had to cook with in our apartment was one electric burner and a large toaster oven, so we needed to enlist some of our neighbors to lend us extra burners. Before we knew it, burners and pans were strewn across our entire apartment, along with grated potatoes and donut fillings, and the scent of oil filled the room. We were cooking and cooking away, and then when not even half of our potato batter was transformed into latkes, and only about two-thirds of the dough for the sufganiyot had been fried, the clock struck 8 o’clock. In just fifteen minutes, our neighbors would start to come.

Our “party room” (in other words, the room where everything else was) was not yet set up since we had to use all of the table space for burners. I quickly started to dismantle the electric burners, and shoved the unused batter into the fridge while Yaakov started to pump fillings into the sufgayinot as quickly as possible. We moved the tables into partyposition and covered them with a plastic tablecloth. We arranged some chairs around the room, and put out all of the platters that we had prepared before. At 8:10 p.m., as I began to make plates full of sufganiyot, there was a knock at the door. Our first set of guests arrived.

“Since when does Jewish time mean early?” I thought to myself. Somehow, everything started to come together. While our guests were amazed that we had cooked so many things that very night, we managed to fool them that it was a breeze to do.

“How did you get everything done so quickly tonight? Your place looks and smells amazing!”

I simply answered, “We had two hours.

That’s plenty of time!”

One by one, more of our neighbors started to come in. The ones who had originally decided to do other things that night quickly opted to cancel their plans, when they

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Credit: Otawafood.wordpress.com heard the music and fun that was coming out of our apartment. As more people came in, we fetched more chairs. It was more crowded than we had anticipated, with every inch of the apartment being filled by a person. I started to get concerned that either people would get uncomfortable and leave, or our floor would soon fall through to our downstairs neighbor’s apartment. But, the floor didn’t fall through, and all it took for people to stay was another round of sufganiyot, and a few more latkes to be passed out.

Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Jewish people living during the time of the Second Holy Temple in Jerusalem about 2,000 years ago, who stood up to the persecution by the Syrian Greeks. The word Hanukkah stems from the Hebrew word meaning to dedicate; this time in history is when the Jewish people were enabled to rededicate the Holy Temple and appreciate the specialness of that site which was almost lost.

One of the famous miracles recorded about the Holy Temple, was that even when people were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, when it was time for everybody to bow down at once, there was enough room to accommodate the space that each person needed. In Jewish thought, a person’s home is considered to be a miniature Holy Temple. I like to think, that the reason that everybody was able to feel comfortable in our apartment on that Hanukkah night a few years ago, was not just because of the food, but because of the element within our home that was reminiscent of the Holy Temple. Now that we are in our home in Omaha, we have much more space and a greater level of convenience. But we still think of that Hanukkah night in Israel and hope that our home continues to maintain the character and holiness of our tiny apartment in Jerusalem.

Festival of Lights

Wishing everyone a Happy Hanukkah.

Christian Zionists assist case against Tenn. mosque

by RON KAMPEAS Plaintiffs in an effort to keep a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn. are funded in part by “Proclaiming Justice to the Nations,” a Christian Zionist group.

Three plaintiffs have filed suit, in Rutherford County, saying that hearings leading to the approval of an expansion for the Islamic center in the central Tennessee town were not sufficiently open to dissenting opinions.

Talking Points Memo, a liberal investigative reporting site, this week reported that PJTN is paying for one of two lawyers in this case.

The Tennessee-based group has led opposition to the planned expansion of the community center, which has existed in the town for 30 years without incident.

According to the group's website, it lobbies, organizes rallies and distributes literature on behalf of Israel.

Senator Mike Johanns Paid for by Mike Johanns for Senate, 5555 South Street, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68506

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Schmaltzy history: A nostalgic look at fats for frying latkes

by LINDA MOREL NEW YORK (JTA) -- Fat may be a dirty word now, but we can chart the history of American Jews through the fats they’ve used to fry their Hanukkah latkes. Early immigrants relied on goose fat, which was replaced by chicken fat, which was eclipsed

by Crisco, which was replaced by olive and canola oils.

Latkes over time have been fried in all of these, says Jane Ziegelman, author of 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement. 97 Orchard St., a five-story brick structure, is the home of the New York Tenement Museum.

The book is a pushcart of information about what immigrants ate during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Two of the families Ziegelman profiled were Jewish.

From 1900 to 1910, more than 1 million Jews immigrated to the United States, mostly from modern-day Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Belarus. Many of them settled in the tenements on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, crowding into unventilated apartments that lacked adequate kitchens and running water.

Ashkenazi homemakers there often obtained cooking oil by rendering or frying goose skin, which liquefied globules, large and small. This created a yellow oil called schmaltz, a succulent delicacy that was strained to separate the crispy and delicious skin from the fragrant fat.

“In the Lower East Side tenement kitchen, the luxuriousness of goose fat elevated the most prosaic ingredients,” Ziegelman says in the book. “Potatoes, onions and fat -- the Jewish cook explored every conceivable permutation of these three ingredients. The more fat, the fancier the dish. The most extravagant of all was latkes, potato pancakes, fried in sizzling pools of goose fat.”

The Jewish cook also used goose fat for braising, enriching, moistening, seasoning and baking. She sometimes mixed it into pie crust and rugelach dough, making it possible to serve the pastries with meat meals.

She fried onions in this fat and spread the dripping slices on rye bread.

Warming, satiny and with a faintly nutty aftertaste, goose fat imbued foods with a pleasing heaviness that’s now considered a liability to dieters and the cholesterol conscious. But for our poor and caloriedeprived ancestors, goose fat was a virtue, enhancing kugels, cholent and tzimmes.

“Fat was considered a luxury to be cherished,” Ziegelman said. “It was believed to be nutritious. Frying was a demonstration of wealth and bounty.”

The height of decadence was frying latkes in goose fat, a cooking method that traveled here with Ashkenazim from the Old Country.

The 19th century Jewish homemaker brought her reliance on geese and its byproducts to the Lower East Side, where she continued her traditional role as a poultry farmer. She raised geese in tenement yards, basements, hallways and apartments, transplanting a rural industry to the heart of urban America -- much to the chagrin of sanitary inspectors.

“At Hanukkah, goose was the centerpiece,” Ziegelman said, explaining that goose farms

were at their busiest at that time of the year.

Restaurants put up signs: Goose liver is here. This was a once-a-year gourmet treat on menus, something cherished by Ashkenazim.

But in the 20th century, as modern methods of chicken breeding improved, goose fat lost its place of prominence on the Jewish table. The smaller, more economical chicken, and its rendered fat, took the place of goose fat as the lard of choice among Jews.

Rendered chicken fat has the most incredibly delicious smell, unlike any other cooking aroma, Ziegelman said. Speaking with

those over 60, she adds, they rave about the memory of the sizzling fat filling their childhood kitchens.

Latkes fried in rendered chicken fat made the Jews swoon, too. But poultry fat was diminished by the invention of scientifically engineered cooking fats derived from vegetables. The new hydrogenated fats had many brand names, such as Spry or Flake White.

But the most famous one was Crisco, a product introduced by Procter and Gamble in 1911. This non-Jewish company soon recognized the value of Crisco to kosher cooks. A pareve product, Crisco could be incorporated into both dairy and meat recipes. Many Jewish women began frying latkes in Crisco.

In 1933, Procter and Gamble published Crisco Recipes for the Jewish Housewife, a promotional cookbook available in English and Yiddish.

“It represented the demise of poultry fat as a Jewish staple, bringing to a close a millennium of culinary tradition,” Ziegelman said.

Today’s makers of latkes often rely on olive oil, canola oil, corn oil, peanut oil or other healthier fats. The thought of rendering poultry fat is not appealing to many home cooks.

Ziegelman, however, raves about the flavor of chicken fat, claiming everyone should try it at least once before passing judgment.

She is planning to start baking with this lush golden fat.

“Chicken fat isn’t one of the evil fats -- not like beef fat or butter,” she said, explaining that it has about half the saturated fat as butter.

Registered dietitian Lisa Ellis agrees that chicken fat contains nearly half the amount of saturated fat when compared to butter.

Surprisingly, chicken fat is also higher in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats -- the healthier fats.

“While chicken fat is a better choice than butter, it still is an artery-clogging fat,” said Ellis, who in her kosher home cooks primarily with olive and canola oils.

Ziegelman would agree that chicken fat is not in the same class as olive oil.

“But on a sliding scale, it’s on the good side,” she said. “This is the moment to bring back schmaltz.”

Continued on page 32

November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 31

Hanukkah Art Contest

Congratulations winners Who knew there was this much talent in our community?

We have Chanukiahs and stars and dreidels and latkes, and so on and so forth...as well as plenty of glitter in the carpet. Friedelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entire second grade class came to visit us, as did many others.

All of us at the Jewish Press would like to thank everybody who participted. The names of the winners have been selected; they are: Aviva Chana Shyken, 5, Emily Kazor, 11, and David Kay, 7. They have won a year-long family membership to the Omaha Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Museum.

They can pick up their prize at the Jewish Press office, starting Monday Nov. 22. Congratulations, to all of you!

Honorable mention goes to Paige Katz, who at three years old was our youngest contestant. Other artists who participated were Noemi Gilbert, five, Matan Shapiro, Shmuel Aaron Shyken, Leah Gurock and Joseph Katz, who are all six years old. In the seven-year-old category, we had Rachel Kricsfeld, Daniel Stein, Daniel Denenberg, Rebecca Denenberg, Lev Denenberg, Leora McNamara, Zev Gordman, Micah Gilbert, Dina Saltzman, Rosie Friedland, and Hannah Dysico.

Laura Kirshenbaum, Elizabeth Kazor and Abby Kohll are eight, Raelyn Cherry is nine, Catherine Cox and Samantha Matz are 10, and, Josh Pollack is 11.

We want to thank you all for showing us your work. Art work can be picked up during the workday, or you can call Annette at 334.6450 if you want to make different arrangements.

Share your

light

with the Jewish community and the world

32 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

Schmaltzy history: A nostalgic look at fats for frying latkes Continued from page 30 CHICKEN SCHMALTZ (MEAT) Recipe developed by Linda Morel Ingredients: 5- to 6-pound chicken (For a larger yield, ask your butcher for additional chicken skin and fat, which he is likely to have on hand, as many people now purchase skinless chicken.)

Yield: 1 cup of chicken skin and fat (from a 5- to 6-pound chicken), reduces to about 1/2 cup of schmaltz.

Preparation: Cut off the chicken’s wings and reserve.

Slide a sharp knife under the skin on the breast and lift it. With your fingers, pull the skin from the meat. Tear off as much skin as possible in sheets. Place skin on a cutting board. Using the knife, cut away any remaining skin from crevices. Cut off clumps of yellow fat that stick to the meat and place it on the cutting board. (Use the skinned chicken and wings for other purposes, such as chicken soup.)

Cut sheets of skin and fat into 2-inch squares.

Place skin and fat in large deep pot, preferably non-stick. Heat on a medium-low flame, stirring often. Oil will begin oozing from the skin almost immediately. Reduce flame to low and fry for about an hour, until the fat globules melt entirely and there’s nothing left of the skin except cracklings (called gribenes), which are incredibly delicious. Cool chicken fat to room temperature.

Set a fine sieve over a bowl. Pour schmaltz

through the sieve. Use immediately or refrigerate for up to 2 days.

LATKES THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY (MEAT OR PAREVE) Recipe developed by Linda Morel Equipment: A box grater Ingredients: 1 small onion 6 large baking potatoes 1 egg, beaten 2 tablespoons flour, more if needed Kosher salt to taste 6 tablespoons schmaltz or olive oil (more if needed) Preparation: Finely chop onion and place in a large bowl.

Scrape skin from potatoes and rinse them under cold water. Pat dry on paper towels.

Over a platter, grate potatoes on the coarse side (not the slicing side) of the box grater. To avoid cutting fingers or ruining your mani-

cure, grate only one-half to two-thirds of each potato. Save the remainders for other purposes, such as soup or potato salad.

Place the grated potato in the bowl with the onion. Add the egg and mix contents together with a fork. Sprinkle in flour and mix again. Add a little more flour, if the batter is way too wet to stick together. (However, it will be a moist batter.)

Heat the schmaltz or olive oil in a large skillet on a medium flame.

With your hands, form potato batter into pancakes 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Using your palms, flatten the pancakes and squeeze out any excess water that may have drained from the potatoes.

Place latkes in oil and fry until the bottom side browns. Flatten latkes with a spatula as they sizzle.

Flip latkes and fry until the second side browns. Add more oil, if needed. Turn a couple more times, until the center is cooked through and the outside becomes dark brown and crunchy. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

Yield: About 16 latkes FRIED ONION ON RYE BREAD (MEAT) Recipe from “97 Orchard Street: An Edible History Of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement,”

by Jane Ziegelman Ingredients: 1 yellow onion 4 tablespoons goose or chicken fat 2 slices of rye bread Crushed black pepper, optional 1 hard-boiled egg, optional Preparation: Lightly saute 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced, in 4 tablespoons goose or chicken fat. Spread cooked onion on good rye bread. Season generously with crushed black pepper. For a more

substantial snack, top with sliced hard-boiled egg.

Yield: 2 servings FRIED CHICKEN LIVERS (MEAT) Recipe adapted from “97 Orchard Street” Ingredients: 1 pound chicken livers 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs 4 tablespoons schmaltz or vegetable oil (more if needed) Preparation: Rinse livers under cold water. Place on paper towels to drain. Cut off fat globules and discard. Slice large livers in half. Place bread crumbs on a plate a little at a time, as needed. Roll livers in bread crumbs.

Heat schmaltz or oil in a large skillet on a medium-low flame. Fry livers in oil until the bottom side turns golden brown. Should oil splatter, reduce flame.

Turn livers and fry the second side until livers turn golden brown. Do not overcook or livers dry out. Serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings as an hors d’oeuvres.

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As Feingold exits, Senate loses a principled liberal

by RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The speech that Russ Feingold gave to end his career in the U.S. Senate was much like his career itself: by turns crystal clear, obscure, ornery, defiant and gracious -- and quoting a fellow Great Plains Jew to boot.

“But my heart is not weary, it’s light and it’s free, I’ve got nothing but affection for all those who’ve sailed with me,” the three-term U.S. senator from Wisconsin said Nov. 2, quoting Bob Dylan while conceding to Republican Ron Johnson, a Tea Party-backed plastics billionaire who beat him by a 52-47 percent split at the polls.

Senator Russ Feingold Then, “It’s on to the next fight. It’s on to the next battle. It’s on to 2012!”

Feingold’s spokesmen later denied that the senator was hinting at a Democratic presidential bid exploration like the one he had pursued in 2006-07. What he did mean they wouldn’t say.

It was typical of the fiercely independent streak that put Feingold into office and may well have pushed him out.

Ira Forman, the former director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said Feingold’s refusal to accept outside campaign money may have helped elect him in the past but likely was his downfall in this election.

“He wouldn’t accept DSCC ads,” Forman said, referring to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, typical of the bodies that run negative ads against opponents. “He often ran against people who were the beneficiary of that kind of advertising. He hoped people would stand up for his integrity, as they had in the past.”

Forman’s voice tinged with regret.

“He’s an independent voice, a loss to Democrats and the Jewish community,” he said of Feingold.

In fact, Feingold’s Jewish identity, while strong, rarely manifested itself in leadership roles on Israel, Holocaust commemoration or the other areas that many Jewish lawmakers have made their own.

“As a Jewish candidate from a state with a small Jewish population, I don’t feel I faced any issues as a Jew,” Feingold said. “In fact, it may sound naive, but I think some voters regarded my being Jewish as interesting. I’ve only had a good experience.”

The Feingold family was socially involved, erudite and reserved -- characteristics that continue to define Russ Feingold. His staff is fiercely loyal to him, although he keeps them at a distance.

Feingold’s lawyer father, Leon, was the first Jewish president of the local Rotary Club, who mingled with farmer clients at 4-H events. (Leon’s father, Max, a refugee from Russia, established the family to the town and immigrated to Israel in 1950.)

Feingold has said that his Jewish legacy is manifest in his political career. “I understood my religion as the pursuit of justice,” he told Horwitt.

That’s pretty much the extent of his public leadership on Jewish issues, although he routinely joins initiatives launched by other Jewish Congress members, recently expressing concerns to the Turkish government over its distancing from Israel and in 2008 joining a raft of Jewish senators pushing back against rumors that President Obama is a Muslim. He attends services on the High Holidays, and his

sister, Dena, is a rabbi in Kenosha, south of Milwaukee.

Still, a national Jewish community that has a soft spot for independent liberals embraced Feingold. He drew Jewish support in his successful 1992 senatorial bid to oust the Republican incumbent, Bob Kasten, even though Kasten had a strong pro-Israel record.

“He is somebody who’s remarkably dedicated to civil liberties and to the Constitution, and has the courage of his convictions,” said Sammie Moshenberg, the Washington director of the National Council for Jewish Women. “He took a lot of gutsy stands,” she said, citing Feingold’s lone dissent in 2001 when the Senate approved the U.S. Patriot Act. That vote drew derision at a time of heightened concerns over terrorism, but eventually made him a hero of the Democratic base.

Feingold was among a handful of lawmakers in the recent election who drew the endorsement of both J Street, the “pro-peace, pro-Israel” group, and donors associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Officials in both groups lamented his departure.

“Sen. Feingold is a strong supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship and, throughout his time in office, he has shown a deep commitment to issues important to the pro-Israel community,” an AIPAC statement said. “As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was at the forefront of the debate and played an important role in deepening the bonds between America and our ally, Israel.”

Feingold’s independence was his biggest draw. With. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), he crafted a law severely limiting corporate donations to campaigns. Unlike McCain, who won re-election last week, Feingold abided by the rules of his law even after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it.

“This was a public servant who visibly, proudly and courageously stood on principle,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, who directs the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, which backs election reform.

It was an independence borne of his upbringing and the turbulent 1960s in which he came of age. Feingold’s home, harmonious in its support of liberal causes until the ‘60s, was riven by a split between Feingold’s two father figures: His father supported the war in Vietnam, and his brother David, older by five years, opposed it.

Feingold emerged from the era determined to do what best hewed to his philosophical principles, and in the process he occasionally frustrated his party. In 1998 he famously was the only Democrat to vote to consider the U.S. House of Representatives’ impeachment of President Clinton -- not because he believed Clinton was guilty, but because he believed in the constitutional process of impeachment.

Three years later he voted to confirm former Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) as attorney general, even though they were polar opposites on critical civil liberties questions.

Feingold’s reason: his abiding belief that a president, in this case George W. Bush, had the right to pick his Cabinet. He later also supported Bush’s nominee for Supreme Court chief justice, John Roberts.

His explanation of his Ashcroft vote in 2001, to skeptical Feingoldians at The Progressive, a liberal journal, presaged the vituperative climate that brought about his downfall.

“I believe we have to hold the line and not use ideology alone in making decisions about Cabinet appointments,” Feingold said. “I fear if we keep going, more and more areas of our government are going to fall into the Great Divide and be engulfed in a culture war.”

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34 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

Refaeli, DiCaprio return to Israel

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by JTA NEWS STAFF though Refaeli’s parents live in nearby Hod JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli supermodel Hasharon. They plan to visit the Western Bar Refaeli and her Wall, nightclubs, the Dead boyfriend, popular AmerSea and other tourist destiican actor Leonardo nations, according to DiCaprio, arrived in Israel reports.

During a visit 3 1/2 years for a vacation under heavy security. ago, the couple were constantly mobbed with papaThe couple, who arrived razzi, culminating in a Sunday, were accompabrawl between DiCaprio’s nied by DiCaprio’s mother, bodyguards and photograIrmelin, and actor Kevin phers during a visit to the Connolly of “Entourage.”

Western Wall. DiCaprio They arrived in Israel after left the country early and visiting Jordan and Egypt Leonardo DiCaprio and Bar insisted he would never as part of celebrations for Refaeli visit Israel again.

DiCaprio’s 36th birthday, Credit: US Weekly DiCaprio’s mother and according to reports.

The group is staying at a Tel Aviv hotel, Connolly have never visited Israel before.

Canadian reality show producer sorry for slur

by JTA NEWS STAFF TORONTO (JTA) -- The makers of a new Canadian reality TV show have apologized for an online trailer in which one of the program’s characters says she hates Jews.

“Lake Shore,” a To r o n t o - b a s e d program modeled on MTV’s hugely successful “Jersey Sibel Atlug Shore,” has not Credit: Toronto started filming yet Life/lake_shore_ca but already was at the center of controversy last week when a trailer on YouTube showed one of the main characters saying, “I’m not racist because I hate everybody equally, especially Jewish people.”

Maryam Rahimi, executive producer of Lake Shore, told media last week that “we are not a racist show. If we offended anyone in any way, we apologize.”

In interviews last week Sibel Atlug, 23, who

made the remark about Jews, said “I don’t hate Jewish people. I actually say I hate everybody equally. I was just poking fun at it.”

Rahimi told the CanWest media network that “our intention is to make provocative television,” but she stressed that the show will be about “exposing stereotypes in order to break them down and build relationships rather than destroy them.”

“Lake Shore,” which still has to be picked up by a network, will chronicle the lives of eight 20-something Torontonians as they live under the same roof, drink, party and sleep with each other.

But unlike “Jersey Shore,” each character on “Lake Shore” will be from a different ethnic background. Two former cast hopefuls have come forward to say they felt pressured to make racist comments during their auditions.

Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber told CanWest the show “appears to be a [deliberate], provocative attempt by the producers to turn races and creeds and faiths against each other simply for ratings, simply to get a TV spot. That to me is absolutely disgusting.”

Rep. West withdraws job offer to Jewish host

by JTA NEWS STAFF WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Newly elected Florida Rep. Allen West withdrew a job offer to a Jewish talk show host who called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “garbage” and said Jewish Democrats “don’t embrace being Jewish.”

West, who in the Nov. 2 elections ousted incumbent Ron Klein, a Democrat, from his Broward and Palm Beach counties area district, issued a statement Thursday expressing his “deep regret” that Joyce Kaufman would not work for him as his chief of staff.

“Joyce is a good friend, and will remain loyal to South Floridians and to me,” West said. “I will always seek Joyce’s counsel for being a good Representative of this

Congressional District.”

Kaufman’s appointment drew controversy because of comments she made on her radio show likening Pelosi (D-Calif.) to “garbage” and saying Jews who voted for President Obama were denying their Judaism.

West, an Iraq War vet, campaigned in the heavily Jewish district by challenging Klein’s pro-Israel credentials, even though Klein had taken the lead on a number of pro-Israel issues in his two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

West drew Jewish fire when he called a Klein campaign videographer “Gestapo” for filming West campaign events -- a routine practice. The videographer is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors.

Turkish trailer filmed on Marmara is released Featured artwork by theYachad.

Best wishes from our family to yours for a holiday filled with love and light!

by JTA NEWS STAFF JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A trailer for an anti-Israel Turkish movie filmed in part aboard the Marmara has been released.

“Valley of the Wolves-Palestine,” which will be released in Turkish theaters on Jan. 28, presents the Turkish version of the Israeli interception of a Turkish ship that was part of a flotilla trying to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. Nine Turkish nationals were killed during the May 31 operation.

The movie, the third film in a series, follows a fictitious hit squad as it travels to Israel to assassinate the Israeli military officers responsible for the Marmara operation.

It is a spinoff of a Turkish television show that often demonizes Israel and Jews, and has contributed to the rift in Israeli-Turkish

relations. A previous film in the series, “Valley of the Wolves-Iraq,” showed Israeli doctors harvesting the organs of Iraqis and sending them to Israel for transplant.

In January, Israel summoned the Turkish ambassador to Israel after Turkey refused to remove the show from Turkish television.

The reprimand, in which the ambassador was humiliated by being seated in a lower chair without a Turkish flag in the room, led to Ankara recalling its ambassador.

The $10 million production price tag for “Valley of the Wolves-Palestine” makes it the most expensive film ever made in Turkey, Ynet reported.

The trailer shows Israeli soldiers on the top deck of the Marmara firing rifles at the ship’s passengers, who are armed with pipes and sticks.

November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 35

Army converts are latest to be dragged into Israel’s conversion wars

by DINA KRAFT army conversions. But he suggested that if soldiers' obser- alone 10 years ago as a teenager from a small town outside For years, army conversions were seen by many as a con- vance was in doubt, there could be a problem. of Moscow. Her father is Jewish, her mother is not. venient solution for resolving at least part of the "Who is a "A person who converts and does not fulfill the mitzvahs Shira always felt herself to be Jewish and knew one day she Jew?" question that hangs like a cloud over the lives of tens is not a Jew," he said. would formally convert, an opportunity she welcomed while of thousands of Israelis.

Meanwhile, a bill has been submitted to the Knesset that, serving in the Air Force.

In the Israel Defense Forces, under the guidance of army if passed, would cement the IDF conversions as valid "They do it so well in army. They focus on all the beautirabbis, some 5,000 young soldiers in the last decade have according to halachah, or Jewish law. ful things in Judaism like human relations and values,” she undergone a conversion process seen as rigorous but welBut Rabbi Yakov Ruza, the rabbi of the Tel Aviv suburb of said. “They know dealing with new immigrants. There's no coming. That process stands in contrast to the experiences Bat Yam and a member of the rabbinical council -- the brainwashing but a focus on the important things, the right described by many of those seeking civilian conversions run equivalent of the Chief Rabbinate's high court -- said those things.” by the haredi Orthodox-dominated Chief Rabbinate.

Shira is distraught at the idea that army conversions Now the issue has come to a head with a decision might be in peril. by the Chief Rabbinate not to continue to stand "We are talking about young Zionists who have behind IDF conversions until a panel of its rabbis come to serve in the army," she said. "It's not easy, but can scrutinize the process. they want to serve the country and feel connected to Furthermore, the Chief Rabbinate broadened the who they are." panel's task to re-examine Israel's conversion process Rabbi Chaim Iram, who serves as director of conacross the board. That has left thousands of converts, version preparation for the Institute for Jewish most of them immigrants from the former Soviet Studies, the organization that coordinates IDF conUnion, wondering where they stand. version courses, dismissed suspicions that army con"I am all for high standards for conversion, and I'm versions are anything but legitimate. also for clear standards for conversion once a person "I invite anyone to come see our course, the matericonverts under the Chief Rabbinate, but it's outraals we use, and the seriousness and devotion of our geous to throw into question their sincerity or their students, and then we can talk about criticism," he Jewishness," said Seth Farber, an American-born said. "According to any and all parameters -- both Orthodox rabbi who is the director of Itim-The knowledge and practice -- we are doing top-level Jewish Life Information Center, an organization that work. helps Jews navigate the bureaucracy of the Chief "We need to tell all of our converts that they are Jews, Rabbinate. period, that this is a procedural problem that cannot The Chief Rabbinate did not answer requests for a be made into a problem of principle. But yes, welcomment on the issue. come to Israel. There is politics, yes. That is a probThe army conversion case of Alina Sardikov, shown marrying husband Maxim It was a lawsuit filed by Farber's organization that lem." earlier this year in a wedding officiated by ITIM director Rabbi Seth Farber, inadvertently prompted the latest crisis in Israel's Amar's panel, which is in disarray with three of the has gone to the Israeli Supreme Court.

Credit: ITIM conversion wars. In the case, currently being heard five appointed rabbis quitting, has been given four by the Supreme Court, Itim is suing the Chief Rabbinate and who have converted in the past through the IDF should not months to make a recommendation on the conversions. the rabbis of four cities who have refused to recognize army be concerned that their conversions could be revoked.

Farber notes that is exactly when a freeze on discussion of a conversions.

Ruza was appointed as one of the rabbis on the new inves- controversial conversion bill proposed by Knesset member During a hearing in September, the state attorney said tigative panel but has stepped down, citing technical rea- David Rotem is set to expire. there was a procedural problem with recognizing the con- sons.

Farber suggested that the Chief Rabbinate is preparing to versions -- a snag that elements in the haredi Orthodox Taking aim at critics of the Chief Rabbinate, however, he use the panel as leverage to win approval for Rotem’s bill. community have seized upon to turn the battle into an ide- suggested that the whole episode is being overplayed.

The measure has many opponents, among them nonological one, Farber and other more liberal Orthodox rabbis "There are certain sources that are battling the Rabbinate Orthodox Diaspora Jewish organizations that fear it would argue. to try to make it look like an extremist institution,” he said. give too much power to the Orthodox-dominated Chief They point to the full-page ads in two haredi newspapers “They take certain incidents and make them appear to be Rabbinate on conversion issues, formally shutting out the taken out by the rabbinic leadership of the large Lithuanian questioning the status quo, which they are not.”

Conservative and Reform movements. haredi community as an example of the pressure being put An estimated 350,000 to 400,000 Israeli citizens are not Gilad Kariv of the Israel Religious Action Center, the on Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who oversees the Jewish according to Jewish law -- immigrants or children of Reform movement's lobbying arm, said it had been naive to issue of conversion, to withdraw his sanction of IDF conver- Russian-speaking immigrants who were granted citizenship think army conversions could be isolated from the overall sions. The ads rail against what the rabbis call fictitious con- under the Law of Return, which allows those with a Jewish atmosphere regarding conversions in Israel. versions and say that any conversions done without converts grandparent to become Israeli even if they are not Jewish "We claimed for years that the wall between the army and taking on the "yoke of mitzvahs" are to be considered according to Jewish law. civil society was a fake wall,” he said. “In the end, unless invalid.

Most of those who have converted through the army fit something is done to address the irrational, immoral and Israel Eichler, a former Knesset member from the haredi that category. un-Jewish approach of the ultra-Orthodox establishment, it United Torah Judaism party and currently the editor of a Among them is a young woman who preferred to be iden- will have a serious and severe effect on the conversions in religious newspaper, said he had no specific opinion on tified as Shira (not her real name). She immigrated to Israel the army.”

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36 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

GOP will ‘check’ Obama, Cantor tells Netanyahu

by JTA NEWS STAFF WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The new GOP majority will “serve as a check” on the Obama administration, Republican leader Eric Cantor told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu met Wednesday night with Cantor (R-Va.), the putative U.S. House of Representatives majority leader whose party swept midterm elections last week for the House. Their meeting was first reported on the Politico website.

Such meetings with opposition leaders are unusual, and Cantor’s office cast it as a get-together between two men with a long standing relationship.

Nonetheless, Cantor’s statement was critical of the Obama administration, siding with Netanyahu in a num-

ber of areas where the prime minister and President Obama have differences.

The statement called on Obama to “fully and aggressively implement” Iran sanctions and to “make it absolutely clear that the U.S. will veto any effort by the Palestinians” to declare a state unilaterally. Cantor told Netanyahu, the statement added, that “the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point, one-party rule in Washington.”

Although Obama has not used the full sanctions package, he has implemented Iran sanctions to a greater extent than any of his predecessors.

Cantor was deputy Republican whip from 2003 to 2007, when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and the White House, and the Bush administration consider-

®

ably softened proposed Iran sanctions packages.

Obama also has made it clear that he opposes unilateral moves in the peace talks, although he has not explicitly threatened to veto Palestinian statehood should it come under consideration by the U.N. Security Council.

Netanyahu also met Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has said that an announcement this week of more than 1,000 new housing units in eastern Jerusalem is “counterproductive.”

“I’m very pleased to be here and to have this opportunity to discuss with him how we’re going to move forward in the process,” Clinton said prior to the meeting.

Netanyahu also met with Vice President Joe Biden during his U.S. visit, and with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), whom he has known since the early 1980s.

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November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 37

Lighting the darkness in our soul

Netherlands to restitute Holocaust art to Stern estate (JTA) -- The government of the Netherlands will restitute a valuable painting to the estate of prewar Jewish art dealer Dr. Max Stern.

An Old Master painting will be turned over to the Stern estate and three university beneficiaries -- Concordia and McGill universities, both in Montreal, and Hebrew University in Jerusalem -- next week at the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage in The Hague.

The Nazis ordered Stern, who ran the Julius Stern Gallery in Dusseldorf, Germany, to liquidate his gallery’s artwork of more than 400 pieces after Jews were banned from selling art.

In 1943, after recovering a fraction of the works, Stern moved to Canada and purchased the Dominion Gallery of Fine Arts.

Following his death in 1987, the beneficiary universities in association with the Holocaust Claims Processing Office in New York founded the Max Stern Art Restitution Project to locate and recover works from Stern’s collection.

and Sukkot begin in the middle of the Jewish month, when the moon is full. But Hanukkah is different: It begins on the

©Disney/CML

by SHAI HELD NEW YORK (JTA) -- We are all of us afraid of the dark.

At night, anxieties suppressed or repressed come swimming to the surface: Am I safe? Am I loved? Am I needed?

Is there meaning in the world, or ultimately is it all just a swirl of chaos?

For some of us much of the time, and for all of us some of the time, darkness suggests peril and instability, the sense that life is fleeting, tenuous, random and senseless. Physical darkness threatens, at least at moments, to conjure existential darkness: It is dark, and I am alone and afraid.

The Talmud reports that Adam and Eve were panic stricken when they first saw the sun go down, thinking that the setting of the sun was a consequence of their sin and this new, intense darkness would spell their death. They spent that entire first night weeping, until dawn broke and they realized, to their immense relief, that this was simply the way of the world -- day followed by night, and night followed by day.

We who come after the first couple are aware that night is not permanent, and that morning, too, inevitably will come.

And our fears are usually less that night is the outgrowth of our failures and more of what it suggests, of the feelings and concerns that night has the power to elicit.

But if we think of night in metaphorical terms, who among us has never had a foreboding akin to Adam’s: what if night never ends? What if meaningless and loneliness are simply all there is?

We also are aware of profound links between physical darkness and existential darkness -- as the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer, moods often shift, worries often mount, and hope often wanes.

Judaism does not ask us to ignore this darkness and the sense of doom it might educe. On the contrary, it asks us to face them squarely and defy them. How? In Genesis, God takes Abram outside and says, “Look toward heaven, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And God adds, “So shall your offspring be” (Gen. 15:5).

On the surface, the meaning of God’s promise is clear: The children of Abram will be so numerous as to be beyond counting. But the great Chasidic master Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger (1847-1905), known as the Sefas Emes, offers a much different and deeply arresting interpretation of God’s promise. God’s promise, he says, is not quantitative but qualitative: To be a Jew is, like a star, to bring light to places of vast darkness. Thus, even and perhaps especially when Israel descends into the darkness of its Egypt, its mission is clear: to light up the darkness of the most depraved and immoral parts of the world (Shemot, 1878).

Let me add one note to the Sefas Emes’ comments. In understanding our mission in the world, there is something crucial to keep in mind about the nature of stars: Stars do not eliminate the darkness but rather mitigate it. They do not turn the world into a palace full of light, but rather find ways to shed light in places that otherwise would be consumed by absolute darkness.

In a similar vein, we ought to be wary, to say the least, of the fantasy that human beings can somehow remove all darkness from human life. Such notions are chimerical at best and unimaginably dangerous at worst. But we can -and to take the covenant between God and Israel seriously is to affirm that we must -- bring light into otherwise abandoned places, to bring flashes of meaning and companionship to places otherwise overrun by heartache and devastation.

What does all of this have to do with Hanukkah?

Think for a moment about the central ritual act that marks this holiday. It is winter now: The days are becoming shorter and shorter, and the nights are getting longer. Passover

25th of the month, when the moon has all but completely disappeared.

We are in one of the darkest periods of one of the darkest months of the year. All around us is darkness. And what do we do? We light a fire. Not a bonfire, but a small fire -- now one, now another, and so forth for eight nights. In other words, we do not pretend to be the sun but only stars. We do not bring an end to darkness but soften its effects.

“The soul of man is the lamp of God,” the Book of Proverbs tells us (20:27). What this means is that ultimately, our task is not to light candles but to be candles. We have the potential to be the bits of light that help bring God back into a world gone dark.

As the Sefas Emes puts it in discussing Hanukkah, “A human being is created to light up this world” (Hanukkah, 1874).

Rabbi Shai Held is the co-founder and rosh yeshiva of Mechon Hadar in Manhattan.

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38 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

So Darn Cute -- I Had To Stuff Them!

by LAURIE MOSKOWITZ Stuffed vegetables seem to be omnipresent here in Israel. I see them on menus in restaurants, as an option for take-out at some of my favorite places, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been served them when dining at other peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s homes. At one dinner, I had a terrific version of a courgette, or a lighter green version of a zucchini filled with ground beef.

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve also had a delicious stuffed artichoke bottom filled with meat in a celery sauce -- the celery sauce being thick, savory and a little lemony, which complimented the artichoke and meat perfectly. And recently on a trip to Bethlehem, the group I was with was served a home-cooked lunch prepared by some of the women from the nearby village we were touring. This lunch featured an unbelievably delicious vegetarian version of cabbage, courgettes and baby eggplants stuffed with rice and covered in a tomato and yogurt-based sauce. This last version was so good, that upon leaving, I managed to get very rudimentary ingredients and instructions, not being sure that I would ever make them, but at least wanting the ability to try.

And then as I was planning my menu for a recent Shabbat lunch -- lightning struck. First, a new friend I was hosting turned out to be vegan and second, there were these really adorable squashes at my favorite fruit/vegetable vendor. It was the perfect opportunity to stuff some vegetables.

For a first attempt, I have to say that I was particularly pleased with my efforts. And let me just say that this dish was not hard to make but had the added benefit of looking impressive. Because my friend was a vegan and the rest of the meal included meat, I made a version that removed the yogurt. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve included the yogurt as an option in the ingredients below, because I do believe that it gives the dish that

extra level of richness that I tasted in that small Palestinian village. The beauty of this dish is that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s versatile and is delicious either way.

So the next time youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re at the farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s market or a store

and faced with an abundance of entirely adorable vegetables -- grab a dozen and stuff away. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be happy you did.

STUFFED VEGETABLES MIDDLE EASTERN STYLE (VEGETARIAN) Vegetables: 12-14 vegetables to stuff, squash, zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers For the stuffing: 1 medium onion â&#x20AC;&#x201C; finely diced 2 cloves of garlic 1 hot pepper (seeds & ribs removed) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; finely diced 1/2 red pepper â&#x20AC;&#x201C; finely diced 2 cups basmati rice 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 large handful of parsley â&#x20AC;&#x201C; stems removed & chopped 1 large handful of cilantro â&#x20AC;&#x201C; stems removed & chopped Small handful of mint â&#x20AC;&#x201C; stems removed & chopped (optional) Small handful of dill â&#x20AC;&#x201C; stems removed & chopped (optional) Salt & pepper

For the sauce: 1 small can tomato paste (approx 1/2 cup) 1.5 cups water 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt 1/2 large can of crushed tomatoes (approx 2 cups) More water as necessary *If you are making this recipe parve, eliminate the yogurt and replace with water.

Preparation: Place the rice in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Let the rice soak for 45 minutes to an hour. While the rice is soaking, prepare the vegetables. Hollow out the vegetables leaving enough of the flesh intact for them to hold together during cooking. If you have very large zucchinis, cut them in half.

Drain the rice and add all of the remaining stuffing ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Fill the vegetables 3/4 of the way full (you need to leave room for expansion as the rice cooks). Place the vegetables in a deep covered, ovenproof pot. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s okay if theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re layered. If you have round vegetables that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t layer so well, you can put them in a shallow roasting pan or casserole dish.

Mix the tomato paste with the water and pour over the vegetables. Pour the tomatoes and yogurt over the vegetables as well.

Cover tightly and simmer the vegetables over a medium high flame for 20 minutes. At this point you can either turn the flame down to low and continue cooking on the stovetop or place the vegetables in the oven on 325 degrees for another 45 minutes. Check periodically to make sure thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s enough liquid in the pot and spooning the pan juices over the top of the vegetables if they seem dry. You can add additional water if necessary, but be conservative so as not to water down the flavor.

You can serve these right away or they will also reheat nicely if being made the day before.

Laurie Moskowitz hails from Washington, where she is a â&#x20AC;&#x153;professionalâ&#x20AC;? home chef and serial entertainer -- regularly hosting both large and small groups of people for Jewish holidays, Sabbath meals, school functions and political events. Laurie is an avid reader of cookbooks, watcher of all cooking shows, obsessive menu planner, and food shopper extraordinaire -- often known to schedule dinner dates just to plan out upcoming menus.

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November 19, 2010 | The Jewish Press | 39

Midler, Seinfeld, and Biden headline Jewish museum opening

Iranian weightlifter’s snub of Israeli goes viral

by JTA NEWS STAFF JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A YouTube video showing Iranian weighlifter Hossein Khodadadi refusing to shake hands with Israeli gold medalist Sergio Britva on the medal platform of an international competition has gone viral.

The video posted late last month had more than 165,000 hits as of Thursday.

Khodadadi, the silver medalist, snubs Britva before Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah,” is played at the medal ceremony of the World Masters Weightlifting Championship in Poland in early October.

Even though Khodadadi ran off the podium, continuing to avoid Britva, immediately after the medal ceremony, he was pun-

ished in his home country.

Khodadadi and Mir Rasool Raisi, the head of the delegation to Iran’s weightlifting team, upon returning to Iran from the competition were banned in their country from all sports for life for competing against the Israeli.

The Iranian Students’ News Agency reported that it was the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 that an Iranian representative appeared beside an Israeli at an official competition. Khodadadi told the agency that he was told that if he did not attend the ceremony, the Iranian delegation would have had to return the medals it won during the competition -- all of the Iranian delegates won medals -- and would be barred from future competitions.

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the crowd in his keynote address. “I can think of no other city that would be a fitting showcase for them.”

George Ross, co-chair of the museum’s board of trustees and chairman of the capital campaign, said he didn’t think he could have raised the $150 million for the museum if not for the prominent location in the middle of the city’s most historic square mile.

“If we can bring our children and grandchildren closer to that wonderful heritage, that moral compass that has preserved the Jewish people, then we will be a success,” Ross said at the ceremony, which also featured Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Pennsylvania’s outgoing governor, Ed Rendell.

Credit: NMAJH.com Rendell, who is Jewish, comThe gala events marked the culmination plimented Ross for managing to get money of a decade-long, $150 million effort to from the state not just once but on four sepmove from a small space adjoining a syna- arate occasions. gogue to an impressive structure situated in “He wouldn’t accept the fact that this the center of historic Philadelphia, near the would be hard to do. His belief was so strong, Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and the his passion so great, he was impossible to say Constitution Center, the Philadelphia no to,” Rendell said. “It is something special Jewish Exponent reported. for Philadelphia, for Pennsylvania, for Midler jokingly wondered why the muse- America and for the world.” um was located in Philadelphia rather than The crowd ate up Seinfeld’s Jewish-tailored New York, where “there are more Jews in my shtick. As the emcee and one of the chief building than in this town.” entertainers, he riffed on everything from his But at the official dedication ceremony mother who couldn’t figure out a cell phone Sunday afternoon, which was heralded by a to the undignified nature of bathroom stalls. chorus of 50 shofar blowers, several digniBarbra Streisand, who is one of only three taries gave Midler her answer. living individuals honored in the museum’s “The stories are Jewish stories, but they’re Hall of Fame, was one of 800 guests to American stories above all else,” Biden told attend the opening dinner Saturday night.

by JTA NEWS STAFF PHILADELPHIA (JTA) -- Vice President Joe Biden, Jerry Seinfeld and Bette Midler headlined a festive opening weekend for the new National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.

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40 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2010

Sufganiyot for Hanukkah

by SYBIL KAPLAN Jewish law does not prescribe any special feasting or elaborate meal for Hanukkah as it does for other holidays.

Maybe this is because the origin of Hanukkah is not in the Bible but in the Apocrypha, the books of literature written between the second century BCE and the second century CE that were not incorporated into the Hebrew Bible.

The Books of Maccabees, of which there are actually four separate books, only say that the hero, Judah, “ordained that the days of dedication of the altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days from the first and twentieth day of the month Chislev, with mirth and gladness.”

So where do we get all the food we eat? It is in the Talmud where the so-called miracle of the oil burning for eight days is written which was inserted to deemphasize the miracle of military triumph and replace it with a more palatable idea, that of the intervention of G-d, which somehow would seem more a miracle of man against man, according to the sages of the time.

By the way, it is only within the past few years that children’s books about Hanukkah dare say the oil story is a legend or a myth.

Practically every ethnic group has the custom of making and eating a form of food prepared in oil as a reminder of the so-called miracle of the jar of oil.

Judy Siegel once wrote in the Jerusalem Post that people gain average of two kilos from eating sufganiyot, latkes and other fat foods during Hanukkah!

From Israel have come two popular foods for Hanukkah-sufganiyot or jelly doughnuts and ponchikot, which are ball-shaped or resemble a doughnut hole.

Gil Marks, in “The World of Jewish Desserts,” writes that ponchikot, doughnuts fried in oil, were adopted by Polish Jews for Hanukkah. The name is taken from the Polish word, paczki [poochkey] which led to the nickname, ponchiks, the Polish name for jelly doughnuts.

I noticed in our Overland Park, Kansas newspaper one day an ad for paczi [poonchkey or poochkey] and a photograph of a plate of what looked to me to be exactly sufganiyot. The ad explained poonchkey are similar to jelly doughnuts only larger and more rich tasting and are traditionally

served on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent. They were made to use up shortening and eggs which were prohibited during Lent.

Sufganiyot have a more interesting history. In “The Jewish Holiday Kitchen,” Joan Nathan, an acquaintance of mine from our Jerusalem days and noted cookbook author and maven of American Jewish cooking, said she learned the ori-

dictionaries say the word actually comes from the Greek word, sufgan, meaning puffed and fried.

John Cooper, author of Eat and Be Satisfied--A Social History of Jewish Food has another theory. He says Christians in Europe ate deep-fried pastries on New Year’s Eve, and Christians in Berlin ate jelly doughnuts. From them, German Jews started eating apricot-filled doughnuts.

When they immigrated to Palestine in the 1930s, they encouraged the population to eat the jelly doughnuts for Hanukkah.

One of my favorite pieces of research is the characteristics which sufganiyot are said to have: 1. they are round like the wheel of fortune; 2. they have to be looked at for what is inside not for their external qualities; and 3. they cannot be enjoyed the same way twice.

In Israel, sufganiyot have gone through a major revolution. For years, they were injected with strawberry jelly and dusted with confectioners’ sugar.

According to an article which appeared in the Forward in 2005, one could find fillings with these flavors: pina colada, coffee liqueur, caramel, bittersweet chocolate, flaked chocolate, white chocolate, crème café, nougat, chocolate orange, pear, crème brulee, grapefruit, vodka, crème espresso with cardamom, bittersweet chocolate and rum, passion fruit, walnut crunch, coconut milk, chocolate liqueur, coconut liqueur, vanilla cream.

A Jerusalem Post article in 2008 related a contest that Credit: Barry A. Kaplan was held on seven bakeries, judging sufganiyot for flagins of sufganiyot from Dov Noy, dean of Israel folklorists. vor, freshness, consistency and aesthetics.

Noy relates a Bukhharian fable, which says the first sufThe winning bakery was La Paneria in Katamon which ganiya was a sweet given to Adam and Eve as compensation offered fillings of ganache chocolate, white chocolate cream, after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. He says the halva and pistachio, butterscotch toffee and strawberry. word sufganiya comes from the Hebrew word, sof (meaning According to Judy Siegel of the Jerusalem Post, the average end), gan (meaning garden) and Ya (meaning G-d). Thus sufganiya contains 500-600 calories. She also suggested cutthe word means--the end of G-d’s garden. ting a sufganiya in half to eat at two sittings rather than conAccording to Noy, this fable was created at the beginning sume the minis. Those baked in the oven contain 125-150 of the 20th century, since sufganiya is a new Hebrew word calories. coined by pioneers.

My research on the internet shows the calories from 93 to Some say sufganiyot, which means sponge like, are remi- 276, and gluten-free with rice flour is 166 calories. niscent of the sweet, spongy cookie popular along the Whatever their origin, sample the real thing and you won’t Mediterranean since the time of the Maccabees. Hebrew forget it!

Happy Hanukkah

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