Sponsored by the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Endowment Fund AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA
Incredible experiences in Israel
November 21, 2014 28 Cheshvan 5775 Vol. 95 | No. 10
This I walked out of Auschwitz Week
Jewish Book Month event by MARK KIRCHHOFF The Center for Jewish Life Assaf Gavron will be the speaker at the second of three events presented by the Center for Jewish Life celebrating Jewish Book Month. The event will take place Thursday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. in the Kripke Jewish Federation Library. The event is free and open to the community.
NCJW 4th Annual Great Omaha Chocolate Festival Page 6
Assaf Gavron
AT G.A., Jewish federations see future in more collaboration Page 7
by SOPHIA BUDWIG or years, I’ve heard about Israel and how amazing a country it is, but I never got to see for myself until this past summer. I signed up for the NFTY L’Dor V’Dor trip and had no idea what to expect, but the trip definitely exceeded any expectations I could have had.
F
For Jews fighting Ebola, specialty is psychosocial therapy Page 12
Next Week Shopping Guide See Front Page stories and more at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on Jewish Press
Auschwitz. I could not believe I was really there, somewhere where something so horrible had happened. It did not feel real. I was feeling numb until we came across a pond where bones and ashes had been dumped. Each person found a bone and held it while we said mourners kaddish. That was the moment it hit me, this Continued on page 2
Telethon format works
Inside Point of view Synagogues
My group was made up of kids from the east coast and a few from Washington. We all lived together for five weeks straight and became so close. After just our first week, which was spent traveling around Prague and Poland, it felt as if we had known each other for years. In Europe, the most memorable day was the day we went to
8 10
by SHERRIE SAAG Communications, Jewish Federation of Omaha “Mini-telethons”, small groups of volunteers gatherings to phone community members on selected evenings, has proven to be a successful format for the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Rolled out during the 2013 Annual Campaign, this year’s plan calls for four such telethons, the first of which took place on Oct. 20. Volunteers that night included Patty Nogg and Dorothy Spizman, Jim Farber makes a call both veteran solicitors for the Federation’s Annual Campaign. The evening’s calls netted almost $30,000 towards Campaign goals. Community outreach is an important facet of the Federation’s work. “We want to meet and even increase our monetary goals, but just as important is our desire to reach out to
every member of our community. Being a donor is one of the ways everyone in our community belongs and feels connected,” said Marty Ricks, Chief Development Officer. The campaign’s goal of $3,250,000 represents a 3% increase over last year, and in keeping with prior Campaigns, hopes to add close to 100 new or re-engaged gifts. After two Campaign Kick-off events, the Campaign now stands at close to $1,000,000. “We are almost one third of the way to our Campaign goals, and so many of our community members are increasing their gifts. This is a great start! To those who have made their gift, thank you and know that we intend to reach out to everyone,” stated Campaign Chair Norm Sheldon. Campaign staff reported last month that Federation Board members had all made their pledges to the Annual Campaign. In response, Interim CEO Alan Potash said, “We Continued on page 2
Gavron, a well-known Israeli author, is the current Schusterman Scholar at the Natan & Hannah Schwalb Center for Jewish and Israeli Studies at UNO. He has published several novels: Ice, Moving, CrocAttack, Almost Dead, Hydromania and his most recent, The Hilltop. The Hilltop, already a bestseller in Israel, has recently been released in the United States. Gavron has also published a collection of short stories, Sex in the Cemetery, plus a non-fiction collection of Jerusalem falafel-joint reviews, Eating Standing Up. His fiction has been translated into German, Russian, Italian, French, English, Dutch, Swedish, Greek and Bulgarian. Jewish Book Month is promoted by the Jewish Book Council and is an annual event dedicated to the celebration of Jewish books. The roots of Jewish Book Month started in 1925 when Fanny Goldstein, a librarian at the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library, set up an exhibit of Judaic books and used it as a focus of what she called Jewish Book Week. The event was later adopted by communities around the country and expanded to a one-month celebration prior to Chanukah to promote books of Jewish content as gifts. For this year’s Dec. 4 event, Gavron will focus on The Hilltop: A Novel. He will provide some background on the settlements included in the novel and what drew him to write about the topic. Gavron will present photos showing his time in the settlements researching. He will discuss how the writing process proceeded while he was conducting research. Gavron will also discuss how the Continued on page 2