December 14, 2007

Vol. LXXXVII No. 14 Omaha, NE

Celebrating 86 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa

Scholar returns to explore what Jews and Christians need to know

by BETH KATZ Director of Project Interfaith, an ADL affiliate December can be a delicate time for Jewish-Christian relations in a community like Omaha where the Jewish population is such a minority and the Christian population is dominant. The arrival of Hanukah and Christmas often raise many questions in both communities about the other, revealing our fundamental ignorance and curiosity.

For Jews, the questions may be as simple as “Why do Christians have Christmas trees?” or “What is the difference between a Catholic and an Episcopalian?” to more complex questions as “What exactly is the trinity?” and “What is Christianity’s view of Dr. Amy-Jill Levine Judaism and Jews today?” Or maybe the questions it raises are more personal: “Do all denominations of Christianity want to convert Jews?” and “How do I respond when Christians attempt to proselytize to me?”

But how often do we have an opportunity to really explore our questions and have them answered by a trusted, knowledgeable source who is both a practicing Jew and an acclaimed New Testament scholar?

Help is on the way. Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, returns to Omaha on Monday, Jan. 7, 7:30 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center to answer these very questions and more in a workshop developed exclusively for the Jewish community.

In this workshop titled “Beyond Christmas Trees and Missionaries: What the Jewish Community Needs to Know about Jesus, the New Testament, and Christianity,” Dr. Levine explores the Jewish responses to Jesus, the New Testament, and Christianity in this community conversation tailored specifically for a Jewish audience.

Dr. Levine also will delve into prominent myths and misunderstandings about Christianity and the New Testament, review key issues and events in JewishChristian relations, and will offer helpful guidance for Jews on how to respond to proselytizing, Messianic Judaism, and contemporary anti-Semitism.

This program is jointly presented by Project Interfaith, an ADL affiliate, and the Hermene Zweiback Center for Lifelong Jewish Learning at Temple Israel. This dynamic workshop is open to any member of the Jewish community at no charge but registration is required.

In addition to this workshop for the Jewish community, Dr. Levine will speak at a luncheon workshop open to all members of the Omaha community: “From the Academy to the Pews: What Clergy, Lay Leaders, and Scholars Need to Know about the Origins, Evolution, and Future of Jewish-Christian Relations” on Tuesday, Jan. 8, 11:30 a.m., at the JCC. Continued on page 2

Concert stars finalists in young Jewish composers competition

by JANET HENTHORN performance of their Endowment Associate work, for which each Jewish Federation Foundation received a $500 stipend.

Nine months ago, the The winner in each cateKaren Sokolof Javitch gory will win a prize of Music Fund committee $1,000. began an exciting, innoEntries in the form of musical scores and CDs vative project which will flowed into Omaha and culminate in the first were judged by a commitEmerging Jewish tee of professional musiComposers concert. This cians. The final result? special event takes place There are three finalists in in the Jewish Community the older group and two Center Theater on in the younger with musiThursday, Jan. 10, 7 p.m. cians coming from With a desire to bring Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and more musical programming to the JCC, Phil Susan Rothholz and Aviva Segall, holding daughter Leora, make Israel. Amazingly, the finalists in the younger Sokolof created a fund in plans for the Jan. 10 concert. his daughter’s name to make more performances possi- group are 15 year-old twin sisters.

On the evening of the concert, professional musicians ble. In addition to wonderful musical events that have already been enjoyed, the committee, chaired by Susan will perform the compositions. The audience will have Rothholz and comprised of outstanding professionals, the opportunity to meet the composers and vote for created the Karen Sokolof Javitch Competition for their choices. The judges’ committee will take the audience’s vote into consideration in awarding the prizes.

Emerging Jewish Composers.

A dessert reception honoring the musicians and comLast spring the committee sent an announcement to music schools, academies, and composers around the posers will take place between the concert and award world. The competition was divided into two categories: presentation.

In addition to Rothholz, committee members are Jewish composers age 20 and younger and those 21 and older. The competing musicians had to be amateurs, and Cantors Gaston Bogomolni and Wendy Shermet, Emily their musical score could be no longer than 15 minutes. Meyer, Aviva Segall, Tuffy Epstein, Esther Katz, Karen The finalists had to agree to appear in Omaha for the Sokolof Javitch and Suzanne Singer.

Inside

This Week: Mayor comments on current events: Page 5

See Front Page Stories & More at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on ‘Jewish Press’ Opinion Page see page 12

Final part of Dreidel Chronicles series: Page 3

5 Tevet, 5768 December 14, 2007

U.S. report on Iran’s nukes puts Israel in difficult position

by ROY EITAN JERUSALEM – With Israel’s warnings about the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran having been undermined from the least expected source, Washington, Israeli officials are scrambling to figure out their Plan B. A U.S. National Intelligence Estimates report issued Dec. 3 contained a reversal of past Bush administration assessments about Tehran, stating that while the Iranians had a nuclear weapons program, it was shelved in 2003.

The surprise assessment stunned many in Israel, which has relied on the United States for support of the view that Iran constitutes a grave strategic threat.

Israel says it will continue to scrutinize Iran’s nuclear program, including this facility at Bushehr, despite U.S. report saying Iran froze its nuclear capabilities in 2003.

Credit: Courtesy Digital Globe/BP Images Responding to the apparent newly opened gap in Israeli and U.S. assessments of Iran’s nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tried to sound upbeat. The intelligence report, Olmert told reporters Dec. 4, at least confirmed that Iran recently had designs for an offensive nuclear capability. Olmert also pointed out that the report concluded that Iran’s current uranium enrichment program still has the potential to produce material for warheads between 2010 and 2015.

“It’s crucial to pursue efforts to prevent Iran from developing a capability like this, and we will continue doing so along with our friends the United States,” Olmert said.

Olmert has endorsed U.S.-led efforts to curb Iran’s atomic aspirations through sanctions, but both he and U.S. President George W. Bush have warned that preemptive action could be used as a last resort to stymie Iran’s nuclear capability. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was markedly less sanguine than Olmert, giving an interview this week in which he effectively accused the Americans of faulty intelligence gathering.

“It’s true, it seems that Iran froze its nuclear program in 2003,” Barak told Army Radio. “But as far as we know it has since renewed its program.” Barak suggested that U.S. and other intelligence services were “disconnected” from goings-on in the Islamic Republic.

Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, a former defense chief, dismissed the report’s findings this way: “I don’t buy it.”

The ministers’ comments reflected the deep skepticism in Israel and elsewhere around the world about the quality of U.S. intelligence assessments, particularly given the failure of U.S. intelligence in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. Israeli experts said the 16 intelligence agencies in the United States likely were playing it safe following the CIA’s erroneous assessment that the 2003 invasion of Iraq would uncover Saddam Hussein’s secret weapons-of-mass-destruction program.

Continued on page 3

Coming Next Week: Senior Living Issue Loyal readers enjoy last two Book Month events: page 8

Film depicts end of an era of Libyan Jewry: Page 10

Page 2

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

December 14, 2007

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Early deadline for Bringing our young $10,000 Sokolof Merit people into the fold Scholarship applications FROM THE DESK

by JANET HENTHORN OF THE PRESIDENT Sokolof Scholarship Coordinator Jewish Federation Foundation There is an early deadline of Feb. 18, 2008, for applications for the third annual Phil and Ruth Sokolof Honor Roll Merit Scholarships. Administered by the Sokolof Scholarship Committee of the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation, these awards are based on merit and not financial need. Applicants must be Jewish residents of the Omaha metropolitan area.

Scholarships for $10,000 each will be awarded to two graduating high school seniors for their college or university education. Criteria for these scholarships are overall good character, scholastic performance, personal achievement and community service.

The same criteria apply for $10,000 merit scholarships to two students who are currently enrolled in or have been admitted to a course of study at a college or university leading to a health care career.

In addition, there will be up to two merit scholarships available from the Karen Sokolof Javitch Music Appreciation Fund. These awards, based on similar criteria, will be for Jewish students currently attending a college, university or music conservatory majoring in or pursuing a degree in music performance, composition or music education.

Scholarship application forms can be downloaded from the Center for Jewish Education Scholarship and Grants page on the Jewish Federation of Omaha’s website at www.jewishomaha.org. To have an application mailed or with any questions you may contact me at 334.6551 or e-mail jhenthorn@jewishomaha.org.

The Sokolof Fund also has a $10,000 award for an Outstanding Jewish Teacher in the Omaha Metro area, with preference given to a teacher in K-12.

Nominations, due by Feb. l8, are by letter to Janet Henthorn, Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation, 333 So. 132 St. 68154. There is no limit to the number of times a teacher can be nominated.

All applications and nominations must be submitted

by Feb. 18, 2008.

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS Yachad members call it a “wrap”

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14 Temple Israel Shabbat Comes to You, 4 p.m. at Remington Heights SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16 Bible Study Group, 10 a.m. Beth El Mishpacha Mornings, 10:15 a.m. at Chabad Beth El’s Hazak tours the Jewish Historical Society, noon What’s Jewish About Food?, 12:15 p.m. at Beth El C Youth Drug & Alcohol Prevention Program, 12:30 p.m.

L Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing, 1 p.m.

I CPR Class, 1 p.m.

Beyt Shalom Religious School, 1:30 p.m. at JCC P MONDAY, DECEMBER 17 & JSS Senior Luncheon, 10 a.m.

Story Time, 10:30 a.m. at Kripke Library S Jewish Book Club, 11 a.m.

A Jewish Federation ACDC Meeting, 6 p.m.

Sisterhood Mah Jongg, 7 p.m. at Beth Israel V Derech Torah: Judaism 101, 8 p.m.

E TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18 WOW Parsha, Prophets and Prayer, 9 a.m. at Chabad BBYO Night, 6 p.m.

CPR Class, 6 p.m.

2008 Maccabi Games Parent/Athlete Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

Parshah Roundup, 7 p.m. at Chabad Board Meeting, 7 p.m. at Temple Israel Eye on Israel Evening Edition, 8 p.m.

C L I P & S A V E

&

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20 Women of the Torah, 9:30 a.m. at Beth Israel Adult Study with the Clergy, 10 a.m. at Temple Israel Insights and Values from the Torah, noon at Beth El Yiddish Group, 1 p.m.

Book Discussion Group, 1 p.m. at Kripke Library Women’s Book Group, 1:15 p.m. at Beth El JSS Helmut Lotti Concert, 1:30 p.m.

CPR Class, 6 p.m.

College Dinner with Clergy, 7 p.m. at Temple Israel ADL Youth Leadership Mission Meeting, 7 p.m.

Class with Rabbi Gross, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel

S A V E All events held at the JCC unless otherwise indicated. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the accuracy of events. To keep calendar accurate or for questions, call Marlene Hert at 334-6437.

FOR A COMPLETE LISTING, VISIT THE FEDERATION’S WEBSITE: www.JewishOmaha.org (click on calendar)

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C L I P & S A V E

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of attending the UJC General Assembly in Nashville, TN, with Jan Goldstein and Marty Ricks. We spent a great deal of time talking about the need for us, as Jewish communities, to act collectively, in order to face the extraordinary challenges of the world today.

We were reminded that collectively -- as a system -- we help Israel, we save lives and we fight poverty. Together, we’ve resettled more than a million Soviet Jews in Israel and brought thousands more to the United States to a life of freedom. We’ve helped Israel rebuild after the latest conflict with Lebanon, and we’ve helped the Jewish communities of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to restore their lives and their Jewish communities.

For me, one of the conference highlights was the focus on bringing our young people into the fold as we build our future. We must find new ways to inspire our young people to take their place at the community’s table.

To accomplish this, we must change the way we deliver our message, because today’s young people communicate so differently than their parents. They think multi-topically, and they speak a whole new language.

Theirs is a world filled with online blogs, u-tube videos, facebook pages and instant messaging.

We must speak to them in their language and demonstrate to them how the power of the collective enables change. We must assure them that their ideas are valid and we must invite them into the system. And it’s just as important for us to educate them so that when they do come to the table, they can incorporate their ideas and beliefs with the values that are important to their parents and grandparents – the people who put their time, heart and money into building this outstanding community.

Here in Omaha, we are working diligently to engage our young adults. One such example is our upcoming Campaign Leadership Mission in February. We are also now in discussions for creating an Israel experience for our youngest group of Jewish adults.

And our Community Development Department is in the process of facilitating a number of focus groups in order to gather input from Omaha’s young Jewish adults. This feedback will enable us to move forward equipped with a better understanding of the needs of this key demographic.

These are just a few of the programs that will help build the next generation of leaders, ensuring that the Omaha Jewish community continues to flourish in the years ahead.

Scholar returns

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19 Kabbalah Circle, 7 p.m. at Chabad Jewish Critical Thinking, 7 p.m. at Beth El

C L I P

by NORMAN H. SHELDON, President of the Jewish Federation of Omaha

Several members of Yachad, including Lisa Salomon, above, were on hand to wrap gifts for the Project Dreidel effort this year through Jewish Family Service. According to Duane Pieper, Yachad Program Coordinator, “The nine Yachad members who attended the event took great joy in participating in this mitzvah. They each had contributed financially to the success of this project and looked forward to preparing these gift baskets which were delivered to families in need.” Volunteers, members and their families who attended were as follows: Alan Friedman, Beth Friedman, Grace Isler, Nancy Isler, Dr. Fred Kader, Elaine Marcus, Josh Parsow, Michael Parsow, Carol Parsow, Jillian Salomon, Debbie Salomon, Marilyn Zevitz, Duane and Kathie Pieper and Joanna Kay.

Continued from page 1 In this presentation, Dr. Levine will build on her February 2007 Omaha presentation “Jesus the Jew: What Jews and Christians Need to Know to Have Meaningful Dialogue.” Over the lunch hour, Dr. Levine will engage clergy, lay leaders, and academics on the most pressing issues affecting Jewish-Christian relations today as well as historic issues impacting relations between these two religious communities. Dr. Levine also will explore actions that clergy, scholars, and academics can take to educate their congregants and students on these issues and strengthen relations between these religious communities.

This luncheon workshop is jointly presented by Project Interfaith, an ADL affiliate; the Center for Faith Studies at Countryside Community Church; Morning Star Lutheran Church, the Omaha Presbyterian Seminary Foundation; the Archdiocese of Omaha; and the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska and its Sponsoring Congregations. Registration is required for this luncheon workshop and the cost is $15 per person, which includes lunch.

To register for either or both workshops or for more information on these programs, please call me at 402.334.6573 or email bkatz@adl.org.

EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press will be closed on Tuesday, Dec. 25 and Jan. 1. The deadline for all ads, articles and photos is 9 a.m. For the Dec. 28 issue the deadline is Wednesday, Dec. 19; and for the Jan. 4 issue the deadline is Wednesday, Dec. 26.

Questions? Call 402.334.6448

December 14, 2007

U.S. report on nukes Continued from page 1 “Back then, the absence of hard information led the Americans to adopt a worst-case approach,” said a retired Israeli intelligence analyst who declined to be named. “Nowadays the thinking is to favor inaction in the absence of hard information.”

Amid all the bluster in Israel, there was no sign of past Israeli threats to go it alone against Iran if necessary. “Israeli officials are afraid that the report is liable to reduce international pressure on Iran,” Alex Fishman wrote in the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot.

“If the issue is a nuclear Iran in only another five or six years -- and even that is contingent upon the Iranians renewing their military nuclear program -- then there is no legitimacy for dealing Iran a military blow in the near future. That means that the military strike is off the table,” he wrote. “And the urgency for sanctions against Iran is liable to decrease as well.”

Israel still could mount a sneak attack as it did in Iraq in 1981, destroying Saddam’s nuclear reactor in Osirak. But many foreign analysts have questioned whether Israel’s seasoned yet relatively small air force could tackle Iranian nuclear sites that are distant, multiple, dispersed and well fortified. Nevertheless, some Israeli officials cite Israel’s Sept. 6 airstrike in northern Syria, which was widely reported to have targeted a nascent reactor, as an encouraging precedent.

“If the reports are true, then our jets managed to slip in and out of Syria with little incident,” one Israeli diplomat said.

“That would suggest a degree of sophistication that makes even Iran a feasible target, should it come down to that.”

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 3

Part IV: The Dreidel Chronicles

Living only half a life

by ANDREA BARTMAN for Jewish Family Service This is the final installment of this year’s Dreidel Chronicles. The following couple (whose names have been changed) had prepared and saved for their future, but were unaware of the struggles they would some day face in their retirement years. JFS strives to overcome need throughout the life cycle.

The Golds, a couple in their midsixties, first came to Jewish Family Service about a year ago for help.

With their credit cards maxed out and nowhere else to go for help, they turned to another assistance agency, somewhere these two hardworking people could never have imagined they would be.

The couple hadn’t wound up with out-of-control bills through a gambling or shopping habit. The cost of their latest prescription medications, on top of their other healthcare costs, was driving them into the ground.

Anita worked her entire adult life serving the community as a second grade teacher until she was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago. Now a cancer survivor, she’s more afraid than ever that their medical bills and her husband’s now failing health will be all she has to show for her life. She describes their situation to her JFS counselor as “half of a life” -living but never enjoying the time they now have together.

The couple is unable to do anything

purely for their own enjoyment; they don’t have the extra money, due to more than $700 a month (after insurance) in prescription medication costs. This amount is in addition to the cost of regular trips to the cardiologist for her husband and follow-ups for her. After all, you’re never really “cured” of cancer.

Bob was there to help Anita through her cancer ordeal, only to end up with

for an Omaha manufacturing company for over 35 years, and now feels he has little to show for it. The couple, who did save over the years, stayed on top of the bills for quite awhile. But with neither able to work and more and more of their retirement savings slipping away, it was time to go somewhere for help. They couldn’t ask their kids for the money. Their son and daughter both have families to support and little extra themselves.

When Anita suggested JFS, Bob’s first reaction was “absolutely not”. But Anita made a phone call anyway and then reassured Bob that anything they shared with JFS would be strictly confidential. He acquiesced and they sat down to discuss the situation with a counselor who could support them through their journey.

Anita says she doesn’t know how the couple could survive without the assistance of JFS. They’re Credit: Brad Killer for istockphoto.com receiving help with their prescripheart problems himself. Although his tion medication costs and they can now condition is manageable for now, it is not smile once in a while. This couple curable and he will require increasing deserves to enjoy the time they have amounts of medical assistance in the together and JFS is helping them do it future. day-by-day, with dignity and with Bob worked hard as a plant manager respect.

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Page 4

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

December 14, 2007

Beth El’s first-ever young families’ Shabbaton offers camaraderie, fun in Nebraska City

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator Imagine celebrating Shabbat with your family in the warm, rustic atmosphere of the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, surrounded by friends and their children.

Imagine that the retreat is filled with music, camaraderie and kid-friendly activities.

Sound good? Then imagine no more: this special retreat will become a reality on Friday-Saturday, Feb. 22-23, as Beth El Synagogue sponsors its first-ever Young Families’ Shabbaton, open to all families in the Jewish community.

From kindling the candles on Friday night through Havdalah the next day, this overnight – geared to families with children ages eight and younger (older siblings are also welcome to join in the fun) -- is certain to be memorable.

To kick off the retreat, everyone will get acquainted through an entertaining game of Human Bingo, followed by the always-joyous Tot Shabbat service, led by “Miss Patty” Nogg. The celebration will continue during a traditional Shabbat dinner, highlighted by a sing-along led by Cantor Gastón Bogomolni; afterward, Shabbat-friendly art activities will be offered, along with bedtime story time sure to be a hit with the little ones.

The ruach will continue on Saturday, beginning with a fun-filled morning Tot Shabbat service. During the afternoon, families will be treated to a variety of activities, including a Family Blessing Hunt, Paper Bag Dramatics, Shabbat arts and crafts, and family games for all ages.

“Eye on Israel: Evening Edition” offers insight into current events

In addition, attendees will also have the opportunity to enjoy the Lied Lodge’s great indoor pool, plus the nearby Arbor Day Farm Tree Adventure, and other family-friendly offerings in Nebraska City.

“We’re very excited to offer this Young Families Shabbaton, creating an environment where families can enjoy being Jewish together and to get pleasure from celebrating Shabbat with their children and other Jewish families,” remarked Program Director Margie Gutnik, who is organizing the retreat. “What better way to observe Shabbat than by weaving our lives together as a community?”

A low early-bird price of $75 will be offered to all families who register by Dec. 31. This fee will include all meals, hotel accommodations and activities – an unbelievable bargain by any standards.

Beginning Jan. 1, the registration fee will be raised to $100. All reservations are needed no later than Jan. 15 (all late signups will be charged an additional $25).

The registration form and additional information about this exciting Shabbaton are available at the Beth El web site, www.bethel-omaha.org; forms are also available at the synagogue office.

Gutnik is also available to answer any questions, at 492.8550 or programming@bethel-omaha.org.

Funding for this Shabbaton has been provided by the Herbert Goldsten Trust, the Leonard and Shirley Goldstein and the Murray H. and Sharee C. Newman Supporting Foundations of the Jewish Federation of Omaha.

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by MOR SHEINBEIN Administrative Assistant, Center for Jewish Education Israel is always in the news, but you have the chance to be front and center to hear the latest affecting the Middle East.

The popular Center for Jewish Education program “Eye on Israel” presents an evening edition on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 8 p.m., in the Kripke Jewish Federation Library.

Dr. Guy Matalon and Alan Potash will lead the discussion on the many areas of interest that Alan Potash affect Israel.

Matalon is executive director of the CJE and Professor of Judaic Studies, in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of NebraskaOmaha. Potash is Regional Director for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Plains States Region.

Eye on Israel is an interactive forum, discussing current events affecting Israel and the Middle East. The program regularly meets every other month on Tuesdays, noon to 1 p.m. in the Kripke Jewish Federation Library.

This evening event will allow people who work during the day who cannot attend the regular time, to get connected with the news and involved with

what’s going on in Israel and the Middle East and learn how those events might affect the Jewish communites around the world. Since this is the only ‘Eye’ in December, this session will cover new developments before the resumption of the regular meetings in January.

The discussion during “Evening Edition” will prove very timely due to the recent Annapolis Conference.

According to Potash, “We need to digest Annapolis and other interesting developments in Israel, positive or negative.”

Dr. Matalon adds, “We will talk about Dr. Guy Matalon Syria’s and Iran’s roles in Lebanon’s political future and in the Middle East in light of the recent developments in the diplomatic front. Alan and I are especially concerned and interested in the effect of the Annapolis meeting and its impact on Israel and the Middle East.”

Dr. Matalon adds with a smile, “Or the fact that it might have no effect at all.”

The program is free and open to the public. For more information, call 334.6445, or e-mail Mary Sue Grossman at mgrossman@jewishomaha.org. Eye on Israel is sponsored in part by the Herman and Mary Meyerson Endowment Fund.

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December 14, 2007

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 5

Mayor comments on current events

by JOAN K. MARCUS work, emerging with several different ideas. One of the (Editor’s note: Fahey spoke to Breadbreakers two weeks suggestions would be to build a new stadium on Lot D before the shooting at Westroads on Dec. 5.) of Qwest Center Omaha. This location would be closer Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey says he won’t be running to more shops, hotels and the Omaha riverfront. The for the Nebraska senate seat now held by Sen. Chuck College World Series, as measured in 2003, had a $38 Hagel (R-NE). He has too many things to accomplish million economic impact on our city. here in Omaha and he considers it an honor to hold the However, says Fahey, “Because this is such an imporposition of mayor. However, the 1973 graduate of tant decision, I thought it would be good to step back, Creighton University considers his most rewarding job take a breath and think about these things. The big as that of being the father of three sons and a daughter. question is how much money we have and how can we Fahey spoke at a recent meeting of the B’nai B’rith afford this thing? We should be very clear on how we’re Breakbreakers. He has spoken to the group at least three going to pay for this. And, I’ve got to convince the city times and is a guest every year at its annual sports ban- council and groups of concerned citizens how these quet. A Democrat, Fahey funds will be raised,” he was sworn in as Omaha’s added.

49th mayor in June of “The NCAA has now 2001. He had never been asked us to come back to a candidate for public them with our recomoffice before running for mended sites. Once we the mayoral post. entered into renegotiaIn 1978, he started tions on the contract, a American Land Title and clock started running on he sold the business 12 Aug. 1, 2007. We have to years later but remained have an agreement in on as CEO as it became place by the end of this one of the nation’s largest year. We’ve asked them title companies. Some of and they’ve agreed to the volunteer leadership extend that date to April positions he has held 30, 2008, because of the include serving on the seriousness and the scale Board of Directors of of what this undertaking Holy Name Housing, the would be. During the American Red Cross, contract negotiations, Creighton Prep High they can’t go anywhere George Shapiro, left, and Gary Javitch listen intently as Omaha School, and the Omaha else. If we build a new Mayor Mike Fahey explains the city’s negotiations on Rosenblatt Planning Board. stadium, we will have a Stadium on a recent Breadbreakers discussion group.

He began his talk at minimum contract for 20 Breadbreakers by giving an update on his project of a years and we’ve asked for 25 years.” new ballpark to replace Rosenblatt Stadium or refurbish Fahey noted that, “We have a contract through 2010. the stadium at 13th and Bert Murphy Drive.

However, on April 30, if we don’t have an agreement “The debate has been good,” he began. “There has with them, they could actually go out and see what else been a lot of discussion as to whether or not the current is on the market. They have told us privately, over and stadium should be rebuilt, remodeled or taken down over again, that they want to stay in Omaha. So, we’re and a new one put in at the present site. Or, maybe it going through this discovery process once again. And, makes more sense to look at something new down- we’re going to see how much money can be raised pubtown.” licly and how much privately. I’ve taken general obligaHe added, “Early on, we made an offer to do a small tion bonds that are tied to property taxes off the table.” renovation at the existing Rosenblatt. The cost was Barry Sommer changed the subject and asked the about 26 million dollars. Ten million would have been mayor about the police and fire pension issues. Fahey public money and $16 million would be raised by the responded, “We have presented offers to them to stop private sector. We asked for a 10-year agreement and the ‘smoothing.’ This is the practice of ‘spiking’ hours everyone said that if we were willing to spend that much during a given year in order to raise pensions.” on remodeling the old facility, we should look at spendHe added, “We aren’t having a problem with the fire ing $50 million on something new. Right now, the price department and I think the police understand. Most tag on something new is somewhere between 95 and people don’t know that the police and fire departments 120 million dollars!” are the only ones left in the city who don’t pay anything Fahey then posed the question of where money would into their health care. If we can’t come to an agreement, come from to make any changes. He joked that he had we’ll have to go to the Court of Industrial Relations.” alienated himself with every restaurateur in Omaha When he was asked about recent crimes in Omaha, because he had proposed an added tax on eating out!

Fahey commented that most of it is socio-economic, However, he commented that the goal from the gang and drug related. “There’s no easy answer to it. beginning has been to secure a long-term agreement We’re doing everything that we can with different iniwith the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic tiatives. The best one is ‘Project Safe Neighborhoods’ Association) to keep their that works with the federal event (NCAA Men’s government.”

College World Series) here Fahey said, “If we catch in Omaha. these guys with hand guns, “I can tell you, unequivoThe Jewish Federation of Omaha has reached out we can put them away for cally, that the NCAA has to the city of Omaha and victims of the recent tragedy five years. The bottom line is made no demands on the with expressions of our sympathy and prayers. We that you have to get these City of Omaha. They have know that this terrible act has touched everyone in kids before they’re even in made suggestions -- like any our city and as the Jewish Community, we support preschool. Some of their partnership would. They the multiple efforts in place to provide healing and fathers and mothers have want to continue to expand comfort to the families. We also commend the signif- been into gangs or drugs the fan friendliness, usage by and we have to change that icant efforts of the city, law enforcement agencies, the fans and they want to environment. The good and emergency responders in dealing with this make sure that the student news is that we have a plan tragedy. On behalf of the Jewish community, we have athletes have the best experito do it -- but it isn’t going made a donation to the Von Maur Victims Fund. ence that they can possibly to change overnight.”

Norm Sheldon, President have,” he explained.

Fahey said that Omaha is Jan Goldstein, Executive Director “Many of the young going to continue working A fund has been established for the victims of the ballplayers have been playing on building stronger neighshootings at the Von Maur store at Westroads Mall on in new stadiums in their borhood watch groups “and Dec. 5. United Way of the Midlands is assisting with schools. Then, they come to trying to get these people to online pledging at: www.vonmaurvictimsfund.org.

Rosenblatt and it’s a little bit cooperate and share inforGifts of cash or checks can be dropped off at either of a challenge, given the mation when they know condition that the stadium is location of the First Westroads Bank: 612 No. 98 St. who has the guns and who is in. Those are some of the (southeast corner of the Westroads Mall parking lot), doing the shooting.” or 15750 West Dodge Road. Donations can also be Fahey ended by saying that, challenges that we face.”

A local architect and engi- mailed to: Von Maur Victims Fund c/o United Way compared to other cities, neering group have done of the Midlands, 1805 Harney St., Omaha, NE Omaha is still a pretty safe quite a bit of preliminary 68102. place to live.

Federation issues statement on Von Maur shooting

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

December 14, 2007

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Celebrate the birthday of the trees at Chabad

by SHEVI KATZMAN engages the children so they can understand, rememfor Chabad of Nebraska ber, and apply the lesson. Feigy Katzman, age six, says, As the trees anticipate the celebration of their Tu “It [Mishpacha Mornings] is not just sitting on a chair B’Shevat birthday, which corresponds to Jan. 22, the and writing away. It’s really fun learning!” families at Mishpacha University will discover how Lauren Kirk, also age six, adds that she likes humans are likened to trees.

[Mishpacha Mornings] because she gets “to meet a lot When the trees are still tiny seeds, extensive care is of new friends and stuff.” taken to ensure that the tree grows to be healthy and The classes will take place on Sundays, Jan. 6 and strong. When a child is born, his or her parents do Jan. 13, 10:15-11:45 a.m., at the Chabad House and everything possible to are for families with children in first grade and make sure that their child younger. Soon after grows to be successful arrival, families are treatand decent. As we ed to a hot buffet breakhumans age, we strive to fast. The parents then enhance, enrich and part from the group to improve our own growth study some very pertiand development. nent insights while the Shani Katzman, educachildren remain with tional director at Chabad very dedicated and lovHouse explains, “It’s ing caretakers and educaamazing to learn about tors. The classes cost $36 the many spiritual aspects for both sessions for the there are in very natural entire family. and familiar things, such as trees and plants. It’s Lily Goldberg, left, Emily Kirk, Feigy Katzman, and Rebecca Novak Sunday mornings are a not only about the les- are captivated by an experiment using a candle to explain what great time for families to spend time together sons we can learn from the Jewish soul is like. trees, but about the spirituality the trees possess with doing something fun and educational. “I like coming to Chabad on Sunday mornings,” exclaims Sammy the potential to make this world a holier place.”

At the Tu B’Shevat mini-series, families will glean Novak, age five, “It’s my favorite day!”

Tu B’Shevat Mini Series is a project of Mishpacha many important growing and parenting lessons from trees. They will also heighten their awareness of our University, which provides young families with the environment and our purpose in the world. Show tools to receive degrees in Jewish Love and Learning. appreciation for the beauty of God’s creation by taking Mishpacha University is made possible by a grant from responsibility to care for our world and everything in the Esther K. Newman Fund. For more information or to register, visit www.ochabad.com or e-mail it.

The interactive and hands-on style of learning shevi@ ochabad.com.

Beth Israel asked to attend special YU conference

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by MARY BORT for Beth Israel Synagogue Yeshiva University-RIETS, Center for the Jewish Future, has invited Beth Israel’s Rabbi Jonathan Gross to a Legacy Heritage Fund Rabbinic Enrichment Initiative (LHREI) Executive Rabbinic Seminar. Lay leader Dr. Alan Kricsfeld, executive officer and administrative vice president, will also attend. The seminar will be held in Florida, Dec. 16-19.

Beth Israel was one of only 15 synagogues in the country to be invited to the LHREI Seminar. “I’m happy that Omaha is getting recognized nationally and Beth Israel is getting recognized as a strong synagogue,” said Gross. “That is what this invitation means for us.”

According to information provided by the Center for

the Jewish Future, the seminar will “... focus on the rabbi’s role as CEO of the synagogue, developing skills and techniques towards that end, and mechanisms for productive relationships with lay leadership. This will also provide an opportunity for team building among rabbis and lay leaders and networking between groups of rabbis, as well as groups of lay leaders.”

The Dean of Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business, along with other professors, will help lead the seminar. They will provide expertise in areas of management, leadership and administration.

“We hope to come away from this conference with some terrific ideas and become even more energized,” said Gross. “This is just the beginning of our building a young, strong leadership in the coming years.”

Beth El youth groups promised Temple Rabbis invite college wet ’n wild time students to dinner

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator For most Jewish kids, Dec. 25 is a day with not much to do: restaurants, malls and movie theaters are closed, and parents dread to hear that oft-repeated complaint, ‘I’m bored,’ all day long.

This year will be different, though, as Beth El Synagogue has come to the rescue by planning an exciting day at CoCo Key Water Park, for all three of its youth groups.

USY, Kadima and BESTT Chaverim members can look forward to a wet ‘n’ wild time at the brand new water park, located at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Convention Center, 72nd & Grover St., on Tuesday, Dec. 25, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Lunch will be provided, according to Youth Director Robert Mosenkis, who also noted that this program marks the first time that all three groups have shared an event.

“Omaha is lucky to have its first indoor water park and this is a unique program for a day that usually gives few options in terms of going out,” he said. “CoCo Key is great for all ages - we hope everyone will grab their swimsuits and towels and join us for a day of fun!”

Reservations are needed by Wednesday, Dec. 19, and may be made by contacting Mosenkis at 492.8550, or at youthdir@bethel-omaha.org.

by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator College students home for winter break can’t wait to hang out with their old friends, eat some home cooking, and enjoy some personal space for awhile. It’s only been a few months (or in some cases, a few weeks) since they've been home, but many, no doubt, are looking forward to the comforts of home, family, and friends.

Rabbi Aryeh Azriel would like to catch up with these students, many of whom he has known at Temple Israel for nearly 20 years. “I’ve seen some of these kids grow up!” he quipped. So he has invited the college crowd from afar as well as collegians who go to school in the area to dinner on Sunday, Dec. 23, 6 p.m., at the Upstream Brewing Company at 514 So. 11 St. Rabbi Eric Linder and Temple Israel’s new Youth Director PJ Wiesner will also be there to get acquainted or reacquainted as the case may be.

“There’s a need on the part of the clergy to hug our kids!” declared Rabbi Azriel. “We want to welcome our college kids back home and check out their lives in college and as Jews on campus, and just have a good time!”

Please call the Temple office at 556.6536 or send an e-mail to Wiesner at pwiesner@templeisraelomaha. com to indicate you will attend.

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December 14, 2007

IN THE NEWS

If you’re at risk for heart failure or you know someone who is, Alegent can help you learn to live successfully.

Topics covered include low sodium diet, exercise and activity, managing medications and more. Classes are held at Bergan Mercy Professional Center: Follow Your Treatment Plan on Dec. 13, 2-3 p.m.; Exercise and Activity on Dec. 27, 2-3 p.m.

High cholesterol is a major risk factor of heart disease and stroke. Join family physician Matthew Bott, M.D., and cardiac rehab dietitian Caroline Juliano, R.D., L.M.N.T., to learn how to lower your cholesterol through diet, exercise and medication. All participants receive a free Healthy Living journal. Class is held at Lakeside on Dec. 19, 6-7:30 p.m.

The Food Bank announces that Chef Jeff Henderson, executive chef of Las Vegas’ Bellagio Cafè, will host our annual fundraiser next Feb. 7, 2008.

Celebrity Chef Henderson traveled a long road to become the executive chef he is today. Having first learned to cook while in prison, his dream of becoming a chef required much persistence and determination.

Refusing to give up this dream, Jeff advanced to some of the finest restaurants on the West Coast. Next up for Chef Jeff is his own reality show on The Food Network, which began shooting in the fall of 2007. Henderson lives in Las Vegas with his wife and three children.

The Food Bank, a non-profit organization formed in 1981, collects wholesome food products and distributes them to charities in Nebraska and Western Iowa. It began as a coalition of businesses, labor organizations, churches and social service agencies. Currently providing food to over 360 agencies including food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and low-income day care centers, The Food Bank also acts as a clearinghouse for national food product donations for its subsidiary food banks in Kearney, Norfolk, and Sioux City, IA. Food is also distributed directly to the branch in Sidney, NE. To learn more, call 402.331.1213 or go to www.omahafoodbank.org.

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An earlier listing of nominees for Omaha Entertainment Awards omitted the name of Eliska Morsel Greenspoon, who has been nominated in the category of Best Solo Show.

In addition, Greenspoon and her work were featured in the Dec. 4 issue of USA TODAY. In an article on tzedakah boxes, special attention was paid to the “whimsical boxes made from a cheese grater by Eliska Greenspoon of Omaha, who makes Jewish art from household objects.”

Just by chance, it happens that Dec. 4 is her birthday!

Enter the sixth annual Bess Streeter Aldrich Short Story Contest. Send original stories of 1000-2000 words to: Bess Streeter Aldrich House, PO Box 167, Elmwood, NE 68349 by Feb. 17, 2008. Write in the spirit displayed by Bess Streeter Aldrich in her works.

Books by Mrs. Aldrich that you can read to get ideas about content and style include: Mother Mason, The Rim of the Prairie, The Cutters: A Lantern in her Hand, Spring Came on Forever: A White Bird Flying Miss Bishop: Song of Years. Please send a cover sheet with name, address, e-mail address, phone number, title of story, and two copies of your story, one with your name and one without. Include a line telling how you learned about the contest. For students, add age, grade, school, and teacher to the cover sheet. Please enclose SASE for return of results of the contest. Stories will not be returned, so keep a copy.

BIRTHS James F. Newman and Jennifer K. Puckett of Mill Valley, CA, announce the Nov. 27 birth of their son, James Puckett Newman.

He has a brother, Jesse Puckett Newman and a sister, Grace Ann Puckett Newman.

Grandparents are Murray and Sharee Newman, the late Brenda Katzman Newman, Roger Lamont of Belmont, CA, Don and Kathleen Leslie of Cambridge, MA, the late Oscar Calvin Puckett, Jr., and Deborah O’Hara of Scottsdale, AZ. Great-grandparent is Kay Quigley of Dorchester, MA Suzanne Horwich and Darren Cowan of Glasgow, Scotland, announce the Nov. 28 birth of their daughter, Gabriella Skye.

She is named for her great-grandmother, the late Gertrude Coats, and her step-grandfather, the late Skee Fisher.

Grandparents are Evelyn and Jack Cowan of Glasgow, Dee Fisher, and the late Bruce Horwich.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

The League of Women Voters of Greater Omaha is seeking nominations to its annual LWV Making Democracy Work Award. The award, which will honor an individual for her community activism, will be presented Feb. 18, 2008.

Nominations are open to any woman who is or has been part of the work force and has contributed to our community in a meaningful way. Nominees can apply themselves or may be nominated by a friend, colleague, or organization. An application form can be downloaded from our web site at www.omahalwv.org. All applications must be received by Jan. 15, 2008.

The winner will be announced in February in conjunction with the League’s 88th birthday party. The League of Women Voters is the premier organization where hands-on work leads to civic improvement. For more information, please contact Barbara Rennard, award coordinator, at 212.3629 or visit www.omahalwv.org.

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

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The Omaha Community Playhouse presents the final performances of Rave On! running through Dec. 31. The production has been performed each December at the Playhouse since 2003. This is the fifth and final year. There will be two special New Year’s Eve performances, which include cake and punch and a champagne toast at midnight.

The farewell tour! Billy McGuigan and crew return to heat up the Howard Drew Theatre with this ever-popular musical revue of Buddy Holly’s classic rock-n-roll hits. The performances are Wednesday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Tickets for Dec. 7-30 performances are $38. The New Years’s Eve performances are $50 for the 7 p.m. show and $75 for the 10 p.m. show. Tickets are available for purchase at the Playhouse Box Office, by phone at 402.553.0800, or online at www.OmahaPlayhouse.org.

The planning committee for Child Saving Institute’s (CSI) Cabaret 2008 announced that award-winning actor, writer, comedian and producer Martin Short will headline the May 10, 2008 fundraiser.

Short’s trademark physical comedy and amazingly accurate impersonations shot him to stardom in the 1980s when he was a cast member on Second City Television (SCTV) and Saturday Night Live (SNL).

Short crossed over into featured films with starring roles in Three Amigos, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Father of the Bride (I & II), Mars Attacks, and February 2008 release The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Tickets are $150. Underwriting sponsorships are available and range from $2,500 to $25,000. For information, contact CSI at 402.553.6000 or childsaving.org.

Money raised during the annual fundraiser will support CSI’s emergency shelters for children and youth, substance abuse intervention, intensive family preservation, adoption, therapeutic foster care and developmental childcare.

While the piano is a common instrument, it is unusual to hear four musicians playing two pianos at the same time. Join us for this rare treat as PianoFOURte takes the stage of the Lied Center for Performing Arts on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 6 p.m. This event is part of the Lied Center’s “Free at 6” series. Among the pieces to be performed at this concert are works by Mozart, David Von Kampen, & Beethoven. The ensemble was formed at Doane College in 1997 and are noted for their impressive synchronization. PianoFOURte’s repertory includes transcriptions of favorite works for orchestra, organ, piano, and other ensembles, as well as original works and arrangements for this unusual medium.

This performance is free to the public. For more information on this event or any other Lied Center performances, visit the Lied Center’s web page at www.liedcenter.org.

Page 8

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

December 14, 2007

Loyal readers enjoy last two Book Month events

by CAROL KATZMAN Editor of the Jewish Press “I used to be a hippie,” announced author Nathan Englander last week at his appearance during Jewish Book Month. “Now people call me sir.”

Though only 40 people showed up for his talk, there was much laughter and quite a few questions for Englander, a winner of the Pen and Guggenheim prizes, and described by New Yorker magazine as “one of the 20 best authors to watch in the 21st century.”

His book, The Ministry of Special Cases, was 10 years in the making, following his debut collection of short stories, The Relief of Unbearable Urges.

Having met “a bunch of Argentine boys,” while in Israel in 1989, Englander used his friendship with them to create a world in 1976 Buenos Aires at a time when people began disappearing. With a protagonist deliberately named Kaddish, Englander delves into an underground of pimps and prostitutes who are, at the same time, used by their coreligionists and despised.

“Everything about them,” Englander told the rapt audience, “the way they lived, loved, tangoed or ‘futbolled’” was “fascinating to me.” Their descriptions of Argentina were so different of his life in Israel at that time. “Bibi (Netanyahu)

read Hebrew,” she told the small group gathered in the Library last week. “Every year we would beg him to read from the Hagaddah at our seder and every year he would refuse.” In the end, she added, he would show up and read, “and cry at the seder.”

From this, Rosenbaum deduced her grandfather had unfinished business with his past.

Married into a family of Holocaust survivors, her research took her to Poland, where her husband’s relatives translated for her. “We were standing in a house in this small town in which I set my novel, and my aunt realized it was the house in which she grew up,” Rosenbaum said.

Their stories became her stories, intertwined with the world her grandfather left. The challenge, Rosenbaum said, is finding “the balance between imagination and fact.”

Both books are available for purchase at the Kripke Library.

Photos from top left: Gary Katz, administrator of the Kripke Jewish Federation Library, asked author Nathan Englander to sign copies of his book, The Ministry of Special Cases, for the library; among those who came to the Book Month event were Jason Kuiper, writer for the Omaha World-Herald who had interviewed Englander, Helen Epstein and Bev Fellman, both members of the Kripke Library Committee; Englander was introduced to the audience by Nancy Rips; left: freelance writer Gloria Jones talks to author Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum about her her novel, A Day of Small Beginnings.

worked out at at my gym,” Englander recounted. “I could see the walls of the Old City from my treadmill and the Knesset from my apartment window.”

If Israel’s transparency had an effect on Englander, it was also the mirror he held up to Argentina during that dark time of dictatorship, disappearances and deliberate lies. “I still have a fear of authority,” Englander added, noting that “we always

know who the ‘other’ is; people on the edge help us define our boundaries.”

Neither he nor Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum, author of the debut novel, A Day of Small Beginnings, who spoke on Dec. 6, define themselves as “Jewish” writers. “If it’s not universal,” Englander concluded, “it’s a failure.”

Rosenbaum, whose novel, A Day of Small Beginnings, covers the complicated relationship of three generations from its roots in Poland to present-day America, said that her grandfather had turned his back on religion when he emigrated to America. “But he was the only one who

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December 14, 2007

Enjoy a musical Shabbat at Beth Israel

by MARY BORT for Beth Israel Synagogue Beth Israel Synagogue invites the community to participate in a special Musical Shabbat with High Holiday Chazzan Rabbi Ari Dembitzer, Friday and Saturday, Dec.14 and 15.

According to Rabbi Jonathan Gross, “Every year, Ari comes to Beth Israel to celebrate Hanukkah with us. We’re so lucky to have him join our community for occasions such as this. In my experience in the rabbinate, having gone to shuls all over the world, I’ve never seen someone who can energize a congregation like Ari Dembitzer.”

The festivities will commence on Friday, Dec. 14, 4:37 p.m.,with a Musical Kabbalat Shabbat. Then, NCSYers are invited to the home of

Rabbi Jonathan Gross to join with Rabbi Dembitzer for dessert and music from 7:30-8:30 p.m. “This will be a fun evening with Ari, with music making as well as some treats.”

On Saturday, Dec. 15, 9 a.m., singing will be provided and Shabbat morning services led by Rabbi Dembitzer. There will be a free Kiddush lunch following services. A special Musical Havdalah at 5:41 p.m. will follow Sueda Shlishit at 4:15 p.m.

Gross encouraged everyone in the community to participate in Beth Israel’s Musical Shabbat. “We hope to see everyone come and share in this special Shabbat,” he stated. “You won’t want to miss it!”

For more information, please call the office at 556.6288.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

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Two IDF Egoz Brigade combat soldiers take a break from field training to enjoy donuts.

Hundreds of trays of sufganiot have been distributed to IDF personnel in honor of

Hanukkah. IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi and a new oleh participated in lighting the third candle in honor of new immigrants. Credit: ISRANET

Beth El Men’s Club offers big prizes through Hanukkah raffle

by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator Some lucky winners are going to walk away with some pretty impressive prizes, thanks to a special Hanukkah raffle sponsored by Beth El’s Men’s Club. The raffle, open to everyone in the community, will offer great prizes including a 42-inch flat-screen HDTV, $400 for the Apple Store, and a wine and cheese basket from Nebraska Wine and Spirits.

According to organizer Gabe Meyer, tickets will be sold throughout this month and are $5 each or three for $10; the raffle drawing will be held in early January. Meyer noted that all proceeds

will support BESTT programs and programming.

“We want to do whatever we can to help out our religious school,” he commented.

“It’s important to have a community that values the education of its youth.

We’re hoping for a strong, healthy turnout to support our Talmud Torah.”

To purchase tickets, contact Beth El Program Director Margie Gutnik at 492.8550 or programming@bethelomaha.org; for more information, contact Meyer at 445.0275, or gabe@meyer717.com.

ORGANIZATIONS YOUNG ENERGETIC SENIORS Enjoy Cherri Beam-Clarke, a storyteller and educational speaker, as she captivates the audience in a first-person Chautauqua-style presentation on Monday at the JCC auditorium at 12:45 p.m. The Courage to Continue program is based on a mid-western pioneer resettling to western Nebraska from 1869-85.

Students from the Freidel Jewish Academy will join us. Lunch is served at noon for $7 per person. Join us for bingo with Eileen or Miles Remer at 10 a.m.

Call Dee Dee at 330.4272 for transportation. For information, call Maggie Conti at 334.6521.

WALK-IN, DROP-IN For those members going to Bunch to Lunch at Goldberg’s on Thursday, please meet at the JCC by 10:45 a.m.

LOMIR REDN YIDDISH Come to the Yiddish meeting at the JCC on Thursdays, 1-3 p.m. If you have any Yiddish books you to donate, please call Anne Skolkin at 343-1638.

VISIONS Membership dues to Visions for January-December 2008 are due. Please mail your check to Visions for $7.50 to: Visions, c/o Beverly Gilinksy, 1406 No.126 St., Omaha, NE 68154.

JEWISH SENIOR SERVICES COMMUNITY EVENTS Reminder: a concert with Helmut Lotti on Thursday, Dec. 20, 1:30 p.m., at the JCC. There is no admission fee.

This event is sponsored by Bernie Altsuler.

B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS Kevin Kugler will speak at Breadbreakers on Wednesday, Dec. 19, noon, at Regency Lodge, according to Gary Javitch, chairman. Kugler, with 1620th Zone, will speak on the Cornhuskers, the recent athletic department shake-up and the hiring of Bo Pelini. All men and women in the community are invited to attend. Cost is $12 for a complete lunch and $3 for beverage service only.

Page 9

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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

December 14, 2007

Documentary depicts end of an era for Libyan Jews considered various options, choosing to return to Benghazi in 1944, albeit without the resources and lifestyle they had before the war. But Arab youths waged

by MICHAEL FOX terrifying pogroms in 1945 and 1948, and the vast majority of Libyan Jews wasted no time emigrating to The Last Jews of Libya regrettably, does not deliver on the new state of Israel.

Vivienne Roumani-Denn’s grandparents were among the full promise of its title. The viewer tunes in for an indepth recounting of a little-known chapter in history, them, and we get a snapshot of the harsh treatment and instead gets one extended family’s saga of disloca- afforded the Jews from Arab lands. They were housed in tents, and found it impossible tion, emigration and exile. to find decent jobs. The film Vivienne Roumani-Denn, the doesn’t linger over this bit of middle-aged filmmaker daughIsraeli history, perhaps because ter of said family, uses archival none of the surviving members footage and other techniques of the family interviewed onto place her clan’s experience in camera had direct experience. the larger historical-political They do share what it was like context. It’s a gallant effort, being struggling Sephardic and she provides a fascinating Jews in middle-class postwar glimpse of an era and a culture.

America. One of RoumaniBut the 50-minute The Last Denn’s brothers came first, Jews of Libya is ultimately an gaining acceptance to Brandeis above-average home movie. in the mid-1950s. (He got The Last Jews of Libya aired last week on the Sundance A teen party in Libya. Credit: Vivienne Roumani-Denn good advice from a co-worker Channel (check with your cable provider for upcoming at the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, where he was hired after the U.S. Agency for International Development, showings).

The experiences of Sephardic Jews in Arab countries run by the anti-Semitic State Deptartment, rejected his have long been overshadowed by the well-documented employment application every week for a year and a half).

Another brother followed, and eventually the family history of Ashkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe and Russia before and during World War II. (There is no Fiddler on reunited in Massachusetts. It’s an especially bittersweet the Roof immortalizing the pre-war lives of Iraqi or chunk of a bittersweet movie. While the Roumanis Egyptian or Libyan Jews, similarly.) This documentary couldn’t stay where they were, the Northeast was not a in no way aspires to even the scales by itself, but one natural fit for people from Mediterranean climes.

Nor were they embraced by the Ashkenazi Jewish comwishes it had been weightier.

Roumani-Denn traces her family back to the glory days munity. The prevailing attitude was that they couldn‘t be between the wars, when Jews and Arabs lived in harmo- Jews because they didn’t speak Yiddish (even though ny in the port cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. Her parents they spoke Judeo-Arabic). The painful irony is that the Roumanis were (and still are) more deeply in touch with grew up and met in Benghazi, and married in 1938.

But after 2,500 years, Jewish life in Libya was in for a their Judaism, from prayers to holidays to the embrace of series of shocks. For starters, Italy, which occupied Libya, family, than a lot of the assimilated Ashkenazi Jewish instituted a series of “Jewish laws” and restrictions after families who looked down on them.

So for all the opportunities that the United States Mussolini and Hitler signed their infamous pact.

Then World War II erupted, and Libya became a bat- offered, it never felt like home to the Roumanis. As with tleground between Great Britain and Italy. The Roumani most immigrants, the assimilation process didn’t really clan was shipped to Tunisia, where members of the fam- take hold until they birthed and raised children here.

In Libya, meanwhile, Israel’s victory in the Six-Day ily were killed in a daylight bombing. They suffered less, however, than the thousands of Jews sent to Italian labor War made life untenable for the few remaining Jews.

They were hurriedly airlifted to safety by the Jewish state camps and, at the Nazis’ behest, the death camps.

After the British ousted the Italians, the Roumanis within three weeks of the war’s end.

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Memories of Mandelbrot

THE HISTORIAN’S F OOTPRINT

by OLIVER B. POLLAK Memories of mandelbrot go back many years. Its staying power is greater than chopped liver, derma, herring, kishka, knish, p’tcha, and tongue.

Mandelbrot ranks up there with kugel.

There is no Wikipedia entry for this delicious confection, though there is an entry for the Polish born Benoît B. Mandelbrot, a Franco-American mathematician, with a Jewish Lithuanian background, best known as the “father of fractal geometry.”

Mandel is German for almond. Mandelbrot, Kamish bread and biscotti are twice or three times baked cookies. Like rusks they can be helpful for teething.

Far flung relatives stay in contact through cousins’ clubs, reunions, and e-mail. Celebrating bar mitzvahs and weddings brings out-of-town guests to the synagogue and a wondrous spread of traditional food. Food also unites families.

Judy Bart Kancigor has just published Cooking Jewish, 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family (New York: Workman Publishing, 2007, $19.95). The Rabinowitz family tree, and mishpuchah, stretches from Canada to Atlanta, St. Louis, New Jersey and Detroit.

Family recipes differ. Kancigor offers Abbe’s amazing Almond Mandelbrot, Mama Irene’s cinnamon Mandelbrot and Ma Hilda’s chocolate chip mandelbrot.

For Passover there is also chocolate chip mandelbrot.

Kosher for Passover mandelbrot uses matza cake flour, and another variant uses gluten-free flour.

The recipe of my mother, mother-in-law, and the family of my daughter-in-law are all variations on a theme. The older the recipe, the less detail there is on amounts of ingredients. Daughters learn to make mandelbrot by watching their mothers, bubbes (grandmothers), or from cookbooks.

My grandson has that new age allergy to nuts. So my

spouse, Karen, went in search of a mandelbrot recipe sans walnuts, pecans, pistachio, or almonds. She searched in 17 cookbooks, each of which contained about three mandelbrot recipes, and decided to follow her mother’s nut-less recipe. My mother’s delectable mandelbrot have nuts.

For Shaina’s first birthday, our wheeled luggage on the airplane to San Francisco contained 120 mandelbrot, gingerly wrapped in tin (or is it aluminum?) foil, and packed into shoe boxes. If for some reason they are not eaten quickly, they can be frozen for a subsequent reappearance.

UNO English professor Joan Latchaw’s nonagenarian mother Jerry Fineberg has elevated mandelbrot to musical performance in “Mandelbrodt Mama,” especially at Rosh Hashanah and Passover.

They call me Mandelbrodt Mama, that’s my name Making the mandelbrodt is my game, Now it has really brought me some fame And I’m here to tell you I’ll never be the same Because I’m Mandelbrodt Mama yessiree Whenever you want that great cookie You don’t have to worry Come here and you’ll see I’m Mandelbrodt Mama that’s me (I don’t deliver) Mandelbrodt Mama that’s me I’m glad I’m Mandelbrodt Mama, You should know I take my mandel wherever I go I give it to friends, even some presidents It meets with favor, I get such compliments And so I’m Mandelbrodt Mama yessiree So whenever you want that great cookie You don’t have to worry Come here and you’ll see I’m Mandelbrot Mama, that’s me.

The taste and texture of memory come at the price of carbohydrates and calories. The little indulgences are low cholesterol and have no trans fats. Go ahead, have a bite, see if you can only eat one.

Oliver B. Pollak is an attorney, author and historian and can be reached at: obpomni@aol.com.

December 14, 2007

Hanukkah with Chabad

Photos from top: A group sings the traditional “Haneirot Hallalu” following the lighting of the Menorah on the back of a car at Clocktower Village, across the street from Von Maur; Car top Menorah is lit for the second night of Hanukkah across from Von Maur, where the deadly shooting took place just a few hours before; miracle celebrants share traditional hot, homemade latkes and sufganiyot -doughnuts -- in honor of the miracles of Hanukkah and the modern day miracle of the of survivors of the shooting at Westroads.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 11

Project Dreidel a success thanks to volunteers

by ANDREA BARTMAN for Jewish Family Service Volunteers are what determine the success of an effort like Project Tzedakah and Project Dreidel. Just ask Jenny Meyerson, Project Tzedakah Coordinator, who organizes this annual holiday relief project for Jewish Family Service.

“We at JFS are so grateful and proud of this community, that is so generous with their time and finances, to help ensure that all local Jewish children and families

to see them.

“It is not easy for these families to reach out for help,” says Meyerson, “but we are glad they know that JFS is a safe and confidential place to come for assistance. Many of these families get by day-to-day but don’t have the extra income for holiday gifts. If people in this community can ease this burden, it is our obligation to do so.

JFS is simply the catalyst for this to take place; it is the mission of JFS to help those in need with dignity and respect at every stage of the life cycle.”

The Community Room at the JCC was filled with boxed and bagged food items for delivery this year.

Gary Kudym, above, and his wife, Robbi, have helped JFS with food and gift deliveries for years.

enjoy a happy Hanukkah,” she says. Meyerson added that there are many donors and volunteers who help with other holidays and throughout the year and how appreciated they all are by JFS. This year’s Hanukkah effort provided over 40 individuals and families with food for the holiday. In addition, twenty families received gifts through Project Dreidel.

Families were sponsored by donors in the community, along with area organizations who contributed.

“This project,” says Meyerson, “takes the effort of so many volunteers; to shop for food and gifts, wrap gifts, pack boxes and deliver all of the items.”

Some community members contribute to the project by writing a check, and some, like Leslie Eades and her daughter, Emma, enjoy the hands on work of delivering packages to people who are so grateful and happy

Besides individual community members, many groups and organizations participate as well. According to Nancy Burkhart, her Burke High School students feel a real sense of accomplishment when participating in this project. “They have always come back to the classroom beaming with pride having helped someone less fortunate than themselves, thus giving them a new appreciation for what they have,” she says. Other groups like Yachad, the CDC and various synagogue groups also make their participation a yearly event.

Project Tzedakah takes place three times a year at Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah and Passover. Volunteers and donors mean everything to this agency. If you would like more information on how you or your community group can provide assistance to those who need it, please contact JFS at 330.2024.

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Page 12

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

December 14, 2007

Suicide by homicide By now, everyone knows about the horrific shooting that occurred last week at the Von Maur department store in the Westroads Mall.

Eight people were killed -- three men and five women -- and several more injured (two critically), before the shooter, 19-year-old Robert Hawkins took his own life.

Suicide, while tragic, is understandble to some extent. Confused and in despair, those attempting to kill themselves often see suicide as the only way out of a black hole. There are no positive solutions for them, no “pulling oneself up by bootstraps”, no long-term therapy or antidepressants that can “fix” their problems.

Family and friends left behind then are left to wonder if they missed something -- a glance, a confusing statement, some hidden sadness or look or e-mail with which the living will beat themselves because they’re now looking for the signs they missed.

Could his “foster mother” have stopped this when Hawkins showed her the AK-47 he took from his stepfather? Could the friend he visited before driving to the mall prevented “Robby” from randomly taking the lives of eight innocent people? What about school officials at Paillion-LaVista where Hakwins dropped out before he was to graduate in 2006? Did the Omaha World-Herald front page article on the 50th anniversary of the Charles Starkweather shootings influence Hawkins to do the same? Did Hawkins’ twisted logic make him assume that 50 years from now, people would still be talking about him, too? And mall security? Could unarmed renta-cops prevented the massacre before it began?

We’ll never know the answers. Oh sure, the usual pundits will both decry the availability of guns while insisting that mall security be allowed to carry firearms. The loons on all sides of the spectrum will argue for everything

from stronger gun legislation to better foster parenting, but in this case it wouldn’t have mattered. Hawkins was not a minor; at 19, he could and did make his own legal decisions -even if they were bad ones, even if they took the lives of eight others Hawkins didn’t even know, even if he forever ruined the dreams and hopes and lives of those eight families and more.

And though his actions were not directed by political considerations like those of suicide bombers in Israel, Iraq, Europe and the 9/11 perpetrators, the outcome was the same -- the deaths of innocent real people, whose only “crime” was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We live in a sick world, a world where the taking of a life seems no more important than stepping on a bug. Whether it’s payback in a gang shooting that mistakenly takes the life of an innocent bystander or a mall massacre like this one, the perpetrators don’t seem to have the capacity to think of the consequences of their actions.

If you fire a gun, someone may indeed get hurt or die. It seems so simple, yet so many don’t seem to be able to comprehend the relationship between cause and effect.

So what do we do? Do we emulate the Israeli model and close all entrances to malls through stores and place metal detectors and armed guards at mall entrances? Do we institute patrols of parking lots by security forces carrying guns with live rounds? Do we place cameras everywhere as the British government does in London?

Is that the way we want to live?

Or is that a glimpse of our future whether we like it or not?

Living in the Heartland has always seemed like a sanctuary from the rest of the world.

Perhaps that is why so many parents here have been so afraid of sending their children to Israel on teen trips. But now, as the World Herald noted in its headline last Thursday, Omaha has joined the ranks of cities around the globe: “It happened to us.”

Hawkins wrote in his suicide note that now he’d “be famous.” Famous, sure, but for all the wrong reasons.

Accept Israel as the Jewish State?

BEHIND THE H EADLINES

by DANIEL PIPES Surprisingly, something useful has emerged from the combination of the misconceived Annapolis meeting and a weak Israeli prime minister, Ehud (“Peace is achieved through concessions”) Olmert. Breaking with his predecessors, Olmert has boldly demanded that his Palestinian bargaining partners accept Israel’s permanent existence as a Jewish state, thereby evoking a revealing response.

Unless the Palestinians recognize Israel as “a Jewish state,” Olmert announced on Nov. 11, the Annapolis-related talks would not proceed. “I do not intend to compromise in any way over the issue of the Jewish state. This will be a condition for our recognition of a Palestinian state.”

He confirmed these points a day later, describing the “recognition of Israel as a state for the Jewish people” as the “launching point for all negotiations. We won’t have an argument with anyone in the world over the fact that Israel is a state of the Jewish people.” The Palestinian leadership, he noted, must “want to make peace with Israel as a Jewish state.”

Raising this topic has the virtue of finally focusing attention on what is the central topic in the Arab-Israeli conflict -- Zionism, the Jewish nationalist movement, a topic that typically gets ignored in the hubbub of negotiations. Since nearly the birth of the state, these have focused on the intricacies of such subsidiary issues as borders, troop placements, armaments and arms control, sanctities, natural resources, residential rights, diplomatic

representation, and foreign relations.

The Palestinian leadership responded quickly and unequivocally to Olmert’s demand: • The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee in Nazareth unanimously called on the Palestinian Authority not to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

• Salaam Fayad, Palestinian Authority “prime minister”: “Israel can define itself as it likes, but the Palestinians will not recognize it as a Jewish state.”

• Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s executive committee: “This issue is not on the table; it is raised for internal [Israeli] consumption.”

• Ahmad Qurei, chief Palestinian negotiator: “This [demand] is absolutely refused.”

• Saeb Erekat, head of the PLO Negotiations Department: “The Palestinians will never acknowledge Israel’s Jewish identity. … There is no country in the world where religious and national identities are intertwined.”

Raising this topic has the virtue of finally focusing attention on what is the central topic in the Arab-Israeli conflict -- Zionism.

Further, the religious-national nexus extends well beyond Muslim countries. Argentinean law, Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe points out, “mandates government support for the Roman Catholic faith. Queen Elizabeth II is the supreme governor of the Church of England. In the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, the constitution proclaims Buddhism the nation’s ‘spiritual heritage.’ … ‘The prevailing religion in Greece,’ declares Section II of the Greek Constitution, ‘is that of the

Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ’.”

So, why the mock-principled refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state? Perhaps because the PLO still intends to eliminate Israel as a Jewish state.

Note my use of the word “eliminate,” not destroy. Yes, anti-Zionism has until now mainly taken a military form, from Gamal Abdel Nasser’s “throw the Jews into the sea” to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s “Israel must be wiped off the map.” But the power of the Israel Defense Forces has prodded antiZionism toward a more subtle approach of accepting an Israeli state but dismantling its Jewish character. Anti-Zionists consider several ways to achieve this: • Demography: Palestinians could overwhelm the Jewish population of Israel, a goal signaled by their demand for a "right of return" and by their so-called war of the womb.

• Politics: Arabs citizens of Israel increasingly reject the country’s Jewish nature and demand that it become a bi-national state.

• Terror: The 100 Palestinian attacks a week during the period, Sept. 2000-Sept. 2005 sought to induce economic decline, emigration, and appeasement.

• Isolation: All those United Nations resolutions, editorial condemnations, and campus aggressions are meant to wear down the Zionist spirit.

Arab recognition of Israel’s Jewish nature must have top diplomatic priority. Until the Palestinians formally accept Zionism, then follow up by ceasing all their various strategies to eliminate Israel, negotiations should be halted and not restarted.

Until then, there is nothing to talk about.

Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum.

Read more at: www.DanielPipes.org.

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December 14, 2007

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

Page 13

Iran Forecast: Don’t worry, be happy?

Intelligence estimate leaves Bush nuke policies in ruins and Jerusalem isolated

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

by JONATHAN S. TOBIN After years of trying to build awareness of the threat from Iran, the release this week of a new National Intelligence Estimate claiming that it has no current nuclear-weapons program has sunk the campaign to keep that Islamist republic in quarantine. That is not the spin coming out of the administration or from many of its supporters.

Instead, some of them claim the finding that Iran abandoned its nuclear program in 2003 is proof that an aggressive American foreign policy, mixing diplomatic sanctions, threats and military strikes, can bring rogue regimes to their senses.

Nice try. But, if the Iranians were scared out of a nuclear infatuation (as Libya apparently was after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq), then why have they spent the last four years busily -- and publicly -- defending their right to go nuclear and holding ceremonies commemorating each step along the way?

Sanctions Sunk The same document, which reverses a 2005 finding from the same source that claimed the Iranians were working on a bomb, also points out that a nuclear capability is still the long-term goal and acknowledges the scientific work that’s been accomplished to get there. There’s no sense either in the piece of just how close the Iranians were when they dropped the program.

But whatever the country is planning to do -- or is doing now without the knowledge of our spies -- the proclamation that there’s no current nuclear program puts an end to all the Bush administration’s hopes for increased sanctions on Iran.

President Bush was right when he noted after the document’s release that Iran was and remains dangerous, and that nothing has really changed. Iran is the leading exporter of terror in the world via

Hezbollah and Hamas. Its president has threatened Israel with genocide, and its religious leaders (who hold the real power in the country) have the goal of imposing their radical ideas about Islam throughout the region and the world.

Supporters of an aggressive policy of Iran containment, such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, can claim and be right that the details of the report buttress the belief that it’s a nation that must be restrained.

But in the absence of an imminent nuclear threat, those who still think that either Russia or China will go along with the West’s push for more sanctions are dreaming. And anyone who thinks the Western European governments who have been reluctant passengers on Bush’s anti-Iran bandwagon won’t now get off promptly is also not paying attention.

That’s bad news for a number of reasons, of which only the most prominent is the fact that the NIE might be wrong.

We can leave aside the fact that it makes no sense for a nation like Iran, which is sitting on one of the biggest oil reserves in the world, to be expending so much treasure on peaceful uses of nuclear energy rather than military ones. We can also discount the fact that Israeli intelligence sources, which have a slightly better track record than Washington’s spooks, disagree with the NIE. This is, after all, the same U.S. group that two years ago were sure the Iranians were developing nukes; that four years ago assured Bush that the proof Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction was a “slam dunk;” and that utterly failed to predict the Sept. 11 attacks or prepare Americans for their aftermath.

If these operatives are wrong again, it won’t matter whether the motive for their newfound caution stems from an overreaction to their Iraq mistakes or, as some Bushites now claim, a politically inspired move by some in the intelligence community to stop the use of force against Iran.

If, as the document admits, the Iranians decide to go nuclear at some point in the not-too-distant future -- something that will be facilitated by the reported construction of centrifuges -- then it will be too late to reassemble the coalition of concerned nations to do something about what was billed as an urgent problem.

As those urging action on Iran have stated in the past, once Iran crosses the nuclear threshold, the only options then will be acquiescence or war.

All that notwithstanding, the NIE finding means that the air is out of the balloon for the push for Iran divestment and international sanctions. And that means both our European “allies,” and the Russians and Chinese, can go back to business as usual when it comes to trading with Tehran. It also means that the Israeli diplomatic campaign to raise awareness about Iran won’t be going anywhere either.

But the toll on American diplomacy is greater than that.

The rationale behind the recently completed Middle East summit in Annapolis, Md., was that opposition to Iran throughout the region would be the impetus for support for a renewed peace process. With the nuclear question now off the table -and with Europe almost certainly dropping out of the argument -- how exactly do Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice propose to convince the so-called “moderate” Arabs to remain interested in isolating Iran?

Left With Abbas All of which leaves us with a Mideast policy that, at present, consists almost

As those urging action on Iran have stated in the past, once Iran crosses the nuclear threshold, the only options then will be acquiescence or war.

solely of an irrational belief in the peaceful intentions of the Palestinians and their leaders.

It was one thing for Bush to push hard for Israel to go to Annapolis and to start final-status talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as part of a global vision that had, as its centerpiece, the goal of stopping Iran.

With that central prop torn away from our foreign policy -- and without belief in the nuclear peril from Iran that both Washington and Jerusalem have been promoting -- all that’s left is faith in Abbas and the allegedly moderate Arabs who back him.

You needn’t be a peace skeptic to understand that Abbas hasn’t the power or the ability to make a deal, or to finally end Palestinian terror, even if Israel retreated from the West Bank, as it did from Gaza.

The fact that three of his own “policemen” celebrated the Annapolis meeting by murdering a Jew in the West Bank in order to make a political point should have reminded us that the differences between Abbas’ Fatah and its Hamas rivals are more style than substance.

All of which means that Bush’s policy has now officially gone from a prayer to a joke.

That will leave Israel once again isolated and trying to defend itself against false charges that its “occupation” of the territories is the impetus for Palestinian terrorism and the sole cause of the conflict.

If the NIE is right, we should be thankful that the ability of Iran to commit nuclear genocide might not be in the cards. But right or wrong, the administration now finds itself painted into a corner -- with no solution to the IsraelPalestinian conflict in sight, and no hope of rallying the world against a key Islamist threat.

Even if there are no nukes in Tehran’s future, that’s a pretty frightening thought for both Israelis and Americans.

Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia. He can be contacted via e-mail at: jtobin@jewishexponent.com.

Joyful Jewish tent meeting is worthy of emulation

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

by RON WOLFSON ATLANTA (JTA) -- A crowd of 4,500 gathered recently at the ornate Fox Theatre here for a celebration of Jewish spirit and synagogue life that can accurately be described as a Jewish tent meeting. “Hallelu Atlanta” was an extraordinary moment in the history of one of the fastest-growing Jewish communities in North America. The afternoon gathering held significance, meaning and purpose far beyond what may have appeared to be simply a concert featuring a who’s who of Jewish music.

One of the greatest cantors of our generation, Alberto Mizrahi, opened the program with a Sephardic version of “L’cha Dodi” and a Yiddish lullaby. Theodore Bikel, a sprightly 80-something, transfixed the crowd with his set, while a 20-something Joshua Nelson led a 200-voice community youth choir in a song about the Jewish future.

The actress Mare Winningham stunned the crowd when she shared the tradition’s teaching that all converts to Judaism are to be considered as if they, too, were present at Sinai as she launched into a country music “Convert’s Jig.” Nelson, a third-generation black Jew from New Jersey who teaches Hebrew school when not performing, sang a gospel-infused “Adon Olam” that raised the roof.

Neshama Carlebach channeled the legacy of her late father, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebah. Rounding out the roster were Debbie Friedman and Craig Taubman, perhaps the two most influential composers of contemporary Jewish music. Taubman, the producer, assembled an array of tal-

ent reflecting the diversity of age, gender, race and background of the audience, itself a mirror of the current demography of the American Jewish community.

So what? It was the purpose of the event that made the difference between a Jewish hootenanny and a celebration of synagogue and spirit. It was the culmination of a yearlong series of Synagogue 3000 workshops on membership outreach and inreach for the clergy and lay leadership teams of 20 Atlanta-area congregations from across the denominations.

Virtually all 4,500 tickets were sold exclusively in blocks of seats by the congregations to enable synagogue members to sit together, much like a political convention. This created a “community of communities” in the hall. The transliterated words of all the songs were pro-

... core memberships of Atlanta synagogues ... assembled to celebrate the joy of being Jewish -- not to commemorate past tragedies, not to debate why our numbers are declining, not to evaluate responses to a crisis, not to demonstrate for a cause, but to celebrate. jected onto a huge screen to facilitate the “congregation” to sing along. The themes of the songs: “From Generation to Generation,” “Return Again, “Sing a New Song” and “One People” were carefully chosen.

A live blogger, Yo Yenta (www.yoyenta.com), documented her reactions to what was transpiring on the stage. A tribute to the late Yitzhak Rabin on the anniversary of his assassination, which included the singing of “Hatikvah,” left many in tears.

Videos of congregants sharing their often hilarious

reflections on synagogue life tickled the audience of mostly shul members. The climax was the honoring of professionals who serve synagogues and the blessing of those who support them, led by the combined choirs of the Atlanta congregations and their cantors and soloists.

Certainly when 4,500 Jews experience something together, there are bound to be at least that many opinions about what happened. Some complained about their seats; others worried about security. One critic thought there was too much “1980s music,” while some wanted more nostalgia. Others could not believe that the artists sang only two songs when each could easily carry a full concert. They didn’t get it.

But many of the leaders of the community did. They stood among the core memberships of Atlanta synagogues who had assembled to celebrate the joy of being Jewish -not to commemorate past tragedies, not to debate why our numbers are declining, not to evaluate responses to a crisis, not to demonstrate for a cause, but to celebrate.

They witnessed hundreds of children and adults from individual choirs join their voices in a communal choir.

They gathered in a popular and venerated public venue, not in a sanctuary. They brought their friends and prospective new members to witness the new spirit that animates many synagogues today.

They left the event elated, uplifted, honored and energized to continue the important work of transforming our synagogues into sacred communities of spirituality, committed to deepening the relationships between the members and their congregations and between each individual and God. “The workshops and ‘Hallelu Atlanta’ celebration were truly a gift to our community,” said Mark Jacobson, executive director of The Temple. “Moreover, Continued on page 15

Page 14

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

December 14, 2007

Candlelighting Friday, Dec. 14, 4:37 p.m.

Synagogue Listings

B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

618 Mynster St. Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 322.4705 email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com

FRIDAY: Services followed by Oneg, 7:30 p.m. with Cheryl Lerner presenting “Shetl Dances of Eastern Europe.” The community is invited.

Beth El Synagogue

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE

Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California Omaha, NE 68154-1980 492.8550 www.bethel-omaha.org

Services conducted by Rabbi Mordechai Levin and Cantor Gastón Bogomolni.

FRIDAY: Musical Shabbat services, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY: Morning services, 9:30 a.m.; Kiddush given by Beth El; Minha/Ma’ariv, 4:40 p.m.

SHABBAT TUNES AND TALES: Saturday, 11:15-11:45 a.m. Monthly Shabbat sing-along program led by “Miss Patty” Nogg is open to all Jewish children (up to age five), their parents and grandparents.

Sitter Service is available during Friday night and Saturday morning services, on a drop-in basis, at no charge.

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

ADULT EDUCATION SUNDAY, Bible Study Discussion Group, 10 a.m.

WEDNESDAYS: “Critical Thinking from a Jewish Perspective,” 7-8 p.m. on Dec. 19, led

by Dr. Toby Schonfeld. Cost is $18. For information, call the office.

THURSDAY: Rabbi Levin’s Insights and Values from the Torah class is at noon; Women’s book Club, 1:15 p.m., led by Susan Paley.

BESTT SHABBATON Dec. 15-16. This year’s theme: “God’s Top Ten: Exploring the Ten Commandments.” To register your third through fifth grade child, contact Judy Rubin at 498.0904 or eddir@bethelomaha.org.

‘WHAT’S JEWISH ABOUT FOOD?’ Fun-filled program of cooking, arts and crafts and music, geared to children ages three to six, on Sunday, 12:15 p.m.-2 p.m. All Jewish families in the community are invited to attend. For more information, contact the office.

BESTT PRESCHOOL: Sunday, 10 a.m.-noon. For information, contact Judy Rubin at 498.0904, or eddir@bethelomaha.org.

HAZAK TOUR OF NJHS Sunday, noon at the JCC. Join Hazak for a tour through the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society's photographs, exhibits

B’nai Israel Synagogue

Beth Israel Synagogue Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 12604 Pacific St. Omaha, NE. 68154 556.6288 BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org

Beyt Shalom An Affiliate of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation 3012 S. 119 St. P.O. Box 390352 Omaha, NE 68139 660.2395 www.beytshalomomaha.org

Chabad House An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch 1866 S. 120th St. Omaha, NE 68144-1646 330.1800 www.OChabad.com email: chabad@aol.com

Congregation B’nai Jeshurun South Street Temple Union for Reform Judaism 2061 S. 20th St. Lincoln, NE 68502-2797 435.8004 southstreettemple.org

Offutt Air Force Base SAC Memorial Chapel 301 Lincoln Highway Offutt AFB, NE 68113 294.6244

Rose Blumkin Jewish Home 333 S. 132 St. Omaha, NE 68154

Temple Israel Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 7023 Cass Street Omaha, NE 68132-2651 556.6536 templeisrael-ne.org

The Neighborhood Minyan 1317 No. 57 St. Omaha, NE 68132 551.6609

Tifereth Israel Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Blvd., Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 423.8569 www.tiferethisraellincoln.org

If you’re looking at this space, so are others!

YOUR AD CAN GO HERE...

to reserve space, call

Allan Handleman, 334.6451, or Terri Greenwood, 334.6559.

and archives. Questions? Contact Gloria Goodman, 333.3351.

MEN’S CLUB RAFFLE: Tickets available now at $5 each or $10 for three. To purchase tickets, call Margie Gutnik; for more information, contact Gabe Meyer at 445.0275, or gabe@meyer717.com.

YOUTH GROUPS’ PROGRAM: Tuesday, Dec. 25, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., USY, Kadima and BESTT Chaverim members will meet at CoCo Key Water Park, located at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Convention Center, 72nd and Grover St. Cost is $22 per person; lunch will be provided.

RSVP by Wednesday, Dec. 19 to Robert Mosenkis in the office, or at youthdir @bethel-omaha.org.

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE 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.

FRIDAY: Special Musical Kabbalat Shabbat with Rabbi Ari Dembitzer, 4:37 p.m. Dessert at Rabbi Gross’s house for NCSYers with Ari, 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m. free babysitting, 9:30 a.m.; Children’s Classes, 9:45 a.m. with Torah Parade; Kiddush lunch will follow services; Mincha, 4:15 p.m. followed by Sueda Shlishit; Special musical Havdalah program will follow; Havdalah, 5:43 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; “Reading the Rambam” is canceled in Dec. Rabbi Oxman will be out of town; Rabbi Gross’s teen class, 10 a.m.

WEEKDAYS: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m.

MONDAY: Sisterhood’s Mah Jongg, 7-9 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Sisterhood Board Meeting, 9:15 p.m. at the JCC. Babysitting is available through the JCC’s Fit ‘n Sit program by reservation with the JCC. THURSDAY: Women of the Torah class, 9:30 a.m.; Rabbi’s Gross’s weekly class, 7:30 p.m.

BEYT SHALOM FRIDAY: Shabbat in the Home.

SUNDAY: Religious School, 1:30-3:30 p.m. at the JCC.

luncheon follows the service.

SUNDAY: Service, 8:30 a.m.; Mishpacha Mornings, 10:15 a.m.

WEEKDAYS: Services, 7 a.m.

MONDAY: Maamar Kabbalistic Insights for Women, 12:15 p.m.

TUESDAY: W.O.W. Parsha, Prophets, and Prayer, 9 a.m.; Parshah Roundup: Weekly Torah Portion Class, 7 p.m.

Kabbalah WEDNESDAY: Circle, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY: Jewish Thought, 12:45 p.m.

All events and programs are open to the entire community.

For more information or to register call 330.1800 or visit our website http://www.Ochabad.com.

CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN Services conducted by Rabbi Ilan Emanuel.

FRIDAY: Shabbat Evening Service, 7:45 p.m. with oneg following provided by Barbara Straus.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10:30 a.m.; Game Night/ Potluck, 6 p.m.

SUNDAY: LJCS Students meet at South Street Temple for the Hanukkah Music Program, 9:30 a.m.-noon; Jewish Federation of Lincoln Annual meeting, 7-8:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Hebrew classes (grades 3-7), 4-6 p.m. at TI.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m.

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by Marti Nerenstone & Beyt Shalom Congregation.

TEMPLE ISRAEL FRIDAY: Shabbat Service, 6 p.m. Rabbi Linder, and Cantor Shermet will lead the service.

SATURDAY: Sparks Beneath the Surface, 9:15 a.m.; Morning Service, 10:30 a.m.

SUNDAY: No Religious School.

SITTER SERVICE: Available Wednesday evenings during

Family School hours, Friday evenings service except when there is a Tot Shabbat, Saturday mornings when there is a B’nai mitzvah, and Sunday mornings during Religious School. Advance reservations and a $5 donation appreciated. Young children, including infants, are welcome.

TUESDAY: Hebrew Lunch & Learn, 12:15 p.m.; Executive Board Meeting, 6 p.m.; Board of Trustees Meeting, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Grades 3-6, 4 p.m.; OTYG Ultimate Dreidel Competition, 5 p.m.; All School Dinner, 6 p.m.; Family School, 6 p.m.; Grades 7-12, 6 p.m.

THURSDAY: “Adult Study with the Clergy” with Rabbi Linder, 10-11:30 a.m.

FRIDAY, Dec. 21: Parent/ Toddler Class, at 9:30 a.m.

COLLEGE DINNER WITH THE CLERGY Sunday, Dec. 23, 6 p.m.: Upstream Brewing Company (Old Market) All college-age young adults are invited to join Temple’s clergy for an evening of conversation and food. Stop in and catch up with Omaha news!

FRIDAY, Dec. 28: Shabbat Comes to You, 4 p.m. at Blumkin Home.

NEIGHBORHOOD MINYAN FRIDAY: Minyan, 4:37 p.m.

SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m.

TIFERETH ISRAEL Services conducted by Nancy Coren, Lay Leader. Office hours: Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

MONDAY and THURSDAY: Minyan, 9 a.m. Contact the office to arrange for a minyan.

FRIDAY: Snacks, 6:15 p.m.; Services, 6:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: Morning service, 9:30 a.m. followed by kiddush lunch.

SUNDAY: LJCS Students meet at South Street Temple for the Hanukkah Music Program, 9:30 a.m.-noon; Torah Trope for Adults, 11-11:50 a.m.; Jewish Federation of Lincoln Annual meeting, 7-8:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Hebrew classes (grades 3-7), 4-6 p.m.

Hanukkiyah lit in nation’s capitol CHABAD HOUSE Services conducted by Rabbi Mendel Katzman. Office hours: Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Services, 7 a.m.

SATURDAY: Maamar class, 9 a.m.; Service, 9:30 a.m.; Kiddush

BAT MITZVAH Maddison Sabrina Skolkin, daughter of Andrea and Michael Skolkin, will become Bat Mitzvah on S a t u r d a y, Dec. 22, at Beth El. A seventhgrade student at Beveridge Magnet Middle School, her inter-

ests include horseback riding, philosophy, animals, drama; she also is an avid reader.

For her mitzvah project, Maddison delivered meals during the holiday season to patients of OneWorld Community Health Centers.

She has a sister, Marlee.

Grandparents are Anne Skolkin, and Bettie Richtel of Salt Lake City, UT.

Michael Mukasey, the U.S. attorney general and an Orthodox Jew, poses with Rabbi Levi Shemtov and Rabbi Abraham Shemtov after lighting the “National Menorah” on Dec. 4, the first night of Hanukkah. American Friends of Lubavitch organizes the annual lighting each year on the Ellipse, in front of the White House. Levi Shemtov directs the Washington office of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement; his father, Abraham Shemtov, Credit: CNP/Bardugo founded it in the 1980s.

December 14, 2007

The great reconciliation

SPARKS FROM THE WORD

by RABBI MYER S. KRIPKE Parashat Vayigash Things have not been going well for the brothers in Egypt. The Man, unknown by the brothers to be their brother Joseph, has been playing cat and mouse with them.

The latest is that he has taken Benjamin, the youngest of the brothers (except for himself), as his slave. He has suggested to the brothers, grandly, that they may go back to their old father in Canaan and he being a gentle gentleman, will not execute Benjamin, as might have been expected, but will only hold him as his slave. How noble this was, and how generous!

Judah, crestfallen, and not really expecting success, now approaches the Man with a desperate plea. One might say that Judah’s plea before Joseph is a textbook example of how one should plead a lost cause to a court of justice.

Judah quickly, without wasting words, simply puts the history of the matter before the Man, and then makes a desperate plea: he tells the Man that he has promised his father that if Benjamin does not come back, he himself will be the sacrifice.

Now Judah appeals to the Man: “In order to save the life of my old father, please let this youngest son go

back with them to Canaan and I will remain your slave forever.”

Joseph might have replied, “What good would that be to me? He is much younger than you and would serve me many more years than you. Why should I take you?”

Instead, Joseph dissolves in tears. He orders everyone to leave the room excepting the brothers who remain with him. The Egyptians might have been unwilling to leave Joseph alone with these rough cattlemen from Canaan; but they do leave.

Joseph now exclaims, “I am Joseph.” The brothers are unbelieving. “I am Joseph your brother,” he exclaims. The brothers still cannot believe this. the Midrash goes so far as to say that Joseph opens his clothing and shows his milah to prove that he is not an Egyptian, who are not a circumcised people.

Joseph, in tears, accepts his brothers and shows them that he is completely forgiving for the way they treated him. He explains it theologically -- that God had worked out this plan, and not man, to save Egypt and Canaan and all of the known world from starvation during the seven years of drought.

There is much joy; and now Pharaoh himself orders royal conveyances to be sent to Canaan to bring down the old Jacob and all of his retinue. He assigns them a special place to live, in Goshen.

Thus it was that the whole House of Israel finds itself in the (then) thankful Egypt.

Then. Although you know the story, be sure to read it again.

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

PEOPLE WHO READ NEWSPAPERS ARE

Page 15

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DEATHS ROBERT COHEN Robert Cohen died Dec. 4 in Denver at the age of 88.

The funeral service at Congregation Rodef Shalom was officiated by Rabbi Bernard Gerson on Dec. 6 with internment at Temple Emanual Cemetery in Denver.

Cohen earned a B.S. in engineering at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in 1941 and married Selma Hill in Lincoln. They had been married for 66 years when she preceded him in death on Oct. 5, 2007.

He served in the U.S. Army as an ordnance officer at army bases in Colorado and Kansas from 1942-45.

Returning to Lincoln after the Army, he earned a master’s in mechanical engineering in 1949. In Lincoln, he served as president of B’nai B’rith and campaign chairman for the United Jewish Appeal.

He was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Society of Automotive Engineers, the American International Mining and Metalurgical Engineering. He and his family moved to Denver in 1961, when he founded Iron and Metals, Inc., which he served as president.

He is survived by four children and their spouses, Alan and Sue Cohen of Denver, Richard and Sue Cohen of Saratoga, CA, Barbralu Cohen and Don Koplen of Boulder, and Murray Cohen and Sharon Faison-Cohen of Denver; seven grandchildren: Steven, Michael, Laura and Jimmy Cohen, Rebecca Tulsi, Nathan Manning and Jacob Koplen; seven great-grandchildren; sister, Joie Simon; sister-in-law, Ghita Bessman, of Madison, WI; and brother-in-law, Leo Hill of Lincoln.

Memorials to Congregation Rodef Shalom, 450 So. Kearney St., Denver, CO 80224 or the Denver Chapter of Hadassah, 1780 So. Bellaire St., Suite #845, Denver 80222.

To Submit Announcements to the Jewish Press: Announcements may be e-mailed to the Press with attached photos in .jpg or .tif files to jpress@jewishomaha.org; faxed to 402.334.5422, or mailed to 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154 (with photos we will scan and return).

Forms are available through Omaha and Lincoln synagogues, by contacting The Jewish Press at 402.334.6448, or by e-mailing: ckatzman@jewishomaha.org.

Readers can also submit other announcements -- births engagements, marriages, commitment ceremonies or obituaries -- online at the Jewish Federation of Omaha website: www.jewishomaha.org. Click on “Jewish Press” and go to Submit Announcements.

Deadlines are normally eight days prior to publication, on Thursdays, 9 a.m. Check the Jewish Press, however, for notices of early deadlines prior to secular and Jewish holidays. The deadline for the Dec. 28 issue is Wednesday, Dec. 19; the deadline for the Jan. 4, 2008, issue is Wednesday, Dec. 26.

BERNARD HOCKENBERG Bernard Hockenberg died Nov. 28 in Encinitas, CA. Services were held Dec. 2 at El Camino Memorial Park, San Diego, CA, with Rabbi Patti Haskell officiating.

Survived by his wife of 51 years, Arlene Hockenberg of Oceanside, CA; daughter and son-in-law, Jennifer Rodin Seigner and Thomas Seigner of Westlake Village, CA; son, Irvin Rodin of Tampa, FL; son and daughterin-law Mark Hockenberg and Miriam Mazel Hockenberg of Denver, CO; and grandson Andrew Jay Seigner of San Francisco, CA. He served in the United States Army and was an owner of Hockenberg Fixture and Supply Company of Omaha, Des Moines, and Davenport, IA, along with his late father, Max, and brothers Ira and Shep, for more than 50 years.

Memorials to Seacrest Village, 211 Saxony Rd., Encinitas, CA 92024, or the American Diabetes Association.

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Meeting is worthy Continued from page 13 the project has challenged and stimulated a conversation at all levels of communal leadership about how to sustain the ‘Hallelu’ spirit in the synagogues and community.”

Something else is at work here. In our study of the evangelical mega-churches, we have observed the power of large-scale gatherings. While a congregation such as Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA, holds six religious services on the weekend -- attracting 5,000 people at each -- our congregations rarely have more than several hundred people at a service. The exception, of course, is the High Holy Days, when we offer many hours of worship to large crowds. Even then we hardly ever sit together in one “tent,” experiencing the thrill of feeling part of a larger community of communities.

I commend the synagogue leadership in Atlanta for having the courage and vision to create a more welcoming community. And for those communal leaders and funders who ask why we cannot develop ways to emphasize the joys of Judaism, the meaning and value of community engagement, and the new spirit animating those congregations who are working hard at becoming welcoming sacred communities, the experience in Atlanta is worthy of consideration and emulation.

Former Omahan Dr. Ron Wolfson is the president of Synagogue 3000, a national institute for congregational leadership and synagogue studies research. He is the best-selling author of The Spirituality of Welcoming: How to Transform Your Congregation into a Sacred Community and God’s To-Do List, both fromJewish Lights Publishing.

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Page 16

Jewish Press, Omaha, NE

December 14, 2007

The Jewish Press will publish Israel@60, on April 18, 2008. We’re calling for articles and photos from anyone who has been to Israel on a mission, teen trip or on their own, anyone who has spent a semester abroad there or a post-high school year on a program, anyone who has studied there, lived there, or lives there now.

Articles can be 500-2000 words in length (but for those who don’t feel comfortable writing, a few photos and captions are welcome, too).

Photos can be real photographs or digital images e-mailed to the Press to ckatzman@jewishomaha.org, with stories as attachments (in Word) or mailed to the Press at 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154.

Deadline is Feb. 29, 2008. Questions? Call Editor Carol Katzman at 402.334.6450.