Vol. LXXXIV No. 17 Omaha, NE
Celebrating 84 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa
19 Tevet, 5765 December 31, 2004
Super Sunday Chairmen Build a Life in Jewish Omaha
Event to Celebrate Rabbi Myer S. Kripke and Jewish-Catholic Relations
Brett and Stacey Atlas to Lead 2005 Super Sunday
by LEONARD GREENSPOON Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University Next month will see the dedication of a Creighton University Center in honor of Myer and Dorothy Kripke and a discussion of Nostra Aetate, the Vatican document that decisively altered formal relations between Roman Catholics and Jews. All members of the community are invited to participate in these activities, which will be held at the Jewish Community Center on Sunday, Jan. 23, 7 p.m. Rabbi Kripke’s decades of dedicated service to the Jewish community and to the Omaha community at large are well known. For many years he s e r v e d Creighton Rabbi Myer S. and Dorothy Kripke University in a special way, as adjunct professor in the Department of Theology, teaching courses in Judaism and Hebrew Bible. At its commencement exercises in May 2000, the University awarded Rabbi Kripke the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. As one of Rabbi Kripke’s philanthropic endeavors, he and his wife, Dorothy, endowed Creighton’s Center for the Study of Religion and Society, founded in 1988. As part of the events of Jan. 23, Creighton will officially and formally rename the center as the “Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center for the Study of Religion and Society.” According to Center Director Dr. Ronald A. Simkins, the Kripkes’ generous gift will allow the Center “to increase and enhance its support of projects in research, education, and service.” Among the centerpieces of Rev. John T. Pawlikowski these efforts is the new Kripke Interfaith Project. At its first event, two leading figures will talk about “Successes and Challenges of Jewish-Christian Relations: 40 Years After Nostra Aetate.” The first of these speakers is Rev. John T. Pawlikowski, a priest of the Servite Order. The author or editor of more than 15 books, Father Pawlikowski has participated in worldwide interfaith activities at the highest level. Among his honors has been service on the US Holocaust Memorial Council, memberRabbi Leon Klenicki ship on a number of Vatican delegations related to Jewish-Catholic dialogue, and top leadership posts in the International Council of Christians and Jews. The second speaker, Rabbi Leon Klenicki, is widely known as the former interfaith affairs director of ADL. A pioneer in Catholic Jewish relations, Rabbi Klenicki was one of several major leaders asked to implement the vision of Vatican II as it related to improved relations between Catholics and Jews. A native of Argentina, Rabbi Klenicki has written or authored numerous works, including a Passover Haggadah for use in interfaith services. Continued on page 2
by PAM MONSKY committees attracting Federation dozens of moms and babies Communications Director from all aspects of the comAs recent newcomers, munity. It was the first vol2005 Super Sunday Counteer project for the Atlas’s Chairmen Stacey and Brett in the Omaha Jewish comAtlas didn’t waste any time munity and they’ve been getting involved in the picking up steam ever since! Federation. Although Last summer, Stacey was Stacey, the daughter of Zoë invited to join the Steering and Carl Riekes, was raised Committee to plan events in Omaha, she’s been gone and programs for the since leaving for Federation’s Young Jewish Northwestern University in Omaha (YJO) group. Less 1992. She was living in than a month later, General Brett and Stacey Atlas Chicago after college and Campaign Chairs Joe and married her husband Brett, a Chicago native, in 1998. Maxine Kirshenbaum asked Stacey and Brett to chair Last year, expecting their first child, Stacey and Brett Super Sunday for the 2005 Annual Campaign. came home to Omaha. When asked what motivates them in their volunteer “We wanted the best for our family, and we decided work, Stacey replied without hesitation, “Since moving to Omaha was where we wanted to be,” said Stacey. Omaha a year ago, we’ve been quite simply overwhelmed Immediately upon arriving in September 2003, Stacey by the kindness, generosity and unity of this incredible and Brett began looking for ways to connect with other Jewish community. Brett and I both feel adamantly that it’s young families in the Omaha Jewish community. They our responsibility to ensure that the Jewish community in attended the Newcomers Brunch, hosted by the Omaha will continue to flourish, along with Jewish comFederation last November, and have become good munities everywhere else in the world.” friends with many of the young couples they met there. Brett agreed with Stacey and went on to explain what After their son Zachary was born in January, 2004, appealed to them about becoming the Co-Chairmen Stacey banded with other young mothers who wanted Super Sunday. “Super Sunday is when the community to form a Jewish playgroup for babies two-years-old works together towards a common goal. It’s about and younger. Working through the Federation’s Jews helping Jews. The theme we chose for Super Community Development Department, they formed Continued on page 4
Hungarian Survivors Reach Deal with Government over ‘Gold Train’ by RON KAMPEAS for transport to Germany. WASHINGTON (JTA)-U.S. forces seized the train Hungarian Holocaust surin October 1945, but almost vivors who sued the U.S. none of the property was government are prepared to returned to its owners. Some settle for a fraction of the went to governments, some worth of looted property apparently went to the wrong they say U.S. troops mishanindividuals and some was dled after the war. requisitioned by high-ranking Survivors were not “overU.S. troops entranced by art joyed” by the Dec. 20 deal masterpieces and expensive in the “Gold Train” case, house wares. said one of the lead plainThe fate of the Gold Train tiffs, Alex Moskovic, of property was uncovered in Hobe Sound, FL. Still, they Jews being deported from Koszeq, Hungary, 1944. a 1999 report issued by the Credit: Yad Vashem Magazine, Spring 2004 Presidential Advisory Comwere glad to bring an end to a chapter of Holocaust history that stained the U.S. rep- mission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. utation as a rescuer and not an exploiter. Plaintiffs who sued in 2001 sought $300 million: “We spent quite a few years on this and I feel we need- $10,000 each for what they estimated to be 30,000 viced a closure on this,” said Moskovic, who in 1945, at age tims who had property aboard the Gold Train. The 14, returned to his hometown of Sobrance, the sole sur- $10,000 figure is the maximum compensation allowed vivor of a wealthy family. His house was trashed, and he under U.S. law. had no idea what had happened to its belongings. One of several possibilities now under discussion is Plaintiffs and negotiators were proscribed from dis- that the $25 million will go to the 50,000 survivors cussing the settlement until it is finalized within the worldwide, whether or not they had Gold Train claims. next 60 days, but three people at the negotiating table That would break it down to $500 a survivor, before confirmed a report in Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper that any legal or other costs. Only living survivors will be the amount was $25 million. How that will be distrib- eligible--not heirs. uted has yet to be negotiated, but there are an estimatFiled in a federal court in Miami--a high concentraed 50,000 Hungarian Holocaust survivors still living tion of Hungarian Holocaust survivors live in south worldwide. Florida--the suit reached a stalemate and threatened to That’s substantially less than $200 million or so in devolve into the kind of ugly assessments of how much 1945 dollars--or some $2 billion in today’s reckoning-- Jews were worth during the Holocaust that have charoriginally estimated to have been looted from acterized similar cases in Europe. Hungarian Jews by the Nazis and placed on 24 boxcars Continued on page 4
Inside Opinion Page see page 8
This Week: Interview with Sen. Ben Nelson: Page 3 Shabbat Dinner Aimed at Singles: Page 2
Reform Regional Director Speaks in Omaha, Lincoln: Page 5
Next Month: Guide to Tax and Financial Planning: Jan. 14 Monthly Calendar for January, 2005 Pages 6-7
Comfort and Conversation at Beth El: Page 11