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Celebrating More Than 75 Years of Service VoLLXXIV
No. 23
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Youth groups use Jewish Press office for newsletters
Members of the Kadimah Chapter of National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) use the computers in the Jewish Press office to design their newsletter in time for the Winter Shabbaton in Memphis this weekend. They are, 1-n Jacob Katzman, Tiffany Eisenberg, Zac Gonsher, Annelisse Ocanto, Rachel Eshelman and president Boris Davidson at the computer. The Jewish Press will make its office and personnel available on Sunday afternoons for any Jewish youth group wishing to design and print out a newsletter for a convention or Shabbaton. Call 334-6450 to make arrangements.
The Jewish side of Costa Rica
7Adar
February 14,1997
Jewish Press, ADL-CRC, American Bar Association announce photo contest WASHINGTON, D.C.-The American Bar Association has announced a national photo competition and four free instructional features that will appear in newspapers all over the nation as part of its "Celebrate Your Freedom" Law Day program in 1997. Locally, the contest is sponsored by this v newspaper and the Anti-Defamation LeagueCommunity Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. The competition, called "Images of Freedom," will be run in cooperation with the National Newspaper Foundation, the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) Foundation, and the Newspaper in Education (NIE) program. "Images of Freedom" will culminate on Law Day, May 1. The competition is open to students ages 12-18, who submit original photos depicting images of freedom to this paper. -Local winners will be selected by participating newspapers and local bar association members, and then submitted to state bar associations. State winners will be forwarded to the ABA. The winning entries will be honored at the ABA headquarters in Chicago. The photographs will be published in newspapers throughout the country. The "Celebrate Your Freedom" Law Day program is sponsored by the ABA Division for Public Education. The division offers resources that present accurate and: balanced information about the law and legal system. "We are pleased to co-sponsor this program with the Jewish Press," said Bob Wolfson, Executive Director of the ADL. "Not only is this joint project an appropriate way for two Jewish organizations committed to freedom and its expressions to cooperate, it also gives local students an opportunity to use their photographic skills to show freedom in a visual way. For more information or entry forms, contact Dr. Betty L. Sullivan, e-mail: BETTYSNIE@aol.com; fax: 415/641-0884; phone: 415-641-0611.
by Eunie Denenberg One day we're in the jungle gawking at a Jesus Christ lizard (so named because it seems to walk on water), the next we're singing Sholotn Aleichem at a traditional Shabbos dinner. My traveling buddy, Bella Eisenberg, and I are in Costa Rica, land of contrasts. Dear friend, Noemy Baruch, wants us to experience 'as much as possible,during our six-day sojourn, so she offers us a little nosh (nibble) of lots of tapas (Spanish hors d'oeuvres)...a live volcano, an evening with her friends, a white sand beach on the Pacific, coffee plantations, the National Theater (copied from the Paris Opera), and Tortuguero, a rain forest area on the Caribbean, accessible only by plane or boat. Here we glide along canals, dense jungle on either bank, as our guide quietly explains that the 3-foot leaf in front of us is actually a motionless iguana. Toucans cry in the trees, Eunie Denenberg, left, Noemy Baruch and caimans laze in the green-black water and a woman Bella Eisenberg visit the site of the rows by, her canoe loaded with groceries. Cloudforest volcano. We learn that high altitude coffee is most delicious, and that no matter where we go, we BEHIND THE HEADLINES encounter the Omaha Jewish connection. Gripped by grief, Israel mourns loss of 'so many boys' At Hemingway-esque hotel, we have an imprompbyMicheleChabin tu party with honeymooners Eric and Jane Spitz. JERUSALEM (JTA) The parents of Assaf wait longer. , • : She's the daughter of Omahans Renee and Sandy Rothenberg long had the eerie feeling that their Alltooaccustomed to rushing to the newsstand to Kasneiv ' " - •• '.-..... check whether someone they knew had been "Give these to Janie Batt, (Executive Director of son would hot return from Lebanon alive. Voicing the- day-in-day-out injured or killed in ail accident or terror attack, the National Conferenc»[of dhristiansand Jews]) , .< , . , . .sense . . of. foreboding . . will you?" Hostess Noemy h&ds me an envelope. feI* b * " « * ? r e i ^ ° ^ l d l e l ^ s e r v t m g l n many were shaken to find that the newspapers con. •••... . . • . •fson, • . • . . . liv. L e b a n o n , t h e f a t h eer r of o f the thfi 20-year-old 20-vear-nld paratrooper. DaratrooDer tained almost no information on the victims' identi"They're photos of. .her Jane's Aaron, who's said, "For a few months already, whenever Assaf . ties. The reason: Many of the bodies had not yet ing in a remote area. When he's in town, he comes went into Lebanon, I felt' that he might not come "been identified. for dinner!" Small world, isn't it? The list of those who died grew progressively ' . Although Columbus maqe a landing in Costa b a c k . " : . , / ' • ^ ' . ; ; . • . • ; • • ; • •'. ' v longer as the day wore on, and several funerals When the television first reported that two army Rica, the tiny Central American, country was given its name, '4ich-Coast," by helicopters had crashed over northern Israel, he took place that afternoon. Throughout the country, b the gold-seeking ld restaurants and places of entertainment closed Spaniards who colonized it. Pey found few indige- The ^ ^Israel J ^Defense t ^ Force l t "notified ^ T TusAlater, but early, in "accordance with the Knesset's decision to nous Indians, like the Incas'of Peru or Mayans to ,- : v declare two days of national mourning. the north. Most "Ticos," as Costa Ricans call them- we already knew." , . The Rothenbergs were far from alone in their The Chief Rabbinate called for a day of fasting, selves, are European in ancestry and looks. A . democracy, the country is probably the most stable grief. Stunned by the news that 73 Israeli soldiers to be followed by a mass prayer at the Western ' . ' • . - •; '•• ; ' v • ;. . • ; . . . - . : . ' ••.•'.' in Central and South America with a constitution and air crew had perished in the mid-air collision, . W a l l . The Education Ministry, which had recently guaranteeing religious freedom. Costa Rica was one the. whole nation plunged into mourning. ? 4 t h e first countries to recognize Israel in 1948 and T h ^ o u t the country, people expressed, shock, ended a year's worth of special classes related to e (I am told) is the onlygovernment whose embassy is . ", -i_,' \\\ ^- worst military air disaster the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, ' encouraged teachers to discuss the latest tragedy m l in Jerusalem instead o{Tel Aviv. And: the current•, : £ ? ^ W S t ? n r : When Israel Television first, interrupted its'•': with their students, second vice-president of Costa Rica is a Jewish prime-time programming to announce the crash, 'Although far from the site of the crash, the streets woman-Rebeca Grynspan Mayufib! of Jerusalem wore unnaturally hushed the day Noemy-s friends and family are representative of thousands of famihes were thrown into parua In many cases, it took several hours for the Israel after. Most cafes and restaurants had closed by San Jose Jewish society. We spent an interesting n Inmanycases,it i took several hours for the . - . the - . noo^ jeapite the fact that they were permitted to evening with an anesthesiologist, a psychologist, a D e f e n s e' F~o r c' e t o confirm the worst - or. for families' sons, stationed in Lebanon and elsewhere, remain open until 3 p.m. banker, a manufacturer. Her sister, is in the goyl to call home and relieve their anxiety. Several places of business did not open at all. ;ernmeht ministry of rural and agricultural' flevelopAlthough most immediate family members knew (Continued on page 10, ment. Noemy,too,is politically oriented, doing prou : (Continued on page 7) ' • the fate of their loved ones by dawn, others had to along with a complete, list of those who died) :