FATHER'S DAY EDITION +**«*****+**:t:L.INCOLN NE 68508 NE HIST SOCIETY 1500 R ST LINCOLN NE 69508
VoL LXXTV
No. 39
Omaha, NE
1 Sivan, 5767
i Newman Funds subsidize | programs for children, teens I I
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by Pam Mohsky Federation Communications Director
, .•;•:..- by'Claudia Sherman Foundation Public Relations Coordinator
': • For decades, the Esther K. Newman and Carolyn ; Kiilly Newman Memorial Funds nave been subsi; dizing projects and programs for children, teenagers, and young adults under the age of 23 who arehbtattending a college or university. Disbursements from the Esther K. Newman Fund customarily are made to new and innovative programs designed to strengthen Jewish identity and values through educational, religious, cultural, • social or recreational activities. Carolyn Kully Newman Fund, grants help support programs for families who have children of kindergarten age or younger. Four proposals were presented to the Newman Grants Committee in May including a request by the Child Development Center at the Jewish Community Center which received funds from both ' Newman Memorial Funds for a Judaic teacher assistant to work at Camp Shalom during the summer of 1997. -The Child Development Center plans to hire an Israeli student who will be spending the summer in Omaha to fill the position. Working alongside staff members, she will teach Hebrew words and songs'and organize activities that parallel Camp Shalom summer themes. The purpose of the program is to increase Hebrew vocabulary and expand children's knowledge of Israel. Another grant for young children was awarded to the Temple Israel Sitter Service to provide • Jewish experiences for children three to' seven years old while their parents attend worship services or educational programs. Temple Israel plans to hire a coordinator to upgrade the Sitter Service • play area to a Jewish environment where children : can enjoy meaningful educational experiences. Activities and themes will be similar to what par—entff are experiencing at the same time. Specific holiday or Shabbat themes, a specific Torah portion, lesson topic or prayer will be presented to the children at levels they can understand. Hands-on activities and take-home materials will reinforce stories and discussions. A grant was also made to the Anti-Defamation League/Community Relations Committee's 12th Annual Prejudice Elimination Workshop which will be held in November, 1998. This annual event draws more than 360 public, parochial, and private high school juniors representing 26 schools from the Omaha area to the Jewish Community Center. Approximately 50 school counselors, teach' era, and staff who accompany the students participate in the workshop, too, and attend special small group sessions specific to their needs. . ' The purpose of the Prejudice Elimination Workshop is to help students better understand the dynamics of prejudice and make them aware of their own biases. The workshop focuses on the diversity of our multi-cultural world. "Night Words: A Midrash on the Holocaust" was the fourth program to receive a grant from the .Newman Committee. "Night Words" is a liturgy/script commemorating the Holocaust. Temple Israel plans to present "Night Words" during next year's Yom haShoah community commemoration. The script has 36 parts to be played by junior and, senior high school students from the Jewish community. • " - • "•_ •• • . The goal of the'program, in addition to commemorating the Holocaust,-is to keep alive the Holocaust messages of vigilance against hatred and - to foster tolerance for different perspectives in our youth and adults. An allocation was also made by the Grants Committee to the Bureau of Jewish Education for scholarships for programs including JCC summer (Continued on Page 21)
June 6,1997
Lance Polikov Shoshana Wees Lance Polikov and Shoshana Wees have .been selected as the 1997 Jewish Teen Leaders. They will be honored at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Omaha Tuesday, June 24, 7:30 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center. Polikov, 18, was nominated by B'nai B'rith Youth Organization (BBYO), and Wees was nominated by Beth El Synagogue. ' Lisa Shkolnick, BBYO Director, said, "Lance not only serves as a role model to his peers, as he has actively progressed up the ladder of responsibility, but also demonstrates his intrinsic love and knowledge of BBYO, its people, its programming and its structure." Currently, Lance is President of the BBYO Corn-
belt Council, a past Chaim Weizmann AZA Chapter President, Vice-president and Treasurer. He was awarded the Shield of David for outstanding leadership and service. He is also active in United Synagogue Youth (USY), volunteers at the Jewish Community Center Child Development Center and the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, and has worked on Federation's Super Sunday for the past few years. He is the son of Marvin and Sheila Polikov and a recent graduate of Burke High School Wees, 18, is immediate past president of Beth El USY and a graduate of Central High School. Michael Levine, Beth El Programming Director, said, "Shoshana is the perfect example of how I would want my own children to turn out. This is a young lady who has been active in her synagogue's youth group since her 7th grade year, has continued her Judaic studies at Hebrew High School, is supervisor in Beth El's-Torah and Siddur Skills Program and has taken an active leadership role in her youth group." Wees has also served as a co-chair of the EMTZA Region Leadership Training Institute, and the EMTZA Israel Awareness Chairman. As President of the Beth El USY Chapter, she is responsible for, overseeing all of the programming that is sponsored by USY. Recently, she oversaw a 100-person USY Regional Convention and the USY/Kadimah Purim Extravaganza. She is the daughter of Steven and Joye Wees.
tales of Jewish journeys by Carol Katzman
Raised in a religious Presbyterian household, Nancy Wolf began questioning her beliefs in her church's yquth group at the early age of 16. Her father emphasized religion, her mother, the need to be a good person. By the time she graduated from college, she "was done with church."' Today, she is a Jew, one of a growing number of men and women who have chosen to convert to Judaism. The process usually takes no less than a year to complete, according to local rabbis, but most converts have been thinking about pecoming Jewish for much longer. ••: The Book'of Ruth is read on Shavuot, which will be celebrated next Wednesday and Thursday, and Ruth is considered the first convert.'• . . After Ruth's husband dies, Ruth's mother-in-law, Naomi decides to return to the land of Israel and urges Ruth to remain behind with her pagan family/ hi the oft-quoted passage, Ruth begs to accompany her mother-in-law, saying "Wither thpu goest, I will go. Your people shall be my people; your G-d shall be my G-d." Ruth, returns to Israel with Naomi and remarries. It is through her humble beginnings that she' becomes the grandmother of King David and an ancestor of the future Moshiach (messiah). Rabbis often remind their congregations of King David's background as a way of pointing out the commandment to welcome strangers into our community. While a stranger no longer, Nancy Wolf does speak openly of her 24-year journey to become a Jew. "I realize now that I had a fascination with Jews and their world," she recalls, "I once had a class in high school called literature of the Bible; I remember the Book of Ruth." Following her marriage to a Jewish man, the "usual discussions" arose. "Ours included the agreement that religion held no meaning for us and would not be port of our
lives," she noted. "We would celebrate the various holidays with grandparents and everything would work out because religion would not complicate our lives." The Wolf family moved to Omaha in 1989 and lived "in fairly ignorant bliss" until they enrolled their son in the JCC preschool and "soon began a more intense introduction to Judaism, albeit elementary. "Through the various offerings I soon learned that I knew very little about Judaism...(and) I discovered (my husband) knew much less." According to all of the local rabbis, this is not an uncommon beginning. Rabbi Howard Kutner of Beth Israel Orthodox Synagogue said, "When someone calls, I invite them for an interview so we can discusB the conversion process in person. "During the interview, I try to understand their motivation and tell them of the need for their commitment of time, study and practice," he added, "If the potential convert is already married, I ask the Jewish spouse to be involved. "Usually the Jewish partner needs the education just as much!" he concluded. Rabbi Kutner has asked potential converts " 'are, you here to embrace a Jew...dr embrace Judaism?* It could have started with love, but if the partner. has come to the realization that they want to be Jewish, we will accept them as sincere candidates;" Conversion is done privately at Beth Israel and usually takes more than a year. In addition to the the traditional requirements for conversion: immersion in the mikveh (the ritual bath), hatafat dam brit (a symbolic drawing of blood for uncircunicised males or a full circumcision, if necessary), the Orthodox Union also requires kabbalot al mitzvot, accepting the "yoke of the commandments." That means converts are expected to keep the dietary laws of kashrut and become shomer,, (Continued on Page 20)