Special Education and Camp Issue
ewish Presj
VoLLXXVI
No. 8
Omaha, NE
M! HCST SOCIETY 1500 R ST MMCOLB HE 68508-16S1 IT Cheshvan, 5759 "
November 6,1JW8
Jan Schneiderman nominated as NCJW National President
Judaism's emphasis on education leads many into teaching careers by Carol Katzman
"As the daughter of an elementary school teacher, I suppose teaching Was always 'in my blood,' noted Mitzi Delman. "But I especially remember having a French teacher who happened to be the first Jewish teacher I ever had and I really identified with her." Delman, chairman of the Foreign Language Department at Westsider""""~ "^ High School, is one of' many members of the f Jewish community who; have taken to heart the', commandment from the ['Shema, "You shall teach j your children." Bev Fellman, too, spoke of the influence of others, noting her work as a teenage babysitter and camp counselor. \ lman "I enjoyed my younger cousins and would help them along at the Passover seders," she recalled. "I remember, too, that my mother was a Sunday School teacher at Beth Israel in the mid-1940s and seemed so enthusiastic about teaching; my father worked -with children in the Junior B'nai B'rith Bowling League for 30 years. "Clearly I had persons rjvJT 7 to emulate!" she added. Fellman has been a French teacher -at Central High Schoolk* from 1964-66 and againPV1 since 1990. She alsof'"Jj taught French at Lewis RK and Clark and Beveridgef ' Junior High Schools. ' Her Jewish heritage plays a role in her class- \ Bev Fellman room, too. Fellman uses
NCJW donates dictionaries to students
Longtime community volunteer Jan the Holocaust and Jewish experiences to relay Schneiderman has been I information about France and World War II to her slated as the next! National President of the! students. In fact, she received a grant from the National National; Council of 1 Endowment for the Humanities, to study that sub- Jewish Women. This is I ject in Caen, a city in the coastal French province of : the first time NCJW has! Normandy, a place familiar to veterans of World nominated an Omahan I for this position. She joins I War II, who stormed the Omaha beach there. Personal experiences seem-to play a large role for the ranks of other nation- j many of the teachers interviewed for this article. al presidents - Henryj Jan Fischer, currently an English teacher at Monsky and Philip! Millard North High School, studied education at Klutznick, who both I the University of Iowa and graduated from the served as President of I B'nai B'rith International. Jan, Schneiderman University of California at Northridge. Carol Bloch has also been returned for a second Due to a glut of educators, there were no openings in 1975 and so Fischer put her English and term on NCJWs National Board. Schneiderman, who recently retired as Vice-presSpeech skills to use as assistant editor at the Jewish Press. After several mores in the volunteer ident of KB Foods, has served two terms as a world with ORT and NCJW, Fischer learned of National Vice-president, Chairwoman of the 1996 vacancies at North High School from Diane Zipay, National Convention and Chairwoman of the Field who was then an administrator for the Omaha Services Committee. Locally* she was president of the Omaha Section of NCJW from 1976-80 and Public Schools. "I found a supportive administrator at the chaired the Section's Labels Unlimited Sale in University of Nebraska at Omaha who was willing 1981 and 1982. She is currently Co-chairwoman of the to accept some of my life experiences' and move me along faster to my destiny," Fischer recalled. "I UJA/Federation Women's Campaign, along with earned a second B.S. in secondary education in Maxine Kirshenbaum, and a member of the 1983 and so 20 years after graduating high school, Federation's Executive Committee. This is the second time she has served in this position, having I was finally a teacher!" the Women's Campaign in 1990. Fischer, too, credits "working with.others, snar- chaired ; : Wm grateful to the National Nominating ing the workload and assigning tasks," .skills she learned in the volunteer world since her teen years Committee for the opportunity^ leading the oldest and "attitudes I'd been taught at home, in school, Jewish women's volunteer organization into the in Hebrew School" as key factors in choosing teach- next millennium," Schneiderman noted, "and thankful to my family and friends, both within ing as a career. * Both Delman and Fellman have also used their NCJW and in the Jewish and general communiprofessional expertise in leadership positions in the ties, for their support on my road to this prestigious position." Jewish community. Delman currently serves as 1 The election will take place at the organization's President of Jewish Educational and Library Servi: . triennial convention in Miami, March 10 -15. (Continued on page 14)
Two new scholarships established for Jewish college students by Claudia Sherman • Foundation Public Relations Coordinator
Muni Rogers, right, was one of dozens of volu n t e e r s from t h e Omaha S e c t i o n of t h e National Council of J e w i s h Women w h o helped distribute dictionaries to fifth-graders at 10 Elementary schools in the Omaha Public School district.'This is the second year in a row that NCJW has sponsored Dictionary Day. The organization g a v e away $10,000 worth of the books which students will use in their classrooms and take home $ t the end of the school year. Chairwoman of the project was Sandy Epstein.
Two new scholarships will be available soon to college students from the Omaha area who are in need of financial aid. The Lillian Keiser Stoms Educational Fund was established in 1996 for the benefit and to assist in the education of Jewish single parents who have custody of their children, or Jewish youth living in a single-parent family. The funds are intended for scholarship grants and will be available for the first time in 1998. Lillian Keiser Stoms' niece, Sally dayman, said her aunt had a special interest in helping young adults attain their education. A native Omahan who also lived in New York, Chicago, and San Diego, while she worked for a refrigeration equipment company, Stoms returned tov Omaha when she retired. She died about 10 years ago. David Keiser, Lillian's brother, was also a native Omahan and shared his sister's interest in education. As young adults during the Great Depression, both Keiser and Stoms worked while attending college in the Omaha area. Keiser became a public accountant: • : After DayidKoiser cjied in 1996, the David Keiser and Lillian Keiser. Stoms Charitable Foundation was formed. In addition to the Jewish Federation of Omaha, the University of Nebraska Medical Center .V
David Keiser and Lillian Keiser Stoms (UNMC) was named a beneficiary of the Charitable Foundation.' The UNMC funds will endow a professorship for cancer research. Last year, the David Keiser and Lillian Keiser Stoms Foundation Education Endowment Fund was established and will be used to provide funding for ^university scholarships to Jewish youth who have demonstrated financial need and have earned a minimum grade point average of 3.0. This education.endowment fund will be administered by The Foundation of the Jewish- Federation. The scholarship will name its first recipient in 1999. This year, the Keiser-Stoms Charitable Foundation made a contribution to the current "Building a Jewish Community for the 21st Century Campaign" and will continue to fund other Federation projects in the future.