NE HIST SOCIETY 1500 R ST LINCOLN NE 68508-1651
SERVING NEBRASKA AND WESTERN IOWA FOR MORE THAN 75 YEARS Vol. LXXVI
No. 29 Omaha, NE
23Nisan, 5759
Educators from Ghetto Fighters House Museum visit Omaha
Israel Independence Day celebration to feature Oy Vey The 51st Israel Independence Day, Yom Ha'Atzmaut, celebration will take place on Sunday, April 25, 12:30-3:30 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center and will feature Oy Vey, an interactive Klezmer Concert for children and their families. Oy Vey introduces a whole new generation of children to the sounds and flavors of Klezmer music. Sruli Drasdner, 37, is the clar- __^ inetist, and Lisa Moyer, 37, "'L is the violinist and short storyteller. They have been performing together for a number of years and formed the Young People's Klezmer workshop to introduce Jewish children to Klezmer music. Both Sruli and Lisa spent their childhoods "lost in the magic of Jewish music, tales and humor." Both have extensive experience in Jewish education and "absolutely love to perform." Their first album, OY VEY!, combines Klezmer music, stories with music, descriptions of life in the shtetl, Jewish jokes and lots of singing, clapping and stomping. •
The L. A. Times called OY VEY!, "a delight from start to finish!" The Jewish Week selected OY VEY! as "Editor's favorite musical Hanuk-kah gift", and The Forward raved about OY VEY, LIVE!, "100 people of all sizes bopping to the beat!" The Young People's Klezmer Workshop has performed live on National Public Radio and can be currently seen as the feaKlezmer performers on the current PBS-TV Special, Another Mitzvah. The program is sponsored by the Jewish Cultural Arts Council with support from the Carl L. Frohm Foundation and the Mort Richards Fund. The Yom Ha'Atzmaut celebration also features Israeli arts and crafts, prizes, clowns and balloon animals, moon walk, Maccabi basketball tournament, Israeli gift shops, books and exhibits, Israeli and American kosher food and a special performance by Karen Javitch and a community children's choir. For more information, contact Gloriann Levy at 334-6403.
Legal clinic named for Milton Abrahams by Joan K. Marcus
Creighton University has named its law clinic in honor of Omaha attorney Milton Abrahams. The clinic was rededicated and named at a ceremony on March 26 at the School of Law. Operating as a small law firm, the clinic is staffed by 12 third-year law students, and is under the direction of Clinic Director Professor Catherine Mahern. It provides services to clients referred by ,' social services agencies and the courts. The six-year-old clinic program has operated with the support of the Lozier Foundation and the United States Department of Education. The Foundation has recently donated one million dollars and wanted to pay tribute to Abrahams' exemplary professional and civic record. ' During the invocation, Rabbi Aryeh Azriel of Temple Israel said, "We notice that the name of Moses is not mentioned in the narrative of the Passover redemption. "I would like to suggest in a similar way, Milt in his humbleness, his modesty, and his amazing passion for justice is whatthe pursuit of equality is all about." Rabbi Azriel continued by thanking God for the generous gift of the law clinic and asked God's blessing on Milton and Pauline for health and contentment.. Abrahams is a partner and founding member of the Omaha law firm of Abrahams, Kaslow and Cassman.. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Creighton in 1926 and graduated first in his law class in 1927. : . He has been a civic leader in Omaha for many years, having served on the boards of the Omaha Public Library, the Omaha Public Library Foundation, the Joslyn Liberal Arts Society, and the Nebraska Committee for the Humanities. Abrahams was president of Temple Israel from 1942-44, and his grandfather, Max Abrahams, was a founding member of Temple in the early 1860's.
April 9,1999
by Debbi Brown ADL/CRC Assistant Director
Two prominent educators from The Ghetto Fighters House Museum, Dr. Moshe Shner and Raya Kalisman, will visit Omaha from April 14-16. They will participate in The Legacy of the Holocaust: Teaching the Holocaust, a conference co-sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League and the University of Nebraska at Omaha's College of Continuing Studies. The Ghetto Fighters House Museum is located in Israel's Western Galilee and is linked to Omaha through the Midwest Consortium Partnership 2000. P2K, a Federation-sponsored program, pairs cities and regions in the United States with cities and regions in Israel for economic, educational, cultural and social development. Dr. Shner and Ms. Kalisman will also present workshops at the ADL's Teacher Training Workshop on Thursday, April 15. This all-day training session is for public and parochial teachers in the Omaha area. The workshop will be held at Beth El Synagogue, with lunch and a concluding session at the Jewish Community Center. Dr. Schner, a Jewish Philosophy Professor, will present a workshop on the unique and Jewish educator, Janusz Korczak. Dr. Shner teaches at Oranim Academic College of Education and is the Education Director at The Ghetto Fighters House ' Museum". •• Raya Kalisman, Director of the Center for Humanistic Education, The Ghetto Fighters House Museum, will present a workshop on the Holocaust with a focus on multicultural education, entitled "Pluralism in Democracy." Others featured in the day-long workshop are Bea Karp, a hidden child and survivor of the Holocaust, and Dr. Ben Nachman, accredited interviewer for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. The Shoah Foundation is funded by film director Steven Spielberg. Dr. Nachman will present "Preserving the Memories of the Holocaust," based on more .than 50 interviews he has conducted for the Shoah Foundation. Keynote speaker for the day is Dr. Yaffa Eliach, Professor of History and Literature in the Department of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College. She is the author of There Once Was a World, a nine-century saga of Eastern European Jewish life. The teacher training workshop is $25. For more information, contact the ADL at 333-1303.
A real-life Life Is Beautiful Stunning discovery of boy hidden in concentration camp in JDC files " •'
Milton Abrahams surrounded by his family: Pauline Abrahams, Phyllis MacHale and Joan Subrin. It was during the presidency of Milton Abrahams that Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld served Temple Israel. These were difficult years because of World War II. Some of the sermons during "The Abrahams Years" were about blackouts, gas rationing, and the effects of the war. Professor Mahern.noted that clinic students are able to help with the legal needs of the poor by (Continued on page 10)
Stewart Ain, Staff Writer, The New York Jewish Week
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NEW YORK - The fable told in the Oscar-winning Italian film Life is Beautiful — a Jewish boy survives the Holocaust hidden by his father in a Nazi concentration camp — actually happened. Recently discovered archival records of the American. Jewish Joint Distribution Committee document the story of Joseph Schleifstein, who is believed to be the only child to have survived the Holocaust in this manner. While the little boy in the movie hid in the bar(Continued on page 5)
Upcoming events: Yom HaShoah, Wednesday evening, 7 p.m. at Beth Israel Synagogue; ADL-CRC dinner, A Courage to Share, Thursday, April 15, 6:30 p.m., JCC; Women's Symposium, Sunday, April 18, UNO Alumni Center