Jewish Pre
NE HIST SOCIETY 1500 F( ST LINIJOIM ME-'65bOS-1651
SERVING NEBRASKA AND WESTERN IOWA FOR MORE THAN 75 YEARS VoLLXXVI
No. 45 Omaha, NE
17 Av, 5759
Introducing...
July SO, 1999
Bomb discovered in Moscow shul heightens fears in Russia
Harris B. Finkelstein
by Lev Krichevsky
MOSCOW (JTA) - A rabbi's 12-year-old son has prevented a bomb from going off inside a Moscow synagogue. The incident at the Bolshaya Bronnaya siveness within the overall Jewish community. I am very much impressed with the JCC. shul, in which no one was hurt, came less than two Everybody seems to work together for the Jewish weeks alter a Moscow Jewish leader was stabbed community. The cohesiveness and cooperation is inside another synagogue in the Russian capital. The incident is likely to exacerbate already simreally very impressive. It is extraordinary that so many activities occur mering anger within the Jewish community as continuously at the 'J'. I don't have very much promises for heightened security at Jewish sites experience with JCC's, but this just has to be one of continue to go unmet. The son of Lubavitch Rabbi Itzhak Kogan disthe best in the country. covered the bomb Sunday in the synagogue's main hall a few minutes before a ceremony for a young What about the Omaha community? boy's first haircut was set to begin. The synagogue I have found people very friendly and helpful was packed with a large number of small children both in the Jewish community and in the general and was decorated with balloons. A bomb squad detonated the explosive nearby. community. Omaha is a wonderful place to live. One of my pastimes is golf. Omaha has really The explosion shattered window panes at the shul great golf courses. I think the restaurants are ter- and iii neighboring buildings. I t ' s a miracle that rific. I have been very pleased with every aspect of no one was hurt," Kogan told JTA Dozens of Jews who were evacuated from the Omaha so far. synagogue burst into applause when they heard I am glad I came! the powerful explosion. "It could have gone off when we were inside," said This appears to be your first full-time professional position. How do you feel about taking on such a a young woman who was inside the shul when the bomb was found. I still can't believe it. We could major responsibility right out of graduate school? have been killed," she said, her lips trembling. According to a Federal Security Somice agent I feel ready for it though I was nervous when I first started. If Edie Wolf had not been working who did not give his name, the bomb contained an full-time for that first month I was here, it would equivalent of more than one pound of TNT. In the wake of the July 13 stabbing of Leopold have been much more difficult for me. She has been Kaimovsky at the Choral Synagogue, Russian an amazing resource to me. : She basically showed me the ropes, explained the authorities vowed to tighten up security measures history and things that need to happen in the at all Moscow synagogues that are currently future. The library committee and Frances guarded by private security agencies. These promises have yet to be fulfilled. Gottlieb, the President, have already proven to be a Jewish officials say they are not surprised very valuable resource to me. (Continued on page 2) (Continued on page 5)
by Martin P. Wolf
Occupation: Executive Director, Federation Library
Education: B.A. in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara; M.A. in Religion from Vanderbilt University and M.S. in Library and Information Services from Louisiana State University. Experience: LSU Library—Government Harris B. Finkelstein Documents Section; LSU Library School-Computer Laboratory; Vanderbilt Library and Monterrey Public Library. Personal: Single, enjoys golf, bicycling and outdoor sports. Mr. Finkelstein, you were recently appointed Executive Director of the Federation Library and assumed your responsibilities on July 1, Your work experience has been very much related to library work. Why the deep and apparently continuing. interest in libraries? . I actually got into library work by accident. I was spending a great deal of time as a graduate student at the Vanderbilt University library. One day, the head librarian came to me and suggested that since I spent so much time in the library, I might like to work there. I took the job and loved it. Since then, I have worked in public and academic libraries and finally went to Library School. Libraries are great places to work; you are always helping people. Everybody who comes to a library is looking for something. Chances are, we have it or can find it. It is very gratifying work. '
Rabbi Schindlermeets with Pope John Paul II
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Where did you grow up, and how did you wind up selecting California to go to college?
I was born and raised in Long Island, New York. In high school, I saw pictures of the Santa Barbara . campus located between the mountains and the beach and that pretty much swayed my 18-year-old mind. I am glad I did go there. It was a beautiful place to get ah education. You grew up on one coast, then lived on the.other coast. Now you are settled in the. heartland. How does it feel to be living in the middle of the country? I miss the ocean, no doubt about that. When I learned of the position here in Omaha, everything about it looked ideal for me. I don't think I ever met anyone from Omaha. I was very nervous. When I came for the interview, it was not what I had pictured it to be. Now that I am living here, I could not be happier. What is your reaction to the Omaha Jewish Community and the Omaha community in general? I learned a bit about the community in Baton Rouge from Rabbi Barry Weinstein, whom I had known for quite some time. He told me it was quite rare to find what we have here in Omaha. He pointed out that there was a very strong cohe-
Rome-Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, President of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, right, was received by Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. Schindler was in Italy to preside over the nnnunl meeting of the Memorial Foundation, an international body dedicated to advancing Jewish culture and rebuilding Jewish communities destroyed by the Nazis. He met with the Pope to discuss ways to honor "righteous gentiles," those non-Jews who risked then? lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Schindler is the immediate past-president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the retired head of Reform Judaism in North America.