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NE HIST SOCIETY 1500 R. ST LINCOLN WE 68508-1651
SERVING NEBRASKA AND WESTERN IOWA FOR MORE THAN 75 YEARS VoLLXXVm
No. 14
Omaha, NE
Jane Rips chairs Program Committee for UAHC Biennial Temple Israel sends 13 delegates More than 4500 delegates and their families, representing' more than 800, Reform congregations , across the United States, will gather in Orlando, FL, next week for the Biennial Convention of the union of American Hebrew Congregations. Among them will be Jane Rips, former President of Temple Israel and' President of the UAHC Midwest Council. She is co-chairing the' Jane Rips Program Committee, a two-year commitment which culminates with the Biennial from Dec. 15-19. While in Orlando, Rips will be elected to the UAHC Executive Board as one of 10 officers. Rips has been responsible for all programming aspects of the Biennial, including topics, speakers and facilitators, dozens of workshops which run the gamut of synagogue activities, Shabbat services and meals. , This year's theme is "Realizing God's Promise: Reform Judaism in the 21st Century." Highlights of the convention include: a major address by South African Archbishop and Nobel. Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu; a celebration for 20 years of Reform Jewish Outreach by Dr. Gary Tobin; a panel discussion moderated by Morley Safer on challenges faced by the Reform Movement in the 21st Century; and the presentation of the Maurice Eisendrath Award to Israeli educator Dr. Alice Shalvi. Other delegates include: Rabbi Aryeh and Elyce Azriel, Paul Epstein, Wendy Goldberg, Stephanie Grossman, Ducky Milder, Lori Miller, Lee Needelman, Iris Ricks, Mimi Rogers, Dorothy Spizman and Keri Workman.
1 Tevet, 5760
VJO sponsors new 'Joy of Giving' by Pam Monsky, Federation Communications Director
Young Jewish Omaha (YJO) and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Omaha are once again hosting the 'Joy of Giving,' but this year it has a new twist. Instead of Boys and Girls Club members choosing gifts for their family members, the children will meet at the JCC on Sunday, Dec. 19, from 13 p.m., to make holiday crafts and gifts for children who are in the hospital during the holidays. YJO members will help the Boys and Girls Club children make holiday crafts and gift bags, which will include a card to the recipients with the name of the child who made the craft. The gifts will then be delivered to area hospitals in time for the holidays. This will be an exceptionally rewarding experience for YJO members and their families. We also feel that the Boys and Girls Club kids will get a better understanding of the joy of giving to others," said Sharon Kirshenbaum, Federation Young Leadership Director. "Our children will benefit by interacting with the kids from the Boys and Girls Club. We can all learn something from each other," she added. YJO members and their families are invited to participate, either by coming to help make the gifts, or by making donations so that craft materials can be purchased. : • _, _ ;' • "It's important to show the Boy's and Girls Club and YJO members that they have the ability to help others who are in need. I think that's an important lesson," explained Kirshenbaum. "This event will help us to illustrate the concept of tikkun olam, that we can make a difference in our world. Part of being Jewish means helping everyone. This is especially meaningful during the holidays," she said. For more information, or to get involved in this worthwhile project, please contact Sharon Kirshenbaum at 334-6485.
December 10,1999
Albright tries to get talks moving; Barak vows no surprise settlements by Naomi Segal
JERUSALEM (JTA) - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had hoped to use her Middle East trip to advance the final-status talks. But when she arrived Tuesday in Israel, she found herself confronted with a crisis in IsraeliPalestinian negotiations over Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On the eve of Albright's visit, the chief Palestinian negotiator in the final-status talks, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said there would be no progress in the discussions unless Israel stops expanding these settlements. Israel accused the Palestinians of trying to create an artificial crisis in order to have more U.S. involvement in the negotiations. But just the same, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak announced Tuesday he is willing to freeze plans to add 1,800 more houses in Jewish settlements around Jerusalem. Albright began her four-day diplomatic mission Monday in Saudi Arabia. Prior to her arrival in Israel the following day, she met with Syrian President Hafez Assad in Damascus in an effort to restart Israeli-Syrian negotiations, suspended in 1996. Prior to Albright's arrival in the Syrian capital, officials there reiterated their interest in achieving peace with Israel. But at the same time, they held fast to their position that Israel would have to agree to withdraw from all of the Golan Heights before the negotiations resume. Israel has repeatedly refused to accept any preAlbright hoped "to get a better understanding of what will be necessary" from the Syrian side to get the talks to resume and "to see how quickly an agreement can be reached," State Department spokesman James Rubin said Tuesday. But there was no indication that any breakthroughs were achieved. Meanwhile, on the IsraeliPalestinian front, the two sides remain deadlocked over an Israeli withdrawal from an additional 5% of the West Bank, a move that was to take place last month. (Continued on page 2)
Beth El hosts scholar-in-residence
Professor discovers crypto-Jews in Southwest by Carol Katzman
While the Spanish Inquisition may seem like ancient history, to Dr. Stanley M. Hordes the results are all around him. Adjunct Research Professor at the Latin American and Iberian Institute of the University of New Mexico, his doctoral dissertation, "The Crypto-Jewish Community of New Spain, 1620-1649: A Collective Biography," was based on research conducted in the archives of' Mexico and Spain, supported by a Fulbright dissertation fellowship. His study on the secret Jews of Mexico revealed a considerable amount of information about the religious customs and career patterns of the descendants of those Spanish Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism in the 14th and 15th centuries. Many of these conversos continued to practice their old ancestral.faith in secrecy, and moved to the Spanish colonies in the New World in order to avoid detection by the Inquisition. Hordes will talk about these crypto-Jews, as they are called, when he serves as a scholar-in-residence at Beth El Synagogue from Dec. 17-19. "My comments will deal with the history of the crypto-Jews of New, Mexico, from their origins in the forced conversions of Spain in the 14th and 15th centuries, down to the recent past," noted Dr. Hordes.
During his tenure as New Mexico New Spain, as well State Historian (1981-1985), he began as the sporadic cam-1 to encounter several individuals within paigns of the Holy the Hispanic community who displayed Office of the practices suggestive of vestigial Jewish Inquisition against; customs, such as lighting candles on this community in Friday night in observance of the the late 16th and Jewish Sabbath, following Jewish mid-17th centuries. dietary laws. Some attention will be deyoted to Further investigation revealed that the early colonizathis phenomenon could be found in sevtion .efforts northeral communities throughout the state. ward from central Conversations with colleagues in the Mexico into New fields of sociology and anthropology Mexico, and the poscorroborated these observations. sible cause (-and These conversations led to the estabeffect on the relalishment of a project, sponsored by the tionship between the Latin American and Iberian institute Dr. Stanley M. Hordes persecution of crypat the University of New'Mexico, to to-Jews and converso participation in the establishresearch the history of New Mexican crypto-Jews. Dr. Hordes' comments will touch on the origins of ment of the new colony., the conversos from their Jewish origins in Spain Dr. Hordes' remarks will also treat the evolution and Portugal, through the forced conversions of the of the crypto-Jewish community in New Mexico 14th and 16th centuries, to their migration to the through the succeeding three centuries, and will New World in the 16th and 17th centuries. . ' ' describe the customs and possible consciousness They will describe the demographic, occupation- that appears to have survived. al, social and religious life of the crypto-Jews in (Continued on page 8)