WE HIST SOCIETY 1500
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LINCOLN WE 6S503-1651 SERVING NEBRASKA AND WESTERN IOWA FOR NEARLY 80 YEARS Vol. LXXK
No. 26
Omaha, NE
26Adar,5760
March 3,2000
Elections 2000 features NCJW Washington Director
Congressman Terry visits Israel
by Carol Katzman
by Carol Katzman
Any difference the National Council of Jewish Women has made on an issue has been the result of the organization's grass-roots efforts, said Sammie Moshenberg, Director of NCJWs Washington office. No doubt, NCJW's State Public
Sammie Moshenberg
Affairs network of volunteers gets that credit, but Moshenberg underestimates her influence. As Director of the Washington office for the past 13 years, her passionate speeches on issues such as child care, reproductive rights, support for Israel and separation of religion and state, has swayed more than a few volunteers and policy makers, hi fact,'she has been recognized by her colleagues with the YWCA Racial Justice Award and by serving as the first co-chair of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights' Women's Caucus. Moshenberg will be in Omaha next •week to brief members of NCJW, prior to going to- Lincoln For NCJW Lobby Day, and to speak at a community forum, Elections 2000, Wednesday, March 8, 7:30 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center auditorium. In a recent interview, she spoke about the power of volunteerism and advocacy. "Those of us in the Beltway only have as much influence as the power of our advocacy from volunteers in David Gilinsky, left, accompanied Lee Terry, Nebraska's Second places like Omaha," she noted. "We District Congressman, to Israel last week on a trip organized by (Continued on page 15) AIPAC's American Israel Education Foundation. Story on page 15.
Beth Elpresents Ofer Ben-Amots by Ozzie Nogg
First there was Jubal, mentioned in the Book of Genesis as "the father of all who handle the flute and strings." Then there was Miriam with her tambourine, King David with his harp, plus all the psalms that encourage us to praise God with the sound of cymbals, timbrels, drums, lutes and lyres. Later, there were plaintive Yiddish shtetl songs arid, more-recently, the revival of klezmer and Ladino-Sephardic musical traditions. With even these few examples, it's clear that Jews have a long history of expressing their feelings through'music. With this in mind, contemporary composer I D n . Ofer BenAmots will have both ancient and modern sources ~to draw-on when he explores the role of music in I Jewish history | and religious observance during the Dr. Leon Fellman Scholarin-Residence weekend, March 11-12, at Beth El Synagogue. Born in Haifa, Dr. .Ofer Ben Amots Ben-Amots gave his first piano concert at age nine, and at 16 was awarded First Prize in the Chet Piano Competition.. After further study in Israel, Switzerland, Germany and the United States, he received his PhD in music composition from the University of Pennsylvania. A popular lecturer and teacher, Dr. Ben-Amots is currently on the faculty of Colorado College where he 'holds the distinguished MacArthur Chair in music 'composition and theory^ . (Continued on page 2)
Jewish religious community to be "liquidated" by Nickolai Butkevich Research and Advocacy Director Union of Councils for Soviet Jews
One day before the start of the presidential campaign in Russia, a district court in Voronezh began to review a petition by the local Department of Justice to ban 13 minority religious communities. It includes the Overo Jewish community, one that the Voronezh authorities have targeted for "liquidation." Members of the Overo Jewish community now face the possibility of losing the right to meet in public, open a bank account, and teach Judaism. Under the terms of the 1997 Russian religion law, all religious communities in Russia had until December, 1999, to register. Both because of bureaucratic delays and a campaign of persecution against minority faiths since the law was passed, several thousand religious communities failed to meet the deadline and faced possible "liquidation." However, on Feb 18, the State Duma (the Russian Parliament) extended the re-registration deadline to January, 2001. " Judaism is defined in the Preamble to the religion law as one of four "traditional" Russian religions, a fact that has led many observers to incorrectly assert that the law does not apply to Jews. However, the Preamble has no legal significance, and thus leaves Jewish religious communities vulnerable to "liquidation" under the law. In a similar incident, authorities in Bryansk refused to register a Reform synagogue from 1997 until late 1999. "The Voronezh authorities' defiance of federal law, as set forth in the Duma's Feb. 18 decision, is yet another example of the corrosive effect that the Russian provinces' near independence from the cents- has had on religious liberty in the country," declared Yosef I. Abramowitz, President of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ). . "The two-year long witch hunt against mostly Christian minority religibuB. communities has now extended to Jews for the second time since the reli(Continued on page 6)
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Upcoming events... Rabbi David Ellenson serves as Scholar-inResidence at Temple Israel starting with services tonight; see page 2 for complete schedule. The Jewish Cultural Arts Council presents Gershwin: Remembrance and Discovery, a concert with pianist Richard Glazier, Saturday, March 4, 7:30 p.m., in the JCC Theater. Rabbi Aaron Panken will speak on values to teens and their parents in a community event at Temple Israel, Wednesday, March 8,6:30 p.m. Sammie Moshenberg, NCJW's Director of Washington Operations, will discuss Elections 2000, Wednesday, March 8, 7:30 p.m., at the JCC.