ilewish Press
SERVING NEBRASKA AND WESTERN IOWA FOR NEARLY 80 YEARS Vol. LXXIX
No. 45 Omaha, NE
18 Tammuz, 5760
July 21,2000
International entertainer Avraham Fried comes to Omaha to celebrate 'Chabad 13' by Devra Bram
Avraham Fried, one of the most widely recognized and sought after entertainers in the Jewish world today, is performing in Omaha on Sunday, Aug. 13, as part of the 'Chabad 13' Bar Mitzvah celebration at the Embassy Suites Hotel downtown. He will be joined by Tuffy Epstein and a three-piece band performing his compelling blend of traditional and popular music that resonates with messages of hope, deliverance and fulfillment Fried was born 36 years ago to European parents who eluded the clutches of Nazi Germany when they were deported to Siberia by the invading Russians. Later, the
Avraham Fried
family was able to resettle in Brooklyn, New York, where Avraham, the youngest of eight children, grew up surrounded by the songs and melodies his family would sing on Shabbos and holidays. Gifted with an inspired voice, Fried's musical career took off in his childhood, as he went from soloist of the school choir to soloist on several recordings and in concerts across the country. The release of his first solo-album "No Jew Will Be Left Behind," introduced Fried's mature lyric tenor, and broke new ground with his songs that sought to inspire Jewish pride as they entertained
audiences with fresh and compelling sounds in Jewish music. Singing his way up the musical ladder, Fried, drew a record-breaking crowd^of 120,000 at Gan Soccer Park in Jerusalem. His career reached a crescendo with his show-stopping performances at the prestigious Mann auditorium in Tel Aviv, accompanied by the 100 piece Prague Symphony Orchestra. His most recent release in 1996 of his 14th recording, "Hupp Cossak," has been hailed as one of the finest offerings of Jewish music. Featuring innovative and exciting arrangements and a spectacular delivery, this album has made it to the top of the charts in the United States and Israel. To hear the talented Avraham Fried's only performance in Omaha on Aug. 13, and be a part of the Chabad 13 celebration, contact Elizabeth at 3301800, for tickets to the Banquet dinner fundraiser.
The promised land ofOz by Louis Jacobson, Special to the Jewish Press
KALVESTA, Kansas-More than a century ago, in this flat, desolate corner of Kansas, a few dozen Jews tried to squeeze out a living. Now, 42 miles from Garden City, the nearest town of any size, I'm looking for the remains of their fleeting society. "Don't step on the rocks—there might be rattlesnakes under them.'" Randy Thies calls out to me. Randy is a Kansas state archaeologist, so he's used to snakes. He also knows how to maneuver a 4x4 through three-foot-high weeds, which is good, because if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be anyvhere near Beersheba, the first Jewish agricultural settlement in Kansas. Beersheba was established in 1882 by 60 newlyarrived Jewish immigrants from Russia. Each family homesteaded 160 acres, living in houses made of sod-the thick ribbons of prairie earth that settlers stacked into buildings. Beersheba settlers also turned sod into a synagogue and a school; they used cow chips for fuel. In winter, the colony endured major blizzards; during the summer, droughts were common. A popular lament of the time was, "In G-d we trusted. In Kansas we busted." Pat Smith, a researcher who joined Randy and me for the visit to Beersheba, tries to put it in context. "As you stand here sweating"~it was 100 degrees the day we visited-"think of what it was like 117 years ago. The wind was the only cooling they had," As Pat says this, we gaze out toward the ruins of the Ravanna schoolhouse, which was built in 1887. Ravanna was a town located four miles from Beersheba; at its peak, Ravanna was home to 700 people, of which about 10 to 15 were Jewish. Historians think that most of the Jews in Ravanna opened businesses there after deciding that the economics of family farming in dusty southwestern Kansas were too grim. Ravanna survived into the 1890s, as residents erected an expensive stone courthouse that became known as "The Great White Elephant." But the town eventually became embroiled in a bizarre war with its neighbor—Eminence—over which would become the seat of Garfield County. So costly was the war that the state stepped in, merging Garfield County into Finney County. That was the final blow. Within a few years, just about everyone had left. Today, the Ravanna schoolhouse-which once stood at the center of a bustling little town—is
nothing more than a jumble of limestone fragments farming settlements were established in the in the midst of a vast, windy prairie. All around are Dakotas, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Arkansas, small cacti and clumps of tickle grass, a distant rel- Louisiana, Michigan, New York and New Jersey.) ative of wheat. Beersheba, the first of the Kansas settlements, was We head across- the -dhfc"amd-ara.a»«WMl<imt*us• probably • the most uausual. It was the. brainchild of former site of the Great White Elephant. It's now a Isaac Meyer Wise, the founding father of Reform cow pasture, ringed by an electrified shock fence. Judaism in America. Like many assimilated Randy and I go inside (with the advance permis- American Jews of the late 1800s, Wise feared that sion of the landowner, as is the practice out here) large numbers of black-garbed, Yiddish-speaking and make our way toward the ruins. Prairie weath- Jews emigrating from eastern Europe threatened the er can be bad, but even a century's worth isn't hard-won social status of German and Sephardic going to reduce limestone to mere remnants; Jews, who had been in America for decades. instead, these stones were cannibalized by So Wise and his allies proposed steering the new humans, in the 1940s, when a football field had to immigrants toward the hinterlands, where they be built in Dighton, a town to the north. would be far from the "labor troubles, socialism Randy, who hasn't walked up to the ruins since and anarchism" of the cities, as Wise's American his youth, suggests that we not get too close or stay Israelite put it in 1887. too long—those darn rattlers again. So we scramble To be sure, Wise's impulse was partly high-minded back to the 4x4s. On the way out, the electric fence -he wanted to accustom the newcomers to America brushes against my lower back and gives me a mild and aid them economically-but many observers today shock. I shake it off. view his general approach as embarrassing. Don Cramer, a freelance researcher who has In early 1882, Wise helped launch the Cincinnatijoined us for the outing, stares into the distance. based Hebrew Union Agricultural Society. Agents "On a day like this 100 years ago, it must have for the society chose a tract of land in southwest looked like pretty bleak country," he says. "They must Kansas, and by late July—after an unruly, harrowhave had a lot more confidence than I would have. A ing trek that included evictions from train cars and lot of people said this land would never be settled. (nearly) from a hotel in Kansas City—two dozen Seeing this, you understand what they mean." Russian Jewish families moved in. Ego kills a settlement (Continued on page 7) Because the notion of Jewish farmers in southwest Kansas seems so odd, Beersheba has attracted a small but notable following. To be sure, whenever trains went west toward the frontier, Jews usually numbered among the passengers. But most went to conduct business in towns and cities. Perhaps a mere 20 percent came to farm. Donald Douglas, a retired historian at Wichita State University, has studied Kansas' seven Jewish agricultural settlements—Touro, Leeser, Beersheba, Lasker, Gilead, Montefiore and Hebron. All were located in the state's largely empty southwest corner; their impulses ranged from Utopian socialist to Guides point out the highway marker explaining the history of individualistic. (Other Jewish Beersheba, the Jewish settlement in Western Kansas.