Federation Announces Leadership Awards
JSS Hires New Director by CAROL KATZMAN, Editor
by PAM MONSKY, Federation Communications Director
Goldberg and Robinson Named Young Leaders
Teen Leader Awards to Javitch and Sternberg
David Goldberg and Kimberly Robinson will receive the Jewish Federation's Young Leadership Awards at the 99th Meeting of the Jewish Federation on Monday, June 3, 7:30 p.m., in the JCC Theater. Recipients of the prestigious Bruce Fellman and Lois Jeanne Schrager Memorial Young Leadership Awards are selected from nominations from the Jewish community by a committee
The 2001 Jewish Teen Leadership Award winners are Rachel Javitch and Steve Sternberg. The awards will be presented at the Federation Annual Meeting on Monday, June 3, 7:30 p.m., in the JCC Theater. Award recipients are selected by an anonymous committee comprised of Jewish professionals and lay leaders. Professionals and lay leadership of Federation Centers of Excellence, Jewish
fr.A David Goldberg Kimberly Robinson of past Young Leadership Award winners. Winners are also provided with a stipend of up to $1500 to attend the UJC's General Assembly or Young Leadership Conference, and their names are engraved on a permanent plaque displayed in the corridor of the JCC. Goldberg, 38, is the recipient of the 2001 Bruce Fellman Memorial Young Leadership Award. This award, in memory of Bruce Fellman, son of Tom and Darlynn Fellman, is awarded annually to honor a young man who has demonstrated personal commitment, dedicated involvement and exemplary leadership qualities in rendering service to the Jewish and general community. Goldberg was nominated for this award by Temple Israel. He has long been involved with many aspects of the Omaha Jewish community. He has served in leadership positions in the Federation's Annual Campaign for many years and was a Division Leader for the Young Men's Division of the 2002 Campaign. Other Federation (Continued
Rachel Javitch Steven Sternberg organizations and synagogues nominate high school men and women who have exhibited outstanding leadership in B'nai B'rith Youth Organization (BBYO), or synagogue youth groups. Each recipient of the Jewish Teen Leadership Award will receive a $1,000 stipend to participate in his or her choice of a Jewish convention, conclave, summer camp or recognized Israel experience. Javitch, 17, is a 2002 graduate of Westside High School, where she was a member of the National Honor Society, Jazz Band and Swing Choir, and played Varsity Tennis. She plans to attend the University of Wisconsin in the fall where she will study education. Rachel was nominated for this award by BBYO. Javitch's BBYO career is impressive, according to Rachel Blum, BBYO Director. Since joining the organization in 1998, Rachel has held many leadership positions, including Ediar BBG #710 Secretary, Vice-president, MIT Mom, Newspaper Writer, AIT/MIT Convention Coordinator, on page 11)
Michael Silverman, Vice-president of Operations at the Jewish Home for the Elderly in Fairfield, CT, has been named Executive Director of Jewish Senior Services, announced JSS President Joanie Bernstein. He is expected to arrive in Omaha in July, along with his wife, Mimi, two-year-old son, Adam, and infant son Jeremy Robert, born April 21. Robert Cox Michael Silverman will continue as Interim Director until Silverman's arrival. A graduate of the State University of New York, Oneonta, NY, Silverman earned a degree in business administration and Master's in Public Administration from C.W. Post Long Island University. He is a licensed nursing home administrator in the State of Connecticut, a member of the American College of Health Care Executives, the American College of Health Care Administrators, and Connecticut Association of Not-for-Profit Providers for the Aged. Silverman is also the recipient of the Herb Shore Young Executive Award, given recently at the Association of Jewish Aging Services. In his nomination, Dennis Magid, President of the Jewish Home in Fairfield, noted, "In just a few short years, Michael has grown into a fine administrator and has displayed a caring and concern for the Jewish elderly that is unparalleled. He has committed his energies toward the enhancement of programs and services to benefit the elderly we serve through creative ideas, effective support and skilled coordination." "Many facilities in the United States have been looking for new executives," Bernstein explained. "Our board feels extremely fortunate to have one of the top candidates in the country coming to Omaha. The campus and the warmth of the Jewish community played a large role in Michael's acceptance of our offer."
Students and Faculty at Harvard, MIT Reject Call for Israel Divestment by JULIE WIENER —
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NEW YORK (JTA) - Israel supporters in Cambridge, MA, have hit,back hard in response to a small faculty campaign urging Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to divest from companies doing business in Israel. Responding to a pro-divestment faculty petition that garnered nearly 120 signatures, 4,000 Harvard and MIT faculty, students and staff have signed a counter-petition calling the divestment effort "a one-sided attempt to delegitimize Israel." Among the more famous anti-divestment signatories are Law Professors Alan Dershowitz and Laurence Tribe, Near Eastern languages and civilizations Professor Shaye Cohen and Medical Professor Dr. Jerome Groopman. The debate at Harvard and MIT comes amid a flurry of divestment campaigns at universities across the United States, including Princeton, the University of Michigan and the University of California system.
Modeled on successful efforts in the 1980s to get universities to divest their holdings in apartheid South Africa, the new campaigns often make explicit comparisons between Israel and South Africa. For example, the Web site promoting the Princeton divestment petition-which has the support of 41 faculty members-features a quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "If I were to change the names, a "description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank could describe events in South Africa.'1 A conference aimed at launching a national divestment effort was held in March in Berkeley, organized by a group called Students for Justice in Palestine. The divestment activists have not yet persuaded any university to consider divesting from companies operating in Israel or from U.S. companies that sell arms to Israel. However, Jewish groups say the campaign's real
goal is to demonize Israel. The divestment effort at Harvard and MIT suffered setbacks with a May 8 editorial in the Harvard Crimson calling comparisons to South Africa "offensive, repugnant and detrimental to peace...This proposal for divestment once again makes Israel the victim of a double standard," the editorial says. "Israel is not the only nation that takes strong, and forceful action in times of war, yet it is consistently singled out for criticism."
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