Director of Community Engagement and Education at JFO
The Jewish Federation of Omaha’s Community Engagement and Education Department is proud to present Tapestry 2025: A Celebration of Jewish Learning. Tapestry is a weeklong community initiative bringing Jewish wisdom, values, and contemporary discussion to life across the Omaha area. From May 2 through 10, the community is invited to join distinguished scholar Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute, for a compelling series of conversations, classes, and reflections on Jewish identity, peoplehood, history, Zionism, and interfaith connection. Dr. Kurtzer is a leading thinker on the key challenges confronting modern Jewish life with particular emphasis on Jewish peoplehood and the Jewish national movement, the interplay between history and memory, and the evolving dynamics of leadership and change within the Jewish community.
Take a look at the meaningful events open to the entire community:
On Friday, May 2, Tapestry community events begin with Shabbat Evening Services at Beth El Synagogue at 5:30 p.m, where the congregation will reflect on the evolving conversation entitled Purity and Pollution for
Liberal Jews. The following morning, Saturday, May 3, continues with Shabbat services at Beth El at 9:30 a.m., featuring the topic Reclaiming Jewish Power Without Losing Jewish Values — a timely look at the challenges and evolution of modern Israel.
On Sunday, May 4, join Chabad of Nebraska from 9 to 11 a.m. for Sunday Morning (Tefillin) Wraps, where Dr. Kurtzer will present Liberal Jews in the Rebbe’s Christian America, exploring the relationship between liberal Jewish values and American religious culture.
On Monday, May 5, Jewish Family Service will host a session from 10 a.m. to noon, titled Beyond the “Big Tent”: Models of Community for a Complicated American Jewry. This conversation will explore how American Jews imagine and build community amidst growing internal diversity and shifting affiliations.
Tuesday, May 6, offers the opportunity to travel to the Harris Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. At 7 p.m., Dr. Kurtzer will speak on the topic: Are We at the End of a Golden Age? American Jewry, In Transition, at the Nebraska Union on the UNL campus.
Wednesday, May 7, offers two community-accessible opportunities. From 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation will present See Tapestry page 3
Spread Cream Cheese Not Hate
PAM MONSKY
JCRC Assistant Director
UNL Hillel and JCRC recently held “Spread Cream Cheese Not Hate” on the University of Nebraska campus in Lincoln. The purpose of the event was to spread awareness of antisemitism and other forms of hate in an engaging and fun way. Free bagels with cream cheese were given away along with information about UNL Hillel and JCRC, including ways to report incidents.
Over the course of the event, more than 250 students and faculty interacted with the Hillel students and JCRC to learn about each organiza-
tion’s mission and to sign a digital pledge to fight antisemitism and other forms of bias on campus.
The flyers distributed said, “As UNL students, we have the power to lead by example. Let’s challenge harmful narratives and amplify voices that need to be heard. Every small act of kindness, every open conversation,
Volunteers of the Year
ANNETTE VAN DE KAMPWRIGHT
Jewish Press Editor
Our community thrives because of the dedication and generosity of our wonderful volunteers. They further our mission to build and sustain a strong and vibrant Omaha Jewish community and to support Jews in Israel and around the world. It is a privilege to honor those in our community who give tirelessly and selflessly to make our Jewish community the best it can be.
Please join us on Thursday, June 5 at 7 p.m. when the Jewish Federation of Omaha honors the Agency Volunteers of the Year during a special presentation at the Jewish Federation of Omaha Annual Meeting & Awards Night.
Bob Belgrade is the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation’s Volunteer of the Year. His dedication, leadership, and selfless contributions make him a truly deserving honoree.
“Bob has left an indelible mark on our Jewish community,” JFO Foundation’s Executive Director Amy Bernstein Shivvers said. “He has shown an unwavering commitment to The Foundation, the JFO, Beth El Synagogue, the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society, and numerous other organizations. His involvement spans decades, and he has touched nearly every expansion or renovation project on our campus. He has taken an active role on many boards and has demonstrated true leadership and passion for strengthening Jewish life in Omaha. Bob is a mensch in every sense of the word.”
In addition, Bob has been a valued friend to those in need, providing support, companionship, and care to individuals who may not have family to rely on.
every stand against hate counts. We are stronger when we unite, celebrate diversity, and reject all forms of hate. Together, we can build a college community where everyone belongs.”
The event was sponsored by the Lazier L. and Harriet B. Singer Memorial Fund for Youth.
“His kindness, patience, and attentiveness,” JFS Director of Community Outreach Shelly Fox said, “make him a quiet but profound force for good in the lives of many.” Becki Zanardi is the Institute for Holocaust Education’s Volunteer of the Year. She has been a friend to the IHE for many years and has served as a volunteer in any role needed for the monthly See Volunteers page 3
Rachamim Zamek of Hillel hands out bagels and information
The Tribute to the Rescuers Essay Contest Awards Night
SCOTT LITTKY, IHE Executive Director and JANE NESBIT, IHE Education Coordinator
This year marks the 23rd year of our annual Tribute to the Rescuers Essay Contest.
Inspired by Denmark
Threatened by their Nazi occupiers, in 1943 the Danish people organized a national effort to send 7,200 Jews by fishing boats to neutral Sweden. This effort by the citizens of Denmark resulted in the highest Jewish survival rate of any European country during World War II. The Danish citizens provide a unique example of courage and concern, jeopardizing their own lives to spare those of their fellow countrymen.
Our objective is for students to understand the importance of moral courage in connection to the Holocaust and how they can apply this to their own lives, communities, and even conflicts a world away. Each student can work to make a positive change in the world.
Essay Contest Overview
2. Choose two examples of moral courage: one from the Holocaust, the other from a different time and place.
3. Explain why this matters. What should we do now with this information?
On Monday, May 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the Wiesman Family Reception Room at the Staenberg Omaha Jewish Community Center, we will present the winners of this year’s contest with their prizes. The first-place winners in the two categories of the contest will present their essays to those in attendance.
The contest is open to high school students in Nebraska and parts of Iowa. Top essayists can earn cash prizes. Students are asked to write about an individual or group that demonstrates moral courage. Essays must incorporate three concepts: 1. Include a clear definition of moral courage.
During the evening we will also hear from Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer as part of the Tapestry 2025 program. Dr. Kurtzer’s talk is titled, Would We Do For Others as They Would Do For Us? The Moral Calculus in Becoming an Upstander.
The Tribute to the Rescuers Essay Contest is generously funded by the Carl Frohm Memorial Foundation. Another highlight for this year’s awards ceremony is a presentation by Harold Mann, nephew of Carl Frohm and a trustee of the foundation. He will speak about Carl Frohm and the importance of remembrance and moral courage.
The evening is open to all. For questions about the contest or other IHE programs, please contact Scott Littky at slit tky@ihene.org
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JCRC brings Passover to Connect 55
PAM MONSKY
JCRC Assistant Director
JCRC Assistant Director Pam Monsky and Jewish Press Editor Annette Van de Kamp-Wright recently visited participants at Connect 55+, a senior living community in Omaha, to talk about Passover.
“This is the second presentation we’ve done for Connect 55+, the first one was about Hanukkah. It was such a hit that they invited us back for Passover!” said Pam.
“The people were highly engaged and asked some great questions,” said Annette. “It was a wonderful experience for me.”
Fighting antisemitism is a big task, and it’s the main mission of the JCRC. Presentations like this are key to introducing people to the Omaha Jewish community in a very positive way... with food and stories!
If you know of a group or club that would enjoy hearing about the Omaha Jewish community, please contact the JCRC at pmonsky@jewishomaha.org, or call 402.334.6572.
A Connect 55 participant finds the afikomen at a Passover presenation by JCRC
2024 essay winners
Continued from page 1
TAPESTRY
The Moral, The Political, and The Partisan: Jewish Community in a Partisan Age, a critical dialogue on navigating Jewish values and political polarization in today’s America. Then, from noon to 1 p.m., the weekly B’nai B’rith Bread Breakers gathering will feature The Growing Divide Between American Jews and Israel (And How to Repair It), offering thoughtful perspectives on bridging communal gaps across geography and ideology.
On Thursday, May 8, B’nai Israel Living History Synagogue in Council Bluffs, will host a session from 10 to 11 a.m., titled Going West: “The Journey” as the Jewish Story, examining the narrative of migration, identity, and values in the American Jewish experience. That evening at 6 p.m., Tri-Faith will host a special community-wide event at the Tri-Faith Center entitled: Interfaith Allyship in Contentious Times. This session will invite open dialogue about navigating global Jewish issues in partnership with broader religious communities.
Friday, May 9, continues with a community wide Lunch and Learn hosted by the Jewish Federation of Omaha from noon to 2 p.m., titled American Jews and Judaism in 2025 (and Beyond!) — an exploration of future trends and questions facing North American Jewish life. That evening at 6 p.m., Temple Israel will host Shabbat evening services, where Dr. Kurtzer will speak on Loving Your Friends, Your Neighbors, and Your Enemies: On Community and Conflict, addressing how Jewish peoplehood can be both unified and diverse in a world marked by disagreement. Finally, on Saturday, May 10, Beth Israel Synagogue invites
Volunteers
Continued from page 1
Search for Humanity Field Trip.
“She is a valued member of our Anne Frank Traveling Exhibit and Education Program team,” IHE Executive Director Scott Littky said, “and whenever we need a sounding board or an extra hand with our programs, Becki is there.”
Aaron Parsow, was the featured speaker for the 2024-25 Ritchie Boys program, a collaboration of the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and the Institute for Holocaust Education. He spoke to our community about his grandfather, Warner Frohman, and is the NJHS Volunteer of the Year.
“Although his family knew that Warner Frohman had served with distinction during World War II, until recently, they had no idea of the scope of his service,” NJHS Executive Director Jane Rips said. “Warner’s service as a Ritchie Boy was classified information until the 1990s. Warner’s grandson Aaron lovingly and painstakingly researched his grandfather’s WWII story. His presentation, the third of a three-part series, told over 125 attendees about his grandfather’s heroism. Aaron’s research made the legend of the Ritchie Boys come alive. We are grateful for Aaron’s involvement and for telling a previously unknown tale about Omaha’s own Ritchie Boy.”
Josh Parsow is the Jewish Family Service Volunteer of the Year. He volunteers two mornings each week in the JFS food pantry, tirelessly stocking the shelves, assisting clients with their selections, and completing other projects as needed. Josh is dependable, always friendly and articulate, and has been a great asset to the JFS team.
As co-chairs of the Rekindle program, Holly Pearlman and Bobby Brumfield share this year’s honor as the Jewish Community Relations Council’s Volunteers of the Year for their exceptional leadership and dedication. The mission of Rekindle is to create meaningful social change by bringing leaders from the Black and Jewish communities together for friendly and challenging dialogue, face-to-face interactions, breaking down barriers, and creating new relationships. Holly Pearlman was the chair of the inaugural Jewish cohort of the Rekindle program in February of 2024 and is a licensed professional clinical counselor. Holly’s skills and expertise were integral to a successful launch of this unique program.
Dr. Kurtzer to speak at their Kiddush Luncheon following Shabbat morning services. The session will focus on Why Do American Jews “Need” Israel? wrapping up the week with a deep conversation about identity, connection, and purpose. In addition to the community-wide events, Yehuda Kurtzer will also engage in private and institutional sessions with a diverse range of Jewish organizations across Omaha. These include the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board, Federation staff in Philanthropy and Engagement, BBYO teens and parents, faculty at the Schwalb Center for Israel & Jewish Studies at UNO, the Institute for Holocaust Education, the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home residents, the collective Rabbis and synagogue presidents, the Staenberg Omaha JCC Directors, Beth El Synagogue and Temple Israel teens, the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and Jewish Press Boards, and Friedel Jewish Academy middle school students. These sessions allow for deeper, more focused discussions with leaders, educators, students, and service professionals throughout the community.
Tapestry 2025 is an invitation to gather, learn, and grow as a community. It’s a time to come together—whether through prayer, thoughtful conversation, or shared learning experience—and explore what it means to live Jewishly in today’s world. These events create a welcoming space for reflection, connection, and inspiration, offering all of us the opportunity to deepen our understanding of Jewish life and shape a vibrant, inclusive future together.
Tapestry 2025 is generously supported by the following Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation Funds:
Special Donor Advised Funds, Foundation Grants Committee, The Chesed Fund, Milton S. & Corinne N. Livingston Foundation Fund, Shirley & Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation, Goldsten Fund, The Klutznick Custodial Fund, and personally by Rabbi Aryeh Azriel. Their generous contributions help ensure this learning experience remains open and accessible to the entire community.
For updates, full details, and links to read/listen more about Dr. Kurtzer visit: www.jewishomaha.org/community-en gagement/tapestry
Bobby Brumfield is a prominent leader in the Black community and an active member of the Omaha business community.
“Bobby came to our attention due to his previous work with ADL/CRC under then-executive director Mary-Beth Muskin’s leadership,” current JCRC Executive Director Sharon Brodky said. “He enthusiastically joined and co-facilitated the inaugural Rekindle cohort. Bobby has dedicated his life to service for his community and country. He is a former Omaha police detective, FBI Safe Streets Task Force member, and retired US Marine. He influences those around him in a positive and uplifting way.”
Fran and Rich Juro are the Jewish Press Volunteers of the Year. For many years, the couple have traveled the globe, and there are few countries they have not visited. Wherever they go, they manage to find unique Jewish stories, which they have meticulously documented and shared in the Jewish Press over the years. Being able to print first-person travel stories with a Jewish angle is a unique privilege, and the Jewish Press is extremely grateful for Fran and Rich’s well-used passports.
Patti Williams is the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home Volunteer of the Year. Patti has volunteered with the Home since 2023 and has formed great friendships with Residents through playing dominoes, transporting them to medical appointments, helping out during concerts, casino day, performances, and assisting with technology and smartphone needs.
“Patti is the smartest, kindest person, and a gift to us,” one Resident said. She is extremely flexible and always ready to help out where needed. Patti also volunteers for “Live On,” an organ donation awareness and advocacy group, as well as the American Cancer Society.
Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer
Snowbirds
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Friedel’s unique Middle School travel experiences
SARA KOHEN Friedel Jewish Academy Director of Advancement
Friedel Jewish Academy’s sixth graders recently returned from Alabama. This trip was part of a unique, collaborative learning experience with sixth- through eighth-grade students at Friedel and eight other Jewish day schools in small Jewish communities—like ours.
This program is designed to connect students to each other, Jewish texts to secular subjects, and classroom learning to realworld experiences. Each year involves a unique program of study and travel. Students learn in their classrooms and virtually with their peers at the other day schools throughout the year and complete the journey through an experiential trip.
tems. Normally, the capstone trip for eighth grade is to Israel, in partnership with the Jewish National Fund. This year, the Alliance decided to travel to Costa Rica instead due to the increased cost and unpredictability of travel to and from Israel at this time.
In sixth grade, students explore the history of slavery in the United States, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Civil Rights Movement from a Jewish perspective. For example, the students learn about the Jewish moral imperative to be an upstander (as opposed to a bystander) through studying both classical texts such as the Torah and Talmud and first-person accounts of Jews who participated in the Freedom Summer. During the trip, students visit Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham, Alabama, where they meet participants in the Civil Rights Movement and visit important sites.
are looking for your
family recipes. Please contact Jane or Annette if you are willing to share:
The seventh-grade curriculum focuses on advocacy. Students apply Jewish texts to historical case studies of activism—such as Jewish women’s roles in the garment industry labor movement in the early twentieth century—and learn how to advocate effectively. The students then initiate their own advocacy projects. During the trip to Washington, D.C., students advocate at the national level, meeting with their representatives. They also visit monuments, museums, and other important locations.
The eighth-grade curriculum explores Israeli history and scientific innovations and compares American and Israeli political sys-
Beth Cohen, Friedel’s Head of School, says, “Even though it was not possible for us to go to Israel with eighth graders this time, we felt that it was important that this group of students be able to travel together for their final capstone trip. We are excited about the unique learning experiences our students will have in Costa Rica.” During their trip, eighth graders will visit a sloth sanctuary, participate in a reforestation project, hike through the Arenal Volcano National Park, and have morning prayers in the rainforest. To remove financial barriers to participation in this program, Friedel offers these trips to our students at no additional cost to their families. The Shirley & Leonard Goldstein Foundation is generously helping to underwrite the cost of the trip. Additional funds are needed, however, to fully fund the trip and allow Friedel to continue student experiences like this annual trip in future years. Donations to support the trips can be made through check sent to Friedel at 335 S. 132nd St., Omaha, NE 68154 or on Friedel’s website, www.FriedelJewishAcademy.com. If you would like to learn more about Friedel’s programs or how you can support the middle school travel program, contact Friedel’s Director of Advancement, Sara Kohen, at skohen @fjaomaha.com
JCRC’s Student to Student
MORGAN GRONINGER
JCRC Program and Communications Manager
Last week, JCRC’s first cohort of five students from across the Omaha Jewish community participated in the first Student to Student presentation at Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart. Speaking with nearly 100 students, Eva Cohen, Ryan Kugler, Cadee Scheer, Joshua Shapiro, and Asher Tipp talked about what it's like to be a Jewish teen in Omaha, the different streams of Judaism, holiday rituals, family traditions, and they shared kosher food with the students.
Duchesne students enjoyed the presentations and enthusiastically engaged and made insightful observations about learning Hebrew, kashrut, and the small size of Israel.
One of the students commented, “I liked how it was people our age, and how they brought items for us to look at and food to eat!”
Duchesne Academy World Religion teacher Matthew Friesner said, “The students did a wonderful job expressing their personal experiences, which gives a lot of great context for my students.”
Student to Student is a proven, peer-to-peer, classroom-based experiential program that brings Jewish and non-Jewish high school students together to learn about Judaism through personal storytelling. Jewish high school student presenters visit local high schools with few, if any, Jewish students to share their Jewish practices and experiences. The program is offered in select locations throughout the country.
Omaha’s Student to Student very effectively fights antisemitism as well as helps create young Jewish See JCRC page 7
Eva Cohen and Asher Tipp
Cadee Scheer, Eva Cohen, Joshua Shapiro and Ryan Kugler talk to Duchesne Academy students about Judaism
A Legacy of Giving
JFO
As a husband, father of three young children, and a passionate advocate for our Jewish community, I’ve always believed in the power of giving back. My wife and I prioritize volunteering, supporting meaningful causes, attending Shabbat dinners with friends, and teaching our children the importance of tzedakah.
Recently, we took an even bigger step — making a legacy gift through the Life & Legacy program at The Foundation. This commitment ensures the strength and vitality of the Jewish community for generations to come.
Legacy giving — traditionally seen as something for older generations with accumulated wealth—is shifting.
ment account (designating a percentage of our IRA to the Jewish Federation of Omaha) or a life insurance policy (a fantastic legacy gift, especially for those under 40!).
More young professionals and families, like ours, are embracing philanthropy earlier in life. For us, giving isn’t just an action; it’s part of our identity. We are givers, volunteers, advocates, changemakers, and humanitarians. Through this commitment, we hope to inspire others to think about the lasting impact they can make today.
Giving Doesn’t Have to Wait
One of the biggest misconceptions about planned giving is that it’s only for the wealthy or those later in life. In reality, anyone can start making an impact today. Legacy gifts can be structured in ways that require no immediate financial commitment — such as naming a charity as a beneficiary in a retire-
Others may choose a more active approach, setting aside as little as $18 a month to support causes they believe in. These commitments allow us to weave philanthropy into our daily lives while ensuring the organizations we cherish continue to thrive. More importantly, they send a powerful message: our generation isn’t waiting to make a difference — we’re stepping up now. This creates a ripple effect, inspiring and energizing our elders, who take great pride in seeing the next generation actively securing our community’s future.
Why We Chose to Leave a Legacy
For my wife and I, making a planned gift
See A Legacy of Giving page 7
Jewish Press Book Recommendation
ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT
Jewish Press Editor
Brigitte Barnard’s debut novel, The Tudor Queen’s Midwife (Book 1) tells the story of Sarah Menendez, a crypto Jew living in Henry VIII’s England. Several years after leaving Spain, she becomes Queen Catherine’s midwife, and still has to hide her identity. Since the expulsion of 1290, Jews were no more welcome in England than in Spain at the time. Catherine of Aragon (14851536) was the first wife of King Henry VIII of England, who reigned from 1509 to 1547.
Daughter of the Spanish rulers Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, her parents were responsible for the Spanish Inquisition. All the more reason for Sarah to hide her true self.
until her fiancé assumed the throne as Henry VIII in 1509.
Queen Catherine’s life was not a happy one: In 1501 she married the oldest son of King Henry VII of England; he died the following year, and shortly afterward she was betrothed to Prince Henry, his younger brother. But subsequent rivalry between England and Spain and Ferdinand’s refusal to pay the full dowry prevented the marriage from taking place
CONGRATULATE YOUR GRADUATE
The annual Graduation Issue will publish this year on May 23, 2025. Senior photos will run in that issue and we know you’ll want to highlight the achievements of your high school graduate! Congratulatory ads are available in two sizes. Limit of 25 words.
Between 1510 and 1518 Catherine gave birth to six children, including two sons, but all except Mary (later queen of England, 1553–58) either were stillborn or died in early infancy. Henry’s desire for a legitimate male heir prompted him in 1527 to appeal to Rome for an annulment. It is against this backdrop of continued miscarriages, that we slowly learn Sarah’s own story, which is a perilous one; since the death of her husband, she is singehandedly responsible for their daughter, Emunah. Barnard brings to life the opulence and tensions of Tudor England in this powerful novel, and if you like historical stories, don’t miss this one. It weaves together the Inquisition, the Reformation, and Tudor politics.
Brigitte Bernard is an amateur historian and home birth midwife, whose passion for history and experience in maternal care bring authenticity to her storytelling. She is married with four children and raises Cavalier King Charles spaniels.
are so proud of your achievements –membership in NHS, varsity letter in tennis and a Merit Award from the Band.
Photohere
SP O TLIGHT
SUBMIT A PHOTO: Have a photo of a recent Jewish Community event you would like to submit? Email the image and a suggested caption to: avandekamp@jewishomaha.org
Above: Cast photo from the Purim Spiel in Lincoln, which was delayed to a Lincoln Jewish Community Post-Purim Spiel. Photo credit: Jacob Earleywine
Top, above, below, and bottom: Despite the uncooperative weather, RBJH residents and staffenthusiastically embraced some fun and quirky activities with the arrival of spring and April Fool's Day! We celebrated the new month by enjoying temporary tattoos, brews, bunny ears, and grilled hotdogs.
Above and right: Beth El teens compete in Chopped competition- Italian Edition
Right and below: As part of the Institute for Holocaust Education’s Week of Understanding, Friedel graduate Sarah Kutler spoke to Friedel Jewish Academy's middle school students about her grandmother, Bea Karp's, story of survival.
Above, right, and below: Beth El 8th graders visit the Illinois Holocaust Museum and other sights in the Chicago area
New in the Kripke-Veret Collection
JFO
JUVENILE:
Zayde Babysits Before Passover by Jane Sutton Passover starts tonight and Zayde is babysitting for Ruthie his first time by himself! Mommy has left a list of things to do: Buy parsley at the grocery store for the seder plate, go to the playground so Ruthie can use up energy, then use up more energy at home because seders last a long time. And be sure Ruthie takes a nap. But who exactly is babysitting whom as an afternoon of shenanigans ensue?
ADULT:
One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter 1940, Emilia Romagna. Lili and Esti have been best friends since meeting at the University of Ferrara. When Esti’s son Theo is born, they become as close as sisters. There is a war being fought across borders, and in Italy, Mussolini’s Racial Laws have deemed Lili and Esti descendants of an ‘inferior’ Jewish race, but life somehow goes on — until Germany invades northern Italy, and the friends find themselves in occupied territory.
mountains of northern Maryland and sent into Europe and the Pacific. Ultimately, 15,000 men and some women received this specialized training and went on to make vital contributions to victory in World War II. This is their story, which Beverley Driver Eddy tells thoroughly and colorfully, drawing heavily on interviews with surviving Ritchie Boys.
Esti, older and fiercely self-assured, convinces Lili to flee first to a villa in the countryside to help hide a group of young war orphans, then to a convent in Florence, where they pose as nuns and forge false identification papers for the Underground. When disaster strikes at the convent, a critically wounded Esti asks Lili to take a much bigger step: go on the run with Theo and protect him while Esti can’t. Terrified to travel on her own, Lili sets out on an epic journey south toward Allied territory, through Nazi-occupied villages and bombed-out cities, doing everything she can to keep Theo safe.
A remarkable tale of friendship, motherhood, and survival, One Good Thing is a tender reminder that love for another person, even amidst darkness and uncertainty, can be reason to keep going.
Ritchie Boy Secrets: How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped Win World War II by Beverley Driver Eddy
In June 1942, the U.S. Army began recruiting immigrants, the children of immigrants, refugees, and others with language skills and knowledge of enemy lands and cultures. They formed a special military intelligence group, trained in the
JCRC
Continued from page 4 leaders in our community-leaders who develop tools to confront the bigotry they may encounter in college and beyond. JCRC Omaha wants to send our heartfelt thanks to the presenters and parents of our first Student to Student cohort! Together, we’re creating meaningful connections in our community that will pave the way for lasting change in the future.
If you know of an educator that would be interested in hosting a Student to Student presentation, please reach out to Morgan Groninger, JCRC Program and Communications Manager, at mgroninger@jewishomaha.org
The army recruited not just those fluent in German, French, Italian, and Polish (approximately a fifth were Jewish refugees from Europe), but also Arabic, Japanese, Dutch, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Turkish, and other languages—as well as some 200 Native Americans and 200 WACs. They were trained in photo interpretation, terrain analysis, POW interrogation, counterintelligence, espionage, signal intelligence (including pigeons), mapmaking, intelligence gathering, and close combat.
Many landed in France on D-Day. Many more fanned out across Europe and around the world completing their missions, often in cooperation with the OSS and Counterintelligence Corps, sometimes on the front lines, often behind the lines. The Ritchie Boys’ intelligence proved vital during the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge. They helped craft the print and radio propaganda that wore down German homefront morale. If caught, they could have been executed as spies. After the war they translated and interrogated at the Nuremberg trials. One participated in using war criminal Klaus Barbie as an anti-communist agent. Meanwhile, Ritchie Boys in the Pacific Theater of Operations collected intelligence in Burma and China, directed bombing raids in New Guinea and the Philippines, and fought on Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
This is a different kind of World War II story, and Eddy tells it with conviction, supported by years of research and interviews.
A Legacy of Giving
Continued from page 5
was about honoring our values and shaping our vision for the future. We want our children to grow up in a thriving Jewish community, just as we did. We want to ensure that the organizations providing education, support, and connection today remain strong for generations to come. Most importantly, we want to lead by example — showing our kids that giving back isn’t something reserved for when you have “extra,” but a fundamental part of who we are.
A Call to Action for Our Peers
If you’ve ever wanted to give back but weren’t sure where to start, I encourage you to consider your own philanthropic legacy. You don’t need to be wealthy. You don’t need to wait until later in life. All it takes is care, intention, and a commitment to making a difference. Whether through monthly contributions, volunteering, or planning a future gift, every action helps shape the future of our Jewish community and inspires others to also get involved.
As the saying goes, “The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago. The second-best time is today.”
Let’s redefine what it means to be a philanthropist. Our generation isn’t waiting for the right moment — we’re stepping up now to lead, give, and inspire.
If you’d like to explore ways to create your own lasting impact, I’d love to connect. Together, we can build a stronger future — one rooted in our values and our shared commitment to Tikkun Olam.
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The mission of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to build and sustain a strong and vibrant Omaha Jewish Community and to support Jews in Israel and around the world. Agencies of the JFO are: Institute for Holocaust Education, Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Social Services, Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and the Jewish Press Guidelines and highlights of the Jewish Press, including front page stories and announcements, can be found online at: www.jewishomaha.org; click on ‘Jewish Press.’ Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole. The Jewish Press reserves the right to edit signed letters and articles for space and content. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the Kashrut of any product or establishment.
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We Need a Favor
ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT
Jewish Press Editor
It’s the time of year when we ask for your help. The Jewish Press Club, our annual fundraiser, is upon us; we’ve been working on creating new ads and the thank you notes have been ordered. Will you join us?
Since Dec. 16, 1920, the Jewish Press has been the weekly instrument through which we tell you what is going on in our community. That means we have roughly 5,275 papers in our archive. Some of those were only four pages, some were close to 80. For many years, they were in black-and-white only, now we can’t remember the last time we went to print without color.
Much has changed, even in the recent decadeand-a-half. We’ve added a stand-alone website (does anyone remember fed-web?) and a weekly newsletter. We’re active on social media and will soon debut an Instagram channel where we can share video-advertising, which is much cooler than print ads and will, we hope, attract new advertisers and collaborations. We’re working with the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society on a book full of Omaha food memories. Yes, it will include the final truth about the Reuben. Be on the lookout for it in 2026!
We do all of this because this community is rich with history, life, people and experience. We exist to tell the many stories of Jewish Omaha, and I cannot imagine our community without it.
Our mission is clear. How we continue to pay for it is another matter. Once upon a time, advertising
Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole.
in a newspaper was one of a few ways to get your message out; nowadays, the competition is endless. Newspaper advertising is on its way out, and we are forever looking for alternative revenue streams. Of course, this paper could have never existed in the first place without the support of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Were we not a JFO agency, we would have long ago gone under.
Sometimes I try to imagine what we would lose if the paper wasn’t here. And I promise you, it’s not about my ego-or any of my staff’s personal opinions; the truth is, we are an archive as much as a newspaper. The number of times I receive a phone call from a reader somewhere in the country who is looking for a specific memory is endless, and more often than not, we find what they are looking for.
This year, I have spent quite a bit of time researching the coverage from 1925 and 26, when the first Jewish Community Center was built. We’ve included some of those stories in our weekly paper. And while the voices were different, the writing style more flowery and sometimes bordering on bombastic, I feel a connection to the people mentioned in those stories. The same goes for the ones who did the writing; we are not so different, I think, even if we are working 100 years apart. Because ultimately, it is about the
impact we make on the Jewish community of Omaha. Which stories need to be told? What do we want to preserve? The answer is: all of it. Because every single story in this community is like a single thread; together, those threads weave a fan-
tastic tapestry.
Today, I ask you to help us continue the work, and continue to tell the story of Jewish Omaha.
Please see the Jewish Press Club ad on page 12, scan the QR code and donate online, or mail your check to us at the Staenberg Omaha JCC, 333 S, 132nd Street, Omaha NE 68154.
The Passover seder is a model for healing democracies
RABBI MEESH HAMMER-KOSSOY
JTA
Revolutionaries throughout the ages have drawn strength from the story of Passover. As Michael Walzer brilliantly documents in his book “Exodus and Revolution,” the Israelites leaving Egypt inspired liberation movements and thinkers throughout history, from the French Revolution to the Puritans, and even Marx.
The African-American spiritual “Go Down Moses” and the inscription on the Liberty Bell — “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,” quoting Leviticus — are just two well-known invocations of the Exodus as a call to freedom.
Moses and the Israelites steadfastly stood up to their oppressors. Prevailing against the odds, they trudged through the desert for 40 years in order to get to the Promised Land. Determined humans that join together with vision and strategy can bend the arc of history towards justice and make redemption possible.
But with freedom comes tremendous responsibility. For this reason, the Torah could imagine that a slave, afraid of what freedom might entail, would choose to say, “I love my master … I do not wish to go free” (Exodus 21:5). The Torah understood that the weight, insecurity and uncertainty of self-determination could sometimes feel unbearable.
The responsibility that comes with freedom is terrifying and onerous, even if it makes life meaningful. Perhaps Erich Fromm said it best in his 1941 book, “Escape From Freedom”: “Is there not also, perhaps, besides an innate desire for freedom, an instinctive wish for submission? If there is not, how can we account for the attraction which submission to a leader has for so many today?”
Fromm’s warnings seem all too relevant today with the election of governments worldwide that seem ready and willing to trample on cherished civil protections. The celebration of freedom and human rights — which once seemed to be the norm in democratic regimes across the world — turns out to have been premature.
Long ago, the Torah warned against the dangers of rulers with excessive power. If we must appoint a king “like the non-Jews,” their authority must be
carefully limited. A ruler with too much money and too large an army will become haughty and oppressive. A king must carry the sacred law with him at all times to remind him that he is not above it (Deuteronomy 17). For the Torah, a balance of powers was the path to protection. The rabbis further expanded on the importance of separation of powers and checks and balances — legislating “three crowns,” dividing power among rabbis, priests and a king. The demand that the Sanhedrin, the pre-exilic supreme court, include 70 members reflected a commitment to the idea that Torah itself has multiple interpretations and that justice is served by pluralism of opinions.
What are we to do as narrowly elected governments break long-standing democratic norms, disregard ethics and accountability, and push agendas that impinge on the delicate balance of freedom long held to be unshakable? Protesting is absolutely essential, as I have personally witnessed. Israelis have been turning out weekly and even daily in the tens of thousands for years on end, demonstrating tremendous resilience in their fight for government accountability, independent courts, and minority protections.
in peril
tional narrative. We have journeyed all this way from Egypt together. Moses’ brother Aaron made peace by shuttling between two conflicting parties, exposing common values and shared narratives and reducing the perceived gaps between sides. The seder is an opportunity to come together as one family across social and political divides with-
out an intermediary, to celebrate the shared history, purpose, and good intentions of all. Sharing in this way can be a true act of freedom and one that continues to perpetuate our collective freedom.
But even as I hope these protests can be a source of inspiration for others facing their own national crises, we must recognize the potentially negative impacts of this fraught discourse. The hatred and delegitimization of government may feel justified, but we must guard against a cycle of demonization and polarization that contracts common ground even further. The heated, often personal rhetoric and imagery that characterizes today’s civil discourse feeds a vicious cycle that undermines our social fabric and stymies compromise and understanding.
The Passover seder provides another model — that of embracing and amplifying our shared na-
Michael Walzer said it best when he declared: “We still believe, or many of us do, what the Exodus first taught about the meaning and possibility of politics and about its proper form: First; that wherever you live, it is probably Egypt; second; that there is a better place, a world more attractive, a promised land; and third, that the way to the land is through the wilderness. There is no way to get from here to there except by joining together and marching.” This year, may we rejoice in the true celebration of freedom through embracing our shared narratives as well as our differences and coming together on seder night.
Rabbi Meesh Hammer-Kossoy is the director of the Year Program at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.
Credit: JTA illustration; Image of Minneapolis "Hands Off" protest via Getty Images; Seder via Wikipedia Commons
Dara Horn’s gonzo, time-traveling children’s Passover book
ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL
JTA
“All of my books are the same book,” said Dara Horn, the author of seven novels and the 2021 essay collection, People Love Dead Jews, which may be the most talked-about Jewish book of the past several years.
The subject, she said, is time — how Jews mark it, how they preserve it, how they understand where a moment goes once it is passed. Her 2006 debut, A World to Come, toggles between present-day New Jersey and 1920’s Russia. Her 2018 novel “Eternal Life,” meanwhile, is about an immortal woman, born in Jerusalem, who experiences countless lives over 2,000 years.
She took the title of her 2009 Civil War novel, All Other Nights, from the Passover Haggadah, which she calls a book about “the collapse of time,” expressed in its injunction that “in every generation a person is obligated to see themselves as if they left Egypt.”
It’s a verse that becomes literal in her latest book, the middle-grade graphic novel “One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe.” In it, a young boy escapes a seemingly endless family seder in the company of a talking goat, who drags him back through a “hole in interdimensional space-time” and to the seder tables of historically iconic Jews, including Sigmund Freud, the 16th-century philanthropist Doña Gracia Nasi and the Talmudic tag team known as Rav and Shmuel.
The book is both a history lesson, and a lesson about history.
“The seder is not just about the Exodus from Egypt. It’s also a commemoration of a commemoration of a commemoration,” said Horn, noting how the traditional Haggadah itself includes descriptions of at least two prior seders, the very first one in Egypt and one held in the Land of Israel after the destruction of the Second Temple. Quoting the late American historian Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Horn said Jewish culture makes a distinction between history and memory, and Jews are more interested in memory: investing a historical event with eternal, inheritable meaning.
“When I say I write about time, I mean specifically, how do we live as mortals in a world that outlasts us?” she said. “That’s the central question that I’m exploring as a writer.”
History and memory were the subjects of “People Love Dead Jews,” where Horn proposes that in its fascination with the ways Jews suffered and died, the world either overlooks or devalues the way they actually lived and live. Even well-meaning efforts like Holocaust-education mandates and Shoah memorials ignore the layers and layers of Jewish history and complexity, leaving Jews as convenient abstractions for antisemites and conspiracy theorists.
The conversation sparked by the book — “People Love Dead Jews’ ate my life, she jokes — turned the novelist and Hebrew and Yiddish scholar into a go-to expert on the recent rise in antisemitism. An alumna of Harvard, she gave an interview to a Congressional committee as a member of Harvard’s Antisemitism Advisory Group, formed in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. In recent months she launched a nonprofit, Mosaic Persuasion, which aims to supplement
Holocaust and history of religion units in K-12 education with curricula about the foundations of Jewish civilization and the causes of antisemitism.
“There are 29 states in this country where people are required by law to learn in school that Jews are people who were murdered,” she said, referring to Holocaust education mandates. “There’s not a single state in this country where anyone is required to learn, like, who are Jews? What’s Israel? What the hell do they have to do with the Middle East? We’ve outsourced that to TikTok.”
One Little Goat appears to be adjacent to that project — helping middle-schoolers understand the way their own family history is an accumulation of Jewish lives and experiences reaching back through time and marked each year at the seder table.
The story was inspired by two seders that Horn, who was raised and still lives in Short Hills, New Jersey, grew up attending. At the first, hosted by her parents, Horn and her three siblings would perform songs and skits, riffing on pop culture. The second she describes as a “large multigenerational gathering” that included Holocaust survivors, including some who had participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on Passover of 1943, and former Soviet “refuseniks” were active in the Free Soviet Jewry movement.
Although frustrated that the kids played only a supporting role in the second seder, it left her with a kind of vision. “I felt like the room I was in was a lighted box that’s sitting on a tower of lighted boxes of other seders, including the seders that these people at this table have been at in the past,” she said.
The idea germinated for years before she contacted the decorated graphic novelist and illustrator Theo Ellsworth, a favorite of her children, and suggested they collaborate. Ellsworth, who is not Jewish, seemed to get it: If he wasn’t familiar with the Passover story, he understood its potential as a children’s adventure. Horn calls their book a “portal” story, like the Harry Potter books or C.S. Lewis’s Narnia tales, in which children slip through a passage into a fantastic world beyond.
“That’s so resonant for children because children’s lives are really small, and they’re completely managed by the adults in their lives,” said Horn. “That’s why children are looking for that access point to a life bigger than theirs.”
Horn said Ellsworth’s art — black and white, heavily inked, with an underground comics sensibility — appealed to her because it wasn’t “cute and cuddly.” Which raises the question: When are children ready to encounter a Jewish history of persecution and slaughter?
One answer is provided during the seder itself, which often ends with the traditional song Chad Gadya, or one little goat in Aramaic. It’s a “cumulative” song about a baby goat that is eaten by a cat, who’s killed by a dog, who’s beaten with a stick, culminating with the Angel of Death being slain by God. One interpretation is that the goat represents the Jewish people, and the climax of the song signals the redemption of the Jews. It’s a dark theme smuggled into an upbeat if macabre children’s song.
Making light of the seder’s darker themes is a Passover tradition all its own, and Horn is on board with it.
“By the time children are old enough to appreciate [the darkness], they own the story. They’re characters in the story, and they know that about themselves and that this is a story about us,” said Horn.
Horn embraces that darkness in her book, which includes an appearance or two by the Angel of Death. Horn recalls that the seder in the Torah is described as the Night of Watching. It takes place before the actual flight from Egypt, with the Jews at the table uncertain if they will survive.
“I can’t look at that scene anymore, of that first seder, without thinking of a ma’amad, the bomb shelters and safe rooms, where people in Israel were hiding on Oct. 7, and where everybody goes during missile attacks, where you’re hiding with your family trying to wait out the Angel of Death,” she said.
“That’s where my mind was when we were finishing the book.”
Horn’s own seders are hardly grim affairs. She, her husband and four children stage extravaganzas, with a sort of Passover funhouse experience in the basement, laser lights and fog machines to simulate the parting of the Red Sea, and homemade movie and television parodies.
For Horn, Passover is a story about how Jews lived and how they survived. The history of persecution can’t be avoided but it is only part of the story.
Before People Love Dead Jews, said Horn, she would speak in bookstores about her novels and ask the audience two questions: How many people can name four concentration camps? And, how many people can name four Yiddish writers?
Most could answer the first question and few could answer the second.
“I’d say, ‘85% of the [Jews] killed in those concentration camps were Yiddish speakers. This is a very literary culture. Why do you care so much about how these people died when you really don’t care about how these people lived?’
“What I find really important about Jewish history is not this litany of horror — which I don’t think you can avoid talking about — but that the story of Jewish life is about this amazing creative resilience.”
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.
Passover haggadahs have long included pictures of rabbit hunts.
The Passover Haggadah is one of the few sacred Jewish texts that has a long history of including illustrations, and among the most remarkable are detailed images of rabbit hunts that often appear in the opening pages, even before the text of the Seder really begins.
The images, which are varied in style and can be found in editions dating back to medieval and early-modern Germany, often present hunters and dogs chasing rabbits, the latter of which are generally depicted escaping over a fence or off of the page. They are dramatic images and, like much in the Haggadah, they are curious and somewhat frightening.
Like all Jewish forms of textual interpretation, most illustrations in illuminated Haggadot are a form of midrash — an effort on behalf of generations of readers to wrest new meaning from ancient words, and to present the text as urgent and relevant to those who hold the book in their hands, often by identifying and explaining specific textual lacunae and ambiguities. For example, the Sarajevo Haggadah — dated to 14thcentury Spain, and one of the oldest fully illuminated Haggadot still extant — includes an image of Moses, who is famously not mentioned in the Haggadah’s traditional text.
The question, of course, is why rabbits?
There are at least two answers, both of which speak powerfully to the present moment and to the upcoming holiday. Understanding the first requires a little bit of Talmudic knowledge and is related to the special order of operations that is employed whenever the Seder falls on Saturday night, as it does this year.
This calendrical quirk (which takes place about once every nine years) presents the rabbis with a kind of ritual puzzle re-
lated to how and when to mark the distinction between Shabbat and the Passover; how and when to sanctify Passover itself; and how and if to make a blessing over fire even though it is traditionally forbidden to light and extinguish a new flame on a holiday — which typically happens during the havdalah ritual that marks the distinction between Shabbat and weekday.
As lovers of order — particularly when it comes to the Seder, which literally means “order” — the ancient rabbis ultimately decided on a set procedure:
• First one says the blessing over Yayyin (wine)
• Then one makes Kiddush (sanctifying Passover)
• Then one says the blessing over a Ner (the Holiday candles lit from a pre-existing flame)
• Then one makes Havdalah (marking the end of Shabbat and the beginning of Passover)
• And, finally, one blesses the Zman (by saying the Shecheyanu blessing).
As lovers of mnemonics — an aspect of Hebrew written culture that, as any reader of Hebrew will attest, persists to this day — the rabbis of the Talmud ultimately use the first letters of those key words to form the acronym YaKNeHaZ, which appears in certain Haggadot at the very beginning, sometimes on the same page as the images of the rabbit hunt in Haggadot used in Yiddish-speaking communities. Though the reason for this choice is not made explicit in the Haggadot themselves (at least not in any that I’ve seen), later scholars have noted that it is almost certainly inspired by the fact that the German/Yiddish phrase “jag den has,” which means “hunt the hare,” sounds a lot like yaknehaz, which appears in ancient rabbinic sources. What emerges is a complicated but undeniably charming picture: a visual cue that reminds Yiddish readers of a pun that reminds them of a Hebrew mnemonic that reminds them of
what they should do when the Seder falls on a Saturday night. The fact that the Haggadah spells none of this out explicitly heightens the power of the midrash by creating a circle of familial intimacy. Like a great joke, making sense of the picture requires a fair amount of specialized knowledge — a deep inward gaze, that can help sustain a people who are all too often assailed from without.
The second reason for the rabbit hunt illustrations is thematic rather than ritual. And the theme, one of the core themes of the Haggadah, is that as Jews we are hunted. We are not hunted at every moment, of course, but we have been enough throughout our long history that it is impossible to tell the story of our freedoms without also telling the story of our persecutions — and not only the mythic persecutions of ancient Egypt, but also the persecutions of today and those that lie in wait in the future.
As the Haggadah famously prophesies: “This is the promise: That not only one arose to destroy us, but in every generation they arise to destroy us…” We are therefore confronted with the stark reality of that image immediately when we sit down to our most joyful celebratory meal and open our book of freedom, the Haggadah, which allows us to escape into an imagined reality of redemption. The image is of a family, simultaneously vulnerable and swift, small and industrious, always running but always escaping, bursting beyond the border of the page in order to run another day, in order to draw new pictures into our ancient tomes.
Benjamin Resnick is rabbi of the Pelham Jewish Center in Pelham, New York and the author of the novel Next Stop. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.
Dara Horn's latest book is a graphic novel featuring a timetraveling talking goat. Credit: Norton Young Readers
BENJAMIN RESNICK
B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE
Synagogues
618 Mynster Street Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766
712.322.4705 www.cblhs.org
BETH EL SYNAGOGUE
Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California Street Omaha, NE 68154-1980
402.492.8550 bethel-omaha.org
BETH ISRAEL
SYNAGOGUE
Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 12604 Pacific Street Omaha, NE. 68154
402.556.6288 BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org
CHABAD HOUSE
An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch 1866 South 120 Street Omaha, NE 68144-1646
402.330.1800 OChabad.com email: chabad@aol.com
LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY:
B’NAI JESHURUN
South Street Temple
Union for Reform Judaism 2061 South 20th Street Lincoln, NE 68502-2797
402.435.8004 www.southstreettemple.org
OFFUTT AIR
FORCE BASE
Capehart Chapel 2500 Capehart Road Offutt AFB, NE 68123
402.294.6244 email: oafbjsll@icloud.com
TEMPLE ISRAEL
Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 13111 Sterling Ridge Drive Omaha, NE 68144-1206
402.556.6536 templeisraelomaha.com
LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY:
TIFERETH ISRAEL
Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Boulevard Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 402.423.8569 tiferethisraellincoln.org
Monthly Speaker Series Service, Friday, May 9, 7:30 p.m. with our guest speaker. Our service leader is Larry Blass. Everyone is always welcome at B’nai Israel! For information about our historic synagogue, please visit our website at www.cblhs.org or contact any of our other board members: Renee Corcoran, Scott Friedman, Rick Katelman, Janie Kulakofsky, Howard Kutler, Carole and Wayne Lainof, Ann Moshman, MaryBeth Muskin, Debbie Salomon and Sissy Silber. Handicap Accessible.
Services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman.
IN-PERSON AND ZOOM MINYAN SCHEDULE:
Mornings on Sundays, 9:30 a.m.; Mondays and Thursdays 7 a.m.; Evenings on Sunday-Thursday 5:30 p.m.
FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.
SATURDAY: Passover Day Seven/Shabbat Morning Service with Yizkor, 10 a.m. at Beth El and Live Stream; Jr. Congregation (Grades K-12) 10 a.m.
SUNDAY: Passover Day Eight Morning Service, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.
TUESDAY: Mishneh Torah, 10:30 a.m. with Rabbi Abraham; Board of Trustees Meeting, 7 p.m.
WEDNESDAY: BESTT (Grades 3-7), 4:15 p.m.; Yom HaShoah Teen Program, 6 p.m. at the JCC; Commmunity Yom HaShoah Commemoration, 7 p.m. at the JCC
FRIDAY-Apr. 25: Nebraska AIDS Project Lunch, 11:30 a.m.; Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.
SATURDAY-Apr. 26: Bat Mitzvah of Eliana Volshonok, 10 a.m. at Beth El and Live Stream; Jr. Congregation 10 a.m.; Havdallah, 8:55 p.m. Zoom Only. Please visit bethel-omaha.org for additional information and service links.
You’ve watched Jeopardy. You’ve played along with The Floor, and gotten excited by The Chase. Now, as part of the Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebrations on April 30, you get to compete in a new trivia game show experience brought to you by the Henry Monsky Lodge.
The Jewish Trivia Quiz is an opportunity to test your knowledge and win some money for your team and also a local Jewish charity or institution of the team’s choice.
B’nai B’rith Monsky Lodge will award $500 for a first-place finish and $300 for second. Finishing third brings in $200.
Mitzvah of Sol Denenberg; Shacharit 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:30 a.m.; Youth Class, 10:45 a.m.; Soulful Torah, 7:05 p.m. with Rabbi Geiger; Mincha, 7:50 p.m.; Kids Activity/Laws of Shabbos 8:20 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:01 p.m.
Please visit orthodoxomaha.org for additional information and Zoom service links.
All services are in-person. All classes are being offered in-person and via Zoom (ochabad.com/academy). For more information or to request help, please visit www.ochabad.com or call the office at 402.330.1800.
FRIDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Lechayim, 5:30 p.m., go to ochabad.com/lechayim to join; Shabbat/Holiday Candlelighting, 7:50 p.m.
MONDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Personal Parsha, 9:30 a.m. with Shani Katzman; Intermediate Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Translating Words of Prayer, 7 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.
TUESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Aramaic Grammar, 10 a.m. with David Cohen; Translating Words of Prayer, 11 a.m. with David Cohen; Good for Hearland: Groundbreaking Ceremony, 2 p.m.; Intermediate Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 7 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen
WEDNESDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Mystical Thinking (Tanya), 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Katzman; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 11:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen.
THURSDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Introduction to Alphabet, Vowels & Reading Hebrew, 10 a.m.; Advanced Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 11 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Talmud Study, noon-1 p.m.; Introduction to Alphabet, Vowels & Reading Hebrew, 6 p.m.; Code of Jewish Law Class, 7 p.m.
FRIDAY-Apr. 25: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Lechayim, 5:30 p.m., go to ochabad.com/lechayim to join; Candlelighting, 7:57 p.m.
SATURDAY-Apr. 26: Shacharit, 10 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 9:01 p.m.
LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN & TIFERETH ISRAEL
Services facilitated by Rabbi Alex Felch. All services offered in-person with live-stream or teleconferencing options.
FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat Service, 6:30-7:30 p.m. led by Rabbi Alex at SST; Shabbat Candlelighting, 7:51 p.m.
SATURDAY: Shabbat Service, 9:30-11 a.m. led by Rabbi Alex at TI; No Torah Study this week; Potluck Dinner and Family Game Night, 6 p.m. at SST. Please bring a dish to share. All ages are welcome; Havdalah, 8:54 p.m.
SUNDAY: Pesach Service with Yizkor, 9:30 a.m. at
winnings will go to the team and the balance to the charity of their choice.
“It’s easy to participate in the B’nai B’rith Jewish Trivia Quiz,” stated Mark Kellin, one of the question writers. “You can enter as an individual or form a team of up to six friends or family members.” (Individual entrants must be at least 13 years old.)
To attract more youth, the Lodge will offer a special bonus prize to high school students, so they won’t have to compete with adults. Teens will be able to win $150 for the first-place prize and $75 for second place.
To honor Israel’s Independence Day, half of the
“The broad range of questions range from easy to difficult to attract challengers,” according to quiz chairman Steve Riekes. “Unlike our Zorinsky Bible Quiz for Jewish high school students that focuses solely on the Bible, this 25question quiz also challenges your knowledge of Jewish personalities, current events, tradition, cul-
TI; No LJCS Classes this week; Men’s Bike/Coffee Group, 10:30 a.m. at The Mill on the Innovation Campus. For more information or questions please email Al Weiss at albertw801@gmail.com; No Intro to Judaism class this week; F St Rec - Feed the Children,·1:30 p.m. at 1225 F St, Lincoln; Jewish Book Club, 1:30 p.m. For more information, please contact Deborah Swearingen at devra60@gmail. com; Havdalah, 8:55 p.m.
MONDAY: Offices Closed
WEDNESDAY: LJCS Hebrew School, 4:30-6 p.m. at TI; Adult Ed Movie Night: Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at SST; YJI Carb Coma: Post Pesach Dessert Potluck, 6:30-8 p.m. at SST. For more information please email lincolnyji@gmail.com
FRIDAY-Apr. 25: Kabbalat Shabbat Service, 6:307:30 p.m. led by Rabbi Alex at SST; Shabbat Candlelighting, 7:59 p.m.
SATURDAY-Apr. 26: Shabbat Service, 9:30-11 a.m. led by Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Shemini via Zoom; Havdalah, 9:02 p.m.
FRIDAYS: Virtual Shabbat Service, 7:30 p.m. every first and third of the month at Capehart Chapel. Contact TSgt Jason Rife at OAFBJSLL@icloud.com for more information.
In-person and virtual services conducted by Rabbi Benjamin Sharff, Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin, and Cantor Joanna Alexander.
SATURDAY: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Conclusion of Passover Service and Yizkor, 10:30 a.m. In-Person & Zoom.
SUNDAY: No Youth Learning Program this week.
WEDNESDAY: Yarn It, 9 a.m. In-Person; Grades 36, 4:30 p.m. In-Person; Dinner for all Jewish Student in Grades 7-12, 6 p.m. at the JCC; How the Israelites Became the Jews, 6:30 p.m. In-Person & Zoom; Yom HaShoah Commmunity Holocaust Commemoration, 7 p.m. at the JCC
THURSDAY: The Zohar: Thursday Morning Class 11 a.m. with Rabbi Sharff — In-Person & Zoom.
SATURDAY-Apr. 26: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Shabbat Morning Service and Bat Mitzvah of Chloe Ruback, 10:30 a.m. In-Person & Zoom. Please visit templeisraelomaha.com for additional information and Zoom service links.
OBITUARY CHANGES
As of January 1, 2025, the Jewish Press will charge $180 for the inclusion of standard obituaries, up to 400 words. Photos may be included if the family so wishes. For many years, we have held off on making this decision. However, it is no longer financially responsible for us to include obituaries at no charge.
For questions, please email avandekamp@ jewishomaha.org. Obituaries in the Jewish Press are included in our print edition as well as our website at www.omahajewishpress.com
ture, and Israel.”
“Answers to all questions will be written, so no one has to worry about being shy,” Riekes added. The trivia contest will begin at 6:15 p.m. at the Staenberg JCC’s Goldstein room. A list of other festivities celebrating the special day can be found on the Jewish Federation website.
You can sign up for the trivia quiz at bread breakersomaha@gmail.com. Also note that nearly every Wednesday, The Henry Monsky Lodge also sponsors a mini-press conference featuring the “movers and shakers” from Omaha, around the state, and across the nation.
B’NAI ISRAEL
BETH EL
BETH ISRAEL
CHABAD HOUSE
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE
TEMPLE ISRAEL
Life cycles
IN MEMORIAM
MARCIA RUTH (TEPPERMAN) KUSHNER
Funeral services were held on April 11, 2025, at Tifereth Israel Synagogue in Lincoln, Nebraska, for Marcia Ruth (Tepperman) Kushner, 96, who died on April 9, in Slinglerlands, NY, surrounded by her family.
Born in New York City, Marcia’s parents, Edward and Vera Tepperman, moved to the Midwest, and her early life was spent in Council Bluffs and Omaha. As an undergraduate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she served as president of the women’s honor society, Mortar Board, and graduated with a baccalaureate degree in speech pathology. She deferred her career plans after meeting the love of her life, Sheldon Kushner, and moving with him to Hamburg, Iowa, to raise their three young children.
Years later, after moving to Lincoln, Marcia became the spokesperson on all things Jewish. She provided a Jewish voice on the Panel of American Women, a civil rights-era organization. She chaired the city-county Commission on the Status of Women, was active with the League of Women Voters, served on the Planned Parenthood board, and with Sheldon, escorted women seeking abortions as they endured jeers and taunts.
For more than a decade, Marcia chaired the annual Holocaust commemoration at the State Capitol, and while in her eighties, served as president of both the Jewish Federation of Lincoln and Tifereth Israel.
A dedicated lap swimmer, Marcia was recognized at an allwomen’s sports banquet, alongside the champion University of Nebraska volleyball team. As an avid reader and committed bridge player, her book club and card groups were sources of intellectual stimulation and deep, sustaining friendships.
Marcia completed a master’s degree in audiology when her firstborn entered college and spent the next 25 years as the audiologist for the Lincoln Public Schools.
The reverence with which she was held established Marcia as the matriarch of the extended Kushner and Tepperman families.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Sheldon, son, Benjamin, and brother Herbert Tepperman.
She is survived by her brother David (Margot) Tepperman, brother-in-law Marshall Kushner, and sister-in-law Elaine Tepperman; children, Cathy, Julie, and Michael and their spouses, David Lindholm, Larry Morgan, Diane Bush, and Benjamin’s partner of many years, Karmin Stanosheck; eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Memorials may be sent to Tifereth Israel Synagogue, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, or the charity of your choice.
JEWISH PRESS READERS
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BAR MITZVAH
SOLOMON DENENBERG
Solomon Denenberg, son of Tippi and Steve Denenberg, will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on Saturday, April 26, 2025, at Beth Israel.
Sol is a seventh-grade student at Westside Middle School and was Student of the month.
Sol enjoys sports, camping, computers, music and marksmanship.
He has two brothers, Danny and Michael, and two sisters, Sasha and Sima. Grandparents are Carolyn and Bernard Magid, and Eunice and Norman Denenberg (all of blessed memory).
IN THE NEWS
Evan Stoler is showcasing his exhibit Summation at Anderson O’Brien Fine Arts Gallery in the window displays for the month of April. The works shown are composed of common office supplies - pencils, CDs, staples, etc. - that are cut, manipulated, glued, among other treatments, to create novel textures and patterns on 12” x 12” wood panels. He has also made an installation of 185 staple squares in a checkerboard pattern. Summation is visible to the public 24/7 so try to stop by the gallery to experience it this month!
To learn more about the artist visit www.evanstoler.com and on Instagram: @evanstolerart
TO SUBMIT ANNOUNCEMENTS
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ANNOUNCEMENT
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A Taste of Tradition
A. WINNER for Chabad
There are nights that feed your belly—and then there are nights that feed your soul. April 7, 2025, was one of those rare evenings where both happened in full force at Omaha Kosher Bistro Night, hosted by Chabad. With laughter, storytelling, and the aroma of corned beef and pastrami in the air, the event brought people together over something deeply comforting: authentic Jewish food made with heart, heritage, and yes, a handcranked grinder that could probably tell a hundred stories if it could talk.
The highlight of the evening? Dennis Deporte’s legendary Nebraska-famous chopped liver, prepared with an artifact so rich in history, it deserves its own museum case. Dennis brought his grandmother’s vintage hand grinder—a solid, nofrills, well-loved piece of machinery that has churned out gefilte fish, horseradish, and chopped liver for decades. This wasn’t just about flavor; it was about legacy.
Before the grinder got to work, Rabbi Eli Tenenbaum carefully koshered it, ensuring it met the highest standards. "It’s an honor to get to work with the team on this project," he shared, his eyes lighting up as he watched history being brought back to life—one crank at a time.
For Mushka Tenenbaum, the moment was more than just culinary—it was spiritual. “I felt connected to Dennis’s grandma in this process,” she said, wiping her hands clean after helping with the prep. “It was something so old yet so new—just like our rich Jewish heritage.”
The chopped liver, rich and perfectly seasoned, wasn’t alone. The bistro menu was a tribute to Jewish comfort food at its finest: matzah ball soup that warmed your bones, juicy corned beef and pastrami sandwiches stacked high on rye, crisp cole slaw, pickles with just the right bite, and delicate, irresistible rugelach that disappeared before you could say “save me one.”
This was more than a dinner—it was an experience. For many attendees, it was their first time tasting fully kosher meat in Omaha. "I
never thought I’d enjoy kosher food this much,” said one guest, grinning between bites. “This sandwich might have changed me forever.”
Rabbi Mendel Katzman raised a heartfelt l’chaim to the crowd, acknowledging the sweetness of gathering, the beauty of Jewish tradition, and the promise of what’s to come.
Handmade Shmura Matzah for the upcoming Passover Seder was also available for attendees to take home, offering a personal touch that made the evening even more meaningful.
And let’s not forget the unsung heroes of the night: the volunteers. “They are the vital players,” said a Chabad representative. “Nothing happens without our dedicated volunteers, and tonight is as much theirs as anyone’s.”
Omaha Kosher Bistro Night was also a beautiful reminder that Chabad offers a wide spectrum of opportunities for everyone in the
community. Whether you're deeply observant, just dipping your toes into Jewish traditions, or simply curious about what kosher means—it’s a space for you.
And that’s what made the night so special. It wasn’t about rules or rituals; it was about connection. A connection to heritage, to community, and to the kind of food that speaks a universal language—love.
As one attendee put it simply, “It was warm, it was delicious, and it felt like home.”
Until the dream of a full-time kosher meat joint becomes a reality in Omaha, events like this are a bridge—a flavorful, joyful bridge— to what’s possible. Because every step toward keeping kosher, even if it’s just enjoying matzah ball soup with friends, is a meaningful one.
So here’s to chopped liver made the old way, to the hands that crank the grinders, and to the souls who gather to taste and remember. Let’s eat!
