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JFO Federation Scholarships & Grants Where are they now? Catching up with Linda (Eisenstatt) Luttbeg Page 3

SPONSORED BY THE BENJAMIN AND ANNA E. WIESMAN FAMILY ENDOWMENT FUND

DIANE WALKER JFO Foundation Fund & Scholarship Administrator t’s a brand new year – 2025! Are your kids ready to get back to summer camp? Do you have little ones at the ELC or Friedel? College students? Thanks to the generosity of our community, a variety of funding sources are available to Omaha’s Jewish families to help

New for summer 2025 is the Kaiman Family Camp Grant! Announced a few weeks ago as a community Hanukkah gift from the family of Howard Kaiman, of blessed memory, these grants provide funds to summer campers - $1,000 for Jewish sleepaway camp or $250 for JCC day camp. Awards are capped at 72 Jewish sleepaway and 100 JCC day campers. This program will supersede the JFO’s Jewish Experience Grant program

with the financial burden of Jewish sleepaway camp, JCC summer camp, the Pennie Z. Davis Early Learning Center, Friedel Jewish Academy, Israel, and youth group activities. Assistance is also available for undergraduate, graduate, vocational, technical, professional or yeshiva studies. The updated 2025 Scholarship and Grants booklet is included as an insert in this issue of the Jewish Press. The booklet and applications are available on the Jewish Federation of Omaha website. The deadline for applications is Monday, March 3, 2025.

for this year. You can find additional detail and the application on the JFO website under Grant Programs. Israel Experience Grants, funded by the Jewish Federation of Omaha, are available to any Omaha Jewish family meeting the program requirements, regardless of the family’s financial situation. IEG provide up to $1,500 to students in grades 9 – 12 or young adults aged 18 – 26 for an Israel peer program. An additional stipend of $1,000 is provided for the bi-annual community teen trip to Israel. See Scholarships & Grants page 2

The Kaplan Book Group wonders if “Mr. Perfect” exists SHIRLY BANNER JFO Library Specialist On Jan. 16 at 1 p.m. the Dorothy Kaplan Book Discussion Group will gather for their monthly meeting. Group members have the choice of meeting either in person in the

A Winter Break to remember: Camp Gan Israel lights up Hanukkah Page 7

Deadly Deception at Sobibor: Nazi crimes uncovered with new scientific technologies Page 12

Daisy Friedman goes to Sundance

REGULARS Spotlight Voices Synagogues Life cycles

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ANNETTE VAN DE KAMPWRIGHT Jewish Press Editor Writer and director Daisy Friedman’s new short film, Unholy, will have its world premiere Jan. 23 at the Sundance Film Festival. The film’s main character, Noa, attends her family’s Passover Seder for the first time since being put on a feeding tube for a gastrointestinal disorder. There, she is confronted with pushy family members, malfunctioning medical devices, and a room of food she can’t eat. “I just finished my undergraduate

Daisy Friedman

degree at Barnard College,” Daisy said, “majoring in Film Studies. It’s been really surreal to finish school and then immediately go to something as big as Sundance. I feel so honored that my work has been recognized in this way and I truly hope to continue making films that touch people for the rest of my life. After Sundance, I’ll be staying in New York and continuing to work in the film world here. I’m finishing up writing my first feature

film, which I will try to market at Sundance as well!” It’s not her first film; in 2023, Daisy directed the short film As You Are, depicting two interabled queer women who navigate their first night together. It was shortlisted for the Oscars: “With As You Are, writer/director Daisy Friedman crafts a beautiful and raw film centered around honesty and vulnerability, with character who are not often seen on screen, not depicted in such mundane situations,” wrote Celine Roustan for shortofthe week.com. Unholy is produced by Ser Nocturna (Arielle Friedman and Camila Grimaldi) and Isaak Popkin and stars Danny Burstein, Olivia Nikkanen, Laura Patinkin, Jill Abramovitz, Arielle Friedman and Roberta Pikser. Additional festival screenings are Friday, Jan. 24 at 11 a.m. MT (Redstone Cinemas 4); Friday, Jan. 24 at 9:15 p.m. MT (Broadway Centre Cinemas 6, Salt Lake City); Friday, Jan. 31 at 9:40 a.m. MT (Redstone Cinemas 2) and See Daisy Friedman page 2

Conference Room in the Staenberg Jewish Community Center (note: this is a location change) or via Zoom. This month they will be discussing Mr. Perfect on Paper by Jean Meltzer. Jean was the speaker for the Community Author Event in 2023 when she discussed her first novel, The Matzah Ball. New participants are always welcome to join the book group. Meltzer is becoming a leader in the Jewish rom-com genre and Mr. Perfect on Paper does not disappoint. Dating is hard enough but add in the additional pressures of finding your Jewish bashert when you are the creator of the successful Jewish dating app, J-Mate, and haven’t been on a date in years, it seems to become impossible. Even more challenging, she suffers from a serious case of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Dara Rabinowitz is a third-generation Jewish matchmaker who is devoted to taking care of her beloved Bubbe Miriam who, because of her brain tumor, is known to do the unexpected. During a segment of the morning talk show Good News leading up to the Jewish High Holiday, Bubbe Miriam appears with Dara to promote J-Mate app. Instead, Bubbe reveals Dara’s drunkenly-composed list of what qualifications her Mr. Perfect should have. The list includes such items as being Jewish, a doctor or lawyer, never married or having kids. Good News host Chris Steadfast is worried about his show’s See Kaplan Book Group page 3