Vol. LXXXIV No. 21 Omaha, NE
Celebrating 84 Years of Service to Nebraska and Western Iowa
by LEO ADAM BIGA engineering consultant. © All rights reserved Until quite recently “I’ve been an escape he kept his story to himartist all my life.” self. That changed when The apt words belong the Survivors of the to Lincoln, NE. resident Shoah Visual History Lou Leviticus, a squareFoundation requested he headed terrier of a man tell it for the sake of poswho as a youth in his terity. The Los Angelesnative Holland survived based Foundation, which the Holocaust partly due filmmaker Steven to his talents as an artful Spielberg formed after dodger. He escaped the completing Schindler’s Nazis more than once, List, is dedicated to even when those closest recording and preserving to him were caught and the largest repository of put to death. As an Holocaust survivor stoThe entrance to Auschwitz’s main camp in May 1945, with the orphan on the run he ries in the world. Since infamous ‘Work sets you free’ sign. became one of scores of 1996 the organization has Credit: USHMM, courtesy of Instytut Pamieci Narodowej hidden children in The been conducting videoNetherlands, his survival dependent on a cadre of taped interviews with survivors from every corner of strangers that cared for him as one of their own. the globe. To date, some 50,000 interviews have been Today, when telling his saga to young Hebrew stu- cataloged for use by scholars and for dissemination in dents at Temple Israel Synagogue in Omaha, the spo- schools and libraries. ken truth sounds less like glib bravado than it does a In 1996 Leviticus shared his story with Omahan Ben solemn proverb. And, like an answered prayer, mem- Nachman, a Holocaust researcher and Shoah-trained bers of the Dutch underground rescued him. Families interviewer who’s collected dozens of testimonies. working with the underground risked their very lives Since then, Leviticus has written his memoirs and relattaking him into their home and shielding him from dan- ed his tale to youths at schools and synagogues. Why, ger. He regards those that helped him, especially Karel after all this time, is he bearing witness now? and Rita Brouwer, as his “heroes” and “protectors.” “The only reason I do it,” Leviticus said, “is to maybe During his time in hiding Leviticus endured and did make somebody think about it and realize how fortusome unspeakable things. An archly unsentimental sort, nate they are. That they should not take their lives so he sheds no tears over what happened. Despite it all, easily for granted. That they have a little more gratitude he emerged a life-affirming dynamo. The retired for what they have...because what happened then can University of Nebraska-Lincoln agricultural engineering happen again. It is happening again. Look at Chechnya. professor first came to America in the mid-1950s (by Look at Kosovo. Look at the skinheads in this country. way of Israel, where he resided after the war) to obtain There is hatred. People are cruel. And I do now feel it his Ph.D. He married, raised a family, got divorced. He as an obligation, not necessarily to this generation, but wed his present wife, Rose, a native of Great Britain, in to my school buddies, my parents, my grandmother, 1982. He became a U.S. citizen four years ago. While at and to all those people. If I don’t tell their story, what UNL he also headed the Nebraska Power Lab and else is left of them except their names in a register?” Tractor Testing Laboratory. Today, he is an agricultural Continued on page 5
Sen. Hagel Speaks Out by JOAN K. MARCUS United State Senator Chuck Hagel spoke to an overflow crowd at B’nai Brith Breadbreakers. The senator, who is serving his second term, sits on the Banking, Foreign Relations, Housing and Urban Affairs and the Intelligence and Rules Committees. Hagel is chairman of the senate Foreign Relations International Sen. Chuck Hagel Economic Policy Export and Trade Promotion Subcommittee. Prior to his election to The Senate, he was president of McCarthy and Company, an investment-banking firm in Omaha. He is a Viet Nam combat veteran and former deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration. His degree is from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The senator spoke of his recent nine-day trip to the Middle East. During his stay, he led a delegation that met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Israel and went on to the West Bank, where he met with President Mahmoud Abbas. They journeyed on to Jordan, where he met with King Abdullah before a visit Continued on page 3
Inside Opinion Page see page 12
U.S. Presidents, Laws, and “The Simpsons” are Topics for Upcoming Beth Israel Lecture Series by MARY BORT When coming up with topics for a rabbinic lecture series, a discussion about a cartoon show isn’t usually the first topic that comes to mind. Yet that is exactly what happened Photo courtesy of KPTM Fox 42. when Rabbi Jonathan Gross selected “The Simpsons” as a lecture topic. According to Rabbi Gross, “The Simpsons,’” as well as the other topics designated for his upcoming lectures, provides “an excellent springboard for shedding light on Judaic teachings.” He will present three Thursday evening lectureson Thursdays, Feb. 10, 17, and 24, 7-8 p.m. at Beth Israel. Continued on page 2
This Week: Monthly Calendar on Pages 8-9 Poles Look Back at Auschwitz on Anniversary of Liberation: Page 4
The historian’s Footprint-Incunabled Caxton: Page 7
M ET A Z
ER
The Escape Artist
PIZ
60 Years After the Liberation of Auschwitz
18 Shevat, 5765 January 28, 2005
$3.15 million pledged to The 2005 Jewish Federation of Omaha Annual Campaign! 691 increased gifts!
RAISE YOUR PLEDGE, SEND A PIZZA! Show your support and boost the morale of Israel Defense Forces troops! In honor of YOUR increased gift to the 2005 Jewish Federation of Omaha Annual Campaign, a private donor will sponsor the delivery of hot, kosher pizza to active-duty IDF soldiers with an acknowledgement from the Omaha Jewish community. Pizzas provided by a generous donor. Pledge increases will NOT be used to pay for the pizzas. The Federation is working through Pizza IDF (www.pizzaidf), a non-profit website that lets supporters send pizza to active duty soldiers on the front lines.
Super Sunday is Finale for Federation’s Annual Campaign by PAM MONSKY Federation Communications Director On Super Sunday, Jan. 30, dozens of volunteers will meet at Omaha Steaks telemarketing center to call members of the Omaha Jewish community and ask for their support of Jewish programming and services by making a gift to the Jewish Federation of Omaha’s Annual Campaign. And Stacey and Brett Atlas, serving as 2005 Super Sunday Co-chairs, want to make sure that all donors to the Annual Campaign know how their contributions “Shape The Future” of Jewish life here in Omaha and all over the world. Super Sunday is the largest division of donors in the Annual Campaign, raising more than $50,000 every year. Super Sunday also serves as the unofficial finale to the Annual Campaign, which this year has a goal of $3.25 million. At this time, the Federation is very close to reaching that goal and the Super Sunday donors play a key role in the Annual Campaign’s success. It is through donations to the Annual Campaign that the Federation is able to provide the programs and services that benefit every member of our Jewish community. The money raised through the Federation’s Annual Campaign funds Jewish causes locally and overseas. In Omaha, Campaign dollars support the Community Relations Council (CRC), the Jewish Community Center, Jewish Educational and Library Services, Jewish Family Service and Jewish Senior Services, as well as Federation programs such as Jewish experience scholarships, missions to Israel, birthright israel, our Partnership With Israel, children’s needs scholarships and Bar/Bat Mitzvah camp grants, and the Jewish Press. In addition, 37% of the dollars raised from the Annual Campaign will go towards improving the quality of Jewish life worldwide, caring for those in need and rescuing Jews in danger. So, when your phone rings on this Super Sunday, Super Sunday Co-chairs Stacey and Brett Atlas urge you to answer the call and make an increased pledge to the 2005 Annual Campaign. For more information about the Jewish Federation and the Annual Campaign, please contact me at 334.6431 or pmonsky@jewishomaha.org
Next Month: Simchas Issue on Feb. 18 New to Omaha? Newcomer’s Brunch Scheduled: Page 10
Voices from the Resistance to be Performed at Temple: Page 16
Page 2
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
January 28, 2005
Friedel Hosts Science Night for Community
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by JORDANA L. KURTZMAN Friedel Jewish Academy will host a “Science Night� on Monday, Jan. 31, 6 p.m., in the JCC theatre. Open to the entire Jewish community, this fun and educational experience will bring the marvels of chemistry and physics to children and adults alike through fascinating experiments. Professor Dan M. Sullivan, who leads the Chemistry and Physics on Wheels (CAPOW) demonstrations, not only is enthusiastic for introducing the love of science to children, but he promotes and integrates children’s safety issues into his appearances as well. Like all men and women who are passionate about their field of expertise, Dr. Dr. Sullivan demonstrates a scientific experiSullivan--a professor at the University of ment for his students. Nebraska-Omaha--wants to share this infatCredit: Becky Bohan Brown
uation for scientific knowledge with young minds--always while emphasizing safety first. Hosted by Friedel’s Activities Committee, there is no cost for this event, but we encourage everyone to bring imagination and a thirst for knowledge! In case you hunger for more, snacks and beverages will be served after the program. For more information, call Ruti Margalit or Mary Jane Tweedy at 334.0517.
U.S. Presidents, Laws, and “The Simpsons� Continued from page 1 know about Jewish law. We will go all the way back Rabbi Gross presented his first lecture series in with an overview starting at Mt. Sinai and the receiving November, with each talk relating in some way to the of Torah, and oral traditions. Then we’ll proceed to the community educational theme of “350 Years of era of Talmud, followed by medieval commentaries. American Judaism.� The November lectures were well- We’ll then examine modern responsa literature.� received, so Rabbi Gross decided to continue with the The third lecture, “‘The Simpsons’ and Halacha: series. His three February lectures will also connect to Serious Issues Learned from a Not-So-Serious Media,� the “350 Years� theme, while providing a forum for will be presented on Feb. 24. Jewish education at the same time. Rabbi Gross added that he “first became inspired to The first lecture, “Hail to the Chief: Encounters of explore this topic after attending the Klutznick Great Rabbis and U.S. Presidents,� is scheduled for Feb. Symposium about Judaism and pop culture, held last 10. According to Rabbi Gross, “Actually, it was Sara, fall. ‘The Simpsons,’ of course, are not a Jewish family. my wife, who came up with the idea for this lecture. But over the past 16 seasons they certainly have had The topic ties in so nicely with the ‘350 Years’ theme.� their share of halachic dilemmas! Analyzing this from a Rabbi Gross plans to describe some of the substantive rabbinic perspective enables us to explore Judaism meetings that have occurred between prominent rabbis from a unique angle.� and U.S. presidents. He has discovered information Rabbi Gross is definitely an educator at heart. “I want included in presidential memoirs by Franklin Roosevelt, to teach important concepts, and sometimes it's valuHarry Truman, John Kennedy and others. able to couch them in a fun medium. There can be Another reason Rabbi Gross liked the idea of talking fresh ways to approach learning about the Torah. For about the relationship between rabbis and U.S. presi- example, ‘The Simpsons’ provides a springboard where dents was due to his own brief experience with former we can take what’s familiar and fun, and relate it to President Bill Clinton. Jewish teachings.� “I waited for 13 hours at a book-signing event, just for He has enjoyed watching ‘The Simpsons’ over the the chance to get President Clinton’s autograph,� he years and thinks it will be fun for participants to look said. While Rabbi Gross noted it was an at examples from the show. “The Simpsons� air honor to meet a great leader and former Rabbi Gross spends a great deal of president, he admitted he was also moti- Sundays, 7 p.m. on KPTM time preparing for each lecture. He vated for another reason. He smiled and Fox 42. Reruns of “The believes it is his responsibility to delve said, “President Clinton’s book is worth into many sources in order to provide Simpsons� can be seen $400 on eBay if it’s autographed!� a thought-provoking lecture. And, since Rabbi Gross said that aside from weekdays at 5 p.m. and he realizes the busy schedules that chance encounters like his experience, 6:30 p.m. on KXVO WB 15. everyone maintains, he works carefully there are many important meetings to craft an informative, educational, between rabbis and presidents that have taken place and enlightening one-hour experience. After the lecover the years. “The evidence shows that it hasn’t been ture, the floor is opened for questions. unusual for a president to contact a leading rabbi for Bette Kozlen, who has attended previous lectures by his Judaic insight into a current issue. There are letters, Rabbi Gross, heartily recommends his lectures to everymemoirs, and other records of our U.S. presidents seek- one in the community. “Each lecture is filled with a ing guidance and a Jewish perspective in regard to U.S. wealth of information that makes you think,� she said. policies.� “You are able to hear Rabbi’s perspective, as well as On Feb. 17, Rabbi Gross’ second lecture will address other’s ideas, which adds to the discussion. I think “How a Bill Becomes a Law: An Examination of the about the lectures for days afterward.� Halachic Process.� When reflecting on American histoEach lecture is free and everyone from the commury it is natural to consider the process of laws and the nity is invited to attend. Free baby-sitting is provided at important role they play in our democracy. But the the synagogue. There is no pre-requisite to attend any notion of “laws� is something that has also been a part of Rabbi Gross’ lectures. Each talk is self-contained, so of Judaism for thousands of years. you are welcome to attend any or all of the lectures. Rabbi Gross explained, “Every educated Jew should For more information, call Beth Israel at 556.6288.
Beth El Group to Volunteer at Local Ronald McDonald House by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator Volunteers from Beth El’s Association for Mitzvot (BEAM) will join together on Sunday, Feb. 13, to assist in a clean-up of the Ronald McDonald House, 620 South 38th Ave. The house serves as a home away from home for families whose children are receiving medical treatment for life-threatening illnesses; 200 such facilities exist around the world. “The Ronald McDonald House provides an important service to our community,� said BEAM coordinator Toby Schonfeld. “The availability of low-cost housing in close proximity to the hospital enables parents of sick children to truly focus on what's important: caring for their family, rather than worrying about the afford-
ability of their living arrangements. The house also provides a temporary home for the sick children themselves, which allows another measure of freedom for the family. People come from all over the country for care at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and as residents of Omaha it is our responsibility to make sure they see what a warm and welcoming place this truly is. Every little thing we can do is appreciated.� All volunteers participating in the 2-5 p.m. clean-up must be healthy, and are asked to wear grubby clothes for their tasks, Schonfeld said, adding that there are a limited number of spaces for volunteers; those interested in helping out may contact her at 559-2921, or via e-mail at tschonfeld@unmc.edu.
January 28, 2005
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 3
Sen. Hagel Speaks Out Continued from page 1 to Egypt. Hagel’s trip focused entirely on that part of the world and he noted, “When I came back, I wrote an article which appeared in a number of newspapers across the country. It was my opinion we were seeing developing possibilities in the Middle East that we had not seen for a long time. “Although there’s a long way to go and a lot of things have to happen, in my opinion, Abbas was the right man to win the election,” Sen. Hagel asserts. “I think it sets up possibilities of accomplishing some very significant achievements that may put us back on high ground. “The other point I made in the article was the issue of the Iraqi elections. Although they may be imperfect and raggedy, I think that they should be held on the 30th. I am yet to be convinced that to postpone those elections wouldn’t give us anything in return. “This will be the first time that the Iraqi people will have not only the opportunity but the responsibility to elect the first elective body that will govern their country. This won’t be an interim group or a group picked by the United States or occupiers,” he added, “but, a group of Iraqis. That 275 person national assembly will have the responsibility of writing a constitution and forming a government. “The sooner that confidence can develop within the Iraqi people, they will have the understanding that they are in charge--not the United States or the occupiers. I don’t know how much longer America can sustain developments in Iraq. You all know the casualties and the dollar figures!” He summed up the situation in the
Middle East by saying, “With all those problems and all those realities, I still think that there’s some possibilities that didn’t exist six months ago. “It has always been my contention that you can’t divorce the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian issue from what’s going on in Iraq and Iran. When you talk to Arabs, Muslims or Kurds, they will tell you that they believe that the Israeli-Palestinian issue is the cause of much of the problem and the turmoil. My theme in the article was the new opportunities to get us on moving us in a positive direction toward eventual stability, security and economic development. It’s a tough issue.” Sen. Hagel added that domestic and international issues cannot be disconnected either. “Six and a half billion people are on the face of the earth and they’re all connected in every way--economically, through telecommunications and transportation. We’ve all been brought together in ways that we’re not going to unwind. “That doesn’t mean there will be a move toward a lack of sovereignty or that we’re all going to participate in group government,” he cautioned. “But, the fact is, we make policy in Washington not completely integrating that understanding.
He explained that “when we talk about tax codes and regulations, it affects American business--exports--our relationships around the world. The perception of how other countries see us is, in my perception--very important. “Last week, I spent about an hour with Dr. Condoleeza Rice,” he continued, “preparing for her hearings and one of the things she told me was that as the new Secretary of State, a focus of hers will be to re-engage our lost public diplomacy. Relationships and coalitions of common interest will win battles for us. It won’t be the military alone.” He hopes Dr. Rice will be as respected and trusted in the eyes of the world as Colin Powell has been. Said Hagel, “The expectation of Dr. Rice around the world is high, but the uncertainly level is also high.” Recent newspaper stories talk about what will be seen in a new budget. Hagel says that most of the domestic programs and agencies will be frozen--if not cut. Most of these programs consist of agriculture, housing, Medicaid and veterans groups and programs. Said Hagel, “What I have just listed are probably four of the strongest advocacy/special interest groups we have in the country. “These groups are very noisy about getting their way and what they believe are entitlements. In the kind of environment that we’re going to be working in over the next two years, we do have to get control of our budget,” he insisted. “We have drifted beyond the arc of dangerous in how much money we spend.” He thinks President Bush is right to be talking about Social Security reform, too.
“...Relationships and coalitions of common interest will win battles for us. It won’t be the military alone.”
“I don’t think it is a crisis yet but we are wise to start thinking through this--use the time to come up with some options that make some sense.” Senator Hagel cites Medicare as the biggest entitlement problem. “If we can do something with Social Security in the next two years--and I think we have a 5050 chance of that--it helps! But health care is the biggest entitlement of them all.” Hagel insisted that all these foreign policy and domestic issues are connected. The ability to deal with each of them now --in a very narrow margin--that President Bush has in the congress will be a rather stimulating two years in Washington “When we tell the veterans groups that we’re not going to spend any more on hospitals--when Mike Johanns will have the opportunity to frame a new farm bill-when we say we’re going to cut farm subsidies--a lot of ‘blow back’ will be created on the political scene!” Hagel “guaranteed.” “We have an amazing process in our country. When each of us in our lives comes to a point to self-correct, we do. Sometimes, we need to call a rabbi or a priest--but we each know in our lives when we’re veering a little too far. That amazing self-correcting process that we each have internally has not been lost in this country. We will find it over the next few years! “Make no mistake! We are still reeling from the effects of Sept. 11, 2001. I rate it right up there with the civil war. That one event has dominated every debate in Washington--the budget and relationships around the world. Hagel insists it has reshaped this country “and, as a society I think that we’re still a little bit off balance!”
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
January 28, 2005
60 Years After Liberation Poles Look Back at Auschwitz on Anniversary of Liberation by CAROLYN SLUTSKY KRAKOW, Poland, (JTA)--Each year, the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet forces is marked on Jan. 27, but this year the 60th anniversary has given Poland, site of the most infamous Nazi death camps, a special opportunity for remembrance and reflection. The anniversary ceremonies, which were held at the memorial site in Birkenau, drew an assortment of international dignitaries and leaders. Among those are Israeli President Moshe Katsav, Ukrainian President-elect Viktor Yuschenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Pope John Paul II, originally from the Polish town of Wadowice, which lies approximately 25 miles from Oswiecim, as Auschwitz is know in Polish, sent French Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger-who was born Jewish--as his special envoy. In addition to world leaders, the most honored guests were former prisoners of Auschwitz from many countries. Jaime Ashworth, director of education at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow, said the 60th anniversary is significant because “this might be the last time survivors participate to this extent in Holocaust commemoration ceremonies.” The ceremony in Poland, while among the largest ceremonies marking the liberation of Auschwitz, is not the only Holocaust memorial activity going on around the world. In Italy, scores of educational, cultural and commemorative events were
Auschwitz prisoners greet their liberators in January 1945. Credit: USHMM, courtesy of Belarussian State Archive of Documentary Film and Photography planned around the country. Events also were planned across Germany, including addresses by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and World Jewish Congress President Israel Singer at a memorial service in Berlin together with former Nazi death camp inmates. Memorials also are planned in the Czech Republic, Ukraine, England-where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip will host a reception for Holocaust survivors at St. James Palace-and Greece, which is marking its first Holocaust anniversary day.
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In the United States, Yad Vashem and the Israeli mission to the United Nations are sponsoring a photo exhibit at U.N. headquarters in New York, the first-ever Holocaust exhibit at the world body, and a special session was held Jan. 24 to commemorate the liberation of the camps, featuring speeches by diplomats. In Washington, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is sponsoring several events, including a documentary recounting an Auschwitz survivor’s return visit to the death camp. The last roll call at Auschwitz was taken on Jan. 17, 1945. The next day, some 60,000 prisoners were sent out of the concentration camp on death marches, headed to German camps in the west. Approximately 16,000 people were left behind in Auschwitz II, also called Birkenau. Today more than half a million people visit Auschwitz each year. Poland has a particularly complicated role in Holocaust remembrance. The Nazis chose Poland as the site of many death camps because it borders Germany and was in the center of occupied Europe. More Jews--approximately 3.5 million -lived in prewar Poland than in any other country, and Poland lost more Jews than any other nation. Today Poland is home to anywhere between 5,000 and 20,000 Jews, many unaffiliated with the Jewish community. Despite Poland’s reputation for antiSemitism, the country today is confronting its history effectively. According to the U.S. State Department’s report on global anti-Semitism, released Jan. 5, “surveys over the past several years showed a continuing decline in antiSemitic sentiment, and avowedly antiSemitic candidates have won few elections.” The report continues, “In June, the government held a major international conference to unveil its proposal to open an international center for human rights education in Oswiecim.” The report includes some incidents of vandalism and verbal attacks against Jews but points to a generally favorable trend in governmental support for Jewish projects and communities. In the post-Communist era, many groups have been created to foster Polish-Jewish dialogue and mutual understanding. Andrzej Folwarczny, a former member of the Polish Parliament, works with the Forum for Dialogue
Among Nations. An American, Dennis Misler, moved to Poland several years ago to create the Polish-American-Jewish Alliance for Youth Action, which unites Polish and American Jews and nonJewish Polish students interested in Jewish history and culture. In addition, the Polish Jewish community has grown to include Orthodox and Progressive congregations, a choir, several publications and many youth groups and lectures. Still, Auschwitz remains the focal point of Holocaust history and memory in Poland, and Polish schoolchildren visit it every year. Joanna Kempinska, 24, remembers learning about Auschwitz in high school. “When you read about it you just get a sense of it, but when you actually go to see it, you realize someone died here, many people,” she said. Leszek Bizo, 25, from Andrychow, a nearby town, said, “I felt so shocked when I saw the shoes, the hair, in Auschwitz.” The Auschwitz Museum has an extensive educational center, which welcomes visitors and conducts programs yearround. Historians, professors and members of the Jewish community from across Poland teach monthly postgraduate teacher-training courses in Jewish history and the history of Auschwitz there. Alicja Bialecka, a member of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum's education department, said that over the six years the program has been offered, about 200 teachers have completed the training of 350 classroom hours. Bialecka said many teachers return to their schools and tell their colleagues about the training, creating more trained teachers and eventually an entire Holocaust curriculum. The museum’s education department is in the middle of a year-long program for 1,000 students and teachers in the region. The program, “Auschwitz My Home,” shows visitors parts of the former concentration camp that usually are not shown, and makes participants think deeply about what it means to live in Poland. “We want the students and their teachers to feel responsible for being part of this history, but also proud of this responsibility,” Bialecka said. Bialecka looked at how far Holocaust remembrance has come in Poland since the early 1990s, immediately after the Communist era. “In the field of education, of Auschwitz, the Second World War, and awareness of the suffering of victims of the Nazi regime, consciousness is high and I am optimistic,” she said. Germany, like Poland, has been considering its history for many years. Susanne Meier, a German living in Krakow, remembers hearing about Auschwitz and the Holocaust in school. “You come across the topic in history lessons in Germany, but during the last 10 years the German attitude toward history is becoming much healthier, something that has nothing to do with guilt,” she said. Meier said that when she thinks about Auschwitz, “There’s no way as a human being that it cannot touch you, because it’s horrifying. But if it touches me, it has nothing to do with my Germanness. I feel it because I am a feeling person.”
January 28, 2005
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
The Escape Artist Continued from page 1 leading up to the German conquest and the ensuing Because ethnic cleansing seems far removed from the terror campaign, much of the Dutch ruling class held modern American experience, it is easy to distance pro-Nazi sympathies and as such these Fifth Columnists oneself from such evil. But the truth is no one thinks it aided Germany in subduing The Netherlands. Beyond can happen to them, ever. That’s exactly how most politics or prejudice, he said, the compliant nature of Dutch Jews felt when Nazi Germany overran their the Dutch people, combined with a meticulous citizen nation in May of 1940. That’s why the only way to registration system, made it easier for the Nazi regime understand what happened is to recall the insidious to exert its will there. events that systematically isolated Jews from main“My feeling is that the Dutch have always been very stream Dutch life, all because they were deemed “dif- obedient to authority -any authority. The Germans had ferent” and ultimately expendable. How else can one the authority and when they installed a Dutch puppet explain a child having to flee and hide to save his own government, that was the government, and therefore life? Unthinkable, yet it occurred. they were obeyed. The Dutch also had a population In a interview with The Reader, Leviticus recalled registration system in place unparalleled in its accuracy those years. Speaking from the deck of his comfortable in Europe. In fact, (Adolph) Eichmann liked it so much tree-shaded home in Lincoln, the scene could not have he copied it in other countries under Nazi rule. That been more incongruous with what he described. system should have been destroyed when the Germans Despite what eventually transpired, his homeland occupied The Netherlands, but the people who ran it was a tranquil place before the invasion. Pre-war were so proud of their work and so pro-Nazi they Holland, after all, was a civilized society. Its large handed it over in full to the Germans, who used it to Jewish population enjoyed complete freedom, if not curtail the activities of Jews and other undesirables.” full acceptance. Leviticus and his parents led a priviHe said people were so accustomed to registration few leged life in Amsterdam. As foreign correspondent for saw danger in its application by occupying forces. a large recycling company, his father, Max, handled “Nobody thought much of it, and so they re-registered.” relations with foreign clients. An outdoorsman, Max He added the Germans were “very cunning” in passing enjoyed long bicycle rides and walks in the country- decrees that, step by step, cut-off Jews from the general side. Lou’s mother, Sera, was a socialite and spiritualist populace. “It started with very little things. In June, Jews who gave bridge parties and hosted seances at the fam- were forbidden from being part of the civil defense. In ily’s large home. July, they were excluded “My mother was pretty from the labor draft. Then deeply into spiritualism-there was a ban on ritual mediums and seances slaughter. In September, and astrology--which was Jews were banned from very fashionable in those selling in the regular mardays. I can still see her kets. working with these The Germans never charts on a table, trying targeted the whole poputo figure out what the lation. Otherwise, that hell was going on in the would have probably world,” Leviticus said. created unrest. Instead, As a boy he often they targeted sections, joined his mother at making each segment Heck’s Cafe, a swank register and abide by gathering spot for the restrictive laws. First, it smart set, where he liswas physicians, then tened to live band music pharmacists, then while she hobnobbed Participants in a United Nations General Assembly commemora- lawyers. Each week there tion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz rise to was a different order with friends. Music, especially observe a moment of silence on Jan. 24. affecting some group, Credit: Eskinder Debebe/UN and the others said, opera, held young Lou enthralled. He had his own radio and spent endless “Well, it’s only them,’ and in the end it was everybody. hours listening to favorite tenors and to detective pro- The noose was tightening, but most people didn’t realgrams. An avid reader, he fancied the adventure tales ize it, and by the time they did it was too late.” of German author Karl May. Despite being undersized, The first anti-Jewish regulation affecting him was a he was athletically adept and belonged to swimming 1941 law banning Jews from all movie theaters except and soccer clubs. A cinema lover, he skipped Hebrew the single Jewish-owned cinema in Amsterdam. “I was school to catch the latest movies. an avid moviegoer and the only theater left I could go His family lived quite close to Anne Frank’s family. A to soon became too dangerous because there were cousin of hers, Paul Frank, was a friend and playmate always Nazi youths waiting outside to cause mischief. of Lou’s. Because she was two years older than Lou, he It became impossible to go there unless you were with only knew her casually, but recalls her as a “nice girl. grown-ups and even then it sometimes got a little bit She was more mature than me.” hairy.” He next felt the sting of anti-Semitism when Admittedly “a spoiled brat” doted on by his maternal Jews were forbidden from entering parks and from grandmother, Leviticus lived a carefree life. His parents, holding membership in sports clubs. In a cruel display who employed a servant, had their every need met. of public humiliation, he was drummed off his soccer The family’s idyll ended May 10, 1940, when team by the coach in front of jeering teammates. Germany invaded Holland. The Dutch, who remained At the same time, the Nazi propaganda machine neutral during World War I, had felt protected from the worked overtime inflaming anti-Semitic fervor. He brewing storm in Europe despite Germany’s increas- recalls placards affixed everywhere with slogans like ingly ugly rhetoric and military incursions. Caught “The Eternal Jew,” “The Dirty Jew” and “Watch Out for unprepared, Holland’s meager defenses were quickly the Jew” emblazoned on them. The posters typically overwhelmed by the blitzkrieg. The Netherlands capit- depicted grotesque, deformed, horned figures with the ulated five days after the attack began. Even though he Star of David displayed on their chest or forehead. was not quite nine-years-old, Leviticus recalls it all. Soon, all Jews--their businesses and residences too-“I remember all five days. For us kids it was the great- were required to bear the yellow star. est adventure in the world. We didn’t see the sickness. “When you got the star you were a marked person,” We heard people were being killed, but we didn’t see he said. “Now you couldn’t hide behind your looks. it. We did see German planes in the air and men shoot- There were always groups of Hitler youths running ing at them. It was exciting.” around terrorizing people. They started making life Perhaps his most vivid memory then is the sight of a very difficult. We, as kids, were beaten up--quite city under siege at night, its lights darkened and streets severely at times. Grown-ups didn’t interfere. They emptied owing to the mandated curfew and blackout. were afraid. The police seldom intervened.” As a child, the horror of the invasion was finally By 1942, people started disappearing. Rumors spread brought home when he saw adults around him shat- the missing persons were hauled away to camps to be tered by the events. His father, a WWI vet, had been gassed or shot. “Nobody talked about it,” Leviticus said. called up to serve in the civil defense corps. The fear turned personal when his girlfriend, Anita, On May 15, the day the Dutch surrendered, Lou was was arrested along with her mother and sister. “I was shocked to find his father sobbing at home. “I can still very, very heartbroken for a long time because she was see him sitting in the side room crying. It was the first really my pal. We did homework together” He later time I saw my dad cry. I remember asking him, “What’s learned she and her family died at Sobidor concentrathe matter?’ But he couldn’t talk.” tion camp. According to Leviticus, who has researched events Continued on page 6
Page 5
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January 28, 2005
The Escape Artist Continued from page 5 As early as 1942 Jewish men were rounded up and taken away. It happened to Leviticus’ father, who ended up in the work camp, Ommen, where men worked clearing forests for agriculture, but in truth awaited transit to concentration camps and certain death. When the elder Leviticus learned of his group’s impending transport, he concealed himself in one of the trenches the men dug and escaped at night. Lou has since documented his father was the only prisoner from his work detail to escape alive. While in hiding, Max got word of his escape to Sera, who fled to a prearranged safe house in the country. Lou, in school at the time, was unaware of the unfolding intrigue. His first inkling of it came when an unfamiliar man came there one day with a note from his mother. “My mother’s note said for me to go with him. The man told me, “Your mother’s waiting for you. Don’t worry.” Of course I was worried. I had never seen him before, but I knew my mother’s handwriting, so I went. He gave me another coat without a star on it, grabbed my hand and we walked away. “The train trip was frightening for me. We had to pass German police controls at various stations. By then I had been brainwashed so that I was sure I looked like any of those pictures of the ‘Eternal Jew.’ I was afraid of anyone who had a uniform or boots or a dark coat on because those things represented Nazis. I’d lost my trust in the grown-up world.” The pair passed through police checkpoints without a hitch. They got off at Amersfoort, a town 40 kilometers southeast of Amsterdam, where, it turned out the boy’s mysterious escort, a Mr. Van Der Kieft, was a plain clothes detective. Secretly, he was also a top operative in the Dutch underground movement that provided false identity papers, ration cards and safe havens to fugitives. As Leviticus soon found out, the underground network would be his lifeline. Van Der Kieft took Leviticus by bike to the farmhouse his mother had gone to. His father joined them days later. After two months in hiding, the family had to find refuge elsewhere when the farmer sheltering them demanded more money. Leviticus said there were any number of people ready to help then, whether “out of good will or for good money.” Thanks again to the efforts of the underground, the family was put up at a house in Amersfoort belonging to a coachman, who lived on the ground floor. Lou’s family shared a pair of small rooms on the third floor. Between the two rooms were sliding doors. “We had to keep very quiet during the day and not show ourselves in front of the windows,” he said. “We couldn’t close the curtains then, as that would arouse suspicion in Holland, where there’s little light. When the bell rang at the main door below we would freeze. “At night we could become a little
more active because then we could close the doors and curtains. But if there were guests we had to sit still. We couldn’t use the toilet then, so we used a chamber pot.” Father, mother and son passed the time reading and playing board games. “I don’t remember that as being terrible because there was so much to read.” Then, one October afternoon in 1942, the bell rang and the word “police” was spoken at the bottom of the stairs. Raised voices barked, “Stay where you are. Don’t move.” Leviticus recalls his mother “started crying.” With police bounding up the stairs to the family’s third-floor hideaway, Lou made a fateful split-second decision and, without a word, clambered to the veranda opening, hopped atop the railing, and jumped. That moment of fear and flight was the last time he saw his parents. “Before I jumped the last thing I remember is seeing my dad close the doors behind me. That gave me enough time to get away. My dad didn’t hesitate. It happened so fast. I didn’t run--a good thing, too, because police were out searching the grounds. One policeman probably saw me, but lost me when I climbed over a bunch of fences.” He credits his quick actions to “pure self-preservation,” adding, “It was just pure instinct. I don’t know where it came from, except maybe the Karl May stories inspired me not to be caught. I had seen other people being picked up by the police and they never came back, and that wasn’t going to happen to me.” He does not second-guess his fleeing. He only wishes his folks escaped too or at least knew he was safe. “I knew I’d done the right thing because, number one, I’m alive. I’m sorry I couldn’t say goodbye and hug my mother and father.” After eluding the police, he waited until dark, then fumbled his way to the home of a man who was active in the underground. When he arrived, the man’s frightened family explained the head of the house was in hiding. Earlier that day police had cracked down on the local underground cell and come looking for the man, who’d escaped. The family feared the police’s return. Leviticus felt safe for the moment but as he lay in bed that night he overheard the family discussing turning him over to authorities. “Early the next morning I stole some clothes and food, opened the door, and went on my own to the east.” Fending for himself in a world intent on his destruction, he learned to live by his wits’ end, foraging for food and shelter at local farms. After days on the road, he came to the same farm he and his family began their hidden life. Fearing the farm was secure, Leviticus was relieved when the underground placed him with Karel Brouwer, then a 24-year-old civil servant with a new wife and young child.
Neither the first nor the last person Brouwer rescued, Leviticus stayed with him and his family for much of the remainder of the war. “He’s a remarkable man. He took me to his home in Hamersveld. He never intended to be a hero, but somehow it was thrust upon him, and he risked everything to feed, shelter and keep me and others out of harm’s way.” Lou still keeps in touch with his “second family.” In a fateful twist, the first refugees Brouwer helped were Lou’s aunt, uncle and maternal grandparents. Through his position in local government, Brouwer’s covert network used the registration system to provide hunted Jews and non-Jews alike with false names and documents. Thus, Lou took on the identity of Rudi Van Der Roest, a Christian boy his own age from Amsterdam. Researcher Ben Nachman said such actions underscore how Holland was rife with contradictions. For example, while a high percentage of its native Jews were murdered, the country’s active underground movement shielded a great number in hiding. As Rudi, Lou lived the unencumbered life of a non-Jewish child--attending school, playing in parks, traveling freely. Whenever detained, his cover story was that he was away from home due to hardships caused by the war. The deception worked. “Each of us in hiding were stopped and interrogated by the Germans at least once or twice, so we knew how to lie with a straight face. Every time you did something to thwart the Nazis it made you feel good.” He enjoyed freedom, but guarded what he said so as not to compromise his true identity and therefore risk endangering himself, the Brouwers and the underground. “I had to be careful. I couldn’t afford any slips of the tongue. I knew the less I knew, the better it was.” Life with the Brouwers was sweet. “A lot of beautiful things happened during the war,” Leviticus said. “There were times when I forgot the misery. I was extremely lucky to get through that experience, not unscathed exactly, but well-looked after.” He adds that not all hidden children were as lucky as himself. As a base for the underground the Brouwer home witnessed many comings and goings. All the activity must have raised suspicions because, in February 1945, the police raided. The whole family, including Lou, then 14, was home that day. The police found mounds of incriminating evidence--from papers to ration cards to guns. Crying after being roughed up, Lou regained enough composure to hatch another escape. He explains: “I asked if I could use the toilet, and the police said I could if I left the door open. As soon as I entered the bathroom, I went through the side door and ran.” He ran all the way to the city
Fending for himself in a world intent on his destruction, he learned to live by his wits’ end.
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hall building, where underground contacts operated. There, he found that Brouwer, who’d also escaped, had arranged for his transport to a new safe house--a farm belonging to Peel Van Den Hengel. It was there he worked and stayed until war’s end. In April 1945, events unfolded at the farm that gave Leviticus a taste of revenge. Blood was spilled, lives taken, eye-for-an-eye revenge extracted. It began when two German soldiers arrived to plunder the farm at gunpoint, ordering Leviticus and his fellow farmhands to load-up food and other supplies. Earlier, one of the soldiers molested a young woman. Then they went too far, pushing Lou and another farmhand past the breaking point. “I was cutting silage with a sharp spade but I wasn’t working fast enough for one of the soldiers. He poked me in the kidneys with his gun. I turned around with that spade and hit him in the throat. He sank to his knees and bled to death on the spot. The other soldier came running, but didn’t see one of the boys, who struck him with a pitchfork. “I’m not very proud of it, but I’m not sorry about it,” he admitted. After Germany’s unconditional surrender, he returned to live with the Brouwers. Upon completing high school, he toured Europe with a jazz band. When a rift caused the group to split-up in Marseilles, Leviticus stayed on. He later took to sea as a merchant seaman, applying his mechanical aptitude to the ship’s engines. In 1951, he made his way to Israel, not out of idealism, but rather the lure of a pretty blonde, whom he followed to a kibbutz in Haifa. Finding communal life too restrictive, he left to study at the Israel Institute of Technology, where he earned an engineering degree. After obtaining his Ph.D. in the states (at Purdue University) he returned to Israel. He served in two wars against Egypt--in 1957 and 1973 (the Yom KippurWar). In the latter conflict, he was a liaison between the U.S. and Israeli armies, working with the armored division and corps of engineers. He helped engineer a bridge crossing the Suez Canal. He came to live in the states for good in 1974, joining the UNL faculty in 1975. Although he downplays it, his wartime experience has haunted him. How could it not? All during the war, and even long after it, he did not know his parents’ fate. “I never was sure, really. I think I really didn’t want to know. I was always hoping they were still alive somewhere,” he said. Only much later did he confirm they were gassed to death at Auschwitz just a few months after their capture. He remains as unforgiving about what was done to his family as he is unrepentant about what he did to prevail. “I’m not very, shall we say, humanitarian in my beliefs. I still adhere to the principle that your best enemy is a dead enemy--that’s the only way I survived.
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Incunabled Caxton price exceeded what I’m prepared to pay for a book. I dithered and then emailed a lower offer. He responded that it had been by OLIVER B. POLLAK sold. Anxiety exorcised, maybe. My interest in books is chronic, I searched online at abebooks.com systemic, endemic, perhaps pathological. I find books an endless source of and bookfinders.com, a 12,500 bookenrichment, entertainment, amusement, seller, 60 million book resource, and and companionship. As a historian I am found another Grabhorn Caxton at interested in the history of the book and Caliban Books in Pittsburgh. This time I did not wait so long. I ehave a nice library on printing, publishing, typography, binding, paper, the mailed, called and left a message. I got alphabet, small presses and the book my disappointing answer while sitting in the renovated 1928 Park City, Utah, High trade. Johann Gutenberg introduced moveable School Gymnasium, turned into a state type in Mainz about 1450. Incunable or of the art public library. My cell phone incunabula means “from the cradle” and went off like a claxon prompting agonized and apologetic body language. refers to books printed before 1500. The Forward recently featured a story The bookseller informed me the Caxton on the earliest dated printed Hebrew had recently sold and he had not book. These books are highly prized updated his website. Fate conspires. and bring increasingly enormous sums I purchased The Love of Basque at auctions. Printed in Reggio di Calabria in 1475 a single Hebrew page recently Cooking for 50 cents at the Park City sold for $82,600, suggesting “the sheer Friends of the Library book sale pubpleasure of owning or simply studying a lished in 1998 by Caxton Press, estabtangible piece of centuries-old” print. lished in 1925 in Caldwell, Idaho. This surpasses the $55,200 paid for a sin- Caxton Press also published A Dirty, gle leaf from the 1456 Gutenberg Bible. Wicked Town: Tales of 19th Century A “leaf book” contains one page, dis- Omaha, by David L. Bristow in 2003. bound probably from a damaged or The Caxton name has staying power in incomplete volume in a modern homage the print industry I found another copy volume. Neil Shaver, former Incunable or on New Year’s Eve at proprietor of Shaver’s William Dailey Rare Books Supermarkets gave me my incunabula means on Melrose Avenue in Los first incunable leaf, a page “from the cradle” Angeles. I e-mailed and left from the Poor Man’s Bible, a message. He would not published by Johannes and refers to books Froben, a friend of Hans printed before 1500. be open until Tuesday after the New Years weekend. Holbein, in Basel in 1495, contained in a 1951 pamphlet published He called, he still had it, it was mine. by Ben Grauer, “The Voice of Firestone.” The Caxton arrived a couple of days Biblical incunable leaves are ubiquitous. later. I called my wife so she could be The first English printer, William present when I opened the package. It Caxton (ca. 1422-91), learned the trade was beautiful. Dailey had worked earlier in the early 1470s in Cologne and Bruges at Jake Zeitlin’s barn shaped antiquarian opened a printing shop in Westminster book store on La Cienega Blvd, a place in the mid 1470s. He printed about 100 we frequented in the 1960s. Karen called works and translated 24 books from the Ford Conservation Center and preFrench and Dutch into English. George vailed on me to wear white cotton Painter, Assistant Keeper at the British gloves. What are the chances that a limited Library, wrote a biography of Caxton as well as a good biography of Marcel edition of 297 books published in 1938 with a 1482 leaf would show up for Proust. Oakknoll Books, run by Robert Fleck, three sales within as many months? is the major bookstore specializing in Should I pursue provenance? How did books on books. Founded in 1976 in the bookseller get the book? Is there a New Castle, Delaware, it maintains a bibliomystery here? On Jan. 18, I browsed WorldCat the on stock of about 20,000 books and sends out periodic printed catalogues and line catalogue of 9,000 libraries and 57 million records, and typed in “Caxton, occasional e-mails. In November, I received an e-mail stat- Polycronicon, Grabhorn” and found 65 ing that Oakknoll had acquired a dozen copies. I ordered one on interlibrary interesting leaf books including William loan, knew I had to write this story, and Caxton’s Polycronicon, (“Universal the rest is history. More anon. History”) published by Edwin and Robert Grabhorn for the Book Club of Historian, author and attorney California in San Francisco in 1938, in an edition of 297. A complete Polycronicon Oliver Pollak can be reached at runs 450 leaves. Although intrigued, the OBPOMNI@aol.com.
THE HISTORIAN’S FOOTPRINT
New Beth El Youth Group to Enjoy Bowling, Pizza Party by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator Beth El Synagogue Talmud Torah has announced the establishment of an exciting new youth group, BESTT Chaverim, for all Jewish children in our community in grades 4 to 6. All children in this age group are invited to attend Chaverim’s fun-filled kickoff event, a bowling and pizza party, at Western Bowl, 4725 South 131st St., on Sunday, Feb. 6, from 12:30 p.m-2:30 p.m. Cost is $10 (covers bowling, shoe rental and lunch). Future events planned for this
monthly group include a swimming party at the JCC, a Mother's Day giftmaking get-together and an end-of-theyear picnic. Chaverim will be led by advisors Annelise Ocanto and Robert Mosenkis, and supervised by BESTT Education Director Judy Rubin. For information about membership, please contact the BESTT office at 498.0904. BESTT Chaverim has been made possible thanks to a grant from the Herbert Goldsten Trust.
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 7
Beth El Women’s Rosh Hodesh Group to Address Roles, Responsibilities of Jewish Women by JILL BELMONT ity, the hidden vs. the revealed self, her Beth El Publicity Coordinator role, its attendant responsibilities and Beth El Synagogue’s Women’s Rosh the risks she undertook, are really a Hodesh group will herald the month of prototype for modern Jewish women Adar with an absorbing, thought-pro- living in a larger societal context. In voking Rosh Hodesh meeting focusing studying her life, we learn more about on the “Roles, Responsibilities and ourselves.” Risks of Jewish women, from Esther to Both hosts said they look forward to her modern-day counterparts.” The 7 the Feb. 9 get-together, and asked p.m. meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 9, will be co-hosted by Sibby Wolfson and Susan Paley, and held at Wolfson’s home, 912 S. 131st Ave. Because the festival of Purim is celebrated during Adar, the hosts said they decided to examine Esther --the roles she played and the risks she took. The roles and risks of contemporary Jewish It’s Good to be the Queen -- Modeling their Purim finery, women will also be dis- co-hosts Susan Paley and Sibby Wolfson prepare to welcussed, Wolfson said, come the month of Adar at Beth El’s upcoming Rosh adding. “What are our roles Hodesh get-together. as Jewish women - the hidden and revealed? What do we do pub- those wishing to attend to RSVP to licly versus privately? When is it okay to Wolfson at 697.0991, or via e-mail at think of ourselves, and when is it our sibby912 @aol.com. “Spending an responsibility to put the greater com- evening with thoughtful, intelligent munal good ahead of our individual Jewish women who’ve come together needs, as Esther did? for the sheer joy of learning and help“Esther risked her life to save the ing each other to learn is about as speJewish people. What risks are we called cial as it gets,” Paley said. “We are honupon as Jewish women to take, and do ored to be a part of our synagogue’s we take them, or do we hide our- Rosh Hodesh group.” selves?” Paley noted that “Esther’s dual-
Page 8
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
January 28, 2005
January 28, 2005
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SUNDAY, JANUARY 30 SUPER SUNDAY, 8 a.m.-noon at Omaha Steaks Jewish Potpouri, 10 a.m. at Beth El Bible Study Class, 11 a.m. at Beth El Hebrew Crash Course, 11 a.m. at Beth El Fourth Grade Consecration, 11 a.m. at Beth El Visions at the Orpheum to see The Producers, 2 p.m. JELS “Jews of the South Tour” Dinner, 5:30 p.m. MONDAY, JANUARY 31 JSS Senior Luncheon, 10 a.m. NCJW Book Club, 7 p.m. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1 Lunch & Learn “The Guy and Bob Show”, noon Adult Education, noon at Temple Israel BBYO Night, 6 p.m. Adult Education, 6 p.m. at Temple Israel TLC “Growth Through Torah”, 7:30 p.m. at private residence Jewish federation Board of Directors Meeting, 7:30 p.m. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2 HAZAK, 9:30 a.m. at Beth El PATTER, 10:30 a.m. at Beth El Nebraska AIPAC Council Meeting, 11:30 a.m. at Ironwood Country Club Beth Israel Business Ethics Lunch & Learn, noon at the office of Joe Kirshenbaum
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10 COE Directors Meeting, 9 a.m. Walk-in Drop-in, 10 a.m. Adult Education, 10 a.m. at Temple Israel Jewish Parenting 101, 10:30 a.m. at Beth El Rabbi Levin’s Class, noon at Beth El Yiddish Group, 1 p.m. TLC “Meaning of Life” Class, 1 p.m. Jewish Women International Sweetheart Day, 2 p.m. at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home Rabbi Gross’ Lecture Series, 7 p.m. at Beth Israel JELS/Beth El Class, 7 p.m. ADL Youth Leadership Mission meeting, 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4 Beth El USY Winter Shabbaton in Excelsior Springs, MO Tri-Faith Dialogue, 8:30 a.m. at Temple Israel Temple Israel “Shabbat Comes to You”, 4 p.m. at Remington Heights Tot Shabbat, 6 p.m. at Beth El
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12 Lunch and Learn on Shabbat with Carol Gendler, 12:30 p.m. at Beth El
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6 Jewish Potpouri, 10 a.m. at Beth El Bible Study with Leonard Greenspoon, 11 a.m. at Beth El Hebrew Crash Course, 11 a.m. at Beth El JELS luncheon with Dr. Michael Stern, noon BESTT Chavirm, 12:30 p.m. at Beth El Nebraska Women’s Caucus Art Reception, 3 p.m. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7 JSS Senior Luncheon, 10 a.m. “Southern Vignettes” lecture, 7 p.m. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8 Sisterhood Board Meeting & Luncheon, 11:30 a.m. at Beth Israel Lunch & Learn “The Guy and Bob Show”, noon BBYO Chapter Elections, 6 p.m. Adult Education, 6 p.m. at Temple Israel Board Meeting, 7 p.m. at JCC TLC “Growth Through Torah”, 7:30 p.m. at private residence WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9 PATTER, 10:30 a.m. at Beth El Rabbis and Presidents Meeting, noon Youth Group Dinner, 6 p.m. at Temple Israel Board Meeting, 7:30 p.m. at Beth Israel
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 Religious School Steering Committee Meeting, 8:30 a.m. at Temple Israel Adult Education, 10 a.m. at Temple Israel Jewish Potpouri, 10 a.m. at Beth El Fifth Grade Family History Museum Program, 10 a.m. at Beth El Bible Study with Leonard Greenspoon, 11 a.m. at Beth El Hebrew Crash Course, 11 a.m. at Beth El Federation Newcomers Brunch, 11:30 a.m. Basketball Awards Ceremony, 3:30 p.m. Family Spaghetti Dinner and Auction, 5 p.m. at Temple Israel TUESDAY, FEB 15 Lunch & Learn “The Guy and Bob Show”, noon Board of Trustees Meeting, 5 p.m. at Temple Israel BBYO Chapter Elections, 6 p.m. Adult Education, 6 p.m. at Temple Israel “Live from the 92nd Street Y” features “Judaism Today and Tomorrow”, 7 p.m. Board of Trustees Meeting, 7:30 p.m. at Temple Israel TLC “Growth Through Torah”, 7:30 p.m. at private residence
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16 PATTER, 10:30 a.m. at Beth El Adult Education, noon at Temple Israel Religious School & Dinner, 6 p.m. at Temple Israel THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17 Men’s Spirituality Group, 7:30 a.m. at Temple Israel Walk-in Drop-in, 10 a.m. Adult Education, 10 a.m. at Temple Israel Jewish Parenting 101, 10:30 a.m. at Beth El Rabbi Levin’s Class, noon at Beth El Yiddish Group, 1 p.m. TLC “Meaning of Life” Class, 1 p.m. Kripke Library Book Discussion Group, 1 p.m. Rabbi Gross’ Lecture Series, 7 p.m. at Beth Israel JELS/Beth El Class, 7 p.m. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18 OTYG NFTY National Chavurah, Feb. 18-22 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19 Inter-generational Shabbat, 9:30 a.m. at Beth El
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23 PATTER, 10:30 a.m. at Beth El Visions Joslyn Tour, 11:30 a.m. Middle/High School Teacher Meeting, 5:30 p.m. at Temple Israel Board of Directors Meeting, 7 p.m. at Friedel Jewish Academy NCJW Board Meeting, 7 p.m. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24 USY Kadimah Kinnus in Lake Delton, WI, Feb. 24-28 COE Directors Meeting, 9 a.m. Walk-in Drop-in, 10 a.m. Adult Education, 10 a.m. at Temple Israel Jewish Parenting 101, 10:30 a.m. at Beth El Rabbi Levin’s Class, noon at Beth El Yiddish Group, 1 p.m. TLC “Meaning of Life” Class, 1 p.m. L.O.V.E Auxiliary Board Meeting, 7 p.m. Rabbi Gross’ Lecture Series, 7 p.m. at Beth Israel JELS/Beth El Class, 7 p.m.
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25 Fifth & Sixth Grade Class Shabbat, 6 p.m. at Beth El
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 Red Cross WSI Training, 8 a.m. Jewish Potpouri, 10:00 a.m. at Beth El Bible Study with Leonard Greenspoon, 11 a.m. at Beth El Hebrew Crash Course, 11 a.m. at Beth El PACMAN, 4 p.m. at Beth El MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21 JSS Senior Luncheon, 10 a.m. Hadassah Board Meeting, 1 p.m. BEAM, 7 p.m. at Beth El TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 Lunch & Learn “The Guy and Bob Show”, noon ADL’s Manhigim Institute, 4:30 p.m. Federation Executive Committee Meeting, 6 p.m. BBYO Night, 6 p.m. JSS Concert, 7 p.m. TLC “Growth Through Torah”, 7:30 p.m. at private residence
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27 Red Cross WSI Training, 8 a.m. Jewish Potpouri, 10 a.m. at Beth El Adult Education, 10:30 a.m. at Temple Israel Bible Study with Leonard Greenspoon, 11 a.m. at Beth El Hebrew Crash Course, 11 a.m. at Beth El Sisterhood Mah Jongg, 1 p.m. at Beth El “Live from the 92nd Street Y” features “The DaVinci Code”, 6:30 p.m. NCJW Book Club, 7 p.m.
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All events held at the Jewish Community Center unless otherwise noted. This calendar does not include all community events. For a complete listing, visit the Federation’s website: www.jewishomaha.org (click on calendar). To keep calendar accurate, call Marlene Hert at 334-6437. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the accuracy of the below events.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3 Walk-in Drop-in, 10 a.m. Adult Education, 10 a.m. at Temple Israel Jewish Parenting 101, 10:30 a.m. at Beth El “Most Important People of the Bible”, noon at Beth El Yiddish Group, 1 p.m. TLC “Meaning of Life” Class, 1 p.m. JELS/Beth El Class, 7 p.m.
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Page 10
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
January 28, 2005
“Southern Vignettes”
New to Jewish Omaha?
Dr. Greenspoon to Lead Discussion and Readings on Southern Jewish Literature
Find Out Who’s Who at Newcomers Brunch
by GARY KATZ Personal History of Jews in Library Administrator the South,” widely considFor Southern Jews, storytelling has traered a classic after 30 years ditionally been among the most prevalent in print; “Judah P. Benjamin: and pleasant of pastimes. Explore a fasciThe Jewish Confederate,” a nating part of this world of Southern Jews biography of the and Southern Jewish Literature on Confederacy’s Secretary of Monday, Feb. 7, 7 p.m., in the Kripke State; and “The Lonely Days Jewish Federation Library. Dr. Leonard Were Sundays: Reflections Greenspoon will lead a reading and disof a Jewish Southerner,” a cussion on the important role some collection of essays. Southern Jewish writers have made to the Louis Rubin Jr. was an American Jewish Experience. editor, novelist, essayist, Dr. Greenspoon will emphasize the teacher and publisher. He writings of twentieth century authors such has had an immeasurable as Harry Golden, Eli Evans, and Louis effect on a generation of Rubin, plus read from his own writings. In North Carolina writers and making this choice, he “wants to highreaders. Rubin, a teacher Dr. Leonard Greenspoon light, at the personal level of autobiograwhose former students phy, what it was like growing up as a Jew and living include such noted Southern writers as Clyde Edgerton, Jewishly in the South, especially in the mid-twentieth Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, John Barth and Kaye century. I feel that there is a great deal we can learn Gibbons, is himself a respected writer of literary critifrom the experiences and observations of these indi- cism, essays, history, biographies and novels viduals about a time and place in history that is all too Dr. Greenspoon, holder of the Klutznick Chair at quickly receding into the background of consciousness Creighton University, is a native of Richmond, VA, and and remembrance.” taught for two decades at Clemson University. He was Harry Golden came to Charlotte, N.C. in 1941 and among the founders of the South Carolina Jewish began to write about and speak out against segrega- Historical Society and has written of the Jews of that tion. From 1942 to 1958, Golden published a newspa- state. per containing his views. It was called the “Carolina This class is free and open to the public. Everyone is Israelite”. He was widely acclaimed as a writer and welcome to attend. For more information, please conhumorist and won numerous awards, but his opinions tact me at the Kripke Jewish Federation Library at evoked constant criticism from people who disagreed 334.6462 or gkatz@jewishomaha.org. with his belief in racial equality. One of his books, Greenspoon is also leading a tour on The Jews of the “Only in America,” became a best seller in 1958. He South from April 6-10. This trip, sponsored by Jewish also wrote a biography of his friend, the poet Carl Educational and Library Services, will visit Savannah, Sandburg. Beauford, and Charleston. For more information on the Eli Evans has been called “the poet laureate of tour, please contact Mary Sue Grossman at 334.6445 or Southern Jews.” His books include “The Provincials: A mgrossman@jewishomaha.org.
by PAM MONSKY Federation Communications Director The Jewish Federation is hosting its second brunch to welcome newcomers to the Omaha Jewish community on Sunday, Feb. 13, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center. Newcomers to the community who have been in Omaha for one year or less are invited to bring their families and join us in the festivities. Last year, nearly 100 p e o p l e attended the Newcomers’ Brunch and our community has continued to Carrie and Steve Fingold shake hands with Cantor Gaston Bogolmoni at last November’s grow! All of the Newcomer’s Brunch. Federation’s agencies and organizations have been invited to meet our newcomers and answer questions about their roles in the Jewish community. This is an excellent opportunity to meet other newcomers, Omaha natives and community professionals. Adults will have a chance to talk about their interests and what they’d like to see from the Federation. Kids will have special activities and time to play with other children. Denise Ipock, JCC Member Services Director will also be available to give tours of the JCC If you haven’t received an invitation and you would like to attend, please contact Janie Murow, Federation Community Development Director at 334.6566, or email jmurow @jewishomaha.org. Come join us for good food, great conversation, and fun gifts!
Temple Israel and Church Choir to Combine Voices at Shabbat Service by CLAUDIA SHERMAN Temple Israel Communications Coordinator In celebration of American Jewish composers, Temple Israel’s Kol Rina Choir and the St. Paul United Methodist Church Choir will feature Shabbat music and a sermon-in-song at the Kabbalat Shabbat worship service on Friday, Feb. 4, 7:30 p.m., at Temple. The choirs will be conducted by St. Paul’s Music Minister Jerry Brabec. Cantor Wendy Shermet will co-officiate at the service with Rabbi Craig Marantz. Cantor Shermet said the choirs will sing “Yism’chu” and “Eitz Chayim Hi” by Cantor Robert Solomon, an internationally known composer of Jewish music from Brookline, Massachusetts. They will also sing “Nigun Bialik,” a wordless Chassidic song, and “Yigdal” arranged by Danny Maseng, playwright, actor, singer, composer, and artistic director of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in California. In addition, the choirs will join voices for “Hinei Mah Tov” with music by Cantor Erik Contzius, Temple Israel’s cantor from 1995-98 and now serving the congregation of Temple Israel of New
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Rochelle, NY. Steve Dropkin, regarded as a major new composer of contemporary Jewish music and liturgy who has presented at numerous Jewish conventions and conferences and performed with Rick Recht and Julie Silver, wrote “Oseh Shalom,” another selection for the interfaith choirs that night. Dr. Tamara Field, a professional soloist in the Omaha area who has performed roles in opera and operetta, sings with Soli Deo Gloria Cantorum, and is a member of the High Holiday octet at Temple, will sing with the choir. Also joining the choir, will be Jonathan Rathsam, a graduate student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha who filled in for his hometown congregation in San Diego and at Grinnell College in Iowa when he was a student there. He also interned with three cantors in Berlin, Germany. Both Field and Rathsam will have solos during the service. On Sunday, Feb. 6, 11 a.m., the choirs will sing together again at the church at 5410 Corby St.
Become an Expert Jewish Parent
Beth El Program Director Harriet Einziger shows Lena Bogomolni (holding daughter Emmanuelle) and Helen Epstein gift bags for parents attending the synagogue’s upcoming “Jewish Parenting 101” class. Bogomolni and Epstein will be among the guest presenters featured during the mini-course, which will be held on Thursdays, Feb. 3-April 7, 10:30-11:30 a.m. The class is free of charge and open to the entire Jewish community. For more information, please call Einziger at 492.8550.
January 28, 2005
History of Jewish Omaha to be Focus Of Beth El Lunch ‘n’ Learn Event
Nebraska Women’s Caucus for Art to Display Works in JCC Gallery
by JILL BELMONT Beth El Publicity Coordinator The entire community is invited to attend a fascinating Beth El Lunch ‘n’ Learn event following Shabbat services on Saturday, Feb. 12, as local historian Carol Gendler leads attendees through the history of Jewish Omaha. In the midst of a nationwide commemoration of 350 years of American Jewry, this presentation will provide an informative local angle to the celebration. Gendler holds a master’s degree in history from the University of Nebraska-Omaha; her thesis, which focused on the early history of the Omaha Jewish community, was entitled, “The Jews of Omaha: The First 60 Years.” She has contributed articles to publications including the Western States Jewish Historical Quarterly and Nebraska History Quarterly. The first Jews came to Omaha in 1856, Gendler said. During the BELLS luncheon she will address “how they got here, what they did and how we got where we are today.” Cost is $9 for adults; $5 for children; free for children under age four. For reservations, please contact Harriet Einziger in the synagogue office, 492.8550.
by AMY SADLE The Nebraska Women’s Caucus for Art, a regional organization of women in the arts, will display their exhibit titled, “A Celebration of Quotable Women Artists” in the JCC Gallery from Feb. 2-28. The show was created by more than 20 professional women artists who are members of the Nebraska Women’s Caucus. Inspired by the writings of women artists who have contributed significantly to art, this traveling exhibition presents a variety of media in many contemporary styles by women from across Nebraska and surrounding states. A catalogue accompanies this exhibit, which includes work in all media and all styles. The public is invited to attend a reception in the Jewish Community Center Gallery on Sunday, Feb. 6, 3-5 p.m. For more information about this exhibit or to book the gallery for an exhibit, please contact Rachel Blum at 334.6404.
IN THE NEWS The national office of the Boy Scouts of America in Irving, TX, recognized the Mid-America Council, headquartered in Omaha, as one of the top Scout councils in the country with the prestigious “Quality Council” award. Mid-America Council has achieved its 2004 goals, according to Scout Executive Director Lloyd Roitstein. Six outstanding Omaha area business leaders will be inducted into the Omaha Business Hall of Fame at a dinner on Tuesday, April 12 at the Qwest center. Among them are Jack W. Baker, chairman, President & CEO of PDM, Inc. For reservations, please contact Maria Menjivar at 978.7912 or e-mail her at: reservations@omaha chamber.org. Dinah Abrahamson and her children, Sarah and Yosef Abrahamson, attended the Inauguration of President George W. Bush and Vice-president Richard B. Cheney on Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C. “We were some of the lucky few Nebraskans invited,” said Abrahamson. “My children and I were very fortunate to partake in and witness this historic moment.” Eight college students are being sought by the College World Series to serve as goodwill ambassadors for the Games, held this year from June 16-26. The deadline for submitting applications is Feb. 11; more information can be obtained from Carol Foreman, at 554.4422 or carol@meetingandeventdesign.com. Applications are also available online at: www.CWS omaha.com for singers and musicians seeking to perform the National Anthem during the Games. The deadline is March 4, 5 p.m., for the completed form, accompanied by an a cappella version of the National Anthem on audiocassette or CD. Gordmans will sponsor the Scout Uniform Drive during Scout Anniversary Week, Feb. 6-12. Donate new or “experienced” Scouting uniforms or make a monetary donation at Gordmans’ seven stores in Omaha, Council Bluffs, La Vista, Bellevue, Fremont and Sioux City. Gordmans’ guests who donate will receive coupons good for an extra 20% off any single item in appreciation of their donation.
BIRTHS Emily and Josh Cooper of Seattle, WA announce the Dec. 24, 2004 birth of their son, Ben Larmore., named for his late paternal great- grandfather, Ben Cooper. His middle name, Larmore, is his mother’s maiden name, and his Hebrew name is Ben Amie Grandparents are Cheryl and Ron Cooper, and Sharon and Joel Larmore of Elkhorn. Great-grandparents are Fran and Jerry Milder, the late Faye and Ben Cooper, Pauline Schneider of Kenesaw, NE, and the late Erwin Schneider, and Doyle Larmore and the late Elaine Larmore.
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
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ORGANIZATIONS BREADBREAKERS AIPAC and B’nai B’rith will co-sponsor Steve Rosen on Wednesday, Feb. 2, noon, at Ironwood Country Club. Traveling here from his Washington D.C, base, this director of foreign policy issues will give us Middle East insight based on his direct contact with leaders in the region. He will discuss “The Window of Opportunity: an Insider’s Perspective on U.S. Foreign Policy Towards Israel and the Region.” Rosen is one of the subjects of the FBI probe into AIPAC, a collection of allegations that many consider to be aimed at diminishing the influence of AIPAC. This more than year-long probe, leaked to and announced by Dan Rather at CBS, has yet to yield any charges. Cost for lunch is $20. Please RSVP by Monday, Jan. 31 to Lois at 334.6443 or e-mail lepstein@jewishomaha.org. The community is invited to attend. YOUNG ENERGETIC SENIORS Members will meet Monday at the JCC in the auditorium. Join us for Bharata Natyam Dance (Hindu Dance). Lunch is served at noon and the program will begin at 12:45 p.m. The students from the Friedel Academy will join us. Bingo will begin at 10 a.m. in the auditorium; exercise in the social hall at 10:30 a.m. and the discussion group at 11 a.m. For transportation call Dee Dee at 330.4272. LOMIR REDN YIDDISH Come to the Lomir Redn Yiddish meeting at the JCC in the Social Hall on Thursdays, 1-3 p.m. Call Anne Skolkin at 343.1638 for more information. VISIONS Reminder: The Producers, the new Mel Brooks musical is at the Orpheum Theater on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2 p.m. Join us at the Joslyn Art Museum to see the exhibit “The Old Masters: Renaissance to Rococo” on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 11:15 a.m. for lunch (on your own) in the Atrium of the Joslyn (Durham Café). An escorted tour will follow. Cost is $5.50 each for admission. There is no charge for members of the Joslyn. Come with Visions on a tour and to see antiquities at UNO--“Silent Spectators of the Sacred”--on Wednesday, March 9, 11:30 a.m. We will meet at the China Road (132 and Dodge) for lunch (on your own). Following lunch, carpool to UNO and view the exhibit. Suggested donation is $2 single or $3 for couple. Make check payable to Visions and send with reservations by Feb. 23 for the Joslyn tour and March 2 for UNO to: Sandy and Fred Bromley, 13419 Marinda St. Omaha, NE 68144. JEWISH SENIOR SERVICES Join us for live music with The Omaha Municipal Orchestra on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 7 p.m. at the JCC. The concert features compositions from Massanet, Debussy, Saint-Saens, d’Indy and Honneger. There is no admission fee. For reservations call Maggie Conti at 334.6521. UPCOMING JELS EVENTS This Sunday, Jan. 30, 5:30 p.m., sample Southern charm, wit and cooking with Vicki Riekes Fox, Editor of Shalom Ya’ll: Images of Souther Jewish Life in America. Join us for dinner (reservations needed today), followed by her presentation. Cassie Spohn, UNO professor who accompanied Guy Matalon on a recent trip to Israel, will speak at the “Guy & Bob Show” on Tuesday, Feb. 1, noon.
Page 11
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Page 12
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
January 28, 2005
Opinion Abortion and the Holocaust Those are incendiary words when placed in such close proximity. But it is ironic that the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the anniversary of the Roe V. Wade decision which legalized abortion come only a few days apart. These is some discomfort in the closeness of these two anniversaries. And both of them should be of concern to the American Jewish community. One anniversary recalls the horrors of the Holocaust, six million Jews and five million others tortured, shot, gassed, burned in ovens or buried alive. Sixty years later, the worldwide Jewish community has still not replaced all the souls we lost during those dark days of World War II. The other recalls the day when the United States Supreme Court ruled that women had the right to obtain an abortion anywhere in America and without having to obtain the written permission of a medical committee sitting in judgment on her reasons. And who leads the fight for women’s reproductive rights--Jewish women and Jewish women’s organizations. Is there something wrong here? And is it a heresy for a Jewish community newspaper to ask that question?
Is it morally right for the Jewish community to expend so much energy on preserving “a woman’s right to choose” when the American Jewish population is actually declining? Jewish men and women are marrying later, having fewer kids, and intermarrying more. Are we putting ourselves “out of business” so to speak by spending Jewish philanthropic dollars on advocating for abortion rights instead of in places where it might make an impact on Jewish survival? Some activists maintain that this issue is an important Jewish value--even Rabbi Tzvi Hersch Weinreb, leader of the Orthodox Union, asserts that it’s important to have the option of abortion for women whose lives are in danger. And most Americans--Jews and non-Jews--agree with that stance--that abortion should be available when there is a threat to a woman’s life. The problem comes with the interpretation of that phrase. What constitutes a threat? Is it the physical ability to proceed with the pregnancy--the mental capacity to
(Founded in 1920)
continue carrying the baby--or the ability to raise the child after birth--physically, mentally, financially, and so on? This is an issue that seems to have rigid defenders on both sides: abortion on demand throughout the entire pregnancy--or conversely, no abortion, ever, for any reason. Is there a middle ground? Are there areas on which people can have rational discussions-people who now feel some discomfort about the proximity of these two anniversaries. And--are we willing to at least talk about this subject? Are we?
Looking Ahead to Bush’s New Term, Groups See Showdown Over Abortion With the influence of Christian conservatives and the focus on faith and values heightened after November’s presidential election, Jewish leaders hope the influence of rabbis and a religious argument for legalized aborby MATTHEW E. BERGER tion will be a counterweight. The goal is to WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Jewish groups are show that not all people of faith oppose aborhoping to enlist rabbis in the struggle to tion rights. “The religious right has succeeded and ensure that abortion rights are not eroded clearly established a feeling in this country during President Bush’s second term. that people of faith are against choice,” NCJW A coalition of organizations, led by the President Marsha Atkind said. “But that isn’t National Council of Jewish Women, is asking the case, and we need to make that very rabbis across the country to sign a letter that clear.” would be sent to U.S. senators if a new The goal is to get rabbinical leaders and Supreme Court nominee is announced, as is congregational rabbis to sign a letter that will expected in the next few years. be sent to all The letter approaches the senators if a abortion issue from a relicourt nominagious liberty perspective, tion is forarguing that if the procewarded by dure is made illegal, Jews P r e s i d e n t will be prevented from folBush, a time lowing their religious teachwhen the letings--which mandate aborter is anticitions in rare circumstances pated to have when the life of the mother the most is threatened. impact. It’s an aggressive effort by The letter the Jewish community to suggests the play a larger role in the decision to abortion debate, and comes have an aborat a time of great fear that tion should impending Supreme Court Marsha Atkind, President of the National Council of be up to a vacancies and a Republican Jewish Women, speaks during a rally before the March woman in Congress will align to roll for Women’s Lives, an April 25, 2004, event in support consultation back a woman’s ability to of women’s reproductive and health concerns in with her docend a pregnancy. Credit: Ron Sachs tor and clergy, The push also is timed to Washington. and shouldn’t be determined by governmencoincide with last week’s 32nd anniversary of tal decree. the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade, Most Reform and Conservative rabbis supwhich made abortion legal. port abortion rights, and both movements are In addition to seeking out rabbis, NCJW has reaching out to their members through rabpushed Jewish civil rights groups, including binic listservs to get them to sign the letter. the Anti-Defamation League and the The Orthodox Union does not participate in American Jewish Committee, to highlight the abortion debates because of the complexity abortion issue on their legislative agendas. of halachah on the issue. Agudath Israel of Advocates on both sides of the debate are America opposes the current abortion laws, expecting a fight if a Supreme Court justice and seeks laws that would allow abortions announces retirement and attention turns to only in exceptional cases and when mandatchoosing a replacement. Chief Justice William ed by religious law. Rehnquist is being treated for thyroid cancer, “We would like to see Roe v. Wade, which and several other justices, including the modis a bad decision, overturned,” said Rabbi Avi erate Sandra Day O’Connor and the liberal Shafran, Agudath Israel’s director of public John Paul Stevens, are of advancing age.
FOCUS ON ISSUES
affairs. “But we would not like to see abortions outlawed without exception.” One Orthodox rabbi said he supports NCJW’s efforts because he is concerned about federal judges outlawing a procedure that halachic law specifically calls for in rare circumstances. “I think the Orthodox community should be concerned about laws that would restrict people from observing halachah,” said Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, rabbi of Ohev Shalom Talmud Torah synagogue in Washington. Jewish leaders believe a statement from a diverse list of rabbis from would carry more weight with senators than rallies and other overt efforts to show support for choice. “They speak with a kind of moral authority and are compelling speakers,” said Sammie Moshenberg, NCJW’s Washington director. “The presence of a long list of rabbis on a letter will make senators stand up and take notice.” It also will be a tangible sign for senators that religious leaders, including ones from their home states, back abortion rights. Pro-choice groups often have centered their argument on a woman’s right to privacy, but in its latest appeal NCJW specifically focuses on the religious liberty issue. The crux is that prohibiting abortions could in some cases prevent Jews from practicing their religion. That would mean that the religious views of those who believe abortion is always wrong could obstruct others from practicing their beliefs. “It is imperative that nominees to the federal bench protect fundamental religious and personal freedoms, such as reproductive choice,” the letter says. “Any infringement on these rights subverts the basis upon which our nation is built.” NCJW has pushed Jewish civil rights groups to take a larger stand on this issue. Groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee at times have spoken out on choice--against the ban on socalled partial birth abortions, which passed Congress in 2003, for example--but NCJW has asked them to make the issue a more central part of their legislative agendas. “We want to make clear that it is not the religious view to be against reproductive rights,” said Richard Foltin, the American Jewish Committee’s legislative director.
Joanie Jacobson Chairman Carol Katzman Editor Richard Busse Creative Director Allan Handleman Advertising Manager Lori Kooper-Schwarz Assistant Managing Editor Jewish Press Committee Howard K. Marcus, Vice-Chairman; Bobbi Leibowitz, Secretary; Scott Meyerson, Finance Chairman; Steve Simon, Treasurer; Fred Tichauer, Immediate Past-chairman; Jean Duitch; Penny Endelman; Kip Gordman; Stanley Mitchell; George Quittner; Linda Saltzman; Joey Shyken; Michael Siegal; Nancy Skid; and Melany Weinstine. The role of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to involve Jews in meeting Jewish communal needs locally, nationally and in Israel. Centers of Excellence of the Federation are: Community Relations, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Educational and Library Services, Jewish Family Service, and Jewish Senior Services. The Jewish Press and the Foundation are constitutional committees of the Jewish Federation. Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Committee, the Jewish Federation of Omaha 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. Editorial The Jewish Press is a Constitutional Committee of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Deadline for copy, ads and photos is: Thursday, noon, eight days prior to publication. E-mail editorial material and photos to: ckatzman@jewishomaha.org; send ads (in .TIF or .PDF format) to: rbusse@jewishomaha.org. Letters to the Editor Guidelines The Jewish Press welcomes Letters to the Editor. They may be sent via regular mail to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154; via fax: 1-402-334-5422 or via e-mail to the Editor at: ckatzman@jewishomaha.org.. Letters should be no longer than 250 words and must be singlespaced typed, not hand-written. Published letters should be confined to opinions and comments on articles or events. News items should not be submitted and printed as a “Letter to the Editor.” The Editor may edit letters for content and space restrictions, but should be printed as soon as possible to ensure timeliness. Letters may be published without giving an opposing view. Information shall be verified before printing. All letters must be signed by the writer, but the name can be withheld at the writer’s request. No letters should be published from candidates running for office, but others may write on their behalf. Letters of thanks should be confined to commending an institution for a program, project or event, rather than personally thanking paid staff, unless the writer chooses to turn the “Letter to the Editor” into a paid personal ad or a news article about the event, project or program which the professional staff supervised. For more information, contact Carol Katzman, Jewish Press Editor, 402.334.6450. Postal The Jewish Press (USPS 275620) is published weekly on Friday for $31 per calendar year U.S.; $35 foreign, by the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Phone: 402.334.6448; FAX: 402.334.5422. Periodical postage paid at Omaha, NE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132nd St., Omaha, NE 68154-2198 or e-mail to: jpress@jewishomaha. org.
Nebraska Press Association
National Newspaper Association
January 28, 2005
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 13
60 Years After Liberation Survivors Grateful for Their Long Lives, But Struggle with Poverty and Memories
B EHIND THE HEADLINES by E.B. SOLOMONT NEW YORK (JTA) -- Simon Unger lived every day at Auschwitz thinking it’d be his last. “It was day to day. If you die today or tomorrow, you knew you were going to die because that's what Auschwitz was,” he said. But in fact, Unger not only survived the war but has lived 60 years since its end. In 1995, 50 years after being liberated from what he calls a “living hell,” he gathered nearly 80 friends to mark a “celebration of life.” “I am alive,” the 81-year-old said Sunday in a telephone interview with JTA from his home in Florida. “When I lived to the 40th” anniversary, “I didn’t think I'd see the 50th. You never think you'll see it, but you live with hope.” Many Holocaust survivors liberated in 1945 are grateful that they have lived this long, but the accomplishment is mixed with anxiety as they worry that their experiences might be forgotten. At last count, there were 122,000 Holocaust survivors living in the United States, according to the United Jewish Communities’ National Population Survey 2000-01. The survey paints a picture of the survivor population in America: As a general rule, survivors’ median age is higher and they are frailer and in greater need of financial or social assistance than other elderly Jews, it found. In a 20-page report, “Nazi Victims Residing in the United States,” the NJPS reports that non-survivors are more than twice as likely as survivors to be working; 23 percent of survivors are disabled and unable to work compared with 5 percent of non-survivors; and survivors are five times more likely to live in poverty than non-survivors, with 25 percent of them falling under the federal poverty benchmark. But many survivors, especially those who came to the United States in the years immediately following World War II, have done well financially. “We have actually risen from ashes and made lives for ourselves. We pulled ourselves up, educated our children and raised families,” survivor Joe Sachs said. David Mermelstein, 76, a survivor and president of the Coalition of Holocaust Survivors in South Florida, explained that it wasn’t always this way. But “as age started to catch up, there were a lot of older people who got sick and the little money they had was used up,” he said. He said that five years ago, 79 survivors were on a waiting list for aid in the South Florida area and 350 others received aid, out of a population of about 3,000. “A lot of them don’t want to ask for help,” he added. There’s also the ongoing psychological pain. Mermelstein, who was 11 when the war started and 15 when he was sent to Auschwitz, said a survivor can never shed the Holocaust's shadow. “You cannot forget because when it comes to a holiday,” there is always somebody missing, he said. Lorraine Blass, the NJPS project manager, says the demographic data provides social service groups with useful information.
While income levels of Nazi victims who moved to the United States in 1965 or earlier have kept pace with other Americans their age, Nazi victims who arrived in the U.S. after 1965 are much poorer, with an annual median income of only $8,600, according to findings in the UJC NJPS 2000Credit: JTA graphic 01 study.
“It had been coming to our attention, to the federation system’s attention, that elements of this group were particularly needy,” she said. In addition to NJPS data, a special report in a UJAFederation of New York study, The Jewish Community Study of New York: 2002, analyzes a group of Holocaust survivors in the New York area, which is estimated to be a community of about 55,000. This data assists groups that help survivors, including the Claims Conference, in allocating restitution funds. “I think over the last few years, studies in the United States and in other places in the world have helped in the planning and allocation of resources to help the needy survivors. Knowledge is a critical element in trying to deal with problems in a thoughtful way,” said Gideon Taylor, executive vice president of the Claims Conference. In part because of its need for data, the Claims Conference, with other groups, helped fund and worked closely in crafting the questions asked of Nazi victims in both studies. In the NJPS report, victims were generally classified as having lived under Nazi control or having been forced to flee. Survivors also were split into two groups: victims who arrived in the Unites States prior to 1965 and those who arrived after, primarily from the former Soviet Union. Among the later immigrants, the post-1965 group was found to be much worse off, a fact corroborated by the UJA study. Over half of the post-65 group reported living below poverty, compared to 1 percent of pre-1965 victims, according to the NJPS report. According to UJA data, Nazi victims in Russian-speaking households are “much more likely” to be poor than Nazi victims in non-Russian-speaking households. In general, UJA also reported that one in four Nazi victims in the New York area lives alone; the median age of victims living alone is 76. But statistical surveys are unable to capture a final changing aspect of survivors in the 21st century: survivors’ increased need to leave behind a legacy. “I think the focus of survivors after liberation was to start a new family immediately. Fifteen, 20 years ago they were working, raising families. Now the focus as they retire is the grandchildren who they are telling their story to because they realize time is of the essence,” said Avi Mizrachi, executive director of the Holocaust Memorial Committee. Unger recently brought his children to Poland to show them his home and to visit the mass grave where he thinks his parents are buried. “It was hard,” he said, choking back tears. But he said he wanted to close a chapter on his life there. It wasn't until Sachs’ granddaughter asked him to speak to her Holocaust class in college that he decided to volunteer to help needy Holocaust survivors and to speak about his Holocaust experience to student groups. “As I left and said goodbye to her that day, I cried,” he said. After he returned to Florida, he “offered myself to do any kind of work as a volunteer,” he added. “I am amply rewarded in all the work I do in seeing that the history of the Holocaust gets conveyed.”
LETTER TO THE EDITOR To the Editor: Although we all love to hear about the good deeds of our people, it is our responsibility as Jews to uphold standards of truth. With this in mind, I write to correct certain inflammatory and false statements in your editorial on Israel’s aid to victims of the tsunami in the Jan. 7 issue. In fact, contrary to your assertions, Israel offered no aid to Indonesia, nor to any Muslim country. Israel sent aid only to Sri Lanka and Thailand (and offered aid to India, which declined all foreign assistance). Early unofficial reports that Israeli aid was refused by Sri Lanka because of its Muslim minority were repudiated. Your statement that Israel’s aid was, per capita, the highest in the world, is also far from the truth. Israel’s donation of about $1 per capita (including man-
power and supplies) does not even rank in the top ten. At this writing, the leader is Kuwait, at about $44 per person, followed by Norway, Australia and Qatar. Nobody should interpret my letter as critical of Israel, whose rapid humanitarian response was a model for the world. My point is that we who have been the victims of evil slander and libel through the centuries must not perpetrate the same sins, stirring up hatred through false tales intended to demonize our enemies. Your vicious indictment of the government of Indonesia is based on exaggeration and falsehood and is below the standards that we should set for ourselves. Larry Denenberg Newton, MA Editor’s response: In the early days during the aftermath
of the tsunami, reports of offers of aid (and its acceptance) changed almost hourly. Some early reports, as indicated by Mr. Denenberg did contain incorrect information about Indonesia--even though the information did originate with an Israeli spokesman of the office of the government. An El Al planeload of supplies did land in Indonesia, but no Israelis stayed behind due to the instability in Aceh province, according to the AJC’s Middle East director, Dr. Eran Lehman, as reported in the Intermountain Jewish News of Denver. Those early reports, later corrected by The Israel Project, also included information about the mistranslation of criticism of Israel in the general news media that it had refused to send aid to Sri Lanka (even the Vatican joined the criticism and later apologized when the report turned out to be false).
In fact, Israel was one of the first to offer assistance, not only from the government, but from groups like ZAKA (experienced in the collection of body parts), medical teams from Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem (which has since sent a team of psychologists to assist parents--and children) and Magen David Adom. As to the per capita donation figures--those, too, came in the early days following the tsunami and changed daily; Israel has since dropped further down on the list. The understandable confusion following a disaster of this magnitude produced some confusion as well in conflicting news reports. Denenberg is correct to point out our errors. We appreciate the assistance of readers who pay attention to detail and help us make these important corrections. And we apologize for any mistakes on our part.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Synagogue Listings B’nai Israel Synagogue 618 Mynster St. Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 322.4705 email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com
Beth El Synagogue Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California Omaha, NE 68154-1980 492.8550 www.bethel-omaha.org
Beth Israel Synagogue Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 12604 Pacific St. Omaha, NE. 68154 556.6288 BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org
Beyt Shalom An Affiliate of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation 3012 S. 119 St. P.O. Box 390352 Omaha, NE 68139 660.2395 www.beytshalomomaha.org
Chabad House An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch 1866 S. 120th St. Omaha, NE 68144-1646 330.1800 nebraskajudaism.com email: chabad@aol.com
Congregation B’nai Jeshurun South Street Temple Union for Reform Judaism 2061 S. 20th St. Lincoln, NE 68502-2797 435.8004 jewishnebraska.org
Offutt Air Force Base SAC Memorial Chapel 301 Lincoln Highway Offutt AFB, NE 68113 294.6244
Rose Blumkin Jewish Home 333 S. 132 St. Omaha, NE 68154
Temple Israel Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 7023 Cass Street Omaha, NE 68132-2651 556.6536 templeisrael-ne.org
The Neighborhood Minyan Torah Learning Center 1313 No. 58 St. Omaha, NE 68132 553.5397
Tifereth Israel Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Blvd., Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 423.8569 www.tiferethlincoln.org
If you’re looking at this space, so are others! YOUR AD CAN GO HERE...
to reserve space, call Allan Handleman, 334-6451.
January 28, 2005
Synagogues B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE FRIDAY: Services followed by Oneg, 7:30 p.m.
BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Office Hours: Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. FRIDAY: Musical Kabbalat Shabbat Service, 6 p.m. SATURDAY: Morning service, 9:30 a.m. will be led by HAZAK members; Junior Congregation (3-7), 10 a.m.; K’tantan (K-2), 10:45 a.m.; Kiddush sponsored by Beth El; Hazak Lunch ‘n’ Learn features KETV consumer reporter Michael Sigmond; Evening Service, 5:25 p.m. WEEKDAY SERVICES: Sunday, 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.; Weekdays, 6:55 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. SUNDAY: Jewish Pot Pourri Class, 10 a.m. Bible Study Class, 11 a.m.; Hebrew Crash Course, 11:10 a.m. WEDNESDAYS: PATTER (Parents & Toddlers, Torah, Exercise, Recreation) with Helen Epstein, 10:45 a.m. THURSDAY, noon: “The Most Important People and Ideas of the Hebrew Bible,” with Rabbi Levin. FOURTH-GRADE CONSECRATION: Fourth graders celebrate their consecration on Sunday, Jan. 30, 11:15 a.m. during BESTT’s weekly assembly. SISTERHOOD HAMATASCHEN BAKING Sisterhood is in the midst of its annual hamantaschen baking marathon! If you'd like to join in the fun on Sunday, Jan. 30, call Caryn Rifkin, 334.7216. BETH EL/JELS CLASS Beth El and the Jewish Federation’s Jewish Educational & Library Services present a monthlong mini-course: “To Be or Not to Be: Maimonides on the Resurrection of the Dead,” taught by JELS Executive Director Guy Matalon on Thursday, Feb. 3, 10, 17 and 24, 7:30 p.m. Cost (including all materials) is $18. “JEWISH PARENTING 101” Beginning Feb. 3, this series of eight classes will be offered at the synagogue on Thursdays, 10:30-11:30 a.m., led by Program Director Harriet Einziger, along with guest speakers providing support and expertise in different areas. Babysitting available upon request. TOT SHABBAT Parents, grandparents and kids of all ages are invited to join us Feb. 4, 6 p.m. for our Tot Shabbat service, led by Patty Nogg. WORLD WIDE WRAP Men’s Club invites all Jewish men and women (sixth and seventh graders are welcome, too) to join Sunday morning minyannaires on Sunday, Feb. 6, 9 a.m., for the fifth annual “World Wide Wrap,” to learn the ancient Jewish ritual of laying tefillin. For more information, please call the synagogue office. CHAVERIM BOWLING PARTY BESTT Chaverim, a new youth group for all Jewish children in our community in grades 4-6, is planning a bowling and pizza party on
Sunday, Feb. 6, 12:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m. (See full story on page 7.) WOMEN’S ROSH HODESH GROUP Welcome the month of Adar with a thought-provoking Rosh Hodesh meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 7 p.m. (See full story on page 7.) BELLS LUNCHEON Lunch ‘n’ Learn follows Shabbat services on Feb. 12, featuring Beth El congregant Carol Gendler, who will examine the history of Jewish Omaha. Cost is $9 for adults; $5 for children; free for children under age four. To register for any of the classes or programs, please contact Einziger at 492.8550.
BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE Office Hours: Monday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Fridays, 8:30 a.m-2 p.m. Services conducted by Rabbi Jonathan Gross. FRIDAY: Musical Kabbalat Shabbat, 5:30 p.m. with Ari Dembitzer, followed by Shabbat dinner. SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Free Babysitting, 9:30 a.m.; Junior Congregation, 10:30 a.m. for children ages five through pre-Bar/Bat Mitzvah; Kiddush sponsored by Rabbi Gross in honor of his birthday; Mincha, 5:15 p.m. followed by Ma’ariv; Havdalah, 6:21 p.m. Melaveh Malka, 7:30 p.m. An All-Star Band will be joined by Rabbi Dembitzer for a fun evening. SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Call the synagogue office for Mincha/Ma’ariv service time. WEEKDAYS: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Call the synagogue office for Mincha/Ma’ariv service time. WEDNESDAY: Business Ethics Lunch and Learn, noon, at the office of Noodle Companies at One Pacific Place. Bagel Bin lunch is available for $5. Make a lunch reservation with the office.
BEYT SHALOM SATURDAY: Blumkin Home Shabbat, 9 a.m.
CHABAD HOUSE Services conducted by Rabbi Mendel Katzman. FRIDAY: Services, 7 a.m. SATURDAY: Mamarim class, 9 a.m.; Services, 9:30 a.m. followed by a Kiddush luncheon. SUNDAY: Services, 8:30 a.m. Mishneh class, 9:30 a.m.; Aleph Champion and Little Scholars Programs. Innovative, interactive learning for kids, 10 a.m.-noon. WEEKDAYS: Services, 7 a.m. MONDAY: Halacha, 7 p.m. TUESDAY: Torah for Teens, 4:15 p.m. WEDNESDAY: Kabbalah: Journey of the Soul, 7 p.m. First class of a multi-session course. Programs are open to the community. For information or to register, call 330.1800.
CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN Rabbi Debbie Stiel will be in Lincoln two weekends a month. Please call her at 402.416.2321 or
e-mail: dstiel@everestkc.net to set up appointments. FRIDAY: Shabbat Evening Service, 7:45 p.m. led by Ruth Nisse, with oneg following provided by Cindy and Rick Kohn. SATURDAY: Torah Study, 10:30 a.m. SUNDAY: Hebrew School, 9 a.m.-noon CALLING PERFORMERS, MUSICIANS, AND VOLUNTEERS It’s time to prepare for Purim Spiel at South Street. This year we are putting on “The Megillah According to Rock and Roll.” Please join us, Sunday, Jan. 30, 1 p.m. in the sanctuary. You don’t have to belong to South Street to be a player. You can be any age (we need more teens as well as adults, and we need more little kids for two scenes, too). The only requirement to show up for rehearsals, act silly and have fun. ADULT EDUCATION Sunday, Feb. 6, 10 a.m., Robert Friedman will lead anclass on “Post-Holocaust Jewish Thought.” The class will discuss the views of some modern Jewish theologians regarding God’s absence from, or involvement in, the Holocaust.
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m.
ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME SATURDAY: Services, 9 a.m. led by Marti Nerenstone and Beyt Shalom.
TEMPLE ISRAEL FRIDAY: Shabbat Evening Service, 7:30 p.m., Rabbi Craig Marantz and Cantor Wendy Shermet will officiate. Dru Greenwood, adjunct faculty member at Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion, will give the D'var Torah. She will explore the vision of building a stronger synagogue community. Greenwood will continue the conversation at the Oneg Shabbat sponsored by the Women of Reform Judaism-Omaha. SATURDAY: Bagels and Sacred Books, 9:30-10:15 a.m.; Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m. ADULT EDUCATION SUNDAY, Jan. 30: The Holocaust: Its Contemporary Meaning for Jews and Americans UNL professor Alan Steinweis will give a fascinating talk about the Holocaust and American Jewry, 10 a.m.-Noon.
Candlelighting Friday, January 28, 5:18 p.m.
TUESDAY, Feb. 1, noon: It All Begins in Genesis. Congregant Katherine Finnegan will lead this Jewish Journey Group through an understanding of the stories in the first book of the Bible; 6:30-8 p.m.: Reaching Out to Interfaith Families. This is a seven-week course facilitated by congregant John Dacey. Cost is $18 per couple. THURSDAY, Feb 3: “Adult Study with the Clergy” with Rabbi Marantz, 10-11:30 a.m. SHABBAT COMES TO YOU Rabbi Craig Marantz and members of the Temple Youth Group will lead a Shabbat Service, Friday, Feb. 4, 4 p.m. at Remington Heights. TOT SHABBAT Friday, Feb. 4, 6 p.m.: Join us for our regular Tot Shabbat Service in the chapel and stay afterward to celebrate Shabbat with old and new friends, and a child-friendly dinner. Please RSVP to the Temple office, tisrael@templeisraelomaha.co m or 556.6536. JOINT KABBALAT SHABBAT SERVICE Friday, Feb. 4, 7:30 p.m.: Temple Israel’s Kol Rina Choir and the St. Paul United Methodist Church Choir, conducted by Music Minister Jerry Brabec, will present a Kabbalat Shabbat service featuring American Jewish music. On Sunday, Feb. 6, 11 a.m. the choirs will sing at the church, 5410 Corby St.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD MINYAN AT TLC FRIDAY: Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat, 5:15 p.m. SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; followed by Kiddush Luncheon and Mincha, 1:02 p.m.
TIFERETH ISRAEL Services conducted by Rabbi Stanley M. Rosenbaum. Minyan, MONDAY & THURSDAY, 9 a.m. FRIDAY: Services, 8 p.m. SATURDAY: Morning service, 9:30 a.m. WEDNESDAY: Men’s Lunch Group will meet at the Knolls, 12:30 p.m. Contact Yale Gotsdiner at 423.7066. ADULT EDUCATION MONDAYS: Introduction to Judaism with Rabbi Stanley Rosenbaum, 7:30-9 p.m. SUNDAYS: (during Hebrew School days): Jewish Law through the Ages with Rabbi Rosenbaum, 10-11:45 a.m.
A Musical Shabbat at Beth Israel Synagogue by MARY BORT Beth Israel will host a musical Shabbat with Rabbi Ari Dembitzer, the synagogue’s High Holiday Chazzan, tonight and tomorrow. The musical Kabbalat Shabbat will start at tonight, 5:30 p.m., followed by a festive Shabbos dinner. Dinner is $10 per adult, $5 for children ages four-12, and free for children ages four and under. Please call Beth Israel
Synagogue at 556.6288, to make dinner reservations. The festive Shabbos will continue with Shabbat morning service tomorrow, Jan. 29, 9 a.m., followed by a special birthday Kiddush for Rabbi Gross. Then, bring your musical instruments and join the “All-Star Beth Israel Band” for a fun evening of music-making Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m.
January 28, 2005
Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
Page 15
The Law, Not Men
SPARKS FROM THE WORD by RABBI MYER S. KRIPKE Parashat Yitro The Test, until the Israelites are actually at Sinai, does not warn the reader that an extraordinary event is about to take place. At God’s command, Moses climbs the mountain and then descends, climbs and descends, again and again, to hear what he is to tell his fellow Israelites and then to deliver the message. Indeed, it is not clear at the end of Ch. 19 whether Moses left Aaron at the top of the mountain when he, Moses, descended for the last time--which would be absurd, for Aaron must have descended with him... And the Ten Words. I have no intention now to analyze these Ten Commandments, nor to dwell on them at length. Others have, of course, as befits so important an event and so fundamental a list of utterances. And so have I at other points and other contexts. Here I mention only that Jethro, father-in-law of Moses and Priest of Midyan, gave valuable advice to Moses about the administration of justice. Moses wisely followed his advice--and Jethro returns to his own land. The Midrash is not fully satisfied with this brief account. It adds an observation of its own, not given in the Text. He returns to Midyan not as a priest of Midyan, but as an Israelite. He is so impressed by the extraordinary events of Israelite life, that he is certain that the Lord is with Israel--and he converts to the religion of the Israelites. Moses was his son-in-law, but Moses had a truth that Jethro was only beginning to understand. The Sacred Text says no more. But the Midrash, though offering no details, assures us that Jethro could not return to his land as a heathen priest; he returned as any wise and decent man would--he returned as a new man, a convert to the faith of the Israelites. But the next great event is before us. The Lord reminds the Israelites of how He saved them from the
Egyptians and how He had brought them here as though on eagles’ wings. This He demands of them that they listen carefully to Him, in which case they would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The people, in a single voice, respond that all the Lord says they will do. The event itself is accomplished by the response of nature. The mountain is all a-smoke, and the atmosphere is shattered by thunder and lightening. (Note that the BIble here does as we do: it puts the thunder before the lightening, opposite to the way it actually occurs.) Now Chapter 20 lists the Ten Utterances. It is noteworthy that more space is given to the Sabbath than to any other, and that the Sabbath is the only ritual commandment among the 10. Note also that the only one offering reward--length of days-- is the command to honor father and mother. I need not call attention to these great Words or Utterances. I wish only to say this--that here we have the unstated principle that life is to be governed not by kings, dictators or conquerors, but by law. It is the law that determines the character of peoples, not the master. It is the rule, not the ruler. Here we have touched on a great human achievement, the clear statement that humanity must be governed not by men, but by regulation. The men are to be only administrators. It is true also that men may initiate new law for new circumstances, new details for clarity and may announce the extent and direction of the law. But it is the law that then governs. It is to be noted that over the course of history, Israel has been accused of being intoxicated by law and blinded by it. History itself will give a verdict as to the truth of that charge. Perhaps the verdict has already been promulgated. The reader is permitted to interpret for himself. Is Israel law-ridden or not? Is law of primary importance or not? Do the Ten Commandments matter? Do they matter much or little? Different communities, different cultures give them different answers. Whatever the answers, no community, no culture, can refuse to consider the question and give an answer for itself.
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DEATHS GENE MCCREIGHT Gene D. McCreight died after a brief illness on Dec. 28, 2004, at the age of 62. A celebration of Gene’s life was held at home on Jan. 2. He is survived by his wife, Sandra McCreight; daughter and son-in-law Paula and John Malone, Tampa, Fl; mother, Frances McCreight, Lincoln, NE; brother and sister-in-law, Paul and Rande McCreight, Lincoln; brother and partner, Keith McCreight and Linda Modrell, Philomath, Or; and mother-in-law, Julia Schapiro. Memorials to the American Cancer Society or the Rose Blumkin Home.
her sister-in-law, Betty Kolnick. Memorials to the Jewish National Fund or charity of choice.
DOROTHY BLACKER ROTHKOP Dorothy Blacker Rothkop died Jan. 13 in Camarillo, CA, at the age of 78. Burial was Jan. 18 in Los Angeles. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ted Rothkop. She is survived by her sister, Frances Koolish of San Jose, CA, and nieces and nephews.
MARK. B. LEVY Former Omahan Dr. Mark B. Levy died at the age of 64 in Albany, NY on Jan. 24. Services were held Jan. 26 at Congregation Ohav Sholom. A well known puppeteer and ventriloquist, Levy used his craft as a tool in the field of Jewish education, teaching religion and tolerance. He obtained a PhD from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2000 and was an adjunct professor of Judaic Studies at the State University of New York. Prior to this position, Levy worked as an education director in Birmingham, AL, Omaha, and West Hartford, CT. He is survived by his wife, Gloriann Grayman Levy of Albany; two sons, Jonathan and Daniel Levy, both of Chicago, IL; mother-in-law, Cele Grayman of Albany; and brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Burt and Carolyn Grayman of New York City. Memorials to Congregation Ohav Sholom, New Krumkill Rd., Albany, NY, the American Cancer Society, or the Leukemia Society of America, Upstate NY Chapter Six, Automation Lane, Albany, NY 12206.
ANNE ROSENBLATT Anne Rosenblatt died Jan. 17 at the age of 95. A private burial was held, followed by memorial services at Beth El Synaoggue on Jan. 20. She was preceded in death by her husband Edwin Rosenblatt. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Sid and Maureen Rosenblatt; daughter, Marsha Yaffe; four grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; sister, Ruth Lasher of California. Memorials to the the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, Beth El Synagogue or favorite charity. RUBY KOLNICK BARTER Ruby Kolnick Barter died in Denver, CO on Jan. 17. Services were held there Jan. 19. She was preceded in death by her brothers, Daniel and Martin Kolnick. She is survived by her husband, Gerson Barter; daughters Randi of Denver, Sharon of Hawaii, Peggy of Boston, Joanne of California; son, Ron of Pennsylvania; stepsons, Bruce of St. Louis, Jeff and Mark of Denver; 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren; and
AUDREY COHEN Audrey Cohen died Jan. 18 at the age of 73. Services were held Jan. 21 at Temple Israel. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Gary and Sally Cohen; daughters and sons-in-law, Julie and Mark Martin and Lynne and Mike Bonham; grandchildren, Nick, Andrew, David, Rachel, and Ethan. Memorials to charity of choice.
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Jewish Press, Omaha, NE
January 28, 2005
Maimonides Inaugural Event Fast Approaching by MARY SUE GROSSMAN JELS Administrator The inaugural event for the Maimonides Society is fast approaching. On Sunday, Feb. 6, noon, area health care professionals are invited to a luncheon in the JCC auditorium featuring a presentation by Dr. Michael Stein, Director of Trauma Service and Attending Surgeon for the Rabin Medical Center on the Beilinson Campus in Petach-Tikva, Israel. Raised mostly in Israel, Michael Stein found a passion for medicine early in life. He participated in a joint program of academic reserve for the Israeli Army and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel-Avia University in addition to serving as a medic during the Yom Kippur War and as physician with a paratroop unit and an armored tank battalion during his regular medical service. He has extensive trauma experience, both in military and civilian programs. Dr. Stein will be accompanied by Dina Alboer, who works with him as Trauma Nurse Coordinator. Alboer
received her BA and Masters degrees from Sackler Faculty of Medicine while serving as Clinical Instructor and Trauma Nurse Coordinator for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rabin Medical Center. The pair are traveling to Omaha to present a series of lectures for the Creighton University Medical Center entitled “Dealing with Terrorism & Mass Casualty Incidents in the 21st Century.” Lyle Butler, who is helping coordinate the Creighton event, states “Creighton University Medical Center is delighted to host Dr. Stein and Ms. Alboer. Their intense experience with trauma will add a superb dimension to their presentations. We appreciate the support of the Jewish Federation in bringing them to Omaha and are pleased Dr. Stein will be speaking at the Maimonides event.” The cost for lunch is $10 per person and reservations are needed no later than Feb. 2. Please call the JELS office at 334.6445, e-mail mgrossman@jewishomaha.org, or visit the Maimonides Society page on the Federation website at www.jewishomaha.org.
Lively Singles Shabbat Dinner Attracts Enthusiastic Group by ALEX HILL Omaha’s small, but very active Jewish community once again demonstrated its spirit when over 30 of its finest and brightest 45-65 singles’ age group got together for Shabbat dinner on a recent Friday evening at the One Pacific Place Clubhouse. The temperature outside was subzero but inside, cohosts Nancy Rips and Steve Skulsky, ensured a warm welcome was awaiting all the guests. Diversity was very much in evidence-- diversity of origins with a mix of native Omahans, East Coast, West Coast, and, in true American fashion, immigrants from the former Soviet Union, South Africa and even Scotland-- diversity of affiliation with a mix of those affiliated with Beth Israel, Beth El, Temple Israel and unaffiliated, and diversity of careers with a mix of academics, business people, and those adjusting to the new, but unfamiliar territory of retirement.
With this event acting as a catalyst, there is talk now of forming a group that caters to what is likely to be a growing category simply based on current and projected demographics. Harriet Einziger, Program Director at Beth El Synagogue, has kindly volunteered to act as the focal point for those 45-65 age singles within the Greater Omaha-Lincoln conurbation who wish to express their interest in helping to form the group or simply as a participant in future events. The intended next step will be a meeting to confirm that there truly is a need and level of interest within the community to justify the formation of the group and brainstorming ideas of interest for such a group. Express your interest by sending your contact details to Harriet at: programming@bethel-omaha.org or by phoning her at 402.492.8550. It should be noted that this group is open to and welcomes everyone within the target population regardless of affiliation.
Voices from the Resistance to be Performed at Temple by ELYCE AZRIEL Director, Temple lsrael Middle/High School One’s Company, with actress Pippa White will be performing Voices from the Resistance on Wednesday, Feb. 16, at Temple Israel. The show is sponsored by Temple lsrael Middle/High School. The eighth graders from both Temple and Beth El who are currently studying the Holocaust will be attending. It is open to the Pippa White public at no charge. One’s Company is a collection of different onewoman shows featuring White, an actress with extensive theatre and television experience now living in Lincoln, NE. White grew up in San Francisco, appeared regularly on televlsion as a child, trained at the American Conservatory Theatre Academy, and for five years was seen as hostess of a daily morning television show on ABC in the Bay Area. Coming to Nebraska led to her pursuing an education (UNL, ’82), raising a family and re-establishing a career with work at the Nebraska Repertory Theatre, arts in education programs with both the Nebraska Arts Council and the Lied Center, and now, not one, but several one-woman shows, drawing on many different sources for a collection of unusual and entertaining solo productions. Voices from the Resistance is about ordinary people. Shopkeepers, factory workers, housewives, bakers, farmers, teachers, auto mechanics. They worked in France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Scandinavia--wherever the Nazis were, they were there--fighting an underground war against Hitler. They led Jews to freedom, rescued Allied soldiers, printed newspapers, blew up bridges, risked their lives everyday to do what they could to cripple the Third Reich. And they did. And they have stories to tell.
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