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

Week of Understanding Back in person! US Reform rabbis join monthly Women of the Wall protest Page 4

Melissa Amateis

Neo-Nazis rally outside Broadway preview of Parade Page 7

Jim Berk

Peter Metzelaar

SCOTT LITTKY IHE Executive Director ach year a highlight of the Institute for Holocaust Education calendar is our annual Week of Understanding. Between March 20 and 25, the IHE has arranged more than 20 speaking engagements that will reach some 7,000 Nebraska students. Some of these engagements will take place with local Holocaust survivors such as Dr. Fred Kader along with second generation speakers, Hazzan Michael Krausman and Dr. Steven Wees. This year we will also be joined by a new member of our survivor community, Dana Knox who will share her mother’s unique story of survival. To learn more about these and other local survivors, you can check out the “Survivor Stories” section on the IHE website. We are also honored to welcome Holocaust survivors who have agreed to travel to Omaha specifically for the

Sarah Kutler

Rose Viny

Week of Understanding program. The guests who will be joining us in 2023 are profiled below. The public is invited to share in these moving testimonies, through two evening engagements. The whole community is invited to attend as follows: Jim Berk, 2nd Generation Holocaust Survivor, March 22, 6:30 p.m. at the Durham Museum To register for this presentation by Zoom, please visit the Durham Museum’s website at www.durhammuseum. org. Presented by the Durham Museum and the Institute for Holocaust Education. Melissa Amateis, UNL Graduate Student, March 23, 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center in the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Reception Room. Born and raised in the Nebraska panhandle, Melissa A. Amateis earned her BA in history at Chadron State College See Week of Understanding page 3

Reflecting on a year of helping Ukrainians at war Page 12

A Holy Nation

REGULARS Spotlight Voices Synagogues Life cycles

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Israelis protest against the proposed changes to the legal system in Haifa, on February 20, 2023. Credit: Shir Torem/Flash90

JULIE PLATT, Chair and ERIC FINGERHUT, President, JFNA And they shall make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in their midst.

We often speak of the Jewish people as a ‫שודק יוג‬, a holy nation. One supporting text for that characterization comes from this week’s Torah reading, Terumah, in which G-d instructs the Israelites to build a sanctuary so that G-d could dwell among them. How can we fail to be a holy nation when G-d, at least for a time, dwelled in our midst? This topic is on our minds as we watch – and now participate – in Israel’s debate over the proper role of its judicial system. There are so many See A Holy Nation page 2

New additions to the Kripke-Veret Collection SHIRLY BANNER JFO Library Specialist JUVENILE: Pirate Passover by Judy Press The pirates are getting ready to celebrate Passover at sea, until their ship is washed ashore in a storm. What will they do? Luckily, they find a house with an open door, and everyone is invited in to enjoy the seder. ADULT: Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop: The Team That Changed Children’s Television by Nat Segaloff and Mallory Lewis For almost half a century, celebrated ventriloquist and entertainer Shari

Lewis delighted generations of children and adults with the help of her trusted sock puppet sidekick Lamb Chop. For decades, the beloved pair were synonymous with children’s television, educating and entrancing their young audience with their symbiotic personalities and their proclivity for song, dance, and the joy of silliness. But as iconic as their television personas were, relatively little inside knowledge has been revealed about Lewis herself and the life-changing moments that led See Kripke additions page 2