Sponsored by the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Endowment Fund AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA
Chloe Ray and Jewish Family This Service: A story of Friends Week March 23, 2012 29 Adar 5772 Vol. 92 | No. 27
by OZZIE NOGG Eleven-year old Chloe Ray has a friend that will soon celebrate a 101st birthday. That friend is Jewish Family Service, to which Chloe recently contributed the $75 she raised by putting on a bake sale at Columbian Elementary School where she’s a 6th grader. “The bake sale project was for Envisions, the gifted and talented program at our school,” Chloe explained. “The assignment was to do a project that helped others and raise money for a cause of our choice. I picked Jewish Family Service. The Science Fair at Columbian was coming up, so I asked to do a bake sale during the Fair because there would be lots of people there and no competition.” The savvy young philanthropist then contacted Karen Gustafson, Jewish Family Service Director. “Chloe called me to get permission to do this project for JFS. She also asked for some agency brochures in case people had questions or wanted information about our work. To have someone so young be so thoughtful and to understand there’s an agency
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Next Week The Passover Issue See Front Page stories and more at: www.jewishomaha.org, click on Jewish Press
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Chloe Ray, left, a new Friend of Jewish Family Service, hands JFS Director Karen Gustafson a check for $75, raised from Chloe’s bake sale. in her community that helps care for the needs of others -- and she want-
ed to do her part -- it’s fantastic.” Customers at the bake sale had
plenty to choose from. “I baked about 125 cookies,” Chloe said. “Lots of Paula Deen’s triple chocolate cookies and shortbread cookies with chocolate drops. My friends Carly Christensen, Payton Alber and Mia Sherlock helped bake about six dozen cupcakes.” Chloe’s grandmothers, Jennine Goldberg and Linda Ray, also lent their hands to the baking efforts, as did her mother, Shayna. “My mom was going to be out of town during the bake sale, so she helped me package and freeze about one hundred cookies before she left.” During the sale, buyers received a Jewish Family Service brochure with their purchase. “People asked if I was Jewish and wanted details about my project and wondered if I would keep helping others in the future,” Chloe said. “Lots of people told me what I was doing was really good for the world.” Mrs. Sue Bauerly, who teaches in the gifted and talented program at Columbian, helped Chloe set up tables for the bake sale and took pictures of the event. “Mrs. Bauerly came to school that night Continued on page 2
A story of survival and liberation
Omaha Symphony Gala to honor Fred and Eve Simon
by HILLARY FLETCHER Waisman spoke first and began by Marketing Assistant, excitedly telling the audience that every time he is with Bass, whom he Institute for Holocaust Education Robbie Waisman waited more describes as a mensch, he feels, than 20 years to speak about it. So “exotic. I just cannot describe it.” did Leon Bass. Eventually, each man Continuing, he described life with would bear the heavy burden of sharing their testimonies about inhumanity and human rights. Tuesday, March 6, at the invitation of the Center for Faith Studies and the Institute for Holocaust Education, over 400 community members from Omaha and Lincoln packed Countryside Community Church to bear witness to the Leon Bass and Robbie Waisman stories of Mr. Waisman, survivor of the his family, all of whom, but for his Buchenwald concentration camp, sister, he would never see again. The and Dr. Bass, American serviceman youngest of five children, he was the and liberator of Buchenwald. baby and received “much more” than his share of love. Waisman described one of his older brothers as his James Bond. Strong and ever-protective, his brother tried his best to care for young Robbie, even during their incarceration. Eventually, weakened by typhoid fever, the Nazi’s put Waisman’s brother on a truck and drove a short distance beyond the Continued on page 2
by KELLY MILLER board chair David Slosburg. “The Singer and pianist Michael time is right to celebrate another of Feinstein will headline this year’s Omaha’s great supporters of the Omaha Symphony gala concert on arts, Fred and Eve Simon.” Friday, March 30, 8 p.m. at the H o l l a n d Performing Arts Center. “Hooray for Hollywood” is the theme, with Feinstein and the symphony under the baton of Thomas Wilkins paying tribute to the golden age of Hollywood musicals. The gala is hosted by David and Martha Slosburg, Mutual of Omaha, Mutual of Omaha Bank, and Dick Holland. Fred and Eve Simon The Omaha Symphony will honor Fred and “In their contributions to the Eve Simon at the gala with the arts in Omaha, the Simons, both Dick and Mary Holland Fred and Eve, have no peers,” said Leadership Award for their tireless gala host Dick Holland. “I have support of the arts in the commu- always thought that if we had ten nity. The award was established in Fred and Eves how much richer 2003 in honor of Omaha’s leading this community would be in all its philanthropic couple for the arts. artistic endeavors.” “Dick and Mary’s spirit of generos“My wife and I have been ity and community commitment, Omaha Symphony subscribers for and the grace with which they have more than 30 years,” said Fred accomplished so much, is unparal- Simon. “I was one of the charter leled,” said Omaha Symphony Continued on page 2