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

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SHARON BRODKEY Executive Director JCRC he Jewish Community Relations Council ( JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Omaha ( JFO) is very excited to announce our participation in a new, national campaign reaching all Americans to raise awareness about antisemitism, and you are invited to join us. On March 27, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS, founded in 2019 by Robert Kraft), launched the Stand Up To Jewish Hate campaign, featuring captivating storytelling that showcases what antisemitism looks like on social media and in our communities today. The campaign will roll out across broadcast, social and digital media, billboards and digital ads through the month of May. It will also be seen on social media feeds and shared by a wide range of like-minded partners throughout the country. Share your voice! The campaign includes a simple way for you to add your voice and activate your network in the fight against antisemitism. We

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want our entire community to speak out and Stand Up to Jewish Hate when the campaign launches. Stay tuned for more details about how you can join this national movement against antisemitism. We are asking everyone to post and share the blue box emoji hashtag on social media, using the blue square emoji on your phone, as a simple but powerful unifying symbol of solidarity. We all know that antisemitism is rising at alarming rates in the United States. Yet, new polling finds that more than half of Americans do not believe “antisemitism is a big problem” and nearly half believe that “Jews are more than capable of handling issues of antisemitism on their own”. That’s why we are proud to join the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism and a wide coalition of Jewish and non-Jewish groups, to raise awareness and empower all Americans to join us to prevent hatred and intolerance towards Jews. We need to drive home the message that while Jews make up just 2.4% of the U.S. population, we are the victims of 55% of all religious hate crimes. Here are a few actions you can take to See Stand Up To Jewish Hate page 2

Yom HaShoah: A unique experience for our community

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SCOTT LITTKY Institute for Holocaust Education Executive Director Each year it is an honor for the Institute for Holocaust Education, along with our local congregations, to

plan our annual Yom HaShoah commemoration. This year we will be holding our annual Omaha Holocaust Commemoration on Wednesday, April 19 at 7 p.m. in the Alan J. Levine Theater at the Jewish Community Center, 333 South 132nd Street. Along with the clergy participation from Cantor Joanna Alexander and Hazzan Michael Krausman, we are honored to have Survivors, second Generation Survivors and community members participating in the candle lighting ceremony commemorating the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. Our featured program this year will

be an encore performance of the play, When We Go Away by J.R. Dawson. The stories of Holocaust survivors Dr. Fred Kader, Rachel Rosenberg, Helena Tichauer, and Katherine Williams are interwoven into this play written by playwright, J.R. Dawson and commissioned by IHE. Using minimal set and costuming, the play asks us to focus on the stories: how they connect to each other, to us, and ultimately what will happen when the storytellers go away. Both a call to remember and to act, When We Go Away not only informs the audience but asks it to become part of the story. See Yom HaShoah page 3

Volunteers of the Year ANNETTE VAN DE KAMPWRIGHT Jewish Press Editor We often rely on the dedication and generosity of our wonderful volunteers to further our mission to build and sustain a strong and vibrant Omaha Jewish community and to support Jews in Israel and around the world. Every year, it is a privilege to honor those in our community who give tirelessly and selflessly to make our Jewish community the best it can be. We invite you to mark your calendars for the evening of Monday, June 5 when the Jewish Federation of Omaha honors the 2022-23 Agency Volunteers of the Year during the Annual Meeting and Awards Night. We’ll roll out the red carpet and celebrate these great people together! Jeff Zacharia is a member of the JFO board and is the is Jewish Federation of Omaha’s Volunteer of the Year. He serves as the Chair of the JFO Planning and Community Engagement Committee. Jeff was the inspiration and guiding force of the recent community focus groups that provided useful information to the JFO Board and leadership team, JFO President Mike Siegel said. Jeff personally called almost 100 people and invited them to participate in three different focus groups. Jeff is full of ideas for Jewish Omaha. He is an engaged board member who works behind the scenes to continuously improve services and experiences for the community, and has brought many people together to brainstorm how we can grow and sustain the Omaha Jewish population. Jewish Social Services/Rose Blumkin Jewish Home nominates Gretchen Hutson as their Volunteer of the Year. Gretchen has volunteered with the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home since the beginning of 2022. She enjoys visiting and baking with the Residents on a regular basis, and truly involves them in whatever she does. Gretchen’s patient nature shows empathy and kindness towards others, See Volunteers of the Year page 3