A N AG E N C Y O F T H E J E W I S H F E D E R AT I O N O F O M A H A
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O C TO B E R 1 1 , 2 024 | 9 TIS H RE I 578 5 | VO L. 1 05 | NO. 50 | CANDLELIGHTING | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 6: 30 P.M.
A fierceness for life AMY NACHMAN lan, my love. “Ambassador of unity” (so well said by Jim Krantz), creator, artist, thinker, listener, papa and lover. Alan can be described in one word – Mensch. Alan came from a family of Mensches, which is why I agreed to marry him. I joined a family that was nonjudgmental and accepting of who I was. He held a mirror up to me to help me grow. He loved with all his heart, as that’s all he knew how to do. Those that know Alan also know he wasn’t a pushover; Although non-judging, he was “particular”about many things...annoyingly so at times, as I’m the opposite. But he would say it’s just his sensitivity to the world. They patched his heart when he was 6 years old, and this experience changed him. He was living on borrowed time and his sensitivities came with his temporary body. Alan was as strong willed as myself; we matched each others’ fierceness for life. We were equals in our spiritual and emotional journeys, allowing and encouraging each other to grow, hopefully in parallel throughout life. Alan was also fiercely independent. He was a terrible patient, because he insisted on doing everything for himself. He was a creative and innovative thinker. He invented many new ideas, like his 3D resume when he was 20, which you could only read with his special 3D glasses. That’s probably why it wasn’t terribly marketable at the time. Alan’s karma was to make the world a better place. He was an unwavering role model to Ez and Dee, who often thought Papa’s commitment to the world was so contrary to their fierce passion to capture the world with their twin See A fierceness for life page 2
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Jewish Omaha Memories Page 5
Ron Wolfson’s new book Page 6
Alan Potash
Putting on a show Page 12
My friend, Alan Potash
REGULARS Spotlight Voices Synagogues Life cycles
7 8 10 11
SETH BORNSTEIN I met Alan Potash when I arrived in Omaha in the early 1990s. Diane and I had twin baby girls and lived in a small apartment in New York City. We needed space and help - moving to Diane’s hometown provided both. Soon after our move I joined the JCC. Poking around the building, I noticed the Jewish Cultural Arts office, knocked on the door and met Beth Seldin Dotan. I mentioned missing the movie scene in New York City where a few new Jewish films had just opened, and I bemoaned the fact that they would probably never get to Omaha. She asked if I would like to chair the Jewish Film Festival. I replied that as the father of twins I was quite busy, but happily accepted
Alan Potash
the offer. She then said I must meet her friends Alan and Amy, as they too had recently become parents of twins. A few weeks later, I was on my way to Beth’s office to discuss the film festival, when I noticed a couple wheeling their double stroller through the lobby. Beth saw us, came over and made introductions. Despite being bleary-eyed and exhausted in the way all parents of twins are, Alan and Amy See My friend, Alan Potash page 3
Remembering Alan Potash During this time, I find myself rePHIL MALCOM COO, Jewish Federation of Omaha flecting on my friend, Alan Potash, Last weekend I was reading the who passed away September 22. I New York Times’s newsletter, The worked with Alan for nine years, Morning, and I came across this and during that time he and I bequote about the came quite close. change from sumHe was my “work mer to fall from dad,” and his inMelissa Kirsch. volvement in my “The threshold professional jourbetween one seaney is undeniable. son and another, He was a mentor, a between one moguide, and a ment and the next, teacher. I took inbetween one way spiration from his of being and the thoughtfulness, and next one: There’s I learned from him power there. If you to be measured in can identify the demy approach. marcation and Alan was insapause in it, you can Phil Malcom and Alan Potash tiably curious, not turn your head one way and see just about the world around him where you’ve been, turn the other but also about the people who surand see where you’re going.” rounded him. Alan would often ask As we approach the High Holi- for my perspective on a particular days, we find ourselves in a similar issue or thought. At first I thought moment of demarcation, separat- he was testing me, but later on I reing one year from the next, the sea- alized that he simply valued the son before from the season after, opinions of others and wanted to the people we were from the people gain perspective before making we are becoming. See Remembering Alan page 3