December 2, 2022 by Jewish Press

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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Bob’s Jam

A Sweet Kiss Goodbye for the Film Festival Operation Grateful Goodies is in its 5th year Page 3

Winter session of Exploring Judaism Page 5

A Family of Things Page 12

MARK KIRCHHOFF JFO Engagement and Education n Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 7 p.m. in the Alan J. Levine Cultural Arts Theater at the Staenberg Omaha JCC, the 20th Annual Omaha Jewish Film Festival will screen another outstanding movie and present the audience with the opportunity to gently kiss this year’s series goodbye. Tickets for the film are available for $10 from the jew ishomaha.org webpage and clicking on the sliding film festival banner at the top of the page. Tickets are also available at the door with payment by cash or check. Whether or not you have appreciated the films in this year’s festival, A Lullaby for the Valley, The Museum, In Search of Israeli Cuisine, in the way they have depicted the festival theme, Views of the World Through Israeli Eyes, you will be impressed by the

way this final film, Kiss Me Kosher, exemplifies that theme. In a contentious world where themes of same sex marriage, intercultural and inter-generational conflicts can spark fires, this movie pours water on the fire and looks at the world calmly and often humorously that include lively yet loving exchanges between various points of view. “This is our world,” the film says. There is no fuss, no muss, just a non-judgmental look at the world. There is no surge of adrenaline from unresolved conflicts. The story is engaging, the actors convincing, the message thought-provoking. This is the right movie to conclude the series. The Atlanta Film Festival selected this film for their community. Following the showing, the actors, director, producer, and writer engaged in a dialogue with the festival director and provided insight into the film and appreciation See Jewish Film Festival page 3

Women Leading A Dialogue

REGULARS Spotlight Voices Synagogues Life cycles

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

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JEANNETTE GABRIEL, PHD, Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies UNO Director The Jewish Federation of Omaha and the Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies, UNO hosted the Women Leading A Dialogue (WLD) delegation. The Women Leading A Dialogue program is sponsored by Partnership2Gether (P2G) for Western

Galilee and is a program through the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) . This diverse group of Jewish and Arab women who live in Akko, are seeking to move beyond coexistence to create long term ties of friendship and understanding. The events highlighted the promise and possibility that groups like WLD contribute to developing See WLD in Omaha page 2

The Jewish Federation of Omaha is counting down until we can welcome Bob Goldberg as our new CEO. While some of us, and some of you, have known Bob for many years, others have not yet had the pleasure. So, for the coming months, Bob will share short insights into who he is. This way, we get all get (re-)acquainted. If you have specific questions for Bob, feel free to email them to avandekamp@jewishom aha.org. For this first installment, Bob is remembering growing up at Beth El.

Bob Goldberg

One of my most vivid memories of Beth El Synagogue as a child was going to Yom Kippur services, walking in with my family and hearing everyone offer Good Yuntif and asking my dad what it meant. I remember how the sanctuary seemed like a cavernous space overflowing with people, including in the balcony. I remember watching Rabbi Alex Katz walk in, a small man, covered head to toe in white, he had retired a generation earlier, and I remember thinking that he must be the closest thing to G-d. I remember Cantor Najman, a large man who wore a bukhari kipot, and when he started to sing Kol Nidre, the room went quiet and everyone was attentive. For Sunday school, we would go to the synagogue on 49th and Farnam, and then to the J on Mondays and Wednesdays for Talmud Torah. I remember having great teachers, like Blanche Wise, Walter Feidman, Margo Riekes, and Gloria Kaslow. I remember Mr. Feidman, who I believe was a Holocaust survivor. He would teach us a prayer, like the Shema, and I would go up to him after class and ask him, what does it mean and why do we say it? And he would just look at me with a straight face and tell me to learn it, and to spit out my chewing gum! I know those prayers today because he made us repeat them over and over and over again. I am grateful to him for his persistence and dedication. My classmates included David Zacharia, Mark Rosenblum, Mark Horwich (of blessed memory), Debbie Cohen (Roos), Debbie Fellman, Lisa Gordman (Lieb Marcus), See Bob Goldberg page 3