Omaha, Neb.. Fri., July 23.1982
Oriik named head
New system of phones As a result of expanded services and in anticipation of the opening of the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, a new telephone system has been installed in the Jewish Community Center. The system, with expanded communications capabilities, will help the Federation and its seven departments serve the Omaha Jewish community more efficiently.
No wheat! A thraf of grain with thr international (top sign through It Is the lymbol on the Student .Struggle for Soviet Jewry'* new petition. "So Grain Hale* to the Soviet*", addrenrd to 1'reildrnl Honald Iteagan. tl call* for the Kremlin to open the now almott-thul gale* of Jewish emigration and to crate Ibr current virulent KGB campaign against the unofficial Jf «l»h »clfidr nllly movement In Ituisla before a new grain accord with the Soviets l« signed. Copies of this petition ere available from the SSSJ at 210 West 9Ht£irctt. New Verii, NV tOQU.
"We apologize for any inconvenience the new telephone system has caused," said Toby Forbes, Federation Executive Secretary and the staff liaison with Telesystems. "We ask everyone calling into the switchboard to please be patient during the coming weeks until the equipment difficulties are corrected"
Mitchcl Orlik has been named director of planning and budgeting for the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Mr. Orlik assumes the position formerly held by Allan Greene. Mr. Greene was named Federation executive director to succeed Lou Solomon. Mr. Orlik Joined the Federation as staff associate, in August 1980. As staff associate Mr. Orlik worked with the Women's Division of the Federation Campaign, the Newcomers Committee and the Esther K. Newman Grants Commlttw For the past two summers Mr. Orlik supervised the Professional Interns in Jewish' Communal Organization (PIJCO) serving as recruiter and facilitator for Ui#progfam: Oiie""of Mr' OrluVs key successes has been the rcvltnlizatlon of the Young Leadership Program with more that 30 young leaders participating in a nine month educational program. Mr. Orlik received a BA In psychology in June 1977 from the University of
Mltchel Orlik Barbara, ore the parents of eight-month-old David. "We are very pleased to have Mitch assume the position of director of planning and budgeting," said Mr. Greene. "During the two years at the Prior to joining the staff Federation Mitch has been of the Jewish Federation of an asset to our staff. He has Omaha Mr. Orlik was a been extremely effective in counselor at a probation working with the Women's department boys' home for Division of the Campaign two years, a counselor In the and was recently selected as Jewish Family Service In a recipient of the coveted Los Angeles and an intern Louis Kraft Award for with the Jewish Federation Jewish Communal Workers. of St. Louis. "Mitch has many Mr. Orlik participated in professional talents that he the UJA College Mission to will bring to his new job and Israel and the loth Annual will help our Federation the budgetary Seminar for Service to meet challenges for the coming Israel. -v . Mr. Orlik and his wife, years." California at Davis. He Is a graduate of the joint Master of Social Work-Master of Jewish Communal Service from Washington University and the Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles.
The Dy Dr. Irving Grcenbcrg OnHtot at im Hitunjl Jrolix Rrtwc* CtnKr.
An apocryphal story is told about Napoleon. Invading Russia with his triumphant Grand Army, he passed through a Jewish shtctl. He asked to be taken to the synagogue so he could study the secret of the remarkable survival of the Jews. It was the ninth day of Av (Tisha B'Av), the day which Jews remember and mourn for the destruction of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. (It is a tradition that both Temples were destroyed on the ninth day of the fifth month of the Hebrew calendar, Av; the first Temple in 586 BCE, the second in to CE.i Napoleon was astonished to find the Jews congregated in the synagogue . weeping over the destruction and exile. He was even more astonished to learn that they were remembering a defeat (hat had occurred more than 1700 years before. He mocked the Jews, questioning what kind of passivity or masochism leads a pimple to fixate on an ancient disaster. Victories should be celebrated and glorified; defeats should'be dismissed, bo argued. Months Inter, reeling from the blows of the cruel winter weather and of the Russian armies, Napoleon and his now shattered Grand Army paused through the same shlctl in Iseadlotig retreat. Remembering his mocking words and gazing nl his broken army, Napoleon admitted his error. He wild, "A people that is strong enough to remember its defeat continually and Is pledged to overcome it will some day come back and be triumphant, f^ut w ° c unto them who can only live with victory."
A good case can be made that the force behind Jewish survival has not been the strength of victory. There have been precious few victories in Jewish history. The secret of survival has been the incredible capacity of Jews to come back again and again after defeat. The powers that conquered the land of Israel were destroyed once they finally met defeat but the Jewish people started over again nnd went on. When Jews suffered crushing defeat — such as exile or expulsion or pogrom — they responded with intensified life, learning and creativity. After the expulsion from Spain. Jews built new communities all over Europe and an extraordinary development of Kabbalah (mysticism) followed. This is the basis of the Rabbinic tradition that the Messiah (Is) will be born onTisha B'Av. Where Jews could not overcome the disaster, as with the exile from Israel, then they put the tragedy In the center of life and continually remembered it with a pledge to not forget until it was overcome." If I forget thec, O Jerusalem, may my right hand wither," cried the Psalmist, The goad of memory eventually, led the Jewish people back to Israel. In the same spirit, the Jewish people responded to the unparalleled tragedy of the Holocaust with an extraordinary outburst of like and activity: the Immediate creation of the State of Israel and the recreation of learning and rehabilitation of life in the land of Israel and elsewhere. Yet there were KO many tragedies over the course of Diaspora history that the danger of passivity and glorifying defeat crept in. The focus on the repeated disasters as the central spires st Jewish history, gave rise to what scholars
later called the 'lachrymose theory of Jewish history:' the tears shed over the unrelenting dcicats became the primary prism of Jewish life to the exclusion of the life, joy, and achievement which, In fact, never ceased. This view also showed up in a passive' Messianism which lulled religious Jews into indifference to history and to noninvolvement in the process of Jewish auto-emancipation. Therefore, it was a healthy instinct on the part of Israeli Jews to not make Tisha B'Av the primary day of remembering the Holocaust. The Holocaust could be commemorated on a specific day — Yom HaShoah. If Tisha B'Av remained focused on the destruction of the Temple and the exile, then the process of overcoming this defeat was in motion in. the very existence and upbuilding of Israel. Thus, Tisha B'Av comes to represent the dynamic of healing Jewish history. The Temple is not yet rebuilt; Israel is far from Becure and it is not yet perfect. Therefore, the commemoration of Tisha B'Av is valid as the expression of the fact that only partial redemption has been achieved. But the process of overcoming the powerless, exile and extended suffering of the Jewish people is well underway. The prophet Zechariah promised that someday the fast days of Tisha B'Av and the other three which commemorate the destruction "shall become occasions for joy and gladness, happy festivals for the House of Judah." (Zechariah 8, 19) Every Jew who builds Israel or supports it, every Jew who observes Tisha B'Av and is spurred on by it to greater efforts for Jewish renewal has a share in this miraculous transformation — the healing of Jewish history, ... _