90301060 NEBR HISTORICAL BOC 1500 R ST LINCOLN NE
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Vol. LXII No. 38
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Omaha, Mcb., Fri., May 18, 1884
Rabbi Paul Drazen (left) and Merle Potash, executive secretary of Beth El Synagogue, simulate how the homebound and hospitalized members of the congregation can follow Shabbat cerviceo by listening to the telephone. According, to Synagogue Preoident Howard Ruback hao announced that modernization of the synagogue's telephone system has added 10 lines that can be utilized to listen to services. Arrangements must be made in advance by contacting the synagogue office. Another aspect of the modernization includes the availability of special equipment at the synagogue for those with hearing problems.
npaign 1983 MEN WOMEN TOTAL
$969,768 ••$
293,405
$1,263,173
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•"•''-•-.
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.
[
as of May 9, 1984 1984 % increase $1,020,174 + 5.2%
$421,366
$ 323,964
+10.4%
$ 33,071
$1,344,138
+ 6.4%
Outstanding
•
$454,437
By Mitchell Orlik designed to interpret Israeli security needs Budget and Planning. in a hostileworld. director "Our committee is charged with repreBob Gordman, chairman of the Federa- senting the interests of.the campaign contion's Budget and Allocations Committee, tributors and the community at large. We has announced that the annual budgetary must find some effective way to make many process has been revised to enable agencies difficult funding decisions." and the Federation to focus funding on He explained that beginning with the those areas which provide the highest prior- 1985 budget, the Jewish Federation will ity of service to the community. adopt a modified process which will allow Mr. Gordman noted that Jewish Feder- the community to weight a wide range of ations around the country are faced with factors in determining its priorities. The finding some method of weighing the mul- process is designed to encourage a rigorous, titude of variables necessary to determine thoughtful process on the part of the opwhich needs are most serious and which erating agencies so that they too can carefully weigh their own priorities and measure services are most effective. the effectiveness of their existing and proj"Through the budget process we are faced ' ected services. Key to the system is estabwith determining whether teaching a Jew- lishing a listing of community priorities. ish child to live as a Jew is a higher priority Within the next few weeks a group of key than helping.a Jewish family preserve their community leaders will be assembled to enmarriage. gage in a process of establishing these prior"Or, whether providing an adequate rec- ities. The resulting list will provide the reation program for senior adults is a higher benchmark against which agency needs will priority than a community relations effort be judged.
The Jewish Day School, a private elementary level institution, announces its first graduation ceremony on May 23 at 1:15 p.m. at the school, 12604 Pacific street. The Bchpol, as an independent entity, was organized and formed two years ago. The sole sixth grader, Mordy Schwartz, will be graduating. . "We are very proud of all our students' accomplishments in general, and of Mordy's in- particular," Marcia Barnestein, educational director of the school said. "His achievement of high honors on national examinations reflect the quality of education that we at the Day School strive for. The school aims at blending an integration of general studies and Judaic studies. The students take pride in their identity as Jew.s and as Americans." Mordy Schwartz Mordy is the son of Donald Ray and Ann Kibel Schwartz of Omaha; the grandson of Schwartz of Louisville, Kentucky, who will Isaac and Jeanette Kibel of Memphis, Ten- be present for the event. nessee; and the grandson of Mrs. Selma , The community may attend.
Editor's Note: ' Mitchell Warren, president of NFTY, was one of 80 Jewish youth.leaders to participate in a week-long trip to Poland (April 25-May 1). The participants were from the U.S., Israel, Austria, South Africa, England, France, Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. The trip was sponsored by the World Zionist Organization so that " . . . we, who are so removed from the Holocaust would learn and never forget." His report follows: By Mitchell Warren . Over the past three years I have wanted to travel to Europe — London, Paris, Rome — all of the wonderful places of European history and culture. One count.y that plays a vital role in the history of Europe and the world was repeatedly excluded from my list. I had never had a great desire to travel to Poland, but when the chance presented itself, I jumped at it. The idea of traveling to Poland and studying the events of the Holocaust intrigued me; what better place to study than the actual site of the horrifying events that took place betveen 1939 and 1945. I must admit, however, that I had reservations about traveling to Poland. I was not sure that I wanted to see the concentration camps, the gas chambers, the crematoria — the remains of the Nazi's plan for total extermination of the Jews in Europe. I had my doubts and fears, yet I also knew that I must go and iearn. I must learn so that I will, never forget — if we forget the past, we are doomed to repeat it! My reservations aside, I traveled to Warsaw with 80 other Jewish youth leaders from all over the world. We-all came .from different backgrounds and had different reasons for coming to Poland; yet the group became very close, I think that this closeness was due to the'experiences we would be sharing together. Reflecting on the trip, I would never want to have the same experiences with only one or two other
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Monument to the resistance fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto. The granite was shipped from Sweden by Hitler for use as a victory monument. Instead, the Polish government had this memorial made in 1948.
people. On a trip such as ours,, we needed with group support. Our trip began in the Polish capital of Warsaw. Before World War II, Warsaw was the center of European Jewry — 3,800,000 Jews lived in and around Warsaw. Today, Warsaw is home to only 6,000 Jews. Until August, 1939, Warsaw served as the intellectual, cultural, and religious.capital of the Jewish world. To see Warsaw today is unbelievable. The Jewish cemetery is being overrun by trees and weathering. Within the next decade, the cemetery will be a forest. It is a crime to see the Jewish life in Warsaw non-existent. Furthermore, it is frightening to think that such a center of religion could.be destroyed, in such a short period of time. Poland was to 1930 Jewish life what America is to presentday Judaism. In light of this fact, the thought of another Holocaust lingers in the back of the mind. We spent an entire afternoon investigating the Warsaw Ghetto and the Uprising of 1943. The Germans put such a strangle-hold on the Jews in the Ghetto that even before the resistance began, thousands of people were dying of starvation. Next to the cemetery, we walked over a soccer field that, in 1942, served as a mass grave for dying people in the Ghetto. To walk on this field sends a numb feeling up the spine. I stood there frozen, speechless. I had the same experience as we explored the sewers in the Ghetto. It was in these sewers that young children would hide from the Germans and smuggle food to the fighters. Our guide, now from Israel, was 10 years old during the" uprising. With an eerie vividness, he related stories of being in the sewer. He remembered the exact days in November, 1942, when he remained in the sewer for three days. In the center of the Ghetto stands a giant granite memorial to the fighters who lost their lives in the uprising. The granite was supposed to be used by Hitler for a victory monument. In 1948, however, the Polish government com(continued on page 3)