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SERVING NEBRASKA AND IOWA SINCE 1920 Vot. LXIII No. 19 Omaha, Neb.
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1986 Israel pilgrjms near record numbers
By Jonathan Rosenbaum The recent Camp Day at the Jewish Community Center yielded more than camping appHcations. A near record number of high school students expressed strong interest in participating in one of our Israel pilgrimage programs publicized by the Bureau of Jewish Education. A full scale planning meeting will take place on Feb. 3, 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, for .students attending the Ramah Community Pilgrimage and their parents. The meeting will be cJuiducted by the Bureau's chairperson of Israel Pilgrimage programs, Linda Mann, and Rabbi Jonathan Rosenbaum, the Bureau's executive director. Nine students intend to participate in. the Ramah program. This study tour will allow local young people to tour Israel with teenagers from Kansas City and Des Moines as well as other parts of the United States. In addition, several students hope to attend the 1986 Israel Academy sponsored by the Reform movement's National Federation of Temple Youth (NFT'V). O'maha participants in the Academy will join a contingent from NFTY's Missouri Valley region which will merge with the national program in Isriael.
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14 Shavat, 5748 Friday, January 24,1M6
Other students will see the Jewish state under the auspices of Orthodox Judaism'^ National Council of Synagogue Youth and through the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization. ' All programs include approximately six weeks of visits to archaeological sites and national shrines as well as opportunities to meet Israelis first hand and to study the country and its history. Each pilgrimage allows participants to join students from throughout the United States and Canada. Costs range from approximately .$2,000 to $2,,500 plus airfare to New York. Substantial scholarship funds are available for participants/ Each eligible student will receive at least $500 from the Esther K. Newman TVust, An additional $500 grant is available through the Trust for those with some demonstrated need and $500 more can be granted from the David E. Beber Scholarship Fund for those with more pressing circumstances. A single application for these scholarships can be sectired through Joan Pecoraro, executive secretary of the Bureau of Jewish Education (334-8200). All applications are treated in the strictest confidence. Local synagogues will supply an addi(continued on page 3)' .
Jewish communities angered by Ausdhvyitz convent plans
BRUSSELS (JTA) — European Jewish communities are shocked and outraged at a plan by Polish Catholic Church officials to build a Carmelite convent on the site of the Auschwitz death camp where more than two million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during "World War II, the World Jewish Congress reported. The WJC also reported that at its request, the Polish government will intervene with church officials regarding their plan. Belgian Jews first learned of the convent proposal when fund-raising efforts for its building were organized by a group called "Help to the Church in Distress," which works for the Roman Catholic Church in Communist countries.. According to the Brussels evening newspaper Le Soir, eight Carmelite monks have been living in Auschwitz since last May, in preparation for the erection of a convent there. The newspaper reports that the convent would symbolize: "Love, peace and reconciliation, witnessing the victorious power of the cross of Jesus. It will become a spiritual fortress, and the proof of the conversion of apostates and those who went utny in various countries." In early December, when a delegation of
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the WJC led by iu president Edgar Bronfman was officially received in Warsaw, the issue was raised with Polish authorities. Bronfman advised Poland's Minister of Religious Affairs Adam Lopatka of the categoricab Jewish opposition to the proposed convent and received Lopatka's assurances that he wpuld intervene directly with Polish Catholic officials. In Geneva, the president of the International Council of Jewish Women, Leila Sie'gel, has written to Sister Sheila Sedawie of the Sisters of Zion asking that the placement of a convent in Auschwitz be prevented: "We feel this way not only because of the martyrdom of millions of Jewish children, women and men," Seigel wrote, "but also because their martyrdom was shared by millions of human beings having various beliefs and creeds." She added: "We believe that the ground of Auschwitz belongs to all who were massacred there and that, therefore, no one group should establish itself on this hallowed ground. Were this to happen, the action, however laudible in its alms, would create much misunderstanding and resentment."
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Campaign event hosts NBC's Irving R. Levine Irving R. Levine, NBC News Commentator, will be the speaker for the 1986 Jewish Federation Men's Campaign Pacewtter Division Dinner to be held on Tuesday, Feb. n at the Highland Country Club, announced David Friedland and Phil Schrager, Division co-chairmen. Individuals who con tribute $5,000 ur more to the Men's Campaign are welcome to join us for this stimulating evening, continued Irving R. Levine Messrs. Friedland and Schrager.
Based in Washington, D.C., Mr. Levine is Economic Affairs specialist for NBC News and is seen regularly on NBC-TV Nightly News, the "Today Program," and News Specials. He is a frequent paitel member on "Meet the Press". Mr. Levine has covered every major economic development in 'Washington since 1971. Prior to his present assignment, Mr. Levine spent 10 years in Italy, four years in the Soviet Union, three years in Korea and Japan and a year in England. His NBC News coverage echoes the history of a quarter of a century. Mr. Levine is also the auUior of four books, the best known is "Main Street, U.S.S.R." a non-fiction best-seller and college text. He has also received numerous journalist awards including an Emmy Citation and Overseas Press Club recognition.
Ernie Chambers to speak at forum with anti-Semites By Morris Maline State Sen. Ernie Chambers will speak Saturday during a so-called "Convention on Farm and Urban Economic Crisis" at the Holiday Inn in Kearney. On the same speakers' platform will be Larry Humphreys, founder and director of Heritage Library, described by the AntiDefamation League as a paramilitary anti„.^#aiti«,-QiXUtia«tic(n in southern-Okiahonla. Also slated to speak is Tommy Kersey who, according to ADL has expressed support for the activities of extremist groups including the anti-Semitic vigilantes of the Posse Comitatus and the followers of Lyndon LaRouche. ADL material describes LaRouche, threetime Presidential candidate, as the leader of a "bizarre, anti-Semitic cult-like political and propaganda network." Other speakers were listed as follows: Pastor Everett Siliven of Louisville, Nebraskans Carl Hollocheck and Earl Bailey of the New Constitution Party; Jack Metcalf, a Washington State Senator, and Richard Kelly Hoskins, an author from Virginia. According to the Kearney Hub, organizer Paul Manuka of Kearney termed the Saturday meeting the first national convention of its kind and that the meeting will be "one of the most enlightening expose (sic] that's been held." Recently, a group of farm activists led by Kersey scheduled rallies in Sioux City and Sioux Falls. And according to the Sioax City Journal similar rallies were planned elsewhere. E. Aobert Newman, president, ADL/
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CRC, said that ADL is in communication with law enforcement officials, government officials and religious leaders in the area and that monitoring and education is being undertaken. The ADL background information on Heritage Library is as follows: On Nov. 15,1985, over 25 armed men descended upon a farm in central Georgia iind.. prevented authorities from fbreclosing the. property and. evicting the owner and his family. Signs displayed on the property denounced the "ZOG" — a term currently popular in extreme right-wing circles denoting "Zionist Occupation Government" — and the Federal Reserve System. Prominent among thgse occupying the farm was Lawrence L. Humphreys, founder and director of a paramilitary anti-Semitic group in southern Oklahoma which calls itself the Heritage Librairy, who was accompanied by a number of his followers. Humphreys, 32, has poured much of his $5 million oil and banking inheritance into the organization since its inception in 1982. Located in Velma, Oklahoma (near Duncan) the Heritage Library is situated on 300 . acres of former ranchland, and includes camp grounds and an 1800-foot airstrip. The settlement also includes a large Lshaped mansion which houses a cathedraldomed library. On the grounds are a manmade lake and a large swimming pool. The Heritage Library adheres to the doctrine known as "Idsntity," which claims that white anglo-Saxons are Uie true chosen people of God. Literature published by the (continued on pafe 3)
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Women's Campaign names divisibn leaders "blviaion Leadcra for the 1986 WonM«'a>FadaratioB Canvaiga OMt raoaatly to vlan aad oo^rdlaata apooiiilag raaipatKa aetlTltiaa. "Thoao aaloetad aa Dtviaioa Laadara are dcdlcatad to promotiac the •ahiaa iahermt la tUa yaar'a campaign thmna, One i^iMtpterOiM Dmtiny," aaid Nancy Graaabarc. Woawa'a Dlvlakn Ckairman. "Tlwlr eommltment will enable na to attain our goab and eontinne to provide needed aervioea iMre and abroad," added Mis. Greenberg. *.