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SERVING NEBRASKA AND IOWA SINCE 1920 Vol. LXV No. 13 Omaha, Nabr.
Yale Htlperin
Fomat Knitter
Naomi Colin
Dr. MOtoa and Ann MargoUa
Helen Shukert
24 Klalw, 5747 I
Helen Schwartz
Connie Slntcky
Seott Fitedman
Nine named to receive Volunteer of Year Awards Free-lance Writer . "Selfless." That word was used over and oover again when describing this year's Volunteer of the Year Award winners who will be honored at the Jewish Federation's annual meeting on Jan. 11 at the Omaha Jewish Community Center. The nominee of the Jewish Community Center ia Yale Ha^)erin who has served as chairman of the " Young-At-Heart" committee for Jewish members of the Center and community 50 plus years of age. He was nominated by health and physical education supervisor Chuck Arnold who said, "Yale exudes a commitment and a desire to motivate and recruit Jewish membership participation at the center." Mr. Halperin was instrumental in gMtiDtg adult men^jers involved in a walking clinic, waUdng club, softball, half-court basketball program, square dance lessons, an all-day women's spa and health day and is now developing a HanuUiiLlk'biUroom dance. Unmarried and ^thout children at his own, Forrest Knitter is the nominee of the Bureau of Jewish Education. BJE President Joseph Kirshenbaum describes Mr.
Knitter's involvement in Jewish education as "energetic and selfless." Mr. Knitter has served as co-ckairman of the board of directors of the Jewish Day School since 1984 and sits on the board of directors of the Bureau of Jewish Education. An active member of Beth El Synagogue, he is currently chairman of the ritual committee, is a Torah reader on a regular basis and is an active member of the Beth El Men's Gub. "Our strong right hand" is the way Willis Ann Ross, president of the Jewish Federation Library Committee, describes nominee Naomi Cohn. According to Mrs. Ross, Mrs. Cohn comes in faithfully every week to do filing, sorting, weeding and whatever tasks need to be done to keep the library in working order. The OUer Adult Program of the Bureau for the Aging has nominated Dr. Milton and Ann Margolin. Among the original organizers of the prognmi, Am has served 9a treasurer and ctninet^'p^^ion and her husband has served as president of both the YES Group and the Oldtimers. Dr. Margolin aliso accompanies the group on trips and voluntarily serves as "official physician."
An interview with 'Vanna' By Margo Riekea Annual Meeting Chairman In an ezchisive phone interview at her Omaha home, Vanna Schwartai, the Jewish Federation of Omaha's game show hostess, sUted, "If you don't ento-, you can't win." She was referring to the "Wheel of Federation quiz'show that she will be hosting .at the Federation's Annual Meeting on Jan. 11,1987, at the J.C.C. Vanna explained that being a contestant is fun and easy. "Even I can solve the puzzles which are only two or three words long." When asked about the prizes, Vanna exclaimed, "They're totally awesome, fabulous! I'd like to be able to play this game myself." She was also asked how she felt about her Omaha debut. Vanna said, "It's a
dream come true. I'll finally get a taste of show-biz at its finest in the glittering JCC theater. She went on to state, "I'm looking forward to hosting a capacity crowd end giving out the wonderful prizes, com^iments of the generous donors. There wiQ be a color T.V. from World Radio, a beautiful framed lithograph from Allen Fumituie, and tlOO gift certificates from Zoob's and J.B. Patten's. The grand prize is most exdtingl It's something wonderful from Borsheim's." Vanna added, "All adult members of the Jewish community are invited to participate. To try to be a contestant all you have to do is fill out the entry form in this week's Jewish Press and send it in by Dec. 31. It's a chance of a lifetime." "Come meet me, my partner Pi Sayjak and have some fun," Vanna concluded.
New Lubavitch centers to open all over world NEW YORK (JTA) - The Lubavitch movement announced a major drive to estabiiab hundreds of new Chabad-Lubavitch houses all over the world to serve Jewish religious, social and educational needs. Flans are well advanced for 120 new houses { io opMl in die naxt few months, Aoording Ito la aimouncsment at the canclimkin of the [jnoyaMnt'B threeKiay conference ^t LuIl>avit4^ world headquarters here last Fveelcend. I Hie inovonent also vowed to bnnd^ its [outreach program to Jewish children who 'receive no Jewish education. It was liesponding to the address by the Lu|>1)avitdMr Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, irho called for a proliferation of ChabadLubavitch Houses. "These houses will be a place where any-
one can come to pray or study and avail themselves of all the Jewish educational and social services these qentera offer," Schneerson said. He referred to the "painful yet inescapable fact that more than three quarters of Jewish chiUrah receive no Jewiah education whatsoever. This is true even in the New York area, as well as acroaa the United States and around the world," he said. The coofeienoe featured diacussiaa seesiona ud woriubops to find sotationa to current proUema of the Jewiah community. The Bubjecta dealt with wwe Jewish uqity, Jews on coUege can^raaes, drug abuae, cults, summer campa, adult education. Jewish education generally, educational materiala and the uae of conqrater oommunicationa systenu.
Helen Shukert began her volunteer woric as a secretary for Social Services upon graduation from high school. From there. she moved on to social worker during the Federal Emergency Relief Association years. She was active in the Red Cross and for 10 years she also provided assistance as a case worker for military families. According to Eugene Brandt, executive director of the Bureau for the Aging, Mrs. Shukert has been active in community work and Jewish philanthrqiies since the eariy 1950'8. In 1980, she became invdved with LOVE (League Offering Volunteers for the Elderly) and has been LOVE cocntlinator since 1982. Mr. Brandt says, "Although ill health slowed her down a year and a half ago, she continues to devote much of her energy to others." The Jewish Cultural Arts Council's Volunteer of the Year is Helen Schwartz. Mrs. Schwartz conceived, devdoped and has yiuA ^l^lMf^"* mil Wginii'fr of the MamiOoriiea Society, YfdSialmqMaidBg group. The three-year-dd group meets the first Sunday of each month and has 120 members. The Society's activities have included a Purim party, a dinner and Yiddish cabaret, a Succoth Simcha and a birthday/Pearl Harbor party. Selflessly reaching out and greeting every Jewish newcomer arriving in Omaha is the reason Mort Trachtenbarg, president of the Jewish Federation of Omaha, nomi-
nated Connie Slutzky for Volunteer of the Year. Mrs. Slutzky has served as volunteer chairman of the Federation's Newcomers Committee for the past several years. She also served as captidn of the 1986 Business and ftofessional Division of the Federation's annual campaign and is currently serving on the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Scott madman, the Jewish Family Services nominee has served on the board of directOTS fM- six years, served as treasurer for four of those years and for the past three year» has served on the Personnd/Office Procedures Committee as well aa the Manning Committee. In 1985, he served on the committee searching for a new agency executive director. Besides his involvement in Jewish Family Services, Mr. Friedman served on the 1985 and 1986 Federation Budget and Allocations Committee and, in 1986, he alao sffS^ on tif Federation Audit Coiniv«tee. He is pnamOy serving a three-year tern on the board of trustees of Temple larael, is active in B'nai B'rith and from 1980 to 1984 saved on a SID board which he chaired for the latter two years. Hundreds of volunteers devote thousands of hours each year to various Jewish and community organizations. This year's winners are just a sampling of those dedicated individuals.
IHolocaust lecturer focuses on historical perspective By SheOa Garsombke Free-lance writer Since the allied liberation of the death camps and the capture and release of Nazi documents relating to the Final Solution, Jewish resistance to the Nazis has been a subject of controversy among historians and students of the Holocaust. Bo<^8 and articles pertaining to this period were written in the first decades after the war ended, and lacked the Jewish documentation which is now available. These worics, according to Dr. Livia Rothkirchen, visiting University of Nebraska professor and Jewish Community Center guest lecturer Sunday, cannot stand up to the scrutiny of historians who now have a more complete knowledge of Jewish resistance to the Holocaust. "Although most armed resistance was rendered iiuffective by qratematu: Nazi ter t«r and lack of Jewish oppcttunity, qwitual defiance in all of its manifestations per sisted in the ghettos and ccmcmtration camps," Dr. Rothkirchen said. According to Dr. Rothkirchen, "althovgfa the Nazis kept detailed records on the Jewish maaa murders, these files contained mainly atattstkal data and only allude in passing to the acts of 'Jewish bandita'." Few acts of bravery, heroiam and apiritual defiance surfaced before the diacovary of underground ptesa leafleta, Mxrea <rf buried testimony and the recordinga of thoae survivors who stepped forward to teatify, were made availaUa to hiatoriana and people at large after 196L Dr. RotUdrchen aakl
Dr. Livia RothUrchen "General Jurgen Stroop referred to the Warsaw uprising aa only a standard miUtary action," in his reports. "The Warsaw Uprising is the moat remembered and most revered sign of defiance because it preserved and eymboiized the natkn'a spiiit," ahe said. A f^ hundred resistance fii^iters clad in raga, armed only with homemade grenadea and a few smugged aima, isolated and without outakle 8iq>port, managed to hold out againat the Ger man miUtaiy machine for almoat a month, longer than the entire Polish Campaign of 1939. <ContiaMd on Page!