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Vol. LXV No. 7 Omaha, Nabr.
SERVING NEBRASKA AND IOWA SINCE 1920 7 Chaahvan, 5748 Friday. Oct. 30, 1W7
^ Beth El Synagogue Israel to celebrate 40th plans Torah Weekend with $11.5 million opera Beth El Synagogue plans to conduct a Tprah Weekend, Nov. 6-8,1 with the presidept of The I Rabbinical Assembly asl 8cholar-in residence. He is Rabbi Kassel Abelson, spiritual leader of Beth | El Synagogue in Minneapolis. Wither or Whither' is the theme. *••** Abelwn The programs, all of which are free and open to the community, are as follows: Friday, Nov. 6,8:16 p.m., late service with topic: World Judaism: Growing together or growing apart? Saturday, Nov. 7, during morning services at 9:30 a.m., Will American Judaism continae to grow or will it cease to exist in the next centiuy? Sunday, Nov. 8, breakfast at 10 a.m.. The growing AIDS plague: Judaism confronts the dilemma... What does Judaism have to teach us as we deal with this new threat to health? Eabbi Abelson, a 1943 graduate of New York University, became assistant rabbi at Beth El in 1948 immediately after being ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He has both a master's and a ••-i '
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NEW YORK (JTA) - The most lavish and costly project in operatic history, an $11.5 million production of Giuseppe Verdi's "Nabucco," (Nebuchadnezzar) will be performed a dozen times in Jerusalem next May as the major attraction of Israel's year-long celebration to mark its 40th anniversary of independence. "The opera will have a magnificent setting at the Sultan's Pool, known formally as the Hassenfeld Amphitheatre, just outside the city's walls, at a site originally selected by King Herod for Jerusalem's water supply," Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem told a crowded press conference at the Plaza Hotel here "Tuesday. "It was in Jerusalem that the massacre of the Jews took place when the city was overwhehned by Babylonian forces headed by King Nebuchadnezzar," Kollek said, Michael Ecker, president of OOS-Opera on Original Site, a Swiss-based company specializing in staging operas at their original location, is the producer of "Nabucco." He said at the press conference that 12 performances are planned from May 15-29, 1988, with the possibility of four additional performances through June 2. Major opera stars will take part in the production, Ecker disclosed. Those already signed to head the four alternating casts include such luminaries as Grace Bumbry, Olivia Stapp^ Ingvar Wixell, Renato Bruson, Kurt Rydl, Martti Talveta and Piero Capuccilli. According to the producer, the 7,700-seat sultan's pool amphitheater will be transinclude a student panel discussion, Ms. Harform^ to accommodate a tremendous cast vey's presentation, and a large group interplus a chorus of approximately 250 singers action with Ms. Elliott, (the Pro-Musica Chorus of London) and Following a lunchtime^ presentation by Papillion-LaVista High School counselor Jerry Hall, the afternoon session will include small-gTOiip discussion and a largegroup question and answer session moderated by Ms. Elliott, Approximately 300 high school students are expected to attend the 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. workshop.
doctorate of Hebrew letters from the Seminary. In Miimeapolis, he organized the Youth Program which formed the nucleus for the United Synagogue Youth organization, now an integral part of the Conservative Judaism in America. In 1951, Rabbi Abelson entered the Air Force as a chaplain and was stationed in Casablanca where he not only served servicemen, but the conmiunity as well. Before returning to Beth El in 1957, he served Shearith Israel Synagogue in Columbus, Ga. Rabbi Abelson is the convener of the Minneisota Inter-Religious Committee and is cochairman of the Minnesota Inter-Religious Committee on Bio-Medical Ethics. He was a member of the Governor's Advisory Committee on the Family and the Mayor's Committee onCivil Liberties. He also was a representative of the State of Minnesota to the White House Conference on the Family in 1980, and has served on the staff of the St. Paul Seminary. Rabbi Abelson was in Omaha last spring to speak at the conference of the Midwest Branch of Women's League of Conservative Judaism.
Students to attend second Prejudice Elimination Workshop
The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'nth/Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Omaha, in conjunction with a coalition of schools, community organizations and corporations, will sponsor Omaha's second Prejudice Elimination Workshop for high school students on Nov. 12 at the Jewish Community Center, The all-day seminar is intended to provide local high school students an opportunity to explwe the dynamics of prejudice and negative stereotypes which exist in our society, and the means to <}ounter them, the Jewish Press was told. Keynote speakers Mary Harvey, executive director of the Girls Club of Omaha, and Jane Elliott, a nationally-known authority in the field of prejudice elimination, will be among the workshop participants. lie workshop will open with the reading of a proclamation signed by Mayor Bemie Simon proclaiming Nov. 12 as "Prejudice Elimination Day." The morning session will
Antl-harrassment coalition urges stricter law enforcement
(Vtpoiuon widi the ADL/CRC Include: Omtlui Public ScliooU; MUlard Publie Sdioal*; WnUide Community Scboofe PipOUnirUViaU Public Scfaoalc Bditoa Public Schools; ConncU BInffs Community Schools; EUborn Public Schools; Valley Public Schools; Springfleld-PlstUview Public Schools; Fstfaer Fl«ugu's Boys Hom« Fort Cslhoim Public Schools; Omah* Human Rslatlons Boud; Boys Club o( Omaha; Girls Qnb of Omaha; Gnater Omaha Chamber of Coramert*; ' Jeviah Caramiuiily Center; Uiban League of Nebraska; Nstlonsl Conference of Chrlatlans and Jews; Nebraaka State Deptrtment of Edncatlon; Nebraska Sute Education Aasodation; Omaha Police Division; the MUton S. snd Cofinne H. Livingston Foundation, Inc; the PhDUp snd Tori Schrsger Foundation; Peter Kiewit & Sons, Inc; Vslmont Industries, Inc.; Northwestern Bell; The Omaha World.Heraid; and the Union Pacific Raihvad Company.
Soviets spawn Pamyat as ''safety valve" TEL AVIV (JTA) - Norwegian fihn star Liv Ullmann was awarded an honorary Ph-D. by Haifa University this week, her Veventh honorary doctorate. Ullmann pledged that "for as long as I shall earn money," she would finance the education of an Arab student at Haifa University, and her husband Donald Saunders, who is Jewish, would finance that of a Jewish student. Ullman dedicated the Ph.D. to the memory of Pavel Friedman, an 11-year-old Jewish boy murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Two years previously, in the Theresienstadt ghetto, he wrote a poem about a yellow butterfly which survived tibn^ The award-wimiing actress said she often
about 850 non-singing performers. The renowned Italian artistic director Vittorio Rossi, who will direct the production as well as provide settings and costumes, introduced during the press conference Tuesday some of the elaborate costumes he already designed for the show. He said that he decided to get involved with "Nabucco" because the opera's message is that "victory is truly in the hand of spirituality and peace,." Moshe Shoshani, head of Israel's Tourism Ministry in the United States, said that close to 70,000 tourists from all over the world are expected to come to Israel to attend the "Nabucco" performances. He said that special tour packages from the United ' States, starting at around $1800, have been created for the event, combining eight days of sightseeing in Israel, plus optional extensions, and the opera. A special toll-free number outside New York-l-800-NABUCCO-has been established to provide information on these tour packages. The number in New York is 212-418-0438. The opera is in four acts. It was first performed at the La Scala in Milan, Italy, in 1842. It tells the story of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king who ordered the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E., and the exile of the Jewish people to Babylon. Nabucco is produced and organized by OOS-Opera on Original Site, in cooperation with the Israel Festival, Jerusalem, the Israel Ministry of Tourism and the Association for Promoting Tourism in Israel. Also assisting the project is Operation Independence, an international organization of businessmen dedicated to the support of Israel.
read the poem at fund-raising events. Ullmann, who portrayed Soviet Jewish activist Ida Nudel in a recent film, met with Nudel, who arrived in Israel two weeks ago. She said Nudel had asked her, in her public appearances, to alert the world to the dangers of a new phenomenon in the Soviet Union—the officially sanctioned existence of a far rightwing, pro-monarchist, antiSemitic organization known as Pamyat. Pamyat is believed responsible for the recent murder of a Jew in Leningrad. According to Kremlinologists, the Soviet authorities point to Pamyat as an indication that they allow expressions of diverse opinion. Actually, the experts say, Pamyat is used as a safety valve to divert the criticism of the more liberal policies of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
By Susan Bimbaun COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (JTA) - The Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment utilized its first-ever convention, a three-day conclave here that ended Sunday, to examine the one issue on which its disparate membership agrees: the need to develop and promulgate practical means to battle prejudice in the United States. To this serene resort town near lakes and gentle mountains came 226 people, among them Montana farmers, Hispanic war veterans, urban radical blacks, Asian Amen* cans, gay students, Moslems interested in Palestinian rights and members of several Amoican Indian tribes. They represented 120 wganizations, including the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, and the American Jewish Committee, both charter members of the coalition. Tony Stewart, head of the political science d^artment at the local North Idaho College and organizer of the conference, described the coalition as a "fragile crystal." Oscar Eason Jr., conference vice president, gave a similar appraisal at the confer^ ence's closing plenary, "Each of us has one thing in common: We want to fight racial and religious harassment. We agree on that," he stated. Eason acknowledged that any number of groups pnesent had "only that one single issue in common." "What you need to know," said Larry Broadbent, a local deputy sheriff who is acknowledged nationally as an intelligence specialist on hate groups, "is that the concerns you have in New York are the same concerns we have in Idaho. There are good
people all over the United States and there are hate groups, tod, all over, that we all oppose." A NATURAL SITE This Idaho town, about 50 miles east of Spokane, Wash., was a natural site for the conference. In recent years it has been the site of attacks by the ultra-rightwing Aryan Nations movement, whose compound is located just north of here in the vicinity of Hayden Lake. The Aryan Nations and allied groups have declared their goal of making the Pacific Northwest an all-white bastion. Although the Aryan Nations recently has been quiet in the immediate area, confo^noe speakers noted the ongoing underground and sporadic activity in the Northwest and throughout the entire country by loosely aligned, right-wing neo-Nazi groups. Many of the speakers called for state legislatures to increase the powers of law enforcement officials to combat violence and latent prejudice. Attorney General Jim Jones of Idaho cited the importance of stronger law enforcement, coupled with strict legislation. Idaho recently enacted laws severely penali^jing acts leading to violence or even training for violence.
Journalism Club? High School studentssee editorial on Page 4,