:'i'jgSiflWi'i-^Jvfff;-(]'.
15rV} - t^
SERVING NEBRASKA AND IOWA SINCE 1920
VohLXV No. 43 Omaha, Nabr.
23 Tammui, 5740 Friday, July 8, 1988
Blumkin Home addition funding package completed, approved , The funding package for the $1.9 million addition to the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home for the Elderly has been completed. The Board of Trustees of the Foundation of the Jewish Federation met June 29 and approved the Federation Board of Trustees recommendation that a loan of up to $900,000 be made from the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home Endowment funds. The remainder of the
I
funding for the expansion will come from a $500,000 gift from Rose Blumkin and her family and $600,000 from the Federation's general reawve. The expansion will increaae Ui^aize of the Home by 25,000 square feet and will indyde single rooms, a kitchen, an enlarged dining room and relocation of tlie business offices. It is anticipated that the addition will bring the bed capacity to 117.
Justice Department to appeal decision
By Howard Roaedbcfg
WASHINGTON (JTAIThe Justice Department is likely to appeal the recent New York District Court decision preventing it from shutting down the Palestine Liberation Organization's observer mission at the United Nations, Capitd Hill sources said. One congressional source said she was "reasonably satisfied" that the Juatice Department wooU be following a Une of anpari, after apedffiig with Jobi BoHon, Iwad of the Justice Department's Civil Diviaioa, and members of his ataif. Bolton met with William Bradford ReynoMa, head of the Juatice Department's avfl lUghta Diviaion and counselor to Attorney Gmeral Edwin Meese, and Chariee Fried, the U.S. aolicitor genaraL
SooRM said the offidala r diiiilayMi a "fnral wilUngnaaa" to fib n appaal, althoofh thay mad* no final datUaa. Fitod was aakad whithv ha^Mtad to aa
School has right to deny club status to student-run Bible reading fellovirship Must all public schools , open their doors to student reUgious dubs? According to the American Jewish Congress, the answer is no. In an amicus (friend of the court) brief in the case of Mergena vs. Board of Education Westside Community Schools, the Jewish organization agreed with the decision of the U.S. District Court of Nebraska which ruled that Westside High School of Omaha was within its rights to deny Bridget Mergena, a stud«it, permission to establish a studentrun Christian Bible Fellowahip as part of the school's club and activities program. The brief was submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Eighth Circuit. Ms. Mergens contended that the clubs at Westside were an "open forum" and as such, under the Equal Access Act, the school could
appeal, and he indicated he did not. , The department now has 60 days, until late August, to file an appeal. Amy Brown, a spokes' woman for the Justice Department, declined to comment on the status of any decision, except to say that it is not unusual for those officials to meet to discuss the issue. Sources said that the State Department, whkh OAKLAND, Calif. (JTA) haa maintalnad that the PLO mission falls under - Kitty Dukakis has U.S. treaty obligations, op- responded to critics who say that, aa a Jewish woman poses an appeal. married to a non-Jewish man, she would serve as a BAN FAVORKD bad role model wen her husBONN(JTA) - The in- band to be elected preakient terior minister of Lower of the United SUtea. Saxooy haa called for a ban on the Free Workara Party, In an interview with the a neo-Naai group linked to bimonthly magazine Tikvloiaat incidents in several koa, the wife of Maaparta of West Germany. aacbusetts Gov. Michael Interior MinlatarWaMed Dukakis said her marriage Hassahnan said in Hanover to the likely Democratic that ha ia tiying to parsuade preaklential nominee actuthe hdaral guvniuaat and ally encouraged her to seek hia colleagnas from other a "more formal Mantificastates to outlaw ths party. tion" with her Jewiah rooto.
not deny the establishment are supported by tax dolof the Fellowship. The EAA lars, are curriculum-related, holds that a "limited open and have sponsors who are forum" exists when "a assigned and paid by the school grants an offering or high school with tax dollars. opportunity for one or more In the case of a "nonpubnon-curriculum related stu- lic forum," the EAA does dent groups to meet on not interfere with the discreschod premises during non- tion of the school adminisinstructional hours." tration to determine ciuricPermission to farm such a ulum and leave to that club cannot be denied on the administration the task of basis of the religious, determining which clubs philosophical, political or and activitiea are accq>table other content of the group's as part of its curriculum. speech. In order for a club to be Westside, however, meets . included in Westside's curcriteria aet up by Congress ikulum, it must promote and the Supreme Court as a the school's missions and "nonpublic forum" because goals; be sponsored by a it is not open for "in- faculty member; and have discriminate use by the . sufficient funds for the general public nrr.rBy sponsor's remunwatiim and some segment of the public other essential coats. such as a student organizaUnder the EAA, Westtion." side High School iti.not obAll clubs at Weataide are liged to create a "limited considered part of the open forum," says the AJschool's curriculum. They Congress brief, nor is it ob-
Kitty Dukakis says intermarriage strengthened her ties 'When people write articles, as they have, about the fact that I would be a bad role model becauae I am married to a Chriatian, what they don't realize ia that there are men and women like myself who are much more ckwaly klantified with their Jewiah roota because they have married outside the faith," ahe said in an interview conducted May 20 by Michael Lemer, editor of the progreaaive magazine. Mra. Dukakia was responding to an editorial that appeared in the Denverbased Intermovntaia Jawlah Newa at the h^t of
the primary campaign, charging that a Dukakia preaidency would repreaent a troubling mdorsemeot of intermarriage. In the TikkoB article, Mra. Dukakia apoke at length about her Jewiah upbringing in the Massarhuaetia suburb of BrookUne, saying that ahe has s "very emotional connection with my heritage." She also mdicated that she would play an active role in shaping White Houae dedaion-maldng on Jewish issues should her husband be elected president in Novunber.
liged to alter its club system by allowing the Chriatian Bible Fellowship to be established. Such a group would be avowedly sectarian, involving the worship and Bible study of only one religions viewpoint, and, without a faculty sponsor, would be operating under the terma and conditions different from existing clubs. Ms. Mergens waa toki by Weataide that her group waa free to naeet informally; the high acbool aimply declined the atudents' request to approve and endorse the Christian Bible Fellowship as an official part of the Westside dubs and activities program. The AJCongreas brief was submitted by staff attorney Jeremy S. Garber on behalf of itself and the AntiDefamation League of B'nai B'rith.
Waldheim drops slander suit NEW YORK (JTAI World Jewish Confess President BdfarBroofinan *aaid in a brief atatameot that Auatrian Preaident Kurt Waldheim withdrew hia alander auit againat him becauae of a lade of evi"It ia obvioua that WaUheim drgiipad the suit because he has no case," Bronfman said. Waklheim had initiated a lawauit after Bronfman, speaking at a WJCongraaa meeting in Budapest on May 5, 1987, said that Waktheim was "part and parcel of the Nazi killing maahine."
Beth El has first simcha at site of new building rnlilali<aiiawiiMI)>>.W«i»M>i»Uwt'rfcaradigral>fcaaltaalBa«h iiawlJI)>ip.Wjl;l|jf| iiailaat'TfcaraiigraiaaaltaalBsth >'afatwtawM%«Ji|«4Caitfet>Ua(iaat.«lMan»4<Mha tad •» «>a Bfmmimf^Ji0g^ms-9»»mttm fa hat al a riga «fcat' ^pataaMbafalMifc^iial>aikB8yaaiigaa,«fceniHililBiiilihiila IdhiaaaalwaMyliyraMwtaaUialrvewslaaaipMahiaiwaam.lahW •d GaatM JktfVakaidMMIiaaMi.'Iteawilawaa illiirfad by ••ale Nss^nsriMim
m^Msrss^maBiK
Iteiiiw.Iiiiailinilii rriii ff adiilirnal laaaJAMyniiil I flailj t1iidHMafllainla.ri^ aiU-alfcWahr.Mawhuthariiiiaaiir tks OaMHilM ^aaa hrfsOy wMi tMr daMUm. Haathar aad Stsfhaaia. wka alai aartlAataiti llw in ISM. "lUa la the &«• af »a« ^ttoWtaeiialwrtad ai iMhVsMvM8ia."aM8har«aaGa«iits,aBathBlMa(daaaahar.'<CMu>ltiM. are werUag hard ta aaha Bath Q'e aew haae a laalty aae*'