903010-00^^60 NE3R HISTORICjM-^
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LINCOLN N=E
SERVINQ NEBRASKA AND IOWA SMCE1920 'Vol. txvn No. momttm. IM».
Bjr JoCanoU The Jewish FedentioD of OnuJu win umoanoe the young leadonhip «warda St the Jewish conununity's rniiusl meeting Sundsjr St 7:80 p.m. in the Jewish Ccunmunity Center. •Hie Justin Oreenberg •nd Lois Jeanne Schrager •waids sre given smnislly to hooor • young man snd ^ young womsn. These awards go to vominaes under the age (rf *W who have dsmnnstratad catiop and leedarshlp qualr Mas to the Jewish, sswril as the gePMalcomnmnity. WimMCS are selected bjr a committee oomposed of psst hoooees. IVy sre givHi a stipend «rf up to •600 to attnd tlM Genaral Aaaembly. llieir namea also wfll be engraved on a plaque which ia parma-
Anna Metrik, who emigrated from the Soviet Union a little more thm a year ago, will give a talk based on her first yesr in freedom. Mrs. Metr^ came to Omaha with her husband, two sons, her mother and aunt. She will explain how the monies from Operation Exodus are ussd in ssttUng Jewish franOiesin Omaha. Mrs. Metrik, who is fluent in EngUsh. woriced for the Jewish Ptees and later found part'time work in the Omaha PabUc Schod system teaching Rossisn. Tom FeUman will be awarded the Humanitarian of the Year award for his efforts on bdialf of Operatiaa Exodna, a fondr ndafaig eftott to reeettle Soviet Jews ia Israd and the United Statee. The Ten^ Israel Caring ComnMse will receive the Commonity Service
nity. The Caring Coaoanittee is chaired by Harriett Sperling The two teens chosoi to receive this yesr's Jewish Teen Leadership Awsrds are Becca Oddstein end Derek Altman. Becca was choaen tot her work with the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization. Derek was sdected for his work with United Synagogue Youth. Volunteers who wfll receive awards frtxn the Federation are JQl Kushner Belmont, AnttOefsBution League/Ccmmunity Relations Committee; Bert Lewis, Jewish Family Service; Mkhael Lfam, Bureau of Jewish Educstion; Marda Lipsmsn, Jewish Conmnmitgr Center, Jerome Mikfar Bureau for the Aging; Harry Paskowits, Bureau for the Aging Okkr Adult Pragram; Jerry Shisky, Jewish Federation and Martin Wolf, braiy.
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Annual meeting awards include young leaders
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Ben Wiesmans donate Beth El chapel Aanouncement has been made of the donation 1^ Beiganun and Anna Ellen Wieeman in excess of 9200,000 for the new Beth El Ch^poL Usually ke^ ing a "low profile", both Mr. and Mrs. Wiesman have been active in the life of Beth El Synagogue, and the Omaha Jewish and civic communitiee. Ben, an Omaha native, is the grandson of Bsrish snd Ann Wiesman, <me of Omaha's pioneering Jewish families. Bsrish Wiesman was sn incorporator and charter member of the "Riekee shul", according to the documents st the Nebraska Jewish Historicsl Sods^. Bsrish Wiseman also waa one of Omaha's esriiest wstchmsfcers. The Dsniel Bernstein family, Ben's maternal
Ben and Anna WiesaMui eaily mraobers of Beth El, awards. He served in Bsn can renmnber attend- msny different capacities ing services aa a chiU on ths Beth El Board of when Beth El met at the Trusteee siaoe then, and M Jewish Community culminated hia years of Center sad the American service with the presiLegion Chib at aoth aad dency of the Beth El ConDodge. grefpition. Additionally, he has In 1079, Ben began his eariiest Jewish fami- active Beth El career aa served as vies preakient of lies arri^^ in Omaha preaidaot of the Man's theCaBbral^talise/Provinr ovsr 100 years ago. Tbe CtobJW Olrib was rscQg- Q«! Re^ of ths United iMiriBrarWrSiRilBd Stfah Vnesman, who wers with lour disUnfdshed (OentfaMdroai lh«e 4)^
Hidden Children inciude Omalia piiysicians By JoCamll One man remembers only looking out of the back of «truck on s Jount^r that seemed to last forever. The other man nmambers the smsO of incense and old wood. iBoth were hkklan from the Nazis in Belgium during ^orid War IL Both are now doctors who practkx mediIfOine in Omaha. i^. Tom Jaeger is an adoleaoent psychiatrist sad Fred ^kadar is a pediatric neurologist. Or. Jsegipr and Dr. Xader sod their funflies recently attended the first inters wrttaa) gathKliig of ehiktren Mdden becsuse they were Jewish during WorU Wsr II. Dr. Jaeger ssid when he first met Dr. Kader and learned he was bom in Antwerp he knew that he had jmet another hidden child, but the two men never dialeiuaed the issus. It wsa only when Dr. Jaeger learned W the conference in New York aad he aaked Dr. Kader If he wookllike to attend that the two men began talking about their experiencee. Dr. Kader eomlained that he never talked about being a hidden diildbecattse Us memories were so few and •0 vsgue. Before the conference he didn't know where jis had spent five years of his life. Dr. Jaeger waa aware that he had been hidden in a convent, but he didn't know thekicatkn. Hia family told Urn after the war that it had been eacy to hide him bacanae he had Ugnd hafr and looked very Aryan. Mother atayad ia Belgiui Dr. Jaeger's mother. Norma Wudnr, had received her papers to aBow her to immigrate fa> 1SS9, but she stayed % Belgfaun trying to help her eight brothers sad sisters And safety. i Mrs. Wudcer's neighbor tried to convince her that she deeded to hide her 18-month-old son. The neighbor had sfready sent her two boys, sgee eight snd nine, to a conSwnt r Mrs. Wucker was convinced when she bsrely evaded jeapture by the Nazis when they knocked on her apartiment door. She contacted a teiicher, Marie Anne, who Iniaa conduit for children who were to be hidden. Three Sireeks Ister she managed a peek at her son in a crowd, but after that aha would not aee him again lot several
Dr. Jaeger never saw his father. He waa deported to Auschwiti. Ironfealty Us father had vidted the United States in 1986 bat dkin't UM it Dr. Jasgar snived in Odvaataa with his mothnr, Jsn.1, 1M7. Hs waa 10 years ohL Shs waa speaUag Ger man to him and bs wss speaking Rraneh to her. Hs remembers being very eeiective in what he wanted to understand. A first grsde teecfaer bribed Urn to laara fti^Ush. Shs told him she would spesk French to him, but only if he qMke En^ish to her. He lebsUed in the YssUva school he attended in New York City from the eecond to the aixth grade. "I wanted to make aure I didn't have to stay in that school." Dr. Jseger ssid. Fred Kader Dr. Tom Jaeger Althou^ his mother kq>t kosher, Catholicism "was s wsrm ssfo place hi traublsd tjmss," Dr. Jsagv ralatad. of David that waa to have ben sewn OQ her son's doth- The realisation that, "I ama Jew came much later." For hig, something she never did. Dr. Jaeger the drde will be complete when he can ssy Dr. Jeegar's memoties of staying in the convent where Kaddiah at Auaefawits. Marie Ann took him don't indude much more than the Attended cenfe smell of incense snd old wood. However, near the end Dr. Kader went to tbe conference of HUden ChiUren of the war he remembers his stomach wss very large. with no great aspectatkma. But he found that. "It told He now surmises it wes probably becsnse of hungir. me in two days what happened in my Ufa." The liberation by Biitiah tiwpa waa ooa thing he doee He only knew that he had been in soms Uad of chilremember. "It waa Just like you eee in the movies. Ths dran's caaqji. He didn't know how he got there or how troops, the children, everybody wss Isughing sad long hs wss thsre. crying." Tw story se it unraveled itaslf at the conference disMcaMriae of fester family closed that Dr. Kader ia alive only through a sariee Of Dr. Jaeger doeaa't remember when he waa reunited unexplsiasd drcumstaaoaa th*t took place. with hia mother, but he haa lend memories of the fosHe wss hi s convoy with Us psmts beaded for Auechter family he lived with for a year after the war. "I wits. The convoy stoppsd st MHane and he appanntly remember we had a cat. A black cat with a white dia- wandered away from liia paranta. mond on hia chest." One day one of the children he was At the aame time a convoy with childm f^txn a Jewpli^ying with teaaed Dr. Jaeger a Uttle and "Lucky", the ish childran's csmp. Camp Weaeobesk had stopped hi cat lashed' out at him. Milana. Tbw had bean driven oat of their Bale camp by His mother visited him on weekends before they were the Nada. Quean Elisabeth of Belgium interoeded on able to live together. behalf of the Wasanbeek children and said they ware to "I went back to meet my foster family after I had left be taken back to thdr aafe cas^. Some of the older boys Europe. It was like daja vu. I knew exactly where the from this csmp (ages lOor 111 had wandered off to aee house wss." what they cotUd find at Milane. One of his aunts sUyed in Belgium. Her dauditer What th^ found ware aix chfldren dtting in a room drowned during the war and waa buried in a CaUioUc bnr themadvea. No one will ever know why the six wars cametary. Dr. Jaeger was surprissd when he visited the there snd no one wifi ever know whst nisds ths oklsr Iroars. Mrs. Wucker went into hiding for the renudnder of the grave. "It had not been deaecrated. A Star of David was boys pick up thsas young childian and put them hrto f Mrs. E' ST. but never revealed to h«8oa what happened to her on the hesd stone, snd it read, 'Hare lies s Jewish enAws«. __^^^_^^,^___ ,»hMaaha hM AiriM ttrt—rind. flU aavsd iiiaatar. .,^,^::