dewish Press Serving Nebraska and Iowa Since 1920
Vol. LXX NofnjDimaha
16 KISLEV, 5753 Friday, December 11,1992
Super Sunday chairmen urge community support By Mark and Jill Belmont, Super Sunday chairmen Every year around this time, the Omaha Jewish community is told, "Super Sunday is comingl" Well, here we are, announcing that Feb. 7 will be the big day for the 1993 phone-athon. For those who are not -familiar with the annual event, the Super Sunday phone-a-thon is part of the UJA/Federation annual campaign. Persons solicited that day are members of the Super Sunday Division, the Campaign's largest unit, which is comprised of 1,700 current and potential contributors. We're excited and honored to be chairing Super Sunday this year. The opportunity doesn't come often to connect with so many people who can add to the strength and security of our Jewish community, both here and in Israel. We as Jews in Omaha know what it means'to give something back to our community. We have always provided for each other in an extraordinary way. "This year is no different. Each and every one of you is needed to keep our Jewish community vital. Every gift is welcomed, appreciated and needed — no contribution 18 too small. The annual plea for funds is repeatedly voiced
Mark and JiU Belmont with, from left, Colin, Jessica and Lindsay
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By Deborah Fellman Movies are too violent, too sexually explicit, and nearly unrelated to the lives most Americans live, said Michael Medved, cohost of PBS' show, "Sneak Previews" and author of a new book, "Hollywood vs. America: Popular Culture and the War on Traditional Values." Mr. Medved, president of the Pacific Jewish Center in Venice, Calif., will speak Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the JCC to commemorate Jewish Book Month. In a telephone interview, Mr.Medved criticized the bulk of recent Hollywood movies as being inappropriate for children and unsettling for many adults. Very fe\v, he said, are as family-oriented as Disney films were 15 years ago. "My argument is that the world on screen is much worse than real life," he said. "In movies, you see violence and killing, but frankly, America isn't such a terrible place right now." In his new book, Mr. Medved argues that most Americans are family-oriented, largely religious, patriotic and well-mannered. But big-screen
because the needs of our kind of Jewish communicommunity are perpetual. ty you want them to have Each one of us has owner- in five, 10 and 50 years. Then please answer ship in this Omaha Jewish community. your phone on Super This community is our Sunday, and help make home, and if we don't look your vision a reality. out for our own wellbeing, who will? There are three other Omaha natives Jill and important motivators in Mark Belmont have been our decision to chair involved in the Omaha Super Sunday — and Jewish community for the they're all under four- past eight years. Mark •MNfWoa vice-president of feet-tall. We're participating foi^ the ADL/CRC board, and our kids, Jessica, Lindsay has participated in the Men's Campaign for the and Colin. To iis, this Campaign past several years. Jill has (and every Campaign) is been active in the about children — our chil- National Council of dren and your children, Jewish Women-Omaha and we have the privilege Section, is a member of and responsibility to help the ADL/CRC board, and secure a healthy Omaha has served on the Jewish community for Women's Campaign cabithem and generations to net for the past tuio years. The Belmonts are the By David Landau come. JERUSALEM (JTA)— Think about the chil- parents of Jessica, 6, dren. Look into their eyes Lindsay, 4, and Colin, An announcement that iHrael's ambassador to and think about what eight-months-old. Washington, Zalman Shoval, will end his tour of duty Feb. 5 puts an end to an embarrassing spate of reports surrounding his departure date. Shoval will be succeeded by Professor Itamar Rabinovich, a former rector of Tel Aviv University and chief Israeli negotiator in the peace talkB with Syria. Shoval had been openly flghtiiig with the Foreign Ministry — some rejiorts had it with the Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres - over his recall dat«. He has now apparently won his wish to stay on for the Inauguration of Bill Clinton over the reported plans by Rabin and Peres to have a new envoy in place as a new U.S. administration takes ofllcs. Shoval himself, in a nawspapsr interview, hinted st poor relalions ' advsrtlaars — A ' '••• with Peres, who has besn 'iwlsh iirpoitsdly K«I> bath s lonittimv political ' li-niiil'lll iJu-dsC•—:'h, "...aswxi oollesgua and a rival. who was a tupor his Ut« p< Psrss and Shoval both bslongsd to David Bsti-
Play Dough — the de-decorator In rvcant correspond'— «ncln»»d II photofT"
Medved decries violence, sex, in motion pictures that "brains...and a noble soul (are) more valuable than a muscular body," and "Grand Canyon," which "touches on our... yearning to see some higher purpose in this apparently random and chaotic world." In his book, Mr. Medved offers statistics to prove that movies, even those that carry a PG-13 rating, are rife with foul language. Among "R" Michael Medved rated films issued in Photo: The Washington Times 1991, the average film characters, he said, tend included "22 f-words, 14 sto be sociopathic, violent, words, and flv^ a-words, philandering, and foul- providing its viewers with mouthed. a major obscenity every He laments the fact two-and-a-half minutes," that many actors nomi- Mr. Medved writes. nated for Oscars in 1992 He goes on to enumerplayed "sordid and ate the violent scenes in detestable characters," movies and singles out such as the psychopathic Arnold Schwarzenegger murderers played by for creating "sadistic Anthony Hopkins in "TTie humor" out of gunfire and Silence of the Lambs," bodily wounds. Warren Beatty in Mr. Medved's Jewish "Bugsy," and Robert identity affects his perspective on movieb, he DeNiro in "Cape Fear." ."If a Martian studied said. Primarily, he objects America by watching to film characters' need American movies then for instant gratification, came down to earth, he which belies longstanding wouldn't recognize it," Jewish traditions. "It's significant that our Mr. Medved said. He praised movies such Sabbath is on the seventh as "Beauty and the day," he said. "We have to Beast," with its "uplifting" work six days before we theme and its suggestion get to rest."
Shoval to leave Gurion's Rafi Party in the 1960B. Peres and the mf\jority of members later went back to their ijiother'party. Labor, while the rump of Rafi drifted steadily to the right and eventually merged into the Likud. Shoval became a Likud kn^suet ipember and his appointment as ambassador was a Likud political appointment '
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Bill advances By David Landau and Lisa Clayton • JERU.SAI.I'M (.TTAi — A bill lx> tion halt : n notch amid M Htion from Orili,"i.i» MMIIIbers of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's govsrnment. Tlie Israeli parliamsnt passed a preliminary reiii!
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