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Being a Good Ancestor Making a Difference: Honoring Helen Page 2
The Untested Cookbook Page 7
NAOMI FOX JFO Director of Community Engagement and Education n Sunday, Sept. 7, the Jewish Federation of Omaha is honored to welcome Rabbi Steve Leder—celebrated author, spiritual leader, and nationally recognized voice on living with meaning and purpose. Rabbi Leder will speak at 4 p.m. in the Alan J. Levine Theater at the Jewish Federation of Omaha, as the kickoff to a new year-long series called “Being a Good Ancestor”. The
O The Kaplan Book Group Finds Their Match Page 12
Jewish History Tour
REGULARS Spotlight Voices Synagogues Life cycles
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STACIE METZ Beth El Engagement Coordinator Beth El Synagogue, with the generous support of a Special Donor Advised Fund at The Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation, is thrilled to host a Jewish History Tour on Sunday, August 17, at 1 p.m. We hope you will join us for a three-hour bus tour starting at Beth El Synagogue and touring former Jewish synagogues, temples, cemeteries, and neighborhoods. We will get off the bus at B’nai Israel in Council Bluffs, walk through the syn-
agogue and tour the Living History Museum. Renee Ratner Corcoran, former Executive Director of Nebraska Jewish Historical Society, will be our tour guide. Jewish history goes beyond the names and dates we find in our individual family tree, it’s about what makes us who we are. It’s about people who lived and breathed and walked the streets that we now walk; the people who established and built the strong Jewish community and institutions that serve us to this day. The more we discover about our past, the greater a connection we feel to See Jewish History Tour page 2
theme Being a Good Ancestor invites us to consider how our choices today can shape a more thoughtful and valuedriven future. A reception and book signing will follow, with books available for purchase. Known for his deep spiritual insight and clear, compassionate communication, Rabbi Leder connects with audiences of all backgrounds on life’s most essential themes—how we love, how we grieve, and how we live with intention. His message is simple but powerful: “How we live See Good Ancestor page 3
Women in Auschwitz MORGAN GRONINGER Institute for Holocaust Education Join the Institute for Holocaust Education and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Harris Center for Judaic Studies on Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center in the Wiesman Family Reception Room for Women in Auschwitz, presented by Dr. Sarah Cushman from Northwestern University. In this talk, Cushman will discuss women’s existence in the most notorious Nazi camp – AuschwitzBirkenau. Three groups of women lived and worked in the camp. Women prisoners, including Jews, Romani women, political prisoners, and others, suffered and tried to survive in deadly conditions of starvation and forced labor. Some few found advantages in “privileged” work or as prisoner functionaries. These women often had some degree of power, which they used sometimes to help and sometimes to harm. Other women served the SS in Auschwitz as guards, communications experts, and nurses. Others accompanied their husbands to
the camp as helpmeets in the racial domination of Europe. We will explore these groups individually and in interaction with each other. Sarah Cushman is Director of the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University and Senior Lecturer in the History Department. Cushman earned her PhD from Clark University in 2010. Her first book, Women in Auschwitz, is under contract with the University of Indiana Press. Cushman is co-editor of the just published Routledge Handbook to Auschwitz-Birkenau, See Women in Auschwitz page 2