Life cycles

from January 20, 2023

by Jewish Press

Synagogues

IN MEMORIAM

ADAM JOSHUA SKOG

Adam Joshua Skog passed away on Dec. 29, 2022, at age 36. A Celebration of Life will be held in mid-April.

He was preceded in death by his grandparents, Mary Lou and Danny Goodman and Lois and William Skog.

He is survived by daughter, Harper Louise Skog; parents, Ricki and Jeffery Skog; sister and brother-in-law, Jamie Skog-Burke and Bartley Burke.

Memorials may be made to the organization of your choice.

SALLY PRIESMAN TELPNER

Sally Priesman Telpner passed away on Jan. 13, 2023, in Bozeman, Montana. Graveside services were held on Jan. 17, 2023, in Ashland, OR.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Maynard in June, 2022.

She is survived by her daughters and sons-in-law, Heidi and Irwin Barr of Bozeman, MT and Marci and David Rosenthal of Boulder, CO, and daughter, Sari Telpner of Ashland, OR; grandchildren: Dan Barr, Sadie Barr, Jennie and Nathan Anderson; Ailee Slater, Noah Slater; and Alex Rosenthal; great-grandchildren: Dylan and Ethan Anderson; and many nieces and nephews across the USA and Canada, including her niece and Temple member, Lisa Lewis.

Sally and her late husband, Maynard Telpner, had resided in Ashland, Oregon since 2002, but prior to that, resided in Council Bluffs, Iowa, since their marriage 71 years ago. Sally was active in Jewish and civic organizations in Council Bluffs, and Omaha, and had maintained many close friends in the Council Buffs and Omaha area.

Memorials may be made in Sally's memory to Stillwater Hospice in Bozeman, MT., or to the organization of your choice.

ARNOLD WEINTRAUB

Arnold (Arnie) Weintraub passed away on Dec. 19, 2022 at age 80 in Long Beach, California. The funeral service was performed by Rabbi Nancy Myers in Costa Mesa, California.

He was predeceased by his parents, Isadore and Eva Weintraub, and his sister, Anny.

He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Sharon Weintraub; his daughter and son-in-law, Nancy Weintraub and David Kahn; sons and daughters-in-law, Jason and Dana Weintraub and Scott and Hillary Weintraub; grandchildren: Benjamin, Balin, Tae, and Hope. Arnie loved spending time with all of them.

Born and raised in Omaha, Arnie graduated from Omaha Central High School. He went on to attend Omaha University and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree, his teaching credential, and his Master’s Degree from Omaha University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

He started teaching English, speech, and debate at Central High School where he also was the Speech and Debate Coach. He also taught at the University of Omaha.

In 1980, the Weintraub family moved to California. Due to a lack of teaching positions at that time, Arnie worked at Riekes Container for several years and then at Merical Vita-Pak where he was the payroll administrator.

Finally, he was able to return to teaching as a substitute teacher at Los Alamitos Middle Schools and High School where he again was the Speech and Debate Coach while maintaining his full-time job. His sons were attending the same high school. Arnie also taught at El Camino College and Golden West College.

Andrew Pulver, superintendent, said Arnie “began substitute teaching with Los Alamitos USD in 2008 and made himself readily available since then for on-call and long term assignments throughout the district. He was a popular and regular substitute teacher used at many campuses district-wide.”

Arnie was also quite active at Temple Beth David in Westminster. His passion was singing in the Temple Choir. He performed once a month with the Temple Choir Shabbat Service and also sang during the High Holidays.

Arnie was honored by MRJ, Men of Reform Judaism, the Brotherhood of Temple Beth David, Westminster, California, as its Man of the Year in 2009. He also was awarded a Second Diamond by the National Forensic League in recognition of extraordinary service to the interscholastic speech program for which Arnie was most proud.

Memorials may be made in Arnie’s memory to Temple Beth David, 6100 Hefley Street, Westminster, CA 92683. Checks should be made out to Beth David Choir.

80,000 Israelis protest Netanyahu government’s plan to weaken Supreme Court

GABE FRIEDMAN

JTA Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square on Saturday to protest their new government’s plans to significantly decrease the power of the country’s Supreme Court. Authorities reported that as many as 80,000 protesters braved a rain storm in Tel Aviv, while smaller protests took place in other cities across the country, including outside of the president’s residence in Jerusalem.

In their first weeks in the Knesset, or parliament, members of Israel’s far-right governing coalition have already advanced pieces of legislation that would allow a majority of lawmakers to override Supreme Court decisions. Supporters say the proposals amount to an overdue check on a Court has drifted leftward over time and struck down too many proposals from the Knesset’s conservative and right-wing flanks. Critics are calling the proposed changes a blow to Israel’s record as a fullfledged democracy. “I feel like we are living in the beginnings of a dystopian state,” one Tel Aviv resident at the protest told The Times of Israel. “I am seeing the end of democracy and I feel personally threatened.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who partnered with controversial far-right figures such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to form his ruling coalition, supports the proposed legislation. He has for years been dogged by multiple corruption cases and in 2019 became the first sitting Israeli prime minister to be indicted. Chief Justice Esther Hayut called the proposed laws “an unbridled attack on the judicial system” this week. The swelling protest movement that culminated in the rallies has been driven by left-wing activists, according to reports, but centrist figures — including former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who previously sat in a coalition with Netanyahu — also called for mass protests this week and made appearances on Saturday to show their support. “If you continue the way you are going, the responsibility for the civil war brewing in Israeli society will be on you,” Gantz said in a televised interview earlier this week. The rhetoric on both sides intensified as Ben-Gvir ordered police to use water cannons to disperse protesters and banned the display of Palestinian flags at protests, equating them to terrorist symbols. Zvika Fogel, a member of Ben-Gvir’s party, said that Gantz, previous Prime Minister Yair Lapid and two other centrist opposition leaders “should be arrested and put in handcuffs” for encouraging the protests.

Thousands of Israelis protest against the current Israeli gov-

ernment in Tel Aviv's Habima Square, Jan. 14, 2023. Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

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CULTURE | MOVIES | MUSIC

My mom is ‘up there kvelling’

PHILISSA CRAMER

JTA Steven Spielberg said he was the sixth-happiest person in the world after he won best director at this year’s Golden Globes awards for The Fabelmans, his autobiographical film about his Jewish family. “I think... there’s five people happier than I am,” he said in his acceptance speech, which he said he had not prepared in advance out of superstition. “There’s my sister Anne, my sister Sue, my sister Nancy, my dad Arnold and my mom. She is up there kvelling about this right now.” “Kvell” is the Yiddish word meaning to feel quiet pride in the accomplishment of others — and it’s closely associated with Jewish mothers who are proud of their children. Spielberg’s mother, Leah Adler, was the owner of a popular kosher restaurant in Los Angeles who died in 2017. His father Arnold, who helped him make his first movie, died in 2020 at 103.

The Fabelmans, which also won best picture among dramas, tells the story of a child who falls in love with filmmaking and laces his family’s Jewish identity into the storytelling. The character based on Adler is played by Michele Williams, a non-Jewish actor who is raising her children Jewish, while Paul Dano plays the character based on Arnold Spielberg. During the awards ceremony, host Jerrod Carmichael joked that he watched The Fabelmans with Kanye West “and it changed everything for him” — alluding to the rapper’s months-long antisemitic tirade that has cost him millions in sponsorships and led to him becoming a show-business

pariah. Addressing Spielberg, Carmichael said, “That’s how good you are. You changed Kanye West’s mind.” (In response, Spielberg clasped his hands in mock prayer.) Elsewhere, Spielberg was thanked from the stage even by actors who did not appear in his film: Everything Everywhere All At Once star Ke Huy Quan, who won best supporting actor in a comedy, thanked the director for giving him his first big break in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom at the age of 12. “I like very much the sort of easy way that Jewishness lives in this movie. It’s a very profound part of Steven’s identity, and of the Fablemans’ identity,” Spielberg’s collaborator, the Jewish writer Tony Kushner, said at a September film festival before the movie’s wide release. “But it’s a movie that’s about Jewish people, rather than entirely or exclusively about Jewishness or antisemitism or something. So it’s not a problem, it’s who they are.” The film has been a critical darling but Spielberg’s worstever performance at the box office, where it is unlikely to bring in anywhere close to the $40 million spent to make it. (Many theater releases are struggling in a climate where audiences are accustomed to watching movies at home.) Spielberg’s attendance at the ceremony was notable because many actors and directors boycotted last year’s pareddown event over years of scandal at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hands out the awards. The group was criticized over conflicts of interest by its members and for including few Black members; it says it has addressed both issues. Also winning at this year’s Golden Globes was Jewish actress Julia Garner for her Netflix show Ozark and Justin Hurwitz, who was named best original score for Babylon. The Jewish songwriter has won all four of the Golden Globes for which he has been nominated, all for work with the filmmaker Damien Chazelle, his college roommate. Chazelle attended Hebrew school at a New Jersey synagogue and traveled to Israel with his classmates despite being raised by Catholic parents. Ukraine’s Jewish president Volodymyr Zelensky also made a special pre-taped appearance at the Globes, thanking Hollywood for supporting Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia and making a reference to the awards ceremony’s origins in 1943 in the waning years of World War II.