February 17, 2023

The Jewish Press

JFO Teen Trip to Israel

REGULARS

Spotlight 6

Voices 8

Synagogues 10

Life cycles 11

My time in Israel was truly memorable. Our itinerary was packed to the brim with educational and fun activities that furthered my understanding of culture and life in Israel. There wasn’t a moment during my trip when I was bored, as each destination caught my attention in a different way. I loved every single place we visited, from the moment we got on the plane, to the moment we came back 10 days later. However, there were a few expeditions that stood out most.

While I enjoyed meeting and talking with the locals, I preferred exploring on our own. The first instance we were able

Available Scholarships

DIANE WALKER JFO Foundation Fund and Scholarship Administrator

Thanks to the generosity of Omaha’s Jewish community, a variety of funding sources are available to help with the financial burden of Jewish sleepaway camp, JCC summer

camp, Israel programs, the Pennie Z. Davis Early Learning Center, Friedel Jewish Academy, and youth group activities. Assistance is also available for undergraduate, graduate, vocational, technical, professional or yeshiva studies.

Information and applications are

available on the Jewish Federation of Omaha website, www.jewishomaha.org. The deadline for applications is fast approachingWednesday, March 1, 2023

Grant programs, funded by the Jewish Federation of Omaha, are available to any Omaha Jewish family meeting

to, was our first Shabbat. For the greater part of the morning, we spent it at the Mediterranean Sea. Not only was it the most breathtaking sight of this whole trip, but it was actually the first time I had ever been to a sea/beach/ocean in my life. Surrounded by my best friends, the lapping waves, the random dogs that ran up to us, the sea-shell-littered sand, and the cool breeze, I wouldn’t have wanted my first experience to be anywhere else. For me, this was the most influential part of the trip, as I was able to celebrate my first time at the sea in Israel. I also loved exploring underground caves. This was incredibly fun, because even though it got a little tight at times, it was

See JFO Teen Trip page 2

Authors:

People in our lives

the program requirements, regardless of the family’s financial situation.

Jewish Experience Grants provide up to $2,000 for Jewish children in the metro area to attend a residential summer camp. Grants are paid over two years with no more than $1,000 per summer.

Israel Experience Grants provide up to $1,500 to students in grades 9 – 12 or young adults aged 18 – 26 for an Israel peer program. An additional stipend of $1,000 is provided for the bi-annual community teen trip to Israel.

Scholarships, awarded by the Financial Aid Committee of the JFO, are See Scholarships page 3

MARK KIRCHHOFF JFO Community Engagement and Education

People in our lives do many things. Some shoot baskets. Others score goals. Some make speeches. Others listen to problems. Some coach teams. Others cross goal lines. Some care for those in need. Others discover cures. Among the many people in our lives are authors who carefully and sometimes

painstakingly craft words to paper to teach, document, reflect, entertain, produce a smile or a tear, and often touch us with narratives that provide “ah-ha” moments from written words that live deeper than the paper and ink where we encounter them. These people are known as authors.

Jean Meltzer is an author who has accepted our invitation to join the See Jewish Book Month page 3

Life and Legacy update Page 4

Clean Speech Nebraska: How we talk Page 7

Historian sheds new light on a famous story about Abraham Lincoln and a New York cantor Page 12

Jean Meltzer and her book Mr. Perfect on Paper

Editor’s note: On Dec. 21st, 2022 teens plus six chaperones began a journey from Omaha to Israel. First, they traveled from Omaha to Denver, Denver to San Francisco and finally San Francisco to Tel Aviv (a 15-hour flight and a 10-hour time difference). Below are impressions from several of the participants.

Les Misérables: All hail for the world’s most popular musical

JFO Teen Trip

Continued from page 1 thrilling to jump and creep through the tunnels.

Another one of my favorites, and quite possibly the most fun, was walking through the underground water tunnels. The water went up to thigh level- but I forgot to bring my shorts so my pants got soaked- and the cave was so dark that they had to give us glow sticks so we could see. At some point, my group fell behind the others and we decided to put our glowsticks away and walk in the pitch black, having to feel around the narrow walls so we didn’t hit our heads. I fell too many times to count, but that made it nonetheless enjoyable. During our blackout walk, I started to hear water rushing towards us. My first thought was, “I’m going to drown in a dark tunnel, clutching a backpack for dear life”. I looked over my friend’s shoulder and saw someone running towards us, and I don’t think I’ve ever screamed so loud in my life. Turns out, it was just Max!

I had the best experience spending my time in Israel, and I am so thankful for everyone that helped me make it!

BRITTNEY CLIGNETT

Going to Israel was one the best experiences I’ve ever had. Everything from seeing

old friends, to making new friends, and what it’s like to live in Israel with home hospitality. When I first arrived in Israel, I had no idea what to expect. It was a very surreal experience when we first got there and it was hard to believe that I was even there. We did many things in Israel such as going to Masada, seeing the Western Wall, and going to the Dead Sea. It was unlike any experience I have ever had and nothing could’ve prepared me for how much fun I had on the trip. I hope I can go back someday to relive all those memories!

OLLIE LUCOFF

Before I went on this trip, I did not know what to expect. I thought it was just going to be fun to hang out with my friends for two weeks. Now that I am back, I realize why people go back to Israel over and over

again and how it will never get old. This trip really helped me appreciate Judaism even more than I already did, and it was really cool being able to see the holy sites that I have heard about for so long. I was excited for this trip, but after having gone I am even more excited to go back to Israel.

JAKE LUCOFF

Cameron Mackintosh presents the acclaimed production of Boublil and Schönberg’s Tony Award®-winning musical phenomenon, Les Misérables. This brilliant new staging has taken the world by storm and has been hailed as “Les Mis for the 21st Century” (Huffington Post), “a reborn dream of a production” (Daily Telegraph) and “one of the greatest musicals ever created” (Chicago Tribune).

Set against the backdrop of 19th century France, Les Misérables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption – a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit. This epic and uplifting story has become one of the most celebrated musicals in theatrical history.

You can see Les Misérables at the Orpheum Theater March 7-12, 2023, with only eight performances, including weekend matinees. As of this writing, tickets are still available at ticketomaha.com

JEWISH PRESS READERS

If you do business with any of our advertisers, please tell them you saw their ad in the Jewish Press. It really helps us!

March 7–12, 2023 Orpheum Theater

Jewish Book Month

Continued from page 1

Omaha community on March 2 at 2 p.m. at the Staenberg Omaha JCC in the Goldstein Community Engagement Venue. She will tell us about her recent book, Mr. Perfect on Paper, her prior work, The Matzah Ball, and her soon-to-be released novel, Kissing Kosher. Attendees will learn about Jean through her writing. As she shares what has influenced her writing, we learn about her. One of the joys of an author event is to open the cover of the book and meet the person – on March 2 that person will be author Jean Metzler.

To help introduce the Omaha community to Jean, I had the joy and privilege of meeting her through a Zoom call on Feb. 6. Her big smile, infectious laughter, and enthusiastic energy all support her words that she likes to write “joy and betterment and kindness” into the world. As we began our conversation, I was curious about what inspired her to become a writer and how she cultivated that inspiration. Jean shared that it started when she was in sixth grade. “My teacher noticed a talent in my writing and would have me read my stories to the class. It was sort of what I was known for. I was not very popular, but I would read these stories – they were joke stories, funny stories, and my little friends would laugh with me - ‘Jean wrote another story!’ they would say – and it sort of solidified my trajectory that I was going to be an author.” Her mother kept all of her writings from the time she was in kindergarten. Recently Jean came across a story she had written about a princess from a place called “Cares-a-Lot.” “The princess just cares a lot and goes out to sort of do all these good things. And I was like, not much has changed. That little eleven-year-old is still who I am at forty-three. I still write joy and I still write betterment into the world.’” Her sixth-grade teacher solidified Jean’s journey. “When The Matzah Ball was published I sent her a book with a letter and she wrote back, so it was wonderful. I give her a lot of props for starting me on my way.”

As Jean moved on with her education, she developed a deep love of reading. She took all the high school AP English classes, and at times the teacher would leave the room and have Jean teach the class. She loved literary criticism and analysis. She was accepted at The NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Founded in 1965, the school is heralded as the country’s preeminent center for the study of the performing, cinematic and emerging media arts. There she honed her dramatic writing skills with TV and film scripts. Jean believes that this form of writing has influenced her writing of novels. “To be a screenwriter you must be a visual writer,” she explains. She attributes her ability to carry visual writing into writing novels as a significant factor in her winning many auditory book awards.

Jean relates that she is a firm believer in the established

Scholarships

Continued from page 1 funded by a number of endowments established through the JFO Foundation, outside entities, and through the JFO’s Annual Campaign. Scholarships are available for JCC summer camp, residential Jewish summer camp, Israel peer programs, Friedel Jewish Academy, the Pennie Z. Davis Early Learning Center, and youth group programs. Jewish students, who are residents of the Omaha metropolitan area, can apply for scholarships for undergraduate, graduate, vocational, technical, professional or yeshiva studies programs. While the majority of scholarships are based on financial need, some college scholarships are merit-based.

I would like to highlight a few special funds:

Carl L. Frohm Educational Custodial Fund was created in 1995 by the Carl Frohm Foundation to help meet ever-increasing education costs. The fund provides scholarships for any Jewish child, teen, and young adult in need of financial assistance for education and Jewish experiences and has provided consistent support for nearly 30 years.

Herbert Goldsten Scholarships were established by the Herbert Goldsten Trust to provide Jewish educational opportunities for children and youth, including Jewish summer camp and day school education.

Bennett G. Hornstein Endowment Fund was endowed by the family and friends of the late Bennett G. Hornstein to provide scholarships for aspiring law students at either the University of Nebraska College of Law or Creighton University

The Old Avoca Schoolhouse in Avoca, Nebraska will be streaming three on line O’Carolan Fiddle Tunes for Two Workshops for soprano recorder players, fiddlers, violists, cellists, bassists, and mandolinists.

The Workshops will be on Tuesday, March 7, 7 p.m., Central Time, Wednesday, March 8, 10 a.m., Central Time, and Friday, March 10, 7 p.m., Central Time. Different tunes will be played at each session.

Each participant will receive a copy of our O’Carolan Fiddle Tunes for Two book, arranged for the instrument of their choice. Just as in all of the collections in the Tunes for Two series

three-act structure of writing. She strives for tight stories, tight narratives and compelling endings. She looks for “high concept” ideas in writing – something that hasn’t been done before. “I really don’t sit down to write a book unless it challenges me in some way. With Mr. Perfect on Paper the challenge I wanted to meet was to write an inter-faith romance that dealt with the tension of loving your religion and being in love with someone who is not Jewish. For me, as someone who fell in love with a non-Jewish man when I was a rabbinical student, (and I’ll tell you a secret, I wasn’t the only one in rabbinical school dating a non-Jew), this was a real issue in the Jewish world – that you could love your Jewish religion and also fall in love with someone outside of your faith,” Jean said. Jean weaves in brightness and lightness into this tension. She continued, “I’m a big proponent of joy. That’s the one thing we miss a lot in our society. We are very good at getting angry, we’re really good at getting toxic and spiraling, but we often forget to hold on to our joys.”

Jean is coming to Omaha through her affiliation with the Jewish Book Council (JBC). She states that you cannot be part of the Jewish world without knowing of the JBC, “I feel like I have known them my entire life. When The Matzah Ball came out, my publicist and I thought it was important to present it to the JBC.” Through this affiliation many Jewish authors have reached out to her in support and love and friendship. One of those authors is Pam Jenoff, the featured author for the November 2015 Omaha Jewish Book Month Luncheon. Jean speaks warmly of Pam, “She has been so good to me, and kind – I try to pay that forward with up-and-coming Jewish authors behind me.” In addition to Omaha, Jean is scheduled to visit the Mandel JCC, in Beachwood, Ohio and the Kansas City JCC & Federation this year. She has done numerous JBC events as well as non-JBC events, including The Today Show, Virginia Festival of the Book, the Association of Jewish Libraries, and other private events.

Registration is available and required for this Spring Author Event to be held March 2 at 2 p.m. at the Staenberg Omaha JCC. With your $10 registration fee you will have a seat to hear Jean’s presentation; you will receive a copy of Mr. Perfect on Paper, and can enjoy kosher desserts and drinks catered by the Star Deli. Go to www.jewishomaha.org, click on the sliding banner for the event, and complete your registration. Shirly Banner, Library Specialist, is available at sbanner@ jewishomaha.org of 402.334.6464 to assist with registration and to answer questions.

This program is made possible by the JFO’s membership in the Jewish Book Council, and the support of JFO Foundation funds – the Kenneth Ray Tretiak Memorial Fund and the Foundation IMPACT Grant.

School of Law. Applicants should demonstrate Hornstein’s core values and beliefs and be committed to working on behalf of “the poor and powerless.”

John H. Mosow & Ellin B. Siegel LIFE & LEGACY Endowment Fund was established with a twofold purpose: a. to enable Jewish youth under 18 to attend Jewish summer camp; and b. to assist Jewish adults over 40 years of age to travel to Israel on community or group trips. Primary consideration for both categories will be given to residents of the Lincoln, Nebraska, metro area.

Omaha Jewish Alumni Association/Annual Topgolf Fundraisers have helped young Jewish families by providing scholarships to the Pennie Z. Davis Early Childhood Learning Center.

There are also several scholarships available that are outside the realm of the Financial Aid Committee. These include the Sokolof Honor Roll scholarships, the Fellman/ Kooper scholarships, the Leon Fellman, DDS and A.A. & Ethel Yossem scholarships for Creighton University and the Bennet G. Hornstein Endowment Fund. Additional information on these is available at www.jewishomaha.org

Omaha’s Jewish families are encouraged to take advantage of these funding opportunities. All financial information is kept completely confidential. For any questions, please call Diane Walker at 402.334.6407 or via email at dwalker@jew ishomaha.org

these books contain the same tunes in the same keys making it easy for you to play with a friend playing another instrument. During the Workshop, we will read, play, and discuss various survival skills for these kinds of pieces. A treble clef version of the sheet music for the tunes being played will be displayed on the screen during the workshop.

There is limited enrollment, and pre-registration is required. The fee for each O’Carolan Fiddle Tunes for Two Workshops is $25. For more information, and to register: https://www.green blattandseay.com/workshops_ocarolan.shtml

as a dedicated home office. Don’t wait to see this fine residence that’s ready to enjoy.

1420 N. 185th Street | $635,000

Marty Cohen | 402-690-1591

SUMMER INTERN

AMY BERNSTEIN SHIVVERS JFO Foundation Executive Director

The Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation is proud to announce our renewed partnership initiative with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, LIFE & LEGACY PLUS. Greater Omaha was selected as one of the first communities for this national effort that will further enhance legacy donor engagement across the Federation, partner agencies, and synagogues. LIFE & LEGACY PLUS offers our partners critical resources that will emphasize planned afterlife gifts.

Bea Karp left an enormous impact through her courage and work with the Institute for Holocaust Education and her book, My Broken Doll. Bea’s impact and caring way, continues with her after-lifetime LIFE & LEGACY gift. Four endowments were created at the Foundation benefitting: the Institute for Holocaust Education, Jewish Family Service, Jewish Community Relations Council and Beth El Synagogue. We are grateful for Bea’s incredibly generous LIFE & LEGACY gift and the Foundation will ensure Bea’s memory, as a Holocaust survivor, will live on through our agencies and partner’s work.

LIFE & LEGACY has been going strong for many years, but LIFE & LEGACY PLUS will reinvigorate this initiative in our community. All our Partners are joining forces: the Jewish Federation of Omaha (and its agencies), including the newly established Jewish Community Relations Council, Nebraska Jewish Historical Society, Friedel Jewish Academy, Institute for Holocaust Education, Chabad, B’nai Israel Synagogue, Temple Israel, Beth El Synagogue and Beth Israel Synagogue.

Life and Legacy update

We continue to support this initiative because as time passes, we progress to different stages in life. These stages may include families with children who are now empty nesters, business owners who have sold their company, a college graduate who is building a successful career, or an individual in later retirement who is thinking about their legacy. When this happens, our priorities shift, and our financial situation may also shift

Since 2013, wonderful legacy commitments that are expected to eventually reach an estimated $25 million in future endowment fund assets, have been made benefiting the Jewish Federation of Omaha and its family of agencies, our synagogues, and our Jewish day school. Thank you to the many individuals and families who have contributed to this widereaching team effort to help our children, our children’s children, and beyond.

During the next four years, in partnership with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation LIFE & LEGACY PLUS, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation will work with local Jewish organizations and branch out into our community to provide training, financial incentives, and guidance to advance legacy giving.

Are you ready to establish a legacy?

If you want to invest in the future of our community to continue to ensure that we have the resources for issues you care about, you can make a commitment today.

More news will follow about LIFE & LEGACY PLUS. In the meantime, for any questions please contact Jay Katelman at 402.334.6461 or jkatelman@jewishomaha.org

Thank you for believing in and supporting Jewish Tomorrows!

Celebrating Miles Remer

BROOKLYN ARMSTRONG

This week, Temple Israel will be celebrating the second Bar Mitzvah of Miles Remer. Becoming a B’nai Mitzvah is a major life-cycle event that is thought to be a one-time thing, but Miles and the congregation will be leaning into the idea of a lifetime for this Shabbat. His special twice-in-a-lifetime event starts at 6 p.m. on Friday February 17 for a classic Shabbat service then will continue at 10:30 a.m. Saturday February 18

WE

The custom of a second B’nai Mitzvah stems from the reading of Psalm 90:10, “The span of our life is seventy years, or, given the strength, eighty years; but the best of them are trouble and sorrow.” Reaching age seventy can be considered a new start then, age eighty-three can be the equivalent of reaching B’nai Mitzvah age again. At age 89, Miles decided that it would be an honor to fulfill the mitzvah of becoming a bar mitzvah and

rededicate himself to Judaism.

Throughout his life, Miles has loved and embraced his Judaism by actively learning, teaching, and telling Jewish values and stories. As a member of both Beth El and Temple Israel, he shares his love through his charismatic laughter at onegs, his wonderful voice in both choirs, and his insights on topics in torah study. His Bar Mitzvah will be an incredible chance for him to share what he loves about his faith with the community that he loves so dearly.

Most B’nai Mitzvah students spend their days in a middle school classroom and decide to read out of the torah for the obligation to their families. Miles is quite different. At 89 years old, he is not worried about his voice cracking or his schoolmates making silly faces in the back. Rather, he is excited to share his experience with those that he loves and is ready to begin another Jewish adult journey.

THE JEWISH PRESS IS LOOKING FOR A SUMMER INTERN.

If you are currently attending college, are between the ages of 18 and 24, and want to become more involved in our community, this is your chance.

If you are interested, please send your resume and cover letter to avandekamp@jewishomaha.org.

CAN’T WAIT TO MEET YOU!

A note Miles Remer received at his first Bar Mitzvah from one of his teachers.

Omaha Community Playhouse presents Dreamgirls

Mind, Body, and Soul returns to Beth Israel

Stars rise and fall, but dreams live forever. In Dreamgirls, a trio of women soul singers catch their big break during an amateur competition. But will their friendship and music survive the rapid rise from obscurity to pop superstardom?

With dazzling costumes and powerhouse vocal performances, this Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical is inspired by some of the biggest musical acts of the 1960s—The Supremes, The Shirelles, James Brown, Jackie Wilson and more. Dreamgirls runs at the Omaha Community Playhouse in the Hawks Mainstage Theatre from March 3 to March 26, 2023. Tickets can be purchased by visiting the OCP Box office at 6915 Cass St., calling the OCP Box Office at 402.553.0800, or visiting omahaplayhouse.com

ORGANIZATIONS

B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS

The award-winning B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS speaker program currently meets Wednesdays via Zoom from noon to 1 p.m. Please watch our email for specific information concerning its thought-provoking, informative list of speakers. To be placed on the email list, contact Breadbreakers chair at gary.javitch@gmail.com

MARY SUE GROSSMAN for Beth Israel Synagogue

Based on the great response from last year’s event, “Mind. Body. Soul.” returns to Beth Israel, providing a special time for women of the community. Described as a “morning of fun, fitness, and friends,” the event will take place on Sunday, March 12, 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., at Beth Israel. Registration is required to participate.

It will be a great time to spend time with friends while enjoying a yoga warmup led by Laura Dembitzer, a Shine Dance fitness session with Melissa Shrago, and a delicious, healthy brunch, plus words of inspiration. A great committee of volunteers is working to make this year’s event even better than the first year.

Laura Dembitzer was thrilled by the response to last year’s event and hopes everyone will return to indulge themselves again this year. “We have such a wonderful community of strong, talented Jewish women who work, take care of their

families, volunteer, and so much more. One thing we all lack is balancing self-care with our commitments and responsibilities. We want to provide an opportunity to remind ourselves of the importance of self-care and the space to connect with other like-minded women.”

Open to the women of the Omaha Jewish community, 15 years or older, the event registration is $20 per person and includes all activities. Those registering before March 1 at noon will receive a free t-shirt. Space is limited and registration closes March 6. The registration link is found on Beth Israel’s website at orthodoxomaha.org, in the weekly email, and on Facebook. Registration and inquiries can also be made to executiveasst@orthodoxomaha.org or 402.556.6288. Attire is workout casual.

SP O TLIGHT

PHOTOS FROM RECENT JEWISH COMMUNITY EVENTS

SUBMIT A PHOTO: Have a photo of a recent Jewish Community event you would like to submit? Email the image and a suggested caption to: avandekamp@jewishomaha.org

GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

Below: Recently, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) convened a meeting with city officials to discuss the concerns and safety of the Omaha Jewish community. Pictured are Eugene Kowel, Omaha FBI Special Agent in Charge, left; Thomas Warren, Mayor’s Chief of Staff; Matthew Murphy, Omaha FBI Supervisory Special Agent; Bob Goldberg, Jewish Federation of Omaha CEO; Kaitlin Reece, Catalyst Public Affairs Government Affairs & Public Policy Advisor; Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert; Sharon Brodkey, JCRC Executive Director; Todd Schmaderer, Omaha Chief of Police and Felix Ungerman, Chief of Staff for Representative Don Bacon.

Top, above and below: Jan Goldstein and Marty Ricks are once again semi-retired as they finalized their period of consulting for the Jewish Federation of Omaha. We are all incredibly grateful for your presence!

Above: RBJH Parachute Fun!

Above, below and bottom: Residents at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home loved the delivery of flowers that students from Friedel Jewish Academy made during Day of Caring! Way to go, PJ Library friends!

Above and right: First and second graders enjoying their weekly music class with Omaha Conservatory Of Music.

Clean Speech Nebraska: How we

talk

Jeff and his friends stood under the hoop on the basketball court at recess, wishing they had the ball. Inside the school building, Sam sat outside the principal’s office, waiting to explain how one of his classmates had thrown the ball at him and broke his glasses.

“Sam made us lose the ball.

He’s such a wimp,” Jeff said.

“I don’t think you should say that,” one of the other boys pointed out. “It’s lashon hara.”

“Well, it’s true!” Jeff replied.

In American law, if something can be proved to be true, it may legally be said, even if it is negative and harmful. It is not considered slander if it’s accurate, no matter how damaging it may be to the person about whom it was said.

However, something that is hurtful or harmful is lashon hara, and should not be said, even if it is 100 % true.

Sometimes, when we’re about to say something unkind, a voice inside our head stops us. And then another voice pops up and says: “But it’s true!” as if that’s justification to go right ahead and say the lashon hara.

While this is bad enough when talking about an individual, it’s even worse when speaking unkindly about a whole group of people. We’ll tell ourselves: “I’m not talking about anyone in particular, I didn’t say anyone’s name.”

But by leaving out the name of the person, the insulting comment then refers to every kid in that school, every member of that synagogue, everyone who belongs to that group.

If we draw attention to the fact that something wrong is being done by “one of them” or “one of those you-know-whos,” then we are besmirching the entire group.

Clean Speech Nebraska is a community-wide, month-long campaign to clean up our conversations, one word at a time. By encouraging mindfulness and personal awareness, we can create a more peaceful and respectful world, where our communities are united and connected. Why participate? Just about anyone who develops a greater awareness of the way they communicate with others will enjoy smoother, more pleasant interactions and relationships. It’s just no fun to live in a nasty, back-biting world filled with careless speech that causes us all discomfort and pain. This will help!

This concept isn’t just isolated to the Jewish community. The message of Clean Speech Nebraska goes far beyond religious affiliations. In fact, many religions emphasize the importance of guarding one’s tongue. This is a broad, inclusive challenge for everyone.

Throughout the entire month of February, Clean Speech Nebraska is working closely with schools, synagogues, and other community organizations to share thought-provoking educational content. The campaign crosses political lines and reaches people of all religions to inspire mindfulness in thousands of adults and children.

You can find out more at Cleanspeech. com/Nebraska

Camp Sabra is hiring!

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT

Jewish Press Editor

Camp Sabra on the Staenberg Peninsula is currently accepting applications for the positions of Area Director, Cabin Counselors, Cabin Specialists, Unit Heads and a Seasonal Grounds person. We are also looking for a Camp Photographer. For the photographer position specifically, those interested can contact Michael Parsow at mparsow5@aol. com. The first camp session in 2023 is from June 11-July 6, and the second session is July 10-Aug. 4

What do you really do at camp? It’s not being a counselor; it’s leading and supervising a team of 12 enthusiastic individuals. It’s not running an activity; it’s implementing skill-based curriculum that’s tailored to the specific needs of the campers.

Skills gained from working at Camp Sabra include but are not limited to Emotional intelligence awareness and cultivation (cared for and understood children’s emotional needs); living within a community—responsibility and awareness (brainstormed goals for each child and engaged them as a member of the community, taught respect for others and exemplified respect through consistency and compas-

sion) and program management (developed programs for children that kept them entertained and engaged).

Camp Sabra is an Equal Opportunity Em-

ployer. The J will recruit, hire, train, and promote people in all job classifications without regard to race, color, marital status, religion (unless religion is a bona fide occupational qualification), national origin, age, disability or history of disability (except where physical or mental abilities are a bona fide occupational requirement and the individual is not able to perform the essential functions of the position even with reasonable accommodations), or sex (unless gender is a bona fide occupational qualification), status as a veteran or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state and local law.

For more information and to apply, please visit www.campsabra.com or call 314.442.3151.

Trade scholarships available for the 2023-24 academic year

An anonymous donor in our community has created two trade school scholarship opportunities, up to $5,000 each, to go towards the 2023-24 academic year.

Not every student who advances into higher education signs up for a four-year curriculum. Some high school graduates seek job training that lasts a year or two and then places them in the workforce. Such opportunities include, but are not restricted to: Infor-

mation Technology, Construction, Industrial, Transportation and Horticulture. It is not too late to apply for this upcoming school year!

Qualified students who have unmet needs regarding tuition for either a two-year trade school program or a trade certificate program can contact the Jewish Press at avandekamp @jewishomaha.org or jpress@jewishoma ha.org for more information.

Islands may vary.

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2023

HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS

HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS AND PARENTS

We will be publishing our annual High School Graduation Class pages on May 26, 2023. To be included, send us an email with the student’s name, parents names, high school they are attending, the college they will be attending and photo to: jpress@jewishomaha.org by May 9, 2023.

The Jewish Press

Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole.

The Jewish Press

(Founded in 1920)

Margie Gutnik

President

Annette van de Kamp-Wright

Editor Richard Busse

Creative Director

Lori Kooper-Schwarz

Assistant Editor

Gabby Blair

Staff Writer

Sam Kricsfeld

Digital support

Mary Bachteler

Accounting

Jewish Press Board

Margie Gutnik, President; Abigail Kutler, Ex-Officio; Seth Feldman; David Finkelstein; Ally Freeman; Mary Sue Grossman; Les Kay; Natasha Kraft; Chuck Lucoff; David Phillips; and Joseph Pinson.

The mission of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to build and sustain a strong and vibrant Omaha Jewish Community and to support Jews in Israel and around the world. Agencies of the JFO are: Institute for Holocaust Education, Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Social Services and the Jewish Press Guidelines and highlights of the Jewish Press, including front page stories and announcements, can be found online at: www.jewishomaha.org; click on ‘Jewish Press.’

Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole. The Jewish Press reserves the right to edit signed letters and articles for space and content. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the Kashrut of any product or establishment.

Editorial

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The Jewish Press welcomes Letters to the Editor. They may be sent via regular mail to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154; via fax: 1.402.334.5422 or via e-mail to the Editor at: avandekamp@jewishomaha.org.

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Why we should care about Partnership2Gether

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor

This past week, I’ve been doing some digging, trying to find all the stories we’ve published about Partnership2Gether in the past years. It’s tremendously time-consuming, but I don’t mind. I love our Partnership. Its programs and people make us feel a much deeper connection to the land of Israel than we would have without it.

“Together, we have made a significant impact in Israel, exemplified by the new Emergency Services underground unit at the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya,” Jan Goldstein wrote for the Jewish Press in February of 2010. At the time, I was brand new in my job and thanks to Jan, I had the chance to see the hospital for myself later that year. It left a deep impression. And perhaps it has something to do with the fact that my husband, as I write this, is doing a rotation at that very hospital, but I think it’s about time we reconnect with our P2G region on all fronts.

If that sounds self-serving, I can’t argue. What is good for the Jewish Federation and for the community as a whole, and what benefits many of us personally often overlaps. Let’s face it: having a personal stake in a solid relationship with Israel is good for all of us.

As Diaspora Jews, our relationship with Israel is threatened by a number of things. There is antisemitism, there is BDS, there is stereotyping and marginalization. It’s easy for some to portray Israel as evil, and apartheid state, an occupational force. Some are brazen enough to deny Israel’s very right

to exist.

Whether we have been to Israel ourselves or not, we keep an eye on the news, and we have opinions about the government. As for Bibi and his coali-

face. we see each other. We see beyond the politics and policies, we see past the labels and the language barrier and the cultural differences; we stop generalizing and start believing that not all Israelis are ‘rude’ and not all American Jews are ‘entitled’. When we see each other as people, we can get things done. However, in order for that to happen, we have to share the same space.

I believe Partnership provides that space. Whether it is in the Western Galilee Medical Center, or through artist exchanges, whether it is through school twinning or by bringing professional educators together, when we share a space, we grow. We grow towards each other, together, rather than apart. Through the three most recent thematic partnerships, that impact goes even further. P2G includes a global LGBTQ community convening 15 Jewish LGBTQ organizations. A partnership brings together 22 activists to promote common interests such as inclusion, equality, and cultural diversity. A Jews of Color partnership connects activists from the US, Canada, Europe, Africa and Israel to promote conversation and action.

tion; we discuss it, we hate it or love it, but we are never neutral. And although there is plenty to disagree with (as with all politics everywhere), we feel guilty when we do. Or maybe we don’t, but we’re still careful who is in the room when we dare to criticize Israel.

Here’s the key to having a better relationship with Israel: it’s the people. When we connect face-to-

Over the next year, we’ll keep you updated on any and all developments related to P2G. Let’s celebrate 25 years of Partnership Together!

Partnership2Gether (P2G) Global Network, is a network for the promotion, empowerment and development of deep connections, which strengthens Jewish communities in Israel and worldwide by creating revitalized, ongoing and meaningful engagement based on mutual endeavor and shared Jewish identity.

for fighting climate change: their bank accounts

RABBI JENNIE ROSENN JTA

The last eight years have been the hottest in recorded history, causing untold damage across the world — and that destruction is not something that we can reverse with the flick of a switch.

The American Jewish community has an important role to play in addressing the underlying cause of these devastating events and avoiding an everincreasing cascade of destruction and harm.

Many of us are members of Jewish organizations or congregations that, often unknowingly, support fossil fuel companies. Even as we work to cut our carbon footprints, our investments are financing Exxon’s and Chevron’s expansion in fossil fuels. A recent report by the organization I lead, Dayenu, found that a sample of major Jewish organizations had over $3 billion invested in fossil fuel companies. According to Fossil Free Funds and the EPA, that’s $3 billion invested in coal, oil and gas companies that extract and burn carbon responsible for the equivalent of running 561,276 cars on the road for a year.

By reallocating that money from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels to investing in clean energy, we can turn our communal assets from a net cost to the earth to a net gain for our future.

The world’s leading scientists tell us that to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis, we must halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and end all climate pollution no later than 2050. Fossil fuels — coal, oil, and gas — are the leading contributors to climate change, responsible for 75% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydropower are already cheaper, more reliable, and more lucrative for investors — while creating millions of jobs.

The vast majority of American Jews support bold climate action. A 2014 study found that 8 out of 10 American Jews were concerned or alarmed about the climate crisis. Since then, climate has become a top concern for American Jews, consistently ranking as a priority issue for American Jewish voters, especially young people. Initiatives like the Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition are helping institu-

tions cut their emissions, and there is growing interest in socially responsible and impact investing.

These steps show a commitment to taking action — but much more is needed to reach the scale necessary to confront climate change. Over the past few years, Brandeis, a university “animated by Jewish values, rooted in Jewish history and experience,” decided to turn concern into action.

Joining Harvard, Yale and other universities, Brandeis divested some $997 million from fossil fuel companies in 2018. But University President Ronald Liebowitz said a recent decision to further

leaders through cheshbon (research investments), limmud (education), sicha (engagement), kavanah (making a plan) and kadima (moving your money). Larger institutions will focus on their asset managers, while congregations and smaller organizations will focus on their banks. By advocating publicly and privately with both banks and asset managers — the two primary financiers of fossil fuel extraction — to reinvest their money, Jewish organizations can educate their communities about sustainability and finance. Vocally aligning their finances with their values, the Jewish community can help speed a movement away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy at the pace that we, and future generations, need to survive.

reduce exposure to fossil fuels and expand investments in clean energy helps move the university to further align with its Jewish values.

It’s not just institutions of higher education. Thousands of other organizations have already moved their money from fossil fuels to clean energy investments. Sovereign states like Norway, major retirement plans like New York City’s pension funds, and numerous faith organizations have all moved their resources in ways designed to make them agents of a sustainable future.

Now Jewish organizations, institutions and communities can join them. As part of the report With All Our Might: Bechol M’odecha: How the Jewish Community Can Invest in a Just, Livable Future, Dayenu lays out a six-step Roadmap for Change to help the Jewish community better align its investments with its values. Beginning with Jewish learning, or reishit chochma (grounding), the steps guide institutional

And, make no mistake, it’s a race against time. The International Energy Agency — the world’s most respected energy analysis group — says that to reach zero emissions by 2050, we need to invest $4 in clean energy for every $1 in fossil fuels every year for the next few decades. However, since the Paris Agreement was signed, asset managers and banks have put trillions of dollars into the fossil fuel industry. To win this race, we need to use the lever of private finance. Faced with pressure from whole sections of the public — including the Jewish community — companies like BlackRock, Citigroup, JPMorganChase and Vanguard could be persuaded to hasten the transition to clean energy.

The American Jewish community is well-positioned to take meaningful climate action. Like other faith traditions, we are well-organized, and our institutions have an estimated $100 billion of investment assets. Following Dayenu’s six-point roadmap, we can withhold the Jewish community’s financial support for dirty energy and instead invest in renewables. By raising our voices alongside the many investors who are calling for change, we can accelerate the transition to a clean energy future. As floods, fires, and heat waves come with alarmingly greater frequency and severity, we know we have no time to waste.

Rabbi Jennie Rosenn is the founder and CEO of Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action.

Jewish institutions have a tool

“Even as we work to cut our carbon footprints, our investments are financing Exxon’s and Chevron’s expansion in fossil fuels.” Credit: iStock Getty Images

You People wasn’t funny at all to my Black and Mexican Jewish family

CINTHYA SILVERSTEIN

JTA

As a couple that is two parts Jew, one part Black, and all parts lovers of comedy, my husband and I sat with hopes (maybe not high ones) to watch Netflix’s You People.

It’s rare that we see our cultures represented together in buzzy movies, and we were excited about the possibility of seeing ourselves reflected in the story of blended Black and Jewish families. Unfortunately, at the expense of comedy greats including Eddie Murphy, Jonah Hill, Elliot Gould and Julia Louis Dreyfus, the movie ended up being a painful reminder of how our family — made up of Mexican and Black Jews with Ashkenazi roots — so often must explain and justify our existence in Jewish and Black spaces.

The movie starts off with Jonah Hill’s character very comfortably recording his podcast about “the culture” (ostensibly, hiphop culture?) with his Black, queer best friend, seeming to set the stage for the progressive coolness that will later allow him to date someone who is not “square” and potentially Black. Hill’s character loves rap music, sneaker culture and Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, and he knows not to say the full title of that song from Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch The Throne album.

Yet we find him in scenarios that have him playing into uncomfortable tropes — like saying “our boy” when referring to Malcolm X — as he quickly and nervously falls into defining Black culture at its most reductionist form. It’s no surprise that the film goes on to portray Blackness as a monolithic, one-dimensional stereotype.

It doesn’t get any better when we see Hill’s character in a Jewish space: High Holiday services at the Skirball Cultural Center, here serving as a synagogue. There and throughout the movie, Jews are portrayed as white and uncool — sometimes aggressively so, almost as if the writers didn’t trust the audience to know this family is Jewish.

My husband and I have been to the Skirball Center on many occasions, one of them being a wedding for two supremely cool Jews of color. But you would never know from the movie that such an event could ever take place, or even that Jews of color exist in Los Angeles. Instead, the writers continue a

dated tradition of movies that overly simplify the worlds they depict based on racial binaries.

This flattened view of the world is especially lamentable because the rom-com genre has at its fingertips the easiest blueprint: All families are ridiculous and oftentimes the blending of two families even more so. Within my family alone, there are several different cultures that consistently push against each other in humorous ways. There’s “nerd culture,” “comic

issue. Each

book culture,” “skate culture,” “food culture.” Even in my culturally blended family, where my Mexican immigrant parents regularly share meals with my Black mother-in-law, the resulting humor has never been about racial differences. In a story where the message is that we can all get along, we don’t need the punchline to be about race.

You People could have told a story in which Jonah Hill’s character actually subverts the standard narrative, maybe one in which his character realizes how easy it is to fetishize Blackness and through experiences with his father-in-law comes to find the richness and fullness of Black culture that can even be expanded when blending his family with his fiancée’s. Or a movie in which a member of the Nation of Islam tries to openly accept a Jewish son-in-law and, rather than using Louis Farrakhan as an awkwardly divisive plot point, we see instead a Muslim Eddie Murphy try to find ways to connect with modern day hip-hop

can be personalized with your

the names of your children or your grandchildren. Just fill out the form below and send or bring it to the Jewish Press office. But hurry; these ads will only be accepted through March 3, 2023

culture. Either option would allow the audience to see the layers in these characters that we are so often erased from narratives about Jewishness or Blackness.

The writers opted for the easiest avenue: comedy based on persistent racial “othering.” But the differences shown are no longer based on any actual truth. They are based on beliefs we have been told to keep repeating in an effort to keep the agenda of white supremacy intact. The writers are depicting worn-out “differences” that don’t represent an authentic Jewish or authentic Black experience. Presenting any cultural experience as the “authentic” one is just another way of saying stereotypes are true — and that’s not funny at all.

Several years ago, my family participated in Ava Duvernay’s life-swap show in which we traded homes and experiences with a family of white Mormons. Our goal at the time was to show examples of coexistence and to demonstrate how contemporary identities are multilayered. But we also hoped that the experience would help us find greater acceptance as Jews of color, which still feels generally elusive. You People underscored for us why.

At one point during the life-swap, my husband said to me, “Listen, when you’re Black and Jewish, and everything hurts, laughter is the best medicine.” But laughter doesn’t come easily when the jokes only make sense if you don’t exist.

Sure, there were a few chuckles in my house during You People. The comedian Mike Epps was funny as he always is, and I laughed when Jonah Hill showed up to his date in a tie-dye sweatsuit. But for nearly two hours, all I could think about was how “You People” feels like a movie for folks who are clinging to stereotypes because it helps them feel comfortable with their own cultural identities, which once were dominant but now must share real estate with others that are equally authentic. By confining the definition of culture to a singular idea of “race” this movie prevents an important conversation from moving forward. And that means my family, and so many other Jewish families, are once again left behind.

Cinthya Silverstein is a mother, photographer, and dedicated autodidact living and working in Southern California.

Cinthya Silverstein says her family, pictured at bottom, wasn't represented in Netflix’s race-relations comedy You People, seen at top Credit: Netflix; bottom picture courtesy Silverstein

Synagogues

B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

618 Mynster Street

Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766

712.322.4705 www.cblhs.orb

email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE

Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California Street Omaha, NE 68154-1980

402.492.8550 bethel-omaha.org

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

12604 Pacific Street Omaha, NE. 68154

402.556.6288 BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org

CHABAD HOUSE

An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch

1866 South 120 Street Omaha, NE 68144-1646

402.330.1800 OChabad.com email: chabad@aol.com

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY:

B’NAI JESHURUN

South Street Temple

Union for Reform Judaism

2061 South 20th Street Lincoln, NE 68502-2797

402.435.8004 www.southstreettemple.org

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

Capehart Chapel 2500 Capehart Road

Offutt AFB, NE 68123

402.294.6244

email: oafbjsll@icloud.com

ROSE BLUMKIN

JEWISH HOME

323 South 132 Street Omaha, NE 68154 rbjh.com

TEMPLE ISRAEL

Union for Reform Judaism (URJ)

13111 Sterling Ridge Drive Omaha, NE 68144-1206

402.556.6536 templeisraelomaha.com

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY:

TIFERETH ISRAEL

Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

3219 Sheridan Boulevard Lincoln, NE 68502-5236

402.423.8569 tiferethisraellincoln.org

B’NAI ISRAEL

Monthly Speaker Series Service, Friday, March 10, 7:30 p.m. with our guest speaker. Our service leader is Larry Blass. Everyone is always welcome at B’nai Israel!

For information on COVID-related closures and about our historic synagogue, please contact Howard Kutler at hkutler@hotmail.com or any of our other board members: Scott Friedman, Rick Katelman, Janie Kulakofsky, Howard Kutler, Carole and Wayne Lainof, Mary-Beth Muskin, Debbie Salomon and Sissy Silber. Handicap Accessible.

BETH EL

Services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman.

VIRTUAL AND IN-PERSON MINYAN SCHEDULE: Mornings on Sundays, 9:30 a.m.; Mondays and Thursdays, 7 a.m.; Evenings on Sunday-Thursday, 5:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Havdalah, 6:35 p.m. Zoom Only.

SUNDAY: No BESTT — Presidents Weekend; Torah Study, 10 a.m.; Meals That Heal, 3:30 p.m. at Ronald McDonald House.

MONDAY: Eighth Grade Trip to Chicago.

TUESDAY: Pirkei Avot, 11:30 a.m. with Rabbi Abraham at Beth El & Live Stream; Board of Trustees Meeting, 7:15 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: BESTT (Grades 3-7), 4:15 p.m.; Hebrew High (Grades 8-12), 6 p.m.

THURSDAY: Hamantashen Orders Due.

FRIDAY-Feb. 24: Nebraska AIDS Project Lunch, 11:30 a.m.; Kabbalat Shabbat 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

SATURDAY-Feb. 25: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; BESTT Movie Time Shabbat’s Cool, 10 a.m.; Havdalah, 6:45 p.m. Zoom Only. Please visit bethel-omaha.org for additional information and service links.

BETH ISRAEL

FRIDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat, 5:42 p.m.; Candlelighting, 5:4 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:45 a.m.; Mincha, 5:30 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity 6 p.m.; Havdalah, 6:44 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Daf Yomi, 5:10 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv 5:40 p.m.

MONDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Daf Yomi, 5:10 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 5:40 p.m.

TUESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.; Parsha Class for 4th-8th graders, 3:45 p.m. at FJA; Daf Yomi 5:10 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 5:40 p.m.; Board of Directors Meeting, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Rosh Chodesh Adar — Nach Yomi, 6:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.; Daf Yomi 5:10 p.m.;

Mincha/Ma’ariv, 5:40 p.m.

THURSDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Character Development, 9:30 a.m.; Daf Yomi, 5:10 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv 5:40 p.m.; Parsha Class 6:10 p.m.

FRIDAY-Feb. 24: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Shabbat Dinner, 5 p.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat, 5:50 p.m.; Candlelighting, 5:51 p.m.

SATURDAY-Feb. 25: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:45 a.m.; Mincha, 5:40 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity, 6:10 p.m.; Havdalah, 6:52 p.m.

Please visit orthodoxomaha.org for additional information and Zoom service links.

CHABAD HOUSE

All services are in-person. All classes are being offered in-person and via Zoom (ochabad.com/academy). For more information or to request help, please visit www.ochabad.com or call the office at 402.330.1800.

FRIDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochabad.com/Lech ayim; Candlelighting, 5:42 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; One-Hour Service, 11 a.m. at Chabad; Kiddush Lunch, noon; Shabbat Ends, 6:43 p.m.

SUNDAY: Sunday Morning Wraps: Video Presentation 9-9:30 a.m. and Breakfast, 9:45 a.m.

MONDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Personal Parsha, 9:30 a.m.; Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

TUESDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Hebrew Grammar, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

WEDNESDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Tanya Class, 9:30 a.m.; Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Hebrew Reading, 11:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

THURSDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Hebrew Reading, 11 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Talmud Study (Sanhedrin 34), noon; Hebrew Reading, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Jewish Law Class, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY-Feb. 24: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochabad. com/Lechayim; Candlelighting, 5:51 p.m.

SATURDAY-Feb. 25: Shacharit 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 6:51 p.m.

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN & TIFERETH ISRAEL

Services facilitated by Rabbi Alex Felch. Note: Some of our services, but not all, are now being offered in person.

FRIDAY: Shabbat Candlelighting, 5:45 p.m.; Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Nathaniel and Steve Kaup, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg host: TBD.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Mishpatim; Havdalah 6:46 p.m.

SUNDAY: No LJCS Classes; Men's Bike/Coffee Group continues to meet during the winter months, 10:30 a.m. at Rock-N-Joe, just off of 84th and Glynoaks. For more information or questions please email Al Weiss at albertw801@gmail.com; Jewish Book Club, 1:30 p.m. and will discuss Can We Talk About Israel? A Guide for the Curious, Confused and Conflicted by Daniel Sokatch; Special SST Membership Meeting, 3 p.m. via Zoom; Pickleball, 3-5 p.m. at TI. For more information please contact Miriam Wallick by text message 402.470.2393 or email at Miriam 57@aol.com. Wear comfortable clothes and appropriate footwear.

MONDAY: Presidents Day — Synagogue Offices Closed.

WEDNESDAY: LJCS Classes, 4:30 p.m.; Adult Ed class: The Modern History of Israel, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at SST.

FRIDAY-Feb. 24: Shabbat Candlelighting, 5:54 p.m.; Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Nathaniel and Steve Kaup, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg host: TBD.

SATURDAY-Feb. 25: Shabbat Morning Service 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Terumah; Havdalah 6:54 p.m.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

FRIDAYS: Virtual Shabbat Service, 7:30 p.m. every first and third of the month at Capehart Chapel. Contact TSgt Jason Rife at OAFBJSLL@icloud.com for more information.

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME

The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home’s service is currently closed to visitors.

TEMPLE ISRAEL

In-person and virtual services conducted by Rabbi Batsheva Appel, Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin, and Cantor Joanna Alexander

FRIDAY: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 5:45-7 p.m.; Shabbat B’yachad Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY: Torah Study 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SUNDAY: Book Club: The Golem and the Jinni (Wicker), 10:30 a.m. at the Bagel Bin.

TUESDAY: Board of Trustees Meeting, 7-9 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Yarn It, 9 a.m.-noon In-Person; Grades 3-6, 4-6 p.m.; T’filah, 4:45 p.m.; Summer Camp 101: Camp Sabra, 3:30-6:30 p.m.; Grades 9-12, 6-8 p.m. at Temple; Grades 7-8 6:30-8 p.m.; Community Beit Midrash, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY: Thursday Morning Class 10 a.m. with Rabbi Azriel — In-Person & Zoom.

FRIDAY-Feb. 24: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m.; Classic Shabbat Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY-Feb. 25: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Shabbat Morning Service and Bar Mitzvah of Miles Remer 10:30 a.m. In-Person & Zoom. Please visit templeisraelomaha.com for additional information and Zoom service links.

From Mel Brooks to Elaine May to Ethan Coen

STEPHEN SILVER

JTA

On a couple of occasions in Julian Schlossberg’s early life, he found himself in parts of the United States where some people he talked to had never met a Jewish person. The first was a stint in the Army, the second was while selling movies to rural television stations.

But over the next six decades — once Schlossberg embarked on a long and successful career that included stops as a Hollywood studio executive with Paramount Pictures and later as a prolific distributor of movies and producer of off-Broadway and Broadway shows — he was rarely the only Jew in the room ever again.

Schlossberg tells those stories and many more in his new memoir Try Not to Hold It Against Me: A Producer’s Life (Beaufort Books). He writes about how he went from a child in the Bronx to an influential show business figure who mingled and worked with countless movie stars, having enjoyed a long career that shows no signs of being over at age 81.

Schlossberg was born in 1941, and grew up in what he describes as a middle class family, in a

Bronx neighborhood that at the time was heavily Jewish and Irish. His father Louis played semi-pro baseball, but as Schlossberg writes in the book, turned down the chance to play for a team in

hosted conventions, car shows and rodeos that came through the city at the time. Those rodeos, in fact, were Schlossberg’s introduction to showbiz.

“I would go as a kid and just revel in the fact that I was meeting these incredible stars,” he said.

Meeting stars would eventually become commonplace. Before and after his time in the Army in the early 1960s, Schlossberg worked as a cab driver, a busboy, a waiter, a counselor, a typist and more while taking college classes at night. He got a job at ABC in 1964 and worked his way up the company’s ranks.

Kansas City in part because “there were almost no Jews in baseball.” Instead, Louis spent most of his professional life working in Manhattan’s Garment District.

The family lived near the Kingsbridge Armory, then likely the largest of its kind in the world, which

“I had decided, as a very young man, that since I didn’t have a law degree or a dental degree or a medical degree, I was going to learn every aspect of show business that I could,” he said. “I didn’t know what it was going to do, but I knew that knowledge was power, and that if I had knowledge, maybe I’d get some power.”

He would live out that goal, working in just about every area of entertainment, from radio to movie distribution to theater producing.

This story was edited for length. Read more at www.omahajewishpress.com

Schlossberg with Jewish star Michael Douglas. Credit: Julian Schlossberg

Life cycles

Strengthening our Allyship

PAM MONSKY

Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC)

Assistant Director

Join us Monday, Feb. 27 at 7p.m. for an intimate conversation with Terri Sanders, publisher of the Black-owned Omaha Star newspaper and Annette van de Kamp-Wright, editor of the Jewish Press and moderated by Marty Shukert. In celebration of Black History Month, this program will kick off upcoming programming focused on strengthening the allyship between the Black and Jewish communities. Terri and Annette will talk about being minority women in leadership roles in their respective communities and answer your questions about the current challenges facing the Jewish and Black communities in Omaha.

Terri D. Sanders is the Publisher of The Omaha Star news-

BIRTH

LINCOLN ANNETTE BUTCHER

Becca and Joe Butcher of Bennington, NE, announce the Feb. 6, 2023 birth of their daughter, Lincoln Annette.

She is named for her great-grandmother, Annette Gordon. She has a brother, Nash Butcher.

Grandparents are Sandy and Bruce Gordon of Omaha, and Margaret and Grant Butcher of Springdale, Arkansas.

INFORMATION

ANTISEMITIC/HATE INCIDENTS

If you encounter an antisemitic or other hate incident, you are not alone. Your first call should be to the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) in Omaha at 402.334.6572, or email JCRCreporting@ jewishomaha.org. If you perceive an imminent threat, call 911, and text Safety & Security Manager James Donahue at 402.213.1658.

paper, a weekly community newspaper. She is a communicator with a passion for moving the needle forward in her community. She also serves a dual role as the Executive Director of the Mildred D. Brown Memorial Study Center, a 501(c) (3) organization.

Annette van de Kamp-Wright is the editor and agency director for the Jewish Press. She was born and raised in the Netherlands and moved to the US in 1996. Since 2002, she has lived in Omaha with her husband and two children.

Marty Shukert is an Omaha city planner and has been involved in the planning and revival of the city since 1976. As head of the Omaha Planning Department, the City developed the ConAgra campus and Heartland of America Park, the new Riverfront area, several North Omaha housing initiatives and Omaha’s recreational trails system. In 1989, Mr. Shukert joined RDG as a planning consultant and continued his work in several significant projects throughout the Midwest region.

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Historian sheds new light on a famous story about Abraham Lincoln and a New York cantor

ANDREW

SILOW CARROLL

New York Jewish Week

A new book untangles one of the best known incidents involving Jews in the American Civil War — and suggests the real version is both more complicated and more interesting than the legend.

In Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army, historian Adam D. Mendelsohn recalls the story of Arnold Fischel, the Dutch-born hazan, or cantor, at New York’s Shearith Israel Congregation, and how he persuaded President Abraham Lincoln to support the idea of allowing Jews to serve as military chaplains.

That much is true, as Mendelsohn explained in an online talk Tuesday sponsored by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Under a congressional statute, only Christian ministers could be chaplains, so in December 1861, Fischel traveled to Washington to argue his case directly to the president. Lincoln agreed to see Fischel, and a few days later wrote the cantor saying he would “try to have a new law broad enough to cover what is desired by you on behalf of the Israelites.”

On July 17, 1862, Lincoln signed the law permitting Jews to serve as chaplains.

And yet, in research for his new book — which relied in large part on a vast database of Civil War soldiers known as the Shapell Roster — other parts of the story don’t hold together, Mendelsohn explained. According to a frequently retold version of the story, Fischel had been nominated to replace a Jewish layman named Michael Allen who had been forced out as chaplain of the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry, allegedly at the request of a visiting delegation from the YMCA. Horace Greeley’s crusading New-York Tribune and other papers picked up the

story and made a hero of the Jewish officer who had mustered the cavalry, Colonel Max Friedman, supposedly for “leading the charge against the unjust law.”

In fact, writes Mendelsohn, Allen was not kicked out as chaplain but probably resigned because he wasn’t enjoying his army service far from home. As for the colonel, “There is no evidence of a coordinated campaign by Friedman and his fellow Jews to elect Arnold Fischel in place of Allen.” Instead, Fischel’s contract with Shearith Israel was about to expire, and he sought the cavalry job because he was in “urgent need” of the army’s relatively generous pay for chaplains.

Friedman, meanwhile, vigorously denied press reports that his 700-man cavalry, which had fewer than 20 Jewish soldiers, needed a Jewish chaplain. Mendelsohn found evidence that Friedman shrank from the attention, in part because he was a bit of a scammer: Like many officers in his day, he charged the government for no-show recruits, sold commissions to officers and got a cut of the profits from government contractors, known as “sutlers.” Even Michael Allen — who sold liquor — might have been in on the grift.

“It is a much more tangled tale than originally thought, but the outcome is the same,” Mendelsohn, director of the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Associate Professor of History at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, said Tuesday. “In fact, the Jewish community does lobby Lincoln to change the law, and there is a considerable effort to do so.”

Mendelsohn said the story of Fischel and Lincoln underscores the need to dig more deeply into American Jewish his-

tory, with the help of emerging resources like the Shapell Roster. His book about the 1,700 Jewish soldiers who served in the

Union Army is, he writes, “a story of ordinary men in extraordinary times, as fine and as flawed as their fellow soldiers, and Jewish too.”

As for Fischel, he served for a time as sort of a chaplain-atlarge to the Army of the Potomac, but never got the lucrative appointment he sought. Lincoln appeared skeptical of his request that a Jewish clergyman was needed as a hospital chaplain in Washington, where Jews were but a tiny fraction of the dead and wounded. Denied that commission, a disappointed Fischel returned to Europe.

A recruitment poster from 1861, left, features the name of Col. Max Friedman, who led the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry; at right, the Fifth Pennsylvania camp in Virginia on Oct. 29, 1864. Credit: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library Duke University; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, from Jewish Soldiers in the Civl War: The Union Army