March 24, 2023

The Jewish Press

Good-bye and Thank you for 22 years

KAREN M. GUSTAFSON, MS, NCC, LIMHP his is what people are saying to me, but I want to turn this around and say it to EACH OF YOU!!!!

THANK YOU for allowing me to serve the Jewish community for the last 22 years.

I was originally hired by Steve Stiel in December of 2000. Steve had been my Intern at Child Saving Institute and Sally Kaplan my boss (she liked that title back then... before I became hers years later, LOL); Gloria Kaslow was the JFS Board President and Howard Epstein the Past President. Jenny Meyerson was the Assistance Coordinator and Tanya Siena the outgoing Coordinator of the Resettlement Program.

I was not Jewish, am not Jewish, but more times than not people assumed that I was, and I was okay with that. When my 25-year-old son, Jared, attended the Child Development Center (CDC then), as a preschooler, driving him home with his car seat in the back, he asked, “Mom, are we Jewish?” I was raised (loosely) Catholic, got married in the Catholic Church, at Boys Town by Father Peter, but with my husband Jeff, we were raising our kids Lutheran. And, I had worked for the Methodist Community Counseling Program. No wonder Jared was confused. My answer to him was, “No, but we’re a mix of a bunch of things and being a part of other religions is our religion.”

I have two sons, ages 28 and 25 who both played basketball at the J, spent their summers at the pool, grew up to be Camp Counselors here and loved it. They still come home See Karen Gustafson page 2

Passover at Beth Israel with the Abramovich family

Sunday Fundays: Music Bingo

MARY SUE GROSSMAN for Beth Israel Synagogue

Still eating your leftover mishlonach manot goodies? Have a few yummy hamantaschen tucked away in the freezer? How about those delicious Girl Scout cookies stored in the pantry? Yes, it’s time to enjoy those goodies as everyone moves into the “No Chometz Zone” for Passover. The first seder is Wednesday See Passover at Beth Israel page 3

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMPWRIGHT Jewish Press Editor

March 12 the Jewish Federation of Omaha hosted Music Bingo in the Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Community Engagement Venue. It was the first of our ‘Sunday Fundays,’ which are chaired by Rachel and Daniel Grossman.

“A few months ago,” JFO Director

of Development Rachel Ring said, “We brought in Aaron Henne, the artistic director of theatre dybbuk, a company whose work focuses on Jewish folklore and history.”

Aaron teaches storytelling throughout the country and has designed and facilitated workshops for Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Dreamworks. He was an American Jewish See Sunday Fundays page 2

Check out” these recent additions to the Kripke-Veret Collection Page 4

Jean Metzler’s visit Page 5

Israel’s right-wing government has created a crisis Page 12

Karen Gustafson

Credit: Eczebulon

Sunday Fundays

Continued from page 1

University Dream Lab Fellow and the Diane Luboff Scholar at the Cutter Colloquium at HUC-JIR. Aaron has also served as a professional mentor at Otis College of Art and Design, as faculty for the Wexner Heritage Program, and as a consultant for a wide variety of organizations—including Jewish Federations.

“During his workshops,” Rachel said, “he encouraged us to brainstorm together and think of new ideas around engagement and community. One activity that came out of those sessions was ‘Sunday Fundays.’ We wanted to bring a series of fun events that applied to all ages, all demographics, the entire community, and we wanted it to be free.”

Music Bingo was a hit; it brought in people of all ages, from Early Learning Center students to Rose Blumkin Jewish Home Residents, as well as quite a few Omahans who might have not attended any activities at the JCC before, or who previously were only there because their children were playing sports.

“It was busy, noisy, and everyone there had a blast,” Rachel said. “We’re happy it turned out so well, and we can’t wait to see what the next events will bring!”

Speaking of: April 2, from 3-5 p.m. is Movie Night. Join us in the Alan J. Levine Performing Arts Theater for Marcel the Shell with Shoes on. Released in June of 2022, this film tells the story of Marcel, a 1-inch-tall shell, and his grandmother, Connie, who are the only residents of their town after their neighbors' sudden, mysterious disappearance. When discovered by a guest amongst the clutter of his Airbnb, the short film he posts online brings Marcel millions of passionate fans and a new hope of reuniting with his long-lost family. We promise you will fall in love with this little shell.

June 18, from 3-5 p.m., we will have

Karen Gustafson

Continued from page 1

and now beg for my gym passes so that they can come play basketball or work out. Like many of you, the J has been my family’s home, with my husband even coaching basketball here for a period of time.

I made a request to have no reception in my honor or to say good-bye. For one, I’m going just South on 132nd St. to begin in private practice in Millard, so I know that I will see you. The second is that there are too many people to say a “personal” good-bye to, I’d be a wreck. Better to tell you ALL what you mean to me; my love letter to you.

You have been my extended family. I arrived in Omaha in 1986 (37 years ago) to work at Boys Town. As you can see, I didn’t go very far; just across the street. I have built so many good friendships and have been gifted so many mentors and program partners. You have embraced my mantra of “boundaries” and “confidentiality,” some not without a fight.

But, the thing I am most proud of is that I protected the confidentiality of anyone who came to JFS, from campus staff in our EAP program to community members who are sometimes embarrassed to be at JFS getting help. Every person who allowed us the privilege to be a part of your lives is special and is loved by your community. I’ve heard this sentiment said in many ways and in many situations but it is SO true... the Jewish community in Omaha, NE, is like no other. The generosity to take care of each other is just unmatched. It may not always look pretty or be direct help, but the help is here... often by way of JFS.

This decision was made in order to finish my career doing something that I still love, counseling, yet in a sustainable way. At this time of my life, I also needed more flexibility and less responsibility so that I can be present for my family who originates in Pittsburgh, PA. My kids also live in Utah and Las Vegas. Working for myself and on my own time is just the right decision, not only for me but to give someone else the opportunity to care for JFS in their own way. From the day I walked in the front door, I treated JFS as my own. But, it isn’t. It’s yours. And, the time has come for someone to lead the agency into the next stage of development.

a Father’s Day Cornhole tournament at the Staenberg Omaha JCC soccer fields. Players or teams take turns throwing fabric bean bags at a raised, angled board with a hole in its far end. The goal of the game is to score points by either landing a bag on the board (one point) or putting a bag through the hole (three

$10,000 Sokolof Teacher’s Award

points). Fatherhood is not required! Just bring your ability to have fun while tossing a bean bag.

All events are free to attend. To register, please visit https://fundraise. givesmart.com/form/8aDwSw?vid= xb7vm

K-12

Just write a letter describing this teacher (who has been teaching at least 3 years) and tell us why she/he deserves this special recognition. Encourage others (current or former students, parents, teachers) to do so also.

A teacher who was nominated in the past, but not selected, can be nominated again. Only an update is needed.

THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to be me, to be creative with programming, to focus on such serious and important topics as Suicide Prevention, Parenting with Love and Logic and the 40 Development Assets, to name a few. Each program was chosen with “intention” in order to gently touch the lives of families in order to understand the importance, and decrease the stigma, of mental health.

With an abundance of gratitude,

KAREN

AMY BERNSTEIN SHIVVERS

JFO Foundation Executive Director

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” Coretta Scott King

By now, you’ve probably heard the big news – THE FOUNDATION turns 40 years old this year! THE FOUNDATION stands strong and proud today because of your “compassionate actions.” Your generosity provides social services, senior care, opportunities for our youth and so much more. Effective philanthropy, strategic, long-term, and ongoing financial support is what assures a future for the Omaha Jewish community. It’s only fitting that we say THANK YOU!

To celebrate and honor the Foundation’s 40th Anniversary, we’re hosting a variety of events, programs, conversations, and socials for all ages. We’re calling the celebration Fabulous at 40! Everyone is invited to join in a year of celebration, engagement, storytelling, and fun. We hope each of you plans to attend at least one of our unique events as we plant seeds to ensure our community’s Jewish future.

WHAT’S

TO COME:

Donor Salute Reception — May 24: We will celebrate the

JCRC Jewish Day of Action

PAM MONSKY

JCRC Assistant Director

Join us Thursday, March 30, 2023 for the JCRC Jewish Day of Action. This is a special day for members of the Jewish community to meet their state senators in Lincoln and express their concerns or support for legislation that impacts our community and our allies.

Please join the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) at a breakfast on Thursday, March 30, from 7:30-9 a.m., at Peetz & Company (the former Blue Cross Blue Shield office), 1233 Lincoln Mall, in the Lincoln Conference Room in the lower level.

Passover at Beth Israel

Continued from page 1 evening, April 5 and Beth Israel’s prep is well underway for this annual celebration of freedom. Don’t miss your opportunity to join in Beth Israel’s special activities before and during the holiday.

On Sunday, March 26, beginning at 5:30 p.m., join Rabbi Yoni Dreyer for a special workshop, Beth Israel Matzah Factory – Make Your Own Matzah. While the matzah made will not be kosher for Pesach, the workshop will help get one in the spirit while learning about kosher matzah, why it is needed for Passover, and best of all, how to make matzah. The workshop is for those 12 years of age and older. Register online to save your spot. Registration is $10 per person.

Rabbi Ari Dembitzer’s popular weekly Character Development class that occurs each Thursday at 9:30 a.m. via Zoom will offer a special pre-Pesach session on March 30 with Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Passover but Were Afraid to Ask – Part 1. This will be your opportunity to ask those odd questions that you are wondering about while Rabbi Ari provides a quick review of the ins and outs of Passover. Part II of the class, with more direct focus on the seder, will take place Shabbat afternoon, April 1, at 7:30 p.m., meeting at the synagogue.

After unpacking your seder plates and other Pesach related items, did you decide you need something new to freshen your seder table? Treat yourself and visit the Beth Israel Gift Shop. The gift shop will be open for your Pesach shopping needs on Sunday, April 2 from 11 a.m.–1 p.m. Additional times are available by appointment by calling the synagogue office at 402.556.6288.

On Sunday morning, April 2, Shiran Dreyer will lead a fun “Tot Pesach” event for ages 2-6, meeting from 10:30-11:30 a.m. at the synagogue. Teens will enjoy two Pesach activities with Rabbi Yoni, with the first taking place one hour before

Foundation's 40th with a salute to our Donors. Evite to follow. Summer Camp Reunion at Sonny’s — June 8: If you went to Ramah, Sabra, Herzl, Beber, Young Judea, Esther K. Newman, or any other Jewish camp, join with other alums for a spirited all-campers reunion and fundraiser at Sonny’s Aksarben Village. Eats, drinks, camp songs and ruach.

With Your Heart and Hand — July 2023: An in-theround conversation with our community rabbis, who will unpack the meaning of tzedakah. A fresh perspective on giving followed by audience Q & A.

The Living Legacy Family Workshop: Start with Art — Fall 2023: Families participate in a community art project to honor our ancestors and learn giving practices for and from young parents.

All In the Family — Nov. 5: Family members across generations will share their collective stories of giving followed by a facilitated conversation about Jewish values.

Registration is now open. More details will be in the Jewish Press, on our website at jfofoundation.org, in my monthly eNewsletter and via Evites. We hope to see you, your loved ones, and friends. We can’t be Fabulous at 40 without you!

The day will begin with a kosher breakfast near the State Capitol and will continue with meetings and tours throughout the day. Registration will help us prepare.

The JCRC is offering training sessions so that everyone feels comfortable in their ability to convey their thoughts about issues facing legislators: Wednesday, March 22 at 4 p.m. or Sunday, March 26 at 2 p.m. Please register for one of the trainings via Zoom or in person at the Staenberg Kooper Fellman Campus of the JCC.

For more information, please contact Sharon Brodkey, JCRC Executive Director, 402.334.6582, sbrodkey@jewish omaha.org

Mincha, on April 1, meeting at the Dreyer home. The second activity will be held on Sunday afternoon, April 2. Teens should contact Rabbi Yoni for more information.

Beth Israel’s communal seder, open to the community, will take place on the second night, Thursday, April 6. Candle lighting and the commencement of the seder will be at 8:36 p.m. This year, Beth Israel is honored to welcome dear friends and special guests, Shlomo and Hodaya Abramovich and their family, who will be visiting from Israel. The Abramovich family are well known in the Omaha Jewish community, having lived in Omaha for three years for a shlichut. Shlomo served as assistant rabbi for Beth Israel plus taught at the Jewish Federation and the Rose Blumkin Home, Hodaya was a Jewish studies teacher at Friedel Jewish Academy. The menu will include matzah ball soup, brisket, roasted chicken, glazed carrots, matzah farfel kugel, roasted potatoes, and dessert. A vegetarian option is also available. Pricing is $40 for 12 years and older, $18 for ages 6-11, and free of charge for those under 6. The reservation deadline is Monday, March 27. Financial assistance is available. Registration links and additional information can be found in the weekly Beth Israel email or at orthodoxomaha.org

Check the Beth Israel website – orthodoxomaha.org – or the weekly email for seder reservations and for a complete schedule of Passover services. The Sale of Chometz Form is also available online and on email. Have other questions? Please contact Rabbi Ari or Rabbi Yoni at Beth Israel.

The Beth Israel family wishes everyone a happy and healthy Passover. Enjoy this special time. Chag Pesach Sameach!

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

“Check out” these recent additions to the Kripke-Veret Collection

SHIRLY BANNER

JFO Library Specialist

ADULT:

Code Name Sapphire by Pam Jenoff

A woman must rescue her cousin’s family from a train bound for Auschwitz in this riveting tale of bravery and resistance, from the bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Paris. 1942. Hannah Martel has narrowly escaped Nazi Germany after her fiancé was killed in a pogrom. When her ship bound for America is turned away at port, she has nowhere to go but to her cousin Lily, who lives with her family in Brussels. Fearful for her life, Hannah is desperate to get out of occupied Europe. But with no safe way to leave, she must return to the dangerous underground work she thought she had left behind.

Seeking help, Hannah joins the Sapphire Line, a secret resistance network led by a mysterious woman named Micheline and her enigmatic brother Matteo. But when a grave mistake causes Lily’s family to be arrested and slated for deportation to Auschwitz, Hannah finds herself torn between her loyalties. How much is Hannah willing to sacrifice to save the people she loves?

Inspired by incredible true stories of courage and sacrifice, Code Name Sapphire is a powerful novel about love, family and the unshakable resilience of women in even the hardest of times.

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

An ancient majestic oak stands beneath the stars on Division Street. And under the tree sits Ben Wilf, a retired doctor, and ten-year-old Waldo Shenkman, a brilliant, lonely boy who is pointing out his favorite constellations. Waldo doesn’t realize it but he and Ben have met before. And they will again, and again. Across time and space, and shared destiny.

Division Street is full of secrets. An impulsive lie begets a secret—one which will forever haunt the Wilf family. And the Shenkmans, who move into the neighborhood many years

later, bring secrets of their own.. Spanning 50 kaleidoscopic years, on a street—and in a galaxy—where stars collapse and stories collide, these two families become bound in ways they never could have imagined.

Urgent and compassionate, Signal Fires is a magical story for our times, a literary tour de force by a masterful storyteller at the height of her powers. A luminous meditation on family, memory, and the healing power of interconnectedness.

The word “shanda” is defined as shame or disgrace in Yiddish. This book, Shanda, tells the story of three generations of complicated, intense 20th-century Jews for whom the desire to fit in and the fear of public humiliation either drove their aspirations or crushed their spirit.

In her deeply engaging, astonishingly candid memoir, author and activist Letty Cottin Pogrebin exposes the fiercelyguarded lies and intricate cover-ups woven by dozens of members of her extended family. Beginning with her own long-suppressed secret, the story spirals through the hidden lives of her parents and relatives—revealing the truth about their origins, personal traumas, marital misery, abandoned children, religious transgressions, sexual identity, radical politics, and supposedly embarrassing illnesses. While unmasking their charades and disguises, Pogrebin also showcases her family’s remarkable talent for reinvention in a narrative that is, by turns, touching, searing, and surprisingly universal.

Chabad of Poland launches emergency campaign to feed 9,000 Ukrainian Jews over Passover

JOSHUA STEINREICH

WARSAW

As the world marks the anniversary of the Russian incursion into Ukraine and the reverberations the war has caused throughout civilization, Chabad of Poland is launching an emergency campaign to feed nearly 9,000 Ukrainian Jews during Passover.

The group’s Passover fundraising initiative seeks to raise nearly US $500,000 to support holiday expenses for Ukraine’s Jewish communities and their refugees in Poland. Funds will be used for sending out Seder kits to families unable to attend communal meals, hosting communal Seder meals in various locations in Poland and Ukraine, and providing food and accommodation for those families in greater need during the holiday.

Since the beginning of the conflict, Chabad of Poland has helped thousands of Jewish Ukrainian refugees resettle in Poland or by serving as a religious waypoint for those resettling in Israel and other nations. Throughout their time in Poland, Chabad's locally based emissaries have provided shelter, food, and religious services to those in need.

“Passover is widely celebrated by Jews of all backgrounds. But it is an expensive holiday because of the special types of food that week. The cost of celebrating Passover for an average family is high, but for refugees, it is almost impossible for them to shoulder those expenses without our help. Last year at the start of the war in Ukraine, we saw an influx in the number of Ukrainian Jews who relied on us for refuge from the war and those from abroad who opened their hearts to support these victims of the conflict,” said Chabad of Poland Co-Director Rabbi Mayer Stambler. “But as the war still wages, there is still a great need

to support these families to assure that we can provide them with as much of a positive holiday experience as possible.”

Passover begins at sundown on April 5 and celebrates the exodus of ancient Jews from Egypt, a transition from slavery to freedom. Celebrated annually, the holiday starts with two Seder nights recounting the story of the miracles of the exodus and runs eight days during which Jewish tradition dictates a special diet excluding leavened products and legumes.

For more information and to participate in the campaign, please visit www.saveajew.org

Since the start of the Russian incursion into Ukraine, Chabad of Poland based in Warsaw has opened its doors to Ukraine’s Jewish community offering refuge, transportation, kosher food, medical aid, financial and material assistance, childcare, educational and social services, communal activities and administrative and legal aid to tens of thousands displaced by the conflict. Since the start of the war, Chabad in Poland has seen its expenses rise by more than US $2 million. For more information or to contribute to relief efforts, please visit: https://chabad.org.pl/wsparcie/

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.

ages of 18 and 24, and want to become more involved in our community, this is your chance.

Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy by Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Tens of thousands of Jewish refugees from Ukraine are expected to participate in Passover Seders at Chabad centers large and small throughout Europe. At the Chabad house in Chisinau, Moldava, above, Rabbi Zusha Abelsky hosted refugees earlier this month.

Credit: Yossi Zeliger/Flash90

Trade scholarships available for the 202324 academic year

An anonymous donor in our community has created two trade school and/or cosmetology 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: Information 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 avande kamp@jewishomaha.org or jpress@jewishomaha.org for more information.

IN THE NEWS

The Old Avoca Schoolhouse in Avoca, Nebraska, will be streaming three online Wedding Music Workshops for soprano recorder players, fiddlers, violists, cellists, bassists, and mandolinists.

The Workshops will be on Tuesday, April 11, 7 p.m., CT, Wednesday, April 12, 10 a.m., CT, and Friday, April 14, 7 p.m., CT. Different tunes will be played at each session.

During these workshops, we will play and discuss tunes from the Wedding Fiddling Tunes for Two series. 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 cost for each workshop is $10. The cost of each optional book is $15 (includes shipping if ordered with workshop registration).

For more information, and to register: https://www.green blattandseay.com/workshops_wedding.shtml

Jean Meltzer’s visit

MARK KIRCHHOFF

JFO Community Engagement and Education

March 2, Jean Meltzer was the featured author at the Jewish Federation of Omaha Spring Author Event. This event was presented by the Community Engagement and Education Program, an arm of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Attendees received a copy of her book, Mr. Perfect on Paper, enjoyed a variety of kosher desserts and refreshments from the Star Deli, and engaged in informal conversation with Jean as well as a book signing.

In her speech, Jean brought an abundance of positive energy and a delightful sense of humor. In addition to a career in screenwriting, Jean has turned to writing fiction and is the author of The Matzah Ball, Mr. Perfect on Paper, (which was the primary focus of her presentation), and her soonto-be-released book Kissing Kosher. In her writing, Jean draws upon the personal health challenges she has faced and presents stories of struggles, accomplishments, and disappointments, all woven together with a consistent sense of joy and triumph.

Jean Meltzer studied dramatic writing at NYU Tisch and has earned numerous awards for her work in television, including a daytime Emmy. She spent five years in rabbinical school before her chronic illness forced her to withdraw, and her father told her she should write a book just not a Jewish one because, he said, “no one reads those.”

Jean came to Omaha through her affiliation

membership in the JBC and the support of

6 MERIT SCHOLARSHIPS - $10,000 each for 2023

For two Jewish students …who are college-bound high school seniors

HEALTH CARE

For two Jewish students …who are currently enrolled in or have been admitted to a course of study at the graduate school level, such as medicine, nursing, dentistry, occupational/ physical therapy, or pharmacy.

MUSIC

Merit scholarship for Jewish students currently in college or graduate school majoring in or pursing a degree in music performance, composition or music education. Cantorial students are eligible.

77 Omaha Jewish Students have received $850,000 since 2006

Phil and Ruth Sokolof MERIT SCHOLARSHIP

Karen Sokolof Javitch MUSIC SCHOLARSHIP

Phil and Ruth Sokolof MERIT SCHOLARSHIP

with the Jewish Book Council (JBC). The program is made possible by the JFO’s

JFO Foundation funds – the Kenneth Ray Tretiak Memorial Fund and the Foundation IMPACT Grant.

JFNA delegation lobbies in Israel against Netanyahu’s planned judiciary overhaul

RON KAMPEAS

JTA

A delegation of U.S. Jewish federation leaders is lobbying in Israel against the government’s planned overhaul of the judiciary, a rare step that underscores the degree to which the proposed changes have rattled the U.S. Jewish establishment.

The delegation came to Israel for 24 hours between Mar. 14 and 15, and includes representatives of more than 30 U.S. Jewish communities. The delegation met with lawmakers from the governing coalition as well as the parliamentary opposition. Their main focus was on a proposal that would allow a simple majority of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, to override Supreme Court rulings.

A statement from the Jewish Federations of North America, which is organizing the trip, singled out “the threats this proposal could have on Israel’s checks and balances and in safeguarding minority rights.” The delegation, the statement said, “also voiced concerns over the implications that this reform may have on government support for Israel in North America.”

Israel’s Supreme Court has acted as a bulwark safeguarding the rights of vulnerable populations — including women, LGBTQ Israelis and Arab Israelis. The proposal to sap the courts of much of their power and independence has drawn sharp criticism from a range of establishment American Jewish organizations and public figures with reputations as defenders of Israel, as well as Democrats in the United States,

including President Joe Biden. Protests against the proposed changes have, for months, brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets across Israel.

Defenders of the proposed changes say the courts have been afforded the unwarranted power to overturn laws passed by the Knesset, and that the reform will allow the country’s government to better reflect the will of Israel’s right-wing majority.

The trip is notable because the federation system, whose local branches aim to act as representatives of their local Jewish communities and has historically avoided criticism of Israeli government actions. Last month, the federations’ umbrella organization took the extraordinary step of writing to Israeli political leaders to oppose the override legislation and to urge compromise. A federation official speaking on background said one concern is that the organized Jewish community in the United States is at the forefront of defending rights for LGBTQ people, ethnic and religious minorities and women. Critics say the proposed reforms threaten to erode those rights in Israel.

The delegation comprised representatives from the federations’ national leadership as well as from large and small communities. Metropolitan areas and states that were represented include New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Colorado, Cleveland, San Francisco, Rochester, New York, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Hartford, Connecticut, Nashville, Madison, Wisconsin and Minneapolis.

Anti-Jewish incidents jumped

BEN SALES

JTA

A new FBI report found that anti-Jewish incidents increased nearly 20% in 2021 relative to 2020, but decreased relative to prior years.

The updated FBI statistics counted 817 anti-Jewish criminal offenses reported by local law enforcement agencies in 2021, up from 683 in 2020 — a year when people largely stayed off the streets for a substantial period due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 numbers, however, represent a 15% decline from 2019, when the FBI reported 963 hate crimes, as well as a slight decline from 2018, when FBI statistics show 847 hate crimes.

Overall, the report showed a total of more than 10,800 hate crimes — the highest number in decades. As in previous years, anti-Jewish incidents comprised the majority of the 1,590 hate crimes based on religion.

This is the second report the FBI has released; an initial report in December did not include data from law enforcement agencies in major cities such as New York and Los Angeles. That report said there were only 324 anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2021, a number Jewish organizations said was a massive undercount.

The two reports on 2021 demonstrate the pitfalls of the FBI data, which relies on reports of criminal offenses from local law enforcement agencies. An increasing number of cities are declining to share data outright. But the lack of data from major cities in the initial report, the FBI said, was due to a transition to a new reporting system. The transition, the FBI said, “resulted in an inadequate representation of bias-motivated criminal incidents in the nation.”

The updated data still has significant gaps. Data reported from Chicago, for example, represents only two quarters of 2021.

The data is based on criminal offenses reported to the FBI by law enforcement agencies. In some cases, an antisemitic incident can include multiple criminal offenses. Not all incidents initially considered hate crimes are ultimately prosecuted that way.

Israeli reserve soldiers, veterans and activists protest outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem against the Israeli government's planned judicial reforms, Feb. 10, 2023. Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

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

Above, below and left: Lincoln’s community Purim celebration was held at the South Street Temple and over 50 people were in attendance. In addition to a Megillah reading, there was a live magician and music. Priscilla Henkelmann was the winner of the ‘Hamantaschen Hero’ award with her chocolate-dipped cookie dough-filled hamantaschen.

Below: Jason Epsenhart with Rabbi Yoni, as the latter came to read the Megillah at the J

Top, abovem and below left: Purim at the RBJH: The King and Queen, Peggy and Steve Chasen, Volunteers Renee and Gretchen, Annette Fettman.

Above, right and below: Purim at Chabad had a Jerusalem theme, including a mock kotel. Photos of Beth El, Beth Israel and Temple Israel are coming in the April 7 edition- we have a large selection and too many to squeeze them all in one page! Stay tuned.

Above right and below: Nineteen of our very own BBYO teens held a Hamentaschen making workshop March 6 in the Noshery. Thank you, donors, for providing Omaha with this space... Previously, we had to have a family volunteer their home and kitchen.

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.

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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.

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Silver linings versus moments of grace

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor

Earlier this month, Jordana Starkman wrote an article for HeyAlma.com titled A Shehechiyanu for Sh*tty Times. She started off by listing recent challenges she’s faced in her personal life, stories of illness and loss, against the backdrop of several years of pandemic misery.

“And yet,” she wrote, “while there have been no silver linings, I have constantly found myself surrounded by moments of grace — small jokes, big gestures of love, short messages from family I had never met, mornings I wake up feeling a little more ready to meet the day. There is still room for light in this mess. Often, I find myself meeting these moments with one of my favorite Jewish prayers: the Shehechiyanu. Traditionally recited to mark the first time something is done in a given year, this prayer — which thanks the spirit of the universe for bringing us into our

current moment, no matter what that moment is — has always resonated with me.”

Silver linings versus moments of grace—there is a lesson here, one of those nuggets of wisdom that you file away somewhere safe so you can use it later. Because what is a silver lining, really? Oftentimes, when we struggle, the idea of a silver lining is ludicrous, impossible, bordering on insulting. If I’m honest, it’s something I struggle with. When a loved one goes through a hard time, we have this tendency to try to say something that makes it better. But sometimes, things are awful and they don’t get better.

Not everyone beats the disease, not all pain can be erased and time does not heal all wounds. Sometimes when we hurt, we just want others to acknowledge that, and stop trying to make it better.

Searching for one moment, though, would allow us to be a bit kinder to ourselves. Finding one small

thing is easier as long as we are willing to recognize it when it appears. That means being present in the here and now. It means paying attention and noticing the good, and then sharing it with others.

Don’t worry, I’m not turning this into a d’var Torah. But I’m thinking: if we, as a community, gather up our small moments and pile them on each other, can we make the world a little better?

Here’s the thing: we don’t just have to wait for those moments to come and recognize them; we can create those moments for each other.

Pay someone a compliment. Ask them how they are doing and really listen to the answer. Leave an extra large tip, or let the cashier at the supermarket know you appreciate their hard work. Send flowers, or a nice note. Show up for each other, not only for funerals and simchas, but on a random Tuesday, just to say hello.

We have all had a few difficult years, and our social skills have taken a hit—even if we don’t always like to admit it. We’re a little bit out of practice.

But we have this amazing power to get back to where we used to be—all we need to do is admit out loud that we need each other. Reach out, give a little bit of time and attention. Have a friend you haven’t talked to in a while? Call them. Or send a text, an email, leave a message on their Insta.

It’s one of those times when we give, and we receive so much in return. At the end, we all benefit if we make those moments of grace our priority.

Let’s stop looking for that elusive silver lining and change the narrative through our actions. Our small moments of grace are our superpower.

The Purim story started in fear and ended in vengeance.

ANDREA HODOS

JTA

Many people think of Purim as a children’s holiday — unadulterated joy, fun and merriment. But I have come to see it as a profound moral commentary on what it means to hold power, and a cautionary tale about what happens when we fail to do our part to break the cycle of violence when the power is in our hands to do it.

I have been living with my husband Rabbi Aryeh Cohen’s interpretation of Megillat Esther for more than 29 years now. It initially caught me off guard during a discussion while we were still dating, back in 1993: “You know, of course, that Purim is all about confronting the impossibility of redemption.”

(Of course?!) In short, the king’s viceroy Haman decides capriciously that the Jews must be killed, and the king agrees. It is only after the Jewish heroine Esther marries the king and convinces him that her people do not deserve to be killed does he change the decree, and the Jews are saved. Redemption!

This happy ending is accompanied by another decree, however, in which the Jews are given permission to slaughter those who were going to slaughter them. To authorize this violent self-defense, the king takes the royal ring, a symbol of his authority, from the corpse of Haman and gives it to Esther’s Jewish cousin, Mordecai.

Writes Aryeh: “The question we are left with is this: In the next scene, the scene after the end of the megillah, who will get the ring then? … We suspect that another Haman will get the ring, then another Mordecai, forever.”

Visions of this unredeemed world were on view in recent days as we watched the multi-directional, freeflowing hate catching fire in America, in Israel and in the West Bank. The weeks leading up to Purim this year felt all too much like the horrifying parts of the megillah: the reality of Jewish vulnerability in the face of mercurial antisemitism at its beginning; the wielding of Jewish power in a revenge fantasy at its end.

For me, this megillah started when two Jewish men — Persian, like Mordecai — were shot within a block or two of my Los Angeles house simply because they were Jewish men. The shooter had fallen into a conspiracy rabbit hole and believed that Jews had manufactured and released the COVID-19 virus in an

attempt to target Asians. Thank God, both men will recover, and I hope that the shooter can recover from his own misguided hate, too. When politicians, media and others play with rhetorical fire and boost conspiracy theories, it lights the torches of vulnerable people, and we all get burned.

Then, I watched through waves of nausea as the end of the megillah was reflected in the West Bank, following the killings of Israeli brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv, by a Palestinian shooter. There, Jewish acolytes of Baruch Goldstein, who slaughtered 29 praying Palestinians 29 years ago on Purim, took a break from marauding in the Palestinian village of Huwara to offer their evening prayers. In the video that was circulating, the settlers were reciting the words of Kaddish, the prayer for the dead, sometime before or after a resident of nearby Zu’tara, Sameh Aqtash, was shot and killed. They were not reciting the Kaddish for him. Few participants in the pogrom have faced consequences. But the Israeli army has attacked Israelis protesting it.

There were other horrors in between, both here and there — and more since. Innocent Palestinians were killed and injured during military raids in the West Bank. A recent college graduate, the dual American-Israeli citizen Elan Ganeles, was shot to death as he headed to a friend’s wedding in Jerusalem.

And here in the United States, a “Day of Hate” called by far-right antisemitic group put Jews on alert throughout a recent Shabbat.

For these past weeks and months, it has felt like Jews are being squeezed between our vulnerability as Jews here in the United States and Israel and the contortion of Jewish power in Israel — quite literally in the case of the militant Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, whose party is known as Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power. We need to think about what it means to change the story — for everyone.

In the United States, that means building strong and deep relationships that keep us all safe. California state assembly member Isaac Bryan offered a model at a town hall following the shootings here, when he said that Black and Jewish solidarity looks

like “thriving, safe, and healthy communities from Pico-Robertson to Leimert Park.” Bryan names the most identifiable Jewish and Black neighborhoods in Los Angeles to remind us that all Angelenos’ fates are connected.

In Israel, it means recognizing that the Israeli government and those that have empowered it are

currently “holding the ring” of power. If they continue to act with unrestrained power to terrorize and dispossess Palestinians, or simply allow settlers to do this with no repercussions, they fail to heed the words of Isaiah: “And when you lift up your hands, I will turn My eyes away from you; Though you pray at length, I will not listen. Your hands are stained with crime” (1:15).

When the Israeli nonprofits Tag Meir and Standing Together organized solidarity trips to Huwara last week, they were taking Isaiah’s admonition deeply to heart, refusing to turn their eyes and hearts away, walking toward the residents of Huwara and raising their voices against the settlers’ hate and violence. In response to identity-based violent rhetoric, we must humanize those whom others would pit against us, while humanizing our own people, as well. There are many organizations that create spaces in which we can build relationships that create a variety of pathways for us to act on one another’s behalf, ensuring safety and dignity for one another. In solidarity, we can write a new ending to our megillah.

Andrea Hodos is the associate director of NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change (https://mjnewground.org).

Israeli forces confront a Jewish protester near the West Bank village of Huwara, where days earlier Jewish settlers rioted, March 3, 2023. The sign reads, “♡ with Huwara.” Credit: Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

How the late actor Topol turned Tevye into a Zionist

ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL

JTA

If you were born anytime before, say, 1975, you might remember Israel not as a source of angst and tension among American Jews but as a cause for celebration.

In the 1960s and ’70s, most Jews embraced as gospel the heroic version of Israel’s founding depicted in Leon Uris’ 1958 novel Exodus and the 1960 movie version. The1961 Broadway musical Milk and Honey, about American tourists set loose in Israel, ran for over 500 performances. And that was before Israel’s lightning victory in the Six-Day War turned even fencesitting suburban Jews into passionate Zionists.

That was the mood when the film version of Fiddler on the Roof came out in 1971. The musical had already been a smash hit on Broadway, riding a wave of nostalgia by Jewish audiences and an embrace of ethnic particularism by the mainstream.

The part of Tevye, the put-upon patriarch of a Jewish family in a “small village in Russia,” was originated on Broadway by Zero Mostel, a Brooklyn-born actor who grew up in a Yiddishspeaking home. Ashkenazi American Jews tended to think of Fiddler as family history — what Alisa Solomon, author of the 2013 book Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof, describes as the “Jewish American origin story.”

But Mostel didn’t star in the film, which landed in theaters while the afterglow of Israel’s victory in its second major war of survival had yet to fade. Famously – or notoriously – the part went to Chaim Topol, a young Israeli actor unknown outside of Israel except for his turns in the London productions of Fiddler. With an Israeli in the lead, a musical about the perils and dilemmas of Diaspora became a film about Zionism.

When Topol played Tevye in London, Solomon writes, “‘Fiddler’ became a site for celebration, drawing Jews as well as gentiles to the theater — some for repeat viewings — to bask in Jewish perseverance and to pay homage to Jewish survival. The show didn’t change, but the atmosphere around it did.”

Topol died this week at 87, still best known as Tevye, and his death reminded me of the ways Fiddler is — and isn’t — Zionist. When Tevye and his fellow villagers are forced out of Anatevke by the czarist police, they head for New York, Chicago and Krakow. Only Yente, the matchmaker, declares that she is going to the “Holy Land.” Perchik, the presumably socialist revolutionary who marries one of Tevye’s daughters,

wants to transform Russian society and doesn’t say a word about the political Zionists who sought to create a workers’ utopia in Palestine.

“There is nothing explicitly or even to my mind implicitly Zionist about it,” Solomon told me a few years back. And yet, she said, “any story of Jewish persecution becomes from a Zionist perspective a Zionist story.”

When the Israeli Mission to the United Nations hosted a performance of the Broadway revival of Fiddler in 2016, that was certainly the perspective of then-Ambassador Dani Danon. Watching the musical, he said, he couldn’t help thinking, “What if they had a place to go [and the Jews of Anatevke

wrote that he is “a rough presence, masculine, with burly, raw strength, but also sensual and warm. He’s a poor man but he’s not a little man, he’s a big man brought low — a man of Old Testament size brought down by the circumstances of oppression.”

Mostel, by contrast, was plump, sweaty and vaudevillian — a very different kind of masculinity.

The contrast between the two Tevyes shows up in, of all places, a parody of Fiddler in Mad magazine. In that 1973 comic, Mostel’s Tevye is reimagined as a neurotic, nouveau riche suburban American Jew with a comb-over, spoiled hippy children and a “spendthrift” wife; Topol’s Tevye arrives in a dream to blame his descendants for turning their backs on tradition and turning America into a shallow, consumerist wasteland. A kibbutznik couldn’t have said (or sung) it better.

Composer Jerry Bock, lyricist Sheldon Harnick and book writer Joseph Stein set out to write a hit musical, not a political statement. But others have always shaped Fiddler to their needs.

In the original script, Yente tells Tevye’s wife, Golde:

“I’m going to the Holy Land to help our people increase and multiply. It’s my mission.” In a 2004 Broadway revival, staged in the middle of the second intifada, the “increase and multiply” line was excised. In a review of Solomon’s Wonder of Wonders, Edward Shapiro conjectured that the producers of the revival didn’t want Yente to be seen as “a soldier in the demographic war between Jews and Arabs.”

Name

Parent(s)’ Name(s) Current

could] live as a free people in their own land? The whole play could have been quite different.”

Israelis always had a complicated relationship with Fiddler, Solomon told me. The first Hebrew production was brought to Israel in 1965 by impresario Giora Godik. American Jews were enthralled by its resurrection of Yiddishkeit, the Ashkenazi folk culture that their parents and grandparents had left behind and the Holocaust had all but erased. Israelis were less inclined to celebrate the “Old Country.”

“Israelis were — what? — not exactly ashamed or hostile, but the Zionist enterprise was about moving away from that to become ‘muscle Jews,’ and even denouncing the stereotype of the pasty, weakling Eastern European Jews,” said Solomon, warning that she was generalizing.

That notion of the “muscle Jew” is echoed in a review of Topol’s performance by New Yorker critic Pauline Kael, who

Topol himself connected Fiddler to Israel as part of one long thread that led from Masada — the Judean fortress where rebellious Jewish forces fell to the Romans in the first century CE — through Russia and eventually to Tel Aviv.

“My grandfather was a sort of Tevye, and my father was a son of Tevye,” Topol told The New York Times in 1971. “My grandfather was a Russian Jew and my father was born in Russia, south of Kiev. So I knew of the big disappointment with the [Russian] Revolution, and the Dreyfus trial in France, and the man with the little mustache on his upper lip, the creation of the state of Israel and ‘Masada will never fall again.’ It’s the grandchildren now who say that. It’s all one line — it comes from Masada 2,000 years ago, and this Tevye of mine already carries in him the chromosomes of those grandchildren.”

This article was edited for length. You can read the full story at www.omahajewishpress.com.

Topol appears as Tevye in the 1971 film Fiddler on the Roof. Credit: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

Synagogues

B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

618 Mynster Street

Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766

712.322.4705 www.cblhs.org

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, April 14, 7:30 p.m. with our guest speaker Scott Littky. 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: Renee Corcoran, Scott Friedman, Rick Katelman, Janie Kulakofsky, Howard Kutler, Carole and Wayne Lainof, Beth Moshman, 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: B’nai Mitzvah of Alex and Matthew Scheer, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Jr. Congregation (Grades 3-7), 10 a.m.; Havdalah, 8:15 p.m. Zoom Only.

SUNDAY: BESTT (Grades K-7), 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10 a.m.; Hebrew Reading, 11 a.m. with Hazzan Krausman.

MONDAY: Open Dialogue, 6 p.m. with Rabbi Abraham.

TUESDAY: Pirkei Avot, 11:30 a.m. with Rabbi Abraham at Beth El & Live Stream.

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

THURSDAY: Safe Banking for Seniors, 11:30 a.m.; Young Adult Escape Room Programs, 6:55 p.m. and 8:25 p.m. sessions.

FRIDAY-Mar. 31: Kabbalat Shabbat 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

SATURDAY-Apr. 1: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Jr. Congregation (Grades 3-7), 10 a.m.; Havdalah, 8:25 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/Candlelighting, 7:23 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat 10:45 a.m.; Mincha 7:10 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity, 7:40 p.m.; Havdalah, 8:23 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.

MONDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.

TUESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Parsha Class for 3rd-6th Grades, 2:45 p.m. at Friedel;

RON KAMPEAS JTA

Israeli President Isaac Herzog warned of the possibility of civil war if the government won’t agree to a compromise on judicial reform, a stunning pronouncement from a personality and an office that are both known for restraint.

“I have heard real, deep hatred,” Herzog said in an address carried on primetime TV. “I have heard people, from all sides saying that God forbid, blood in the streets will not shock them.”

Herzog, whose compromise proposals were already being rejected by the government, said his warning should terrify every Israeli. The opposition welcomed Herzog’s proposed compromise, while government figures rejected them.

Israel has been rocked by weeks of protests against reforms proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which would sap the judiciary of its independence. More recently, the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir — a follower of Meir Kahane, a rabbi barred from Israel’s parliament in the 1980s because of his racism — has ordered police crackdowns on protesters.

Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.

THURSDAY: DEADLINE FOR SHMURAH ORDERS; Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Pesach But Were Afraid to Ask — Part I 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Ari via Zoom; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.; Parsha Class, 7:50 p.m.

FRIDAY-Mar. 31: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat/Candlelighting, 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY-Apr. 1: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat 10:45 a.m.; Mincha 7:20 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity 7:50 p.m.; Havdalah, 8:31 p.m.

CHABAD HOUSE

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

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, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochabad.com/ Lechayim; Candlelighting, 7:22 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit 9:30 a.m.; followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 8:22 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-Mar. 31: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ocha bad.com/Lechayim; Candlelighting, 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY-Apr. 1: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m.; followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 8:30 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: Bar Mitzvah of David Lee Hyten; Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Nathaniel and Steve Kaup, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg

The speech was extraordinary in part because the role of president is mostly ceremonial. The president is seen as a conciliator in Israel’s fractious society.

Additionally, Herzog, a past leader of the Israeli Labor party and a chairman of the Jewish Agency, is seen as a compromiser. In 2021, when the 120 Knesset members elected him in a secret ballot, he won a larger majority, 87, than any of his predecessors, drawing support from the left and the right.

The courts have repeatedly defended the rights of vulnerable populations in Israel, including Arab Israelis, LGBTQ people, non-Orthodox Jews and women. Netanyahu’s supporters say the proposed changes put necessary brakes on an activist judiciary, while critics at home and abroad — including President Joe Biden, top Senate Democrats and portions of the Jewish organizational establishment in the United States — say they threaten Israel’s democracy.

With his speech, Herzog unveiled a proposed compromise, which would balance judicial and political interests in selecting judges. Proponents of reform say the system now allows judges too much power in choosing their replacements, and want to give the upper hand to the ruling coalition.

host: The Hyten Family; Shabbat Candlelighting, 7:25 p.m.

SATURDAY: Bar Mitzvah of David Lee Hyten; Shabbat Morning Service 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex and David Lee Hyten and music by Nathaniel and Steve Kaup at SST; No Torah Study; Havdalah 8:25 p.m.

SUNDAY: LJCS Classes, 9:30 a.m.; SST Board of Trustrees Meeting, 10 a.m.; 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; 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.

WEDNESDAY: LJCS Classes, 4:30 p.m.

FRIDAY-Mar. 31: Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Nathaniel and Steve Kaup, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg host: TBD; Shabbat Candlelighting, 7:32 p.m.

SATURDAY-Apr. 1: Shabbat Morning Service 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Tzav; Havdalah 8:25 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. In-Person; Shabbat B’yachad Service: Say Goodbye to Jeff Schweid, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY: Torah Study 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SUNDAY: Grades PreK-6, 9:30 a.m.

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

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

FRIDAY-Mar. 31: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m. InPerson; Shabbat Shira Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom; Confirmation Class and Dinner, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY-Apr. 1: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom.

Please visit templeisraelomaha.com for additional information and Zoom service links.

Herzog’s compromises also include advancing a law that would make it harder to pass the “basic laws” that comprise Israel’s constitution. Basic laws currently require an absolute majority of 61 of 120 members to pass. Herzog’s proposal would preserve the 61 threshold for each of the first three votes, but would also add a fourth and final reading requiring a two-thirds majority of 80 Knesset members.

His compromise would also reduce the power of the Supreme Court to review laws the Knesset passes, but would not go as far as Netanyahu’s proposals to gut judicial review. Under Herzog’s system, for instance, the court would not review basic laws. The fact that such laws would need 80 votes to pass would likely mitigate the court’s perceived need to review the laws.

Herzog also proposes a basic law to protect the rights of vulnerable populations.

Government figures immediately rejected Herzog’s proposal. “It’s worse than the current situation,” said Shlomo Karhi, the communications minister, on Twitter. “We can’t accept it.” Opposition leaders meanwhile welcomed the proposal and said it could serve as a basis for a negotiated compromise.

Israeli

President Isaac Herzog warns of a looming, bloody ‘real civil war’ amid battle over court reform

Life cycles

IN MEMORIAM

IAN “JAY” PLOTKIN

Ian “Jay” Plotkin passed away peacefully in the comfort of his own home on March 3, 2023 at age 57 with his fiance and dear friends by his side. A graveside services was held on March 7, 2023, at Fisher Farms Cemetery in Bellevue, NE, that was followed by a luncheon at his home.

He is survived and missed by his fiancee, JoAnne McCall; her children, Melissa (Kevin) Allen of Underwood, IA and Autumn (Jacob) Craven of Elkhorn, NE; grandchildren: Westin, Blake, Molly, River, and Jett Allen, and Abel, Cash and Tex Craven; as well as many wonderful friends, and cousins.

Jay was born in Omaha to Norman and Frances (Eirenberg) Plotkin on May 22, 1965. He grew up in Omaha, and graduated from Central High School (Class of 1984) where he developed lifelong friendships with many of his classmates. He dedicated many years to the family business, House of Poultry, working alongside his parents.

From the archives: Jews and Arabs must work together

Published November 17, 1929

“Jews and Arabs will have to get together and solve their common problem in Palestine. It is a mistake to look upon the Arabs as an inferior people. Nor are they all being led by propagandists. The Jew must not imagine that every Arab is a monster.”

These were some of the thoughts expressed by Miss Henrietta Szold, honorary president of Hadassah, women’s Zionist organization, before the evening session of the first day of Hadassah’s fifteenth annual convention. The address was the first delivered by Miss Szold since her return to this country from Palestine, where she had remained for two years.

In bringing greetings on behalf of the Zionist Organization of America, Louis Lipsky, president, said that it is now being realized that Zionism is a dynamic force that must come in contact with other dynamic forces. Too many, he said, viewed the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate as inanimate objects. “There was a lack of understanding among us,” he added. “There is bound to be a struggle. It is in the struggle that the National Jewish Home is being built and in this way the new Jewish nation will be born.” The women of America, Mr. Lipsky added, will surely contribute their share.

A prolonged ovation was given to Mrs. Felix Warburg, who told how Miss Szold first interested her in Palestine and Hadassah at a time when she was more interested in similar work in China and South America. “Now I think of Eretz Israel every day.” She made a prolonged plea for unity and harmony among the Jewish women of America, adding the hope that there will be no more factions in Israel so far as Palestine is concerned.

Nathan Straus, veteran philanthropist, called upon the Jews of America to reaffirm their confidence in Palestine as a Jewish homeland and pleads for “renewed zeal and support” in a message read.

Dr. Chaim Weizmann, world Zionist leader, in a cable from London, declared his confidence in Great Britain as a mandatory Power and says that Jewish colonization in Palestine must be hastened.

The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.

CORRECTION

In the March 17, 2023 edition of the Jewish Press, we featured a front-page story about the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation’s collaborative program with Yoel. This event is no longer open to the public; however, the QR code works and goes to the updated calendar of events. The Jewish Press regrets the error.

Safe banking for seniors

STEPHANIE GROSSMAN

Elder financial fraud is a growing threat that has caused over a billion dollars in losses. The American Bankers Association Foundation has developed Safe Banking for Seniors, a program to assist seniors in learning how to both protect their financial assets and prevent identity theft. The program is a banker-led national initiative that provides guidance on a variety of topics. On Thursday, March 30 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., Stephanie Grossman will present Identifying and Avoiding Scams, the first module in the Safe Banking for Seniors program.

Seniors are targeted because of their financial assets and a tendency to be more trusting.

Elder financial exploitation is not always reported, often due to embarrassment about having to admit to being scammed. Participants of the Safe Banking workshop will learn the warning signs of various types of financial exploitation scams, ways to prevent being taken advantage of, how to take appropriate action if one does become a victim of a fraud scheme, and the role one’s bank can play in providing support and guidance.

Stephanie Grossman is the Senior Training and Development Specialist of Security National Bank. Lindsay Lindmier, the BSA/AML, OFAC Officer at Security National Bank, will share examples and discuss current elder fraud trends in Omaha and will be available to answer questions. For more information and to sign up, please visit www.bethelomaha.org. Questions can be directed to Robby Erlich, Engagement Coordinator, rerlich@bethel-omaha.org

Far-right Israeli minister finds enemy in JDC

PHILISSA CRAMER

JTA

An American Jewish group that has provided aid to Jewish communities in crisis for more than a century has become the target of one of Israel’s newly empowered far-right ministers.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, who serves as national security minister, said recently that he was shutting down a program dedicated to reducing violence in Arab Israeli towns. His reason: The program is operated by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which he called a “leftist organization.”

“JDC is a nonpolitical organization and has been so since our founding in 1914,” Michael Geller, a spokesperson for JDC, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Ben-Gvir’s characterization baffled many across the Jewish communal world who know the JDC as a nonpartisan group with an extensive track record of providing humanitarian aid to Jews in distress.

To them, Ben-Gvir’s criticism of the group is the latest sign that the rupture of political norms in Israel extends beyond the judicial reforms advanced by the government, which have drawn unprecedented protests.

“To call the JDC a left-wing organization is a joke. It is not political in any way,” said Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, co-CEO of the Abraham Initiatives, a nonprofit that works toward an “equal and shared society” for Jewish and Arab Israelis.

Founded in 1914 by the American Jewish banker Jacob Schiff to aid Jews living in Palestine, the “Joint” has distributed billions of dollars in assistance across 70 countries — including, over the last year, to 43,000 Ukrainian Jews amid the war there. It played a central role in aiding Holocaust survivors following World War II, as well as in the resettlement of Jews from the former Soviet Union. Among its biggest sources of support are Jewish federations, the nonpartisan umbrella charities found in nearly every major North American Jewish community.

In Israel, the group funds and operates efforts to help needy populations — including immigrants, the elderly, people with disabilities and people living in poverty. Those efforts often involve working with the government, which in 2007 gave the JDC Israel’s most prestigious prize for its work. This year, according to a spokesman, the group is spending $129 million on Israel initiatives.

This story was edited for length. Read the full article at www.omahajewishpress.com

Be a role model; the person you want your kid to be.

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Henrietta Szold

Israel’s right-wing government has created a crisis

JACKIE HAJDENBERG JTA

The annual gala of A Wider Bridge, a Jewish LGBTQ group, had all the trappings of a festive event. But even though it was the group’s first in-person gala since before the pandemic, the mood March 13 wasn’t entirely celebratory. Throughout the speeches and sideline conversations was the sense that A Wider Bridge — which advocates for the LGBTQ community in Israel, and for Israel in the U.S. LGBTQ community — was entering a new and uncertain era.

“For Israeli LGBTQ, the ground has shifted beneath their feet,” the group’s executive director, Ethan Felson, said in a speech to the crowd of about 200 attendees. Citing LGBTQ activists in Israel, he added, “Calls to crisis hotlines are up. Incidents of emotional and physical violence are up in Israel against the LGBTQ community. ... You can imagine the challenges the trans community is facing a full assault on their rights and on their lives.”

The crisis Felson depicted has materialized under a new Israeli government that includes vocal anti-LGBTQ officials in senior positions, whose signature legislation to reform the judiciary threatens the set of LGBTQ rights that Israel has long pointed to as evidence of its open society.

That new reality has complicated the work of A Wider Bridge both in the United States and Israel, and interspersed in the night’s program was an acknowledgement of the challenges facing LGBTQ rights in Israel. It has also caused the group to double its donations to Israeli LGBTQ groups this year.

“I’ve been in this work for 35 years, and through very complex times, I’ve never felt a greater sense of urgency,” Felson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the event. “The urgency of this moment overshadows everything I’ve certainly done in my career.”

The gala occurred at the same time that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich visited the Hasidic community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Smotrich has called himself a

“proud homophobe” and sits in Israel’s governing coalition alongside Avi Maoz, who heads the anti-LGBTQ party Noam. The coalition also includes haredi Orthodox parties that have long opposed LGBTQ rights.

Legislation the coalition is now advancing to sap the Supreme Court of much of its power and independence also endangers LGBTQ rights in Israel. While same-sex couples are not permitted to legally marry in Israel, the court ruled in 2006

LGBTQ groups and those here — will not be diminished because of who is in power.

“We love Israel as much today as we did yesterday, as much as we did last year,” he said. “We hold Israel and its LGBTQ community close. And a country is more than its leaders at any time.”

He added, “We never lobbied for a government. We never were in this to support a government. And so it has been a truism of everybody involved in this conversation about Israel that there have been governments that have come and gone, with which we’ve aligned or haven’t aligned — that doesn’t change the equation of our connection to a country.”

Since the beginning of the year, A Wider Bridge has donated $180,000 to 20 different Israeli LGBTQ organizations — the same amount it has given annually in recent years. At the end of the evening, Felson announced an emergency campaign to raise another $180,000, adding that the organization received a $75,000 anonymous match to start off the campaign.

that the country must recognize same-sex marriages performed abroad. A court decision in 2021 also paved the way for LGBTQ couples to have children via surrogacy.

“The conversation about the Israeli LGBTQ community has changed dramatically,” Felson said. “The Israeli LGBTQ community was always perceived as safe, secure and successful and not among the vulnerable constituencies. But that wasn’t an accurate picture. It’s always been vulnerable to conversion therapy, transphobia, violence. And there are ministers in this current government that make those situations worse, that play on those vulnerabilities.”

But Felson said that the core work of A Wider Bridge in the United States — to cultivate relationships between Israeli

Other speakers also discussed the changing situation for LGBTQ Israelis in forthright terms. In a prerecorded video, Rotem Sorek, CEO of Ma’avarim, a transgender advocacy organization in Israel, said that since the new government coalition took over, she has noticed an increase in phone calls to her organization’s crisis call center.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ prerecorded remarks focused on honoree Roselyne “Cissie” Swig, a longtime donor to the group from San Francisco who received its Tzedek Award. But Swig herself sounded a note of concern:

“I’m old enough now to have been part of the beginning of Israel,” said Swig, who is in her early 90s. “What I think it’s going through right now, from a legal point of view, is a little unsettling for me, and I’m sure others. And I would prefer that it was more stable.”

This article was edited for length. Please read the full story, and other Israel news, at www.omahajewishpress. com.

Thank you KAREN GUSTAFSON

Comedian Judy Gold hosted A Wider Bridge’s annual gala. Credit: Jackie Hajdenberg