April 14, 2023

The Jewish Press

Yom Ha’atzmaut Carnival

They are at it again:

Jewish Press Editor

Mark your calendar for the Jewish Federation of Omaha’s Yom Ha’atzmaut Carnival, which will be held Wednesday, April 26, from 5:30-7 p.m. in the Staenberg Omaha JCC gymnasium. Admission to this event is free for the entire community and there will be something for all ages. Kosher food from Star

The ELC is Kosher for Passover

Pennie

Center Director

Students at the ELC had the opportunity to participate in the ritual of Bedikat Chametz, searching and destroying the last bit of chametz before Passover begins.

REGULARS

Spotlight 7

Voices 8

Synagogues 10

Life cycles 11

Each child was given a holiday-related search kit containing a feather, a spoon, and a flashlight (generously donated by Oriental Trading Company) to complete the task. Chametz was hidden throughout the school and children explored Passover through sensory, gross motor, and creative activities.

They also dug for artifacts in Ancient Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, decorated Seder placemats and slam-dunked matzah balls into soup bowls.

In the weeks leading up to Passover, our students explored the Exodus story, the concept of freedom and the process of preparing for Passover. This capstone event was the culmination of weeks of study and our students See Kosher for Passover page 2

Catering is available for purchase: $2 for a pizza slice, $4 for falafel, and $1 for popcorn or a cookie. In addition to nosh, we have commemorative T-shirts for sale, as well as sturdy canvas tote bags—each is only $12.

We will also have a visit from IDF soldiers, and will have the opportunity to ask questions.

Avi Michaeli is 45 years old, Married and father of four children aged 7-17.

See Yom Ha’Atzmaut Carnival page 2

The liberation of our people

In Jewish tradition, Passover is called also z’man heruteinu which means “the time of our freedom”.

Moses our teacher - the central character and leader of the people of Israel in the Torah - goes unmentioned in the Passover Haggadah. Instead, we emphasize God as the Liberator of our people from all their deep struggles, enabling them

to leave behind the Egyptian oppressor and to start life in freedom, living according to the values of the Torah in the Promised Land. It would take 40 years for the children of Israel to put their painful Egyptian memories and countless enemies behind them in their journey through the Sinai desert to the land of milk and honey. A new generation

See Liberate our people page 4

Concerts of Lights at Temple Israel Page 3

The Kaplan Book Group recognizes the Shoah Page 6

The Meyers Family Legacy of Laughter Page 12

LISA COOPER

Z. Davis Early Learning

RABBI ALEX FELCH

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT

Kosher for Passover

LOCAL | NATIONAL | WORLD

Yom Ha’atzmaut Carnival

Continued from page 1

Avi was born and raised in the city of Lod and for the past 16 years he has been living in Akko.

He has a bachelor’s degree in law and business administration and a master’s degree in political science. Avi enlisted in the IDF in 1996 and since then served as a soldier and as a commander for 25 years. He developed from a soldier to the position of commander of an artillery battalion through all the command positions along the way.

Billy Harel lives in Kibbutz Gesher Ziv in the north of Israel, is married to Adi and the mother of three children and a dog (his name is Patrick). Two years ago, she finished 30 years of military service (from the age of 18 to the age of 47). Literally half of her adult life was in uniform, she said.

Golan Rosenberg lives in Kibbutz Yehiam, where he was born and raised. He is married to Ricky and a father of three: Moran (22), Ilay (20) and Romi (20). Golan was the community manager of Kibbutz Yehiam, following 25 years of army service in a combat unit and in logistics in the northern border and in the Gaza strip, where he was wounded during a military operation against terrorists. He has since fully recovered. For the past six years, he has been the director of the Matte Asher Community Center which serves 32 Kibbutzim and villagesboth Jewish and Arab.

Eli Efrati is 41 years old. Eli was born and raised in Akko, and still lives there today.

He is happily married to Or; they have two children: son Atai Amos is 11 and daughter Gaya Sara is nine. In the 1950s, Eli’s father’s parents immigrated to Israel from Libya and his mother’s parents from Morocco. Both his parents were born and raised in Israel, making Eli second-generation to be born in Israel.

At the age of 18, he joined the IDF and served as a logistic officer and commander in the logistic military company unit.

He served for five-and-a-half years and commanded over 100 soldiers that came from all over Israeli society.

Yom Ha’atzmaut, or Independence Day, is when we commemorate Israel’s Declaration of Independence in 1948. The day is marked by official and unofficial ceremonies and observances, both in Israel and in the Diaspora. Yom Hazikaron, the Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day, is always scheduled for the day preceding Independence Day.

An official ceremony is held every year on Mount Herzl on the evening of Independence Day. The ceremony includes a speech by the speaker of the Knesset, artistic performances, and the ceremonial lighting of 12 torches, one for each of the tribes. Every year a dozen Israeli citizens, who made a significant social contribution in a selected area, are invited to light the torches. Many cities hold outdoor performances in cities’ squares featuring leading Israeli singers and fireworks displays. Many streets are closed off, so the party can move freely without having to worry about traffic.

In Omaha, we may not be able to close off entire streets, but we can dedicate the JCC gymnasium! Let’s celebrate Israel’s 75th birthday together, with crafts and games, face painting, inflatables, a photo booth, Israeli dancing, a Dead Sea experience and so much more.

The B’nai B’rith Trivia Contest will begin at 6:15 p.m. in the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Reception Room.

This program is proudly supported by Anything Grants Funded by the Staenberg Family Foundation and Kiewit Companies Foundation, Etta & Harold Epstein Security Fund, Murray H. and Sharee C. Newman Supporting Foundation, Special Donor Advised Fund and the Israel Engagement Fund: A JCC Association of North America Program. Bottled wateris generously provided by Ideal Water.

Trade scholarships available for the 2023-24 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.

Continued from page 1

were so excited to find the crumbs and sing the songs we have been learning. We are ready for the holiday!

The Pennie Z. Davis Early Learning Center (ELC) is a place where children can develop healthy independence, positive social interactions and strong thinking skills in a developmentally and educationally appropriate Judaic environment... a place where they can explore and play, and make independent choices while feeling secure and warmly nurtured.

The ELC has earned accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) –the world’s largest organization working on behalf of young children. NAEYC accreditation is a quality-improvement system that uses a set of 10 research-based standards to recognize and drive quality-improvement in high-quality early learning environments. NAEYC-accredited programs are always prepared for unannounced quality-assurance visits during their accreditation term, which lasts for five years.

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.

Beth Dotan joins Harris Center

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT

Jewish Press Editor

She really needs no introduction: Dr. Beth Dotan previously was the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Holocaust Education between 2000 and 2013. She currently calls the University of Nebraska-Lincoln home.

Completing her PhD in December 2022, Beth Dotan commenced work on March 1 with Dr. Ari Kohen as a Research Assistant Professor at the UNL Harris Center for Judaic Studies. Her dissertation focused on Digital Holocaust Memory and Education in the UNL College of Education and Human Sciences in the Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education Department. Dr. Dotan held the position of International Director at the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum in the Western Galilee, Israel, from 2012-15.

Ari Kohen is thrilled to welcome her: “The Harris Center has just succeeded in hiring Dr. Beth Dotan!” Kohen said. “As many people in the Omaha Jewish community know, Beth was the founding director of the IHE and a long-time educator on the Holocaust. Her dissertation project, a remarkable new online educational tool, focuses on Nebraska stories of survival and uses the newest tools in the digital humanities to bring Holocaust education to Nebraska and the world through a dynamic web portal.” Dr. Kohen is Professor of Political Science and Schlesinger Professor of Social Justice, as well as the Director of the Norman and Bernice Harris Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Dotan commented: “It’s an honor to work with Ari at the Harris Center at this point in my career. For the sake of this sacred work, I truly appreciate the opportunity to be affiliated with UNL.”

Dotan’s present work with the Harris Center and collaboration with the UNL Center for Digital Research in the Humanities will allow her to continue to develop the Nebraska Stories of Humanity: Holocaust Survivors & WWII Veterans Network Portal & Educational Website. Through aggreggated and digital humanities tools, the portal focuses on narratives of survivors and liberators who lived in Nebraska, and will be used specifically for educational and research purposes.. The project has launched with five collections and will expand over the next few years. Currently featured are Bea Karp, Hanna Rosenberg, Maurice Udes, Clarence Williams and Irving Shapiro. Click on any of their names and the portal connects the visitor with numerous photos and documents illustrating that person’s individual story, as well as the larger story of the Holocaust.

Survivor and former Gering, Nebraska, resident, Irving Shapiro wrote: “It is the ordinary people that we must convince of the necessity — the obligation to remember the Holocaust. As Jews we have no choice. The 6 million cry out from their unmarked graves that they be remembered.” We can read the words in his own handwriting—and that is powerful. We

can see what Bea Karp looked like in 1935, 1937, and 1939. Interactive maps provide visual reminders of the distance covered by those who were there. You can find a photo liberator Clarence Williams took on the ship he boarded in November 1945, which took him from Antwerp to Boston.

“Last spring, Nebraska passed Legislative Bill 888 requiring that Holocaust and genocides be taught in Nebraska schools,” Beth said. “Nebraska educators trained in Holocaust education have prepared Inquiry-Based lessons that comply with Nebraska educational standards. These lessons will be available online before the next school year. Additionally, the website will be used as a resource for higher education in multiple disciplines in Nebraska universities and global users.”

The project has received initial grants from the Cooper Foundation, Humanities Nebraska, the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, The Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation, the Livingston Foundation, Special Donor-Advised fund of the JFO Foundation, and the University of Nebraska. In addition to devoted student research interns who transcribe, scan, and enter materials, a stakeholder committee of various community organization members has supported this history and memory work since 2019.

To learn more about Dr. Dotan’s work, please visit https:// nestoriesofhumanity.unl.edu/

Concerts of Lights at Temple Israel

STEFANIE BAGUIAN

Temple Israel Director of Communications

In a time when seeing beauty in the world seemed impossible, many victims of the Holocaust were taking small moments and whatever scraps they could find to create music.

Maestro Francesco Lotoro, of the Foundation Institute of Concentrationary Musical Literature, has taken up finding this music, restoring it and bringing it to life. Temple Israel is honored to bring him to Omaha and offer two opportunities to witness this once-in-alifetime event.

On Thursday, May 4, Maestro Lotoro will partner with the Omaha Symphony to bring an abundant number of concentrationary music pieces to life, which will feature music from a variety of different composers, but who were all victims of the Holocaust. Lotoro and his singers will work with over 35 musicians from the Symphony for this 90-minute concert.

On Wednesday, May 3, Maestro Lotoro will be presenting a Youth Education Concert, which will give more background on a selection of pieces. While all ages are welcome to this event, please know that the subject matter can be heavy and this show is recommended for those in grade 7 and above, and their adults.

This event would not be possible without the drive of Susie Cohn. Cohn first learned of Maestro Lotoro and his work through an episode of 60 Minutes on CBS that featured his work and talked about his life story that culminated in the pursuit of this passion. She immediately knew that she

needed to bring Maestro Lotoro to Omaha. Over three years later, that dream has reached fruition.

Maestro Francesco Lotoro is a pianist, composer, and conductor in addition to being a piano professor at the “Niccolò Piccinni” Music Conservatory of Bari, Italy. For the past 30 years, he has tirelessly been involved in recovering, studying, revising, archiving, executing, recording, and promoting thousands of works of concentrationary music. He has recovered over 8,000 scores – often produced in a condition of deprivation of the most elementary human rights, in concentration, extermination, and civil and military imprisonment camps all over the world between 1933 to 1953.

This event would not be possible without Temple Israel’s partnership with the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation; the Foundation Institute of Concentrationary Musical Literature; the Omaha Symphony, the many many donors and grants, including the Karen Sokolof Javitch Music Fund Grant, the Foundation IMPACT Grant, the Ruth Frisch and Oscar S. Belzer Endowment Fund, and the JFO Foundation Donor Advised Fund; and Susie Cohn for making this event possible.

Money raised through these events will be going to the Foundation Institute of Concentrationary Musical Literature to help Maestro Lotoro continue this important work. For more information and to make reservations for either concert, please visit www.templeisraelomaha.com/ artist residence

Beth Dotan

The collection of Staff Sergeant Clarence Williams. Williams was a combat medic assigned to the US 122nd Medical Battalion, 42nd Division (the Rainbow Division) during World War II. Williams deployed to France in January 1945 and was present at the liberation of Dachau concentration camp in April of that year.

In Hamburg, Maestro Francesco Lotoro with Esther Bejarano, accordionist of the Birkenau Women’s Orchestra. Courtesy of Maestro Lotoro and the Foundation Institute of Concentrationary Musical Literature

Liberate our people

Continued from page 1 of Israelites would rise after so much pain and suffering, to reach the Promised Land with the new goal of enjoying and creating a viable national home.

For us as Jews, the story of Passover and of Moses as leader of the people of Israel, represents that constant yearning in our faith to celebrate our existence as a people and to fulfill our aspiration to enjoy a life safe from external and internal threats.

These are difficult times for our people in particular and the world in general. From the outside, we are experiencing threats to the Jewish people with increasing acts of discrimination, Judeophobia and antiSemitism throughout the diaspora and even in our own beloved country. From the inside, we are seeing a growing Jewish fundamentalism which threatens the democratic lifestyle and values of the State of Israel right now, as we speak. And, the Jewish people are not the only ones suffering. Autocrats are perpetuating themselves in power in many countries, as they take away basic freedoms from their population while simultaneously threatening their neighbors. We are witnessing unimaginable pain and suffering today, more than a year since the murderous attack of Russia on Ukraine, where thousands upon thousands have lost their lives, as their homeland has been brutally ravaged. In many ways today’s Ukraine looks to its Jewish president, Volodimir Zelenski, as their fearless leader who is guiding their country - the way Moses led the people of Israel to freedom and security - trying to provide hope and inspiration to all Ukrainians.

My wife Iryna and I just returned from Ukraine, where we witnessed and experienced what all Ukrainians are going through. We were determined to be with our family again after almost two years of being apart as we feared for their fate and their well-being. It was a long and eventful journey that really only began when we landed in Poland. As we boarded the train from Warsaw to get us to Ukraine, we got in a car that was packed with Ukrainians returning to their land, mostly women and children who had left and were now returning to their homeland, to their families, to their spouses and to their loved ones. The journey took about 16 hours during which we experienced and witnessed the efforts of the people of Ukraine, along with their allies. We had to pass through two separate border controls. It was an eerie sensation as officials took everybody’s passports, checking them for at least an hour’s length. While waiting in this sort of no man’s land, we saw long formations of parallel trains of flatbed wagons fully covered by tarps that we believe were carrying the equipment

that the Ukrainian people need in order to survive. After those dark and silent moments, the train began advancing very slowly, only to stop again for a few hours, just as we thought that we were getting closer to the city of Kyiv. We were in a daze and didn’t know exactly why we were not moving. As dawn rose about five hours later, we reached Kyiv where we learned that during the night - in the early hours before dawnUkraine had been attacked by hypersonic missiles that brought further destruction to the country’s population and civilian facilities. The Russians did not attack Ukrainian military targets, focusing instead on acts of cruelty on the civilian population. As we arrived in Kyiv and stepped off the train, we were embraced by family and emotionally kissed one another as we finally reunited!

We saw in person how the Ukrainian people are dealing with the daily challenges of war while at the same time remaining deeply committed to doing whatever they have to do in order to not just survive but also to defeat a cruel enemy. Ukrainians remain hopeful - full of determination, courage and bravery - and totally motivated to bring to their land freedom, independence and security. We saw the lively city of Kyiv, with packed restaurants, bustling traffic, and people living their daily lives. We enjoyed meals together, just like at a Passover Seder, with beloved ones and friends. We drove through the city, saw the weapons of war destroyed by the Ukrainian army in the squares of the city and also in the cities of Irpin and Bucha where so many civilians were brutally attacked, tortured, raped and murdered.

We walked through the streets, spending time together shopping while at the same time hearing the strident sirens that Ukrainians have become so used to hearing every time a plane takes off from Belarus or perhaps a missile is launched from Russia into Ukrainian airspace. I was nervous, but also awestruck, as I observed ordinary Ukrainians walking undisturbed, carrying on with their lives. They were not ignoring the danger, but were determined to live their lives as normally as they could, not allowing the fear to rule them. And we can feel inspired by the bravery and the courage of the Ukrainian people, when this Pesach we remember and cherish the courage -in the midst of Egyptian cruelty - that the people of Israel and Moses displayed more than 3,200 years ago.

We cannot take our lives for granted.

The people of Ukraine, who before the war began had been celebrating growth and development, are living proof that evil exists around us. Russia today, like the Egypt of the Torah, continues See Liberate our people page 5

Stand up to Jewish Hate

PAM MONSKY

JCRC Assistant Director

As you may have seen on T.V. and on our Jewish Federation of Omaha social media, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the JFO have joined ‘Stand up to Jewish Hate,’ a new campaign to educate all Americans about the rise of antisemitism and mobilize people outside the Jewish community to help us address growing hate and intolerance.

This campaign is the initiative of Robert Kraft, who has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to social equality and support for vulnerable populations. Through his lifetime giving in excess of over a half billion dollars, Kraft has sought to help provide equal footing, equal access to opportunities and equal respect for all people, especially those who are disadvantaged, overlooked or oppressed.

We are asking everyone to post and share the blue box hashtag on social media, using the blue square emoji on your phone, as a simple but powerful unifying symbol of solidarity.

We all know that antisemitism is rising at alarming rates in the United States. Yet, new polling finds that more than half of Americans do not believe “antisemitism is a big prob-

lem” and nearly half believe that “Jews are more than capable of handling issues of antisemitism on their own”.

That’s why we are proud to join the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism and a wide coalition of Jewish and non-Jewish groups, to raise awareness and empower all Americans to join us to prevent hatred and intolerance towards Jews. We need to drive home the message that while Jews make up just 2.4% of the U.S. population, we are the victims of 55% of all religious hate crimes.

Here are a few actions you can take to #StandUptoJewishHate and join this national movement:

• Post and share the hashtag - an emoji already available on most mobile devices - on your social media channels, email signatures, and text messages, alongside a message of support against hate and intolerance.

• Speak up and share your personal story with antisemitism

• Follow the #StandUpToJewishHate campaign at @StandUpToJewishHate on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to keep up-to-date and learn more about antisemitism. See Stand up to Jewish Hate page 5

Continued from page 4

to attack, enslave and abuse those who only want to enjoy lives of meaning and purpose. I would like to suggest that on this Pesach we ought to celebrate the fact that we have the strength to go on. Let us celebrate family and country and positive values. Let us celebrate being alive, believing in God and being hopeful for a better future. Let us celebrate our beautiful heritage and our collective memories, as we recall the miracle of the Exodus from Egypt. May all this hopefully bring the promise of freedom, liberation and well-being to us all and also to the people of Ukraine. Let us all enjoy a sweet Pesach filled with love, surrounded by family and friends, putting bickering and disagreements behind us and building with strength a better future for us all.

Wishing everybody near and far a meaningful Pesach, filled with blessings and hope: Chag Sameach!

Beth El Speakers focus on organ donation

ROBBY ERLICH

Beth El Engagement Coordinator

Beth El Synagogue is very pleased to host guest speakers Don Goldstein, Dr. Alan Langnas, Jennifer Tompkins and Martha Gershun during the weekend of April 21: Friday, April 21 and Saturday, April 22. The topic of the weekend is organ donation. The entire weekend is sponsored by the Ann Goldstein Endowment Fund. Don Goldstein will speak during Friday night services on the importance of organ donation. Dr. Alan Langnas, Chief of Organ Transplantation from UNMC, will present during Friday night dinner, for Beth El members and guests. Dr. Langnas’ talk is on The Jewish Perspective on Organ Donation and Transplantation. Jennifer Tompkins, Executive Director of Philanthropy & Engagement at the Jewish Federation of Omaha, will speak during Shabbat morning services on her personal journey with organ transplantation. Author Martha Gershun will speak during Shabbat Kiddush lunch on her book Kidney to Share: A Living Donor’s Story

Organ donation is a complex topic. Each speaker during the weekend will share their unique perspective, involvement, and insight on it. For Jennifer Tompkins, she explains her gratitude for the donor and donor’s family. “Someone made the decision

to donate organs. Because of that decision, I am able to enjoy life with my family and friends”, says Tompkins. She explains further, “I am able to perform my job at the Jewish Federation of Omaha. I am able to eat and appreciate the food I am eating.” “I am forever grateful that my donor/donor’s family made the decision to donate.”

For Martha Gershun, speaking at Beth El is personal. “It’s a tremendous honor to speak at Beth El for Organ Donor Shabbat,” says Gershun. “My decision to donate a kidney was deeply influenced by the transplant journey of my cousin Ann Goldstein, of blessed memory, and her donor and dear friend, Cheryl Cooper. This weekend of events really feels like coming full circle.”

Rabbi Abraham is looking forward to the meaningful Shabbat weekend: “Organ donation is something we do not talk about enough in Judaism- not only is it permitted, but it is encouraged. I am thrilled we are able to have a host of amazing speakers to talk about this important and life-changing mitzvah. My deep thanks to the Goldstein family, for bringing this topic so close to home to Beth El.”

For more information on the weekend, please contact Robby Erlich, Engagement Coordinator at rerlich@bethelomaha.org or 402.492.8550.

Stand up to Jewish Hate

Continued from page 4

• Visit www.StandUpToJewishHate.org to subscribe to the Foundation’s “From the Command Center” e-newsletter to learn more about how antisemitism is spreading online, learn ways to identify and report it, and find helpful tools and resources around antisemitism

With antisemitic rhetoric on the rise, it’s important to not to ignore hateful comments when you hear them. In many in-

YOUR GRADUATE

stances, people who make these types of comments or jokes are unaware that what they said was problematic. When this happens, it is recommended to immediately inform the person so they know that what they said was antisemitic. This allows everyone to see the issue with what was said, and shows victims of the statement that they have an ally.

Together, we can educate and empower more Americans to join us in the fight to Stand Up to Jewish Hate.

Disney’s FROZEN A sensational musical spectacle

The Kaplan Book Group recognizes the Shoah

SHIRLY BANNER JFO Library Specialist

On April 20 at 1 p.m. the Dorothy Kaplan Book Discussion Group will gather for their monthly meeting. Group members have the choice of meeting either in person in the Benjamin & Anna Wiesman Reception Room in the Staenberg Jewish Community Center or via Zoom. This month they will be viewing the HBO documentary 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, followed by a discussion

The film tells the narrative of Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, a Jewish couple from Philadelphia, who secured 50 visas in an attempt to rescue 50 Viennese children from the Nazis and certain death

We are fortunate to have Dana Knox, daughter of one of the 50 children, who will provide a discussion and Q&A after the viewing of the documentary If you have not seen this powerful story, this is your opportunity to do so. The documentary narrated by Alan and Mamie Gummer has a running time of 60 minutes.

From the producer of The Lion King and Aladdin, FROZEN, the Tony®-nominated Best Musical, is now on tour across North America, and the critics rave, “It’s simply magical!” (LA Daily News). An unforgettable theatrical experience filled with sensational special effects, stunning sets and costumes, and powerhouse performances, FROZEN is everything you want in a musical: It’s moving. It’s spectacular. And above all, it’s pure Broadway joy.

FROZEN features the songs you love from the original Oscar®-winning film, plus an expanded score with a dozen new numbers by

the film’s songwriters, Oscar winner Kristen Anderson-Lopez and EGOT winner Robert Lopez. Oscar winner Jennifer Lee (book), Tony and Olivier Award winner Michael Grandage (director), and Tony winner Rob Ashford (choreographer) round out the creative team that has won a cumulative 16 Tony Awards.

You can see Disney’s FROZEN at the Orpheum Theater April 19-30, 2023, with sixteen performances, including weekend matinees. As of this writing, tickets are still available at ticketomaha.com

Why, you may ask yourself is the Kaplan Book group not reading a book this month? There are several reasons for this; There is the struggle of getting back into a routine after Passover and, more importantly, we need to pay tribute to those who endured the atrocities of Shoah and help educate about those who did not stand idly by.

ORGANIZATIONS

B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS

Please feel free to join us on April 20 in person or via Zoom. If you would like to catch both IHE’s Third Thursday Lunch and Learn Series and the Kaplan Book Group’s presentation of the movie, you are welcome to join us in the Wiesman Reception Room at 11:30 a.m. to Zoom when IHE’s featured speaker is Kelly Tichauer Kirk. The Dorothy Kaplan Book Discussion Group meets on the third Thursday of every month at 1 p.m. New members are always welcome. The Group receives administrative support from the Community Engagement & Education arm of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. For information about the group and to join in the discussion, contact Shirly Banner at 402.334.6462 or sbanner@jewishomaha.org

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

Caroline Bowman as Elsa in FROZEN Credit: Deen van Meer

On Thursday, March 30, members of the Omaha Jewish Community gathered in Lincoln for a Jewish Day of Action on behalf of the JCRC. Several bills have been on the radar for the community and the purpose of the Jewish Day of Action is to meet with and thank senators who support legislation that will improve the lives of people in the community and to also explain why other legislation can potentially cause harm. Community members attending this first Jewish Day of Action included above: Zoë Riekes, JCRC Board Chair; Mike Siegel, JFO Board President; Sharon Brodkey, JCRC Executive Director; and JCRC board members Ellie Batt; Ron Giller; Sara Rips, not pictured; and Pam Monsky, JCRC Assistant Director, pictured with Senator Tony Vargas. Below left: Zoë Riekes, Senator Carol Blood and Ron Giller; below right: Senator Jane Raybold with Zoë Riekes.

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

Top, above, below and bottom: RBJH spent the afternoon making doggy treats to give to the Nebraska Humane Society.

Above left: The Chabad Matzah Factory visits Temple Israel.

Above, below and bottom: A few more from PJ Library Challah Tots at Friedel.

Above right: Ari Finkelstein, son of Becca and David Finkelstein, prays at Auschwitz during the Young Judea Year Course.

Below: Temple Israel. fifth grade mock wedding.

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 Editor may edit letters for content and space restrictions. Letters may be published without giving an opposing view. Information shall be verified before printing. All letters must be signed by the writer. The Jewish Press will not publish letters that appear to be part of an organized campaign, nor letters copied from the Internet. No letters should be published from candidates running for office, but others may write on their behalf.

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The Jewish Press (USPS 275620) is published weekly (except for the first week of January and July) on Friday for $40 per calendar year U.S.; $80 foreign, by the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Phone: 402.334.6448; FAX: 402.334.5422.

Periodical postage paid at Omaha, NE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154-2198 or email to: jpress@jewishomaha.org

Who tells the story

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor

Here we go again: “A public high school in Florida has removed an illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary from its library,” Andrew Lapin wrote. “It is the second known instance of this particular edition of the famous Holocaust book being swept up by conservatives seeking to purge schools of literature they deem inappropriate.” (JTA, April 5)

The book is a graphic novel telling the familiar story; the Indian River County school district deemed it not age-appropriate.

“The graphic novel adaptation of the diary was released in 2018 with the full authorization of the Anne Frank Fonds.

Adapted by Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman and illustrator David Polonsky and intended for young readers, the book compresses Frank’s actual diary entries into a condensed version of her true story. While it does contain some invented dialogue and surrealist scenes, reproductions of Frank’s actual diary in the book hew to her exact words.”

That’s not what caused concern for its detractors, though.

“First restored to editions of the diary in the 1980s, and published in English in 1995, those passages relate Frank’s latent feelings of attractiveness toward another girl and her description of her own genitalia. Another Florida parent in a different school district has told JTA they filed a request to remove the graphic adaptation because of objec-

tions to these passages.”

Apparently, it’s okay to talk about the Holocaust, but we cannot treat Anne as an actual human being, who used her diary the way diaries were intended. A diary is by definition a private affair—We

ognize it every time. But then, there is the other side of that coin, where people treat the Holocaust as sacred, almost symbolic, rendering its victims untouchable. And I think that is no better than being called names.

Limiting how we talk about the Holocaust, romanticizing its victims and not acknowledging they were real people, pretending, for instance, a Holocaust victim cannot possibly have an opinion about her sexuality or her body, is antisemitism. Censuring Anne is antisemitism. So what if she talks about her genitalia? Her story is important, period. In this context, I don’t much care about the discomfort of parents in Florida. Guess what? All our children, Jewish or not, benefit if we don’t romanticize the Holocaust to the point where we censure the Diary of Anne Frank.

can safely assume Anne didn’t write any of it with the objective to share with millions. She did not expect to die and leave her words to the world. She would most likely be horrified if she knew.

The thing is, like countless others, Anne was a real girl. When she wrote her diary, she was not a symbol, she was not a hero, she was not a victim. She was simply Anne, and when we make decisions about which parts of her diary, which parts of her experience, are ‘appropriate,’ we once again dehumanize her.

We know what antisemitism looks like when it is blatant, in-your-face. There’s name-calling, blood libels, violent attacks and accusations, and we rec-

The real question is: who gets to tell the story? Because so few eyewitnesses are left, it’s an extremely important question, and we better answer it fast.

Among the generations that were born later, after the War, there is still a barrier: we weren’t there, what do we know? I doubt I’m the only one who was raised with that guilt—to the point were even standing up during Yom HaShoah, acknowledging I’m second generation, is hard. I don’t know, I wasn’t there, I have no right. Family members are turning over in their grave.

However, if we don’t stand up and claim our story (because yes, it does belong to us) we open the door for others. Someone is going to drive the narrative. If not us, who is going to claim ownership?

The life-changing magic of washing your hands

RABBI DANIEL S. BRENNER JTA

At the height of the pandemic, I remember maddeningly washing, scrubbing and antibacterialspritzing my hands in a bathroom along the New Jersey Turnpike. I then Olympic speed-walked to my car and rubbed my hands down again with a disinfecting wipe.

In those days of social distancing, the basic Jewish ritual of handwashing before meals — tossing water three times over each hand from a communal pitcher — felt to me like an extremely low standard of cleanliness.

You may know the ritual, even if you don’t do it regularly: It’s the second step at the Passover seder, right after the blessing of the wine and just before you dip the parsley in salt water, when guests line up at the sink or someone passes a bowl of water and a towel around the table.

The rest of the year, the Jewish hand-washing ritual is usually associated with substantial meals (at minimum, a meal that includes bread). During the height of the pandemic, I was rarely sitting down for meals — at least not breakfast or lunch — because most of my daylight hours were in Zoomland and most of what I was consuming was microwaved leftovers. This left me feeling disconnected on multiple levels. Me and millions of other people.

I needed to find ways to reconnect. I started taking more meetings on the phone and I decided that I would try to slow down and eat lunch with a little more mindfulness — even if I was just making myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And that is when I reluctantly rediscovered ritual handwashing.

At first, I stood at our kitchen sink and tried to reconnect to the simplicity of the act — just slowing down and breathing as I poured water over my hands from a vessel. I knew that the ancient origins of ritual washing take us back to the practice of one kohen (priest) washing the feet and hands of another kohen before engaging in the work of the sacrifices. I started to think of this act as some form of sacred self-care where my left hand was caring for my right and vice versa. I started to make a habit of washing my hands with a vessel and I started to read more about the ritual.

One element of the washing is called “shifshuf yadayim,” which literally means “rubbing the hands,” and is initially described in the Tosefta (Yadaim 1:2), a 2nd-century CE compilation of Torah law. In an 18th-century text, Pri Megadim, there is a teaching that the rubbing is done so that the water touches every part of skin on the back and front of the hands and in the nooks between the fingers.

ations to sit together in a charming old house in New Jersey that sadly lacks “flow.”

Having guests find their way out of this maze and parade through the kitchen to wash is not feasible. Still, I wanted to share my newfound love for handwashing, so I passed out small cups with 3.2 ounces of water (the minimum amount required) so that everyone could fully engage with that often overlooked second ritual of the seder, known as urchatz. I even went so far as to work with an artist, Helene Brenenson, to design a guide to handwashing that includes a series of wellbeing-centered teachings to accompany the four essential steps of the ritual: lifting the vessel, pouring the water, rubbing the hands together and lifting the hands.

This led me to become more mindful of the ways that rubbing brings your consciousness to the contours of your hands and to the act of caring for your hands. Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812) taught that when the rubbing is done with intention, it helps you to obtain a “tahara yeteira” — an extra level of purity.

I slowed down even more. I started using the minimal amount of water, turning my hand gently as I poured the water, and focusing on the sensation of the water covering the entire surface of the hands. In doing so I felt more connected to water’s miraculous power to cleanse and to refresh. And as I did this again and again, it became more than just a conscious moment of self-care and connection to water — it was as if I were awakening the deadened nerves in my hands and healing from the psychic wounds of those many months of lockdown and general fear of others. Through this gentle cleaning and attention to my hands I was experiencing a rebirth and a return — two themes that take us to the present moment.

In the Brenner home, we were frantically zipping about preparing to host the extended clan for Passover, a massive Tetris game of rearranging furniture, shlepping folding tables from the basement and cramming just enough chairs for three gener-

As I worked on this guide, I had a minor epiphany: Giving this water ritual, urchatz, a prominent spot at the seder was a brilliant rabbinic move. The Passover story begins with a drought (lack of water) that brought the Israelites to Egypt, ends with the miraculous crossing of a sea (walls of water), and eventually leads us to a land described in Deuteronomy as having “streams of water, of springs and underground water bursting forth from valley and mountain.” Urchatz connects us to the water imagery of the Passover seder and both physically and spiritually prepares our hands to take hold of the parsley (or other vegetable) and taste the “Spring” that symbolizes this time of rebirth.

Now I look back on those months of frantic pandemic handwashing and feel gratitude. My disconnection not only helped me seek out new ways to approach a basic pre-eating ritual, but led me to appreciate something that was always right there in the seder but I had never truly bothered to appreciate. This year the number two ritual in the seder’s order is number one in my heart.

Rabbi Daniel S. Brenner is the Vice President of Education for Moving Traditions and is grateful to the leaders and fellows of the M2 Jewish Pedagogies of Wellbeing Fellowship for supporting the research that led to this teaching.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

Credit: JTA illustration by Mollie Suss

Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation Credit: Anne Frank Fonds

Judaism doesn’t want you to wander and live just anywhere — or does it?

BEN HARRIS

JTA

I was a remote worker long before the pandemic made it a thing, but it was only last month that I really took advantage of it. Early on the morning of New Year’s Day, I boarded a plane from Connecticut bound for Mexico, where I spent a full month sleeping in thatch-roofed palapas, eating more tacos than was probably wise and bathing every day in the Pacific. I’ll spare you the glorious details, but suffice it to say, it wasn’t a bad way to spend a January.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I found myself again and again coming into contact with expats who had traded in their urban lives in northern climes for a more laid-back life in the tropics. There was the recently divorced motorcycle enthusiast slowly wending his way southward by bike as he continued to work a design job for a major American bank. There was the yoga instructor born not far from where I live in Massachusetts who owned an open-air rooftop studio just steps from the waves. There were the countless couples who had chosen to spend their days running beachfront bars or small hotels on the sand. And then there were the seemingly endless number and variety of middle-aged northerners rebooting their lives in perpetual sunshine.

Such people have long mystified me. It’s not hard to understand the lure of beachside living, and part of me envies the freedom to design your own life from the ground up. But there’s also something scary about it. Arriving in middle age in a country where you know nobody, whose language is not your own, whose laws and cultural mores, seasons and flora, are all unfamiliar — it feels like the essence of shallow-rootedness, like a life devoid of all the things that give one (or at least me) a sense of comfort and security and place. The thought of exercising the right to live literally anywhere and any way I choose opens up a space so vast and limitless it provokes an almost vertiginous fear of disconnection and a life adrift.

Clearly, this feeling isn’t universally shared. And the fact that I have it probably owes a lot to my upbringing. I grew up in an Orthodox family, which by necessity meant life was lived in a fairly small bubble. Our house was within walking distance of

our synagogue, as it had to be since walking was the only way to get there on Shabbat and holidays. I attended a small Jewish day school, where virtually all of my friends came from families with similar religious commitments. Keeping kosher and the other constraints of a religious life had a similarly narrowing effect on the horizons of my world and thus my sense of life’s possibilities. Or at least that’s how it often felt.

right to live however you want.

Except it might mean the right to live any place you want. In the 25th chapter of Leviticus, God gives the Israelites the commandment of the Jubilee year, known as yovel in Hebrew. Observed every 50 years in biblical times, the Jubilee has many similarities to the shmita (sabbatical) year, but with some additional rituals. The text instructs: “And you shall hallow the 50th year. You shall proclaim liberty throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: each of you shall return to your holding and each of you shall return to your family.”

Among the requirements of the Jubilee was that ancestral lands be returned to their original owners. Yet the word for liberty is a curious one: “d’ror.” The Talmud explains its etymology this way: “It is like a man who dwells [medayer] in any dwelling and moves merchandise around the entire country” (Rosh Hashanah 9b).

What must it be like — pardon the non-kosher expression — to feel as if the world is your oyster? That you could live anywhere, love anyone, eat anything and make your life whatever you want it to be? Thrilling, yes — but also frightening. The sense of boundless possibility I could feel emanating from those sun-baked Mexicans-by-choice was seductive, but tempered by aversion to a life so unmoored.

The tension between freedom and obligation is baked into Jewish life. The twin poles of our national narrative are the Exodus from Egypt and the revelation at Sinai, each commemorated by festivals separated by exactly seven weeks in the calendar, starting with Passover. The conventional understanding is that this juxtaposition isn’t accidental. God didn’t liberate the Israelites from slavery so they could live free of encumbrances on the Mayan Riviera. Freedom had a purpose, expressed in the giving of the Torah at Sinai, with all its attendant rules and restrictions and obligations. Freedom is a central value of Jewish life — Jews are commanded to remember the Exodus every day. But Jewish freedom doesn’t mean the

The liberty of the Jubilee year could thus be said to have two contrary meanings — individuals had the right to return to their ancestral lands, but they were also free not to. They could live in any dwelling they chose. The sense of liberty connoted by the biblical text is a specifically residential one: the freedom to live where one chooses. Which pretty well describes the world we live in today. Jewish ancestral lands are freely available to any Jew who wants to live there. And roughly half the Jews of the world choose not to.

Clearly, I’m among them. And while I technically could live anywhere, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to. I like where I live — not because of any particular qualities of this place, though I do love its seasons and its smells and its proximity to the people I care about and the few weeks every fall when the trees become a riotous kaleidoscope. But mostly because it’s mine.

Note: A version of this essay appeared in My Jewish Learning’s Recharge Shabbat newsletter.

Ben Harris is the managing editor of My Jewish Learning, where a version of this essay first appeared.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

Credit: JTA illustration

Synagogues

B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

618 Mynster Street

Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766

712.322.4705

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

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

Ma’ariv, 7:40 p.m.

noon on Parashat Shmini; Havdalah 8:49 p.m.

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, Ann Moshman, Mary-Beth Muskin, Debbie Salomon and Sissy Silber. Handicap Accessible.

B’NAI ISRAEL 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; Jr. Congregation (Grades 3-7), 10 a.m.; Havdalah, 8:40 p.m. Zoom Only.

SUNDAY: Day of Service with St. Luke, 8:30 a.m.;

BESTT (Grades 3-7), 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10 a.m.; Hebrew Reading, 11 a.m. with Hazzan Krausman; USY Board Meeting, noon

TUESDAY: Board of Trustees Meeting, 7:15 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: BESTT (Grades 3-7), 4:15 p.m.; Yom HaShoah Teen Program, 5:30 p.m. at the JCC; Yom HaShoah Commemoration, 7 p.m. at the JCC.

THURSDAY: Needlework Gang, 1 p.m.; Torah on Tap, 7 p.m. with Hazzan Krausman.

FRIDAY-Apr 21: Kabbalat Shabbat 6 p.m. with guest speaker, Don Goldstein, “The Importance of Organ Donation at Beth El & Live Stream; Shabbat Dinner, 7 p.m. with guest speaker, Dr. Alan Langas, Chief of Transplant Surgery at UNMC.

SATURDAY-Apr. 22: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. with guest speaker Jen Tompkins, “My Personal Journey’ at Beth El & Live Stream; Jr. Congregation (Grades 3-7) 10 a.m.; Kiddush Lunch following services with guest speaker, Martha Gershon, author of “Kidney to Share: A Living Donor’s Story”; Havdalah, 8:50 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, 7:30 p.m.; Candlelighting, 7:45 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:45 a.m.; Mincha, 7:30 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity 8 p.m.; Havdalah, 8:48 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit 9 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv 7:40 p.m.

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

TUESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Board of Directors Meeting, 6:30 p.m.; Mincha/

WEDNESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:40 p.m.

THURSDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Character Development, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Ari; Mincha/Ma’ariv 7:40 p.m.; Parsha Class 8:20 p.m.

FRIDAY-Apr 21: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat, 7:30 p.m.; Candlelighting, 7:53 p.m.

SATURDAY-Apr. 22: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat 10:45 a.m.; Mincha 7:40 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity, 8:10 p.m.; Havdalah, 8:56 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, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochabad.com/ Lechayim; Candlelighting, 7:45 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit 9:30 a.m.; One-Hour Service, 11 a.m. at Chabad. Go to ochabad.com/one hour for more info; Shabbat Ends, 8:47 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.; Intermediate Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

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

WEDNESDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Mystical Thinking (Tanya), 9:30 a.m.; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 11:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

THURSDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Advanced Biblical Hebrew Grammer, 11 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Talmud Study (Sanhedrin 34), noon; Introduction to Alphabet, Vowels & Reading Hebrew, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) Class, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY-Apr 21: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ocha bad.com/Lechayim; Candlelighting, 7:52 p.m.

SATURDAY-Apr. 22: Shacharit 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 8:55 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: Omer Day Eight; Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Leslie Delserone and Peter Mullin, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg host: TBD; Shabbat Candlelighting, 7:47 p.m.

SATURDAY: Omer Day Nine; Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study,

SUNDAY: LJCS Classes, 9:30 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 albertw 801@gmail.com; Jewish Book Club, 1:30 p.m. and will discuss Concealed, Memoir of a Jewish-Iranian Daughter, Caught Between the Chador and America, by Esther Amini via Zoom; Pickleball, 3-5 p.m. at TI.

MONDAY: Omer Day 11

TUESDAY: Omer Day 12 — Yom HaShoah; Yom HaShoah Service, 5 p.m. at the State Holocaust Memorial, Wyuka.

WEDNESDAY: LJCS Classes, 4:30 p.m.; Awareness Training, 7 p.m. with James Donohue at TI.

THURSDAY: Omer Day 14

FRIDAY-Apr 21: Omer Day 15; Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Nathaniel and Steve Kaup, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg host: TBD; Shabbat Candlelighting, 7:45 p.m.

SATURDAY-Apr. 22: Omer Day 16; Shabbat Morning Service 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Tazria-Metzora; Havdalah, 8:57 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, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom; Confirmation Class and Dinner, 6 p.m.

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

SUNDAY: Grades PreK-6, 9:30 a.m. In-Person; Coffee and Conversation with Board Meeting, 10 a.m. InPerson; Book Club, 10:30 a.m. In-Person & Zoom.

WEDNESDAY: Yarn It, 9 a.m. In-Person; Grades 36, 4-6 p.m.; Grades 7-12 Yom HaShoah Program, 5:30 p.m. at JCC; Yom HaShoah Community Holocaust Commemoration, 7 p.m. at JCC.

THURSDAY: Thursday Morning Class, 10 a.m. with Rabbi Azriel.

FRIDAY-Apr 21: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m. InPerson; Tot Shabbat, 5:45 p.m. In-Person; Classic Shabbat Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY-Apr. 22: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Shabbat Morning Service and Bar Mitzvah of Julian Simon, 10:30 a.m. In-Person & Zoom. Please visit templeisraelomaha.com for additional information and Zoom service links.

Chair of Florida’s Democratic Party arrested at protest

BEN SALES JTA

Nikki Fried, who chairs Florida’s Democratic Party, was arrested at a protest for abortion rights in the state capital, along with 10 other demonstrators.

The protest on the night of April 3, which took place outside Tallahassee City Hall, was in opposition to a proposed six-week abortion ban in Florida that the state senate passed that evening. The bill must pass the state House of Representatives before heading to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Fried, who is Jewish, previously served as Florida’s commissioner of agriculture, a rare Democrat elected to statewide office in Florida. Last year, she mounted an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for governor. She became the state Democratic Party chair earlier this year.

The legislation that the state Senate advanced would tighten Florida’s already limited access to abortion. A Boynton Beach synagogue filed an early lawsuit challenging the state’s new 15-week abortion ban last year, part of a wave of activism by Jewish leaders across the country to make religious freedom arguments in favor of abortion rights.

Fried and the other protesters were arrested hours after the state Senate vote, according to the Tallahassee Democrat, a local newspaper. The arrest occurred as they sat in a circle on the ground and sang Lean on Me, surrounding a yellow flag with a picture of a uterus. Fried wore a T-shirt reading “Just f**k!ng vote.”

The protest, which was led by women, had begun early in the day. Also arrested was state Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book. Both were released overnight, according to a local TV station.

“I’m out. And not ever backing down,” Fried tweeted along with a photo of herself in handcuffs Monday night. The tweet also repeated the slogan on her shirt.

“Florida Democrats will not back down in our defense of abortion rights,” the state Democratic Party tweeted. “Our Chair made that clear tonight.”

The state Republican Party chairman, Christian Ziegler, posted a tweet Tuesday morning mocking Fried and asking if federal loans are available because the state Democrats are “in need of extra cash to bailout their Chairman.”

Nikki Fried in 2022. Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Life cycles

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Editor, When Global Citizens Mobilize

If any person cannot control where they are born, why do we stand to live in a desperately unequal world? Should we, as global citizens, sit idly by while our government both rarely and insufficiently responds to these inequalities? It is unsettling to think about the calamities that occur without galvanizing appropriate support from the global community.

Inequalities such as extreme poverty do not generate attention from our country that is equivalent to their gravity. Most Americans guess that 20 percent of our federal budget goes to foreign aid, however, just one percent is sent abroad for foreign assistance, diplomacy and disaster relief. These issues are often paralyzing for Americans. Without batting an eye at the ways our privileges fit into the bigger picture, we opt out of responding to calls for action.

Hundreds of millions live in extreme poverty, meaning they live on less than $1.90 a day. Visualizing this reality is maddening. Although this problem is colossal, it is not impossible to solve. The Borgen Project says that solutions are attainable and efficacious.

A bold example is the early achievement of the Millenium Development Goal to cut hunger in half by 2015. Now, the United Nations is focusing on zero hunger by the year 2030. Call me John Lennon, but is that so hard to imagine?

Without a doubt, the United States is in the best position to help the world’s poor. Not only is the United States equipped with the resources to address the humanitarian crises precipitated by global poverty, but our country will be safer for it. The Borgen Project states that U.S. national security benefits tenfold from remedying the symptoms of poverty.

Barack Obama said it exquisitely, “It’s a moral imperative, it’s an economic imperative, and it is a security imperative. For we’ve seen how spikes in food prices can plunge millions into poverty, which, in turn, can spark riots that cost lives, and can lead to instability. And this danger will only grow if a surging global population isn’t matched by surging food production. So reducing malnutrition and hunger around the world advances international peace and security — and that includes the national security of the United States.”

The cries of a starving and ill child across the world do not reach our U.S. lawmakers. Your voice, though, and the political power of your concerns, multiplied by your friends, family and neighbors, those cries reach your representatives. If Americans prioritized being global citizens, the United States could take the reins on the fight to reduce poverty. What role can you play in

reducing extreme poverty?

You can visit www.borgenproject.org to learn more and make your opinion heard. I urge readers to take 30 seconds to reach out to Senators Fischer and Ricketts and Representative Bacon, and let them know your support for funding The Foreign Affairs Budget.

EMILY KUTLER

HARRISON VINCENT LUND

Allie and Alex Lund announce the Feb. 16, 2023, birth of their son, Harrison Vincent.

He has a sister, Hannah Beatrice.

Grandparents are Jan and Blake Lund and Kellie and the late William Schrader, all of Omaha.

Great-grandparents are the late Beatrice and Ben Schneider, formerly of Council Bluffs and Omaha.

CORRECTION

In the April7 edition of the Jewish Press, the obituary of Judith Kohn erroneously mentioned she was preceded by her husband. The correct obituary is below. The Jewish Press regrets the error.

JUDITH KOHN

Judith Kohn passed away on March 30, 2023 in Newton, MA. An afternoon of remembrance was held on April 7, 2023, at the Kohn apartment in Auburndale, MA.

She is survived by her husband Eugene (Gene) Kohn; daughters and sons-in-law, Stacy and Mickey Schreiber, and Janet and Rick Rebman; son and daughter-in-law, Andrew and Sally Kohn; four grandchildren: Alie Schreiber and Deanna Schreiber of New York City, Trey Rebman of East Boston, and Danielle Rebman of Washington, DC; and sister and brother-in-law, Lois and Joel Finkel.

Judy was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and she was the daughter of Sue and David Greenberg. Judy was a Special Education teacher for thirty years in the Newton school system at Countryside Elementary School, Brown Junior High and Newton South High School.

Uniquely, Judy’s true gift was starting and then maintaining friendships throughout her life.

Memorials may be made to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Man pleads guilty to 2021 arson hate crime

PHILISSA CRAMER

JTA

The man charged with setting fire to a synagogue in Austin, Texas, in 2021 has pleaded guilty to two federal charges, including the destruction of religious property, a hate crime.

The board of directors at Congregation Beth Israel endorsed the plea deal, telling members that the agreement had no bearing on Franklin Barrett Sechriest’s ultimate sentence and noting that a trial could deepen their trauma.

The sanctuary, historic front doors and stained glass windows at the Reform synagogue were damaged in the October 2021 fire that Sechriest, during a plea hearing on Thursday, admitted to setting. The fire was extinguished after a passing motorist alerted authorities; Sechriest, then 18, was arrested 10 days after the fire after being identified in surveillance footage.

Investigators found antisemitic and racist material as well as bomb-making supplies in Sechriest’s car, according to details revealed when he was indicted and recounted in a Department of Justice press release on Friday. They also discovered a journal in which he had written, “I set fire to a synagogue.”

Under the terms of the plea deal, Sechriest pleaded guilty to arson and to the hate crime, but prosecutors dropped a third charge, use of a fire to commit a felony. He faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced at a separate hearing, scheduled for June 23. Congregation Beth Israel’s board of directors had voted to support the plea deal after being consulted by prosecutors, according to a message sent to all members by the synagogue’s rabbi, president and executive director.

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Before someone offers you alcohol or other drugs, decide what you are going to say.

They are at it again: The Meyers Family Legacy of Laughter

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT

Jewish Press Editor

Twice a year, the Meyers family invites seniors living in retirement homes, their friends, family and the entire community to a FREE comedy show. A story from The Book of Bobo is read before a talented comedian takes the stage. Then, the joyous laughter begins and lasts for well over an hour!The legacy of Laughter will once again make an appearance in Omaha. Sponsored by the Legacy of Laughter Endowment Fund at the JFO Foundation, Comedian Frances Dilorinzo will grace the LOL stage at the Heritage at Sterling Ridge, Sunday April 23 from 1:30-3 p.m. ish.

Frances fills the room with energy and fun. Her humor stems from real life, and she delivers it with every silly bone in her body. The seats and the refreshments are both free and everyone is welcome.

“Because we were raised in a house filled with laughter,” Mike Meyers said, “courtesy of our beloved parents Bernie (Bobo) and Roie (Roro) Meyers, we are determined to keep their laughter alive as long as we humanly can.”

The ‘we’ includes Mike’s brother Bruce and sister Vicky, who have worked for several years now to spread joy where and when they can.

“We’ll never forget walking through the halls of the beautiful Blumkin Home and hearing no laughter until we entered our parents’ room. Our mission is to bring joyous, healing laughter to as many seniors as possible. After all, who is more deserving of the right to a good, long laugh!”

Throughout his 88+ years, Bernie Meyers was a humorist, satirist and keen observer of the world around him. Those observations would often appear in short stories and letters that he wrote with uncanny insight, razor-sharp sarcasm and a de-

vious smile, offset by his sparkling blue eyes. He was never afraid to make fun of himself or anyone who dared to take themselves too seriously. His wife Roro was the inventor of a phenomenon the family called ‘craghing:’

when you’re with a room full of others who are laughing right along with you. As T. Marni Vos, our first comedian, said way back in 2016: You don’t stop laughing when you get old—you get old when you stop laughing.”

The program was initially conceived at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, thanks to the generosity, inspiration and echoes of laughter from Bobo & Roro. But sadly, the Meyers’ family is still not able to put on shows at Blumkin because the risk of Covid 19 is still too high for residents.

“Our last show was held at The Heritage at Sterling Ridge (where big sister Vicki is now a resident),” Mike said, “so we live-streamed the entire show back to the RBJH residents. For the upcoming show on April 23, we plan to videotape the full show so Blumkin Residents can watch it later in a safe place. All that will be missing are those yummy FREE cookies we serve. Wait, let’s just send a bunch over that day. Bruce, call Bakers!”

“Roro would laugh until she cried or cry until she laughed. We never really knew. But it was angelic music to everyone’s ears, especially Bobo’s. He had a schoolboy crush on her from beginning to end. It was truly a romance for the ages spanning 62+ years.”

There’s medical evidence that laughter is physically good for you, they said:

“It brings in more life-giving oxygen. It rushes endorphins to your brain. It pumps more blood through your heart. It makes you think. But most importantly, laughter feels good. It’s hard to feel sad and lonely when you’re laughing, especially

Before the pandemic, they hosted shows in Evanston, IL, and Milwaukee, WI. They also held free Humor Workshops led by the talented Dionna Griffin-Irons from Chicago’s famed Second City. If you can’t make it to a live show, you can visit their website at meyersfamilylol.org and see some very funny seniors create some crazy (uncensored) improv comedy. And that’s not all:

“In June of 2023, we’re planning our first outdoor show in Holland, MI,” Mike said. “So my personal goal of ‘taking over the world’ with free senior comedy is well on its way to coming true!”

The Heritage is located at 1111 Sterling Ridge Drive.

As always, Vicki, Bruce and Mike are grateful to Dad Bernie (Bobo) and Mom Rochelle (Roro) Meyers for leaving this Legacy of Laughter to share in an all-too-serious world.

Beth El Synagogue, Beth Israel Synagogue, Temple Israel, Etta and Harold Epstein Security Fund, Foundation IMPACT Grant, Murray H. & Sharee C. Newman Supporting Foundation, Morton Richards Youth Fund, Special Donor-Advised Fund of the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation

Roro and Bobo Meyers