thejewishpress AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA
this week
Reform and Conservative movements oppose Netanyahu bids to annex territory page 6
An old-school Tel Aviv market has become a vegan haven page 12
inside Viewpoint Synagogues Life cycles
Let’s be Friends!
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SuSiE norton JSS/JFS Board Member t’s that time of year... the snow has finally melted, birds are singing, and flowers are beginning to bloom. It’s also time for the Jewish Family Service (JFS) Annual Friends Campaign. For better or for worse, JFS is one of our community’s best-kept secrets. We may know that JFS has a food pantry, or that JFS provides mental health counseling, or that JFS provides assistance to Jewish families in need. But JFS is, and does, so much more. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t learn about all the services JFS offers to the Jewish community AND the general Omaha community until I became a member of the board of Jewish Senior Services (JSS), the umbrella agency of JFS. The JFS Food Pantry is available to ALL Jewish Omahans, that it includes Kosher foods, and that it has recently been greatly expanded due to the generosity of the family and friends of Ruth Erman, of blessed memory. I’ve also learned that JFS expects to spend $15,000 this year, more than double two years’ ago expenditure, to keep the Food Pantry stocked, to meet the growing needs of our fellow Jews in need.
Let’s talk about wellness page 5
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WWW.JEWISHOMAHA.ORG
SponSorEd bY tHE bEnjamin and anna E. wiESman FamiLY EndowmEnt Fund
The Schwalb Center in Japan
who was born to Jewish parents and dr. CurtiS Hutt and Lori ariaS On May 30-31 in Shizuoka, Japan, kicked out of his academic position at the base of Mt. Fuji, the Schwalb in Freiburg University just prior to the Holocaust Center together even though he with other parthad converted to ners from the a very secular University of Neform of Protesbraska at Omaha tant Christianity, (Religious Studwas a partner in ies, the Fried thought to JewAcademy, and ish thinkers like International H e r m a n n Programs) will Cohen, Max bring the study Scheler and Alof contemporary bert Einstein. His Jewish philosomost famous stuphy to East Asia. dents included With Shizuoka Edith Stein and University, loEdmund Husserl Emmanuel Levcated in Omaha’s sister city in Japan, the Schwalb Cen- inas, and second generation intellecter will sponsor unique new research tual progeny like Max Blumenberg on Edmund Husserl and twentieth and Jacques Derrida. Best known as century Jewish philosophy. Husserl, a challenging philosopher, for the first time, this international conference will devote itself to investigating Husserl and religion – in particular, Judaism and a special form of ethical and cultural renewal (hozer beteshuva) that he endorsed to Japanese readers 100 years ago. In a series of three articles in the Japanese journal, Kaizo (“renewal”), two of which were only published in Japanese, Husserl lamented the tragedies See the Schwalb Center page 2
JFS provides $30,000 annually in “direct financial assistance”—help with rent or mortgage payments, utility bills, grocery gift cards and more—to Jewish individuals and families in and around Omaha. But it’s not just the money that JFS provides. JFS offers both mental health counseling and, in response to our community survey, recently began vocational counseling and job search services, to continue to support those most in need. I’ve learned that incredibly dedicated, knowledgeable JFS staff members work tirelessly every year to apply for grants, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to support JFS programs, like a newly-updated Play Therapy Room for children, a comprehensive Suicide Prevention and Education curriculum, and continued programming for Jewish adults with developmental disabilities through the Yachad program. And JFS does so much more! JFS is known in Omaha as the go-to organization for the “Love and Logic” parenting class series. The JFS mental health counselors provide counseling services for students in the Millard Public Schools, that can’t get in to see their own school counselors because they’re so busy. See Let’s be Friends page 3
Join us at the Shuk for Israel’s Independence day
annEttE van dE kamp-wrigHt Editor, Jewish Press It’s time to mark your calendars for the annual Yom Ha’Atzmaut Celebration, wednesday, may 8 at the Jewish Community Center! Festivities start with the
carnival in the JCC Gym at 5:30 p.m. for families with young children not in religious school.There are Israel-related activities throughout the gym, a bounce house and food for purchase from Star See Yom Ha’atzmaut page 3