Life cycles

IN MEMORIAM

LAWRENCE (LARRY) STUART ALBERT

Lawrence (Larry) Stuart Albert passed away on April 30, 2021 at age 88. Private memorial services were held in Omaha.

He is survived by his wife, Paula; sons and daughters-in-law, Jim and Lisa Albert and Steve and Linda Albert, and daughters and sons-in-law, Susie and Mark Greene and Marge and Marc Cohen; six grandchildren; two great-granddaughters; sister, Judy Albert, and sister-in-law, Betty Segell.

Larry was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the youngest of four children. He graduated from Central High School and Omaha University with a degree in Business Administration and served in the Air Force in 1955.

As a teenager, Larry became a partner with his father in Louis Albert & Son Foods Co. Through their efforts, they expanded the business selling salad dressing and other specialty sauces throughout the Midwest and even overseas. When the company was sold 50 years later, he found satisfaction by helping others develop their products from bottle design, recipe analysis to manufacturing and marketing their products.

During his life he served on the Douglas County Board of Health for 20 years, the Central High School Alumni Historical Committee, and was inducted into the Omaha Culinary Arts Hospitality Hall of Fame. By his help as a volunteer with the nonprofit program, SCORE, he was pleased to give back his time and business intellect to the community.

The special times spent with family and friends highlighted his life. Among these were the summer road trips, always celebrating family birthdays and anniversaries together and his annual Albert boys’ Vegas trips. Also, of note were the “Never On Sunday” bi-weekly poker games with lifelong friends.

Larry was an avid gardener, a noted history buff, especially regarding WWII, and a loyal Cornhusker football season ticket holder for over 40 years. He truly enjoyed life to the fullest with a keen sense of humor through it all.

Memorials may be made to the Visiting Nurse Association, Jewish Family Services, or the organization of your choice.

LILLIAN E. FELDMAN

Lillian E. Feldman passed away on April 16, 2021 in Omaha. Services were held April 20, 2021 at Golden Hill Cemetery and was officiated by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman.

She was preceded in death by husband, Aaron Feldman; parents, Frank and Ella Katz; son, Steven Feldman; sister and brother-in-law, Marjorie and Bernard Weiss; and brother, Jack Katz.

She is survived by sons and daughters-in-law, Ronald and Pam Feldman, Howard and Lori Feldman; daughter, Marla Feldman; daughter-in-law, Sherry Feldman; 10 grandchildren; 13 greatgrandchildren; and many nephews and nieces.

Lillian was a member of Beth El Synagogue.

Memorials may be made to Beth El Synagogue or the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home.

JOSEPH C. “CHUCK” LEVINGER

Joseph C. “Chuck” Levinger passed away April 18, 2021 at age 91. Graveside services were held April 20, 2021 at Temple Israel Cemetery.

He was preceded in death by parents, Harold and Lerena Levinger; brother, William Levinger.

He is survived by wife, Leta Levinger; sons and daughters-inlaw, Jeffrey and Terry Levinger, Steven and Bonnie Levinger, Jay and Michele Levinger; grandchildren: Allison and Adam Pechart, Jacob Levinger, Amy and Paul Springer, Jessica Levinger, Samuel Levinger, Andrew Levinger; great-grandson, Asher Pechart; and nieces and nephews.

Memorials may be made to Yankton (SD) College, Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, or Fantle Memorial Park/Huether Family Aquatic Center Guppy Fund Scholarships (Yankton, SD).

BIRTH

TALIA KURLAND COHEN

Shayna Kurland and Ben Cohen of Tustin, CA, announce the March 23 birth of their daughter, Talia Kurland Cohen.

Grandparents are Sandra and Allen Kurland of Council Bluffs, IA, and Fran and Harvey Cohen of Denver, CO.

Great-grandmother is Josephine Berg Simes of Saint Paul, MN.

BAT MITZVAH

RUBY GENEVIEVE STOLLER

Ruby Genevieve Stoller, daughter of Sara and Asher Stoller, will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah on Saturday, May 15, 2021, at Temple Israel. Ruby is a seventh-grade student at Westside Middle School. She is a member of National Junior Honors Society and is in honors math and English. Ruby plays soccer with Sporting Omaha FC, basketball with Westside Middle School and Junior Warriors girls basketball feeder program. She is a member of Westside Connection (Westside Middle School Show Choir), and attends Herzl Camp in the summers. For her mitzvah project, Ruby baked and sold toffee to raise $1,895 for St. Jude’s National Research Hospital to help prevent childhood cancer. She has two sisters, Ava and Lola and a brother, Samuel. Grandparents are Dr. Peter and Mrs. Genevieve Gordon of Omaha, and Drs. Herschel and Lilly Stoller of Omaha.

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Shining a light on the intersection of sexuality and Judaism

CALEB A. GUEDES-REED

This article first appeared on Alma. Brazil is a diverse and complex country. For 32-year-old Assucena Assucena, who is trans and Jewish (of Moroccan and Sephardic descent), that complexity is intensified. To be Jewish in Brazil already means that you’re one of an estimated 120,000 Jews living in a predominantly Catholic country with a deep history of antisemitism. But to be trans can be outright dangerous. Not only does Brazil have a loud and proud homophobic and far-right president — Jair Bolsonaro claimed “homosexual fundamentalists” were brainwashing heterosexual children to “become gays and lesbians to satisfy them sexually in the future” in a 2013 interview — but also, in 2020, more trans people were killed in Brazil than anywhere else in the world for the 12th consecutive year. In addition to the anti-LGBTQ sentiments expressed by the president and his family (including his son), just last month one of his senior aides was accused of making a white supremacist hand symbol during a legislative session. All of this makes the visibility that people like Assucena represent even more important. Assucena Assucena is one of the three musicians in the Brazilian musical group As Baías. She met her fellow band members Raquel Virgínia (also a trans woman) and Rafael Acerbi while studying history at the University of Sao Paulo. They have since risen within Brazil’s music scene: In 2019, the group’s album Tarântula was nominated for the Grammy Latino, making Assucena and Raquel the first trans women to have ever been nominated for the award. They were nominated again in 2020 for their album Enquanto Estamos Distantes (While We Were Distant). I spoke with Assucena over Zoom to talk about the way she’s using her platform to advocate for both the LGBTQ and Jewish communities in Brazil. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Alma: To start, tell us a little about the Jewish community in Brazil.

Assucena: Because of the history of antisemitism here, the community is very closed, very conservative and not always open to recognizing pluralism within the Jewish community. The community is diverse, but they often represent themselves as homogenous, even when they aren’t. Here’s an exam-

ple: When you arrive at a Brazilian synagogue, it’s almost impossible to enter without being invited. You need to say your family name and present documents. They are extremely closed, ever since the 1994 Jewish culture center bombing in Argentina that killed 85 Jews, though I believe that security in synagogues is more about class than security. From outside the community, I’ve suffered antisemitism, of course. The perception of Jewish people in Brazil is very cruel because we’re often portrayed as conservative and capitalist instead of as revolutionaries or even academics, which represent a huge part of the Jewish community. That’s a perpetuation of a Nazi concept. The idea of who a Jew is in Brazil needs to change — both for non-Jews and Jews.

What is it like to be both Jewish and LGBTQ?

It’s hard for a lot of people to understand that I can be both trans and Jewish. I grew up in a small city in Bahia, and when I first moved to Sao Paulo I didn’t have any issues accessing the Jewish community. When I became trans, access to Jewish life became a problem and I left the community for eight years. I didn’t see the possibility to be who I was in that environment.

It seems like you’ve found your way back, though. How did that happen?

While studying history, I discovered feminism, Marxism and other ideas in philosophy that made me think about the world in new ways. I was always a religious person and I always sought out spiritual connection. I was looking for a connection to God. I realized through all of this that I never left Judaism, especially the cultural aspect, which was always a part of who I am. Culture is how we think, how we eat and how we behave socially. I never truly left. Judaism is more about uncertainty than certainty. It is expressed through constant debate and questioning, and that’s what I was doing. My Jewish identity grew even stronger during the recent political polarization in Brazil. It was presumed that Jews would support Bolsonaro, and many leftist Jews stood up and spoke out against him. This really showed pluralism because we as a community were publicly divided over this topic.

A lot of people see you as a public activist for LGBTQ and Jewish causes, especially the intersection of the two. What projects have you been working on?

So much has happened in the past few years. I was invited to serve as a collaborator for the Instituto Brasil-Israel (IBI), and in 2019 I hosted the first institutional LGBTQ Shabbat in Brazil alongside Fortuna, another Jewish musician here in Brazil. Fortuna is very well-known, politically and religiously, in the Jewish community and helped reignite the use of Ladino in music in Brazil. We’ve recorded three singles together.

This article was edited for length. Read the full article on our website at www.omahajewishpress.com.

Credit: Assucena Assucena; background via Getty Images

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