July 19, 2019

thejewishpress AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA

this week

JU L Y 1 9 , 2 0 1 9 | 1 6 T AMMU Z 5 7 7 9 | V O L . 9 9 | NO . 3 9 | C A nd leli g H Ti ng | FRID AY , JU L Y 1 9 , 8 : 3 5 P. M.

Shirley Goldstein’s Human Rights Legacy: Operation Exodus in Omaha

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AngelA Brown UNO Goldstein Center for Human Rights he UNO Goldstein Center for Human Rights is pleased to announce its first major exhibit, Shirley Goldstein’s Human Rights Legacy: Operation Exodus in Omaha. The opening reception will be held at UNO Criss Library on Aug. 9 from 4-6 p.m. This exhibit, curated by Dr. Jeannette Gabriel, examines the activist work of Shirley Goldstein and the Jewish community in Omaha that highlighted human rights abuses against Soviet Jews from the 1970s through the 1990s. The exhibit is based on the Shirley Goldstein Papers and additional archival materials from the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and the American Jewish Historical Society. It will also feature oral histories that were collected from local Soviet Jewish emigres and community members who participated in Operation Exodus.

Shirley Goldstein was well known locally for her activist work with Miriam Simon founding the Omaha Committee on Soviet Jewry which organized dozens of local protests and brought Soviet Jewish dissidents (known as refuseniks) and See Shirley goldstein’s Human rights legacy page 2

Farewell to Dr. Mary-Beth Muskin at ADL-CRC’s Rosé at the Rose page 2

Dr. Carrie Roitstein page 7

Athletic footwear pioneer Jerry Turner passes away at 84

The right to hang mezuzahs page 12

inside Spotlight Viewpoint Synagogues Life cycles

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Jerry Turner, a piopany (also known as neer in the athletic Brooks Running footwear business Shoes) in the 1960s who helped drive the and 1970s, Turner industry’s explosive helped build the comgrowth over a 60pany into a houseyear career, died on hold name, rising to Tuesday in Los Angeone of America’s top les. Turner, 84, three selling brands. passed away peaceIn 1977, the Brooks fully in his sleep surVantage was ranked rounded by family #1 in the annual members.

Runner’s World runTurner was both a ning guide. leading business exTurner was credJerry Turner ecutive and transforited with inventing mative product innovator in the footwear the stability running shoe category, and in business, stretching back to the days one of the field’s most significant breakwhen athletic shoes were far more rudithroughs in 1975 he introduced the first shoe to use EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate), mentary and less common than today. As an air-infused foam that replaced rubber President of Brooks Athletic Shoe Comand became a mainstay of running shoes throughout the industry. He followed up in 1977 with the introduction of the varus wedge, which helped runners whose feet rolled too far to the inside (a condition known as overpronation); this technology is still popular today.

Following his tenure at Brooks, Turner founded American Sporting Goods Corporation, which developed the Turntec brand of running shoes and the Nevados line of See Jerry Turner page 11

Credit: Omaha World-Herald

A visit to the Museum of Tolerance

Museum of Tolerance Zoe SpiTZ I visited the Museum of Tolerance with the senior class at Newport Harbor, CA on Friday, June 7.

Visiting the museum was unforgettable due to the emotional impact of the sensory experience. The Tolerance exhibit’s interactive nature encourages visitors to voice their opinions on a series of controversial topics, both current and historical.

The Holocaust exhibit immerses visitors into the tragedy of the Holocuast and is both educational and emotional.

The tour guide tells us we’ll be visiting the highlights of the museum, and the first place we stop inside the Tolerance exhibit is the

Credit: Cbl62 via Wikimedia commons Point of View Diner, an interactive room that teaches us about personal responsibility. We learn that in precarious situations, everyone has a responsibility to speak up. We see a video about the treatment of African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, and it is disturbing to believe how recently these activities occurred, and how prevalent racism still is in the United States. Another of the tour’s exhibits displays the Millenium Machine, where we watch videos about children around the world. It is depressing to discover how many children are subjected to malnourishment, forced labor, and child See Museum of Tolerance page 3

2 | The Jewish Press | July 19, 2019

community

Farewell to Dr. Mary-Beth Muskin at ADL-CRC’s RosÊ at the Rose PaM MonSky Community Development Liaison, ADL-CRC he Omaha Jewish Community will have the opportunity to wish ADL-CRC Plains States Regional Director Dr. Mary-Beth Muskin mazel tov on her upcoming retirement at RosÊ at the Rose, our annual summer fundraiser.

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a rosÊ wine tasting, silent auction, music, food and our special guest, Sharon Nazarian, ADL’s Senior Vice President of International Affairs. Community members will be able to join Ms. Nazarian for more intimate conversations at our VIP dinner following the fundraiser at Stirnella restaurant in the Blackstone District.

Honorary event co-chairs are Alan

Stephanie Shakirhev and sons; Kathleen Starr; Danny Cohn and Andrew Miller; Becki Brenner; Gary and Lisa Epstein; Andrew and Kimberly Robinson and Dr. Joel and Nancy Schlessinger.

Wine sponsor is the Gudgel family.

Highlights of the silent auction include original artwork by Omaha native Jim Krantz, an overnight romance package at Lied Lodge, Creighton basketball

Dr. Muskin will retire at the end of July after leading the ADL-CRC since 2015. The event will be her last as Regional Director. “Leaving this wonderful organization isn’t a decision I made lightly. I assure you that our incredible staff will continue their excellent work and keep building on what we’ve established and remain ready to assist as we look forward to the naming of a new director,� said Mary-Beth.

RosĂŠ at the Rose will be held Sunday, July 28 from 3-5 p.m. at the Rose Theater, 2001 Farnam St. The event features

and Carol Parsow along with Toba Cohen-Dunning and Eric Dunning as event co-chairs.

Event sponsors include Kutak Rock, LLP; David Kohll; Nebraska Furniture Mart; Omaha Public Schools Foundation; Alan and Carol Parsow; Broadmoor Management Company; Belle Terre Vineyard and Reception Hall; Carol and Steve Bloch; Michael Erman; Momenta Pain Care; Abrahams, Kaslow and Cassman; Bloom Companion Care; W.H. Ferer Co.; Julie and Jim Fried; Ron Giller; Sheila and Gary Nachman;

tickets, a week’s stay at a Palm Desert, California resort condo and much more.

Tickets to the event are $50 and include wine and light fare. Event and VIP tickets are $150. VIP tickets are only $100. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit Omaha.adl.org or call 402.334.6570. If you would like to be a Community Sponsor for the event or donate a silent auction item, please contact our office. We look forward to seeing you there!

Dr. Mary-Beth Muskin

See full digital issues for the Jewish Press at https://issuu.com/jewishpress7

Shirley Goldstein’s Human Rights Legacy

Continued from page 1 their family members to speak in Omaha. With the enduring support of her husband Leonard, Shirley made numerous trips to the Soviet Union smuggling in products refuseniks could sell on the black market and smuggling out tapes containing refusenik testimony that were used to build international support for the movement. When Soviet authorities realized the extent of her activism she was banned from reentering the country. At that point she shifted her activism to resettling about 250 Soviet Jews in Omaha and participating in national marches and international human rights conferences. Leonard and Shirley supported resettlement efforts in Israel and the United States as well as museum and film projects that documented Operation Exodus.

Goldstein’s inspiration for her human rights work was her father, Ben Gershun who brought displaced persons to Council Bluffs, Iowa, after WWII. Gershun headed a project within the Council Bluffs Jewish Community that resettled about 25 refugees from Displaced Persons Camps, of which three families remained in the Council Bluffs/Omaha area.

To continue the Goldstein family’s commitment to human rights, the UNO Goldstein Center for Human Rights was established in 2017 to facilitate human rightsrelated academic offerings and research, as well as local and international community outreach, partnerships and programming. Don Goldstein said: “The exhibit showing Shirley's involvement in the Freedom for Soviet Jewry movement shows how students, citizens, organizations and government can organize their efforts and achieve significant results in the area of human rights. It is hoped that the Goldstein Center will encourage others to get involved and do the same.� As explained by the Director of the Goldstein Center Dr. Curtis Hutt: “Immigration rights make a difference in real people’s lives. Dr. Gabriel’s contribution in documenting this is priceless.�

One of the highlights of the exhibit is the exploration of the Soviet Jewish community that settled in Omaha. Some of the early Soviet Jewish families came to Omaha based on their relationship with Shirley Goldstein and many others followed based on family connections. The exhibit highlights their resettling experience. It also provides a more comprehensive look into their experiences in the Soviet Union and their family histories. Dr. Jeannette Gabriel received a grant from the Goldstein Foundation to conduct oral histories with the local Soviet Jewish community in connection with the exhibit. She said, “It was moving to hear so many powerful stories of survival and resilience from the WWII period up through the 1980s. The families See Shirley Goldstein page 4

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Museum of Tolerance Continued from page 1 pornography, and it puts a lot of my problems in perspective. Inside the Newport Beach bubble, we don’t often hear about the struggles of children around the world.

When we enter the Holocaust exhibit, we are given a card with the name of a Jewish child who lived in Europe during the Holocaust. By inserting our cards into the computer, we see details about our child’s life.

Throughout the rest of the exhibit we are given more details about our children, until the end, when we are told whether our child survived or not. Throughout my exhibit experience, I constantly thought about how old my child was and how he was faring. I can’t imagine what life would have been like as a young child in those circumstances, but having the card forces me to try.

The door swings open and we are thrust into a 90 minute walking tour with a series of chronologically dated scenes from German life. In the first few scenes we hear that Germany’s embarrassing loss in World War I led the German people and their politicians to seek a scapegoat to blame their misfortune on. The exhibits showcase images and iconography from all over Germany, depicting the Jews as evil and subhuman. There are posters that grossly exaggerate Jewish stereotypes while blaming Germany’s poor economic circumstances on less than one percent of their population. Later, we get introduced to Adolf Hitler, a man who believed Jews to be vermin, and we hear excerpts from his speeches that rallied crowds against the Jews. We then stop at a café from before the Nazi takeover of Germany and hear tidbits of conversations between ordinary people. This is particularly poignant because many Germans in the café make excuses for Hitler and the Nazi party, and they insist that it will never get very far. After each conversation, we hear about what the people in the conversation ended up doing during the war. One couple in the café consists of a worried Jewish woman and her German husband who assures his wife that she will be fine. They

ended up killing themselves to avoid being separated. A German doctor who we hear from in the café mutilated people for science experiments in concentration camps. We see how people made excuses for the authority and rationalized smaller evils until they piled up and got too big to overcome. The entire exhibit questions why the German civilians succumbed to the Nazi propaganda.

Later in the exhibit, we hear the testimony of a Nazi colonel who rounded up five hundred German men and told them that anyone who didn’t want to kill Jews could go home with absolutely no consequences. Four hundred of these men stayed and collectively shot thousands of Jews. It’s chilling to see that ordinary German people made the choice to go along with this pure evil, even when their “it’s going to be okay” instincts disappeared. It suggests that something like this can happen anywhere.

The most impactful part of the tour is when we step into a gas chamber modeled after those at the concentration camp, Auschwitz. We sit in the gas chamber room and hear testimony from people who witnessed thousands of people get gassed to death. What makes this experience particularly emotional is the full sensory experience of the exhibit. We are in a room that looks and feels like a gas chamber, hearing old people wailing and young children describing their last experiences before getting asphyxiated. We hear the music of Jewish songs as we watch a rabbi tell the Nazis the evil that they are doing. We see images of thousands of malnourished bodies stacked atop each other.

I don’t think that I will ever forget the things that I witnessed in that room. I have known about the Holocaust for as long as I can remember. I have seen movies, read books, and even heard personal testimony about it. But this experience was the most indelible. I wasn’t seeing or hearing about the horrors of the Holocaust, I was feeling them. The Holocaust exhibit in the Museum of Tolerance is something that everyone should experience.

The Jewish Community Center offers a wide variety of specialty classes to help you reach your fitness goals. For more information, please contact the Fitness Center staff at 402.334-6423.

New: 60 Second Circuit Slam This new specialty class will focus on express circuits completed on various machines throughout the Fitness Center. It is great way to get to know the full functionality of the equipment and how to use it to its full potential.

Groups will meet twice per week for 20 minutes and will focus primarily on strength machines. Participants will rotate through machines on the circuit, spending 60 seconds at each. At the end of the 20 minute round, participants will have received a full body workout! Participants can choose either the Monday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday group.

Food & Fitness Training Participants will work with Heather Bucksner, a certified Nutrition Counselor and Personal Trainer, to receive: • Family-Friendly Recipes & Pre/Post • Workout Snack Ideas • Diet Tips • Workouts • Accountability & Motivation Heather will teach you how to avoid the common nutrition setbacks and how to enjoy the treats you love without overdoing it.

Combined with personal training, it is a recipe for success! Food & Fitness Training is offered in 5 or 10 Week Packages. Packages can be purchased at Member Services. This is an ongoing program.

Each package includes: two 30-minute Personal Training Sessions per week (for 5 or 10 weeks), two 30-minute Nutrition sessions per week (for 5 or 10 weeks ) 5 Week Package | Members: $482 10 Week Package | Members: $888 Operation Transformation If it’s time to get serious about weight loss and improving your health, this is the program for you. Participants will have private appointments with the trainer of their choice.

They will meet two days/week for 60 minutes (45 minutes of training and15 minutes of nutrition consultation.) Trainers will guide participants through workouts for weight loss, provide nutrition tips, and build accountability. See any member of the Fitness Center staff to register. This is an ongoing program for members: $520.

For more information, please contact JCC Fitness Director Maggie Thomas at 402.334.6472 or email mthomas@jccom aha.org.

In addition, you can download our exercise of the month here: http://www.jewishom aha.org/Post/sections/247/Files/Aug.-Sept.

18.Exercise.pdf.

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4 | The Jewish Press | July 19, 2019

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Shabbat rest in Israel

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f Shabbat is Israel’s national weekly day for rest and relaxation, does it mean that all Israelis to some extent observe Shabbat? In thinking about this issue, I have reached the following surprising conclusion: The line between a recreational activity and a Shabbat activity that exists in America disappears in Israel.

In America, in order for a recreational activity on Saturday to become a Shabbat ac- TEDDY tivity, one must first participate in activities WEINBERGER that are specifically Jewish—such as lighting Shabbat candles, saying Kiddush, having a Shabbat meal and going to synagogue. For example, take a family that regularly goes to the movies on Saturday afternoons after a Shabbat morning synagogue service and Shabbat lunch. It could be argued that this family uses part of its Shabbat to relax at the movies. Without the Jewish framework, however, going to the movies on Saturday afternoon loses its Shabbat context and becomes a profane leisure activity. Consider in this context vegetarianism. Do all vegetarians keep kosher? Clearly not; while all of their food is indeed kosher, they themselves only “keep kosher” if they lead a Jewish life (with “keeping kosher” part of that life). Outside of Israel, only if one lives with a Jewish framework, do ordinary activities (i.e., activities that are not particularly Jewish) become part of that Jewish life.

In Israel, on the other hand, an atmosphere of Shabbat is provided by the state: All government offices are closed, all banks as well as schools are closed, there is no mail, there are special Shabbat programs on television and radio, etc. All leisure activities are thus subsumed into a context of Shabbat activities without the individual having to do anything specifically Jewish. Everyone in Israel, therefore, does have a Shabbat (whatever they choose to do on this day). Though I personally

Shirley Goldstein

Continued from page 2 who conducted interviews for the exhibit have made important contributions to the development of Jewish and immigration history.”

There will be a series of lectures and events held in coordination with the exhibit from September through November, 2019. Julia Alekseveya, an English professor from the University of Pennsylvania, will be coming to Omaha to discuss her graphic novel, Soviet Daughter, that examines her life as an immigrant from the Ukraine in 1992 and the influence of her great-grandmother Lola in the Soviet Union.

have my traditional ideas as to what constitutes an appropriate Shabbat activity, thousands of Israeli Jews have other ideas—and enough goes on (or fails to go on) in Israeli society on Saturdays to make it apparent to all that this leisure day is Shabbat. Still, many thoughtful secular Israelis do not want Israel’s Shabbat to become what America’s Sunday has become. The boundaries for what should and should not be permitted in the Jewish State on Shabbat are constantly being pushed and tested. A current petition before Israel’s Supreme Court is a fascinating case in point.

At the beginning of June, Yehonatan Vadai, owner of the Bab alYemen restaurant in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood, petitioned the Supreme Court for kosher certification. He is arguing against a longheld position of the Chief Rabbinate which automatically eliminates a restaurant from kosher certification if that restaurant is open on Shabbat. The Rabbinate makes an exception for hotels, and Mr. Vadai argues that this constitutes unfair discrimination against restaurants. He says: “Absurdly, an Israeli backpacker can roam around the world and almost anywhere can find a Shabbat meal with the payment arranged before or after the Sabbath. In Israel and in Jerusalem, its capital, young people have no option like that. Ironically, instead of helping fill the vacuum, the Chief Rabbinate creates it.”

In his lawsuit, Mr. Vadai stresses that he is only asking to be certified to do what Jewish law allows him to do: Warming (not cooking) of food on the Sabbath and serving it to customers (similar to what hotels are allowed to do). Will the Supreme Court grant Mr. Vadai his petition?

Stay tuned.

Teddy Weinberger, Ph.D., made aliyah in 1997 with his wife, former Omahan Sarah Jane Ross, and their five children, Nathan, Rebecca, Ruthie, Ezra, and Elie, all of whom are veterans of the Israel Defense Forces; Weinberger can be reached at weinross@netvision.net.il.

In addition, there will be an event, Whistleblowers in the Past & Present: From Soviet Café to the Digital Age where attendees will have an opportunity to hear the tape of Natan Sharansky documenting human rights abuses that Shirley Goldstein smuggled out of the Soviet Union. Finally, in coordination with the 30th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall there will be a forum titled When the Walls Come Down: Freedom of Movement as a Human Right that will show connections between international human rights and freedom of movement and the role of the Helsinki Accords.

The Jewish Press | July 19, 2019 | 5

irritants vs. allergies

Jill hAnson, m.D. Did you know that it is possible for a person to have allergy-like symptoms without actually having an allergy? Irritants are substances that can trigger allergy- and asthma-like reactions when an individual is exposed to them. The cause of these symptoms and the degree to which they are experienced varies from person to person.

Common irritants include: smoke of any kind, infections, chemicals or strong odors, changes in temperature or humidity and certain types of food.

Because irritants are different for everyone, the best way to avoid them depends what the triggers are. Here are some tips for avoiding the most common irritants.

Don’t smoke inside the car or the house, use a smoking jacket when smoking outdoors and take it off before coming back inside. Avoid using wood-burning, gas or propane stoves and avoid campfires. Wash hands frequently, avoid people with colds or the flu and get a flu shot every fall. Avoid using strong cleaners like bleach or ammonia, avoid using air fresheners, perfumes, hairspray, fabric softener or dryer sheets. Finally, avoid spicy food or other foods that cause sneezing or a runny nose.

It can be difficult to tell the difference between an irritant and an allergen, but an allergist can help with this. Your child should see an allergist if he or she has allergy-like symptoms several months each year, cannot control allergy symptoms with antihistamines or over-thecounter (OTC) medications, or experiences negative side effects, such as drowsiness, when taking antihistamines or OTC medications, if your child has decreased quality of life on account of allergy-like symptoms or experiences warning signs of asthma, like coughing, wheezing, chest tightness or shortness of breath.

Visit us at jewishomaha.org

community This is me: The 2019 Jewish Press Summer Intern Growing up in a multi-religious household, I found myself questioning what made my parents decide to raise me Jewish.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved celebrating Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, Christmas, Ali Brehmer Easter and everything Intern, Jewish Press in between. What kid would question getting Hanukkah presents and an Easter basket? Not me. Yet, I sometimes struggled with my own identity. In the Omaha Public School system there is no surplus of Jewish students. I grew up with mostly Catholic and Christian friends. I repeatedly attended my friends’ confirmations, their siblings’ baptisms. I felt left out when most went to the same church and would attend Bible school and Mass together. I now realize that I took those years for granted, because being Jewish is a part of who I am.

Going into middle school, preparing for our upcoming B’nai Mitzvah, I grew much closer to my peers in religious school at Temple Israel. In turn, I began feeling closer to the Omaha Jewish community. Having the chance to invite my non-Jewish friends to my own Bat Mitzvah meant they would be introduced to some of our prayers, hear the words of the Torah, and experience a Shabbat service. I had attended services in their churches, but most had never stepped foot in a syna-

gogue until that day.

While I had deep roots in Omaha, I was determined to get out of Nebraska for college. I looked at a dozen universities throughout Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Missouri.

Coming out of high school I was hardheaded, extremely independent (or so I thought) and quite frankly tired of being in classes with the same people since elementary school.

My burning desire to leave Nebraska for college quickly faded as I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease while my senior year of high school was wrapping up. The next months were full of experimental diet plans, what felt like endless medical testing and unanswered questions. I was in pain and incredibly exhausted – mentally and physically. It became clear that my health was of utmost importance and leaving my support group to go hours away for school suddenly lost its appeal. I toured only two universities in Nebraska, one of them being UNL. Staying close to home, I found a remarkable team of doctors and have now been in remission for close to a year.

What school do you go to? What is your major? What do you want to do when you graduate in a year? I cannot tell you how many times a day I find myself answering these questions. The truth is I have not a clue what the future holds for me after graduation.

All I know is that I am currently an Advertising and Public Relations major (with minors in Sociology and English) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and I’m loving it. I have a

passion for copywriting, campaign management and studying the environmental factors that cause people to interpret news the way they do. That is how I found myself here, as the Marie H. and Sharee C. Newman Jewish Press Intern for the summer of 2019.

I quickly realized my interview with Annette, here at the Jewish Press, was going to be more inspirational than your typical interview. It goes without saying that she has a passion for the Press, and the newspaper industry as a whole. I remember sitting in the interview, feeling like there was so much knowledge and experience to be learned from Annette, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work alongside her this summer.

Annette touched on a subject that comes up in my classes far too often: newspapers are a dying source of news. As a major in the College of Journalism at UNL, I find that disheartening.

When you walk into a coffee shop on any given day, the number of newspapers in people’s hands has rapidly decreased. Most people are glued to the device in their hand and the screen in front of their face. I grew up with the Omaha World-Herald and the Jewish Press on my kitchen table. As someone who is eager to explore all that the advertising, public relations and communication field has to offer, I wanted to experience the life of a writer before newspapers become seen as a thing of the past. I thought what better place to do so than a paper that I was familiar with in my own household – the Jewish Press.

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6 | The Jewish Press | July 19, 2019

Above: Rabbi Shlomo Abramovich led his final Friday learning series: “From Israel to Omaha-From Omaha to Israel: Personal reflections,” in the Kripke Federation Library. We wish the Abramovich family a fond farewell on their move home, to Israel.

Left: JCC Cheer camp was full of spirit.

Above: Sokolof recipients at the awards ceremony on June 18 were Benjamin Brodkey, left, Hannah Schmidt, Ilana McNamara, and Jeremy Payne. Not pictured: Emily Kutler, Alec Lerner and Josh Polack.

Below: Ann Osborne with her daughter Lindsey at the Heartland Pride March, June 30.

Above: A new and exciting chapter in Temple Israel history begins as Cantor Joanna Alexander and Director of Congregational Learning Ben Mazur officially join Rabbi Brian Stoller.

Above: Chrissy Caniglia-Nelson, Activities Coordinator and RBJH Resident Sharon Kraft catch a fish. The organization “Live Well. Go Fish.” takes seniors, youth, veterans, people with disabilities, and hospice patients boating and fishing on a wheelchair-accessible pontoon boat at beautiful Lake Wanahoo. Rose Blumkin Residents thoroughly enjoyed spending the day fishing on the lake.

Below: RBJH Resident Annette Fettman baked her world-famous Mandel bread, accompanied by summer intern Madison Cunningham and Sabine Strong, Volunteer Coordinator.

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.

Above and right: A game of Catchball (like volleyball but a lot easier) brought women of different backgrounds, levels of athleticism, ages, sizes and shapes together for an extremely fun time.

Below: Steve Levinger, JFO-Chief Development Officer, addresses the crowd at the Greater Omaha Chamber's Coffee and Contacts event, hosted at our wonderful Omaha JCC’s Goldstein Aquatic Center.

GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

The Jewish Press | July 19, 2019 | 7

Volunteers needed

D

Dr. Carrie Roitstein

annette van De kamp-WRiGht of Optometry. Previously the Managing Editor, Jewish Press Doctor at Spex, Carrie is now a Partner at the r. Carrie Roitstein, daughter of local independent eyecare boutique EFP OpDebra and Lloyd Roistein, owns ticians with locations in Chicago and Hinsfive pairs of glasses. Regular dale. For several years, Dr. Roitstein glasses, because she’s not admit- spearheaded Spex’s volunteer involvement ting exactly how many pairs of with CR Office ImageChicago’s By The Hand sunglasses she owns. She’s a big believer in lis- organization to provide on-site comprehentening to her patients. Her sive eye exams and free prefavorite eye product is ‘We scription eyewear to the Love Eyes’ lid scrub and she participants to aid them in loves the 20/20/20 rule: achieving academic excel“Every 20 minutes focus on lence. something 20 feet away for She is also an active sup20 seconds. It does wonders porter of Eversight and to reduce your eye strain their efforts to restore sight from extended computer and prevent blindness. use.”

Carrie was born and With over 25 years of exraised in Omaha until age perience in the Optometry 10, then moved to Illinois: industry, it is no wonder “My family moved back to she was selected to be feaOmaha at the same time I tured in a recent issue of started college,” she said.

Dr. Carrie Roitstein CS Magazine. The May edi“The majority of my family tion featured a group of extraordinary women who represent industry leaders in their respective fields, and work hard to make Chicago a better city by contributing to the community.

“My partners and I have been contributing to and supporting Modern Luxury media for many years now,” Carie said. “I was approached by their marketing team from the Chicago Social magazine when they introduced this promotional piece around ‘Dynamic Women of Chicago,’ I immediately jumped on the opportunity to be showcased with so many other incredible entrepreneurs, and dynamic professionals represented in all types of industries.

“Also, as my partners and I recently started our new business, EFP Opticians (now 2 years old) it was a chance to get our business name and what we are proud to do so well in Optometry out there in front of an audience that would be our potential clientele.”

EFP Opticians is a group of dynamic women (and one guy) who work hard to bring you the best in the eyecare industry, their website promises.

Carrie is a graduate of the Illinois College

lives in the Omaha area, so it has always been home away from home. I make it back as often as possible to visit - usually for celebrations, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, birthdays, weddings, etc... My favorite memories are of course spending time at the original Beth El off Farnam and at my grandparents’ home in the same neighborhood with all the cousins. My Jewish upbringing and love for the city has remained in my heart. Chicago has been home now since 1996, but I still manage to meet people from Omaha who frequently cross my path.”

The responses from current patients was immeasurable, she said.

“Many were so proud, supportive and excited to see the article in publication. It also created a lot of buzz around the business, which is what we were hoping for. Many local Omaha, now Chicago friends and family have reached out to either myself or my Omaha family to mention the sighting in the magazine. It has been an honor to be represented in such a well known and reputable magazine in the area in which my offices are located.”

That includes her proud parents, who were happy to share the story with the Jewish Press.

Jewish Family Service will again offer Love and Logic parenting classes Thursdays, Sept.

19, 26, Oct. 10 and 24 from 6-8 p.m. Cost is $70 per couple.

It’s been called America’s most practical and entertaining parenting program, and it’s here to help you! Jewish Family Service and Woodhaven Counseling Associates, Inc., present “Parenting the Love & Logic Way” a four-part parenting workshop.

The workshop helps strengthen parenting skills and teaches how to raise happy, self-suf-

ficient kids. Due to campus renovations, this round of Love & Logic classes will be held at The Water’s Edge Church, 19600 Harrison Street, in Gretna.

Classes will be held from 6-8 p.m. Childcare for children ages 3 and up will be available on-site for $5 per child per class.

To register, or for more info, contact Jewish Family Service at 402.330.2024 or online at jfsomaha.com.

Scholarship information is available on request. Registrants must attend all four classes.

The Jewish Press is looking for volunteers who are willing to proof read our pages.

If you are interested and have some time on your hands, please contact Editor Annette van de Kamp for details at avandekamp@jewishomaha.org.

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B’nai B’rith Breadbreakers meets weekly on Wednesdays at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home auditorium from noon to 1 p.m. For specific speaker information, please email Gary.Javitch@Gmail. com, Breadbreakers chairman. For more information or to be placed on the email list call 402.334.6443 or bnaibrith@jewish omaha.org.

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D

Bad dogs and atheist cats ANNETTE vAN DE KAMP-WRIGhT Editor, Jewish Press id you know that “All dogs are bad and their owners accursed?” I didn’t either. I learned it from a recent edict by a dozen rabbis from Elad, Israel, which is a city near Tel Aviv. There are about 46,000, mostly haredi, residents in Elad; the city’s chief rabbi is Mordechai Malka and yes, he also signed the edict. Silly as the story may appear at first, there’s a reason dogs are not welcomed as man’s best friend by all. Maimonides, for one, had little good to say about them. In Mishneh Torah, he stated dogs should be chained, because they are known to cause ‘substantial and frequent damage.’

“Dogs are for the most part portrayed negatively in the Bible,” it says on MyJewishLearning.com. “Deuteronomy appears to equate dogs and prostitution, ruling that if one of these is used to pay for an animal (say, if one offered a dog or sex in exchange for a goat) that purchased animal cannot be brought to the Temple as a sacrifice. The Book of Kings includes several references to dogs feeding on corpses. And in Psalms, dogs are described as beasts that maul at human beings.”

Of course, in 2019, we no longer need goats to sacrifice at the Temple, so there’s that. Still, it’s interesting that something that people apparently felt very strongly about once upon a time has shifted so much. Nowadays, owning a dog as a pet barely makes most people’s radar as something that could be problematic. Not like, for instance, eating a shrimp cocktail or working on Shabbat.

Why is that? I’m not a rabbi, so I can’t speak with any authority on the subject, or answer the questions I have.

Also, if dogs warrant a special edict, what about cats?

Are cats okay?

“Cats are not mentioned at all in the Bible,” Joshua

right prohibition against cats, with the exception of Egypt, where they were worshiped, cats seem to have been unpopular throughout the ancient world. That unpopularity was hard to shake: “A Talmudic tradition in Bavli Horayot 13a-b tells of students who asked their master Rabbi Eliezer why dogs recognize God (!) and cats do not; dogs are believers, cats seem to be atheists, but not on principle or because they are intelligent,” Schwartz wrote.

“The answer boiled down to the fact that cats eat mice and rats, and eating these vermin causes, for some reason, forgetfulness: Cats could not even remember to believe in God. It would be a long time before anybody figured out that, by eating vermin, cats also rid the world of the infected fleas that lived on them and caused disease and decimating plague.”

I’m still confused about this thing against dogs. Why are dogs seen as A puppy dog looks into the camera in Germany, July 12, 2019. such a problem? Why not issue an Credit: Friso Gentsch/picture alliance via Getty Images edict against owning snakes, or rats? What about pet alligators? All less friendly than ticated ones who feasted on mice and vermin as well as your neighborhood Fido, I’d think. Besides, I can’t help on deadly snakes that were also found in Egypt. The cats thinking: what kind of community is Elad, that your most were so successful that the Egyptians began to see them as embodiments of divine power. But none of this had any urgent problem is dog ownership? With 46,000 residents, I’d expect there are other things to worry about, but then influence on the Jews, even though the land of Israel was I don’t live there, so what do I know? under Egyptian rule for a good period of the time. If there Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necwere cats in ancient biblical Israel serving as mousers, we essarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press do not have any proof of their existence.”

Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board Sounds about right: every cat owner knows cats would of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole. sneak through history, refusing to cooperate and allow themselves to be pinned down. But while there’s no out-

Schwartz wrote for Tablet Magazine in 2014.

“A figurine carving of a cat from Lachish in the Shefelah dates to c. 1700, the Middle Bronze period, but has nothing to do with Jews or Israelites in any form. The statue might have come from Egypt, and there was a good reason for that: Egypt was rich in grain and had many silos and these undoubtedly attracted mice and other vermin. The vermin attracted feral cats and later semi-domes-

Legacy institutions don’t get to dictate how Jews use the lessons of the Holocaust

ELAD NEhoRAI NEW YORK | JTA At the annual Christians United for Israel conference, Vice President Mike Pence lambasted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for comparing U.S. migrant detention centers to concentration camps.

“This slander was an insult to the 6 million killed in the Holocaust, and it should be condemned by every American in every political party,” Pence told the crowd.

Many American Jewish institutions strongly condemned Ocasio-Cortez’s use of Holocaust terminology. But there seems to be relatively little outrage over Pence’s decision to appoint himself gatekeeper of the Holocaust’s legacy.

Indeed, many of the same institutions that objected to Ocasio-Cortez using Holocaust terminology, from the Republican Jewish Coalition to the Anti-Defamation League, also told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that they are “horrified and angry” at the “inhumane” conditions and “humanitarian crisis” in the detention facilities.They may think it’s possible to have it both ways. But for an increasing number of Jews, that is not at all the case.

While there should be space for us to disagree, many of the same institutions and leaders claiming ownership over the Holocaust narrative also have, by extension, stated that Jews who dare not follow their lead are rebelling not just against the institutions but against the Jewish people.

I cannot speak for Ocasio-Cortez. But I want to assure all Jews who disagree with her position that those of us Jews who do compare the detention facilities to concentration camps honor your pain and trauma. We share your pain and trauma. We hold the same stories, the same histories and the same knowledge of the Holocaust.

The reason we use Holocaust analogies is precisely the same reason that many Jewish organizations encourage us not to: The Holocaust spurs us to act because it defines so much of how we have lived and what we value in the world of justice.

In other words, it is precisely the term “concentration camp” that has moved us. It is precisely thecall of “Never Again” that has mobilized many

American Jews to fight the government’s horrific policies.

This is not just a “semantic debate.” It is about how we use our Jewish history to move us. Are lessons of the Holocaust only about Jews? Or is it about justice for all? Rather than an exclusively historic Jewish tragedy, many American Jews see the Holocaust as a shared lesson for humanity – and Judaism a vehicle meant to spread justice. In Pew

Protesters demonstrate against the Trump administration’s immigration policies at a Never Again Is Now rally on Independence Mall in Washington D.C., during the city’s Independence Day festivities, July 4, 2019.

Credit: Michael Candelori/NurPhoto/Getty Images Research’s seminal Portrait of Jewish Americans, more than half of the Jews surveyed (56 percent) reported that “working for justice and equality is essential to what being Jewish means to them.”

Tellingly, over 73 percent said “remembering the Holocaust” is an essential part of what being Jewish means to them.

For most American Jews, tribal fears over intermarriage and assimilation are of secondary (if any) concern. What matters instead is leading an ethical/moral life (69 percent) and keeping Judaism’s social justice legacy alive, with memory of the Holocaust high among their priorities.

As we millennial American Jews became adults, legacy institutions and policies were openly challenged. The problem is, the old guard has become so used to being in control of American Judaism that it hasn’t seen the changes happening right in front of its eyes.

While legacy institutions spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year trying to increase “en-

gagement” among young Jews, young Jews themselves were able to launch an organization virtually from scratch. Literally overnight, Never Again Action mobilized hundreds, and then thousands, to take to the streets and protest ICE directly.

I appreciate that the arguments of those who say that the Holocaust is a “historically and phenomenologically unique” event are almost always made in good faith. But that is not the only narrative and never has been. Mainstream institutions have said for decades that the point of teaching about the Holocaust is to help young people “explore the dangers of remaining silent, apathetic, and indifferent to the oppression of others” and “reflect on the choices they confront today and consider how they can make a difference.”

The energy is with the people for whom the Holocaust is a call to broad values.

Most American Jewish organizations wouldn’t dare work with an organization that is managed by Jews they largely consider beyond the pale because some are associated with organizations, like If NotNow, that can be highly critical of Israel. But if you cannot even respect them, you must at least recognize their very diversity of values as part of the Jewish narrative. Perhaps the most important finding in the 2013 Pew survey? Ninety-four percent of Jews are proud to be Jewish.

If we cannot learn to respect one another and the diversity of lessons we draw from Jewish history, then people like Pence will continue to use our divisions as political leverage to silence others. They will continue to speak for Jews and use a one-sided view of Jewish history against the defenseless.

All because we cannot imagine that a multi-dimensional Jewish world exists.

Elad Nehorai is the founder of the Jewish creative community Hevria, and the Executive Director of the Orthodox Jewish activist organization and community Torah Trumps Hate.

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.

The Jewish Press | July 19, 2019 | 9

I grew up Hasidic. I’m now a skeptic. I still believe in the Rebbe anyway.

ELi REiTER JERUSALEM (JTA Growing up, everyone seemed to have a “Rebbe story.” e Lubavitcher Rebbe led the Chabad-Lubavitch movement for over 40 years until his death in 1994 and changed the face of Judaism across the world. Some of my peers think he’s the savior, that we’re living in the messianic era and that he is still alive. Others still believe in his wondrous self while believing that he le this earth.

Others, like myself, don’t know how they feel about the man who passed before they were old enough to see him.

On Sundays, fans waited in line at 770 Eastern Parkway, Chabad headquarters in Brooklyn nestled in the Crown Heights neighborhood. ey wanted to be gied a dollar from the Rebbe and perhaps even a blessing.

That’s where the magic oen happened: e Rebbe would wish confused couples mazel tov and, months later, they would learn they were expecting a child. He reversed depressing medical prognoses for non-Jewish strangers. He sent letters to Chabad emissaries across the globe, solving their internal conflicts that they never shared with anyone beyond their families.

Most of the time, I believe in these stories. But a part of me is disappointed that I do. Many of these tales are supernatural, existing beyond scientific facts. How can a rationalist like myself believe all these magical accounts? At the moments when my doubt wins out, I am upset by my suspension of belief.

Does being skeptical make me a heretic? ose alive at the time are tethered to what they saw of the Rebbe with their own eyes. For us millennial followers who were too young to see or hear him, he only lives on in stories.

I grapple with these narratives because the whole religion of my childhood is built on tales. In elementary school, we traded playing cards in the all-boys yeshiva I attended. ey weren’t of baseball or basketball stars – sports were for the gentiles. Instead, we had gedolim cards, pictures of famous

bearded rabbis, both living and dead. Wizened old men (and rationality. But I felt nothing. And that loss stung. only men) from Europe, Israel and New Jersey.

My on-again, off-again relationship with Rebbe stories are I was told stories about these people, about their near slav- similar. At times they give me solace. But when a Hasid opens ishness to Torah study and their pious lives. Even at seven the Igros — the collection of letters that followers sometimes years old, I didn’t believe these stories. It was as if these people use to seek answers to contemporary questions by opening to never had a bad day. ey always did the right thing and had a random letter and hoping for an answer — I roll my eyes. superhuman willpower.

Other times, when I think about As I read the versions of their bia letter the Rebbe wrote hinting ographies published by the Orthoabout things to come that later dox Jewish publishing house came true, I feel relief that there ArtScroll, I couldn’t help but roll were people on this earth who my eyes — what nonsense. were a little bit more than mortal.

So why is it that now, as an adult, I’m learning how to balance my raI find myself believing magical stotionalism and mysticism, and reckries about the Lubavitcher Rebbe? oning with the roller coaster of Despite my skepticism, I believe emotions and thoughts that come in and love the magic and with bouncing between these two prophetic powers of the late Rabbi directions.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Scientific rules govern our lives. I But that belief and love has its lim- would offer blessings to visitors along with a dollar bill carry the textbooks that give my its. e older I get, the less open I he urged them to give to charity. life meaning in my mental backCredit: Catherine Karnow/Getty Images pack next to the Sichos, the colbecome, my openness to belief changing and ossifying into cynicism. But I mourn that loss lected talks, of the Rebbe. My devotion to scientific principles of flexibility. I want to drink the Kool-Aid again. I grieve the is as strong as my devotion to the Rebbe. ey both give my missing warmth of an organized group of believers. life meaning.

Last year, I went to the mystical Israeli town of Safed on a But I also know that there are exceptions to every rule. I’m rainy winter day. It was just another tourist spot to visit, one still grappling, unsure of the balance between devotion and with small shops and gross hostels. Out of breath from the betrayal to rationality. As we come to the 25th anniversary of high air, my hoodie weighed down from the wetness, I felt the his death, I have learned to celebrate the exceptions to the scimagic and lightness of the supposedly sacred location. I felt entific rules, even if it’s at odds with popular disbelief. carried by the invisible elements and the drops of spirituality.

Eli Reiter is a New York based educator, storyteller and But I was upset as the magic won over and I had a religious writer. moment. How could I buy into this? e views and opinions expressed in this article are those of Months later, I returned seeking a similarly paranormal the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its moment, that feeling that would carry me beyond science and parent company, 70 Faces Media.

e Jewish Press Centennial Endowment In 2020, the Jewish Press will turn 100 years old!

Please join us as we get ready for the next 100 years by giving to the Centennial Endowment Fund. e purpose of this endowment fund is to ensure the Omaha Jewish Press continues to serve the Omaha Jewish Community.

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10 | The Jewish Press | July 19, 2019

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

CongregaTion 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

TifereTH iSrael

Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Boulevard Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 402.423.8569 tiferethisraellincoln.org

B’nai iSrael Synagogue

Join us for our monthly Shabbat Speakers Series after a brief hiatus. We will next meet on friday, Sept. 13, 7:30 p.m. with guest speaker Dr. Marvin Bittner on the Importance of Vaccinations. Our service leader is Larry Blass, and as always, an Oneg wil follow service. Everyone is always welcome at B’nai Israel!

For information on our historic synagogue, contact any of our board members: Scott Friedman, Rick Katelman, Howard Kutler, Carole Lainof, Wayne Lainof, Sissy Silber, Nancy Wolf, or email nancywolf16620@gmail.com.

Handicap Accessible.

BeTH el Synagogue

Services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman. friday: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m.

SaTurday: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Mincha following Kiddush. weekday SerViCeS: Sundays, 9:30 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.; weekdays, 7 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.

Sunday: Torah Study, 10 a.m.

TueSday: Mahjong, 1 p.m.

THurSday: Jazz on the Green, 6:30 p.m. at Midtown Crossings. RSVP to Robby at rerlich@bethel-omaha.org.

NE AIDS Coaltion Lunch, friday, July 26, 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. Joan Marcus serves lunch once a month at the Nebraska AIDS Project, and she needs baked goods for dessert.

Contact Joan if you can help by donating baked goods.

Order Honey for the Holidays now through aug. 5. Learn more at www.bethel-omaha.org.

BeTH iSrael Synagogue

Services conducted by Rabbi Ari Dembitzer friday: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.; Candle Lighting, 8:35 p.m.

SaTurday: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Insights into the Weekly Torah Portion, 7:30 p.m.; Mincha/Seudah Shlishit, 8:15 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:42 p.m.

Sunday: Shacharit, 9 am.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m. at Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. monday: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m. at Rose Blumkin Jewish Home.

TueSday: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m. at Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. wedneSday: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/ Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m. at Rose Blumkin Jewish Home.

THurSday: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Connecting with Our Faith, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Ari; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:30 p.m. at Rose Blumkin Jewish Home.

CHaBad HouSe

Office hours: Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Services conducted by Rabbi Mendel Katzman. friday: Shacharit, 7 a.m. followed by coffee, treats, study and shmoozing.

SaTurday: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. weekdayS: Shacharit, 7 a.m. followed by coffee, treats, study and shmoozing.

Sunday: Service, 8:30 a.m.; Sunday Secrets, 9:15 p.m. following Minyan. monday: Personal Parsha class, 9:30 a.m. with Shani; Biblical Hebrew, 10:30 a.m.; Hebrew 101, 11:30 a.m. wedneSday: Mystical Thinking, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Katzman; Power Lunch, noon with Shani THurSday: Talmud Class, noon with Rabbi Katzman.

All programs are open to the entire community. For more information call 402.330.1800 or visit www.ochabad.com.

CongregaTion B’nai JeSHurun

Services conducted by Rabbi Teri Appleby. friday: Friday Night Live! Shabbat Service, 6:30 p.m. with music by the Star City Kochavim!; Oneg, 7:30 p.m.; Candlelighting, 8:36 p.m.

SaTurday: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10:45 a.m. on Parashat Balak; Potluck Dinner and Game Night, 6 p.m.; Havdalah (72 minutes), 10:05 p.m.

Sunday: Adult Hebrew Prayer Class, 11:30 a.m.; Book Club, 1:30 p.m. at Gere Library and will discuss Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger; Feeding the Kids at F Street Rec Center, 2:30 p.m. For more information, contact Aimee

Hyten at aimee.hyten@gmail.com. monday: LJCS CAMP ISRAEL, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at Tifereth Israel.

TueSday: LJCS CAMP ISRAEL, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at Tifereth Israel. wedneSday: LJCS CAMP ISRAEL, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at Tifereth Israel.

THurSday: LJCS CAMP ISRAEL, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at Tifereth Israel. friday, July 26: LJCS CAMP ISRAEL, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at Tifereth Israel.

offuTT air forCe BaSe

friday: Services, 7:30 p.m. every first and third of the month.

roSe Blumkin JewiSH Home

SaTurday: Services, 9:15 a.m. led by Stan Edelstein.

Services will be held in the Chapel. Members of the community are invited to attend.

TemPle iSrael

friday: Shabbat Evening Service, 6 p.m.

SaTurday: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m.; Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m.

Sunday: New Member Ice Cream Social, 3 p.m. at Kris and Matt Faier’s.

TueSday: Holy Smokes at Temple Israel, 7 p.m. Cigars.

Beer. Whiskey. Rabbi Stoller leads this men-only evening at Temple Israel featuring philosophical discussions of men’s issues and perspectives from Jewish texts as we enjoy corned beef sliders. This will be a wonderful opportunity to meet Cantor Alexander's husband Jacob and our new Director of Congregational Learning Ben Mazur. This event is free, though reservations are required. RSVP to Temple Israel, 402.556.6536.

Temple Tots Havdalah with Cantor Alexander and Ben Mazur

Saturday, aug. 3, 4:30 p.m. Join us at Temple Israel's playground for some outdoor fun! Bring your picnic dinner and we’ll enjoy activities with Dani Howell and do havdalah together! PJ Library will provide a story and delicious popsicles for dessert!

This will be a wonderful opportunity for our young families to meet Cantor Joanna Alexander and our new Director of Congregational Learning Ben Mazur. All families with tots and older siblings are invited. Please RSVP to Temple Israel,

TifereTH iSrael

402.556.6536. In case of rain, we’ll enjoy the afternoon in the Temple Israel Social Hall.

Services conducted by lay leader Nancy Coren. Office hours: monday-friday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. friday: Short Kabbalat Shabbat Service, 6:30 p.m. followed by a light meal for our members sponsored by former congregant, Dr. James Marx of Las Vegas, Nevada. Please come and spend time with Jim, whether you're renewing a friendship or meeting him for the first time; Candlelighting, 8:35 p.m.

SaTurday: Shabbat Service, 10 a.m. followed by light kiddush lunch; Havdalah (72 minutes), 9:35 p.m. monday: LJCS CAMP ISRAEL, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at Tifereth Israel.

TueSday: LJCS CAMP ISRAEL, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at Tifereth Israel. wedneSday: LJCS CAMP ISRAEL, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at Tifereth Israel.

THurSday: LJCS CAMP ISRAEL, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at Tifereth Israel. friday, July 26: LJCS CAMP ISRAEL, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at Tifereth Israel.

Our congregation is hosting members of the Doane University staff and faculty at our Shabbat service on Saturday, July 27. They will be staying to have lunch with us as well.

Please make every effort to join us that morning and support our on-going efforts to build bridges in the community.

How Jews have reacted to Trump’s tweet

JoSefin dolSTen NEW YORK | JTA President Donald Trump’s comments on Sunday calling for some Democratic congresswomen to “go back” to their countries of origin have been widely condemned as racist.

“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” the president wrote on in one of a number of tweets aimed at what he called “‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen.”

Despite not naming them all, most have assumed Trump was referring to four women of color: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. ey are all U.S. citizens and only Omar was born abroad, in Somalia. In follow-up tweets, Trump said the representatives all “hate Israel with a true and unbridled passion” and have “made Israel feel abandoned by the U.S.” e president presumably was referring to the rising wave of Israel criticism in the Democratic Party that some of these congresswomen have helped to spearhead. Omar specifically came under fire earlier this year for some comments about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that some took to be anti-Semitic. Tlaib took heat as well for comments on Israel’s founding aer the Holocaust, which some saw as revisionist.

“We all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of Communists, they hate Israel, they hate our own Country,” he wrote.

For Jewish groups and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, Trump’s comments have struck an intense chord. Here’s how many of them have responded. e Republican Jewish Coalition said it agreed with a comment by Sen. Lindsey Graham calling the Democratic congresswomen “a bunch of

communists” and saying “ey hate Israel. ey hate our own country.”

Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, called Trump “America’s ‘Racist in Chief ’” in a statement denouncing the comment.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called the comments “flat-out racist” and “xenophobic.” He also criticized Trump for “using Israel to defend his blatant racism.”

Abraham Foxman, the former longtime director of the ADL, called the tweet “one of the oldest xenophobic prejudiced comments expressed by bigots in our country.” e American Jewish Committee praised diversity in response to Trump’s comments. “Surely we can have policy debates in this country without resorting to potshots at our opponents’ identities or origins,” the organization said. e Simon Wiesenthal Center said “Every American came from somewhere. Time for everyone in #WashingtonDC to drop the identity politics #racism.”

Bend the Arc: Jewish Action called Trump “a racist and white supremacist” and criticized Republicans for not condemning the remarks.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. asked on Twitter, “Is the Republican silence over President @realDonaldTrump’s racism agreement or embarrassment?”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., described the president as “a liar, a fraud, a narcissist and a bully” in response to the comments.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., called the comments “racist and hateful.”

“Telling a group of American women of color to go back to their country is fundamentally unAmerican,” she wrote on Twitter.

Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., condemned the comments on Twitter, calling them “xenophobic.”

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The Jewish Press | July 19, 2019 | 11

PEOPLE WHO READ NEWSPAPERS ARE

lifecycles in memOriam

Jerry Turner

Continued from page 1 hiking shoes. Over time, the Company acquired the Avia, And1, and Ryka brands. In 2011, Turner sold the company to Brown Shoe Company of St. Louis, Missouri.

A diligent and industrious worker accustomed to 70-hour workweeks, Turner emerged from retirement in 2017 to launch Turner Footwear, a performance footwear company with the tagline “Legends Evolve.”

Though not a runner himself, Turner said he was a keen listener who understood what athletes needed and was willing to experiment and borrow from other industries to invent new solutions. In a story well-known in the field, in 1974 Turner had a conversation with famed distance runner Marty Liquori in which Liquori requested a better midsole material than the rubber used in running shoes at that time. Turner turned to a chemical engineer at the Monarch Rubber Company in Baltimore, who helped develop EVA as a lighter, waterproof, and durable alternative. EVA was introduced the next year in the Brooks Villanova—named for Liquori’s alma mater.

Jerry Turner was born in Omaha on May 10, 1935, the oldest child of Nathan and Ruth Turner and the brother of Kaye Ann Turner and Judith Myra Turner. He graduated from Omaha’s Central High School in 1953 and headed east to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1957 with a degree in finance.

A member of ROTC while in college, Turner served in the U.S. Army for two years at Fort Lee, Virginia. He earned an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley in 1960, and then moved to the East Coast to launch his distinguished career. Turner was credited with numerous honors, including induction into the Sporting Goods Hall of Fame in 2004 and Omaha’s Central High School Hall of Fame in 2014.

Turner was deeply committed to his family. He is survived by his wife Margaret Oung, his former wife Jo-Ellen Turner, and three children: Suzanne Turner and David Schulman of Washington, D.C., K. Robert and Lauren Turner of Los Angeles, California, and Jonathan and Anne Turner of Charleston, South Carolina; step-daughter and step-son-in-law, Camille and Terry King of Newport Coast, California; six grandchildren: Kyra and Jenna Schulman, Devon and Will Turner, and Ryan and Ben Turner; stepgrandchild, Adrienne King; sister, Kaye Turner of New York and brother-in-law, Dr. Charles Ginsburg of Dallas; a niece and nephew.

Turner remained dedicated to his alma maters and endowed an annual scholarship to be awarded to an Omaha Central High School graduate to attend the University of Pennsylvania.

Memorials may be made to the Central High School Foundation: (http://www.chsfomaha.org/).

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Our Omaha Family

What a unique and supportive community Omaha is.

Mere words cannot express the love shown to our family by the community’s support for the Jennifer Beth Kay Memorial Fund fundraiser held July 2nd at Beth El Synagogue.

Our daughter, Jennifer, was more than her bi-polar disease. Mental health is a disease that might not show many visible signs, but you are suffering. She was a very intelligent, artistic and creative person with issues.

Our family thanks our “Omaha family” for your generosity in helping us raise in excess of $8,000. With this increased funding we can now help provide more servJennifer Beth Kay ices in Jennifer’s name through counseling, projects and programming for suicide and mental health prevention.

A special thank you to our anonymous angel donor family whose donation matched the first $2,500 donated and the anonymous angel donor family who covered the cost of the event dinner. We thank Beth El Synagogue, clergy and staff for all their hard work in helping us make this fundraiser such a huge success, Howard Epstein for helping promote the fundraiser and Karen Gustafson for her support. We also would like to thank Fresh yme, Hy-Vee, Tim Donahue, family and friends for donating their goods, services, support and time. A special thank you to Lloyd Roitstein for his idea to perpetuate Jennifer’s name and raise money for her fund. Donations can always be made to the Jennifer Beth Kay Memorial Fund at the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation.

We live in a very special community. Helen and I have lived elsewhere so we can attest to this fact and to that we can say, “If you haven’t lived in Omaha, you haven’t lived!”

With heartfelt gratitude, Les, Helen, Joanna, Ben & David (The Kay Family)

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Alexander Acosta resigns

12 | The Jewish Press | July 19, 2019

usnews

the right to hang mezuzahs

A

gAbe StUtmAn SAN FRANCISCO | J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA bill to ensure the right of Californians to hang mezuzahs on their door frames is moving through the state legislature, and is on its way to the desk of Governor Gavin Newsom.

SB 652 bars landlords and condo associations from prohibiting “the display of religious items” of a certain size on doors and door frames. Known to some as the “mezuzah bill” — though it also has the support of secular organizations, as well as Catholic and Hindu groups — the bill follows complaints from Jewish renters and condo owners who were told to remove their mezuzahs because of a building or apartment complex policy.

The bill is sailing through the statehouse in Sacramento, where it passed the Assembly 72-0 on July 8 after being approved by the Senate on May 6.

The bill has the strong backing of the AntiDefamation League, which last month sent a letter of support to the chair of the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, Rep. Mark Stone.

“For millennia, Jews have posted mezuzahs on the entry doorframes of their homes in fulfillment of a religious obligation rooted in the Torah,” states the letter, signed by the ADL’s San Francisco-based state legislative director, Nancy Appel.

“Posting a mezuzah is not a decorative choice for Jews,” Appel wrote, “or indeed a choice of any kind.”

Over the years, the ADL’s offices in California have received a number of complaints from Jewish renters and condo owners. Meir

Messingher Lang, a 33-year-old tech entrepreneur, said he was stunned when, soon after moving into an apartment with his wife in Mountain View, he was told by a property manager that their mezuzah violated the

Jewish religious law and customs require that mezuzahs be affixed to doorframes.

Credit: Zeevveez/Flickr apartment complex’s policy on exterior door decorations.

Lang said the property manager told him that “nothing could be on the door” at the brand-new, upscale apartment complex,

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which was still under construction even as he and his wife were moving in.

Appel helped him craft an email to his landlord. They never got a response, so Lang and his wife kept their mezuzah affixed.

“They just disappeared,” Lang said. “They didn’t follow up.”

Not everyone is so lucky. State Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat from Southern California, said he and his Jewish caucus colleagues heard from a man whose homeowners’ association in San Diego insisted he remove his mezuzah from a condominium he had purchased. Rather than deal with the expense of a protracted legal fight, the man complied.

“It left him feeling very badly — in tears,” Allen said.

“It’s something I found to be pretty outrageous,” Allen said. “I don’t have to explain to you that a mezuzah is an important expression of our faith. We are obligated as Jews to put a mezuzah on our door. It’s part of the v’ahavta,” the first full paragraph of the Shema section of Jewish prayer services.

The bill’s diverse backers include the National Association of Social Workers, the Jewish social justice agency Bend the Arc, the California Catholic Conference and the Hindu American Foundation. Appel said someone from the latter organization told her earlier this year that Hindus also traditionally place religious ornaments on their doors.

Allen said he doesn’t think prohibitions on hanging mezuzahs, set by landlords and property managers, are born out of anti-Semitic views. But they do show “incredible insensitivity,” he said.

Five other states — Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Rhode Island and Texas — already have similar laws in place, the ADL said.

cnAAn LipShiz JTA Alexander Acosta quit as secretary of labor amid allegations that he helped arrange a lenient plea deal for sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2008.

President Donald Trump announced the resignation July 12 with Acosta at his side. Trump said the secretary called him that morning to say the decision to resign was his.

“I thought the right thing was to step aside,” USA Today quoted Acosta as saying.

Trump, who had defended Acosta after Ep- Former U.S. Secretary of stein’s arrest Labor Alex Acosta. Credit: last week on Alex Wong/Getty Images sex-trafficking charges, praised him as a “great labor secretary, not a good one,” and added, Acosta did a “very good job.” “This was him, not me,” Trump said of the decision.

In February, a judge in Florida said that federal prosecutors broke the law when they signed a plea bargain with Epstein, a billionaire who was convicted in 2008 of soliciting a teenage girl for prostitution.

Acosta at the time was the U.S. attorney in Miami, and he helped negotiate a plea agreement that gave Epstein, who is Jewish, and his co-conspirators immunity from federal prosecution, according to the Miami Herald.

The ruling in February by U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Marra culminated more than a decade of litigation stemming from a lawsuit filed in 2008 by two of Epstein’s victims.

Marra wrote that the prosecutors, including Acosta, concealed information from victims of Epstein, who had been operating an international sex operation involving underage girls in Florida and overseas.

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