A Beautiful Gift
ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT
Jewish Press Editor
It was Sept. 18, 1981, when Rose Blumkin and Harlan Noddle (cochairman of the committee for the new Home) were featured on the front cover of the Jewish Press. The occasion was the groundbreaking for the new Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. The program was concluded in the JCC Theater, with the theme of “an historic moment in the life of the Omaha Jewish community.”
“The real heroes,” Harlan Noddle said back
then, “are all who showed concern and compassion for the elderly, all who gave of their time and, very importantly, of their dollars.”
Some things don’t change: more than four decades later, the Home’s Quality of Life Campaign is the recipient of a generous gift from Ron and Chris Blumkin, Irv and Susie Blumkin, and Steve and Cindy Blumkin and their families.
“Had our mom, Frannie, still been with us, she would have wanted us to do this,” Ron said. “My brothers and I idolized our mother, See A Beautiful Gift page 2
Introducing our Annual Campaign Chairs
ANNETTE VAN DE KAMPWRIGHT
Jewish Press Editor
It’s August, and that means summer is slowly coming to an end. Soon, school will be back in session, and some retailers are already placing pumpkin décor on the shelves. At the Jewish Federation of Omaha, it means we are gearing up for the next Annual Campaign. Please allow us to introduce our 2025 campaign chairs, who happen to all be members of the Phillips family.
Julie and Dr. Eric Phillips, son
David, his wife Shiri, daughter Lilly and her husband Brett Castinado are “all in,” said Julie.
“Actually, it was our daughter Lilly and daughter-in-law Shiri, who were initially interested in taking on this role with the Annual Campaign. Eric and I are extremely pleased that they feel so passionate about giving back
Thriving With Anxiety
NAOMI FOX
Assistant Director of Community Engagement and Education
On Sept. 8 and 9, Dr. David H. Rosmarin, renowned psychologist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, will be hosting three different sessions for the community centered around his book, Thriving with Anxiety: 9 Tools to Make Your Anxiety Work for You These events promise to be helpful for anyone who has ever experienced any kind of stress or anxiety in their lives.
Dr. Rosmarin is not only a distinguished academic but also a compassionate clinical psychologist and program director at McLean Hospital. As the founder of the Center for Anxiety, which supports over 1,000 patients annually across multiple states, he is internationally recognized for his expertise in spirituality and mental health. His groundbreaking work has been featured in prestigious publications such as Scientific American, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times
to the Omaha Jewish community!”
“We wanted to be a part of something big,” Shiri said, “and something that gives back to the Jewish community that has given so much to us. We both grew up in Omaha and have participated in Jewish activities throughout the years. I jumped at the See Campaign Cabinet page 3
The events are designed to empower attendees by reframing anxiety from a burden into a benefit. Dr. Rosmarin will share insights from his latest book, Thriving with Anxiety: 9 Tools to Make Your Anxiety Work for You, offering practical strategies for leveraging anxiety to enhance personal and professional growth. Whether you struggle with occasional nervousness or chronic anxiety, these events aim to provide actionable tools to help you thrive. There are three different events for different audiences in our community. The first is a Teen Workshop for ages 14-18 held on Sunday, Sept. 8 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Jewish Federation of Omaha. This small group experience will allow teens to gain some important tools to navigate the stressors in their lives, as well as share what they would like and get support from Dr. Rosmarin. Immediately after this workshop is the Community Event at 7 p.m. in the Goldstein Engagement Venue at See Thriving With Anxiety page 2
Ron, Irv and Steve Blumkin with their mother Frannie
Brett and Lilly Castinado, left, Julie and Dr. Eric Phillips, and Shiri and David Phillips Credit: Debra Kaplan
Dr. David H. Rosmarin
Continued from page 1 and we still want to make her proud by any means possible.” Fran and Louie “were the type of parents others aspire to be,” Ron said in 2014. “They had patience and grace, but most importantly, they were great role models and mentors.”
“Of the $23 million needed to complete the project,” JFO CEO Bob Goldberg said, “we have raised $11.5 million in a quiet fundraising phase. And this includes the very robust gift from the Blumkin family. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to the Blumkin family. To Irv and Susie, Ron and Chris, Steve and Cindy, and your families: we thank you for continuing to strengthen the legacy of the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home for
A Beautiful Gift
generations to come.”
Paul Epstein deserves credit for opening the door to the gift. “He sat down with us,” Ron said. “He made a very good case, and convinced us we wanted to be a part of this. We so appreciate his involvement in this very worthy project.”
When we reach the $17 million mark in our fundraising, we can go to the Jewish Federation of Omaha’s Board of Directors and ask to borrow up to $6 million from the Home’s own endowments, with the understanding that future Blumkin Home profits go to pay back these endowments until they are paid back in full. Our immediate goal is to raise another $5.5 million and get to $17 million raised by the community. We are on our way, and we
Chabad hosts Sklar Brothers
ASHER STOLLER
Chabad of Nebraska will host
The Sklar Brothers, Randy and Jason,å at Funny Bone Comedy Club on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased on ochabad.com/comedy
Kosher food and beverage selections will be available.
Randy and Jason are identical twin brother comedians and actors. They were involved
will succeed with your help.
“The Home is a wonderful benefit to our Jewish community,” Ron said, “but is also a benefit to the Omaha community at large. I’ve had several friends stay in the Home, and I always saw a marked improvement.”
The Blumkin family wants the RBJH to continue to be a wonderful place for all.
“We sincerely hope the next generation will feel the same way,” Ron said. “There is always the stereotype that we can’t agree on anything, but we all agree that the overall goals of the Jewish Federation of Omaha deserve the support of our family. I hope that others will follow, and get off the fence. You don’t know when you will need the Home, and even if you don’t, our community certainly does.”
in BBYO in St. Louis. They went to University of Michigan and were in Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. They have appeared in numerous stand-up comedy specials, Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Grey’s Anatomy, Better Call Saul, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Cheap Seats, Battlebots, Jim Rome is Burning, and Chelsea Lately
Thriving With Anxiety
Continued from page 1 the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Dr. Rosmarin will speak to the group, intended for the entire community.
On Monday, Sept. 9, Dr. Rosmarin will hold a Parent Event from 8:30-9:30 a.m. for parents of children ages 0-18. At this event, Dr. Rosmarin will address specific tools for this group of adults and strategies to handle the variety of experiences parenting presents.
Don’t miss this opportunity to explore new perspectives on anxiety and discover how it can be a catalyst for personal growth and fulfillment. Please register on the Jewish Federation of Omaha website or follow the QR code.
These series of events are funded by Beth Israel Synagogue, the Jennifer Beth Kay Foundation, and the Shirley & Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation.
JCRC and Secure Community Network
present A Tree of Life
PAM MONSKY
JCRC Assistant Director
Please join the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) for an exclusive event Tuesday, Aug. 20. In partnership with HBO and the Secure Community Network, the Omaha Jewish community has been chosen for a screening of the HBO documentary A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting on Aug. 20 at 6:30 p.m. in the Alan J. Levine Theater at the Staenberg Kooper Fellman Campus of the Jewish Community Center. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with Stephanie Viegas, SCN Deputy National Security Advisory and Carol Black, a survivor of the attack – the deadliest assault on the American Jewish community in U.S. history.
prayed, in what would become the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting is a deeply personal portrait of the survivors, victims, and family members, who share their harrowing first-hand accounts of the shooting on the community. The film is rooted in a community working to rebuild and heal in the aftermath of a violent attack.
The following day, Aug. 21, from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. law enforcement agencies and the community are invited to a security training hosted by SCN and the Jewish Federation of Omaha in the Goldstein Engagement Venue. Lunch is included at no cost.
Registration is required for both events using the QR code or emailing pmonsky@jewishomaha.org
This event is generously sponsored by the Jule M. Newman Anti-Bigotry Fund.
ABOUT THE FILM: On Oct. 27, 2018, a gunman opened fire inside a Pittsburgh synagogue, murdering 11 people as they
Continued from page 1 opportunity to give back to an organization that has given so much to me.”
Their children’s eagerness to take on this role together, Julie said, is a validation that as parents, but also as a community. “We did something right. It is truly rewarding to see our adult children feel invested and passionate about stewarding the next generation forward. They are eager to make meaningful connections with their Jewish community on their own terms. It is so exciting to see, and it gives us hope for the future.”
Of course, there is also the next generation, since Shiri and David have a daughter and son: “We hope that this opportunity can spark interest in our children,” Shiri said, “and give them the understanding that this community is really something special. It’s a community that sticks together and continues supporting each other from generation to generation.”
That support comes in many different shapes and forms. It comes from our Partnership with the Western Galilee, and it comes in the form of education, care for our youngest at the Early Learning Center and Friedel Jewish Academy, and the sublime care at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. We care for each other through our Jewish Community Relations
Despite core differences, they come together to determine what justice looks like and how best to move forward while honoring and learning from the past. The film sheds light on the collective trauma suffered by a tight-knit group and brings into sharp focus the hate-based rhetoric surrounding many of the mass shootings today, threatening the fabric of our society. The story of the attack is told through voices from the community, including Carol Black, Dr. Joseph Charny, Anthony Fienberg, Martin Gaynor, Audrey Glickman, Daniel Leger, Hannibal Lokumbe, Wasi Mohamed, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, Brad Orsini, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, Michele Rosenthal, Diane Rosenthal, Augie Siriano, Ellen Surloff, Andrea
Weiss, Barry Werber, Eliezer Rosenthal, and Joy Rosenthal.
Introducing our Annual Campaign Chairs
Council and Jewish Family Service, our summer camps and dance programs, our Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and the Institute for Holocaust Education. And don’t forget our brand-new pickleball courts, the personal trainers at the J, or our state-of-the-art Alan J. Levine Performing Arts Theater.
As a community, we have much to be grateful for, but with that comes a responsibility to continue on this path.
“In our current climate,” Eric said, “the stakes are higher, and we need to increase our giving substantially. It is important to provide a secure campus and offer both religious and secular Jews a community that speaks to them and that is both comfortable and inviting.”
A few years ago, Jane Rips, current Executive Director of the NJHS, said: “Of course, the Annual Campaign is about the fundraising, but at the same time, it really isn’t. It’s about continuity, about Omahans working to keep this community going.”
We hope you’ll join us in answering the call and preserving this community for the next generation. Please save the date for our 2025 Annual Campaign Community Kickoff Event, Sunday, Sept. 22 at 5 p.m. More details to come in next week’s Jewish Press!
Join us for Campus Connection
PAM MONSKY
JCRC Assistant Director
Before heading back to school, all college students are invited to join the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation at the Jewish Community Center on Sunday, Aug. 4 from 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m. for Campus Connection - a dinner and conversation featuring stories from their peers along with tools and resources to help them when encountering antisemitism on campus. More than 150 North American college campuses have experienced loud and sometimes violent anti-Israel and antisemitic attacks since October 7. Jewish students have been harassed, threatened, blocked from accessing their classrooms, and even physically assaulted, which represents a clear violation of their civil rights.
any major issues at UNL, I am sad to say I have heard many horrifying stories from my Jewish friends on other college campuses. What has allowed me to stay strong through all the acts of antisemitism we’ve seen recently, is that I have a strong connection with Hillel at UNL and with the Jewish communities of Omaha and Lincoln. What I hope for this event is to meet other college students, learn from them, and ultimately grow my Jewish circle. We are stronger together! I also hope to inspire others to stay connected to their Judaism and to become more involved with their Jewish communities on campus.”
Lillian Cohen, an incoming senior at UNL and past president of Hillel, shared, “While I am happy to say we haven’t had
A falafel bar will be provided, and students will leave with an awesome back-to-school swag bag, including an Uber gift card! Contact Pam Monsky at pmonsky @jewishomaha.org or scan the QR code to reserve your student’s spot!
Wedner, Stephen
Honoring the Rebbe
RABBI ELI TENENBAUM
A significant and heartfelt event, “Conversations: A 30-Year Tribute to the Rebbe,” marks the 30th Yahrzeit of the beloved Lubavitcher Rebbe. The commemorative evening will take place on Monday, Aug. 19, at 7 p.m. at the Centris Community Meeting Room, located at 13120 Pierce St in Omaha, NE.
outreach and inclusivity within the Jewish faith.
Master Sgt. Henry Ginsberg is currently on leave from the Israel Defense Forces, where he serves to protect the Jewish people. Sgt. Ginsberg will offer a unique perspective on the Rebbe’s influence on Jewish pride and identity.
The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, is a towering figure in Jewish history. His leadership, wisdom, and compassion leaves an indelible mark on Jewish communities worldwide. As we gather to honor his memory, we reflect on his enduring influence and the timeless teachings that continue to inspire and guide us.
This tribute event will feature a series of presentations and personal reflections from esteemed community members who have been profoundly influenced by the Rebbe’s legacy. The presenters include a variety of community members.
Mr. Gary Epstein, a longtime community leader, will share personal anecdotes and insights into how the Rebbe’s teachings have shaped his life.
Mrs. Sharon Comisar Langdon is known for her dedication to Jewish education. She will discuss the Rebbe’s impact on educational initiatives and the empowerment of Jewish women.
Mr. Stan Edelstein, a respected businessman and philanthropist, will reflect on the Rebbe’s guidance in matters of ethics and community building.
Mrs. Karen Cohen, an active member of the Omaha Jewish community, will present stories of the Rebbe’s compassion and how they have influenced her family.
Renee Zachariah will speak on the Rebbe’s approach to
Harry Truman’s visit
NELSON GORDMAN
I read with great interest the July 17 article about the Beth Israel “Annual Citation Dinner(s)” honoring Eddie Cantor, Harry Truman, Lewis Strauss, Cantor Koussevitsky, George Jessel, Irene Dunn, and Charles Mayo.
The article mentions the “Chair,” Maury Katzman, but does not at all mention Dan Gordman, then a current and past president of Beth Israel synagogue. Maury and Dan were the co-chairs and the true organizers and the driving forces of, not only the Harry Truman dinner, but also of several of the other testimonial dinners. I can recall many evenings with Maury and Dan, and frequently others as well, sitting around our family dining room table working out all of the details of the entire day, the wonderful evening, the dinner, and the incredible testimony to the guest of honor.
My wife, Linda (Kavich then), and I were highschool seniors in 1958 at the time of the Truman dinner and we attended the dinner. To put it mildly, we were thrilled to be invited up to the head table to be introduced to, and to shake the hand of a truly great American hero. Most of us know that
We would love the opportunity to hear from YOU about The Rebbes impact on YOUR life. Please contact Rabbi Eli or join us to share. In addition to these inspiring testimonials, the event will showcase a selection of presentations featuring the Rebbe. They will highlight the Rebbe’s sensitivity, leadership, and the profound ways in which he guided the Jewish people through the post-Holocaust era. Adding a musical dimension to the evening, Omaha alum Arthur Maysuk will perform some of the Chassidic melodies that the Rebbe taught. These melodies are not just songs; they are spiritual legacies that carry the Rebbe’s teachings and warmth.
The evening will culminate with a Q&A panel featuring the Rebbe’s emissaries (shluchim) to the state of Nebraska. This interactive session will provide attendees with the opportunity to ask questions and delve deeper into the Rebbe’s life and teachings.
This event promises to be both inspiring and uplifting, offering a profound introduction to the Rebbe’s leadership and a glimpse into his enduring legacy. It is a chance for us to come together as a community, to learn, to reflect, and to be inspired by the Rebbe’s vision for a world filled with goodness and kindness.
Please join us for this special tribute. To RSVP, visit ochabad.com/Rebbe30
We look forward to seeing you there.
Continued from page 4
millions of American lives, and saved millions more around the globe.
Truman was famous for his morning walks, and as a truly unforgettable bonus, I was one of a small handful of men who accompanied Truman on his morning walk the next day after the dinner and discussed with him important events of the world.
We should also be reminded here that Truman was the first world leader to recognize Israel as an independent state on May 11, 1948, just 11 minutes after Ben-Gurion proclaimed its establishment.
Truman made at least one other visit to Omaha when he came in for the dedication of Memorial Park.
Years later, Linda and I went to, and toured, the Truman Library in Independence Missouri, the birthplace and home of Truman, where he lived before and after his Presidency.
ROSH HASHANAH GREETINGS Harry Truman
Announcing the JFO Foundation new website: Your path to charitable giving
AMY BERNSTEIN SHIVVERS
Executive Director, JFO Foundation
We are thrilled to announce the launch of The Foundation’s new website and invite you to explore the many ways you can make a meaningful impact through charitable giving.
The theme of our marketing campaign is “Discover”. When you visit the new website, you will
DISCOVER... HOW TO OPEN A FUND
Learn the simple steps to create a fund that reflects your values and goals. Our user-friendly guide will walk you through the process, making it easier than ever to start your philanthropic journey.
DISCOVER... LEGACIES FOR OUR COMMUNITY
See how donors leave a lasting legacy and benefit future generations. Our stories and testimonials highlight the incredible impact that generous contributions have on our community.
DISCOVER... WHAT THE FOUNDATION DOES
Understand our mission, the funds we support, and the difference we make. Explore our various programs, initiatives, and the ways we are working to
create positive change.
DISCOVER... WAYS TO PARTNER WITH THE FOUNDATION
Interested in collaborating with us to reach your philanthropic goals? Our
ture is sound. To update our site, we reviewed every page, click by click, to assess relevance, identify necessary updates, determine the best location for information, and address any gaps.
website outlines various partnership opportunities, whether you are an individual donor or a corporate entity. Together, we can accomplish remarkable things.
This project has been several months in the making, starting with an audit of our entire site. The Foundation has added information, stories, funding tools, and more to the website. However, like any additions, it is best practice to also clean house and ensure your struc-
Check out the fun, short video using the QR code for a preview of our new site.
We are excited to share these resources with you and look forward to partnering on your philanthropic journey. Visit our website today at www.jfofoundation.org to start discovering all the ways you can make a difference.
Join us in making an impact and shaping a brighter future for our community. Discover, engage, and embark on your path to charitable giving with The Foundation!
This year you can send your greetings through these very special ads that will run in our annual Rosh Hashanah issue. Each ad can be personalized with your name, the names of your children or your grandchildren. Just fill out the form below and send or bring it to the Jewish Press office. But hurry; these ads will only be accepted through August 16, 2024
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
Right: Becca, David and Asher Finkelstein at Camp Ramah.
Above: Ramah: Colin Kelln, Preston Gordman, Asher and Ari Finkelstein, Julian Witkowski, and Shayna Feldman.
Top, above, below and bottom: It’s J-Camp! It’s been a very exciting and busy summer at the J, with campers doing all kinds of activities while beating the heat.
Above and below: Sam Kutler’s fourth summer at Herzl Camp.
Below and bottom: Henry Kutler’s first summer for Taste at Herzl Camp.
Above, right and below: At RBJH – Summertime Bingo –nothing could be finer.
An unlikely lightning rod in literary fights over the Israel-Hamas war
ANDREW LAPIN
JTA
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin’s novel about video game designers, has dominated the bestseller list for two years and was recently chosen as one of the New York Times’ best 100 books of the 21st century.
But for months Zevin, an author of Jewish and Korean descent with nine other books under her belt, has been grabbing headlines for an unrelated reason: accusations from proPalestinian corners of the literary world that she is a “Zionist” and therefore, that her works are worthy of boycott.
Zevin has never publicized any of her views on Israel. But she has become an unlikely poster figure for the culture wars around Israel that have permeated arts and culture spaces, particularly the literary world, since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. The latest flare-up occurred over the weekend, when a manager at a Chicago bookstore, City Lit, told book club members that they could no longer vote to read Zevin’s book owing to her perceived Zionism.
“It was brought to my attention that the author Gabrielle Zevin is a Zionist, and I am not comfortable having us reading something by her, especially knowing people would buy it from the store and she would receive monetary support from us,” the assistant manager wrote in the email. He continued, “If you want to read it, I’d encourage you to get it from the library and read it critically!”
over online backlash owing to her perceived Zionism. Fairyloot rejected the accusation of Zionism as “completely unfounded.” In contrast, City Lit did not address its manager’s assumption that Zevin was a Zionist when it posted a statement to social media apologizing for removing Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow from the book club poll.
“The moderator removed the book from the poll hoping to maintain in [sic] what they believed a safe and comfortable space for the group,” the bookstore said. “A better course of action would’ve been to allow the group to discuss and vote on this decision. For that we apologize.”
Zevin, 46, grew up in Florida with her Korean mother and Jewish father before heading to Harvard University. She published her first novels in 2005 and has had a steady output since, but Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow has been far and away her most successful work. The book’s two protagonists, Sam and Sadie, are both of Jewish descent, a detail Zevin has said is autobiographical; she told the Harvard Crimson in 2022, “I am, like Sam in the book, half Jewish and half Korean.” While promoting a 2014 book, she wrote, “I’m the product of no religion to speak of except, if this isn’t too pretentious to write, the religion of books.”
Readers, generally from the left, who claim Zevin is a Zionist point as evidence to one instance of her appearing at a February 2023 event hosted by the Zionist women’s organization Hadassah (a group that makes a brief appearance in the novel).
Hadassah Magazine’s executive editor Lisa Hostein denounced City Lit’s move as antisemitic on social media, where she confirmed that even Hadassah doesn’t know Zevin’s stance on Israel.
“I don’t know whether Gabrielle Zevin considers herself a Zionist or not,” Hostein tweeted, adding that Hadassah had selected Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow for its own national book club and that, when the magazine spoke to her, “Zevin spoke proudly about her dual Jewish-Korean heritage, themes that she included in her writing for the first time.”
Hostein added, “I also know that boycotting a Jewish author for appearing before the largest Jewish women’s organization in the country is antisemitism, pure and simple.”
Some also note that Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow features an Israeli character, though the novel only references Israel tangentially and the character is widely seen as unlikeable. “Gabrielle Zevin included Israeli sympathy into her books,” one pro-Palestinian proponent of boycotting “known Zionist authors” wrote on X.
Before the current flap, Zevin was among dozens of authors who appeared on a recent viral online list titled “Is your fav author a Zionist???” — with boycotts recommended against authors for whom the answer was yes, such as Zevin.
The list was condemned by the Jewish Book Council, whose president compared it to Nazi-era book burnings, and several authors on it expressed their concern that it would make them fall victim to antisemitic targeting. In response to such incidents, the Jewish Book Council has launched an initiative for authors to report any antisemitism they experience in the literary world.
Zevin was also the subject of social media targeting in December when a fantasy subscription service, FairyLoot, defended its decision to promote a special edition of her book
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The lengthy statement did not apologize to Zevin. The store said her name came up after “several members” of the book club “privately reached out to the moderator to express their discomfort with the title.” The statement went on to reject accusations that removing the book as an option constituted either antisemitism or censorship.
Still, the store appeared to apologize to the Jewish community. “We will continue to welcome and host Jewish authors in our space,” it said. “We understand that due to current political events Jewish people have been victims of unfair scrutiny and we sincerely apologize to all of those who have been subjected to that response.”
Calls to City Lit were not answered.
Zevin, who just wrapped a nationwide tour promoting the book’s paperback release, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment through her agent.
She has never made any public statements about Israel and doesn’t address the topic in her live appearances. The closest she has skirted may have come during a June radio interview, when she was asked how she thought it would affect first-time readers that the paperback was emerging at a time “where we have lots of major international conflicts going on.”
Zevin responded by talking about her characters, not readers. “I think the worlds that my characters find themselves in in the book is the world,” she said. “It has all of the things in it, not necessarily the particularity of 2024, you know, but it doesn’t exist in a world that doesn’t have conflict.”
With the author back in the spotlight, Jewish and non-Jewish critics of the Palestinian boycott movement alike were quick to condemn City Lit. New York Democratic Rep. Richie Torres, a prominent pro-Israel voice in Congress and on social media, was among those to condemn the bookstore.
“Since most Jews are Zionists, the ban is tantamount to putting up a sign that reads: ‘No Jews Allowed,’” Torres tweeted. “Anyone who adopts a policy that excludes most Jews is guilty of institutionalizing antisemitism.”
Edward Einhorn, a New York theater director, tweeted, “Gabrielle Zevin’s offenses seem to be: she had an Israeli character in a book, she spoke at Hadassah, and she’s Jewish. This sort of antisemitic McCarthyism is truly awful.”
The pro-Palestinian backlash does not appear to be hurting Zevin. In addition to her spot on the New York Times list, an upcoming film adaptation of the novel — which has sold nearly 3 million copies worldwide — is slated to be directed by Sian Heder, the Oscar-winning writer and director of CODA.
ORGANIZATIONS
B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS
The award-winning B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS speaker program currently meets Wednesdays via Zoom from noon to 1 p.m. Please watch our email for specific information concerning its thought-provoking, informative list of speakers. To be placed on the email list, contact Breadbreakers chair at gary.javitch@gmail.com
Author Gabrielle Zevin speaks about her bestseller Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow during the 28th Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the University of Southern California on Saturday, April 22, 2023 in Los Angeles. Credit: Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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The Jewish Press
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The mission of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to build and sustain a strong and vibrant Omaha Jewish Community and to support Jews in Israel and around the world. Agencies of the JFO are: Institute for Holocaust Education, Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Social Services, Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and the Jewish Press Guidelines and highlights of the Jewish Press, including front page stories and announcements, can be found online at: www.jewishomaha.org; click on ‘Jewish Press.’ Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole. The Jewish Press reserves the right to edit signed letters and articles for space and content. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the Kashrut of any product or establishment.
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Creating Space
ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT
Jewish Press Editor
The summer Olympics are here! Are you watching? I am, but not because of the actual events.
On July 23, Times of Israel staff wrote the following:
A French hard-left MP sparked outrage among lawmakers and Jewish organizations after he declared at a weekend rally that Israeli athletes weren’t welcome at the Paris Olympics due to the war against Hamas in Gaza. At an anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian rally, lawmaker Thomas Portes condemned Israel’s participation in the Games, and, in a speech covered by French daily Le Parisien, called for “mobilization around the event.”
Here’s another headline: “Paris memorial for 1972 Olympics massacre to be held in secret over threats.” Not true, said the Olympic committee, claiming it was just a logistical issue. But we all know how trustworthy the Olympic Committee has been over the years.
“’Arrive in France, we’ll kill you’-Israeli Olympians threatened ahead of Paris Games” reads a post on my Instagram.
Of course, there has been plenty of pushback, and not only by Jewish organizations. All of Paris is in an uproar over these Olympic Games. Israeli athletes are welcome, Israeli athletes are not welcome, the Israeli flag should be banned, we should all remember what happened in Munich in 1972, and on and on and on. There is so much noise, does anyone still care about the actual sports? Perhaps.
It seems impossible to watch any of it without
Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole.
the constant threat of antisemitism in the back of one’s mind. It’s equally difficult to imagine some people have no clue this is playing in the background. But for us, (not just Israelis, but Jews the
world over) the question that has become commonplace is: are we welcome?
It’s a question we have to ask regularly these days. Often, the answer is ‘no.’ And that means we have to create our own space, on our own terms. On the one hand, we owe it to ourselves to pay attention and take note of threats. We need to be
informed if we want to keep ourselves safe. On the other hand, too much focus on the hate, and we risk our mental health, not to mention our Joy. So what’s our Jewish responsibility here?
I know, I know- I have a job that makes it a little hard to walk away and take a break. Maybe I lose track of what it is like for people who aren’t reading newsbriefs day in and day out. I’m also aware that any methods I use to keep myself sane might not work for everyone.
And yet, when I counter what is happening in Paris, what is happening everywhere, I immediately reach for rituals. And I don’t think I am alone in that.
Rituals, like Friday night blessings, like holidays and family meals and prayers we’ve repeated thousands of times, anchor us. We may not know what to do about that French MP or anyone else who decides Jews aren’t welcome, but we know what to do when it comes to our own lives. We have no control over what our enemies think and say, but we have control over how we live our own lives. No matter how much hate is out there, when the sun sets on Friday night, Shabbat still comes. We create space.
In a few months, the holidays will be here. We’ll dip our apples and prepare our sukkot, we fast and then break it, we throw our sins in the water and we celebrate the ending and the new beginning, not necessarily in that order. Just think of how much we have to look forward to.
The world around us won’t change between now and then. And neither should we.
The Knesset just voted against Palestinian statehood. Here’s all the ways that’s bad for Israel.
DAVID A. HALPERIN
JTA
In advance of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington next week, the Knesset’s passage of legislation opposing the establishment of a Palestinian state was an unnecessary political exercise that will harm Israel’s global standing and add fuel to rising U.S.-Israel tensions.
The legislation calling the creation of a Palestinian state an “existential danger” passed with a majority of 68 votes in the 120-seat Knesset, with only nine opposing votes. Rather than making a Knesset speech reiterating that now is not the time for two states but that avoiding a one-state outcome is critical to Israel’s future, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Amid faction — which publicly supports two states — skipped the vote, and Benny Gantz, who has advocated for separation and a Palestinian “entity” rather than state, voted in favor.
It is understandable that Israelis are hardened against the idea of a two-state solution in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks. Israelis have been scarred by demonstrations of support for the attacks among Palestinians and have lost hope that enough Palestinians want to live alongside the State of Israel rather than eliminate it. The Palestinian Authority is corrupt, unpopular and incapable of serving as the basis for a successful state today. The war in Gaza continues, hostages remain held captive, clashes with Hezbollah are escalating along Israel’s northern border and attacks in the West Bank are on the rise.
Meanwhile, settlements in the West Bank have exponentially grown with newly empowered farright ministers openly advocating for a collapse of the P.A., annexation of the West Bank, and even resettlement of Gaza.
Even prior to the Hamas attacks, the prospects for achieving a two-state solution were diminishing. After the attacks, more so.
That is why no one is trying to “impose” a twostate solution on Israel today, though Gideon Saar, chairman of the party that put forward this resolution, made that claim. Moreover, if a future Israeli government were to successfully negotiate the establishment of a two-state solution, it would in-
evitably be subject to Knesset approval.
The standard line about Israel extending its hand for peace and the Palestinian side being the ones never willing to compromise is Israel’s most potent diplomatic weapon, and the Knesset vote throws that away unilaterally at the worst possible time.
The vote was not needed but it ultimately serves Netanyahu’s political interests.
With his political future in doubt — a recent poll indicated that 72 percent of Israelis think Netanyahu should resign because of the failures to protect Israel’s security on Oct. 7 — Netanyahu is returning to his playbook of stoking fears of an imposed two-state solution that only he can prevent by standing up to the United States and the international community. The vote taking place right before his Washington visit provides red meat and reassurance to his base at a time when he is facing heightened pressure from his far-right coalition partners to oppose a hostage deal with Hamas that would bring the war to a close.
conflict and unending control over millions of Palestinians as stateless subjects in the West Bank and Gaza, threatening Israel’s security and existence as a Jewish and democratic state. That is why so many former Israeli political and security officials have long warned that it is the absence of any hope to resolve the conflict, not Palestinian state-
But while the vote may score political points for Netanyahu, it harms Israel’s diplomacy in the region and relations with the U.S.
Any path to a resolution of the conflict today would require rebuilding Gaza, working to establish trust between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, revitalizing Palestinian governance, reforming education systems, reimagining security arrangements, effectively countering terrorism and extremism, and building a regional architecture to support and sustain the path to ending the conflict. In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel had been in a position to gain support from the United States and its partners in the international community for all of the critical steps above and more, so long as these efforts were geared toward an eventual political horizon based on two states. But the Knesset vote sends a message that Israel is opposed to a Palestinian state under any terms or circumstances whatsoever.
The absence of any realistic or viable alternative to two states places Israel on course for perpetual
hood, that breeds support for terrorism and represents an existential danger. Even as two states are impossible to achieve and implement today, the goal remains too important to give up on.
Since Oct. 7, administration officials from President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken on down have emphasized the goal of an eventual two-state outcome, as they have worked on the parameters of a deal to attain a ceasefire in the war in Gaza that would free the hostages held by Hamas. Such a deal, which the president has been pushing for months, is also a critical step toward reaching an Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement, a longstanding Israeli interest that would bring many benefits to Israel and could even form the basis for a regional anti-Iran coalition of Arab states that could also play an important role in a post-war Gaza. But the Saudis have repeatedly declared that meaningful steps toward Palestinian statehood are a prerequisite for normalization.
See The Knesset just voted against page 9
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, attends a debate at the plenum hall of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on July 17, 2024. Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
100 years after his death, Gen Z loves Franz
Now
they ought to read him, too.
SETH ROGOFF
JTA
The writer Franz Kafka died 100 years ago on June 3, 1924, one month shy of his 41st birthday.
A century after his death, the books and stories by the Jewish writer from Prague remain widely read, and his cultural influence has been profound. And for reasons not entirely related to the anniversary, he is having a cultural moment.
Recent books include new translations by Ross Benjamin (Diaries) and Mark Harman (Selected Stories) and an anthology of short stories by celebrated writers, A Cage Went in Search of a Bird: Ten Kafkaesque Stories. ChaiFlicks, a Jewish streaming service, is airing a German-Austrian miniseries, Kafka. And Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries are currently mounting an exhibition, Kafka: Making of an Icon, about “how he continues to inspire new literary, theatrical and cinematic creations around the world.” One of those is mine: My novel about Kafka’s work comes out in October.
The Kafka revival has extended to a sphere that the writer could not have imagined: social media. See this recent Daily Mail headline: Franz Kafka becomes an unlikely Heartthrob on TikTok — where Gen Zers are swooning over the Czech novelist nearly 100 years after his death
alienation. In our world of estrangement, Kafka is estrangement’s personification. Other Kafka-memes proliferate across social media: Kafka as brooding lover, Kafka as crisis of masculinity, and so on.
Kafka’s influence grew and his work endured precisely because of the work’s evasiveness and complexity. With Kafka, there is always another layer, another perspective, or a counter-perspective; there is always another possible meaning that collapses the previous interpretive certainty and forces the reader to start again, to start over, to rebuild.
Not that Kafka has ever gone away. Kafka’s enigmatic writings, from the slim volumes he published during his lifetime to his great unfinished novels The Trial and The Castle to his voluminous letters, notebooks and diaries, have engendered a massive commentary spanning the last century. Interpretations of Kafka might have started among Central European Jewish intellectuals such as Gershom Scholem and Walter Benjamin, but in the decades following the Second World War Kafka’s reputation expanded well beyond this narrow group. Kafka had gone global. Responses to Kafka’s work have varied widely. He has been recruited to support just about every intellectual, cultural and political trend one can imagine. Over the course of the previous century, critics have presented readers with many Kafkas. We’ve had the anti-bureaucratic Kafka, the anti-totalitarian Kafka, the psychoanalytic Kafka, the Gnostic Kafka, the socialist Kafka, the anarchist Kafka, the individualist Kafka, the Zionist Kafka, the anti-Zionist Kafka, the postmodern Kafka and many other Kafkas besides. If these were some of the Kafkas of the last 100 years, what might be the Kafka or Kafkas of the next century?
The answer is unknowable, but the first glimmers of future Kafkas are troubling — at least from my perspective, which is, admittedly, stuck back in the 1920s and 1930s. The most profound challenge facing Kafka’s work at the beginning of the second century after his death is the general and steep decline in the quality of reading.
People still read, of course, and judged by word count might read more today than ever before. But this isn’t serious reading. This reading is not only shallow by design, but it is also hostile to depth. The great enemies of the contemporary reader are ambiguity, inconclusiveness and confusion. Bewilderment, once the starting point for analysis (especially of Kafka), is now the endpoint of engagement in our entertainment-dominated culture. What follows the termination of our fragmented attention? A short online review and/or an adjudication of stars. One star, two stars, three stars — the codification of judgment. Reading has become rating.
At the time of writing this, Kafka’s The Castle has been rated 64,158 times on Goodreads. The novel’s score: 3.93 stars. The Castle holds a slight edge in average rating over Spare, Prince Harry’s memoir (3.86), though Harry’s book dominates Kafka’s masterpiece in total engagement with 369,882 individual ratings. Reading Kafka has become just another ancillary activity to support the vast online consumer economy. Reading today, however, is not only rating; reading is also posting and sharing. “Reading” in the social media sense is a component of (public and/or private) identity cultivation. In the social media realm, Kafka’s deeply ambiguous writings cannot exist, because if they were to exist, they would shatter the basic rule of social media communication: instantaneous meaning production and the elicitation of algorithmically predictable emotional responses — anger, fear, happiness, lust, etc. Kafka’s writings can do no such thing — and thus for Kafka to be absorbed by social media, he and his work must be reduced to the level of a meme.
Those who read Kafka’s letters and diaries know that he was a fully articulated social being, but across social media he becomes the quintessential loner and solitary genius. In our increasingly alienated culture, Kafka becomes an avatar of
Kafka was acutely aware of the unreliability of language as a medium of communication. Language resisted the writer; it refused to succumb to order and logic; it evaded meaning, slipped away from the writer’s intent. In a letter to his close friend Max Brod from 1910, years before he’d create the works that would make him famous to posterity, he wrote, “My whole body warns me against every word; every word, before it lets me write it down, looks first around in all directions. The sentences literally crumble before me.”
For Kafka, writing remained a struggle, even after he’d completed stories that are now known throughout the world — The Judgment, The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, A Hunger Artist — after he started and abandoned novels that would help define the intellectual culture of the first half of the 20th century. For Kafka, it was a battle to move beyond the merely provisional or approximate. Such a battle was doomed — and yet still he waged it day after day until his last labored, dying breath.
There is still no escape for Kafka. He will become, as all else in today’s increasingly vacuous culture, merely a figure for memes — and this despite having produced the most memeresistant body of work imaginable. The struggle against reductive analysis of his texts (and texts in general) cannot possibly withstand the flattening and emptying forces of social media. Sure, there will be the occasional throwback, those misanthropic defenders of a lost age (I count myself among them), whose sensibilities for whatever reason remain anchored to an antiquated modernism. They (we) wage a hopeless fight against the great surge of culture.
However insecure we might be, however conflicted we feel, we believe we are defending something important. Others, and especially those of the younger generations, think we’re foolish. We are, after all, detached from the economy of likes, shares, reposts, and ratings — that is to say, we are detached from the economy as such. We are attached to the non-quantifiable in what is becoming a totally quantified society.
In his biography of Kafka, Max Brod records a conversation he had with Kafka on Feb. 28, 1920. According to Brod, Kafka quipped that humans were but one of God’s bad moods, God having a bad day. When Brod inquired about the metaphysical hopelessness of this position, Kafka responded, “Plenty of hope, for God — no end of hope — only not for us.” The same might be said for literature today — infinite hope for Literature, no hope for our literary culture.
But maybe there is some hope after all. I propose what might seem like a radical experiment. Put away your phone. Forget about social media. Ignore reviews. Blot out those hundreds of thousands of stars that permanently illuminate even the darkest corners of our culture. Pick up a book by Kafka. Whatever you do, avoid the allure of posting an image of what you’re reading. Don’t post a photo of yourself reading the book — in other words, no selfies. Absolutely don’t share a picture of the artisanal pastry and fancy coffee drink that accompany your reading. It is not a performance. There is no audience. Now read. Read deeply. Read freely. Think freely. Be absorbed in the text. Discover Kafka on your own. Only through you can Kafka live again.
Seth Rogoff is a writer and author of the forthcoming novel The Castle, a fictional return to the unsettling world of Franz Kafka’s iconic unfinished novel. He is the chair of the Journalism and Media Studies program at AngloAmerican University in Prague.
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.
Jewish Boy Scouts saved a man’s life
JACKIE HAJDENBERG
JTA
Earlier this month, a group of 10 Jewish Boy Scouts hiked more than 100 miles in New Mexico, but the trek wasn’t the most intense part of their trip. That came on the plane ride home.
The two scouts, Moshe Grimaldi, 17, and Ariel Yaron, 16 along with their advisor, Evan Gilder, adult leader on the trek Joel Shuart, and nurse practitioner Rachel Travis, who had traveled with the group, performed CPR on an elderly passenger who had gone into cardiac arrest until his heart began to beat again.
The grueling hike, organized annually by a Jewish scouting organization, allows Jewish scouts to participate in the movement’s activities while observing halacha, or Jewish law. For the teens, the episode on the airplane epitomized what they had joined the Boy Scouts to do: model upstanding behavior as well as Jewish values.
“Obviously one of the greatest mitzvot in Judaism is pikuach nefesh,” Yaron told JTA, referring to the principle of saving a life, which is paramount in Jewish law. “So that’s as pikuach nefesh as it gets.”
On the July 11 flight to New York’s LaGuardia Airport, when the passenger went into cardiac arrest, the two staff members rushed to the front of the plane and began conducting chest compressions. Recognizing that they would need more hands on deck, Gilder called Grimaldi and Yaron to join, and they performed CPR for 45 minutes until a pulse was detected again, with the two teens alternating performing cycles of compressions lasting about two minutes.
The plane was rerouted to Pittsburgh, where the patient was immediately taken to a hospital with his family.
“Usually in movies, it’s just like, one guy, he goes for 20 minutes while they call the cops or whatever. But in reality, CPR is very exhausting,” Yaron said. “I mean, I’m an athlete and I’m relatively young. But for any other guy, like your average Joe doing CPR, it’s difficult.”
Grimaldi, currently a lifeguard at a Boy Scouts camp in upstate New York, said the experience was “surreal.” But he said his multiple CPR and first aid trainings, both as a scout and a lifeguard, meant he was prepared.
“I was very nervous in the moment, but it didn’t stop me from just getting up and doing what I needed to,” Grimaldi told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Grimaldi is nearly at Eagle Scout status, the movement’s highest echelon, and has melded Jewish service with his scouting work. His final service project was cataloging graves at a historical Jewish cemetery in Yonkers, New York. Yaron, an incoming junior at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, the performing arts school in New York City, also sees scouting as a chance to meet other Jewish teens. He learned CPR in school and is also an Eagle Scout.
The Knesset just voted against
Continued from page 8
Coming just days before Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, Democrats will rightly interpret the timing of the Knesset vote as a jab at the Biden administration’s ongoing diplomatic efforts in the region, adding fuel to an already growing partisan divide in Washington when it comes to Israel.
Some Democrats are likely to respond to the vote with a shrug as more of the same from an increasingly frustrating ally and some will be more inclined to support conditioning aid and withholding U.S. backing for Israel in international fora. Ironically, efforts to impose terms on Israel are more likely to grow as a result.
Israel’s prime minister should be utilizing his visit and speech to Congress to reinforce the bipartisan strength of US-Israel relations at a time when U.S.-Israel cooperation and U.S. support for Israel’s security are so clearly essential to Israel’s interests. In a video call with American Jewish leaders earlier this week, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew expressed his hope that Netanyahu’s visit would reinforce the importance of bipartisanship and provide a unifying message. The vote in the Knesset does not bode well for either. It pointlessly adds more uncertainty to the trajectory of the U.S.-Israel relationship, of Palestinian national aspirations, and of Israel’s future as a secure, Jewish, and democratic state.
David A. Halperin is Chief Executive Officer of Israel Policy Forum.
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: Klaus Wagenbach Archiv, Berlin; JTA illustration by Grace Yagel
Synagogues
B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE
618 Mynster Street Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766
712.322.4705 www.cblhs.org
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
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
Monthly Speaker Series Service, Friday, Aug. 9, 7:30 p.m. with guest speaker. Our service leader is Larry Blass. Everyone is always welcome at B’nai Israel!
For information about our historic synagogue, please visit our website at www.cblhs.org or contact any of our other board members: Renee Corcoran, Scott Friedman, Rick Katelman, Janie Kulakofsky, Howard Kutler, Carole and Wayne Lainof, Ann Moshman, MaryBeth Muskin, Debbie Salomon and Sissy Silber. Handicap Accessible.
Services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman.
IN-PERSON AND ZOOM MINYAN SCHEDULE:
Mornings on Sundays, 9 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 Service, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Havdalah 9:15 p.m. Zoom only.
SUNDAY: Morning Minyan, 9 a.m. Zoom Only.
MONDAY: Women’s Book Group, 6:30 p.m. we will discuss Rebel Daughter by Lori Banov Kaufmann.
FRIDAY-Aug. 9: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.
SATURDAY-Aug. 10: Shabbat Morning Service 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream with guest speaker Sadie Hinkel, Alzheimer’s Association: Healthy Living for your Brain and Body; Havdalah, 9:05 p.m. Zoom only.
Please visit bethel-omaha.org for additional information and service links.
FRIDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat, 7 p.m.; Candlelighting, 8:21 p.m.
SATURDAY: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:30 a.m.; Youth Class, 10:45 a.m.; Tehillim, 7:05 p.m. at the Zivs; Soulful Torah, 7:15 p.m. with Rabbi Geiger; Mincha 8 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity, 8:30 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:25
p.m.
SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Kinyan, 9:40 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:20 p.m.
MONDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:20 p.m.
TUESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Kinyan 7:45 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:20 p.m.
WEDNESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:20 p.m.
THURSDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Character Development, 9:30 a.m.; Kinyan, 7:45 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8:20 p.m.; Parsha Class, 8:40 p.m.
FRIDAY-Aug. 9: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat, 7 p.m.; Candlelight-
ing, 8:12 p.m.
SATURDAY-Aug. 10: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:30 a.m.; Youth Class 10:45 a.m.; Tehillim, 7:05 p.m. at the Zivs; Soulful Torah, 7:15 p.m. with Rabbi Geiger; Mincha, 8 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity 8:30 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:15 p.m.
Please visit orthodoxomaha.org for additional information and Zoom service links.
All services are in-person. All classes are being offered in-person and via Zoom (ochabad.com/acad-
emy). 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; Omaha Young Professionals Shabbat Dinner; Candlelighting, 8:21 p.m.
SATURDAY: Shacharit 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 9:24 p.m.
SUNDAY: Sunday Morning Wraps: Shacharit, 99:30 a.m., Video Presentation, 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; Translating Words of Prayer, 7 p.m. with David Cohen.
TUESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Translating Words of Prayer, 11 a.m. with David Cohen; Cooking Club Lunch Clatch, 11:30 a.m. at Chabad, ochabad.com/lunchclatch, sponsorship and co-sponsorship opportunities available; Intermediate Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 7 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.; Introduction to Alaphabet, Vowels & Reading Hebrew, 10 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Advanced Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 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-Aug. 9: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: Ochaba d.com/Lechayim; Omaha Young Professionals Shabbat Dinner; Candlelighting, 8:12 p.m.
SATURDAY-Aug. 10: Shacharit 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 9:14 p.m.
teleconferencing options.
FRIDAY: Erev Shabbat Service with Lay Leaders, 6:30-7:30 p.m. at SST; Shabbat Candlelighting, 8:22 p.m.
SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30-11 a.m. at TI; No Torah Study; Havdalah, 9:25 p.m.
SUNDAY: SST Gardening, 8:30 a.m-10 a.m.; Men’s Bike/Coffee Group, 10:30 a.m. at The Mill on the Innovation Campus. For more information or questions please email Al Weiss at albertw801@gmail.com; Pickleball, 3-5 p.m. Anyone interested in playing or learning how to play can text Miriam at 402.470.2393. If there are enough interested people; we will play in the Social Hall at TI; Community Get Together Potluck Dinner, 4-7 p.m. at the home of Stacie and Bob Bleicher. Please bring a dish to share for dinner. Join us for lawn games, slip & slide and family fun. Bring your own lawn chair. Dogs welcome.
FRIDAY-Aug. 9: Erev Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex, 6:30-7:30 p.m. at SST; Shabbat Candlelighting, 8:14 p.m.
SATURDAY-Aug. 10: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30-11 a.m. at TI; No Torah Study; Havdalah, 9:16 p.m.
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.
In-person and virtual services conducted by Rabbi Benjamin Sharff, 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..
SATURDAY: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m. In-Person & Zoom.
SUNDAY: YLP Faculty Room Prep Day and Orientation, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. In-Person.
TUESDAY: Adult Prayer Hebrew: Level Bet (Part 1), 6 p.m. In-Person.
WEDNESDAY: Yarn It, 9 a.m.
FRIDAY-Aug. 9: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m. InPerson; Shabbat B’yachad Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.
SATURDAY-Aug. 10: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m. InPerson & Zoom.
Please visit templeisraelomaha.com for additional information and Zoom service links.
Services facilitated by Rabbi Alex Felch. All services offered in-person with live-stream or
Israel competes in Olympic soccer for the first time in 48 years
JACOB GURVIS
JTA
Wednesday, July 24, for the first time since 1976, Israel returned to Olympic soccer as it took on Mali in its first match at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Israel earned its spot in the 16-team Olympic tournament at last summer’s UEFA European U-21 Championship, where the country made it to the semifinals. The under-21 team’s success in July 2023 followed a strong showing by Israel’s under20 team, which had a third-place Cinderella finish at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina the month prior.
“Soccer in Israel is improving, we have a good generation, and the people understand what we can do,” midfielder El Yam Kancepolsky told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency during the U-20 World Cup.
Israel has competed in Europe’s umbrella soccer association since the 1990s because it was previously kicked out of the Asian Football Confederation after a campaign by Middle Eastern states. Now, the Palestinian Football Association is trying to get Israel kicked out of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, altogether.
The Olympics are a blow of sorts to that effort. Israel previously competed in the 1968 and 1976
Olympics, reaching the quarterfinals in both Games.
This year, the Olympic soccer tournament began as a round-robin competition, with the 16 participating countries divided into four groups. Each country plays the others in its group, with the top two from each advancing to a knockout stage that begins Aug. 2.
Olympic soccer is an under-23 tournament, but each team is allowed three roster sports for players older than 23. Israel’s roster includes many players in the Israeli Premier League as well as some who play in European leagues and the MLS.
Israeli soccer drama this summer will not end with the Olympics. Earlier this year, the Palestinian Football Association urged FIFA to suspend Israel from international competition over the country’s ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza. Russian teams had similarly been temporarily banned by FIFA and UEFA following the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
In May, FIFA postponed an initial vote on the proposal and sought independent legal review. Last
week, FIFA again declined to resolve the issue, pushing any decision until after the Olympics. FIFA said it had postponed a decision — which was due to be announced July 20, four days before Olympic play began — because “more time is needed to conclude this process with due care and completeness.”
The respective Israeli and Palestinian soccer federations had both asked for extensions to “submit their respective positions,” FIFA said, adding that a decision would be made no later than Aug. 31.
B’NAI ISRAEL
BETH EL
BETH ISRAEL
CHABAD HOUSE
LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN & TIFERETH ISRAEL
Members of Israel’s under-21 national soccer team in Kutaisi, Georgia, June 22, 2023. Credit: Giorgi Ebanoidze/DeFodi Images via Getty Images
Life cycles
IN MEMORIAM
RUTH LEWIN WEINER
Ruth Lewin Weiner passed away on July 12, 2024 at age 89.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Marvin “Art” Weiner; and her brother, Morton H. Lewin.
She is survived by her sister, Sondra Lewin Arslan; six nieces and nephews; many other loving family members and a large circle of friends who adored her.
Ruth was very involved with her community in many ways. She worked tirelessly with the CASA organization which supplies court appointed special advocates for children involved in child welfare proceedings; as well as the Altrusa Club of Omaha, which
is part of an international non-profit organization that provides fundraising, service, and literacy projects for the community. She loved dogs, cats, Broadway, Mah Jong, and the New York Times. She was proud of her Jewish faith and had many art pieces in her home reflecting this. She was devoted to her nieces and nephews, who received yearly birthday cards without fail, always with the dependable five dollar bill enclosed. To them, she was (and will forever be) known as “Ruthie”. She had a wicked sense of humor and could act out a joke like nobody’s business. She was a great lady and will be dearly missed. Memorials may be sent to the organization of your choice.
Rocket from Lebanon kills 12 children and teens in Israel, raising prospects of broader war
BEN SALES AND PHILISSA CRAMER
JTA
A rocket fired from Lebanon struck a soccer field in the Golan Heights, killing 12 people ages 20 and under, in the worst attack on civilians in Israel since Oct. 7.
The attack, which Israel has attributed to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, heightened the chances of a broader war on Israel’s northern border. Hezbollah has been firing missiles at Israel since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war nearly 10 months ago, prompting a heavy Israeli response and the evacuation of tens of thousands of Israelis from border towns.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved up his return from the United States, and Israeli officials promised a heavy response to the attack.
“We are nearing a full war against Hezbollah and will respond to this incident accordingly,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israeli media. “There will be costs to the front, and there will be costs to the home front, but we are at a turning point.”
The rocket fired on Saturday hit the Druze town of Majdal Shams, the center of the local Druze population, at the northern tip of the Golan Heights, near Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria. A warning siren sounded ahead of the incoming rocket, but without enough time for the children on the field to evacuate, according to reports in Israeli media.
Now, some Israeli leaders are calling for an escalation.
“The one responsible for the murder of many children and youth in Majdal Shams is Nasrallah,” tweeted right-wing lawmaker Avigdor Liberman, referring to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. “And the time has come for him to pay the price.”
In earlier news, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly threatened to invade Israel in support of the Palestinians as fears of a war with Hezbollah escalate — a shocking comment from a member of NATO, the international alliance of Western nations.
“We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine,” Erdogan said on Sunday during a party meeting that was televised, according to media reports.
“A dark day has fallen on Majdal Shams,” said Dolan Abu Saleh, the head of the Majdal Shams Council, according to the Israeli publication Ynet. He asked residents to stay off the roads to clear lanes for emergency personnel, adding, “We are still amid the incident, and another salvo is likely.”
Hezbollah denied responsibility for the attack, though it had earlier said it fired rockets at a nearby target. Israel said the rocket was Iranian-made and was used only by the terror group.
“According to the IDF’s reliable intelligence, the Hezbollah terror organization is behind this barrage,” the Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, posted on X. “The incident this evening was the most severe strike on innocent civilians.”
Israel’s Druze community lives largely in northern Israel and the Golan Heights, and Druze citizens of Israel serve in the military. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and later annexed it, but because that claim is still disputed, some Druze in the Golan have not obtained Israeli citizenship. Hagari wrote on X, “We embrace the families of those killed and wounded, and the whole Druze community, citizens of the state of Israel.”
Hezbollah began attacking northern Israel shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion devastated the country’s south and sparked the war in Gaza. Since then, dozens of Israeli and Lebanese civilians have been killed in the fighting on Israel’s northern border, in addition to 18 Israeli soldiers and hundreds of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and Syria.
Thus far, Israel and Hezbollah have stopped short of escalating to an all-out war, which they last fought in 2006. Hezbollah is thought to pose a greater threat to Israel than Hamas, with the ability to strike much of the country. In a June survey, Israelis were split over whether to end the conflict in the north through diplomacy or to enter a broader conflict against Hezbollah.
“Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them.”
He added, “There is no reason why we cannot do this.”
Erdogan has long had a rocky relationship with Israel, and over the past 10 months, he has condemned Israel over its war in Gaza, offered “firm” support for Hamas and said that God would curse Benjamin Netanyahu.
His threat to invade Israel referenced military assistance Turkey has provided to Azerbaijan in its recent campaign to conquer the Nagorno-Karabakh region from Armenia, which resulted in the ethnic cleansing of about 100,000 Armenians from the region. Israel also supported Azerbaijan through arms sales. Turkey has also sent troops to Libya to maintain order since the 2020 conclusion of the country’s civil war.
Israeli officials immediately condemned Erdogan’s comment. Foreign Minister Israel Katz tweeted a picture of Erdogan alongside a photo taken of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein after his 2003 capture by U.S. forces, writing, “Erdogan follows in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and threatens to attack Israel. He should remember what happened there and how it ended.”
The comment follows months of escalation from Erdogan over the Israel-Hamas war. The Islamist party leader has long spoken warmly about Hamas, occasionally hosting its leaders, and engaged in several high-profile diplomatic spats with Israel since coming to power more than 20 years ago. But this spring, in advance of elections in which Erdogan’s party sought to win back ground from its secular opposition, the president ramped up his shows of solidarity with the Palestinians, with whom Turks are broadly sympathetic.
The only NATO member so far to condemn Erdogan’s comments was the Netherlands, where the right-wing prime minister Geert Wilders, known for his campaign against the influence of Islam in Europe, tweeted that Turkey should be ejected from the alliance, something that has never happened before.
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An image of the soccer field in Majdal Shams following the attack that killed 12 children and teens. Credit: Daniel Hagari/X
Changing roles at the Jewish Federation of Omaha
ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT
Jewish Press Editor
Until recently, Sharon Comisar-Langdon was enjoying a variety of retirement assignments and projects.
“Then Jenn Tompkins called and asked if I would consider a new project (I always consider new projects) as Director of Community Engagement and Education,” Sharon said. “That one phone call led to an amazing two years with the JFO full of community, activity, and personal and professional growth that I will always value.”
In 2023, Naomi Fox joined the JFO:
“I started the position of Assistant Director of Community Engagement and Education in July of last year,” Naomi said. Prior to that, she was an English Language Learner teacher in Omaha Public Schools for 11 years, teaching in three schools in Omaha, grades K-12. During the past year, she wrote and taught a new curriculum during Intro to Judaism last fall and winter. Additionally, she restarted and changed a program which is now known as ‘Tzedek Teens.’
“Tzedek Teens empowers Omaha Jewish youth to give tzedakah through charitable giving,” Naomi said, “and provides hands-on volunteer opportunities. Our department also hosts ongoing programming, including the Jewish Author Event and the recent Tapestry, A Celebration of Jewish Learning, when Rabbi Joseph Telushkin was brought to Omaha to spend ten days teaching and participating in Jewish life in almost all of the agencies, synagogues, and Jewish programs we have in Omaha.”
For the past year, Heidi Heilbrun-Needleman worked parttime as the Omaha PJ Library Coordinator within the JFO Community Engagement and Education department.
“During this time, I have been managing PJ Library enrollment and planning community engagement events for families with children ages 0-9. My career has spanned close to 20
years as a newspaper photojournalist, yet becoming a mother has shifted my focus. I have become passionate about creating a thriving and accepting Jewish community for my son.”
All three women are changing their job descriptions simultaneously. Sharon will continue with the JFO for two days a week, under Jenn Tompkins.
“I’ll continue to help manage the va’ad under the guidance of Rabbi Dembitzer and Rabbi Geiger, and I’ll work with JFO colleagues to envision and develop volunteer work in our community. I can’t yet say how this will play out as it is still in the envisioning phase of development!” Sharon’s next title has not yet been determined, but we will think of something.
Taking over for Sharon as Director is Naomi:
“Starting Aug. 1,” she said, “I am thrilled to transition into the role of Director of Community Engagement and Education. Over the past thirteen months, I've had the absolute privilege of serving as Assistant Director under Sharon Comisar-Langdon. This experience has provided me with a deep understanding of our community's needs and the opportunities we can explore in the Federation while serving this
community. I am immensely grateful to Sharon for her exceptional leadership, vision, humor, and friendship during our time working closely together. As I step into this new role, I look forward to assuming Sharon's responsibilities, overseeing departmental operations, and ensuring our programs resonate with our community's interests and needs. I am eager to build upon the strong foundation we've laid and to seek out new avenues for growth and engagement.”
Heidi will in turn step into Naomi’s shoes, as she has accepted the role of Assistant Director of Engagement & Education.
“While this new position will expand on my community involvement, I will continue to lead PJ Library,” Heidi said. “I have loved building relationships through working at the JFO; this is such a wonderful community where I am finding creative ways to encourage connection and friendship.”
The community can look forward to more events that connect us to our Jewish identities. “I look forward to continuing all the great work that Naomi Fox has accomplished,” Heidi added, “including the Tzedek Teens program. As for PJ Library, the program will continue to provide familiar events such as Super Science Sunday, Youth Challah Bake and Family Day at the Zoo. In addition, our community has been awarded an engagement grant from PJ Library to launch Taste of Jewish Omaha. This new series will create child-parent friendly cooking classes that aim to foster connections with community organizations, introduce families to diverse Jewish cultures and cultivate friendships.”
Sharon most likely spoke for all three when she said: “My favorite thing about working at the JFO is being able to create programming and educational experiences for people to connect with each other.”
The Community Engagement and Education department has more ideas and opportunities for learning and engagement, so keep an eye out for more information!
SESSION Tuesday, August 6th 7:00-8:00 pm
Hosted at private residence. Location will be sent once RSVP is received.
Please RSVP to Jay Katelman at jkatelman@jewishomaha.org or 402-334-6461
Heidi Heilbrun-Needleman, left, Sharon Comisar-Langdon and Naomi Fox