August 17, 2018

thejewishpress AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA

this week

AU G U ST 1 7 , 2 0 1 8 | 6 EL U L 5 7 7 8 | V O L . 9 8 | NO . 4 3 | C a ND LELi g h ti Ng | FRID AY , AU G U ST 1 7 , 8 : 0 2 P. M.

Challah Bake with a twist: A Tribute to Jewish Women

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The Big Garden Page 5

Goodbye JCC Summer Camp Page 6

Israel and Hamas may be headed toward another war in Gaza Page 12

inside Viewpoint Synagogues Life cycles

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gaBBy BLaiR Katzman who is thrilled Staff Writer, Jewish Press with the excitement and interest in this special, habad and The one-night-only, event.

Jewish Federa“This year, we wanted to tion of Omaha add a new ‘twist’ and try are pleased to something a bit more upannounce the scale, to make the evening 3rd Annual Mega Challah extra special; we also Bake on Thursday, Sept. 6 needed a space that could from 6:15-8:30 p.m. at the accommodate even more Downtown Omaha Hilton women based on the (1001 Cass Street). Come growing number of particbe part of Jewish Omaha’s ipants.” Katzman goes on most fun, interactive and to say, “We thank The spiritually fulfilling ChalStaenberg Family Foundalah making party! tion for their generosity in This popular event awarding us an Anything which brings women and Grant to help defray costs girls of all ages together for this year’s event.” for an evening of learning Eva and Karen Cohen In line with this year’s and sisterhood has grown exponentially since its inception in the Omaha community theme, A Tribute to Jewish Women, the event will feature three Mitzvot that are the privilege of the Jewish woman. two years ago.

“Last year’s Challah Bake was wildly successful, doubling Chairing this year’s event together with Shani is Carrie the number of attendees from the first year,” explains Shani See Challah Bake page 2

Rabbi Levi Lauer lectures ADL-CRC wine tasting and silent auction

were important to me. His family beOzziE NOgg Rabbi Levi Lauer’s upcoming visit longed to the synagogue where my on Aug. 23 through Aug. 25 will father was the chazzan, and we attended Hebrew give our commuSchool and high nity the opportuschool together. nity to learn from In our junior year this pioneer eduof college, we cator and social went to Israel for a activist. On a peryear sponsored by sonal level, the the American weekend will give Friends of the HeRabbi Lauer the brew University.” opportunity to re“We traveled to connect with his Israel on a very childhood friend, small, very slow Dr. Sam Meisels, Zim Lines boat,” and with Deb DeSam continued. nenberg, a former “The first thing I student. did on board was “I’ve known introduce myself Levi all my life,” Rabbi Levi Lauer to two attractive Dr. Meisels said.

“As a kid in Cleveland ‘Larry’ and I young women whom I later introwere good friends and his parents duced to Levi. After that, he rarely left the side of the girl named Chaya.

She and Levi married right after college and I was their best man. A couple years later, he was the best man at my wedding – though not to the other girl on the boat. Needless to say, my wife Alice is happy with the outcome of this story.”

In 1976, Levi and Chaya Lauer set up housekeeping in Jerusalem. In the summer of 1978, Deb Denenberg See Rabbi Levi Lauer page 3

Pam mONSKy Community Development Liaison, ADL-CRC The Anti-Defamation League Plains States Region’s first community-wide fundraising event, ‘Be an Ally, Make a Difference, Raise a GLass’ to raise funds for our mission of fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of hate is on Sunday, aug. 19! The event features a winetasting experience and silent auction.

The event is open to our supporters and will be held at Gallery 1516, 1516 Leavenworth St., from 2–4 p.m. Tickets are $50 and include wine and light fare.

Honorary event co-chairs are Gary Nachman and Sheila Fitzgerald. Event

co-chairs are Toba Cohen-Dunning and Eric Dunning. The featured wines for the event are from Yarden, Inc., importer of quality Israeli wines from Golan Heights Winery and Galil Mountain Winery and Chiefton Distribution.

Event sponsors include Fraser Stryker Law Firm, Toba Cohen-Dunning and Eric Dunning, Broadmoor Development, W.H. Ferer Corporation and Kohll’s Pharmacy.

Silent auction packages include two club seat tickets to Elton John’s farewell tour, a night and dinner at Lied Lodge, Nebraska Football tickets, a stay at a Palm Desert, California resort condo and See aDL-CRC page 3

2 | The Jewish Press | August 17, 2018

Real Property Management Legacy

community

Challah Bake

Continued from page 1 Fingold, who urges the community’s women to help make this year’s event the most memorable yet. Shani shares, “Carrie is a class act whose warmth and creative vision will help take this year’s Challah Bake to a whole new level. I am delighted that Carrie has volunteered to chair this year’s event!”

Marlene Cohen, who has attended the past two Challah Bakes, wants the community to know that this event is not to be missed. “Shani always pulls off fun and inspirational events; she really cares and it shows.” Indeed, past participants have marveled at the special care and ambiance that go into every detail, from the table settings to the refreshments. Accommodating those who are sensitive to gluten with gluten-free flour, there will be glutenfree recipes and supplies. “We want every woman to have a meaningful experience, and we are not letting gluten get in the way of that! Gluten-free dough can be a bit of challenge to work with, so new this year, Gluten-free Challah bakers will receive a ‘Challah mold’ to yield a beautiful loaf,” explains Katzman.

Lynne Saltzman is also looking forward to this year’s event. “I am so pleased this has become such a highly anticipated event and I love that this event is multigenerational! How many

events do you see that pull this diverse a crowd, age-wise?” Saltzman goes on to say that she not only enjoys attending the event but volunteering for it. “I like

the event is $25, and students $18.

(After Aug. 23 $36 and $25 respectively) Reservations must be received before the event either by secure online pay-

to help out in any way I can!”

Check-in and complementary refreshments start at 6:15 p.m.; with the program beginning at 7 p.m. at the Downtown Omaha Hilton. Every participant will receive their very own Mega-Challah Bake Apron, recipes, ingredients and, of course, their own dough in pans to be baked at home.

Come, share in this evening of learning, levity and inspiration; discover the ancient art and meaning behind making and braiding of delicious challah!

An opportunity to help support this program is the Challah Queen Sponsorship with a donation of $250. Cover for

ment or by mailing a check to Chabad, 1866 South 120th Street, Omaha, NE 68144. Please note that payments cannot be accepted at the door. There will be no solicitation at the event.

There are fun opportunities, large and small, to volunteer for this event. Consider being a table hostess and fill a table of eight with friends and family. If you can help with pre-measuring ingredients, shopping, refreshment prep and event set up, don’t be shy. To volunteer or for more information, contact Carrie at 402.980.8908 or Shani at 402.330.1800.

To reserve your space visit www.O Chabad.com/challah.

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The Jewish Press | August 17, 2018 | 3

D

Backyard Concert Series finale

GABBy BLAiR Sarah/Rex guitar chemistry. The band has put together a powStaff Writer, Jewish Press erhouse blues showcase. Originally formed in 2002, The Rex on’t miss the final act; we may have saved the best Granite recorded their first CD Rollin’ and Tumblin in 2003.

Virginia Kathryn Gallner is a folk-and blues musician who for last! The Jewish Federation of Omaha’s Backgrew up in Council Bluffs and yard Concert Sereceived a 2018 nomination for ries presents the an Omaha Entertainment and last show of the Arts Award in the best blues season: the Rex Granite Band musician category. She plays featuring Sarah Benck with several cover songs along with opener Virginia Kathryn Gallher own originals, including ner on Sunday Aug. 26, 5-7 some from her recently rep.m. in the JCC Backyard leased album.

Pavilion. As always, concerts Please consider packing a litare free and the show will go on tle love and kindness as well, rain or shine! (Head indoors to for Jewish Family Services will the lovely JCC Theater in case be awaiting your donations of of inclement weather.) unexpired canned proteins, Plan to spend the evening lissuch as chicken, tuna and tening to Omaha’s best bluesy Rex Granite Band salmon. Personal care items roots rock music with family and friends. Pack your own nosh or purchase pizza and treats like toilet paper, soap, shampoo, lotion, toothbrushes and from this year’s onsite food trucks, Dante’s Pizza and Kona Ice. toothpaste are also appreciated.

The JFO Backyard Concert Series is made possible by our Originally formed in 2002 and Winners of the 2017 OEA “Best Blues” award, Omaha Nebraska’s Blues/Rock original, generous donors: Alan J. Levine; Omaha Steaks; Morgan The Rex Granite Band draws its fresh/retro sound from a va- Stanley; All Makes Office Equipment Co.; the Karen Sokolof riety of sources. Straight-up Rock and Roll, Blues, and Gospel Javitch Music Fund; the Fred and Eve Simon Charitable all play heavily in their gutsy roots rock style. Sarah Benck Foundation and the Special Donor Advised Fund at the Jewand Rex Granite are the primary songwriters in the band, but ish Federation of Omaha Foundation. For more information, the true appeal lies with the unique vocal of Sarah along with please visit www.jewishomaha.org.

Rabbi Levi Lauer

Continued from page 1 attended Brandeis Camp in the Santa Suzanna Mountains of California. “My mom had attended in 1947, and I went because my mom always wanted me to go. My camp directors were Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin, young then, but now famous Jewish educators. During those life-changing three weeks of Jewish Thursday, Aug. 23, learning and living, I decided 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. to chuck my plans to go back Sex Trafficking in Israel. Barto Stanford — I’d always loved bara Weitz Community Enthe idea of a junior year gagement Center on the UNO abroad — and bought a one- Campus, rooms 230/231. way ticket to Israel. I arrived in Friday, Aug. 24, Jerusalem, walked in the door 11:30 a.m. of the Pardes Institute, unanAnd Now There Are None: nounced, unregistered, unBroken Jewish Myths. Rose abashed, and met Levi Lauer, Blumkin Jewish Home. Attenthen the Institute’s Executive dees will be able to order Director.” lunch at the RBJH Deli.

“How to begin? Levi was the Executive Director of Pardes Friday, Aug. 24, for its first 18 years,” Deb said. 6 p.m.

“And a small school is greatly Uncertainty, the Foundation shaped by its leader. Pardes of Trust: Moses, George provided relevant, inspiring Steiner and Emmanuel LevJewish learning and taught in- inas, Part I during Kabbalat clusiveness, tolerance, and a Shabbat services at Beth El call to transform knowledge Synagogue. into day-to-day action. Under Saturday, Aug. 25, Levi’s leadership, Pardes grew 9:30 a.m. into a powerhouse of Jewish Uncertainty, The Foundation education, still growing today. of Trust: Moses, George I had the extraordinary Steiner and Emmanuel Levinas, honor of joining Levi and Part II. during Shabbat mornChaya for Seder that year, one ing services at Beth El Synaof my most memorable. I no- gogue. Luncheon will follow. ticed at holiday celebrations he would have a circle of students around him. With his inspiration, I now lead my own family’s seder. Of my finest role models, Levi sits at the heart — next to my Mom and Dad.” Rabbi Lauer’s concern for making social justice a priority of Jewish devotion led him to found ATZUM--Justice Works in 2002. The organization addresses glaring injustices and brings assistance to Israelis disadvantaged by inadequate access to public and private protection. In addition to 18 years as Executive Director of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, his professional background includes Hillel Director at the

Rabbi Levi Lauer lecture schedule:

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University of Missouri; Dean of the Brandeis-Bardin Camp Institute; and Director of Rabbinic Enrichment at the Shalom Hartman Institute. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Chaya, two daughters and four grandchildren. Lauer served 11 years in a reserve combat artillery unit of the IDF. “As long as I’ve known Levi he has been a fighter for social justice,” Dr. Meisels said. “His sophistication about the needs of those who have less than we and those placed at risk by a racist and inequitable society, were as clear to him in seventh grade as they are today. Coming from a socially conscious and politically active family, Levi never missed a rally, protest, or organizational meeting that would move forward the rights of all, as compared to the privileges of a few. I learned a lot from Levi and still do today. He is wonderful person, a Jewish soul, a courageous fighter for social justice. I am delighted that he will be sharing his wisdom and experience with us in August.”

Rabbi Lauer’s lecture at UNO is co-sponsored by UNO Spirituality, Public Health, and Religious Studies program and The Natan & Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel & Jewish Studies at UNO. Rabbi Lauer’s presentations at Beth El are sponsored by Deborah Denenberg, Dr. Sam Meisels, and the Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Family Fund. Reservations for Kiddush lunch appreciated: www.bethel-omaha.org.

ADL-CRC

Continued from page 1 an evening at the Chicago production of Hamilton.

Every day, the ADL-CRC works to help shape laws locally and nationally, and develop groundbreaking model legislation. We work with students to respect inclusion and to challenge bias and bullying. We train law enforcement officers about extremism, terrorism and hate crimes. We never give up trying to build a better world inspired by our democratic sense of unity. Our mission is increasingly critical.

We look forward to seeing everyone at Gallery 1516 on Aug. 19! For tickets and more information, please contact the ADL-CRC office at 402-334-6570.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was founded in 1913 “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.” Now the nation’s premier civil right/human relations agency, the ADL fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects civil rights for all Locally, the ADL-CRC office was established in 1950. In a unique relationship, the ADL also serves as the Community Relations Committee (CRC) and is the central resource for information on social issues and problems affecting the local Jewish community in Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas. The ADL-CRC attempts to foster conditions conducive to creative Jewish living in a free society.

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4 | The Jewish Press | August 17, 2018

Gender nonbinary activist Kate Bornstein seeks to shatter stereotypes

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curT scHleier JTA The Hayes Theater in New York, currently home to the Broadway show Straight White Men, has just opened its doors, and Kate Bornstein is already patrolling the orchestra seating area.

There’s an unusual cacophony of rap music and flashing lights in the theater during the preshow. As audience members filter in, Bornstein, a pioneering author, activist and performing artist who uses the personal pronouns “they� and “them,� reassures everyone that the music will end and the show will start soon. Bornstein, who is tall, 70 and looks far younger, even offers earplugs to those who want them.

When the play starts, Bornstein and Ty Defoe, a gender-fluid Native American artist, take the stage as Person in Charge 1 and Person in Charge 2, respectively. “I’m from the Oneida and Ojibwe nations,� Ty says. “My gender identity is Niizhi Manitouwug, which means transcending gender in the Ojibwe language.� “Me, I’m a Jew from the Jersey Shore,�

Bornstein responds. “And I’m what’s called nonbinary, which means not man, not woman in the English language.�

They welcome the audience, pointing out that viewers are now “well aware� of how upsetting it can be when people create environments that don’t take the needs of others into account.

It is a confusing and confrontational beginning to a play that has received largely positive reviews. (The New York Times named it a Critic’s Choice.)

Straight White Men is the story of three brothers (played by Armie Hammer, Josh Charles and Paul Schneider) who spend Christmas with their widowed father. The oldest, Matt, a graduate of Harvard and Stanford, has returned home to live with his dad and do boring temp work. His more successful siblings don’t understand why he doesn’t take advantage of all he’s been given, can’t believe he is happy and argue over whether he needs psychological help.

The additions of Ty and Kate -- they were not in the original versions of the play, which debuted off of Broadway in 2014 -- adds another level of complexity. They’re a kind of mini Greek chorus, supervising the stagehands, leading cast members into their places on stage and acting as consistent reminders that straight white men are not the only people to pay attention to. (The parts were specifically written for Bornstein and Defoe by playwright Young Jean Lee, who happens to be the first female Asian-American to have a play produced on Broadway.)

Bornstein, who was born male (they prefer not to give their male birth name) to a doctor father and first-grade teacher mother, is in fact a Jew from the New Jersey Shore, near Asbury Park.

Though the family was not particularly observant, Bornstein attended Hebrew school and had a bar mitzvah. The performer remembers an Uncle Julian who hosted seders for “all the Bornsteins.� “Maybe 40 or 50 of us,� Bornstein told JTA. “That was something to look forward to.�

Bornstein was floored when asked to audition for the show, which runs through Sept. 9 — but also confused at first because of the play’s title. “I thought, ‘I’ve been misgendered before, but this seems extreme,’� Bornstein recalled.

Today, transgender rights and gender nonbinary identification are part of mainstream social discourse. But Bornstein, author of the books Gender Outlaw and the memoir A Queer and Pleasant Danger, had become a prominent activist on the subject years beforehand, in the 1990s.

Bornstein quit the movement, leaving their family behind. They haven’t seen their daughter in person for 30 years. “I know where she is. I’ve seen pictures of her,� Bornstein said. “But she had drunk the Kool-Aid just as I had.�

In 1984, Bornstein’s father died, and that released them to start the process of gender reassignment. “My father was not an observant Jew, but he was very Jewish,� Bornstein said. “His favorite play was Fiddler, and you know that scene where Tevye rends his clothing [when daughter Chava marries the Christian man Fyedka], that’s what

Kate bornstein, left, with the cast of Straight White Men following a performance at the Hayes Theater in new York city, July 23, 2018. bornstein, left, stephen Payne, Josh charles, Paul schneider and armie Hammer.

Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images The story of how Bornstein reached this point is full of enough twists and turns to fill a long biopic. It all started in nursery school. “All of a sudden, there was a line for boys and a line for girls. I’d never questioned what I was, but the line for the girls looked like more fun,� Bornstein said. “The teacher came over to me and said that was the line for the girls, and I told her then I must be a girl.�

Like the main characters in the play, Bornstein understood that boys were expected to behave in a certain way. “I was a good actor. I saw what I was supposed to act like. I watched the other boys. How they moved. How they talked. There really was no other resource. It all felt like a lie,� Bornstein said. “That was the painful part, if you can imagine, every single day you’re lying all the time.�

In the ‘60s and ‘70s — as Bornstein puts it, the times when “everybody wanted to change the world� — they enrolled in graduate school and studied acting. But they eventually left school intending to drive across the country in search of meaning. Borsntein spent time with Amish and Bahai people before finding solace at a Church of Scientology site in Denver. Scientology cared about the mind, not the body, and that attracted Bornstein — who was still seen as male and struggling internally with identity issues.

Bornstein joined the church, married a female member, had a daughter and became a high-ranking officer on a Scientology cruise ship. But about a dozen years in, Bornstein claims to have discovered that the church’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, was embezzling funds.

(The church has long denied similar allegations of financial impropriety.) So

my father said he would do to me if I ever did something like that. It took my father’s passing. I didn’t have to be the perfect son anymore and I moved forward.�

The problem was that Bornstein felt uncomfortable as a woman, too. “I watched the way women walked and watched how they were expressing themselves. And after a year I realized I was doing the same thing being a woman that I had done being a man,�

Bornstein said. “I realized I’m not a woman either and that was a big breakthrough point for me.�

In the mid-1990s, while identifying as female, Bornstein started writing books about their story and on gender. They also staged performance pieces and did public speaking.

At the end of the day, Bornstein still identifies as Jewish. They attend Beit Simchat Torah, an LGBT-friendly synagogue in Manhattan, and occasionally volunteer at events there for transgender youth. “My personal spiritual path has taken me more to a Buddhist philosophy, so I have shifted in that way,� Bornstein said. “But I know that I’m first and foremost a Jew, and always will be a Jew.�

To submiT announcemenTs:

Announcements may be e-mailed to the Press at jpress@jewish omaha.org; or mailed to 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154. Readers can also submit announcements -- births, b’nai mitzvahs, engagements, marriages, commitment ceremonies or obituaries -- online at the Jewish Federation of Omaha website: www.jewish omaha.org. Click on “Jewish Press� and go to Submit Announcements. Deadlines are normally eight days prior to publication, on Thursdays, 9 a.m. Please check the Jewish Press, for notices of early deadlines.

The Big Garden

The Jewish Press | August 17, 2018 | 5

community

J

JBL Breakfast hosts Rachel Jacobson

Cassandra HiCks Weisenburger Director of Communications, Temple Israel The Temple israel social Justice Committee is focusing on ways to help relieve hunger in Omaha and, as part of that initiative, we are working with big garden, a nonprofit that has helped establish more than 150 community gardens in communities throughout the region. This is a great chance to learn more about community gardening and to get your hands dirty helping our neighbors. if you are interested in being a part of our social Justice Committee, please contact sarah gilbert, 402-575-7338.

Organizations

bnai b’riTH breadbreakers

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.

sOlOmOn marburg ewish Business Leaders of Omaha held its fourth Bagels & Business breakfast on Wednesday, July 25.

The series aims to bring Omaha’s Jewish business community together to network, share ideas and gain insight, thereby strengthening it. The featured speaker for this most recent B&B was Rachel Jacobsen, the Executive Director of Film Streams. For those unfamiliar, Film Streams is a local nonprofit art house cinema which is, according to its mission statement, “dedicated to enhancing the cultural environment of the Omaha-Council Bluffs area through the presentation and discussion of film as an art form.” To aid in this mission, Film Streams has undergone a major change recently. In addition to the Ruth Sokolof Theater downtown, Film Streams bought and renovated the Dundee Theater at the end of last year.

Having two locations, Jacobsen says, allows them to increase the variety of the films they feature. This is especially true with the Linder Microcinema, a 25 seat movie room created as part of the Dundee renovation. The Microcinema allows Film Streams to showcase pictures which, while important and of high merit, may have a narrow audience base.

Film Streams does more than just show movies, of course.

Rachel talked about collaboration with the Anti-Defamation league, the Jewish Federation, and many other non-profits around the Omaha metro whose missions align with that of

Film Streams. Often, this means hosting a screening of a particular film as the center point of an important dialogue within a given organization. Local schools will often include a trip to Film Streams as part of a course that may pertain to various social, philosophical, or political topics. Rachel reminded the assembled group that, for almost any topic of discussion, there is a movie out there which highlights the sides, brings out a new argument, or is in some other way highly relevant.

It seems that this message is echoing well with the Omaha community. Membership to Film Streams is currently at nearly 3,800 individuals, up from just over 2,000 at the beginning of 2017. They’re also reaching students, college and otherwise, thanks to a partnership with the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Student Night, the first Monday of every month, offers the chance for any full-time students to present their student ID for free admission to a selection of films. The importance of these student-oriented events was not lost on the assembled group. As Rachel pointed out, these students are the future of Omaha, including the Jewish community and the business community. The Omaha community, Rachel noted, is very unique. For this reason, while she and Film Streams have provided guidance to other similar nonprofit theaters in other areas, Film Streams has no plans of expanding to other cities. It is to remain a gem that the Omaha community - Jewish and otherwise - lays claim to.

the arts publishing date | 10.19.18 space reservation | 10.10.18

Contact our advertising executive to advertise in this very special edition.

Susan Bernard | 402.334.6559 | sbernard@jewishomaha.org

6 | The Jewish Press | August 17, 2018

community goodbye, JCC Camp — see you next year!

as most Omaha schools are back in session, it means JCC Summer Camp has unfortunately come to an end. during the last week, campers enjoyed a visit from a number of wild creatures and squeezed as much pool time in as possible.

JYE BI is throwing a back-to-school party

FaIgE JEIdEl Youth Director, Beth Israel Synagogue The excitement is so huge for the upcoming year for JYE BI, we’re throwing a party, and you are invited!

JYE BI has an “official” name of Jewish Youth Experience at Beth Israel but really means “Beth Israel’s epic youth learning program with kids who are fun, motivated, smart, and like to have a good time.” The inaugural year was a great success and this year will be even better.

Covering infants through high school, there are JYE BI classes on Shabbat morning, Sunday morning, and one evening a week.

NSCY events and activities are also part of the mix.

Shabbat classes meet weekly during morning services and teens meet immediately after kiddush. Teens also meet one evening a week. Sunday classes and Grades 1-6 meet at 10-11:30 a.m. Students deepen their Jewish knowledge and gain a stronger understanding and appreciation for Jewish history, culture, and halacha.

This year, the older group will be focusing on Shabbat. They will learn the answers to questions such as what is Shabbat, how do we celebrate Shabbat, what does it mean to celebrate Shabbat, and what are the practical laws that surround it? The younger group has a curriculum structured around the weekly Parsha and learning all the important brachot. The learning is done in an interactive, practical manner and, overall, is a blast.

So back to the party. “Just what is this party?” you may ask. The party is the JYE BI Kickoff on Sunday, aug. 26 from 3-4:30 p.m.

“What is happening during this party?” is your next question. Well, first, it’s going to the awesome, take our word for it. Still not convinced? Okay, here’s a little teaser. There will be snow cones and a bounce house and holiday crafts and a photo booth, and cupcake decorating plus a game that will be sure to keep you and your family entertained! Want to know more? You’ll just have to be there!

This event is open to the entire Jewish community, and we are expecting to see you there! While the event is free of charge, we really need you to register so we can be sure to have enough snow cone flavoring, craft supplies, and other fun stuff so no one is disappointed. Register online at orthodoxomaha.org. You can also email bethisrael@orthodoxomaha.org or call 402.556.6288. We are so excited and want to make sure that everyone joins in on the fun!

Contemporary and Ethnic Inspired Clothing, Exotic Jewelry and Gifts

1018 Howard St. 402-342-2972 www.souqltd.com Follow us on Facebook

The Jewish Press | August 17, 2018 | 7

R

Rocket attacks in Israel

EdGAR ASHER esidents of the northern Negev city of Sderot are demanding answers as to why the government is not doing more to reign in the terror bombing emanating from the Gaza Strip.

Sderot, situated a few kilometers due east of the northeast border of the Gaza Strip, has always been a target of Hamas terror rocket attacks in the past. The latest round of rockets emanating from Gaza A damaged car in Sderot following a terrorist rocket barrage a sent residents running for few hours before from the nearby Hamas controlled Gaza Strip.

Credit: ASHERNET bomb shelters as sirens screeched out over the city.

An estimated two hundred rockets were fired into Israel from terror groups in Gaza.

Iron Dome technology destroyed almost all the missiles that might have landed in builtup areas in the northern Negev, Beersheba or Ashkelon. This latest round of terror rockets prompted a massive wave of airstrikes on strategic targets in Gaza by the Israel Air Force. In one attack an important Hamas headquarters building near The Zilebiger and Grossman families arriving today in Sderot to Gaza City was totally de- distribute cakes and candies to residents of Sderot to show solistroyed. However, some rock- darity with the beleaguered residents of the Negev town.

Credit: ASHERNET ets, or fragments of rockets, managed to get through the Iron Dome net and caused damage to property and vehicles in Sderot. There were also reports of rocket damage to buildings in Beersheva.

Many Israelis living in parts of the country not affected by the rocket fire went to Sderot today to express their solidarity. Two families from Petach Tikvah, in central Israel, Zilebiger and Grossman, collected cakes from friends in the vicinity and took them down Cakes, complete with Shabbat greetings, that were collected to distribute to families in and distributed by the Zilebiger and Grossman families.

Credit: ASHERNET Sderot. Each tray of cakes had a special Shabbat greeting which told the recipients in Sderot that they were not forgotten.

Autism Study: Updated

* The Omaha-based non-profit Therapeutics Research Institute (TRI) is in its 3rd year of its Reversing Autism Study with results matching or exceeding the original Harvard/Hopkins-related clinical trial results.

* On average, 90% of participants are responding to the over-the-counter food supplement and are reversing about 75% of their autism behaviors.

The government has funded five other trials nationwide. * TRI’s privately funded Study expands to 200 families August 6th.

* It is the only available Study in Nebraska. There are no fees and no placebos. Email steven.evans@ControlAutismNow.org for a Report.

Winner of five Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Omaha Community Playhouse presents Fun Home Fun Home—winner of five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—comes to the Omaha Community Playhouse stage Aug. 17-Sept. 16.

Based on the graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel, Fun Home is a story of self-discovery and navigating challenging family dynamics. When Alison’s father dies unexpectedly, she explores her past to tell the story of their tumultuous relationship. The brilliant storytelling moves between the past and the present, while Alison relives her unique childhood playing in her family’s funeral home and her discovery of her own sexuality.

Fun Home is a refreshingly honest and moving story that takes us on a cathartic journey of seeing our parents through grown-up eyes.

“It really does go over our expectations we sometimes have of our parents, and how they can’t be superheroes,” said actress, Angie Heim. Heim’s character, Alison, leads the audience on an emo-

tional journey told through the exchange of memories and present-day introspection. “She goes through looking at these memories fondly, but also looking at the painful memories as well—and you get to see that through her experience on stage.”

The production is directed by Roxanne Wach, a theatre veteran who has been directing on Omaha stages for nearly fifty years. Wach says audiences will find personal connections to the universal themes and experiences in the show. “The story is not just Alison’s journey – it’s a quest we’re all on.”

Fun Home opens at the Omaha Community Playhouse on Aug. 17 and runs through Sept.16. Due to high demand, Wednesday shows have been added to this production. Tickets are available at TicketOmaha.com or through the Omaha Community Playhouse box office by calling 402.553.0800 or visiting 6915 Cass Street, Omaha, NE 68132. For more information, please visit www.omahaplayhouse.com.

Aug. 17&–& Sept. 16, 2018 Tickets on sale now!

Music by Jeanine Tesori | Book and Lyrics by Lisa Kron | Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel

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Oppression Olympics?

ANNETTE vAN DE KAMP Editor, Jewish Press hat do you do, when you are a white supremacist and you want to commemorate a violent rally you held a year ago that stunned the nation? You attempt to hold another rally in the exact same place. Fortunately, the city of Charlottesville, Virginia did its best to block it (lawsuits based on last year’s events are still going on) and organizer Jason Kessler was forced to withdraw his request for a permit.

Instead, the rally moved to Washington D.C. where an unprecedented two dozen members showed up.

“Logistical issues,” Kessler claimed as the reason for the low turnout. Sure. To make matters worse, counter protesters, who did turn out in large numbers, drowned the speakers out (40 different anti-racism groups organized counter protests all over the city). When, on top of that, it began to thunder and rain in the nation’s capitol, the Nazis went home early. But, Jason Kessler had one more dig in him: he blamed the death of one counter protester at last year’s rally on the police, because “they didn’t adequately protect those at the rally.”

Seeing numerous people protest those who believe in and promote white supremacy is encouraging, but it won’t really save this country. Sure, it’s necessary to show up and wave those signs, even if it were only because there’s value in coming together with strangers who feel strongly about fighting racism. Yet, at the same time, the ugliness isn’t disappearing.

Symone Sanders, former press secretary to Bernie Sanders, said recently that racism equals “prejudice plus power,” implying “only those in positions of power can be racist.”

By that definition, a Politician can be racist, a CEO can

be racist, but if you are a regular citizen, working a regular tism, misogyny, you name it. Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive job, making a regular salary, racism is not your thing. Writer director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and political commentator Melissa Harris-Perry said this: calls it ‘Oppression Olympics.’

“The thing I’m always worried about in the world is And while we argue, the Nazis march. They march and power, and how power is wielded in ways that cause inscream and hold their pitiful little rallies, because they equity. If you can show me [Louis] Farrakhan has taken his don’t overthink things. They simply hate everybody who position and used his position to create inequity and inequality for Jewish people, then I will denounce that tomorrow. (…) Because Louis Farrakhan is empowered to do what? He runs an organization that controls what resources? And creates what policy? And owns property where?”

(Source: JTA) There are so many problems with that way of thinking; I am not sure Rabbi Bruce Lustig of Washington Hebrew Congregation is surrounded by clergy where to start. of multiple faiths as he helps launch a weekend of counterprotests against white Don’t get me wrong; I can see the temptation to supremacist marchers in Washington, D.C., Aug. 10, 2018. Credit: Ron Kampeas take the sting out of Jason Kessler and his swastika-totisn’t ‘them.’ Why then do we attempt to categorize those ing friends. They are indeed powerless; most of them are on the receiving end of discrimination? Of course, someunemployed, often overly familiar with the inside of a one who is killed for the color of his or her skin has it prison cell. But just as with Harris-Perry’s example of worse than someone who is called an ugly slur. The level Louis Farrakhan, who is absolutely an anti-Semite, there is of discrimination, what it means for the victims, that we more to power than owning property and making policy. can categorize. Some wounds go deeper. But as people, There is the court of public opinion. There are the dangers we are all valuable; we all deserve respect and equality. of hate speech, the problems of infighting (while we agree So let’s not go down that road where we are busier decidthat racism is bad, we can’t agree on what constitutes ing who has it worse. Let’s, instead, keep the focus where racism, exactly) and the inability to decide which is it belongs: on trying to rid this world of bigotry. And that worse: racism against anyone who isn’t white, anti-Semimeans ALL bigotry.

The non-misogynist, non-hypocritical case for Jewish continuity. With music.

ANDREW SiLOW-CARROLL JTA This is Leonard Bernstein’s centennial summer, and the Tanglewood Music Center in the Berkshires is staging a series of outdoor performances to celebrate its favorite son. I’m not saying that everyone who goes to Tanglewood is Jewish, although I always think a typical evening there is what the High Holidays would look like if the Israelites had enjoyed picnics and white wine.

Last month I had lawn tickets when the Boston Symphony performed Bernstein’s score of West Side Story live while the film was shown on large screens.

The effect was sort of magical and almost distracted me from my usual activity, which is basically contemplating the fate of the Jewish people. I say almost because there’s an unmistakable gap between the message of the musical about forbidden love and the normative -- or should I say, once normative -- Jewish preference for Jews marrying other Jews. I’ve joked before that American Jews are the only group that roots against Romeo and Juliet getting together.

This was just a few days after The New York Jewish Week reported on sexual misconduct allegations against the influential Jewish sociologist Steven M. Cohen. Cohen’s persistent question has been how many Jews are doing Jewish. He studied the impact of interfaith marriage on Jewish continuity and vitality, and became associated with a camp of social scientists who believe that intermarriage, late marriage and lifelong singlehood hold “disturbing consequences for Jewish community.”

A generation of Jewish communal professionals was galvanized by studies showing the ways that Jewish connections and behavior diminish among the children and grandchildren of intermarriage.

Cohen has already stepped down from some of his key roles and been removed from some others.

Longtime critics of his research and advocacy are already stepping into the breach: The Forward published two op-eds decrying Cohen’s emphasis on fertility and statistics; three female scholars accused him and the Jewish communal establishment of making “patriarchal, misogynistic, and anachronist assumptions about what is good for the Jews.”

Cohen and his colleagues in Jewish sociology have made mistakes. As Jane Eisner at the Forward pointed out, Cohen had license, perhaps unusual for a social scientist, to be an advocate for specific policies. In championing traditional modes of Jewish engagement -- synagogue attendance, attachment to Israel, a sense of peoplehood -- he and his

Leonard Bernstein conducting a performance at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Mass.

Credit: BSO Press Office colleagues could appear dismissive of new ways that Jews were experiencing their Jewishness.

Sometimes they shifted blame, intentionally or not, onto women and the choices they make about career, marriage and childbearing.

That’s the feminist critique of the communal obsession with “continuity.” More familiar is the cultural critique, which you are less likely to find in academic journals than in the Wedding section of The New York Times. Jewish kids marry kids of other faiths because Americans marry Americans.

The idea that you should “stick to your own kind,” as Anita spits at Maria, goes against a liberal grain that embraces multiculturalism, diversity and tolerance. Tribalism is the enemy.

That was Michael Chabon’s point in a speech he gave this year at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. The novelist called Jewish-Jewish marriage a “ghetto of two,” which he further likened to “a gated community, a restricted country club” and the heavily guarded Jewish enclave of Hebron.

“I am for mongrels and hybrids and creoles, for syncretism and confluence, for jazz and Afrobeat

and Thai surf music, for integrated neighborhoods and open borders and the preposterous history of Barack Obama,” Chabon whitmanized in defense of intermarriage. “I am for the hodgepodge cuisines of seaports and crossroads, for sampling and mashups, pastiche and collage.”

But where I usually agreed with Cohen and his school of sociology was when, responding to declining Jewish numbers and engagement, they would champion Jewish literacy and distinctiveness. The goal was not to shame people into sticking with the tribe but to identify and promote what it is about Jewish life that is worth preserving in the first place: a textual inheritance; a particular moral and ethical language; a series of distinct and meaningful rituals; a living awareness of a Jewish past, in all its glories and horrors; a profound sense of connection with people who share that story.

That’s not tribalism; that’s not Bubbe saying she’ll sit shiva if you marry out. That’s a deep kind of cultural engagement that even Chabon should appreciate. And if the Jewish world created too few places that promote that affirmative vision of Jewish continuity, that’s not the researchers’ fault.

But those who are committed to this kind of Jewish continuity face a dilemma. It is what Ross Douthat, writing in The New York Times, calls “liberalism without/conservatism within.” Liberal Jews are prone to embrace a world with fewer borders, more diversity, the whole Maria-and-Tony thing. At the same time, the Jewish community maintains “a certain conservatism about its own patterns of marrying and begetting and cultural transmission (and, in the case of Israel, the safety of its lonely nation-state).”

Does that make many of us hypocrites? I suppose. But it is hypocrisy with a purpose. Yes, West Side Story is itself collage: of classical music and jazz, ballet and modern dance, Shakespeare and New York slang. It was originally conceived in fact as a clash not between “Americans” and “Puerto Ricans,” but Jews and Catholics. It’s creators -- four gay Jewish men -- were at least doubly outsiders.

But like a lot of American hybrids, it wouldn’t have come about at all without something distinctive See The non-misogynist page 9

The Jewish Press | August 17, 2018 | 9

British Jewry and Labour ask who gets to define anti-Semitism Dov WAxmAn BOSTON | JTA I am a British Jew, though I have spent my adult life in the United States. I’ve found it more comfortable to be a Jew here, but I have always bridled at the notion that Britain is, or is becoming, an inhospitable environment for Jews, whether due to anti-Semitism on the left there or among its large Muslim population.

So I was shocked when I saw the front pages of Britain’s three leading Jewish newspapers all declaring “United We Stand” and featuring identical editorials warning that if the Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, took power, it would pose “an existential threat to Jewish life in this country.”

What could have prompted such a unanimous and unprecedented expression of concern? Has the Labour Party joined the ranks of some other European political parties on the far left and far right in trafficking in anti-Semitic stereotypes? Has it proposed a ban on male circumcision or the ritual slaughter of animals? Has it denied or downplayed the Holocaust? Or has it called for a boycott of Israel or sanctions against it?

In fact, Britain’s Labour Party has done none of those things. What it has done, specifically its governing body, is promulgate a new code of conduct for its members concerning anti-Semitism. If Labour politicians or activists violate this code of conduct — if they, for instance, say something that the code defines as anti-Semitic — then they could be expelled from the party. Surely this is commendable, not deplorable.

Over the past two years, while the ruling Conservative Party has been feuding over Brexit, Labour has faced accusations of anti-Semitism. Corbyn himself has been fiercely criticized for minimizing the extent of antiSemitism within the party and failing to root it out. Some of his left-wing supporters have responded by angrily accusing the Jewish community of using charges of anti-Semitism to silence criticism of Israel and undermine Corbyn’s leadership.

This has poisoned the once close relationship between Labour and British Jewry, and led many Jewish voters to abandon the party. To stop this damaging erosion of Jewish support and repair the party’s sullied image, Labour’s leadership is now belatedly — and some would say halfheartedly — tackling the issue of anti-Semitism among its members, particularly those on its left wing, who are most opposed to Israel. To do so, it needs a clear code of conduct regarding anti-Semitism.

The current controversy, however, centers on how Labour’s code of conduct defines anti-Semitism. The definition is based on the “working definition of anti-Semitism” that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA, proposed in 2016, and which has since been widely adopted by many governments, including Britain’s. But Labour’s definition omitted some of the examples that the IHRA added to illustrate what could, under certain circumstances, be anti-Semitic — all of which were ways in which discussing or criticizing Israel could be construed as anti-Semitism.

The scathing editorial in Britain’s Jewish newspapers described this “stubborn refusal” to adopt the full IHRA definition as “sinister.” It warned Labour that unless it completely adopted the IHRA definition, it would “be seen by all decent people as an institutionally racist and anti-Semitic party.”

This harsh accusation exacerbates a growing sense of insecurity among British Jews, which leads many to fear that the British Jewish community is much less secure than it actually is.

The outrage over Labour’s definition of anti-Semitism is not about what it says but what it leaves out. Labour’s definition allows for the possibility that it is not anti-Semitic to direct more attention and criticism to Israel’s alleged crimes and misdeeds than toward other democracies (i.e., to have a “double-standard”). Nor would it necessarily be anti-Semitic to claim that Israel is a “racist endeavor,” or to compare its policies How is this publication thinking about the future?

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and actions to those of Nazi Germany.

In other words, anti-Zionism, or excessive, extreme or exaggerated criticism of Israel’s behavior, is permissible under Labour’s code of conduct. According to the party, it does not want its code to be “used to deny Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel and their supporters, their rights and freedoms to describe the discrimination and injustices they face in the language they deem appropriate.”

Campaigners from the Campaign Against Antisemitism demonstrate outside the Labour Party headquarters in London, April 8, 2018.

Credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The Labour Party’s caution in devising its code of conduct is understandable. Although it has been rightly criticized for failing to consult with the British Jewish community and listen to its concerns, Labour has an obligation to safeguard its members’ freedom of speech, even if that means permitting statements and views vis-a-vis Israel that many, if not most, British Jews abhor.

The fact that many Jews are justifiably offended by false analogies between Israel and Nazi Germany does not automatically make such analogies anti-Semitic. Calling Gaza a giant concentration camp, for example, is stupid and offensive, but that does not mean that the Labour Party should ban comments such as these and punish people who make them. To do so would surely violate freedom of speech.

Some might argue that if a statement or belief is highly offensive to Jews and they think it’s anti-Semitic, then, ipso facto, it is. That’s what the British Jewish communal establishment declared in its condemnation of Labour’s definition of anti-Semitism: “It is for Jews to determine for themselves what anti-Semitism is.”

While the feelings and sensitivities of Jews should be considered, they are not sufficient. Jews themselves disagree about whether something is anti-Semitic, especially when it concerns Israel and Zionism. Who, then, speaks for Jews? Their communal leadership might be unrepresentative and out of touch with the feelings of many Jews, particularly younger ones. In the case of British Jewry, there are certainly many on the left who are highly critical of Israel and would not be offended if it was characterized as a “racist endeavor” (especially since the passage of Israel’s new nation-state law).

But even if all Jews, or at least the majority, experienced any expression of, say, anti-Zionism as hostile, this should not automatically render anti-Zionism as anti-Semitic. Zionism is an ideology and hence is subject to critique like any political ideology. Opposing a Jewish state is not the same as hating the Jewish people.

To be sure, anti-Semitism can sometimes masquerade itself as antiZionism, and condemnation of Israel can occasionally cross the line into anti-Semitism. But not always. It can be difficult to decide when discourse about Israel and Zionism becomes anti-Semitic, and reasonable

people with the best of intentions might disagree.

This is largely the reason why defining anti-Semitism has become so complicated and so contentious. For example, the IHRA definition, and its accompanying examples, has been widely criticized, including by Jewish studies scholars who have warned that it could stifle legitimate criticism of Israel. The definition is not perfect or incontrovertible. In some important respects, Labour’s adoption and elaboration of the IHRA definition is actually an improvement (most notably, it adds a reference to discrimination against Jews).

For the past two years, the U.S. Congress has been debating the AntiSemitism Awareness Act, which seeks to codify the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism, based on the IHRA’s, into law. The bill, backed by major Jewish and pro-Israel organizations like the AntiDefamation League and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was passed by the Senate, but stalled in the House of Representatives after an outpouring of criticism, including from the ACLU, which argued that it violated the First Amendment.

The difficulty with defining anti-Semitism today does not mean that we should stop trying. To combat anti-Semitism, we have to agree on what constitutes it. But perhaps this has simply become impossible in our increasingly politically polarized times.

Dov Waxman is professor of Political Science, International Affairs and Israel Studies, and the Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies, at Northeastern University. Waxman is also the co-director of the university’s Middle East Center. He is the author of three books: The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defending/Defining the nation [Palgrave, 2006]; Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within [with Ilan Peleg, Cambridge University Press, 2011]; and Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel [Princeton University Press, 2016].

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 non-misogynist

Continued from page 8 in the upbringings of its creators.

Chabon wants “syncretism” without explaining where the distinctiveness of the ingredients comes from in the first place. There’s no Afrobeat without the West African musical traditions out of which it grew. Collages would be pretty bland unless the elements were distinct in one way or the other.

I’d flip it around on Chabon. If there was a small, distinct indigenous culture and its millennia-old folkways were about to be swept away by a tide of colonialism or cultural appropriation, would he celebrate that as “syncretism and confluence”? His call for an open-source Judaism suggests that tradition has run its course, and deserves to be subsumed by the mainstream. There are many, many Jews, however, including Jewish liberals, who see themselves as that besieged indigenous culture. And they are willing to fight to preserve it -- not as a museum piece but a living, breathing, ever-growing thing.

Andrew Silow Carroll is editor in chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

10 | The Jewish Press | August 17, 2018

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

Following a short summer haitus, we will meet again in September: Young Jewish Omaha Shabbat Event, friday, sept. 7, 7:30 p.m. For information conctact Nate Shapiro at nshap iro@jewishomaha@org.

Erev Rosh Hashanah, sunday, sept. 9, 7:30 p.m.

Rosh Hashanah, monday, sept. 10, 10:30 a.m.

Kol Nidre, tuesday, sept. 18, 7:30 p.m.

Yom Kippur, wednesday, sept. 19, 10:30 a.m. and Concluding service and Break-the-fast, 5:30 p.m.

Our High Holiday services are led by guest Cantorial soloist Jeff Taxman.

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

Beth el synagogue

Services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman. friday: Welcome Back BBQ and Six-String Shabbat, 5:30 p.m. saturday: Shabbat Morning Services, 9:30 a.m.; Shabbat Mincha following Morning Services; USY Havdalah Slow-Ach and S’mores, 8 p.m. at the Krausman Home. weekday serViCes: Sundays, 9:30 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.; weekdays, 7 a.m. & 5:30 p.m. sunday: Morning Minyan, 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10 a.m.; USY/Kadima Kickoff, noon; Evening Minyan, 5:30 p.m. tuesday: High Holidays are Coming and I’m not Ready, 11:30 a.m. with Rabbi Abraham. wednesday: High Holidays are Coming and I’m not Ready, 6 p.m. with Rabbi Abraham. thursday: Rabbi Levi Lauer, Scholar-in-Residence: Sex Trafficking in Israel, 6:30 p.m. at UNO Community Engagement Center.

Rabbi Levi Lauer, Scholar-in-Residence, friday, aug. 24sunday, aug. 26. (See full story on page 1.)

NE AIDS Coaltion Lunch, friday, aug. 24, 11:30 a.m.– 1 p.m. Joan Marcus serves lunch once a month at the NE AIDS Project, and she needs baked goods for dessert. Contact Joan if you can help by donating baked goods.

Meet the BESTT Teachers, sunday, aug. 26, 9:30-11 a.m. Please RSVP to Eadie at etsabari@bethel-omaha. org if you are coming to breakfast.

Beth israel synagogue

Services conducted by Rabbi Ari Dembitzer. friday: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.; Candle Lighting, 8:03 p.m. saturday: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; July/August Simcha Kiddush, 11:30 a.m.; Insights into the Weekly Torah Portion, 7 p.m.; Mincha/Seudah Shlishit, 7:45 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:04 p.m. sunday: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Bagels and Beit Medrash, 10 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 6:40 p.m. at Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. monday: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Jewish History — Your History, noon with Rabbi Shlomo; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 6:40 p.m. at Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. tuesday: Shacharit, 7 a.m. wednesday: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Board of Commissioners Meeting, 6:30 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 6:40 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, 6:40 p.m.

ChaBad house

at Rose Blumkin Jewish Home.

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. monday: Personal Parsha class, 9:30 a.m. with Shani. wednesday: Mystical Thinking, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Katzman. thursday: Talmud Class, noon with Rabbi Katzman.

All programs are open to the entire community.

Congregation B’nai Jeshurun

Services conducted by Rabbi Teri Appleby. friday: Erev Family Shabbat Service, 6:30 p.m. featuring music by Elaine Monnier and Mark Miller; Oneg, 7:30 p.m. hosted by Roberta Kirkendall, Laurie Tavlin and Natalie Tavlin; Candlelighting, 8:03 p.m. saturday: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study on Parashat Shoftim, 10:45 a.m.; Potluck Dinner and Game Night, 6 p.m.; Havdalah (72 minutes), 9:01 p.m. sunday: Adult Hebrew Class 2, 11:30 a.m.;Feed the kids at the F Street Rec Center, 2:30 p.m.; Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Training, 4 p.m. at Tifereth Israel. Chris Hansen’s presentation is geared for parents, grandparents, teachers, and Jewish communal workers who work with youth of all ages.; Come learn and play Pickleball, 7-9 p.m.

All equipment furnished. Wear comfortable clothing. For questions, call or text Miriam Wallick at miriam57@aol.com. tuesday: Ladies Lunch Group, noon at Screamers Dinning and Cabaret, 803 Q. Street. Let Deborah Swearingen know if you plan to attend and if you need at ride at 402.475.7528; LJCS Teacher Orientation, Part I, 6 p.m. at Tifereth Israel. thursday: High Holidays Choir Rehearsal, 7 p.m.

Intro to Judaism, tuesday, aug. 28, 7 p.m. led by Rabbi Appleby. The cost is $25 for non-members and $10 for Temple members.

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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 Renee Kazor and Jack Cohen.

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

temple israel

friday: TiYPE Shabbat in the Home, 6 p.m. Come for services and afterwards please join our Director of Congregational Engagement at her home for Shabbat dinner. TiYPE is open to anyone ranging between 21-35. Please RSVP to Jamie Skog-Burke, jskog-burke@templeisraelomaha. com; Shabbat Service, 6 p.m. saturday: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m.; Shabbat Service, 10:30 a.m. B’nai Mitzvah of marissa and Vanessa Cooper, daughters of Joan and Justin Cooper. sunday: Beginning Prayer-Book Hebrew for Adults, 9 a.m. with Elyce Azriel. Would like to learn Hebrew or strengthen your Hebrew knowledge? Do you ever find it challenging to follow along with services or wish you knew the meaning of the words? This class is for beginners and people with basic Hebrew-reading ability. Registration is $200 for 20 sessions. To register, please contact Temple Israel, rsVp@ templeisraelomaha.com or 402.556.6536.; Kol Chokolad Kids Choir, 9:30 a.m.; Book Club: Snow in August by Pete

Hamill, 10:30 a.m.; Temple Tots Sunday, 10:30 a.m. tuesday: Board of Trustees Meeting, 7 p.m. wednesday: Religious School for Grades 3-6, 4 p.m.; School Dinner, 6 p.m.; Grades 7-12, 6:30 p.m. thursday: The History of the Jewish People: Patriarches and Matriarchs, 10 a.m. with Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin.

OTYG Board Retreat, friday, aug. 24, 3 p.m.-saturday, aug. 25, 5 p.m. Our new OTYG board will be spending the weekend gaining valuable skills and setting goals for the year. Expect great and exciting programs and events throughout this next year from them!

Temple TED Talk, sunday, aug. 26, 10:30 a.m.

Holy Smokes, tuesday, aug. 28, 7 p.m. Cigars. Beer.

Whiskey. Rabbi Stoller will be leading this men-only evening featuring philosophical discussions of men’s issues and perspectives from Jewish texts. This event is free, though reservations are required. RSVP to Temple Israel, 402.556.6536, by friday, aug. 24.

Preparing our Hearts for the High Holidays, wednesday, aug. 29 taught by Rabbi Brian Stoller. As we prepare to enter the High Holy Day season, Rabbi Stoller will guide us in exploring the themes of forgiveness, atonement, and renewal, and help us ready our hearts and minds to come before God in t’shuvah.

tifereth israel

Services conducted by lay leader Nancy Coren. Office hours: monday-friday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. friday: No Services; Candlelighting, 8:03 p.m. saturday: Shabbat Morning service, 10 a.m followed by a Kiddush luncheon; Havdalah (72 minutes), 9:01 p.m. sunday: Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Training, 4 p.m. at Tifereth Israel. Chris Hansen’s presentation is geared for parents, grandparents, teachers, and Jewish communal workers who work with youth of all ages.; Come learn and play Pickleball, 7-9 p.m. All equipment furnished. Wear comfortable clothing. For questions, call or text Miriam Wallick at miriam57@aol.com. tuesday: Ladies Lunch Group, noon at Screamers Dinning and Cabaret, 803 Q. Street. Let Deborah Swearingen know if you plan to attend and if you need at ride at 402.475.7528; LJCS Teacher Orientation, Part I, 6 p.m. at Tifereth Israel.

It's Back to School time! The first day of school for LJCS is sunday, aug. 26. Grades: Gan-7 meet at 9:30 a.m. and Gesher meets at 10 a.m. All classes meet atTifereth Israel.

Lincoln Jewish Community, we need your help -- If you are interested in volunteering as a substitute in one of our LJCS classrooms, please contact Andrea at ahalpern1386@ gmail.com.

Volunteer Opportunities: One or two parent volunteers needed for being parent in charge of PJLibrary synagogue /temple joint gathering on sunday, sept. 2 at 10 a.m. at Hills Orchard for apple picking and three volunteers needed for Pizza in the Hut joint synagogue/temple gathering on wednesday, sept. 26 at 6 p.m. If you are able and interested in helping with any of these activities please let Nancy Coren know as soon as possible. Thank you.

gaza flotilla turns back after warning shots

JERUSALEM | JTA A flotilla of 40 boats from Gaza was turned back by the Israeli Navy as it attempted to breach the Israeli blockade of the Hamas-run coastal territory.

Israeli forces fired warning shots in the direction of the small fleet of Palestinian boats trying to sail into Israeli waters on Aug. 11. e flotilla was part of the larger March of Return campaign linked to more than a month of violent riots on the Gaza border earlier this summer. More than 100 Palestinians, mostly members of Hamas, were killed over six weeks of clashes with Israeli forces. “e flotilla represents a message to the Palestinian factions involved in the peace agreement negotiations — we will not agree to any solution that will not lead to the liing of Gaza blockade,” the organizers of the flotilla said in a statement reported by the Israeli news website Ynet.

Late last month the Israeli Navy intercepted a ship attempting to breach its blockade of Gaza. e motor vessel, named Al Awda, or e Return,

was contacted by Israel’s Navy about 49 nautical miles from the port at Gaza City in international waters and warned to stop or prepare to be boarded, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said on its website.

Al Awda was sailing under a Norwegian flag, carrying 22 people and a cargo of medical supplies, according to the website. ere were people from 16 nations on board, including human rights supporters, journalists and crew, along with about $15,000 worth of medical supplies. e boat, a former fishing vessel from Norway, was a gi to Palestinian fishers in Gaza, according to the website.

Tensions between Hamas and Israel have risen significantly in recent days, with the Islamic terrorist group firing hundreds of missiles into Israeli territory and the Israelis carrying out retaliatory strikes against Hamas outposts and fighters.

Despite a tense cease-fire, clashes on the border have continued, with three Palestinians killed on Aug. 10.

The Jewish Press | August 17, 2018 | 11

lifecycles Births

chen moss

Gal and Josh Moss of Jerusalem, Israel, announce the July 16 birth of their daughter, Chen Moss.

She is named for her maternal grandmother, Helen Fishel.

She has a sister, Avri.

Grandparents are Ellie and Joel Moss of Jerusalem, Israel and Montreal, Canada and Eadie and Eitan Tsabari of Omaha.

Great-grandmothers are Ruth Sheiner of Montreal, Canada and Mazal Tsabari of Jerusalem, Israel.

skylar drew solls

Marissa and Rob Solls of Dallas, TX announce the June 26 birth of their daughter, Skylar Drew.

She is named for her maternal great-grandfather, Nathan Naftali Wald and for her paternal great aunt, Diane Hofner.

Grandparents are Harriet and Ron Epstein of Omaha and Nancy and Mark Solls of Dallas, TX.

in memoriam

rosalie saylan

Rosalie Saylan pased away. Services were held Aug. 12 at Temple Israel Cemetery.

She was preceded in death by husband Milton Saylan, son Craig Saylan, sisters and brothers-in-law, Dorothy and Marty Shiff, Sara and Al Harding, and Minnie and Marty Shiff, and sister, Helen Tuchman.

She is survived by son and daughter-in-law, Steve and Jacki Saylan, daughter and son-in-law, Dorothy and Robert Shapiro, daughter-in-law, Ellen Saylan; six grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and nieces and nephews.

Memorials may be made to the organization of your choice.

Israeli LGBT community marches in Tel Aviv

TEL AVIV | JTA Some 2,000 young people marched in Tel Aviv to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the deadly shooting at the city’s Barnoar gay youth center and demand an end to discrimination against the LGBT community. e 2009 attack was carried out by a lone gunman who killed two young people and wounded dozens more. e shooter was never caught.

Many in the LGBT community consider the shooting a hate crime, while police have speculated that it was motivated by a personal dispute rather than antipathy toward gays. e organizers of the march issued a statement bemoaning the lack of progress on LGBT rights made since the shooting.

“Nine years ago an armed man entered the Barnoar center and murdered boys and girls only because they were different,” the statement said. “Nine years have passed and not much has changed. In recent weeks there has been a public outcry against the inequality and discrimination of the LGBT community in Israel. We are calling to put a stop to the violence towards the LGBT community.”

Israel has led many Western nations in legally establishing equality for gay members of the armed services, extending financial rights to same-sex partners, promoting LGBT tourism and supporting gays in public life. It has lagged, however, on issues of personal and family status because marriage and related issues are largely dominated by the haredi Orthodox Chief Rabbinate and its political supporters.

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Support for two-state solution drops to historic low

JERUSALEM | JTA Support for a two-state solution among Israelis and Palestinians has dropped to a record low following years of a moribund peace process and several rounds of violent military confrontation.

According to a new poll conducted by Tel Aviv University and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, only 43 percent of both Israeli Jews and Palestinians back such a negotiated end to the conflict, a decline of 9 and 8 points since 2016, respectively.

Support for a two-state solution has been steadily eroding among Jews and Palestinians for a decade, the pollsters noted, although among Israeli Arabs support has largely remained “stable and very high” at 82 percent.

A total of 2,150 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and 1,600 Israelis were polled on their views of a hypothetical peace deal consisting of a demilitarized Palestinian state, an Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders with equal territorial exchange, family unification in Israel of 100,000 Palestinian refugees, western Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and eastern Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall under Israeli sovereignty, and the Muslim and Christian quarters and the al Haram al Sharif/Temple Mount under Palestinian sovereignty, and the end of the conflict and claims.

Only 37 percent of Palestinians and 39 percent of Israeli Jews said they supported such an agreement. Nineteen percent of Israeli Jews expressed support for a unitary state with equal rights for both Jews and Palestinians, while 15 percent voiced their approval of annexation without rights. Eight percent supported expulsion of the Palestinians.

“A plurality or a majority of Israelis and Palestinians, respectively, believe that settlements have expanded so much that the two-state solution is no longer viable,” the pollsters wrote. “Large majorities on both sides believe the other side is untrustworthy. e perceived lack of feasibility and the lack of trust are closely connected to opposition to the plan. Findings also show a net decline over the last two years in the percentage of Israeli Jews and Palestinians who think the other side wants peace.”

Between Jews and Arabs, nearly half of Israelis believe that a two-state solution is still viable, although 45 percent believe that settlements have spread too much to implement such an agreement. While Israeli Arabs remained highly optimistic, with 64 percent thinking this solution remained viable, only 44 percent of Israeli Jews agreed with this assessment.

Both sides are extremely skeptical that a Palestinian state will be established in the next five years, with 72 percent of Palestinians and 81 percent of Israeli Jews saying they do not expect this to happen.

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12 | The Jewish Press | August 17, 2018

worldnews

T

Israel and Hamas may be headed toward yet another war in Gaza. By accident.

Ben SAleS JTA

his past week has seen clashes ratchet up between the two sides, who have fought three wars in the past decade. The last Gaza war, in 2014, was particularly devastating: Some 2,100 Palestinians and 70 Israelis died in the fighting.

Another replay may be about to start. Since Wednesday Aug. 8, Hamas has launched about 200 rockets at Israel. Israel has bombed 150 targets in Gaza. Three Palestinians have been killed, according to Hamas, including a pregnant mother and her toddler. Israel reports 11 wounded on its side.

The fighting escalated Thursday night, Aug. 9, as a missile struck the Israeli city of Beersheba, which is farther away from Gaza. Israel responded by destroying a building in Gaza City that Israel calls a Hamas headquarters and Hamas says is a cultural center.

And it all started from what might have been a mistake.

Before Wednesday, Aug. 8, Israel and Hamas were in indirect talks to establish a long-term truce on the border. The truce would see Hamas attacks against Israel end in exchange for Israel easing the blockade and allowing more goods in and out of Gaza. Two Israelis and the bodies of two dead soldiers held by Hamas would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.

But on Tuesday morning, Aug. 7, Israeli troops on the Gaza border detected Hamas fire in their direction. They responded in kind, killing two Hamas military officials. Hamas responded with rockets, and here we are.

Except the Hamas gunfire apparently was not meant for Israeli soldiers. It was, according to Hamas, part of a naval commando exercise in the presence of senior Hamas officials in Gaza.

So it’s possible that this is all the outcome of a misunderstanding. Yet even as they remain in indirect talks to end the fighting, both sides are speaking in bellicose terms. Israel’s

Security Cabinet, which manages issues of war and peace, di- cease-fire. Whether that will happen again remains to be seen. rected the army to “continue taking strong action against the Following the cease-fire, towns near the border with the terrorist elements.” According to Haaretz, a Hamas coastal strip resumed normal services as a de facto cease-fire spokesman said, “The brutal Israeli attack and the targeting went into effect. of civilians will not be tolerated quietly, and the occupation On Friday, Aug. 10 the municipalities of Netivot and will pay the price.”

Sderot, as well as smaller towns near the Gaza Strip, did not How is it possible to go from indirect peace talks to the renew emergency regulations that had been in place for most verge of a war in a matter of days? Such is the tinderbox of Israel-Hamas relations — or lack thereof. The sides don’t talk, as a policy, which increases the chances that a misunderstanding can snowball into war. There’s no hotline that we know of where Benjamin Netanyahu and Ismail Haniyeh can smooth things over.

Not that things were smooth to begin with. The conflict between Israel and Hamas is less peacetime interrupted by a series of wars, but more like a sine curve, with periods of more and less conflict. Residents of Gaza are dependent on humanitarian aid, have limited electricity and still haven’t rebuilt the thousands of buildings destroyed in 2014. Israelis living on the border have been terrorized for decades by sirens warning of incoming rockets, with only seconds to run for shelter.

And the past few months have not been particularly calm. A series of Palestinian protests on the Gaza border Sderot residents view the site where a mortar shell from Gaza hit this spring erupted in clashes between Palestinians, in- the southern Israeli city near the border, Aug. 9, 2018.

Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 cluding Hamas militants, storming the border fences and Israeli soldiers, who killed more than 100 Palestinians alto- of the past week. The regulations prevented holding any gathgether — including 60 on May 14, mostly Hamas members. erings outside sheltered areas, including summer camp activSince then, Palestinians have set fire to thousands of acres of ities, as well as public transportation.

Israeli farmland on the Gaza border via flaming kites and balThe cease-fire with Hamas was reached with Egyptian meloons. In early July, Israel closed Gaza’s only commercial border diation, according to Al Jazeera. An Israeli official denied that crossing in response to the fires, later partially reopening it. Israel had engaged in any talks on a cease-fire, telling the IsOn July 20, Hamas sniper fire killed an Israeli soldier. Israel rael Broadcasting Corp. that Israel has a longstanding policy responded with airstrikes that killed four Hamas militants. of striking in Gaza only in retaliation to strikes on Israel.

But those clashes were headed off the next morning with a