August 18, 2017

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Celebrating the power Men’s Campaign hosts Sgt. Benjamin Anthony of women’s giving

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When 98% is not enough page 2

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Annette vAn De kAMp Editor, Jewish Press he Women’s Major Donor and Jewel Event, Chaired

by Judy and Betsy Baker, is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 12 at Happy Hollow Country Club from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event will celebrate the power of women’s giving and will feature speaker Dr. Sima Goel, author of Fleeing the Hijab, a true account of her story as a Jewish Iranian teenager who crossed the most dangerous desert in the world rather than accept the restrictions of life in Dr. Sima Goel Iran of the early 1980s.

Dr. Goel’s quest for freedom is a thrilling, timely inspiration for people longing to create a life of meaning. She is now a successful chiropractor in Canada, as well as a speaker on optimum health, fulfilling her dream of freedom and determination to help others.

Women’s Major Donor Chair Sharon Kirshenbaum wants to focus on the power inherent in women’s philanthropy: “In a large percentage of households,” she says, “the See the power of women’s giving page 3

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Annette vAn De kAMp Editor, Jewish Press he Men’s Major Donor Campaign event, chaired by David Gilinsky and David Kohll, is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 13 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Beacon Hills in Aksarben Village. We will welcome speaker Sgt. Benjamin Anthony, who is the founder of the organization Our Soldiers Speak.

This not-for-profit NGO provides briefings and analysis on the realities and challenges faced by the Israeli Defense Forces. Sgt. Anthony’s Sgt. Benjamin Anthony topic will be: From the Front Line of Combat to the Campus Battles of North America.

“This visit by Sgt. Benjamin Anthony will have a double purpose,” event co-Chair David Kohll says. “We can show our support for the State of Israel while at the same time draw attention to the Annual Campaign and support our local community.”

Kohll says it’s an honor to be involved with the JFO Annual Campaign and make a difference in the lives of See Men’s Campaign page 2

Introducing the Pearl Society

Annette vAn De kAMp Editor, Jewish Press There are many reasons to give to the Annual Jewish Federation of Omaha Campaign. Feeling part of something, helping build and sustain our community, leaving something worthwhile for the next generation and setting a good example for our children are all excellent ways to motivate our participation.

“I give to the campaign because I want the Jewish community in Omaha to stay strong and thrive for generations to come,” Melissa Shapiro says.

says. “It allows us to be part of the work Federation does. Pearl Society is a great way to recognize women making a generous gift of $365 or more to the Annual Campaign.

The Pearl Society comes with an option to purchase a silver Hamsa necklace with a pearl inset for $39, as well as pearl charms of different colors indicating the several levels of giving up to $1,000.”

Melissa hopes other women consider becoming a member.

Melissa Shapiro and Lisa Lucoff “It will show their Lisa Lucoff has similar thoughts: commitment to the Federation and “It’s important to give back to the all of its agencies. I don’t think community in which we have choeveryone realizes how many people sen to live and raise our children.” benefit from the Annual Campaign.

New for the 2018 Annual CamFrom scholarships or grants for paign is the ‘Pearl Society,’ which camps and education and the proMelissa and Lisa are co-chairing. gramming provided at the JCC, to “It’s one of the ways we welcome the state of-the-art fitness facilities women from our community,” Lisa to the theater programs: the gifts

the Federation provides are endless.

My three kids alone have taken dance classes, participated on sports teams, been in theater productions, danced at outdoor concerts, swam in the pools, played with their friends at camps... all because of generous donors to the Federation. I want them to know their parents are a part of that and it’s important for us to give back.”

Growing up in this community as a child, Lisa says, “I remember my parents constantly talking about Super Sunday though I wasn’t clear what it was. Back in 2005, when I became a semi-adult, I had the opportunity of going on a JFO Mission to Israel and was asked on that trip to make a gift. The trip was one of my top memorable experiences and being with the Omaha Community made it even better. I didn’t hesitate to make a gift. Even though I didn’t live in Omaha at the time, I felt strongly this is where my dollars should be. When my husband and I decided to move back to Omaha, See pearl Society page 2

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Shani Katzman Education Director, Chabad Center here is much ado in the media these days about the solar eclipse slated for aug. 21. A cursory Google search will yield multiple news articles, NASA’s official eclipse website, eclipse viewing glasses, maps of the eclipse’s path, how to photograph, information on historic eclipses, and more.

The last time a solar eclipse of this sort occurred was in June 1918, almost one hundred years ago. So this is a very big deal. And people are coming from all over the country to places like Lincoln, Nebraska where 100% of the eclipse WILL be visible. Hotels and motels are booked to capacity. In Omaha, we will have the ability to see 98% of the eclipse. However, for most eclipse afficionados, Omaha’s 98% does not seem good enough.

I often get asked why Mitzvot are so specific. Why do they have to be done in particular ways, in a special sequence and with certain parameters. Why is EVERY doorpost in my home required to have a Mezuzah?

Isn’t it enough if some do? Why must we light Shabbat candles exactly 18 minutes before sunset? Why does G-d want everything to be exact?

But the question should really be turned around. Perhaps G-d would be ok with your perfunctory observance of Mitzvot. Maybe He’ll see it as no big deal. But what about you? What does your sloppiness in Mitzvah practice say about your interest in G-d? About your Jewish commit-

Credit: nasa.gov

ment? Surely, when something is important, you’ll go the extra mile.

Spend more money. Make a greater sacrifice.

We all do care deeply about our Jewish selves. We identify strongly and work conscientiously to perpetuate Yiddishkeit at home and in the community. The 98% vs 100% paradigm can be helpful when a Mitzvah might seem burdensome rather than a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So remember, a mitzvah is eternal and connects us to the Divine.

And if you have a penchant for astronomy, you are invited to join Rabbi Mendel Katzman on aug. 21 at the farm of Seth Harris in Lincoln for a 100% viewing of the August 2017 eclipse. Rabbi Katzman will lead a discussion during lunch entitled Fate or Freedom, which examines the spiritual ramification of a solar eclipse. You may reserve your free eclipse viewing glasses at ochabad. com/eclipse. Those interested in traveling in tandem from Omaha, will depart from Chabad at 10:15 a.m. Bring a brown bag, picnic style lunch and a chair for your comfort.

As we get swept up in the enthusiasm of others from around the country, let’s catch their spirit. Let’s be inspired by their commitment, zeal and appreciation. They, who have traveled thousands of miles, teach us that when you really care for something 98% is not nearly enough. Only 100% will do.

Special thanks go to Nancy Coren at Tifereth Israel in Lincoln for her assistance in coordinating the event, and Seth Harris for hosting our group at his farm.

Introducing the Pearl Society Continued from page 1 Federation was there with open arms welcoming us and immediately asked us to get involved with campaign.”

Melissa too has been involved since childhood.

From swim team and dance classes to attending Hebrew School classes, she made the JCC her home.

“When I was a teen,” she says, “I fell in love with BBYO and the experiences and leadership opportunities the organization provided me.

Now as an adult and a mother, it’s a priority to me to stay involved and help where I can. I am incredibly excited for our JWRP trip to Israel this fall and their mission to empower women to change the world. I know I will return to Omaha with many new ideas and skills I can put into action in our community.”

Over the years that involvement has taken many different forms. She’s helped make phone calls for the Annual Campaign and assisted with several family events.

She adds: “I’m honored to be chairing The Pearl Society this year with Lisa.”

Lisa, in turn, recently became a lay member for the JFO Benefits Committee.

Men’s Campaign

Continued from page 1 fellow Jews.

“This is an impressive speaker,” Kohll adds. “I look forward to hearing him discuss the way he defends the Jewish people and Israel through his actions. I know this will be a great event.”

David Gilinsky is equally excited: “It’s campaign time, BABY! Time to get out there and support what is one of the single most outstanding Jewish communities in America! And, I’ve heard that our speaker is fantastic. Personally, Israel is important to me (and to the world, in my opinion). I learn a lot listening to those who live in Israel and have IDF experiences to share.”

Sgt. Anthony is the lead lecturer for the Our Soldiers Speak organization, which has reached diverse audiences at more than 380 campuses across several continents. He also has spoken at leading think tanks in various countries.

The organization has three clear initiatives, according to the website (www.oursoldiersspeak.org). Its O.S.S. CAMPUS is the vehicle through which the I.D.F. and the Israeli National Police dispatch uniformed officers to campuses overseas. Its O.S.S. ELITE convene policy and strategy briefings by senior

“Effective Aug. 28, I have the privilege of becoming a new member on the JFO Board of Directors. I was on the Kids Campaign Committee back in December and have served as a Kehilla Cup Captain for the past two Campaigns. I was also fortunate to be chosen to go on the JWRP Trip in November!”

Come November, both women will travel to Israel as participants of the second Jewish Federation of Omaha sponsored Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project’s MOMentum trip.

“The Federation to me means community,” Melissa states. “Whether it is providing the opportunity for me to go to Israel with other moms or being home to the best preschool program in Omaha to prepare my children for grade school, the Federation is so much to so many different people. The JCC has been my second home and my children now feel that way also. We are so fortunate to be a part of such a strong and tight knit community!”

Lisa agrees: “I’m witnessing my own children benefit from even more than I did. I want to be a role model to our kids and teach them that giving back is one of the greatest things you can do.”

The first Pearl Society event is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 1 at Lotus House of Yoga with Katherine Finnegan teaching a fun class. Stay tuned for more details! For more information about how to become a Pearl Society member, please contact Louri Sullivan at lsullivan@jewishoma ha.org or call 402.334.6485.

I.D.F. and I.N.P. members for members of the U.S. Congress and Senate, think tanks and for leading seats of influence on security matters. Finally, there is O.S.S. ISRAEL: the annual Israel through the Law and Policy Lens tour. This academically rigorous program brings select graduate students who are likely to pursue careers in public service to Israel.

Sgt. Anthony has lectured to students at a multitude of universities and has been the keynote speaker at numerous Jewish Federations. He is a veteran of the Second Lebanon War, Operation Pillar of Defense and Operation Protective Edge. He is a graduate of the University of Manchester, Great Britain.

“Jewish” is what connects us,” David Gilinsky says, “but Community is what keeps us together. Sept. 13, let’s share a drink, break bread and talk about what’s important. I think it’s important to get outside of our day-to-day crazy mishigas and make sure we connect with our friends/community to focus on something greater than ourselves.”

Jeff Gordman has agreed to be the 2018 Men’s Major Donor Chair. The minimum gift to attend is $1,800, or $1,000 for those under 45. For more information, please contact Louri Sullivan at lsullivan@jewishomaha.org or call 402.334.6485.

Tifereth plans second trip to Israel nancy coren Tifereth Israel is making plans for its second Tour of Israel to be held June 5-14, 2018 (with travel on June 3rd). The tour is timed to coincide with the coming year’s ongoing celebration of the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel. The 2018 tour will focus on regions of the country not covered during this summer’s excursion. Participants will travel into the Negev, visiting Beersheva, Kfar HaNokdim, and Sde Boker. The tour will also include the Judean desert with visits to the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi. In addition, there will be excursions in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Caesaria, and Haifa. Highlights being planned include an archaeological dig at Beit Guvrin, a camel ride in the desert, a jeep tour, dinner in a Beduoin camp, Shabbat dinner at the home of a local Jerusalem family, and a personalized tour of Yad Vashem. This is a

Saying hello

The Jewish Press | August 18, 2017 | 3

community

The power of women’s giving tour that will appeal to those who have never been to Israel and to those who have had an opportunity to be there in the past and want to experience Israel in a new way.

This multi-generational tour is for anyone ages seven and up (with youth up to age 18, accompanied by an adult). One needs not be from Lincoln to participate.

Individuals wanting more information should contact Nancy Coren at ncoren@tif erethisraellincoln.org.

Lynn Saltzman took time to catch up with Sara and eliad Ben Shushan while in Israel, visiting family.

continued from page 1 woman is the one who influences the home’s giving. We want women to know that they have the power to increase the family’s involvement across the board.”

Our speaker during the Women’s event is living proof of the power women can wield, even in the face of extreme adversity.

When Ayatollah Khomeini decreed that all women in Iran must wear the hijab, regardless of their religious identity (including Christians, Jews and Baha’i) it was not what Sima Goel had hoped for. Like many other Iranians, she had hit the streets to protest the Shah’s oppressive rule. By 1975, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had abolished the multi-party system of government in favor of a one-party state under his own party. Iranians had two choices: support the monarchy, or leave. When, in 1979, the Shah was overthrown, things were supposed to get better, not worse. But the revolution made way for the rule of Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini and an entire new set of dictatorial changes.

Sima Goel found herself blacklisted by her school and unable to continue her studies. While she mourned the loss of innocent friends and family members murdered by this new regime, Khomeini introduced

Sharia (Islamic law), with the Islamic dress code enforced for both men and women by the Islamic revolutionary Guards. Women were required to cover their hair, and men were not allowed to wear shorts. Alcoholic drinks, most Western movies, the practice of men and women swimming or sunbathing together were banned. The Iranian educational curriculum was Islamized at all levels and the broadcasting of any music other than the martial or religious kind on Iranian radio and television was banned.

Moreover, the Jewish population in Iran dropped from 80,000 to 30,000.

Sima Goel knew her only option was to leave and find a place where she could follow her dreams. To hear Sima talk about what it meant to move from Khomeini-era Iran to Canada and how her life has since changed, join us Sept. 12. There is little doubt that Dr. Goel’s story will mesmerize and inspire all who hear her.

The minimum gift to attend the Women’s Major Donor event is $1,800, or $1,000 for those under 45.

Dr. Goel’s book, Fleeing the Hijab, is available through the Jewish Federation of Omaha Kripke Library. For more information, please contact Louri Sullivan at lsulliv an@jewishomaha.org or call 402.334.6485.

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community Building a better world Parshat Ekev

In this week’s Torah portion, “Re’eh”, we are told that we are “banim” or children of G-d. In Hebrew, banim means children. Banim also means builders. When we are children, we are supposed to take what our parents have given to us and build upon it.

As parents, we want the best for our children. We educate them, support them, and enable them to have more RABBI ARI than what we have and to be more DEmBItzER than we are. The Talmud teaches us Beth Israel Synagogue that a parent is never to be jealous of her or his child.

Each of us needs to remember that we have an obligation to leave this world better than how we found it. Let us continue to see the world with positive eyes, and build upon it toward a better day.

Shabbat Shalom.

Organizations

B’nAI B’RIth BREADBREAkERS

Pete Festerson: Will there be new taxes? The Omaha City Council President will discuss the upcoming budget on Wednesday, Aug. 23, noon. For more information or to be placed on the email list call 402.334.6443 or bnaibrith@jewishomaha.org.

Beth El joins USCJ Ruderman Inclusion Action Community

B

OzzIE nOgg

eth El Synagogue is one of fifty conservative congregations in the country taking part in the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism Ruderman Inclusion Action Community, supported by and in partnership with the Ruderman Family Foundation. The initiative aims to transform Conservative congregations into truly inclusive communities for people with disabilities. Edward Frim, USCJ Director of Learning Enrichment and supervisor of the Ruderman Inclusion program, will be at Beth El during the Aug. 25-27 weekend to outline the progress to date. Frim previously served as Executive Director of the Agency for Jewish Learning in Pittsburgh, PA. Along with other programs that foster life-long Jewish learning, AJL offered advocacy and support for special needs students and coordinated community services for those with disabilities.

“Diversity and inclusion are core Jewish values,” said Rabbi Steven Abraham of Beth El. “The goal of the Ruderman Action Community is to transform Conservative congregations into truly inclusive communities for people with disabilities. This is an important and much needed step for our congregation, and while our work towards being a more inclusive congregation will never stop, the program has been designed as a year-long commitment with workshops, conferences, webinars and visits from top professionals in the field. Our guest, Edward Frim, is one of those professionals.

During his visit, Ed will learn with us during Kabbalat Shabbat and Saturday morning services. On Sunday, he’ll meet with synagogue staff as well as our Inclusion Committee.”

Beth El is currently identifying barriers to full accessibility, whether they’re physical, architectural, sensory, social, intellectual or educational in an effort to give every congregant full access to the synagogue’s programs, building and communal life. “Just as we purchased a new prayer book with more explanations and transliteration to make our services more accessible,” Rabbi Abraham said, “we want to create a comprehensive blueprint for change

to fully allow people with disabilities and their families to feel comfortable and at home at Beth El.” The Ruderman Family Foundation is striving to make all Jewish life, regardless of movement or affiliation, fully inclusive, with multi-year, multi-million dollar commitments to other denominations inside Judaism, such as the Reform Movement, Chabad Lubavich and the Orthodox Union. According to Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, “Disability inclusion is an issue not just confined to one movement or denomination. It’s an issue that has no borders and we see great importance in working with every movement inside Jewish life. We’re honored to partner with The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism in the Ruderman Inclusion Action Community initiative to further this important work in the Conservative movement. I have been impressed by the passion and dedication with which USCJ has embraced our partnership. They realize that a congregation that does not include people with disabilities and their families risks losing roughly a quarter of the community and we simply cannot afford to turn away such a large segment.”

Bob Wolfson is working with Rabbi Abraham as Inclusion Committee chair. “The Hebrew word for inclusion, hachlala, is related to vayachulu, the word used to signify the completion of creation,” Wolfson said. “In the same way that creation was not complete until Shabbat was included, our congregations are not complete until all people are included. Beth El has drawn up a list of preliminary action items, we’ll invite input from the congregations about specific changes that need to be made, and then formulate our short and long-term goals. The idea is to build a community culture that supports all aspects of inclusion — from the entryway to the bima, from education to prayer services, from social activities to the very attitudes of congregants and leaders. This is not tokenism.

We envision building a congregation where we embrace everyone, regardless of their abilities. Beth El’s participation in the USCJ Ruderman Inclusion Action Community is a much-needed step on our journey as a synagogue.”

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The Jewish Press | August 18, 2017 | 5

Finland’s Jews: The rest of the story

RicH JuRo there was no real effect as Russia didn’t ratify Not long ago, Fran and I embarked on a it. Following the chaos of World War I and Baltic Sea cruise. One of the stops was the Russian revolution, Finland became an Helsinki, the capital of Finland. We’ve been independent nation in 1917. Late that year to that charming city twice, first in 1966 when we stayed a week in a student dormitory.

The second was the start of an early spring tour of Lapland, the beautiful snowy north part of the country. So, this time we decided on a different type of visit. We contacted Andre Zweig, who conducts a Jewish heritage tour in Helsinki. Who knew there was such a thing?

Mr. Zweig is an interesting character himself. Born in the Transylvanian part of RomaFran and Rich Juro in the Helsinki synagogue nia, he emigrated to Finland long ago, became an entertainer, and the cantor of the Helsinki synagogue. Several years ago, he made Aliyah to Israel, but still returns to Helsinki in the summer to conduct tours and again be the cantor. Here’s the story of Finland’s Jews he animatedly told us, which I augmented by some research.

Finland and its Jews Before WW ii Finland is a good-sized northern European country above the Baltic Sea, between Sweden and Russia. For several centuries, what is now Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden, but no Jews could live in that part of Sweden. In 1809, after the Napoleonic wars, the Grand Duchy of Finland became a semi-autonomous part of the Russian Empire; yet it was still closed to regular Jewish people. The first Jews to settle in Finland were Russian soldiers who had completed their long service in the Czar’s army and were allowed to remain there with their families. As long ago as 1830 there was a Jewish prayer room inside the military fortress near Helsinki. The Jewish soldiers shared the prayer room with Tatar Muslims (a preview of our own TriFaith Initiative?).

The first synagogue in Finland opened in 1870. The first permanent Jewish house of worship was dedicated in Helsinki in 1906 on land donated by the city. The curbs on meetings and free speech were stricter in Russia than in the Grand Duchy of Finland, so in 1906 the Russian Zionists held their convention in Helsinki. In 1909, the Finnish Parliament abolished all restrictions on Jews, but

the Finnish Parliament approved an Act for “Mosaic Confessors” and thereby Jews became Finnish nationals with full rights. Between WW I and WW II more Russian Jews emigrated to Finland, and the number of Jews in Finland increased from 1000 to 2000.

1939-1945 “Now the history of Finland and its Jews gets interesting,” said Mr. Zweig in his accented but understandable English. In the so-called Winter War, the Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939. The Finns, including over 200 Jewish soldiers, fought bravely against their huge neighbor.

By March 1940, the Finns had stalemated the Russian offensive, but Finland had to cede a significant amount of territory. Many of its soldiers, including 27 Jews, were killed.

In 1941, Nazi Germany launched an invasion of the USSR called Operation Barbarossa. Finland took advantage of the circumstances to resume hostilities with the USSR. Called the Continuation War, about 300 Finnish Jews served in their homeland army. German troops were allowed in Finland to help in the war against Russia. “The enemy of your enemy is your friend”, as the old saying goes, so the answer to the question posed in the title is: YES, Finnish Jewish soldiers were allied with the German Nazi military during 1941-1944.

To Finland’s credit, it never signed a formal agreement with Germany. It also refused German calls for any kind of persecution of Finnish Jews. By September See Finland’s Jews pages 7

omaha community Playhosue premieres Eminent Domain The world premiere of local playwright Laura Leininger-Campbell’s Eminent Domain, which opens Omaha Community Playhouse’s 93rd season, will run Aug. 25 – Sept. 17 in OCP’s Howard Drew Theatre.

Does oil run thicker than blood? Or will a pipeline splitting the prairie tear a family apart? A 2016 Eugene O’Neil National Playwrights Conference finalist, originally conceived for Shelterbelt Theatre’s Before the Boards series, Eminent Domain tells a relevant story of a Nebraska family farm threatened by the construction of an oil pipeline and the ensuing conflict that emerges within. On the surface, Eminent Domain exposes the hard-fought battle between Nebraska farmers and corporate energy. Dig deeper and the greater struggle is revealed: the fight to preserve our Heartland’s farms and the livelihood of the people who live here. Our most crucial resource is not just the land we are privileged to attend with cracked and calloused hands—it is our kin, our clan and our heritage. Join us for this world

premiere of an Omaha playwright’s work.

Omaha Community Playhouse’s production of Eminent Domain has been named an official event of the Nebraska 150 Celebration, which is a yearlong celebration across the state of Nebraska in 2017 marking the 150th year of statehood. The Sesquicentennial is a strategic initiative that promotes a spirit of pride, growth, engagement and connection within our state by bridging Nebraskans across different communities, perspectives and cultures. For more information, visit https://ne150.org/calendar /eminent-domain-world-premiere-play/.

In honor of this world premiere, Omaha Community Playhouse will hold a pre-show opening night celebration on Friday, Sept. 15 beginning at 6:15 p.m. Pre-show activities include appetizers, drinks and a chat with playwright Laura Leininger-Campbell. Celebration and show ticket cost $50 and the celebration only costs $26. Advanced reservations are required by calling 402.553.4890, ext. 147.

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Welcome!

Come in and be inspired

Annette vAn de kAMp Editor, Jewish Press ost schools in Omaha are back in session and the weather is no longer hitting 100 degrees Fahrenheit: that summer that seemed to stretch before us endlessly is coming to an end. Yet, we’re not completely done with the picnic blankets and the outdoor joy. As in previous years, the Jewish Federation of Omaha will host its series of free Backyard Concerts from late August through September, from 5-7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center’s Pavilion.

Aug. 20, the Backyard Concert Series will kick off with a performance by the band Finest Hour. Featuring the BroadBand Horns, Finest Hour is the premier cover/dance/party band in Omaha. Its members love to play and the sheer joy and energy shines through during every performance.

Aug. 27 we will welcome Mitch Gettman, a singersongwriter and multi instrumentalist from Omaha. His music is often compared to that of songwriters like Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley, as well as bands like Radiohead and The Beatles. Gettman’s songs seem to take on a new array of influences, bringing to mind Stevie Wonder, The Velvet Underground and the Brian Wilson-era Beach Boys. He is a retro-style songwriter, creating songs about the modern world. And: he wants you to sing along!

Sept. 10, we will continue with two-time Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards Songwriter of the Year nominee, Tara Vaughn. The Nebraska native released her debut full-length album Dandelion Wine in 2016. It includes songs dealing with mistakes and self-discovery in her trademark honey-thick vocals and

bouncy piano-pop style and shines with complex arrangements, as well as the addition of atmospheric guitars.

C.J. Mills will conclude the 2017 Backyard Concert Series on Sept. 17. Mills is a singer, songwriter and guitarist from Omaha and has a unique style that mixes neo-soul, reggae, Indie and pop.

Although you are welcome to bring your picnic basket, you can also leave the cooking to us: Dante’s Pizza will be available for purchase at the Aug. 20 and Sept. 17 concerts, while the Kona Ice Truck will show up at each of the concerts. Just bring your blankets, yourselves, and get dinner at the concert! Kona will offer four different serving sizes (priced from$3$5 depending on size) in over 50 different flavors of shaved ice, as well as six different types of novelty ice creams. From Haagen-Daz to drumsticks and fudge bars, there’s something for everyone.

Dante’s will offer Margarita, Cheese and Veggie pizzas with a gluten friendly option if needed. We are still working to bring a food option for our Aug. 27 and Sept. 10 concerts, so keep your eyes and ears open for that!

Jewish Family Service is taking donations for their food pantry. The greatest need is for personal care items such as toilet paper, soap, shampoo, lotion, toothbrushes and tooth paste. Canned meats such as chicken and salmon are also appreciated. Look for the blue bins as you arrive; please check expiration dates on your items.

In case of inclement weather, the concerts will be moved indoors to the JCC Theater. For more information, please check our website at www.jewishom aha.org or contact JCC Cultural Arts Director Esther Katz at 402.334.6406 or ekatz@jccomaha.org.

A portrait of Jewish Omaha

e Jewish Federation of Omaha is excited to share the findings of the completed 2017 Community Study.

Please join us ursday, Aug. 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center. e evening will start at 6 p.m. in the JCC Gallery with a welcome reception for the new Community Shaliach, Yoni Doron.

At 7 p.m., we will explore the findings and learn about the incredible opportunities and challenges this study has

Come be inspired!

8600 Cass Street | 402-391-7733 | Open Mon.-Fri. 9-6, Sat. 9-3

discovered. e study is filled with interesting, important and sometimes surprising data. Did you know, for instance, we have 5,150 Jewish households in Omaha? Did you know our community is older than the general Omaha population and that there are more people with a college education in our community?

Help us examine our strengths and the need to continue our mission. Come be part of discovery.

To RSVP, send an email to comm unitystudy@jewishomaha.org.

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Coach’s Corner: Bippity Boppity Boo: Becoming your own fairy Finland’s Jews godmother I’m just coming off of two days at Disneyland with my mom, sister-in-law and two almost-Kindergarteners- my older daughter and niece. When my mom first proposed the idea, I didn’t jump at the opportunity. When I thought of Disneyland, I thought of overstimulation with a capital O: massive crowds, unpleasant smells, and Annie nogg, loud, annoying noises. Sensory CPCC, PCC, BA overload using vacation days? No thank you! Though as the trip approached, I began to get really excited to see the magic of it through my daughter’s eyes.

And magic it was! Seeing Princess Ariel in person and getting an autograph from her?! Getting to stay up way past bed time to watch fireworks and dance to live music amidst the hundreds of bubbles coming from your very own bubble wand? Experiencing the wonder that is the It’s a Small World ride? Come ON. We had entered a full on fantasy world. This all got me thinking- how do we as adults invite magic into our lives? I’m talking the antithesis of the flat “another day another dollar” mentality.

Here are a few prompts to get your wheels turning on this. I will journal about them on my end as well.

1. Think of times in your life that you have felt so full of wonder that your feet almost left the ground. What did those moments have in common?

2. What would it be like to actively seek out experiences like this on a regular basis? How would your life be different?

3. What will you do to invite more magic into your life from now on?

I’d love to hear about some of your ahas, so please share! If you’re interested in ongoing support to make your life more wondrous, please be in touch! I figure, life is so short. Why not live it full on with lots of intention?

You can contact me at annienoggcoaching.com.

I love your referrals!

See full digital issues: https://issuu.com/jewishpress7

TONI ROSEN

CERTIFIED RESIDENTIAL SPECIALIST

402.630.8664

Toni.Rosen@cbshome.com

Continued from page 5 1944, World War II had turned against Germany. The Finnish president signed a separate peace with the Allies, ceding 10% of Finnish territory to the USSR, and declaring war on Germany.

In response, the German troops that were already in Finland burned every town in Lapland.

There were a several interesting incidents during the 1941-44 war that deserve retelling: The Finnish Jewish soldiers had a field synagogue operating in the presence of Nazi troops.

A Jewish singer named Sissy Wein was the most popular vocalist in Finland. She entertained the Finnish soldiers but refused to sing for the Germans.

A Jewish Finnish officer, Captain Solomon Klass, led his troops to save a German company that had been surrounded by Russians. For his heroism, Captain Klass was awarded the German Iron Cross, but it’s unclear whether he ever wore it.

Two other Jewish Finns were awarded the Iron Cross: Major Leo Skurnik saved 600 German patients when he successfully evacuated a German field hospital that was under Russian shelling. And Dina Poljakoff was a nurse who gave German soldiers wonderful care. Both Ms. Poljakoff and Major Skurnik refused the Iron Cross.

The only shame on the otherwise exemplary Finnish actions towards the Jews occurred late in 1942 when the Finns handed over eight Jewish Austrian refugees (along with 19 other refugees) to the Germans. The Jews were promptly sent to their deaths in concentration camps. The disgraceful action caused such an uproar in Finland that no other foreign Jewish

The Jewish Press | August 18, 2017 | 7

community

Andre Zweig, the Finnish cantor, entertainer and tour guide. refugees were deported during the war.

As noted above, no Finnish Jews were ever given to the Nazis despite the pleas of Heinrich Himmler.

Finland and its Jews 1946 to the Present After WW II, some Finnish Jews, well versed in military action, went to Israel to fight for Israeli independence.

They were followed by 200 more who made Aliyah to Israel. Now there are only 1500-2000 Jews in Finland, mostly in Helsinki. There are 200-300 in Finland’s second city, Turku, which has its own synagogue.

The good news and the bad is that Finnish Jews are completely integrated into their Nordic society. Intermarriage is the norm, so combined with emigration to Israel, the Jewish community is struggling to maintain its population and cultural institutions.

Both synagogues are Modern Orthodox, with services and Siddurim in He-

brew and Finnish. The Finnish language itself is rather difficult, and is related only to Estonian and Hungarian.

But in 2013 the Helsinki synagogue welcomed its first Finnish-speaking rabbi.

Among the prominent Jewish Finns is Max Jakobsen, the former Ambassador to the United Nations. Another, Ben Zyskowicz, was elected to the Finnish Parliament in 1979 and continues there to this day.

After the talk, Mr. Zweig gave us a brief multi-lingual concert with his guitar and excellent voice. Then we drove to a park in Helsinki where we saw a good-sized, somber memorial to the eight Austrian Jews who were handed over to the Germans.

The Jewish community in Finland is small but thriving. Especially after learning of its unique history, we can hope it will survive and flourish.

8 | The Jewish Press | August 18, 2017

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Shame

ANNETTE VAN DE KAmP Editor, Jewish Press ostalgic feelings can mask a multitude of sins. Sometimes, when people miss what they no longer have, they had a hand in losing it. Case in point: the Jewish-themed restaurants in Ukraine, where no actual Jews are found and the menus are anything but kosher. Jewish cemeteries, empty synagogues-turned-museums and oncebustling ghettos now draw tourists, eager to learn about the way things were.

However, the inhabitants of the Polish village of Radzanow take the cake. Saturday, Aug. 5, they hosted a fake Jewish wedding.

Would you like to read that sentence again?

“Organized by the Radzanovia Association, a cultural group promoting Polish Heritage, the event featured a few dozen non-Jewish volunteers, men and women, dressed in traditional haredi costumes. Some men wore fake beards and side curls, including ones that didn’t match their natural hair color.” (JTA) Two residents who played the bride and groom were fakemarried under a fake chuppah by a fake rabbi so those in attendance could learn about Jewish traditions.

The saddest part? This event was not an outlier. Jewishthemed festivals, sans actual Jews, are not uncommon in especially Spain and Portugal. And in the same region as that wedding, there is an empty synagogue that a high school student named Cuba Balinsky is attempting to restore. His words: “If there is no Torah in the synagogue, then it is still just a building. But if we bring the holy book back, it will come back to life.” (GoscPlocki.com) While it’s true that a synagogue is not really a synagogue without Torah, the best way to bring life to a building is to actually bring living people. And there is a problem with that.

Once millions are murdered in cold blood, you don’t bring them back, no matter how many fake weddings you host.

It all seems an exercise in futility. Nostalgia for the victims of the Holocaust in this context is a nauseating alternative to what is needed: actual grief.

It’s bizarre how feelings of nostalgia are found in equal measure when it comes to neo-Nazis. In this case, it’s a desire for imagined greatness, superiority, wishing one’s self at the top of the food chain no matter the cost. For examples, we do not have to cross the ocean; this past week-

end’s embarrassing display in Charlottesville, Virginia was ground zero for American, homegrown white supremacists.

I trust you’ve all seen the images, but in case you haven’t: it started Friday night, when white supremacists descended on the town’s college campus with lit torches and ugly slo-

Villagers attending a fake Jewish wedding in the Polish village of Radzanow, Aug 5, 2017.

Credit: Jonny Daniels/From the Depths

gans at the ready. It looked like a pogrom scene from a Hollywood movie; except this was real. By Saturday, they were met by counter protesters and things quickly spiraled out of control.

We need to take this seriously. Often, when we are confronted with news stories about these types of people, we end up moving past it quite easily. Oh sure, we’re shocked when anti-Semitism rears its ugly head, but just as quickly we go back to our day-to-day lives. And that tendency to move on is just another version of sticking our heads in the sand. We no longer have that luxury. The white supremacists who, with their SS-helmets and Nazi-inspired logos, yell “blood and soil” are sending us a very clear message. Watching one of them plow his car into the counter protesters should give us pause. Seeing those torches should give us pause. Swastika flags, white hoods and hundreds of people giving Nazi salutes should give us pause. When they say they

Freedom of speech is great and I’m a big fan, except when it comes to Nazis. That sounds a lot like I want people to speak their minds except when I disagree with them. That, of course, is exactly why we have freedom of speech in the first place. At the same time, if someone has Nazi sympathies, I’d rather know about it. As long as they stay in the shadows, we can’t really fight them.

And fight them we must. We know where this hatred leads when it goes unchecked: it starts with flags and parades, it ends with a fake wedding, under a fake chuppah with a fake rabbi—and not a Jew in sight.

Let’s not forget what happened in Virginia this past weekend, let’s not move on, let’s not remind ourselves that the total number of neo-Nazis in America today is not that large and that they ultimately don’t have any real power. Because that voice in our head that soothes us into thinking things can’t get this bad? That voice is lying.

eat that ant hidden in my lettuce? Ah, for the good old days, for the days when one could plead ignorance to the crime of violating five biblical prohibitions. My friends: Those days are gone!

Today we have something known as Kosher Lettuce, described on its package as follows: “These stringently kosher vegetables are grown in hightech greenhouses in an attempt to get rid of all contact with insects. However, despite all of our efforts, it may be that the cleansing is not total and so one must wash the vegetables in order to

that I don’t value). There’s just one problem: My very religious son Elie will not eat any salads in my house made with treif lettuce. Since there is a clear alternative in the marketplace, Elie is unwilling to live by grandma’s rule. And so if I suspect that he might be coming over I force myself to buy kosher lettuce—yes, he has me by the arugula.

I am happy to say that Elie is not completely inflexible when it comes to bugs. [If you think that bugs only like lettuce, you have not done much gardening.] There was a time when Elie abstained from eating fresh strawberries. It seems that the underside of the green stem of a strawberry is a kind of romper room for bugs. I persuaded Elie that God does not want him to forswear this wonderful fruit. Elie lops off more of the top of the strawberry than I do, but he now eats them again. I just pray that kosher strawberries do not make it to market any time soon.

I’ll give the last word on the fear of eating bugs to a label I once saw on a package of dried figs: “These figs must be checked individually for bugs, and there are those who say that they may not be eaten at all.” I was not certain what to do when I read that label. Was I supposed to buy the figs and then throw them away? God help me but I wanted to eat some figs! I had no choice but to rely on my grandma’s rule. I trust that I did okay.

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

Kosher (Bug-reduced) lettuce Chances are that you are not aware of the fact that eating a leaf of lettuce is potentially more hazardous to your spiritual health than is eating a pork chop or a cheeseburger. Why? Because hidden within that leaf of lettuce might be a very small insect. And even TEDDY though you typically like to WEINBERGER consume your lettuce sans insects, you might inadvertently swallow one of the tiny critters without even realizing it.

Lest you think my opening sentence hyperbolic, please note that you are in violation of just one prohibition if you eat pork or a cheeseburger; in the former case, the Torah prohibition of consuming animals that do not both chew their cud and have split hooves, and in the latter case, the rabbinic prohibition concerning mixing meat and dairy products. On the other hand, there are five Torah commandments that one violates by consuming a single ant: three concerning “any swarming thing that moves upon the earth” (see Leviticus 11.41, 42, 44; swarming things of the sky and of the water are separate categories), and two general prohibitions covering all swarming things: “You shall not draw abomination upon yourselves through anything that swarms; you shall not make yourselves unclean therewith and thus become unclean” (Lev. 11.43).

I can just hear some of you saying: But what if it was an accident, what if I really did not want to

hate Jews, they mean it. When they say they hate African Americans, they mean it. When they say they are angry and out for blood, they mean it.

The legal protection offered to these people sometimes makes me question whether we don’t have it all wrong.

Credit: Sanja 565658 insure complete cleansing, according to the following directions: each leaf should be separated and soaked for three minutes in soapy water. The leaves should then be thoroughly washed under running water. No further checking is required.”

Dear Reader, Believe me when I tell you that I am perfectly willing to live by the rule set down by my grandmothers and their grandmothers before them: If you see a bug, don’t eat it (I will also admit that I don’t like paying more for a product

Where are the women?

The Jewish Press | August 18, 2017 | 9

Donald Trump isn’t funny.

AnDRew Silow-CARRoll wasn’t just too soon -- it was not acceptable ever.

JTA Trump also has the inept comedian’s habit of ruining a On Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump tweeted joke by pressing too hard, like when he spoke to the Repubsomething that surprised me: lican Jewish Coalition back in 2015.

“I think Senator Blumenthal should take a nice long vaca“I’m a negotiator like you folks, we are negotiators,” tion in Vietnam, where he lied about his service, so he can Trump told the presumably moneyed audience. When that at least say he was there.” line -- not a joke exactly -- drew some appreciative laughter, There was nothing unusual about his target or his bullyhe milked it: “Is there anybody that doesn’t renegotiate ing. Earlier in the day, Trump had sent off a flurry of tweets deals in this room? This room negotiates them -- perhaps about Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat who more than any other room I’ve ever spoken in.” famously suggested that he served in Vietnam when he did Hello? Hello? Is this thing on? his Marine Reserve duty stateside. That morning, apparently Trump’s apotheosis as a joke teller came during the camangry after Blumenthal criticized him on CNN, Trump paign, at the Al Smith Dinner in October 2016. Trump called Blumenthal a “liar,” a starts out with a pretty good “baby” and a “con artist.” one-liner about his opponent: What is notable about the “I wasn’t really sure if Hillary afternoon tweet is that it acwas going to be here tonight tually takes the form of a joke. because, I guess, you didn’t Because for all of his skills as send her invitation by email.” an entertainer and a showPointed, topical, cutting but man, Trump is no comedian. not vicious. In other words, it He gets laughs, yes. Some are didn’t sound like Trump. intentional -- crowds at his It’s when he started to rallies cackle and whoop apsound more like himself -preciatively when he rolls out when he appeared to go off his stock phrases. script -- that the bipartisan His style of rhetoric -- raise audience began booing. an indignation, lance it with “We’ve learned so much Donald Trump delivering remarks during an event at the white insults, welcome the audifrom WikiLeaks,” Trump said house, july 27, 2017.

Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images ence’s approval -- owes a debt next. “For example, Hillary to certain comedians (New Yorker writer David Denby believes that it is vital to deceive the people by having one hears in Trump “uncanny echoes of Alan King and Don public policy and a totally different policy in private.”

Rickles, the New York-born Jewish comics of the sixties and That’s not a joke. That’s a description of a joke, like, “It was seventies”). so hot today that I needed a metaphor to describe it.” When But wit? Wordplay? Misdirection? None of these are in the audience booed, Trump said, “That’s OK, I don’t know the Trump arsenal. who they’re angry at, Hillary, you or I. For example, here she His last Blumenthal tweet isn’t exactly ready for late night, is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate Catholics.” but it’s got some comedic structure, including a set-up (“I Again: audience, delivery, wit. Trump whiffed on all think Senator Blumenthal should take a nice long vacation three. in Vietnam”) and a punch line (“so he can at least say he Too often Trump’s speeches remind me of a wedding toast was there”). Ba-dump-bump. He could do without the unthat goes off the rails. He’s the best man or father-in-law who necessary middle phrase: “where he lied about his service.” feels he has to get some jokes in there, and whose lack of (It’s the difference between “Take my wife -- please” and comedic talent is matched only by his unwavering confidence.

“Take my wife -- with whom I do not get along -- please.”)

Al Franken, the comedian turned junior senator of the Otherwise, you’d be hard-pressed to find an example of Great State of Minnesota, was asked recently if Donald Trumpian wit. Even his insult “humor” is heavy-handed Trump is funny. and obvious: “Crooked Hillary.” “Little Marco.” “Lyin’ Ted.” “I don’t think he’s funny at all,” said Franken, a Democrat, Consider the laugh lines during his cringe-inducing and I don’t think he was just being partisan. Asked by speech at the Boy Scout Jamboree. Turning to Tom Price, Stephen Colbert last week if there were any other senators his secretary for health and human services, Trump tried with a sense of humor, Franken mentioned Republicans Jim some joke-like banter in referring to the upcoming vote in DeMint and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. the Senate on repealing Obamacare. “By the way, are you What’s striking, Franken told the New Yorker’s David going to get the votes? He better get them. He better get Remnick, is that Trump himself is never seen laughing. The them. Oh, he better. Otherwise I’ll say, ‘Tom, you’re fired.’” president, he said, “is like some fairy tale, where if someone That’s not a joke, that’s a catchphrase -- Trump’s “Git-Rcan get the king to laugh they’ll get half the fortune and the Done!” or “I’m a wild and crazy guy!” And Trump’s delivery, daughter.” Someone who can’t enjoy a good joke is not with one too many “he betters,” made him sound more going to tell one either. Franken laughs a lot. ominous than jocular. (He ended the sequence by saying, I don’t think it is necessary to have a Comedian in Chief, “I’ll get somebody” -- presumably a replacement for Price.) but Trump’s singular lack of a sense of humor -- and seemIn the background, Price and Secretary of Energy Rick ing inability to laugh at himself -- strikes me as a clue to his Perry can be seen laughing, but with the strained, pleasepolarizing presidency. A good joke or a smart turn of God-not-me smiles of the mobsters in “The Untouchables” phrase -- at your own expense or your opponent’s -- has a as Robert De Niro as Al Capone gives his after-dinner way of defusing the opposition or lightening a situation. It speech while gripping a baseball bat. can welcome an audience into your enterprise even if it isn’t I don’t doubt that Trump himself thinks he’s being funny. necessarily inclined to agree with you.

I even believe his spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s style of humor, like his policy and all-too-many was telling the truth when she said the president had been tweets, plays directly to the people who already agree with “making a joke” when, in a talk to police officers on Long - and enjoy -- him in the first place. And it reveals a bullyIsland, he suggested that they shouldn’t be “too nice” to sus- ing comic’s instinct to own the room by finding an easy pects. Trump’s statement even sounds like a joke: “Like target (a reporter with a disability, a woman with a face lift, when you guys put somebody in the car, and you’re protect- a frail judge). ing their head, you know, the way you put your hand over Trump reminds me of the alpha male in school who was [their head], I said, ‘You can take the hand away, OK?’” considered funny (a “pisser,” in my day) mostly because you But one test of a funny person is whether he understands didn’t dare not laugh at his jokes. In junior high school, it’s both his audience and the occasion. Maybe a comic at a the soul of wit to sneak up on a seventh-grader and yank club could get away with a joke about roughing up prisondown his sweatpants. It’s the bully’s closer. But it doesn’t ers, but not a politician, and certainly not a president, and make you Winston Churchill or even Don Rickles. certainly not a president when allegations of police brutality Who knew it could make you president of the United are a current and searing topic of debate. Trump’s cop joke States?

jewiSh pReSS noTiCeS

The Jewish Press will be closed on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 21 and 22 for Rosh Hashanah, Thursday oct. 5 for Sukkot. The deadline for the Sept. 29 issue is Monday, Sept. 18, noon; for the Oct. 13 issue it is Tuesday, oct. 3, 9 a.m., Questions? Call 402.334.6448.

Ben SAleS NEW YORK | JTA The Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s so-called “blacklist” of Diaspora rabbis runs the denominational gamut. The rabbis on the list, whose letters confirming the Jewish identities of immigrants were rejected by the Chief Rabbinate in 2016, are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform — and even from the smaller Reconstructionist and Renewal movements.

But one category is missing: women.

Women make up a growing percentage of Jewish clergy in North America. Every Jewish stream, including a branch of Orthodoxy, now boasts ordination of some kind for all genders. Roughly 20 percent of non-Orthodox rabbis in North America are women.

Even so, all of the 78 North Americans on the rabbinate’s list are men.

The nonprofit that obtained the list, Itim, claims it is a “blacklist” meant to delegitimize the rabbis. But the rabbinate says the list was formulated incorrectly and is meant only to indicate problems with letters written by the rabbis, not with the rabbis who wrote them.

The rabbinate’s spokesman, Kobi Alter, declined to respond to an inquiry as to why the list includes no women.

One explanation, of course, could be that the rabbinate had accepted whatever letters it received from female rabbis in 2016. That is possible, of course, but American women rabbis had a few other theories they consider more likely. Some suggested that the rabbinate didn’t want to recognize women as clergy.

“If they put names of women rabbis on that list, they’d have to acknowledge that women can be rabbis, and I think that’s not a step they’re willing to take publicly,” said Rabbi Rachel Ain of New York City’s Conservative Sutton Place Synagogue. “They’re not willing to put my name on the list because they don’t consider me a legitimate rabbi.”

While many Israeli haredi Orthodox Jews do not recognize any Reform and Conservative rabbis, the names of many are on the list. Rabbi Debra Newman Kamin suggested that’s because women rabbis are in

The honorees from the first generation of Conservative women rabbis pose for a photo at the 2015 Conservative Rabbinical Assembly celebration of 30 years of women in the rabbinate.

Credit: Yossi Hoffman

a category all their own. She surmised that the absence of women was more unconscious than intentional discrimination.

“A woman rabbi is like a unicorn, so why would you include a unicorn on the blacklist?” said Newman Kamin, vice president of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly. “I don’t think it’s because they want to make a statement about the position of women rabbis. We’re not even on their radar screen.”

Others suggested that the rabbinate’s opposition to women rabbis leads to a form of self-censorship. Because women rabbis know the rabbinate will reject them, some reach out to male rabbis when a congregant asks for a proof-of-Judaism letter.

There are two reasons immigrants to Israel would need a proof-ofJudaism letter from a rabbi: to gain citizenship and to marry. Citizenship is determined by the Israeli government, which maintains a fairly expansive definition of Jewish identity. But marriage in Israel is controlled by the Chief Rabbinate, which requires that the bride and groom both be Jewish according to Orthodox Jewish law. So it’s easier for a citizenship letter to be accepted than a marriage letter.

Newman Kamin said she had submitted letters to the rabbinate for marriage that were approved in years past. But other women rabbis said they hesitate to write such letters now. Rabbi Ellen Nemhauser, co-president of the Reform Women’s Rabbinic Network, said that when her son needed a letter to extend a visa to Israel recently, she asked a male rabbi to sign.

“I believe my ordination is valid, but we don’t want to set people up to run into difficulties or failure,” Nemhauser said. “I’m guessing there are many women like myself who defer to a male colleague.”

The reason for the absence of women might be more prosaic. The terms of the list are clearly defined -- rabbis whose letters were rejected in 2016 -- and women may not appear simply because, four decades after the Reform movement began ordaining women, there still aren’t all that many women rabbis, relative to the total number of rabbis in the United States.

Nemhauser estimates that among the 3,000 Reform rabbis, a quarter are women. Newman Kamin says the figure is about 15 percent for the Conservative movement’s 1,700 rabbis. Fewer still are the number of women rabbis leading congregations. And beyond a small group of Orthodox women clergy — many of whom do not call themselves “rabbi” — all Orthodox rabbis are men.

“How many could there be in any given year?” Newman Kamin said.

“How many American Jews are getting married in Israel who happen to belong to synagogues with women rabbis?

10 | The Jewish Press | August 18, 2017

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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

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

Please join us for our upcoming events: Annual Membership Meeting, sunday, aug. 27, 11 a.m.

Shabbat Service, sept. 1, 7:30 p.m. led by Shayna Kurland and Ben Cohen in honor of their wedding weekend.

Erev Rosh Hashanah, Wednesday, sept. 20, 7:30 p.m.

Curtis Hutt, UNO Schwalb Center.

Rosh Hashanah, Thursday, sept. 21, 10:30 a.m. Anna Mosenkis, New American.

Kol Nidre, friday, sept. 29, 7:30 p.m. Leonard Greenspoon, Creighton University.

Yom Kippur, saturday, sept. 30, 10:30 a.m. Karen Gustafson, Jewish Family Service.

Our High Holiday services are led by Jeff Taxman.

Shabbat Speakers Series resumes on friday, oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. led by Larry Blass.

For information on our historic synagogue, please contact any of our board members: Scott Friedman, Rick Katelman, Carole Lainof, Marty Ricks, Sissy Silber, Nancy Wolf and Phil Wolf.

BeTh el synaGoGue

Services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman. frIDay: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. saTurDay: Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Mini-Minyannaires, 10:45 a.m.; Kiddush sponsored by Kronick Family; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 8 p.m.

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.

Nebraska AIDS Coalition Lunch, friday, aug. 25, 11:30 a.m. Joan Marcus serves lunch once a month at the Nebraska AIDS Project, and she needs baked goods for dessert. Contact Joan if you can help be donating baked goods.

Women’s Book Group, monday, aug. 28, 7 p.m. Join us at the home of Sheryl Friedman as we discuss Leaving Lucy Pear by Anna Solomon, with a special opportunity to speak with the author. Please come with suggestions for future choices.

For more information, contact Darlene Golbitz.

All classes and programs are open to everyone in the Jewish community.

BeTh Israel synaGoGue

Services conducted by Rabbi Ari Dembitzer. frIDay: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Friday Learning with Rabbi Shlomo, 11:15 a.m. at the JCC; Mincha/Ma’ariv & Kabbalat Shabbat, 7:30 p.m.; Candle Lighting, 8:01 p.m. saTurDay: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Sermon by Rabbi Dr. Joel Zeff: Jerusalem: What’s in a Name?, 10 a.m.; August Simcha Kiddush, 11:30 a.m.; Rabbi Dr. Joel Zeff: The Meaning of Eclipse in Judaism, 12:15 p.m.; Insights in the Weekly Torah Reading, 6:55 p.m.; Mincha/Seudah Shlishit, 7:40 p.m.; Havdalah, 9:02 p.m. sunDay: Shacharit, 9 a.m. monDay: Shacharit, 7 a.m.

TuesDay-WeDnesDay: Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.

ThursDay: Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Lunch & Learn with Rabbi Shlomo, noon.

ChaBaD house

Office hours: Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and Friday, 9 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. followed by a festive kiddush luncheon. sunDay: Shacharit, 8:30 a.m. followed by Sunday Secrets: Jewish Fun Facts class at 9:15 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 with the Rabbi, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Mendel Katzman.

ThursDay: Advanced Talmud Class, noon with Rabbi Mendel Katzman.

All programs are open to the entire community.

ConGreGaTIon B’naI Jeshurun

frIDay: Shabbat Evening Service, 6:30 p.m. led by the Leslie Delserone and Peter Mullin; Oneg, 7:30 p.m. hosted by

Sarah Beringer and Alex Clark; Candlelighting, 8:01 p.m. saTurDay: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. led by TBA; Torah Study, 10:30 a.m. on Parashat Re-eh; Havdalah (72 Minutes), 9:29 p.m. sunDay: LJCS Welcome Back! Gan-Grade 7, 9:30 a.m. at Tifereth Israel; Parent Meeting, 11:30 a.m. at Tifereth Israel; South Street Temple is partnering with "We Can Do This" to provide weekend meals to the children of the F Street Community Center. Join us as we provide lunch on the third Sunday of every month. Food/monetary donations, meal preparation and assistance with setting up, serving, and clean-up are needed! We will serve at 2:30 p.m. For more information, email Sarah Beringer at sarah.m.beringer@gmail.com.

TuesDay: Star City Kochavim Rehearsal, 6:45 p.m.

ThursDay: Trope Class, 6:15 p.m.; High Holidays Choir Rehearsal, 7:30 p.m. If you want to be involved and aren't on the current choir member list, contact Elaine Monnier (402.327.9212 or emonnier@allophone.com), Holly Heffelbower (hheffel@inebraska.com), or ‘like’ South Street Temple High Holy Days Choir on Facebook.

Please join us for the Jewish Federation of Lincoln Shabbat on friday, aug. 25, 6-9 p.m. at Antelope Park enclosed shelter (between the playground and Auld Pavilion). The schedule of events is set up and park play time, 6-6:30 p.m., FamilyFriendly Shabbat Service, 6:45 p.m. and Potluck Dinner, 7:15 p.m. Please bring a dairy or pareve dish to share. If you participated in a Jewish camp this summer, please bring photos and memories to share. All members of our community are welcome!

Opening Day: PreKindergarten thru Grade 6, 10 a.m. Join us as we welcome a new school year and continue our strong Temple Israel Religious School tradition. Parents are invited to join Rabbi Stoller for coffee, cake & conversation at 10 a.m. ; Temple Israel Book Club, 10 a.m. This month's book will be Aftermath: A Granddaughter's Story of Legacy, Healing & Hope by Allison Nazarian; Temple Tots Sunday Mornings, 10:30 a.m.

All children and their families are invited to participate! Enjoy stories, songs, crafts (and bagels, of course!) with your child, while connecting with our Temple Israel community; Tri-Faith Picnic, 12:30 p.m. Hosted by the American Muslim Institute (AMI); Backyard Series with OTYG, 5 p.m. Calling all OTYG members: join us for the Backyard Concert Series to enjoy some great music and friends, along with selling some treats (packaged chips, cookies, and cupcakes). All proceeds will go to the youth group. RSVP required.

WeDnesDay: First Wednesday of Religious School: Grades 3–6, 4 p.m. and Grades 7–12, 6 p.m.

Rosh Chodesh Yoga Event, Tuesday, aug. 29, 7 p.m. Do you love yoga? Or want to love yoga? Or just learn more about yoga? Please join acclaimed yoga teacher Katherine Finnegan and other Temple Israel Yogis for a yoga session that is accessible for all levels of practice, including beginners. Wear comfortable clothes and bring a mat if you have one. Plan to stay for post-yoga wine and nosh! Hosted by Rosie Zweiback. Please RSVP to Temple Israel, 402.556.6536, by Thursday, Aug. 24.

offuTT aIr forCe Base

Services conducted by lay leader Nancy Coren. Office hours: monday-friday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. frIDay: Services, 6:30 p.m. saTurDay: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. There will be no Kiddush lunch this week. sunDay: LJCS Welcome Back: Back to school orientation session: Gan-7, 9:30 a.m. and Parent Meeting, 11:30 a.m. at Tifereth Israel. monDay: Join your Tifereth Israel friends for a solar eclipse viewing party hosted by Seth Harris at his home at 15049 S. 46th St., Roca, NE 68430. A Kosher dairy potluck lunch will begin at 11:30 a.m. Bring a comfy chair or blanket. RSVP to Nava in the office!

Please join us for the Jewish Federation of Lincoln Shabbat on friday, aug. 25, 6-9 p.m. at Antelope Park enclosed shelter (between the playground and Auld Pavilion). The schedule of events is set up and park play time, 6-6:30 p.m., FamilyFriendly Shabbat Service, 6:45 p.m. and Potluck Dinner, 7:15 p.m. Please bring a dairy or pareve dish to share. If you participated in a Jewish camp this summer, please bring photos and memories to share. All members of our community are welcome!

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 Marty Shukert.

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

Temple Israel

frIDay: Shabbat Service and Picnic, 6 p.m.; High School Shabbat and BBQ, 6 p.m. at home of Rabbi Stoller. All Temple Israel 9th-12th graders are invited to join Rabbi Stoller at his home for a fun Shabbat evening with good friends and food.

RSVP’s required. saTurDay: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m.; Shabbat Morning Services, 10:30 a.m. Torah Reader: Andy Issacson; OTYG Board Retreat, noon – 4 p.m. at home of Sharon ComisarLangdon. sunDay: Temple Israel 2017-18/577-78 Religious School

TIfereTh Israel

Wherever you go, there’s always someone Jewish

raChel sChoenholTZ-shaTIl to meet with local Jewish residents and share Chabad of Nebraska with them their passion for Jewish life, bringing As part of a 7-decade old program entitled Jewish awareness and observance with them, the ‘Roving Rabbis’, The Merkos Shlichus proarmed with their tools – tefillin, books, mitzvah gram, created and directed by the Rebbe, Rabbi brochures, candleholders – the boys set out in Menachem M. Schneersearch of fellow Jews. son, of righteous memFor rabbinical students ory, is the oldest and Zalman Denburg and longest running revoluDovid Gopin, this sumtionary programs in exismer internship will protence. The mantra of the vide them with special program is to both appreciation for the distrengthen active Jews in verse composition and strong Jewish communineeds in our region of ties, as well as to reach the Midwest, as well as anyone scattered, lonely, experience in communal or disconnected, who dot work and an understandZalman Denburg, left (nearest to the computer), ing about the challenges the world’s landscape.

Dovid Gopin is in the front. They are seen here of smaller Jewish comThe program disgoing over their appointments and notes. patches Roving Rabbis munities. that include hundreds of rabbinical students to “Going out and helping Jews is the fulfillment travel each year to small Jewish communities of my Judaism and of being a Jew,” Denburg, of around the globe during the summer. This year, Coral Springs, FL said this morning, after skipunder the direction of Rabbi Katzman, our duo ping over from Kansas. His travels have previof interning rabbinical students is providing ously taken him to Nashville, TN and before services and visiting with Jews in the region, that, Saskatchewan, Canada. many of whom would not otherwise be inGopin, of Melbourne, Australia, was astonvolved in much of anything Jewish. The stuished at how deep the Jewish roots of Omaha dents will travel around Nebraska, South run. He joins us from his most recent Roving see Wherever you go page 11 Dakota, and western Iowa, among other areas

The Jewish Press | August 18, 2017 | 11

Pulverente MONUMENT CO.

usnews

Hate in Charlottesville

Ron Kampeas CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. | JTA he white supremacists, for all their vaunted purpose, appeared to be disoriented.

Some 500 had gathered at a park here Saturday to protest this southern Virginia city’s plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the park. Pressured by the American Civil Liberties Union, Charlottesville had allowed the march at Emancipation Park -- or Lee Park, the protesters’ preferred name. at worked for an hour or so, and then the protesters and counterprotesters started to pelt one another with plastic bottles -- it was unclear who started it. Gas bombs -mildly irritating -- seemed to come more from the white supremacists. Finally the sides rushed each other headlong and there were scuffles.

So Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and, heeding the police, the white supremacists filed out of the park and started walking, north, but to where no one seemed sure. ere was talk of meeting at a parking lot, but which parking lot, no one was sure. As they approached the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial, a bucolic hill overlooking an overpass, they sputtered to a stop for consultations and did what marchers on a seasonably warm day do: ey sat on the grass, sought shade and chatted.

I had been following at a distance with a handful of journalists and folks who were there not so much to counterprotest but to deliver an alternative message. Zelic Jones from Richmond bore a poster with a saying by Martin Luther King Jr., “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

I climbed the hillock to see if anyone would be willing to talk. On the way, the marchers had studiously ignored reporters, but I thought, at rest, they might be more amenable. It was not to be. One man, wearing black slacks, a white shirt, sunglasses and black baseball cap, shadowed me. He moved to stand between me and anyone I had hoped to interview.

I looked him directly in the eye.

“How’s it going, Shlomo?” he asked.

“My name is Ron,” I said. I hadn’t identified myself as Jewish.

60 Years Experience With Jewish Lettering and Memorials

“You look like a Shlomo.”

“You want to talk?” I offered.

“I don’t talk to the press,” he said. “ey just lie.” He scampered away. e exchange was jarring in how personal it was. I’ve been hated directly for many things (try being a journalist, anywhere), but it had been a while -- I’d have to cast back to early childhood -- since I’d faced visceral hatred just for, well, looking Jewish.

Among the 500 white supremacists were men and women bearing signs like “Goyim know!” (Know what?) and “Jews are satans children.” ere were Nazi flags. ere were men all in black, T-shirts and slacks and army boots and helmets, jogging along with plastic shields. ere were the men who sang of “blood and soil” as they marched to the Emancipation Park event. And when the white supremacists got their act together and gathered in McIntire Park, they shouted “Jew” every time the name of Charlotteville’s Jewish mayor, Michael Signer, was mentioned.

Of course, the hostility was not confined to Jews: As targets, Jews were not even preeminent; blacks were. ere were the “White lives matter” T-shirts. Marching along McIntire Road, the white supremacists shouted the N-word at drivers passing by. More prominent than the Nazi flags were the Confederate flags and their variants. e focus on Jews was anomalous: is was supposed to be about the Confederacy and Southern heritage, and defenders of the Southern cause are not always identified with hostility toward Jews. About an hour’s drive away, Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery, a Confederate monument, has a carefully tended Jewish section. And yet here it was, the chants of “Jews will not replace us” (as?).

And then the car rammed the crowd, and there was a fatality, and some 35 injured, including five critically, and it was harder to pick out the absurd and use that as a way of keeping an emotional distance from the hate speech. I counted the wounded, rushed by stretchers into the back of ambulances, the less seriously injured patched up with torn cloths, leaning on friends’ shoulders and wincing.

Editor’s note: read the full story at http://www.jta.org/2017 /08/13/news-opinion/politics/hate-in-charlottesville-the-daythe-nazi-called-me-shlomo.

Researchers find Jewish headstones at Babi Yar JTA Nazi troops dumped dozens of stolen Jewish headstones at the same site near Kiev where they murdered tens of thousands of Jews, researchers in Ukraine discovered.

The Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center last month extracted 50 headstones from the Babi Yar ravine, where Nazis and local collaborators murdered more than 150,00 people, including 50,000 Jews, starting in September 1941.

“The tombstones were removed from a local Jewish cemetery during the Holocaust and thrown into the same ravines where over 150,000 Jews, Roma people and Ukrainians were murdered during the Holo-

Wherever you go

Continued from page 10 Rabbi visit in Cancun, Mexico, where he shared responsibilities with Yossi Katzman of Omaha.

More than 350 Chabad rabbis and students are traveling around the world this season, not only throughout the United States, but in communities around the world including in Europe, Asia, and all other parts of the Americas, even further fulfilling the Rebbe’s dream of spreading the message of “No Jew Left Behind” to every small town and to every corner of the globe.

They also are reminding Jews about Rosh Hashanah, the

caust,” Marek Siwiec, a former Polish politician and current head of the memorial center, said in a statement earlier this week about the discovery.

With a mandate from the Ukrainian government, Siwiec’s organization, which was set up last year, is heading international efforts to commemorate the Babi Yar tragedy in a manner befitting its scale. Jewish victims are memorialized at the site only by an unfenced six-foot menorah, which is situated near a dumping ground for industrial waste and is vandalized regularly. Additional headstones from Jewish graves are scattered in the ravine but they require careful excavations to be extracted intact

Jewish New Year. It begins on the evening of Sept. 20, and ends in the evening of Sept. 22. Chabad’s service and meal schedule are available at www.ochabad.com, as well as a schedule of many exciting, pre-holiday events.

This free service has regularly brought young rabbis to Omaha to help bring the Jewish community together. Denburg and Gopin are expected to visit with over 200 community members by the time their two-week visit comes to an end. If you would like to arrange a meeting or coffee date and be touched by their enthusiasm and optimism, please contact Chabad at 402.330.1800 or email rachel@ochabad.com.

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12 | The Jewish Press | August 18, 2017

usnews

The Forward’s Jewish college guide: What does it take to be the ‘best?’

GabE FriEdman JTA or Jewish high schoolers worried about which colleges to apply to this fall — and, most likely, their parents — the Forward has released a guide to the “best colleges for Jewish students.” e easy-to-navigate web guide, published Aug. 8, is laid out in a ranked list. According to the Forward’s research and methodology, Emory University in Atlanta is the best school for Jews. e University of Pennsylvania, Washington University in St. Louis, Harvard, Vanderbilt, Tulane, Cornell, Brown, Columbia and American U. in Washington round out the top 10, in that order. e list ranks 171 schools.

Clicking on any school gives the reader a plethora of Jewish statistics and details about the college, ranging from its percentage of Jewish students to a detailed description of its kosher food options to the number of synagogues within 10 miles of campus. ere are even mentions of a school’s “Most famous Jewish alumnus,” the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the past year and whether or not its student government has introduced a resolution endorsing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. e Forward guide joins similar resources from Reform Judaism magazine, which last put out a ranking in 2014, and Hillel International, whose annual guidebook and web page describes schools according to Jewish population, availability of kosher food, Hillel houses and Jewish studies courses.

But like any college ranking, these guides can be idiosyncratic.

Some may be surprised that schools such as Brandeis (No. 18 on the Forward list), Yeshiva University (20), Binghamton (25) or the University of Maryland (26) — colleges known for having a high percentage of Jewish students and plenty of resources for them — are not ranked higher by the Forward.

For others, the Forward’s top 10, which is top heavy with Ivy League and other elite schools, may look like a slightly altered version of U.S. News & World Report’s annual list. is is because the Forward decided to integrate academic performance and, to a lesser degree, cost into its calculations, and not just specifically “Jewish” criteria.

The Forward ranked Emory University as the best school for Jewish students.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons In an accompanying article describing the methodology, editor Laura Adkins explains that each school received four different scores: from a total of 100, up to 40 points were given based on quality of Jewish life, 30 points for academic factors, 20 points for the vibrancy of an “Israel scene” on campus and 10 points for affordability.

Adkins and her colleague Aiden Pink gathered data and information for the guide using the Hillel International college guide (which focuses on general statistics like percentage of Jewish students and includes extensive information about each school’s Hillel chapter), U.S. News & World Report, the Princeton Review and the AMCHA initiative, which tracks anti-Semitic incidents. e Jewish life category focuses on “the availability and

LAST CHANCE!

ROSH HaShanah Greetings 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.

diversity of Jewish institutions on campus, the presence of nearby synagogues (both for praying on High Holidays away from home and for Sunday school jobs to make some extra money), active Jewish student clubs, attendance at Shabbat services, the presence of an eruv, the availability of kosher food, options for a Jewish studies degree, Jewish scholarships, Jewish Greek life, the size of the Jewish population and, of course, anti-Semitism.” e Israel category analyzes a school’s “average Birthright trip size, active Israel clubs across the political and ideological spectrums, Israel study abroad options, Israel studies programs, and the presence or absence of a formal BDS resolution in the student government or in student referenda.”

By incorporating academics and cost factors into the project, the Forward invites a lively debate about what “best” means in a Jewish context. For example, is Brown, an Ivy League school with a student body that is 15 percent Jewish, a “better” school for Jewish students than Yeshiva, a university affiliated with the modern Orthodox movement (and whose undergraduate population is nearly 100 percent Jewish)? Does mighty New York University (ranking: 12), with 3,500 Jewish students out of 25,722 undergraduates, promise a better Jewish experience than tiny Muhlenberg College (52) in Allentown, Pennsylvania, whose 613 Jewish students make up 26 percent of the student body?

You could say the Forward ranking reflects the various categories that Jewish students and their parents might use to decide what “best” means when it comes to a college — and that for many if not most Jews, academics and affordability cannot be separated from quality of Jewish life and an active Israel experience.

But don’t get hung up on the rankings. e well-researched guide is a deep dive into the state of Jewish life on campus, and more than one of the 171 schools listed may be just right for you.

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Rosh Hashanah Greetings Form Name ________________________________________________________________________________ Address ______________________________________________________________________________ City ___________________________________________________ State ___________ Zip ___________ Check the size of ad you would like: O A O B O C Use the lines below to list your family members names you would like on your Rosh Hashanah ad. ______________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Please send a check for the amount listed along side the different sized ads or you can drop the form and payment off at the Jewish Press office in the JCC. The Jewish Press, 333 South 132 Street, Omaha, NE 68154

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