September 3, 2021: Rosh Hashanah Edition

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A2 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

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A New Year

This has been an incredibly difficult year in many respects, for many people. And so, we should be excited to start over; never mind that the calendar doesn’t necessarily dictate how our lives are affected or whether a virus disappears or not. We are facing a new beginning and we have every right to take it as an excuse for some much-needed optimism.

Optimism: it’s the one medicine that we have sorely missed out on in recent times. It’s not easy to find our inner Pollyanna when the death toll continues to climb because of something we can’t even see with the naked eye. When we can’t be with loved ones, can’t travel, can’t do many of the things we have so long taken for granted. Even now, when some restrictions have been lifted and there are days when things feel almost ‘normal,’ we know full well we are not out of the woods.

And so we have to dig deep (much deeper than we had to during the first few months) for that optimism, but find it we must.

Optimism is a very Jewish concept. How else can we explain the fact that we’re still here? The theme for this Rosh Hashanah edition of the Jewish Press highlights stories from the Diaspora, both our own and how we have interacted with others when they were displaced. These are stories that illustrate perfectly how optimism can move mountains.

As always, we only scratched the surface; there are forever more stories to tell and we never fool ourselves into thinking these issues can be entirely complete. In fact, the best thing that can happen when you read is that it reminds you of another story, other people, more facts about our community and those who are part of it. By telling our stories, we can remember why we are here and why we are grateful to be part of this community. See? Optimism.

We want to thank the community, first of all, for sticking with us. This has been a hard year. In the middle of this pandemic, we have to figure out how this paper, this agency, will continue to be relevant and how we can continue to tell our community’s story.

We also want to thank the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the JFO Board of Directors and all the volunteers who help us do our work. Thank you to Pam Friedlander, Andi Goldstein, Margaret Kirkeby and Ann Rosenblatt for diligently proofreading the Jewish Press week after week. As always, any typos left are entirely the editor’s doing.

Personally, I want to thank the Jewish Press staff. Richard Busse, Creative Director, you know why I love and adore you; Lori Kooper Schwarz, thank you for your great sense of humor and for always being the reasonable voice in my ear, we all know I need that; Gabby Blair, thank you for your extreme flexibility and the joy you bring; thank you to Sam Kricsfeld for being a great writer, understanding many things I don’t and for always laughing at my jokes. Last but not least, thank

you to Susan Bernard, who keeps selling ads no matter what happens. Thank you all for sticking it out- you are a great team.

Here’s to a great 5782- may it be a pleasant, sweet, happy and healthy year, with a plethora of hugs and synagogue activities and deli lunches at the RBJH and in-person classes and family dinners. Here’s to optimism.

Shana Tova Umetukah, ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | A3

Rosh Hashanah The Soviet Jewry Campaign: A timeline SUE FISHKOFF April 1964: The national organizations are created, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry in New York and the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry in Washington, D.C. May 1, 1964: 1,000 Jewish students protest outside the Soviet Mission to the United Nations in New York, the first such street demonstration on behalf of Soviet Jewry.

June 1967: Israel’s lightning victory in the SixDay War galvanizes world Jewry. Soviet Jews become more openly Zionist and, thousands apply for exit visas. The Soviet Union virtually cuts off emigration in response, creating “refuseniks.”

American Jews raise their voices in protest.

1971: Following the Leningrad Trial of December 1970, which handed down harsh sentences to a handful of refuseniks who tried to hijack a plane to Israel, 27 American Jewish organizations come together to create the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), the successor to the AJCSJ. Together with the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ), it launches a major advocacy effort for Soviet Jewry in Washington. Meanwhile, the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry begins holding ‘Solidarity Sundays,’ mass demonstrations on behalf of Soviet Jews.

1971-1973: Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union increases.

August 1972: Soviet Union imposes a “diploma tax” on emigres.

January 1975: The Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the Trade Bill of 1974 restricts benefits to nonmarket countries that limit free emigration, an open challenge to Soviet restrictions on Jewish emigration. Human rights are now tied to U.S. trade policy.

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1975-1977: Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union decreases dramatically.

1977-1979: Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union inches upward again, then stops almost entirely after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Altogether, about 200,000 Soviet Jews left for Israel this decade.

1979-1980s: Very few Jews are permitted to leave the Soviet Union. Support groups abroad sponsor secret visits to refuseniks.

Dec. 6, 1987: 250,000 people gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to demand free-

dom for Soviet Jews, the largest Soviet Jewry rally in history, on the eve of a summit conference between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Among them is a contingent from Omaha, led by Shirley Goldstein.

Late 1988: Soviet restrictions on Jewish emigration ease. By 1989, the doors are opening wide. Half a million Jews leave in two years.

August 1991: The Soviet Union is formally dissolved. By the end of the decade, more than 1.3 million Jews have left for Israel, the United States, Germany and elsewhere.

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The tragedy of the St. Louis Miriam Simon ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor Until she moved to Palm Springs, Florida, in 2001, Miriam Simon lived in Omaha. She was born Miriam Rubitz to Abraham and Esther, and was a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. While at UNL, she majored in music and received additional training to become a Med Tech. She married Ervin Simon in 1945 and dedicated countless hours to our community. She was president of Hadassah, the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations and Beth El’s Sisterhood. She organized and served as the first chair of the League of Volunteers for the Elderly (LOVE).

Once she moved to Florida, she didn’t exactly slow down: she served as philanthropies chairman for the Jewish Federation of Volusia and Flager counties and was honored as volunteer of the year—twice.

Most of all, she is remembered for her work with the Soviet Jewish Resettlement Committee. In 1980, Jewish Family Service named her

the Volunteer of the Year for that work: “Miriam has given of herself tirelessly and endlessly to help resettle Russian Jewish immigrants in the Omaha area. Miriam has

The St. Louis in the port of Hamburg

worked beyond the call of duty, often without the assistance of any staff whatsoever, to coordinate the services of scores of dedicated volunteers in order to enable successful resettlement of these immigrants. Time after time, Miriam has given of herself and sacrificed her own personal desires, her family’s desires and needs to be helpful in a loving and caring way.”

(Jewish Press, 1-25-1980) Miriam’s own parents had come from Russia in 1910.

“They had been married a relatively short time,” she told Jerry Freeman during a 1986 See Miriam Simon page A7

Michael Halsted, MD Matt Appenzeller, MD Mark Emig, MD Michael Feilmeier, MD Jill Grennan, MD Jesse Himebaugh, MD

David Ingvoldstad, MD Rachel Mercer, MD Martin Mizener, MD Bliss E. O’Bryhim, MD Madeline D. Ripa, MD

Zachary Brown, OD Mindy Dickinson, OD Teri Geist, OD Scott Greder, OD

Abigail Jackson, OD Krystal Wells, OD Matt Willis, OD

SAM KRICSFELD The story of the St. Louis is tragic and infuriating. It highlights the past failures of people in power to show iotas of respect for Jewish lives. As Jews were being persecuted and executed throughout Germany, the rest of the world was reluctant to accept Jewish refugees or do anything about the crimes against fellow human lives.

On May 13, 1939, the M.S. St. Louis departed from Hamburg carrying 937 passengers - most were Jewish refugees fleeing the ever-worsening situation in Germany.

Kristallnacht had occurred less than a year earlier. The St. Louis, captained by Gustav Schroeder (a man disgusted with Nazism and his country’s treatment of Jews), was heading for Cuba. Much to the passengers’ and Schroeder’s uneasiness, the St. Louis, part of the Hamburg-Amerika Line (Hapag), had a large Nazi flag flying above it and a large portrait of Adolf Hitler in the social hall.

According to the United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum, most passengers had applied for United States visas and only planned to stay in Cuba until they were granted access to the U.S. According to Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts’s book, Voyage of the Damned, all passengers were required to pay 230 Reichsmarks (on top of their already expensive tickets) as a “customary contingency fee” in case of a return voyage.

According to Thomas and Morgan-Witts, Captain Schroeder insisted to the crew that the passengers, despite being Jewish and refugees, must be treated as well as the typical tourists who sailed on the St. Louis. Hapag wanted all the ship’s luxury goods to be switched out for cheaper products, but Schroeder ignored the instruction. When Orthodox passengers boarded and were jostled

by Gestapo customs officers, Schroeder threatened to “raise all hell” if the passengers were not treated better. Schroeder also yelled at Nazi propaganda ministry photographers See Tragedy of the St. Louis page A6

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The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | A5

Beth El’s Welcome the Stranger initiative: A five year reflection

GABBY BLAIR Jewish Press Staff Writer Included in this article are excerpts, quotes and information from a piece previously published by The Jewish Press in 2016.

In a 2016 article written by Ozzy Nogg, she explores the ideas and people behind Beth El’s Welcome the Stranger Initiative.

“The commandment to care for the stranger is mentioned more times than any other commandment in the Torah. In text and prayer we are taught, You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. Turning this precept into action, Beth El Synagogue helped welcome a Syrian refugee family to Omaha. Launching the project took hours of volunteer effort, but when the family — mom, dad and five young children — landed at Eppley Airport on Sept. 19, 2016 hearts and hands joined to bring this ancient teaching to life,” she writes.

“As Jews, we are obligated to help Jews,” said Rabbi Steven Abraham. “We are also obligated to help non-Jews. We are obligated to help the widow, the orphan and the stranger. With the refugee crisis growing across the globe, I felt our congregation should get involved, hands-on.”

That summer, an article in the Omaha World Herald written by Matthew Hansen caught the eye of Beth El congregant and board member, Allan Murow, he shares in a 2021 interview.

“It was an insightful and heartbreaking article about what was happening in Syria. It really stuck with me. That same evening we had a board meeting at Beth El and Rabbi Abraham asked if anyone had happened to read it. This opened a dialogue between us and we were moved to do something...it seems like so many times ‘thoughts and prayers’ are offered, but little else. Being inspired to do something is meaningless without action.”

He continues. “As Jews, we have been the persecuted. We have been the stranger. The refugee. We have been turned away. Even so, we do not have a monopoly on atrocities. In spite of all the Jewish people have been through, we are here; we have been blessed and we are commanded to action. We are in a position to do good in the world and precisely because of our experiences, we have empathy and obligation to do so.”

The first step was presenting the idea of the Welcome the Stranger Initiative to the Beth El Board of Trustees.

Rabbi Abraham shared in 2016, “It was widely supported and Allan Murow immediately volunteered to help make it a reality. We reached out to Lacey Studnicka at Lutheran Family Services, who had been mentioned in the OWH article.”

The largest refugee resettlement agency in the state, Lutheran Family Services (LFS) welcomes refugees from all over the world and provides human care services, as well as safety and hope, to individuals and families.

The trio met on August 2, 2016, and Beth El offered support and sponsorship to a refugee family from any background.

This was the first time LFS in Omaha had joined forces with a Jewish organization.

“Considering the general leanings of politics in Nebraska, I was surprised and proud to find out that our state is one of the most open and welcoming to refugees,” shares Murow.

Rabbi Abraham sent out an email blast within a week of the meeting calling for congregational help; by Aug. 23 over sixty Beth El members had volunteered to assist, with Diane Malashock, Shira Abraham, Tippi Denenberg and Lennie Greenspoon stepping up as committee chairs.

On Aug. 31, Ms. Studnicka informed the Synagogue that a Syrian family was scheduled to arrive just twenty days later, on Sept. 19, 2016.

“Lacey asked if we wanted to sponsor the family,” Murow said. “Even with such short notice, our committee chairs decided, ‘We can do this.’ Without their passion, organization and attention to detail, none of this would have been possible.

They worked smart, and at warp speed.”

“We are so honored to be partnering with Beth El Synagogue in our shared calling to welcome the stranger, as they co-sponsor a Syrian refugee family,” Studnicka said back in 2016. “We look forward to strengthening our relationship with the Omaha Jewish Community and are so grateful for the love and generosity that has been poured into this partnership.”

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“An SOS went out to the congregation asking for donations of all items a house needs, and the the outpouring was just amazing,” said Diane Malashock and Shira Abraham. “Congregants donated everything from money to furniture and everything in between. Others helped circulate Rabbi’s original email among non-Jewish friends, so we received many donations from outside the Beth El community, too. I’m so proud to be a part of such a generous community. “ Volunteers worked quickly to prepare the apartment for the family’s arrival. Furniture was delivered and set up. The apartment was decorated and closets were filled with clothes, toiletries, linens, and toys. The kitchen was stocked with dishes, appliances, food and halal meat. Nothing was overlooked.

Gloria Kaslow, who participated in welcoming the family at the airport, put the event in an historical context.

“For those of us who were involved with the resettlement of the Russian Jews into our community twenty-five years ago, I look at this new young family of refugees who have been transported into the middle of a new country and know the challenges they face, but also the amazing prospects for their future. It feels wonderful to be part of their journey, to help them settle in, to help teach them English and to forge relationships between our two faith communities.”

Allan Murow is thoughtful when asked to reflect on 2021 marking the fifth anniversary since the family’s arrival.

“I cannot believe its been five years... the family has accomplished so much in relatively little time. From the day they arrived in Omaha from a Jordanian refugee camp through today, where they have become self sufficient members of American society is just remarkable. When our congregation signed up to help, little did we know we’d become this family’s Jewish mother,” he jokes.

“Community members gave time and love from the heart and did everything possible to ease their transition. From teaching them how to use the kitchen stove to driving lessons and license preparation to enrolling and transporting kids to school... from helping secure employment to learning English to helping navigate the mind boggling amount of paperwork required for just about everything...now they have put down roots, built community and own a home. They have grown their family and are B”H, living their American Dream. The best part is that this family and others we have aided- have become so much more than just some people we helped that one time...

They have become treasured friends and part of our family.”

See Welcome the Stranger page A8

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Happy Rosh Hashanah

Refugees on the St. Louis call down to their friends and family surrounding the ship in small boats in Cuba.

Happy Rosh Hashanah FROM ANNIE AND PJ MORGAN

Continued from page A4 taking photos of those boarding as “proof ” that Jews were subhuman and unworthy of German citizenship. Despite Schroeder’s protesting, the photos reached Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, who proceeded to publicize accusations that Jews were boarding the St. Louis with stolen money.

The Cuban government and media were also unfriendly towards the Jews. According to the USHMM, Cuba’s largest antisemitic demonstration in its history happened less than a week before the St. Louis’s departure.

The Cuban press was against Jews and Jewish refugees, as Cuban public opinion considered refugees “competitors” for scarce jobs during an economic downturn. Cuban president Federico Laredo Bru had just closed a loophole which had allowed Cuban Director General of Immigration Manuel Benitez Gonzalez to illegally charge money for landing permits based on a technicality. The ordinance, Decree 937, nullified landing permits and was one of Bru’s reasons for eventually rejecting the St. Louis.

According to Thomas and Morgan-Witts, one passenger on the voyage died and received a burial at sea, and a crewmember committed suicide by jumping overboard.

Meanwhile, Captain Schroeder was receiving cryptic and mixed messages from Hapag and Cuba which indicated that there may be a problem upon reaching Havana.

According to Thomas and Morgan-Witts, upon arrival in Cuba on May 27, floating undocked in the harbor, the St. Louis was surrounded by rowboats selling tropical fruit.

Eventually, family members already in Cuba circled the ship in small boats and shouted up to their family aboard. Cuban police boarded, but the ship sat in the harbor for another five days. According to the USHMM, only 22 Jewish passengers (and six non-refugee passengers) were allowed off the St. Louis in Cuba.

One man slit his wrists and jumped overboard, resulting in his admittance to a Havana hospital.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ( JDC) was involved in negotiations with the Cuban government, but to no avail. On June 2, Bru ordered the St. Louis out of Cuban waters. Schroeder sailed north towards Florida. According to the USHMM, some passengers cabled U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt but received no answer.

The American role in the tragedy of the St. Louis was cold and political. The U.S. had implemented a quota of only 27,370 German and Austrian immigrants per year. According to the USHMM, the waiting list for immigrants to the “Land of Opportunity” was years long.

U.S. officials said that the passengers of the St. Louis had to wait their turn. Soon to be seeking a third term, Roosevelt did not issue an executive order allowing the ship’s passengers to land in the U.S. due to the public’s opposition to relaxing immigration restrictions - al-

lowing the immigrants in could harm his chances of reelection.

Canada also denied the refugees entry. According to History.com editors, Frederick Blair, Canada’s immigration director, said at the time, “No country could open its doors wide enough to take in the hundreds of thousands of Jewish people who want to leave Europe: the line must be drawn somewhere.”

Schroeder and his passengers began to sail dejectedly back towards Europe on June 6, now running low on food and water.

The saga of the St. Louis garnered plenty of news coverage, and the outcry among Jewish Americans was strong. In the 1939 Rosh Hashanah edition of the Omaha Jewish Press, the editor published a syndicated opinion piece by writer Sholem Asch.

“Just imagine that Hitler had sent out, instead of 900 men, women and children, a shipload of cats and dogs on a crippled ship and shoved it off into the ocean,” Asch wrote.

“How this barbaric act would have aroused the conscience of the people, the Christian love, the moral indignation of our entire civilization! ... But here at stake were only human beings, only Jews who were shoved off into the ocean. They were compelled to find an open gate or to die! And what difference how one dies - on the bottom of the sea or in the abyss called Germany?”

Meanwhile, the JDC was negotiating with European governments to get entry visas for the St. Louis’s passengers. According to the JDC website, it made a cash guarantee of $500,000 to make the arrangement with the European governments feasible. The JDC was successful, and the remaining 907 Jewish refugees were admitted to various European countries after docking in Antwerp, Belgium.

According to the USHMM, Great Britain took 288 passengers, the Netherlands took 181, Belgium took 214 and France took 224.

According to the USHMM, only 87 of the passengers who returned to continental Europe managed to emigrate before the Nazis invaded western Europe. The remaining 532 suffered in the Holocaust. Only 278 survived.

According to the JDC website, it supported the last of the British St. Louis refugees until 1948. Due to Nazi occupation, outside aid was eventually severed to the refugees in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

According to Thomas and Morgan-Witts, Schroeder survived World War II and lived until 1959. In 1957, West Germany gave Schroeder a citation and medal “for the part he played in saving the lives of his passengers on the voyage to Cuba.” On March 11, 1993, Yad Vashem honored Schroeder as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” for his dedication to his passengers’ safety and refusing to return them to Germany.

According to Thomas and Morgan-Witts, the St. Louis was damaged by the British Royal Air Force in 1944, and “at war’s end See The St. Louis page A7

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | A7

Miriam Simon The St. Louis

Continued from page A4 interview. “My father was a cabinet maker. He lost his father when he was very young and his mother remarried. He didn’t get along with his stepfather and eventually left home and was strictly on his own. He couldn’t afford to go to school, but he studied and took the examination from the gymnasium and passed. My mother, on the other hand, came from a more affluential family. My mother was a pharmacist in Russia, she had her own drugstore. She sold the drugstore when they got married so that they could come to the United States where, of course, all the streets were paved with rubles.

My father had a burning desire to be a doctor but of course when they came here they had no money. They didn’t speak English and came to Omaha because they had relatives here.”

Miriam’s father eventually became more familiar with the language and managed to pass the entrance exam to medical school. He attended medical school and interned at Weiss Memorial Hospital. Dr. Rubnitz ended up delivering quite a few members of the Omaha Jewish community and eventually specialized and became a pathologist.

No wonder that when Miriam had the opportunity to visit Moscow and Leningrad in 1973, she grabbed on with both hands. She and daughter Julie traveled with Shirley Goldstein and her daughter Gail. Her main goal was to meet her cousins and discuss with them their willingness to immigrate to Israel and offer them help. Since it was too dangerous to meet inside the hotel, they had to meet outside in the bitter cold. The introduction to her family’s hardship made Miriam’s interest in the fate of Russian Jewry grow exponentially.

Back in Omaha, they went to a community meeting and announced it was time for Omaha to get involved. Since 1968, some Russian Jews had been sponsored by Jewish commu-

nities elsewhere in the US, and Omaha followed in their footsteps and began sponsoring Russian Jewish immigrants.

As the chair of the Resettlement Program here in Omaha, Miriam organized apartments, furnishings, transportation, medicine and welcoming new arrivals. Miriam also worked hard on funding on a more permanent basis.

From 1975 until 1980, a total of 120 Russian Jews were resettled in Omaha. Then, in 1989, Miriam and Shirley did it again: the Soviet Union allowed for more people to leave. The United Jewish Appeal launched a special “Passage to Freedom” campaign; Shirley and Miriam, together with Leonard Goldstein, chaired the Omaha part of that campaign. Ultimately, more than 200 families were resettled in Omaha.

“Shirley Goldstein and Miriam Simon met us at Eppley,” wrote Leah Kosinovsky, “with a bucket of mysterious colored carnations, and a warm welcome to Omaha. Shirley and Miriam, Miriam and Shirley, they were always there for us, trying to help with all the necessities. They were our 911. I remember, our son and his friend got off the summer school bus at the wrong place just a few weeks after our arrival. Luyckily, they had a coin to call home. We called Miriam right away (somehow she understood us!) and she went on the ride along the bus route to find them. Of course, she found them and brought them to school.”

Asya Dobin wrote: “My special gratitude is to Miriam Simon. She introduced me to the Director of the Genetics Department of Boys Town National Research Hospital, Dr. William Kimberling. It was a very serious interview. Miriam drove me and tried to calm me down, but she was no less nervous than I was.”

Miriam Simon died in 2010 at the age of 88. May her memory be for a blessing—and an example to all of us.

Continued from page A6 [laid] as a burned-out hulk in Hamburg Harbor.” It was temporarily used as a floating hotel but was eventually sold for scrap in 1950.

The survivors of the St. Louis held reunions. According to a JTA article in the Press from June 23, 1989, the 50th anniversary reunion was solemn. On a chartered boat rechristened St. Louis, 27 survivors sailed on Biscayne Bay. Accompanying the boat were the rotting remains of a racing boat rumored to have been Hitler’s personal yacht, which was then sunk in the bay to become part of an artificial reef.

According to a Jewish News of Northern California article from March 13, 2010, 33 survivors between the ages of 71 and 91 attended the 70th anniversary reunion. They came from across the U.S., Canada and Israel, and were presented with a U.S. Senate resolution that acknowledges that the U.S. “honors the memory of the 937 refugees aboard the St. Louis…, acknowledges the suffering of those refugees by the refusal of the United States, Cuban, and Canadian governments to provide them political asylum,” and recognizes the anniversary.

A formal apology came in 2012, when then-Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns said to 14 survivors, “Our government did not live up to its ideals. We were wrong.”

According to Reuters, in 2018, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized for “the callousness of Canada’s response.” He apologized for Canada not apologizing sooner.

Cuba has not issued any apology.

Now, over 82 years have passed since the passengers of the St. Louis were turned away from Cuba, the U.S. and Canada.

The heartlessness and overt politicization of Jewish lives will forever remain a damning example of antisemitism. According to Forward, Herbert Karliner, one of the last survivors of the St. Louis, died in June at age 94. As we lose the remaining survivors, we must remember the story of the St. Louis, its passengers, and the dark side of humanity.

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A8 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

Welcome the Stranger The Jews of Cochin But then, things became a little more complicated.

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT When the Portuguese occupied the Kingdom of Cochin, Jewish Press Editor There are different names for the oldest Jews in India. they allegedly discriminated against its Jews. Nevertheless, to Cochin Jews, Kochinim, or Malabar Jews claim roots dating some extent they shared language and culture, so even more back to the times of King Jews came to live under PorSolomon. In the 12th century, tuguese rule (actually, the a Jewish traveler, Benjamin of Spanish crown between 1580 Tudela, wrote the following: and 1640). The Protestant “Throughout the island live Dutch killed the Raja of several thousand Israelites.

Cochin, who was an ally of the The inhabitants are all black, Portuguese, plus 1600 Indians and the Jews also. The latter in 1662, during their siege of are good and benevolent. They Cochin. The Jews, having supknow the law of Moses and the ported the Dutch military atprophets, and to a small extent tempt, suffered the retaliation the Talmud and Halacha.” of both the Portuguese and the The oldest known grave Malabar population. One year marker of a Cochin Jew was later, the Dutch tried again and written in Hebrew and was this time they were successful.

Fort Cochin, Kerala, India Credit: Alkan de Beaumont Chaglar, li- After they killed the Pordated at 1269 C.E. A second group made its censed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. tuguese, they demolished most way to Cochin, India, in the 16th century, a consequence of Catholic churches or turned them into Protestant churches their expulsion from Spain and Portugal. Some of them moved (they usually did so by simply smashing all the statues and north to the Netherlands; the majority moved east. (Amster- crucifixes). The Dutch were more tolerant of the Jews than the dam to this day has an operational Portuguese synagogue). Portuguese-at least in this part of the world. Around that same These Sephardic Jews spoke Ladino when they came, but time, New York was still New Amsterdam and the Dutch rules learned the local language, Judeo-Mayalayam. They remained there were a lot less friendly to the Jews. separate and became known as Paradesi Jews, meaning ‘forAlong with China and Georgia, India is one of the only parts eigners.’ Sometimes they were called ‘white Jews.’ Both the of Eurasia where anti-Semitism never really took root. What ‘Black Jews’ and the ‘White Jews’ claimed they were the true existed came from the British and the Portuguese, mostly. inheritors of Jewish culture. There were tensions; the EuroWhen India gained independence and Israel became a state pean Jews had trade links to Europe and spoke the languages in 1948, the Malabar community moved there; the majority of that allowed them to conduct international trade. This re- the Paradesi Jews, however, moved to Australia and other sulted in political and financial benefits.

Commonwealth countries.

Continued from page A5 He continues, “Since sponsoring our first family, Beth El has been active in helping to Welcome the Stranger whenever the opportunity arises. We sponsored and helped to settle a family from Myanmar; we have helped secure and furnish apartments for Afghan refugees arriving on Special Immigration Visas after their family’s lives were threatened by the Taliban in retaliation for working with the U.S. military. I am so proud of our community for doing such meaningful and important work and for staying involved as much as each new immigrant family desires.”

Rabbi Abraham shared in 2016 that, “welcoming the family from Syria was one of the most emotional nights of my life and one I will not soon forget. Beth El Synagogue gave this family a new start on life in a new world. Our children play together not caring about race, color, creed or country of origin. What began as an idea became reality thanks to so many. I can’t help but believe that our grandparents and great-grandparents, many of them refugees to this country, are looking down on us and smiling, knowing that we have finally learned the true meaning of the verse, “You shall love the stranger, for you were once a stranger in a strange land.”

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The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | A9

A final blow: The Cyprus detainment camps and illegal immigration to Israel thought they were “better” than the detainees SAM KRICSFELD Less than 150 miles northeast of Israel is since they had been responsible for settling the tiny island nation of Cyprus. Now a popu- the land. lar tourist destination for Israelis, it was once Ofer writes that upon arrival, immigrants the land of detainment camps for Jewish im- were unhappy with some of the ways of Ismigrants illegally entering British-controlled raeli life. “Seen up close,” she writes, “the sparMandatory Palestine after the Holocaust. tan life of a collective settlement [kibbutz] From 1920 until 1948, the land we now know as Israel was occupied and run by the British as Mandatory Palestine. The number of Jews fleeing from postwar Europe was far exceeding the immigration quotas for Mandatory Palestine, forcing many who wanted to get to their spiritual homeland and a better life to try to enter illegally.

According to Arieh J. Kochavi in The Struggle against Jewish Immigration Above: Caraolos Detainment Camp Credit: Public Domain and to Palestine, “[British] min- below: Dekhelia Detainment Camp Credit: Public Domain. isters were told that the only way to prevent an Arab uprising and a simultaneous war with both the Arabs and with the Jews was to deport the illegal immigrants.” Another announcement from the British government condemned the illegal immigration, calling it “a highly organized movement” led by “unscrupulous people” who were breaking the laws and exploiting distress. It also blamed immigrants for “exacerbating the did not look so romantic... The rules and regtension between Arabs and Jews, some of ulations of collective life were somewhat whom were joining terrorist organizations in reminiscent of the camps.” Some immigrants Palestine.” In August of 1946, the British estab- who came from the Soviet Union and the lished detainment/ internment camps for the Balkans, who “generally detested the policies illegal immigrants in Cyprus, a territory also of the Communist parties,” saw a strong reunder their control. semblance between kibbutzim and commuAccording to Rakefet Zalashik and Nadav nism. As an incentive, kibbutzim offered 52 Davidovitch in Measuring Adaptability: Psy- days of Hebrew study, days for travel, and sochological Examinations of Jewish Detainees in cial activities.

Cyprus Internment Camps, there were nine According to Ofer, the immigrants who did camps at two sites, Caraolos and Dekhelia, at not go to kibbutzim received necessities from the peak of the detainment crisis. The camps the Jewish Agency for Israel, including assisin Dekhelia housed detainees in huts, and the tance in housing. The housing situation was ones in Caraolos housed them in tents. unpleasant – four individuals would share a According to Zalashik and Davidovitch, a single room. The Jewish Agency also rented psychiatric delegation that was sent to survey out rooms in private homes and paid six the “mental hygiene” of the detainees was ap- months’ rent. Health insurance was provided palled at the conditions in the camps. The by the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor huts in Dekhelia were poorly ventilated and in Israel) or Hadassah-sponsored hospitals extremely hot, and the floors of the tents in after 1946.

Caraolos would turn to mud and soak all the After the War of Independence, the Israeli occupants’ belongings every time it rained. job market was in turmoil. According to Ofer, There was a lack of sanitation, furnishings, the Jewish Agency prioritized getting jobs for and food. Most pressing was the lack of water immigrants in construction and agriculture.

– it was only available for three hours a day in Some immigrants were sent to moshavot kitchens and washrooms, and would often ( farmer communities) and were concerned come out steaming hot. about job security because of seasonal crops Dalia Ofer, author of Holocaust Survivors as and no opportunity for career development.

Immigrants: The Case of Israel and the Cyprus The camps operated until January of 1949 Detainees, writes that from November of 1946 – after the State of Israel was established, the until May of 1948, detainees were allowed into British still took months to release the inMandatory Palestine at a rate of 750 people ternees out of the camps. Over 51,000 Jews per month. Overall, 60% of the detainees had were interned in Cyprus between August 1946 come from displaced persons camps in Eu- and January 1949. People all too familiar with rope. Three quarters of those between the camps and terrible living conditions were ages 12 and 18 had lost both parents before once again detained in their journey towards their arrival at the detainment camps. Over a better life.

2,000 babies were born in the Cyprus camps.

The Cyprus detainment camps and immiAs the immigrants began entering Manda- gration troubles were only two of the great tory Palestine/Israel, there were significant struggles that met the State of Israel upon its absorption pains. According to Ofer, the Jew- creation. Israel flourished since then, but the ish residents already living there held miscon- Cyprus camps remain in the minds of its deceptions about the detainees, believing that tainees and the minds of their children. It was they were selfish, unwilling to work, and had a final blow to the Jewish people before they a “survivalist mentality.” The residents also could control their homeland.

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This High Holiday season, as we seek spiritual and physical renewal for ourselves and our loved ones, let us also remember those in Israel who nurture and renew life every day. Whether it’s treating civilians wounded in terror and rocket attacks or vaccinating them against Covid-19, no organization in Israel saves more lives than Magen David Adom.

Magen David Adom is not government-funded. Its 27,000 volunteer EMTs and paramedics and 4,000 full-time professionals rely on support from people like you for the vehicles, supplies, and equipment they need to perform their lifesaving work.

No gift will help Israel more this coming year. Support Magen David Adom by donating today at afmda.org/rosh or call 888.674.4871. Shanah tovah.

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A10 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

Where in the world are... Libya’s Jews?

Electrolysis Julie Adams, BFA, LE

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British and German forces, changing hands 5 times between GABBY BLAIR 1940 and 1943. Ohayon’s article details the impact to the JewJewish Press Staff Writer While doing research for a piece a couple years back, I came ish community of the capitol city.

“In the city of Tripoli, the Jewish Quarter was often used for across a few video testimonies of Libyan Jews and their stories Italian anti-aircraft positions. have stuck with me.

As such, it was subject to masAbout the age of my own sive bombing by the British parents, these people reand the French; in one attack, counted growing up in Libya.

4 synagogues were destroyed While there was no shortage of and 30 Jews killed. In other atmemories of the restrictions, tacks, the Jewish cemetery, rules and anti-Semitism that also used by the Italian army to Jews faced, there were also bitposition their anti-aircraft tersweet recollections of their guns, was damaged; graves homes, communities and havwere stripped of their tombing to flee. There was also prostones to build fortifications.” found sadness in the acknowEach time the British reledgement that- in spite of gained control, the Jews benedecades spent successfully transplanting elsewhere- they Above: Libyan Jews Sitting in a Sukkah Credit: Yad Vashem fited from lessened restrictions are the last of their ancient line Archives and below: Herbew Quarter, Tripoli, Libya circa 1930 and improved circumstances.

Each time the Germans and of people who will have any Credit: ernandes.net Italians pushed back, the Jews memories of their homeland. were punished as collaboraPerhaps the stories have tors. As such, Italy’s fascist dicstuck with me because theirs is tator, Mussolini, began a an old story that repeats campaign called “Sfollamento” through our generations; that in an effort to disperse Libyan no matter how good of citizens Jews to concentration camps we are, no matter how benefithroughout Tunisia, Algeria, cial our contributions, no matGermany, Austria and within ter if we assimilate or accept Libya itself. excessive and unfair second Upon the British liberation class rules, we are still eventuof Libya in January 1943, racial ally persecuted, killed, exlaws against the Jews who repelled... Perhaps because I too, mained were officially repealed descend from Arab Jewish refugees and feel some affinity to them... Perhaps because but little changed as the war raged on in Europe.

“In November 1945, there was a vicious, three-day pogrom stumbling across their testimonies made me a witness to their plight... Perhaps because when I read stories accusing a against the Jews in Tripoli: 120 Jews were murdered, hundreds proudly multicultural Israel of apartheid, I can’t help but be more were wounded, and at least five synagogues were comcynical and think, ‘where is the outrage over the millions of pletely destroyed. The rioters not only destroyed and looted Arab Jewish refugees and the communities that have been the city’s synagogues, but they also ruined hundreds of homes erased from the Arab countries where they lived and con- and businesses as well.”

After WWII, the population of Jews in Libya grew to nearly tributed for millennia?’

Jewish roots in this region were deep and ancient, stretching 39,000 as they returned to the country, hoping to reclaim someback to the 3rd century B.C.E. when the area- then ruled by the thing of their former lives. This rebound was very short lived.

Upon the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, a violent Greeks- was known as Cyrenaica. Proof of ancient Jewish existence was plentiful until fairly recently... A 10th Century Syna- anti-Semitic riot led to the destruction of 280 homes and the gogue from the time of King Solomon’s reign in Sirte. 13th killing of 12 Jews. It was only because the Jews of Tripoli fought Century Inscriptions in Benghazi detailing Jewish communi- back and were offered some protection by the Italian embassy, ties, their wealth and rules that applied to them. The writings that this number was not higher.

As a result of the rampant antisemitism that had taken root of Jason of Cyrene, a well known Libyan Jew whose work is the source of the Second Book of the Maccabees. The Spanish In- and grown exponentially in the aftermath of WWII, approxiquisition sent additional waves of Jewish refugees to Libya, mately 90% of Libyan Jews immigrated to Israel in the years where a vast majority settled in Tripoli, the capitol city where immediately after its establishment, forming one of the first Jews equaled an estimated 1/3 of the total population; home to waves of North African Jewry.

In 1961, a new law was passed requiring a special permit to over 40 synagogues where Jews once congregated and prayed.

Sadly, physical reminders of the rich Jewish history of the prove Libyan citizenship. Virtually all Jews were denied this land have been largely destroyed, repurposed or replaced; permit which stripped them of any remaining rights- including the ability to obtain papers to lawfully leave- trapping the three thousand years of Jewish history erased or revised.

According to an article by Sheryl Silver Ochayon on Yad- small remnant of remaining Jews in an increasingly hostile country with little recourse. vashem.org, Not a single Jew remains in Libya today.

While some found covert and illegal ways to leave Libya, “Libya had been home to a Jewish community for thousands of years, and though Jews had lived under Greek, Roman, Ot- there were an estimated 7,000 Jews still living there when the toman, Italian, British, and Arab rule, no trace of this once- Six Day War broke out in 1967. As anti-Semitic riots began anew in Tripoli, King Idris of Libya urged the remaining Libyan thriving community exists anymore.”

She continues. “The modern history of Libya can be dated Jews to leave ‘temporarily’ in the wake of this new violence; a from 1911, when Libya became an Italian colony. Much of the face saving measure intended to placate the West and calm population was Islamic and tribal, and resistant to European his Arab critics by removing the favorite cause of aggression, even as his grip on maintaining control of the country slipped. colonization.”

When Italy occupied Libya in 1911, Libya’s Jewish popula- This call was echoed and supported by Jewish leaders.

“An Italian airlift saved 6,000 Jews and relocated them to tion of 21,000 flourished with the granting of increased rights, economic abilities and expanded education opportunities. Rome, though they were forced to leave behind homes, busi“Jews comprised about 4% of the total population, the major- nesses and possessions. In 1969, when Muammar al-Qaddafi ity of which lived in Tripoli. A smaller community lived in came to power, there were only 100 Jews remaining in Libya.

Benghazi, with scattered enclaves in rural areas. By the start His government confiscated all remaining Jewish property, of World War II, the Jewish population of the country num- cancelled Jewish debt and made emigration for Jews legally prohibited. By 2002 there were no Jews left in Libya.” bered over 35,000.”

The remnants of Libyan Jewry largely settled in Israel where According to Ochayon, “the beginning of the end for the Jews of Libya was the institution of harsh, discriminatory leg- they have grown their community. According to the World Organization of Libyan Jews, about 130,000 Jews of Libyan origin islation by Italy against its own Jews in 1938.”

The swift implementation of these mandates in Libya caused lived in Israel in 2008. The majority of the remaining Libyan immediate shockwaves as the Jewish community suddenly Jews settled in Italy, Libya’s former colonizer, with other small found themselves barred from working in public sector, gov- pockets scattered across the globe.

In an article by Eniss Elias, entitled Forgotten Memories of ernment and professional jobs. Their children were prohibited from attending school, and business dealings and intermar- Libya’s Vibrant Jewish Community that was published in riage between Jews and non-Jews were made illegal. Even as Haartez in 2018, she recounts the story of her grandparents the situation worsened to the point of requiring a ‘Jew stamp’ who moved to Israel around 1950 when they were nine and in their passports, effectively trapping them in a volatile coun- 13 years old, respectively.

“The first years in the Jewish State were a trying period for try where they were stripped of all rights, Tripoli’s population remained 25% Jewish in 1941, and was home to 44 synagogues. the community. They were housed in transit camps, maltreated By 1940, Libya became a dynamic battle ground between See Libya’s Jews page A12

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | A11

The United Jewish Appeal, an abbreviated history ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor In the Jewish Diaspora, countless organizations have sprung up as a direct result of the belief that as Jews, we have a responsibility to help others.

That means other Jews, but it goes beyond that, which is how the organized effort to rescue Jewish children during the Holocaust is essentially the same that inspired Jewish assistance during the Haitian earthquake, the Florida building collapse, the rescue of refugees from war-torn former Yugoslavia. And then some. As the Jewish Federation of Omaha, we are part of that.

Before we were JFO, we called ourselves the Jewish Welfare Committee. And before there were Jewish Federations of North America, there was the United Jewish Appeal.

In January 1939, the ‘United Jewish Appeal for Refugees and Overseas Needs’ was established, combining the efforts of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ( JDC), led

by Rabbi Jonah Wise, the United Palestine Appeal, under the helm of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, and the National Coordinated Committee Fund, led by William Rosenwald. The three founders emphasized that the funds needed to support Jews in Europe and Palestine would be triple to quadruple the amount raised in the previous year. While the organizations would raise funds together, the JDC would assist Jews

in Europe, the United Palestine Appeal would aid the Jewish community in Palestine, including refugees from Europe arriving there. The National Coordinating Committee Fund would assist refugees arriving in the United States The JDC began its efforts to save Jews with a donation of $50,000. Additionally, the American Jewish Relief Committee helped collect funds for the JDC. Several Reform Jews founded the American Jewish Relief Committee on October 25, 1914. Jacob Schiff was one of these men, along with Louis Marshall, the president of the committee, and Felix M. Warburg. The Central Relief Committee, founded on October 4, 1914, also helped provide funds to the JDC. Almost one year later, in August 1915, the socialist People’s Relief Committee, headed by Meyer London, joined in to provide funds to the JDC. After a few years, the JDC and the organizations assisting it had raised significant funds and were able to make a noteworthy impact. By the end of 1917, the JDC had transferred $76,000 to Romania, $1,532,300 to Galicia, $2,532,000 to Russia and $3,000,000 to German-occupied Poland and Lithuania. By 1920, the JDC had sent nearly $5,000,000 to assist the Jews in Poland. Between 1919 and 1920, during the emergency relief period, the JDC had See United Jewish Appeal page A12

The “Once Over”

SAM KRICSFELD I was in the process of looking over old Jewish Press Rosh Hashanah editions for a few “throwback” articles when I found an article from 1930 that made me pause. Buried on page 7C was a JTA article titled Do the Jewish Women Make the Best Wives? The subhead is even more surprising: The Jewish Wife Has Fine Qualities, But She Is Passing Through a Transitional Period, Needing Adjustment; an Analytical Evaluation.

The article was by Dr. Abraham A. Brill as told to Sara Fox. According to Brill’s obituary from the JTA on March 4, 1948, he was born in Austria and studied under Dr. Sigmund Freud.

On top of publishing his own theories on psychoanalysis, Brill translated much of Freud’s work to English.

I feel so bad for Fox – the article is a longwinded, condescending “analysis” of Jewish women. Everything about this article makes me feel uncomfortable. Even the editor’s note at the beginning is awful: “Rosh Hashanah is the time for re-evaluating ourselves... why not give our wives the once over too?”

Brill wrote that Jewish women are in a “transitional period,” where their role of being restricted to doting husbands is now shifting to being “free to do more or less as she pleases.”

“Before saying anything about Jewish women, I want to say that I myself was brought up by one,” Brill wrote, “and would See The “Once Over” page A13

A12 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

Libya’s Jews United Jewish Appeal Continued from page A11 disbursed over $22,000,000 to help in restoration and relief across Europe.

By 1914, approximately 59,000 Jews were living in Palestine under Ottoman rule. The settlement—the Yishuv—was largely made up of Jews that had emigrated from Europe and were largely dependent on sources outside of Palestine for their income. The outbreak of World War I destroyed those channels, leaving the community destitute. The Yishuv’s leaders appealed to Henry Morgenthau, Sr., who was the U.S. ambassador to Turkey. Morgenthau was moved and appalled by the misery he witnessed and sent an urgent cable to New York-based Jewish philanthropist Jacob Schiff, requesting $50,000 of aid to keep the Jews of Palestine from starvation.

After the establishment of the State of Israel, JDC supported tens of thousands of Jews as they made the difficult transition from refugee status to citizenship.

JDC also played a central role in Operation Solomon, which airlifted more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

By 1940, JDC was still able to help refugees in transit in more than 40 countries. The Joint opened shelters and soup kitchens for thousands of Jewish refugees in Poland, aiding some 600,000 in 1940. It also subsidized hospitals, child-care centers, and educational and cultural pro-

grams. Even Passover supplies were shipped in. The goal of this was to provide refugees life-sustaining aid while trying to secure permanent refuge for them in the United States, Palestine, and Latin America.

With U.S. entry into the war in Dec. 1941, JDC had to drastically shift gears. No longer permitted to operate legally in enemy countries, JDC representatives exploited a variety of international connections to channel aid to Jews living in desperate conditions in Nazis-controlled areas. Wartime headquarters were set up in Lisbon, Portugal (Portugal was neutral during WW II).

From Lisbon, JDC chartered ships and funded rescue missions that successfully moved thousands of refugees out of harm’s way. Some made it to Shanghai, where JDC sponsored a relief program for 15,000 refugees from Central and Eastern Europe. In Europe, JDC directed funds to support 7,000 Jewish children in hiding. The Joint also worked with Euvre de secours aux enfants (OSE) to support and rescue children. For instance, it helped more than 1,000 children emigrate to Switzerland, Spain and America.

Allied victory offered no guarantee that the tens of thousands of newly liberated See United Jewish Appeal page A14

Holocaust survivors returning to Libya from concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. 1945. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Continued fom page A10 by authorities and were the victims of discrimination, and poverty. Nonetheless, life was rich and full,” which she attributes to two things: adaptability and the ‘make the best of things’ attitude- an attribute required of Jews to survive in Libya; and that so much of the community- families, friends, neighbors etc.- made the move to Israel, together.

She continues, stating that these “Libyan refugees refused to come to terms with this fate of languishing in conditions sometimes worse than what they had left behind ...They continually demanded that the Jewish Agency provide opportunities for employment, proper housing and an end to neglect.”

Libyans began asking for plots of land to farm, and surprisingly, these requests were mostly granted. “In the first three years after their arrival, Libyan Jews established 12 cooperative farming communities- Moshavim- through out Israel. By the end of 2000, there were 25 Moshavim founded by Jews of Libyan origin.”

While most Jews of Libyan origin became successful agriculturists in Israel, a good number of those who settled in Italy-community became part of the upper class, with many working as goldsmiths and jewelry makers.

The Libyan Jewish story seems to be one that is often overlooked or underrated. Their relatively small numbers, of just under 40,000 tend to make them a footnote when researching the 20th century emigration of North African Jews; 250,000k + from Morocco, 140,000+ from Algeria, 90,000+ from Tunisia. Yet, their story is like a yahrzeit for an entire country. While none remain in Libya, Libya’s Jews live on through Diaspora and we should always remember them.

L'shanah Tovah!

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | A13

Iron Lions of Zion: The origin of Beta Israel (meaning outsiders or strangers) lost much of the independGABBY BLAIR ence they had enjoyed throughout the Middle Ages, and by Jewish Press Staff Writer There are a few leading theories regarding the origin of the the mid 1600s, many were sold into slavery, forced to convert Ethiopian Jews known as Beta Israel. One such theory is that to Christianity and denied rights such as landownership. In a they are actually the lost Tribe of Dan, as ruled by 15th century 1790 publication entitled Travels to Discover the Source of the rabbinical great David ibn Nile, by a Scotsman named Zimra (The Radbaz) of James Bruce, an estimated Egypt. Another theory population of 100,000 traces their origin back to Falashas were reported to King Solomon’s union with be practicing pre-Talmudic The Queen of Sheba, and Judaism. This singular reclaims they are descended minder of a possibly anfrom the Jews who came cient and highly isolated with their child, Menelik, as Jewish community resulted he travelled from Jerusalem in a heavy influx of missionto Ethiopia with the Ark of aries to Ethiopia in the 19th the Covenant; and yet ancentury. As word spread other theory claims their about conversion efforts foancestors fled after decused on the Falashas, struction of The First Temsome Jewish leaders in Euple in Jerusalem, settling in Above: Pres. Ezer Weizman greeting Ethiopian Jews celebrating the rope began to publicly camEthiopia. While each of Sigad Festival at Jerusalem’s Haas Promenade. Credit: SAAR YAA- paign for a way to intervene these theories has support, COV, GPO. 11/11/1993 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_- on behalf of their lost it is likely that we will never _Government_Press_Office_(GPO)_-_Pres._Ezer_Weizman_greeting brethren. In 1867 Joseph have a definitive answer of _ Ethiopian_Jews and below: Memorial day for Jews who perished Halevy, a well known en route to Israel from Ethiopia, May 2018 Credit: https://commons. French linguist, traveled to which story is the truest.

What is known, and con- wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Memorial_day_for_Jews_who_perished_en_r Ethiopia to assess the sidered as the definitive oute_to_Israel_from_Ethiopia,_May_2018_(GPO103) claims of Beta Israel and the first non-biblical record of activities of the missionarJews in the Kush, (historiies. Halevy was greeted cally ancient Ethiopia, and with skepticism as all previmodernly, part of Sudan), ous visits by white Eurocomes from the 9th Cenpeans before him were tury Hebrew diary of a JewChristian missionaries inish merchant and traveler tent on conversion. Halevy, known as Eldad ben Mahil who was familiar with Ha-Dani. Ha-Dani traveled Ethiopian languages of widely and spread the story Ge’ez and Amharic, rethat he was a descendant of vealed that there were the Tribe of Dan, hence his other Jews around the surname. According to his world, a concept the Beta log, Ha-Dani had come Israel were apparently unupon a lost fragment of his aware of. In addition to tribe which together with descendants from the tribes of studying their practices and customs, Halevy was tasked with Asher, Gad and Naphtali, had its own independent Jewish trying to change the ways of these ancient peoples to be more state in Eastern Africa. During his travels, which appear to in line with mainstream Judaism at that point. When he rehave stretched from Iberia to Babylonia, and perhaps even turned to France a year later, he was of the opinion that the into China, Ha-Dani spread word of these people who were in Beta Israel were indeed Jews, and detailed similarities in cuspossession of the Torah; the five books of Moses and some of toms. Beta Israel had laws of kashrut, death and mourning ritthe writings of the Prophets, but that had no inkling about the uals, laws related to purification, birth and circumcision and Talmud, nor of the book of Esther, creating a bit of a stir in the kept Shabbat strictly. Halevy’s work was also meant to introcommunities he visited. El-Dani’s travels and adventures led duce the concepts of Talmud and highlight the differences, him to shipwrecks, slavery and redemption as he roamed from such as the use of animal sacrifices, that would need to be recplace to place meeting up with various fragments of the Tribes onciled should Beta Israel be accepted with the wider Jewish of Israel, for which he provided descriptions of behavior, ter- community. In 1904, Dr. Jacques Faitlovitch, a student of ritory, local disputes and customs. Eldad Ha-Dani demon- Halevy, traveled to Ethiopia with the blessing of Paris Chief strated a deep knowledge of haggadic literature in his writings Rabbi, Zadok Kahn, and became the first real champion for and his accounts have been accepted and even quoted by Tal- their cause. Faitlovitch continued to work towards recognition mudic authorities like Rashi and RABaD (Rabbi Abraham Ben of Beta Israel until he died in 1955. Many challenges to acceptDavid III), although not all were as accepting of his claims. Re- ing the Falasha came from numerous critics and the debate gardless, Ha-Dani’s now ancient records, along with other sup- on their legitimacy waxed and waned throughout the early porting bits of Jewish literature from the 15 & 16th centuries 20th century, during which time very few emigrated to Israel. referencing Ethiopian Jews, have certainly helped create a hisAt the request of Beta Israel’s Jewish leaders, the Jewish torical tie of today’s Beta Israel to modern day Israel.

Agency appointed its first ambassador to Ethiopia in 1953.

Over the centuries, in general isolation from others of their Over the next decade community members were trained to faith, Beta Israel, referred to by other Ethiopians as Falashas See Ethiopian Jews page A15

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The “Once Over” Continued from page A11 therefore be inclined to be biased. However, I shall try to view them impartially in an effort to depict veraciously their problems, behavior and traits.”

Brill wrote that “phylogony” [sic] is a “force of the racial unconscious” that cries out with modern Jewish women to live a more feminine life. According to Brill, Jewish women also have a more developed sense of familial obligation than other women do – they can be “over fond and watchful” of their children. They are more emotional because of their “Semitic, oriental heritage” – Brill wrote that he could always sense a woman’s Jewishness in her emotional expression.

Oh, and to answer the big headline on whether Jewish women make the best wives, Brill’s answer was, “Yes, she probably does because she is more steady emotionally in the give-and-take relationship of marriage.” Because of the Jewish “conditioning of thousands of years” to accept fate in arranged marriages and resign herself to destiny, she then can “adapt herself more easily to marriage condition and... demand less of her husband.”

Maybe in 1930 this was okay. Of course, if you said any of

those things today you would be canceled off the face of the earth, and rightfully so. Brill’s article oversimplifies Jewish women as subservient, formulaic and in need of improvement.

Dr. Brill was of a different era of science. I am not at all versed in psychology, but I don’t think that the kind of analysis that Brill was doing would be regarded as highly today as it was in the 1930s. I don’t particularly believe that he could sense a woman’s Jewishness by her emotional reactions, either.

I will never fully grasp what women go through on any level, present or past. I cannot speak on behalf of Jewish women, but I can say that they are not a uniform group of people who are so similar and predictable that a “trained eye” can spot their Jewishness.

What I’m writing is not oversensitivity, nor is it outrage. It’s just a reminder that the past was an uncomfortable place that sometimes carries on into the present. People in the 1930s and people today are not the same in terms of sensibilities.

It’s awkward to be reminded of that, especially when you read that the editor of the Jewish Press in 1930 told the readers that their wives may need a “once over” on Rosh Hashanah.

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Continued from page A12 Jews would survive to enjoy the fruits of freedom. To stave off mass starvation, JDC marshaled its resources, instituting an ambitious purchasing and shipping program to provide urgent necessities for Holocaust survivors facing critical local shortages. More than 227 million pounds of food, medicine, clothing, and other supplies were shipped to Europe from U.S. ports.

The goal of resettlement carried its own hurdles. Since before the war, Palestine had been under control of Great Britain, which severely restricted the immigration of Europe’s Jewish refugees. Clandestine immigration went on in spite of the blockades, largely because of the work of Bricha and Aliyah Bet, two organized movements partially financed and supplied by JDC. When the British began interning illegal Jewish immigrants in deten-

By late 1945, 75,000 Jewish survivors of the Nazi horrors had crowded into hastily set up displaced person camps throughout Europe.

Supplementing the relief supplied by the army, by UNRRA, and by UNRRA’s successor agency, JDC distributed emergency aid, but also fed the educational and cultural needs of the displaced, providing typewriters, books, Torah scrolls, ritual articles, and holiday provisions. JDC funds were directed at restoring a sense of community and normalcy in the camps with new medical facilities, schools, synagogues, and cultural activities. Over the next two years, the influx of refugees from all over Central and Eastern Europe would more than triple the number of Jews in the DP camps. Their number included Polish Jews who had returned from their wartime refuge in the Soviet Union only to flee once again (westward, this time) from renewed anti-Semitism and pogroms.

At the same time, JDC was helping sustain tens of thousands of Jews who remained in Eastern Europe, as well as thousands of others living in the West outside the DP camps, in Jewish communities also receiving reconstruction assistance from JDC. In 1946, an estimated 120,000 Jews in Hungary, 65,000 in Poland, and more than half of Romania’s 380,000 Jews, depended on JDC for food and other basic needs. By 1947, JDC was supporting 380 medical facilities across the continent, and some 137,000 Jewish children were receiving some form of JDC aid.

Falling victim to Cold War tensions, JDC was expelled from Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria in 1949, from Czechoslovakia in 1950, and from Hungary in 1953.

The time came for JDC to shift its focus in Europe from emergency relief to long-term rehabilitation. A large part of its evolving mission involved preparing the Jewish refugee population for new lives in Palestine, soon to be the Jewish state of Israel. Vocational training and hachsharot (agricultural training) centers were established for this purpose.

tion camps in Cyprus, JDC furnished medical, educational, and social services for the detainees.

Britain’s eventual withdrawal from Palestine set the stage for the May 15, 1948, birth of the State of Israel, which quickly drew waves of Jews not only from Europe, but from across the Arab world. North Africa became an especially dangerous place for Jews following World War II. Jews in Libya suffered a devastating pogrom in 1945.

The Israeli government in late 1949 invited JDC to join with the Jewish Agency for Israel to confront these challenges. The outcome was MALBEN—a Hebrew acronym for Organization for the Care of Handicapped Immigrants. Over the next few years, MALBEN rushed to convert former British Army barracks and any other available building into hundreds of hospitals, homes for the aged, TB sanitariums, sheltered workshops, and rehabilitation centers. MALBEN also funded the training of nurses and rehabilitation workers.

JDC has operated in 85 countries at one time or another in the course of its 100-year history. As of early 2009, JDC is conducting projects in 71 countries, including Argentina, Croatia, Ethiopia, Poland, Morocco, Cuba, and throughout the former Soviet Union. JDC also maintains a focus on Israel and has been a humanitarian presence in the Middle East since its founding in 1914.

In addition, the JDC has contributed funding and expertise in humanitarian crises such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Myanmar cyclone of 2008, the genocide in Darfur, the escalating violence in Georgia and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

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Ethiopian Jews

Even after such huge operations to relocate the Beta Israel Continued from A13 become emissaries to their people, medical clinics were and three decades since emigration from Ethiopia began, abopened and Hebrew schools were established in the villages sorption has proven difficult. Coming from traditional vilof The Beta Israel. In 1973, in a landmark ruling, Rabbi Ovadia lages to a new land with little more than the clothing on their Yossef, then Chief backs, the Beta Israel have Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, struggled with assimilaconfirmed the identity of tion. Undoubtedly the Beta Israel based on the root of social obstacles earlier rulings of the Radsuch as poverty and lower baz. Two years later, long levels of education and time ruler Emperor Haile employment amongst Selassie was overthrown by their transplants, is rea Marxist coup d’etat related to language barriers, sulting in much violence sudden environmental and instability for Ethiopia and technological and its neighbors. As the changes, along with situation continued to deteracism. Officially ending riorate into 1975, especially the mass aliyah of for the Beta Israel, Israel’s Ethiopian Jews in 2013, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, The Jewish Agency of IsShlomo Goren, finally rael has directed those signed off his agreement still awaiting Aliyah to with Rabbi Yosef ’s 1973 An Ethiopian Jewish family rescued by American Association for pursue applications opinion, thus allowing the Ethiopian Jews Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: through their governIsraeli government to grant Ethiopian_Jews_rescued_by_American_Association_for_Ethiopian_J ment, which has sadly, Ethiopian Jews “The Right ews_(AAEJ)_(8339300997). torn families apart. Many Of Return”. Within a year, Israel had managed to transport are unable to pass the increasingly stringent vetting process nearly 500 Ethiopians to Israel. as their families have members that are Falash Mura; a term Over the next decade, nearly 8000 Jews were covertly relo- designated for those who underwent a Christian Conversion cated to Israel. Between November 1984 and January 1985, at some point, forced or otherwise. during “Operation Moses”, an additional 8000 Jewish refugees Similar to other large waves of Jewish immigrants from Arab from camps in Sudan were successfully airlifted by night with countries, Ethiopians struggle with the establishment in valithe quiet permission of the Sudanese government. After hav- dating their Jewish legitimacy and face discrimination for who ing its cover blown by a report in The Washington Jewish Week, they are. Recent pro-rights rallies and higher profile cases of the story was picked up by the New York Times which ran it injustices along with the rising population, are hopefully on the front page on Dec. 11, 1984. This put heavy pressure paving the way to help better absorb the Beta Israel. Through on Sudan which, as a member of the Arab League, was tech- the ages, their ancestors clung to their faith, as it had been nically at war with Israel, forcing an immediate end to the passed down through generations, even when they believed operation. In early 1985, the US sponsored “Operation Sheba,” themselves to be the only Jews left in the world. As they were which helped rescue an additional 500 Jews that remained in introduced to modern Judaism, they accepted it and inteSudanese camps. Thousands of Jews remained in Ethiopia, grated it into their traditions to be a part of their people. Conuntil the regime began to falter in 1991. As the government sidering the great changes that the Beta Israel have gone was close to being toppled, the US interceded on behalf of Is- through in a relatively short period of time, it is not surprising rael, allowing the latter to seize an opportunity to successfully that they are struggling. It is obvious, after researching their launch the 36 hour “Operation Solomon” in 1991. Using a history, that they are a strong and resilient people. As their combination of 36 commercial and military transport planes, numbers within Israel grow, They continue to carve a place almost 15,000 Jews were moved from Addis Ababa to Israel for themselves next to their brothers in faith as did immigrants in less than two days. All planes had been stripped of interior before them. As Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, whose ruling provided furnishings in order to fit the maximum number of people, the crucial recognition they needed to make aliyah was quoted and the planes flew nonstop over that 36 hours. “Operation as saying, “Anyone who refuses to accept Ethiopians should Solomon” was successfully conducted under a total news get up and head home.” It is more important today than ever blackout and set a world record for transporting an un- before to recognize that the rich diversity of our people can matched 1122 passengers in a single flight. only stand to strengthen us and is crucial to our survival.

Waiting for cleansing

ROCHI KATZMAN ‘I prefer to throw away my own things.’

It’s true in life, I like to be the one who moves things in and out. I want to be the gatekeeper of my life – physical, spiritual, emotional, physiological. I don’t want to be micromanaged in any area.

Give me the general idea, show by example and then give me the reigns. And maybe, when I mature, when I get some more emotional knowledge, I will be able to let go more vicariously.

I won’t need to actually let go of each item, of each pen. It could just flow in and out of my life. For the time being, under current circumstances, I need to be involved in every bit.

Please don’t step into my arena. This is my sanctuary.

Yes, it may look messy and it is. It’s the reflection of what my soul is up to. What my soul is expressing and feeling at the moment. Entry in that without my consent – wholehearted consent I will add – is a violation to my soul. It erodes on my confidence in my ability to make choices. In my ability to have autonomy.

It is my sacred space, and please I beg of you, don’t talk down on it. Please don’t call it clutter. Please don’t call it a mess. It is a decent and accurate reflection of my current emotional health. It reminds me of what is going on inside. It reminds me that I have work, I have shifting and shuffling to do within my heart.

My heart is waiting for cleansing. Bruises, tears, holes – it feels frazzled and disconnected. So, side by side. By letting go, throwing away the old memorabilia from camps. Old wardrobe items that served me well, served their tenure lovingly – I would like the dignity and grace to pay my last respects, to say my goodbyes. Only I can, otherwise I will not have closure with the part of my body/soul that connected with that item.

It’s gruesome mainly because the onlookers don’t respect the rules of my game. They want the 9-5s, they want it to look pristine and put together. And it is not. It’s a messy corroboration of all the ‘stuff ’ I’ve picked up in my lifetime. They are all part of my journey and carry a particular beauty. I want to say thank you to them as they depart. As their time with me has elapsed.

As their wrinkles sag into the wisdom of their cheekbones.

Please, honor me with that last respect of my beautiful messiness, let me sift through, and maybe go down memory lane.

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B1 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

Rosh Hashanah SECTION 2

Profile in courage: Shirley Goldstein

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor Omahan’s Brush With Soviet Police Like Grade B Movie, the headline read. It was the opener for an Omaha World-Herald article from 1975, written after Shirley Goldstein’s third trip to the Soviet Union.

Most of us know the story: Shirley went behind the Iron Curtain, learned about the circumstances of Soviet Jews and became an activist. As the chairman of the Omaha Committee for Soviet Jewry, she gave new meaning to ‘welcoming the stranger.’

The trip sponsored by the University of Nebraska at Omaha started it all.

Shirley said she and her husband Leonard did ‘the surface, touristy thing’ in 1972, and she wanted the UNO trip to be different.

“Believing it [the stories about Jews being harassed, ed.] is different from seeing it and hearing it from the people themselves,” she told the OWH in 1974.

She went back, and brought food, clothing, books, money and messages of support to Russian Jews.

“Everything I did was legal, even though frowned upon by the Russian government,” she said. “Perhaps the most important thing was just visiting with the people, reassuring them that people in America do care about their problems. An American rabbi compared Hitlerism with Russia’s anti-Semitic policies. One was genocide of the flesh, the other is genocide of the spirit.”

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

When, in September of 1975, Shirley left Moscow, her luggage was thoroughly searched by no fewer than eight grim-faced KGB agents. The search lasted about an hour.

“They probed several boxes of candy, peered behind the glass eyes of a toy dog, pulled apart pieces of Tampax, loosened the soles and pulled back the innersoles in a pair of wedgies and leafed through every book,” she told the OWH. See Shirley Goldstein page B2

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B2 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

Not always the good guys Shirley Goldstein

Continued from page B1 The story continued: “Mrs. Goldstein was carrying 40 rolled paintings by young children of Russian refuseniks. The paintings were to be put on exhibit by the Washington D.C. Committee for Soviet Jewry.

‘You can’t take these. They might be valuable,’ a plainclothesman told Mrs. Goldstein. She argued. ‘They are only children’s artwork. They have no real value.’ After losing the argument, she tore up the flimsy paintings and threw them on the floor. ‘I wanted to have the last word,’ she said, ‘but they made me pick up the pieces.’

Most of us would have liked to be there to witness. Shirley has always personified that great mix between a loving and warm personality and a rockhard inner core. We can all too easily imagine her ripping up those paintings—and yet, I’ve been held in the American version of the border interrogation room, and it is terrifying. How scared was Shirley?

The longest delay, we read in the same article, “came when she refused to give an officer her purse.

She said she would allow it to be searched only in the presence of someone from the American embassy. That bluff is recommended procedure, but the Americans did not have access to a telephone, and the Russians wouldn’t make the call.

“Among the items not found by the police were taped conversations and a letter to Sen. Henry Jackson drafted by Alexander Boguslavsky and signed by a dozen refuseniks at a late-evening meeting in Leningrad. ‘I was wearing the stuff I brought out,’ said Mrs. Goldstein. ‘There’s no law against having it in your possession, but you never can figure out what they’re going to do.’

Imagine: while she was tearing up those paintings, arguing and making noise, she had those tapes on her. She wasn’t shy at other times either; when in 1976, she attended the Second World Conference for Soviet Jewry in Brussels, she had this to say: “(...) it was an ego trip for some. A lot of people who went had little involvement with Soviet Jewry and seemed to be there more for the glory and prestige than out of a desire to dig in and contribute.

It was not a working conference to see what could be done.”

In 1981, Jewish Federation of Omaha President Joe Kirshenbaum received a letter from Legal Counsel Alice Milder at the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

“Dear Mr. Kirshenbaum,” the letter stated, “I am writing to thank you for your past support for Soviet Jewry in appropriating funds for this effort to the Omaha Committee for Soviet Jewry. [...] I think it is important for you to know how these funds are expended. Mrs. Shirley Goldstein has performed yeomanlike service in this cause for a number of years and she has done so with a small amount of money spent very wisely. Shirley has brought Omaha to the forefront in this area. When I made my first trip to the Soviet Union in 1976 and the word “Omaha” was mentioned in the homes of Anatole Sharansky and Vladimir Slepak the reply was, ‘Ah, yes, Shirley Goldstein.’

“The Omaha committee’s work is also respected and well known in Washington, D.C. The committee is one of the most active members of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews and this is due to the energy of one person—Shirley.

“I urge you to enable Shirley to continue her work in this vitally important area. I also feel very lucky that my grandparents See Shirley Goldstein page B3

SAM KRICSFELD In 1939, the Jewish Federation of Omaha sponsored 10 Jewish refugee families. That was 29 people.

“In the year 1939, our Jewish Community found itself face to face with the problem of refugees in our midst,” according to the 1939 Executive Director’s Report for the Jewish Philanthropies campaign. “Refugees... brought manyfold problems of adjustment, placement, assistance, and rehabilitation... It will take long-range planning to normalize a situation which arose almost overnight.”

Meeting notes of the Executive Committee of the Federation for Jewish Service on Jan. 23, 1940, show that a motion to only allow one refugee unit per month was approved. This was “regardless of the funds made originally,” indicating that this extremely low immigrant quota was a money issue.

No matter; an extremely successful 1940 Jewish Philanthropies Campaign allocated over $40,000 to overseas and refugee support. That’s the equivalent of over $770,000 today.

There’s hard evidence that Jewish Omaha was willing to support and welcome refugees with open arms and open checkbooks, right?

Meeting notes from July 2, 1940, show that the Chairman of the Omaha Refugee Committee reported that Omaha had received the “full quota” of 12 units from the National Refugee Services during 1939-40, and had spent $4,500 (about $87,000 today) on them. The 12 refugee units consisted of 21 individuals - nine men, nine women and three children.

The National Refugee Services requested that Omaha double its refugee unit intake. Surely, 24 more units, likely less than 50 people, could be sustained by a city that raised the modern equivalent of 3/4 of a million dollars for refugee aid.

“Under the circumstances, Omaha will continue with its present quota.”

An executive committee member justified this decision on September 3, 1940, to refuse 12 more refugee units by saying that there was “reduced immigration” and the National Refugee Services were “not pressing at this time.”

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial See Not always the good guys page B4

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The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | B3

Shirley Goldstein

issue of Human Rights has inspired others Continued from page B2 escaped the Soviet Union early on and I’m and has demonstrated the power of one indiconfident that most of the Jews in Omaha vidual to make a difference.”

By the time I met Shirley, it was 2010—I had share my opinion. It’s our turn to help those recently begun workwho weren’t so lucky.” ing at the Jewish Press

By March of 1984, and received a phone the Jewish Press was call from Shirley’s able to report that the daughter Kathy.

Jewish Federation of Shirley would like to Omaha had funded meet me, she said. the relocation of a Could we have coffee total of 35 families: at Starbucks? It seems “ U n f o r t u n a t e l y, unimaginable, but however, due to the back then, I did not political climate, no know Shirley’s story. more families are alBefore getting that coflowed to leave Russia. fee, I borrowed her The Omaha Commitoral history from the tee for Soviet Jewry, Nebraska Jewish Histhrough the financial torical Society. If assistance of the JFO, you’ve never seen it, I provides a link behighly recommend tween the Soviet you take a look.

Union and the Omaha Shirley’s story is imCommunity. By sendpressive, but it is more ing telegrams, packreal and most touchages, remembering ing when you hear it holidays and keeping Shirley and Leonard Goldstein from her own mouth. informed and in touch The story doesn’t end with Shirley. While with our government leaders, Mrs. Goldstein and many others like her continue to remain Leonard and Shirley supported resettlement personally involved with the plight of the So- efforts in Israel and the United States as well viet Jews.” (Karen Lincoln, JP March 23, 1984). as museum and film projects that docuIn 1996, Shirley received an honorary de- mented Operation Exodus, the Goldstein gree from UNO: “Internationally recognized family’s commitment to human rights continfor her extraordinary efforts on behalf of So- ues to this day. The UNO Goldstein Center for viet Jewry,” the announcement reads. “Her Human Rights was established in 2017 to fawork has taken her on seven trips to the FSU cilitate Human Rights-related academic offerand with the help of the JFO and a newly ings and research, as well as local and formed committee, more than 200 families international community outreach, partnerhave resettled in Omaha. Her attention to the ships and programming.

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From Diaspora and back: History, testimony and memories of Moroccan Jewry GABBY BLAIR Jewish Press Staff Writer I am a Jew of Moroccan descent. This is not exactly uncommon as over a quarter million Moroccan Jews immigrated to Israel through various means since the establishment of the state in 1948 while some, like my Great Aunt Grazia, Z”L, arrived even before then.

Traditions of Moroccan Jewry, like the post-Passover Mimouna, have been adopted throughout Israel by Jews of all ethnicities, but this acceptance of Moroccans- and indeed other ‘Arab Jews’ from across North Africa - took time, only coming after dealing with prejudice, racism, suspicion, and often times extreme poverty over generations of assimilation and contributions to society.

My family’s story is probably similar to the thousands of oth-

ers who made the move. My grandfather was from the city of Fez; my grandmother from the small village of Sefrou.

They worked hard and made a decent life, but were rather poor. My Safta managed the kids and kept the house starting around age 16. My Saba was as tough as nails and made money as a laborer and as a boxer before eventually opening a small cafe.

They made a shomer home in the Mellah of Fez in a tiny top floor three-room apartment that I had the privilege to visit as a youth. The Mellah was where the Jews lived under protection of the Moroccan King, most of the time.

My father, the eldest son with one older sister -and many more to come after him- has many stories of growing up in Morocco; something he recalls fondly after all these years.

Proud to be Jewish, and later proudly Israeli and American,

Best Wishes from Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen

he never lost pride in being Moroccan. As a boy, he attended school only briefly until he was old enough to work. My children used to sit, enamored by his stories, which were embellished each time they begged for a retelling much to their delight.

He learned to slaughter chickens from a shochet and adopted a white rooster he named Tarzan who would fight for sport. He negotiated down prices for bags of flour, sugar, salt by the kilo and liters of oil for his mother and would use the savings to buy a ride home for it on the back of a donkey or motor bike since there was no way he could carry it, always returning with a few Dirham in his pocket to give back to his mother. He marveled over the installation of a clock ‘that was bigger than ‘Big Ben!’ (complete with electricity!) on the ancient stone wall of the Grand Rue de Mellah in which he lived.

See From Disapora and back page B5

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Continued from page B3 Museum, about 85,000 Jewish refugees entered the United States between March 1938 and September 1939. Omaha took in less than 50 of them during those years, deeming the situation not pressing enough in September of 1940 to allow more in.

Saying that Americans at the time weren’t aware of what was going on in Europe is easy, but it’s totally untrue. Headlines and editorials ran in the Omaha Jewish Press that made clear the terror in Europe. There were stories about Jews being stuffed in cattle cars, Jewish homes being pillaged and people being beaten and killed.

Why was Jewish Omaha so reluctant to accept refugees?

The answer may be lost to time. I have gone through both the campaign and Federation notes from 1939 and 1940 multiple times, trying to read between the lines and come up with either a way to vindicate or condemn the leaders of Omaha Jewry. There just isn’t enough information.

I could speculate about the reasons forever - maybe the assimilated, well-off Jews of Omaha were embarrassed by the shtetl-dwelling, poor, foreign and uneducated refugees and didn’t want them in their midst. Maybe there were actual money and resource problems that were not logged or discussed in meetings - unlikely, but possible. Maybe the executive committee was truly misled to believe that the refugee problems were getting so much better that Omaha didn’t need to take in any more people. Maybe in the later years of the war, the Federation sponsored more people. I can’t find any documents to see what they did in the later years of the war.

Anyway, with hindsight’s 20/20 vision, we know now that things would only get worse - the war, the refugees, the money problems, and the Holocaust. Omaha Jewry definitely erred in 1939-1940. We can’t change the past and all the missteps, nor can we save the lives of those already gone. We can, however, look back and realize that we’re not always the heroes, or sometimes even the good guys. Only then can we continue to strive to do better.

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | B5

The SS Exodus 1947 From Diaspora and back

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor The word ‘Diaspora’ is one we are all familiar with. Its literal meaning, dispersion from the ancestral homeland, barely scratches the surface, as there is a lot more to it than not living in Israel.

Sure, we went into exile long ago. But since then, we haven’t exactly stayed put. Not because we didn’t want to, but because it oftentimes became too difficult to stay. The Diaspora, for Jews, means never staying anywhere too long.

Not getting too comfortable, not thinking we were ever truly welcome to begin with. Remembering that, even when you’ve been somewhere for hundreds of years, you don’t really belong; you remain ‘other.’ That may sound depressing, but it actually isn’t.

‘Diasporas,’ during Greek and Roman times, were not unheard of. Entire tribes would regularly move, whether for economic reasons or related to trade. What made Jewish Diaspora unique, initially, was that Jews kept their identity.

They carried their ‘home’ with them, clearly identifying as Jews no matter where they lived. Rather than completely assimilate, which is what happened to many peoples, Jews remained clearly Jews.

“The northern diaspora arose when the Seleucids took control of Judea after 200 CE,” according to myjewishlearning.com. “Around 210-205, the Seleucid King Antiochus III See The SS Exodus 1947 page B6

Continued from page B4 (Decades later, when I visited Morocco with my dad, the clock was surprisingly still there and shockingly, I found it on the vintage postcard of the Grand Rue de Mellah that I came across while searching for pictures for this piece!) Long broken, it was cracked and dusty- no bigger than one you’d see in a school room or office.

Even after nearly 40 years removed, we entered the Mellah and he wound through the maze of the souq directly to the home of his youth, as if he walked the steps every day. I recall we entered a shop for a cold citron press (think lemonade ice) and the ancient shop keeper took one look at him and shouted out his name, tears on his face.

That trip back was unique in many ways that were lost on me as a youth, but I still have memories of it that I cherish today.

When researching topics for this year’s Rosh Hashanah ‘Diaspora’ theme, I began thinking about how much I really knew about my own family’s journey from Morocco to Israel. It also made me curious. How did such a large number of Jews- the largest population of immigrants to Israel from North Africa manage to actually leave with whole families intact?

The roots of Moroccan Jews run over 2000 years deep in the Kingdom. The ability for us to return and visit freely shows the relationship between Jews and the Moroccan Crown is particularly unique amongst Jews from Arab lands. While there were pogroms and occasional violence and laws for Jews, there was also a certain status of ‘dhimmi’ that was often honored and still is to a certain extent today. The King did more to protect his country’s Jews during World War II than other North African countries, even when France, the colonial power in Morocco, fell to the Vichy regime.

After researching the movement of Moroccan Jewry to Israel and beyond in the years post WWII- including the time period in which my own family left Morocco for Israel- I found that many left under ‘Operation Yachin;’ a covert agreement between Israel and Morocco which was fronted by the New York based Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) who financed approximately $50 million of costs. While emigration of Jews out of Morocco was officially illegal for periods of time, (mostly in order to maintain Morocco’s relationships with other Arab countries), the agreement See From Diaspora and back page B6

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From Diaspora and back The SS Exodus 1947 Continued from page B5 moved several thousand Jewish soldiers and their families from Babylonia to Asia Minor. Within two centuries, large Jewish communities were to be found in Antioch and Damascus, in the Phoenician ports and in the Asia Minor cities of Sardis, Halicarnassus, Pergamum, and Ephesus.”

The Exodus Memorial in Haifa

By the year zero, Jews lived in Greece, Macedonia and the Balkans. Jewish inscriptions from the first centuries have been found in Crimea and in what is now Romania and Hungary.

That’s where it started, but not where it ended: since then, Jews have moved around endlessly, for a multitude of reasons.

See The SS Exodus 1947 page B8

Continued from page B5 was first negotiated between Israel’s Mossad Misgaret division and Moroccan authorities, specifically Prince Moulay Ali and Labor Minister Abdelkader Benjelloun. These negotiations led to a quiet economic agreement between Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and His Majesty, Moroccan King Hassan II, in which Morocco received indemnities- or payments- from Israel for each Jew they lost to emigration.

While ‘Diaspora’ refers to the dispersion of any people from The author and her father at a Mortheir original home- roccan wedding in Casablanca in 1987. land, the most commonly understood definition refers to the dispersion of the Jewish people beyond Israel.

I suppose the movement of Moroccan Jews, and indeed all those Jews who returned to the land of their Biblical forefathers, is the reverse of Diaspora... The return of Jews to Israel after unknown generations in exile.

No one can say when my own ancestors arrived in Morocco. Most likely during the Spanish Inquisition when many Jews made the short journey from the south of Spain over the Strait of Gibraltar to the North African Kingdom.

Even though my father left Morocco around the age of 14, it has remained an important part of his identity and is also something he remembers well and could be documented.

Curious, I asked him to recall leaving Morocco and his life after arriving in Israel and this is what he shared: “I was born in 1948, just like the modern state of Israel. ” he says proudly. “We left Morocco in 1962. We couldn’t tell anyone - no one at work, not our friends, not our rabbi. It wasn’t uncommon for families to just disappear. It was always sudden and something that was not discussed.”

“A big truck came for us one day. We had a book- like a passport- but for the whole family. There were 13 of us... my father,

my mother who was pregnant, my brothers and sisters and my grandmother. We couldn’t take much with us, just a few small hand bags to make it appear we were going a short trip if we were stopped. I remember being told to not talk to anyone if we were stopped. There were people would would speak for us. The car took us to Tangiers, where we took a train to a boat.

The boat took us to someplace called Limassol {Cyprus} where we stayed in a camp where my youngest brother was born.”

“A few months later we got on a plane to Israel and landed at Ben Gurion, before it was big like it is today. The Jewish Agency wanted to place everyone in Beer Sheva. We told them we’d only go to Jerusalem as we already had family in the city who told us to insist upon it.”

“The Jewish Agency gave us shelter in a Ma’barah- a shanty town. A camp. It was called ‘Asbestonium’ because it was made of asbestos. The worst stuff. It was in the middle of nowhere and had no doors, no bathroom or water, mats on the floor and it was tiny. It made the apartment we left behind seem like the Ritz. The camp was very full and we had to share space with another family that was just as big. Many times, the older kids slept outside because it was too small.

When a neighboring family found out they were finally being placed in a town, we took over their shack as they were leaving. We didn’t ask, and no one said anything. I think we all looked the same to them and they didn’t realize or they didn’t care. It was a slightly better crappy place, but I am happy we moved because we stayed there about three years during which time my youngest sister was born. Even though we had nothing and it was a really hard place, we had each other, we had our own shack and we were in Israel, ‘B.H’” “One day, the Agency people showed up and said they were knocking down Asbestonium and would finally be placing our family in Jerusalem. We ended up with two little apartments on the ground floor across the landing from each other in Kiryat Menachem. It was like a dream. I studied a little with a Chabad school, but school wasn’t really a thing at that time for me. I was the oldest son, I went to work to help my parents and my family.”

“My father began working at the Kings Hotel, but ran into issues as he refused to work on Shabbat. They said ‘you are like an Arab and you need to work so work Shabbat or leave’.

See From Diaspora and back page B7

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The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | B7

HIAS: Past and present GABBY BLAIR Jewish Press Staff Writer Founded in 1881, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) has been dedicated to providing humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries.

As of today, HIAS has helped to resettle an estimated 4.5 million refugees of all backgrounds around the world.

The HIAS Mission is: “To rescue people whose lives are in danger for being who they are; to protect the most vulnerable refugees, helping them build new lives and reuniting them with their families in safety and freedom; to advocate for the protection of refugees and assure that displaced people are treated with the dignity they deserve.”

Initially established in a Lower East Side storefront in New York City by American Jews - many of whom arrived in the United States seeking religious freedoms themselves - HIAS organized to provide much needed aid to thousands of Jewish refugees escaping pogroms and rampant anti-Semitism throughout Russia and eastern Europe.

The HIAS website states: “While those who arrived were

refugees – people who were being killed in their homelands because of who they were – the world did not yet have a legal concept for people who needed safe refuge outside their homelands.

Today, HIAS has touched the life of nearly every Jewish family in America and now welcomes all who have fled persecution.”

HIAS helped shell-shocked and impoverished Jewish refugees navigate a new and often terrifying system in which they did not understand the customs or speak the language.

A dormitory and soup kitchen was established early on to provide temporary shelter, food and clothing to new arrivals.

In 1904, HIAS established a bureau at Ellis Island. Five years later, The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society merged with the Hebrew Sheltering House Association, another New-York-born organization with a similar mission that formed in the early 1880s. This merger led to the expansion of HIAS branches at other dense ports of entry including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C. From humble beginnings, HIAS grew into a full fledged social service organization. According to Wikipedia, HIAS See HIAS page B9

From Diaspora and back Continued from page B6 He left and began working at the King David - He told them ‘I will do any job that needs to be done no matter how unpleasant or how hard, but Shabbat, I have off.’ They agreed and he worked there many years. He cleaned, he fixed things, he worked in the kitchen and eventually worked as a baker.

He left a restaurant behind in Fez, and this was as close as he could get to something similar.

Soon afterwards, I began working at the King David with him.

I was a busboy and a waiter for a while. Then I started working to repair appliances. They were much easier to fix then. Then I started working construction, carrying big blocks up stairs. It was hard work but I was strong like a bull then, you know.”

“In 1966 I was drafted into the Army and served through 1969. I was a paratrooper with the 860th Regiment and did 7 jumps. My ability to speak multiple languages fluently was an asset and I fought in the Six Day War. After my 3 years ended, I went to Paris for four months to visit my family there- my mother’s sister and her family. After being in a war, you deserve a vacation somewhere else and Paris is always beautiful.”

“When I got back I was immediately drafted into the reserves to fight in The War of Attrition where I was very badly wounded. Baruch Hash-m, I had on a bulletproof jacket that protected my core. I was shot in my ankle, thighs and buttocks and had a rocket blow up my position. Not everyone made it.

My eardrums were blown out, but miraculously I can still hear.

For years afterwards, I had shrapnel bits coming out of my body. Truly a miracle I am here and that I didn’t die in the Sinai.”

“They put me in a hospital in Beer Sheva when I was in a full body cast. It was hard for my family to get to Beer Sheva and they had to beg for me to be moved to Hadassah in Jerusalem.

Someone had rachmanut, and B’H, I was transported and finished healing in Jerusalem. A little over a year later, in September 1972, I got a visa for America and came with just $300 in my pocket and very little English. I had a few friends who were in New York already, but I had no idea what I was going to do or how long I would stay.”

“When I landed, I told the taxi driver in my broken English ‘take me to New York!’ And he said ‘Hey buddy. You are in New York!’... After trying to understand this, I said ‘take me to the city!’ and for 40 years, I stayed. You know the rest of the story. I became a citizen. I worked in restaurants, then as a taxi driver, then as a private driver with a limo. I grew that business and sold it and got into real estate....”

“It’s funny, really, from being born in the Mellah, to slaughtering chickens when I was 10, to a shack in the desert at 14, to wars, to real estate in America.... B”H. I am blessed. Hash-m has been good to me. I have beautiful kids, grandkids and a good life. I have had three homes. Morocco, America and Israel. They have all been sweet and bitter, hard and easy. They have all helped make me who I am. After 40 years, like the Jews in the desert, it was time to move back to my home in Israel, in peace.”

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B8 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

The other Jewish nation: The Jewish Autonomous Oblast SAM KRICSFELD Northeast of China, in land where Siberian tigers once roamed, is the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. This small piece of eastern Russia is blisteringly cold in the winter, mosquito-filled in the summer, covered in swampland and extremely isolated. It was also once a candidate for a Jewish homeland.

In 1928, the Soviet Union designated a chunk of Siberia over one and a half times larger than the current day State of Israel to be an official territory for Jewish settlement. It became the Jewish Autonomous Oblast ( JAO), with its largest city, Birobidzhan, as its administrative capital. According to Robert Weinberg’s Stalin’s Forgotten Zion, the Soviet Union chose the JAO’s location to redirect Jewish settlement

JAO Map Credit: Wikimedia Commons

away from native populaces in Ukraine and Belarus and exploit natural resources.

“The [Soviet Union’s] plan was to move as many Jews as possible to a parcel of rich, entirely undeveloped land on the easternmost borders of Siberia where, freed from the bourgeois trades of the shtetl, they would form collective farms and transform themselves into a strapping class of Soviet peasantry,” Henry Srebrnik wrote in Dreams of Nationhood. Srebrnik also added that a population in the east on the Chinese border could safeguard against a Chinese or Japanese invasion.

The “autonomous” part of JAO was that Jews in Birobidzhan would have their own administrative, judicial and educational institutions. The JAO was the only “nation” in history to have Yiddish as its official language.

According to William Siegel in Nation Making in Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Oblast, the first Jews that arrived in Birobidzhan were displeased at their new location. “Just as the levels of settlement rose, so did the numbers of immigrants who gave up on the Jewish territory,” Siegel wrote, “apparently having decided that the misery of collectivization in their previous territories was preferable to the hopelessness of this nascent Jewish autonomy.” Weinberg wrote that Jewish colonists were given untillable land that had not been surveyed or had its swamps drained. Some state farms lacked drinking water, barns, livestock and farming equipment.

See The other Jewish nation page B9

The SS Exodus 1947

HAPPY ROSH HASHANAH TO THE OMAHA JEWISH COMMUNITY

Joel and Nancy Schlessinger

Continued from page B6 Sometimes those reasons are obviously life-threatening, like the early 20th century pogroms or the 1938 Anschluss.

Sometimes the danger is less apparent, but who is to say whether the Parisian Jew who moved to Montreal in 2018 didn’t do so because he feared for his life?

One of the most painful forms of Diaspora is when people have no choice but to leave, then attempt to leave yet are blocked from doing so. As we all know (and you can read about it in the article Sam Kricsfeld wrote, elsewhere in this issue) that happened to the passengers of the SS St. Louis when it tried to leave Europe. It happened again, after WWII was over, to the passengers of the SS Exodus 1947.

Formerly a packet steamer for the Baltimore Steam Packet Company, called the SS President Warfield, the ship carried passengers and freight between 1928 until 1942.

After that, it served the Royal Navy and the US Navy during WW II. It was deployed during the invasion of Normandy, but after the War returned to US waters.

It was then sold as scrap for just $8,000 and ended up in the hands of the Hagana. Some sources state the Hagana bought it for $40,000; its purpose was to illegally transport Holocaust survivors from France to what was then Palestine.

In July of 1947, the ship set out from France with over 4,500 Jewish men, women and children on board. Even before it reached Palestine’s territorial waters, it was surrounded by British destroyers. A struggle ensued, as the British wanted to make an example out of the Exodus; the ship was towed to Haifa and passengers were divided between several Navy transports and returned to Europe. The French, upon the navy transport’s return to its coast, refused to force the passengers off. The passengers themselves wouldn’t voluntarily leave their ships, instead choosing to go on a hunger strike which lasted 24 days. By now, there was international media coverage and the British looked bad in the court of public opinion (one has to wonder, it took this long?). Ultimately, the British transported the passengers to Hamburg where they were moved to DP camps.

It wasn’t as if the British were unaware of what they were doing. One diplomat, John Coulson, who worked at the British embassy in Paris, wrote: “You will realize that an announcement of decision to send immigrants back to Germany will produce violent hostile outbursts in the press. Our opponents in France, and I dare say other countries, have made great play with the fact that these immigrants were being kept behind barbed wire, in concentration camps and guarded by Germans.”

It wasn’t just the press: displaced persons in camps all over Europe went on hunger strikes to protest and draw attention to the behavior of the British. The resulting public embarrassment may have played its part in paving the way for independence in 1948.

Before the declaration of the State of Israel, deportees were moved to Sengwarden, near Wilhelmshaven, Germany’s largest naval base. By April 1948, only 1,800 of the original 4,500 remained in two Exodus camps. Many tried to reach Palestine again and most were successful by May 1948. Some ended up in detention camps in Cyprus; all of those were transferred to Israel when Great Britain formally recognized the State of Israel in January 1949.

The captain of the Exodus, Ike Aronovitz, passed away in Israel in 2009. The commander, Yossi Harel, went on to serve in the Israeli intelligence and became a successful businessman. He died in 2008.

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | B9

HIAS U.S.. During this period, resettlement of Jewish immigrants Continued from page B7 “provided translation services, guided immigrants through included assistance in obtaining U.S. citizenship. For this a medical screening and other procedures, argued before the rudimentary knowledge of English and familiarity with Boards of Special Enquiry to prevent deportations, lent needy American institutions were mandatory. In addition to classes given at its own building, Jews the $25 landing fee, HIAS arranged formal edand obtained bonds for othucational courses for the ers guaranteeing their emimmigrants through a ployable status. HIAS also network of local Jewish orsearched for relatives of deganizations. From 1909 to tained immigrants in order 1913, HIAS helped more to secure the necessary affithan 35,000 new immidavits of support to guarangrants become naturaltee that the new arrivals ized citizens.” would not become public Over 130,000 Jews archarges. Lack of such affirived from eastern Europe davits and/or material in 1914 as World War I means impacted a large ramped up. As the North number of immigrants: of the 900 immigrants de- Hebrew sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society Credit: Wikimedia Atlantic became embattled and dangerous to tained during one month in Commons 1917, 600 were held because they had neither money nor cross, immigration numbers dropped along with lines of comsponsors to claim them. Through advertising and other meth- munication. Stateside families desperate for news ‘from ods, the Society was able to locate relatives for the vast ma- home’ led to HIAS establishing operatives in Europe who, over jority of detainees, who in a short time were released from Ellis the course of WWI, managed to transmit over 300,000 mesIsland. Many of the Jews traveling in steerage on the steamship sages between separated families of all faiths and backlines across the Atlantic refused the non-kosher food served grounds throughout the U.S. and Europe.

In the post-war years, HIAS worked hard to create self sufon their journeys and arrived at Ellis Island malnourished and vulnerable to deportation on medical grounds. In 1911, HIAS ficiency in order to continue their mission. The HIAS Immiinstalled a kosher kitchen on the Island, providing more than grant Bank opened for business in New York’s East Village in a half million meals to arriving immigrants along with a space 1923. Fully licensed by the State, the bank was unique in a few ways; it helped cover immigration fees required upon arfor religious services and musical concerts at Ellis Island.”

Can you imagine what it must have been like for these Jew- rival for Jewish refugees in need and it facilitated money ish refugees to survive religious persecution, travel across the transfers between immigrants and their families abroad, a ocean to a new land, and to be welcomed with the option of novel service not offered by most banks at that time.

1927 brought the expansion of HIAS to the global stage a kosher meal and religious services? While there were many challenges facing refugees, HIAS went through extraordinary thanks to a merger with a Paris-based/ English-registered lengths to aid the transition from impoverished Jewish charitable society called the Jewish Colonization Association ( JCA), and a Berlin-based migration organization called refugee to contributing members of American society.

“In the summer of 1911, HIAS also set up an ‘Oriental De- Emigdirect, which resulted in the creation of ‘HICEM’.

HIAS continued to provide immigration services to the partment’ to meet the growing needs of immigrants from the Balkans and the Near East. Between 1908 and 1913, approxi- U.S., while HICEM functioned as the organization’s European mately 10,000 Jewish emigrants left the Middle East for the See HIAS page B10

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The other Jewish nation

Continued from page B8 Despite this, the Soviet Union was pushing hard for its Jews to go to the JAO. In 1933, the Society for the Settlement of Jewish Toilers on the Land even named an airplane “Birobizhanets.” According to Weinberg, it flew over Belarus and Ukraine, distributing pamphlets and propaganda touting Birobidzhan as a Jewish utopia.

Many left-wing and socialist Jews in the West were pushing hard for Birobidzhan. According to Weinberg, the Association for Jewish Colonization in the Soviet Union (ICOR) had over 10,000 American members in the early 1930s. ICOR raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for JAO infrastructure, farming equipment, cultural endeavors, and medical care. Ambijan, the American Committee for the Settlement of Jews in Birobidzhan, also raised money and supplies for the JAO. In the Soviet Union’s eyes, Jews were reduced to an ethnicity in the JAO, as their religion was incompatible with the Soviet philosophy of atheism. According to Weinberg, lectures were delivered to “undercut the appeal of Jewish Religion.”

The harsh conditions, underdevelopment and isolation was bad enough, but the Jews in the JAO were also struck with Stalin’s “Great Purge” from 1936-1938. According to Weinberg, all the Yiddish schools were closed, and all institutions dealing with Jewish settlement and immigration to the JAO were shut down.

Birobidzhan “intellectuals” were killed or sent to labor camps.

The dream of the JAO was revived after World War II, when the Soviet government reintroduced Jewish migration programs. A dramatic influx of Soviet Jews temporarily revitalized Birobidzhan. According to Srebrnik, the JAO had colleges and trade schools, academies for the arts, 24 movie theaters, two See The other Jewish nation page B10

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B10 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

The other Jewish nation HIAS Continued from page B9 counterpart. While Emigdirect was forced to withdraw from the merger in 1934 as the Nazis rose to power, the Paris-based offices managed to stay open until the German invasion of the city. Upon their closure, Portugal authorized the office’s transfer to Lisbon. By then, HIAS had bureaus established throughout Europe, South and Central America, Australia and China.

This collaboration was instrumental in saving thousands of Jewish lives during World War II.

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society 1925 Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The end of WWII was the beginning of HIAS’ largest effort as it worked to assist an estimated 300,000 displaced Jewish persons throughout Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. Families had been torn apart and traumatized. Many were murdered or missing and identifying documents normally needed for immigration no longer existed. HICEM dissolved in 1945 and HIAS took over all operations globally. Between 1945 and 1951, HIAS sponsored nearly 170,000 emigrants seeking a new life away from mainland Europe.

While assisting persecuted Jews of Russia and Europe had long been the primary work of HIAS, the 1950s-1970s saw an expansion to helping those flee communist strongholds and sympathizer governments including the The Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Cuba. HIAS also focused their efforts to helping Arab Jews fleeing violence and restrictions or See HIAS page B12

traditional Jewish life” in the Soviet Union. “[The Jewish ComContinued from page B9 main newspapers, 17 hospitals and 55 medical centers. Biro- munist movement] had become caught in the ambiguity of bidzhan itself had a national library with over 200,000 books. their own ideology: a pro-Soviet internationalism combined Ambijan and ICOR flourwith an interest in Jewish naished in the middle and late tional regeneration; support 1940s. According to Srebrnik, for a Zionist-style enterprise in Albert Einstein served as far-off Siberia, coupled with Ambijan’s honorary presiopposition to Zionism itself.” dent, while people like The State of Israel was Leonard Bernstein and Marc founded in 1948. Srebrnik Chagall were on the ICOR wrote that “it was now apparNational Committee. Budgent that Birobidzhan would in ets and total donations all likelihood remain marginal began to rise above $1 milto the future of Soviet Jewry.” lion. Ambijan’s national dinMost Jews who had survived ner in 1946 was held at the the Nazis fled to Israel (if they Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in could) or remained in western Birobidzhan Sign Credit: Wikimedia Commons New York and was attended Russian cities, Ukraine or Beby over 1,000 people, and by 1947, Ambijan had over 20,000 larus. Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev blamed the Jews for the members. In 1948, Ambijan hosted a benefit concert at failure of the JAO. Carnegie Hall for Birobidzhan’s 20th anniversary.

The Soviet Union’s “experiment” was and remains an abject The JAO and its supporters’ heyday was short lived - Stalin failure - the Jews were never even a majority in the JAO (there began anti-Jewish purges in November of 1948. The JAO’s Jew- were always more Russians, Cossacks, Koreans and Ukrainiish schools were shut down by the end of that year, and no ans, according to Weinberg). According to an article in the Yiddish publications were printed again until 1959. According Chicago Tribune from April 7, 2001, more than 10,000 of the to Weinberg, 30,000 Jewish and Yiddish books from the na- remaining JAO Jews left between 1991 and 2001. tional library were burned. “The anti-Jewish assault in Stalin’s Despite the dwindling Jewish population, there is a sort of last years delivered a mortal blow to the Birobidzhan exper- Jewish revival happening in the JAO. Mikhail Gorbachev’s periment,” he wrote. Stalin’s infamous “Doctors’ Plot” conspiracy estroika political movement and glasnost policy reform in the theory and subsequent push to rid the Soviet Union of “cos- 1980s allowed Jews to openly practice religion again. Accordmopolitans” continued to disillusion Jews. ing to the Tribune article, a Jewish school reopened in 1992, According to Srebrnik, it turned out that funds and supplies and the newspaper (the Birobidzhaner Shtern) began to print raised by Ambijan were often not reaching Birobidzhan, instead partially in Yiddish again. Officials began to promote Jewish being dispersed across the Soviet Union. Ambijan and ICOR culture to “set their poor and otherwise nondescript region merged in 1946. In the United States, the onset of the Cold War, off from the other 88 regions scrambling for money and atMcCarthyism and “anti-Communist hysteria” hastened the de- tention from Moscow [after the dissolution of the Soviet cline of pro-Soviet organizations like Ambijan and ICOR. The Union]. Jewishness became the region’s brand.”

FBI began discouraging businesses from dealing with Ambijan, According to an article in The Guardian from Sept. 27, 2017, and eventually Ambijan ceased operations in 1951. there was a four-day “Jewish cultural festival” held in BiroAccording to Srebrnik, American Jews gave up on the JAO bidzhan that featured “loudspeakers blast[ing] out Yiddishby the mid-1950s as it became evident that “the Jewish al- language ballads while hundreds of schoolchildren in ersatz liance with communism had ended in the destruction…of See The other Jewish nation page B13

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | B11

SNOWBIRDS

Homecoming and the return to Diaspora

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Safta at her younger daughter’s Lenna; Jerusalem

GABBY BLAIR Jewish Press Staff Writer I was the only grandchild living in Diaspora and as such, I spent a good portion of my summers visiting my Saba and Safta in Jerusalem.

By visiting, I mean a months-long extended stay every summer, sometimes extending into the High Holidays. Some years we would also travel over for Passover or Hanukkah. From age seven, I began to fly alone, staying with my grandparents until my parents could join me.

It was time for my full immersion into family, language, prayer and into the land itself.

I would stay in the same small, humble apartment with the dusty courtyard in Kiryat Menachem that my family had eventually been placed in after they left Morocco; my father’s home before he immigrated to America.

Now, when we go back to visit, I always drive

Gabriella’s 2nd Birthday in Jerusalem Dec. 1980.

by it and am amazed by how small and shabby the building is. In my memory it is magical and so much more than the shell of what it appears.

I often wish I could return to those days and pay closer attention to the details of those times. I can still see the heavy low brocade couches lining the wall and the shelves covered with old photographs in ornate frames next to the tall polished engraved teapots and small jewel-colored tea glasses that Moroccans favor.

I can almost conjure the comforting aroma from steaming platters of couscous with sweet apricots, raisins and savory vegetables that my Safta would prepare. I can vividly recall the nutty sweetness of the little hand ground, star shaped marzipan cookies sprinkled with rainbow nonpareils that she would make for me, as she knew they were my favorite.

See Homecoming page B13

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Shana Tova from

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HIAS

citizenship programs.”

Continued from page B10 facing expulsion from their ancestral homelands across North According to the website HIAS has operated in the followAfrica and the Middle East. ing ways and places since 2017: HIAS was instrumental in providing aid to Egyptian Jews after “In the United States, HIAS helps resettle refugees from their forced expulsion from the Sinai Peninsula in 1956 and around the world through a national affiliate network of Jewhelped to rescue and relocate thousands of Jews from Algeria, ish agencies. It coordinates resettlement services, provides exTunisia, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Syria and tensive integration and citizenship Libya throughout the 1960s. HIAS also programs for Russian-speaking worked with Morocco’s King Hassan arrefugees and immigrants, and gives ranging for the evacuation of most of scholarships to refugees. HIAS also adthe kingdom’s vast Jewish community vocates for immigration laws with a to France and Israel. network of Jewish, interfaith, and According to records, of one million other partners in Washington, DC and Jewish refugees from Muslim counnationwide. Additionally, HIAS protries in the 1950s-60s, nearly 10% were motes educational initiatives that enresettled by HIAS. Additionally, HIAS courage Jewish communities to aided in the escape and resettlement engage in refugee aid and services.” of Iranians of Jewish and Baha’i faiths “In Vienna and Kyiv, HIAS helps Jews along with Muslims whose political and others from 43 countries receive ideologies imperiled the lives of their protection and seek asylum or resettlefamilies following the overthrow of the ment. In 2016 HIAS opened an office Shah in 1979. on the Greek island of Lesvos to proIn 1975, HIAS’ mission was expanded vide legal services for refugees arriving when the U.S. Department of State reby sea, predominantly from Syria.” quested assistance in resettling Viet“In the Middle East, HIAS helps Jewnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon. ish and other religious minorities from As stated on the HIAS website, “It was Iran come to the U.S.” at that time that HIAS broadened its “In Israel, HIAS provides scholarships mission. Since that time, the organizafor those who have recently immition has continued to provide support Credit: https://ontherescuefront.wordpress.com/ grated to the Jewish state and assists for refugees of all nationalities, religions, category/hias-archives/ African asylum seekers. The organizaand ethnic origins. This has been stated as: “Originally HIAS tion also supports the resettlement of refugees of the Syrian helped Jewish refugees; now HIAS is Jews helping all refugees.” Civil War in Jordan.”

At its core, HIAS draws heavily on the Jewish values, texts “In Chad, HIAS provides trauma counseling and social servand traditions it was founded on including the concepts of ices in 12 of that country’s camps for refugees from the Darfur helping the Stranger and Tikkun Olam. According to region of Sudan and facilitates relocation for those who need Wikipedia, “since 1975, and even more so since 2000, HIAS as additional protection.” a matter of policy, has directed its resources to assist refugees “In Kenya, HIAS’ trauma counseling and resettlement operand immigrants of all religions, ethnicities, nationalities, and ations focus on the needs of the most vulnerable of the 250,000 backgrounds. It has helped many such refugees and immi- people displaced by conflicts in Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, grants to reunite with their families, and to resettle in the Rwanda, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

United States; the very large majority of such refugees both “In Latin America, HIAS provides full-service counseling, recently and currently have been non-Jewish.” legal services, and humanitarian assistance for Colombian “HIAS also advocates in the United States Congress on poli- refugees fleeing to Ecuador and Venezuela. It also facilitates cies affecting refugees and immigrants and has a presence in the resettlement and integration of refugees in Argentina and 18 countries across the globe. The organization’s staff work Uruguay. HIAS opened its newest Latin American office in with refugees living on the margins of foreign cities or in Costa Rica, in February 2017.” refugee camps. Depending on location, HIAS services can inFrom its original mission to help fellow Jews find safe harclude trauma counseling, art therapy, legal representation, and bor, put down roots and thrive in the United States, to its curhumanitarian assistance, among others. Working with the U.S. rent mission to help refugees of all nationalities and government, the government of Israel, the United Nations backgrounds, suffering persecution and traumas we as Jews High Commissioner for Refugees, and a host of non-govern- know all too well, HIAS remains dedicated to its work repairmental organizations, HIAS assists refugees with U.S. resettle- ing the world one refugee at a time and embodies what it ment and follows through with immigrant integration and means to be a light unto the nations.

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The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | B13

Homecoming The other Jewish nation

My grandparents and aunt Fortune, Z”L and I visiting the grave of Baba Sale in Netivot.

Continued from page B11 I wish that I could go back in time and not simply enjoy all she cooked and baked but learn her recipes... recipes that she held in her head, as she was quite unable to read.

The mother of 10 children, she likely had no time to, even had she been able. She spoke no English aside from “Good very good” and “I love you.” so we would speak in a mix of Hebrew and French; we always understood each other. She would gently sing Abyadi, an Andalusian lullaby, at night until I slept and pray fervently every day with words handed down, long memorized by her heart.

She was born in Sefrou, Morocco and was married young as was customary. She was a mother by 16 who dedicated her life to her beloved husband, her children and her grandchildren. She was an impressive woman though not quite 5 foot tall, used to hard work and making each shekel count. She did not complain and always replied to questions with a “Baruch Hashem.” She was a true Eshyt Hayil.

Recalling her and our many trips to the Kotel, the shuk and to the grave of Baba Sale

Safta and me at the kotel

in Netivot, I get deja-vu and feel her with me when I visit now, as an adult. I remember helping her prepare for Shabbat, cleaning and setting the long table for a weekend filled with countless aunts, uncles and cousins excited to visit me- their lone ‘American cousin’.

Watching her thick hands knead challah dough with fluidity and ease, listening to her finishing her work late into the night, reminds me all these years later of the home I have, could have, in Israel.

While I cannot go back to those times or relive them through my adult lens, the very heart of Israel is part of me because of her. I still visit her and my Saba every trip back that I am fortunate enough to make. I clean their graves- now with my own children- at Givat Shaul and together, we light small candles to put in the little door at the base of their tombs.

It reminds me of who I am, where I came from and my tie to that land. It ties my children to it. It reminds me that even though I have never lived in Israel, whenever I visit, it is like a homecoming; every time I leave, though part of me is eager to get home, my heart breaks a little and my soul cries.

Happy Rosh Hashanah

Continued from page B10 folk costumes dance[d] circles around the menorah monument that dominates the square” in front of the railway station. A cantor from Vienna held a “concert,” and an exhibition on the city’s history was opened.

“With so few Jews now living in Birobidzhan,” the article said, “the massed Yiddish dances and mannequins of gurning Jews [gave] the impression of a Jewish Disneyland rather than of a living, breathing community.”

According to an article in Haaretz from Nov. 10, 2017, the JAO’s government has been trying to “make Birobidzhan Jewish again,” despite the local population being only 1.5 percent Jewish. The JAO “tries to stress its unique status at every opportunity, fearing that it may otherwise be merged with the much larger neighboring region of Khabarovsk Krai.”

The Haaretz article profiled Birobizhan’s chief rabbi, Rabbi Eli Riss. Riss, a Chabad rabbi, was born in Birobidzhan but raised in Israel. As of 2017, Riss was overseeing the construction of a kosher restaurant, supermarket and mikvah.

As recently as May of this year, the Russian vice-premier proposed to eliminate the JAO and merge it with a neighboring territory. According to an article in The Jewish Press from May 11, 2021, protests erupted in the JAO and the Jewish Russian community. There is also a legal question, as the JAO is now Russia’s only autonomous district.

Omaha has a very tenuous connection to the JAO - The Jewish Federation of Omaha’s 2013 Annual Campaign raised money for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). According to a September 20, 2013 article in the Omaha Jewish Press, a portion of the JDC money went to Birobidzhan to support a B’nai Mitzvah program and care for the needy and elderly. Other than this, a few mentions of a local Ambijan chapter in the 1940s, and wire articles in the Omaha Jewish Press, there seems to be no other connection between Omaha and the JAO. Travel to the JAO is very difficult. Birobidzhan has no major airport, so travelers must either fly into Khabarovsk and travel west or take the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

Flights to Khabarovsk and semi-comfortable trips on the railroad will cost you thousands of dollars. Soviet Tours offers tours of Khabarovsk and Birobidzhan for over $800 per person. TripAdvisor lists a statue, a movie theater and a karaoke bar among the Birobidzhan’s top 10 attractions, behind the city’s “Local Lore” and contemporary art museums.

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast has faded into obscurity - a footnote in the modern history of Judaism. Once considered a viable alternative to Zionism, the JAO today is barely Jewish, only using its twisted Jewish history as a token to differentiate itself from other Russian territories. It remains remote, unknown and ignored - a Jewish nation without Jews.

L’Shana Tovah

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These Jewish activists work as translators for migrants to fight ‘language violence’

classroom and recalls seeing multiple acts of blaALAN GRABINSKY tant antisemitic violence.

JTA In 2018, a caravan of Central American miAt the University of Pennsylvania, Koren studgrants approached the United States through ied East Asian Language and Civilizations and Mexico, stoking both fears and compassion. founded a cross-cultural action group for neighAriel Koren, an interpreter who was translatborhoods. She was class president in 2014 and ing for separated families near the U.S.-Mexico was awarded the Truman Scholarship for stuborder at the time, saw a bureaucracy intent on dents who plan to pursue careers in government discouraging immigration by making the process or public service. nearly impossible for non-English speakers. She Koren speaks nine languages, including Arabic, called it “language violence.”

Spanish, English, Hebrew and Ladino, or JudeoThe 25-year-old, who was living in Mexico City, Spanish. She has family members in the U.S., had taken time away from her job working for Brazil and Israel.

Google Translate to focus on her activism. With “So many of us Jews forget about our rich linfellow Google employee Fernanda Montes de Oca guistically diverse heritage. And the reason for she founded Respond Crisis Translation, which our forgetting is because of systemic language vihas become a global network of 2,000 volunteer olence,” Koren said, before listing various Jewish translators and language activists working to Respond Crisis Translation has become a global network of 2,000 volunteer translators. languages. “Ladino, Haketia, Judeo-Arabic, Yidprovide translation and interpreting services to Credit: Respond Crisis Translation dish amongst others are precious languages at For Koren, who has since moved back to the United States, risk of extinction.” asylum seekers, mostly those stranded along the U.S. border.

Since its founding in September 2019, RCT has translated the systematic mistreatment of immigrants is directly related She is a harsh critic of Israel, which she considers an ethnoover 18,000 asylum documents for 2,000 people and 100 part- to recent Jewish history. nationalist state. As a linguist, Koren believes in celebrating the “In 1939-1940, U.S. diplomat Breckinridge Long implemented rich diversity of languages spoken by the Jewish people as opner organizations in over 100 languages, including Orombo, Quechua, Ottomi and Lingala. Its work, an estimated $1 mil- an infamous, nearly impossible 8-foot [long] visa application posed to solely embracing modern Hebrew. She identifies with lion worth of translation done nearly for free, has been spot- form printed in tiny type and only made available in English,” Jewish Voice for Peace, a far-left group that opposes Zionism. lighted in The New York Times, Mother Jones and other media. she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “He was intentionally Asked how she reconciles those views with one of the hisAccording to Koren, dozens of Jews worldwide are among using language, and Anglo-centricity, as a tool to justify the torical justifications for Israel’s founding — namely that Jewish the network’s most active and committed language activists. U.S.’s rejection and deportation of asylum seekers that ulti- refugees needed a state of their own so they couldn’t be turned Many of them were inspired by the Jewish activist group Never mately led to thousands of deaths during the Holocaust.” away by hostile or nativist governments — she said, “Our hisKoren, herself a descendant of Russian and Polish Jews, is tory of oppression and genocide at the hands of nationalist Again Action, which tries to disrupt the activities of Immigrafrom Jacksonville, Florida. She was often the only Jew in her See Jewish activists page B15 tion and Customs Enforcement, especially deportations.

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | B15

Jewish activists ments since February of last year. She noted Continued from page B14 violence should serve as a lesson to us that that the number of Brazilians fleeing the nationalism itself is the problem, a call to country has increased since Jair Bolsonaro, fight for all peoples’ right to access mobility Brazil’s far-right president, took office in 2016. and safety in Diaspora.”

“One dimension of lanThe last time Koren visguage violence that I think ited Israel, she visited a we should talk about is linSephardic nursing home guistic isolation,” she told where residents still speak JTA. “For some Portuguese Ladino. The experience speakers stuck at the borprofoundly affected her and der, I’m the first one that reinvigorated her commitunderstands them, even ment to supporting the efthough I’m so far away.” forts to cherish and revive According to Zuza, many the language. of these immigrants have Esther Biesse, 28, who has to deal with complex bubeen leading the French reaucratic and legal translation team for RCT Ariel Koren, shown speaking at the processes that become since the start of the net- 2020 Polyglot Conference, says even harder to negotiate work, also believes language Jews often “forget about our rich when one doesn’t know and immigration activism linguistically diverse heritage.” how to speak the language.

Credit: Screenshot from YouTube are inherently Jewish.

Zuza’s family on her faBiesse is a Paris-born Jew, currently based ther’s side were left-leaning Sephardic immiin Mexico, who speaks French, Spanish and grants who came from Portugal and Aleppo, English and has lived in New Delhi, Tunis, Syria. They were active in the fight for indigeMarrakesh, Minnesota, Washington, D.C., nous and Black people’s rights in Brazil.

Canada and Medellin, Colombia. Charged “The Jewish aspect to my work with RCT is with screening volunteers for their translation there, but I can’t quite put it into words,” she skills, she has indirectly helped hundreds of said. “For me, it has to do with the fact of asylum seekers coming from French-speaking fighting against conditions of inequality former colonies like Haiti, Congo and Senegal. through language.”

“I believe mobility and migration is a Jewish For Koren, the quest for human rights and inissue,” she told JTA. “My family has always clusion through language defines her Judaism. been nomadic, and throughout Jewish his“My Jewishness calls me to center anti-natory, there’s always been a strategic use of lan- tionalist, anti-carceral, abolitionist values,” guage across the Diaspora,” for example, the she said. “It is always so jarring to me when I need of Eastern European Jews to speak dif- come across fellow Jews who do not see that ferent languages to survive in their trades. the fight against white nationalism, forced asIt’s a position shared by another activist, the similation, family separation is an inherently Brazilian Samara Zuza. Based in Minas Jewish fight because to me it feels so incrediGerais, Brazil, Zuza has drafted translations bly innate and apparent and just ingrained in of Portuguese, Spanish and English docu- our history and stories and traditions.”

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Rosh Hashanah SECTION 3

Peoplehood

The concept of peoplehood is a reminder of our collective relationship to each other. As I look to the coming year and as we continue to navigate through the pandemic and connect as a community, whether it be in person, virtually, or in thought, I am inspired by ALAN POTASH the theme of the Jewish Chief Executive Press’s Rosh Hashanah edi- Officer, JFO tion on Diaspora. As I examine the idea of diaspora, I think of peoplehood – our connection to each other and to our past.

First, a quick refresher on the meaning of the word diaspora and why it is still used today. Although the term is taken from ancient Greek, the first recorded usage in English dates back to 1594 when it was used to refer to the scattering of the Jews. Most recently, it has been used by many others to connect with their home countries as well as other types of displacements.

When I think of the diaspora, I think of two things: the exile from Israel and the displacement of my grandparents from the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire in the early 1900s. What really resonates with me is the quest many of us have undertaken to retrace the steps of our diaspora. The relentless pursuit to retrace the steps of our ancestors and search for our lost relatives has been more than an industry – it has reconnected us to Israel.

Our tradition too long for our homeland has, for many, grown to resemble an internal compass

guiding us back to our roots. ple, Ksenia Polikarpova is a Russian-born badA thought recently occurred to me while watch- minton player who immigrated to Israel in 2017. ing the Olympics. When the Olympic Games take Israel has also put forward a baseball team for the place, do spectators yearn for and support the athletes from the home countries from which they were displaced? I’ve noticed this year that athletes who currently live in one country return to and play for their native lands rather than their new country. For example, if one currently lives in the US but is from Ireland, does one root for the athletes from Ireland or from the US? I noticed also in this Olympics some A few miles from the villages my grandparents came from is the cemetery in athletes who have cho- Medzhyibizh where the Baal Shem Tov (Besht) is buried. This building houses sen to return to their the tomb of the Baal Shem Tov. native lands to represent that country, rather than first time since 1974. The 24-man team includes their new country of residence. The highest profile several minor and major league American-born example of this is Naomi Osaka who moved from players who attained Israeli citizenship to repreJapan to New York when she was three years old, sent the nation. and now represents Japan in tennis.

Looking back on my own connection to my famHowever, when I look at the Israeli Olympic ily’s displacement experience, I had the opportuteam, I see many athletes competing for their new nity to trace my paternal grandparents’ steps from country (Israel), and not their native one. As a re- the Pale to Omaha. Several years ago, I went to the sult, the Tokyo Olympics will see Israel represented villages that my grandparents left when they were for the first time in a number of events. For exam- See Peoplehood page C2

L ’Shana Tova!

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Peoplehood

FR OM TH E C L E R GY

Our united Jewish Community

One of my favorite Hasidic stories goes back all the way to the 18th century.

This story reflects real spirituality, sincerity, creativity, simplicity and purity of the soul.

As the story goes, a simple boy entered on Yom Kippur the synagogue of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Hasidic movement.

The boy, who was an illiterate shep- RABBI ALEX herd, owned a flute that he used to play FELCH all the time while taking care of the The Jewish sheep. As he entered the congregation, Community of not knowing how to pray, all of a sudden Lincoln he started playing his flute, which he did with touching beauty and inspiration. It was his gift to God. The worshippers in the synagogue were shocked and horrified!

For them, the boy had just committed a scandal!

They wanted to expel the boy from the synagogue, but Rabbi Baal Shem Tov stopped them.

He said, “Up until now, I could feel our prayers being blocked as they tried to reach God. This young boy’s playing was so pure and sincere, that it broke through the blockage and brought all of our prayers straight up to Adonai” (Joseph Telushkin, Jewish Wisdom, page 363).

As our High Holidays speedily approach, we are all filled with some uncertainty, as to how the Almighty will react to our prayers.

Will God expect us to pray with liturgical perfection, uttering every word according to the traditions of our ancestors?

Will God see whether we pray with full sincerity?

Will God answer our prayers favorably?

The only certainty is that nobody knows.

What I do believe though, is that this year’s Lincoln’s Jewish Community High Holidays prayers will (I hope) call God’s attention, as for the first time ever, our united community will raise our voices in unison.

We will pray at both of our homes, B’nai Jeshurun and Tifereth Israel, realizing that even though we may have different traditions and liturgical renditions, we affirm that we are Chaverim Kol Israel, we are a United Jewish People.

Our styles and customs may not always be identical, but we are united in our love of a United Jewish People, in our love of synagogue and in our love of Torah.

I feel as if indeed, Adonai may look at us, and may give an approving smile, opening the gates of heaven with warmth and acceptance.

I feel in my heart that Adonai will sense our embrace of the Psalm of King David (133:1) ‫הַמ הֵּנִה‬-‫בֹוּט‬, ‫הַמּו‬-‫ םיִעָּנ‬- ‫םַּג םיִחַא תֶבֶׁש‬-‫דַחָי‬.

“How good and how pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell together.”

This upcoming 5782 our community will bring us all together. Each of us will get to experience the true meaning of being a united Kehilah (community) that despite our differences, we cherish the same belief in the One. May the upcoming 5782 be a year of health and well-being for all of us, blessing all in need with Shalom, love and goodness.

L’Shanah Tovah Tikatevu.

May we all be inscribed in the Book of Life.

Visit us on facebook: ps://www.facebook.com/ShalomahaPress

Jewish Cemetery outside of Kupel

Continued from page C1 toddlers. While growing up, whenever I asked my grandmother where she and my grandfather came from, she could easily recall that they came from two different villages divided by railroad tracks (the railroad tracks were the border sometimes dividing two countries). She came from one side and my grandfather came from the other side. The two villages were Kupel and Volochisk, and when I went to visit the villages, as my grandmother said, they were divided by railroad tracks. Not only was her description of the two villages consistent with the railroad tracks, but she would describe the area as if you were looking at them from a distance – the smaller one Kupel and the larger Volochisk, divided by the tracks. When I stood on top of the hill with my back to the cemetery, it was just as she described. Although when I was there, the village of Kupel as my grandmother would have remembered it did not exist. Her village had been destroyed and a new one built on top of it.

The idea of connecting with a place or an idea under the banner of diaspora for me is about identity, belonging and peoplehood. So, this year as we continue to move from one place to another, recalling what our lives were like at the beginning of the pandemic, we are all living through our own modern-day diaspora, and maintaining our connection to each other remains as important as ever.

Shana Tova, wishing you a sweet and healthy new year.

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | C3

Completing our mission As we wrap up a year of much turmoil and upheaval and anticipate the coming year, we have hopes and prayers for health, economic stability, and peace. However we may wonder what weight our prayers carry with an infinite and eternal G-d. Is it even appropriate for us to come before Him with our seemingly trivial requests?

On the first day of Rosh Hashana, we RABBI MENDEL read the story of Chana for the KATZMAN Haftorah. Chana, a childless woman, Chabad Nebraska came to the Tabernacle to pray to G-d for the gift of children. During her visit she had a peculiar exchange with the High-Priest, Eli. The verse describes her praying tearfully and with visible emotion. She vows to G-d that if she gives birth to a son, she will dedicate him to G-d, giving him away to be raised in the Tabernacle where he would be involved only in spiritual matters.

The verse further describes that as she prayed, Eli watched her mouth. “Chana was praying in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard.” And so Eli presumed her drunk.

“How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself ?

Scolded Eli. “Sober up!”

Chana responds that she has not drunk wine or spirits, but is a heartbroken woman who has been pouring her heart out to G-d. “Do not take your maidservant for a worthless woman; I have only been speaking all this time out of my great anguish and distress.”

“Then go in peace,” said Eli, “and may the G-d of Israel grant you what you have asked of Him.” This anecdote is puzzling. It seems strange that Eli, the compassionate, insightful Jewish leader of his time, would mistake a sincere prayer for a drunken ramble. Yet if we probe deeper into the story, we can discover a new dimension.

Rosh Hashana is known as the “Day of Judgment,” when Gd determines the fate of all creations. We therefore spend the

day in fervent prayer, listing our needs and wants, including good health, prosperity, peace of mind and a loving family.

There is also an additional theme to the day. The Talmud tells us it is a day of coronation, when we accept G-d’s sovereignty and pledge allegiance to Him. On the surface, these two themes seem diametrically opposed. The first is centered on us - our needs, hopes, and prayers.

The second is entirely centered on G-d and His sovereignty.

It seems inappropriate to pray for our own needs when the call of the hour is to proclaim and accept the dominion of the Eternal Omnipotent and Omnipresent Creator!

Yet looking at the Rosh Hashana machzor (prayer book), we see both are a focal point of our prayers. There are many dramatic and emotional prayers for basic human needs and wants, as well as prayers coronating G-d as our King.

In order for G-d’s kingdom to be complete, each one of us plays a decisive role. We each have a mission to uplift our part in this world, our surroundings, our circle of friends and family. Our needs are selfish, yet each one serves a greater purpose. Although it may seem selfish to ask for good health or a better income, each request is an expression of our soul’s requests for the tool needed to fulfill its G-dly mission in this world.

If we want to do what G-d wants us to do, we need the best tools at our disposal.

This sheds light on Eli’s argument to Chana. “This place is where G-d’s presence dwells, and is unbecoming to be so enveloped in your own needs, to be “drunk” with self-absorption.”

Chana then responds, “My own needs are merely vehicles through which G-d’s vision for the world can be realized.”

As we prepare for Rosh Hashana and how we will come before G-d to pray, our long wishlist in hand, let us recognize that beneath our instincts for survival and material prosperity, lies an inner yearning to complete our mission and perfect the world.

May we be successful in this mission and usher in a time when all the world will recognize G-d.

Wishing you and yours a shana tova umetuka.

Looking inward The story is told of a “Chasidic Rebbe” who was jailed unjustly. His cellmates would spend their days illegally playing cards. The warden suspected the card playing and would check the prison cell daily to find the cards, but never succeeded. He checked everywhere but never found them. The rebbe looked at the sequence of events to figure out where RABBI ARI his cellmates hid the cards. He ob- DEMBITZER served that when the warden would Beth Israel

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Gary and Karen Javitch enter the cell, they would slip the cards into his back pocket.

When he would exit, they would softly pull them out of his back pocket.

This last year-and-a-half, society has constantly placed fault and blame on the other, causing tension and hatred. In Judaism, the high holidays teach us differently. We look in, not out. We check our own back pockets to work on ourselves to be more sensitive, learned, compassionate and self aware.

Make the most of these days, Shana Tova, Rabbi Ari and the Beth Israel Family

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C4 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

The Shofar: Shofar Sho Good...

A great silence settles over the packed synagogue as a man cloaked in a white robe with a huge black and white striped Tallit over his head slowly raises an old Shofar to his lips. With majestic fanfare, the rabbi calls out in a rising and falling melodic tone, “Tekiah.” After a momentary, breathless hesitation, a piercing, reverberating blast trumpets through the silent sanc- HAZZAN MICHAEL tuary... One of my most prominent KRAUSMAN childhood memories is the sounding of Beth El the Shofar during the Rosh Hashanah service. Even today, the blast of the ram’s horn sends a special kind of electric pulse through my spine. Few are not moved by the haunting call of the Shofar.

Sounding the Shofar, an ancient instrument made from the horn of a ram or similar animal, is a tradition that dates back

to biblical times. Most traditions trace the source of the Shofar to the story of the binding of Isaac, which we read on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. Abraham’s faith in God was so rigorous that he was willing to sacrifice his favorite son Isaac. At the last moment, an angel thwarted Abraham’s attempt to kill his son and a ram, caught by its horns in a thicket of thorns was sacrificed in Isaac’s place. Thus the Shofar reminds us not only of the solid faith and devotion of our ancestor but also of our connection through Abraham to God. We are also mindful that God preferred the sacrifice of the ram as opposed to what might have been an heinous act of child sacrifice.

A.Z. Idelsohn, perhaps the most renowned of all Jewish musicologists, points out that to the primeval Israelites, the Shofar was valued for its rhythmic rather than melodic capabilities. To our ancient ancestors, Idelsohn notes, the blowing of the ram’s horn had magical powers; with a blast of the Shofar, God could be awakened from His slumber and summoned to help His People. Furthermore, the Shofar could

Happy Rosh Hashanah Good wishes to you for a sweet and happy new year.

be used to frighten off evil spirits and lesser deities of neighboring peoples. Even God, remarks Idelsohn, was depicted as blowing His Holy Shofar to “frighten His enemies and to gather the remnants of His people…”

The Machzor (High Holiday prayer book) cites as the biblical commandment to blow the Shofar in a passage from Psalm 81, “Tiku Ba Hodesh Shofar… Sound the Shofar on our feast day, on the new moon when it is hidden. For it is Israel’s law, a decree of the God of Jacob.” According to Biblical and Rabbinic tradition, the Shofar was not only used on Rosh Hashanah but also on the first day of the new month, for the coronation of a new king as well as to proclaim the Jubilee year. Similarly, a great celestial Shofar was sounded at the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Shofar blasts were also employed to call the nation of Israel together for battle. Perhaps the best known example of the latter was the story of Joshua (Josh 6) whose famous resounding Shofar blast brought down the walls of Jericho. In times when the Great Jerusalem Temple stood, the Shofar was often used in conjunction with a metal trumpet and other instruments that served to punctuate the ancient sacrificial service.

Shofarot(pl) are constructed using the horn of a kosher animal. In recollection of the sin of the golden calf, horns made of cows are prohibited. While Ashkenazim (German and Eastern European Jews) prefer shorter ram’s horns, Jews of other cultures use longer horns such as those from an ibex or antelope. Barsheset- Riback, an Israeli purveyor of Shofarot, describes the process of selecting, boiling, cleaning out and finishing the horns to produce a functioning Shofar. According to Jewish law, nothing, such as an external mouthpiece may be added to the horn, neither can holes be drilled to produce variable sounds.

The Torah refers to Rosh Hashanah as “the day of Blowing [the Shofar].” As we usher in the new year, the Shofar is a wakeup call to our Jewish soul. It is customary to begin the daily sounding of the Shofar at the beginning of the month of Elul, the last month on the Hebrew calendar, to awaken the listener to the need for undergoing the process of “Heshbon Ha Nefesh, the accounting of the soul.” We are jolted into the reality of the High Holiday season – the need for self-examination and introspection so that we can enter the new year with a clean slate and a renewed spirit.

Three distinct calls are made on the Shofar; each has its significance and meaning. A noted authority on Jewish Liturgy, Abraham Milgram, traces the source of these distinct Shofar blasts to the biblical book of Numbers (10:5-7) which defines a “Tekiah” – a solid sound and a “Teruah” – a wavering or broken sound. Because the rabbis of the Talmud (R.H 34a) could not agree on what constitutes a “broken tone,” they mandated the “Shevarim,” a sound comprised of three medium length notes and the “Teruah” a blast consisting of nine short individual blasts. A “Tekiah Gedolah” or longer Tekiah is also used.

The skill of the Ba’al Tekiah (Master Blaster) or one who blows See Hazzan Krausman page C5

Messages

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | C5

Hazzan Krausman Continued from page C4 the Shofar, determines the quality and duration of each type of sound.

Deep meaning can be found in each of the types of Shofar blasts. The website Mazornet, a traditional site that focuses on resources and explanations for Jewish celebrations, posts an interesting understanding of the Shofar blasts: Tekiah, is a regal sound appropriate for Rosh Hashanah which celebrates God’s coronation as Ruler of the Universe.

Shevarim is compared to the sound of sobbing; the heart cries out for strengthening the relationship between God and the worshiper.

Teruah is an alarm, a challenge to wake up to the call for Teshuvah or return to a path that leads to a meaningful and fulfilling way of life.

This inspirational reading by Rabbi Milton Steinberg, the great Conservative theologian, appears in Machzor Hadash, published by the Prayer Book Press: Let us hearken to the Teruah’s call to action.

For in our hands, in our hearts, and in our minds Are the means for building a better world, For fulfilling the promise of peace and justice, And for hastening the day when all will hear The sound the great Shofar of liberation.

Hopefully you, too, will moved by the haunting call of the shofar. May the blast of the ram’s horn send a special kind of electric pulse through your spine and reverberate in your soul this Rosh Hashanah, so that you will strive for a Shanna Tova, a year of Blessing and Goodness.

On behalf of my family, Laurel, Zev and Zach: Best wishes for a Shannah Tova U’Mtukah – A good, sweet year!

F R OM THE CLE R GY

Hineini Shanah Tova, this year on Rosh Hashanah I am focused on presence, “hineini.” Over this year we have shown up for each other and for God in various different ways, some in person, many more online encounters. To be present CANTOR JOANNA with friends and family ALEXANDER we shifted expectations. Temple Israel We could successfully celebrate a baby naming or wedding; or remember a loved one’s life even through a screen. It might not have been the choice we wanted to make, but we made it work and found blessings in the silver linings. Hineini, I am here. Hineinu, we are here; we have been there for each other through phone calls and Zoom dates; we have been there for each other through online worship and learning; Hineinu, we have answered God’s call to be in relationship with the divine, to be creative in our connections and to guard our lives and each other’s lives as precious. Hineinu, we are here.

As we arrive at Rosh Hashanah, some of us returning to buildings for the first time in two years, we continue to engage with the blessings and challenges of presence. How am I present for myself and my family as I leave home and return to a workspace? How am I present for God and my community as so many “regular” cultural activities return to my

diary? Am I fully present at my computer? Am I fully present in person? Am I fully present?

Or distracted by other concerns in my life?

Hineini? If God called would I be prepared to respond? Hineini? If someone I love called, would I be able to respond? Is there a path from wherever I am today towards hineini, toward answering, towards being ready and prepared; a path to finding myself present?

Our Days of Awe are days on self-inventory; we contemplate our past year and re-dedicate ourselves towards the people we wish to be in the future. We contemplate questions of life and death, and the divine call in our life.

Is there one thing you learned from our more isolated Covid time you can take forward into 5782? Is there a part of “normal” life you’d

like to leave behind? I believe we, as a community, revitalized connections and meaning making, as we found creative solutions to our location isolation. Can we carry the connections and meaning-making with us into 5782? Can we renew our commitment to creativity? Can we renew our commitment to our neighbors and loved ones? Can we renew our commitment to dedicating our time to things that bring meaning to our lives; perhaps letting go of old arguments, letting go of hurt feelings, letting go of some of the stubbornness in our own hearts that keep us stuck and not fully present.

Dear God, help me to be present in my life.

Help me to see You in the face of each human See Cantor Alexander page C6

Shanah tovah What kind of person do you want to be? Then be that person. What’s stopping you?

“Well,” you might say, “it’s not so easy. I can’t just change who I am with a snap of my fingers!” And RABBI BRIAN that’s true. Change is STOLLER hard. It takes time Temple Israel and hard work. Be-

coming more gracious, kinder, gentler, more loving, a better friend and family member – these things may not come so easily. But Maimonides teaches us that all of us have the capacity to change – if we want to. The road ahead will be tough, to be sure. But as leadership guru Keith Ferrazzi writes, “Everything you want in life is on the other side of all your excuses for not trying.”

So this year, let’s promise ourselves: no more excuses. This is the season of change, and now is our time to turn.

Shanah tovah!

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C6 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

The High Holidays and COVID-19

Our personal Diaspora

As I reflect on the topic of diaspora Jewry, I could not help but reflect on how this past year, during COVID, we have all been living in our own personal diaspora, removed in so many ways from the Jewish community. The RABBI STEVEN common trait of Jews ABRAHAM living in the diaspora is Beth El their yearning to be back in their homeland, to be back in Israel.

That longing, that desire deep within our Jewish conscious, has existed since the time of the Babylonian Exile until today and will exist long into the future. It’s not to say that the land we inhabit is not enough, but Israel is in our DNA, and to be away from it leaves a piece of us feeling empty.

While the diaspora and our longing for Zion, for Jerusalem, will always be central to who we are as Jews, this past year created a hunger for community, a yearning for our sacred spaces that perhaps we had begun to

take for granted. Our hearts and minds all too often take for granted the things in our lives that we know will always be constants, until the moment comes when they are taken from us. Just as our ancestors yearned for Jerusalem once it was no longer theirs, this past year, we longed for our synagogues, for our communities, for our friends. We no longer had them at our fingertips, and we wanted them; we needed them because we didn’t feel whole without them.

The Psalmist writing from the diaspora said, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither,” affirming that no matter where they lived, they would never forget their home. It was part and parcel of who they were as Jews.

It’s been a tough year; we have all been in the galut (diaspora), away from our religious and spiritual homes, yet we are finally finding our way back home. I pray this is a year of peace, happiness, and prosperity for all of us and that we never take for granted how blessed we are to have our community. We may always yearn for Jerusalem, but if we have community, we will always feel at home in Omaha.

L’Shana Tovah,

Cantor Alexander

Continued from page C5 I encounter, no matter how “other” they might seem on the surface, no matter how “other” they might be in their beliefs and their actions. Dear God, help me to choose the path

that brings meaning into my life, even when so many other paths are easier and more pleasant. God, help me be open to the call, so that I can respond with hineini.

Shana Tova.

The sounding of the shofar at the conclusion of weekday Elul morning services signals to us that Rosh Hashanah is drawing near. The Hebrew month of Elul (which began this year on Aug. 9) is thus sup- TEDDY posed to encourage WEINBERGER and stimulate introspection and heshbon nefesh (an accounting of the soul). Thanks to COVID-19, many people have been engaging in heshbon nefesh for some time now. In disrupting the basic patterns of our lives, the coronavirus allowed us to see what is truly important and essential. For some, the impact on their religious lives has been significant indeed.

Traditional synagogue life has been most affected, and it may never return to the way it was. People who had long been attending synagogue purely out of habit, who had found themselves completely unmoved spiritually, were suddenly freed. I was in Newton, MA, on the last Shabbat of July to visit my wife’s family. A neighbor came by in the afternoon to visit, and I realized that I hadn’t seen him in synagogue that morning. I asked my sister-in-law about this, and she told me that the neighbor had never really enjoyed services and that after their synagogue was closed due to COVID-19, the neighbor had not returned. Ostensibly, my sister-in-law’s explanation was really no explanation: on that Shabbat their synagogue was not closed but open; and yet once COVID-19 had provided this man with an acceptable “out,” he saw no reason to go back “in.”

I have my own story to tell here, and it concerns Friday night services. I had always

thought these services crucial for demarcating Sabbath time from profane time. I would leave my house at the end of weekday time, usher in the Sabbath in synagogue, and return to my home during Sabbath time. I had thought that I needed to leave my home for this transition to take effect, and this notion was a source of comfort for me through many a service that was not spiritually uplifting. I was wrong about this. The pandemic taught me that I could sit in my own home and sing the songs of Kabbalat Shabbat with my wife, and that together we could welcome the Sabbath Queen in a pleasant and meaningful way. I now feel more free to choose. In order to get me to leave my home on a Friday evening, my synagogue needs to provide me with a better experience than I can get at home. If the synagogue is going to be a place with less singing, more talking, and an irrelevant sermon to boot, then I can receive the Shabbat at home just fine.

All this has me wondering about the upcoming High Holidays. Due to COVID-19’s Delta variant, it’s almost certain that synagogues will offer live-streamed as well as inperson services. Will the pandemic provide people with the excuse they have been looking for to not attend High Holiday services?

The answer of course is “yes.” The real question is: How many people are we talking about?

Our synagogue life has been disrupted by COVID-19 and synagogues have been put on notice. This is not a bad thing. The Kotzker Rebbe (1787-1859) is reputed to have said: “The most dangerous thing of all is habit,” and he also said: “A person who prays today because they prayed yesterday—an evil one is better than they are.” We will not be going to synagogue this Rosh Hashanah because See Teddy Weinburger page C7

Happy New Year W I S H I N G T H E E N T I R E J E W I S H C O M M U N I T Y A

MARY ANN BORGESON Douglas County Board District 6 Paid for by Mary Ann Borgeson for County Board, 12503 Anne Street, Omaha, NE 68137, Treasurer Linda Love

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | C7

What happens when Rosh Hashanah falls on the first day of school? These districts are trying to figure it out.

PHILISSA CRAMER JTA An unusually early Rosh Hashanah is causing cities across the United States to rethink the timing of the first day of school this fall, sometimes under intense pressure from families.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins in 2021 on the

or not, thus facing criticism from Jewish families and advocates for religious inclusion.

In Minnesota, where the Tuesday after Labor Day is the traditional first day of school, many districts have chosen to begin the school year earlier or later, although several are starting on Wednesday, the second day of the two-day Jewish holiday.

“The decisions of the various school districts recognize the importance of Rosh Hashanah as well as the reality that — hopefully — this will be the first somewhat normal school day in a post-pandemic academic world,” Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, told TC Jewfolk, a website about Minnesota Jews. “The school districts appreciate that, and appreciate the importance of all students beginning on an

equal footing in this very important day of school.”

Some districts resolved the scheduling conflict long ago.

The school board in Virginia Beach, Virginia, voted to rework the calendar for the 2021-22 school year last April. And at least one Minnesota district, Robbinsville, made the switch years ago after being alerted to the conflict by Jewish families.

Others are considering changes now and running up against thorny questions about diversity, inclusion, and the separation of church and state. As government entities, school districts are not supposed to make decisions on the basis of religion, though they can revise the schedule if so many students and teachers would be absent that operating school would be inadvisable. Making changes amid requests from one religious See Rosh Hashanah on first day of school page C11

HAPPY School buses in Boston lined up on the first day of school in 2014. Credit: David L Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

evening of Sept. 6 — it’s also Labor Day, in many places the traditional end of summer. A first day of school on Tuesday, Sept. 7, would require Jewish families to choose between religious observance and what they hope will be the first normal school day in more than a year.

So from upstate New York to Minnesota to suburban Washington, D.C., school districts are tweaking their schedules —

Rosh Hashanah!

From Senator Lou Ann Linehan

Teddy Weinburger Continued from page C6 we went last year. We have changed and our synagogues have to change. And if we do tune in to services, whether in person or virtually, it will hopefully be because we sense the potential for spiritual growth and for transcendence.

Shana Tova.

Teddy Weinberger, Ph.D., made aliyah with his wife, former Omahan Saraj Jane Ross, and their five children, Nathan, Rebecca, Ruthie, Ezra, and Elie, all of whom are veterans of the Israeli Defense Forces; Weinberger can be reached at weinross@gmail.com.

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C8 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

IN MEMORIAM Helen F. (Kaplan) Abrahamson, Helen Adams, Lawrence “Larry” Stuart Albert, Charles “Uncle Chuck” Arnold, David D. Beber, Lillian Beirner, Joseph Berkowitz, Ghita Hill Bessman, Earnest Lee Birt, Maureen L. Borden, Elliot Burt Brown, Matthew Burrell, Vicki Chesen, Dr. Ann Cohen, Delores Colton, Margaret Jo Dishman, Anita Dreimanis, Rick Eirenberg, Jean Epstein, Estelle S. Faier, Lillian E. Feldman, Cantor Leo Fettman, Dr. Paul M. Fine, Stephen Fischer, Dr. Bennett C. Fishbain, Zena Fishbain, Thelma “Toby” Rae Forbes, Kenneth Freed, Arlene Moskowitz Fried, Brenda Zalkin Frost, Ronald Goodside, Benjamin Graber, MD, Marcia S. Greene, Janice Rosen Harris, Dolores Helman, Charles Henkelmann, Cameren Justice Hobbs, Karen Hicks Johnson, Raymond N. Kenkel, Hedy H. Kirke, Donald “Don” Stephen Klein, Judge Norman Krivosha, Marcia (Levey) Laudin, Barbara Leitner, Jack J. Lieb, Alan J. Levine, Joseph C. “Chuck” Levinger, Stanley Lewin, Rose Raznick Lewis, Patricia “Pat” Heithoff Linn, Ruth Paperny Luttbeg, Howard Robert Martin, Barbara Malashock, Dr. Stanley Malashock, Edward “Eddie” Manheimer, Franki McIntyre, David Millward, Howard Misle, Ann Modenstein, Eli Modenstein, Therese Mortensen, Malwina (Tiefenbrunner) Moses, Bettie Jean (Grossman) Muskin, William “Bill” Novak, Judge Ben Novicoff,

BIRTHS Gene Osheroff, Bernard Ostravich, Marvin M. Parilman, Virginia Paslawski, Steve Pitlor, Elaine Frank Potts, William “Bill” Stanley Pritchard, Larissa Rapina, Nancy Michelle (Robinson) Rech, Helen Rifkin, Marvin Lewis “Blackie” Richards, Mendel Rosenberg, Dorothy K. “Dottie” Rosenblum, Allen Jay Ross, Judith Rutsky, Michael Sadofsky, Gaby Schlesinger, Elaine Schwartzbach, Theodore “Ted” M. Seldin, Marvin Shefsky, Lev Shektman, Marilyn Sherman, Phyllis Joy (Waxenberg) Sherman, Jack Shrago, Marty Shure, Bruce Alan Simon, Josephine “Joie” Simon, Jerome David Simon, Taisa Simon, Shirlee Smeerin, Sharon Sobel, Lorraine Smith, Jeany Pappenheimer Soshnik, Georgia Ann Steinberg, Harry Stern, Mary Josephine Tinkham, Larry E. Toombs, Mary E. “Betsey” Tully, Estelle G. Turkel, Steven Wald, George Winston Walker , Richard “Dick” Weill, Jason Allen Weinstein, Shirley Fox Weinstein, Blanche Wise, Dr. Martin Wolf, and Pauline “Pat” Zebker.

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Hudson Joseph, son of Amanda and Colin Belmont; Jack Liam, son of Rabbi Deana and Jared Berezin; Genevieve Lyn, daughter of Talia Yael (Tene) and Alex Bruggen; Barrett Ari, son of Casey Weiss Bogenrief and Brent Bogenrief; Nash Douglas, son of Becca and Joe Butcher; Talia, daughter of Shayna Kurland and Ben Cohen; Gavriel, son of Laura and Rabbi Ari Dembitzer; Audrey Erin, daughter of Shelby and Ben Epstein; Skyler Bae, son of Carrie and Cory Epstein; Avi Hue, son of Lindsay and Alex Epstein; Ethan Samuel, son of Erin and Josh Fried; Noah Harrison, son of Dana and Jay Gellman; Hila Arielle, daughter of Jennifer and Adam Goldberg; Freya Elizabeth, daughter of Brooke and Ben Gordon; Morris Martin, son of Grace and Tom Handleman; Charles Richard, son of Samantha and Daniel Hersch; Rome Hill, son of Dina Amir and Terry Hill; Yaakov, son of Dr. Jessica Tugetman and Dr. Noah Kinstlinger; Jonah Berel, son of Rebecca (Murow) and Josh Klein; Elora Lawrence, daughter of Jessica (Hasslinger) and Mike Laney; Tobia Yocheved, daughter of Tziporah and Max Marcovitz; Ronia Mara, daughter of Dalia and Ben Mazur; Scarlett Alexandra, daughter of Kelly Broder and Colonel Eric Quehl; Louis Ezra, son of Sarah (Edelstein) and David Palay; Elam, son of Aly and Zach Roberts; Sophia Rebecca, daughter of Ariella and Joseph Rohr; Maya Hannah, daughter of Marisa and Adam Rosen; Eleanor Mae, daughter of Jen and Rob Roth; Lyla Helem, daughter of Betsy (Goodman) and M. Ben Samuelson; Jemma Eleanor, daughter of Allie Willensky and Brian Schwartz; Cedar Marlen Shandell-Becker, daughter of Alexandra Shandell and Elliott Becker; Oakley Marie, daughter of Natasha and Robert Sharp; Samuel, son of Dasha and Jeffrey Stein; Sophia Rose, daughter of Madison (Crable) and John Taylor; Brodie Earl, son of Aliya (Katskee) and Justin Taylor, Marin Gabriell, daughter of Jodi (Levine) and Jon Ungar; Charlotte Marnie and Zelda Wilde, twin daughters of Sasha and Levi Weiss; and Ari Rose, daughter of Rachael and Logan Wilson.

B’NAI MITZVAHS

Have a healthy and prosperous New Year

The Jewish Press Board | Margie Gutnik, President | Abigail Kutler, Ex-Officio Danni Christensen | David Finkelstein | Bracha Goldsweig | Mary Sue Grossman | Les Kay Natasha Kraft | Chuck Lucoff | Joseph Pinson | Andy Shefsky | Amy Tipp

The Jewish Press

Beatrice Kennedy, daughter of Deborah and Matthew Baum; Fiona Eide, daughter of Adrianna and Jay Benton; Moses Bloom, son of Sarah Kelen and Ken Bloom; Jack Brackhan, son of Nicholette Seigfreid; Elizabeth Jane, daughter of Stacie and Jason Metz and Marc Brodkey; Braden, son of Joni and J. Scott Brooks; Sima, daughter of Tippi and Steve Denenberg; William Theodore, son of Toba Cohen-Dunning and Eric Dunning; Tyler Joseph, son of Laurie and Jason Epstein; Annika Hazel, daughter of Naomi and Michal Gaca; Zachary Maddox, son of Michelle and Stuart Kazor; Madison Christine, daughter of Denese and Timothy Kully; Paulina Madeline, daughter of Andrea and Brian Lewis; Jack, son of Amy and Mark Marshall; Aiden Bella, daughter of Jamie and Troy Meyerson; Cody Alexander, son of Jennifer and Scott Meyerson; Eli Micah, son of Erin and Benjamin Nathan; Santos S.E., son of Rachel Plotkin Olumese and Santos Olumese; Yonatan, son of Jessica and Adam Rich; Renatta Rose, daughter of Marcelyn and Charles Rogers; Cadee Rose, daughter of Caryn and Marc Scheer; Joe, son of Andrea and Anthony Scioli; Solomon Joseph, son of Emily and Michael Schneider; Joshua Lewis, son of Melissa and Matt Shapiro; Lily Rachel, daughter of Anna and Eric Sherman; Alexandra Oregon, daughter of Bertha Shyken; Max Wesley, son of Michala and Adam Silverman; Zachary, son of Dasha and Jeffrey Stein; Ruby Genevieve, daughter of Sara and Asher Stoller; Asher Samuel, son of Sonia and Alan Tipp; Isla Reese, daughter of Dana and David Wear; Elise Weisser, daughter of Jenny and Dave Weisser; Henry Jacob, son of Sarah and Adam Yale; and Sidney, son of Renee Zacharia and Jeff Zacharia.

MARRIAGES Tami Field and Bob Denton, Elizabeth Snyder and Jeremiah Jepsen, Ashley Nelson and Ben Noodell, Jennifer Hoberman and Jeff Prochazka, Hillary Rubesin and Eric Shapiro, Ellie Batt and Mark Sherman, Jenna Dresner and Joshua Treiber.

SNOWBIRDS

Please let the Jewish Press know in advance when you are leaving and when you are returning. Sometimes several papers are sent to your “old” address before we are notified by the Post Office. Every time they return a paper to us, you miss the Jewish Press and we are charged! Please call us at 402.334.6448, email us at jpress@jewishomaha.org or see our website at omahajewishpress.com.

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | C9

5781

JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA

ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE/ COMMUNITY RELATIONS COMMITTEE

Co-Presidents, Ellie Batt and Ron Giller; Board Members: Lindsay Belmont, Bob Bleicher, Carol Bloch, Ted Friedland, Herb Friedman, Arnold (Arnie) Garson, David Gilinsky, Nancy Jacobson, Rich Juro, Carmela Kramer, Gary Lipschutz, Jamie Meyerson, Alan Parsow, Erin Porterfield, David Radler, Zoe Riekes, Rebecca (Becca) Ruetsch, Mark Singer, Meagan Spomer, Tom Vann and Jim Wax.

INSTITUTE FOR HOLOCAUST EDUCATION GOVERNANCE COUNCIL

Board Members: Stacey Atlas, Robert Cohen, JohnCarl Denkovich, Father James Gilag, Shami Jacobs, Gloria Kaslow, Howard Kaslow, Dr. Ari Kohen, Kelly Kirk, Paula Lenz, Lori Miller, Jamie Meyerson, Dr. Jama Samiev, Jill Sideris, Paul Smith, Lacey Studnicka, Donna Walter and Dr. Steven Wees.

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER

President, Karen Flayhart; Past-President, John Glazer; Board Members: Amanda Blumkin, Marty Cohen, Shane Cohn, Laurie Epstein, Mosah Goodman, Janet Klein, Tiffany Malone, Terry Rush, Mike Schmidt and Joy Watanabe.

JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA

BOARDS | LIFE CYCLES

JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS B’NAI B’RITH HENRY MONSKY LODGE

NEBRASKA JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

President, Gary Javitch; President Emeritus, Ari Riekes; Treasurer, Mike Abramson; Trustee, Steve Riekes; Standing Committee Chair, Howard Shandel; Board Members: Marty Ricks and Jeannette Gabriel; Honorary Board Members: Nate Schwalb and Rich Juro; Administrative Assistant, Adam Trubnikov.

President, Ben Justman; Past President, Bob Belgrade; Vice President, Beth Staenberg; Secretary, Robby Erlich; Treasurer, Jeannette Gabriel; Board of Directors: Jill Belmont, Virginia Gallner, Kelly Kirk, Janie Kulakofsky, Rocky Lewis, Iris Ricks, Emmaline Sabin, Seth Schuchman, Stephanie Shakhirev, Mark Wiesman, Susan Fellman Witkowski.

FRIEDEL JEWISH ACADEMY President, Ari Kohen; Immediate Past President, Jeff Zacharia; Vice-President, Lisa Marcus; Treasurer, Ron Giller; Secretary, Anna Priluck; Officer, Shiri Phillips; Ex Officio, Rabbi Steven Abraham, Cantor Joanna Alexander, Rabbi Deana Berezin, Rabbi Ari Dembitzer, Rabbi Brian Stoller; Board Members: Joel Alperson, Pam DePorte, Margie Gutnik, Patricia Kaniewski, Natasha Kraft, Gary Lerner, Susan Long, Linda Neumann-Potash, Caryn Rifkin, Ariella Rohr, Lloyd Roitstein, Becca Ruetsch, Aviva Segall, Ben Shapiro, Helene Shrago, and Melissa Shrago.

LEAGUE OF VOLUNTEERS FOR THE ELDERLY (L.O.V.E.)

Co-presidents, Larry DeBruin and Gretchen Radler; Treasurer, Les Kay; Secretary, Jay Durmaskin; Immediate Past Presidents, Vicki Perlmeter and Ricki Skog; Board Members: Gabby Blair, Karen Cohen, M’Lee Hasslinger, Mark Kazor, Vicki Perlmeter, Mike Shrago, Ricki Skog, Crystal Smith, Dr. Shelly Smith, Shelly Stern, Lois Wine, Jennifer Vik; Liaison/RBJH Representative, Sabine Strong.

President, Mike Siegel; Immediate Past President, Jon Meyers; Board Members: Betsy Baker, Ellie Batt, Bob Belgrade, Sharon Brodkey, Toba Cohen-Dunning , Ron Feldman, Karen Flayhart , Margie Gutnik, John Lehr, Lisa Lucoff, Brian Nogg, Mike Norton, Linda Saltzman, Nancy Schlessinger, Matt Shapiro, Jeff Zacharia; Ex Officio: Zoë Riekes, Kimberly Robinson and Stacey Erman Rockman.

B’NAI ISRAEL

CHABAD OF NEBRASKA

Board Members: Scott Friedman, Rick Katelman, Janie Kulakofsky, Howard Kutler, Carole and Wayne Lainof, Mary-Beth Muskin, Debbie Salomon and Sissy Silber.

JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA FOUNDATION

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE

President, Anthony D. Scioli; Buildings & Grounds Chair, Stan Edelstein; Fundraising Chair, Gary Epstein; Finance, James Polack; Board Members: David Cohen, Irv Epstein, Joanie Jacobson, Gary Javitch, Howard Kutler, Marcia Pitlor, Lloyd Roitstein, Nancy Schlessinger and Nancy Wolf

SYNAGOGUES

President, Bob Belgrade; Past-President, David Gilinsky; Secretary, Donald Goldstein; Treasurer, Andrew Robinson; Ex Officio, Ron Feldman and Michael Siegel; Board Members: Michael Abramson, Steven Bloch, Paul Epstein, Ted Friedland, Kip Gordman, Howard M. Kooper, Jody Malashock, Murray H. Newman, Susan Lehr, Steve Nogg, Susan Norton, Martin Ricks, Carl Riekes, Stacey Erman Rockman and Harley D. Schrager

President, Ari Riekes; Vice Presidents, Adam Kutler and Linda Saltzman; Treasurer, Miriam Gottlieb; Secretary, Susan Witkowski; Past President, Jay Gordman; Religious Life Chair, Ari Kohen; BESTT Chair, David Finklestein; Board Members: Stan Edelstein, Jason Epstein, Sarah Frey, Darlene Golbitz, Stephanie Grossman, Bruce Kutler, Howard K. Marcus, Ellie Novak, Caryn Scheer and Michelle Shkolnick.

JEWISH PRESS

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

President, Margie Gutnik; Immediate Past President, Abigail Kutler; Board Members: Danni Christensen, David Finkelstein, Bracha Goldsweig, Mary Sue Grossman, Les Kay, Natasha Kraft, Chuck Lucoff, Joseph Pinson, Andy Shefsky and Amy Tipp.

JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICES

Co-Presidents, Toba Cohen-Dunning and Jeff Kirshenbaum; Vice-President, Darlene Golbitz; Secretary, Susan Norton; Board Members: Michael Abramson, Joanie Bernstein, Sharon Brodkey, James Farber, Larry Kelberg, Kate Kirshenbaum, Alan Kricsfeld, MD, Tina Meyers, Jeff Platt, James Polack, Shayna Ray, Dorothy Spizman and Terri Zacharia.

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Happy Rosh Hashanah Dr. James Wax

President, Jeff Kirshenbaum; Administrative Vice-President, Helene Shrago; Financial Planning Vice-President, Bruce Goldberg; Membership Vice-President, Bruce Potash; Treasurer, Yosef Seigel; Secretary, Bonnie Bloch; Past President, Toba Cohen-Dunning; Board Members: Joel Alperson, Shirly Banner, Matt Cohen, Ron Giller, Julee Katzman, Lynne Saltzman, Aviva Segall, Susie Shyken, Sherry Taxman, Harry Weiner and Fred Weiss.

CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN/ THE SOUTH STREET TEMPLE President, Nicholette Seigfreid; Vice President, Dan Senft; Treasurer, Elaine Monnier; Secretary, Julie Moore; Board Members: Maria Cadwallader, Leslie Delserone, Nathaniel Kaup, Catherine Petersen, Yoel Swartz and Art Zygielbaum.

TEMPLE ISRAEL

President, Dan Gilbert; Presidential Appointees: Wendy Hamilton and Sally Kaplan; President Elect, Troy Meyerson; Vice Presidents: Susie Norton and Geoff Silverstein; Secretary, Justin Cooper; Treasurer, Jeff Smedlund; Past President, Andie Gordman; Board Members: Ilene Arnold, Sara Cowan, Tamara Draeger, Abby Friedland, Gil Dysico, Dani Howell, Lester Katz, Brandon Koom, Stan Krieger, Lisa Lewis, Lisa Lucoff, Joseph Pinson, Jeff Platt, Marti Poulos and Ariella Rohr.

OMAHA TEMPLE YOUTH GROUP: President, Abby Friedland; Social Action Vice President, Hannah Dysico; Religious and Cultural Vice President, Max Vitek; Membership Vice President, Noemi Gilbert; Communications Vice President, Leah Dysico; Special Projects Coordinator, Charlie Yale; Ruach Chair, Max Vitek; and Freshman Liaison, Juliette Boehm Smith.

TIFERETH ISRAEL

President, Dan Friedman; Vice President, Haleigh Carlson; Treasurer, Howard Feldman; Secretary, Ken Bloom; Immediate Past President, Seth Harris; Fair Shares Dues Chair, David Brockman; Trustees: Charlie Friedman and Marlon Weiss; Board Members: Joyce Davidson, Bob Evnen, Nanci Hamicksburg, Eve Hoffman, Brenda Ingraham, Gary Hill, Cindi Weiss and Noah Weiss.

L’Shanah Tovah

Oak Hill/Bikhor Cholim Cemetery 1350 East Pierce Street, Council Bluffs, Iowa

HAPPY NEW YEAR from

Luxury apartments, duplexes and homes at affordable prices throughout the Metro Area

402-551-9494 www.schwalbrealty.com

Memorial Service Sept. 12 11 a.m.

For directions, call Patty Nogg, 402/493-3479 Cemetery Manager Steve O’Neill, 712/328-1579 New Year’s Greetings from the Board of Directors: Patty Nogg, President; Joel Finkel,V.P.; Bob Kully,V.P.; Gail Krasne Kenkel, Secretary; Doug Krasne,Treasurer; Beth Seldin Dotan, Mark Eveloff, Elyse Gallner, Mike Gallner, John Goldner, Larry Goldstrom, Jay Katelman, John Katelman, Joshua Katelman, Rick Katelman, Sissy Silber, and Marty Ricks

Synagogues

C10 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

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

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN

South Street Temple Union for Reform Judaism 2061 South 20th Street Lincoln, NE 68502-2797 402.435.8004 www.southstreettemple.org

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

Capehart Chapel 2500 Capehart Road Offutt AFB, NE 68123 402.294.6244 email: oafbjsll@icloud.com

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME

323 South 132 Street Omaha, NE 68154 rbjh.com

TEMPLE ISRAEL

Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 13111 Sterling Ridge Drive Omaha, NE 68144-1206 402.556.6536 templeisraelomaha.com

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: TIFERETH ISRAEL

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

B’NAI ISRAEL All services will be In-person only. Covid -9 precautions will be followed; masks highly encouraged, seating will be spaced, hand sanitizer will be available, all books sanitized.

Services will be led by Jeff Taxman, Spiritual Leader Emeritus (15yrs) and assisted by Larry Blass, Friday night Service Leader.

Due to the Holiday Schedule there will be NO Friday night service Sept 10.

Rosh Hashanah Evening Service, Monday, Sept. 6, 7:30 p.m. with guest speakerJim Polack.

Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10:30 a.m. with guest speaker Marty Ricks.

Questions? Call Carole Lainof at 402 659 8566 or Sissy Silber at 402 292 8062.

For information on our historic synagogue, please contact Howard Kutler at hkutler@hotmail.com or any of our other board members: Scott Friedman, Rick Katelman, Janie Kulakofsky, Carole and Wayne Lainof, Mary-Beth Muskin, Debbie Salomon and Sissy Silber.

Handicap Accessible.

BETH EL Virtual and In-person services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman.

VIRTUAL AND IN-PERSON MINYAN SCHEDULE: Mornings on Sundays, 9 a.m. and Mondays and Thursdays, 7 a.m.; Evenings on Sunday-Thursday, 5:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Junior Congregation, 10 a.m.; Havdalah, 8:25 p.m. Zoom Only.

SUNDAY: Torah Study, 10 a.m.

MONDAY: Late Morning Minyan, 9 am. at Beth El & Zoom; Rosh Hashanah To Go Pickup, 10 a.m.; Erev Rosh Hashanah/Festival Evening Service, 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

TUESDAY: Rosh Hashanah Day Family Service, 9 a.m.; RH Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; RH Youth Programming, 10 a.m. at Beth El; Torah Service, 10 a.m. led by the B’nai Mitzvah class; Tot Service, 10 a.m.; Shofar Service, 10:45 a.m.; Sermon, 11 a.m.; Musaf, 11:15 a.m.; Final Shofar Blasts, 12:30 p.m.; Tashlich, 4:30 p.m. Meet at Beth El; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 5:30 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

WEDNESDAY: Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; RH Youth Programming, 10 a.m. at Beth El; Torah Service, 10 a.m.; Shofar Service, 10:45 a.m.; Sermon, 11 a.m.; Musaf, 11:15 a.m.

FRIDAY-Sept. 10: Kabbalat Shabbat/Ma’ariv, 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

SATURDAY-Sept. 11: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Junior Congregation, 10 a.m. followed by Slip ‘n Slide Shabbat; Ma’ariv/ Havdalah, 8:15 p.m. Zoom Only.

Please visit bethel-omaha.org for additional information and service links.

BETH ISRAEL Virtual services conducted by Rabbi Ari Dembitzer.

Classes, Kabbalat Shabbat and Havdalah on Zoom, Whatsapp or Facebook Live. On site services held outside in Sukkah, weather permitting. Physical distancing and masks required.

FRIDAY: Selichot, 9 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbos, 7:30 p.m.; Candlelighting, 7:36 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 11 a.m. with Shiran Dreyer; Daf Yomi, 6:50 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.; Havdalah, 8:35 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Daf Yomi, 6:50 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.

MONDAY: Nach Yomi — Daily Prophets, 6:45 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (WhatsApp); Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Deep-

ing Our Prayer, 7:45 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (Zoom); Laws of Shabbos, 8 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (Zoom); Daf Yomi, 6:50 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Candlelighting, 7:29 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.

TUESDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Torah Reading, 10 a.m.; Shofar, 11 a.m.; Kids’ Program, 10:45-11:15 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.; Candlelighting, 8:28 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Torah Reading, 10 a.m.; Yizkor, 10:30 a.m.; Shofar, 11 a.m.; Mincha/ Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.; Havdalah, 8:26 p.m.

THURSDAY: Fast Begins, 5:44 a.m.; Shacharit, 6:45 a.m.; Deeping Our Prayer, 7:45 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (Zoom); Laws of Shabbos, 8 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (Zoom); Character Development, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (Zoom); Daf Yomi, 6:50 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.; Fast Ends, 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY-Sept. 10: Selichot, 6:40 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbos, 7:25 p.m.; Candlelighting, 7:25 p.m.

SATURDAY-Sept. 11: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:45 a.m. with Shiran Dreyer; Daf Yomi, 6:40 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:20 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos, 7:40 p.m. with Rabbi Ari; Havdalah, 8:23 p.m.

Please visit orthodoxomaha.org for additional information and Zoom service links.

CHABAD HOUSE All services are in-person. All classes are being offered online at Ochabad.com/classroom. For more information or to request help, please visit www. ochabad.com or call the office at 402.330.1800.

FRIDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 6 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochabad.com/Lecha yim; Light Candles, 7:35 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 10 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 8:33 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Parsha and Coffee, 9:45 a.m.

MONDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.; Candlelighting, 7:30 p.m.

TUESDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; One-hour service, 11 a.m. followed by Kiddush lunch; Tashlich, 5 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.; Light holiday candles after 8:28 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; One-hour service, 11 a.m. followed by Kiddush lunch; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.

THURSDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.

FRIDAY-Sept. 10: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 6 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochabad. com/Lechayim; Candlelighting, 7:24 p.m. Mincha/ Ma’ariv, 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY-Sept. 11: Shacharit, 10:30 a.m. followed

by Kiddush lunch; Shabbat Ends, 8:21 p.m.

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN & TIFERETH ISRAEL Services facilitated by Rabbi Alex Felch.

Note: Some of our services, but not all, are now being offered in person.

FRIDAY: Moses Bloom Bar Mitzvah; Kabbalat Shabbat Service, service leaders/music: Rabbi Alex, Moses Bloom and Star CIty Kochavim, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Candlelighting, 7:37 p.m.

SATURDAY: Moses Bloom Bar Mitzvah; Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex and Moses Bloom at TI; No Torah Study; Havdalah, 8:35 p.m.

SUNDAY: Men's Jewish Bike Group of Lincoln meets Sundays at 10 a.m. rain or shine to ride to one of The Mill locations from Hanson Ct. (except we drive if its too wet, cold, cloudy, windy, hot or humid) followed by coffee and spirited discussions. No fee to join, no dues, no president, no board or minutes taken. If Interested please email Al Weiss at albertw 801@gmail.com to find out where to meet each week; Come learn and play Pickleball, 7-9 p.m. at Pe-

terson Park. Everyone is welcome; just wear comfortable clothes and tennis or gym shoes. If you need a paddle contact Miriam Wallick by email at Miriam57@aol.com or by text at 402.470.2393 before Sunday.

MONDAY: Synaoguge Offices Closed; Erev Rosh Hashanah Service, 8 p.m. at at SST; Candlelighting fro Yom Tov, 7:32 p.m.

TUESDAY: TI Office Closed; Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, 10 a.m. at SST; Tashlich, 3 p.m. at Antelope Park; Candlelighting fro Yom Tov, 7:32 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: TI Office Closed; Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, 10 a.m. at TI; Havdalah, 8:28 p.m.

THURSDAY: Fast of Gedaliah begins, 5:38 a.m.; Choir Rehearsal, 7 p.m.; Fast Ends, 8:19 p.m.

FRIDAY-Sept. 10: Kabbalat Shabbat Service, service leaders/music: Rabbi Alex with Sabra Campers and Steve and Nathaniel Kaup, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Candlelighting for Shabbat, 7:25 p.m.

SATURDAY-Sept. 11: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Vayeilech; Havdalah, 8:23 p.m.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

FRIDAY: Virtual Shabbat Service, 7:30 p.m. every first and third of the month at Capehart Chapel. Contact TSgt Jason Rife at OAFBJSLL@icloud.com for more information.

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home‘s service is currently closed to visitors.

TEMPLE ISRAEL

In-person and virtual services conducted by Rabbi Brian Stoller, Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin and Cantor Joanna Alexander.

DAILY VIRTUAL MINYAN: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. via Zoom.

FRIDAY: Shabbat Service, 6 p.m. via Zoom or Inperson.

SATURDAY: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. via Zoom or Inperson.

MONDAY: Erev Rosh Hashanah Service: Learning to Be Present in a Busy Modern World: Voices of the Community, 7:30-8:45 p.m.

TUESDAY: Rosh Hashanah Bibliodrama Torah Experience: An Intergenerational, Interactive Torah and Shofar Experience, 9-9:30 a.m.; RH Morning Service Hineini, Here I Am: Answering God’s Call to Presence and Renewal, 10:15-11:30 a.m.

FRIDAY-Sept. 10: Shabbat Shuva Service and Tashlich Service, 6 p.m. via Zoom or In-Person. Friday night between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is Shabbat Shuva, a Shabbat of Returning. As part of our process of returning, we think about the ways in which we “missed the mark,” ritualized with our ceremony of Tashlich, this year and set intentions for our hopes for the year to come SATURDAY-Sept. 11: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. via Zoom or In-person.

Please visit templeisraelomaha.com for additional information and Zoom service links.

MEMORIAL SERVICES Sunday, Sept. 5 Golden Hill Cemetery, 5025 N. 42nd St., 11 a.m.

Beth Israel/Crown Point, 78th and Crown Point, noon Fisher Farms, 8900 S. 42nd St., 1 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 12 Beth El Cemetery, 84th and L Sts., 11 a.m.

Oak Hills/Bikhor Cholim, Council Bluffs, 11 a.m.

Temple Israel Cemetery, 6412 N. 42nd St., 1 p.m.

Yemen’s Jewish population, once over 50,000, drops to below 10 GABE FRIEDMAN JTA Amid the ongoing civil war in Yemen, 13 Jews have immigrated to Egypt, leaving the country’s once vibrant community of at least 50,000 with a population of fewer than 10.

Some reports claimed that the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control part of Yemen, forced the Jews to leave. The Times of Israel reported that the refugees instead struck a deal with the

Houthis to leave peacefully Cairo.

They also reportedly refused an offer to go to Israel.

Other Yemeni Jewish families have left for the United Arab Emirates in recent months, according to The Times of Israel. The UAE is newly on formal diplomatic terms with Israel after signing onto the Abraham Accords peace deal last year.

Tens of thousands of Yemeni Jews left for Israel shortly after its establishment as a state in 1948, spurred by the wave of anti-Semitism across the

Arab world that the founding had triggered. A group of 19 Yemeni Jews were brought to Israel on a secret mission in 2016 coordinated by the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Attacks against Jews in Yemen had risen sharply since 2008, when a Jewish teacher was murdered in Raydah. In 2012, another Yemeni Jewish citizen was murdered in Sanaa, and a young Jewish woman was abducted, forced to convert to Islam and forcibly wed to a Muslim man.

The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | C11

Rosh Hashanah on the first day of school a decision to start school during Rosh baked Jewish holidays into their calenContinued from page C7 minority could also open the door to pe- Hashanah. The district has maintained dars. In New York City, for decades there titions from others.

Yom Kippur as a day off for decades, and were so many Jewish teachers and stuA school board task force in Fairfax this year it adopted Juneteenth, a holi- dents that having classes on Jewish holCounty, Virginia, a suburb of Washing- day commemorating the end of slavery idays was a fool’s errand. In the 1970s, ton, D.C., tried to balance those con- in the United States, as a day off. But the Jewish teachers successfully lobbied to cerns by recommending that the district superintendent said changing the first guarantee that the city’s spring break close on four holidays celebrated by would always align with Passover. a significant number of students and Now the district has relatively few staff members: Rosh Hashanah and observant Jewish teachers or stuYom Kippur, the Hindu holiday of Didents; Orthodox schoolchildren in wali and Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday. the city almost all attend private Attendance data showed that schools. But the expectation not to teacher absenteeism was higher than have school on major Jewish holidays average on all four holidays, and a has survived, at times resulting in higher-than-average number of stuquirky calendars, such as a five-day dents were absent on Yom Kippur gap between the first and second and Eid al-Fitr. days of school in 2010.

After the district produced a New York City added two Muslim schedule that did not include those holidays, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, days off, the board last week deto its closure calendar in 2015. The manded a new version. The superin- School buses in Boston lined up on the first day following year it began closing tendent, Scott Braband, said he had of school in 2014. Credit: David L Ryan/The Boston schools for one day to mark the erred by not prioritizing the board’s Globe via Getty Images Lunar New Year, a holiday celebrated recommendations when planning for day of school because of Rosh Hashanah in Asian cultures. next year. had been considered and rejected.

David Bloomfield, a professor of eduLocal Jewish parents involved in an inNow parents are complaining, and the cation law at Brooklyn College and the terfaith push to change the first day of school board plans to address the CUNY Graduate Center, told the Jewish school said doing so would benefit all schedule at a meeting this month.

Telegraphic Agency in 2020 that he students, not just those who observe “It’s our job to really listen to our com- thought districts should ramp up their Rosh Hashanah. munity members,” the board’s president, protections for students and teachers “Having days off is a way for children Teresa Leatherbarrow, told the Buffalo who miss school for religious reasons into learn to appreciate the diversity in News. “They are making it known to us stead of trying to adjust the calendar to their community and show respect,” that this is important to them.” please everyone.

Anna Stolley Persky, a Fairfax County The Rosh Hashanah issue is present “With the growth and sensitivity toparent who is working to have Jewish only in a fraction of the more than ward diversity, it’s one thing for a herholidays recognized, told a Washington 13,000 school districts in the U.S. Espe- metic community to observe its Post columnist. “Understanding differ- cially in the South, many schools start traditions,” said Bloomfield, who was inent holidays becomes normalized.” well before Labor Day, meaning that stu- volved as a parent when his own children Chicago is weighing opening schools dents who do not attend during Rosh attended New York City schools. “But as a week early, a proposal that district of- Hashanah never miss the first day. And we become more diverse, we have a ficials say is meant to add time for learn- some districts that do maintain a Labor harder time accommodating all of those ing but followed comments from Jewish Day start — sometimes required by law- important ceremonial obligations. parents at a board meeting last month. makers who want to ensure a full season “My answer would be not to pick and And families in the Williamsville Cen- for tourist attractions — have few or no choose who’s worthy of accommodation, tral School District outside Buffalo, New Jewish students or teachers. but to have a principle of secular disrupYork, are pressing the district to reverse Plus, a few large districts have long tion as opposed to a religious hierarchy.”

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C12 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

Have a sweet New Year!

The Natan and Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at the University of Nebraska-Omaha wishes all our Friends and supporters a

Happy New Year

JEWISH WAR VETERANS of AMERICA Epstein Morgan Post 260

Best wishes for a happy, healthy and peaceful Rosh Hashanah.

We invite all Jewish veterans to join us Contact: Jay Benton, Commander 402-250-6133 Due to COVID-19 concerns In-person meetings have been postponed for the time being.

National Council of Jewish Women Nebraska

NCJW extends its warmest wishes to the Jewish community for a Joyous New Year.

L’Shana Tovah

League Offering Remember your loved Volunteers for the ones with a L.O.V.E. Card!

Elderly The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home Auxiliary

Contact Sabine Strong 402-334-6519 sstrong@rbjh.com

Wishing our community a sweet new year!

From the Staff and Governance Council of the Institute for Holocaust Education

B’nai Israel Synagogue You’re always welcome at B’nai Israel!

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FOOD THE ROSH HASHANAH EDITION

A supplement to The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

D2 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

Food

From My Kosher Jerusalem Kitchen: Eggplant Parmigiana SYBIL KAPLAN Some people judge a restaurant by a particular food they order each time they visit any restaurant, like the salad or the dressing or the entrée.

I judge an Italian restaurant by the eggplant parmigiana (parmigiana de melanzane). There are various theories about its origins dating back to the 15th century when the Arabs brought it to Italy from India. Besides the use of parmesan cheese or the city of Parma, some believe it originated in the Sicilian word parmigiana meaning shutters which the slices

of eggplant resemble.

Regardless of its origins, here are some varied ways to make it.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, author, compiler/contributor/editor of 9 kosher cookbooks (working on a 10th) and food writer for North American Jewish publications. She lives in Jerusalem where she has led weekly walks of the Jewish food market, Machaneh Yehudah, in English since 2009. She wrote the kosher Jerusalem restaurant features for Janglo.net, the oldest, largest website for English speakers from 2014 to 2020.

GRILLED EGGPLANT PARMESAN This is a modification of a Food & Wine healthy grilling recipe.

Ingredients: 2 tsp. olive oil 1 large chopped onion 4 cups Italian peeled tomatoes 1 small halved carrot 1 small halved celery rib 1 fresh rosemary sprig salt and pepper to taste 3 pounds eggplants, sliced 1/3-inch thick 1 3/4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 2 Tbsp. finely shredded fresh basil Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease an 8x11-inch baking dish.

In a saucepan, heat oil Add onion and cook about 3 minutes. Tie carrot, celery

and rosemary with a cotton string and add to saucepan. Add Italian tomatoes.

Season with salt and pepper. Simmer 25 minutes. Discard vegetable bundle.

Light a grill. Coat with 1 tsp. oil. Season eggplant slices with salt and pepper. Grill 6 minutes. Turn over and grill 6 minutes more.

Spread 1/2 cup tomato sauce in baking dish. Arrange 1/3 grilled eggplant, 1/3 mozzarella and 1 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese. Repeat eggplant, mozzarella, Parmesan. Repeat eggplant, mozzarella and 2 Tbsp. Parmesan.

Bake in upper third of oven 30 minutes or until bubbling hot and lightly brown.

Sprinkle with basil and serve.

Makes 6 servings

MY REAL ITALIAN EGGPLANT PARMIGIANA Ingredients: 2 Tbsp. oil 4 cups crushed tomatoes 4 crushed garlic cloves 2 chopped small onions 2 cups tomato sauce 1/2 tsp. basil 2 tsp. dry parsley oil 2 sliced eggplants 1/2 cup flour 2eggs 1 cup milk Mozarella cheese, grated Parmesan cheese, grated salt and pepper to taste margarine pieces

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a rectangular baking dish.

Heat oil in a frying pan. Food process the garlic, onion and can tomatoes.

Add to frying pan. Add basil and parsley, cover and cook 30 minutes.

In a bowl, combine flour, egg and milk to make a batter. Heat oil in another frying pan. Dip eggplant slices in batter and fry until brown.

Arrange layers in a baking dish—eggplant, sauce, cheeses.

Sprinkle with salt, pepper and margarine pieces.

Bake in preheated 350 degree F. oven 30 minutes.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year!

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The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | D3

Honey cake and other sweets

SYBIL KAPLAN Although beekeeping as an occupation is not mentioned in the Bible, bees are mentioned four times, honeycombs are referred to eight times and honey is referred to 26 times. Archaeologists actually discovered proof that there was beekeeping and honey 3,000 years ago in a site in northern Israel.

According to an article by Clara Moskowitz (June 9, 2010) in Life Science, “recently discovered beehives from ancient Israel, 3,000 years ago, appear to be the oldest evidence for beekeeping ever found, scientist reported.”

“Archaeologist identified the remains of honeybees... inside about 30 clay cylinders thought to have been used as beehives at the site of Tel Rehov in the Jordan Valley in northern Israel. This is the first such discovery from ancient times....”

“The archaeologists used carbon dating on grains that had spilled from a broken storage jar next to the hives to estimate that they were about 3,000 years old.”

Among Ashkenazim, sweet desserts for Rosh Hashanah are customary, particularly lekach or honey cake, and teiglach, the hard, doughy, honey and nut cookie.

Some say the origin of the sweets comes from a passage in the book of Hosea mentioning “love cakes of raisins.”

There is also a passage in Samuel II, which talks about the multitude of Israel, men and women, “to everyone a cake of bread and a cake made in a pan and a sweet cake.”

It was Ezra, the fifth century BCE religious leader, who was commissioned by the Persian king to direct Jewish affairs in Judea, and Nehemiah, a political leader and cup bearer of the king in the fifth century BCE, who told the returning exiles to eat and drink sweet things.

Honey cakes traditionally include honey, spices, coffee and brown sugar as major ingredients, but some contain cognac, brandy, orange or lemon peel and nuts. In Curacao, for example, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, raisins, nuts or currants, lemon or orange peel is added.

In Zimbabwe, Jews include allspice, cinnamon, cloves, raisins, chopped nuts,

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MOM’S (Z”L) HONEY LOAF CAKE I don’t recall my mom baking this, but it was in my collection of recipes as hers.

Ingredients: 3 1/2 cups flour 1/4 tsp. salt 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/8 tsp. ground cloves 1/2 tsp. ground ginger 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 4 eggs 3/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup vegetable oil 2 cups honey 1/2 cup strong coffee 1/2 cup raisins

brandy and chopped candied fruit in their honey cake.

In That Hungarian’s in My Kitchen, author, Linda Radke, includes a Hungarian recipe from her family which includes the basic ingredients and orange juice.

A cookbook of Russian recipes includes a Ukrainian honey cake recipe called medivik, with the basic ingredients as well as cardamom, orange peel, raisins, walnuts and apricots.

In The Jewish Book of Food, Claudia Roden writes that honey cake was a favorite in Germany since the Middle Ages. Ms Roden writes that lebkuchen, honey gingerbread, was also mentioned as early as the 12th century.

According to John Cooper in Eat and Be Satisfied, a Social History of Jewish Food, references to honey cake were made in the 12th century by a French sage, Simcha of Vitry, author of the

1/2 cup chopped nuts Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease two loaf pans or a rectangular baking pan.

Combine in a bowl flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg.

Beat eggs and sugar in another bowl until fluffy. Add oil, honey and coffee.

Stir in flour mixture. Add raisins and nuts. Pour into two loaf pans or a rectangular baking pan. Bake in preheated 325 degree F. oven 1 1/2 hours.

Machzor Vitry, and by the 12th century German rabbi, Eleazar Judah ben Kalonymos. Mr. Cooper writes that on the new moon in the month of Nisan little boys entered heder, Jewish school, and were given honig lekech, honey cake.

“Originally the names of angels were inscribed on the honey cake and amulets were attached to them, but later this practice was discarded.” Jewish teachers adopted the idea of making letters out of the cake to give to the heder boys.

According to Mr. Cooper, lebkuchen and honey loaf of Central Europe and lekach, the name for honey cake, all probably came to be related to the German term or possibly the German word for lick, lecke.

By the 16th century, lekach was known as a Rosh Hashanah sweet. It also became popular for other life cycle See Other sweets page D4

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D4 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

Other sweets

Continued from page D3 celebrations such as betrothals and weddings.

Malvin Liebman writes in Jewish Cooking From Boston to Baghdad that crypto Jews of 16th Century Latin America ate honey cake as a first course at weddings in memory of the honeycomb which an angel gave to Aseneth when she married Joseph.

Evelyn Rose (z”l), a maven of Jewish cooking from England, wrote in The Complete International Jewish Cook Book, that the first cakes made with artificial raising agents were honey cake, and honey was the chosen sweetener because sugar was not widely available until the end of the 19th century.

She also recommends keeping a honey cake in a closed container for a week before serving, so it will “mature.”

In Jewish Cooking in America, Joan Nathan, American Jewish cooking maven, shares a traditional honey cake recipe of a Portland, Oregon woman, made with almonds; and a tribute to Hungarian Jewry with a honey torte with a filling made of cream of wheat, milk, vanilla and apricot or cherry preserves.

Among the Chassidim, it was customary for the rebbe to distribute lekach to his followers, and others would request a piece of honey cake from one another on Erev Yom Kippur. This transaction symbolized a substitute for any charity the person might choose to receive.

Gil Marks (z”l), in The World of Jewish Desserts, says fluuden, an Ashkenazi layered yeast cake, was traditional for Rosh Hashanah among Franco-German Jews, made with a cheese filling and could be eaten after a meat meal, since they only waited one hour between meat and dairy. Strudel, from the German word for whirlpool, was also common for Rosh Hashanah among European Jews.

As a variation on honey cake, Gil Marks, in

Credit: seriouseats.com

TISHPISHTI This dish originated in Turkey and was popular for Passover because it has no flour. The dense cake is soaked in syrup. The Sephardi Jews who lived in Turkey after being expelled from Spain in 1492 adopted this dish whose words meat “quick and done,” a quickly baked cake. Some say it was always served on Rosh Hashanah.

Ingredients for cake: 2 cups ground almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios or walnuts 1 cup cake meal 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp. ground cloves or allspice 6 separated eggs 1 cup sugar 2 Tbsp. orange juice 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1 Tbsp. grated lemon or orange peel Ingredients for syrup: 3/4 cup honey 1/2 cup sugar 2/3 cup water 1/4 cup lemon juice

The World of Jewish Cooking makes honey cookies in the shape of a shofar. The most tra-

It’s not just what they know.

It’s who they become.

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Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a rectangular baking pan.

In a mixing bowl, combine nuts, cake meal, cinnamon and cloves or allspice.

In another bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar.

Add to nut mixture along with orange juice, oil and lemon or orange peel.

Beat egg whites in another bowl until stiff.

Fold into batter. Pour into cake pan and bake in 350-degree F oven for 45 minutes.

Place honey, sugar, water and lemon juice in a saucepan. Stir until sugar dissolves. Increase heat, bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Let cool.

When cake is baked and cooled, cut into squares or diamonds. Drizzle syrup over cake.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

ditional cookie for Rosh Hashanah is undoubtedly tayglach, the dough pieces

dropped into a hot honey syrup and simmered until brown then left to cool. It has been suggested that this Eastern European sweet was probably invented by some housewife who had dough left over and dropped the pieces into a boiling honey syrup.

Many Jews of Sephardic background make tishpishti for Rosh Hashanah. This Sephardic nut cake with walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts or pecans, has a hot syrup poured over the hot cake. The syrup can be made with sugar, water and liqueur, according to Rabbi Robert Sternberg in The Sephardic Kitchen. He suggests that this was a dessert served by Greek Jews, while another cookbook author identifies it with Syrian and Turkish Jews.

Rodanchas are also mentioned by Rabbi Sternberg as a popular Sephardic Rosh Hashanah sweet. These spiral-shaped pastries of phyllo dough contain a pumpkin or hubbard squash filling because squash and pumpkin are harvest vegetables and the shape symbolizes the never-ending cycle of life and the ascent of the soul into heaven.

Regardless of whether one is Ashkenazic or Sephardic, sweets for a sweet New Year seem to be a tradition, and many people follow the traditions of their mothers and grandmothers.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, lecturer, book reviewer, food writer and author (Witness to History: Ten Years as a Woman Journalist in Israel), nine cookbooks (including What’s Cooking at Hadassah College.) She lived in Israel from 1970-1980; she and her late husband, Barry, came to live in Jerusalem in 2008, where she works as a foreign correspondent for North American Jewish publications, lectures to senior citizen residences, leads walks in English in Machaneh Yehudah, the Jewish produce market. She has been book reviewing for 40 years.

Happy New Year

Senator Bob Hilkemann Nebraska Legislature | District 4

Now enrolling for the Fall.

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The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | D5

Food

From My Kosher Jerusalem Kitchen: Grilling like an Israeli

LAMB KEBAB Ingredients: 1/2 cup olive oil 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar 1 Tbsp. minced garlic 1 1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard 3 pounds cubed lamb 2 red bell peppers 2 green peppers 2 quartered onions 12 mushrooms 1/2 cup chopped cilantro Directions: Place olive oil, vinegar, garlic, mustard and lamb in a plastic bag, close, shake and set aside.

Core and seed peppers, cut into 1x2 inch pieces. Add to marinade along with mushrooms. Place in refrigerator at least 4 hours.

Place onion quarters on a plate and brush with some of the marinade. Thread meat on skewers, alternating with vegetables and allowing 3 pieces of lamb per skewer. Grill 3 inches from the heat for 5 minutes per side for medium-rare, brushing with marinade when turning.

Serves 6.

SYBIL KAPLAN Somehow it has become a custom in Israel to begin grilling on Yom Ha’atzmaut and continue on through the summer. As much as we all like our falafel and humus and tchina, you can walk through the streets and smell the chicken and meats cooking!

Skewered Meat Shish kebab, kebab, shashlik. For those who become confused by the words, the Food Lover’s Companion states that kebab, shish kebab and shashlik are used interchangeably and are the chunks of meat places on a skewer. Sikh is the Arabic word for skewer.

GRILLED VEGETABLES Ingredients: 1/4 cup olive oil 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 1 Tbsp. minced garlic 2 tsp. Dijon mustard 1/2 tsp. basil or oregano or Italian seasoning 2 quartered red onions 1 red bell pepper cut in 1 1/2 inch strips 1 green pepper cut in 1 1/2 inch strips 4 halved plum tomatoes or 8 cherry tomatoes 4 squash cut in 1/2 inch pieces 1 eggplant cut in 1/2 inch pieces

Directions: In a plastic bag, combine olive oil, wine vinegar, garlic, mustard and spices. Add vegetables, close bag, toss and let marinate at least 3 hours.

Using one skewer for each vegetable, thread onto skewers allowing 1/2 inch between each.

Grill 3 inches from heat source 3 to 5 minutes, carefully turning. Place marinade in a bowl. Slide vegetables off skewers into marinade and toss.

Serves 8.

Here are some tips and recipes for grilling on a skewer.

1. Flat or square skewers will keep food from revolving.

2. If you spray the grill before cooking with vegetable spray, foods will not stick.

3. Partially cook vegetables before threading on a skewer so foods cook in the same amount of time.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, author, compiler/editor of 9 kosher cookbooks and food writer for North American Jewish publications, who lives in Jerusalem where she leads weekly walks of the Jewish food market, Machaneh Yehudah, in English.

D6 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

Food

From My Kosher Jerusalem Kitchen: French Chicken Entrées

Greek, Dairy and Kosher SYBIL KAPLAN When it’s summer and you want special dairy dishes, think Greek.

SYBIL KAPLAN For a nice special treat, try out these French kosher chicken entrées.

CHICKEN DIJON This recipe came from a magazine ad for a particular brand of Dijon mustard.

Ingredients: 1/4 cup water or vegetable oil 1 tsp. garlic powder 1/2 cup Dijon mustard 1 tsp. dry Italian seasoning 8 boneless skinless chicken breast halves lemon slices or fresh herbs

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a plastic bag, combine mustard, water or oil, garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Add chicken and shake to coat.

Place chicken in a baking pan. Bake in preheated 375 F oven 20 minutes or until done.

Garnish with lemon slices and fresh herbs.

Serves 8.

CHARDONNAY-BRAISED CHICKEN THIGHS This recipe was by California cookbook author and “recipe goddess,” Grace Parisi with a few of my changes.

Ingredients: 4 Tbsp. unsalted margarine 4 Tbsp. olive oil 16 chicken thighs salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cup flour 8 peeled, quartered shallots 2 pounds parsley root, cut into 3x 1/2-inch pieces or parsnips 2 rosemary sprigs 2 cups Chardonnay or dry white wine 3 cups chicken soup Directions: Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Melt margarine in a large frying pan with oil.

Season chicken with salt and pepper and dust with flour. Add to frying pan, skin side down and cook until brown, about 6 minutes. Place on a plate.

Add shallots, parsley root or parsnips and rosemary and cook 1 minute.

Add wine and cook 3 minutes or until reduced by half. Add chicken soup and bring to a boil. Place chicken skin side up in frying pan and place in oven. Braise 25 minutes or until cooked through.

Turn on broiler and broil for 3 minutes. Return to stove and boil until sauce is thickened, about 3 minutes. Discard rosemary. Transfer to bowls and serve.

Serves 8.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, author, compiler/contributor/editor of 9 kosher cookbooks (working on a 10th) and food writer for North American Jewish publications. She lives in Jerusalem where she has led weekly walks of the

Jewish food market, Machaneh Yehudah, in English since 2009. She wrote the kosher Jerusalem restaurant features for Janglo.net, the oldest, largest website for English speakers from 2014 to 2020.

TZATZIKI This is the authentic, classic dip, soup or sauce, often made with sheep or goat yogurt.

Ingredients: 2 cups yogurt 1 cup grated cucumbers 1 tsp. lemon juice 1 tsp. minced garlic salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Place yogurt, cucumbers, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper into a bowl.

Cover and chill at least an hour. Serve with toasted pita or raw vegetables.

Makes 2 cups.

SNOWBIRDS

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The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021 | D7

Fish: The French way SYBIL KAPLAN Jewish Link of New Jersey | May 13, 2021 My husband, z”l was not fond of fish, but certain types of fish are good for our diet. I began experimenting with a fish dish I had been making for company for many years in Israel, then adapted it to the U.S. when I lived there. I first tasted it in the home of a member of a food group to which I belonged in Jerusalem in the 1970s. In this period of abstaining from meat before Shavuot, these are special dishes to try.

SEA BASS “SABAYON” DAIRY I received this recipe from the Hilton Hotel in Jerusalem over 40 years ago.

Ingredients: 1 Tbsp. margarine 1 Tbsp. cornstarch 1 cup fish stock 2 egg yolks 3 Tbsp. whipped cream without sugar 3 Tbsp. chopped parsley 2 tsp. chopped chives 2 tsp. lemon juice 8 very thin slices sea bass 1 cup fish stock Directions: Melt margarine in a saucepan. Add cornstarch and stir until light yellow. Add 1 cup fish stock and bring to a boil.

Blend egg yolks and whipping cream to a smooth consistency. Add to cornstarch/fish stock. Add parsley, chives and lemon juice and set aside.

Place fish in a pan with 1 cup fish stock and poach for 1 minute. Drain.

Serve immediately with sauce on the side.

Makes 4 servings.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, author, compiler/contributor/editor of nine kosher cookbooks (working on a 10th) and food writer for North American Jewish publications. She lives in Jerusalem, where she has led weekly walks of the Jewish food market, Machaneh Yehudah, in English since 2009. She wrote the kosher Jerusalem restaurant features for Janglo.net, the oldest, largest website for English speakers from 2014 to 2020.

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D8 | The Jewish Press | September 3, 2021

Happy Rosh Hashanah!

FRESH FOR EVERYONE ™