September 11, 2015: Rosh Hashanah Issue

Sponsored by the Benjamin and Anna E. Wiesman Family Endowment Fund AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA September 11, 2015 | 27 Elul 5774 | Vol. 95 | No. 52 | 3 Sections

THE

Rosh Hashanah EXPERIENCE

A2 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

Inside story (Founded in 1920) Eric Dunning President Annette van de Kamp-Wright Editor Richard Busse Creative Director Jessie Wees Advertising Executive Lori Kooper-Schwarz Assistant Editor Thierry Ndjike Bookkeeper Jewish Press Board Eric Dunning, President; Andy Ruback, Past-President; Andrew Boehm, Scott Farkas, Sandy Friedman, Paul Gerber, Alex Grossman, David Kotok, Debbie Kricsfeld, Abby Kutler, Pam Monsky, Paul Rabinovitz, Nancy Wolf and Barry Zoob.

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New and shiny things As always, I am writing my holiday message weeks in advance. I have to admit, I’m not quite in the mood yet—my kids are in summer camp, outside it’s 100 degrees, and back-to-school shopping is the furthest thing from my mind.

“Getting ready,” in Jewish Press speak, means making sure all the work is done. We are not alone: I imagine kosher caterers, for instance, are watching the calendar in similar fashion. I am not complaining; were I not forced by my job to be hyper aware of when holidays are coming, I would blissfully let them sneak up on me.

The thing is, there is more to holiday preparation than crossing work off my to do list. There is a spiritual preparation as well, and (you guessed it) I tend to somewhat neglect that side of things. In that, too, I imagine I am not alone.

Maybe this time (since I am writing this in June) I can catch myself and do better.

When the month of Elul gets here, we’ll start hearing the Shofar. I, however, will be distracted, since the first of Elul is my daughter’s birthday, and school usually starts around that time. Right there, I see a problem: my daughter’s birthday is a much bigger priority than any spiritual journey I might undertake. And the penitential prayers we are supposed to recite? Well. I allow myself to be distracted by the question of cake.

“Other customs,” writes Rabbi Paul Steinberg, “include visiting the graves of relatives and loved ones, contributing something significant to charitable causes, and sending greeting cards.”

Okay, I can do greeting cards. And giving to charity is ongoing, so that’s not hard. Visiting graves I think I will skip; most of my relatives are buried overseas.

Maybe the most useful advice I’ve ever received was the notion of doing a little bit better, every time. So what small change can I make? What step will make the High Holidays more meaningful going forward?

In Rosh Hashanah Unwrapped, Tzvi Freeman writes: “Judaism is mysterious. It comes giftwrapped from heaven with ribbons, strings and knots, each unraveling to disclose yet another mystery, an ever-widening unknown of yet more knots to untie, more strings to follow along an endless path.”

He’s not kidding about those knots. He also writes that the reason we call it “the head of the year,” rather than simply “the new year,” tells us these days really count: “Just as the head contains within it a neuroswitch for every part of the body, so is the head of the year a concentrated preview of the entire coming year. Because it all enters here.”

Well, that is one knot untied. But, Freeman’s metaphor tells me something else: I need help unraveling those knots, which means I know exactly what change to make: more studying. It’s time to sign up for at least one class before the holidays get here.

Great. Now that that’s solved, we can get back to the business at hand: your Rosh Hashanah issue. We, in compiling content, decided to focus on customs surrounding the holidays. How do they celebrate in the IDF? What about Ethiopian immigrants in Israel? How do people around the world mark these days, what are the differences, and in what ways are we exactly the same? I’ve always thought it fascinating how every Friday millions of people around the world light candles at sundown. How, in committing that one mitzvah, we group ourselves with all these other people, in different time zones, with different languages, and different foods on the table. It reminds me that, in spite of our differences, we eventually end up in the same place. So it is with Rosh Hashanah, or any other holiday. There is something very comforting in that.

As always, we owe thanks to our proofreaders: Margaret Kirkeby, Jody Malashock, Deborah Platt, Dottie Rosenblum, Silvia Roffman and Suzanne Singer. Thank you all for always being there and never getting tired of my excessive fondness for semi-colons.

Writers: Gabby Blair, Ozzie Nogg, Sybil Kaplan, Teddy Weinberger, Sherrie Saag and Emily Newman: please don’t walk away from that keyboard. We can’t do this without you.

The Jewish Press Board of Directors is made up of enthusiastic, dedicated and warm people, who are always thinking about how to make the Press better. I am so grateful we have lay leaders in the community who are willing to put their time and effort into helping us out.

Last, but more assuredly not least: The Jewish Press staff. Richard, Lori and Jessie: you’re my family. Thank you for everything you guys do; I love working with each of you.

The Press continues to need a lot of help. As we have seen the demise of both the Seattle Jewish Times and the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent (The Exponent still exists but since the entire editorial staff was fired, it will never be the same), it becomes more and more apparent that here in Omaha, something special is going on.

We, as the Jewish Press Board and staff, appreciate your support. That support ranges from donating to our Press Club, reading the paper every week, sending us emails (yes, including the ones with corrective feedback, because it shows us that you care), to calling immediately when we make a mistake with your address or with our content. It’s going to be an exciting year, with many new features, original content you won’t see anywhere else, a digital version in addition to our print edition, a photo blog and a Jewish food blog.

We are excited, and we trust you will be too.

We hope you enjoy this issue, and we wish you all a happy and healthy Rosh Hashanah!

Annette van de Kamp-Wright Editor

September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | A3

Happy New Year!

(Oops. Let’s rephrase that. . .)

by OZZIE NOGG

Goldberg fancied-up the words ‘Shana Tova’ and added a decorative plate embedded with short rhyming verses -explaining the image -- that he composed in Yiddish.

Shalom Sabar, a scholar of Jewish art and folklore, considers Goldberg "perhaps the most important Shana Tova greeting card designer operating in Poland at the beginning of the 20th century. Though the scenes were artificial, the cards contained invaluable ethnographic information regarding Jewish practices, costumes, occupations, ritual objects and home interiors, especially pertaining to the High Holidays and Shabbat.”

During the German invasion of Poland in September, 1939, Goldberg escaped to Russian-occupied Bialystok, where he lived during the Soviet occupation. When the

hen the 14th century German Rabbi Jacob ben Moses Moelin (the Maharil) recommended that one should include wishes for a ‘Shana Tova’ in all correspondence written during the Hebrew month of Elul, he single-handedly (though unknowingly) created the Jewish New Year greeting card industry. By the 1700s, the custom of sending Shana Tova cards had spread to large pockets of Eastern European Jews. Soon, this illustrated form of holiday communication landed in America. By the 19th century, with the introduction of mass-produced Rosh Hashana cards, it was clear that the Maharil’s idea was not a flash in the pan.

The cards themselves, however, often went way beyond flashy. What began in medieval days as messages hand written with quill and ink, morphed into multi-colored, commercially printed lithographs, embossed with gilt Hebrew lettering, satin embellishments and intricate cut paper work. In 1888, a writer for the Warsaw monthly Izraelita criticized the practice of sending ornate and ostentatious cards for Rosh Hashanah, and was outraged by the huge amounts of hard-earned Zloty his Polish countrymen spent on product and postage. The writer’s opinion fell on deaf ears.

Between 1898 and 1981, a time known as the Golden Age of Postcards, scholars who delight in obscure data claim that the majority of mail sent by Jews in Europe and America consisted of New Year cards.

The artwork typically portrayed nostalgic shtetl scenes of bearded men blowing shofars, or women in headscarves lighting candles. “Because many early cards show rituals taking place within the family, they’re important because they reflect Jewish values and show how we once lived,” wrote Anette Labowitz in a 1992 article distributed by the JTA. Other cards, according to Labowitz, began to reflect the status and changing conditions of Jews in different countries, as well as the immigration Top: A vintage greeting card from Israel; bottom: a Rosh Hashanah card sent by of Eastern European Jews to the Aharon and Sheindl Blumen in 1926 from Luboml, Poland. The card reads : “May United States. “In these immigrant you be inscribed for a good year. Credit: Yad Vashem greeting cards, the finery of bourgeois Jewish merchants is replaced by working class clothing -- Germans entered the city in 1941, Goldberg was interned in brimmed working class caps, woolen shawls, aprons. Life the Bialystok Ghetto. Though most inmates were forced to moves out of the shtetl and into the American city -- a tash- labor in the textile, shoe and chemical factories established lich ceremony takes place in view of the Williamsburg by the Germans within the ghetto walls, Goldberg was Bridge; a modernly dressed young man, surrounded by tasked with drawing formal posters to decorate the offices of lovebirds, telephones Rosh Hashanah greetings to his sweet- the Judenrat -- the Jewish Council of self-government heart: ‘I wish you renewed strength with great love that no imposed by the Nazis during WW ll. one will destroy your dreams,’ the message says in Yiddish.”

On the night of August 16, 1943, the ghetto underground Cards from the early 1900s often featured images of the staged an armed insurrection against the German troops -Statue of Liberty and were designed to lure others to move second only in size and ferocity to the Warsaw Ghetto upristo the United States. One card read, ‘Traveling forward to ing. Holocaust survivor and postwar historian Szymon prosperity and a prosperous new year.’ The shana tovas, Datner wrote, "The blockade of the Bialystock ghetto lasted according to Jenna Weissman Joselit, Director of the Judaic one full month and on the 15th of September, 1943, after the Studies Program at George Washington University, were last of the flames of resistance had been extinguished, the “for all their whimsy, freighted with significance. A reflec- final stage of mass deportations commenced.” Haim tion of and a response to modernity, they spoke to the tug of Goldberg, his wife and twenty-four year old son (rumored tradition and the pull of America. Their popularity attested to have been a partisan in the Bialystock uprising) all perto a new and wrenching social reality: families no longer ished -- whether in the ghetto or in Treblinka is disputed. lived in close proximity, let alone under one roof, as they What cannot be argued is that two weeks later, on once had. Greeting cards acknowledged this new reality and, September 30, 1943, American Jews -- still blind to the enorturning to the mail, sought to soften it by providing a new mity of the Final Solution -- observed erev Rosh Hashana medium of communication.” (To which we can now add the 5703. And undoubtedly sent and received Shana Tova cards. contemporary avalanche of Shana Tova emails, Facebook Rabbi Benjamin Blech, a Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva posts and electronic greeting cards.)

University, reminds us that the Hebrew words, shana tova, The most illustrious artist in the development of Jewish do not mean ‘happy new year.’ “Shana Tova,” Blech writes, New Year cards was Haim Yisroel Goldberg. Born in 1890 to “conveys the hope for a good year rather than a happy one. a Hassidic family in Lukeve, Poland, Goldberg’s bio And that distinction contains great significance.” For Rabbi describes him as a Warsaw Jewish-Polish photographer, Blech, a good year involves meaningful experiences despite graphic designer, illustrator, innovative Hebrew typogra- personal loss or hardship, while a happy year is more pher and printer, as well as a Yiddish and Hebrew author focused on the joy of the moment. A good year involves acts and poet. In his studio, Goldberg staged holiday tableaux of giving to others, while a happy year focuses solely on selfusing amateur actors dressed in traditional garb as models. gratification. Rabbi Blech notes that happiness is a Before printing the final version of the photograph, Continued on page 4

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A Time to Celebrate and Rejoice

by SCOTT LITTKY Jewish liturgy, who is known for his liberal Program Director, Temple Israel religious views. Hoffman is a Professor of t is hard to believe that Liturgy at Hebrew Union College in New Temple Israel will be cel- York. He has written a number of wellebrating a third High known books and is on the staff of Holiday season in our Synagogue 3000. new building. Our conRabbi Uri Regev will visit Temple Israel gregaMarch 11-12, 2016. tion Rabbi Regev is an interconnationally renowned tinues to thrive and grow. leader and advocate of reliWe continue to go from gious liberty and the liberStrength to Strength. This al movements of Judaism coming year at Temple in his native Israel and Israel is assured to be a year around the world. of much excitement.

Currently, Rabbi Regev As most of the commuserves as the President and nity knows by now, this CEO of a new educational will be Rabbi Aryeh and advocacy IsraelAzriel’s last year as the Diaspora partnership, Senior Rabbi. Time has “Freedom Of Religion for flown by since his first Israel” and of its Israeli Rosh Hashanah in Omaha counterpart, “Hiddush – Rabbi Aryeh Azriel in 1988. Although this For Freedom of Religion year will be bittersweet, we look forward to and Equality”. honoring his contribution to Temple Israel Finally, Danny Maseng will be at Temple and to the Omaha community.

Israel from April 15-16 to celebrate Rabbi Among the ways to celebrate the legacy of Azriel’s tenure. Danny was born in Israel Rabbi Azriel will be a number of guest and is a very popular musician, singer and speakers who will be a part of the Hermene songwriter. He is currently a much soughtZweiback Center for Lifelong Jewish after scholar-in-residence who travels the Learning. First, from Oct. 2-4, Rabbi Rex D. world inspiring, teaching and rekindling the Perlmeter will visit Temple Israel. Rabbi love for Judaism through Torah, Kabbalah, Perlmeter was born in Omaha and is a long- Jewish culture and the arts. time friend and colleague of Rabbi Azriel. In These programs are just a small sampling the summer of 2012, Rabbi Perlmeter of how we will honor and celebrate the work founded the Jewish Wellness Center of and dedication that Rabbi Azriel has providNorth Jersey, a holistic program designed to ed to our community. Watch The Jewish help synagogues and individuals strive for Press in coming months for more details on wholeness in body, heart, mind and soul. these events and other exciting happenings.

Our next scholar-in-residence will be For more information, please contact, Scott Rabbi Larry A. Hoffman from Dec. 4-6. Littky, program director at 402.556.6536.

Rabbi Hoffman is a prominent scholar of

I

Happy New Year!

Continued from page 3 byproduct of a meaningful life. A life in which one finds fulfillment by connecting positively with something beyond one’s self. To quote physicist Michio Kaku, “We should try to leave the world a better place than when we entered it. As individuals, we can make a difference, whether it is to probe the secrets of Nature, to clean up the environment and work for peace and social justice, or to nurture the inquisitive, vibrant spirit of the young by being a mentor and a guide.” Or, as Susan Wolf writes in Meaning in Life and Why It Matters: “Actions (mitzvot, perhaps?) give meaning to our lives.

A meaningfulness that constitutes a distinctive dimension of a good life.” For Rabbi Blech, “From a spiritual perspective, a shana tova, a good year, is far more blessed than a simply happy one. Happy is good, but good is better.”

A philosophy captured in a New Year card that pictures two friends meeting on the street. “So how’s your New Year going?” Sam asks. And Morrie answers, “Shofar, so good.”

Pictured above and at right: vintage greeting cards sent by American Jews during the early 20th century.

September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | A5

Rosh Hashanah with the Smiths

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor etting ready for the Holidays comes in many shapes and sizes. I suspect there’s not much overlap between what we do at home versus what our clergy has on their professional to-do list. How we get ready at the Jewish Federation differs from agency to agency, and how the day school prepares is not the same as what the preschool does.

For those of us working in Jewish institutions, we tend to shift focus during the car ride home from work. At the Press office, we may be frantically trying to push out a Holiday issue, but when we get home, the Kooper-Schwarz and the van de Kamp-Wright children expect us to be excited about and plan for the holidays in a very different manner.

G

Kieran (16) is my oldest daughter, followed by two boys, Devlin (14) and Gavin (13), who just graduated from Friedel. Evelyn is 11, her sister Darby is eight, and finally Montgomery is the youngest, and he is six years old. Evelyn and Darby go to Friedel.

Where are you from?

I grew up west of Ashland, Nebraska, and I’ve lived all over. Especially after Crystal and I were married, we moved around quite a bit. Prior to my current job I worked for Omaha Public Schools as an art teacher. My wife is original-

From left: Darby, Devlin, Evelyn, Doug holding Monty, Gavin pictured: oldest son Kieran.

Doug, surrounded by his colleagues at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, from left: Mary Heiman, Maggie Conti, Karen Hook and Karen Menagh.

For Doug Smith, Activities Director at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home, that shift is considerable. During the day, he focuses on programming for residents at the Home; at night, he finds himself surrounded by his children. Those children are just beginning to learn what it means to be Jewish and are just starting to collect memories and experiences, which makes Doug’s role at home very different than at work. It’s time to get to know Doug and his family a little better.

Tell me about your family My wife’s name is Crystal, and we have six children: 1000 N. 90th St., Suite 100 Omaha, Nebraska 68114

ly from Omaha.

How long have you been working at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home?

A little more than two years. As one of the Activities Directors, we do whatever it takes to keep our residents engaged. That means booking entertainers, scheduling games, organizing a variety of programs, and sometimes meeting one-on-one.

When it comes to booking entertainers, I’ve always wanted to know: where do you draw the line?

We would not hire someone who is religiously inappropriate.

What are some favorite things you’ve helped organize?

There are many residents who love to hear music from their youth. But, they also really loved the Omaha Street Percussion Band. They use pails, barrels, buckets, whatever they can make rhythms with, and that was really popular. So it’s important to remember that we don’t only focus on nostalgia; most residents love experiencing new sounds as well as music from other parts of the world.

I remember a belly dancer…

Yes! We had a belly dancer who came with a python! That

was actually a really fun day, because it allowed us to bring the older Friedel kids to our auditorium as well, so they could interact with our residents. It’s nice to have visitors during our activities.

We actually have animals on a regular basis. There’s the dog show and the county fair, and we work with the Raptor Recovery Program out of Fontenelle Forest. We’ve had owls, hawks, even a peregrine falcon.

How do you know when an activity is a hit?

We do cognitive evaluations of our residents. We track the activities people participate in and find out what they are drawn to.

How early does your department start thinking about Rosh Hashanah?

Normally, we start to brainstorm about a month and a half before the holiday, but since you’re asking in June, this year we’re thinking about it in June!

What are some must-haves for celebrating the High Holidays with RBJH residents?

We absolutely have to have apples and honey. Every year, Mike Aparo comes up with the most delectable apple desserts. Jerry Gordman comes over to blow the shofar, and that’s another ‘must.’

How do you celebrate at home? and Crystal Smith. Not We discuss with the kids what Rosh Hashana is about, and we read a lot of books. Our kids also love to check out related You Tube videos and listen to music. And they LOVE the shofar, anytime, anywhere. So they totally indulge when they have the chance. And they are really good at it, too.

They also love the food, and are heavily involved with the cooking. As a family we participate in the walk from Beth El to the Boys Town Lake to do Tashlich.

What is it like to navigate between work and home?

You’re faced with two very different perspectives. On the one hand, you have young children who experience things for the first time and who slowly start to gather experiences, and on the other you work with adults who have collected those experiences for many years. The nice thing is, you can learn a lot from combining the two.

Do you think there is an essential difference in how we celebrate as children versus how we celebrate as adults?

We’re more self-conscious as adults, especially about the passage of time. Yom Kippur is coming up, and I think adults respond to that day very differently. Kids tend to focus more on the excitement, the sounds and the tastes of the holiday, and that’s okay.

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A6 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

Looking back, looking forward

by EMILY NEWMAN faith are piling up a record of heroic service, some receiving of whom received medals of Honor and other decorations s the Jewish New Year approaches, we distinguished service awards for bravery under fire, others for their participation and bravery. In World War II that reminisce upon the things in our lives losing their lives in action – all fighting staunchly in the number more than doubled with over 550,000 Jews serving that we are grateful for in our pasts, service of their country.” in the American military to fight the Japanese in the Pacific presents, and futures. It is partly this However, the participation of the American Jewish com- and the Nazis in Europe. gratitude that makes us excited for the munity in the vast realm of military service has extended Throughout this time, Jews were key players in all of the year that is to come, for the opportuni- much farther back than the Second or even First World War. American military wings, whether their participation was in ties that lie in our bright futures. According to the Aleph Institute, a national non-profit the Navy, Air Force, Army, or Marines. They charged enemy Among these things that we must be grateful for are our organization that provides a wide range of services to Jews lines and worked with intelligence to save other American United States servicemen and women, for it is largely due to throughout the country (including services to Jewish mili- and Allied soldiers. They won awards, medals, and decoratheir sacrifice and determination that we have the freetions for their bravery and perseverance. It is safe to say dom and ability to celebrate and be so optimistic about that the Jewish participation in the history of the the year ahead of us.

American military has been profound, especially considThere is a special place in my heart for all of our ering the percentage that Jewish Americans make up of United States servicemen and women, especially those the general population of the United States of America. that are Jewish. I would argue that the Jewish people However, I cannot conclude this piece without also know better than most just how important the freedoms drawing at least a small amount of attention to those that are upheld in the United States are, and how vital it who serve in the Israel Defense Forces as well. is that we continue to fight for them. I would also say Especially throughout the last few decades, the United that we as Jews have an acute understanding as to just States and Israel have become not only strategic parthow many out there wish to take these freedoms away – ners in the region of the Middle East, but also partners although many in the United States might argue that in several military capacities. Upon entering the wars in “No one is trying to take our freedom away.” We know Iraq and Afghanistan, many United States soldiers better. We know better because of our history and received vital urban combat training from the IDF, and because of our relationship with Israel. throughout the years, the partnership between the two United States Jewish servicemen and women, militaries in combating the War on Terror became whether they be veterans of World War I, World War II, extensive. We also, as American Jews, have other ties to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, etc., have played vital the IDF and those who serve in it due to a common roles in keeping our great nation safe for generations to recognition of its importance and morality in protecting American GI's celebrating Rosh Hashanah during WW II. come. This will to succeed and persevere that comes not only the Jewish people, but also others who need aid Credit: nbcnewyork.com from Jewish American servicemen and women has throughout the world (such as those who found thembeen documented and highlighted upon for several years by tary families), Jewish participation in the American military selves victims of the Nepal earthquakes this past Spring.) the Jewish Press, an example of which was published 73 years dates back to colonial times. The original roots of Jewish So, during your celebration of Rosh Hashanah, remember ago in the 1942 Rosh Hashanah edition. The article details military service in America are said to have taken place to be thankful for all our United States (and Israeli) servicethe brave Jewish American soldiers who gave the ultimate about 350 years ago, continuing on through the men and women. It is due to the sacrifice that they and their sacrifice on what is labeled the “War of Survival”.

Revolutionary War, in which many Jews were known to have families made and continue to make that keeps us safe at our According to the article, “These are some of the men his- served in George Washington’s Continental Army. From holiday tables. Be grateful, and be proud that we, as Jews, torians will remember when the final story of the conflict is then onward, the tradition of military service among have served so proudly throughout our nation’s history and written. They are the American fighters of Jewish faith who American Jews was not forgotten. The Aleph Institute states be proud that the small nation of Israel survives to this day sank battleships and submarines, fought the enemy in the that approximately 8,500 Jews fought for both the North and because of the will that Israelis and their soldiers have. As skies, held out heroically at Bataan and on Corregidor … South during the Civil War. Then, in World War I, that Jews, we might be a small people, but we have proven to be The role of honor is long. American fighting men of Jewish number exponentially increased to over 250,000 Jews, many mighty and strong as well.

A

Happy Rosh Hashanah from Boys Town!

A Time for Family

Traditions Celebrate the holiday by : Creating at-home activities that get everyone involved.

Attending worship services as a family.

Talking to your children about the specifics of your family celebration.

We’ve learned a lot about kids and families over the past 100 years. And now everything we’ve learned is at your fingertips at Boystown.org/Omaha

Sharing details about how your family traditions got started and why they’re important.

September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | A7

The Geography and Symbolism of Jewish Food: Rosh Hashanah

by GABBY BLAIR hile preparing festive meals for Rosh Hashanah, what foods and symbols are clear in your mind? Most likely your thoughts drift to round challot, perhaps dotted with raisins, or other traditional staples, such as apples and honey, for a “Sweet New Year.” While these popular foods are certainly a must at most American Jewish tables, there are many exciting culinary customs of less mainstream Jewish cultures; many of which include symbolism and even superstition, driven by the desire to start the year off in the best possible way.

While researching the traditions and recipes of various cultures, it is quite apparent that regional themes and influences play a large part in what is served. Regardless of where Jews are geographically, the foods they serve for Rosh Hashanah tend to be associated with positive attributes.

Gematria, puns or plays on words, as well as the ancient Talmudic custom of consuming foods that embody the wishes and blessings hoped for in the New Year are usually found on the table. For example, pomegranates, a fruit commonly enjoyed during Rosh Hashanah, are associated with fertility and abundance and are storied to contain 613 seeds; one for each of the mitzvot. In Yiddish, meren means carrots, but has an alternate meaning of “more or increase”, and as the New Year starts, we certainly hope to increase the good in life. Likewise leeks, sesame seeds, and pumpkins are thought to bring luck and prosperity and to ward off evil decrees that enemies may wish upon us. The round shape of many of the aforementioned foods is also an important symbol representing the circle of life.

Similarly, it was found that there are many foods to be avoided in an effort to separate Rosh Hashanah from anything remotely negative. One example of this is the custom of some Jews to refrain from eating nuts. In Hebrew the word for nuts is “egoz,” which, incidentally, has the same numerical value as “chet”, or a sin. Another, more culturally specific example, steeped in superstition, is the Moroccan custom of refraining from serving darker colored foods such as prunes and black olives, in order to ward off darkness that could mar the beginning of a New Year. Moroccans, and their regional Jewish neighbors, also tend to peel the dark skin off eggplants at this time and will sweeten a majority of their foods, including vegetables and meats, with sugar or honey to bring in the sweetness they hope for in the year to come.

Unique items on many Sephardic Rosh Hashanah menus include a whole roasted fish, a roasted lamb’s head, tongue, or sweetbreads, to honor the literal meaning of Head of the Year, and is symbolic of the desire of starting the New Year at the head and not at the tail. Egyptian and Syrian Jews customarily serve dishes of black eyed peas, known as Rubya, meaning “many” or “a lot”, representative of the wish for prosperity in the New Year. Similarly, small grain couscous is an often served dish also for the desire of abundance and is usually served with seven vegetables to represent the seven days of creation. As the moon is new and mostly hidden at the start of the holiday, it is also customary to serve stuffed or “hidden” foods. Both Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions have dishes such as kreplach, pastilles and edible cigars.

Variations of these foods may be savory, stuffed with meats or vegetables, or prepared sweet, filled with minced dates, spices and drenched in honey. Libyan Jews were known for their exquisite confitures made especially for Rosh Hashanah. These jellies were typically made from quince, orange, plum, apple and squash and were used as a condiment to sweeten the foods for the Rosh Hashanah meal.

Other delicious and unique recipes stem from areas further East. In India, you again find much symbolism in the menu, such as long green beans to remind one of the importance of flexibility, pointy-tipped garlic chives for protection from enemies, and white foods as a reminder to be pure in heart and of thoughts. As Rosh Hashanah approaches, Jews of India prepare a special and tasty dessert called Halwa made from creamed wheat or corn starch, sugar, coconut milk, saffron, cardamom and lemon juice and adorn it with seeds or chopped pistachios. Regional influences create exotic tasty dishes like lamb biryani and chapattis, a wheat flat bread that is traditionally used rather than the fluffy and round European challah on the holiday dinner table.

When researching unique Rosh Hashanah foods and traditions, the most striking aspect was the historical nature in which many were discussed. The Jewish population in many countries continues to shrink and has, in some places, such as Libya, been completely eradicated. As the last generations of Jews born in these lands age and pass on, we are in danger of losing centuries of cultural traditions and recipes, many of which are handed down through families by example or orally. In the age of technology, we are in a unique position to collect the flavors, traditions and history passed

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from our parents and grandparents and share them with the world. While there are many lands we, as a people, may never return to, Jews are blessed in this New Year to have the ability to research the traditional foods and special rituals unique to any heritage through a simple online search. This Rosh Hashanah, I urge all of you to gather what recipes and histories you can and archive them in some way for future years so that your children will be able to have a taste of their ancestral home. It is important to document the rich Jewish history that is slowly being lost from many of these lands, and nothing quite brings people together like a good, home cooked meal.

While the ingredients and flavors may be different from place to place, there is a common thread stitching the foods and rituals of the world’s Jews together. The symbolism of Rosh Hashanah foods, the collective desire for good and abundance, for fertility and protection is a theme central to all Rosh Hashanah meals, regardless of geography...the common ingredient for all Jews is the merit of blessings on the table.

L’Shana Tova and B’tayavon!

GRANDMA ROSY’S INDIAN HALWA Ingredients 3.5 oz. cornstarch 1 tin coconut milk (available in Indian shops) 2½ tins water (above coconut tin) 1 cup sugar 1/3 stick butter/ oil 1 tsp salt 1½ tbs lemon juice Saffron, cardamom and nutmeg powder as needed Chopped almonds, pistachio etc Directions 1. Soak a small fist-full of china grass (cut into small pieces) in hot water until dissolved.

2.Mix all of the above ingredients, except butter, preferably in a non-stick pot, and bring to a boil over high heat — add butter/oil.

3. Reduce heat and stir the mixture constantly until mixture thickens and pulls to the center of the pot (about 20-25 minutes).

4. Check if done by pouring a little halwa onto a glass plate until you’re able to lift the halwa off the plate. Add lemon juice, stir and pour into plates. Sprinkle with nuts and enjoy.

LIBYAN QUINCE JELLY Ingredients 2 large quinces 2 oranges 4½ cups sugar 1 tbs lemon juice 1 tsp cardamom 1 tbs rosewater Directions 1. Peel and core the quinces and cut into thin slices or small cubes.

2. Peel the oranges with a potato peeler, leaving behind the pith and cut the peel into julienne strips.

3. Place the quinces and the orange peel in a pan with 3¾ cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and boil gently until the quinces are soft, about 40 to 45 minutes.

4. Now add the sugar and increase the heat until all the sugar has dissolved.

5. Add the lemon juice and cardamom and boil gently until the mixture has thickened and is syrupy.

6. The quinces will have turned a lovely rosy pink/red color.

7. Add the rosewater and leave to cool before placing in bottles or jars.

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A8 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

Elul: preparing for the New Year

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by OZZIE NOGG thletes train for The Big Game.

Actors prepare for Opening Night.

And Jews (though you may not have considered this before) must warm up for the New Year. You just can’t jump helter-skelter into repentance. You first have to work out the kinks. And for this you can use the month of Elul.

Creating a limbering-up period for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur seems to be Elul’s reason for being, and since Medieval times it has been the designated Month-ToPrepare-ForThe-Days-OfAwe. So, how do we start this warm-up period? With the blowing of the shofar on 1 Elul at the end of morning services.

To those who think the shofar is heard only on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it may come as a surprise to learn it’s blown every morning during Elul, except on Shabbat and the day before Rosh Hashanah.

Why? One tradition has it that 1 Elul is the day Moses went up Mt. Sinai again, after the Golden Calf incident, and so the shofar was sounded to warn the people against repeating their idolatrous ways while Moses was away. The Kabbalists (with their mystical imaginings) say we blow the shofar during Elul to confuse Satan as to the real date of Rosh Hashanah, thereby foiling his dastardly plan to come before God on The Big Day with false accusations against the Jews. But the more likely reason is given by Maimonides who wrote that the call of the shofar says, “Wake up, you sleepers! Look to your souls. Examine your deeds and forsake evil so God may have mercy upon you.” This is a warning, folks. Clean up your act.

Judgment Day is coming.

In the shtetl, the Jews took this warning seriously and prepared for the New Year with trembling and dread. The fear of impending judgment (and possible doom) was real.

Every morning during Elul -- well before dawn -- the shamash marched through the streets pounding on doors and shutters, calling people to selichot. (Possible surprise #2: Selichot is not only the midnight service held on the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah. Selichot are prayers of penitence - thousands of them -- said at various times during the year. But back to the shtetl . . .)

After the shamash’s call, the men rushed to the synagogue to chant special selichot prayers of forgiveness. Some recited extra Psalms and threw in a little Mishnah -- since study tips the scales in one’s favor. Even the lukewarm Jew suddenly became scrupulously observant during Elul. Everyone was contrite, solicitous, apologetic and forgiving.

Careful in business dealings and vigilant against the tiniest sins. These were the days, it was said, when the very fish in the streams shivered with foreboding.

Prayers were uttered in the cemetery, too.

Visits to the graves of parents and other dear ones were all-important during this prejudgment period, especially for the women who wept and wailed at the graves, pleading

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with the dead to put in a good word for them and their families with the powersthat-be in heaven. And some women did more. Slowly they walked around the sacred cemetery ground, all the while unrolling a spool of thread, and “measured the field.”

This thread they then took to the candle maker who made it into wicks for candles that the women later brought, with great solemnity, to the synagogue.

As the month of Elul drew to a close, the preparations for the New Year became, by all accounts, absolutely frenzied. Get those mezuzahs inspected and repaired! Fatten up Momma’s roosters and hens! Buy Poppa a new machzor and fix his tefillin! Settle that

Golden Calf family feud! Go to the mikveh! Change the Torah mantles to white! And look -- here comes another messenger from Palestine wanting a donation which you’d better give him, Liebl, since charity is one of the ways to avert the severity of the decree, you should live and be well!

Enough already, you’re probably saying by now. This is not Anitevkeh and my name is Lance, not Liebl, and spending a whole month reviewing my life and preparing for Judgment Day smacks of overkill, don’t you think? Perhaps. Yet psychiatrists tell us that it takes time to dump old baggage, and “passages” don’t happen overnight. So maybe even in this modern age, Elul can still serve its ancient purpose as a slow transition from the old year to the new. Try it. Use Elul as a warm-up session for the High Holidays.

Beginning on the Rosh Hodesh Elul – August 15, this year -- start working out.

• Say, “I’m sorry” and “Pardon me” more often. To family and friends, of course, but also to strangers. Using those words can be your way of reciting selichot prayers on a daily basis.

• Give to your favorite charity. Have your kids donate their outgrown but usable clothes and toys to a shelter. Tzedakah is a time-honored part of Elul.

• Settle debts. Owing someone a letter, a thank-you note or a phone call can weigh just as heavily as owing money, so stop procrastinating.

• During Elul, examine your life and find the weak spots, as the shofar calls you to do.

Then bend a little. By the end of the month you’ll be in better shape to greet the New Year. A New Year that will, hopefully, be good and sweet for you and yours.

P.S. Department: The Rabbis say the name Elul comes from the initial letters of Ani L’dodi V’dodi Li (alef, lamed, vav, lamed). “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,” a phrase from the Song of Songs that describes the relationship between God and the Jewish people. Charming interpretation, don’t you think?

Stay well...

September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | A9

Iron Lions of Zion: The Origin of Beta Israel

by GABBY BLAIR here are a few leading theories regarding the origin of the Ethiopian Jews known as Beta Israel. One such theory is that they are actually the lost Tribe of Dan, as ruled by 15th century rabbinical great David ibn Zimra (The Radbaz) of Egypt.

Another theory traces their origin back to King Solomon’s union with The Queen of Sheba, and claims they are descended from the Jews who came with their child, Menelik, as he travelled from Jerusalem to Ethiopia with the Ark of the Covenant; and yet another theory claims their ancestors fled after destruction of The First Temple in Jerusalem, settling in Ethiopia. While each of these theories has support, it is likely that we will never have a definitive answer of which story is the truest.

What is known, and considered as the definitive first nonbiblical record of Jews in the Kush, (historically ancient Ethiopia, and modernly, part of Sudan), comes from the 9th Century Hebrew diary of a Jewish merchant and traveler known as Eldad ben Mahil Ha-Dani. Ha-Dani traveled widely and spread the story that he was a descendant of the Tribe of Dan, hence his surname. According to his log, HaDani had come upon a lost fragment of his tribe which, together with descendants from the tribes of Asher, Gad and Naphtali, had its own independent Jewish state in Eastern Africa. During his travels, which appear to have stretched from Iberia to Babylonia, and perhaps even into China, HaDani spread word of these people who were in possession of the Torah; the five books of Moses and some of the writings of the Prophets, but that had no inkling about the Talmud, nor of the book of Esther, creating a bit of a stir in the communities he visited. El-Dani’s travels and adventures led him to shipwrecks, slavery and redemption as he roamed from place to place meeting various fragments of the Tribes of Israel, for which he provided descriptions of behavior, territory, local disputes and customs. Eldad Ha-Dani demonstrated a deep knowledge of haggadic literature in his writings and his accounts have been accepted and even quoted

by Talmudic authorities like Rashi and RABaD (Rabbi Abraham Ben David III), although not all were as accepting of his claims. Regardless, Ha-Dani’s now ancient records along with other supporting bits of Jewish literature from the 15 and 16th centuries referencing Ethiopian Jews have certainly helped create a historical tie of today’s Beta Israel to Modern day Israel.

Over the centuries, in general isolation from others of their faith, Beta Israel, referred to by other Ethiopians as Falashas (meaning outsiders or strangers) lost much of the independence they had enjoyed throughout the Middle Ages. By the mid 1600s, many were sold into slavery, forced to convert to Christianity and denied rights such as landownership. In a 1790 publication titled Travels to Discover the Source of the

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Nile, by a Scotsman named James Bruce, an estimated population of 100,000 Falashas was reported to be practicing preTalmudic Judaism. This singular reminder of a possibly ancient and highly isolated Jewish community resulted in a heavy influx of missionaries to Ethiopia in the 19th century.

As word spread about conversion efforts focused on the Falashas, some Jewish leaders in Europe began to publicly campaign for a way to intervene on behalf of their lost brethren. In 1867 Joseph Halevy, a well known French lin-

Aliyah Ethiopian father and son at the airport guist, traveled to Ethiopia to assess the claims of Beta Israel and the activities of the missionaries. Halevy was greeted with skepticism as all previous visits by white Europeans before him were Christian missionaries intent on conversion. Halevy, who was familiar with Ethiopian languages of Ge’ez and Amharic, revealed that there were other Jews around the world, a concept the Beta Israel were apparently unaware of. In addition to studying their practices and customs, Halevy was tasked with trying to change the ways of these ancient peoples to be more in line with mainstream Judaism at that point. When he returned to France a year later, he was of the opinion that the Beta Israel were indeed Jews, and detailed similarities in customs. Beta Israel had laws of kashrut, death and mourning rituals, laws related to purification, birth and circumcision and kept Shabbat strictly. Halevy’s work was also meant to introduce the concepts of Talmud and highlight the differences, such as the use of animal sacrifices, that would need to be reconciled should Beta Israel be accepted with the wider Jewish community. In 1904, Dr. Jacques Faitlovitch, a student of Halevy, traveled to

Ethiopia with the blessing of Paris Chief Rabbi, Zadok Kahn, and became the first real champion for their cause.

Faitlovitch continued to work towards recognition of Beta Israel until he died in 1955. Many challenges to accepting the Falasha came from numerous critics and the debate on their legitimacy waxed and waned throughout the early 20th century, during which time very few emigrated to Israel.

At the request of Beta Israel’s Jewish leaders, the Jewish Agency appointed its first ambassador to Ethiopia in 1953.

Over the next decade community members were trained to become emissaries to their people, medical clinics were opened and Hebrew schools were established in the villages of The Beta Israel.

In 1973, in a landmark ruling, Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, then Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, confirmed the identity of Beta Israel based on the earlier rulings of the Radbaz.

Two years later, long time ruler Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown by a Marxist coup d'etat resulting in much violence and instability for Ethiopia and its neighbors. As the situation continued to deteriorate into 1975, especially for The Beta Israel, Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Credit whyIsrael.org Rabbi, Shlomo Goren, finally signed off his agreement with Rabbi Yosef ’s 1973 opinion, thus allowing the Israeli government to grant Ethiopian Jews “The Right Of Return”. Within a year, Israel had managed to transport nearly 500 Ethiopians to Israel.

Over the next decade, nearly 8000 Jews were covertly relocated to Israel. Between November 1984 and January 1985, during “Operation Moses”, an additional 8000 Jewish refugees from camps in Sudan were successfully airlifted by night with the quiet permission of the Sudanese government. After having its cover blown by a report in The Washington Jewish Week, the story was picked up by the New York Times which ran it on the front page on Dec. 11, 1984. This put heavy pressure on Sudan which, as a member of the Arab League, was technically at war with Israel, forcing an immediate end to the operation. In early 1985, the US sponsored “Operation Sheba,” which helped rescue an additional 500 Jews who remained in Sudanese camps. Thousands of Jews remained in Ethiopia until the regime began to falter in 1991. As the government was close to being toppled, the U.S. interceded on Continued on page 11

A10 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

How much do you know about the Shofar?

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor here’s one thing most Jewish kids agree on: the Shofar is cool. Next time the topic comes up and there are young children in the room, show off your knowledge about this traditional item.

The Shofar is the only instrument to survive from the time of the First Temple when a full orchestra accompanied services. The Shofar was exempt from a rabbinical ban on musical instruments that followed the destruction of the Temple.

Other cultures also discovered the resonant notes of the Shofar: One traveler stumbled upon a ram’s horn with a side mouthpiece in a Peruvian market.

Another traveler purchased a South African batik that showed girls using similar horns in a deflowering ritual.

And in Norway, farmers have historically played a ram’s horn carved with finger holes, known as the bukkehorn, to communicate across mountaintops.

Chabad-Lubavitch draws more than 100,000 children annually to its Shofar-making workshops across the U.S. Some 796 Shofar blowers gathered at Phillips Beach in Swampscott, Mass., on Sept. 17, 2006, to practice sounding off before the Jewish New Year—and also to set a new world record as the largest shofar ensemble in history. The event, organized by the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, made it into the Guinness Book of World Records at the time. However, in 2014, a total of 1,043 people came together in Whippany, New Jersey to beat that record.

Leviticus tells us that that the Shofar heralds the Jubilee Year, proclaiming “liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” This mention is one of the 69 times that the Bible notes the role of the Shofar, and the phrase is

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inscribed in the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.

The first mention of the Shofar is in the biblical story of the Akeda, the binding of Isaac, when Abraham sacrificed a ram in place of his son.

The Shofar is blown 100 times on Rosh Hashanah.

“Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down!” Joshua had seven priests with seven ram’s horns circle the city walls for seven days and then they blasted the Shofar. And the walls came tumbling down.

A Shofar must be at least four inches long, and the average

length of a shofar is about 15 inches.

It’s a mitzvah to hear the Shofar blasts on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but you don’t have to blow it yourself.

Shofarot are commonly made from the horn of a goat, ram, sheep, antelope, and gazelle. But never a cow. A Shofar cannot be made from the horn of the cow, in deference to the incident of the Golden Calf. Yemenite Shofarot come from the African kudu.

A Shofar should never be stored in plastic or any enclosed space. Instead, they should be kept in the open air. When locked away, they deteriorate.

Shofarot are pretty durable, but don’t drop one on a con-

crete floor.

All Shofarot have small imperfections, depending on how much fighting the animal did with his horns.

Want a Shofar that doesn’t smell? Try one made of plastic.

Of course, it won’t be kosher.

The curved Shofar is symbolic of the contrite heart repenting on the most solemn days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

The Shofar has never varied in structure from its early shape.

Do not ask to blow someone else’s Shofar. It’s as personal as a toothbrush (and full of their spit).

Most Shofarot are plain, with no decoration or separate mouthpiece.

Decorated shofarot are not used for services.

A man who blows the Shofar is a Ba’al Tekiah.

A woman who blows it is a Ba’alat Tekiah.

The official record for longest blowing of the Shofar stands at one minute and 31 seconds. I found one Tekiah Gedolah on YouTube that lasted two minutes and 15 seconds although that rabbi struggled a bit towards the end so I don’t think it counts. However, the Guinness Book of World Records website (lamely) states “This is not something we consider as a record category.”

The Ashkenazi Jewish community commonly uses a curved horn while the Sephardi commonly use a spiral shaped horn.

Smaller Shofarot can be purchased online for as little as $19, but if you’re interested in something more high end, they can go up as high as $4,000. High price doesn’t automatically mean they’ll sound better, though. That is still up to you.

Sources: Coffeeshoprabbi.com; Chabad.org; Ebay.com; Answers.com; JWI.org; Shirlala.com; avoiceinthewilderness.org; theshofarman.com and Youtube.com.

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September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | A11

How do you celebrate?

Sarah Littky – daughter of Felicia and Scott Littky

by SCOTT LITTKY y wife and I are often asked how we feel about our daughter Sarah living in Israel. Often, it seems like the tone of the question being asked is kind of like – how do you feel about your daughter running away and joining the circus. My response, when asked, is that you cannot teach and raise your children as Zionists and then, when they come to you and say, “I’m moving to Israel,” not be thrilled for them. So begins the story of my daughter, Sarah Rose Littky who first visited Israel when she was 16 years old on a USY Pilgrimage trip.

She loved her experience that summer but knew that she had only touched on learning and developing her own love and views of Israel. She was raised in a typical American Zionist family.

Both her parents, aunts and uncles and grandparents have been to Israel and have always taught a love and understanding for Israel.

While a freshman in college, things began to change for Sarah with her views of Israel and with what she wanted from Israel. During the second half of her freshman year she had the unique opportunity to work as an intern at the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. She was placed in Ambassador Michael Oren’s office and the experience was life changing. She began to feel a calling to be in Israel. The next experience that led her to Israel was going to Israel on a JNF Alternative Spring Break trip. On that trip she learned, volunteered and began to see Israel as her home. When she returned from the trip, she knew that she needed to be in Israel. Recently, I interviewed Sarah about her life in Israel and as a soldier in the IDF. Why did you move to Israel?

Israel was always important to me. I remember when I was younger and you would go to Israel because you were a Jewish educator; each time you went I wanted to go with you. In high school I first visited Israel for a month and I saw Israel only from the view of an American teenager, but I began to develop my own personal love of the country.

Then, when I was interning for Ambassador Michael Oren, I began speaking with the staff at the Embassy and began to realize that I needed to be in Israel. This really became a reality after my JNF Alternative Spring Break Trip where I began to learn that Israel was not perfect and was a work in progress. I knew then that my calling was to be in Israel and to continue to help build our Jewish State.

What do you love most about being in the IDF? While I was going to school in Israel I realized that I was not becoming Israeli the way I wanted it to be. Even though I had made Aliyah I felt like an American going to school overseas and was not becoming Israeli. I decided then that I needed to do my military service now and not put it off. The IDF has helped me become a part of the culture of Israel. I now speak Hebrew and feel that I’m truly becoming Israeli.

The army has taught me that I am a part of something bigger than my own needs, I am helping to defend “my country and home.” As a Lone Soldier in the IDF I have learned self-

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control, I feel as though I’m growing into being an adult and that my life has purpose and meaning. I’m also amazed at how Israel looks at the Lone Soldier program. Knowing that you have chosen to become a citizen and an Israeli Soldier on your own is very respected in Israel. I have amazing support and have an amazing adopted family.

What are the holidays like for you, now that you are in Israel?

It’s kind of funny. Holiday preparation is like Christmas in America; there are lots of sales, and stores have many items on sale. Even though much of the country does not celebrate in a religious way there are a lot of parties and times for families to be together. Yom Kippur is really interesting with the whole country shut down. I love Shabbat dinner here in Israel. It is family time with every member of my Lone Soldier Family gathering together. Even when I have to stay on base for Shabbat there is time to rest and everyone on base acts as a family. It is a day to stop, relax and recharge.

How do you celebrate differently than how you did when you lived in the United States?

Growing up in the United States I found myself in a minority and my Jewish identity came from being Jewish in a religious way.

In Israel, I celebrate the holidays being a part of the majority. So where I do not necessarily now identify with the holidays in a religious way the way I did before, they are now a part of the fabric of my life. I have found the holidays to be much more cultural, and built into the life of the country. When I was growing up and I missed school for the holidays, I would miss tests and homework.

That does not happen in Israel and there is no explaining what the holidays are.

Do you miss anything about the holidays in the United States?

Of course I miss my parents but in a really amazing way I love my life in Israel. I have an amazing Lone Soldier Family who treat me as their fifth child, and I have Shabbat dinner or lunch there every weekend. I also have my friends from my prep program for the army so I’m never alone for any holiday or Shabbat.

What is your favorite holiday to celebrate in Israel?

Purim by far. It is a big party that the whole country comes together to celebrate! I must say that I also find Yom HaZikkaron and Yom HaShoah to be very moving. A siren goes of throughout the country and everyone stops for a moment of silence. Even cars on the highway stop and people get out and stand. Yom Ha’Azmaut, Israel’s Independence Day is unlike anything I have ever seen.

What new customs for the holidays have you learned about in the last two years?

My family is from Eastern Europe, and I grew up with those traditions. Foods like chicken soup and gefillte fish! In Israel I have fallen in love with Sephardic culture. I love the food and the way they celebrate. Also, there is nothing like a wedding in Israel. There is so much love and happiness all rolled up into a huge celebration. Last November one of my Lone Soldier family brothers got married, and I had so much fun dancing that I was sore for days!

Continued on page 12

Iron Lions of Zion: The Origin of Beta Israel Continued from page 9 behalf of Israel allowing the latter to seize an opportunity to successfully launch the 36-hour and “Operation Solomon” in 1991. Using a combination of 36 commercial military transport planes, almost 15,000 Jews were moved from Addis Ababa to Israel in less than two days. All planes had been stripped of interior furnishings in order to fit the maximum number of people, and the planes flew nonstop over that 36 hours. “Operation Solomon” was successfully conducted under total news blackout and set a world record for transporting an unmatched 1122 passengers in one single flight.

Even after such huge operations to relocate the Beta Israel and three decades since emigration from Ethiopia began, absorption has proven difficult. Coming from traditional

villages to a new land with little more than the clothing on their backs, The Beta Israel have struggled with assimilation.

Undoubtedly, the root of social obstacles like poverty, lower levels of education and employment among their transplants is related to language barriers, environmental and technological changes, along with racism.

Officially ending the mass aliyah of Ethiopian Jews in 2013, The Jewish Agency of Israel has directed those still awaiting Aliyah to pursue applications through their government, which has sadly, torn families apart. Many are unable to pass the increasingly stringent vetting process as their families have members who are Falash Mura; a term designated for those who underwent a Christian Conversion at some point, forced or otherwise.

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A12 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

Israel - Then and Now

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by EMILY NEWMAN the evolution of the Jewish people living in very year, Jews and what is now Israel. In 1945, that is seen as non-Jews alike cele- resilient settlers attempting to make an arid brate Yom Ha’atzmaut, climate farmable and irrigating what was the anniversary of then considered a desert. They succeeded in David Ben Gurion’s more ways than one, creating a garden in Declaration of the middle of a political hurricane; creating Independence for the what has been labeled pure agricultural State of Israel. As the years pass by and ingenuity and establishing a well-trained Israel’s age grows, some might take for army able to defend its people despite the granted the Jewish State and its fragile exis- odds and highly aggressive neighbors. tence in the most dangerous region in the world – but most do not. There are many alive today who were born into a world where the Jewish State of Israel did not exist, a world in which the Jewish people did not have many choices The front page headline of The Palestine Post on May 14, 1948 when it came to a safe and peaceful nation to practice their religion. In the 1945 Rosh Hashanah edition of the Jewish Press, an edition published three years before the Declaration of Independence for Israel was read by soon-to-be Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, the turmoil and struggle of the Jewish people living in the British Mandate of Palestine to create a safe haven is well documented. This edition Israel on May 14, 1948 was published exactly 70 years ago, and there are both similarities and However, despite the success story that differences in comparing the soon-to-be came from the settlers in the Mandate periIsrael of 1945 and the established Israel of od (and before), Israel would not exist today 2015. if their children and grandchildren did not In the article Aims of the Jewish State in take to heart the lessons that their predecesPalestine, author Chaim Weizmann details sors learned from their persecution outside the then current predicaments and goals of of Israel. An example of this perspective was the Jewish people living and working in the coining of the term “existential threat” in what would soon become Israel. The Jews of order to categorize threat levels that Israel Europe were in desperate need of a refuge faces – this term is most often used in the after the attempted extermination by Adolf nuclear threat context. The Jewish people, Hitler, a background that would influence especially the Jewish population within the perspectives of Israelis both then and Israel, have faced existential threats before, now. Their past of victimization and its adding a different perspective to the ways in impact on the actions of Jews and Israelis is which they view their place in the world remarked upon in the 1945 article. “It is not today and the threats that they face. only by their present torments that the Another statement that Weizmann made majority of the Jews of Europe, over- discusses the desire of much of the world to whelmed by Nazi brutality or trapped in the see a progressive development of the Middle fields of battle, stand out as the supreme East. He discusses how the world was, at symbols of man’s inhumanity. Their past that time, looking to the Jewish people to and their future, the one known and the assist in this development. “At the juncture other dimly foreshadowed, have no parallel of three continents, as a bridge linking East even in the grim records of this epoch. They and West and standing guard – as it has were the first and most consistent victims – always stood – over the route from Europe in the day of what we may call trial-practice- to India, Palestine can play a particularly of the assault on civilization; with their significant part in the reconstruction of the supremely difficult problem of tomorrow, post-war world. The modernization of the they are perhaps the least considered and Middle East cannot be carried out in an least understood of the victim peoples.” imperialistic way; it cannot be achieved by The Jewish people have an extensive his- exploitative methods, by the … settlement tory of victimization, dating back to biblical of Westerners whose interest in the locality times. This history proceeded up to its peak is … its wealth. But it can be done by a in the mid 1900’s, claiming the lives of six Westernizing and modernizing group which million Jews in the Holocaust. However, this feels that its security, its welfare and its destragic history would only make the Jewish tiny are tied up with the security, welfare people stronger. As Weizmann details upon and destiny of the Arab people.” in his article, these torments have shaped Continued on page 14

E

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Two Old Mill Omaha, NE 68154

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Continued from page 11 What do you want people in Omaha to know about your life in Israel?

I am really living my dream! I love everything about Israel. Israel gets so much bad press that is not deserved. I feel very safe living here and do not find it dangerous. If anything, Washington D.C. was a lot more dangerous. I love that attitude of Israel. We do not worry about the small little things of life. When I lived in D.C., everyone’s priority was work, in Israel I love that family, friends and life come first.

Is there anything else you would like us to know about?

I would like the Omaha community to know about two programs that are very important in my life and have provided me with support. The first is Garin Tzabar, (https://www.facebook.com/garintzabar) – the program that helped get me ready for the IDF and still provides support. The next one is the Michael Levine Lone Soldier Center, (https://www.facebook.com/soldiercenter?ref=br_rs) which also has provided me with support.

September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | A13

After the Six Day War

by ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor n 1967, the High Holidays were late on the calendar. Erev Rosh HaShanah fell on Oct. 4, and Erev Yom Kippur on the 13th.

By the time Simchat Torah came around, it was almost November. The Jewish Press board and staff that year faced an important decision about the theme for the annual Rosh HaShanah issue. In the aftermath of the Six Day War, editor Mickey Gerelick wrote that the choice to write about the War in Israel and its subsequent survival was easy, but the execution was anything but.

“Had the Arab nations achieved their goal, there would have been no Rosh HaShanah for 2.5 million Israeli Jews. The ’67 issue came on the heels of the Six Day War; how does one tell the story of those fateful six days?” Gerelick wrote.

Israel won the war, borders were changed, and places Jews had not been allowed to visit before were suddenly Moshe Dayan accessible. Surely, there was reason to rejoice. At the same time, young people once again shed their blood for the survival of the Jewish people, a mere 22 years after World War II ended.

Elaine Rosenberg Miller, in her article 1967 Flashback, remembers the month of September as follows: “We were not safe.

Israel was not safe, despite the photographs Yitzhak Rabin of beaches, oranges, and hora-dancing young people. Israel was surrounded by hostile enemies. Tiny Israel, the size of New Jersey, had been attacked, and her enemies were determined to destroy her.

The rabbi spoke; money was raised.

“I remember one man standing up. “I am giving my entire fortune,” he said. “If Israel falls, I have no reason to live.”

How that shocked me. Me, the American teenager, dancing to the Supremes, in love with the Beatles. I don’t recall how

I

cd

the rabbi responded.” (Chabad.org) course, was Moshe Dayan.

What the Press included in that issue was born from “Generations of Jews,” the Jewish Press wrote, have been necessity, and from a deep desire to be part of the story. The inspired by the story of Moses in the Bible, who led the message was: this happened in Israel, and it happened to all Jewish people out of Egypt. Future generations of Jews will of us. There is no separation between American Jews and thrill also to hear the story of another Moshe, Defense Israeli Jews; if there was, it’s not evident in the newspapers of Minister Major-General Moshe Dayan, hero of the Sinai the time. The Rosh HaShanah issue included many mes- Campaign in 1956, who became a hero a second time in sages from prominent Israelis.

1967, leading his men out of Eretz Israel and into Egypt.”

A week ago, the momentous struggle opened. The existence of the State of Israel, the hope of the generations and the vision that has been realized in our days, were direly endangered.

The threat of War has been lifted from our country. The skies above our heads are safe. The Israel Defense Force dominate the Sinai Peninsula; the passage through the straits of Tiran is free; Jerusalem has been re-united.

“For the first time since the establishment of the state, Jews pray at the Wailing Wall and at Rachel’s Tomb,” Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol told the Knesset on June 12. “For the first time in our generation, Jews can pray at the cave of Machpela in Hebron, the city of the patriarchs.

Abba Eban was Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1949 through 1959, Education Minister from 1960-63 and Deputy Prime Minister from 1963 until 1966. He held the post of Foreign Minister during the Six-Day War, and said this: “Most clocks move forward and not backward. This should be the case with the clock of Middle Eastern peace. Not backward to belligerency, but forward to peace.

“Israel in recent days has proved its steadfastness and vigor. It is now willing to demonstrate its instinct for peace. Let us build a new system of relationships from the wreckage of the old. Let us discern across the darkness the vision of a better and brighter dawn.”

It is no wonder that the Washington Post at the time said of Eban: “Only rarely are oratory and diplomacy brought into creative alliance, yet Abba Eban has contrived by a grace of mind not only to reconcile these diverse gifts, but to fuse them into an essential unity.

He has mobilized the English language and sent it into A page from the 1967 Rosh Hashanah issue of the Jewish Press battle in defense of Israel.”

In 1967, Yitzhak Rabin was “Major-general” Rabin, Chief In 2015, we get more and more caught up in what’s hapof the General Staff of the IDF. One of the true heroes and pening around us; we don’t always allow ourselves to see the one of the key figures during the war, he said: “The war was larger context. The news is awful, Israel is often portrayed as not an easy one. It was waged by Zahal (IDF) and Zahal a bully and the Boycott movement gains ground every day. alone. Many of our commanders and soldiers have fallen in That context, our shared history, however, is there, and it’s a battle. We shall remember them with sorrow, and with pride.” part of us. The Jews of 1967 would most likely tell us to get And then he said: “The struggle may not be over.” our act together and remind us that support for Israel is as Rabin spoke these words to his troops while standing at imperative as ever. An entire generation has grown up not the Kotel. But they are meant for us as well, because here we really understanding how close Israel came to disappearing. are, 48 years later, and the struggle is, indeed, not over.

It is time we remember.

Another famous and prominent Israeli Major-General, of

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A14 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

Bittersweet New Year: Rosh Hashanah reflections after 9/11

by GABBY BLAIR s we turn towards the New Year, we have such hope. We hope to be inscribed into the book of life. We hope that this year will be kind to us. We hope for good health, prosperity and peace, not just for ourselves, but for our friends, our families and the world. We hope that the troubles of the past are indeed behind us and that good will continue to flow across our paths. Rosh Hashanah, steeped with symbolism, blessings and positivity, offers us a new slate.

A time for self reflection and repentance. An affirmation that life, in its continuing circle, will come and go... and along with joy, sorrow. For many American Jews, I would argue that Rosh Hashanah 2001 was very bittersweet indeed, especially for those affected personally by the events of Sept. 11.

As a child, I recall being amazed that every adult I knew had their own “JFK memory.” They could recall exactly where they were and what they were doing in great detail during that terrible and fateful day. Sept. 11 is such an event for the generations so many of us belong to. A moment of profound sorrow, of breath holding and surealness, shocking enough to pull all Americans together as one, even if just for a moment. As a native New Yorker, and then graduate student at the University of Kansas, I recall walking into the student union to grab a cup of coffee before an early morning class. There was uncharacteristic silence as every single person watched the scenes unfold, live, on the many screens plastered along the walls of the cafeteria.

With ice in my belly and my mind reeling in shock, I

A

walked through the sunny blue morning zombie-like to class, as indescribable emotions washed over me. The professor gave an epically raw and patriotic speech to the hall of para-

before dismissing us to call our loved ones and do things more important than study Historical Geology. I recall the fear I had as I sat alone in the nearest stairwell futilely dialing the familiar number of my New York City home to no avail and screaming in frustration that “all circuits are busy,”; and the taste of tears of relief a few minutes later as I snapped back into reality... my New York family was safely in Israel for the upcoming High Holy Days... followed by guilt of my selfish relief... knowing that not everyone was so lucky. I recall watching the endless hours of footage of dusty, wild eyed people crying on the devastated alien streetscape of my home town, searching for any sign of those The destruction on September 11, 2001. so dear to them and lyzed students, many of whom were unaware of the attack. feeling the frustration that there was little I could do, that we Standing on his lecture table, he passionately spoke about our could do, to lessen the pain of our fellow countrymen. country and the impact that this day would have on our lives Continued on page 15

Israel - Then and Now Continued from page 12 The above statement by Weizmann in 1945 foreshadows the conflicts in the region over the next 70 years, and the role Israel would play in the international arena.

Weizmann could not have foreseen the development of Al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, or ISIS. However, his statement regarding the close ties between the quality of life of both Jewish Israelis and their regional neighbors shows a keen insight into the devastating conflicts to come. The development of terrorist organizations would call into question the security, welfare, and destiny of all who reside in the region, whether Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. These concerns were prevalent in the past, and are amplified with the growth of terrorism both within Israel and throughout the region.

There is also a piece to the above statement that precludes an interesting development when it comes to Israel’s place and treatment in the international arena.

Although the world was looking to the settlers in Palestine, as Weizmann recounts, to assist in the development of the

Middle East, a double standard soon developed. Israel, the only Western democracy in the Middle East (and by far

Israel in 2015 most progressive) became targeted by progressive nations, while other Middle Eastern nations commit genocide after

genocide.

There is much that can be gained in researching what was written about Israel in the past and comparing what was discussed then to the context of modern day Israel. It allows not only historical perspective, but also insight as to how the situation in the Middle East got to where it is currently. Although this article merely discusses two statements written in another article published in 1945 in the Jewish Press, there is a vast wealth of firsthand accounts as to the nature of the British Mandate period, and I would uge anyone with interest in modern-day Israel to do their research of what people were saying and discussing in this critical period. These accounts have relevance to modern day situations.

Much of what was being said is dark foreshadowing for a region that would soon become a ticking bomb. There is much to be gained from researching and learning from the past; as Jews we should know that as well as (or perhaps better) than anyone else. Knowing what happened then is vital for understanding what is happening now.

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Bittersweet New Year Continued from page 14 Even here in this darkest, most terrible hour, was burgeoning hope. The country roared in its collective as donations of money, blood and supplies poured in; teams of people began to mobilize, in an effort to do something, anything. Those who could help in some way, no matter how small, did.

Without electricity, fire and coal, grilled food vendors provided hot meals and whatever they could to anyone who needed food.

Clothes, water, masks, all given out, not by looters, but by those shop owners fortunate enough to still have walls and doors and

unprecedented in their wanton and random destruction. If we allow this darkness to engulf us, all of those people will continue to suffer, as will we all. But, we don't have to give in. We have the ability, hard as it may be, to fight back: to build out of the ashes, and to create light out of the darkness. We can choose to add in acts of goodness and kindness, and to do random wanton acts of good in memory of, and counter-balance to, the horrors that have been perpetrated. The Jewish approach to tragedy has always been twofold. On the one hand, we grieve. There is no way any human being can ignore the

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New York National September 11 Memorial South Pool merchandize in their shops. Passengers on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania thwarted their hijackers’ evil plans by making the ultimate sacrifice, but on their terms, saving so many more lives. Medical facilities and centers for the missing sprung up from the ruins in New York and Washington, where the Pentagon had been targeted. As one nation, united in our pain, we pulled our collective selves back together, as best we could, from such a dirty and devastating sucker punch.

Individuals, some I know, and so many more I do not, are still suffering from the tragic events of that day. However, life, in all its wonderfulness and terribleness, goes on.

Keeping politics and personal views on the issues and policies of a post 9-11 world far away from this reflection, I say that we, the Jewish people, are well versed in both great blessings and great tragedies. Today, with the healing properties of time, the wounds of such tragedies are G-d willing, not as raw, but surely have left scars. So, how does one celebrate after great tragedy, be it on a personal or, in this case, national level?

Surely, that first Rosh Hashanah, which began on Sept. 17, 2001, was especially difficult for those Jews in New York. It is heartening to see the messages of faith, resilience and comfort when reading through various reflections, sermons and d’vars published by rabbis across the US during this time. Small lights of hope reminding us that through history, even when faced with such horrors, humanity persevered, and that this time of darkness would be no different.

A Chabad Rabbi, Dov Wagner, in a publication from the evening of 9-11 titled The Jewish Approach to Tragedy, writes: “The Kabbalah teaches that there is generally balance in our world, forces of both light and darkness, good and evil. Darkness serves but one purpose: to be transformed and converted to light.” Wagner goes on saying, “A great darkness has been released in the world, a series of coldly planned actions

terrible and tremendous pain being suffered by so many people. However, we do not allow the grief to become all-consuming. We must turn tragedy into triumph, and ashes into rebuilding. We cannot allow those who would destroy us to be successful, by being paralyzed by our sorrow. Let each one of us find ways to add in positive acts of goodness and kindness, of charity and prayer.”

Rabbi Wagner goes on to instruct us to “not lock our doors in fear; we will not retreat into hiding and grief. Rather, we will enter a New Year filled with sadness, but also with purpose, with tears, but also with optimism and joy. This is the only fitting memorial we can create for the thousands of lives shattered and lost. By each of us adding a little bit of light to the world, we hope to ensure that our world will never again be marred by pain and darkness, until we merit the sounding of the great shofar, with the onset of a better time.” Tragedy on all levels, while terrible, has the strange ability to bring people together and not only does it unite us, it imbues us with the desire to do something.

This Rosh Hashanah, as you reflect on the past year with the insight of retrospect, and consider all that has occurred, both the bitter and the sweet, turn towards the New Year and consider what it really means for you, personally, to “be a light unto the nations.” It is easy to feel small, because we are. It is likewise easy to use our smallness as an excuse to give up and say, “There is nothing I can do.” There is always some way for you to bring a little light into the world.

Often, it is in a quiet and unassuming way that earns little or no fanfare, but even the smallest mitzvah has grand merit where it really counts, and many small lights can illuminate even the deepest darkness.

L’shana tova! May we all be inscribed and sealed in the book of life and find opportunities to bring light into this world!

EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE The Jewish Press will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 14-15 for Rosh Hashanah, Wednesday, Sept. 23, for Yom Kippur, and Monday, Sept. 28 for Sukkot.

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A16 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

What makes a mensch? A ‘digital diva’ wants to know

by GABE FRIEDMAN “‘Making of a Mensch’ is the next evolution of what I was young, Jewishly unconnected cultural creatives,” according (JTA) — “Our technology has exceeded our humanity,” wrestling with with ‘The Tribe,’” Shlain told JTA in a phone to its website) in 2002 and making “The Tribe,” Shlain startAlbert Einstein allegedly once lamented. interview. “‘The Tribe’ was about ‘OK, I’m Jewish, what does ed working on a feature documentary, “Connected,” which But filmmaker Tiffany Shlain — who utilizes an online, that mean?’ Ten years later, ‘I’m Jewish, we celebrate Shabbat explored technology’s ways of connecting people. It was collaborative process and distribution method she dubs … but I want a deeper guide and meaning in this 24/7 world shown at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. “cloud filmmaking” — says it’s possible that technology, While working on the film, Shlain watched her father, who used correctly, can enhance our humanity. had been diagnosed with brain cancer, deteriorate to the As a testament to Shlain’s methods, as well as her rise to point of having only “one good hour a day.” She resolved becoming one of the most influential filmmakers in the with her husband to turn off all of her family’s screens each American Jewish world, her latest film, “The Making of a Saturday in order to greater appreciate their time together.

Mensch,” will be shown in more than 4,000 Jewish schools, “Most people are surprised by it because I founded the synagogues and other organizations across the country Webby Awards,” Shlain said. “But most of my work explores during the High Holidays. the good, the bad and the potential [of the Internet], all The film — about the Mussar movement, a lesser-known three of those things. Disconnecting one day a week every strain of Jewish ethical thought known for promoting week has been the most profound experience for me.” character development — will be released on Sept. 18.

Since “The Tribe,” Shlain has also carved out a niche for Shlain’s nonprofit film company Let It Ripple: Mobile herself in the Jewish community, which she says gravitated Films for Global Change is offering the short to the organtoward the film’s distillation of complex ideas, and some izations for free, along with materials meant to foster disJewish educators and community leaders had been asking cussions about moral discipline and ethical exploration. her for another “Jewish” film. Shlain credits her nonprofit It’s a pretty remarkable feat, considering that just a few with helping her reach out to Jewish institutions across the years ago Shlain — who founded the Webby Awards, for country without worrying about the profitability of her excellence on the Internet — had never heard of Mussar, films. which is Hebrew for “moral conduct.” Her film, which has “Establishing the nonprofit was a huge breakthrough,” Tiffany Shlain has quietly become one of the most influential a run time of less than 15 minutes, coaches viewers on Shlain said. “Rather than focusing so much energy on Jewish filmmakers in the country.

Credit: The Moxie Institute licensing fees and selling the films, foundations and grants improving specific personality traits by combining Mussar teachings with strains of psychology, philosophy, social sci- on living a good life and fulfilling it in my children.’” could support giving the films away for free, and we could ence and Jewish history.

Shlain, 45, lives in Mill Valley, California, just north of San make so many more films and have them reach so many “The High Holidays are a time of self-reflection ... on who Francisco, with her husband and two children. She grew up more people.” you are, what you did last year and what you want to in northern California, the daughter of a neuroscientist and In producing “The Making of a Mensch,” Shlain on her become,” Shlain told JTA. “And Mussar is the perfect set of a psychologist, and loved film and technology from an early website requested video submissions from people around tools to help do that.” age. She actually predicted the potential of the Internet before the world to provide a definition of a mensch. Snippets from This is Shlain’s second film that delves deeply into Jewish its time — in 1988, at age 18, she wrote a proposal called selected submissions will make their way into the final cut of topics. Her first, 2006’s “The Tribe,” was inspired by an icon- “Uniting Nations in Telecommunications and Software” that the film, which Shlain is completing. ic 11 1/2-inch piece of plastic: the Barbie doll. caught the eye of California Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Shlain terms this collaborative process — along with “I always thought it was such an irony that a Jewish But it wasn’t until she met her husband, Ken Goldberg, that releasing the film for free to maximize its reach and impact woman created the ultimate shiksa with the Barbie doll,” she got in touch with her Jewish side. Goldberg, a professor — “cloud filmmaking,” a term that symbolizes how deeply said Shlain, who identifies as “very culturally Jewish.” of robotics at the University of California, Berkeley, who now her work is entwined with the power of the Internet.

The short — which used Barbie and its founder, Ruth co-writes most of Shlain’s films, took her to Israel for their “The exciting part for me is that I can be working on a Handler, as an entry point into an exploration of American honeymoon and introduced her to Shabbat observance. script with three people at the same time or I can make a Jewish identity — played at the Sundance Film Festival and After attending the inaugural conference organized by film with videos from people from all over the world. I canbecame the first documentary to top the iTunes film chart.

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September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | B1

Rosh Hashanah in times of war: looking back at the 1940s

by EMILY NEWMAN his year at Rosh Hashanah, as is tradition, we will taste the sweet combination of apples and honey, bring in the New Year with bright hopes for the coming months, and spend time with our family and friends. However, to go along with the sweetness of the New Year, we also cannot keep from remembering the times when our people have not been able to celebrate openly, to taste the sweet fruits and revel in future hopes. It was not many decades ago that European Jews were hiding in attics and fearing for their lives. They were not able to walk freely, to live their lives, and certainly unable to openly celebrate Rosh Hashanah. This sad history becomes easy to see when you look through the Rosh Hashanah Jewish Press editions from the years 19401945 and read the reports of Hitler and his murderous regime.

In September 1941, The Jewish Press published a photograph of the Warsaw ghetto. Underneath the photograph, Hitler’s intentions are described. “Wherever Hitler’s armies marched the year before, which has just ended, they carried out his plans to [make] the Jews an outcast … More than 500,000 Jews have been herded together behind an eightfoot wall which cuts them off from the rest of the population of Warsaw.”

As a young Jewish person in today’s world, articles and photographs such as the one described above are disillusioning. As a child and throughout high school, I had been taught that the United States did not know of the atrocities that were being committed in Nazi Germany until after the United States entered the war, and whatever they did know were whispers that were considered rumor at best.

However, as one progresses through the following years of the Rosh Hashanah Jewish Press editions through 1945, this is obviously not the case. Despite the United States not entering the war until after the Pearl Harbor attack in December of 1941, the Jewish Press was publishing photographs of the Warsaw ghetto and stories of the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees being targeted in 1941. When it was public knowledge that the Nazi’s had “published 423 periodicals against Jews” even before the attack on Pearl Harbor took place, why is it still being taught that the United

T

Caring

States did not know what was happening and what was still to come?

So what are we as young American Jews (many of whom are descendants of Holocaust survivors) supposed to take away from this disparity of knowledge? Why is it that we are taught one thing, but know in our hearts that the opposite is true?

that sets it apart from the Holocaust, it is terrifying. Just one example of this hatred becoming more than just freedom of expression took place at the Paris kosher market this past January, an attack that took four Jewish lives. However, this newly established anti-Semitism is not unique to Europe; it is also infiltrating college campuses and communities throughout the United States.

Section of the wall closing off the Warsaw Ghetto This is something to reflect upon in the coming New Year, something that is relevant to this day, for it is sad to say that with the ending of the Holocaust did not come the ending of Anti-Semitism, even in Europe where the devastation was the greatest. Although many might disguise it as antiZionism or anti-Israel, much of these messages are classic anti-Semitism.

In what has been titled “Europe’s Alarming New AntiSemitism” by the Wall Street Journal, Europe is facing a new wave of hatred for Jews. Although this growth of AntiSemitism is not condoned by European governments, a fact

So again, I state that this should bring thought to every Rosh Hashanah table this New Year. There is much to look forward to, although at the same time there is much to confront. How can we confront the disparity of what the United States did and did not know about the Holocaust? How can we confront what is happening throughout the world today?

I do not have a single answer, although there is a phrase that comes to mind that I would bet every reader of this article has heard. It is a quote that makes me all the more concerned in the many New Years to come.

Those who do not learn history are bound to repeat it.

As we enter the New Year full of hope and opportunity, we want to thank you for the impact you have made on Jewish Omaha in 5776.

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B2 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

How pro athletes greet the High Holidays: On the field or in the pews

by OZZIE NOGG

World Series the next year in 1935 was the other.” of the Series, and they won the series. I’m not Sandy Koufax,” hen the National Football League Many Geoff Schwartz fans applauded his yeah-I’m-gonna- Schwartz continued. “It would be hard for the sixth or sevscheduled the 2015 season opener for play stance. “Happy new year,” tweeted a New Jersey lawyer. enth guy in the offensive line to tell Coach, ‘Hey, I’m going to the New York Giants on Sunday night, “As long as you can get to temple on Monday its all good in sit this one out, because I have to go to services.’ Koufax did Sept. 13 -- erev Rosh Hashanah -- the the hood.” Another tweeter high-fived Schwartz with, “Hey a great thing, and he’s an inspiration to Jewish athletes.” unfortunate timing (according to sports man, may it be a sweet and prosperous New Year. That’s all Some consider Hank Greenberg an even greater inspirareporter Nick Powell) “sparked an out- anyone needs to say. Go Giants, go Tribe.” Rabbi Daniel tion. In Dan Epstein’s words, “Koufax’s Game One opt-out cry from fans on Twitter, many of whom tweeted NY Giants Brenner of Montclair, NJ, however, could not cram his mes- was pretty much chopped liver compared with the conunoffensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, who drum Hank Greenberg faced on Rosh is Jewish.”

Hashanah in 1934.” According to “Keep getting tweets about that being Epstein, Koufax sat out Game One of the first night of Rosh Hashanah,” the 1965 World Series with the full Schwartz responded. “Don’t know what support of his teammates and the I’m supposed to tell you. It’s a tough majority of his fans. He was lucky to break.” When asked by a fan on Twitter, pitch in New York City during a time “r u playing,” Schwartz answered, “Yes. I when both Judaism and expressions of don’t miss games for Jewish holidays.” personal freedom were generally To play or pray on the High Holidays accepted by the cultural mainstream. is a long-standing dilemma for Jewish “Koufax,” Epstein added, “was an athletes. In 2001, outfielder Shawn established superstar.”

Green (then with the L.A. Dodgers) Hank Greenberg, on the other hand, opted to not wear his cleats on Yom was playing in just his second full seaKippur. “It’s something I feel is an son as a major leaguer. Though important thing to do,” Green told the immensely popular in Detroit, he still Associated Press, “partly as a represendidn’t have enough clout to let him put tative of the Jewish community and as Judaism before baseball. And whereas far as my being a role model in sports Koufax embraced his faith with relative for Jewish kids, to basically say that ease in 1960s New York, Hank Shawn Green Geoff Schwartz baseball, or anything, isn’t bigger than Greenberg lived in the 1930s, with your religion and your roots. I wish Yom Kippur could be in sage into a tiny tweet. His letter to Schwartz (massively par- Hitler’s shadow creating dark days for the Jews.

April, but it’s not.” aphrased here) said: Furthermore, Greenberg lived in Detroit, a hotbed of Green is one of several Jewish players who sat out games “Dear Mr. Schwartz. When I heard that you plan to play on domestic anti-Semitism where Father Charles Coughlin blaon yontif. Sandy Koufax famously refused to pitch the first Rosh Hashanah, I was crestfallen. I hoped for another Sandy tantly attacked ‘Jewish conspirators’ and ‘moneychangers’ on game of the 1965 World Series for the Dodgers (against the Koufax-like headline that I could show my kids. But know- his weekly radio show, and where Henry Ford published a Minnesota Twins) because it fell on the Day of Atonement. ing how intense the rivalry is between the Giants and the tract titled, ‘The Jewish Degradation of American Baseball.’

Instead, Koufax -- who some dubbed ‘The Left Arm of God’ Cowboys, I started to think that maybe, if I were somehow In his 2014 book, Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes, -- attended shul in Minneapolis. Headlines on sports pages blessed to have my childhood dream to play in the NFL come John Rosengren describes how this poisonous atmosphere called the act, Sandy Koufax’s Yom Kippur Sacrifice. Dan true, I would make the same decision you made. And that’s affected Greenberg’s every move. Like it or not, Rosengren Epstein wrote in The Forward, “By putting the holiest day of when I had the vision. It would be great,” Brenner suggested, writes, he “was starting to understand that others -- Jews and his faith before the most important event of the most popu- “if, during a national broadcast, the Giants and the Cowboys non-Jews alike -- looked to him not simply as a Jew but replar sport in America, the best pitcher of his era cemented his took a break from their bitter rivalry to dip apples and honey resentative of many. His actions had greater consequences status as an American Jewish icon. Koufax’s decision and wish their Jewish fans and teammates a Shana tova u’me- beyond himself. He did not want to let his people down.” remains a compelling cultural touchstone for American Jews tuka. Coming off a sour season of domestic violence scandals According to Rosengren, “Greenberg was not particularly -- even ones who don’t follow baseball -- and an inspiring and head injury inquiries, the NFL might appreciate bless- observant, though he’d promised his Orthodox parents example of Jewish pride.” ings for a sweet new year. So I’m sending you a care package -- immigrants from Romania who had settled in New York Thirty-one years earlier, Hank Greenberg, the Detroit of apples and honey. Please share the seasonal ritual with -- that he would not play on the High Holy Days. It was a Tiger’s No. 1 slugger, played on Rosh Hashanah during the your teammates and wish them a year of sweetness, success, pledge borne more out of respect for their Old World values 1934 pennant race. (Details in a minute . . .) But on Yom health, happiness, connection and growth. L’chaim.” than out of any heartfelt religious convictions of his own.

Kippur (by then, the Tigers had made it into the World Series), Rabbi Brenner’s reference to Koufax prompted a plea for Weighing far more heavily on him were the hopes and Greenberg did not suit up. He put on his tallis and went to mercy from Schwartz. “It’s tough to explain to people who expectations of Detroit’s Jewish community and, indeed, of Detroit’s Congregation Shaarey Zedek, where, upon entering ask, ‘Why can’t you take a game off? Koufax took a game off.’ Jews across the country.” the sanctuary, he received a standing ovation. According to It’s tough living up to that sometimes. But we’re in two difHence, the Rosh Hashanah drama of September, 1934, Greenberg’s son, Steve, “He was mortified, but he called it one ferent situations, two different points in our career. He which found the Detroit Tigers trying to hold off the New of the two most memorable moments in his life. Winning the missed game one, but he still pitched three times in the rest Continued on page B3

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I won’t force my kids to attend High Holidays services

by EILEEN PRICE They write thank you notes. They apologize when they do (Kveller via JTA) wrong. And they don’t eat pepperoni pizza. hat’s right. You heard me. I’m not doing it.

We didn’t always bend the rules. But over the years I have I, a member of a modern Orthodox shul, come to feel strongly that there are countless ways to incormother of four Jewish kids who keep porate Judaism into our lives that don’t necessarily involve kosher and observe Shabbat weekly, executive director of an Atlanta Jewish day camp, will not be forcing my kids to attend services on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur.

It’s something I’ve been thinking about since summer at camp, and something I decided firmly while attending a Jewish family retreat.

Here’s the thing. My kids love being Jewish. It’s the essence of their being. It’s the foundation of their friendships. It’s the laughter and joy that fills their Saturdays.

And that’s exactly why I am leaving the choice to attend High Holidays services up to them.

I will be attending services with my husband.

We will invite them to join us, but we will not force them. We will not drag them to the mall to find the perfect holiday outfit. We will not fight with them on Rosh Hashanah morning because they won’t put on said perfect holiday outfit. We Scolded Girl Credit: parentdish won’t tell them the kids’ program is going to be different this year. (It’s not.) We won’t bargain with them and formal religious institutions. say they just have to stay for an hour.

My kids perform a mitzvah when they donate toys they Why? Because practicing Judaism is not a punishment; it is have outgrown. We talk about God when the sky looks a privilege and a gift. It’s also something we have woven so exceptionally beautiful. We discuss the meaning of Jewish tightly into the fabric of our kids’ lives that staying home rather rituals when we say the blessings on Shabbat. We reinforce than going to synagogue for a few hours a year will in no way the importance of tradition when we attend a bris, bar mitzunravel its positive impact. But forcing an experience might. vah, wedding or funeral. They learn Hebrew words, sing Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t just let my kids out of any Jewish songs and make Jewish friends when they attend activity they are not excited to do. They do their homework. Jewish summer camp. We engrain in them Jewish values like

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On the field or in the pews Continued from page B2 York Yankees in the American League pennant race.

Greenberg’s power hitting was vital to the Tigers’ success.

“The team was fighting for first place,” Greenberg later said, “and I was probably the only batter in the lineup who wasn’t in a slump. But in the Jewish religion, it’s traditional that one observe the holiday solemnly, with prayer. One should not engage in work or play. And I wasn’t sure what to do.”

Especially with Detroit fans grumbling, “Rosh Hashanah comes every year but the Tigers Hank Greenberg haven’t won the pennant since 1909.”

By all accounts, Greenberg discussed the matter with his rabbi who -- aided by an arcane Talmudic loophole -- gave Greenberg dispensation to attend Rosh Hashanah services in the morning and play ball in the afternoon.

Greenberg (who many considered the Jewish Babe Ruth) dramatically Sandy Koufax hit two home runs, giving the Tigers a 2–1 victory over Boston. The next day’s Detroit Free Press ran ‘Happy New Year’ -- in Hebrew lettering -- across its front page. According to historian Jerry Auerbach, “Hank Greenberg’s decision to not choose between American and Jewish alternatives, but instead to embrace both, has inspired American Jews ever since. It was, by any measure, an iconic moment in American Jewish history.”

So fine. Geoff Schwartz is not Hank Greenberg. If Schwartz chooses to sing the National Anthem rather than Avinu Malkeinu on erev Rosh Hashanah, well . . . it’s a free country. We’ll soon know whether the NY Giants win that first game. But will Schwartz attend services Monday morning? Ah. Maybe he’ll tweet.

telling the truth, treating others with compassion and caring for the environment. We teach them about their Jewish ancestors when we tell them stories about their namesakes and when we cure their colds with grandma’s famous matzah ball soup. They see our mezuzahs every time they walk into a room. We impress upon them the struggles of our people when we finally expose them to the horror of the Holocaust. Then we tell them about the resilience of our people when we show them the beauty that is Israel.

My kids love the High Holidays. They are looking forward to dipping apples in honey during the Rosh Hashanah lunch we host with family and friends. My oldest may even try to fast this Yom Kippur. (As he is a 12-year-old boy, this would be impressive on a number of levels.)

Perhaps some of our kids will join us at synagogue this year. But if they don’t, I won’t synagogue-shame them into thinking they aren’t “good Jews” or worry what people might think when we arrive at shul without them.

Instead, my husband and I will enjoy our time at shul while our kids set the table in preparation for our return.

OK, so it’s more likely they will make a giant mess in the basement when they build couch forts and engage in an epic sibling Lego battle, but either way, they will associate the holiday (and Judaism) with family, freedom of choice and happy memories – which I believe makes it more likely that my grandchildren will love Judaism, too.

Eileen Price is the founder and executive director of In the City Camp, an independent Atlanta Jewish day camp.

A wife and mother of four, Eileen is passionate about connecting young kids to Judaism and the Jewish community by extending the power of overnight camp to day camp.

This piece first appeared on Kveller, a 70 Faces Media company.

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Read all about it: The 5 best new kids’ books for the High Holidays

by PENNY SCHWARTZ JTA rom Antarctica to Shanghai and farms to cities, this year’s crop of High Holidays books for children offers a globe-trotting exploration. Friendship and family are the themes that run through five new titles that entertain and inform young ones and older readers. Turning the pages of a new book is the perfect way to usher in the holidays.

Penguin Rosh Hashanah (CreateSpace Independent Publishing; ages 3-6), Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod Celebrating Rosh Hashanah can be tough for a young penguin in Antarctica. There are no bees to make honey and no apple trees — just a lot of snow. In this warmhearted, offbeat introduction to the Jewish New Year, illustrated with photographs of penguins and their natural habitat, the little penguin sometimes finds it hard to do the right thing.

In simple rhythmic verse, part of an animal-themed series on Jewish holidays (Otter Passover and Panda Purim), the Israelibased writer Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod conveys the themes of Rosh Hashanah – reflection, forgiveness, faith and family. Bonus: There’s a penguin origami craft project at the end.

Time to Start a Brand New Year (Hachai Publishing; ages 2-5) Rochel Groner Vorst; illustrated

by Shepsil Scheinberg With this new title, Hachai publishing adds to its collection of rhyming, colorful stories for young kids. This High Holidays story by Rochel Groner Vorst features a contemporary haredi Orthodox family getting ready to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, from apple picking to harvesting honey to hearing the shofar. The author, who as a teen won Pittsburgh’s Holocaust poetry contest, is a kindergarten teacher at a Jewish day school in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she grew up.

Talia and the Very Yum Kippur (Kar-Ben; ages 4 to 8), Linda Elovitz Marshall; illustrated by Francesca Assirelli The endearing Talia makes a return in Talia and the Very Yum Kippur, Linda Elovitz’s funny and charming encore to “Talia and the Rude Vegetables” (2012), featuring a young girl who sometimes confuses grown-up words that sound like others.

It’s Yom Kippur and Talia is visiting her grandparents, who live on a farm. She helps her grandmother prepare a noodle kugel for the family’s break fast, gathering eggs from the hen house and milking the cow with her grandfather. Kids will be tickled by the bit of merry mayhem that follows when Talia mistakes the Hebrew word “yom” (meaning “day”) for “yum” — and she begins to grow impatient for her family’s “breakfast” as she wonders why a “fast day” is moving so slowly.

Grandma comes to the rescue by explaining that on Yom Kippur, people pray, fast and ask for forgiveness for any wrongdoings, leading to a heartfelt set of apologies between Talia and Grandma. A truly yummy break fast with her family ends the tale — and there’s a kugel recipe at the back of the book.

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Tamar’s Sukkah (Kar-Ben; ages 3-8), Ellie B. Gellman; illustrated by Katherine Janus Kahn Bursting with the colors of fall, Tamar’s Sukkah is an upbeat story that emphasizes simple living, gratitude, and welcoming friends and strangers. Tamar, the spunky heroine of the tale, is on a mission to make her plain family sukkah just right — older kids in the neighborhood are invited, one by one, to lend a hand.

The award-winning artist Katherine Janus Kahn, whose books include the hugely popular Sammy Spider series, brings the action to life with bright illustrations that depict a pleasant, suburban multiracial neighborhood filled with squirrels, puppies and bunnies. In the final double-page spread, the kids gather to admire their handiwork and share a simple snack. “A sukkah full of friends is just right,” Tamar exclaims.

Shanghai Sukkah (Kar-Ben; ages 5-9), Heidi Smith Hyde; illustrations by Jing Jing Tsong Heidi Smith Hyde, an awardwinning author (Feivel’s Flying Horses, Emanuel and the Hanukkah Rescue) and Jewish educator, delivers another intriguing tale of historical fiction that introduces older kids to Jewish life in less familiar settings and cultures.

This Sukkot story imagines the experiences of a family that fled Nazi Germany to Shanghai in the early 1930s. Despite their overcrowded neighborhood, young Marcus is eager to build a sukkah in his new country. Marcus and his Jewish pals, helped by their new friend Liang, build a simple rooftop sukkah using ingenuity and bamboo. But without fresh fruit available to decorate the sukkah, Marcus is disappointed that it is too plain. To cheer him up, Liang invites Marcus to the Chinese Moon Festival, China’s traditional autumn harvest festival. A puzzling riddle that Marcus finds inside a glowing paper lantern leads to an unexpected act of kindness by his new friend. Even better than adding beauty to the sparely decorated sukkah, Marcus discovers a deeper meaning to the holiday.

Illustrations by the noted Hawaiian artist Jing Jing Tsong vividly portray daily Jewish life in Shanghai in shades of browns and grays — in contrast to the reds, gold and orange that pop on

two double-page spreads depicting the holidays, both Jewish and Chinese. An author’s note explains the heroism of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who helped thousands of Jews escape Nazi Germany by obtaining visas to travel through Japan and eventually settle in Shanghai.

JEWISH PRESS OFFICE CLOSING The Jewish Press will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 14-15 for Rosh Hashanah, Wednesday, Sept. 23, for Yom Kippur, and Monday, Sept. 28 for Sukkot. Questions? Please call 402.334.6448.

September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | B5

Read it and eat The Seasonal Jewish Kitchen

by Amelia Saltsman (Sterling, $29.95) ot off the press is this fabulous new cookbook.

Deborah Madison, LOIS FRIEDMAN friend, exceptional cookbook author and vegetarian expert, wrote the foreword to this second cookbook by Saltsman, who addresses the six seasons of Jewish or any cooking that coincides with the lunar calendar and growing cycles and “what happens when a migratory past meets local ingredients.”

The first sections are: What Is Jewish Food? and different routes (“two strands of Jewish identity: Jews who followed a more southerly route into North Africa, the Levant, and/or the southern Europe...became known as Sephardim”) different foods; the alphabetical Ingredient Essentials with a resource list at the back of the book that includes Jewish farm movement groups; followed by Kitchen Fundamentals covering the essential skills to help you be a confident, efficient cook; Helpful Kitchen Tools from a Benriner Slicer (inexpensive Japanese mandoline) to a Vegetable Drill (a hand tool for hollowing out vegetables) and Seven Basic Recipes - part of the foundation flavors of cooking throughout the Jewish Diaspora. I opened the book to Ten Delicious Things To Do With Gribenes. #10: Add to salads-Jewish Bacon Bits!

The September and October chapter is the season filled with symbolic foods and includes the “biblical seven species of Israel named in Deuteronomy 8:8-wheat, barley, and in Mediterranean climates, pomegranates, dates, olives and the last of figs and grapes. It is also the season for quince, thought by many to be the biblical fruit in the Garden of Eden”. And this season of endings and beginnings includes over two dozen recipes pertaining to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah with delightful descriptive headnotes and essays on the holidays and foods. Not only is this cookbook a great read, it is beautifully illustrated with color photographs.

The recipes include dishes from an Israeli equivalent of

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dairy “huevos rancheros” (Shakshuka), to My Mother’s Chicken Soup with Special Noodles (I remember as a child we made this noodle as “drop the egg soup”...the mixture was dropped in heated milk for a get-well soup.) Variations, Kitchen notes and Shopping Tips are included with the detailed, clear instructions. In case you’re thinking ahead to Yom Kippur, the description of Romanian Salata de Icre is absolutely mouthwatering! November and December, January and February, March and April, May and June and July and August are the other sections.

The following pareve/vegan recipe is suggested as a go-to salad for any meal, especially breakfast and celebrates the abundance of these seasonal vegetables for this time of the year.

ISRAELI SALAD 1 pound ripe tomatoes or large, oblong cherry tomatoes, such as Juliet 1/2 pound cucumbers, preferably Persian (about 4 small) 6-ounces kohlrabi (3 to 4 ounces peeled) 1 medium red bell pepper Small piece of red onion (about 1 ounce) 1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley or more to taste 2 small pickled peppers, minced (optional) Extra-virgin olive oil 1 lemon Kosher or sea salt Freshly ground black pepper (optional) Cut the tomatoes into 1/2-inch dice and place in a salad bowl. Leave the cucumber unpeeled or peel, as you like, cut into 1/2-inch or smaller dice, and add to the bowl. Do the same for the kohlrabi and the bell pepper. Cut the onion into very small dice and add to the bowl along with the parsley and pickled peppers, if using. Drizzle the salad with olive oil and add a healthy squeeze of lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper and toss.

Makes 6 to 8 servings Food, Family and Tradition by Lynn Kirsche Shapiro (Cherry Press, $35) First the “Mesorah” is explained...tradition, the “foundation of our people”, honoring our parents and keeping their example alive and relevant. In the first part of the cook-

book the author shares her family, the “shtetlach”, their family tree and their Hungarian-Czech pre-Holocaust lives as a “tribute to all Holocaust survivors”.

The holiday descriptions precede the recipes which are updated from handfuls and pinches to precise measurements and are organized by the Jewish calendar, Tishrei through Elul and the holidays. Included are ten chapters from Appetizers or “forshpeiz” to pastry and other sweets including a “kindle” not the reading kind but a filled bread prepared for Kiddush on Shabbos served with schnapps or hot tea.

Stories, remembrances and notes accompany each of over 150 kosher family recipes which are listed on the chapter pages, labeled meat, dairy or parve and “brings the mouthwatering food of yesteryear to your table today” from the old to the new and from Aranygaluska (golden fruit filled dumplings) to Zucher Bundlach (a chickpea snack for a crowd). Rosh Hashanah is on the first two days of the seventh month. Prayers are for a sweet year. Challah is round.

Apples are dipped in honey. And there is honey cake, fish heads, “tashlich” and this traditional dish served as a side dish for meat or poultry or even as a dessert.

CANDIED CARROTS Parve, Makes 4 to 6 servings 1 tablespoon oil 1 pound carrots, peeled and thinly sliced horizontally 1/2 cup sugar 2 teaspoons flour 1 cup water Pinch salt Place oil in a 2-quart saucepan. Add the carrots and the sugar. Cover and cook on very low heat, stirring frequently, until the liquid reduces, approximately 1 hour. Meanwhile, in a small separate bowl, stir flour into 1/4 cup of the water, mixing until smooth. Add the remaining water, stirring to mix. Add the flour-water mixture slowly to cooked carrots, stirring; add salt. Increase heat and bring to a boil. Decrease heat to low, stirring gently so as not to break carrots, and cook until sauce thickens. Remove from heat. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Lois Friedman can be reached at ReadItAndEat@ yahoo.com.

From my family to yours, we wish you a peaceful and prosperous new year.

www.facebook.com/jean.stothert | Twitter: @Jean_Stothert Paid for by Jean Stothert

B6 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

What we eat for Rosh Hashanah--and why

by SYBIL KAPLAN n Rosh Hashanah, we are supposed to feast.

This is said to come from the passage in the book of Nehemiah (8: l0): “Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy unto our lord.”

The most common custom for Ashkenazic Jews for Rosh Hashanah is the making of sweet challah primarily round in shape. The round shape is to symbolize a long life or the unbroken circle of the full New Year to come. Some people place a ladder made of dough on top, so our prayers may ascend to heaven, or because on Rosh Hashanah, it is decided “who shall be exalted and who shall be brought low.”

Some place a bird made of dough on top, derived from the phrase in Isaiah: “as birds hovering so will the Lord of Hosts protect Jerusalem.”

The most common ceremony for Rosh Hashanah is the dipping of challah and apple in honey so the Lord will grant us a happy and sweet new year. Some say the apple is eaten to remind us of the Garden of Eden.

For those who make the hamotzi, blessing over bread, daily, it is customary to continue dipping bread in honey rather than sprinkling salt on top, from Rosh Hashanah until after Sukkot. Since beekeeping is not mentioned in the Bible, some say when the Bible refers to a land of milk and honey, it is date honey. In fact silan is called Biblical date honey. Middle Eastern Jews boil and press these dates which are on strings and range in color from yellow to brown, to make a date honey to use with apples for this occasion. In Israel, in the open market, one finds the strings of dates at this season.

Some Sephardic Jews take apple slices, dip them in water and lemon juice and then in orange blossom water and sugar rather than in honey.

On the second evening of Rosh Hashanah, it is customary to eat a new fruit not yet eaten in the season and say a shehecheyanu, the prayer of thanksgiving for things which are enjoyed for the first time.

It is said that in Europe this fruit was often grapes. In Israel today, it is often the pomegranate which is eaten to remind us that G-d should multiply our credit of good deeds like the seeds of the fruit, since some say each pomegranate has 613 seeds for the 613 mitzvot or good deeds we should observe.

Fish The first course of the Rosh Hashanah holiday meal is often fish. Fish is symbolic of fruitfulness--”may we be fruitful and multiply like fish.” Fish is also a symbol of immortality, a good theme for the New Year. Another reason for serving fish might be that the numerical value of the letters of the Hebrew word for fish, dag, adds up to seven and Rosh Hashanah begins on the seventh month of the year.

Sephardim place the head of a fish on the table, or eat the

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cooked head, as part of the meal to remind them that we should be at the “head” or a leader, rather than at the tail, or a follower, in the struggle for life.

In Salonica, Greece, for example, the father is served the head of the fish, while the eyes, cheeks and brains of the fish are distributed around the table.

Among Ashkenazim, the symbol of fish is realized in gefilte fish. Gefilte fish is thought to have originated in the Middle Ages, among Jews who were poor and who wanted a special dish to serve for Shabbat. Gefilte means stuffed and was originally a way of stretching a small amount of food.

The housewife took the fish (usually pike), mixed it with eggs and matzah meal and stuffed it back into the fish skin before cooking. That idea dates back to Medieval times, and

it is even described in a 1350 manuscript.

The Hafetz Hayim, a 19th to 20th century scholar, author and leader of Polish Orthodox Jewry, taught that one should eat fish at all three Sabbath meals, so some follow this idea by serving gefilte fish. Gefilte fish seems to have gone from the Jews of Germany to Poland, possibly earlier but surely around the 17th century. It was in the 16th or 17th centuries that it began to be made into ball shape and cooked that way rather than stuffed inside the fish skin.

According to the Mishnah (the name of the 63 tractates of Oral Law), eating a fish with bones was defined as work, so the dish may have gained popularity because there would be no work in eating it prepared as fish balls. The size of the balls also varied. For example, German Jews made it golfball size.

The Jews of Poland and Lithuania and, the Ukraine made gefilte fish with carp. It was also the Polish Jews who added sugar to the recipe in the mid-19th century to give the dish a better taste.

Not only did they associate a sweet gefilte fish with the joy and sweetness of a religious celebration, but sugar was attractive, it was a source of energy, and it provided a contrast to their daily diet which contained sour foods. The mainstay of the Polish Jewish diet were pickles, pickled vegetables, herring, sauerkraut and sour cream. Chassidic Jews

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also made their gefilte fish sweet.

Jews of Lithuania made it with pepper. Jews of France used both pike and carp.

Fried gefilte fish became a popular dish among the Jews of England, but it appears to have remained there and was not acquired as a taste by other Jews.

Jews of South Africa used Marie biscuits, a type of lowsugar cracker, crushed, instead of matzah meal.

It was the Russian Jews who began the idea of eating gefilte fish with horseradish, which appears to be the only condiment created by Ashkenazic Jews.

By the way, even Webster defines gefilte fish as “balls or cakes of chopped boned fish mixed with egg, matzo meal, etc. and simmered in a broth.”

Tzimmes Tzmmes is a stew made with or without meat and usually with prunes and carrots. It is common among Ashkenazic Jews, particularly those from Eastern Europe and Poland, and its origins date back to Medieval times. It became associated with Rosh Hashanah because the Yiddish word for carrot is mehren which is similar to mehrn which means to increase. The idea was to increase one’s merits at this time of year. Another explanation for eating tzimmes with carrots for Rosh Hashanah was that the German word for carrot was a pun on the Hebrew word, which meant to increase.

Some say this dish came from the German zum essen which is a compote or a spicy vegetable or stew concoction.

Also the eating of carrots is considered German in origin since it was customary in the 17th century for Jews to eat carrots or turnips for the New Year. Another reason for eating a carrot dish at this time is because the circle shape of the carrots symbolizes coins and the Rosh Hashanah wish for a prosperous New Year. Like gefilte fish, tzimmes was made sweet by Polish Jews.

Tzimmes also came into the vernacular as meaning to make a fuss or big deal. He’s making such a tzimmes out of everything.

Knaidlach Knaidlach or matzah balls became popular in the Jewish diet in the Middle Ages. Originally they were prepared with potato dough and filled with onions or goose or chicken fat and sometimes even meat. The word itself comes from the German word, knodel, meaning dumpling. Why they are associated with Rosh Hashanah is unknown but one might speculate because they are round like a ball or whole, they represent the roundness we associate with a whole life or unbroken circle of the full year to come, like the round challah.

Kreplach Kreplach, the triangular-shaped, meat-filled dumplings, are Austrian and German in origin, dating back to the 1100s. They are often served as an appetizer or in soup on Rosh Hashanah, but why is not known.

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The top Jewish newsmakers of 5775

by JULIE WIENER (JTA)

W

hether you love them or hate them — or your feelings are purely pareve — these 13 Jews repeatedly made the news

in 5775.

David Blatt American-Israeli coach David Blatt, in his first season as the Cleveland Cavaliers head

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont speaking at the Phoenix Convention Center, July 18, 2015. Credit: Charlie Leight/Getty Images coach, guided the club to the NBA Finals and put the Midwestern city on the radar of Israelis — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among them. Blatt, 56, had come to Cleveland after coaching Maccabi Tel Aviv to an unlikely Euroleague title. The Boston-area native had played professionally in Israel, making aliyah in 1979, and in college at Princeton.

Abraham Foxman Few Jewish names are as well known worldwide as Abraham Foxman, who retired from the Anti-Defamation League after nearly three decades at its helm (and

five decades on its staff). In addition to being the world’s most outspoken critic of all things anti-Semitic, the 75-year-old Foxman has a personal story worthy of a film: Born in Poland one year after Germany’s invasion, Foxman was left in the care of his Catholic nanny during the Holocaust and did not discover he was Jewish — or reunite with his parents — until after the war.

Rabbi Barry Freundel Long one of America’s most prominent modern Orthodox rabbis, Barry Freundel, 63, shocked the Jewish community when he

Jewish Home’s Ayelet Shaked made a point about budgets for Israeli settlements at a Knesset committee meeting in Jerusalem.

Credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90 was arrested on charges of voyeurism. He was sentenced in May to 6 1/2 years in prison for secretly videotaping dozens of women in the mikvah affiliated with his Washington, D.C., congregation, Kesher Israel. Freundel had encouraged women studying for conversion to take “practice dunks” in the mikvah, and as the case against him unfolded, numerous leaders called for checks on rabbinic power and a more transparent system for Orthodox conversion to Judaism.

Continued on page 8

What we eat for Rosh Hashanah Continued from page 6 foods appear like English in the Webster’s dictionary. For example, Webster defines a tzimmes as a casserole or stew of vegetables, fruit and sometimes meat, as well as slang for fuss, uproar or hullabaloo. Knaidel, which is singular, is also in the Webster dictionary as a small dumpling made with matzo meal and eggs usually served in soup which came from Middle High German meaning lump or ovary of a flower or from German meaning dumpling. Kreplach is defined as a small pocket of noodle dough filled with ground meat or cheese, usually boiled and served in soup and may have come from the German krappel, meaning fritter.

Lekach and Other Sweets 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 these sweets comes from the passage in the book of Hosea (3: 1): “love cakes of raisins.” There is also a passage in Samuel II (6: 10) which talks about the multitude of Israel, men and women, “to every one 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 returned exiles to eat and drink sweet things.

Lekach is used another way Erev Yom Kippur, among the Lubavitch Hassidim, a movement founded in Russia at the end of

the 18th century and are headquartered in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, led

by Rabbi Schneersohn until his death. They give eachother honey cake as a substitute for

charity, like the traditional kapparot ceremony, where before Yom Kippur people transfer their sins to a chicken.

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 are added. In Zimbabwe, Jews include allspice, cinnamon, cloves, raisins, chopped nuts, brandy and chopped candied fruit in their honey cake.

Gil Marks, in The World of Jewish Desserts, says fluden, an Ashkenazic layered yeast cake, was traditional for Rosh Hashanah among Franco-German Jews, and was made with a cheese filling. It could be eaten after a meat meal since they only waited one hour between meat and dairy.

Strudel, comes from the German word for whirlpool and was also common for Rosh Hashanah among European Jewry.

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The top Jewish newsmakers of 5775 Continued from page 7 Ruth Bader Ginsburg How many 82-year-olds not only continue to work full time but also have a hipster fan blog on Tumblr, T-shirts and tattoos celebrating them, and get to be played by Natalie Portman in a movie about their life? In recent years, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the U.S. Supreme Court’s most reliably liberal votes, has morphed from merely being a prominent public figure to “the Notorious RBG” and the subject of a forthcoming book and the aforementioned film.

Though some critics think it’s high time Ginsburg retired, the Brooklyn-born justice and feminist icon is still going strong.

Alan Gross In December, 65-year-old American Jewish contractor Alan Gross got the best Hanukkah present ever: release from a Cuban prison, where he had been languishing for

was an African-American man with whom her mother had an affair. In Little White Lie, a documentary that screened in major U.S. cities and aired on PBS in March, Schwartz explored her shifting racial identity and what it means to be black — and Jewish — in America. Designated a New York Times Critics’ Pick, the film received favorable reviews overall. Plus, in a year in which high-profile police brutality cases involving black youth and a massacre at a black church have captured the public’s attention, Little White Lie has contributed to the larger discussion about race in America.

Ayelet Shaked Israel’s justice minister, 39-year-old Ayelet Shaked, came into the public eye this spring as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struggled to cement his right-wing coalition following the March 17 elections. Although she is secular and lives in Tel Aviv, Shaked is a member of Jewish Home, a pro-

Lacey Schwartz at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, May 6, 2006.

Credit: Mat Szwajkos/Getty ImagesWendy Sheman

Wendy Sherman was the top U.S. negotiator in the world powers’ nuclear talks with Iran.

Credit: Eric Bridiers/U.S. Mission Geneva

Jill Soloway attending the Directors Guild of America Awards in Century City, Calif., Feb. 7, 2015.

Credit: David Buchan/Getty Images

Jon Stewart on stage at Comedy Central’s “Night Of Too Many Stars” at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, Feb. 28, 2015.

Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Comedy Central

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five years. Gross’ freedom was negotiated as part of a historic thaw in relations between the United States and Cuba.

Since returning home, Gross has credited the Jewish community for helping to secure his freedom and has lobbied for easing U.S. travel and trade restrictions with Cuba.

Michael Oren American-born Michael Oren, 60, is the former Israeli ambassador to the United States — but his new book, Ally, has been anything but diplomatic, inflaming many with his harsh (and some say unfair) criticism of the Obama administration. Although Oren is a Knesset member for Kulanu, the center-right party’s leadership recently distanced itself from his contention that President Barack Obama betrayed Israel.

Oren, who was raised in New Jersey and has a doctorate in Near Eastern studies from Princeton, made aliyah in 1979.

Natalie Portman The Israel-born Natalie Portman, 34, was among the most talked-about stars at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which premiered her directorial debut, an adaptation (in Hebrew) of a memoir by the Israeli writer Amos Oz. A Harvard grad and Oscar winner who will star in upcoming films about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Portman sounded off in a recent Hollywood Reporter interview on various Jewish topics, including her dislike of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and what it’s like to be a Jew living in Paris.

Bernie Sanders Since announcing in April that he would challenge prohibitive favorite Hillary Rodham Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, the Vermont senator and self-described socialist (he’s officially an independent) Bernie Sanders has been a left-wing darling, appealing to those who see Clinton as too establishment. The only Jewish candidate in the race, the 73-year-old, Brooklyn-raised Sanders bristled recently when radio host Diane Rehm incorrectly said he had dual Israeli citizenship. That’s not to say he isn’t proud of his Jewish background, which he says sparked his interest in politics.

Lacey Schwartz Lacey Schwartz, 38, grew up believing she was a white Ashkenazi Jew, only to discover that her biological father

settler party. Her calls to deport African migrants, limit the powers of Israel’s High Court and enact the controversial “Jewish state” law have alarmed many on the left.

Wendy Sherman Wendy Sherman, who is in her mid-60s, was the chief U.S. negotiator in the nuclear deal with Iran and one of the few women participating in the negotiations. In May, Sherman announced that once the Iran deal concluded she would step down from the Obama administration, where she has served as under secretary of state for policy — the No. 3 position in the department — since 2011. In a statement published in The New York Times, President Obama praised Sherman’s “unique combination of intellect, toughness and persistence, which have made her one of the most effective diplomats of her generation.”

Jill Soloway Inspired by her own father coming out as transgender in 2011, TV producer-writer Jill Soloway, 49, created Transparent, one of the most acclaimed shows of the past year. Described by the Forward as “the Jewiest show ever,” the Golden Globe Award-winning comedy follows the very Jewish Pfefferman family in the wake of its patriarch announcing that he is becoming a woman. The series — which features a female rabbi character — has been at the forefront of a larger transgender awareness zeitgeist this year (thanks, in large part, to one Caitlyn Jenner).

Jon Stewart The announcement this year that Daily Show host Jon Stewart was stepping down devastated his fans. Nominated in July for an Emmy, the unabashedly liberal Stewart (nee Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz) presided over Comedy Central’s fake news program for 16 years, during which time there have been countless Jewy moments.

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September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | B9

Looking back at 5775

by URIEL HEILMAN unrelated to boycott threats.

NEW YORK (JTA) The core exhibit of the POLIN Museum of s 5775 winds to a close, the History of Polish Jews, a more than $100 here’s a look back on the million complex first conceived over 20 highs and lows (and years ago, is inaugurated with Polish everything in between) of President Bronislaw Komorowski and Israeli the year that was.

President Reuven Rivlin on hand.

September 2014 November 2014 At the annual U.N. As Republicans retake the Senate in General Assembly, President Barack Obama midterm elections, a state senator from New focuses his speech on the ISIS, Israeli Prime York’s Long Island, Lee Zeldin, is elected to Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likens Iran to the U.S. House of Representatives, becomISIS and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ing the sole Jewish Republican in Congress. blames the West’s blunders for fomenting the Four Jewish immigrants and a Druze terrorists of ISIS. Meanwhile, Palestinian policeman are killed during morning prayer Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issues services in a terrorist attack at a Jerusalem a scathing attack against Israel for its conduct synagogue, Bnei Torah Kehillat Yaakov in in the summer’s war with Hamas in Gaza. the Har Nof neighborhood. The victims October 2014 Rabbi Barry Freundel, the longtime spiritual leader of the Kesher Israel synagogue in Washington, D.C., is arrested and charged with voyeurism following the discovery of hidden cameras that recorded women undressing in the Orthodox synagogue’s mikvah. The following February, Freundel pleads guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism. The case roils the Orthodox world.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Rabbi Avi Weiss, an ardent Barack Obama meeting at the White House, May 20, 2011. political activist who espousCredit: Alex Wong/Getty Images es a liberal brand of Orthodoxy, announces his planned retirement from the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in New York. Weiss is the founder of the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah rabbinical school for men and Yeshivat Maharat school for female Orthodox clergy.

The Death of Klinghoffer — an opera based on the true story of an elderly American Jewish man in a wheelchair killed by terrorists aboard an Italian cruise ship — opens at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York amid protests that the production is antiSemitic and sympathetic to terrorists. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and two former New York governors, David Paterson and George Pataki, are among those who protest the New York opening of an opera that had its worldwide debut in 1991.

Chaya Zissel Braun, a 3-month-old Leonard Nimoy, left, as Spock on “Star American citizen, is killed when a Hamas Trek,� alongside co-star William Shatner, terrorist crashes a car into a Jerusalem rail died in March at 83.

Credit: Pixabay station. A second victim, a 22-year-old tourist from Ecuador, dies several days later include Rabbi Mosheh Twersky, the dean of from injuries sustained in the attack. the Torat Moshe Yeshiva and the grandson Relations between the Obama White of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the founder House and Prime Minister Netanyahu reach of modern Orthodoxy. a new low after an anonymous American The mayor of Ashkelon is roundly critiofficial calls the Israeli leader a “chickenshit� cized for laying off city Arab workers in the in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The aftermath of the deadly synagogue attack in Atlantic. U.S. officials condemn the remark Jerusalem. and Secretary of State John Kerry calls Israel’s Cabinet grants initial passage to a Netanyahu to apologize. controversial bill that would identify Israel Open Hillel, the movement launched to as the nation-state of the Jewish people, counter the campus organization’s regula- prompting concern at home and among tions on Israel programming, holds its first some American Jews that it will prioritize national conference, at Harvard University. Israel’s Jewish character over its democracy.

The two-day gathering, titled “If Not Now, Acrimony over the bill sparks a coalition When?,� draws some 350 participants for a crisis that ends up dissolving the Knesset in conference aimed at pushing back against early December and sending Israel to early Hillel International rules prohibiting pro- elections scheduled for the following March. grams that feature groups or individuals Steven Pruzansky, a New Jersey Orthodox who “delegitimize� Israel or support the rabbi known for his incendiary rhetoric, is Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions move- broadly criticized for publishing a blog post ment against the Jewish state. saying that Arabs in Israel are an enemy that Rabbi Gil Steinlauf, the senior rabbi at a must be “vanquished.� The post, titled large Conservative congregation in “Dealing with Savages,� draws a strong rebuke Washington, D.C., announces he is gay. The from the Orthodox Union, which calls it announcement is received positively by the “anathema to the Jewish religious tradition.� leadership of his synagogue, Adas Israel.

As the Ebola epidemic spreads in three SodaStream, the Israeli at-home seltzer countries in Africa, IsraAid becomes the machine company, announces that it will sole Israeli or Jewish organization on the close its West Bank factory and move the ground in the hot zone. facility’s operations to southern Israel in A state monitor slams the East Ramapo 2015. The company says the move out of the Central School District in New York’s Jewish settlement of Mishor Adumim is Continued on page 10

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Looking back at 5775 Continued from page 9 Rockland County for giving preferential treatment to Orthodox schoolchildren who do not attend public schools.

The school board, which is majority Orthodox, had been under fire for years for allegedly diverting public funds to religious schools.

Jonathan Greenblatt, a former special assistant to President Obama, is named the next national director of the Anti-Defamation League. Greenblatt is slated to replace Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s leader since 1987.

World powers, led by the United States, extend the deadline in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program to June 30, 2015, prompting a call by AIPAC for new sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Ultimately, additional sanctions are not levied during the negotiations, which last until a deal is struck in early July 2015.

December 2014 France’s parliament, the National Assembly, votes 339-151 to urge the French government to recognize the state of Palestine. The vote follows similar motions passed the previous month by parliaments in Britain and Ireland.

An oil pipeline ruptures near the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat, causing a spill that is called one of Israel’s worst environmental disasters.

The United Auto Workers Local 2865, which represents more than 13,000 teaching assistants, tutors and other student workers in the University of California system, approves a resolution to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, becoming the first major U.S. labor union to hold a membership vote on Israel and BDS. The European Parliament passes a resolution that supports, in principle, recognition of a Palestinian state as part of peace talks with Israel, in a 498-88 vote with 111 abstentions. Meanwhile, the General Court of the European Union annuls Hamas’ inclusion on a blacklist of terrorist groups, saying the 2001 decision was based on press reports and not legal reasoning.

Alan Gross, a Jewish-American contractor for the U.S. government who had spent five years in a Cuban prison for helping connect Cuban Jews to the Internet, is released and returned to the United States as part of a sweeping deal to restore diplomatic ties between Washington and Havana.

Gross subsequently thanks the American Jewish community for helping secure his freedom.

Jewish immigration from France to Israel reaches an all-time record of nearly 7,000 in 2014, more than doubling the French aliyah rate in 2013 and far outstripping immigration to Israel from the United States. Overall, immigration to Israel hits a 10year high in 2014 with approximately 26,500 new immigrants.

The Conservative movement youth group USY votes to relax rules barring teenage board members from dating non-Jews. The change, adopted at the group’s annual convention in Atlanta, affects the 100 or so teen officers who serve on USY’s national board.

President Obama signs the 2014 United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act. The law, which unanimously passed the House and Senate, declares Israel a “major strategic partner,” upgrades the value of American weapons stockpiles in Israel and grants the Jewish state improved trade status.

As 2014 draws to a close, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics announces that the country’s population grew by 2 percent in 2014, to 8.3 million. Of them, 74.9 percent are counted as Jews, 20.7 percent as Arabs and 4.3 percent as others.

January 2015 Streit’s announces it is closing its historic, six-story matzah factory on New York’s Lower East Side, where the company produced the Passover staple for 90 years. It will relocate operations to New Jersey.

JTA, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, announces it is merging with MyJewishLearning to create 70 Faces Media. The new organization’s three primary brands — the news and syndication portal JTA.org, the Jewish encyclopedia MyJewishLearning.com and the parenting website Kveller.com — are to remain distinct.

At the Streit’s factory on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, matzah was broken into pieces and sent to be packaged in the same way for over half a century. Credit: Gabe Friedman Bess Myerson, the only Jewish woman to win the Miss America pageant, dies at 90. Myerson won the competition in 1945.

Four Jewish men are killed by an Islamic gunman during a hostage siege at a kosher supermarket in Paris two days after a pair of Islamic gunmen storm the Paris offices of a satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, killing 11. The supermarket gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, is killed when police storm the Hyper Cacher market. Almost simultaneously, police kill the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo attack — brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, who were friends with Coulibaly — at a printing plant just outside Paris. The events, which prompt a massive anti-terrorism demonstration in Paris, stoke fears of French Jews about their future in the country.

Actor Michael Douglas is named the winner of the Genesis Prize. The $1 million award, given by a consortium of philanthropists from the former Soviet Union, is meant to

L’Shanah Tovah

recognize accomplished Jews who demonstrate commitment to Jewish values.

Alberto Nisman — the indefatigable Argentine prosecutor collecting evidence of culpability in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires — is found shot to death in his apartment, just hours before he is to present evidence to Argentina’s congress that he said implicated his country’s president and Jewish foreign minister in a scheme to cover up Iran’s role in the bombing. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner first calls the death a suicide, then a murder, while protesters hold rallies in Buenos Aires demanding justice in the Nisman case. Months on, the mysterious circumstances surrounding Nisman’s death remain unresolved.

New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is arrested on federal corruption charges. One of the state’s most powerful politicians and high-profile Orthodox Jews, Silver soon steps down as speaker but retains his Assembly seat while the investigation is ongoing.

House Speaker John Boehner invites Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress on Iran’s nuclear program. The move sparks a showdown with the Obama administration, which says the invite breaks protocol by circumventing the White House and is inappropriate, given that the Israeli leader is in the midst of an election campaign. American Jews are deeply divided over whether Netanyahu should speak to Congress over Obama’s objections, and a partisan row over the issue ensues.

Portugal’s government adopts legislation that offers citizenship to some descendants of Sephardic Jews, making Portugal the second country in the world after Israel to pass a law of return for Jews.

FEGS, a Jewish charity and one of the largest social service agencies in the United States, abruptly shuts down after losing $19.4 million in 2014. The 3,000-employee agency, which is a major beneficiary of UJA-Federation of New York, had said it served 12,000 people daily in such areas as home care, job training and immigrant services. The news comes just days after another major New York Jewish social services agency, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, announces it is looking to merge or partner with other organizations or perhaps close altogether.

February 2015 Brandeis University President Frederick Lawrence announces he will step down at the end of the academic year.

Lawrence led the historically nonsectarian, Jewish-sponsored university for five years and was the institution’s eighth president.

Comedian Jon Stewart announces he is leaving The Daily Show, the mock news program he anchored for 16 years and built into a political and cultural touchstone.

Europe’s Jewish population is pegged at 1.4 million, down from 2 million in 1991 and 3.2 million in 1960, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Continued on page 11

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Looking back at 5775 Continued from page 10 him. The Rabbinate later backs down and A gunman attacks the main synagogue in renews Riskin’s position.

Copenhagen, killing a security guard. The Rochelle Shoretz, the founder of the attack comes just hours after a gunman kills national cancer group Sharsheret after being one person at a cafe in the city, where a car- diagnosed with breast cancer at 28, dies of icaturist who had lampooned Islam was the disease at 42. speaking. As a gesture of solidarity, Muslims June 2015 in neighboring Norway form a “peace ring” The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a around an Oslo synagogue.

2002 law allowing U.S. citizens to list More than half of U.S. Jewish college stu- Jerusalem as their place of birth. The case dents witnessed or experienced anti- was brought by the parents of 12-year-old Semitism, an online survey conducted by Menachem Zivotofsky, whose parents sought two professors at Trinity College finds. the passport listing not long after his birth.

Leonard Nimoy, the actor who portrayed Spain’s lower house of Parliament passes a the iconic character Spock on “Star Trek” for law offering citizenship to descendants of over four decades on television and in film, Sephardic Jews, the result of a 2012 governdies at 83. Born in Boston to Yiddish-speak- ment decision that described the law as coming Orthodox parents, Nimoy had said he pensation for the expulsion of Jews during derived Spock’s trademark split-finger salute the Spanish Inquisition. from the priestly blessing that involves a physDavid Blatt, the first Israeli to serve as ical approximation of the Hebrew letter “shin.” head coach of an NBA team, guides the March 2015 Cleveland Cavaliers to the league finals.

Prime Minister Netanyahu addresses a Blatt’s club loses to the Golden State joint session of Congress to warn of the Warriors in six games after taking a 2-1 lead emerging Iran nuclear deal. in the best-of-seven series.

The Reform movement’s rabbinic group, The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the the Central Conference of American Rabbis, 2014 Gaza conflict finds that Israel’s military installs Denise Eger as its first openly gay and Palestinian armed groups committed president.

Netanyahu wins a fourth term, his third in a row, as Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu’s remarks in the days before the election prove highly controversial, as he says a Palestinian state will not be established under his watch and warns on Election Day about ArabIsraelis turning out to vote “in droves.” The comments are condemned in the United States by the Reform and Conservative An Israeli policeman tries to disperse the hundreds of movements and by President demonstrators in Tel Aviv protesting on behalf of Obama. Netanyahu later apoloEthiopian-Israelis, May 3, 2015. gizes to Israel’s Arabs and insists Credit: Ben Kelmer/Flash90 he still backs a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “serious violations” of international human April 2015 rights law during their 2014 summer war.

Negotiators for the United States, five While the report accuses both sides of possiother world powers and Iran reach a frame- ble war crimes, its findings focus more on work accord for a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear what it considers Israeli wrongdoing. Israel, program and set June 30 as the deadline for which refused to cooperate with the investia final, comprehensive deal. gation, slams the outcome.

Women of the Wall, a group that proJews Offering New Alternatives for motes women’s religious rights at the Healing, an Orthodox Jewish nonprofit that Western Wall, for the first time reads from a purports to help gay men become heterofull-size Torah scroll during its monthly sexual, is found guilty of violating New prayer service at the Kotel, contravening Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act and is ordered regulations there. The Torah was passed to pay $72,000 in damages to three former across the barrier between the men’s and clients. The plaintiffs said JONAH claimed a women’s sections by male supporters. The success rate it could not prove and used scifollowing month, police block and arrest a entifically questionable therapy methods. man who attempts to repeat the effort.

Days before the U.S. Supreme Court Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont inde- endorses the right to same-sex marriage, the pendent, announces that he intends to run Public Religion Research Institute finds that for the U.S. presidency. A self-described American Jews are among the country’s “Democratic socialist,” Sanders, who is run- most supportive religious groups of samening as a Democrat, is considered a long sex marriage. shot to defeat the party’s front-runner, The Pine Bush Central School District in Hillary Rodham Clinton. upstate New York agrees to pay nearly $4.5 Ethiopian-Israeli protesters clash with million to settle a lawsuit alleging widespread police during demonstrations throughout anti-Semitic harassment. The 2012 suit by Jerusalem over two attacks against Ethiopian- five former and current students was due to Israelis by Israeli law enforcement, one of go to trial in July. which is captured on video. The attacks spark July 2015 a national debate about racism in Israel.

Iran and six world powers led by the May 2015 United States reach a historic agreement to Rabbi Freundel is sentenced to nearly 6 1/2 curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for years in prison — 45 days for each of the 52 the easing of sanctions. President Obama counts of misdemeanor voyeurism. Addi- says the deal cuts off all of Iran’s pathways to tional court documents show Freundel also a nuclear bomb. Prime Minister Netanyahu engaged in extramarital sexual encounters. calls the deal a “stunning historic mistake.”

The U.S. Congress overwhelmingly passes AIPAC quickly launches an all-out effort to a bill providing for its approval of any Iran have Congress scuttle the deal. nuclear deal.

A 94-year-old former Auschwitz guard, Shlomo Riskin, rabbi of the West Bank Oskar Groening, is sentenced by a German city of Efrat, is summoned to a hearing by court to four years in prison for his role in the Chief Rabbinate’s governing body on the the murder of 300,000 Hungarian Jews in future of his position. An Orthodox pro- the concentration camp. gressive on women’s issues and conversion, Theodore Bikel, the actor and folk singer Riskin vows not to go, suspecting the Chief who won fame playing Tevye in Fiddler on Rabbinate is looking for a pretext to dismiss the Roof, dies at 91.

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September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | C1

A privilege to serve eptember is a time of renewal and reflection as we JAY NODDLE embark upon the High President, Jewish Holidays and welcome Federation of Omaha the Jewish New Year, 5776. This also marks the beginning of the last year of my Federation presidency and I want you to know it has been a privilege to serve our Jewish community. We live in an incredible place. We are a community that cares, that takes care of each other and that always strives to do the right thing.

The Federation undertook some significant changes last year. Our Annual Meeting took place in June and we installed new officers and new board members. We welcomed our new Chief Executive Officer, Alan Potash and our new Chief Development Officer, Steve Levinger. I’ve heard really positive feedback from so many in our community as Alan and Steve settled into their new roles; spending a great deal of time with donors, volunteers and the many, many active participants on our campus and in our synagogues. They appreciate the warm welcome and easy transition as they carry out their important work.

The one and only Marty Ricks has successfully transitioned from leading the Annual Campaign to being a trusted and much leaned-on “campaign consultant.” His wisdom and knowledge continue to be a valued resource for campus staff and we are grateful he is sticking around for one more year.

Most recently, Louri Sullivan joined the Federation staff as Director of Community Impact and Special Projects. She is planning a spectacular kick-off to our Campaign season, bringing back the much-loved Campaign Cabaret for the entire community to enjoy. I hope you’ll mark your calendar and join me on Oct. 11.

We hope everyone takes part in the 2016 Annual Campaign. Without Federation and the donations you make to the Annual Campaign, it would be hard to imagine how our JCC, our day school, our support for syn-

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agogue and CDC education and our ability to send teens and young adults on Israel experiences would continue at the level of excellence they enjoy today.

And, most importantly, they would be without a partner, one that embodies the ability and willingness to ensure that the whole remains greater than the sum of its parts.

Without Federation, young Jews in Omaha would not have a way of coming together without any requirements for membership, donation or commitment. Young Jewish Omaha is available to anyone wanting to be connected and when they come to the Federation with an idea, we help make it happen. Our community-based youth group, BBYO – based at the JCC – is enjoying record enrollment and a robust activity schedule with regular meetings, chapter outings and sold-out convention attendance. Current members include teens from more than six different area high schools and this certainly reflects the ever-expanding geographical diversity of our community.

Without Federation, we could not harness the power of the collective to help our fellow Jews around the world. Our overseas partners ensure we have a voice and a helping hand to those suffering and in need; especially this year as we fight growing anti-Semitism in Western Europe, political and military threats in the Middle East and national unrest in Ukraine.

All of this happens with community members who volunteer, guide and lead us in our mission. This year, we are fortunate to have the experience of Howard Kooper and Jan Goldstein heading the 2016 Annual Campaign. Many, many more – too numerous to list here - are chairing events, acting as ambassadors and team captains and sponsoring programs. Join us and take part in all that we have planned. Your generosity is appreciated and needed more than ever, locally, nationally and around the world. I promise, you’ll get back more than you give – just as I have.

On behalf of the staff and board of the Federation, we wish you and your family a happy, healthy and sweet new year. L’Shanah Tovah. See you at the Cabaret.

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In Israel, the siren you have to worry about is the one you haven’t heard yet.

Opportunities ooking forward to t h e Jewish New Year ALAN POTASH is an opportunity to CEO, Jewish Federation make small adjustof Omaha ments and thoughtful improvements in my work, my relationships, and my community connections. Learning from our successes and challenges during the past year and finding ways to improve on what was achieved or not achieved is one of the most meaningful parts of the Yamim Norai, the Days of Awe. Secondly, following Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is my favorite festival holidaySukkot. The extra effort involved makes Sukkot so special to me. Building a sukkah takes planning, time and strength. There is a sense of urgency to use the time efficiently after Yom Kippur to assemble the sukkah.

Besides the physical structure of the sukkah, I appreciate the greater symbolism of the shelter and the holiday. The meaning of the commandment “to dwell in the sukkah for seven days” has different inter-

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pretations. The one most meaningful to me, personally, is the idea that, for the time we dwell in the sukkah, we have placed ourselves in an unstable environment. It is a reminder of how vulnerable we are and that life circumstances can change at a moment’s notice.

The other image I have of a sukkah comes from the prayer Haskievanu and the phrase ufros aleinu sukkat shlomecha, “spread over us your shelter of peace.” Imagine, as you live every day as part of the kehilla, the Jewish community, that you have the ability to provide peace and shelter as you receive peace and shelter.

With the temporary space of the sukkah as a holy space to gather during Sukkot and the sukkah of peace covering and protecting our world, I envision all of our community sharing the holy space of the sukkah and living under the full canopy of peace.

The coming year will be full of opportunities for all in our community and I believe we will see the fruits of our efforts. On behalf of the staff of the Jewish Federation of Omaha, we wish you a sweet and healthy New Year.

Shana Tova u'metuka.

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C2 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

The wonder of Tashlich and Rosh Hashanah

Journal entry from Israel TEDDY WEINBERGER As I sometimes do for holiday columns, I turn to my friend and teacher Rabbi Lior Engelman for this year’s Rosh Hashanah column. A note about Tashlich: This Hebrew word means “casting off,” and it denotes a ritual (traditionally performed on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah) whereby one symbolically casts off the sins of the previous year by tossing pieces of bread into a body of flowing water. Just as the water carries away the bits of bread, so too, it is hoped, one’s sins will be carried away.

It doesn’t sound right this Tashlich business. Instead of confessing our sins and becoming aware of our faults, we go “casting off ” on the Day of Judgment (Rosh Hashanah) and say to the solitary judge of the world: “Ignore, forget, cast all our sins to the deepest seas.” Ostensibly, it’s as if we are not responsible for our actions, as if our sins were a trivial matter that can be thrown to the deepest seas—after which we can then continue on as normal. Wondrous this Tashlich business.

And not just Tashlich. The whole Day of Judgment is one great wonder. We are judged (as the liturgy says) “at the time designated for our festival day”—which happens to be on a day (the first day of the lunar month of Tishrei) that the moon is “covered.”

In other words, we are judged when it is impossible to detect the sins of Israel. A strange kind of trial is being conducted for us: At the trial the indictment is erased and the accused emerges innocent. Wondrous.

It’s a wonder how on the great Day of Judgment we

renounce our right to request forgiveness and choose to recrown the Master of the World. It’s a wonder how instead of dealing with our sins, we dream of a world over which God’s kingship will hold sway, a world where “the righteous shall see and be glad, the just exult, and the pious rejoice in song” [from the Rosh Hashanah liturgy].

A world that is a harmonious whole, where all creatures become united as one to do His bidding with a complete heart.

It is a wonder how in our decision to renounce a personal

judgment and in our decision to weave a great dream about a different world--a world of good in which evil is as evanescent as wisps of smoke--we suddenly find within ourselves the power to conquer everything, to renew, and to change.

The great awareness on Rosh Hashanah concerning our true mission penetrates deeply, removes all doubt, plunges

our sins into the depths of the seas, and we are renewed and become a new creature. We become as innocent of sin as a baby newly born, free of cynicism or doubt, imbued with faith in God and His people, and able to repent with love.

The Rosh Hashanah liturgy renews in us forces that have weakened with time, builds within us a certainty that it is possible to change the world into an honest and good place.

From a bird’s-eye view, even the sins that we accumulated over the outgoing year are dwarfed. They are put into their true proportions; they are not really ours, and in any case those sins will not be able to stop us from the great change that repentance ushers in.

From this bird’s-eye view Tashlich is oh so justified, and there is no reason for the moon to shine on the sins of Israel.

Wonder, but on the day that the world was created God decides to renew His faith in humankind upon whom on precisely this day He designated to be the crown of creation. And if He, Lord of the Universe, believes in us, we can no longer remain in doubt.

When we look at these wonders, it’s impossible not to dip the apple in a wellspring of honey, and to believe that surely the coming year will be good and we will taste from it the taste of honey. Shana Tova.

Help and hope halfway around the world

by SHERRIE SAAG Communications, Jewish Federation Omaha liyana Batalia, 12, (pictured below) lives alone with her mother in the war-torn eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk.

Each day is a new struggle for them to survive constant fighting in the streets while meeting their basic needs.

For months, the one bright spot is the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)-sponsored Teen Club at Lugansk’s Jewish community center. Each Sunday, Uliyana escapes with her friends to a better, more hopeful world where she can dance, paint, and dream like any other kid.

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The Lincoln Jewish Community wishes you a L’Shana Tova Congregation B’nai Jeshurun

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Ukraine has been wracked by conflict for months. The resulting economic and political instability have profoundly affected the country’s more than 350,000 Jews. For many, aid from our Federation partner, JDC, means the difference between life and death.

Your support and generous donations to the Jewish Federation of Omaha’s (JFO) Annual Campaign is helping those Jews in Ukraine cut off from their normal means of support: jobs, banking institutions and nourishing food.

Last year, nearly 30% of every donation the JFO received Continued on page 6

September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | C3

Messages New possibilities for blessing

Making memories

hese are the High Holy Days. For many this annual return is a relatively painless way of publicly connecting to our heritage - standing up and being counted as a Jew. While this is intended as a season of peak spiritual renewal, truth to tell, many of us come to our synagogues with modest expectations. We think of a spiritual high as that which happens spontaneously when RABBI ARYEH you least expect it. But we are pro- AZRIEL grammed to be at a particular time, on a Temple Israel particular day, and we speak words that are scripted for us, not prayers that bubble spontaneously out of the depths of our souls. And the same words year after year, after year!

Consequently, while most of us enjoy seeing people we have not seen for a while, and we may hear beautiful music and perhaps even an interesting sermon, during the extended worship service we may go through the motions but feel underwhelmed. Words, only words, and a fixed routine that may fail to really touch us.

Believe it or not, those ancient rabbis who gave us the prayers were well aware of the challenge. They called the obligation of praying at a fixed time Keva and they called those moments when the words we say express the deepest feeling of our hearts Kavanah.

I believe this applies not only to what happens around these days; it is a metaphor for our lives.

Consider love and marriage. Some think of love as strictly a matter of Kavanah - a spontaneous feeling over which you have no control. It just happens: “You fall in love,” the bells ring, the heart flutters, you act silly, and you are moved to do almost anything for your beloved.

Those who take such a view of love are poor candidates for marriage. Marriage cannot be sustained on pure Kavanah, because the bells don’t always ring; our feelings are not constant; there are ups and downs in the romantic love of any marriage.

A good marriage depends substantially on Keva, on duties performed, obligations fulfilled, promises kept. Marriage is treating

have loved Rosh Hashanah ever since I was a child. I remember going to synagogue erev Rosh Hashanah with my grandfather. I always enjoyed opening up the High Holy Day prayer books that had been away for a year, hearing the pages break open as if being opened for the first time. The Machzor reminds me of the friend whom you have not called in a year or so, but when you finally speak it is as if RABBI STEVEN no time has passed since your last con- ABRAHAM versation. That is our relationship to the Beth El Synagogue High Holy Day liturgy; it is something for which we are all familiar, regardless of whether we can recall the name of the psalm, piyut or verse.

What makes the High Holy Days special is both their lofty status in the Jewish calendar, but also their consistency over time. In a world that is changing around us at an ever-increasing pace, we need consistency in certain parts of our life…and that is where Judaism fits into our lives seamlessly. Starting a month before Rosh Hashanah in synagogues across the world, the Shofar is blown every morning (except Shabbat) throughout the Hebrew month of Elul. The Shofar is an alarm clock for our souls; it is a booming reminder that we are getting close to the High Holy Days.

Then, in a few short days we will find ourselves sitting in the synagogue and hear the sound of the Shofar blasts ringing in the air.

Take a moment and close your eyes; let the sound of the Shofar bring you back to your youth. What are your memories of the Holy Days when you were a child? Then think about how this Rosh Hashanah, these Shofar blasts can act as an alarm clock in your crazy life. What have you putting off that you cannot any longer, what phone call do you need to make? What friend do you need to reach out to?

The High Holy Days are all about memory, the sixth sense of Jewish tradition; don’t forget to make your own!

L’shanah Tovah u’Metukah

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L’Shana Tova Beth Israel Synagogue Youth Programs

your intimate other with respect whether or not at that moment you feel the strings of romantic love.

What is true of family life is also true of our relationships outside the home.

This summer, I spoke with a dear friend in Jerusalem who has been battling a potentially life-threatening disease. When I asked him how he was doing, he told me that in his life at this time, moments of deep anxiety and foreboding alternate with moments of exquisite appreciation of things he has so often taken for granted: a hug and a kiss from his wife, the creative thoughts that pop into his mind when he sits at his desk to write an article, a Jerusalem sunset. He has experienced all of these many times before, but now he cannot take them as his due. His heightened consciousness, his Kavanah, his fervent gratitude for what he has is linked, “to the terror of losing them.” Now, as in every age, our complacency, our taking for granted the so-called ordinary gifts of our lives [unless we are in peril of losing them], is an enemy of Kavanah.

In a good marriage where promises are kept and dignities are observed, there will be many moments of Kavanah when we feel we are bonded to the one who is really intended to be our life partner in this world.

There will be moments in the midst of getting up, reluctantly but dutifully, to feed the crying baby when we embrace the infant in our arms and are overwhelmed by the feeling that we are the most blessed person in the world. There will be moments, I hope, during these days of dutifully attending High Holy Days services when, as we join our voices to many hundreds of others in our sanctuaries and recite the words of the Sh’ma or the Kaddish, Keva will become Kavanah and we will be conscious that we are a year older and we will find ourselves asking from the depths of our souls, “How well am I doing with my life?”

Moments when those of us crushed by adversity and by loss during the past year are assaulted by the belief that, with the beginning of the new year, there will be new possibilities for blessing; moments during these days when we know we are all needy and we need life and strength from a power greater than ourselves, from the One who has called us into being.

I

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Messages The rollercoaster t eight years old, my twin brother and I were determined to ride the legendary rollercoaster at Coney Island’s world famous amusement park. It was the birthright of every selfrespecting Brooklyn kid. RABBI MENDEL M. Friends gushed about KATZMAN how much fun it was. Chabad Center We just had to do it.

Our father, of blessed memory, was orphaned before his Bar Mitzvah. He suffered poverty and persecution and was forced to flee Russia by way of the DP camps and France before he finally immigrated to the States. Ever grateful for the opportunities this country afforded to freely practice his faith and traditions, entertainment was neither on his bucket list nor his radar.

Erudite and refined as he was, Father was alien to the Cyclone and much of our “mishugas” and games. He worked long and hard, conducted business with integrity, and wholly immersed himself in Torah study, Mitzvot and acts of kindness. He gave strangers more than the shirt off his back. But he also understood how important this experience would be for us. And so it was. Moshe and I could not contain our excitement as we rode the subway alongside our father to get to the amusement park which he regarded with bemusement. Father paid for the tickets and sat on a bench to watch us and wait.

“Lock the lap bar,” the operator barked. “Keep your arms inside. Stay seated until the train comes to a complete stop.” OK. We could do that. The moment had arrived!

Our euphoria quickly turned to hysteria as the ride picked up speed. The terrifying heights, blood curdling screams, and the sheer velocity and sudden steep drops had our white-knuckled fingers glued to the bar. My yarmulke was quickly gone with the wind, and my glasses were knocked off my face. Moshe and I yelled and held on tightly - as if our lives depended on that bar. We had exhausted all our efforts of self-

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preservation and survival by the time the ride came to its sweet end.

We rode the subway back home with paper bags atop our heads as makeshift yarmulkes.

We looked defeated and humbled. A sorry sight.

An interesting prophetic passage in the Yalkut Shimoni reads as follows: “In the year King Moshiach is revealed, nations will provoke one another. The King of Paras provokes an Arab king. All the nations of the world are distressed and panicking. G-d says to Israel ‘Do not be afraid. All that I have done, I did for your sake. The time for your Redemption has arrived.’”

My childhood rollercoaster fiasco reminds me of the current state of world affairs. It is a rollercoaster of provocation and political war-games.

Countries are precariously balanced between peaceful cooperation, bitter conflict, and dangerous war. In our own land, people are divided by politics and are fighting uncompromising battles.

In these tumultuous times, people cling to false securities – like my brother and I desperately clung to the bar instead of securing our yarmulkes and glasses on that rollercoaster ride.

Judaism teaches that everything is orchestrated

by G-d. The provocations and battles are part of His master plan which is sure to conclude with our Redemption and peace for the entire world.

During the “ride” it is up to us to cling to the securities He gave us; to use the tools He provided to quicker usher in that era of peace: His Torah and Mitzvot, acts of goodness and kindness towards others – those are our securities.

They ensure our safety and survival through the wild ups and downs and toughest times. Our Mitzvot and faith have withstood the test of time and countless cyclones. In times like ours we are enjoined to cling to one another in unity. To reach out to G-d with yet another Mitzvah.

Shani joins me in wishing each member in our community, and the community at large, a wonderful, happy, sweet new year, filled with abundant blessing, joy and meaning.

Hold on tight for a fabulous year!

Shana tova umetuka.

And don't forget that extra Mitzvah!

New and meaningful symbolism ood has a way of being involved in all of our celebrations. We have three special meals on Shabbat, and a seudat mitzvah following a brit milah ceremony, naming ceremony, bar or bat mitzvah cere- NANCY COREN mony, and wedding. We Spiritual Lay Leader, have a meal of consola- Congregation tion following a funeral. Tifereth Israel There is no doubt that we have taken the act of eating which is common to all life and infused it with meaning and holiness. How do we do that? By consciously attaching an attitude of gratitude to our act of eating through a system of brachot.

There are certain foods which have meaning for us when we eat them on Erev Rosh HaShanah. Dates represent our wish for peace.

Pomegranates represent our wish for doing good deeds. Apples and honey represent our wish for a sweet year from beginning to end.

Even green beans have a meaning, a wish that our merits will increase as well as our prosperity. Pumpkins or gourds represent a wish for happiness because we will be protected from the evil decrees of our enemies. Beetroot leaves represent our hope to beat a path to freedom as our enemies beat a path to retreat. Leeks remind us that when we are cut off from our enemies we hope for the blessing of friendship.

Finally, a head of a fish (or lettuce for those who prefer) reminds us that we desire to be leaders instead of followers.

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You might be thinking that your family only eats apples and honey symbolically on Rosh HaShanah, along with a round challah. So, where did the idea of eating seven other foods on Erev Rosh HaShanah come from? Actually it is a Sephardic custom to have a special “seder” eating each of the foods mentioned above in a specific order, each with its appropriate blessings beginning with the words, “yehi ratzon…may it be G-d’s will.” This custom of wishing that all curses should be ended and a new year filled with blessings should begin is made tangible through the Sephardic Rosh HaShanah seder. The custom is not a new one.

In fact it dates back to the Talmud (Horayot 12 a) where Rabbi Abaye suggests a list of foods that grow in abundance and should be eaten at the beginning of the year because they represent prosperity.

If your family is looking for a way to incorporate new and meaningful symbolism into your Erev Rosh HaShanah meal while consciously maintaining an attitude of gratitude for the blessings which do befall us within our lifetimes, then consider introducing these foods at your dinner table and literally “count your blessings” before beginning your meal. If you’re not sure what to say or what the traditional blessing to be stated before eating each food item is, then consult Rahel Musleah’s book, Apples and Pomegranates, a Family Seder for Rosh Hashanah. It will provide you with the needed information.

As we enter 5776, may it be G-d’s will to bless each and every one of us with a year filled with sweetness, peace, inner strength, and meaning.

L’Shanah Tovah Tikateivu.

Happy New Year from B’nai Israel Synagogue

by MARK EVELOFF, RICK KATELMAN, CAROLE LAINOF, MARTY RICKS, SISSY SILBER, NANCY WOLF AND PHIL WOLF B’nai Israel Board s we approach the end of the summer season, it seems appropriate to reflect back on the year for B’nai Israel Synagogue.

By what are arguably the most meaningful measures, we have had a successful year. The

A

ongoing congregational practice of once a month Shabbat services went very well with an expansion for several extra months beyond what had been undertaken in recent years. We had a great group of speakers who helped us refresh and rekindle interest. We also were privileged to have the leadership of Claire and Larry Blass who have evolved the Shabbat service experience for us in a very worthwhile way.

Continued on page C5

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September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | C5

Messages Our inalienable right inalienable right of Teshuvah, to his year the Jewish people return to paths of goodness so that celebrate the Spirit of ‘76-all may enjoy life, inscribed for bless5776. In American history, ing in Sefer Chayim Tovim, liberty, the Spirit of ‘76 began with the freed from the yoke of our sins, and phrase, “We hold these truths to be the pursuit of happiness, refreshed self evident.” As we celebrate this, by the sweetness the New Year our quinmiliaseptcentseptuagesibrings. Therefore, in the Spirit of sexennial (“spell check” had no other 5776 (Ruach Shiv’im ve’sheish), may suggestions), we consider the truths our observances unite us in sacred we, ourselves, hold to be “self evi- RABBI CRAIG purpose, atoning for and forgiving the dent.” We begin by affirming that “all LEWIS past as we look toward a prosperous men are created equal, betzelem Congregation future. May we all enjoy our unalienElohim.” Every life has value, every B’nai Jeshurun able right to begin anew and “prosoul has worth. Therefore, to those whom we have wronged, we owe our apology, claim liberty throughout the land.”

May you all enjoy a year of life, liberty, sweetand for those who seek forgiveness, we owe them our consideration. For in our equality, none ness, and happiness.

L’shana tovah. is “righteous enough to say, ‘I have not sinned.’”

Thus we are endowed by our Creator with the

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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 or email us at jpress@jewishomaha.org.

Grow your business.

Heal the world The other type of “tshuva” is that osh Hashana is known as the the good we do, becomes very good. day of the creation of the In other words, the whole world was world. Truth is though, it is created with a lacking that every year actually the day of creation of man. we help fix and improve.

On these holy days we make an The advances in science, the peace accounting of our thoughts and deeds between nations and the improved for the year we just lived. We focus on communication, which makes the fixing our ways and doing “tshuva”, world smaller, are all a part of this attempting to once again be close to RABBI ARI “tshuva”. our creator.

We return to finding beauty in all.

According to the talmud, “tshuva” DEMBITZER or “return” was created before the Beth Israel Synagogue We return the lost sparks of goodness that may be hidden in dark world. This is a very complex statement that is quite hard to wrap our heads places.

On Rosh Hashana we celebrate the creation of around.

Rabbi Kook in his classic work “orot hateshu- man. Man can continuously make the world a va”explains that there are two types of “tshuva” better place.

May we continue to find positive in the world to or return. One is the classic understanding that when we rectify the wrongdoings of our lives we bring out the beauty that lies within.

Wishing you all a healthy, and enlightened year. come closer to God.

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Intensity of prayer or some the sound of the shofar reminds them of the time spent in synagogue during Rosh Hashanah. For some the sound reminds them of the holiday meals or festive atmosphere they were used to when celebrating the Jewish New Year. For some it is the Apples and Honey. For me when I hear the sound of the shofar it brings to mind the traveling home to Boston for the RABBI YAAKOV High Holidays to spend Rosh Hashanah WEISS with my family and my teacher. The noise Beth Israel Synagogue reminds me of the intensity of prayers that Jews around the world pray on Rosh Hashanah.

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It makes me think about the idea that on Rosh Hashanah we remember our rich history of the Jewish people and how on this day we embark on a new year to build an even greater year than the one that preceded this one. I hope that we continue to build upon each of our successes for the coming year for Beth Israel, the Jews of Omaha, and across the world.

Jessie Wees 402.334.6559 | jwees@jewishomaha.org

!"#$%&'!&##()#*# +*,,-.#+!*/0-#1#234&,546&#

7!8#9!:; Erev Rosh Hashanah September 13th | 7:30pm SPEAKER: Sarah Grossman Lopez Director of Development, Habitat for Humanity of Omaha

Rosh Hashanah September 14th | 10:30am

B’nai Israel Continued from page C4 We added new members, some of whom have decided to connect with our small but growing contingent of involved members of the local Jewish community. Some had prior connections and, in their reconnection, brought some emotionally infused moments to some of the services as memories were shared and acquaintances reestablished. We all learned a lot just listening.

And, we have a nice line-up of speakers set for the High Holidays which, as usual, will be ably led by Jeff Taxman who brings proper heart, warmth and energy to the task.

We are also working on Shabbat service planning and expect another nice year of get-togethers, including, we hope, continuing contributions of all who helped arrange speakers, the speakers themselves and the folks who have put in an especially strong effort for the Onegs.

And, there have been other significant contributions by many throughout the year as we have

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SPEAKER: Dr. Oliver Pollak Attorney, Historian, Writer

continued to sustain B’nai Israel’s contribution to Jewish life in the metropolitan area.

Others have done significant things and some have done more than mentioned here. It has truly been a Community effort. Thank you to everyone.

Here we use the phrase “by what are the most meaningful measures” when describing the Synagogue’s success because those measures we concede are most meaningful have to do with the people, the sense of community environment, those things which bring us together, things which give us a sense of purpose in sustaining the Synagogue and Jewish life. While the building is a continuing visible manifestation of the Synagogue’s existence, our central anchor of purpose is really embodied in the Jewish life within and its impact on the participants.

Again, by the most meaningful measures…it has been a good year.

L’Shana Tovah,

Yom Kippur Kol Nidre September 22nd | 7:30pm SPEAKER: Dr. Leonard Greenspoon Professor & Klutznick chair in Jewish Civilization

Yom Kippur September 23rd | 10:30am SPEAKER: Renee Corcoran Executive Director, Nebraska Jewish Society

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B’nai Israel Synagogue 618 Mynster Street • Council Bluffs, IA 51503

C6 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

Messages The song of holiness abbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, wrote beautifully of prayer that . . .

There is one who sings the songs of his own self, and in himself finds everything.

Then there is the one who sings the song of his people, and cleaves with a tender love to Israel. And there is one whose spirit is in all worlds, and with all of them does he join in his song. The song of the self, RABBI JOSHUA the song of one’s people, the song of BROWN humans, the song of the world – they all Temple Israel merge within him continually. And this song, in its completeness and fullness, rises to become the song of holiness. (Orot Ha-Kodesh II,) It is far easier to read Rav Kook’s words than it is to live by them.

In fact it is perhaps too easy to enter our sanctuaries at Rosh Hashanah and forget to bring the songs of our own self, of our people and of our humanity. In our world filled with messages flying at us from all directions I’m sure many of us take great pride in the solace of turning off our cell phones, sitting in one room and hearing one voice at a time. Perhaps days like Rosh Hashanah and

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Yom Kippur are too far and few between in our cacophonous society.

But Rav Kook’s challenge is not as easy as sitting in silence. He asks us to listen to a different cacophony when we are in prayer. He asks us to listen to the deepest song within us. He asks us to listen to the song of our people. And he asks us to listen to the song of humanity. Yes, we are once again bombarded with many voices, many songs, many messages and many responsibilities. This is why our High Holy Days remain important. They are multi-faceted.

They are not as simple as sitting in a room deep in meditation.

Sitting in our pews, listening to and singing familiar words, like those of Avinu Malkeinu, I hope we are bombarded by the voices most days are too hard to hear. I hope we are faced with a voice from within that we don’t let out enough. Let that voice remind us what our deepest desires are and what our year should be. Let that voice bring the faces of those we lost this year into the room.

As Rav Kook teaches, this voice has the ability to give us everything. But it still does not get us to holiness. So let us also be bombarded by the voice of our people. A voice that reminds us that Israel is both a people and a place to us and that the fate of neither the people nor the place will be decided by one nuclear agreement. Our fate will be decided by our unified voice. At the holidays,

that voice does not speak of current politics, but rather of repentance, tzedakah and acts of loving kindness. This voice brings us closer to holiness, but still, is not enough. For our Holy Days to be effective, our sanctuaries must also have the song of the world. We put down our cell phones and turn off the pundits on TV in order that we hear together, as a Jewish people, what the world calls us to do in the year to come. Will we be called to respond to increasing racism and poverty? Will we need to respond to the suffering of refugees or the suffering of our environment? Our task at the holidays is to listen to the world, not only as individuals, but as a people. What is it that the Jewish people will hear from the world this year?

I’m sure many of us need a quiet place to collect our thoughts.

We need a respite from the overwhelming number of voices that bombard our inboxes and voicemail everyday. Our holidays allow us to turn off those voices. But let us not be confused. Our holidays are not quiet. They are very loud. They bombard us with the voices we unfortunately have a hard time hearing. They bombard us with the voice from deep within our souls, the voice of our people and the voice of humanity. When these voices merge in the Jewish harmony of our holidays, I believe we find ourselves, as Rav Kook described, rising in the song of holiness.

Help and hope halfway around the world Continued from page 2 went to help fellow Jews overseas, just like Uliyana.

Food prices in Ukraine have increased over 200% since fighting began in early 2014. Many feared they would not have the means or ability to aquire Rosh Hashana and breakthe-fast food items with which to observe the holidays. But the JDC is determined, with your help, to see that every Jew who wants to can observe the holiday with a traditional meal.

The Federations’ Ukraine Assistance Fund has raised nearly $5 million to ensure that Ukrainian Jews have enough to eat and can access medicine and other essentials.

During times of calm, our overseas partners help 70,000 impoverished Jewish children and elderly meet their basic needs, every day. Last year, those needs multiplied as conflict erupted in previously stable places. Cities in eastern Ukraine have become combat zones. Jews in Donetsk, Lugansk and the surrounding areas have either fled the region or remain trapped, cut off from the rest of the country. For the first time since World War II, Jews in Europe are displaced.

This crisis speaks to the most fundamental reasons that Jewish Federations are so critical. We do not turn away. We help all those in need. We do make a difference in lives all over the world.

Help also is present for those who want to make aliyah to Israel. Several aid organzations have called 2015 the year of

Aliyah. Already, this year saw 30,000 olim (new immigrants) - a 25% increase - from across the world arrive in Israel, the most in any one year since the late 1990s.

This couple, one of many of those displaced, is consider-

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ing leaving the country and building new lives in Israel.

Nearly 6,000 Ukrainian Jews made aliyah in 2014; already in 2015 that number is up 143 percent.

In June, more than 90 leaders of Federations participated in meetings of The Jewish Agency Assembly and Board of Governors (BOG) in Israel to hear about this aliyah surge, as well as the need for housing, religious pluralism and youth engagement.

They learned these increases are not expected to diminish.

Our Federation partner, the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), is fully engaged in these efforts, expending $80 million in 2015 on the crucial Aliyah and Klitah (Absorption) activities needed for these new Israelis. It is preparing to build more than 2,500 new housing units, with the State of Israel assisting with rent subsidies, The Jewish Agency will realize a revenue stream from the social housing units.

With help from our generous Jewish community, Jewish Omaha is taking part in making lives better for those Jews who need it most. Especially during this high holiday season, be grateful for our comfort and security and keep in mind those who are less fortunate.

For Every Generation….there is Federation. The 2016 Annual Campaign makes it possible. Shana Tovah.

September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | C7

Life cycles

In memoriam

Births Cyrus Stephen Arya and Ava Irene Aryanna children of Michele Aizenberg Ansari and Shervin Ansari; Zoey Nath daughter of Allison and Ashish Aryal; Noah Aiden, son of Laynie and Lear Barazanini; Sadie Avalon, daughter of Jennie and David Beckman; Micah Danielle, daughter of Erin and Aaron Berger; Andi Grace, daughter of Amanda and Ryan Blumkin; Ezra Jacob, son of Carrie and Rabbi Josh Brown; Jacob Thomas, son of Jennifer and Michael Bryan; Hendrix George, son of Jayme and Michael Buse; Julia Rose, daughter of David and Amanda Chait; Gideon Ari, son of Antonia and Jonathan Chester; Rory Marc, son of Steven and Jill Cohen; Clara Elise, daughter of Laura and Brian Durmaskin; Ruth Loren, daughter of Drs. Ali and Mark Doyle; Rhys Llewellyn Fitzgerald, son of Fran and Chris Edwards; Chloe Evans, daughter of Carrie and Cory Epstein; Josephine, daughter of Crystal and Aryeh Epstein; Sarah Kramer Epstein, daughter of Andrew and Robert Epstein; Eliav Yonaton, son of Whitney and Dan Feferman; Lila Marley, daughter of Shoshanna and Corey Friedman; Milena Mae Christine, daughter of Naomi and Michal Gaca; Gabriel James son of Katie and Trevor Gerson, Elliot Scott, son of Carrie and John Gobel; Cole Tavlin, son of Natalie and Kurt Kadlec; Zev Maurice Vail, son of Jesse Lyda and Beth Katz; Logan Grace, daughter of Anna and Matt Kenkel; Jacob Isadore, son of Allison Kohll; Lauren Finley, daughter of Megan and Michael Kricsfeld, Henry Arthur, son of Abby and Adam Kutler, Hannah Beatrice, daughter of Allie Schrader and Alex Lund; Batsheva Esther, daughter of Tziporah and Max Marcovitz; Emery Charlotte, daughter

of Lauren and Alexander Maskin; Avery Thomas, son of Lisa and Nic Miller; Nora Alice, daughter of Danny Cohn and Andrew Miller; Josephine Rose, daughter of Kelly and Randy Newman; Hadley Caroline, daughter of Kelly and Brian Nogg; Emmett Fox, son of Ashley and Alexander Oropeza; Cleo Jacobson, daughter of Rachel Jacobson and Stephen Osberg; Ella Lynn, daughter of Claire and Rob Osborne; Mara Einat, daughter of Shiri and David Phillips; Bradley, son of Carla and Chad Polikov; Evan Benjamin, son of Emily and Nick Ray; Mycah Elliot, son of Stephanie and Steve Roitstein; BatSheva Esther, daughter of Sarah and David Simon Kotlyar; Sylvia Joy, daughter of Julie Coren and Dan Reyhle; William David, son of Liz and Joe Ruback; Michael Dillion, son of Danielle Epstein Sherman and Andrew Sherman; Noah Jacob, son of Allison Sherman; Gefen Yaniv and Shoshana Migdalyah, twins of Gallit Greenspoon and Elan Sherbill; Israel James, son of Ido and Brittani Shtrobach; Ittiel, son of Sara and Eliad Eliyahu Ben Shushan; Ezra Gurewitz, son of Margaret and Zachary Smith; Max Wesley, son of Emily and Adam Steinberg; Benjamin Edward, son of Jill and Todd Strite; Molly Rose, daughter of Rebecca and Rory Sudbeck; Adam Orson, son of Shoshy and Scott Susman; Jenna Rose, daughter of Sarah Potash and Jake Swanson; Miriam Ione, daughter of Brianna and Garret Taub; Evyatar, son of Anna and Onie Tsabari; Josiah Elliot, son of Michelle and BJ Turnball; Gabriel Louis, son of Leora and Matthew Werner; Ori Meyer, son of Sarah Raful Whinston and Rabbi Josh Whinston; Ryan Samuel, son of Rachel and Eddie Winthrop.

Arthur “Art” Abrams, Harold E. Abramson, Louise Abrahamson, Steve Abrahamson, Bernice (Epstein) Adler, Phyllis E. Angrisane, Lloyd Myron Arkin, Naomi Arav, Ronald Jay Atlas, Edythe Levenson Baron, John Baron M.D., Wayne H. Benjamin, Sheldon A. Bernstein, Rita Biniamow, Joellen Bramsen, Leon Brand, Morris Bresel, Ralph Bresel, Alfred Walter (Al) Brody, Alan R. Brown, Virginia Lee Brown, Reva B. Chapman, Bernice Cohen, Marcia Zalkin Cohen, Jerry Cohn, Judy R. Cohn, Soralee Cohn, Solomon “Sol” Crandell, Jerold “Jerry” A. Dann, Paul Davies, Cantor Gerald DeBruin, Ariel Distenfeld, Jean Levenson Duitch, Raphael “Ray” Edgar, Iosif Elkin, Bradley (Brad) Epstein, Edith, Gary A. Epstein, DDS, Geraldine (Geri) Epstein, Aaron Ferer, Marge Fogel, Edward (Ese) Forman, Mariya Fridman, Alan H. Friedman, Richard "Rick" N. Fox, Eva Slonimski de Frydman, Beth Gaines Ginsberg, Sherman Jay Golbitz, George E. Gonzales, Alan “Buddy” Goodman, Yale Gotsdiner, Dorlene Mae Graham, Caryl Greenberg, Muriel “Mickey” Greenberg, Susan “Suzie” (Ash) Herstein, Arona “Ronnie” Jacobson, Arthur N. Jacobson, Leonard B. Jacobson, Darry Jenkins, Ruth Isler, Guinter Kahn M.D., Sylvia Kaiman, Bernice Riseman Kaplan,

Mylee W. Katelman, Frances G. Katz, Jack L. Katz, Maynard Katzman, LeAnn Kelberg, Cheryl Anna Kirke, Charlotte Slutzky Koom, Norman A. Krizelman, Marvin Krout, Michael L. Lazer, Cheryl Nerenberg Lernor, Jane Levin, Boris Litvin, Robert S. Littky, Ronnie Lee Litton, Mario Lopez, Sr., Inessa Manevich, Stuart Marx, Boris May, Rita Meister, Jeffrey Lee Mellen, Bernard Raymond “Bobo” Meyers, Jerome Justin (Jerry) Milder, Myron Harry “Mike” Milder, Rita Milder, Milton Mintz, Dr. Sidney Mirvish, Ethel Mogil, Erwin Monovitz, Mark Myers, Lucille Nearenberg, Mildred “Millie” Needelman, Art Novak, Elizabeth Novak, Rita Novak, Tom Neuman, Rachel Leah (Shelly) Nogg Pichik, Ida Ruth Poster, Benie Radler, Joan Raduziner, Floraine Singer Rice, Joan L. Rips, Blaine "Buddy" Roffman, M.D., Florence (Faygie) Shrago Rose, Rachel Rosenberg, Richard Rosen, Dr. Myron E. Rubnitz, Velma Ann Sacks, Cynthia Schneider, Todd Searson, Rabbi Ya’akov (Jacob) Shechet, John J. Shooter, Norman Smeerin, Aaron Snyder, Helen Soiref, Eugene L. (Gene) Step, Craig P. Stewart, Ira Trachtenbarg, Ralph G. Turkel, BJ Wallen, Stanley Joseph Widman, Ruben Witkowski, Irwin Yaffe

Marriages Nathan Fineman and Brooke Badzin; Molly Dunne and Jeffrey Bailey; Jeanina Simon and Alexander Bloom; Rachel Javitch and Daniel Canfield; Shelley Smith and Edward Cohn; Molly Noodell and Corey A. Gauthier; Katie Ganson and Adam Graham; Jennifer Patton and Lee Hanson; Michelle Thomas Warrick and Kevin Juro; Nicole Cohn and

Koseph Knepell; Emily Mouilso and Rabbi Eric Linder; Onie Tsabari and Anna Liskanich; Lisa Gordman Lieb and Howard K. Marcus; Allison Willensky and Brian Schwartz; Laureen Freeman and Matthew Sculnick; Brittani and Ido Shtrobach; Marla Norton and Alain Taylon

Happy 93rd Birthday Stanley Silverman

September 16, 1922

#1 Dad, Grandpa & Great-Grandpa With Love, Jeff, Mary Kay, Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren

C8 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

Life cycles

Boards

B’nai Mitzvah

Jewish Federation of Omaha

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Rebecca Denenberg, daughter of Deborah Denenberg; Spencer Gordman, son of Allison and Jay Gordman; Ari Saltzman, son of Linda and Kevin Saltzman; Ethan Spivack, son of Marcie and Brent Spivack BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE Rachel Kricsfeld, daughter of Alan and Deborah Kricsfeld; Becca Denenberg, daughter of Debbie Denenberg; Jack Kohll, son of David and Janet Kohll TEMPLE ISRAEL Peyton Taylor, daughter of Chris and Denise Blake; Julia Eden, daughter of Stacie Brodkey and Marc Brodkey; Alex Henry, son of Jill and Joe Goldstein; Harper Matie, daughter of Danielle and Jeffrey Gordman; Destiny Rian, daughter of Sarah and Jeff Howard; Elizabeth Zoe, daughter of Michelle and Stuart Kazor;

Remember this?

In April, Israel was one of the first countries to respond to the huge earthquake in Nepal.

Within a day or two a field hospital was set up by the IDF in Katmandu.

Credit: Edgar Asher

Joseph Aaron, son of Nikki and Adam Kirshenbaum; Abby Leigh, daughter of Susie Stern and Alan Kohll; Alexander Paul, son of Natasha Kraft; Meredith Ann, daughter of Stacie Spies-Matz and Jay Matz; Adam James, son of Kathy and John McGauvran; Emma Danielle, daughter of Lori and Michael Miller; Eitan Daniel, son of Julie Roffman and Thor Rosenquist; Jack Matthew, son of Erica Parks and Barry Rubin; Spencer K., son of Heidi and Scott Schneiderman; Armon River, son of Tanya and Craig Seina; Josh Bennett, son of Andrea and Mike Siegel; Jeremy Robert, son of Mimi and Michael Silverman; Charles Thomas, son of Louri Sullivan and Charles Sullivan; Isabella Eva, daughter of Annette and Jeremy Wright CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN Ashley Bernstein; Alicia Chapelle; Vicki Edwards; Calvin Gordon, son of Tracy and Randy Gordon

ADL/CRC Richard Juro and Jeff Gordman, Co-Chairs; Patrick Jensen, Past President; David Gilinsky, Carol Bloch, Tom Vann, Aaron Weiner, Andrea Barstow, Ellie Batt, Bob Bleicher, Shirely Cemaj, Mel Clancy, Richard Evnen, Katherine Finnegan, Ted Friedland, Herb Friedman, Bruce Goldberg, Danielle Gordman, Jeff Kirshenbaum, Michael Levine, Gary Nachman, Bob Nefsky, Brian Nogg, Alan Parsow, David Radler, Jan Schneiderman and Nancy Wolf.

CENTER FOR JEWISH LIFE Karla Cohen, Dusty Friedman, Ron Giller, Andrea Hamburg, Shane Kotak, Patty Nogg, Debbie Roitstein, Matt Shapiro, Rachel Shyken and Dorothy Spizman INSTITUTE FOR HOLOCAUST EDUCATION GOVERNANCE COUNCIL Robert Cohen, Eunie Denenberg, Shami Jacobs, Bea Karp, Gloria Kaslow, Howard Kaslow, Marsha Kleinberg, Ari Kohen, Paula Lenz, Lori Miller, Jama Samiev, Jill Sideris, Paul Smith and Janice Woolley JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER Jason Epstein, President; Penny Endelman, Treasurer; Scott Simon, Secretary; Shira Abraham, Stacey Atlas, Dan Epstein, Chuck Lucoff, Jamie Meyerson, Bruce Muskin, Wendy Raffel, Ari Riekes, Gary Shyken, Dorothy Spizman and Michael Siegel, Immediate Past President.

Camping Jewish

JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA Jay Noddle, President; Mike Siegel, Budget and Financial Review Chair; Jon Meyers, Richard

Jacobson, JSS Board Co-President; Richard Juro, CRC Board President; Carl Riekes, Foundation President; Jason Epstein, JCC President; Eric Dunning, Jewish Press President; Brett Atlas, Bob Belgrade, Toba Cohen-Dunning, Bruce Friedlander, Bruce Goldberg, Dana Kaufman, Scott Meyerson and Jody Malashock, Past President (ex-officio).

JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA FOUNDATION Carl Riekes, President; Donald Goldstein, Vice President; Steven Bloch,Paul Epstein, Michael M. Erman, Ted Friedland, David Gilinsky, Gloria Kaslow, Joseph Kirshenbaum, Howard Kooper, Jody Malashock, Murray H. Newman, Steve Nogg, Andrew Robinson, Harley D. Schrager, Jeffrey Schrager, Ted M. Seldin, Emeritus; Frederick J. Simon, Norman Veitzer.

JEWISH PRESS Eric Dunning, President; Andy Ruback, Past President; Andrew Boehm, Scott Farkas, Sandy Friedman, Paul Gerber, Alex Grossman, David Kotok, Debbie Kricsfeld, Abby Kutler, Pam Monsky, Paul Rabinovitz, Nancy Wolf and Barry Zoob JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICES Richard Jacobson and Steve Nogg, CoPresidents; Joan Bernstein, Toba CohenDunning, Justin Cooper, Jim Farber, Past President; Debbi Josephson, Jeff Kirshenbaum, Treasurer; Kate Kirshenbaum, Nancy Noddle, Susan Norton, Jim Polack, Dorothy Spizman, Mike Shrago, L.O.V.E President; Terri Zacharia and Sally Zipursky, Secretary.

Coming October

Publishing Date | 10.09.14 Space Reservation | 9.30.15 Camera Ready Deadline | 10.02.14

Contact your advertising representative to advertise in this very special edition.

Jessie Wees | 402.334.6559 | jwees@jewishomaha.org

September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | C9

Boards

PEOPLE WHO READ NEWSPAPERS ARE

STUDENTS WITH BETTER GRADES It all starts with Newspapers

Synagogues B’NAI ISRAEL Board of Directors: Mark Eveloff, Rick Katelman, Carole Lainof, Marty Ricks, Sissy Silber, Nancy Wolf and Phil Wolf.

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Joel Rich, President; Jon Jabenis, Vice President; Ari Riekes, Vice President; Jim Zipursky, Vice President; Jay Gordman, Treasurer; Caryn Scheer, Secretary; Lloyd Roitstein, Past President; Lisa Marcus, BESTT Chair; Jason Blair, Men’s Club President; Linda Fischer, Sisterhood President; Zev Krausman, U.S.Y. President; Karla Cohen, Beth Dworkin, Glen Fineman, David Finkelstein, Jeremy Friedman, Betsy Goodman, Miriam Gottlieb, Leonard Greenspoon, M’Lee Hasslinger, David Kotok, Michael Krausman, Adam Kutler, Bruce Kutler, Amy Nachman, Kevin Saltzman, Ben Shapiro, Jim Wax, Bob Yaffe, David Weill and Barry Zoob.

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE Board of Commissioners: Toba Cohen-Dunning, President; Liat Shyken, VP of Administration; Bruce Potash, VP of Membership and Executive Officer; Bruce Goldberg, VP of Financial Planning; Jeff Kirshenbaum, Treasurer; Joey Shyken, Secretary; Joel Alperson, Aryeh Epstein, Mary Sue Grossman, Julee Katzman, Zoe Riekes, Stacey Rockman, Lynne Saltzman, Michael Shrago, Sherry Taxman, Harry Weiner and All Past Presidents.

CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN/ THE SOUTH STREET TEMPLE David Weisser, President; Nathaniel Kaup, Vice President; Julie Moore, Secretary; Peter Mullin and Leslie Delserone, CoTreasurers; Stacy Balter, Michael Boekstal, Keren Coulter, Pam

Ganz, John Mosow, Anne Rickover and Art Zygielbaum.

TEMPLE ISRAEL Michael Halsted, President; Alan Fredricks and Todd Hutton, Presidential Appointees; Rosie Zweiback, President Elect; Andie Gordman and Mike Norton, Vice Presidents; Paul Rabinovitz, Secretary; Jeff Schweid, Treasurer; Ron Beach, Assistant Treasurer; Sally Kaplan, Past President; Board Members: Stacie Brodkey, Sophie Budwig, Justin Cooper, Marlen Frost, Dan Gilbert, Scott Goodman, Danielle Gordman, Gary Kaplan, Traci Kugler, Dan Marburg, Troy Meyerson, Paul Miller, Susie Norton, Jane Rips, Louri Sullivan and Phil Wayne.

Omaha Temple Youth Group: Sophie Budwig, President; Ellie Reiss, Programming Vice President; Benjamin Brodkey, Religious and Cultural Vice President; Maddee Rauhauser, Social Action Vice President; Ben Leathers-Arnold and Maddie Miller, Co-Membership Vice Presidents; Mikayla Langdon, Communications and Visual Vice President; Aleia Budwig, Special Projects Coordinator; Olivia Nogg, JYG Liaison Women of Reform Judaism-Omaha: Stacie Brodkey, President Men of Reform Judaism-Omaha: Dan Marburg, President TIFERETH ISRAEL Marcia Kushner, President; Jennifer Rosenblatt, Vice President; Howard Feldman, Treasurer; Ken Bloom, Secretary; Brenda Ingraham, Immediate Past President; Dan Friedman, Membership Chair; David Brockman, Fair Shares Dues Chair; Trustees: Seth Harris and Marlon Weiss; Members at Large: Joyce Davidson, Robert Evnen, Nanci Hamicksburg, Gary Hill, Max Neiden, and Cindy Weiss; Staff: Nancy Coren, Lay Leader and Nava Halpern, Administrator.

FRIEDEL JEWISH ACADEMY Rabbi Steven Abraham, Ex-Officio; Joel Alperson, Public Affairs; Rabbi Aryeh Azriel, Ex-Officio; Rabbi Josh Brown, Ex-Officio; Danni Christensen, Ex-Officio/PTO Rep; Beth Cohen, ExOfficio/Head of School; Rabbi Ari Dembitzer, Ex-Officio; Pam Epstein, Liz Feldstern, Pam Friedlander, Amy Friedman, Ron Giller, Ari Kohen, Laurel Krausman, Jody Malashock, Zoe Riekes, Lloyd Roitstein, Ex-Officio/ Immediate Past President; Helene Shrago, Gary Shyken, Mike Silverman, Jeremy Wright and Jeff Zacharia, President.

L.O.V.E. (LEAGUE OFFERING VOLUNTEERS FOR THE ELDERLY) Mark Kazor and Michael Shrago, Co-Presidents; Gabby Blair, Linda Cogen, Dora Goldstrom, Member Advisor; Ed Horwitz, Les Kay, Treasurer; Vicki Perlmeter, Dottie Rosenblum, Ricki Skog, Secretary; Crystal Smith, Shelley Stern, Jim Wax, Past President and Lois Wine.

MAINSTREETERS Committee Chairs: Harry Alloy, Advisor; Linda Abrams-Tederman and Shelley Stern, Luncheon Co-Chairs; Tootie Simon, Menu Chair; Dottie Rosenblum, Recording Secretary; Jim Wax, Communications; Rocky Stern, Education; Maggie Conti, Staff

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Jewish Organizations B’NAI B’RITH HENRY MONSKY LODGE Ari Riekes, President; Gary Javitch, President Emeritus; Board Members: Alvin Abrahmson, Mike Abramson, Gerald Meyer, Marty Ricks, Steve Riekes, Howard Shandell and Aaron Weiner.

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NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMENOMAHA SECTION Alice Klein, President; Melinda Graham, Vice President of Community Service; Jenny Meyerson, Vice President of Fundraising; Sonia Tipp, Vice President of Membership; Becki Brenner and Deb Marburg, Vice Presidents of Public Affairs; Rachel Martin, Vice President of Public Relations; Kelly Kirk, Treasurer; Jill Simon, Corresponding Secretary; Tippi Denenberg, Financial Secretary; Darlene Golbitz, Recording Secretary; Lisa Lewis, Parliamentarian; Directors: Linda Fischer, Pam Friedlander, Jen Koom, Tina Meyers, Sherrie Saag and Leora Werner; Holly Weill, Nominating Committee Chair; Traci Kugler, Bonnie Levinger and Jaime Nogg, Nominating Committee from General Membership; Julie Martin and Andi Willensky, Nominating Committee Alternates.

NEBRASKA JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY Bob Belgrade, President; Beth Staenberg, Vice President; Rocky Stern, Secretary; Nan Katz, Treasurer; Sue Millward, Past President; Oliver Pollak, Co-Founder; Ellie Batt, Jill Belmont, Judy Brookstein, Michael Gendler, Lorrie Katelman, Janie Kulakofsky, Rocky Lewis, Vicki Perlmeter; Ex-Officio: Louise Abrahamson, Joanie Bernstein, Midge Bowers, Helen Epstein, Lois Friedman, Debbie Josephson, Ira Nathan, Helen Rifkin; Max Neiden, Honorary Member and Doug Hartman, Board Advisory on Archives and Exhibits.

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ADL security manual provided to Jewish institutions

by JTA NEWS STAFF (JTA) -- The Anti-Defamation League is providing U.S. Jewish institutions with an updated security manual in advance of the High Holidays.

The defense organization also is providing other resources and training to help Jewish institutions with their security preparedness.

The new edition of ADL’s security manual, "Protecting Your Jewish Institution," which is available on the organization's website, provides information on topics including security planning; physical security and operations; relationships with emergency personnel; detecting surveillance; computer and data security; explosive threat response planning; active shooters; considerations for schools and summer camps; dealing with protesters; and crisis management.

The manual was first published in 2003 and periodically is updated.

“Unfortunately, in 2015, Jewish institutions across the country still remain a potential target, which is why synagogues and Jewish communal facilities need to always be vigilant,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL's national director.

“Jews should feel comfortable going about their daily lives and observing the holidays while still being aware and making security a priority.”

Among the guide's recommendations for security during the High Kolidays: Connect with local law enforcement to discuss security and advise them of High Holiday schedules and special events; ensure that ushers understand that they play a critical role in security matters, and that they are familiar with suspicious activity indicators; establish procedures for controlling access into facilities; encourage staff, leadership and constituents to trust their instincts if they come across someone or something suspicious.

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Synagogues B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE 618 Mynster Street | Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 |712.322.4705 email: BnaiIsraelCouncilBluffs@gmail.com Tribute cards for any occasion are available. Please contact Sissy Silber at 311 Oak Ridge Ct., Bellevue, NE 68005 or 402.292.8062.

ROSH HASHANAH SUNDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m., Sarah Grossman Lopez, Habitat for Humanity of Omaha, Director of Development will speak on Justice and Dignity: How Habitat for Humanity’s work embraces Tzedakah through a hand up, not hand out approach.

MONDAY: Services, 10:30 a.m., Dr. Oliver Pollak, Attorney, Historian and Writer will speak on Reunion and Renewal.

Break-the-Fast Potluck will follow the concluding service on Wednesday, Sept. 23. Please call Carole Lainof, 402.293.0321, for more information.

All services led by Jeffrey Taxman. For information on our historic synagogue, or to arrange a visit, please contact any of our board members: Mark Eveloff, Rick Katelman, Carole Lainof, Marty Ricks, Sissy Silber, Nancy Wolf and Phil Wolf.

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California | Omaha, NE 68154-1980 | 402.492.8550 www.bethel-omaha.org Services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Services, 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush sponsored by Mary and Joel Rich; Junior Congregation, 10 a.m.; Shabbat’s Cool (Grades K-7), 10 a.m. followed by lunch; Mini-Minyannaires, 10:45 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:15 p.m.; WEEKDAY SERVICES: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.; weekdays, 7 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.

SUNDAY: No BESTT Classes; Torah Study, 10 a.m.; Erev Rosh Hashanah Ma’ariv, 6 p.m.

ROSH HASHANAH MONDAY: Rosh Hashanah Service, 8:30 a.m. with babysitting; Tot Service, 9 a.m.; Torah Service, 9:30 a.m.; Shofar Service, 10:15 a.m.; Junior Congregation, 10:15 a.m.; Musaf, 10:45 a.m.; Sermon, noon; Final Shofar Blasts, 12:30 p.m.; Tashlich, 4:45 p.m.; Mincha-Ma’ariv and refreshments, 6 p.m.

TUESDAY: Rosh Hashanah Service, 8:30 a.m. with babysitting; Rosh Hashanah Storytime, 9 a.m.; Torah Service, 9:30 a.m.; Shofar Service, 10:15 a.m.; Junior Congregation, 10:15 a.m.; Text Study/Discussion, 10:45 a.m.; Musaf, 11 a.m.; Final Shofar Blasts, 12:30 p.m.; Mincha-Ma’ariv, 7:45 p.m.; Havdallah, 8:15 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: BESTT Classes, 4:15 p.m.; Kadima Meeting, 5:45 p.m.; Hebrew High, 6:45 p.m.; Choir Practice, 7:30 p.m.

USY Havdallah & Bonfire, Saturday, Sept. 19, 8:10 p.m.

(Bonfire at Krausmans’ following services.)

Men’s Club Sukkah Building, Sunday, Sept. 20, 8 a.m.

BESTT Synagogue Mystery Tour (Grades 1-2), Sunday, Sept. 20, 9:45 a.m.

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

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 12604 Pacific Street | Omaha, NE. 68154 | 402.556.6288 www.orthodoxomaha.org Office hours: Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and Friday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Services conducted by Rabbi Ari Dembitzer.

FRIDAY: Selichot & Shacharit, 6:40 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv & Kabbalat Shabbat, 7:23 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Crash Course on High Holidays, 6 p.m.; Mincha/Seudah Shlishit, 7:05 p.m.; Ma’ariv/Havdalah, 8:29 p.m.

SUNDAY: Selichot & Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Bagels and Beit Medrash, 10 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7:19 p.m.

ROSH HASHANAH MONDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7 p.m.

Candlelighting Friday, September 11, 7:22 p.m.

Sunday, September 13, 7:19 p.m. | Monday, September 14, 8:18 p.m. Earliest Candlelighting

TUESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7 p.m.; Havdallah, 8:24 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Fast of Gedalia Begins, 5:42 a.m.; Selichot & Shacharit, 6:40 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7 p.m.; Fast Ends, 8:03 p.m.

THURSDAY: Selichot & Shacharit, 6:40 a.m.; Women’s Class, 9:30 a.m.; Avot U-Banim, 7 p.m.; Girls Learning Program, 7:30 p.m.; Talmud Learning, 8:30 p.m.

CHABAD HOUSE An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch 1866 South 120 Street | Omaha, NE 68144-1646 | 402.330.1800 www.OChabad.com | email: chabad@aol.com Services conducted by Rabbi Mendel Katzman. Office hours: Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Minyan and Meditation, 7 a.m SATURDAY: Minyan and Meditation, 9:30 a.m.

SUNDAY: Minyan and Meditation, 8:30 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7 p.m. followed by Family Dinner WEEKDAYS: Minyan and Meditation, 7 a.m.

ROSH HASHANAH MONDAY: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m.; Shofar Service, 11 a.m.; Tashlich and Dinner, 6:30 p.m. with Mincha/Ma’ariv to follow.

TUESDAY: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m.; Shofar Service, 11 a.m. ; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 7 p.m.; Holiday ends at 8:15 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Fast of Gedalya begins, 5:43 a.m.; Fast Ends, 8:01 p.m. You can learn more at ochabad.com/ 158968.

THURSDAY: Women’s Study at UNMC with Shani Katzman, noon. RSVP by emailing Marlene Cohen at mzcohen@unmc.edu.

All programs are open to the entire community.

CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN South Street Temple | Union for Reform Judaism 2061 South 20th Street | Lincoln, NE 68502-2797 | 402.435.8004 www.southstreettemple.org Services conducted by Rabbi Craig Lewis.

FRIDAY: Shabbat Evening Service, 7:45 p.m. with oneg following hosted by Ray and Keren Coulter.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10:30 a.m. on Parashat Nitzavim; LTYG, 5:30-8 p.m.

Contact Ashley Bernstein with questions.

ROSH HASHANAH SUNDAY: No LCJS Classes; Rosh Hashanah Evening Services, 8 p.m. with oneg following hosted by the Board of Trustees.

MONDAY: Rosh Hashanah Family Service, 9 a.m.

(Parents, please accompany your children); Morning Service, 10 a.m.; Tashlich service, 3 p.m. at Wilderness Park; WEDNESDAY: Hebrew classes (grades 3-7), 4-6 p.m. at Tifereth Israel.

THURSDAY: Choir Rehearsal, 7:30-9 p.m.

Game Night/Potluck, Saturday, Sept. 19, 6 p.m.

Questions? Contact Deborah Swearingen.

Break-the-fast Potluck, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 6 p.m. If you have questions or can help set up or clean up, please contact: Jennifer Williss, 402.540.2697 or spinningjw@gmail.com Michelle Schreiber, 402.438.1081 or michelleschreiber5@ gmail.com. If you will be attending the Break the Fast Potluck, please RSVP to the Temple office (402.435.8004 or office@southstreettemple.org) with the number attending and the food item you plan to bring so we can plan appropriately. We hope you can join us on Sept. 23!

President’s Office Hours, Sunday Mornings, 10 a.m.–noon at SST. If you have any Temple business you would like to bring before the Board of Trustees, potential programs, or new ideas, please let us know! Call for an appointment at the Temple or just to chat any time at 402.513.7697. Or if you prefer, just email David Weisser at president@southstreet temple.org.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE Capehart Chapel 2500 Capehart Road | Offutt AFB, NE 68123 | 402.294.6244 FRIDAY: Services, 7:30 p.m. every first and third of the month.

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME

MEMORIAL SERVICES Sunday, September 20 Oak Hills/Bikhor Cholim, Council Bluffs, 11 a.m.

Beth El Cemetery, 84th and ‘L’ Sts., 11:45 a.m.

Temple Israel Cemetery, 6412 No. 42 St., 1 p.m.

Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, 3 p.m.

323 South 132 Street | Omaha, NE 68154 SATURDAY: Services, 9:15 a.m. led by Steve Riekes.

ROSH HASHANAH SUNDAY: Erev Evening Service, 6:45 p.m., led by Marti Nerenstone.

MONDAY: Morning Service, 9:15 a.m., led by Marti Nerenstone.

TUESDAY: Morning service, 9:15 a.m., led by Marti Nerenstone.

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

TEMPLE ISRAEL Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 13111 Sterling Ridge Drive | Omaha, NE 68144-1206 | 402.556.6536 http://templeisraelomaha.com FRIDAY: Shabbat Comes to You at Remington Heights, 4 p.m.; Shabbat Service, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m.; Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m.; SUNDAY: No Religious School; Erev Rosh Hashanah Evening Service, 7:30 p.m.

ROSH HASHANAH MONDAY: Tot Service (preschool-age to Kindergarten children), 9 a.m. with Rabbi Brown; Rosh Hashanah Morning Service (Grades 1-3), 9 a.m. led by Rabbi Azriel and Cantor Shermet; Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, 10:15 a.m., Tashlich, 12:30 p.m. following our Rosh Hashanah service, we will gather for Tashlich, which means “cast away.” We will throw our transgressions into the creek behind our new building and begin the new year cleansed of our sins and misdeeds. A family friendly Mitzvah project will follow Tashlich.

TUESDAY: Kol Rina Rehearsal (Kol Rina and Quintet), 6:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Grades 3-6, 4 p.m.; Chapel for School Service, 4:30 p.m.; School Dinner, 6 p.m.; Grades 7-12, 6 p.m.; Reform Rabbinic Responsa -- Congregational Concerns, 6:30 p.m.

THURSDAY: No Adult Education Class Shabbat Shuva, Friday, Sept. 18, 6 p.m. The “Sabbath of Return,” emphasizes the return to those values which enhance life and its meaning. On Shabbat Shuva, this year we will be including a text study on Race in America, during services and on Saturday, Sept. 19, 10:30 a.m., during morning services we will continue of text study related to Race in America.

TIFERETH ISRAEL Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Boulevard | Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 | 402.423.8569 www.tiferethisraellincoln.org Services conducted by lay leader Nancy Coren. Office hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

FRIDAY: Services, 6:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: Morning service, 10 a.m. followed by a Kiddush Luncheon.

ROSH HASHANAH SUNDAY: No LCJS Classes; Ma’ariv, 8 p.m.

MONDAY: Synagogue office closed; Services, 9 a.m.; Youth Service, 11 a.m.; Mincha/Tashlich, 5 p.m. at Antelope Creek.

Marcus Freed, our cantor this year will be leading a Torah Yoga session after the Tashlich.

TUESDAY: Synagogue office closed; Service, 9 a.m.; Youth Service, 11 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 6:15 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Hebrew classes (grades 3-7), 4-6 p.m. at Tifereth Israel.

Annual Congregation Break-the-fast at the end of Yom Kippur. Havdalah service and meal, 8:05 p.m.

The LJCS is holding a canned food drive to benefit the Lincoln Public School’s Back Pack Program. Large blue bins are set up in both buildings for donations. Please stop by and donate what you are able. The food bank is in need during this time of year as kids are returning to school.

How Hillary Clinton turned gefilte fish into a hashtag

by GABE FRIEDMAN (JTA) We are nowhere near Passover season, if there is such a thing, but gefilte fish is trending across the Internet. How this much-maligned fish dish became a social media sensation is a story that’s almost too good to be true — involving Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, American-Israeli relations and, of course, carp.

The tale began Monday night, when the State Department released the latest batch of Hillary Clinton’s emails from her time as secretary of state. Among the messages was this gem: If this is not your favorite Hillary email from this particular dump, I'm not sure we can be friends. #GefilteFish Continued on page 11

September 11, 2015 | The Jewish Press | C11

How Hillary Clinton turned gefilte fish into a hashtag Continued from page 10 The citizens of social media were quick to appreciate the humor of the email, which serves up the inherent hilarity of gefilte fish garnished with Hillary’s trademark brusque demeanor: Don't worry Sec. Clinton, this is a question that Jews have been asking for generations. #GefilteFish (h/t @OKnox) The Gefilteria in Brooklyn, a shop that produces “artisanal gefilte fish,” was especially pleased to see its trademark ingredient in the news. Tablet’s Yair Rosenberg discovered the genesis of the perplexing email in, of all places, a passage from Michael Oren’s recently published memoir “Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide.” In

February 2010, as part of her State Department duties, Clinton had to deal with a shipment of 400,000 pounds of carp (the main ingredient of gefilte fish) to Israel that was blocked due to a high import tariff imposed by free trade laws from 1985. Clinton was feeling pressure to make sure the carp was delivered for two reasons: Passover was quickly approaching and Schafer Fisheries in Illinois was threatening to lay off a large portion of its staff if it could not profit from the 200 tons of carp it had shipped.

Luckily, after days of negotiations with Israel’s ministers of trade and finance, a compromise was achieved – and Passover seders across Israel were able to include the mostessential, if under-appreciated, holiday dish.

All Rummage Sale proceeds will go towards the purchase of new Bedside Telemetry Monitors for Memorial Comunity Hospital in Blair, NE. These monitors are small devices connected to the patients to monitor their heart rhythm while in the hospital.

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JEWISH PRESS OFFICE CLOSING The Jewish Press will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 14-15 for Rosh Hashanah, Wednesday, Sept. 23, for Yom Kippur, and Monday, Sept. 28 for Sukkot. Questions? Please call 402.334.6448.

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HELP WANTED: Live-in manager for 40 unit motel in Central Nebraska. Please contact Wortman Enterprises, 1120 13th Street, Aurora, NE 68818 or call Jayne at 402-694-0448 for more info.

FULLER ESTATE Auction, Sunday, September 20, 2015, 10:00 a.m. MDT, Chase County Fairgrounds, Imperial, NE. Antique cars, Remington Bronzes, original oil paintings, fantastic oak antique furniture, household furniture, antiques & collectibles, ammo and gun related items, antique toys, antique china.

Rod Fuller’s belongings offered at this quality auction are second to none! This is one of the finest auctions you will attend! For a full listing and many pictures, go to HYPERLINK “http://www.michaelauction.com” www.michaelauction.com. Michael Auction Service, Julesburg, CO.

SEEKING AREA Coordinator. Manage successful tutoring program in your area. We will provide all back room expenses/payroll. Great business opportunity for dedicated entrepreneur. 1-800-293-3091, AcademicTutoringService@gmail.com.

HOOPER POLICE Department seeking full-time Police Officer. Nebraska Law Enforcement Certification required. Benefits. Send resume to PO Box 65, Hooper, 68031, or hoopercityclerk@futuretk. com, 402-654-3649.

RNs UP to $45/hr., LPNs up to $37.50/hr., CNAs up to $22.50/hr. Free gas/weekly pay, $2,000 bonus.

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BANKRUPTCY: FREE initial consultation. Fast relief from creditors. Low rates. Statewide filing. No office appointment necessary. Call Steffens Law Office, 308-872-8327. steffensbankruptcylaw.com. We are a debt relief agency, which helps people file bankruptcy under the bankruptcy code.

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BELLEVUE UNIVERSITY College of Business is seeking Adjunct Instructors to teach in the Bachelor of Science in Business program in several cities across Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota. Applicants must possess an MBA or Ph. D., 5 years of professional business experience, and a demonstrated record of teaching experience. Applicants will teach in classroom. Position description and application can be found at: https://home.eease.adp.com/recruit/?id= 7885641.

BUTLER TRANSPORT Your Partner in Excellence.

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High Miles! BC/BS Insurance, pets allowed. CDL-A, 1year OTR required. 888-476-4860, www.drive chief.com.

Advertising index Advertiser Page A Permanent Solution ........................................... A3 Abrahams, Kaslow & Cassman LLP ............................ A3 Allens ........................................................................... A7 Anti-Defamation League ............................................ C12 American Friends of Magen David Adom..................... C1 Arnold Weitz & Co. ....................................................... A4 B’nai B’rith Henry Monsky Lodge .............................. C12 B’nai B’rith Youth Organization .................................. A12 B’nai Israel Synagogue .............................................. C12 B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue ......................................... C2 Badger Body ............................................................... A7 Bagel Bin ..................................................................... B8 Belgrade Family ........................................................... B2 Bergman Incentives ..................................................... A3 Bergman Jewelry ......................................................... A3 Beth El BILU USY ....................................................... C3 Beth El Synagogue .................................................... C12 Beth Israel NCSY ....................................................... C3 Beth Israel Sisterhood ............................................... C12 Beth Israel Synagogue .............................................. C12 Boys Town ................................................................... A6 Broadmoor .................................................................. B7 CB Richard Ellis/MEGA ............................................... B2 The Center for Jewish Life ......................................... C12 Chabad ..................................................................... C12 Charleston’s ............................................................ A11 Cohen’s Computer Club .............................................A9 Colliers International................................................... B11 Countryside Village ................................................... C6 Creighton University ................................................... A14 Enterprise Bank ........................................................... B7 Frankel, Zacharia .............................................................. B4 Fraser Stryker Law Firm ............................................... C2 Friedel Jewish Academy ...............................................B9

Advertiser Page Heaffey Hoffman Dworak Cutler Mortuaries.............. A15 Hiller Electric ............................................................... B3 Hockenbergs ............................................................. B9 I-Go Van & Storage ...................................................... C9 Ideal Pure Water & Coffee .......................................... A12 Institute for Holocaust Education .............................. C12 Interim Homestyle Services ....................................... A15 Jewish Federation of Lincoln ....................................... C9 Jewish Federation of Omaha ....................................... B1 Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation .................. B1 Jewish Press ..................................................B7, C3, C12 Jewish Social Services ................................................B12 Jewish War Veterans ................................................. C12 John A. Gentleman Mortuaries .................................. B3 Julio’s .........................................................................A14 Kohll’s Pharmacy & Homecare .................................. A12 League Offering Volunteers for the Elderly ................. C12 Lerner Company ........................................................ A12 Louie M’s Burger Lust ................................................ A11 Malashock Jewelry .................................................... A13 Malbar Vision Centers ................................................. B6 Mark Sanford Group .................................................... B4 Marks Clare & Richards ............................................. B10 McGill, Gotsdiner, Workman & Lepp, PC, LLO. ............ A4 McGrath North .......................................................... B6 Members M.D.............................................................B11 Mid-City Jewelry & Loan .............................................. A8 N. Pitlor & Son, Inc. ................................................... B11 Nan C .......................................................................... A8 Natan & Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel & Jewish Studies ................................................................. C12 National Council of Jewish Women-Omaha Section .. C12 Nebraska Furniture Mart ............................................. C4 Nebraska Jewish Historical Society ........................... C12

Advertiser Page Nebraska Press Statewide Classifieds ....................... C11 Noddle Companies ..................................................... C1 Oak Hills/Bikhor Cholim Cemetery ........................... B10 Omaha Steaks ........................................................... A13 Omaha Surgical Center ............................................... B8 Parsow’s ...................................................................... A4 Peterson Brothers Realty Co. ...................................... A14 Pulverente Monument Co. .......................................... B4 Russ Kaplan Investments ............................................ A7 Russell’s ...................................................................... C6 St. Joseph Villa ............................................................ A9 Schwalb Realty ........................................................... A7 Security Equipment, Inc. ............................................. A3 Seldin Company ........................................................ A15 Silverman, Stanley Birthday ....................................... C7 Sol’s Jewelry & Loan ................................................... A9 Sonny Gerber Auto Sales ............................................. A5 Stothert, Mayor Jean ................................................... B5 Suburban Newspapers Inc. ......................................... B8 Swartzbaugh Farber .................................................. A13 Temple Israel ............................................................. C12 Tifereth Israel Synagogue ............................................ C2 Tritz Plumbing Inc. ....................................................... C9 Valentino’s ................................................................. A11 van de Kamp-Wright Family ......................................... C9 Vann Realty ................................................................. C9 Village Pointe ............................................................... B5 Village Pointe Pediatrics ............................................. A10 Visiting Nurse Association ............................................ A5 Wiesman Development ................................................ A5 The Winery ................................................................. A11 Wolf Bros. Western Store ............................................ A14 Zio’s Pizzeria ................................................................ A8

SMEAL FIRE APPARATUS CO. 610 W 4th ST. Snyder, NE 68664 www.smeal.com

EOE/Substance Screening

C12 | The Jewish Press | September 11, 2015

Have a sweet New Year!

League Offering Volunteers for the Elderly

L’Shana Tovah

Sincere wishes for a Happy, Healthy New Year

The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home Auxiliary

Shana Tovah!

From the Board Members and Staff of the Center for Jewish Life

A Peaceful and Prosperous

Rosh Hashanah to the Community With Your Help We’ll Have A Great Past Ahead Of Us

A beneficiary of the Annual Campaign of the Jewish Federation of Omaha

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 & Healthy New Year Benefactor $1,000 • Platinum $500 Gold $250 • Patron-1 Year $100 Sponsor $50 • Regular $25

For more holiday content, please visit our website at www.jewishomaha.org

Happy New Year

JEWISH WAR VETERANS of AMERICA Epstein Morgan Post 260

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

FREE membership to all active-duty personnel Contact: Jay Benton, Commander 402-250-6133 We welcome any and all new members

BETH ISRAEL SISTERHOOD

Best Wishes for a Happy New Year

Henry Monsky Lodge B’nai B’rith

National Council of Jewish Women Omaha Section

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

Best wishes to our wonderful community for a sweet, healthy, happy year.

May this year bring the fulfillment of our most fervent wishes and dreams.

Rabbi Mendel and Shani Katzman and Family Chabad Board Members and Volunteers