thejewishpress AN AGENCY OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF OMAHA
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Checking in with the JFO Campaign Chairs
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AnneTTe vAn de KAmp-WRigHT Editor, Jewish Press he 2018 Campaign Jewish Federation of Omaha is in full swing and many of our lay leaders are hard at work soliciting pledges and organizing events; no one more so than this year’s Campaign Chairs Ruth and Joe Erman and Dana and Mike Kaufman. Joe, born and raised in Omaha, was a partner in a fresh beef business with his brother Mike until 1988; “After that, I owned City Glass Company until my retirement in 2006,” he said. Ruth, a retired mental health counselor, has been a dedicated volunteer in the Omaha Jewish community since first moving here after marrying Joe in 1969. “Having grown up in Manhattan, KS, a small college town with a very small Jewish community, I knew I wanted to be involved here,” Ruth said. “Over the years. I’ve participated with the JFO as a board member and during the Annual Campaign.” For Ruth, participating in the Annual Campaign means doing so in whatever capacity she’s needed, “from taking cards to co-chairing the Women’s Campaign. I also served on the library board
JCC renovations page 5
A Costa Rican artist in Omaha page 8
Ruth and Joe erman and the Jewish Family Service Board.” In addition, she’s been involved with Temple Israel’s sisterhood as well as the National Council of Jewish Women. For Every Generation, Federation: it is so much more than a slogan. Hearing Ruth and Joe talk about the many ways they care about this community, know-
ing they’ve chosen to Chair the current Campaign with daughter Dana and her husband Mike also serves as a reminder that when lay leaders choose to get involved, they often have the next generation in mind. In addition to Dana, Ruth and Joe have a son Mark See JFO Campaign page 2
B’nai B’rith Outstanding Athlete Awards
Read it and eat page 11
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mark Kirchhoff Program and Communications Assistant, Jewish Federation of Omaha The 16th Annual Omaha Jewish Film Festival begins Sunday, Oct. 22 with the showing of the comedy The Pickle Recipe at 7 p.m. in the JCC Theater. There are five films in this year’s festival, each screened at 7 p.m. The Jewish Federation of Omaha and the Institute for Holocaust Education (IHE) are working together to produce the festival. An exciting addition this year is the collaboration with Film Streams, Omaha’s own nonprofit cinema. The second film in the series, The Women’s Balcony, will be shown at the Ruth Sokolof Theater located at 1340 Mike Fahey Street.
“So many in our community have a great love of the annual film festival, as the cinema has the power to transport each viewer to another time or place. We anticipate a wonderful turnout this year, especially considering our opportunity for collaboration with Film Streams,” said Jennie Gates Beckman, Director of Community Engagement and Education and co-producer with Liz Feldstern, Director for the Institute for Holocaust Education. Liz added, “With the diligent work of our film selection committee and the many hours they devoted to screening and selecting a variety of excellent films, I think this is going to be a great festival.” The film selection committee members this year are Yoni Doron, Ben Gerber, Dora Goldstrom, Margie Gutnik, Gloria Kaslow, Gary Katz, Dené Oglesby, Ophir Palmon, Stephanie Plenner, Matthew Reinarz, Joel Schlessinger, Eitan Tsabari, and producers Jennie Gates Beckman and Liz Feldstern. The screeners who have made the selections for this year’s festival are confident that these are films that will have wide appeal and will be See Jewish Film Festival page 3
Solomon Bradley, Jaylin’s father; left; Ari Riekes; Howard Shandell and Rylie Unzicker programming, families in need, educational TAmmy JOHnSOn Administrative Assistant, activities and other programs that have B’nai B’rith Henry Monsky Lodge #3306 served the Omaha Jewish community and For 62 years, the Omaha Charity Sports the greater Omaha community. This year, Banquet, sponsored by the B’nai B’rith the Lodge is taking a pause on a formal Henry Monsky Lodge, has been one of the dinner event. Due to the number of comlongest running and most successful local peting banquets and the costs associated sports banquets in the metropolitan area. with drawing top-flight speakers, the We are proud to have had the biggest Lodge is taking its time to work through names in sports serve as our keynote how we can best steward our non-profit speakers. In addition, we thank the Omaha funds and donations in relation to those community for coming together year after demands. We do not want to put on an year to help support our great charity as event unless we are confident it will be well as to honor the top local male and fe- both entertaining and successful in genermale high school athletes. ating sufficient revenue to support the The banquet has been the Lodge’s pri- charitable activities of the organization. mary fundraiser, and proceeds from the To that end, we welcome your input, ideas event have been used to support youth See B’nai B’rith page 2