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O C TO B E R 1 3 , 2 02 3 | 2 8 TIS H RE I 578 4 | VO L. 1 04 | NO. 50 | CANDLELIGHTING | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 6: 28 P.M.
A Sensory History of NaziOccupied Amsterdam
The 21st Annual Omaha Jewish Film Festival is here Page 5
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ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor ov. 9 at 7 p.m., the community is invited to hear Saskia Coenen Snyder speak about pre-Holocaust Amsterdam. A collaboration between the Institute of Holocaust Education and The Jewish Press, this event will be held in the Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Community Engagement Venue at the Staenberg Kooper Fellman JCC. Saskia Coenen Snyder is professor of modern Jewish history at the University of South Carolina, where she also serves as Director of the Jewish Studies Program. She received her doctorate at the University of Michigan in 2008. Her first book, Building a Public Judaism: Synagogues and Jewish Identity in Nineteenth-Century Europe, examined synagogue architecture and building practices in four major European cities (London, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris) and was published by Harvard University Press in 2013. Her most recent book, A Brilliant Commodity: Diamonds and Jews in a Modern Setting (Oxford UP, 2023), analyzes the role of Jewish merchants, entrepreneurs, and lapidaries in the nineteenth and twentieth-century global diamond industry. Her work has been published by American, British, German, and Dutch University presses, but she also writes for local audiences -- she is a regular contributor to the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust’s annual edition, The Holocaust Remembered. Dr. Coenen Snyder has been a See A History of Nazi-Occupied Amsterdam page 3
The Kaplan Book Group is following their Intuition Page 7
Saskia Coenen Snyder
How roving rabbis helped the Jews of rural Australia celebrate Rosh Hashanah Page 12
Yachad welcomes new Coordinator
REGULARS Spotlight Voices Synagogues Life cycles
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TERESA C. DRELICHARZ, MS, NCC, LIMHP, RPT Interim JFS Executive Director Jewish Family Service would like to welcome our new Yachad Coordinator, Heather Topil! Many of you already know Heather, as she is also the Assistant to the Executive Director of JFS and has been with the agency since January of 2023. Heather is a Nebraska native who grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska but now lives just outside the Omaha area. She obtained her college degree in Business Administration but worked several years in the Elmwood-Murdock Special Education Heather Topil
system. In her spare time, Heather enjoys reading, napping, being outdoors, and anything related to the arts. The enthusiasm she has for her new role is very apparent as she describes what is to come : “I have a lot of really fun and neat gatherings planned for the group. My goal is to help facilitate the enrichment of lives See Yachad coordinator page 3
More than just dance
EVELYN HOBERMAN JCC Dance Training Company Member When Grace Caskey asked if I’d like to dance in Israel with her I eagerly said yes and jumped on the plan to help send us to Israel. It took work, meetings, and planning to make this goal a reality. Our amazing Performing Arts Director, Esther Katz, set this into motion. KCDC here we come! This trip was more than just a dance trip. It was a cultural experience. I’d never felt very connected to my religion as we are nonpracticing Jews. I felt like I didn’t fit in at syna-
gogue and wondered if I ever would. But being in Israel changed all of that. I refound myself and gained beautiful experiences that will last a lifetime. I could feel my feet hit the ground and my roots set into the soil. I had never felt so linked to my culture before. Visiting the Western Wall was magical. As I ran my hands across the weathered stone feelings of familiarity and totality washed over me. I found so much peace in this beautiful country. It taught me to feel and love everything and everyone around me. See More than just dance page 2