November 4, 2022

Nebraska honors Jewish women

The word “observe” has so many different meanings and ways to use it. Examples include those who observe the rules of the road, religious practices and traditions and those who observe others. Then, there is the state of Nebraska, which recently signed proclamations observing Jewish Women’s Day in the city of Omaha and the State of Nebraska. A ceremony was held at the state capital.

Omaha’s very own Rebbetzin, Shani Katzman, who moved here nearly 40 years ago with her husband Chabad Rabbi Mendel Katzman, led the effort to get this accomplished.

“The Jewish woman,” she said, “is often portrayed playing a supporting role. But since the dawn of time, women have been the foundation of the home and society. Within Judaism, women are entrusted with three foundational Mitzvot. These Mitzvot are symbolic of the 613 Mitzvot and emphasize the See Jewish Women’s Day page 3

A Lullaby for the Valley opens the Omaha Jewish Film Festival

MARK KIRCHHOFF

JFO Community Engagement and Education

He was captured by the painting - a majestic oak tree in a peaceful valley in Israel, gently washed in the light of the setting sun. He was in awe. He was drawn to the beauty and tranquility that captured that moment in time. Driving to the valley, experiencing the view first-hand, and meeting the artist was a given for him.

and film maker Ben Shani that became woven into the fabric of each man. When their friendship began, neither of them had any idea that everything would change as the filming progressed, as an unforeseen danger threatened to rob Shamir of his talent.

Walking that perilous tightrope underscores the fragility of life.

This film, A Lullaby for the Valley opens the 20th Annual Omaha Jewish Film Festival on Nov. 8, 2022, in the Alan J. Levine Performing Arts Theater in the Staenberg Omaha Jewish Community Center. Showing begins at 7 p.m. This historical documentary is in Hebrew with English subtitles and runs 75 minutes. This film captures the spirit of the festival theme, Views of the World Through Israeli Eyes. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased in advance by going to jewishomaha.org and

Jewish Film Festival

JFS welcomes Dr. Hillary Rubesin

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMPWRIGHT Jewish Press Editor

Jewish Family Service is pleased to announce that Hillary Rubesin has joined the staff. As an Expressive Arts Therapist and a Licensed Independent Mental Health Practitioner, Hillary is trained to incorporate various art forms into mental health care and practices. This includes, but is not limited to, writing, visual arts, music, drama, movement and poetry.

Originally from Philadelphia, Hillary received her master’s degree in expressive arts therapy and mental health counseling from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, followed by her doctorate in expressive therapies, also from LU.

“One of the most attractive components of expressive arts therapy,” Hillary said, “is that it is accessible to so many different people. I’ve worked in a nursing home for nuns as well as with teens at an alternative high school and also with very young children in preschool settings. I’ve worked with refugee populations from over 40 countries, with K-12 students who were referred by the school system and with adults who suffered from various forms of mental illness. There really is no age or population limit, which opens the door for collaborating with many different organizations and departments.”

Hillary is married to Eric Shapiro; the two have a son, Max. She came to Omaha for a ‘long weekend on March 12, 2020,’ and, since timing is everything, she never left. Along with her new work at JFS, she also works in private practice in Omaha and teaches online courses at Lesley University. She volunteers internationally with both VOCES, an organization that brings this work to the U.S. Mexican border, and with First Aid of the Soul, which provides psychosocial support in Ukraine.

Art therapy, Hillary explained, can have many uses.

ANDY GREENBERG

And so began the documentary film that was ten years in the making, and a friendship between artist Elie Shamir

Dr. Hillary Rubesin

Lt. Governor Mike Foley, left, Shani and Rabbi Mendel Katzman

Jewish Business Leaders returns

JAY KATELMAN

JFO Director of Community Development & LIFE & LEGACY/ OJAA Coordinator

Jewish Business Leaders Bagels & Breakfast will return to the Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Community Engagement Venue at the Staenberg Omaha JCC. On Dec. 7, from 7:30 to 9 a.m. for the annual Hall of Fame event, honoring the late David Jacobson. David was an attorney at Kutak Rock LLP for 41 years and was chairman for more than half of that time. He grew the company from 230 lawyers to over 500, and grew the number of locations to 18. David was a strong advocate for equality, and the firm has constantly been recognized for its work towards gender equality. The firm was previously recognized for having the second-highest percentage of women equity partners in the country among law firms with more than 300 lawyers.

David was very devoted to his family, which includes his wife Nancy and their four children, Rachel, Sara, Ben and Justin.

Nancy is a lifelong education and child advocate and served on the Learning Community Council for 10 years. She also served on the Boys and Girls Club Board of Directors, Completely Kids Board of Directors and the AntiDefamation League Board. Nancy and

David’s daughter Rachel is currently President of Heritage Foundation, founded and was Executive Director of Film Streams from 2005-2020. Film Streams is a non-profit independent film organization with two venues, Ruth Sokolof Theater downtown and the Dundee Theater in Midtown. Ben played basketball at Tennessee Tech and played on USA Basketball Maccabi team in Israel and Australia and was Basketball Assistant Coach at Kirkwood College in Iowa. Justin also played for the USA Basketball team in Rome, Italy and is currently a Manager at City Winery in

Chicago. Sara has worked for BMW in the Design department in Los Angeles and returned to Omaha in 2020 and opened an Art and homegoods store called Family of Things on 13th Street, south of the Old Market.

David and Rachel were inducted into the Court of Honor for Aksarben Ball last year and all of the family has been involved in Aksarben Ball as well as the Symphony Ball and many other community service ventures. David was Chairman of the Film Streams Board for several years.

Jewish Business

Hillary Rubesin

Continued from page 1

“I would love for all people to learn about what is possible. Often, we limit ourselves to a single medium, but when we open the door to other forms of expression, we can really grow. For instance, research has found that trauma lives in visual imagery in our brains and in our physical bodies, and words don’t always solve or address those traumatic memories. Plus, art can cross cultural and language barriers. If you have the paint or the music, you might not need to know the words.”

Hillary emphasizes that the name ‘expressive arts therapy’ might make some people hesitant, especially if it’s offered in an office setting, or as a team-building exercise.

“Sometimes people say, ‘But I’m not an artist,’ and that’s when I remind them it is not about the product, it’s about the process. We have a common language—and it’s good to be curious about what comes out when you let it.”

Jewish Film Festival

Continued from page 1 clicking on the Film Festival sliding banner at the top. The next three movies will be on Nov. 22, 29, and Dec. 6. Please check the website for details.

The 20th Annual Omaha Jewish Film Festival is made possible through the generosity of Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation grants: Lois Jeanne Schrager Memorial Fund; Samuel & Bess Rothenberg Endowment Fund; Ann Woskoff Schulman Memorial Fund; Ruth Frisch & Oscar S. Belzer Endowment Fund; Lindsey Miller-Lerman (Avy L. & Roberta L. Miller Foundation); Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation IMPACT Grant. Additional support comes from B’nai B’rith – Henry Monsky Lodge.

Address questions about the festival to Mark Kirchhoff at mkirchhoff@jewishomaha.org or 402.334.6463.

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FINANCIAL PLANNING

Nancy and David Jacobson

Partnership2gether comes to Omaha

LEIGH CHAVES, JFO Israel Engagement and Outreach Director and JEANNETTE GABRIEL

From Nov. 13-16, the Federation is excited to host guests from the Women Leading a Dialogue group – a program with Partnership2Gether – and we’re looking forward to the community’s participation in events!

Partnership2Gether is a program of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Jewish Federations of North America, promoting people-to-people relationships through cultural, social, medical, educational, and economic programs. The Western Galilee Partnership connects 17 U.S. communities of the US Central Area Consortium, Israel’s Western Galilee and Budapest, Hungary.

The Women Leading a Dialogue program brings together 15 Israeli Jewish and Arab Muslim women from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds into ongoing discussion. The group has been meeting together over the last year and together formed a strong sense of community. The purpose of this group is to promote a shared society in Israel. The women will be traveling to Partnership communities throughout the United States from Nov. 5 through 16, visiting communities in Toledo, Ohio; Springfield and Peoria, Illinois; and South Bend, Indiana. Women Leading a Dialogue will conclude their U.S. tour in Omaha with a series of local events from Nov. 13 through 15 Leigh Chaves, Israel Engagement and Outreach Director with the JFO and Dr. Jeannette Gabriel, Director of the Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at UNO, and co-chair of the Partnership Academic Committee, recently met with the Women Leading a Dialogue group at the Western Galilee Partnership offices in Israel and had rich and engaging discussions with them. We are pleased that members of the Jewish community in Omaha will have opportunities to meet with this group. Their time in Omaha will include events with Federation partners including the Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha. The Women Leading a Dialogue group will also meet with Friedel students,

have lunch and conversation with Federation staff, meet with members of the Muslim community at the American Muslim Institute, and more! We’d love to have our Omaha community meet with our guests at any of the following events:

• Coffee and donuts at the Federation – Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 8:30-10 a.m. in the Wiesman Room

• Shared Society lunch and discussion at the Community Engagement Center at the University of Nebraska Omaha sponsored by the Schwalb Center for Israel & Jewish Studies – Tuesday Nov. 15 from noon–1 p.m.

• Film screening of Cinema Sabaya and discussion with Women Leading a Dialogue members and UNO students at Benson Theatre co-sponsored with the Schwalb Center for Israel & Jewish Studies – Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.

Cinema Sabaya is an Israeli film that has been receiving recognition at international film festivals. The film examines a video production workshop in Hadera, a city near Haifa, for eight Arab and Jewish women from very diverse backgrounds.

All events are free, but the Schwalb Center events require registration through their website or by contacting them at unoschwalbcenter@unomaha.edu or 402.554.2788. For further information, please contact Leigh at lchaves@jewish omaha.org or at 402.334.6485. We look forward to sharing more details and giving our guests a welcoming visit!

The week’s events are generously sponsored by the Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation, the Staenberg Family Foundation, and the Kiewit Companies Foundation.

Jewish Women’s Day

Continued from page 1 vital role of women in Jewish life. Our job is to bring light into the world and create a home where the mundane is imbued with spirituality.”

These three mitzvot are “Hadlakat neirot - candle lighting, Challah - sanctifying bread and Taharat Hamishpacha - family purity which is immersion in the Mikvah within the context of Jewish marriage. In the spirit of these three mitzvahs we named three awards - Lamplighter, Nurturer, Architect.”

The awards were given during the Mega Challah bake and Boutique on Sept. 15 at the JCC honoring Nancy Schlessinger, Nancy Rips and Michele Aizenberg Ansari.

Shani then had the idea to contact the Governor and Mayor’s office to set aside one day in proclamation form to honor and recognize Jewish women throughout the state. How many of us resist implementing such an idea for fear of rejection? Yet, she wrote her request in such a creative and compelling fashion that it resulted in success.

At the ceremony attended by hundreds, as additional agenda items from other organizations were included, she was asked to present a 10 minute synopsis of the proclamation. “Afterwards,” she added, “people sought me out and thanked me so much for correcting their perceptions and some shared that they wished they were Jewish!”

Jewish Women are the strength and backbone of who we are as supported by the story of Sarah, whose husband Abraham was told by G-d to always comply with her wishes! Miriam, Queen Esther, Deborah, Yael, Judith, Ruth and so many others contributed to success and growth and their legacy is a part of each one of us. The proclamation is Shani’s way of highlighting this point.

“I am often asked about the latest array of TV shows and women who portray the observant Jewish Women as subservient and can’t wait to escape. I welcome those questions as they spark an interest as to what the truth really is,” she said. “TV shows and movies thrive on conflict, while the Jewish family spearheaded by women promotes unity. As I explain the true role we have and how much we are appreciated and the loving blessing we get on Friday night from our husbands ,I am so grateful. Think for a moment how many women in

today’s world would love to have that romantic spark and flame symbolized by our Shabbat candles?”

Shani takes issue with the latest Pew Report about the American Jewish population that reports 70% of us do not believe in the existence of G-d. “Deep down inside, in ways that may not be identifiable, there is a ‘pintele yid,’ the soul connection with the Divine,” she states. “The performance of these mitzvot by women (or any mitzvah for that matter) serves to strengthen that connection. Jewish observances strengthen our bonds, parents and children, as modern-day society attacks that very structure. When you add the emotional and spiritual belief in G-d’s divine presence in our daily lives and how each Mitzvah performed impacts our planet, our relationship with ourselves, society and G-d, I can kvell about how great it is to be a Jewish woman. I hope that message comes through in everything I share and teach.”

Jewish Business Leaders

Continued from page 2

We are honored that Nancy, Rachel, and Sara Jacobson have agreed to speak to us, as well as Richard Jacobson, and former colleague of David, Margot Wickman. “We are incredibly excited to honor David Jacobson’s legacy and the Jacobson family,” Alex Epstein said. “David left an incredible mark on both the civic and business communities in Omaha. His success at Kutak Rock and Film Streams made a major impact in the city of Omaha and beyond. David was incredible to be around and his energy and passion for life was contagious. David is so well deserving of being inducted in the Jewish Business Leaders Hall of Fame and we look forward to celebrating his incredible legacy with the entire community.” Alex Epstein is the EVP of OMNE Partners, and Founder at JBL.

Please register for this event at jewishomaha.org. If you have any question about the upcoming event, please contact Jay Katelman at 402.334.6461, or at jkatelman@jewishomaha.org

Circle Theater presents Tall Tale Heroines

BRIAN GUEHRING

On Nov. 19 and 20, the Jewish Community Center presents Circle Theatre’s Stronger than Strong! Great American Tall Tale Heroines. Come meet a troupe of medicine show actors from the 1800s in a non-stop comedy. Performances are 7 p.m. on the 19th and 2 p.m. on the 20th Circle Theatre’s mission is to engage individuals of all abilities on- and off-stage.

The play, written by Omahabased Brian Guehring, tells the story of the famous Doctors Wellington who sell their amazing strengths-elixir to the town. However, they meet up with Sally Ann, Annie and Slue-Foot Sue who show their own strengths and become the heroines of the play.

For the opening act, actors from Munroe Meyer Institute will tell their own devised story of the early life of Paul Bunyan. Banners for this production

were constructed by participants in the ‘Wonderfully Made USA’ program, with the guidance of professional Circle Theatre teaching artists.

‘Wonderfully Made USA’ is an empowerment and confidence-building program which centers girls and young women of color with special needs.

“Circle Theatre is honored to open our 39th season with this fun-loving comedy by a local playwright at the JCC, which is a new location for us,” Fran Sillau, executive artistic director of Circle Theatre, said. “In addition, we are honored to be working with a talented group of theater actors from the Munroe Meyer Institute to open our play.”

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit us at https://www.circletheatreomaha.org/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/circletheatreomaha/

Colliers Nebraska announces new hires

The Nebraska office of Colliers announced today that Justin Spooner and Michael Emodi have joined the brokerage and accounting teams, respectively.

“Our determination to build the most comprehensive team of professionals has taken another leap in the right direction” said Mike Potthoff, president of Colliers Nebraska.

“I have no doubt that Justin and Michael will be enormously successful in our firm.”

Justin Spooner, Senior Associate, is a Nebraska native with strong ties to the community. He joins Colliers Nebraska from Sage Capital Real Estate Investments where he closed over $2 Million sales and lease transactions in 2022. Spooner is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and holds a bachelor’s degree in political

Beit Midrash begins Nov. 9

MARK KIRCHHOFF

JFO Engagement and Education

Wednesday, Nov. 9 marks the beginning of the Beit Midrash (house of study) series for 2022-2023. Thanks to the generosity of Steve Riekes, snacks and beverages will be available in the Weisman Reception Room for each session. Join the clergy as they use traditional texts to uncover contemporary issues and values. Sessions begin at 7 p.m. and continue until 8 p.m. — but come early to start with a snack. For those unable to attend in-person, a Zoom option is available by going to jewishomaha.org and clicking on the sliding banner at the top of the page.

This year’s Beit Midrash is in two parts. Part One presents various topics related to the theme Mitzvot. The first session is titled Loving Your Neighbor As Yourself. There is a total of six topics, all sessions on Wednesdays through Dec. 21. The

Looking for Oral History interview participants

ILANA (ASHTON) LINTHICUM

I am looking for Oral History Interview Participants within our local Jewish community. As a part of my internship for the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, Poland, I will be conducting oral history interviews with Jews from Omaha for a larger project. The qualifications to be a participant are as follows: you must be Jewish, you must be from Omaha, you must have Polish heritage, and you must know about your family’s immigration story from Poland to the United States. I am looking for around five participants. If you are interested and check all these boxes, please email me at alinthicum@unomaha. edu. I will be happy to provide more information.

science, history and pre-law. He serves on the Campaign Cabinet of the Jewish Federation of Omaha’s Annual Campaign and is a B’nai Brith Youth Organization mentor; at the United Way of the Midlands he serves as an Emerging Leaders board member and fundraising chairman; he was named the Anti-Defamation League’s 2021-2022 Volunteer of the Year and is a Leadership Omaha Class 44 graduate.

Michael Emodi, Accountant, is a graduate of Creighton University and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and business administration. Prior to joining Colliers Nebraska, Michael was drafted in the 11th round of the 2018 Major League Baseball Draft and was a professional athlete representing the Kansas City Royals from 2018 through 2022.

second part of the series presents Life Cycles. Again, meeting on Wednesdays, these sessions are from Jan. 11 through March 1. Beit Midrash will not be held on selected weeks because of holidays or alternate scheduling. You may navigate to the webpage referenced above for the full schedule with topic listings.

With all the conveniences of Zoom, one can never dismiss the value of in-person discussions and taking the opportunity to debrief with friends afterward. For those reasons

we are encouraging as many people as possible to join the clergy and fellow community members in-person for these study sessions.

For questions about the series, contact Mark Kirchhoff at mkirchhoff@jewishomaha.org or 402.334.6463.

Aksarben Court announced

The Aksarben Court was officially introduced Saturday, July 30, 2022, at the Hilton Omaha. Pages and Standard Bearers were introduced in the morning during the Royal Court Brunch and Princesses, Escorts and Court of Honor members were introduced in the evening during the Royal Court Welcome dinner. They were formally presented at the Aksarben Ball on Oct. 29, 2022 at the CHI Health Center.

Jeffrey Taxman, who has announced the Court each year since 1989 reprised his role announcing the Royal Court at each event.

The 2022 Pages include Addison Frances Blumkin, daughter of Amanda and Ryan Blumkin of Omaha; Rachel Susan Kaniewski, daughter of Patty and Steve Kaniewski of Gretna; Hadley Caroline Nogg, daughter of Kelly and Jeff Nogg of Omaha and Lola Mae Stoller, daughter of Sara and Asher Stoller of Omaha. For more information, please visit https://aksarben.org/aksarben-ball/

Justin Spooner

Michael Emodi

Monthly Speaker Series at B’nai Israel synagogue

Dr. Gordon S. Moshman will be the guest speaker on Friday, Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m. at B’nai Israel in Council Bluffs. The fact that this Shabbat falls on Veterans’ Day is significant as Dr. Moshman was the third generation in his family to be drafted to serve his country. His grandfather served in World War I. His father served in World War II.

Dr. Moshman was drafted in 1970 serving in the Marine Corps as a mortar man, and later in the US Navy as a Flight Surgeon during the early 90s, and finally as a General Medical Officer in the US Army in Afghanistan and Iraq at Combat Support Hospitals.

Dr. Moshman is a family medicine doctor in Omaha, Nebraska, and is affiliated with Pender Community Hospital. He received his medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 20 years.

Following Dr. Moshman’s talk, please join us for an Oneg Shabbat in our social hall. Everyone is welcome at B’nai Israel!

B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS

The award-winning B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS speaker program currently meets Wednesdays via Zoom from noon to 1 p.m. Please watch our email for specific information concerning its thought-provoking, informative list of speakers. To be placed on the email list, contact Breadbreakers chair at gary.javitch@gmail.com

An Omaha Community Playhouse tradition

It just isn’t Christmas without A Christmas Carol! Experience Omaha’s favorite holiday tradition as Ebenezer Scrooge takes us on a life-changing journey to discover the true meaning of Christmas. This is a must-see holiday event for the entire family, filled with stunning Victorian costumes, festive music and crisp, wintry sets.

The production runs at the Omaha Community Playhouse in the Hawks Mainstage Theatre from Nov. 18 to Dec. 23, 2022. Tickets are on sale now and start at $40. Tickets can be purchased by visiting the OCP Box office at 6915 Cass St., calling the OCP Box Office at 402.553.0800, or visiting omahapl ayhouse.com

HANUKKAH

Dr. Gordon Moshman

Credit: David Radler

NJHS 40th-anniversary celebration

JILL KUSHNER BELMONT

Over 100 people were in attendance during the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society’s recent 40th anniversary celebration at the Jewish Community Center. The festivities featured a presentation by keynote speaker Oliver B. Pollak, PhD, who cofounded the historical society, along with the late Mary Fellman.

The afternoon included award presentations given to community members who have steadfastly supported NJHS over the years.

The Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation was honored with the Mary Fellman Award. The award recognizes an individual or group that perpetuates Fellman’s legacy of leadership, service, and dedication to preserving the history of the Jewish communities in Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The Shirley Berman Volunteer Award was presented to NJHS Board Vice President Beth Staenberg, who, over the past 15 years, has generously given her time, support and leadership to the organization.

Special recognition was given to Kathy Weiner, who served as the historical society’s office assistant for over 20 years, before retiring earlier this year.

The anniversary celebration’s planning committee included chairman Robby Erlich, along with Ducky Milder, Rocky Stern, Kate Kirshenbaum, Ben Justman, and NJHS Interim Director Liz Boutin.

As a surprise highlight of the event, a touching letter penned by Mary Fellman’s children was read to the crowd. The note paid tribute to their mother, as well as to the historical society, which she envisioned and helped to establish in 1982.

“I volunteered to be on the Israel Overseas Committee because I have a passion for Israel. I knew I could make a difference through my participation. An added benefit has been the education I have received to futher understand how Federation funding helps support programs and services in Israel and around the world. ”

Your support helps us build meaningful relationships with individuals empowering them to make a lifelong connection to the Omaha Jewish community.

“Federation means something different to every person. It might mean the ELC, Friedel, or having a safe place for family activities. Perhaps Federation means the Blumkin home. Maybe your family has benefitted from the services provided by JFS, or perhaps to you Federation means supporting Israel. When you give, you are directly impacting the many agencies and the many people who rely on the assistance of the Federation each year.”

Bernstein

Director

THE STRENGTH OF A PEOPLE. THE POWER OF COMMUNITY.

Elect to strengthen Omaha’s Jewish future. Establish an endowment fund at the Foundation.

Clockwise from above left: Don Goldstein, along with his sister, Kathy and his wife, Andi, accepted the Mary Fellman Award on behalf of the Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation; Robby Erlich, chairman of the anniversary event, presented Beth Staenberg with the Shirley Berman Volunteer Award; Oliver Pollak, shown here with his wife, Karen, served as the event’s keynote speaker; Erlich thanked Kathy Weiner for her many years of service to NJHS.

SP O TLIGHT

PHOTOS FROM RECENT JEWISH COMMUNITY EVENTS

SUBMIT A PHOTO: Have a photo of a recent Jewish Community event you would like to submit? Email the image and a suggested caption to: avandekamp@jewishomaha.org

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Above, left and below: Beth El guests at the ELC Sukkah.

Below: Dominoes are all the rage at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home.

Lincoln Sukkah Crawl Top: Over fifty members of the Lincoln Jewish community participated in the fifth annual Lincoln Sukkah Crawl, a threesukkah progressive dinner that included participation from the Lincoln Jewish Community School, and members of both Tifereth Israel Synagogue and the South Street Temple; above: Dan Friedman, Tifereth Israel president, and Jenny Weisser, South Street Temple member, share a meal at the fifth annual Lincoln Sukkah Crawl, an event for members of both LIncoln congregations; and below: Members of the Lincoln Jewish community gather for soup and socializing at one of the stops on the fifth annual Lincoln Sukkah Crawl.

Above, right and below: Beth El Miriam Initiative Opening Night. Clockwise, from right: Eadie Tsabari and Mindi Marburg; Abby Kutler and Jess Cohn; Margie Gutnik and Caryn Scheer; Lisa Lieb Marcus and Nancy Rips; Andee Gordman and Wendy Rosenblat.

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All the feelings

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor

Dare I say it? I’m a little bored with Kanye West. I get it, he has his own demons to fight and that is tragic for him and for those in his orbit—but can the rest of us be left out of it? Formulating a response to his brand of antisemitism, as well as to those who use it as a springboard to do worse, is a waste of energy. Enough already with the celebrities who say something stupid, get canceled while people everywhere pretend to care, followed by a total lack of change. It makes me cranky because it’s old and it’s tiresome.

But then, I read this:

“Every time I tweet about antisemitism I get thank you texts from Jewish people in my life,” Yashar Ali, who is not Jewish, wrote to his 730,000 [social media] followers on October 24. “It’s gracious but tragic. Jewish people, who are just .2% of the world’s population, feel so alone in fighting antisemitism that they notice each and every time gentiles stand up for them.”

Do we? I’m not sure that’s true. I do know one thing: I’m not always grateful when non-Jews stand up for us. Sometimes I am paranoid. I wonder why they are speaking out. Why they think we need help. I wonder if they really mean it.

I know antisemitism makes me feel angry, sometimes sad, often just plain irritated and exasperated. It can make me feel fearful and shocked, or insulted. About feeling alone in fighting it, I am not convinced. Because as Jews we are, by definition,

It’s Time to Opt-In

never alone—not even when we fight the haters.

And then I asked my 21-year-old daughter for input, and she had a very different perspective.

“Jews are constantly excluded from especially left-wing political spaces,” she said. “From the

love of Israel. from the endless lack of kosher options to the incessant assumptions we as Jews control everything, have lots of money, have assimilated and do not face discrimination. The misconception that we are all white. Much of the outcry after Kanye feels performative. And by the way, where was the support when the hashtag ‘Free Palestine’ was trending? yes, I feel alone.”

I don’t love the idea that people may feel sorry for us. It forces me to accept that others see us as victims. That in and of itself is almost as irritating as what Kanye said.

This is why I don’t like to focus on these types of stories. Why should what one celebrity says affect my mood? I don’t want to be angry, or fed up.

Instead of feeling hurt because of what the antisemites think and say and do, I want to be happy in spite of it. I want to be strong and content and positive and I want to feel like I’m home, in a vibrant and robust community with lots of Jews who are just as strong.

LGBTQ marches where the Mogen David is not welcome, to political events you’d love to support, except they’re always on Saturday. From people throwing shade if you choose to dress modestly, or not shake a man’s hand, to having to defend your

I want to be like Happy Gilmore swinging his golf club like a hockey stick. I want to be like Sacha Baron Cohen exposing the cracks in society. I want to be like Deborah Lipstadt, reminding the nation that we are paying attention. I want to be like Sarah Silverman, who is living proof that we don’t have to walk on eggshells. I want the Kanyes of this world to know that we do not need to earn our place in this world.

But most of all, I do not want my children to feel alone.

To anyone new to YouTube channels, the “like and subscribe” pitch is pretty much the universal conclusion to every video ever produced to help expand an influencer’s reach. And lest you think this tactic is unique to YouTube, rest assured that Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and probably more social media platforms that I’m not hip and cool enough to know about yet, all remind you to like, subscribe, follow, and share.

Opt-in culture looks like Facebook ads popping up insisting that you “like” your favorite store, so you’ll be the first to know about the next big sale. It looks like TikTok dance videos asking for likes and YouTube movie reviewers telling you to subscribe. It even looks like reminders to sign up for your weekly Ten Minutes of Torah email when you visit the URJ’s Reform Judaism website.

On the surface, liking and subscribing is a passive, low-barrier entry point which gives you more of the good videos and less of the stuff that you don’t care about. But if we were to dig just a bit beneath the surface, we would come to recognize that each content creator, whether they are focusing on a low-carb lifestyle or clutter-free organizing, is attempting to build a community of like-minded followers, and with every request to “like and subscribe” they are inviting you to opt into it.

In recent months, I’ve been having this internal debate with myself – wondering what it means that we have access to instant community with the click of a button, with almost no effort on our part, whatsoever. What happens to the communities that require more of us? How do we rise above the noise and invite people to conscious community?

It’s telling that now, when we live in a time when

we are more easily connected with others than we have ever been at any other moment in history, we are also facing a crisis of loneliness. Now, more than ever, we need real, meaningful, and authentic human connection. The pandemic has accustomed us to long bouts of isolation, but even before the pandemic, the United States surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, said the country was experiencing an “epidemic of loneliness,” driven by the accelerated pace of life and the spread of technology into all of our social interactions. With this acceleration, he said, efficiency and convenience have “edged out” the time-consuming messiness of real relationships .

When the Torah tells the story of creation, God creates light and sees that it was tov, that it was good. And then God creates the waters and the earth and the plants and the fruit, and these too were good. Then God creates the sun and moon and stars and the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and the animals that would roam the earth – and again, they were tov, good. And then God created human beings, and for the first time, God finds that something in creation is lo tov, not good – lo tov heyot ha’adam levado – “It is not good for a person to be alone.”

And so, God creates for the first person, a second person; an ezer kenegdo, a helpmate. Someone to ease the burden of loneliness that God foresaw would be our inevitable conclusion should we not have a partner, a companion, a friend, to walk through life with.

Of all the stories in our canon, Torah begins with this universal truth. Judaism begins with this foundational truth. It is not good for human beings to be alone.

To be Jewish is to be part of conscious community. Communities filled with helpmates to wage war against this epidemic of loneliness. But where do we find that community? For generations, Jews have come together to pray, to learn, to celebrate, to grieve, and to grow. At Temple Israel, we remind one another eileh toldot, “these are the generations of Temple Israel.” For over 150 years, we have found sacred, conscious, community, right here, in synagogue life.

The synagogue, I believe, is Judaism’s answer to loneliness and isolation, because here, in this synagogue community, we have the power to cultivate

and nurture real, meaningful, and lasting relationships. It is here where we find our helpmates, the people who can ease the burden of loneliness that God was so certain we would encounter. It is here where we create community.

And yet, we find ourselves at a crossroads. In a world where we are asked to opt-in at every turn –I’m left wondering – where does that leave us? Where does that leave Judaism and Jewish community?

I want to lift up the notion that true, intentional community – community that has the power to counter the crisis of loneliness – cannot be accomplished passively. It must be an active choice, every single day.

A few years ago, my Rabbi’s daughter passed away after a valiant life-long battle with congenital heart disease. After a life-saving heart transplant at age 19, she was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma, caused by post-transplant immunosuppressants, and passed away far too soon at the age of 31.

I knew that my Rabbi, my beloved mentor, was utterly heartbroken. How could she not be? And I also knew that – beloved as she is by so many— that a veritable flood of condolences calls, and messages, and well-wishers would have already wrapped her in a cocoon-like embrace. And I, like so many of us do, worried that I would be adding to her burden if I too called, if I too reached out to her.

And I am ashamed to admit that I hesitated. I sent her a message, but I did not call. I told myself that this would be better, more helpful, less selfish even– I did not want her to worry about me when what she really needed to focus on was herself. Instead, I called my former clergy partner. And I admitted that I didn’t know what to do in this moment to support her. “What do you mean you don’t know what to do? We taught you what you do. You always call. You always show up.”

To be Jewish, to opt-in to community, means that we show up for each other even, and maybe especially when, it’s inconvenient. Even if it means going out in the rain, even if it means taking off work when you’re up against a deadline.

To be in community means to show up for each other.

Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole.

RABBI DEANA SUSSMAN BEREZIN

Temple Israel Associate Rabbi

Editor’s note: this version of Rabbi Berezin’s Kol Nidrei sermon was edited for length. You can read the entire text at www.omahajewishpress.com.

Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat Credit: Steve Granitz/ WireImage/Getty Images

The missed opportunities of Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt

ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL

JTA

Tom Stoppard is one of those playwrights who flatters you with his erudition. His 1993 play Arcadia dives deeply into the mathematics of algorithms and fractals. His breakthrough 1966 play, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” is a graduate school-level midrash — an alternate telling — of Hamlet. You leave the theater feeling smarter, and maybe just a touch self-satisfied, for just having kept up with the dialogue.

It helps that Stoppard has always seemed to thoroughly absorb his interests in science, politics and literature before transposing them into drama and comedy. The characters seem to inhabit the worlds they are recreating onstage, rather than declaiming from a playwright’s overstuffed research files.

That’s why I was so disappointed with his latest play, Leopoldstadt, which opened on Broadway earlier this month. It’s an epically scaled play about the Holocaust, centering on multiple generations of a prosperous assimilated Viennese Jewish family. As staged by the playwright and director Patrick Marber, it is never dull, but rarely compelling. As Austria becomes increasingly inhospitable to its Jews, characters debate Zionism, Freudianism, the price of assimilation and the persistence of antisemitism in the style of an earnest high school textbook. From the fin-de-siècle opening act to the final reveal about the unspeakable fate of most of the characters, it felt less like a play than a pageant — professional, effective, wellmeaning — staged for a Holocaust museum.

It feels churlish to insist that a play about the Holocaust do more to move or engage me. And yet the most memorable and justifiable works of what we inadequately call Holocaust art — Anne Frank’s diary, Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the exquisite 1983 Hungarian film The Revolt of Job — bear witness by transforming an inhuman era and unimaginable tragedy into something deeply specific and personal. Such specificity is the answer to philosopher Theodor Adorno’s famous dictat, “To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” It is also the opposite of what the New Yorker dance critic Arlene Croce once derided as “victim art” – that is, works that seem to exploit tragedy to make themselves critic-proof.

Stoppard’s play is not exploitative, but intelligent and sincere. I understand why critics and audiences have found it moving, “brilliant,” “beautiful” and “prescient.” But I do feel

what power it has relies on a story we know all too well — the very worst story in the history of the Jews — and not on the specificity of its characters or ideas.

In the recent Ken Burns’ documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust, writer Daniel Mendelsohn discusses growing up in America and how little he heard about relatives who perished in Europe. “We had pictures of them. And on the back of every picture, my grandfather always wrote, ‘Uncle Shmiel, killed by the Nazis,’ or ‘Aunt Esther, killed by the Nazis.’ And I always wondered, why are there no stories about these people?”

tity that had been hidden behind a defensive moat of Englishness — is consigned to the all-too-brief final act of Leopoldstadt. The scene includes a callow British writer not unlike a young Stoppard, who is told by a cousin who survived the camps, “You live as if without history, as if you throw no shadow behind you.”

I can only imagine the Stoppard play it would have been had he centered his and his mother’s story: a son confronting his family’s hidden, tragic past; the costs and opportunities of eradicating one’s roots; the responsibility that comes with knowing, the guilt of surviving because of an accident of history and geography.

Those are deeply American Jewish concerns as well. Most American Jews did not by any means repudiate their Judaism during World War II, but, as historian Lucy S. Dawidowicz wrote, “The Jews who survived Auschwitz, Belsen and Maidanek were stunned by the normalcy of the world to which they returned. They soon noted that American Jews — notwithstanding those who had served in the armed forces — had lived through the war years in safety, without having made great sacrifices. It rankled the survivors that American Jews had not staked their own security to save the European Jews.”

That is a serious charge, worth debating. It is in part the subject of Burns’ film. Their responses to the Holocaust shape American Jews’ attitudes toward Israel, toward their Jewish identities and toward their politics, especially when it comes to immigration.

To his great credit, Stoppard set out to tell such stories. Stoppard, who is 85, famously discovered, or at least took seriously, his Jewish ancestry only late in life. Long considered a quintessentially British writer, he is in fact the son of Jewish refugees who fled Czechoslovakia for Singapore in the 1930s. His father, whom he never knew, was lost at sea and his mother married a British Army major named Kenneth Stoppard. As Stoppard’s biographer, Hermione Lee, explains, his mother “never told her sons, either that she was Jewish or that most of her family had perished in the Holocaust. They would find out, very much later.”

Leopoldstadt is a portrait — in essence, a resurrection — of an extended family like his own. That so many of the more than 30 characters on stage feel so generic is a pity.

It is also a pity that the most compelling and particular story Stoppard has to tell — what it means to reclaim a Jewish iden-

Perhaps there can never be too many primers on the Holocaust, no matter the medium. And it’s possible that American theatergoers 80 years after Auschwitz have only a passing knowledge of the Holocaust; there’s research to suggest they might.

But a different play could have helped all of us, especially the children and grandchildren of American Jews who lived through the Holocaust and of those families that barely survived, to confront the shadows thrown by the past.

Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor in chief of the New York Jewish Week and senior editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He previously served as JTA’s editor in chief and as editor in chief and CEO of the New Jersey Jewish News. @SilowCarroll

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

SENIOR LIVING

An assimilated Jewish character based on a young Tom Stoppard, right, is confronted by a cousin who survived the Holocaust in Stoppard’s play Leopoldstadt, now on Broadway.

Credit: Joan Marcus

Synagogues

B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

618 Mynster Street Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 712.322.4705 www.cblhs.orb email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE

Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California Street Omaha, NE 68154-1980 402.492.8550 bethel-omaha.org

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 12604 Pacific Street Omaha, NE. 68154 402.556.6288 BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org

CHABAD HOUSE

An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch 1866 South 120 Street Omaha, NE 68144-1646 402.330.1800 OChabad.com email: chabad@aol.com

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN

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

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

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

ROSE BLUMKIN

JEWISH HOME 323 South 132 Street Omaha, NE 68154 rbjh.com

TEMPLE ISRAEL

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

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: TIFERETH ISRAEL

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

tiferethisraellincoln.org

B’NAI ISRAEL

Monthly Speaker Series Service, Friday, Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m. with our guest speaker, Dr. Gordon Moshman. Our service leader is Larry Blass. Everyone is always welcome at B’nai Israel!

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

BETH EL

Services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman.

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

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

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream. Boys & Girls Clubs Youth of the Year Speeches following services; Jr. Congregation, 10 a.m.; Havdalah, 6:50 p.m. Zoom Only.

SUNDAY: BESTT (Grades K-7), 9:30 a.m.; Grade 2 Family Tzedakah Box Program, 9:30 a.m.; The Shabbat Seder, 10 a.m. with Hazzan Krausman at Beth El.

TUESDAY: Pirkei Avot, 11:30 a.m. with Rabbi Abraham at Beth El & Live Stream.

WEDNESDAY: BESTT (Grades 3-7), 4:15 p.m.; Hebrew High, 6 p.m.

THURSDAY: Ba’al Tefillah Workshop, 7 p.m. with Hazzan Krausman via Zoom Only.

FRIDAY-Nov. 11: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

SATURDAY-Nov. 12: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Jr. Congregation, 10 a.m.; Lock In Shabbat, 10 a.m.; Havdalah, 5:45 p.m. Zoom Only.

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

FRIDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat/Candlelighting, 5:58 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:45 a.m.; Kids Parsha Class, 5:20 p.m.; Mincha/Shalosh Suedos 5:50 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity, 6:20 p.m.; Ma’ariv/Havdalah, 5:58 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit 9 a.m.; Daf Yomi 4:20 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:50 p.m.

MONDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Daf Yomi, 4:20 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:50 p.m.

TUESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Daf Yomi, 4:20 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:50 p.m.; Beth Israel Workshop: Tzitzits (registration required), 6 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Daf Yomi, 4:20 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:50 p.m.

THURSDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Character Development, 9:30 a.m.; Daf Yomi, 4:20 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:50 p.m.; Parsha Class, 5:20 p.m.

FRIDAY-Nov. 11: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat/Candlelighting, 4:51 p.m.

SATURDAY-Nov. 12: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat 10:45 a.m.; Kids Parsha Class, 4:10 p.m.; Mincha/Shalosh Suedos, 4:40 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity, 5:10 p.m.; Ma’ariv/Havdalah, 5:52 p.m.

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

from Hanson Ct. (except we drive if it’s too wet, cold, cloudy, windy, hot or humid) followed by coffee and spirited discussions. If interested, please email Al Weiss at albertw801@gmail.com to find out where to meet each week; Pickleball at Tifereth Israel is on hiatus until after Yom Kippur 5783. In the meantime, everyone is welcome to play at Peterson Park until after Yom Kippur; just wear comfortable clothes and tennis or gym shoes. For more information, contact Miriam Wallick by email at Miriam57@aol.com

TUESDAY: Tea & Coffee with Pals, 1:30 p.m. via Zoom.

WEDNESDAY: LJCS Classes, 4:30 p.m.; Adult Ed class: The Modern History of Israel: Faith, Hope, Reality, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at SST.

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

FRIDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochabad.com/Le chayim; Candlelighting, 5:57 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 6:57 p.m.

SUNDAY: Sunday Morning Wraps: Video Presentation, 9-9:30 a.m. and Breakfast, 9:45 a.m.

MONDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Personal Parsha, 9:30 a.m.; Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

TUESDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.

WEDNESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Tanya Class, 9:30 a.m.; Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Hebrew Reading, 11:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

THURSDAY: Shacharit 8 a.m.; Hebrew Reading, 11 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Talmud Study (Sanhedrin 18 — No advance experience necessary), noon; Jewish Law Class, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY-Nov. 11: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 5:45 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochab ad.com/Lechayim; Candlelighting, 4:50 p.m.

SATURDAY-Nov. 5: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 5:50 p.m.

Services facilitated by Rabbi Alex Felch.

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

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Nathaniel and Steve Kaup, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg host TBD; Candlelighting, 6:01 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Lech-Lecha; Havdalah 7:01 p.m.

SUNDAY: LJCS Classes, 9:30 a.m. parents return at 11 a.m. for a Kippah Workshop with Rabbi Alex; Men's Jewish Bike Group of Lincoln meets Sundays at 10 a.m., rain or shine, to ride to one of The Mill locations

FRIDAY-Nov. 11: Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex and music by Leslie Delserone and Peter Mullin, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Oneg host: Rich Lombardi; Candlelighting, 4:54 p.m.

SATURDAY-Nov. 12: Shabbat Morning Service 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Vayera; Havdalah 5:54 p.m.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

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

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME

The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home’s service is currently closed to visitors.

In-person and virtual services conducted by Rabbi Batsheva Appel, Rabbi Deana Sussmam Berezin, and Cantor Joanna Alexander

FRIDAY: Drop-In Mah Jongg 9-11 a.m.; Shabbat Shira Service, 6 p.m. Zoom & In-Person.

SATURDAY: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. Zoom & In-Person; Shabbat Morning Services and Bat Mitzvah of Erin Wear, 10:30 a.m. Zoom & In-Person.

SUNDAY: Grades PreK-6, 9:30 a.m.; Temple Tots, 9:30 a.m.

WEDNESDAY: Yarn It, 9 a.m. In-Person; Grades 36, 4-6 p.m In-Person; Grades 7-8, 6:30-8 p.m.; Grades 9-12, 6-8 p.m. at Temple; Community Beit Midrash, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY: Thursday Morning Class, 10 a.m. with Rabbi Azriel. Zoom & In-Person; Brooks Institute for Clergy Luncheon: Presented by Scholar-in-Residence Rabbi Mary Zamore, 11:30 a.m.

FRIDAY-Nov. 11: Drop-In Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m.; Teen Lock in 5 p.m.; Shabbat Service: Scholar-in-Residence Rabbi Mary Zamore, 6 p.m. Zoom & In-Person

SATURDAY-Nov. 12: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. Zoom & In-Person; Shabbat Morning Services and Bat Mitzvah of Audrey Meyerson, 10:30 a.m. Zoom & In-Person. Please visit templeisraelomaha.com for additional information and Zoom service links.

RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON | JTA

The Biden administration rejected comparisons between Russia’s annexation of parts of Ukraine and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

“We categorically reject the blanket comparison between [Israel’s occupation and] the actions of the Kremlin – Russia in this case – that has launched and waged a brutal war of aggression against another sovereign state, a sovereign state that posed and poses no threat whatsoever to the Kremlin, a military campaign… whose toll can be measured in thousands upon thousands of lives lost,” Ned Price, the State Department spokesman, said Thursday.

Price was reacting to a reporter’s question prompted by a statement the same day by Navi Pillay, the chairwoman of a United Nations Commission of Inquiry into Israel’s activities in the West Bank.

The COI report concluded that Israel’s 55-yearold occupation of the West Bank had become so entrenched it was now de facto annexation. Pillay, in the statement attached to the release of the report, said that the U.N. General Assembly’s recent

condemnation of Russia for annexing four areas of Ukraine would be rendered meaningless if the United Nations did not adopt her commission’s report. “Recent statements by the Secretary-General

States including Israel last week voted in favor of a General Assembly resolution reaffirming this,” she said in the release. “Unless universally applied, including to the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, this core principle of the United Nations Charter will become meaningless.”

In a press briefing, Price enumerated the differences the Biden administration saw between the Israel and Russia situations, among them that Russia faced no threat from Ukraine prior to launching its war against the country, and that the West Bank is not Palestinian sovereign territory.

He said that Israel should not be immune from criticism and that the Biden administration remains committed to a two-state outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But he added that the United Nations frequently unfairly singles out Israel for criticism.

and numerous member States have clearly indicated that any attempt at unilateral annexation of a State’s territory by another State is a violation of international law and is null and void; 143 member

“No country is or should be immune from criticism. That, of course, includes Israel,” he said. “Some of the criticism that we’ve heard – and we’ve, of course, offered our own over the course of recent months – is justified. Much of it is not.”

BETH ISRAEL

CHABAD HOUSE

TEMPLE ISRAEL

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN & TIFERETH ISRAEL

After UN report, Biden administration rejects annexation comparisons between Russia and Israel

State Department spokesman Ned Price Credit: Stefani Reynolds/Pool//AFP via Getty Images

Life cycles

BAT MITZVAH

AUDREY MEYERSON

Audrey Meyerson, daughter of Jamie and Troy Meyerson will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022, at Temple Israel.

Audrey is a seventh grade student at Westside Middle School.

Audrey is in Westside Connection Show Choir, SNJ Center Stage Show Choir, plays soccer for Sporting Nebraska Football Club and basketball for Westside. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her friends and family.

For her Mitzvah Project, Audrey volunteered for the Jack Meehan Kickball tournament, a fundraiser for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and The Hope Squad, a peer to peer suicide prevention program.

She has two sisters, Ainsley and Aiden.

Grandparents are Penny Endelman and the late Randy Endelman, and Deenie and Larry Meyerson.

Great-grandparents are the late Peggy and Chris Krasne, the late Lois and Bob Endelman, the late Sonia and Irving Forbes, and the late Helen and Leo Meyerson.

Meet new friends at

J Days

J Day is a new program at the JCC geared towards retirees or anyone looking to meet new friends to play games (like bridge, mahjong, dominoes, etc) and enjoy lunch with.

It takes place the second Tuesday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon. Now is the time to register for the Dec. 13 J Day! Every month we get lunch from a new location and do various activities. Lunch, drinks, activities – all are included!

Children over 18 and grandchildren are allowed with guardian. Call 402.334.6452 or 402.334.6426 to register. Select Tuesdays, 10 a.m. – noon For Dec. 13 please register by Dec. 6 cost: $25 per person | registration code: 16-1213

TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor, I would very much like to thank the ADL for sponsoring my recent talk in Yiddish and English and the Jewish Press for successfully promoting it. And I would very much like to thank Tim Zweiback for conceiving of the idea of a gallery in my parents' honor.

Best, ROBERT EISENBERG

Online antisemites see opening

ASAF ELIA SHALEV

JTA

Online extremists emboldened by Kanye West’s recent antisemitic diatribes and by Elon Musk’s pledge to loosen content moderation policies on Twitter after taking control of the social media platform this week have launched a new hashtag campaign targeting Jews.

“Now that Elon is taking over Twitter it’s time to finally put our skills to use,” wrote an anonymous user on 4chan, the hatefilled online forum. The 4chan user called on others to use the hashtag #TheNoticing while posting antisemitic content on Twitter, especially messages harping on the Nazi-inspired idea that Jews control the world through hidden machinations.

The resulting wave of hateful content on Twitter over the past two days was highlighted by actor Seth Rogen, who is Jewish. He tweeted about the hashtag campaign to his 9.4 million followers on Oct. 28.

“Anyone want to see how much anti-semitism is thriving right now, just check the hashtag #TheNoticing,” Rogen wrote.

Given Twitter’s importance as a global social media platform used by world leaders, media figures, and celebrities, Musk’s takeover of the company is being closely watched. Many in the Jewish world are bracing in particular for changes that could lead to the further spread of racist and antisemitic ideas online.

The head of the Anti-Defamation League said Musk’s willingness to welcome Kanye West, the rapper who was suspended this month for antisemitic posts, back to the platform was worrisome.

Musk engendered controversy in the lead-up to his acquisition of the company when he vowed to end what he sees as practices of censorship on the platform. In a message to investors, however, he appeared to soften his stance. He said that free speech needed to be balanced with rules that would ensure Twitter is “warm and welcoming to all.”

Musk said his goal was to “have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.” He added that Twitter “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”

Still, some Twitter users, including Jewish ones, said they are planning to leave the platform or at least that they expect it to become less hospitable or pleasant for them.

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Finding friends in Budapest: Part 2

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor

They are built all over Europe: the memorials to the victims of World War II. Yes, it was a world-wide war, but so many victims fell on this continent, that there’s barely a town or village that doesn’t have its own tragic history. The details may vary, but the gist of the story is often the same.

In that sense, Budapest is no different than Amsterdam, or the Provence, or Brussels.

When Jenn Tompkins and Leigh Chaves journeyed to Budapest, a portion of their visit was dedicated to touring memorial sites. They saw statues, plaques, artist renditions of shoes, which you saw in this paper last week.

In Europe, these memorials are often tricky. Memorializing victims of a foreign power is easy. There is a bad guy, and it’s not you. It’s the Nazis, it’s the German invasion, and rarely is there emphasis on how the German leadership could only do to the Jews what they did with local support. It’s hard to memorialize antisemitism among one’s own population. Hungary is not alone in that.

“The plaque by the shoe memorial didn’t match the story our guide told us,” Jenn said. “We heard the Hungarian government did not want to ‘waste’ bullets on the Jews, so they tied everyone together, shot one or two people and pushed everyone into the river.”

Conceived by film director Can Togay, he created the memorial on the east bank of the Danube River with sculptor Gyula Pauer to honour the Jews who were massacred by Fas-

lished Budapest ghetto and executed them along the river bank.”

According to Offbeat Budapest, “Estimates on the total number of Hungarian Jews killed

Holocaust victims inscribed in the tree’s metal leaves. The Tablets of Stone in front of it are symbolically stripped of their content. American actor Tony Curtis — whose father, Emanuel Schwartz, was a Hungarian Jew — provided the funds for the memorial.

A Holocaust Memorial can be found at the Faculty of Arts of the Eötvös Loránd University. This subtle memorial, which opened to the public in 2014, consists of a narrow, barely noticeable bronze strip running along the brick walls of the university. The plate lists the students and teachers who died in the Holocaust.

cist Hungarian militia belonging to the Arrow Cross Party in Budapest during the Second World War.

The plaque states “To the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross Militiamen in 1944-45.”

It does not mention Jews. Why is that? A quick Google search tells us that “Most of the murders along the edge of the River Danube took place around December 1944 and January 1945, when the members of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party police (“Nyilas”) took as many as 20,000 Jews from the newly estab-

in the Holocaust vary because of changes in Hungary’s borders before, during and after World War II, and because many survivors remained abroad. There were 825,000 Jewish people in so-called Greater Hungary before the deportations began in March 1944, and the consensus is that more than 500,000 were killed.”

In addition to the Shoes on the Danube, there are a number of other memorials in Budapest.

The Emanuel Tree is located behind the Dohány Street Synagogue. The weeping willow memorial has the names of 30,000 Hungarian

Jenn and Leigh also visited the remains of the ghetto’s wall at 15 Király Street. In November 1944, most Budapest Jews were herded into a ghetto, enclosed by today’s Király, Kertész, Dohány, and Rumbach streets inside the Jewish Quarter. Here, several thousand people died before the Soviet Army liberated the ghetto in January, 1945 (some of the victims are buried in the garden of the Dohány Street Synagogue). A small section of the ghetto’s wall still stands to serve as a reminder. The wall is inside the courtyard of a private apartment building, but there’s a hole on the entry door, so you can peek in or wait until a resident comes or goes and opens the door.

There are other places, and the evidence is there; so are the stories—but barely. Hungarian Jewish memories of the Holocaust almost disappeared. It is the current generation who will continue to unearth their own story and keep it front and center, while rebuilding Jewish life and identity.

Kooper Fellman

Above: Remains of the Ghetto’s Wall, right: Jenn and Leigh at the Partnership Summit in Budapest.