November 11, 2022

REGULARS

Promoting Empowerment in Our World

PAM MONSKY

Jewish

Community Relations Council (JCRC) Assistant Director

TheJewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) recently hosted eighty tenth grade students from ten different metro area high schools for the 35th PEW, Promoting Empowerment in our World, a day-long workshop focusing on anti-bias training and introspection.

For 35 years, PEW has brought together students from different school districts, backgrounds, religions, ethnicities, races, and cultures for an intensive one-day, interactive workshop designed to heighten students’ awareness of stereotyping in their own environment and enable them to recognize and overcome biases in themselves and their peer group.

Frohman, of blessed memory, started the signature program 35 years ago.

Students are carefully selected by their teachers and guidance counselors to participate in the workshop. The day consists of small group activities designed to examine biases that exist within ourselves and throughout the community. After going through the activities, the students reunite with their schools and discuss ways to combat discrimination and injustice within their school communities.

Students making identity sculptures

The students, along with their school chaperones and 22 trained facilitators began the day at Temple Israel with a breakfast and welcoming remarks from JCRC Executive Director Sharon Brodkey, who told the story of how Barbara

During lunch, Edem Soul Music performed. Edem is a 12 time Omaha Entertainment and Arts Award nominee, 2018 OEAA winner for Best Soul and a 2020 and 2021 Winner for Outstanding World Music. After completing her 2017 residency with the Union for Contemporary Art, Edem became Omaha, Nebraska’s first Capitol District Musician in Residence.

In addition to the students, teachers and facilitators, a number of volunteers were on hand to make sure the day See Promoting Empowerment in Our World page 3

DIANE WALKER

JFO Foundation Fund & Scholarship Administrator

The Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation is again offering you the wonderful opportunity to help your dollars go further and benefit the Omaha Jewish community for years to come! With our Endowment Fund Incentive Match program – you can play a significant role!

We have two options available for your consideration. You can establish or add to either and receive a 20% match, up to $20,000 per gift, now through Dec. 31, 2022

A PACE/LOJE FUND: The Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment (PACE) or Lion of Judah Endowment (LOJE) funds are permanent funds dedicated to endowing your Jewish Federation of Omaha Annual Cam-

Temple Young Adults Pop-Up Shabbat

paign gift. PACE and LOJE funds are not intended to take the place of any current annual gifts. Instead, they serve as a lasting legacy that will continue to make an annual gift to the campaign in perpetuity on your behalf.

A BUILDING FUND: Establish or add to an existing endowment to help pay costs to repair, replace, or renovate the JCC. We are all enjoying the newly refreshed Staenberg Omaha JCC. With your help, we will be able to maintain the fresh look and continue to make improvements for years to come.

Between now and Dec. 31, 2022, the Jewish Federation of Omaha See Imagine your legacy page 3

On Friday, Sept 9, a sold-out crowd of 45 young adults joined Temple Israel’s TISH group for a pop-up Shabbat experience at Heirloom Fine Foods event space in

midtown Omaha.

The night opened with a cocktail hour in Heirloom’s ‘secret garden,’ before guests moved inside for a traditional Shabbat meal and conversation. Dinner kicked off with

Pop-Up Shabbat page 2

NATE SHAPIRO

Temple Israel Executive Director

Members of Temple Israel’s TISH were able to participate in a Pop-Up Shabbat at Heirloom Fine Foods, where they were able to come together for a cocktail hour to converse with other members in their age group.

Pop-Up Shabbat

Continued from page 1 welcoming remarks from Temple Israel Board of Trustees, Vice President Geoff Silverstein before Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin led the group in Shabbat blessings.

Rabbi Berezin said, “The TISH Pop-Up Shabbat was a really amazing opportunity to come together with our Temple community and spend time getting to know each other. So many people in this demographic are present at Temple in a variety of ways, but oftentimes it is connected to their kids. TISH gave them the opportunity to be present with their peers and connect with each other, all while celebrating Shabbat together. When we were politely asked to leave the venue so that staff could go home at 9 p.m., people simply took their conversations to the parking lot, continuing conversations long after the event itself concluded. I’m delighted that the overwhelming response from people was to ask when the next event would be. This is just the beginning of our focus on engagement and prioritizing relationship building within our community.”

The TISH group was launched nearly five years ago to engage young adults at Temple who are 30ish or 40ish, single-ish or marriedish, and Jewish or Jew-ish. TISH is a German/Yiddish word, which means “Table” and refers to a gathering for Hasidic Jews around their Rabbi, consisting of speeches, songs, and refreshments. Tish Programming had been paused since the pandemic, and the

group is now excited to re-engage to offer Shabbat experiences and other programs for this demographic.

Troy Meyerson, President of Temple Israel’s Board of Trustees, has made engagement a top priority for his two-year term. He said, “Temple is at a point right now where engagement and building connections between our congregants is critical, and this is a cohort looking for new and different ways to relate to synagogue life and build relationships with one another.”

Participants dined on a gourmet meal,

homemade challah, and wine and beer; they also enjoyed lively conversation and icebreakers that were encouraged to allow people to meet new friends and deepen existing relationships.

“We were so excited to be part of the TISH event at Heirloom,” said Tamara Draeger, a Temple Israel member. “Finding ways to meaningfully engage people in connection with Temple and Jewish life is so importantespecially when there are so many pulls for our time, energy, and attention. TISH is providing

an opportunity for 30-to-40 somethings to gather in ways that are intriguing and inviting while fostering the importance of community relationships. It’s also just a fun and relaxing way to be Jewish with our counterparts!”

The event was spearheaded by a volunteer committee of Ally Freeman, Leora Werner, and Mandie Mara. For more information on TISH or to learn more about future events, please contact Director of Engagement Mindi Marburg at mmarburg@templeisraelom aha.com

Attendees were enjoying a gourmet meal while Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin was presenting Shabbat services.

Book Group reads The Button Man

SHIRLY BANNER JFO Library Specialist

On Nov. 17 at 1 p.m. the Dorothy Kaplan Book Discussion Group will gather for their monthly meeting. Group members have the choice of meeting either in person in the Benjamin & Anna Wiesman Reception Room in the Staenberg Jewish Community Center or via Zoom. This month they will be discussing Button Man by Andrew Gross. New participants are always welcome.

For many Jewish immigrants, growing up in pre-WWI New York’s Lower East Side meant you were connected in one way or another to the Garment District. For the tree sons of the struggling Rabishevsky famiy, that meant growing up quickly following the death of their father. As the eldest, Sol must curtail his studies to become an accountant and finds a bookkeeping job to help support the family. Harry, suffering from guilt involving the tragic death of his twin brother, comes under the influence of the local bully and future mobster Louis “Lepke” Buchalter. Youngest son Morris, at only 12 years-old, drops out of school to become an apprentice garment cutter in a clothing factory.

When Morris is barely in his twenties, he becomes an integral part of the clothing factory’s operation and eventually opens his own business with Sol as his partner. With the growing influence of mobster’s involvement in the “unionization” of the garment industry, Morris does his best to avoid the violence surrounding Lepke, who has risen in the ranks of the mob, and his henchmen’s violence against Morris’ fellow garment factory owners.

Since many police and politicians were bribed by the organized crime syndicate, chaos runs rampant and garment owners are forced to comply with the “union” demands or faced enforcement by “button men” employed by Lepke who controls the garment industry. Many lives are threatened, merchandise destroyed, and businesses forced to close for non-compliance. The Raab Brothers factory is one of the lone exceptions to the mob’s harassment because of an incident

Imagine your legacy

Continued from page 1

Foundation will match endowment gifts for these two specific options. Time and matching funds are limited so now is your chance to make an even bigger impact with your gift.

“Our community is so generous! We see time and again the wonderful support provided to the agencies of the Jewish Federation of Omaha from endowments established by folks just like you. We can now help stretch those funds by providing a match. Your $1,000 gift to an established PACE/LOJE or building fund will become $1,200. Your $25,000 gift establishing a new PACE/LOJE or building fund will become $30,000,” said Amy Bernstein Shivvers, Foundation Executive Director. When you establish an endowment fund, you complete a simple agreement that indicates the purpose(s) of the fund, and then you fund your endowment with cash, appreciated securities, or through other means. The Foundation honors the terms of each endowment agreement so your fund will only support the purpose(s) you select. Additionally, the Foundation administers and manages the endowment fund. The assets are invested and grow tax-free. Typically, endowment funds begin providing income for their selected purpose one year after being established. And every year after, in perpetuity. The Foundation’s Incentive Match program is a limited promotion that ends Dec. 31, 2022, and does not apply to donor-advised funds. For more information, please contact Amy Bernstein Shivvers at 402.334.6466 or ashivvers@jew ishomaha.org

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

that took place years ago between Lepke and Morris. As time passes, Harry continues to be influenced by Lepke’s subordinates and as such declines his brother’s offer to become a part of the successful Raab Brothers Factory when offered the opportunity. At times, this pits brother against brother as the corruption and violence continues to affect the operation of the garment industry.

Eventually Morris and Sol are forced to consider allowing the factory to unionize with disastrous results for all the brothers. It is only then that Morris is willing to stand up and help rid the industry of the organized crime influence and manipulation. According to the Mishnah, “the world will be sustained no matter what tragedy as long as there are thirty-six truly righteous people.” Doing what is right is sometimes more difficult than doing nothing.

Please feel free to join us on Nov. 17 in person or via Zoom.

The Dorothy Kaplan Book Discussion Group meets on the third Thursday of every month at 1 p.m. New members are always welcome.

The Group receives administrative support from the Community Engagement & Education arm of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. For information about the group and to join in the discussion, contact Shirly Banner at 402.334.6462 or sbanner@jewishomaha.org

Promoting Empowerment in Our World

Continued from page 1 ran smoothly, including a team from Nebraska Furniture Mart who helped set up the classrooms and serve breakfast.

PEW is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Murray H. & Sharee C. Newman Supporting Foundation, the Shirley & Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation, Speedy & Debbi Zweiback, Zoë & Carl Riekes and Ideal Pure Water.

The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) is the public affairs voice of the JFO. The JCRC works to foster a just, democratic and pluralistic society through cooperation with other faith partners, racial, ethnic, and civic groups. Guided by Jewish values, the JCRC fights antiSemitism, advocates, educates, collaborates, and mobilizes action on issues of importance to the Jewish community and community at large, and promotes the security of Israel and Jews everywhere.

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Ten NFM Volunteers Renee Quevedo, Michael Gauthier, Josh Tejral, Joe DeSanti, Katie Pence, Nikia Mcbride, Courtney Robers, Omina Sanginova, Lisa Shkolnick, Tyler Wisecup, and Brian Delehant.

Making friends in Budapest: Part 3

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor

Partnership2Gether (P2G) is a network for the promotion, empowerment and development of deep connections between Jewish communities in Israel and worldwide. The P2G network strengthens Jewish communities in Israel and overseas by creating revitalized, ongoing and meaningful engagement between members of these communities, based on mutual endeavor and shared Jewish identity.

Jenn Tompkins and Leigh Chaves did not attend the Partnership Summit in Budapest for the scenery alone, or for the food or the extensive programming. While these things are both attractive and educational, the main reason they went was simple: the people.

“The Hungarian tour guides impressed us with all the knowledge they were able to share,” Jenn said. “But we also spent much time interacting with other participants from both the US Partnership cities, and the Israeli delegation. We met a school-teacher who was close to retirement, and a self-proclaimed far-left liberal and a conservative Republican who all traveled from Buffalo, New York. We met Toledo’s past JCC and Federation president, and there was a robust delegation from Des Moines, which of course included Kim and Bob Goldberg. The Israeli group brought someone named Johnny who is originally from London. We spent time with San Antonio’s CEO, and a participant from South Bend, who shared a photo he had of him and Eliad Ben Shushan, our previous shaliach. Deborah from Louisville raved to us about Rabbi Ari Dembitzer. We met Ahmed, who asked us to pass a greeting on to Stacey Rockman. The list of encounters was endless.”

“Traveling internationally,” Leigh added, “opens your mind to new ways of thinking, eating, experiencing, walking, planning. You listen to many different stories, and it makes you realize how Jewish communities everywhere go through stages where the tide changes, and it can be an uphill battle.”

Coming together in a Partnership context means more than exchanging facts and data about our various Jewish communities. It also serves as a reminder that, though we tend to focus on our differences, we have much more in common than we sometimes realize. That is true for American Jews from different cities, as well as Israeli Jews and those in Hungary, which is why the Partnership is so important.

“One man we met in Budapest,” Jenn said, “grew up secular during the Socialist era. His grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, and he himself became interested in his background at the age of 30. He researched his great-grandparent and discovered their orginal family name and started learning Hebrew. It changed his life in so many ways. His parent’s generation represents a gap that he has begun to close.”

The summit also exposed participants to a young Hungarian woman who had a similar story.

“She was 32 years old,” Jenn said, “and recounted how she began to learn about concentration camps in school. When she asked her mother what they were, and if they were similar to summer camps (the teacher had not elaborated), her mother told her the full story, and shared with her that they were Jewish. It had never before come up.”

The Partnership is a long-term initiative and creates strong bonds between our various communities. Programs will come and go, which is a good thing; from twinning between different schools to artist-in-residence programs, as long as we continue to build relationships, we will all come out ahead.

Calling all artists

“One way to look at the Partnership,” Leigh said, “is as a doorway that people can walk through. Wherever they can find inspiration, invite them in. It can be academia, medical, art, you name it. Together, we create the ideas. The Partnership is like an incubator.”

This is what it means to be part of a global Jewish community. P2G is a way to bridge the gap of understanding and bring us together in the spirit of our faith. It not only creates deep interpersonal relationships that transcend location, but it also

celebrates our rich heritage, our differences, and the culture that unites us all.

Partnership2Gether connects 300 Jewish communities around the world in 43 partnerships. Each partnership provides opportunities for communities to connect, and for interpersonal relationships to flourish. Through hands-on projects and personal interactions that engage thousands of Israelis and Jews each year. Individuals and communities across the world learn from one another and experience the enriching reciprocal benefits of being part of the global Jewish family.

Together, with a number of other cities, Omaha belongs to the The Western Galilee & Central Area Consortium Partnership2Gether. This also includes Dayton, Toledo, Youngstown, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Northwest Indiana, South Bend, Indiana; Louisville, Kentucky; Des Moines, Iowa; Buffalo, NY; Austin, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Texas; Peoria, Springfield, Illinois and Budapest. All of us are linked with Akko and Matte Asher in the Western Galilee.

To find out more about the Partnership and to see a map of the area, please visit https://archive.jewishagency.org/ partnership2gether/content/33391/

After delays caused by the pandemic, the

anniversary celebration of L.O.V.E.will take place on

very excited to celebrate with you! As part of our fundraising efforts, we are planning an art auction.

We are requesting donations from artists to help raise funds in order to enhance the quality of life for the Residents of the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. If you are interested in donating, please contact Iris Ricks at 402.917.5269 or omaharicks@yahoo.com. All donations are requested by April 1, 2023

Looking for Oral History Interview Participants

ILANA (ASHTON) LINTHICUM

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.

Leigh, left, Golan and Ahmed from the Matte Asher Community Center and Jenn.

These US Jewish groups are staying quiet on election results

RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON | JTA

Few of the American Jewish groups who would not speak out about the prospect of extremists in government before Israel’s elections have done so the day after, even though Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right provocateur, seems headed for a position of power.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Jewish Federations of North America and B’nai B’rith International issued statements focused only on expressing gratitude for Israel’s robust democracy.

“As Israel determines the formation of its new government, it is clear that the Knesset — like the U.S. Congress — will include leaders of a wide range of different political, ideological, economic, racial, and religious identities and perspectives,” AIPAC said in a statement.

Israel’s former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, having secured a majority bloc of 62 to 65 seats, appeared headed back to power. The Religious Zionist Party, a bloc of three parties including Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit, looks set to win 14 seats, making it an attractive partner as Netanyahu seeks to form a governing coalition.

Ben-Gvir has been charged with crimes more than 50 times and convicted in eight cases, including once for providing support to a terrorist organization. He is a protege of Meir Kahane, the American-Israeli Jewish extremist-turnedpolitician who advocated for openly racist policies. This election, he campaigned on a platform that included loosening open-fire rules to include stone-throwers as legitimate targets — and then traveled to a clash and pulled out his pistol.

The Biden administration is unlikely to deal with Ben-Gvir or anyone from his party should they secure a Cabinet position or otherwise visit the United States, said Daniel Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel who is now a fellow at the Atlantic Council.

“I doubt that the administration will work with anyone who advocates racist and bigoted policies, gauges and engages in anti-Arab incitement,” Shapiro said in an interview. “Biden’s strong defense of global democratic values will not make that possible. So if he’s a minister whose portfolio involves close coordination with us, that coordination will have to be conducted via others.”

An exception among the groups that declined to comment See US groups are staying quiet on election page 6

Election results in Israel

JFNA ISRAEL OFFICE

After four inconclusive Israeli elections, yesterday’s vote seems to have produced a more definite outcome, at least according to votes tallied so far. Here is Jewish Federation's summary of what took place.

The Nov. 1 vote seems to have produced a definitive conclusion, with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu poised to return to power and form a new government.

As of publication date, counting was still taking place, but the results, as they currently stand are (numbers represent the number of seats in the 120-member Knesset), with around 80% of votes counted:

Parties willing to join a Netanyahu–led coalition

• Likud (Netanyahu)31 seats

• Religious Zionists (Smotrich + Ben Gvir)14 seats

• Shas (ultra-Orthodox Sefardi)12 seats

• UTJ (ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi) 8 seats

• Total seats: 65

Will only join a coalition without Netanyahu

• Yesh Atid (Lapid)24 seats

• National Unity (Gantz)12 seats

• Yisrael Beiteinu (Liberman) 5 seats

• Ra’am (Abbas)5 seats

• Labor 4 seats

• Total seats: 50

Will not join any coalition

• Hadash-Ta’al Arab List 5 seats

SOME POINTS TO NOTE

The Religious Zionist party, including Itamar Ben Gvir, has increased from 6 to 14 seats and is now the third largest party in the Knesset.The Haredi-Sefardi party, Shas, has increased from 9 to 12 seats. Meretz, the veteran left-wing Zionist party is currently below the electoral threshold. While vote tallying was not yet final, it seems likely that they will not be in the Knesset. Ayelet Shaked, now leading the remains of Naftali Bennett’s list, also did not pass the threshold.

The most likely scenario now is that Netanyahu will form a stable coalition of around 65 seats, comprising the religious and right-wing elements of the Knesset. This would most probably be a strong government that could govern effectively for a full term. Some commentators are suggesting that Netanyahu may be concerned with the optics of including the Religious Zionists in his coalition, and will try to balance this out by attempting to add one or more of the parties from the previous government, such as Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid or Benny Gantz’s National Unity in the coalition. These other parties have said they would

not sit with Netanyahu in government, but could potentially decide that they would rather be in government where their views would be more influential, than in opposition.

The causes behind the political shift that took place yesterday will likely be debated far into the future. Some factors and possibilities likely include:

• There are shifts in the demographics of the Israeli public, especially among younger voters, with more identifying with the religious Zionist or Haredi parties.

• The election was clearly affected by a worrying and ongoing uptick in violence which has seen daily attacks on Israelis by Palestinian terrorists, causing a reaction against the parties in power, not dissimilar from the reaction that the crime issue is having on the American mid-term elections.

• Prime Minister Netanyahu successfully orchestrated a situation where the parties supporting him were unified through mergers, ensuring they would all make it in to the Knesset. By contrast, the anti-Netanyahu camp was split, and one (or more) parties did not make it over the electoral threshold.

• The experiment of the “change camp” in the outgoing government, involving numerous parties with very different ideologies, simply did not work. The various parties disagreed on too many issues, leading to the quick dissolution of that government. As a result, the public did not see another such government as a viable alternative.

• Ultimately, despite his trial and other issues, many parts of Israeli society still see Netanyahu as the most skillful, capable and successful leader in Israel. It seems that many who had hesitated to vote for him in previous rounds, “came home” and voted for parties supporting Netanyahu, once again.

Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu cast their votes in Jerusalem, Nov. 1, 2022. Credit: Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90

US groups are staying quiet on election

Continued from page 5 before the election was the American Jewish Committee. Its statement Wednesday did not name Ben-Gvir but made clear the organization had concerns about his participation in government.

“For AJC, and for many Jews in America, Israel, and around the world, past statements of some potential members of the governing coalition raise serious concerns about issues we prioritize: pluralism, inclusion, and increased opportunities for peace and normalization,” it said.

The large number of Jewish groups, mostly liberal, that spoke out before the election against bringing in Ben-Gvir were heartbroken in the wake of his showing.

A statement from leaders of the Reform Jewish movement named Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Religious Zionist Party. (The two parties ran as a single ticket with a third anti-LGBTQ Party, Noam.)

“Including Ben Gvir and Smotrich in the government will likely jeopardize Israel’s democracy and will force the country to reckon with its place on the world stage,” the Reform movement’s statement said. “It will almost certainly lead to challenging moments in U.S.-Israel relations and will be painful for Jews worldwide who will not see the Israel they love and believe in reflected in these leaders, nor in the policies they pursue.”

Also speaking out was A Wider Bridge, a group that promotes Israel within the LGBTQ community and advocates for LGBTQ rights in Israel. The former mission just became harder, the group said in a statement.

“LGBTQphobia has been their calling card,” the group said of the Religious Zionist Party, “but we are also concerned about policies they would implement that would harm women, Arabs and Jews who don’t pray as they do. ... The new government could be the most extreme and dangerous for many groups, including our friends and colleagues in the LGBTQ community.”

Jeremy Ben-Ami,

Middle

J Street, said the elevation of the extremists “should force a moment of serious reckoning for all Americans who care about the nature of the US-Israel relationship and a just, equal and democratic future for both Israelis and Palestinians.”

The Zionist Organization of America, which has allies in the settler movement and on the U.S. and Israeli far right, was an outlier among the U.S. Jewish groups, welcoming the result and insisting that Ben-Gvir’s party was not “extreme.”

Shapiro said Netanyahu understands the risk of elevating Ben-Gvir and his ilk and could consider a coalition that brings in parties from the center and secure enough of a majority to keep out Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. Netanyahu and President Joe Biden have a good relationship, and it is not in Israel’s interests to undercut that.

“A coalition that does not include [Ben-Gvir] will help avoid those disruptions, which is something that now he should probably take into account,” he said of Netanyahu.

The major Jewish groups now hesitant to speak out may be planning to wait Netanyahu out in hopes that he cobbles together a coalition that does not include Ben-Gvir.

William Daroff, the Conference of Presidents CEO, told i24, an Israel-based cable news station, that it was too early to engage on what the extremists mean for the future of the U.S.Israel relationship.

“When that coalition comes together, which we will not know tonight, we will not know tomorrow, we will engage at that time,” he said. “I think it’s very important that the Diaspora is in the mix, that we are seen as we are, as a vibrant part of what makes Israel the amazing country that it is.”

Susie Gelman, a major donor to an array of Jewish and proIsrael groups over the years, said the election could be a gamechanger. “I think it’s going to put major pressure not just on U.S.-Israel relations, but clearly on the relationship between the American Jewish community and Israel,” she said.

“It will be challenging for some major American Jewish organizations going forward because this guy is a racist,” Gelman said of Ben-Gvir. “He espouses terrorism. He talks about expelling Palestinians.”

Gelman said that not speaking out now — as the group she now chairs, the Israel Policy Forum, has done — misses the importance of the moment. She noted that some of the groups now declining to speak warned Netanyahu not to truck with Smotrich ahead of the 2019 election.

“I think it was disappointing that some organizations that took a public position on Ben-Gvir three years ago did not do so this time,” said Gelman, whose group advocates for a twostate outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “But they made a judgment call on that.”

HANUKKAH

the president of the liberal Jewish

East lobby,

Benjamin Netanyahu seen during a morning walk the morning after the Israeli general elections, Nov. 2, 2022. Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

SP O TLIGHT

PHOTOS FROM RECENT JEWISH COMMUNITY EVENTS

GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

Jewish

Top, above, below and bottom: Legacy of Laughter Returns for a Laugh Out Loud Experience at the Heritage at Sterling Ridge. Check out the smiles. Just when we thought we’d never laugh again- comedian Tom Ryan saved the day. A special thank you to The Meyers Family Legacy of Laughter Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation.

Top, above and below: At the fundraiser for the Ben Lenagh Scholarship Fund, JCC Members and Staff came together to serve the meal, collect the money, helped with set-up and clean-up. When the food ran out, volunteers ran to pick up more! The JCC wants to thank all who attended for the outpouring of love and support.

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Antisemitic garbage fires

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor

Here’s the headline: “London theater group cancels Nazi-Jewish Romeo and Juliet after wave of criticism.” Of course, a retelling, fictionalization of the Holocaust experience (via Shakespeare, no less) is a phenomenally bad idea. What makes it even worse: this is not the first time someone thought this would be okay, and went so far as to write the script, hire a venue, hire a staff and cast, only to cancel at the eleventh hour.

But: at least they canceled.

Back in 2017, a small independent ballet company put on a show named Romeo and Jewliet, “a modern ballet of the Shakespearean love story set in Vienna, 1938, back in town after its debut three years ago,” Lana Guggenheim wrote for Jewcy and Tablet Magazine. “It’s as terrible and offensive as it sounds,” she added. A quick Google search results in evidence of various amateur — and high school — performances who are equally tone deaf.

I have to be honest: I am biased against fictionalizing any part of the Holocaust. I did not enjoy Schindler’s list. I despise the striped pajamas-book. I think the real stories speak so loud and clear, we do not need to make things up. Not to make it easier to understand, to make it more palatable, to make it simpler to digest, none of that. The truth is the truth, and that’s that. When you start embellishing, it never ends well.

Johnny Teague is a GOP candidate for Congres in Texas’ 7th district. He is also a business owner

and an evangelical pastor. In 2020, he published The Lost Diary of Anne Frank, which picks up where Anne Frank’s diary left off. In Teague’s imagination, she goes to Bergen Belsen and finds Jesus. I don’t have to tell you how wrong that is, but what sur-

“Goyim seem to like writing stories that have Jews and Nazis falling in love with each other. Never is any Jew involved in creating these stories, because the thought of a romantic connection with someone who wants to turn us and our families into ash is not just revolting, it’s impossible, and indeed sometimes the plot demands that the Jew convert, obtain false papers, and live under a new, false name. Love requires parity, and you don’t get parity when the other person doesn’t consider you human.”

There’s the essence of why these types of fiction make us so uncomfortable: at the very root is the notion that we are not fully human, that we are not good enough, coupled with the desire to either kill us or fix us. Like Martin Luther concluded a long time ago, if we could only convert, we’d be okay; if we don’t, we should go away.

Because of this underlying idea, most Holocaust fiction occupies both an antisemitic and philosemitic space. It’s how people like Teague can spout the most antisemitic nonsense while being convinced they are doing the Jews a favor, because they ‘really love Jews.’

prises me is that there are people like Teague who see no issue with it. Like, how? How could you possibly think this is okay?

About the 2017 Ballet, Guggenheim wrote:

“That’s it,” Guggenheim said after she spoke with the creator behind the Romeo and Jewliet ballet, “That’s how we get this antisemitic garbage fire. Well-meaning ignorance and utter disregard for the kind of trauma and society-deep sickness that genocide both causes, and requires.”

The ‘antisemitic garbage fire’ seems an apt description, but ‘well-meaning?’ I am not so sure about that anymore.

Seattle’s climate is changing, and so are our Jewish rituals

HANNAH S. PRESSMAN JTA

People in Seattle praying for rain — only on Opposite Day, right?

Admittedly, the rain jokes write themselves, but there is no humor to be found in this situation: The Pacific Northwest found itself desperately hoping for precipitation over the past several weeks. Seattle’s hottest summer ever on record extended into a toasty October with regional temperatures in the 80s, typically unheard of at this time of year.

The Tacoma News Tribune reported that we were experiencing the driest October since the 1940s. The Bolt Creek Fire, which erupted in early September near Skyhomish, has been burning for over a month and tarnishing Western Washington with unhealthy smoke levels for days on end.

On Oct. 19 and 20, the website IQAir reported that Seattle’s air quality was the worst on the planet.

So yes, Seattle has been praying for rain; in the era of extreme weather events, ironies abound.

For Jews living in the Pacific Northwest, it has become an unwelcome part of our seasonal preparation to anticipate how wildfire smoke might throw a wrench in our holiday plans. Parts of the High Holiday liturgy now strike me with new and disturbing resonance. I can’t read “who by fire” in the Unatenah Tokef prayer without thinking about the wildfires around the Cascades and the dangers they pose to people and animals both near and far.

Years of severe drought up and down the West Coast have laid the groundwork, literally, for wildfires to spread and affect increasingly large areas, disrupting daily life on an unprecedented level for people in this part of the country. Despite media coverage, I am not sure how much our lived reality has penetrated the awareness of people outside this region. As a Puget Sound resident for the last 15 years, I’ve watched the news follow a certain pattern: local reporting, followed sometimes by national reporting; a drop-off in national coverage as the crisis lingers; then an occasional swerve into arguments for or against the existence of global warming, forest mismanagement or whatever other polarizing environmental issue is on the table.

And while raging fire becomes an opportunity for raging voices, real-time human suffering is ignored.

I am not an environmental scientist, so I cannot prove or disprove whichever theories the recent wildfires are supposed to uphold. What I can provide is testimony about living through this moment and its impact on my Jewish holiday observance.

I can tell you about putting up a sukkah two weeks ago and staying outside just long enough to make a quick kiddush and say the blessing “leishev basukkah,” which expresses the commandment to sit in the temporary huts that are the enterprise of the Sukkot holiday. This year we may have fudged a little on the halakhic requirements for making that blessing, because the air smelled so terrible that we scurried back inside to eat our meal.

I can describe my fiveyear-old daughter patting the air purifier in my bedroom, trying to appease it whenever its red light indicated that it had detected something toxic in the air. “You’ll be OK,” she reassured the machine (simultaneously not reassuring me at all). She brought the purifier things to help it feel better, like a blanket and Laurie Berkner’s recording of All the Pretty Little Horses — a child’s offerings to an angry god.

A Sukkot week with only one or two days of moderate-enough air quality to spend time in the sukkah really doesn’t feel like z’man simchateinu, the season of our rejoicing. When the skies appear apocalyptic, when ash rains down on you from a mountain burning miles away, how can you make the spiritual pilgrimage that our High Holy Days require?

Which brings me back to the prayer that is added to the daily Amidah prayer on the last day of Sukkot: “Mashiv haruach umorid hageshem” — the Jewish prayer for wind and rain. This year, looking at that line, I felt a convergence of my current reality with the liturgy and language of my ancestors. For Jews, this appeal to the One who can make the wind return and the rain fall is invoked from the

end of Sukkot until the beginning of Passover. After the smokiest Sukkot in memory, a frustrating and frightening week of diminished rather than increased joy, I think everyone in this corner of the country was crying out for wind and rain to relieve us of the unbreathable, unthinkable air that had refused to budge for so long.

Last Friday, based on weather predictions, I dressed my daughter in rain pants and boots. Like my fellow Seattleites, I walked out the door hoping against hope that it would finally be the day to break the dry spell and drive away the cursed smoke. And lo, as we got in the car, the first spattering of rain in weeks began to softly descend. We drove to school with the windows down, reveling in the rain that began to fall more steadily and insistently. My daughter laughed and shouted a prayer of thanks towards the heavens: “Thank you, rain, for getting the smoke away!”

Our air and our sky have been returned to us. Let us rejoice, for now.

Hannah S. Pressman is the Director of Education and Engagement for the Jewish Language Project. She received her Ph.D. in modern Hebrew literature from New York University. You can find her writings on Jewish culture and Sephardic family history at hannahpressman.com

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA

its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

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.

or

Romeo woos Juliet on the balcony in a 1937 lithograph from the American School. Credit: Image via Getty. Design by Mollie Suss.

“A Sukkot week with only one or two days of moderate-enough air quality to spend time in the sukkah really doesn’t feel like z’man simchateinu, the season of our rejoicing.” Credit: JTA Illustration

Bad Jews describes a history of American Jewish infighting

ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL

JTA

The history of Jewish identity and politics in America has been told as a triumph of spiritual renewal (“A Certain People,” Charles Silberman, 1986), as an overdue flexing of political muscle (“Jewish Power,” J.J. Goldberg, 1996) and as a series of clashes between denominations and world views (“Jew vs. Jew,” Samuel Freedman, 2006).

Emily Tamkin takes a different tack, tracing the history of American Jewry through the ways Jews on one side of social upheaval seek to discredit the very Jewishness of those on the other side. In Bad Jews: A History of American Jewish Politics and Identities, Tamkin writes about key moments in American and American Jewish history — the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the rise and fall of the labor movement, the internal debate over Israel. Jews didn’t just disagree with one another during these debates, but charged that their Jewish antagonists were “self-hating,” “kapos,” “radicals,” and “antisemites” — in short, bad Jews.

But her goal, Tamkin writes, is not to reveal Jews as hopelessly divided or judge who is and isn’t a “good Jew,” but rather to describe how these debates are part of a constant conversation about “who is Jewish, and how to be Jewish, and what it means to be Jewish.”

In fact, Tamkin, 32, calls “Bad Jews” a “love letter to Jewish pluralism,” celebrating the many ways Jews have come to define themselves, as well as a corrective to historians, journalists and politicians who treat Jews as a social and political monolith despite their diversity.

If some of these expressions make readers uncomfortable — Tamkin writes about Jewish anti-Zionists, Trumpists, atheists, religious zealots and the proudly intermarried — that, she writes, is the price and glory of being an American Jew. “Somebody wrote that she thought this was going to be a new framing about who was a bad Jew,” Tamkin said in an interview from her home in Washington, D.C. “And actually, it seems like I was talking about all the ways that people try to be good Jews.”

Tamkin is the senior editor, U.S., of The New Statesman, and author of The Influence of Soros, a 2020 study of the Jewish philanthropist’s liberal causes, business legacy and the vitriol he draws from the right. She has her master’s degree in Russian and Eastern European Studies from the University of Oxford, and a bachelor’s degree in Russian literature and cultures from Columbia University.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Let’s start with the genesis for the book: What’s the problem or challenge that you saw and that you felt the need to address?

Emily Tamkin: Well, I’ve been saying that my villain origin story for this is that my last book was on George Soros. And one of the things that came up quite a lot as a sort of defense by his critics accused of being antisemitic that, well, it can’t be antisemitism because he’s not really Jewish. “Look at his relationship to Israel, look at his relationship to religion,” they’d say. And this really upset me.

Because he was critical of Israel, for instance, that made Soros a bad Jew.

Exactly — that he’s somehow not Jewish because he doesn’t check a certain number of boxes. What was upsetting me was not only the treatment of this billionaire, but I was having a personal reaction to it as well. Also, all of this was happening in the Trump years where it felt to me like the label of “bad Jew” was being tossed back and forth across the political aisle. And I thought that it would be useful to put that moment in historical context. I saw a tweet at one point saying there’s a Jewish civil war going on. And I don’t disagree with that, but it’s been going on for at least 100 years in this country. And I think sometimes it’s useful to let that inform our present discussions and debates.

When you said personal: What personally triggered you when Soros was being labeled a “bad Jew”?

As I write in the introduction, I really went back and forth on whether or not I could write this book — because my mother had converted to Judaism before I was born or because my husband isn’t Jewish or I’d never been to Israel before writing this book. I didn’t go to Hebrew school — on and on. And I came to conclude that [my biography] is a very useful framing for thinking about authenticity. Obviously, one needs to have a certain amount of knowledge to write any book, but the idea that there’s a certain set of preconditions that you have to hit to be considered Jewish or sufficiently Jewish? I think that’s really wrong. When I started writing this book, I probably would have used the label “bad Jew” half-jokingly about myself, but I don’t do that anymore.

Let me just clarify the title for people who haven’t read the book: You’re not calling yourself or others bad Jews, but you’re describing the ways the term has been repeatedly weaponized by various sets of Jews against other Jews.

Exactly, or against ourselves, because it’s quite internalized as well. I have had a couple of people say to me, “Well, how could you call a book Bad Jews at this time of rising anti-

semitism?” And to this I would just say that, actually, a time when our political leaders are speaking about American Jews as though they’re bad Jews is exactly the time to have a book called Bad Jews

You describe a number of Jewish internal battles in the book, including deep schisms over Israel, civil rights and interfaith marriage. Is there one that really encapsulates how Jews use “bad Jews” as a label against each other?

The back and forth on intermarriage is a good example. It is wrapped up in the debate over who we’re supposed to be in this country and how we’re supposed to relate to the United States and to what extent do you assimilate to a culture. What sometimes gets lost, not just in the debate around intermar-

in the United States.

And the second thing is that the face of American Jewish life is changing. I’m not a Jew of color. I don’t try to speak for Jews of color. But I do think that it’s important to understand that the majority of American Jews historically have had a very different experience and different relationship to whiteness in America than Jews of color.

Maybe it is no coincidence that the biggest Jewish conversation right now is a tweet by Donald Trump that was perceived as antisemitic and comments by Kanye West, a Black rapper, which I would say were blatantly antisemitic.

I mean, [Kanye’s comments] were, like, pretty textbook. I don’t know that you can get more antisemitic than saying “a Jewish agenda is ruining my life.”

Let’s focus on Trump for a second. Basically he said Jews who don’t put Israel first in their political thinking are not only ungrateful to him but are, essentially, bad Jews. What was your take?

I think it displayed a deep lack of understanding about most American Jews. Most American Jews do not vote with Israel as their top issue. Most American Jews lean liberal, and especially younger American Jews are more critical of Israel. The part that was antisemitic is this idea that if you’re an American Jew you are supposed to have loyalty first and foremost to another country, but also that your status as a good Jew is contingent on your loyalty to a political party. Like, no: We’re Americans, whether or not we vote for Donald Trump.

riage, but generally, is that there are many ways that people can explore Jewishness in a way that’s meaningful to them. And we lose sight of that, when we’re focused on “Oh, I’m doing this right. I’m doing this wrong.”

In the book you include a critique of the Jewish philanthropic establishment by suggesting the debate over intermarriage was a not-so-implicit attack on Jewish women who “are not having enough babies,” as a critic of the organizations tells you. Can you expand on the ways you feel the establishment sort of weaponized what they came to call the continuity debate?

As you know, I’m not inventing this research — especially women in Jewish Studies have made this case. Basically, the idea is that Jewish organizations went out and paid for studies that sort of told them what they wanted to hear in terms of how threatening intermarriages are. And in one case, [sociologist] Stephen M. Cohen, this was being done by somebody who has been accused of sexually harassing women. I think it’s important to draw attention to the episode in which people said. “Okay, can we look at how to be more inclusive of Jews who are marrying people who are not Jewish?” And how instead they were told, “Let’s focus on the core and not the periphery.” People sometimes say, “Well, you know, Jews are more likely to raise Jewish children if they marry other Jews.” Well, if you’re talking about people who don’t marry other Jews as the “periphery,” how welcome are they going to feel in Jewish life?

It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Yes. Like, how welcome are they going to feel to explore the different ways in which Jewish life can be meaningful? More generally, something we have seen throughout American Jewish history, or at least the last century, is that American Jewish institutions tend to be more conservative than American Jews at large. Which is fine, except to the extent that these same organizations, the same donors, purport to speak for all American Jews — which they don’t and in fact can’t because it’s such a pluralistic set of communities. I hesitate to say that there is an American Jewish community — certainly not one that can be spoken for by a single institution or set of social scientists or what have you.

There’s a lot of discussion about whiteness in Bad Jews I know you draw on and credit fully Eric Goldstein’s The Price of Whiteness and Karen Brodkin’s How Jews Became White Folks.... They argue that while Jews were not quite accepted as wholly American by other, non-Jewish whites, they nevertheless benefited from policies and structures that enabled people who presented as white to become upwardly mobile, while people of color were intentionally left behind. Why is it important to understand the history of American Jewish identity in terms of race and whiteness?

I think because it’s American history. And because so much in this country comes back to race. Interracial hierarchies tend to favor white supremacy. To understand Jewish history in the United States, for better or for worse, you need to understand how it relates to race and racism. I think that’s particularly important to do now for two reasons. The first is that we’re in, unfortunately, a moment of pretty blatant white supremacy for many political quarters. And I think it’s important that American Jews, most of whom go through life as white people for all intents and purposes, understand the ways in which some of us have upheld some of the racial hierarchies

I did see some Republican Jews or conservative Jews who came out and said no, Trump is right. The second-to-last chapter of my book looks at Jews who were supportive of Trump and said that those who weren’t were bad Jews. Obviously, I think that that’s wrong and that it’s not helpful. But conservatism is also a strain of American Jewish thought, just like liberal pluralism is a strain of American Jewish thought.

Fighting antisemitism used to be a great unifying force among Jews – but today the right insists the anti-Zionist left is the biggest threat and the left says white supremacy is the biggest threat.

Yes, Jewish people define it quite differently. I thought that what Trump said was antisemitic, and there are conservative Jews who disagree with me on that. There are criticisms of Israel that I don’t consider to be antisemitic that others consider Jew hatred.

Having said that, this is not a book about antisemitism. Because antisemitism, it’s about Jews, but it’s also not about Jews, right? It’s about antisemites, and I think American Jewish history is so much bigger and richer than the people who hate us. You write something at the end of the book I’d love you to expand on: “your favorite part about being an American Jew.” What is that?

It starts with something I heard a lot in Israel: “We don’t have to think about being Jewish.” That’s not totally true. There are debates on how to be Jewish in Israel, even if they’re quite different, but I think someone said to me, like, “We’re not paranoid about it like you.”

But I love my paranoia. I love gazing in my own navel and thinking about what it means to be Jewish and what it means to be Jewish in America and changing my mind about what that means to me and rethinking it. I didn’t think that I would be a person who grew up to belong to a synagogue and then I did. I didn’t think that I would be a person who takes Yiddish classes in my free time and now I am. I really didn’t think I would be a person who writes about these issues in print, and here I am.

I think there are many things that one can do in life and point to and be like, “ah, that’s Jewish.” Just asking these questions, even though there’s not an answer, is a part of Jewishness and Judaism that I really love.

I do hope that comes across in this book. It’s a love letter to Jewish pluralism in some ways. I love being an American Jew. And I would hope that despite the title and despite the infighting and despite the self-doubt, that comes across to readers and invites them to think, “What do I love about it, what is significant to me, what parts of the American Jewish experience can I latch on to?”

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. This article was edited for length.

Jews argue outside of the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., where Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates were scheduled to speak during the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee convention, March 21, 2016. Credit: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

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Arab voters struggled to be heard

DEBORAH DANAN

JAFFA, Israel | JTA

Niji Abu Shehadeh sat outside a polling station a block away from Jaffa’s Givat Ha’Aliya beach, clutching a wad of white ballot slips. The slips contained a “Daled,” the Hebrew letter representing Balad, the party led by his father Sami Abu Shehadeh.

The young Abu Shehadeh handed slips to two elderly women who came to vote. “The people here don’t need convincing to vote for Balad, they just need help,” he said. “Some of the older generation don’t know how to read Hebrew so I’m just directing them.”

A sleek black sedan decked out in orange Balad flags arrived and Jihad Saka exited the driver’s seat.

According to Saka, who is married to Abu Shehadeh’s cousin, more young Arabs than ever voted this time around.

“I just got 60 young guys at a coffee shop smoking hookah to go vote with a single WhatsApp message,” he said. “I didn’t even need to convince them.”

“They understand this is about their future. They know what’s going on because they have TikTok, they see everything — all the racism of [Itamar]

Ben-Gvir and [Bezalel] Smotrich,” he said, referring to the firebrand members of the far-right list looking to earn prominent places in parliament by joining forces with Benjamin Netanyahu. Balad is at the far-left of Israel’s political spectrum, and the most anti-Zionist of the three Arab parties. It split from the Joint List of Arab parties in September, leaving the two other parties, Hadash and Ta’al, to run on a joint ticket.

According to all published polls, Balad is unlikely to meet the electoral threshold of 3.25%. But this fact does little to deter Abu Shehadah and his friends.

“In every single recent election, the polls show Balad not making it. But the day after the election, we always find that to be untrue,” said Mahmoud Kaboub, another one of Abu Shehadah’s friends. If the polls turn out to be correct, those votes for Balad could play to the benefit of the right-wing bloc led by Netanyahu, which is predicted to fall just shy of the 61-seat majority needed to run a government.

Bike Group of Lincoln meets Sundays at 10 a.m., rain or shine, to ride to one of The Mill locations from Hanson Ct. (except we drive if 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 will restart soon at TI, but first we want to know how many people are interested. There are three possibilities and we can do any or all of them depending on interest: Do a teaching clinic (equipment provided); Just Play. Newcomers welcome; Coaching sessions, providing tips and practice to improve your game. Please let Miriam Wallick know which options you're most interested in by text message 402.470.2393 or email at Miriam57@aol.com

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

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

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

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SATURDAY: 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.

SUNDAY: Grades PreK-6, 9:30 a.m.; Fifth Grade Date Ceremony, 10:15 a.m.; Book Club: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, 10:30 a.m.; Rosh Chodesh Event: Let’s Get Knotty Together, 1 p.m. Please RSVP.

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 Beth El; Community Beit Midrash, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY: Thursday Morning Class, 10 a.m. with Rabbi Azriel. Zoom & In-Person; Temple Israel Happy Hour, 6-8 p.m.

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According to Kaboub, this election round is different from the four that preceded it over the past threeplus years because far-right leaders are riding on tickets that pose an existential threat to the Arab

Nov. 1,

population. Ben-Gvir has called for deporting Arabs who aren’t loyal to Israel, annexing the West Bank and exercising full Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount, where the Al-Aqsa mosque is located.

Read more at www.omahajewishpress.com.

B’NAI ISRAEL

BETH EL

Niji Abu Shehadeh holds a Balad voting slip outside a polling station in Jaffa,

2022. Credit: Deborah Danan

Life cycles

CAROLYN KULAKOFSKY

Carolyn Kulakofsky passed away peacefully at age 89 on Oct. 28, 2022 in Houston, Texas. The burial was held on Nov. 1, 2022 at Fisher Farm Cemetery followed by a memorial service at Beth El.

She was preceded in death by her loving husband of 66 years, Michael.

She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, David and Margie Kulakofsky, Daniel and Judy Kulakofsky and Joseph and Ryuko Kulakofsky; her adored seven grandchildren and their spouses; three great-grandchildren; sister, Judy Kramer of Wilson, Oregon; and her numerous nieces and nephews.

She was born in Gary, Indiana on May 16, 1933 to Eugene and Thelma Cohn. She was the oldest of two children. Carolyn and Mike met on a blind date and what followed was a love affair that lasted a lifetime.

After graduating from Horace Mann High School in 1951, Carolyn was off to college. She graduated from Indiana University in 1955 with a degree in speech pathology and audiology. Carolyn moved to Chicago after meeting Mike and they were mar-

ried soon after in October 1955.

Carolyn started her career as a speech therapist before joining Mike in a new business venture in 1969. They worked together for the next 30 years to build a successful computer service bureau and software business. All the while, Carolyn raised her three boys with much love and many outdoor adventures canoeing and camping across America. After retirement Carolyn and Mike continued their adventure with a three-year motorhome trip around the country.

Carolyn took responsibility to her community seriously. She was a lifelong volunteer for many organizations and lent her beautiful soprano voice to the synagogue choir for many years. She had a special passion for Hadassah where she held various leadership positions into her seventies. Carolyn supported Hadassah Hospital and numerous environmental and wildlife causes at home and in Israel.

Carolyn will be remembered for her intelligence and generous spirit. Her warm heart and wonderful pies will provide cherished memories for her loving family. We will miss you Mom.

Memorials may be made to Hadassah.

‘F— antisemitism,’ John Mellencamp says as his Jewish lawyer is inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

PHILISSA CRAMER

JTA

As Kanye West extended his antisemitic spree by tweeting about Jewish agents in Hollywood, the rocker John Mellencamp took the stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and said this about his longtime lawyer: “Allen is Jewish.”

The line began an impassioned speech about the importance of non-Jews standing up for Jewish people at a time of antisemitism and anxiety for many of them, especially as white supremacists have taken up West’s comments as a rallying cry.

Mellencamp was speaking on behalf of Allen Grubman, a prominent music industry attorney who was being inducted because of his efforts to strike agreements that let artists retain creative rights over their work. Onstage Saturday night at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, Mellencamp embraced his longtime friend and called him a “true mensch.”

“Allen is Jewish, and I bring that up for one reason: I’m a gentile, and my life has been enriched by countless Jewish people,” said Mellencamp, whose songs Jack & Diane, Little Pink Houses and Hurts So Good were hits in the 1980s.

“I cannot tell you how f—ing important it is to speak out if you’re an artist against antisemitism,” Mellencamp went on. “I don’t give a f—, I don’t care [about people’s identity]. Here’s the trick: Silence is complicity. I’m standing here tonight loudly and proudly with Allen, his family and all of my Jewish

friends and all of the Jewish people of the world.” Grubman is among a cohort of Jewish attorneys and executives who sit at the top tiers of the entertainment industry. He has represented Madonna, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, who sued him in 1992 for not disclosing that he was working for both Joel and his record label. (Joel dropped the lawsuit after the label paid him $3 million.) Newsweek called Grubman “perhaps the music industry’s wealthiest and most powerful attorney” in 2001, and a 1998 Los Angeles Times profile said he had “octopus-like grip on the upper echelon of the pop music world.”

Born and raised in Brooklyn and now in his 80’s, Grubman said last week that he was proud of what he had accomplished in the music industry, peppering in the Yiddish that he has used throughout his career. (“Life is 80% mazel and 20% brains,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1998, using the Yiddish word for luck.)

“I tried to move the leverage from the labels to the artists,” he told Variety. “And I feel I was pretty successful doing so, which took chutzpah.”

It was not the first time that Mellencamp had publicly taken a stand to support Jews: Early in his career, he used the stage name John Cougar at the encouragement of his manager. “His whole explanation to me was that Mellencamp was first of all a German name, and he was Jewish,” the singer told GQ earlier this year. “And I kinda understood that point.”

Bruce Pearl and Auburn follow up ‘Birthright

for College

Basketball’ trip by hosting 150 Jewish high school students

JACOB GURVIS JTA

Auburn University’s men’s basketball team is hosting more than 150 Jewish high school students from across the country for a weekend of volunteering and basketball.

Pegged as a follow-up to the university’s “Birthright for College Basketball” Israel trip over the summer, this weekend’s gathering is a joint program put on by NCSY, the Orthodox movement’s youth arm, and Athletes for Israel, a nonprofit that brings athletes to Israel.

“The weekend is about showing appreciation to Auburn,” AFI founder Daniel Posner told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, citing the success of the team’s Israel trip.

During the visit to Auburn this weekend, students will participate in a basketball clinic with Auburn coach Bruce Pearl; celebrate Shabbat with Pearl and the Auburn basketball team; and volunteer at a local food bank and farm for troubled teens. They will also attend the Tigers’ season opener on Monday against George Mason University.

The students competed in a coed basketball tournament hosted at a local high school, featuring players from Jewish day schools from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida.

“It’s not just a basketball tournament,” Posner said, touting the unique opportunity for students to meet with Pearl, whom Posner called “a true leader of the Jewish people.”

“I owe a great debt to Athletes for Israel and Daniel Posner,” Pearl told JTA. “They helped me live a dream — that is to take my basketball team and my student athletes and my staff to

the Holy Land.”

Pearl added that bringing the teens to Auburn is “an opportunity for us to say thanks.”

Auburn’s Israel trip, which was likely the first of its kind for a full Division I college or professional team, featured stops at some of the country’s most famous historical and tourist sites,

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an interfaith basketball clinic hosted by former NBA player and activist Enes Kanter Freedom and exhibition games against Israel’s top national basketball teams.

Pearl is one of the more outspokenly Jewish and pro-Israel coaches in college sports. He co-founded the Jewish Coaches Association, which hosts an annual breakfast for Jewish NCAA basketball coaches at March Madness. He also coached in the 2009 Maccabiah Games, which he has called a career highlight.

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The Auburn University men's basketball team celebrating Shabbat in Israel, July 31, 2022. Credit: Auburn Athletics

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