JCRC & IHE visit the Learning Community
PAM MONSKY
JCRC Assistant Director
ewish Community Relations Council and Institute for Holocaust Education staff were invited to the Learning Community of South Omaha for a presentation on Judaism, the Holocaust and our culture to English as a second language adult learners.
The Learning Community works with children and families to challenge the opportunity gap through early childhood education, family engagement and future teacher preparation. Valued partners come from public education,
Kindergarten Consecration
Temple Israel Director of Communications
Temple Israel celebrated the Consecration of their Kindergarten class on Nov. 15, 2024. Consecration marks the beginning of formal Jewish education, and for many families also marks the first of many Jewish milestone moments that they will celebrate See Consecration page 3
higher education, non-profit organizations and the philanthropic community.
Our investments look to the future, focused on creating stronger communities and a better future for everyone.
ESL students have been reading the Diary of Anne Frank in graphic novel form and had numerous questions about the Omaha Jewish community and Judaism in general. The instructor, Lori Splett, invited Pam Monsky, JCRC Assistant Director and Morgan Groninger, JCRC/IHE Program and Communications Manager to make a presentation to the See Learning Community visit page 2
HEIDI HEILBRUN
PJ Library Coordinator
The annual Hanukkah Extravaganza returns this year on Sunday, Dec. 29, the fourth day of Hanukkah. This family celebration, which will take over the halls of the
Staenberg Omaha JCC from 2-4 p.m., promises to be an unforgettable experience. This year’s celebration honors Israel’s rich heritage, featuring a Sufganiyot Bakery where families can See Hanukkah Extravaganza page 3
STEFANIE BAGUIAN
Operation Grateful Goodies
LINDA SALTZMAN
With Dec. 25 falling the day of the first night of Hanukkah, you can perform a mitzvah to ring in the holiday of lights!
This year will be the sixth annual Operation Grateful Goodies, when Jews come together to thank those that spend time away from their families on Dec. 25 in order to protect and heal.
Volunteers of all ages deliver gift boxes to life savers including, but not limited to, firefighters, police officers, Offutt AFB personnel, air traffic controllers at Eppley, doctors and nurses in area hospitals, and emergency veterinarians.
Linda Saltzman and Sharon Nova are thrilled to co-chair Operation Grateful Goodies this year. Linda said:
“I can’t overstate how grateful everyone is that we are thinking of them. These lifesavers do so much for our community. It is an honor to give back.”
Anyone of any age can participate in Operation Grateful Goodies. In addition to delivering gift boxes, volunteers are needed for a large number of different tasks. This includes providing homemade baked goods, and we need a lot!
New this year: Anyone who provides more than 5 dozen homemade cookies, brownies or muffins can receive a halfdozen treats from Linda Saltzman’s Blue Otter Bakery.
We need people to purchase single-
serve, individually wrapped items (Chips, Rice Krispie treats, granola bars, etc.) to supplement the baked goods. You can donate funds to help cover the costs of boxes, stickers, etc., and write thank-you notes, which are attached to the goodie boxes Volunteers are also needed to help sort and assemble the goodie boxes.
The calendar for Operation Grateful Goodies 2024 is the following: Dec. 8:
Baking at Beth El 9:30 a.m. to noon; Dec. 15: Baking at Beth El 9:30 a.m. to noon; Dec. 19: Drop off homemade or purchased goodies and/or thank you notes at Beth El 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Dec. 20: Drop off homemade or purchased goodies and/or thank-you notes at Beth El 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; Dec. 22: Baking with PJ Library at the JCC; Dec. 23: Drop off goodies and/or thank-you notes at Beth El 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Dec. 24: Assemble and pack boxes at Beth El in two onehour shifts starting at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and Dec. 25: Pick up goodies boxes for delivery between noon and 1 p.m.
Please sign up at Beth El’s web site, https://www.bethel-omaha.org, or call Stacie Metz at Beth El at 402.492.8550. Operation Grateful Goodies is a communitywide project sponsored by the Miriam Initiative at Beth El.
Learning Community visit
Continued from page 1
students. Over the course of three presentations to 45 adult learners, Pam and Morgan covered the basics of Judaism including the branches of Judaism, the Torah, Lifecycle events, Israel, Antisemitism, the Holocaust, Holidays and Kashrut.
“We shared a number of props, such as Shabbat candles, challah, a shofar, a tallit, and a miniature Torah. We brought Oreos to talk about kosher symbols and gave everyone a little dreidel!” said Pam.
Students shared their thoughts about the presentation:
“Thank you for sharing a bit of your culture. It was very exciting to learn and share the details and the snacks!”
“Thank you for the conversation last Thursday. For me, it’s interesting to know the life for the Jewish religion. It’s rewarding to know some people with this religion and traditions and they are sharing with us. Thank you for coming to the LCC, for the chocolates, and for your presentation.”
“Thank you for coming and giving us your presentation and sharing your religion with us. It is very interesting to know that there are other people with very different traditions than us and it was very nice to know about yours.”
The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) is dedicated to working in common cause to enhance cooperation with other religious, racial, ethnic, and civic groups to foster a just, democratic and pluralistic society as well as promote the security of Israel and Jews everywhere. Guided by Jewish values, the JCRC is a nonpartisan agency that advocates, educates, collaborates, and mobilizes action on issues important to the Jewish Community and the greater community.
The Institute for Holocaust Education provides educational resources, workshops, survivor testimony, and integrated arts programming to students, educators, and the public. The IHE provides support to Holocaust survivors in our community.
Our goal is to ensure that the tragedy and history of the Holocaust are remembered, that appropriate, fact-based instruction and materials are available to students, educators, and the public to enable them to learn the lessons of the Holocaust and that, as a result, we inspire our community to create a more just and equitable society.
Sandy Nogg and the crew pack up gift boxes for Operation Grateful Goodies on Dec. 24, 2023.
The Yellin family delivers goodie boxes to a fire station in Elkhorn for Operation Grateful Goodies
Hall of Fame record breaker
JAY KATELMAN
JFO Director of Community Development
On Friday, Nov. 22, the largest crowd to date attended a Jewish Business Leaders event. Close to 100 people showed up to the Staenberg Omaha JCC to recognize the achievements of John Lehr and Arnold Joffe of Grace/Mayer (now Gallagher).
The Grace/Mayer local success story shows that hard work and dedication to people pays off. The company started in 1917 and quickly grew. John and Arnold spoke about the importance of being open to adding new business. They also addressed the importance of privacy.
“Our clients knew their information was secure with us,” John said. As a retail insurance broker, Grace/Mayer eventually grew to specialize in agriculture, real estate, food processing, transportation, and construction. “Even though it wasn’t among our original offerings,” John said, “agriculture became an essential part of our business.”
After approximately 95 years, Grace/Mayer sold to Arthur J. Gallagher & Company, currently the third largest insurance company in the world.
“Representatives from Gallagher came in for a meeting
Consecration
Continued from page 1 with their children. In most cases, it is also the first one in which children will be active participants. Temple Israel’s Consecration brought all of that together in a warm and ruachfilled service full of music, prayer, and blessings. It was also the debut of Temple’s first “Rock Shabbat”, which helped to set the tone for the night.
In preparation for the ceremony, the students worked with the Clergy and their teachers, Cari Hagemoser and Diana Williams. While the students worked with the teachers and clergy, parents met with new Director of Education, Julee Levine, to discuss the purpose and intention behind Consecration, share their own memories, and prepare a unique gift for their children. The students’ parents, which included several who celebrated their own Consecration at Temple Israel, created original Torah covers and cases for miniature Torahs that were placed inside the Ark and were given to the students on the Bimah that night. “So many milestone moments embrace the value of L’dor V’dor, from generation to generation.” said Julee Levine. “Having our students receive Torah from their parents surrounded by community truly took that to the next level.”
The evening began with the class entering the sanctuary as the “Shul of Rock” band played Heivenu Shalom. As the congregation welcomed the students with music and clapping, they ascended the bimah and joined their teachers to light the Shabbat candles together. As the service continued, they led the congregation in the Shema. When the moment of the Consecration ceremony arrived, each student was announced, walked onto the bimah, received their bespoke Torahs from the Ark, and shared with everyone the thing they love best about Jewish learning. With energy and joy, they shared responses which ranged from “learning Hebrew letters” to “being with my friends” to “Everything!” Their joy continued as they sang Od Yavo Shalom together, joined by the congregation. Milestone moments do not exist in a vacuum. To bring together all the elements of this beautiful evening, the parents joined their children on the Bimah, underneath a Tallit to receive blessings. The clergy led the parents in the Priestly Benediction, often used to bless children on Shabbat, and the parents led the congregation in a blessing for the children. With the Tallit being held up by teachers from this year and the prior year, everyone present became a part of the joy of this class of 13 enthusiastic students taking their place in the multi-generational fabric of Jewish education and community at Temple Israel. Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin shared that “This was a Shabbat of pure joy and magic. The energy in the sanctuary, particularly from our Consecration students, brought smiles to every face. This year, I got to lead Consecra-
about the potential sale,” John said, “and the number presented was far more than I had imagined. For Arnold, however, the number was exactly what he expected.” The sale went through, and today, the firm continues to thrive and grow under Gallagher.
John and Arnold had a captive audience; many former employees, as well as some that are still with the company, showed up. John’s first customer, Alamar Uniforms, was in attendance as well.
We are proud to announce our very first back-to-back Hall of Fame event! The next Jewish Business Leaders event is scheduled for Friday Dec. 20, from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. It will be held at Happy Hollow Club, 1701 S 105th St, Omaha, NE 68124. We will be inducting Tom Fellman and Howard Kooper of Broadmoor. We are excited to learn more about the Broadmoor story. Marketing for this event will be sent out very soon, so keep an eye out. We look forward to seeing everyone on Dec. 20 for our final event of 2024!
Please visit our website at www.jewishomaha.org to renew your JBL membership for 2025, or reach out to Jay Katelman at 402.334.6461 or jkatelman@jewishomaha.org
tion as both a Rabbi who has had the joy of bringing so many of our students into the covenant of Judaism as babies and watching them grow into their Jewish identities, as well as a mom of my own Consecration student. As I stood under the tallit, I was overwhelmed by the love and support that our Temple Israel community gives to this next generation of Jews.”
The Temple Israel Youth Learning Programs (YLP) meet on Sunday morning for grades PK-7 and on Wednesday afternoon for grades 3-6. Hebrew High (Grades 8+) meets on Wednesday evenings. Enrollment is always open. Feel free to reach out to Julee Levine, Director of Education, jlevine@templeisrael omaha.com
Hanukkah
Extravaganza
Continued from page 1
customize their own delicious doughnuts and an archeological dig where kids can uncover hidden gems and Hanukkah treasures.
“The Hanukkah extravaganza is always such a joyful way to come together as a community,” said Julie Phillips. “This year we want to bring our love for Israel into the celebration.” Phillips, a community chair of the event, along with Shiri Phillips and Mindy Tene are putting their own creative spin on the annual gathering.
“Be sure to look for Suki, our jelly doughnut mascot!”
At check-in, families will embark on an adventure with their Israeli passport, stamped at every attraction. Over 300 attendees enjoyed the celebration last year, which returns with classic carnival games, two new bounce houses and captivating PJ Library-sponsored crafts and games for ages one to 12. The Hanukkah Extravaganza is sure to create cherished memories for all ages!
Also returning this year, The Latke Truck, a Hanukkah tradition provided by Chabad of Nebraska.
Registration is encouraged through the website, the QR code or by contacting Rachel Ring at rring@jewishomaha .org or Heidi Heilbrunn Needleman at hheilbrunn@ jewishomaha.org
The Hanukkah Extravaganza is sponsored by Heartland ABA and Gallagher.
Above left: John Lehr and Arnold Joffe; right: Mike Erman, left, Tom Fellman, Arnold Joffe and, front, Howard Kooper.
Emerge: part 1
JESSICA COHN, ALLY FREEMAN, ELLIE NOVAK, AND HILLARY RUBESIN
“Emerge” is an initiative that brings 23 women from Jewish Federations across North America together virtually. Over the past year, the four original JFNA “Emerge” participants— Jessica Cohn, Ally Freeman, Ellie Novak, and Hillary Rubesin— have used the ongoing financial support of the Shirley & Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation to continue building Jewish women’s leadership initiatives across Omaha. This is part of a series.
The four foundations/ themes of our programming this year included: community-building; leadership; identity; and wellness/balance. The generous funding from the Goldstein Supporting Foundation (along with additional funding from the Staenberg Anything Grant) allowed us to facilitate five distinct events over the course of the year focused around these themes.
Emerge fellows accessed the JFO’s contact list for local Jewish women in the 30-45 year age range, and invited approximately 150 women in this demographic to each event throughout the year. We used email, texting, phone calls, and word-of-mouth to reach out to potential attendees. Our engagement level was high, with 119 attendees (69 unique participants) over the five events. Roughly half of these 69 women attended more than one Emerge event over the year, showing ongoing engagement.
prepared by Chef Allen of Beth El. At the event, guests mingled, snacked, and sipped on kosher wine before being led to their individual baking stations. Co-host Andrea Erlich then demonstrated how to prepare the challah dough. After the demonstration, guests were given their own dough and were led in the challah braiding process. Containers were provided so that attendees could bake their individual loaves of challah at home, following the event.
In October 2023, 151 women were invited to Havdalah at Heirloom Fine Foods on Saturday, October 14, 2023. We received responses from 47 invitees with 26 YES responses. Twenty women attended the Havdalah dinner (6 canceled day of.) Throughout this beautiful event, we joined together in prayer, song and conversation. Havdalah was led by Rabbi Deana Berezin. The evening was emotionally challenging given the recent attack on Israel, and it was really supportive being in community with one another. Challah, salad, and a kosher style meal were served. We concluded our evening by inviting guests to provide written feedback on programming ideas for the future, based around the four annual themes of identity, leadership, community, and wellness/balance. Subsequent events were based around the ideas generated by the attendees at this Havdalah. The Emerge participants also invited the women to indicate whether they would be open to helping host one of the upcoming events. This initiative was to inspire ongoing leadership and community-building beyond the original four Emerge participants.
In February of 2024, 161 women were invited to participate in a Challah making demonstration held at Beth El synagogue kitchen on Thursday evening, February 8, 2024. Due to the limited space of the kitchen, participation was capped at 24 guests. 24 women registered to participate with one guest cancelling day of and one guest dropping in. Three additional women were engaged to help co-chair and lead this event in partnership with the four Emerge fellows.
A large batch of challah dough was prepared the night before by co-host Andrea Erlich and Emerge fellow, Jessica Cohn to allow proper rising time. Kosher charcuterie appetizers were
Rebbetzin Mushka Tennenbaum instructed the guests on how to properly bless the making of the challah and gave insight into the mitzvah of making challah. Participants were sent home with shabbat candles, kosher juice, Shabbat prayers, a challah recipe, and their individual challah dough/ loaf. The Jewish Federation of Omaha’s Anything Grant and the Goldstein Supporting Foundation Grant were credited and thanked for their generous support that allowed us to offer this to the community at no cost. At the conclusion of the evening, participants were asked to join us in developing and facilitating a spring wellness event.
Feedback from guests was very positive, and the community-building was evident. There were many new connections made between participants, and we had new guest participation from a wide demographic of women. Based off the connections made at this event, two guests volunteered to help lead the spring Wellness event.
In April of 2024, 161 Jewish women between the ages of 3045 were invited to participate in a Women’s Wellness event at the home of Emerge fellow, Ellie Novak. Due to the limited space in Ellie’s home, the event was capped to the first 20 RSVP’s.
The event was coordinated by the four Emerge participants (Jessica Cohn, Ally Freeman, Ellie Novak, and Hillary Rubesin) alongside two new facilitators, Lissy Kane and Shiri Phillips, also members of the Jewish community. The event started with women gathering at Ellie’s home, enjoying Kosher-style food and wine, and then moving into Ellie’s dining room for the official programming. Emerge member and Expressive Arts Therapist, Hillary Rubesin, led all of the women in a brief meditation surrounding the theme of Balance that invited the women to explore internally what aspects of their lives currently feel balanced, and the realms in which more balance is desired. Professional artist, Shiri Phillips, then transitioned this theme into a collage-making process, where women were invited to make paper weavings with colors/patterns that honored the theme of balance. As they worked, the women were asked to introduce themselves and speak a little bit about what had emerged for them during the meditation (i.e. share one example of where they already have balance and/or where they need/want more balance in their lives.)
After about 45 minutes of art-making, the women moved into Ellie’s living room to engage in a 45 minute yoga session led by psychologist and yoga instructor, Lissy Kane. Lissy focused the practice on the theme of balance within the poses. The entire yoga class balanced more strenuous poses with See Emerge page 5
B’nai Israel monthly speaker series
HOWARD KUTLER
Musician Kyle Knapp will be performing at B’nai Israel Synagogue following Shabbat services on Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m. Kyle, who grew up in a variety of small Midwest and the Northeast towns calls Omaha his home. Kyle looks at life as a sojourn rather than a destination, of which his songs and stories are a patchwork illustration. Life is a journey, music is a vehicle.
Sometimes gleefully flat picking, sometimes softly finger picking, sometimes strumming feverishly, Kyle Knapp com-
bines his skills as a singer songwriter with his passion as a storyteller to engage his listeners with a journey to the soul. While references to James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg, Jim Croce, or Cat Stevens abound, Kyle’s folk and Americana style embodies a diversity that defies consistent comparison. Most of Kyle’s original music is inspired by real life experiences and deals candidly and personally with subjects about his family, relationships, faith, and social awareness about homelessness and poverty. We hope you will find his performance moving, heartfelt and thought provoking.
Above: Jessica Cohn, left, Ellie Novak, Ally Freeman and Hillary Rubesin; and below right: Abby Kutler, left, Sonia Baum Tipp and Andrea Erlich.
Cheers to Annette for 99 years! Dec. 14 is the date to flood the gate with birthday wishes! Send to Annette Fettman at 323 S 132 St. #121, Omaha, NE 68154.
PJ Library Grateful Goodies update
HEIDI HEILBRUN
PJ Library Coordinator
The Operation Grateful Goodies baking day has been rescheduled for Sunday, Dec. 22. The program will still take place in The Noshery of the Staenberg Jewish Community Center, but now at 10 a.m.
Moving the event from Thanksgiving weekend will enable more families to attend and the cookies will be baked fresh for delivery to first responders on Christmas Day. If you have any questions you can contact me at 402.334.6475 or hheilbrunn@jewish omaha.org
Rabbi Geiger’s Weekly Torah Expedition
PARSHA VAYETZEI
Growing up, my family moved a few times. First, we lived in Irvine, California, and then in Venice Beach (California again). Irvine is one of those communities where you will get a fine if your house is painted the wrong shade of brown. So, for those who have been to Venice Beach, you can
Emerge
Continued from page 4 more restorative poses. Lissy ended the class by speaking again about balance, and women were invited to continue eating/socializing after the yoga portion concluded.
Feedback was incredibly positive, with many women asking when the next event would be. Throughout the night, the women seemed really engaged with one another and also with themselves. Many women stayed much later than the official end of the event, continuing to talk and get to know one another. At least 5 of the women present had never attended an Emerge event previously, so this was a wonderful way for women to reconnect, but to also meet new members of
understand the contrast in communities. Then we were in Queens, New York, for 6 years. Finally, in 10th grade, we moved to Los Angeles. Then, I married and lived in Jerusalem and Phoenix, Arizona. After every move, invariably, people would ask me if I missed the place I had moved away from. And my answer was always the same. I don’t miss the place, but I miss the people. I miss the friends I grew close with, and no matter how many new friends I made, they never replaced the old.
When Jacob travels to Haran to find a wife, the Torah first tells us that he left Beer-Sheva. Seemingly, it is unimportant where he went from. So Rashi explains that a city’s magnificence, grandeur, and splendor are the righteous people living there. When Jacob left, the whole town was diminished. Let’s not forget that what makes Omaha the wonderful city it is (and I get to say that, having lived in a few others first) its amazing people. Every single one of us contributes to its beauty. You might be smiling and feeling good about yourself at this point. Which you should be. But this is also an incredible responsibility. YOU have the ability to make an impact. Let’s take advantage of the opportunity together!
Shabbat Shalom
the Jewish community. Emerge is made possible through the generosity of the Shirley & Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation and the Staenberg
Family Foundation Anything Grant. On behalf of the Emerge Fellows, thank you for your generosity and support of our continued programming over the years, and especially over the last grant cycle. We have greatly enjoyed this lay-leader opportunity to create kehillah with our peer group. It has been fun to meet many new women and also to engage those who are unaffiliated both with local synagogues and/or the Federation. We cannot believe we started this Emerge journey in January 2021. We hope our multiyear programming has inspired other Jewish women to take up the leadership helm.
Sonia Baum Tipp, left, Marissa Abramson and Jessica Cohn
Above: Rabbi Mendel and Shani Katzman with all their grandchildren, and below: Mushka Katzman with daughter, niece and nephew at Zelig Katzman’s wedding.
Below: Pam Monsky and Ben Brodkey at the JNFA General Assembly in Washington DC.
Above, below and bottm: Beth Israel’s Monday Mind Builders Class.
Above: Last night of Fall Kinnus and below: so thankful to Beth El’s very own Chef Mike and the volunteers from the Sioux City Jewish community for the great food and fire!
Top, above and below: The Jewish Business Leaders event brought a large crowd to our Staenberg Kooper Fellman campus. John Lehr and Arnold Joffe were inducted into the Jewish Business Leaders Hall of Fame.
The Untested Cookbook
TOMATO BASIL BRUSCHETTA
Barb Levitan
Ingredients:
1 cup diced plum tomatoes
2 Tbsp. red onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. basil, finely slivered
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. olive oil
1/8 tsp. ground pepper
1 large clove garlic, halved 12-1/2 inch slices french baguette olive oil flavored vegetable spray
Directions:
Combine the first 7 ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside. Rub garlic halves on both sides of bread slices. Coat each side of bread with cooking spray. Broil both sides of bread until toasted. Spoon tomato mixture onto each bread slice. Serves 6.
SALADS & SOUPS
(Pages 14-28)
“Don’t dance before you eat.” - SHALEM ALEICHEM
EGG SALAD
Jan Glass
Ingredients:
3 hard cooked egg yolks
6 hard cooked eggs
4-6 Tbsp. mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. chives, fresh minced salt, to taste pepper, freshly ground
2 Tbsp. green onion, finely minced
Ingredients:
Directions: In a bowl coarsely chop hard cooked eggs and egg yolks. Add mayonnaise, onion, chives, salt and pepper. Blend well. Yields 4-6. Enjoy!
CRANBERRY JELLO MOLD
Arlene Richman
1 lb. fresh cranberries
1 large Sunkist orange, with rind
1 cup sugar juice of small lemon
2 package Jell-O, any flavor
1 cup boiling water
1 can crushed pineapple, medium sized
Directions:
Grind cranberries and orange together. Add sugar and lemon juice. Dissolve 2 pkgs. Jell-O in boiling water. Cool. Add pineapple including juice. Mix all together. Jell in a ring mold.
Credit: Lablascovegmenu, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
BEAN SALAD
Bert Lewis
Ingredients:
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can dark kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
diced red peppers, to taste diced yellow peppers, to taste diced green peppers, to taste chopped green onions, to taste 1/2 cup salsa 1/4 cup wine vinegar
Directions:
Combine beans and vegetables. Mix vinegar and salsa. Toss it gently with bean mixture. Any crisp diced vegetables goes well with this salad. Make this more hearty by adding a cup of Bulgar grain. Recipe is very forgiving and very good!
Reminder: Writing Workshop
‘Write With Us,’ the recent collaboration between the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and the Jewish Press, will continue in smaller format in the Fall. New workshops are scheduled for Jan. 16, Feb. 2, March 20 and April 17 from 6-8 p.m. in the Noshery at the Staenberg Omaha JCC. Register by contacting Jessi at jtaylor@jewishomaha.org or Annette at avandekamp@jew ishomaha.org. There is no cost to attend, although dona-
tions are always welcome. If you have wanted to write your family’s story, that great American novel, or you have always wanted to try your hand at poetry, join us! Maybe you are already an accomplished writer, but you would benefit from being in a room with other writers. Perhaps you have convinced yourself you can’t write at all, but would love to try. Everyone, from absolute beginner to professional, is welcome to attend.
Credit: Jill, jellidonut…whatever, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Credit: Cajsa Lilliehook, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Voices
The Jewish Press
(Founded in 1920)
David Finkelstein
President
Annette van de Kamp-Wright
Editor
Richard Busse
Creative Director
Claire Endelman
Sales Director
Lori Kooper-Schwarz
Assistant Editor
Melanie Schwarz
Intern
Sam Kricsfeld
Digital support
Mary Bachteler
Accounting
Jewish Press Board
David Finkelstein, President; Margie Gutnik, Ex-Officio; Helen Epstein, Andrea Erlich, Ally Freeman, Dana Gonzales, Mary Sue Grossman, Hailey Krueger, Chuck Lucoff, Larry Ring, Melissa Schrago, Suzy Sheldon and Stewart Winograd.
The mission of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to build and sustain a strong and vibrant Omaha Jewish Community and to support Jews in Israel and around the world. Agencies of the JFO are: Institute for Holocaust Education, Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Social Services, Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and the Jewish Press Guidelines and highlights of the Jewish Press, including front page stories and announcements, can be found online at: www.jewishomaha.org; click on ‘Jewish Press.’ 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. The Jewish Press reserves the right to edit signed letters and articles for space and content. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the Kashrut of any product or establishment.
Editorial
The Jewish Press is an agency of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Deadline for copy, ads and photos is: Thursday, 9 a.m., eight days prior to publication. E-mail editorial material and photos to: avandekamp@jewishomaha.org ; send ads (in TIF or PDF format) to: rbusse@jewishomaha.org
Letters to the Editor Guidelines
The Jewish Press welcomes Letters to the Editor. They may be sent via regular mail to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154; via fax: 1.402.334.5422 or via e-mail to the Editor at: avandekamp@jewishomaha.org.
Letters should be no longer than 250 words and must be single-spaced typed, not hand-written. Published letters should be confined to opinions and comments on articles or events. News items should not be submitted and printed as a “Letter to the Editor.”
The Editor may edit letters for content and space restrictions. Letters may be published without giving an opposing view. Information shall be verified before printing. All letters must be signed by the writer. The Jewish Press will not publish letters that appear to be part of an organized campaign, nor letters copied from the Internet. No letters should be published from candidates running for office, but others may write on their behalf.
Letters of thanks should be confined to commending an institution for a program, project or event, rather than personally thanking paid staff, unless the writer chooses to turn the “Letter to the Editor” into a paid personal ad or a news article about the event, project or program which the professional staff supervised. For information, contact Annette van de Kamp-Wright, Jewish Press Editor, 402.334.6450.
Postal
The Jewish Press (USPS 275620) is published weekly (except for the first week of January and July) on Friday for $40 per calendar year U.S.; $80 foreign, by the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Phone: 402.334.6448; FAX: 402.334.5422.
Periodical postage paid at Omaha, NE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154-2198 or email to: jpress@jewishomaha.org
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.
Gratitude after Thanksgiving
ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor
It’s Thanksgiving week as I’m writing this, and although you are done carving your turkey by the time you read this, we can still sit with the concept of gratitude for a while. And if my op-ed this week rambles on a little (or a lot), I apologize. It’s that sort of week. It’s an interesting holiday, with questionable roots and even more questionable food choices, but it’s also a time when families reconnect. It’s a holiday where some of us have to walk on egg shells (have you noticed how many articles there are out there giving advice on how to keep conversation civil?) and it’s a time of wild consumerism and serious overeating.
“During the autumn of 1621,” it says on archives.gov, “at least 90 Wampanoag joined 52 English people at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, to mark a successful harvest. It is remembered today as the “First Thanksgiving,” although no one back then used that term. In fact, much of the so-called First Thanksgiving story was created decades and centuries later. As a result, many assumptions about the festival at Plymouth and its connection to Thanksgiving traditions today are based more on fiction than fact.”
Did you know Thanksgiving was originally a fast day? It’s what the Puritans in New England intended-they weren’t big on parties. And it was President Lincoln who proclaimed it a national observance in 1863, as an attempt at reuniting the country. Funny, that a holiday meant for reunification, ends up as an uphill battle for some families.
Thanksgiving may not be a Jewish holiday, but
most American Jews do celebrate it. It’s part of the American immigrant experience, and saying ‘thanks’ is kind of in our DNA. Also, we love to cook and eat.
“The word ‘Thanksgiving’ has two pretty big Jewish principles packed right into it,” Aish.com tells us. “Like a turkey sandwich. ‘Thanks’ is the re-
sponse to receiving, a sign of gratitude. And ‘giving’ is the opposite of taking. It’s the idea of philanthropy, to be generous and open-handed.”
Having said all that, what are we grateful for? Is it an open question, which we can answer individually, any way we want? Or is there something larger we as Jews should feel grateful about? Many of us may take issue with the idea of gratitude at this moment. It’s not only a question during Thanksgiving, it’s something we have to struggle with going forward.
Allergic to ‘God-talk’?
ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL JTA
After stepping down as chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in the spring of 2020, Arnold Eisen found himself with the time and motivation to think about a big question he’d long put off as the leader of the Conservative movement’s flagship university and, before that, as a professor of Jewish culture and religion at Stanford University.
“When my friends asked, ‘Arnie, why is it that you have faith and we don’t?’ — I tried to figure out what experiences in my life made me open to the possibility of faith,” he said last week.
He answers their question in a new book, Seeking the Hiding God: A Personal Theological Essay, in which Eisen describes what he believes about a God whom he acknowledges to be elusive, if not unknowable.
The book is a professional departure for Eisen, whose previous books examined the interior lives of American Jews and and the classics of modern Jewish thought with the forensic gaze of an academic. It is also a personal departure for an observant Jew who nonetheless shared the American Jewish allergy to what he calls “fervent God-talk.”
“I was writing scholarship about other people’s Jewish thought for something like 40 years, but I always somehow avoided, as many scholars do, facing the questions of what I actually believe,” said Eisen.
Begun during the COVID lockdown and finished after Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel, the book synthesizes the thoughts of some of Eisen’s intellectual heroes, including the Conservative movement theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and the German-Israeli philosopher Martin Buber.
From Heschel he learns that Judaism is a call to action; from Buber, that miracles aren’t evidence of the supernatural, but an invitation to “abide in the astonishment” of creation. In our interview, Eisen said his aim is not to prove to the reader that God exists or that God is good, but to offer one Jewish believer’s account of how Judaism makes sense of the world.
Eisen grew up in suburban Philadelphia, where his family attended the Conservative synagogue Temple Emanu-El. “I had my mother lighting candles every Friday night. I had my father saying the
priestly benediction, putting his hands on my head and crying,” he recalled. Those powerful emotional bonds, he said, shape his theology. ”These memories sustain me. Not every one of us has that. One can come to God and Jewish tradition or any religious tradition later in life, but it makes it easier to have this kind of background.”
Eisen earned a B.A. in religious thought from the University of Pennsylvania, a BPhil in the sociology of religion at Oxford University, and his PhD in the history of Jewish thought from Hebrew University.
Prior to becoming JTS chancellor in 2007 — the first non-rabbi in the role — he served on the faculties of Stanford, Tel Aviv and Columbia universities. He remains a full-time member of the JTS faculty.
The book, he said, is also meant to close the gap between the academy and everyday life.
Robin Lemberg wrote: The Shehecheyanu and the story of Hanukkah remind us that gratitude is not just a feeling; it’s a practice. It’s a way of recognizing the good in our lives, even in the face of hardship. This Thanksgiving, let us embrace that practice.” (JNS) That sounds nice, and hopeful, and optimistic, but what if you don’t feel that inside? The fact is, we all know what to do, we understand that we need a way forward, in spite of a contentious political climate in the U.S. and around the world, in spite of October 7, in spite of rising antisemitism and the ongoing war. But knowing and feeling aren’t exactly on the same page. No matter how often we tell each other how to stay strong and how to feel better, it doesn’t always work that way. So maybe, in this moment, we choose gratitude out of spite, sheer stubbornness, and chutzpah. Yes, life sucks, let’s celebrate anyway. Let’s eat a lot. Let’s cook a giant bird we can never finish, let’s make weird things like Jello-salad and green bean casserole and the cranberry stuff that’s shaped like the can it came in. And pie, endless pie: pumpkin and sweet potato and pecan and chocolate. Let’s add falafel and Israeli salad and pita bread and hummus, just because we can.
Let’s, most of all, keep praying. Let’s keep faith in Hashem, in each other, in ourselves. As long as we keep that door open, we will ultimately be alright.
If we wait around for the world to calm down and embrace us, we may never celebrate anything again. And yet, we do it anyway. For that kind of chutzpah, we can be grateful.
theology?
I don’t have that pitch, but let me start with the title: Seeking the Hiding God. When I say the hiding God, the dominant theological issue in Jewish life for the last couple generations has been the Holo-
“I wanted to give an account of what this Jew believes at this point in his life, and hope that that will be meaningful to my readers and will engage them in the project of thinking about this for themselves,” said Eisen, 73.
Our conversation was edited for length and clarity. You are a scholar of American Judaism and the history of Jewish thought, and for 10 years you were a chancellor of a university, albeit one that also ordains rabbis. Why did you feel the need to write a book of theology?
When I was chancellor of JTS, working six long days a week, I had every excuse in the world to avoid this. But I recognized, even before I stopped, that the first project I wanted to take on when I stopped being chancellor was this. I wanted to try to do an account of what I myself believed about God.
And then I had a sabbatical year off, and it turned out to be the COVID year, and it was also the year I was about to turn 70. So there was this confluence of circumstances that led me to sit down and think hard and reflect.
I am going to ask you something that may be unfair, but I am thinking of an old radio program, This I Believe, where guests had to lay out their philosophies in five minutes. Do you have the elevator pitch version of your
caust, and one of the major theological responses to the Holocaust is what we call [in Hebrew] “hester panim,” the hiding of God’s countenance, which is a phrase from the end of the book of Deuteronomy. And some Jewish thinkers apply this not only to reactions to tragedy, but, for example, to the condition of modern life. Martin Buber writes a book called Eclipse of God. Or the Orthodox thinker Eliezer Berkowitz, who says that this is a permanent condition of human life: that if God was so close to us that we could grab God at every opportunity, there wouldn’t be room for us to be free human beings with initiative in action and thought. So God needs to be far away, as it were, for us to be who God wants us to be.
I had the sense for a long time that if I was really a better person or more devoted to my Judaism, or spent more time in prayer, or more time thinking about God, that I would be granted a much more robust set of religious experiences, and I would be much more certain about this God that our tradition teaches us can be encountered. And what I came to recognize is that my sporadic, momentary, ephemeral encounters with God were far more typical than not, and that many Jewish thinkers testify that this is precisely the kind of experiences that they’ve had as well.
See Allergic to ‘God-talk’? page 9
Arnold Eisen describes his new book as “what I think can be said about the unsayable.” Credit: Ben Yehuda Press
Credit: famartin, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Allergic to ‘God-talk’?
Continued from page 8
That’s the “hiding part.” But you also write in the book that if God’s countenance is hidden, God’s intentions are not. You write how Buber said that human beings cannot know when or how God acts to punish or reward, but they can heed the prophets who said they should pursue “righteousness and loving-kindness to the maximum extent possible under the circumstances.”
If there’s a mantra in the book, it’s Deuteronomy 29:28: The mysteries belong to God, but the revealed things are given to us and to our children to live a life of mitzvah, and we can have this good life.
In that regard, a word that keeps coming up in your book is “action,” and how human action is key to bringing out redemption, or realizing love in the world, or righting injustice. That seems key to your theology.
Central, absolutely central. I can’t imagine belief in God is meant for us to secrete ourselves away and to meditate and contemplate our own enlightenment. That’s not what this tradition says. I’m a child of the ’60s, and I saw that political action and social activism made a difference for good in the world. And in Heschel I had in front of me this personal example, even before I met him: I’d read his books and admired his work, and then I got to meet him, and he just left me convinced that that piety does not stop in the synagogue. You have this famous paragraph in his book God in Search of Man in which he writes that Judaism doesn’t take a leap of faith. It takes a leap of action. And that paragraph means everything to me.
I think many Jews appreciate action — home rituals like the Passover seder, or acts of loving-kindness or social action expressed as tikkun olam — but don’t understand the point of prayer. I know it’s a vast question, but what do you think is happening when you are in prayer?
I can say that for me, there isn’t only one thing that’s happening, and it doesn’t always happen. Prayer in Judaism is not just petition, which is what the English word sounds like. It’s not just asking for things. It could be saying thank you, or saying hello, or “here I am, God, I’m happy you’re in my life,” or “I’m sorry.” And for me, the hope is to have a sense of being fully myself. I’m trying my best to stand before God, even when it’s really hard to imagine this God that I want to stand before. I’m really standing before myself and that which is most precious to me in the world, and trying to use my time in the world well, and stepping aside from all the distractions of normal life and focusing inwards. And by focusing inward, you somehow connect to God.
But what I should declare in this moment, since you asked in this direct way, is that unlike some Jewish thinkers like Mordecai Kaplan [the founder of the Reconstructionist movement], who did not believe in a God who can hear prayer, I’m much more open-minded about this. I would not have the chutzpah to make a declaration about what God can and cannot do. I think Kaplan was anachronistic there and that you can’t say what any modern person can believe. And I testify in the book that I myself have had experiences where I feel my prayers have been answered. What that means from God’s side, I don’t know.
I know lots of people who can’t bring themselves to engage in anything like what we call prayer, because they can’t tell it to their minds, and so they don’t try. And what a shame that is. Because if one opens oneself to this possibility of encounter with the divine, the transcendent, whatever you want to call it, then it may happen.
You write that when you teach American college students about Buber and Heschel, they ask “why these thinkers needed to talk about God so much when what they really cared about was ethics.” It’s the classic question: Can’t you be good without God, and what does belief in a supreme being add to the equation?
Yes, one could have a good life without God. And yes, one does not have to be a Jew to have a good life or whatever afterlife is promised to us. But if this is an eternal human search, and if you can have the grace of encounter with God — if that is possible, why would you possibly want to live without that? I’m not preaching to anybody. But what I am saying, in all humility, is that I cannot imagine my life without the Torah and without the quest for God or the Sabbath any more than I could imagine my life without my wife and my kids and my good friends — without love. It’s just part of the basic operating equipment that makes me the person I am. The great theologian Franz Rosenzweig taught that we’re not here to prove anything. We’re here to testify.
I want to ask you to put on your institutional hat for a second, and ask from that perspective why so many American Jews might be resistant to the transcendent. According to Pew, U.S. Jews are far less likely than the public overall to say that religion is important in their lives. You write in your book, “Jews engage in sustained or fervent God-talk much less than Americans of other
faiths.” As someone who was in the business of training rabbis for 10 years, do you see that as a failure of the synagogue or other institutions?
Because of my background in modern religion in general and in modernization, and my studies of sociological theory and sociology of religion, I’m acutely aware of how difficult faith is in the modern world, and especially for Jews in America, where we are such a distinct minority. And if you’re a Jew, you’re exposed to this dominant secular language on the one hand, and Christian language on the other hand, which is, chances are good, evangelical or fundamentalist. And the Jewish language you hear from other Jews is a very ultra-Orthodox language, which may not suit you, and you may become convinced that that’s the only language there is. So we have failed them, yes, but the culture is such that it makes it really hard not to fail.
I had the experience again this past weekend speaking at a synagogue in San Diego, and having to tell committed Jews that the theology which says God is responsible for everything that happens in the world is by far not the only Jewish theology there is. One does not have to believe that the Holocaust happened with God’s acquiescence, let alone with God’s active participation. And [the audience] was simply not aware of all these options. They’ve never been exposed to them, not as adults and not back in Hebrew school. That, to me, that’s tragic.
I want to ask specifically about the Conservative movement, because you headed one of its flagship institutions. First, is there something capital-C Conservative about your theology?
No, I didn’t write the book denominationally. I am a lifelong Conservative Jew, and my theology is certainly compatible with that. But I am a Jew first and foremost, and the dominant resources in my book are the Torah and the siddur and the rabbis of old, and modern Jewish thought of all stripes. There’s [Modern Orthodox Rabbi Joseph] Soloveitchik is in this book, along with Heschel, and [Reform Jewish philosopher Emil] Fackenheim, Kaplan. Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist. It’s not a Conservative book.
More and more, we may affiliate with a particular synagogue, but we’re not necessarily in our thinking denominational. I cannot be ultra-Orthodox because I’m an egalitarian Jew, but beyond that, there’s meaning to be found in every single denomination.
The other question I want to ask about the Conservative movement is its relevance. In sheer size, influence and market share it is not the central movement it was a generation or more ago. In what ways did you confront this challenge as chancellor, what changes did you hope to bring about, and did some of that thinking have anything to do with the ideas in the book?
Let’s understand what conditions fostered the growth of Conservative Judaism in the ’30s through the ’60s, which were sociological and economic and political. This was the right movement with the right message for the time. And then I think the movement made two key innovations — the first, of course, being egalitarianism regarding women, and the second, which I had a direct role in, which was opening itself up to LGBTQ individuals in a full way. Had we not done either of those things, the movement would not be even as successful as it is today. It would not be a live movement.
But these are very difficult times, and I think that we’re not doing so badly. Yes, the number of people who say “I’m a Conservative Jew” is much less than it used to be. I think that is primarily because Conservative rabbis will not perform intermarriages, and if you can’t have a Conservative rabbi [officiate] your wedding and you’re intermarried or the child of an intermarriage, you’re not going to say, “I’m a Conservative Jew.” But the membership statistics [as opposed to self-identity] are not that bad. The Reform movement is several percentage points above Conservative, Modern Orthodoxy is still around 3 to 4%, which means it’s not growing by leaps and bounds, and ultraOrthodoxy is growing, yes, but only by virtue of birth rate. So we in America have a problem. All of us have a problem. Yes, the middle is shrinking, but Judaism is shrinking and religion is shrinking. If less than 40% of American Jews are affiliated with anything Jewish, where are we with this community? How can we be a stronger community? How do we get people
in the door? This is our problem.
So since you wrote a book about theology, not institutional reform, I want to ask how your ideas about God and practice and action might address the questions you just posed.
When it comes to what you do with the people when they’re in the door, I have strong opinions, and they are directly related to the book. The Yom Kippur chapter, for example, explains how, on the one hand, I love Yom Kippur. I love the music. I love the liturgy. I love the experience of 25 hours with my community. And yet I can’t stand a lot of the liturgy. I disagree profoundly with the leading theme. I don’t think God is there deciding who lives for another year and who doesn’t, and that’s the central theme of the day.
So how can you have a congregation which gets together for 25 hours without giving people the chance to sit around small tables, when they’re most open, perhaps most thoughtful, and discuss honestly with one another what they actually believe about these things? I urge every single rabbinical student I come in contact with, do not do the Unetaneh Tokef prayer [“who shall live, and who shall die...”] without contextualizing it. Do not let people believe that if they walk out of synagogue and get hit by a car, God has decided to get them hit by a car.
The final thing I’d say about this is that we’re in a difficult time. Because of AI, people are going to lose their jobs, and people who have jobs are going to be [doing something] completely different than they were before. And it’s scary because of climate change: The catastrophe is imminent, and at some level, we all know this. The Hamas attack on Oct. 7 made tragedy and fear visceral for many Jews, and some of them flocked back to Jewish communities. They want contact with their tradition. They’re looking for meaning. It’s a moment of crisis, but it’s a moment of great opportunity, and we just need to be creative.
There are dozens of really skillful clergy and educators in this country who are doing this all the time, and it can be done. It’s just not widespread enough. We’re not always as creative as we could be, but I’m convinced that the possibilities are there now.
I wanted to ask about Israel: How does it fit into your theology? You write that “God is counting on human beings to write the next chapter of history,” which would suggest that you find it difficult to believe that Israel’s creation and its well-being are in the hands of a God who intervenes in history.
Israel is crucial to my Judaism, but it’s not because God is doing this. I don’t know what God is doing there. I pray that it will turn out to be the beginning of the flowering of our redemption. But who knows?
My teacher David Hartman [the late Israeli-American philosopher] taught me and many other people that the theological model for Israel is not Exodus, where God split the Red Sea, but Sinai, where what is important is that Jews try to live up to the responsibilities of the Covenant, and that they translate the ethical principles pronounced in the 10 Commandments. Israel opens up new possibilities for covenant. What can we do now that we’re a majority responsible for non-Jews as well as for Jews, Jewish healthcare policy, Jewish foreign policy, Jewish educational policy, etc.? It’s a great opportunity to see what mitzvah can mean in the modern world. In a place where Jews have a majority, it’s not about God intervening in history.
My last question is going to be the classic one that I think everyone who tackles theology has to talk about, which is your views of the afterlife. Do you believe in one, and how does death figure into your thinking about God and your purpose in life?
I can’t be like Moses Mendelssohn in the 18th century, the great Jewish thinker, and prove to you logically that there’s an afterlife where the good are rewarded and the evil are punished. I can’t do that, but what I can do is witness to the kind of faith that I’ve managed to acquire, which holds out the possibility that death is not the end of everything. Genesis teaches that Sarah’s life continues with her children, and Jacob’s life continues with his children. And I certainly think that’s true, but it’s not only in children, and it’s not only in students, and it’s not only in the legacy we leave behind us. It could well be that there’s some immortality for the person.
When I was at Stanford and the Dalai Lama came to speak, I was really struck by the fact that he fervently believes that our beings do not cease to be when we die. So we’re in good company. I think that we should not give up on this, and that theologians, if they can encourage this kind of hope, they should, and that’s what I try to do in the book.
Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor at large of the New York Jewish Week and managing editor for Ideas for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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.
The Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan. Credit: JTA
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From the Archives: Concerning an Omaha Will
The following story ran in the Dec. 4, 1924 edition of The Jewish Press
Elsewhere in this issue of the Jewish Press will be a will, a unique will, a remarkable will, a most worthwhile will. Its contents and provisions will repay careful reading. To be sure, only a few of our readers would subscribe to all the requests and details in the will, but as to its main features most of them will say a hearty Amen.
A generation and more ago, Lena Levy came to Omaha from foreign shores. She struggled, worked and saved and finally triumphed. Her husband preceded her to the “Land of the Living.” Children she had none. But she left a monument to her name in Omaha and her life will be worthwhile recalling. She left deeds that will never die. Not only Lena Levy’s last thoughts, but all her thoughts while in this city were for the Talmud Torah and for the Jewish Welfare Federation. Her last will tells us that. While living, she willed all her property for an en-
dowment fund to the Talmud Torah, for the work of educating better Jews and therefore better Americans. All her personal property she willed to the Jewish Welfare Federation, for the poor, the widow and orphan in our midst.
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Lena Levy was an obscure woman. She was comparatively unknown in this city. Lena Levy’s property was not much. Merely a few thousand dollars. But Lena Levy’s life looms big. She has taken along with her to the Unknown Land as much as the richest and best take along—nothing! But she is leaving behind her the memory of a fine spirit and of beautiful deeds.
When bequests are made, Jewish charitable, religious and educational organizations are often left out in the cold. They are either forgotten or neg-
lected in favor of relatives to whom the bequest means very little. Often that bequest does much harm. But when a Sarah Zimman of blessed memory helps endow the Free Loan Society, or a Lena Levy endows the Talmud Torah and makes provision for the Welfare Federation, the benefactors continue to live in their benefactions. How much better this vale of tears would be if more folks, while living, thought of making this a better world not only while they are with us, but also after they have gone.
Rest in Peace, Lena Levy! Your fine work will continue. Others will be guided by your noble example.
B’NAI ISRAEL
BETH EL
BETH ISRAEL
CHABAD HOUSE
Omer Neutra, American-Israeli hostage held in Gaza, confirmed killed
BEN SALES, JANE GABIN, RON KAMPEAS
JTA
Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli held hostage in Gaza, was killed by Hamas during its attack on Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli military announced Monday.
The announcement of Neutra’s death means that of the seven Americans thought to be held by Hamas, at least four are presumed dead. It comes shortly after Hamas released a proof-of-life video of Edan Alexander, another of the American hostages it is holding captive.
Neutra, who was 21 on Oct. 7, is the son of Israeli parents who grew up on Long Island, where he attended Jewish day school and camp. Following graduation, he moved to Israel and enlisted in the military. He was serving as a tank commander when he was killed.
In the more than a year since his abduction, his parents Orna and Ronen became prominent faces of the movement to free the hostages. They spoke at the Republican National Convention this past summer as well as at a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition and numerous other forums. They have also spoken directly with President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump in an effort to free their son and the other hostages.
The news of Neutra’s death came days after Hamas released a video of Alexander, in which he asks Trump to reach a deal to free the hostages. For more than a year, Biden’s administration has worked to reach such an agreement without success, though the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has resurfaced prospects for a deal in Gaza.
The other two American hostages thought to still be alive are Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen.
At the Republican Convention, Orna Neutra described Omer and recalled his birth in the United States nearly 23 years ago.
“Omer was born in New York City, in 2001, this was one month after 9/11,” she said in similar comments outside the arena earlier in the day. On the day of the terrorist attacks, she said, “I was eight months pregnant crossing over the Queensboro Bridge trying to get home from the city with Omer in my belly, just trying to get him out of harm’s way. And it’s just insane that 23 years later, he was caught in this vile terrorist attack.”
The Neutra parents spoke at a weekly rally on behalf of the hostages in Central Park as recently as Sunday, December 1. They also spoke over the summer at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack, where Omer worked as a swim instructor.
“We just learned that this prayer couldn’t be answered for the family of Omer Neutra,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “Omer was barbarically murdered by Hamas in the October 7 attacks. We pray that his body can be returned to his family, who have been speaking out for him and all hostages since that horrific day.”
Neutra’s parents had repeatedly pushed for a deal to free the captives, but said they felt political will was lacking. “It seems like it’s only urgent for the hostage families and of course all of the Israeli families and the Jewish world. Not for the politicians,” Ronen Neutra said in a September interview days after the body of another high-profile American hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was discovered along with five others in Gaza.
Now, the Israel Defense Forces announced based on intelligence that Neutra was killed on Oct. 7 with two other soldiers serving in the tank he commanded. His body is still being held by Hamas, along with dozens of others presumed to be dead. Hamas is holding approximately 100 hostages in total.
“Our hearts are with the Neutra family this morning, who, after more than a year of a determined, traumatic, and worldwide struggle, received the devastating news confirming the death of their beloved son,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a statement. “Omer was born and raised in the United States and chose to make Aliyah to Israel, and enlist in the IDF to stand in the defense of our people.”
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On Oct. 7, an estimated 100 members of the Kfar Aza community, where Keith Siegel lived, were killed. Keith and his wife Aviva were driven into Gaza in their own car, taken captive along with some of their neighbors. Aviva was released in November, along with 100 women, children and non-Israelis as part of a 10-day truce. She said Keith’s ribs had been broken during their capture but that she was with him until the day she was told she was being sent home.
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Ronen Neutra, left, and Orna Neutra, whose son is being held hostage by Hamas, speak during the third day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 17, 2024. Credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Ronen and Orna Neutra, parents of Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra. Credit: Luke Tress
Texas A&M’s Sam Salz cherishes the opportunity to inspire fellow Orthodox Jews
JACOB GURVIS
JTA
A couple hours before Shabbat one week ago, Sam Salz was in the parking lot of the Texas A&M Chabad, running practice football plays by himself.
Salz, the 5-foot-6 Orthodox player who made headlines in 2022 for walking onto the Division I Aggies, was in his third season with the team but had yet to appear in a game. Now, he was approaching the 10th game of a 12-game regular season in his final year, and still had not taken the field.
Saturday was senior night at Texas A&M, honoring the team’s outgoing players, and Salz’s father and a high school friend were in attendance, as were a group of Jewish friends from campus.
For Salz, it may have also been his last best chance to play. But as the game progressed into the final minutes, he was still waiting his turn. With 42 seconds left, he heard his name called. “All of a sudden I was standing there and I heard ‘Sam, Sam!’ and I was like, who is it?” Salz recounted in an interview. “It was my coach, and he was looking for me, like, ‘Come with me.’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the moment. I’m going to play.’”
The main reason Salz had yet to take the field is that he is likely the only athlete among the approximately 77,000 NCAA football play-
ers who is an Orthodox, Shabbat-observant Jew. Traditional Shabbat observance forbids 39 different manners of work from driving to carrying objects in public spaces on Saturday, the day nearly all college football games are held. Salz, of course, knew that going in, but went out for the team anyway. His appearance marked the culmination of a years-long journey, one that took him from Kohelet Yeshiva High School — a Modern Orthodox school in Philadelphia with roughly 100 students and no football team — to a legendary college football program that currently sits at No. 15 in the national rankings and plays in the vaunted Southeastern Conference.
“I was a kid who grew up in Philly attending Orthodox day schools my entire life, and ended up in the middle of Texas playing Division I football in the SEC,” Salz said. “At this point in my life, I’m just doing my best to accomplish my purpose. And, you know what: God, take the wheel.”
After last week’s game, he said, he is “very thankful,” calling the experience “just a very meaningful moment for me to be there and just get to run down.”
When he got to College Station, he began practicing on a patch of grass near the Aggies’ practice field, and boldly introduced himself to then-head coach Jimbo Fisher by saying, “I’m Sam Salz and I’m going to walk on to
your football team.”
The hard work paid off: Salz joined the team as a sophomore walk-on, Rudy-style, in 2022. He chose jersey No. 39 in honor of those categories of work forbidden on Shabbat. While he has only played that one snap, he still contributes
to the team by joining practices. He’s a member of the scout team, which acts as the opposing team to allow the Aggies to practice plays.
And the team has made arrangements to accommodate his Jewish observance, from exempting him from team travel and activities on Shabbat and other Jewish holidays to providing kosher food and his own kosher mi-
crowave in the team facility. During Passover last year, the Aggies even gave Salz his own water bottle to ensure that he was able to follow the holiday’s especially strict rules regarding kosher food.
Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff, the founder and director of Texas A&M’s Chabad, said Salz is an important role model for the Jewish community, which he estimated numbers in the “several hundreds” at the school of nearly 80,000 students.
“Sam is an upstander, and he tries to really make a difference,” Lazaroff said. “Every move that he was doing was like, ‘If I’m going to do it, then I need to do it properly. I can’t compromise. If I’m going to do it, No. 39, I’m not even going to go onto the field [on Shabbat]. I don’t want to have people even think that I’m compromising on my Jewish beliefs or halacha,’” the Hebrew term for Jewish law. Salz said he cherishes the opportunity to teach his teammates about Judaism.“People always ask questions. People are always curious about things,” Salz said. “They learn things about Judaism through me, and I take pride in that honestly, because especially when it comes down to Orthodox Judaism, it doesn’t tend to be represented in locker rooms that well.”
Read more at www.omahajewishpress. com
Sam Salz is in his third season with the Texas A&M football team after walking on in 2022.
Credit: Rob Havens/Aggieland Illustrated