December 29, 2023

A N AG E N C Y O F T H E J E W I S H F E D E R AT I O N O F O M A H A

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DECEMBER 29, 2023 | 1 7 TE V E T 578 4 | VO L. 1 05 | NO. 1 1 | CANDLELIGHTING | FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 4:44 P.M.

DJ honors victims of Nova Festival

There will be NO Jewish Press on January 5. The next edition will publish on January 12.

SPONSORED BY THE BENJAMIN AND ANNA E. WIESMAN FAMILY ENDOWMENT FUND

Who is Samuel Bak? ASHTON KAY At the end of my Murray and Sharee Newman Summer Internship at the Jewish Press, Annette suggested that I continue to do freelance writing for the Jewish Press. Specifically, she wanted me to specialize in writing about famed painter and Holocaust survivor, Samuel Bak. She later confessed that this was her looking for an excuse to keep me around. Maybe I should confess that I was planning on taking any opportunity to stay around.

Peers share Anne Frank Page 4 Credit Omri Silver

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor leading DJ in the trance scene, Israeli DJ Ritmo has a clear mission in his professional role: “Some say that our pulse gives us the rhythm of our body, life and soul,” he said.

“This rhythm is always changing as we move through life and encounter ever-changing experiences and influences. Dubi Dagan, aka Ritmo, has managed to formulate a unique technique that captures these moments in our lives and translates them into an addictive rhythmic Progressive Trance creation. The magical soundscapes borne from the Ritmo project capture and modu-

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New additions to the KripkeVeret Collection Page 6

late the diverse rhythms Dagan absorbed throughout his life experiences, musical influences and countless gigs and tours across the world.”

But on Nov. 28, DJ Ritmo, whose actual name is Dubi Dagan, had a very different mission. That day, he joined four other DJs in honoring the memories of victims who were killed during the Nova music festival in Re’im on Oct. 7. They did so by each playing a 15minute set in front of photos of the 364 victims, placed in an otherwise empty field. The hundreds of faces were hung up on wooden posts; an Israeli flag made out of sunflowers was placed right in front of the photos.

See DJ honors victims page 3

Hanukkah lights up Temple Israel

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STEFANIE BAGUIAN Temple Israel Director of Communications The spirit of Hanukkah illuminated Temple Israel of Omaha as our congregation came together for a joyous and memorable celebration that brought over 300 people into the building. The event, a beautiful blend of traditional and modern festivities for all ages, featured a brief Shabbat service and dinner, a thrilling dreidel tournament, olive oil tasting, handson menorah-themed activity stations, and an engaging scavenger hunt. This celebration would not have been posDenise and Jon Meyers Family

sible without the generosity of Denise and Jon Meyers and family who sponsored this event.

The evening commenced with the warmth of community and the glow of candlelight as families and friends kindled the lights of their personal menorahs. After a heartwarming and delicious Shabbat dinner, the atmos-

phere was palpable as people shared laughter, stories, and the joy of being together.

“Our celebration embodied the very best of our community – the joy we feel in being together,” said Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin of Temple Israel. “It was such a special evening See Temple Israel page 2

Samuel Bak

To start, I did a little bit of baseline research to give myself an understanding of who Samuel Bak is.

He was born in 1933 in Vilna, which at the time was part of Poland, but is now Lithuania. He was just seven years old when the Germans occupied Vilna, and Bak’s family was forced into a Ghetto. It was in the Ghetto that Samuel met the poets Avrom Sutzkever and Szmerke Katzerginski, who encouraged his art. When the Vilna Ghetto was cleared, Samuel’s family was sent to a labor camp. When the Nazis executed over two hundred children at the camp, Samuel’s parents smuggled him out in a bag of sawdust.

Samuel’s father was killed ten days before the camp was liberated.

Samuel and his mother spent the next few years after the end of the war in displaced persons camps.

Samuel would go on to paint for the rest of his life, and continues to do so to this day. Bak has said that he continues to paint because of his questions about and his reactions to the world. Most of his work tends to reflect the Holocaust, genocide, and human conflict. Bak’s paintings include items, places, and people shaped out of the remains of other destroyed items.

Upon my arrival to the Samuel Bak Museum, I was introduced to Chief Curator Alexandra Cardon, who gave us a tour of the exhibit.

Her insight provided me with a perspective on Bak’s works that I otherwise would have never had. She See Samuel Bak page 2

2 | The Jewish Press | December 29, 2023

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Samuel Bak

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Temple Israel Continued from page 1 and it brought together people from so many different corners of our congregation to share our celebration as one Temple Israel family. We all felt the light and the love glowing as brightly as the Hanukkah candles.”

Following the Shabbat dinner, the excitement reached new heights with a spirited dreidel tournament. Participants of all ages competed with enthusiasm and skill, showcasing their spinning prowess. The tournament not only added a competitive edge to the celebration but also brought a sense of friendly rivalry that resonated with the festival’s theme of triumph over adversity. In the end, Taylor Campos, Sophie Kazor, Alexander Campos, Sophy Silverstein took first through fourth place, respectively.

Geoff Silverstein, board member and father of Sophy Silverstein, was thrilled to see his daughter come in fourth and win the newly coveted “Oops! All Shin Dreidel” prize.

To engage the senses and celebrate one of Hanukkah’s central symbols, an olive oil tasting was organized featuring oils from Old World Oil & Vinegar. Attendees had the opportunity to savor a variety of high-quality olive oils, featuring flavors such as Italian herb and lemon grass, connecting with the significance of oil in the miracle of the meno-

Dennis and Pam DePorte

rah. The tasting provided a sensory experience, allowing participants to appreciate the flavors and textures.

The creative energy continued with menorah maker stations that appealed to both children and adults. These stations allowed families to express their talents while emphasizing the importance of the festival’s symbolic lighting.

The diverse array of activities offered a unique representation of individual and collective creativity, and added a personal touch to the celebration.

The success of the event was evident in the smiles, laughter, and camaraderie that filled Temple Israel. The diverse activities catered to different interests and age groups, ensuring that everyone felt included and engaged. The sense of community and shared celebration was further enhanced by the enthusiastic participation of over 300 people, reflecting the community and unity of Temple Israel.

Tamara Draeger, board member and life long Temple member, remarked to her father, Jon Meyers, at the end of the evening, “It finally felt like the old days at Cass Street – Kids were running around having a great time. It felt like our own place. It was so vibrant and full of life.”

The event was not merely a celebration of Hanukkah; it was a testament to the vibrant and close-knit community that Temple Israel represents. It showcased Temple Israel as a hub of cultural, spiritual, and social life, where traditions are honored, and new memories are created.

The success of this Hanukkah celebration serves as a beacon, guiding the community forward with the light of unity, joy, and shared heritage. The success of the event would not have been possible without the continued support of our congregation, specifically Denise and Jon Meyers and family who graciously sponsored this event to make it a reality.

Continued from page 1 pointed to recurring items of significance in his work, such as chess pieces, targets, and an always-out-of-reach paradise.

Bak has said he uses chess because of the influence it had on his upbringing, as his stepfather was an avid chess player.

As for the significance behind them, like many things in his paintings, chess boards never appear wholly intact in Bak’s paintings. This is because the board represents a defined set of rules, and in the real world those rules do not exist.

In many of his paintings, Bak presents a paradise off in the far distant background, which represents hope. Furthermore, this paradise tends to be contrasted with the gaze of subjects within the painting. Many of the subjects remain within the ruins and destruction of the foreground, perhaps because they themselves have been destroyed and pieced back together, and only some of them look towards the paradise in the background.

I was amazed by the variety of paintings that I saw at the museum. However, what amazed me more was learning that this was just a fraction of Bak’s work. Bak continues to paint every day, and at this point has countless works. Some of his newer works, one of which I saw at the museum, represent more modern conflicts but maintain the same iconic Bak style. Additionally, the Bak Museum has an exhibit dedicated to the awareness towards current acts of genocide around the world. I found this very thematically important to tie the museum together, and it was especially impactful to see at the end after viewing all of Bak’s works.

Ed. note: This is part 1 in a series; please stay tuned for future stories about some specific portions of Samuel Bak’s works. Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center offers a source of collaboration and opportunities to students, faculty and staff with the broader community around the subjects of art, Holocaust education, human rights and genocide. Collaborative partners of the Samuel Bak Museum include The Sam and Frances Fried Holocaust and Genocide Academy; The Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies; The Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights.

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Grand Opening MILTON MENDEL AND MARSHA KLEINBERG

JEWISH OMAHA HERITAGE CENTER JANUARY 14, 2024 | 3:00 - 5:00 PM

Event Chairs: Gloria Kaslow and Margo Riekes 3 3 3 SOU T H 1 3 2 N D ST R E E T, OMA H A , N E

The Nebraska Jewish Historical Society the community to experience Complimentary valetinvites parking the beautiful new museum exhibit on the Staenberg Kooper Fellman Campus!

Sunday, January 14, 2024 | 3-5 PM 333 South 132nd Street | Omaha, NE • Brief Ceremony begins at 3:30 pm • Light appetizers & refreshments • Complimentary valet parking

Please RSVP using the QR code or go online to www.jewishomaha.org

Staenberg Kooper Fellman Campus | 333 South 132nd Street | Omaha, NE 68154

The Jewish Press | December 29, 2023 | 3

Omahans March for Israel: Part 4 ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor On Nov. 14, approximately 290,000 people participated in the March for Israel on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Among them were members of our Omaha Jewish community, as well as the wider Omaha community. The Jewish Press asked some of those in attendance to describe the experience.

RABBI MORDECHAI GEIGER, Beth Israel I had just returned from a long trip on the road but as soon as I heard about the rally I wanted to go to, I even considered driving!

It was an unbelievable feeling. The unity, camaraderie, and support. It brought smiles to people’s faces when they saw our Nebraska poster!

It was a big reminder to me that we are a family. As the shock of what happened seems to settle in it is easy to slip back to our bickering. But I will hold onto the image and emotions of being surrounded by 290 thousand people and remember that nothing matters so much as the fact that these are my brothers and sisters.

The most remarkable thing for me was seeing friends from L.A. and Phoenix. People came from all over the country.

With all the hate going around, this march reaffirmed and reminded us that we are not alone. Additionally, it was a statement to our government officials and to the world; we will not cave to the pressure or fear of terrorism.

This rally shows what Israel stands for. In contrast to the protests on the other side, there were no police injured or harassed. On the contrary: thank you gifts were handed out.

Every rule was followed. It can be a bit nerve-racking to be in a crowd so large. But at this rally, there was a sense of safety because we were all there supporting each other. We made a strong statement through respect, not through vandalism.

JORDANA GLAZER The decision to go was made rather quickly, but what really convinced me was my father (who was born in British Palestine) was planning on going, and thought it would be memorable to do it together. I told Julie Phillips about it on Friday and she agreed to come with me. We stayed with my father’s girlfriend Gail, who is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors. While my father was not a Holocaust survivor, his grandparents and great Aunt died in the Holocaust and his parents snuck into Israel. We still have family who live in Israel.

Being at the rally was empowering. Prior to going, I was a bit worried about my security, and my daughter asked me why I was going. I told her that it is important to stand up for what is right, even if you are scared – it is a kind of moral courage.

It was very cool that this day was peaceful, compared to a lot of the protests I’m witnessing. I would like to have more opportunities to do things (not just money) for the Israelis – letter campaign --- something

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DJ honors victims Continued from page 1 “In stark contrast to the celebration and happiness of those who danced to the music,” The Jerusalem Post reported, “there was emptiness in the field.”

That day, Dubi played his own stuff, he said: “I have a long intro that is dramatic and deep and I felt it fit the situation, no words, but the sounds and feeling felt right. It wasn’t a regular set like normal.”

Dubi Dagan, aka Ritmo, has managed to formulate a unique technique that cap- Credit Omri Silver tures moments in our lives and translates them to an addictive rhythmic Progressive Trance creation. Dagan always had a lust for music, starting with Heavy Metal in his adolescence at the Krayiot in Israel, which satisfied his energetic soul, and fully maximized it with the help of his electric guitar. Towards his adult life, he decided to explore the electronic regimes of 80s and New Wave bands such as Depeche Mode and gave his respect to Electronic pioneers such as Jean Michel Jarre. When the 90s exploded with multiplying Electronic Dance genres, Dagan had joined the ride with the likes of Prodigy, until he discovered Psytrance and realized this addiction was going to last.

After visiting various culturally inspiring locations including Japan, U.S.A and India, Dagan came back to Israel and started his first steps behind the decks as a resident DJ, at the Luna Club, in Haifa. Being a music fanatic couldn’t leave Dubi indifferent; this is why it wasn’t long before he decided to begin working on his own project, and so Ritmo was born.

This Progressive Psytrance project filled in what was missing in the Progressive Trance genre for a long time – the rhythm of our bodies and soul. While tuning his sound skills as a sound engineer at DubiDub studios, a company responsible for dubbing television and cinema, Dagan started to experiment in order to achieve the perfect sound.

The experience playing for an empty field on Nov. 28 felt weird, surreal, unreal, he said: “It felt as if this was not the reality, not how it should be. It was of course the first time for this, and I started to cry after just a few minutes. I felt so weird and so sad. But we always have to tell the stories, because there are so many stories.

Every day, we find out new, crazy and different stories. Going forward, we will of course have many memorials, there will be movies and installations and events in the clubs, but we have to keep telling the stories over and over. Repeating those stories, abroad as well, is incredibly important.”

What happened Oct. 7 was hard to process for everybody, because it was so scary and surreal. The global music community especially had difficulty dealing with the notion that, during a peaceful music festival, this massacre suddenly happened.

“For every human being, it has been hard to process,” Dubi said. “shocked everyone across the world, the global music community for sure, it’s very scary and it’s hard to explain. But: it is what it is, and we have to keep repeating and telling the story of what happened on this day. everyone should know how it all started. The entire experience is beyond words.”

While the Nov. 28 concert was not broadcast live, it was streamed on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

SNOWBIRDS

Trade scholarships available for the 2023-24 academic year

An anonymous donor in our community has created two trade school and/or cosmetology school scholarship opportunities, up to $5,000 each, to go towards the 2023-24 academic year.

Not every student who advances into higher education signs up for a four-year curriculum. Some high school graduates seek job training that lasts a year or two and then places them in the workforce. Such opportunities include, but are

not restricted to: Information Technology, Construction, Industrial, Transportation and Horticulture. It is not too late to apply for this upcoming school year!

Qualified students who have unmet needs regarding tuition for either a two-year trade school program or a trade certificate program can contact the Jewish Press at avandekamp@ jewishomaha.org or jpress@jewishomaha.org for more information.

Please let the Jewish Press know in advance when you are leaving and when you are returning. Sometimes several papers are sent to your “old” address before we are notified by the Post Office. Every time they return a paper to us, you miss the Jewish Press and we are charged! Please call us at 402.334.6448 or email us at jpress@jewishomaha.org.

4 | The Jewish Press | December 29, 2023

Peers share Anne Frank

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Humanities Nebraska recently awarded a grant to the Institute for Holocaust Education (IHE) for Anne Frank — a History for Today, a traveling exhibit.

The IHE presented the exhibit in Nebraska schools in partnership with the Anne Frank House and the University of South Carolina’s College of Education.

The 30-panel exhibit, which tells the story of Anne Frank’s family and the impact of Nazi persecution and war, traveled to three middle and high schools in Lexington and Omaha during the 2022-23 school year.

At each school, a group of students was trained to help their fellow students think critically about the exhibit and relate lessons of the past to present-day circumstances. The exhibit stayed at each school for two weeks and was opened to the community for one evening at each school.

Some 2,500 students and community members viewed the exhibit, which had a measurable impact. In a survey, 88.9% of participating students reflected that the experience helped

them understand the dangers of discrimination and prejudice, and 80.4% of participating students said they would be more likely to speak up in a situation where they saw prejudice or discrimination. One participant at Omaha’s Westside Community Schools said: “I think the exhibit brought a lot of awareness, not just to antisemitism, but to the ways prejudice and discrimination can present themselves in everyday communities. I really appreciate all of the hard work and effort necessary to bring this exhibit to Westside Community Schools!”

“I really enjoyed getting to see many different groups of people coming into the exhibit,” another student said, “and it was really surprising seeing so many ‘lightbulbs’ on people’s expression as they walked through the exhibit. The attentiveness and willingness that people had to learn more about the Holocaust and the Anne Frank story was very moving.”

Source: Humanities Nebraska Rapport (winter 2023) and the Institute for Holocaust Education.

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course, dependent on the situation in Israel.

DIANE WALKER JFO Foundation Fund & Scholarship Administrator Scholarships, awarded by the Financial Aid Committee 2024 is right around the corner! Are your kids ready to get of the JFO, are funded by a number of endowments estabback to camp? Do you have little ones at the ELC or Friedel? lished through the JFO Foundation, outside entities, and College students? Thanks through the JFO’s Annual to the generosity of our Campaign. Scholarships community, a variety of are available for JCC sumfunding sources are availmer camp, residential able to Omaha’s Jewish Jewish summer camp, Isfamilies to help with the firael peer programs, nancial burden of Jewish SPECIAL FUNDS OF NOTE Friedel Jewish Academy, sleepaway camp, JCC sumLenore Simon Aronson Educational Fund was created to the Pennie Z. Davis Early mer camp, the Pennie Z. honor Lenore Simon Aronson and provides scholarship support Learning Center, and Davis Early Learning Cen- for female education majors at the University of Nebraska youth group programs. ter, Friedel Jewish Acad- Omaha. Funds are also available for Jewish summer camp Jewish students, who are emy, and youth group scholarships. residents of the Omaha activities. Assistance is also THE CHESED FUND, formerly the Murray H. & Sharee C. metropolitan area, can available for undergradu- Newman Supporting Foundation, has provided funds to assist apply for scholarships for ate, graduate, vocational, with attendance at Friedel Jewish Academy, the Pennie Z. Davis undergraduate, graduate, technical, professional or Early Learning Center, JCC summer camps, and Jewish summer vocational, technical, proresidential camps. yeshiva studies. fessional or yeshiva studDavid S. Rice and Esther Zorinsky Rice Endowment Fund is ies programs. While most The revised 2024 Scholarship and Grants booklet dedicated to the memories of David S. Rice and Esther Zorinsky scholarships are based on is included as an insert in Rice. It was the wish of the donors that these monies be used financial need, some colthis issue of the Jewish to provide financial assistance to children for educational pro- lege scholarships are Press. The booklet and ap- grams, camp, and trips to Israel. merit-based.

Riekes Family Jewish Youth Educational Endowment was plications will soon be Additional Opportuavailable on the Jewish created by the Carl and Steven Riekes families to provide fi- nities: There are also sevFederation of Omaha nancial assistance scholarships to the Pennie Z. Davis Early eral scholarship programs website. The deadline for Learning Center, Friedel Jewish Academy, and Jewish summer outlined in the 2024 applications is a little dif- residential camps.

Scholarship and Grants Jewish Federation of Lincoln Judge Ben Novicoff Scholarferent this year – Monbooklet which are outside ship Fund was created for post-secondary education, Jewish day, March 4, 2024. the realm of the Financial Grant programs, funded preschool, Jewish day school, Jewish summer camp, or other Aid Committee. These inby the Jewish Federation of Jewish experiences. This fund is one of the few available for clude the Sokolof Honor Omaha, are available to any Lincoln residents and awards are made by the Jewish Federa- Roll scholarships, the Omaha Jewish family meet- tion of Lincoln.

Fellman/Kooper scholarSigma Alpha Mu Scholarship is another unique fund. Created ing the program requireships, the Leon Fellman, ments, regardless of the for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at the Uni- DDS and A.A. & Ethel family’s financial situation. versity of Nebraska Lincoln, it is another of the few funds with- Yossem scholarships for Jewish Experience out the requirement of Omaha metro residency. Based on Creighton University and financial need and scholastic ability, the fund’s first priority is Grants provide up to the Bennet G. Hornstein given to current members of UNL’s Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity $2,000 for Jewish children Fund.

Chapter. Further priorities include descendants of Sammys at Endowment in the metro area to atSources for additional inUNL and other universities. tend a residential summer formation on these scholcamp. Grants are paid arships are included in over two years with no more than $1,000 per summer. the booklet.

Israel Experience Grants provide up to $1,500 to stuOmaha’s Jewish families are encouraged to take advantage dents in grades 9–12 or young adults aged 18–26 for an Israel of these funding opportunities. All financial information is peer program. An additional stipend of $1,000 is provided kept completely confidential. For any questions, please call for the bi-annual community teen trip to Israel. These are of Diane Walker at 402.334.6551.

ORGANIZATIONS

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ANTISEMITIC/HATE INCIDENTS

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.

If you encounter an antisemitic or other hate incident, you are not alone. Your first call should be to the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) in Omaha at 402.334.6572, or email JCRCreporting@ jewishomaha.org. If you perceive an imminent threat, call 911, and text Safety & Security Manager James Donahue at 402.213.1658.

The Jewish Press | December 29, 2023 | 5

Mamma Mia! returns to the Orpheum Theater

The national tour of Mamma Mia! returns to Omaha’s Orpheum Theater for a one-week run, Jan. 9-14, 2024. Tickets start at $35 and are available now by visiting ticketomaha.com, calling 402.345.0606 or visiting the Ticket Omaha Box Office inside the Holland Center at 1200 Douglas Street.

Since premiering in London in 1999 and on Broadway in 2001, the irresistible musical Mamma Mia! has captured the hearts of millions around the globe.

The sunny, funny tale of a mother, a daughter and three possible dads on a Greek island paradise, all unfolding to the storytelling magic of ABBA’s timeless songs, has now been seen live on stage by 65 million people across the world and turned into two record-breaking movies – Mamma Mia! The Movie and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

To date, Mamma Mia! has been seen in 50 productions in 16 different languages, grossing more than $4 billion at the box office.

With music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, Mamma Mia! is written by Catherine Johnson, directed by Phyllida Lloyd and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast. The production is designed by Mark Thompson, with lighting design by Howard Harrison, sound design by Andrew Bruce and Bobby Aitken, and musical supervision, additional material and arrangements by Martin Koch.

Mamma Mia! is part of Omaha Performing Arts’ 23/24 Broadway Series sponsored by CHI Health.

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Art Hour with Janie Kulakofsky ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor All throughout our building, there are pieces of art, the vast majority donated by Michael Staenberg. It sets a tone, it livens up our building, but how often do we stop and stare? A small group of community members and Jewish Press board members gathered recently to take a closer look. They each selected one art piece, read up on the work and answered questions. Starting off with Janie Kulakofsky, we’ll share their stories in the Jewish press.

Janie selected Kings of Jerusalem by Moshe Castel, a digital print on paper, which is located in the hallway by Fit & Sit. Moshe Elazar Castel (1909-1991) was born in Jerusalem to Rabbi Yehuda Castel and his wife Rachel, descended from Spanish Jews who left Spain during the inquisition. He studied at the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem, the Paris Academy Julian and the Ecole de Louvre. In 1959, he purchased a studio in Montparnasse where he worked for several months a year.

His murals hang in the Knesset, Binyanel Hauma Convention Center, Rockefeller Center and the official residence of the President of Israel in Jerusalem.

WHAT DO YOU SEE? Seven gold figures with Hebrew words underneath. The background is red and white with Hebrew lettering. There seem to be eight wooden slats, and at the bottom I see children who will continue the Jewish faith.

WHAT IS THE FIRST WORD THAT COMES TO MIND WHEN YOU LOOK AT IT? ‘Interpret.’

WHAT’S THE SECOND ONE? ‘Mothers.’

WHAT DO YOU IMAGINE THE ARTIST WAS FEELING WHILE CREATING IT? They were hoping the Jewish people would continue to flourish.

WHAT WOULD YOU ASK THE ARTIST IF YOU COULD? What were you trying to communicate?

HOW DOES THIS ARTWORK RELATE TO YOU PERSONALLY? I’m concerned about Jews continuing to succeed amongst hate crimes and antisemitism.

HOW WOULD YOU CONNECT THIS ARTWORK TO OUR JEWISH COMMUNITY? I wish for us all to continue to grow Jewishly.

See full digital issues: omahajewishpress.com/eedition

JANUARY 9-14 • ORPHEUM THEATER • TICKETOMAHA.COM

6 | The Jewish Press | December 29, 2023

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Schrager Employees of the Year

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New additions to the Kripke-Veret Collection SHIRLY BANNER JFO Library Specialist YOUNG ADULT Questions I’m Asked About the Holocaust By Hédi Fried An Auschwitz survivor answers young people’s questions about the Holocaust with sensitivity and candour.

Hédi Fried was nineteen when the Nazis arrested her family and transported them to Auschwitz, where her parents were murdered and she and her sister were forced into hard labor. Now ninety-seven, she has spent her life educating young people about the Holocaust and answering their questions.

This is a deeply human book for people of all ages that urges us never to forget and never to repeat.

ADULT I’ll Remember You by Deborah Packer Based on a true story, I’ll Remember You is a bittersweet love story set on the home front in 1943 about two strangers who meet and fall in love in the shadow of war and the racism and antisemitism of the 1940s.

Fiercely proud, idealistic Bobbie Feinman, a small-town Jewish girl, travels to Miami Beach and finds herself in the middle of the military buildup in 1943 America. Against her better judgment, she falls for a complex young soldier from Brooklyn named Murray, whose

Mayme Wiley, left, Michelle Alberts and Nicole Brake

childhood was marred by horrific images of another war.

The young Jewish couple fall in love during World War II. However, they struggle with misunderstanding, doubts and the challenges of a hasty marriage, all of which threaten any hope of intimacy or a future together. As needs go unmet, their anxieties, fears, and communication problems play out against a backdrop of antisemitism and racism as the soldier prepares to go to war.

DVD Hester Street (DVD) Directed by Joan Micklin Cast includes Carol Kane, Steven Keats, Mel Howard, Dorrie Kavanaugh, Doris Roberts Hester Street tells the story of Jewish immigrants who come to the Lower East Side of New York City in 1896 from Eastern Europe, and who live on Hester

Street in Manhattan. When Yankel first comes to the U.S., he quickly assimilates into American culture, and becomes Jake. He also begins to have an affair with Mamie, a dancer. His wife, Gitl, who arrives later with their son, Yossele, has difficulty assimilating. Tension arises in their marriage as Jake continually upbraids and abuses Gitl. Additionally, Jake continues to see Mamie, which Gitl later discovers through Mrs. Kavarsky, a neighbor. Jake and Gitl ultimately divorce, whereby Gitl takes all of Mamie’s money and marries Bernstein, a faithful traditionalist. By the end of the film, she is sartorially and linguistically assimilated — walking down the street with Bernstein and Yossele (now known as Joey), speaking English, and showing her hair. But she is now liberated from Jake, who in turn has married Mamie.

Friday, Feb. 16, 7 p.m., Central Time.

Different tunes will be played at each session. We will read, play, and discuss various survival skills for these charming pieces. A treble clef version of the sheet music for the tunes being played will be displayed on the screen during the workshop.

There is limited enrollment, and preregistration is required. The cost for each workshop is $10. The cost of each optional book is $15 (includes shipping if ordered with workshop registration).

For more information, and to register: https://greenblatt andseay.com/workshops_women_composers.shtml.

IN THE NEWS The Old Avoca Schoolhouse in Avoca, Nebraska will be streaming three online Women’s Compositions Workshops for violins, violas, cellos, basses, mandolins, soprano recorders and alto recorders.

The Workshops will be on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 7 p.m., Central Time, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 10 a.m., Central Time, and

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MAGGIE CONTI RBJH Director of Activities and Volunteer Services On Wednesday, Dec. 13, three Rose Blumkin Jewish Home employees, Mayme Wiley, CNA – 10 years; Michelle Alberts, Executive Assistant – 8 years; Nicole Brake, Unit Clerk – 7 years, received the annual Jack and Sonia Schrager 2023 Employee of the Year award. “These winners consistently exceed expectations and make RBJH a better place. Chris Ulven, Executive Director, acknowledged how challenging it was to choose three winners out of 121 nominees.”

“They inspire others with their positive attitude and good work ethic,” he said.

Mazel Tov to the winners!

Save the Date for Super Tuesday The Jewish Federation of Omaha Campaign team has scheduled Super Tuesday for Jan. 23, 2024. It will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Community Engagement Venue. Volunteers will be calling donors who have yet to make their 2024 Annual Campaign pledge, so if you have not yet filled out and returned your pledge card, expect a call!

Thank you to Joe and Linda Fisher, our 2024 Super Tuesday Chairs. We are currently looking for 20 volunteers to help us make calls. For more information and to volunteer, please contact Director of Development Rachel Ring at rring@jewishomaha.org or 402.334.6443.

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The Jewish Press | December 29, 2023 | 7

Above: Nebraska lights up the State Capitol.

Left: Governor Jim Pillen addresses the assembled.

Above: The Ruth Sokolof annual Christmas party for visually impaired children was held Sunday, Dec. 10 at the Westroads. There were more than 150 high school volunteers to shop with more than 100 students with special needs. The late Phil Sokolof continues to fund this annual party in his wife’s memory.

Above: Mrs. Lenore Ross recites the blessing on the Menorah for the 5th day of Hanukkah at Heritage at Sterling Ridge.

Below: No one misses out with Chabad. The residents who were able to, went to fetch their latkes from the truck. The others were hand delivered.

Above, below and botom: Hanukkah was celebrated with gusto at Lincoln’s Tifereth Israel.

Above: Chabad’s Menorah and Martinis catered to the 20something crowd.

Below: Kappa Delta Sorority and UNL Hillel hosted the Latke Truck for all their members.

SP O TLIGHT

GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

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

Left and below: The Bagel Boys made Hanukkah at B’nai Israel extra special.

8 | The Jewish Press | December 29, 2023

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Distance

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor In early November, Shira Li Bartov wrote a story about antisemitism in the place I was born. It had been one month since the massacre, and family members were already warning me not to wear any Jewish jewelry in the airport when I visit.

“Reports of antisemitic incidents have spiked over 800% in the Netherlands since Oct. 7, a leading Dutch-Jewish watchdog has reported,” Bartov wrote.

“According to CIDI (Centrum voor Informatie en Documentatie over Israel) researcher and policy advisor Hans Wallage, it’s not only the numbers that have grown — the range of attacks on Jews has increased as well. Although it is typical for antisemitism to flare in the Netherlands during conflicts in Israel and the Palestinian territories, CIDI researchers said they have never seen a surge of incidents like this before. And like other Jewish communities across Europe, many Dutch Jews feel they are in new territory.”

New territory? Perhaps. It’s hard to tell from here, sitting in my comfortable Jewish Press office. Things in other countries always seem worse; I’m watching from a distance, seeing only what the news wants me to see, and I’m nothing if not paranoid about Dutch newspapers. But I’m about to get on a plane and yes, I’m taking off my star of David, and I’m not taking any risks.

“In one school,” Bartov wrote, “a Jewish boy was threatened with a knife and hit on the head with a bottle while classmates called him ‘kankerjood,’ a Dutch slur meaning ‘cancer Jew.’ Another boy was told that his classmates would throw him off a bridge

and drown him because he was Jewish. Recurring re- fee shops. Homeless people on the sidewalk, pancake ports describe students being accosted for wearing restaurants and fresh flowers, crappy tourist shops Star of David necklaces, being shown the Hitler and a fashion district with bouncers. Here, you have salute and being told that Hitler ‘didn’t finish his job.’ to make an appointment before you can try on that Wallage believes the rash of school incidents has to Chanel suit, but you can get your heroin anywhere. do with social media, which gives children unpreceAnd, of course, really good coffee—but that’s bedentedly rapid and unchecked access to hate speech, conspiracy theories and incitement.”

I’m sure social media plays its role, but we are mistaken if we put all the blame on that. Much of what is described in the paragraph above happened to me as early as first grade. None of this is new; it’s the intensity, the openness, the popularity. Someone in the fashion industry said the other day: “Hating Jews is the New Black.”

I have to ask myself: can I still consider this place home?

I used to love Amsterdam. Part of me still does, Thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters at a protest in but it’s a love that lives in nostalgia. Endless Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Oct. 22, 2023. Credit: Romy walks around the city with my artist uncle who Arroyo Fernandez/NurPhoto via Getty Images knew all the stories. Architecturally speaking, it is a cause of a colonial past and we don’t talk about lovely place, of course. It’s overrun by foreign visitors that. After we’re all gone, the city will still stand. Am for a reason. In my memories of Amsterdam I am for- I extra melancholic because of this latest surge in ever 16, 18, 21. School trips to the Artis Zoo, classic antisemitism, or has it always been such an unforconcerts in dilapidated churches, modern art ex- giving place? The more things change, the more hibits in the old stock market building, my favorite they stay the same, I guess. And I bet good money restaurant that hasn’t changed its interior in a cen- the exact same story can be written about Rottertury, and is still there today. The shopping, the clubs, dam, The Hague, Paris, Berlin, Antwerp and a the smell of the canals in the summer. The old houses whole slew of other old European cities where the in the city center that seem to sink a little deeper Jews have found a temporary home throughout the each year: beautiful silent witnesses to the horror centuries, only to be spat out later. that happened there. The overwhelming stink of pot Is it any wonder I miss the buildings, but not the that hits you in the face when you walk past the cof- people?

I know university presidents can respond better to odious speech ARI KOHEN JTA As a political science professor for two decades and as the director of the Harris Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska, I’ve been through several rounds of odious speech and debate over how to handle it.

So I’ve been extremely surprised by the whole university presidents congressional hearing debacle.

First, I’m surprised by the number of people who think Rep. Elise Stefanik — who in the not-so-distant past has spoken approvingly of Hitler and promoted the antisemitic Great Replacement conspiracy theory — was somehow acting in good faith or is some sort of friend of Jewish people. She wasn’t and she isn’t.

Second, I’m surprised by the people who think the university presidents were somehow tricked or couldn’t have answered differently. They weren’t and they could have.

It should be possible for very smart people to stake out a position that notes how strongly we want to adhere to a free speech position while also making clear that any code of conduct that allows students to call for genocide at their university should be reexamined.

I know this is possible because I’ve seen it happen, here at my public university in the Midwest that could be a model for this moment.

Years ago we had some Nazis on our campus. I’m not being hyperbolic and calling someone a Nazi because they voted for bad candidates or something. I’m talking about students who posted on a white supremacist forum about wanting to drive their car into Black Lives Matter rallies or who traveled across the country to chant “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville and posed doing Nazi salutes with prominent Nazi groups.

When one of these students was “outed” by groups like Unicorn Riot and the Nebraska Antifascists, many students called for removing him from campus for his speech.

University leaders considered the demands and rejected them. Instead, the university threw itself behind more speech, namely rallies against hate and a campaign about the inclusivity we want to promote on campus. A “Hate Will Never Win” rally

drew 1,500 people to the school’s basketball stadium, and the school helped distribute T-shirts with that message to anyone who wanted one. The message could be seen all over our campus.

That moment wasn’t easy, let me assure you. A lot of people — including at least one Jewish student — said that having Nazis on campus was dangerous and that they presented a safety concern for members of minority groups who felt directly threatened.

Nebraska guard Glynn Watson Jr., wearing a “Hate Will Never Wi” T-shirt, takes the court in Lincoln, Nebraska, Feb. 10, 2018. The message was a response to the presence of a vocal white supremacist on the university campus. Credit: John Peterson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

I felt it, too. It’s not comfortable to walk around campus wearing a kippah, as I do, when you know there are people on the same campus who say they hate Jews, “love violence,” and own a bunch of guns.

There is an exhaustion that comes from being on high alert and also a real temptation to blend in, to remove the kippah. And what follows is a sadness and even an embarrassment, a desire not to be the sort of person who is concerned about someone looking at you from across the street and certainly not to be the sort of person who decides to hide their identity to avoid being called out, picked on, targeted.

But I left the threat assessments to the professionals. I was pleased to see the campus stand up against bigotry, and I maintain that the University of Nebraska made the right call. A year after the initial conflict, the university was continuing to sup-

port students in having constructive conversations about diversity and inclusion — though under a different name because of a copyright issue related to “Hate Will Never Win.” What happened on my campus wasn’t easy, but it didn’t feel that difficult, either. Yet, in 2023, in response to demonstrations that repeatedly veer into antisemitism or allow for antisemitic comments, a lot of universities don’t seem to be very interested in holding big rallies against bigotry like Nebraska did in 2018.

Instead I see a lot of explaining that “From the river to the sea” could plausibly mean something positive rather than something genocidal. And this means Jews are feeling left alone, without the support that campus leaders offered to targeted minorities in the past.

Jews are being asked to deal with a level of hostility that feels like targeted harassment due to its repetition, intensity and pervasiveness. And, rather than people telling us they’ve got our back, we’re being told, especially on social media and especially from people on the left, that perhaps we’re being overly dramatic about our feelings.

The university presidents should have been able to explain that people can say odious things but that all of the rest of us must respond by calling out those things for being odious.

They should also have been able to explain that calling for genocide almost certainly would amount to harassment and an unsafe environment but that we have to work together to be clear about what is and what isn’t targeted harassment.

Their inability to say these things is not someone else’s fault, and the message it sent to American Jews was received loudly and clearly. I’m grateful I heard a different message on my campus several years ago — and saddened for students today who aren’t on a campus where their classmates are encouraged to say “Hate Will Never Win.” Ari Kohen is a political scientist and the Schlesinger Professor of Social Justice and director of the Norman and Bernice Harris Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska.

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 Press | December 29, 2023 | 9

Among Jewish Americans, a ‘quiet middle’ has growing qualms over the war in Gaza ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL JTA Rabbi Yael Ridberg recently returned from a four-day mission to Israel with the Jewish Federation of San Diego, which has a 25-year sister-city relationship with Sha’ar HaNegev, a municipality near the Gaza border. Their group witnessed firsthand the destruction and devastation left after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel’s south; among the 1,200 killed was Sha’ar HaNegev’s mayor, Ofir Libstein, who was slain while defending Kibbutz Kfar Aza. “When I came back,” she said, “and I started to share a little bit about the experience, a few of my congregants, we might call them center left, came away from what I shared feeling, ‘Yes, of course, it’s horrifying. But how can I resist looking away from the footage and the coverage in Gaza?’”

Ridberg, 55, says she understands the “anguish” of these congregants at her synagogue, Congregation Dor Hadash in San Diego. Supporters of Israel, they were plunged into grief by the Oct. 7 murders and hostage-taking and disgusted when allies on the left failed to acknowledge or even justified the suffering of the Jewish victims. Nonetheless, they are appalled by the enormous death toll in Gaza as a result of Israel’s two-month counteroffensive and harboring doubts about Israel’s end-game.

Rabbi Yael Ridberg meets with leaders of Achim L’NeshekBrothers and Sisters for Israel — a civilian operations center in Tel Aviv — during a mission to Israel with the Jewish Federation of San Diego, Nov. 30, 2023. Credit:Guy Yechiely/Jewish Federation of Sand Diego

“I think my community is a perfect representation of that sort of quiet middle: People are very clearly supportive of Israel, horrified by the events of Oct. 7, stymied by the silence around the hostages, stymied by antisemitism everywhere — and at the same time, are trying to figure out how to feel as okay as possible with the IDF plan, which for some of them, they’re not sure what that plan is,” said Ridberg.

“And the farther we get away from October 7,” she said, “the harder it is for some of them to feel fully grounded in what that support needs to look like.”

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, much has been made of the political divide between an older generation of Jews who take Zionism for granted and a younger generation who are less attached to Israel than their elders.

But even among firm supporters of Israel, who back Israel’s right to defend itself and accept its goal of eradicating a deadly enemy, are those who feel neither at home in the Jewish left — which includes anti-Zionists who have opposed Israel’s retaliation from its beginning — or in the mainstream which they say is uncritical of the Israeli war effort.

“I’m someone who looks at what seems to me to be quite inflammatory language from the American left decrying Zionism, and I recoil as someone who believes that Israel has a right to exist,” said Michael Pasek, 33, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who has studied the psychology of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “And yet, I then look at actions taken in the name of quote Zionism, that seem to be endorsed by quote, Zionists, and ask myself, What am I closer to?”

Whether they call it “stuck in the middle” or “threading the needle,” these are Jews who wouldn’t join a Jewish-led protest calling for a ceasefire, but bristle at some of the messages of unquestioning solidarity heard during pro-Israel rallies led by mainstream Jewish groups.

“I am too progressive for the Zionists and too Zionist for the progressives,” writes journalist Steven Zeitchik in a JTA essay.

A longtime reporter at the Washington Post and founder of a tech newsletter, Zeitchik finds himself caught between the militancy of his father, who as a child lost two of his siblings in the 1948 War of Independence and who experienced the Oct. 7 atrocities as a fresh trauma, and the empathy he feels for innocents caught in the line of fire. “Perhaps that is my place, tilted between trauma and empathy,” he writes. “Perhaps that is the curse of the survivor’s son. You are destined to live in the lonely middle — haunted by everything, aligned with no one.”

That sense of loneliness is exacerbated by the poisonous discourse on social media, where nuance is dismissed by one side as collaboration with the other side. Many American Jews also

have friends and relatives in Israel, including some in the army and some whose relatives were taken hostage, and are wary of appearing critical or ambivalent about the war when the country is unified around it. A few I spoke to did not want to be identified out of deference to these friends and relatives.

Many Jews are also wary of appearing to support a far left that is accusing Israel of carrying out a “genocide” — often the same groups endorsing a ceasefire.

Many of the people I spoke to for this article said they noticed a shift in recent weeks, as the grief, anger and solidarity felt after Oct. 7 gave way to more complicated feelings about the war.

The growing death toll in Gaza is troubling for many Jews who support the aims of Israel's war on Hamas and the return of its hostages. Credit: JTA

That shift could be seen in the person of President Joe Biden — not Jewish, but a pro-Israel politician whose initial, horrified reaction to the Hamas attacks and the green light he gave to Israel seemed to mirror the feelings of so many Jews. As the death toll has risen in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis worsens, Biden has signaled that his patience is running out, and that Israel must take more care to protect civilians, ensure more deliveries of humanitarian aid and — while still firmly avowing his support of Israel.

“There’s a sense of people wanting to be more clear that they are resolutely committed to the people of Israel, which is not the same thing as the government of Israel,” said Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, when I asked if he has seen a shift in his community. “Folks are still very much holding their anger, their grief, their core issues like freeing the hostages. But there’s been an increasing sense of the importance of addressing the long-term commitment to a larger resolution of the conflict and genuine concern over Palestinian civilians. It’s holding those things together.”

Coinciding with the administration’s shift is one on the Jewish left. While far-left groups like IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace began demanding a ceasefire within days of the war, and cast the war almost exclusively in terms of Palestinian suffering and Israeli culpability, left-leaning groups like J Street and T’ruah were careful to weigh calls for peace with empathy for Israel. Over 750 rabbis and cantors signed a T’ruah letter written and circulated beginning Oct. 20 that condemned the Hamas attacks, praised the “extraordinary response by Israel’s civil society,” and called for “a just, negotiated political solution that protects the human rights and political self-determination of both peoples.” The letter did not mention a ceasefire, but rather called on “all parties to follow the laws of armed conflict in order to ensure the safety of Israeli and Palestinian civilians.”

On Thursday, nine weeks later and with the reported death toll in Gaza at over 18,000, T’ruah put out a new statement calling on the Biden administration “to pressure Israel to return to the negotiating table to reach another ceasefire and end the war.”

J Street also toughened its stance on Israel since October, issuing on Dec. 7 a statement saying that if Israel “fails to modify the nature of the military campaign or to take the steps urged by the United States, J Street will call on the Biden administration to change course.”

Both T’ruah and J Street are widely seen as to the left of where most U.S. Jews are, and they certainly don’t speak for a conservative minority — common but not restricted to the Orthodox community, who tend to be hawkish on Israeli policy, including strong support for the settlement movement in the West Bank.

But polls show that most Jewish Americans identify as Democrats, feel attached to Israel and support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Most Jews are somewhere in the middle — you know, kind of hawkish doves or dovish hawks,” said Dov Waxman, 49, director of UCLA’s Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies.

“They’re concerned about the safety of Israel and Israelis that’s genuine, but at the same time, they also care and they’re also concerned about human rights and supportive of a two-state solution.”

Waxman said there aren’t polls at the moment gauging Jewish attitudes to the war, but in his conversations with Jewish leaders — including a group of non-Orthodox rabbis he met

with on Thursday — he’s seen a definite shift since the first month.

“There are growing concerns and qualms about the war not in terms of a justification for going after Hamas, but over the costs of this war on Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” he said. “In addition to the displacement and humanitarian crisis, there are concerns about Israel’s conduct of the war in terms of whether it is really doing its best to minimize casualties.”

This balancing act — between empathy and outrage over the trauma inflicted on Israel, and qualms about the destruction of Gaza and the war’s aftermath — are also being heard in the sermons of rabbis who are strongly supportive of Israel.

On Dec. 9, in her Shabbat morning sermon, Rabbi Sharon Brous of the independent IKAR congregation in Los Angeles warned about the impulse to dehumanize the Palestinians in Gaza. “I am not a military strategist. I do not dare to suggest that I know how Israel is supposed to keep its people safe after Hamas has demonstrated through atrocities mimicking those of the most sadistic divisions of the Nazis”, she said. And yet, she continued, Jews must “muster the moral imagination to reckon with the other not as a bloodthirsty predator but perhaps as a parent, just like us, also aching for their lost child.”

In his Shabbat sermon on Dec. 2, Rabbi Jesse Olitzky of the Conservative Congregation Beth El in South Orange, New Jersey, decried the silence of women’s and humanitarian groups over allegations of sexual violence carried out by Hamas terrorists. And while he acknowledged the realities of war and inevitable casualties that result in pursuit of a justified objective like holding Hamas accountable, he said Torah asks that “we not use our anger and our grief to take it out on everyone.

I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to get there.”

But Torah he said, “deems” Jews to strive for restraint even when “we don’t always get there.”

Waxman said the strong consensus seen in the first month of the war is also being eroded by concerns over the ultimate aims of the Israeli government, a far-right coalition that, as Biden recently said, “does not want a two-state solution.” Waxman hears “doubts about whether Israel is going to be able to achieve its goals in the war. What are its plans for the future of Gaza? There’s the concern that this could easily end up in a long-term Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, even if that’s not what Israel wants.”

Dara Lithwick, 46, a rabbi and lawyer in Ottawa, Ontario, who chairs the Reform Jewish Community of Canada’s Tikkun Olam Steering Committee, worries that a binary discourse that rejects “multiple perspectives” has “drowned out” the voices of people and groups working toward a better future for Israeli and Palestinians. Among the groups she mentioned are Hand in Hand, a network of joint Arab-Israeli schools in Israel; the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and the coexistence group Standing Together. Although such groups tend to be described as left-wing, they are also dismissed by Israel’s harshest critics as “normalizing” Israel.

“The only way I can imagine getting to the next place is by continuing to build connections across lines of difference,” she said. “It doesn’t need to be about solutions, but just in terms of our mutual humanity and holding each other up.”

She said her parents, whom she describes as “pretty centrist” professionals, are also struggling with their feelings after two months of the war. They sympathize with Israel’s goal of preventing another Oct. 7, but feel anguish at the death of children in Gaza, and lack trust in the current Israeli government and wonder what the long-term solution will be.

“They are heartbroken by what is going on,” said Lithwick.

Michael Pasek also worries that Israel is carrying out the war — and Jewish organizations are supporting it — without a vision of a lasting solution. “I am someone who thinks that Zionism should be compatible with a two-state solution,” he said, “but I don’t see many leaders of Israel and, quite frankly, American Jewish mainstream organizations, advocating for Zionism in a way that I think is compatible with that.”

“This is a really, really hard struggle for the most Zionist among us and the most peace-loving among us,” said San Diego’s Rabbi Ridberg. To describe the tug she feels in both directions — toward unwavering support for Israel and concern over the Palestinians – she quotes the Tamudic sage Hillel: “If I am not for me, who will be for me? And when I am for myself alone, what am I?” “I am fully supportive of this just war and its mission, and my struggle every single day is a responsibility that we have in both directions, according to Hillel,” she said. “How do I absorb the full impact of this war on Israel and Gaza?”

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.

Synagogues

10 | The Jewish Press | December 29, 2023

B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

618 Mynster Street Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 712.322.4705 www.cblhs.org

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE

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

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

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

CHABAD HOUSE

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

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN South Street Temple Union for Reform Judaism 2061 South 20th Street Lincoln, NE 68502-2797 402.435.8004 www.southstreettemple.org

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

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

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME 323 South 132 Street Omaha, NE 68154

TEMPLE ISRAEL

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

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: TIFERETH ISRAEL Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Boulevard Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 402.423.8569 tiferethisraellincoln.org

B’NAI ISRAEL Monthly Speaker Series Service, Friday, Jan. 12, 7:30 p.m. with our guest speaker, Jay Katelman. Our service leader is Larry Blass. Everyone is always welcome at B’nai Israel!

For information about our historic synagogue, please visit our website at www.cblhs.org or contact any of our other board members: Renee Corcoran, Scott Friedman, Rick Katelman, Janie Kulakofsky, Howard Kutler, Carole and Wayne Lainof, Ann Moshman, Mary-Beth Muskin, Debbie Salomon and Sissy Silber.

Handicap Accessible.

BETH EL Services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman.

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

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; New Years Toast following services; Havdalah, 5:45 p.m. Zoom Only.

SUNDAY: Dinner at the Stephen Center, 5 p.m.

MONDAY: Beth El Office Closed; Morning Minyan, 9 a.m. Zoom Only.

TUESDAY: Pirkei Avot, 10:30 a.m. with Rabbi Abraham.

WEDNESDAY: BESTT Winter Break Day. THURSDAY: PJP What Jews Think Series: Dr. Eitan Fishbane, 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY-Jan. 5: Pre-Neg & Tot Shabbat, 5:30 p.m.; Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY-Jan. 6: Shabbat Morning Service, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Jr. Congregation (Grades K12), 10 a.m.; Havdalah, 5:50 p.m. Zoom Only; Young Adult Game Night, 7-9 p.m. at Spielbound.

SUNDAY: BESTT (Grades K-7), 9:30 a.m.; Hebrew Reading for Adults, 10:30 a.m. with Hazzan Krausman; Adult B’nai Mitzvah, 11:15 a.m. with Hazzan Krausman; BESTT (Grades K-5), noon-3 p.m. at Sky Zone.

TUESDAY: Pirkei Avot, 10:30 a.m. with Rabbi Abraham.

WEDNESDAY: Tai Chi, noon with Beth Staenberg; BESTT (Grades 3-7), 4:15 p.m.; Hebrew High (Grades 8-12), 6 p.m.

FRIDAY-Jan. 12: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY-Jan. 13: Shabbat Morning Service, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Jr. Congregation (Grades K-12), 10 a.m.; Havdalah, 5:55 p.m. Zoom Only.

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

BETH ISRAEL FRIDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat/Candlelighting, 4:45 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:30 a.m.; Youth Class, 10:45 a.m.; Kids Kiddush Club, 11:15 a.m.; Soulful Torah: Unpacking the Or HaChayim’s Teachings, 3:45 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:30 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity, 5 p.m.; Havdalah, 5:51 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Men’s Spin & Torah Class, 11 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:50 p.m.

MONDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:50 p.m.

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

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

THURSDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Character Development Class, 9:30 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:50 p.m.; Parsha Class, 5:10 p.m.

FRIDAY-Jan. 5: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat/Candlelighting, 4:52 p.m.

SATURDAY-Jan. 6: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:30 a.m.; Youth Class, 10:45 a.m.; Kids Kiddush Club, 11:15 a.m.; Soulful Torah: Unpacking the Or HaChayim’s Teachings, 3:50 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:40 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/Kids Activity, 5:10 p.m.; Havdalah, 5:57 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Men’s Spin & Torah

JEWISH PRESS NOTICE

The Jewish Press will be closed on Monday, Jan. 1, 2024. There will be no Jewish Press on Jan. 5, 2024. Questions? Call 402.334.6448.

Class, 11 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 5 p.m.

MONDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Monday Mind Builders, 4 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 5 p.m.

TUESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 5 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 5 p.m.

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

FRIDAY-Jan. 12: Nach Yomi, 6:45 a.m.; Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat/Candlelighting, 4:59 p.m.

SATURDAY-Jan. 13: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:30 a.m.; Youth Class, 10:45 a.m.; Kids Kiddush Club, 11:15 a.m.; Soulful Torah: Unpacking the Or HaChayim’s Teachings, 4 p.m.; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:50 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos/ Kids Activity, 5:20 p.m.; Havdalah, 6:03 p.m.

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

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

FRIDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 4:30 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochabad.com/ Lechayim; Candlelighting, 4:45 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 5:49 p.m.

SUNDAY: Sunday Morning Wraps: Shacharit, 99:30 a.m., Video Presentation, 9:30 a.m. and Breakfast, 9:45 a.m.

MONDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Personal Parsha, 9:30 a.m.; Intermediate Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

TUESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 7 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

WEDNESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Mystical Thinking (Tanya), 9:30 a.m.; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 11:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

THURSDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Advanced Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 11 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Talmud Study (Sanhedrin 34), noon; Introduction to Alphabet, Vowels & Reading Hebrew, 6 p.m. with Prof.

David Cohen; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) Class, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY-Jan. 5: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 4:30 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ocha bad.com/Lechayim; Candlelighting, 4:51 p.m.

SATURDAY-Jan. 6: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m. followed

by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 5:55 p.m.

SUNDAY: Sunday Morning Wraps: Shacharit, 99:30 a.m., Video Presentation, 9:30 a.m. and Breakfast, 9:45 a.m.

MONDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Personal Parsha, 9:30 a.m.; Intermediate Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 6 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

TUESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 7 p.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

WEDNESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Mystical Thinking (Tanya), 9:30 a.m.; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Parsha Reading, 11:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

THURSDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Advanced Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 11 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Talmud Study (Sanhedrin 34), noon; Introduction to Alphabet, Vowels & Reading Hebrew, 6 p.m. with Prof.

David Cohen; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) Class, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY-Jan. 12: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 4:30 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ocha bad.com/Lechayim; Candlelighting, 4:58 p.m.

SATURDAY-Jan. 13: Shacharit, 9:30 a.m. followed

by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 6:02 p.m.

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN & TIFERETH ISRAEL Services facilitated by Rabbi Alex Felch.

All services offered in-person with live-stream or teleconferencing options.

FRIDAY: Shabbat Candlelighting, 4:49 p.m.; Erev Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex, 6:30 p.m. at SST. SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. at TI; Havdalah, 5:53 p.m.

SUNDAY: No LJCS Classes— Winter Break; Men’s Bike/Coffee Group, 10:30 a.m. in the Conference

Room at Rock 'n Joe (5025 Lindbergh St.). For more information or questions please email Al Weiss at alb ertw801@gmail.com; Pickleball, 3-5 p.m. Anyone interested in playing or learning how to play can text Miriam at 402.470.2393. If there are enough interested people; we will play in the Social Hall at TI. MONDAY: Offices Closed.

WEDNESDAY: LJCS Hebrew School, 4:30-6 p.m.

FRIDAY-Jan. 5: Shabbat Candlelighting, 4:55 p.m.; Erev Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex, 6:30 p.m. at SST. SATURDAY-Jan. 6: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Shemot; Havdalah, 5:59 p.m.

SUNDAY: LJCS Classes, 9:30 a.m-noon.; Men’s Bike/Coffee Group, 10:30 a.m. in the Conference Room at Rock 'n Joe (5025 Lindbergh St.). For more information or questions please email Al Weiss at alb ertw801@gmail.com; Pickleball, 3-5 p.m. Anyone interested in playing or learning how to play can text Miriam at 402.470.2393. If there are enough interested people; we will play in the Social Hall at TI. WEDNESDAY: LJCS Hebrew School, 4:30-6 p.m.

FRIDAY-Jan. 12: Shabbat Candlelighting, 5:02 p.m.; Erev Shabbat Service with Rabbi Alex, 6:30 p.m. at SST. SATURDAY-Jan. 13: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. at TI; Torah Study, noon on Parashat Va’eira; Havdalah, 6:06 p.m.

Through the end of December, we will be collecting winter items to donate to Clinic with a Heart, a free urgent medical clinic for people in need. The Temple has been a Clinic sponsor for 11 years. The Clinic distributes essential seasonal items to patients. We will be collecting these new, unused items for children and adults in collection boxes at SST and TI: hats, scarves, lip blam, ear warmers, gloves, mittens and hand lotion. Thank you for your generosity. If you have any questions, please email Barb Straus at barbstraus@gmail.com.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

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

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home’s service is currently closed to visitors.

TEMPLE ISRAEL

In-person and virtual services conducted by Rabbi Benjamin Sharff, Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin, and Cantor Joanna Alexander FRIDAY: Shabbat B’yachad Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. Zoom Only.

SUNDAY: No Youth Learning; Fifth Sunday Breakfast Service, 9 a.m. at Stephen Center.

MONDAY: Temple Israel Office Closed.

WEDNESDAY: Yarn It, 9 a.m.; No Youth Learning.

THURSDAY: Thursday Morning Class, 10 a.m. with Rabbi Azriel via Zoom.

FRIDAY-Jan. 5: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m. InPerson; Shabbat B’yachad Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY-Jan. 6: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m. InPerson & Zoom.

SUNDAY: Grades PreK-7, 9:30 a.m.; Temple Tots Sunday, 10 a.m.; 20 Somethings Event, 6 p.m. In-Person.

WEDNESDAY: Yarn It, 9 a.m.; Grades 3-6, 4:30-6 p.m. In-Person; Grades 8-12 Teen Lounge Night, 6-8 p.m. In-Person.

THURSDAY: Thursday Morning Class, 10 a.m. with Rabbi Azriel via Zoom.

FRIDAY-Jan. 12: Drop in Mah Jongg, 9-11 a.m. InPerson; Shabbat Shira Service, 6 p.m. In-Person & Zoom.

SATURDAY-Jan. 13: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. In-Person & Zoom; Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m. InPerson & Zoom.

Please visit templeisraelomaha.com for additional information and Zoom service links.

JEWISH PRESS READERS If you do business with any of our advertisers, please tell them you saw their ad in the Jewish Press. It really helps us!

Life cycles BIRTH MALIYA ROSE SCHWARTZ Amy and Luke Schwartz of Elkhorn, NE, announce the Dec. 9, 2023 birth of their daughter, Maliya Rose.

She is named for her maternal great-grandparents, Rosalie and Milton Saylan.

Grandparents are Jacki and Steve Saylan of Omaha and Chris and Marty Schwartz of Stanton, NE. Great-grandparents are JoAnn and Milton Schwartz of Norfolk, NE, the late Edythe and Arthur Friedman, the late Rosalie and Milton Saylan, and the late Alice and Eugene Sobotka.

Conservative movement suspends its Israel gap-year program, citing budget and ‘recruitment challenges’ newer egalitarian programs JACOB GURVIS such as one by the Shalom JTA The Conservative movement Hartman Institute drawing is suspending its Israel gap some teens who might have atyear program for high school tended Nativ in the past. graduates, months after nar“It was ahead of its time in rowly averting a closure for offering a gap year for students this year with an urgent between high school and colfundraising appeal. lege,” Blumenthal said about The program, called Nativ, is Nativ. “Now, there are many orrun by the United Synagogue of ganizations that offer these Conservative Judaism, the Participants in the Nativ pre-college gap year program, which programs and we need to find movement’s congregational arm. is affiliated with the Conservative movement, divide their time out a little more about what we Over more than four decades, between study in Jerusalem and volunteering elsewhere in Is- can best offer.”

Nativ has historically attracted rael. Credit:Nativ The suspension comes at a high school graduates who are affiliated with Conservative syna- time when the Conservative movement is shrinking. In the gogues, schools or camps, or who are seeking a program that is 1950s and 1960s, the movement was the largest denomination gender-egalitarian as well as kosher and Shabbat-observant. of American Judaism, but today, according to the 2020 Pew In the past, Nativ has enrolled upwards of 80 students. But survey, while 17% of American Jews still identify as members in recent years, the program has shrunk substantially and this of the Conservative movement, the movement has experiyear enrolls fewer than 20 teens, all housed at the movement’s enced a substantial net loss. One of its two rabbinical schools Fuchsberg Center for Conservative Judaism. significantly slashed tuition this year in a bid to draw more Now, “new economic realities, recruitment challenges, and the students after selling its campus. And the lone Conservative changing nature of what young adults are looking for in their gap day school in Manhattan announced that it would this year. year” have all contributed to ending the program, according to A decade ago, facing a budget shortfall, the movement susan email sent to Nativ alumni on Thursday morning by Conser- pended its college program, KOACH, following a year when it vative movement leaders, including USCJ CEO Jacob Blumenthal. narrowly survived through emergency fundraising. The moveBut the leaders said they were working with “movement ment does not operate on college campuses today. partners in the field of Israel education and young adult leadIn March, the movement put out a call for emergency aid ership to reimagine the program for the future.” for the current Nativ cohort. “We will not be able to run Nativ In an interview, Blumenthal, himself a 1985 alumnus of the 43 unless we raise $100,000,” the program’s director and assisprogram, said he believed a Conservative movement gap-year tant director, Sara Miriam Liben and Deb Shafran, wrote in program could resume as soon as fall 2025. “Assuming we want an email to alumni. USCJ contributed to closing the gap but to offer a program to begin in the fall of 2025, it means we need declined to say at the time by how much. to start recruitment next fall, so I’m expecting we’ll be doing The program opened as scheduled in mid-September. After research and planning over the next eight months,” he said.

Israel was attacked on Oct. 7, participants quickly pivoted The gap-year marketplace has evolved in the 40-plus years their volunteer programming, packing meals for soldiers and since Nativ launched, with a growing group of Orthodox playing with children whose families were evacuated from the yeshivas and seminaries enrolling a larger number of U.S. teens, country’s north and south. Some gap-year participants a pluralistic program operated by Young Judaea thriving, and headed home and returned at a later date.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Editor, I took great pleasure in reading the article, My Friend Rabbi Maximo, when he showed it to me. Rabbi Maximo is my neighbor.

Last week as we talked about the article he encouraged me to share this poem with you. I wrote it in 2019 and gave it to him and his wife, Jeanne (blessed memory), in gratitude for all they’ve taught me.

While we were talking, he unexpectedly telephoned the writer, Howard Kutler, and handed the phone to me. That’s Rabbi Maximo... a man of action! At least it gave me a chance to tell Mr. Kutler how much I enjoyed the article. Both of them encouraged me to send this to you even though I pointed out that newspapers generally don’t print poetry. Perhaps it could serve as reassurance that people like Rabbi Maximo who live their faith and share it with love truly can awaken understanding in others. Or perhaps, if not publishable in The Jewish Press, it will just bring a smile to YOUR day.

Sincerely, JANET SOBCZYK

One cold morning garbage truck roared by me coat over pj’s, dragging cans too late “Bring ‘em over here, truck circles back for our side,” offered Rabbi. I smiled.

AWAKENING This Catholic stayed in small Christian groups values and traditions seldom challenged comfortable sharing faith while agreeing with one another.

Next December Rabbi came with store-bought Santa cookies explained kosher foods answered many questions with good humor.

A summer move changed perspective brought into view a synagogue, new neighbors an elderly Rabbi, his kind wife with small dog quietly living their faith.

Friendly waves conversations by the mailbox Rabbi’s warmth, gentle advice, hearty hello’s led to learning about their faith.

Another day on drive home my husband saw Rabbi walking alone when offered a ride, politely declined “No, thank you, it’s the Sabbath.”

My own awkward gesture a plate of plain, round cookies in December wife’s delighted response: “Christmas cookies!

I haven’t had these in ages.”

Her reaction settled insecurities sparked curiosity and conversation misconceptions gently nudged into understanding.

In the spring their basement flooded not by seasonal rains, by an unseen hand outside faucet turned on in the night “We’ve been targeted before,” Rabbi sighed.

Random mischief or persecution?

Only God knows I ponder the meaning of discrimination and search my own soul.

The Jewish Press | December 29, 2023 | 11

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12 | The Jewish Press | December 29, 2023

MILTON MENDEL AND MARSHA KLEINBERG

JEWISH OMAHA HERITAGE CENTER GRAND OPENING Sunday, January 14, 2024 | 3-5 PM

Thank You!

to the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society Advisory Board and the Kleinberg Heritage Center Content Committee for your dedication and support in preserving the history of Jewish Omaha.

NEBRASKA JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY ADVISORY BOARD

KLEINBERG HERITAGE CENTER CONTENT COMMITTEE

Ben Justman, President

Jim Farber

Steve Riekes

Jill Belmont

Jeannette Gabriel

Jane Rips

Robby Erlich

Bob Goldberg

Kevin Saltzman

Hollie Fineman

Ben Justman

Marty Shukert

Jeannette Gabriel

Gloria Kaslow

Jessi Taylor

Kelly Kirk

Janie Kulakofsky

Kate Kirshenbaum

Scott Littky

Joseph Pinsor

Phil Malcom

Beth Staenberg

Jon Meyers

Seth Schuchman

Margo Riekes

Mark Wiesman Susan Fellman Witkowski