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ONLINE WEBCASTS

Did you miss Dr. Ron Wolfson at Temple? Check out the webcasts of his presentations below:

April 24, 2009
Calling All Temple Israel Angels

April 26, 2009
Blessings and Kisses – The Power of Family
Dr. Ron Wolfson

The world that can be, indeed.

Submitted by Rabbi Eric Linder

There is not one definition of what religion “does.” It is different things to different people, and often in the same faith. Of course, this doesn’t stop some from trying; the theologian Paul Tillich defines religion as one’s ‘ultimate concern.’ I like that.

But looking at it closer, it seems vague … ultimate concern? What is that?!

I think about my religious upbringing – going to Hebrew School as a young child, being bribed by my parents to attend a youth group conclave, taking college courses in Jewish mysticism, working at a Jewish Summer Camp … I think about all of these, and there’s one thing they have in common. They’ve helped me get from who I was to who I am. My purpose of religion, then? Religion helps move us from the world that is to the world that can be.

Normally there is a gap. In most areas of life, I can look to what I want something to be, rather than what it actually is, and there is a difference. And like everyone else, I have to make do, hoping for the best.

Last night, though, there was no gap. No separation. The world that is was the world that should be.

Three years ago I was interviewed for this job, as the Assistant Rabbi of Temple Israel, in Omaha, Nebraska. I was off-handedly told of a project called the Trifaith Initiative. Three years later, the dream of a visionary few has become the reality for a hopeful many. Like most meaningful things, change has been slow, as there have been challenges and obstacles. But not to our spirit; not to our hope, and not to the core belief in our souls – that we are stronger because of our diversity, and not in spite of it.

Success will undoubtedly be measured in numbers: 1000 people came to our event last night. Those people witnessed 3 different prayer services. 4 nationally renowned religious figures shared their thoughts on peace.

But, the true success lies between the numbers.

Like other moments that happen, you ‘had to be there’ to experience the sense of hope and strength that we felt last night. The real success of our project, though, is that you can be there. You can be open to hearing the ideas of others, even if you vehemently disagree. You can speak truth to power, while also doubting your own certainty of truth. And you can dream along with us.

The night ended with a version of what Jews call the Priestly Benediction. These words are a special blessing and said during various life cycle moments. They were chanted last night in three languages – Hebrew, English and Arabic. They were chanted by three different faiths, spanning time, geography, and theology. And we realized last night that by blessing each other, we in fact bless ourselves.

May God bless you and keep you.

May God cause a divine light to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

May God always turn his presence upon you, and grant you peace.

The world that can be, indeed.

A remarkable night

The Dinner in Abraham’s Tent: Conversations on Peace, was a remarkable night. If you missed dinner, we have a solution for you — a replay of the live webcast.

To watch the webcast which runs just over an hour go to this link:
mms://209.200.118.182/tfi032709

Watch the Tri-Faith Promotion Video

Check out the coverage of our Tri-Faith Event in the Omaha World Herald


“Event promotes understanding among religions” Article in UNL’s Daily Nebraskan

Omaha Project is Attracting National Attention

Coalitions plans interfaith campus in Omaha NEW YORK (JTA)

About Abraham’s Tent
On March 27, 2009, leaders of the three faith groups who make up the Tri-Faith Initiative will be in Omaha to speak at the event. Rabbi Peter Knobel, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Dr. Ingrid Mattson, president of The Islamic Society of North America and Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori of The Episcopal Church will meet in Omaha. The evening included evening prayer services for the three faith groups, followed by a dinner and conversation about peace in our time. Large screens and audio systems allowed 1000+ people to sit in on their conversation.

The historic program will bring members of the community together for worship, celebration and a dynamic conversation on the topic of Peace—a common theme in each faith. The Tri-Faith Initiative is a partnership of the three Abrahamic faith groups — Christianity, Judaism and Islam. A remarkable project is taking place in Omaha, Nebraska. The Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska, Temple Israel and the American Institute of Islamic Studies and Culture have come together, planning to build a joint campus which will house a mosque, a temple and a church plus a shared facility on a large campus.

This is the only undertaking of its kind we know of in the world. On this site we will keep you in touch with the progress on the plans for the Tri-Faith campus and other news of successful interfaith projects around the nation and around the world.

SOLD OUT: Tri Faith Initiative’s Dinner in Abraham’s Tent

If you can’t join us at the Qwest, consider organizing your own Dinner in Abraham’s Tent, inviting some interfaith friends over for dinner and to watch the webcast.

BREAKING NEWS
We have been able to make arrangements to webcast the “Conversation on Peace” live from the Qwest that night. Just before 8 p.m. Central Time Friday night, log onto this website and you will be able to click through to the webcast at mms://209.200.118.182/tfilive. (If you try to go there now it will just come up as a Windows Media screen.)

WE NEED YOUR HELP
To get the word out about the webcast to everyone you know – around Nebraska, around the country and around the world. Send an email to at least five friends who would be interested, and ask them to send it on to at least five friends and on and on. If everyone receiving this sends it to 5, they send it to five, they send it to five and they send it to five – we can reach over 30,000 in the next 24 hours.

ABOUT THE EVENT
The Tri-Faith Initiative is host for a conversation on peace with national faith leaders Rabbi Peter Knobel, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church, and Dr. Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America. A worship service will include a traditional evening prayer service from each faith.

21 Jewish Soldiers to Receive Gifts from Temple

After gathering the names and addresses of 21 Jewish soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, we were able to send wonderful packages containing many “comfort items.”

Thanks to Religious School students and Al Rieder for making cards to the soldiers, as well as helping us pack the boxes to be shipped. Special thanks to Omaha Steaks for donating gourmet beef jerky for each box, an item often requested by those serving overseas, also to Gordman’s, for donating many pairs of athletic socks, a necessity for our soldiers.

Thank you also to the many families who donated food and personal items to make our packages even more special.

If you would like to help defray the costs of shipping these gifts, please contact either Danielle Gordman or Susie Norton, or the Temple office.

OTYG is READY for the Annual Spaghetti Dinner!

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
Annual Youth Group Spaghetti Dinner and Auction
Sunday, March 1, 5 p.m.
Click those ruby slippers three times to get the winning bid on dozens of great baskets up for auction. Will you be bringing home a Wii? Creighton basketball tickets? A gift certificate to El Basha? Only the wizard knows for sure. Silent auction bidding starts the morning of March 1 during Religious School.

Let us know your coming to the dinner!

Adults $10.00
Children (3-12 years old) $4.00
Children (2 years and younger) No Charge

Auction Items:
Two night stay at Arbor Lodge, 2 Husker Football Tickets, Day at the Lake (Jon Meyers), Rock Band at Rabbi Linder’s House, 5 course dinner for 6 people, Barista Basket, Sports Tickets, Challah a Month, Omaha Symphony Tickets, Judaica, Flat Screen Television, Ipod, GPS System, Omaha Steaks Basket, Movie Night Basket, Chocolate Basket, Night in Dundee Basket, Numerous Local Restaurant Gift Certificates, Parking Spaces and more.

Paying my rent to the Jewish community in any way possible

My Jewish Journey- by Jan Schneiderman, President Elect of Temple Israel. Jan shared her journey with the Board of Trustees at the February meeting.

Some of you heard my Jewish journey last summer but this will be a much shorter version.
I was brought up in what I call a secular orthodox home. We didn’t keep kosher and my parents worked on Saturday. We observed some of the Jewish holidays certainly not all. My parents belonged to Beth Israel, which was, then at 18th & Chicago.

We spent Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in Omaha staying at the Fontenelle Hotel so that my father could walk to the synagogue.

As a female, we were not expected to go to Hebrew school nor have a bat mitzvah. And Sunday school at the JCC on 20th & dodge became my only experience in Jewish education which i now know i did not take very seriously.

Being the only Jewish family, life in a small town was often painful for me as I was a frequent victim of antisemitism I believe today that my Jewish identity became stronger because of these abusive incidents.!!

I married les in 1959 at Beth El synagogue where his family belonged and where we then became members.

We have been blessed with three very special children and seven grandchildren.
It was at the beginning of Robin’s Hebrew school year that we decided to join Temple Israel. This quickly became my spiritual home

Our children went to Sunday school, to Hebrew school – all were Bar and Bat Mitzvah. And in confirmation class with Rabbi Brooks.
Being a volunteer was a very important in my Jewish journey. I began this part of the journey with NCJW and in 1999, I was proud to have been elected national president of the oldest Jewish women’s organizations in America. I have been taught to be a leader, an advocate for social justice, and a fund raiser.

It has always been very important to me that my volunteer life center somewhere in the Jewish world. Because if we as Jews don’t do for ourselves, no one else will do it for us. I now serve as an honorary national president of NCJW. I am leadership development chair for the international council of Jewish women. , I have served on the Jewish Federation board both as a board member and as a vice president and have chaired the Federation Women’s Campaign twice. I am a member of the local ADL board and serve as a national commissioner of ADL. I have co-chaired the Nebraska AIPAC council. And am now president elect of Temple Israel.

I travel to Israel each year – sometimes twice. I have traveled on missions with the Jewish Federation, NCJW, ICJW, and with the conference of Presidents of major American Jewish organizations. But probably the most meaningful trip was traveling to Israel with my two older grandsons and seeing life in Israel through the eyes of teen-agers.

There is so much that has shaped my life and my journey and passion as a Jewish woman. My soul was molded by the example set by my parents. And it has been enriched by my family, my friends and my volunteer life. And I continually nourish it by paying my rent to the Jewish community in any way possible.

Faith-Based Initiatives Under Obama

Listen Now [17 min 7 sec]

Talk of the Nation, February 11, 2009 · Last week, President Obama announced that he will continue the Bush administration’s faith-based initiatives through a new Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Eboo Patel, founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, talks about the new council and whether hiring practices will be different on Obama’s watch.

Eboo Patel on CNN “Faces of Faith”

Watch CNN Sunday Morning this
Sunday, February 15th, when Eboo Patel will be interviewed for “Faces
of Faith” by hosts TJ Holmes and Betty Nyugen.

The interview will be broadcast live around 7:45 am CST.– set your DVR.

Rabbi Josh Zweiback Appointed Director of the Year-In-Israel Program at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem

Rabbi David Ellenson, President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), has announced the appointment of Rabbi Josh Zweiback as Director of the Year-In-Israel Program at HUC-JIR in Jerusalem, effective July 1, 2009.

“The appointment of Rabbi Josh Zweiback as Director of our Year-in-Israel program inaugurates an exciting new era in rabbinical education at the College-Institute. His intellectual ability, his Jewish knowledge, his religious sensibility, his love of Israel and Hebrew, his musical talents, and his wealth of congregational and educational experience in the American rabbinate make him uniquely qualified to play a creative role in the formation of our students as they begin their quest for religious leadership in the Jewish world,” said Rabbi Ellenson and Rabbi Michael Marmur, Dean, HUC-JIR/Jerusalem.

Ordained by HUC-JIR’s New York campus in 1998 and trained as a Jewish Educator with an M.A.J.E. from the Rhea Hirsch School of Education, Rabbi Zweiback has served Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills for the past ten and a half years. He began his career at Beth Am as Adult Learning Coordinator, the movement’s first full-time adult educator. He was later promoted to Senior Educator, tasked with overall responsibility for all of Beth Am’s education programs. For the past three years, Rabbi Zweiback has focused on the pulpit and pastoral components of synagogue life, sharing fully in the preaching and lifecycle load of the congregation with his Beth Am colleagues.

During his tenure at Beth Am, Rabbi Zweiback initiated numerous educational programs including Tzavta, a family b’nai mitzvah enrichment program; Hagigah, a theater based children’s education program; Hadracha, a teacher training initiative; and helped found Gan Ami, Beth Am’s early childhood education program.

Rabbi Zweiback supervised all aspects of Beth Am’s adult education program and particularly enjoyed the opportunity to teach courses in Talmud, Zionism, Jewish mysticism, Tzedakah, Modern Jewish Thought with a focus on the writings of Emanuel Levinas, and Reform Judaism. He worked with colleagues to create and implement a Lifelong Jewish Learning Map, which serves as a curriculum of Jewish studies for all ages of synagogue life. For the past five years, Rabbi Zweiback has served as a Visiting Lecturer at HUC-JIR’s Rhea Hirsch School of Education in Los Angeles, teaching a course in Adult Curriculum.

He has a passion for communal programming and initiated the Peninsula Night of Jewish Unity, which is now in its eleventh year. This event brings together over twenty Jewish institutions in the Bay Area for an evening of Jewish learning and attracts over 500 people from all of the movements of Judaism.

He has taught 7th grade Jewish Studies at the Gideon Hausner Jewish Community Day School in Palo Alto for four years. He developed an approach to teaching Pirkei Avot through song composition, which culminates each year in the debut of recordings written and performed by the students (http://www.hausner.com/avot/).

Four years ago, Rabbi Zweiback helped launch Beth Am’s Fund for the Future Endowment campaign, which just reached its goal of building a four million dollar programmatic endowment for the congregation.

“Yoshi Zweiback will bring to our Year-In-Israel Program his unique and inspiring energies as dynamic congregational rabbi, master educator, songleader/musician, and social activist. Throughout his rabbinic career, he has been a leader in the transformation and revitalization of Reform Judaism in the congregation, the classroom, and the broader Jewish communal world. This appointment marks a new era for the enhancement of our program and the impact it can have for our students and graduates. Rabbi Zweiback’s move to HUC-JIR/Jerusalem with his wife and three daughters is a significant expression of the centrality of Israel to American Reform Judaism. He will leave his mark on all our American and Israeli programs and be a wonderful and crucial addition to our staff,” said Rabbi Naamah Kelman, Associate Dean, HUC-JIR/Jerusalem, who will become Dean of the Jerusalem campus on July 1, 2009.

As an HUC-JIR student, Rabbi Zweiback founded KAVOD, a tzedakah collective dedicated to promoting human dignity (http://www.kavod.org). He continues to serve as KAVOD’s Volunteer Executive Director. KAVOD’s board includes fourteen graduates of HUC-JIR. Six years ago, in partnership with the College-Institute, KAVOD initiated a Tzedakah Fellowship program which affords HUC-JIR students the opportunity to learn how to raise and distribute tzedakah funds efficiently and effectively. Since its inception, KAVOD has distributed over $750,000 with an overhead of just $75.

Rabbi Zweiback is a musician and composer who has served as a songleader at various movement camps and in youth group settings for over twenty years. As part of Mah Tovu (http://www.mahtovu.com), he has released three albums and published two books. Mah Tovu has performed across the United States and their melodies have found their way into camps as well as synagogues.

His publications include the teacher’s guide to Shalom Ivrit II; Day of Days; and Days of Wonder, Nights of Peace: Family Prayers in Song for Morning and Bedtime, all from Behrman House Publishing. Numerous sermons have been published in The American Rabbi. He wrote a chapter in Theological Terms in the Talmud, edited by Dr. Eugene Borowitz. He has served on the editorial board of BabagaNewz Magazine since its inception in 2001.

Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Rabbi Zweiback was raised in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, Dr. Speedy Zweiback, and his mother of blessed memory, Hermene Zweiback, made Jewish education and Jewish community a priority for Josh and his sister and brother. He attended Princeton University, graduating magna cum laude, Phi Betta Kappa in 1991.

He is especially excited about bringing his eleven years of congregational experience as an educator, rabbi, and musician to the first-year students in Jerusalem. He also looks forward to pursuing a Ph.D. in Jewish Education.

Rabbi Zweiback is married to Jacqueline Hantgan who is a public policy advocate and organizer. in the field of stem-cell research. Jacqueline and Josh met in Jerusalem in 1992 and have long wanted to return there to live. They have three children: Isa, Ariela, and Naomi.