A year ago this past week a shooting incident occurred on the Jewish Community Center campus in greater Kansas City.  This was not the first time a Jewish institution was the target of such an attack and, unfortunately it won't be the last. A frequent question I am asked is, "What are we doing in Omaha to address these types of incidents?"  

Recently, we began installation of an access control system to insure that community members who work, visit and volunteer on our campus have authorization while in the building.  In the event of an emergency, we will have the ability to identify those present in the building and account for every one of our employees and guests. Tornado shelter signs are now posted across the campus identifying safe areas.   An overhead paging system has also been installed and upgrades to surveillance cameras, both inside and outside the building are also taking place. New ID badges with security provisions will be issued.

We hope you agree that while even the best prevention and preparedness cannot guarantee protection against every conceivable disaster, it was incumbent upon us to ensure we do everything possible to make our community and all those who enjoy and participate in campus programs and services as safe and prepared as possible. Please see this week's Jewish Press for the full story.

Shabbat Shalom,
Alan Potash

Our community celebration of Israel's 67th birthday was last night and included a children's carnival, the B'nai B'rith Trivia contest and the Sokolof Lecture featuring Ari Shavit, who also spoke the previous evening at Temple Israel.

"There's no future for North American Jewry without Israel and there's no future for Israel without North American Jewry," said Shavit during his presentation at Temple Israel. "While we did nation-building, you did community building. What the American Jewish diaspora built in the last 100---120 years, is nothing short of miraculous." Thank you to all those involved for bringing this important Israeli voice to Jewish Omaha.

Two experienced combat veterans from the Israel Defense Force were in town last week, presenting at an Eye on Israel, a B'nai B'rith Breadbreakers luncheon, engaging with BBYO and meeting with members of Students Stand for Israel on the UNO campus.

Matan Katzman, a 3rd year law student at Bar-Ilan University described clearing a Gazan home of weaponry and said, "I wish for the day when I never have to be called to reserve duty again."
Hen Mazzig, the son of Iraq and Tunisia immigrant parents explained, "My hope is that one day, my children won't be in the army because the State of Israel won't need an army."

Jewish Omaha observed Yom HaZikaron the evening of April 21 with Community Shaliach Eliad Eliyahu, BBYO and Henry Ginsburg, former Israeli Defense Forces lone soldier.  The following day, Friedel Jewish Academy students held their own ceremony.

ADL and the Omaha Storm Chasers partnered for a No Place for Hate anti-bullying game day on April 22.  Nearly 5,000 metro-area students took a stand against bullying when they signed the Resolution of Respect-promising to treat others fairly and report bullying in their school communities.

o    Arnold (Tuffy) Epstein
o    Judy Farber
o    Kate Kirshenbaum
o    Nikki Kirshenbaum
o    Wendy Manvitz
o    Hilary Moshman
o    Alan Nogg
o    Susan Rothholz
o    Dorothy Spizman
o    Nancy Burkhardt & 14 of her
      Burke High School students

The non-partisan Gallup organization has released a poll suggesting that President Obama's support among American Jews has been trending downward over the past nine months.  A possible weakening of U.S. Jewish support for Obama has been the focus of news media attention in recent months.  Read more

Islam will grow faster than any other religion and if demographic trends continue, Muslims will nearly equal Christians by 2050. Among the additional findings, Jews are expected to grow 16% from slightly less than 14 million in 2010 to 16.1 million worldwide in 35 years.
View the full report

We wish to express our sympathies to a valued colleague, Federation Associate Executive Director Julee Katzman, on the death of her father, Cecil Tillman.