“I have a passion for creating things,” Kim Goldberg said. “I like the process that takes place: how things are woven together. The process is often more important to me than the end product.”
 That was how the Lois Jeanne Schrager Memorial Young Leadership Award winner described the excitement she felt when working with young people to teach them about art.

Kim Goldberg

 Goldberg was nominated not once, but twice for this distinguished award given annually by the Jewish Federation of Omaha to honor a young woman (under age 45) who “render[s] service to the Jewish and general community.” To be eligible, a woman has to have “demonstrated personal commitment, dedicated involvement and exemplary leadership qualities.”
 Getting the award took her by surprise. “I actually felt, well, ‘ferklempt’ for getting it,” she added referring to an old Yiddish expression (‘when something makes you well up inside, and you’re on the verge of tears’) made even more famous from Mike Meyers’ Saturday Night Live ‘Coffee Talk’ sketches from the 1990s.
 As the award recipient, Goldberg was quite flattered.  “Doing the volunteer work is fulfilling for me,” she explained. “It doesn’t seem quite right winning an award for doing something you would do anyway, just because it feels so good to do it.”
 Still, both Chabad of Nebraska and the Jewish Federation of Omaha felt that the Colorado native was a well-qualified recipient. Chabad noted in its nomination that Kim helped them organize art programs and mentored kids at their summer camp. More-over, they added, she was a great listener, treated everyone with respect, and sparked creativity in the youngsters in attendance.
  The nomination noted her doing similar things for the Friedel Jewish Academy and at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. The Jewish outreach group also made note of her “amazing passion” for her work.
   The Federation’s nomination expressed similar thoughts and gave accolades to Goldberg for her work as an “Artist in Residence” for their Partnership with Israel program.  A committee composed of past honorees selected, her and she will receive her award on Thursday, Dec. 3, 7 p.m., at the Waiting Room in Benson.
 Undeterred by all this recognition, at the time of her interview, Goldberg was about to depart for Israel where she was to participate in the “Acco Fringe Theater Festival,” which, since its inception in 1980, annually takes place during the Sukkot holiday.
 This year the crusader-castle city held its five-day program to celebrate three decades of activity and the uniqueness of its alternative theater presentations.
She played an important role in their October holiday celebrations.
 She was set to work with a group of dancers, who stayed with them when performing in Omaha. For her Acco program, which would take place on a promenade near a crusader castle, a videographer would tape her doing a 16-minute ink drawing. The drawing would then be the projected backdrop on the wall, viewed while the dancers performed.  It was expected that about 250,000 would come through during the festival during Sukkot.
 Over the years, she has worked very closely with the highly-regarded Albert Ben Shloosh, who is the cultural director for the city of Acco and the CEO of the Festival, which eventually took place earlier this month.
 In pinpointing Goldberg’s achievements, the Jewish Federation also made mention of her efforts with the Western Galilee partnership that Omaha has with Israel.  She has participated on the Partnership with Israel’s Arts Task Force since 2005 serving first as a committee member, then as the Omaha Arts Chair, and since 2008 she has served as the Consortium’s Art Chairperson organizing art programming for the entire partnership group.
 The partnership is a 16-city consortium that also includes American cities like Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Indianapolis and Louisville with whom they work very closely on the development of programs.
 Goldberg studied at UNO and the San Francisco Art Institute. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts and has worked with sculpture and “new genre art.”
 Professionally, she has been an award-winning senior design consultant at The Gallup Organization and a senior art director for Ervin & Smith, an advertising and public relations firm. She has done work for Ann Taylor, TD Ameritrade, and Best Buy and now she has embarked on her own as a freelance artist and designer. 
 She is married to Bob Goldberg and they have a daughter, Lily who is eight years old.