JFO Update from Bob Goldberg

Like many of you, I look forward to summertime and all that goes with it – time outside at the pool, flip flops, the College World Series, corn on the cob, longer days – and the list goes on. So, I want to wish you all a great summer.

Another event that signifies summer is the JFO Awards Night and Annual Meeting. Thanks to everyone who participated in our Awards Night and Annual Meeting earlier this week. It was awesome celebrating the community together. It was a great turnout and congratulations to all of the honorees. Thank you to our board members, volunteers, donors, and staff who make our important work possible.

Now, let’s go to Israel! I am excited for our Jewish community trip to Israel this November 2-12, which will celebrate Israel’s 75th anniversary and the 25th anniversary of our Partnership2Gether (P2G) sister city program with the Western Galilee. This is sure to be a unique and memorable trip.

Now is the time to register. The early bird special pricing, available exclusively for donors to the JFO Annual Campaign, runs through Thursday, June 15. Join me and our trip co-chairs, Andrea and Mike Siegel and Linda and Kevin Saltzman, and register now.

The trip will start in Jerusalem. We will stay at the Herbert Samuel, which is a great boutique hotel just a block or so from Ben Yehuda Street, one of Jerusalem’s premier outside shopping, dining, and socializing areas. The Herbert Samuel has a daily breakfast that you will find ridiculously hard to leave. While in Jerusalem, we will visit sites like Yad Vashem, the Old City, and Machane Yehuda market. We will eat and drink and meet people. There will be an optional excursion to Masada and the Dead Sea.

We will then head to the Golan Heights and see the beauty of Israel’s north. We will stay at HaGoshrim, a kibbutz in the Galilee Panhandle next to the Hurshat Tal National Park and by the Jordan River. It is spectacular. We will spend time in the mystical city of Safed (or Tzefat or Tzfat depending on your spelling preference), which following the influx of Jews in 1492 from Spain became known as the center of kabbalistic teaching.

From there we will make our way over to the Mediterranean Sea at the grottoes of Rosh Hanikra. We will then enjoy two days in our Partnership Region visiting Akko (or Acco or Acre) and the Western Galilee, sharing time with friends at the P2G 25th anniversary gala celebration. We will stay at the Nea Hotel in Shavei Zion, just a stone’s throw from the beach. The last time I was at the Nea, they served a bountiful cheese cart along with the amazing Israeli breakfast.

The last couple of days of our experience will be in and around Tel Aviv. We will be staying at the Crown Plaza, located right on the promenade. We will experience the ancient port city of Jaffa, and all the excitement that the big city of Tel Aviv has to offer.

This trip has something for everyone – great food, culture, art, history, innovation, learning about religion and politics in Israel, and the amazing diversity of the people. And we will be joined by my friend, Shachar, who will serve as our tour guide throughout the trip. He is the best guide in Israel, and you will love him as much as I do.

So, what are you waiting for? Come experience Israel’s cultures and traditions. Connect with our people and our story. Explore the extraordinary beauty and hidden gems of this ancient and modern land. Join me on this trip of a lifetime.

For more information or to register, use the QR code, click the link or reach out to Jay Katelman, Director of Community Development at jkatelman@jewishomaha.org or 402.334.6461.

Have a great summer and thank you for all you do to make our community special.

Shabbat Shalom,

Bob Goldberg
CEO

10/14/25

Today is a day of hope and, we pray, the beginning of healing for the hostages, their families and all of Israel.
Read More

Update from Mike Siegel

May and June are always busy months at the JFO. The campus is transitioning from school programming to camp programming, the leadership teams are finalizing their budgets, and the JFO Board is prioritizing what to accomplish in the next fiscal year. Amid this flurry of activity is one of the highlights of the year, the JFO Awards Night & Annual Meeting.

This year’s Awards Night & Annual Meeting is Monday, June 5th, and the program consists of “something for everyone.” There will be a pre-reception at 6:00 pm. The evening’s program will begin at 6:30 pm and end by 8:00 pm, followed by a dessert reception. Both receptions, with food provided by Star Catering, will be hosted by the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation in honor of their Fabulous at 40 anniversary.

This year’s annual meeting will spotlight the JFO Foundation and its many accomplishments over the last 40 years. It is remarkable how generous our Omaha Jewish community has been. Having previewed their presentation, I guarantee you’ll enjoy it. Attendees will walk away impressed with the numerous avenues the Foundation has taken to secure our Jewish community’s future.

If the Foundation’s spotlight does not inspire you to attend, this will be Bob Goldberg’s first annual meeting as our CEO. Bob’s leadership has been incredible for our community ever since he stepped into his new role. He started the job in January and hasn’t taken his foot off the gas. Bob brings a wealth of knowledge of the Federation system as well as original ideas to increase the engagement of our community. I encourage you to show your support for Bob and our dedicated staff by attending the annual meeting.

If you are still unsure about attending, I ask you to join us in welcoming our new JFO Board members for 2023/2024: Sharon Kirshenbaum, Seth Schuchman, and Justin Spooner. These three community leaders bring a wealth of knowledge to the Board to set up our community for even greater success.

At this meeting, we will also be voting on the JFO Board’s recommendation to make the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society (NJHS) an official agency of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. NJHS has played a key role in preserving Jewish Omaha’s history and artifacts. As an agency of the Jewish Federation of Omaha, NJHS will be able to make our history more available for our community to access through a variety of platforms.

Finally, the Awards Night & Annual Meeting is a chance for our entire community to celebrate our achievements, thank our volunteers, and honor those who have made a unique impact on our community. It’s important to recognize our accomplishments, and I always look forward to this special evening as an opportunity to do just that.

Hopefully, you’ve already paused while reading this and marked your calendar for Monday, June 5th. We will join as one to celebrate your Jewish Federation of Omaha. Wouldn’t it be inspiring to see the Alan J. Levine Theater packed with our community members? I look forward to seeing you there!

Shabbat Shalom,

Mike Siegel
JFO President

10/14/25

Today is a day of hope and, we pray, the beginning of healing for the hostages, their families and all of Israel.
Read More

Update from Phil Malcom

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly (GA) in Israel. The events for the conference were held in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Latrun, and after the conference my wife, Laura, joined me for a few days of exploring the country. For both of us, it was our first time in Israel, and it was an absolutely amazing experience. I’ll be discussing more of the details of the GA in an upcoming Jewish Press article, but today I’d like to focus on the experience of being in Israel during such a complicated time, a time of both celebrations and protests, of both the recognition of incredible prosperity and the existential fear of attacks.

The timing of the GA allowed us to participate in Yom HaZikaron commemorations and Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations all centered around the 75th anniversary of the State of Israel. The sense of national pride was undeniable, from the moving stories of fallen soldiers and victims of terror attacks hosted at Latrun to the tens of thousands of people who crowded the Tel Aviv beach to witness an airshow from the Israeli Air Force for Yom Ha’atzmaut. The GA’s opening ceremonies also coincided with similar events for the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), Keren Hayesod, and the World Zionist Organization, all of whom joined together to share the diaspora’s undying commitment to the State of Israel. This was clearly a time for celebration.

And yet, the night that I arrived, 160,000 people crowded Rabin Square to protest the currently proposed reforms of the Israeli government. Similar protests happened on the night that I left. We were greeted by 3,000 protestors at the opening plenary, imploring the members of global Jewry to lend their influence to the conversation. Some of the sessions were interrupted by protestors, and the controversy surrounding these changes became like a through-line to the entire event.

Further, our time in Israel was spent in the few peaceful weeks sandwiched between an uptick in violence between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. That tension was evident, especially during our time in Jerusalem. At no time did we feel unsafe, but that sense of safety was unfortunately reinforced by the necessary increase in Israeli forces around the city. And you really can’t spend much time in Jerusalem without being confronted with the long history of violence that underpins its beautiful sites. Each enormous religious structure serves as a reminder of conquests, Crusades, and Counter-Crusades.

Ultimately, though, the images that stick with me from my visit are not the tensions or the disruptions or the stresses. What I think of when I reflect on my time there are the beautiful people working to create a Jewish homeland, a place where people of all faiths and traditions can live peacefully and coexist. I think of the Charedi woman and her Israeli Arab business partner who worked together to coach members of their communities on job interview skills. I think of the fact that protests over multiple weeks with hundreds of thousands of people have been almost completely free from violence. And I think of the fact that the even the protests at the GA highlight the sense that Israel is a product of the entire Jewish world’s commitment to a single idea. This week at our community event, JFNA CEO Eric Fingerhut referenced the idea that the Jewish community is “united but not uniform.” In a strange sense, I deeply felt this during my time in Israel, despite and perhaps even because of the challenging events happening there.

When Laura and I sat down for dinner in Jaffa or ate falafel in the Carmel Market or discussed current events with our tour guide, I was often reminded of a song by Chris Thile called “I Made This for You.” He was reflecting on the US, but the words struck me as relevant to Israel as well:

So whether these days leave you laughing or crying
If you’re doing your best to be kind
This land is as much yours as mine
As G-d as my witness,
I made this for you

Israel is a unique place. The global Jewish community banded together to create it, develop it, and sustain it, and these are the reasons this nation has come so far in only 75 years. The community’s continued involvement, nurturing, and commitment to a shared home will sustain it for the next 75 years as well.

If you haven’t been to Israel before, please find an opportunity to go! We are hosting our own mission to Israel in November of this year, and it’s a great way to connect with the Jewish homeland and learn about the myriad ways the worldwide Jewish community comes together to solve problems and to create opportunities for people all over the world. We’re a part of that, and I hope you have the chance to see it firsthand.

For the most up to date info from JFNA about the attacks from Gaza and Israel’s response, click here.

For info about the upcoming community trip, click here or attend an information meeting on Thursday, June 1st at 6:00 pm. The meeting will be held in the Benjamin & Anna E. Wiesman Family Reception Room.

Thank you, and Shabbat Shalom,
Phillip Malcom
JFO COO

10/14/25

Today is a day of hope and, we pray, the beginning of healing for the hostages, their families and all of Israel.
Read More