Compiled by Leon Cohen
September
In its first issue of the new Jewish year (Sept. 14, 2007), The Chronicle profiled Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, the new principal of Yeshiva Elementary School.
Seven Israeli emissaries began their service in Milwaukee and Madison.
The shmittah, or agricultural Sabbatical year — which comes every seven years and requires that the land of Israel rest for a year — inspired Congregation Shir Hadash of Milwaukee to focus on the environment throughout the year.
Milwaukee businessman and philanthropist Joseph Zilber announced that he would give $3 million to the Milwaukee Jewish Federation: $2 million for the Jewish Community Capital Campaign and $1 million to MJF annual campaigns in increments of $100,000 for the next 10 years.
October
The Milwaukee Jewish Film Festival marked its 10th year of existence.
Some 1,720 people gathered on Oct. 14 for the grand opening of the renovated Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
Congregation B’nai Abraham in Beloit scheduled many activities to celebrate the centennial of its founding, beginning with the High Holidays and a book fair.
Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Green Bay Mayor James J. Schmitt were among the participants at the 25th annual Jerusalem Conference of Mayors in Israel Oct. 14-18.
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer spoke at the Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC at an event sponsored by the recently organized Wisconsin chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
November
A new Milwaukee chapter of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, which has existed for a long time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is struggling to be revived at UW-Milwaukee.
Temple Menorah marked the 25th anniversary of Rabbi Gil-Ezer Lerer’s ordination and his 25 years of service to the synagogue.
The Hillel Foundation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison received approvals for construction of its new building from the city of Madison Plan Commission and Common Council.
Congregation Emanu-El of Waukesha loaned an ark to Moses Montefiore Synagogue in Appleton.
The Milwaukee Jewish Home and Care Center received a bequest of $38 million from the estate of Milwaukee native Lillian Garner, who died in July in La Jolla, Calif.
Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue hosted the 22nd annual Mequon-Thiensville Thanksgiving Service. Eleven congregations participated in this interfaith event, including Congregation Anshai Lebowitz.
Rabbi Avner Zarmi, previously vice president of the Wisconsin chapter of Agudath Israel of America, was appointed Midwest regional vice president at the Orthodox organization’s convention.
December
Controversial speaker Walid Shoebat, a self-described former Palestinian terrorist who converted from Islam to Christianity and has become a pro-Israel activist, spoke at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union in an appearance co-sponsored by the local pro-Israel groups, the Committee for Truth and Justice and Advocates for Israel of Milwaukee. About 750 people came to hear him, but only an estimated 25 from the Jewish community.
The Jewish Community Pantry, like many local emergency food providers, is facing declining donations and increasing demand, according to director Dorene Paley.
January
Three Wisconsin athletes won four gold medals at the Pan American Maccabi Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina: David Merkow (golf, two medals), Blake Pindyck (baseball) and Adam Riesz (soccer).
Milwaukee’s Jewish Family Services announced plans to develop housing for its clients. Called Deerwood Crossing, this facility is intended to be a residential care complex that will contain about 66 apartments.
Naomi Sarai Askenazi won The Chronicle’s First Jewish Baby of 2008 contest. She is the daughter of Sofi and Abraham Askenazi, and has a brother, Nathan, 4.
Rabbi Shlomo Pontos left the Jewish Home and Care Center after having served as chaplain there for about 23 years. Beginning in February, Rabbi Mitchell Cohen took over the position.
The Coalition for Jewish Learning’s Milwaukee Jewish School Census for 2007-08 shows that Jewish education is “holding steady and strong” in the Milwaukee area, according to Steven Baruch, Ph.D., CJL executive director. The census showed that 2,093 students are attending Milwaukee-area Jewish schools, a 1.4 percent increase from the 2006-07 census.
According to audits, 2007 was a relatively quiet year in terms of anti-Semitic incidents in Milwaukee and Madison. The Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations listed 10 instances of “written or verbal expression” of anti-Semitism and one instance of white supremacist group activity. The Madison Jewish Community Council listed six instances of written or verbal expression and one instance of vandalism.
February
Lubavitch of Wisconsin hosted what it billed as Milwaukee’s first Jewish Parenting Conference on Feb. 10. About 250 people attended.
The Coalition for Jewish Learning’s ninth annual Day of Discovery was held Feb. 24 at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center again after two years at an alternate site. Some 350 people attended.
Judaism Without Walls opened and dedicated its new learning center at 6904 N. Santa Monica Blvd. in Fox Point on Feb. 14.
The Milwaukee Jewish Federation announced a year-long calendar of events to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary, beginning with a “Kaleidoscope of Israel” event on April 2 and culminating with a community mission to Israel in February 2009.
March
The Whitefish Bay Village Board on March 3 approved the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s request for a change in its security requirement at the Karl Jewish Community Campus. The MJF asked that it be allowed to monitor the campus offsite during off hours, instead of with an onsite security guard.
Deborah E. Lipstadt, Holocaust scholar and victor in a British lawsuit brought against her by Holocaust denier David Irving, was the keynote speaker at the Ateret Cohn Holocaust Educators Symposium held March 2-3 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. About 300 people attended her address.
The Milwaukee Jewish Federation launched the Milwaukee version of PlanitJewish, an interactive online Jewish community calendar.
A touring production of the play “My Name is Rachel Corrie” debuted in Madison on March 7. It constitutes part of an effort to make a martyr of Corrie, who was killed when she tried to prevent an Israeli bulldozer from destroying a Palestinian Arab-owned house in Gaza that Israel said was the location of tunnels being used to smuggle weapons to Palestinian terrorists.
Candidates for Milwaukee County Executive, incumbent Scott Walker and challenger State Sen. Lena Taylor, participated in a forum on March 5 at the Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC. The forum was sponsored by the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations and co-sponsored by 19 other Milwaukee-area Jewish organizations.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison denied funding to the Jewish Cultural Collective, among other organizations.
Political scientist and self-proclaimed Jewish Israel-critic Norman Finkelstein, who was denied tenure at DePaul University this year, spoke to about 200 people at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on March 25.
The two candidates for the vacant seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, incumbent Justice Louis Butler and challenger Judge Michael Gableman, spoke to The Chronicle about their views of the state constitution’s religious freedom provisions. Gableman won the election, which was held April 1.
April
The Milwaukee Jewish Day School celebrated its 25th anniversary with a gala on April 10 at the Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC.
Israeli journalist Amira Hass spoke on “The Frog and the Goat: Why Israeli Colonialism is so Successful” to 150 people at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on April 3. Her appearance was sponsored by the UW Middle East Studies Program, the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project and Plagrounds for Palestine-Madison.
A Dane County circuit court judge blocked a Madison hotel’s attempt to order a halt to current work on the construction of the new building for the Hillel Foundation University of Wisconsin.
Milwaukee Jewish Federation president Bruce A. Arbit was nominated to replace retiring United Israel Appeal president Richard Wexler.
The new Jewish Museum Milwaukee officially opened on April 28 in the Helfaer Jewish Community Services Building, which also houses the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle. It was officially dedicated on June 22.
Three Israelis in the legal profession in Tiberias visited Wisconsin for a week. Tiberias is the largest city in the Sovev Kinneret (around Lake Kinneret) area that is the Milwaukee Jewish community’s Partnership 2000 region in Israel.
Two Torah scrolls were stolen from Congregation Bnei Zedek Chabad in Kenosha during the night of April 14-15. Also taken were six new chumashim. The Kenosha Police Department opened an investigation.
Swastikas and a message “Die, Jew” were written on Beth Israel Center, Madison’s Conservative synagogue, sometime during the weekend of April 25-27. According to Steven Morrison, executive director of the Madison Jewish Community Council, this was the first incident of anti-Semitic vandalism of a Madison synagogue “in at least 10 years.”
Conservative activist David Horowitz alleged that protestors from the Muslim Student Association and elsewhere interfered with his speech and handed out anti-Semitic literature about him during his appearance April 30 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson announced that she will run for re-election next year. She spoke with The Chronicle about her race and the controversial Butler-Gableman contest.
May
The Hillel Foundation University of Wisconsin broke ground on May 8 for the Barbara Hochberg Center for Jewish Student Life.
Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun announced plans for construction of a new sanctuary and other facilities. The building is scheduled to be finished by August 2009.
An estimated 1,000 people attended the Milwaukee Jewish community’s celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary at the Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC on May 8.
Lake Park Synagogue, the small modern Orthodox congregation on Milwaukee’s East Side, marked its 25th year with its annual meeting and dinner on May 18. It also became the first Jewish community institution to hold such an event in the remodeled foyer of the Helfaer Jewish Community Services Building. About 80 people attended.
The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle launched its redesigned Web site, which offers daily news and updates.
June
Some 1,500 people showed their support for the Jewish state at the community Walk for Israel, held June 1.
The Third International Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music, held for the first time in Milwaukee, presented a concert at Cardinal Stritch University on June 15. About 300 people attended. The event was put on by Shalshelet: The Foundation for New Jewish Liturgical Music and the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning.
The Beth Israel Synagogue Museum, created by the Portage County Historical Society, opened in Stevens Point on June 15, turning one of the state’s oldest synagogues into one of its newest tourist attractions.
The Peltz Center for Jewish Life celebrated its 25 years with a celebration dinner on June 25.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) accused a Madison educational materials firm Knowledge Unlimited of anti-Israel bias in the current events quiz it makes for newspapers.
The Milwaukee Jewish Federation board of directors on June 24 approved allocations for the fiscal year that runs from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009, apportioning $9.415 million. The MJF also announced that for the fiscal year after that, it will revamp its allocations process, employing a model based on fixed allocations for a period of three years instead of every year.
Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle editor Elana Kahn-Oren was elected president of the American Jewish Press Association at its annual conference held in Washington, D.C.
The Kibbutz Langdon Foundation, which had been created by former residents of a Jewish student cooperative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, voted to disband and to distribute its remaining assets.
As of June 30, Charlie Sherman became the Jewish studies principal at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School.
July
As of July 1, Cantor Rebecca Robins became the new cantor at Congregation Sinai in Glendale.
Milwaukeean Jane Gellman has been elected president of the World Confederation of Jewish Community Centers. Her four-year term will begin in November 2009.
Former Milwaukeeans Rochelle and Rick Eissenstat and the three youngest of their four daughters were in their car in Jerusalem on July 2 when an east Jerusalem Palestinian Arab commandeered a bulldozer and went on a rampage through the streets. The Arab, Husam Taysir Dwayat, tried to crush the Eissenstat’s car, but ran over it without crushing it, only causing a minor arm injury to Nechama, 13. Dwayat killed three people and injured more than 40 before he was shot and killed.
The Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC placed its longtime president, Jay Roth, on “administrative leave.
The Chronicle profiled Stevens Point-native swimmer Garrett Weber-Gale in its issue of July 18. Weber-Gale later won two gold medals in the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.
Rabbi Jacob Herber, spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel in Glendale, worked in Uganda July 8-17 to help convert to Judaism some 250 people from the Ugandan Abayudaya community and from other African countries.
Philanthropist Harold Grinspoon, founder of the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy, visited thee of the seven Wisconsin-based Jewish summer camps that work with the institute.
Israeli electrical engineer and aviator Yair Gil built his own Cozy Mark IV airplane from plans furnished by the Cozy company and flew it to the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture held in Oshkosh July 28-Aug. 3.
August
As of the Aug. 22 issue, the Chronicle was sent free of charge to some 8,000 households throughout the state.
September
Rabbi Joshua Ben-Gideon became the new spiritual leader of Beth Israel Center in Madison on Sept. 1. He and his wife, Rabbi Rebecca Ben-Gideon, also make the third rabbi couple in Madison, with Rabbi Jonathan Biatch of Temple Beth El (Reform) and his wife Rabbi Bonnie Margulis; and Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman of Congregation Shaarei Shamayim (Reconstructionist-Renewal) and her partner Rabbi Renee Bauer.
The Madison Jewish Community Day School, the first such school to open in Wisconsin outside of Milwaukee, held its first day of class on Sept. 2 with about 10 students, kindergarten and first grade. School leaders say the school plans to add a grade every year through eighth grade.
The Milwaukee Jewish Federation inaugurated its 2009 annual campaign at the Pfister Hotel on Sept. 7 with a showing of the film “Golda’s Balcony” about Milwaukee-raised Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and an appearance by the film’s star, Valerie Harper. About 425 people attended.
A documentary film “Chosen Towns: The Story of Jews in Wisconsin’s Small Communities” was scheduled for showings around the state beginning Sept. 18. It was made by the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning in collaboration with docUWM, a documentary media center based at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Loading ...