Jewish year 5774 lasts from Sept. 5, 2013, through Sept. 24, 2014.
Milwaukee attorney and Jewish community activist Robert H. Friebert died on the first day of Rosh HaShanah, Sept. 5. He was 75.
Hannah Rosenthal, president and chief executive officer of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, was one of the speakers at a Milwaukee ceremony remembering the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Yvonne Chapman retired on Sept. 30 from her position as production manager of The Chronicle, which she held for 25 years. She is followed by Jennifer Rueth, graphic designer.
The October Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle introduced to the Wisconsin Jewish community Mark Burstein, the first Jewish president of Lawrence University in Appleton.
Elana Kahn-Oren, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, attended an African American and Jewish Community Leaders Mission in Philadelphia on Oct. 1-3, and wrote about it for The Chronicle with Rep. Mandela Barnes.
Some 600 people attended the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Economic Forum on Oct. 8 at the Pfister Hotel. Featured speaker was Austan Goolsbee, economist at the University of Chicago and former chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
Temple Menorah rescued and installed in its own building the Holocaust memorial sculptures and the doors of the ark that had belonged to Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue. After that synagogue combined with Congregation Beth Israel to form Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid, Christian Life Center bought Beth El’s Mequon building, and the doors and sculptures had been threatened with possible destruction.
Milwaukee attorney and Jewish community activist Eliot M. Bernstein died Oct. 16. He was 91.
Israeli composer Rami Bar-Niv was one of the contemporary composers whose works were featured at the Concord Chamber Orchestra’s concert on Oct. 26, and he attended the performance.
Andrea Stein, editorial and advertising manager of the Madison Jewish News and a Madison Jewish community activist, died of an unsuspected disease on Oct. 29. She was 49.
The Green Bay Press-Gazette’s Nov. 2 issue carried an article about the opening of a new Chabad Lubavitch operation, Chabad of the Bay Area, in Green Bay.
Lorraine Cohen — pianist, Jewish music expert, teacher, choir director, president of the no-longer existing Wisconsin Jewish Music Council and organizer for 30 years of the Summer Evenings of Jewish Music series — died Nov. 3. She was 82.
Rabbi Yosef Carmel, presiding judge of the Eretz Hamdah Rabbinical Court in Israel, spoke at Lake Park Synagogue on Nov. 3.
Carmi Gillon, former director of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service, spoke in Milwaukee on Nov. 7 at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun. He told an audience of about 150 that “there is no alternative” to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His appearance was sponsored by J Street Milwaukee.
Milwaukee businessman and Jewish community activist Mitchell S. Fromstein died Nov. 8. He was 85.
Rev. Kenneth Meshoe, a Christian minister and a member of the parliament of South Africa, defended Israel from allegations that it is an “apartheid state” in an address to some 400 people at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Zelazo Center on Nov. 17. The event was co-sponsored by StandWithUs and the World Outreach and Bible Training Center.
The Milwaukee Jewish community marked the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the national pogrom instigated by the German Nazi Party Nov. 9-10, 1938. About 475 people attended the commemoration, held Nov. 20 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts.
The Jewish Community Foundation of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation was one of 15 such organizations from across North America selected to participate in the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s “Life & Legacy” program.
The board of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation unanimously approved a “Position Statement on Immigration” on Dec. 11.
The Jewish Museum Milwaukee’s special exhibit of Pop artist Andy Warhol’s “Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century” opened on Dec. 15 and ran through March 30.
Yeshiva Elementary School of Milwaukee celebrated its 25 years of existence with a banquet on Jan. 12.
Yizhar Hess, executive director of the Masorti Movement, Israel’s branch of Conservative Judaism, spoke in Milwaukee on Jan. 12. He said a Jewish religious revolution is brewing in Israel as more Israelis become exposed to non-Orthodox Judaism and like what they see.
Author (“The Red Tent”) and activist Anita Diamant was the featured speaker at a Tu B’Shevat seder on Jan. 15 held at the Urban Ecology Center and organized by Congregation Shir Hadash and Lake Park Synagogue. She said that events like this are “part of a whole new chapter in Judaism and American Jewish history, full of ideas and possibilities.”
Ellie Gettinger, education director of the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, was appointed to the educational outreach advisory board of WNET public television station in New York City for the national broadcast of the TV series “The Story of the Jews.”
Rabbi Shlomo Levin asked that his contract not be renewed at Lake Park Synagogue, according to an email received by The Chronicle on Jan. 30. He has served the congregation since 2003.
The Jewish Federation of Madison announced on the front page of the February Madison Jewish News that its 2013 Tzedakah Campaign was “a huge success” that raised $1,011,058.”
The Milwaukee Repertory Theater performed the first of two Jewish-themed plays in its season beginning this month. “The Whipping Man” by Matthew Lopez opened on Feb. 5 and told the story of a Confederate Jewish family as the Civil War ended, and the action climaxed with a Passover seder.
The Ex Fabula storytelling instruction and performing group made its Jewish community debut at the Day of Discovery held Feb. 16 at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
Orthodox Jewish news media reported extensively on the death on Feb. 17 of Milwaukee native Rabbi Meir Tzvi Schuster, 71. He apparently had become legendary for his outreach efforts at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and for his founding of the Heritage House youth hostel in Jerusalem and of five Shorashim Centers in other parts of Israel.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation issued its “2013 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents” on Feb. 21. While incidents were few and not violent, the JCRC was disturbed by reports of incidents from high schools.
The board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Madison at its February meeting voted to join the Partnership2Gether program of the Jewish Agency for Israel. It joins the Jewish communities of Milwaukee, Tulsa and St. Paul in partnering with the Sovev Kinneret (Around Lake Kinneret) region of Isrel.
The Torah Academy of Milwaukee Jewish high school for girls presented its student-created exhibit “Manuscripts of Majesty” March 2-10. The exhibits focused on the Five Megillot (scrolls), books in the Writings section of the Jewish Bible that are read in the synagogue during Jewish holidays.
Two Wisconsin synagogues began celebrating their 75th anniversaries this month: Congregation Emanu-El of Waukesha, with a program on March 6; and Temple Beth El of Madison, with a congregational Shabbat dinner on March 14.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation received an Award for Program Excellence from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs for the “Hours Against Hate” endeavor at the JCPA Plenum in Atlanta, March 8-11.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union of Reform Judaism, spoke in Milwaukee at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun on March 13. He spoke about the national Reform movement’s process of “adaptive change” and singled out for recognition Milwaukeean Andrew Keene, national president of the North American Federation of Temple Youth.
Tybie Taglin, prominent leader in the Jewish and general arts scenes of Milwaukee, died March 26. She was 89.
On March 27, two anti-Zionist Jews spoke at an “Israel Apartheid Week” at Marquette University: Max Blumenthal, author of “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel,” and Rabbi Brant Rosen of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Ill.
Doris Chortek, an activist in the Jewish and general communities, died March 29. She was 89.
On March 30, Jerusalem Post senior contributing editor Caroline B. Glick spoke about her book “The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East” at the Joseph and Rebecca Peltz Center for Jewish Life in Mequon.
The Jewish Community Foundation of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation in March announced the acceptance of 16 community partners for the new “Create a Jewish Legacy” program. This is a collaborative legacy and endowment program that benefits Milwaukee’s Jewish agencies, synagogues and day schools.
Mount Sinai Congregation in Wausau was founded 100 years ago this month. It celebrated its centennial with activities climaxing with a banquet on May 3.
As part of its “Israel Peace Week” response to the “Israel Apartheid Week” at Marquette University, the Jewish Student Union there brought to the campus on April 7 Rev. Dumisani Washington, founder of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel.
In the second of its Jewish-themed plays for the season, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater began its run of David Bar Katz’s “The History of Invulnerability” on April 8. It tells the story of Jerry Siegel, the Jewish writer who with Jewish artist Joe Shuster in the 1930s created the iconic superhero Superman.
At the Milwaukee community’s Yom HaShoah commemoration on April 27, Eli M. Rosenbaum of the U.S. Justice Department said the department is racing against time to find, prosecute and, where appropriate, deport the aging population of fugitive Nazi war criminals.
The Jewish Museum Milwaukee opened an exhibit on Jews in rock music, titled “Jews Who Rock,” on April 27.
The American Jewish Press Association informed The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle that one if its articles won a first place Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism. Freelance writer Amy Waldman’s “Suicide leaves more questions than answers,” which appeared in the November issue’s Chanukah Magazine, won the prize in the category “personal essays.”
A new program, the Jewish Wisconsin Initiative for a Sustainable Environment or J-WISE, was launched on May 15. It aims to help Milwaukee Jewish organizations become “greener” (more aware and protective of the natural environment) through study of Jewish texts and creating a plan for increasing sustainability.
The May issue contained an article about how Greenwood Cemetery in Milwaukee has become the first Wisconsin Jewish cemetery to offer “green burials” — burials that foster natural decomposition and employ environment-protection practices.
Amit Yaniv-Zehavi was appointed the next Israel emissary to Milwaukee. She follows the wife-husband team of Michal Makov-Peled and Ro’ee Peled, who held the position since 2011.
The Madison chapter of Hadassah-The Women’s Zionist Organization of America celebrated its centennial on June 1.
On June 9, Shay Pilnik, Ph.D., became the director of the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. He succeeds Bonnie Shafrin.
On June 10, representatives of local Jewish youth groups — BBYO, the North American Federation of Temple Youth, United Synagogue Youth and the National Conference of Synagogue Youth — signed the bylaws forming a new Milwaukee Jewish Youth Council.
Hannah Rosenthal, president and chief executive officer of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, was appointed on June 17 to the bi-partisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Rabbi Ronald M. Shapiro, senior rabbi at Congregation Shalom, announced in a June 20 letter to the congregation that he will be retiring as of June 30, 2015.
The Jewish Community Foundation, the endowment development program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, received a record bequest of $15 million from Milwaukee attorney Harry E. Jankowitz (1935-2014).
Milwaukee area synagogues Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid and Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun adopted new models of synagogue membership and dues, bring to this community practices being considered and adopted by congregations throughout the U.S.
Events in Israel had dominating effects upon the Jews of Wisconsin, especially Milwaukee and Madison, during this month. Events that took place in reaction included:
• A July 2 memorial gathering at Milwaukee Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center for three Israeli teen boys kidnapped and murdered by Arab terrorists in June.
• A July 16 “Prayer Service for Peace in the Middle East” held by the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee at All Saints’ Cathedral, with participating clergy including Rabbi Ronald Shapiro of Congregation Shalom.
• Community gatherings on July 24 at the Hillel Foundation University of Wisconsin in Madison and on July 27 at Congregation Shalom in the Milwaukee area. More than 100 people attended the Madison event, about 800 the Milwaukee event. The latter also brought out more than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
• The two communities also participated in the national emergency fundraising campaign initiated by the Jewish Federations of North America.
Lake Park Synagogue announced that it hired Rabbi Nisan Andrews to succeed Rabbi Shlomo Levin.
Sandra Hoffman, longtime president of the Generation After Milwaukee organization of children of Holocaust survivors and one of the founders of the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center, died on Aug. 4. She was 66.
Former Milwaukeean Alan H. Gill, now chief executive officer of the Joint Distribution Committee, was the featured speaker at the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s 2014 Community Celebration on Aug. 14 at Congregation Sinai.
A new Glendale Mikvah, located at 7020 N. Green Bay Ave., was dedicated on Aug. 31.
The Jewish Museum Milwaukee is scheduled to open on Sept. 14 an exhibit on “Stitching History from the Holocaust” about dress designer and Holocaust victim Hedy Strnad.
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