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Chabad Draws a Crowd at 18th Anniversary Celebration

By Carol Katzman, Editor of the Jewish Press

Shani Katzman thanks volunteer organizers of the gala

 More than 260 guests crowded the Forte Center, Omaha’s newest venue, for a gala kosher dinner honoring Rabbi Mendel and Shani Katzman. Arriving here 18 years ago, the Katzmans quickly developed friends in both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities, as evidenced by the cross section of Omahans at last week’s celebration.
 But the highlight of the night had to be the presentations to the honorees: Shirley and Leonard “Buddy” Goldstein and Dr. Harold and Beverly Maurer.
 “We got out (of the former Soviet Union) because of Shirley and Buddy,” said Anna Yuz Mosenkis, originally from Kiev. “They brought attention to the ‘mess’ that was the USSR.
 “Our first Shabbat dinner in Omaha was at the Katzman home,” Mosenkis added. “All night long, my mother cried recalling th Yiddish her parents spoke. Four months later, she died of cancer, but at least it was here, in America.”

Tom Fellman, left, one of the honorary co-chairman of the event, presented an original papercut to Shirley and Buddy Goldstein, who accepted it with their grandchildren: Zak and Molly Helm

 In presenting the “My Brothers’ Keeper Award” to the Goldsteins, Tom Fellman noted, “I know why you’re called ‘Buddy’--you’re the buddy of everyone in Omaha; for every cause, Buddy’s there! As to Shirley, 20 years ago she enlisted me in helping to raise two million dollars to bring the Jews out of the former Soviet Union. Because of her efforts, we were able to resettle more than 300 here in Omaha.”
 Fellman was honorary co-chairman with his wife, Darlynn, and longtime friends and community leaders, Joe and Maxine Kirshenbaum.
 “Israel has Golda Meir,” Fellman added, “and the Catholics have Mother Theresa, but we have Shirley Goldstein!”
 Joan Darling, the mother of a daughter diagnosed with rhadomysarcoma, a childhood muscle cancer, expressed her gratitude to Dr. Maurer--a specialist in this debilitating, sometimes fatal cancer. Darling and her husband, both PhDs, researched the cancer after their daughter’s diagnoses and were shocked that the disease has a 50% fatality rate.

UNMC ob-gyn Dr. Carl Smith presents a papercut to honorees Bev and Dr. Harold Maurer, who note the special attention UNMC paid to the Katzman family before and after the birth of their youngest child, Zalman, here held by oldest daughter, Estie

 However, “this is the ninth anniversary of Allison’s diagnosis,” Darling told the crowd, “and thanks to Dr. Maurer, she remains cancer free.”
 The arrival of Maurer as the chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center “was a transforming moment,” according to presenter Harlan Noddle. “He can see ahead, but equally important, he knows how to fulfill his agenda.”
 Noddle, a member of the UNMC Board of Directors, announced that under Maurer’s leadership, the medical center has merged Clarkson and University Hospital, built and opened the Lied Transplant Center and the Durham Research Center and has obtained research grant income of $80 million a year in 2005. “Research (building) II is scheduled and we expect to hit $200 million a year in grants by 2009,” Noddle added. “Is it any wonder that Chabad--with its legacy of caring and service, has chosen to honor Dr. Maurer?”

Rabbi Mendel Katzman opened the celebration with the blowing of the shofar--done every day in the month of Elul preceding the High Holiday

 But, equally important in this partnership is Bev Maurer, Nancy Noddle said in her remarks. “She’s a born politician... and great at getting her point across with the legislature and the Regents. This team has made UNMC one of the premier medical centers in the United States.”
 The Maurers responded to receiving the Chai Leadership Award  by thanking the Noddles for embracing them as members of their family and for the leadership of others like “Mike and Gail Yanney who are here with us tonight,” Dr. Maurer said. “We’re fortunate to have the Katzmans here, not only in Omaha, but in Nebraska. Rabbi Katzman is someone who respects who you

Chabad development volunteer Marcy Cotton chats with World-Herald columnist Mike Kelley

are, not someone interested in making you into someone else. Just recently, a med student from Hastings told me about his encounter with Rabbi Katzman. I felt really good about that.”
 In closing the program, Rabbi Katzman said of the honorees, “these are couples who truly understand the partnership with G-d. What we can learn from the Goldsteins and the Maurers is that we can make a difference...an act at a time, a mitzvah at a time. For them, the work is sacred,” he added. “They do it because it’s the right thing to do, not because of the honor.”
 And in his closing l’chaim, Rabbi Katzman said to the honorees: “Your kind acts have helped Chabad light up the night skies of Nebraska. May we all look beyond the surface and superficial labels that separate us.”

Two of the Katzman girls, center--Devorah and Miriam--chat with auction volunteer Marsha Kleinberg, left, and the girls’ grandmother, Leah Lipsker of New York

 

Cheryl Cooper checks out the many items offered at the silent auction which preceded the dinner at the Forte Center.

And the crowd roared, “Amen.”










 

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