So, sometimes you find yourself someplace in the world without a clue as to what, if any, Jewish community is around you and once you're there, what are you going to do, walk around the street asking? Well, you might, stranger things have happened, of course. Or, you might not even think to look around some places for other MOTs, wrongly assuming we'd be nowhere in sight. However, in all my travels, I have been pleasantly surprised, again and again, to meet and befriend our peeps all over the place.

So, sort-of-regularly, I'm going to do some of the homework for you and focus on different Jewish communities here and there we don't often hear much about. Yes? Great. And to start things off, we're heading to Omaha to catch up with the 6,500-member community.

Omaha: A nice artsy, progressive, Jewy place to visit. Who knew?

Now, I visited Omaha a little over a year ago for the first time--the (Downtown) Omaha Lit Fest is a great time, by the by-- and decided I loved the place with its art and culture, like this wonderful progressive stronghold in the middle of, well, fields.

To travel deeper next time you find yourself in Nebraska, see who you can find of the Jewish community of Omaha-- touch base with The Jewish Federation of Omaha, swing by the Omaha JCC, hit this site that the Federation offers for answers to questions like, "Can you keep kosher in Omaha?" (yes), "Are there any Jewish Day Schools in Omaha?" (yes) and get the scoop on the choices of shuls in Omaha: Temple Israel (Reform-- and they have a gift and Judaica shop), Beth El (conservative-- and they have a gift and Judaica shop, too), Beth Israel (orthodox), a Chabad center (where just last month a challah-thon took place!) and Beyt Shalom (reconstructionist). Then, there's the Kripke Jewish Library, and since you're there, pay a nice little visit to the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home for the elderly (they have a mikveh you can use there, if you call, fyi) and to the Friedel Jewish Academy to meet b'nai Omaha.

Go get your shalom bayit on, wherever your travels take you.

Torah 2.0: Should we make a bracha for downloading a Torah widget?You know Chabad has a Facebook application, yes? Rabbi Moshe Plotkin of the New Paltz, NY Chabad, who made the Facebook application, has turned to the open system being used by Google. Yep, you can add a Torah Widget to your Google Desktop and iGoogle pages. The widget, which I added on both my Google and my Facebook pages, contains Torah odds and ends for study and links to the weekly pasha. Viral Torah. Discuss.

Widgipedia has a few similar widgetot, as well, and then there is Digi.Torah (note the website boasts access to the "Holly Book of Torah"), and a favorite of mine, the HebCal widget for Mac.

And, that's the newsRabbi Avraham Shapira (Z"L) has died in Jerusalem and was buried at Mount of Olives. (Dig one of his books here.) Here, a Baltimore woman reflects on the life of Marcel Marceau (b. Moishe Mangel), who was the son of a kosher butcher who was killed at Auschwitz. The Carolina Center for Jewish Studies got a million bucks from a few mensches. Russian town of Dzerzhinsk held its first-ever bris, Jewish soldiers in Iraq get their lulav and etrog going just in time, the EEOC is suing a Reno Chevy dealer, alleging whopper discrimination against Jewish employee Jack Adler, Israel's national water company has opened its doors to the public during Sukkot for tours, MOTs and evangelical Latinos get down in the Sukkah and a flamenco dance troupe is kickin' it Jew-style in LA, Serbia prohibits neo-Nazi march, the Days of Awe go over really well in Ho Chi Minh City, and, and, and Bob Dylan walked into a shul on Yom Kippur in Atlanta.

San Diego Jews could use a hand.

As the wildfires burn in Southern California, hundreds of thousands of San Diego County residents have had to evacuate. And, not-surprisingly, Chabad-Lubavitch representatives mobilized immediately. Removing the Torah scrolls, backing up their computer files, and printing out community member lists, the Shluchim at over a dozen Chabad centers in the city immediately went to work ensuring that every person appearing on their community list was accounted for.

Four centers were initially designated shelters as safety permitted, with information posted on Chabad San Diego's websites for anyone needing help, each of which made food and shelter available as needed. Chabad's website reports that around 4:30am Monday morning, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, Chabad rep to Chabad of Poway, grabbed his community list and began going door-to-door to help his community evacuate. Many had no idea how bad the situation had become. “They thought I was coming to fetch them for morning services,” he said.

San Diego, CA: Jewish organizations have set up communal funds to help families and individuals displaced by area fires. But, funds can't fund themselves, yo.

Goldstein, who is also Chaplain with the Sherrif’s Department, said to Chabad.org, “When they left, they saw the flames advancing, and many are frantic that their homes were destroyed. They are desperate to know what has happened to their homes." (For information on relief efforts in Rancho Bernado/Poway, click here.)

The Lawrence Family JCC in La Jolla is among the area Jewish facilities that have been evacuated. Over one hundred residents of the Jewish Sea Crest retirement village were evacuated Monday night, as well. Though the San Diego Jewish Federation is out of the fire zones and not in any danger, many of its employees have been evacuated from their homes and are not at work. It is not known if any of the area's synagogues have been damaged, but a number are, apparently, in fire zones.

Jewish communal leaders in San Diego County held a conference call Tuesday to discuss the situation, however, in the meantime, The Jewish Federation, the Jewish Community Foundation and the Jewish Family Service of San Diego have set up the Jewish Community Disaster Fund to help assist with relief.

Information on donations can be found at Jewish San Diego. To locate any Chabad representatives in San Diego, click here.

Betcha don't know what today is! Why, it's Purim of the Curtains, of course. Doy.

No, I'm serious.

Uh: Purim of what?!?!?!First called "Purim Vorhang" and celebrated in the middle of winter (on 22 Tevet), this Purim happened a few hundred years ago in the large Jewish Bohemian Ghetto in Prague. Like the Purim we are perhaps a bit more familiar with, it, too, commemorates the rather awe-some saving of Jews from their enemies. Here's the scoop, from Gershon Kranzler of Chabad:

Rudolph of Wenceslav, the governor of Bohemia, was one of those who resented the rise of Jewish fortunes during the reign of Ferdinand II. He considered it a personal affront when a man like the wealthy Jacob Schmieles of the Prague Ghetto was knighted and bore the noble title of Bassevi of Truenberg. But there was little he could do to the Jews of Prague, which in those days counted more than 1,000 people, many of them rich and influential merchants and bankers. For the memory and influence of Chief Rabbi Judah Loew, famous as the “Maharal,” was still felt among Jews and non-Jews. Thus, despite all efforts, the governor was not able to provoke any riots or pogroms of major proportion. But one day in the winter of 5383 (1623) Providence really seemed to play into his hands.

Among the treasure of his palace were heavy gold brocade curtains, artfully woven by a famous medieval master weaver from Brussels. They were considered invaluable, and the governor was responsible for them to the crown. All through the spring, summer and fall, till the middle of winter, they were stored away so that the sun and dust would not harm their precious texture. December came and Chamberlain Hradek, next to Rudolph of Wenceslav the mightiest man in all of Bohemia, gave orders to have all the velvet and brocade curtains and the Persian carpet taken out of storage to prepare the palace for the festival season. Everything proceeded in proper order, for each piece of the precious ornaments and furnishings had been carefully recorded and systematically stored away. At the bottom of the list were the famous gold brocade curtains of the stateroom. As usual they had been placed in the huge iron chest in the cellar that held the most valuable articles of the palace.

So, you can see where this is all going. Hradek went to the cellar to make sure the servants handles his curtains carefully and ka-blammo, they were gone. The governor hears about it and orders and investigation, all the servants deny having anything to do with it. Hradek says something about maybe we should all go check in those shops that the Jews keep, you know they're always stealing, blah blah. So, the search is on, through all the shops in the Ghetto, and they find the curtains with Enoch Altschul. Enoch is taken and beaten and brought before The Man. Enoch says that he can't admit why the curtains are in his house because he gave his word to a member of that very court that he'd not tell. Mysterious. Noble. More beating and torture. Finally, Enoch is told that by dawn if he doesn't spill the beans, his whole family will be hanged and the Ghetto will be stormed and destroyed. Not good. But, Enoch is a righteous man and did give his word so he wrestles with this. He sits in his jail cell all night and begs for divine intervention. He sleeps a bit finally and wakes suddenly, seeing, or thinking he's seeing, Rabbi Judah Loew who tells him everything will work out.

Czech Shul: In your face, playah hatahs.So, Enoch keeps his cool, even as he is being led out to his own execution.With only minutes to spare, Hradek finally confesses that he stole the curtains to pay his gambling debts, pawned them to Enoch promising kind treatment to all Jews in the Ghetto if he kept the transaction secret but that he'd also had a vision of the Rabbi overnight and knew he had to come clean.

To commemorate the miracle, Enoch Altschul asked the Jews of Prague to celebrate on 22 Tevet. Which brings us up to today. Shehechiyanu.

There’s an interesting article in the Washington Post about Russian rabbis crusading against cremation, which is apparently the norm in Mother Russia. I always thought cremation was kind of yucky (keeping Grandpa’s ashes on the piano just seems gross to me) but something I never considered is that cremation is way way cheaper than a traditional burial, and lots of Russian Jews are apparently hesitant to spend loads of cash on a dead person. A Chabad rabbi in Moscow says of the Russian Jewish community:

"They say, 'I'm not religious.' I say, 'We'll pay everything,' and I offer them $1,000 over the expenses. Still I can't convince some of them. They see me and they are afraid," he said, touching his yarmulke. "But for those who decide on a Jewish burial, it can be the beginning of a good connection to the community, and we start to see them on Shabbat."

Cremation: is so hot right now
That’s the very end of the article, but to me, it’s the most important part. Because the truth is, for a lot of people the entryway into Judaism comes because of a grieving ritual. Be it sitting shiva, saying kaddish, or becoming a member of a chevra kadisha, I know a lot of people who have become more observant because of a death of a loved one. And of course it makes sense. When we’re feeling most bereft, we reach out for God and a community to help us.

I admire what the Chabad rabbi is doing in Russia, and I certainly agree that a Jewish burial is important, but I also think that with death we have to focus on being a community for the family, on being a support structure. I’m not sure scaring people into a Jewish burial is the best way of conveying that we as a community will be there for each other. On the other hand, halacha explicitly forbids cremation, and says that even if someone asks to be cremated on their deathbed, we have to disobey their wishes.

The main halachic issue with cremation is that it counts as Nivvul HaGuf, mutilation of the body, and as we’ve already learned, it’s really important to us to treat corpses with the utmost respect. Burning them seems, for lack of a better term, incendiary.

But I think the ultimate objection with cremation is that it is a lie. It’s too easy to make yourself feel like grandpa’s not really dead, he’s in an urn on the piano. It lacks the finality of putting someone back into the ground.

Finally, we are told that man was created from the ground, and that he will return to the ground. The process is supposed to be gradual, and natural, neither of which can be said of cremation.

I know that the debate over cremation is a pretty popular one these days, so I just wanted to give some thoughts. For a further look into halacha, check out this site.