The Jewish community in Omaha, Nebraska, has made significant cultural, economic and social contributions to the city.
The Jewish community supported philanthropy and created important cultural and charitable institutions.
Born to socialist parents in Omaha, renowned Jewish feminist author Tillie Olsen worked when she was young in the meatpacking plants and helped organize unions.
Historically Omaha served as a point of migration for Jewish Americans who moved on to other cities.
Immediately afterwards, the congregation formed a burial society and established the Pleasant Hill Cemetery in order to provide ritual services to the city's Jewish community.
[7] In 1886, an Edict of Expulsion was enforced against the Jews of Kiev, which led many to migrate from Ukraine to the United States.
[9] Franklin immediately set about spurring changes aimed at strengthening Reform Judaism in the congregation, such as the adoption of the Union Prayer Book and the ritual recently endorsed by the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
[10] Franklin also pushed to increase the Building Fund, slated for the construction of a new and larger Temple for the Congregation.
He won prominent admirers among Omaha's Christian community as well, such as William Jennings Bryan.
He established a Reform congregation, B'nai Yeshurun, in Lincoln, Nebraska; helped found the first normal school in Nebraska for the training of religious teachers; served as the editor of the Omaha Humane Society's publication, and lectured in other cities (most notably Sioux City, Iowa).
[16][17] The Louis Epstein family opened the first motion picture house between Chicago and Denver in 1911.
While social practices changed in the city among both Christian and Jewish Americans, Warren Buffett was one of the few non-Jewish members at Highland.
[23] In 1929 a Conservative congregation began holding services at the Jewish Community Center on 20th and Dodge Streets.
After helping establish the prominence of the area before World War I, many Jewish merchants maintained their businesses even after the neighborhood was redlined in the 1920s.
[25] Aaron Cahn was a prominent Jewish member in the Omaha community who served in the first Nebraska State Legislature.
[26] In the early 1900s, Edward Rosewater, a Bohemian Jew from Hungary, founded the Omaha Bee and served as its editor.
She was much influenced by her parents' Jewish socialist community in North Omaha, and was an activist all her life.
[3] Additional notable Jewish Americans from Omaha: 12th and Capitol| Russian; also known as "The Kippler Shul"; moved to 18th and Chicago in 1910.