The tornadoes that struck here yesterday hit an area which holds Omaha’s major concentration of Jewish residents, virtually wrecking the 800-family Temple Israel and leaving 20 Jewish families homeless, an official of the Omaha Jewish Community Center reported today.
Hyman Tabachnick, executive director of the center, also reported that another 20 homes of Jewish families had been damaged in varying degrees but were still liveable. He said temporary worship services for the Temple Israel congregants had been arranged at the center. He said there had been no Jewish casualties from the twisters.
Tabachnick said the Jewish Federation was coordinating aid efforts and that the center had offered its facilities for the homeless Jewish families, among other offers, A Jewish-owned furniture store, one of the largest in the city, also was destroyed, he said, Omaha has about 6500 Jews, most of whom live in the section hit by the tornadoes, Tabachnick reported.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
