FAITH AND IDENTITY
Faith, family, and service are central to Jewish identity. These values are strengthened by traditions passed down from one generation to the next, connecting the community to its heritage and reminding it of its history. This partial recreation of a neighborhood shul (synagogue), including architecture and artifacts generously donated by the Riekes family, is intended as a place of reflection. It offers all visitors an opportunity to learn about and celebrate Jewish culture.

JEWISH HOLIDAYS
The Jewish calendar affords opportunities to celebrate, commemorate, and observe holidays throughout the year. These religious, cultural, and national occasions connect families to community and generation to generation. The holidays fall into three groups.

Biblical: Shabbat (the Sabbath) is the most important of these holidays. It is observed every week from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. The High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) are also spoken of in the Bible, as is Purim, and the pilgrimage holidays of Sukkot, Pesach (Passover), and Shavuot.

Rabbinic: These holidays include Hanukkah, Tu Bishvat, Tisha Bav, and Lag Bomer.

Post-rabbinic: These holidays include Yom HaShoah, the commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust, as well as Yom Haatzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day) and Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day).

THE RIEKES MUSEUM

Henry and Dorothy Riekes provided funding for this museum in memory of Henry’s parents, Samuel and Dora Riekes. It contains a collection of items typical of those found in all synagogues, and is similar to the style of Orthodox synagogues found in Omaha in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The artifacts in this gallery come from different synagogues that no longer exist and serve as a strong connection to our spiritual roots.

RIEKES FAMILY
Samuel Riekes belonged to the Kapulye Shul in Omaha’s North Side, then the heart of the Jewish community. Many congregants came from Kapulye, a small town southwest of Minsk in czarist Russia.

In 1926, when Riekes could no longer walk to the Kapulye Shul, he turned a building he owned into another shul just two doors from his home on North 19th Street (Florence Boulevard). He paid for the construction and all expenses for its operation. Congregants of what came to be known as the Riekes Shul included people with limited financial means. Many were refugees from war-ravaged Europe.

The Riekes family continued to support the synagogue after Samuel died in 1947. Countless Jews in Omaha and around the world have benefited from the Riekes family’s passion for tzedakah, or good works and charity.