Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 37
Dr. John Jenkins, a neurosurgeon at Orlando Neurosurgery in Orlando, is devoted to the people and state of Israel and has made a monetary pledge to help those who are suffering on the moshavs in southern Israel. Because of the impact on him of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacres, Dr. Jenkins has pledged a $50,000 matching grant for donations to moshav Ein Habesor in southern Israel, near the Gaza border. Through a Christian charity called City Serve, Israel, his donation is earmarked to help ease the...
During the 2023 Daytona 500 race, a group of Nazi wannabees called the Goyim Defense League displayed antisemitic messages from the “Welcome to Daytona Beach” walkway, drawing attention to themselves standing on the bridge, waving to cars passing below. They also projected vile antisemitic messages on the Daytona International Speedway façade. Shortly after this event, residents in Ormond Beach awoke to find plastic baggies by their front doors, which held wood chips that were supposed to repr...
Jews today feel threatened with the rise of antisemitism and the increase in violent hate crimes that are happening in America and the world today. Yet we are a peaceful people and for many of us the thought of firing a gun, let alone going to a gun range to train is out of the question. How do we live up to the commitment of “Never Again” if we don’t have the skills to defend ourselves? Decision Tactical solves this problem. I have never seen or have experienced anything as creative, pract...
Dr. Daniel Layish shouldn't be with us today. He only exists because of the remarkable foresight, bravery (and perhaps luck) which led to the exodus of his paternal grandparents from Slovakia in December 1939 to pre-state Israel. Layish is the ZOA Florida Board liaison for Orlando. "With everything that has happened in Israel and on our college campuses, the ZOA's mission is more important today than ever. We are proud of Israel and will not waver in our commitment to her." Aaron and Hedwig Flei...
Antisemitism is on the rise across America and all over the world. What are Orlando Jews feeling and what can we do about it in these tumultuous times? I’ve realized since Oct. 7, with the massacre in Israel and the terrible war raging in the Middle East, I’ve been living with terrible feelings of disbelief, anger, frustration, depression and angst. These emotions are all related in a vicious cycle. First disbelief. It’s difficult to conceive of the level of evil perpetrated by Hamas on Oct 7 and painful to witness the death of civilians in Ga...
This is a story about an orthodox wife and mother, a busy Bubbe, a retired schoolteacher and a full-time dental hygienist, who at a moment in her life, or so it seemed at the time, was Divinely inspired to compose music. At first, the lyrics came, and then the melody, resulting in her first composition titled "Please See." Since this time, she hasn't turned back and has written over 20 songs, with three that have been produced into singles. Michelle Anflick, the daughter of Dr. Michael Fineberg...
Sandi Solomon, three-term Casselberry city commissioner has found relatives who were thought to have perished in the Holocaust. Through a genealogy search that her daughter-in-law Sharon Fleitman of Atlanta had conducted while searching Yad Vashem's database, Fleitman discovered 31 pages of testimony that Henryk (Henry) Zyngier had given about his experience in the Holocaust when he lived in Tel Aviv in 1957. Fleitman reached out to a Facebook Group, a genealogy portal, for help. Within eight...
On June 14, at 7 p.m., an in-person and zoom meeting was hosted by Keith Dvorchik, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Orlando, and Aaron Weill, CEO of Central Florida Hillel, for a community discussion on "Israel and Antisemitism." In front of a live audience of 10 people and over the Internet, via Zoom and a Facebook link, with 84 viewers, they held a discussion driven by the concern in the tremendous growth of antisemitism over the past two years. "Anti-Semitism world-wide has been increasing...
Like many American Jews, Michael Fineberg, Ph.D.'s paternal grandparents emigrated from Lithuania and Russia, his maternal grandparents from Romania and Austria, arriving by boat to the United States in the early 1900s. His parents were first generation American Jews who assimilated and worked hard to build a life for themselves and their children. His father didn't graduate from high school as a result of World War II. Returning after the war, he worked at the Food Fair Grocery Store chain,...
The CDC showed that the final 2020 overdose deaths in the United States exceeded 90,000, compared to 70,530 in 2019. It is the highest annual number on record, and the largest single-year percentage increase in the past 20 years. Synthetic opioids (fentanyl) appear to be one of the reasons causing the increases in death, up 38.4 percent over the past year. "We have seen an uptick in clients seeking help for drug and alcohol issues since the pandemic started. People are feeling a sense of...
Part 2 of 2 Laurence Morrell's father passed away right after he graduated from Emory University in Atlanta. "I came back home immediately and had to take over the running of my father's business. My brother was working for Martin-Marietta, so he and my mother would show me where the groves were. Together, we took over the management of 550 acres of citrus. It was mid-summer, the weeds were crotch high, and the heat/humidity was intense that summer," Morrell recalled. Morrell learned about the g...
I have seen reasonable American citizens, who have families, who work hard, pay their taxes, serve in our military, belong to their PTA etc., become irrational and even crazy at times when it comes to political opinion. And I’ve observed, under the surface, there’s a hatred that’s ready to jump out when it comes to one’s opposing political views. I want to be clear: this is on both sides of the aisle. I understand that we’ve lived through a shut down due to the pandemic. People’s nerves are frayed, but all in all, I believe the American pe...
Part 1 of 2 Laurence Morrell is very proud that he considers himself, "the last of the Jewish rednecks." He's proud because he's worked hard outside in the elements, in the fields of orange groves that once dotted the landscape of central Florida. In the scheme of things, it wasn't that long ago. At 78, he has been a part of the early migrations of Jews in the Orlando area. His grandfather, Abraham M. Bornstein, was in the textile industry in Lodz, Poland, before coming to Paterson, N.J.,...
Introducing the "Passover Playbook," brought to the Jewish community by Orlando Jewish Parent. OJP, for short, is a comprehensive program, embraced by the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando and The Roth Family JCC that will be coming to you in the months and years ahead. It started already with a program called "Passover Madness." The tagline, "Which Passover Food Will Win It All?" (See the ongoing contest at orlandojewishfed.org.) Its newest project is The Passover Playbook. "Welcome to our...
I have to tell you about my Aunt Ann and Uncle Harry, both first-generation Americans fresh off the boat from Istanbul, Turkey, and Russia. They owned a fish store in Philadelphia. Their fish shop was the end store on a block of row homes in the Jewish neighborhood. I remember as a little boy, I would avoid the fish store because I didn’t like the smell, but I would go upstairs to Aunt Ann’s and Uncle Harry’s house and would always see the paper bag filled with their day’s receipts sitting somewhere in their home above the store. I also re...
By Ed Borowsky "As my forefathers planted for me, so I, too, plant for my children," Talmud, Ta'anit 23bm. There is an independent advisory group/501(c)(3) organization called the Jewish Capital Alliance that has been operating for a little over 10 years in the greater Orlando area. JCA is dedicated to ensuring the long-term growth and success of mission-driven Jewish nonprofits. They've been providing low-interest loans and lines of credit to agencies, synagogues and other Jewish organizations...
When Joe Goldovitz learned to play the piano at an early age, he didn't realize that music would be the consistent thread that kept him going in more ways than one can imagine. Goldovitz's father was Jewish, his mother Roman Catholic. Born in Portland, Maine, he was accepted into the Jewish faith at his bris by an Orthodox Bet Din. Goldovitz was six months old when his father passed away. "We were living in West Palm Beach however, after my father died, my mother moved back to Dorchester,...
From the time Keith Dvorchik was a young boy, he has moved no less than eight times and has had a variety of careers all of which prepared him for his job as CEO of The Roth Family JCC and executive director of The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando. "When I was four or five years old, my parents moved from Gainesville, Fla., to Hummelstown, a small town near Hershey, Pennsylvania. A year later we moved to the eastern shore of the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where I spent...
One side of Charlene Neely's family settled in New Mexico in 1590. The other side settled there in 1680. "Both grandparents were Roman Catholic and although we were Hispanic, we didn't have the physical characteristics of what was common in the Southwest. We spoke Spanish, but I had cousins who had blue eyes and blonde hair, or green eyes with auburn hair," said Neely, mother of Rabbi Joshua Neely. Her grandmother, Mary Teresa Gallegos, was a practicing Roman Catholic, who went to church...
Joanne Fink grew up on the Main Line in Philadelphia, Pa., the daughter of first-generation Polish/Austrian and Russian immigrants. Fink found her passion for art in high school. Her parents were the ones who inspired her by exposing her to their love for the visual arts and music. "Both of my parents went to Temple University. My mother studied to be an English teacher and my father a pathologist. However, they both had creative passions - my mother for art history, my father, for the cello,"...
At eight years of age, Allan Robuck, cantor of Congregation Ohev Shalom, “didn’t have an option” about playing music. “I grew up in a musical family and my two brothers and younger sister had to play piano, no exceptions!” he said. Robuck’s parents loved music. After World War II, his father entered a talent show put on by the Les Elgart Big Band. Elgart was a trumpet player, often times playing with his brother Larry Elgart who recorded albums on the Columbia label. One of their most recogn...
"I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the only child of Rosalind and Irving Dorsky. My grandparents came from Belarus and Ukraine to the United States at the turn of the 20th century. My paternal grandfather was a tailor and my maternal grandfather had a pet store and was a part-time cantor. I have warm memories of my grandfather teaching me how to sew," Debbie Meitin said. Meitin's parents met at a dance held by a Jewish organization. "My father was an attorney, but he worked with his brother in a...
Adrian and Geanne Share came to the Orlando area in 1998. "My husband's an engineer whose passion is to see high-speed rail built in the U.S., and we came to Florida for that purpose. He's spent 20 years on different attempts to bring high-speed passenger service between Miami and Orlando. He led the engineering for the system that is being built between Orlando and Miami by Brightline, and oversaw the construction of the first phase between Miami and West Palm Beach that is temporarily shut dow...
How does a nice Jewish boy from the Bronx grow up to become a racecar driver? Meet Les Neumann. He now lives in DeLand, is semi-retired and races on the Vintage Race Car Circuit. This is no small potatoes - he is nationally ranked. It all started in 1954 when Neumann's mother's cousin married a girl from Hungary. While on their honeymoon, they toured the Morgan Motor Company plant in Malvern, Worchester, England, and ended up buying a car and having it shipped home to the states. "Back then the...
In 2009, Wendy B. Libby, Ph.D., a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn, became the ninth and first female president of Stetson University. Founded in 1883, Libby is also the first Jewish president. She officially retired on June 30, 2020, becoming president emerita. When asked how it feels to retire, she remarked, "The most difficult thing for me about my retirement will be missing my friends and colleagues with whom I've worked for so many years. Living close to the campus will make my retirement mor...
