Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) - Rabbi Josh Feigelson remembers the moment that football lost its magic for him. It was Oct. 20, 2013, and Feigelson was eating dinner with his family at Ken's Diner, a kosher restaurant in Skokie, the Chicago suburb where they live. A TV was playing a football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Cleveland Browns. Feigelson, who grew up in the football-crazed college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, was a longtime fan of the sport, and his then preteen kids had taken up the mantle,...
(JTA) - In this Tuesday's episode of the celebrity genealogy show "Finding Your Roots," pioneering journalist Nina Totenberg and TV personality Andy Cohen learn about the deep Jewish roots of their family trees. In this exclusive clip from Totenberg's segment, she reacts to learning how one of her grandmothers escaped to the United States during the Holocaust by way of Portugal with the help of a sympathetic official. Totenberg, a longtime NPR correspondent, is the daughter of famed violinist...
(JTA) — Among the flurry of actions Joe Biden took on his very first day as president are several with special resonance for Jewish voters. Biden reportedly plans to issue several executive orders and multiple legislation proposals shortly after he is inaugurated on Wednesday. Many will reverse the policies of the Trump administration. Biden will reportedly seek to rejoin the Paris climate accord, enact new measures aimed at combating the coronavirus pandemic (including a mask mandate in federal government buildings) and extend pandemic limits...
(JTA) -A Jewish couple in Florida is celebrating two hefty milestones together this year: 100 years of life, and 80 years of marriage. Lou and Edith Bluefeld, of Boca Raton, have known each other since they were 16. They ran a kosher catering business that served visiting U.S. presidents and helped to kosher the White House kitchen. They also cooked for former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin when he was in Washington, D.C., for the 1978 Egypt peace accord announcement, according to a...
(JTA) - There's no way to tally all those we lost in 2020, a year when we mourned even our ability to carry out time-tested rituals of grief. Among those who died this year were some of the Jewish world's most famous and influential pillars in a range of industries, realms of thought and areas of activism - from the pioneer jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the moral thought leader Rabbi Jonathan Sacks to the Modern Orthodox rabbi Norman Lamm to the influential LGBTQ activist Larry Kramer. But many...
(JTA) - There's no sugarcoating it: 2020 was a difficult, trying, tragic year. But just because COVID-19 dominated the headlines and our personal lives, that doesn't mean there weren't any Jewish bright spots. Plenty of history was made, from a march of tens of thousands against anti-Semitism to a new kind of vaccine that Jewish doctors helped create, to a Jewish vice-presidential spouse. Here are some of the Jewish stories that helped distract us from the pain of the past year. The Jews involve...
(JTA & JNS) - Israel's Knesset, or parliament, dissolved Tuesday night after failing to pass the 2020 budget, triggering the need for a new election. The exact date could change through a government vote. However, since a new election must take place three months after the collapse of the Knesset, the next round is scheduled for March 23. The election will be Israel's fourth in two years. The move came after weeks of infighting and paralysis amid the so-called unity government that was formed la...
(JTA) — Gal Gadot may act in American blockbusters these days, but she’s still an Israeli through and through. So there are some quintessential foods she has never tried. Jimmy Fallon took advantage of this fact for a tasty segment with the “Wonder Woman” actress on his late night show last Monday night. Gadot tried for the first time egg nog (she was not a fan of it), a Ho-Ho and Taco Bell, which she absolutely loved, saying “This is the best so far.” In response, Fallon tried two Jewish delicacies on camera: a sufganiyot (jelly donut popul...
(JTA) — Over 50,000 Israelis have visited the United Arab Emirates since the recent normalization pact between Israel and the UAE, according to a report this week in The Washington Post. That number is the result of only two weeks of open commercial flights between the countries, which agreed to open the diplomatic and tourism floodgates in a historic agreement signed in August. Tens of thousands more were expected to visit during the Hanukkah holiday, according to the Post. The report also said that the Jewish community center in Dubai, the UA...
(JTA) - Acclaimed director David Fincher's highly anticipated film "Mank," on the Jewish screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz and the story behind his writing of the classic film "Citizen Kane," hits Netflix on Friday following a short theater-only run. It's already being considered a front-runner for several Oscar nominations. Beyond "Citizen Kane," Mankiewicz worked behind the scenes on dozens of famous films from the silent era into the 1950s - among them "The Wizard of Oz" and the comedy "Dinner...
(JTA) — Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Tuesday that his party will back a bill crafted by the opposition in parliament to dissolve the government, likely sending Israel to its fourth election in two years. The votes from Gantz’s Blue and White would provide the needed votes for the measure to pass in the Knesset. Gantz and Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, formed a unity government earlier this year by agreeing to rotate the premiership after 18 months, but the two have been at odds from the outset of the partnership. Their lat...
(JTA) - When Mikael Dolsten, the head scientist at Pfizer, heard the news last week that the COVID-19 vaccine that he has been helping to develop for the better part of a year was over 90 percent effective, he and his colleagues literally leapt with joy at a corporate office in Connecticut. "This may turn out to be one of the biggest medical advances of the past 100 years," Dolsten said by Zoom from his home office last week, the emotion clear in his voice and on his face. He was pointing to...
(JTA) - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi of the United Kingdom whose extensive writings and frequent media appearances commanded a global following among Jews and non-Jews alike, has died. Sacks died Saturday morning at age 72, his Twitter account announced. He was in the midst of a third bout of cancer, which he had announced in October. Sacks was among the world's leading exponents of Orthodox Judaism for a global audience. In his 22 years as chief rabbi, he emerged as the most...
(JTA) - Sacha Baron Cohen's latest appearance in character as Borat was heavy on the bathroom humor - and on satirizing conspiracy theories that target Jews. On "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Monday night, Cohen showed up as Borat - the anti-Semitic, misogynist journalist from Kazakhstan who starred in a blockbuster 2006 film and is set to star in a sequel out this week. Right away, Borat said the coronavirus comes from "a place called Wuhan, which is in Israel." "It is no surprise, they are spreading...
(JTA) - After Israeli actress Gal Gadot announced this weekend that she would play the legendary Egyptian queen in a blockbuster movie, it didn't take long for the calls of cultural appropriation to start on social media. One tweet in particular, which said Gadot is "stealing" the role from Arab actresses, started a robust debate. Some users pointed out that Cleopatra wasn't Egyptian - as a Ptolemaic ruler, she was descended from a Macedonian father, and historians don't know the ethnicity of...
(JTA) — Louise Glück, the American granddaughter of Hungarian Jews, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday. Glück, 77, was awarded “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal,” the Nobel committee wrote in its announcement. Her collections of poetry — which explore broad and painful topics, such as family life, trauma and aging — include the books “The Wild Iris,” “Meadowlands,” “The Triumph of Achilles” and “Ararat.” For “The Wild Iris” she was awarded the 1993 Pulitzer Prize...
(JTA) - When Israeli director Yuval Adler saw the script for "The Secrets We Keep," a thriller about a woman who kidnaps a man she believes was her Nazi torturer during World War II, he knew he wanted to make some changes. The story revolved around a Jewish woman who endured horrors at a German concentration camp - a plot Adler found a little stale. He started talking to the lead actress, Noomi Rapace, known for her starring role in the original Swedish "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" films,...
(JTA) - It's official: Kamala Harris is Joe Biden's choice for vice president. The California senator, who made history Tuesday as the first Black woman to join a major party presidential ticket, is still in her first term. But during several years in public office, the 55-year-old lawmaker's outspoken opinions on a range of issues and her presidential run have given Jewish voters plenty to scrutinize. She is also married to Jewish lawyer Douglas Emhoff, who would become the country's first...
(JTA) — In the middle of her first speech as Joe Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris disclosed her favorite nickname. “My family means everything to me. And I’ve had a lot of titles over my career, and certainly, vice president will be great, but ‘momala’ will always be the one that means the most,” she said Thursday in Wilmington, Delaware. Harris’ two step-children deserve the credit for that mashup of “mom” and “Kamala,” CNN reported last year. Despite the fact that their father — Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff — is Jewish, it’s un...
(JTA) — No matter what happens in Ilhan Omar’s primary today, one thing is clear: Some Jewish voters in Minnesota and across the country will be deeply disappointed. Omar has the support of some local and progressive Jews who are excited about supporting a member of “The Squad,” a quartet of prominent progressive freshmen congresswomen that also includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib. But Omar — who represents Minnesota’s 5th District, which includes Minneapolis — has repeatedly angered a large segment of th...
(JTA) - Marc Maron warned listeners at the beginning of the latest episode of his "WTF" podcast on Monday: "If you don't like Jews, you're gonna get triggered." It was a fair disclaimer, given that his hour-long conversation with Seth Rogen touched on just about every general aspect of modern Jewish identity, from Jewish summer camp to cultural Jewishness to sitting shiva. But a second warning came part of the way through the episode, as the conversation turned to Israel. "We're gonna piss off...
(JTA) - As a child in Israel, Amir Nathan dined at Sami VeSusu, an innovative restaurant in Beersheba named after a popular children's television show from the 1960s and '70s. So when it came time for Nathan, now a restaurateur in New York City, to name his latest venture, he replicated the name - and an atypical approach to serving food. Sami and Susu opened two weeks ago as a takeout and delivery service operating out of a Brooklyn bar. Nathan and his executive chef and business partner,...
(JTA) - NFL wide receiver DeSean Jackson unleashed an uproar with his tweets over the weekend that featured quotes dubiously attributed to Adolf Hitler - including claims that "white Jews" will work to "blackmail" and "extort" America - and that the Nazi leader "was right." Now his most prominent defender - former NBA player-turned-podcaster and Black Lives Matter activist Stephen Jackson (no relation) - is facing his own wave of high-profile criticism. Stephen Jackson took center stage in the...
(JTA) - Since April, all eyes following the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were glued to July 1. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had negotiated the date into his government coalition deal with his rival Benny Gantz. On July 1, as stipulated in the agreement, Netanyahu could put the topic of annexing the West Bank - a move that would have enormous political repercussions well beyond the Middle East - up for a vote in his Cabinet or in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. But on Tuesday,...
(JTA) - While the world has had its attention fixed on the George Floyd protests and the ongoing threat of COVID-19, a political development with monumental implications has been brewing in the Middle East: Israel's potential annexation ofa parts of the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised his supporters during multiple election campaigns last year that he would make areas outside of the country's borders part of the state. Now his chance is fast approaching. The terms...
