Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 458
A True American Hero... A wonderful talented man who served his country honorably, has passed away. Elliott Golub served as concertmaster of Chicago's Music of the Baroque since its inception in 1972 through 2006. He was formerly concertmaster of the Robert Shaw Chorale and Seventh Army Orchestra and with the Contemporary Chamber Players at the University of Chicago, with whom he participated in many premieres and recordings. He has performed in the nation's capital at the National Gallery,...
Bulgaria's Tolerance March... "The World Jewish Congress and its affiliate, the Organization of Jews in Bulgaria Shalom, recently drew more than 1,500 people from across Bulgarian society onto the streets of Sofia for the first-ever march of tolerance and unity, held in response to the neo-Nazi Lukov March that takes place each February despite strong government opposition. The march was initiated by WJC President Ambassador RONALD S. LAUDER, who traveled to Sofia to participate. 'Today in...
Museum of Jewish Heritage... This museum is a living memorial to the Holocaust. It is located at 36 Battery Place in lower Manhattan, New York City, N.Y. "Not long ago. Not far away" is the theme of this exhibit. The most significant site of the Holocaust, Auschwitz, was not a single entity but a complex of 48 concentration and extermination camps, at which 1 million Jews and tens of thousands of others, were murdered. The exhibition brings together more than 700 original objects and 400...
The Statue of Liberty... "Give us your tired, your poor, your humbled masses yearning to breath free." (What has become of us? I'm just saying.) Finally, some justice... "A Belgian criminal court has convicted Frenchman MEHDI NEMMOUCHE for the terror attack at a Brussels Jewish museum in 2014, which resulted in the deaths of four people. Nemmouche's accomplice, NACER BENDRER, was also found guilty of aiding the attacker. Over the course of the trial, Nemmouche's defense lawyers argued that he...
Okay! So I’m a senior citizen... Senior citizens are constantly being criticized for every conceivable deficiency of the modern world, real or imaginary. We know we take responsibility for all we have done and do not blame others. But, on reflection, I would like to point out that it was NOT the senior citizens who took: The melody out of the music! (Rap is spelled with a silent C). The Golden Rule from rulers. The learning out of education. The service out of patriotism. And we certainly are n...
Here we go again... The German government revealed a 10 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents in 2018. (Surprise, surprise.) I recently read this headline and pass it along to you: "The World Jewish Congress stands with our affiliate, the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in calling for concrete action by the government, as well as by police and judicial authorities, in cracking down on anti-Semitic acts and rhetoric across the country. The German government, under the leadership of...
Today, June 14th is my birthday... (Do NOT ask the year!). When I was little, my mother said that people were flying their American flags in honor of my birthday. I believed her! 'Anti-Semitism is no longer the extreme... 'It is now mainstream!' "This frightening thought comes from World Jewish Congress CEO and Executive Vice President ROBERT SINGER when he recently addressed the Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism in the OSCE Region in Bratislava, Slovakia, which brought together political...
Long, long, long (long) ago, when I was young... Just before World War II (I said it was long, long, long !) and we were poverty stricken and living in the Red Hook Projects of Brooklyn, New York, anti-Semitism was on the rise in the U.S. Because of it, I was beaten up as a toddler. And because of that, I learned a few "Hail Mary's" and "Our Father," and denied being Jewish. I claimed to be Catholic. During the war, my dad got a job in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and we went off Welfare and moved to...
About Roe V Wade... Boy, am I glad that I am too old to become pregnant (or am I?) Not even in case of rape? I'm speechless. (Nuff said!) Some welcome news for a change... British Home Secretary SAJID JAVID confirmed that the political wing of Hezbollah will be banned in the United Kingdom. Previously, only the military wing of the terrorist organization had been banned in the UK, enabling supporters of the Iranian-backed militant group to parade in the streets during the annual Al-Quds Day...
I'll bet you didn't know... Well, some of us elders did! Major movie star, Gregory Peck, (who died in 2003 at the age of 87) once came to Congregation Ohev Shalom when it was in downtown Orlando. I had the pleasure of meeting with him and his then wife, and so did our own SONJA MARCHESANO, and others. (I forgot why he was there, but I will never forget the meeting!) Oops. A slip of the tongue... MSNBC reporter ANDREA MITCHELL apologized for referring in her broadcast of the Warsaw Ghetto...
Why Jews around the globe must stay aware... From the USA: An anti-Semitic madman entered the Tree Of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh during Shabbat and massacred 11 Jews while shouting "all Jews must die!" And from Brooklyn, a group of teenagers carried out a series of attacks against Hasidic Jews in the Crown Heights area. From Canada: Anti-Semites sent hate mail to 13 synagogues during Chanukah, which carried the image of a swastika inside a bloody Star of David. From Berlin, Germany: An...
Oops... In one of my columns I wrote about the wonderful Henri Landwirth and his family. However, I neglected to mention his dear sister, Margot Glazer. Please forgive me! Oh boy! It's getting worse... I'm referring to anti-Semitism. Actually, the awful crime that happened today (the day I am writing this column is April 27) at the Altman Family Chabad Synagogue in Poway, California, was, so far as I write this, labeled a hate crime by many, including the Mayor of Poway, (just north of San...
I write in advance... (Actually, almost 2 weeks after the event that shook me to the core). In 2006, my late spouse and I visited Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. (Of course, not for religious purposes, rather because we considered it one of the wonders of the world and because it is more than 8 centuries old.) I hope it will be rebuilt... and soon, so my children and grandchildren can visit. And speaking of Paris... According to the World Jewish Congress, "In Europe, Judaism is once...
A family filled with pride and rightly so... The family of the late Henri Landwirth, nationally renowned Orlando philanthropist and Holocaust survivor who created Give Kids the World and Dignity U Wear, will travel to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., on April 28 to create a legacy for Landwirth, and to participate in Days of Remembrance, America's annual national commemoration of the Holocaust. Each year, the Museum leads the nation in remembering the victims of...
First... let me wish all of you a happy Pesach. May you and yours face the coming year in good health and with much happiness. Sadly, our family faces a tragedy this Passover. The young South Carolina college student, Samantha Josephson, who thought she was getting into an Uber, but was murdered and raped (in that order) is a member of my family through marriage. Lord give us strength. It's about time... I read this in the World Jewish Congress digest under the heading "In Wake of Pittsburgh...
Love is in the air... (To replace love & sex since I became a widow, I found chocolate, sleeping and sitting, in that order!) Mazel tov to ARTHUR and PATRICIA (Trish) PINES on their recent marriage. These are two loving, wonderful people who deserve each other. They have always been very kind to me. I know Arthur for many years through my friendship with his mom, DORIS PINES. I met Trish some years ago at one of their family events. (True, Trish is very pretty and I can't handle competition,...
We will never forget... Who really died at Auschwitz? What really died at Auschwitz? Here's an interesting viewpoint. The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian's new James Brown Vilar Rodriguez and published in a Spanish newspaper. It doesn't take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and possibly to the rest of the world. "I walked down the streets in Barcelona and suddenly discovered a terrible truth-Europe died in Auschwitz... We...
Enough nightmares... (Honestly, if it wasn’t for my children, my grandchildren, and someday, their children, I wouldn’t be so upset, because how much longer do I have on this earth? But I must worry about the hate that is returning... and also the rise of “white supremacists.”) One of the safest countries in the world has always been New Zealand. They are also allies with us. Recently, 50 people (including children) were killed while praying in two mosques. Their murderers were white suprema...
Climate change?... I received a report from the Environmental Defense Fund recently. It said in large red letters, “WE ARE A PLANET IN DANGER! I pass it on to you: “United Nation Secretary-General, ANTONIO GUTERRES said,’ This report by the world’s leading climate scientists is an ear-splitting wake-up call to the world. It confirms that climate change is running faster than we are, and we are running out of time.’ And EDF president FRED KRUPP said, ‘No single entity can mitigate climate change. We must build a global set of partnership...
Shocking new levels of anti-Semitism... A recent FBI report showed that hate crimes against American Jews rose by 37 percent in 2017. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights released a comprehensive report on discrimination and hate crimes against Jews in the EU, finding that 9 out of 10 European Jews believe that anti-Semitism is getting worse. According to a study commissioned by the World Jewish Congress, an anti-Semitic message is posted to social media every 83 seconds. In 2018 alo...
Growing alarm... I recently heard from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and pass their message along to you: "You and I have watched with growing alarm as Israel has been targeted by Hamas with a new wave of terrorist attacks, including not only missiles, but also mass riots. Civilians, co-mingled with Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, have repeatedly tried to breach Israel's international border, with the goal of killing Jews in adjacent areas. Outrageously, the UN Relief and Works Agency even...
Tunnel Anyone?... When I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn, New York, if a gate (or a wall) was around a school playground, locked on weekends and too high to climb over, we dug under... not quite a tunnel but enough to get through. (Just saying) According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation ... "A Jewish Telegraph Agency article highlighting data recently released by the FBI noted that hate crimes against Jews in America rose by more than a third in 2017 and accounted for 58 percent of all...
One of my greatest fears... I know getting old is not the greatest, but at least I want to grow old gracefully, and I want to recognize my loved ones and friends. You guessed it. One of my greatest fears is developing Alzheimer's disease! But reading about the following has given me much hope. Read on: "Alzheimer's Disease, affecting some 47 million people worldwide, for now remains an irreversible and fatal brain disorder... but... a Bar-Ilan University (Ramat Gan, Israel) brain researcher is d...
Israeli special needs youth... I read this in the World Jewish Congress digest (WJC) and share it with you: "The WJC recently brought a first-of-its-kind delegation of special needs youth from across Israel to Poland for an educational mission to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. The mission was arranged by WJC President Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder at the initiative of WJC-Israel Chairman Gad Ariely, in cooperation with the Welfare Department of the Modin-Reut-Maccabim municipality, Akadem...
Anti-Semitism in sports... I read this in the current issue of the World Jewish Congress digest and pass it along: "The WJC and Chelsea Football Club recently held the final competitions of a global campaign to combat widespread racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia in sports. The Pitch for Hope competition called on young people ages 18-30 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel to propose creative ideas for an initiative to harness the spirit of comradery in sports and build...
