Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 458
Flying safely home (I hope)... As you read this column (written the day before I am flying to Chicago), I will have already returned to Central Florida, expecting the high heat, although I was told that Chicagoans are feeling 80 plus degree weather these days. (And I am needing to cool off a bit!) I am also trying to recover from the heart-wrenching Memorial Day weekend that just passed. This year (actually for the first time in my life) I felt the true meaning of the holiday... and I realized...
A must read... This comes (in part) directly from the American Jewish Committee (AJC): “Iran subjects children to the death penalty, including public hangings from cranes; North Korea maintains vast gulags where political prisoners, including the descendants and distant relatives of alleged political offenders, endure arbitrary executions, starvation and forced marriages for the purpose of breeding slaves; Russia has enacted sweeping homophobic legislation that criminalizes the sharing of information about gay, lesbian and other ...
It's that time, I suppose... These days (being a so-called "Senior Citizen,") many of my friends, my spouse and I, and assorted relatives, are thinking about trusts, wills and such. Knowing that I'm an animal lover, someone sent this to me via email and I think it is worthy of repeating: A Dog's Last Will And Testament Before humans die, they write their last will and testament, give their home and all they have to those they leave behind. If, with my paws, I could do the same, this is what I'd...
Movies bring back torturous memories... While trolling for a station on TV, I stumbled upon an old movie, "Cast A Giant Shadow," that I had seen before, based on the true story of Colonel Mickey Marcus. David Daniel (Mickey) Marcus was a U.S. Army Colonel who assisted Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and who became Israel's first modern general (Aluf). He was killed by friendly fire, when he was mistaken for an enemy infiltrator while returning to his position in Israel one night. He...
Good news for a change... Lately I have been writing about anti-Semitism sprouting up here and around the world. Finally, thanks to the World Jewish Congress (WJC) Digest, there is something positive to report... especially for us Floridians: "BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE," the heading of the report reads, followed by an explanation. "No, not the award-winning children's novel but rather the southern supermarket giant. In the affluent South Florida suburb of Boca Raton, you will now find a huge...
Anti-Semitism is alive and well... Sad to acknowledge, but we must keep our eyes open to such hate and we must always remember the slogan, "Never Again." FRAZIER GLENN CROSS (also known as Glenn Miller), doesn't want us to remember it, believe me. He's the hater that shot and killed three innocent people, thinking they were Jewish, on the eve of Passover. While doing the dirty deed, he shouted anti-Semitic slogans, including "Heil Hitler!" The three unfortunate souls he murdered happened not to...
I never cease to be amazed... Last column I spoke about Israel and all its breakthroughs in medicine. Well... here is another. I recently received a letter from Rabbi ANDREW SKLARZ of Greenwich Reform Synagogue, Greenwich, Conn. Besides being a rabbi, he is a social worker, and trained psychotherapist. He has served as a pastoral counselor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NYC. He wrote in part: "It was 2001... just hours before I would step onto the Bima to conduct the Erev Rosh...
I'm not surprised... Actually, I'm never surprised by the brilliance of Israeli scientists, professors, doctors, inventers of every sort. So when I read the following in the World Jewish Congress Digest, I repeat, I wasn't surprised: "A Technion professor has devised a superglue to seal surgical incisions without the need for stitches or staples. Prof. HAVAZELET BIANCO-PELED has patented Seal-V glue, a biologically acceptable glue that mechanically seals areas of surgery. Working on wet...
The words of Martin Niemoller... "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out... because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out...because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out... because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me... and there was no one left to speak for me." (I remembered these famous words as I was preparing to write this column. I feel they are most appropriate, especially...
"Start in your own backyard"... That sounded like a solid piece of advice so I am going to reach out via this column. With all the reports of stolen passports in the news lately, I decided to look for my own passport just to make sure it was safe. During my search I came upon a paper with a piece of information that I want to check out. It contained the names Boris and Rebecca Berestesky, Montreal, Canada, and said that they were the people who sent steamship ticket money to my maternal grandpar...
Who knew?... Last month I heard about the Monuments Men (and women) of World War II for the very first time. That was completely news to me and I suspect, to many of you as well. (Check out the movie to learn even more.) The other day I received a few emails about a Jewish major league baseball player, Morris "Moe" Berg, who was also involved in World War II. Another surprise to me... really! Read on: Moe Berg was born in New York City on March 2, 1902. It is known that his affinity for...
Literary genius to say the least... Literary genius and hero for sure! The following information comes from a TV program and also confirmed by me on the Internet. While watching ABC World News with DIANE SAWYER tonight, I saw a wonderful story about a young boy and his friend in Gainesville where research is being done at the University of Florida Health, with Dr. DAVID WEINSTEIN. Read on: "To 6-year-old Dylan Siegel of Los Angeles, JONAH POURNAZARIAN is a 1-in-a-million kid. So why not try to...
Where are fellow Jews?... This interesting and informative report comes directly from the World Jewish Congress Digest. It was checked for accuracy by me: “A new study utilizing data synthesis, rather than polling, estimates that 6.8 million Jews live in the United States. The extrapolated results identify 1.6 million Jewish children, 4.2 million adults (who self-identify as Jews) and 1 million non-religious (who say they have a Jewish background). Six states account for 65 percent of American Jewry; New York (20 percent), California (14 percen...
How sad I feel... With the news that my very favorite comedian of all-time, Sid Caesar, has passed, I am truly devastated. As I get older I am more aware of my mortality and of my loved ones around me. I felt grief when Frank Sinatra passed... and Mel Torme, Milton Berle... and most entertainers that I admired. But losing Sid Caesar really hit home. And just a few days ago, Shirley Temple died. I must admit, I cried. I owned a Shirley Temple doll as a child... I can still picture it with its cur...
Stayin' alive'... Stayin' alive'... No... I'm not referring to the famous movie "Saturday Night Fever" with actor, JOHN TRAVOLTA, strutting down the street. Rather, this article is about the new Yiddish language website. (Yes... you read right!) This comes directly from the World Jewish Congress Digest: "Reports on the death of Yiddish seem to be greatly exaggerated, particularly since a 115-year old Yiddish newspaper is taking to the web. The New York-based Forvets (The Forward) can now be...
A true story... Finally, Hollywood got it right! There is a new movie coming out... or is it already out? It is produced by Columbia Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox. I refer to "The Monuments Men" starring GEORGE CLOONEY, among other noted actors. This happens to be a true story... one I never knew about. (I think many others will not have known about it as well.) The reason I am writing about it is this article, taken directly from the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. calendar: "Nineteen-ye...
I may be mistaken, but... I don’t think I’m mistaken when I say that many, if not most, medical breakthroughs in the last few hundred years were made by Jewish doctors and scientists. Here is another that I recently heard about. This comes from the American Associates of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev: “A cure for diabetes? No, not quite. But for children and adults with type 1 diabetes, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev may have discovered the next best thing: a combination of drugs already in use for other conditions that...
A dying language?... Gee, I hope not! This is an article about preserving and sharing Ladino and Sephardic culture. (Married for more than half-century to a Sephardic Jew, this article, directly from the Impact magazine of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, really caught my interest). I pass it on in part: "According to Dr. ELIEZER PAPO, 'The Ladino language is dying but losing the language doesn't mean you should lose the entire cultural package. That's where the Ladino Center comes...
Something is brewing?... As someone who was alive during the years before World War II (although very, very young), I wonder if a poll of European Jews at that time would have come up with comparable results. This is word for word from the World Jewish Congress Digest (WJC). It is worrisome, to say the least: "A revealing new survey by the EU (European Union) Agency For Fundamental Rights (FRA) has found that hate-crimes against Jews are on the rise and that Europe's Jews increasingly feel...
Oy vay, shades of Adolph Hitler... This is information reported by the World Jewry Digest of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) about Greece and its politics: "In the wake of continued harassment of Jews, immigrants and ethnic minorities by the far-right (Greek) Golden Dawn party, WJC urged the Greek government to crack down on the neo-Nazi extremists. WJC president, Ambassador RONALD S. LAUDER said, 'There can be no legitimate place in the Greek Parliament for parties whose public statements and...
European anti-Semitism... Yes. It exists! (What ever happened to "Never Again"? As an example, here are some excerpts from the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) newsletter: HUNGARY-Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister TIBOR NAVRACSICS, and Deputy Foreign Minister ZSOLT NEMET met with Rabbi COOPER and SWC International Relations Director Dr. SHIMON SAMUELS in Budapest and urged them to investigate reports of a growing relationship between Iran and Hungary's anti-Semitic, anti-Roma...
Sad opinions... This opinion piece comes directly from a recent World Jewish Congress digest. Read it and weep: "As Hamas rises, peace prospects (in Middle East) sink," says an analysis by two USA Today journalists, MICHELE CHABIN and OREN DORELL state that the ascendancy of the hard-line jihadist movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, will likely scotch any movement toward a two-state solution. Calling Hamas a 'spoiler' for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the journalists say that...
What next?... Somehow I get the feeling that the Holocaust started off this way... little by little... attacking Judaism and its rituals. The following is a report directly from the World Jewish Congress Digest: "Yet another circumcision challenge has arisen in Europe, a challenge being fought vigorously by the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and its European arm, the European Jewish Congress. This past summer the Council of Europe voted in favor of a resolution calling male circumcision a...
Internet terrorism... Sounds frightening... and it is! According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, "There is a new battlefield in the war against terror: the Internet and the dynamic world of social networking. "Today, this technology that brings people together from across the globe also provides aspiring terrorists unprecedented access to vast libraries of step-by-step terrorism tutorials. "Recipes for the pressure cooker bombs and radio signals deployed by the Tsarnacv brothers to murder and...
Trust but verify?... You know I'm referring to the "compromise" recently reached by our Secretary of State JOHN KERRY, our European allies and "trustworthy" Iran, Six months will tell. (Pray!) I recently received in the mail a little booklet containing pocket facts about Israel. On the page with the heading "Israel's Security Threats" was written the following: "Iranian leaders call for Israel to be 'wiped off the map' and are racing to build nuclear weapons. Iranian-supported proxies, Hamas...
