Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 10 of 10
(JNS) - The Abraham Accords have made a major impact on international relations in the Middle East. They are also proving an ace for Israeli tennis. Last month, young players and coaches from the Israel Tennis & Education Centers flew to Bahrain-the nonprofit's second trip to the island kingdom, with which Israel normalized relations in Sept. 2020. The Abraham Accords impacted the centers both domestically and abroad. First, ITEC decided after the accords debuted that its vision ought to...
(JNS) - Listening to Deni Avdija answer questions at Washington Wizards Media Day last week provided a reminder of just how much the likable 21-year-old Israeli forward has accomplished-and endured-in his two seasons in the NBA. And he has a lot to look forward to. The only Israeli in the NBA is about to kick off season 3 with the Wizards, but first he has to get through a tough four-day training camp, fly to Japan for two preseason games against the Golden State Warriors, overcome a groin...
(JNS) — Bringing more than 10,000 Jewish athletes from 80 countries to compete in 42 sporting events all around Israel for the Maccabiah games is an impressive feat. Returning these athletes to their home countries as ambassadors and spokespeople for the State of Israel is a process that takes planning, coordination and a person like Hillel Akotonas. The 21st Maccabiah — the biggest sporting event in Israel and reportedly the second-largest in the world (“The Jewish Olympics”) — opened on July 12 and will conclude on July 26. When the athle...
(JNS) - For Eli Lunzer, the road to Super Bowl Super LVI started weeks before the team match-ups were determined. Lunzer will arrive in Los Angeles for a nonstop week of work before the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams players even get to SoFi Stadium for kickoff, scheduled for Sunday at 6:30 p.m. EST. And he will work around the clock, except for Shabbat, for a solid week. "I am a shadchan," says Lunzer, using the Yiddish word for "matchmaker." Meaning, he explains, "I connect brands,...
(JNS) — Winning the lottery usually conjures images of elated people feeling set for life after receiving a check for hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet for five North Shore Hebrew Academy students in the Long Island region of New York, winning the lottery meant being selected to represent their day school on an eye-opening, life-changing relief mission to tornado-devastated Kentucky. On Dec. 10, a tornado with winds of over 166 miles per hour decimated the Kentucky of towns Cayce, Mayfield, Benton, Princeton, Dawson Springs and Bremen, k...
(JNS) Basketball player Deni Avdija was the talk of the town in Israeli and Jewish circles last season. The 19-year-old Israeli was drafted No. 9 in the first round of the NBA draft by the Washington Wizards and was off to a fairly impressive start until he fractured his right ankle on April 21 during a game against the Golden State Warriors. Avdija, now 20, has been recovering and rehabilitating, and is cleared to return for his second year in the NBA. He will play on the same Wizards team,...
(JNS) - When Belgian professional road and cyclo-cross racer Wout van Aert took the 21st and final stage of the Tour de France and Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogačar won the overall 2021 Tour de France on Sunday, there weren't many Israeli riders in sight. Even without Israeli riders winning the race, this year's Tour de France was an unprecedented victory for the Jewish state. The famed race, which each year covers 3,413 kilometers (2,121 miles) over 21 stages in 23 days, featured eight riders...
By (JNS) — Days before the start of the annual Tour de France, cycling’s most prestigious race, the Israeli national team’s star rider and four-time winner of the event, Chris Froome, was enthusiastic and optimistic. Froome has been working hard to return to his previous level of performance following the severe injuries he sustained in a 2019 crash that occurred while he was previewing the time trial course at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné. He suffered a double femur fracture to his right leg, multiple additional fractures and a collaps...
(JNS) - When Rosalyn Gold-Onwude was a college student at Stanford University, she participated on Birthright Israel. Several years later, she went on her second trip-this time, as a staff member on her younger sister's Birthright experience. While participating in the program is not so unusual - more than 600,000 Jewish young people have gone on the free, 10-day trips since the program's founding in 1999 - Gold-Onwude's story is a bit different. She is the only Birthright participant to play...
(JNS) - Israel's Deni Avdija recently moved from Israel to Washington, found an apartment, met with the media at a Washington Wizards press conference and ate his first meal at Chipotle Mexican Grill. "I really liked the idea of Chipotle. I like to eat healthy. And it was kind of healthy!" Avdija, the 19-year-old Maccabi Tel Aviv phenom, was taken No. 9 overall by the Wizards in the recent NBA Draft. The 6-foot-9 inch, 225-pound forward is excited to play in the NBA and understands what it...
