Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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In 2021, ADL reported 2717 antisemitic incidents throughout the United States, a 34 percent increase over 2020. The recent mass shooting in Highland Park, Buffalo, Colorado Springs, and Virginia, are deplorable testimonies to the level of hate in this country. More recently, the New York Times has reported on the “unsettling stream of antisemitism. (“Between Kanye and the Midterms, the Unsettling Stream of Antisemitism,” Nov. 4, 2022). Then why does the online behemoth Amazon continue to sell material that profits from that hate? And more...
They escaped destruction by the Nazis, survived communism, and found their ways to new homes. This is a story of three Torahs that all have their roots in long-gone Czechoslovakian synagogues. Up until World War II, Czechoslovakia had a thriving Jewish population rooted in hundreds of years of interaction with its Christian neighbors. With the rise of Hitler, however, came the rise of antisemitism and The Final Solution. Throughout Europe, synagogues were burned and Jews were deported to...
My mother loved Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin. She would have loved Melanie Gall. My husband, Larry, and I first became acquainted with Melanie Gall, a Canadian chanteuse, in 2019, through our friends Mike and Teri Chaves. The three had met in a Cancun resort, where Melanie was on vacation the week before her performance at the Orlando International Fringe Festival. The Chaves, with whom we had already made plans to go to the event, insisted that we join the three of them for dinner. Over...
“Fradel’s Story,” my third book since 2016, is especially sweet as it was co-written with my mother, Frances Cohen. Ever since I could remember, my mother was the family storyteller. Give her an opening, and Fran, or “Fradel” as she was known to her close family, would regale any audience with family stories of her grandparents’ and parents’ lives in Russia, her early years of marriage to “My Bill” Cohen, and their life in small towns in the North Country. She told of raising four children, watc...
Even though the pandemic has altered our world, my husband Larry and I will still maintain many of our traditions this Chanukah. Eating potato pancakes with applesauce. Lighting candles each night. “Betting” on which candle lasts the longest. Watching Hallmark Christmas movies. Wait! Hallmark Christmas movies? When did that become a tradition? For as long as I can remember, I have watched Hallmark movies. For many years, the famous card company aired shows specific to the holidays — Thanksgiving, Christmas, and of course Valentine’s Day. Ea...
So much has been written about the Holocaust. But have we really learned from the past? Millions of words later, we are facing a terrifying upswing in anti-Semitism. What can we do? We can keep writing, keep recording, keep remembering. And we can make sure that the voices of those who perished and those who survived are preserved. As we commemorate the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, here is one more for the record: The story of my husband's cousin, a Holocaust survivor. Albert Leon...
She is NOT wearing an underwire. And so are many other women. Yes, we have expunged our Exquisite Forms, ousted our Olgas and wiped out our Warners. Instead, we have traded our confining, pokey attire for the comfort of sports bras, bralettes, or maybe even nothing! Not since the 60s, when we were burning our Balis have women felt so liberated! I conducted a very scientific research study by posting the following question to my women friends on FaceBook: "Have you liberated your 'girls' since...
This article is in response to “Donald Trump: Social Justice President” (Rabbi Sanford Olshansky, Heritage, Aug. 28, 2020). The High Holy Days will be very different this year for all of us. Rather than meeting fellow congregants in our synagogues, we will be Zooming. As the first day falls on Shabbos, Reform Jews will have to wait until the closing moments of Yom Kippur to hear the sound of the shofar over the Internet. Holiday meals will be lonely affairs as most families are practicing social distancing. Fasting on the holiest day of the...
How will I celebrate a milestone birthday during the pandemic? That hoped-for week away with my family is out. A party at my home is out. Heck, my husband, Larry, and I can't even head to my favorite restaurant and indulge in a filet mignon and my free birthday brownie sundae. But there is a silver lining. An Abbotts frozen custard stand is less than 33 miles away from our Florida home. The history of one of my culinary favorites began in 1902 when a young and enthusiastic Arthur Abbott...
When I was six years old, I loved summer storms. As the sky turned dark, the thunder clapped, and the lighting shot across the sky, I would watch from the safety of our living room window. My mother assured me that the noise was just God bowling. When I was 16, I loved summer storms. By that time, my parents had purchased a cottage on Willsboro Bay in Upstate New York. From the safety of our porch, I would watch the rain come down in sheets and the waves rock our boat that was moored 200 yards o...
In 1994, I attended, along with a number of my colleagues from the Capital District Educational Opportunity Center, an Office of Special Programs conference in downstate New York. After the opening night’s dinner, I wandered over to the venders’ tables that had been set up in an adjoining room. The items included many that reflected the African-American population which OSP served: Kente cloths, African artwork, Maasai beaded bracelets. I stopped dead in my tracks, however, when I saw, among a group of books, including “The Autobiography of Ma...
Some day-hopefully in the near future-the COVID-19 pandemic will be behind us. Medical interventions to those infected will alleviate the pain, suffering, and deaths. A vaccine may be developed that can prevent others from becoming ill. Social distancing will no longer be necessary. We can go back to our lives, our jobs, our schools, our vacations, our celebrations. Larry and I have been sheltering in place since March 10, leaving our house only for daily exercise and essential outings. We consi...
As we tread carefully through the fourth month of the corona virus pandemic, the emotional and physical devastation this plague has caused is felt acutely by so many. As our days of sheltering at home continue, it has become much more real, much more personal, much more frightening. My husband Larry and I are feeling the impact, as I suspect many of you are. Our community already has had two confirmed deaths from the virus. A friend from my writing group, who had been sick with bronchitis, posted the following message on a Monday on her...
Biblical Irony: Passover seder may be delayed by the plague. Facebook meme One of Judaism’s most important holidays officially begins with the first seder on April 8. Pesach in the time of coronavirus, however, will be very different. During these difficult times, I think of my parents, Fran and Bill Cohen. As did many of the Greatest Generation, they went through several challenging times. In 1919, the Spanish flu was raging throughout the world. My mother, born in 1917, fell deathly ill. The family doctor saved her life by making a deep i...
By Marilyn Shapiro Purim is around the corner, and not far behind are costumes and dancing and Purim shpiels and groggers and hamantashen. And, for some, alcohol. According to the Talmud, it is one's duty, to "make oneself fragrant [with wine] on Purim until one cannot tell the difference between Haman and Mordecai." (Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 7b). On this one holiday, alcohol is not the most important element, but many imbibe. As explained by writer Tvi Freeman, Purim is not about drinking....
I do believe we woke up the children. You think the Flower Children of the 1960s were revolutionary? Just wait! Full confession. Outside of wearing bell-bottom pants and trying marijuana once, I was not a flower child. My first vote for a president was in 1968, and I voted for Nixon. When fellow friends and professors marched against the Vietnam War after Kent State, I joined in. But during that entire day, I was more scared than passionate. Looking back, I wish I had done more. Been more. But it was not who I was at the time. I wasn’t much o...
The murder of eleven Jews while they were observing Shabbat occurred in the heart of Mister Rogers's Neighborhood. The Reverend Fred Rogers and his wife Joanne owned a home and raised their two sons in Squirrel Hill, just two blocks from Tree of Life, the scene of the Oct. 27, 2018, massacre. Who was Fred Rogers? Why did his former neighbors in this predominantly Jewish section of Pittsburgh turn to him for comfort after the tragedy? And why, 17 years after his death has he become everyone's fav...
According to Adobe Analytics, Cyber Monday 2018 generated over $7.9 billion in sales, with one of the top sellers spent on smart phones. I will be one of those in the market. My iPhone 7, approaching its third year, is losing battery power. And, to be honest, the newer version offers a great camera. But when does my cell phone cross the line from being a toy, a luxury, a “nice-to-have-one-but-I-don’t need it” to my constant companion? I didn’t feel that way about my first flip phone. In 1999, I talked my husband Larry into purchasing a Nokia 32...
When my daughter Julie headed out to Colorado in 2003, it was originally planned as a nine-month adventure teaching environmental science. Soon, however, Julie fell in love with the mountains, Colorado, and Sam, not necessarily in that order. They built a life together, completed graduate degrees, got married, bought a house in Frisco, and had a child. They have settled into the life at 9100 feet. Meanwhile, our son Adam chose a different path in another Frisco—San Francisco. After completing a law degree, he moved into an apartment in the m...
The High Holidays are a special time, but it is even more special when family—and a little romance—are part of the season. In 1951, Larry’s father, Ernie, a World War II veteran, was called back into the U.S. Army. Larry’s mother, Doris, along with Larry and Larry’s older sister, Anita, moved from Schuylerville, New York, to Syracuse, her hometown, to live with her mother, Rose, and brother, Asher, during Ernie’s deployment. Larry, who turned three shortly after their move, remembers riding the family coal truck with Asher and tagging along wit...
Ten years ago this week, my father and I spent our last Father's Day together. My mother and he had moved up to an independent living facility in Upstate New York four miles from me. Two years later, his health had deteriorated, and he passed away November 2008. People may remember Bill Cohen for his stores in Keeseville, his community service, his pride in his family. What I remember-and treasure-about Dad were the stories about him that my siblings and I share again and again. Many of them...
My husband, Larry, was born the week that the State of Israel was born. For the rest of his life, his birthday celebration would be entwined with the founding of a new country. In 1961, Larry’s entire bar/bat mitzvah class and their families participated in a special presentation conducted by Israeli Bond representatives. As a result, Larry’s parents, along with many other families at the presentation, purchased several bonds in honor of their son’s upcoming simcha. While I was writing this article, Larry wondered aloud if Israel Bonds were...
When Dr. Liz Ross joins her fellow women congregants at Congregation Shalom Aleichem on the bima for the blessing over the candles, she pulls the hood of her kuspuk, her traditional Native Alaskan snow dress, over her head. And on her neck, her gold Star of David catches the light of the flickering flames. A business woman, a college professor, and a black belt in karate, Ross also carries with her the love and respect of her double heritage: Judaism and Native Alaskan. Ross will share her knowledge at Congregation Shalom Aleichem in her talk...
In the classic movie "Dirty Dancing," Jack Weston's character Max Kellerman, the owner of the fictional Catskill resort, laments the changes down the road. "[I]t all seems to be ending. You think kids want to come with their parents and take fox-trot lessons? Trips to Europe, that's what the kids want.... It feels like it's all slipping away." The heyday of the Catskills have ended, but the memories of those resorts remain with those who shared those summers as staff and guests. "This was our Ca...
Butterflies. Beautiful butterflies. Blue. Yellow. Even black and white. I am so enthralled by them. But butterflies have a greater meaning to me than just their beauty. In 1993, I read a book called "I Never Saw Another Butterfly," a collection of short pieces, poems, and drawings completed by the children in one of Nazi Germany's infamous concentration camps. The eponymous poem was written by Pavel Friedmann, a 21-year-old man who was transported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on...
