Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Since the year that we met, my husband, Larry, and I attend Rosh Hashanah services. We hear the shofar, listen to melodies that we only hear on the High Holy Days, and greet our friends with L'Shana Tova-Have a good year! Attending High Holy Day services as an adult is different from my experiences as a child growing up in Keeseville, N.Y., a small upstate town of two thousand people about 90 minutes south of Montreal. My Uncle Paul had opened Pearl's, one of a chain of small department stores...
"Delaware!" my husband Larry yelled as we drove past a line of parked cars on Galena Street in Frisco, Colorado. "We got Delaware!" In our life, "Getting Delaware" is a big deal. Within the first 10 days of our five-week search for license plates, we had gotten the license plate of the elusive Eastern seaboard state. Could Rhode Island be far behind? Road trip entertainment Today, while heading for their annual family vacation, children sit in the back seats of a SUV watching Toy Story or...
Melvin Weissman didn't have to fight in World War II. As a machinist for an essential industry, he needed permission from his company to even enlist. He was first rejected by the army as he had flat feet. But the 22-year-old was determined to fight for his county. Undeterred, Melvin, along with several of his friends, tried to enlist in the United States Army Air Corp. This time, he was accepted, flat feet and all. When he said good-bye to his family, Weissman was overcome with emotion. "I knew...
On March 28, 1956, nine-year-old Steven Mattis sat mesmerized in his living room in Philadelphia as Kraft Theater's adaptation of "A Night to Remember" unfolded. Based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Walter Lord, the one-hour television production told the story of the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. At first enthralled by the beautiful ship, the glamour of the first-class passengers, and the contrast to the third-class passengers' circumstances, Mattis' fascination turned to horror...
How does one keep the memory alive of the 800,000 Belarusian Jews killed during the Holocaust? For two Jewish families with links to Florida, along with a couple from England, the answer was simple: One monument at a time. In the first half of the twentieth century, the Jews in Belarus were its third largest ethnic group in this Eastern European country. The population of cities such as Minsk, Pinsk, Mahiliou, Babrujsk, Vitsyebsk, and Gomel was more than 50 percent Jewish. Tragically, some...
In early winter 2017, Sheri Morton, a thirty-year resident of Osceola County and a political activist, was very concerned about the upswing in anti-Semitic incidents that were occurring throughout Florida and the nation. "I was scared," said Sheri, who is Jewish, "and so were many of my friends." Morton's fears were supported by statistics. According to the Anti-Defamation League's report, anti-Semitic incidents in the United States had surged more than one-third in 2016 and jumped 86 percent...
Browsing recently at a Denver airport store on my way home to Orlando, I was greeted by the clerk. Exchanging pleasantries, I asked him how his day was going. “Counting the hours, ma’am. Just counting the hours.” “It can’t be that bad,” I replied. “I am working a 15-hour shift in a newspaper stand in an airport,” he said. “And this with a college degree. As I said, ‘Just counting the hours.’” Okay, so this young man was not living his dream. But all I could think of is that the clerk appeared to be the same age as a friend of mine who beca...
One of the nicest things about our community in Florida is our diversity. Often, while I am working out in my exercise class or enjoying a concert or eating in our small bistro, I am struck by the number of people from all cultures, ethnicities, and countries that live here. An example of our melting pot was seen in the Shapiro's Who-Made-the-Hamantashen tale. In May 2016, my husband, Larry, and I purchased tickets for a Flores de Mayo celebration that was being sponsored by our community's...
As I settled into my chair at the Shalom Club table at Solivita Club Expo, I put my pocketbook on the empty chair from the Bellisimo Hair Salon which was next us. A few minutes later, a young Hispanic man asked me to move it so he could sit down. “Hope you don’t mind,” he said. “No problem!” I said, “it’s your chair.” And I put the bag on the floor. “It would be a “shanda” to put that nice bag on the floor!” he exclaimed. I took a closer look at the speaker. He certainly looked Hispanic, not someone who is familiar with the Jewish word for sha...
On Jan. 31, Jews will celebrate Tu B'Shevat, the day in which it is believed "trees come of age." For those of us who live in Central Florida, there is no more fitting a place to honor the Jewish "Earth Day" than at Bok Tower Gardens. The 60-acre sanctuary in nearby Lake Wales was the gift of Edward Bok. This son of impoverished Dutch immigrants became a highly successful publisher, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a respected humanitarian and an advocate of world peace and the environment....
On Dec. 23, Larry and I traveled 400 miles to spend time with our friends, Chris and Bernie Grossman, in their new home in Tallahassee. And on Dec. 25, the Shapiros and Grossmans upheld a tradition as steeped in Jewish culinary ritual as eating brisket on Rosh Hashanah, potato latkes on Chanukah, and matzo ball soup on Passover. We ate Chinese food on Christmas Day. Growing up in a small town in Upstate New York, my family didn't eat Chinese food on Christmas Day, or most other days of the...
Larry and I have many "pets" in our home. A butterfly rests outside our front door, and two larger ones fly on our lanai wall. A two-foot bear clutching his "Bear Feet Only" sign greets visitors on the front porch. Pedro the Parrot hangs on a curtain rod. And various bulldogs-stuffed, ceramic, and metal, are stationed around the house in honor of the nickname my boss gave me when I moved from the classroom to an administrative office. However, I would have to say my favorite animals in our...
A body of an American solider lying peacefully in the snow in a battlefield in Belgium. A Jewish boy in Brooklyn orphaned twice by World War II. And the world-renown photographer who connected the two. This is their story. Samuel Tannenbaum was born on July 10, 1942, in Washington, D.C. to Henry and Bertha Fiedel Tannenbaum. Less than two years later, Henry was drafted into the United States Army, Bertha and Sam moved to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn to be closer to their families. After...
"That doesn't belong here." Peter Gutensohn stared at the large tarnished sterling silver piece almost hidden in a dusty corner of Lanier's Historic Downtown Marketplace. Peter had come in to the antiques mall in Kissimmee, Florida, on an early spring day in 2016 to look for a silver serving platter for his wife, Kelly. He was a frequent visitor, often successful in his search for a specific old, beautiful object. And sometimes he bought interesting items "just because." A few years earlier,...
This year, for the first time in 60 years, Harry Lowenstein will be celebrating Rosh Hashanah without his beloved wife Carol. It will be a bittersweet occasion, only a few short weeks after what would have been their sixtieth anniversary. But Harry is a survivor-as well as a mensch-a person with integrity and honor. Harry Lowenstein was born in Fuerstrau, Germany, in 1931, the younger of two children. When he was seven years old, Harry was expelled from school for being a Jew. In 1940, he and...
He drew a circle that shut me out—Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in! —Edwin Markham According to the Bipartisanship Policy Center, our country’s history of working across the aisle can be traced back to as early as 1787. Our founding fathers, struggling with congressional representation regarding the populations of the colonies, reached what later was know as the Great Compromise. It was decided that our new government would exist with a proportional House of Repre...
