Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Articles from the January 16, 2015 edition


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  • For a Jewish baseball purist, Cuba beckons

    Hillel Kuttler, JTA|Jan 16, 2015

    (JTA)-To the dismay of baseball fan Kit Krieger, future travels to Cuba will no longer include get-togethers with ex-Washington Senators pitcher Connie Marrero. Marrero, who played for Washington from 1950 to 1954, died in Havana last April at age 102, a few months after Krieger's last visit and three years after Krieger helped arrange for Marrero a $10,000 annual pension from Major League Baseball. Theirs was a special friendship, one of many forged by Krieger, a Vancouver resident who will ret...

  • Cong. Beth Sholom hosts Rabbi's Torah Roundtable

    Jan 16, 2015

    Rabbi Karen Allen of Congregation Beth Sholom in Leesburg will lead a Torah Roundtable on Jan. 22 at 1 p.m. at the Sumter County Administration Building (with the golden dome) at 7375 Powell Rd. (near Pinellas Plaza and 466A), Wildwood. The roundtable provides a unique opportunity to talk with the rabbi as she leads an informal and interactive discussion focusing on topics of contemporary Jewish interest suggested by the Torah portion that will be read at the Saturday morning service that week. The public is also invited to join the...

  • Celebrating Shabbat as a volunteer

    Jan 16, 2015

    Whenever a helper is needed at Shabbat services, Mary Carter Eick (standing), of Griswold Home Heath, is there, ready and available. Eick became involved with the Jewish Pavilion a year ago when she became a sponsor. Since that time she has celebrated many holidays on the Jewish calendar. While she enjoys them all, Eick especially enjoys celebrating Shabbat with her dear friend and Jewish Pavilion volunteer, Helen Tishman (seated). The Jewish Pavilion is grateful to the Griswold Home Health...

  • Israeli group aims to help Arabs-and contain them

    Ben Sales, JTA|Jan 16, 2015

    LOD, Israel (JTA)-He says he's a leader of a "Zionist settlement" movement, but Raz Sofer's home is no West Bank outpost. Sofer, 25, is the manager of a 100-member student village in this mixed Jewish-Arab city in central Israel. The village, comprised of several apartment complexes, offers students cheap rent in exchange for volunteer work with Lod's poor residents, many of them Arab-Israelis. Sofer is fluent in Arabic and is proud of the students who volunteer in Arab kindergartens or run...

  • Amid $6M deficit, Detroit-area JCC may close

    Uriel Heilman, JTA|Jan 16, 2015

    (JTA)-Amid persistent budget deficits, the Jewish community center building in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park may close this spring. The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit announced Monday that a committee is going to recommend that the building shut down in light of annual losses of $1 million and a total deficit of $6 million. The structure, situated on 10 Mile Road, is one of Detroit JCC's two buildings. The other is in West Bloomfield, Mich., about 30 minutes away. After the JCC's...

  • Bess Myerson, only Jewish Miss America, dead at 90

    Jan 16, 2015

    (JTA)-Bess Myerson, the only Jewish woman to be crowned Miss America, has died. Myerson, who also was a spokeswoman for the Anti-Defamation League and donated $1.1 million to help found the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, died on Dec. 14 at her home in Santa Monica, Calif., The New York Times reported. She was 90. Her death had not been publicly reported. After being crowned Miss America in September 1945, days after the close of World War II, Myerson went on to have a career in public...

  • Weekly roundup of world briefs from JTA

    JTA|Jan 16, 2015

    Victims of supermarket attack remembered at Paris synagogue PARIS (JTA)—Hundreds gathered with the leaders of France and Israel to remember the victims of an attack at a kosher supermarket near Paris. French President Francois Hollande and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined several hundred members of the Jewish community at the memorial Sunday night at the Grand Synagogue of Paris, also known as the Synagogue de la Victoire. Hollande did not deliver remarks at the synagogue. The sister of attack victim Yoav Hattab, one of four J...

  • Million-dollar 'Chocolate Bar': First-grade buddies raise seven figures for rare disease

    Jan 16, 2015

    LOS ANGELES (JTA)-A fundraising campaign started quietly by two first graders two years ago to help find a cure for a rare genetic disease just passed the $1 million mark, with donations streaming in from all 50 states and 60 countries across the globe. The million-dollar achievement has been celebrated as the perfect feel-good story, but the trigger for this global effort was a somber diagnosis at the birth of Jonah Pournazarian. The playful, redheaded youngster was born weighing four pounds...

  • Ruth Popkin, pillar of Hadassah, JNF and Zionist movement, dies at 101

    Jan 16, 2015

    Ruth Popkin, who served as national president of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, from 1984 to 1988, passed away on Friday, Jan. 2, 2015 at the age of 101. “We have lost a leader of great dignity and accomplishment,” said Marcie Natan, Hadassah’s current national president. “Ruth was a pillar not only of Hadassah but also of the Zionist movement. We are grateful for her years of dedication, her passion for Israel and the example she set.” During Popkin’s presidency, Hadassah’s projects in Israel made advances that a...

  • Divers find prehistoric village beneath the sea near Haifa

    Abigail Klein Leichman|Jan 16, 2015

    (ISRAEL21c)—A water well that may be the oldest wooden structure ever found, and the oldest evidence of an ancient olive-oil industry, are among the preserved remains of a prehistoric village discovered underwater by Israeli researchers off the coast of Dado Zamir Beach in Haifa. These and other fascinating clues into New Stone Age (Neolithic) culture from about 7,700 years ago were uncovered beneath 100 cubic meters of sand. “The State of Israel is a pioneer in the study of prehistoric underwater villages flooded by the sea, and is at the cut...

  • Horizon Bay displayed one resident's Chanukiah for all to enjoy

    Jan 16, 2015

    Moving into an assisted living facility does not mean you have to leave your lifetime of memories behind. When Ruth moved into Horizon Bay on Montgomery Avenue in Altamonte Springs last year, she brought her large collection of Judaica with her. When the Jewish Pavilion volunteers came to visit her to celebrate Chanukah, they couldn't help but notice Ruth's prized possessions displayed in the front lobby. Here she is beaming with pride over her collection of Chanukiahs....