Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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People often complain that they have no voice in government legislation, thinking erroneously that they are just “one person whose voice doesn’t matter.” But this isn’t true. There is a grassroots political action group in the area that works with locally elected congressional representatives who support pro-Israeli legislation. Called the Central Florida Pro Israel Friends Political Action Group, it’s been in operation for more than nine years quietly meeting with local represent...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - With a new right-wing government in Israel raising alarm bells among many in the United States, the timing seemed ripe for a gathering by AIPAC, which regularly convenes bigwigs to talk about the U.S.-Israel relationship. But the group's conference this week in Washington is focusing not on that relationship but on American electoral politics. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee's "Political Leadership Forum" this week is closed to press. But it offers the latest...
Orlando lost another builder of the Jewish community. Described over the years by many friends as compassionate; serious; deeply devoted to the community, Congregation Ohev Shalom, Israel and the world, Burt Chasnov, 75, passed away on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023. Burton R. Chasnov was born on Aug. 14, 1947 in Brooklyn, N.Y. and attended Brooklyn College where he was a member of Tau Epsilon Phi Fraternity. He received his bachelor's degree and became a Certified Public Accountant. He started his...
Many people describe Bethanne (Wellness) Weiss as someone with boundless energy and incredible wisdom. The Jewish Pavilion is pleased to honor Weiss at its upcoming fashion show on Thursday, Feb.16 at Dillard's Altamonte Mall. "Bethanne is someone who rarely says 'no' and she has the uncanny ability to do it all," says Nancy Ludin CEO of Jewish Pavilion. "She is not only chairing the fashion show, but she is modeling and serving as the honoree. For Bethanne, wearing three hats at the same time...
A Continuous Care Retirement Community is the same as a Life Plan Community. In both cases a continuum of care is provided — independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. Some CCRC’s offer memory care, and some do not. When healthcare needs change, the CCRC is equipped to handle the new needs on their campus. This is not true of most rental communities, which may offer a few levels of care but not the entire array. The disadvantage of a CCRC is the price. Most require a sizeable entrance fee ranging from $10,000 to...
(JTA) — A prize established to honor a single inspiring Jew with a lifetime of achievements has been awarded this year to a nameless group whose work is ongoing: Jewish activists in war-ravaged Ukraine. The Genesis Prize Foundation said the war in Ukraine required a change in the approach it has taken since creating the prize, known by some as the “Jewish Nobel,” a decade ago. “Recognizing the extraordinary nature of events dominating the past 11 months, The Genesis Prize Selection Committee has decided to depart from the usual custom of awar...
(JNS) — Speaking at the annual Combat Antisemitism Movement Advisory Board meeting Wednesday night, chairman Natan Sharansky underscored the importance of countering the global rise of antisemitism. “For the last 20 years, we could say antisemitism is on the rise, so what makes this year different?” said Sharansky, addressing the online meeting. “In the past, we’ve talked about antisemitism on the left, and antisemitism on the right. This year it became mainstream.” The Combat Antisemitism Movement facilitates a non-partisan movement to...
(JNS) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday repeated his promise to block vocal critic of Israel Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In an interview with Punchbowl News, McCarthy said that he would also prevent Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from assuming their assignments in the House Intelligence Committee. “Swalwell can’t get a security clearance in the private sector. I’m not going to give him a government clearance,” McCarthy said. “Schiff has lied too many times...
(JNS) — The White House announced on Thursday that Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff will travel to Europe this month to participate in Holocaust remembrance events. Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, is set to visit Krakow, Poland, from Jan. 26 -29. On Jan. 27, Emhoff, joined by U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt, is slated to visit the Memorial and Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau. He will also participate in a wreath-laying ceremony and attend the annual commemoration of International H...
(JNS) — After two years of pointedly ignoring a problem largely of his own making, President Joe Biden finally made a brief visit to the U.S. southern border in El Paso, Texas. While there, however, he saw little of the human cost of the catastrophe, as he didn’t meet or see any of the illegal immigrants who have streamed across the border since he assumed office. But in the days before he arrived for what was little more than a photo op, Biden rekindled a controversy that has been simmering for most of the last decade. The president dec...
(JNS) — It seems that every Jewish organization claims it is fighting antisemitism. Yet, it is clear that they are failing. Many reasons account for the spread of this cancer. One is that some Jews are antisemites or have taken positions that are antisemitic. Others are enablers of antisemitism. Jew-versus-Jew is not a new story, but usually, we have managed to unite to fight a common enemy. Now we are proving the adage that we are our own worst enemies. While it is true that antisemitism is a disease of both the far-right and the far-left, w...
It is a fundamental American principle that religious and racial discrimination is impermissible, unacceptable and unjust. We Americans do not let threats of violence stop us from changing a discriminatory “status quo.” Thus, threats from the Ku Klux Klan and other bigots did not stop the U.S. government from ending the longstanding “status quo” of segregated schools, “whites only” drinking fountains and practices that prevented Jews and blacks from living in many neighborhoods. Instead, we stood up to the racist Black-hating terrorists....
(JNS) — In their zeal to construct an academic setting that reflects the true diversity of the nation and attempts to redress past discrimination and exclusion, universities have created “protected” groups of students who are scrupulously shielded against any emotional or ideological assault via university harassment policies and codes of conduct. There is one group, however, that is absent from the accepted list of protected groups, even though, as a small ethnic and religious minority, they should be recognized as such. That group, perha...
(JNS) — Imagine if Pope Francis were to say: “Only Christians are permitted in the Vatican! No Muslims and no Jews!” The “international community” would be outraged. But the pontiff would never say that. Muslims and Jews are welcome in the Vatican. Imagine if Israelis were to say: “Only Jews are permitted on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount! No Muslims and no Christians!” The “international community” would be outraged. But Israelis would never say that. Christians and Muslims are welcome on the Temple Mount, Judaism’s most sacred site, the place where...
MORNING MINYANS Chabad of North Orlando and Chabad of Altamonte Springs are holding in-person minyans. Chabad of South Orlando — Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. and 10 minutes before sunset; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 8:15 a.m., 407-354-3660. Congregation Ahavas Yisrael — Monday - Friday, 7:30 a.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-644-2500. Congregation Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Daytona — Monday, 8 a.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m., 904-672-9300. Congregation Ohev Shalom — Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-298-4650. GOBOR Community Minyan at Jewish Academy...
(JTA) — The zoo in Cologne, Germany, has gotten its first check from the $26 million gift promised by the widow of a Holocaust survivor who credited the city’s residents for saving him during the war. Elizabeth Reichert willed the funds to the Cologne Zoological Garden in 2017 in honor of her husband Arnulf, who died in 1998. Both Reicherts were born in Cologne and met during World War II, when Elizabeth was part of the local anti-Nazi resistance network and Arnulf, a German Jew, was in hiding with the network’s help. “They only survive...
(New York Jewish Week) - In 2017, Deborah Veach went back to Germany, looking for the site of the displaced persons camp where she and her parents had been housed after World War II. They were in suspension, between the lives her parents led in Belarus before they were shattered by the Nazis, and the unknown fate awaiting them as refugees without a country. To her dismay, and despite the fact that Foehrenwald was one of the largest Jewish DP centers in the American-controlled zone of Germany,...
(JTA) – As Israel’s new right-wing government continued to signal that it would push through measures to cripple the judiciary and clamp down on public dissent and news operations, thousands of citizens took to the streets in protest and one prominent opposition figure warned of imminent “civil war.” A reported 10,000 demonstrators gathered Saturday night in Tel Aviv to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new right-wing government, which contains several ministers who are openly hostile to Arabs and Palestinians, LGBTQ peo...
(JTA) - Pinchas Goldshmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow who fled the country earlier this year, said other Russian Jews should leave before it's too late in an interview with the Guardian. "When we look back over Russian history, whenever the political system was in danger you saw the government trying to redirect the anger and discontent of the masses towards the Jewish community," Goldschmidt told the Guardian. "We saw this in tsarist times and at the end of the Stalinist regime." He...
January is National Poverty Awareness in America Month and, between our busy Pearlman Food Pantry and the effects of poverty all our Family of Services witness every day, we can safely say that coping with poverty can be very difficult. The emotional and psychological struggle are often the most distressing of all, especially the sense of failure and humiliation. Unlike a sudden trauma, poverty can be relentless and demands immense courage, determination, and most of all endurance to persevere....
(JNS) - The Deborah Project, a public interest law firm dedicated since 2016 to protecting Jewish civil rights in the American educational system, recently announced that it will hire more litigation attorneys thanks to a generous donation. "As the result of a generous grant from a private foundation, TDP is extending its reach, and hiring additional lawyers to enable it to bring this fight to more courtrooms," Legal Director Lori Lowenthal Marcus told JNS. "We have brought a legal challenge in...
(JNS) - Sometimes going home is hard. Enter La'aretz, a new non-profit organization with the mission to help Israelis and Jews overcome bureaucratic and financial obstacles to immigrating, returning, visiting and traveling to Israel. "There are a good amount of people that just give up on the idea of moving or returning to Israel, just because they basically have no one to ask or be assisted by," said Shelly Harel, the organization's founder and CEO. Harel is a former employee at the Israeli con...
(JNS) — The Eretz HaKodesh and Coalition for Jewish Values organizations criticized a letter — written by The Jewish Federations of North America, The Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Hayesod and the World Zionist Organization — which expressed concerns over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government. Netanyahu’s cabinet was sworn in last Thursday. “It is our duty to share with you our deep concern regarding voices in the government on issues that could undermine the long-standing status quo on religious affairs that could affect the...
(JNS) — Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said he was “overjoyed” when he heard that the U.N. Security Council was holding an emergency meeting Thursday over the “quiet, orderly, uneventful” visit of an Israeli government minister to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. “I figured that if this important body is meeting to discuss such a trivial matter, then we clearly achieved world peace overnight,” Gilad Erdan said, mocking the council’s decision to submit to the Palestinians’ demand for a discussion on the matter. Unsurprisingly, much...
Mr. Robert Burton Crystal, 87, of Winter Spring, Florida died Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, at his home following a brief illness. Mr. Crystal was born April 21, 1935, in Brooklyn, New York to the late Louis and Shirley (Masch) Crystal. Mr. Crystal was a United States Army Veteran and the owner/operator of Crystal’s Penthouse Dry Cleaners. He is predeceased by his wife, Iris Crystal. Mr. Crystal is survived by his loving children; Jody Crystal of Winter Springs, Jeffrey (Barbara) Crystal of Oviedo; grandchildren, Cady, Jacob, Jesse, Sean and Zak. G...
