Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(Israel21c via JNS) - I expected the office of SpaceIL-the company that created "Beresheet," the first-ever private spacecraft to attempt a moon landing, in 2019-to be in an industrial zone, filled with highly classified, space-age robotics. Instead, it's in an ordinary office building, next to companies geared to earthly pursuits like home decorating and teeth whitening. The only hint of the company's higher aims is in the office's modest conference room, where there is a scale replica of the...
(JTA) - U.S. Jewish groups slammed a top Presbyterian Church official for Martin Luther King Day remarks that equated Israel's West Bank "occupation" with slavery and implied that American Jews have the influence to get the U.S. government to end it. "The continued occupation in Palestine/Israel is 21st-century slavery and should be abolished immediately," Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, II, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA said in remarks released Monday. "Given the history of Jewish...
(JNS) — The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday adopted an Israeli-sponsored resolution that condemns denial and distortion of the Holocaust. The resolution, co-sponsored by Germany and backed by the United States, Russia and many other countries, affirms that the Holocaust “will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice.” The text also points out the “growing prevalence of Holocaust denial or distortion through the use of information and communications technologies,” and urges all U.N. members to...
(JTA) - Nikki Fried, the outspoken Jewish Democratic candidate running for governor in Florida, compared her rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis, to Hitler in an interview, prompting DeSantis supporters to defend his record on Jewish issues. Fried, Florida's current agriculture commissioner and a former marijuana lobbyist with ties to the state's Jewish community, made the comparison in an NPR interview on Friday. "He is doing everything possible to take power away from local governments, taking away...
StandWithUs is proud to announce that it recently opened a Holocaust Education Center. The purpose of the center is to create a toolbox of user-friendly Holocaust education presentations and materials for public or private schools that have experienced Holocaust denial, lack of information, or simply want to proactively teach their teen and/or young adult students about the organized persecution and murder of six million European Jews in the Holocaust. The center’s presentations can be given by Matt Lebovic, who is the founding director of the...
The Rosen JCC in Dr. Phillips is excited to celebrate Winterfest on Feb. 19, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. This event will give Florida residents a real taste of the fun things winter offers. There will be an Arctic Snow Slide with real snow. ou even have the opportunity to make snowballs to throw with your friends. But if snow isn’t for you there is a Rock Wall and Interactive Sports to play. You can take a ride on the Holiday Train and stop at the Petting Zoo or play the Inflatable Sports Games. This is going to be an event for the entire family. You c...
“Jonathan Feldstein did an excellent job of the overall history of Gush Etzion [Heritage, Jan. 21 issue ‘The rise and fall and rise again of Gush Etzion’],” a Heritage reader wrote. He continued, “There’s just one thing I thought might be interesting and that is how it got the name Gush Etzion.” The reader explained that Gush means “block” so it’s the “block of Etzion.” Where did the word “Etzion” come from? The reader went on to explain it comes from Shmuel Yosef Holtzman (or Holzman). Holtzman was a Jewish businessman of German extra...
Beginning in February, Chabad in Metro Orlando will offer Meditation from Sinai, a fascinating new six-session course by the acclaimed Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, exploring the nature of Jewish meditation and the profound benefits it can bring to one's daily life. Participants in the course will discover what Jewish meditation is, the pivotal role it plays in Jewish tradition, and the fundamental ideas it is based on. The course will teach crucial life tools that help us respond effectively...
(JTA) — Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, the man at the center of the Colleyville, Texas, synagogue hostage crisis last weekend, says that he is looking for another job, but wants the world’s focus to remain on his congregation’s trauma and healing process rather than his career. “My congregation, Congregation Beth Israel, and Colleyville have just undergone a traumatic experience. I’ve just undergone a traumatic experience,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “And that’s where the focus needs to be.” Cytron-Walker was responding to an...
(JNS) - A U.S. District Court judge in New York dismissed a civil case brought by the family of slain Israeli American pro-Israel activist Ari Fuld against the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, citing lack of jurisdiction in a decision that could have broad implications in how American victims of terrorists can hold perpetrators liable. The lawsuit was brought by Fuld's family and the U.S. Justice Department after the 2018 murder of the 45-year-old father of four by a Palestinian terrorist....
(JNS) — Unilever’s stock has plunged 20.7 percent in the six months since it informed Avi Singer, the owner of Ben & Jerry’s Israel, that his contract was over unless he stopped selling the company’s ice cream in Judea and Samaria. That amounts to a $26 billion loss, according to Channel 12 News, which first reported on the story. The loss stems from the withdrawal of investments, holdings and pension funds by dozens of states who have anti-boycott laws in place, such as New York, Illinois and Texas. “This is a tremendous boost to the dogge...
(JNS) — As far back as 2013, Pakistani Muslim terrorists plotted to take “foreign Jews” hostage to trade for “Lady Al-Qaeda.” In 2022, a Pakistani Muslim terrorist actually went out and did it. The hostage crisis at Congregation Beth Israel in Texas, ended with Faisal Akram of Blackburn — another post-industrial English town where Muslims make up a third of the population and Pakistanis account for more than 10 percent — dead and his Jewish hostages set free. Back home, the Blackburn Muslim Community page announced “Faisal Akram has sadly...
On Jan. 15, 2022, during Shabbat services, Congregation Beth Israel located in Colleyville, Texas, a suburb of Ft. Worth was attacked by an armed individual who barricaded himself in the synagogue, after taking four congregants hostage, including the synagogue’s rabbi. Fortunately, there were much fewer attendees on this Shabbat morning because of the continuing pandemic, as most congregants were participating at home through live streaming of religious services. The attack on this synagogue is the latest in a string of violent and lethal a...
I am writing this on Jan. 6, 2022. It could not wait until my usual deadline date. I was two years old in 1932. The only thing I knew about the burning down of the German Reichstag (their Parliament Building) was what I read and was taught in school. A group of disgruntled voters who had not won the election stormed Germany’s Capitol and burned down the Reichstag because their chosen leader, one Adolph Hitler had won only thirty two percent of the popular vote. They were told by the Nazi party and believed the vote had been rigged and that H...
(CAMERA via JNS) — In its coverage of Saturday’s hostage-taking at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, The Associated Press has advanced, intentionally or not, the absurdly false narrative that the terror attack was not connected to the Jewish community. The leading news agency has completely ignored statements by the Anti-Defamation League, the largest and most established American organization combating antisemitism, along with remarks by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other senior U.S. and British off...
(JTA) — In 1957, at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered words whose wisdom continue to resound today: “For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater.” When a weekend meant to commemorate Dr. King was shattered by the hostage-taking at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, we called upon each other as longtime friends a...
(JNS) — Millions of people around the world, including myself, spent much of our Saturday with our thoughts and prayers focused on Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. As the events were unfolding, my thoughts went toward the antisemitic mass shooting that took place on Oct. 27, 2018, at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh. The perpetrator killed 11 Jewish worshippers and wounded six others, including several Holocaust survivors. It was the deadliest attack to date on the Jewish community in the United Sta...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, some minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) 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. Congregatio...
(JNS) — Israel is preparing to test its novel coronavirus vaccine candidate, BriLife, as a booster dose, NRx Pharmaceuticals reported this week. The American company signed an agreement with the Defense Ministry in July to help fast-track the vaccine, developed by the Israel Institute for Biological Research. NRx, which is traded on Nasdaq, was given exclusive worldwide development, manufacturing and marketing rights. NRx met with IIBR experts last week to review data and research related to BriLife’s efficacy against the Omicron variant of...
(JTA) - "P.O. Box 1142" was the only name the Jewish GIs were given as to their destination. The American World War II soldiers, many of them refugees from Europe, assumed they would be flying overseas to fight Nazis. Instead, they were taken to an off-the-grid compound in rural Virginia - to look after Nazis. "Camp Confidential: America's Secret Nazis," an animated documentary from Israeli directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan, tells the story of a group of Jewish American veterans whose sole...
TEL AVIV - A few weeks ago, Joel Tenenbaum, 81, and Marilyn Berkowitz, 84, arrived in Tel Aviv on an El Al flight from New York ready to start their new lives in Israel. They had met through JDate five years earlier. Each was widowed; Tenebaum had been married for 47 years, Berkowitz, known as Lyn, for 49. A retired New York trial lawyer raised in Brooklyn, Tenenbaum always had felt an affinity for Israel - fueled since childhood by Hebrew school and the movie "Exodus." Berkowitz, a former...
(JTA) - Golden Globes fans may have noticed something different this year: The annual entertainment awards were not announced on TV, and not for COVID-19 reasons. NBC dropped the broadcast over the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's diversity problem - none of the 87 members of the Globes' awards body are Black. (The one celebrity to release a video referencing involvement in the awards this year was Jewish actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who highlighted the HFPA's charity efforts.) But the...
Before I write any further: let me say OOPS! ... I wrote in a recent column that Amy Schneider, a contestant on "Jeopardy" was Jewish. She claims not to be. So sorry! (She also claims not to be a man.) Great Jewish talent ... The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Harpo, Groucho, Chico and Zeppo were the names we knew them by. All have since passed away. (I loved them all ... but especially Gr...
\(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Almost exactly 18 months ago, as the U.S. settled into its first pandemic summer, the Upper West Side’s flagship Jewish community center delivered some bad news to its staff: more than a third of them would be laid off or furloughed. The Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan joined JCCs nationwide in cutting staff when in-person programming abruptly shut down that spring and summer. Facing the devastating wave of COVID that hit the city at the time, the JCC Manhattan found itself unable to offer the range of services...
(JNS) — For two years now, since the outbreak of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, hotels in Israel have seen dramatic drops in stays by incoming tourists; tour guides have lost most, if not all, of their business; and restaurants and other business owners who rely heavily on visitor traffic have suffered catastrophic and often irreversible damage, with many forced to close. The question on everyone’s mind is: When will tourism to Israel pick up again? Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahum told JNS that the tourism industry has been mos...
