Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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The Jewish Academy of Orlando and the JCC were evacuated Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 10 a.m. because of a bomb threat. According to the police, a threatening call was made to the JAO by a man who said he wanted to "hurt as many children as possible." The person at the school who reported the threat told police the man's voice sounded robotic, like he was using a device to disguise his voice. As a result, the entire campus-the school, Early Childhood Learning Center, JCC, gym, and Federation-was...
After nine years of serving the Jewish students and faculty at UCF, as well as at Valencia and Rollins Colleges, Chabad at University of Central Florida will have a permanent home near the UCF campus. Rabbi Chaim and Rivkie Lipskier, who live in Oviedo with their five children aged 8, 7, 6, 3, and 1 month, serve as co-directors of Chabad at UCF. They purchased a two-acre lot on Alafaya Trail, next door to University House. The couple plans to build a nearly 15,000 square-foot new home for the...
On Jan. 20, JFS Orlando was awarded a $40,000 grant from the Orlando Magic Youth Foundation, a McCormick Foundation Fund, for its Family Stabilization Program during a surprise ceremony held at the Amway Center. The OMYF All-Star team was announced in the spirit of the NBA Draft. In all, 18 nonprofit organizations were recognized and $1 million in donations awarded. The Family Stabilization Program strives to improve a family's overall stability and self-sufficiency through financial education...
Zionistas are pleased to present "To Israel with Love" on Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 7 p.m. The program will take place at the Eastmonte Civic Center, 830 Magnolia Drive, Altamonte Springs. There is no admission charge. The evening will start with a presentation by Diana Scimone titled "You didn't just say that, did you? A Christian response to anti-Semitism." This will be followed by Uri Argov who will present "Israel's modern–day contributions to the world: Technology, medicine, agricultures and m...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process a year ago has led to an accelerating war of words over Israeli settlements, with Israel accusing its growing chorus of foreign critics of prejudging the final terms of a peace deal at best-and anti-Semitism at worst. The battle heated up this week with the release of a report by Human Rights Watch arguing that doing business with West Bank settlements reinforces Israel's presence there and contributes to human rights abuses. The report comes a day after the European Union,...
(JTA)-A day after witnessing her mother's brutal murder, Dafna Meir's teenage daughter spoke before hundreds who had come to mourn her. Dafna Meir, 38, a mother of six, was stabbed to death on Sunday near the entrance of her West Bank home. "It's hard for me to think we will not laugh together or fight anymore, that you won't accompany me to the IDF induction ceremony, down the aisle, and to the maternity ward," Renana Meir, 17, said at a Jerusalem cemetery, calling her mother her best friend....
Synagogues should not be a place to go just on holidays or special occasions. Today’s challenge is to make synagogues relevant and meaningful so that they are viewed as spiritual and educational centers designed to encourage community engagement year-round. In an effort to find ways to better engage South Florida’s Jewish Community, The Orloff Central Agency for Jewish Education (Orloff CAJE) and the Institute of Jewish Knowledge and Learning (IJKL) will be showcasing innovative practices that have brought a new energy to the 21st century syn...
Congregation Beth Am is collaborating with Stephen Halpin, certified life coach, to offer a 3-part series titled "Tough Conversations." The first program is Sunday, Feb. 7, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. at Beth Am, 3899 Sand Lake Road in Longwood. Seven years ago Halpin lost his mother after a long illness. Since then he has watched his father go from never being sick a day in his life to a nursing home. It happened quickly and unexpectedly. Halpin will share his story and the lessons he learned...
It's a highly contested and complicated region, one where the entanglement of history, religion and politics causes most students to shy away from learning more about it. But University of Central Florida freshman Jared Dipsiner isn't daunted by the challenge. He's even taken his interest in the Middle East a step further, making it his responsibility to relay the hard facts to both local and distant communities. "I feel like the Middle East is, in [some] people's minds, a primitive and barbaric...
Join the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Orlando for its Februrary program at the Family History Center (FHC) in North Orlando, 45 East Par Street. The meeting is Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016 from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. The Family History Center is a great place to do genealogical research, because of its access to numerous databases that are essential to your research. The center has volunteers who are available to help you use these tools, and it's free! The volunteers can also help you overcome the...
On Tuesday, Feb. 2, at Ohev Shalom at 11:30 a.m., The Orlando Chapter of Hadassah will present a program that is essential to the wellbeing of every person living in this community. No one should miss this presentation. Your safety may depend on it! In today’s stressful and often frightening environment, you may feel overwhelmed about your personal safety when out in public. Laura Lang, the senior advocate officer of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, will discuss the many dangerous situations you may encounter and how to best protect you...
The rulers of the Arab Gulf states are, it seems, increasingly attentive to what Israel has to say about the balance of power in the region. As a rising Shi’a Iran faces off against a Sunni coalition led by Saudi Arabia, the core shared interest between Israel’s democracy and these conservative theocracies—countering Iran’s bid to become the dominant power and influence in the Islamic world—has rarely been as apparent. Hence the interview given by a senior IDF officer to a Saudi weekly, Elaph, which laid out how Israel analyzes the present w...
Usually, most people don’t take a real interest in politics until at least spring of an election year. Admittedly this year is different. The rise of The Donald continues to amaze. Obviously Bernie Sanders has touched a nerve. Jews have been almost solidly Democratic for over a hundred years. The reasons are simple. The Democratic Party stood by the unions. The Jews who became citizens in the early 1900s and beyond knew that their only chance against the “Stinking Bosses” was to organize. My grandfather, Abraham Shiplacoff (go ahead, Googl...
A New York Times review of a book describing what may be the world’s largest refugee camp, near Kenya’s border with Somalia, notes that 60 million people have been displaced throughout the world as a result of conflict and other mass misfortunes. We can paraphrase Stalin: one person forced from home to a condition of poverty and wandering is a tragedy. Sixty million of them is a statistic. Other headlines are about a million refugees moving from the Middle East to Europe in 2015, another million projected for 2016, with European gov...
Malicious campaigns to intimidate Jewish and other pro-Israel students and faculty into silence are occurring on far too many North American college campuses. Driven by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and its many off-campus enablers, the campaigns are loud and they do not care about appearing extreme. They create chaos and feed off the ensuing controversy to gain attention for their anti-Israel accusations. The goal: to create an atmosphere of political conformity based on an assumption of ill-will against Israel and its supporters....
It was one of those encounters that had happened to me so many times on book tour in America: the car ride back to my hotel from the Jewish Community Center after a few hours of lecturing, answering questions and signing books. Usually, the drivers in these short rides were enthusiastic volunteers who were fans and /or members of the book committee that had invited me in the first place. This ride was no different. Slim, pretty, with expensive diamond rings, driving the latest hybrid, my driver spoke to me knowledgeably about my books and...
“I am proud of my son,” the father of 16-year-old Morad Adais, of the Palestinian village of Dura, declared this week. What do you suppose was the occasion for this burst of parental pride? What was it that young Morad did which so pleased his father? An impressive report card? Helping with home repairs? Taking care of younger siblings? No, what Morad did to bring honor to the Adais family was that he broke into the home of a young Israeli Jewish mother of six and brutally stabbed her to death. Not that the elder Adais is the exception. On the...
MORNING AND EVENING MINYANS (Call synagogue to confirm time.) 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 of Orlando—Monday – Friday, 7:45 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Tem...
Sheriff Jerry Demings recently visited with the students of the Orlando Jewish Day School for Hour of Code during National Computer Science Week. "I can't believe an 8-year-old just taught me how to code," said the surprised sheriff....
Richard C. Wolff, age 82, of Longwood, passed away on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016, at Florida Hospital—Altamonte. Mr. Wolff, a Boston native, was born on July 17, 1933, to the late Simon and Jennie Friedman Wolff. After serving in the U.S. Army, he attended Boston University. He was a CLU for many years, consulting for the insurance industry and pensions. Mr. Wolff was a member and past president of the former Temple Israel of Swampscott, Mass. On May 24, 1991, in Boston, he married the former Ruth Silberman, his wife of nearly 25 years, who s...
Choices 2016, the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando's annual women's philanthropy event, is focused primarily on giving. But some who attend will be receiving, going home with a valuable piece of art, jewelry or other prize from the popular Choices Raffle. Women purchase Choices Raffle tickets for $25 each (or 5 tickets for $100), then get to choose which item(s) they would like to win and deposit their ticket in the appropriate ticket bowl during the event on Feb. 9 at Congregation Ohev Shal...
Anna Rose Finer, daughter of Paul and Teresa Finer of Orlando, will be called to the Torah as a bat mitzvah on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, at Congregation Ohev Shalom in Maitland. Anna is in the seventh grade at Blankner School where she is a member of the National Junior Honor Society, Blankner Symphony Orchestra, and the yearbook staff. She is also a member of Girl Scout Troop 857, and Kadima. Anna also enjoys dance and volunteers at Kinneret Apartments. Sharing in the family's simcha will be...
When the Holocaust Center decided to sponsor a trip centered around European Jewish Heritage July 10-20, they found the ideal travel agent in Oren Lotringer. As the director of Group Operations for Tourico Holidays, America's largest travel wholesaler, he had the right credentials for planning a complex, memorable trip. More important, perhaps, he has a deep personal interest in the history the group will be exploring. Like many of his generation, he learned about the Holocaust through books, an...
The following are the events that will be held at various temples sponsored by the Endowment of the Jewish Federation of Volusia & Flagler counties. These events are free and open to the public. No Solicitation. Community Shabbat service tonight Everyone is cordially invited to attend the 33rd annual community-wide Shabbat Service to be held at Temple Beth-El, 579 N. Nova Road, Ormond Beach, Fla., 32174 on Friday, Jan. 29, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. This is the once a year event that most temples will be closed to come together and pray as one....
Justice finally served... I read this in the current issue of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) Digest and pass it along to you: "A judge in Kansas has followed a jury's recommendation and sentenced the avowed anti-Semitic and white supremacist FRAZIER GLENN MILLER Jr. to death for the fatal shooting of three people at two Jewish sites in April 2014. Miller was convicted of killing Reat Underwood, 14, and his grandfather, William Corporon, 69, outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas...
