Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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On Sunday, Feb. 2, the Roth Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando will kick off its Camp J summer camps from 1– 4 p.m. at its Maitland location. The Camp J Kickoff will feature an opportunity to find out more information about everything that Camp J has to offer-from their specialty camps, such as magic, theater, Mad Science, LegoRobotics, and pottery; to their sports camps, such as Edgerrin James football, scuba, TGA golf and sports journalism camps. Coming off of a successful 2013 summer,...
(JNS.org) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made history last Monday by becoming the first Canadian leader to address the Israeli Knesset, saying Canada will stand by Israel ''through fire and water." Harper, who is making his first-ever trip to Israel, arrived on Sunday at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport to a lavish ceremony. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Harper's courage and said he is a "great friend of Israel and the Jewish people." In his speech to the Knesset,...
Stimulating conversation, enlightenment about current events, some adult learning, and a nice evening out with friends are what Congregation Ohev Shalom and the Roth JCC bring to the community in the upcoming spring series of the 92Y Live. "Congregation Ohev Shalom and the Roth JCC consistently bring the best and the brightest to our doorstep for the cost of going to a movie. Once again, the new series promises to be enriching and interesting," said Lisa Schwartz, chairwoman of Adult...
Tickets are now available and plans are well underway for “An Evening at the Oscars,” the Kinneret Council on Aging’s 8 over 80 Honorary Dinner that will be held on Sunday, Feb. 23. This year’s honorees are Ruth Billie Goldhar, Bill Kahn, Don Kaplan, Gordon Kotzin, Robert Petree, Rose Savage, Helen Tishman and Barbara Weinreich. The event will start at 5 p.m. with hors d’oeuvres and cocktails served in the Jessie Render Social Hall. At 5:45p.m., guests will move into the Delaney Dining Room where a gourmet sit-down dinner will be served. T...
AMSTERDAM (JTA)-She speaks only Japanese and is not entirely sure what country she's in, but 18-year-old Haruna Matsui is happy to stand in the rain for an hour with two friends to see the home of a person she has never met yet nonetheless considers her soul mate. "We visited Paris and Brussels, so I just had to come here to see Anne's home," an excited Matsui told JTA last week outside Amsterdam's Anne Frank House. Matsui has read Japanese manga comic book adaptations of Frank's diary several t...
WASHINGTON (JTA)- In previous AIPAC vs. White House dustups, the pro-Israel lobbying group's strategy was to speak softly and let Congress carry the big stick. But in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's face-off with the Obama administration over new Iran sanctions, congressional support may not be so readily available and keeping a low public profile is proving impossible. According to congressional insiders and some of the pro-Israel lobbying group's former senior executives, AIPAC...
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando's Jewish Community Relations Committee is pleased to announce a free community adult education initiative focusing on "Jews in American Politics: Advanced Topics." This short course will continue the successful fall 2013 community initiative offered through Beit Hamidrash. Dr. Terri Susan Fine, political science professor at UCF, will teach the class in three installments on Feb. 24, March 3 and March 10. The course will be open to the public....
Jewish National Fund (JNF) will host A Taste of Israel Cooking Demonstration and Brunch as the second event in their 2014 Women for Israel Campaign year on Sunday, Feb. 9, at 11 a.m. at a private home in Orlando. The event will feature guest speaker and chef Talia Tzour, JNF-KKL’s director of Major Donors. Tzour came to JNF in 2005 as the Israeli emissary to New York and New Jersey after 15 years with JNF-KKL offices in Israel. Born and raised in Jerusalem, Tzour spent her army years as a member of the Nachal Brigade and during the course of h...
People throughout Central Florida will have a chance to meet business professionals and executives at the Roth Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando on Tuesday, Feb. 11, at a professional networking luncheon, dubbed J-Lunch. The luncheon will be held from 11:30 a.m.-1p.m. at its Maitland location. Monica Wofford, president and CEO of Contagious Companies, will be the keynote speaker. "The luncheon topic will be how to make difficult people disappear: How to deal with stressful behavior and...
The supporters and volunteers of the Jewish Pavilion will present a free workshop about socialization at Chambrel at Island Lake on Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 10:30 a.m. The guest speaker will be Dr. Kevin O’Neil, chief medical officer for Brookdale Senior Living and co-editor and a contributing writer to “Optimal Aging Manual,” which Art Linkletter called “The Great Master Book for the Boomers.” Light refreshments will be served. RSVP to Wendy Levine at (407)678-9363 or email her at wendylevine@jewishpavilion.org....
I’ve written many times about my mother. My mother who lived alone. My mother who taught me to love literature, my community, and myself. My mother who taught me to give back far more than I received. My brilliant, independent mother. But I’ve never written about her voice. About how she spoke, how she wrote, the words she lived by. And they were magnificent words. I have waited, months after her death, to write about her. It’s because of the difficulty that words have to truly encompass someo...
I guess we could blame it on Mohammed’s lawyer. Apparently he never got Mohammed to write a will. As a result there was no clear heir to the throne of Islam. None of his sons made it to adulthood. So, some of his followers chose a relative, Ali, to be The Man while others went with a follower named Abu Bakr. Now, this is a very overly simplified explanation of why today there is the schism between Sunnis (Abu Bakr) and Shiites (Ali). Fights within the family are one thing. But the two wings of the Islamic religion have been fighting and k...
Meyer Lansky and Jonathan Pollard are both significant for what they say about US-Israel relations. Lansky was a gangster, a good American, and a good Zionist. He worked his underworld connections in behalf of U.S. efforts in World War II, the movement of refugees from Europe to Israel, and arms shipments to Israel at a crucial time. Israelis quarrel as to whether the country should have given in to U.S. demands to extradite him, despite claims of achieving sanctuary in Israel under the Law of Return, but we’ve pretty much stopped arguing a...
Here are three disturbing memes about Jews and Israel that I’ve noticed in three separate-but-related news stories recently. Meme No.1: “You’re ungrateful.” Here’s State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf responding to reported remarks by the Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon attacking Secretary of State John Kerry. “We find the remarks of the defense minister to be offensive and inappropriate, especially given all that the United States has done to support Israel’s security needs and will continue to do,” said Harf. Now, one can certainly...
Illegitimacy hangs like smog over Secretary of State John Kerry’s obsessive-compulsive Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy. Even assuming he succeeds in brokering a one-legged peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority administering the West Bank, it will not: • Affect the Gaza Strip, where half the Palestinian Arabs in the disputed territories live. Gaza is ruled by Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood derivative that violently ousted the Fatah-led P.A. Its charter is genocidal regarding not only Israel but also Jews in general. • Legally bind succe...
The Jewish world seems worried about Hillel. “Are you okay?” people keep asking me. Our phones at Ohio University Hillel are ringing with those calling to hear the “real” story, or to leave long-winded diatribes on our voicemail. Reporters ask if we’ll answer a few questions (no thanks). Hillel has been in The New York Times, The New Republic and every Jewish news outlet on the planet: Everybody wants to know how we feel about Swarthmore’s Hillel chapter deciding to open itself up to anti-Zionists, against the policy of national Hillel. Wel...
MORNING AND EVENING MINYANS (Call synagogue to confirm time.) Chabad of South Orlando—Monday and Thursday, 8 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. Temple Israel—Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-647-3055. FRIDAY, JANUARY 31 Ligh...
What started out as being a "chauffer" for his son turned Stewart Bloom into an entertainer. Several years ago, Bloom would drive his son Andrew, who at the time was preparing for his bar mitzvah, to the monthly musicals at Horizon Bay on Boston Avenue. Andrew would make brownies and was always anxious to serve them to the residents. As time went on, Bloom continued to deliver the brownies every month, even after Andrew no longer made the brownies. Bloom not only has become a regular and...
Two new fruit trees were planted in the Spring Hills Lake Mary Assisted Living courtyard on Thursday Jan. 16, in conjunction with the Jewish annual celebration of Tu B'Shevat, observed as the "Jewish New Year for Trees." Residents of the community, assisted by the Jewish Pavilion, participated in adding one banana tree and one lime tree to the kitchen garden already established in the community. This year's trees join the avocado and lemon trees planted during their Tu B'Shevat celebration in...
Once again, the Jewish Pavilion hosted a Tu B'Shevat seder at Arden Court, a live-in facility in Winter Springs for persons with dementia and/or Alzheimer's. The residents were gathered in anticipation of the arrival of Jewish Pavilion volunteers, and they happily participated in the program for the day. In addition to reciting the prayers and enjoying the foods associated with this holiday, they shared some personal stories. Program director Judy Procell asked the residents to tell a story...
Justin Timberlake playing Israel HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA)- While Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters' efforts to stop artists from performing in Israel have been getting plenty of attention lately, the list of upcoming big-name concerts scheduled there continues to grow. The latest additions: Neil Young and Justin Timberlake, joining Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and, (fingers crossed) the Rolling Stones. First up is Timberlake, who will play Tel Aviv on May 28, according to Haaretz. The official...
When the economic crisis hit Bulgaria in 2011, Yana-a Jewish mother of three-was one of the first casualties. She lost her job as an optician and suddenly her family had to survive on her husband's meager salary of $500 a month. Bills pilled up quickly, and soon they were $8,000 in debt. Struggles like that of Yana's family are sadly common among some European Jews today. And while our understandable focus tends to be on the rise of nationalism and anti-Semitic political parties, the economic ha...
Carol and Marvin Mayer of Longwood, Fla., joyously announce the engagement of their son, Jonathan Everett Mayer, to Brenda Cynthia Cohen, daughter of Joan and Gary Cohen of Valencia, Calif. Jonathan is a graduate of Lake Mary High School and received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University. He is currently working on an MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health and a M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, graduating with both degrees in May 2015. Jonathan is also...
Nadav Zachary Weil, son of Sharon and Aaron Weil of Maitland, will be called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2014, at Central Florida Hillel in Oveido. Nadav is in the seventh grade at the Jewish Academy of Orlando where he is a member of the soccer and basketball teams, and is playing the role of Mayor Shin in the school play "Music Man." His hobbies and interests include collecting gems and minerals, playing sports and Dr. Who. He is also a member of Kadima. Sharing in the...
I may be mistaken, but... I don’t think I’m mistaken when I say that many, if not most, medical breakthroughs in the last few hundred years were made by Jewish doctors and scientists. Here is another that I recently heard about. This comes from the American Associates of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev: “A cure for diabetes? No, not quite. But for children and adults with type 1 diabetes, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev may have discovered the next best thing: a combination of drugs already in use for other conditions that...
