Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Jewish Academy of Orlando celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. day through art, songs, writing and conversation. Themes that ranged through the day included hope, uniqueness, and community. In the art room, students worked together to make collages of hands coming together that illustrated uniqueness and unity and ultimately respect for their peers, teachers, and the greater community. Eric Levine, "Mr. Eric," who heads up the school's acclaimed performing arts program, led students in songs of...
(JTA)—As part of President Donald Trump’s proposed plan for Middle East peace unveiled Tuesday, Israel says it will “apply its laws” to the Jordan Valley and Israeli settlements in the West Bank. At a news conference with Trump at the White House discussing the broad outlines of the plan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will otherwise “maintain the status quo” territorially for at least four years. Application of Israeli law to parts of the West Bank would signal a major change to the territory and the contours of...
(JNS)-Barbara Birch, 45, of New York was tapped last month as the new president and chief executive officer of ORT America. She most recently served as vice president of development at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, managing strategic planning, fundraising and business development. Her work focused on managing relationships with lay leadership and connecting constituents to the organization's mission to create a culture of giving. Previously, she held leadership roles in...
Join the Orlando Israeli American Council in partnership with Temple Israel, the Jewish National Fund, Alexander Muss High School in Israel, and Friends of Israel Scouts, Inc. Tzofim, for a Shishi Israeli Tu Bishvat Seder on Friday, Feb. 7 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Temple Israel, 50 South Moss Road in Winter Springs. Tu Bishvat reminds Jews of our connection to the earth and our responsibility to be caretakers of our planet. This special event includes a full Israeli dinner of Moroccan-style fish,...
Many of you know Walter Goldstein from his work for many years with The Jewish Pavilion. As a program director, he brought so much to seniors in Central Florida. For an amazing 16 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, we witnessed a miracle. Walter had two Thanksgivings, two Chanukahs, two New Years, his sister's birthday, his mother's birthday, his wife's birthday, a Passover, his 50th birthday, his son's 21st birthday, two reunions, some travel-he's lived all of his wishes, and...
Stories from the Orlando Senior Help Desk Tammy knew her parents, especially her mother, saved everything. They had every class picture, report card, book report, school and sports uniform she and her four brothers ever owned. Her parents had inherited each of their parents' belongings when they passed away. There were boxes and boxes of pictures of family and friends, some long forgotten. The house was full of fond memories. It was also full magazines saved for recipes, sewing patterns, DYI...
(JNS)—As synagogues nationwide debate whether to have armed individuals in their building to prevent possible terror attacks, the Secure Community Network has issued new research and scenarios on who might carry arms in a congregation—from trained law-enforcement personnel to congregational members—and how to keep attendees safe. Titled “Firearms and the Faithful: Approaches to Armed Security in Jewish Community,” the 24-page white paper was crafted by SCN—the security arm of the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—We ran a story last week on where the top seven Democrats running for president stood on Iran policy. Try as we could, we could not pin down a position for Mike Bloomberg, the former New York mayor who was not included in the last debate, where he might be forced to elaborate a position on one of the burning issues of the day. (He has high enough polling numbers to qualify for a debate, but has not crossed the outside contribution threshold set by the Democratic National Committee because he is bankrolling his own campaign.) T...
(JNS)-Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday assured the mother of Naama Issachar, an Israeli-American woman imprisoned in Russia whose family has been anxious to secure her release, that "everything will be fine." At a press conference in Jerusalem shortly after a meeting at the Prime Minister's Residence with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to which Naama's mother Yaffa Issachar was also invited, Putin said, "I have met Naama's mother. It's clear to me that she is from a very...
(JNS)—Once again, talk of regime change is in the air inside Iran. Not since the crushing of the 2009 student-led protests has the Islamic Republic, as of this year entering the fifth decade of its existence, looked so vulnerable. The immediate cause of the latest spate of protests was, of course, the shooting down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of a Ukrainian International Airlines flight from Tehran to Kiev on Jan. 8, killing all 176 passengers on board—more than 100 of whom were Canadian citizens intending to catch a con...
Betty is a very ordinary American name. The Betty I am writing about was born more than 92 years ago in the small scenic town of Ruskova, nestled in the Carpathian mountains in the Southeast corner of Romania. Ruskova was for the most part a peaceful town where Jews and their gentile neighbors got along very well. Betty’s father worked for the railroad in the next town down the road, where the railway station was located. Life was pretty uneventful for Betty and her family in her early childhood days. Then beginning in 1940, Betty and her f...
(JNS)—If you want to understand the true obstacle to Mideast peace, look no further than the Jordanian parliament’s unanimous approval last week of a bill to ban natural-gas imports from Israel, just days after the gas began arriving. Energy-poor Jordan needs a stable, affordable fuel supply, which the Israeli deal provides. When it was signed in 2016, the Jordanian government said it could save the country $500 million a year—almost 4 percent of Jordan’s 2019 budget and more than half its projected deficit for that year (the actual deficit...
By Terri Susan Fine, Ph.D. and Jesse Benjamin Slomowitz, B.A. One core value promoted at the University of Central Florida is the emphasis on the individual within a very large institution. UCF aims to be both enlightened and diverse. Students of all religions are welcome at UCF, and like any public university, UCF has established policies supporting religious observance. We believe, as well, that people of any culture and religion should not feel marginalized from the university community because of who they are. There are so many wonderful op...
(JNS)—I’ve never been worried about my reputation. Maybe I should have, maybe I should be. But the fact of the matter is that I represent what I believe in with pride, and I learned long ago from my mother that it’s important to stand up for what you believe in. She used to tell me stories about her grandmother working in Israel, building the land and doing whatever it took to make a dream become reality. My grandmother didn’t have social media, but we do. We can share/post/like/tweet our messages far and wide. The World Jewish Congress #WeReme...
Dear Editor: Needless to say I was quite disappointed to learn only a couple of days before the presentation by well-known speaker Laurie Cardoza-Moore, to be held at The Roth Family Jewish Community Center, that it was cancelled. No reason was given. I have had the opportunity to hear Laurie speak locally several times. Each was a very educational and enlightening experience. I know there is a group of influential locals within the Jewish community that are afraid to hear the truth; afraid to learn about the reality of life in the United...
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. Temple...
(JTA)-Terry Jones, one of the core members of the Monty Python comedy troupe, died Tuesday night at 77. He had been suffering from dementia. In addition to starring in numerous Python productions, the beloved comedian directed some of the group's biggest films, including "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," "The Meaning of Life" and "Life of Brian." The last of those tells the story of a Jewish man named Brian Cohen, who is born on the same day as and subsequently mistaken for Jesus Christ. At...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Russian President Vladimir Putin's prime speaking slot at a Holocaust commemoration event here was generating controversy even before the longtime leader took the podium. His remarks Thursday at the event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army has done little to quell it. Speaking at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, Putin claimed that 40 percent of the Jews who died in the Holocaust were citizens of the Soviet Union. Historians called...
During 2019, Keith Dvorchik, CEO of The Roth Family JCC and executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, and Aaron Weil, executive director and CEO of Central Florida Hillel, stepped out of their comfort zones and participated in an Encounter trip to the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). This was Weil's second trip, first as a participant in 2017 and this time as a facilitator. As Encounter explains on its website, this program is an intensive experience in which Jewish leaders...
I love dogs... (But I don't know about this.) I read it recently in the WJC Digest and pass it along: "Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a non-psychoactive chemical produced by the cannabis plant (marijuana) that has been shown to help alleviate human health issues like inflammation, anxiety, nausea, skin conditions, arthritis and joint pain. (So what has this got to do with animals, you ask?) As reported by "No Camels," ITAY BEN-MORDECHAI, head of innovation at Tel Aviv based Weedley, a leader in the...
(JTA)—Half of American adults are unaware of basic facts regarding Nazism and the Holocaust, including the number of Jews who were killed and how Nazis came to power. Those are some of the findings of a new study by the Pew Research Center released on Tuesday, about a week ahead of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The study asked nearly 13,000 respondents, Jewish and non-Jewish adults and teenagers, four questions about the Holocaust. Most knew that the Holocaust took place between 1930 and 1950, and that Nazi ghettos w...
(Jewish Journal via JNS)-Under the banner "Israel in Focus," this year's StandWithUs International Conference focused on educating students about anti-Semitism and how to fight it. The pro-Israel educational organization's conference was held at the Hyatt Regency Los Angeles International Airport hotel over the weekend, and was sponsored by the Adam and Gila Milstein Foundation. Addressing the 550 college and high school students and community members in attendance, Israeli-American real estate...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—A major gathering of world leaders in Jerusalem meant to highlight the world’s determination to learn the lessons of the Holocaust has become mired in controversy, dragging Israel into a battle over history debates still raging in Europe three-quarters of a century after the end of World War II. Some 46 presidents, princes and prime ministers converged on the Israeli capital on Thursday for the Fifth World Holocaust Forum, an event organized by President Reuven Rivlin, Yad Vashem and the Israeli Foreign Ministry to com...
Sheldon D. Brown, age 84, of Winter Springs, passed away at AdventHealth—Winter Park, on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020. A native of New York City, he was born on Jan. 15, 1935, to the Late Jacob and Sylvia Lipschitz Brown. On Aug. 25, 1974, in New York, he married the former Harriet Victor, his wife of more than 45 years, who survives him. He worked for many years in the clothing industry as a credit manager. They relocated to the Orlando area from Queens in 2016. In addition to his wife, Mr. Brown is survived by his children Jodi (Limoni) Brown of W...
Dorothy Norma Blaher, age 87, of Fern Park, passed away on Friday evening, Dec. 27, 2019, at Longwood VITAS and Hospice. Born in Lowell, Mass., she was one of three children and the only daughter, born to the late Samuel and Sarah Palefsky Delinsky. Dorothy attended college for a time and worked as an office manager in the medical field. She, her late husband, Morris, who passed away in August 2012, and their family, relocated to the Orlando area in 1964. She was a former member of Temple Israel and Congregation Ohev Shalom. Norma is survived...
