Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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On Thursday, May 6, an anti-Semitic group called the Goyim Defense League stood across the street from The Roth Family JCC with signs to protest against the Holocaust Center, according The Jewish Federation CEO, Keith Dvorchik. This group is a loose network of individuals organized by six people and founded in California, spews their contempt for Jewish people in California, Colorado, Florida and New York. They share their anti-Semitism by way of the Internet, propaganda distributions and...
May is National Mental Health Awareness month, and at the end of April, members of the Jewish community participated with about 400 others in a NAMI walk at Crane's Roost Park in Altamonte Springs. The group, "Team Andy," was one of 63 teams who came out to show support and help bring awareness to mental illness. NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness and is the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans...
(JTA) - At least 45 people were crushed to death and at least 150 wounded Thursday night in a stampede during a celebration that drew tens of thousands of haredi Orthodox Jews to the northern Israeli mountain village of Meron. Meron is home to the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, an ancient sage associated with the Jewish holiday of Lag B'Omer, which began Thursday night. More than 100,000 people had reportedly traveled to the town, in the largest gathering in Israel since the onset of the...
The Congregation Ohev Shalom Rabbinic Search Committee offered the position of interim rabbi to Rabbi Murray Ezring, who accepted the position. He will begin officially on Aug. 1 and serve for one or two years. During their search, the committee learned that there is a difference between an interim rabbi and a permanent one, and hiring an interim rabbi was the best solution for the congregation at this time. As an interim rabbi, Ezring says he is charged with getting the congregation in the...
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to form a government by the deadline imposed by Israeli law, thrusting the country into uncertain political territory yet again. This could mean that after more than 12 years as Israel’s prime minister, Netanyahu will have to leave office. But he’s been in this situation before and managed to survive. It all depends on what happens next: Another politician could replace him, or Israel could head to its fifth round of elections since 2019. Netanyahu has been trying desperately to av...
The Jewish Academy of Orlando is thrilled to present the U.S. premiere of the new musical "Star Warts: The Umpire Strikes Back." This will be presented as a feature film and will be released Sunday, May 23. "This production is so unique and unlike anything an elementary school has ever produced, even pre-pandemic," said Eric Levine who is the film's producer and director. "Trust me, everyone is going to be blown away by this." The production was filmed entirely on campus using a new...
JFS Orlando's Counseling, Growth and Development Program provides individual, couples, family and group mental health counseling in a trusting, reassuring and healing atmosphere. Their clinical therapists help clients cope with major life problems in a timely and effective manner and guide people through major life transitions. Recently, JFS made some changes in their counseling program. These changes were made for several reasons, but overall to ensure the health of the program for the...
The Rosen JCC Camp J is an Orlando summer camp dedicated to children’s happiness, growth and well-being. Camp J is open to children of all faiths and backgrounds providing a diverse camp experience. Things that make Camp J special are that it is ever-growing and changing to meet the needs and interests of campers as they transition from adolescence to teenagers. Camp J knows every child is unique and it’s why we provide a variety of sessions designed to meet every child’s interests: Early Child...
(JTA) — The videos circulating out of Jerusalem — of beatings, stone throwing and racist chants — are shocking. Reporters say it’s some of the worst fighting the contested city has seen in years. But the tensions that fueled the violence in the Old City on Thursday night are anything but new. Hundreds of Jewish extremists marched down Jerusalem streets chanting “Death to Arabs” and singing “Burn their village.” The demonstration followed days of unrest in eastern Jerusalem in which Palestinian residents clashed with police over restrictions im...
(JNS) — Saying that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees has outlived its mandate, a group of Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent a letter last week to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressing concern over the United States providing funding to the organization. The authors wrote that the original intent of UNRWA was to address the needs of Palestinian refugees in the aftermath of the 1948 Israeli-Arab conflict, but in the past 60 years, it has changed its definition of refugee away f...
(JNS) — A bill passed on Thursday by the Florida Senate will significantly increase state-provided scholarships for private-school students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Senate Bill 48 was passed in a 24-15 partisan vote and now goes to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to approve it. If put into effect, as of July 1, private-school students from working- and middle-class families with incomes that amount to 375 percent of the federal poverty level will be eligible for the same scholarships that public-school students can r...
(JNS) — It was telling that J Street, the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby, would invite to its annual conference Mahmoud Abbas, the anti-Israel, anti-peace, Holocaust-denying president of the Palestinian Authority. The lobby, whose hallmark is gullibility, soaked up the familiar propaganda from Abbas and joined him in castigating Israel while ignoring the tyrant’s intransigence and persecution of his own people. Both Abbas and J Street are hoping to return to the heyday of the Obama years when Israel was expected to make one-sided concess...
(JNS) — Left-wing American Jewish groups are crowing about their success in postponing a vote on whether the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund can purchase private land from Arabs in Judea and Samaria. What they are celebrating is the striking of a blow at the heart of Zionism. “We’re happy to share some good news today!” began the email from Partners for Progressive Israel, the U.S. arm of Israel’s far-left Meretz Party. “Thanks to the tireless resistance work being done” by various left-wing activists, “a small victory” has be...
(JNS) — A March 29 article in the online news magazine Tablet titled “Are Educated People More Antisemitic?” reported that a carefully crafted survey of Americans by authors Jay P. Greene, Albert Chang and Ian Kingsbury found that the more highly educated did exhibit a greater level of antisemitism. The authors note that this result runs contrary to the widely held assumption linking intolerance, including intolerance of Jews, to ignorance and viewing greater education as the solution. It refers to commonly cited studies supporting that convi...
(JTA) — When do you call the rabbi? Sometimes to complain. But usually, a life-cycle event has taken place. A birth, thank God. An impending wedding. An illness. Too often in the last year, a death. Over the past 13 months, tragedy has demanded that rabbis step forward to provide a steady shoulder, open ears and a guiding hand. It’s been deeply painful, but it’s been a privilege. The calamity of COVID represents a challenge that rabbis are seen as uniquely equipped to help confront. Even more so than in normal times, we’ve walked with our com...
Iranian eyes will be on Washington, D.C., while looking over their shoulder at home. The Iranians are looking over their shoulder because a series of attacks attributed to them and their puppets in the Middle East are targeting Israeli commercial ships and firing rockets at Israel from Gaza and Syria. This is coupled with Israel’s reported retaliation against Iranian military ships, and explosion deep underneath an Iranian nuclear facility, raising eyebrows as to Israel’s reach and Iranian vulnerability. Iranians are eying Washington, D.C...
Dear Editor: I once had a discussion with someone in the leadership division of Chabad, the world wide Jewish organization. I asked about Kabala, the Jewish mysticism part of Judaism, which has great powers. I asked this person, “Why didn’t the Jews familiar with Kabbalah not use it to destroy Hitler in the 1920s after what he said he was going to do to the Jews in Germany?” I didn’t mention the czar or the popes who instigated horrible pogroms against the Jewish people. He looked at me and said, “Kabbalah is not used for evil.” I was shocked...
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. Congr...
(JTA) — Steven Spielberg has launched a film foundation called Jewish Story Partners to fund documentaries that “tell stories about a diverse spectrum of Jewish experiences, histories, and cultures.” It’s funded by the Righteous Persons Foundation, which Spielberg and his actress wife Kate Capshaw founded after Spielberg’s experience making “Schindler’s List” in 1993. Two Jewish philanthropies — the Maimonides Fund and the Jim Joseph Foundation — also contributed funds. (Both organizations also help fund 70 Faces Media, the Jewish Telegraphic...
This is a speech given by Hope Adelson at her bat mitzvah at the Congregation of Reform Judaism. At school, before we start our lesson, my class usually talks and jokes a bit. It's a way of getting our brains prepared to do work. I only recently have gone back to school in person. One day, reality was still sinking in. Instead of just clicking a join-conference button, I had to actually walk from class to class, wake up earlier, and experience human contact. I was doing the same thing I always...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — One Wednesday in October 2007, seven Jewish lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee did something extraordinary: They ignored the pleas of the Jewish establishment. Jewish politicos were often happy to advance the agenda of the Jewish groups because it lined up with their ideals. On this occasion, several powerhouse lobbying groups in the Jewish community were pressing the committee not to advance a bill that would recognize as a genocide the 1915 Ottoman massacres of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during W...
A few days before Pesach, Rabbi Yanky Majesky of Chabad North Orlando got a very disturbing phone call. A relatively young Jewish woman had passed away all alone with no known next of kin. The woman on the phone was a co-worker of the deceased and found the rabbi's cell number. A week after the passing they went to clean the apartment and found her beloved cat was still there hiding under her bed. A draft of a will was found which indicated that the rabbi should oversee her funeral arrangements...
(JTA) — “If you haven’t seen the joy of Lag b’Omer on the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, you haven’t seen joy at all,” wrote the author Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israel’s first Nobel Prize laureate. That description reflects an aspect of the annual pilgrimage to Mount Meron in northern Israel that was underlined by the deaths on Friday of at least 45 revelers in a stampede: It is a place whose symbolism reflects a mix of grief and euphoria. Indeed, the tragedy struck during what for many observant Jews is among the happiest days of the year: the c...
Heritage Florida Jewish News is accepting nominations for the 2021 Heritage Human Service Award, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando this summer. “For more than 30 years, individuals who have made major, voluntary contributions of their talent, time, energy and effort to the Central Florida community have been honored with the selection and presentation of this award,” said Jeff Gaeser, editor and publisher of the Heritage. Last year’s recipient was Hank Katzen. Former recipients have inclu...
More super talents ... Sure, sure ... you knew MAURY POVICH was Jewish. (I didn't). I knew he was married to CONNIE CHUNG, and she converted to Judaism. What I didn't know, is they are both super kosher and attend synagogue regularly and Connie also speaks Yiddish fluently! Now, BERNIE SCHWARTZ I knew! (I even had a crush on him!) What? You didn't know I was talking about Tony Curtis? Well, Bernie was his real name. (We met, we smiled and laughed, but nothing more! (Oh well!). I was friends...
