Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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On Feb. 7, after a long day of work, 13 members of the Bornstein Leadership program gathered at the Hilton Altamonte for Shabbat filled with learning and new friendships. Rabbi David Gutterman of Philadelphia was the scholar in residence for the overnight retreat. The evening began with candle lighting, followed by a session where everyone shared their Hebrew name, and its origin. A lovely Shabbat dinner with some singing and blessings got the group into the Shabbat spirit. Then everyone...
The Tampa Orlando Pinellas Jewish Foundation, together with the Jewish Community Relations Council, announces an event open to the entire community titled, "Isolating Iran: The fight to disable and disarm the nuclear threat" on Wednesday, March 5 at the Roth JCC. The evening will feature David Ibsen, executive director of United Against a Nuclear Iran, who will offer guests a behind-the-scenes look at the domestic and international efforts underway to prevent a nuclear-enabled Iran. The topic...
NEW YORK-Abraham H. Foxman announced he will step down from his position as national director of the Anti-Defamation League on July 20, 2015, bringing to a close a 50-year career in Jewish communal service. "For almost five decades, ADL offered me the perfect vehicle to live a life of purpose both in standing up on behalf of the Jewish people to ensure that what happened during World War II would never happen again and in fighting bigotry and all forms of oppression," Foxman said. "My years at...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Hillel International shared with more than 125 American university presidents, including Dr. John Hitt of the University of Central Florida, an unprecedented letter from major Israeli academic leaders, representing every national research university. The letter thanked the American university leaders for speaking out publicly against an anti-Israel boycott passed by the American Studies Association (ASA). The letter from the Association of University Heads, Israel, is a groundbr...
LOS ANGELES (JTA)-In her 110 years, Alice Herz-Sommer has been an accomplished concert pianist and teacher, a wife and mother-and a prisoner in Theresienstadt. Now she is the star of an Oscar-nominated documentary showing her indomitable optimism, cheerfulness and vitality despite all the upheavals and horrors she faced in the 20th century. "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life," a 38-minute film up for best short documentary at the Academy Awards to be handed out next month, begins in her...
(Chabad.org)-On Feb. 9, some 450 people gathered for the official dedication and opening of Chabad at U.F.'s new $4.8 million, 23,000-square-foot state-of-the-art building. The multifaceted center was built to cater to a wide range of student needs and comes complete with a lounge, fitness room, laundry facilities, synagogue, and full kosher dining center where lunch and dinner will be served. In addition, a rabbi will be on site around the clock to assist students. And in a nod to environmental...
(JNS.org)—Three days into the 2014 Sochi Olympic games, Jewish-American figure skater Jason Brown won a bronze medal at the team figure skating competitions Feb. 9. In addition to his skating, Brown has grabbed international attention due to his hairstyle. Brown’s flowing ponytail seemed to move with the skater symmetrically as he danced. The ponytail even got its own Twitter account, @2014PonyPower, with many followers. “I am still the same person before I left for [U.S.] Nationals,” he said. “I’m that crazy guy with long hair who loves to sk...
"We are amazing," Eva Schloss said of the Jewish people. "We will be here forever and have to stick together," she proclaimed affirmatively. On Feb. 9, more than 500 people sat spellbound at the Hilton Altamonte Springs as Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss spoke about her childhood in Vienna, Austria, before the war; her life in hiding and in Auschwitz; and her friendship with Anne Frank. The hour-long presentation, hosted by Chabad of Orlando, was held in an interview format conducted by Greg Daws...
Super Sunday is the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando’s annual phone-a-thon. On this one Sunday of the year, the Jewish community comes together to raise funds, ensuring Jews here in Orlando, in Israel and around the globe receive quality programming, have a variety of resources to enrich their lives, and get help when it is desperately needed. This year, more than ever, the Federation needs your help. There are hundreds of individuals who need to be reached. For many of the individuals we do reach, the phone call by the volunteer is t...
Temple Israel of Winter Springs is hosting a Torah Fund Study Day on Sunday, March 2. Following registration at 9:30 a.m., participants will have the opportunity to study with each of two rabbis: Joshua Neely of Temple Israel and Abbi Sharofsky, deputy director for programming at JWB Jewish Chaplains Council. Rabbi Neely is a graduate of the Ziegler School and Rabbi Sharofsky is a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). The topics for the workshop are based on the Torah Fund's theme...
By Ben Cohen JNS.org There is a smug sense of “I told you so” about much of the recent commentary concerning the challenge that Israel faces from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street—a left-wing Israel advocacy group which believes the best way to advocate for Israel is by opposing sanctions on Iran and castigating Israel’s democratically elected government—is one example. Speaking to a Jewish audience in New Haven recently, Ben-Ami talked, and not for the first time, of Israel be...
The people of Israel have survived worse than the threats currently being made by Palestinians, John Kerry and Thomas Friedman. The betting is that Israel and Palestine will agree to continue talking for another year, if only to avoid a frontal insult to the American administration. Kerry and Friedman do not appear inclined to comprehend the threats faced by Israel and many others from the various streams of Islam, now at one of their historic feverish highs in both Syria and Egypt. Perhaps they should turn to something that may be easier,...
PHILADELPHIA (JTA)—In the past few weeks, Secretary of State John Kerry has come under attack from prominent Israelis as well as American friends of the Jewish state for some of the methods he has adopted in his determination to find a solution to the Middle East conflict. Such criticism strikes the Obama administration, as well as many friends of Israel, as absurd. After all, what better favor could the United States do for Israel than to help it find the peace for which its people have hungered since the birth of their state? But while K...
NEW YORK (JTA)—The hostile intentions of the international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement toward Israel are clear. But some believe it is possible to be pro-Israel while supporting just a little BDS—boycotting Israeli businesses located on the West Bank but not those within pre-1967 Israel. While such a strategy may make people feel good about themselves, it is a distinction without a difference—like being just a little pregnant. More important, by adding to the boycott pressure, it will make resolution of the Israe...
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—John Kerry is not a naive man. I met him recently at a luncheon at Georgetown University with a small group of Christian, Muslim and Jewish faith leaders brought together to hear the secretary of state’s frank reflections on the peace process. While deeply aware of the complexities and obstacles to peace, Kerry is undeterred by the acrimony and intransigence that imprison Israelis and Palestinians in a devastating and soul-corrupting status quo even as the Middle East shakes around them. “At some point,” he said, “you ju...
In mid-December, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sharply condemned a board member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) for comparing gun restrictions in America to those in Nazi Germany. That’s par for the course for the group, which appears to have a strict policy of battling any analogy that invokes Nazi Germany as offensive to the memory of the Holocaust. But Nazi Germany isn’t the same thing as the Holocaust—in fact, the Jewish community should constantly look for signs that evoke aspects of the pre-Holocaust era so we can speak out b...
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, FEBRUARY 21 Lig...
NEW YORK and JERUSALEM—CathMaps+, the world’s first HIPAA-compliant mobile application for cardiac patients and people living with elevated risk of a cardiac incident, that integrates their cardiac history with an interactive map of Cath Labs throughout most of the world, was launched for the U.S. market. CathMaps+ mission is simple: to use mobile technology to provide peace of mind and emergency assistance to hundreds of thousands of Americans in their most urgent time of need. The app was created by Danny Oberman, an Israeli who made ali...
Burton Charles Beitch of Palmetto, Fla., passed away on Monday, Feb. 10, 2014, at Orlando Regional Medical Center. He was 79 years old. Mr. Beitch was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on July 18, 1934, to the late Sol and Mary Hersch Beitch. He was a U.S. Navy veteran, having served in the Mediterranean after World War II. Mr. Beitch attended the New York Fashion Institute and was an executive in the clothing industry as a vice-president of Fruit of the Loom and president of Burton Beitch Enterprises. He relocated to Central Florida from Long Island in...
Eivor Flaxer of Maitland, passed away on Monday, Feb. 10, at Hospice of the Comforter in Altamonte Springs. She was 74 years old. A native of Stockholm, Sweden, she was born on April 22, 1939, and immigrated to the U.S. after attending Stockholm University. In New Jersey, she worked as the nanny for the children of the president of Volvo USA. Mrs. Flaxer later moved to Miami where she met and married her husband of 50 years, David Flaxer, who survives her. Eivor and David relocated to Orlando in 1963, where they raised their children, Mark and...
Rose B. Kaplan of Lake Mary, passed away on Monday, Feb. 10, at Lake Mary Health and Rehab. She was 95 years old. Mrs. Kaplan was born in New York City on March 5, 1918, to the late Harry and Lena Letterman Bronstein. She attended local area schools and college there. In 1941, she wed the late George Kaplan, to whom she was married for 68 years when he passed away in May 2009. Rose and George relocated to the Orlando area in 1976 from Rockland County and immediately became participants in numerous activities. They were very involved at the Cong...
Sally Sosnoff of Maitland, passed away on Friday, Feb. 7, at Florida Hospital – Orlando. She was 89 years old. She was born in St. Louis, Mo., on Sept. 5, 1924, to the late Israel and Sarah Teitelbaum Schechter. A free-lance artist, she was the widow of the late Gerald (Gary) Sosnoff, mother of Joan (Dr. Neil) Okun, and grandmother of David Okun and Sarah Okun. Funeral services and burial were held in St. Louis. Arrangements entrusted to Beth Shalom Memorial Chapel, 640 Lee Road, Orlando 32810....
The new George Clooney film, "The Monuments Men," tells the thrilling story of U.S. military personnel who during World War II risked their lives to rescue paintings by the likes of Rembrandt, Picasso, and Chagall that the Nazis had stolen. But for Connecticut civil rights attorney Bill Bingham, the story is one of tragic irony. His father, Hiram Bingham IV, was a dissident U.S. diplomat who helped rescue Marc Chagall after the Roosevelt administration abandoned the painter-the same...
How sad I feel... With the news that my very favorite comedian of all-time, Sid Caesar, has passed, I am truly devastated. As I get older I am more aware of my mortality and of my loved ones around me. I felt grief when Frank Sinatra passed... and Mel Torme, Milton Berle... and most entertainers that I admired. But losing Sid Caesar really hit home. And just a few days ago, Shirley Temple died. I must admit, I cried. I owned a Shirley Temple doll as a child... I can still picture it with its cur...
Rogen in Christmas flick HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA)-What are a couple of nice Jewish actors like Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt doing in a movie about Christmas? We don't know, but after watching these guys together in "50/50," we're looking forward to finding out. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jonathan Levine, director of the 2011 cancer dramedy, is bringing its stars together again for the film that for the time is being called "Untitled Xmas Comedy." Rogen and Gordon-Levitt will play...
