Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 26 - 37 of 37
Scarlett Johansson is pregnant HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA)-B'sha'ah tovah to Scarlett Johansson! The 29-year-old "Her" star, of recent SodaStream fame (or infamy, depending which side you're on), is expecting her first child with French fiance Romain Dauriac, E! News reports. The couple, dating publicly since November 2012, announced their engagement six months ago. Prior to this relationship, Johansson dated ad exec Nate Naylor for a year. She split with husband Ryan Reynolds in 2010 after two years...
Who knew?... Last month I heard about the Monuments Men (and women) of World War II for the very first time. That was completely news to me and I suspect, to many of you as well. (Check out the movie to learn even more.) The other day I received a few emails about a Jewish major league baseball player, Morris "Moe" Berg, who was also involved in World War II. Another surprise to me... really! Read on: Moe Berg was born in New York City on March 2, 1902. It is known that his affinity for...
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Two years ago, Israeli supermarket mogul Rami Levy invited Palestinian gas and oil magnate Munib al-Masri to one of his grocery stores. A working-class boy who had become the West Bank’s wealthiest man, al-Masri already had turned his attention to a new challenge: encouraging a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the partnership was not to be. Levy, the owner of the supermarket chain Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing, has three stores in Israeli West Bank settlements, and al-Masri decided he could not work wit...
The "Seeking Kin" column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA)-All Zipora Saar had were some letters, names and pictures of American relatives she never knew, people last heard from a half-century ago. Saar fancied turning up descendants of her mother's first cousin, Filippus Mosesco, and his second wife, Lillian, who sent the letters from their farm in Macungie, Pa. Filippus was known as Feivush before emigrating as a young boy in about 1902 from the extended...
PHILADELPHIA (JTA)-Celeste Morello isn't Jewish or a sports fan, and has never attended a professional basketball game. But a passion for history-particularly Philadelphia history-prompted her to seek recognition for the hoops pioneer Eddie Gottlieb. Morello succeeded last week when the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission approved her application for Gottlieb, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, to be featured on an official state historical marker. The...
(JTA)-One evening, during a retreat for his Diller Teen Fellowship, Philip Caine told his fellow teens a truth about himself. At the age of 17, he had already undergone two open-heart surgeries. To his surprise, another teen told him that she had needed heart surgery as well. Together they decided to launch "Youth with Heart," to serve as an educational, mentoring and support group for other teenagers with congenital heart defects. Modeled after "Moms with Heart," an American Heart Association...
While Pink Floyd's Roger Waters has in recent years acted as a de facto frontman for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, urging fellow artists against performing in Israel, Shuki Weiss Promotion and Production Ltd. for nearly 35 years has brought the biggest names in entertainment to the Jewish state for historic live shows. Musical guests attracted to Israel by the company have included Metallica, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, Madonna, David Bowie, and Eric Clapton. Th...
NEWARK, N.J.—In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) and just in time for Passover, Manischewitz® is releasing limited run packaging on each of its five matzo boxes inside 5-lb packages. The matzo boxes feature fun and factual information about notable Jewish American inventors, comedians, historical figures, and more. These fun facts are sure to entertain and enlighten over breakfast or at the seder table. Some of the Jewish American figures featured include Ann Landers, Estee Lauder, Sandy Koufax, Irving Berlin, and the in...
Ex-security guard gets federal sentence for defacing Torah scroll (JTA)—A former hotel security guard was sentenced to one year in prison for civil rights violations for defacing a Memphis Jewish school’s Torah scroll and prayer books. Last Friday’s sentence of Justin Baker, 25, of Jackson, Tenn., comes on top of a four-year term in state prison levied in December. He will serve his two sentences concurrently. U.S. District Judge J. Daniel Breen also ordered Baker to pay $9,999.99 in restitution to the school. Baker had pleaded guilty to the f...
(JTA)-Shortly after Russian soldiers occupied the Crimean city of Sevastopol last week, Leah Cyrlikova took her two children out for an afternoon stroll in a city park. When they passed a group of soldiers, they stopped to have a friendly chat and pose with them for photos. While many Ukrainian Jews have strongly condemned the Russian military incursion into Crimea, others see the intervention as restoring order in the wake of a violent revolution that overthrew the pro-Russian government of Pre...
By Julie Wiener NEW YORK (JTA)-A Religion News Service article about the PJ Library is headlined "Free books-10 million of them-help keep Jewish kids Jewish." Now the foundation behind the widely lauded nine-year-old program-which distributes free books to more than 130,000 Jewish children in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Australia-is also helping keep Arab Israeli kids engaged in reading. The Massachusetts-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation recently launched Maktabat al-Fanoos, Arabic...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Away for the summer at her New Jersey YM-YWHA Camp, Jessica Baer watched a video about children enslaved in Ghana. Baer, who was 10 years old at the time, realized just "how different my life was from theirs. I was hooked right away." The presentation was organized by Breaking the Chain through Education, a nonprofit that works to rescue child slaves and help eradicate slave trafficking by building schools in Ghana. By establishing local schools in poor villages, the group...
