Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Don’t speak badly of the dead… My parents taught me that lesson…but it is hard to follow when the deceased is Hugo Chavez. The following information comes directly from The World Jewish Congress Foundation Digest (with asides by me). It was published a few months ago, before the death of Chavez: “Under the administration of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, half of the nation’s Jews have reportedly fled the country. “Now that Chavez has retained his office in the recent fall elections for anothe...
SAN FRANCISCO—When local asparagus and rhubarb start showing up in your market, can Passover be far behind? These harbingers of spring always appear on my seder table, as they did on my mother’s table and her mother’s. You can get asparagus grown in Mexico any time of year, but the real deal comes from Stockton, Calif., the “Asparagus Capital of the World.” These sultry stalks always generate discussions about what to buy and how best to cook, prepare and eat them: white or green or lavender, thick or thin, cold or hot, cooked in a skillet o...
Last week’s invasion of locusts from Egypt offered adventurous home cooks an opportunity to try something new for dinner last week—locusts, which most rabbis say are kosher, can be prepared many different ways. “You can sauté them like shrimp with garlic, baby cherry tomatoes, lemon and saffron,” Moshe Basson, owner and chef of the Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem that specializes in Biblical foods, told The Media Line. “You can make them like french fries, or you can poach them like lobster, roll them in egg yolk, chickpea flour and spices...
Tel Aviv—Lower back pain is a common complaint, and treatment often requires many hours of physical therapy over multiple weekly clinic visits—a costly commitment. Now Dr. Michal Katz-Leurer of Tel Aviv University’s Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine says that a simple aerobic walking program is as effective in alleviating lower back pain as muscle strengthening programs that require specialized equipment in rehabilitation clinics. The program includes walking two to three times a week for a perio...
CARACAS, Venezuela (JTA)—Students at the Ma’or HaTorah yeshiva in Caracas knew something was afoot Tuesday [March 5] afternoon when bodyguards driving bullet-proof vehicles started showing up unexpectedly at the gate, whisking teenagers from wealthy families to the safety of their homes. “After the second and third came, we realized this was serious,” Aron Misadon, a 16-year-old student at the school, told JTA on March 6. “At that point they closed the school and we all ran home.” That someth...
(JTA)—For more than a decade, Venezuelan Jews have been holding their breath, subject to the whims of a mercurial president who used his bully pulpit to intimidate, rail against Israel and embrace Iran. There was the police raid of a Caracas school in 2004, allegedly to search for evidence in the high-profile murder case of a prosecutor. There were the demands by President Hugo Chavez when war broke out between Israel and Hamas in December 2008 that his country’s Jews rebuke Israel for its con...
Spielberg to lead Cannes jury NEW YORK—Snubbed at the Oscars for best director, perhaps Steven Spielberg will see this as some sort of consolation prize: The Cannes Film Festival named the “Lincoln” director to lead its jury in May. Spielberg called his selection an “honor and a privilege,” according to a statement. “My admiration for the steadfast mission of the Festival to champion the international language of movies is second to none,” he said. ”For over six decades, Cannes has served as a...
BALTIMORE (JTA)—Recalling her childhood friendship with the girl across the street fills Rozanne Dittersdorf with immense sadness but also deep gratitude. More than six decades later, the pain her friend evinced still brings Dittersdorf to tears. But by her very existence, the girl also unwittingly helped shape Dittersdorf’s Jewish identity. Now 78 and living in Great Neck, N.Y., Dittersdorf hopes to find her friend, whose name was Phyllis Garfunkel (or Garfinkle) when they lived during the lat...
You might only know Alex Karpovsky as Ray Ploshansky, the caustic barista who fitfully romances the naïf Shoshanna on HBO’s zeitgeist-y hit, “Girls.” But while shooting that show, Karpovsky also has managed to write, direct and star in two independent films that recently premiered at Lincoln Center in New York: “Red Flag,” a meta-comedy in which he plays a self-absorbed independent filmmaker named, well, Alex Karpovsky; and “Rubberneck,” a psychological thriller about a scientist who becomes da...
App to track Obama’s Israel visit JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office launched an app to follow President Obama’s visit in real time. The app, which is available though Israel’s Apple store, will assist journalists covering the visit and allow Israelis to receive real-time updates, including video streaming. It will be available shortly for Android. Now available in Hebrew and English, the app soon will be available in Arabic, Ynet reported. The app was announced Sunday at a prepar...
MAJDAL SHAMS, Israel (JTA)—At first glance, the identification cards of young Druze men looked identical to those of any Israeli, with a number, photo, name and address. The only difference is the citizenship line: Instead of listing “Israeli,” most of the Druze cards are blank. “If someone takes citizenship, he’s labeled as an extremist,” said Wafa Abusela, 19, sitting with his friends in a cafe in Majdal Shams, a Druze city in the northwest corner of the Golan Heights. “People won’t talk to hi...
BOSTON (JTA)—When he was 5 years old, Marian Marzynski’s parents hatched a plan to smuggle him out of the Warsaw Ghetto. It was 1942, and Marzynski and his family were among the 400,00 Jews rounded up two years earlier by the Nazis, confined to the 1.3-sq.-mile ghetto in the heart of the city. To stay alive, Marzynski’s parents warned him, you must forget who you are. That lesson in survival shepherded the young boy over the next three years as he hid from his tormentors, separated from his p...
AMMAN, Jodan—There’s more to the Red Sea city of Aqaba than pristine waters and breathtaking coral reefs. The liberalized duty-free area is seeking to become the gateway of commerce in the region, Jordanian officials say. The Aqaba Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), which runs the port city independent of the government, has signed several agreements worth a total of some $500 million to expand the port’s handling capacity. To be completed in 2015, the port project is expected to pave the way for turning Aqaba into a solid transit hub servi...
GIVATAYIM, Israel—“The Retrospective” is a work of art inspired by another work of art, a novel with roots in a painting. A few years ago, A.B. Yehoshua and his wife were visiting Santiago de Compostelo, Spain, and he saw a graying reproduction of a disturbing painting, with a prisoner feeding at the breast of a young woman. He took a photo of the painting, something he rarely does, and then showed it to an expert. The painting is “Caritas Romana” or “Roman Charity,” based on an ancient Roman legend of Cimon, imprisoned and sentenced to...
The bountiful buffets that have made “Israeli breakfast” famous among tourists usually include shakshouka, a spicy North African concoction of eggs poached in a tomato-pepper-onion sauce. So it was no surprise that Lonely Planet included the shakshouka at Jerusalem’s Tmol Shilshom café on its recent Top 10 list of the world’s best breakfasts. But Jewish food writer and historian Gil Marks tells ISRAEL21c that this signature dish is actually a latecomer to the already laden Israeli breakfas...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Palestinians were marching, rocks were flying, tires were burning and prisoners were hunger-striking. Prompted by accusations that Israel was responsible for the death of a Palestinian detainee while in an Israeli prison, West Bank Palestinians erupted last month in a wave of riots on a scale not seen since October 2000, when Palestinian civil unrest heralded the start of the bloody second intifada that would last five years. There are some strong parallels between February 2...
Benjamin J. Feinman, a 6’ 3”, 225lb, senior right hand pitcher for West Broward High School has been appointed as one of 16 U.S. team members to play for the United States Junior Maccabi Baseball Team and will be representing the United States in Israel. The Bobcat Senior currently plays under Head Coach/Manager Sergio Ambrose and has been a member of the West Broward Bobcat Team for the last four years. Feinman started playing baseball as a pre teen at Pasadena Lakes Optimist. He later moved on to Cooper City Optimist and finally to Pem...
