Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS)-Last Thursday night's twin rocket attack on greater Tel Aviv from the Gaza Strip marks a dramatic escalation of the security situation that could prove to be highly costly for Hamas. While it remains unclear at the time of this writing which terrorist organization is responsible for the rockets, the attacks represent a break from the past months of controlled escalation, a policy led by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The symbolism involved in firing on Israel's largest metropolis and economic...
Today there is a severe addiction problem in the United States. Jews are rarely associated with this side of life. However, no one is immune, and Jews are not immune to the devastation of addiction. One residential addiction treatment center, Beit T’Shuvah, has taken steps to reach out to communities in an effort to bring prevention and presents the play “Freedom Song” to communities across the country. Beit T’Shuvah is more than a treatment center. It is also a congregation and education center. Rooted in the spiritual principles of Judaism...
You can see it in their faces and hear it their voices, which come alive with passion as they speak about their 40-year commitment to the Greater Orlando Jewish community: Stuart and Jo Ann Farb derive pure joy out of the act of giving. From the simple act of helping out a stranger to more formidable undertakings like shaping a community, the Farbs' approach to giving is rooted in a simple but powerful philosophy: Do the right thing. The Farbs' long history of doing the right thing and giving...
(The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs via JNS)-Two developments currently taking place in the Palestinian arena deserve our attention, and both of these are interlinked: the proposed new government in Ramallah and the situation at the Al-Aqsa plaza on the Temple Mount. In Ramallah, P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas has asked Mohammad Shtayyeh to form a new government, while on the Temple Mount, tensions continue to mount around the Golden Gate or "Gate of Mercy" (Sha'ar HaRachamim or Bab el Rahma)....
"Gratitude. Mindfulness. Community Engagement." These are just some of the merits, which Dr. Susan A. Bach, Ph.D., formerly the executive director of the Center for Leadership Development at Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business, has been imparting on her more than a dozen students enrolled in the two- to- four-year leadership program. With an upcoming assignment on the theme of forgiveness, Bach brought in Orlando area author Yvonne David as an authority on the subject. David's...
Each year, Susan Bernstein, Jewish Pavilion program director, travels to Guatemala to visit with Mayan women artisans who have been trained to use their skills in weaving, beading, and crocheting to produce beautiful Judaic products that include kippot, tallitot, challah covers, and mezuzah cases. Fair Trade Values closely match Jewish ethics, making it a logical partnership for Bernstein, who sees her work with the Jewish Pavilion as a way to connect with Jewish residents in the Orlando area...
Congregation Sinai will host its annual Golf Tournament on Sunday, March 31, at the Green Valley Golf Course on Sunday in Clermont, Florida 34711. This tournament offers lunch, plenty of awards and prizes. It is open to the public. This annual tournament includes 18 holes of golf, range balls, lunch, on-course contests, prizes and awards. Registration will begin at 8 a.m. Shotgun will start at 8:30 a.m. in a scramble format. The Green Valley County Club is located at 14601 Green Valley...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Donald Trump promoted on his Twitter feed a group founded by Republicans that hopes to draw young Jews away from the Democratic Party. “‘Jewish people are leaving the Democratic Party,’” Trump said Tuesday morning on his feed, quoting Elizabeth Pipko, a spokeswoman for “Jexodus,” who appeared the same morning on “Fox and Friends” on the Fox News network. “Jexodus” was launched last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference by Jeff Ballabon, a Republican strategist who advised the Trump presidential ca...
(JTA)-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his chief rival, Benny Gantz, will speak at the annual AIPAC policy conference in Washington ahead of national elections next month in Israel. Gantz, whose new center-left Blue and White party is leading Netanyahu's Likud in the polls, will address the pro-Israel lobby's main session plenary on March 25. Gantz, a former chief of staff of the Israeli military who heads Blue and White, will "use his speech to emphasize that after the election he...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Trump administration ended the policy of referring to the West Bank and the Golan Heights as “occupied” by Israel. The State Department’s annual report on global human rights issues, issued Wednesday, drops the “occupied” language from passages on the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza. It refers to the Golan Heights as “Israeli-controlled.” A State Department official argued that the change did not signal a shift in department policy on the territories. Why it matters: The Trump team has broken from precedent established by...
(JNS)—On paper, the United Church of Christ should be well-equipped to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The UCC, a liberal Protestant denomination with 800,000 members and a little less than 5,000 churches in the United States, has said all the right things about the Jewish people, anti-Semitism and the type of things that need to happen in warring countries for peace to take place. In 1987, the denomination’s General Synod passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism. And two years before that, the same body passed a res...
This past week we celebrated the holiday of Purim. It is a festive holiday because it commemorates the victory of the Jewish citizens of Persia over their fellow citizens who were given license by the king’s decree to destroy the Jews in their midst. How did it come about that the people of the Persian Empire, who peacefully lived side-by-side with their Jewish neighbors for many generations, suddenly were manipulated to follow the king’s decree to vanquish their fellow citizens of the Jewish faith? And a more poignant question is what led the...
There are polls every day or two. You can see the latest at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2019_Israeli_legislative_election They pretty much are showing a tie, or close to it between the center-left and the right. Bibi is a sharp campaigner, managing to label his opponents the leftists, with the help of media and the Arabs. According to him, they are manufacturing stories that would incriminate him. There’s nothing wrong about accepting a few cigars or bottles of champagne from close friends. He’s more art...
(JNS)—He’s done it again. After being called out for allegedly employing racist incitement against Israeli Arabs during election campaigns, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being attacked again for saying things that hurt the feelings of Israel’s non-Jewish citizens and offend the sensibilities of some Jews. This has led to renewed charges that he is guilty of denigrating Arabs and trashing the democratic nature of the state. But as with past claims, there’s less to this allegation than the anguished criticism directed at Netanya...
(JNS)—A critical function of the Israel Defense Forces is to secure borders and sensitive locations, in addition to the transition points in and through such areas. Guard duty is deceptively routine and simple. Like other military functions, most of the time there is a familiar routine that can seem mind-numbing to the casual observer. However, the trained soldier knows all too well that the seemingly mundane and insignificant can be a ruse—a cover for something intended to be deadly. Therefore, vigilance and skepticism are part of a che...
George Elliott is credited with saying, “History repeats itself.” Mark Twain sharply improved on it with his observation that “history doesn’t repeat itself—but it does rhyme.” No matter how much things may change, one constant always remains: the Hamans of the world, the Jew haters who seek “to destroy, to murder and to bring to an end all Jews, from young to old,” are somehow forever with us. It was foretold in the Torah. In the first battle against Amalek, prototype of the anti-Semite throughout the ages, we are informed that although t...
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 Isr...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed a Fatah Party insider who was educated abroad as prime minister. Mohammad Shtayyeh, a longtime Abbas ally, was announced on Sunday as the new prime minister. He replaces Rami Hamdallah, who had been prime minister since 2014. Shtayyeh, a member of the central committee of the Palestinian president's Fatah party, will form a new government. An economist, Shtayyeh earned a PhD in development at Sussex University in Britain...
The Kinneret Council on Aging, a nonprofit agency that provides ongoing programs and services to residents of Kinneret Apartments, held their 2019, 8 over 80 Gala on Sunday, March 3. The gala featured delicious food from George's Gourmet Catering. Over 200 guests were entertained with a touching Thank You video that featured the Kinneret residents. A second video featured each of the honorees and highlighting their unique accomplishments. All in attendance agreed that this delightful event was a...
The clatter of a bagful of mahjong tiles spilling onto a table broke the quiet of the commons at Tuskawilla Nursing and Rehab Center on a recent Thursday morning. Jill Cousins had just arrived and was catching up with her friend Ruth Elison, a nursing home resident, as they began setting up the game. Debbie Meitin came next and immediately pitched in to set the dozens of tiles in place, Dale Perreault soon completed the foursome. Perreault, Meitin and Cousins are part of a pool of mahjong...
PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain (JTA)-On this island south of Barcelona, Jews celebrate Purim these days pretty much as they do most anywhere else in Europe. There's the reading of the Book of Esther at the small synagogue near the marina, followed by a costume party bringing together the different contingents of Palma's Jewish population of several hundred: unaffiliated Israeli families, retired British sun lovers, Sephardic locals and French businessmen, to name a few. But only 50 years ago, Purim wa...
Climate change?... I received a report from the Environmental Defense Fund recently. It said in large red letters, “WE ARE A PLANET IN DANGER! I pass it on to you: “United Nation Secretary-General, ANTONIO GUTERRES said,’ This report by the world’s leading climate scientists is an ear-splitting wake-up call to the world. It confirms that climate change is running faster than we are, and we are running out of time.’ And EDF president FRED KRUPP said, ‘No single entity can mitigate climate change. We must build a global set of partnership...
(JTA)-Though he may be one of France's best-known puppet makers, Michel Nedjar insists he does not really create the acclaimed and haunting figures that he calls his "Purim puppets." A former tailor's apprentice whose life's work last week went on display at the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Lille, Nedjar says he merely "exhumes" his puppets to reconnect to his brethren who were murdered in the Holocaust, to his lover and mentor who died of AIDS - and to his Jewish roots. The talk of...
(JNS)-After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Golan Heights this week together with U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk set off a firestorm when he tweeted, "Like it or not, the Golan Heights are Syrian territory. Israel cannot give them up now given its legitimate security concerns. But to recognize Israel's annexation of territory that is not its own is to play with fire for partisan...
(JTA)—Every year before Purim, my inbox and social media fill up with dire exhortations from rabbis and yeshivas warning against the dangers of celebratory excess—as if drunkenness on the holiday were something new. In reality, the after-Purim regrets have been part of the discourse ever since Rabbah drunkenly attacked and inadvertently killed his dear friend Rabbi Zeira in the Talmud (don’t worry—he was revived in the end). Rabbis and communal leaders across the religious spectrum have condemned drunken revelry on a holiday dedicated to exce...
