Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - As Russia pushes further into Ukraine and threatens its capital Kyiv - and as Russian President Vladimir Putin appears unfazed and undeterred by Western nations willing to sanction Russia through economic means, but afraid to fight militarily to save innocent Ukrainian civilians - the question arises: What could the world have done to deter Putin? And what does this mean for the State of Israel? John Hardie, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS that...
My friend and colleague Toliy is a Ukrainian professor, who lives in a small city called Ostroh, in the western part of the country. He, like so many of his compatriots, now suffering under the relentless advance of Vladimir Putin's militant barbarism, is not going anywhere. He and his wife, Larisa, remain in this university town, doing whatever they can to do battle for their nation. Toliy writes: "Our women as well as men are ready to take up arms and fight against the invaders ... This traged...
A hopeful and dominant topic of conversation at this week’s National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville has been the re-opening of tourism to Israel for all, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. Two years ago, at the same event and location, the early impact of the COVID virus started to be felt with early reports of Israel’s national airline laying off the first 1000 employees. Ultimately, nearly all tourism would be shut down leading to millions of cancelations, tens of tho...
The tree that was pictured in the original article about Gush Etzion (Jan. 21, 2022) didn’t come with an explanation in the article. In 1948 when the people got word that an Arab invasion by regular Jordanian troops was eminent, the teenagers carried children and others walked with them to Jerusalem to safety and for 19 years between 1948 and 1967 the only thing all of those children could see was the top of that tree from Jerusalem as they longed to go back to Gush Etzion. — Submitted by Jon...
Does "springing forward" have you "falling down"? Losing that extra hour of sleep when Daylight Saving Time starts can throw off your internal clock and have a big effect on your overall wellness. Avoid taking daytime naps as they can make it harder to have a good night's sleep. Stick to the same eating, social, and bedtime routines. Try to keep the morning darkness to a minimum by turning on some bright lights earlier than usual. If you're having trouble dealing with the time change, or any...
Most pregnant mothers are advised to pack a suitcase for their upcoming visit to the hospital. Everyone, but especially seniors, should keep a packed bag at home. It should contain the obvious things like nightclothes, toiletries, an outfit to go home in, slip on sneakers and a book to read. The bag should also include a copy of your medical records and your legal documents. The physicians at intake do not know your medical wishes/directives, so it is important to have them with you at the time of arrival. Packing in advance is a great gift to...
Avi — employee at the Jewish Federation and Central Florida Hillel Avi is a valued member at both the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando and at Central Florida Hillel. At JFGO Avi works directly with Marisa, the Federation’s administrative assistant. He helps her with office work and has played a huge role in helping to get the art room in the JCC organized. At Hillel, Avi works diligently to keep the common areas of Hillel sparkling clean, to replenish snacks, to organize the supply clo...
(JNS) — The Knesset, which was to vote to revamp rules regarding Jewish conversion, has delayed the bill until the start of its summer session in May due to the political sensitivity of the issue. The delayed vote represents the latest in a series of efforts to resolve religious disputes through political means—most recently, an attempt to establish prayer sections for different streams of Judaism at the Western Wall (Kotel) and to introduce competition to kosher certification, currently a monopoly of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. Of the three...
(JTA) – When it comes to antisemitism on social media, the algorithms governing the major platforms shoulder some of the blame for their reach. But the Anti-Defamation League hopes to fight the spread — by creating an algorithm of its own. The Jewish civil rights group announced Tuesday that it has built a system called the Online Hate Index, describing it as the first tool ever developed to measure antisemitism on social media platforms. The program can sift through millions of posts quickly to detect antisemitic comments and aid in their rem...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — An Amnesty International official said that the organization is opposed to Israel continuing to exist as a Jewish state. “We are opposed to the idea — and this, I think, is an existential part of the debate — that Israel should be preserved as a state for the Jewish people,” Paul O’Brien, the human rights monitor’s U.S. director, said in a luncheon this week with the Women’s National Democratic Club in Washington D.C. Jewish Insider first reported the remarks. O’Brien said late Friday on Twitter that his remarks had been...
(JNS) — Like politics, wars can make for strange bedfellows. In the Second World War, even a staunch anti-Communist like Winston Churchill saw no problem with an alliance with the Soviet Union. Making common cause with a totalitarian state led by a mass murderer like Josef Stalin was difficult to swallow, and would lead to future tragedies. But with the future of civilization at stake in 1941, Churchill had to embrace the Soviets so as to defeat a more immediate threat: Nazi Germany. As he put it at the time, “If Hitler invaded hell, I would ma...
(JNS) — The title immediately engaged my interest. “To Whom Was the Promised Land Promised?” by Abraham A. Sion focuses on the legal right of Jews under international law to the territory of “Palestine” and the British betrayal that thwarted it for three decades. The story began with the Balfour Declaration (1917). It called for the establishment of “a national home for the Jewish people” in “Palestine,” geographically defined by the League of Nations after World War I as the land east and west of the Jordan River. The postwar Mandate f...
As many of you know, almost two years ago Rachel and I moved to New Orleans. As you also probably know, we lost her a little over a year ago to dementia. And, the “Let the Good Times Roll” city shut down shortly after we arrived due to Covid. Well, times change. For the first time in two years the town opened up for Mardi Gras and the Good Times are rolling once again. The question for me again was, okay — what now? I had that same question when we came to Orlando from Cleveland. My first project was to build and create a radio station, which...
(JTA) — Seventy-nine years ago this month, crowds twice filled Madison Square Garden for a pageant, “We Will Never Die,” meant to draw attention to the slaughter of Europe’s Jews by the Nazis. Screenwriter Ben Hecht organized the spectacle and wrote the script; German refugee composer Kurt Weill wrote the score. A young Marlon Brando had a leading role. Two million Jews had already been killed. The performance included the lines, “No voice is heard to cry halt to the slaughter, no government speaks to bid the murder of human millions end. But...
(JTA) — After decades of fearing that we would forget the horrors of our recent past, I am starting to fear the opposite possibility: that we Jews remember our history all too well but feel powerless to act on its lessons. The Russian invasion of Ukraine invites analogies to our traumatic past. History begs us to learn from what came before. These analogies to the past are never perfect. Seeing analogies between past and present does not mean we think that anything that happened in the past would be identical to anything happening in the p...
(JNS) — The news coming out of Russia these days sounds taken from a particularly gloomy dystopian novel, or perhaps from the Soviet era. The state — far from a model of democracy to begin with — has deteriorated in a matter of weeks into a genuine dictatorship, punishing citizens not just for their actions, but for their thoughts. Employees who refuse to support the invasion of Ukraine are fired. Students who do not support Putin’s “special operation” are expelled. Border control agents check the phones of Russians heading overseas fo...
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) — Barbara Goldberg Goldman, a lay leader in Democratic Party, resigned as deputy treasurer of the Maryland Democratic Party after questioning the viability of Black candidates for governor. Goldberg Goldman apologized for an email she sent in December, revealed over the weekend by Axios. “Consider this: Three African-American males have run statewide for governor and have lost,” she wrote to other party leaders in the email. “This is a fact we must not ignore.” Goldberg Goldman was strategizing over how best to defeat Kelly Schulz, t...
(JTA) - Feeling the sand between her toes was Teva Goldstein's favorite part of her December 2021 bat mitzvah on the island of Maui. She and her family all wore white, accessorized with purple leis. The beach in Hawaii was nearly 4,000 miles from her home in Dallas, another thousand miles from where she had lived for most of her life in Maryland. Yet her family had chosen it to mark her bat mitzvah, the moment when she would symbolically assume adulthood among the Jewish people. The path to the...
(JNS) - Famed Jewish dissident, human-rights activist and former Knesset member Natan Sharansky provided his opinion on the situation in Ukraine on Tuesday, analyzing what could be Russian President Vladimir Putin's motivations for the invasion into Ukraine, as well as the moral obligation Israel and the West have to support Ukraine. In a Zoom session hosted by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and moderated by JINSA president and CEO Mike Makovsky, Sharansky said that he...
(New York Jewish Week) - Uptown bagel and bag lovers rejoice! The Zabar's x Coach collaboration has arrived and it's the ultimate mashup of nosh meets posh. As part of their Spring/Summer 2022 line, luxury fashion brand Coach is drawing inspiration from the iconic Upper West Side gourmet grocery. Specifically, Coach has placed the iconic orange Zabar's logo - accompanied by an image of a bagel with a bite taken out of it - on their classic brown leather Cashin Carry Bag, as well as a gray wool...
A super favorite of mine ... I'm referring to Mel Torme', of course, who I also had the pleasure of meeting. (Remember, I'm a native New Yorker and had the opportunity to meet many celebs!) Melvin Howard Torme', nicknamed "The Velvet Fog," was a wonderful singer, musician, composer, arranger, drummer, actor and even author. He composed and co-wrote lyrics to my favorite of all time Christmas songs, "The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...) Yes, I'm Jewish and so was Mel!...
(JNS) - Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), visiting Israel for the first time last month, said the experience was not only "eye-opening," but helped solidify his support for the Jewish state and understand the danger faced by the Israeli people from the threats of terrorist organizations and states on their borders. The freshman congressman, who is seeking re-election to New York's 2nd Congressional District, was one of dozens of members of Congress from both parties to travel to Israel in late...
Marina Furman was born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. Her entire family was wiped out years ago in the Ukrainian Holocaust site, Babi Yar, and her mother was the only survivor. Being surrounded by antisemitism was simply part of everyday life. At the age of 19, Furman became a Refusenik — a Soviet citizen (and especially a Jew) who was refused permission to emigrate — and spent 10 years fighting the Soviet dictatorship to allow freedom of immigration and religious expression, nearly losing her...
(New York Jewish Week) - The 87-year-old Broadway vocal coach who died Tuesday after being pushed to the ground by an unknown assailant over the weekend in Manhattan was mourned by cantorial students she had taught at various Jewish seminaries. Barbara Maier Gustern worked in musical theater for decades, most recently for the 2019 Broadway revival of the musical "Oklahoma!" She also coached Debbie Harry of Blondie, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Taylor Mac, and many more singers. But Gustern...
