Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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The smell of matzo ball soup and the sound of chattering voices traveled through the hallways of the UCF Student Union Friday night. Feb. 21, as the UCF community gathered to celebrate Judaism's day of rest, Shabbat. Mega Shabbat was hosted by Chabad at UCF to experience Shabbat and to invite people of all backgrounds to experience the tradition as well. "All of the UCF Jewish community comes together," said Rivkie Lipskier, co-director of Chabad at UCF. "Ninety-nine percent of those who attend...
On March 24, Keith Dvorchik, CEO of The Roth Family Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando, issued a statement to all JCC members that the JCC Board of Directors made the decision to temporarily cease operations, effective the end of business on Friday, March 27. This resulted in the lay off of more than 130 employees. “Our employees have worked hard and stepped up when this pandemic began. We appreciate our staff, their hard work and their commitment to children and families at the JCC; there is no more difficult decision than this,” Dvo...
(WASHINGTON, DC & WORLDWIDE)—BBYO has introduced a brand-new, first-of-its-kind virtual experience for Jewish youth, akin to an interactive “Jewish Netflix” for teens to access unique online experiences and programs. As “social distancing” becomes the norm for young people around the world, BBYO is offering its global audience an opportunity to connect, learn, have fun, and be inspired in a new digital space. The recently launched BBYO On Demand will serve as a teen curated global engagement platform featuring activities, speakers, and hangouts...
Jewish Academy of Orlando (JAO) transitioned to remote learning on Wednesday, March 18, missing only one day of school as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. After much faculty preparation and lesson-planning, JAO students will now begin a blended-learning plan. "We are very fortunate to have the dedication of our talented faculty and resources to adapt to these unprecedented times," stated Alan Rusonik, head of school. Blended learning is an approach to education that combines online...
By Ashley Fisak I always opened my birthday card from my grandparents with gusto because I knew it would have a $5 bill inside. I can remember that excitement and now I see it in my own children when they open cards from their grandparents. An unexpected card just out of the blue to say "I'm thinking about you" can put a smile on just about anyone's face. At a time when most of the world is in crisis, there is a side effect to this isolation that all is too common under normal circumstances, let...
DAYTONA BEACH—The 2020 Jewish Heritage Festival scheduled for Sunday, March 29, 2020 at The Casements in Ormond Beach, Florida, has been postponed until April 25, 2021 due to the pubic health concerns surrounding the COVID-19 coronavirus. “Taking into account recommendations from Governor DeSantis and many public health officials to cancel large gatherings for the foreseeable future, we decided that it was in the best interests of the Festival volunteers, entertainers, participants, vendors and Festival-goers to move the Festival until nex...
With the world shutting down around us during the COVID-19 virus outbreak, JFS Orlando continues to operate to make sure people who are hungry get food, elderly who have to travel get a ride, folks who look for spiritual guidance can speak with the rabbi, and families in need have access to a case worker. (For a detailed list of the operational status for each JFS program and service, visit www.JFSorlando.org.) At this time, it is critical to serve our community. And JFS needs your help to do so. Please, donate to us now, at this difficult...
By Simone Somekh NEW YORK (JTA)—The Italian people’s first reaction to the coronavirus was to have a good laugh. Not because they didn’t believe the virus was a real issue, but because that’s just how we like to process big changes in my home country. By Feb. 23, there were 152 confirmed cases in Italy. Yet many people were still skeptical, assuming the virus was probably no different than the regular flu. Thousands of original, hilarious jokes, cartoons and self-deprecating memes regarding the virus started circulating online. We all took part...
(JTA)—The leaders of the Conservative movement’s Jewish law committee issued a crisis declaration allowing the recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish with a virtual online prayer quorum. In a statement issued this week, Rabbis Elliot Dorff and Pamela Barmash, the co-chairs of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, said that given the current public health crisis it’s permitted to constitute a prayer quorum, or minyan, with individuals connected by videoconference. “This permission of constituting a minyan solely online, whether for all praye...
(JNS)—Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that a passenger jet will be sent to Peru to begin evacuating Israelis that were stranded in the South American country when it shut its borders in an effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Peruvian authorities would provide a police escort as the first planeload of Israelis were brought home by El Al free of charge. The operation was being conducted under “the principle of mutual responsibility under which the State of Israel operates in a tim...
By Jonathan S. Tobin (JNS)—It seems like a devastating argument. If Israeli Jews are willing to accept life-saving treatment from Arab doctors, why won’t they give their representatives in the Knesset a seat in the country’s government? That’s the point The New York Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief David Halbfinger made last week both on Twitter and in an article that made the same point. It’s been echoed elsewhere in features in the Israeli press. But the premise is false. The idea that objections to giving anti-Zionist Arab parties a role in t...
Most columnists dread the well-known malady of “writer’s block,” particularly when their editor’s deadline for submission edges ever closer and closer. My problem, as I worked on this week’s column was not “writer’s block” but too many current topics that interfered with my ability to focus on any one of them. If I had to compare this virtual smorgasbord of subjects to a physical phenomenon it would be like trying to listen to many conversations at once, each interfering with another, leaving me unable to hear anything but combined gibber...
(JNS)—Did you hear the shocking news? Sixty Congress members just signed a letter demanding that the federal government stop dismantling illegally built homes belonging to whites, though they didn’t object to the dismantling of illegal homes built by African-Americans. Oops, wait! Sorry, I got that mixed up. The 60 Congress members demanded that the Israeli government stop dismantling any illegally built homes that have been built by Arabs. But they did not object to Israel’s continuing policy of dismantling of illegally built Jewish homes...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—I know that many American Jews are not the biggest fans of President Donald Trump. But I also know that when it comes to Jewish issues, no candidate is better. President Donald Trump is the most emphatically pro-Israel U.S. president since the Jewish state’s founding in 1948. He is the most instinctively philo-Semitic president at least since Abraham Lincoln spoke of America as an “almost chosen people”—and perhaps since George Washington himself assured the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island that each child of the “Stock of...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Now that the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination in America is narrowing to a two-person race, the case for Joe Biden is even more compelling and urgent. I have known and worked with him since he entered the U.S. Senate more than 40 years ago, and then as vice president. From the start of this tortuous political contest, I never had any doubt that he deserves the overwhelming support of the American Jewish community. Joe Biden has worked tirelessly with American Jewish organizations for tikkun olam, making our c...
(JNS)—I knew it, I knew it, I just knew it... so they closed the coffee place. I hadn’t even recycled my paper cup from Monday when I saw the online notice that night. Foiled. Even though I passed right by my friendly barista on the street on Sunday, when she assured me they would be doing takeout for the foreseeable future. Instead, I went to the local bagel shop, another neighborhood haunt. I picked up a dozen bagels for dinner (defrosted the lox last night), but stared for a minute when I first got there. Right. St. Patrick’s Day for some...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—In late February, I flew to Long Island to help my 77-year-old mom following her knee replacement surgery. I arrived in the United States with the remnants of a mild winter cold, a slight cough and runny nose—nothing I was concerned about. I spent most of my time at my parents’ home, save the occasional outing and a shiva call at the home of a friend whose husband had just passed away. On the flight home, I had a hard time sleeping, which is not unusual for me on a transatlantic flight. I returned to Israel with a heada...
MOUNT HERMON, Israel (JTA)-Standing on a peak atop Israel's highest mountain on a dazzlingly bright February morning, I had just stepped into my skis and begun to descend when I heard someone yelling in my direction. A soldier clutching an automatic weapon was running after me. "Hey! You can't go that way," he shouted. "That's a closed military zone." Welcome to Israel's only ski area, wedged into the northernmost corner of the Golan Heights along the Syrian border at an elevation of 6,600 feet....
(aka Lois Lane*) Last year, Jason Mendelsohn (aka SupermanHPV) spoke on Capitol Hill at a Congressional Briefing titled "Let's End HPV-related Cancers." During his talk, in which he shared his human-papillomavirus-related (HPV) cancer-survivor story, he showed a 2-minute video of pictures of his family life, hospital stays for treatment, and ringing the bell in celebration of his recovery. The song accompanying the photos was "If You're Going Through Hell" by Rodney Atkins. Mendelsohn's mom,...
Some personal thoughts... Joan Rivers was a friend. She once said, "whenever I hit bottom, the only thing I think of has been set down by Jerome Kern (another Jew and, of course, a great composer)). "Pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again." (Unfortunately, Joan suffered a tragic death.) Another friend... (And also a talented Jew) NEIL DIAMOND, recently came out of retirement (he retired 2 years ago because he contracted Parkinson's Disease) to perform in Las Vegas. (I went to...
(ISRAEL21c)-Fifteen years after he filched a 2,000-year-old ballista stone from a Jerusalem archaeological site, an anonymous Israeli arranged to return it to the Israel Antiquities Authority. The man explained that the coronavirus crisis makes him feel "the end of the world is near" and he wanted to clear his conscience. Moshe Manies, the person who agreed to bring the pilfered stone to the state without divulging the identity of the thief, wrote a post about it on Facebook. He explained that...
By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA)—Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have much in common when it comes to policy and style. They stand together in recommending tough action to contain Iran, and are comfortable dealing with autocracies (Saudi Arabia) and increasingly nationalist democracies (Hungary, India). Netanyahu has fervently embraced idioms identified with Trump, like “fake news” and “deep state.” But when it comes to how they are both handling the coronavirus, it’s night and day. Netanyahu’s public statements have been clear and pac...
In Yeshiva/Rabbinical School, the community underwent multiple tragedies/difficulties in a short period. One of my rabbis told me at that time something that has stayed with me until today, giving me the support and inspiration during difficult times. He compared life (in some ways) to a school: Just like you would never give a second grader a test meant for a high school kid, so too in life, Hashem/G-d only gives us challenges that are tailor-made for each one of us specifically, as He knows exactly what we can handle and what we are capable...
Now that former Chief of Staff General Benny Gantz, has been tasked with forming the next Israeli government by President Rivlin, it’s time to take a look to see how we got here and how this relates to Israel’s Arabs. Far from being an apartheid state, some 20 percent of Israel’s population are Arabs who live as equal citizens with full rights and privileges. Paradoxically, Israeli Arabs do not all have the same responsibilities as the rest of the population, specifically regarding their exemption from military or civilian national service. Thi...
NEW YORK (JTA)-A hand-drawn portrait of a young man in a French internment camp. A photo of a Jewish girl who survived the Holocaust by hiding in a monastery. A letter detailing efforts to improve life for Jews in the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp. These are just a few of the 250 artifacts that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has collected recently through a drive launched last month-around the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-to collect Holocaust-era artifacts...
