Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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For the first time in approximately 60 years, archaeological excavations have uncovered fragments of a biblical scroll. The scroll, which is written in Greek, includes portions of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, including the books of Zechariah and Nahum The verses, from Zechariah 8:16–17, were discovered in a cave where Jewish refugees hid almost 1900 years ago. They read: "These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to one another, render true and perfect justice in your g...
Long-time philanthropist, community leader and dedicated Zionist, Bruce Gould has a new role - producer of a documentary portraying the complex and consequential life of the late Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, whose 1977 meeting in Jerusalem with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was an act of unprecedented courage and a turning point for the Jewish state. The film is debuting in Florida at the Miami Jewish Film Festival, running virtually from April 14-29. Titled "Upheaval: The Journey of...
*Mattan Segev-Frank is a man with a mission. And while he has singlehandedly already begun making an impact, he knows that the issues he is concerned about are much larger than any single person. They require governments and international authorities to take decisive steps. My first encounter with Mattan, a genealogy researcher and an MA student of the History of the Jewish People at the Tel Aviv University, was in a Jewish genealogy Facebook group when he shared his dismay at stolen historic...
By Pamela Ruben Put away your tired old sweats, on Thursday, April 29, the Jewish Pavilion will be holding its annual fashion show. Live and in-person at Dillard’s Department Store (Altamonte Mall), the annual fashion show will raise funds for the Pavilion’s senior programs. For a dozen years, the annual ‘Spring into Fashion” show was a celebration of fashion, food and fun. According to Jewish Pavilion executive director, Nancy Ludin, “This year the fashion show means so much more. After a year of the pandemic shutting down the world for our s...
On Thursday, April 15 at 7 p.m., EDT, The Jewish Federations of North America, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Hayesod and additional partners will host a one-hour virtual event to mark Israel’s 73rd Independence Day. The event will begin with a farewell address by His Excellency Reuven Rivlin, president of Israel, and include a look back on his legacy as the Jewish State’s 10th president. It will also feature special appearances by Israeli Olympic-gold-medal-hopefuls who are on their way to Tokyo this summer, Jewish athletes from aro...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Israel's Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich announced on Tuesday that he plans to recommend that Israel's President Reuven Rivlin task Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with forming the next government. "Based on the prime minister's commitment that he will form a right-wing government that will safeguard Israel's Jewish identity, bolster the Judea and Samaria settlement enterprise, and pursue the necessary reforms in the judiciary, the Religious Zionist...
(JTA) — PBS has decided to postpone airing the documentary “Til Kingdom Come,” which examines the close relationship between American evangelicals and Israel, in the light of accusations that the film misleadingly spliced together two separate parts of a speech by former President Donald Trump. The film, which was directed by the Russian-Israeli documentary filmmaker Maya Zinshtein, was released as a rental for in-home viewing in late February ahead of a planned broadcast premiere on March 29 as part of the “Independent Lens” series on PBS. I...
(JTA) — Political activists, including Rep. Madison Cawthorn and the ambassador to Germany under Donald Trump, are comparing the idea of “vaccine passports” to Nazi Germany, with many invoking the yellow Stars of David that Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust. Other opponents of public health restrictions have suggested or implied that the idea of opening recreational spaces only to those who aren’t at risk of COVID is similar to the Nazis’ persecution of Europe’s Jews, which culminated in genocide. The trend is the latest inst...
I would like to respond to AP’s Deepti Hajela’s article “White People Seem Uninterested in Racial Talk” in the Daytona Beach News Journal’s Sunday, March 28, edition. I have no problem discussing racial questions in a country that has been literally torn apart racially through years of unrest. Names that contributed to this ongoing unrest mostly involved police interaction with Blacks, mostly males but the death of one female is listed among them for her accidental death at the hand of a police officer. For the record, I have been a Liberal,...
(JNS) — Iran announced this week that the severe economic sanctions imposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump will force it to close the long-running Bushehr nuclear power plant, which produces electricity. The official explanation noted U.S. banking restrictions, which have made it difficult for Iran to transfer money and procure necessary equipment from Russian suppliers. Under normal circumstances, this announcement, which is essentially Tehran’s first public admission of the efficacy of U.S. sanctions, should have made officials in Wash...
(JNS) — The Palestine Society at SOAS University of London released an open letter earlier this year demanding that the university’s academic board reject the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism that the British government has asked universities to accept. Co-signed by a coalition of 50-plus SOAS student groups, the letter argues that the definition would seriously threaten free expression on campus by labeling any criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic. As SOASPS’ letter does not specify a probl...
(JNS) — Two weeks ago, the White House Passover seder was hosted by America’s Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-born lawyer is the first Jew to be a spouse of a vice president, as well as the first male to occupy the role. Being a Jew in such an important place in American society is not quite as big a deal as it might have been in previous eras when most Jews were either immigrants or first-generation Americans. Nonetheless, Emhoff has become a symbol of the acceptance of a community that was once marginalized. The same mig...
(JNS) — While Israel was busy with the domestic political imbroglio surrounding last week’s Knesset elections, a strategic threat that could threaten the country’s very existence was developing. If the Iranian-Chinese alliance reaches its full potential, the Middle East could once again be dragged into a new cold war between superpowers. Soviet support for the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s radical policies ensured him regional hegemony that threatened Israel for more than a decade. The American attempt to placate the Egyptia...
Dear Editor: There is a lot to like in the Heritage Florida Jewish News. The paper does an excellent job of keeping us up to date on the activities of Jewish organizations in central Florida, such as the Jewish Federation and the JCCs. Especially appreciated are the features on the kids at the Jewish Academy of Orlando and the seniors served by the Jewish Pavilion! I also enjoy the cultural and historical articles about Jews of central Florida and across the nation and the world. And I never miss reading Gloria Yousha’s “Scene Around” for f...
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) — Steven Spielberg is donating his Genesis Prize earnings to Jewish and non-Jewish groups working to promote racial and economic justice. The prize’s foundation on Thursday announced that the film director would double the $1 million prize with his own money and split it among 10 organizations, including Black Voters Matter and the Jews of Color Initiative. “Judaism and Jewish history begin with two narratives: Genesis and Exodus, stories about creation and liberation from oppression, about the discovery of the moral voice and of human...
(JTA) — Matt Gaetz, the Florida congressman known for his firebomb rhetoric, is in big trouble — in part because of the alleged foibles of a Jewish buddy, Joel Greenberg, who has earned criticism previously from his local Jewish community. The U.S. Justice Department reportedly is investigating Gaetz’s alleged sexual relationship with a girl who was 17 years old when the affair took place about two years ago. The investigation, anonymous officials told The New York Times, stemmed from a feder...
SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. (JTA) - When Ellen Faulkner told her friends that she was moving to The Villages, the sprawling senior community in Central Florida, they cautioned her: There was no Jewish life there. Faulkner hadn't noticed that during her visit, which was made at the urging of a high school classmate who told her rapturously about what it was like to live in the 55-plus community that's home to 125,000 self-described "Villagers." She had been captivated by the free concerts, huge crowds...
There is no end... I am surprised (and delighted) one after another, as I look up famous people and find that they are Jewish! For instance, actress GWYNETH PALTROW, Academy Award and Golden Globe recipient, the daughter of actress BLYTHE DANNER and producer, director BRUCE PALTROW. Her dad was Jewish and she and her younger brother were brought up in the religion. Her ancestry claimed many rabbis. Of course, comedians Jack Benny and George Jessel ... and so many other comedians were Jewish....
(JNS) - An 11-year-old Israeli boy has uncovered a rare, 2,500-year-old amulet during a family excursion in the northern Negev Desert, the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Tuesday. Zvi Ben-David of Beersheva came across the pottery figurine in Nahal Besor. He showed it to his mother, a professional tour guide, who contacted the IAA. According to Oren Shmueli, the IAA's district archaeologist for the western Negev, the statuette, depicting a bare-breasted woman wearing a scarf, was believed...
(JNS) - On a blustery day in late January, Holocaust survivor *Sami Steigmann, 81, made his debut on Clubhouse - the buzzy, audio-based, social-media platform that launched in the venture capital and Hollywood communities last spring and now connects millions of "regular" folk with celebrities for spontaneous conversations. Steigmann, who lives below the poverty line in Harlem, N.Y., was preparing to speak outside the United Nations on International Holocaust Remembrance Day for an "End Jew...
(JTA) - Folk musician and record archivist Nathan Salsburg lives on a 40-acre former tree farm in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, with fellow songwriter Joan Shelley. Shelley is not Jewish, but she and Salsburg - who has a complicated relationship with his Jewishness dating back to childhood - began observing Shabbat in the last year. "We don't turn everything off," Salsburg jokes. "But we light the Shabbat candles and say HaMotzi and drink wine. We'd like to keep it going. But I don't...
Israeli cargo ship hit by missile near Yemen in suspected Iranian attack By Cnaan Liphshiz (JTA) — An Israeli-owned cargo ship was struck by a missile in the Arabian Sea in a suspected Iranian attack, an Israeli security official said. The ship was sailing from Tanzania to India and continued its voyage after the attack Thursday, the official told Reuters. He was not named. The vessel, which is owned by the XT Management firm from Haifa, was flying a Liberian flag and did not sustain major damage, the report said. Since 2019, Israel has been a...
The omer refers to the 49-day period between the second night of Passover and the holiday of Shavuot. This period marks the beginning of the barley harvest when, in ancient times, Jews would bring the first sheaves to the Temple as a means of thanking God for the harvest. The word omer literally means “sheaf” and refers to these early offerings. The Torah itself dictates the counting of the seven weeks following Passover: “You shall count from the eve of the second day of Pesach, when an omer of grain is to be brought as an offering, seven...
(J. the Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) - Calling California Gov. Gavin Newsom a "friend and ally" to the Jewish community, members of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus spoke out in a unified show of support for the governor on Tuesday as he faced an increasingly likely recall vote. With just under 1.5 million valid signatures needed to trigger a recall vote, the petition against Newsom had nearly 1.2 million authorized signatures as of March 19, according to the secretary of...
