Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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While all of my friends were spending their last spring breaks of college on cruises or going to the beach, I chose a different path. Through the Jewish National Fund, I signed up for Alternative Spring Break, which is a week-long trip to Israel where college students from around the country engage in community service projects in various parts of Israel. I was excited to be placed in a group working in Northern Israel since I didn't get a lot of time there in high school. From day one, I was...
The Jewish Pavilion caters to the Jewish community's most vulnerable population-the frail and the elderly. Passover photos from 2013 bring to mind many friends no longer here to enjoy the Passover with their families. The Passover meal with the Jewish pavilion was truly their "last supper" or the last Jewish holiday they were able to celebrate at the dinner table....
Yes... that's right. Brown's Deli will be open throughout Passover serving from a special Kosher for Passover menu. Obviously there will be no bread for deli sandwiches, but all the house specialties such as brisket, stuffed cabbage, and chicken-in-a-pot will be available using slightly modified recipes. To add to the flavors of the holiday, there also will be lamb stew, eggplant napoleon, tzimmes, potato kugel, farfel stuffing, charoset, matzo brei, and much more. While Brown's is a relatively...
It's important to be well-informed about current events-especially events concerning Israel. Since day one of Israel's independence, this little nation that inhabits only one percent of the Middle East has been fighting for its piece of ground and its peace. There are so many American organizations, many called NGOs (nongovernment organizations) that say they are pro-Israel and/or pro-peace. They all say they want peace in the Middle East, but at what cost? And who is footing their bills? These...
Award-winning screenwriter, David N. Weiss ("Shrek 2," "The Smurfs" movies, and "Rugrats") will present an entertaining evening of personal and professional stories in "From Hollywood to Holy Hood." Weiss's hilarious and inspiring tale centers on his wacky journey from secular Jew to dynamic Christian youth leader to Modern Orthodox/blockbusting screenwriter. Says Weiss, "When you find yourself under a chupah in a Presbyterian Church being married by a Jews for Jesus rabbi, you know something ha...
I came in on the middle of an interview on National Public Radio recently. I didn’t catch the name of the interviewee, but he did catch my attention. “Religions,” he said, “are too beautiful to be abandoned to those who believe in them.” And early last year another program cited statistics that showed more and more young people moving away from religion. But why? Was the next generation really moving away, or merely cherry picking the aspects of faith they liked? And what did the speaker m...
Israelis have been seeking accommodation for decades, depending on when you start counting, first with Arabs and later with Palestinians. It is common, and perhaps justified, for Israelis and our friends to blame the Arabs for intransigence as well as violence. That is a cultural perspective, one that sees Israelis with a prior claim, earned by purchase, settlement, military success and development, enhanced by attitudes and behaviors that value human life and oppose bloodshed as a means of settling disputes. Those are not, alas, the Muslim...
Who are Jewish Americans and what do we really believe? The approach of Pesach offers an especially good opportunity to raise that question. The seder, after all, is the single most widely observed ritual among Jewish Americans. Why might that be? Why, with thousands of possible practices, and millions of people choosing among them, has this one risen to the top? Perhaps most importantly, what can we learn from this phenomenon, especially in a year in which, thanks to the Pew Research Center study, the question of Jewish identity has been an...
Fifty years ago, Elie Wiesel, then a little known Israeli news correspondent in the U.S. wrote a book that shook the soul of a generation: “The Jews of Silence.” Wiesel described two kinds of of silence: Jews in Galut who were silent about the fate of their brethren in the USSR ... the Jews who were silenced in the USSR. At Akiba, the high school I attended in Philadelphia, our student council asked Wiesel to speak for the school commencement ceremony for the class of 1967, the year before I graduate. And Wiesel did speak on the night of Jun...
There is a unifying credo every American can agree upon, regardless of generational, racial or red-state/blue-state divide: Everything is better with bacon. Bacon-infused alcohol. Bacon ice-cream sundaes. Even bacon toothpaste. I’m pretty sure the last one is a gag. But how are they not all gags? The bacon craze has seemingly affected even the most famously pig-averse of people, observant Jews—at least if measured by media coverage of the latest entry into the kosher bacon pantheon, bacon-flavored Ritz crackers. Of course Bac-O Bits, among oth...
To our dearest ladies here in town whom we truly cherish: Coming out of Purim and the month of Adar there is lots of joy in the air, yet we write to you with a heavy heart. This past month our dear colleague, Rashi Minkowitz, 37, a fellow shlucha like ourselves, who ran a Chabad house in Georgia was suddenly taken from this world with simply no warning. She left behind a husband, eight beautiful little children, and a grieving community that she really grew and connected with. Yet it didn’t end there; another fellow sister shlucha, Rivky B...
Haggadah means “the telling,” and since a story is only as good as the person telling it, the one you pick can spell the difference between an engaging seder or one where grandpa falls asllep in the matzah-ball soup. The authors of the best-selling 30-minute seder Haggadah, “The Haggadah that Blends Brevity with Tradition,” are bringing a new look to the Passover seder table this season with the release of the 60-minute seder, “Complete Family Haggadah.” This book, with its gloss, hi-style magazine format, stands above the ret by delivering...
MORNING AND EVENING MINYANS (Call synagogue to confirm time.) Chabad of South Orlando—Monday and Thursday, 8 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 Israel—Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-647-3055. FRIDAY, APRIL 11 Candle ligh...
On March 22, the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando hosted an Israeli Film Night screening, "A Bottle in the Gaza Sea," at the Orlando Science Center. More than 90 locals gathered to watch the film, which is centered around two young adults, Tai and Naim, 17 and 20 respectively. She's Israeli. He's Palestinian. She lives in Jerusalem. He lives in Gaza. They must endure an explosive situation that is not of their choosing at an age where young people are falling in love and taking their place...
The JCC's Jack and Lee Rosen Southwest Campus has launched a new program to educate its children about environmental responsibility, sustainability and healthy eating. The centerpiece of the program is a new raised-bed garden that has been planted and is being maintained by children in the center's early childhood, after-school and camp programs. The idea for the program started when the JCC's program director, Eric Lightman, noticed six raised beds that had been built as a project of a local Bo...
BOCA RATON, Fla. (JTA)-Stroll past the kosher section of most large supermarkets in America and you could be forgiven for thinking that Jewish diets consist mainly of jarred gefilte fish, unsalted matzahs and Tam-Tam crackers. Not so at the Winn-Dixie supermarket in this affluent South Florida suburb. There's a kosher bakery with fresh pizza and dairy and pareve desserts; a meat and deli counter with hot foods like chicken wings, potato kugel and meatballs; a refrigerated case with cold salads;...
Edward and Pauline Tissue of Plum, Pa., announce the engagement of their daughter Katlyn Noel to William Blake Kachman. The future bridegroom, Blake, is the son of William and Kelly Kachman of Orlando, Fla. He is a 2005 graduate of Pedro Menedez High School. In 2011 he earned his associate's degree in computer science from the University of Central Florida. He currently works in the IT department for the College of Arts and Humanities at UCF. The bride-to-be is a 2005 graduate of Plum High...
I never cease to be amazed... Last column I spoke about Israel and all its breakthroughs in medicine. Well... here is another. I recently received a letter from Rabbi ANDREW SKLARZ of Greenwich Reform Synagogue, Greenwich, Conn. Besides being a rabbi, he is a social worker, and trained psychotherapist. He has served as a pastoral counselor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NYC. He wrote in part: "It was 2001... just hours before I would step onto the Bima to conduct the Erev Rosh...
(JTA) – The Jewish community in Milan is confronting an apparent case of embezzlement in which millions of dollars were removed from the community bank accounts. “Over the course of the past few months, all the accounts of the community have undergone a general audit, which is still going on,” Milan Jewish community president Walter Meghnagi told hundreds of community members at a special meeting this week. The audit, he said, had shown that “taking advantage of everyone’s good faith, over the course of the years millions of Euros have been...
Rather than feeling a sense of loss, leaving the second Passover seder behind in the U.S., or France, or Turkey, or any other country of origin is touted as a perk of living in Israel that new immigrants to the Jewish state (olim) mention in the same breath as the universal availability of fresh pita and falafel. But why do Diaspora Jews mutter to themselves while they're dragging out the matzo balls for their return engagement at seder No. 2? Why, since the Torah is crystal clear that Passover...
MIAMI-AVIV 613 Vodka, a new vodka from Israel, and the only certified kosher vodka in the luxury category, was a part of the celebration at the Friends of the Israeli Defense Force (FIDF) Annual White Party Fundraiser on April 5 in Miami. "We are thrilled to be involved with the FIDF White Party and introduce South Florida to AVIV 613," said Marc Grossfield, founder and chief executive officer of Tzfat Spirits of Israel. "It's only appropriate to celebrate the defense forces who keep Israel...
(JTA)-Toss the potato starch and matzah meal-serve delectable desserts this Passover made from chocolate. These desserts, especially if using fair trade or organic chocolate, further awareness of the themes of Passover. They remind us of the great poverty of many cacao farmers and of the children tragically enslaved in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Chocolate charoset truffles This is a great combination of chocolate and charoset, the Passover fruit concoction representing the building of granaries...
NEW YORK (JTA)—On a recent trip to Jerusalem, my son decided that his favorite color was gold. Whenever he’s asked why, he replies with a wry smile befitting a 5-year-old. “Jerusalem is the city of gold, of course,” he says. When we told him our family was moving to Israel this summer, he was quite pleased. “Ima, will we live there until I’m a grown-up?” he asked. That’s the idea, we nodded. While I know what my family will mean when we reach the end of the Passover seder this year and say “Next Year in Jerusalem,” for those not making th...
By Penny Schwartz BOSTON (JTA)-Frolicking frogs and magical matzah balls are featured in this season's crop of new Passover books for children that are sure to engage, inform, entertain and inspire. David A. Adler, author of the hugely popular early reader "Cam Jansen" series, offers "The Story of Passover." Adler is highly acclaimed for his straightforward narrative style in non-fiction books, including dozens on Jewish holidays. He says he likes to appeal to readers of any Jewish background,...
Taglit-Birthright Israel announces the establishment of a unique training program for an elite cadre of American trip leaders through a partnership with the iCenter, a North American organization dedicated to Israel education. Taglit-Birthright Israel will dub the participants “Taglit Fellows” and expects to provide up to 200 trip leaders each year with intensive theoretical and practical training skills. Taglit-Birthright Israel’s three-pronged approach to trip leaders’ education will include a four-day seminar with Jewish and Israel studies...
