Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 38
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Natan Sharansky’s proposal last week to expand the space for non-Orthodox prayer at the Western Wall could be historic. But for most Israelis, changes at the Western Wall are of only trivial interest. Far more pressing are state restrictions on marriage and conversion, Sabbath bans on public transit, and haredi Orthodox exemptions from Israel’s mandatory draft. The haredi draft exemption was a central issue in January’s elections for the Knesset, and it has been a hot topic o...
Many of the injured in the Boston Marathon bombings last week were rushed to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Several days later, on Friday, the two suspected bombers, Tamerlan and Dzohkhar Tsarnaev, were admitted, separately, to the hospital’s emergency room after sustaining wounds from their shootout with the police. The older brother, Tamerlan, later succumbed to his wounds. Jewish immigrants founded the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston in 1916. Eighty years later, it merged with t...
If you are a teenager, you have probably laughed at some of the reasons people tell you why you should learn to play the card game bridge: “It will increase your math and logic abilities!” Great, so will Madden… “It will keep your mind sharp when you’re 70!” Great, that’s a long time from now... “Bridge is cool, the ACBL (American Contract Bridge League) said so!” Hahahaha, good one. A common misconception about bridge is that there are not that many teenagers who play the game. Spencer Dye...
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Minutes after a terrorist attack killed three at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, doctors and nurses at the city’s hospitals faced a harrowing scene—severed limbs, burned bodies, shrapnel buried in skin. For Boston doctors, the challenge presented by last week’s bombing was unprecedented—but they were prepared. Many of the city’s hospitals have doctors with actual battlefield experience. Others have trauma experience from deployments on humanitarian missions, like the one that followed the Haitian earthquake, and have le...
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened his most recent copy of Time magazine, with its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, to find that his name, which had been on the list for the past few years, was gone. Instead, the name of his new finance minister, Yair Lapid, appeared. Lapid, a political newbie who led his Yesh Atid [There is a Future] party to an impressive showing in the recent elections—19 out of 120 possible seats in the unicameral body—is keen to show that he has what it takes to be Israel’s next prime minis...
CAIRO – Against the backdrop of accusations of religious intolerance being leveled at the Morsi government, the scene in Cairo last week as Muslims participated at the funeral of former Jewish community leader Carmen Weinstein was both incongruous and encouraging. To some, it was an example of growing Egyptian Muslim interest in the dwindling Jewish population, especially since the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. “This is the first time I have seen this number of visitors and journalists come to the synagogue,” marveled Magda Haroun, Weins...
WARSAW, Poland (JTA)—Krzysztof Sliwinski, a longtime Catholic activist in Jewish-Polish relations, gazed wide-eyed at the swooping interior of this city’s Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Nearly two decades in the making, the more than $100 million institution officially opened to the public last week amid a month of high-profile, state-sponsored events marking the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. “It’s incredible, incredible, incredible how things have changed,” Sliwinski...
Few people expect to uncover tales of Jewish magic and sorcery while searching for female names common to third-century Babylonia. Then again, even fewer people expect a chemist to become a critically acclaimed author of Jewish historical fiction. Maggie Anton, author of the “Rashi’s Daughters” trilogy, has experienced both situations. She will speak about her writing process and her new book, “Rav Hisda’s Daughter, Book I: Apprentice: A Novel of Love, the Talmud, and Sorcery,” at 7 p.m. Thursd...
By Claudia Green Jewish Pavilion volunteer A group of guys from Congregation Ohev Shalom Men’s Club have taken it upon themselves to organize a fun golf tournament with proceeds going to the Jewish Pavilion. The newly formed ‘Pavilion Golf Society’ committee, co-chaired by Ken Davis and Lloyd Green, said they are working extremely hard to ensure that the tournament is a huge success. As the Jewish Pavilion has an ongoing need for funding, it is envisioned that this will become an annual event on the calendar. The inaugural golf tourn...
Two hundred fifty people, one huge tent, and the smell of brisket coming from the oven, can only mean one thing: Passover at Chabad of UCF is here! Every year, Chabad of the University of Central Floria holds seders on the first two nights of Passover, open to all Jewish students in the Orlando area. With many students from out of state or even down south, and unable to celebrate Pesach with their families, Chabad remains their home away from home. There where even a few families that came to vi...
A few months ago Rabbi David Stav, the 53-year-old founder and president of Tzohar, a rabbinic organization that strives to make the face of traditional Judaism more appealing to Israelis, was seen as the Don Quixote candidate in the upcoming national Chief Rabbinate election, held once a decade. After all, he is an idealistic moderate who stresses a compassionate approach to halacha, or Jewish law, in the face of a religious establishment that is increasingly powerful and rigid in its views. His conversations are sprinkled with words like...
I—and most of the world—was struck by the photo of young Martin Richard, tragically killed by the bombing at the Boston Marathon. Martin is holding a poster he created saying simply: “No More Hurting People” and underneath “Peace.” Martin will never get to know who set the bomb or why. Nor will the youngsters killed while sitting at the Sbarro Pizza Parlor in Jerusalem in 2001. One wonders, what, no matter their religious views or governmental concepts, would make someone actually take the action of killing and maiming innocent people who...
A hundred meters from these fingers is a border between civilizations. To the east of that border is the “village,” “suburb,” or “neighborhood” of Isaweea. With more than 20,000 residents, the label “village” is misleading, but that’s the term many use. “Suburb” suggests something outside of Jerusalem, but it is formally within the city as defined by Israel in 1967. There is no wall between us and Isaweea, but it is “outside” insofar as few Jews risk themselves by entering it. “Neighborhood” is problematic, insofar as the frequent mobil...
My grandfather stared out the airplane window, smiling. My mother stared at my grandfather, crying. I stared at both of them, overcome by what we had just experienced together. A day earlier we had marched with a group of Israeli officers through the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the death camp where my grandfather had been a prisoner 68 years ago. This was not my family’s first visit to Auschwitz. We had visited Poland in 2005 so my grandfather, Joseph Gringlas, could show his children and grandchildren where he had come from and what he had b... 
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With all of the many issues confronting the state of Israel—the Iranian nuclear threat, the challenges of renewing meaningful peace talks with the Palestinians, the increasing social divisions in Israeli society, an unconventional and somewhat precarious coalition government, serious deficits in the educational system, insufficient employment opportunities for Israelis with advanced degrees and an increasingly turbulent and unpredictable neighborhood—one might assume that the Jewish state has more than enough on its collective plate. For the fi...
Dear Editor: I was extremely troubled to read the letter to the editor by Sandi Solomon, “Stand strong against Islam,” which you published April 12. The misinformation, intolerance and prejudice echoed in the letter was simply epic in proportion. Perhaps what was most troubling was that the accusations made by Solomon that 1) Islam seeks global domination and 2) Muslims are taught to lie and cannot be trusted, are the same false and hateful types of accusations Nazi propagandists made against Jews prior to the Holocaust. We must learn from our...
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 a.m.; Sunday, 8 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 26 Light Shabbat candles 7:39 p....
In less than three weeks, the gutting will begin. After 58 years of use, the building that houses Congregation Beth Shalom in Napa will be getting a major face-lift. The synagogue will be gutted, renovated, expanded and modernized. The size of the sanctuary will be increased by 1,500 square feet, a second level will be added to one building and a new conference room will be built. In all, more than 5,700 square feet will be added. Beth Shalom held its final Shabbat service in its old building on April 12, and now will spend the next 12 months ...
OCALA—Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center of Marion County and The Villages is hosting a communitywide celebration, featuring a barbecue, music, magic show, pony rides and petting zoo from 1 p.m.-3:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 28 at the Chabad Jewish Center, 3500 SW 34th Ave. The event, open to the public, will mark the observance of the Jewish holiday of Lag B’Omer, which is traditionally commemorated by large outdoor celebrations and bonfires, which harbor spiritual significance. Chabad-Lubavitch, the largest Jewish outreach organization in the wor...
Jake Alhadeff of Maitland, Fla., died on Tuesday, April 16, 2013. He was 98 years old. Born to Solomon and Estrea Benator Alhadeff in Atlanta in 1915, he was the oldest of six children. He lived in Atlanta and was an active member of Congregation Or VeShalom until he moved to Florida in 2003. He served in WWII and retired from the U.S. Army Reserves as a Lt. Col. Growing up, Mr. Alhadeff loved playing doubles tennis with his three brothers. He later played duplicate bridge and became a Life Master. He is preceded in death by his wife of 65...
Harvey L. Bloom of Windermere, Fla., died on Tuesday, April 16, 2013. He was 86 years old. A native of Brookline, Mass., he was born Sept. 20, 1926, to the late Henry and Sylvia Rich Bloom. He graduated from high school and enlisted in the Navy, serving on several different ships. Following his discharge in 1946, he graduated from Boston University. A leather broker, Mr. Bloom did business all over the world, serving the needs of many different clients. On Aug. 18, 1988, in Gardner, Mass., he married the former Teresa Schulte, his wife of...
Ida Eisen, of Orlando, died on Thursday, April 18, 2013. She was 103 years old. Mrs. Eisen, the widow of the late Samuel Eisen, who passed away in 1997, was born in Poland on Dec. 15, 1909, to the late Max and Anna Schwindler Schruber. She immigrated to the United States in 1921 and was a high school graduate and a homemaker. In 1981, Mrs. Eisen relocated to the Orlando area to be closer to her daughter. Mrs. Eisen is survived by her daughters, Marion (Ira) Daitzman of Orlando, and Gladys (Harold) Haber of Greensboro, N.C.; six grandchildren,...
Helen C. Franklin, formerly of Orlando, died on Monday, April 15, 2013. She was 86 years old. Mrs. Franklin was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to the late Harry and Dora Mermelstein Cooper on Nov. 29, 1926. She held a Master’s Degree in Special Education, teaching for many years before relocating to Central Florida from New Jersey in 2000. A Life Member of Hadassah, she was also active in the Jewish Community Center. Mrs. Franklin is survived by her son, Jeffrey Berger of Vero Beach; grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The family requests c...
Funeral services for Ida S. Miller, of Oviedo, Fla., were held at Pride of Lynn Cemetery in Lynn, Mass. on Friday, April 19, 2013. Mrs. Miller, a homemaker, was the daughter of the late Joseph and Mary Gold Skolnick and the mother of Diane Freedman of Oviedo. Services entrusted to Beth Shalom Memorial Chapel, Orlando....
Burton Schlossman of Long Beach, N.Y., died on Tuesday, April 16, 2013. He was 86 years old. Mr. Schlossman was born in New York City on April 28, 1926, to the late Joseph and Cecilia Gottlieb Schlossman. Following high school he enlisted in the Navy. Mr. Schlossman was a noted glass designer and a longtime member of Kiwanis. According to his daughter, Sara Schlossman (Tom DeLuca), who survives him, “He was an amazing dad.” Mr. Schlossman was predeceased by his sisters, Marguerite Pepper and Malvern Hoffman. A private family service was to be...
