Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS)-The death toll from flash floods that hit a group of teenage hikers in southern Israel Thursday rose from nine to 10 after a body found overnight was identified as the last missing teen Friday morning. The ten victims, nine girls and one boy of around 18 years old, were killed during a field trip Thursday during flash floods that pummeled Israel. A group of 25 students, ages 17 and 18, who were accepted to the Bnei Tzion pre-military academy in Tel Aviv for the coming year, were hiking in...
Nearly eight years ago, four women met and discussed what they could do to support Israel and how they could encourage others, whether Jewish or Christian, to join them. Thus, the organization "Zionistas" was born. The founders-Sandi Solomon, Eva Ritt, Judy Shujman, and Diana Scimone-had the foresight and dedication to grow the organization to over 250 people. Recently the Zionistas board reached out to the Zionist Organization of America, one of the oldest pro-Israel organizations in the...
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is hosting "Israel at 70," featuring Yossi Klein Halevi on Tuesday, May 15. The event will be held at The Roth Family JCC, 851 N. Maitland Ave. in Maitland. At 5:45 p.m. there will be a Club member pre-reception and book signing. The program will begin at 7 p.m. This event is open to the community. There will be dessert and coffee. Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Together with Imam Abdullah Antepli...
In a US State Department annual report on human rights, the controversial term "occupied" was largely eliminated in references to various territories in and adjacent to Israel. While the term "occupied" had been used in such reports since the Carter administration, the 2017 version drops this term, which is generally used pejoratively to criticize Israeli policy following military victories through which the Jewish state acquired control of various territories. Whereas previous publications of...
When golfers hit the greens on Sunday, May 6, for the sixth annual Pavilion Golf Society Tournament, not only will they be raising funds for the Orlando Senior Help Desk, they will be giving a Tiger Woods celebratory fist pump to this year's tournament honoree Keith Levitt. Levitt's involvement in the community is well-known throughout Orange County. Born in Queens, NY, and raised in Maitland by parents Ken and Jackie, Levitt has been a member of The Roth Family JCC since its beginning. For...
The 45th annual JCC meeting will be held Tuesday, May 22, from 6:15–8 p.m. in The Roth Family JCC auditorium. Join in the fun as the community looks back over the year and see what’s to come in the next year. During the meeting there will be the presentation of awards, including the J’s Leadership, Volunteer of the Year, and Amy Schwartz Kimlat Innovation and Creativity Award. On the business side, there will be the installation and discharge of Board of Directors and amending of By-Laws. A complimentary dinner will be provided as well as co...
The Holocaust Center is pleased to announce the appointment of its 2018 Executive Committee, and it’s newest board members. This year’s board was installed at the Center’s annual meeting in January. Ellen Wise Lang is now serving as the Center’s board president. Lang has been involved with the Center since 1990 and has been an active board member since 1994. Lang is also the daughter of the Center’s founder, Tess Wise. When asked why she feels it’s important to sustain the Holocaust Center’s work Lang replied, “For two reasons: there were good...
(JNS)-The U.S. Senate easily confirmed Mike Pompeo as secretary of state on Thursday, elevating the former CIA director as the nation's top diplomat amid a slew of foreign-policy challenges. In a 57-42 vote, which included several moderate Democrats, Senate lawmakers moved quickly to confirm Pompeo, aware that the new secretary of state faces a number of serious international issues, including whether or not to remain in the Iran nuclear deal, tensions with Russia, the breaking of ice with...
Liviu Dragnea, the chairman of the Social Democratic Party who effectively runs the Romanian government, said in a television interview late Thursday that the government had decided to move the nation’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. His statement coincided with Israel’s 70th Independence Day celebrations. On Friday, President Klaus Iohannis, who is in charge of Romania’s foreign policy, said he hadn’t been informed and that the decision lacked “a solid... base.” However, he said such a decision could be made “after a deep analysis which t...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill to help Holocaust survivors and the families of victims obtain restitution or the return of Holocaust-era assets. The measure approved Tuesday requires the State Department to report on the progress of certain European countries toward the return of or restitution for wrongfully confiscated or transferred Holocaust-era assets, including property, art and other movable property. It also requires a report specifically on progress on the resolution of claims for U.S. c...
(JNS)—As part of the May 14 ceremony to mark the official opening of the US Embassy, a mezuzah will be affixed to the embassy building. According to a Channel 20 report, organizers decided on the unusual move of holding a religious ceremony to install the mezuzah as a gesture to Israel and following the recommendation of US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. At a special event to mark the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on Monday, Friedman said he sees Jerusalem as a religious pla...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Natalie Portman’s statement explaining why she declined to attend an award ceremony in Israel in her honor was a pointed rebuke, and of a particular individual. “I did not want to appear as endorsing Benjamin Netanyahu,” she said of the Israeli prime minister. But it also was an intimate and tactile embrace of her native land, covering its flavors, its images, its vision, even its movement. “I treasure my Israeli friends and family, Israeli food, books, art, cinema, and dance,” the Jerusalem-born director and actor said late F...
(Sephardi Perspective via JNS)—German Chancellor Angela Merkel has finally woken up and smelled the coffee. Speaking after a 19-year-old Syrian refugee lunged with a belt at an Israeli wearing a kipah, Merkel denounced a “different type of anti-Semitism” that has taken root in her country. “We have refugees now, for example, or people of Arab origin, who bring a different type of anti-Semitism into the country,” Merkel said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 10. Jews have been among the first to “virtue signal” their compassion for refugees...
(JTA)—We are Jewish and pro-Israel students who are active within our Jewish communities on college campuses across North America. Many of us have helped organize against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions-affiliated movements throughout our time on campus. Over the course of our time fighting BDS campaigns, Canary Mission was brought to our attention repeatedly. Canary Mission is an anonymous site that blacklists individuals and professors across the country for their support of the BDS movement, presumed anti-Semitic remarks and hateful r...
There’s a famous quote attributed to Henry Wotton that “An ambassador is an honest gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.” If one takes this aphorism to heart, it is not limited to ambassadors, but to anyone in a nation’s foreign policy establishment. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is not an honest gentleman, has taken the art of lying for his country to a new level. He brazenly lies about easily verifiable facts. He claims that his nation that is currently exporting its revolution across the Middle Ea...
(Israel Hayom)—The five days it took the U.S. administration to respond to a chemical attack in Syria were vital in order to on one hand consolidate a diplomatic coalition with two other U.N. Security Council member states and on the other hand define the military targets that would send a clear message the use of chemical weapons crosses a red line, while not serving to undermine the foundations of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, and as a result, change the rules of the game with Russia. From a military perspective, the Americans did...
MORNING AND EVENING MINYANS (Call synagogue to confirm time.) 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. 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 I...
LONDON (JTA)-Keith Walker was having a sandwich in Parliament Square when he saw something that made him sit up straight and cut short his lunch. What did the 42-year-old activist for disabled people's rights find so fascinating? It was three billboards on wheels that circled around the square for several long minutes last week during one of its busiest days of the year. They carried text accusing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of tolerating anti-Semitism in the party. Inspired by the...
(The Nosher via JTA)-I had never been much of a rugelach baker until this recipe. While I gravitated toward challah and babka, I always found store-bought rugelach to be a bit bland and disappointing. But to my great delight, rugelach is supremely easy to make. Most recipes rely on a 1-to-1 ratio of butter and cream cheese in the dough for flavor and flakiness. I stick with that classic method (don't mess with perfection!), but also add a bit of sour cream for an extra tender texture. The dough...
Evan Lawrence Richman, son of Scott and Gwen Richman of Gotha, will be called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah on Saturday, May 12, 2018, at Congregation of Reform Judaism in Orlando. Evan is in the seventh grade at Gotha Middle School where he is a member of the National Junior Honor Society. His hobbies and interests include basketball, karate and spending time with friends. Sharing in the family’s simcha will be Evan’s sister, Jenna; brother, Jaret; Bubbe Barbara Richman; grandparents Karen and Jerry Tumbush; and family and friends from acr...
A wonderful lady... We lost a lovely lady, a former first lady of the United States just recently. She was admired and loved by most, including me. The wife of a president and the mother of a president and governor, she was a force in her family. May she rest in peace. She will be missed. Wow! Talk about posh!... I recently visited a new facility in Winter Park, took the tour with a group of others and had a lovely lunch. The name of the place is Allegro, which refers to upbeat musical tempo....
(The Nosher via JTA)-Kreplach seem like the kind of dish only your bubbe would make. Especially from scratch. And I always felt intimidated to even try it. You have to make the dough, make the filling and shape it just right. (Turns out, actually you don't.) But last year I was lucky enough to spend time with a real bubbe and cookbook author (and also my friend), Ronnie Fein, who shared with me her tried-and-true method and recipe. Turns out it's easier than I thought: The kreplach don't need...
How do Israelis celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day? Like many Israeli holidays, there's a lot of singing, dancing, and eating. Family and friends gather to reminisce of both victory and statehood. Yet, Israel Independence Day takes place right after Yom Hazikaron-the Memorial Day for fallen Israel Defense Forces soldiers. Placing the two holidays so close together is a reminder that Israeli independence has come at the very highest cost-the lives of sacrificed soldiers. So what...
Monday, April 23, was Israel Jeopardy at the Jewish Pavilion's Inter-Generational meeting at Village On The Green with the residents and students of Congregation Ohev Shalom led by Amy Setleis Geboff. The game began with the residents telling the students what they remember from 1947/48 when Israel gained Independence. There was then some competition between the two split teams. At the end of the night there were handshakes and hugs all around. The program was sponsored in part by Jewish...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Though it was raining, students still gathered to celebrate Israel's Independence Day at New York University's downtown Manhattan campus. Passers-by mostly rushed by as organizers blasted pop music, displayed Israeli flags and shouted "Happy Birthday, Israel!" Some stopped to grab a blue-and-white cookie. One person shouted at an organizer of Thursday's event who was draped in an Israeli flag, and someone else criticized the group for a poster featuring a quote by the Rev. Martin...
