Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Israel Independence Day was celebrated with an outpouring of fun and gaiety by many members of the community at the Roth Family JCC on Thursday, May 12. Attendees enjoyed hearing Israeli pop singer Noa Carmel and the community choir perform; noshing kosher food provided by many vendors; joining in Israeli dances, led by the JCC's Israeli dance group; swimming at the pool and children having fun doing activities specifically for them....
In January 2016, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Manpower Directorate report revealed that 36 Israeli soldiers died in 2015, marking the lowest single-year death toll the Israeli military has experienced in a decade. But although no major military operations took place in Israel last year, the fall season saw the start of a months-long (and ongoing) wave of Palestinian terror attacks that has so far claimed the lives of 34 people and injured 411 others since Sept. 13, 2015. The attacks began in...
Grace means beauty or charm of form, movement, expression; a sense of what is right and proper, decency; thoughtfulness toward others; and it is the perfect description of Grace Nelson, wife of U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. Recently, The ACCoRD Project invited her to speak at an afternoon tea hosted by Burt and Barbara Chasnov. "Thank you, for heaven's sake, for what you are trying to do," Nelson said to the ACCoRD members, who hope to bring Americans back to civility, respect and dignity. Truly a S...
In May 1994 the Florida legislature passed a statute requiring all schools to provide specific Holocaust education to their students. The statute states that it should be taught "in a manner that leads to an investigation of human behavior, an understanding of the ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping, and an examination of what it means to be a responsible and respectful person, for the purposes of encouraging tolerance of diversity in a pluralistic society and for nurturing and...
Israel’s security forces have captured a veteran Hamas terrorist who has been providing a treasure trove of information on Hamas’ terror tunnel network, the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) stated. The Shin Bet’s statement came the same day as Israel announced it had exposed a second terror tunnel running from the Gaza Strip into Israel. The terrorist, Mohammed Atownah, 29, was arrested at the beginning of April as he infiltrated into Israel from Gaza armed with two knives, on his way to murder IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians. Atownah...
NEW YORK (JTA)—Democrats are more than four times as likely as Republicans to say they sympathize more with the Palestinians than with Israel, according to a survey published Thursday, and sympathy for the Palestinians among Americans overall is growing. Sympathy for the Palestinians is up most sharply among the youngest American adults, growing threefold over the last decade, the new survey by the Pew Research Center shows. Some 27 percent of millennials say are more sympathetic to the Palestinians than Israel; in 2006 the figure was 9 p...
An Israeli partnership announced that an oil field they have been surveying north of the Dead Sea is estimated to hold seven million barrels of oil, worth NIS 1.2 billion ($321 million). The reservoir, known as Hatrurim, is estimated to contain 7 million barrels of oil, while the high estimate is 11 million barrels. The estimates are given with 100 percent geological certainty of oil being found, since oil has already been produced from the reservoir, in the Halamish drilling, a report published by the companies holding the drilling license...
The Holocaust Center's series, I Remember: Eyewitnesses to the Holocaust, will continue on Sunday, May 22 at 2 p.m. The event will feature survivor Harry Lowenstein speaking at the Center in Maitland. Lowenstein was born in Fuerstnau, Germany, in 1931, the younger of two children. At age 9, Harry, along with 20 family members, went to live in the Riga ghetto, where they were crowded into a two-room apartment. A year and a half later, he was taken to the concentration camp of Riga-Kaiser Walt....
On June 5th, Temple Israel, located at 50 S. Moss Road in Winter Springs, will host a Super Smash Bros. Tournament for Wii u & GameCube. This event seeks to unite the community through an exciting all day event. The tournament will run from 11a.m. to 9 p.m. Entry fee is only $6, with pizza and other refreshments being served. This event will be run by Nathan Kluger, who has run five tournaments in the past, with this tournament being the largest one yet at over 60 entrants. The event is sponsored by Royal Empire Gaming. There will be a raffle...
The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute is offering a new course, beginning this month at three Chabad locations. The upcoming JLI course is titled Strength and Struggle: Lessons in Character from the Stories of Our Prophets? “It’s not (just) a course about David, Ruth, Saul, and Elijah,” said Rabbi Yosef Konikov, “this course is about you!” “It’s about how to enrich your life, how to become the person you’ve always wanted to be, and how to overcome—and even grow from—life’s challenges,” he said. What makes this course different from all othe...
Heritage Florida Jewish News is accepting nominations for the 2016 Heritage Human Service Award, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando on Aug. 17. “For almost 30 years, individuals who have made major, voluntary contributions of their talent, time, energy and effort to the Central Florida community have been honored with the selection and presentation of this award,” said Jeff Gaeser, editor and publisher of the Heritage. Last year’s recipient was Berny Raff. Former recipients have inclu...
“It is generally admitted that anti-Semitism is on the increase, that it has been greatly exacerbated by the war, and that humane and enlightened people are not immune to it. It does not take violent forms (English people are almost invariably gentle and law-abiding), but it is ill-natured enough, and in favourable circumstances it could have political results.” So wrote George Orwell in a 1945 article for the Contemporary Jewish Record journal titled, “Anti-Semitism in Britain.” In that short essay, Orwell related a series of personal encount...
I’ve hesitated to write this for some time because every time I think there might be a lull in the plague of terror attacks to which Israel has been subjected these past several months, there’s another attack. This past week alone there was a stabbing, an attempted stabbing, a “successful” car ramming, car stoned with a mother and three kids, a shooting at Israelis from across the border with Gaza, and something else. I forget. Israel has been suffering an ongoing plague of terrorist attacks - shootings, stabbings, stoning and car ramming...
Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin are at opposite poles. One comes from a long tradition of idealism, speaking about great values, and usually ending up a long way from what was promised. The other represents the essence of realpolitik, or “if I can take it, it’s mine.” Woodrow Wilson was an extremist of the American type, fighting a war to end all wars, demanding open diplomacy, and working to create a world parliament and free nations from their colonial masters. Wilson couldn’t convince his own Congress to join the League of Nations. He coll...
(JTA)—They survived unimaginable horrors, yet went on to live productive lives, despite the haunting memories, the profound loss and physical scars from years of deprivation. Now many Holocaust survivors need our assistance so they may live their twilight years with dignity in their homes and communities. Most Holocaust survivors are in their 80s and 90s, and an astounding 25 percent of them in the United States live in poverty, struggling to meet basic needs for food, housing, health care and transportation. Many live alone and have no e...
MONTREAL (JTA)—Yom Hashoah arrived this year on the eve of two historic anniversaries: the 80th anniversary of the coming into effect of the Nuremberg Race Laws, which served as prologue and precursor to the Holocaust, and the 70th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials, which served as the foundation for the development of contemporary international human rights and humanitarian law. This historic juncture was the theme of an international legal symposium on May 3 at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. It was followed the next day by the March o...
Have you ever bought a slice of pizza in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem? Have you visited friends at the Hebrew University dormitories in the city’s French Hill section? Or taken the Jerusalem light rail train to the Neve Yaakov stop? Guess what—you just might be a Zionist war criminal! Ramot, French Hill, and Neve Yaakov are decades-old Jewish neighborhoods that are physically indistinguishable from other sections of Israel’s capital city. Ramot (population: 70,000), French Hill (23,000), and Neve Yaakov (40,000) technically are situa...
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...
ISRAEL21c—Think of marketing as a way of moving potential customers through a funnel: enticing them to enter at the top, to stay inside until making a purchase, and to go back inside for future purchases. Think of marketing technology (mar-tech) as smart automated solutions for every stage of that sales funnel, says Pini Yakuel, CEO of Optimove, one of the growing number of Israeli companies specializing in mar-tech software for B2B and B2C clients. “Mar-tech is a very hot field,” Yakuel tells ISRAEL21c. “In the old days, marketing was perceiv...
Magician Illene Miller is again visiting senior facilities and the VA, bringing smiles and laughs with her jokes and magic tricks. Recently she performed at Brookdale - Dr. Phillips at the request of the Jewish Pavilion. Shown here is Maybelene lighting up a 100-year-old resident. To volunteer your talents for seniors through the Jewish Pavilion, call 407-678-9363 or go to www.jewishpavilion.org....
(JTA)-"Rabin in his Own Words," which opened last Friday in New York, Los Angeles and South Florida, is more than a tribute to the two-time Israeli prime minister tragically gunned down in 1995. The aptly named cinematic autobiography, which uses archival footage going back to the statesman's childhood, is entirely narrated by Yitzhak Rabin himself. Filmmaker Erez Laufer, 53, designed it that way because, he tells JTA, "I got tired of hearing people analyzing him, people talking about him, both...
JFS Orlando is in need of volunteers for the following: Centerpieces for tzedakah Events Food Drives Handyman services Holiday meal delivery JFS Orlando Historical Project Office projects Pearlman Emergency Food Pantry Reception The R.I.D.E. Program If you would like to give some of your time to help in any of these areas, please contact Amanda Benedit, development coordinator, at 407-644-7593, ext. 227. Perhaps you’d like to do something, but free time is limited. JFS Orlando is always in need of specific items to better serve the c...
Jewish Pavilion Program Director Gloria Green saw a need among the residents of assisted living facilities she visits regularly. “I have an Independent Living facility on South OBT with four Jewish residents who ache for anything Jewish,” she told the Heritage. After “wracking her brain” about a program for them, she came up with the idea of a Koffee and Kibbitz session. The kibbitzing would be over articles in the most recent Heritage issue. The first session is set up for Friday, May 20, at Plantation Oaks, 9309 South Orange Blossom Trail....
Dara Cohen, daughter of Mike and Joanna Cohen of Winter Springs, will be called to the Torah as a bat mitzvah on Saturday, May 21, 2016, at Congregation Beth Am in Longwood. Dara is in the seventh grade at Indian Trails Middle School where she is a member of the Beta Club and plays the flute in advanced band. Dara is a long-time Girl Scout and dancer and enjoys volunteering and spending time with friends. Dara has a special place in her heart for kids. For her mitzvah project, she collected...
Fala Portuguese... Which means I speak Portuguese. And I do! Portuguese, as you know, is the language spoken in Brasil. (Americans spell it Brazil with a Z) My entertainment agent, ROBERTO DRATCU, is Brasilian (and Jewish) so I have sung and performed in Rio, Sao Paulo and many other cities in Brasil a few times. There is a thriving Jewish community in Sao Paulo, which is a large robust city in Brasil. I read this recently in the LUBAVITCH INTERNATIONAL newspaper under the heading "Memorial...
