Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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When reading a novel, I focus more on plot and character analysis than the author’s writing style. Yet, when considering two recent works by Israeli writers, the differences in their prose was impossible to ignore. In her first novel, “The People of Forever Are Not Afraid” (Hogarth), Shani Boianjiu, who wrote in English, employs very blunt language in order to portray a young, disaffected generation of Israelis. A.B. Yehoshua, in his latest work, “The Retrospective” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), offers very lush writing and complex sentences...
ELEM vans go where the children are in Israel—venturing into dark and dangerous streets. The vans, and the volunteers on them, go to places where already-troubled children—some involved with vagrancy, drugs, homelessness, sexual exploitation, or other criminal or anti-social behavior—can encounter greater peril. At the forefront of these efforts to get troubled youths off the street is the ex-wife of former Israeli prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak. “Kids know the van means safety,...
CHICAGO—By the time Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Captain Ziv Shilon realized an explosive device had detonated near him while on patrol near the Gaza border, his left hand was torn off and his right hand was still hanging on by just a few pieces of skin. Ten surgeries and months of rehabilitation later, his left hand has been replaced by a hook prosthesis and his right hand is paralyzed. That’s not going to stop him, he insists. Despite his injury, Shilon plans to enroll in law school and to late...
JERUSALEM—The Israeli parliament, or Knesset, is quiet on Sundays. The plenum does not meet, and the carpeted hallways are silent. But at the end of one corridor, in Room 2021, there’s a lot of foot traffic in and out of Rabbi Dov Lipman’s office. Every 10 minutes, an aide escorts the next petitioner into the office. Most have never met Lipman. They have all made appointments through his office, and each is here with a different issue. “The government is planning to start imposing an 18 percent...
NEW YORK (JTA)—Who knew what, and when? Those are the questions critics are asking following the disclosure that the Claims Conference received an anonymous letter in 2001 identifying several fraudulent Holocaust-era restitution claims—nearly a decade before the organization halted a massive fraud scheme. By 2009, when the magnitude of the scheme was discovered, the fraud had been running for 15 years and managed to extract more than $57 million in illegitimate payouts. Last Friday, World Jew...
Israel has more museums per capita than anywhere else in the world. With 230-plus museums (and counting), visitors and locals have the luxury of choosing which topic—art, science, history, design, architecture, technology—appeals to them most. Every year since 1977, the International Council of Museums has celebrated the importance of these cultural institutions in the development of society with an International Museum Day on or around May 18. Some 32,000 museums in 130 countries par...
The Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation is inviting everyone to submit their family’s stories of both loss and survival from the Nazi Holocaust of WWII. “We at SOJC want everyone to remember history’s lessons in order to avoid repetition and hope to do so by remembering those who were lost and celebrating the stories of survival through a Holocaust Memorial exhibit being constructed for permanent display at SOJC by an aspiring Eagle Scout of Troop 996,” an event planner says. “We invite you to join in this important project by sharing y...
Heritage Florida Jewish News is accepting nominations for the 2013 Heritage Human Service Award, which will be presented in August at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando. “For more than 25 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,” says Jeff Gaeser, editor and publisher of the Heritage. Last year’s recipient was Dr. Zena Sulkes. The Heritage is accep...
More than 25 Jewish National Fund supporters gathered at the Women For Israel wine and trivia event hosted by Caryn and Mark Israel at their home in Winter Park. Israeli wine expert Laura Abramson educated guests on wines from various Israeli wine regions including the Galil and Judean Hills. “The event was extremely successful,” said Laura Abramson, incoming JNF Orlando campaign executive. “I was excited to see so many women attended to learn about Israeli wines and test their trivia knowl...
Lee Chepenik, chairman of the Roth Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando Golf Classic, presents Robin and Rich Lerner the JCC Community Leadership Award for their outstanding work, dedication and commitment to the Central Florida community. This year’s event was at the Rosen Shingle Creek Golf Resort. Eighty-five golfers participated in the event raising $40,000 for the Marvin Friedman Children Scholarship Fund. Families in need have received more than $1,000,000 the past five y...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—What happens when the rabbi who delivered the invocation at your nomination inveighs against you? Three controversies in quick succession have earned President Obama opprobrium from some of his most steadfast liberal supporters, including Rabbi David Saperstein, who directs the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center. The controversies besieging the White House in recent weeks have included State Department emails suggesting the White House tried to change the administration’s talking points concerning the deadly attac...
By Andrew Silow-Carroll New Jersey Jewish News First, let’s take a deep breath. Stephen Hawking’s decision to join the academic boycott of Israel may be infuriating, but it’s not the end of the world. On balance, I’ll prefer to remember it as a week in which Facebook appeared ready to buy its third Israeli company and the Washington Post declared Israel “a major player in the Mediterranean, and perhaps even the European, natural gas market.” Hawking’s decision makes news, after all, because it’s not the norm, and the Boycott, Divestment and...
Newspaper estimates of the numbers taking part in recent demonstrations tell us something about the ranking of items on the agendas of various sectors. What is impressive is not the precision of such numbers, but great differences in their magnitude. On Thursday evening of last week, it was estimated that 30,000 haredim massed outside the Jerusalem recruitment office, with some of them expressing the low level of violence likely to occur when riled by their rabbis. Several protesters and police were injured, eight haredim were taken into...
April’s Israel divestment vote at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) is just the latest unfortunate expression of how hateful an environment the anti-Israel movement can create for Jewish students and supporters of Israel on campus. I witnessed this firsthand during my four years as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley from 2007-2011. In 2010, when the last similar initiative was proposed before the ASUC (UC Berkeley’s student government body), urging the University of California Regents to divest funding from companies doing bus...
By Gary Rosenblatt David Passig, a professor at Bar-Ilan University, is the first to admit that he is neither a prophet nor a seer. Still, his job is to predict the future, based on the new academic discipline of Future Studies. His latest book, “2048,” describes the conflicts that likely will dominate the next half-century, including a major world clash between superpowers by 2020, the emergence of Turkey as a key regional power and buffer between the U.S. and Russia, and a major Israeli attack on its northern neighbors that will result in...
The news that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) unfairly targeted conservative groups has brought renewed spotlight on a 2010 lawsuit filed by the pro-Israel group Z Street, which alleges it was also singled out by the IRS when applying for tax-exempt status. The Z Street case, whose first hearing is set for July 2 in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, has raised eyebrows in the Jewish community. But Z Street’s claims, if true, would not mark the first time the IRS has been used against Jewish activists. During the Holocaust e...
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, MAY 24 Light Shabbat candles at 7:56...
Barbara Walters retiring NEW YORK (JTA)—After 37 years at ABC, Barbara Walters is calling it quits, the network announced. “It’s time,” said Walters, 83. “I keep thinking of the line from ‘Cabaret’: ‘When I go, I’m going like Chelsea.’ When I go there is not going to be any, ‘Please can I have another appearance?’ I don’t want to do any more interviews. I don’t want to do any other programs. I’m not joining CNN. This is it.” Over the course of her 50-year career, Walters did more than interview an endless list of VIPs. As the nation’s first...
NEW YORK (JTA)—“You have night blindness,” the Israeli army doctor announced unsympathetically at my pre-service medical examination. “You’re dismissed from your IDF mandatory army service by law,” he said and called the next soldier-to-be. I was frightened by the diagnosis. I had worn glasses since I was 3, but I never thought I would lose my vision at 18. It turned out not to be as serious as it sounded: My eyes just didn’t get used to darkness as quickly as they should. It took me time to digest the enormity of the news: I didn’t need t...
Nahoum Givoni of Windermere, Fla., died on Monday, May 13, 2013. He was 80 years old. A survivor of the Shoah, he was born in Romania on Feb. 9, 1933 to the late David Sacagiu and Chaya Birenbaum Sacagiu. At 13 years of age he escaped from Romania and ran for two years eventually making his way to Marseilles, France, where he boarded a ship for what was then Palestine. A member of the Israeli Air Force, he was a veteran of the War for Independence, the 1956 Sinai Campaign, the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War in 1973. In Israel, on Sept. 19,...
Marilyn R. Miller, of Orlando, passed away on Saturday, May 11, 2013. She was 85 years old. Mrs. Miller was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Oct. 31, 1927, to the late Samuel and Rose Hershkowitz Jacoby. She was a high school graduate and worked in the wholesale shoe industry, becoming the director of sales. She was married nearly 40 years to the late Nathan Miller who passed away in 2009. Mrs. Miller is survived by her daughters Joan Burman of Cary, N.C., and Robin Schorr of New York City; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. She is...
Chabad center taking in Oklahomans displaced by deadly tornado (JTA)—A Chabad center in Oklahoma City opened its building as a shelter for those displaced by a deadly tornado. The Chabad Community Center of Southern Oklahoma also is collecting supplies for those left homeless by the tornado that tore through an Oklahoma City suburb on Monday afternoon, leaving at least 24 people dead, including several children, and injuring hundreds. “While we feel the pain of others, we’re very thankful that we’re able to respond—to use all our energy an...
Noah Bartfield, son of Sharon and Michael Bartfield of Orlando, will be called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah on Saturday, June 1, 2013 at Congregation Beth Am in Longwood. Noah excels academically as a straight A student in the Advanced Placement program at Avalon Middle School. Besides his vast academic accomplishments, Noah is a clarinet player in the Wind Ensemble at his school and is also on the varsity track team. His other interests include playing basketball, reading, video games, boogie...
Victoria Lynn Geismar, daughter of Clifford and Shari Geismar of Oviedo, will be called to the Torah as a bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 1, 2013 at Temple Shir Shalom in Oviedo. Vicki is an honor-roll student in seventh grade at Lawton Chiles Middle School where she plays flute in the concert band. She also helps lead her religious school youth group, SHIFTY, as ritual vice president. She is an avid reader and hopes to pursue her passion for all things musical and dramatic. Sharing in the...
Shiloh Shassian, son of Richard and Michelle Shassian of Longwood, will be called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah on Saturday, June 1, 2013 at Congregation Beth Am In Longwood. Shiloh attends Sanford Middle School and excels in the Pre-International Baccalaureate program. He plays lacrosse for the Lake Mary Mohicans, enjoys hanging out with friends, eating out, going on vacations and spending time with his family. Sharing in the family’s simcha will be Shiloh’s brothers, Logan and Justin; gra...
