Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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The Jewish Academy of Orlando dedicated its new Kindness Garden on Friday, May 17. The garden, which is a segment of the campus playground, was created by the 2019 graduating class and funded by a grant that incorporates fine arts into the school's Judaic Studies program. Jewish Academy of Orlando fifth graders were asked to use synectics, a problem-solving technique that promotes creative thinking, to solve a school problem by utilizing the power of art. Students chose to work on promoting a... Full story
FOXBOROUGH, Mass.-When the New England Revolution and England's Chelsea Football Club took the field on a chilly evening in mid-May at Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL's Super Bowl champion Patriots, they weren't playing just an ordinary soccer game. The match, which drew 27,000 fans, was part of a unique partnership between the team owners. Called "Final Whistle On Hate," their collaboration is aimed at promoting tolerance and fighting anti-Semitism. Between proceeds from ticket sales and a... Full story
(JNS)-U.S. Ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman fired back at The New York Times on Wednesday over an article castigating him for claiming that Israel was "on the side of God" while speaking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the upcoming U.S. peace proposal. Speaking to a group of evangelical faith leaders at the Aish Hatorah World Center, overlooking the Western Wall plaza and the Temple Mount, Friedman said that, "apparently, there was nothing more offensive I could have said to... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-The Netherlands won the Eurovision song contest 2019 and earned the right to host the international event next year. Duncan Laurence sat behind his keyboard and sang his ballad "Arcade," which had been considered a favorite, and gave the Netherlands its first victory since 1975. Italy finished in second, Russia in third, followed by Switzerland and Norway. Israel's Kobi Marimi finished in 23rd place out of the 26 countries in the finals with his ballad "Home." Marimi burst into t... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-The Tony Award nominations announced Tuesday were dominated by "Hadestown," a musical about the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice that garnered 14. One among the "Hadestown" nods was for best director for Rachel Chavkin, who is Jewish. She also had been nominated in 2017 for directing "Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812." Sam Mendes is also nominated for best direction of a play for his work on "The Ferryman." He's known for his work on the James Bond films "Skyfall" and... Full story
Seniors at The Mayflower in Winter Park were treated to a very special program of Israeli folk and Jewish music that focused on themes related to the founding and history of the Jewish state. Paul Stenzler, a Jewish Pavilion board member and past president, and Terri Fine Stenzler lead a monthly Shabbat morning service at the facility, and they designed the program after a recent discussion with their regular Shabbat attendees. “They were saying it would be nice to have programming for both Jews and non-Jews,” said Terri. Paul proposed a mus... Full story
The RAISE program for adults with special needs is now accepting online applications for RAISE employees as well as opportunities to volunteer as a job coach. RAISE is a 6- to 12-month work and social skills training program for adults with special needs offered through the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando. RAISE provides paid employment at our partnering agencies. If you know of someone who may benefit from RAISE please apply online by clicking on BEGIN THE APPLICATION PROCESS at jfgo.org/RAISE If you are interested in volunteering as a... Full story
Sunday, May 19, 2019, was the first 'official meeting' of Congregation Beth Am Past Presidents. One thing in common among all is their past and, for many, current dedication and contributions to Congregation Beth Am. Watch for further reunions and gatherings of this congregational community. Standing left to right; Co-President Dan Williams, Randa Marder, Dr. Bob Rosenberg, Jeff Golub, Beth Burpee, Jerry Goldin, Debra Davids, and Dr. Marc Davids. Seated left to right; Steve Gordon, Co-President... Full story
On May 15, as social media was weighing in on the first round of Eurovision finals and readying for the second round, a series of posts started to appear around 8 p.m. “Did anyone feel an earthquake?”; “Earthquake in Israel—who felt it?”; “Earthquake?”; “That jiggle was an earthquake”; and so on. Measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale, the tremor’s epicenter was about 200 kilometers (125 miles) off the coast between Haifa and Hadera. No injuries or damage were reported, and all was forgotten by the following night. The reason for all this seismi... Full story
(JNS)—A guest lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, last week labeled Zionists as white supremacists, reported Jewish Journal on Tuesday. A Jewish student in the class, Shayna Lavi, recalled to the Journal that San Francisco State University Arab and Muslim ethnicities’ professor Rabab Abdulhadi, told the some 100 students in the mandatory anthropology lecture on May 14 that U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) “was attacked by AIPAC and all these pro-Israel organization because [Omar is] Muslim,” and that America and Israel have “s... Full story
BOSTON (JTA)—A fire outside the suburban Boston home of a rabbi that serves as a Chabad center is being investigated as a possible hate crime. Police in Arlington, Massachusetts, have asked for the public’s help in identifying a person caught on a neighbor’s video camera walking away from the home Saturday night around the time of the fire. Firefighters put out the small fire that burned the shingles off one side of the Center for Jewish Life in Arlington-Belmont, home to Rabbi Avi Bukiet, his wife and their three children. Police and town... Full story
(JNS)—The United States and Israel on Wednesday called for UNRWA, the U.N. agency that oversees the Palestinian refugees, to cease operations. “We need an additional $1.2 billion for our activities in 2019. We don’t believe the future of Palestine refugees should be framed in decades of UNRWA,” said Pierre Krähenbühl, the UNRWA representative, at a U.N. Security Council special discussion about the agency. “They deserve a better political future. Until then, we will continue to operate.” “UNRWA has been empowering the refugee problem for years,... Full story
Rep. Rashida Tlaib suggesting that her people made way for Jews in “Palestine” is dishonest and whitewashes the historical reality that the leaders of the indigenous Arab population of Ottoman and British controlled Palestine colluded with the Nazis to exterminate the Jews of Europe and Palestine. Her recent remarks beg anyone of decency to call out the lie and state the facts. Tlaib, presents a revisionist history and false narrative that the Jewish people have no legitimate claims to the Land of Israel and that Jewish restoration to the Lan... Full story
(JNS)—There’s an old joke that tells of a person who has been accused of being a self-hating Jew. His response is to tell his accuser that he doesn’t hate himself. It’s other Jews he hates. That’s an apt introduction to the controversy over cartoonist Eli Valley. For the last decade, Valley’s densely packed, grotesquely illustrated multi-panel cartoons have been spewing anti-Zionist propaganda over the Internet. His work used to appear in Jewish publications like The Forward and Tablet online magazine, but no longer. Still, he remains a p... Full story
(JCPA)—The shadow battle between Hamas and the Israeli intelligence services continues at full throttle, despite the discovery several months ago of an Israeli special forces unit operating in the Khan Yunis area that Hamas claimed was involved in special intelligence activity. Fatah elements in the Gaza Strip say that following the recent round of hostilities Hamas is very worried that precise intelligence in the hands of the Israel Defense Forces led to strikes on Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets. They claim that this intelligence was p... Full story
(JNS)—The first anniversary of the U.S. embassy’s move to Jerusalem sparked multiple articles in the Israeli press declaring it a failure for both U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. From the left-wing Haaretz to the centrist Times of Israel, headlines trumpeted the fact that only one minor country, Guatemala, has followed America’s lead. And even that might prove fleeting, as several candidates in next month’s Guatemalan election have pledged to return the embassy to Tel Aviv. All this is true, but it... Full story
By Rabbi Benjamin Blech Aish Hatorah Resources A Starbucks latte in medieval England is merely ludicrous. Destroying lives and legacies without taking into account historic context is a far more serious distortion. Tens of millions of faithful followers of Game of Thrones noticed the glaring error. In the fourth episode of the show’s last season, a celebratory feast in Winterfell included a very 21st-century Starbucks coffee cup sitting in front of Emilia Clarke’s Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen among all the metal goblets of wine. Ima... Full story
Herman Wouk, the famed novelist who first became a household name for his 1951 Pulitzer Prize winning “The Caine Mutiny,” died last week nearly 70 years after achieving fame. Besides his long career as a writer he was also a lifelong Zionist. This fact of Wouk’s love affair with the State of Israel has been completely absent from the many articles celebrating his literary career and marking his passing, less than two weeks before what would have been his 104th birthday. In this small space we will attempt to rectify that. Again and again—from h... Full story
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... Full story
On June 8, 1967, the USS Liberty, an unarmed intelligence ship reporting to the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the auspices of the National Security Agency, was ambushed by unmarked jet planes. Rockets and machine gun fire erupted, napalm hit the deck, and a torpedo blew a 40-foot hole in the starboard side of the vessel. Lacking any means of defense, the sailors were powerless. In the end, 34 American sailors and translators lost their lives and another 174 were wounded—many for life. Israel confessed to the attack but called it an ... Full story
(JTA)-In December 1992, about nine months before the first Palestinian-Israeli peace accords were signed on the White House lawn, Hanan Ashrawi met with President George H.W. Bush in the Oval Office. Now, 26 years later, she can't even enter the United States. Ashrawi, a longtime Palestinian spokeswoman and a current member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, tweeted Monday that her application for a U.S. visa was rejected. "It is official! My U.S. visa... Full story
(JTA)-Gary Stein remembers the first time someone played a Phish song for him in high school. It was "Divided Sky," an intricate 11-minute tune that shows off the group's diverse jam rock chops. Stein, who's now a 30-year-old history doctoral student living in Los Angeles, quickly became infatuated with the band, which takes cues from the Grateful Dead and a host of other genres, from prog rock to bluegrass. Unfortunately for Stein, that was right around the second time that Phish broke up, in 2... Full story
(JTA)-If you've never made falafel from scratch, I'm here to say: It's possible, and it's delicious. I was definitely intimidated by the task until I finally jumped right in. But I couldn't have done it without following a few expert tips. Ditch the canned chickpeas. Every expert falafel fryer I spoke with agreed: You must use dried chickpeas to achieve the best, most authentic falafel. The easiest way to do this is to soak them overnight. Cookbook authors Vicky Cohen and Ruth Fox also suggest... Full story
About Roe V Wade... Boy, am I glad that I am too old to become pregnant (or am I?) Not even in case of rape? I'm speechless. (Nuff said!) Some welcome news for a change... British Home Secretary SAJID JAVID confirmed that the political wing of Hezbollah will be banned in the United Kingdom. Previously, only the military wing of the terrorist organization had been banned in the UK, enabling supporters of the Iranian-backed militant group to parade in the streets during the annual Al-Quds Day... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—In his most recent novel, “kaddish.com,” Nathan Englander imagines a website that a character—encumbered by Jewish guilt—uses to hire someone to say the traditional mourner’s prayer for his late father. In interviews, the author has said the idea was inspired by the very real fact that Judaism allows mourners to hire a proxy to recite the Kaddish prayer for the dead on behalf of a loved one. Englander said he had tried unsuccessfully to buy the rights to the domain name from t... Full story
