Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 25
Not only was Marcia Jo Zerivitz awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters-Honoris Causa, as was noted in the May 20 issue, but Heritage recently discovered that this award was an extremely rare honor. The following is more on the honorary degree Zerivitz received, as well as pictures with family and friends from the Central Florida area. Marcia Jo Zerivitz, founding executive director of Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters-Honoris Causa from... Full story
Cantor Jacqueline Rawiszer has been elected by her colleagues to the position of vice president of Member Relations and External Partnerships of the American Conference Cantors (ACC), the largest professional cantorial organization in the United States, for the 2016-19 term. Cantor Rawiszer proudly serves Congregation of Reform Judaism in Orlando, the largest Reform Jewish congregation in the greater Orlando area. She will be installed at a special ceremony, along with her fellow officers, at th... Full story
On the heels of his return from his trip to Poland to participate in the March of the Living, then on to Israel where he spent two weeks traveling all over the Land, Sam Friedman learned on May 23 that he was promoted to the position of assistant director of Central Florida Hillel. "I am pleased to announce that Sam Friedman is officially our new assistant director!" a please Aaron Weil, CEO of Central Florida Hillel stated. "It feels like just yesterday I was moving to Orlando to start the next... Full story
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) praised Mosab Hassan Yousef (a/k/a “the Green Prince”), the son of a Hamas leader, for his courageous, important, and insightful speech at the Jerusalem Post conference in New York on May 22, 2016), urging the free world to unite against Islam itself as a belief system that has resulted in so many murders “in the name of Allah” and that threatens not only Israel, but also all of humanity. “I speak with the authority of experience, not from books or second-hand knowledge, and I don’t represent a... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-In a rare and sharp split with Israeli government policy, a group of Jewish community leaders want to get a proposal for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the next president's desk. Two complementary U.S. and Israeli working papers to be launched next week propose immediate actions Israel can take to prepare the ground for two states and a longer-term security structure that aims to satisfy Palestinian ambitions for sovereignty and Israeli security need... Full story
Heineken flowed on tap, purple was in abundance, and new business connections took root at the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando's Jewish Business Network's May 19 meeting, hosted by Orlando City Soccer Club. Gathering at the City Pub in the club's corporate headquarters, participants schmoozed, noshed and had the pleasure of hearing from Brett Weisbrot, Orlando City's Director of Corporate Partnerships, about the soccer club, its new stadium, and the opportunities for businesses to become... Full story
The Clermont Temple L’Chayim M&M Club of Clermont will be hosting a special Night In Napoli! as a fundraiser to celebrate their second anniversary. The entire community is invited to enjoy an evening of Italian cuisine, music and entertainment at Angelo’s Italian Restaurant in Tavares, Florida on Sunday, June 12, starting at 6 p.m. Renowned operatic tenor Enrico Guerrero with accompianist Elizabeta Guerrero and soprano Emilia Rivera from Kriger Entertainment Productions will perform Neopolitan songs, Italian pop music and many Broadway fav... Full story
Kinneret residents learned about Lag B'Omer at the monthly Coffee and Conversation held on Wednesday, May 25, hosted by Cantor Kim Singer of Temple Shir Shalom of Oviedo. The period of the Omer is a reflective period, counting from Passover to Shavuot. But the solemnity takes a break for one day on Lag B'Omer-a holiday of bows and arrows, bonfires, and finding balance. Singer led the group in a lively discussion that was topped off with coffee and homemade s'mores. This event is part of a... Full story
Temple Israel will be celebrating the holiday of Shavuot by hosting an evening of study, known as Tikun Leil Shavuot. This year the congregation will be honoring Ruth Goldhar for her 50-plus years as Orlando educator along with other Jewish Studies teachers from the community. This night of learning will be held at Temple Israel, 50 South Moss Road in Winter Springs on June 11, beginning at 9 p.m. Some of the subjects will include sections from Pirkei Avot, Birkat HaCohanim. Because it is a tradition to eat dairy meals on Shavuot, Temple... Full story
What a thrill it was to be in Cleveland, Ohio! You may not hear that sentence too often, but it was truly thrilling for me, your JCRC staff director, to attend the Jewish Council on Public Affairs (JCPA) annual conference there in mid-May. For three days, Jewish public affairs and community relations professionals learned, debated, and schmoozed together in one of the strongest, best-supported, and most well-organized Jewish communities in the United States. With a generous full scholarship from JCPA in hand, I was able to be among them. With... Full story
Bibi (Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu) is a caricature of Israel, both as viewed from within and without. He is loved and hated, admired and loathed, perhaps in about the same proportions among Israelis and those who watch Israel. Being the archetype of Israel helps to explain his longevity at the top, currently without an obvious candidate likely to replace him in the near future. He is a walking and talking manifestation of what makes people admire Jews or become anti-Semites. His power of articulation, in both Hebrew and English, is part... Full story
There is a worldwide Syrian refugee crisis. The numbers are staggering. Homeland Security chairman, Rep. Michael McCaul, confirmed that ISIS is targeting the U.S. Refugee program to attack America from within. Peter King, chairman of the sub-committee on counterterrorism and intelligence, warned that President Obama’s decision to admit more Syrian migrants “will put more American lives at risk.” Contrary to the White House, FBI Director Comey and Department of Homeland Security, and Secretary Johnson have stated our present vetting syste... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Yes, there’s the Avigdor Liberman who wants to behead bad guys, mandate loyalty oaths and pay Arabs to leave the country—the one who makes fun of the disabled and who dodged a fraud charge. But Israel’s onetime foreign minister and maybe-next defense minister is not quite the cartoon he’s made out to be—OK, the cartoon he at times seems determined to make himself out to be. As defense minister, Liberman would double to two the Cabinet ministers who have seriously considered a two-state outcome: himself and Prime Minister Be... Full story
HOBOKEN, N.J. (JTA)—Kosovo is a “newborn” country, a majority Muslim state that fought for its independence from Serbia only eight years ago. Yet it has erected a Holocaust memorial outside its parliament, elected a female president, held pride parades in support of LGBTQ rights and supported the building of a major Catholic cathedral in its capital city to honor Mother Teresa. As a Jew and a rabbi, I have walked the streets of its capital and several countryside locales with a yarmulke and felt safe and even extensively welcomed when ident... Full story
Dear Editor: In response to the May 20, 2016, Lexi Goldstein letter to the editor, ‘Registered student organizations have a right to exist on campus,’ is really about shutting down free speech. Ms. Goldstein makes the argument that the UCF Muslim Student Association (MSA) couldn’t possibly have any real troubling terrorist connections because ‘Rez’ told her so. Rez, a follower of Islam, holds a dual membership in the UCF MSA and UCF Knights For Israel. Rez describes himself as simultaneously pro-Israel and pro-Palestine which is a very diff... 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
By Jerry Silverman NEW YORK (JTA)-In Israel, when the two-minute siren sounds at 11 a.m. on Yom Hazikaron, the Jewish state's Memorial Day, the nation comes to a halt. As we saw just two weeks ago, cars on streets and highways pull over, and drivers and passengers get out of their vehicles to stand and observe a moment of silence. Shoppers halt in the aisles of stores. Workers stand next to their desks. Places of entertainment close for the day. In a nation as tiny as Israel, nearly everyone... Full story
You know Shavuot is coming when you begin to see cheesecakes everywhere. Countless variations in the bakeries and supermarkets. Endless numbers of recipes in the media. Cheesecake is the iconic Shavuot dessert, as sacrosanct as a Hanukkah latke or Passover matzah ball. Unfortunately, cheesecake is one of those deceptively simple recipes, the kind that requires some tips and techniques to get right. Also, not everyone agrees on what makes a cheesecake perfect. Some like it dense; others,... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The Democratic Party platform drafting committee is top heavy with veterans of political battles over Israel-some friendly, some critical, and including at least one major backer of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The Democratic National Committee named the committee May 23, a day after reports emerged that Bernie Sanders, an Independent senator from Vermont running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, wants the platform to elevate the issue of... Full story
As I write this... I am getting ready to fly to Chicago from Orlando International Airport in a few days. (Of course when you read this, I will have hopefully already returned.) My grandson, ZACH is becoming a bar mitzvah and I am looking forward to presenting him with his grandfather's tallit. His grandfather, Papa Irv (my loving spouse of 55 years) died several months ago. Needless to say, I am nervous to fly... actually, I'm always nervous to fly, but this time in the age of terrorism,... Full story
(JTA)-Science has finally provided evidence of what Jewish "Star Wars" fans long suspected: Yoda is a member of the tribe-or at least he speaks like one. The bad news is the science has been widely dismissed as junk. The Yoda reference appears in a video in which a a 36-year-old Israeli linguist at Sheffield University in England argues that Ashkenazi Jews and the Yiddish language originated in Turkey. The study joins a number of others published in the past 15 years that challenge the... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)—In 1978, when Beit Hatfutsot-Museum of the Jewish People opened, it did something big. But it did it in the smallest way possible. Among the museum’s first exhibits was a gallery filled with 18 miniature synagogues, each as intricate and tiny as a dollhouse. Representing houses of worship from around the world, the Synagogue Hall—like the museum itself—was a picture of global Jewish diversity, its models reflecting the wide range of building styles that house Jewish prayer. Visitors to the museum gasped at the fine detaili... Full story
By Pamela Ruben When my 76-year-old mother had recent back surgery, my siblings and I had a zillion questions and concerns that we shared with her orthopedic surgeon. It turns out we should have saved a few of those questions for the anesthesiologist... My mom slept most of the day following her procedure, and was in and out for most of the night. When I arrived in her room the next morning, she was sitting upright in bed, with a plate of eggs and bowl of fruit resting on her tray. My mouth dropped open in surprise as I watched my glassy-eyed... Full story
Tziona Ben-Aharon, age 58, of Merritt Island, passed away on Saturday, May 21, 2016, at the VITAS In-Patient Unit in Merritt Island. Mrs. Ben-Aharon, a native of Haifa, Israel, was born on Dec. 21, 1957, to Laziz and Ester Revivo. A homemaker, she moved from Israel to Philadelphia, relocating to Miami in 2008. In 2014, she moved to the Melbourne area. Mrs. Ben-Aharon is survived by her husband, Herzl, of Israel; and sons, Zach Aharon of Melbourne, Yakir Ben-Aharon of New York City and Adam Ben-Aharon of Melbourne; and her daughter, Sivan, of...
Herbert Rubin, 91, of Boynton Beach, Florida, passed away May 20, 2016, at his home. Herb, known as Poppy to his family and friends, was a devoted husband to his wife, Irma, for 63 years and loved his entire family wholeheartedly. Herb was a lifelong golfer who enjoyed being on the course with family and friends into his late 80s. He was also a passionate sports follower, including his devotion to the New York Mets and Knicks. Herb lived a full life, including serving our country in World War II, a career in the textile industry in Manhattan an... Full story
