Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Boy Scouts and adult leaders of Troop 641 participated in the annual Memorial Day Ceremony at Woodlawn Memorial Park. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts from local Troops also marched in the pre-ceremonial parade. During the event, the Scouts passed out red, white and blue flowers to Gold Star parents, widows and widowers of Veterans. Several hundred were on hand to listen to keynote speakers Sergeant Stephen Tovet, Major John M. Williams II and Chief Demings. The event was concluded with the tolling...
Earlier this month, Ben Rhodes, a national security official in the Obama administration, admitted in a New York Times profile that he used non-governmental groups to create an "echo chamber" to garner cover for the nuclear deal with Iran. Rhodes stated that his efforts to manipulate media coverage of the deal were made easier by the youth and ignorance of journalists who cover foreign policy. The implications are appalling. The whole point of having a free (and competent) press is to give the...
(JNS.org)—After ordering to dissolve the country’s parliament on Sunday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II appointed a politician known for his strong ties to Israel as the new Jordanian prime minister, Al Jazeera reported. Although Jordan’s government has a peace treaty with Israel, a majority of the outgoing Jordanian parliament’s members held anti-Israel views. But the newly appointed prime minister, Hani Mulki, chaired the Jordanian government committee that negotiated peace with Israel from 1994-1996. He is expected to now join the effort to...
One report says the Obama administration will soon get "tougher" with Israel over an alleged surge of Jewish settlement construction. Another report says Israel is currently halting new settlement construction. What's the real story? The Associated Press (AP), citing three anonymous American diplomats, reported last month that the U.S. plans to sign a new Middle East Quartet document aligning its criticism of Israel's construction policies with those of mediator partners including the European U...
Member of Knesset Michael Oren (Kulanu), the self-described "resident old man," surveys the scene unfolding before his eyes with growing astonishment. Seven-hundred pounds of grilling meat, 20 bags of charcoal, 150 gallons of Negev beer, and 600 new immigrants from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, France, Chile, Japan, Ukraine, Russia, South Africa, India, Greece, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Venezuela, and Guatemala, all coming together last week to...
(JTA)—Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Israel has a right to be protected by the United States. Sanders, who has spoken out in favor of Palestinian interests as well as Israel’s right to exist in security, made the assertion last Sunday during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I am 100 percent pro-Israel in the sense of Israel’s right to exist,” Sanders said. “I lived in Israel, I have family in Israel, Israel has the right to live not only in peace and security, but to know that their very existence will be...
(JNS.org) Despite ongoing security threats and regional instability, Israelis can expect to live well into their 80s, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) newly released global report on life expectancy. Japan has the world’s highest average life expectancy—nearly 84 years—followed by Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, and Spain. Israel came in sixth. The shortest life expectancy belongs to Sierra Leone, with women in that country only expected to live to about 51 years and men about 59 years. Israelis can expect an average lifesp...
First Grade at Orlando Torah Academy has been exploring life science in a hands-on way! For three weeks, the class observed the growth of the embryo inside chicken eggs then watched those eggs hatch into baby chicks! They are currently observing the growth of the hatchlings as they prepare to send them to permanent homes. The project began with some background research on chick development inside the egg. As a class, they researched, via books and the Internet, the way a chick develops inside a...
On the holiday of Shavuot the gift of Torah is celebrated. The Torah, a history and a guide to every step through life, was given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, more than 3300 years ago. Every year, on the holiday of Shavuot, not only acceptance of the gift renewed, the Torah is re-recieved. Join with Congregation Beth Sholom as Rabbi Karen Allen weaves the celebration of Shavuot into the Shabbat evening service on Friday, June 10th at 7 p.m. The synagogue is located at 315 North 13th Street in Leesburg, next to the Melon Patch Theater,...
“He’s not Hitler. He wants to help America.” Melania Trump’s comment about her husband, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, will go down as one of the more memorable quotes in an election cycle that has had its fair share of gaffes, outbursts, and the like. While her second sentence is debatable, the first one is undoubtedly true. If you are looking for this era’s aspiring Hitlers, you will not find them in America. In another country and in another political system, Donald Trump could quite conceivably become a dictator. Given his admir...
“I’m sure you get this question a lot, but...” It always starts with those words. What follows is the predictable, frequently asked question on the minds of friends, family, and Jewish mothers when I get back to the U.S. “Is it safe?” “Do you feel safe?” “So, how’s the security in Israel?” It’s not that I blame people for asking. I’m sure that I asked my Israeli friends the same question before some of my trips to Israel. But every time I get asked this question (which is usually a knee-jerk reaction to telling people I live in Israel), I can...
There’s been another resignation associated with the appointment of Avigdor Liberman as Minister of Defense. This one comes from the Minister of Environment, who associated his resignation not only with the appointment of Liberman, but with the government’s loss of Moshe Ayalon, and with the approval of the gas deal. The Environment Minister had opposed the deal, lost in several governmental votes, and made it one of the reasons for his resignation. He added an emotional, quasi-religious element to his resignation, saying that he saw the est...
Palestinian terrorist attacks that result in only a few casualties vanish quickly from the headlines. The victims are hospitalized, the politicians issue condemnations, the Palestinian Authority praises the attacker, and then the episode is quickly forgotten. It’s rare that anybody is still paying attention weeks later, when the attacker appears in court. That’s a shame, because sometimes what comes out during the legal process can be very revealing. Consider the attack on May 2, when a Palestinian terrorist named Muhannad Muhtaseb stabbed an...
The U.S. State Department’s admission that it altered an embarrassing video exchange about its nuclear negotiations with Iran is disturbing—but it’s not the first time that the Obama administration, or some of its predecessors, have tampered with words that it deemed politically inconvenient. State Department spokesman John Kirby confessed this week that part of a 2013 video recording in its archive had been deliberately removed. In that portion of the video, then-State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed to a reporter that the depar...
OMER, Israel (JTA)—As Jews, we tend to pride ourselves on our tradition’s values and how we pass them on to future generations; values such as education, tzedakah, loving the stranger, pursuing justice and tikkun olam, “repair of the world.” But if you were to start a conversation today with a teenager, would you be ready to articulate Jewish values related to dating and sexuality? Several such values can be gleaned straight from the Book of Ruth customarily read during the holiday of Shavuot, which begins this year on the evening of June 11...
Dear Editor: This may come as a shock to many, but I have to agree with letter writer, Lexi Goldstein. The Muslim Student Association at UCF does deserve both acceptance and respect as an organization and as individuals. However, in order to earn acceptance, they have to be accepting. In order to be respected, they have to respect others. In order to listen to the truth, they must first speak the truth. To the best of my knowledge, the MSA (Muslim Student Association) on many college campuses does none of the above prerequisites. I have no...
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...
(The Nosher via JTA)-I'm a cheese and dairy fanatic. So for obvious reasons my favorite holiday is Shavuot. This is when spring has sprung and my family makes a whole spread of cheese and dairy-filled foods and desserts. There is always a ton of different cheeses, spreads, breads, fluffy cheesecake, kugel, blintzes and my absolute favorite, bourekas-puff pastry or a simple butter pie dough filled with cheese and either potato, mushrooms or spinach. When you manage to get one hot out of the oven...
(JTA)—Ahead of the 50th anniversary of Israel’s reunification of Jerusalem, the Cabinet allocated an extra $220 million for a plan that encourages the city’s high-tech industry. “This is almost NIS 1 billion that we are investing in the development of Jerusalem, in technology and in companies,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday about the Jubilee Plan, a five-year project initiated last year. “The face of Jerusalem is changing. There is an interesting technological development here,” he said, adding that the Israeli capital is no...
On Friday, May 27 the second floor social hall at Spring Hills Assisted Living in Lake Mary was packed wall-to-wall with more than 40 kippot-clad residents, caretakers, and family members, for a memorial service in tribute to late resident, Charles "Dill" Hurvitz, who passed away on Sunday, May 8, 2016. He was a resident at Spring Hills for eight years, and lived to age 98. However, this was not Mr. Hurvitz's funeral. That service had already taken place graveside with a handful of mourners in h...
Back in Orlando... Wow. I didn't think it was hot in Chicago when it hit 81 degrees the other day. However, many local folks donned shorts. Most complained about the high heat. (I cooled off!) You know I write this column more than a week in advance of publication. I just returned from Chicago late last night. I was there for a private gig and most important... for the bar mitzvah of my grandson, ZACHARY AARON YOUSHA, son of Dr. STEVEN YOUSHA and Dr. JESSICA GOLUB of Wilmette, Illinois. The...
(Kveller via JTA)—My camp duffel bags are 30 years old. This is the first time since 1986 that they will not make the trek with me from Chicago to Wisconsin for a summer filled with outdoor adventure and friendship. As a lifelong camper and now “retired” camp director, I have enough experience to write a doctoral dissertation on how to prepare your child for the essential Jewish-American tradition: going to overnight camp. Instead of boring you with endless suggestions, I’ll share some tried and true advice. 1. Shop, label, and pack with your c...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is facing growing accusations that his campaign is countenancing anti-Semitism-if not encouraging it outright. Trump's foreign policy slogan, "America First," echoes the World War II-era noninterventionist movement championed by a notorious anti-Semite. During the height of the primary campaign, Trump delayed disavowing the support of white supremacist David Duke. And the candidate has failed to condemn the recent...
Betty E. Gabay, age 89, passed away on Saturday, May 28, 2016, at Palm Gardens of Tampa Health and Rehabilitation Center. Betty was a former resident of Orlando, living at Kinneret until she relocated to the Tampa area in 2015. She was born on November 13, 1926, in Bronx, New York; the only child of Jack and Ida Rabinovitz Gross. She attended college and worked as a bookkeeper in the plumbing industry. In 2003, she and her late husband, Albert, who passed away in 2004, relocated from Ocala where they had originally retired to the Orlando area....
Marcia S. Roen, age 90, of Orlando, passed away on Tuesday, May 31, at her home. A native of Paterson, New Jersey, she was born on October 21, 1925, to the late Harry and Florence Landau Siegel. She moved to Orlando with her parents and brother, Stan Roberts, in 1939 and graduated from Orlando High School. On February 2, 1945, she married the love of her life, Samuel Roen. In Orlando, they built a life together—working and raising their four children. Sam Roen, noted publicist and crime writer, passed away in 2011, after nearly 66 years of m...
