Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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WASHINGTON (JTA)-How often do you get the opportunity to pack "109 years," #LoveWins and the rainbow colors into 140 characters? That's how the American Jewish Committee celebrated the Supreme Court ruling Friday extending marriage rights to gays throughout the United States. "For 109 years AJC has stood for liberty and human rights," its tweet said. "Today is a happy day for that proud tradition #LoveWins." It was punctuated with a heart emoticon splashed orange, yellow, green blue and p...
NEW YORK-Jewish National Fund (JNF) announced that it has created the new $100 million JNF Boruchin Israel Education Advocacy Center to focus on Israel and Zionist educational programming, designed to be one of the most powerful new initiatives in the Jewish world. The JNF Boruchin Israel Education Advocacy Center will concentrate its resources on advocating for Israel, Israel education in the Diaspora, and countering the BDS movement, all with the goal of strengthening the connection of all Ame...
For the past three years Rabbi Noach Majesky, brother of Rabbi Yanky Majesky, has been the cantor at Chabad of North Orlando during the High Holidays. This year and for many years hereafter, Rabbi Noach will lead the High Holiday as well as all the services in Accra, Ghana. He and his wife, Alti and three children will be moving this summer from Crown Heights, N.Y., to establish a new Chabad Center to serve the needs of the local Jewish community and tourists. The establishment of Chabad in...
The Board of Directors for the Kinneret Council on Aging (KCOA) and Kinneret I and II Apartments have announced their new Executive Board for 2015-2016. Newly installed executive officers are: Geanne Share, president; Don Levin, vice president of Budget/Finance, treasurer; Neal Blaher, past president and Mollie Savage, recording secretary. The Kinneret I and Kinneret II Executive Board also welcomes the following: Dick Appelbaum, vice president of Building and Grounds/Management liaison. The...
(JTA)-This time, Israel and its supporters came prepared. Anticipating what they believed would be an unfair U.N. report on last summer's Gaza War, the Israeli government and friendly groups in the United States were ready with at least three reports they say better reflects the reality of the five-week engagement between Israel and Hamas. The U.N. report, released last week, said Israel's military and Palestinian armed groups committed "serious violations" of international human rights law duri...
By Ron Kampeas NEW YORK (JTA)-At Abe Foxman's farewell, there were the hugs, there were the recollections of the hugs, and there was the sheer diversity of the huggers. Abe likes to hug, and he hugged everyone who came out to the June 17 gala marking his retirement from the Anti-Defamation League after 50 years, the past 28 leading the civil rights agency. So plenty of people got an Abe embrace: About 1,200 were in attendance, necessitating the use of the balconies in the vaulted Waldorf Astoria ballroom. Onstage there were tributes from Jews,...
Congregation Ohev Shalom's daytime adult education program, "Mondays at 1," is back with a new three-part series called "Fiddling With Tradition-The Cultural Phenomenon of Fiddler on the Roof." Special for this series, each session repeated at 7 p.m. on the same dates. This past spring, Kerry Giese, managing mirector of The Roth Family JCC's theater program, and artistic director Amanda Giese took on the daunting task of reviving mainstage productions. They started big, mounting a 50th...
For the last few weeks, a group of women in the Southwest community have been getting together every Tuesday morning for a weekly Torah study group over steaming mugs of tea and refreshments. For the duration of camp (June 22-July 17) the weekly Torah & Tea class will take place on the grounds of Camp Gan Israel at the Pool Pavillion, every Tuesday morning after drop-off (9:30 a.m.). “I invite you to join us as we share and discuss the Torah portion through the eyes of women, gleaning timeless lessons and exploring our heritage in a casual a...
Gwen Levy, director of Education for Congregation Sinai Religious School, has announced today that all children of new and existing members will receive free religious school tuition for ages 5-11 for the year 2015-2016. Congregation Sinai offers a comprehensive program of religious training for children both in lower and upper grades. They become fluent in Hebrew music and reading, Torah studies and future preparation in Jewish teachings and ethics. The classes are taught by spiritual leaders, Joe and Lynn Goldovitz, along with retired...
Rabbi Karen Allen will lead Congregation Beth Sholom in Friday evening services at 7 p.m. on July 10. An Oneg Shabbat with light refreshments will follow. The synagogue is located at 315 North 13th Street in Leesburg, with the entrance on Center Street....
By Ben Cohen JNS.org Bear with me, please, while I attempt an answer at the following question: What is a conspiracy theory? Generally speaking, a conspiracy theory is a theory that directly challenges the conventional, widely accepted, or official account of a particular event or series of events. If a politician is murdered, or if a public figure dies in an accident, you can be certain that someone, somewhere, will insist that what occurred was the work of a shadowy, unseen cabal. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, to...
By Stephen M. Flatow JNS.org A new study has found that many of the children who were educated in Nazi Germany retained, for the rest of their lives, the anti-Semitic attitudes they learned in school. What does that portend for Palestinian children, who are likewise inculcated with hatred of Jews? After surveying some 5,300 German citizens, American and Swiss researchers found that those who were educated in Germany in the 1930s, under the Hitler regime, are much more likely than other Germans to still cling to anti-Semitic beliefs. “It’s not...
By Ira Sharkansky It’s not easy—it may not be possible—to identify the real Barack Obama. We can say the same about other, perhaps all, politicians who reach the top of a steep climb. Yet the Obama puzzle is especially daunting, given his position at the head of the most power country of them all. His power up there is also something of a mystery. He’s not alone. An antagonistic Congress may provide us with a dramatic demonstration of the separation of powers and checks and balances. It’s best to put aside assertions about missing or faulty bi...
There’s a lovely Jewish tradition of honoring the dead by engaging in Torah study. You can devote any number of mitzvot in the memory of the departed, but studying Torah is said to have particular mystical power. Tradition says it elevates the neshama, or soul, of the dead, helping them reach a higher connection to God in the world to come. I can’t vouch for what happens in the world to come, but I can testify to the power of study for those of us left behind. Group Torah study creates a particularly intimate fellowship, where both vet...
There’s been a lot of talk lately about how President Barack Obama feels hurt and misunderstood by Israel and by many Jews in the pro-Israel community. The storyline is that those Jews simply don’t appreciate how “Jewish” the president really is and how much he cares for the Jews and for Israel. “He’s deeply offended by the notion that he’s anti-Israel or anti-Semitic,” former diplomat and Washington, D.C., insider Martin Indyk told JTA. “He’s hurt by it now. It’s finally got to him, the ingratitude of Israelis to this president.” In essenc...
“The great powers had photographs of the railway routes that the trains took to... Auschwitz,” Pope Francis remarked this week. “Tell me,” he asked, “why didn’t they bomb them?” The pontiff’s question is not merely a matter of historical curiosity. It raises issues of morality, diplomacy, and American foreign policy with profound implications for our own times. The reason the Allies had photos of the railways leading to Auschwitz is that throughout the spring of 1944, Allied planes conducted surveillance of the area in preparation for...
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...
Judaism's harmony with humanity's spirituality "Sketches of a Life" by Enrique (Eitan) Kuperman Available now, directly from the author at EKuperman@aol.com. Copies are also available in Spanish. Written from the heart and experiences of Enrique Kuperman, "Sketches of a Life" weaves together a series of bold and powerful short stories told from a Jewish perspective. Covering family, community, conflict and the refuge of spirituality, Kuperman's work reminds readers of Judaism's innate harmony...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-The scent of hamburgers and beer wafted over the field. The fans were bathed in barbecue smoke. The bleachers were cut out of Jerusalem stone, the field was made of artificial turf. The spectators who had come to greet a tour of Pro Football Hall of Famers sat in plastic armchairs that blocked off the red zones and end zones, with nothing separating them from the game being played at midfield. The players-diminutive by National Football League standards-wore shorts and no...
By Abigail Klein Leichman ISRAEL21c-Ingesting an indigenous Israeli aromatic shrub called Chiliadenus iphionoides (more commonly, "sharp varthemia" or "Goldilocks") could improve insulin secretion and glucose absorption in people with diabetes, according to plant biologist Jonathan Gorelick, scientific director of the Judea Regional Research and Development Center in Israel. The center's efforts to isolate the plant's active compounds-and to assure these compounds are present when the plant is...
The city of Jerusalem, with its rich history and beauty is also, unfortunately a magnet for disaffected teens and young adults. They come from all over Israel as well as the rest of the world, looking for excitement, entertainment and of course, other youth. Many Jewish parents from the wide world send their kids to Israel, hoping they will find some sort of life changing Jewish experience. Sometimes it does not work and the young people, at loose ends, often end up on their own in Jerusalem. As we well know, that can result in risky behavior...
You know your getting old when... My spouse and I had the pleasure of seeing the stage play "I Love Lucy" in the Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts recently thanks to our own wonderful DONNA FIEGEL, Public Relations director at True Marketing. It was brought to Orlando courtesy of Fairwinds Broadway Across America. I'm not saying how old I am, you understand (?) but the show was based on the televising of the Lucy show at the Desilu Studios in Hollywood during...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-For months, France has considered taking a more active role in advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Israel wants no part of it. The French peace proposal reportedly would have three components: a return to direct Israeli-Palestinian talks, a committee of representatives from world and regional powers to facilitate the negotiations, and a United Nations Security Council resolution that would set a timetable for the process. "We don't want to replace the role of the sides,"...
UMM EL-KHEIR, West Bank (JTA)-They dig their fingers into the dirt, their knees bearing into the ground as they embed sprigs of thyme in identical rows. The sun beats down on the small plot, and the work can be tedious, but these volunteers-most of them American, most of them Jewish-plant with a purpose. They had met early Friday morning in Jerusalem and set off on an hour long bus ride through the terraced, rocky hills south of the city. Upon arriving at their destination, a Palestinian...
(JTA)-Good deeds can be contagious. Just ask Laura Marks, a British Jew who is widely credited with creating one of her community's most widely celebrated new traditions: an annual Mitzvah Day, now in its 11th consecutive year, in which thousands of British Jews perform charity work in retirement homes, homeless shelters, hospitals and even neglected cemeteries. Inspired by the custom of some American Jewish communities, including in Los Angeles and Detroit, Marks thought the activity not only p...
