Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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This year marks the Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando’s 40th year of building community, strengthening family life and promoting Jewish values. To help celebrate the occasion, the JCC embarked upon a social media retrospective of “Three O’Clock Throwbacks.” Everyday for two months this spring, the JCC posted a “throwback” photo from sometime in the last 40 years at 3 p.m. on its Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando Facebook page. “Our goal with posting the Three O’Clock Throwbacks...
For 90 years, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life has provided what many call a “tent” welcoming students of every Jewish background and denomination on campus. But as Hillel prepares to nominate its next president and CEO, questions persist over how open that tent should be when it comes to opinions about Israel. Hillel was created in 1923 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and was adopted by B’nai B’rith International in 1924 until the 1990s. The organization has grown to more than 500 campuses across North America. In...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—When it comes to foreign assistance, American law couldn’t be clearer: A coup d’etat suspends funding, period. But the directive, which has persisted for years in federal appropriations bills, is clashing with another congressional priority: the apparent desire to foster an alternative to Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s democratically elected Islamist president who was removed from power this week by the Egyptian military. In recent months, Congress has intimated that it would be happier if Morsi’s secular foes in the military...
Jewish National Fund (JNF) will host its annual Tree of Life Award Dinner at the Rosen Plaza Hotel on Wednesday, Nov. 6. The event will honor Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer with the prestigious Tree of Life Award. The Tree of Life Award is a humanitarian award given in recognition of outstanding community involvement, dedication to the cause of American-Israeli friendship, and devotion to peace and security of human life. Orlando native Buddy Dyer is the dean of Florida’s “big-city” mayors, having ser...
ISTANBUL—The decadeslong conflict between the Turkish government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is closer to an end than it ever has been before thanks to the ongoing peace negotiations, despite setbacks on both sides. The Kurds have been demanding separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or, at a minimum, more political and cultural rights for Kurds within Turkey. The strife has continued for more than 30 years and left some 40,000 dead on both sides. The Gezi Park protests in Istanbul (which spread acr...
Israel should do all it can to help the new secular government in Egypt beat the Muslim Brotherhood, even if that means amending the Military Annex of the Camp David peace accords to allow more Egyptian military assets into the Sinai Peninsula, the former director of Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau in the Prime Minister’s Office Brig. Gen. (Res.) Nitzan Nuriel said Sunday. Speaking to Army Radio, Nuriel said a defeat for the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters in the Sinai would reverberate across the Middle East, and would be of huge str...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—It’s almost boilerplate: The American Jewish community asks a foreign leader with whom it has cultivated a close relationship to kindly tell firebrands in the leader’s government to pipe down and fall in with an established policy that happens to be embraced by the U.S. government. Greece? Romania? Hungary? Russia? Try Israel. In a rare rebuke of a sitting Israeli minister, three major centrist Jewish groups in recent weeks have criticized Naftali Bennett, the economics chief...
The Holocaust Memorial Research and Education Center of Florida in Maitland has recently announced a renovation project that will significantly expand its permanent exhibit. The project will be funded by a grant from the Frances and Joseph Victor Fund at the Community Foundation of Central Florida, one of more than 400 charitable funds established since 1994. The grant will pay for the purchase of new exhibit cases, and a minor reconfiguration so that the museum can display Holocaust-era family...
When Jewish Holocaust survivor Helen Garfinkel Greenspun first returned to her hometown of Chmielnik, Poland, in 1992, the synagogue was riddled with swastikas and other graffiti. The gray and crumbling building had been boarded up since World War II, so she could not enter. The townspeople were guarded and unfriendly, and a few individuals even chastised her driver for bringing Greenspun to Chmielnik. The reception was the opposite in 2008 and 2009 when Greenspun visited again. Chmielnik’s m...
Dor Shalom will gather for a potluck Shabbat at 6 p.m. Aug. 9 in Longwood. Interested in attending? Visit www.jfgo.org to register today. The event will be held in a private home and address information will be sent to attendees prior to the event. All attendees are asked to bring their favorite vegetarian kosher-style dish prepared for at least 12 people. It will be a great evening to connect with old friends and make new friends, says an event organizer. Everyone 40 and above are welcome, but you’ll need to RSVP to save yourself a seat at t...
A community Erev Tisha B’Av service will be held at Temple Israel at 8:30 p.m. Monday, July 15, in the Rein Sanctuary. Temple Israel is at 50 S. Moss Road, Winter Springs. Congregants from Congregation Beth Am, Congregation Ohev Shalom and Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation will join members of Temple Israel for the service. Anyone else in the community who wishes to attend is cordially invited. Tisha B’Av is the Jewish national period of mourning. The “three weeks” between the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av have historically been days of mis...
From Friday July 26 to Sunday July 28, Temple Israel will host a membership weekend to encourage current and prospective members to share Shabbat together. On Friday evening current TI members will invite prospective members to their homes for Shabbat dinner and then accompany them to Kabbalat Shabbat services and Oneg Shabbat at Temple Israel in Winter Springs. The Friday night Shabbat dinners will include at least two longterm Temple Israel members, a recent member and prospective members. This will give the prospective members an...
A few years back, the following clue appeared in the New York Times crossword puzzle: “Curly ethnic hairstyle, colloquially.” The answer? “JEWFRO.” The word made Patrick Merrell, the Times’ puzzle blogger at the time, anxious. “JEWFRO! Really? Is that something we can say?” he wrote. Don’t worry, Mr. Merrell—most Jews that I know have embraced the word (if not the hairstyle), and this (straight-haired) Jew approves. I suspect it’s the use of “Jew” as an adjective—a la Archie Bunker talking about “Jew lawyers”—that makes people...
NEW YORK (JTA)—I had only known my girlfriend for a few weeks when she invited me to a friend’s house for Shabbat dinner on the Upper West Side. As a 44-year-old secular Israeli who had moved recently to New York City after my divorce, I didn’t have much experience with American Jews. Her friends were great: educated, liberal traditional Jews who seemed genuinely interested in getting to know me. While their religious rituals were new to me—I never saw people washing their hands and not speaking before making blessings on the challah...
By Ira Sharkansky Chaos in Syria and now in Egypt, with instability in Lebanon increasing as Hezbollah is deeply involved in Syria. Hamas in Gaza is most likely planning its response to the problems of its patron in Egypt. Jordan’s king may be even more worried than usual about threats to his regime, and who knows what is going through the minds of the Palestinians in the West Bank who are close to their government or waiting for an opportunity to take over their government. Is all this good for the Jews? In the short run, we don’t have to wor...
Following the ugly battle between the Egyptian military and Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi, resulting in Morsi’s ouster on July 3, as well as the ongoing bloodbath in Syria, the arguments for the preservation of the Jordanian model—politically moderate, more democratic than its neighbors, and proudly Islamic yet amenable to good relations with western nations and with Israel—are self-evident. When King Hussein of Jordan died in early 1999, Israel mourned him, as the veteran journalist Eric Silver pointed out at the time, “as o...
TEL AVIV (JTA)—For the second time in less than three years, Egypt is erupting in chaos, with a popular protest movement leading to a swift change in the country’s leadership. For Israelis, the Egyptian military’s removal of Mohamed Morsi from the presidency last week is a cause for optimism. An Islamist and a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi’s brief tenure saw a further estrangement between Israel and Egypt. The Brotherhood advocates Israel’s destruction and supports Hamas, the terrorist group that governs in Gaza. And while...
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—On Yom Kippur, we ask “Who by fire?” Sadly, this year at Tisha b’Av we already know who—the 19 firefighters who perished in Arizona. “This is as dark a day as I can remember,” Gov. Jan Brewer said in a statement. Unknowingly, the governor connected me to the mood of the Ninth of Av, the Jewish day of mourning that begins this year on the evening of July 15. Each year we come from the sun of summer unprepared for this darkest day on the Jewish calendar. With the itinerary of vacation days on our minds, we reluctantly s...
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, JULY 12 Light Shabbat candles at 8:08...
On a Friday afternoon in late June, 25 seniors walk, amble and/or glide into the familiar surroundings of the common room at Chambrel Assisted Living Facility in Longwood. For the next 45 minutes this gathering place will serve as “Congregation Chambrel,” where a weekly Shabbat service hosted by the Jewish Pavilion provides Jewish seniors with a sense of community, as well as a place for prayer. Although the average Pavilion “congregant” is well over 85 years old, Chambrel seniors are active...
Dr. Moshe Pelli, Abe and Tess Wise Endowed Professor of Judaic Studies and Director of the Interdisciplinary Program of Judaic Studies at UCF, published a new book on the journals of the Hebrew Haskalah (Enlightenment) in the first half of the 19th century. Titled “The Journals of the Haskalah from 1820 to 1845” and published by the Magnes Press of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the book includes monographs and annotated indices to eight Hebrew periodicals published in Holland, Galicia, Germany and Lithuania in the 19th century. The mon...
Jonie Goldberg of Maitland passed away on Thursday, June 27, at her residence. She was 76 years old. A native of New Rochelle, N.Y., she was born on Aug. 1, 1936 to the late Frank and Phyllis Fox Eggers. She attended local area schools and on Oct. 14, 1959, married the love of her life, Henry “Hank” Goldberg. Theirs was to be a love affair for nearly 52 years, before Hank passed away in March 2011. The Goldbergs relocated from Mount Vernon, N.Y., to the Orlando area in 1964, where they ran a very successful building inspection business. She...
Cohen’s High Holidays snafu NEW YORK (6NoBacon.com)—Surprised by the early arrival of the High Holidays this year? You’re in good company. The iconic Jewish singer Leonard Cohen just rescheduled two dates on his United Kingdom tour after learning they fell out on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, BBC News reports. Cohen, 78, is already publicly repenting. In a statement from his promoter, he apologized “deeply for the inconvenience” he has caused fans. FYI, for those who still haven’t checked your J...
Far from Kotel, Women of the Wall pray with police protection JERUSALEM (JTA)—Women of the Wall conducted its monthly prayer service at the Western Wall plaza with an occasional disturbance from protesters, but the worshipers were kept far from the wall itself. The women, who came to the holy site Monday morning to mark the beginning of the Hebrew month of Av, were blocked with barricades in the southern part of the plaza. The Western Wall was not in sight, blocked by the Mughrabi Bridge to t...
Happy endings… The following are two true stories sent to me by The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. They are very touching to all people…especially to Jewish people. The first story comes from Minsk, Belarus. It happened back in March of 1943: Leah Ruderman escaped from the Minsk ghetto, approached by two women she did not know, Nadezhda and her mother, Anna. Leah begged them to hide her son, Leonid from the Nazis. They agreed to take the child. Leah returned to the ghetto, which was liq...
