Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 26 - 34 of 34
(JTA)-Jewish tourists from North America are likely to notice one big difference when visiting synagogues around the world. Though a plethora of symbols, such as stars of David and menorahs, may be displayed, national flags are rare inside the sanctuary. Meanwhile, in the United States and Canada, an American or Canadian flag (and sometimes both) are commonly displayed on the bimah, or ritual stage, often alongside an Israeli flag. When did this uniquely North American Jewish custom originate...
AMSTERDAM (JTA)-More than 70 years have passed since Meijer van der Sluis first laid eyes on the love of his life. He was at a home for child survivors of the Holocaust, and he opened the door for her. He still remembers her short haircut and exactly what she wore that day. "It was a black army coat," van der Sluis, 91, of Amsterdam, recalls in a critically acclaimed documentary that aired last month in the Netherlands about his wife of 65 years, Tedje. "It hit me hard. I fell in love. It...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Growing up in Imperial Japan during World War II, Isaac Shapiro's best friend was a member of the Hitler Youth. The friend wore the organization's brown shirt uniform to their international school every day, but not because he wanted to-he was German and Japan was an ally of the Nazi regime, so he was expected to project support for the Fuehrer. Instead of instilling fear into his classmates, however, the uniform had the opposite effect-his non-German peers gently teased him. "We...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-When Adam Ferziger wants to describe the "deteriorating" relationship between American and Israeli Jews, he reaches back to a 2,000-year-old divide. "To use a metaphor, we have a contemporary Jerusalem and Babylon kind of dynamic," said Ferziger, a history and contemporary Jewry professor at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, "with two truly significant creative and vibrant Jewish centers developing across the world from each other." Ferziger and others point to polls in recent...
AMSTERDAM (JTA)-As a seasoned ghost writer who specializes in biographies, Miriam Dubi-Gazan says there is no such thing as a boring life story. Her attention to detail, creativity and editing skills yield satisfying results even for clients whose resumes are not exactly the stuff of spy novels (think retired bankers, plastics manufacturers, midlevel civil servants and family doctors), she says. But Dubi-Gazan's own astonishing life story needs none of the tricks of her trade. Born in 1945 to...
Israeli honeymooner killed, wife injured in zip-line accident in Honduras RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA)—A newly wed Israeli man was killed and his wife seriously injured in a zip-line accident during their honeymoon in Honduras. Egael Tishman, 24, and Shif Fanken, 27, were on a zip line over a treetop canopy near Roatan on the island of Bahia when they crashed into each other on Thursday, according to local media. “The girl stayed halfway on the cable and the guy came from behind and hit her up there,” chief firefighter Wilmer Guerrero told La Prens...
(The Nosher via JTA)-If you've been to a falafel or shwarma stand in Israel, then you have probably heard of amba. It's a spiced pickled mango condiment whose popularity in Israel comes by way of the Iraqi Jewish community. This flavorful condiment is commonly found in Iraq and across the Middle East, as well as in India. In fact, amba originated in India, and the word means mango in Marathi. You can find countless recipes and variations for amba, but the main and required ingredient is mango....
(JTA)—A Ukrainian military prosecutor suggested that Jews seek bloodshed in his country, prompting calls for his dismissal by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and others. Col. Gen. Anatoliy Matios, Ukraine’s chief military prosecutor and a highly decorated officer who also holds the title of deputy prosecutor-general of Ukraine, spoke about at least one Jew in an interview that the Insider magazine published Monday. In it, he named a communist Jewish theoretician, Alexander Parvus, and said the revolution Parvus supported “drenched Slavs with blood...
(JTA)—A town in Estonia unveiled a plaque honoring a Waffen SS officer, spurring protests from the Jewish community. A nonprofit unveiled the plaque in Mustla for the local Nazi collaborator Alfons Rebane, who fought with the Germans against the Russians as part of the Nazi armed force. Across Eastern Europe, collaborators with the Nazis, including perpetrators of the Holocaust, are celebrated as heroes, often for their fight against what many in the region consider Soviet occupation. There is no evidence that Rabane was involved in the m...
