Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 32
On Sunday, July 17, The Roth Family JCC of Greater Orlando's Theater at the J will host a One Orlando Concert. All proceeds from ticket and concession sales will benefit the One Orlando Fund, established by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to assist victims of the Pulse tragedy. Kerry and Amanda Giese, the directors of Theater at the J, felt that the amazing talent of the theater's performers could be helpful to raising money for the medical bills, funeral costs, and day-to-day expenses of the people... Full story
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has criticized the statement issued by the Middle East Quartet (the U.S., the U.N., the European Union & Russia) which, while rightly criticizing Palestinian incitement to hatred and murder as a factor responsible for the non-attainment of peace, also criticizes Israeli "settlement-building"-that is, Jews living and building residential communities in Judea/Samaria-as an obstacle to peace. The report, written by senior diplomats representing the members... Full story
The 2016 Annual Meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando (JFGO), dubbed "A Meeting of the Minds," will feature America's premier mentalist, Sidney Friedman. The annual meeting is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 17, on the Maitland Jewish Community Campus. Called "the mentalist to the stars" by Forbes magazine for his many celebrity clients, Friedman will read minds and perform ESP, telepathy and premonition. In addition, those who attend will witness his unique "Music Mind Reading," wh... Full story
JFS Orlando distributed the 2016 Kobrin Scholarship to local Seminole High School student, Silvia Huaman. This annual scholarship of $2,000 is awarded to one deserving and academically successful student who will be starting college at the University of Central Florida (UCF) this year. The Kobrin family established an endowment fund in memory of Harvey and Philip Kobrin's parents and through their financial generosity JFS Orlando is able to distribute these scholarships since 1990. Huaman... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Three months after Israel's Chief Rabbinate rejected his authority to perform conversions, one of America's most prominent Modern Orthodox rabbis joined with Natan Sharansky to advance a message: The rabbinate needs to become more open. But not too much more. A widely respected rabbi in New York's Orthodox community, Haskel Lookstein saw his credentials called into question when a conversion he performed was deemed invalid by a rabbinical court in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petach... Full story
(JTA)-On my bookshelves there are two rows of volumes on the Soviet Jewry movement. Squeezed in among the tomes is a small, well-worn paperback with pages no longer attached to the spine, "The Jews of Silence," by Elie Wiesel. This slim volume is, however, a bridge. It crossed Wiesel and his readers over from his prior works, hearing the screams of those silenced in the Holocaust, to an eloquent challenge in 1966 to listen to the cry of our silenced but living oppressed brethren in the USSR.... Full story
Speaking with passion and commitment, nationally known speaker/media expert Laurie Cardoza-Moore, founder and president of Proclaiming Justice To the Nations (PJTN), once again encouraged her audience in Altamonte Springs to take a stand against the BDS movement. The event was hosted by the Greater Orlando Citizen Action Network. "My message... is if you stand by and you do nothing in your lifetime when you see what is happening to Israel and you see the rise of anti-Semitism, will you share... Full story
The RAISE program for young adults with special needs is now accepting online applications. There will be a limited number of positions available, as well as opportunities to volunteer as a Job Coach. RAISE is a 6- to 12-month work and social skills training program offered through the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando that provides paid employment at our partnering Jewish agencies for adults with special needs. In addition, RAISE assists its employees in the transition to finding employment in the community. If you know of a young adult... Full story
The first joint meeting of the St. Augustine Historical Society and the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society will be held July 20, 7 p.m. at the Gamache-Koger Theater of the Ringhave Student Center, 48 Sevilla St., in St. Augustine, on the Blagler College campus. Here’s an opportunity to learn what’s available in the libraries of the University of Florida to all who are interested in learning more about the history of St. Augustine. The presentation, titled “What’s Available in the University of Florida Libraries for researchers of St. Aug... Full story
Temple Israel is, once again, inviting the whole community to join their members in watching the Men’s Orlando City Soccer Team Lions play on Sunday, August 7 at 7 p.m. at the Citrus Bowl against the Seattle Sounders FC. Tickets are specially priced for the event and should be purchased by July 20, 2016. The tickets will be $20 for Plaza end seats and $31 for Plaza sideline seats. Normally, tickets cost from $41 to $55. Your ticket(s) can be purchased from tiflorida.org./events/lions-vs-seattle-sounders-frc-2016-08-07/.... Full story
These are the days that Vladimir Putin has been aching for since the end of the Cold War. On Dec. 5, 1989, three weeks after the Berlin Wall was torn down, angry crowds stormed the Dresden Headquarters of the Stasi, the brutal secret police of the Soviet puppet regime in East Germany. At the time, KGB officer Putin was based in the office across the street reserved for the representatives of the Soviet security apparatus. When Russia’s future president picked up the phone to demand military protection from the surging masses, he was told that n... Full story
We have reached the point where moral equivalence has become a moral atrocity. The smart set in the West has insisted for over a generation that Israel and the Palestinians are morally equal. There are extremists, on both sides, they say. Both sides are responsible for the absence of peace. The first serious outcry against this lie came immediately after the Palestinians began their terrorist war against Israel in September 2000. That war, incited, directed, funded, commanded and celebrated by Yassir Arafat and his henchmen, including his... Full story
A single page in the weekend edition of Yedioth Aharonoth captures the essence of where we are. One article on the page is a rational assessment of recent violence, its decline, and concludes with the point that there is no solution, other than the ceasing of incitement among the Palestinians, which no Israeli should expect. It was drafted before the weekend’s uptick in attacks, with two Israeli deaths in separate incidents in Judea and Samaria, three Palestinian attackers dead, and several Israelis injured. Without being sure, we can guess tha... Full story
The moment I finished reading “Night” many years ago, I knew that I had just experienced my personal Holocaust despite being safely tucked into, and protected by, my American way of life. The Holocaust was now mine to hang onto. Elie Wiesel gave it to me with his printed words that have left me beleaguered to this very day. Never would I have let it belong to someone else. It would have been like stealing my own soul and giving it to a stranger. It was too profound a moment in my personal psyche. No longer would my heart be the same. “Night” so... Full story
(JTA)—Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign never recovered after he was caught on video telling a group of millionaires that 47 percent of Americans will always vote for Democrats because they don’t take “personal responsibility” for their lives and are “dependent upon government.” The incident has become a case study not only in watching one’s words (and being nice to your waiters), but in spin control. Hammered by the media and the Democrats for sounding elitist and insulting half the country, Romney first blamed the listeners, sayi... Full story
(Kveller via JTA)—It finally happened. My son is almost 9 months old, and this week, for the first time, a stranger came up to me and asked me to “take him somewhere else.” Even worse, it happened at synagogue. The woman who approached me was quite obviously not a member of our congregation—and when some of the clergy and lay leaders later heard what happened, they were a combination of embarrassed, irritated and bemused. Each of them said to me, with a smile, “Well, clearly she is not a member here.” This was obvious to me, as it was to them... 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 Isr... Full story
PHILADELPHIA (JTA)-Growing up in Namibia, Dan Craven would bicycle long distances upon the only two paved roads in his hometown of Omaruru-80 miles heading north to Otjiwarongo and 45 miles south to Karibib. Cycling on what he calls the "tar roads" is how he fell in love with the sport; plus Craven acknowledges he wasn't very good at soccer or rugby. He took to the road after seeing a poster promoting a triathlon, which encompasses bicycling, swimming and running. While competing for the... Full story
(The Nosher via JTA)-Look, I'm going to be honest with you: Deep frying is a huge pain. It's hot, it's splattery, sometimes things come out raw and it's not exactly healthy. BUT! Big, big but. It is also, when done right, one of the best things in the world. Deep frying has given us french fries, doughnuts, falafel and, perhaps most important, fried chicken. If there's a better food than fried chicken, I don't know it. To give this American comfort food classic an Israeli twist, I added plenty o... Full story
(JTA)-Most people know Elie Wiesel as the author of "Night," one of the first published autobiographical accounts of what life was like inside Nazi concentration camps. The book, which helped shape the American understanding of the effects of the Holocaust, has since become a staple on high school reading and best-seller lists. But Wiesel wrote more than 50 books of fiction and nonfiction-and not all were focused on his harrowing experiences in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald camps. He was... Full story
Remember Hezbollah?... With all the talk and worry about Isis these days, we almost put on the "back burner" terrorist organizations like Hezbollah. DAVID HARRIS of the American Jewish Congress wrote the following (in part) on April 27th of this year: "Nearly three years ago, The European Union finally overcame its longstanding resistance and addressed the issue of adding Hezbollah to its terrorism list. The good news is that the 28 member states, prompted by the determination of Bulgaria,... Full story
As scholars of the Crypto-Jewish world, those who study Jews who went into hiding during the Spanish Inquisition and beyond, gathered for their twenty-sixth annual conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Rabbi Merrill Shapiro, president of the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society presented the case for the presence of Crypto-Jews in the oldest U.S. European city during colonial times. The Santa Fe Conference attracted participants from nearly a dozen countries and four continents seeking to... Full story
LONDON (JTA)- For two years, in her travels around the English capital, Natalie Pitimson has toted a library bag emblazoned with a word in Yiddish. "The word 'schlep' written on the side perfectly describes my regular hour-long trek through central London," Pitimson, a senior sociology lecturer at the University of Brighton, wrote on her blog. She had encountered no unpleasant incidents over the bag, whose slogan "reminds me of growing up in a lively Jewish family where such phrases littered... Full story
(JTA)-In the world of television, Rachel Goldberg is a rare character: a Jewish, female antihero. She's the main character in "UnREAL," a scripted drama on Lifetime about the behind-the-scenes world of a "The Bachelor"-type reality show called "Everlasting." Rachel is played by Shiri Appleby, who's best known for her lead role as Liz Parker on "Roswell"; more recently she played Adam's nice Jewish girlfriend, Natalia, on "Girls." Rachel is complex in the way that all humans are complex-though sh... Full story
Five hundred Jews gathered Tuesday morning by the entrance to the Temple Mount, to ascend in memory of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, a teenage girl who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian on June 30. In a YouTube video released last week, Amihai Ariel, Hallel's father called on the Jewish nation to join himself and his family on the Temple Mount on Tuesday for a memorial ceremony. Rina Ariel, Hallel's mother, wrote a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his diplomatic trip to... Full story
