Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Kevin and Irina McCarthy were at an Independence Day parade in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Highland Park with their two-year-old son Aiden when a gunman opened fire on the crowd. Kevin died as he shielded Aiden with his body. Both parents, in their 30s, were among the seven killed. Some 50 others were injured either by gunshots or while fleeing. As of July 6, nine people were still hospitalized. Police arrested 21-year-old Robert Crimo III, who faces seven charges of first degree murder....
(JNS) - Broadcasting the Summer Olympic Games is a massive operation, with more than 7,000 personnel covering 28 sports utilizing 1,000-plus cameras, taking the games global. For the first time, the so-called Jewish Olympics will be broadcast around the world from July 12-26 with slightly more humble resources, though still requiring a herculean effort. The legendary former TV broadcaster for the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, Marc Zumoff, is taking 14 hand-selected college and high school...
(JTA) – For many Britons, Boris Johnson's tenure as prime minister will have been defined by scandals like the one that forced him to resign on Thursday. For Jewish Britons, the memories might well include a broken menorah. Elected in 2019, the Conservative Party leader announced Thursday that he would step down after his cabinet collapsed amid his latest scandal - the way Johnson handled the case of a senior official who had been accused of sexual abuse. Johnson has also come under criticism f...
(JTA) — Ben & Jerry’s is not letting go of its West Bank pullout goal without a fight — with its parent company. The iconic ice cream brand has filed a lawsuit against Unilever over its decision last week to sell the Israeli arm of the business to Israel-based franchise, American Quality Products, Ltd., which will continue to sell Ben & Jerry’s in the West Bank. Ben & Jerry’s says that Unilever’s decision was made without the brand’s board’s consent, and wrote in a statement on Tuesday that stopping the sale is necessary to protect “the social...
You never know when an emergency will happen … but you can count on JFS Orlando to be there for support. Back in April, staff members from the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando and the Roth Family Jewish Community Center were attending a conference at the Michael Ann Russell JCC in South Florida, when suddenly they had to go into lockdown due to a shooting at the pool on campus (Please see article “JFGO members witness to shooting at Miami-Dade JCC,” April 15 Heritage issue). Thankfully all JFGO and JCC staff were unharmed, however, the s...
Walgreens will be holding a vaccination clinic at the Rosen JCC. The clinic will be on July 18th from 1 p.m.-3 p.m. and will provide Covid vaccines and booster shots for adults. Covid vaccines for children ages 3-11 will also be provided. In addition, there will be shots for TDAP (whooping cough) and pneumonia for 65+ and Shingles for 55+. The complete list offered: Covid Pfizer vaccine Adult Covid Pfizer vaccine Pediatric (5-11) Covid Pfizer vaccine Toddler (3-4) TDAP (whooping cough) Pneumonia (65+) Shingles (55+) There is no appointment...
On July 6th over 75 people gathered for drinks, appetizers and desserts at Watercrest Senior Living. The happy hour was co-arranged by committee members of the Jewish and Pride Chambers. Pictured is Tee Rogers from the Pride chamber meeting Scott Goldberg from the Jewish Chamber. To get on the Jewish Chamber e-mail list, contact the Board chair Bree Goldstein at bree@breegoldstein.com The Jewish Chamber of Commerce offers monthly get togethers that are ideal for networking and making friends....
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has made demonizing Israel a central component of her platform since emerging on the scene in 2012, when she tweeted that the Jewish state “hypnotized the world” with its “evil doings.” Understandably, the Jewish community has opposed Omar, who has promoted a variety of antisemitic tropes, accusing the U.S.’ leading pro-Israel advocacy group of paying elected officials to support the Jewish state, promoting the anti-Israel BDS movement, and spreading the dual loyalty canard about American Jews. While the...
Says Jewish students are ‘targets’ and ‘dismissed’ when they see ‘the writing on the wall.’ (JNS) — Two months after The Harvard Crimson’s editorial staff endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a Jewish Harvard student hit back in the same paper. The Crimson Editorial Board published an editorial on April 29 titled, “In Support of Boycott, Divest, Sanctions and a Free Palestine” wherein they declared that they were “proud” to endorse “Palestinian liberation and BDS.” The Crimson’s associate editor Gemma J. Schneider res...
(JTA) — Yair Lapid might only be Israel’s interim prime minister, but he appears to be determined to maximize the position in the four months he is guaranteed to occupy it. In a speech delivered Saturday night, Lapid laid out a set of beliefs that he said bind Israelis of all ideologies, as well as his diagnosis for why widespread agreement on fundamental ideas hasn’t translated into political harmony. “The answer is politics,” he said in the speech, published in English by the Times of Israel and in adapted form in Hebrew by Lapid on Twitte...
(JTA) — More than four months into its devastating war against Russia, Ukraine is sending a new message to the world’s Jews: Don’t come here for Rosh Hashanah. Tens of thousands of Jews flood into Uman, a central city that is home to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, a 18th-century Jewish luminary, annually for the Jewish new year. Even in the first year of the pandemic, when global travel ground to a halt and the gathering was officially banned, Jewish pilgrims sought to make their way to Uman. This year, their security cannot be guara...
(JNS) — The organized Jewish community—whether local Jewish community relations councils or national groups like the Jewish Council on Public Affairs, the American Jewish Committee or the Anti-Defamation League—and the religious denominations say they’re committed to two positions. On the one hand, all of them purport to be strong supporters of social justice, which is to say that they are, at least in principle, in favor of helping poor children and families, regardless of their background, race or religion, break the cycle of poverty and succ...
(JNS) — The bullet that the Palestinian Authority handed over to U.S. officials may or may not have been the one that killed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin earlier this year. The bullet may or have been too damaged to determine conclusively whose gun it came from. The bullet may or may not have been fired by an Israeli soldier. All that matters is who bears responsibility—legal and moral responsibility—for Akleh’s death. And it has been indisputably clear from day one who the guilty parties are: the Palestinian Arab terrori...
(JNS) — A disparate group of Islamist clerics has been busily predicting that the State of Israel will disappear in 2022, citing the Koran for support. The prediction has been circulating in earnest since March, when Muslims around the world marked the holy month of Ramadan. According to an article on the pro-Hamas MEMO website by Mohammad Makram Balawi, a Palestinian writer living in Istanbul, the belief that Israel will be removed from the map at some point this year “is widely spread by some Muslim religious scholars, Palestinian and non...
(JTA) — For years I worked in an office where, in order to make an outside phone call, you had to dial 9 plus 1 plus your number. At least once a week, the police would show up in the lobby because someone had accidentally dialed 9-1-1. The head of HR would scold us for not being more careful, and I would think, just change the system! In Jewish law there is a name for rules or actions that would tempt even the innocent to make a mistake — or worse, a sin: “lifnei iver.” It comes from Leviticus 19:14: “You shall not … place a stumbling b...
(JTA) — Agudath Israel of America, the national Orthodox Jewish organization for which I work, welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. Predictably, we were immediately cast into an “enemy” or “ally” box, depending on who was doing the casting. The first group assumed that we don’t care about women; the second, that we were embracing the Christian evangelical agenda. Neither is remotely the case. We care about Judaism and embrace only it. From a Jewish perspective, to be sure, the contention that there can be entirely prop...
Dear Editor: The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando website outlines the details of the Jewish Community Relations Council directives. Nothing within those directives mandate a response to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling. Specifically, under the Social Action directive, the Supreme Court ruling is hardly an issue that affects global Jewish issues. Under the Issues Advocacy section, neither religious practice nor “…. support on behalf of Israel and oppressed communities….” fall within the scope of the Court’s ruling. Perhaps one might stret...
Dear Editor: As of late, there has been a lot of publicity concerning the location of many of the Jewish related organizations within the greater Boston area. The “Mapping Project” with the assistance of the BDS movement has created quite some interest both pro and con. I would like to suggest that someone or some group in the Greater Orlando area do the same for the associated Muslim mosques in Central Florida — Orange, Lake, Seminole and Osceola counties. I did a quick search and found 16 mosques located in Kissimmee alone. How many more...
MORNING MINYANS Chabad of North Orlando and Chabad of Altamonte Springs are holding in-person minyans. 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 Orla...
Looking for a Judaism 101 book to start your Jewish learning? The most frequent emails we receive at My Jewish Learning are variations of this: “Help! I want to learn about Judaism, and I know almost nothing. Where do I start?” Although we joke that we should advise people to read every article on our site, the fact is that Judaism is a huge and overwhelming topic. And the problem is not a shortage of readily available information. Rather, it’s that there are so many articles, resources and books out there that it is difficult to know where...
(New York Jewish Week) - A family Torah belonging to a New York City jeweler was reported stolen at the Venetian Resort hotel in Las Vegas last month. Jack Abraham, who has run a jewelry business under his name since 1962 in Manhattan's Diamond District, told the New York Jewish Week that the Torah was taken on Sunday, June 12, during the Luxury JCK trade show at the Venetian Hotel. "I've been going to the expo since its inception for 25 years," Abraham said. "I organize Shabbat services there....
(New York Jewish Week) - A young child's diary, a favorite doll, a cookbook of family recipes, a report card, a Torah scroll smuggled to the United States and a silver spoon found among the rubble at a concentration camp. All of these objects are on display in "The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do," an expansive new permanent exhibition at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan that opened over the holiday weekend. The exhibit emphasizes the individual human stories and the Jewish lives liv...
