Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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‘Princesses’ rile 9/11 families NEW YORK—So remember that thing in our most recent “Princesses: Long Island” recap about Amanda Bertoncini’s ridiculous Drink Hanky photo shoot? You know, the one in which a model, toting a beer bottle clad in one of Amanda’s high-fashion signature Drink Hankies, poses with a statue of a firefighter? Well, it turns out we missed something. This wasn’t just any statue of a firefighter but a memorial statue of a fallen 9/11 firefighter from Great Neck named Jonathon...
BALTIMORE (JTA)—In May, Tel Aviv resident Baruch Axelrod sent a letter to his first cousin, who lives in New Jersey. The letter returned unopened to Axelrod’s home because the cousin, Gary Hyman, had moved, his new address unknown. The branches of their families had not been in contact for more than 20 years, when Axelrod’s sister Chana Pavlowitz visited the United States. Axelrod had never even met Hyman, but he well remembered Hyman’s parents, Aaron and Bela. Aaron was the sister of Axelrod...
(JTA)—Until 2009, right-wing Portuguese politician Jose Ribeiro e Castro didn’t have much interest in the expulsion of his country’s Jewish community in the 16th century. That changed once Ribeiro e Castro opened a Facebook account. Online, the 60-year-old lawmaker and journalist connected to several Sephardic Jews, descendants of a once robust Jewish community numbering in the hundreds of thousands, many of whom were forced into exile in 1536 during the Portuguese Inquisition. Eventually the encounters morphed into a commitment to recti...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Mikey Weinstein couldn’t be happier to have an amendment in his honor approved by the U.S. House of Representatives. Yes, the amendment, passed June 13 and designed to keep Weinstein and his Military Religious Freedom Foundation as far away from the Pentagon as possible, is more in his “dishonor.” But Weinstein is the kind of guy who revels in the dislike of his adversaries. “How terrified are these little pu***es in Congress that they have to pass an amendment about me?” he s...
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—Movie mavens may have to come up with a new genre to classify “Hannah Arendt,” the biopic of the German-Jewish philosopher. New York Times critic A.O. Scott suggests it is an action film—albeit one in which the weapons are ideas and theories are volleyed on a battlefield where a questionable hypothesis can turn lifelong friends into bitter enemies. Director Margarethe von Trotta, who has dealt previously with complex Jewish women (“Rosa Luxemburg”) and the Nazi era (“Rosenstra...
Presidential bid coming? Perry says he’ll visit Israel (JTA)—Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in what observers see as a move signaling a possible White House run, said he is planning to visit Israel in October. Perry, who has announced that he will not run for a fourth term as Texas governor, told the Washington Times in an interview last Friday, “We will be going to Israel to bring together Arabs, Christian and Jews in an educational forum.” Political analysts believe the trip to the Jewish state s...
Snapping pictures of people practicing centuries-old faith traditions in her native Jerusalem makes award-winning Israeli photojournalist Gali Tibbon feel like a time traveler. “Every stone you step on has so much history, and if you have imagination your brain can fly,” Tibbon tells ISRAEL21c after returning from London with the title of Sony World Photography Awards Travel Photographer of the Year. Her winning series, “Journey to Jerusalem of Africa—Lalibela, Ethiopia,” resulted from conv...
Ahmad Kamal took a moment to wipe the sweat from his forehead. The searing summer heat was taking its toll on the 31 year old’s stamina. The obligatory fast from dawn to dusk pious Muslims observe during the month of Ramadan further weighed him down. “Our president was legitimately elected,” the mechanical engineer exclaimed as his passion spurred on a momentary burst of strength. Around him at the Raba’a al-Adawiyya mosque a crowd of men nodded in agreement. Though the Egyptian military has deposed President Mohamed Morsi and key figures...
Most of us have moments when we could really use a hug—when we’re sad, lonely, scared or stressed. The therapeutic value of a good squeeze for emotional wellbeing is well documented. For people affected by autism, post-traumatic stress and anxiety or attention disorders, research has shown that hugging is an especially effective soother. That is the scientific fact behind the development of the BioHug Vest by Haifa-based BioHug Technologies. Already in use and soon to roll out to a wider mar...
This is the first installment of Teen Heroes, JTA’s biweekly column profiling teens involved in interesting and important social action. See below for information about our sponsor and how to nominate someone for coverage. (JTA)—When Ben Hirschfeld first heard that students in developing African countries lacked electricity and must endure noxious fumes from smoky kerosene lamps while reading and doing their schoolwork, the teenager from Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., knew he had to find a way to hel...
What’s the best way to find the right person for a job opening: placing a want ad, contacting a headhunter, posting within the company, or asking current employees to recommend a friend? In the social networking era, the last option increasingly makes sense, says Tal Moran, CEO of Tomigo, an Israeli startup offering a customized recruitment platform to leverage the social-media connections of employees. Moran points out that leading companies realize every staff member has access to a database of personal connections, and many offer rewards f...
BALTIMORE (JTA)—The first arrows Roxana and Rafael Gonzalez launch at the upcoming 19th Maccabiah Games will take flight from their fingertips, but also from Jeffrey Sudikoff’s imagination. Roxana, 25, and Rafael, 24, are part of the first Cuban delegation to participate in the Maccabiah, a quadrennial sports competition that dates back to 1932. The siblings arrived July 3 in Israel from their native Cienfuegos to continue their archery training in advance of the games, which opened July 18....
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (JTA)—The new HIAS is not your grandmother’s Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and it’s certainly not the one that brought her mother over from the Pale of Settlement. After decades as the Jewish community’s foremost voice on immigration—first in leading the resettlement of Jews who arrived here at the turn of the 20th century, then in absorbing hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews in the 1980s and ‘90s—HIAS is making formal its shift to refugee care and resettlement overseas. The vast majority of its work will not be with Jews, and...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Of all the compelling stories of athletic achievement and challenges overcome that could be told by the 9,000 participants gathering in Israel for the 19th Maccabiah Games, it might be hard to find one to top Jacques Demers. He’s a coaching legend, having led the iconic Montreal Canadiens to the National Hockey League championship in 1993. He’s also a member of the Canadian Parliament. And until about a decade ago, he would have been unable to read the words in this artic...
CAIRO—When Brian Dennison was considering where to study Arabic abroad, the 23-year old’s choices were limited. Yemen? It has an al-Qaida affiliate that feasts on foreigners. Syria? It is enmeshed in a civil war where dodging fighter jet bombings is the latest fad. Saudi Arabia was too conservative and Lebanon too Western. Egypt seemed the perfect fit—it was full of quality Arabic schools, Westerners with whom to socialize and ancient ruins at which to marvel. But the Virginia native’s dream took an unexpected turn two weeks ago when the cou...
(JTA)—In their Krakow home, Anna Makowka Kwapisiewicz and her husband, Piotr, skim through an online article about Poland’s recent ban on kosher slaughter. What they find even more disturbing than the actual news are the comments posted by other readers. Hundreds of comments calling on Jews to leave Poland have appeared beneath news articles in the days since the country’s parliament defeated a bill that would have reversed a ban on kosher slaughter, or shechitah, first imposed in Janua...
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (JTA)—Anita Batt’s weekly grocery shopping goes something like this: First, she checks several online coupon blogs, which offer guidance about the best sales and coupon combinations in stores such as CVS, Kroger and Target. Next, Batt prints the several dozen coupons she will use and places them in her organizer sorted by store. Then she visits about six stores, sometimes performing multiple transactions at the same location to maximize savings. Her purchases are stored in her...
