Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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In the era of COVID-19, we are facing many challenges. As we make all our events virtual, wear facemasks wherever we go, and back up a few more steps in the checkout line, it's clear that we're living in a changed world that isn't changing back anytime soon. This September's Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur celebrations will no doubt be different as well. With restrictions on crowd sizes and other tightened safety rules, it is likely that many people will choose to celebrate and observe these...
(JTA) - Bari Weiss, the Jewish opinion writer and editor who has been a lightning rod for left-wing critics, has resigned from The New York Times. The author of a much-discussed recent book on anti-Semitism, Weiss announced her resignation in a blistering letter to New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger posted to her website Tuesday morning. She wrote that the newspaper had become a place where "intellectual curiosity - let alone risk-taking - is now a liability" and said she had been subjecte...
"Today is the day: The moment I (and many of you) have been waiting for! I begin my journey as the cantor of CRJ," posted newly hired Cantor Bryce Megdal in celebration of her first day on the job at Orlando's Congregation of Reform Judaism. While the cantor's interview process took place on video from her home in the Los Angeles area due to the ongoing corona virus pandemic, the Tucson native noted that she felt "right at home" with committee members and Rabbi Steven Engel leading the virtual...
(ISRAEL21c) - Could a well-known cholesterol-lowering drug help treat Covid-19? A research team led by Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Yaakov Nahmias says that early research looks promising. Over the last three-months, Nahmias and Dr. Benjamin tenOever at New York's Mount Sinai Medical Center have focused on the ways in which the SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus that's causing our current pandemic) changes patients' lungs in order to reproduce itself. Their major finding is that this virus...
How does a nice Jewish boy from the Bronx grow up to become a racecar driver? Meet Les Neumann. He now lives in DeLand, is semi-retired and races on the Vintage Race Car Circuit. This is no small potatoes - he is nationally ranked. It all started in 1954 when Neumann's mother's cousin married a girl from Hungary. While on their honeymoon, they toured the Morgan Motor Company plant in Malvern, Worchester, England, and ended up buying a car and having it shipped home to the states. "Back then the...
(JNS) - The Fox TV network will retain Nick Cannon as host of "The Masked Singer" following his apology for making anti-Semitic remarks on a podcast that has since been deleted from YouTube for violating the website's terms of services. "First and foremost I extend my deepest and most sincere apologies to my Jewish sisters and brothers for the hurtful and divisive words that came out of my mouth during my interview with Richard Griffin," said Cannon in a statement released by Fox. "They...
(JTA) — In the wake of a string of high-profile controversies involving the likes of rapper Ice Cube and NFL player DeSean Jackson, two more prominent Black commentators have called out anti-Semitism in the Black community this week: NBA Hall of Famer-turned columnist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and sports journalist Jemele Hill. In his latest column for The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday, Abdul-Jabbar argues that there has been a “shocking lack of massive indignation” over recent statements on social media by various sports and entertainment figures th...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Centrists on the platform-writing committee of the Democratic National Committee overrode progressives who wanted the platform to condemn Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. The 2020 platform only alludes to the occupation, preserves Israel’s defense aid and rejects the movement to boycott Israel. But it does warn against annexation, the move that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering for portions of the West Bank. The platform has not yet been released publicly, but the Jewish Telegraphic Agency obtai...
(JNS) — For most observers of American journalism, The New York Times has long been regarded as the flagship of liberal thought and opinion. But after a woke mob essentially hounded Bari Weiss, a centrist Jewish writer who has been outspoken about anti-Semitism, to the point where she thought that her continued presence at the paper was untenable, it’s no longer possible to describe the Times as “liberal.” It’s true that in the shorthand of American politics, the paper’s point of view can be described as left of center. But while the meaning...
At two universities on opposite ends of the country, student government leaders recently found themselves mired in controversy for promoting anti-Semitism online. In June, the student senate president of Florida State University, Ahmad Daraldik, was revealed to have posted hateful messages to his social media accounts, including “#f**kisrael” and “stupid jew thinks he is cool” about a photo of an Israeli soldier. He also appears to have created a video and website equating Israelis with Nazis, a view he defended during a recent student governme...
Last week, I received an e-mail from a reader of my Everywhere column of July 10, 2020, titled “Black lies matter,” criticizing me for an attempt to be cute with the title by playing on the words, “black lives matter,” and suggesting that the title was “insensitive.” Since I appreciate feedback of all kinds from readers I went back and reviewed not only the title, but the column itself, and deeply reflected on the criticism that the title was insensitive; and that I was attempting to be “cute” with the title’s wording. Interestingly, th...
I grew up worshipping The New York Times. To this day, I live on the paper’s home page. Only lately, as much as I still enjoy much of its cultural reporting, my jaw drops when I see the homogeneity of opinion. Virtually every op-ed and regular columnist goes in the same narrow, progressive direction. The net effect is mind numbing. You could strongly agree with every opinion and still feel the same way. When it comes to diversity of thought, The Times has become all the boredom that’s fit to print. That’s why it was fascinating to read Bari Wei...
NEW YORK (JTA) — Pittsburgh Steelers offensive tackle Zach Banner posted a video late last week in response to Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson’s anti-Semitic screed against Jews. After describing his horror at the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Banner preached that as important as the work of Black Lives Matter may be, its achievements cannot come by stepping on the backs of other people or by vilifying Jews. In Banner’s own words, “We can’t preach equality but in result we’re just trying to flip the script and change...
Dear Editor: I’m writing to object to three statements by David Bornstein in his July 10 column. I’ve skipped others due to The Heritage’s word limit. Bornstien said President Trump denounced NATO. President Trump criticized our NATO allies for paying too little for our common defense, much less than they had committed. Since he objected, they have paid more. President Trump said he admired Vladimir Putin. What would Bornstein do if he was meeting Putin to advance American interests? Insult the man? Bornstein ignored President Obama’s open mi...
Dear Editor: As an avid subscriber to the Biblical Archaeology Review for over 40 years, I really appreciated Heritage’s article about some of the more important archaeological sites to visit in Israel (“The 10 most iconic archeological sites in Israel, July 3, 2020). There are so many it’s really difficult to decide. I, however, do feel that the almost totally unknown site is the Valley of Elah. The what? Where is that? Why is it important? It’s hardly mentioned in the Bible. So tell us why is it important. Easy. Think about the early biblica...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, all minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) 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...
(JTA) — Just days after the expiration of a federal program meant to preserve jobs during the pandemic, one of the largest JCCs in the country has laid off or furloughed 35 percent of its employees. The Marlene Meyerson Jewish Community Center of Manhattan laid off 32 people and furloughed 40 last week as it faces decreased revenue as a result of the pandemic. The JCC, which operated on a budget of $34 million before the coronavirus hit, expects to cut that in half moving forward. Among the positions eliminated were most of the marketing d...
(JTA) - As a child in Israel, Amir Nathan dined at Sami VeSusu, an innovative restaurant in Beersheba named after a popular children's television show from the 1960s and '70s. So when it came time for Nathan, now a restaurateur in New York City, to name his latest venture, he replicated the name - and an atypical approach to serving food. Sami and Susu opened two weeks ago as a takeout and delivery service operating out of a Brooklyn bar. Nathan and his executive chef and business partner,...
Jaivet Ealom is the only known person to have ever escaped the notoriously brutal Australian-run refugee detention center on Manus Island. As a Rohingyan refugee fleeing Myanmar's campaign of genocide, Jaivet found himself imprisoned on the remote island near Papua New Guinea for three and a half years. He describes it as a torture center. The story of his prison break is the stuff of Hollywood movies. He planned it for months: Leaving under the cover of darkness, posing as an interpreter and...
Just Saying... I write this column almost 2 weeks in advance, so if this problem is solved correctly, forget I wrote about it: As the mother of three grown adults and two grown grandchildren, this really isn't my problem directly... but I must say, that if I had young children or grandchildren, I would be very wary of sending them back to school during COVID-19. Just saying! What a loss... I've been meaning to phone a dear friend of mine for days, every time I go to the bathroom and remember...
This may be surprising, but Jews have a long and very influential history in the alcohol industry spanning Europe, Israel and North America. For most of the 1800s, Eastern European Jews held a virtual monopoly on the business in their regions. They produced much of the beer and hard alcohol, and ran nearly all the taverns where it was sold. Jews had been in the trade for centuries, but when Polish landowners saw they could make 50% greater profits by turning grain into alcohol than by selling...
(JNS) — The “Ofek 16” spy satellite launched from central Israel at 4 a.m. on Monday (July 6) morning is due to significantly upgrade Israel’s ability to monitor the dangerous activities of its adversaries throughout the Middle East, foremost among them Iran. The satellite was launched successfully by the Defense Ministry and Israel Aerospace Industries following years of research and development, and a working schedule that in recent months had to be adapted to restrictions created by the coronavirus pandemic. IAI officials said they viewed...
(JNS) - A French appeals court ruled against an American couple that sought to get back the 1887 painting called "La Cueillette des Pois" ("Picking Peas") by Camille Pissarro that was looted from a Jewish collector during World War II and the Holocaust. The court upheld an earlier ruling that the painting should be returned to the family of the collector, Jewish businessman Simon Bauer, according to the text seen by AFP on Wednesday. Purchasers Bruce and Robbi Toll of the Philadelphia area, who...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel’s potential annexation of parts of the West Bank may not be a top election issue for American Jews, or even a top issue right now for most Israelis. But some evangelical Christians in America are hoping to make it an animating issue for evangelical voters in this fall’s presidential election. That’s especially true for Mike Evans, the evangelical writer who founded a museum celebrating Christian supporters of Israel, the Friends of Zion Heritage Center in Jerusalem. His “Jerusalem Prayer Team” Facebook page has mo...
Judith Gabbai, age 76, of Winter Park, passed away peacefully at Oakmont Village – Sienna Memory Care, on Monday night, July 13, 2020. Mrs. Gabbai was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Nov. 26, 1943, a daughter of the late Eliezer and Sara Levy Choc. She was the widow of the late Shlomo Gabbai, who passed away in 1992. A college graduate, she was a religious school educator and principal. Mrs. Gabbai was part of the staff at Congregation Beth Am, Temple Israel and Congregation Ohev Shalom during her tenure in Orlando. She relocated to the Orlando ar...
