Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Palestinians and Arab Members of Knesset declared "victory" as Israel reversed security measures at the Temple Mount, adding that their struggle for control over the compound also extends to the Western Wall. MK Taleb Abu Arar (Joint List) stressed that "Jews have no rights at al-Aqsa Mosque" and that the Muslims' fight against Israel will continue, regardless of the cabinet decision to remove metal detectors from the entrances to the Temple Mount compound. "This is a proven fact, [even if]...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in discussions with the U.S. administration, has agreed to land swaps with the Palestinian Authority, Channel 2 reported Thursday. The conversations were reportedly held before the current Temple Mount crisis, which began nearly two weeks ago and has led to massive confrontation, violence and deadly terror attacks. Netanyahu's suggestions, made during meetings with Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, senior advisers to President Donald Trump, include...
Lester Mandell, a leader and pacesetter in the Jewish community, died on Thursday, July 27, 2017. He was 96 years old. Mr. Mandell, with contemporaries Hy Lake, Lester Zimmerman and John Lowndes, is a household name in both the construction industry and the Jewish community. In fact, Mandell has worked in the construction business for more than 80 years-starting out in Miami building houses for 37 cents an hour. He and his wife, the former Sonia Margolis, met each other in Miami at a "No Names"...
Registration has begun for the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando’s Aug. 27 Annual Meeting, which this year has a few summer twists. The gathering on the Maitland Jewish Community Campus, billed as the “2017 Annual Meeting & Family Fun Day,” will be part indoor meeting, part outdoor family celebration, culminating in the dedication of 24 new trees that will beautify the Maitland campus for generations to come. Emcees Jeannie Leavitt and Yeosh Bendayan will kick off the official proceedings at 11 a.m. on the 27th. The agenda for the formal mee...
The 20th Maccabiah Games have ended, and the Central Florida Jewish community is proud to have two very talented tennis players among the USA Team who medaled. Aviva Diamond, daughter of Laura Felson of Orlando and Dr. David and Orly Diamond of Winter Park, was the Mixed Doubles and Girls Doubles winner for the U.S. Juniors Tennis team and brought home a Bronze Medal overall in Girls Doubles with her partner Yana Gurevich of California, losing to No. 1 seed Israel. Diamond will be a sophmore...
A photo the Heritage ran last week of Hillel staff displaying their banner underwater was more than just a cool picture. These Hillel members are focused on "tikkun hayam"-repairing the seas-and are making a stand to "dive against debris." For the sea is His, He made it-Psalms 95:5 Most people with a moderate amount of biblical knowledge can recite the opening line of the Torah without having to give it much thought: In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1 But what co...
Do you know of an active and passionate senior over 80 who volunteers countless hours and lends their leadership skills to help organizations in our community? Then please consider nominating them for Kinneret’s 8th annual 8 over 80 honorary dinner. The Kinneret Council on Aging will proudly pay tribute to eight individuals over the age of 80 who have made significant contributions to the Jewish and Central Florida community on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018. “The 8 over 80 event really resonates with our mission of the Kinneret Council on Aging and...
(JTA)-Margaret Bergmann Lambert, a high jumper who was barred from the 1936 Berlin Olympics because she was Jewish, died in New York at 103. Her niece, Doris Bergman, confirmed that Lambert died Tuesday, The New York Times reported. In June 1936, just a month before the Olympics, Lambert, then a German citizen known as Gretel Bergmann, won a meet against some of the best German high jumpers with a leap of 5 feet, 3 inches-a height tying a German record and good enough to win the gold medal....
(JTA)-Marty Sklar, who served 54 years as an "Imagineer" for the Walt Disney Co. and led the creative team behind the company's theme parks, attractions and resorts, has died. The company announced his death in Los Angeles Thursday night. He was 83. Sklar served as principal creative executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, turning the company founder's ideas into reality. "Everything about Marty was legendary-his achievements, his spirit, his career," Disney CEO Robert Iger said in a statement....
(JTA)—The White House lauded Israel for dismantling metal detectors near the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem that had spurred violent clashes between Muslims and Israeli police, but Palestinian officials called for sustained protests. “The United States applauds the efforts of Israel to maintain security while reducing tensions in the region,” press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday after Israel’s actions earlier in the day. The metal detectors were removed amid an escalation of violent protests in the West Bank and of anti-Israel rhetoric across...
LOS ANGELES (JTA)-A famous photo of Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue at a photographer and signed by the renowned scientist has been sold for $125,000. The Nate D. Sanders auction house in announcing the sale Thursday evening did not reveal the buyer's identity. The Hebrew University stands to benefit from the latest sale, since Einstein bequeathed his estate, including the use of his image, to the Jerusalem institution. United Press International photographer Arthur Sasse took the...
The monthly salary of approximately $3,000 that the Palestinian Authority will pay to terrorist Omar al-Abed could be a powerful spur to a pending U.S. legislative bill that would slash aid to the PA over its “martyr payments” policy, a leading Middle East expert told The Algemeiner on Tuesday. “This is definitely going to put wind in the sails of the Taylor Force Act,” said Jonathan Schanzer, an expert on Palestinian politics at the Washington, DC-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank. Named in memory of former...
The pressure has begun. The State Department’s “evenhanded” statement regarding the Temple Mount. The U.S.-backed Middle East Quartet’s call for “restraint.” The announcement that President Donald Trump’s international negotiations representative is going to the region to “mediate” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). It all adds up to one thing: American pressure on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians. The July 14 terror attack that killed two Israeli policemen at the Temple Mount is a clear-cut case of Palestinian ag...
An article by a former Israeli Ambassador to Greece details the breakdown in peace talks meant to reunite the Island of Cyprus, and suggests a parallel to frustrations at brokering a peace between Israel and Palestinians. In both Cyprus and Israel, the status quo is neither war nor formal peace. There remain unresolved issues of property ownership, and families who left, and cannot return to what they used to call home. Movement between the two sections, whether on Cyprus or Israel-West Bank has at times been easier for foreign tourists than...
Chaya Salomon was murdered at a Sabbath dinner with her family. The 46-year-old Jewish woman was stabbed to death alongside her 70-year-old father Yosef and her 36-year-old brother Elad. Photos show the kitchen of the Salomon house in the Israeli village of Neve Tsuf covered in blood. The youngest Salomon daughter had given birth to a new member of the family. The bottle of Glenfiddich on the table was never opened. Instead an Islamic terrorist burst in and stabbed the new grandfather. Tova, the new grandmother was badly wounded. Elad’s wife ru...
He drew a circle that shut me out—Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in! —Edwin Markham According to the Bipartisanship Policy Center, our country’s history of working across the aisle can be traced back to as early as 1787. Our founding fathers, struggling with congressional representation regarding the populations of the colonies, reached what later was know as the Great Compromise. It was decided that our new government would exist with a proportional House of Repre...
Dear Editor: Jewish identity is one of the most important qualities we can help our young to develop. Study after study shows that as Jewish identity slips because of intermarriage, the Jewish community in the United States suffers. So too does the connection between young Americans and the state of Israel. If we hope to see a continued Jewish future including continued support of Israel, we must take positive steps to assure it. Significant research on the American Jewish community shows that Jewish day schools, (in Orlando that would be the...
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 I...
Upcoming education forum topics and dates at The Holocaust Education and Resource Center include the following: Thursday, Aug. 31, 6 p.m. —The Tuskegee Airmen: Fighting for the Right to Fight The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-Americans to fly in combat positions in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Their heroic service played a significant role in the eventual ending of segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces. Tuesday, Oct. 3, 6 p.m.—“The Wave”: Theories about conformity and the Holocaust “The Wave” was a classroom experiment carried out in a hi...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Near the end of his first year teaching American studies at the Georgetown University campus in Qatar, Gary Wasserman introduced a dozen Israelis to a dozen undergraduates from across the Middle East. Then he left the room so the students could have an unfiltered discussion. The one-hour meeting was part of what Wasserman calls his "liberal quest" to overcome biases-grounded, he said, in part by his Jewish upbringing. But the encounter wasn't exactly a success. Afterward, a...
NEW YORK-Tuna poke nachos marinated Hawaiian style. Lightly smoked duck breasts with quinoa and turnips. Hormone- and antibiotic-free USDA prime angus steaks. The kosher restaurant scene today has come a long way from the pastrami sandwiches and matzah ball soups of old (though you can still get those, too). Now more than ever, kosher fine-dining options abound for observant Jewish consumers looking for a great restaurant experience. In New York, the cutting edge of the kosher world, a few...
Congregation Beth Sholom of Leesburg invites the community to a very special warm, joyous, and festive Shabbat service on Friday, Aug. 11th at 7 p.m. This uplifting service of music and song, led by Rabbi and Cantor Karen Allen, who will be playing her keyboard, features world-class violinist Zoriy Zinger. Zinger was a soloist in the Russian Symphony Orchestra before reaching fame in America. Rabbi Allen and Zinger have collaborated in numerous venues, including three concerts at the Melon Patch Theater. The Kabbalat Shabbat takes the form of...
In Memoriam... Ruth Gruber, a photojournalist and author who documented Stalin's gulags, life in Nazi Germany and the plight of Jewish refugees intercepted by the British on the infamous passage of the Exodus to Palestine in 1947, died a few months ago at her home in Manhattan. She was 105. Her son, DAVID MICHAELS, confirmed her death. Ms. Gruber called herself a witness, and in an era of barbarities and war that left countless Jews displaced and stateless, she often crossed the line from...
"Collecting family stories not only benefits the senior-storyteller, but can add to the richness of their relationship with their family members and caregivers," said Emily Newman of the Orlando Senior Help Desk. I am living proof of the previous statement, as it took me almost 50 years to uncover an Olympic-sized story that brought my late maternal grandfather to life. As my Grandfather Irving passed before I was born, I never developed concrete images of who he was during his lifetime. I knew...
NEW YORK (JTA)—For many Jews, Tisha b’Av is centered around mourning the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. But that interpretation misses out on an important lesson that is made more relevant by recent events, Rabbi David Seidenberg argues. With the release of a new translation of the Book of Lamentations, the main text read on the annual fast day, the Massachusetts-based rabbi argues that Tisha b’Av, which began this year on the evening of July 31, provides a powerful way to connect to the refugee experience. Here’s his...
