Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando's Annual Meeting served as a graduation ceremony for the 10 newest members of the Jerome J. Bornstein Leadership Development Program, which is designed to help train and prepare the next generation of local Jewish leaders. Program co-chair Patricia Bornstein (far right) introduced the new alumni: (l-r) David Zissman, Toni Turocy, Mike Schneider, Emily Raij, Abby Nelson, Dana Meyer, Shannon Melnick, and Rachel Kropp. Not pictured: graduates Jennifer... Full story
"Leadership" was the word of the day when friends and supporters of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando gathered Aug. 5 for the nonprofit's 2018 Annual Meeting. New leadership for the Federation Board of Directors was approved, 10 newly minted Bornstein Leadership Development Program graduates were introduced, and four of the community's outstanding Jewish leaders were honored with awards during the event on the Maitland Jewish Community Campus. The program was emceed by board members Jeann... Full story
The Torah teaches, "You shall not curse a deaf person. You shall not place a stumbling block before a blind person." (Leviticus 19-15) Imagine coming to services, but not being able to participate because you use a wheel chair, and the sanctuary is not accessible? Or if your child or grandchild has some special need that keeps him or her from attending Sunday school, young peoples' services, or from preparing for b'nei mitzvah. In hopes of avoiding situations like this, the Congregation of... Full story
As of early Thursday morning, Hamas has fired about 150 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip, the IDF stated. The IDF retaliated by targeting a number of sites used by the Hamas and other terror organizations operating in Gaza. Since Wednesday evening, the Iron Dome has intercepted 25 rockets. The Eshkol Regional Council said early Thursday morning that a 30-year-old woman was seriously injured when a rocket hit a greenhouse where she was working. Prof. Yochanan Pfizer, deputy director of Sorok... Full story
When Longwood's Vicky Countess sent her third and youngest son off to college in 2013, the full-time mom and part-time educator/office manager felt she had more to give. Fortunately, her husband, Ken, was an avid volunteer with Take Stock in Children, a nonprofit Florida organization that provides deserving low-income students with opportunities for success. Countess learned the program, which offers students college scholarships and volunteer mentors, was recruiting volunteers to mentor... Full story
Kinneret I (KI), Kinneret II (KII) and Kinneret Council on Aging (KCOA) recently held its annual meeting and also inducted a new board member. The annual board meeting was held on May 9, 2018 at Kinneret Apartments, 515 South Delaney Avenue, Orlando, Florida. The annual board of directors meeting included the approval of the budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year and board member elections. Nominated and approved to join the KI, KII and KCOA Board of Director's was Joanne Kane, a long-standing... Full story
(JNS)-The security escalation in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours shows that Hamas is prepared to take the region to the brink of war, and that it believes it can force new rules of conduct on Israel while paying a minimal price for its aggression. Its actions have placed the region in danger of a major new conflict. Hamas's leadership is dangling the option of a long-term truce before Israel with one hand and firing barrages of rockets at southern Israel with the... Full story
(JTA)—Following Swedish pro-Palestinian activists’ failed attempt to reach Gaza by sea, a Christian supporter of Israel from Sweden announced he would take dozens of pro-Zionists to Israel on his yacht. Stefan Abrahamsson announced Thursday on Facebook that his yacht, Elida, will set sail from Sweden on Aug. 25 to Israel to show solidarity with the Jewish state and Middle East Christians. “We want to break the silence of the severe persecution and cleansing of the Christian population that is taking place in this region,” he wrote. “As the... Full story
(JNS)—A new poll of Palestinians shows that more than 60 percent agree that the Palestinian Authority should not engage in negotiations with Israel mediated by the United States, according to results published on Monday. Overseen by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, the poll, which was conducted among 1,200 Arabs from Judea, Samaria and Gaza from June 26 to July 7, revealed that 45.6 percent of Palestinians oppose renewing negotiations with Israel. If presidential elections were held on the day of the survey, more than a third s... Full story
(JNS)-An incendiary kite landed in an Israeli vineyard in Samaria on Monday, starting an arson fire. The kite landed in the Tura Winery near Mount Gerizim in Samaria, close to the Tomb of Joseph, the biblical son of Jacob whose bones were buried in Israel following the Jewish exodus from Egypt. Though a fire was started, it was quickly extinguished and harm to the vineyard was prevented. According to Hadashot news, Palestinians in Judea and Samaria have begun utilizing the terrorist ploy... Full story
(JNS)—In recent weeks, a handful of American Jews have loudly complained about being questioned by the Israeli police over their contacts with Palestinians. They would have us believe that the Israeli authorities are a bunch of iron-fisted totalitarians who are trying to suppress dissent. I don’t buy it. The latest complainers are Simone Zimmerman and Abby Kirschbaum, who spent last weekend in the Sinai (that is, Egypt) and were questioned upon their return. Zimmerman is one of the founders of the Israel-bashing organization “IfNotNow.” Her hos... Full story
When did the idea take hold in public policy conversations that every American was at first morally bound, and now legally required to love every other American? “Love” is not a legal term and as best I can tell, not being a religious scholar, religious texts only seem to deal with the concept of love as an emotional factor between and among individuals who are familiar with one another, such as spouses, children, relatives, neighbors and friends. Love of the divine is beyond the scope of this column. Psychology concepts broaden the use of the... Full story
(JNS)—Increasingly, I perceive Diaspora Jewish communities inexorably moving into a self-destruct mode on several fronts. David Rothkopf, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, has published “this government of Israel and what it stands for must be opposed in every way possible, including, given the absence of other effective options, boycotts... [as] its acts have not only undermined its legitimacy... “...[it is a] country part of one of the most dangerous movements afoot on the planet today... Full story
(JTA)—This is Leonard Bernstein’s centennial summer, and the Tanglewood Music Center in the Berkshires is staging a series of outdoor performances to celebrate its favorite son. I’m not saying that everyone who goes to Tanglewood is Jewish, although I always think a typical evening there is what the High Holidays would look like if the Israelites had enjoyed picnics and white wine. Last month I had lawn tickets when the Boston Symphony performed Bernstein’s score of “West Side Story” live while the film was shown on large screens. The effect... Full story
(JNS)—A recording that aired on Israeli TV channel Arutz 20 this past week revealed the tactics employed by the New Israel Fund when it disapproves of legislation proposed in the Knesset, such as the recently passed nation-state law. In the recording—a conversation between NIF’s Israel director Mickey Gitzin and NIF’s U.S. CEO Daniel Sokatch—Gitzin described how the NIF and its beneficiaries organize opposition in the Knesset (“tackling the system,” as Gitzin called it), demonstrations on the Israeli street, and the recruitment of academics,... Full story
I think I have read almost every commentary on the Nation-State Law that the Knesset passed last week by a slim margin (62 in favor, 55 against). Most of the commentary has been by people with more experience than I have in analyzing such laws and perhaps even more intelligence. And the arguments on both sides, for and against, all make sense given the differing perspectives of the writers. But without going into the merits of the law, or the lack thereof, once again the passage of the Nation-State Law demonstrates the government’s inability t... 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. Tem... Full story
BEIT SHEMESH, Israel (JTA)-Built in the 1990s in part to ease crowding in haredi Orthodox neighborhoods elsewhere in Israel, Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet is both an Orthodox boom town and a site of ongoing tensions between different streams of religious Jews. National-religious Jews have long complained of harassment by members of the haredi community, who style themselves as enforcers of strict codes for dress and conduct. Now there is another front in the simmering battle: several dozen haredi... Full story
He loved. He loved to sing. An accomplished vocalist before his teens, he sang his whole life. He loved his Sigma Rho brothers at Miami High School. He loved his fellow congregants at the Lindenhurst Hebrew Congregation where he served several presidential terms. He loved the Lindenhurst Fire Department where he served several terms as captain of the Rescue Company. But mostly, he loved his friends-all of you! He loved his daughter, Penny; and son, Walter; daughter-in-law, Helene; son-in-law,... Full story
Jonah Ruben Podberesky, son of Daniel and Lesley Podberesky, will be called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Aug. 25, 2018, at Congregation Ohev Shalom in Maitland, Fla. Jonah is in the seventh grade at Lake Highland Preparatory School where he is a member of the wrestling team, Junior Thespians, and is on the Honor Roll/President's List. His hobbies and interests include acting, singing and wrestling. He also is a member of Kadima and is currently on the Kadima board. Sharing in the... Full story
Jerusalem, the true capital... I read this in a current issue of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and pass it along to you: "BETTY EHRENBERG, executive director of the WJC, North America, joined with 70 other leaders from the Jewish and Christian communities in the U.S. and Latin America to meet with Guatemalan President JIMMY MORALES in Guatemala to show support for his decision to move the Guatemalan Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Guatemala was the first country to follow... Full story
(JTA)-Gal Gadot is close to a deal to star in a limited series about Hedy Lamarr, the film actress who also was an inventor. The Israeli star of the 2017 megahit "Wonder Woman" also will executive produce the limited series, reportedly for Showtime, with her husband and producing partner Yaron Varsano, according to Variety. Lamarr, a Jewish native of Austria, was credited with creating a prototype for a frequency-hopping signal during World War II that could help the Allies disrupt... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congressional candidate and rising progressive star, was cheered at an event at a Jewish museum that did not touch on Israel or the Jewish community. Ocasio-Cortez appeared at a conference here hosted by the Immigrant Arts Coalition at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, participating in a panel focused on women in the arts. While politics did frequently come up, none of the panelists-including Ocasio-Cortez, who has been critical of... Full story
Written by family Albert Elman, age 84, of Longwood, passed away on Sunday, July 29, 2018, at Florida Hospital Altamonte. Al was the beloved and adored husband of Cyndie Elman (nee Cynthia Tulip) for only 46 years, and step-father to Beth Reinstein-Atkins, Lynn Reinstein and Karen Reinstein, as well as grandfather by choice to Zoe Atkins. He was the brother to Hilda Frishman (nee Elman) and the late Florence Klosky (nee Elman), and the son to the late Julia (nee Lefkowitz) and the late Benjamin Elman. Al was a graduate of Brooklyn College,... Full story
Celia Feldman, age 95, of Bexley, Ohio, passed away at Bickford Assisted Living in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday, July 30, 2018. She was born in Cleveland on Nov. 28, 1922, to the late Louis and Ethel Goldenberg Fierman. A homemaker, she was the widow of the late Morris Feldman, her husband of nearly 70 years when he passed away in March 2015. They lived in Cleveland, Buffalo and Birmingham before moving to Ormond Beach in 2004. Following Morris’ passing, Celia relocated to Columbus to be closer to her daughters, Fran and Linda. A devoted and l... Full story
