Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 28
At the annual international AEPI conference this year, UCF's Nu Delta Chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi (the International Jewish fraternity) won the honor of being named the top Birthright recruiter in the world. This award acknowledges the Nu Delta Chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), the International Jewish Fraternity, for recruiting more Birthright participants than any other AEPi chapter in the world. Birthright has partnered with AEPi to incentivise its chapters to recruit as many Birthright... Full story
(JTA)-Curious George-that curious little monkey-is beloved by millions of readers around the world. His adventures with the Man With the Yellow Hat impart important life lessons amidst silliness and mayhem. But many people probably don't know that the children's book character was actually born during very dark times. His two Jewish creators, Margret and H.A. Rey, fled the Nazis in 1940-on homemade bicycles, no less-carrying their unpublished manuscripts with them. The story of the couple's... Full story
UCF student Alexa Goldstein (Class of 2019) was chosen to be one of only 17 members of the second cohort of the Hillel International Student Cabinet. "We are so proud of Lexi for being selected for this honor," stated Aaron Weil, executive director and CEO of Central Florida Hillel. "Hillel International only selects 17 students from around the world and this is the first time a student from UCF has been selected for this honor. It is incredibly gratifying to see Lexi's leadership skills being... Full story
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando has unveiled the slate of nominees for its 2017-18 Board of Directors and officers. The new board and leadership will be voted on during Federation’s Annual Meeting & Family Fun Day, which kicks off at 11 a.m., Aug. 27, on the Maitland Jewish Community Campus. Sara Stern, the 2017 Heritage Florida Jewish News Human Service Award winner, will also be honored at the meeting. Read more about the event and RSVP at www.jfgo.org/FunDay. The following names will be placed into nomination and voted on during t... Full story
The Chessed Project, a new initiative for high school teens, is kicking off with the school year. Teenagers will be able to volunteer monthly by partnering with various humanitarian organizations throughout the year. The Chessed Project was created by the Cteen directors of Maitland and South Orlando, to provide teenagers with meaningful and valuable volunteer opportunities. Teens, especially during their high school years, are looking to discover where their passion is and which avenues they should pursue after they complete high school. With... Full story
Come together with your friends, significant other, co-workers and family for a memorable JOIN Evening Out on Aug. 28, from 7 p.m.—9 p.m. at the Winter Park Community Center. Enjoy a wide array of delectable desserts, high-end cocktails and various spirits, highlighted by an engaging and thought-provoking talk by world-renowned Rabbi Mordechai Becher titled “Unity, Pleasure and the NY Jets.” The event is open to all men and women (alcohol will only be served to those 21+ with ID). Rabbi Mordechai Becher, originally from Australia, is senio... Full story
It's the same food festival the Rosen JCC has held in the past, however this year there is a healthier spin on it. (A Healthier) Taste of the J will be held Sunday, Aug. 27, from noon to 3 p.m. The food festival will also feature new entertainment and children's activities, including Music by DJ Willie, Games 2 U, a rock-climbing wall, TNBA inflatable basketball games, Tennis with RDU Tennis Academy, and Victory Martial Arts. Health vendors will include Compass Research, Cornerstone Healthcare,... Full story
Did you know that a proposal for a National Negro Memorial Museum was approved by Congress in 1929 but never built? On April 2, 2003, Federal legislation passed a commission to build a museum honoring African-Americans. The National Museum of African-American History and Culture opened in September 2016. See the exhibit at The Holocaust Center on display now through Sept. 8. Museum hours are Monday—Thursday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.; and Sunday from 1 p.m.-4 p.m.... Full story
As a response to the tragic events in Virginia, The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center will host a panel discussion, Protest: Free Speech v. Hate Speech, on Tuesday, Aug. 22 at 6 p.m. Moderated by Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell, guest panelists will include Mitch Bloomer, HMREC resource teacher at the Holocaust Center; Rachel Allen, coordinator of Valencia College’s Peace and Justice Institute; Professor Terri Day, Barry University’s Law School; and Angela King, a former Skinhead and co-founder of Life After Hate. As... Full story
Two prominent U.S. senators are raising questions about an American-funded school in Ramallah that is running an extremist summer camp for Palestinian teens from around the world, many of them Americans. The controversial summer program, called "Go Palestine," is run by the Ramallah Friends School, a 148-year-old Quaker institution in the Palestinian Authority's de facto capital. Its stated mission is to provide Palestinian teens from abroad with "introductions to Palestinian culture, cuisine,... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—In an unusual statement, President Donald Trump called his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, “very pro-Israel,” an apparent bid to end a barrage of attacks from the far right that has depicted McMaster as hostile to Israel. “General McMaster and I are working very well together,” Trump said in a message relayed to media outlets late Friday. “He is a good man and very pro-Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country.” McMaster in recent days has removed from the National Security Coun... Full story
Neda Amin, an Iranian journalist who was granted political asylum in Israel Sunday, landed in the country on Thursday after disappearing for a few days. Amin, 32, who had been seeking refuge in Turkey over the past three years, was to be extradited to Iran, where she could face the death penalty due to her columns in the Times of Israel Farsi edition. She was shortly detained and then released by Turkish authorities. Israel’s embassy purchased a ticket for her, and she finally landed at Ben-Gurion Airport. Amin was met at the airport by T... Full story
The newly appointed Middle East director at the State Department has a long record of criticizing and pressuring Israel. Isn’t anybody at the White House paying attention to who’s being hired over at Foggy Bottom? David Satterfield, who is slated to become assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs next month, played a significant role in U.S. policy and diplomacy concerning Israel and the Palestinians in the late 1990s and early 2000s. A look at some of his comments from that period reveals he repeatedly suggested a moral equ... Full story
As far as they are concerned, the U.S. Congress is just doing what it always does: pandering to the “Israel Lobby.” That’s how the foreign policy establishment and the left regard the bipartisan support for the Taylor Force Act, a bill named after a non-Jewish U.S. Army veteran slain in a Palestinian terror attack last year. The legislation would cut off American aid for the Palestinian Authority (PA) unless the PA stops funding terrorism. The bill passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Aug. 3 in a 17-4 vote, with all the commi... Full story
The latest acts in the long running saga of Elor Azaria emphasize the deep divisions among Israeli Jews. There are also sharpening gaps between Israeli Jews and those of the Diaspora. Especially prominent are those separating us from the large Jewish community in the United States. The Azaria problem is closer to home, but it’s not without overseas Jews signing on to one or the other side in our verbal warfare. Azaria is the young man, who when stationed with his IDF unit in Hebron, shot and killed an inert Palestinian who had been severely inj... Full story
We are now two years into the deeply controversial Iran nuclear agreement that roiled our community. And, like everything connected to the deal and the Mideast, it’s complicated, as even Jared Kushner would attest. During the many months leading up to the historic 2015 agreement between Tehran and the U.S. and its P5+1 partners—United Kingdom, France, and China, plus Germany—I was deeply critical of President Barack Obama’s approach, which I thought was too narrow and timid. I felt the U.S. wasn’t acting like the superpower it is in the negot... Full story
The Israel angle on McMaster’s purge of Trump loyalists from the National Security Council is that all of these people are pro-Israel and oppose the Iran nuclear deal, positions that Trump holds. McMaster in contrast is deeply hostile to Israel and to Trump. According to senior officials aware of his behavior, he constantly refers to Israel as the occupying power and insists falsely and constantly that a country named Palestine existed where Israel is located until 1948 when it was destroyed by the Jews. Many of you will remember that a few d... Full story
Imagine eating stomach lining on your first date, served up by your future mother-in-law hoping to impress you with her choice of protein. That was David Shapiro’s introduction to my Sephardic family in the late 1970’s, as he began dating my sister Kathy. For many decades after that, he would remind me of that first date. My mother had served him a Moroccan delicacy– tripe seasoned in a spicy tomato sauce– and he would joke that he should have brought a blow dryer to handle the weird dish. For a straight-laced Ashkenazi Jew whose idea of a go... 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. Temple Isr... Full story
(JTA)-He has a firm grip on the government, but a mounting political scandal might bring him down. Officials from his own party have begun to distance themselves from him, but he remains defiant. Oh, and his son is in trouble, too. Just one more thing Benjamin Netanyahu has in common with President Donald Trump. Except there's a difference: While Trump faces one sprawling scandal, the Russia affair, Israel's prime minister is embroiled in at least two. Police are conducting two additional corrup... Full story
KANSAS CITY (JTA)-Bronx-born, Queens-bred attorney Victor Bergman has lived in the Kansas City area for more than four decades-and in all that time, he hadn't found a true New York-style bagel. "Boiled first, glossy crust, soft interior-I really missed it a lot," he said. But here, in a suburban strip mall that shares its parking lot with a Walmart, Bergman's 40 years in the desert may be over: "They've done it," he said, awaiting a fresh-baked dozen. "These are the bagels I grew up with."... Full story
JFS Orlando was recently awarded $10,000 from the Harper Family Charitable Foundation, Inc. for its Reliable Independent Drivers for the Elderly program. The RIDE program is a transportation assistance program that provides free roundtrip rides to medical appointments or other essential services for low-income seniors and disabled adults in Orlando. “We are so grateful for the long-standing support from the Harper Family Charitable Foundation of our RIDE program,” said JFS Orlando Executive Director Eric Geboff. “The elderly and disabled popul... Full story
(JTA)—Yisrael Kristal, a Holocaust survivor from Haifa who was recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest man in the world, has died, a month before his 114th birthday. Haaretz reported that Kristal died Friday. Born on Sept. 15, 1903, in the town of Zarnow, Poland, Kristal moved to Lodz in 1920 to work in his family’s candy business. He continued operating the business after the Nazis forced the city’s Jews into a ghetto, where Kristal’s two children died. In 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz, where his wife, whom he had married... Full story
Memories and pure joy... What a week of television! I laughed. I cried. I clapped. I even changed one of the MUST destinations on my bucket list from a visit to my mom's birthplace, Montreal, Canada, to Broadway, New York City, my birthplace. (Of course, I hope to live long enough to visit both places.) The first exciting TV show for me was memories of Bob Hope. Little bits from many of his shows, including those entertaining our troops in World War II, Korea, Viet Nam... and on and on. (How I... Full story
WASHINGTON—Some Jewish Democrats and community activists are concerned at what they see as fresh signs that the party is distancing itself from Israel. The latest controversy began when Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said at a July 22 Town Hall meeting in New York City’s Bronx borough that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “does not have a plan for peace.” Asked by JNS.org to elaborate, Gillibrand declined to reiterate her criticism of Netanyahu. Her senior adviser, Glen Caplin, said only that Gillibrand is “one of the strongest... Full story
