Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) - Jewish groups in the United States and in Hawaii are launching relief efforts following the devastation caused by wildfires that have killed more than 50 people so far. The wildfires have all but destroyed the town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, which Hawaii's Jewish governor, Josh Green, toured on Thursday with Brian Schatz, the state's Jewish senator. "What we saw today was likely the largest natural disaster in Hawaii state history," Green said in a statement. The fires have had...
Following the historic JCC Maccabi Games in Israel, the world's largest Jewish youth sports event continued with JCC Association of North America's 41st JCC Maccabi Games® and Access events in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, August 7-11, hosted by the David Posnack JCC. The opening ceremony was held at the FLA Live Arena, with more than three dozen state, county, and local officials as well as prominent Jewish leaders attending. The Games are a dynamic experience of Olympic-style sports and volunt...
The Congregation of Reform Judaism in Orlando has recently welcomed Rabbi Rachael Jackson, her husband, Danyul and 9-year-old son, Adrian. Rabbi Jackson is the first female rabbi to serve in the Orlando community. She is not the only female rabbi now here. Rabbi Melissa Crespy accepted the position of full-time rabbi at Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation shortly after Rabbi Jackson. Jackson has been selected by congregation CRJ to replace Rabbi Steven Engle who served the congregation for over 27 years and has now retired. Hailing from...
A new student rabbi is coming to Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation. Rabbi Michael Fraade is a fifth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew College, a pluralistic, nondenominational institution in Newton, Mass. He brings with him a rich variety of experiences, serving as a hospital chaplain at Massachusetts General Hospital; studying Torah at several progressive yeshivas, including Hadar in New York and Pardes in Jerusalem; working as a farmer and Jewish outdoor educator; and volunteering with non...
Being outdoors is good for everyone. Nature may also help protect against the risk of developing certain neurodegenerative disorders. In a study of millions of seniors who spent time in "green spaces" such as parks or yards, those who lived in an area "with more green space" had lower rates of hospitalization for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and related dementias such as vascular dementia and Lewy body dementia." Experts believe that being in nature reduces our stress. We have long k...
It’s heartwarming to learn about the Shabbat Service organized by the Jewish Pavilion in collaboration with the staff, volunteers, and residents of Cascade Heights in Longwood. Sharing challah and wine as part of the service is a cherished tradition in Jewish culture, symbolizing unity and spiritual connection. The Jewish Pavilion’s dedication to enhancing the lives of elder care community residents is truly inspiring. Elderly individuals often face challenges such as loneliness and a sense of...
Film Screening: Liga Terezin On Aug. 24, the Holocaust Center will host a film screening of “Liga Terezin” (2013), a documentary inspired by Oded Breda’s quest to document the story of a soccer league in the Ghetto Theresienstadt, after he recognized his uncle in a Nazi propaganda film about the team. This discovery started him on a journey to understand the roll that sports can play in helping to combat discrimination and antisemitism today, especially soccer, the most watched sport in the world. A panel led by Breda and Joanie Holzer Schir...
On Aug. 23, at noon, TOP Jewish Foundation will host a webinar on Estate Planning & Charitable Giving — Leaving Your Legacy. In the webinar, attendees will learn how to include charitable giving in your estate plan and tax-advantaged estate planning strategies. This is a zoom meeting. Register at www.topjewishfoundation.org/webinars. For more information, call 813-961-9090....
(JNS) — Sarah Miller’s biggest takeaway from her first day at the Campus Coalition National Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., was that there are stronger forces that unite rather than divide. “We have more in common than we have apart,” Miller, a junior studying web design, education and French at Butler University in Indianapolis, told JNS. She cited three speakers who shared “their belief in the power of building connections.” “They proved that not only on the international level but also on the personal level, the way to solve conflic...
(JTA) — Federal agents arrested a West Virginia man on Thursday for allegedly threatening jurors and witnesses in the trial of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, which culminated last week in a death sentence. The man who was arrested, Hardy Lloyd, 45, is “a self-proclaimed ‘reverend’ of a white supremacy movement,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office in the northern district of West Virginia. The statement said Lloyd “made threatening social media posts, website comments, and emails towards the jury and witnesses dur...
(JTA) — For its latest effort to combat antisemitism on college campuses, the Anti-Defamation League is turning to a particular brand of college student: frat boys. The Jewish civil rights group is partnering with Alpha Epsilon Pi, the historically Jewish fraternity, on an initiative to engage members of AEPi’s 150 local chapters starting this fall, the two groups announced Monday. They revealed the new initiative — which will include the creation of something called the Antisemitism Response Center — during AEPi’s international conventio...
(JNS) — On his way out the door, the retiring U.S. ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, has belatedly acknowledged that he “screwed up” in one of his last major actions. He’s just the latest in a growing line of U.S. diplomats who have admitted—when it was too late—that they made significant errors in their treatment of Israel. So why does anybody still listen to them when they offer advice on the Arab-Israeli conflict? In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, Nides was asked about his outrageous tweet commenting on the June 20...
(JNS) — Do blessings and curses come from heaven or do we bring them upon ourselves by the way we live our lives? Last week’s Torah reading, Re’eh, from Deuteronomy 11, begins with blessings and curses. Moses is continuing his sermonic messages before he takes leave of his people. The great leader waxes philosophical: “Behold, I give you this day a blessing and a curse. The blessing: that you hearken to the commandments of God that I command you this day. And the curse: if you do not hearken to the commandments of God and you stray from th...
(JTA) — For those following the judicial reform crisis in Israel, this week’s Torah portion is almost too on the nose. For months now, Israel has been convulsed by protests in response to a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “reform” Israel’s Supreme Court by stripping it of much of its powers of oversight and shifting the balance of power heavily in favor of the legislature. Defenders of the reform call it a corrective measure meant to rein in a high court that too often flouts the will of the democratically elected Knesset. Critics...
(JNS) — Palestinian society is in disarray. In two major West Bank towns—Jenin and Nablus—the Palestinian Authority has lost control, and rogue gangs rule the land. Last week, thousands of Gazans protested in the streets—risking brutal backlash from the Hamas regime. Meanwhile, talks in Egypt meant to reconcile the P.A. and Hamas after 17 bitter years have again hopelessly failed. All this takes place as the Biden administration tries to pressure Israel and Saudi Arabia into a “normalization” deal contingent on concrete steps toward a Pa...
(JNS) — The heady excitement over the Abraham Accords overlooked Israel’s core strategic problems. The United Arab Emirates deal may have led to business ties and a certain amount of (mostly one-way) tourism, but then rockets from the terrorist territories once again began raining down on major Israeli cities. The covert price for the Abraham Accords appeared to be the end of any talk of Israel annexing its own territory. And being able to visit Emirati hotels is a poor exchange for the failure to permanently secure Israeli territory. Now the...
(JNS) — I am not a comic book fan. I am not a superhero fan. I think comic book films are slowly demolishing whatever remains of American cinema. But, if I may be slightly hypocritical, I am a huge Superman fan. My love for the character goes back to my earliest childhood, when my family gathered before a black-and-white television to watch the first network broadcast of the classic 1978 film “Superman,” starring the immortal Christopher Reeve as the title character. Even without its vibrant colors, the film transported me to another world...
(JTA) — Amar’e Stoudemire hasn’t donned a Phoenix Suns jersey since 2010, but soon, no Suns player will wear his No. 32 ever again. The Suns announced Wednesday that Stoudemire, along with his teammate Shawn Marion, would be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor during the 2023-2024 NBA season. According to the team’s press release, this represents “the franchise’s highest honor bestowed to individuals who have made an enduring impact on the organization, community and Suns fans.” Stoudemire, who formally converted to Judaism in 2020, played...
MORNING MINYANS Chabad of North Orlando and Chabad of Altamonte Springs are holding in-person minyans. 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) - When David Corenswet was announced as the next DC Comics Superman last month, Jewish movie and comic fans rejoiced: He will be the first Jewish actor to portray the hero in a blockbuster. But one Jewish community in New Orleans has been particularly excited. "The Corenswet family is well known and loved" in New Orleans, said Daniel Sherman, rabbi of the city's historic Temple Sinai synagogue. "I have also heard a few groups talking about having some screening events to support David and...
(JNS) - The JCC Association of North America's 41st JCC Maccabi Games and Access events, which took place Aug. 6 through Aug. 11, opened at a ceremony on Monday at the FLA Live Arena in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It was hosted by the David Posnack JCC. Nearly 2,000 Jewish teens comprising 64 delegations from the United States, Canada and six other nations around the world have gathered for the week-long events. For the first time, delegations from Argentina, South Africa and Ukraine are...
(JNS) - It's popular to refer to contemporary issues as Orwellian, and one must wonder whether George Orwell would see echoes of his dystopian vision of 1984 in 2023. I'm not sure how many people are aware that Orwell also wrote about antisemitism in Britain, and that his observations on the subject also resonate today. Writing in 1945, Orwell said he was speaking based on his own experience. He reported that antisemitism was increasing and had been "greatly exacerbated" by the war. He did not...
(JTA) - We grew up in South Carolina in the late 1960s and '70s, one of us from the capital city, Columbia, and the other from the small town of Summerton. The foods served on our respective tables were a blend of Southern and Jewish, menus long ago established by our immigrant grandmothers and the African-American women who cooked for their families. Kashrut was observed in our grandmothers' kitchens, and Southern recipes recrafted for a kosher table mingled quite comfortably with the stuffed...
(JNS) - A state senator in Michigan has apologized to her Arab and Muslim constituents for a recent visit to Israel with her fellow lawmakers. Sylvia Santana, whose district includes part of Detroit. as well as Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, with a high concentration of Arab Muslims, posted the apology on social media. "I recognize my presence on this trip has sparked anger and disappointment by many in the Arab/Muslim community," she wrote. "For this, I truly apologize, seek your forgiveness...
(JTA) - For the first time in 800 years, the British city of York, whose Jewish population was decimated in a medieval pogrom, will be home to a rabbi. Rabbi Elisheva Salamo arrived in York from California last week after decades of pulpit work in the United States, Switzerland and South Africa. She will take a part-time pulpit at the York Liberal Jewish Community, which is affiliated with a denomination akin to the American Reform movement. The congregation was founded in 2014 and now has...
