Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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What is JSU? The Jewish Student Union is an after-school club that provides any high school student-regardless of Jewish affiliation-a Jewish experience through programs that strengthen their Jewish identity and connection to Israel. Run by the teenagers, a club can be established in a school simply by being requested (JSU does not barge in and establish itself). Last year, a student at Oviedo High School experienced anti-Semitism at the school. She'd heard about the Jewish Student Union and...
Showing now at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU is the exhibit Evil: A Matter of Intent. This timely exhibition features the work of over 30 contemporary and modern artists addressing the many faces of inhumanity. This pertinent group show features artists hailing from around the world with diverse backgrounds, including Helene Aylon, Judith Glickman Lauder, Grace Graupe-Pillard, William Sharp, Tamar Hirschl, John Lawson, Paul Margolis, Mark Podwal, Trix Rosen, and Arthur Szyk. The exhibition is...
The Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando (JFGO) has announced that Executive Director Olga Yorish will be leaving to pursue other professional opportunities effective Aug. 31, 2017. The Federation will unveil key initiatives of its path forward at its Annual Meeting scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 27, at the Maitland Jewish Community Campus. Supporters of JFGO's Campus 2020 Debt Retirement Campaign will be honored at the meeting. Yorish joined the Federation in 2013 at an...
(JNS.org)—Russian military forces have replaced the Syrian regime’s military presence in Daraa and Quneitra in southern Syria, and have built a base in the area, Syrian opposition sources reported this week. The move indicates that Russia intends to create a more permanent military presence near Israel’s northern border, and comes after the implementation of a Syrian cease-fire agreement brokered by the U.S. and Russia in July. The Lebanon-based and Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen media network corroborated the reports, stating that Russi...
The summer is coming to an end and Orlando Hadassah is gearing up for a sensational new season of exciting programs and fund raising events. The first meeting of the new season will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 5, at 11:30 a.m. at Congregation Ohev Shalom. Rabbi David Kay will bring his musical stylings to the stage with a one man show, especially created for Hadassah ladies and featuring timeless pop and rock and roll classics. Kay was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTSA) in 2002, where he also received a Master of Arts...
"Making a difference in the lives of others"-This has been my personal motto for years. That said, I am grateful that my position as a program director at The Jewish Pavilion has afforded me multiple opportunities to facilitate this motto. For me, I feel that there is something quite unique and very special when I connect with the elders. I continue to have the privilege of experiencing some truly powerful and wonderful interactions with the residents at local assisted-living, independent, rehab...
Temple Israel will continue its Shabbat Friday dinners on Sept. 8, 6:30 p.m., in the Roth Social Hall. The theme for September is “Hawaii” and called Shabbat Sh-Aloha. The dinner will be followed by a musical Shabbat service in the sanctuary. The entire community is invited to participate. The menu will include Hawaiian punch, Hawaiian haystacks, pineapple chicken, Hawaiian rolls and pineapple upside down cake. Salads and fruits will also be served. The hosts for this event will be Wayne Bilsky, VP of Membership, and his entire membership com...
The St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society will mark the 452nd anniversary of the founding of oldest European city in the U.S. with a 2-hour walking tour of Jewish St. Augustine, starting at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 8, in the shade of the trees at the southeastern corner of the parking lot at Mission Nombre de Dios, 27 Ocean Avenue, at San Marco Avenue (State Route A1A). The tour will end at First Congregation Sons of Israel, 161 Cordova Street and involves a walk of 1.5 miles. Wear sunscreen and sturdy, comfortable walking shoes and bring...
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (JTA)-The white supremacists, for all their vaunted purpose, appeared to be disoriented. Some 500 had gathered at a park here Saturday to protest this southern Virginia city's plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the park. Pressured by the American Civil Liberties Union, Charlottesville had allowed the march at Emancipation Park-or Lee Park, the protesters' preferred name. That worked for an hour or so, and then the protesters and counter...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The Palestinian Authority expects the Trump administration to commit to a peace deal endgame before the close of this month and prefers it would be the two-state solution. "We need them to tell us where the hell they are going," Husam Zomlot, the Palestine Liberation Organization envoy to Washington, said Thursday at a meeting in his office with reporters. "It's about time we hear it." Zomlot said a high-level U.S. delegation comprising Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's...
At the NAACP's annual convention in 1981, former President Ronald Reagan stated in response to racist violence: "A few isolated groups in the backwater of American life still hold perverted notions of what America is all about. Recently in some places in the nation there's been a disturbing reoccurrence of bigotry and violence." To those "who still adhere to senseless racism and religious prejudice," Reagan said this: "You are the ones who are out of step with our society. You are the ones who...
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...
Many Americans know that the sickness at the heart of our political culture stems from a spirit of intolerance that has become the keynote of discourse. Liberals blame it on President Donald Trump and his supporters. But few of us seem able to recognize this behavior when it comes from those who share our views—which means that if you think Dennis Prager must be boycotted or believe Morton Klein is as much of a threat to American Jewry as Islamist terrorists, then don’t blame Trump for how bad things have gotten. Prager, a Los Ang...
I wrote a column about the extreme left and the extreme right. I did that before Charlottesville, the chants of “Jews will not replace us” and the murder of a 32-year-old woman. Still there is some validity to the following: The late Eric Hoffer, the “Longshoreman Philosopher,” in his book “The True Believer” wrote that if you push the philosophies of the Far Left and the Far right to their extreme there is little difference between them. Picture a circle. Start at the top and take one curve and go to the left—pull it around that circle to the...
(JTA)—I was in Charlottesville on Saturday. I felt called to go because white supremacy is a hateful ideology that has murdered millions throughout history and continues to kill. I went because my family and ancestors suffered at the hands of anti-Semites throughout history, because I bear their scars on my DNA, because the Jewish day school where I teach received a bomb threat this spring, and I cannot let Nazi flags fly in my state without response. I needed to go as a rabbi because I am tired of conservative white Christians controlling t...
NEW YORK (JTA)—There was a moment in his “neo-Nazi, neo-Shmazi” news conference where you might have found yourself thinking, maybe President Trump is right. On the narrow question of who was responsible for the violence in Charlottesville, a prosecutor might note that punches were thrown by white supremacists and left-wing activists, neo-Nazis and members of the Antifa resistance. “I think there’s blame on both sides,” is how Trump put it in his news conference Tuesday in New York. It’s the right answer if this is the question: “Who threw pu...
On Aug, 11, an estimated 100 white supremacists marched through the University of Virginia campus with their tiki torches full of citronella and their hearts filled with hate. They were recorded shouting racist, anti-Semitic Nazi slogans—such as “Blood and Soil” and “Jews will not replace us.” The next day, counter protesters showed up to face the over 4,000 white supremacists who were gathered. The situation devolved into one of the saddest days for American democracy. Citizens were beating each other bloody, and the National Guard was ultimat...
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...
After a summer hiatus, Jewish Pavilion volunteer Yiddish instructors Joan Pohl and Elliot Davis welcome all to join them for a Nosh of Yiddish. Joan Pohl will be leading Yiddish class at Oakmonte Village, Royal Gardens Circle, Lake Mary (Valencia Building) beginning Wednesday, Sept. 20, at 1 p.m. and every THIRD Wednesday following. The class is open to the community. Elliot Davis will lead the Yiddish class at Brookdale Island, Lake Islander Circle, Longwood beginning Thursday, Oct. 19, 10:30 a.m. and every THIRD Thursday following. Coffee...
On Aug. 31, JFS Orlando will once again host Coffee Connections. This is a free event (reservations are requested) held at the George Wolly Center, 2100 Lee Road, Winter Park, from 8 a.m.-9 a.m., with coffee and a light breakfast served as attendees tour the new facility and learn the positive impact JFS Orlando is having in the community. To make a reservation, please call 407-644-7593...
(JTA)—A chuckle tickled my throat as Ruth Thomann, a Swiss hotelier who posted signs urging her “Jewish guests” to shower before entering the pool, assured me that she has “nothing against Jews.” To be clear, I don’t find racism particularly amusing, especially not these days. But there was something comical about how her earnest voice—she was speaking in broken English with a thick Swiss-German accent—contrasted with the glaringly discriminatory character of the laminated signs that she posted in her Paradise Apartments in Arosa hotel nea...
Israel Experts, an Israel-based tour operator with an in-house logistics team made up of highly professional experienced tour guides, has been running Birthright trips for over 16 years. The organization is currently recruiting for its winter trips. The following is a first person article from one of Israel Experts' past participants. Israel Experts asked a young man who had recently traveled through Israel on a Birthright trip, "What was you favorite part of Israel?" It's been the nonstop...
When family comes to town and it's your 95th birthday, that calls for celebration! David Fitzer was delighted to be surrounded by family, friends and community at Kabbalat Shabbat one recent Friday afternoon. His daughter contacted Jewish Pavilion program director Emily Newman to arrange for this special occasion. Fitzer enjoys the weekly Shabbat program, so it was the perfect fit to share birthday wishes with him on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. Healthy and happy birthday wishes to David! "May he...
'Confronting Anti-Semitism in America"... The following (in part) is from The Huffington Post some months ago. It is very enlightening: "No one is born hating, but, tragically, some are taught to hate, whether in the name of racial purity, religious doctrine, political dogma, ethnic stereotyping, sheer jealousy... you name it. To state the obvious, Jews have never been immune from these age-old cancers. Nor is it the case today. Recently there have been bomb threats against Jewish community cent...
(JTA)—Commenting on deadly attacks in Catalonia, the chief rabbi of that region in Spain said his community is doomed, partly because of radical Islam and the alleged reluctance of authorities to confront it. Rabbi Meir Bar-Hen has been encouraging his congregants to leave Spain, which he called during an interview with JTA a “hub of Islamist terror for all of Europe,” for years before the attacks Thursday and Friday, he said. At least 13 victims and five suspected terrorists were killed in Barcelona and the resort town of Cambrils, 75 miles...
