Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Congregation Ohev Shalom is proud to announce this year’s Simchat Torah honorees. They will be honored during our Simchat Torah services on Friday, Sept. 27, 2013 beginning at 9:30 a.m. A Kiddush luncheon sponsored by the Barry & Vivian Woods Funds and The Congregation will follow the service. This year’s Kalat Torah, called to the Torah for the last reading of the book of Deuteronomy, is Irwin Feldman. The award is presented annually for long-term service and participation in the community’s an...
Free bagel breakfast and live entertainment will be enjoyed at the Fall Festival and Walk at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 27 at Crane’s Roost Park in Altamonte Springs. The festivities will include activities for children such as face-painting, bounce house, clowns, a health fair, vendors, a walk and more. Proceeds benefit the Jewish Pavilion. The Pavilion ensures that our elders in long-term care are visited and enjoy holiday celebrations, intergenerational activities and ice cream socials. P...
Jewish Family Services Orlando (JFS Orlando), a nonprofit, human service agency, has joined forces with Orlando area synagogues and Jewish agencies for the communitywide High Holidays 2013 food drive to combat hunger in Central Florida. Local synagogues, agencies and their members will collect nonperishable food items during the High Holidays season in support of JFS Orlando’s 2013 High Holiday food drive. With the support of Winn-Dixie, JFS is supplying each synagogue and Jewish agency with paper grocery bags available for their members to t...
Nineteen teens gathered Aug. 18 at the Roth Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando to kick off the school year with a paint war. Club Tayarim, a new JCC program, is open to 6th-8th-grade students throughout the community for social, Judaic and community service programs. “Club Tayarim is the Orlando Jewish community’s middle school program. It’s open to everyone and the participants actually choose their own activities and outings. Our goal is to strengthen Orlando’s Jewish, middle school...
The opening meeting of the Orlando chapter of Hadassah was held Aug. 27 at Congregation Ohev Shalom, and it was a tribute to Bunny Rosen for her lifetime of service to Hadassah. “Bunny Rosen is the heart of the Orlando chapter,” said Emily Rotenberg, chapter president. “We, the members, pay tribute to her today, for all she does to keep the organization running smoothly.” Rosen oversees every aspect of the monthly meetings, awards brunch, the donor luncheon and Youth Aliyah Fashion Show. S...
Back in 1976, when the burgeoning punk movement began transforming the rock ’n’ roll landscapes of London and New York, a young man named John Lydon scrawled the words “I Hate...” on his Pink Floyd t-shirt. With this one stroke, Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, the lead singer of The Sex Pistols, demarcated the past from the future: eschewing the lengthy and ponderous compositions of Floyd’s front man, Roger Waters, Rotten and his mates set about delivering sharp, angry tunes in a compact three-minute format. Almost 40 years later, popular music has...
Much attention, here and elsewhere, is given to encouraging American Jews to have a deeper understanding of contemporary Israel, in all its complexity, as a country that is seen by much of the world as Goliath while it perceives itself as David. But for all of our emphasis on the importance of the relationship between diaspora and Israeli Jews, our Mideast cousins get a pass; there is far too little focus on the responsibility of Israeli Jews to know us better. In truth, most Israelis have little understanding or appreciation of the diversity...
I don’t know, maybe it is age, but the years roll around awfully fast (yeah, it’s age). Was it a full year ago we were preparing for the High Holy Days? OK, so we know that Jewish holidays are never “on time.” “Oy! Didn’t Yom Kippur come early this year?” “Passover is when? Too late this year!” The drill is the same. Ten days to figure out whom you really wronged over the past year and make amends. That is highly subjective. Did I really wrong him? “Ah—he deserved it and besides he wouldn’t even notice!” That’s not the idea and he probably di...
LOS ANGELES—The holiest days on the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, are largely spent in synagogue. Yet prayer isn’t usually the focus when Jews prepare for the High Holidays, observes Cantor Arik Wollheim. “Hopefully people go through this process of repentance, and they give charity, but what about prayer?” Wollheim tells JNS.org. “People neglect that. How many people open the prayer book before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and go over the davening?” The answer, Wollheim says, is almost no one. But he is looking to change that...
By Dore Gold JNS.org On Israel’s popular morning radio station, Reshet Bet, broadcaster Aryeh Golan recently interviewed Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin about the latest demands by the European Union (EU), that its research and development grants not be applied to territories beyond the 1967 lines. Since mid-July, there have been reports of new EU guidelines that are expected to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2014, and are to apply to grants, prizes, and other financial instruments to Israeli bodies. Reflecting some of the growing rage in I...
(JTA)—Everyone knows that an ocean separates Israel and the United States. Yet after three days in New York recently, I realized just how big that ocean really is. Along with five Israeli journalists, I participated in a seminar organized by the Ruderman Family Foundation meant to help us understand the diverse U.S. Jewish community. But as we met with more and more Jewish leaders whose Judaism is their passion—and for some their profession—I realized just how wide and absurd the gap is between American Jewry and Israel. We met two kinds of Jew...
MORNING AND EVENING MINYANS (Call synagogue to confirm time.) Chabad of South Orlando—Monday and Thursday, 8 a.m. 407-354-3660. Congregation Ahavas Yisrael—Monday - Friday, 7 a.m.; Sunday, 8 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 Israel—Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-647-3055. FRIDAY, AUGUST 30 Light Shabbat candles at 7:32 p.m....
While most people believe that Rosh Hashanah begins on Sept. 4, it has already started for the Jewish Pavilion, which is responsible for visiting our elders in 54 facilities in greater Orlando. Emily Newman, a program director for the Jewish Pavilion, kicked off the festivities at a Shabbat/ New Year’s dinner where apples and honey were served, and residents received Jewish calendars compliments of Beth Shalom Memorial Chapel....
Rebecca Gaeser of Altamonte Springs, passed away peacefully on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2013. She was 98 years old. Mrs. Gaeser was born in Johnston, S.C. on April 7, 1915 to the late Sam and Mary Wolf. She was predeceased by her devoted husband of 50 years, Harold Gaeser, and her brother and two sisters. Rebecca and Harold were longtime residents of Williston, S.C., where they raised their family and owned Harold’s Dept. Store. In 1989, she moved to the Orlando area. Mrs. Gaeser was a member of t...
Susi Ross of Winter Springs, passed away on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2013 at Florida Hospital – Altamonte. She was 77 years old. Born in Vienna, Austria on April 21, 1936, she escaped the Holocaust with her mother and father when she was two years old, settling in New York. She relocated to the Orlando area in 1958. Mrs. Ross was a homemaker and world-renowned tournament bridge player. She was predeceased by her husband, Harry Ross, with whom she traveled all over the world playing in bridge tournaments, and her daughter Sheri Dawne Katz-Keshishian. M...
We are very proud to say that Orlando has not forgotten our frail and infirmed. We bring joy and tradition to all we visit! Imagine what it would be like to lose your health, your spouse, your friends and your home. No one wants to grow old alone! The Jewish Pavilion is a life-line for the elderly in long-term care. The Jewish Pavilion is not a building, it’s a promise to our elderly that they will not be forgotten by the community. We are an outreach organization that functions like a Jewish n...
Forty years ago, on Rosh Hashanah, Jewish families across the country and around the world gathered around their dinner tables, dipping apples into honey, to usher in the new year of 5734. Here in Orlando, the families sitting down for conversation around the holiday table had another reason to celebrate—the Jewish community had just completed its first successful summer camp season at the JCC. It’s incredible to reflect upon how far we’ve come in 40 years. What started out in Maitland as a tin...
“There, but for the grace of God...” My late mom’s family fled the pogroms from the Ukraine to Canada where my mom was born in Montreal. My dad’s family came from Poland to New York City where he was born in Brooklyn. Each family unit (not including my great aunts, uncles, first, second and third cousins, unfortunately) got out of hell before the devil, Adolph Hitler, was even born. I was spared only because of the location of my birth here in the U.S., as were many of you. The world must ne...
I’m so proud to be the executive director of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida. By using the history and lessons of the Holocaust as the foundation for all of our programs, we are helping our Central Florida community better understand the meaning of prejudice and racism, of discrimination and anti-Semitism, of terror and violence, and of indifference and insensitivity. Just since last September we have touched more than 20,000 students, teachers and museum v...
Celebrating our 35th year, Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando is proud to serve the Central Florida community and positively affect the lives of thousands of individuals and families. Providing professional guidance in a caring and confidential environment, JFS’ unique ability to help those in need is demonstrated throughout a full range of programs and services. Our cultural and religious tenets, shared from one generation to the next, affirm our obligation to feed the hungry, guide those who need support and strengthen lives to meet th...
Shalom Friends, On behalf of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, we want to express our best wishes to you and your family for a sweet New Year 5774. According to Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the world, and this is where our calendar begins. On this day, we are expected to conceive a plan, engage in a vision of the future, have ambition and desire to take an active part in the shaping of our future. And as we do on any birthday, we make wishes for the coming year....
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—On Yom Kippur, when we beat our chests during the confession, maybe we should be knocking instead on our heads. After all, isn’t that where all the trouble starts? On this most physically demanding of Jewish days, Jewish tradition has us beat the heart side of our chests, as if to say this is the source of our falling short. During the Viddui—the confessional portion of the service composed of the Ashamnu and Al Chait—some of us tap, some of us rap, some of us pound really...
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Israel’s religious services minister, Naftali Bennett, has unveiled a temporary platform for non-Orthodox prayer at Robinson’s Arch, the archaeological site adjacent to the Western Wall plaza used by egalitarian groups. The platform, which will include Torah scrolls, prayer books and prayer shawls and be open at all hours, does not reach the Western Wall itself. A ramp leads from the 4,800-square-foot platform to a smaller area adjacent to the wall. Bennett’s office described the new platform “as an interim but primary place of...
NEW YORK (JTA)—A deep spiritual life is hard to find. While opportunities abound for spiritual connections (yoga, meditation, retreats and the like), for most of us it doesn’t come easy. The noise, unfinished to-do lists and the distractions of everyday life interfere with quieting our minds, letting go of our egos for a moment and connecting to something far greater than ourselves. On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we notice just how difficult it is to connect spiritually. As we log in hou...
