Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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WASHINGTON (JTA) - In his first meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Joe Biden said that although he prefers diplomatic means to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, he is not afraid to "turn to other options" on the issue. The pledge captured what both men, who are in varying degrees of political precariousness right now, hoped to extract from the meeting: A bigger focus on what they agree on than what they disagree on, and the start of a new era in relations...
(JTA) - Ed Asner, the Emmy award-winning Jewish actor who trademarked a gruff, flawed, and loving persona as Lou Grant in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and co-starred in the Pixar fan favorite animated movie "Up," has died at 91. "We are sorry to say that our beloved patriarch passed away this morning peacefully," the family said Sunday on Asner's Twitter account. "Words cannot express the sadness we feel. With a kiss on your head - Goodnight dad. We love you." Asner, who once told The Forward he...
Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation has a new student rabbi: Rabbi David Chapman, who will soon be entering his final year at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Rabbi Chapman’s journey to SOJC has a surprising starting point. Before he became a “professional Jew,” as he puts it, he had a successful career in theatre. “I worked as an assistant director on and off Broadway,” says Rabbi Chapman. “My first Broadway show was The Addams Family musical with Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. One of my favorite projects was producing PEW-ish, a night of...
Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando (JFS Orlando) and Central Florida Hillel are proud to announce a new partnership to better meet the needs of UCF students. Hillel is the center for Jewish life on the UCF campus, a home away from home for many students who see the community as their extended family. As such, in the last couple of years, Hillel has seen first-hand a significant increase in students seeking mental health counseling. Although students were referred out to the campus counseling center, Hillel saw a need for more...
Jewish Academy of Orlando has extended recess for all grades back to 45 minutes. In addition to extended recess time, lunch for all grades is 30 minutes, and a mid-morning break of 15 minutes is included in the daily schedule. In recent years, many schools have lessened the amount of time that students spend in free play. In fact, experts find that the decrease may be significantly impacting the social and emotional development of our children. Comparatively speaking, recess only became...
The Maitland Public Library was awarded a $900 grant from the Florida Humanities Council in support of a Florida Talks Speaker Series titled Calling Our Culture. This series will bring three high-quality humanities programs to Maitland in September, including Jews of Florida: Centuries of Stories, with a discussion led by Marcia Jo Zerivitz. These programs will explore our state’s rich heritage, promote civic engagement, and bring the latest academic research to our community. Funding for this program was provided by Florida Humanities and s...
The start of the Jewish New Year coincides with the start of the Federation fiscal year. With the last year being filled with so many challenges and so many successes, we are excited about what this year will bring. RAISE, our incredible work social skills and job training program for adults with special needs returns in person this fall, providing work and social skills training for adults with special needs along with 1:1 job coach support at our local agencies. If you are interested in being...
(JTA) — Israeli leaders rarely criticize a law passed by an ally government as outright “antisemitic.” But that’s what Foreign Minister Yair Lapid did on Aug. 14 in response to a newly passed law in Poland that indirectly makes it impossible for Jews and others to sue for property stolen from their families in World War II. “Poland today approved — not for the first time — an immoral, antisemitic law,” he said in a statement. Poland, which faces continual criticism throughout the European Union for its restrictive abortion and media policies,...
(JTA) — Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has asked Pope Francis to retract a recent comment about Jewish law that it said might lead Catholic listeners to “derogatory conclusions” about Jews. Rabbi Ratzon Arusi, chair of the Chief Rabbinate’s Commission for Interreligious Affairs, sent a letter to the Vatican expressing concerns about an Aug. 11 lecture there on God giving the Torah to the Jews, Reuters reported Wednesday. The Torah is the name given to the first five books of the Jewish Bible. “God offered them the Torah, the Law, so they could under...
(JNS) Three decades have passed since the Crown Heights pogrom, and any assessment of the memory of that tragic event must start with an acknowledgment that New York City is a very different place than it was in August 1991. It’s also true that the series of events that set in motion three days of violent rioting during which African-Americans targeted ultra-Orthodox Jews were complicated, as well as the result of a set of circumstances that were in some ways peculiar to that time and place. Distance from the trauma has also induced a fair amou...
This article originally appeared on Alma. A year ago, I was watching “Schitt’s Creek” with my wife. It was the last season, second to last episode, so things were already emotional. Then there was that scene. The one where David is sitting on the car with his best friend Stevie and looking at the house that his soon-to-be husband Patrick had wanted to buy for him before David had told him that they were moving to New York. Patrick, the hunky good boy that he is, had agreed to, and David was now looking at another reality he might live if he ch...
(JNS) Any notion that the worst days of Islamist terrorism are long behind us was brutally shattered at Kabul Airport on Thursday, as twin bombs ripped indiscriminately through Afghan civilians and U.S. and other foreign servicemen trying to complete the desperate evacuation of thousands of people for whom Taliban rule represents the most terrible fate. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a former U.S. national security advisor who served as deputy commander of the international force in Afghanistan, put it succinctly in the hours that followed the bloodshed...
(JNS) German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition partner, the largely pro-Iranian regime Social Democratic Party, is polling even with her Christian Democratic Union ahead of the Sept. 26 federal election. A profound insight about left-wing Jew-hatred—namely, that “antisemitism is the socialism of fools”—is frequently attributed to the German Social Democrat August Bebel (1840-1913). It still rings true regarding great swaths of German left-wingers. Over the last four years of Merkel’s fourth and last term (she is not running for re-election...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, some minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) 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. Congr...
(JTA) — The owners of a Ukrainian cafe housed in a former synagogue said they worked two lightning bolts into the logo to advertise the reenergizing qualities of the coffee there. Instead they waded into a political minefield because they ended up reproducing the symbol of the SS, Nazi Germany’s murderous elite force. On Tuesday, the owners said the whole thing “is a case of a font gone wrong” and apologized to “anyone whose feelings may have been hurt.” It was a trial that was never fully implemented, they said, and will drop the logo. Cafe...
(JTA) - Zebulon Simantov, Afghanistan's last Jew, has not left Kabul, despite the best efforts of some Jewish figures and organizations. One of them was Moshe Margaraten, a haredi Orthodox fixer whose passion is bringing Jews out of danger. Margareten paid Moti Kahana, an Israeli-American businessman who helped extract people from war-torn Syria, to be a middleman and get Simantov out - but Kahana told Margareten what many others had heard: Simantov was not leaving because of his longstanding...
Health salads - sweet and tangy slaw-like, cabbage-based salads that often include carrots, bell peppers and cucumbers - are a fixture of New York Jewish delis. They're sold by the pound in the deli case or sometimes generously arrive alongside your complimentary plate of pickles. While the dressing is typically sweetened with sugar, the purported "health" is derived from the volume of raw vegetables and the notable absence of mayonnaise. If you're from New Jersey, you may also know this dish...
If you, like me, are a regular chicken roaster, you're halfway to one of the best salad dressings out there: schmaltz vinaigrette, a tangy, savory top coat for a simple salad of mixed greens and whatever you've picked up at the farmers market. Using a warm fat, like bacon or duck fat, in a vinaigrette is a time-honored practice that works extremely well thanks to the ability of fat to emulsify with the other ingredients, creating a silky, rich dressing. Warm bacon dressing over a spinach salad...
This article originally appeared on Alma. Light spoilers ahead for "The Chair." "The Chair," Netflix's new six-part dramedy set in the English department of a fictional Ivy League school, is about a lot of things: existing as a woman of color in academia, workplace sexual tension, parenthood, grief, Sandra Oh's incredible double-breasted jackets. It's also about a casual Nazi salute - if there is such a thing - which occurs during the first episode and reverberates throughout the rest of the...
I truly love New York City … I was born in Brooklyn, one of the five boroughs of New York City … you know, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. And, I grew up there. (That should explain my weird sense of humor!) Recently, I was watching “I Love NYC” on television, a salute to a place that was on its way back from a horrible pandemic. It took place in Manhattan’s Central Park and began with a fabulous salute of music played by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Many star...
When Israel came to a standstill in March 2020 at the onset of the COVID pandemic, shops, restaurants and offices shut down as part of a nationwide lockdown. But for Israel's hungry, there was no break. On the contrary, the closure of corporate dining facilities, restaurants, hotels and military base cafeterias left them more vulnerable because suddenly there were no excess meals from these institutions to donate. For Leket, Israel's leading food rescue organization, this was an immense...
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – Hackers posting death threats, including “I’ll enter synagogues and kill everyone,” broke into the online mourning ceremony for a former Jewish school principal in Rio de Janeiro. “Death to Jews,” “I’ll explode,” “Sieg Heil” and “dirty Jews” were also part of the attack during the shiva session Sunday on Google Meet in honor of Dora Fraifeld, a beloved figure at the pluralistic Eliezer Max School for nearly 40 years. Fraifeld died last week. The hackers also used scenes of Adolf Hitler along with Nazi symbols and slo...
(JTA) — Two weeks after Mayim Bialik said being selected to host primetime specials of “Jeopardy!” was “beyond anything I ever imagined could happen,” the Jewish actress is taking on an even more prominent role on the beloved game show. Bialik is hosting the first three weeks of the regular season after Mike Richards, the producer originally selected to succeed Alex Trebek, stepped down on Friday amid a backlash over his past comments, which included offensive statements about women and Jews. Bialik is also being considered for the full-time...
Steven Farkas, 68, of Orlando, passed away at his residence on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. Mr. Farkas was born in New York on July 7, 1953, to the late Victor and Raymonde Farkas. He was a psychologist. Mr. Farkas is survived by his son, Jesse, and his brother and sister-in-law, Warren and Delores Farkas of New York. Arrangements entrusted to Beth Shalom Memorial Chapel, 640 Lee Road, Orlando FL 32810, 407-599-1180, http://www.bethshalommemorialchapel.com....
Belle Sefekar Gladstein, age 93, of Maitland, passed away peacefully at her home on Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021. Mrs. Gladstein, a native of Brooklyn, New York, was born on Dec. 23, 1927, to the late Jack and Jennie Pitilon Sefekar. She was a high school graduate and a homemaker. She was married to her late husband, Jerome, for 70 years, when he passed away in April 2021. Mrs. Gladstein is survived by her daughter, Lois (Robert) Palis of Maitland and her son Robert (Jovina) Gladstein of Phoenix, Ariz. A funeral for the family was held at Beth...
