Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA)-The Jewish community in Houston has seen "devastating" damage from Hurricane Harvey and could take years to recover, a federation official said. "Recovery like this-it is a disaster larger than Katrina in terms of the amount of water that fell-we're going to have short- and long-term recovery plans, but this is probably going to take us years to get back to where we were," said Taryn Baranowski, the chief marketing officer for the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston. Seventy-one percent... Full story
There is a hauntingly solemn-yes not to be missed-art exhibit opening at the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center on Sept. 10. The works were created by St. Petersburg artist Judith Dazzio. What makes this exhibit so unique is that Dazzio painted these pieces as a result of hearing a Holocaust Survivor's personal story in her sixth-grade class. Her story stayed with Dazzio throughout her life. An adult now, she recalls, "I can still see the numbers on her arms. I can see her holding... Full story
JFS Orlando has been in contact with its colleagues at Jewish Family Services in Houston. Despite difficult conditions, emergency officials are working to assess the damage that has already left hundreds of thousands of people without power or access to food and water and shut down municipal services, highways, schools and community institutions. JFS Houston is the lead organization providing relief services to the Jewish community. “The unprecedented hurricane and subsequent flooding of Houston and the surrounding areas have been severe and is... Full story
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippor are just a few weeks away and Chanukah is fast approaching. There will not be a new Chanukah stamp this year. This means local post offices will not be getting Chanukah stamps automatically. They will have to order them. If you want to buy Chanukah stamps this year, now is the time for you to go to your local post office and ask to speak to the person who orders stamp supplies. Tell him/her to order Chanukah stamps now so they will have them in time for the... Full story
College years go by fast. Once it's all said and done, the only thing we leave campus with is a degree in hand and the memories we made. With Chabad, it can be more than that. You will be able to leave college with a feeling of impact and fulfillment that you won't find anywhere else. Here are 10 reasons to want to go to Chabad on Campus: 1) Fantastic people-Some of the greatest people you'll meet and friendships you'll make in college will happen at Chabad. From the second you walk in for the... Full story
Jewish National Fund is set to host this year’s National Conference in South Florida at The Diplomat Resort and Spa from Nov. 10-13. JNF’s annual Conference brings together over a thousand committed leaders, philanthropists, young professionals, college students, and high school students from across the country and Israel for an impactful three-day experience to learn about the key issues of the day facing Israel and the world Jewish community. “This is a fabulous opportunity to hear directly from those on the ground making a difference for,... Full story
A worldwide registry of Sukkahs has been set up, and is listed online at www.localsukkah.org. The directory has been designed for Jews to locate a Sukkah near to them, so that they can go there to eat. The idea of this service is not to list every Sukkah, but to try and have a Sukkah listed for every area in which Jewish people may find themselves during Sukkos. The main focus of this service is to enable people who work on Chol-Hamoed to eat lunch in a Sukkah, which is close to their place of work. As all listings are confirmed annually prior... Full story
(JTA)-As Hurricane Harvey bore down on Houston Friday, Vicki Samuels Levy dashed over to the offices of the Houston Jewish Herald-Voice, took the proofs of this week's newspaper and went to her mother's house. Then mother and daughter spent all night editing the paper. And as the waters rose and they had to be evacuated to a neighbor's house the next day, the proofs were in hand, ready for the printer. "We want to help each other as family members, then we have to stop and do things for the... Full story
Two teams of Israeli aid experts are on their way to Texas to provide vital relief and psychosocial support to the thousands of people who have lost everything in the catastrophic Tropical Storm Harvey. The storm, which first hit Texas on Sunday and continues to plague the beleaguered state with pounding rain, has left nine dead, and tens of thousands of people homeless as flood waters have poured through city streets in Houston, the fourth-largest city in the United States. The storm is thought... Full story
Billy Joel’s decision to sport a yellow star on the front and back of his jacket during a concert this week was a nod to history that the singer may not have been aware of. The venue for the concert, New York City’s Madison Square Garden, was the site of pro- and anti-Nazi rallies during the World War II. In February 1939, as Europe teetered on the edge of war, 22,000 Nazi sympathizers gathered at the Garden for a rally organized by the German American Bund, during which swastika flags flew alongside a portrait of George Washington. “St... Full story
As a member of Houston’s Jewish community writing about a devastating flood for the third time since May 2015, I’m at a loss for words. Sitting in the comforts of my third-floor apartment, where I’m fortunate enough to view the unprecedented waters of Hurricane Harvey as a spectator, it feels trite to be putting on my “journalist’s hat” while countless others are either suffering or contributing to relief efforts. Yet as I’ve concluded in these situations before, the written word is a crucial part of the healing process when a natural disaster... Full story
The U.S. government’s reluctance to demand the immediate creation of a Palestinian state has sent J Street into a panic. With its candidates having been defeated in elections on both sides of the ocean, and its proposals crumbling in the face of reality, J Street is trying one last desperate strategy: rewriting history so that it appears Palestinian statehood has been supported by everybody, everywhere, for as long as anyone can remember. Asked by reporters Aug. 24 about the Palestinian state issue, State Department spokeswoman Heather N... Full story
MADISON, Wis. (JTA)—In March, the Israeli Knesset passed a law that denies entry to foreigners who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS. At the time, the law felt so insidious because it introduced a political litmus test designed to exclude those who object to Israel’s policies. It served to stifle legitimate political debate. But it was all so theoretical. Until last month, that is, when Rabbi Alissa Shira Wise, who was part of an interfaith delegation that had planned to meet with Israeli and Palestinian peace act... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)—In July, five leaders of the virulent BDS groups Jewish Voice for Peace and American Muslims for Palestine were barred at Dulles International Airport from boarding a flight to Israel. The move reportedly was the result of an amendment to Israel’s Law of Entry denying admission of senior activists of leading BDS organizations to the country. Predictably, the incident raised the usual hysterical chorus that Israel was attacking free speech, banning dissent and no longer a democracy. Despite these exaggerated charges, the dec... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—French historian Pierre Nora spent his life describing and explaining “places of memory,” sites commemorating significant moments in the history of a community that continue to resonate and transform from generation to generation. For the French Republic, the Arc de Triomphe is one such “place of memory.” Begun by Napoleon and completed in 1836, the Arc is a place of French pride and memory, where war dead from the Revolution to the present are recalled and military triumph exalted. Part of the power of this central place of... 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 I... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Israel's defense minister reignited the emotional national debate over what price the country should be willing to pay for the return of kidnapped soldiers, particularly the bodies of those who have been killed. Avigdor Liberman said Sunday that Israel must not repeat the "mistake" of the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal, in which it released more than 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for the return of its soldier from Hamas. The argument, which never really ends here, was... Full story
(JTA)-Ahead of the 120th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress that Theodor Herzl organized in Switzerland, 120 men and women named for him gathered in Herzliya to celebrate his legacy. On Aug. 29, 1897, Herzl, a journalist who was born in what today is Hungary, convened in the city of Basel some 200 participants from 17 countries, including 69 delegates from various Zionist societies. The gathering, the first of its kind in terms of scale, is widely regarded as a watershed in the effort to... Full story
Something to think about... I read this on Facebook. It was posted by our own ALAN ROCK: This was a line from the mouth of Thomas Jefferson: "When the speech condemns a free press, you are hearing the words of a tyrant." (Nuff said!) From Ben-Gurion University of the Negev... "Sometimes it's easy to forget what a miracle today's Israel is. Everywhere you look, you see a modern, vibrant, thriving nation with more promise than imagination could have conceived a few decades ago. And Israel's... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Bryn Mawr College in suburban Philadelphia said it will place a yearlong "moratorium" on the use of the name of a founder and past president who was a known anti-Semite. The name of the library and great hall are named for M. Carey Thomas, who served as the private college's president from 1894 to 1922. According to biographer Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, Thomas prevented the hiring of Jewish teachers at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, and later made sure she was not dealing with... Full story
A leading Palestinian newspaper published an account on Monday of a tense encounter between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and US President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner in Ramallah last week. Al-Quds, a Jerusalem-based newspaper that is close to the PA, reported that Kushner had raised the issue of the so-called "martyr payments" made to convicted terrorists and their families-a policy dubbed "pay to slay" that costs the PA more than $300 million annu... Full story
(JTA)-The Nazi punching debate (is it OK to punch a Nazi?) went viral in January after a liberal protester slugged white supremacist Richard Spencer in the face during President Donald Trump's inauguration. But whether it's OK to confront hatred with violence is not a new topic of conversation. The question was debated in the 1930s among American Jews, who were faced with both the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and Nazi sympathizers at home. One hotbed for the debate was Newark, New Jersey,... Full story
Despite 1,300 years of Muslim Arab rule, Jerusalem was never the capital of an Arab entity, nor was it ever mentioned in the Palestine Liberation Organization’s covenant until Israel regained control of East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967. Overall, the role of Jerusalem in Islam is best understood as the outcome of political exigencies impacting on religious belief. Mohammed, who founded Islam in 622 CE, was born and raised in present-day Saudi Arabia; he never set foot in Jerusalem. His connection to the city came years after his d... Full story
The story I am about to tell is real, happened to me, and I am glad to share both as a way to praise God for His mercy and grace, and to share a uniquely Israeli and Jewish perspective on a story that may not be so unique in general. It is in every way a Shabbat miracle for which I will forever be profoundly grateful. Shabbat, complete day of rest. The Torah lists 39 forms of work that were used to build the Tabernacle. Observance of Shabbat means a full avoidance of all these, and the modern... Full story
Hillary Clinton says Bernie Sanders attacks on her led to Trump victory (JTA)—Hillary Clinton blamed attacks against her by Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary for president on her eventual loss in the general election to Donald Trump. In excerpts from Clinton’s forthcoming book “What Happened,” the former secretary of state wrote that the attacks by Sanders, a Vermont senator, caused “lasting damage” and were instrumental in “paving the way for Trump’s Crooked Hillary campaign.” The book is scheduled to be released on Sept. 12, but Cl... Full story
