Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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PITTSBURGH (JTA)-An art installation consisting of works submitted by children from around the world was unveiled at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. "#Hearts Together: The Art of Rebuilding" features 101 works of art printed on canvas that are wrapped around the synagogue building in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Among those who submitted the art were children from Columbine, Colorado; Newtown, Connecticut; and Parkland, Florida-all sites of mass shootings. The works were selected...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-The morning after Israel's second national election in five months, the results are still unclear. According to the latest vote count, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trailing his rival, Benny Gantz, by the slimmest of margins: The incumbent's Likud and the challenger's Blue and White remain within a seat of each other. More important, neither candidate appears able to form a governing coalition outright with allies on the right or the left. In the 120-seat Knesset, the...
RAISE, the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando's work and social skills training program for adults with special needs has unveiled two new logos. Both can be seen on RAISE's Facebook page. One logo will be used for the local ongoing program and the other, designated "RAISE on the Road," will be used as RAISE begins to market this unique and successful concept to other Jewish communities across the country. The new logo for the RAISE program was designed by the senior graphic designer of ASD...
(JNS)-Blue and White leader Benny Gantz rejected Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's call to join a unity government under the Likud leader's leadership, stating that he would be prime minister of a potential unity government. "I am interested [in] and intend to form a broad, liberal unity government under my leadership," Gantz said in a statement ahead of Blue and White's first faction meeting since the elections. "To form a unity government you do not come forward with political blocs and...
Jewish Academy of Orlando grows with new students, new teachers, and a new grade level. While most of the growth came in the lower grades, the upper grades showed marked growth as well. Head of School Alan Rusonik said, "We are grateful for these positive trends and look forward to building on this momentum." Part of the growth came from the addition of the school's newest grade, Transitional Kindergarten. This inaugural class was welcomed to the school this school year. Rusonik said, "We are...
After the success of last year's tour of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, Fellowship Church will once again, present a replica of the Tabernacle that was built while the children of Israel were in the wilderness for 40 years. This year, members of Fellowship built a nearly full-size model of the tent, the furnishings inside, the altar in the outer court, and the fabric 'wall' surrounding the Tabernacle. Beginning the first day of Sukkot, Monday, Oct. 14, and running through Saturday, Oct. 19,...
The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida, in partnership with the Central Florida Urban League and Rotary Club of Maitland, proudly presents “Letters From Anne & Martin” on Oct. 5 and 6. Born in the same year on continents over 5,000 miles apart, Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. shared parallel experiences of hatred and prejudice yet persevered to tell timeless stories. Using passages from Anne Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl” and Martin Luther King’s “Letters From Birmingham Jail,” this live dramatic performance brings...
The RAISE program for adults with special needs is now accepting online applications for employees. RAISE is a 6- to 12-month work and social skills training program for adults with special needs offered through the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando. RAISE provides paid employment at several partnering agencies. If you know of someone who may benefit from RAISE, please apply online at https://orlandojewishfed.org/raise/#employee....
(JTA)-Cokie Roberts, a pioneering journalist who with her husband wrote an interfaith Haggadah and published a book about their interfaith marriage, has died. Roberts was one of the few female voices on the air when she began in the 1970s and won several prestigious awards for her work, including an Emmy. She was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in 2008. Roberts died Tuesday in Washington, D.C., at 75 from complications of breast cancer, the family said in a statement. She...
NEW YORK (JTA)—Sitting at the front of a large room lined floor to ceiling with Jewish holy books, Rabbi Joseph Beyda’s voice broke as he processed, seemingly in real time, the idea that a trusted teacher had preyed on his students. “I think the overarching feeling of the administrators and the faculty and the board of the school is, we know you trust us, we take that trust very deeply, we dedicate our lives to it, we failed on this,” said Beyda, the principal of the Yeshivah of Flatbush’s Joel Braverman High School. “You could say it’s not our...
(JTA)—A new board member of The Women’s March who has disparaged Israel and the FBI on Twitter was voted off two days after she was appointed. “Zahra Billoo has been removed from board membership effective immediately,” the board posted Wednesday on Twitter. “We found some of her public statements incompatible with the values and mission of the organization. Women’s March will continue to build an inclusive and effective movement that holds space for all women.” Billoo is a lawyer who serves as executive director of the San Francisco Bay...
(JTA)—The New York Police Department said it will increase its presence in Jewish neighborhoods before and during the High Holidays. Increased foot patrols and specialized units such as counterterrorism teams will be deployed throughout the communities, Commissioner James O’Neill announced Wednesday. He said not all of them would be identifiable. The NYPD has reported a 63 percent rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes throughout the city this year. Brooklyn’s heavily Jewish neighborhoods have seen a slew of attacks on visibly Jewish people over...
(JNS)—When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted his supporters at Likud Party campaign headquarters on Tuesday evening, his demeanor as much as his words made the outcome of the vote clear to everyone. While he neither claimed victory nor conceded defeat, his body language screamed that he knew that he had not won. His talk of working for the creation of a “Zionist” government rather than the “right-wing” coalition that he pledged to build in April when he thought he had triumphed was telling. There will be no Likud-led coalition...
(Jewish Journal via JNS)—In the midst of all the promises of “coalitions” after the razor-close Israeli elections, who’s doing the actual math? On one side, you have a right-wing bloc that maxes out at 56 seats, and on the other, a center-left bloc that maxes out at 53 seats, both of them agonizingly short of the magic number of 61. Forget all the fancy analyses—right now, all that matters are those numbers. A desperate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must surely be losing sleep over his missing five seats, which would allow him to stay on t...
The days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are devoted not only to examining our relationship with God, but also to self-reflection and our relationship with others. Our tradition, developed over more than three thousand years, has created a rich narrative of prayers and readings which, selectively are an integral part of synagogue services for all denominations. Included in the High Holiday liturgy is the retelling of our rich history from the rituals and pageantry of the High Priest in the Holy Temple to our religious experiences throughout the...
PENN YAN, N.Y. (JTA)—With refineries ablaze in Saudi Arabia, you might be forgiven if you forget that in the Amazon and Indonesia, forests are ablaze as well. Yet these two conflagrations are not unconnected. As ever, ecological crises and geopolitical crises are deeply intertwined—and the universal interest of the global community is threatened by the narrow interests of particular individuals, groups and nations. The central debate that has raged among free-marketeers, scientists and policymakers since the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969 is w...
MONTREAL (JTA)—Picking through gefilte fish in the kosher department, searching for the freshest packages, I think of my Grandma Fanny. She made her gefilte fish from scratch, lovingly combining the cod, whitefish, pike and whatever other secret ingredients she threw in that made it so good. “This is delicious,” my brother’s roommate remarked one year. “I’ve never even heard of a gefilte fish before.” When my grandmother hosted Rosh Hashanah, it was an affair. There could be upward of 25 people around the table, which would be set with the...
By Sasha Chernyak (JNS)—How does one distinguish anti-Semitism from legitimate criticism of Israel? The answer is rather simple: One can criticize Israel and its government just as one would any other nation and its government. Far too often, however, Israel is relentlessly demonized on college campuses, which frequently devolves into harassment of Jewish and pro-Israel students. Anti-Israel advocates decry the putative evils of Israel and endlessly pontificate, as if Israel were the source of the entire world’s evil. Unsurprisingly, this set...
Dear Editor: Thank you for publishing the story by Josh Hasten, “In remembering 1929 Hebron Massacre, top Israeli leaders visit...and make history” (Sept. 13, 2019 issue). The article explains how in August 1929, “67 Jews were murdered by an Arab lynch mob over the course of three days while their homes and synagogues were destroyed.” Understanding the 1929 Hebron Massacre will bring the rise in anti-Semitism today into a more precise focus. The “Arab Lynch Mob,” defined as the culprits of the massacre, was an Arab Muslim mob manufacture...
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. Tem...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Explosions earlier this week at two Hamas police checkpoints in Gaza City left three policemen dead. But it wasn’t Israel that planted the explosives, as many might have suspected. Hamas says it was Islamic State suicide bombers. A day after the deadly attacks, Hamas began mass arrests of supporters of Islamic State and other Salafist organizations in the Gaza Strip. It’s not the first time that Hamas and members of the Islamic State, or ISIS, have clashed in recent years. Israel and the United States consider both Hamas and I...
(JTA)-A Rosh Hashanah apple cake bake-off fit for reality television and another installment in the Scarlet and Sam series from the award-winning author Eric A. Kimmel are among the highlights in the crop of new High Holiday books for children. Six engaging and fun reads for kids of all ages seize the spirit of the Jewish holidays and the excitement and anticipation of beginning anew, reflecting on the past, and celebrating the warmth and joy of Jewish traditions with family and friends. Kimmel'...
Temple Israel's L'Dor v'Dor youth group for students in second through fifth grade put tikkun olam into action by learning about composting during their first activity of the school year on Sunday, Sept. 8. The group, which is open to MAGAL religious school students from Temple Israel, Temple Shir Shalom, and Congregation Beth Am, meets every other month after Sunday religious school to focus on community concerns, Jewish heritage, and simply socializing with friends. After reading the PJ...
It was an easy decision to honor Denise Beumer at the Jewish Pavilion's annual Gems and Jeans Gala on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2019. One by one you see the smiles begin as the residents of Savannah Court & Cove of Maitland see Beumer enter the room. Beumer has just been visiting residents on another floor and now is ready to play games. The smile on Beumer's face shows her love and appreciation of the residents with whom she shares her time. She is ready to let the games begin. While vice president of...
"I'm going to cut right to the chase"... (Directly from the Simon Wiesenthal Center): "The crisis of burgeoning anti-Semitism in Europe is raising questions about how long the vibrant Jewish communities can survive on the continent. From Scandinavia, to the United Kingdom, to France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, European Jews are standing at the edge of a dangerous precipice. Here are but a few of the recent anti-Semitic incidents: In Vishy, Sweden, several members of the neo Nazi...
