Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida announced via a webinar held Oct. 1, that it has partnered with USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education to be a content and creative partner in the development of the new Holocaust museum to be located in downtown Orlando. This marks the first time USC Shoah Foundation, a world leader in testimony-based research, education and interactive experiences, has teamed with a Holocaust museum to design, develop...
(JNS) - California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would make ethnic-studies courses a high school graduation requirement. Newsom, a Democrat, cited the ongoing pushback over the curriculum for why he vetoed the measure, AB-331. "I value the role ethnic studies plays in helping students think critically about our history and understand the experience of marginalized communities in our state," he wrote in his veto message. "This academic discipline will help prepare our young adults to...
Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando, in partnership with the TOP Jewish Foundation and the Jewish Capital Alliance, is excited to announce the launch of a new financial assistance program called “JFS Orlando CARES.” Dedicated to providing relief to those severely impacted financially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the program will provide $500,000 in emergency rental assistance. The program, a reimbursable Housing and Community Development grant awarded to JFS as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also kno...
(JTA) – One New York City private Jewish high school shut down Monday after two students in 11th grade and two students in 12th grade tested positive. Several students in the younger grades exhibited symptoms. In a boys’ yeshiva high school in New Jersey’s Bergen County, a suspected COVID case in an 11th grader sent the entire grade home for quarantine. In Long Island, approximately 15 to 20 families were asked by one school to quarantine after they were found to have attended a wedding of about 200 people. “We spent a lot of time, energy...
"We are doing our annual gala auction online this year because it's the best choice we have. We're just not going to lose sight of helping our seniors, no matter what," said Shirley Schoenberg, co-chairwoman of this year's "Ungala" event sponsored by the Jewish Pavilion. The highly anticipated annual fall fundraiser has moved online this year - the first time in the event's 13-year history. Participants won't have to leave the comfort of their living room to win the auction's most popular...
Beginning at the end of the month, Chabad in Metro Orlando will be offering a new six-session course from the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, titled Secrets of the Bible: Iconic Stories, Mystical Meanings, and Their Lessons for Life. Chabad of North Orlando's classes will begin on Tuesday, Oct. 27 from 7:30 p.m. – 9 p.m., and held at Nate's Shul, 1701 Markham Woods Rd., Longwood FL, 32779. Interested students may visit www.myJLI.com to find the closest class, for registration and for other c...
For many, the recognition that a loved one is having trouble with their memory is scary and frightening. They are not alone. More than 5 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer’s. An estimated 5.8 million Americans age 65 and older in 2020 were living with some form of dementia. One in 10 people age 65 and older (10 percent) has Alzheimer’s dementia. “Everyone in the family is impacted with the knowledge that a family member’s memory is slipping. The news can be devastating. First we minimize or deny it, then the family rallies to compens...
(NY Jewish Week via JTA) — Students at Columbia University have passed a first-ever referendum to boycott and divest from companies that “profit from or engage in the State of Israel’s acts towards Palestinians.” The news was released to the Columbia student body via email Tuesday morning, the day after the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. According to the vote results shared with The Jewish Week, 61 percent of undergraduates who weighed in (1,081 votes) voted in favor of the referendum, 27 percent (485 votes) voted against it, and 11 percent...
(JNS) — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has withdrawn from being a speaker at an upcoming Americans for Peace Now event memorializing Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who was assassinated by a Jewish extremist almost 25 years ago for his efforts to make peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. “We are sorry to hear that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez will no longer be speaking at our Oct. 20 Yitzhak Rabin memorial,” APN president Hadar Susskind told JTA on Saturday. “Her participation would have added to the event.” On Sept. 24,...
(JTA) — The University of Illinois student government included a call for divestment from companies that do business with Israel as part of a resolution in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The university’s Office of Student Affairs condemned the nonbinding resolution, which passed last week in a 22-11 vote with seven abstentions. “It is unfortunate that a resolution before the group tonight was designed to force students who oppose efforts to divest from Israel to also vote against support for the Black Lives Matter movement,” the Of...
(JNS) — He did it again. When presented at the first presidential debate of 2020 with another opportunity to make a straightforward condemnation of white supremacists, he refused. Or at least that’s what many headlines screamed the next morning after the train wreck of a debate that was held in Cleveland. The responses from liberal Jewish groups and most of the chattering classes were angry. According to them, Trump had dog-whistled to extremists and made it clear that he was on the side of the neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and the Proud Boy...
In just a few days time the Senate Judiciary Committee and then the Senate will convene to begin its constitutional mandate to debate and vote on the confirmation of President Trump’s nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, for the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This will be the third nominee to come before the Senate during the Trump Administration. Two previous confirmation hearings have been held by the Senate Judiciary Committee, respectively for Associate Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. K...
The Zionist Organization of America, the country’s oldest pro-Israel organization, has demanded that the Anti-Defamation League speak out against Joe Biden for comparing President Donald Trump to a Nazi leader. Biden compared Trump to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels on Saturday during an interview on MSNBC. It was the second time he has done so. (Biden also used antisemitic language in 2014, referring to predatory lenders as “Shylocks”) The Republican Jewish Coalition demanded that Biden apologize, as did retired Democrat state legis...
In the Sept. 18, 2020, edition of the Heritage Florida Jewish News, there was a viewpoint article by Rabbi Sanford Olshansky title “President Trump: Pandemic Warrior.” While I understand that Rabbi Olshansky as a member of the National Leadership Circle of the Republican Jewish Coalition feels that he needs to defend the president’s actions, I respectfully disagree with most of the statements in his article. In this short letter I will only focus on his comments with respect to COVID-19, and in the interest of brevity on only a few. His argum...
(JNS) — There is clearly no limit to the depths of moral perversity that the enemies of President Donald Trump are prepared to plumb, not least within America’s Jewish community. The Jewish Democratic Council of America has released a new campaign ad aimed at Jewish voters in swing states that compares Trump’s presidency to the rise of fascism in Germany. The ad features parallel images of anti-Semitism and nationalism in Nazi Germany and today’s America. There are images of anti-Semitic graffiti from 1930s Germany, along with similar attacks...
Dear Editor: While President Trump has done some good things for Israel, on the whole he has actually made the region more dangerous. A recent example is that two days after the White House signing of the diplomatic accord between Israel and the UAE, the UN Security Council voted against the motion to extend the 13-year-old embargo on arms trade with Iran. This embargo had been very important for Israel’s security as well as that of U.S. Arab allies. This issue, once supported by most democratic countries was defeated. Only the Dominican R...
Dear Editor: After reading the article by Sandi Solomon, I am amazed about how much tripe was written by her about our current President. (Heritage Florida Jewish News, Sept. 25, 2020). I find President Trump to be vile, vicious, dishonest, degrading, corrupt, and despicable and should not be allowed four more years in the White House. Mr. Trump degrades women as proven prior to his election four years ago by evidence of a lewd video conversation in 2005. He has had to defend himself on numerous occasions from several women over alleged sexual...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, all minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) 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...
(JNS) — More than 160 U.S. House Democrats voted on Sept. 16 against an amendment to combat anti-Semitism. The Republican-offered measure was added to a Democrat-backed bill, the Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act, which would allow for the filing of private civil suits for breaches of federal rules that “prohibit discrimination on the ground of race, color or national origin in programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance.” The amendment, which was sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and would require that anti-...
(JNS) - Jewish groups expressed mixed reactions to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement on Sept. 26 that he has nominated U.S. Seventh Circuit Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court. Ginsburg, a heralded liberal judicial, feminist and Jewish icon who was the second woman to serve on the nation's highest court, died on Sept. 18 at the age of 87 from "complications of metastatic pancreas cancer," according to a statement from the...
To promote the upcoming Jewish Pavilion “Gems and Jeans” auction Oct. 18-23, Marlene Adler, chairwoman of the board of directors, put her talents to use and designed one-of-a-kind denim masks. The masks are $20 or two for $36. To purchase, contact Nancy Ludin at the Jewish Pavilion office at 407-678-9363. Supplies are limited to 50 artistic masks, and can be selected any morning. Known as a “Denim Diva,” Adler has an enormous denim collection, purchasing jeans and gems at yard sales. In the pas...
Yaron Porter is a former elite classified IDF special forces soldier who suffers from PTSD. Nine years ago he was one of the first fighters to clash with the Sinai ISIS on the Eilat border. After being attacked by the terrorists, his whole life fell apart as he had to rebuild everything from scratch, mentally, physically and financially at the age of 27. On Oct. 14, at 7 p.m., Porter will share his amazing life story with high school students and CTeen at Nate's Shul 1701 Markham Woods Rd. in...
Susan Bernstein is a loving and dutiful daughter of Pearl Bernstein who lives at Cascade Heights. As a program director at the Jewish Pavilion, Susan enhances the lives of several hundred Jewish residents and one of them is her own mother. You can imagine how exciting it is to see your daughter leading services, telling Jewish stories, sharing jokes and interacting with your friends. Pictured here are Pearl and Susan holding cards they received from the Jewish Pavilion. One hundred and fifty...
What a life... Here I am, still alive in spite of my age, still performing and still writing. And if the coronavirus doesn't get me, there is still a lot to do! Of course I have great memories of folks I met and worked with, many of them Jewish like me and many from Brooklyn, N.Y. like me, but not all! For instance, singer Eddie Fisher, a Jew yes, but from Philadelphia! We worked together in Las Vegas and Orlando. He is gone now but never forgotten. (See photo. That's Eddie and me, not Elizabeth...
This year the National Basketball Association was in mid-season when COVID-19 hit. On March 11 NBA announced the suspension of the 2019–20 season putting the whole sport on lockdown. Several months later they came up with a solution for continuing the season. The 2020 NBA Bubble, also referred to as the Orlando Bubble, became the isolation zone at ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, which was created by the NBA to protect its players from the COVID-19 pandemic during the final eight games of t...
