Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 39
Former U.S. President George W. Bush made a surprise appearance at the 50th anniversary tribute gala of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York, saying Iran cannot be trusted when it says its nuclear program has peaceful intentions. One attendee of the event, speaking anonymously because Bush’s comments were off the record, said Bush quoted from his May 2008 speech to the Israeli Knesset. In that speech—one that he called a highlight of his pre...
NEW YORK—Birthright Israel Foundation has elected Joshua Nash, a leader in the New York Jewish and philanthropic community and member of its board of directors, as the next board chairman succeeding Dan Och, who has served as chairman since 2008. The Foundation is the U.S.-based fundraising arm of the highly successful Taglit- Birthright Israel program, which has sent more than 400,000 young Jewish adults on free, 10-day educational trips to Israel since 2000. “We are honored to have som...
The Roth Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando is pleased to announce the appointment of Royal Webster as its new sports director. Webster, 51, succeeds the Roth JCC’s Eli Bercovici who retired this summer after 31 years as sports director. For Webster, the Roth JCC has long been a second home. When he and his wife, Simone, moved to Orlando in June 2004, they immediately enrolled their sons Alex, now 11, and Josh, 9, in the Richard S. Adler Early Childhood Learning Center. The boys rose through the Roth JCC’s programming, attending Cam...
(JNS.org)—Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan will lead more than 30,000 Christian pilgrims on an upcoming trip to Israel. While in Israel, President Jonathan, who is the first sitting Nigerian Christian president to visit Israel, is expected to sign a Bilateral Air Services Agreement between Nigeria and Israel, making it easier for Christian pilgrims to visit, AllAfrica.com reported. According to Nigeria state media, the first round of 2,000 Christian pilgrims began arriving Oct. 19, while P...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Janet Yellen is soft-spoken, tough, methodological, flexible—and Jewish. President Obama’s announcement last week that he had tapped Yellen, 67, to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve made news in part because she would be the first woman in the top spot. That very little was made of her Jewishness likely derives mostly from the fact that she would be not the first or second but at least the fifth Jewish chair of the U.S. central bank and the third in a row...
(JNS.org) Facebook announced the acquisition of the Israeli mobile analytics startup, Onavo, as part of a larger plan to reduce the number of people without Internet access. Facebook will also turn Onavo’s Tel Aviv office into the company’s first Israeli headquarters. Founded in 2010, Onavo focused on intelligence concerning mobile application data. According to the tech site AllThingsD, the services of Onavo are in line with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Internet.org initiative, which aims...
(JNS.org) Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was quoted in the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar as saying that he could “shut Israel up” with or without chemical weapons. Assad—whose country has seen more than 100,000 deaths in the Syrian civil war, including more than 1,400 in what the U.S. said was a chemical attack on civilians—also expressed frustration over not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his agreement on the removal of his chemical weapons stockpile. Instead, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons won the prize f...
(JNS.org)—A new survey shows that many European Jews hide their faith due to fear of anti-Semitism. The online poll by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights reveals that 27 percent of all respondents blamed rising anti-Semitism across the European continent on Muslims. About the same percentage of respondents blamed anti-Semitism on individuals with left-wing political convictions, and 19 percent blamed those with right-wing beliefs. “Preliminary findings already show that three-quarters of respondents feel that anti-Semitism has...
I had been hearing about Kiryat Motzkin, our JFGO Partnership2Gether community in Israel, for many years. But this past September I had the opportunity to visit several of the organizations that our Jewish community helps to support through an allocation from the Jewish Federation’s annual campaign. On an ambitious itinerary arranged by Carmit Gilad, coordinator of Projects for Partnership2Gether of the Jewish Agency for Israel, I spent a full day in the city. It was a day full of wonderful p...
On Tuesday Nov. 5, Holocaust Center recourse teacher Mitch Bloomer will be speaking about the events of Kristallnacht. Kristallnacht, or “Night of Broken Glass,” was an incident where Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps. In honor of the 75th anniversary of this tragic event, the Holocaust Memorial Recourse and Education Center will be hosting the lecture Mem...
The Daytona Beach Chapter of Hadassah is hosting a Mah Jongg tournament with prizes awarded to the top winners. The fund-raising event will be held Thursday, Nov. 7 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with check-in at 10:30 a.m., at the Plantation Oaks Clubhouse, Plantation Blvd, Flagler Beach. The fee of $18 includes the tournament, lunch, beverage and dessert. Paid registration deadline is Nov. 1. No walk-ins. Proceeds will go to Hadassah Medical Research. Everyone is welcome to attend with paid reservation. No walk-ins will be accepted. For more...
The Performing Arts of Maitland partnered with the Jewish Pavilion by bringing a trio of wonderful musicians to Horizon Bay on Boston Avenue. On Sunday, October 13, (l-r) Bob Bruce, Mike Rusnak, and Chuck Graham, entertained audience favorites and had many residents singing along....
A decade ago, Jewish parents worried that their children wouldn’t marry Jewish or bar and bat mitzvah their own children. Today, however, we see a younger generation that is marrying within the faith and looking to raise their children Jewish, while maintaining a strong bond to Israel. Taglit-Birthright Israel’s free educational trip, offered to young Jewish adults between the ages of 18 and 26, is largely responsible for creating the change we believed only a decade ago to be impossible: The younger generation is not only more connected to...
Life at the top can be lonely. If you became the “Decider”—the one who must make the difficult decisions—taking the best advice of trusted associates, there would come a time in any really important decision when it is on you and you alone. While Dick Cheney gets a lot of the blame for the horrific miscalculations that led to more than a decade of war and hundreds of thousands of lives lost, the fact remains, the president was in the chair and he had the final yeses and noes. Same goes for the head of any democratic society. If you happen...
By Ira Sharkansky Somewhere in the American side of my brain is a memory of hearing that America is safe only when Congress is on vacation. The feeling may not be appropriate this week, when members of Congress are trying to do something along with the White House to loosen their collective hands from the throat of the world’s largest economy, and via globalization on the rest of us. Leaving America aside for the time being, the view of danger when a legislature convenes fits Israel, especially this week when the Knesset returns from its s...
As a young Israeli who had just completed five years of service in the IDF, I looked forward to my new job educating people in the Pacific Northwest about Israel. I was shocked, however, by the anti-Israel bigotry and hostility I encountered, especially in the greater Seattle area, Oregon, and Berkeley. I had been very liberal, a member of the leftist Zionist party, Meretz, but the anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel that I have seen in the U.S. has changed my outlook personally and politically. This year, from January through May, I went to co...
A response to David Bornstein’s “Community held hostage” In last week’s issue, Heritage Florida Jewish News published a column by David Bornstein in which he discussed the refinancing of the Maitland campus debt and used it as a proof of a malaise afflicting our Jewish community. David accurately describes the circumstances of the refinancing process. The Jewish Federation was faced with a potential crisis and did its best to save the Maitland campus for the Jewish community. There was some disagreement regarding certain aspects of that pr...
I’ll confess that when I first read about Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s disagreement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, I felt a degree of sympathy. Not for the substance of the argument, but for the manner in which Lapid expressed it. “My father didn’t come to Haifa from the Budapest ghetto in order to get recognition from Abu Mazen (Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas),” Lapid said Oct. 7 at New York’s 92nd Street Y. “Darn right,” I grunted at my Mac...
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, OCTOBER 25 Light Shabbat candles at 6:28...
This year for the 12th anniversary of 9/11 Chabad at UCF and the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority hosted a Mitzvah Marathon that took place at UCF in front of the student union on Wednesday, Sept.11. The Mitzvah Marathon, also known as a good deed marathon, was created to commemorate all those who perished by bringing light into the world on this tragic day through the performance of mitzvah. Many students helped recruit individuals to perform a good deed, whether it was writing a letter to a...
Barbara Helen Foerster Scott of Orlando, passed away on Monday, Oct. 14, 2013, at her residence. She was 84 years old. Mrs. Scott was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to the late Edward C. and Madeline Owsley Foerster on April 16, 1929. The family relocated to Miami where Mrs. Scott graduated from Miami High School and the University of Miami with a degree in music education. It was there that she met and later married her husband, Aaron, who predeceased her in 1987. She was a member of Sigma Alpha Iota, an honorary music fraternity, and formerly...
Seymour Corwin of Orlando, passed away on Monday, Oct.14, 2013, at Spring Hill at Hunter’s Creek. He was 94 years old. Mr. Corwin, one of three children, was born on June 22, 1919, in New York City, to the late Nathan and Rose Chordock Cohen. He graduated college with a degree in accounting and served in the United States Army during World War II aboard Troop Transports in Europe and the Middle East. Following his military service he began his working career as a contract specialist for the Department of Defense. He and his late wife, E...
Woody vs. Anti-Zionists HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (6NoBacon)—You can call Woody Allen a self-hating Jew all you want, but don’t make the mistake of thinking he’s not sensitive when others hate on his people. In an interview Monday in France by Israel’s Channel 2 to promote the European release of “Blue Jasmine,” the legendary filmmaker was asked if it’s harder lately to be a Jew in the United States. “No, I don’t think so,” he said, according to The Times of Israel. “By the low standards of toleranc...
On Thursday, Oct. 17, the UCF Global Perspectives Office presented a discussion on how religions can help address human trafficking. The talk was led by The Three Wise Guys, comprised of Rabbi Steven Engel, the Rev. Bryan Fulwider and Imam Muhammad Musri. The trio has a radio show on Central Florida’s public media station where they mix wit with wisdom while attempting to find common ground to promote religious tolerance. Doug Evans, an associate lecturer at UCF, introduced the panel. He had much praise for the writings of Moses Maimonides, t...
He has been on Food Network and on Home and Family, but now he will be here in person. The Orlando Chapter of Hadassah is pleased to announce that renowned chef and chocolate artist Paul Joachim will be the guest at the Tuesday, Nov. 5, meeting to be held at the Congregation of Reform Judaism (CRJ) at 11:30 a.m. Known as The Chocolate Genius, Paul Joachim is a classically trained fine-artist, who has turned his passion for luxurious cooking and sculpting into incredible live entertainment at...
