Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 35
Central Florida Hillel hosts renowned Israeli actor and director Yiftach Klein for a special Hebrew only screening and question and answer session.... Full story
Waldflowers BBG, a girls youth group in Orlando will be hosting a music festival on Nov. 23 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Roth Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando. This music festival has the spirit of Woodstock, which is where the name Waldstock stems from. The festival will feature local music artists, games, food, entertainment, and art. Waldstock is open to the entire Orlando community. The festival costs $5 to attend, and children under 10 get in free. Proceeds will benefit a nonprofit... Full story
Sunday's Bagels and Grits program was a very enlightening program. Hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, the event was a featured part of the community's 50th anniversary commemoration of the Civil Rights Act. Featured speaker, Brad Herzog, spoke about the book "My Mantelpiece," which he coauthored with Carolyn Goodman, who was the mother of Andy Goodman, one of three Civil Rights workers killed in the "Freedom Summer" of 1964. Herzog... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)— Each year on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, we recall the opening salvo of the violent assault on Jews that foreshadowed the Holocaust and ask ourselves what should have been done at that moment. In thinking about Kristallnacht, we should also consider the outpouring of violence against Jewish communities in Europe this summer and draw the right lessons for today. It is rightly said that the Holocaust began not with gas chambers but with words. The significance of Kristallnacht in the history of the Holocaust is the passage f... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA) – The Anti-Defamation League's new national director will be social entrepreneur Jonathan Greenblatt-a special assistant to President Obama who earlier in his career co-founded the bottled water brand Ethos. Greenblatt, 43, will succeed Abraham Foxman, who announced in February that he would be stepping down effective July 2015. Foxman, 74, has been the ADL's national director since 1987. The news was first reported by JTA on Thursday and followed shortly afterward by a formal a... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)-SodaStream, the Israeli at-home seltzer machine company, announced last week that it would be closing its West Bank factory and moving the facility's operations to southern Israel next year. Here's what you need to know about SodaStream, the controversy that has bubbled up in its midst and what the actress Scarlett Johansson has to do with it. What is SodaStream? SodaStream is an Israeli company that makes and sells seltzer machines for home use. Since it was founded in 1991, the... Full story
(JTA)—Reinventing. Rethinking. Rebranding. Innovating. They’re all buzzwords we hear today whether talking about education, health care, product marketing or Jewish communal work. We’re living in a time in which endless access to information and 24-hour communication is challenging us to question just about everything. As a result, we have seen new models of business, philanthropy and outreach in every corner of the globe. Airbnb, Zipcar and Kickstarter are examples of businesses that have successfully harnessed the tools of this new era to fi... Full story
As a volunteer for The Jewish Pavilion, I am familiar with their slogan "Imagine what it would be like to lose your health, your spouse and your home. No one wants to grow old alone!" Last week, along with Gloria Green, a program director of The Jewish Pavilion, I had the pleasure of meeting 88-year-old, Phillip Schwartz. He is as sharp as a tack and regaled us with vivid recollections of his life. His wife, Adelle, died in 2007 and he still misses her. Schwartz was born in Montreal, Canada. He... Full story
In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the signing into law of the Civil Rights Act, The Heritage has been running a series of articles about members of the Orlando Jewish community who helped bring about racial changes in Central Florida. This is the fourth of a series. Florence Gluckman, better known as Flossie Gluckman, was a lot like her brother, Jerry Bornstein, when it came to justice, fairness, and respecting human beings simply because they are human beings. "Making a difference was in... Full story
Congregation Ohev Shalom and the Roth JCC are pleased to announce an important special 92Y program they are sponsoring for the community on Monday, Nov. 24, at COS. Titled The State of World Jewry, outspoken law professor Alan Dershowitz and renowned historian Deborah Lipstadt will discuss and debate many facets of the conflicts in Israel, new waves of anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere. They will tackle the tough questions about what the challenges and threats facing the Jewish people today... Full story
What it means to be a Jew today may be far less significant than the question, “Why be a Jew tomorrow?” My generation, and my parents’, had concrete, fully realized reasons to be Jewish. World War II, the Holocaust, and the drive to survive after a near-extinction event. The birth of the State of Israel and the rise of modern Jewish pride, Jewish heroism, and Jewish hope. Success and acceptance in contemporary Diaspora society, in virtually every aspect of American culture, politics, and busines... Full story
By Ira Sharkansky Not really wars, but a continuation of disputes going back at least to the time of Ezra. Jews have been quarreling about who is a Jew since then, and over the centuries have added numerous other squabbles. It all amounts to disputes among people who have been literate for at least 2,500 years, and have written God knows how many interpretations of the fuzzy laws composed in their earliest writings, i.e., the books that came to be sacred and included in the Hebrew Bible. The current uptick concerns a proposal that has passed... Full story
Amid the ongoing controversy over the Metropolitan Opera’s performance of “The Death of Klinghoffer,” little has been said about the Palestinian leader who masterminded the attack in which Leon Klinghoffer was murdered. The decision to hijack the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985 was made by Muhammad Zaidan, also known as Muhammad Abbas or Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestine Liberation Front. (Not to be confused with his comrade-in-arms Mahmoud Abbas, the current president of the Palestinian Authority.) Four of Abu Abbas’s agents seized the shi... Full story
“I sat at their table, and it changed my life,” I told the woman sitting next to me on the plane. I was flying back from a summer spent in Israel, and I was overflowing with inspiration. You should have seen the beauty of the candles reflected on the Jerusalem stone wall. You should have seen the warmth between the husband and wife. The beautiful, pure faces of all those children. The aroma of fresh challah. The songs that danced and wove their way into the starlit night. My seatmate looked unimpressed. She gave me a half smile and downed the... Full story
I was thrilled as a young boy to watch the rebirth of Israel. I knew of the Holocaust; pictures of people suffering and dead in the camps sent shivers up my spine. I celebrated with Jewish friends in Philadelphia when Israeli independence was declared in 1948. But it wasn’t the same, really, because I’m not Jewish. For Jews, supporting Israel was choosing life over death, but I did not feel that. I did not have that personal stake. My grandparents did not come to the U.S. because of repression or persecution. They came for economic advantage. M... Full story
Dear Editor: I read with interest (and then I was appalled) the letter from Les Kippel in the Heritage. We belong to a Reform temple in Worcester, Mass., and attend Bet Chaim in the Orlando area when in Florida. Our temple up north does not have tickets and does not charge for coming during the High Holy Days. Anyone can walk in, sit anywhere, and is welcome at the services. There are forms/addressed envelopes at the door for donations and an announcement at each service is made that asks both members and nonmembers to donate for the services.... Full story
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, 7:30 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 Israel—Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-647-3055. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14 Lig... Full story
Rabbi Karen Allen of Congregation Beth Sholom will lead a Torah Roundtable on Nov. 20 at 1 p.m. at the Sumter County Administration Building (with the golden dome) at 7375 Powell Rd., (near Pinellas Plaza and 466A), Wildwood. This venue provides convenient access for residents of both Leesburg and The Villages. The roundtable provides a unique opportunity to talk with the rabbi as she leads an informal and interactive discussion focusing on topics of contemporary Jewish interest suggested by the Torah portion that will be read at the Saturday... Full story
Edward Cohen passed away Oct. 26, 2014. He was 90 years old. Mr. Cohen and his twin brother, Harry, were born June 21, 1924 in Philadelphia, Penn., to Ben and Bella Cohen. He graduated from Indiana University in 1948 where he was the university’s first walk-on catcher. Mr. Cohen moved to St. Louis, where he met and married Jacqueline Levy on Sept. 10, 1950. He was the director of the JCAA Men’s Health Club until his retirement in 1987 when he and Jackie moved to Orlando. Mr. Cohen is predeceased by his wife, Jacqueline, and twin brother, Har... Full story
Belle Niner of Longwood, passed away on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2104, at the VITAS Inpatient Care Unit in Winter Garden. She was 91 years old. Mrs. Niner was born in New York on May 13, 1923, to the late Jacob and Martha Tanenbaum. At a time when many were lucky to complete high school, Belle graduated from New York University with a bachelor’s degree in education. She was an elementary school teacher for many years in the New York City School system. On May 30, 1950, in New York, she married Robert Niner, her husband of over 64 years who passed a... Full story
Ian J. Wolfson of Casselberry, passed away on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014, at his residence. He was 37 years old. Mr. Wolfson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Michael and Michele Cahn Wolfson on Sept. 20, 1977. In 1989, he relocated to the Orlando area with his parents. Mr. Wolfson was a technician in the computer industry. A memorial service was held at Beth Shalom Memorial Chapel with Rabbi Arnold Siegel officiating. The family requests contributions honoring the memory of Ian Johnathan Wolfson to Hospice of the Comforter, 680 W. Central... Full story
A 12-week course titled “Boundless Judaism” will begin on Wednesday, Dec. 3, at 7 p.m. at Temple Israel. Each self-contained session will be approximately 1-1.5 hours in length and will be held in the Roth Social Hall at 50 S. Moss Road, Winter Springs. “Boundless Judaism” will erase the borders between ritual, history, ethics and culture until Judaism becomes the seamless whole it was meant to be. Each lecture will have five sections including a textual introduction, related liturgy, implied ethics/practices, historical examples and related ho... Full story
J.O.IN. Orlando will host an interactive discussion titled “The Joy of Jewish Holidays” on Sunday mornings following the 8 a.m. Shacharis at Orlando Torah Center, 8591 Banyan Blvd. Orlando. The discussion group includes breakfast.... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—There was the convert who was barred from a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Jamaican convert whose boyfriend’s rabbi offered him a coveted synagogue honor if only he’d dump her, the grandmother who told her granddaughter she’d be going to hell because she became a Jew. The road to conversion can be long and difficult for many prospective converts to Orthodox Judaism, filled with uncertainties and fear about gaining final rabbinic approval. Yet even once they emerge from the mikveh as newly minted American Jews, many find the cha... Full story
Dana Hope Davidson, daughter of Carol Davidson and the late Barry Davidson of Tamarac, Fla., and Ryan Blake Sokoloff, son of Carol and Marc Feuerman of Longwood, Fla., were married on Nov. 16, 2014, at the Lake Mary Events Center in Lake Mary, Fla. The bride attended Coral Springs High School and the Florida Atlantic University and will graduate in 2014 with a degree in Early Childhood Education. Dana currently works as a pre-school teacher at the JCC in Boynton Beach. The groom attended Lake... Full story
