Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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In the times of the Baal Shem Tov (founder of the Chassidic movement) there was an outbreak of a dreadful disease. The holy master suggested that the community participate in the creation of a new Torah scroll. In the merit of this Torah, miraculously, the community began to heal. With COVID-19 raging around the world, Meir and Shawna Waizman and their family have stepped up to generously donate a new Torah to Chabad of North Orlando and Nate's Shul in Longwood for the protection, health and...
(JTA) - Alex Trebek, the beloved baritone host of "Jeopardy!," died of pancreatic cancer Sunday at 80. In his 36 years as host of the immensely popular game show, Trebek encountered his share of Jewish moments. We've rounded up a few especially notable ones from the last decade here. 2011: A rabbi appears on her ordination anniversary Rabbi Joyce Newmark, a Conservative rabbi from Teaneck, New Jersey, won $29,200 during her appearance on the show, which aired on the 20th anniversary of her...
In May 2019, Dr. Ken Hanson, coordinator of the Judaic Studies program at UCF, traveled to Israel to produce a video documentary titled "The Druze." He was accompanied by his editor, Milos Ajdinovic, visiting lecturer in the Nicholson School of Communication, and Shmuel Kilstein, an undergraduate history major. Together, they spent two weeks traveling from northern Israel to Jerusalem to interview several members of the Druze community. Hanson undertook this project for several reasons. The...
(JTA) — Israel’s government has signed an agreement with the Pfizer pharmaceutical company to acquire 8 million doses of its vaccine. “This is a great day for the State of Israel and a great day on the way to our victory over the coronavirus,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Friday, adding that he is working “to ensure that we will receive the vaccine together with the leading countries around the world and that we will not get pushed back in line.” The announcement came days after Netanyahu said in a video address tha...
Ten Jewish seniors and 10 excited Jewish school-age children have already been connected through an adoptive grandparents program through the Jewish Pavilion. The children are preparing cards, pictures, letters and gifts for a monthly mailing to their "grandparents," and the "grandparents" are waiting expectantly for their new connection in the Jewish community and the surprise coming to them in the mail each month. One participant, third grader Rebekah McNarney, had this to say about the...
Jewish Academy of Orlando students, faculty, and alumni participated in a cleanup of the school's beloved Kindness Garden. Participants weeded the entire garden and trimmed back the trees and bushes. From the youngest participants to the faculty and parents, everyone was able to lend a hand to kick off the school's Kindness week. The garden, which is a segment of the campus playground, was created by the 2019 graduating class and funded by a grant that incorporates fine arts into the school's...
(JNS) - Hebron's Jewish residential section may finally witness new construction underway for more housing units. Pending a decision by the Jerusalem District Court, two areas of Hebron - the Hizkiyahu neighborhood on the site of the old central bus station and the site of the marketplace - are slated to undergo a facelift to make room for young couples. Predictably, there are those who don't want to see a growing Jewish presence in Hebron and have made an effort to prevent the project from prog...
(JTA) — Weeks after voting to rehire a principal who told a parent he “can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event,” a Florida school board has reversed course. The Palm Beach County School Board voted a year ago to fire William Latson, who had been removed from his post after the 2018 comments came to light. Latson sued, saying he had been wrongfully terminated, and in August, a judge concluded that he should have been reprimanded but not fired. The board voted earlier this month to rehire him rather than face a protracted and cos...
(JNS) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to be the first in his role to both visit the Golan Heights, as well as Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, reported Axios on Thursday. It will be part of a 10-day trip to Europe and the Middle East starting on Friday, starting with France, Turkey, Georgia and Israel. He will then travel to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Visiting the Golan and an Israel settlement would reflect the Trump administration’s policy surrounding these areas. The United States forma...
(JNS) — With razor-thin margins separating U.S. President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, the contentious race for the White House has yet to produce a clear victor. Around the globe, all eyes are on the elections, but in Israel in particular, questions are being asked over what the next four years could look like with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israel’s new relationship with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan. Yonatan Freeman, an international relations expert at the Hebrew University of Jer...
(Israel National News) — Why is it that the ZOA is the only Jewish organization in America that initiated instant condemnation of Ilhan Omar’s latest anti-Semitic drumbeat against Israel? The new set of Omar lies, tweeted after the U.S. election, included the blood libel that Israel is ethnically cleansing the Palestinians, accusing the Jewish State of “leaving an entire community homeless in direct violation of international law.” As a member of the U.S. Foreign Affairs Committee, Omar is using these blatant lies in an attempt to conditi...
“The Jewish Vote.” What ever happened to the “Jewish Vote”? While we never meant more than one or maybe one and a half percent of the total turnout, there was always press, commentary, speculation, even some wringing of hands about the turnout, the political leaning and the meaning of the “Jewish Vote” during every national election for a really long time. I could never figure out what the fuss was all about. We truthfully could not have any real impact on the final outcome of any presidential campaign. Outside of maybe the five boroughs of...
(JNS) — The U.S. presidential election has illustrated more graphically than ever before that we are living beneath an erupting civilizational volcano. The flaming cultural lava is spreading well beyond America. We have to wonder whether we are now watching the steady asphyxiation in the West of both liberalism and democracy. Nowhere is waiting with greater apprehension for the eventual outcome of the election than Israel. If President Donald Trump is finally edged out, the recent startling prospects for peace in the Middle East may well be e...
(JTA) — Litigation surrounding the 2020 presidential election is set to continue for a while, and the state legislatures do not need to report their official results until Dec. 8. A constitutional attorney by training, I know how complicated things can get: I recently served as a researcher-writer for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, during the drafting of his new Supreme Court book, and we dedicated a chapter to the Bush v. Gore litigation in 2000 (Cruz was a lawyer for Bush’s Florida recount team at the time). The election litigation this time is per...
By Morton A. Klein and Elizabeth A. Berney (JNS) — J Street just released a new deceptive “push poll” that, like J Street’s previous “polls,” uses shady practices to grossly overstate Jewish community support for J Street’s anti-Israel agenda and for J Street’s endorsed presidential candidate Joe Biden. J Street employed classic “sampling error” to distort its poll results in its favor: J Street surveyed a group that included a far lower percentage of Republican Jews than is present in the overall Jewish population. J Street’s sample gro...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, some minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) Chabad of North Orlando is holding in-person minyans. 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.,...
(JNS) — Jewish groups expressed their condolences over the passing of former U.K. Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who died early Saturday morning at the age of 72 after recently being diagnosed with cancer. “Rabbi Sacks was a towering figure of great intellect, principle and moral clarity, whose legacy will forever live on as an inspiration to future generations,” tweeted the American Jewish Committee on Saturday. Jewish and other leaders from around the world, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s President Reuven R...
(JTA) - Before I met him, I saw Benjamin McDowell's name in the news. Inspired by Dylann Roof, the notorious shooter responsible for the Charleston church massacre, he planned an attack on a synagogue that was thwarted by FBI agents. No lives were lost. No lasting physical harm was done, though the synagogue members certainly felt threatened and terrified. I read the news item online and, though I didn't yet know the word, doomscrolled onward. I probably wouldn't have thought much about...
This past summer, our country was experiencing the height of the pandemic, masks were mandatory but not always easy to find. Around the same time, some people around the country began to express anti-police feelings which sometimes tragically turned violent. To show their support of local law enforcement, Rabbi Yanky, Chanshy Majesky and Chabad North Orlando ran a police appreciation project where custom masks were made for law enforcement officers with the logo of their department. The program...
Oy Gevalt! ... I recently read this, got upset, and pass it along to you: "The Jewish Confederation of Ukraine voiced outrage following an attack on the Mariupol synagogue by an axe-wielding vandal. The incident occurred on the eve of one of the Jewish calendar's holiest days, Tisha B'Av, which marks the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem. The synagogue's security guard is being hailed as a hero after he successfully fought off the armed attacker. Media reports indicated that the...
(JTA) — Five years ago, a plea to rescue a centuries-old synagogue in Ostroh, Ukraine, struck a chord with Hryhoriy Arshynov, a lifelong Jewish resident of the city four hours west of Kyiv. Damaged during the Holocaust, the magnificent 17th-century Maharsha synagogue was used as a warehouse under Soviet rule and endured decades of neglect. With its collapsed roof, it was on the verge of ruin. After reading an article about the synagogue, Arshynov, a civil engineer, stepped up to restore it. Arshynov had devoted years of his life to p...
One side of Charlene Neely's family settled in New Mexico in 1590. The other side settled there in 1680. "Both grandparents were Roman Catholic and although we were Hispanic, we didn't have the physical characteristics of what was common in the Southwest. We spoke Spanish, but I had cousins who had blue eyes and blonde hair, or green eyes with auburn hair," said Neely, mother of Rabbi Joshua Neely. Her grandmother, Mary Teresa Gallegos, was a practicing Roman Catholic, who went to church...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - "Valley of Tears," a 10-part Israeli TV series on the Yom Kippur War has generated renewed interest in the 1973 national trauma. HBO Max acquired world rights for the series, which focuses on the stories of four soldiers, was created by the Israel network Kan, and began airing on Oct. 19. Despite the buzz, some viewers have lamented that the show, titled "Sha'at Ne'ila" in Hebrew, all but ignores the role of women during the war. One such woman was Niva Shaul, who was am...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump pulled their children out of a Jewish day school in Washington, D.C., two weeks before Election Day and three weeks after an outbreak of COVID-19 cases in and around the White House. The couple’s children had attended the Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital since moving to Washington in 2017 after Donald Trump, Ivanka’s father, became president. Their three kids started a different school, the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy in suburban Maryland, on Oct. 19. “They withdrew...
(JTA) — The debate on abortion access, which for years has polarized the predominantly Catholic nation of Poland, is now dividing the country’s Jews as well. A high court ruling last month severely restricting access to abortions in what was already among Europe’s least pro-choice countries has prompted a major protest movement in Poland. The backlash has taken aim squarely at the right-wing Law and Justice party, which critics say has eroded the independence of the judiciary in the pursuit of conservative policies. All but one of the 15 justi...
