Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 37
Students from Central Florida Hillel attend the AIPAC annual event with Senator Joe Leiberman, who graciously spent time with the students afterwards entertaining their questions and sharing stories. The event brought out over 270 Orlandoan AIPAC supporters....
This week, the Holocaust Center, located in Maitland, launched the first media campaign in the organization's 30-year history to raise awareness of its mission to combat racism, bigotry and bullying. While the Center has run ads in the past, the campaign, Make Hate History, aims to increase the Center's profile and attract new visitors and supporters. It uses provocative messages that highlight recent incidents across the nation, and right in our own backyard, to inspire activism. Ads will run...
Joseph Wittenstein, Z"L, (1914-2008) had a remarkable grasp of the Orlando-area history and an ability to recall details from most of the 20th century that proved invaluable in understanding the city's past. Wittenstein also enriched Central Florida through his wide civic and philanthropic involvement. For these reasons and more, the Orange County Regional History Center is honoring Wittenstein posthumously with the Donald A. Cheny Award on Nov. 30 at the Center. The Donald A. Cheny Award recogn...
Fellowship Church in Winter Springs presents Rabbi Eliezer Waldman on Tuesday evening, Nov. 28. He will be sharing the most current information regarding the Temple Mount and the world’s solidarity against Israel. Rabbi Eliezer Waldman is the founder and Rabbi Emeritus of the Nir College of Judaic Studies, a Hesder Yeshiva located in Kiryat Arba, Israel. (Kiryat Arba was the first community to be established in Biblical Israel after the 1967 war and one which Rabbi Waldman and his family helped pioneer.) Born in Israel and educated in the U...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Palestinian Authority has threatened to suspend communications with the United States if moves ahead with closing the Palestine Liberation Organization’s office in Washington, D.C. Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement posted on social media that the Palestinians would “put on hold all our communications with this American administration.” The State Department has refused to renew permission for the PLO to operate its office in Washington, D.C., for the first time since in about three decades...
The theme for this year's JP Connections should be smiles, because the lyrics "Who can turn the world on with her smile?" (theme song for the "Mary Tyler Moore" TV show) can be applied to JP honoree Shirley Schoenberger; and honoree Dolores Indek's daily goal is to put a smile on people's faces. The annual Jewish Pavilion luncheon recognizes two volunteers who have gone above the call of duty in volunteer work. However, it isn't a "duty" to either of these women but truly their heart's desire...
Holocaust survivors Genia Kutner and Gerald Biegel will share their stores with high school students (and anyone else) at Oviedo High School on Dec. 11. This program was originally scheduled for Sept. 12, but thanks to Hurricane Irma, it was postponed. The program, dedicated to unity, is titled "One Day Starts Today," and is presented by the Jewish Student Union, JOIN Orlando and StandWithUs. JSU is an after-school club, run by teenagers, that strives to build a community where unity is the...
The Orlando Chapter of Hadassah is pleased to announce that author Ellen Brazer will make an exclusive appearance for Orlando Hadassah on Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 11:30 a.m. at Congregation Ohev Shalom to present her latest work, “The Wondering Jew: My Journey into Judaism.” “It all began with a promise: a promise I made to my father, a promise that led me on a journey into the heart and soul of Judaism. The result is this book, filled with intensely personal stories that helped me unlock some of the complicated teachings that make Judaism such a di...
On Sunday, Dec. 10, 2017, The Orlando Chapter of Hadassah will host a private showing of Holocaust Art by Judith Dazzio at The Holocaust Center in Maitland beginning at 1 p.m. Dazzio will personally present and discuss her paintings followed by an afternoon tea catered by Arthur's Orlando Catering. Judith Dazzio is the owner and lead instructor at Dazzio Art Experience School of Art. She is also the proprietor of Dazzio Art Gallery in St. Petersburg, Florida. She received her B. S. degree in...
At its 2017 National Conference in South Florida, the Jewish National Fund announced plans to expand its Alexander Muss High School in Israel and build a state-of-the-art park in Be’er Sheva. These new projects will further transform Be’er Sheva as a part of JNF’s goal to revitalize Southern Israel through its Blueprint Negev initiative. While Be’er Sheva is Israel’s second largest city, twice the size of Tel Aviv, it ranks sixth in terms of population. Today, the city is in the midst of a renaissance as it becomes Israel’s “water city...
Mexico has reportedly announced that it will change its voting strategy at the United Nations (UN) and other international bodies by stopping to vote in favor of the Palestinians. According to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Figari contacted Israeli Ambassador to Mexico Yoni Pelad and told him of the shift in strategy for all upcoming voting procedures related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The report said that Mexico will change from voting in favor of the Palestinians to abstaining or voting for I...
(JNS.org)—A complaint filed by New Jersey’s Attorney General Christopher Porrino this week alleges that the New Jersey township of Mahwah has introduced laws that openly discriminate against Orthodox Jews, aimed at deterring them from moving into the area. A nine-count complaint filed on Tuesday accuses the town’s public officials of using methods implemented by “white flight” suburbanites in the 1950s “to keep African-Americans from moving into their neighborhoods.” The lawsuit centers on two laws, introduced in the town last summer, that...
Washington, D.C.—The RJC released the following statement from Executive Director Matt Brooks: Today, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs took a big step to enhance the security of Americans and Israelis. Sponsored by Representatives Doug Lamborn and Lee Zeldin, the Taylor Force Act takes the steps necessary to cut off American taxpayer money from going to the Palestinian Authority while the PA continues to encourage and incentivize the murder and injury of Israelis and Americans. The passage of the Taylor Force Act by the House Foreign A...
Another week, another centennial. Following the Balfour Declaration’s milestone, it’s now time to look back on the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, where a communist insurrection in St. Petersburg, then known as Petrograd, gave birth to a state that caused untold misery to millions for almost the remainder of the 20th century. Led by Vladimir Lenin, the Bolsheviks—the “majority” faction of the Russian communists—were a tight-knit, fiercely revolutionary group. Its core members had shared the experience of exile in grand cities like London...
Senior Trump administration officials reportedly are crafting a plan for Middle East peace. Based on the details that are available so far, friends of Israel have good reason for concern. According to a front-page New York Times report on Nov. 12, the administration is preparing what it considers to be an “ultimate deal” between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. There appear to be two phases to the plan. Phase one will consist of “confidence-building provisions” by each side. The problem is that Israel will be expected to make new concess...
We were heartened to learn that a Philadelphia synagogue is offering an adult education course about anti-Semitism, a timeless scourge that every generation must combat. But why is the course seemingly prompted, as its website suggests, solely by Christian sources of Jew-hatred and August’s despicable anti-Jewish events in Charlottesville—rather than July’s equally despicable calls in two California mosques for Jews to be slaughtered, or even the continuous despicable Jew-hatred from Nation of Islam leaders? Are Jew-hatred and threats from...
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—Leaders of North America’s Jewish federation movement kicked off their annual conference here Sunday with a tribute to the 1987 march on Washington that brought out hundreds of thousands of people in support of Soviet Jews. The film and testimonials by refuseniks were moving, but felt a little like those perennial tributes by the New York Mets to their 1986 championship team: a reminder not only of what was, but what’s gone. The rescue of Soviet Jews and their resettlement here and in Israel was a high point for the netwo...
Defenders of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the Iran nuclear deal is known, have argued that Iran’s aggression was intentionally not addressed by the deal. For example this week, Federica Moghereni, the high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy said, “The Iran deal has been designed to address one thing only: the Iranian nuclear issue.” One problem with this argument is that it isn’t true. The agreement addressed a number of other issues between Tehran and the rest of the world, and when it did, it went...
One of the complaints about the organized Jewish community is that it is silencing criticism of Israel. Left-wingers paint a dismal picture of a Jewish community in denial about Israel’s sins and determined to squelch debate about the peace process or controversial issues like settlements. So it probably came as quite a shock to many American Jews to read what happened at Princeton University this past week when the Center for Jewish Life—as the campus Hillel is called—cancelled a speech by Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s deputy foreign ministe...
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. Temple I...
Israel offered aid to the Islamic republic after it was was hit by a powerful earthquake but was turned down, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Addressing the Jewish Federations of North America's (JFNA) annual General Assembly in Los Angeles via videoconference on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that Israel had offered the aid via the Red Cross. "I just saw the pictures of the destruction in Iran and Iraq from this week's earthquake. And I saw these heartbreaking images of men and women and...
On Nov. 12, more than 400 people crowded into the second floor of the Orange Country Regional History Center for the long awaited opening of the exhibition Kehillah: A History of Jewish Life in Greater Orlando. This exhibit covers 150 years of local Jewish history, and not only shows how the Jewish community organized but also the many diverse ways Jews have contributed to the growth and enrichment of Central Florida for all of its citizens. The spirit of community was alive and well as people...
When India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel last July and waded in the ocean with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that historic meeting not only paved the way for a stronger relationship between the countries, it spurred local doctors, Jewish and Indian, to have an informative, networking event together. Drs. Amish Parikh and Daniel Layish, friends who are members of the Central Florida Association of Physicians from the Indian Subcontinent and the Jewish Federation of Greater...
Central Florida Hillel brought the largest student delegation in the country with over 28 students to come and celebrate the installation of Orlando's own Bruce Gould as the new president-elect of JNF. Pictured next to Bruce is JNF's president and CEO, Russell Robinson....
Fifty Central Florida teens in grades 8 to 12 gathered Oct. 30 for “Empower the Jew in You,” a Community-wide Teen Education Evening organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando (JFGO). Congregation of Reform Judaism hosted the event. This peer-lead educational program by JFGO’s Jewish Teen Education Network (JTEN) was designed to provide insight and resources for local teens to identify and stand up to anti-Semitism. JTEN educators moderated the discussions with curriculum created by the Federation’s Jewish Community Relatio...
