Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Submitted by the family On Dec. 13, 2021, Sonia Margolis Mandell (known to friends as "Sunny" or family as "Ma"), a beloved wife, mother, and Jewish community leader, passed away peacefully surrounded by several generations of loved ones in her condo in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. She was born Jan. 27,1927. The most important part of her life, as she describes in a memoir, written for her grandchildren, began when a debonair Brooklyn native and WWII vet named Lester Mandell asked her on a date within...
(JNS) - For a few days beginning Dec. 9, a high-rise beachfront resort became what many guests described as "little Tel Aviv" as thousands of Israeli Americans, Israelis and American Jews attended the Israeli-American Council's 2021 National Summit. For many of the 3,000 attendees, the conference is an annual destination where they reconnect with other Israelis living in the United States. Of the 3,000, 120 were attendees from Orlando and Tampa. Walking through the halls of the Diplomat Hotel...
Israel lost a fearless warrior last Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021, when Rabbi Eliezer Waldman, founder and president of the Hesder Yeshivat Nir Kiryat Arba and one of the pioneers of the renewed Jewish community of Hebron, passed away at the end of Shabbat after a brief illness. Thousands attended the 84-year-old's funeral in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron. Rabbi Waldman was born in Petah Tikva in 1937 to Rabbi Yoel and Dina Waldman. In 1940, his family moved to the United States, where, as a...
(JNS) - The last time Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, co-director of Chabad of the Bluegrass, had been in Hopkinsville, Ky., he was joined by thousands of other people to see a total eclipse. He returned to the area on Monday to find a much-changed landscape after a massive tornado ripped through the western part of the state on Dec. 10, rendering much of it temporarily uninhabitable. The tornado was one of a series of others that struck six Midwestern states on Dec. 10. "The kindness they had shown to...
"Do you love coffee? Do you love history? If the answer to any of those questions for you is "yes" as it is for me, then you don't want to miss this unique event," said Rabbi Yanky Majesky of Chabad North Orlando. "I know you'll enjoy the secret Jewish history of coffee with the "Caffeinated Rabbi" Moishy Korf." Participants of the evening will learn the Jewish history, Halachic discussions and Kabbalistic meaning of coffee as well as learn how to start drinking better coffee. We will have fun...
Stetson University spent the last four years growing its Jewish community. As shared before, Stetson now offers a Jewish studies minor, Kosher grab and go food on campus, and a thriving Jewish community at Stetson University Hillel. This investment in the Jewish community has led to an increase in enrollment, and our recognition as a university of choice among Jewish high school juniors and seniors can be seen in our ever-growing Jewish enrollment. “We know that the Jewish community has invested in Stetson, and we want to continue to invest b...
On Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando presented the Inaugural Michael McKee Volunteer Award. Held at the Winter Park Farmers' Market, the event recognized and celebrated McKee's years of dedication and leadership in support of JFS Orlando. McKee served on the Board of Directors since 2009 and was Board president from 2013 to 2018. In late 2018 through mid-2019, McKee served pro bono as interim executive director during JFS's transition, making it possible for...
A wonderful time was had by all on Friday, Dec. 3rd at the Cascade Heights Chanukah Shabbat party hosted by Jewish Pavilion. Residents and volunteers were dressed up in their Chanukah best. It was delightful to be a part of the Chanukah candle lighting and Shabbat ceremony. Mmmm Mmmm good, the potato latkes were delicious, our compliments to the chef!! Shown here are (l-r), Debbie Meitin, Shirley Schoenberger, Bernice Davids and Alex Lehrer. - Alexandra Lehrer, Jewish Pavilion...
(JNS) — The Council on American Islamic Relations is backing an organizational leader following a speech that national Jewish organizations are calling virulently antisemitic. During a speech at the American Muslims for Palestine’s 14th annual convention on Nov. 27, Zahra Billoo, the Pakistani-American director of CAIR California-San Francisco Bay Area, told the audience that “polite Zionist” organizations that support a two-state solution, condemn Islamophobia and promote interfaith cooperation, such as the Anti-Defamation League, Hillel...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — It has been for decades a recurring confusion for some in Washington: does AIPAC, the country’s largest pro-Israel lobby, have a PAC? Not until today. The PAC in AIPAC stands for Public Affairs Committee, not political action committee. But after countless explanations over the years, the group is getting into the fundraising business. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Thursday launched a regular political action committee, which funnels $5,000 maximum donations to designated candidates per race, and a sup...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A bill that would create an Islamophobia monitor in much the same cast as the State Department’s antisemitism monitor cleared its first hurdle on Friday, after a House committee debate about antisemitism. The bill, whose lead sponsors were Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., one of three Muslims in Congress, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who is Jewish, was approved Friday by the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee along party lines, with the majority of Democrats voting for it. It now goes to the House floor. During an...
(JNS) — On an average day in December 2015, Rabbi Reuven Biermacher finished teaching Torah to his students in Aish Yeshiva’s Spanish program in the Old City of Jerusalem. He walked out of the building and through the Jaffa Gate. While on his way home to his family, he was suddenly attacked by two terrorists who stabbed him repeatedly. He was evacuated to the hospital, where he succumbed to his wounds. This month marks the sixth yahrzeit, the anniversary of his death. I wish that we lived in a world where this tragedy was a unique, sol...
With the passing of Sunny Mandell z’l the Orlando Jewish community has lost one of its most significant matriarchs. I would guess that the vast majority of Jews living in Orlando today did not know Sunny. For sure, most never met her. I wish that they had the experience of knowing and working with this unique and wonderful person. Sunny was the first woman to chair the Major Gifts Committee of the Federation’s campaign. She was the first woman overall Campaign chair, and she was Federation president from 1981 to 1983. Sunny’s commitment to th...
(JNS) — The loudest Israeli message to the Biden administration was sounded by Defense Minister Benny Gantz during his appearance last week at the Israeli-American National Council Summit in Hollywood, Fla. Gantz said that he had notified his counterparts in the U.S. government that he had ordered the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. This is far from the first indication that Israel is stepping up preparations for acting on its own to prevent Iran from attaining the status of a nuclear power. But for...
(JNS) — ADL national director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt deserves credit. On Dec. 7, he posted two tweets. He urged CAIR to condemn their San Francisco Bay area executive director Zahra Billoo for her “textbook vile, #antisemitic, conspiracy-laden garbage attacking the mainstream U.S. Jewish community” and sounding like a white supremacist. Unsurprisingly, CAIR stood by Billoo. They condemned Greenblatt instead. Days later on Dec. 12, Greenblatt expanded, tweeting about Billoo’s “classic conspiratorial antisemitism,” noting that Billoo’s sp...
B(JNS) — The Oct. 9, 1982, Palestinian terrorist attack on the Great Synagogue of Rome, in which two-year-old Stefano Gaj Tachè was killed, and the blood of 37 others who were wounded flowed on the stones of the building that should have been the safest refuge for Jews in the Italian capital, was a double slap in the face — not only by the murderers, but by those who didn’t lift a finger to defend their victims. According to a front-page story in the left-leaning Italian daily, Il Riformista, Italian authorities had been warned that an attack...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, some minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) Chabad of North Orlando and Chabad of Altamonte Springs are 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. Congr...
(JTA) — “A plus-sized Jewish lady redneck died in El Paso on Saturday.” It’s considered poor journalistic form to begin an article with a quotation. But journalists are also supposed to show, not tell, and there’s no better way to explain the irreverent obituary that Andy Corren wrote for his mother, Renay Mandel Corren, than by simply quoting it. The obituary published in the Fayetteville Observer, the newspaper of the North Carolina City near where Renay Corren lived for many years, went viral on Wednesday after the crime writer Sarah Wei...
Back in 2018, public adjuster Francine Fox noticed that during a conversation with one of her clients, Marvin Erickson, was frustrated and upset. A Vietnam veteran with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Erickson opened up to her that before Christmas, his family had visited and one of his grandkids was sick. Because he has an immunodeficiency disorder, he could have gotten very sick. "I wish there was a way to remind people that I have a compromised immune system." Fox told him she knew of many others wit...
Mazel tov to David Diamond who was elected Chair, Florida Board of Medicine on Dec. 3, 2021. Among his several duties as chair, is to oversee the professional activities of some 89,000 medical doctors in Florida. Diamond is also very proud of his son and daughter in their military careers. Son Ari is a lone soldier in the Israel Defense Force, serving in the Golani Brigade. Daughter Yael is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and from December 2020 to December 2021 she was stationed in Israel...
(JTA) - Henry Orenstein, a Holocaust survivor who went on to invent the Transformers toys and became a major donor to Jewish and Israeli causes, died Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, at the age of 98. Orenstein became a best-selling toy maker with his Transformers line, which he first created in the early 1980s. He followed up on that success with numerous other inventions and over 100 patents before eventually becoming a star poker player and being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2008. Born in P...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - "An intensification of Israeli military threats against Iran seems to suggest that the Zionist regime has forgotten that Iran is more than capable of hitting them from anywhere," began an article published Tuesday in the Tehran Times, a newspaper identified with the Iranian regime. The article ran under the headline "Just One Wrong Move!" and featured a "map of Israeli targets," which showed nearly every populated community in the country labeled with a red dot. The...
I know I've said this before, but WHAT TALENT! ... An EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony ) winner (and well deserved! ) I refer to singer, actress, etc. BARBRA STREISAND, from Brooklyn like me, a singer like me ... (well not. I wish I could sing like her!) I may have written about her before, but such a talent is worth many write-ups! Her half-sister ROSLYN KIND is also a singer but not in the same league as Barbra. Her maternal grandfather was a cantor in the Russian Empire. Her paternal...
(JNS) — As many as 250 Britons stood outside of the headquarters of the publicly funded British Broadcasting Corporation in London on Monday night to demand that it take accountability for anti-Jewish coverage on the network. There, they chanted “BBC, where the proof? BBC, tell the truth” in response to an on-air report during Chanukah about an attack on a bus full of Jewish teens in Central London. In its coverage of the event, according to Campaign Against Antisemitism, the BCC reported that...
(JNS) — In the last academic year, pro-Israel college students have felt vilified and ostracized as anti-Israel and anti-Zionism sentiment proliferates at schools nationwide, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League. Findings included in “The Anti-Israel Movement on U.S. Campuses, 2020-2021,” identify the campus anti-Israel movement as being led by student groups and certain professors. Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace continue to be two of the most influential anti-Israel campus groups, allied often...
