Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Plans are well underway for The Kinneret Council on Aging's (KCOA) seventh annual 8 over 80 Honorary Dinner that will be held on Sunday, March 5, 2017. The 8 over 80 event recognizes individuals over the age of 80 who continue to contribute to our community through their volunteer and philanthropy efforts. This year's honorees are a dedicated and dynamic group of individuals. They are: Dick Appelbaum, 81, was nominated by Elise Schilowitz, a close personal friend and a 2017 Woman of Choice....
(JTA)-Aleppo, one of the world's oldest cities and Syria's largest metropolis, is synonymous with one of humanity's cruelest conflicts-now surpassing the siege of Sarajevo as the deadliest and longest-running battle for a city in our time. With an estimated 31,000 deaths, the battle for Aleppo has taken more than double the lives lost in Sarajevo. With total Syrian civilian deaths over the past five years reportedly totaling some 450,000, including 50,000 children, the latest atrocities in...
(JTA)—President-elect Donald Trump said a resolution introduced at the United Nations Security Council against Israeli settlements should be vetoed. “As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations,” Trump said in an official statement issued Thursday morning, hours after the resolution was introduced by Egypt the previous afternoon. “This puts Israel in a very poor negotia...
Keith Ellison in letter to Conservative rabbis 'regrets' past ties with Farrakhan WASHINGTON (JTA)-In a lengthy letter to the Conservative movement's rabbinical arm, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison said he regretted past positions that have unsettled Jews as he seeks the chairmanship of the Democratic Party. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, meanwhile, spoke Wednesday with about 50 Jewish Democrats about his own bid to head the Democratic National Committee and reassured them of his bona fides in the area w...
Citizens of Israel, I would like to reassure you. The resolution that was adopted yesterday at the United Nations is distorted and shameful but we will overcome... it. The resolution determines that the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem is ‘occupied territory.’ This is delusional. The resolution determines that the Western Wall is ‘occupied territory.’ This too is delusional. There is nothing more absurd than calling the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter occupied territory. There is also an attempt here, which will not succeed...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Nearly six years ago, when President Barack Obama was set to elevate one of his top emissaries to the Jewish community to the Israel ambassadorship, Dan Shapiro asked for-and got-the endorsement of one of Obama's fiercest pro-Israel critics. "Dan has always spoken to us, patiently and carefully explaining the administration's position, and he does so with aplomb, with concern, and with intense appreciation of the other side's position," Morton Klein, the Zionist Organization of America president, said at the time. Don't expect...
The Jewish Pavilion will honor two exemplary volunteers, Geanne Share and Ruth Darvin, at its Gems and Jeans Gala-an evening of gourmet dining, live music, silent auction and inspiring motivational speaker Bethanne Weiss-on Sunday, Jan. 8, at 5 p.m. at Sheraton Orlando North in Maitland. Of course, the proceeds from this fun evening benefit the seniors served in more than 70 assisted-living and skilled-nursing facilities throughout Central Florida. "I feel very honored, very excited," said Ruth...
On Sunday, Jan. 15, 2017, at 7:30 p.m., Chabad of Orlando will be hosting a special evening at the Embassy Suites located at 225 Shorecrest Drive in Altamonte Springs titled "Kabbalah of Sexuality and Intimacy - Ancient Wisdom to Transform Your Love Life." The event is being headlined by world-renowned author, counselor, lecturer, and philosopher Rabbi Manis Friedman. Friedman uses ancient wisdom and modern wit as he captivates audiences around the country and around the world. He hosts his own...
The Mitzvah Brigade at Congregation Beth Am in Longwood is a volunteer group dedicated to serving the needs of the community, both Jewish and non-Jewish. In 2014, the Mitzvah Brigade adopted Prairie Lake Elementary School when they learned that there was an acute need for food for over 200 students. With the help from many members of CBA and organizations such as Feeding Children Everywhere, Pace Academy and Entenmann's Bakery Outlet-who donated peanut butter, cans of tuna fish, canned...
The Tri County Chapter of Hadassah is proud to present a special fund raising event and luncheon with Barbara Goldstein "BG," deputy executive director of Hadassah Offices in Israel, at Temple Shalom, CR 103, Oxford on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017, at 9:45 a.m. Goldstein will talk about the role of Hadassah's hospitals where all people regardless of origin are served, their research and development, and the importance of the "Chai Society" and "Keeper of the Gate." A couvert of $5 is requested no...
I recently saw worlds being created. My students, 50 Catholic participants in the four-year degree program of the Salesian Pontifical University housed at the Ratisbonne monastery in Jerusalem, together with four priests and I, traveled north to spend a day studying with students at a yeshiva located on Kibbutz Ma’ale Gilboa. The monastery was built in 1874 to house the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion, an order founded by two Jewish converts to Catholicism, Alphonse and Theodore Ratisbonne. The Brothers and Sisters of Sion were dedicated f...
It’s not all Arab terror, clashing demands of ultra-Orthodox and Reform Jews, concerns about what Obama might do in the coming month, Trump in the Oval Office, or barbaric Russians, Syrians, and other Muslims just over the northern border. There’s also been an explosion of concern about women’s legs, and cartoons of the prime minister, at least one of which has raised concerns about another political murder and brought the police to investigate a first-year art student and her teachers. There is also what may be a more serious wave of accus...
While as Jews we celebrate our own New Year with a religious flourish for 10 days, usually in the fall, tell me you won’t do at least a little family and friends this weekend. What a year, right? It looks mightily like we will, in this country of ours have four political parties by the end of 2017. The Democrats are split between the “Regulars” and the “Progressives”; the Republicans between the “Regulars” and the “Tea Party.” Not to worry—we are one of the last developed nations on earth to have only two “major” parties. Will things wo...
In late November, radical protesters in London attacked a Jewish communal building. As they wrestled with police at the gates, they screamed abuse about “baby killers!” and cried out, “It’s a Holocaust!” According to local media outlets, among them the Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish News, the protesters also daubed the building with graffiti that included a Star of David, a smear about a “kosher Holocaust,” and references to the Nazi persecution of the Jews. What was the reason for the protesters’ anger, the cause of their unashamedly ant...
President-elect Donald Trump said during his campaign he wants to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. His nominee for ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has said he hopes he will work from an embassy in the city. Trump’s transition team has affirmed the intention to move the embassy, albeit without a timeline. And now, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, in a forceful speech at Tuesday night’s Chanukah party at the embassy here, encouraged Trump to make good on the pledge, saying it was long past due. Dermer last night enume...
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...
BERLIN (JTA)-Even before the deadly attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, Jews in Germany were divided in their approach to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Muslim countries since 2014. Citing a Jewish moral duty to aid the displaced, many Jewish organizations, synagogue groups and individuals have rallied to help the newcomers, including asylum seekers fleeing the civil war in Syria. But some Jews have warned that the influx of immigrants risks importing to Germany the...
The old educational system has changed. Students are no longer expected to sit in neat little rows and stare at a teacher or a whiteboard an entire school day. Teachers everywhere have abandoned their old teaching methods and have adapted to the newer, more exciting ones of today. One school that has entirely caught onto the wave of modern teaching and successfully integrated the new educational system is Orlando Jewish Day School. The secular and religious teachers work together to plan their...
JFS Orlando, also known as the George Wolly Center, has had some major renovations, thanks to the generous grants the agency has received over the past several months, and E2 Homes, the general contractor for the renovation project. The look is fresh, open and inviting for everyone who comes to the facility, beginning with the ADA-compliant handicap ramp that leads from the parking lot to the easily accessed Pearlman Pantry. Visitors now enter the reception room through a new automatic sliding...
Daniel Bernard Kaprow, son of Marissa Kaprow, and Philip and Sara Kaprow of Winter Springs, will be called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, at Congregation Beth Am in Longwood. Daniel is in the seventh grade at Indian Trails Middle School where he is a member of the Beta Club and plays euphonium (baritone) in the Symphonic band. He also volunteers three mornings a week assisting teachers at Keeth Elementary School. For his Mitzvah Project, Daniel is collecting new/gently...
Remembering Babi Yar... I read this in the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest. What a sad, inhuman reminder of another Nazi atrocity we must never forget! I pass it along to you in part.: "On the 75th anniversary of the murder of more than 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar, WJC President Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder and other WJC leaders travelled to Ukraine to take part in commemorations of the atrocity committed by Nazi Germany on September 29-30, 1941, in Kyiv. Speaking at a dinner event, Amb.Lauder...
Honorees Lois Silverberg (with husband, Mark) and Jane Edelstein with their awards for exemplary service to Orlando's elder community at the Jewish Pavilion's annual JP Connections Luncheon held earlier this month. Both honorees shared that connecting with residents in long-term care made not only a difference in the lives of the seniors they engaged, but the seniors touched their hearts, and made them better people as well. The Pavilion thanks the 300 members, friends, guests, sponsors and...
If there were Jewish saints, my sister would probably be one. Not because she is the devoted mother of three girls, or a busy interior designer, managing a business and a family along with community works. My sister has earned her honorary halo because she does all the above, while also managing the care of my mother, who suffered a stroke almost two years ago. I am the "long distance daughter," 1200 miles away from 'mom,' who now resides in a care facility in suburban Chicago. My long distance...
"A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture." - Abraham J. Heschel, Jewish theologian and philosopher (1907-1972) This past month, Chabad at UCF facilitated a visit to senior citizens at Kinneret Apartments in Orlando. At Kinneret, pride and joy rolled over for all of us. A sense of community was felt as we gathered together to talk about our upcoming...
Grandparents were VIP's at this year's Generation Celebration at Jewish Academy of Orlando On Wednesday, Dec. 21, the last day before the students went on their Winter Break, almost 100 grandparents and special friends joined the students of the Jewish Academy of Orlando for Generation Celebration, an annual event, to share their amazing school with family and friends. The program began with a wonderful breakfast, followed by a broadcast of the WJAO daily news. The students and their...
