Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2926 - 2950 of 4376
AMSTERDAM (JTA)-In a country where 75 percent of Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, the Moszkowicz family of lawyers stood out as a unique Jewish success story. Descended from Max Moszkowicz, a steel-willed Auschwitz survivor who became Holland's first modern celebrity attorney, his four lawyer sons took the family business to new heights, turning their name into a household brand here with winning arguments in some of the country's most famous trials. Max Moszkowicz himself in 1987 obtained...
Shades of Jack Benny... Everyone who remembers beloved comedian, JACK BENNY, remembers that he always claimed to be 39 years old. (Well mentally, maybe). Anyway, I believe that's where the Jewish Community Center's 39ers Group got its name! I attended a meeting of the 39ers last Monday afternoon. The members were all very nice and welcoming to me. I knew most of them by their faces but could not remember names. Many knew my name though, because of this column. JCC Program Director MARNI...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Eve Goldberg's son, Isaac, was in a panic. He had to get out of college. Isaac Goldberg Volkmar had been at the University of Rhode Island for less than a semester in 2009 when he called his mother desperate to escape. He had joined a fraternity, where his brothers got him to take the pain medications Percocet and OxyContin. After a few months the New York teen knew he was addicted and needed help. From there, Isaac was in and out of rehab in Pennsylvania and New York. He...
By Pamela Ruben A few days ago our youngest flew the coop, and was off to college without so much as a look back. His newly empty-nesting parents made up for his lack of nostalgia with a few tears and endless Facebook posts about his launch and arrival at college. Since he's been gone, we have received six short texts (but who's counting?) and one emoji sharing his status, which we can report is 'thumbs up.' From his cryptic messages, I have pieced together that all is well, and that, for the...
(The Nosher via JTA)-In thinking about "Jewish" desserts, certain dishes immediately come to mind: Babka. Rugelach. Hamantaschen. And, if you ask me, the black and white cookie. I don't think I'm alone here, but I didn't actually know why. So I did some research and discovered that the iconic cookie has ties to Glaser's Bake Shop on Manhattan's Upper East Side, which opened in 1902. Now I don't date back quite that far, but I can unequivocally claim a lifelong love affair with the black and...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Instead of visiting the Western Wall, they visited Ellis Island. Instead of hiking in the Negev Desert, they took a day trip to a Habonim-Dror summer camp. Instead of basking in the sun on the Tel Aviv beach, they watched clips of the Three Stooges mocking the Nazis. And instead of Birthright, a 10-day trip meant to acquaint American Jews with Israel, a cohort of Israeli graduate students participated in a 10-day trip to get to know American Jews. The trip, which began June 18,...
HARRISBURG, Pa. (JTA)-Taking a seat on the dugout bench of the Portland Sea Dogs, Nate Freiman politely dismisses the premise that he pines to return to the major leagues. Maybe it's a defense mechanism now that he's two seasons and three organizations removed from his last appearance in the bigs. But Freiman, dripping sweat from pregame batting and fielding practice, projects sincerity in his gratitude for playing baseball professionally-all the more so for his hometown Red Sox's AA affiliate...
Since our last column, our Central Florida community has been changed indelibly. While the horrific attack at the Pulse nightclub brought immense grief and anger to our City Beautiful, the resulting collaborations to promote inclusion and unity have made us extremely proud to be Orlando Strong. As a Jewish community, it has been so heartening to see our clergy out in force with their counterparts from other faiths, to see our synagogues lead discussions on healing and to watch our community members participate as individuals in the various...
The seed for the city of Cleveland's first professional championship in a major sport in 52 years may have been planted at the Shaw Jewish Community Center on White Pond Drive in Akron, Ohio, nearly 20 years ago. That's when a tall, lanky kid from Akron named LeBron James walked onto the hardwood court and changed the game of basketball forever. Coach Keith Dambrot, now the head basketball coach at the University of Akron, conducted those sessions that attracted between 50 and 100 players....
About Israeli boycotts... I read this in a recent issue of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and will share it with you: "The World Jewish Congress welcomed a decision by the British government to issue binding guidance to all public authorities in the UK aimed at preventing them from boycotting Israeli suppliers and imposing stiff penalties on those who do. WJC CEO ROBERT SINGER called the new rules 'a significant step and a major victory against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions...
(Kveller via JTA)—It’s a truth universally acknowledged that if you have a child, random strangers will talk to you. They will comment on your child’s looks or behavior or on your parenting skills, or they’ll tell you about their own children, or they’ll offer unasked-for advice. Sometimes the best response is to politely yet briefly engage, then move on. Sometimes the conversation actually is interesting and you want to chat more. Sometimes it’s worth speaking up and pointing out the idiocy/offensiveness of what they’re saying. And sometimes...
PARIS (JTA)-On a crowded sidewalk in the French capital, Yomi Peretz exchanges jokes and backslaps with customers who are waiting in a 20-yard queue in the rain to enter his falafel shop. This chummy interaction comes naturally to Peretz, a tall enthusiast of boxing and poker who owns and runs l'As du Fallafel (The Falafel Ace), one of the best-known eateries in Paris. But working the crowd also serves a commercial purpose. "I do it to keep up morale in the queue," Peretz said on a recent Thursd...
(The Nosher via JTA)-I make chicken so often that my kids once told me we were all going to grow feathers and start clucking. But they never complained that it was the same old chicken because it never was. There are few foods as versatile as this worthy bird, so it was always easy for me to prepare it in a multitude of ways. Over the years I learned that chicken dinner never has to be boring. Chicken meat is so mild-certainly not as distinctive as, say, lamb or duck-that you can pair it with...
This is a story about the power of letters to span both years and miles, and to unite the hearts of children and their parents when powers they can't control force them apart. More than a dozen years ago in Worcester, Mass., Prof. Deborah Dwork got a letter from a man in Switzerland she'd never heard of. Ulrich Luz told her about something he'd discovered packed away in a suitcase among his late aunt's belongings that might be of interest to Dwork. Indeed it was-so much so that she is now...
(Kveller via JTA)-My dear innocent child, Something terrible happened. A very bad man took a gun and went into a place where there were many kind, innocent, loving people, and he shot them. He killed many and injured even more. No, none of our family members were hurt. No, no one we knew personally was there. No, that bad man is not alive anymore. "Why would one person hurt other people?" you asked me. I don't know. But he did. He hurt people who are gay and people who are straight. He hurt Jews...
When our synagogue heard about the horrific tragedy that took place at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, it was at the same time that we were celebrating the festival of Shavuot, which celebrates God's giving of the Torah. As Orthodox Jews, we don't travel or use the Internet on the Sabbath or on holidays, such as Shavuot. But on Sunday night, as we heard the news, I announced from the pulpit that as soon as the holiday ended at 9:17 p.m. Monday, we would travel from our synagogue in Northwest...
Former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali died Friday June 3, 2016, at age 74 after being hospitalized in Phoenix with a respiratory ailment. While the cause of death was not disclosed, Ali had been living with Parkinson's disease for many years. As expressions of grief and support have poured in from all over the world in the wake of his death, so have stories of Ali's complicated relationship with Zionism and the Jewish people. Muhammad Ali was born in Louisville, Ky., as a...
When Susan Silverman landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, she was on a mission. When she left, it was with a new member of her family, a little boy she and her husband, Yossi Abramowitz, named Adar. "We were matched with our son Adar on the holiday of Purim, which means lots," says Silverman, a Reform rabbi. "We were taking a chance, throwing lots, in building a family-because having kids means you take risks in terrifying ways, because the world is a dangerous place and, with kids, you put your...
"When it comes to apartheid, Israel sucks." It's a key quote delivered by American comedian Brad Stine, a devout Christian and a featured personality in a new documentary film called "Hating Israel: In Search of the Truth Behind BDS." The premiere of the 90-minute film produced by Laurie Cardoza-Moore, founder and president of the Christian Zionist organization Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN), was held in Jerusalem on June 8, in front of an audience of Knesset members, Israel...
By Ben Sales NEW YORK (JTA)-When the 2015 movie "Freeheld" came out, featuring Steve Carell as the real-life LGBT rights activist Steven Goldstein, Goldstein sang its praises to publication after publication. How did he really feel? "It was painful to watch," he told JTA last week. "I detested the movie from the first time I saw it. The portrayal of me in the movie was downright anti-gay. The movie was a grotesque stereotype." The movie tells the true 2005 story of a terminally ill lesbian...
Who carries a gun?... (If you do, please don't tell... and don't shoot!) What kind of introduction to a column is this, you ask? Well, my answer is, knowing that I write this column well in advance of publication, the worst massacre in U.S. history happened just yesterday in Orlando. What a nightmare this year has been for me. First, many months ago, losing Irv, my spouse of 55 years. Then a few days ago, hearing from my cousin that his dearest friend committed suicide and now this disaster....
Sometimes we sow seeds in life and don't get to appreciate the harvest. Recently I had the privilege to experience the result of my sowing seeds close to a decade ago, and seeing the full impact of the harvest today. In what seems like a lifetime ago, I had connected with Avi Liberman, a well-known comedian whose career was (and is still) taking off. During the beginning of what's known as Israel's "second intifada," Liberman resolved that his response was to fight terror with laughter. He...
NEW YORK (JTA)-First there was "Tinder for bras." Now there's a Yelp for sheitels, the wigs worn by many married Orthodox Jewish women. ShayTell may be the first-ever online customer review site for wigs. It's certainly the most cleverly named. And if you've never considered the demand for such a site, consider this: When was the last time you bought, say, a computer, without knowing a thing about its quality, components and warranty? That's a predicament facing many observant Jewish women,...
Some of you might have seen the piece I wrote for The Washington Post describing our visit as a congregation to The Fireplace on Monday night. (See page 1 of the Heritage). I received an enormous amount of feedback about our story--emails and messages of support from all over the world. Clearly the visit resonated with people. When we announced that we were doing it, we thought it was going to be a small local thing just to connect on a human level with some members of the gay community in DC. But it grew and grew. Just to show you the impact...
