Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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By Etgar Lefkovits (JNS) - A mudbrick passageway dating back nearly four millennia has been uncovered in northern Israel's Jezreel valley, archaeologists revealed on Thursday. The completely intact 3,800-year-old monumental passageway, which was discovered at Tel Shimron, is the first of its kind to be found in the southern Levant and provides a key missing link in the history of the arch in the region, said excavation co-director Daniel M. Master. Tel Shimron, an immense ruin that dominates...
(JTA) - Super Bowl champion Leonard Fournette paid a surprise visit to a Jewish overnight camp for children with cancer, blood disorders and other chronic illnesses. Fournette, who won a Super Bowl in 2021 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, ran football drills, signed autographs and danced with campers during his visit on Sunday to Camp Simcha in Glen Sprey, New York. He arrived in a helicopter and revealed himself from under a fake tiger head to a room of cheering campers. Camp Simcha and a sister...
Being outdoors is good for everyone. Nature may also help protect against the risk of developing certain neurodegenerative disorders. In a study of millions of seniors who spent time in "green spaces" such as parks or yards, those who lived in an area "with more green space" had lower rates of hospitalization for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and related dementias such as vascular dementia and Lewy body dementia." Experts believe that being in nature reduces our stress. We have long k...
(JTA) — Amar’e Stoudemire hasn’t donned a Phoenix Suns jersey since 2010, but soon, no Suns player will wear his No. 32 ever again. The Suns announced Wednesday that Stoudemire, along with his teammate Shawn Marion, would be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor during the 2023-2024 NBA season. According to the team’s press release, this represents “the franchise’s highest honor bestowed to individuals who have made an enduring impact on the organization, community and Suns fans.” Stoudemire, who formally converted to Judaism in 2020, played...
(JTA) - When David Corenswet was announced as the next DC Comics Superman last month, Jewish movie and comic fans rejoiced: He will be the first Jewish actor to portray the hero in a blockbuster. But one Jewish community in New Orleans has been particularly excited. "The Corenswet family is well known and loved" in New Orleans, said Daniel Sherman, rabbi of the city's historic Temple Sinai synagogue. "I have also heard a few groups talking about having some screening events to support David and...
(JNS) - It's popular to refer to contemporary issues as Orwellian, and one must wonder whether George Orwell would see echoes of his dystopian vision of 1984 in 2023. I'm not sure how many people are aware that Orwell also wrote about antisemitism in Britain, and that his observations on the subject also resonate today. Writing in 1945, Orwell said he was speaking based on his own experience. He reported that antisemitism was increasing and had been "greatly exacerbated" by the war. He did not...
(JTA) - We grew up in South Carolina in the late 1960s and '70s, one of us from the capital city, Columbia, and the other from the small town of Summerton. The foods served on our respective tables were a blend of Southern and Jewish, menus long ago established by our immigrant grandmothers and the African-American women who cooked for their families. Kashrut was observed in our grandmothers' kitchens, and Southern recipes recrafted for a kosher table mingled quite comfortably with the stuffed...
(JTA) - Israeli-Canadian billionaire and philanthropist Sylvan Adams, a key figure in the development of Israeli competitive cycling, won a world championship of his own in the sport's 65-69 age group. At the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Scotland, Adams, who owns the Israel-Premier Tech Cycling Team, finished first in the Masters 65-69 age group on Friday. Then on Monday, Adams, who turns 65 in November, also finished first in his age bracket in the championship's individual time tria...
(JTA) — Emily Talento grew up with Jewish friends and relatives on Long Island, attending Passover seders, bar and bat mitzvahs and Shabbat dinners. When she arrived at Cedarville University, a private Baptist university in Ohio, she found herself explaining Jewish traditions to her many classmates who had never met a Jew before. Now, Talento is continuing her Bible studies at a religious university. But it’s safe to say that she won’t encounter the same lack of knowledge about Jews this time. That’s because she’s one of eight Christian...
(JNS) - Finally, a movie about two Jews facing off in a war of ambitions, petty rivalries and contrasting moral absolutes-with actual wars in the background! ("Schindler's List," after all, is a film about two Nazis.) Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" is a movie experience worth watching in old-school fashion-in a darkened theater, on a wide screen that does not allow for pandemic-streaming or impulsive pausing. Nolan, the director of "Interstellar," "Memento," "Inception" and "The Prestige,"...
(JNS) - Sarah Booz, a recent transplant to the Midwest from New York, found a familiar taste of home more than 1,100 miles away. In a video that has now received more than 275,000 views (and counting), the TikTok creator praises the food and overall experience at Maccabee's Kosher Deli in the capital city of Iowa. Wearing brightly colored glasses, Booz starts the video by saying: "I found a New Yorker-owned Jewish deli in Des Moines, and I am so happy." She describes how the deli's owner, Rabbi...
This is a story about an orthodox wife and mother, a busy Bubbe, a retired schoolteacher and a full-time dental hygienist, who at a moment in her life, or so it seemed at the time, was Divinely inspired to compose music. At first, the lyrics came, and then the melody, resulting in her first composition titled "Please See." Since this time, she hasn't turned back and has written over 20 songs, with three that have been produced into singles. Michelle Anflick, the daughter of Dr. Michael Fineberg...
(JNS) - Sea travel has always posed formidable challenges-especially for Jews. Keeping kosher, observing Shabbat and venturing into a sea of people who aren't Jewish isn't easy for the strictly observant. The challenges are compounded on cruises, where numerous questions come up. If most of the passengers are Jewish and the staff is not, is it permissible to cruise on Shabbat? If the ship docks on Shabbat, can you disembark? How do you light candles when you are forbidden to light a flame? How...
(JNS) - A deli chef prepares roast pork sandwiches as a museum official quotes from the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot, often translated as "Ethics of the Fathers." Saturday's Borscht Belt Fest was decidedly not kosher, but there was a clear Jewish vibe to it as attendees flocked to Ellenville, N.Y., to reminisce about the golden age of the Catskill Mountains as a Jewish summer getaway. The first-ever festival, held on July 29 in the searing summer heat, included a street fair, comedy shows, lectures,...
Wilfrid Israel risked his own life to save tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. Yad Vashem refuses to recognize and honor him. Yad Vashem refuses to recognize and honor the more than 200 Jews identified so far by the Israeli Committee, Jews who Rescued Jews during the Holocaust. B'nai Brith International recognizes them. Haim Roet, himself a child survivor of the Holocaust because a Jew saved his life from the Nazis, tried for many years to get Yad Vashem to change their policy....
(JNS) - Gal Gadot's first Hollywood audition was for the role of a James Bond girl in "Quantum of Solace," alongside Daniel Craig. Although Gadot did not get the role, now, a decade and a half later, she finds herself playing a female version of 007 in "Heart of Stone"-a big-buck action thriller that will air on Netflix on Aug. 11 (and which will be, if all goes as planned, the first installment of an ongoing series). The days when she was regarded as "the girl of" are long gone. Today Gadot is...
(JNS) — Tel Aviv University researchers have proposed a new theory for why the body’s tanning process does not occur immediately after exposure to the sun’s rays, but only after a few hours or even days. The study found that the body’s initial response to sun exposure is to prioritize repairing DNA damage in the skin cells, which inhibits the mechanism responsible for skin pigmentation, commonly known as tanning. The research, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, was led by doctoral student Nadav Elkoshi and Professor Carmit...
(JTA) — For decades, armchair analysts scrutinizing the mysteries of the President John F. Kennedy assassination have fixated on who, exactly, opened his future assassin’s mail while he was under CIA surveillance. As the conspiracy theory went, that person would have understood Lee Harvey Oswald’s relationship with the Soviet Union and thus could unlock new information about a possible Communist plot against Kennedy — or a U.S. government plot to obscure his true killer. Last month, a new document dump in the ongoing declassification of Kenn...
(JNS) — Recently, seated in a cold Washington, D.C., conference room, I listened as speakers spoke of allies who support Israel and the Jewish people. The word “ally” is commonly used these days. Everyone wants to be allies of the cause du jour. While I was sitting there, however, the word “ally” brought me back to history class. Its connotation felt more military than I think any of the speakers intended. The Jewish community and Israel have a special place in the world. There are those who love them and those who hate them. Now antisemit...
(JNS) - A teenage student uncovered a 1,500-year-old "magical mirror" from the Byzantine period this week during an Israel Antiquities Authority excavation at the ancient site of Usha in northern Israel. Aviv Weizman, from Kiryat Motzkin, near Haifa, was one of 500 students participating in a week-long "Survival Course" that included a 56-mile trek and participation in excavations at archaeological sites around Israel that will be opened to the public in the future. At the site, the 17-year-old...
JAFFA, Israel (JTA) - The Hebrew lyrics for an Israeli sandwich shop ad don't sound quite like a typical Israeli night club anthem. "Kebab, merguez sausage, shakshuka/Vegetables and onion are always interesting...Now that you've eaten a baguette with soul/you will definitely be back," the song goes. But "Omelette Bread in Netanya," the song in an ad for a shop of the same name in the coastal city, has gone viral in Israel, racking up millions of views on TikTok and spawning hundreds of spin-offs...
(JNS) — Israeli-American astrophysicist believes he may have found alien life. The purported discovery took place more than a mile underwater near Papua New Guinea. Those in search of aliens from other planets would typically look to the stars. But one high-level academic who happens to have a $100 million budget opted to look into the depths of the ocean to uncover what he reported earlier this month may be key discoveries. Avi Loeb, 61, who chaired Harvard University’s astrophysics department from 2011 to 2020, recently led a $1.5 mil...
(JTA) - According to the Jewish Virtual Library, 550,000 Jews served in the United States armed forces during World War II. There were 38,338 Jewish casualties, while 26,000 Jewish soldiers "received citations for valor and merit." But in high-profile TV and film, identifiably Jewish soldiers have been a rare sight. One exception came 25 years ago this week, when Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" hit theaters. The movie is perhaps best known for its opening sequence, for which Spielberg...
(JTA) - As head of programming for Maccabi USA, Shane Carr is used to having people ask him to add sports to the organization's many Jewish sports tournaments around the world. But since 2019, one sport has been suggested above all others: pickleball. Widely considered the fastest-growing sport in America, pickleball is a sort of condensed court tennis and pingpong hybrid that has attracted millions of new fanatics since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, from middle schoolers to the likes...
(JTA) - Josh Harris already owned parts of professional sports teams in the NBA, NHL, NFL and the English Premier League. But when the opportunity arose to purchase his hometown Washington Commanders, the Chevy Chase, Maryland, native said it was "bashert," using the Yiddish word for fate. Harris, a co-founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, which manages over $500 billion in assets globally, bought the Commanders earlier this year from embattled Jewish owner Daniel Snyder...
