Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) - The Jewish author of best-selling children's book series "A Series of Unfortunate Events" has been tapped to write a horror film based on the legend of the Golem of Prague. Daniel Handler, known by his pen name "Lemony Snicket," will write the movie for independent Jewish production company Leviathan Productions, from veteran film producer Ben Cosgrove and Josh Foer, a freelance journalist, the co-founder of the adventure travel brand Atlas Obscura and co-founder of Sefaria, the...
(JNS) - An unusual duo made the two-mile-plus walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau last week during the annual March of the Living in Poland: Robert Kraft, Jewish billionaire New England Patriots owner and philanthropist who launched a campaign last month opposing antisemitism, and Meek Mill, a prominent rapper. "It's important for me to learn humanity's history," said Mill. "It's also important for me to support Robert, all my Jewish friends, everyone that always supported me," he added. Mill...
Most people think they know what Hospice is, but they have many misconceptions. The foremost is that a person on Hospice care is about to die. When my mother received a terminal diagnosis, she went on Hospice care the next day. She lived for more than three months. Many people live more than a year on Hospice care. The second misconception is that Hospice is a place. Hospice is not a place. Hospice care can be provided wherever you reside — in your home or in independent assisted or skilled nursing. Some hospitals have a Hospice wing. There a...
(JTA) — A new drama on Netflix centered on a haredi Orthodox family that runs a business in Antwerp’s famed diamond district hit the platform on Friday and is drawing comparisons to the hit Israeli series “Shtisel.” “Rough Diamonds,” a joint production from Israel’s Keshet International and Belgium’s De Mensen, follows the Wolfson family as it navigates internal tension and business struggles in the wake of a death in the family. The protagonist, who left the haredi world 15 years earlier, returns to Antwerp to look into his relative’s deat...
(JTA via J. The Jewish News of Northern California) - When the Sacramento Kings face the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the NBA playoffs, they will be led by their Lithuanian-American - and soon-to-be-Jewish - center, Domantas Sabonis. The 26-year-old All-Star is in the process of converting to Judaism, according to his Jewish wife, Shashana Sabonis (née Rosen). "We really haven't talked about it [publicly]," she said in an interview this week. "He loves [Judaism] and really wants...
(JTA) - Ben Stiller offered his own High Holiday alternative to Adam Sandler's "Chanukah Song" as his fellow Jewish comedian accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. During an awards ceremony that took place on March 19 and aired on CNN, Stiller asked from the stage at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts how Sandler's novelty song, first heard on "Saturday Night Live" in 1994, became a seasonal standard. "It's really just a list of rhyming celebrity names, and yet...
(JTA) — A matchmaker who says she has successfully paired 200 Jewish couples is the star of “Jewish Matchmaking,” a Netflix series that started streaming May 3. Netflix announced the series, a spinoff of its wildly successful “Indian Matchmaking” show, nearly a year ago. Now, new details that the streaming giant released on Thursday reveal that it will take place in both the United States and Israel and will feature people from a variety of Jewish backgrounds. Their guide will be Aleeza Ben Shalom, an Orthodox Jewish dating coach with a decade...
In the spring of 1959, Lawrence Golub and Roy Ans graduated from high school in Valley Stream on Long Island, N.Y., and chose colleges to attend. Golub and Ans had known each other from grade school. While Golub went to the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Ans chose to attend Washington College - a very small college with only 500 students, and less than two percent were Jewish. The college, referred to as the "hidden gem on the Eastern Shore," was nestled in a very small town called...
Getting extra support at home can be a terrific source of relief. Agencies offer companion care such as CNA’s (certified nurse’s assistants or HHA’s Home health aides.) Normally, these individuals take a brief course on how to care for someone. Another option are skilled health care providers who have had years of schooling such as nurses, physical therapists etc. Normally, Medicare and Medicaid pays for some home care after a hospital visit. Most home care providers will assist with transportation, cleaning cooking, bathing, toileting, perso...
(JTA) - "It's like a Jewish 'Lord of the Rings,' but he's just going to his mom's house." That's how director Ari Aster, known for his acclaimed horror movies "Hereditary" and "Midsommar," described his new film, "Beau Is Afraid," in a behind-the-scenes video released on Wednesday. Aster, who works with A24, the same studio behind this year's Oscars darling "Everything Everywhere All at Once," said in a 2018 interview that he is a "proud Jew" who "doesn't practice very actively," and his...
People over the age of 65 represent 14 percent of the U.S. population but consume more than one-third of prescription medications. The average senior citizen uses more than five different medications each day. This does not count nonprescription, over-the-counter drugs. As many as 90 percent of seniors also use herbal remedies and vitamins. While there is risk associated with each type of medication — including side effects, allergic reactions or interactions with food, alcohol or other drugs — the risk is magnified with seniors as they are...
(JNS) - M&H Distillery (Milk and Honey) received the accolade of "Best Single Malt Whisky in the World" for its Element Sherry Cask at the prestigious World Whiskies Awards 2023 competition. M&H Distillery was also accredited the "Craft Producer of the Year" and "Distiller of the Year" last month during the same competition. The World Whiskies Awards is held every year in Britain and features all of the world's leading brands. The competition comprises a panel of judges selecting winners for...
It’s Switzerland in 1945 and the war has just ended. A group of deeply traumatized, ragged-looking Jewish teenagers recently liberated from Buchenwald have been sent to live in a former Swiss school building. A young Swiss woman named Klara cares for them, while her new husband, Johann, runs her family’s textile business, whose success is dependent on the work of unrepentant Nazis living in comfort in Swiss exile. Johann’s brother, Egon, home from the war after five years working as a Swiss border guard, is wracked by guilt for having to turn...
Mystical, spiritual, busy –and darn fun! That's my description of my recent eight-day trip to Israel sponsored by the Jewish Learning Institute, Chabad's comprehensive learning/educational resource company headquartered in Brooklyn. The trip was attended by some 750 Jews and 60 rabbis from across the United States, plus a few international travelers. The March 12-19 Israel trip was unique in that it offered seven different programming tracks, with names like "Food and Wine," "In the Footsteps of...
(JNS) — Gloria Greenfield is about to premiere a new movie, and that’s always very good news. Greenfield has produced, co-produced and directed five films over the last 15 years, all passionate works in defense of truth, Israel and Western civilization. She always assembles an honorable cast of cutting-edge thinkers. These days, they are known as “conservatives.” They are, perhaps, Western civilization’s front-line defenders. Her new film is titled “Civilization in the Danger Zone.” It is aptly titled and very timely. As Kenneth L. Marcus, di...
(JTA) — Holocaust documentaries tend to sit along a scale from horrific to heartwarming. For every “Night Will Fall,” the rediscovered British film showing gruesome scenes from newly liberated Nazi concentration camps, there is a family-friendly film about a survivor, like “The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm.” Some critics distrust Holocaust documentaries that have “happy” endings, or that focus on the second chance given to survivors, as if they betray the fate of the many more millions of Jews who died rather than survived. Raye Farr, the form...
(JNS) - The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was not the only example of armed Jewish resistance against the Nazis during the Holocaust. A very small percentage of ghetto prisoners fought, and the revolt occurred late in the war, from April 19 to May 16, 1943. "There is plenty of ignorance in the general public about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and about the context in which it took place," Zachary Mazur, a senior historian at the Warsaw-based POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, told JNS. Mazur...
By Philissa Cramer (JTA) — The journalist who was arrested in Russia last month and the Biden administration’s antisemitism envoy are among the 10 Jewish members of Time magazine’s “100 most influential people of 2023.” The magazine’s annual list, released Thursday, includes politicians, business titans, artists and innovators from around the world, from President Joe Biden to a YouTube sensation with 145 million subscribers. Each entry is accompanied by a short essay by another prominent figure. Here are the Jews who made the cut. Sam Altman...
Did you know that three out of four adults have HPV by the age of 30, and 62 percent of freshman in college? HPV-related tonsil cancer has become an epidemic among men between the ages of 40 – 60. April is Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Month. To celebrate survivors and give hope to patients and caregivers, as well as honor those who died, Jason Mendelsohn is making a difference by raising funds and awareness with a Whiskey and Wine Fundraiser and Awareness Event at Mercedes-Benz of Orlando on Sunday, April 23, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. M...
(JNS) — They started popping up on social media one after another on Monday afternoon. Israeli flags blowing in the wind. Israeli flags with pictures of families hugging each other. Israeli flags with the image of a mother and her two daughters smiling, with the words “Am Yisrael chai”—Hebrew for “The nation of Israel lives.” On Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the images were posted within hours of Rabbi Leo Dee’s plea to post photos of Israeli flags to honor the memory of his wife, Lucy, and daughters Maia and Rina. The 22-year-old a...
This article was sent to Heritage right before Passover but was too late to make it in one of the two papers that come out during Passover. Still, we felt it should be shared because it is so timely. There are many things that are charming about Jerusalem. Once, I read a book titled "Letters From Jerusalem 1947-1948" by a woman who lived here in the 1940s, fought during the War of Independence, and spoke about many of the challenges of living in Jerusalem at that time. One thing that struck me w...
(JTA) — There are 49 days between the second night of Passover and the holiday of Shavuot, but who’s counting? Jews the world over, in fact, and in languages familiar and obscure. The daily counting of the Omer is an old ritual being given new life this season by the Jewish Language Project at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. On each day of the seven-week period, the research group will post a version of the counting in a different vernacular Jewish language, from Ladino and Yiddish to less familiar languages like Jud...
(JTA) - The 2023 MLB season is almost upon us, and it has the potential to be a historic year for Jews in professional baseball. Last year, 17 Jewish players appeared in a game - a likely record. This season, the number could be even higher. The slate of Jewish players in the game this year features stars such as Max Fried and Alex Bregman, on-the-rise big league talent like Harrison Bader and Dean Kremer, and an impressive wave of minor league prospects on the cusp of the majors. With the World...
(JTA) - While the United States swung its door shut to most refugees during World War II, a young American in France saved thousands, including some of the 20th century's defining artists and thinkers - such as Marc Chagall and Hannah Arendt - from the Nazis. The rescue mission of Varian Fry, which went largely unrecognized during his life, is the subject of Netflix's new drama "Transatlantic," from "Unorthodox" creator Anna Winger. Starring Cory Michael Smith as Fry, the seven-episode...
When visiting a doctor or hospital bring along a notebook or tablet and take notes. It is important to ask question of your health care provider about the benefits and side effects of medications or procedures. I suggest that you, or a loved one, researches the same information online so that you feel well informed. There are times when a second opinion should be sought, especially preceding a surgery. I recommend you bring along an advocate. Sometimes, it is hard to process so much new information. When a family member or friend comes to an ap...
