Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 10 of 10
POWAY, Calif. (JTA)-"Those who are standing can remain standing," Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein joked, a nod to the standing-room-only crowd that had packed Chabad of Poway for Friday night services. For many of those who filled the sanctuary, showing up was an act of faith, of solidarity, of defiance just six days after a gunman entered the synagogue, killing one and injuring three, including the rabbi. Goldstein dedicated this "Shabbat of healing" to Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, who was killed in the...
(JTA)-A shooting at a Chabad synagogue in Poway, near San Diego, California, has left one person dead and three injured, including a child. Police in Poway detained a white 19-year-old San Diego man in connection with the shooting on the last day of Passover, and hospitals said they were taking in the wounded people. The suspect left an "open letter" prior to the morning attack, law enforcement said. "A man has been detained for questioning in connection with a shooting incident at the Chabad...
POWAY, California (JTA)-Lori Gilbert-Kaye, who was killed in the attack at a Chabad synagogue near San Diego, is credited with jumping in front of the synagogue's rabbi to shield him from the gunman's bullets. Gilbert-Kaye, 60, of San Diego, is survived by her husband and 22-year-old daughter. "Lori you were a jewel of our community a true Eshet Chayil, a Woman of Valor," her friend Audrey Jacobs, a community activist, wrote in a post on Facebook. "You were always running to do a mitzvah (good...
LOS ANGELES (JTA)-The Woolsey Fire, which began late last week and engulfed a massive swath of Southern California, has killed at least two people, burned nearly 100,000 acres and ravaged hundreds of structures-including several touchstones of Jewish life in this city. Three historic Jewish sleep-away camps and a Jewish retreat center, all nestled in the Malibu hills, were consumed. A Jewish community day school lost three of its buildings, and several synagogues have smoke damage. Many...
LOS ANGELES (JTA)-When Alice (Gerstel) Weit last saw Simon Gronowski, she was 13 and he was 10 and, by Alice's recollection, "the most adorable boy ever." When they reunited this week, 76 years later, "I opened the door and there he was, a frail, little old man," she said. At the threshold of Alice's apartment here, the old friends embraced, and they wept. "They weren't talking; they were speaking with their eyes," said Simon's grandson Romain De Mys, 24, who witnessed the April 10 reunion. Two...
LOS ANGELES (JTA)-Rabbi Marvin Hier has known Charles and Seryl Kushner-Jared Kushner's parents and Donald Trump's in-laws-for decades. The Hiers and the Kushners have gone to the same kosher for Passover resort, the Arizona Biltmore, over the years. The Kushner family, prominent real estate developers, have also been generous donors to the Simon Wiesenthal Center founded by Hier, which he now serves as dean. But the Los Angeles-based Hier said he was shocked three weeks ago when a Trump aide...
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. (JTA)-Back in the 1990s, the Fox series "Beverly Hills, 90210″ tackled eating disorders, gun safety, addiction and AIDS in a tone so earnest that it seems quaint in the era of "Girls" and "Broad City"-shows that eschew the moralizing of TV generations past. In what may be the most famous episode of the teen drama's 10-season run, West Beverly High School seniors get a lesson in student activism. The cause: overturning Donna Martin's school suspension. The movement's r...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Think unity. On the heels of this year's rancorous and polarizing debate over the Iran nuclear deal, organizers of this week's General Assembly of Jewish federations wanted their annual conference to be an opportunity for reconciliation and healing in the Jewish community. At their conference in Washington, they talked about civility, touted the strength of the Israel-America relationship, and managed to secure the participation of Israel's prime minister-who a day before his...
NEW YORK (JTA)-I first met Leon Klinghoffer's daughters in 2004, shortly after my father and stepmother were murdered in a robbery. Back then I was a TMI (too much information) machine, telling my story not only to friends but also to anyone in my line of vision. One Shabbat, after going to the Village Temple in New York to say Kaddish, I approached the rabbi, Chava Koster, and told her, too. Unlike the sales clerk at Staples or the dinnertime telemarketer I had forced off script, Koster...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Rochelle Shoretz was fond of saying, "There are no problems, only solutions." Her approach to life was not to dwell on bad news, but to channel the energy that friends described as boundless into somehow making things better. It's what drove her to establish the national cancer organization Sharsheret after she was first diagnosed with breast cancer at age 28. On Sunday, Shoretz died of complications from the disease at her home in Teaneck, New Jersey. She was 42. At the time of...
