Sorted by date Results 451 - 457 of 457
Shades of Mel Gibson… Television’s Military Channel has been showing many WWII films, mostly in honor of Memorial Day and the week after. One of the series titled “Nazi Collaborators,” shows the gathering of Jews in different cities of the German occupation. In most cases, they were loaded on to railway cars and sent off to concentration camps. You know their fate. Some were lucky enough to survive the war and even make it to Israel! Israel is very special to our people. This fact makes the following notice from the Simon Wiesenthal Center... Full story
It looks eerily similar… I’m not that old, but I do remember photos of the devastation after the bombing of Berlin near the end of World War II. (I was merely a toddler). I just saw the photos on television of the devastation caused by a monster tornado that hit a town in Oklahoma. It looked eerily similar! Of course, the first thought that comes to mind is that we must help. But where do we start? What should we do? Let me suggest: The Jewish Federations of North America have opened a mailbox to gather aid from across the Jewish Fed... Full story
”Oy am I fahklempt” department… You know what fahklempt means… eyes tear up and a lump in the throat. That’s how I felt after just seeing “Yankee Doodle Dandy” on television with James Cagney. (I know very few actor’s names these days. It feels great to see a name I recognize.) Anyway, although I know that Hollywood movies take liberties with the whole truth, it was still nice to hear the story of George M. Cohan, who at the turn of the last century, wrote songs like “Give my regards to Broadway,” “Over There” and “You’re a Grand Old Fla... Full story
“Brasil, where hearts were entertaining June…” Trust me… Brasil is spelled correctly. It is not spelled “Brazil.” I have been to Brasil four times… to record my CDs, to perform shows, to do television, etc., so I know that is the correct spelling in Brasil. My agent is a Brasileiro, born and raised in Sao Paulo. He is also a Jewish man, an entertainment lawyer and owner of his own recording company. His name is ROBERTO DRATCU. Roberto has been here in Central Florida many times to work with me. We also have Brasilian Jews living here. Among t... Full story
Oy vay… ”Oy Vay”! That expression really describes how I feel. I’ve written about the terrible increase in anti-Semitism in Europe recently. Now I find that the trend seems to be surfacing in America as well! I’ve described in this column what my childhood was like in the very poor and very tough section of Brooklyn called Red Hook, where, with my family, I lived in the section’s low rent project for folks on welfare. I told how I was beaten daily because I was Jewish. I was only 5 or 6 years old at the time. After I had taken enough of t... Full story
Welcome Jewish Americans… May is designated “Jewish American Heritage Month.” (I bet you didn’t know that. I certainly didn’t!) It is the official time we celebrate the contributions of Jewish Americans who have helped weave the fabric of American history, culture and society. (You can learn more about it at www.jahm.us.). Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz (a familiar name to most of us) and his wife Nesha Manischewitz are the first to be the founding corporate sponsors of Jewish American Heritage Month. They arrived in America in late 1885 from... Full story
A correction… In last week’s column I suggested sending garbage pails filled with doggie poop bags over to North Korea as a missile. I now realize that was such a bad idea because human poop is used to fertilize the soil in North Korea. If they are accustomed to inhaling that, well… what more need I say? Texas, Boston, Ricin poisoned letters… What a week. I shudder to think what’s in store. It’s starting to feel like we are living in Pakistan! So much hate, so many sick and twisted people. We don’t know who is responsible (as I write this colum... Full story