Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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As a child, Judith Dazzio didn't have a connection to the Holocaust. She is not Jewish, she did not live in Europe, and she did not live during the war years. There was little reason to expect that the Holocaust and its images would be the center of a decade-long passion in her adulthood. In sixth grade, Dazzio's class was visited by a Holocaust survivor, and that single visit laid the groundwork for an extraordinary body of work. The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based artist spent 10 years creating...
Cantor Allan Robuck is the honoree for Congregation Ohev Shalom's annual gala to be held Feb. 21, 2016 at the synagogue. Cantor Robuck's life and career have always centered around music. He started his calling as a music teacher at Wiley Junior High School in University Heights, Ohio, near where he grew up. In 1983, Allan, his wife Robin and baby Michael moved to Orlando and later that year he started work as an entertainer in Lake Buena Vista and later for Disney attractions. Then in 1989, as...
Woman of Choice Barbara Chasnov has spent decades in service to the community. "Every now and then I have an idea..." That's a familiar refrain to friends and colleagues of Chasnov, a volunteer, an educator and a champion of numerous causes that have helped to shape the Greater Orlando Jewish community since she arrived in Central Florida in 1982. Known for her Southern charm, her attention to detail and her amiable disposition, Chasnov is living proof that style and substance are not mutually e...
After 41 years of taking care of Central Florida children as a pediatrician, Dr. Edward Zissman retired from his private practice, Altamonte Pediatric Associates, on Dec. 31, 2015. It is the end of a fruitful career that began in Philadelphia, his hometown, where he graduated from Temple University and Hahnemann Medical College, and then completed his pediatric internship at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and pediatric residency at the U.S. Naval Hospital and New England Medical Center in Boston....
The Jewish National Fund (JNF) will host its first ever Orlando Gala and Backstage Tour at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016, to honor Jim Pugh and Chuck Steinmetz with Lifetime Achievement Awards for their dedication to the Orlando community and JNF. Guests will be treated to a an exclusive backstage tour of the newly opened Center as well as a special performance by Davis Gaines, who has performed as the Phantom in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "The...
Amid heightened tensions between the two most powerful Muslim nations in the Middle East, experts say the loudest sound might be American silence. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shi'a Muslim dissident who was arrested in 2012 by Saudi authorities, was one of 47 men executed on Jan. 2 by Saudi authorities in the largest mass execution in decades. While nearly all of the 47 men killed had ties with Sunni Muslim terror groups like Al-Qaeda and Islamic State, the inclusion of al-Nimr set off outrage in...
The latest explosion of populist conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia has effectively produced a temporary Middle Eastern Arab alliance with Israel. The common threat of Iran has united the Saudi Arabia aligned Arab world, placing nation after nation on Israel's side in the issue of the security of the Middle East. This security alignment between Israel and the Arabs is besides the Israeli economic and cultural presence that is growing throughout the Arab World and the potential for cooperatio...
On Dec. 21, 2015, Florida became the fifth state in the nation to introduce a landmark resolution to confront the anti-Semitic BDS movement. Building on the nationwide momentum created by Tennessee, legislators in Florida have decided to confront this growing threat as well in 2016. Numerous efforts have increased to boycott Israeli political leaders and businesses. Also, the number of anti-Semitic attacks against Jewish and pro-Israel students on university campuses continues to grow nationwide and in Florida specifically. Parents, students...
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando (JFGO) has announced that applications for the 2016 Ronald Colman Israel Scholarship Fund will be available online starting Monday, Jan. 18. The Ronald Colman Israel Scholarship Fund was made possible by a generous endowment established by the Colman family to encourage Jewish teens in the Greater Orlando area to participate in educational experiences in Israel. The program is open to all Jewish teens in 9th—12th grades who are permanent residents of Central Florida. Gap year programs are not e...
For the next few months, JFS Orlando will host various health professionals in workshops suited to help people live healthier lives. The first workshop will be the Clean Eating Challenge, on Thursday, Jan. 21 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Do you need to shed a few holiday pounds? Are you facing health issues and need to make a change in your diet? Then take the Clean Eating Challenge presented by Polly Keller, who is an Ayurvedic lifestyle consultant, registered yoga teacher, cardiovascular invasive specialist and registered respiratory therapist....
Mr. Gill (an alias to protect his family still in Pakistan) was marked for death. His crime? Being an outspoken Christian in his native Pakistan. Miraculously, he escaped to America, learned English and now is not only surviving but thriving while waiting for political asylum so that he can bring his wife and children to Orlando. In a rare public appearance, Mr. Gill will share his personal story at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church on Saturday, Jan. 23 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. He will also share why a fatwa (a death sentence) was issued against...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—In 1914, Robert Frost published his poem “Mending Wall,” where he coined the maxim, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Those were the days of World War I, and it was perceived at that time that the best way to safeguard international relations and world peace was to clearly demarcate the physical borders between countries. Two decades later, around the time of World War II, the concept of sovereignty had changed to include more than merely defending a country’s territory. The understanding that foreign governments were able t...
Brazil says it will not confirm the Israeli ambassador-designate to the South American nation, Dani Dayan, because it does not want to “show support for the settlement enterprise,” for which Dayan has been an activist. But anyone familiar with Brazilian history knows that it has an extensive “settler” history of its own. The Portuguese settler leader Pedro Alvares Cabral is said to have “discovered” Brazil in the year 1500, although the indigenous tribes living there since time immemorial no doubt saw things differently. The natives num...
A video showing young and religious Israeli men—along with at least one enthusiastic old man—dancing at a wedding and celebrating the killing of an Arab family has gone viral. It’s not “dancing” of the ballroom kind familiar in the better circles of the West, but men only jumping up and down to the beat of music, along with words that urge violence toward Israel’s enemies. Women may be doing something similar in another room, but outside the range of this video. It’s the kind of dancing common at religious weddings, but here with the celebrati...
This week, I was able to talk to many Jewish students from around the world (including a friend from my alma mater who is visiting Israel) about what it is like to be a Jewish student on their university campuses. I graduated from college just about a year and a half ago, and although much has stayed the same, it’s getting more difficult for Jewish students. When I entered college in 2010, my professors were accommodating when I needed to miss class for the high holidays. Yet there always seemed to be a bonding event on Yom Kippur, and I had t...
NEW YORK (JTA)—If you want to understand why the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, or BDS, has gained so much ground in the past two years, look no further than intersectionality, the study of related systems of oppression. Intersectionality holds that various forms of oppression—racism, sexism, classism, ableism, and homophobia—constitute an intersecting system of oppression. In this worldview, a transcendent white, male, heterosexual power structure keeps down marginalized groups. Uniting oppressed groups, the theory goes, stren...
A year ago today (Jan. 7, 2016), the world was stunned by the events unfolding in Paris. First, brothers Sherif and Said Kouachi—both masked, dressed in black, and armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles—forced their way into the editorial offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine, killing 12, including staff members, security personnel, and a guest. The next day, a lone gunman armed with a pistol and a machine gun shot several people in a Paris suburb, killing a policewoman. And the following day, while the brothers were engaged in an 8-hour sta...
MORNING AND EVENING MINYANS (Call synagogue to confirm time.) Chabad of South Orlando—Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. and 10 minutes before sunset; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 8:15 a.m., 407-354-3660. Congregation Ahavas Yisrael—Monday - Friday, 7:30 a.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-644-2500. Congregation Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Daytona—Monday, 8 a.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m., 904-672-9300. Congregation Ohev Shalom—Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-298-4650. GOBOR Community Minyan at Jewish Academy of Orlando—Monday—Friday, 7:45 a.m.—8:30 a.m. Temple I...
In response to anti-Semitic vandalism at UCF, 34 Jewish and civil rights groups—including student groups and the Zionist Organization of America, CAMERA and Simon Wiesenthal Center—wrote to UCF President John Hitt stating that what had been done to date “is simply not enough.” The groups stated their dismay that in the weeks since the stickers and flyers appeared, the UCF administration had not publicly condemned the postings as anti-Semitic, and the Jewish students felt threatened and unsafe. The letter went on to make some recommendations to...
Bertha Kane, age 95, of Orlando, passed away on Friday, Dec. 25, 2015, at Florida Hospital—Altamonte. A native of New York, she was born on Dec. 14, 1920, to the late Morris and Ida Weiner. Mrs. Kane worked as a social worker in the Social Services industry. She is survived by her sons, Gerald (Jane) Kane of Orlando, Fred (Mary Ellen) Kane, and Rabbi S. David (Val) Kane; and a daughter, Marsha Davis. Funeral arrangements entrusted to Beth Shalom Memorial Chapel, 640 Lee Road, Orlando FL 32810....
Zelda Mirsky Newman, 88, passed away Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, at Hospice of the Valley—Sherman Home, in Phoenix, Arizona. Born in Savannah on Oct. 2, 1927, she was the daughter of Fannie and Norman Mirsky. She married Solomon Max Newman on Nov. 26, 1950 in Savannah, Georgia. Mrs. Newman attended the University of Alabama and graduated with a degree in education. She was part owner of the Star Department Stores located in Savannah until she joined Friedman Jewelers in 1978 as an executive assistant before being promoted to handling the d...
The Seeking Kin column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. (JTA)-"Seeking Kin" offers relationship stories over time. They are stories about the meaningful bonds people share with one another, how ties fade and why they mean enough for someone to strive to rekindle them. So as we celebrate our 100th column, we revisit four people with whom I have formed nice friendships while doing research and a fifth, a friend for three decades, who helps make "Seeking Kin" possible. Three...
(Jewniverse via JTA)-Why does putting the word "Jew" in front of any object make it sound a little anti-Semitic? There are several theories for how the jewfish (Promicrops), an Atlantic saltwater grouper with fins and scales, got its name. It may derive from the Italian giupesce, which means "bottom fish," or may have originally been named "jawfish" for its large mouth. A less flattering theory is that in the 1800s, jewfish were declared inferior and only fit for Jews. The Maryland-based...
We are all following the news these days... I recently received the following letter (in part) from Rabbi MARVIN HIER, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center: "I know you have been following the news from Israel with increasing alarm as a wave of murderous stabbings, shootings, bombings and car rammings have been unleashed by Palestinians against their Jewish neighbors. This barbaric and relentless new surge of terrorism has enraged Israelis. And you can see why when you consider the...
(The Nosher via JTA)-Sticky cinnamon bun, meet your new BFF, the rugelach. I think you two will get along very well. I know we're just getting over fried food and latkes galore, but December really isn't for cutting back. It's about holidays, snuggling up by the fire and cookie exchanges. Jan. 1 can just take its turn and wait. But a word of caution: These sticky bun rugelach may be the most indulgent rugelach you have ever tasted. And while I recognize there is nothing like the traditional jam...
