Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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WASHINGTON (JTA)-Barack Obama got his kishkes back. The president, whose alleged aloofness was the signature flaw cited by his rivals, his critics and at times his friends, ended his presidency with an impassioned appeal for the preservation of democracy-his lower lip trembling, a tear streaking his cheek. For sure, Obama could be emotional, heimishe even-remember his tears while speaking with the parents of the children slain in Newtown, Connecticut, or his singing of "Amazing Grace" during...
(JTA)-A bomb threat is never an inconsequential thing. But 16 in one day is inconceivable-at least it was until Monday, Jan. 9. That's when 16 Jewish community centers in nine states received calls threatening a bomb on site. While the bombs turned out to be hoaxes, the calls themselves were not. They were designed to create a kind of disruptive terror in places that serve as visible community hubs of activity. The JCCs affected stretched from Florida to New Jersey, where the temperature was 11...
Ellen Hershkin, national president of Hadassah, will visit with the members of the Orlando Chapter on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, at 1 p.m. to discuss the organizations plans for the upcoming year and beyond. Rita Weissmann has graciously opened her home for an afternoon coffee to greet President Hershkin. Since the beginning of her membership in 1973, Hershkin has held various leadership roles within Hadassah. In addition to serving on Hadassah's National Board and Executive Committee, Hershkin is...
Congregation Beth Am will celebrate over four decades serving the Jewish community and honor the CBA Mitzvah Brigade at its 40th Anniversary Gala on Sunday, Feb. 19, 6:30 p.m., at the Rosen Plaza Hotel. The event will include a kosher dinner, dancing and a raffle/silent auction. Bob Rosenberg and Tom Mayer, both former CBA presidents, are co-chairing this event, which is also billed as a mitzvah project as the synagogue is partnering with Nemours Children’s Hospital. “We will gather together past and present Beth Am members and the com...
The incoming Donald Trump presidency likely means a sharp break from President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. For Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries that have peace treaties with Israel and two of the most reliable U.S. allies in the Middle East, the Trump administration will provide new opportunities and challenges going forward on issues such as Islamic extremism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the status of Jerusalem. Egypt Oren Kessler, an expert on Egypt and deputy director for research at the Foundation for Defense of Dem...
NEW YORK (JTA)—The FBI and Department of Homeland Security will be assisting local Jewish community centers in bolstering security after 16 JCCs received bomb threats on the same day. On Wednesday, officials from the FBI and Homeland Security will conduct a conference call with U.S. Jewish communal leaders to discuss Monday’s incidents, what they stem from and how to craft protocols to handle such incidents in the future. Some communities already receive federal grants to provide for security. The bomb threats, none of which appear cre...
Start on a family discovery journey with the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Orlando as it continues My Jewish Roots a JGSGO Workshop Roadshow. Each participant's family discovery journey will include directed hands-on labs that will lead to extending their family tree-adding newly discovered ancestors and living cousins. The February My Jewish Roots Workshop, "The Changing Borders of Eastern Europe," traces a millennium of border changes in Eastern Europe and the impacts of these...
On Jan. 26, come tour JFS Orlando located at 2100 Lee Road, Winter Park 32789. Learn for yourself the impact JFS Orlando is having in our community. Scheduled tours start at 8 a.m. Coffee and light breakfast served. Reservation is requested. Please contact Mary Lee Walker at 407.644.7593 Ext. 241 or email at marylee.walker@jfsorlando.org....
Guess who came to celebrate Shabbat with the students at the Jewish Academy of Orlando? None other than Shades from the Orlando Solar Bears! Shades came to promote Jewish Academy of Orlando Day at the Orlando Solar Bears, which will take place on Sunday, Jan. 29, at 1:30 pm. At the game, the students of the Jewish Academy will sing the National Anthem before the puck drop. This event is open to the community, so invite your friends and family to join us. Tickets are currently on sale, $18 each,...
A glimmer of hope in the fight against Iranian-backed terrorism shone forth from Argentina during the final days of 2016. A federal appeals court ruled that former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner will face a new investigation over allegations that she and her close colleagues made a secret pact with the Iranian regime over the probe into the July 1994 bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Eighty-five people were murdered and hundreds were wounded on that fateful day, when a...
In his recent speech about Israel and the Palestinians, Secretary of State John Kerry unfairly blamed Israel and minimized Palestinian violence. But he also did something else: he grievously dishonored the African-American civil rights movement, just weeks before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In his Dec. 28 address at the State Department, Kerry recited a litany of accusations against Israel. The unkindest cut of all was his charge that Israeli policies are creating “segregated enclaves” for Palestinians and a “separate but unequal” system for Is...
Only three days passed between the political storm triggered by the verdict against Elon Azaria, the Israeli soldier who shot an unarmed Palestinian attacker, and the terror by heavy truck that killed four IDF officer cadets and wounded others. Immediately after the attack some of the cadets found themselves criticized for seeking cover rather than opening fire against the driver of the truck, even while others did what they were trained to do and killed the Palestinian. The Interior minister announced that he would rescind the residence permit...
Two days into my first Taglit-Birthright Israel trip, during which I led a group of 40 Americans around Israel, I heard the news of the Obama administration’s unprecedented refusal to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s settlement policies. As an American immigrant to Israel who has many times heard President Barack Obama reaffirm the unbreakable alliance between the U.S. and Israel, the news was a bitter reminder of his administration’s hypocrisy as well as the U.N.’s disproportionate condemnation of Israel,...
Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center will be giving a benediction at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration ceremony Jan. 20. Liberal Jews are petitioning Hier to decline the honor, charging that it will give legitimacy to some 21st-century version of the Third Reich. In how many nation-states outside of Israel would a rabbi be asked to give the benediction at the swearing-in of a national leader? Perhaps if Jewish liberals began with this question, they might be more capable of confronting the sheer obscenity of what they are d...
My dad is coming from the U.S. to visit us in Israel this week. As always, we will devote one morning to praying at the Western Wall (Kotel). As always, he will stop by the hugest worn-off stone—his regular spot—pull out a brown wallet and take out a pack of Post-it notes covered in Russian scribbles. As always, he will read the prayers and requests on those yellow squares and then will stuff them into a crevice between the stones. And then, he’ll cry for a few minutes before walking away. For generations, whenever a Jew announced his plans...
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...
It was "smiles for all" as Chanukah Candlelighting at Siena in Oakmonte Village brought together three generations. Resident Robert Cohen is flanked by grandson Miles Cutler (left) and son-in-law Lee Cutler (right)....
WeddingWire, the leading global online marketplace for the wedding and event industry, announced Always and Forever Florida Weddings as a winner of the 2017 WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards® for Wedding officiant in Orlando. The Couples' Choice Awards recognize the top five percent of wedding professionals on WeddingWire who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness, and professionalism. The prestigious awards are given to the top local wedding professionals across more...
If you do a search for The Coffee Shop in Casselberry, Fla., you will read that it is "romantic, cozy, casual." Casual for sure, but a breakfast-and-lunch restaurant that is described as romantic? Cozy? Never heard of that! But it is true. The Coffee Shop that opened last October in a little strip shopping center on 17/92 in Casselberry does have these qualities, plus great food! Owner and chef Chaleur Bastos has been in the restaurant business for 28 years. He owned Rueben's Deli in Apopka and...
Jewish teens from throughout Central Florida gathered together on Wednesday evening, Dec. 29 to celebrate Chanukah. The evening started at the home of the directors of Cteen Maitland Chapter, Rabbi Ed and Bracha Leibowitz. The teens enjoyed a delicious BBQ with Chanukah delicacies of latkes and sufganiot. After filling their bellies, socializing, and getting pumped up for the game, we were off to Jewish Heritage night Orlando Magic Game where Magic played the Hornets. Each teen received a...
Outside, it was a chilly January morning. But inside, the residents at Longwood's Village on the Green were surrounded by warmth, music and love, thanks to a special visit from the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando's PJ Library/Shalom Families group and the Jewish Pavilion. More than 50 participants representing four generations-from 2 months to 92 years-came together for "Home Sweet Home" on Jan. 8 at the senior living community. As part of the program, families shared the many ways to make...
The Orlando Chapter of Hadassah recently hosted a cooking demonstration of healthy Thai food by chef and restaurateur Sue Manatad of Orchid Thai Cuisine Restaurant in Winter Park. The event turned into a wildly successful learning experience for the 70 plus women who attended. Chef Manatad taught everyone how to make and roll their own summer rolls and the ladies enthusiastically stepped right in and as one woman put it, "we rolled them, ate them, and truly enjoyed them, sticky fingers and...
It's a dog's life... People who know me know that I prefer dogs to people... well some people. I've hardly ever been without a dog in my life. They give unconditional love (and don't care how I look without makeup.) I read this a while back in a magazine and want to share it with you: "We Americans love our dogs and nearly half of our households have one. They protect our homes (or think they do), play fetch, beg for attention (usually with great charm) and, if we let them, hog the sofa. Our...
On Sunday, Jan. 8, community treasures Geanne Share and Ruth Darvin, were honored for providing exemplary volunteer assistance to Orlando's elder-care community at The Jewish Pavilion's Gems & Jeans Gala. More than 200 guests enjoyed a sparkling evening of gourmet dining, live music, and a silent auction with proceeds benefitting seniors served in more than 70 assisted living and skilled nursing facilities. To impact the life of a senior through volunteering or donation visit...
"At My Pace: Lessons from our Mothers," by Jill Ebstein NEWTON, Mass-At 81-years old, Jill Ebstein's mom signed up for a formal program in Jewish studies. Previously unable to attend college and now widowed, her mom set out to take care of unfinished business. Since the books seemed too heavy for her to lug around, her younger classmates chipped in to buy her a rolling backpack. When she completed the course and expressed pride in finally having a 'real graduation,' her children flew out for...
