Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 28
(JNS) - "I'm grateful to be alive," wrote Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker on Facebook shortly after he emerged unscathed from his synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, where he was held hostage for nearly 11 hours, along with three congregants. "I am grateful that we made it out." The world watched in shock on Saturday as yet another antisemitic incident threatened to take the lives of innocent people - their only crime praying in their synagogue. On Sunday, the FBI named Malik...
(JTA) - A team of researchers said they have identified the person who betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis 80 years ago: a Jewish notary forced to work for the Nazis. The man identified by a cold-case team that has been working for six years to identify the persons responsible for the discovery of the Franks by Nazi authorities in occupied Amsterdam was Arnold van den Bergh, a notary and a member of the Jewish Council, which the Nazis established to better control Dutch Jews. The...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) - Michael Lang, the Jewish co-creator of 1969's legendary Woodstock Music and Art Fair, died on Saturday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering hospital in Manhattan. He was 77. The cause, according to a family spokesperson, was a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A concert promoter who was just 24 at the time, he was one of several Jewish collaborators who made the generation-defining festival, billed as "Three Days of Peace and Music," happen. Other key players included...
Laren Speigel Barrett will be remembered Jan. 22, 2022, at the Chabad of Altamonte Springs services. Laren moved to Orlando in the early 1970s as a newly wed. She lived most of her adult life in Altamonte Springs, later moving to Port Orange, Florida, where she suddenly passed away in December 2020. She is survived by two sons, Justin Speigel, M.D., and Jason Speigel, D.D.S. For more information on the memorial, please call Chabad of Altamonte Springs at 407-720-8111....
When Federation CEO Keith Dvorchik went to Israel last October, one of the places he visited was Hebron, the beautiful city where the Jewish patriarch Abraham and matriarch Sarah, as well as Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah and Joseph are buried. As Dvorchik relaxed with others in the group, he learned that the soldiers who guard the tomb have no place to relax when they are off duty. The IDF soldiers, known as the Golani Brigade, serve a 3-month rotation at Hebron, guarding not just the tomb but also the city. Their “base” is built out of...
Kevin and Melitza Lugo have a deep love for Israel. So deep that they put “their money where their heart is” and started Kemel Inc. Equipment Sales & Imports in 2019 to become distributors for Olea Essence From the Sea of Galilee, an Israeli company that makes olive oil products and gourmet products to women’s and men’s skincare products. One of Olea Essence’s best selling products is its olive oils that come in various flavors. All of the products are plant based and 100 percent natural. “We ca...
(JTA) — Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker has publicly described for the first time the moment he and two other hostages escaped a gunman in his synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, on Saturday “The last hour or so of the standoff, he wasn’t getting what he wanted,” Cytron-Walker told CBS in an interview posted on Monday morning. “It didn’t look good. It didn’t sound good. We were very, we were terrified. “And when I saw an opportunity where he wasn’t in a good position, I made sure that the two gentlemen who were still with me that they were ready t...
(JNS) — A dozen major Jewish organizations spanning the religious and political spectrum are urging the U.S. Senate to quickly approve funding for the replenishment of Israel’s Iron Dome air-defense system. The House of Representatives overwhelming approved (420-9) legislation last September to provide $1 billion in funds, but the legislation has since stalled in the Senate. The letter, which was spearheaded by the American Jewish Congress and Jewish Council for Public Affairs, calls on Senate leaders Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Mitch McC...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — In a boon for scholars and amateur researchers, records from Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust authority, are now publicly available through JewishGen, the largest online Jewish genealogy resource of its kind. The agreement announced Tuesday by Yad Vashem and New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage/A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, an affiliate of JewishGen, provides easy access to millions of names commemorated in Yad Vashem’s database. “Pages of Testimony,” documents collected by Yad Vashem since the 1950s, incl...
Our Cherished Community, There are no words for the fear, anger, and despair we felt this Shabbat as the situation in Colleyville, Texas unfolded. In the same way, words cannot describe our relief when all hostages emerged safely. This horrific incident is a reminder of what we already know: antisemitism remains a serious threat for American Jews in 2022. Federation is dedicated to the fight against antisemitism. We make the safety of our community the top priority every single day. Here in Orlando, we are fortunate to have a top leader in...
(JNS) — At a time when antisemitism is on the rise around the globe, the office of the U.S. State Department’s Special Envoy for Combating and Monitoring Antisemitism ought to be filled. Indeed, the Biden administration seemed to signal its interest in the subject when it decided to upgrade the post by expanding the office’s staff and conferring the title of ambassador on the envoy. President Joe Biden also named someone that was considered eminently qualified for the job in Emory University professor and historian Deborah Lipstadt, a widel...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz must have known that hosting Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas at his home in Rosh Ha’ayin would arouse the ire of the right. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have cloaked the outcome of his tête-à-tête last Tuesday night with the octogenarian honcho in Ramallah in typically euphemistic language. Following the meeting, Gantz tweeted that he and Abbas had “discussed the implementation of economic and civilian measures, and emphasized the importance of deepening security coordination and preventing...
(JNS) When COVID-19 struck the United States, I thought that it would become a unifying force. I naively reasoned that the coronavirus pandemic would bring people together. I believed that the bitter polarization that began with the crash of the stock market in 2007-08 would finally end. I was wrong. COVID has caused a greater rupture. It has brought health-care workers closer together, but few others. It has socially distanced society even further. The political divide that used to be a significant crack has become a huge chasm. It has also...
(JNS) — The Jewish communities of North Africa and the Middle East are often inaccurately represented in academia and the mainstream media. Their rich, complex history is purposely obscured to undermine Zionism. Indeed, professors, anti-Israel student organizations, and influential figures have denied the unique indigenity of Jews in the Middle East. Moreover, these groups have minimized the widespread historical subordination, persecution, and exile of Jews under Arab and Muslim rule. Unlike the harmonious depictions of an interreligious c...
This letter from ZOA was sent to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Deputy Prime Minister Benjamin Gantz, Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, State of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel Re: URGENT Request to stop Minhal Ezrahi’s immoral and discriminatory planned destruction of terror victim Ezra Schwartz vineyard and Jewish families’ livelihoods at Arugot Farms Dear Prime Minister Bennett, Deputy Prime Minister Gantz and Justice Minister Sa’ar: The Zionist Organization of America urges you to use your good offices to stop th...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, some minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) Chabad of North Orlando and Chabad of Altamonte Springs are holding in-person minyans. 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. Congr...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — A record-breaking number of Israelis tested positive for the coronavirus in the current infection wave, according to Health Ministry data published on Tuesday morning. Of the 197,402 Israelis screened for the virus in the past 24 hours, 10,644 (5.39 percent) tested positive. It is the second-highest number of daily cases since Sept. 2, when 11,345 Israelis were reported to have been infected — the highest caseload since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020. The reproduction rate, which refers to the number of peo...
From the title onward, it is evident that director Paul Mazursky's "Enemies, A Love Story" is anything but your typical run of the mill love story. Ron Silver is magnificent as the tragic Herman Broder, a man who just so happens to wind up being married to three women at once. As one would expect, he isn't a very happy person. But how did we get to this, exactly? When we are first introduced to him, we see he is a man living two lives. In one life, he lives in Brooklyn and is married to the youn...
I must confess that I am a hoarder. I strongly believe in keeping things "in case I need them in the future." I'm not a messy hoarder, and I usually know where to find what I have carefully put away, but I am always reluctant to let go of anything that is in good condition even if it has no immediate use. It is the year of the corona. I have plenty of time to ponder on the vexing question: "What is the difference between being a hoarder, a careful housewife or a respectable collector?" All...
I don't know if I should be flattered or insulted ... For many years I've been told that we look alike. Also for many years I've been told that we sound alike. I do know we are both funny ... but she was a comedian and I was a dancer and now (still) a vocalist. Also, she is deceased and I am (at least for now) still alive! Have you guessed who I'm referring to? Joan Molinsky is her name and she (like me) was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. Now do you know? Of course you do! Joan Rivers was her...
In a country whose biblical and modern history are intertwined and covered with dramatic events taking place at locations everywhere, Gush Etzion is among the most significant. Gush Etzion is the Judean mountain region between Jerusalem and Hebron. It sits at elevations between 2500-3000 feet, made extra beautiful by terraced hilltops and a range of crops including vineyards and olive trees, and ancient paths that were the biblical highways, which pilgrims and traders would transverse in religio...
(JNS) — Last week, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid warned that Israel will face increasing allegations that it is an apartheid state in 2022, with the foreign minister saying that he fears that opponents of Israel will attempt to target Israel’s involvement in sporting and cultural events. “The concern from the foreign ministry is that you have three or four different legal proceedings in which allegations of apartheid have been made and that at least one of them may end up endorsing these allegations,” Yuval Shany, professor of interna...
NEW YORK & TEL AVIV — Birthright Israel, the largest educational tourism organization in the world, and Onward Israel, the leading provider of mid-length immersive experiences for young adults in Israel, have merged. Combining these two organizations strengthens Israel-Diaspora ties by providing expanded opportunities for more Jewish young adults to participate in travel, study and professional development experiences. By merging Birthright Israel’s 10-day educational tours and Excel Fellowship program with Onward’s longer-length internships, s...
(JTA) – Charitable foundations with ties to Jewish federations and Jewish families feature prominently in a new report about the flow of tax-deductible donations to organizations that a leading Muslim civil rights lobby has identified as “anti-Muslim groups.” Titled “Islamophobia in the Mainstream,” the report was published Tuesday by CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group and political lobby that is harshly critical of Israel. It follows a different report from 2019 that identified some 1,100 groups CAIR iden...
(JTA) — A marketing firm that has worked extensively with Jewish nonprofits has declined to work with one because of growing concerns among its staff members about groups with “significant programming in Israel.” The Shalom Hartman Institute, a leading Jewish educational think tank, reached out to Big Duck, a Brooklyn-based worker-owned cooperative, because of Big Duck’s history of working with Jewish organizations in the past. But Farra Trompeter, Big Duck’s co-director, told Dorit Rabbani, Hartman’s North America communications director, l...
