Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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On the coldest morning of the year, Jan. 21, Jewish Academy of Orlando students, teachers, staff and parents braved the weather to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the Gan Shel Chesed, the Kindness Garden. The fifth grade class—under the guidance of their teacher, Emily Watson, and art teacher Penny Goldstein—chose to do this project as their legacy to the school. In the center of the garden, the fifth graders planted an olive tree—the tree of peace. The other grades also planted trees...
By Christine DeSouza Many people in the Central Florida Jewish community know Idit Lotringer very well. She is the type of person who is liked immediately because of her energy, openness, friendliness and kindness. She is also a real go-getter and is the Orlando regional manager of the Israeli American Council, which opened a chapter here last August. "There are 20 offices in the United States and we are the 18th office to open!" Lotringer proclaimed with a big smile. She wasn't always involved...
Jewish National Fund will host the annual Tree of Life™ Award Gala at Congregation Ohev Shalom on Tuesday, Feb. 19, to honor Roz Fuchs and Thad Seymour, Jr. with Tree of Life™ Awards for their dedication to the Orlando community, JNF, and Israel. The annual gala, will begin at 6 p.m. and feature heavy hors d'oeuvres, cocktails, and dessert. "Both Roz and Thad are incredible individuals and have done so much for the Orlando community," said JNF Orlando Board Co-President Ed Milgrim. "We are pro...
On Sunday Feb. 10, in a community-wide celebration, Orlando Torah Academy will be welcoming a brand new Sefer Torah/Torah Scroll. This monumental project began almost a year ago and was undertaken by Dean Rabbi Avraham Wachsman to honor and perpetuate the memory of his father who passed away last February. “My father dedicated his life to teaching Torah and the beauty of a life of Torah. Writing a new Torah in his memory is a fitting tribute to his memory and a perpetuation of his legacy,” said Rabbi Wachsman. The day will be full of fes...
It is well known, that the hardest demographic to involve in Jewish life are teens. After bar/bat mitzvah many feel they have completed their Jewish education, not to mention the many after school programs and extra curricular activities making it increasingly difficult for high school students to join for classes and Jewish social events. With this in mind, Chabad and CTeen of North Orlando are bringing local teens a new innovation free of charge, called JText. Here's how it works: Every Monday...
Chabad of North Orlando is launching a new initiative with the Aleph Institute, a Tikun Olam focused organization that works in the critical field of criminal justice and advocates for those incarcerated. “We are initiating a program where volunteers can visit inmates one and one in the visiting room,” said Rabbi Yanky Majesky. “There are many Jewish inmates incarcerated in Coleman that have very few if any visitors. These Jewish men and women are looking to connect with someone to receive moral support, encouragement and spiritual guida...
Recently, Orlando Torah Academy was deluged with amateur scientists. A large number of the students spent the last few weeks designing and carrying out science experiments. Students did preliminary research regarding their science concept, followed by performing the experiment. Then, they reported the experience with poster board displays. The OTA science fair included hypotheses involving animal behavior, the chemistry of fruit preservation, and electrical voltages. The science fair was not...
The Jewish Pavilion, in association with Join Orlando were pleased to present Libby (l) and Joan (r) at Brookdale Dr. Phillips with Shabbat Boxes to celebrate the Sabbath. With help from her mother, Aileen Mand Schaked, Sophie (center), Miss Florida Jr. High School and volunteer for the Pavilion, had a wonderful time visiting the community and looks forward to her next visit....
(JNS)—It didn’t take long for Jewish and Israel-related groups to react to the appointment of anti-Israel Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Along with several other new members of Congress, Omar has gained considerable attention as part of a new generation of leadership. Yet the Jewish community has grown concerned over her stances, particularly on Israel. Omar has tweeted that “Israel has hypnotized the world,” and has posted that Israel is an “aparth...
In a full-scale ceremony on Jan. 16, Rescuers Without Borders founder and president Arie Levy received the Global Impact Award in Tel Aviv, presented by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Levi, one of eight recipients, was given this honor for his international work in the developing world and Tikkun Olam. Since 2016 Rescuers Without Borders has taken their Israeli knowhow, training local people to be medics, and established 16 first response emergency teams throughou...
(JNS)—Worldwide terror attacks decreased by one-third in 2018 compared to 2017, while resulting non-militant fatalities fell by more than one-quarter, according to the annual Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre Global Attack Index, released today by business information provider IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO). “Over the course of 2018, JTIC recorded a worldwide total of 15,321 attacks by non-state armed groups, which resulted in a total of 13,483 non-militant fatalities,” said Matthew Henman, head of JTIC. “The attack figure represents a signifi...
(JNS)—Like so many other Jewish women, I grappled over the decision to attend the Women’s March on Jan. 19. I missed the first march because I was recovering from childbirth, and was overcome with exhaustion and uncertainties about how I was going manage motherhood and my very full-time work at JIMENA. Since the initial march, I’ve yearned to be a part of a women’s movement that initially filled me with radical hope. This hope began to seriously wane for me last May when I happened to be working in Israel the same time Tamika Mallory came to to...
Where are our friends protesting anti-Semitism? Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we marked this last week, spoke powerfully about the danger and potential damage of silence. He once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” On another occasion he said, “In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Both of these insights, separately and the combination of the two together, resonate deeply for me these days, days in which the silence from too many is...
(JNS)—What the Jewish world needs most these days is inclusion. Yet the only sensible course of action open to Jewish community relations councils and other outreach groups is to set firm limits on who can or cannot enter the proverbial big Jewish tent. That sounds like a contradiction in terms, and in many ways it is. But the fact remains that at the very moment when institutions need to keep the gates wide open to attract as many Jews as possible, it’s just as important to send a loud message that there are some lines that cannot be cro...
(JNS)—Opponents of an academic boycott of Israel owe John Cheney-Lippold and Daniel Segal a debt of gratitude. Cheney-Lippold is the University of Michigan professor who agreed to write a letter of recommendation for one of his students last fall and then reneged after realizing it was for study in Israel. Segal, a professor at Pitzer College and a major proponent of the academic boycott of Israel, convinced his fellow Pitzer faculty members to shut down the school’s study-abroad program at the University of Haifa only months later. These profe...
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 Israe...
(JNS)—Israel will revoke permits issued to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency due to accusations that the organization incites terror against Israel. According to a Hadashot television news report on Saturday, Israel’s National Security Council will revoke UNRWA’s permits to operate schools for Arab residents in eastern Jerusalem. Currently, UNRWA operates seven schools with an estimated 3,000 students in the city. UNRWA will reportedly be allowed to continue running the schools for the remainder of the current school year. Start...
On a brisk early January morning, Randi Cunningham entered the graciously appointed lobby of Oakmonte Village's Cordova building and greeted the desk attendant with a wave and a smile. As a volunteer for the Jewish Pavilion, making visits to the rooms of Jewish residents a few times a month for the past few years, Cunningham is a familiar sight at this Lake Mary assisted living facility. Consulting her list of current Jewish residents, Cunningham planned a route for making her visits. The first...
Last weekend, 10 representatives from Orlando joined more than 3,000 women leaders from all 50 U.S. states and 100 countries, hailing from as far away as Laos and Angola, Ghana and Uzbekistan, at the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries (Kinus Hashluchos) in Brooklyn, N.Y. The annual event was aimed at reviving Jewish awareness and practice around the world. Preconceived notions about the insular role of women in Hasidism were shattered as thousands of women from around...
Are the Jews in Israel white European colonialists? Are Israel’s settlements in the West Bank illegal? Isn’t a Jewish state, by definition, racist and undemocratic? These are just a few of the questions StandWithUs addresses to educate middle and high school students about Israel in an effort to dash all the mistruths about Israel and perhaps tear down some walls of anti-Israel sentiment. Tuesday evening, Jan. 22, Dr. Daniel and Staci Layish opened their home to introduce the community to StandWithUs, an international, nonprofit Israel edu...
Another great loss to our Jewish community... I'm referring to Max Mogul, a longtime member of our Jewish community... for more than half a century at least. I wrote recently about the unfortunate passing of his beloved wife, Ruth. People who knew Max, knew how generous a man he was, especially to orphaned children. At his memorial service, people spoke so highly of him (which didn't surprise me) with much admiration, love and respect. Many also spoke of how he made them laugh! His daughter, Lyn...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel struck Iranian targets in Syria, hours after an Iranian-made ground-to-ground missile was fired by an Iranian force in Syria at northern Israel. The targets struck by Israel Defense Forces warplanes late on Sunday night include munitions storage sites, an Iranian intelligence site, an Iranian military training camp, and a military site located in the Damascus International Airport, the IDF said. Russia’s defense control center in Syria said that four Syrian soldiers were killed and six wounded in the attacks. Syrian mil...
NEW YORK (JTA)-A decade ago, the publisher of the Jewish Daily Forward asked his board to believe in miracles. "We are supposed to believe in miracles; we are forbidden to rely on them, " Sam Norich wrote in an email to the board of the Forward Association on Dec. 25, 2008. "That means that miracles only happen if we do our part to help them along." And according to the attached minutes of a November 2008 board meeting, the venerable Jewish newspaper could have used a little divine intervention...
(JTA)—Linda Sarsour defended the legality of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel during her speech on stage in Washington D.C. at the third Women’s March. Her critique of anti-BDS laws came hours after rejecting the anti-Semitic statements of Louis Farrakhan. Sarsour, a leader of the Women’s March movement, called herself “a proud Palestinian-American woman” and said that “there are no perfect leaders” in her remarks in Saturday. She said that “the media can talk about any controversy they want”—a reference to claims o...
(Palestinian Media Watch via JNS)—Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s adviser on religious affairs has accused Israel and Hamas of planning “an attack against Abbas.” Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “There is suspicious and dangerous coordination between the statements of the occupation state’s leaders and the statements of the Hamas movement’s leaders on all that is connected to an attack on President Mahmoud Abbas.” [Official P.A. daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 14, 2019] Al-Habbash claimed Israel and Hamas share a desire to “assassinate” Abbas....
