Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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At the BBYO International Convention (IC 2015) this year, held Feb. 12-16, Jay Kohler, volunteer adviser of Rebels AZA #442, was selected out of hundreds of advisers around the country as the Adviser of the Year. Jonah Goldberg, a junior at Lake Mary Prep School, and Corey Cohen, a senior at Edgewater High School and current chapter president, had the honor of presenting the award to Kohler in front of over 2,000 of their peers at the Saturday night ceremony. "We've known Jay for over three...
It was 25 years ago that Linda Amon and Harriet Corey,z"l, of Congregation of Liberal Judaism (now Congregation of Reform Judaism) stood waiting at the Orlando International Airport with a sign that read "Welcome Levitasovs." It seemed to take forever before the anticipated Russian family finally walked through the gate. There were four of them-grandfather Anatoly Mantelman, 71, his daughter Marina Levitasov, her husband Mikhail (Misha and Americanized as Michael) and their daughter Yana. For...
Donations to The Griswold Cares Foundation by Griswold Home Care franchisees, friends, and family exceeded expectations in 2014 and allowed the Foundation to award $30,000 worth of grants to 38 nonprofit organizations across the nation. The Jewish Pavilion's Orlando Senior Help Desk was one of the organizations chosen to receive a grant. It is the mission of The Jewish Pavilion to enhance the quality of life of our elders and their families by strengthening their connection to the community....
The leaders of the eight political parties running in the March 17 Israeli Knesset election participated in their first televised debate on Feb. 26, moderated by anchor Yonit Levi of Israel’s Channel 2 network. Absent from the discussion, however, were current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his most formidable challenger, Zionist Union alliance chairman Isaac Herzog. If Zionist Union wins the most seats in the Knesset (Israel’s legislature) and is able to form a governing coalition, Herzog—whose Labor party merged with Tzipi Livni...
By Ben Sales TEL AVIV (JTA)-Isaac Herzog paces slowly up and down the stage, one hand in his suit pocket, a slight smile forming through his slender lips. Quietly, his heavy breath audible through the microphone, the center-left candidate for prime minister runs down a detailed a list of policy reforms, almost never changing his tone or raising his voice. Even when he builds toward an early crescendo-telling the crowd "I intend to win"-it sounds more like a policy analysis than a rallying cry....
TEL AVIV (JTA)-The key word in Yair Lapid's political vocabulary might be "but." His Yesh Atid party is not right-wing, he says, but it isn't left-wing either. He wants to withdraw from the West Bank, but disavows both a unilateral pullout and bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. He wants Israel to allow civil unions, but would maintain the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate's control over marriage. And on Sunday, he wouldn't directly criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the...
Israeli media say that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress could give him an extra seat or two in Israel’s upcoming election. But with just under two weeks to the poll, any advantage he gained could fade away. “It could have at least a short-term effect on the electorate,” Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israeli relations at Bar Ilan University told The Media Line. “Netanyahu is hoping to bring back voters who have left him for the center parties. But it’s still more than a week and a half before the election, and in Isra...
Seven-hundred and seventy Orlando college students, faculty, staff and community members will gather together for a celebration of Jewish unity at the third annual Mega Shabbat on UCF’s campus. The traditional Shabbat Dinner will be held in huge tent on Memory Mall on the UCF Campus on March 20, with appetizers at 6:30 p.m., at 7:15 women will light Shabbat Candles, and the Shabbat Dinner will be served at 7:30 p.m. The event is open to the entire Orlando community. Shabbat 770 is a project developed by the Chabad on Campus National F...
On March 13, 1656, the government of New Amsterdam, on the island of Manhattan, denied the first application to build a synagogue in North America. This evening, March 13, 2015, the Jews of Western Volusia County will gather at 7 p.m. in the synagogue of Temple Shalom of Deltona to mark the 19th annual Shabbat Across America and Canada program, coordinated by the National Jewish Outreach Program. The event will bring together the membership of Temple Israel of DeLand, Congregation Beth Shalom of Orange City and Temple Shalom of Deltona....
Kayla Dombrosky, granddaughter of Risa and Gil Dombrosky (who is on staff at the Heritage), attended the annual CTeen Shabbaton in New York City hosted by Chabad Lubavitch. It was a get-together of over 1500 Jewish teens from around the world. Kayla met the Chief Rebbi of Chabad and learned more about Judaism than her grandparents knew. The group toured Manhattan and then celebrated a unity Shabbat in Brooklyn. Saturday night was spent in Times Square for a havdallah ceremony where the teens...
By Stephen M. Flatow JNS.org “There was nothing new in it.” With those six words, President Barack Obama tried to dismiss the significance of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress on March 3. But there was, in fact, something very new and very important in the speech—something that Mr. Obama understandably wants to keep out of the spotlight. The forgotten issue in the negotiations with Iran is now back, front and center, thanks to the Israeli prime minister: Iran’s role as—in Netanyahu’s words—“the foremost sponsor of global...
I have to confess that I was disappointed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference this year. I felt that it was bland, packed with tired talking points, lacking in strategic direction, and generally uninspiring. Not so with Netanyahu’s speech to Congress the following day, which was a barnstormer. In its immediate aftermath, there were the standard idiocies in response, but that was to be expected. One that caught my eye was the utterance of CNN’s Glori...
Bibi remains the leading choice to be prime minister, even though Likud has been losing ground. Buji is below Bibi in polls asking preferences for prime minister, but Labor/Zionist Union has moved one or two seats ahead. However, its obvious partners are still below the obvious partners of Likud. Washington is the big question mark, that may put Likud into the lead and assure another Netanyahu government, or leave a complex outcome to the president’s choice of who gets the first chance to form a government. A video has gone viral with Diane Fei...
NEW YORK (JTA)—The latest strategy being used by those who make a career of assaulting the good name of the State of Israel is to link the issue of full equality for African-Americans, as symbolized by the word “Ferguson,” with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is a long history of using legitimate American social justice issues to undermine the Jewish state. We saw it during the Vietnam War, where small contingents linked opposition to the war to opposition to Israel. We saw it in protests against the war in Iraq, which some linke...
WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week via JTA)—Don’t make the enemy of your enemy your friend. That’s the message some lawmakers hope to convey to the Obama administration as they consider its request for a war authorization to combat ISIS. Concerns about how best to shape such an authorization without empowering Iran -- a concern shared by Israel—are emerging as a factor as lawmakers consider Obama’s request for what is known formally as an Authorization for Use of Military Force, in this case against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or...
Who misled President Obama into his losing showdown over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s blockbuster speech to Congress? And how much of this week’s setback to the president should be blamed on the “progressive” Israel lobbying group J Street? When J Street was established, its leaders chose a football metaphor to describe their purpose: they said they would serve as “President Obama’s blocking back.” In other words, they would charge into the defensive line, pushing aside critics so that Obama would be able to dictate terms to Israel. But a...
MORNING AND EVENING MINYANS (Call synagogue to confirm time.) Chabad of South Orlando—Monday and Thursday, 8 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 Israel—Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-647-3055. FRIDAY, MARCH 13 Light Shabba...
Congregation Sinai Sisterhood will hold its fifth annual “A Taste of Passover” seder on March 19 at 12:30 p.m. at the synagogue, located at 03A N. Hwy 27 in Minneola. It will be an outreach event, as the women’s groups from three local churches will be invited to attend. Sisterhood will lead its members and guests through an abbreviated seder meal, using a specially prepared 30-minute Haggadah (the book that tells the order of the story of the Exodus). There will be holiday foods which help explain the story, such as charoset (a wine mixtu...
Seventh grader Aubrey Stern has always loved animals. As she approaches her 13th birthday, Aubrey has been preparing to become bat mitzvah at Temple Israel in Winter Springs. So, it's no surprise that when Aubrey was told one of the requirements of becoming bat mitzvah is to perform community service, she chose to support a local no-kill animal rescue organization. To do this, she held a dog fashion show as a fund-raiser and education event for Pet Rescue by Judy. Aubrey raised $350 at the dog...
Bill Abramson is passionate about his photography. He appreciates and loves the wonders of this world and sees beauty in everything and strives to capture it through his camera's lens. About one year ago, he began thinking of his "Yiddishkite." Abramson reminisced about his Jewish heritage. "I started to contemplate all that the Lord has done for us," he said. "Restructuring John F. Kennedy's quote, 'Let's not ask what Ha'Shem can do for me, but what I should be doing to make Ha'Shem proud of...
During the past 91 years, Lake Mary resident Dennis Keene of Springhills Assisted Living Community has developed a taste for hamantashen. Hailing from a religious family from England, each spring the Purim holiday was marked by the arrival of hamentashen baked by his mother. Memories of the triangular-shaped jelly-filled pastries traditionally eaten during Purim have stayed with him for the better part of a century. "My mother was a wonderful cook and a wonderful baker," he said. When asked...
Benjamin Matthew Taubman, son of Dr. Randall and Beth Taubman of Longwood, will be called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah on March 21, 2015, at Congregation Beth Am in Longwood. Benjamin is in the seventh grade at Teague Middle School where he is a member of the symphonic and jazz bands. His hobbies and interests include learning to play the piano, hanging out with friends, babysitting, and collecting vintage video games. He also helps tutor the younger students at CBA Sunday School. Sharing in...
"Seventy years? That's all it took?"... I received a letter from Rabbi MARVIN HIER, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. It stated (with comments in parenthesis by me) that "Adolf Hitler himself predicted it might take centuries, but in a much, much shorter time we are seeing the return of vicious hatred directed at Europe's Jews." In his last will and testament, Hitler wrote 'Centuries may pass, but out of the ruins of our cities and monuments of art there will arise anew the hatred for the...
On Thursday, March 5, the students spent the afternoon participating in Purim activities, which included face-painting, games, dancing and making masks for the holiday. The students also participated in the reading of the Megillah and ate delicious hamantaschen. The teachers put on a little Purim Spiel, which was a called, "Purim, Dress You Up," a parody of the pop song by Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson called "Uptown, Funk You Up!" "It was really a lot of fun!" said Head of School Alan Rusonik....
This story is the first in a series about members of the Jewish community who have stepped up on behalf of Central Florida's New Hope for Kids, a nonprofit with the purpose of bringing hope, healing and happiness to children and families of all backgrounds suffering from grief, loss or life-threatening illnesses. New Hope for Kids achieves this through two programs, the Center for Grieving Children and Wishes for Kids. For more information visit www.newhopeforkids.org. People often ask retired r...
