Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - The White House hosted more than 70 community leaders on March 9, marking the Purim holiday with its first-ever Jewish Women's Forum. Attendees hailed the event-part-mixer, part-holiday celebration and part-Jewish affairs state of the state-for its diversity. The event included both practicing and non-practicing Jewish women who came from across the country, and those present were communal leaders, college students and employees of a range of organizations, attendees told JNS. "It...
(JTA) – Responding to a recent rise in neo-Nazi activity in his state, a Jewish lawmaker in Florida is trying to outlaw displays of “religious or ethnic animus” on private property in his state. H.B. 269 takes aim at a variety of activities that neo-Nazi groups in the state have undertaken, from distributing flyers with hate speech to broadcasting intimidating messages in public places. Those groups’ activities have been rising in Florida for several years, according to a 2022 report by the Anti-Defamation League titled “Hate in the Sunshine St...
President Isaac Herzog recently presented his compromise proposal, the so-called “people’s plan,” to counter the government’s plans to reform the judiciary, calling for a “constitutional moment” amid what he said was a “nightmare” with “civil war looming.” “Those who think that a civil war is a border we won’t reach, have no clue,” he said in a live television address, noting that he had spoken to thousands of Israelis in recent weeks. “I’ve heard deep-rooted hatred. I’ve heard people from all sides say that if, God forbid, there’ll be blood i...
(JNS) - There has been a lot of discussion about what Holocaust memory will be like as fewer survivors remain. Less discussed are those who risked their lives to save Jews during World War II. The German-born doctor Traute Lafrenz, who died on March 6 at 103, was the last known surviving member of White Rose, which formed in Munich in 1942 and advocated nonviolent resistance against the Nazi government. As young German college students allied against their country's government, the group...
The Jewish Chamber of Commerce celebrated Purim with a breakfast at Toojays on Colonial. Hamantashen were provided courtesy of the Jewish Pavilion. The chamber offers monthly networking events. The May event will be a partnership with the Jewish Pavilion with a fun happy hour/cocktail party at Venue on the Lake in Maitland....
The Jewish Pavilion is known for their fabulous fun events throughout the year. Their signature event is their summer networking party that normally attracts an audience of 150 + Individuals of all ages. On Wednesday, May 24, the Jewish Pavilion will hold their annual party at Venue on the Lake/Maitland Civic Center on Lake Lily in Maitland from 5:30-7:30 p.m. This is an ideal indoor/outdoor party locale. For $25, participants will enjoy superb appetizers and desserts along with wine, beer and...
America and the Holocaust: A Series of Colloquies April 16, May 17, June 21, Virtual 4 p.m. -5:30 p.m. In each program, Dr. Michael Berenbaum will explore this complicated debate over America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the 20th century to the PBS Documentary: U.S. and the Holocaust. Each session will feature a scholar whose work will shed new light on the topic and challenge us to reframe our understanding of the complex portrait of national inaction. Yom HaShoah April 18, in-person or virtually, 6:30 p.m.-8 p...
(New York Jewish Week) — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has a new project, a year and a half after resigning amid a flurry of sexual harassment allegations: a pro-Israel organization targeting Democrats. Cuomo delivered the message via video on Monday evening at an event at Carnegie Hall hosted by the World Values Network, the organization led by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach — an author, television personality and onetime Republican congressional candidate. Boteach organized the event in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Upr...
(JTA) — Abraham Zarem was 28 when he joined the Manhattan Project, the vast U.S. government effort to develop the atom bomb. Engineers like him gathered in secret laboratories in New Mexico, California, New York City and elsewhere to provide the practical know-how the theorists lacked. “‘They were geniuses, but didn’t know how to build a f—king thing,’” Zarem recalled, according to his longtime rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, David Wolpe. Zaum, who went on to a distinguished career in technology, business development and leadership ma...
(JNS) — Black and Jewish Denverites will gather on March 15 for a “Denver Dialogue” intended to draw the two communities together in the face of a common enemy: white nationalism. “While African-Americans and American Jews joined forces to fight for civil rights in the 1960s, our relationship otherwise has been characterized by great connection and great divergence,” per an event announcement. Award-winning poet Theo Wilson and educator Evan Weissman will co-moderate the conversation to take place at George Washington High School’s library. Wi...
(JNS) — President Joe Biden’s foreign policy has been highlighted by the disaster in Afghanistan and its embrace of Ukraine, whose security it seems to value more than that of America’s own borders. But one consistent theme has been the attempt on the part of the Obama administration alumni back at work in Washington to revive their old boss’s pivot in the Middle East away from longtime allies Israel and Saudi Arabia to a new alignment based on a rapprochement with Iran. That’s the context for the Iran-Saudi pact. The two longtime foes will...
(JNS) — For many decades, during Shabbat services, Conservative and Religious Zionist Orthodox congregations have recited the heartfelt Prayer for the State of Israel, written by Israel’s chief rabbis in 1948. The Conservative movement’s Sim Shalom prayer books seem to solely use the prayer’s first paragraph. Reconstructionist Jews, in their Kol Haneshamah prayer books, have also adopted the prayer’s first paragraph, with minor modifications, and made more modifications to latter portions of the prayer. The prayer’s widely-used first paragraph...
(JNS) — America and Britain claim to be allies of Israel. There is no gainsaying the deep links between them of military assistance, intelligence and trade. Israel is the invaluable strategic asset for America and Britain in the Middle East, a crucial bulwark in the defense of the West. And yet, both America and Britain undermine Israel’s security and defense against existential attack by sanitizing, promoting and funding Palestinian Arabs, whose active cause remains the destruction of the Jewish state. A recent event illustrated this par...
Insights from the Academy-award winning film. There are a lot of ways to explain the multiverse — a concept or theory that our universe is one of many different universes, possibly each containing a different version of ourselves or our world — but the movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once” simplifies it: Every decision in a person’s life is like a fracture point, creating alternate universes where the ramifications of those decisions ripple forward, like the proverbial hurricane blowing after a butterfly flaps its wings. The movie bui...
MORNING MINYANS 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. Congregation Ohev Shalom — Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-298-4650. GOBOR Community Minyan at Jewish Academy...
(JTA) — A delegation of U.S. Jewish federation leaders is lobbying in Israel against the government’s planned overhaul of the judiciary, a rare step that underscores the degree to which the proposed changes have rattled the U.S. Jewish establishment. The delegation came to Israel for 24 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday, and includes representatives of more than 30 U.S. Jewish communities. The delegation met with lawmakers from the governing coalition as well as the parliamentary opposition. Their main focus was on a proposal that would all...
(JTA) - Next Sunday marks the 90th anniversary of Philip Roth's birth. In celebration of the famed novelist's work, a scholarly conference titled "Roth@90," sponsored by the Philip Roth Society, will be held starting Wednesday at the Newark Public Library. That will be followed by a weekend of high-profile events - staged readings, panel discussions, a bus tour of Roth's old Newark neighborhood - co-presented by the library and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Exactly 10 years ago, we...
There is a long history of Jews working in the alcohol industry, from running the majority of taverns in Poland in the mid-19th century to founding distilleries and wineries that are still in operation today. You may even be familiar with some of these businesses, such Herzog wineries, Seagram or the Carmel Winery. But what you probably don’t know is that Baileys Irish Cream liqueur was invented by a South African Jew. Turns out, Baileys does not have deep roots in Ireland as its label, which d...
A Lady Bird deed in Florida is a legal form that transfers property upon death inexpensively and without probate. A Lady Bird deed allows the current property owner to use and control the property during the owner’s lifetime, while the property automatically transfers upon death to designated beneficiaries. In Florida, a Lady Bird deed is also called an enhanced life estate deed. To be valid in Florida, a Lady Bird deed must include: Grantor — The current owner of the property. This person is splitting their fee simple legal interest in the...
MIAMI (JTA) - They didn't call it the "Pool of Death" for nothing. After a 3-1 come-from-behind victory over Nicaragua on Sunday, Israel finished the World Baseball Classic with only one additional run over the next three games. Israel lost 10-0 to both Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, recording only one hit across the two games, both of which were cut short by the WBC mercy rule. On Wednesday, Israel's bats came alive in the final game, with nine hits, including three for Noah...
(JNS) — Teachers and schools of the U.N. agency that runs education and social services for Palestinian Arabs “regularly call for the murder of Jews,” a new report by two Israeli NGOs finds. Teaching materials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees “glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite antisemitism,” said the report, titled “UNRWA Education: Reform or Regression.” In December 2022, at UNRWA’s Al-Maghazi Middle School for Boys B in t...
(JNS) - Israel's Defense Ministry on Wednesday inaugurated its first-ever national pavilion in Japan, at the Defense and Security Equipment International exhibition taking place in Tokyo between March 15 and 17. SIBAT, the ministry's International Defense Cooperation Directorate, is leading the delegation of 14 Israeli defense industries to the exhibition. The innovations being presented cover many fields, including unmanned aerial systems, land systems, rocket and missile systems,...
(JNS) - When Jeff Schoep, former head of the violently antisemitic National Socialist Movement, spoke at a private Highland Park, Ill., residence on March 14, he intended to cite his life as a cautionary tale for those seeking meaning by joining white supremacist groups. "A common misconception is that someone joins neo-Nazi organizations in order to be evil," Schoep told JNS. "This may be true for a small minority of people who are sociopaths who join. But for most people, it is like joining a...
(JNS) - Israeli authorities have busted a massive black-market operation featuring rare and exotic animal species, the Nature and Parks Authority said on Tuesday. The Jerusalem-area raid was a coordinated effort of the Israel Police, Border Police and the Nature and Parks Authority National Wildlife Crime Prevention Unit. "Thanks to the cooperation of the Israel Police and Border Police, we were able to stop a breeder that was illegally keeping a large number of animals, some of which were kept...
Mr. Samuel Freedman, 92, formerly of West Bloomfield, Michigan, died March 14, 2023 at AdventHealth Orlando following a brief illness. Beloved husband of the late Arlene Freedman, who he was together with for 70 years. Cherished father of Wendy (Mark) Resnick of Winter Park, Shelley (Marc) Littman, and Jeffrey Freedman. Proud grandfather of Aaron Resnick, Justin Resnick, Ben Littman, Sean (Ilana) Littman of Ramat Bet Shemesh, Israel, and Elliot Littman. Adoring great-grandfather of Tamar,...
