Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Get ready for the most fun lunch you've had in a long time. Hadassah Orlando Chapter will host its next general meeting on Tuesday, April 18, at 11:30 a.m. with guest speaker Bethanne Weiss, B.S. The event will be held at Congregation Ohev Shalom, 613 Concourse Parkway South Maitland. Weiss - a posture and balance expert, motivational speaker, author and founder of FUNIQ Fitness - will share about her upcoming book and teach the group "Tenish Tiny Tweaks to bring more joy and less Oy into your...
The Jewish Pavilion plays an important community relations role in Central Florida. One of the main roles of the Jewish Paavilion Program Directors is to educate staff in elder care communities regarding Jewish traditions and holidays and the foods associated with the celebrations. Nancy Ludin, CEO, sees the value in educating the general public beyond the senior communities. Every year, her staff, and leadership provide a home cooked breakfast for the Maitland Chamber. Each breakfast is associated with a Jewish holiday. Participants get to...
Chabad of South Orlando presents Akiva & Shwekey live in concert on Sunday April 9. The event will be held at the Walt Disney Theater at The Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts, located at 445 Magnolia Ave., Orlando. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the concert begins at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale via the Dr. Phillips Center. For group tickets, email levi@jewishorlando.com. Known for his emotional and heartfelt music that touches the soul, Israeli singer and songwriter Akiva Turgeman has achieved phenomenal success and rising stardom in Israel...
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a televised statement that he had no plans to stop the judicial reform, beginning with the passage of a bill to reform the process of appointing judges. “I’m taking the reins,” Netanyahu said, noting that until now his “hands were tied” over a conflict of interest. “For our people, and for our country I will do everything to reach a solution,” he said. Addressing the protesting IDF soldiers and reservists, the premier said: “There is no place for refusal to answer the call of duty. It endangers our nati...
(JTA) — Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to London, the United Kingdom’s chief rabbi is calling for “Jewish unity” in Israel and around the world in response to dramatic protests against proposed changes to the Israeli judicial system. “I never thought that we would witness a time when citizens of Israel, including respected leaders, are openly speaking about the possibility, God forbid, of civil war,” Ephraim Mirvis wrote in a short op-ed in the Jewish Chronicle, the U.K.’s oldest Jewish newspaper. “At...
(JNS) — Israel’s Knesset on Tuesday voted 31-18 to repeal articles of the 2005 Gaza Disengagement Law banning Israelis from entering and residing in four communities in northern Samaria. The Gaza disengagement led to the destruction and evacuation of the Israeli communities of Sa-Nur, Homesh, Ganim and Kadim in northern Samaria, as well as 21 communities in the Gaza Strip. In addition to rolling back the articles (23-27) banning movement into and out of, and residence in, northern Samaria, the amendment stipulates that Article 28, which can...
(JNS) — Israel is undergoing many challenges since the new government was formed, internally and externally. Terror has accelerated, and on the international scene, Israel’s internal judicial reform initiatives have been met with criticism from around the world. Many of these challenges have been created by extreme left-wing Israelis who understand the international political landscape and are abusing it to take away legitimacy from this new government and its plans. Immediately coming off the right’s election victory, Israel’s politic...
(JNS)— I can no longer keep silent. I may be sitting in Manhattan, but my heart is in Jerusalem and my heart is very heavy. I may not be a lawyer or a legal scholar, but I have been an organizer, an activist, a leader who has acted on behalf of civil and human rights — especially women’s rights. But I have never acted in the way that Israeli rioters are now acting: Not stopping, threatening to continue until they’ve brought down an entire country. These leftists/progressives/“good people” (my former people) seem to be behaving the same way th...
(JTA) — Earlier this month the New York Times convened what it called a “focus group of Jewish Americans.” I was struck briefly by that phrase — Jewish Americans — in part because the Times, like the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, tends to prefer “American Jews.” It’s seemingly a distinction without a difference, although I know others might disagree. There is an argument that “American Jew” smacks of disloyalty, describing a Jew who happens to be American. “Jewish American,” according to this thinking, flips the script: an American who happens to...
(JNS) — Media pundits spend a lot of time “explaining” to the rest of us why some political or social development just occurred. Last week, The New York Times presented what it claimed are the real reasons behind the controversy over Israeli judicial reform. The recent election results, which brought Israel a new government—and the judicial reform plan—are part of a “rightward drift” that goes back a number of years, according to the Times’ Jerusalem Bureau Chief Patrick Kingsley. “The failure of peace negotiations with the Palestinians in the...
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 of Orla...
(JNS) — Hours after China brokered a surprise deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, a reporter asked U.S. President Joe Biden what he thought about the two countries, which come out of rival Islamic branches that have competed for centuries over guardianship of the faith, re-establishing diplomatic relations. “The better the relations between Israel and their Arab neighbors, the better for everybody,” he said. Critics ridiculed the president’s non sequitur, but Biden’s statement raises the question of what impact the deal—and importantly...
As I write this, I am at 9100 feet in Summit County, Colorado, spending time with my daughter Julie and my granddaughter, The Mountain Girl, while my son-in-law Sam is away on a once-in-a-lifetime rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. On one particularly beautiful morning, I dropped my second-grade Mountain Girl off at school and, with the help of trekking poles, started a hike on the bike path that runs through the county. After an invigorating hour work-out, I considered expanding my hike to...
(JTA) - Rabbi Yael Buechler conceived of her latest product two years ago, after planning ways to make the Passover seder fun for her two young sons. But it wasn't until she started promoting the matzah pajamas she designed that she decided to make adult sizes, too. After she reached out in December 2021 to The Maccabeats - the Orthodox a capella group that releases splashy new videos for most holidays - to offer kids' pajamas for their Passover project, they demurred. "They wrote back...
Passover, the annual celebration of the Exodus from Egypt, is one of Judaism’s most beloved holidays — and also the one that requires the most preparation. The Torah teaches that one should remove leaven or hametz (understood by Jewish tradition to mean food that is made from one of five forbidden grains and food that has been fermented) from one’s home — it should neither be seen nor found in one’s possession. Traditionally, Jews attempt to clean all the leaven from their homes, chasing out the cracker crumbs and stray Cheerios wherever...
Aging is a process that brings many changes. There are several simple steps you can take to keep your eyes healthy during your lifetime. Visiting an eye care professional regularly for a comprehensive dilated eye exam is the most important thing you can do to reduce your risk of vision loss as you age. A comprehensive dilated eye exam is different from the basic eye exam or screening you have for glasses or contacts. By dilating the pupils and examining the back of the eyes, your doctor can detect eye diseases in their early stages, before visi...
This recipe originally appeared on The Nosher. Matzah pies called minas are a classic Sephardic Passover dish, traditionally served for brunch or lunch with the slow-cooked, hard-boiled eggs called huevos haminados. The truth is that a mina makes a great side or main dish for any meal, even when it's not Passover. With a top and bottom "crust" made from sheets of matzah, the filling can be made of meat - like seasoned lamb, beef, chicken - or vegetables, most commonly spinach and cheese, though...
(JNS) — A woman pushed her shopping cart down an aisle filled with Passover foods in a supermarket in northern New Jersey. She lifted a box of kosher-for-Passover soup cracker off the shelf and started to stack it with the rest of her groceries. Then she noticed the price tag. “Five dollars for this?” she murmured aloud as she returned the container to the shelf. “Food costs are high everywhere,” chimed in a fellow shopper nearby. This exchange last week in a supermarket that stocks a good numbe...
Passover is one of Judaism’s most beloved holidays — but it can also be one of the most expensive. Passover requires a menu that avoids all hametz (leavened products) and often necessitates the purchase of many new foods that are certified kosher and free of hametz. Jews also attend one or two seders — elaborate festive meals with multiple courses. Complying with Passover rules of kashrut alone can present a financial burden, as many Jews find themselves in need of purchasing one or two extra sets of dishes or cooking utensils, or other...
For most of his life, Chiune Sugihara received little recognition for the dramatic actions he undertook as Japanese vice-consul to Lithuania on the eve of World War II: the rescue of some 6,000 Jews from Poland and elsewhere from the Nazi death machine. For decades, the Jewish world remained largely ignorant of his heroism. When, in 1985, Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center located in Israel, honored the unassuming retired diplomat as a Righteous Among the Nations, Sugihara was to...
I don’t know what the tradition is in your family, but in ours, seder night is a dress-up affair. Suits and ties, dresses, new clothes for the kids — “Shabbes” clothes we call them. Imagine our surprise when one year we arrived for seder at the door of our friends David and Shira Milgrom-Elcott in our dressy clothes, and they greeted us wearing the long, flowing robes of Bedouins! “Welcome to our seder!” they exclaimed. “Please take off your shoes before you come in.” We dutifully took off our shoes and entered their home. On the right, we s...
Israel ranked fourth happiest country in world (JNS) — Israel is the fourth happiest country in the world, according to a report produced by the U.N.-affiliated Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Based on Gallup World Poll data, the study leverages six key factors to help explain variation in self-reported levels of happiness across the world: social support, income, health, freedom, generosity and absence of corruption. The report was released on Monday to mark the International Day of Happiness, which was established when the U.N. G...
(JTA) — Just over 100 years ago, in April 1922, my great-grandparents emigrated to the United States with their four children, fearing for their lives in Kremenets, a Russian city in present-day western Ukraine. My great-grandfather, Aaron Shimon Shpall, an educator and journalist, recorded his thoughts about leaving “the city that we were born in and that we spent years of our lives in,” acknowledging how hard it would be “to separate from our native land, and our birthplace and our father’s house.” But he was clear that the Russia he k...
(JNS) — The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor released the 2022 edition of its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on Monday. The reports “cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements,” stated Foggy Bottom. “The report embodies the importance of human rights for American diplomacy and for our vision of an open, free, prosperous and secure world,” Antony Blinken, U....
(JTA) - For millennia, Jews have eaten matzah. And for years, Jewish patrons of Trader Joe's have been able to purchase matzah off the shelves of the tiki-themed grocery chain - which has gained its own quasi-religious following. Now, for the first time ever, Trader Joe's will be selling matzah under its own famous private label. The question, even among the store's diehard Jewish fans, is what makes Trader Joe's-branded matzah different from all other matzah. The grocery chain with more than...
