Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - This year's March of the Living, the annual tribute to the 6 million held at the site of the former German death camp Auschwitz in Poland, was conducted under the theme of "Honoring Jewish heroism in the Holocaust." The event took place April 19, on Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day. It was the first time since the global pandemic that the March was held in its full format, with delegations from well over 25 countries and 10,000 participating. It falls one day before the historical...
RAISE Inclusion Director Rachel Slavkin and RAISE Strategy and Development Director Loren London met with Rosen Hotels & Resorts Human Resources department to share their mission of offering a work and social skills training program for neurodiverse adults along with guidance for transition to community employment. This partnership will provide RAISE participants with an opportunity to train and work in Rosen Hotels & Resorts. Rosen Hotels & Resorts is now the 14th training site that has...
Did you know that three out of four adults have HPV by the age of 30, and 62 percent of freshman in college? HPV-related tonsil cancer has become an epidemic among men between the ages of 40 – 60. April is Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Month. To celebrate survivors and give hope to patients and caregivers, as well as honor those who died, Jason Mendelsohn is making a difference by raising funds and awareness with a Whiskey and Wine Fundraiser and Awareness Event at Mercedes-Benz of Orlando on S...
This Pesach started out like so many others ... beautiful sunny weather, lots of tourists, families gearing up for Seder and Chol haMoed vacations together in all the fun places in Israel with water. Life events in Israel are strong and fast. Weddings are tremendous events, with hundreds of guests. When I attended my first wedding in Israel I was astonished at the number of guests ... something like 600 ... ("who is paying for this?" I thought to myself) also the attire, so many in jeans and...
Heritage Florida Jewish News is accepting nominations for the 2023 Heritage Human Service Award, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando this summer. “For more than 30 years, individuals who have made major, voluntary contributions of their talent, time, energy and effort to the Central Florida community have been honored with the selection and presentation of this award,” said Jeff Gaeser, editor and publisher of the Heritage. Last year’s recipient was Dr. Edward Zissman. Former recip...
(JNS) — Victims and relatives have yet to claim millions of belongings that Nazi authorities stole from Jews and others during the Holocaust, a British official said on March 28 during an international conference of Holocaust representatives in London. Eric Pickles, the United Kingdom government’s special envoy for post-Holocaust issues, complained that international auctioneers are profiting from stolen artwork and other valuable artifacts as survivors who can identify their previous possessions dwindle. “We need to get a grip on this in the n...
(JTA) — When Israel and Poland agreed to resume Israeli youth trips to Polish Holocaust sites last month, their agreement stipulated that new sites be added to the students’ itineraries, including some that document Nazi crimes against non-Jewish Poles. Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial and history authority, is now calling those additions “inappropriate” and “problematic.” In statements to Haaretz published on Monday, leading historians condemned the development, arguing that the new trip rules advance what they call Poland’s trac...
(JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu withdrew his firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, citing a sharp rise in violence in recent days, and suggested that proposed changes to the country’s judicial system that have sparked widespread protest were no longer imminent. In another concession to the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have flooded the streets to protest the planned changes, Netanyahu added on Monday that a yet-to-be established national guard corps would not answer directly to his far-right national security minister, Itam...
Throughout the streets of Efrat, the Judean mountain town of about 12,000 in which I live, on Sunday afternoon, thousands of people stood silently, in reverence and grief, to provide comfort. Praying. We had been asked to line the streets as the Dee family drove from their home in my neighborhood to the cemetery just a few miles away, to bury Maya (20) and Rina (15) who had been murdered in a terrorist attack two days earlier. Entire families stood silently, even with children too young to know why they were standing there. Among the thousands...
(JNS) — In a social-media post on Friday night, Israel Defense Forces Maj. Gen. (res.) Tal Russo urged fellow anti-government activists to skip the demonstrations scheduled for the following evening. “In light of the difficult events throughout the country, security and police forces are on high alert and deployed in central locations from the Gaza Strip to the northern border,” he tweeted. “I therefore call on my comrades-in-protest against the coup to cancel tomorrow’s countrywide rallies. The situation demands it!” Russo, who served in v...
(JTA) — Picture a cute-looking, 6 1/2-year-old girl with curly braided hair. She is standing on a sidewalk, on a cold, dreary day in Leipzig, Germany, together with her parents and my wife and me. My granddaughter Vivi is staring intently at a 75-year-old worker, kneeling on the ground. He is digging a hole through the pavers to install several 4” x 4” brass plaques mounted on cement cubes — memorials to relatives who perished at the hands of the Nazis more than 80 years ago. In February, we traveled 9,500 miles round-trip to dedicate 12 Stol...
(JNS) — Many years ago, I was stuck in a New York City traffic jam. When I finally got to the source of the bottleneck, I discovered it was caused by a group of young demonstrators. Most looked like classic hippies and they were protesting the plight of the world’s whales. “Save the Whales!” posters and placards filled the intersection. Later, I saw a cartoon in The New Yorker in which two whales were having a conversation and one says to the other, “But can they save themselves?” There are 27 conflicts going on in the world today. Ukraine is...
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) — Berlin police are investigating a pro-Palestinian rally where demonstrators allegedly chanted “Death to the Jews” and “Death to Israel,” phrases that if verified could be criminal offenses under Germany’s strict post-World War II hate speech laws. Hundreds of people showed up in the Kreuzberg and Neukölln neighborhoods on Saturday at a rally organized in response to the police clashes with Muslim worshipers at the Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem last week. In video captured by a watchdog called Democ, many were also sh...
People over the age of 65 represent 14 percent of the U.S. population but consume more than one-third of prescription medications. The average senior citizen uses more than five different medications each day. This does not count nonprescription, over-the-counter drugs. As many as 90 percent of seniors also use herbal remedies and vitamins. While there is risk associated with each type of medication — including side effects, allergic reactions or interactions with food, alcohol or other drugs — the risk is magnified with seniors as they are...
(JNS) - M&H Distillery (Milk and Honey) received the accolade of "Best Single Malt Whisky in the World" for its Element Sherry Cask at the prestigious World Whiskies Awards 2023 competition. M&H Distillery was also accredited the "Craft Producer of the Year" and "Distiller of the Year" last month during the same competition. The World Whiskies Awards is held every year in Britain and features all of the world's leading brands. The competition comprises a panel of judges selecting winners for...
It’s Switzerland in 1945 and the war has just ended. A group of deeply traumatized, ragged-looking Jewish teenagers recently liberated from Buchenwald have been sent to live in a former Swiss school building. A young Swiss woman named Klara cares for them, while her new husband, Johann, runs her family’s textile business, whose success is dependent on the work of unrepentant Nazis living in comfort in Swiss exile. Johann’s brother, Egon, home from the war after five years working as a Swiss border guard, is wracked by guilt for having to turn...
Mystical, spiritual, busy –and darn fun! That's my description of my recent eight-day trip to Israel sponsored by the Jewish Learning Institute, Chabad's comprehensive learning/educational resource company headquartered in Brooklyn. The trip was attended by some 750 Jews and 60 rabbis from across the United States, plus a few international travelers. The March 12-19 Israel trip was unique in that it offered seven different programming tracks, with names like "Food and Wine," "In the Footsteps of...
(JNS) — Gloria Greenfield is about to premiere a new movie, and that’s always very good news. Greenfield has produced, co-produced and directed five films over the last 15 years, all passionate works in defense of truth, Israel and Western civilization. She always assembles an honorable cast of cutting-edge thinkers. These days, they are known as “conservatives.” They are, perhaps, Western civilization’s front-line defenders. Her new film is titled “Civilization in the Danger Zone.” It is aptly titled and very timely. As Kenneth L. Marcus, di...
Jane Lowenthal Gleick, 84, of Maitland and Miami, lost her three-year battle with dementia on March 29, 2023. Born on Feb. 22, 1939, in New York, "Janie" as she was fondly called, touched hundreds, if not thousands, of lives during her lifetime. During her younger years, Jane was involved in the fashion industry. She was the youngest buyer for Jordan Marsh to be sent to Europe to bring the latest styles back to Miami where she would also design the retail store windows. Later she became one of...
(JTA) - Perhaps the greatest influence on Al Jaffee, known to readers of Mad Magazine as the creator of the "Fold-In," was the time he spent living in a Lithuanian shtetl as a child. Jaffee had been born in Savannah, Georgia, but returned to his mother's native country with her after she became disillusioned by the irreligious character of life in America. Living in her small town, Zarasai, from ages 6 to 12, he became steeped in both the Yiddish and the "anti-adultism" that would infuse his...
(JTA) — Holocaust documentaries tend to sit along a scale from horrific to heartwarming. For every “Night Will Fall,” the rediscovered British film showing gruesome scenes from newly liberated Nazi concentration camps, there is a family-friendly film about a survivor, like “The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm.” Some critics distrust Holocaust documentaries that have “happy” endings, or that focus on the second chance given to survivors, as if they betray the fate of the many more millions of Jews who died rather than survived. Raye Farr, the form...
Palestinian terror cell arrested in Jenin (JNS) — Israeli forces on Tuesday arrested a terrorist cell in Jenin, in northern Samaria, that intended to carry out an attack “in an immediate time frame.” Five terrorists were detained during the operation carried out by the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Border Police, according to a statement from the IDF. The IDF’s Duvdevan undercover counterterror unit, a paratrooper patrol and a Shin Bet-directed military unit conducted the morning arrests, seizing ammunit...
(JNS) - The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was not the only example of armed Jewish resistance against the Nazis during the Holocaust. A very small percentage of ghetto prisoners fought, and the revolt occurred late in the war, from April 19 to May 16, 1943. "There is plenty of ignorance in the general public about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and about the context in which it took place," Zachary Mazur, a senior historian at the Warsaw-based POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, told JNS. Mazur...
