Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that America's commitment to Israel is "ironclad," and that he, and the Biden administration, supports more normalization agreements. Blinken appeared as part of a virtual event hosted by Israel's embassy in Washington for Israeli Independence Day, which also featured U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and was viewed by more than 20,000 people online. "In your 73rd year of freedom,...
Temple Israel's Board and Ritual Committee wanted to find a special way to honor Rabbi Joshua Neely and the congregation's president, Dr. Bernie Kahn, for all of their work this past year in reopening the synagogue safely for in-person services and limited face-to-face learning at MAGAL, the Meitin Alliance for Growth and Learning religious school. Rabbi Neely and Dr. Kahn worked very hard to keep the community safe and engaged while resolving the many issues faced during the pandemic. The...
(JTA) — Last year at this time, the message out of Jewish summer camps was one of doom and gloom. In April 2020, the Union for Reform Judaism announced that COVID would force a closure of its camps for the summer, affecting some 10,000 kids. In May, the Conservative movement’s Ramah camps across the country followed suit. This year, the outlook could not be more different. Camps in the United States are opening again with a combination of testing and vaccinations, along with a better understanding of how COVID-19 spreads. “It’s absolutely exhau...
Heritage Florida Jewish News is accepting nominations for the 2021 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 Hank Katzen. Former recipients have inclu...
This time of year, while everyone is honoring Jews who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the Jewish people and the holy land, here in the U.S. must think what we can do. This past Wednesday, CTeen of the Chabads in Maitland and North Orlando met at Nate's Shul in Longwood and volunteered for the Jewish National Fund to make cards of encouragement and art that will be used to decorate bomb shelters at the border city of Sderot. Sderot is less than a mile from the Gaza border and has in...
Temple Israel has some special senior programs planned for the summer. Senior Schmooze is a short, informal get-together catering to those 65 and older. On Sunday, June 6 from 12:30 to1 p.m. in the Rein Sanctuary at Temple Israel (50 S. Moss Road in Winter Springs), come enjoy the hilarious half-hour video, “Old Jews Telling Jokes.” The following month, on Sunday, July 11 from 1 to 2 p.m., the topic of “Where I Grew Up...” will be discussed by a panel of seniors from diverse regions of the country. Reminisce and share your own memories of grow...
Temple Israel invites the entire community to join the discussion and learn something new. Two informal chats are scheduled for May. On Sunday, May 2 at 3 p.m., Rabbi Neely will talk about Jewish comedy. Grab a chair in the outside seating area of Zoës Kitchen at 150 S. SR 434 in Altamonte Springs, and get ready to laugh and learn. On Sunday, May 23 at 3 p.m., the topic is oddball Jewish law, and the discussion will take place at the Roth Family JCC, 851 N. Maitland Ave. in Maitland. These casual chats are open to everyone with no...
Support the Holocaust Center by bidding on silent auction items through April 28. Attendance is not necessary. To register and bid on the beautifully designed Hope & Humanity centerpieces pictured above and many other art pieces and fabulous auction items plus amazing trips of a lifetime, please go to https://qtego.net/qlink/holocaustedu#silent-auction....
(JTA) - Bernie Madoff, the fraudster who ran a $17.5 billion Ponzi scheme ensnaring thousands of investors, including a long list of Jewish organizations and families, has died at 82. The Associated Press reported Madoff's death Wednesday, April 14, at a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina. Madoff was known as a selective money manager who made fantastic yet consistent profits for his clients until his entire operation was exposed as a scam amid the 2008 financial crisis. Madoff's...
(JNS) — Legislation brought forth in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday would allow insurance beneficiaries to recover billions in unclaimed payments from World War II. The Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act of 2021 was re-introduced by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), along with its original co-sponsors, who include Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Reps. John Garamendi (Calif.), David Kustoff (Tenn.) and Lee Zeldin (N.Y.). According to a statement announcing the legislation, 97 p...
(JNS) — Ahead of Israel’s 72nd Independence Day, the Central Bureau of Statistics has published the nation’s latest population figures. The Jewish state is home to 9,327,000 people, among them 6.894 million Jews (73.9 percent of the population), 1.966 million Arabs (21.1 percent) and 467,000 citizens of other ethnicities (5 percent). Demographic growth projections indicate that in 2030, Israel’s population will stand at 11.1 million, and in 2040 at 13.2 million. By the time Israel marks its 100th Independence Day in 2048, its populat...
(JNS) — On Dec. 11, 2008, one of the worst events to rock the organized Jewish world was revealed on the front pages of the nation’s newspapers. Few outside of the financial world had ever heard of him before that day. But when news broke that Bernard Madoff’s Wall Street investment firm was a Ponzi scheme and that some of the Jewish community’s richest and most respected individuals, as well as philanthropies and educational institutions, had been the victims of a gigantic fraud, the impact was devastating. More than $64.8 billion had disappe...
(JNS) — Illegal construction on public and private land is a national epidemic that has been ravaging the Israeli landscape for far too long. Each year, thousands of structures spring up in violation of Israel’s Planning and Construction Law; current estimates number them in the hundreds of thousands. This wildcat construction threatens the prospects for planned, organized construction and development, stymies formulation of long-range planning policy and stunts efforts to develop modern national and local infrastructure, but first and for...
(JNS) — Anyone who is willing to look up for a moment from the hardships of politics and the coronavirus and examine the success of the project called the State of Israel from a broad historical perspective knows that it deserves to be crowned a resounding success. Anyone who prefers—and there are quite a few—to assess the state of the nation based on the media headlines will soon find themselves longing for the Stone Age. It seems that complaining is very fashionable these days in the political-media sphere. I’m not the first one to say this:...
I have seen reasonable American citizens, who have families, who work hard, pay their taxes, serve in our military, belong to their PTA etc., become irrational and even crazy at times when it comes to political opinion. And I’ve observed, under the surface, there’s a hatred that’s ready to jump out when it comes to one’s opposing political views. I want to be clear: this is on both sides of the aisle. I understand that we’ve lived through a shut down due to the pandemic. People’s nerves are frayed, but all in all, I believe the American pe...
(JTA) — In the years following the reckonings with sexual harassment and assault prompted by the #MeToo movement, there has been debate over the correct communal response to those accused of sexual misconduct and whether perpetrators should be pushed to the edges of a community. Questions of sin, quarantine and repentance are central to this week’s Torah portion, Tazria-Metzora, prompted by the rules surrounding the metzora, a person afflicted with tzaarat. Sometimes translated as “leprosy,” tzaraat is a skin disease that, per the descrip...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, some minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) 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. Congr...
The Torah tells us that Sarah, the matriarch of the Jewish people, laughed when told she’d give birth in her old age. Since that moment, it seems, Jews have continued laughing — at themselves and their predicaments, at each other, even at God. And beneath that laughter, and the humor that sparked it, lies the story of the Jewish people throughout the age. History Jewish humor as a genre got its start in 19th-century Eastern Europe, where Yiddish folk tales found the humor in the often-difficult everyday life of the shtetl (village). The gre...
(JTA) — In Tucker Carlson’s response to accusations that he endorsed one white supremacist talking point, the Fox News anchor appeared to echo another — this time about Israel. Last week, the popular right-wing talk show host said there was a coordinated Democratic plan to “replace” the existing population of the United States with immigrants from the “Third World.” White supremacists refer to the idea as a “Great Replacement” orchestrated by Jews, and that claim has fueled attacks like the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. After the segment,...
Part 1 of 2 Laurence Morrell is very proud that he considers himself, "the last of the Jewish rednecks." He's proud because he's worked hard outside in the elements, in the fields of orange groves that once dotted the landscape of central Florida. In the scheme of things, it wasn't that long ago. At 78, he has been a part of the early migrations of Jews in the Orlando area. His grandfather, Abraham M. Bornstein, was in the textile industry in Lodz, Poland, before coming to Paterson, N.J.,...
(JNS) — A proposal by the mayor of the South Florida community of Miami Shores to place a menorah in the village town hall during the holiday season has led to a major pushback from the village’s attorney and some members of the council. At the April 6 meeting, Miami Shores Mayor Crystal Wagar raised the idea of putting up a menorah during the winter holiday season, which seems long overdue to some who live in the heavily Jewish area. However, village attorney Richard Sarafan — who, according to The Miami Herald, is himself Jewish — argued...
More famous Jewish talents... If you're as old as me, you will remember actress Marion Levy. NO! YOU DON'T REMEMBER HER? How about if I use her entertainment name? Surely, you've heard of Paulette Goddard. Paulette was a famous star in her day. Her dad was a Russian/Jew (weren't all of our ancestors? Only kidding, of course.) She was once married to Charlie Chaplin for about 6 years. Very famous, very famous! How about GLORIA STEINEM? She is super famous! (Best of all, she's older than me!) Glor...
(JTA) - A mere 43 years after her death, Golda Meir is ready for her close-up. Just a month after it was announced that the Israeli star Shira Haas would portray Meir in a TV series, The Hollywood Reporter revealed this week that Oscar winner Helen Mirren would portray Israel's only female prime minister in an upcoming biopic. While Haas, who is best known for her star turn in the miniseries "Unorthodox," is Jewish, Mirren is not. But she did win international acclaim (and the Academy Award) for...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Convicted spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard on Monday night dedicated a Torah scroll that he brought to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. He commissioned the writing of the Torah scroll 12 years ago, while he was in a U.S. federal prison, serving a 35-year sentence. Pollard traveled to Samaria with his wife, Esther, and the Shomron Regional Council head Yossi Dagan. "I feel a very personal connection to this place and to Joseph who is buried here, and everything he went through,"...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Days after resuming U.S. funding for the troubled U.N. agency that administers to Palestinian refugees and their descendants, the Biden administration says it has the commitment of UNRWA to “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism, racism or discrimination. “UNWRA has made clear their rock-solid commitments to the United States on the issues of transparency, accountability, and neutrality in all its operations,” a senior U.S. official said in an interview this weekend, describing the process that led last week to the administr...
