Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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JERUSALEM (JTA)-As they do each year, Israelis stood at attention Monday for one minute as sirens wailed throughout the country to usher in Yom Hazikaron, or Memorial Day. What happened afterward was unlike other years, however: The official state ceremony at the Western Wall was held without an audience. That was because of the restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi participated in the...
(JTA)-Andrew Parver's phone hasn't stopped ringing since Sunday. That's when Parver, the director of operations at the Hebrew Free Burial Association in New York City, put out a call for donations of prayer shawls for traditional Jewish burials. Less than 48 hours later, he had collected 150 himself and pledges of hundreds more to come from as far away as South Florida and Pittsburgh. "My phone yesterday was nonstop-phone calls, emails, WhatsApps," Parver told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Tu...
Not even a lockdown could stop the campaign of Lynn Dictor, known by her radio listeners as Moira, a first-time candidate for Seminole County Tax Collector. Dictor, a Democrat, always intended to qualify by petition for her spot on the November 2020 ballot. But shelter-in-place orders prohibited Dictor and her field team from attending any gathering of Seminole County voters to complete the petition drive. Dictor needed 3,037 Seminole County registered voters to sign her ballot petitions by the...
Thanks to the community’s generous contributions, Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando collected $18,742 and 4,930 lbs. of food in this year’s Restock Challenge. With every $1 and pound of food matched $0.50 by The Weiner Family and The Winter Park Wealth Group, JFS surpassed their $10,000 match goal and therefore raised a grand total of $28,742. Although due to COVID-19 JFS could no longer collect food donations two weeks into the drive, donors “stepped up to the challenge” by giving monetary donations. These donations made a big impact...
Jewish Academy of Orlando originally planned to present Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" in May, however to ensure the safety of JAO's students and community, the full-scale musical production, starring the children of the Jewish Academy of Orlando, will be presented one night only on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. at the Wayne Densch Performing Arts Center in Sanford. The audience will travel down the rabbit hole and join Alice as she meanders her way through Wonderland in this timeless tale of cou...
Marc Homburger Jacobs, son of Brad Jacobs and Eve Homburger, has just earned the rank of Eagle Scout, completing his Board of Review via video conference. Since Marc's Boy Scout Troop 641 meets at The Roth Family JCC, he knew he wanted to give something back to this agency. Marc's Eagle Scout Project was to beautify and refresh the exterior of The Roth Family JCC pool's outdoor changing area. Keith Dvorchik, JCC CEO, was the Project beneficiary. Marc would like to thank everybody who supported...
The shut down hasn’t slowed The Jewish Federation one bit. Here are a few examples of what is going on in the community: • The Jewish Academy of Orlando’s online school has been outstanding. The curriculum, the teacher interaction, and the special exercise programs throughout the week are providing students with a quality education along with fitness and fun. • The Federation’s RAISE continues to thrive, with employees attending weekly Lunch & Learn social skills and work training classes. The first RAISE Family Reunion was held online, a...
The COVID-19 isn’t slowing down JOIN Orlando’s programming as it is continuing to build its virtual offerings with four new programs to continue your Jewish journey together with them. JOIN Meaningful Moment—On Fridays, enjoy a practical and meaningful insight into a Jewish concept, Weekly Torah Portion, upcoming Jewish Holiday, or important core Jewish Value. The J.MM. will feature one of the JOIN educators or a guest. Weekly SPARK—Thursday nights, 7:30 p.m., Sarah and Shifra will be leading an amazing array of women’s discussions, classes,...
(JNS)—Amid an uproar from conservative members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations over the nomination of Dianne Lob from HIAS as its next chair, the Jewish umbrella organization announced that its current chair, Arthur Stark, will serve for another year, with Lob serving as chair-elect. In an email to members on Sunday, the Conference said that it has approved the creation a chair-elect position as a way to “forge greater unity in the Conference.” It said “we believe it is in the best interest of the forward...
(JNS)—Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, reiterated on Wednesday that if elected in November, he would keep the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. “The move shouldn’t have happened in the context as it did, it should happen in the context of a larger deal to help us achieve important concessions for peace in the process,” said Biden in response to a supporter’s question during a virtual fundraiser with Boston-area donors. “But now that is done, I would not move the embassy back to Tel Aviv....
(JNS)—The Trump administration will not be sending U.S. coronavirus assistance to the Gaza Strip due to concerns that funds could fall into the hands of the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas. “The Trump administration is not supporting assistance to Gaza,” a senior administration official with knowledge of the decision told The New York Post. “There is a Hamas government in Gaza. They have indicated no interest in engaging with us, no interest in peace with Israel, and in fact, they continue—despite having coronavirus cases in Gaza—to f...
(JNS)—Christians United for Israel, the nation’s largest pro-Israel organization, announced that its 2020 Washington summit will be held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement comes on the heels of the Washington Convention Center communicating to CUFI that the event, scheduled for June 28-30, cannot be held at that location due to efforts to utilize the convention center for virus purposes. The CUFI Virtual Summit will be held on the same dates as originally scheduled. “We have said from the very beginning of this pande...
(JNS)—Apparently, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is sensitive to criticism. Over the past week, it received enormous—and well-deserved—flak after it announced the decision of its nominating committee to select former HIAS chairman Dianne Lob to serve as the Conference’s next chairman. In what is largely viewed as a formality, the full Conference membership is expected to “elect” Lob formally on Tuesday. She will be running unopposed in an open election that will be held on a Zoom conference call. Confe...
The Jewish community in America finds itself in a dilemma concerning the 2020 presidential election. On one hand, President Trump has been a strong ally and friend of Israel. He understands the necessity of Israel moving forward in consolidating its security position and normalizing its relationship with the Sunni Arab world. In the face of Iranian aggression and Palestinian intransigence regarding the peace negotiations, the Trump administration realistically recognized the nuclear and security threat posed by Iran and the implausibility of a...
(JNS)—The U.N. agency responsible for international health, the WHO, and its director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, have come increasingly under intense criticism for playing dangerous partisan politics. Tedros, the Ethiopian microbiologist who has led the U.N. agency since 2017, visited China in late January to deferentially praise “the actions China has implemented in response to the outbreak” and its leaders’ “transparency” regarding the coronavirus epidemic. But while the WHO was praising China’s handling of the situation, th...
If we ask the right questions, we might get a lot closer to the answer much sooner. I am almost never offended by criticism of anything I write. For one thing, I’m acutely aware that there is usually more than one side of an issue. Second, I’m an ardent proponent of the clarifying power of debate. But I confess to being more than a little irritated by a private email sent to me in response to my first column on the coronavirus. The correspondent began by accusing me of having mentioned the economic impact of a prolonged shutdown because I’m in...
(JNS)—Outside of Israel, it was the alternative ceremony that got the most coverage. The official commemoration of Yom Hazikaron—the country’s Memorial Day that occurs the day before celebrating the Jewish state’s Independence Day—began with a one-minute siren that sounded throughout the country and continued at the Western Wall, where President Reuven Rivlin and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi led a small ceremony that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, had no audience. Most Israelis, all too many of whom have lost a loved o...
I’m sure that there have been no shortages of instances of “leaders” of cities throughout the world with large Jewish populations lashing out at their local Jewish community. Many of these were part and parcel of warnings, if not triggers, for violent pogroms. Nevertheless, its shocking to see Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City, the city with the largest number of Jews, do so. de Blasio’s recent tweet, calling out “the Jewish community” because of a large funeral gathering in largely ultra-Orthodox Williamsburg, is a repugnant anti-Semiti...
MORNING AND EVENING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, all in person minyans have been canceled.) 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...
(JNS)-A U.S. Staate Department spokesperson said on Monday that the United States remains ready to recognize Israel's annexation of territory in the West Bank, but expects Israel to continue negotiations with the Palestinians. "As we have made consistently clear, we are prepared to recognize Israeli actions to extend Israeli sovereignty and the application of Israeli law to areas of the West Bank that the vision [U.S. President Donald Trump's "Peace to Prosperity" Mideast plan] foresees as...
Dr. Bernard Kahn is one of the 36 percent who call themselves native Floridians. Born in Orlando in 1951, Bernie has lived and worked in the Orlando area his entire life and has seen the growth of Orlando first hand. His family came from Germany. His grandfather, Richard Kahn, was a man of "means," who held multiple doctorates in economics, history and law. Around 1934, when he spoke out against the Nazi regime, he was arrested and thrown into prison. In prison he faked a heart attack, managing...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-On Friday, the first day of Ramadan, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was virtually empty. A handful of masked worshippers kneeling on prayer rugs, distanced several feet apart from one another, listened to an imam who stood atop an 18-foot wooden pulpit. "We ask God to have mercy on us and all of humanity and to save us from this lethal pandemic," the imam said. The ban on mass communal prayer in Israel and the Palestinian territories is among the sobering restrictions...
Margie had been wondering if there was a shelter-at-home order in her county. She didn't really use the computer very much, but her daughter had recommended she look at the Orlando Senior Help Desk's website when she was looking for some assistance for her husband who had recently been ill. She remembered how easy it was. She went to www.orlandoseniorhelpdesk.org, and right there on the front of the site was an area saying "COVID-19 Coronavirus" with a big easy button saying "Information." She...
A message from KEITH DVORCHIK, CEO of Jewish Federation... "As the wind blew and the rain fell recently, I found it symbolic of the changes we have been dealing with over the past 6 weeks. Storms roll in, creating chaos, and then leave, allowing us to regroup and move forward. During these uncertain times, it has been amazing to see our synagogues and agencies join together to provide for the needs of our community. It's been exciting to see the interest level in programming increase and more...
(JTA)—With many of its normal activities interrupted because of the coronavirus pandemic, Hillel International, the umbrella organization for centers for Jewish student life on college campuses around the world, has laid off or furloughed 30 positions at its Washington, D.C., headquarters—over 20 percent of its workforce. The cuts were made last week, according to an email announcement sent Friday to Hillel staffers across the country. There are approximately 1,000 employees at Hillels around the world, most of which operate as independent org...
