Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Rep. John Mica (R-FL) was in Orlando meeting with members of the Orlando Jewish community and Central Florida Hillel student leaders to discuss the latest situation in the Middle East. Pictured from left to right are Hank Katzen (chairman of the Board of Central Florida Hillel), David Freund, Rep. Mica, Nicole Kostiuk and Cody Fishman....
TEL AVIV (JTA) – Seven weeks after he won reelection, Benjamin Netanyahu finally secured a fourth term as prime minister. With 90 minutes to go until a Wednesday night deadline to form a governing coalition, Netanyahu concluded an agreement with the religious, pro-settler Jewish Home party that gives him the narrowest of parliamentary majorities – 61 of the Knesset's 120 seats. Along with three other right-wing and religious factions - United Torah Judaism, Kulanu and Shas - the five-party Lik...
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando (JFGO) has begun accepting applications for its $100,000 Community Collaborative Grants program. Community Collaborative Grants from JFGO are available for collaborative programs and services for the 2015-2016 program year. At least two agencies, synagogues, or organizations must work together to develop and submit a proposal and implement a program. The amount of the award will depend on the quality and potential impact of the proposed program and the number of collaborating organizations. Rhonda...
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando has welcomed Paul Lefton as the new director of marketing and communication. Lefton brings more than 25 years of experience in journalism, marketing and communication to the Federation. He is a native of Indiana and a graduate of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Since moving to Florida in 1998, Lefton has worked as an editor and manager for publications such as The Miami Herald, Orlando Sentinel and The Tampa Tribune, in addition to serving in a...
BERLIN (JTA)-This month marks 50 years since Israel and West Germany established diplomatic ties. It has been an understandably complex relationship, launched two decades after the Holocaust ended and 14 years after West Germany committed to reparations "both moral and material" for the genocide committed by the Nazis. (The decision to accept German money and goods was contentious among Israelis, some of whom referred to the payouts as "blood money.") Normalized relations between Israel and...
(JTA)-Ayelet Shaked (pronounced ShahKED), Israel's newly appointed justice minister and a member of the right-wing Jewish Home party, has quickly risen to prominence having served just two years in the Knesset. Here's what you need to know about the 39-year-old political celebrity. She's seen as a poster child for Jewish Home's efforts to reach beyond its Orthodox base. A secular Jew from north Tel Aviv, Shaked is often described as a symbol of the Jewish Home and larger settler movement's...
(JNS.org) The White House issued a congratulatory statement on Thursday in response to the last-minute agreement in Israel between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and the Jewish Home party, which will join Kulanu, Shas, and United Torah Judaism in a new governing coalition. "President [Barack] Obama congratulates the Israeli people, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the new governing coalition on the formation of Israel's new government," White House Press Secretary Josh...
To help kick off the Memorial Day Weekend, on May 22 Temple L'Chayim of Clermont will be hosting a special Community Memorial Service to honor and memorialize the soldiers, families and victims of the national and international war efforts by all American Veterans. All veterans of foreign wars are invited with their families as well as all city dignitaries, no matter what your belief or religion for this Clermont community to join together in this special Memorial Day / Weekend tribute. It will...
On Sunday, May 17, Temple Israel's adult education committee will present an interesting and informative lecture by Murray Toborowsky on Jews in American History: The European Wave. It will be held in the Roth Social Hall, and the community is cordially invited to attend free of charge. Refreshments will be served from 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and the lecture will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Toborowsky is an experienced history teacher whose passion is the impact of Jews on American history. He has...
There will not be an eighth-grade class next year at the Jewish Academy of Orlando. However, it is not a permanent situation, and the eighth-grade class will be back the following year. What happened to cause the school to make this decision? According to Alan Rusonik, head of school, there were four students enrolled for eighth grade for the coming year. “While disappointing, we have in the past had grades with just four students and we have navigated through successfully,” he stated. Through no fault of the school, they learned that two of...
Learn seven off-the-wall business tips at next Jewish Business Network meeting Launched just two months ago by the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, the Jewish Business Network already is making an impact in the Jewish business community, bringing together Jewish business men and women to help them form important social and business relationships. Now JBN has added another incentive to participate: a monthly guest speaker. Those who attended April's JBN breakfast at Brown's New York Deli in...
A potentially ugly row is brewing in the United Kingdom over an academic conference, due to be held at the University of Southampton in April, which carries the title, “International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism.” Given that a sentence construction like that one will leave most people with their eyes glazed over, let’s just cut to the chase here. The real title of this conference is, “Does the State of Israel Have a Legal Right to Exist? No, Of Course it Doesn’t.” Hence the growing volley of c...
The president of a normal, civilized country naturally is anxious to distance himself from any suspicion of ever having had a connection to a terrorist. That’s how President Barack Obama reacted when the Bill Ayers controversy erupted. But the recent decision by the Palestinian Authority’s president to give awards to three Arab terrorists reminded us that some governments are neither normal nor civilized. Ayers, the co-founder of the 1960s Weather Underground terrorist group, was involved in planting bombs at New York City police hea...
How important is Judaism for the Jews? We’ve long confused social science by being both an ethnic group (or tribe) and a religion. Among us are members of the tribe who deny religion, and converts to the religion who may have to wait a generation or two before being fully accepted by others as members of the tribe. We argue about members of the tribe who have adopted another religion. What are they? Their descendants can be welcomed back. And, depending who is judging, the converts themselves can change their minds. The question here is w...
(New Jersey Jewish News via JTA)—This past week was exhausting, but not in the way I’ve become accustomed to as the father of three children in a demanding profession. It began with the uplifting gala of the Masorti Foundation and a conference celebrating 30 years of women’s ordination, but was immediately followed by the soul-draining news that the ultra-Orthodox mayor of Rehovot, Israel, decided to cancel the b’nei mitzvah ceremony of children with disabilities because it was to be held in a Conservative synagogue. At the Masorti event,...
One of the most enduring images from the Baltimore riots was that of the irate mother of a rioter vigorously admonishing and slapping her law-breaking teenage son. Millions of frustrated Americans, watching the televised images of mobs of young people burning and looting at will, no doubt wondered, “Where are their parents?” Toya Graham, dubbed “the Baltimore Riot Mom” by the media, was one parent who refused to stand idly by any longer. Some Israelis are probably wishing there were a few “riot moms” in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem....
Dear Editor: Having spent last Tuesday evening at the Seminole County School Board meeting, I read with interest your article “Seminole County School Board Drops Yom Kipper as a Nonattendance Day.” The school board heard from two members of the Jewish community that evening. I spoke, as chairperson of the Jewish Community Relations Council, representing the Jewish Federation. I was followed by Rabbi Rick Sherwin of Congregation Beth Am. There were no other speakers that evening. The board thanked both of us and continued on with business. The...
MORNING AND EVENING MINYANS (Call synagogue to confirm time.) 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 Orlando—Monday – Friday, 7:45 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Tem...
More than 120 women gathered at the 7th annual Jewish Pavilion fashion show at Bloomingdales in Orlando on May 6, for a morning of friendship, fashion, food and fun, honoring Friends board member Susan Livingstone. A handful of Pavilion volunteers served as runway models as Jennifer Bentson, Bloomingdale's public relations manager, shared the latest fashion trends. Event co-chairwoman Marlene Adler delivered opening remarks and expressed her gratitude to the many lovely ladies responsible for...
Mike Wengrov, age 87, of Sanford, passed away on Sunday, May 3, 2015, at Longwood Health Care Center in Longwood. Mr. Wengrov was born in Poland on Dec. 20, 1927. He and his mother, Leah, with the help of righteous Polish people, escaped the Nazis, and made their way to Russia. At the time of his bar mitzvah, most of his family had perished in the Shoah, but he was given the given the gift of life. During the war, after having passed himself off as older and working in a tank production factory, Mr. Wengrov and his mother immigrated to Israel....
WASHINGTON (JTA)-From roundtable discussions to protests and prayers to candid talk with law enforcement officials, American Jewish communities are joining in the debate about community policing in the wake of several high-profile deaths of unarmed black men while in police custody. Officials were short on specifics, but several told JTA that protests in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray on April 19 have sparked a determination to confront the tensions between police and minority...
JFS Orlando Executive Director Eric Geboff is pleased to announce the expansion of JFS’ RIDE program, Reliable Independent Drivers for the Elderly, to the Jewish community. The new advancement of the program is funded by a grant from Melvin and Zelda Siskind. The RIDE program offers free, round-trip transportation services to essential shopping trips, in addition to the already existing medical appointments. JFS’ expanded RIDE program is now also available to low income, Jewish seniors, ages 65 and up, who live in the Lake Mary and Sanford are...
Once again, the light stuff first... It hurts to think my grandchildren don't even know how famous Frank Sinatra was... sure he has restaurants named after him in Las Vegas, here in Orlando, and probably in many places, but do they know he was "ole blue eyes?" No! Why is he in a Jewish newspaper, you ask? That's a "no-brainer." Sinatra was a staunch supporter of Israel and loved the Jewish people. And they (and most of us) loved him right back. In a recent television special titled "All Or Nothi...
The Pavilion Golf Society shot a hole in one for the elder community for the third year in a row with a successful golf outing, honoring founders Sheryl and Julian Meitin. More than 90 golfers were in full swing at Alaqua Country Club on Sunday, May 3, for a morning round of golf to raise funds for the Jewish Pavilion and its seniors help desk. Pavilion Golf Society (PGS) co-chairmen, Ken Davis and Eli Bercovici thanked attendees for "being the ace-in-the-hole for the senior community." Davis...
(JNS.org) A search team discovered the body of 22-year-old Israeli trekker Or Asraf, who was the last Israeli citizen unaccounted for in Nepal following the devastating earthquake there. The IsraeLife Joint Disaster Response Team-compromised of volunteers from United Hatzalah, Zaka, and F.I.R.S.T-found and identified Asraf. "We are very sad that our mission has ended in this way," said Eli Beer, president of United Hatzalah. "Throughout all the days of the search, we remained hopeful that we...
