Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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"We had an enjoyable Koffee and Kibbitz session at Plantation Oaks this morning, highlighted by three weeks of Heritage publications!" said Gloria Green, Jewish Pavilion program director for the Southwest Orlando area. Green pointed out articles of interest in each issue for the avid readers, and they all said they would love to be able to read it each week. Green saw a need among the residents for a connection to their Jewish community and the Jewish world. The Jewish newspaper was the perfect...
Aaron Gorovitz named one of the top fundraisers in U.S. Orlando, FL –Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed is pleased to announce that long-time partner Aaron J. Gorovitz has been honored with a national STOP Diabetes-SHARE award by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) for his outstanding contributions in the fight to stop diabetes. This award is unique, and it has not been given to anyone else in the U.S. during the past 12 months. As the chairman of the local ADA Father of the Year (...
Rabbi Shana Goldstein Mackler, the daughter of Samuel Goldstein of Altamonte Springs, has been named one of the 32 Most Inspiring Rabbis in the U.S. by the Jewish Daily Forward. Mackler is rabbi of Congregation Ohabai Sholom in Nashville, Tenn. She began her service there right after her ordination, and brought with her not only her extensive academic knowledge of Judaism, but also the heart of Judaism. "Her kindness knows no bounds and always, always reminds us of what it means to be a Jew in...
The Jewish Council on Public Affairs (JCPA), which serves as the umbrella organization for the American Jewish community relations field, held its annual conference in Cleveland on May 15-17. In three days of sessions featuring members of Congress, leaders in the Jewish and other faith communities and experts on issues including Israel, civil rights and political polarization, participants got an in-depth opportunity to discuss managing diverse perspectives on Israel, police-community...
(JTA)-The oldest American is now a 113-year-old Jewish woman named Goldie. After the death of 116-year-old Susannah Mushatt-Jones two weeks ago, the New York Daily News reported that Goldie Michelson of Worcester, Massachusetts, became the oldest living American. Since the death of another Goldie, 114-year-old Goldie Steinberg last year, Michelson has likely been the oldest Jew in the world, too. (The oldest person in the world is now 116-year-old Italian Emma Morano-Martinuzzi, according to...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—A bill unanimously approved by the U.S. House of Representatives would extend religious protections to advocates of circumcision and ritual slaughter as well as atheists, addressing what its sponsors describe as an increase in religious persecution in recent years. The bill, passed Monday, would broaden the definition of “violations of religious freedom” in the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to include the persecution of advocates of male circumcision or ritual animal slaughter. Atheists would become a new prote...
(JTA)—Belgium has turned down a request for financial assistance from the daughters of an Israeli couple killed in an attack a year ago on the Jewish Museum in Brussels. Shira and Ayelet Riva were 15 and 17 at the time of the attack in May 2015. Mira and Emmanuel Riva were on vacation and touring the museum when Mehdi Nemmouche, a Frenchman who French authorities believe left for Syria via Belgium to fight with jihadists in 2012 before returning to Europe, opened fire on museum visitors and staff. Along with the Rivas, a French volunteer at t...
WARSAW, Poland (JTA)—Staffers at the Auschwitz museum found a gold ring hidden in a false bottom of one of the cups on display in the main exhibition. During conservation work on one of the enamel mugs, a double, or false, bottom was discovered, the museum said in a statement this week. Inside the false bottom, the staffers discovered a women’s gold ring and a gold chain. Both items were tested and the lab determined, based on the properties of the gold, they were likely made in Poland between 1921 and 1931. “The hiding of valuable items...
Amanda Jacobson, 13-year-old daughter of Jason and Jennifer Jacobson of Ocoee, will be called to the Torah as a bat mitzvah on June 18, 2016, at Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation (SOJC). A competitive gymnast at Orlando Metro Gymnastics (OMG), Amanda, an A student, is schooled mornings in a Learning Coach/Florida Virtual School class at Gifted University in Winter Garden before heading to OMG for 4 to 5 hours of practice each weekday. Amanda hoped to find a mitzvah project that reflected...
Everyone goes through transitions at some point in their lives. Transitions are part of life, whether it be divorce, losing a loved one, empty nesting, retirement, aging or any number of life changing events. Jewish Family Services is offering a Life Transitions Support Group to help people learn coping skills to navigate through life changes. The Life Transitions Support Group meets on Thursday evenings, 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m., through June 23, at the Roth Family JCC, 851 N. Maitland Ave., Maitland. For registration or information, call Jeanette...
The Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Orlando program for June features Tom Hirsch who will be presenting "Genealogy Resources and Techniques to Try Out This Summer" on Tuesday, June 7, from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. at The Roth Family Jewish Community Center, 851 N. Maitland Ave., Maitland. This is the Society's last meeting before summer break, a perfect time to present some new techniques to enhance enthusiasts' enjoyment and success while researching family histories. There are countless free...
Heritage Florida Jewish News is accepting nominations for the 2016 Heritage Human Service Award, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando on Aug. 17. “For almost 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 Berny Raff. Former recipients have inclu...
Despite leaving the world an unsafer place than when he found it, President Barack Obama isn’t shying away from busting those foreign policy taboos. The president who brought us a nuclear deal with the Iranian mullahs, and who gave Cuba’s fossilized communist regime a new lease on life, is about to fly to Japan. Once there, he will highlight the grave dangers of nuclear war in the city that has become a synonym for Armageddon: Hiroshima. Today, May 27, Obama will become the first president to visit Hiroshima since the U.S. dropped an ato...
There is a war going on in the United States. It is being fought on college campuses across the nation. This battle is not about Affirmative Action or the ridiculous costs of a college education. Not even about Bernie and Hillary—that’s a different one with its own dynamics. No, this is about a well-funded, well-organized movement to discredit the State of Israel and by proxy every Jew in the world. Of all the injustices piled upon the peoples of the world, why should so much attention be paid to tiny Israel? Why not Russia with its aby...
‘Sometimes there’s a stink you just can’t wash off, kinda like a venereal disease... That’s the problem Trump’s got.” It can’t get much worse than that, a quotation in The Economist attributed to a Republican Congressman. Polls are showing that stinking mess tied with Hillary. If there is such a thing as “momentum” in politics, it doesn’t look good for the lady who will be the Democrats’ nominee. A month ago, she was a clear leader in Clinton vs. Trump surveys. In the bluster that marks a political campaign, and perhaps this one more than mo...
The current American presidential campaign features candidates who seem all too willing to set aside ethics for the sake of greater profits. One presumptive nominee proudly made large donations to politicians “so they would do what I want” to facilitate his business goals. The other took actions that benefited special interest groups, which then “coincidentally” donated large sums to her family’s private foundation. It’s clear that their approaches to accumulating wealth have worked. According to Forbes, Donald Trump is worth more than $4.5 b...
PITTSBURGH (JTA)—As a U.S. immigrant and a parent, I’m somewhat fanatical about my kids’ appreciation for their citizenship. Last year I organized what I hope will be an annual second-grade field trip to our local swearing-in ceremony for new American citizens. As a result of that experience, I discovered the students at our children’s Orthodox day school weren’t reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every day. I just assumed—like a lot of parents at the school—they did. Years ago, when the school had a PA system, the pledge was recited to th...
Ever ask yourself why during the 30 year period-between 1917 and 1947- thousands of Jews throughout the world ‘woke up’ one morning and decided to leave their homes and go to Palestine? The majority did this because they heard that a future National Home for the Jewish people was being established in Palestine, on the basis of the League of Nations obligation under the “Mandate for Palestine” document. The “Mandate for Palestine,” an historical League of Nations document, laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in western Pal...
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. Temple Isr...
The Fourth Annual Pavilion Golf Society (PGS) was marked by friends, fairways, food, family, and the many fans of honoree Carol Feuerman. More than 80 golfers were in full swing at Alaqua Country Club on Sunday, May 15, for a morning round of golf to raise funds for the Jewish Pavilion and The Orlando Senior Help Desk. The Pavilion past president was celebrated by three generations of family members, from her mother, Oakmonte Village resident Shirley Meltzer, to her five adult children and...
WALTHAM, Mass. (JTA)-When Jonathan Sarna was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 1999 at the age of 44, it changed his life. Already a highly regarded historian at Brandeis University, Sarna was in the midst of writing his seminal study of American Jewish history when he realized with alarm that he might never finish it. He underwent chemotherapy, radiation treatment and surgery. Though he didn't know it at the time, doctors gave him a one-in-five chance of surviving. Then, slowly, the...
(JTA)—Just days after rejecting four resolutions calling for divestment from companies that profit from Israel’s control of the West Bank, the United Methodist Church recommended withdrawing from the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. In a nonbinding vote of 478-318 at its general conference in Portland, Oregon, on Tuesday, the church accepted a petition requesting its withdrawal from the group, Religion News Service reported. It was not clear if the church would act on the recommendation. The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occ...
I repeat myself because I'm old?... I'm NOT old. (Oh shut up!) I don't repeat myself. I don't repeat myself. (Okay, I do. Especially last week's joke. Sorry.) Speaking of dementia, I once asked my spouse if he thought I had Alzheimer's because I couldn't remember where I parked the car in the Publix parking lot. He answered that "it's not where you parked it. It's when you don't know what to do with the car that you may have Alzheimer's." And on this subject... I read the following in the...
PARDES HANNA, Israel (JTA)-When Yoel decided, at age 8, to begin observing Shabbat, there was one problem: It meant he couldn't join most of Israel's youth soccer teams, which played games on Saturday. Yoel, now 12, has always lived in the increasingly large gray area between Israel's starkly divided religious and secular Jewish societies. His father observes Shabbat, his mother doesn't. He attended a religious elementary school, but transferred to a secular school this year. He enjoys how...
TEL AVIV (JTA)—He was an outspoken politician with little military experience, appointed by a rival and promising to bring a new approach. Current and former officials at the Defense Ministry called his appointment an “enigma,” fretting that “it will take some time until he understands how things work” and that “he’ll have to undergo basic training.” The subject of that criticism wasn’t Avigdor Liberman, the hard-line nationalist with scant army experience who was offered the defense portfolio in a surprise move Wednesday. It was Amir Peretz,...
