Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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On Thursday, May 25, 15 phenomenal students graduated from the 5th grade at the Jewish Academy of Orlando. The ceremony was held in the school's chapel. The program began with the students leading the Shacharit (morning) service and each of the students also read from the Torah. Learning the Torah cantillation (or trope) was part of their 5th-grade Judaic Studies curriculum. The students also reflected back on an amazing year, where they truly excelled in the studies as they prepare for middle s...
JERUSALEM-Just prior to US President Donald Trump's whirlwind tour of Israel and the breathtaking and emotional 50th anniversary Jerusalem Day celebrations across the country, the staff of United with Israel, the world's largest grassroots pro-Israel movement, met with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to present him with the 'Jerusalem Declaration,' a historic book containing the names of over 500,000 individuals from around the world who recognize Jerusalem as both the eternal capital of the Jewish...
Congregation Ohev Shalom member Sophie Schaked, 11, competed this past summer with girls from around the country for the title of USA Ambassador National Preteen, which she won. The newly crowned USA Ambassador Preteen then was inspired to create and host the Show Your Sparkle Pageant at the Orlando Union Rescue Mission after seeing how some of the girls at the Orlando Union Rescue Mission admired her crown and sash when she came to volunteer. It was then she decided she wanted to give the...
(JTA)-Britain's bloodiest terrorist attack in over a decade occurred Monday just two miles from Rabbi Yisroel Cohen's synagogue. Yet one day after the deadly bombing in Manchester, Cohen told JTA he has no intention of changing security arrangements at his congregation. In fact Cohen, a Chabad emissary who works in a Jewish enclave in the northern part of the city surrounded by a heavily Muslim area, said there is little room for improving security across his tight-knit community. After all, the...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-President Donald Trump spent just 30 minutes at Yad Vashem on the second and last day of his visit to Israel, but the leadership of the Holocaust memorial center in Jerusalem planned to use the brief time to deliver a powerful message. Rather than bombarding Trump with facts or analysis, they told him the story of one German Jewish girl, Ester Goldstein, who was murdered by the Nazis. "The story of a child touches everyone, not only the president," Yona Kobo, researcher of...
The President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, participated in a memorial ceremony at Yad Vashem on 23 May 2017. Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev accompanied President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump while at Yad Vashem. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu, Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, and Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau also joined the president during his visit. During the ceremony, conducted by Yad Vashem’s Michael Fisher, the presi...
(JNS.org) During the second day of President Donald Trump’s visit to Israel, a rocket was fired at the Jewish state Tuesday from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The IDF confirmed the rocket landed in Israeli territory, but in an open area, causing no casualties or damage. During 2016 and the beginning of 2017, several rockets were launched at Israel from the Egyptian Sinai by Salafi jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State terror group. In April, a Grad rocket struck a greenhouse in Israel’s southern community of Yuval, adjacent to the Egypt...
MAITLAND-This summer, The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center extends its conversation about human rights and social justice to a more local focus: the Civil Rights Movement. In a series of workshops running from June 13-16 and presented in collaboration with University of Central Florida's Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow" will discuss how these laws originated and how they were challenged by Civil Rights activists. "Before you can understand...
Here's a romantic, feel-good movie about a Jewish woman looking for love with a deadline of 30 days. The wedding is planned, but there is no groom. Will she find him? Will there be a groom on her wedding day? From American-Israeli writer and director Rama Burshtein ("Fill the Void") comes the "The Wedding Plan," a poignant and funny romantic comedy about love, marriage and faith in life's infinite possibilities. "The Wedding Plan" was filmed in Israel and is in Hebrew with English subtitles. It...
Read any good books lately? Each summer for the past four years, Congregation Ohev Shalom has sponsored "People of the Book: One Book, One Community, One Summer," a chance to read and discuss a book of significant Jewish content. "People of the Book" returns for its fifth cycle on June 10, featuring best-selling author Maggie Anton's "Rav Hisda's Daughter-Book I: Apprentice." Rav Hisda is considered one of the greatest minds among the Sages of the Talmud. He lived in the late 3rd and early 4th...
It is that time of year once again when Heritage Florida Jewish News is putting out feelers for one outstanding person in the Jewish community who has given his or her time or talent or monetary gifts to better the Orlando Jewish community. Nominations for the 2017 Heritage Human Service Award are now being accepted and the award will be presented at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, which will be held Aug. 27. “For more than 27 years, individuals who have made major, voluntary contributions of their talent, t...
By any standards, it was an extraordinary week for U.S.-Israel relations—and that was before President Donald Trump even arrived in Israel for his official visit. It began with what sounded like a brawl between American and Israeli officials laying the groundwork for Trump’s May 22-23 visit. Irritated by an Israeli request that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accompany Trump on his visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem—an image that would send the unmistakable signal that the new U.S. administration regards a united Jerusalem as Israel’s ete...
The Palestinian Arabs, who are constantly being described by the Jewish left as disenfranchised and subjugated, went to the polls last weekend. That’s right—the same Palestinians whom Israel supposedly deprives of the right to vote freely cast ballots in a democratic election. Henry Siegman, former executive director of the American Jewish Congress, wrote in a recent issue of the London Review of Books that Israel is “Palestine’s occupier” and the Palestinians live under “permanent subjugation.” Likewise, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), at t...
Much of the attention being given to President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East has focused on whether his first foreign trip will provide much of a distraction from his growing domestic troubles. But the real substance centers on his plan to solve a problem that has eluded all of his predecessors: the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The key to Trump’s foray is an effort to forge an “outside-in” breakthrough, in which bilateral talks will be shelved in favor of an attempt to use the leverage of Saudi Arabia and other S...
(JTA)—Donald Trump and his staff may have left Israel feeling pretty friendly to the Jews, but man, we don’t make it easy for them. Flying with reporters from Saudi Arabia to Israel on Monday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that they were “[o]nto the second stop, Tel Aviv, home of Judaism.” Critics were not kind. Jordan Schachtel of Conservative Review noted that because Tel Aviv does not have the religious significance of Jerusalem, Tillerson “managed to insult the people of Israel—and Jews worldwide.” Washington Post columnist Jen...
NEW YORK (JTA)—This week, President Donald Trump proposed radical and cruel cuts to U.S. foreign aid. If his budget for 2018 is approved by Congress and implemented, it would slash crucial aid and development programs and weaken key institutions upholding human rights worldwide. As the head of the leading Jewish organization that works to end poverty and support human rights in the developing world, I stand in fierce opposition to the president’s proposed cuts. Each year, I have the honor of traveling the globe to meet with leaders of gro...
President Trump has renamed terrorists from monsters to losers. I agree. People such as 22-year-old Salman Abedi who contrive to inflict such a heinous act as the carnage he recently inflicted in Manchester, England, is the worst of pathetic world losers. Abedi joins now a long list of scum who are so disconnected from rational thinking and healthy emotions that they are filled with hatred resentment of normal life loving people who simply want a night out on the town such as an Ariana Grande concert. In the case of Alyssa Elsman of Portage,...
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 Israe...
This past December, Linda Kost, president of Congregation Beth Sholom in Leesburg, received a telephone call from a man named Norman Siegel, who, with his wife, Frankie, were ex-pats in Costa Rica for about five years and were now looking to return to the United States. They knew that they wanted to go to Florida but were unsure as to where-just that there be a good number of Jewish families and synagogues. Finding our website on Google, he telephoned Linda. Linda knew that I often travelled to...
I became involved with the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Orlando (JGSGO) for several reasons. As a second generation American, I heard my father's Polish accent and wondered what happened to all his relatives. I also wanted to know more about my father's forebears. Who was my great-grandfather and where was he from? My grandfather, Morris Kerszenblat, already middle-aged, immigrated to the U.S. with his wife, Manya, and four sons including my father, Abe, (an adult-age 24). They made...
This Tibetan proverb should be shared... "The secret to living well and longer is: Eat half, Walk double, Laugh triple and love without measure." This was told to me by my friend ELIZABETH TAYLOR. (No. Not the famous actress! Rather a friend from my Grief Support Group with the same name and who is also a beautiful woman.) Here we go again... I read this disturbing report in last month's World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and, in part, pass it along: "The latest report on anti-Semitism in...
Over 130 people gathered at the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center for the book launch of local poet and Holocaust educator Holly Mandelkern. The release of her book, "Beneath White Stars: Holocaust Profiles in Poetry," included an introduction from the Holocaust Center's resource educator, Mitch Bloomer. He also served as a history editor for the book. Program participants for the event included Holocaust survivor Helen Greenspun and her granddaughter, Toni Turoci, who read a...
JFS Orlando recently received a $50,000 grant from the Orlando Sentinel Family Fund, a McCormick Foundation Fund. The grant will support JFS Orlando's Family Stabilization Program. The Family Stabilization Program is designed to help family's improve overall stability and self-sufficiency. This program assists clients with budgeting, individual financial counseling, mental health counseling and providing case management to help improve their educational and/or employment status. "We are more tha...
Kudos to Paul Stenzler, president of the Jewish Pavilion, who launched a Legacy Society at the Jewish Pavilion. Stenzler formed an active planned giving committee in February, chaired by Barbara Coenson and Marty Glickstein. At the May meeting of the Jewish Pavilion, he distributed gorgeous thank you certificates designed by Joanne Fink of Zenspiratons to nine members. While the Jewish Pavilion has met its annual budget every year, it is the planned giving program that will secure the future of...
Sharon L Engel, age 75, of Winter Park, passed away on Wednesday, May 17, 2017, at Florida Hospital—East Orlando. She was born on July 7, 1941, one of three children born to the late Earl and Mildred Litz Olsen. She attended college and on June 26, 1976, in Chicago, married Neil L. Engel, her husband of nearly 41 years who survives her. The family made Aliyah to Israel, returning to the Orlando area in 1984. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her son, Dean DeMaio of Arkansas; and daughter, Sheri DeMaio of Orlando; her g...
