Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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This week, Jewish Academy of Orlando announced its new program: "Harriett's Art and Performance Program for Youth" (also know as our "HAPPY" program). The program is being funded through a very generous grant from the Harriett Lake Family Trust. Mrs. Lake has been a long-time supporter of the Jewish Academy of Orlando, and, of course, performance arts programs throughout the city. This grant fuses two of her passions: performing arts and Jewish education. The Jewish Academy of Orlando has had a...
Following Saturday night's terror attack that killed seven people and injured as many as 50 in London, British Prime Minister Theresa May said "enough is enough" and vowed to crack down on the "evil ideology of Islamist extremism." In response to the U.K.'s third major Islamist terror attack in recent months-prompting May to describe the attacks as a "new trend"-the prime minister asserted, "We cannot, and must not pretend that things can continue to carry on as they are." May also reiterated th...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is willing to suspend his demand that Israel freeze Judea and Samaria settlement construction as a condition for restarting peace talks, a top adviser said. Abbas is also willing to mute his campaign to single Israel out for condemnation at the United Nations and prosecute Israeli officials for war crimes, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. “We have not made the settlements an up-front issue this time,” Mohammad Mustafa, a senior economic adviser to Abbas and a former PA deputy prime...
"Wonder Woman" may be a hit at the box office, grossing $228 million worldwide in its first weekend, but not in much of the Arab world. The reason? It's Israeli star, Gal Gadot. After being banned in Lebanon, Wonder Womanis now facing bans in Tunisia, Jordan and Algeria. The Hollywood media site Deadline.com reported Thursday that the movie's scheduled release in Tunisia was suspended because of Gadot's defense of Israel's 2014 incursion into Gaza. Deadline said the secular Arab nationalist...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Five Arab nations cut ties with Qatar on Monday, June 5, escalating a long-simmering competition for preeminence in the region into actions that could set the stage for war. Saudi Arabia, which is leading the charge, has cut off Qatar's only land crossing-and what one Saudi-friendly estimate says is as much as 40 percent of the tiny emirate's food supply. The other four nations cutting all ties with Qatar are Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Yemen. Meanwhile, Iran...
(JNS.org) The U.S. Senate urged President Donald Trump to fulfill his campaign promise of relocating the American embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, unanimously passing legislation in support of the move Monday. The Senate voted 90-0 in favor of a resolution introduced in May by Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), commemorating the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification and acknowledging Israel’s sovereignty over its capital. The resolution urges the “president and all United States officials to abide by” the 1995 Jerusalem Emba...
(JNS.org) The IDF called up thousands of soldiers from its Northern Command conscript divisions Sunday to conduct a surprise military exercise on Israel's northern border with Lebanon. The drill, which ended Monday afternoon, simulated a large-scale attack on Israel by the Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah. The exercise was conducted to test the IDF Galilee Division's preparedness in the event of such an attack after receiving only brief intelligence information beforehand. Soldiers from...
At the end of May 2017, the Congregation of Reform Judaism hosted their first-ever Arts Festival Week that included an art gallery, a variety of free arts workshops, and multiple performances. Each featured the talents of local painters, sculptors, photographers, craftspeople, singers, both classical and modern musicians, creative writers, and even a couple homegrown comedians. Yet, if you had asked anyone at the temple if that kind of response would be possible just one year earlier, the reply...
The fifth annual commemoration of the largest mass arrest of rabbis in U.S. history, an event that took place in St. Augustine in June 1964, will be held on Monday, June 19, at 12:30 p.m. at the historic Columbia Restaurant, 98 St. George Street, St. Augustine, Florida 32084. The 60-minute event will include the reading of the letter written by the rabbis in the Flagler County jail. All are welcome, no advance arrangements are necessary. Discussion will follow this event. Luncheon available from Columbia Restaurant Menu. RSVP to 804-914-4460....
Ari Azbel, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, is a senior at Lake Highland Preparatory and a former student of the Jewish Academy of Orlando. He is also the founder of Orlando Math Circle (www.orlandomathcircle.org), a 501(c)3 organization founded in the tradition of Eastern European math circles to provide opportunities to local students to do novel and enriching mathematics, as well as to provide teaching and leadership opportunities for high school, college, and graduate students. “Our mission is to create a diverse and inclusive communit...
Every time I see the movie “Titanic” I hope that there will be a different outcome. I hope that the captain will successfully avert the massive iceberg. I hope that the ship won’t sink, that so many of its passengers won’t perish. I hope that “Jack” will live to write his strongly worded letter to the shipping line. Despite knowing the outcome, that’s the same feeling I got when reading “Six Days of War” by noted historian and former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., now Knesset member Michael Oren. Leading up to the 50th anniversary of th...
Why aren’t Muslim countries leading givers to the Palestinian cause? The question has renewed relevance upon a United Nations agency’s recent release of its list of donors. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East claims to provide aid to around 5 million Palestinian “refugees,” a number that is disputed by the pro-Israel community because UNRWA also serves refugees’ descendants. Published this month, UNRWA’s list of donors for 2016 says Western countries and Japan are the most significant contributor...
He says that he wants to settle things between Israel and Palestine. His initial venture outside the U.S., to the Middle East, may indicate the importance that he assigns to it. There was also a business deal with the Saudis, that will bring more work to American industries. Along the way to that, he got some positive words from reigning Arabs about shared interests against Iran, and their intentions to help bring peace to Israel and Palestine. Perhaps all are on board except the Palestinians. We’re hearing about Trump’s temper against Pal...
The decision by the Jewish weekly newspaper The Forward to publish a paid advertisement supporting imprisoned Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti is being questioned by some editors of other American Jewish newspapers. The full-page ad appeared in The Forward’s June 2 edition. It was sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a controversial organization that supports the BDS movement and is described by the Anti-Defamation League as the largest “Jewish anti-Zionist group” in the U.S. The ad featured a statement by Barghouti calling for m...
The most important incident during President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East took place out of view of the international press. At the time, it went unreported and unremarked upon. The president not only didn’t mention it publicly, he also failed to tweet about it. But Trump’s outburst of anger at Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting in Bethlehem may have set a tone that will either create real progress toward peace or, more likely, instill a degree of realism about Israel’s antagonists that has bee...
Where is the Anti-Defamation League? As a “new anti-Semitism” casts the Jewish state as the cruelest of nations, and her Jewish supporters as “racists,” the ADL has been largely silent. The lies are spread in newspapers, churches and college classrooms. On campuses, Jewish students are harassed and intimidated. Even the curricula in many public high schools and middle schools is biased against Israel. Yet the ADL, once the Jewish people’s defense agency, seems unable or unwilling to effectively fight back. Case in point: Linda Sarsour,...
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...
Students of Yiddish received their graduation certificate for completing Yiddish 101 at the final class taught by Joan Pohl at Brookdale Island Lake. Participants have been attending class each month for personal stories, reminiscing, Yiddish vocabulary, singing, dancing and laughter galore. Special thanks to Joan Pohl who is shown here with Ben Rosenbaum (wearing the silly glasses). Pohl taught Yiddish at Brookdale Island Lake as a Jewish Pavilion volunteer for the past five years. Classes are...
(JTA)-Try to think of the most famous Israelis in history. Not necessarily the most consequential or "important" ones-like any number of Nobel Prize winners or behind-the-scenes Middle East peace deal negotiators-but those who are most universally recognizable. Most lists would likely include a pioneering role model (Golda Meir), a supermodel who once dated Leonardo DiCaprio (Bar Refaeli), its seeming prime minister for life (Benjamin Netanyahu), a politician with crazy hair (David Ben-Gurion),...
Many American Jews, who are at least 95 percent Ashkenazi by origin, also find it hard to relate to those Jews in Israel whose cultural background is so different. By origin, approximately 50 percent of the Israeli Jewish population identify themselves as "Edot HaMizrah" (The Eastern communities) and are generally distinguishable by the many factors that are attributable to a different cultural heritage and separation by many centuries from the Ashkenazim-in their genetic make-up (often but not...
(When you read this column I will still be in Chicago visiting with children and grandchildren.) Oh my aching back... I read this in the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and pass it along to you: One of the leading causes of back pain is poor posture...the slumping way we sit and walk" (My son always reminds me to straighten up before I leave the house. He feels it will make me look and feel younger.) One Israeli product, Upright, is trying to help us stand taller and, as a result, feel...
1. In Hebrew, Gal Gadot's first name means "wave" and her surname means "riverbanks." 2. Gal Gadot was born in Rosh Ha'ayin, and her maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors. 3. At the age of 18, Gadot won the Miss Israel beauty pageant. She then went on to compete in Miss Universe in 2004, but was so reluctant to win that she turned up late for events, wore the wrong kind of evening wear, and even pretended that she couldn't speak English. 4. Gadot carried out two years of service as a...
Dale Cohen, age 63, of Davenport, passed away in Bogota, Colombia, on May 21, 2017, while vacationing with his wife, Sonia. A New York native, he was the son of the late Milton and Miriam Garfinkle Cohen, and was born on Sept. 28, 1953. Dale practiced chiropractic in Syracuse and later earned an MBA, eventually becoming product director for OPTUM health insurance. On Dec. 16, 2000, in Orlando, he married the former Sonia Gamboa, his wife who survives him. He relocated to Florida in 2014, after living in California. In addition to his wife,...
Aaron Joel Goldwasser, age 33, of Lake Mary, passed away on Monday, June 5, 2017, at his residence. He was born on July 9, 1983, in Atlanta Ga., a son of Albert and Annette Newman Goldwasser. He moved to the Orlando area with his family in 1999. He was a college graduate and worked as a food broker. Aaron is survived by his parents, Albert and Annette of Lake Mary; his brother, Michael (Katie) of Winter Springs; and his paternal grandmother, Ann Goldwasser of Los Angeles. He was predeceased by his paternal grandfather, Harold Goldwasser and...
Elaine S. Sonne, age 74, of Eustis, passed away on Friday, June 9, 2017, at Cornerstone Hospice at Orlando Regional Medical Center. A native of Queens, New York, she was born on Feb. 1, 1943, to the late Barnett B. and Pauline Letwack Rosen. She was a bookkeeper and lived in St. Thomas before relocating to the Central Florida area in 2006 and was a member of the Congregation of Reform Judaism. Elaine was married for 49 years to the late Stuart Sonne who passed away on Sept. 15, 2012. She is survived by her children, Pamela Sonne of Mt. Dora...
