Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Congregation of Reform Judaism's Steinmetz Family School of Chai Madrichim (teen school assistants) form a Star of David with their intertwined arms. For the religious school news in the Jewish community, please see the special Back-To-School Section B.... Full story
Can you imagine a world without children? Unfortunately, many seniors housed in eldercare can go months without a visitor of any age. Thanks to a recent grant from the Cherna Moskowitz Foundation, the Jewish Pavilion has created a pilot, intergenerational program for elders housed in long-term-care, appropriately titled From Generation to Generation. This program will bond the generations through a series of regular visits. Newly hired Intergenerational Program Director Jane Edelstein is... Full story
ORMOND BEACH-The Rabbi Transition Committee has announced the appointment of Rabbi Courtney Berman as the new rabbi of Temple Beth-El, as of July 1, 2016. "I am delighted that Rabbi Berman will be joining us at Temple Beth-El," said Co-President Rodd Gould. "We are committed to fostering a thriving Jewish community and are an inclusive and respectful community for all our congregants. Her leadership and full-time presence on will enable us to continue building the strong and vibrant environment... Full story
Altamonte Springs resident Barbra Resnick accomplished something she always wanted to do: Be a contestant on the TV game show Jeopardy! Not only was she on the show-she became a two-time champion, with earnings that totaled $20,000. Resnick, with her husband, Steve Arthurs; mom, Phyllis Resnick; and brother, Matt, flew to California to be on the show almost a year after she first tried out for the game show (Dad, Curt, stayed home). One does not just apply to be a contestant on Jeopardy! It's a... Full story
(JTA)-There are athletes, and then there are Olympic athletes. And then there are Jewish Olympic athletes. When the 2016 Summer Olympics open Friday, we'll of course be cheering the American athletes-all 555 of them-and we'll be rooting for Israel, too, which this year is sending its largest ever cohort to Rio. But we're saving a special shout-out for some of the Jewish-American Olympians who have given the Tribe extra reasons to be proud this year. (Interestingly, Jews make up about 2 percent... Full story
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA)-When the 2016 Olympic Games open here on Friday evening, Israel will proudly show off its largest delegation ever, with 47 athletes competing in 17 sports. Among them are golfer Laetitia Beck, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor; Lonah Chemtai, a Kenyan-born marathoner, and Ron Darmon, the first triathlete to represent Israel at the Olympic Games. Israelis and Jews around the world are expected to show their support for the team, which failed to medal in 2012 when the... Full story
J-Serve is the International Day of Jewish Youth Service. Since 2005, J-Serve has been a part of Youth Service America's Global Youth Service Day weekend. J-Serve provides teens with the opportunity to fulfill the Jewish values of gemilut chasidim, acts of loving kindness, tzedakah, just and charitable giving, and tikkum olam, the responsibility to repair the world. Across the globe, teens join each other to make their community and the world a better place. J-Serve 2017 is in partnership with... Full story
The entire Orlando Jewish Community is getting together for a great evening of fun, unity and soccer. JOIN Orlando is partnering with Orlando City Soccer to create an unforgettable evening of Jewish Unity and fun. On Aug. 28, Orlando City Soccer is playing NYC-FC and JOIN Orlando has secured a large block of prime seating in section P13 to enable the entire community to come and participate. There is also a spacious and fully air-conditioned area that JOIN Orlando has exclusive rights for the entire night—a mere few steps from the reserved s... Full story
Pantry to Plate Chefs’ Challenge, hosted by JFS Orlando, is a unique dining event designed to test the culinary skills of three local celebrity chefs. This year, Francesco Aiello from Francesco’s Ristorante, Mark Baize from Roy’s Restaurant and Julie Casey from Outpost Neighborhood Kitchen will take on the challenge of preparing a delectable recipes with ingredients found in JFS Orlando’s Pearlman Emergency Food Pantry. This annual event will be held Sunday, Sept. 18, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Winter Park Civic Center, 1050 W. Morse Blvd.,... Full story
The Jewish Federation of Volusia & Flagler Counties would like to give back to the community at large for their help with their charitable causes by presenting America’s premier mentalist Sidney Friedman. The even will be held at Temple Beth-el, 579 North Nova Road, Ormond Beach, at 7 p.m. on Aug. 18. Called “the mentalist to the stars” by Forbes magazine for his many celebrity clients, Friedman will read minds and perform ESP, telepathy and premonitions. He has been featured on NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s The View and CBS The Early show. Ple... Full story
It’s been a long time since I saw a gesture this desperate. At the recent Arab Summit in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, the Palestinian Authority (PA) foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, announced that his boss, PA President Mahmoud Abbas, had asked the Arab states to prepare a legal case against Britain in retaliation for the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The Balfour Declaration, which took the form of a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to the Zionist leader Lord Rothschild, confirmed Britain’s favorable view of a ... Full story
The world has a serious problem, that of the massive number of refugees fleeing Middle Eastern war-torn countries. The vast majority of these refugees are Syrian and Iraqi Muslims while non-Muslims constitute less than three percent. Some countries refuse to admit refugees. Lebanon and Jordan shut their borders to Syrians in 2014. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United-Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman will not take a single refugee because of the crime and violence threat to their safety, as jihadist terrorists hide among those fleeing. After the... Full story
By Eliana Rudee (JNS.org) Living in Israel comes with many hardships, some of them known and some of them unknown. I expected certain dilemmas with the language, bureaucracy, cultural immersion and finances, for example. But there is one thing that I did not expect to deal with when I made aliyah, namely, experiencing loss from abroad. I believed that if I didn’t think about such a situation, maybe it would go away. As my boyfriend says, “that’s a problem for future Ellie,” as if I could put the problem off in my mind. So I did. Well, at leas... Full story
Israel’s parliament this week took action in response to an Arab Knesset member’s public support of a terrorist who murdered an American-Jewish peace activist. But if you read the account by New York Times correspondent Isabel Kershner, you wouldn’t know anything about the terrorist or his victim—all you would learn is that Israel’s rulers are suppressing dissent and might be infected by “budding fascism.” It’s as if Kershner and her editors are living in some kind of alternative universe, in which Israel is always guilty, Arab extremists are... Full story
In 2012, the Electronic Intifada, an online anti-Zionist media outlet that aggressively promotes the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, ran a lengthy article suggesting that “allegations of ‘anti-Semitism’ create a real climate of fear” that is “silencing” pro-Palestinian student activists on U.S. campuses. I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw the article, not because of the absurd nature of the charges—that Jewish students were somehow intimidating and silencing pro-Palestinian student activists just by virtue of speak... Full story
Dear Editor: Centuries ago, there were followers of Judaism and Christianity, specifically zealots and crusaders, who supported or committed violence and conquest in the name of religion. Nowadays, however, due to the reformation of Judaism and Christianity, it is extremely rare for acts of terror to be committed by Christians or Jews in the name of either religion. Sadly, the opposite is true for Islam, which has been hijacked by millions of followers, who support violence in the name of Allah. Most perpetrators of this violence and those who... Full story
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 I... Full story
Congregation Sinai, located at 303 A North Highway 27 in Minneola, has been very busy this summer. A new progressive service for Rosh Hashanah is planned for the second day. This service is open to the community and will last approximately one hour. It will be followed by brunch and study of the story of Rosh Hashanah. A limited number of tickets are available for the High Holidays. For more information, call the temple hot line, 352-243-5353. A new board has been elected with Peter Sobel as president, Sheila Goldman as vice president, Debbie... Full story
The "Seeking Kin" column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA)-Noam Efron popped in to an estate sale here recently he just happened across hoping to purchase some watches or gold to resell in his jewelry business. Instead he walked out with a paper treasure: a 12-by-17-inch black-and-white studio photograph of a uniformed soldier he didn't know but realized immediately had fought for Germany in World War I. He paid $9. Within a few weeks Efron, who had become... Full story
JERUSALEM-Love him or hate him, Republican candidate for president Donald J. Trump is doing it his way, ignoring what the American professional political world believed was the only way to become a party's nominee and win "the Oval." No issue is more imbued with slogans and adherence to conventional wisdom than is the Middle East. Two-state solution, occupied territories, illegal settlements, incitement and even terrorism-the list is long. Yet, notwithstanding the extreme sensitivities of the... Full story
Leave it to Israel when it comes to medical advances... It seems many people I know have diabetes 2. According to the latest World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest, this could be a life-changing development. Read on: "Diabetic neuropathy, a type of nerve damage associated with the development of foot ulcers resulting from excessive pressure and poor blood supply, affects more than 130 million diabetic patients around the world. Diabetic neuropathy is also the leading cause of amputation. While... Full story
PHILADELPHIA (JTA)-Amanda Renteria, the national political director for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, was running through the campaign's messages for minorities and women: immigration for Hispanics, land use for Native Americans, various policies for defending children and women. She didn't mention Jews in her briefing Tuesday morning for specialty media, and there's a reason for that: There wasn't a Clinton issue that was unique to the Jews. When I asked her to mention some,... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-"Lone wolf" terrorism in Europe is making headlines around the world. But in Israel, the phenomenon of angry or troubled individuals taking up arms is old news. Since October, Israelis have endured a wave of violence that has been carried out largely by individual Palestinians without backing from terrorist groups-so much so that some have called this the "lone wolf intifada." As of the end of June, 38 people had been killed and 298 injured by attackers, according to the Shin... Full story
NETANYA, Israel (JTA)-Andrea Murez steps on the diving board, adjusts her goggles, swings her long arms and propels herself into the water at the Wingate Institute athletic complex here. Murez is training with a dozen other swimmers. She is the one preparing for the Summer Olympics. The 24-year-old Los Angeles native represented Israel when she hit the pool on Aug. 6 at Rio de Janeiro's Olympic Aquatics Stadium, having immigrated in 2014 after excelling at the Maccabiah Games a year earlier and... Full story
Beginning with the bloody July 14 Bastille Day terror attack in Nice, France that left 84 people dead, Western Europe has seen an unrelenting wave of violence mainly perpetrated by individuals with connections to or sympathies with the Islamic State terror group. These attacks on European soil are now occurring with a near daily frequency, with five different lone-wolf shooting and stabbing terror attacks in Germany in late July, at least three of which were claimed by the Islamic State, as well as the slaying of a Catholic priest in northern... Full story
