Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(Israel InSight via JNS) - The Northeast Alabama Cherokee held a ceremony on Sept. 25 in Guntersville, Ala., to establish a relationship with Israel. There, the tribe presented a resolution, unanimously passed by the Tribal Council, recognizing the "sovereign Jewish nation" of Israel, with Jerusalem as its "eternal undivided capital." "We vow our full support in the pursuit of the peace of Jerusalem and the Nation of Israel by whichever means may be necessary," it said. The event, centered...
(JNS) — Michael Oren says he has been “integrally linked to the Jewish Agency” for years. The former Israeli ambassador to the United States and former Knesset member is one of eight candidates to head the organization. He has a long history with the Jewish Agency for Israel, which he hopes will continue with him at its helm. According to Oren, 66, the Jewish Agency used to be viewed “as a sinecure for politicians.” “That practice seriously impaired [its] image and effectiveness,” he said. “It would be tragic if now, at this most critical t...
Israeli activists, philanthropists and aid workers have helped rescued 125 Afghans at risk from Taliban retribution in a complex and hush hush operation that happened earlier this month. The Afghans, which include judges, human rights activities, journalists, TV presenters, scientist, artists, diplomats, artists and even cyclists, arrived in Albania on October 2nd, after being evacuated from Afghanistan to a neighboring country. The operation took weeks to arrange and was a collaborative effort...
(Cleveland Jewish News via JTA) - Jim Fleischer, a Canton, Ohio native who served as CEO of the historic Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi since June 2018, died from cancer on Saturday. He was 52. In a statement posted on its website, AEPi said, "Jim fought a courageous battle against cancer for the last three years, but the fight was too much and he passed away yesterday evening surrounded by his family and fraternity brothers." Fleischer graduated from Kent State University in 1993 with a...
MAITLAND — The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida announces the exhibit Uprooting Prejudice: Conversations for Change, a first-of-its-kind exhibit that examines the indelible link between antisemitism and racism as told through the unique perspective of award-winning blues musician Daryl Davis. The exhibit opened Oct. 15. Davis has dedicated his life to fighting white supremacy by getting to know and de-radicalizing former members of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. He accomplishes these transformations through the power...
The men in this community are in for another year of a great prime rib dinner catered by Arthur's, top-shelf drinks and entertainment by the hilarious comedian Dennis Regan. "With the help of premium sponsors Alan Ginsburg an Aaron Gorovitz, as well as Platinum sponsor The Pargh Foundation, we are confident that this will be the best MNO year," said one of the organizers of the event. This one-of-a-kind event is organized by the Men's Clubs of Congregation Beth Am, Temple Israel, Congregation...
The Rosen JCC in Dr. Phillips is excited to partner in these two new events for the Orlando community. USA Memory Championship The USA Memory Championship is an annual competition that takes place this year on Saturday, Oct. 23, noon, at the Rosen JCC, as a Town Square offering for the community. Designed to test the limits of the human brain, the USA Memory Championship is an organized competition in which Memory Athletes attempt at memorizing as much information as possible from names and faces, to cards, to random numbers. The Rosen JCC is...
The Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Orlando is hosting a Zoom meeting on Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. about DNA and the surprises discovered through DNA testing. Put “DNA testing surprises” into your search engine, and you get almost 7 million results. A Pew Research Center survey in 2019 found that about 15 percent of U.S. adults have used a mail-in DNA testing service. Of those, about a quarter said they learned about close relatives they didn’t know they had — in other words, a DNA surprise. This program is about one of those surprises when a do...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Yair Lapid got what he wanted out of his Washington visit: the word “every,” instead of “other.” During Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s first meeting with President Biden in August, the American president, despite his desire to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, said that if Iran does not engage in good faith diplomacy with the nations involved in the deal, the U.S. would consider “other options” in getting Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions. It was a sign that Israel and U.S. Democrats, long far apart in their opinions o...
By (JTA) — Teachers in a Texas school district were told last week that a new state law requiring them to present multiple perspectives about “widely debated and currently controversial” issues meant they needed to make “opposing” views on the Holocaust available to students. NBC News obtained an audio recording of the official, the Carroll Independent School District’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, speaking to the teachers about how to work under the constraints of the new law, known as House Bill 3979. The law was passed...
(JTA) — In an interview that aired on HBO, both of the founders of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand reiterated that they stand behind the company’s decision to stop selling their products in Judea and Samaria. But for Jerry Greenfield, being accused of antisemitism is “painful.” For Ben Cohen, it’s “absurd.” “I think Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever are being characterized as boycotting Israel, which is not the case at all. It’s not boycotting Israel in any way,” Greenfield said in an interview with Axios that aired on its HBO show Sunday night. The...
(JTA) — After months of controversy and tens of thousands of public comments, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed off on legislation that eventually will require students to pass at least one course in ethnic studies in order to graduate from California high schools. Under the law, schools will have to offer at least one class in ethnic studies by 2025, and the graduation requirement will go into effect in 2029. Newsom’s signature on Friday caps an extended debate over the legislation, which was accompanied by a recommended curriculum tha...
(JTA) — Actress and comedian Sarah Silverman, in comments on her Sept. 30 podcast, railed against the practice of casting non-Jews as Jewish characters in TV and films. She referred to the castings as “Jewface,” a play on the historically racist practice of donning “blackface.” Silverman pointed to a series of Jewish women portrayed by non-Jewish actresses, including Rachel Brosnahan in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Felicity Jones as the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in “On the Basis of Sex” and Kathryn Hahn’s upcoming t...
The president recently announced that the United States will shift American foreign policy strategy from military intervention to “relentless diplomacy.” Translated into the jargon of the foreign policy establishment, this means a downgrading of “hard power” capability to an emphasis on “soft power” persuasion in negotiations By announcing this general diplomatic strategy beforehand however, the president has weakened both the hard power and the soft power impacts to our foreign policy strategy. Without question, diplomacy is the preferred p...
(JNS) — We live in a formative time, with fewer and fewer survivors who can tell us what happened, which calls for intensified efforts to commemorate the Holocaust. Deniers should never be allowed to falsify the history of the worst crime against humanity. On Oct. 13, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven will be hosting the Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, Remember ReAct, with Israeli President Isaac Herzog as one of the main speakers. The forum aims to jointly take concrete steps on Holocaust rem...
(JNS) — Comedian Dave Chappelle’s latest Netflix special, “The Closer,” is making the rounds but not for its hilarity. No, its high ratings can be attributed to the venom that it has elicited from the mainstream press and social media. Nothing piques curiosity more than public outrage, after all. There’s no doubt, then, that a huge portion of viewers tuned in just to see what all the fuss was about. As a longtime fan of the irreverent performer, I would have watched the show anyway. But many of my peers hadn’t paid the slightest attention to Ch...
(JNS) — A fundamental constitutional right in the United States, embodied in its first amendment, is the freedom of religion. Freedom of prayer is clearly part of freedom of religion. Part of freedom of prayer is the freedom to pray in public spaces. Anyone opposing the right of Jewish prayer, therefore, would be deemed antisemitic in America. This brings us to Israel. Before the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, I helped organize the first Jewish afternoon prayer service there, with no concern that it would spark any kind of c...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, some minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) Chabad of North Orlando and Chabad of Altamonte Springs are holding in-person minyans. 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. Congr...
The six finalists for the 2022 Genesis Prize have just been released. The Foundation is asking the global Jewish community to vote for their favorite. Last year, they engaged over 3 million people via social media and 200K from six continents voted. The Prize Committee then selected Steven Spielberg as our 2021 Laureate. The finalists for the 2022 Genesis Prize are: • Albert Bourla (Greece/US), Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, under whose leadership the company delivered a COVID vaccine in record time • Sacha Baron Cohen (UK), Award-winning act...
In Mel Pearlman’s Everywhere column titled “Live streaming during the holidays” in the Oct. 8 issue of Heritage, the word “pragmatic” in the last paragraph should have been “problematic.” The correct paragraph is: Although, I understand and respect that live-stream religious services may be problematic from a Halacha law perspective for the Orthodox community, its benefits to connect with unaffiliated Jews potentially make it an effective tool to discourage assimilation and increase support for Israel. Heritage received an email from Joseph P...
During this year, The Heritage will run a half page insertion in every issue featuring an organization that has partnered with the Jewish Capital Alliance of Central Florida to attain its chartered goals. Over the coming year, The Heritage will pen four articles highlighting this relatively unrecognized organization. The first article appeared in July and described how JCA came into being. Today's article will discuss JCA's goals and directives. At the initial community introductory meeting on O...
How thrilled I am ... Sure, sure, at my age anything would thrill me, right? WRONG! It has to be something very special ... and it was! The other evening on the KELLY CLARKSON television show, her first guest was BARRY ALAN PINCUS! WHAT? You don't know who that is? How about if I say BARRY MANILOW? AHA! Now you know. Is there any better entertainer? Not if you ask me. "Mandy," "I write the songs," "Can't smile without you," "Copacabana," to name but a few of his fabulous hits. What a thrill to...
(JNS) — Hundreds of Google and Amazon employees have signed a public letter demanding that the tech giants cancel Project Nimbus, a billion-dollar contract to provide public cloud computing services to Israel. In the letter, published by The Guardian on Tuesday, the authors state that they were “morally obliged” to speak out against the project, calling on Amazon and Google to cancel the contract and sever all ties with the Israeli military. “We cannot look the other way, as the products we build are used to deny Palestinians their basic rights...
Sandi Solomon, three-term Casselberry city commissioner has found relatives who were thought to have perished in the Holocaust. Through a genealogy search that her daughter-in-law Sharon Fleitman of Atlanta had conducted while searching Yad Vashem's database, Fleitman discovered 31 pages of testimony that Henryk (Henry) Zyngier had given about his experience in the Holocaust when he lived in Tel Aviv in 1957. Fleitman reached out to a Facebook Group, a genealogy portal, for help. Within eight...
(JTA) — In April, the language-learning app Duolingo added its 40th language to its program arsenal: Yiddish. A couple of decades ago, it would have been unthinkable for a mainstream non-Jewish language program to offer an expansive, comprehensive course in Yiddish. But Duolingo’s Yiddish addition only serves to reflect the increased global interest in learning a language that once had as many as 12 million speakers. Ladino, a Romance language of Sephardic Jews still spoken by hundreds of thousands worldwide, has also garnered much int...
