Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 27
The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center is hosting an exhibit titled "Uprooting Prejudice: Faces of Change." The exhibit is a collection of 45 photographs by photographer John Noltner, taken in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in police custody. Noltner is the founder of A Peace of My Mind, a multimedia arts project that uses portraits and personal stories to bridge divides and encourage dialogue around important issues. He went to the scene of Floyd's death to capture "the essen...
(JNS) A minor league baseball stadium in Lakewood, N.J., served as the outdoor meeting ground for some 500 participants in the JBiz 2020 COVID-19 Business Expo and Conference sponsored by the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce. The event held on Nov. 16 was attended by both Jews and non-Jews, and featured a recorded message from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and an address by Mark Zelden, director of the Center for Faith & Opportunity Initiatives, a division of the U.S. Department of Labor. Several local politicians were also in attendance inclu...
Chabad of Greater Orlando is hosting several Chanukiot lightings around town. Chabad and The Roth Family JCC will kick off the holiday by lighting a menorah in front of the JCC building at 5:15 p.m. on Dec. 10. Every event will include music, dancing, donuts, Kids Krafts (children will enjoy decorating their own Chanukah-themed pre-wraped cookies) and the Rabbi’s message about Chanukah. The main event will be on Sunday, Dec. 13, 5:30 p.m. Join together with Chabad at the Walt Disney Amphitheater in Lake Eola Park for an evening of music, H...
One more stop has been included in the Jewish Pavilion and Chabad North Orlando Chanukah Car Parade on Sunday, Dec. 13, at 12:30 p.m. Beginning at the gate before Oakmonte Village (1021 Royal Gardens Cir., Lake Mary), the parade will continue on to Cascade Heights (160 Islander Ct., Longwood). Decorate your car and call out Happy Chanukah to the seniors. Wave and make a big fuss! Everyone is invited to participate. Children are encouraged to join in this fun and safe activity. The event is free. Sign up at www.jewishnorthorl...
(JNS) - Israel moved ahead on Sunday with plans laid out in February to build 1,257 housing units in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Hamatos. The Israel Lands Authority opened construction tenders for contractors, Reuters reported on Monday, in a move that has elicited criticism from the Palestinian Authority, the European Union and the United Nations. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement that settlements were illegal under international...
(JNS)— The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded its prestigious €9.7 million ($11.5 million) Synergy Grant jointly to researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) and Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin, according to a statement from the spokesperson’s department at TAU. Research groups led by Professor Judith Berman, head of the Fungal Drug Response lab at TAU’s Shmunis School of Biomedical and Cancer Research, and Professor Markus Ralser, director of Charité’s Institute of Biochemistry, will now investigate the biological mechanisms tha...
(JTA) — Jewish groups in Quebec are expressing dismay after the province announced a plan to allow small gatherings at Christmas but said gatherings during Chanukah would remain prohibited. The plan would permit Quebecers to have gatherings of up to 10 people per day for four days in late December, in a concession to the fact that families would likely gather even as COVID-19 cases surge. Gatherings were not permitted during Canadian Thanksgiving last month, but people got together nonetheless and cases soon surged throughout the country. Premi...
(JNS) — If George Orwell is spinning in his grave these days, he’s likely rolling so hard with laughter that it’s bringing him and the rest of us to tears. An upcoming webinar on Jew-hatred is but one of many recent examples of phenomena that even the prescient social critic, whose essays and novels predicted with chilling accuracy the world that has unfolded since World War II, couldn’t have anticipated. The Dec. 15 event—called “Dismantling Antisemitism, Winning Justice”—is being hosted by the left-wing, anti-Israel NGO Jewish Voice fo...
Aish Hatorah Resources The Chanukah battle isn’t over. Close your eyes and picture it: Greek soldiers, more than the eye can count, marching toward Jerusalem. They easily take Jerusalem and the entire land of Israel and impose harsh rules and decrees. They prohibit Torah study, keeping Shabbat, and interfere with many Jewish laws and customs, and even bring idols into the Holy Temple. Your family, a family of priests, are very unhappy about these developments, but are unwilling to take on the mighty Greek Empire. You move to the quiet town o...
(JNS) — You don’t have to look far to see hate and division tearing apart our communities. But it’s our own fault. We otherize people who appear different from ourselves. People who look differently, speak differently, vote differently — these people are our enemies, and so is anyone who might dare to suggest that we try to see past these differences. The problem with this tribal logic is that no one has ever accomplished meaningful change alone. Racial tensions in this country are as high as they have ever been in the modern era. The only wa...
(JNS) — Chanukah’s popularity with American Jews was largely the result of a futile though determined effort to compete with Christmas. While enjoying freedom, prosperity and influence that was unprecedented in the history of the Diaspora, American Jews needed a holiday that would allow them to play a part in the annual December festivities without abandoning their identity altogether. That is why Chanukah has become far more important to American Jews that it was to their ancestors in Europe and elsewhere, who regarded it as a minor win...
(FLAME via JNS) — When the mainstream media and United Nations refer to refugees in the context of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, they’re usually referring only to the so-called Palestinian refugees. While much can be said about the Palestinian refugees and their controversially unique and privileged status globally, the media and international organizations rarely address hundreds of thousands of Jews who were forcibly exiled from their homes and communities in the Middle East and North Africa during the mid-20th century. While many, if not...
(JNS) — American democracy may be immersed in crisis at the present time, but the various claims of its death are, as Mark Twain might have quipped, greatly exaggerated. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said on the other side of the world. “We can no longer tell the world that we still have ‘one country, two systems,’ ” Wu Chi-wai, chairman of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, told reporters last week. “This declares its official death.” (pri.org) “This” was the decision by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to force the removal of four p...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, some minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) Chabad of North Orlando is 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. Congregation Ohev Shalom — Sunday, 9 a.m.,...
Even though the pandemic has altered our world, my husband Larry and I will still maintain many of our traditions this Chanukah. Eating potato pancakes with applesauce. Lighting candles each night. “Betting” on which candle lasts the longest. Watching Hallmark Christmas movies. Wait! Hallmark Christmas movies? When did that become a tradition? For as long as I can remember, I have watched Hallmark movies. For many years, the famous card company aired shows specific to the holidays — Thanksgiving, Christmas, and of course Valentine’s Day. Ea...
Jeremy Greenbaum is a writer, illustrator singer, dancer, model and Broadway actor in New York City who has family ties to Central Florida through his beloved aunt and uncle, Billie and Larry Parker, his late Uncle Adam Wershil and his late grandmother, Elayne Wershil. In addition to all of his other talents, Greenbaum has an online company called the Huggable Cactus, https://www.thehuggablecactus.com, where he designs whimsical items for the gift industry. The company was formed in 2018 to...
Chinese food is the choice of many during the holiday season. The following is a twist on the standby fried rice, created by local resident Myrna Ossin. Cauliflower Fried Rice Ingredients 1 medium head cauliflower, leaves removed and florets separated. Discard the core. In a bullet or food processor, process in batches until pieces are small like rice. 6 multi-colored mini sweet peppers, seeded and minced 2-inch fresh ginger peeled and minced 4 garlic cloves minced 4 T. fresh parsley leaves and...
William Joseph McNarney, son of Lauren Roth and Michael McNarney of Orlando, Fla., will be called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020, at Congregation Ohev Shalom in Maitland. William is in the eighth grade at Howard Middle School, where he is a member of the chamber orchestra, plays guitar and is part of the Baking Club, Dumbledore's Army and the Gay/Straight Alliance. He is the Social Action/Tikkun Olam vice president for Kadima at Ohev Shalom. He enjoys the Boy Scouts...
I am sooo proud ... I know I've said this before, many times: "Much of the American Songbook (no rap) was composed by Jews. The greatest songs of all time, in my opinion!" The other night while watching television (what else is there to do since the start of this pandemic?) I watched the movie "Holiday Inn" on television. All the songs were written by Israel Bellin. (You know him as Irving Berlin.) This was the Broadway version of the 1942 movie of the same name. It had many funny moments,...
It didn't take long for Susie Stone to get involved with the Jewish Pavilion. She and her husband, Mark, first came to Orlando in 1974 for a brief visit for few years. They eventually moved back for good in 1984 and the Jewish community has been all the more fortunate for that move. Stone started her work with the Jewish community as a pre-K teacher at the Jewish Community Center preschool. It wasn't until her in-laws moved to town in 2011 that her interest in Jewish senior living began since...
When the Yiddish New York Festival kicks off on the first night of Chanukah, the coincidence of the weeklong celebration of Yiddish culture, food, music and dance with the Festival of Lights will be unmissable. Aside from the traditional Chanukah staples of latkes and jelly doughnuts that will be on hand, one highlight of the festival at the 14th Street Y in Manhattan will be the remarkable photography display called "Chanukah in Mea Shearim (Jerusalem)." The photos in the exhibit offer a...
When the Torah tells us about the Jewish holidays, it reminds us that while we are celebrating our blessings, we must remember the less fortunate "you shall rejoice before the Lord, your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite who is within your cities, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow." (Deuteronomy 16:11). In that spirit and following the success of the Thanksgiving drive, Chabad of North Orlando is partnering with the...
Submitted by the family Charlotte Kaye (Geartner) Kaleky passed away on Nov. 25, 2020. Charlotte was born in Baltimore, Md., on Feb. 9, 1932, and resided in West Orange, New Jersey. In the 1960s, Charlotte ventured off with her four children to live in Miami Beach, Florida. She joined her dad’s manufacturer’s representative company in electronics, and stayed there until her first husband, Jack’s, retirement. In 1973, she married Leonard Kaleky (d. 2006), and became president, CFO, and entrepreneur of several endeavors, including the souve...
Not every commandment is given a rabbinical justification as clear as that of the mitzvah (commandment) of lighting the Chanukah lights (whether they are candles or oil, which are both acceptable). The rabbis explain that we light them in order to publicize the miracle of the holiday (pirsumei nisa in Aramaic, the language of the Talmud). This symbolic act shifted during the time of the rabbis from the lighting of a solitary candle each night of the holiday to the lighting of an increasing...
When Disney first announced that it would be airing a Chanukah episode of its popular series "Elena of Avalor" featuring a Latina Jewish princess, the Jewish internet was abuzz with anticipation. I was excited, too. Finally my two daughters, ages 4 and 6, would be able to see Judaism celebrated on television, and with a character that had some ethnic flair. The episode, "Festival of Lights," which first aired on Dec. 6, follows a new character, Princess Rebeca, as her royal ship runs into dicey...
