Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Local author Lenore Richman Roland has just finished writing a book of poems for children, titled "Under Granna's Poetry Tree, Birthday Poems for her Grands." Her inspiration for this book has been her children and grandchildren. Since 2003, when her oldest grandchild was born, she has been writing original poems to celebrate each grandchild's birthday from the first to the present. In January 2022, she wrote a poem for her granddaughter, Francesca, to celebrate her 10th birthday. As she always...
Orlando Torah Academy will launch its annual 36-hour online matching campaign on Dec 13 at 10 a.m. OTA has grown to almost 170 children from more than 70 families this year. The OTA campus has grown as well and now includes 2 buildings. The growth of the school has also necessitated the need for additional scholarship funds. OTA prides itself on its mission and responsibility to accept all Jewish students regardless of their ability to afford tuition. Every Jewish child deserves the right to learn about and feel proud of our beautiful...
Max Curtis is a valuable employee at both Dick and Dottie’s Cafe and Kinneret Senior Living Apartments. At Dick and Dottie’s Max has learned how to be a barista making a variety of delicious hot drinks. Last week Max was excited to make a new drink — a Turkish coffee. At Kinneret Max is a favorite of all of the residents. Max has shown flexibility and is willing to do any task asked of them. Max is helping serve food at the resident run cafe and is wonderful in their interactions with the elder...
(JNS) - On September 16, 2018, Israel lost one of its fiercest defenders when a knife-wielding Arab stabbed Efrat resident Ari Fuld in the back at the Gush Etzion Junction, south of Jerusalem. Fuld used his last breaths of life to chase down and shoot the attacker, wounding him and saving the lives of other Israelis in the terrorist's path. Fuld, 45, not only defended Israel on the battlefield in the IDF's Golani Brigade, and as a reservist in the Second Lebanon War in an elite paratrooper...
What a dichotomy. Life in Israel vs. life in the U.S. Being a Jew has its challenges and rewards in both places...but being an American Jew vs. being an Israeli Jew is vastly different. I was just in the U.S. for about 10 days including Parsha Chaya Sara and I stayed in a modern orthodox community. What was the talk around the Shabbat Table? To us, it's Parshat Chaya Sara which covers Sarah's death and Abraham's purchase of the famous Ma'arah h'Machpelah where she is buried. The parshah also...
(JTA) — Nearly seven months after they were denied boarding in Frankfurt, a group of more than 100 Hasidic Lufthansa passengers are getting paid for their troubles. The airline is paying each passenger $20,000 plus giving them $1,000 to reimburse them for expenses incurred during the May incident, according to Dan’s Deals, the discount travel website that first reported the incident at the time. After legal fees and some other expenses, each passenger will net approximately $17,400, the site is reporting. Lufthansa would not confirm the dol...
(Palestinian Media Watch via JNS) — Nov. 29 is the 75th anniversary of the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan, General Assembly Resolution 18, which divided the geographical area west of the Jordan River into two states: a Jewish state and an Arab state. In its essence, the Partition Plan was a fundamental breach of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, which placed that entire area under the governance of Great Britain for the sole purpose of creating a Jewish state on all of the land. The 1922 Mandate for Palestine had already taken the e...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Donald Trump went too far. From the outset of his political career, he has been accused of supporting the racist right and some of his statements in this regard have come under harsh criticism from his Democratic rivals. Despite this, Trump has long avoided any soundbite that might sound antisemitic. He has even boasted of the fact that his daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism and his two grandchildren are Jewish. But then came Trump’s meeting with antisemitic rapper Kanye West—now known as Ye—and Holocaust denier...
I have written before about my dad. A two-fisted fighter who fought and fought hard for what he believed in. One thing he fell short on in his younger years was his Judaism. As I have said, his paternal grandfather was a nasty, bitter old man. He hated the Russians for throwing him out of Russia to live in a bitterly empty wasteland that today is Ukraine. He came to America to find that the streets were not lined with gold and life in America was not a paradise after all. His religion was his only escape — and he dove in head first. His son, m...
(JNS) — This November, Iraq is hosting a celebration to honor 90 years since the British gave it independence. Iraq will be joined by Jordan, which will mark 76 years since the British Mandate for Transjordan ended. In attendance at these ceremonies will be United Nations officials. A keynote speech will be delivered by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who will reflect on Britain’s role in the creation of two major Arab countries. Except this won’t happen. After World War I, the League of Nations created five mandates in the Middle East:...
(JNS) — Much is being made of Donald Trump’s recent dinner at Mar-a-Lago with celebrity antisemite Kanye West (now known as “Ye”) and Ye’s friend Nick Fuentes, who is an outspoken white supremacist, Holocaust denier and neo-Nazi. Much of the commentary on this incident, however, is wrong. It is too easy and glib to say that it proves Trump is unfit for office because he is a Jew-hater. How does one reconcile that allegation with the fact that his administration was arguably the most pro-Israel in American history? Moreover, the apple of his ey...
(JNS) — My Iranian Jewish friends who live in the United States are telling me that regime change in Iran is a distinct possibility. Could the Biden administration do more to make this happen? You bet it could. The continued attempts to salvage a nuclear agreement with Iran along the lines of the 2015 JCPOA deal only make regime change less likely. In fact, the talks strengthen the hand of the ayatollahs. This is precisely the opposite of what should be done, given that the current protests in Iran—which began when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was...
MORNING MINYANS 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. Congregation Ohev Shalom — Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-298-4650. GOBOR Community Minyan at Jewish Academy of...
(JNS) — Conservative American commentator Ben Shapiro on Sunday tacitly condemned U.S. President Donald Trump for hosting a dinner last week attended by Ye and Holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, sparking a Twitter war-of-words with the artist formerly known as Kanye West. “A good way not to accidentally dine with a vile racist and anti-Semite you don’t know is not to dine with a vile racist and anti-Semite you do know,” tweeted Shapiro. He was referring to Trump’s claim that he had not known anything about Fuentes, whom Ye h...
Many of the most well-known Chanukah traditions are universal. Whether you're in Argentina or Zimbabwe, Jews will mark the eight-day festival by lighting a menorah, eating fried foods and recounting the victorious story of the Maccabees and the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem. But Jews around the world have also developed Chanukah customs that are unique to their local community. For example, while jelly-filled donuts (sufganiyot) are a mainstay among Ashkenazi Jews, Chanukah in southern...
This story was originally published on HeyAlma. Most of the women in the Bible fall into a few distinct categories. There are the wise wives and mothers like Sarah, Rebecca and Yocheved, required to make hard decisions to protect their children. Then there are the tragic romantic damsels, the ready-for-soap-opera players: Rachel, Leah and Bathsheba. Silent sufferers who survive humiliation, poverty and assault with grace - like Tamar, Ruth and Esther - are credited with saving Jewish continuity...
For children, the days leading up to Chanukah are always filled with anticipation. Here is a small children’s bedtime book that teaches little ones about Chanukah during the 10 days before the holiday. “Dreaming of Hanukkah,” by Amy Shoenthal and illustrated by Kate Durkin, tells the story of Chanukah as children count down from 10 to 1 and discover the traditions and customs of the holiday — from Maccabee soldiers to crispy latkes to blessings over the hanukkiah. Amy Shoenthal is a Jewish...
This Scene Around is dedicated to "Yours Truly" Gloria Yousha, who passed away Nov. 18, 2022. Gloria Yousha started working at the Heritage in April 1980. That was 15 years before I became her editor. Her first column on April 4, 1980, began: "How do you spell kvelling? (quevelling? kuvelling?) Whichever way it's spelled, it most certainly applies to proud parents SHARON and GEORGE BERGER, whose son EMERY, age 12,spelled his way correctly all the way to Seminole County Finals of the National Spe...
(JTA) — In a supermarket here, Ohad David made a beeline for the most expensive olive oil in the store. He took three bottles of the award-winning Midnight Coratina brand, which goes for about $3 per ounce. It has “medium potency, green fruitiness and a green-leaf, grassy bouquet,” according to its description on the website of Ptora, the boutique olive oil factory that makes it. But David, a 40-year-old insurance agent and father of five, did not buy the oil for its taste. Like thousands of Ort...
Q. Does the Zionist Organization of America still believe that President Trump deserved ZOA’s Theodore Herzl Gold Medallion Award for being the best president ever towards Israel and the Jewish people? A. Absolutely, yes. He earned it and deserves it because of his fabulous, unparalleled beneficial policies toward the Jewish State of Israel and toward the Jewish people. As we stated at the ZOA Gala, where we gave this rare award to President Trump, he also deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for his numerous great accomplishments, such as the Abraham...
(JTA) - A crochet museum in Joshua Tree, California, features countless crochet animals that appear in airport ads worldwide. The National Mustard Museum in Wisconsin was founded by a Jewish condiment aficionado. In February 2019, another niche museum opened around 90 miles east of the mustard mecca: the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, located in Milwaukee. Co-founded by Phil Sklar, a Jewish Illinois native, and his friend Brad Novak, the institution is the world's only museum...
IRONMAN Israel competition draws 2,500 competitors (JNS) — Patrick Lange of Germany took first place in the IRONMAN Israel-Middle East Championship in Tiberias on Friday, with a personal best time of 07:42:00. In the women’s pro category, Ruth Astle from Great Britain finished first, with a time of 08:41:13. The event featured two races: a full distance one and a shorter race. The full distance race included a 2.3 mile swim in the Sea of Galilee, a 111-mile bike ride and a 26-mile run. More than 800 Israeli and 400 international athletes com...
The Dictators are back. We're not talking about the nefarious, autocratic ones that rule too many of the world's countries - though they're back, too. But here, in the land of pop culture, we're talking about the New York rock band that childhood friends Andy Shernoff and Ross Friedman started in 1972. In the mid- '70s, when punk hit, the young Dictators became one of the key bands to play the CBGB scene on the Bowery. They didn't exist through most of the 1980s and '90s, and a 2020 return to...
