Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - An Israeli man completed the study of a Talmudic tractate atop Mount Everest but fell short of setting a world record. Moshe Frei, 56, from Petach Tikvah, was trekking Mount Everest with three friends when he completed the Menachot tractate on Monday. "The timing was right, and it was a great place," Frei told JNS from Nepal on Wednesday. His friends filmed a nearly four-minute video of him reading from the Jewish law book and posted it on social media. The attorney said he has been...
In 2014, my husband, Larry, spent eight days in New Jersey as the New York State triathlon coach at the Special Olympics USA National Games, an experience he stated was “incredible” and “life-affirming.” As soon as he arrived home, he tried to catch up on his sleep, as he got less than five hours a night for the entire trip. How he got to this nirvana of sleep deprivation is part of Shapiro family lore. In 1995, Larry announced at the dinner table that he had signed up our family to volunte...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump has called for Jewish Americans to observe a national Shabbat from sundown May 15 to nightfall May 16 in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month and the nation’s 250th anniversary. Rabbi Steven Burg, CEO of Aish, told JNS that he was "very moved" by the president's message because it shifts the narrative from Jew-hatred to Jewish faith. "One of the things people lose in all of this antisemitism is that we're a proud religion," he said. Burg told JNS that the call for a national Shabbat observance is "mo...
Panna Cotta Shavuot is an important two-day holiday that takes place seven weeks after Passover in 2026 on May 21-23. It commemorates the giving of the Torah. It is celebrated by studying the Torah all night, eating dairy foods and having flowers in the home. Panna cotta is an Italian dessert that is a good accompaniment to a Shavuot dairy meal. Serves 4. 1 envelope unflavored kosher (1/4 oz.) gelatin 1 cup whole milk or almond milk 1 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 tsp. salt 2 T. sour cream 1/4 tsp. fresh lemon juice 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 1...
Flu season arrives each year with new challenges, and while vaccines and treatments continue to improve, prevention remains the best protection — especially for older adults and those with underlying health conditions. Even in years when the flu vaccine is not a perfect match for circulating strains, it can still reduce the severity of illness and help prevent serious complications. Here are some simple but effective ways to lower your risk of getting the flu: • Get a Flu Shot. Even when the vaccine is not targeted exactly to a specific strain,...
You name it "Let me call you Sweetheart I'm in love with you Let me hear you whisper That you love me too" It was a musical dream that came true at Metro Diner recently. I was looking at the menu when the young waitress came over and gushed "Hi, sweetheart! I haven't seen you for a long time!" It must have been ages since she had served me. Or maybe we really were sweethearts in a previous lifetime. I could tell you that I don't have a clue except that I do have a hunch. It's just what they do...
Usually, my iPhone recognizes me instantly. But on rare occasions, I am holding my own phone, looking straight at it, and it tells me: “Face Not Recognized.” If you have ever had that moment, you know how unsettling it can feel. What changed? Did I pick up someone else’s phone? Sometimes it is something simple: the tilt of the phone, poor lighting, or a smudge on the lens. But other times it is not so simple. You may be tired, slightly swollen, not well. I find myself wondering: were my glasses off? Was I dehydrated, or just different enoug...
Smoke-filled hotel and country-club dining rooms with middle-aged men puffing on cigars. That is my main memory of the countless events I covered during my early career as editor of the weekly Jewish newspaper in my Buffalo hometown. The annual dinners were the social and economic highlights of the city’s Jewish Federation and of the Israel Bonds office. Every year I sat in the stuffy rooms, taking notes and photographs, while the well-heeled men who sustained the Jewish community’s philanthropic endeavors puffed away, standing at their tab...
An elderly lion dies at the Bronx Zoo in 1957. Inside its body: a silver SS ring. This is the opening to “The Girl Who Rode the White Lion,” the forthcoming novel by National Jewish Book Award–winning author Yishay Ishi Ron. The story spans Nazi Germany and postwar New York, uncovering long-buried secrets through a striking and highly original narrative. In this new release, Ron delivers a sweeping story of courage, survival, and unlikely sanctuary set against the dark backdrop of Nazi-...
(JNS) — Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s book, When We See You Again, has reached the top spot on The New York Times nonfiction hardcover best sellers list, a week after its national publication. Hamas terrorists executed Goldberg-Polin’s son Hersh Goldberg-Polin in cold blood in an underground tunnel in Gaza, 330 days after he was taken hostage from the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. The book is “a searing portrait of a mother’s grief and strength in the wake of unthinkable tragedy,” publisher Random House writes. Goldberg-Polin is an Ameri...
For many, this is an absurd question. Actually, for "experts," it is a question not even worth discussing. Yet, it is a true story that the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation has been trying to advance for nearly a decade. Only now, because of an exhibition that opened at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia on April 22, is the answer gaining traction. In the past few days, a flood of articles has come out in the media, especially the Jewish...
I was talking to a neighbor in the elevator of our building the other day. In Israel these days, there’s a shorthand in our speech and mannerisms that are just understood and can be discerned quickly in under five floors. Talking about life and our families, and the living between the ceasefires, she said, “It will never really change so appreciate the quiet now.” The message was clear and sound. In 78 years we have always been attacked by one enemy or another. Today many of them have long range rockets, missiles and drones, the detec...
Coconut Green Beans Serves 8. 1/4 cup Panko, fried 1 minute in 1 T. olive oil. Reserve for garnish. 12 oz. green beans, trimmed and cut in 2-3” pieces 1/2 cup diced onion (1/2 small onion) 3 tsp. olive oil, divided 2 cloves garlic, finely diced 1/2 tsp. ground ginger 1/4 tsp. pepper 2 tsp. flaked coconut 1 cup coconut milk and 1/4 cup more if beans are too dry. You can also use soy or almond milk. 1 packet low sodium bullion 1 tsp. fish sauce or 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt Fry onion in 2 T. Olive oil until translucent. Add rest of ingredients, e...
The holiday which starts the evening of May 4, and ends the evening of May 5, (on the Hebrew calendar it is the 18th of Iyar) celebrates the life of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and celebrates Jewish unity. It is on the 33rd day of the Omer. The holiday marks the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest. Three year-old-boys often get their first haircut on that day. It is celebrated as a break from semi-mourning when people have bonfires, parades, and picnics. Weddings are allowed and picnic foods are often eaten. Hot dogs...
Last month, The Chaim Society invited several members of Magen David Adom to speak at a small gathering about the work MDA is doing in Israel and around the world. Among the speakers was Andie Temkin Gerszuny, director of Major Gifts for American Friends of Magen David Adom. Guest speaker, Aryeh Myers, senior MDA paramedic, was unable to attend the meeting because he was grounded in Israel while Ben Gurion Airport was shut down. However, he did speak with the group about the ongoing work of...
(JNS) - A week before he was killed in a terrorist attack at the Allenby Crossing with Jordan in September 2025, IDF Sgt. Oran Hershko, 20, was traveling in Greece with his father. He created an AI image of a golden retriever puppy sitting in his room and wrote to his family, "Is it too much to ask for a golden?" A few months after his death, a dog named Goldie, of the exact breed and color he loved, arrived at the family home in Tel Mond in central Israel. "It was like a kind of legacy he...
Many women notice something puzzling during menopause and postmenopause: feelings of anxiety or inner restlessness seem to reappear, but without a clear cause. There’s no particular worry to dwell on, no story behind it. Just an uneasy feeling, a sense of urgency, or internal “nervous energy.” It can feel confusing or even discouraging — but it’s important to know that this experience is real, and it’s not a personal failure. What’s really happening in the body Anxiety isn’t always “in the mind.” Sometimes, it begins in the body — especially wh...
Of the great debates in film history, a few dominate. How much of Citizen Kane did Orson Welles really write? Is the auteur a film’s true author? And the one that will never be resolved, can we separate the art from the artist? In 1980, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert devoted an episode of their PBS review series “Sneak Previews” to the following question: Who’s funnier, Mel Brooks or Woody Allen? The camps fall out as one might expect. Ebert, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for the Chicago Sun Times, whose work spoke to the everyman, preferr...
I have never lived alone. I've never even lived with only my partner, at least not for all that long. We've always had roommates. And that means we've always had roommates' stuff. Honestly, I've loved this. I mean, I've had my issues with individual roommates, ranging from minor nits to major clashes. But generally, I have liked the benefits of living with people, which I'd summarize as: friendship, finances and furniture. This time in my life is drawing to a close soon, however, as my partner...
By Judy Lash Balint (JNS) - In the Eshkol region, tucked between Beersheva and the Gaza-Egypt border, life is measured in seconds - the time it takes to reach a shelter, the pause between sirens and the fragile quiet that never lasts. But since Oct. 7, 2023, alongside the trauma, there is a determined insistence on rebuilding both the physical structures and emotional support that sustain a community. At the center of that effort is the new JNF-USA Eshkol Resilience Center that is expected to...
Harpo Marx’s wife, Susan Fleming, once remarked that, when you got him talking, you couldn’t shut him up. The proof was there for those who chanced to see him on tour with his brothers in the 1930s and ‘40s, performing material they would later commit to film. If a crowd was good, he’d deliver what was known as “Red’s Speech,” a reference to the red wig he wore on stage. The speech grew more verbose with each recitation, with input by Harpo’s friend, the critic Alexander Woollcott, a fount of $5 dollar words. It got so long, in fact, that Harpo...
Back in 2012, while on assignment as the Chicago Tribune’s longtime music critic, I received a phone call from my editor that would change my life. Elie Wiesel had just accepted the newspaper’s annual Literary Prize. Would I be interested in interviewing him for the paper? Would I?! There was only one minor problem: I had never read a word Wiesel had written, not even his revered Holocaust memoir “Night.” Holocaust education was not required in the 1950s and ’60s when I was growing up — not even in Skokie, a nexus of Holocaust survivors w...
Israel’s Independence Day was April 22 (5 Iyar). Here are 100 facts about Israel. 1. Israel is the only Jewish State in the World. 2. The State of Israel is the youngest on the planet. 3. Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. 4. Israel is about 290 mile (470 km) in length and 85 miles (135 km) in width. 5. Israel spends more money on security than any other country. 6. Israel is the only country with a net gain in trees upon entering the 21st century. 7. The Dead Sea in Israel is the lowest point on earth. 8. The Sea of G...
(JNS) - Three-time Super Bowl champion Julian Edelman, longtime broadcaster Al Michaels-known for his call of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice"-and basketball Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman headline the 2026 class of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. The 20-member class, announced on Wednesday, also includes former NBA player Omri Casspi, Argentine world champion boxer Carolina Duer and Israeli Paralympian Zipora Rubin-Rosenbaum, a 31-time medalist. Founded in 1981 as the successor to the...
It's not often that I hear a lecture which could be appreciated by an audience ages 10 to 100, but this past week I was treated to such an opportunity. And while it may sound strange to call a speech on the Holocaust a treat, hearing from Mrs. Judith Rapp Hara about her parents' miraculous escape from Vienna, Austria, was just that. On Thursday, in honor of the recent commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Meoros Girls High School hosted Mrs. Hara for an educational talk about the antisemitism of World...
