Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1076 - 1100 of 4386
(JTA) - Henry Orenstein, a Holocaust survivor who went on to invent the Transformers toys and became a major donor to Jewish and Israeli causes, died Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, at the age of 98. Orenstein became a best-selling toy maker with his Transformers line, which he first created in the early 1980s. He followed up on that success with numerous other inventions and over 100 patents before eventually becoming a star poker player and being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2008. Born in P...
I know I've said this before, but WHAT TALENT! ... An EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony ) winner (and well deserved! ) I refer to singer, actress, etc. BARBRA STREISAND, from Brooklyn like me, a singer like me ... (well not. I wish I could sing like her!) I may have written about her before, but such a talent is worth many write-ups! Her half-sister ROSLYN KIND is also a singer but not in the same league as Barbra. Her maternal grandfather was a cantor in the Russian Empire. Her paternal...
(JTA) — The Golden Globes won’t be televised, but there will be Jewish honorees — among them two directors at different stages of their directing careers. After numerous controversies have rattled the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — from a “culture of corruption” to not a single Black member — NBC decided it will not be airing the annual film and television awards show this year, and its future is unclear. But the association went ahead with announcing nominations Monday and plans to name winners Jan. 9. Here’s what you need to know ab...
With the holiday season behind us, cool weather upon us, and our wax-covered Chanukiahs needing a polish before being put away until next year, there are few better films to snuggle up to than the Steven Spielberg produced, Don Bluth directed, “An American Tail.” Originally conceived as a television special, Spielberg felt that the work had the potential to expand into a feature. After having finished “The Secret of Nimh,” Spielberg approached Bluth and asked him to “make me something pretty, like you did in Nimh … make it beautiful....
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) - Yuri Foreman's professional peak as a boxer arguably came 11 years ago, when he faced off against Miguel Cotto in a marquee boxing match at Yankee Stadium. The match, dubbed the "Stadium Slugfest," was a super welterweight title fight that had been promoted on huge posters at subway stops around the city. Foreman was a world champion who had won his belt the year prior. Cotto was one of the best boxers in the world, and won the fight by technical knockout in the...
Maybe we should change the name to un-American Airlines ... Before I write about celebrities, I must comment on this ... A story I just heard over the television news: An elderly orthodox Jewish couple were kicked off an American Airlines flight for refusing to place his Tallis bag and tefillin on the floor! They placed the bag in the overhead bin but the hostess and other flight crew made them take it down. They tried to explain that the bag could not be placed on the floor and they refused to...
(JTA) - In 1955, theater director Jerome Robbins approached writer Arthur Laurents and composer Leonard Bernstein with a new idea for a Broadway musical: a contemporary retelling of "Romeo and Juliet," set among warring gangs of Jews and Catholics on New York City's Lower East Side. It would be called "East Side Story," and it would take place at the turn of the 20th century during the holidays of Easter and Passover. But something wasn't working. The writers wondered if all they were doing was...
(JTA) — In “The Social Justice Torah Commentary,” Rabbi Brian Stoller describes a turtle-shaped dinner bell that his great-grandmother used to summon a Black butler to attend to her needs at the family’s Shabbat table. When I got to that line while editing the volume, I felt a jolt of familiarity: An identical bell served the same purpose at my own grandmother’s table. All of my grandparents — and all four of my American-born great-grandparents — hailed from the South, and social justice activism was not baked into my DNA. Yet unlike many ...
By Shira Hanau (JTA) — Some of the music industry’s most popular Jewish artists were included in the 2022 Grammy Award nominations unveiled on Tuesday. Here’s a roundup: Doja Cat, a Black and Jewish pop star-rapper hybrid who has become one of the most listened-to artists in the world — Spotify lists her as the 7th-most-streamed musician on its platform as of Wednesday morning — racked up nominations in in seven categories, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album, M...
By (New York Jewish Week via JTA) - In January of 1943, Irma Lauscher, a teacher at the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, smuggled a tree into the camp so that the Jewish children imprisoned by the Nazis could celebrate Tu B'Shevat in a secret ceremony. The children used their water rations to nurture the sapling. Of the 15,000 children who were imprisoned in Theresienstadt during the Holocaust, fewer than 200 survived. But the tree was still standing when the camp was...
(JTA) - One of television's most notorious cartoon antisemites is now an Orthodox rabbi. Eric Cartman, the egomaniacal, hate speech-spouting grade schooler on Comedy Central's long-running adult animated series "South Park," has had a change of heart in a new hour-long special of the show, which is set 40 years in the future. In "South Park: Post COVID," which debuted on Thanksgiving on the Paramount Plus streaming service, Cartman has converted to Judaism, leads a congregation in Colorado Sprin...
(JTA) - "Nazisploitation," a pop-culture subgenre that draws on imagery and stories from the Holocaust for winkingly perverse entertainment, is built around the idea that there are bad-taste ways to interpret an incomparable tragedy that can nevertheless prove enlightening. The form reached its apex - or, depending on your vantage, its nadir - with films about forbidden love affairs between Nazis and Jews, or Nazis and other survivors of their brutality. In one notable, and polarizing example,...
What a talented people we are ... I am writing this column in advance as usual. It is actually the first night of Chanukah. I made matzo ball soup, latkes, fried chicken ... all with NO calories! We recently lost the talented and wonderful Stephen Sondheim. He was 91 years old when he expired. He was (as you know) a fabulous composer and lyricist. He was even praised for "reinventing the American musical." He wrote the lyrics to "West Side Story" and his best-known works were many of my...
(Jewish Press of Pinellas County via JTA) - Bobby Entel didn't watch The Beatles' Feb. 9, 1964 performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. He was seven years old at the time and in bed. Nor did he ever see them in person, visit their hometown of Liverpool, or cross Abbey Road. But he's more than made up for that. When he's not working as a radiologist in Dunedin, Florida, he can often be found at Penny Lane, the free museum he opened in 2018 that features his extensive collection of Beatles...
(JTA) - At 95, Mel Brooks is finally ready to speak his truth: A deli without Cel-Ray is no deli at all. The comedy icon and EGOT winner whose movies, musicals and stage acts defined the last century of American Jewish humor is celebrating the release of his new memoir, "All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business," and his upcoming Hulu production of "History of the World: Part II." In an interview with The New Yorker, Brooks also revealed his favorite deli sandwich ("a white-meat turkey...
(JNS) - The North MoPac Expressway runs up Austin's west side, a busy, eight-lane artery that speaks to the city's expanding suburbs and the extravagant consumption of space that is uniquely Texan. It's not a place that seems conducive to anti-Semitic demonstrations-or demonstrations of any kind, for that matter. But late last month, the MoPac came to national attention when a banner appeared on an overpass reading "Vax the Jews." The sign bore the name of a neo-Nazi group. Several men were...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) - Immortalized by pop-culture phenomena like "Dirty Dancing" and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," New York's Catskill Mountains were once the go-to summer destination for hundreds of thousands of Jewish New Yorkers. According to the Catskills Institute at Northeastern University, "by the 1950s a half-million people each year inhabited the 'summer world' of bungalow colonies, summer camps and small hotels." And now, a little piece of Catskills history is up for grabs:...
You know I write weeks in advance ... Actually, as I write, Thanksgiving hasn't begun yet. I will be phoning my eldest son, DAVID, who is a Navy commander, and his wife, JOLENE, and I will be face-timing my son, Dr. STEVEN, a psychologist, his wife, Jessica, also a psychologist and my grandchildren, LAUREN and ZACH to wish them a happy holiday! My third son, RON, an experiential marketing event manager, will be here with me and we will also celebrate! I repeat... I know it's late but "Happy...
(Israel21c via JNS) - Just in time for Chanukah, Israeli archeologists have uncovered new evidence of the long battle between Hellenists and Hasmoneans in the holy land. Chanukah celebrates the 164 BCE victory of an army, led by a father and sons known as the Maccabees, over Hellenist (Seleucid) conquerors who'd outlawed Jewish practices and defiled the Temple in Jerusalem. In the years after the Maccabees purified and rededicated the Temple, battles against the Seleucids continued under...
On Sunday morning, Nov. 21, a terrorist attack took place in Jerusalem leaving one Israeli dead and three injured. Attacks like this are always sad and cause a range of emotions, from anger to despair, that no matter what, Palestinian Arabs are always trying to kill us, just because we are Jews living in the Land. The man who was murdered was Eliyahu (Eli) Kay, 26. Eliyahu was a new immigrant from South Africa. He came to Israel to serve in the IDF as a lone soldier, joining the elite...
Ten years ago, Illya Buzunov never could have imagined that one day he'd be teaching Jews around the world how to prepare potato latkes. Until 2014, the Ukraine native didn't even know he was Jewish. But that's exactly what Buzunov, 24, will be doing on November 30 - the third night of Chanukah - as part of a new video event series that brings together Jews from a variety of countries for Chanukah candle lighting celebrations and an inside look at their communities. Each night, Jews from a diffe...
YouTube holds a vast library of music, and Chanukah songs are no exception. The Chanukah terrain consists of the classics, creative recreations of popular songs and lots and lots of acapella. Here’s a wide mix of all different types of Chanukah songs to get you in the mood for a bright and joyful holiday! Al HaNisim Literally “for the miracles”, Al HaNisim is a classic Chanukah song that relates briefly the story of Chanukah and Purim. It is a song of thanksgiving to God for redeeming the Jews from oppression. This old school classical Israe...
Today, we speak of a largely forgotten ethnic cleansing unparalleled in the history of humanitarian abuses. Recall the coordinated international expulsion of some 850,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim lands, where they had lived peaceably for as long as 27 centuries. In 2014, the Israeli government set aside Nov. 30 as a commemoration of this mass atrocity. It has had no real identity or name like “Kristallnacht.” But from this day forward, it will be known as Yom HaGirush: “Expulsion Day.” It began the moment Hitler came to power in 1933. The int...
This dreidel is part of the Chanukah decorations on display in the front yard of Rabbi Arnold and Mary Siegel's home. Heritage wrote about this wonderful display in 2019. The message is perfect for any year....
As Chanukah is a season of miracles for Jews all around the world, the Yiddishkayt Initiative (YILoveJewish.org), is presenting a virtual Chanukah Mini Fest from Nov. 28- Dec. 5 with a lineup of entertainment and educational programming that is nothing short of miraculous. "Chanukah is a time of miracles," said Avi Hoffman, YI Founder and CEO. "What we are doing is bringing together leading Jewish and Yiddish cultural figures from all over the world for our virtual YI Love ChanukahFest '21...
