Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize, received a Congressional Medal of Honor, along with a slew of other awards, and his book Night has sold millions of copies read by students across the globe. Wiesel, who died in 2016 at the age of 87, will go down as one of the most famous Jews of all time, who encouraged other survivors to find their voice and speak out. He represented a community that had to grapple with survivor's guilt for the rest of their lives and went on...
(JNS) - One word that enters into untold numbers of post-Oct. 7 conversations is "resilience." Notwithstanding the constantly hovering shadow of the brutality committed against Israelis that day, the word speaks to their seemingly innate ability to get up each morning and go about the task of living their lives in the Jewish state. New high-tech start-ups appear, new medical advances are announced, restaurants open, artists continue to paint and even comedians have found their way to break the...
“Guns & Moses.” It sounds like a Jewish movie. Nu? The main character is a rabbi who reluctantly becomes a gunslinger after his community is attacked. Naturally, it piqued our interest, but we were torn. On the one hand, we wanted to show our support for those who worked hard to produce and present a film with Jewish content. But, in a time of much antisemitism, divisiveness, and violence we were hesitant about going to the movie theater. Could some crazed fanatic attack the audience? Things lik...
(JNS) — As antisemitism surges worldwide and international criticism of Israel intensifies, mostly the result of the fallout from its war with Hamas in Gaza following the terrorist invasion of Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli scholar Yisrael Ne’eman has warned that it’s not only Jews who should be concerned. Ne’eman, a historian who taught for more than three decades at the University of Haifa and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, also in Haifa, argues that an alliance between the far left and radical Islamist movements—what he calls the “Red-...
(JNS) — Jason Stahl, 47, of Hank Schwartz’s Delicatessen and Appetizing in Jersey City, N.J., launched a Rosh Hashanah-inspired sandwich this year called “sweet new year.” Error! Filename not specified. A Jersey Jew tomato sandwich from Hank Schwartz’s Delicatessen and Appetizing in Jersey City, N.J. Credit: Courtesy of Jason Stahl. The $18 sandwich, which consists of slow-cooked brisket, horseradish mayonnaise and caramelized onions on challah, is available for preorder. Customers can pick it up on Sept. 21 at Riverview Farmers Market in...
(JNS) - Raised in a Hasidic home in Jerusalem, Ayelet Raymond was taught that women's beauty should be concealed "like a precious diamond kept inside its box." Life, she explained, centered on good deeds and prayer, with no exposure to television or fashion. "Pageants were foreign to me-I never imagined stepping on a stage," she told JNS. Raymond was recently crowned Miss World Influencer 2025, competing against contestants from 71 countries. She described the pageant as an "incredible...
For centuries, Jewish men were immersed in Torah and Talmud. But what about the women who were typically excluded from formal study? It’s not that they were uneducated. They drew on a different kind of intelligence, learning through oral tradition, trained memory, and hands-on skill. They absorbed knowledge about childbirth, herbal medicine, and care of family and neighbors, passed from woman to woman over generations. Noticing what others missed, they addressed unmet needs with practical, lasting solutions — shaping families, sustaining com...
Home for the holidays? That’s not always the case for college students, who travel far and wide to attend schools throughout the United States. It’s not always possible to return to family after arriving across the country to study. Travel is expensive and time-consuming, and this year, with the Jewish holidays falling midweek, it could result in too much missed time for classes. Fear not. Campuses across North America offer services, meals and more for those students staying put on campus. The Philadelphia area is a case in point. At Penn Hil...
(JNS) — At sundown on Monday, Sept. 22, Jews around the world will gather to mark Rosh Hashanah —the day on which we acknowledge our past and pray for our future. This year, as we usher in 5786, we are called once again to reflection, repentance and renewal. It is a season of hope, of honey and sweetness, even when the world beyond our doors feels bitter. American Jews, like our fellow Americans, are living through a time of domestic polarization and global upheaval. Events arrive fast and fur...
Recognizing the right time for assisted living can be tough for caregivers, often leading to delayed action. Here are signs to consider: • If your loved one’s condition worsens beyond your capacity to manage alone. • Despite your efforts, your care isn’t sufficient. • You feel isolated in your caregiving role. • Lack of respite options leaves you exhausted. • Family relationships strain due to caregiving demands. • Your work and personal life suffer due to caregiving responsibilities. • Feelings of guilt about prioritizing your own well-bei...
This story originally appeared on The Nosher. Apples dipped in honey and honey cakes are popular across the Jewish world around Rosh Hashanah. But if you grew up in Israel, you most likely came across a unique variation of honey treats: duvshaniyot. These dense, dark, round honey cookies are a must in many families' High Holidays nosh rotation. The modest duvshaniyot (their name derives from the Hebrew word dvash, meaning honey) seem to have been part of the Israeli repertoire forever and you ca...
Home for the holidays? That's not always the case for college students, who travel far and wide to attend schools throughout the United States. It's not always possible to return to family after arriving across the country to study. Travel is expensive and time-consuming, and this year, with the Jewish holidays falling midweek, it could result in too much missed time for classes. Fear not. Campuses across North America offer services, meals and more for those students staying put on campus. The...
"It must all be recorded with not a single fact omitted. And when the time comes - as it surely will -let the world read and know what the murderers have done." - Oyneg Shabes Archives On April 14, 2023, a few days before the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, officials unveiled a new monument in that Eastern European city's Jewish cemetery. The glass and stone structure honors a group of brave Jews who risked their lives to collect thousands of items, that has provided insight...
This story originally appeared on The Nosher. Every Rosh Hashanah, my mother Rica made a special and delicious simanim soup, which contained all the "simanim" (signs), symbolic vegetables that are used in the Sephardic Rosh Hashanah seder. Rooted in Kabbalah and with a clever play on the Aramaic names of the vegetables, at the seder, Sephardim say blessings over these vegetables, which include butternut squash, zucchini and Swiss chard. My mother and father were born in Larache, an ancient port...
This story originally appeared on The Nosher. Our family's approach to Yom Kippur break fast is a Southern one. Many North Americans associate this feast with an array of sweet kugels, bagels with all of the accoutrements, rugelach in every flavor, blintzes and maybe a special cake or two. Chances are you have never seen a spread filled with egg casserole, cream cheese grits and homemade biscuits. Before the early 1900s, my family had not either. How did this menu come to be for a...
Want to lower your blood pressure? A new study pinpoints exactly what kind of exercise is best for easing blood pressure, and it doesn't involve running on the treadmill or pumping iron at the gym. Instead, the study reveals that static isometric exercises like wall sits (also known as wall squats) and planks, which engage muscles without movement, are best for lowering blood pressure. The new analysis, a systematic review of 270 studies published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine,...
RYE, New York — This is the time of year when rabbis begin working on their High Holydays sermons, and Howard Goldsmith of Temple Emanu-El of Westchester had an idea for one the other day. Rabbi Goldsmith, who has served 15 years as spiritual leader of the congregation in suburban Westchester County, 25 miles north of New York City, was reading Yascha Mounk’s “The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time” (Penguin Press, 2023), about minority groups’ growing assertion of their individual identity within wider society. The book...
Are the trails getting steeper? Or am I getting older? These were my thoughts as Larry and I climbed Shrine Ridge Trail in Summit County in early July. We had been in Colorado for 10 days before we attempted the hike, so I believed I had acclimated my body to the altitude. But we started at 11,000 feet and would peak closer to 12,000. As I huffed and puffed up the trail, I never doubted I would finish. The bulldog in me would never give up. But could I do this next year? In five years? Who knows...
This is my favorite cake to serve for Rosh Hashanah. 1 cup canola oil 1/4 cup water 2 cups sugar 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. baking powder 4 large eggs 1 tsp. vanilla 3 cups flour (Use almond flour for gluten free.) 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1 cup pecans, chopped (optional) 1 cup golden raisins (optional) 3 cups peeled, cored and chopped apples (3-4 apples) I use 2 Fiji apples, and incorporate 1 Granny Apple. An apple corer makes this easy. In a food processor mix oil, water, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and baking p...
The sounds of the shofar will be heard very soon. The year 5786 is just around the corner. Millions of Jews will gather in synagogues on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to offer up prayers. Imagine God having to listen to all those people. What a job! What a divine headache trying to hear all of us and then trying to grant our wishes. No wonder the Greeks invented a pantheon of gods to deal with human beings. Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohaynoo Adonai Echad. Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord i...
A question by the father in my “adopted” family in Israel caught me off guard several years ago. Over a motzei Shabbat meal in the restaurant of a swanky Jerusalem hotel, at a window-side table, my friend, a U.S.-born baal teshuvah who has served as the rosh kollel of a small haredi yeshiva for several decades, asked me out of the blue, “Do you think you have become more religious?” I also am baal teshuva, for the majority of my 75 years, but I didn’t know how to answer his question. First of all, I’m not comfortable with the description...
(JNS)— At last, the Hebrew month of Elul has arrived, the auspicious start of the High Holidays, when many Jews begin saying the penitential prayers of Selichot. For Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, the holiday began on the second day of Elul (Aug. 26) and continues through the month of Elul; for Ashkenazi Jews, this year it takes place the Saturday night preceding Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 13). Selichot, which means “forgiveness” in Hebrew, is arguably one of the most spiritually and emotionally inspi...
As we gather for the Jewish High Holy Days, we are reminded that this sacred season offers us more than reflection. It is a time to renew our hope, strengthen our resolve, and recommit ourselves to building a brighter future - for our neighbors, our community, and our world. At Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando, we are deeply grateful for all who stand with us - not only during the holidays but every day - to uplift those in need through our FAMILY of services. The past few years have...
As we welcome the Jewish New Year, I want to wish you and your loved ones, a year filled with health, joy, and meaningful connections. Rosh Hashanah is a time for reflection, gratitude, and a renewed commitment to each other and to our community. In the coming year, the Israeli American Council will continue to stand strong in support of our community of all ages - from young families to our college students, adults fostering connection, strengthening Jewish identity, and fighting antisemitism...
As we welcome Rosh Hashanah and the start of 5786, we enter a season of reflection, renewal, and hope. This is a time to look back with gratitude for the stories we have preserved and shared, and to look forward with determination to continue our work for a more compassionate and just world. At the Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida, we are dedicated to honoring the Holocaust's legacy by amplifying the voices of those who lived through it. These stories are not only...
