Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1176 - 1200 of 4386
When asked about the quality I most admire in a leader, the answer is always vision. Perhaps it was the years of working with the former CEO of Central Florida Hillel, the irreplaceable Aaron Weil. Or the general lack of vision I see in so many organizations (Jewish and not), but an inspiring leader who knows the potential of their organization makes me want to sign up, donate and get involved. That is why at our recent board retreat, the Stetson University Hillel student board started with...
Great works of art often become so present in our everyday lives - the "Mona Lisa" on a mug, "The Starry Night" on a sweater, Basquiat in Beyoncé and Jay-Z's Tiffany campaign - that it's easy to forget how fragile the originals are. These images that populate our collective consciousness all started as a single destructible canvas. But most museums don't highlight the life these artworks have had as physical objects - often because that history is wrapped up in colonialism and theft. At the...
NEW YORK (JTA) - The holiday of Sukkot isn't complete without a lulav and an etrog, the four species that Jews are commanded to wave on the harvest holiday. But according to a new book, it wasn't until the Second Temple period that Jews started using the lemon-like etrog as part of their Sukkot celebrations. In ancient times, people would simply use whichever fruits they had harvested in that season, such as pomegranates, grapes, dates and figs, says Rabbi David Moster, who has been researching...
Surprise! Surprise!... Did you know that Golden Globe, Prime Time Emmy and an Academy Award... all for best actress, were earned by fabulous actress HELEN HUNT? Did you also know that her paternal grandparents were from German-Jewish folks. Like me, Helen grew up in New York City from the age of three. I recently saw her on television discussing her career. (You may have also.) And you probably have heard of actress, Milena Markovna Kunis. NO? (How about MILA KUNIS?) Mila, born in Soviet...
VACAVILLE, Calif. (JTA) – Soon after Jon Grobman was released from prison, where he had once thought he would die, he headed back inside voluntarily - this time with canine sidekicks. Grobman was returning as the newest hire of a nonprofit group, Paws for Life K9 Rescue, that had been instrumental in his own long and difficult road to redemption. He won't easily forget the words of the judge who sentenced him to life without parole. "If I felt that you had any promise to ever amount to a...
(JTA) — If there’s one thing Rabbi Sholom Lipskar wants to remember from the aftermath of the Surfside condo collapse in June, it’s the small cards that he distributed to the first responders and search-and-rescue teams working at the site. Inscribed with Psalm 23, a psalm often recited in times of trouble that begins with the words “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” the cards were meant to protect and inspire those charged with extracting survivors and, later, recovering bodies. Lipskar estimated that he gave out as many as 800 of...
Qian Julie Wang grew up in libraries. Coming to America at age 7, she was thrown into the brand new world of New York City. Soon, she was spending all her free time in her local Chinatown library, soaking up as much English as possible. It became her second home, a place of safety. Now, she's telling her story for the first time - buoyed by the hope of reaching those in libraries who were just like her. Wang and her parents were undocumented, and the 2016 election - which occurred just after...
(JTA) - At a key moment in the new Netflix film "Worth," Kenneth Feinberg, the real-life architect of the compensation fund for 9/11 victims, is shown overwhelmed by the monumental emotional toil of the job. At a town hall meeting for victims' families Feinberg - whom Michael Keaton until this point has portrayed as an ultracompetent professional arbiter - is assailed by critics of the fund who see its calculations as too impersonal, its salve on their grief too pitiful. One stands up and...
(JNS) I first went to Israel when I was 21 and returned at least once a year until 2020, so I was thrilled to renew my streak in August. My wife and I were particularly anxious to see our son who we had not seen since he finished his army service. As you can imagine, getting into Israel was not easy and only possible at all because of our son being an Israeli citizen, since tourists were not being permitted to visit. We had to get an entry permit from the Israeli consulate, take a COVID-19 test and submit the result to the Israeli government 24...
I watch this show regularly… And I’m not ashamed to admit it! I’m talking about the Maury Povich show on television. I love watching it although everyone I know says “it’s beneath them.” I also enjoy watching “Hoarders.” Maybe because I’m very sloppy? (Oh shut up!) Anyway, MAURY POVICH has always been a favorite of mine and, of course, he is one of us! I also enjoy watching SNL (Saturday Night Live) on television. I need a laugh now and then and now, now, now! I’ve enjoyed watching particularly when the guest host is SCARLETT JOHANSSON....
(JTA) — Two weeks ago, Delta Airlines pilot Alexander Kahn flew hundreds of Afghan refugees from Germany to Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., as part of a U.S. government partnership with commercial airlines. It had extra special meaning for Kahn, as he told CNN, for a few reasons — first and foremost, his own father was a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the U.S. in similar fashion. “I’m the son of an immigrant in the United States, my father was a Holocaust survivor, he was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp by Patton’s T...
(JTA) — Al-Qaida had planned to carry out a massive terrorist attack on Israeli dance clubs in 2002 but was thwarted with the help of U.S. intelligence operatives, a former FBI agent said. Ali Soufan, who with other agents had monitored al-Qaida for the FBI both before the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 and afterward, said the information was obtained by the operatives during interrogations of a Palestinian man apprehended in Afghanistan, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Acharonot reported Friday in an article about Soufan. Zayn a...
Rachel Lipman cares deeply about preserving her Jewish family's fifth-generation winemaking business, Loew Vineyards, but the 28-year-old is keeping an eye on the future, too. As one of the youngest winemakers in Maryland - if not the youngest - she's pushing through boundaries in a traditionally male-dominated industry. But that's not all. Lipman is also educating customers about her family's extraordinary legacy of producing unique wines - a 150-year-old family tradition that was nearly...
(JTA) - Fania Records, often called the "Motown of Latin Music," announced the passing of Larry Harlow on social media last week. Once the record label broke the news on Aug. 20, a who's who of Latin music offered tributes. "Larry's contributions to what today is known as salsa are immense," seven-time Grammy nominee Bobby Sanabria wrote on Facebook. "A true part of NYC's history has been lost [...] to our Latino community and it is heartfelt." But Harlow, whose paternal grandfather was the...
The start of the Jewish New Year coincides with the start of the Federation fiscal year. With the last year being filled with so many challenges and so many successes, we are excited about what this year will bring. RAISE, our incredible work social skills and job training program for adults with special needs returns in person this fall, providing work and social skills training for adults with special needs along with 1:1 job coach support at our local agencies. If you are interested in being...
Health salads - sweet and tangy slaw-like, cabbage-based salads that often include carrots, bell peppers and cucumbers - are a fixture of New York Jewish delis. They're sold by the pound in the deli case or sometimes generously arrive alongside your complimentary plate of pickles. While the dressing is typically sweetened with sugar, the purported "health" is derived from the volume of raw vegetables and the notable absence of mayonnaise. If you're from New Jersey, you may also know this dish...
If you, like me, are a regular chicken roaster, you're halfway to one of the best salad dressings out there: schmaltz vinaigrette, a tangy, savory top coat for a simple salad of mixed greens and whatever you've picked up at the farmers market. Using a warm fat, like bacon or duck fat, in a vinaigrette is a time-honored practice that works extremely well thanks to the ability of fat to emulsify with the other ingredients, creating a silky, rich dressing. Warm bacon dressing over a spinach salad...
This article originally appeared on Alma. Light spoilers ahead for "The Chair." "The Chair," Netflix's new six-part dramedy set in the English department of a fictional Ivy League school, is about a lot of things: existing as a woman of color in academia, workplace sexual tension, parenthood, grief, Sandra Oh's incredible double-breasted jackets. It's also about a casual Nazi salute - if there is such a thing - which occurs during the first episode and reverberates throughout the rest of the...
I truly love New York City … I was born in Brooklyn, one of the five boroughs of New York City … you know, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. And, I grew up there. (That should explain my weird sense of humor!) Recently, I was watching “I Love NYC” on television, a salute to a place that was on its way back from a horrible pandemic. It took place in Manhattan’s Central Park and began with a fabulous salute of music played by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Many star...
(JTA) — Two weeks after Mayim Bialik said being selected to host primetime specials of “Jeopardy!” was “beyond anything I ever imagined could happen,” the Jewish actress is taking on an even more prominent role on the beloved game show. Bialik is hosting the first three weeks of the regular season after Mike Richards, the producer originally selected to succeed Alex Trebek, stepped down on Friday amid a backlash over his past comments, which included offensive statements about women and Jews. Bialik is also being considered for the full-time...
By Yosef Lindell (JTA) — When a local Orthodox synagogue asked me to lead Yom Kippur prayers six years ago, one aspect of the request stood out: Was I comfortable using the “High Holyday Prayer Book” translated and edited by Philip Birnbaum? The archaic spelling of “Holyday” is a tipoff to the book’s longevity. First published in 1951 by the Hebrew Publishing Company, this Hebrew-English prayer book, or machzor, has been used by multiple generations of worshippers in Orthodox and, to a lesser extent, Conservative synagogues. It is the prayer...
(JTA) - Talk about goals: Luke Hughes has become the third brother in his hockey-playing Jewish family to be drafted in the first round of the NHL Draft. The New Jersey Devils picked the 17-year-old defenseman fourth overall in Friday's selections, making the Hughes brothers of Orlando, Florida, the first American family to have three siblings drafted in the National Hockey League's first round. Jack, a center, was chosen first overall by the Devils in 2019 - earning the distinction as the...
(JTA) - Even before its $8.35 million renovation, the Manchester Jewish Museum was a remarkably eye-catching institution. Housed in a former synagogue on a busy road in an industrial part of northern England's largest city, it stood out from the car washes, supermarkets and hardware stores of Cheetham Hill Road thanks to its red-brick facade. The look marries Victorian architecture and the Moorish style favored by the members of the Portuguese-Spanish Sephardic Jewish community that built it in...
In the Rosh HaShanah Musaf service, the machzor includes the line, "The great shofar is sounded. A still small voice is heard." I love those two sentences. I love the image of the blasting shofar shattering the comfort of the community reminding us that we are entering into the days of awe. I further love the response to the shofar blast - the still small voice. Often in life the response to the extreme is calm. In Judaism, for us to survive the shofar blast, we have to breathe and be the still...
Kudos to our management team - our CFO, board, staff, sponsors, supporters and volunteers. The Jewish Pavilion has been a pillar in the community for over 20 years, and we intend to remain an anchor for years to come. We are fiscally strong and secure, thanks to community-wide support. During the pandemic, it was reported that 1/3 of all charities merged or closed their operations. As well, many were in desperate financial straits and were constantly asking for funds. The Jewish Pavilion followe...
