Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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By (JNS) - Twenty years ago, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Sbarro restaurant at the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road in the center of Jerusalem. Fifteen people were murdered, including seven children, and 130 people injured. Dozens of families were destroyed in the blast. The survivors have moved on, each in their own way, one day at a time. The nails and bolts packed into the bomb to increase its destructive properties have been removed with multiple surgeries over the...
(JTA) - "Jeopardy!" is getting its first-ever Jewish host as Sony Pictures Television announced that actress Mayim Bialik will host some of the game show's new prime time specials. Following longtime host Alex Trebek's death last fall, Bialik served as one of the show's celebrity guest hosts for two weeks in June. In her new role, the star of "The Big Bang Theory" will host new spin-off series, including a college tournament next year. Mike Richards, one of the show's executive producers, will...
(JTA) — Many people have curbed or curtailed their big Shabbat dinners during the COVID-19 pandemic, but not the cast of “The Real Housewives of New York City.” On the episode that aired Tuesday, the cast of the Bravo reality TV series about socialites in the city is shown attending a drama-filled event described as “Black Shabbat” by its host. Eboni Williams, the show’s first Black cast member, hosted the dinner at the home of Archie Gottesman, a founder of JewBelong, a nonprofit that set out to “rebrand Judaism” and recently took out billbo...
I'm writing this from Miami, 10 minutes from the beach. There are many reasons to be here - the beach, the sun, the culture. And there are many reasons not to be here. As my grandma keeps calling to tell me, COVID rates are skyrocketing in Florida, and maybe it's not the best place to be right now. But none of these considerations really mattered to me. I came for a reason nobody should have to come for: to be at the shiva of a former student of mine, Ilan Naibryf, who was one of the victims of...
Eretz Israel ... Oops ... How did I miss writing about May 14 1948? YEAH! Israel is officially a state! Have you ever been to Israel? I have! It is our PROMISED LAND, YES! I left my heart there ... Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Masada, the Dead Sea. the Golan Heights and on and on. A return trip to Israel is definitely on my Bucket List! More about famous Jews who have my heart ... WOLF BLITZER, for one. He is a noted American journalist, television news anchor and author who has been a CNN reporter...
If you happened to be walking down the 800 block of Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn in the 1930s, you might have caught a whiff of horseradish in the air. From their Brooklyn apartment, two Jewish immigrants - Hyman and Tillie Gold, from Ukraine and Romania, respectively - were peeling the pungent roots at their kitchen table, filling bottles of prepared horseradish by hand and labeling them with homemade labels and paste made from flour and water. The couple came into the horseradish business a...
The selection of Bruce Gould as this year's recipient of the Heritage Human Service Award was a long time coming. One might ask why he had not been selected earlier. Well, he'd never been nominated. Perhaps everyone thought someone else would nominate him because his family's generous donations and endowments surpassed many other generous givers. One of those "other generous givers," Alan Ginsburg, who has had "the pleasure of knowing Bruce for 20+ years both socially and community-wise," said...
Decades after the U.N. General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, which declared Zionism was a form of racism, Zionists continue to be maligned on college campuses, social media and city streets. Confronting the ongoing hostility toward Zionism in a positive, multifaceted way, Jewish National Fund-USA launched "This is What Zionism Looks Like," a campaign that features a website, social media strategy, online events, boot camps, and educational courses designed with the aim of celebrating Zionism...
AMSTERDAM (JTA) - A disoriented teenage girl lies on Anne Frank's bed as people swarm the family house. But these people are not Nazis; they're modern-day tourists. And the girl on the bed isn't Anne, but Kitty - the imaginary friend to whom she addressed her now world-famous diary. Magically resurrected from the page and transported into modern-day Europe, Kitty is appalled by how society has fetishized her best friend Anne, hawking cheap merchandise and endless inaccurate reinterpretations of...
More Famous Jews ... JAY SCOTT GREENSPAN is an American actor who became famous with JERRY SEINFELD on his long running TV show, "Seinfeld." Oh yes! You would know him as Jason Alexander who played George Costanza, Jerry's buddy on the television show. And of course, Jason has appeared in several movies as well. A Newark, New Jersey born actor/comedian, Jason is Jewish! (But you knew that!) Here's a surprise ... Fabulous Fred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz, the son of Friedrich "Fritz"...
Our deepest condolences go out to Rush lead singer and legendary bassist Geddy Lee, whose Jewish mom, Mary Weinrib, passed away on July 2, 2021. Weinrib, who was set to turn 96 on July 16, was not only a massive supporter of her son’s music career but she was also a Holocaust survivor. In a moving tribute on Instagram, Lee shared a brief synopsis of his mother’s incredible life — including how she survived Auschwitz and loved to cook for family on the Jewish holidays — as well as a snapshot of the pair outside together. According to her obi...
In an interview with David Poland for "DP/30: The Oral History of Hollywood," director Ari Folman expressed that the reactions he received in Israel toward his 2008 adult animated film, "Waltz with Bashir," were the most shocking out of every country he visited. He expected to be accused of being anti-Zionist and his film being written off as just a pile of liberal propaganda. Little did he expect the overwhelming praise from audiences and critics alike. And no one could blame him for his...
(JTA) — At the last Emmy Awards, “Schitt’s Creek,” the comedy from Jewish father-son duo Eugene and Dan Levy, swept the night, winning every comedy category for its sixth and final season. While there’s no big Jewish show to cheer on for another powerhouse performance this year, there’s still a bevy of Jewish nominees, which were announced Tuesday. Black Jewish actresses lead the way Jurnee Smollett received her first Emmy nomination, as lead actress in a drama series, for her role in “Lovecraft Country” starring as Letitia “Leti” Lewis. W...
JERUSALEM – Arel Moodie, the son of a white Jewish mother and a Black father, experienced a core identity struggle through most of his teenage years. "It was one of the biggest pieces of turmoil in my adolescence," said Moodie, who was raised in a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Brooklyn and attended Jewish camps every summer. "I asked myself, 'Who am I? Where do I fit in?' I felt like I had to make a choice between the Jewish side, the white side, the Black side." Moodie, now 3...
Some sad news ... Comedian Jackie Mason died. He was in his early 90s. Jackie Mason was born Yacov Moshe Hakohen Maza on June 9, 1928, (according to 1940 NYC census), in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the fourth and last son (and first son born in the United States) in a family of six children of strict Orthodox Jews. Mason came from a long line of rabbis, which included his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and his great-great-grandfather. His father Eli Maza and his mother, Belle...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Like a well-kept secret, the cisterns of the Temple Mount are concealed, barred and padlocked by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. In ancient times, the cisterns refreshed pilgrims arriving at the Temple. A few originally functioned as shaft graves or quarries from which stones were carved to build the Temple, filling with water only years later. According to archaeologists' calculations, to transport 26,417 gallons of water from the Gihon Spring 2,624 feet to one small...
Throughout the coming year, The Heritage will run a half page insertion featuring an organization that has used the Jewish Capital Alliance of Central Florida to attain its chartered goals. Each of these organizations approached JCA, knowing that financial assistance could be immediately available to assist with their particular needs. What you may not know is that most of these organizations found the JCA indirectly, or thru reference, and with little knowledge of the JCA intent and structure....
More famous Jews... Comic Lenny Bruce once said "To me, if you live in New York City or any other big city, you are Jewish. It doesn't matter, even if you're Catholic, if you live in New York City you're Jewish." (He said that but what did he mean??) Well, here's a Jew who wrote a terrific Christmas song, probably one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time! "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose, Yule tide carols being sung by a choir, and folks dressed up...
In case a pandemic wasn't quite enough, over the past year we watched the world erupt with desperate calls for social justice, and our society turned an eye toward the tensions of belonging. The Black Lives Matter protests over the summer of 2020 shed a bright light on racial inequality in the U.S. This examination of systemic racism occurred amidst wider turbulence that also saw a surge of anti-Asian and antisemitic hate crimes. As we reaffirm the diversity of what it means to be "American,"...
Mahjong was the popular game played by my mother and most Jewish woman of her generation. I heard somewhere that it originated in China and that Chinese men are those who have played it religiously. Only recently was I given an article from Newsweek magazine by June Brown, a resident of Cascade Heights, describing the true nature of the game. It stated, “Mahjong was not invented by the Chinese, but by the Jews in early Palestine. The game began about the year 200 BCE among the more assimilated Jews, but was frowned on as a sinister d...
"Bim Bam" by Nachum Frabkel is a simple Jewish song that has become a well-known anthem to children of all ages in many different communities. It is also a favorite song at Shabbat services led by Jewish Pavilion staff and volunteers. At Cascade Heights in Longwood (formerly known as Chambrel), Shirley Schoenberger is known as the "Bim Bam Queen," because she leads the song with so much warmth and enthusiasm. Lyrics: Bim bam bim bim bim bam/Bim bim bim bim bim bam Shabbat shalom Shabbat shalom...
It was just 36 years before the Munich Olympics in 1972 when Hitler used the event as a means to push Nazi propaganda onto the world. It was now Germany's moment to show the world how much they changed, they even called it "The Olympics of Peace & Joy." They needed to show as little military as possible in order to showcase how peaceful they had become, and this meant a significant lack of security. It had not been 27 years since the horrific events of the Holocaust, which made the Israeli...
This is sooo personal ... It actually hurts to write about, but I will. I refer to the beautiful love song, "Our Love is Here to Stay." There is a very interesting story connected to this song. First, let me write the verse for you: "The more I read the papers, the less I comprehend, the world and all its capers, and how it all will end. Nothing seems to be lasting, but that isn't our affair. We've got something permanent, I mean in the way we care ..." This verse was written by well-known (and...
"It's like when one person likes chocolate and one person likes vanilla, but they both hate bigotry," I said, explaining to my father how his son, a Hillel director, was dating an ordained Christian minister. Our faiths may be different, but our values are the same. Jen and I first met in January 2020, just three months before the start of the first COVID-19 quarantines in the United States. Our first date was a whirlwind of excited conversation around spirituality, ethics and how funny it was...
Doug Rosen is using his difficult struggles with drugs to help others. By 24 years old, Doug Rosen was making money faster than he could spend it. A producer in Hollywood, he was flying around the world, sporting designer clothing, and driving a luxury car. On the outside, everything was perfect. On the inside, he was crumbling. Doug was partying every night with famous A-listers, exposed to every drug on the planet. He was spending close to $80,000 a year on drugs alone. He had climbed the ladder of success, and no one could stop him. That is...
