Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Brilliant and Jewish ... Jonas Salk was an American virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. He was born in New York City and attended the City College of New York and New York University School of Medicine. Of course, Jewish! Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud on May 6, 1856 and died Sept. 23, 1939. He was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between...
At the turn of the 20th century, the city of Monastir, present-day Bitola in North Macedonia, was home to the country's largest Jewish community, 11,000 people. That's about half of the current Jewish population of Turkey, most of whom share the Ladino language and its music with Balkan Jewish communities like Monastir. But in March 1943, Monastir's Jews suffered genocide when the Nazis deported 98% of their people to Treblinka. None returned. In 2017, Sephardic singer Sarah Aroeste received une...
Jewish History in Film is a new series exploring how our culture and history is represented in films from all over the globe. Israeli cinema is such an overlooked contribution to the film world, birthing such great movie makers as Ephraim Kishon, Ari Folman, Amos Gitai, Dror Shaul, and many more. This series will focus on Israeli cinema and introduce our readers to films they may not have heard of in the past. "Sallah Shabati," released in 1964 and directed by Ephraim Kishon, was not only the fi...
Many home cooks this past year, in an Instagram-inspired spirit, upped their challah-baking game with new braiding patterns, interesting flavors and vibrant colors. Yet it was a more standard ingredient that unwittingly connected many to their roots. If you used Fleischmann's yeast for your challah, you leavened your dough with the essence of American Jewry. The Fleischmann family's story echoes the experience of many other immigrant Jews. They built on their experience from Europe, using it to...
Challah baker Katharina Arrigoni lives in a town in northern Switzerland with 3,000 residents, none of whom - including Arrigoni – are Jewish. Entirely self-taught, Arrigoni has never tasted a challah other than her own creations. Yet thanks to the power of the internet and Instagram, Arrigoni has become an international challah-shaping sensation. Arrigoni is the founder of Besondersgut (German for "especially good"), a bakery and baking school located about 15 miles from Zurich. She started b...
I don't sleep well at night ... I used to wonder why, but now I know. What kind of a world is this coming too? I am worried, not so much for myself but for my children and grandchildren. I probably watch too much news each day and night but I can't help it, especially with these fabulous journalists ... WOLF BLITZER, an American journalist, is one of my favorites. He was born in Augsburg, Germany, and hosts his show on CNN television. CHUCK TODD, born in Miami, Florida, is moderator of "Meet...
(JTA) - Perhaps no American Jewish actor has been so closely associated with crime films as Harvey Keitel. During a career now in its sixth decade, the 82-year-old Keitel has appeared in "Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver," "Wise Guys," "Bugsy," "The Two Jakes," "Reservoir Dogs" and "The Irishman," among numerous other films. Now he's adding to the list with "Lansky," portraying perhaps the most famous Jewish gangster of all time, Meyer Lansky. Lansky, born in Russia in 1902, arrived in New York in...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - The highly acclaimed miniseries "Unorthodox," starring Israeli actress Shira Haas, won the prestigious Peabody Award on Tuesday in recognition of the most "compelling and empowering stories released across broadcast and streaming media in 2020." "Unorthodox" is an American-German production that first aired on Netflix in March 2020. The story revolves around a young Jewish woman, Esty Shapiro (Haas), living in an ultra-Orthodox community in Brooklyn, who flees her arrang...
(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) - Brood X, the once-every-17-years emergence of cicada swarms across much of the Midwest and Eastern U.S., has again left its mark, with trillions of the insects clogging many major metropolitan areas (and serving as unlikely parenting models). As of late June, according to reports, the (smelly) dead have begun to outnumber the living, leaving some to ask: What's to be done with all these insect corpses? Foodies have suggested popping cicadas in your mouth. "Why...
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — The last time we saw Tevye the Milkman on Broadway in “Fiddler on the Roof” was in 2016, escaping Anatevka as a pogrom swept the shtetl. Now, almost five years later, he is resurfacing in a one-man play titled “Tevye in New York,” opening in its world premiere — in Beverly Hills, of all places. It’s the latest radical reimagining of the beloved Sholem Aleichem character, who also saw his “Fiddler” story performed onstage in Yiddish for the first time in Joel Grey’s recen...
So maybe that's why I'm funny? ... (I DIDN'T SAY FUNNY LOOKING!) Pointing out more Jewish funnymen of my day, I must include Groucho, Harpo and Chico Marx. (Born in New York City, of course.) I also feel I must mention this super-talent, (although he's not Jewish), DICK VAN DYKE. I was watching the 43rd Kennedy Center honors on television (naturally. What else is there to do?) and he was one of those given the honor. I must mention him because he always gave me joy ... in his acting, his joking...
(JTA) - "The Shrink Next Door," a 2019 reported podcast about a Jewish psychiatrist on the Upper West Side of Manhattan who takes control of the life of one of his Jewish patients, is being made into a limited TV series. And it's starring two comedy stars who last collaborated on "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues." The 8-episode adaptation will star Paul Rudd as Dr. Isaac "Ike" Herschkopf, the psychiatrist, and Will Ferrell as Marty Markowitz, the patient whose life he takes over. It will...
An egg cream was my father's kitchen claim to fame. He assembled them with great flourish - Fox's U-Bet chocolate syrup, cold milk from a glass bottle, and a long, hard shpritz of seltzer followed by a vigorous stir. Even today, when I drink or think of it, it takes me back to my family's Brooklyn roots and him. To my surprise, I have discovered that I am not alone in my nostalgic connection to this fancy-named but pedestrian drink. According to Pete Freeman, co-owner, co-founder and chief soda...
From June 29th to July 3rd, America's largest labor union, the National Education Association (NEA) will vote on two motions attacking Israel -New Business Item 29 (NBI 29) and New Business Item 51 (NBI 51). Urge your state and national NEA leaders to oppose this hate, and support mutual understanding and peace. NBIs 29 and 51 are part of a larger pattern. In recent weeks, teacher's union leaders in San Francisco and Seattle passed resolutions endorsing the destructive Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. BDS...
(JTA) - Shira Haas, the Israeli actress who vaulted into superstardom with her roles in the TV series "Shtisel" and "Unorthodox," has a track record of playing multifaceted characters. Nonetheless, she faced unprecedented challenges when making the new film "Asia," which dominated last year's Ophir Awards (the Israeli equivalent to the Oscars), was in the Central Florida Jewish Film Festival last November, and is seeing a U.S. release this week. In the starkly photographed, minimalist film, Haas...
I need laughter. (We all do!) ... I recently saw on television (naturally) a television special. ROBERT KLEIN (and his harmonica and jokes) was the star. I also saw Don Rickles (super funny!) And one of my very favorites, JERRY SEINFELD. I tried to never miss a show of his (and still don't!) And, speaking of funny, I miss Joan Rivers. I knew her and have been told I sometimes sound like her (when I don't clear my throat) probably because we were both born in Brooklyn. TikTok, SAID MY CLOCK ......
Russian tea biscuits are so much a part of Cleveland's landscape that locals are surprised to learn that these rugelach-like pastries are from their hometown. As a Clevelander, I didn't discover the truth until I moved to several cities and Russian tea biscuits were nowhere to be found, prompting me to do a little digging online. I discovered that the pastry's origin story - a story that feels more like a legend - is connected to the Cleveland Jewish community. Even though Salon published a...
Chew on this: One of America's most iconic gum brands was originally a Jewish-owned tobacco business. In 1891, Morris Chigorinsky emigrated from Russia to the United States, where in the early 1900s he assumed control of the American Leaf Tobacco Company. But by 1938 - by then Chigorinsky had changed his surname to Shorin - the business was flailing. His four sons decided to save the family from certain penury by starting a new penny candy business, Topps Chewing Gum Inc., with the name...
(JTA) — Motorcyclist Steve Goode is on the way to Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But on a recent phone call from a hotel room, he doesn’t know exactly where he is. “Indiana, in … what the hell town am I in?” he says with a laugh. Turns out he’s in Richmond, Indiana, a few days into a 75-day trek called the Great American Deli Schlep, during which he will stop at 42 Jewish delis across the United States to raise awareness about hunger and food insecurity. He started out at Manny’s Cafeteria and Delicatessen in his native Chicago,...
(JTA) - When Daniela Weiner heard about a virtual bake sale against antisemitism, the Chicago pastry chef and food photographer didn't think twice about joining. Weiner is not Jewish. But she has participated in benefit bake sales before, raising $1,500 last year for racial justice causes, and she also knew that some of her Jewish friends in the food world were alarmed by a recent spate of antisemitic incidents. "Seeing a friend talk about this, crying on social media that she is afraid ... I...
(JTA) - If anyone can pull off a bluegrass song about Anne Frank, it's Nefesh Mountain, a husband-and-wife duo from New Jersey that has been a standard-bearer of Jewish bluegrass for years. The group has appeared in Rolling Stone and national bluegrass magazines and worked with some of the most respected bluegrass session players as they have put an Americana spin on Jewish prayers such as "Mi Chamocha" and "Modeh Ani" and released other songs that tap into Jewish traditions. "What we're doing...
(JNS) — The Susi Bradfield Women’s Institute for Halakhic Leadership of the Ohr Torah Stone network commemorated the graduation of its 2021 class, attended by hundreds of family and friends. Three women—Rabbanit Dr. Hannah Hashkes, Rabbanit Shira Marili Mirvis and Rabbanit Chamutal Shoval—successfully completed the intensive five-year course. The curriculum spans a range of topics on Jewish law, including Shabbat and festivals, kashrut, mourning, family purity, and Jewish marriage and divorce. Upon graduating from the institute, women are certi...
This article originally appeared on Kveller. Fully virtual bar and bat mitzvahs are, happily, no longer a necessity in many places. Whether you are including a few people in an IRL event, or even hosting a small crowd in, say, your backyard, most families are still likely to have guests who are only able to attend — or are only comfortable attending — a bar or bat mitzvah via a virtual platform like Zoom. Does this scenario have your head spinning? Fear not! You don’t need to plan two separate events. But you do want to include your on-sc...
Like many American Jews, Michael Fineberg, Ph.D.'s paternal grandparents emigrated from Lithuania and Russia, his maternal grandparents from Romania and Austria, arriving by boat to the United States in the early 1900s. His parents were first generation American Jews who assimilated and worked hard to build a life for themselves and their children. His father didn't graduate from high school as a result of World War II. Returning after the war, he worked at the Food Fair Grocery Store chain,...
My social media has been full of proud parents posting pictures of their high school, college, and graduate school graduates which no doubt comes with extra meaning on the heels of a pandemic that’s interrupted so many of our lives. As happy as I am for my friends and their children, I can’t help but look at each of these pictures through a prism of current events in Israel. I am proud of my daughter and son-in-law who are also graduating this year. However, in Israel, ceremonies marking their accomplishments are more toned down than they oth...
