Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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As part of their popular monthly zoom series of guest lectures "Physically apart - Emotionally together," Chabad will be hosting Rabbi Noach and Alti Majesky, Chabad Shluchim in Ghana, Africa. The zoom meeting will take place on Feb. 11, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. and participants will learn what Jewish life is like in Ghana and how this dedicated couple managed to build a community in this third world country. "I'm excited to be speaking with the Orlando Jewish community," said Rabbi Noach Majesky who...
(JTA) — Even without hearing the words, the pictures that animate the “Appreciation Song for President Trump” sung by a group of Hasidic boys clearly spell out the reasons for their appreciation for Donald Trump. “With devotion so strong, you lead us like you know how,” they sing as a photo of Sholom Rubashkin, the former meat processing plant owner whose 27-year prison sentence Trump commuted in December 2017 appears on the screen. “The economy is growing like never before,” they sing against the backdrop of a stock ticker. “The peace th...
No surprise ... One of my favorite actors who has since passed, Jerome Silberman, was Jewish. You may know him as Gene Wilder. He also was once married to Gilda Radner, another Jew and another of my favorites, who made me adore the television show "Saturday Night Live." She passed away many years ago and much too young! And someone I consider absolute genius, Dr. Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through di...
(JTA) - For a movie about the Holocaust, the Belarussian film "Persian Lessons" has some comic potential. Set in a concentration camp somewhere in Western Europe, it involves a Jewish inmate who survives by giving Farsi lessons to a Nazi officer who dreams about opening a restaurant in Tehran. One problem: The inmate doesn't speak Farsi. Instead he comes up with his own language and teaches it to his captor, trying not to raise suspicions. If that sounds like a comedy of errors, it's no accident...
By the time Barbara Goodman was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in October 2001, there were already 30 tumors in her liver. "We knew we were in for a pretty tough battle," recalled her husband, Kenneth Goodman, then president of New York-based Forest Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company. "But I had an entire research organization I could draw upon." Nevertheless, nine months after her diagnosis, Barbara died. She was only 51, far younger than usual for pancreatic cancer patients, who...
Just a year ago, Jerusalem was inundated by world leaders commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. At the time, it was announced that in Israel there were only 192,000 remaining Holocaust survivors, 15,000 fewer than the year before because of the high death rate among the aging survivors. At this rate, within 12 years, there will be no more living survivors among us. By all accounts, the survivors’ situation has become much more perilous in the last year. The pandemic has increased isolation and fear, creating a l...
Olympia High School senior Jenna Richman has been in the Girl Scouts since she was in first grade. This year she completed her Gold Award project to receive her Girl Scout Gold Award - the highest award a Girl Scout can attain, equivalent to Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts. Her proud parents, Scott and Gwen Richman, are well-known in the community as Scott is a former president of both the Roth JCC and Rosen JCC board of directors, and Gwen is a former PAC chair at the Rosen JCC Preschool and...
Am I Proud! ... The song "Of Thee I Sing" written by my 2nd cousins (on my fathers side), George and Ira Gershwin, became the first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize on Oct. 10, 1935 (way before I was born!). Also, the wonderful musical opera "Porgy and Bess" opened on Broadway before I was born. It was written by them as well and with Dubois Heywood. (I'm NOT so old!) On my very first CD, I recorded five of the Gershwin's great songs. I titled the CD "Dreamer on the 18th Floor" in honor of the...
(JTA) -A Jewish couple in Florida is celebrating two hefty milestones together this year: 100 years of life, and 80 years of marriage. Lou and Edith Bluefeld, of Boca Raton, have known each other since they were 16. They ran a kosher catering business that served visiting U.S. presidents and helped to kosher the White House kitchen. They also cooked for former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin when he was in Washington, D.C., for the 1978 Egypt peace accord announcement, according to a...
(JNS) — I feel deep sorrow at the passing of a wonderful friend, and wonderful person—the late Sheldon Adelson. With a broken heart, in the name of my wife, Sara, on my own behalf and in the name of many people in Israel and the world, we send our heartfelt condolences to Miri and the family. Many of the Jewish people, in Israel and the rest of the world, share in the heavy loss. It is difficult to describe what Sheldon did for the Jewish people and for Israel. Sheldon was one of the biggest donors in the history of the Jewish people. He gav...
TEL AVIV (JTA) - As we were reminded at the beginning of the latest lockdown, Israel's quarantine hotel situation throughout the COVID pandemic was a disaster. The people sent there complained of haphazard arrangements made at the last second for guests and a galling lack of oversight or organization approaching anarchy within the hotels - all while half of incoming travelers managed to receive waivers from the government to instead quarantine at home. In the latest round, the local media...
Fairy tales generally have an "old world" feel to them that sometimes is jarring to our modern sensibilities. And yet, their classic story lines and vivid plotting make them a genre that always appeals. "The Challah Girl," a picture book by author Bracha K. Sharp, bridges the gap between out-of-date and timely in a way that is fun and fresh. The bones of the tale, which involves a despondent prince, his anxious parents, and a community-wide quest to cheer him up, feel familiar, but the author's...
(JTA) — As Gershon Distenfeld sees it, life and poker have their similarities — notably “a certain amount of uncertainty.” “There is a little bit of luck involved — sometimes a lot of luck,” an Orthodox Jewish businessman from Bergenfield, New Jersey, told the morning show “Bloomberg Surveillance” last week, as reported by the Forward. “But in the end, skill does win out.” Distenfeld, 43, is hoping any combination of luck and skill will land him the champion’s bracelet at the World Series of Poker’s final table, which started Dec. 28 in Las Ve...
For many (many) years... I performed as a dancer but mostly as a vocalist. In fact, this was the first New Years Eve that I haven't performed. I will always remember the year 2020 as the worst I've ever spent in my long life, mostly quarantined at home watching "Dr. Phil" on television and over-eating! (Oy vay!) Maybe this year 2021 will be back to normal. (If I don't gain too much weight!). Here is a photo of me and Eddie Fisher working on one New Years Eve. (He had just left his wife, Debbie...
When Joe Goldovitz learned to play the piano at an early age, he didn't realize that music would be the consistent thread that kept him going in more ways than one can imagine. Goldovitz's father was Jewish, his mother Roman Catholic. Born in Portland, Maine, he was accepted into the Jewish faith at his bris by an Orthodox Bet Din. Goldovitz was six months old when his father passed away. "We were living in West Palm Beach however, after my father died, my mother moved back to Dorchester,...
Sometimes I feel uncomfortable sharing my Judaism in public. Why should I have to be though? Judaism has had such a profound impact on my life and has shaped me into the person I am today. I attended a Jewish preschool, have been participating in local Jewish events since a young age, attend synagogue regularly, and have endless Jewish friendships made through Jewish youth groups and summer camp. Judaism is so special to me and creates a community that I am proud to be a part of. So why is it that I am so cautiously aware of the hamsa hanging...
It's been a unique and challenging year for all of us; learning how to find joy and relax is more important than ever. One of our favorite ways to chill out is with a homemade cocktail. Don't know where to start? Well, you're in luck! Jewish mixologist and Detroit native Chas Williams - you might know him as the previous head bartender at Ferndale's Oakland Art and Novelty Company, or as the creator of the famed matzah ball cocktail (made with real schmaltz!) - shared his top five tips for...
(JTA) - Writer and producer David Shore didn't have to look far when developing a key new character for his hit ABC-TV series "The Good Doctor." He went straight to his nieces and nephews, the children of his Orthodox rabbi brothers. The show, which returns with new episodes on Jan. 11, focuses on Shaun Murphy (played by Freddie Highmore), an autistic doctor who is able to diagnose complicated illnesses and come up with creative treatments. But its fourth season introduced some new faces. "We...
(JTA) - Pixar's "Soul," released on Friday on Disney+, is a tender balm of a movie about an aspiring jazz musician who dies on the day he gets his big break. Watching "Soul," which is set in a richly imagined New York City, as well as in a blissed-out, blue-ish, and minimalist realm of unborn souls, in the final days of 2020 is once elegiac (the riotously crowded New York it depicts sure isn't there at the moment) and soothing, like applying a poultice to a wound. The New York of our dreams may...
If it gets any colder, I'm moving to Florida! ... (I shouldn't complain. I get to wear a jacket and hide my tummy!) Anyway, I must say, the more I research for this column, the more I find reasons to be proud! For instance, the songs of today do not compare with the great American songbook (that was written mostly by Jews.) As a vocalist, I stick to the beautiful songs, the ones written mostly in the '30s and '40s and mostly by Jews. This morning I watched a movie on television (what else is...
WHEELING, W.Va. (JTA) - Surrounded by silver crucifixes and Christmas ornaments, Samuel Posin and Joan Berlow Smith sell vintage jewelry and myriad tchotchkes at their church-turned-boutique gift shop in this city. This is not the kind of place you'll find many Jews. In this deeply rural state where just over half of all voters identify as Christian evangelicals, fewer than 1,200 Jews are thought to be scattered among West Virginia's 1.8 million residents. Yet born and raised in Wheeling,...
(JTA) - There's no sugarcoating it: 2020 was a difficult, trying, tragic year. But just because COVID-19 dominated the headlines and our personal lives, that doesn't mean there weren't any Jewish bright spots. Plenty of history was made, from a march of tens of thousands against anti-Semitism to a new kind of vaccine that Jewish doctors helped create, to a Jewish vice-presidential spouse. Here are some of the Jewish stories that helped distract us from the pain of the past year. The Jews involve...
Chanukah is over for this year ... And what a year it was! 2020 was a nightmare (due to the pandemic) and Chanukah was not celebrated with family this year ... just one son, who lives here to keep me safe, and my dog, Chloe. Of course, we kept in touch with family by phone but cooking for just one son and myself (Chloe was stuck with dog food) isn't quite the same. We had chicken, matzo brei, potato latkes, etc., and lit the candles, of course ... but it was not festive. Maybe next year!...
(JTA) — Gal Gadot may act in American blockbusters these days, but she’s still an Israeli through and through. So there are some quintessential foods she has never tried. Jimmy Fallon took advantage of this fact for a tasty segment with the “Wonder Woman” actress on his late night show last Monday night. Gadot tried for the first time egg nog (she was not a fan of it), a Ho-Ho and Taco Bell, which she absolutely loved, saying “This is the best so far.” In response, Fallon tried two Jewish delicacies on camera: a sufganiyot (jelly donut popul...
For his bar mitzvah project, William McNarney collected stuffed animals to give to children at Orlando Day Nursery in Parramore, an early childhood center where many families are experiencing trauma and economic hardship. "They could lose a family member to the virus. A parent could lose work. They could lose the few things that they have," said William, 13, an eighth-grader at Howard Middle School. "This gives them something to hold onto." William, who lives with his parents and sister in...
