Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) - In the late 1960s, when Neal Karlen was not even 10 years old, he would spend time at the home of his grandparents, one of the few Jewish families that remained on the north side of Minneapolis. Karlen would play basketball and ride bikes with a group of African-American kids who lived in the neighborhood. One of them, he later realized, was a young Prince Rogers Nelson. The two men would reconnect in the early 1980s, when Karlen was a magazine journalist and Prince one of the world's...
Who knew?... I surely didn't and I knew her! Actress GOLDIE HAWN was raised Jewish by a Jewish mom and non-Jewish dad. She's been on television lately as "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In" has returned to the small screen. She was then primarily a dancer and a comic. (I should have realized she was Jewish because she was sooooo cute!!) Speaking of cute ... Here is another cute Jewish girl, actually adorable in every way! Her name is LAUREN NICOLE YOUSHA. Aha! The Yousha name was a dead giveaway, righ...
(JTA) — Teitel Brothers, the 105-year-old Italian provisions store on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, is not Italian at all. In fact, Teitels is the only existing store in the Bronx’s Little Italy — the real Little Italy — with Jewish roots. Arthur Avenue is a gem in New York City’s cultural and culinary crown. It’s authentically Italian with your selection of paneterie, pasticcerie, salumerie and pescherie — food stores that specialize in one type of product: bread, pastry, meat and fish. As custom...
(JTA) — Jews around the world are rightfully celebrating the historic and euphoric peace agreement between Israel and the UAE — and so are the Emiratis. In particular, Israelis are looking forward to visiting the United Arab Emirates once travel is again possible. As a Jew with close ties to the UAE, I have insights about what they’ll experience — a place they’ll surely find both familiar and challenging. Over the past two years, my husband, children and I have visited the UAE four times, most recently spending Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot in...
Schnitzel in Israel is a big deal. Like, a bigger deal than people realize. Or, at least, a bigger deal than I realized before I moved to Israel from the UK seven years ago. Straddling the line between street food and fast food, schnitzel is something that many Israelis - especially kids - eat everyday. Be it warmed in the oven from a frozen packet, homemade and shallow fried, picked up in a pita from a street-side stall, or as a reliable choice at almost any restaurant. Gourmet schnitzel...
In an interview with Kol B'Rama radio, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked biblical precepts in order to convince religious Jews to social distance during the holiday of Simchat Torah that coincided with Shabbat last weekend. "Take care, there should be no dances on Simchat Torah," Netanyahu said, referring to the tradition of dancing with Torah scrolls in synagogues. "There is no greater desecration of G-d's name than if because of Simchat Torah we lose a life. Pray outside, keep the...
At eight years of age, Allan Robuck, cantor of Congregation Ohev Shalom, “didn’t have an option” about playing music. “I grew up in a musical family and my two brothers and younger sister had to play piano, no exceptions!” he said. Robuck’s parents loved music. After World War II, his father entered a talent show put on by the Les Elgart Big Band. Elgart was a trumpet player, often times playing with his brother Larry Elgart who recorded albums on the Columbia label. One of their most recogn...
This comes directly from the "Jerusalem Post" newspaper recently ... Its title is "The Jewish imperative of the coronavirus crisis." "The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented global crisis. Hundreds of thousands have died, millions have been sickened, and billions have been confined to their homes. Healthcare and economic systems have been stretched and strained, and many nations are facing a test the likes of which they have not encountered since 1945. For many months now, the...
(JTA) — The Baltimore Jewish Times newsroom was always quietest on Wednesdays. Given the unyielding Tuesday editorial deadlines, Wednesday was the best day to get out of the office to meet people, follow a hunch or find inspiration. If Ira Rifkin, one of the senior editors, saw me in the newsroom on a Wednesday, he’d gruffly remind me, “The stories are out there.” I was new and getting a feel for the JT’s weekly rhythm, but I learned to get “out there,” and not just on Wednesdays. Out there was in the Baltimore Jewish community. The stories a...
(JTA) - You may know Michael Oren as a cable news commentator on Israel and the Middle East. You may know him as the Israeli ambassador to the United States during Barack Obama's first term, when he had the fraught task of managing a rocky American-Israeli relationship, or later as a member of Israel's Knesset. Perhaps you're acquainted with Oren as the author of three bestselling history books. What you may not have known is that he also writes fiction. At least I didn't. I've interviewed Oren...
Susan Bernstein is a loving and dutiful daughter of Pearl Bernstein who lives at Cascade Heights. As a program director at the Jewish Pavilion, Susan enhances the lives of several hundred Jewish residents and one of them is her own mother. You can imagine how exciting it is to see your daughter leading services, telling Jewish stories, sharing jokes and interacting with your friends. Pictured here are Pearl and Susan holding cards they received from the Jewish Pavilion. One hundred and fifty...
What a life... Here I am, still alive in spite of my age, still performing and still writing. And if the coronavirus doesn't get me, there is still a lot to do! Of course I have great memories of folks I met and worked with, many of them Jewish like me and many from Brooklyn, N.Y. like me, but not all! For instance, singer Eddie Fisher, a Jew yes, but from Philadelphia! We worked together in Las Vegas and Orlando. He is gone now but never forgotten. (See photo. That's Eddie and me, not Elizabeth...
Volunteering is such a personal and generous gift, and everyone has different reasons for doing it. Shirley Schoenberger is a very active volunteer with the Jewish Pavilion, and she knows this from her own experiences. Schoenberger - along with her husband, Peter, and their three daughters, Tracey, Debbie, and Lisa - relocated to central Florida from Ohio in 1992. There they had owned and operated their own personal clothing store, Havers, in the small town of Chagrin Falls, Ohio. It's very...
Raisa Maistrenko will never forget Sept. 29, 1941 — the day Nazi troops rounded up the Jewish residents of Kyiv, Ukraine, and marched them to the Babyn Yar ravine on the city’s outskirts. “Leaflets were posted saying that all the Jews had to gather in one place,” recalled Maistrenko, who was just 3 at the time. “But we didn’t think it was to execute us. We thought they would transport us to Palestine.” Victor Pronichev added: “With brass knuckles and with sticks and chains, they beat us as badly as they could. The Jews were forced to undress co...
(JTA) - As a British resident born in Dubai to a Palestinian father and Lebanese mother, Heba Nabil Iskandarani had plenty of potential national identities. What she lacked, however, was a passport. A 26-year-old lecturer in architecture at Birmingham City University, Iskandarani has been stateless for most of her life, possessing only a Lebanese travel document that defines her as a Palestinian refugee. But after discovering that her Palestinian father had Jewish roots going back to Spain,...
(JTA) - When Israeli director Yuval Adler saw the script for "The Secrets We Keep," a thriller about a woman who kidnaps a man she believes was her Nazi torturer during World War II, he knew he wanted to make some changes. The story revolved around a Jewish woman who endured horrors at a German concentration camp - a plot Adler found a little stale. He started talking to the lead actress, Noomi Rapace, known for her starring role in the original Swedish "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" films,...
For most Jews, this year was one of the most unique Yom Kippurs, me included. On Yom Kippur afternoon, I decided to go through a box of old photos in which I found pictures from what had been the most unique Yom Kippur, until now. On Oct. 1, 1987, I landed in Moscow with my friend, Michael, for a 2.5-week trip throughout the Soviet Union. This was not meant to be sight-seeing, but my second trip to help and encourage Jews of the USSR during a period of rampant persecution and discrimination....
(JTA) - I fell in love with Jenn Louis' latest cookbook "The Chicken Soup Manifesto" at first sight. The James Beard-nominated chef has curated a collection of over 100 beautifully photographed chicken soup recipes, which allowed me to vicariously travel the globe with my favorite comfort food as a guide. What more could an Ashkenazi gal with wanderlust wish for? When I got a chance to chat with Louis, she was as vibrant as her book. Like me, her prototypical chicken soup was her mother's...
Two rabbis located in Judea are spreading words of Torah to the nations, preparing the world for the Sukkot feast described by the prophet Zechariah in which all the nations will make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The month of Elul began on Friday night (Aug. 21), ringing the alarm that one month remained to prepare for the intense holiday period of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. There is much to learn in order to observe the feasts in a meaningful manner. In recent years, many people from other...
The challenges that Coronavirus has brought us over the past six months make it easy to forget there are good things around us. One of these stories involves The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando and Kiryat Motzkin, a small, middle class city north of Haifa in Israel, where the Federation has had an ongoing partnership since 2006. This partnership has been made possible through the generosity of Federation donors. Through this partnership, the Federation supports two important programs that m...
(JTA) - As Jews in the United States prepared to light candles to welcome Rosh Hashanah, they were hit with the last terrible news of a terrible year: the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. At 87, and with a lifetime of accomplishments that few can match, she has earned her rest. But the exquisite, agonizing time of her passing underscored one of the great lessons of her own life and of Rosh Hashanah: how we make use of the time God grants us matters. On the second day of Rosh...
She was special ... And she will go down in history, for sure. I refer to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who recently passed away. She was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ginsburg was nominated by President BILL CLINTON on June 14, 1993 (my birthday!) and has served since Aug. 10, 1993. until just last week. She was born in Brooklyn (like me) and was generally viewed as belonging to the liberal wing of the court. Of course, she should be buried at Arlington National...
(JTA) - The timing couldn't be more prescient for Aaron Sorkin's newest film, "The Trial of the Chicago 7." The movie by the Jewish "West Wing" creator, which is coming to Netflix on Oct. 16, is about the Jewish anti-war activist Abbie Hoffman, who was tried along with six others for conspiracy and inciting to riot for their role in the 1968 protests at the Democratic National Convention. Hoffman is played by none other than the Jewish actor Sacha Baron Cohen. It's his second super-Jewish...
How lucky I am! ... The music, the performers of my time ... thank goodness I grew up in the 40s, 50s and 60s. The great American songbook is the BEST! The performers were the BEST! (If you are willing to admit to being that old, you would agree!) Anyway, I just heard MICHAEL FEINSTEIN singing Gershwin on the radio! (Yup, Jewish.) And I just learned that billionaire MARK CUBAN of "Shark Tank" the TV show, with his great looks and personality is also Jewish! (And he is super rich!) Difficult...
Proof positive that Jewish learning is a life-long commitment as Kinneret resident, Michael Blaher, decided to learn how to blow the shofar this year and did so on the second day of Rosh Hashanah to the delight of the residents....
