Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1501 - 1525 of 4419
Some upsetting news from Canada ... I read this in the current issue of the World Jewish Congress digest and pass it along to you: "The WJC-affiliated Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs released the following statement in response to a string of anti-Semitic incidents across Toronto, Canada: The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs is disgusted by a recent series of disturbing anti-Semitic incidents across the Greater Toronto area. An anti-Israel protest took place at Celebration Square in...
Cantor Nina Fine is connecting elementary school students with our seniors through an "adopt a grandparent" program for The Jewish Pavilion. Children can specify either a "grandfather" or "grandmother" and will be matched with a senior in a facility served by The Jewish Pavilion. Each child agrees to a minimum of once-monthly contact with their "grandparent" through a phone call, zoom call, letter, a special drawing or art project or a care package. We have kids who can't wait to get their...
Joanne Fink grew up on the Main Line in Philadelphia, Pa., the daughter of first-generation Polish/Austrian and Russian immigrants. Fink found her passion for art in high school. Her parents were the ones who inspired her by exposing her to their love for the visual arts and music. "Both of my parents went to Temple University. My mother studied to be an English teacher and my father a pathologist. However, they both had creative passions - my mother for art history, my father, for the cello,"...
(Israel21C via JNS) Atop a soaring Tel Aviv skyscraper, an orchestra of Jewish, Muslim, Druze and Christian musicians from across Israel performed the Emirati song "Ahebak" ("I Love You") in tribute to the historic Israel-UAE peace treaty. Posted on Sept. 15 to coincide with the Abraham Accords signing ceremony in Washington, the clip now has a quarter-million YouTube views. "It has made a lot of noise," says Firqat Alnoor Orchestra co-founder and manager Hana Ftaya. "The reactions are...
(JTA) - Plans are under way to find a home for a huge trove of works by a nearly forgotten Jewish artist that was uncovered 78 years after her death in a Nazi concentration camp. The works of Czech artist Gertrud Kauders (1883-1942) were found during the demolition of an old house near Prague in 2018, when 30 paintings tumbled onto the head of a worker. Hundreds more canvases were found in the walls and under floorboards of the home where the artist had stashed them to keep them out of Nazi...
(Tel Aviv) - The Israel Start-Up Nation cycling team made history, recording its first ever stage victory in a Grand Tour race, just five years after the team's establishment. Alex Dowsett finished first on Stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia. The Giro is one of professional cycling's three prestigious Grand Tour races, alongside the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana. Dowsett was part of a breakaway group of six riders, alongside ISN team-mate Matthias Brändle, during the 200km stage from Giovinaz...
She is NOT wearing an underwire. And so are many other women. Yes, we have expunged our Exquisite Forms, ousted our Olgas and wiped out our Warners. Instead, we have traded our confining, pokey attire for the comfort of sports bras, bralettes, or maybe even nothing! Not since the 60s, when we were burning our Balis have women felt so liberated! I conducted a very scientific research study by posting the following question to my women friends on FaceBook: "Have you liberated your 'girls' since...
In his own words, Laurence Morrell is the "last of the Jewish Red Necks." This coming Oct. 30, 2020, will be not only his 78 birthday, but also the 65th anniversary of his bar mitzvah at Temple Israel where it was celebrated originally....
The Jews of Color Career Development Program announced its first cohort members today — on Indigenous People’s Day — who will work in Jewish ventures and institutions across the country, developing their skills as entrepreneurial leaders working toward system-level change in the Jewish community. A partnership between UpStart and the Jews of Color Initiative, the six-week part-time paid program will nurture the growth of emerging JOC leaders, increase access to talent, and deepen investment within the Jewish innovation ecosystem to develop a th...
(JTA) - A social media storm has erupted after the announcement that Israeli actress Gal Gadot will portray the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra in a blockbuster film. Critics complained that Gadot is neither Egyptian nor Arab, while others are pointing out that Cleopatra wasn't Arab. Pakistani journalist Sameera Khan blasted the casting, which was reported Sunday, in a tweet that has stirred widespread discussion on the platform. "Which Hollywood dumbass thought it would be a good idea to cast an...
(JTA) - After Israeli actress Gal Gadot announced this weekend that she would play the legendary Egyptian queen in a blockbuster movie, it didn't take long for the calls of cultural appropriation to start on social media. One tweet in particular, which said Gadot is "stealing" the role from Arab actresses, started a robust debate. Some users pointed out that Cleopatra wasn't Egyptian - as a Ptolemaic ruler, she was descended from a Macedonian father, and historians don't know the ethnicity of...
(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...
