Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - It was basically the complete opposite of what they expected. A group of German Jews who fled Hitler and Nazi Germany, and who signed up to be American soldiers, wanted to exact revenge. Instead, they were told to be nice to the Nazis, play sports with them and keep them happy. Arno Mayer thought he was on the side that was gonna "beat the s**t out the Germans," he explains in the newly released Netflix documentary "Camp Confidential: America's Secret Nazis." Peter Weiss also expected to do battle, but instead was asked to speak German,...
Who knew?... In all my 48 years did I ever know that Emma Lazarus, the lady who wrote the verse on the Statue Of Liberty, was Jewish? (Okay... shut up about my age!) Emma Lazarus was an American author of poetry, prose, and translations, as well as an activist for Jewish causes. She was born in New York City and is buried in Brooklyn at Beth Olam cemetery. Of course we all heard of her. She wrote "The New Colossus," the lines inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Like my departed spouse, she was a Sephardic Jew, whose family came...
(JNS) - The Jewish co-creators of the comic book superhero Superman will be posthumously inducted into the Jewish American Hall of Fame in a virtual ceremony that will take place in November. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster developed the superhero as well as his companion characters Clark Kent, Lois Lane and others. It took them six years to find a publisher and they eventually sold their idea to DC Comics for only $130. Their comic strip became so popular that in 1939 Superman became the first superhero to be given his own self-titled comic...
Spoiler alert: This piece contains plot details about HBO's "Succession," including extensive details about the Season 3 episode "Lion in the Meadow" that first aired Nov. 7, 2021. (JTA) - In the very first shot of Kendall Roy walking into the island home of Waystar investor Josh Aaronson on the latest episode of HBO's hit series "Succession," a massive mezuzah is visible on the doorframe behind him. The mezuzah, which looks to be about 8 inches long, is positioned well about Kendall's head (he's short) and it sets the tone for the encounter:...
(JTA) - French President Emmanuel Macron has inaugurated near Paris what is believed to be the world's first museum on the wrongful and antisemitic persecution of the late army captain Alfred Dreyfus. The new museum, inaugurated on Tuesday in the suburb of Médan, features at least 500 documents including photographs, court papers and personal objects from the 8-year ordeal that ended in 1906 with Dreyfus' exoneration from trumped-up espionage charges and convictions. Some of the documents are displayed on walls in the main space of the...
Steven Etzkin, brother of Michael and Allan Etzkin, passed away on Oct. 10, 2021. Steve lived in Orlando for nearly ten years, retiring to Central Florida with his wife Patti, to be closer to family. It was only last August when Michael died and one year earlier, his other brother, Allan, died. The following was written by his nephew, Robby Etzkin, former executive director of the Roth Family JCC, in tribute to his uncle. Robby was gracious to share it with the Heritage readers. Within 14 months, we've now lost my dad and both of his brothers....
Researchers studying a boat-shaped formation in the mountains of Turkey have announced plans to conduct archaeological excavations at the site after new data suggests that the formation could be a man-made structure that appears to match the biblical description of Noah’s ark. According to the researchers, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys conducted at the “Durupinar site” in 2019 by Oregon-based Topa 3D show parallel lines and angular shapes, which are “strong indications of man-made construction,” between 8 and 20 feet below the surfa...
(JTA) - The dozens of Jews who escaped the Nazis by hiding in the sewers of Lviv became local and international lore almost immediately after World War II. "In the summer, when the rain seeped in, there was a lot of water everywhere," Krystyna Chiger recalled in testimony in 1947, when she was 11. "Then we had to lean very low on the stones right next to the wall so that the water would not flow on us." But the location of the underground hideouts remained unknown until recently, when a team of archaeologists who had been inspired by a 2011 Pol...
You've Got To Be Kidding ... Famous actor, SEAN PENN had a Jewish father, the son of emigrants from the Russian Empire. Sean's mom was not Jewish but he was raised in a secular home in Malibu, California. Another surprise ... Born in New York City, famous talk show host, stand up comic, political satirist and so much more, BILL MAHER's mom, Julie Berman Maher, was Jewish. Her parents were from Hungary. Do you remember ... Famous movie star, Lauren Bacall, was born back in 1924 and died in 2014. She was very famous in the golden age of...
I've read many great books, but it's rare that I have the urge to thank the author. In the case of "Hidden Heroes," I wanted to do so on two levels: to thank Pam Cohen for her outstanding recounting of details of the struggle to free Soviet Jews, and for her incredible role from the beginning in the outcome. One of the beautiful things about "Hidden Heroes" is that while recounting her experiences, Pam interweaves stories of the lives of many of the refuseniks on whose behalf she advocated. Far from writing a first-person story about what she...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Imagine arriving at the Pastrami Queen but finding no pastrami, or showing up at Holy Schnitzel to find its signature breaded chicken cutlet off the menu. To quote Tevye, sounds crazy, no? But that is exactly what will happen if you visit Sherry Herring, the Israeli eatery that recently opened on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It is the first branch of the renowned sandwich bar in the port of Tel Aviv famous for — you guessed it — its herring sandwiches. But for the moment, to quote Sherry Ansky, the drivi...
(JTA) — An 700-year-old Jewish prayerbook from Germany, offered for sale by a French Jewish organization to shore up its finances, sold at auction on Tuesday for $8.3 million. Known as the Luzzatto High Holiday Mahzor, the prayerbook easily beat the $4-6 million pre-sale estimate by Sotheby’s New York auction house as four bidders battled one another for five dramatic minutes. The item, which was sold to an unnamed private buyer, comes out of the collection of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, a 160-year-old French Jewish organization that...
Part II Sandi Solomon, three-term Casselberry city commissioner has found relatives who were thought to have perished in the Holocaust. Through a genealogy search that her daughter-in-law Sharon Fleitman of Atlanta had conducted while searching on the Facebook group's Jewish Genealogy portal, Fleitman discovered 31 pages of testimony that Henryk (Henry) Zyngier had given about his experience in the Holocaust when he lived in Tel Aviv in 1957. Solomon discovered her mother's first cousin, Henryk Zyngier, had survived the death camps. He had two...
Surprise! Surprise!... I never knew that GERALDO RIVERA was raised Jewish. Did you? This is a complete surprise to me! He is a well-known American journalist, attorney, author, political commentator and former television host. But a Jew???? Geraldo, was born at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City to Lillian Friedman and Cruz Allen Rivera. (His dad was Puerto Rican). Geraldo's mom's family was of Russian Jewish descent. Geraldo also had a bar mitzvah! He did some growing up in Brooklyn, like me, and West Babylon, N.Y. Another surprise...
(JTA) — Some of Netflix’s biggest international hits of the last few years — from “Fauda” to “Shtisel” — have been Israeli imports. Now, the streaming giant is spotlighting Palestinian entertainment, as well. Last week, Netflix released a “Palestinian Stories” collection consisting of what it said was 32 films, although only 27 films were listed under the category in the U.S. as of Monday. Of the available selections, which span the last couple of decades, 12 of them are short films. A mix of drama, comedy and documentary, many of the films f...
(JNS) — Nearly 90 percent of the Palestinian films in a collection launched last week by Netflix are directed by BDS supporters, Israeli NGO Im Tirtzu reported on Monday. The collection, titled “Palestinian Stories,” is made of up 32 films, most of which had been uploaded to the streaming service by Monday. Of the 28 movies by and about Palestinians that are so far available on the Israeli version of Netflix, 25 (89 percent) are directed by BDS supporters, Im Tirtzu research revealed. According to the NGO’s findings, 12 of the directo...
(JTA) — In a recent opinion piece for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Rich Brownstein argued that “The Grey Zone” is the greatest Holocaust film ever made. Brownstein is no amateur critic. He is a lecturer for Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies and the author of “Holocaust Cinema Complete: A History and Analysis of 400 Films, with a Teaching Guide.” After publishing these two stories, it quickly became clear that the topic of Holocaust films struck a chord with our readers. So, we asked: What is the one Holocaust film you th...
(JTA) - Jean Meltzer always knew how "The Matzah Ball," her first novel, would end. "The rule of romance is that there has to be a happy ending; the characters have to get together," Meltzer told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "If they don't get together, that's not a romance; that's literary fiction." So (not-really-a-spoiler alert) it was a foregone conclusion that protagonist Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt, a best-selling Christmas-themed romance writer who has kept her career from her observant Jewish parents, would wind up with Jacob...
During this year, The Heritage will run a half page insertion in every issue featuring an organization that has partnered with the Jewish Capital Alliance of Central Florida to attain its chartered goals. Over the coming year, The Heritage will pen four articles highlighting this relatively unrecognized organization. The first article appeared in July and described how JCA came into being. Today's article will discuss JCA's goals and directives. At the initial community introductory meeting on Oct. 4, 2011, the Jewish Capital Alliance described...
How thrilled I am ... Sure, sure, at my age anything would thrill me, right? WRONG! It has to be something very special ... and it was! The other evening on the KELLY CLARKSON television show, her first guest was BARRY ALAN PINCUS! WHAT? You don't know who that is? How about if I say BARRY MANILOW? AHA! Now you know. Is there any better entertainer? Not if you ask me. "Mandy," "I write the songs," "Can't smile without you," "Copacabana," to name but a few of his fabulous hits. What a thrill to see him! Also born in Brooklyn like me, Barry was...
Sandi Solomon, three-term Casselberry city commissioner has found relatives who were thought to have perished in the Holocaust. Through a genealogy search that her daughter-in-law Sharon Fleitman of Atlanta had conducted while searching Yad Vashem's database, Fleitman discovered 31 pages of testimony that Henryk (Henry) Zyngier had given about his experience in the Holocaust when he lived in Tel Aviv in 1957. Fleitman reached out to a Facebook Group, a genealogy portal, for help. Within eight hours a member had messaged her with the names of...
(JTA) — In April, the language-learning app Duolingo added its 40th language to its program arsenal: Yiddish. A couple of decades ago, it would have been unthinkable for a mainstream non-Jewish language program to offer an expansive, comprehensive course in Yiddish. But Duolingo’s Yiddish addition only serves to reflect the increased global interest in learning a language that once had as many as 12 million speakers. Ladino, a Romance language of Sephardic Jews still spoken by hundreds of thousands worldwide, has also garnered much int...
(JTA) — The bestselling author Sally Rooney said she decided not to publish her latest novel with an Israeli publishing house because she supports a boycott of Israel, but added that a non-Israeli press could still publish the book in Hebrew. Rooney’s statement, made on Tuesday, confirms a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz last month that Rooney declined to sell Hebrew publishing rights for her new book, “Beautiful World, Where Are You,” to Modan Publishing House, an Israeli press that published her first two novels in Hebrew. The Jewish...
(JTA) - A 2700-year-old toilet from the days of the First Temple in Jerusalem has been discovered by Israel's Antiquities Authority. Built as a private toilet stall at a time when few could afford such a luxury, the toilet is set to be unveiled to the public tomorrow at an archaeology conference, though for viewing only. Carved from limestone, the toilet appears much like the modern-day fixture with a hole at the center leading to a septic tank. At the time the ancient toilet was in use, private toilets were the exclusive province of the rich....
Joan Micklin Silver, the pivotal female Jewish American filmmaker, always worked with a wit and wisdom that made her stories feel both timeless and personal. Best known for the rom-com "Crossing Delancey," Micklin Silver passed away last year while working on the restoration of her 1975 film "Hester Street" with the Cohen Film Collection. That 4K restoration - which essentially involves repairing breakdowns in the original physical film - is now playing in select theaters, and recently screened at the New York Film Festival. Like "Crossing Dela...
