Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Oy, what memories! ... I'm sure I don't have to tell you that, because of Covid-19, I (and many of you) spend day after day after day at home, watching television and going batty with boredom ... unless you have children in your home and then it's not so bad. But my kids are grown men and, except for my youngest, also a grown man who insists on watching over me in my "old" age, I am alone with my dog, Chloe. So, I watch a lot of television ... mostly "Dr. Phil" and an occasional movie. What a...
Over the past century, Jews and Christians have celebrated the return of the Jewish people to the Biblical Land of Israel, a restoration prophetic proportion. More recently, this return was accompanied by some four-legged friends representing Israel's 3000-year history in the Judean mountains. This is the modern story of Jacob's Sheep. Jacob's Sheep are an heirloom (unaltered) breed of ancient sheep, mentioned in Genesis 30. They originated with Jacob the Patriarch working for his father in...
You've heard of the wandering Jew, but have you heard of the wandering Jewish cookie? As Jews move from country to country, they pick up recipes, spices and dishes along the way. Sometimes, even after a Jewish community is no more, their food remains, an echo of a world that once was. Such is the case of the "Jewish cookie" from Iceland. Recently I learned of a cookbook, "The Culinary Saga of New Iceland, Recipes From the Shores of Lake Winnipeg," compiled by Kristin Olafson Jenkyns, a writer...
The Central Florida Jewish community knew and loved Talia Osteen as one of the three members of the singing group Visions, which began under the guidance of Cantor Allan Robuck of Congregation Ohev Shalom. Each of the girls eventually went their own way and Osteen moved to New York, then to California, to pursue her career in the film industry. She successfully starred in five national TV series, and also formed the band The Wellspring, which released five albums and composed scores for several...
(JTA) - Jerzy Kosinski's 1965 Holocaust novel "The Painted Bird" was mired in controversy almost from its release. The film adaptation, which became available through on-demand platforms this weekend, has raised eyebrows as well. In the 1960s, the author suggested that the novel - about a Jewish boy who witnesses sexual deviance and violence while wandering through Eastern Europe during World War II - was autobiographical. Prominent Jewish reviewers, including survivor Elie Wiesel and Cynthia...
BOSTON (JTA) - More than 350 years ago, a plague took a deadly toll on Hamburg, Germany. As the High Holidays approached, fear and panic set in and many of the city's Jewish families fled. Among them were Glikl and Hayyim Hamel, successful Jewish merchants who left with their three young children, including an 8-week-old daughter. En route to Hayyim's parents, they spent time with relatives in Hanover, where some locals came to suspect their oldest daughter, 4-year-old Tsipor, was infected....
We need some "light" news these days ... As a vocalist, I am constantly adding to my repertoire. I am so delighted when I realize who the composers were! For instance, "You're Gonna Hear From Me," a terrific song made famous by BARBRA STREISAND (who, incidentally, is a fellow Jew and a school rival of mine who attended Erasmus High School while I attended Tilden High School back in Brooklyn when we were kids.) The song was written by a Frenchman, Andre' Previn, (I thought). His real name was...
(JTA) - Zach Banner of the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers now knows what challah tastes like - and he can say the word properly. With "a little phleghm," the offensive lineman said in a tweeted video of himself this week. In a recent interview, Banner said that after he posted tweets and videos embracing the Jewish community amid the anti-Semitism furor involving fellow NFLer DeSean Jackson, he has received an outpouring of love - including the delivery of loaves of challah. That affection has also...
(JTA) - Marc Maron warned listeners at the beginning of the latest episode of his "WTF" podcast on Monday: "If you don't like Jews, you're gonna get triggered." It was a fair disclaimer, given that his hour-long conversation with Seth Rogen touched on just about every general aspect of modern Jewish identity, from Jewish summer camp to cultural Jewishness to sitting shiva. But a second warning came part of the way through the episode, as the conversation turned to Israel. "We're gonna piss off...
The interview for this year's Heritage Human Service Award winner was unprecedented. Since an "in person" interview was not possible, Heritage requested a bio and this chosen recipient obliged with an excellent introduction: "The designee for this year's Heritage Human Service Award, Hank Katzen, first visited Israel at age 18 on a UJA Family Mission. It was on a very hot day that Hank and his father [Marc Katzen] climbed to the top of Masada. On the way to the top, Hank experienced a peace and... Full story
Adrian and Geanne Share came to the Orlando area in 1998. "My husband's an engineer whose passion is to see high-speed rail built in the U.S., and we came to Florida for that purpose. He's spent 20 years on different attempts to bring high-speed passenger service between Miami and Orlando. He led the engineering for the system that is being built between Orlando and Miami by Brightline, and oversaw the construction of the first phase between Miami and West Palm Beach that is temporarily shut dow...
When I was six years old, I loved summer storms. As the sky turned dark, the thunder clapped, and the lighting shot across the sky, I would watch from the safety of our living room window. My mother assured me that the noise was just God bowling. When I was 16, I loved summer storms. By that time, my parents had purchased a cottage on Willsboro Bay in Upstate New York. From the safety of our porch, I would watch the rain come down in sheets and the waves rock our boat that was moored 200 yards o...
Sad news ... As I've said before, I write this column almost two weeks in advance of publication so I just learned of the death of Congressman John Lewis yesterday. What a great loss! I had so much respect for him, starting back in the days when he and Martin Luther King marched together. He was always a well-spoken, likeable young man fighting for a good cause. Rest in peace, Congressman Lewis. You will never be forgotten. Things you need to know ... I'm referring to Israel, 10 things you need...
How does a nice Jewish boy from the Bronx grow up to become a racecar driver? Meet Les Neumann. He now lives in DeLand, is semi-retired and races on the Vintage Race Car Circuit. This is no small potatoes - he is nationally ranked. It all started in 1954 when Neumann's mother's cousin married a girl from Hungary. While on their honeymoon, they toured the Morgan Motor Company plant in Malvern, Worchester, England, and ended up buying a car and having it shipped home to the states. "Back then the...
(JTA) - As a child in Israel, Amir Nathan dined at Sami VeSusu, an innovative restaurant in Beersheba named after a popular children's television show from the 1960s and '70s. So when it came time for Nathan, now a restaurateur in New York City, to name his latest venture, he replicated the name - and an atypical approach to serving food. Sami and Susu opened two weeks ago as a takeout and delivery service operating out of a Brooklyn bar. Nathan and his executive chef and business partner,...
Jaivet Ealom is the only known person to have ever escaped the notoriously brutal Australian-run refugee detention center on Manus Island. As a Rohingyan refugee fleeing Myanmar's campaign of genocide, Jaivet found himself imprisoned on the remote island near Papua New Guinea for three and a half years. He describes it as a torture center. The story of his prison break is the stuff of Hollywood movies. He planned it for months: Leaving under the cover of darkness, posing as an interpreter and...
Just Saying... I write this column almost 2 weeks in advance, so if this problem is solved correctly, forget I wrote about it: As the mother of three grown adults and two grown grandchildren, this really isn't my problem directly... but I must say, that if I had young children or grandchildren, I would be very wary of sending them back to school during COVID-19. Just saying! What a loss... I've been meaning to phone a dear friend of mine for days, every time I go to the bathroom and remember...
This may be surprising, but Jews have a long and very influential history in the alcohol industry spanning Europe, Israel and North America. For most of the 1800s, Eastern European Jews held a virtual monopoly on the business in their regions. They produced much of the beer and hard alcohol, and ran nearly all the taverns where it was sold. Jews had been in the trade for centuries, but when Polish landowners saw they could make 50% greater profits by turning grain into alcohol than by selling...
Printed in black and white and bigotry all over, Nazi official Hans Severus Ziegler's brochure for his public exhibit in Dusseldorf featured an African-American jazz musician with a Star of David on his lapel. Designed to ridicule and belittle Jewish musicians for performing "Negro music" as another tactic to contaminate German culture, "Entartete Musik" ("Degenerate Music") opened in May 1938 - just four months before Kristallnacht. By then a ban on "Negro jazz" had already been instated,...
We’ve been self-quarantining for more than 40 days and 40 nights and, quite frankly, we’re running out of steam. Still, we can’t escape all the social media posts and articles (and our mother’s voices in our heads) telling us to make good use of this time. Friends, editors, and even country singer Roseanne Cash reminded us that Shakespeare wrote “King Lear” when he was quarantined during the Great Plague. Actress — no, sorry, lifestyle expert Gwyneth Paltrow urged us to write a book, teach ourselves to code online and learn a language. Tee...
Eitan Glucksman often wakes up at 4:30 a.m., putting in 15-hour days as a first-year urology resident at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York. The father of two has a grueling schedule but says he feels lucky: He's one of only two urology residents admitted per year to the hospital, which is affiliated with New York Medical College, part of the Touro College and University System. "This is a field where you can really make a difference," said Glucksman, 27, an Orthodox native of...
In 2009, Wendy B. Libby, Ph.D., a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn, became the ninth and first female president of Stetson University. Founded in 1883, Libby is also the first Jewish president. She officially retired on June 30, 2020, becoming president emerita. When asked how it feels to retire, she remarked, "The most difficult thing for me about my retirement will be missing my friends and colleagues with whom I've worked for so many years. Living close to the campus will make my retirement mor...
By Kenneth Hanson, Ph.D. Jerusalem, July, 2011 C.E. A tiny bell. A tiny golden bell. Might this be the "signal" for which a small sect of faithful Israelites have waited for two millennia, declaring that the time is ripe for rebuilding the ruined temple of Jerusalem? By contrast might it be a "provocation," as Palestinian sources claim, in the ongoing conflict over who owns the most disputed piece of real estate on earth? According to Palestinian television news, "Israeli sources said that a...
Can't get this tune out of my head... I refer to "A Fine Romance." Maybe it's because I'm a professional vocalist? Maybe it's because I'm a proud Jew and have the privilege of writing this column for Jewish readers? I love to acknowledge talented Jewish composers and lyricists who wrote fabulous songs that are now considered part of the Great American Songbook. Recently I watched on TV, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as they performed "A Fine Romance." (Not Rap Crap!) I love that song ("A fine...
By Shannon Sarna (The Nosher via JTA) — Who says latkes are just for Chanukah? Well, it’s not me. And summer is a great time to try using seasonal produce to make some crispy, delicious latkes. I recently fried up some fresh corn and zucchini latkes, served with herb sour cream (or yogurt) and thinly sliced radishes. The texture of the fresh corn with zucchini and potato was so delicious. If you’re looking for other ideas for non-potato latkes try broccoli stem latkes or even these healt...
