Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Chanukah is one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays in the United States. But that doesn't mean there is nothing new to learn about this eight-day festival. From the mysterious origins of gelt to an Apocryphal beheading to Marilyn Monroe, we've compiled an item for each candle (don't forget theshammash!) on the Chanukah menorah. 1. Gelt as we know it is a relatively new tradition - and no one knows who invented it. While coins-"gelt" is Yiddish for coins, or money – have been part o...
The dreidel or sevivon is perhaps the most famous custom associated with Hanukkah . Indeed, various rabbis have tried to find an integral connection between the dreidel and the Chanukah story; the standard explanation is that the letters nun, gimmel, hey, shin, which appear on the dreidel in the Diaspora, stand for nes gadol haya sham–"a great miracle happened there,"while in Israel the dreidel says nun, gimmel, hey, pey, which means "a great miracle happened here." One 19th-century rabbi m...
(My Jewish Learning via JTA)—Chanukah ’s proximity to Christmas can complicate the holiday. For those who try to make Chanukah more like Christmas, it inevitably seems to fall short. Yet while Chanukah was traditionally not one of the most central holidays of the Jewish calendar, it can offer many opportunities for fun and joyous celebration. Here are some suggestions for how you can make this Chanukah memorable while staying true to the essential meaning of the holiday. Bring light out of darkness There are many ways to make this year’s Chanu...
(JNS)-Canadians hoping to add a little Hanukkah decor to their envelopes or gift packages this year are in luck, as Canada Post has issued a new holiday stamp to its roster this year. The new stamp was created by Lionel Gadoury, principal and director of strategy and creative services at Context Creative in Toronto. His illustration features a white menorah on a background shaded in blues and purples, and flickering yellow flames. It is meant to explore "the relationship between light and...
I can't tolerate Holocaust deniers... I read this recently and repeat the article for you: "YouTube has adopted a new policy to crack down on hate speech, including neo-Nazi glorification and Holocaust denial. In a letter to YouTube, CEO SUSAN WOJCICKI, the World Jewish Congress expressed appreciation for the move, writing, 'As you are well aware, radical content of all kinds is a serious problem and the Jewish people are often the targets of such viral and hate-filled material. In recent years,...
I know that sufganiyot-jelly doughnuts-are traditional and beloved for Chanukah. But I feel confident that once you try these easy and incredibly delicious ricotta fritters, you will be converted to these sweet fried treats. And if I'm making a confession, I have actually never loved traditional sufganiyot. Sometimes our family made our own, or bought from local bakeries, but were usually left feeling kind of "meh." They were always a bit too bready and heavy. Around 10 years ago my sister...
SAN DIEGO (JTA)-I'm lying on my side on the first floor of a nondescript low-rise residential tower in Tokyo meditating on the fact that pain is finite. There's an odd sound in the air, reminiscent of blunt-edged safety scissors cutting into thick construction paper. As an adult, my connection to Judaism has largely been a spiritual and cultural one rather than religious. Part of that is embracing other people and cultures from around the world, and understanding their own beliefs and...
Back when I lived in America, I wouldn’t have called myself a helicopter parent. I would have said that I was vigilant. I would have told you that my husband and I were “boundaried” as parents, cautious about what we’d let our two kids do. We limited sugar and screen time. We admonished our kids to “Be careful!”—probably too often. Then we moved to Israel a year ago and everything changed. Since moving, I’ve come to realize that our old parenting style came with a lot of anxiety. We fel...
(JTA)-Love him or hate him, rapper Kanye West has done nothing if not evolve over the course of his career. He has cycled through mainstream hip-hop, auto-tuned singing, soulful sampling, epic egotistical commentary and-as he would happily tell you-much more. At the moment, West is in the midst of an intensely religious phase. Since the beginning of the year he has held what he calls a Sunday Service each week-a pop-up Christian service of sorts that has rotated through different (at times...
(JNS)-It was the year 2000, at the beginning of the Second Intifada, and Arab terror attacks were being carried out against Israelis on a nearly daily basis throughout the country, and particularly on the roads in Judea and Samaria. After one particular deadly attack, former Sephardic chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu approached one of his aides, Arie Levy, who had been a volunteer medic and ambulance driver with Magen David Adom (MDA) for about six years, asking why no emergency...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Sacha Baron Cohen has made a career out of playing absurd comedic characters, from the dopey Brit Ali G to the Kazakh journalist Borat to the Israeli veteran Erran Morad. He rarely gives interviews and stays relatively far from the movie star limelight. But on Thursday, Cohen tossed aside the humorous facade to excoriate the social media industry and the "autocracy" he says it promotes in a non-ironic speech. After receiving the international leadership award from the...
I know Veteran's Day has past but... I wanted to salute all of our servicemen and women, and veterans. I also want to salute their families who have prayed and worried for their loved ones. (I've been there so I know how hard it is. Our eldest, DAVID is a Navy commander and a former soldier who served in Iraq. Our middle son, Dr. STEVEN, a psychologist, worked with recruits at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Illinois, and our youngest son, RON, served in the Navy on a minesweeper in the...
When my daughter Julie headed out to Colorado in 2003, it was originally planned as a nine-month adventure teaching environmental science. Soon, however, Julie fell in love with the mountains, Colorado, and Sam, not necessarily in that order. They built a life together, completed graduate degrees, got married, bought a house in Frisco, and had a child. They have settled into the life at 9100 feet. Meanwhile, our son Adam chose a different path in another Frisco—San Francisco. After completing a law degree, he moved into an apartment in the m...
(JTA)-At age 92, Laureen Nussbaum is one of the few people still alive who personally knew Anne Frank. Nussbaum's family lived in the same Amsterdam neighborhood as the Franks, and Anne's father, Otto, was the best man at her 1947 wedding. After the war, Otto spent months trying to find his daughters, Anne and Margot, who had been deported to Bergen-Belsen. With Nussbaum's husband, Rudi, Otto would go to the train station every day with photos of his children hoping for news of their fate. "They...
The stock market has been great the last several years, reaching near historical levels. If you’re an investor in common stocks, it may be a good time to think about your options as the end of the calendar year approaches. If you are looking to lock in your stock market gains, avoid taxes, and make a difference, a Jewish National Fund’s Donor Advised Fund might be right for you. A Jewish National Fund’s Donor Advised Fund is a smart way to manage your philanthropy. It is a personal giving fund through which you can make a charitable contr...
Beth's mother (names have been changed). Beth's mother fell again. This was the third time this month she had to drive the 2-1/2 hours from Longwood to St. Pete to make sure her mother was OK. Her mother, Shirley, only needed eight stitches this time. From the emergency room, Shirley called someone to help her at home in the mornings for the next few days. Beth had no idea who her mother called or if they were trustworthy. Who was her mother letting into her home? Beth, a retired Orlando area...
WASHINGTON—To help ease the financial burden on Jewish college students and their families, Hillel International, the largest global Jewish campus organization, this week launched two scholarships available to students attending college anywhere in the U.S. and Canada for the first time in its 96-year-history. As the rise in the cost of attending college has outgrown the rise of household income over the past two decades, Hillel International is actively working to connect students with the resources they need. This year, Hillel I...
NEW YORK (JTA)-On a recent Friday night, about 20 people gathered for Shabbat services at the Actors' Temple, a synagogue just a few blocks from Times Square. Rabbi Jill Hausman greeted each one by name with a kiss on the cheek and a "Good Shabbos." Some sang along and others listened as she led the small crowd in a service using a prayer book and a packet she had printed out just minutes earlier in her upstairs office. It's a far cry from the era when some of the biggest celebrities in the...
YES! I agree... I read this in the World Jewish Congress digest and pass it along to you: "WJC President Ambassador RONALD S. LAUDER welcomed the U.S. House of Representatives' resolution condemning the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement as a positive and encouraging step in the fight against blind anti-Semitism. The resolution passed in a vote of 398 to 17. The fact that this resolution passed with such overwhelming bipartisan support is a sign of hope for the future of Israel-related...
An intriguing request showed up on the e-bulletin board of our community in the Old City of Jerusalem a few months ago: Dear Neighbors, Professionals from a foreign country that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel are quietly being brought for professional development. The lead coordinator host wants them to encounter the positive face of Judaism. They will be at the Kotel next Friday night. The host body would like to arrange home hospitality for 17. Barnea Levi Selavan My husband, Leib, and I volunteered to host three for the Shabb...
(JTA)—Time magazine is building on its list of the most influential people of the year by releasing a list of “rising stars,” or what it calls the Time 100 Next. The list features what the publication says is an increasing number of influential people who aren’t establishment types—the world leaders, CEOs of big companies and blockbuster actors that make up its Time 100 list. The new list includes a diverse range of figures, from pop star Camila Cabello to the viral rapper Lil Nas X to presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg. Among them are a few...
Yapchik is made up of two layers of golden, crispy potato cake-very similar to a kugel-that sandwich a layer of meat. As the fall days get colder, it will welcome you and your guests home like a hug, and warm you up from the inside out. Yapchik has been referred to as a "Hungarian cholent" because it is traditionally cooked in the oven overnight and, while my recipe is a faster version, I have included instructions below for how to do this. Developing this recipe made me feel closer to the...
You may be surprised to learn that fish and chips, though wildly popular in England for what seems like an eternity, actually was a specialty of the Portuguese Sephardic Jews who fled the Inquisition in the 16th century and found refuge in the British Isles. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver referred to this recently in an article in The New York Times, adding that “Dishes evolve, impacted by trade, war, famine and a hundred other forces.” Among those “other forces” are dishes born of religious ritual. For observant Jews, fish is pareve, a neutral...
"I am not what happened to me, I am what I chose to be." This is Holocaust survivor Sami Steigmann's own words by which he lives. With an everlasting smile on his face, Steigmann shares his message of hope and positivity with everyone he meets. Steigmann was visiting friends Staci and Dan Layish in Orlando and had the opportunity to speak with the Knights of Israel at UCF and the fourth and fifth graders at the Jewish Academy of Orlando. Along the way, this reporter was fortunate to have lunch w...
I'm shocked (and delighted!)... I learned this recently and share it with you: "The Dutch National Railway, Nederlandse Spoorwegen has announced its intention to offer financial compensation to the survivors and relatives of Holocaust victims who were transported via Dutch rail to Nazi concentration camps during World War II. 'Over 70 percent of Dutch Jewry was deported and murdered in the Holocaust, most of them carted to their deaths by the national railway that collaborated and cooperated...
