Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1901 - 1925 of 4383
PORTLAND, Ore. (JTA)-From the day after Passover through Shavuot, Jews count down the days to commemorate the barley sacrifice, or Omer, given at the Temple in honor of the Israelites' journey from Egypt to Mount Sinai. Although you could fulfill the mitzvah of "counting the Omer" merely by reciting the blessing and stating the day's count, many Jews use the Omer period to renew their souls. People enslaved to anxiety or material possessions use the ritual to seek transformation into...
Contrary to popular belief, summer is not only for the lighter things in life. It can be the best time for luxurious nostalgia and dark rumination. Like Lana Del Rey, I’ve often got that Summertime Sadness. This may be the reason why, without fail, as soon as the weather turns properly muggy, I turn my office upside down looking for my tattered copy of William Styron’s “Sophie’s Choice.” In fact I’d venture to say it’s the perfect summer read. But whenever I bring this up to others, they think I am making an insensitive joke. I am not. Yes,...
(JNS)—The new Netflix series “Historical Roasts,” which mocks the young Jewish diarist Anne Frank, finds itself in the midst of a backlash. One particular episode features actress Rachel Feinstein as Frank, Gilbert Gottfried as Adolf Hitler and Jon Lovitz as U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. These performers are Jewish. “Everyone knows you as a hero and a best-selling author, but to me you’ll always be little number 825060,” says Gottfried as Hitler to Anne, adding that, “Of all the accounts that I’ve read, Anne, your book is by far the most...
Ten years ago this week, my father and I spent our last Father's Day together. My mother and he had moved up to an independent living facility in Upstate New York four miles from me. Two years later, his health had deteriorated, and he passed away November 2008. People may remember Bill Cohen for his stores in Keeseville, his community service, his pride in his family. What I remember-and treasure-about Dad were the stories about him that my siblings and I share again and again. Many of them...
It only took Brigitte Gabriel 14 minutes to make her point as she gave a keynote speech addressing the rise of global anti-Semitism before the United Nations in September 2014. She received a standing ovation as she spoke out strongly for Israel. Spring forward almost five years, and Gabriel, through her organization ACT for America, is still speaking out strongly for Israel, democracy and Judeo-Christian values. She was recently in Orlando to promote her new book, "Rise: In Defense of...
Today, June 14th is my birthday... (Do NOT ask the year!). When I was little, my mother said that people were flying their American flags in honor of my birthday. I believed her! 'Anti-Semitism is no longer the extreme... 'It is now mainstream!' "This frightening thought comes from World Jewish Congress CEO and Executive Vice President ROBERT SINGER when he recently addressed the Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism in the OSCE Region in Bratislava, Slovakia, which brought together political...
Shavuot, the "Feast of Weeks," is celebrated seven weeks after Passover (Pesach). Since the counting of this period (sefirat ha-omer) begins on the second evening of Passover, Shavuot takes place exactly 50 days after the (first) seder. Hence, following the Greek word for "fifty," Shavuot is also referred to sometimes as Pentecost. Although its origins are to be found in an ancient grain harvest festival, Shavuot has long been identified with the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Shavuot in...
Any room that Susie Stone walks into becomes warmer and brighter in an instant! This dedicated volunteer helps regularly at Jewish Pavilion programs at Westchester of Winter Park and Savannah Court of Maitland, and she has been an active Friends of the Jewish Pavilion member for years. The seniors she visits are always glad to see her and look forward to her positive attitude and big smile. — Lisa Levine...
Long, long, long (long) ago, when I was young... Just before World War II (I said it was long, long, long !) and we were poverty stricken and living in the Red Hook Projects of Brooklyn, New York, anti-Semitism was on the rise in the U.S. Because of it, I was beaten up as a toddler. And because of that, I learned a few "Hail Mary's" and "Our Father," and denied being Jewish. I claimed to be Catholic. During the war, my dad got a job in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and we went off Welfare and moved to...
You've probably heard of cheesecake or blintzes as traditional foods to enjoy for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, but get ready to fall in love with a cheese-filled carb treat you have never heard of: Bessarabian cheese buns. This family recipes come to us from the Jewish community of Bessarabia-today's Moldova, which is situated between Ukraine and Romania and close to the Black Sea-by way of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where the author of the recipe moved upon her arrival to the United States in...
It is customary to eat dairy food on Shavuot (June 9-10)) for a number of reasons. One reason is that Shavuot is linked to the Exodus from Egypt into the Promised Land, and it is written “From the misery of Egypt to a country flowing with milk and honey...” (Exodus 3:8-17). For those on gluten free diets, the traditional baked dairy foods often served for the Shavuot holiday can present a challenge. Pereg Natural Foods offers this unexpected and delicious gluten-free brownie cheesecake dessert, that the entire family and guests will enjoy. Rec...
(JTA)-Many modern-day Jews aren't all that familiar with Shavuot, which celebrates the day when the Israelites first received the Torah from God and falls seven weeks after Passover marked their Exodus from Egypt. Jews with some familiarity of Shavuot probably know the holiday as a day for eating cheesecake-along with other creamy, dairy-rich dishes, like cheese blintzes and kugel for Ashkenazim and soutlach and boyikos de keso for Mizrachim. There are varying theories about the significance of...
NEW YORK (JTA)-The Tony Award nominations announced Tuesday were dominated by "Hadestown," a musical about the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice that garnered 14. One among the "Hadestown" nods was for best director for Rachel Chavkin, who is Jewish. She also had been nominated in 2017 for directing "Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812." Sam Mendes is also nominated for best direction of a play for his work on "The Ferryman." He's known for his work on the James Bond films "Skyfall" and...
On June 8, 1967, the USS Liberty, an unarmed intelligence ship reporting to the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the auspices of the National Security Agency, was ambushed by unmarked jet planes. Rockets and machine gun fire erupted, napalm hit the deck, and a torpedo blew a 40-foot hole in the starboard side of the vessel. Lacking any means of defense, the sailors were powerless. In the end, 34 American sailors and translators lost their lives and another 174 were wounded—many for life. Israel confessed to the attack but called it an ...
(JTA)-Gary Stein remembers the first time someone played a Phish song for him in high school. It was "Divided Sky," an intricate 11-minute tune that shows off the group's diverse jam rock chops. Stein, who's now a 30-year-old history doctoral student living in Los Angeles, quickly became infatuated with the band, which takes cues from the Grateful Dead and a host of other genres, from prog rock to bluegrass. Unfortunately for Stein, that was right around the second time that Phish broke up, in 2...
(JTA)-If you've never made falafel from scratch, I'm here to say: It's possible, and it's delicious. I was definitely intimidated by the task until I finally jumped right in. But I couldn't have done it without following a few expert tips. Ditch the canned chickpeas. Every expert falafel fryer I spoke with agreed: You must use dried chickpeas to achieve the best, most authentic falafel. The easiest way to do this is to soak them overnight. Cookbook authors Vicky Cohen and Ruth Fox also suggest...
About Roe V Wade... Boy, am I glad that I am too old to become pregnant (or am I?) Not even in case of rape? I'm speechless. (Nuff said!) Some welcome news for a change... British Home Secretary SAJID JAVID confirmed that the political wing of Hezbollah will be banned in the United Kingdom. Previously, only the military wing of the terrorist organization had been banned in the UK, enabling supporters of the Iranian-backed militant group to parade in the streets during the annual Al-Quds Day...
NEW YORK (JTA)—In his most recent novel, “kaddish.com,” Nathan Englander imagines a website that a character—encumbered by Jewish guilt—uses to hire someone to say the traditional mourner’s prayer for his late father. In interviews, the author has said the idea was inspired by the very real fact that Judaism allows mourners to hire a proxy to recite the Kaddish prayer for the dead on behalf of a loved one. Englander said he had tried unsuccessfully to buy the rights to the domain name from t...
(JTA)-In 1983, the Italian-Israeli professor Sandra Debenedetti Stow stunned the scholarly world with an explosive article that proposed that Jews introduced pizza to the European diet. She cited Yehuda Romano, a 14th-century Hebrew scholar from Italy, who translated Maimonides' use of the word "hararah" (a type of flatbread) in the Mishneh Torah with four simple Hebrew letters: peh, yud, tzadi and heh, or "pizza," arguably the very first time the word was ever used in any language. Before the...
This article originally appeared on The Nosher. Yes, babka is usually sweet: chocolate and cinnamon are the most traditional flavors, as we learned many years ago from "Seinfeld" and Elaine. But babka dough is delicious and versatile, and actually quicker to mix up than challah dough. By adding less sugar, you can make a dough that is the perfect vessel for copious amounts of garlic butter and cheese. Instead of the traditional twisted shape, this version will have you cutting small squares,...
Basic tahini sauce is made with a mixture of tahini paste, water, lemon juice and garlic. Tahini paste itself is made from toasted ground sesame seeds. Both tahini paste and tahini sauces are staples of Israeli cooking. Tahini has a nutty flavor with subtle bittersweetness. Its flavor is mild, its texture is creamy, and it can act as a canvas for an array of flavors from fresh herbs and spices to sweeteners and yogurt. Here are three of my favorite takes on tahini sauces: spicy gochujang...
It's been a while since I felt like a show outsmarted me. But "Dead to Me," Netflix's new star-studded series, has made me gasp quite a few times. It manages to subvert all my expectations in a way that feels entirely purposeful-and not just for shock value. This compassionate, thrilling new "traumedy" (that's what the cast calls it, and it's quite a good description) is one of my new favorites. It's a must-watch for Jewish mothers, women and TV lovers in general. And while nothing about the sho...
I'll bet you didn't know... Well, some of us elders did! Major movie star, Gregory Peck, (who died in 2003 at the age of 87) once came to Congregation Ohev Shalom when it was in downtown Orlando. I had the pleasure of meeting with him and his then wife, and so did our own SONJA MARCHESANO, and others. (I forgot why he was there, but I will never forget the meeting!) Oops. A slip of the tongue... MSNBC reporter ANDREA MITCHELL apologized for referring in her broadcast of the Warsaw Ghetto...
(JNS)-When you visit Nachal Prat, you can almost feel what it was like to be a seventh-century Israelite leading your donkey, its saddle bags full of water, to Jerusalem. Nachal Prat, often referred to by its Arab name, Wadi Kelt, is nothing less than "a hidden gem both for its beauty and its sense of the past visible in every stone here." So says Daniel Gutman, a tour guide who has been leading groups around Israel for the last decade. "It's in a place like Nachal Prat that the past comes...
Being in his late 80s was not a deterrent for Longwood resident Bob Herpe to becoming an author of a fiction mystery novel. He'd worn many "hats" in his careers and enjoyed many experiences-good and bad-to equal a "full" life. A creative man, writing almost came second nature. He already had experience with writing commercials for Broadcast Radio (he has owned several radio stations across the U.S.), and he wrote kiddie television shows when he worked for CBS in Chicago. However, he never seriou...
